You fly south intent on finding the tax dodgers of the Duke. What you find is something bigger. You find a small group of settlers who have cleared land and ploughed fields, work of a few years. They have built a rudimentary palisade around the dozen or so houses. When you arrive they seem elated at your arrival, flying out of the blue sky. The throw you a banquet and plead with you to stay the night.
They tell you their story after you have eaten your share of food. The people of Hommlet have always remembered that there was a town in the woods. Many of their fathers, mothers, and grandparents have taken them on trips through the woods to this location. They would tell them that the town was build before people came to Greysteel and was abandoned before then too. And the stories were that they were to never spend the night inside the old town as it was haunted.
They told you that they came as children and they picked up baubles and minor treasures and so when they became of age they decided that it would be fun to set out and live here. There were orchards that bore fruit and there was wild crops in the fields. There were abandoned houses and castles. They came and repaired a few of the houses on the edge and cleared land and planted crops and everything was good. Then about a year ago a group went out and stayed in the ruins looking for more adult treasures so they could afford some supplies from Hommlet. They never returned. A week after that the attacks began. There were many small children at this point and they were afraid that they would not get away, so they built up a palisade and sent a fast woodsman to get aid from Hommlet, and now you have come to fight the undead.
Do you stay to fight the undead or leave these Tax dodgers to their Fate?
After the brief and undeadly fight, the people of the area hail you as their personal hero. And they feast to your health for another night, one or two women may have even graced their presence on you late that night. Yes they were hot!
You tell them that you will be back as soon as you can, as you have pressing business back in Jarda. You take flight and arrive in Greysteel a day after the Teleport circle closed, it would be another eight days before it reopened, so you decided to fly to Jarda. You flew as high as you could fly with your steed so you could see as much as there was to see. Your survey was as complete as you could make it. The higher you flew the less detail you could see and if you flew too high, the harder it was to breathe. The horizon had a gentle curve to it as you rose; the view was exclusively green forest with patches of farmland here and there along the road to Jarda and around Greysteel. The rivers were narrow ribbons of reflected sunshine and the smudges of smoke showed only the significant settlements of Greysteel, Hommlet and Neloar.
It took three days to travel by air, what normally took a full fortnight, eighteen days. Word had preceded you to the city, a city that seemed smaller than when you first went there as an orphan child and smaller now that you had a worldly perspective, of the great feats that your group had accomplished, but only in the circles of the Knights of Jarda. The regular folk had not heard of you at all. It appeared that two of your companions had made it to Jarda ahead of you and had acquired engineers and a force of labourers to build their fortifications. You were able to find some that would swear to work with you as well as they could to repair the castle you had found and you headed off, this time to Greysteel via Teleport Circle.
Your flight from the clearing to Hommlet let you see the direction the road builders needed to follow, that and some local guides lent to you by Sir Gerald. Half of the workers continued the road and the rest marched through the forest to your lands. You flew there as promised within a week and returned later with the half of the labourers. Word of your exploits with the undead spread by the people you saved did much to erase your reputation in Hommlet.
The investigator you left in the town made a report back to you saying that the old road appeared to head not to Nulb, but to the vanquished Temple of Elemental Evil. Moreover, many of the buildings appeared to contain summoning circles and some of those buried under hundreds of human skeletons. The temples seemed to be dedicated to Zuggtomy a Demon Prince. There also seemed to be a library in the main temple. Much of the contents had been torched a hundred or more years ago and the rest had suffered from the weather, but he would try to piece together some of the history and who founded the temple.
You spent much of your days burning the buildings near your castle with the radiant light of Scoria, when you were sure everything was safe you assured that your people would be safer closer to you than where they were. The walls were nearly completed and the castle was well on the way to completion. As if to underline that, when they had at last moved in, the undead had become restless again when your investigator uncovered something unexpected. The ensuing battles lasted much of the next few nights and included some demons that you had fought at the Temple, this time you fought them alone.
The wall became a priority after that. When the road had been completed there was a surprise waiting for you, Lord Gerald had amassed a small force of light infantry to join you on the walls. He said that the Duke was very interested in the work that you were doing for him.
Even more of a surprise was the contingent of gnomish javelineers who showed up quietly on the end of the road. They had heard one of their kind had fought off demons and did not want all the glory going to your head. They were from near the village you came from and they all had equally shitty names. They were also all dressed in gnome sized plate-mail.
After a while your village began to grow and fill up with disenfranchised people of Hommlet and Nulb and settlers from Jarda. Soon your little village was threatening to overflow your walls. In addition to the shitty gnomes, and the human infantry a number of other troops joined up to fight the fight they always wanted, including a few Knights of Scoria, an order devoted to scouring the land of oath breakers.
The last development occurred not a few days ago, a hidden vault in the temple to a different Demon Prince, one to a god of spiders. The vault included a ledger with a letter from the alleged Emperor of some place called Gutral Mastekeena had been a major financial backer of the original town. The ledger shows that the temple even acquired a massive silver throne as a present to the Demon Queen Zy—. The rest was burnt. Near that in the vault was a broken Dagger made of black metal. The vault was more of an entrance to a natural tunnel that went deep into the earth.
Moolite builds a level 2 castle and a wall,
Elite Archers Bloody Shitty Gnomish
Super Heavy Javelineers
Seasoned Archers Bloody Useless Human medium longbowmen
Seasoned Cavalry Shorty’s Shitty Lancers, Human heavy
Regular Infantry Shorty’s Shit Sticks, human light
Regular Archers Shorty’s Bad Smell Crossbows, Human light
Moolite has a mod of 4 and Alignment mod of x1.5. He has a level 2 keep, so he has a total of 8 artisans, 6 are in the keep. His keep has a mason, a carpenter, a captain, a priest, a blacksmith, and a sage.
8+8x4+5x8= 80 families, 400 people
Congratulations, after a year you will have 8 artisans and 80 families. 480 people. Their income at year end will be 8x2000gp + 80x400 gp or 16000+32000= 48k. The Duke collects 25% and he gets 60% of that, so you get 4,800 per year. Nice!
The Carpenter and the Mason add a bonus to all building and repairs of the keep, 5% times the level of their workshop each. Both are level 1. The Captain maintains your troops while you are gone, and your Investigator keeps tabs on the area around. The Blacksmith can make magical weapons, the Priest and the Sage provide a bonus to your character x3 for every extended rest. Wisdom and intelligence respectfully.
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