Whispering Cairn - Selling all that iron...

[Bagpuss]

and one else done the calculations?

There is a minimum of 5236 cubic feet of iron in one of the rooms, and a maximum of 7405 cubic feet (Depending on how the spheres are stacked) . If you take the worst case senario, and then calculate the sale price at a healthy 50% down as you are selling it in a mining town, but its already processed. You've give the adventures about 1,000,000 gp's worth of iron. And that's the worst case rounding down on everything. You could easily have 2 million or more.

So what's a 3rd level adventurer to do with 1/4 of a million GP (assuming the average party of 4 splits it evenly)?

Ideas on a postcard (to this thread).

 

[IcyCool]

Use most of their profits to pay for transport of the iron? It is unlikely that the mining town can afford such expenditures, but they'll be happy siphoning off the adventurers profits in exchange for transport and sales contacts.

 

[Doc_Klueless]

Oh. Wow. I hadn't thought of that. My old players would have done their best to sell those balls. And I'd of let them, 'cause it's an awesome idea that took some thinking (re: more thought than I had put into it).

 

[Doc_Klueless]

Use most of their profits to pay for transport of the iron? It is unlikely that the mining town can afford such expenditures, but they'll be happy siphoning off the adventurers profits in exchange for transport and sales contacts.

Here's what I would do. I'd keep the location secret and leave it, fairly, untouched. Possibly colapse the entrance. Get a couple more levels and some more gold under my belt. Come back later with my own wagons, teams, etc. Reopen mine, take iron out. Sell it at Free City. Sell wagons and horse/oxen/mule teams. Pocket profits. Surely with that much iron the group could get 3/4 of a million gp out of it.

Edit: Realizing, of course, that I'd have to do it peice meal as no settlement would have 3/4 Million GP laying around just waiting to buy iron.

 

[MacMathan]

Let's say at a rough density of 7.62g/cc and about 148,267,010 cc there using the lowest number given (5236) that comes to 1,129,863,196g of weight which converts to ~2,490,922 pounds.

I think it would be interesting to see how long it would take then to transport all of it to sell. That would be quite an undertaking

Also you might want to that the market of most mining town don't have anywhere near a million gold pieces available to buy the iron and it is going to severely depress the market if unloaded in such a large amount.

Given these factors it would be interesting to watch the PC's deal with it all but they would end up setting up more of long-term business which may not be the game you want to play. Spreadsheets & Profit Margins 3edition

If it was of interest to the group you could have them deal with all of he potential challenges the venture could present; raided caravans, dragons, dealing with Kings who want to arm there troops, merchant competitors, greedy dwarves, hordes of rust monsters attacking etc...

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

A party would be better off in this situation using the metal to trade with the local rulers to get some sort of castle/ship/etc rather than trying to sell it - as others have noted, transporting all of that will be a challenge. Still - it would be a great idea, and I'd let the PC's try to work it out, even though I'd be very specific about making sure they're coming up with good plans.

 

[werk]

Trade it to a nation of dwarves for "a favor to be decided later"

 

[Bagpuss]

Can anyone recall other adventures that 'accidentally' give away masses of treasure if the PC's are willing to strip mine the place.

Note there is no discription of how the trap works if it collects the balls from the bottom or magically creates them. If it's the latter you've got a unending supply of iron.

 

[orangefruitbat]

Worker's compensation and disability insurance will be incredibly expensive if the PCs can't disarm the trap first...

 

[WampusCat43]

Here's what I would do. I'd keep the location secret and leave it, fairly, untouched. Possibly collapse the entrance. Get a couple more levels and some more gold under my belt. Come back later with my own wagons, teams, etc. Reopen mine, find that it has become the Rust Monster Capitol of the World, inhabited by a happily-belching tribe of fat metal-eaters.

Problem solved.