My quest to become the ultimate dwarf is proving more endless than expected, and I'm running out of time. More specifically, I'm running out of lifetime. I've left siring heirs too late; I fear I will die before they are grown and ready to take over for me.
My human mage friend has suggested a solution. By means he is reluctant to discuss, he has obtained the fomula for a rare and valuable potion of longevity. He proposes to make doses of this potion for the both of us at cost, provided I can source the ingredients.
The catch is that the potion in question requires elf livers. Lots of elf livers. Two hundred and thirty-three and a third elf livers per dose, to be precise, and that's more than I'm likely to come across without being proactive. Of course, as a faithful servant of the Empyrean gods, I can't simply raid the nearest elf community for their organs; Without genuine casus belli, my hands are tied. Nor can I simpy announce my intent to puchase elf livers from any and all comers; Such a decree would doubtlessly be percieved by adventurers and mercenaries as a bounty on elves in my name, and I would like to avoid that particular misunderstanding.
Thus, I have decided to write a letter to a nearby elf-lord, asking him if he will sell me the livers of any criminals he executes in his lands. My letter will, of course, include the appropriate assurances that my hirelings will not take any other parts of the bodies than what were paid for, and that I will provide the appropriate metamphorae for storage and guards and carts for transport at my own expense.
Alas, I don't have any idea how frequently executions take place in the elf-lord's realm, and getting that detail wrong in my letter could easily be seen as an insult. I know the figures from my own vaults, of course, and from the lands of my friend the mage before he was usurped, but the elf-lord's lands are different from ours in size, morale, and urbanisation, and I have no idea what number of executed criminals they're likely to produce on a regular basis.
Therefore, I must ask: Is there an easy way to estimate the average number of criminals executed each month in a domain or settlement of any particular size?