What would Mostalis trade for ?

[Zit]

I'm wondering what would a trade with Mostali look like. In Griffin Mountain, they trade bronze weapon against food, but what else could be exchanged with them ?

[dumuzid]

I'd expect Mostali to trade for minerals not readily available around a particular group's facilities: copper is relatively plentiful in Prax, for instance, on account of all the Earth gods who died in the Earthfall, but but gold and tin are probably much rarer.  They also like to acquire biological resources they can't produce in-house: they use the muscle power of drayage animals to power some machines, scaling all the way up to using harnessed dinosaurs to power some truly gigantic projects.  Raw materials to make their mysterious canned dwarf food, new organic inputs must take some of the pressure off their recycling systems. 

Some mostali settlements have human residents who are assumed to be slaves by outsiders, but the truth of that is anyone's guess.  Such dwarf groups would probably trade for things to sustain their human populations more efficiently, and they might trade goods for human captives.

Most places they hold these exchanges are called some various on 'Bad Deal' by the local humans, so I wouldn't expect a great exchange rate, but if you can offer them something they can't mine or produce themselves that they need or at least can use, there may be opportunities for exchange.

[Richard S.]

I think that most of the time, if you meet a dwarf who's willing to "trade", they're either insane or on a mission to get a very specific component for the world machine, anything from rare crystals to sacks of horse dung. They won't barter, or even understand what bartering is, they'll just say what they need and what they will give for it, and good luck if you try to refuse them since it'll be iron dwarfs making the offer. I'd personally use trading dwarfs as more of a plot device than a merchant, to give something important to the players. They'll never trade for anything dwarf-made. They'll just take it, by force if necessary.

Openhandists might understand trading better, maybe even be willing to alter their deal or trade for other things (even occasional dwarf treasures), but they probably still won't have a good grasp on how humans value things.

Edited April 21, 2023 by Richard S.

[Jason Farrell]

1 hour ago, Zit said:

I'm wondering what would a trade with Mostali look like. In Griffin Mountain, they trade bronze weapon against food, but what else could be exchanged with them ?

Well.... not food!  The current take on Mostali, they don't eat anything humans would recognize as food.

[radmonger]

2 hours ago, Jason Farrell said:

Well.... not food!  The current take on Mostali, they don't eat anything humans would recognize as food.

Should humans have something necessary to the repair of the world machine, Mostali don't really trade; they will simply take it.

Trade is for when they want some group of humans to have something, most commonly weapons. Openhandist Mostali colonies are those with access to a Gold-caste human-relations specialist. They will know that an exchange will be regarded less suspiciously than a gift. And an unfair exchange is the least suspicious of all.

Whatever they receive in exchange for their 'trade' is typically dumped somewhere out of the way before they get back to the colony.

 

[Manunancy]

1 hour ago, radmonger said:

Should humans have something necessary to the repair of the world machine, Mostali don't really trade; they will simply take it.

 

I'd epxpect them to conduct at least a modicum of cost/benefit analysis - it doesn't take much of an human expert to know that just showing up and picking what you need may lead to troubles with the locals. Giving some trinkets and baubles can save ressources compared to sending Iron mostalis.

[jajagappa]

5 hours ago, Zit said:

I'm wondering what would a trade with Mostali look like. In Griffin Mountain, they trade bronze weapon against food, but what else could be exchanged with them ?

You could have a look in my Edge of Empire book 🙂  - there are several dwarf encounters included.

Dwarfs want lots of weird stuff in my Glorantha. But... you never know what they want at any given time and there is almost always a catch (pay particular attention to what they have you sign in their tin foil sheets! Quite likely there is some further obligation upon you.)

They might want your Shadow (and have tools to remove it from you). They might want white feathers (but only from certain birds). They might want red sand, or black sand, or green sand, or the salt from a god's tears. They might want moon crescents taken from human nails. They might bottles of liquid light (i.e. mead or fire wine) or the shed remains of the dead earth (i.e. snake skins) or spun clouds (i.e. the wool from storm rams) or liquid darkness (i.e. ink). 

 

Edited April 21, 2023 by jajagappa

[jajagappa]

4 hours ago, Jason Farrell said:

Well.... not food!  The current take on Mostali, they don't eat anything humans would recognize as food.

They keep their replenishment cubes well-stocked with the latest tin cans of energy substances. Sometimes those can be life-saving for humans. Some can have considerable side effects.

[jajagappa]

1 hour ago, radmonger said:

Should humans have something necessary to the repair of the world machine, Mostali don't really trade; they will simply take it.

Depends on where you are. As a species with slower reproduction, they may well "trade" in order to avoid costly and difficult to replace parts.

[Squaredeal Sten]

Like RW industrialized societies, they will find it to their advantage to trade for raw materials that they do not produce themselves.  And if you look at the Mostali cities on the map, you will see that they occupy only a small fraction of Genertela and so there are many earth-sourced raw materials not found in areas they occupy.  in addition Mostali are not widely known as farmers, so they will need to trade for agriculturally and naturally sourced raw materials.

An example of a need they would trade to fill is  ingredients of Black Powder, which they need to keep military security.    While no non-Mostali know the formula, we in the RW know that they will need saltpeter and charcoal, neither of which are mined.  They will trade with humans for charcoal or wood, and for containers of excrement which the Mostali will process. 

Although the Mostali may synthesize their food [and may not] they would need organic materials to make it from, and no recycling process is 100% efficient.  Therefore from time to time the Mostali will trade for food or at least recognizable organics. 

