Sikke & The Slavers [R3B]

After finishing her visits, Sikke sends word to Settozai that she was headed to the Slave Market to procure more slaves to aid in the construction projects. Settozai gives her the Seal of the Mandira Treasury, which guaranteed our purchases, but required the slave merchant to ensure safe delivery before they received their payment. Sikke travels with a light guard to ensure her safety as well. She leaves the Outpost for the prison camp, which is what I converted Wurin's village into after his defeat. The camp also serves as a Khuna Apsara training facility. That made Sikke a little nervous, but she concealed it well. There is a section of the village in the northeast that is used as a hub for different slavers to set up houses where they can conduct the trading business. They tend to buy the captured villagers from the prison camp and train them to be of use. It works for us as we don't have to spend the time or resources. We then buy them back, generally at a discount.

It takes about an hour or two, but Sikke arrives at the Slave District and joins in for the evening trading session. She looks over the merchandise from the different slavers and tells them that she is willing to buy 125 Carpenters, artisans, and / or grunt slaves to aid in the construction projects. For such a bulk order, the slavers scramble to run thru their ledgers and select the best of their stock.

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Sikke sits back and watch with patience. She goes over figures in her head and that is when she has a breakthrough. Her assistant is with her and she notes, "I must inform Master Settozai that I have figured out how to drastically cut our costs in terms of the construction efforts. Wood is far more inexpensive than stone and while it is not as fortified as stone, it saves us lots of time and money. I have calculated that if we build large inn like housing buildings instead of the extra large manor style community sections, then we can save quite a lot of money b/c we don't have to use as much stone. Her assistant tells her that the difference is housing for 5 extra people, but the structure isn't as fortified. "Also, our temporary housing has been working for now, so we should have ample time to build the larger stronger compounds."

Sikke nods and smiles, "One factor to keep in mind though is that should something happen like attack while Yaksa Krodha is away or even fire or storm damage, we can rebuild my proposed units much faster. I would suspect that with our labor force in the Carpenter Guild, we could probably replace a unit a day and these units can hold up to the 15 worker families per unit. So in a direct comparison, which would be 15 days time, we could build 15 of my units compared to 4 of the community compounds.

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"My units would provide housing for 225 workers versus 200 workers and it would cost about 1250 Shinny cheaper because it's all wood. Every day we would be able to move families out of cramped temporary quarters or the rundown housing that we've been using and into fully developed units."

The assistant is quite impressed and tells her to relay the idea with that same passion and Master Settozai will definitely see the benefit in her proposal. "You may want to sit down with some of the Carpenters and have them draw up plans for you so that you can have a solid idea of what it is going to look like and how you can fit all 15 up at the Outpost."

One of the slavers has a ledger brought to him while he remains in the room. He approaches Sikke and offers for her to take a look at his stock. She nods and has her assistant remain to see which of the other slavers return. She is gone for approximately 30 minutes and the first slavers is rather surprised that she only liked 60 of his slaves. He is pleased by the fact that she made a large purchase that got him 7400 Shinny from the sale. When she returns, she is informed that the three waiting for her arrived roughly around the same time. She picks the middle slaver first and reviews his ledger. "Bring me 50 of your best. You two, do the same."

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Two of them leave back out and one remains. Sikke asks him why he has remained. He tells her that he only has 35 slaves left and while they are all fine quality, he and his crew would be out of merchandise. She nods and smiles at him, "We will buy all 35 for 5400 Shinny and I'll offer you and your group jobs working for the Yaksa Krodha. Your job will be simple. Bring us quality labor. All of you will work as the official Slavers of the Mandira Traders Guild. It will give you far more clout to have a power backing you and you will get paid well to keep us with dependable labor capital." He looks at her wondering first if she is serious before nodding to her and accepting the offer. "I will let my team know. Thank you. You will not regret this." She smiles at him, "I know." She smile is lukewarm yet her eyes are piercing. He leaves to go and get things in order.

Her assistant tells her that they only need 30 more to complete the order. She tells him that they will pick up an extra 25 as well. "That would bring the total Construction Force to 400 workers." She nods and tells him that she is aware and that that is why she wants the extra 25. The other two slavers return and she walks outside.

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Sikke wastes no time as she walks thru the ranks and picks 30 from one of them and selects 25 from the other. "That will do. I'll give you 4025 for your 30 and 3750 for your 25. I don't suppose there are any objections?" They both accept the terms as they are getting more than what they normally receive for their slaves. They would have wished that she would have bought more from them instead of the other, but they would not protest at all. With her business concluded, Sikke tells them that they are responsible for safe delivery to the Mandira Military Outpost by the northwestern coast and that they are to deliver them tonight and pick up their payments at the Treasury Office. The Slavers agree to the terms and leave.

The new official Slaver returns with his team and Sikke looks them over. It was a small team which was for the best to be honest. Too many people and you'll have to deal with hurt feelings and some slavers not actually producing results, so this works for her. She lets him know that they will be reporting to her which reports of new purchases and prospective purchases. "This is not a pass for you all to go buy whatever you want and think that Mandira will cover all of your debts. When you check in with me, I will let you know what we are in need of...

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"If your slave is lame, I take it out of your fee. If you think to overcharge us, I'll take it out of your flesh. Are there any questions?" One of them asks what Mandira is currently looking for. I'm going to need about 50 Miners soon. Stone is the highest commodity and until we expand and strengthen our Mercantile Network, that is our best option to raise funds. Do good securing 50 miners for me and we'll move up to bigger projects. Sound good?" They nod to Sikke and thank her for the opportunity. She nods in return before telling them to make sure their slaves aren't late tonight.

Returning to the Outpost, she informs the Slave Compound's warden that he would be getting a large supply of slaves coming in tonight, so he would need to make room for them. He asks her how large and she just smiles at him before walking off to the office to prepare for tomorrow's schedule and getting the payments ready for the shipments. Settozai arrives and looks at her, "So are we broke?" She shakes her head negatively and tells her that we know have an ample Construction Force to get the projects done at an expedited rate. She tells him that she will have a proposal ready for him tomorrow so he nods and tells her that he is looking forward to seeing it. She shows true elation at his approval and informs him that she also recruited a team of slavers to travel the slave markets and filter through to bring them quality slaves to continue growing the work force. He nods approving of her decision and again when she tells him that they are searching for 50 slaves that can work in the mines and why she wants them. Settozai nods and inquires, "So how many of them are there?" Sikke responds, "It is a team of 8 merchants. I figure two or three will remain based on island and the others will move around searching thru the different markets around the region. Are you pleased?" Settozai chuckles as his head lowers and raises. He walks over and kisses her on the top of her head before telling her that he is proud of her and walking off.

399/1683

Quest: Slave Market (883)
Slaver 1 = 296 = 7400
Slaver 2 = 216 = 5400
Slaver 3 = 161 = 4025
Slaver 4 = 150 = 3750
Grand Total = 20,575 for 150 Carpenters

Recruiting: +8 Merchant (Official Slave Traders) (800)
=124 Merchants

EXP = 800 + (883 x Quest Multiplier)