A couple of my PCs are interested in aquiring a place of their own. Specifically, Ghelves Locks. Poor Ghelve has mysteriously vanished.Anyways, they've ben informed that this will require scheduling a meeting with the minister of deeds, none other than Lord Vhalantru. The question is how much of their hard earned gold will this cost them?
A couple of my PCs are interested in aquiring a place of their own. Specifically, Ghelves Locks. Poor Ghelve has mysteriously vanished.Anyways, they've ben informed that this will require scheduling a meeting with the minister of deeds, none other than Lord Vhalantru. The question is how much of their hard earned gold will this cost them?
what i did, was not allow a young group adventures own the only way to and from the underdark in town.
insted i let them but the run down property next to the pavilionand use the run down shack out of dragon #333 for age of worms
but because of limeted space the cost for land would be 1000gp
plus they would have to fix it as per the artical
A couple of my PCs are interested in aquiring a place of their own. Specifically, Ghelves Locks. Poor Ghelve has mysteriously vanished.Anyways, they've ben informed that this will require scheduling a meeting with the minister of deeds, none other than Lord Vhalantru. The question is how much of their hard earned gold will this cost them?
I was thinking along the same lines myself, but on a lesser scale. Say the PCs were to share a residence in Cauldron -- where would it be, most likely? Looking at the map, I'm not sure where to place them. Ghelves Locks seems a bit too conspicuous to me.
--Ghul
Well, the Stormblades have already succeeded in sealing off the tunnel to the underdark. Of course, the PCs don't know this yet. Also, they are becoming quite prominent in town and have quite a bit of resources. I'm basically trying to figure out the cost of aquiring such a building. Any ideas?
My characters have all sorts of trouble brewing in Jzadirune and the Malachite Stronghold. After they cleaned them out, Ghelve (who survived), of course told Skie that Jzadirune had been reclaimed. Skie told others within the gnome community and before you know it, a bevy of gnome wizards and fighters have shown up to lay claim to their heritage.
Meanwhile, my dwarven cleric PC has told his temple (Moradin) that he has found the Malachite Stronghold. After much rejoicing they put together a party of dwarven clerics and fighters to go reclaim their heritage. They find that their way is blocked by a bunch of gnomes, who don't particularly want dwarves tramping through their arcane enclave, but, seeing a business opportunity, decide to charge a toll to use the elevator in Jzadirune.
As more dwarves tramped through, the toll has gone up, such that the dwarves started getting kind of mad. Scuffles ensued.
After some horrible diplomacy rolls, my PCs decided to wash their hands of the whole thing and just forget that Ghelve's Locks exists.
It's been 2 weeks (game time) since Life's Bazaar ended, the party is off doing Flood Season. Negotiations between the gnomes and dwarves have broken down, and the first gnomes have started getting the Vanishing. Vhalantru wants a piece of the toll action the gnomes are getting, but now they want some Remove Curse spells or potions or whatever. Since the other churches in town are dealing with the Flood Festival in one way or another, the only game in town for Remove Curse spells is the temple of Moradin.
Now the shoe is on the other foot, and the dwarves are charging outrageous prices.
Nothing good will come of this.
My PC's originally wanted to rent some rooms in Jzadirune, but no longer. After a barroom brawl with the Stormblades where they bought everyone in the bar booze (to clear the common room of non-combatants, everyone rushed to the bar for free booze, and my party's name has become "The Aleslingers") they've gotten reduced rate accomodations at the Tipped Tankard and have stopped worrying about renting rooms by the month or buying a house.
A couple of my PCs are interested in aquiring a place of their own. Specifically, Ghelves Locks. Poor Ghelve has mysteriously vanished.Anyways, they've ben informed that this will require scheduling a meeting with the minister of deeds, none other than Lord Vhalantru. The question is how much of their hard earned gold will this cost them?
The PH says a small stone house costs 1000 gp. I consider it is the value of the terrain plus a new well-built one-room house with a fire place, a door and possibly one window. I used this as a basis for the real estate market in Cauldron taking into account the wealth of each quarter of the city and its attractiveness to potential buyers.
Ash district is the poorer, the more dangerous and the houses are at risk because of potential floods hence many of them are in bad condition already. I assessed the value of the average house to half the normal price ie 500 gp per room.
