Chapter 5 - Prince Frederick's Town

[jemmus]

I updated the GM post while you were posting. Just some extra IC stuff I'd missed. No revisions to Charlie's sheet needed.

[jemmus]

Doos Talks to Inga before as she gets ready for church.

"Ma'am, Like to thank you for taking us in, there are 6 of us and I would like to show our good faith and pay for two days in advance."
Doos hands her 3 crumpled 10 dollar bill and 4 dimes. $31.50; 4 x2.70x2= $21.60 = 2x2.4x2= $8.80 = $30.40. Assuming the price you quoted is for a day? Thats about ~$130 each for 7 weeks. Am I wrong, we can barely pay for a week with our pocket money and another week with jobs. Am I seeing this wrong?

Doos adopted a dog and called her Target.

I will not roll for Doos for the first week, as he will be 'self' employed working on the Wells Fargo account. Trying to move it along faster using whatever legal matters he can. If he needs more time, let me know GM.

Law Skill: Jobs vs 11 #1[1d20]=1 #2[1d20]=5 #3[1d20]=15 #4[1d20]=15 #5[1d20]=5 #6[1d20]=3

"Mr. Nimitz, I know you will stand too your previous agreement and going forward on the negations, or I will sue you for false statement and breaking verbal contract. We don't need to go forward with that. You can have the amount available with just a handshake and a receipt for our agreement as stated earlier. What do you say?" Doos holds out his hand.

Doos is hoping to use the problem in California to encourage Mr. Nimitz to pay off a problem and make it go away.

I think that covered everything.

Doos

Andreas take Doos to introduce him to the local attorney and elected judge Wilhelm ("Willie") Hufschmied. Andreas confides, Hufschied is kind of a big shot around here. He two ranches, the hardware store, the lumbermill, and part of the Prinz Frederich hotel. But people say he's a diligent lawyer who leaves no page unturned. And quite a stern and challenging judge. The clean-shaven man with short combed over and lightly oiled haircut needs no interpreter. Mr. Larson, thank you for the introduction. Honorable Judge Doos, it is very good to make your acquaintance. And here in Frederickburg on the frontier, of all places. I've read of your arrival in Texas as a commissioned officer of the U.S. Army. At Galveston, or was it Corpus Christi? Galveston, I think. I find your work at providing justice to the newly-freed men, women and children-- and to the Indian peoples of this land-- quite admirable. Well, if you're able to offer your expertise during your time of recover, I do have a project of which I could use some assistance. And one that you might find as interesting as I find it myself....

Hufschmied explains that the government of the State of Texas has announced selling of deeds for tracts of 640 acres west and north of the Colorado River west of Fredericksburg and Burnet. For a dollar an acre. (It seems that the state government is strapped for cash-- again). The problem is, the land is in Comanche hunting territory. That's the obvious one. In service of a client or clients, Hufschmied lays out some less obvious ones to his fellow practitioner of jurisprudence.
-First all, nobody seems to have records of having surveyed the land and recorded the boundaries of each tract. There's the issue of imprecise and overlapping property boundaries. And in such situations, a little thing such as an amorous bull or a thirsty calf looking for water can get ugly. Yes? Right, we know.
-Nobody knows how many settler outfits, buffalo hunter outposts, or robber hideouts might already be on those tracts, yes? Am I right, Judge Doos?

*Reputation roll [1d20]=7

Doos 3 Law successes x $3/day x 18 days (6 days per week) = $54 income. Total expenses in the with the high life in the Prinz William (with dog food and stabling) are $2.70/day. Over 49 days = $132.30. Day-um.

[Rex]

Charlie

Charlie passes what he has learned on to Smoked Beef Stoller.

