[sblock=ooc]We can roleplay this however you guys like, but since we've moved the discussion ooc, I'll continue it there for now in the (hopeful) interest of clarity. I'm by no means trying to shoehorn anyone, but in an effort to give some tranparency, here are some elements that went into what's happening here:
As I indicated over in the Upcoming thread that I think most of you saw, but which I probably should have re-iterated here, this whole trade trip is a fluff-heavy excuse to get you to Heth in relatively short fashion. It is, at best, a framing device for a much different adventure ("We thought we were going to get some papers signed, but you'll never believe what we found when we got there..."). At worst, it's a lame red herring. I feel Heth was the best place to set this town, but with that being months of travel away (and having made that mistake and had to course-correct literally mid-stream in my last adventure) I was, in essence, trying to come up with something mildly more entertaining than "you spend several months traveling." That it baby-steps forward my pet obsession with the fortunes of House Gabbiano (and now adds something to the Gabbiano/Boraga feud) is entirely gravy for me.
One of the limits on that flavor-frame, though, is that LPF has strict wealth by level limits. I went back and forth with Mowgli several times in order to trim treasure enough to let me maintain the CR of encounters, have item gifts from your primary contact in Kostry Kopec, and include at least one bigger budget item which is tailored to help you survive some of the end of this adventure. Even then, I'm still not entirely certain I won't be doing juggling when all's said and done. In the end, though, there was very little left to put in the hands of House Gabbiano.
You can negotiate a higher rate now, but that's money I have to strip from the treasure in the adventure, and as payment for services rendered it's money you won't even get until AFTER everything is over, as opposed to the in-adventure treasure, which I can tell you now should be fairly hot-swappable since you're in a town. i.e., when you rest after X major encounter(s), it doesn't break anything for that rest to involve shopping trips. Better still, they'll be shopping trips informed by what you've learned so far, rather than a big generic shopping trip now where you may or may not stock up on useful items.
Obviously TBG will be translating to 'bonuses' of various stripes, most likely from Gabbiano. But I think it's just asking for trouble for me to make some kind of guess as to the TBG that will be available at the end of the adventure and throw it into a promised payment when folks may take less time to finish things.
In general, I've satisfied myself with the knowledge that House Gabbiano is, per its history, a poor house. They're trying to change that, but they don't have a lot of funds. In general, I think Finia's here less because she needs hearty men and more because she figures the big-hearted folk who help poor folk for a living might be bought for what her house can actually afford. Being stubborn and prideful, of course, you'd have to push her much harder than Tyrien's seemingly-naive negotiation attempt to get her to admit it.
Yowsers. That was longer than I intended. I apologize in advance if all of it's putting a sour taste in your mouths or is ruining the verisimilitude of hooking your characters. [/sblock]
As I indicated over in the Upcoming thread that I think most of you saw, but which I probably should have re-iterated here, this whole trade trip is a fluff-heavy excuse to get you to Heth in relatively short fashion. It is, at best, a framing device for a much different adventure ("We thought we were going to get some papers signed, but you'll never believe what we found when we got there..."). At worst, it's a lame red herring. I feel Heth was the best place to set this town, but with that being months of travel away (and having made that mistake and had to course-correct literally mid-stream in my last adventure) I was, in essence, trying to come up with something mildly more entertaining than "you spend several months traveling." That it baby-steps forward my pet obsession with the fortunes of House Gabbiano (and now adds something to the Gabbiano/Boraga feud) is entirely gravy for me.
One of the limits on that flavor-frame, though, is that LPF has strict wealth by level limits. I went back and forth with Mowgli several times in order to trim treasure enough to let me maintain the CR of encounters, have item gifts from your primary contact in Kostry Kopec, and include at least one bigger budget item which is tailored to help you survive some of the end of this adventure. Even then, I'm still not entirely certain I won't be doing juggling when all's said and done. In the end, though, there was very little left to put in the hands of House Gabbiano.
You can negotiate a higher rate now, but that's money I have to strip from the treasure in the adventure, and as payment for services rendered it's money you won't even get until AFTER everything is over, as opposed to the in-adventure treasure, which I can tell you now should be fairly hot-swappable since you're in a town. i.e., when you rest after X major encounter(s), it doesn't break anything for that rest to involve shopping trips. Better still, they'll be shopping trips informed by what you've learned so far, rather than a big generic shopping trip now where you may or may not stock up on useful items.
Obviously TBG will be translating to 'bonuses' of various stripes, most likely from Gabbiano. But I think it's just asking for trouble for me to make some kind of guess as to the TBG that will be available at the end of the adventure and throw it into a promised payment when folks may take less time to finish things.
In general, I've satisfied myself with the knowledge that House Gabbiano is, per its history, a poor house. They're trying to change that, but they don't have a lot of funds. In general, I think Finia's here less because she needs hearty men and more because she figures the big-hearted folk who help poor folk for a living might be bought for what her house can actually afford. Being stubborn and prideful, of course, you'd have to push her much harder than Tyrien's seemingly-naive negotiation attempt to get her to admit it.
Yowsers. That was longer than I intended. I apologize in advance if all of it's putting a sour taste in your mouths or is ruining the verisimilitude of hooking your characters. [/sblock]