E and Brock were left in the room with a few objectives. They hadn't thought about transportation. E figured Bean could likely ride with him. The only problem is E had never ridden a horse before. Mae was obviously large enough to need her own. She and her blade probably weighs something close to 400 lbs. E had a budget and it was 99 gold. How much could a horse be he wondered.
" Brock, What do you think a horse costs? is it more important than armor to you?"
" Eh I have no clue. It's probably not cheap, you want me to work more today? Maybe we can find someone who needs some help and we can barter with them with labor."
" No I think I got a plan for you. You said there was a bunch of contests right? Didn't you say something about an eating contest? What'd ya think? Can you win?"
" Hmmm. If it's good. If it's bad I don't wanna. You showed me tasty stuff I'm not going back."
E smacked the top his head "Now's not the time to become a snob. I need you to win even if it's rocks. We can get our name out there, and earn some prizes. By the way, what are the prizes?"
Bean look up at E with a frown. " * sniff *
Fine, yeah I can eat but don't be disappointed in me if things go wrong."
"Let's go figure out how to sign up. You can do yours and I'll take care of the other things."
With that they left and went over to the Guild hall. As they stepped out of the Guild Leaves they realized how late it was. The sun was in high noon, and light snow was falling. The street stalls went up and down the road, they navigated passed the people in the streets.
" Man I didn't realize so many people were here. They must have shown up through the night and this morning." E said, creating a path for Brock to follow in his steps.
The people were nearly shoulder to shoulder in the road. Commotion was everywhere and it didn't let up as they entered the Hall. Upon entering they noticed all the seating had been swept to the wayside. In their place were large boards with a bunch of sign up sheets. Many people were waiting to sign up. Some events were fully booked. The Swordsmanship, Wrestling, and Cooking were fully amongst them. E thought about it, those were likely to be major roles for party members. He also realized he should ask Bean and Mae if they have any specializations.
He knew basic herbalism, he could craft antidotes and some remedy's. He could also identify a multitude of herbs and ingredients. His mother burned them into is brain. Knowing what to eat and not to eat was very important to her. They decided to check out the rest of the signs but since they were so crowded they couldn't see, only the full events were vacant.
" Brock can you get on my shoulders... wait shit. Brock....Can I get on your shoulders? I'll be quick but I have to stand."
Bean put his arms out and showed a flabbergasted expression. With a deep sigh he waved him up.
" Learn to read so this doesn't have to happen again, also sorry." E climbed onto bean and used a wall at the side of the room to stabilize. Luckily his eyes were very good.
"Mage Hand"
Carry a spoon a water and fill a cup!
Prize : 1st place 2 Mana Potions lesser
2nd place 1 Scroll of Identify
3rd place 1 Magic inkwell
"Eating Contest"
Eat as many of the cooking competitions leftovers as possible, win by weight eaten!
Prize : 1st place 1 Diuretic and 1 Camp
stove
2nd place 1 Backpack of trail
rations
3rd place 1 Bundle of Dog-wood
fire starter.
"Archery Contest"
Prize : 1st place Your choice of a Bow,
Quiver, or Arrow bundle
2nd place 20 hard wood shafts
3rd place Bundle of bowstrings
"Slap contest"
"Avoid seduction contest"
"Find the Mimic"
"Fox hunt"
Everest wasn't interested in the rest and decided to skip reading them, he could feel Bean begin to quake beneath his weight.
"Brock it looks like you could win a camp stove for first place! You have to sign up, I'm no cook but it would make things much easier. I think I will try my hand at the archery contest. Who knows maybe I can get a new quiver or arrows I have a new bow already. I'll go sign us up just stay here."
Bean slumped to the floor with quivering legs. " What a fatass.. ugh"
E noted the times for the tournaments. The eating contest started in two hours the wrestling contest stared an hour after that and the archery contest started at five that evening. They had plenty of time to go walk around. E signed them up and then left the hall towards Russell's Smithy.
They arrived to see Russell hammering away working on projects. He had a line of customers, some may have just been here to feel the heat of the forge. There was a couple of young teenage girls tending to the customers. When Russell noticed E and Bean standing to the wayside he put down his work and waved them over.
