The New Whale Economy

The villagers cut up the whale, obtaining tons of meat and bone. The town butcher/tanner finds the outer layer of skin too foul to eat, and refuses to cure it, but someone gets the bright idea to render the outer layer of meat into oil by boiling it over the course of several weeks. The oil is superior to that made by alchemists (no modify to damage, just in every day use) and sells for 5gp per flask instead of 2gp for standard oil. For nearly an entire month the town is busy salting and storing the meat in barrels which fill up the warehouses in town to capacity. The mayor even approaches you at one point and asks if you wouldn't mind moving in with him until new housing can be constructed in town. He makes an offer for the warehouse of 120% the original purchase price and refuses any offer of "leasing" or "renting". He in-fact seizes Donny's small warehouse since the adventurer has been missing for many months. The whale bones are relatively worthless, and used to make handles and such for tools and weaponry. Amounts Produced: 815 barrels of Whale Meat Iron Rations, weighing 147 tons (293,266lbs) 77 barrels of Whale Oil, weighing 11 tons (21,995lbs) 7 tons (13,418lbs) of near worthless Whale Bone which will be sold piecemeal The townsfolk are willing to pay you 72,990 gold pieces for the carcass.

So we get a lot of gold (6082.5gp each) and get to move into the mayor's house. I'm in!

And new expansion to the town, that's awesome.

Awesome. All of what was just said is great.

Gorg considers retiring from adventuring to take up whaling.

we got dat cash we got that swag

$$

1.20% means a we'd get about 1/83 what we originally payed for it. I am hoping he meant 120% or 1.20 x the original purchase price. But other than that, awesome, is the mayor's house big enough for us all to live in with him? I don't think any of my characters have ever entered the mayor's house so I as a player never got it's description. But the town getting a renovation is AWESOME! Do we get to choose what kind of abode get's built for us? We totally need a Batman manorhouse, with secret underground base of operations and get like scrying stuff on a bunch of major locations and stuff, like the pirate cove and strongmoor and the entrance to palace and such. Oh and anti-scrying stuff on our awesome manorhouse and such, we have so much money cumulatively just sitting around, getting high level mages to come cast spells for us would cost a pretty penny, but could really pay off in the long run. Also, did Donny die or the player just got different hours and can't make it, lost interest or what?

Does the mayor mind animals? I have an Owl. Curtis has a Griffon. I liked our warehouse :(

Guys, why don't we simply take the cove? We have the funds to get s sea gate and fortifications built and we have mages to protect us.What is stopping us?

I would rather do that.

Then we have to travel back to Stilt Town weekly for supplies.

We could afford to pay someone to bring supplies to us :P

Yeah if we move to the pirate cove we can be closer to the sexy she-goblin swamp of sexy sexiness. However we built a ton of good will in stilt town and we should wait to see what comes of the town before we decide to ditch them.

Ok, but you heard Steven, every time we go back there will be more and more, stronger and stronger enimies. I say we vote on it.

I was hoping to hold the cove against new threats, which would be a direct benefit to the town. Gorg's been trying to equip and train Stilt Towners between adventures also, so I just see this as an extension of that. If party just wants to hang in town, instead that's fine. Kinda mad at the mayor for imminent domaining our warehouse, though.

Well I guess it couldn't hurt to have the cove. We could always keep a store front or house in town for stilt town business and such. Also the renovations on the cove would probably take a bit. I guess we could get a small army of mercs from strong moor as well. I mean we are pretty rich and a base on the island would be strategically beneficial.

Shouldn't we explore that last hall in the cove to see where it goes before we decide on this? I would vote against the cove. That would mean we are keeping our ship there and we only have one exit from the bay to the sea. It's a bottleneck and we are essentially trapping ourselves in there. Plus the thought of living in a cave... sorry guys, I'm not a troll, elf or dwarf. Not for this human.

I do not want to live in the Mayor's House especially since he is strong arming us out of our warehouse. I've thought for awhile that we need a place on the island as a base and I think the cove would work nicely - we can set up altars to Osiris, Tyche and Krotus (sorry Chaos peeps). We have our own spring. We can put up a magic and traps on the passage that I think leads to the Palace. Curtis could magic mouth the hell out of the place. And we can still keep a small presence in Stilt Town - whom we just gave a windfall too and in return they are screwing us over. We could even make a deal with whomever we lease the big ship too that they bring us supplies from Strongmoor on a regular basis as part of the lease.

We will almost certainly get regular visits from these red robed priests and pirates trying to take back the cove I'm sure. And Freddy, what if you lived in that lavish throne room? What if we got the whole place renovated like that with like actual rooms and walls and not dank caveness? Also, we would probly have to kill that troll, unless everyone is down with feeding him.

Na, we can kill him. Steven accidentally let slip that they can only be killed with fire. And Ka'Gron will make pressurized oil mines that can be dispatched into the bay and I can give directions to supply runners on how to get through the mine field.

