1 {scene: Oh my, outdoors, near the village smithy!}
1 Lambert: The one thing wrong with buying new equipment is the poorly researched encumbrance of some of the items.
2 Mordekai: That, and the arbitrary prices. I can't stand historical inaccuracy and lack of realism in gaming.
3 GM: The village smith says he has horsehoes and agricultural tools aplenty, but a sword will take him a fortnight to forge.
4 Mordekai: Oh, come on, he should have racks of adventuring weapons lying around!

Woohoo! The adventurers finally leave the tavern!

I hope everyone can see the horses and blacksmith and forge and anvil in the background. I went to some trouble to put them there, but unfortunately they came out rather blurred.

And how many times have you taken your PC down to the local smithy and selected weapons from a full selection of everything listed in The Huge Book of Every Piece of Medieval Equipment, Ever, without any regard to why he has enough stock on hand to equip an entire army?

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2013-07-31 Rerun commentary: The smithy's forge in the background is actually just the fireplace from the tavern, with the tavern removed. It makes a good looking forge, though.

And yes, I don't know why there are palm trees in the background. Maybe this pseudo-European medieval setting is actually near the southern Spanish coast or something.

A reader writes:

3 GM: The village smith says he has horsehoes and agricultural tools aplenty, but a sword will take him a fortnight to forge.
4 Mordekai: Oh, come on, he should have racks of adventuring weapons lying around!

He has, just have to grind a sharp edge and a silly foreign name onto them and you've got your pole arms. ;-)