Heroes of the Lance (Inactive)

Game Master EltonJ

I'm almost inclined to say no. But like most barbarous cultures, they are sophisticated in some says, so yes. They take steel coins.

"Well we have some a variety of things weapons among them."

"Let us see them," said a barbarian, who is not the leader of them.

"Ah okay." Bander looks at the others, "They want to see some of what we have to trade."

My memory was we kept items we took from the Draconians. I was expecting us to go into a village but I guess we need to be Johnny on the spot.

Bander pulls out a few of the items from his bag. He shows them the swords and daggers. "We have some nice chain shirts too."

We looted basically everything off the draconians. Maddok is lugging most of it.

"Can we see the chain shirts?"

Peregrine -- never a great negotiator at the best of times -- keeeps quiet as Bander discovers the Que-kiri and starts bargaining. She helps Maddok unlimber the gear he's carrying, and reveals one of the chain shirts they took off the draconian. Very cognizant of being outnumbered, she doesn't want to show off everything they have.

Could have sworn I already posted about this sorry.

Bander works with Maddok to show the men the chain shirts.

"What exquisite workmanship," said one of the barbarians.

"Yes. It is. We are in need of food and supplies for travel."

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (15) + 6 = 21

Sense motive: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (6) - 2 = 4

"We can trade if you need food and supplies," says the Barbarian. "We have plenty of food, taken from the beasts in the field (probably Bison), the fowls of the air, and ample clothing."

Peregrine looks out and away from the dickering, considering travel times and needs. "Get ... two weeks' worth, Bander," she says, somewhat distantly as her mind considers and discards options. "No, three."

"This is some interesting gear. My friend thinks we need 3 weeks of food. But we got the big fellas. Also the make on these is pretty fair. How about 4 weeks worth of food and supplies." The kender tends to be somewhat socially oblivious but something about the ritual of haggling he seems to know. He nods and agrees to a figure close to what Peregrine suggested.

"We can trade two weeks of food and supplies," says the barbarian.

What beyond food are they offering? Because just the shirts at 50% resale value would be 400 and they are offering us 168 in food. Even 4 weeks of food was generous on our parts.

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 2 = 17 Are they just cheap or am I sensing apprehension from them. Trying to gauge what I think is going on. Cause they are gauging us on price.

Bluff: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (8) + 3 = 11 Maybe they are being cheap, or they are wondering if you will haggle.

We don't need to give them all the armor, swords, etc. either. That's part of the whole thing -- they say how much they have that they're willing to trade, you estimate the value of that (whether that value is in general or to yourself), then decide what you'll trade for it. 'We can sell two weeks' worth of supplies.' 'Okay, I'll give you four chain shirts and two daggers for that.' 'Five chain shirts.' And that's the haggling part.

Yeah I get the idea. I have haggled in real life and in game. I asked the question about their mood because in my first post I thought I had already attempted to role play through a bit of haggling. In my first post coming down from 4 weeks to 3. They are pushing it even further.

I am well aware of how to haggle. My first post was an attempt to haggle (even at a bit of a loss) to save us time in back and forth. When they elected to not take my coming down from 4 weeks worth of food to 3 weeks and further brought us down I worried that it was hostility not just being cheap. So here we are despite a 21 Diplomacy still trying to take days to resolve the issue. At the table these questions would be resolved in moments. In post it takes hours bleeding into days. Which is why I figured that already coming down off of 4 weeks cover the "we haggled" portion of RP and still at 3 week got food at a loss and could move on.

My other question. What gear are they offering as "supplies" which might be throwing off my gold piece calculations.

Bander looks over what's offered, "Well if you can't spare more than 2 weeks worth of food. I understand, but that is going to cut into the number of shirts we want to part with. You can have the weapons and 4 of the shirts. If you have more food well we have more shirts. We are still getting well short of what they would give us in Haven or Solace."

Maddok isn't smart enough to have a dog in this fight but it wouldn't hurt to be generous with these guys. We're wandering the wilderness surrounded by hostile forces. It might be handy for the locals to look favorably on us.

Of course. That is one of the reasons I had questions. 2 Weeks of food for us should be in the ball park of 168 gp (Steel for DL). The weapons and shirts are 921 gp worth of gear. Assuming we are getting near 50% that's about 460 gp value. 3 weeks of food is 254 gp. So we are being REALLY nice so far.

Bander looks over what's offered, "Well if you can't spare more than 2 weeks worth of food. I understand, but that is going to cut into the number of shirts we want to part with. You can have the weapons and 4 of the shirts. If you have more food well we have more shirts. We are still getting well short of what they would give us in Haven or Solace."

"We can spare three weeks of food for five shirts and three of the weapons."

Maddok isn't smart enough to have a dog in this fight but it wouldn't hurt to be generous with these guys. We're wandering the wilderness surrounded by hostile forces. It might be handy for the locals to look favorably on us.

True.

"That'll work." Bander puts their gear in a nice pile.

They trade over the three weeks of food, enough food for all of you for three weeks.

That sounds like a deal.

Slam sat quietly as Bander negotiated, but once it was completed and he returned successfully, he nodded appreciatively at the Kender. "Did you get their permission to travel through their lands?"

"Permission?" The kender turns around and approaches the men again. "So it has been good to do some business with you. I hope that it would be okay for us to continue east through your lands toward the coast."

"Of course," says the barbarian. "But why do you want to travel eastward through our lands?"

Bander looks to the others unsure how much should be said. "We are heading over the mountains. Any suggestions on a proper pass."

"You can follow the road to Cantallion, there you may find a pass through the mountains."