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`Apr. 25, 2025` · [[Horseapple]] · #Fragment #Characters #Warband
> [!custom-callout]- All mentions, including keyword *“npc2”*
> *Pulled from* [[2-strings-(Warband)]]
> - “Oy -- Captain! I hear that Marnid's gone off to sing a pretty song to the merchants, on how you'll hand them Calradia on a silver platter for them to feast upon, smack their lips, and suck the marrow from the bones. I hope that's just a tale you're telling. A noble lord will at least toss a few coppers to the poor when he holds his feasts, and will make sure that the servants go home with full bellies. A merchant marries his daughter, and you'd be lucky to get a few crusts and scraps of gristle from the table. That's my experience, anyway.”
> - “Hello. Would you be so kind as to have a cup with me? I'm down to my last five denars and I'd rather not drink alone.”
> - “It's a tragic tale, sir.”
> - “A while back, I left Geroia with a caravan of goods. I was hoping to sell it all in Sargoth and make a hefty sum. But, what do you know... we were ambushed by a party of Khergit raiders who rode away with most of the horses and goods. And two days later, my own caravan guards ran away with the rest of what I had.”
> - “So here I am, no money and no way home.”
> - “I sold my boots and have managed to make a few denars peddling goods from town to town, but it's a hard living.”
> - “Well, I will confess that I am not a warrior by trade.”
> - “I'm a fast learner. I can ride, and know a fair bit about trade, prices and such.”
> - “I hope you don't mind my saying so, but it's a bit hard for me to see us {s21}. Maybe I ought to try to be more of a hardened soldier, but if we could try to exercise a little mercy from time to time, I'd sleep better.”
> - “{Sir/Madame} -- I'm not altogether happy that we {s21}. I'm a merchant, and in our business one is bonded by one's word. I don't want a reputation for dishonesty -- that would spell my end as a trader, {sir/madame}.”
> - “{Sir/Madame} -- as you recall I was a merchant before I signed on with you. I respect men who make their living peacefully, risking all to bring goods for far away lands.”
> - “I don't much care to hear {s11} gloat about the caravans he has looted, or he plans to loot, like he has no respect for good honest trade.”
> - “{Sir/Madame}. If you don't mind, I'd prefer not to be deployed anywhere near {s11}, after what he said to me during that last battle.”
> - “The enemy was bearing down on us, and he says, 'Step aside, merchant, this is knight's work.' Next time I will step aside, and let him take a spear in the gut.”
> - “{Sir/Madame}. I just wanted to tell you that {s11} may be a rough sort, and I'll venture a thoroughgoing rogue as well, but I'm proud to call him my companion.”
> - “Based on how he did in that last fight, I'd say that I'd trust my back to him any day, although I'd still keep a hand on my purse.”
> - “I'm getting a bit tired of the warrior's life. I'm going to invest my share of our loot into a cargo of goods -- furs, linens, velvets, probably -- and take them back over the mountains. I would like to thank you again for taking me on, and wish you the best of luck.”
> - “{Sir/Madame}! It's good to see you again. But I'll confess -- I've been looking for you. I bought a load of goods like I told you I would, loaded them up, and took them back across the steppe -- but wouldn't you know it, I was hit again by Khergits, and lost it all. I guess I'm just destined to fight for my fortune. Also, people tell me that you've done very well for yourself. So tell me, {sir/madame}, would you have me back?”
> - “We're approaching Sargoth. That's where I was headed when the Khergits got me.”
> - “People say that the Nords are a bunch of bloodthirsty barbarians, but they have a good head for trade, if you ask me. They make the people up and down the coast grow flax, which they weave here into linen. It can't compete with Jelkala silks and velvets as a luxury fabric, but it makes good summertime wear and you can use it for the sails of ships. More importantly, linen was one of the few goods that someone else in Calradia wasn't already making.”
> - “I had loaded up on saffron, cinnamon, cloves, pepper and other spices and a chest full of denars. I estimated that I could buy linens, furs, velvet, iron and wool, and the extra horses to carry them back, and I'd still make a profit. I just hadn't figured in the Khergits, who apparently don't care for others cutting in on their monopoly.”
> - “I was born over the mountains. I'm a merchant, the son of a merchant, and the grandson of a merchant.”
> - “Well, captain -- I'd support you. I think you'd give Calradia the kind of enlightened rule which it has long needed.”
> - “Most of the lords of this land -- well, let's just say that they never held a denar that they didn't collect as rent or take as pillage. You, on the other hand, have some experience of commerce and trade, of the effort and risk involved in making sure that men don't go hungry in Sargoth while there's a glut of grain in Praven, to give an example.... If you like, captain, I reckon I could find some support for you among the merchants and burghers of this realm.”
> - “If you like, captain, I can take a few weeks to visit the guildhalls and caravanseries where I have contacts, and explain to them that, in you, they will have a {king/ruler} who will check the rapacious nobles, who, with their tariffs and taxes, would strangle commerce for the sake of a few extra denars to spend on their wars and their feasts. What do you say to that, captain?”
> - “Um, captain. Matheld has ridden off to tell the lords of this land that you'll let them settle their quarrels by force and violence. You know they rarely actually fight each other, right? Most of the time, it's the traders and travellers on the roads between their castles that get clobbered in their petty disputes. Any excuse to shake down a caravan, they'll take. I really hope that she misunderstood you, sir.”
> - “{Sir/My lady}, if you're interested in events in {s18}, I can still make contact with my old trading partners in {s17}. They're usually well-informed about political events.”
> - “{s17} as a fief? Well, I've always thought in terms of buying and selling goods, not in terms of governing anything. But now that you mention it, I bet I could make that place turn a fair bit of revenue. I thank you, {my Lord/my lady} -- this is a very kind turn that you have done me.”
> - “This is a sad day. I never thought that I might meet my old captain on the field of battle. Even if I triumph, it will bring me no joy.”
>   <br> ![[encyclopedia_calradica.gif|center|300]]<br>
>*“A massive `Mount & Blade` wikipedia.”*<br>About [Encyclopædia Calradica](About-the-Encyclopædia.md)<br>About the [Project](Project-(Pillar).md)<br>About the [Author](Horseapple.md) <br>