Opening the Licensed Exchange - Khan

Sunless Sea
1

If I’m reading the description in-game correctly, it is going to take 5 &quotLeopards Concessions&quot to get the Nephrite Ring, that would allow me to trade at the Licensed Exchange in Khan. Each of those Concessions requires 5 bags of Darkdrop Coffee (@ $38 per bag), so it will cost about $950 to get the ability to trade there.

Other than &quotit would be nice to have a pit stop nearby&quot, is there something there I buy or sell to make up for that kind of cash outlay?

2

It’s the most reliable source for Romantic Literature and sells coffee potentially as the only place in the Northeast, Foxfire Candles for cheap potentially right next to the Mangrove College, and pays double for Royal-Blue Feathers.
I would recommend paying Drowning Tears for Taiman’s Mercy and converting that to Leopard’s Condecension, though. You can’t use Drowning Pearls for much else, as far as I know.

3

Another option if you haven’t accumulated many drowning-pearls: if you’ve found the Khanate not too far from the eastern edge of the map, there’s an opportunity to obtain coffee at a lesser cost from the Empire of Hands once you’ve spent some time there. You’ll want to bring several casks of wine.

4

By several he means 25.

5

Opening the Nephirite Quarter!

ADVANTAGES:

  • Double price on Selling Blue Feathers
  • Romantic Literature is readily available and you can enter a minor trade route with it, though the margins aren’t exceptional. Good for a few stories that require them though.
  • If you need emergency coffee for somewhere else/close by, or just don’t want to head to the southern coast, you can get it here too!
  • As long as you’re willing to spend the money, you can swim in Favors of the leopard by donating the coffee from here do you can build up a safeguard against heightened Khanate Suspicion. However, you may not realize this at first (or don’t want to invest the money early on), so this is really for some forward thinkers with some cash.
  • If you’re past day 200, this is the best port to sell Wine to, and you can make a solid leg on a trade route moving Wine to the Khanate, though supplementing it with another trade or two while in the area is highly recommended.
  • You can sell one of the Study made items here, I think. So if you’re grinding a stat past your normal limits it has some use for that purpose I suppose.
  • Cheaper Foxfire Candles. Very useful if you’re about to head to one of the many explorations that require them. Somewhat negated by the fact that you can also find them at the same price in the south, but more ports with 30e candles the better, I always say.

DISADVANTAGES:

  • Khan’s Shadow is nearby and sells three critical items the Nephirite Quarter does at the same costs - Fuel, Supplies (worse than London, but better than most &quotEmergency Supply shops&quot on most of the islands) and importantly, Empty Mirror-Catch Boxes. The short proximity and lack of any requirement to trade at Khan’s Shadow severely devalues opening up the Nephirite Quarter. It’s a tiny trip away, and you don’t have to jump through any hoops? Way better deal.
  • Can be locked out of the shop if you raise Khanate Suspicion too high (to 10), so you have to be cautious with your actions in Khan’s Heart and the spy network game in general, or you end up having to obtain Drowning Pearls or Long-Hauling coffee to get re-open the shop. Considering opening the Nephirite Quarter makes you more wary of exploring stories in the rest of Khan’s Heart or getting Port Reports, without providing that much benefit, I think this is a net loss for the Nephirite Quarter.
  • Taimen’s Favor can result in not Lowering Suspicion at all, and is entirely luck based. I’ve blown a lot of Drowning Pearls (and the time mining for Scintillack and exchanging it with the Fathomking) for absolutely no benefit in some really unlucky runs of RNG. Cue quite a lot of frustration.
  • Buying Coffee here is not the best place to do it; that’s the southern coast. So unless you’re hard up for it, making a trade of Coffee here is inefficient and less than ideal.

CONCLUSION:

Currently, I don’t think the Nephirite Quarter is really worth the hassle to open and maintain access to it. I’m in favor of them raising the prices on Fuel, Supplies, and Mirror-Catch Boxes at Khan’s Shadow in order for the opening of Khan’s Heart to have much greater value (or lowering the prices of these shared goods at Khan’s Heart, alternatively).

