Everything has a price

Open your agency, accept any request, negotiate every price, hire staff and become the richest person in the world.

Plot

A new business opens in Altavela Everything Has a Price Any concrete request. A single quote. Tired of saving worlds that don't pay you? You can kill the dragon, seduce the princess, or become a hero. But first ask what they're offering. Urban fantasy Semi-management Free exploration Money really matters The Starting Point Eighteen years old, an unknown city, and an ambition that is decidedly not modest. You are eighteen years old and can be a man or a woman. Your past takes up a few lines: no family tragedy or orphanage life already written for you. Your future, if all goes well, will fill entire ledgers. You have arrived in Altavela, capital of Rosavento and the largest commercial hub in the known world, with a perfectly simple goal: become the richest person in the world. On the morning of the start, you get off the tram, walk a few steps, and find your new agency. It is habitable. It is well located. It also looks pretty awful. Waiting for you at the entrance is Giacomo Bellandi, the owner. He will show you the building, point out some useful places, and leave the day in your hands. The furniture and the sign will arrive in the afternoon. The first client, today, can wait. Clean. Explore. Look for staff. Go to the port. Study the market. The first decision is already yours. "The property is awful. The location is not. That's how you recognize a deal." — Giacomo Bellandi, landlord, restaurateur, and sincere appreciator of profit Your Agency Not a guild. Not a shop. A place where every problem can become an invoice. Everything Has a Price accepts any concrete request. Find a wallet. Investigate a disappearance. Act as an escort. Procure an object. Deal with a monster. Solve a problem that no one else even wants to hear about. The initial problem is that the business has just appeared and almost no one yet knows they can walk in and ask you all this. Before building a legend, you will have to convince Altavela that your service exists. The client explains the result they want. You assess costs, time, risk, urgency, discretion, and annoyance. Then comes the important part: you negotiate the price. Client → request → assessment → negotiation → advance expenses → contract → execution → payment → reputation + profit → reinvestment At the beginning, you do not yet have the name needed to demand full payment before lifting a finger: the client advances the necessary expenses and settles the service upon result. If you keep your promises, that rule will change. One day, the name on the sign will be enough for upfront payment to seem the most prudent choice. You can refuse any assignment, counter-offer, change conditions before signing, or charge for every change requested mid-course. "Everything has a price" does not mean you have to do everything. It means almost everything can be discussed. An excellent address. Some poor maintenance choices. Dust, tired furniture, and enough space to already want it the way you like. ◆Note posted by Mirea Venturi "The client must leave thinking: 'It cost too much. Luckily I came here.' The smile serves that too." A building that grows with you The property is worth much more than its rent, at least in theory. In practice, no one wanted to buy it in its current state. The agreement is already signed: you pay the rent and finance the renovations; in exchange, you have the first right of purchase and every Nx paid as rent will be fully deducted from the future price. Make the hall presentable. Fix up the staff rooms. Improve the archive. Buy the building. If needed, build another floor. The agency is not a static setting: it is the visible sign of how much you are growing. Money: every Nx counts The story can forgive a bad joke. The cash book, hardly. In Altavela, you pay in Nx. You don't have to convert them into another currency: you will learn their value by buying bread, paying for a tram, negotiating a salary, and discovering what it really costs to keep a business open. Your personal cash and the agency's are one and the same. Income, purchases, advances, rent, salaries, food, lodging, profit taxes, and unexpected expenses all pass through the same balance. Dungeon Mind v2 keeps the books. If you have 100 Nx, you cannot buy something that costs 150. The Narrator will not forget an expense because the next scene is more exciting. Days pass and the end of the month comes anyway. If you can no longer sustain rent, wages, and obligations already undertaken, the agency can fail. Yes, you can really lose. It was about time money became a little scary. ◆Ledger prepared by Arturo Conti "In the slums you learn early that the winner is not the one who takes the most money. It's the one who knows how to count every coin." Money comes in Money goes out Fees, advances, annuities, investments Materials, transport, permits, intermediaries Delegated assignments and autonomous activities Rent, renovations, salaries, upkeep Trade, property, and discovered opportunities Personal life, leisure, mistakes, and terrible ideas ◆A note from Oreste Manfredi "Making money is simple. Making it interesting enough to want to keep counting it: that's the real work." Reputation: the second capital It doesn't measure how good you are. It measures how much your name weighs when spoken. The agency's reputation is also a real value, updated by Dungeon Mind v2. It grows when you complete relevant assignments, honor a contract, or solve problems everyone