FLUFF: Jammers: Turn 14 Chapter 8

The Adventures of my Jammers PBEM game.

I hope folks are enjoying these, if there is a consensus that they suck
I will be happy to stop posting them. Let me know what you folks think.
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Website: http://lost.spelljammer.org/Jammers/

----------- = Meanwhile, elsewhere...
*********** = Later...
{} = Actions and descriptions within these brackets take place within
the psionic mindscape and are OOC knowledge for all accept the parties
directly involved.

IC:

Date/Time: 12:45 pm, 18th day of the 1st Month, 5050 OC

Holland replies, "Like I said, we obtained them on our last voyage
outside of Bralspace."  Holland asks, "So what are you assessing as our
total tax?"

"500 gold for the wheellocks, 750 gold for the jewelry and gems, 1250
total import tax." the Customs officer answers, " Plus 1,000 gold for
your prize money, and  6 gold for your air tax.  That comes to 2,256
gold total."

Holland separates out all of the cutlery as well as the silver and a few
of the gold rings and says, "This should cover our taxes."

"I'm afraid it will need to be in coin." the Custom's officer replies.

Holland asks, "What do you do if an inbound ship only has cargo and no coinage?"
 
"They must leave, or we place a guard on the vessel until they have sold
their goods and paid the levy." the customs officer answer blandly.
 
Holland replies, "Hmm, that is good to know for future reference.  Let
me see about getting that amount in coin, this might take a little bit."
 
"Very well." the officer answers.
 
Holland proceeds to gather up all of the silver pieces and a quantity of
the electrum pieces and transfers them to the table, "This should cover
it.  Feel free to count it."
 
"Silver and electrum? Excellent!" the customs officer smiles, then he
returns on deck and orders two of his men to bring 'the two empty
chests' on board.

Smiling broadly, looking quite as happy as a pixie in the forest, he
sits down and begins to count the stacks of coins, one by one.  "Sembian
and Ginselan coin, eh?  Far travellers, you are!"

As he counts, he places the accounted for coins in the chests.  As the
first chest is filled with about have the coins he orders his men to
place it aboard the wreckship and continues counting, now humming a
gnomish love ballad, "Your eyes focus like specially ground glass, your
hair is as sturdy as good hemp rope..."

Two hours after he has begun, the customs officer completes his task and
stands, stretching.  "I counted 12,000 Ginselan pieces of silver, and
2,112 Sembian electrum pieces.  Value 2,256 gold.  Paid in full."

He thrusts his hand to Holland, smiling broadly, "I was worried you
would be troublesome, most adventuring vessels are. I am Vecti Armarium,
it was a pleasure working with someone who understands the need for
taxes."

Holland takes the pro-offered hand and shakes it.

As the man makes to leave Kain asks, "Um, do you think it would be
possible to get a receipt? We would not want anyone to suggest we had
not paid our taxes. Also it would be most kind if you could make it
clear we have paid the tax on all our wheel locks. I mean we would not
want to leave with half of them unsold and then be asked to pay the tax
again when return next season."

He smiles and takes out a red candle. He lights it, drips some wax onto
a piece of parchment and presses his the seal around his neck into it.
Then he tales a quill and writes "Taxes paid in full." signs, and dates
it.

"There you are, sir." Vecti says smiling.  "As for the wheellocks, if
you don't wish to pay taxes on them again, you should arrange storage in
the city.  All goods that enter port are subject to the tax."

Holland replies, "Thank you, I will keep that in mind."

Kain asks "You said your name was Vecti Armarium? Is it possible to ask
for you specifically next time we make port, you have been most
accommodating, you would not believe the trouble we have had with some
of your colleagues."

"I'm afraid not.  It comes down to which ever officers are on duty." Vecti says.

"Oh dear" Says Kain, "We will just have to hope we are lucky again next time."

"Thank you" Kain adds, "But if you could include the amount it would be
very helpful. Sponsors can be very picky about such things you know,
wanting to know where the money has gone."

Vecti doesn't respond.  Whistling happily, the blond man with a broad, honest face  departs the vessel.

-------------

Freneth watches the exchange with some interest, and as the customs
officer leaves, Freneth asks Kain, "It is normal to request such things?
It would seem that one is questioning another's word."

"It is not just a matter of trust" Says Kain, "It is good to have things
written down to avoid confusion later, perhaps if someone makes a
mistake or forgets a vital detail. Of course that fact that Vecti
refused to write down the details might suggest we should not have been
so trusting."

"So this writing things is commonly done then.  It would make sense,
there are a lot more people here than in my lands, so it is probably
harder to remember," agrees Freneth.

Talus then says, "Vecti Armarium?  We should avoid him in the future, so much easier to just bribe them."
 
