DEAR LORD that's a lot of salt!!!

[DWARF]

Okay, I'm currently running an adventure in Kalamar. The PC's (2nd levels mostly) have just taken control of a boat that was taken over by an evil cleric, and was covered in undead (the boat was attacked by Lacedons and the cleric commanded them, slew most of the crew and animated them.) Since the captian refused to direct the ship, it has been listing in the ocean for a while, the cleric having the zombies slice bits of themselves off to cook for him (he cast purify food and water before eating).

So they run across the death ship and defeat the cleric, destroy the undead and free the captain, nursing him back to health. They find a chest of 1000gp and some gems from the clerics hoard and some of the ships crago. Everything seems fine, right?

Then, I read that the ship was carrying a cargo of pine boards and crates of salt. Yes, I did read the module several times before we played it, this part just didn't occur to me until they had it. Now, this seems like normal cargo.

I used the ESS and decided that when they get to port they can get 5gp for pound of salt. A pound of salt takes up about 22 cubic inches. (I measured a 1kilo. box as 48 cubic inches and converted) Since a crate (I figured about the size of a barrel) has 10 cubic feet in it, that makes it's capacity 17 300 cubic inches. Another round of division allows the crate to hold 786 pounds of salt. Multiply that by 5gp a pound, and a single water barrel sized crate of salt would fetch 3930gp at market!!! Say at least 5 barrels of the stuff, and the adventurers get nearly 20 000gp for defeating some undead!!!

Does anyone else find this screwy?!!! I personally would like to see what my players do with such cash... Plus, the city itself has a gold piece limit of 100,000. But this is apparently the largest market and trading city on the continent!

 

[LufiaLillystorm]

Maybe, Maybe not

Well I guess it all depends

The value could decrease as the quanity increased Because no one can afford so much but they have so much they need to move, in order to make the shipping worth it, they lower the prices. Also business have debt and many things may go unpaid through contracts for future service and good relations.

So, if in order to get the salt, they need to mine it. If they are going to mine it they need workers. Money going out on workers and contracts are made to bring in other miners. Now they have spent X gold to make the salt. They have to cover their losses and make a profit or they are done for. So they Sell the salt, but no one can buy it at that outragous price, but people still need it. They cant' say "Oh well ifyou want it, pay!" because no one can, and they would go out of business. So they sell at a discount and form contracts that say things like "I am buying from you for a long time, and I will continue to buy only from you, if the price remains at so and so" And while the PCs could try to sell the salt, no one would buy it from them...they are already in contracts (one way of doing it)

Another is that since no one will buy large amounts of it the PCs can sell it off bits at a time. This will allow you to control the amount of income the PC's recieves so that it 'trickles in' and is eaten up with daily expenses and those rez's we all need every so often.

Or you could sink the ship and ruin the salt and give them cool stuff latter hehe

Hope I helped in some way...

((by the way I am new, so hi everyone))

 

[Schmoe]

First of all, if a city has a gp limit of 100,000, that is the limit of the most expensive item you can find to purchase, as well as the most amount of cash a merchant or merchant house can have on hand. That means that some wealthy merchant house will certainly have the wherewithal to purchase the entire load of salt. Of course, negotiations (opposed Diplomacy checks?) could mean the party don't get the full worth of the salt. Additionally, if the characters are just looking to sell the salt in bulk, they will be operating as the "middle man," which means they don't get to charge as much. Usually the middle man only gets about 1/2 of retail, at least in our world.

Assuming you've decided that there are 5 crates on board, and assuming none of the salt has been ruined (broken crate, perhaps), I would let the party walk away with about 8-10,000 gp. It's a good haul, but not enough to kill a campaign.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Original Owners

I'm not certain about maritime laws regarding salvage but if the captain of the ship is still alive, it's likely that the salt is still the property of the merchant house that hired him (or maybe he is a member of that merchant house himself). In that event, the salt wouldn't belong to the PCs at all.

If it has a presence in the city, the trading house might invite the PCs to stay as their guests (or to enter their service) in gratitude for the rescue of such a valuable cargo. This could lead to any number of plot-hooks involving the city and its merchant class.

(And if they did decide to kill the captain and sell it anyway, they would have to find someone who didn't care about who the ship's manifest said owned the salt so they'd probably get significantly less than the half-price discussed earlier. Alternately, the PCs could get enmeshed in an Ahmistad style (although obviously without the same moral dimensions as the Ahmistad court battle) court battle over whether or not the rights of salvage applied.)

 

[Hand of Evil]

Well that would be its value in a market that needs salt. Many coastal towns and cities use sea salt. I would say that the salt would have to sold inland or underground.

Seaching for a buyer could be interesting and also lead them into the underdark.

 

[Chimera]

Heres the easy question. Do you think Salt is worth it's weight in Silver? Because that's the conversion. Me, I think this is way too expensive. I'd have a hard time even at 1gp per pound.

Also consider that 5gp per pound is the 'street' or retail price. Not the price the merchant is going to get for selling a few tons of the stuff to the local merchants, who are also expecting to make a profit. The ship captain is going to get 2-3 gp at best, even if it is that expensive.

And gee, isn't it *his* cargo? He should be thanking them for saving him and his cargo and simply expecting the 'heroes' to be helping him get to market and get back on his feet.

Heck, if you're concerned about the money, reduce it. Have the locals buy the Salt at 3-500gp per barrel, with perhaps as many as 10 barrels. Be sure to give them at least the same for the lumber. You could also reduce the cash in the chest, but I wouldn't. My reasoning being that they're on a run hauling low-profit bulk items. They were clearly intending to make up for that with high-profit items from this city, and for that they needed cash.

 

[Bob Aberton]

The rights of salvage would only apply if the captainwas dead (I think...). By maritime law, such rights only come into play when the vessel in question is stranded or the crew has abandoned it. So, if the captain is still alive, then the cargo would not be the PC's.

 

[DWARF]

Well, the module says that since the captain was SO near death when the PC's saved him, he considered the ship theirs. If they hadn't helped, he would have been dead and the ship might well have sank. He would have lost the ship and his life as well. Because of the PC's actions, he has his life back. ^To demand his ship as well.... seems a little ungrateful.

The way I figured it, the captain prayed for his life. He bargained with the gods to save him. Send him some heroes to save his life, and he would dedicate the rest of his to helping destroy evil, especially clerics of the Harvester of Souls (the death cleric that trapped him and killed the crew).

Since it's his ship to give... and the module says he does, I'm going with it.

 

[jollyninja]

i guess the question is, is the pc's owning a ship going to hinder your campaign? if not whatever, is it worth more then it's cargo? also will the 10-20 thousand GP throw a chink into your campaign balance? that's 5000 each if the party is four pc's and you give them full market value for the salt. unless they are low level 5 grand is not really that much.

 

[Crothian]

Personally, I'd make the PC role play out the selling of the salt. Do the PCs have any idea how much salt is worth? doubtful. They aren't merchants. Plus there should be some sort of tax that will cut into their profits. As someone above pointed oput, they wouldn't get street value on their salt. They actually might need certain papers or membership from a merchant guild to do business with people.