"I know, I know. We don't need that. But we can have it! And it would be so 'In your face!' to that stupid bureaucrat."
"And it'd have cute towers!"
"You should include a dungeon." Lini suggests.
"Yes! Yes! We can even place our own obstacle course in it! With different monsters and everything! Hey- do you want a brigde built to reach your castle or are you just going to teleport there?"
"Not that kind of dungeon. Just preparing, if your kids don't come out as well behaved as you imagined them." Lini corrects.
"Do you really want our future together to literally be built on the grounds of spiting somebody?" Jimmy asks looking a mix of angry, frustrated, and sad
"That's mean. Our future is built on our past we had together." Gwenhwyfar pouts. "It's just our home that would be built on unlimited possibilities, a vivid imagination, delusions of grandeur and a little spite." she tells with a mix of puppy dog eyes and the crazy shining through.
"And why should Abomentolor have the most flashy building in town? I lived in a small cottage most of my life. And I liked it, because of my mum living there with me. But now I can have the biggest castle in whole Magnimar. I don't know what it's like to have a castle. But why not try it?"
"Before we decide to spend our time and effort on building a caste, how about we try living somewhere massive first... Like the Windsong Abbey?"
"That ruin of a monastery?"
"We'd have to clean out all of those horrible redcaps and giants and whatnot first. And then we'd still have broken walls, trapped hallways and shattered windows."
"And I think you overestimate the effort. I guess Niamh playing the lute for a day will raise a whole castle just fine."
"And if we don't like it, we make it an amusement park and call it Disney Land."
"Why do you want a castle anyway? Do you have any idea how much work it will be to maintain it?"
"No. I never had a castle." Gwenhwyfar replies.
"Did you ever have the sweep the temple in Sandpoint? Imagine that multiple times over."
"I did indeed. It was a nice and relaxing task. Almost like meditation." Gwenhwyfar replies with a smile.
"But have you ever built a castle? I takes hundreds of people many years to build one."
"Or maybe not, because we're not limited to normal manual labor? But why are you opposed to building a castle?"
"Because a castle is not a home. It's a castle." Jimmy says, unsure how to explain what is obvious to him.
"How about we build a 'home' AND a castle then?" Gwenhwyfar suggests, not really understanding why a castle can't be a home.
There are some other guests who sit here and there in the open area on the first floor of the lodge. One of those is Markiza Welgory who sits at a table inthe trophy room over some coffee and snacks with a handsome young man, discussing good places for a fox hunt they plan for the next day.
She looks the part for a Markiza, and he seems to be of similar profession like Delgros Kroitzcer, organizing the hunting trips for her.
Corvin Tergsvor, a young noble with good looks and a sour mood occupies a table in the sitting room, with notebooks, quills and ink as well as with a bottle of absinth and a glass.
"I suppose I can concede to that." Jimmy says, "What I mean is that a home is somewhere to live, it is comfortable and open and welcoming. A castle is somewhere to retreat to when attacked. It is closed and cold by design."
"No, not that kind of castle. Well, with the place we're going to build it will be very hard to place a welcome mat. So even our home will be something that expresses distance."
"But what I mean is more a palace. You'd have a fence there too and maybe walls. But also a park, with flowers and statues and trees and paths, open and hidden ones to stroll along. With an amphitheater."
"And over large stairs you'd come to the huge entrance door that leads to a large ballroom, where you could celebrate with hundreds of guests. Hidden behind secret doors are the tracts where the attendants are busy preparing everything and where they live. We could have libraries, a museeum, trainig facilities. We could have some artisans for repairs and tools we need."
"And in one of the many cute towers that raises high above all would be our cozy little dwelling for us and our children. With a wonderful view over the sea and parts of Magnimar. Where I make scrambled eggs and bacon with freshly baked bread for us."
"I don't think we can reasonably build it so high, we get a view over the upper part of Magnimar too, can we?"
Niamh looks between the two of them with anticipation, crossing her fingers that Gwenwhyfar will win the argument. After all, it's not every day you get to magically build a fairytale home, so to say.
"So long as we don't have to live in the main palace most of the time, and we can have a nice small area for ourselves that is nice and homely... I think I will be happy. And no, I don't think we should try to build that high."
"Ok, what do we need to get that done, besides the lyre?" Gwenhwyfar asks, while jumping up and down excitedly.
"Lini?" Jimmy asks the owner of the lyre
Lini shrugs.
"We need the building material. But I have no clue what that includes and how much of it." Gwenhwyfar clarifies.
"We could do a test run?"
"But if we don't have the stuff to at least build our home, then we'll have to wait for a week." Gwenhwyfar replies.
After thinking about it she adds "But we won't get the building material right now anyway, would we?"
"I doubt we could get what we needed to build a castle today... But we might be able to get enough to build something smaller."
"Then let's go and find something. Tonight I want to sleep in my own home with a roof on top." She puts the lyre in Niamh's hand. "Thank you for letting us have it." then she ushers Niamh on to leave with them.
"Be careful with it! If you don't bring it back you have to pay it!" Lini calls after Gwenhwyfar.
Jimmy gives Lini a smile and shrug before making to follow Gwen.
The obvious place to look for stones to build something is the harbor. Ever since it is forbidden to pillage the irespan, there are no local sources for real stone. It is not for the sentinent about the ancient bridge that it is no longer allowed to take stones. It was forbidden after someone had opened a duct with unknown end that spilled large spider-like creatures into town.
