Hucksters, tinkers, and peddlers

Out in the wilderness, far from the cities of the elven strangers, manufactured goods are hard to come by.  If they don't make it in your community, you'll have to get it from a wandering trader.

Ausrufer mit Hobeln

It's always an exciting day when the huckster comes to town.  Loaded up with plenty of doodads and knick-knacks, the huckster has a little bit of everything for sale.  Need some new shoes?  He's probably got a few (mismatched, of course).  Need a new musket?  She's probably got one that's in fairly good shape, just missing a screw or a spring.

Hucksters trade in odds and ends, the leftovers of manufacturing everywhere.  Like a convenience store selling loose cigarettes, hucksters are who you go to when you can't afford to buy the whole quantity at the general store in the next town over.

Peddler (Eric Sloane)

Roll to see what this wandering trader looks like, how they're carrying their goods, and what sort of goods they're most likely to have.

What they look like (d10)		appearance	typical goods
1-3	giant	(d4) 1: pack almost as big as its bearer, 2: pulling a travois, 3: pulling a sled, 4: pushing a one-wheeled cabinet	wide variety of goods and news
4-6	human (from a tribe)	(d4) 1: canoe full of tightly-wrapped bundles, 2: dog pulling a travois, 3: dog pulling a cart, 4: on snowshoes and hunched over with a big pack	agricultural products and metal implements
7-8	goblin	(d4) 1-2: big bundle slung over one shoulder, 3-4: many small bags	small scavenged valuables and metal items, drugs, bones, claws, shells
9-10	elf	(d4) 1-2: riding a fancy painted cart pulled by an ox/donkey, 3-4: group of elves carrying small packs	alchemical products, cloth goods, cookware

(If you're looking for a deeper character, try rolling up a random personality issue as well.)

Most hucksters follow a general circuit, making their rounds of the usual settlements over time.  Roll to see how long it's been since they were last here:

How long since the last visit (d8)
1	days, something happened to make them turn back
2-3	weeks, they have news from a nearby town
4-6	months, everyone is glad to see them
7-8	never been here before, might be a swindler

Roll to see where they've been recently that you might want to know about:

Recently been (d6)
1	at a nearby settlement, fort, or trading post, where something is wrong
2	selling something strange to enemies of the people who live here
3	in a hidden ruin, cave, shipwreck, etc.
4	selling shoddy goods to allies of the people who live here
5	in jail, held captive, chased by enemies
6	on a route they can't return by: bridge washed out, landslide, fallen trees, hostile people

a Chinese porter (William Alexander)

They've acquired something interesting that they're offering:

Something interesting (d10)
1	news about a great opportunity
2	rumors of danger
3	news about someone gathering followers
4	a tiny artifact from an ancient kingdom
5	a small sacred item lost by a human tribe during the apocalypse
6	a new invention that they're trying to sell
7	a key, an old doubloon, jewelry, a strange edible object
8	a part for some kind of machinery, something powered by clockwork
9	an old book, a certificate or bearer bond, a map, a contract that someone still cares about
10	a powerful alchemical product, but only a small quantity

If you want to buy something from a huckster, they'll usually sell it for up to 2× trading post prices.  Hucksters' goods aren't cheap, but you can buy in tiny quantities and you can find them out on the frontier.

This traveling trader has picked up something that they're tired of and would like to unload cheaply, for less than post price:

Trying to unload (d4)
1	perishable food: eggs, berries, mushrooms
2	clothing: a warm coat, a fine hat, some shoes
3	a tool/weapon that has something wrong with it: knife, lockpicks, axe, musket
4	some troublesome alchemical product

If you want to sell to a huckster, they'll take things off your hands for less than ½ post price.  You won't get rich selling to them, but you can make a little coin when you need it.

