This Used To Be About Dungeons полностью

“Ah, well,” said Besc. “Still a lot of problems to be solved there.” He stepped forward and placed his hand on the stone again, then put out a hand toward where the tree was in that other space. “My guess is fourteen thousand pounds, all told. That’s a rasan of raw material, but it’ll take quite some time to process. I can do, say, a thousand pounds a week, if that. And with two? That’s half a year of work.”

“He’s already trying’ to talk down the price,” said Hannah. “I can respect that, ay.”

“I can’t pay for it all,” said Besc, shaking his head. “Not at anywhere near a proper rate. Just being upfront, kworma. I can do the processing and pay you once I have the money coming in, but nearly thirty thousand pounds? Not sure who would handle this kind of thing, if not me. Wilch doesn’t have the equipment for it. That means you’d be going, oh, up to two hundred miles away, maybe more.”

“Probably all the way to Plenarch,” said Alfric, sighing. “Which we’d almost certainly need a portal for, and that will be down to timing, along with what’s probably a long hike.”

“We’re not in a rush, are we?” asked Hannah.

“No, we’re not,” said Verity. “So long as we can come collect in six months’ time, it seems like it would be fine.”

“I suppose,” said Alfric. “But we can’t do anything until the trees are out.” If they could get the trees out in the first place.

“Just making sure that we’re on the same page,” said Besc. “It would be a shame to do all this and then come to a disagreement once the labor is done. There’s the matter of terms,” he said. “The wood will take time to process, and the product—well, it would be better if I had a buyer for it before I started putting it into molds. Growthstone is good for a lot of things, but it’s best for dungeon plants. For something like this, not that a half-year job is usual, I’d take seventy percent.”

Alfric grimaced. It was on the high side. Knowing the people out here, there was probably nothing like auditing services, though it wasn’t clear how much money they’d get from the sale in the end and whether the services of an auditor would be even remotely worth it. Besc did own all the equipment, had the knowledge to run it, had the assistants to help with labor, and would be doing most of the labor himself.

“Sixty-five, for a first-timer,” said Besc. He had, perhaps, mistaken Alfric’s waffling on the deal for an attempt at bartering. Alfric didn’t particularly like bartering or haggling, but it seemed painfully common in the region.

“Sixty,” said Hannah. “With this kind of volume, the work is easier, and you’re makin’ more off it, ay.”

“My equipment, my labor, and if you want to go elsewhere, you’ve got a few days of work ahead of you,” he said. “Sorry, but that’s how it is.”

“Fine by us,” said Hannah. “We didn’t have much else planned.” She moved to the stone and began to pick it up, as though she was actually going to put it back in the book, after all that.

Besc sighed. “Sixty then, you cheeky kids.” He held out a hand, and Alfric shook it. Besc chuckled. “Sorry for pressin’ it, but I had to try, eh kworma?” He looked to Hannah. “Would you really have gone to Plenarch?”

“Ay,” said Hannah. “Best not to bluff, because then someone might call you on it.” She gave him a wide smile.

“You be careful of these Cairbre women,” Besc said to Alfric. “They can be fierce.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” said Alfric.

Besc looked at his workshop. “Before we try the floatstones, we’ll lever it up. I don’t think I have the floats for that much weight anyhow.” He looked back at Alfric. “You’re a big strong dungeoneer, can you swing a hammer?”

“I can,” said Alfric, frowning. “But why?”

“To get a wedge under,” said Besc. “With a long length of wood and a wooden hammer, we can try elevating it up, and from there we might be able to do a rope, and from there, if we can do it in a secure way, the floatstones, though that’s its own problem, since the mountings I have for the ballast are metal. Might be worth it still to make wooden ones, but we’ll see.” He rubbed his face, looking down at the pocked stone. “I don’t know of anyone with a storage entad that could be used for the transfer. The best I know is two thousand pounds, my friend Geoff, but it’s half metal, so probably wouldn’t make it through. Might be a better way to go about it though. Or we could get a cleric involved…”

“I’m a cleric of Garos,” said Hannah.

“Well, not too much help there,” said Besc. “I was thinking Oeyr, to fracture it into pieces, though that would create some problems… Can you move the stone?”

“Move it?” asked Alfric.

“Move it in the garden,” said Besc, looking down at the stone. “Pick it up and put it somewhere else.”

Alfric swore. “I never even thought of that. In my defense, we’ve only had it for a day, but—it’s worth a shot.”