This article is more to show the joys that a few crazy people can have spending way too much money worrying about trivialities of running a city, creating a festival and gaining population in the Pathfinder settlement of Drezen in the Worldwound. Give me a heads up in the comments box if you're likely to do the same kind of expenditure lists as I have below.
2 x Panpipes of Building (20,000gp)
Diamonds for later Resurrections (40,000gp)
Faerie dragons and pseudodragons - 20 each purchased from Familiar Stores* (4000gp)
Sin seekers (see Worldwound Incursion) (3,600gp)
300 statues from Statue Street (3000gp due to massive diplomacy successes all along the line)
*The Familiar Stores ranged from a really nice place where thirty different pseudo dragons and faerie dragons mingled and occasionally flew out; a pretty ordinary store with various types of familiars in cages ranging up to 3ft x 3ft wide; and a nasty place where they only showcased one of each because the others were kept in a dirty, cramped facility where the dragons actually had mold growing on them which was representative of certain puppy farms / hoarders' homes and required a Restoration Potion to cure the woman in charge of her delusional belief that the dragons were happy being interbred for a "Pure Breed" form with unset broken wings and mold. In reward for going the extra mile, I had it that she had been given five pixies by an Andoren lumberjack-turned-sailor who thoughts they could become familiars. She turned them over to Alfy.
Misery Row Purchases
Alfy decided to purchase some slaves with the view of freeing them in Mendev - a thoroughly neutral act since they were being forcibly relocated but he's hoping to recruit them before having to conscript them to journey through the teleportation circle to Mendev, at least. He figured he would steal his gold back but ended up purchasing from several locations and could only steal from one of them lest they notice the connection.Funnily enough, while running Misery Row I got to really examine a few different ideologies for slavery, and though not all of them evil, per se, most are utterly selfish and certainly callous to the human condition considering what most slaves have to go through! Still everyone tries to justify themselves and find some way to make their doings palatable. This isn't Okeno or Katapesh so more complication justifications than just "Slaves are subhumans" seemed fitting.
He first purchased seven level 3 Bonuwat sorcerers from the Mwangi Jungle who were survivors of a skirmish. The salesman was a merchant rather than a dedicated slaver who saw it better than to release them and give them a chance to strike back or slay them outright. (Cost: 3,500gp)
Then he found a Chelish woman called Adraxa from "The Crimson Raven" who was thoroughly Lawful Neutral. She had a contingent of 48 Andoren rangers and saw the process akin to indentured servitude, respecting them as prisoners-of-war even as she sold them on. She justified herself because she would find a way to contact Andoran individuals if there were a particularly nasty buyer aiming to purchase her Andoran slaves (i.e. Kuthites). (Cost: $4800 with a free enslaved Shelyn cleric who would otherwise have been executed).
Then there was a slaver from Druma who was a regular worshipper of the Kalistrade way and simply saw everyone as a potential commodity and really couldn't care less about his charges. As a racist, he also didn't deal in humans but everyone else was fair game. He had an entire hamlet of gnomes who had refused to relocate (97), fifteen half-orcs who were being surrendered by previous owners, six ratfolk caught beneath the city and subject to vagrancy laws, and 631 dwarves who were the remainders of the XXX who unlawfully declared a chunk of Druma to be their own - including a silver mine. This cost Alfy 102,700gp and will certainly see Drezen less human-centric than most if he can recruit all of these people (easier with rumors of Jormurden, the Dwarven Sky Citadel circulating).
Finally, Alfy learned of a really important slave auction where all the more important slaves are sold via a Katapesh intermediary in one place. I created a list of 20 potential options and rolled 1d20 fifteen times to determine what appeared on the auction block. I would mention the base price, the player would determine Alfy's bid, and then I would roll a certain dice (representing group excitement) to add to the base price. If Alfy's bid were higher, he would gain the slave. If it were lower, he would not. If his bid were substantially higher, I would halve the difference and he'd be out of pocket. Knowing that this would be the place he would steal from, he bid high quite a bit and ensured that he had the money in cash in several chests held in a bag of holding. He had to draw on a line of credit from the church, a loan in other words, to make up any shortfall but due to his upcoming auction they were happy to do so.
