Fehriel Approaches the Hlint town council representative.

[Hellblazer]

*he comes in well dressed and stands in front of the person, trying to look a bit more respectable than usual.*

I would like to be able to help this town economy slightly, by purchasing a tinker's device. This way you could keep the working adventurer in your town a little while more as they would not have to go to Hempstead of Vehl to work what they need to work. Surely after feeling tired for all the work, they would probably stop by the Inn and eat, drink and pass the night there. Buy more supplies in your town, overall, spending more money which would then bolster your economy.

I would be willing to spend the money to buy that tinker's device and maybe set it up in the Hlint smithy shop.

The question is; how many trues would you want, so this can be done?

*he awaits patiently*

[Dorganath]

The official leans over the odd man with the red eyes, squinting his own slightly.

"Lad, ya know we put in one o' dem tinkers furnace things, aye? So them bloody smiths would stop gripin'.  That what ya meanin'?"

[Hellblazer]

*Fehriel leans slightly and shakes his head*

No Sir*, what I mean is the actual tinker's device that is used to create arrow heads, springs, gear and other kinds of wears after the use of the tinker's furnace is used.

//*if a man at all.

[Hellblazer]

*Fehriel stands patiently, waiting to hear the cost of his proposition, while looking at a fly fly through the room*

[Dorganath]

After several quiet moments of contemplating Fehriel with shrewd and judging eyes, he finally says:

We don't need the help or charity of your kind here.

Without a further word or a glance in Fehriel's direction, the man goes back about his work.

[Hellblazer]

*Fehriel looks at him a moment and says*
 
 Of my kind?, so you don't want law biding, hard working people to bring money and work in your town? I'm only proposing to pay for a workstation out of generosity not out of charity. But eh! if you wish to make this a racial matter, words will probably go out to all that who are not of your race, that should not to come to hlint as this city do not wish to make business with them. Which means that your Rork will have a harder time to find people to get his ears. Your captain will have a harder time to find people to help her with the problems in the moors. The trading caravan that comes to hlint from wayfare will be delayed if not canceled, due to being attacked by the goblings each time they get a new leader elected. For what, refusing to do business with a simple ranger of Folian? It is a wonder than when your people were in need, they did not scuff at my help. Where would be hlint today, if not for those adventurer of all races that faught vaillantly by your side? Probably still under the slavery of the dark elves, or other evil of this world. But instead, we were there and helped you, and now you scuff us off, for feeling generous?
 
 *He takes a small pause and takes a breath*
 
 Wouldn't it be more wise for you and yours, to take the opportunity of expanding the possibilities of work in your beautiful town and in such, ensure your self a brighter future?
 
 I am willing to file all the paperwork needed, and simply give a donation for a work station, no ties, I am not even looking for notoriety. Just to give something back to this town.
 
 *He awaits a moment more, waiting for the man's answer.*

[Dorganath]

The man squints one eye at Fehriel.

"Is that a threat, red-eye? Hmm?"

[Hellblazer]

//since I made edits to my other post I'll wait to see if you revise yours.

[Dorganath]

// the post stands as-is

[Hellblazer]

*Fehriel shakes his head a little*
 
 There is no threat in what I said, only a simple fact of life. People talks to each others, words get around the world. And in such good and less good things happens. It is also how prejudice keeps on going as people keep the perpetual talks without knowing for themselves the truth of a situation.
 
 But these are the facts. I came openly without any ill thoughts, in hope to be of service and help Hlint and for what you percieve to be my kind, hence race as assumption could go, you decided to refuse it. Not because you didn't need the station, which you do. Not because I had made trouble in this town, which I never did, infact it's the opposite. But because of my red eyes, which could be simply be attributed to someone with an alergic reaction. But instead you decided to put it as a racial issue.
 
 One would hope to see someone in your position of authority, to be open minded and see the benifit to his town this proposition would bring, as opposed to someone with prejudice that would ultimately bring a blight on the population that lives in this town.
 
 It is a shame that all the great stories and songs that I heard, praising this town for it's past glory, acceptance and tolerance, be muddied by your attitude. It's to wonder if in reality it is not people like you and not the actual darkage, that brought the fall of this city, compared to what it used to be.
 
 But, well, one has to know when to turn away and dust his shoes off. So I will bring the thousands of trues in business I bring to this town every week, elsewhere, and I will probably not be the only one.
 
 Even with this, I hope that Folian walks and protects you every day of your life.
 
 ''He nods and turns to head out of the door.''