[redwarrior]

William decides to ride into Austin to and seek some work. He's specifically looking for legal work that will make use of his bureaucratic knowledge. He will live high on the hog, as long as he has the funds. As he has the time, he will work on teaching the dog to alert, guard, and hide. I have no idea how to roll that, and it looks like wages & expenses will be different in the big city... so... that's what I'mma do. He'll send word as soon as he has established lodgings and will head back at the end of the seven weeks, unless he's called back earlier.

If the party wants & is willing, he is willing to take the firearms and horses into Austin to sell. or be robbed of, if something bad happens!

Job Hunt in Austin Law 8 [_7 d20]=(7+2+15+16+14+9+6)=69 Ugh. did that wrong, my target was 7. 3 base successes, 4 if there is a +2bonus for being in Austin.
bureaucracy 17 [_7 d20]=(20+15+11+6+2+8+6)=68 I have no idea what I'm doing here! I'll take whatever sort of weird interactions, or ignoring this set of rolls entirely, that you want!

Updated for sat & sun expenses.

He uses 250 XP to learn western riding Riding initial roll [2d10]=12 If I read page 21 and table one right, that should be a net 14 He uses another 200 points to increase his law skill by 2, having learned something while working for 3 or 4 weeks and reflecting on the encounters he has had with trials and interactions with judges and lawmen.

[ateno]

-First all, nobody seems to have records of having surveyed the land and recorded the boundaries of each tract. There's the issue of imprecise and overlapping property boundaries. And in such situations, a little thing such as an amorous bull or a thirsty calf looking for water can get ugly. Yes? Right, we know.
-Nobody knows how many settler outfits, buffalo hunter outposts, or robber hideouts might already be on those tracts, yes? Am I right, Judge Doos?

*Reputation roll [1d20]=7

Doos 3 Law successes x $3/day x 18 days (6 days per week) = $54 income. Total expenses in the with the high life in the Prinz William (with dog food and stabling) are $2.70/day. Over 49 days = $132.30. Day-um.

I think I succeeded 4 times, 11 or less right? Law Skill: Jobs vs 11 #1[1d20]=1 #2[1d20]=5 #3[1d20]=15 #4[1d20]=15 #5[1d20]=5 #6[1d20]=3 3x24=$72

"I would be willing to help you out, how about in lieu of money changing hands, you put me up in your hotel for the four weeks I will be working for you. I could use a nice rest.
$72 pay vs. $75.6 hotel, 4 weeks

Doos puts out his hand for a shake.

Doos still plans on getting the payment for services and chasing down the legal agreement with Wells Fargo.

Getting that money will change his other actions

Have we received any money from wells fargo?

Doos

[Thumper]

If the party wants & is willing, he is willing to take the firearms and horses into Austin to sell. or be robbed of, if something bad happens!

DT would be interested in sending the firearms and sale-horses with William, under certain circumstances. It would be foolish to send William out on a very long day’s ride alone on the extreme frontier with an attractive prize of lots of horses under the lead and guard of only one rider. The risk of robbery, Comanche attack, etc. along with the hazard of lots of horses requiring watering stops on a hot summer day, etc. are huge.

Therefore, DT would entertain sending William with the guns and horses if William were to ride with several others that he was convinced was safe. Perhaps a few wagons making a trade run between Fredricksburg and Austin could offer mutual support. Town’s people, cowboys, or ranchers riding or driving wagons together. Perhaps Rangers or the Army returning to Austin from the town of Fredricksburg, William and 6 other horses could go too. Something along those lines.

Alternatively, William could ride with a small number of someone “else’s” from town who are heading that way for mutual support and take a couple sale-horses and the weapons and 2 sets of tack.

Either of these types of options is acceptable to DT. But there’s no way in Hell he’s sending William out on the road to Austin alone with 6 additional horses to become an attractive target. And DT advises against riding alone in that territory no matter what ver else is in tow.

[redwarrior]

If the party wants & is willing, he is willing to take the firearms and horses into Austin to sell. or be robbed of, if something bad happens!

Either of these types of options is acceptable to DT. But there’s no way in Hell he’s sending William out on the road to Austin alone with 6 additional horses alone.

