| Kobayashi Tetsuya; The Wily Businessman! | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Mon Jul 12, 2010 11:16 pm (89 Views) | |
| Kobayashi Tetsuya | Mon Jul 12, 2010 11:16 pm Post #1 |
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Roleplayer: Call me ... the businessman! Literacy: Literate Name: Kobayashi Tetsuya Alias: The Wily Businessman! Age: 35 Gender: Male Alignment: Lawful Neutral Status: Single Sexuality: Straight Loyalty: Himself! Occupation: Traveling Merchant Height: 170CM Weight: 65KG Likes: Being on the road. Profit. And of course, money, money, money! Dislikes: Losses, highwaymen, and heavy rain. Personality: A businessman to the bone, Tetsuya is extremely calculative and loves to make detailed calculations. Everything he does has to be carefully calculated before he does it. Possible loss? Possible profit? Neutrality? He needs to know it all before he decides. Habits: Having been constantly on the road for many years, Tetsuya has developed the habit of carrying around all sorts of ready gear in case of bad weather or harsh conditions. Sometimes its like he seemingly whips hats and raincoats out of nowhere. Inventory: As a merchant, he obviously lugs all sorts of different cargo around Japan for trading purposes. On his person are some coin, and assorted gear that is useful for harsh travels. While its not exactly 'inventory', Tetsuya owns a sturdy wagon and two fine roan mares to pull it with. He has named the mares Hana (Flower) and Hachimitsu (Honey) respectively. On the side of the wagon, in kanji, are the words 'Good Fortune'. Weaponry: Tetsuya isn't much of a fighter, but he wears a short tanto around his belt for protection. He also keeps a loaded crossbow in his wagon, alongside a quiver full of bolts. Ability: A seasoned merchant, Tetsuya is blessed with a silver tongue and has a bit of a reputation for being a man who can truly spin a yarn. His eloquence allows him to bargain for discounts with ease and also secure partnerships and useful friendships. Click for Appearance! Biography: Tetsuya was born in a rural village in Etchu Province, in Northern Honshu. His family was poor, and his father - a hunter - could not provide enough food for the whole family, so he had little chance for a proper education and was sent to work for a storekeeper named Daigo in a bigger village as an errand boy and laborer at an early age. The storekeeper paid little notice to him, and warned the boy not to get in the way. One day, when Daigo was entertaining a guest and the guest was attempting to cheap Daigo with low-quality furs, Tetsuya, who had occasionally helped his father skin animals when he was younger, saw through the farce and warned Daigo about it. An astonished Daigo chased the conman away and decided the make Tetsuya his apprentice. Tetsuya was trained by Daigo in the ways of the businessman, learning about economics, how to run a store, how the market worked, and how to read and write. After years under Daigo's tutelage, when the storekeeper took ill for a week, Tetsuya was able to effectively run the store without assistance. His uncanny ability with words and his natural charisma led to an unexpected increase in profits for that week. When a healthy Daigo returned to see what the losses were, he was shocked at the accounts and double-checked them several times in utter disbelief. At that point Daigo decided he had taught Tetsuya all that he could, and as a farewell gift Daigo bought Tetsuya a fine horse as a parting gift. After wishing his master farewell and naming the horse 'Hana', Tetsuya left on horseback and arrived back home. There, after a modest celebration, Tetsuya pleaded with his aging father to sponsor him with some supplies to begin his business. Although hesitant, his father eventually embraced Tetsuya's chosen occupation with his blessings and gave him a gift of some high-quality furs and some salted meat. With these, Tetsuya begun his business. First, he traveled from Etchu to Hida; on his journey he rationed the salted meat and gathered what edible wild herbs he could find, using them as provisions. While on the road he encountered a couple of miners returning home with their bounty. Once he had exchanged polite niceties with them, he learned these miners were bringing home a small fortune of rough, uncut gemstones. Tetsuya recognized the quality of these gemstones and offered to exchange all of the salted meat on his person for a few of the smallest and most unpolished gemstones, knowing the larger ones were harder to cut. Although the miners hesitated, they were eventually swayed by his persuasive words and the prospect of meat on the menu for dinner, so they took him up on his offer. Tetsuya nearly starved for the rest of the journey to Hida, failing to hunt anything and resorting to eating wild grass at times. Gaunt and haggard, he staggered into a large town in Hida and begun to ply his trade. First, he traded off the furs to a gullible nobleman of the Kanamori Clan, who was astounded by the quality of the furs and was willing to pay a small fortune for the furs, which were rare in Hida. With the money he earned from this exchange, Tetsuya went to town and started gathering information. First, he asked for a skilled jeweler, and second, he asked what was the demand from the neighboring province of Shinano. After gaining the information he wanted, the first thing he did was to go to the best local jeweler and ask of the man to refine the gemstones. The jeweler remarked over the fine quality of the