The shopkeep was tall and fat. His grin was illuminating - quite literally: his teeth glowed. Hirsu saw that the life-force of the Living Metal was dim, but constant, but got the impression that they didn't particularly mind being trapped in the bottles.

"Beautiful, ain't it?" asked the shopkeep. "I feed them twice a day, but they still clammer on for more, y'know? Pure Living Metal, mined from the Forge-Kingdom of Zast, savage and highly deadly. I'm Zast. Two thousand'll net you a bottle. They can survive on a soul a day; two if you want to keep them awake, ten if you want them fighting-fit. They're thirsty little bastards, but I love them so. The two grand will also get you the solid diamond bottle and a certificate of authenticity. Interested?"

Hirsu smiled as he watched the creatures. "Very fascinating. And naturally occuring, tremendous. You, sir, have exquisite taste in your merchandise. I will definitely be back in the future when I have the funds, and the means to keep them alive for an extended period of time."

Hirsu left the stall, turning to take a last look at the creatures and the general vicinity so he could find it again some other time, and continued wandering. Such marvelous wonders in this place, he thought to himself.

Stroking his chin, Desafon looks towards the Bounty Officer, "And what type of God is Sura that he is worth so much?"

Desafon

"You.. you mean you haven't heard? This was the God that caused the destruction of the Hall of the Sun, killing many in the process. His death cannot come too soon, Pirate God."


Hirsu


Hirsu next stumbled upon the popular shop entitled, amusingly, the Necronomnomnomnomicon. The shop sold sorcerous tools and supplies.. Royal Tradition sanctified and attuned tools, as well as more esoteric tools, such as Earthborn Zen-Qabalistic or Shage wise-owns. There were books lined up on the practice and theory of magic, many magical Grimoires - which gave instructions on the application of dual-field Royal Tradition sorceries - and even the occasional enchanted item. Hirsu saw, with some delight, that the shop stocked most of (as far as he could tell) Msonus's work, such as An Eye to the Heavens, the Teaachings of tdan Bardrov, A New Babilu and so forth. By far the most coveted item, however, kept in a case of diamond and surrounded by shimmering guardian Living Metal was one of the original copies of Al-Azif<i>, or the <i>Necroomicon.. bound in human flesh, otherwise insidiously mundane..

Hirsu picked up the Teachings of tdan Bardrov, and flipped to the fifth chapter, to see if there was anything written there. He then shut the book, and inquired about the price of that one and An Eye to the Heavens.

The fifth chapter; blank.

"Yeah, that's a uh, whatchamacallit, motiff of his, uh, work.." said the shopkeep. "Crazy bastard. Genius, but crazy. They're four Conclave Stones each or three of his works for ten. Or you can buy the Eleven Books of Msonus, hardcover, for sixty. Full set. Bargain."

Hirsu considered the hardcover copies for few moments, genuinely torn. Finally, he shook his head. "I think I'll stick with the paperbacks for now. I'll have to carry this around for a while, and I'd hate to damage the hardcover. I'll probably be back for the full set later, though."

He picked out The Teachings of tdan Bardov, An Eye to the Heavens, and looked through the titles of the other 9 works. He half expected to find one regarding his own realm, though he doubted the timeframe would line up properly to make that possible.

Nodding, Desafon strokes his chin. "Really? That is, then, what I came across. How good of a swordsman is he?"

Desafon

"We don't know about his swordsmanship skills, but he is a cold-blooded killer with ultimate mastery over the desert. Perhaps he is too much for you.."


Hirsu


"Just The Teachings of tdan Bardrov and An Eye to the Heavens? Three for ten. Have a browse, friend."

The works of Msonus:

*An Eye to the Heavens
*The Teachings of tdan Bardrov
*A New Babilu
*The Beliefs of King Eye
*Yggdrasil
*The Architect's Manifesto
*What We Learn Without Magic
*The Rivers, They Soak
*Hyper-technomantic Sympathetic Worldbending for Idiots
*One Hundred Magical Traditions You MUST Try
*The Truth

Hirsu smiled faintly at the titles, and picked out What We Learn Without Magic. He paid for the purchases, and left the market to enjoy his new volumes. Rather than cooping himself up in the library once more, he took the books to the Exotic Gardens, to find a quiet spot where he could peruse them.

With a twitch at the mention of 'Perhaps he is too much for you', Desafon grimaces. "Fine. I take that as an honor challenge and will begin to search for this Sura God. I will return him in whatever pieces I may, hopefully whole, and ensure the Conclave that though I am a God seeking payment in order to better my realm, which is currently torn by a Mad God, I am also a God of Honor and though I do not wish to join them, I will have respect as a Duelist."

He moves to find a merchant selling gear for surviving the desert. Hopefully something that will keep him from becoming weak while there.

Desafon

Desert survival gear was sold: a full-body suit, with a hood, goggles, and a fabric mask, created with the specific purpose of staving off starvation and dehydration while there. If soaked in freezing water for a day, it can keep the wearer at a comfortable temperature for up to a week. It was going for a thousand Conclave Stones.

Hirsu

Hirsu enters the exotic gardens, and easily finds a place to read.