So much for that get rich quick scheme.

[Thumper]

I edited my last post with the intent of cashing out on the sell-horses and loot weapons, gun-belts/holsters/sheaths, and tack.

[ateno]

I edited my last post with the intent of cashing out on the sell-horses and loot weapons, gun-belts/holsters/sheaths, and tack.

did we not bring in a wagon also

[jemmus]

Sorry for the delay posting. We have quite a few irons in the fire and unresolved things, so I'm going to handle things OOC.

a) Share of cash loot.
Doos proposed settling for $270 from the cash recovered from the Shepherd house. Nimitz now states the Austin Wells Fargo office (Holtzclaw?)'s counter-offer of $225 to call it a done deal. He's firm on that. The alternative is litigation.

b) Sale of firearms loot.
The gunsmith at the hardware store offered $80 for the firearms. After DT's argument about converting the cap and ball revolvers to metal cartridge-firing, he'll offer $90 for the lot. Or $80 for everything but the cap and balls. And that's his final offer.

c) Wild card Gideon side proposal.
Gideon proposed cutting cards with the gunsmith for $50, putting $50 of the party's take from the gunsmith on the line. (Gideon has the Gambling skill and he seems to have assessed the gunsmith as a fellow gambler, but an unskilled one).

d) Sale of loot horses. There are 6 horses to be sold (or kept). Also 4 sets of tack (saddles, bridles, saddlebags). Details are in the loot list in the OOC thread. viewtopic.php?p=741172#p741172
e) Wells Fargo contract pay Nimitz says that Austin agrees to the $305 amount owed to the contracted and hired erstwhile "bounty hunters." But, due to current difficulties with liquidity of assets and transportation of cash monies between offices on the Western frontier (which hopefully have been solved with the elimination of the assumed gang of robbers between Burnet and Fredericksburg), the Fredericksburg office can only offer $105 in payment at this moment. The balance to be paid at a future date, either at the Fredericksburg or Austin Wells Fargo office. Because of the contractors inconvenience, the company will stable their horses with the company's own in its Fredericksburg stables, at no cost.

f)Loot wagon with one or more the worn-out wheel hubs. With some shopping around with the help of Andreas, a man named Willy with a big shed full of fixer-upper stuff will offer $17 for it. Or $15 to get it rolling right for you. (Book price for a new buckboard is $35).

e) Andreas, Doos, DT, William (and Gideon) add $21 cash to their character sheets. Costs for stabling horses are reduced by 25 cents per day. We don't have to get too deep into the precise calculations. It seems that even Charlie can get by jobbing with his skills. The poor guy hasn't had any income since the shootout at Hoffman's in San Marcos, and he got thrown into the stockade after that. (And had some Tonkawa, settlers, and Comanche guys encounters after that). It seems that rolls on skills provide minimal livelihood, at least(?)

Alright, you boys have some decisions to make. Seven weeks worth. Please cast your votes about a) through f), or discuss. Then we'll move forward.

[Thumper]

I recommend we take the $225 cash deal, accept the current contract partial payment of $105 leaving a balance of $200 in-person in Austin, and keep the cap and ball revolvers for sale in Austin while selling the rifles/carbines and 3 revolvers for $80 and let Gidean cut for a stake of $50.

I’m not seeing a need for us to own a wagon. Suggest we just sell it to the wagon-wright for $17.

It appears we may benefit from a longer-term relationship with Wells Fargo. DT will recommend maintaining good relationships with Nimitz and Holtzclaw.

What do y’all think about William in week 1 taking a couple horses, tack, and cap n ball revolvers to Austin to sell in Austin and DT, and whoever else goes with DT in week 4 take the rest. They just need to find groups of people to make the long day journey with them for mutual safety.