" Hey guys, I finished your work early this morning. Thanks a bunch again the fire is burning so well it's heat attracted some sales. Follow me inside the shop and I'll grab your stuff. Aelia, Grace, I'm heading inside. Take any order I have for mending and call out the customers there piling up next to the anvil."
The girls nodded and started calling out names. The trio walked into the shop. When they entered Russell went to the back room just beyond the counter. E and Bean gandered around the ready made weapons. It seemed Russell had quite a few "Sold but available for creation" tags on his wares. "Today must be great for local business" E thought.
" Here you go guys just as ordered." He walked out a leather roll and unfurled it onto the counter. " I didn't know how big you intended to make your javelins so I made them custom to Brock's size. They shouldn't be to heavy. And here are some standard iron tips. Go find Portia at the Fletcher's by the stable I already told her you guys were coming. She may have even started. I've gotta get back out there but thanks again!" E and Bean looked at the work and were pretty impressed. They were standard but really well crafted and would likely take some abuse before breaking.
" Not bad huh pretty good stuff, here put them in this." E pulled out his coin purse and dumped his arrow tips inside.
Bean looked on in wonder. " Whoa! what the heck, is that magical?? I've never seen anything like that before. that's amazing."
" Pretty neat huh, my dad gave it to me. Don't tell anyone though apparently they are rare and expensive. We don't need to get robbed." Bean nodded and tossed in his javelin heads.
They left the shop and decided to wander down the stalls towards the Fletcher taking their time. Most of the stalls had baubles and trinkets, or toys for kids. The occasional stall had meats and food for sale.
They kept moving along ignoring them until one stall caught both of their interests. It had laid out a few sets of armor and small blades. A rack to the side had Heavy Weapons and Bow's. Looking more closely all of the items had some wear like they'd seen battle. E looked up at the sign. Aren's Battle ready reclaim! Discount goods.
Bean and E stepped forward and began to browse. Most of the armor looked useless some had be cracked wide or even began to rust. The leather armors had bloodstained pierced holes, or shoddy patches of cloth. A better look explained the lack of crowd at the stall. Most people that came forward ended up walking away. E looked at Bean most of these wouldn't even fit him. He wondered if he needed something made particularly for him. At least Bean looked civilized now in regular clothes. E began to step away but was stopped by the stall owner.
" Nothing catch yer fancy ay? I have plenty more on the cart, and don't worry these are all pieces of gear not claimed in the Guild Hall. Members that pass on leave things to the Hall to return to their family, but many just don't have any. They're not scavenged off corpse's. Would I set up shop in front of the Hall? I'd be flogged. Come on I'll cut ya a deal. Names Aren "
E wasn't impressed with his pitch even Bean looked up at him with a side of his mouth turned up. The thought of wearing some dead persons gear didn't bother E, but the shape most of these were in was horrid.
" Ehhh, well do you have anything that would fit my friend here? Or maybe something light enough to wear with a quiver and bow that won't hinder my arm movements? Nothing here really looks like what I'm looking for."
" I'm not so sure about armor for you unless you remove some shoulder gaurds off some things here, but I think I've got something for your friend."
The man went into his carriage and stepped back out with a chain shirt that seemed to have been cleaved in half at the lower rib. Pieces still clung together a shred of torn links to it's bottom half. With a bit of clipping a makeshift half chain shirt was possible. E didn't like the sight of it but waited for a price.
" Will this do? I was going to sell it's iron for scrap."
E looked at Bean. To his surprise Bean gave him a gentle nod that he approved. Not something Everest would like to trust his friend to wear but he made an offer.
" Alright I guess, How about a gold piece?"
" Haha kid are you serious? Do you know how much a chain shirt is usually worth? It's usually 100 gold and roughly 25 pounds of iron link. Scrap alone I'd make at least 40 or so. Plus let's take a look" He walked forward and pressed the shirt against Bean. " It would cover just passed his waist and down his arms halfway through his forearm. See this with a bit of rework would fit him like a gem, just need some polish"
E drastically undervalued the chain shirt by Aren's standards. E didn't know whether to take him at face value but he wasn't wrong about the sizing. Bean also looked a bit puzzled. E thought hard by those metrics metal had significant more value than he thought and he began to wonder how much coin Bean would have made outside of their barter for work. It gave him an idea.
