Butcher of Gadobhra, Chapter 209 Rough Draft (Patreon)

Suzette opened up the tavern, and her first customer walked in. He was a well-dressed gnome that she had seen a few times in the village. He bowed, and seated himself at one of the tables. "Hello, and welcome. Would you like breakfast?"

The gnome smiled back. "Yes, please. I would like a pot of tea, strong as you can make it. A pot of honey, butter, and a loaf of bread. Additionally, I would like a moment of your time to discuss how my business and yours overlap." He spoke well, and seemed quite patient. Suzette wasn't getting any warning signals from him. "Certainly. Let me get your food. Zephyr should be here in a moment and then I can sit down with a cup of tea and talk."

A half hour later she found herself sitting across from the gnome, who introduced himself as Tiberius Longfellow Coppertwist. "But please, that's much too long for such a small fellow as myself. I answer equally to Tiberius or to Banker Coppertwist."

Suzette sipped her tea, and watched as Tiberius carefully cut another perfect slice of bread, then carefully spead butter and honey on it before carefully eating it. He also put honey into his tea, two tablespoons per cup. As he drank the dark tea and ate the honey, he spoke slightly faster. Suzette appreciated that someone else needed a boost each morning. Getting up some days was difficult. "Coppertwist is a name known to me. Do you have an uncle or grandfather who happens to be a lawyer?"

He nodded, pleased she recognized the name. "I do indeed, and he recommended that I take the opening here to start a bank. I've spent several decades working within the banks of others, and the family felt I was ready to get started with my own. I thank you and your village for sponsoring me."

"But, I some questions. Working on the assumption that you needed a bank, and specifically a gnomish bank, I am wondering why you have not come by to start an account and begin putting gold into the bank."

Suzette sighed. She really should have gone by. She went with the honest answer. "My apologies, but things have been busy lately, and we have had several emergencies. I'm running from one thing to another, and if not working here, I'm up in Gadobhra. Why don't you tell me more about your bank. Is it secure? We have a lot of players entering the town, and many have taken professions that rely on redistribution of gold into their own pockets."

"It is always that way, miss. Which is all the more reason for you to use my bank. Based on your question, I know that you must know little about a gnomish bank. Your money isn't just secure, it is impossible to steal by any known means. We don't even keep it here. When you deposit gold with me, I place it into my vault, and it is taken immediately and placed in a corresponding vault in Cinderstein, the castle of the Gnomeking in the capital of Glickopolis. Your gold is safe from thieves, dragons, and armies of dwarves. Nothing has made an unauthorized withdrawal in many centuries. And should such a theft occur, the king himself is responsible for replacing the funds."

"Yes miss, I can say with absolute certainty that your gold is secure. And more! As my tally increases, so does my contribution to the king, and his contribution to me. A gnomish king draws power from the size of his horde, and he offers a bit of that power back to me in the form of banking services that I can offer you."

Suzette remembered when she had spent the points to buy the Gnomish Bank. The Great Kalvek had recommended it highly. She understood why now. She smiled at him, making him almost drip some honey onto his sleeve. "Oh, wonderful. Please tell me about them."

He recovered his balance, caught the errant drip on his spoon, and then refocused on the barmaid in front of him. She had a smile that glinted like gold on a summer day! "Ah, yes miss. Of course. Our basic function is to keep your gold secure, and make sure you can access it when needed. My bank will open each day at noon, and close at 6pm. As the horde it has accumulated grows, hours will increase. Some banks are open all day long, every day of the year. I will be bringing in more of my family when that happens."

"I can also make it much easier for merchants of the town to do business. For instance, you have an account at my bank as the mayor of the town, but not a personal one. Would you like to have one for yourself? And how about one for your tavern?"

Suzette nodded to both. "That sounds good, what needs to be done?"

Tiberius smiled. "You just did all that is needed."

You have opened an account under the name 'Suzette, the   Lonely Barmaid', at the Royal Gnomish Bank of Sedgewick. Your current   balance is: 0

 You have opened an account under the name 'The Lonely Lass Tavern',   at the Royal Gnomish Bank of Sedgewick. Your current balance is: 0

 Your existing account under 'Mayor of Sedgewick' has a balance of: 0

"You should be getting a notification now of your bank accounts and their balances. Would you mind telling me how much I owe you for breakfast?"

