Getting to Know Molvar - Shopping, Gems, Markets, and a Night Out!

 

After the long day's, and night's, travel, the party rested a whole day in Molvar before venturing out into the town on the morning of the 23rd of Wealsun, Sunday.

They had a list of things to accomplish, and set about spending the entire day. Iambred visited the Grand Temple, but didn't say much... Truth be told, he stood around and looked shifty until he finally figured he'd best be moving on, since the priests and patrons were starting to pay him notice.

The Temple was a large, L-shaped building with a courtyard between the wings, and a low, wide tower at the end of one wing. A fountain burbled in the courtyard.

Meanwhile, Lincoln and Uh-Oh started their morning by visiting Zapzomeb, Uh-Oh's wizard mentor.

Zapzomeb lives in the southern ghettos of Molvar, in a squat, round, stone-constructed hovel with a thatched roof. Upon entering, one if met by a fireplace in the center, whose chimney juts up through the thatch. A handful of counters, seating, and some food storage are in the circular room. Crisscrossed rafters web overhead. Herbs hang from the underside of the thatch. A wooden hatch is in the floor, against one curved wall...

If one were to open the hatch, they would find stairs moving down to the next level of Zapzomeb's inverted wizard's tower. Every storey lower, the walls angle slightly inward. The windows open to dirt and roots. The lowest level is the inside of the spire, that falls down into the ground like an oubliette.

For 500gp, the wizard agreed to inspect the magic items they recovered---the wand, the obsidian staff shaped like a snake, the crystal shield, and the strange dagger named Lint.

After that, they moved to Zeep's Lapidary and Fine Jewelry, where they sold their pearl, emerald and fire opal rings, and a few other sundry stones. Strange as it may seem, Molvar has an eccentric rock collector, who happily paid for the obsidian arrowheads. Neither he, nor the Trading Post, however, would pay much for the obsidian cups they'd looted. These they took to the market, and plied around the various stalls, eventually finding an eager fool who paid them 25% more than they were really worth.

Convening with Iambred, the party then entered The Chequerie, one of the two banks in Molvar.

The Chequerie is smaller, with branches throughout Ket. Ostentibly connected to the Dromedacteries---the traveling camel merchant guild of Ket---this bank only ever allows 50% of your balance to be withdrawn in hard coinage, the other 50% available in check. Thankfully, these papers are accepted most everywhere... mosty. Withdraw fees are 5%.

The larger bank, the Bank of the Golden Sceptor, only has branches in Molvar and Lopolla, and charges 10%.

When the checker saw the gold bars, and all the coinage the party wanted to deposit, she called her manager, who took them to a back room to account for all their monies and open their accounts.

They were given an account---893B---under the name The Three Musketeers.

They all left with a few hundred in coins, and official Chequerie checkbooks, with 100 pages each, the cover embossed with a golden camel on it.

Work done, they decided to finish out the evening with some carousing.

There were three drinking establishments available. The Limping Dervish, the Green Grass Tavern, and the Dross Pit. They chose the Green Grass, a quaint three-storey watering hole near the East Gate.

Iambred spent 100gp and didn't leave until late, but made it safely back to the Limping Dervish where he bought a room and dropped to sleep. Lincoln, unfortunately, didn't hold his ale quite so well, and ended up sleeping in a gutter, but otherwise had no ill befall him.

Uh-oh, however, lived up to her name. She spent 400gp on drink after drink. At the bar, she met another magic user, named Silgadore, and the two got into a reckless argument over who was the better wizard. After Silgadore began charming barmaids and Uh-oh started using ventriloquism, they were thrown out, literally, sometime after four in the morning. They parted ways, screaming insults. Uh-oh has made an enemy, it seems...

The morning of the 24th, Moonday, broke dreary and overcast. Lincoln awoke in the gutter. Iambred awoke feeling ready for the day. Uh-oh had a headache, and barely remembered anything, except for her dislike for Silgadore...

The plan for the day is to provision and prepare to head back to the dungeon, to reclaim the remaining cache of gold bars.

A few rules were utilized this session, including the Carousing! table from the 5th issue of Knock! magazine. Also, tables for the market values, Zeep's jewelry valuation, and tavern encounters came into play.

I have had a very simple tavern-establishment procedure I've been toying with for a year or so, but this was the first chance to use it. In the end, it didn't come up, but next session I'll start enforcing it.

The idea is this. Every tavern/inn/dive has a Rating, from 6 to 1, Criminal, Dingy, Seedy, Good, Fine, Elite. The PCs have a Rapport at each establishment, starting at 0. After every visit, the Rapport is increased by 1.

Upon entering any establishment, the PCs roll d6+Rapport for their party. If the number meets or is under the Rating, then an encounter happens. If they roll the exact number of the Rating, an encounter also always happens regardless of Rapport.

For example, if PCs walked into a Criminal bar, with Rating 6, for the second time, they'd roll d6+Rapport, which is one since they've been here once before. Say they roll 5. They have an encounter, since 5+Rapport is 6, the Rating of the bar. If they had been there twice, they'd have rolled a 7, and no encounter would have happened.

This way, the seedier the establishment, the more dangerous it is to frequent it, until you've become a regular, and have much lower risk. 

Ideally, each establishment would have a bespoke encounter chart... I just haven't made them yet. One day. Until then, I'm winging it.