@Lucius Cypher

Horses and other livestock animals are extremely valuable at this time; a Draft Horse would be the best you could manage to find for sale in the stable, and the stablemaster is haggard and starts his pricing at 100 gold per draft horse. He remarks that all the warhorses and riding horses he had available were bought by the Princess, to keep the Knights of the Realm equipped. Each knight needs three horses if they have a squire, and potentially more if they have a chariot, etc., so all he has left are farm horses.

The local music shop, The Winds of the Dale, would have a Drum available for 15 Silver [1 gold, 5 silver].

A proper Healer's kit, fully stocked and ready for use, from the Apothecary would cost 25 gold; supplies are short. Jerald is doing his best.

Travelling Supplies is fairly vague, but if you mean things like Rope and Rations then...

Rope will cost you 5 silver for 50 feet of standard rope, but 10 gold or more for anything special like 50 feet of Silk. 10 feet of Chain will run you 30 gold; metal is particularly valuable in Aesithas.

Rations, due to the food drought and famine plaguing the wider landscape, cost substantially more than one would typically expect in the historically fertile farmlands of the Dale; where ordinarily food rations such as this would cost mere coppers, they are now 1 Gold Apiece. Thankfully tavern food and raw goods aren't inflated to this level, but the adventure-ready rations are pricey.

in that Vein, the local smith doesn't keep any armor in stock. He could produce it but warns it would take time and be expensive. A breastplate would run you 100 Gold of time and metal. Half plate would take 250 gold. They would take multiple weeks if not months to prepare, respectively. The Castle Smith has them in stock, but they are Master Crafted and intended to stock the Royal Armory. He can part with them for 300 Gold and 500 Gold Respectively.

...In short, most things are roughly doubled- but a lot of things are much cheaper than typical D&D as well due to the adjusted/stunted economy of the realm.

Good to know, good to know. Fairly understandable throughout, I thi j I'll buy some minor like the healer kit and drum. A bit shame about the horses but that's expected. Ought to save for armor but tbh I have no clue if/when we'd be back at the castle to buy it, and frankly there's probably good odds of Fran looting armor piecemeal from her enemies, especially if we go after bandits and the like.

With shopping done, is there anything in particular someone like Fran could do in the next few days? She unfortunately has no craft skills so nothing she can make, and I don't imagine there's much she can do as a barbarian that isn't basically regular guard work. She does however have animal handling, land vehicle prof, and prof in drums, if she can somehow use those for work or labor. I'm thinking something along the lines of just playing music to lift people's spirits and generally helping the folks out in the city, for whatever money or favor they can afford to give her.

@Lucius Cypher

Sure, we can call that 'Working'. Pitch me a particular skill, what Fran is doing for the week before the 'Quest' begins and Pyke drags her to the Party, and make a roll. I'll consult the definitely existent wages table.

Well naturally she'd be doing typical knight errant stuff, but in order to best make use of her skills and talents most efficiently, here's what I propose:

One thing Fran would endorse is making sure folks can take care of themselves. Wouldn't do Fran any good if people are too reliant on her help. To that end what she does best is fight, and thus she would spend a considerable out t of her time training folks in basic combat and drills. She'd use a combination of her noble status to ensure folks understand she's no shame, as well as her persuasion to convi ce more timid folks into giving it a try. But in particular she won't just rely on her charms: she is more than willing to train alongside these men and women and show them her strength, and typically will get them started some something easy such as quarter staves.

So in short, how about a persuasion check using strength to train folks?

Go for it, make the roll.

22, that nets you 5 gold (on top of paying for a comfortable lifestyle for that week) from working across the week. Huzzah. That'll take care of the 'downtime' Fran would have had, and I'll likely have Pyke introduce her to the party in the next segment I post.

I just need everyone to decide which part of the Quest they want to try and pursue first- and if folks already told me and I missed it somewhere, woopsie, please remind me.

Overall I think dealing with bandits is a good place to start. Deal with the local problem first, maybe even find equient we can use off of them.

Also, just five gold after a week of labor huh? Geez I'm starting to remember why I multiclass. Barely get anything done if you aren't magic. Are healing potions and antitoxins available for purchase? I'm hoping I can make the most out of this coin, otherwise murderhoboing may end up being more cost effective than buying things.

Overall I think dealing with bandits is a good place to start. Deal with the local problem first, maybe even find equient we can use off of them.

