How Am I Supposed to Sell This

[bathtub66]

I have recently played a mission in which the characters in the group were hired to recovery several powerful weapons. Weapons of legacy in fact. But they decided that the price that their contact was offering is not enough for them, so they are gunna try to sell it somewhere else. My question is, who the hell is suppose to buy this? Its not like they can walk into a pawn shop and get the thousands of dollars they are worth. In fact most dealers would probably give them significantly less than they are worth. They would probably have to sell it to someone who knew what they were buying. Do you guys have any thoughts? Who are they going to go to if the want to sell the mace of st. cutbert or a deck of many things or incredibly rare items like those?

 

[ExploderWizard]

Remember that anyone who can identify the objects knows who has them. This is information that can be sold/ passed around quickly. As the players attract more and more attention to themselves by advertising their treasure, have the original buyer continue to make lower and lower offers as the PC's attract more heat with the high profile goods. These are the types of items that will attract heavy hitters who want to obtain them for no more than the trouble it takes to squish the PC's.

Don't worry about making fights with these guys fair. You want to make the shrinking offer from their employer look tempting.

 

[amerigoV]

One of the Pathfinder modules had a fun take on this. The party recovered a scroll to another dimension reputed to be full of wealth and wonder, although they did not know how to activate it or even exactly what it was (I'm playing in it now, so I do not know all the details, and I am away from my notes for names and such - you know, "Mr Fancy Pants" and "where-a-ma-jiggers" phase).

There was tons of intringe around the item - how do you know it is real? That really is a relic of the State - hand it over! Guild x would like to buy it! Guild Y tries to steal it (or the person authenticating). In other words, it was a mix of "this is a PITA" and "man, others really want this - what are we missing?"

Imagine in our world claiming you might have recovered the Ark of the Covenent - it would be a madhouse.

If it is a weapon of legacy, many will want it and not everyone is on the "up and up" on how they get it.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Who are they going to go to if the want to sell the mace of st. cutbert or a deck of many things or incredibly rare items like those?

St Cuthbert himself? I mean why think small?

You make a very good point, there are very few ppl who could possibly afford an artefact. You're talking the major players of the world - emperors, kings, archmages, high priests, the oldest dragons, the fire giant king, etc. Or even bigger fish, direct servants of the gods or archdevils, such as angels and devils.

Then you get into the question of why a big player like that doesn't just take the artefact. Maybe several great powers fight over it, it could be Iuz vs Cuthbert with the PCs caught in the middle. Never a dull moment.

 

[mudbunny]

If they are selling these weapons of legacy, and they are that recognizeable, then they are obviously going to need to go somewhere with a fairly large underground market available.

City of Brass?
Sigil?

And then, once they sell it, the guys who bought them have a pretty strong hook over the players to draw them into getting more stuff that they (the PCs) may not want to get.

 

[fba827]

a) somebody powerful finds out about the party having these weapons (after all, it's goign to attract attention once they start trying to find a buyer -- this is not small change dealings, but instead trying to sell -major- weapons on the free market).

b) this person sends word to the party that he/she wants to see the validity of the items but will pay handosmely for it

c) the party has adventures just going to this far remote place (perhaps the person is on their own island, etc, or else just off on the far corner of the continent).
-- some (but not all) of these adventures include keeping robbers from trying to steal the weapons

d) they finally get to the person and have to RP (or skill challenge if doing 4e and you like skill challenges) the explaination and display of the weapons -- and which PC wants to be the guy demonstrating the deck of many things? or show how the mace of st culthbert hurts...

e) the buyer could ...
1) try and take the items by force after the demonstration
2) try and convince the party to give (or greatly discount) the items (or one specific item) giving the reason of representing the rightful owner (such as a church of st cuthbert, etc)
3) buy the items (legitmately and for a large sum of money) from the party. but then a couple months later, this buyer has equipped his soliders with these same items and they are starting a war. thus, all the money the PCs got from it will feel 'dirty' since they just supplied a war that is killing thousands and the buyr and his forces seem unstoppable thanks to all the power that the PCs sold to him


basically, just think of different movies/books/shows/stories about weapon deal exchanges, and all the ways those things played out..