And by the way, when merchant asks wheter price is acceptable you can try to haggle with him, but for that your main hero must have stats high enough, altought even with simple cartographer who can just make maps I managed to haggle price down at least even by single piece of gold.
Naturally there are some smarter characters who can in one month save amount of money by which you could pay your crew on whole month. (Joao for example)
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