Evan's Fine Jewels ...

[Firebird]

Evan Studdard is the proprietor of this shop. It is probably one of the finest establishments in all of Zerdargia. Evan is a dwarf of culture and refinement, very rare in the Dwarfdom. He is 4'3" and likes to wear elevator shoes to give him a couple extra inches. He is very vain, and likes sporting a neatly cut beard and long strawberry blond hair which he braids and wears in two plaits which reach to his belt. He is too discriminating to wear any type of armor, but prefers to wear fine woolen pants with a tunic of some bright color. He wears a large silver medallion made of turquoise, azurite, malachite and in the center a large 15 carat champagne diamond which refracts red, blue and others colors of the rainbow when the light shines on it.

He also tries to keep a more svelte figure of a dwarf, and weighs approximately 175 pounds. He has traveled all over the known world taking his fabulous jewels into cities like Aelyria Prime to show at all the major jewelry trade shows. He is known as an expert in not only designing the most beautiful jewelry in Zerdargia, but also in the entire province of Centriplex.

His store looks like a wonderland of fine jewels. He has glass showcases which display his finest creations. He deals in every stone Dargis' mines produce, and especially the specialties of his own mining company the Studdard Brothers Mining Company of which he is quarter owner. He and his brothers mine gold, and also buy copper from Clan Coppersmith's mine, from which many of the most desirable stones come, like turquoise, malachite and azurite. Clan Greyholme of Dargis mines diamonds and he is especially fond of champagne diamonds called "rainbow diamonds". No other mine in Aelyria produces these special diamonds, with the exception of Dargian mines.

He also carries the regular precious jewls in his inventory for if he doesn't mine those, he buys the best rough from Clan Greyholme, and cuts his own jewels. He is aware that some think his jewels possess magic powers, however, and he cultivates these rumors since he is a shrewd greedy person who will add a crown or two if foolish people think that some jewels contain magic.

[Straylor Leonard]

Timestamp: Mid-Cryxatum, Spring Era XV Post Fractum.

The young messenger from Trysvale had other errands to run in the dwarven city. And the very first one on his list was to visit a jewelry shoppe. The Thane of Trysvale knew very little about jewelry, but there was enough rumors about dwarves and their previous metals to last him a lifetime. That, and the Thane also happened to be a rather talented mage. His inventory of gems and other precious stones could only get larger -- and what better place than the heart of all gem trade in the Empire? This was where the best of the best could be found and purchased.

Arriving at the shoppe, the young guard greeted the shopkeeper with a nod. "Serale sir" he said nervously "I be lookin' to purchase some diamonds, if possible. Erm ..." he stole a glance from his notes and added "high clarity and set into golden rings. Oh and masculine cut." He couldn't have the Lord Thane wear rings fitted for women after all.

[Firebird]

Evan Studdard was just coming from his back studio where he had cut some new facinating stones. As usual he wore his favorite pendant with its center stone of a 15 carat rainbow diamond. As the door opened he smiled. A stranger, indeed, that meant most times, a large sale was in the offering.

Smiling his pretentious smile the odd looking dwarf turned his head just slightly to nod his greetings. He was right, and the smile became even broader as the stranger got right to his business. "Diamonds, Evan's favorite subject."

"We have many diamonds of perfect clarity for sale. If you will take a seat, I will go into the back room and bring you a tray to look over. You also might consider a speciality of ours," he lifted up the champagne diamond which refracted the colors of the sunlight in red, blue and green. This diamond is exclusively found in Dargis. It is in repose a light gold color, however, you will see that when it his exposed to sunlight, it sparkles with flashes of blue, red and green. I call this a rainbow diamond."

As the customer sat down, Evan walked into his back room and returned with a large tray he set down on the counter. Within the tray were exquisitely cut white diamonds, from 1 carat round to 10 carats emerald cut. Evan began explaining the different cuts of stone. "The white stones are of the clearest flawless clarity. See how their shine. The jewels are cut into different shapes, we have round, oval, emerald cut, which is square, princess cut which is also square but many faceted (this stone stone so brightly that the customer would have trouble seeing anything but the shine).

