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Eloisa bottom lip curls into an exaggerated pout. She slips off her backpack and removes a decent sized bag of coins from a pouch at her hip.
"Perhaps you and I can do some business then love. While it may be true that this drunken sard is a cheat who owes you significant coin; I have already contracted with him and his caravan to move my merchandise. If you take his horses he cannot preform the task that I have contracted him to undertake. Therefore, he will not be receiving the coin that I will be paying him at the completion of my merchandise reaching its destination.
You can take his horses, as it is your right since he owes you money. Let us discuss your options should you do this:
1) Sell the beasts. I doubt you will make anything close to the 300 coins he owes you pawning his second rate ponies. I am concerned it will also take a significant amount of time to find a buyer here in Bloodcove who is both willing to pay and trustworthy enough to make such a transaction.
2) Butcher them and eat the meat on your impending voyage. From the sounds of things, this is your current plan. Doing so will incur additional expenses such as hiring a butcher to maximize meat, and purchasing the salt and storage required. The real question is have you eaten horse? Nasty creatures to dine upon. All the muscle makes them tough and foul tasting. The meat only last a day or 2 unless you jerky it. Again, I doubt you schedule allows for the time required to do it properly. I expect you men won't enjoy the endless days of eating tough horse meat while at sea."
She nods towards the men standing by the hearth.
"What do you say boys? Dry salty horse meat, day, after day, after day?"
Eloisa turns back towards Elanzo. She tosses the bag of coins into the air just enough so he can hear the coins clink together inside the bag.
"Lucky for you I arrived in town just in time to provide you with a third option. This bag contains 50 gold coins. A good part of this money I was going to pay to Mister Scevola should his caravan move my merchandise and men to their destination unharmed and in a timely manner. The money is real, tangible and it is here now. You can take it and purchase far better meal fare for your men. Then you can take up the business of the remaining money Mister Scevola owes you the next time you make port in Bloodcove. Consider it a down payment on the loan that you are extending to him.
I do make one simple request if you accept my offer. I am going to need a recite for this transaction for my books...
Well love, do we have a deal?"
She finishes by giving another exaggerated wink to the table.
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Elanzo looks at this little girl that has approached him. He starts to laugh. "HAHAHAHAHA. I like you little girl. You're tiny but fierce." He turns to his men. "It looks like there might not be horse meat in your future."
Trato of Westcrown looks at Elanzo, "That's good, I couldn't stand another horse."
Elanzo laughs again. "Okay little girl. You've got my attention. I can't go down to 50g. So, lets talk about deals. I can go down to...." You two barter back and forth and you are able to talk him down to 150g. Do you accept that and pay it?
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"Very well, 150 gold coins it is. I am going to need a receite for this exchange and at the price of 150 gold the entirety of the debt is considered repaid. Let us conclude this business. Any one of my associates can sign as a witness and have one of your men sign as well."
Eloisa writes up a quick contract indicating the settlement of the gambling debt and scribes her signature on the page. She has to retrieve 2 additional heavy sacks of coin from her bag and plops them on the table.
"Feel free to count it. You will find all the money is there."
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Elanzo nods his head, "Very professional. I like you." He turns to Trato, "Hey Trato, get over here and sign this."
"Coming boss."
They both sign it and pass it back to Eloisa. "pleasure doing business with you. Hope that we can meet again someday." With that, he hands the signed document back to Eloisa and the men leave.
After the men leave, you find Scevola very grateful. "Thank you, I am sure that.. hic... was dicey. hic..." He tries to answer any questions that you might ask, but most of the answers are slurred and cannot be made out. What you do get out of him thought is that you need to visit Senzer Rulkep and the House Cartahegn trading post to continue.
This concludes this act, map will be updated after you have made your choices.
I need another round of checks. I need these from all those listed below, if you are still in the game.
Eryndir: Intimidate
Eloisa: Diplomacy
Tyriel: Intimidate
Ivan: Disguise
Thael: Appraise or a Diplomacy check (I need two of these now.)