I agree with this. This seems like a good first step in our journey.

@Lucius Cypher To be clear, in the official Xanathar's Guide listing that would have been 25 gold and the lifestyle covered; anything less on your die roll is listed as 'just covering varying tiers of lifestyle'.

So my modification knocked 20 gold off to keep with the aim that Aesithas is destitute and people are struggling.

As for the availability of potions and whatnot- until someone brings supplies in, such as requested of Dag'Tyr, the apothecary is dried up; 'Heartroot' is the key ingredient in many potions, as has been described in the IC, and is intended to be a resource discover(ed/able) as The Quest ensues.

However, that sensation you describe is very much so intended; I'm not going for 'edgy/gritty', I'm using this setting as a means of re-experiencing a lot of my nostalgia with 'Old Fantasy'- specifically those of a darker atmosphere. The magic will come, the potions will be fantastic, and the creatures will be strange and powerful- but the lands are dark and disturbed and forgotten, and whilst 'The Enemy' looms over the horizon, few are able to see beyond the sun's next rise to worry about it and so things continue(d) to get worse.

The Quest will (hopefully) see to the issues you are feeling, but I'm rather glad I've given at least a semblance of the feeling I was intending to give on a personal note. At least when it comes to the wallet!

If Armor is too expensive for your present means, then you can rest assured that it is far too expensive for most others as well; I try to DM by the 'good for the goose, good for the gander' mentality and am aiming to provide a fair and enjoyable experience as we go along.

Yeah that makes sense, and I had that feeling which is why going after the bandits will likely be immediately bebeficial. Likely whatever the bandits are doing will disrupt trade and businesses which in turn means that the city doesnt have much to work with. Which is really bad for Fran since as a martial human, she kinda needs equipment to keep up with more magical races/creatures.

Though I'll also be honest, I'm so used to villains and other enemies having some dark matter which enables them to be far richer and more well supplied than any of us protagonists that the idea of murdering and looting the enemy is simply more efficient than bothering you come up with our own money and buying them from shops that won't have anything useful or available anytime soon. Why bother helping a blacksmith make mundane weapons and armor when that bandit boss over there is rocking a +1 armor and wields flaming swords?

Though I suppose that itself is a story to be told itself. Frans just a regular warrior. Unlike everyone else with fantastic magic abilities both innate to their race and gained from their training, all Fran has going for herself is her skills in battle. And I imagine that it won't be long before those too get stretched to their furthest limits while everyone else has much more pote tiel to unlock. So Fran had a lot at stake to make sure the Dale success of else it'll see itself consumed by the sheer raw efficiency other races have over humans.

based on the first criticisms received so far on the racial differences, I'm going to be establishing publicly here that I will be adjusting and tweaking the human as needed as the game progresses. The intentions behind the racial adjustment I made to them was to give them an emphasis on their versatility and how the race was a 'standard template' across Aesithas for the others to be fantastic in comparison to; this, however, for gameplay purposes may have lead to a bad feeling for those 'playing the human'. As such I am adding the following to the Human Race for now, and may make further adjustments (as with any race) as the game progresses.

I'm going to add 'Humans may attune to five magic items instead of three', and '+1 to a stat of choice' to the human template (to a total of +7 net stat adjustment).

Formally, this is the updated human

@Lucius Cypher and @XxFellsingxX Have so far voted for 'Pursue the Bandits'

@Vertigo, @Guardian Angel Haruki, @karamonnom, @Neianna86: Do you guys have a vote, or should I prepare to go forward with the Party choosing to pursue the Bandit Quest first? I intend to do my next post moving us forward later this week, likely by Saturday, so getting the votes in sooner than then is appreciated.

I'm down to pursue the bandits!

I wanted to give people a chance to jump in and roleplay, but since that isn't really picking up, I am fine with pushing the story forward. Dag'Tyr already suggested going out there to find answers and fix things. So he'd be in favour.

I appreciate the attempt! Do not be discouraged, I value the roleplay very highly, but I don’t want us to stagnate too long. Haruki has been extremely busy lately and I understand that, so rather than pinning a wait on someone I’m just going to pick us up and begin the first journey.

‘Resolve The Bandits’ it is!

I'm also okay with bandits.

Sorry again for the silence on my part. ^^"

@Guardian Angel Haruki (and others) Just so you know I didn't mean it as a slight or anything. I understand that life can be pretty busy and hectic.