[Dorganath]

The lengthy sermon from Fehriel nearly causes the official to bite through his own tongue, in the figurative and literal senses, but he manages to keep silent through it all.  Once Fehriel turns to leave, the man says"

"Yeah, yeah...Folian walk yer arse right on outta 'ere."

[Hellblazer]

*Before exiting the office he turns*
 
 At least my arse will sleep well at night knowing I may not be the cause of thousands of trues lost to the city.
 
 *He the goes in a small ritual of lifting one foot and dusting it, then doing the same with the other, and exits the office. Once out he goes to the bank takes all his trues and possession out of their care. He then takes his ox and heads out of town. Once outside he repeats the feet dusting.*

[Dorganath]

The official calls after him.

"Don' let the gate hit ye on th' way out, lad!"

[SteveMaurer]

// Darthirâe, having chanced upon a very frustrated Fehriel outside of Hlint at the druid's campfire (n game), and learned of his experiences, reenters town the next day.

// In addition to her primary errand, which is to speak to the town crier(+), she will also go to the merchant hall and spend time learning about who the decision makers are in Hlint's small town politics, and sounding the merchants out about making the place every bit as friendly to making money as Port Hempstead is.

// Unlike the ever-so-good Fehriel, Darthirâe is not at all above making broad hints at "extra true appreciation" to the various political players (as in, "we appreciate what you've done, here is some extra True") for getting this Tinker's Device in place.  (Actually, considering her general worldview and alignment, Darthirâe would make a superb lawyer or politician.)

// Her objective isn't to get a definitive "yes".  At least, not right away.   It's more to get a: 1) Is it possible at all?, 2) Are there any specific objections that would have to be overcome?, 3) How much, in total, would it cost?, and 4) What would the timeframe be?

//(I'm not RPing this directly because it covers likely more than a dozen conversations which would be very voluminous.)


// (+) Darthirâe tells the crier that it is now known that a small flotilla of Dragonstealer ships have anchored themselves outside the Battlehelm Moors, and this may possibly presage an invasion a thousand miles to the south, but to prevent panic this should not be widely repeated. She also drops him a few coin to ask him to send her a collect-upon-receipt bank letter if he hears of anyone asking around about where Dragons might be - because such people might be spies of this insane Dragonstealer cult.  (She is doing this in a large number of places, not just Hlint.)  She tells him not to confront such people directly, because they might be very dangerous.

[Dorganath]

The official at first greets Darthirâe cordially and politely, even listens to her possibly lengthy inquiry, before narrowing his eyes at her, probably cutting her off in the process.

"Lady...I don' know if dat red-eyed lad sent ya in 'ere ta butter me up, but by Rofirein's glitterin' underscales it sounds like yer suggestin' a bribe," he says looking extremely displeased.

[SteveMaurer]

Darthirâe smiles, and says, "Clearly, I have misspoken.  Indeed, I was not intending to speak to you at all, as we have not been introduced.    I do not know your name.  I do not know your position.  I don't even know what you look like under that helm.   Before I spoke to you, I intended to learn all of these things."

"I was intending to speak to the merchants.  After all, they are most involved in maintaining the economy of this town, which feeds its citizens, and I expect that one of them, or their guild, is likely to actually hold the deed to the property in question, and thus have actual legal authority over it."

"I shall return when these issues are sorted out, and the person, people, or guild to whom you owe fealty, explain to you that your personal prejudices about someone's appearance, no matter how deeply felt, do not hold priority over the best interests of the majority of the citizenry of Hlint.   And will tell you what actually will happen to this property that you yourself do not own."

"Finally, since you have chosen to misinterpret my friendly gesture to help clean up the decoration of this office, as a bribe, I withdraw it.   I would suggest, however, that you take a vacation, since you clearly desperately need one."

// Darthirâe will exit, and ask the following questions of the merchants:
1] What is the political structure of Hlint?
2] Who are the people who hold positions of power (aldermen, mayor, boards, nobles, rich merchants, guilds, etc.)?
3] What possible objection would anyone have to making themselves richer, via a free gift?
4] Who is this anonymous official who just says "no" all the time, anyway?
5] What is his problem?
6] Are people aware of how poor a decision maker he is?
7] If, for some absurd reason, this mid-level flunky gets to say "no", despite it being a benefit to everyone else, she will look for an alternative site - such as a house, or corner of the (rather cavernous) public inn.

[Dorganath]

// He's not wearing a helm. In fact, he's rather well tended, though in modest clothing.

