Anti-Treasure
The expedition's target has been decided on, the risks assessed, the obstacles scouted; the crew is deciding on who to hire and what to buy before they leave town.
The ruined heap atop the ancient roman fort is about a week away, the utlagan can be pretty thick both to and from it, and several considerable problems were encountered last time they entered including a ruined staircase that while it was scalable forced them to leave heavy coffers behind.
The party goes through the procedure...
- Mercenaries. The party hires 10 light foot and 5 horsemen.
- Dungeoneering supplies. Block and tackle, a nice jar of pitch and plenty of rags for torches, rope, spikes...
- Ration considerations. They can assume half a week of food carried on each person easily, but this will be a tougher stretch. They'll hire a cook, and get plenty of staples. They can't be distracted carrying all of this, so a certain number of beasts of burden need to be brought along.
- A quick "credit check"-- while a considerable investment, eyeballing the party funds says they should be able to walk out of town with this all.
The party thus, makes their way to the dungeon... Each day, the number of mercenaries that mustered for breaking of camp is recorded, slowly dwindling through the week as bandit attacks and infections claim a few. Much of the equipment purchased is put to use, but the hammer and nails the clever cleric bought are not.
Finally, after a long journey back, the party brings a nice big haul. Then, the treasure lists is summed up...
+ Big positives for all the precious metals,
+ slashed-prices for the goods that are offloaded onto the market fast,
+ and that dead adventurer's plate armor is pawned as well.
- All daily muster counts are summed up and then multiplied by their rate, once for the foot and once for the horse. Those not left alive to collect their prorated pay, are assumed to have it sent to next of kin. The one who routed and never returned in a bandit encounter, well, it's figured that he probably got a sign on bonus of two days pay up front and of course no more out of his tenday of service shall be posted now.
- The prices of all equipment that was purchased and not returned (or not accepted for return).
- The total amount of rations eaten across the trip.
The total take is 542 silver pieces. The four chief partners each take a quarter, and the cook gets a 2 silver piece tip.
Next, the band plans their expedition to the south... all the ancient pristine furniture and tapestries they found must surely be worth something, but they'll need serious appraisal and a serious market to get to the collectors that would pay top coin. A route is drawn up that will maximize stops at waystations and minimize ration hauling concerns, an elite band of local equites' sons might be hired on for part shares, they'll need carts and horses...