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You're off to visit the trade house. You can make any small purcheses that you wish to right now.
Surrounding a sprawling, two-story trading post is a mass of citizens and merchants alike. Some wear worried expressions and wring their hands, while others shout angrily at a welldressed young woman by the entrance.
“As I said,” shouts the Cartahegn spokesperson from atop a wooden crate, “all Cartahegn resources are needed to deal with this emergency with our sugarpress, and our storefront is closed for the remainder of the day or until management resolves the situation. We apologize for the inconvenience, but for now please return to your homes and places of business.” As she climbs down, most of the grumbling mob begins to disperse.
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Eloisa makes her way through the crowd and reaches the Cartegen spokeswoman as she reaches the ground.
"Good day Madam, my name is Eloisa Fairclough. I represent an interested party wishing to make a transaction with upmost urgency. I understand there has been some emergency with your sugarpress and that a purchase cannot be facilitated until the emergency is resolved.. Prehaps in the interest of expediency, my associates and I can help with whatever emergency so we may conduct our business."
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“Oh yes,” says the well-dressed woman of barely twenty summers as she scans those who have just approached her.
“This ant situation in the sugarpress is dire! We’re losing thousands of pounds of sugarloaf an hour, and frankly I doubt we’ll be able to turn these clicky beasts back." She sighed and shook her head. "We expended all the available sword arms just chasing the monsters back into the basement. If more ants show, we’ll surely lose the entire mill." She sat down on the crate she was standing on. "I hope you aren’t here to buy food, because if Cartahegn must continue to devote all its resources to fighting off the ants, expect food prices around Bloodcove to triple overnight!
She leaned back against the beam of the trading post and put her arm in-front of her eyes. “A shame we have no more soldiers. An idea came to me, you see—my housekeeper makes a sort of lotion that frightens bugs away, and I bet if someone dumped a load of it in the ants’ tunnel, it would keep them away until we could brick it up! You didn’t happen to bring any guards or soldiers with you, did you? If you were hoping to buy food and are willing to help us out, I promise you quite a discount in exchange for your services once we’re open again.”
You can tell that she wants you to lend any help that you can.
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"It appears it has become much more difficult to obtain the requisite supplies..."
"Yes. so it seems..."
Looking to the woman as she spoke in response to Eloisa's suggestion, Tyriel looked her body language over.
"We will see these creature to dust." He spoke softly to Cartahegn girl then turned to others making sure he didn't over step.
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The woman motions another woman forward and whispers something in her ear. Then that woman takes off. The woman sitting on the crate looks back to Eloisa. "She will bring the lotion here in a minute, please wait."
The crowd around the trading post has dissipated after a few minutes, allowing you to see the other woman hurry back. She is caring a small jar. When she gets to the sitting woman, she hands it to her. "Thank you." She turns to Eloisa and hands off the jar. "Remember, just put this in the entrance of the tunnel, it should stop any more ants from getting into the sugar press. Good luck."
You head into the sugar press. After the humidity above, the stark dryness of the basement stands out as unsettling, almost as unsettling as the acrid smell and constant, methodical clicking emanating from the darkness. The remains of bags and crates lie scattered across the floor amid a sea of grayish dust.
The first room you enter is the general storage room. It once housed sacks containing charcoal, lime, and other dry materials used for processing sugar, as well as barrels of molasses left over from the refining process. The ants carried away the barrels of molasses and destroyed most of the dry goods containers, scattering gray powder across the floor. You see two doors, both on the right side of the room, the one has a curtain draped over the entrance, while the other one has a wooden door.
As you enter the sugar press, give me a perception check.
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"I must admit that although I try to find beauty in all creatures...I often find it, ummm difficult to find the beauty in the crawling insects. I hope we do not encounter too many"
Eloisa checks her right arm. She could have sworn she felt the tingling sensation of tiny insect legs scrambling upon her skin.