Roll to see what they're especially interesting in buying or trading for.  They'll pay extra for this:

Looking for (d6)
1	a new pack/canoe/cart, something to help them carry things and get around
2	something people make on the frontier: rope, pottery, cloth, cornmeal, dried fish
3	something nice to pass the time: alcohol, tobacco, a musical instrument
4	an armed escort to their next stop, a guide to get around an obstacle
5	something to use as a gift: a silver locket, shell beads, a golden bracelet, fine gems, a music box
6	an introduction to the leader of a town that does not allow outsiders

Tinker (Franz Feyerabend)

Most peddlers pick up some kind of skill on the road:

Skill (d6)
1	good at fixing things (goblin: good at identifying things)
2	entertaining: stories, jokes, singing
3	know all the trails and back ways for many miles around
4	owed favors by people all along their route
5	always have an inkling where you might find something
6	allowed in to places outsiders normally can't go

When the party wants to buy something from a huckster, you can usually use your GM sense to decide if it's available (A deer's jawbone? Sure, why not.  An axe handle?  Yeah, I guess so.  The jeweled scepter of the viceroy?  Definitely not.) but sometimes players ask for things that you haven't decided about.

If you're not sure the huckster has what they want, roll for a random response:

Do they have it? (d6)
1	They have exactly what you're looking for, but it'll cost you.
2	They have one, but it's broken or in bad shape.
3	They have only part of one, much less than you were looking for.
4	They had one just recently, but they traded it to someone.
5	They know who has one, but you won't like who it is.
6	They hear you can buy one at the store / trading post (somewhere nearby, if possible).

Japanese peddler 1901

Roll up your own random peddler:

random wandering trader
appearance
how long since the last visit
recently been
they have something interesting
trying to unload
looking for
skill
do they have it?

Message for you, sir

After a long trek through the wilderness, the party makes it back to the watering hole at Flint Ridge.  Dirty and exhausted, they slump into their usual chairs.  There's a letter waiting for them with the tavern master.  The lieutenant digs out a shilling for it, then unfolds the letter.  Could it be news about the war?  Answers about the lost treasure?  A letter of credit to pay off the party's debts?

Ilya Repin, Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks

In a world where writing is magic, the post office is like the astral plane.  Secret messages, hidden money, many powerful things can be sent through the post office.

The colonial postal system almost didn't survive the apocalypse (hard to keep the mail going when no one's left to send any) but it's been a generation.  The viceroy, nominal ruler of the elven colonies, has reestablished post offices and messenger routes.  This is good for communication, but it also means the viceroy has agents visiting every major elven town, reporting back about the conditions and goings-on of the scattered colonies.

Getting a letter

In larger elven settlements there's a local post office.  Mail can be delivered to local addresses, though roving adventurers usually have things sent to the post office where they can pick them up.  Smaller outlying settlements aren't big enough for a post office, so there you can pick your mail up at the local tavern or the general store.

Unlike modern mail, in the colonies the recipient pays for correspondence.  If you don't pay for your mail, it ends up being thrown away.

Letters from another city cost a shilling (the usual small silver coin, worth half a day's wages or a ferry ride across a river).  Letters from across town cost only a penny or two.

Thomas Webster, A Letter from the Colonies

What they want (d6)
1	They want the party to do some work for them.
2	They want the party to stop interfering and go away.
3	They say the party owes them a debt.
4	They want to warn the party about danger.
5	They want information from the party.
6	They want to use one of the party's resources.

Why the party cares (d6)
1	They claim to be the authorities or powerful figures.
2	They have something the party wants.
3	They are offering to pay in some way.
4	The letter contains valuable information.
5	They are close to an enemy of the party.
6	The party owes them a debt.

a letter arrives for the party
what they want
why the party cares

Sending a letter

If you want to send a letter, there are a few different ways:

• Larger towns and cities have a post office, so you can drop your letter off there.
• In port towns, just hand your letter to the next ship captain headed to a major city.  They're supposed to drop it off with the postmaster when they arrive.
• Many inland settlements are visited by postal messengers on their route.  Wait for one to come along and you can hand your letter to them.
• You could entrust your letter with a member of the community (the innkeeper, the clerk of the general store, etc.) for them to hand off the letter for you.

So how long will it be till someone picks up your letter?

• From an elven city to the viceroy's capital in the Summer Isles (or vice versa), it'll be 1d6 days till a ship leaves carrying your letter.
• From one city to another, 1d4 weeks.
• To/from any other port settlement, 1d8 weeks.
• To/from any other elven settlement, 1d6 months.

