Gorm __'s page

"I don't really care. So far the ladies found one of the guys to hand them the silver whenever they showed up and wherever they found one. You can bring in any structure you want."

"Maybe come up with something to make sure our guys know who payed for the service."

"No." Gorm replies.

"I have a job for you. There were some irregularities with the collection of our security fees. We need a proper documentation of that and it seems prudent that a woman takes over that job."

"The money will be returned to me. The service fee is a silver a day."

Gorm sits at his desk as usual. He sits over some papers with a satisfied smile on his face.

"I'm sure they will come up with a good excuse. Maybe pirates?" Gorm comments. "Book the lists into the inventory."

It takes a while until the ship reaches the harbor. Gorm calls Persephone into the office, before it drops the anchor.

"Here are the lists. There is a delivery for Zolkar on that ship. Someone from the tailor Fioravanti will fetch several crates and three more deliveries that go to the warehouse."

"Last our delivery goes on board. It is important, that the whole delivery is documented on this sheet. Here are ten platinum for the commander from the ship who will sign that for you."

With the ship at the horizon, Gorm gets up and leaves his office. He walks out on the street and to the Blue Marlin. There he finds Finn.

"I've seen the ship. Make sure the men are ready when it is here. I want no delay."

Then he returns to his office to lay out the papers of the shipments to be loaded onto the boat.

"Good. Tuesday we expect the ship to take over these goods. You'll do the checklist then." Gorm tells. He hands Persephone 10 gold and sends her off.

With the last haul Gorm comes along. He closes the gate to the yard. In the warehouse he takes out a crayon and marks a dozen the boxes and two barrels. He orders Persephone to move some crates that are long time stock.

Beneath the ring and the hinge of a large trap come to light. He opens it. "Now carry all the marked boxes down there, close the door and put the crates back on top of it. I'll wait inside."

Gorm requests the delivery list and checks it off as the items are stacked on the cart and once it is full, on the dock.

"Put them into the small warehouse." he orders Persephone. "Right at the front door. Clean stacks. Same letters on top of each other. Number ones left, growing to the right."

He himself touches not a single crate.

After a mind numbing wait with nothing to do in the office the ship is finally moored.

Gorm gets up with a clipboard in hand. "Follow me and bring the cart."

He walks out to greet the officer of the ship who will oversee the unloading. "Ahoy. Are you ready to lighten the ship?"

"Come in. Don't wet the papers." Gorm states and locks the door again, after Persephone enters.

"Take a seat and wait."

Gorm comes to the door, unlocks and opens it. "You are too early."

"Percy?" Gorm calls, as usual without looking up from the papers he's reading. Once she stands at his desk he continues.

"There is a ship, that might already arrive on Moonday. If you see a new ship anchored here, you can come to work."

He counts out the usual 10 silver, even though the work was only a fraction of her usual workday.

Gorm looks Persephone into the eye, but doesn't say anything.

"I don't know. Maybe come back on Toilday."

Bluff: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (19) + 0 = 19

"You can stow away the wine boxes and reenter them into the books. That's all for today."

"No." Gorm counts out the ten silver and puts the stack on his desk for Persephone to take.

Gorm looks after him, until he is gone. Then he returns to the door of his managerial office, closes it and locks it. Then he approaches Persephone his facial expression reading Shoo!

"I'm looking forward to a long profitable business partnership." Gorm tells as he shakes Vanderbuilt's hand.

"Greetings Mr. Vanderbuilt. Please take a seat." The room has a heavy desk made from exotic wood. Two matching leather armchairs. The whole wall of this room is clad in this wood up to five feet. A oil portrait hangs on the right wall. It is not obvious who that should be. Behind the desk are two narrow windows, high on the wall.

"Miss Percy, bring me the contract."

"Good. I'll be in the other room." Gorm states and leaves his desk. He unlocks the door and enters his new management office, closing the door behind him.

At the Marinelli Inc. office.

"You know how to talk. You'll be my personal assistant today. There is a man named Vanderbuilt who will come in today. You'll sit on my desk here. When that man comes he'll ask to see someone. You bring him to me. You'll address me by Sir only. No names. I'll ask you to bring the contract then. You find it here in this drawer." Gorm pulls open the drawer to show it.

"You come back and hand it to me with a nice phrase and then you leave and close the door behind you. Is that clear? Repeat it to me."

During the afternoon Gorm leaves the office. He stays away for about an hour.

Then he returns and continues with his desk work.

Int: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8
"Interesting." Gorm takes a key out of his desk drawer, gets up and walks out of the office. He opens the strongbox and takes the money out. "You are dismissed." he tells the thugs.

On his way back in and to his desk the orders Persephone "Put the crates into the warehouse and put them back into the books." He takes a seat and continues with his work.

"That is unfortunate." Gorm replies without looking up. "I hope you didn't stir up a fight?"

"Something specific about the imposters?"

