"I think that one is called Redmop ..." she says with a straight face.  "But they all look the same to me ...."

Zelona chuckled at Helga's statement and watched the gnome approaching their ship.

When he got near she winked at him and pointed at Adoven's back indicating he was the man to talk to here.

Adoven raises his hand in greeting to the approaching gnome. "Good day to you, sir. To whom might a merchant of modest means speak of trade and supply in this fair town?"

"Me of course!" the Gnome says  enthusiastically as Adoven addresses him.  "Modest means or greater I, Rudolfus Redtop, am your Gnome.  indeed, it is lucky that you met me.  I have a consignment of 100 daggers -  sized for you large folk of course, ready for sale and shipment immediately!   And, what is more,  I have need of the warehouse space, so today I will sell you all one hundred of them for eighty gold pieces!  They are made from the finest quality Jovvox Steel and stamped with the town's mark - so that you can be sure of the quality.  Not only that they are of the latest style with a stiletto style blade, and the latest ballock style hilt.  Shall I arrange delivery immediately? The Gnome asks excitedly.

"Well, I was nearly right ..." Helga mutters in the background.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 22:17, Sun 08 Mar 2020.

Adoven bows. "My name is Adoven. It so happens that I run a Sword School teaching the Gibbs method. We are in need of weapons and armors for my students to practice with. Might I sample your wares and test your quality myself?"

"The Gibbs method?  Never heard of that myself, but then I am not very well versed in the art of teaching.  The making of weapons, yes, but the teaching of weapons no.  But I need to talk to you captain, about securing passage to Tisk, or whatever that new town is upstream.  I need to go to Restov.  But then I suppose she won't be going anywhere without you, will she?   So what sort of weapons do you want to go alongside the daggers we already agreed on?"

In the background, Helga struggles to suppress a smile.

Adoven holds up his hands in protest. "Whoa, whoa, my impetuous friend. We have agreed to nothing as yet. You have proclaimed to have an item of good quality steel and I have stated a need for such. You set an excellent price, but I must see and test this steel myself 'ere committing to buying it. But.....there are other considerations involved if we are speaking of an exclusive contract." Adoven starts the ball rolling on negotiations. "Perhaps over a meal and a glass of wine or two?"

Zelona smiled as she watched Adoven and the gnome go back and forth.

She shared a look with Helga and suppressed a chuckle at the beginnings of negotiations between Adoven and the gnome.

"Yes. Yes.  This way." Rudolfus enthuses as he leads the way into a nearby inn called The Screaming Blade.  The common room has an unusual stepped  ceiling that higher in the middle and lower towards the sides.  The ceiling is fairly low at the edges of the rooms and human sized clients would be very cramped -  however, they are just right for the inn's smaller clientele.

You are seated at one of the central tables and special chairs, like small sized bar stools, and brought out for the smaller members of the group. Eventually a halfling waiter reappears with a small box - he sets it on the floor, steps up onto it, pulls out a notebook and says ...

"We have wine, ale or Stampede Mead to drink.  The mead is specially made by one of the gnomes in Jovvox, it has a distinct spiciness and a unique flavour - it is a favourite among some of our younger clientele.  For lunch there is fish stew, vegetable stew, or the Chef's special Eels a la Mode."
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:53, Sun 05 Apr 2020.

Zelona waved to Helga as the gnome lead Adoven away. She trailed along with them just to see how the negotiating went.

Her eyes went wide with excitement at the mention of the Eels. "Ohh, Eels for me please! And I would love some of that mead to go with."

Adoven says "I'll have the vegetable stew, and a wine, thank you." Although adventurous, Adoven did not think sampling a brew of unknown potency was conducive to thoughtful negotiations.

Adoven's wine and stew are fairly bland - a range of root vegetables make up the base for the stew, although there are a few beans scattered trough   it.  The rosé wine is fairly bland - drinkable but nothing to write home about.

Zelona's Eels come on a bed of greenery, formed of cabbage, wilted spinach and what look like carrot tops.  The eels have been cut into chunks coated in some sort of breadcrumb mix and then fried.    The mead, comes in a small jug and has  tiny red flecks visible in the golden-rose coloured liquid as it is poured into a drinking cup.

Before long a younger gnome runs up with a dagger clasped firmly in both hands, "This is an example of the daggers I have for sale." Rudolfus responds  taking it, and handing the blade across to Adoven.  "As you can see, it is made of the finest Jovvox steel ..." he says indicating the mark on the blade.
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:52, Sun 05 Apr 2020.

