Our Heroes:
- Braeden (Human Ranger) played by Battletech Terry
- Sir Kentor (Human Paladin) played by Paladin Steve
- Sir Lantor (Human Fighter) played by Boom Gun Brandon
- The Mighty Xyzzifax (Human-ish Wizard) played by Blaster
- Samson (Halfling Mechanist) played by Shootist Will
- Jaric (Human Cleric) played by Variable David
- Malice (Human Bard) played by Grognard Mike
The party is level 5 at this point. This account is mainly written by Malice.
Fair Warning - there is a LOT of shopping in this one - prices, haggling, etc.
We get to Verbobonc, and Jaric goes to his temple, and is pointed towards the Shop of Curiosities. Sir Kentor learns of the Street of Smiths for weapons, Sir Lantor has found the mercenaries guild. Braedon is looking to see if he can find some elves, but is failing quite legendarily. Xyzzifax goes to the Mages' Guild of Verbobonc and found a purveyor of wants named Waldorf. And, the group is staying at the Silver Lyre Inn, with rooms paid for out of party cash. Samson, to his credit wants to crash. Malice goes to learn what she can about the nobles of the city, one may be interested in purchasing the mirror.
The ruler of the city is Vicount Wilfrick, the Defender of the Faith, an adherent of St Cuthbert. The city also has significant representation of the Old Faith. The leaders of the town are interested in trade. Malice begins her letter writing campaign, trying to find a proper buyer for the orb.
Braedon is the first to make his way to the Street of the Smiths, joined by Sir Kentor, as Xyzzifax goes to talk to Waldorf. Waldorf’s shop is small, painted majority in blue. He is an older human, and he has lots of interesting wood for the creation of staves and wands. Xyzzifax starts with the request for a wand of fireballs, and Waldorf does have one available. But, he can make almost any staff or wand. Waldorf is completely uninterested in the orb of true seeing. Xyzzifax asks how long it would take to create a wand of the war mage – he could create a basic one in a month. He would want 5,000 for that.
One thing the players' account does not mention is Jaric's visit to the local temple of Trithereon, god of freedom, individuality, and revenge. He does not have a large presence in the city, but he does have one shrine tended by one priest - "Welcome to the Garden of Vengeance brother ..."
Jaric meets a man who seems quite laid back and rambles a bit but has bursts of intensity here and there during the conversation. Probably hard to travel with but also probably handy to have in a fight. He learns the greeting of the faithful (in this city anyway) is "righteous", a nod, and a raised fist bump.
The Street of Smiths starts out with mundane goods on the south end, but as the road continues north it grows into high end, unique goods. Braedon and Sir Kentor are specifically looking for a great sword and a long bow, both enchanted, but they’re keeping an eye out for anything that is notable. With a bit of observation, they get an idea of several candidates. The bow work is going to be harder to find, but finding swordsmiths is easier. Braedon happens to find a gnomish smith who has crafted an enchanted greatsword. After a bit of haggling, they are willing to take 1050 gold worth of gems, and Sir Lantor is now going to be able to be equipped with a +1 greatsword.
They take some directions from the smith, and are directed to an area of the town where there would be some bowyers and fletchers who are skilled enough that they should be able to make an enchanted bow. After a bit of looking, Braedon finds the shop which appears to have the highest quality bows – a shop with a sign with a leaf with a star behind it. The proprietor is an elf, who is always carving as he talks. For 1200 gold, he will part with a beautiful elven +1 bow. Braedon asks where he might find an efficient quiver, as well. The elf does know where where could be obtained, but the owner would need some persuasion. It would likely cost on the order of 5,000 gold for one.
Jaric and Samson head to the curiosity shoppe, and on the way the halfling picks up a pair of goggles. The shoppe itself is an outlandish building. Samson starts off by asking for dancing lockpicks, and the shopkeeper is offended, but might just happen to have them for sale, but they’d probably cost something on the order of 1000 gold. Jaric asks about an amulet of health. And, the answer is seedy, and it could might even cost as much as 10,000 gold. Then, a bag of holding – clearly used by unsavory types. But, he could probably come up with one for 1000 gold. And then, an immovable rod, if one were to part with one, it would cost a mere 2000 gold. Actual magical lucky dice – that has to be illegal. As the shopkeep doesn’t want to contribute to criminal activity, one of those couldn’t be had for less than 1000 gold. Finally, Jarc asked a pendulous periapt. The shopkeep finds them just weird, finally a curiosity. And for just 500 gold he could own one himself. On Sir Kentor’s behalf, Jaric asks about a cloak of protection, and it seems that one could be found for 5000 gold.
The Curiousity Shoppe, besides being a reference to various things, is also a major front for the Thieves' Guild of Verbobonc. As I do not have anyone regularly playing a rogue in this campaign, it's a potentially fun angle that will go largely unexplored except as a shop that deals in unusual items.
 |
| There is more than a little bit of this guy in the "shopkeeper" |
Sir Lantor asks around for where to get healing potions, and discovers that temples are the best place for that*. We reconvene at the inn, and and get dinner, relax throughout the evening, and prepare to make a day of it tomorrow. The viscount is very interested in the orb of true seeing. He arrives in force, with 75,000 gold pieces to purchase our palintir from us. We’re warned not to tell anybody else. To do so, it is decreed, would be a capital offense. So, of course, we agree that we will tell no one. Ahem. Xyzzifax takes the bag, and immediately walks to Waldorf’s shop. The unseen servant counts out 25000 gold, and purchases the wand of fireballs, and orders a wand of the war mage. It will be ready in a month.