There is a new ship at the docks waiting for the wares it carries to be unloaded.

Gorm stands outside with a grim face. He waves a pile of lists in front of Persephone's face as she arrives. "Here, take that. Check what they unload, they're at it already."

After unloading that on her, he walks back into the office.

"That is none of your business. You'll meet with one of them, which one you'll see."

"Marinelli accepted your offer to talk. Nothing more."

"Yes. In the afternoon at four o'clock. He'll meet you here at the docks." Gorm replies.

"There is nothing to do today. The next ship will arrive on Moonday. The lists for that I'll write myself. See you on Moonday." Gorm replies without looking up from his work.

"I don't care. I'm always there. But if the boss agrees to see you, it'd be bad if you're not available. So I suggest you come tomorrow in the morning."

"Sounds not bad. I can ask the boss if he is interested in that. But for sure he'd need some more details about what you want to sell and buy here as an ambassador of Kyonin. It makes no sense to import iron from that far land that I can also get from the next harbor in Andoran. Or are the prices that good?"

"I can ask him with what you told, or you can write a proposal with more details and I present that to him first."

You'd get a 50/50 roll now. If you can make it more interesting your chances rise. But if you bring boring details you can also botch it.

"Call me Gorm. We have all kinds of business models here."

"And what kind of goods are we talking?"

"We are always interested in expanding business. What kind of business are you offering?" Gorm inquires.

As Menan arrives at the docks they are busy as ever. Unloading and loading ships takes time and the same three ship as last day. The dock workers are busy carrying stuff around.

At Marinelli's office they are also busy. Besides Persephone and Gorm, there are two more people in the office.

As Menan enters, Gorm gets up to meet him. You can tell by Gorm's reserved expression and lack of greeting that this office sees no customer traffic.

Gorm stares at Persephone.

"That's a Marinelli. Stay out of his way." He stares some more, without blinking.

"Get back to work."

"Let me see." Gorm takes a look himself checking the whole list for the item. "This is infuriating. Again!"

"You strike it out with red ink and put it in the red book there on the shelf. That is the book of items lost. And if you ever find an item on any list, that isn't in the books anymore, you look there."

Gorm closes the door and takes a seat at his desk again.

As the young man enters the office Gorm inquires "How can I help you?"

Today Gorm has a pile of delivery lists, that need to be aligned with the books. "No slacking, no imprecision. Our books have to be in pristine condition. Every inconsistency needs to be investigated." he demands.

After another hour, Gorm gets up, moves out into the yard. He closes the gate and locks it with a bar and addition locks it with a large key.

Then he walks over to the storage, takes a moment to listen inside and then closes the large sliding gate and locks it with a chain and a large padlock. He pulls on the gate to check everything is locked in place.

He walks back in. He extinguishes the light, but one candle. From the outside one can see that light walk to the far side from the entrance and then disappear. I reappears on the second floor, where it is placed on a table.

Gorm takes supper and tafter that sits some more over a book or other documents. It's hard to tell from the distance.

Gorm checks every entry Persephone made in the inventory which takes almost as much time as Persephone took to make them. But the entries are correct. So he puts the 10 silver on her desk and retreats to his own office cubicle at the window.

Persephone gets a day of work at the docks again. The new job is partly an office job. Gorm insists to stay at least five foot away from her when explaining the job.

Here are two lists of goods to be loaded on that ship. You need to check everything off the list that is put there. And you need the captain, or the first officer sign it. You ask beforehand who will do that and if they just sign it, or want to check themselves. Best is if the one stands besides you, so you lose no time. Be careful nothing is loaded that isn't on the list."

"Once you're done, you take the second copy and hand it to the first officer. With the first list you come back to the office and update the inventory book of the warehouse. Each line with today's date and your signature. And then file the list with today's date and your signature. Don't screw it up." Gorm is as charming as ever.

As Finn is busy elsewhere it takes long until Gorm thinks the work should be done. As he sees Persephone sitting on a crate and not working he orders. "Show me the list. Put it down and step away."

Once the girl is far enough away Gorm checks the list. "Ah, there are the goods, well, well. But brandy is missing and another crate. Mmmmh. Not good. You wait here."

Gorm leaves with the list.

Gorm hands the list and the pencil to Finn. "Show her."

Then he retreats back into the office where he can watch over the yard from his desk.

Gorm looks down on Percy from his elevated position at the two stairs at the entrance of the office - literally and figuratively. "Here is the list. Everything has a number of the crate or the item itself. And there is the place named where it is found. You get a pencil, and mark for each item with a checkmark if it is found, a checkmark if the place is correct. For some items it lists the content with a number of items inside. In this case count them. Checkmark if correct. Everything not correct a correction is to be done by striking through the wrong information with a straight horizontal line and marking the correct information above. No unintelligible handwriting, but clearly readable information. Don't waste my time, my pencil, or my paper if you want to be payed. Am I clear?"