Suzette looked away from the screen and tallied up the meal. "Three copper is fine."

The gnome smiled. "And of course, another coin for a tip. The food was excellent."

Banker Coppertwist has paid for his breakfast in the   amount of 4 copper pieces to The Lonely Lass Tavern.
 Current Balance: 0 Gold, 0 Silver, 4 copper.

"You paid your bill through the bank? Can anyone do that?"

The gnome nodded. "Anyone with a bank account that is purchasing from a merchant with a bank account. Secure and convenient transactions. My current radius only includes the town of Sedgewick, but imagine if you could pay for purchases at Rowan Keep with money from the bank?"

"That would be very convenient. But what about places further away? Like Northguard or the Capitol?"

"In time, if the amount in my bank grows, people there will be able to use my bank as well. It's all just a matter of the size of my account with the king. Shopping becomes much easier. Let us imagine you run out of that lovely tea, but merchant Kallvek has a pound of leaves in his warehouse in the capitol. You could pay him and have it shipped by teleporter to Rowan Keep."

Suzette was thinking. "You paid for your breakfast because my business has an account. Does that mean if I sold something like a magical sword, someone could pay me as well? Oh, wait? Is there a way for someone in the capitol to buy that sword?"

Tiberius wiped his mouth with his napkin, having finished the entire loaf of bread. He poured the last of the tea and sat back. "If the right businesses are set up, and my bank grows prosperous enough, yes, in theory. All the parts need to be aligned and present. Payment for something is easy, moving the goods more difficult, and of course, there has to be a way for someone to know about your item. One way is to have the item listed for sale at a shop in the capitol. There is a fee associated with that, of course. And then you would need to have a courier deliver the goods within a day to Rowan keep for teleport, another fee. But if you rented out a store somewhere, and that place had a teleporter system, then your goods would instantly be sent to the store the buyer was at."

He sipped his tea as Suzette was thinking. The more someone valued the services his bank could offer, the faster they would deposit money. The little tavern couldn't have much business, at a few coppers a meal, but she would talk to people, including the Baron. The Kallvek merchant family was already doing business with him, and a good amount of their assets would eventually be his. Especially if the coming chaos in the Imperial capitol was as bad as his uncle predicted. A few more customers as wealthy as the Great Kallvek and he would be able to significantly upgrade his bank and social status. He idly daydreamed of courting his first wife and was interupted by the little barmaid pushing back her chair and racing upstairs.

Unsure of what to do, but having paid his tab, he prepared to go open his bank. He was surprised when Suzette came running back down the stairs holding a small pouch, a bag with a sturdy handle, and a chest under one arm. Judging by the smell of gold, she had a significant amount on her person.

"It's nearly noon. Let's get over to your bank. I have a deposit to make, and people to talk to. And I'll be wanting to link more businesses to the bank soon."

Tiberius held the door for her. "Splendid, splendid. I am at your service. Let us go baptize your accounts with a bit of coin."

Suzette opened the small chest and poured out a mixture of coins that totaled to 512 Gold coins when they were all deposited to The Mayor of Sedgewick. The large bag with heavy handles contained 4300 Gold coins that Suzette put into the account for the tavern. Finally, she pulled forth the small coin pouch she had been 'gifted' by the thief she had caught, McTeeth. It took a little time to pour out the coins inside, but eventually she had 11, 610 Gold coins in her own account. Banker Coppertwist had an impressed look on his face.

"I must say miss, that I am impressed with how well you are doing in such a short time. And don't worry, details about clients never leave my lips. You have reinforced the good advice given me by my uncle and made me happy to locate myself in your town. My bank is well on the way to having a respectable total."

Suzette shook his hand. "I think you will see more customers soon. I'm anxious to get to the point where business expands. Especially to the point where I can list my items for sale elsewhere." Suzette exited the bank and walked across the square to where a large building labeled 'Kallveks Emporium of the Weird, the Wonderful, and the Mundane' was just opening.