[ateno]

a) Share of cash loot.
Doos proposed settling for $270 from the cash recovered from the Shepherd house. Nimitz now states the Austin Wells Fargo office (Holtzclaw?)'s counter-offer of $225 to call it a done deal. He's firm on that. The alternative is litigation.

Doos agrees to the counter offer

b) Sale of firearms loot.
The gunsmith at the hardware store offered $80 for the firearms. After DT's argument about converting the cap and ball revolvers to metal cartridge-firing, he'll offer $90 for the lot. Or $80 for everything but the cap and balls. And that's his final offer.

Doos says to sell it all, of if you wnt to save till Austin, we are good, with the WF money we have a cushion.

c) Wild card Gideon side proposal.
Gideon proposed cutting cards with the gunsmith for $50, putting $50 of the party's take from the gunsmith on the line. (Gideon has the Gambling skill and he seems to have assessed the gunsmith as a fellow gambler, but an unskilled one).

Doos does not care, go ahead.

d) Sale of loot horses. There are 6 horses to be sold (or kept). Also 4 sets of tack (saddles, bridles, saddlebags). Details are in the loot list in the OOC thread. viewtopic.php?p=741172#p741172

"Heh heh, Wells fargo said they would stable our horses, we could lead these to them and have them take care of them then go to Austin.

e) Wells Fargo contract pay Nimitz says that Austin agrees to the $305 amount owed to the contracted and hired erstwhile "bounty hunters." But, due to current difficulties with liquidity of assets and transportation of cash monies between offices on the Western frontier (which hopefully have been solved with the elimination of the assumed gang of robbers between Burnet and Fredericksburg), the Fredericksburg office can only offer $105 in payment at this moment. The balance to be paid at a future date, either at the Fredericksburg or Austin Wells Fargo office. Because of the contractors inconvenience, the company will stable their horses with the company's own in its Fredericksburg stables, at no cost.

As long as there is a legal document, and 2% interest compounded monthly, after one month as gratis. only info I found was bank interest was low.

f)Loot wagon with one or more the worn-out wheel hubs. With some shopping around with the help of Andreas, a man named Willy with a big shed full of fixer-upper stuff will offer $17 for it. Or $15 to get it rolling right for you. (Book price for a new buckboard is $35).

Sell

e) Andreas, Doos, DT, William (and Gideon) add $21 cash to their character sheets. Costs for stabling horses are reduced by 25 cents per day. We don't have to get too deep into the precise calculations. It seems that even Charlie can get by jobbing with his skills. The poor guy hasn't had any income since the shootout at Hoffman's in San Marcos, and he got thrown into the stockade after that. (And had some Tonkawa, settlers, and Comanche guys encounters after that). It seems that rolls on skills provide minimal livelihood, at least(?)

Alright, you boys have some decisions to make. Seven weeks worth. Please cast your votes about a) through f), or discuss. Then we'll move forward.

We could cut it to 6 weeks, we all missed as least one week of work and save money a minus 1 is not a big deal.

We can loan Charlie some money if he wishes.

Will wait for Others before splitting up the other money.

Doos

[cybersavant]

Andreas Larson is not around during the day, but shows up in the evenings for a short while to see how the others are doing and if they introductions around town.

[jemmus]

Gideon says, Ah'll leave all the bankin and lawyerin ta y'all boys. Sounds like we'll all have more'n a couple a nickels to rub together before it's done. One a these days ah might swing by that little Methodist church what sprung me out a the pokey give me clothes and boots and present my tithes and offerins.

[Thumper]

DT-
”That’d be a good and honorable turn, Gidean”

DT will want to hold back on selling the Cap-n-Ball revolvers with the hardware store in Fredricksburg. In Austin, nobody will know the weapons came from low-life benefits, and they’re cleaned up better now. Even if mechanical condition is rough, there’s a remanufacturubg market for them in Austin. Should get $10 apiece for each (or closer to that).

So, sell the 4 SARs and rifle/carbines here for $80 and see what Gidean does on the gamble.

