Commerce
Some of the Warmasters and Seneschals surrounding her at the table had traveled for weeks to answer her summons, sent by their Princes to hear her proposal.
“Friends,” she said, “I have something you want very much. Let’s talk about prices.”
She hadn’t the sway of a Prince, but she didn’t need it, not tonight. Because in the end, blood was a commodity, too, and everyone would want to buy.
At its most basic, Commerce is the practice of buying and selling. However, all the intricate details that go in to getting goods to market also factor into this skill: knowing trade routes, evaluating the quality of the goods, negotiating their prices, keeping track of who might want what, and what they’d be willing to pay for it. Because understanding the value of horseflesh doesn’t completely correlate to, say, the value of silk, you should choose a field of expertise during character creation. Additional fields may be purchased with experience or freebie points. Attempting to deal in a good outside your field of expertise is treated as though the Skill is at 0, and rolls begin with their difficulty increased by one.
Not all Commerce is legal; in fact, some of it delves into the downright inhuman. Trade routes exist for stolen goods, drugs, and slave trafficking as well as spices and silk.
• Novice: You can strike a bargain with local merchants and turn a livable profit.
•• Practiced: You run a modest business, and know who to contact if you need to acquire hard-to-get items.
••• Competent: You turn a steady profit in your trade. When negotiating, you are able to achieve favorable results.
•••• Expert: Your services are sought out by others who need goods imported or exported. You run a thriving business and know the intricacies of your products’ trade routes.
••••• Master: All trade routes lead to you. You control a vast trading empire, and your actions send ripples through the world.
Possessed By: Merchants, traders, nobles, clerics, mercenaries
Specialties: Trade Routes, Negotiation, Spotting Trends, Evaluating Goods
Fields of Expertise: Livestock, Fabric, Foodstuffs, Books, Spices, Stolen Goods, Art, Alcohol, etc.