Evan then went back into the store and produced another tray. This tray contained colored diamonds. "These diamonds are perfect clarity. We have the rainbow diamonds, blue diamonds, red diamonds and a few yellow diamonds." The blue diamonds were almost a color between blue and green and when they were cut in a princess style were gorgeous.

"Now as for setting the stones. I make all my own settings. The gold is actually mined from my own mine in Dargis, the Studdard Brothers Gold Mine. If your master has a coat of arms or prefers other embellishments, all very manley, of course, I would be pleased to make a special order for him. If you order today, I can have it made up for you by next brightening."

Evan stood there, wondering how much the young man was authorized to buy. He would casually try to charm his customer out of that information.

[Straylor Leonard]

The younger soldier and messenger regarded the dwarf with an edge of curiosity. But the tray of diamonds threw him off and his inexperience with sales were betrayed by his widening eyes. The gems before him could purchase all the land his family owned in Trysvale and then some. He wondered briefly if he could make a living as a cutthroat but abandoned those thoughts once he remembered seeing the Thane practice swordsmanship with his magical shield. Lord Leonard was quite reputable and his exploits were the stuff of stories for young Trysvallians. Who knew what other horrible things the Thane could inflict on traitors?

"Very well ..." the young man went on, now completely out of sync with his previously rehearsed speech about diamonds and clarity and all that stuff he knew nothing about. "I guess we'll, I mean, I'll purchase the ... clear ones, perfect ones like you said." He smiled nervously in hopes of relieving the tension and failed. "The rainbow ones ... erm" he vaguely remembered the Lord Thane instructing him to purchase anything particularly exotic and rare as well. "And the diamond, uhm, rainbow -- I mean, rainbow diamonds. How much each?" Now this was going to be interesting.

Straylor had insisted that the messenger bargain like there was no tomorrow. He was promised whatever remained of his budget after all -- so the less he spent, the more he could pocket at the end of his trip to meet the dwarves.

The other guys were going to love this.

[Firebird]

"I can see you are a man of discrimination, sir," the dwarf said with mock sincerety. He held up a large 5 caret white diamond cut in prince's style. "A 5 carat stone cut this way set in a man's setting, would be 1,500 g.c. A 5 carat rainbow stone in this cut would be 2,000 g.c. The other stones are sold at 200 g.c. per caret. I have one emerald cut 12 caret diamond, which would look exquisite as a marriage or betrothal stone. I can make a 3 cm band for it.

He leaned down and pulled out his pattern book of sketches. "You will see I can embellish any ring with an animal, a crest, or war instrument, like sword, axe, bow, etc. You also see here where I can create a copy of a coat of arms in beautiful diamonds, rubies, sapphires, turquoise, malachite or other stone of choice."

Evan stood there for a moment awaiting the courier's mouth to close and give him an idea of what he could spend for his master. "Would you care for a drink," Evan finally said, noticing the young man might need a sip of ale or whiskey to wet his whistle.

[Straylor Leonard]

If the young messenger was impressed, he had no way of showing it -- at least not to a professional. In fact, everything impressed him at that moment. Swallowing, he refocused on the rainbow and perfect diamonds before him. "Would it be, erm, possible to have the diamonds embedded onto ... chain?" It was getting harder for him to remember what the Thane had told him during the very case when which the jeweler was to have more than one diamond readily available. From the looks of things, this dwarf had a lot to offer. "Someone one could wear like a belt, perhaps?" he ventured.

"Those are beautiful" the messenger agreed "I will keep that in mind for, for my future orders." He smiled, and failed again. At the mention of drink, however, the lad politely declined. That was definately against his orders. And he wasn't willing to test the Thane's Arcana skills when it came to following simple directions. He was not to drink one bit until he returned, got paid, and received a suitable amount of profit if his bargaining skills came into play in a timely manner.

