Karlat glances at the group around him, then back at the merchant. "I do believe you made a mistake, letting us all get to know one another before hearing your proposal. You see, in order to track down a large pack of bandits, you need at least a small team of a high talent level. There is one, right here in front of you. The key word in that sentence is one. Unless you have a second team of adventurers squirreled away in your vaults, I suggest you restart the negotiations with a number more appropriate to the value and scarcity of the kind of services we are bringing to the table." He glanced over at his subordinate. "Cwalu, what do you think a fair value for our services would be?"
Cwalu, clearly primed for this, gestured about the room, then stroked his chin in exaggerated thought. "I think a nice round thirty gold per crate sounds right. Why, that's only six gold for each person in this team for every crate we recover. Giving you myself as a discount, of course. And then there's the matter of the bonuses. I'm not concerned about the number we retrieve, since we'll get all of them. But if you want us to enact a final solution on certain individuals for you, well, that's a whole different kettle of fish. I think we can all agree that a fee of fifty gold for each bandit who reaches retirement is more than adequate."
The soldier completed his speech by returning to the wall, against which he leant insouciantly, spear at his side, as Karlat resumed his part in the little play. "You'll find we're all in agreement on both the price, and the fact we can get started as soon you agree to those numbers. But if you wish to lose more product to the bandits, by all means, dicker away."
