"That sounds a bit overzealous," Marius chuckled, though his face showed no mirth. Meeting Frederich Grunwald would have normally been an honor if he did not see the man was trying to swindle Natasha. Without preamble, Marius held his hand out to see the papers Frederich had in flowing script that indicated the formulae of the prices. [i]Ars Dictaminis[/i] was a learned art that few could really become literate in. A full five years of schooling was served to learn how to doublespeak and converse in what they called the tradesman's tongue. 

"I assure you it is all in order, herr...?" Frederich was the second son out of the three, master of the Wolfenburg branch, and he looked the part. His coat ended just above his knees in the merchant fashion, but it was purple and gold to display his station. He sported a much fuller beard than Marius's goatee and it likely hid varying levels of multiple chins. Even with a bulk order such as this, Marius was surprised he showed up so readily. The clerk had likely informed him of the accent and the sexist fact Natasha was a woman and thought it was an easy mark they could make good on if the master himself addressed her. There was a reason Marius had not spoken until he had laid out that every barrel of gunpowder was twice the going rate at the Nuln university. 

"The assets here do not include the correct amount of saltpeter for the cannons, and we will only pay these rates for the first four barrels. After that we expect the price to lower by two hundred and thirty seven Krowns for every shipment after that. In these documents you have failed to tell us what ships would be utilized to transport it and by what metric we are insured." 

"That is ludicrous! It is the standard rate of saltpeter for the imperial military regulation forms out of altdorf, and-" 

"Altdorf does not know blackpowder from cigar smoke." Marius laughed, slamming the letter down and pointing at the sheet with an accusatory manner, poking it as he spoke. "Heinrich Falkhammer of Nuln has the Gunnery School's blackpowder mixture statement of military excellence at 75/100 and it used throughout the Empire as the standard for every major contingent of gun batteries since they were implemented in 2469 during the year of the Red Sky. We wouldn't want to give subpar powder and shot to our dear allies up north, do we herr Grunwald? I'm surprised your prices are so high with such little oversight on the quality of your merchandise."  By Sigmar, at least when the letters of business were written by the clergy they were more often than not honest! Marius sighed. 

"We follow the standards writ on the [i]reik marque dictandi[/i] and have yet to be questioned in any such manner by any official of customs. And you must not know that black powder is in high demand currently and our stocks are low during the winter seasons. Perhaps if you and the fraulien here waited another season you would be granted better terms." 

"Who would have such a high need of gunpowder more than the Kislevites who guard the Troll country from the ruinous powers and barbarians of the north?" The Nuln merchant scoffed. The Empire was ever at war, it was true, but from all the gossip Marius had heard there were very few conflicts that would warrant a nation-wide need of gunpowder save for greedy purchasing by a rebel group attempting a bloody coup. "Do not patronize my friend here. If you cannot give us a fair deal we can go to Middenheim or perhaps see if the Golden Kettle outpost in Talabhiem would be more accommadating." 

"Wait wait...!" Frederich said, holding his fat hands out. He was around Marius's age but he seemed to have had more than a touch of good living. One of the benefits of being an unfavorite without a home was that Marius did not have enough time to devour so many delectable pastries. The rival merchant dismissed his clerk with a wave, the man leaving the spectacles and disappearing into the back. He sighed. 

"The reason we do not have what we need in stock is that one of our silos was waylaid." He admitted softly, eyes darting back and forth. "We don't know if it was beastman or greenskins or bloody bandits, but something has taken half my stock and everyone I have sent out there has not returned." 

Marius raised a questioning eyebrow to Natasha.