Alright, so here's what everyone's getting:
Hastur:
* 20 plump helmet seeds (2 bags of 10 seeds) -40☼
* Personal Basics -5☼
* Wineskin -10☼
* 4 Bottles of Rum -16☼
* 4 Bottles of Beer -24☼
* 3 Bottles of Wine -27☼
* 10 Barrels of Hardtack -50☼
* 1 wardog. Named Rotgut -100☼
wheelbarrow 60
Total remaining: 168☼
kingfisher:
2 weeks of rum, (492) 10 weeks of beer, 432 10 weeks of hardtack, 382 backpack, 5 candles 367 1 single tent 317 personal basics 312, pick 297 5 boxes of bandages 247 crossbow 97 20 whetstones 67
kestrel:
Crossbow 150
Spear 40
2 weeks plumphelmets 30
Large Backpack w/ Frame 100
Personal Basics 5
Tent 50
Rope 10 Yards 50
Pick 15
Peasant Clothes 60
Total spent 500
Total left 0
Ahra:
1 Month of plump helmets 60☼ 440
2 weeks rum 8☼ 432
Axe 50☼ 382
Peasant clothes 60☼ 322
wineskin 10☼ 312
Huge backpack with frame 100☼ 212
Pick 15☼ 197
Shovel 12☼ 185
personal tent 50☼ 135
Medium shield 60☼ 75
Lantern 6☼ 69
12H candle x5 15☼ 54
Leftover money: 54☼
hubris:
* 20 Cave Wheat seeds (2 bags of 10 seeds) -40☼
* Single Dwarf Tent -50☼
* Personal Basics -5☼
* Wineskin -10☼
* Group Basics -50☼
* Commoner Clothes -120☼
* 4 Bottles of Rum -16☼
* 4 Bottles of Beer -24☼
* 3 Bottles of Wine -27☼
* 10 Barrels of Hardtack -50☼
* 1 Puppy, named Igril Kenistatlosh -100☼
Total remaining: 8☼
adwarf:
Sword - 500
Unwanted Kitten 'Mary' - 0
Irony:
Peasant Clothes (60☼)
Personal Basics (5☼)
Personal Tent (50☼)
Pick (15☼)
8 Barrels Plump Helmets (120☼)
8 Bottles Cave Beer (48☼)
2 Puppies [male and female, names pending] (200☼)
Black Kitten [Male, name pending] (0☼)
2☼ Spare Change
So, there's that. The most important distinction, I think, is that there's some items we just sort of need as a group, and some we want as individuals.
So, for the sake of argument, let's see what happens if we try to simply pool all of our money, buy what we need, and then try to get what everyone wants personally. You can just skip to the end if you want the short version.
Depending on how much we want and what quality, we have some options here.
| 4 Units Each | 8 Units Each |
Low Quality | 252☼ | 504☼ |
Medium Quality | 588☼ | 1176☼ |
According to the food spoiler, each unit (of food, at least; it doesn't explicitly mention liquor) lasts 2 dwarves one week; but Neyvn's said that each barrel is only one week "unless you hoard it," so I'm guessing it just lasts a week. Clarification would be nice.
In any case, going by that assumption, we could get two months worth of horrible, horrible food and drink for 504☼. I'd tentatively suggest that.
Next up, let's consider essentials.
Personal basics sound like they're fairly mandatory, even though their exact purpose isn't very clear. Group basics I'm completely lost on. In any case, it's 35☼ for the personal basics and 50☼ per group basics, meaning 100☼ if we want enough to cover everyone.
Then there's tents. Really the only question here is if we want one or not. In theory we could maybe get one or two and rotate between us, but I don't think that's worth bothering with. Either we spend 300☼ on a 20-dwarf tent or we go without.
Clothes is an interesting issue. I suppose we could skip them entirely, but we'd likely be nearly naked by the time we got to the site. It'd be 140☼ for ragged clothes for all, and 420☼ for peasant clothes. I'd suggest we get a full set of ragged clothes to tide us over, but doing without is an option.
Finally, there's essential tools. Picks are 15☼, axes 50☼, and shovels 12☼. Seeds are 20☼ for a bag of ten, and we'll obviously need those also. We have two woodcutter/carpenters, so two axes is probably a good idea. Shovels we probably only need one of, but having a spare might be a good idea. Picks we should probably have at least two of, and possibly more.
Assuming two axes, two shovels, and three picks, that gives us 154☼. Seeds I have no idea on, but I'm leaning towards maybe 40, which would be 80☼.
Thus, depending on specifics, we're looking at anywhere from 132☼ (personal basics, one bag of seeds, one of each tool) to 709☼ (everything). I'd lean towards 319☼, making one group basics, no tent or clothes, and redundant tools.
