Necessary Exchange

[Visla Eraclaire]

Visla wove her way through the crowds that choked the maze of stately causeways and narrow alleys that formed Radasanth’s commercial district. She was only vaguely familiar with the area, despite having made the city her home for nearly a year. Her lifestyle was humble and her means meager enough that trips to the bazaar were an extreme rarity. Though her traveling clothes had begun to hang loosely around her increasingly narrow form, even this had not been sufficient to force her into the raucous crush of tradesmen.

The reason that had at last drawn her in was held firmly in her right hand. The heirloom cane that had steadied her gait for years now bore the signs of her recent altercation with a bandit. A gash across the length of finely carved wood had taken the place of a deadly slice into Visla’s flesh.

As she glanced up at the wooden shingles that identified the shops, evaluating the craftsmanship more than the words themselves, she considered one last time whether she even wanted the item repaired. Whether it had truly been used by her mother or not, she couldn’t be certain. Memories from so far back were more iconic than narrative. Images, symbols, and intense feelings overwhelm more casual restatements of events. Regardless, it reminded her of the woman she had known just well enough to still miss. The only question that remained was whether leaving it marred would be a more fitting tribute than trying to restore it.

The fact that she was already walking the streets in search of a woodworker made the question largely academic. If she were truly uncertain, she never would have made it this far. Rubbing shoulders with haughty tradesman, befuddled commoners, and filthy beggars was something to be avoided at all costs. Or at least, at costs less than the value she placed on the cane. If nothing else, it was a practical matter to have it repaired. It would not do to have her walking stick snap on another long and unexpected trek. She could seemingly never be certain when she might be subject to another Calling.

Almost an hour passed as she shoved her way through throngs of buyers and sellers, at last settling on a shop whose sign featured scrollwork that made her cane’s adornments look like the work of a rank amateur. The interior was arrayed with crafts of all sorts, from mundane housewares to martial weapons. It was mercifully empty of other customers, leading Visla to breathe a sigh of relief as she approached the counter.

“Good afternoon?” she called, awaiting the appearance of a clerk.

[Viola Conda]

The clerk woozily lifted his head, looking at the newcomer with a look or irritation. He kicked his feet up onto his desk as he watched her approach, and his mind already concluded his lazy day was going to get busy.

"What do you want?" he groaned, making it clear in his tone he wasn't really in a mood to deal with this. He eyed her with suspicion, and when he was satisfied he could take her, relaxed a bit more in his seat reclining.

[Visla Eraclaire]

Visla hoped that the proprietor of the shop had such a lazy clerk only because he was so dedicated to the craft itself that he had not noticed the lackluster service. Nevertheless, she placed her cane on the counter and began to lay out her needs.

“First, as you can see, this cane has been damaged by the edge of a long sword,” she said, turning the gash toward the clerk. “I’d like to have it repaired. I leave the manner of that to your master, but I’d like the carving reproduced and the whole thing re-lacquered. It’s an heirloom, so I would like it handled with care.”

She suspected that such repair work would be relatively inexpensive and thus of little interest to the clerk. Moreover, reproducing such simple craftsmanship was likely of little interest to the skilled owner she had imagined.

“Once it’s repaired, I’ll set it aside, and so I need a replacement,” she continued. “I need something sturdy, made of a strong wood, or even reinforced with metal if your master can oblige, that will be able to resist the wear and tear of long journeys as well as occasional weapon strikes. I am, however, not a warrior so I need it to be light. The item is a cane first and a defensive implement second. I can’t be carrying something that’s so heavy it will actually make my walking harder.”

She pondered how she might make the task more interesting.

“In any event, the length of it should be plain so that repair will be easy if it’s needed. I’d like to head carved into something interesting, though. I shall ponder the design and discuss it once we have come to an agreement on the repair and the materials and cost of this second item.

[Viola Conda]

"AH REPAIR WORK!" He whined loudly as a tears flowed down his face. "I do this shit all fucking day and for once I just wanted one day off! Jesus!" He scooped the cane up and looked at the design. "Ya, ok, this shouldn't be to big a hassle." He mumbled to himself looking at the comics in the paper with a longing eye.

