NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="seasong" data-source="post: 848981" data-attributes="member: 5137">Between TimesUpon arranging times and signals to the earth elemental, so that Greppa could track the adherence of the eye tyrants to the deal, the group left back for Theralis. They had spent too many days already to continue on, as they would be needed soon for the war effort at home.On the way, Bellos was seeped in thought, his brow furrowed. It was an uncommon sight - not that Bellos thinking was uncommon, but they had become rather accustomed to Athan's lack of it. It ended when they arrived in Theralis, and Arkos parted ways with them to return to the Keraunesti quarters and Greppa, Merideth and Bellos returned to Greppa's tower."Greppa, how much weight can that glowing light creature carry with it?""About half of me. Believe me, I thought about that, but there's no good way to transport people."Bellos took a moment to breathe, "Half of you!? That's... that's... oh, sweet gods, that's incredible. And how often?"Greppa looked at him, "Bellos, what are you talking about? I mean, we could drop rocks, or have them scout out the enemy... I was thinking of suggesting the scouting thing to Agina, but the carrying thing is pretty useless.""How. Often?""Well, all day long, really. It's mainly a matter of how long I can keep them here, which is typically less than a minute, if I'm having them do heavy stuff.""And they can go... they can go all the way from here to the earth elemental?"Greppa didn't dignify that with a response."Hear me out. Wine. Aglaonis. Beer. Theralis. Half your weight per trip. How many trips per less than a minute?"Merideth, who had been quietly gazing into the innerspace where her heroic visions lay, woke up and shrieked deliriously. She wasn't big on math, wasn't keen on economics, and barely even tried to understand how Greppa did the accounting for the tower and team budget, but she understood naked profit well enough, and profit was very attractive naked.Greppa just sat there, his mind dancing through the numbers, focusing on angles... He was interrupted by Bellos, "Well, we can't do too much. I think the archon's abilities outstrip our ability to utilize it - if we did too much of it, other arcanists would be jumping all over it real quick, and we'd end up with only a small fraction of the profit."Greppa quickly agreed, "Yes. We would need to keep it concealed. Maybe work with Uridates again, see how much he thought would be reasonable."Bellos quirked an eyebrow, "Uridates?""Oh, right... you weren't around. He's a merchant we worked for a few years ago, as guards. As best as we can tell, he's the greediest man in Theralis, who's still honest. And it would be in his and our best interests to keep this a secret, so he'd go along with it."Merideth finally drifted back into the conversation, "Would it be better for Theralis if we shared?"One heartbeat passed. Two."Naw."Note 1, Uridates: From <a href="http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=647367&post647367" target="_blank">this post</a>, "Uridates was a man of consumate greed. He knew the names of obscure, distant gods of coin, and had a lucky coin in every denomination he had ever encountered. He could identify precious metals by touch, taste, smell and sight, and could spot many forgeries merely by hefting it for weight. He also knew wine, as any Theralese merchant must, but more importantly, he knew how to sell it."Note 2, Greed: The idea of open markets, open source, and the value of increasing public knowledge is not a common idea in this setting. In the characters' heads, if they shared their idea with others, the same amount of wine would be traded, leading to a negligible gain in Theralis' wealth. The idea that easier trade would lead to even more trade is not something they quite grasp - who would have imagined that cell phones, for example, would have led to anything other than portable payphones?</blockquote>

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