Lan turned to the merchant with an inquisitive look. "We'll be passing Polca and through Galam. How will the border taxes be payed for? Or are we...smuggling it in?
How does one start a business, by the way. Excuse me for asking."
Question on the destination.
"Taxes are paid simply by the goods carried, they never ask where it's from. Several nations have trade agreements with others ensuring monolpolies on certain goods. One nation may not wish to bleed the small fractions of a ducat that may be made per shipment - others do so in a manner akin to breathing. Vasir is well versed in this." The merchant shuffles around some papers looking for something,
"Starting a business? Ducats and the consent of a nation, that's all honestly. Some nations force taxes or other requirements on merchants, but I can't think of many offhand and even fewer in the Coast."Set out with herbalist and the guards to obtain the plants.
((Feel free to interact in the middle of all this if you want to expand it. Just rolled the shell of it up front))
[31,5,12] You set out to the northern forests making fair enough time and a mostly uneventful trip. Making camp at the northern forests proves difficult however. Several camps have been destroyed by the local wildlife. First thoughts were bandits, but one of the guards posioned some food left out after you had left with the Herbalist, killing a large bear. Eventually the group relocates the camp somewhere less...alive.
This doesn't seem to go as planned either. The new camp is now nearly twice as far from half the things she needs to collect, causing the trip to be longer than expected. Not like anyone here had anything better to do. Your short term perusal of the material she brought for you has given you some ideas that will be more conducive to your training than you expected, but not as much as you had hoped.
The materials the Herbalist came for are finally collected, and in addition you've learned a few things not to eat in the woods around here. One of the Guards was kind enough to teach you - and spent a night spewing fluids from both ends in the process.
You head off back to Shola in another uneventful trip.
"Pretty simple really. I want my throne back, but in order to get it back, I need information. The Ligorian amry seems to be preparing for another campaign, despite the death of Lord Nikepheros. I need to know, what they're doing, who's in chargeand where they're headed."
"Information I'm sure I could gather, but I don't see why it's of any use to you or how it would be of any use to me to provide it to you. Current leadership in Ligoria is almost helpful to my position in the coast."