Clay brick is produced locally, for those who are fine with something that works like timber-framed building. But for prestigious manors or even greater buildings, the stone has to be imported. As pulling them on a cart through the dirt of the Mushfens is not very effective, most of the stone comes by ship. For example from the Fogscar Mountains to the North. Special stones like white or black marble are imported from places all over Golarion.
The issue is, that you can't sell stone on the market like you would groceries. Not all the time, someone is building something. And if they do, they need a lot of material at once. To build a palace you would have a whole fleet to guarantee a constant delivery of stones needed for that. With manual labor there is a limit to the material that can be put into place. It has to be unloaded, carted to uptown, and lifted in place. Which could take years even with some hundred workers. Usually this material is ordered long before.
As Gwenhwyfar, Jimmy and Niamh walk along the seaside they find a ship loaded with sandstone, cut in cubes of 2x1x1 foot. Some of them are already stacked on the dock.
In front of the ship the captain, backed by some of his crew is arguing with some noble and his entourage. "You ordered them, and you pay them. And you get them off the dock. There is nothing to discuss here." The captain fumes.
"Again. I ordered red sandstone. Not this yellow lined garbage you bring here. You don't deliver what I ordered, I don't pay. And I don't care how you get rid of that." the noble shouts back.
"How about we take that pillar far out on the sea? It should have the best view for sunrise and sunset. And it's the farthest away from that bureaucrat." Gwenhwyfar suggests.
"Look there. They have stones." she adds pointing to the arguing group.
Jimmy stops as he see's the squable going on. "They do, and we might just be able to get a deal on it." He says, "Let me see what I can do." He says and moves towards the argument, ahead of Gwen and Niamh, as he steps forward he says quietly to Gwen, "Let me handle this."
He steps up besides the noble and bows politely, as a senior servant would, "Master Valdemar. Please do not waste your time dealing with matter. Allow me to handle this matter for you."
He turns back to the merchant. "The house of Valdemar is not unreasonable. But as the master has already informed you, he ordered red sandstone, and as is clear, this sandstone is not red. We are prepared to purchase this at a discount. We understand that significant work went into this, but it is clearly not as was ordered."
"What do you mean 'at a discount'? I have to pay the crew and there is a dwarf sitting at the Fogscar Mountains who waits for her payment. Come along, we bring the stones back and you tell her that the sandstone is not of good quality." The captain suggests.
The Valdemar is unsure what to make of this, but doesn't protest.
"What we mean by at a discount is that we are not willing to pay full price. I am not familiar with the inticacies of the contract in place for this deal. Do you have the paperwork on hand?" Jimmy asks
"Of course I have. Your master has it too. He owes me 1000gold now and another 1000 for every one of the nine shiploads of stone to follow." the captain tells the details of the contract.
"I know the amounts. What I dont know is the specefics of the wording. This is what I want to see." Jimmy replies.
The Valdemar gets out some papers. "Here it states red sandstone from the Fogscar Mountains."
The sandstone is indeed red, but not only red. It has white and yellow lines in it.
"So, the contract was for red sandstone. While the majority of this is red sandstone, there are impurities, and imperfections. There does not seem to be any mention of a quality guarantee in the contract. Looking at the sample behind you, I believe we can say that twenty to thirty percent of the delivery is in fact imperfections and impurities. I propose we agree to a cost of seven hundred and fifty gold a load. And before you protest, I know that markup on goods like this is normally the cost of the materials themselves, so I know you are still taking home around two hundred gold a load. I think this is fair?" Jimmy leaves the question hanging.
"Might have been a fair deal if that Valdemar would have told that from the start and would have fetched the stones himself at the mountains." the captain replies.
"Listen. I've sold that red sandstone to many people here in Magnimar. Either you make me an offer that is reasonable to get this s*!$ over with, or I take that issue to court and all of Magnimar gets to know what a contract with a Valdemar is worth."
"You make a valid point. 900 gold a load, and we will make sure that everyone who asks about the building knows we got our supplies from you? A lot of people are going to be asking about this building."
"And we need delivery to that pillar out on the sea." Gwenhwyfar adds, pointing to the place before the negotiations are closed.
"900 gold I'd accept." the captain replies to Jimmy. "But where in Gozreh's name shall I put those stones out there? Throw them into the sea?"
"No, no. You anchor your ship at the pillar and we take care of the unloading." Gwenhwyfar replies. "I guess we need some timber too?" she asks Jimmy.
"Can you get a loading crane and a few hundred foot of rope as well." Jimmy asks the man after he nods at Gwen "You will be paid of course. Now please excuse me for a moment." Jimmy says, stepping away, indicating for the noble to follow him.
Standing a short distance away Jimmy says to the noble, "I have the feeling I just saved you from some severe embarrassment, because I am taking over this contract for you."
"What do you want." Valdemar asks, looking suspicious at Jimmy.
"We are going to be using this material to build the largest amphitheater in Magnimar, and quite a distance beyond that. We plan to hold free performances there for the less fortunate citizens. It would earn your house some good will with the people if you were to be able to say that you sponsored part of the construction. Maybe when they have the option to support you or the Scarnettis they will choose to give you their money."