 

Edited April 22, 2023 by Squaredeal Sten
Spelling / typing

[hemulaformis]

In my RQG game, I had the adventurers encounter a Mostali trader who mistook them for a different human he was supposed to meet instead. At first, he was frustrated that the party did not have what he expected, and also complained that they were behind schedule. One of the adventurers was in possession of the dwarf buckle with a Heal 2 matrix from the Family Heirlooms table in the rule book, so I had the dwarf notice it and become enraptured. He then pushed very aggressively for it, and the adventurer ultimately relented and handed it over before he moved to wrest it from them. Upon receiving it, he gave the party some strange metal devices which he described very esoterically and wandered off.

The adventurers encountered the dwarf's intended trading partner the next day, and managed to exchange those devices for a favor in return. Fortunately, none of the adventurers asked what the Mostali had been seeking in the first place - I had never thought of it.

[Erol of Backford]

The armring, silver dancer, Feldici device, the Celestial Engine, ring of Ocless or Rockmolder's ax...

   

[Erol of Backford]

Or Mr. Helsdon's hat, what fashionista dwarf wouldn't want that!?

[SDLeary]

5 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

Although the Mostali may synthesize their food [and may not] they would need organic materials to make it from, and no recycling process is 100% efficient.  Therefore from time to time the Mostali will trade for food or at least recognizable organics. 

 

But... they aren't organic, why would they need more than their Soilent products... I hear Green is their favorite!

SDLeary

[Erol of Backford]

On 4/22/2023 at 4:50 AM, SDLeary said:

Green is their favorite!

Since we are so programed to think of dwarves as real world Irish or Scottish it might be more interesting to have then more exotic, like Mongolian, etc. at least for me... maybe Polynesian?

And do they like mustard and raw onion sandwiches?

Also there is a big misconception as to dwarf canned food, it isn't actually eaten from the can directly but rather deposited into boiling water and mixed with roof vegetables and tender goat meat and what not. Its concentrated curry paste, beef stew or white cream stew based on local flavor...

That being said they'll trade root type foods, carrots, yams, daikon, onions and they especially like mushrooms which they grow as well as any dark elf that's been cooked?

Dwarves are actually into canning all types of foods and are great gardeners contrary to what has been said.

 

[mfbrandi]

20 minutes ago, Erol of Backford said:

Since we are so programmed to think of dwarves as real world Irish or Scottish

Are we though? ElvenQuest had a comedy dwarf with a Scottish accent — but I didn’t know that it was because it was a cliché till I came across the trope that it’s a trope — where are all these Scottish dwarves hiding? I guess I lead a very sheltered life: it is me in hiding, not the dwarves.

Is it really all Poul Anderson’s fault?

[Erol of Backford]

35 minutes ago, mfbrandi said:

Are we though?

Via LOTR movies... I am suggesting, never saw Elven Quest... maybe making fun of LOTR's?

[soltakss]

10 hours ago, SDLeary said:

But... they aren't organic, why would they need more than their Soilent products...

Clay Mostali (Dwarves) are definitely organic, being made with a healthy dollop of the Man Rune.

Only the True Mostali are inorganic.

[SDLeary]

18 minutes ago, soltakss said:

Clay Mostali (Dwarves) are definitely organic, being made with a healthy dollop of the Man Rune.

Only the True Mostali are inorganic.

Too many additives, they failed the certifications!

SDLeary

[SDLeary]

3 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

Since we are so programed to think of dwarves as real world Irish or Scottish...

Blame GW! 

SDLeary

[mfbrandi]

55 minutes ago, soltakss said:

Clay Mostali (Dwarves) are definitely organic, being made with a healthy dollop of the Man Rune.

I am not going to disagree about the squishiness of Dwarves — I like the robots making their fleshy drones — but I am not sure about the reasoning. I quite like the idea of Daka Fal judging dead humanoid robots, especially if either [a] he is confused by them, or [b] there is a chrome-plated clicking & whirring avatar of DF to do the job.

[Erol of Backford]

20 minutes ago, mfbrandi said:

dead humanoid robots

Maybe they trade with Monsieur Delecti while running back and forth through their tunnels connecting Heortland and the Clanking Ruins? Rocky Horror maybe, Delecti does have some beautiful vampiric girlfriends right and they want lingerie right?

Clanking ruins make me think of machinery, leads to motors, gears and submarine equipment. I can't help myself from thinking of Operation Petticoat, the pink submarine and the garter... Do dwarves do drag? Maybe female dwarves wear various lingerie... are there rubber trees in Glorantha?

Female dwarves wearing turreted headgear in fabulous lingerie? This is like the flamingo gorilla sporpionman.

Note the cannons on the hat in the last clip. It was found in Forang Farosh's closet in Tink. We know he has trade agreements with the dwarves but what is changing hands?

   

[Darius West]

You raise an interesting point about what Mostali wear Erol.  I imagine their ordinary clothes might be a bit like this...

 

While Mostali lingerie might be a bit more like...

Edited April 23, 2023 by Darius West

[DrGoth]

I now have mental images of dwarves in dark alleys looking to trade for the latest in human lingerie....

You are cruel, cruel people.

[Erol of Backford]

4 hours ago, DrGoth said:

dwarves in dark alleys looking to trade for the latest in human lingerie

With fabulous makeup! (Eddie Izzard of course.)