Peek: Trade Routes

It's surprising how much difference a winter can make, muses Elaina SIlverwheat, leader of the Merchant's Guild in Fourdock. After Hullbreak attacked the town, she wasn't certain how lucrative her business would be. Attacks tend to make investors nervous, and though a hands-off mayor is good in peaceful times, investors feel better when the local authorities take a more active role in ensuring a volatile situation is defused. Even if an active government can be a hamper to business with regulations.

Still, the situation went far better than it had any right to, with Lord Rezlar stepping up enough to provide stability, but not stepping on the toes of industry. Honestly, his hold idea will be a great growth opportunity, and she just wishes she had a tighter grip on the smaller trades guilds. She might have been able to force several more sacks of gold out of the lord mayor.

Then again, maybe she couldn't. The mayor wasn't above a subtle threat, implying a smear campaign against any businesses that tried to gouge over prices for it. She'd bristle over it more if the contracts weren't good market value, even if she would have liked to charge an arm and a leg.

She may be greedy, but she's not stupid. After seeing how quickly that lighthouse went up even in the dead of winter, it was plain that her guild being involved was a courtesy, not a requirement. Thedeim is making a lot of waves, and if she intends to keep her position, she needs to be prepared to ride them, rather than be dashed by them.

It'll take a bit of maneuvering, but if she can keep the smithing guild under her banner, that particular wave should pay significant dividends. Mythril and orichalcum, right here in quiet little Fourdock, who could have guessed? The only blemish on that particular discovery is that adventurers will be required to mine them. She might need to get an Order priest to draw up a contract for a long term quest for guarding the miners. After the thin orc nimbly dodged the pitfalls and navigated loopholes she managed to miss, she's not going to try writing her own with that guild any time soon. That he happily offers his services to anyone else negotiating only makes her consider an Order priest even more.

But even more profitable than metaphorical waves are the real ones. With Hullbreak open to delving once more, Fourdock may be able to finally be a trade port once again! She'll have to spend gold to make it, but oh the gold she can make! The docks will need to be brought back into service, and ships procured, and that won't be cheap.

The town may have been named after the first four docks, but in its prime, there were over a dozen! While the elven capital boasts many times that number, they mostly deal with local ships. Fourdock was able to trade across the ocean, with a strong current leading to the town, and a shorter loop to take north to ride the currents back. It took hardy and nimble ships to manage the often temperamental weather and even occasional icebergs, but a skilled captain could manage a full extra loop a year!

If she can get Fourdock functioning again, she'll have more gold than even she will know what to do with! Even better, she shouldn't need to spend all of her own on fixing up the docks, either. The kind of tax and terrifs the kingdom could gain should make a grant simple to secure. Even fresh and repaired ships won't need to come fully or even mostly from her own pockets. Investors should leap at the chance to get in early on this!

Which is why she's been spending her winter checking records and occasionally paying the exorbitant fees for magical communication. A single letter might cost a handful of gold, but that handful could save her wagons full if an old ship can be easily refurbished, instead of needing to commission a new one.

There's really only one thing left for her to do now, as spring beats back winter to take its place. She needs to talk with Hullbreak, and possibly with the merfolk, too. The dungeon might be friendlier now, but few ships will be able to ply these waters without its approval. So now she needs to figure out what she can offer it. That at least promises to be more interesting. Planning routes and investments are all well and good, but at her heart, a true merchant needs to be able to meet a customer's needs and wants. While that's a simple thing for people, she has no idea what a dungeon would desire.

The prospect of learning takes her back to her youth, dutifully helping her father with his mule-drawn cart, fetching whatever random thing he had purchased that was now exactly what a customer needed, watching him figure out what someone needed before they knew it themselves!

It'll be a challenge, but then again, that's what dungeons are for, right? Whoever said the challenges were only for delvers?

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Inspired by Scott Butcher, who wanted to see a follow through for the sea trade routes now that Hullbreak is friendlier.