(Continue posting in the Exotic Gardens of the Conclave thread)

Anik headed into the markets. He had been here once before to assess the technological and craftsmanship of the goods coming in and was generally impressed. But still he needed several raw materials should he begin his tasks, and supply his realm with metals. He began looking on how to obtain a ton (quite literally, and in metric system) of metals. Gold he knew was 4CS/1kg but he was sure that buying 1000 kg of the stuff (and other mass quantities of material) would afford him a steep discount. He needed silver, copper, zinc, iron, titanium, silicon, and several other metals. But before he would approach any vendor with this plan, he looked in current "mass exchange" values, approaching only those who were exactly on the dot of the value of metals. He wanted fair, honest, good quality trading, and he knew any "deals" he got from people who were below market value mostly meant one or more of those factors applied. Once he weeded out any who were event showing a semblance of dishonesty he would see if they would give any discount for buying 300 kg of gold. He would tell them (after a bit of haggling for the "large" 300kg purchase) he wanted to shop around to other suppliers before finalizing the deal. He tried to narrow it down to 4 or 5 suppliers. Once this was done, he would ask around other traders (particularly those who would buy metals, like smiths, builders, and brokers who were "mass quantity quick-traders" who buy and sell shares of large amounts of material, just trying to make profit on the market of raw-material) for reputations of those suppliers, and previous prices as well.

Desafon

(repeat)

Desert survival gear was sold: a full-body suit, with a hood, goggles, and a fabric mask, created with the specific purpose of staving off starvation and dehydration while there. If soaked in freezing water for a day, it can keep the wearer at a comfortable temperature for up to a week. It was going for a thousand Conclave Stones.

Anik

It took a long while, but eventually Anik was given some information that he could trust in regards to suppliers. Easily the most honest was fair Havarst, who, it is said, cannot ever accept an unfair deal. Still, honesty came at a price - his wares were slightly more expensive than, say, his biggest rival, Mjourn, who often stole the merchandise but sold it for exceptionally cheap. Havarast sold 300kg of gold for four hundred Conclave Stones. Mjourn, who dealt fairly with all buyers, even if his wares were stolen, sold it for two hundred and twenty.

Anik would go with Havarast. He seemed more his man, besides he wasn't interested in stolen goods.

He went up to Havarast, or his clerk "I was here earlier about the 300kg of gold. Well truth be told I need more of it and a more of others. I'm looking for around 1000kg of gold, iron, silver, copper, zinc, aluminum, platinum, titanium, pure sand (SiO2). That is... 1000kg of each." Now that the bombshell of an offer was made, he either waited for Havarast's reaction, or the clerk to go wide eyed and tell him he needed to go get Havarast.

Desafon

(repeat)

Desert survival gear was sold: a full-body suit, with a hood, goggles, and a fabric mask, created with the specific purpose of staving off starvation and dehydration while there. If soaked in freezing water for a day, it can keep the wearer at a comfortable temperature for up to a week. It was going for a thousand Conclave Stones.

Anik

Havarast was a born salesmen, and had an eye for the serious, high-profile customers - he would not allow a common clerk to handle such a large venture. "Welcome, Anik, trade freely," he said, smiling sincerely, as he offered the master craftsmen a seat. Havarast listened to Anik's demands and then handed Anik a piece of paper. He'd been writing as Anik was speaking..

Gold (per 1000 kilograms) = 600 CS
Iron = 400 CS
Zinc = 200 CS
Silver = 800 CS
Copper = 290 CS
Aluminum = 150 CS
Titanium = 1000 CS
Platinum = 800 CS
Pure Sand = 1600

Total = 5840
      + Shipping (500)
      = 6340 CONCLAVE SONES

"Most of these are cheap enough to obtain," said Havarast. "Prices of silver are skyrocketing, lately, but we can still cut a good deal. Titanium, too, is pricey. The silicon dioxide is the hardest, though. The Conclave monitors all sand-based commerce, for fairly obvious reasons, and places extremely heavy taxes on them. Still.."

He looks again at the list. "I can do this for you for six grand."

Anik winced on the sand. "Scratch the sand, my god there are many easier ways of getting silicon dioxide, sorry about the taxes, I might want to think about substitutes like glass or quartz if you have any, I can easily turn them into different physical aspects of the same chemicals. As for Titanium, I knew it would be pricey."

He considered the list. "This is a massive purchase, tell you what is there any way I could get the shipping reduced to 300, I'll even double my Aluminum purchase, that's only 50 CS less and 1000kg of aluminum out of your hair.

On another note, do you know any class B vendors? I need a much smaller amount of rarer things."

<<From Hall of the Sun>>

Ruse drifts over to this location, and materialized. He looks for Artificer Aurhah or a comclave soldier who would know where to find him.

Desafon

(repeat)

Desert survival gear was sold: a full-body suit, with a hood, goggles, and a fabric mask, created with the specific purpose of staving off starvation and dehydration while there. If soaked in freezing water for a day, it can keep the wearer at a comfortable temperature for up to a week. It was going for a thousand Conclave Stones.