Now we come to personal items, that is, what everyone wants for themselves, rather than for the fortress.
Hastur's only apparent desire is a puppy, which he's labeled a wardog, but 100☼ gets him a puppy so here we are.
Kestrel wants a large backpack, crossbow, spear, and some rope. That seems potentially excessive to me, though they are all potentially useful. That comes to 340☼.
Ahra wants an axe, shield, wineskin, large backpack, lantern, and five candles. He wants all three tools, but presumably more to have than for personal use, so we'll write that off as covered under essentials. Candles and a lantern should probably go there to, so that leaves a large backpack, shield, and wineskin for 170☼.
hubris similarly only wants a puppy. 100☼.
adwarf wants a 500☼ sword. As might be expected, giving him some far, far cheaper weapon until we can buy something from the caravan might be far wiser. Of course, if he's not getting a sword he might have something else he wanted but couldn't afford, so we're at anywhere from 0☼ to 500☼ here.
Irony mainly wants two puppies. 200☼.
Assuming everyone gets what they want, that gives us 910☼, or 1410 if adwarf gets his sword. We'll need to throw in some lanterns and candles for everyone, but can potentially trim down some other areas.
For instance, if we get just one large backpack and give kestrel a crossbow but not a spear or rope, we could bring that down to 720☼, plus whatever we spend on lanterns and candles.
So, with that in mind:
Assuming 504☼ for food, 319☼ for essentials, and 720☼ for personal items, we're spending 1543☼ out of 3500☼ total. That leaves us damn near 2000☼ to spend on other things, which is good because we're attaining this number by cheaping out in a number of places.
However, it's important to consider the all-important subject of toolsets. If we really want to, we could slim down even more and get four sets, but I'd lean towards just getting three and padding ourselves out a bit elsewhere. Assuming this is true, that leaves the question of which three.
Stonecrafting is, of course, all but mandatory. There really doesn't need to be a lot of debate on that one. However, I'd go so far as to suggest that a second set would be ideal, so as to have more than one person working on stone crafts at any one time. Carpentry is handy for making beds and barrels, so that'd be nice, but we can do without it if we really have to. Metalcrafting would be ideal because then we could forge more sets of our own, though not until we managed to find or buy some metal anyway.
So, the way I see it, we have four options:
2x Stonecrafter, Carpenter - We'll be as comfortable as can be expected and should have plenty of crude stone rings to sell to the merchants. However, we'll be unable to get anything else without buying it, which might require hoping the merchants happen to have what we need.
2x Stonecrafter, Metalcrafter - We'll have plenty to sell, but be fairly miserable unless we manage to find some ore really fast. The first caravan should have some metal for sale, so we'll probably be completely fine once the first caravan arrives, but have issues ranging from morale to food storage until then.
Stonecrafter, Carpenter, Metalcrafter - We'll have far less to sell, but be both comfortable and able to make tools for anything we need given a bit of metal.
Stonecrafter, Carpenter, Mason - Mason could be replaced with just about anything, but the principle remains. We'd have less to sell and be dependent on the caravans for new tools, but would be even more comfortable than usual.
Whatever we choose, I do feel we should get 3 toolsets. Getting only 2 is an option, but I don't think there's anything that'd benefit us more than a third.
So, with all that in mind, I'd like to make the following proposal:
504☼ 56 Units Hardtack and 56 Units Cheap Rum (8 per dwarf each)
85☼ 7 Personal Basics, 1 Group Basics
140☼ 7 Ragged Clothes
219☼ 3 Axes, 2 Shovels, 3 Picks
80☼ 2 Bags Plump Helmet Seeds, 1 Bag Cave Wheat Seeds, 1 Bag Pig Tail Seeds
400☼ 4 Puppies (for Hastur, hubris, and Irony x2)
120☼ 2 Medium Shields
150☼ Crossbow
60☼ Backpacks
30☼ 3 Waterskins
39☼ Lantern and 11 Candles
3☼ 3 Whetstones
120☼ 2 Wheelbarrows
50☼ 10 yards 300lb Rope
1500☼ 3 Toolsets
Total: 3500☼
This gives us enough rations for two months, "fresh" clothing for everyone, and ample tools. It also gives our marksdwarf a crossbow and our two melee soldiers shields. adwarf would have to make do with an axe until we found him a sword, but as mentioned would at least get a shield until then. We'd also have some things to help carry loads, a rope just in case, and enough light for one lantern to run 12 hours a day for three weeks.
Of course, we'd be sleeping in the open until we dug out rooms and eating the worst food known to dwarvenkind shy of vermin, but I still think this is a mostly solid proposal.