You have three things(?) outstanding on your story arc. Three?!? What do you mean three? Well firstly there is your Patron. Secondly there is your village to layout and thirdly there is something else….
Your patron requests that you detail the events that you experienced since the last time you checked in. I assume you tell everything to him, but I will let you tell me what you don’t tell him.
Your Village … you don’t have to build a keep. Your place is relatively in the centre of the Duchy and along the road there are villages on either side. If you want to build a palisade against wild animals until the land is cleared sufficiently to be a barrier. That said, you can build a keep if you desire. There are advantages to doing so.
There is a quarry in Neloar and one near Hommlet, but Korrin is drawing off the first and the latter is almost spent building Sir Gerald’s keep. But there is stone available. Your tavern/inn Korrin’s Hole has been repaired and is operating and competing with the other two inns, one of whom is an outpost of the Thieves Guild in Jarda.
What do you want to build in Your new village? A tower? An Inn? A singing hall? Each will have an effect. You are free to build all… major buildings will require more to outfit them. A major building will cost 9k, a tower 15k, a keep 60k. Minor buildings require someone to run them and 6k investment. There is a river, the same one that goes to Neloar, just smaller.
You dream… fuck not another dream sequence! (I heard that)
The table is set with the gods standing behind the representatives of the party. Scoria sternly staring down at Moolite, the epitome of uncaring Law, pleases. Hestium fondly looking towards Vistra hoping for good things, Stomida causing your fellows to trip at times but granting Phil a measure of safety except for sending him toward danger…, Xeric pointedly ignoring Io… the whispy figure of the Gray Warder in his orcish appearance behind Korrin. And behind your figure is an irate figure complaining about the gifts that he granted you and you have ignored him. His brow green with anger and vengeance, Drogath plotting your demise. He moves a great red dragon towards you something large that darkened the ground all around you. The dragon salivates but is brushed aside. A figure in a deep cloak brushes Drogath to the side, the wake of her movement sends the dragon careening off the board. She speaks her words evaporate in your ears; you can’t grasp them, then they hold. “I claim this mortal, he has learned four Truths. I name him my priest.” Her words stay in your ears and she leaves the table. A glow of blue sits above your figure. When you wake you feel as though something has happened, but you are not sure what. Except you can see a third sun in the sky. It is blue.
Hey Cael,
You have done a lot of running around over the last few months, including a few chaotic neutral things like place signs along the route between Sunnydale and Hommlet suggesting that Bandit activity might be higher along that route and a couple kilometres later a sign advertising your new town not far away…. Anyone who suggested that you felled a few trees across the path not heading to your new village/inn, was quickly quieted with a meal and a night’s entertainment, on the house. The large tracks around those sites were confirmed to be Bugbears, so you are clearly innocent.
The use of Elementals to dig a berm around the place of your village, about 250m in radius, and placing a palisade on the top has increased the sense of security in the new village. The ditch had subsequently filled with water, but since it was not dug with care and lined with stone, it has become more of a sucking mucky death trap than a true moat. The Elemental also dug out a mill pond and dam perfect for a mill to be built.
The foundation of a village constructed, you headed to ask Io to help you build your town. You found out where she was building her bridge and quickly flew there. Upon landing you discovered that the duke had set her up to fail. The bridge that she would have to build to cross this river was over 200’ long. There was an existing ferry service between two small hamlets on corresponding sides of the river, but little else. The currents swirled dangerously fast in the centre around a rocky pinnacle, but otherwise the river was shallow and peaceful. Still 200’. After a day, Io returned with a band of workers from Greysteel with a dwarven engineer. You made your request for building a stone wall around your village again, and again she told you where you could stick your offer, politely sort of, but friendly like. You headed from there to Jarda.
Once in Jarda, you went about three tasks, the first and foremost in your mind was the selling of the loot from the Prisons of the Temple of Elemental Evil. Secondly was to make inquiries about a buyer for the throne that you had secreted away. The ice sculptures you thought you could move here, but the throne with gems in it… well that represented all the liquid currency in Jarda, by your estimation. You had to hire a broker for that.
Most importantly you had to hire people to build your village and to populate it. That took a month. One week in Jarda, one week in your village, one week in two more weeks in Jarda with small jaunts to Greysteel when the Teleport Circle was running to send recruits through, meet with people in your village and travelling back to Jarda. You spent time in the inns that artisans patronized and you spent time in inns where the common folk drank what they drank. In the end you were able to draw a lot of interest in your new village.
You were called once again to your Master’s side; apparently ze kept tabs on you well enough that he sent for you after getting back to your future village. He said that it was time. You knew what he was asking for. Your arguments that it was a useful tool in your hands and not an instrument of evil. Ze pointed out that the ditch that you dug out with the Elemental had filled with slime and contact with it by woodsmen had resulted in a leprosy like disease, and the mill pond had filled with fish with intestinal worms. That last one was news for you, but it was a good point. You told the woodsmen to avoid the ditch, and now you would tell the people to avoid the fish too. Ze then told you that ze was not without heart and would do you the boon of purifying the 666 gems and contacting cities across Caranus with more than a million inhabitants to see if anyone was interested in the inert throne. Greysteel, population 7,500 people, Jarda population 60,000… multiple cities with a million inhabitants —impossible, except you don’t think he was jesting.
