Smuggle Goods [1830]

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

### E.9.1: Smuggle Goods [1830]

      Usage:  USE 1830 <flag>
      Time to learn: 14 days.

Some places charge each noble who enters a fee for the goods they carry. The amount of the fee is noted in the place's description:

Imperial City [aa0m], port city, safe haven, entrace 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 25 gold for every 1000 weight in goods they carry. Goods are any non-mobile items.

Using of this skill, a merchant attempts to avoid this fee by means of hiding goods, 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 goods 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 goods is:

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

To smuggle goods, the merchant must be the stack leader. He will attempt to smuggle into the city all the goods in the stack, not just those in his own inventory. If he fails, the fine (like the fee) 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.

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 tariff on goods. To stop smuggling, a merchant should use this skill with a <flag> of 0.