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Finding the Spark (Pathfinder 1E Quest)

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DragonParadox said:
It does not help when Sirim drifts closer to add thoughtfully: "Some manner of demon-get? Not very common among elves, though of course that is to say surface elves, the Archives I had access to were silent on the matter of the drow and they would surely have the closeness that breeds such offspring."
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Tiefling-Drow?

Interesting in general, customizing the stats a bit can't be too hard.

Of course, the much worse case would be a Fiendish Creature or even Half-Demon Drow.
 
Goldfish said:
What are the chances he's been compromised by the Drow or their allies? We already saw that Breolia could pass as Human back in Andoran, so there is no telling what Drow, Fey, or worse could get by with. On the other hand, the leader of a major political faction in Taldor would be under a great deal more scrutiny, so I'm probably just being overly paranoid.
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Keep in mind that the Green faction is ruling over a part of Taldor that does in fact have a lot of Fey in the forests, and borders Kyonin I think?
Also they are more in favor of things staying in status quo with those people than most factions.

So rumors that they are controlled by these strange minorities and/or foreigners sounds like totally normal xenophobia to me. Not a nice trait of the Taldans, but far from a reliable indicator that Drow are in the mix.

Even if the Greens really did have secret dealings with Fey and Elves, it would be more likely with those that are highly relevant to their economical interests.
 
[X] Agree to speak to the Lord Governor in light of recent events

Okay, but I still kinda hope we can avoid that particular confrontation.
Even if there are drow, it's likely just a small group (spies, slavecatchers, whatever), so a city that dares to overcharge potential archmages at the harbor, will have the means to deal with those.

Or worst case, they can inform Kyonin discretly and get a bunch of Lantern Bearers here who'd be more than happy to murder all drow in the general vicinity (we should be far away by then, since those tend to also kill people who know too much about drow if they can get away with it).
 
Well, I've long been wanting to meet the drow, and that is what I will vote for.

[x] Agree to speak to the Lord Governor in light of recent events

P.S. Divination is the best spell there is, letting us have all the hooks and giving us all the rope. If we just knew 'there are drow down below', we'd probably ignore it. With the portrait, though, mmm... It's been a while since we met an equal in shadiness. Instantly makes me want to expand our party to six people.
 
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Seems like we've wandered into something huge.

Hope pirates don't encounter this person or just straight up die if they do, since no one deserves what the drow would do to them if caught.

[X] Agree to speak to the Lord Governor in light of recent events
 
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Arc 9 Post 38: Riches from Above New
  • Threadmarks
    • Riches from Above ​

    13th of Kuthona 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)

    Upon reluctantly agreeing to speak to the Lord Governor you are left lying on your bed staring blindly at the spot of mold on the ceiling, marked by a cold spot that only you can see, trying to recall what else the tales of Zul said about the drow beside 'don't' and 'run'. Cassomir cannot move its walls and docks, its houses of stone and imperial palaces.

    Voices drifting in from the corridor call your attention away to thankfully more palatable fare. Urgor has returned form the Iron Girdle, one of the largest forgeworks in the city, with an assessment of the adamantine shells you had been dragging with you since Fusil. He names the sum, then he names it again more slowly into stunned silence.

    "I did not know numbers went that high," you joke faintly. Five thousand thousand Taldan Golden Lions, five million gold coins. Enough that the weight of them alone might be a problem, the part of you that worried about moving whispers at the back of your mind.

    Two Capsules form an Ellipsoid of the Dimensions 14ft by 2.5ft by 2.5ft
    Sheet Thickness: 5 inches
    Number of Capsules: 6, so 3 Ellipsoids

    Sheet Area per Ellispoid: 87 Square Feet
    Adamantine Volume per Ellipsoid: 87x5/12 = 36.25 cubic feet = 36.25x12x12x12 cubic inches = 62640 cubic inches
    Density of Adamantine: Steel/2 = 0.141 lb/cubic inch
    Mass per Ellipsoid: 8,832 lb
    Value of Adamantine: 200 gp/lb
    Value per Ellipsoid: 1,766,448 gp

    Value of all 6 Capsules (3 Ellipsoids): 5,299,344 gp
    Gorok's Ghosts Cut: 1/3: 1,766,448 gp

    With thanks to @llenay

    "How can any smith afford that?" Mina asks in a hushed tone, as though afraid someone might be listening in around the corner ready to pounce.

    "They can't," the dwarf explains. Once forged into ingots the metal is to be mostly sold directly to the Lord Governor. From there some might go towards equipping the legions or other more private forces. It could also be traded for political advantage, including with forces that have no interest in gold or silver 'beyond sky and stone'.

    "So these smiths, how much are they making out of the deal?" Mina starts to ask, though from the moment of hesitation you would guess the question is really from Sirim.