" Maybe we can make a deal. I happen to know the town's blacksmith personally and may be able to make a deal with him for you on scrap. If I can help you off load a fair bit that favors you both, could you sell it to me half off? I mean it's going to need some mending and fixing to fit this guys stature. Plus you're not valuing in my price on that, I'd be almost better off having one made brand new if we're accounting the weight of material. Labor's what, half the value of a sale right?" E began talking and let his thoughts just roll out of his mouth.
" Mmm. Urgh.. I see your point. I do have a lot of scrap here." He looked back to his table and then his carriage. " Okay offer him roughly 300 lbs of scrap iron and tell me what he's willing to do. You do right by me and you got a deal." E screamed internally.
"25 was what 100? or no.. that's with labor. So 25 for 50... 600 Gold worth of scrap?! Shit that's so much. I know Russell has been making sales but that's a lot." He thought. He composed himself and answered. " Okay I'll see what I can do." He and bean walked back to Russell's.
They got back and it seemed Russell was taking a break he sat close to the furnace drinking out of a water skin with no shirt on. He must've been working really hard. You could see the steam coming off him in the cold.
" Back already, You guys see something you want inside?"
" Not exactly. We were walking through the stalls and found a merchant with some discount ware. We found some armor that'd be a decent fit for Bean here. He wanted to much and said he could get it's value in scrap. I kinda offered to see if you wanted scrap to get a discount on it He's got like 300 pounds of scrap iron. Are you interested?"
Russell stood up with a stern look on his face. " Did he say how much? Don't tell him this, but I am backed up on orders. I was going to need to find some anyway."
" No he told me to ask if you even wanted it. To be honest it's some shitty looking gear Russell. And It comes in many sizes.
Some even had rust on it."
Russell pondered a bit. " Hmm. Well rust is no matter as long as it isn't completely tarnished. The size should be okay that may even help me make some miscellaneous Damascus. Offer him 450. See if we can settle around 500 but no more than 520."
E understood. " So that's how you haggle huh. I'm going to have to get better at this." he thought. " Okay I'll be back soon I hope it works."
Bean stayed back at the forge he was pretty cold. He gave E a thumbs up and wished him luck.
E came back to the stall. " He gave me control of his side of negotiations, so level with me how much do you want. Let's try to meet the middle ground for both of you so no one feels wronged and we all end up happy." E decided he would have Aren open the negotiation this time, last time he did, it may have been far under value but he completely lost his control on the sale. He had to make the counter offer this time around.
" Right, well if I haul this over to Lionne I can easily get 750, and that's where I'm headed next."
E sensed this was a bit of a reach, he'd already shown his hand with their last conversation. He countered. " Well that's in Lionne. This is Brackbush, and my little friend grew up in the mines on Carth's Spine. They might pay that there but that's not really the same around here. Plus this is gold. Right Now. How's 450?" E pulled the mine bit right out of his ass. He did his best to keep a stern face. His confidence soared.
" Oof that quite a gouge. I thought you were going to make a good deal for everyone. I have to say I can't go lower that 600 my friend."
" 500"
" 550"
" 530 and it's a deal"
" Alright fine. I can take that. Let me load up and I'll bring it down to him. You make a mean merchant what's your class?"
" Ranger haha. Thanks. Glad this works for everyone. Let me head into the guild hall and take some coin out for you. I'll be right back." They shook hands.
Everest went into the guild hall. He felt good. He may be an extra 10 gold on top of the 20 for the chain shirt but he felt it was worth it. He pulled out 40 gold.
" Everyone is making out. Bean will be set once he has his javelins made. I can stick to the rear if we have to fight, which meant I could always run. After a good quest I'll will buy my own armor"
E got his gold and went back to Aren. They made the trade and he went back to Russell's. He pulled out an extra 10 gold to have some on hand. When he got back he told Russell the good news and gave him ten gold to cover the difference.
" Good stuff E. You saved me a haggle and a trip to Lionne. I was charging a mail fee on top of my normal prices due to the likelihood of having to use the guild hall to get some of this stuff sent out. Quite a bit of coin on the overhead now. Tell me, You want a job done? It's on the house." Russell realized his words and stipulated. " Within reason."