As much as Gorg prefers to strengthen the cove and prevent its use as an inroad for further invasions on the island, he is an extremely devout follower of Krotus and such defers to the priests of his deity and their wisdom.

They aren't seizing our warehouse Amanda. The mayor wants to either buy it out right (no leasing or renting), and let us live at his mansion till other arrangements are handled, or we don't sell and that's that. The only person who's gotten screwed is the guy who hasn't played in months having HIS warehouse repossessed, likely for trying to dodge taxes.

I think Steven RP'd that he was eaten by the Vampire Children.

I don't think the mayor's intent was to screw us over. The original post was edited to show 120% of the original purchase price. So they aren't trying to steal it from us. They need the warehouse for all of the whale meat we just provided. This is a town that had nothing going for it, they were depending on a few hunters to bring them meat from the island and merchant ships for their goods. They have the whale meat now, but it won't last forever. We get to live in Stilt Town for free , no more inns and having to worry about fleas/disease, no more paying 344 gold a week for the warehouse (but now we have to start paying for the ship again). There are other places to live in Stilt Town besides the mayor's house. Zovar has a residence, I'm sure other families would put us up as well. It is only temporary. We also have the ship. You can stay on that, but have to chance the encounters. Maybe since it is smaller it can be docked, it would be nice if that was one of the upgrades they were making to the town. We can park our ship right there, not off shore. Plus leaving Stilt Town now means we have to chance encounters on every return there. Gorg said he is training the townfolk, and this week I PM'd Steven I should look into serving Stilt Town as a cleric. I have already been told by Patriarch Kingslaw that I am being considered as a candidate for Arch Bishop and will be given a lesser/minor temple, but I don't know where it will be. I will probably approach them about serving that role in Stilt Town as well if the mayor approves of it. I hope other people are doing behind the scenes work in the town as well. Is there a way to have some stay in the cove and some in Stilt Town and set up a portal between so we can come and go? I just really think the caves at the cove are a bad idea. There may be a second exit, but eventually someone is going to show up at that door and we are trapped inside those caves.

Ok, so I'm chiming in with my thoughts as a person, not as the official DM. I think it sounds really cool to fortify up the caves and establish a stronghold there. Gorg has also started training a militia in town and with the windfall from the whale they can probably afford to expand the town and hire mercenary guards as well within the next few months. You'd have to clear the land to construct something on the island, and I'm looking at the rules still. I can't remember if it was either "clear a five mile hex around the construction" or "clear a 15 mile hex around the construction", if it's the latter you'll probably have to clear out the whole island. Normally its easier than it sounds, with encounter checks in each hex until all are cleared, but this island has some very specific threats that have to be removed. If the rules show that it is the smaller 5 mile hex, you'd just have to clear the bay (including mountains and water hexes) and then you'd be able to start construction. From that point on the cleared area would likely remain free of monsters as long as you maintain the necessary amount of soldiers/guards in the fortification. Back to my DM voice: I'm ruling that you guys have accepted the 72,990 gold pieces offer since no one voiced a dissenting opinion. To be a bit meta-gamey the total value of your haul was about 1,576,305 gold worth of iron rations and oil. Whales just aren't that common in the relatively shallow seas of this part of the world, and it takes a heck of a lot of magic to kill a 90ft long 184 ton creature. It's just not possible for normal men of this technology level to go whaling, and wizards usually have better things to do. When I said it could feed the village for years, it is true. This haul will probably take Stilt Town five years to eat and sell. I would estimate their yearly income at 1,497,754 gold which is 24,963 gold per month. It will take them awhile to finish salting, boiling, and packaging up the material to bring it to market, and then probably another month or so for trade to start picking up as trading ships start making their way to the town specifically to purchase rations and oil. The dwarven goods/iron ore trade is very minor compared to this, but they will maintain that trade as well. Stilt town is also uniquely positioned in the sea as a resting point for trade between Stygia and the Barbarian Kingdoms, but not always used due to how expensive food and sundries were before the Whale. Expect to see many more merchant ships passing through from now on. DM Note: I hope someone appreciates the time and effort I put into researching and accurately calculating barrels, weight, costs, and value.

Violet can talk to the troll about moving. There is no need to kill him. Also, I don't think Ka'Gron has been trained in how to make mines (if they even exist). We could probably use illusions and stuff to make sure that people stay out of the way. Depending on how Earth Elementals work we might even be able to get them to make different channels for the underground river to cross all the entrances so that Vampires wouldn't be able to cross them. I really don't want to keep cleaning out the Pirate Cove over and over again - its just not smart. Either we secure it or we destroy it utterly. As far as the warehouse, I'm with Kevin in reading that we were being FORCED to sell which I found ludicrous for all that we have done for this town. EDIT: Steven - Page 93 of 1e DMG has Territory Development by Player Characters

CountingWizard said: DM Note: I hope someone appreciates the time and effort I put into researching and accurately calculating barrels, weight, costs, and value. Most definitely! I, for one, wouldn't want to do that as a DM - I would just pull some random dice range out of my ass and roll it. I always wonder how funny it would be to see Google search history of RPG GMs. bardiche vs fauchard east asia death cult average weight of a prize chicken ogre troll "mating ritual" How many pounds of meat in a whale? blast area exploding goat

Amanda the Amazon said: As far as the warehouse, I'm with Kevin in reading that we were being FORCED to sell which I found ludicrous for all that we have done for this town. I admit, I might have interpreted that wrong in the first place.