"As for your new walking stick," He shrugged his shoulders. "Everything is possible for the right coinage. Repairs, that's easy. I'll charge you 50 and be done. But making something out of scratch." he shuffled a hand behind his head as he thought about it. "How about a metal core made of lightweight metal like damascus? It's not as heavy as steel, but it's got the same strength qualities." He offered.

[Visla Eraclaire]

Visla pulled back her cloak and peered into her coin purse. Damascus was no trivial matter, as far as she knew. Lightweight and strong, she knew it was going to set her back quite a bit. It would certainly be useful, but the question remained, whether she might spend her money better another way. She only had what coin she had taken with her so long ago and whatever scant wealth she came upon by chance in her travels.

"I have no doubt Damascus make a fine cane. What is it going to cost me? I don't plan on getting assaulted on a regular basis, and at some prices I could just pay someone to follow me around," she scoffed a bit and paused to think about the design, presuming she was going to buy the item at all. "If I'm having it made from scratch, I may as well make some interesting modifications. I remember some very crass old men used to conceal brandy in their canes. Not that I'm likely to take up their dedicated drinking habits, but I can see how storing a variety of liquids might come in handy. Concealed under a nice comfortable grip, maybe."

She had given up her ideas of outlandish headpieces, gemmed spheres, demonic wings, and all sorts of rubbish. The thing just needed to hold her dwindling weight and hold off a strike or two if her recent misfortune repeated itself.

[Viola Conda]

The man grumbled and whined as he heard her desires grow with each need, and he grabbed his water jug taking a swig and holding his head. "Ugh, did you want it to make you be able to fly?" He teased in a very crass manner. He looked at his paper and began drawing a simple pole with a large head, he made a few notes as to where the liquid could be held and fumbled with the materials the costs would require. "Hmm," he began to let his brain un-fog itself as he began to get more and more involved with his plans before he settled upon a design that he himself thought about making for himself.

"I got it," He said scribbling the notes onto the drawing. "A very easy, smooth button that is undectable at glance, like a hidden button on a wall. Nice and flush. That will release a chamber and explosive liquid can fly out, creating a sort of flash that will temporaily blind the foe!" He scribbled more onto the drawing and began to play with the metal work.

"If I twist it like this at the top, it can actually balance itself well to be used for better defensive striking, like a billy club!" he exclaimed loudly as he continued to draw more and more. "Hmm, better make it so the wood is a bit resistant to flames...I got it, just a simple laquer coat, won't add to much to the cost..." his tounge lazily fell to the side of his mouth as he hungrily looked at the sheet before he slammed it down before his customer.

"Okay, Cane without the liquid on the bottom, 250, assuming the wood is made of a basic oak. 300 if you want the cane to come with one use of the combustible liquid inside. I can improve the wood to make it stand up in a fight better, so it'll save on repair costs..." He scrambled with the sheet as another idea came to mind. "Unless you want to use a type of bone...Then it will rarely chip. That will cost you a bit more, but it would be well worth it. And of course all our wears come with the extended warranty as well." He eyed the drawing and flashed a pleading grin. "I'll throw in whatever work you want for a design for free if you choose bone. You can have it look like whatever you want. And I can die the bone to be any color you want. Black marble is popular these days." His eyes looked to her with expectantly, his mouth uttering the words, 'take the bone...'

[Visla Eraclaire]

Visla was surprised at the ingenuity displayed by the otherwise unpleasant man. She supposed she shouldn't be; she was just the same way. Though his idea for the blinding liquid was a bit off from what she had imagined, it was actually very gratifying that she could get something so complex at such reasonable prices. And bone was something she had never considered. A warrantee might not be of much use, as she meandered her way through the world, but she supposed she could always return to Radasanth.

"You've definitely sold me on the bone, so you needn't worry about that. My only question now is about the liquid device. For the same sort of price do you think it could function a little differently? Rather than expelling pressurized liquid into the air, could the button extend an injector in the base and send the liquid out that way? I can see the merit in getting the stuff out at range, but there are a lot more things one can do if the liquid will go into the body. I get the feeling I may end up using it on myself more than anything else…"

She paused her proposal and thought for a moment about the implications of that last statement.

