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Message: <blockquote data-quote="aspqrz" data-source="post: 7257022" data-attributes="member: 19485">What's the use of Orbis Mundi 2? Part 2So, Aelfric somehow managed to find some goodies in one of the chests in the Knight's chambers and renegotiated the potential minefield of the servants sleeping on the floor to let himself out the door ... and finds that it's pitch black outside as well!Yes, he's smart enough to have picked a night with some moon out so he could see - but it's northern europe and cloud cover is common. Thick clouds have come over and blocked out the moon and stars ... and there is no other light, not even the light pollution you get in a big urban centre that would be reflected off the clouds ... it's so dark you can't even see the hand in front of your face (those of you who have gone camping well away from heavily populated areas know the sort of pitch black I'm talking about!)So Aelfric carefully feels his way the battlements and lets down the rope he used to climb up, and climbs down to make his escape ...!BZZT!It's still pitch black ... and striking a light would be ... bad ... so, unless he's part Dwarf or Elf (or any race with Infravision) or has a spell or magical item that grants him such powers, he's going to have to stumble blindly several hundred yards to the edge of the cleared area around the Castle to where he might find 'cover' ... and he's just as like as not to stumble around in circles until there's a break in the cloud cover or it gets light enough for him to see (and be seen!)Fortunately, the occasional break in the clouds allows him enough moments of sight to be able to stumble to cover and make his way towards the nearest village where he heads right to the Inn and slips inside ...!BZZT!Villages are too small to support either an Inn (accommodation, sells food and drink only to guests, usually found in Towns or between towns on major routes) or Taverns (no accommodation, but sells food and drink) ... there'll possibly be an Alehouse (really just a private home where the lady of the household sells her home brewed Ale by the mug, usually through an external window and where the facilities consist of the aforementioned Mug and a bench outside the window).No Alehouses will be open much after dusk. Inns will generally be full up not long after dusk, too, and closed even to nominal guests well before midnight. Taverns might be open later than Inns, but, again, the Curfew means they'll be closed well before late evening ... and, in any case, there are none.So, Aelfric stumbles down the road (more likely a track) in the direction of the nearest town and heads in through the Gate ...!BZZT!Nope. If its before dawn, the Town Gates are closed ... and, unless there's a very important personage outside demanding entry there's no way they're opening before dawn (maybe, just maybe, if someone bribes the Gate guard?) ... and anyone they're likely to let in early, well, Aelfric is carrying a suspicious looking sack or pack ... so probably not a good idea!Eventually, some time after full dawn, a crowd of peasants and travellers begins to gather around the gate and it finally opens ... Aelfric insinuates himself in the crowd and slinks through ...!BZZT!Nope. There's a toll ... and the gate guards will expect to inspect everyone's gear to see what they should be charged ... and Aelfric probably shouldn't allow that to happen.So, maybe he climbs over the wall before dawn and skulks in the shadows until people start going around their business ... or maybe he has an accomplice and hides the goodies he stole in their cartload of hay or firewood (or whatever) ... or maybe he just hid it in an unsuspecting person's cart and will collect it later ...Inside the Town, he finds a Fence he knows and pawns off the gear to be melted down into good honest coin and heads off to find a Tavern to celebrate and rest up a bit.At the 'Silver Star' Tavern he strolls in and sits down at a bench and demands a mug of Ale and some food ... 2 silver coins for the Ale and a Good Meal for 5 silver coins where there are 50 coins per pound of 16 oz/454g (AD&D and many OSR)4 coppers for the Ale and 5 silvers for a Good Meal where there are 50 coins per pound as above and 10 coppers = 1 silver (PFRPG)!BZZT!That's 1 coin @ ~9g ... the problem is that medieval coinage weights were not measured in Imperial/US 16 oz pounds but in various other pounds. Most commonly Troy Pounds in England, which have 12 oz and ~373 grams ... and there were 240 coins per Troy Pound, each weighing approximately 1.555 grams.So Aelfric is paying the real world equivalent of 30d for that Good Meal and approximately 2 1/2d (2.5 pence) for the Mug of Beer (PFRPG) or 1/- (1 shilling, AD&D/OSR).What was the real cost? Under the Assize of Bread and Ale, when Barley was 1/8d to 2/- per Quarter (ton) 2 gallons would cost 1d ... how much is in a Mug? AD&D and PFRPG reckon a gallon, which I seriously doubt ... but, regardless, it's five times too much.For a 'Good Meal', harder to tell, but a 1/4d (farthing, quarter penny) loaf of Barley Bread would, according to the same law, weigh 5.8 kilos ... TWELVE POUNDS.So, the 30d 'Good Meal' would historically buy 1440 lbs of Barley Bread. I suspect most of us would think that might be a little excessive.Then there's the fact that the only coins minted in medieval mints (at least in England, France, Iberia and Italy) were silver or gold, overwhelmingly silver, in fact, as there was a relative shortage of gold in the west.Coins were incredibly valuable ...More on Aelfric's adventures to come!</blockquote>

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