Solo Session; From November 1st to November 4th/11th 2023
Jonathan Bower.
Outrider 2nd Level.
Bradford of Rice Manor.
Acoylte 2nd Level.
Bede’s Party.
Lexius of No Last Name.
Arcanist. 1st Level.
Synope the Spiteful.
Arcanist. 1st Level.
Lorenzo the Luminous.
Arcanist. 1st Level.
Bede.
Catechist 1st Level.
Henches.
‘Tan’ Suggs. (Thief)
Before setting out, Bradford goes to the Legate and tries to get a written promise that the legate will cover one of half of the shipping costs of men hired to serve in the clearing of Cosoricalta. With an effective roll of 8 due to Bradford’s subpar charisma, the Legate says that is a fascinating idea that he will consider in the next year, once his budget finds a new and healthier balance. So with that failure, I consult the price of buying berths on a ship and working things out. The price is an absolute skinning of fortunes, with Bede’s party paying 100 gp for the five of them, while the Green Mountain Representatives pay 40 gold. (This was done incorrectly, but we follow a policy of not undoing mistakes that harm the party’s.)
For those curious we are riding the regular monthly visitor to Punishment, a small sailing ship, named The Holy Twins. With ’very strong’ southerly winds, they cannot leave port on the first day. After a miserable day waiting in the Punishment harbor, in the night the wind changes and the harsh winds off the mountains push them sharply east. 6 bull sharks bump against the ship in the night, but given that bull sharks cannot realistically fight a sailing ship, the encounter does not develop further. To avoid drawing more dangerous creatures or monsters, Jonathan Bower is kept from shooting one from the boat. Thus with comparatively little excitement they arrive at the city of Reward. The captain, following his schedule will not be returning until the 28th or 29th of November. This presents a problem. Either they will need to live here for the month or hire a ship for their own usage.
Bede and his party have 800 gold and need to spend 100 gold to get back. They will further have to workout the costs of a hotel or location to spend time at while waiting for the return ship. They will need at least 2 henchmen of fighting quality and perhaps some other valuables for increased combat power. A +1 mace perhaps, for example. (Editor’s note; there is basically no way they could find a weapon that powerful in the city for the amount of money they actually have.)
First they (Bede’s party) go to the Deep Chairs Tavern, and attempt to arrange accommodation. Lexius attempts to bargain and it goes badly. His friendly classicist banter is misunderstood (an unmodified 2 was rolled) and the owner decides to attack him.
Denarius Clipper, owner of the Tavern. (For those who wish to reattempt this) (1 hp)
7 strength -1
9 intelligence 0
8 wisdom -1
7 dexterity -1
12 constitution 0
9 charisma 0.
Helper 1, 'Sirenius the Singer.’ 3 hp.
12 strength 0
13 intelligence +1
9 wisdom 0
7 dexterity -1
8 constitution -1
14 charisma +2
Helper 2 'Chub the Sweeper.’ 6 hp
11 strength 0
13 intelligence +1
11 wisdom 0
12 dexterity 0
5 constitution -2
7 charisma -1
Lexius, once the words leave his mouth realize he has made an enemy for life and grips his staff to guard himself, while the tavern owner draws a sword. Lexius tries to disarm, but fails to do so. Tavern owner strikes back viciously with an oath and made a great cut into Lexius’ front, letting the blood freely stain his robes. His two helpers then begin to step forward, with clubs in their large hands, but Bede is having none of this. He attempts to non-lethally put the man down, with his mace. With an extra firm tap, he places the man on the ground and unconscious. ’Tan’ Suggs, ever ready for a scrum, tries to incapacitate the singer, but instead trips and falls on his face (natural 1.). Lorzeno the Luminescent tries to knock another down with an incapacitating blow and with a mighty blow crushes Chub the Sweeper to the ground (Natural 20 with a two-handed staff… why must the good rolls ever be wasted in tavern brawls?). Synope the Spiteful misses his swing, and the singer has a chair leg ready for violence. He swings and hits the prone ’Tan’ Suggs for a 3 damage with his improvised club. Tan groans, but he is a tough cookie and is not out for the count.