He somehow manages to hold his tongue throughout her speech, then eyes her sqarely.

"Listen lady, ya really need ta work on yer diplomacy and learn a bit about this town before you go preachin' about my prejudices. Now go on an' tell that red-eyed fella ya tried," he says before going about his work.

// and for the bullet list....
// First off, Darthirâe finds the general population rather skeptical of her.  She generally gets the "You aren't from around here, are you lass?" look, and those who do bother to talk to her generally give short answers and excuse themselves as quickly as possible.  She does find some more acceptance at the temple of Ilsare, if she goes, as well as finding the greatest amount of information there. The merchants overall are uninterested in talking to her if she's not buying goods or shelling out gold, and if you want to take that approach, I'll see that some is deducted from Darthirâe's bank account.  Overall, this is what she uncovers:

1] Hlint is a village, run by a ruling council
2] The primary political entity is the ruling council, comprised of eight of the town's most prominent members.  It's a relatively small town so it's light on bureaucracy
3] Some people actually consider "free gifts" in return for favor to be bribery and dishonest.  This particular official, and really the entire ruling council, holds this view.
4] Given a description, it's not difficult for her to determine that the man's name is Jakob Halleran, and he is one of the eight in the ruling council.
5] He, like most of the town, bears a distinctive xenophobic bent, born of decades of really weird things that happened in town before the Dark Ages and the need to "huddle down" during them.  The town distrusts outsiders as a general rule, and the stranger the stranger, the greater the distrust.
6] That is a matter of Darthirâe's opinion.  Even those who speak to her in the temple do not hold this view.  He is considered to be level headed and has always acted in a way believed to benefit the town and its current needs.
7] Try "top-level", and yes he gets to say "no" but there's always the seven other council members.

Freebie: One person she speaks with about the smithy in general just chuckles, shakes his head and says, "Yer chasin' wild birds with tha' one, lass."

[Fidzy]

//Question Dorganath.  I am new to this, so please bear with me.
 
 //This seems to be a IC way to ask for a improvement of the Hlint map.  Is the request refused because this is not asked by the proper means? Or is there a possibility it may be accepted but we have to find out how to ask it?
 
 //Please bring some light...  Thanks

[Dorganath]

// This is a IC response to an IC initiative made initially by a character who is both a non-resident in Hlint and has "freakish" red eyes (by their perspective).  As I mentioned, the town sort of went xenophobic (untrusting of "outsiders") due to historic events, most played out in-game.

// So what has happened here is this:

// An odd-looking, non-resident approached a council member and made an admittedly polite request for something that may or may not be within the council's power to grant. The council member reacted as he would, with distrust and even disgust, not at the request, but the one making the request. It's worth pointing out that Fehriel has a 6 CHA, which means people are going to react to him more negatively than the average person.  That's two strikes against him right there.

// He then proceeded to lecture on tolerance with thinly-veiled threats (again, by the councilor's perspective) about loss of business.  It's important to note here that concepts such as tolerance and not judging people on their appearance/race/etc. is not something that is a widely-held believe in the world of Layonara in general and certainly not within Hlint. To put it in Earth terms, such concepts are very much a late 20th century mindset, which is easily 500 years after the most applicable time period in-game right now.  To put it another way, The vast majority of the Layonara population doesn't think twice about discriminating on looks, race, religion or any other factor.  

// Next, Darthirâe shows up and starts making a similar "lecture" on tolerance, what's "best" for the town and so forth to a man who has already been chosen (along with others) to make such decisions for Hlint.  She also makes veiled references to bribes to a man who simply put cannot be bought and will not sell his principles for any reason.  Being of shrewd mind, he suspects that she may be working with Fehriel and sends her on her way.  

// So this should not be seen as the complete refusal of an OOC request for a mechanical addition to the game, but rather the IC response of an NPC toward two PCs.  Afterall, this question was approached in an IC manner and has thus been handled in one.

// And for what it's worth, I have spoken privately to Hellblazer about this and he was in complete understanding as to what was going on and why Fehriel received the reaction and response he did.

[Script Wrecked]

**While people are standing about Hlint discussing the incompetencies of the local council, a dwarf is seen entering the Tobur Xin Smith under the heavy burden of what smells like... clay.**

// Sorry folks, I've completely got the wrong end of the stick here; there are Tinker's Furnaces, there isn't a Tinker's Device (there is a Jukebox). Retracting this post (and please remove the Thanks). Apologies to Hellblazer and SteveMaurer, and everyone else for the confusion. :rolleyes: //