So the belt’s off to one scout or another. Does anyone else want the powder? I honestly don’t think I’d ever have much use for it, and I feel like a scout might need to cover his tracks or draw attention to something with it.
I definitely would like to hold on to the ring- it’s not much good right now, but in some time it may become significantly worthwhile.
You can trade spells out of your book? I assumed that they were permanently inscribed there. In any case, though many of the spells will probably never get loaded, it’s worth having the option and the ability to charge another wizard to look at them.
Shame about the necklace. Offer it first to my former master- he can probably cleanse it, I trust that he is truly Good, and I owe him the favor.
**Malacandra ** - I would suggest you take the belt, it will at least give you the option of getting into H-2-H combat. I will not be going there myself and if we are spotted sneaking around, they always fire for the bigger target anyway.
D_Odds - I would suggest taking the pouch given your limitation allowing you to actually carry more stuff than you might otherwise.
I do not mind taking the powder. If I can get it into a couple of small glass vials, and use in a sling, we have a long range smoke bomb effect.
Actually that is both a good suggestion on distributing the items and a clever use of the smoke powder. The 3 Doses would probably be go for 30 small glass balls, but of course do a lot less effect. However it should temporarily blind the target on a hit.
glee & Malacandra, actually wounding weapons are not that dangerous in my game. The damage can be healed with magic. The problem is that bandaging does not stop the wound. There might be a market, but it would be a good weapon for Theogrim to have when on foot. The other magic weapon he has is his lance. So he was possibly being too generous. Of course the sword will probably need about 1000 gp of servicing to be made usable*.
I find that most combats are over in less than 10 rounds, so that is where I downplayed the use of a wounding weapon, it could be of special use in hacking at fleeing opponents. You would expect them to be dead in a short matter of time and not have to pursue any further.
The staff and necklass would only be traded to a Mage in all likelihood. So barter would be for mage stuff.
appleciders, there is no ring. It is just a Magic Ruby. I already mentioned that you have been trained to jealously guard your spells. If you did trade or sell with another Wizard however, in general, he uses the write spell to make a copy of your spell. This takes a while and special materials.
Strike that, if Theogrim takes it, Gimli offers to do the forging work and this will reduce the cleansing to only 250gp.
I am going to get the dinner post in and a suggestion for division of treasure based on this thread and then wait for objections or confirmations.
I also plan to preview the next thread, I mean adventure.
This has been fun, it moved a lot faster than I ever expected. Once the treasure and trading is done, there will need to be one more big post for starting off on the next mission.
What are Middle Earth, and more specifically Dale, economics like? If I’m walking out with 243 gp, am I thinking I would have been better off staying home working a paper route, or is this a king’s ransom to a ‘blue-collar’ family of little note or special skill? Would a family consisting of a cobbler and a seamstress make this much in a week, in a month, in a year, or in a lifetime?
The price of a really good pony was quoted just now as 100gp ready to ride - or an adequate one rather less than half of that. But that was imported from Rohan, a country famed for the quality of its equines. Typically you could live meagrely on a silver a day, very well on a gold a day, and you’d need to be a skilled artisan to earn at the latter rate. Most labouring classes would never even see gold.
These are still steep prices compared to LotR itself - where Butterbur bought a pony for twelve silver pennies and was considered by all to have been royally ripped off. On the other hand, you could drop it into the hoard of Smaug the Golden and never find it again.
It is typical that successful adventurers generally make fortunes. Think of Bilbo picking up the Arkenstone (and some ring or other in a riddle contest!)
It was a poor-quaity pony (or at any rate, one that had been ill-treated to the point of near-uselessness) but a fair price would have been four silver pence, which is amazingly cheap by D&D standards.
The amount of money you just picked up would be about twice what you started out with as a first-level fighter - which means that 120gp, give or take, represents a supreme effort of life savings by an exceptional character and his extended family, 'cos probably everyone out to Great-Uncle Jim chipped in what they could spare to outfit their warrior son in a modest collection of starting equipment. And, of course, the bulk of that would have been in money’s worth - Grandad’s old but sound sword from over the fireplace, and so on - rather than specie.
As a member of the Dale Guard, my gear is military issue, including my mount. My bow and quiver of silver arrows*, however, I received as spoils in a raid, and is not standard issue. Essentially, I received gear through various means without actually ever ‘received gold’ as a starting character.
glee, Brin hasn’t yet wrapped his mind around the fact that he is now an adventurer. He still thinks he’s a member of the Guard who is only supposed to be making a couple of silver (literally) a week (and most of the spoils get funneled back into the military budget or the pockets of less scrupulous soldiers).
20 silver = 1 gold? Did that change in future editions? I get easily confused between editions.
*As soon as I saw silver arrows, my first thoughts were “Shit! Were-beasts!”
The coin conversion I use is simple
1GP = 10sp or 100cp
Very rare 1 Mithril Piece is worth 100GP.
243 Gold is a small fortune, enough in many areas to but a small farm. In Minas Tirith it is worth far less.
At the time of the war, the economy and trade was minimal. No coins were being minted. Now there is a King of the reunited Kingdoms, Dale & Erebor is a thriving economy and trading with many, especially heavy trade up and down the river and with the slowly growing Beorning country.
Additionally the ongoing wars against Umbar and the Corsairs has been generating more money that it is costing. So much money is being pulled in from the south, it in turn is going to Dwarves and humans for building and smithing work. This in turn goes to buy argiculture and textile goods from places like Rohan, Dunland, the Shire & Bree. There is even a slow flow of goods down the Anduin.
Of course. That will roughly halve an Orc’s chance of hitting me in combat.
Well, typically you’d have started young doing “Sorceror’s Apprentice”-type tasks, i.e. pretty much all the grunt labour about the senior wizard’s place for the privilege of getting maybe an hour’s instruction after supper, that being all your feeble brain was capable of carrying. Then after you’d served a fourteen-year apprenticeship you’d get kicked out into the big wide world with about four spells to your name and enough money to dress decently.
