//a letter written in a neat, legible hand. The parchment is sealed with the wax insignia of a rising sun//

Dear Watchmen,

I hope that this letter finds you well. My name is Cort Jorino. I am a Watch reservist and Keeper of the Beacon charity house in the Lower district. The shortage of metal in the city has reached my ears and I would like to offer the Watch 100.5 pounds of steel that the Beacon recovered some months ago. In exchange, I would ask the price of 5000 gold. I believe this is a fair market price and would go a long way toward supporting our house of peace.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Cort Jorino Beacon Keeper

Keeper Jorino,

The Watch is grateful for your offer of spare steel during this metal crisis; it also recognizes the need of the Beacon for coin to maintain its charity efforts in Lower. The metal shortage has no doubt inflated the value of steel ore, but despite this inflation, a hundred pounds of steel are barely enough to craft three sets of chain, in the hands of a skilled armorsmith. As such, this steel ore is not worth the inflated price of five thousand coins in the eyes of the Watch, and the Watch certainly cannot afford to pay such an excessive sum for such a relatively small amount of steel ore. The largest sum the Watch will be able to pay is in the range of five hundred coins-roughly one-tenth the price you asked. We may be able to negotiate higher, depending upon the quality of the steel, but the value of this ore certainly does not merit in the thousands of coins.

In short, we may negotiate for a price in the vicinity of five hundred coins. This amount of coin should still provide a significant boon to your efforts at the Beacon. Should you be inclined to attempt to ply this steel elsewhere, I would only remind you that any other organization that can pay more than the Watch for this amount of steel is not likely to put it to good ends.

Thank you for the offer, Cort. I trust we will be able to come to a reasonable agreement for the purchase of this steel.

-Sergeant Sunellar

Sergeant Sunellar,

Thank you for your swift reply. It is good to hear from you again and I look forward to meeting with you. I do apologize if the price seemed excessive. Admittedly, my knowledge of metals is fairly unexceptional.

My sole experience was with the late Mikkelson family, whose prices were quite expensive. I'm certainly willing to aquiesce to your reasonable terms. The money, while important to keeping the day to day operations of Beacon going smoothly, is secondary to making sure that the metal is put toward a positive use. I know that the steel would find such good use with the Watch.

Thank you again for your time. I'll visit soon so that you can inspect the ore. Until then, Lathander's radiance guide and protect you.

Cort Jorino Beacon Keeper