thought impossible. It decreases when you fail, abandon a client, or accept a job and then forget about it. Small assignments build trust and word of mouth. Huge ones can change the agency's standing overnight. Working for the Crown is worth a lot; it is not worth "infinite." Even a legend must learn to do the math. A good reputation brings better clients, richer contracts, access to restricted places, different credit conditions, and the privilege of asking for full payment before the work. A terrible reputation does exactly the opposite. Nx: tracked Reputation: tracked Consequences: included ◆Ottavia Bellori insisted on adding this "Competence, presence, precision. Reputation begins with what the client believes they see." Hire. Delegate. Cash in. You can start alone. The point, sooner or later, is to stop having to do everything yourself. You saw a job board when entering the city. Seven faces stuck with you: professionals looking for work, each with different skills, salary demands, and personal problems. You can hire two, one, none, or more than would be prudent to pay. The salary is decided during a real interview. Some are accessible immediately; others are expensive specialists, goals to reach when the agency's name is worth enough. Employees are not bundles of statistics. Role, experience, character, trust, and situation matter. With an adequate team, the agency can handle ordinary assignments even without your intervention, generating income while you look for opportunities elsewhere. The agency's most expensive service, however, will always be you. Candidate What they can do Mirea Venturi Client reception Dalia Malaspina Investigations Arturo Conti Archive and accounting Ottavia Bellori Archive and accounting, according to Ottavia Teodoro Monteluce Artifacts and maintenance Leone Rocca Security and dangerous jobs Leandro Altieri Premium legal representation The Bound The State insists: it's not slavery. The documents are impeccable. The collar, less so. When a court judges that a person has caused harm to the community, it can turn the sentence into a debt. The amount includes punishment, compensation, and the cost the State attributes to the fault. Those who enter the program become, in street parlance, Bound. An office evaluates what they can do. The court sets their monthly compensation. An employer can request their assignment, and the Bound is obliged to accept the placement. The employer must provide food, lodging, and essential necessities. The salary is not given to the worker: it is paid to the State and reduces the debt, month after month. It generally costs less than a free employee. When the account reaches zero, the Bound goes free. On paper, they retain private life, freedom of movement, and personal goals. In reality, they receive no income, many establishments can refuse them entry, and they often depend entirely on whoever houses them. Abuses and personal orders are illegal. They happen anyway. Everyone knows. The identifying collar makes the condition visible to anyone. Fleeing is treated as escaping from prison. Being returned too many times can permanently close the program and open the way to imprisonment or forced labor. Interviews, registers, debts, and people turned into paperwork. The official presents you with the first available batch: a furious refugee and a seventy-year-old financial genius. The rest depends on how much you want to dig deeper. ◆Mara Brinati did not approve the flyer text "The law says I am free. The collar says the law loves to tell itself stories." Altavela, capital of opportunities The largest city in the world does not welcome you: it evaluates you. Then it decides how much to charge you. Altavela is the capital of Rosavento, a constitutional monarchy in which Crown, nobility, government, Church, and large companies share power without ceasing to contend for it. The city rises on the great central gulf. Its port is the most convenient for all seven kingdoms, and Rosavento's fleet is the strongest in the known world. Goods, refugees, soldiers, nobles, swindlers, and people with expensive problems all pass through here. The great market corridor cuts through the capital like an artery. Around it lie residential neighborhoods, the Church district, the port, the slums, and the Crown district, protected by internal walls. To enter, you need state permits. Or a reputation high enough to convince someone to grant them. Altavela does not deliver all opportunities to the agency's door. A trip to the port can open a deal you would never have found by staying in the office. A walk in the slums can cost you money, blood, or both. If you want to discover what the city offers, you have to go there. Altavela — capital map You are looking at the largest capital in the known world. The red cartouche marks the location of "Everything Has a Price." Altavela — port and market corridor The commercial center of the world. If you don't find an opportunity here, you probably didn't look hard enough. ◆Marginal note by Dalia Malaspina "Altavela does not hide its secrets. It puts them behind a door, pays someone to guard it, and waits to see who tries to open it." ◆Leandro Altieri, already next to the person you were looking at "The permit opens the gate. Reputation convinces whoever must sign the permit. A good lawyer saves you from having to wait." Magic exists. Real magic. Spells, potions, artifacts, and a price that doesn't always appear on the label. Not everyone is a mage. Magic requires study, practice, and predisposition. Potions circulate, artifacts power