Remember, even in the event it's genuinely the best any plan or trade route Eike comes up with will almost certainly be replaced by the RoW fog bridge we intend to build. Probably not a good idea to make huge promises hinged on a temporary trade route.
As I said, I'm throwing out basically any idea I can think of, this is a brainstorming phase. Like, plan 5 in my list is unbelivably bad and probably not doable at all, but maybe it's not physically impossible so I'm bringing in up anyway. I was brainstorming charcoal and trade ideas a while back and the Salkalten via sea route was the only one that really made sense to me, so if there's one plan that I think is worth trying to make work it's that one. Apparently there are Salkalten ships that fit the Schaukel, so it's not a problem.
Ok, another point, not really a plan but a way to modify any particularly inefficient plan. Mathilde mentioned the Eonir might be interested in raw materials, though this might wear off quickly:
Just about any kind of raw material that is not available within the forest of Tor Lithanel will find a buyer while the Elves explore the possibilities of the materials of the outside world, but it's impossible to say which, if any, of these will find a long-term market. It's easy to imagine an Eonir baker realizing the potential of milk and eggs and it unlocking a permanent new customer base, or their leatherworkers discovering the durability of cow leather or the softness of sheep and revolutionizing their armours and fashions, but it's as easy to imagine the fad fading within a year or two and the Elves returning to the traditions of millennia once the novelty wears off.
Any plan that has us passing through settlements on the way to Tor Lithanel can also involve buying some local materials like eggs and cheese and whatever else, and then selling that at Tor Lithanel along with our charcoal to recoup some of our investment. Maybe a terrible idea, and probably a temporary solution even if it works, but the whole route might be temporary because of RoW so maybe?
Salkalten itself is kind of a irrelevant nowhere, unfortunately, not likely to find an Elfaboo Noble there. Medium sized cities would by kind of a crapshoot I think, might find them but it's not particularly guaranteed, Wolfenburg would be the place in ostland I'd bet on being able to find an elfaboo noble but Salkalten doesn't seem to be THAT accessible to the core of the province (which frankly may have had more to do with it's failure as a port town than Marienburg sabotage did)
Salkalten itself is kind of a irrelevant nowhere, unfortunately, not likely to find an Elfaboo Noble there. Medium sized cities would by kind of a crapshoot I think, might find them but it's not particularly guaranteed, Wolfenburg would be the place in ostland I'd bet on being able to find an elfaboo noble but Salkalten doesn't seem to be THAT accessible to the core of the province (which frankly may have had more to do with it's failure as a port town than Marienburg sabotage did)
Anyway:
Even though we're not actually voting I definitely place my 'vote' towards 'peat is basically charcoal, right?'
Well she starts in Middleland which is a provincial capital so she could get her mark sponsor then have them buy/rent the boat and sail the stuff up river. It would be a higher DC but maybe made up by the lower DC of actually finding someone who wants to meet/trade with elves.
The wording is to spend as little as possible on transport costs so personal protection in the form of local mercenaries would be a viable option perhaps?
On the peat idea, suddenly I'm wondering why the Eonir aren't already extracting it for themselves? Or does it fall into the usual issue of not wanting to muck up their nicely cultivated defences... if so, that could put a damper on the Peat Gambit. As extracting peat might be on the "You'll get an arrow through the skull, dumbass!" list the human locals know.
Ask Adela very nicely to make an extra trip with the gyrocarriage.
Sure it probably won't work for a whole host of reasons and might burn more coal than it transports, but it doesn't hurt to ask.
On the peat idea, suddenly I'm wondering why the Eonir aren't already extracting it for themselves? Or does it fall into the usual issue of not wanting to muck up their nicely cultivated defences... if so, that could put a damper on the Peat Gambit. As extracting peat might be on the "You'll get an arrow through the skull, dumbass!" list the human locals know.
The thing about my peat idea is that the part of marienburg's territory right next to the eonir is ALSO swamp, it's a legally distinct swamp (geographically it is quite possibly the same swamp, but that's a different matter).
The thought is to get The People Who Live In Marienburg's Swamp to in theory get peat out of Marienburg's Swamp and use their Swamp Transport Knowledge to get it THROUGH the Eonir's Swamp, NOT getting The People Who Live In Marienburg's Swamp to get peat out of The Eonir's Swamp.
Technically we'll be dodging a shitload of customs and shit and legally smuggling but I'm pretty sure marienburg doesn't give a shit about that part of their border At That Particular Minute because why on earth would anyone be trying to transport anything from the swamp into The Forest That Elves Will Shoot You For Going Into, or out of The Forest That Elves WIll Shoot You For Going Into into the swamp? In the long term they might catch on but in the long term we'll hopefully have the rite of way figured out by then.
My thoughts went into a similar direction. The best answer to spending as few resources as possible is to make a profit and the target location is exotic enough to be attractive for tourism. Eike's greatest asset is that someone with strong ties to the higher echelons of an isolated nation has given her their blessings meaning she can barrel through Laurelorn's political barriers.
I wouldn't stop at one rich tourist though, because it's funnier, and do the search in Altdorf since that is where the rich weirdoes hang out if I remember correctly.
Alternatively she could ask the Baba for help. I think Eike wasn't there when she bragged about her smuggling tricks but the vibes between the Baba and Eike sound sufficiently funny that that should be ignorable.
You are Eike. Your Master just gave you a wagon full of charcoal just outside of Middenheim and told you to try to get it to Tor Lithanel. You have [money: yes] but are challenged to spend as little as possible on transport costs. What cunning plans might you have?