Other than a Harbinger Archon who was purchased by someone else, he won all auctions which included:
1 Lunar Naga (6000gp)
1 Nixie (3000gp)
2 Kitsune (one druid, one expert with children) (10000gp)
3 Strix (2000gp)
1 Garuda (150000gp)
1 half-celestial (Garuda) level 1 Paladin (Black Powder Archetype) of the Aurulent Eye (39000gp)
1 half-celestial (Astral Deva) level 2 Holy Gun of Shelyn (39000gp)
3 Catfolk rangers (3000gp)
1 Sylph Wind Listener Sorcerer (3000gp)
2 Girtablilu (worship Sekhmet - my canon has her as a face of Sarenrae) (70000gp)
2 Gillmen (foreign to Absalom, druid and ranger) (1500gp)
He stole back his wealth by sending in Eliska within a Bag of Holding held by the floating Silvanshee (post Potion of Invisibility) who quietly followed the coin collector as he took the other Bag of Holding through the various traps to the hold. The Silvanshee didn't need Eliska in the end, grabbed the bigger Bag of Holdings as the gent lowered it down to pull out the chests and used Dimension Door to escape before the constructs could get involved.
In the end, after raising about 170,000gp through finding the gold beneath Cayden Cailean's Hall and winning various trials in the Arena, he's in debt by 58,600gp. Let's hope his auction is worth at least that much!
Also, Alphy managed to secure the release of 300 prisoners (aka Mouths to Feed in the eyes of Absalom) from the prison in the Puddles District of which 109 are tieflings (who when arrested rarely leave), 42 are half-orcs (as before), 76 are halflings, leaving only 63 humans despite Absalom being a predominately human society. If you guessed fantastic racism was at work, you are right! Not only are tieflings and half-orcs more predisposed toward crime (especially due to lack of options), they're less likely to be released and more likely to be indentured to the Mendevian Crusade as the Office of Prisons would rather them out of the country.
The Halfling numbers are because of a perception that once corrupted, you can't bring them back from the brink. If they're not happy little slaves and servants willing to be in humanity's shadow, they're as incorrigible as Varisians and best off quarantined from the rest of the Halfling population lest their discontent spread.
GENERAL SUPPLIES
Much of the following is to the carried by the prisoners (*ahem* settlers) in their new masterwork backpacks or packed around the statues carried in the wooden carts.
TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED ITEMS
Grooming Kits (2500gp)
Mess Kits (25gp)
Winter Clothing (6800gp)
Winter Blankets (400gp)
Sleeping Rolls (100gp)
Folding Chairs (2000gp)
Hammocks (100gp)
ONE THOUSAND ITEMS
Cots - good in the cold (400gp)
Masterwork Backpacks for the troops (20,000gp)
Waterskins (1000gp)
THREE HUNDRED ITEMS
Carts (4500gp) - for goats, llamas, horses and people to pull statues
Cooking Kits (100gp)
Marbles (20gp)
Goats for Farmwork / Slaughter (600gp)
ONE HUNDRED ITEMS
Trained Goats (8gp each) - cart pulling and gear carrying small statues (800gp)
Trained Llamas (150gp each) - cart pulling medium statues (1500gp)
Masterwork Manacles (200gp)
Medium Tent (700gp)
Musical Instruments (250gp)
TWENTY ITEMS
Pavilion Tent (1000gp)
Horses are rare in Absalom (250gp each for a heavy horse) (5000gp)
MISCELLANEOUS
Equipment and Games including bowling sets, boardgames, cards, and dominoes (150gp)
Hospital & Medic Equipment including poison kits, surgeon tools, healer's kits, stretchers (2000gp)
Canteen Equipment for Mass Cooking (500gp)
Disassembled 60ftx25ft covered barges @ 6000gp (Lyre of Building to assemble) (18000gp)
FOOD & FEASTING
500 barrels per barge
500 Spoiled Food Barrels (can be purified using cleric spells) (500gp)
Turnips, potatoes, pumpkins, butter, cheese, fruit, flour and parsnip in the above.
500 barrels of Coal (25gp) (half to remain in Kenabres)
500 barrels of Firewood (5gp) (half to remain in Kenabres)
5 Barrels of Soap (2gp)
5 Barrels of Coffee (55gp)
1 Barrel of Garlic (15gp)
10 Barrels of Mead = 2 Mugs Each (1 sp value) (500gp)
10 Barrels of Ale = 2 Mugs Each (1 sp value) (500gp)
10 Barrels of Dwarven Stout = 1 Mug Each (2 cp value) (50gp)
1 Barrel of Tea = 10 Tea Cups Each (1 cp value) (200gp)
1 Barrel of honey (100gp)
5 Barrels of powdered milk (100gp)
10 crates of Wandermeal (100gp for 10 000 - each enough to feed one person for a day)
10 crates of lemons (100gp)
200 crates of trail rations (20000gp for 200 000 - each enough to feed one person for a day)
20 crates of coconuts (200gp)
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