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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cerebral Paladin" data-source="post: 3391508" data-attributes="member: 3448">Late in the day, Clarence directed a man, rather shabbier than most in the Exchange, over to Lady Sepulva.  The man leaned in to Lady Sepulva.  “Do you have any head in the City?  I would be careful about selling them.  And I might think about grain futures.”  The man passed his hand noiselessly over her table, leaving 5 wooden disks with gold circles on them behind.Lady Sepulva looked at his ask; this sounded worth well more than 5 gold.  She carefully counted out six gold coins and slid them across.  “What more can you tell me?”The coins disappeared.  “Three of the great grain warehouses in the lower quarter were poisoned about a month ago.  Much of the grain remained sound, but they have almost reached the poisoned sacks of grain.  When they do, the cattle will die.”“Do you know which warehouses?”The man nodded, almost imperceptibly.  He passed across a scrap of parchment.  “I think it’s part of a bigger plot, but I always have to worry about where my next gold will come from.”“Thank you.  This will be most useful.”  She reached into a pouch and brought out another gold coin.  “An advance on next time.”As the man slipped away, Lady Sepulva signaled Clarence over.  “Arrange for this note to reach Dame Katherine of Lyneham in the palace.  Don’t deliver it directly!  I don’t want this traceable to me.”Clarence nodded.  “I’ll take care of it.”That having been dealt with, Lady Sepulva turned to making the information profitable.  She began buying grain futures, using both the Exchequer’s accounts and her personal accounts.  The grain would be condemned, and that would tighten supply considerably.  When it did, the price of grain futures would spike.  Still, she had to be careful.  Buying too rapidly could trigger a run or a panic that could hurt everyone.  After several hours of trading, Lady Sepulva had secured 20 to 25% of the available market for the Exchequer’s account, with another 20% for her own account, all without triggering any undue market responses, although inevitably prices rose over the course of her trading.By the time she was done, Clarence had returned.  “M’lady, may I make some suggestions?  If you’re going to be dealing seriously in information, you’ll want to get two things:  A table in the second tier of the Exchange, and a bodyguard.”Lady Sepulva nodded thoughtfully.  “The table will take care of itself in time; my late husband was offered one each year at the renewals, but declined because we did not do enough business here directly.  I’ll simply accept and buy the table when this year’s offer is made.  As for the bodyguard… I suppose we must keep up appearances.  To the Mercenaries’ Hall, Clarence.”At the Mercenaries’ Hall, Lady Sepulva carefully looked for a bodyguard that would make the perfect visual impression.  Actual threats that she couldn’t handle seemed unlikely-- certainly, many less people would want Lady Sepulva dead than when she impersonated Alistair.  But she had to look the part if she was going to be a significant information broker, and so she searched for the ugliest eunuch as possible.After a short search, she found the perfect candidate for a bodyguard:  a half-ogre named Glurp.  Glurp was horribly ugly, although Lady Sepulva required that he bathe regularly so that he would shock the eye but not distract by smell.  She also gave him a mask to play up his frightening aspect.  Glurp was also precisely as slow-witted as she wanted-- dumb enough that she did not need to worry about double-dealing or that he would try to use information for himself, but smart enough that she did not need to employ a separate handler to care for him.</blockquote>

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