[Thumper]

I just realized…only because I finally looked into the history of how Bank Notes operated before the government declared only the Fed could issue them…that we should have been included the couple hundred dollars worth of Bank Notes to Doos’ claim filed with Nimitz.

Remember, DT is looking to build a nest-egg intending to move to California…along the Butterworth Trail. His plan is to save a thousand bucks to fund buying a spread in California. Won’t want to cross the deserts of the Butterworth trail in Summer though!

[jemmus]

We can retcon including the bank notes.
$422.47 in bills and coins
$225 in bank notes
= $647 total.

Wells Fargo Austin will settle for giving the party $270. That's the roughly same percentage (83%) share as when we were just including the cash.

Gideon takes a pack of cards out of his pocket, shuffles it, and has the gunsmith cut it. Go ahead and do your cut, Herr goonschmidt, Gideon says. The gunsmith cuts and turns the stack of cards over. Deuce of hearts. The man groans and places the stack of cards back on the deck. Gideon says, I'm lookin fer royalty er better. Y'all come on out, don't be bashful. He squints an eye, takes a stack of cards and turns it over. Ace of clubs. Well ah'll be. Ya popped right up, Mr. Ace, didn't ya? The gunsmith counts out five $10 bills and hands them to Gideon. Gideon puts them in his left coat pocket.Again? he asks. Nah, Gideon replies, Ah would, but ah ain't playin with my own money. But to put a little of yer money back in yer pocket, let me have this little pistol cleaning kit. Fer this Navy Colt. And maybe fer picking mah teeth, in a pinch. He pays with money from his right coat pocket.

Gunsmith [1d20]=20
Gideon [1d20]=1


Please add $50 to the party's total loot cash.

[jemmus]

William decides to ride into Austin to and seek some work. He's specifically looking for legal work that will make use of his bureaucratic knowledge. He will live high on the hog, as long as he has the funds. As he has the time, he will work on teaching the dog to alert, guard, and hide. I have no idea how to roll that, and it looks like wages & expenses will be different in the big city... so... that's what I'mma do. He'll send word as soon as he has established lodgings and will head back at the end of the seven weeks, unless he's called back earlier.

If the party wants & is willing, he is willing to take the firearms and horses into Austin to sell. or be robbed of, if something bad happens!

Job Hunt in Austin Law 8 [_7 d20]=(7+2+15+16+14+9+6)=69 Ugh. did that wrong, my target was 7. 3 base successes, 4 if there is a +2bonus for being in Austin.
bureaucracy 17 [_7 d20]=(20+15+11+6+2+8+6)=68 I have no idea what I'm doing here! I'll take whatever sort of weird interactions, or ignoring this set of rolls entirely, that you want!

Updated for sat & sun expenses.

He uses 250 XP to learn western riding Riding initial roll [2d10]=12 If I read page 21 and table one right, that should be a net 14 He uses another 200 points to increase his law skill by 2, having learned something while working for 3 or 4 weeks and reflecting on the encounters he has had with trials and interactions with judges and lawmen.

William started with Law at 14, so that's five successes over seven weeks. (No +2 modifier in little Fredericksburg). 5 x $24/week = $120

You can roll on Bureaucracy during the weeks William isn't busy practicing law. So for weeks 3 and 4. Two successes. We'll say Bureaucrat work is at $1.25/day. $6.25/five day week, so $12.50. $132.50 total salary.

Edit: Uh oh, I just remembered that William was considering going to Austin. The above assumes he stays in Fredericksburg. We may have to redo this.

[jemmus]

Coming up-- tying up the loose ends on the various transactions so far. The horses remain to be sold too.

[redwarrior]

Edit: Uh oh, I just remembered that William was considering going to Austin. The above assumes he stays in Fredericksburg. We may have to redo this.[/ooc]

Let's assume the group convinced him that was a bad plan, and he stayed in Fredericksburg, living the high life, I think that puts him 0.20 up