![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Oct. 31st, 2010 01:09 amTurned out there was a game today. A big climatic end-of-story-arc thing. We marched into a deserted slum where, in a spooky long-abandoned clock tower, we faced down and defeated the lamia in charge of a murder cult in the city and beyond.
A little while back I'd noticed that, with enough Mage Hand, Ghost Sound and less than ethical applications of the Bluff skill, a group of adventurers could easily swindle their way to riches as freelance exorcists. This time through, I noticed that getting rid of the lamia would mean that we could sit on a big chunk of real estate pretty much uncontested, and protected by the dire reputation of the area. I think Kelly was the person who came up with the idea that we could kill off the lamia, take over a big chunk of the abandoned buildings, then announce the lamia's death - and make a boodle off the people flooding back into the now-safe area. I suppose it's a good thing that we're a relatively ethical little player character party - my character's a paladin, it really isn't appropriate for me to be thinking OOCly about all the various scams and swindles player characters could inflict upon an unready fantasy world. Maybe, if I ever run a Thieves' Guild based campaign...
After we dispatched the lamia, we found her hit list for the murder cult - and the list included the Lord Mayor of the city we were in. The Lord Mayor was very grateful for our help and, on top of rewarding us with lavish amounts of gold, gave us a hot lead for the next job. A hot lead that we could follow up on by marching across the continent for over a week. Ah, but how to get there? Sam cracked the numbers and buying a wagon would be cheaper, carry people more efficiently, allow for people to sleep or ride in shifts. Here's the thing though; we could get a carriage - a nice one - for 100 gp. By comparison we've been doing things like dropping 2000 or 4000 gp on magical items. Clearly, anyone sane would have given up adventuring several levels ago, and sunk the money into running a livery service.
... which, really, makes you wonder if this happens in D&Dish worlds a lot. The former adventurer retired to own a pub is a pretty standard trope. But I have to wonder, with this contrast in economies, whether there's a plateau around 3-5th level where adventurers tend to drop out of the business, and sink their gains into being landlords, innkeepers, livery owners or something similarly expensive, never to go down a dark hole in the ground again.
A little while back I'd noticed that, with enough Mage Hand, Ghost Sound and less than ethical applications of the Bluff skill, a group of adventurers could easily swindle their way to riches as freelance exorcists. This time through, I noticed that getting rid of the lamia would mean that we could sit on a big chunk of real estate pretty much uncontested, and protected by the dire reputation of the area. I think Kelly was the person who came up with the idea that we could kill off the lamia, take over a big chunk of the abandoned buildings, then announce the lamia's death - and make a boodle off the people flooding back into the now-safe area. I suppose it's a good thing that we're a relatively ethical little player character party - my character's a paladin, it really isn't appropriate for me to be thinking OOCly about all the various scams and swindles player characters could inflict upon an unready fantasy world. Maybe, if I ever run a Thieves' Guild based campaign...
After we dispatched the lamia, we found her hit list for the murder cult - and the list included the Lord Mayor of the city we were in. The Lord Mayor was very grateful for our help and, on top of rewarding us with lavish amounts of gold, gave us a hot lead for the next job. A hot lead that we could follow up on by marching across the continent for over a week. Ah, but how to get there? Sam cracked the numbers and buying a wagon would be cheaper, carry people more efficiently, allow for people to sleep or ride in shifts. Here's the thing though; we could get a carriage - a nice one - for 100 gp. By comparison we've been doing things like dropping 2000 or 4000 gp on magical items. Clearly, anyone sane would have given up adventuring several levels ago, and sunk the money into running a livery service.
... which, really, makes you wonder if this happens in D&Dish worlds a lot. The former adventurer retired to own a pub is a pretty standard trope. But I have to wonder, with this contrast in economies, whether there's a plateau around 3-5th level where adventurers tend to drop out of the business, and sink their gains into being landlords, innkeepers, livery owners or something similarly expensive, never to go down a dark hole in the ground again.
