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[Egan_BW]

Could go either way. Intel and experience are both highly valuable resources.
Not fame though, that just gets you killed.

1d2=2

[Devastator]

1. Do the job we was asked for. Disguising as a customer if it is even relatively possible, or even as a middleman who handles transferring of goods.

2. Try again that rumor mapping quest we botched last time. Stay away from sailors this time.

3. More sword training on free time.

Sure, but with two sword trainings instead of intel gathering.

I agree with that plan, though I'd prefer more sword practice rather than rumor gathering.

You approach the metallurgist, and decide to do this more openly.  That is, by showing yourself and interacting directly with him.

Right from the start, it doesn't go well.  You try and pose as a customer, but he apparently works for a limited number of people.  You don't ask the right questions, and suspicious from the government searches, he doesn't give you the benefit of the doubt.  You do find out that he doesn't work on a fixed schedule, and his legitamate work is mostly contract-driven for other business owners.

Stick with the rest of the plan?

[Egan_BW]

Training montage!

[syvarris]

If we can still do more for the job action, stalk the guy.  Watch where he goes.  If that action's over... Yeah, training montage.

[Devastator]

Training montage!

Wax on, wax off.

You still have a long way to go, but you feel that the exercise was helpful, and you've made good progress.  If a little monotonous.  This dojo isn't the best space in the world, and the continual turnover of students is telling you that at some point in the future, it would be better to find somewhere else to train.


This week is more gray and windy, a distinct change from the last few weeks of excellent weather.  Still, this has been a mild summer and the weather has been good.

You are settling into the routine at your work, and things mostly go as expected.

The city continues quiet.  This is a busy time for the merchants, as many raw materials are coming in.  lumber and metals, rice from the south, clay, linens, cotton, hemp, and samandar.

Your regular training doesn't go well.  Maybe you were tired from last week, maybe you are just hitting some mental or physical lull, but you don't feel very satisfied with how your training has paid.

This week, you have time for three actions.

Spoiler: Status (click to show/hide)

Assets and Abilities:
Prestige = 1
9 silver.
Ancient bronze short jian.
fine map of the Empire
poor maps of the countries across the sea.

Skills:
Gather information, +1
Shopping, +1
Weapon handling I
Jian skill +2/+1

Allies:
Min Li, spirit reader, 2 prestige, 1 favor
Huan Zhang, diplomat, 2 prestige, 0 favors

Currently employed running messages.  pays 1 silver/week, consumes two actions.
Engaged in focussed jian training, costs two silver/week, consumes one action.
Agreed to investigate magic sector metallurgist for proof of selling paktong.

[Egan_BW]

Triple-stack training.

• Do... stuff for the job. Look, this is syv's area, I didn't want to do this thing in the first place.
• Look around for a different dojo that might fit us better. TRAIN
• And yes, train.

[syvarris]

I agree with Egan's first and last actions.  I'd rather the dojo search be replaced with more training.

As for the job, stalk the guy.  Watch where he goes, what warehouses he visits.  He's gotta store the stuff somewhere, and with any luck, we can follow him to it at some point.

((I don't think we should search for another dojo.  We should be leaving ASAP, preferably just getting our next levelup and the reward for this quest (so that we don't starve).  Finding another dojo isn't conducive to that plan; We'd be staying in the city for weeks more at least.))

[Egan_BW]

((Dev told me that the current dojo just has a limit of +2/+2 that we can acquire. Which won't be relevant until our next levelup anyway. I'll change mine action.))

[Devastator]

As for the job, stalk the guy.  Watch where he goes, what warehouses he visits.  He's gotta store the stuff somewhere, and with any luck, we can follow him to it at some point.

You follow the guy around for a few days.  The main problem is that he stays mostly indoors; his does his work at a small compound seperate from where he lives, and deliveries arrive there, and leave from there.  You don't see any smoking gun, i.e, people carrying paktong around or shipments of it on carts, but you can confirm that the precursors to it are being delivered.