Anik

"I already dropped the shipping by three-hundred and forty Conclave Stones," said Havarast. "As for the sand, sure, we can drop that and replace it with quartz.." He scribbled away at the bill. "Glass would only be more expensive, however.. but if we double the aluminum.. "

He handed the list back to Anik.

"I also function, on the side, as a Class B vendor, though whether or not I can help you depends on what it is you need."

Gold (per 1000 kilograms) = 600 CS
Iron = 400 CS
Zinc = 200 CS
Silver = 800 CS
Copper = 290 CS
Aluminum = 250 CS (for 2000)
Titanium = 1000 CS
Platinum = 800 CS
Quartz = 450 CS

Total = 4790
      + Shipping (500)
      = 5290 CONCLAVE SONES

"If you were to buy some of my Class B merchandise, however, I could negate the shipping cost altogether," said Havarast. "That would drop it to four thousand, seven hundred and ninety.. we'll say four-five hundred."

Ruse

"You'll find him by the east wing," said a soldier. "He has his own on-site workshop and forgery. Necessary, I suppose. Broad, tall, hardened man. Looks like a sailor, though don't tell him I said so!"

Anik nodded. "I'm looking for some adamantine and mythril, but like I said, in considerably less amounts, say 10kg of mythril and 30 of adamantine. What would the costs be on those?"

Ruse nodded at the soldier, and briskly took off, part streaming and partly physical as he did so. He headed exactly where the soldier instructed, looking for the technologist.

Desafon

(repeat)

Desert survival gear was sold: a full-body suit, with a hood, goggles, and a fabric mask, created with the specific purpose of staving off starvation and dehydration while there. If soaked in freezing water for a day, it can keep the wearer at a comfortable temperature for up to a week. It was going for a thousand Conclave Stones.

Anik

Adamantine (x 30kg) = 2300
Mythril (x10kg) = 1800

Total = 4100
      + Shipping (00)
      = 4100 CONCLAVE SONES


"Expensive materials," said Havarast. "Mythril's the hardest.. 'stronger than steel, lighter than titanium, glitters like gold but with the grace of the grey', as they say. It's expensive. Adamantine's better, even though it's as hard as diamonds, because the opportunities for use are slimmer.. still, if I might ask, what are you wanting the metals for? I might be able to find you something just as useful but cheaper."

Ruse

The technologist was a huge, grotesque Systemarch with more mechanical parts than Ruse had seen before. Each of his many feet - some which had been modified to become hands - were toiling away at various tasks, forging, cooling, tinkering..

"Yeah? What do you want?" Aurhah grumbled.

Ruse, maintaining his composure, replied firmly,

"I am High Lord Ruse of the Conclave. I have come to you to commandeer your services temporarily, for the good of the Conclave. I need some repairs and enhancements for my SUIT. Even if some may be otherwise illegal for lesser ranked beings, I permit you to provide anything you can up to and including to my High Lord Clearance."

Ruse then remembered something, and said,

"Also, I need you to analyze something for me and tell me if it is beneign, or harmful. As for my SUIT, I need it to be able to adapt to any world I may travel to even those outside the supernatural one like the world savage. If you can improve any of SUITs other general functions, I would be interested in your assessment of that as well. Really, I need as best an overhaul on it as you can give me under my highlord clearance."

"Well the massive amounts of normal metals are for my people, mining is labours and they are a more creative people, artisins, crafters and the like. The class B minerals were for my own general creations. Never know when you might need a good hunk of adamantine or mithril." Anik truly didn't have an exact plan for all the metal, but they were always handy should the idea come to him. "But I don't want to buy more than I can afford to waste. Well I better be going off, just have the specail materials shipped to my workshop, my people knows where it is."

Desafon

(repeat)

Desert survival gear was sold: a full-body suit, with a hood, goggles, and a fabric mask, created with the specific purpose of staving off starvation and dehydration while there. If soaked in freezing water for a day, it can keep the wearer at a comfortable temperature for up to a week. It was going for a thousand Conclave Stones.

Anik

"You'll be purchasing the mithril, the adamantine and the more typical supplies?" asked Havanar. He scribbled down the bill.

Gold (per 1000 kilograms) = 600 CS
Iron = 400 CS
Zinc = 200 CS
Silver = 800 CS
Copper = 290 CS
Aluminum = 250 CS (for 2000)
Titanium = 1000 CS
Platinum = 800 CS
Quartz = 450 CS
Total = 5290

Adamantine (x 30kg) = 2300
Mythril (x10kg) = 1800

Total = 4100

GRAND TOTAL: 9390 Conclave Stones

"I can have it to you within a day," said Havanar. "I can deduct the charge straight from your account, if you'd care to give me your Conclave Seal for a moment."

Anik feels a slight burning in one of his pockets. The ticket had turned a bright red, the only exception being two dark words emblazoned on the front: THIRTY MINUTES.

Ruse

"Hrrrh," said the machinist. "Maybe you could try sayin' please once in a while, O High Lord. Take your SUIT off. I'll need ta be looking at that one. Brand? What worlds must it work in? I'm afraid allowing it to function in every world is an impossibility."