I am assuming that you comply.
The next month involves setting up your twin more fully, building key buildings with adjacent ancillary structures. The inn was key, a place for people to stay while traveling between the three villages, Hommlet, Sunnydale, and Neloar, but also giving them a reason to go out of their way to go here, instead of Greysteel. You decide to centre your efforts by building a market place—a place of free trade where the merchants could acquire a place to sell their goods and acquire products they would get in Greysteel and more, things they could only get from a longer trip to Jarda—low grade magic.
You spent time acquiring the materials necessary to create potions, scrolls, and weapons. Then you attracted the people who could manufacture them. You had to be careful; you wanted to supply the Duke most of his magic, not be the target of his magic. This meant attracting people from outside Greysteel, thus Jarda.
You were able to attract 18 different artisans to your village in the first year. Outstanding!
You got 10 specialist to join your inn and market place. Three joined your inn and seven the Market Place. The three was a Captain, a Spy and a Priest—the last you were not happy about, but you accepted him in the end as a priest of Aurista has their uses. They open all business transactions, they bless businesses with prosperity, they serve the god of the coin and well, if there is one god you might want to attract it is Aurista.
Aside:
•The captain keeps your village guards at peek condition, the spy lets you know what is happening in the rest of the Duchy, the Priest adds ease to all the traders that come to your village.
•The alchemist, blacksmith, carpenter, chef, sage, scribe, and tailor all set up shops in your market place and they have beneficial effects for you. All of them including the Captain, the Spy and the Priest, have “shops” that can be improved to give you more advantages. The other 8 artisans set up in your market place, but do not advance your own person, rather impact your village
You are able to use your Market Finder (spy) to acquire information on the other party members:
Korrin is building on the Duchy side of a magical bridge and is mostly focused on a military presence. It is difficult to get to his fortress because there are no roads to it. Instead it relies on boat traffic too and from it. Except, Korrin has been seen in Neloar weekly and he never comes by boat.
Moolite has built a road from Hommlet into the wilderness where he has set up in a centuries old abandoned town. That’s all the information you can get from rumours.
Phil has set up a shipwright on the only navigable river in the Duchy. He is building a temple to Stomida and a fortress too.
Io is using her spells to build a stone bridge across the river, and a lighthouse temple on the island. It is quite impressive, you think the Duchy will get a lot of good overland trade from Jarda that way—not that you will use it, focusing on expensive magical cargos it makes sense to use the weekly Teleport Circle, but should the Duke become to nosy….
Vistra, the mountains have a pass and a trail to them. The trail is now a road and the passage/tunnel is now a wall with a portcullis and a battlement with archers. You can buy coal and minerals from them there, but nothing else. Crossing the mountains might be possible but it might be easier just to visit yourself.
You do that. Vistra leaves you waiting only a day, but opens the gate to you in the morning and ushers you in. There are mining operations and quarrying operations and smelting as well and something you did not expect. At the other side of the tunnel, another wall and a road that leads into the back country. The road passes over an ancient magical roadway that goes north-south and continues to a small keep being repaired beside a river the size of the one at Saltmarsh and Phil. Vistra is building her own secret nation that the Duke doesn’t know about.
You did not think she had it in her.
You strike a deal for raw materials in exchange for propaganda to attract settlers to her secret land. She tells you upfront that she has her needs and the Duke has his needs, but the rest is up for grabs at a discount no less. It is clear she will need your help keeping everything secret; she has no clue how to do things.
The last piece of news comes from courtesy of your master, indirectly, a buyer has been found for the throne and they have agreed to purchase the throne at full price and has sent people to Jarda to pick it up. You need only get the throne to Jarda. Honestly, you were beginning to wonder if anyone would purchase it intact—selling the base components would have been easier but still a monumental task, the gems were valued at 250k gp. Intact, it is worth more, SUM HERE at least. Your share, less the Duke’s share would be massive.
The undertaking seems uneasy in the least. Simply teleporting to Jarda with the throne, in a box and collecting the money seems straight forward, but the sums make it less so. You think about it and you decide that it might be best that the throne, the exchange and the division of the spoils have the best protection in the land. The deadpan stare you receive from your Master changes amends your idea to the Second best protection and you gather up your companions to escort the throne to Jarda.
Your town, what is it’s name anyways?
You have, in a years time, 820 people in it.
18 artisan families and 136 farming and woodsmen families.
The farmers/woodsmen each make an average income of 400gp/year, the Artisans 2000gp/year for a total of 90,400gp. They pay 22,600 in taxes, of which the Duke gets 60% and you get 9,040 gp per year. You also have a trading deal with Vistra that allows you to skim 1000gp per year. By law you are required to sell all magical items produced to the Duke. This amounts to 7,500gp per year with the Duke’s discount. If you sell product in Jarda, you get twice that.
You have town “Guards”:
Seasoned Infantry Cael’s Monstrous Regiment, bugbear medium
Regular Infantry The Duke’s 25, Human light
36k + 54,400
Alchemist
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Potion magic
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Blacksmith
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Weapon magic
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Captain
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Carpenter
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Building benefits
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Chef
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Con bonuses
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Priest
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Wis bonuses
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Sage
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Int bonuses
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Scribe
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Scroll magic
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Spy
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Tailor
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Cha bonuses
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