Naturally, seeing how he is out-numbered, his leader has fallen and his own blow has done nothing, Sirenius the Singer lays down his club. No guards come during this time, and after Bede looks the room over in disgust, he instructs the party to leave, once Lorenzo does some naturalistic healing to his fellow Arcanist.
They next go to the Lone Star Tavern. Lexius, being in poor humors after his stabbing, does not take the lead, but rather lets the worthy Bede try to organize the accommodations for the majority of the month. Basically usual rates of food and lodging are agreed to per person and they settle into wait and enjoy the slightly superior lifestyle of a city inn to a village inn and the massively superior life style to sleeping in a dungeon. We shall leave them thus employed until later in November.
Green Mountain Representatives.
They leave the boat and find a better class of tavern at which to lodge, being rejected at two of these as unpopular Cosoricalta adventurers instead of bravely fighting in the major war on the eastern part of the empire. A third tavern is approached and with a bit of regret they try to offer a slightly higher rate, but once more they are turned away. It seems that Reward, despite being a bustling city is not friendly to adventurers. The sad and tired pair retire to temple and request to spend the night there, until they can clean up a bit and pass themselves off as ordinary persons. Bradford’s holy symbol is enough for this good treatment to be extended to them and in the morning they make a donation of 100 gold before going about their goals. They next set off to find advantages for themselves.
For the record 16 000 gp worth of resources is a significant amount of money, but it is not nearly enough to do everything in the book. (Having run out of mental energy due to ongoing malaria/other unknown sickness I return 24 hours later). Given this reality, it seems that the best option is to collect a force of mounted troops and prepare for a combat patrol.
We will therefore spend 100 gold on hiring for papers to be spread throughout the town for an advantage to finding mercenaries. We specifically want mounted mercenaries and a few henchmen for greater combat power in hitting dungeons. We will also need horses for the main party, given the high percentage of ruined legs involved.
Reward is a class 1 city and therefore there should be an abundance of mercenaries available, even if there is a war to the East.
Of the category of mercenaries rolled up they are as follows;
31 light cavalry
45 horse archers
13 medium cavalry
Per ACKs rules we can meet half of these individuals over the first week, then a quarter over the second week and a quarter still of the third week of the search.
Jonathan Bower as a very capable and charismatic man (+2 naturally +diplomacy (further reading suggests that diplomacy should not apply in this situation, but I could be wrong.)) will handle this much more important duty, while the somewhat less personable cleric (-1) will be handling the collection of henchmen for the direct fighting in dungeons and other such mad cap schemes.
In the first week, Jonathan gets a meeting with the leader for 16 light cavalry and lays out a somewhat better than standard terms for a deal of this sort (This will work out to 720 gold per month+an appropriate share of treasures collected on the field of battle or in the raiding of a village + cost of shipping to Cosoricalta + some degree of rations while out on campaign/patrol). With a roll of 5+2 they are only interested due to Jonathan’s personal gravitas. He likes the look of the men and suggests that they come over with a signing bonus of 1000 gold for the first month. With a roll of 7 they are reluctant to accept this, but his personal gravitas is too persuading and the 16 light horse agree to join the Green Mountain Company. (Note, if you check the costs you will notice I made a mistake here. Light cavalry are worth 30 gp, per month, so they are being massively overpaid. However, I dislike retroactive collections and we shall understand their negotiator to be an especially canny operator.)
After his meeting with those he finds a group of 23 horses archers and gives them a very similar looking contract (This will work out to 1035 gold per month+an appropriate share of treasures collected on the field of battle or in the raiding of a village + cost of shipping to Cosoricalta + some degree of rations while out on campaign/patrol). With some persuasion he gets them to sign on and firmly insists that they think of themselves as separate unit and not speak with the light cavalry, especially as their leader is a shrewd man who cheats at gambling and contracts.
The meeting with the 7 medium cavalry is similar. They hired on a similar basis and the force grows. Jonathan thus has organized the combat patrol duties with the following costs.
23 horse archers (owed 1035 for this first month.)
16 light cavalry (owed 1000 gold for this first month.)
7 medium cavalry (owed 315 gold for this first month.)