Talus then says, "Holland, if you want, I'll check around to see where
we can unload all of the non-coinage--like the gems, jewelry and whatnot
--for the best price."

Holland replies, "If you would Talus, that'd be great.  Here is a list
of what we have, including the wheel-locks and smoke powder" with that
Holland hands Talus a prepared list.  Holland adds, "Ferric, does House
Moune have any contacts that we could deal more favorably with?"
 
"But of course," Ferric replies.  "Lady Moune will likely get us better
rates than we could attain ourselves even after she takes a nominal fee
for tying up House resources."
 
Holland says to Raken, "Maybe the Celestians or Historians would be
interested in purchasing the Kopru statue; would you be willing to look
into that?"
 
Raken nods.
 
Holland then says, "Something I was thinking about was to transfer all
of our loot into Trader bars and then depositing the Trader bars with
House Moune, from which we would then draw funds as necessary."  Holland
looks to Ferric, "Do you think House Moune would be amenable to offer us
such services?"
 
Ferric smiles, "Being the faithful ward of a merchant house does have
its perks.  I am sure I can arrange something to that end."
 
Holland then says, "There are two ways we can go about liquidating all
of our funds.  One way would be-if they would do itŠFerric, please let
me know if they wouldŠto turn over all of the coin and loot to House
Moune and ask them to liquidate the items for us, probably giving them a
percentage for their efforts."
 
Holland continues, "The other way would be for us to handle the exchange
and liquidation of the loot ourselves.  The way I see it, there are
advantages and disadvantages to both ways.  If Moune does it, we will
lose some funds due to their handling fee; but we will be removed from
the liquidation process, hopefully minimizing the spread of information
that we have come into a large sum of gold.  If we liquidate the loot
ourselves, we don't worry about a Moune-handling fee, but we risk the
chance of drawing some extra attention to ourselves.  Call me paranoid,
but sometimes it isn't good to be known to be rich."
 
Holland asks, "What say you all?  What would you rather do?"

Freneth shrugs his shoulders and replies, "It would be easier to let Mourne
take care of 'liquidating' the items."

Talus says, "I'd rather go with the Moune option too."

Allagan says, "I am more than happy to let House Moune handle everything, if the fee is sensible."

"How much would House Moune's share be?" Sekeht asks. "I'm sure it would
be fair, but exactly how much would it be?"

Ferric nods, "Without speaking to Lady Moune I would guess about 5% to
cover the time her agents spend on our merchandise."
 
"I expect we could sell off the items ourselves discreetly enough,"
Sekeht says. "We're intelligent people after all, and we're not leaving
any time soon."

Allagan replies, "I think it is more of a matter of the large amounts of
coinage that we would need to exchange.  That is hard to do discreetly."

Leera considers before answering. "Hmmm... using Moune would be easiest,
but I hate to give away that 5%. We're a fairly bright bunch... I say we
try handling it ourselves. If there's anything we just can't move, we
can always go through Moune for just that portion..."

"Hoom, I would rather have our merchant allies assist us rather than
haggle on our own,"  Nilaroo replies.  "As a matter of fact, I would ask
the House to handle the disposal of a few items of my own."
 
Holland says, "Well, it sounds like most people like the idea of House
Moune handling the heavy part of this.  So that is what we will do."
 
Holland says, "Due to their contacts, the House is bound to get the best
deal out of our rare and unusual coinage, but we can exchange the common
coinage into trade bars."
 
Holland then goes over the list of loot and what items Moune will be
asked to take care of for the COSS, and what items the COSS will handle
themselves.
 
Holland then says, "To split the exchanging amongst us, I thought that
maybe Leera could lead a group to exchange the 5gp Wildspace Trader
coins; Talus could lead another group to exchange the 1gp Wildspace
Trader coins; Ferric could lead another group to exchange the 2gp
Wildspace Trader coins; and Sekeht could lead a final group to exchange
the electrum and Treasury coins.  The idea is to exchange the coinage
for trader bars, to deposit with House Moune; with each original full
COSS member getting 350gp spending money."
 
Holland says, "We can stagger the groups so that each group has a few
people for security, due to the coinage involved, while still leaving
some guards for the ship.  I'd recommend Ferric be amongst the first
group so he can also make arrangements with House Moune.  I'll stay here
on ship in the meantime."
 
Allagan says, "I'll go with you Sekeht.  When do you want to leave?"

Talus says with a smile, "I'll let Ferric and Sekeht's groups go first,
once they return I'll head out with whomever wants to join me."

"I'll go with you if you accompany to Giff town, eh? Will need to check
for any post and whatnots." Ives replies
 
Talus replies, "That sounds good to me.  I also need to make contact
with Jored from the Halfling's Guild to let them know about Billy."

