It has been a week of travelling since Fost and his 3 other companions left the Mountain.
Currently they had 1 cart filled with tooled and furs for trade. Since they did not have any beasts of burden the 4 Anan had to pull the cart themselves. 2 would pull while 2 would rest and keep watch of the surrounding. They did get accosted once during the day by a pack of wolves, which did cost his friend Tam a pinky finger. It was on the second week that their hopes of trade became weaker and weaker each day that no sign of people or civilisation appeared.
It was on the third week that they finally encountered 3 humans from the same planet as Cliff. Now these three were fairly scared of Fost and his team. It was only after setting up camp and sharing a meal that the three began to calm down. It was found that the three were nomads, each of them had the Hunter class and have not been near civilisation since the world merge. Though they had no coins the group did have plenty of tanned furs squirreled away. Looking at the quality Fost was fairly pleased. So pleased was he that he Traded 3 axes for 33 deer pelts, 6 pairs of leather closing for 62 coyote pelts and 3 skinning knives for 40 Groundhog pelts.
Fost did try to trade more but the three humans were fairly frugal and did not want to travel heavy. It was the very next day that the Anan Merchants left on the journey again. All were pleased with the success of a good trade, so pleased in fact that they continued traveling south east to hopefully meet more nomads.
It was on the fifth week that the Anan began to see ramshackle huts littered sporadically. After asking the inhabitants it was found that they were on the edge of the town Lochaide. Entering the town, they set up displays for their carts showing the tools, clothes and Furs. It was the Tools that were the major hit, the poor to average quality tools were making 50-60 coppers a piece, even the small skinning knives. The clothes went even higher at 100 coppers apiece. Fost could just imagine that people were sick of using the same dirty clothes day after day. The Fur though traded at 15 coppers a pelt though the groundhogs traded at 5 coppers a pelt.
All in all, at the end of the Day they made 2120 coppers. Heading out of town they camped for the night making their plans for the future
“So, Fost, that was a nice haul but do you think that will be enough for the stuff the mountain needs?” asked an Anan
“Maybe not, but I have been thinking. It took us a month to get here and another to get back, what if we find a map and see if there are other towns nearby. Let’s shuttle goods from one town to another! What do you think of that, the more money we make at each town the more we can bring back to the Mountain.”
The others agreed readily Kirn the Anan spoke up “what do you think of going on a quick hunting spree to get our class to 50 before changing to a Merchant one, then we will have furs to trade and we could even process the meat into Ph’oll, I am sure that many of the people in town would like a cheap meaty meal that keeps well.”
“That is a good idea, Lets hunt and after we get into Merchant, we will get some herbs and grain, which hopefully they have here.”
For the next week they hunted, squirrels, bovus, Pillin, Pheasants and much more. They even found various fruits bushes and trees which they could add to the Ph’oll
After levelling up Fost and Kirn went to the town looking for grains while Kirt and Tam gathered roots from a Rin tree to make Salts.
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Fost was able to get 50 pounds of wheat, 50 pounds of oats and 20 pounds of rye for a total of 360 coppers.
Using a hollowed out stump they mixed together the grain, various fruits, shredded meat, Rin salt and herbs. Packing the mixture into 4inch squares they then dried the Ph’oll in the sun, they were able to make 800 squares which they marked at 10 coppers a square. The reason why they made the Ph’oll was that on Lars Ph’oll was a popular ration that lasted for months and had all the nutrient and bulk that 1 square could feed you for 2 days.
Going back to Lochaide which didn’t have anyone from Lars it was difficult to sell the Ph’oll but they were able to get 5 sold. After getting directions to another town to the west they went on another hunting trip making more Ph’oll and pelts. They were able to buy some weapons that were of poor quality for cheap when purchased in bulk.
Travelling for another week they got to Oaktown which was around a swamp filled with oaks. Here the population was not as big as Lochaide, but they seemed to have more craftsmen, and thankfully there were a few other Anan who made it easier to sell the Ph’oll. This earned them 15,000 coppers which they ended up using to buy more tools, grain and also 1 pony and cart.
Not having enough coin for any more animals, the Merchants followed directions to Little Rapids. Here the Ph’oll and Furs did not sell well, but the Tools were gone faster than you could say “Kachow!” here they traded for fish, ropes and nets, before they went to another town called Krampus.
Krampus, was like an armpit, the middle of everywhere but a terrible spot to be. It was a week distance from Little Rapids and it was very rocky with very little airable land, here the tools did not trade but the Ph’oll and furs did, they even received an order for wood which Fost knew to be cheap in Oakton. Krampus was a mine that had many tool smith and weaponsmiths, though just like any other town that Fost went to they had little to no outside trading going on. Selling the food and furs the mountain merchants buy weapons and tools which they bring back to Little Rapids, they then did two more trips between little rapids and Krampus buying and selling Food, rope, tools, ores and weapons.
After both towns were satisfied Fost made way for Oakton and Lochaide.
In Oakton they sold all the fish and bought 2 carts and 4 ponies so that each cart would have a pony pulling instead of the Anan constantly pushing them.
Loaded up with woodworks, lumber and tools they arrived at Lochaide where their whole inventory was sold. Since it was a few weeks since they were last there, a new harvest of crops just came off so it was very cheap reducing the price of wheat and Oats from 3 copper to 2 copper a pound. Loading up with grains for both selling for seed and Ph’oll. It was as they were leaving Lochaide that they saw an old Human lady selling Linen clothing outside a shack. The linen was made from Flax and currently she had a limited amount, but Fost paid her an advance to keep extras for their caravan and to make rolls of linen fabric itself, which the lady kindly agreed to.
Taking a route Directly to Krampus they encountered a group of bandits.
These bandits were Bruge kom lars a Minotaur creature. Thankfully Fost and the others were fast and strong enough to quickly eliminate the threat.
Many trips they made between the 4 towns making many thousands of Copper and silver. During these trips Fost had a people joining to aide with protection and driving carts. They obtained 18 carts and 2 ponies per cart along with 42 people joining the caravan.
At the 6 month mark the caravan began travelling south east again in search of more towns to trade with, which was easier than when they first found Lochaide since the next town was only 2 weeks away from Krampus.
It was in this town of Tura that he met his wife for the First time. After a meal he discovered that her name was Malla and she was specialising in becoming a Mana Tailor.
It was 2 months after Tura and 8 months since the mountain that Malla and Fost married under a Cherry willow. After the wedding Fost and the caravan travelled to 5 more town before starting a set route between all 10 towns.
It was at the 1-year mark that Fost decided to return home.
Taking 24 of the Wagons filled with goods along with gathering willing people from various towns that wanted to live at the mountain. Before he left with the majority of the caravan, he left 3 wagons and 10 people to continue travelling between the 10 towns, Fost even purchased a Warehouse in Lochaide for Excess material to be stored for future trades.