No vote on the best plan or anything like that, just brainstorm and refine ideas and any that look good to me in the morning will be transferred into Eike's head.
I have no ideas and almost as little knowledge, so let me try to organize what little I have.
Looks like... around 160 miles in a straight line from Middenhem to Tor Lithinael. Through lots of trees. The obvious route, following the map, seems to be Middenheim->Beeckerhoven->Salzenmund->Not Oldenlitz (Does the X mean it's destroyed? I checked, yes)-----160 Mile Trip---->Tor Lithanel. Call that the default plan. Where's that land-speed chart?
Google a horse-drawn cart gets 10-30 miles a day, which seems to fit. Oxen are much slower. A day or two of travel from Middenheim to Beeckerhoven, another day or two to Salzenmund. If it looks feasible, I'd push to make both of those day trips and rest and prepare at Salzenmund for the loong journey... hm.
That remind me can the Eonir still restore the long cleared farmed areas, regrow all the lost forest and add few extra defences or is that too much effort?
Sound like a good project for the Jade order and Eonir to work together on.
There's a road between Salzenmund and Tor Lithanael on the map, but it's obviously not being maintained and may in fact be actively being deconstructed. So it might not be much easier than just setting out into the forest or over the hills directly from Middenheim.
Going down into the part of Middenland not shown on this map (another map suggests that the "Great North Road" connects to Middenheim such that you can basically connect the roads on this map with no surprises) would take a while, but at the cost of a ~500 mile trip that road does split north and leads close to Tor Lithanael. Laurelorn is presumably less concerned with making passage from Middenheim difficult than they are from Nordland. Salzenmund might also not be too keen on a merchant passing through on the way to Laurelorn, for that matter.
We could continue on the Great North Road for 25 miles towards Bokel and back, rather than heading straight for Tor Lithanael, to resupply.
At this point, our master has made this trip under escort... ah, shit, this is worse.
Your earlier foray into Laurelorn had begun at Salzenmund and had taken you to the destroyed Nordland village of Oldenlitz. You're certain that was not simply a matter of the most convenient meeting place for the Vicereine, but instead a specific impression that she wished to convey. You suspect today's route to be no different, as you're directed to a specific milestone in the Schadensumpf that, according to the records you checked in Middenheim while you were passing through, is the nearest point on the road to the site of the battle where Middenland fought alongside Laurelorn against the Beastmen.
You let him finish admiring the revolver before you reholster it, and he turns his attention back to the road - or the lack of one, anyway. The path leads you from hummock to mound to knoll and in between takes you through completely opaque waters that give no indication of their depth.
So. The road leading from Salzenmund is in decay, and the road leading from Middenland is nonexistent. It would be better to go through the ruins of Oldenlitz. But we're going to have to face the forest regardless, so we need cooperation from Tor Lithanael above all. I already have too many tabs open, I'm going to post this before I delete it by accident and keep thinking.
I'm sure there's enough wood in Salzenmund to make at least one wagonload of charcoal. So that means that we just have to convince the Eonir to burn it down; then they can bring it back along the Erengrad Road in the same wagons that were supplying the army. No transport costs at all, and if they bring enough wagons, we can (potentially) even deliver more than one load at once!
'Hire some Journeyman' definitely seems like a valid path, though the most obvious spell might not be the best one. Magically-skilled labour might be cheaper within Tor itself, though.
It would be pretty awesome. But I do think that 5 option means it's probably not it - 'lm and apprentice' has to be "Mathilde and Eike", right? In what other context would it make sense for an option to have a LM and an apprentice in the same line? If this was a roll for who can cast RoW then "just Mathilde, and also maybe her apprentice one day" would be the worst possible result (except, perhaps, for ~fun~) and then I would think that it would be either the highest or lowest result on the table.
I take it as 'who can use the spell safely', rather than who can use it at all.
6 would mean that it is Battle Magic, and thus inherently unsafe without some unique advantage to leverage, for everyone.
5 would mean that Eike (and Mathilde) can use the spell safely, but everyone else rolls the dice when they cast it.
4 – 2 Put it at a specific skill level.
You are Eike. Your Master just gave you a wagon full of charcoal just outside of Middenheim and told you to try to get it to Tor Lithanel. You have [money: yes] but are challenged to spend as little as possible on transport costs. What cunning plans might you have?
No vote on the best plan or anything like that, just brainstorm and refine ideas and any that look good to me in the morning will be transferred into Eike's head.
Got to be some creatures in Warhammer that can carry a wagon-load of coal across a swamp, assuming the inhabitants are not deliberately hostile.
Imperial Zoo or Amber Collage might have something, although it would probably not come cheap.
…can Niseag be bribed to carry things?
Worst comes to worst there is no shortage of burly labourers who can haul sacks. Without elf arrows the swamp is more difficult than dangerous.
Probably not the cheapest way, but due to being from Quebec, I can't help but suggest the way our ancestors travelled in the woods to trade pelts... coureurs des bois!
You just need some canoes and woodsmen (or elves). Put the charcoal in the canoes then you can use very small streams and waterways (tributaries of the main laurelorn river) to do much of the way and carry the canoe by hand for the impassable parts.
If it's only a wagonload it should be doable with a few canoes/trips and relatively cheap.
EDIT : Although using the road west of Salzenburg would probably be the cheapest way so if possible, I'd probably try to see if it's possible to do it legally first despite the tensions, you never know if you don't ask.
Eike should just smuggle the coal through Salzenburg to not pay tariffs and taxes. I mena she's a grey wizard after all and she was best on intrigue so I think it'd be possible for her.