"It would only be right to let them know of his fate" Ives responds.

Talus nods, "Yeah.."
 
Holland says, "Nilaroo, you might want to check to see how much it will
cost and how long it will take to fix up the NIGHTWIND.  Once we have
converted all of the loot and figure out what we want to do next, it
would be good to know the facts in case we want to sell the NIGHTWIND
for a larger ship."
 
"Of course.  However, she may be to the point, hoom, where selling her
for scrap and helm would gain us more than repairs and resale."  Nilaroo
responds.  "Ferric, when talking to the House, I would also like to
arrange the sale of this magic longsword, the elven long bow, and the
skeleton staff from the undead mage."

Holland nods, "That might be the case; if you are able to Nilaroo, it
might be a good idea to determine how much the NIGHTWIND-in its present
condition-would be worth if we did sell it; how much repairs would cost,
and how much we could possibly sell it for after repairs.  That way we
have all of the information."
 
Vais interjects, "The longbow should not simply be bandied for sale.
You would do better to contact the Imperial Elven Fleet, it is a
legendary weapon and to the elves Blackjammer's destruction of the
man-o-war ELRAME and the death of Angvoncael wielder, Kerym Sha'Sylsar
Starym, will seem as if it were but yesterday.  I urge caution in
disposing of such a weapon."

"The elves were my first thought.  But, I hardly wish to have it, and
myself, seized as an artifact of the Empire."  Nilaroo returns.
"Walking into their demesne without assurances that I could say no to
their offer... Hoom, an unsettling proposition."

Vais nods his copper head.  "Yes, that makes sense.  It would require a deft touch, an oblique approach."

"If the bow belongs to the elves, would it not be proper to return it?" asks Freneth.

Holland replies, "It belonged to the elves, then it belonged to Blackjammer, now it belongs to Nilaroo. "

"Oh," replies Freneth, who looks a little confused.

"We are giving the elves the opportunity to thank us for returning it to
them, Freneth," Sekeht says. "It's the honorable way."

"Then perhaps it would be best to take it to them, and allow them to
decide what an appropriate gift of thanks would be," supplies Freneth.

"Hoom, don't be confusing him, Sekeht."  Nilaroo chimes in.  "The Elvish
Empire may value this bow, Freneth.  One of their members wielded it in
combat, but lost it in battle.  We have recovered it in battle again,
and I have claimed it as my share.  Therefore, by the rights of salvage
recognized by nearly all sentients, it is mine.  The elves have no claim
on it, but I wish to respect their historical interest and give them a
chance to purchase it."

"Ahh," says Freneth in understanding."It did not belong 'to the elves'
in general, but may have value to them, because it belonged to an elf.
This one can understand this.  Such as Grandfather's necklace is of
value to  my clan, though it would belong to whoever finds it in the
glacier.  It would be good of the finder to offer to return it, and
reasonable to expect a trade of like value."

Holland says, "While I might not have the softest touch, I had intended
on approaching Valiss to barter this magical shortsword for something a
little more appropriate.  If you want, I can make inquiries at the same
time.  I just need to know if you are looking to possibly exchange it
for something you can better use-if so, what; or if you are looking for
straight gold-if so, a general amount that you think is appropriate."
 
Holland says, "We have some good will with the elves, this might be a way to deepen those feelings."

"This one has had contact with the Elven people. Captain Kilian of the
MYARIDRIM freed the slaves on the Mindspider I was aboard.  Perhaps
Captain Kilian might be of use in regards to the bow?" suggests Freneth.
 
Holland adds, "Could I look at the bow for a moment?"

"Of course." Nilaroo replies.  A moment later, he returns from his
quarters with the unstrung Elvish artifact in his massive hands.
 
Holland looks at it briefly and then nods, "Thank you."  Returning the
bow to Nilaroo, Holland says, "Okay Leera, take us into dock."

Leera calls up to Ferric. "Ready here, sailmaster."

Ferric nods and says, "Alright lets dock." as the COSS members go through the practised motions of docking.

Kain works the lines to keep the ship moving slowly towards the jetty.
Once she is tied up alongside he sets about bringing down the sails and
neatly stowing them away for the days ahead in port.

Leera follows Ferric's called orders and the ship slides gracefully into
the assigned dock and comes to a gentle (final?) halt under the command
of the Company of the Silent Star.

Date/Time: 3:15 pm, 18th day of the 1st Month, 5050 OC

-- 
"'If they valued what they stole, if they knew what they were
destroying,' says the old Vadhagh in the story, The Only Autumn Flower,
'Then I would be consoled.'"  Michael Moorcock, _The Books of Corum_.

Paul Westermeyer, westermeyer@???????.net