So, the chapter:
"Gabriella von Ernachthafen," he repeats, carefully scrawling runes with a quill. He looks you up and down. "Grey, Black, Thrall, or incognito?"
You blink at him. "Incognito," you say.
"Buying, selling, or both?"
"Buying."
"Have you brought any of the following goods to Uzkulak: bound Daemons, precious stones or metals from Nehekhara, any seed, bud, fruit, or cutting from Athel Loren, unshielded warpstone, spherical devices made of brass, Vampire body parts, any item created or possessed by the Skaven Clan Pestilens, gilded skulls made of black bone, anything from the Temple-City of Zlatlan, any mummified bodies of large, frog-like beings, unshielded wyrdstone, any kind of projectile capable of moving on its own, any of Kadon's Scrolls of Binding, golden whistles, instruments stringed with unicorn hair, keys made of crystal, or any sort of stone that glows with a green light?"
"No."
"Have you brought any slaves with you with any of the following qualities," he looks up at you, "well, do you have any slaves at all?"
"No."
The Dwarf scans down the page to the next section, and sighs before looking back up. "Gabriella von Ernachthafen from no organization in particular, welcome to Uzkulak,"
I am officially in love.
Next quest I definitely want to return here on official business and I'll be voting for whatever character creation options I deem to make it more likely.
@BoneyM How come assorted Chaos God artefacts of indiscernible function or something aren't among the listed items? Or do those invariably fall under the "bound demons" category?
When you exit Uzkulak, ensure that you are recorded by the attendent at that exit, or you may be incorrectly marked for death. Glory to Hashut."
Yep. Still in love.
You scramble for anything that's not your actual name or 'Grey'. "Gabriella," you land on. "Gabriella von, er, Nachthafen."
Not what I would have expected from an Intrigue 25(19) character with Advanced Infiltration skill who pretended to be a flowershop assistant for days without issue, but it increased that chapter section's delight by so much that I approve anyway.
"Grey, Black, Thrall, or incognito?"
I understand the last two, but the meaning of the first two eludes and intrigues me. Lady Magister Grey should know though, shouldn't she?
For some weird reason I was surprised by these two. Zombies being able to trade as opposed to just being entourage to higher undead is weird and interesting.
The Skaven I should have expected, but all the mentions of their hatred for each other made me think this wouldn't be the case. But of course you said even Karaz Ankor Dwarves would be welcome here if they made it close enough.
squabbling with an unimpressed-looking Dwarf
What kind of Dwarf? If not Dawi-Zarr, how was he dressed?
Stalls extend in all directions, many occupied and many not, and it seems like all one needs to do is pick an empty one and unload their goods onto a table to begin trying to convince someone to buy them. Every stall has a bell on one corner, and every so often the ring of a bell sounds and the crowd parts for what must be an Officiant with an abacus and a sack.
I assume that there are a few more organized vending locations further away from the main entrance where people with any clue whatsoever know how to find specific things and from where slaves go to all the haphazard stalls to buy and repackage everything they can find that belongs to certain categories.
the Skaven with scraps of cloths tied around their identifying insignia
I didn't understand the significance of this one.
What you mostly find is the counterfeit.
This increases my suspicions that the good stuff is being sold somewhere else. At the very least there's bound to be some scrupleless merchant group that just sits and pays the rents of Uzkulak while making tonnes of money by simply being better at buying and selling than, say, that Dark Elf Corsair.
Does Mathilde visit the Hall of Slaves?
I'll be withholding my vote because I don't want to impose this on anyone who isn't as comfortable as me when it comes to the depiction of fictional atrocity.
And now that I think about it, this puts a dampener on any BoneyM quest going for a continued non-violent interaction with Dawi-Zarr, especially on SV. He's to conscientious a writer to simply shove this kind of stuff behind the curtains to be glossed over and straddling the line of acceptability and not drawing in the wrong kind of reader in a quest where the MC resides in a slave state without rebelling in short order would be quite stressful for everyone involved.
Does Mathilde buy the barrels of salted meat using Borek's money?
I'm undecided, leaning towards yes.
Does Mathilde purchase the golden arm for 800 gold coins?
[ ] ARM: Yes
[ ] ARM: No
Does Mathilde purchase the Ghyran nut for 1000 gold coins?
[ ] NUT: Yes
[ ] NUT: No
Does Mathilde purchase the explorer's writings for 200 gold coins?
[ ] PAPERS: Yes
[ ] PAPERS: No
I don't really care about any of this stuff. Clearly the good stuff is not on display and available for clueless first time visitors. But I guess we have more money than we need and this stuff doesn't really go bad or anything. At the very least the seed might make for an acceptable souvenir for our girlfriend, though telling her how we got it might ruin the moot.
And that concludes the chapter. Cool stuff. Uzkulak both allows for quick and dirty interaction and has expansive world-building space and hooks to expand into if needed.
Thanks for the chapter, BoneyM!