Taconville, Messager Boiteaux

There are many reasons the party might send a letter:

• Asking for information: when a ship will sail, whether someone has been seen at an inn, where a lost ship was last seen, etc.
• Requesting money from their sponsor, likely in the form of a check or a letter of credit that could be turned in for coin at a bank.
• Mail ordering supplies.  Plenty of companies will do business through correspondence, shipping goods and accepting payment over a distance.
• Asking a friend for help.
• Impersonating someone powerful.
• Getting information published in a newspaper.
• Hiring someone to do a job.
• Blackmailing someone.
• Warning someone about danger.

Beyond the elven colonies and a few of their allies, the mail just doesn't get through.  Humans send runners with messages, giants memorize copious amounts of news on their wanderings, and goblins pass along a lot of garbled rumors.

Star-currency of the gods

You've probably heard of the stone money of Yap Island, great stone wheels called rai.  They're terribly impractical: large, cumbersome, fragile, just about the most awkward currency in the world.
In fact, they're so awkward to move that no one really moves them around anymore.  When you spend one, everyone knows who it now belongs to, so you don't need to bother rolling it all the way over to their house.  And when they spend it, everyone knows who it belongs to now.

The stones change ownership without ever changing hands.

As Yap islanders once used stones, giants use the stars.

When the world was young and the giants first emerged from the earth, the gods opened their mouths and taught them to speak.  They told them the names of the animals and mountains and the stars.

The gods gave stars as gifts, a sign of honor for the noblest and most loyal giants.

Owning a star means knowing its name and its place in the heavens, and being able to recite its history many generations back.  Gifted with prodigious memory, giants know the names of thousands of stars and their owners across the land.

Stars can be sold or given away, but only at an annual gathering where others may bear witness to the transaction.  Dim stars are traded away regularly, but bright stars are reserved for the most valuable of purchases or gifts bestowing high honors.

---

Stars function as something like money in the bank, a form of wealth universally accepted, but kept in a form that's very hard to steal.  Instead of a ledger showing how much you have in your account, the collective reckoning of giantish society keeps track of who owns which stars.

There's a bit of a delay in passing along that information.  It may take several years for knowledge of a transaction to propagate to the farthest reaches of the continent, but it will eventually get there.

Stars have fallen into the hands of other species.  Some have been given to human tribes as a peace offering.  Some have been used in trade with the goblins.  A few have even been given to the elves since their arrival a century ago.  But even the most giant-friendly of outsiders don't keep track of stars across generations, so giants will, from time to time, inquire about lineages and inheritance in an effort to determine the rightful owner of a star.

Many stars were lost in the apocalypse as people died without kin and heirs.

Giants name stars by their place in a constellation.  Each is named for a divine figure: a god or something like a god from one of the stories.  These are some of the major constellations; there are also many minor ones.

Constellation (d20)
1	Old Porcupine
2	Talking Goose
3	Granny Vulture
4	the Flock of Quail
5	One-Eyed Bear
6	the Poet Cricket
7	Lean Coyote
8	Salmon Who Listens
9	the Thundering Moose
10	Youngest Squirrel
11	Snowstorm Jackrabbit
12	Lame Deer
13	Devouring Owl
14	Mother Skunk and her Three Children
15	Too-Fat Turkey
16	the Unrepentent Raccoon
17	the Crow Brothers
18	the Great Rattlesnake
19	Sleeping Turtle
20	Many-Hued Beetle

Once you know the constellation, make up a position that makes sense there or choose from the list below.

Position (d20)
1	the outstretched wingtip of
2	the broken horn of
3	the left shoulder of
4	the third right toe of
5	the end of the branch dropped by
6	the long tooth of
7	the wound in the side of
8	the corner of the mouth of
9	the tip of the tail of
10	the drop of blood from
11	the neck of
12	the nose of
13	the stone before
14	the stolen amulet of
15	the fly that annoys
16	the eye that watches
17	the one that pursues
18	the bright eye of
19	the second point of the right antler of
20	the ear of

Roll up a random star yourself:

random star
star

Heed the call, come down the mountain!

Once a year, the lonely giants come down out of the mountains.  To trade, to mate, to share gossip and news, they all gather and spend a few days in fellowship.

(Ray and Sue travel photography)

Giants are a solitary race, making their rounds in the high country, checking their traps, digging up roots, and generally not talking to anyone.  But every spring, all giants go to the nearest Gathering.