Layla was walking down the stairs, dressed in full baronial finery. A few minutes before she'd been in a robe in her bedroom, eating breakfast and looking at the shrinking finances of the Barony. Building the new fortress was like the death of a thousand cuts, with new wounds opening each day. They needed this deal with the Fae badly. When word had come up that Suzette was downstairs, he spent a few minutes on her hair and burned a large amount of her mana using one of her skills to be instantly presentable. She might be getting along with Suzette these days, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to compete.

"How nice to see your darling. I have some tea coming out in a moment. You're a bit early for the nightly blood and gore, what brings you here at the crack of noon?"

Suzette looked at Layla for a moment, then grinned, not able to keep quiet any longer. "I have a bank!"

Layla blinked. Billy had been trying to get a bank in Gadobhra. Banks meant power and success to him. So far no one had taken him up on his offer of a large corner lot. No businesses and no money meant no interest. But of course, the little barmaid had found someone to open up a bank. Probably a halfling with a magic chest who would sit on a corner and put your money in one of seven magical pockets. Nothing in Sedgewick was ever normal.

"That's wonderful dear. You have a place to start putting away a nest egg for your old age." The Baroness sighed. Old habits die hard. "But if you're up here to tell me about it then it's significant. What can a bank do for you? Or for me?"

"Well, for one, it can get bigger. The more it has, the more it can offer. Eventually we can gain the ability to sell to the entire empire. And all by a secure transfer. No chests of gold traveling roads and subject to bandits."

Layla paused to think. She needed all the details. "Start at the beginning, and don't leave anything out." A half hour later, and several sheets of vellum sacrificed to the god of paperwork, and they were starting to firm up a plan.

Layla looked at Suzette, who was enjoying the Danish that had been brought in for brunch. "Kallvek is the key. We need to convince them that it's going to make them more money to list our items and take a cut, than to buy them and sell the items themselves. Right now, he can make more buying some enchanted knives, or items from your dungeons. But when the Menagerie and Pit start getting regular parties exploring them, we may have plenty of business to send to other merchants. Billy managed to acquire a whole pile of items recently. I was going to talk to you about putting a few up for sale in your tavern."

"I have a better idea. Tomorrow I'm opening a shop for magic items in a building next to the tavern." Suzette had been thinking about it for a while. She had a few dozen items now, and the Tavern walls made for poor shopping. She had ideas about who she wanted to run it.

"Splendid. And when an item sells, all the money goes into my account? Very convenient and makes for easy paperwork."

Suzette giggled. "I love it when you say something funny with that perfect poker face. Really dear? All the money? Poor impoverished Sedgewick deserves something for its work."

Layla hadn't thought the idea would fly, but she'd tried anyway. "Then what were you thinking?"

"I'm thinking 80% to you, 10% to the store to help cover wages, and 10% to the village account. If it was anyone else, it would be more. A lot more. But this takes into account that Sedgewick owes a cut to Gadobhra and lumps that into the 80%." Suzette and Ozzy had talked a lot about how to handle Billy and Layla. For now, the strategy was based on being useful and working together. Hopefully the two ACME managers reciprocated. If they didn't? Well, things would change rapidly.

Layla blinked. That was a very reasonable offer. "That works. There are already more adventurers down in Sedgwick, with Gadobhra being a little scary still. We'll get a lot more sales this way and start converting dungeon loot to cash, and not have to focus on things. I don't have to tell you how busy things are going to get with the ongoing construction and little problems that are popping up. What else do you need from us?"

Suzette had a list. "You and Billy both need to open personal accounts, as well as an account as Baron and Baroness, and an account for the city. The banker suggested all of that. Additional accounts can be opened for guilds. Then we need deposits. The quicker the bank builds up a big hoard of gold, the faster we can have shops in the capitol list our goods. I'm going to talk to Marcus about paying for a small stand at the merchant’s area at the keep, and renting storage space. We'll need it for shipping goods eventually."

Layla opened a bottle of wine. She poured a glass for each of them. "I propose a toast: To Conquest through Commerce."
Billy found the two of them giggling and laughing an hour later, with several empty bottles on the table. He retreated upstairs, grumbling. "Dammit, I just restocked my wine cellar, that woman is going to bankrupt me."