gemstones, and offered to buy them unrefined, to which Tetsuya refused. After leaving the jeweler to do his work, Tetsuya purchased many bags of salt, of which there was little in Shinano. With these, Tetsuya remounted Hana and galloped out of town. He traveled to Shinano, only to discover the information about the demand for sugar had been several weeks old already. Cursing his bad fortune, Tetsuya lingered in Shinano for a couple of days more, and decided to play it safe, as it was around his time that war broke out. With his remaining fortune, he purchased small quantities of liquor and oil which were commodities sought-after anywhere. He traveled to the province of Kai and sold the oil at a town, and at the same time learned of an army camp nearby. Knowing what gluttons for liquor soldiers were, Tetsuya traveled to the camp, which was garrisoned by troops of the Takeda clan. There, he bargained with the quartermaster and sold the liquor to him for a good price. It was then Takeda Shingen himself chanced upon the merchant and asked what cargo he was carrying. Tetsuya humbly greeted the man who would become one of the greatest warlords of Japan and told him he had just sold liquor to the camp and was on his way home. Noticing that Tetsuya's horse was still loaded with goods, Shingen asked what else he had, to which Tetsuya responded: Salt. It was the salt he hadn't managed to sell in Shinano, and to his surprise, Takeda Shingen wanted it badly. Salt was an important commodity in the army, because it was used to preserve foods. For an army, which was a constantly moving body of soldiers, preservation of food for long periods of time was necessary. Takeda Shingen generously offered Tetsuya twice the price for the salt. Tetsuya wisely played it low-key and said he would sell the salt to Shingen's forces for the market price itself, and greatly impressed the warlord. The warlord asked Tetsuya to stay for a drink (which, incidentally, Tetsuya himself had supplied), and so Tetsuya formed a lasting friendship between the famous Takeda Clan. Before he left, Shingen told Tetsuya that the road was about to become very dangerous, and that he should arm himself; Shingen told Tetsuya to pick whatever he wanted from the camp armory. Taking up the warlord on his offer, Tetsuya picked out a tanto and a crossbow. The quartermaster, impressed by Tetsuya's virtue and honor, gifted him with several quivers filled with crossbow bolts. With the money made from this transaction, Tetsuya traveled back to the town in Kai and learned that his home province of Etchu was suffering a famine. Hurriedly, out of both patriotism and a desire for profit, Tetsuya bought a wagon in town, and loaded it with as much rice as he could carry. With his new cargo, Tetsuya hastily journeyed through Shinano without stopping and made a short stop in Hida to rest. There he picked up the refined gemstones from the jeweler and went on his way again. By he reached Etchu, the situation was disastrous, to the point where starved people were lying dead by the road. He stopped at his home village first, and was welcomed with much fanfare and gratefulness. There the village elder told him that just a quarter of what Tetsuya had brought would be enough for them to survive, and that Tetsuya should go help others in Etchu. Touched, Tetsuya gave his home village the rice for free and journeyed to his master's hometown. Upon his arrival Daigo was so overwhelmed he broke down in tears and embraced his ex-apprentice. Tetsuya dropped off the rest of his cargo in town, and was hailed as a hero from the locals for delivering them from starvation. The local governor of the town, a retainer from the Uesugi Clan, personally came to give Tetsuya his thanks and gifted Tetsuya with his second horse - Hachimitsu. In the middle of the night, while Tetsuya slept as a guest at the governor's palace, the grateful locals crept up on his wagon and painted the words 'Good Fortune' on his wagon, pleasing Tetsuya greatly. Once the clamor had died down and the famine had been overcome, Tetsuya decided to hit the road again, despite Daigo's wishes that he stay in town and take over from him. Buying a mix of goods at discounted prices from grateful local stores, Tetsuya left Etchu and journeyed down south. On all his travels, only twice did he get into trouble. The first was with mountain bandits, from which he narrowly escaped with his life and only managed to do so by flattering the bandit leader and gifting him with many casks of sake, and the second time was when he accidentally offended a local warlord by praising his favorite Geisha at an Ochaya, and only escaped that time after assuring the warlord that he had no intentions of wooing the Geisha and gifting the vain man with some of his gemstones. Upon reaching Shimosa Province with a wagon full of goods, he was immediately set upon by an army patrol, only to be saved as one of the officers in the patrol who recognized him from the army camp in Kai. It turned out the patrol was a Takeda one, and after bribing the troops with some goodies, Tetsuya was not only allowed to pass safely, but was also granted an audience with a prominent Takeda Clan General in the area. Tetsuya made a gift of his remaining gemstones to the General and greatly flattered the man, staying for dinner and gleaning valuable information about the area. With his newly-gained knowledge, Tetsuya now sets off on another mercantile venture: This time in Shimosa Province. |
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