There seem to be five people involved in the deliveries.  Two are metal merchants, who do both buying and selling, and own warehouses.  The other three only buy from him, one works at a university, one runs a number of shops supplying professional mages, and one is some kind of factor, who seems to make a living finding unusual goods for order.  The deliveries to the merchants and the shopkeeper seem to be more regular, and the factor and the educator more irregular, but you cannot confirm any one person as being responsable.

The compound itself is made of brick, seperate from it's neighbours, and fenced in, likely out of fear of fire.  It consists mostly of two conjoined smelters, which are large compared to normal houses and shops, but small for smelters, and enough building for more workrooms and offices on two levels.  It also only has one entrance, a wide pair of doors next to a small courtyard, and windows are only present on the front side.  There appears to be about a half-dozen people who work there, with the metallurgist arriving late and often being the last to leave.  You don't know if it's occupied at night.

[Egan_BW]

I dunno, beat him up?

[syvarris]

Let's not.  Somehow, I imagine a young courier girl with only a small base of sword training can beat up an experienced smith unarmed, and I don't think we have sufficient skill to not murder him if we do use the sword.  And murder is illegal.

Hmm.  So, he's making the stuff himself.  He's been searched, so he probably doesn't keep it in the building overnight, or has a very good hiding place which we likely wouldn't find.

Roughly how much paktong is he moving, according to our employer?  Small amounts that might be kept in pockets, or larger amounts that couldn't be concealed easily?  I'm gonna assume the latter, for now.

Does he get the precursors from a single supplier, or both?  Assuming the former, do any of his buyers only arrive once per shipment of precursor?  Alternatively, do any regularly arrive a certain amount of time after a paktong precursor shipment; say, the precursor always arrives in the morning, and the factor in the evening the same day?

Failing finding any of those patterns, which buyer arrives most frequently?  The factor?  University guy?  Maybe even the mage man?

There's more questions I wanna ask, but I'm probably pushing it as is. :\

[Egan_BW]

And murder is illegal.

((Says you! ))

[Devastator]

Let's not.  Somehow, I imagine a young courier girl with only a small base of sword training can beat up an experienced smith unarmed, and I don't think we have sufficient skill to not murder him if we do use the sword.  And murder is illegal.

Hmm.  So, he's making the stuff himself.  He's been searched, so he probably doesn't keep it in the building overnight, or has a very good hiding place which we likely wouldn't find.

Roughly how much paktong is he moving, according to our employer?  Small amounts that might be kept in pockets, or larger amounts that couldn't be concealed easily?  I'm gonna assume the latter, for now.

Does he get the precursors from a single supplier, or both?  Assuming the former, do any of his buyers only arrive once per shipment of precursor?  Alternatively, do any regularly arrive a certain amount of time after a paktong precursor shipment; say, the precursor always arrives in the morning, and the factor in the evening the same day?

Failing finding any of those patterns, which buyer arrives most frequently?  The factor?  University guy?  Maybe even the mage man?

There's more questions I wanna ask, but I'm probably pushing it as is. :\

These questions are all fine, same if you want to ask a few more.

He's moving it in blocks of about fifty kilos at a time.  In size, that's about the size of two loaves of bread or a horsebucket.  The shipment that was caught was already on a ship.

The precursors are easy to get, legal, and there were supplies of both in the smelter when it was searched.  You'd need a look at his records to find out exactly when what comes in, from your point of view they're carts with canvas over them.  Most deliveries are in the morning.

The buyers usually don't visit themselves, they operate through other people or send messenges most of the time.  You did spot the mettalurgist eating a meal with the shopkeeper, and one of the metal merchants visited once in person.

More notably, though, you recognized the messenger belonging to the custom goods factor, who carried a message several days in a row.  You can't be certain if it means anything in itself, but it's definately the most frequent.

I will take a turn for that, because investigating the messenger is a different thing than following the mettalurgist.

One action remains.

[Devastator]

I dunno, beat him up?

You think they want money out of him.  It might also cause problems if he knows you're beating him up because they can't find the goods.

Or maybe not.

[Egan_BW]

Beat! Beat!