    "Not counting labor and materials costs, which are guild secrets, half as much as we are. If we were just selling it on the open market unforged we'd have been lucky to get quarter of the price. Adamantine's called 'sage steel' in dwarf tongue, not because it makes you cleverer to wear it, but for the rare knowledge it takes for forge it. How a clan who knows the secret came to be here in Cassomir is own long sad tale which I won't be recounting today so as not to salt the beer." With tears, the expression implies, not a saying one would find among the duergar, but you've been getting better at the sky-dwarf tongue.

    "If nothing else, we won't be lacking the means to impress the governor, will we?" your friend asks, her own mind likely lost among the thought of buying countless tomes of lore.

    While Leontas cheers and slaps the dwarf on the back, and even Gorok's iruxi companions are caught up in the excitement once Cob translates the sum into things they might be interested in; weapons, armor, tools, food, and beasts, Sirim remains a brooding presence in his worry.

    "The Consortium are not going to take a loss of this size lying down, not in gold and not in the influence that gold could have bought them. It's a good thing Sir Pisca took his payment in coin and not another cut of the sale."

    Do you keep and forge any of your new wealth?

    [] Yes
    -[] Write in how much
    Type of ItemItem Cost Modifier
    Ammunition+02 lbs./+60gp
    Light armor17 lbs./+5,000 gp
    Medium armor33 lbs./+10,000 gp
    Heavy armor50 lbs./+15,000 gp
    Weapon10 lbs./+3,000 gp

    [] No, you have no interest in Adamantine equipment

    OOC: Turns out enough adamantine to make space capsules is a lot of adamantine. Let's just say there is more than one reason the Lord Governor is going to know your name.
     
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    • Well. There goes the WBL.

    Honestly, for that kind of coin Urgor could probably hire an army to reclaim his lost home, and engineers to secure it against the next vulcano
    /earthquake combination that might hit it.
     
    Holy fuck...🤯

    That's a lot of money. We can't possibly spend it all here in Cassomir. There isn't enough shit we could buy with it that we would actually want.
     
    Okay, so obviously we are going to pick up some new gear, but we are going to have to put most of it in the Bank of Abadar. That's the only place secure enough to handle that kind of treasure.

    Also, we probably need to leave ASAP. We can now afford a Greater Teleport scroll. Once we conclude our business here, we can just take the direct route back to Andoran.
     
    Artemis1992 said:
    Well. There goes the WBL.
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    I did consider WBL, but a) I prefer consistency in world-building and b) you guys spent several arcs questing for that adamantine, the Forester's Bank lady did not believe it existed. It serves to drive home the point of how obscenely wealthy the Azlanti were by modern standards.

    I did originally make adamantine twice as heavy rather than twice as light as steel since some of the lore inclined that way, but when I saw what those numbers would have given I changed it.
     
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    I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop now. Something is going to happen to separate us from our newfound wealth. 😳

    I wonder if we can purchase Mind Blank items in Absalom? If there is any place on the continent where they would already be available for sale without lengthy commission times or waiting lists, that would be the place.
     
    llenay said:
    I would prefer if you retconned the number of capsules. I have a hard time imagining how the story can go forward without creating other inconsistencies.
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    Those had people in them which have story implications, if I were to ret-con it I would say 'it's not solid adamantine but a honeycomb', but I did say solid adamantine in earlier updates and did not want you guys to feel cheated.

    If you are fine with a ret-con I'd make it a quarter as much on those grounds. It is rather a lot.
     
    @DragonParadox, how long do we need to remain in Cassomir before we can get our share of the money? Is there a branch of the Bank of Abadar here?

    We need to go back and buy the Nondetection mirror we looted from Breolia and sold before we left Andoran, if possible. If it's still available, that should help hold us over until we can get more fitting Divination warding.
    DragonParadox said:
    Those had people in them which have story implications, if I were to ret-con it I would say 'it's not solid adamantine but a honeycomb', but I did say solid adamantine in earlier updates and did not want you guys to feel cheated.

    If you are fine with a ret-con I'd make it a quarter as much on those grounds. It is rather a lot.
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    I would rather you not retcon it. Just make available the means for us to survive if we spend enough of our new wealth.
     
    llenay said:
    I would definitely prefer that. 1/8 would be even better. According to a table I found, level 20 characters should have a wealth of about a million gold.
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    If you do retcon it, @DragonParadox, it is conceivable that the capsules contained much less adamantine than initially assumed. The stuff is so strong that even a very thin shell over more delicate innards of the capsules would probably be more than enough for most purposes.

    The more I think about it, the more I'm coming to agree with @llenay. Not that I have a problem with spending that much money (anyone familiar with my spending sprees in ASWAH would know that :whistle: ), but we are very low level and that is enough money to move nations to act.

    If you reduced the total payout to even just 4.9 million gold, and our portion to 1.633 million, that would still be a huge amount of money, but not too ridiculous.
     
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