Coming together

Giantish mating season is in the spring, anywhere from the spring equinox to midsummer's day.  Each gathering happens in the same place and same time from year to year, led only by consensus and tradition.  Many gatherings have been going on since before the apocalypse.

(Alfredo Rodriguez)

The annual gathering is a big deal: dozens of giants show up, but many other people also come to trade and parley.  Choose one or two kinds of visitors:

Visitors (d12)
1-3	spokesmen from a nearby human tribe
4-7	humans come to trade
8-9	goblin friends from nearby woods/swamps
10	representatives of elven companies that want to hire giants or trade with them
11	an elven missionary
12	major annual trade fair for the entire region

Opening

The gathering is always opened with an official ceremony.

Opening (d12)
1-3	welcoming ceremony	Guests, giants new to the area, and newborn giants are introduced and welcomed by the group.
4-5	roll call	Each attendee speaks their name and abbreviated lineage.
6-7	recitation	Prominent attendees recite a traditional story or poem, each one sharing a different part.
8-9	story of the apocalypse	An elder giant tells a colorful tale of the apocalypse, garbed in metaphor.
10-11	calling	They loudly call out in unison for any other giants in earshot (miles away) to come and join them.
12	elven song	They sing an elven song, taught to their ancestors before the apocalypse.

Each year a monument of some kind is erected to commemorate the gathering. At a site that's been used for generations there will be many of these monuments, or there might be one large monument, a new part being added each year.

(desertdrover)

Commemoration (d6)
1-2	totem poles carved into natural figures
3	standing stones with marks painted on them
4	complex knotted cords tied/wrapped around trees or poles
5	cairn of small stones over the skull of a giant who died this past year
6	large, flat stone with a cache of tiny figurines buried beneath

Opinions

Gatherings are always a time for discussion.  Giants speak directly, take their time to ponder, and eventually come to conclusions.  They accept disagreement more readily than other species.

(Charles Babault)

Choose three topics: what the giants are pleased about, what the giants are upset about, and what the giants have divided opinions on.

Opinions (d6)
1	human hunting practices
2	goblins and giantish traps
3	how the giants of this region are getting along with one another
4	quality of the game being trapped these days
5	behavior of an elven community
6	rumors of a great opportunity

Events

Many events go on during the days of the gathering. Choose three for this year. (Mating, trade, and entrusting youngsters to elders happen at every gathering.)

(Alexander Romanov)

Events (d6)
1	sports	feats of strength, wrestling, tug of war
2	tobacco	drinking a black soup made from tobacco, in a stupor afterwards
3	business	discussion about goings-on, calls for action, complaints and gossip
4	news from outsiders	visitors from other species address the group with news
5	stories	reciting one's lineage, reciting poetry, telling tales
6	marriage/divorce	followers of the elven religion marry before mating and divorce afterwards

Trade goods

Choose several major trade goods that are always brought to this gathering.

Trade goods (d10)
1-2	food	(d6) 1: honey, 2: dried/fermented meat, 3: roots, 4: nuts, 5: fish grease, 6: dried berries
3-4	animals	(d6) 1: smelly yaks, 2: ornery llamas, 3: gentle alpacas, 4: furry bactrian camels, 5: stubborn caribou, 6: longhorned elven cattle
5-6	handicrafts	(d6) 1: ivory/antler scrimshaw and carved figurines, 2: small wooden dolls, 3: carvings out of stone (jet, soapstone, jade, serpentine), 4: braided rope, 5: woven belts, 6: tooled leather goods
7-8	outside products	(d6) 1: pottery, 2: woven fish-trapping baskets, 3: knives, 4: copper pots, 5: steel traps, 6: muskets
9-10	found/trapped	(d6) 1-3: furs, 4: horns/antlers, 5: jade/turquoise, 6: copper

(anonymous St. Lawrence islander)

After several days, the gathering officially comes to a close. There's a brief ceremony, then everyone parts ways until next year.

