Smuggle Men [1831]

Olympia: The Age of Gods PBEM (Oct 4 2000)

### E.9.2: Smuggle Men [1831]

      Usage:  USE 1831 <flag>
      Time to learn: 14 days.

Some places charge each noble who enters a fee for the men in their employ. The amount of the fee is noted in the city description:

Imperial City [aa0m], port city, safe haven, weight fee 25 gold per 1000 weight, entrance fee 10 gold per 100 men, 1 day

In this case, the Imperial City is charging entering nobles 10 gold for every 100 men they employ. In this case, men are any fighting creatures (including beasts).

Using of this skill, a merchant attempts to avoid this fee by means of disguising men, bribing the gatekeepers, finding hidden routes into the city, and so on. If the merchant is successful, he will reduce the fee he pays on smuggled men by 50-100%. If he is unsuccessful, there is a 25% he'll be caught smuggling. In that case, he will pay the full fee plus a fine of 62.5-162.5%. If he cannot pay the entire fine, the gatekeepers will take as much of the fine as possible and turn the merchant away. In any case, if he is caught smuggling the merchant will be detained and questioned for three days.

The chance of success at smuggling men is:

(50 + # of previous successful man smuggling attempts)%

To smuggle men, the merchant must be the stack leader. He will attempt to smuggle into the city all the men in the stack, not just those in his own inventory. If he fails, the fine (like the fees) is charged against the entire stack. If the merchant cannot completely pay the fine, then other members of the stack will be charged until the fine is paid.

Some places charge a fee for each noble who enters, e.g.,

Imperial City [aa0m], port city, safe haven, entrance fee 1 gold per noble, 1 day

This skill is also used to smuggle nobles, in exactly the same way it is used to smuggle men.

To begin smuggling, the merchant should use this skill with a <flag> of 1. From that time on, the merchant will attempt to smuggle goods every time he enters a city that charges a fee on goods. To stop smuggling, a merchant should use this skill with a <flag> of 0.