That, or add a few more items that can only be gained in Khan’s Heart, or are more convenient to obtain here than in say, the randomness of the Iron Republic.

In general, I’d like to see some more balancing toward making the Nephirite Quarter more valuable than Khan’s Shadow considering their proximity. I can usually make a much better trade picking up Stygian Ivory at the Shadow and hauling it to Polythreme, then picking up some London Bound Passengers rather than picking up Romantic Literature and hauling it to Port Carnelian. Hell, for a while, my go-to route was - Wine to Godfall, With newly empty cargo space pick up Ivory at the Shadow (they’re very close in my current game, and usually), head to Polythreme to drop off the Ivory and pick up Clay Men, back to London. It was a good little multi-goods trade. Opening up the N. Quarter didn’t offer enough value for me to work it into that or any other multi-good route I’ve been able to see, unfortunately.
edited by MisterGone on 3/3/2015
edited by MisterGone on 3/3/2015

6

I like that there are lots of red herrings in the game. I eventually got around to doing this with the profits from a Tomb tour(it’s good to have leopards always at least at 2 when you’re running them) And then was “gah. Stupid khaganians”.

7

Now that you mention it, Khan’s Shadow’s prices should probably be a bit steeper - a shanty-town of exiles and revolutionaries is hardly going to have abundant resources and stable trade routes.

8

This was my hand-waving story/lore justification as well. The rebels in the shanty town smuggling goods out of the Khanate to sell them on a blacker market? Cool, makes sense.

Them not inflating the prices due to the higher demand and associated risk of them smuggling the goods out? That makes . . . less sense.

9

MisterGone: You forgot Candles in your list of pros.

Using the Wine->Coffee method nets you 5 Leopard’s Favour for a cost of 525 echoes, and maxed Wildweald Court Favour as well. The cost in Drowning Pearls is quite a bit higher, about 980 echoes lost than if you had sold the scintillack instead of converting it. (Assuming my memory is correct that you convert 4 Taimen’s Mercy into 2 Leopard’s Favour).
edited by Olorin on 3/3/2015

10

[quote=MisterGone]This was my hand-waving story/lore justification as well. The rebels in the shanty town smuggling goods out of the Khanate to sell them on a blacker market? Cool, makes sense.

Them not inflating the prices due to the higher demand and associated risk of them smuggling the goods out? That makes . . . less sense.[/quote]

Yeah, you’d expect their shops to be like the pirate-emporiums of Gaider’s Mourn - exotic and dangerous goods to be had, but also a whole lot of ships and a whole lot of mouths and no cheap way to keep either fed.

11

[quote=Gregg Johnson]MisterGone: You forgot Candles in your list of pros.

Using the Wine->Coffee method nets you 5 Leopard’s Favour for a cost of 525 echoes, and maxed Wildweald Court Favour as well. The cost in Drowning Pearls is quite a bit higher, about 980 echoes lost than if you had sold the scintillack instead of converting it. (Assuming my memory is correct that you convert 4 Taimen’s Mercy into 2 Leopard’s Favour).
edited by Olorin on 3/3/2015[/quote]

Ah! knew I forgot something! Adding now.

12

Actually, I interpreted it the opposite way – by circumventing trade routes/laws/ethical questions raised by overt and vehement piracy the people of Khan’s Shadow have a significant edge in their pricing. One of the reason people even buy from the Black Market to begin with is because it’s cheaper than doing it the legal way – while the Nephrite Quarter isn’t more expensive (wouldn’t make sense to be) it shouldn’t necessarily be cheaper, either – not that I’d complain if it was.

[li]

13

[quote=SouthSea Rutherby][
Actually, I interpreted it the opposite way – by circumventing trade routes/laws/ethical questions raised by overt and vehement piracy the people of Khan’s Shadow have a significant edge in their pricing. One of the reason people even buy from the Black Market to begin with is because it’s cheaper than doing it the legal way – while the Nephrite Quarter isn’t more expensive (wouldn’t make sense to be) it shouldn’t necessarily be cheaper, either – not that I’d complain if it was.