---

Let's roll up a random gathering:

• The annual gathering at Silver Lodge is a major trade fair for the entire region.  Merchants from many days' travel gather together to buy and sell fishing baskets, woven belts, rope, and stone carvings.  Goblins in particular come here to buy things they need (like rope) but don't make themselves.
• It is opened with a deafening call: dozens of giants calling out in unison to kin and strangers alike to come and join the gathering, their booming voices echoing over the land.
• Many standing stones are here, one for each year the gathering has taken place.  Each giant attending paints their symbol on this year's stone.
• After much discussion, it seems they're pleased with how goblins have been leaving their traps alone this past year.  They're upset about how giants in the area have been quarreling with each other.  Some of the giants are upset about humans crossing into their territory to hunt; others are pleased with how the humans are behaving.
• There's a time when outsiders are invited to speak to the assembled giants, bringing news and presenting overtures from their people.  Afterwards the giants take turns telling stories and reciting poems.
• Giants around here are generally followers of the elven religion, so they conduct marriages at the beginning of the gathering, mate, then get divorced at the end.  (Mating otherwise just wouldn't be proper.)

So what do you suppose your party would do at a giantish gathering?

Money in the North

If you want to get rich, you're going to have to know about money.  Not that actual money is where all the wealth is at, but it's a convenient way to carry some around in your pocket.

Coins

The standard trade coin of the empire is the silver dollar, a large coin that's hard to come by on the frontier.  (It's the size of the old Spanish dollar, an old US silver dollar, or a British 5 pound coin: 1 1/2" = 38mm across.)

Spanish dollar.  (Mike Peel)

One dollar is a fair amount of money, buying you:

• a pound of tea
• an axe
• a sheep
• enough powder and shot to fire a musket 20 times

The dollar is divided into ten shillings, a tiny silver coin.  (A shilling is a little smaller than a US dime, about the size of a 1 euro cent coin: 5/8" = 16mm across.)

A shilling is worth:

Massachusetts shilling.  (British Museum)

• one person's passage on a ferry across a river
• a supper of bread and cheese at a tavern
• half a day's labor
• about a week's worth of candles

The shilling is divided into ten pennies, a large copper coin that's fairly common.  (Their penny is a little bigger than a US quarter, about the size of a 2 euro coin: 1" = 25mm across.)

A penny isn't worth much:

"Mind your business" penny.

• the toll for crossing a bridge on foot
• a single biscuit
• half a gallon of cider
• three ounces of tobacco

Back before the apocalypse, the empire used to make a few gold coins as well.  The ten dollar gold piece is rare now, but you can still find the twenty dollar gold doubloon.  (A doubloon is about the size of a US half dollar, a bit bigger than a 2 euro coin: 1 1/8" = 30mm across.)

A doubloon is quite a lot of money, so much that you're going to have trouble finding anyone who will accept one as payment:

Spanish doubloon.  (Goldberg Coins)

• a flintlock musket
• an ox for pulling a cart
• a silver pocketwatch
• a fine saber

Paper Money

If you want to make a large purchase, you don't carry a sack of heavy, jangly coins.  You pay with a promissory note.

A note redeemable for two New York shillings, by order of the corporation.

These are basically IOUs, notes promising to pay someone with real coins later on down the road.  An IOU from a well-known bank in a prosperous city might be easily trusted.  A note from a notorious swindler isn't worth the paper it's printed on.

Many of these are like checks, where you write the name of the recipient on the note so the bank knows who to give the coins to when they cash it in.  Paper money could change hands many times before it actually gets turned in for coins at the bank, so a single note might have been signed over to many different parties on the back.  Cashing in one of those will take some time, as the bank needs to verify all the signatures.

Some paper notes are good for whoever holds them, with no signature needed.  Many banks and companies issued these before the fall; only some of them are worth anything today.

So when someone offers to pay you a substantial sum for a job, make sure you know how they're going to pay.  A thousand dollars in silver coins sounds handy, but it weighs over 60 pounds (28 kg) and makes a lot of noise.  A promissory note for a thousand dollars that's been signed over to many different people is going to take some serious effort to cash in.

Trade

Of course, most people don't have much money in coins or in paper notes.  They deal in trade.  Head down to the trading post and they'll have all their prices listed in dollars, shillings, and pennies, but they might not have any actual coins on hand.

At the trading post.  (Angus McBride)

The trading post pays a dollar for a cord of firewood, but only in trade.  You drop off the firewood and pick out something nice that's worth a dollar.  But this is the frontier, not town, so manufactured goods are more expensive and wilderness goods are less.

(You can also run up a tab, if the shopkeeper trusts you.  But that's for settled people, not rough and tumble adventurers always on the move.)