Adoven pulls out a pair of daggers from Tusk, and begins juggling all three. With his sense of timing and balance he can tell both the balance and the weight of the new dagger and compare it to the others..if the steel in the Jovvox blade is too light, it will show up in how slow the blade turns end over end during the juggling. Adoven muses as he proceeds "Hmmmmmmm"

The three daggers juggle OK.  The new one doesn't spin the same as the other two -  but then it is of a different design and shape than the matched pair that Adoven produces.

OOC:  Grin when I was a kid, I was into throwing knives.  Over about 12 feet and a single revolution I was accurate enough to leave the blade stuck into a 2" (5cm) circle -  with my own knives.  However, I had to 'learn' each new knife that I picked up, because they all flew differently.  In hindsight - it is scary what we got up to back-in-the-day.   While there was skill, I am amazed that no-one ever lost a finger or a toe.

Adoven snags the three knives in turn and puts them on the table. As he sheathes his two daggers he says "weight and balance are a little different. Won't affect melee, but might hinder a thrown dagger. Still the best test is against another blade. Cass, are you here?" Adoven says, looking around.

"Whoo," Zelona said in response to her food. "That all has some KICK to it. But it's tasty."

She sat back and watched Adoven's display of talent with appreciation and looked around when he started looking for Cass wondering what exactly Adoven meant to do.

With Cass unavailable for whatever Adoven had in mind -  he will have to find another way to test the daggers.


OOC1:  Cass hasn't been in  for a few days, and hasn't posted for longer.  With the current pandemic, we must assume that everyone can has problems getting here and posting.  It is probably best, at the moment, to just interact with hose characters who are around.

OOC2:  We need to move this thread  along, especially if you intend to visit Mivon as well.

Not seeing his fellow bard in the room, Adoven says "would anybody here care to spar with me? I need to test the strength of this blade for parrying and riposting."

"Oi!  You ain't sparring, parrying or riposting in here.  This is a bar, not your living room ..."  The barkeep shouts as he hears Adoven's comments.

"It is a dagger, not some sort of mini rapier." The red haired sales-gnome says with a shrug, then offers, "But we can go outside and hold one of the blades up while you hit it with the other one."

OOC: Adoven if you want to try that roll a d20 to hit.

Adoven assures the barkeep "it was, and is, my intention to do so outside. Worry not, goodsir." Adoven agrees to the salesman's idea and steps out to test the strength of the blade against impact.

02:19, Today: Adoven rolled 23 using 1d20+8.  Dagger attack, testing.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:20, Thu 26 Mar 2020.

Metal rings against metal as Adoven tests the dagger.  While the gnome holding the dagger seems shaken by the strength of the blow, the daggers' blade is unmarked.

A small crowd of Gnomes, Halflings and Humans gather to watch the entertainment.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:39, Thu 26 Mar 2020.

Adoven examines the blade. "Good steel, excellent craftsmanship. Are your weaponsmiths able to create rapiers and sabers of equal craftsmanship?" he asks.

Zelona stayed inside while Adoven went out. She had enjoyed her meal and looked to just relax for a while.

Life in Midmarch could be stressful sometimes, especially in leadership roles. This was a nice respite from that.

She put her hand up for another drink and winked at the barkeep, [Language unknown: "contioica thleac. Her fiera ivenul wi... menie hi "ratoulvirman t son theeonusha ioicio". I fiin hou isev P seca. Fo vormancomstr osse pl aclat in armoon!"] She added air quotes as she spoke and a light chuckle as she waited on her drink.

Cass came shuffling along after the others. He was loathe to admit that he had suddenly been called away to the jakes at such an inopportune moment. It was said that close quarters on a ship had the effect of passing on sickness quickly if one did not take the proper precautions. Cass had tried to keep his distance and consume only clean water and enough healthy alcohol to keep him fortified, but somehow his stomach had still been left doing flip flops.

Hoping that his tummy rumbles were at least quieted for the moment, Cass tried to garner as much information from the current goings on as he could.

“Perhaps we could provide samples of the types of blade we require.” Cass suggested once he had caught up. “I am sure that the weapons crafters could create quality arms of the proper attributes once they were so informed.” Cass then coughed to cover up the rumble in his stomach.“Aldori swords and dueling daggers should not be uncommon here so close to Mivon. I might have a request for some weapons that I know less about, however. I have considered light Calvary and even dragoon forces to protect the plains of Midmarch. How is the experience crafting javelins and more importantly, lances?”

"Oh, those are easy to make." The gnome replies to Cass, "Sabres and rapiers are a bit more complicated.  They tell me that you have to get the blade flexibility just right -  but yes we can make those as well.  Will you have the daggers delivered to your ship now?" he asks Adoven.

[Language unknown: Wipre rat ti it inehouaveica thwimi ec Thothawas ...] The barkeep replies to Zelona, with a dirty laugh.