Date: Saturday, April 28, 2001 10:51 PM Subject: Administrivia I wanted to go over some trivia that your characters would know, even if you don't. I read the Guild Membership Agreement the other night really fast... it's not particularly draconian, in fact it's pretty damn liberal. I suppose it would have to be, given the large number of alignments represented. Key principles are (1) The Guild's rules don't supercede any local laws... if you get sacrificed for kissing the chieftain's virgin daughter, don't expect anyone at the Guild (except your Party) to care. Guild members are ALWAYS subject to the laws of the Duchy of Carzala, as the Duke is the Patron of the Guild. (2) Your only binding responsibilities are to the other people named in your Party Charter. If you cause or allow them to come to harm, you can be subject to Guild Justice. (3) You ARE bound by, in order of decreasing obligation: 1ST - Orders given by the Guildmaster 2ND - Orders given by the Guild Council 3RD - Orders given by any Guild Master In turn, the Masters are bound by a simple majority decision of a combined Journeymen / Masters Circle. (The collective will of the Membership supercedes the orders of the Council. This group is called the Guild Circle.) (4) To summarize the union dues part of the contract... you are required to pay either 10% of all monetary treasures collected by your Party, or 200sp per year, whichever is greater. That 10% is a sticky question. It applies whenever you are undertaking a contract between either yourself and/or the Party, and some employer... and the contract was negotiated by the Guild. PLEASE NOTE that the Guild can negotiate additional fees, which will be spelled out in the contract. The 10% is the Guild's cut of incidental treasure you acquire. In some situations, the contract will be for the purpose of recovering treasure(s)... in that case, your share of treasure (if any) is spelled out. Typically such contracts are lucrative, even if they don't permit shares of the recovered treasure. The Guild freely (routinely, even) exchanges dues with services... allowing members to work performing Guild business instead of paying dues. This extends to other Guild services... loans, healing, mercenary support. This kind of barter is the real coin of inter-Guild commerce. Back to the 10%. If you are NOT currently in the process of discharging a Guild Contract, and you happen to stumble upon a red dragon... and kill it... and loot its lair... then you DON'T owe 10% of the dragon's treasure. You would still owe 200sp per year to your local Guild office. On the other hand... if you accepted a Guild-negotiated contract with the town of Simpleton to kill a wyvern that was terrorizing the locals, and on the way there you stumbled across a deserted Elvish temple with treasures worth tens of thousands of gold pieces lying on the altar... you WOULD owe 10% of that treasure to the Guild... UNLESS YOUR CONTRACT SAYS YOU OWE MORE (or less). MOVING MONEY One of the Guild's great innovations is the Letter of Credit. You deposit your gold in the vaults of the Guild Headquarters -- the clerk gives you a Letter of Credit -- you are then entitled to visit any of the other Guild Headquarters, and upon producing the same letter withdraw the same amount. Makes moving money MUCH safer. THE MOONWIND We've already talked about this a tad... the five of you OWN the Moonwind, but it's not really yours to use very much. In order to break even on costs, it will be making the roundtrip between Bliss and Seagate between 2 and 4 times a year. Once the family loan is paid off, you'll start to make a steady profit from trade. MacGyver is already trying to work out profitable commodities to trade in. It does mean that you have a "bus" to get you back to Alusia when you really need it. It will cost you a boatload in lost profits, however.... and you do have to wait around sometimes before it shows up again. Back with more... KtG.