"With potions! With potions, I mean," she insisted. "In any event, if you can do that, in bone, with the injector, and the warrantee, what's the final number? Oh, and I have something for the design."

She started ruffling through her pack for a scrap of paper. When she found it she flattened it on the counter. The page was covered in Infernal script. It was no magic scroll, just a copying page Aelva had instructed her with, but she decided it would make a good design for the haft. Not so long ago she would have been terrified to show such a thing, but the longer she stayed in Radasanth the more she realized that there were much more terrible and hated things than warlocks. No one really paid a small quiet girl much mind.

[Viola Conda]

The man sighed in relief as he heard her condone the bone, and he began to grow excited at the new job ahead of him. She mentioned a price and he took out his material list and checked his inventory for the ingredients and checked what would have to be ordered, what would have to be scavenged, and what may possibly have to just be stolen. He scratched his chin with his fingers, looking for the itch as he dropped the paper and pulled out his warranty packet.

"Okay, for the entire thing," he thumbed through a book of costs and labor and fingered down searching for the right price he felt in charging. His hand slipped down a bit farther down than he should have, but he decided t let it slide. "How about 650 gold for this cane, no liquid, but the compartment ready for any injection use. Also, I can sell you the warranty, which is guaranteed for one year of service that will make sure it lasts or your money back. We also do exchanges and upgrades with this plan. The price for that is only a mere," he stuck his tongue out to double check his math. "98 extra gold pieces. So what do ya say? Will you make my day?" he pleaded.

((The warranty is a very real service we provide now, and how it works is until your EXP reaches 12,000 you are covered if the cane breaks in way during a battle or quest that meets certain criteria. I can PM you an example of a previous purchased warranty if you like.))

[Visla Eraclaire]

Visla wondered what would become of her in a year. It seemed so far away, and yet surprisingly little had happened in the past two. Likely she would still be searching fruitlessly for answers and fighting the same growing frustration that there were none to be found.

"I'll take the warranty, and I don't find your price to be unreasonable. My only concern is whether I'll have any way to redeem it. Corone is less than stable these days, civil war and all. How can you assure me I'm not just handing my gold over to someone who won't be here in a year?"

Visla knew that the civil war was largely a cold one that few people were genuinely impacted by. It had been boiling beneath the surface for some time without serious effects, but one could never guess when it might erupt into full blown hostilities, the sort of hostilities that cause merchants to disappear, and the fear of which causes merchants to occasionally discount their prices. It was a shot in the dark, and Visla wasn't about to genuinely haggle. She had the gold to cover the price and after pondering the prospect since she left her room that morning, there really was nothing better to do with it.

"Oh, and one more thing. What sort of bone is it exactly?"

She was genuinely surprised she hadn't asked. It didn't matter that much, she supposed, but it would be nice at least to know what creature's bones she was leaning on. If not for aesthetic reasons, it would say something about the alleged sturdiness of the product.

((Send me a copy of it))

[Viola Conda]

"The bone is made from a massive monster this area had fought off about two months back. Since I created the weapon that slayed the beast, I got the lions share of the prize." He said smugly. "And war is war, but business is business. No matter what people need to buy stuff, so to answer your question." He gave her a wily smile as he slipped her the receipt, tapping upon the family crest in the corner. It was the picture of a lion fighting some reptile beast.

"We have a saying in the family business," he said matter of factly. "Don't put all the stores in one bazaar. We are scattered through out the world, mam. No need to worry. So just sign here and we got a deal." He passed the papers and a quill and smiled in a very non-aggressive way, hoping to be off to his lab to make the cane.