Lava is a craftsmen quarter, the Watch patrols it regularly, and it is where most of the working population lives. Still it's not the best place to live and it might be flooded as well on the wettest winters (see Flood Season). The price of this district varies around an average of three quarters of the normal price (750gp per room with a range of 600-900gp).
Lava is a highly desirable district were the successful craftsmen and merchants live. It is well patrolled by the Watch and no floods ever arrived in this avenue. As such it is a highly desirable quarter, and prices reflects that demand. I assumed it cost 1000-1300 gp per room to live here.
Obsidian is the best quarter of Cauldron. Only the nobility, the wealthiest merchants and the most succesful adventurers can afford to live here. As such it is heavily patrolled and even the Last Laugh members think twice before breaking in those often magically warded estates. Streets are cleaned regularly of animal dung, and building a house there requires more than money. Bad taste is considered a capital crime. Room for new houses is scarce at best, and often belong to the Lord Mayor or its family itself. As they have no need for money, they are not inclined to sell easily. Hence the steep price of 1500-3000 gp per room.
Those prices are of course indicative. Some other factors should be taken into account such as the condition of the building, the proximity of potential nuisance like the noise of a smithy or the stink of a slaughterhouse. In my campaign, the adventurers are quite rich so feel free to adjust if you are less generous than me :))
Hope this helps
Bran.
Thanks Bran, that helps quite a bit.
I like that idea and if you want to get into specifics for the dwelling the Stronghold Builder's Guide will help alot.
Thanks Bran, that helps quite a bit.
Glad you like it. In fact in my FR-based AP, the PCs first move was to find a place on their own. Three of them bought a large piece of building ground with a ruined warehouse on it, next to the Lakeside Pavilion. (see Cauldron map) They payed 1000gp despite its size because it's located in the flood zone. The warehouse was also the hangout of low-ranking members of Last Laugh who didn't like to be disturbed. *evil grin*
The wizard bought a beautiful mansion on Obsidian. This was a real bargain since he paid only 3000 gp for a 5-room and a tower, surrounded by a sizable but abandoned garden. The house has not been inhabited for the last fourteen years. Rumours talked about sudden departures, illnesses, waves of suicides and a murder. It was in fact haunted by the spirit of Zharis Wein, a former owner, who was an ex-member of the Cagewrights and a worshipper of Myrkul. His mummified body still dwelled in a secret part of the cave. (I made him a mummy with a template from FF and Complete Arcane I can't remember right now, but which allows to cast a few arcane spells, plus a few "poltergeist" powers). It allowed the party to own some needed XPs before starting Flood Season.
The priestess of Selune lives at Mistress' Lilac Farstrider family pension on Magma Avenue. Bad behaviour, including swearing or being late for meals, is a reason to be expelled without warning. :))
What about your PCs ? I love reading stories on these boards :))
Bran
It's a good approach, indeed.
On the other hand I wonder how the PHB's lump sum for a house (1,000 gp) relates to the costs indicated in the "Stronghold Builder's Handbook". If you look at a plain sleeping room (1 stronghold space - i.e. just one plain room with plain bed and plain wardrobe) with wooden walls you are at 500 gp (IIRC); with masonry walls you are well above 1,000 gp, I think.
And that's not counting extra furnitures you'd need to make this one room pad a real home (table, chairs, water basin, etc.).
So either the SBH overprices smaller buildings or the PHB is too generous.
Maybe you want to find a balance between the two and have the prices suggested by bran multiplied by 1.5, this would bring you closer to SBH prices for one-room houses.
Finally, since Cauldron has quite limited space (being contained within a set space), it is safe to assume that demand is much higher than offer. Furthermore, the slopes of the volcano call for extra building precautions. I think it would account for another 50% raise of Bran's prices.
So, my conclusion: Bran's approach sounds great but I would double the prices he suggest. ;-)
Bocklin
Thanks Bran, that helps quite a bit.
Well, my adventurers used a fairly decent financial bribe (garnered from treasure earned below ground) and the threat of revealing Keygan's complicity in teh events to convinve him to move his business elsewhere in the city and hand over the deed for the shop to them.
Having been afflicted a couple of times with the Vanishing (of which Keygan is aware of), they have instructed him to let the enclave remain dead, also under threat of revealing his envolvement.