You pass the parchment to the scribes who diligently make a copy and sign it themselves.
And with document thus signed you are invited to the chambers of Company Master of Luzia, Paulo Alfonso de Amiencafaya.
His room is quite square, with maps of Karibs, Stygia and the faraway Xin and the Root Islands plastered onto each of the walls flanking the door and in front of it. Bookshelves full of ledges and rolled up documents and scrolls line the gaps in the walls between the maps.
Company Master himself is seated at a large, intricately detailed ebony desk, a pile of parchment on his right-hand side, and an inkwell on the left-hand side, his fingers deftly inscribing something on the parchment in front of him with a white and ashen quill of some bird. The Company Master is a stout, clean-shaven man with hooked nose and small, but sharp eyes, and ears away from his cheeks, with sparse dark brown hairs, short and neat against the back of his head. He wears a dark red robe and a chain of gold on his neck.
He looks at you with a glance, and then takes interest in the parchment you're carrying. You pass it to him and he quietly reads the contents.
"So you want to work for our honorable Company, right?"
"Right." He brings the parchment to his eyes, reads some more, and glances at you.
"Albionese?"
"Yes." He nods and puts the parchment down.
"Good, sturdy men of the sea and pleasant trading partners, your folk." He stands up and moves to the shelf behind and to the right of him, and pulls out a large book clad in crimson leather. He flips the pages as he returns to his seat and traces some numbers and names down a list at one page, then flips to another - also full of names and numbers.
"Hm hm, hmmm, yeees... Mister Finley, we would be honored to have you as a Captain of one of our ships headed for Karibs in the coming year. If you're interested?"
"I have never been in Karibs."
"That is not a problem. The crews in our employ need a leader, not a guide."
"Right."
"All we ask of you is to get us spices, dyes, whatever that is produced in the Karibs and not in Lusitania. There's great demand for the exotic goods and even larger profits awaiting those who bring them to port." He traces some names on another page of his book.
"It takes slightly over two months to get to Karibs, visit the ports and return to Lusitania, if you follow the trade winds south and west and then north and east."
"What would be the Company financing of my expedition?"
"We get you a Ship and its crew, plus armaments of your choice." He says, taking an empty sheet of parchment. "Expenses for these will be thus called Company Loan; your voyage will first pay off these expenses, and anything else above that is Company profits. You will be able to fill the Cargo Holds of the Ship with some Company goods - that said, we sell Textiles and Alcohols to the Karibs - and you will be given some Company Money to purchase goods in Karibs with in case the Company Goods do not turn out to be very profitable, as it is sometimes the case. Whatever Company Money you do not spend on purchases, must be also returned." He lifts his quill towards the ink well.
"First things first, though - I need to ask you when you prefer to travel."
"Is there a difference?"
"Very much, in case of Karibs. While you can trade gold and silver pretty much whole year, it is Autumn and Winter that have the most precious of spices and seasonings available aplenty. That is not to say that other seasons are unprofitable, no, but you have to remember that Sea in Spring is usually calmest of them and in Summer the most violent. And in Autumn, when profits are the greatest, pirates also are active more than usual."
"I will sail..."
A) "In the Spring, when it is the calmest and easiest to sail."
B) "In the Summer, for I fear no inclement weather!"
C) "In the Autumn, as the bigger the risk, the bigger the reward!"
D) "In the Winter, which might be the best times of them all."
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Topic: SPAMTRADER OF LUSITANIA: Captain Scott Finley! (Read 9928 times)