((Tier is literally Bone. It's not designed for blunt force trauma, but cuts and slashes from swords, which I assume you will be parrying with this, should be just fine. That's why the warranty is nice. :D))

[Visla Eraclaire]

It made an impressive story and certainly dispelled all the images she had of the man as a lowly clerk. Still, though he may be a master craftsman, as soon as Visla heard the words "sign here and we'll have a deal" a little switch seemed to flick on in the back of her mind. A book she had read long ago, before she departed her island home occurred to her. It was a drab colored tome, weighty and massive, but with unusually thin pages designed to fit as much information as possible. The Universal Coronian Commerce Code, or UCCC, was supposedly the basis for all sales of goods within the lands, though some regions modified the rules substantially. She read the terms of the warranty carefully and began to analyze them.

First, the transaction was clearly one in goods, and it cost more than the statutory minimum fifty gold pieces. Thus the U-triple-C was likely to apply, and this writing was necessary to make the agreement enforceable. The writing specified the only necessary term, quantity, as one cane. While she was encouraged to sign, the signature that would make the warranty binding was the seller-merchant's.

She noted importantly that the warranty's terms were not specific enough to disclaim the implied warranties of merchantability and, since Visla had described her intent, fitness for a particular use. In fact, the additional warranty statement was largely unnecessary, but it seemed to make the merchant happy. It also purported to limit Visla's remedy against him, but the terms did not define the remedies offered as exclusive, and so such an attempted limitation would likely be ineffective. She also happily noted that even with the limited remedies, it did not expressly disclaim coincidental damages.

Satisfied at her ability to challenge the document should the need arise, she took the quill and added a term at the bottom just above the signature line.

"Delivery: F.O.B. Residence of Buyer, 543 West Constance Street, 2nd Floor Apartment, Radasanth, Corone."

She then signed, indicating her name as "Visla Layne" and knowing full well that any mark intended as a signature functioned legally as one.

((This probably seems like gibberish to you, but it's an amusing joke to me. Never present a lawyer with a contract, especially not a law student who just finished an exam on Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code, transactions in goods. You can ignore pretty much everything I said; I don't actually intend to challenge the validity of the warranty, especially not on the basis of a legal system that I arbitrarily attributed to Corone.

As far as I am concerned, the deal is done. The term Visla added merely indicates that the merchant is obliged to deliver at his expense and risk of loss, the cane to her residence.

Oh, and, at your discretion, I do request the percentage exp reward for a bazaar thread that I did not simply turn out without consideration.

Thanks for all your help.))

[Viola Conda]

(9My fucking brain hurts reading all that, Jesus christ I'm never showing you a warranty again. EXP granted for this of course.)

"Excellent, the merchandise will be ready in a few days time." He said smacking his lips and jumping into his workshop getting right to work. "Come back in a few days, and the canes yours." He shouted over the groan of metal.

[Visla Eraclaire]

A few days passed as uneventfully as ever. Visla was not Called to strange manors or accosted by brigands. She met no strange fortunetellers in bars and searched the halls of no great libraries. She simply waited, content to sit in her small apartment and read the few books she carried with her, some for the third or fourth time. There was always more to glean from truly good writing.

One day a knock came at her door and she knew it could be only one thing. She invited no visitors and none came to call upon her uninvited. As the door swung open, it was, as she expected, a courier from the Bazaar. The small boy was weighted down with a variety of packages, pitiful looking like an overloaded mule. Still, he gritted his teeth and handed a lengthy package to Visla, wrapped in brown paper with a notification attached.

"Delivery receipt requested: _________"

Visla signed the line as she had the agreement at the shop, "Visla Layne."

Her delight at receiving the object was great enough that she managed a smile, and flipped a coin into the boy's waiting hands before shutting the door.

She tore the packaging apart as quickly as she could and examined the thing from top to bottom. The carving was just as she had hoped, elegant and subdued, just enough to make the shaft interesting. The liquid compartment seemed ample, and as she pressed the trigger the injecting needle extended nicely. Finally, she leaned against it, letting her nearly insignificant weight come to rest on the length of bone. It seemed not to notice at all, sturdy and reliable as promised.

Visla's smile persisted for a few more minutes before she sat it next to the door with her refurbished heirloom cane.

((As I calculate it, I owe 799, 650 for the new cane, 50 for the repairs to the old one, 98 for the warranty, and 1 coin that I tipped the delivery boy :)

Thanks again))

[Taskmienster]

Exp and Gp fixed and done.