Basically not moving means you set the village back a month in transitioning to a whale economy. They'd have to built some temporary houses at the landing or enter into a contract with the dwarves to store all the extra barrels. I am just eyeballing the number of barrels and warehouses in town though. They probably need way more space but its hard to visualize since they are multi-level buildings.

> FORCED to sell which I found ludicrous Has Malifoi mentioned how Eldrath has strong stance against eminent domain. We, "ale barrelers" are against all big, autocratic rulership. Individuals should be free from oppression from Lawful structures. The island is too dangerous to be bringing workers there. Need to deal with dragon first, should learn its name... We should enslave the goblins. Win/win, removes them as threat and provides expendable labor force.

Sell the warehouse for the very generous terms (I don't have a stake in the warehouse, so it's your call), relocate stuff and people into the mayors house/boats and determine if we're going to occupy the cove and/or go find the dragon and take his treasure and or home. We caused a serious boom to the economy and presence of this island, so I'm not really ready to abandon the place just yet. All those trade goods and money starting to flow in will attract attention from both pirates, the vampires, and legitimate kingdoms that will want to offer protection to the trade routes in and out. Of course I don't know if Stilt Town is an unaffiliated port of call or not.

John you left out saving the princess. We still need to keep that at the top of our list. And we need to banish Malifoi's false god from the palace. I forget, does the mayor have daughters we need to keep Ramkus away from?

Stilt Town is unaffiliated. The mayor is the highest authority. If you guys do dragon I need about 1 to 2 weeks prep time, dead forest requires 1 week maybe less.

Freddy has a good point, with my new good looks who knows what sort of attention Ramkus would be getting. Also, I am far more warmed up to the idea of the cove fort. I also agree with Freddy that we need a base at stilt town as well, just now it doesnt have to house all of us. It can be an adventuring company headquarters or branch office with a few beds so the upkeep would be minimal and I am sure the town might even spot us the space if we asked. So we can have it both ways. Fort in the cove AND housing in Stilt Town.

I think we should stay in stilt town while we wait to get things straight. Hopefully the Cove won't level too much as we wait, but stilt town is where it started and I am getting a bit sentimental. Hey guys... what if stilt town became Cove town? We could totally move the entire population over after we build housing? And space Isn't an issue because we can build over the water. Ka'Gron would like to take all credit for this idea.

Cove Town sounds cool, but I think the people of Stilt Town in general don't want to enter the island at all, that was why they live on the water off the island. To work as an intermediary between the island and such. I love the idea of getting some kind of permanent portal set up between a Stilt Town base and Cove base. I really think we need to just make the Cove feel more homey, like make the caverns into real rooms, with walls and such, make it nice. I like the idea of making small rivers cross each entrance to keep vampires out, and magic mouth alarms against intruders and all that. The Cove also apparently has it's own access to the Palace, so we can get in there quicker and everything. Do we know where in the palace it enters?

Well the reason they are so scared is because they couldn't defend themselves, but now they have us and Gorg's Army.

No. The reason they were scared is because its a big spooky island full of monsters. Only the woodsmen's guild sets foot on the island now, and they stay in the southern forest. Heck the town's only huntsman went for a nice picnic on the island with his kids and they came back possessed by evil spirits. Most townspeople still hang garlic at night and only tell whispers about the island lest they attract unwanted supernatural attention.

Maybe we should start by clearing the southern part of the island near Stilty of baddies.

Violet will move to the Cove.

Ok, so I looked it up and you *CAN* construct a stronghold/castle/fort thing as long as you clear a single 5-mile hex. To create a barony requires clearing the land in a two-hex thick ring of 5-mile hexes i.e. the entire island. These are two different things. You can build the a stronghold there by moving over each of the hexes around and including the spot it will be built in (19 hexes in total), and must roll encounter checks for each movement. If there are no encounters or you defeat the encountered monsters in that hex the area is cleared. You do this for all hexes. The clearing of the land must be performed in a single session. Afterwards you discuss what you would like to build and how many soldiers you would like to advertise to hire, and must stay there until you have enough soldiers to keep guard of the area.

Why don't we just mash all those together into one huge palace of heroes once we clear a portion of Baalor?

That was meant for the name title thread.