* I promise this is not his first time ever to play D&D but damn, sometimes it feels like it.
I will admit to being a little disappointed in the party here opting to -sell- a crystal ball of true seeing! Seriously! That's a ridiculously potent item and I really thought the conniving wizard would be interested but no, no one in the party objected to sell it! Most of this group has over a decade of D&D experience (among other games) and some of them have been doing it since the 80's and 90's - they should know better! I gave them an "are you sure" check before they went to the city but they were unmoved.
Of course once they decide to sell it, the question is who is going to be able to afford to buy it? This was one big reason they came to Verbobonc and it turned out the Viscount himself was willing to pay a lot and pay quickly. Ah well! At least it established a connection there. I'm sure he will only use it for good purposes.
As a party, we check out of the Silver Lyre, and as a party travel to the great temple of St Cuthbert. And, we go to talk to the temple clerk. The potions of healing are a fairly steady market, but the amulet of health is more rare. The temple can sell ten greater potions of healing – this costs us a full 1000 gold. Sir Lantor takes 3, Braedon takes 2, and the rest of us take a potion of greater healing. But, there’s no talking the temple out of the amulet of health.
 |
| This is not the last time this picture of St. Cuthbert will appear in the tale of this campaign. |
We head to a clothier’s, a very stylish store but one where the proprietor has had a throat wound, and talks with a gruff and gravelly voice. While they didn’t have a cloak of protection available, they do have a cloak of the manta ray. Sir Kentor haggles, and Samson purchases it himself for 1500 gold. Jaric asks about a belt of hill giant strength, and against odds, it is in stock. The party ends up paying for it, at an upcharge because Malice just made the proprietor mad, so it costs the party 20000. Braedon asks about bracers of archery, and the proprietor, still mad, shoos us away.
We return to ye olde curiosity shoppe and attempt to haggle over the amulet of health. Sir Kentor leans that the shopkeep is not willing to haggle, at all, so that costs us 10000 gold. We also pay 5000 for a cloak of protection for him. And for 500 we buy the perilous periapt. Jaric on his own he purchases the lucky dice. As we determine that we still have some unspent funds from the sale of the orb of true sight, Braedon asks about bracers of archery. He can find a set for 5000, and we quickly snatch that up. That leaves us 950 platinum left after the purchases there. Xyzzifax asks about a hat of disguise just before he heads out. The price is too rich for our blood, though, and we leave it. Malice, once again, is not the best at this – she was unaware of the longstanding fued between the thieves of Dyvers and Verbobonc.
Even a shopping trip can add some color to the world . I ran a campaign set in Dyvers back in 2E and one of my players was involved with the Thieves' Guild there so he appreciated the reference.
Xyzzifax goes to meet with a potential buyer of the mirror, Zagmar the purple mage, and while it turns out we’re not looking to sell any longer, we are interested in purchasing a scroll of stinking cloud. And finally back to the wizard’s guild, to check on potions of speed. There are a few gnomish wizards who are just the ones. The brewmaster gnomes are easy to find, and Sir Kentor asks about the potions of speed – and alas, Verbobonc does not have the necessary reagents. And, as we’re expecting to eventually go to the temple of fire, we ask about potions of fire resistance. They do have two, the party easily purchases them for a total of 20 gold. Malice and Xyzzifax take the potions of fire resistance. When asking about potions of giant strength, they don’t have any currently in stock. Sir Kentor begins carrying the Mace of Smiting, though we do intend to possibly sell it to Azin.
 |
| Verbobonc! |
So ... lots of shopping. There was a fair amount of getting to know the city and some of its movers and shakers but it was still mostly centered around buying and selling. I am not a huge fan of the General Magic Items of All Kinds store so I do make them work for it but given the vast quantity of magic in a typical D&D game - yes, even an old-school game (go look at those old adventures again) - I feel there would be individuals looking to trade in the things - sort of like rare artworks, collector cars, and items of antiquity in the modern day. So you "have to find a guy" and start making some inquiries and they might have something on hand or it might take some time. Verbobonc, while not the biggest city in the world, is in a crossroads of sorts at the confluence of multiple major nations and areas rules by a variety of races, it makes sense for it to have some action in this area. Plus, it's the nearest big city to where this campaign is happening so I need it to be capable and so it is.
Mechanically I try not to overdo it with the Persuasion checks. If you're really pushing the limits there will probably be a roll, possibly with modifiers based on amount of cash offered and things you have said to the person in question. Sometimes you can just money-whip them. Sometimes the answer is just "no". If I don't have something in mind ahead of time there is a roll based on the rarity of the item. Tales of the Valiant has a rarity level for all magic items which makes this easy enough. About the only things you can buy "off the shelf" in some way are potions and scrolls, with "common" magic items being fairly easy to locate in any sizable city but not guaranteed to be available at any given time.
Next time: The party finishes shopping and we finally get some dragons to mix in with the dungeons ...
