From alt.pub.dragons-inn Sun Oct 29 23:33:07 1995 Xref: netcom.com alt.pub.dragons-inn:8840 Path: netcom.com!ix.netcom.com!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.fyionline.com!op.net!news.tcst.com!news.onramp.net!usenet From: rodney@onramp.net Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [HAM] Economics lesson, part 1 Date: 26 Oct 1995 11:37:10 GMT Organization: On-Ramp; Individual Internet Connections; Dallas/Ft Worth/Houston, TX USA Lines: 264 Message-ID: <46nrt6$37c@news.onramp.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: hou19.onramp.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 1.1PE (Windows; I; 16bit) Oct 25,1995 Summary: They prepare for a long day, discuss their situation and have little luck with the mage guild in the morning [Admin- anyone claim Ilmater church and/or clerics? also I could use a street gang member All charcters here are fabrications of my mind. 'Enry, Helen, and C.T. rights reserved, but available.] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Real beds, after a prior night of pine bough mattresses and a day of coach riding, are difficult to get out of. A soft mage life increases the difficulty when sleep is less than desired. The mixed aromas of breakfast lessen the pain of early rising, but it is still hard. Three tired figures descend the stairs at the Dragon's Inn. They are wearing leather armor with light beige tabards covering most them. Upon the tabards are two devices, an outline of a large door removed from its hinges, and a pair of cupped hands. One has a hem trimmed in silver, twice, one trim is blue (only once), and the last is black then gold inside. They sit in the central area, begining discussion before breakfast. "Okay, C.T., shall we review the significance of where we stand?" comes from he of the black and gold hem. While it looks like he took time to array himself for business this day, his long goatee seems to have a couple knots in it. The blond with the blue trim, thinks for a while and answers- "We are registered and know what _not_ to do. We have an appointment to return. Um, religeous strife is lower than it might be. And we will be able to earn our keep." The red haired woman shakes her head. "Maybe it is early, but you missed the question. That is our status, pretty much. The question was, what does it mean to our mission?" Smoothing her tabard for appearance sake, she looks around for a waitress. The inn is crowded and it looks like they may have to wait several minutes. The smooth face wrinkles in thought for a while. "Registration means we won't get detained in the middle of our efforts. The low strife means we might get help from one of the churches. And since there is a well known gate in town, it may be very simple for us to get home in the two more days that we need. We wouldn't have done anything that was forbidden, but one doesn't know local regs. How did I do, Henry?" Before he can answer, the waitress appears. "What can we do for you this morning? I'm Cathy." Looking at their sluggishness, she continues, "We have a mildly stimulating hot beverage called coffee that you might find helpful for early mornings. Also fruit, eggs, sausage, pancakes, and fresh cinnamon rolls. If none of that appeals, our short ogre cook can probably make your desire." She looks at the man first. "I'll try that coffee, with pancakes and sausage." "You, ma'am?" "Some fruit, an omelet, a cinnamon roll (they smell so good), and hot tea." Turning to the last member at the table, "And, ah, you would like?" "I had a very nice quiche last night, could I have another? And tea." "Can do," she curtsies back, "hope you enjoy your stay." "Friendly staff." Scratching under an ear and taking a formal lecture tone, Henry continues "We were discussing significance. Lack of interruption _is_ important on our timetable. Possibly most valuable to us is that we are in the position to start bargaining with the guild, _if_ they can and will help us." Relaxing his speech into conversational mode, he points out, "Registration is not membership in the mage guild however, so we can't expect any favors on that basis. But recognition may cut down on confrontations with populous through the social, not magical, aura of power. That has a flip side of target attractiveness to some more capable thieves, so we need to be careful. Back to the plus side, we should get better reception from merchants as enchanters. These are somewhat incidentals." "Having said that, C.T., why we are wearing our tabards today?" After waiting a while and only receiving a shrug as response, he raises an eyebrow. "Helen, care to enlighten the student?" "We are wearing them to hasten recognition as healers, to improve that social aura thing. Also, marking ourselves, we declare an intent to play completely above board and for the record- that improves social reception and may be the most important aspect for today." Waving a piece of cantalope to indicate a new topic, she mentions, "We need medical acceptance and to check religeous aid possibility today. It probably means we will need to regrow someones arm or foot as demonstration, so we have to allow half a day or more for this. Afterward, if we are too successful, we may need to do something to keep from being swamped." C.T's face screws up into absorbtion with possibile scenarios obviously being examined. Henry and Helen look at each other and smile softly; their sheltered accolyte/apprentice is learning. Cathy appears with their orders and recieves the "shh" sign before she speaks. C.T. eats reflectively, while Henry and Helen enjoy theirs, with some thoughts of their own. Midway through the meal, Helen flags the waitress. "Cathy, sorry about being rude; we were conducting a lesson. Thanks for respecting that. You know, last night your cook was referred to as an artist. I think that may be an understatement. Could we have a packed lunch to go? We may not be able to get back at that time." (Henry is busy chowing down, but pauses to smile, nod vigorously, salute with a forkfull of pancakes, and smile again. The stack is huge, but slowly disappearing.) "We can do that. If you are staying here, we can add it to your bill." "We've prepaid three days plus some last night so we