wonders and devices, but using magical forces without the necessary preparation can weigh on body and mind. That is why the true monsters of power are few. At the top of armies, you can find great mages, or soldiers capable of bearing weapons and armor that would break anyone else. Being rich enough to buy an artifact does not mean being strong enough to use it. In Altavela, magic does not replace modern society: it runs through it. Trams, offices, factories, ships, archives, and rituals share the same city. A blown lamp and a sword capable of killing a god end up on the same desk. Rare, unstable, extremely expensive. Naturally, someone always wants more. ◆Teodoro Monteluce absolutely wants you to know "They say it amplifies mana density... Did you know that Nexium is extracted only in the Kingdom of Pietrasole?" Pietrasole claims the excavations are under control. The rumor that the kingdom is preparing for war remains just a rumor. And you, what can you do? Official answer: you are abnormally strong. Useful answer: go out and find out. You know you possess strength, speed, endurance, and instinct beyond the ordinary. You don't know where they end. No one will hand you a list of techniques, a manual of moves, or a definitive measure. Describe freely what you attempt. Observe the result. Try again when something inside you seems changed. Discovery does not happen by choosing a skill from a menu: it happens by playing. Discovery of one's own strength ???????????? Don't know something? Find out. Push beyond what you believe is possible. Not to become the world's greatest hero. Unless someone is willing to pay enough. ◆Leone Rocca, after watching you fight «I don't know what you are. I only know you don't fight like someone who has ever had to ask themselves that.» «You're playing anyway, so you can do whatever you want, right?» — The Narrator. Probably. Seven kingdoms. No mandatory itinerary. The world keeps moving even if you prefer to stay in the office counting coins. The known lands form a great crescent around the central gulf. A nearly straight road crosses them all: it is the Sunset Road, a trade and pilgrimage route traveled by those who wish to connect the seven kingdoms with their own steps. Granferro and Roccanive have been fighting a war of attrition for years. Roccanive is small, but mountains and snow have turned an announced conquest into a massacre. The border with Rosavento continues to pour refugees toward Altavela, where the last rung of society often awaits them. Beyond the gulf the sea still stretches. Farther out, an immense violet cloud crossed by mana lightning closes the horizon. Crossing it is considered certain death. Naturally, it is said that endless riches exist on the other side. «It's not a mandatory mission... but... maybe there's something interesting.» — Narrator's note. Probably. The known world — the seven kingdoms You are looking at the seven nations of the crescent, connected by the Sunset Road and facing the great gulf. Beyond the gulf — the Mana Cloud Certain death, they say. Infinite treasures, they also say. Are you brave enough? Rosavento — AltavelaTrade, fleet, and the largest capital in the world. Brumacqua — NebbiadoroMists, canals, wealth, and eccentrically libertine nobles. Valdoria — PianalbaLands still to be known, increasingly arid toward the eastern border. Pietrasole — OcraforteThe largest kingdom, almost uninhabitable and master of the Nexium excavations. Frondalta — SelvarunaForests, mountains, and a culture the other kingdoms understand little. Granferro — SettebastioniThe most militarized nation, trapped in a war with no quick end. Roccanive — NevemuraSmall, frozen, and still standing against all odds. Beyond the cloud — ???Someone claims to have returned. Someone else sells maps. Curious coincidence. Make money however you want The agency is your anchor. It's not a chain. You can devote yourself completely to Everything Has a Price, expand it, buy the building, build a new floor, hire specialists, and turn it into the most reliable business in Altavela. Or you can leave ordinary jobs to employees and seek fortune elsewhere: trade, real estate, expeditions, politics, mercenary work, artifacts, investments, exploration. The possibilities exist, but not all of them knock on your door. You have to look for them. There is no imposed final boss. You can become a hero, save the world, or ignore both. The initial goal remains only one: become the richest person in the world. The way is up to you. «Want to find love? Why not buy it?» — The Narrator, who evidently considers every relationship a terrible missed opportunity for profit Yes, you can fall in love. You can deepen relationships, live the agency every day, and let employees, clients, and people you meet become something more. Or not. Love is optional. Money remains tremendously convincing. But, in the end, you're playing: you can do whatever you want, right? Content warnings: M17 storyline with war, violence, crime, exploitation, legal coercion, discrimination, refugees, drugs, prostitution, and mature social themes. Their presence belongs to the world; the player decides which paths to explore. The world is full of possibilities. You just have to find them. Set the price. And bill them.

Characters

Tags: AnyPOV Fantasy Urban Scenario Business City Modern Adventure Mysterious Player OpenEnding ThirdPerson Mature Romance Violence SliceOfLife Ambitious Supernatural Mystery

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By: aideit

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