"Two white diamonds and one rainbow diamond" he said should the quantity of the order arise "if they cannot be embedded into a chain-like device, then rings would suffice."

[Firebird]

"A chain belt, with three five carat stones," Evan looked at the man as if he were a slice of apple pie, "how long would the chain be, for example, a dwarf's circumfrance is much larger than a human's. Is it for you? If so, I can measure you for the belt. How thick do you want the gold to be and what about the clasp, is it to be embedded with diamonds?"

Evan took out a tape measurer and began to measure the courier.

[Straylor Leonard]

Luckily, the soldier was roughly the Thane's size. But for a precaution he suggested that the belt be adjuatible ... somehow. Again, the messenger was not sure of the mechanics involved in diamond-attached-chain-belts. He would just have to trust the dwarf and his apparent expertise. "Yes, sir, and, erm, in addition" he paused, waiting for the dwarf to finish whatever he was doing before continuing.

"A single ring with a two karat white diamond, masculine cut" he said "and a second ring, a blue diamond, with a feminine cut. How much would all this cost, sir?" And now was the moment of truth. While the messenger was rather keen on making a profit, he was also willing to bargain ... if possible. But not if the jeweler was not in the mood. There was nothing worst than getting head-butted by a dwarf, as the saying in Trysvale went.

Because their head-butts only reached a human-sized creature in their family jewels.

[Firebird]

Evan measured the courier's waist, "um about 34 inches with a little give," he wrote down the measurments. So 34 " gold rope, three 5 carat diamonds, (2 white and 1 raiinbow); 2 kt white diamond, prince's cut (that's square) set in gold, and a dainty let's say maybe a pear shape blue diamond for the lady, about 2 carats?"

Evan was almost giddy with excitement. "I will made the gold belt 1 inches wide to accommodate the diamonds, with a safety clasp of embedded small diamonds at no charge. When he wrote up the invoice it read as such:

1 man's gold belt, 14 kt gold 34" with 3 prince's cut 5ct diamonds (2 white and 1 rainbow) w/ complimentary square clasp embedded with small diamonds 5,500 g.c.

1 man's 18 kt size 9 ring w/2 ct prince's square cut white diamond 500 g.c.
1 woman's platinum ring with 2 ct. pear shaped blue diamond 400 g.c.

I did not charge you for the woman's platinum band, if you prefer gold no charge either, but a blue stone looks so lovely with platinum.

The total will be 6,400 g.c.

Evan's hand was shaking as he handed the man the invoice.

[Straylor Leonard]

The messenger nearly slapped himself across the head when he got the invoice. He had almost forgotten something! "Ah, erm, thank you sir. I will trust your expertise on that one ..." he trailed on, alluding to the platnium band looking good on blue stones. He figured that the dwarf meant diamond when he said stone, of course. These jewelers were always substituting important words with seemingly bland, undeserving ones on him.

"Two more items, sir, that I forgot to mention" the young man continued smiling apologetically "two golden necklaces with three one-carat white diamonds on each." He then nodded, feeling better. Now he was sure that everything the Thane asked him to order and deliver were accounted for. When it came to payment, the young man paid in full using banknotes signed and petitioned by the Lord Thane of Trysvale.

[Firebird]

Evan added the other items to his order:

2 necklaces with 3 1ct white diamonds 1,000 g.c. ea

That made for an order of 8,600 g.c. secured by Lord Thane Leonard, Trysvale.

Evan took the banknote. A thane's note was worth a lot for repeat trade business was important.

"I will just need to see your Imperial Visa, for documentation for my bank, United Clan Bank of Zerdargia. They will handle the transfer of monies from your thane to our bank."

The courier provided the correct identification and Evan smiled an almost genuinely sincere smile. "We appreciate your business. I will have my apprentices begin this very moment to fill yer order. But no worries, I will supervise and work with them so ye are assured of a prompt delivery."