could run a tab," agrees Helen. [Once again Rowan Littlefair's organization and staff have scored additional sales. No wonder he is the most prosperous inn keeper in town.] "That saves time we need. Oh, before we leave, and if you have a moment, Cathy, would you mind telling us where you would go to have a serious injury treated?" Turning back to C.T., "You should be able to guess one last question, ... and its answer." Toying with a quiche that exceeded appetite, C.T. formulates the tentative question- "Why are we saying all this in public?". Recieving a nod, the answer comes more surely, "because we want to be known as public, constructive, responsible people, and ah, someone that can help might overhear or have it passed along to them." The hands placed on C.T.'s shoulders attest to the correctness of the answer. "While we are finishing, I wrote a short note for their bulletin board." Helen asks them both, "care to add anything?" _______________________________________________ | Healing | |inexpensive magical, and traditional, Herbal | | | |Small Hacks, slashes, punctures ... fixed NOW| | lameness / missing limbs require a scheduled| | office visit and are _not_ cheap | | | | | |We are servants of Mikshall, Healing Goddess.| |We are recognized by light cream colored | | tabards with dismounted door & healing hands| | device thereon. | | | |Only garruntee: not fixed = no pay | | | |Henry Allan Mann, Helen Hofstein, C.T. | | | | We also do light, beneficial magery | | | ----------------------------------------------- Henry supplies the obvious from experience, "mention the month period on limb recovery. I have seen some real ingratitude over that little thing. We don't want unreasonable expectations. We _don't_ know what they are used to around here. We will obviously schedule office visits to fit our available mana." C.T. chimes in, "and we don't do magical weapons!" "Well said. I'll adjust that." Their lunches arrive just before they finish. C.T. does a mock groan with a smile at the sight. Cathy remarks "Your bill is fine, and we have packed a selection of items for your later enjoyment. Your answer on healing is Ilmater's church. Anything else we can do this morning?" "Yes," replies Helen, "would you send a runner to Ilmater's with a copy of this note? Say that we will be there no later than this afternoon to donate our services awhile and talk." Receiving a nod, Helen reaches into a pocket behind the tabard and hands Cathy several silver. "These are yours, except one should go to the runner, your choice for dependability." Awake and ready to face the day, they pick up their carved staves and head to the mage guild. ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- It is a short walk on a clear morning. They approach the desk with Henry still shaking his head (with admiration) about revolving doors. "Good morning. We are the mages registered last night, Mikshall's followers," gesturing with her left hand, "Henry Allan Mann, C.T." indicated on the right, "and myself, Helen Hofstein. We are expected this morning, I hope?" The reception mage agrees, "yes, expected. No, on appointments, sorry. Our Archmages are busy, perhaps this afternoon." As expectant faces start to fall, he looks at some notes and continues, "but research has made some progress on tracing your home, Loam, to about twenty possibilities. They have some questions here about current rulers, history and such to distinguish time line variations. Then they would need to send verification explorers to reduce the possibilities to one. I'm afraid that step gets very expensive. Here is your bill so far." The mage guild very evidently is not a benevolent society. The bill shows evening shift differential for registration, manuals, meals, preliminary examination, evaluation of items, and night shift research. Possibly performed by journeymen but billed at full mage rates. It is not small, nor was it expected to be. "We need authorization and a security deposit of some kind before the explorers go out, maybe this afternoon. I personally think value of ten times the current bill would be a reasonable deposit, but who knows on exploration expenses. It says here you had items?" Henry looks like he is about to start a professional bartering session when he is cut off by Helen. "Henry, you have the best historical knowledge, I'll handle this merchant bit." She hands him the questionaire. Holding out her hand to Henry and turning back to the desk, she begins. "You evaluated some items last night and still have them in a locker." She receives the key from Henry and hands it over. "We offer those. Also a staff that creates light, creates water, purifies air, purifies water, and seeks water 10 charges, manastone-(i.e. self)-recharging. We call that staff `the survivalist'. On our world the price ratios would cover the deposit. Since you have not tested this staff and prices may vary in ratio, we add a 10 charge staff that just does the seek, purify, and create water. We are serious about our time table." Having opened the locker for them and tagging the recieved items, the mage replies "Seems like enough to me. You had a question on mana available. Production that uses it gave this report concerning the next few days." They shake their heads on seeing it, as there is not enough for their needs, resurrections are extremely costly. "Well, if you are through with the questionaire, I don't think you can do anymore here until maybe this afternoon. Where can we find you if we have questions about your world?" "Ilmater's church was reccommended twice as being closest in function to our own and probably most sympathetic. Where is it? And may we still leave the body and other stuff here?" inquires Helen as Henry finishes the questionaire with some not too crude maps and essay. "Her church is straight south _way_ over the bridge. And yes." He closes the locker and hands them back the key. He cautions, "low Generica is poor and can get rough. Would you like a guard?" "No, I think we will manage," winks Henry. ---------------------------------------------------------- Usual (dis) claimers Rodney Taylor, aka rodney@onramp.net http://rampages.onramp.net/~rodney "If I have time to write, I need more work - rent me."