The shape of Sani's new smithy;
albums/pp63/Tom_35_/IMG_
Creating selling prices for Urist's products were hard, as even buying the ores at the much cheaper prices from the ore seller in Keldagrim meant leaving very little profit at selling bars or armour to NCP store at their 'buy' prices. For example, Horvik normally buys mithril platebody's for 1,560 coins. Mithril ore from Keldagrim costs 162, and coal costs 45. That means each bar costs 342. Five bars cost 1710. That's before any profit and 150 coins above Horvik's buy price. His sell price, however, is 5200 and the G.E. price as of 9th December '16 is 2407. So for Urist to sell it for 2000, it's still below both the G.E. price and still leaves Horvik a considerable profit, whilst making Urist a profit too.
Urist boarded up his stall and locked it up and headed over to the smithy. Just as he reached the corner of the building, Charlie was leaving the smithy.
"Where've you been?"
"You said if I needed help, to come see you in the smithy. You weren't there, so Sani made me a cup of tea whilst I waited. I found out he was the one that suggested you help me out, so, I offered to help out a little, fetching him bricks when he needed." Urist started to clench his fist in anger. "It was ten minutes. I was only waiting for you."
Urist pointed a finger at Charlie. "Someone could have stolen something off the stall. In fact, there are moulds missing, someone probably has stolen some."
"Wow!" Charlie said with his hands up. "Sorr-y. I actually sold some. A monk, or someone dressed as one, came and said he's from the order of Zamor-a-kian mages, or something like that, and wanted to purchase a tiara mould. I noticed you had three on the table and quite a few in the chest. I did a bit of upselling and sold him fifteen in total."
"For a hundred coins each?"
"Yep. But I didn't know what to put on the stall to replace the ones I sold. With no spares left in the chest, I didn't want to put moulds out and find out you wanted the spaces leaving empty. Hence, I came to see you."
"I'm terribly sorry, Charlie. I shouldn't have got angry. I was just concerned as I asked you to man the stall and when I returned to the stall, it wasn't being manned. I'll re-order some more tiara moulds, but in the meantime, just fill the gaps with whatever's in the chest. I'm sorry."
"It's ok. When shall I close the stall?"
"I've already done it, to come and find you. If you're willing, we can help Sani a bit more?"
"Sure." The pair helped Sani. When the sun began to wither in the sky, Urist took a hundred coins from his pouch and asked Charlie to head to the flour mill by the Grand Exchange, to buy a meat pie. Normally Romily sold them for ninety-six coins but Urist told Charlie, Romily could keep the change. Charlie did as he was ordered and the trio enjoyed a large portion of pie over a natter.
Urist prepared the last of the boots and had Charlie take then to the stall with him the next day. He put the sixteen hundred coins takings, plus the hundred coins from the king, into his small chest under his bed. The rest of the week was spent on building the two walls at the smithy. On Sunday evening, Urist made the emerald, sapphire and ruby rings, and placed them in the chest under his bed.
Before bed, he wrote a letter to Grum at his gem store in Port Sarim and a letter to Zenesha at her platebody shop in East Ardougne asking if they would be interested in buying products from him. He also wrote a letter to Drorkar requesting him to ask the various shops in Keldagrim if they'd be interested too. If they were, could he purchase and send him the required materials. He sent the letters the next morning and talk a walk to Horvik's smithy to the east of the market.
A hammer was banging away as Urist approached.
"Horvik!" He called. Horvik turned around and greeted Urist. "I was just wondering if you'd be interested in buying armour from me."
"You're the fellow that fitted a furnace at Sani's smithy, aren't you?"
"Maybe. Why?"
"It could put me out of business. Before, I competed on a par with Sani. Now he can buy ores and sell his products cheaper as a result."
"Well, I could sell you bars at very attractive prices."
"How attractive?
"Iron bars for twenty-five coins, steel for a hundred and twenty-five, and mithril for four hundred."
"At those prices, I'd definitely buy iron bars. May need to do a little better on the other two."
"There's barely much profit in those prices."
"Hmmm. Armour you say? How about you make the armour at those prices? So you sell me a mithril platebody for one two thousand."
"That's what I was hoping to offer you in the first place. It saves you doing the work."
"It also makes my anvils redundant, but you're right, it saves me doing the work."
"I'll need to order the ores in, which'll take a few weeks to arrive, so would you like to make an order now?"
"I need some time to work out what I need. I'll leave your order at Sani's."