Having assembled this force, Jonathan goes to the criers and tells them to keep the change (he is a generous man after all)
Bradford needs to hire 2 henchmen to his personal service. Specifically for deeds of violence (fighters) and men who are willing to face monsters. Given his low charisma, he will only be hiring 0th level characters, as I would rather him not get cut down over a mispronounced name.
First fellow comes in and is wearing a full hood (I will roll up stats once they are hired, for efficiency) He hear’s the cleric out, but refuses to commit. Bradford scowling terribly, gestures for him to leave and goes back to contemplating the Lawful Deities. The next comes in but will not even hear the pitch out, before turning and leaving. The next tries to bargain, but the cleric knows that there are scores of men eager to serve and he is willing to wait for someone to accept a ‘fair price.’ Two more fail to meet his standards before someone agrees to the terms as stated. He reveals his face and Bradford gets a look at him.
Unhealthy Causarius.
4 strength -2
12 intelligence 0
16 wisdom +2
14 dexterity +2
3 constitution -3
17 charisma +2
The cleric sighs, but not too loudly as he has no wish for the hiring to die on the spot. Truly those who come to Cosoricalta are cursed above all other men!
Over the next few days the cleric tries again. He receives three abrupt refusals, before another man decides the terms are good.
Sturdy Robustus.
9 strength 0
10 intelligence 0
8 wisdom -1
10 dexterity 0
15 constitution +2
10 charisma 0
The cleric then looks for an armorer. Out of the 11 in the city, he meets with 8, before one of them is so personally offended he begins a slander campaign against the priest and all ventures in Cosoricalta and they are forced to decide that an armorer will not be able to collected at this time.
A further 1750 gold is spent on 7 more medium horses.
Now for shipping costs..
According to the internet (surprisingly, ACKs, as of my current reading doesn’t give horse weights) we may take the average horse weight as something over 1100 pounds, which for the ACKs weights purposes means we are trying to ship 5830 stone worth of horses, and their riders. This is a significant amount of horse to be travelled with. And this is a significant amount of money to spend.
The ratio given is 1 gp per every 10 stone over every 500 miles. Going the full 500 miles would be a move would require have to be measured in multiple dragons hoards and probably worth more than will ever be dug out of Cosoricalta. Luckily we only need to sail between 12 to 36 miles (assuming contrary winds.) To simplify things the terms we will be contracting for are for a fixed twenty mile stretch, regardless of time spent or actual distance covered. Further we will need to supply ourselves with provisions for this journey and future work. Therefore we spend 90 gold on 150 water-skins in preparations. A further 30 gold is spent on 1 week’s rations for every man in the force. A further 900 gold is spent on 3 weeks iron rations for each mans. (These supplies, by my reckoning weigh 55 stone.)
(After much mathematical introspection, calling a friend and more deep thinking we come to an answer.). We are therefore paying 4 copper per 10 stone to 20 miles. This works out to, assuming my poor mind is griping things well, 233.2 gold pieces for the privilege. Further for the rate of shipping passengers (using the state formulae (200 stone per passenger)). We will also need to work out the rate of our rations+water. And the total is 635 gold for renting a ship for a one way trip. Given that the town of punishment is literally a horrible abomination of a town (Class 7 with a good garrison,) we must pay their return trip as well. We therefore must pay 1270 gold for the use of a large sailing ship for a two way trip.
5390 gold, by my estimation, is being spent on this force, and that only in its first month of existence!
The ship will begin trying to leave from the 10th or 11th of November.
Reflections.
My math on malaria/malaria medication is absolutely atrocious and embarrassing, but it is really fun trying to fit what amounts to being a small army together for future work. I really wanted to get a few wands or something together, but the closest to my range of affordability (had the town even had some in stock) were just very expensive. Perhaps I will regret this. Finally feel like I know how to ship things though. One future goal for the island will be the establishment of a ship building base. Those are very cool rules and it would be nice to own a ship and let other people pay significant amounts of copper to transport mounts and livestock.
I am also intending to set up a third party, as the goal is to have three going on at once, but flavor this one a bit different and do a full party of thieves, assassins and blade dancers.
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