[li][/quote]
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[/li][li]All the respect and kindness in the world, but that’s not really how black markets actually function. Black markets can sell certain items below market value, mostly with stolen goods that are already low cost to begin with (stolen cigarettes being the most common example world wide).[/li][li]
[/li][li] More often than not it tends to lead to crazy high markups on banned or restricted goods due to the increased risk of trading these products, and the limited power of the consumer due to fewer sellers of them. Why do you think drug dealers in real life get into the trade? It’s not for their health - it’s the crazy high profit margins (and lack of care or concern about the also crazy high risk).
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[/li][li]One of the major reasons some folks are keen on ending the war on drugs, for example, is that if you legalized pot or other class one drugs, you’d see a steep drop in the price (it wouldn’t be super steep because then you’re adding taxes on top of it, but the savings in a Pot legal state like Colorado and Washington [or California because license cards are basically a joke to obtain] are way better than in states where it’s still illegal). People taking the risk to peddle in illegal narcotics are naturally going to charge a lot more. Heck, I’ve heard plenty of back chatter that some of the main opponents of legalization are drug dealers, because they don’t want to see their margins go down.
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[/li][li]In game, the best example of this is (fittingly) the Red honey trade. You have one seller in the game, and shipping it for cash is fairly high risk (the Isle of Hands will take it for a rare quest item, but if you’re trying to make money off of it London’s the only real destination). So buying it is turning a large profit for the manufacturer, since they’re the only market available for the middle-man (you), and accordingly, the profit margin for the middle man should be high too (it is if you sell it in London to the right people). Hell, the only reason Red Honey isn’t the best profit margin trade in the game is due to the re-usability on Mirror Boxes in many instances, and the fact that you can only get one Vial of Red Honey per SAY. If that limit weren’t there, Red Honey would be THE definite best trade in the game (because you could start moving volume on the stuff).
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[/li][li]That said however. Whether Mirror Boxes are smuggled out of Khan’s Heart or not depends entirely on where they’re intended to be produced at, and the nature of how they get to Khan’s Heart.
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[/li][li]If they were actually made in the Shadow, then it wouldn’t be a black market good there. So a market price would make sense. If they’re meant to be stolen easily from the Heart to the Shadow, then it might make sense that they’re the same price or even cheaper. But if the intent is that Khan’s Heart is highly restictive on its exports (and the Nephirite Ring basically confirms this) and the relationship between the two locales is constrained (seriously, I don’t get how Khan’s Shadow is still standing when the entire Khanate fleet is next door if they’re supposed to be in a hostile relationship with each other) then it makes more sense that the risk of getting the items out of the Nephirite Quarter was somewhat high (even if stolen) and for there to be an associated markup as a result.
[/li]
(ahhh! where’d these dots come from?!)
edited by MisterGone on 3/4/2015

14

Ah! You’ve caught the dot plague!

I imagine Khan’s Shadow is still standing because it’s the Khanate’s outcast Warrior Caste, and they’ve got way more boats to boot. The real question is why they haven’t overthrown the Khan.
edited by Olorin on 3/4/2015

15

I get the impression that the Shadow doesn’t represent -all- of the Khaganian military - rather, it began as a ghetto for those exiles who still clung to the old nomadic traditions when the Khan decided to make it as a sedentary empire, and ended up attracting a lot of pirates, rebels and general outsiders. The Khanate proper still has its loyalist navy - witness the trimarans docked within the city’s borders.

(Plus, I imagine that each side has certain cultural/ideological reasons not to really try to wipe out the other. The loyalists can’t deny that nomadic warriordom really is their roots, while, if the Shadows want to roam the zees instead of sitting in a palace, how could they justify making a play for Khan’s Glory? So, each tolerates the other, squabbling and grumbling but never going beyond a sort of cold war.)