"Thank you." Urist paid a visit to the barracks to calculate how many bricks he would need. When he arrived, he was taken back with surprise. A mountain of clay had been piled at the back of the potter's building, just inside the gate to the military quarters. Guards continued to barrow clay past him as he stood with his mouth wide open.
After a few minutes of calming himself, he started working out how many bricks he needed. He worked out he needed a few short of thirty-seven thousand, six hundred bricks. Twenty-two short to be precise.
Urist caught the attention of the captain and told him precisely how much clay he required so the guards didn't mine too much.
"Could you show us how to make the bricks?"
"And what would I be being paid for, precisely?" Urist chuckled.
"For managing the project."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course. Like you said, it'll keep the guard's strength and stamina up."
"Ok then. Follow me." Urist took him to the pile of clay and filled the mould with some. He took it to the potter's building and emptied the shaped clay onto the tray.
"Fill the tray with these and stick it in here." Urist opened the oven door and put the tray in. "They'll be in there for a few minutes." Urist waited until they were done and pointed out how the captain could tell the bricks were ready, before pulling the tray out. "And that's it."
"Thank you, sir. We'll get on it. How many bricks are we making?"
"Thirty-seven thousand, five hundred and seventy-eight."
"Wow! That's a lot."
"It is. We may not need all of them, but it's better to have too many than not enough."
"Yes, yes it is." The captain tugged his helmet and took the brick with him to the houses.
Urist made his way to Charlie and asked Baraek to look after the stall. He took Charlie west, past the bank and the manor, and north to Romily's flour mill.
"I've been here before."
"Yes, you have." Urist knocked on the door and soon Romily opened it.
"How can I help?"
"Are we able to use your mill?" Romily stroked his beard for a second.
"Where's your wheat?"
"Oh, I don't mean now. I mean generally speaking, on a daily basis."
"Ooohhh. Hmmm. You can use the mill, if you give me five pots of flour each day that you use it."
"Deal." Urist shook his hand. "Do you have a pot and some wheat? Just so I can show this young lad how to make a pot of flour." Romily nodded and let them in, showing them where the wheat was. Charlie lumbered it over his shoulder. Urist led him to the second floor and pointed him to the mill. Charlie threw the wheat into the machine.
"Now pull these levers in this order." Urist demonstrated and Charlie nodded. He led Charlie back down the stairs and using the pot Romily gave him, filled it with the flour. "And that's it. Would you be willing to do this all day?"
"Aye. But what about the pots and wheat?"
"I'll sort that out for you." Urist led him back to the stall and Charlie started manning it again. Urist crossed the road to the general store and sought out the shopkeeper.
"How can I help?"
"I was wondering if you have a regular supply of empty pots?"
"To an extent, yes. If I know a customer wants to purchase an amount of them on a regular basis, I can make sure I have them in stock."
"Would you be able to supply me with fifty pots a week?"
"That I would. You're the gentledwarf that owns the crafting stall opposite, aren't you?"
"Yes, if you could deliver them there, that would be great. I'll personally come to pay you at the end of each week." The shopkeeper shook his hand. Urist made his way to his house and wrote a letter to Seth, asking if he would sell Urist fifty bales of wheat every week and deliver them to Romily's flour mill. It was getting quite late in the day so Urist made his way to the smithy. He walked over to Sani, who put his hammer down to listen to him.
"Has a note been left for me?"
"Aye. That scoundrel Horvik was in 'ere, said he had a note for you."
"He's placed an order. I'm selling stuff to him."
"Oh right. That's not so bad then." Sani pulled the note from his apron pocket and gave it to Urist. "Listen. Would you be able to purchase ore on my behalf? I'm struggling to find a regular supplier."
"Certainly. Just give me a list of what you want and I'll order it for you. Make sure you don't mix your ore up with mine though." The pair laughed. "I'm about to make an order, actually, so would you like me to order anything for you?" Sani wrote down a few things and handed it to Urist, who nodded and left. He sent the letter to Seth and the orders to Drorkar, including the fifteen tiara moulds, with a delivery boy. When he returned home that evening, he had a proper look over Horvik's order. He had ordered; ten iron helms, ten iron square shields, ten iron platelegs, ten iron plateskirt's, ten iron platebody's, ten steel platebody's, five steel platebody's, two mithril platebody's and a hundred iron bars. Urist's order would cost ten thousand, one hundred and seventy-five coins. And the four hundred and ninety-five coins for the moulds.
Unless I have some hidden takings Charlie's not told me about, I only have two thousand, eight hundred and twenty coins to my name. I have about three to four weeks to gather the rest.