The greeting baook p the eenth, the day after the final warlord arrived. Although the ba was iing, I didn't get much of a ce to do anything, which also meant I avoided doing anything wrong before the au. I was seated at a table with a handful of retainers from the warlords. We partook of the same food as the warlords themselves, but versation at our table was limited and hushed. I only picked up on a handful of things said in dwarvish at our table, but none of it seemed particurly iing. I believe our table was retively quiet out of respect for the warlords, who were having lively versation amongst themselves at their table.
Part of the dwarvish tradition freeting ba apparently holds that each warlord bring food for the rest of the warlords to partake in. Most of the food was very simir, probably due to the proximity six of the warlords have to each other. Some of the food was a bit different though, and I assume, though I 't be certain, that it was brought by the warlords from he capitol and further on.
The versation at the main table seemed to remain friendly through the evening, ahe end of the ba, Kao had the crates that I'd designated as gifts brought out and preseo the other warlords. I was, rather abruptly, called to stao Kao briefly as he spoke, then he drank from a uniquely shaped, and rge, goblet. He then passed it to me, and nudged me to drink it. It tasted slightly familiar, and burned somewhat, but other than that seemed fine. I was then urged to pass it to the warlord, and after each warlord had drank some, Kao fihe goblet, and the ba ended.
It was until shortly after the ba was over, and I checked my status that I realized why that burn had felt familiar. I initially thought it might have just been alcohol, and I 't rule out that some might have bee, but what I realized is that it was the feeling of mana being removed, like that pnt on the mountain does.
I'll have to be sure to remember to ask Shasta about that whole process, and the reason for it. Tomorrow is the au though, and the day after is the exit ba, so that question will o wait until after both of those are done.
The au itself wasn't very exg, mostly due to the pace it was held at. Long story short, each warlord was addressed individually, then asked for an initial bid after they were allowed to observe the crystal. Onitial bids were down, the highest bid was announced, and the process repeated. It was like a repeated silent au, with the previously highest bid being the minimum you bid in the round. At the end of a bidding round, the highest bid was announced, and they also annouhe number of other bidders who hadn't submitted a bid.
I assume the system was devised so that no individual party would feel intimidated by the potential political power of their petitors. By lunch, three of the seven warlords had bowed out of the au, but had to remain in their boxes, and participate as if they hadn't. Seemingly to, again, prevent political power from potentially influeng the oute.
I did find that part of the process quite sophisticated. Usually, when politics is involved, I'd expect corruption and abuse of power, but their system actually did do a pretty det job of preventing that abuse. Oher hand, we only went through about one round of bids per hour, which meant things were progressing at a fairly slow pabsp; I only imagine how long this whole process would take if there had been thirty-some odd warlords all having to bid. Each round would probably take half the day!
Though the au wasn't very exg, the amount of money certainly was. As the time approached for the new highest bid to be announced, I found myself filled with anticipation. The first round's bid was somewhat tame in parison to what they rose thout the day. The first round's highest bid came in at about two-thirds of our annual trade budget.
By lunch, the highest bid came in at a bit over six times our annual trade budget, and only three of the seven had dropped out of the au. From there, the wo round's bids came in slightly rger jumps, at eight, then eleven times our annual trade budget. At that point, another of the warlords bowed out, and it became a three way race.
I was getting quite anxious at this point. The bids were being quite signifit in size. I had been thinking about this in terms of improved worker efficy, which, for us, would perhaps give us 50% more work efficy for certain, mana intensive jobs. That'd still mean that this crystal is currently being valuated at something close to 25 years of improved bor of our try for a siem before it starts paying dividends babsp;
Though to the dwarves, it probably holds an additional meaning, since up until retly, an important fixture in the capitol was their giant crystal. For these dwarves, this is probably also something like a symbol of wealth and status that they dispy. Which is why I probably shouldn't have been surprised as the bids tio increase steadily higher.
16, 20, 25, 29... then, finally, after the dinner break, a final bid came in, the winning bid, as the st petitor dropped out. Just over 32 times our annual trade budget in value in dwarven s, plus the previously required temporary defensive pabsp; This one au brought in more fh to our try than our entire history of trade. Though it's currently in the form of unrealized wealth, since we haven't actually traded it yet for any goods.
At that point, the winner was announced as Goppok Kanaga, which seemed to surprise quite a few of the other warlords present. Ahing I'll o ask questions to Shasta about ter, when I get the bsp; Though again today, after I had gotten the crystal secured in it's shipping crate, the ce had passed for any questions, as everyone else had goo sleep. Tomorrow, I might get an opportunity in the m to ask Shasta a few short questions, but I have a few other duties to attend t the day as a sequence of dwarven traditions for their exit ba, so I might not get the ce.
As I thought might happen, I didn't get an opportunity to ask Shasta any questions the day. Despite having some free time, she was also busy, so ultimately the only times that I could have asked questions like that were at the baself, which would have been inappropriate.
During the day, I showed the various warlords the tent of the gift crates they received, sihey were solidly sealed with stone shape. Ultimately, they break them opehey want to get to the tents, but since I have stone shaping, I easily open and reseal them with little trouble. Through the transtor resent with us, it seemed a few of the warlords were somewhat impressed with the idea of airtight stone crates for o transport.
Currently, a lot of their water based trade goes through the innd sea between the tis of the mainnd. To prevent humidity and water from spoiling goods, watertight barrels are made, and they aren't particurly cheap. Stone is in abundahough, and they feel like it's a shame that they don't have access to anything simir to stone shaping for the crates to be reusable. Perhaps iure, when our demons aren't banned from the dwarven kingdom, we could set up our own trade pany in other tries. Stone shaping would give us a bit of a leg up in the packagiment, so it might be petitive.
At the closing bahankfully, Kao kept most of the warlords from askioo many questions, though there might have been some amount of self-i on his part in doing so. I was gd to get the opportunity to open talks with the warlords present at least, though most of the discussions were all taial to the rge crystal in some way. I never did get an opportunity to ask about establishing further trade, which was a disappoi.
I gained a little bit more insight into Goppok Kanaga during the bahough. He's apparently the new warlord of his region, after his father passed away a little over a year ago. With dwarves, I have a hard time judging their age, so the only thing I really tell is that he's an adult. Perhaps it's because I've been a demon for so long now, but I've really started to lose that sort of ability to distinguish age. For demons, age doesn't seem to be as much of a as your current prestige and species, which are fairly easy to tell apart, though sometimes traits fuse it somewhat.
Everyone, myself included, is po leave tomorrow, so it'll be a busy day. I'll be helping with loading the crystal onto Goppok's ship, then, once all the warlords have left, our ship will also leave with our riches. Then I'll have to get on the process of making the crystal for payment to Kaanizing this whole thing.