"Do you have such a group of traders in mind? o#Or must I search for them also? And there's something  you will need to arrange. Signs. Authorised signs. Something like 'Gnomeland border 500 yds. Do not proceed beyond this point', and a small mock up of the sign for me to take," responds Cazna. "And get the signs put up appropriately along the length of their border starting at the incursion place and spreading out in the two directions; so two teams of post installers. How long is their border, anyway?"
This message was last edited by the player at 09:34, Tue 07 Dec 2021.

"I Can find a group they trade wine and cloth for bread meat  and fruit"

"And the posts?"

nods "We can certainly find the best place to put them"]


(OOC : Sorry been a little distracted last wweek)

"Good enough," says Cazna, and heads off to round up Jevin & Faeril to undertake one or other of the tasks.

OOC: Are we waiting on me?

Shes able to hook up with some merchants soon enough doing a little sly trade with the gnomes offering them mushrooms and cloth in exchange for bread and meat.

The trio head out with merchants to go see the gnomes.

They meet the gnomes and easily enough trade baked bread beef and wine and beer for mushroom wine subterranean fish fungi and mushroom wine.

When the trade is about complete Cazna moves silently up to whoever appears to be the lead gnome trader, "So you enjoy the fruits this trade, yes?"
She pauses. "It would be such a shame if all such trade were to be stopped; stomped on hard, wouldn't it?"

Again she pauses, this time waiting for some sort of affirmative.

"This isn't a shakesdown. We enjoy such occasional trade too and wouldn't want it to cease. So in this, all of you, and we are aligned, yes." Casna makes this sound like a simple statement of self-evident truth rather than a question and so continues, "Well, you may have heard, one of our .." gesturing to indicate a drow, "..sisters was apprehnded wandering erroneously on your land and was publically penalised, head shaved and so forth. Well, politics and politicians being what they are, that could sooo easily escalate to stamp out our little trading arrangements."

She pauses again, longer this time to let it sink in and for the gnome's greed to take a hold. "Well, I've managed to talk to some amongst our leaders and arrange for a series of warning signs to be errected on out side of the border. They will say somthing like, 'Border warning: do not venture beyond this point'. The signs will eventually run with full length of the border. They're to be set back by two to three hundred yards. This isn't a land grab. It's what I said: a serious attenpt to prevent escalation which would inevitably otherwise end all 'border trade'.." She glances round to indicate whe means their illegal trading. "..and very significant loss of life on both sides." She carefully avoids using the word 'war'.

"Now, I'm sure that enterprising folks like you can arrange for this to be brought to the attantion of the approriate people and arrange for them, politics and politicians being what they are, to bring forward their own idea to mirror our border warnings with those of your people. If such warning were offset from your border by, say, two to three hundred yards, then that would introduce a neutral zone. We might still meet in that, you know, provided we don't go beyond your signs and vice versa."

She lets the words hang in the air and waits patiently for some level of response.

"I Cant speak for my people  but if you'll submit to a Sending I Can make the arrangements  to get you in touch with someone"

Without hesitation she agrees.

======
OOC: Still here!

(Yes  I am)


A Few days latter she gets a sending



You wanted to negotiate our borders?

"More a set of signs on each side of it warning those native to their side not to wander further. It's an effort to prevent unwanted and unwarranted incursions. Trespass, if you will."

nods  "Fair enough"

Cazna waits for a message to come back, or for someone to show themselves. She will wait an hour or so and then head back.

the message comes back.


"Your terms are acceptable"

In case anyone's watching or listening Cazna says, "Thank you," bows and leaves.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:35, Sat 14 May 2022.

back to the city

Cazna goes back to the city.

The citys thriving

Well, that's nice to see.

They find a scribe whos conussioning expensive exotic inks  making spell scrolls

"Is there something you need?"