As you can imagine, rather than being a civ quest I wanted to try something where, although you lead a settlement or faction, you've got pre-existing relations and obligations to the rest of your race/nearby races.
I guess it's pretty obtuse, so if you have any questions I'll clarify.

>>3143003
>True Elves
>Chaparral

>>3143003
Dwarves, in small mountain ranges. We are outcasts from the mountainhomes, followers of a young captain who attempted to lead a military coup in his home city, aiming to open the gates and march out under the sky. His men were defeated, narrowly, and took exile rather than risking further losses and execution.

Let the fools wallow in their filth and decadence. Armed with fresh steel, our new Black Dwarven Legion will cast off the shackles of stagnation, free ourselves from the burdens of isolation, and once more Strike the Earth!

Looks like a cool setting OP, good luck.

ah shit i'm sorry, i should've mentioned you'll pick a profession afterwards.
>>3143016
your profession does match what one of the dwarven vocations would look like though

>>3143024
I just wanted to put down a clear idea/theme to get people on board with dwarves. I'll take whatever ends up getting voted for.

>Human
>Epicenter

I'll give this another ten minutes? If there's still a tie I'll roll a dice here.

Locustmen frontier.

Rolled 1 (1d4)

>>3143010
>>3143016
>>3143044
>>3143060

>Locustmen
>Frontier

Elves win in a four way tie!

Pick one vocation:
‘True’ Elves: The Empire is a gigantic affair of mostly elves. Well, all Elves now. Still deeply enchanted with Pre-Incursion magic, it stands as a bastion of civilization. Giant standing armies patrol the lands, yet strong enemies eye it enviously. Meanwhile, the Imperial Court is hell. A 14-ranked hell that combines spiteful nobility with obstructive bureaucrats. They’re all mages, too. Have fun.

Protectorate Commander: The Elven Empire is defended by its many protectorates, although these days much of the empire IS its protectorates. Still, bless the Protectorate-Generals, and the Bureaucrat-Emperor behind them. Unfortunately, you’re lower than that, commanding a small band of land. +5 to combat against conventional enemies, +5 to combat in the forests. Under Imperial Mandate, it is illegal to expand your sub-protectorate outside of official means (petitions, direct grants by superiors), and expanding beyond imperial borders is essentially taboo. Grow at your own peril. Oh, as part of the Mage-Bureaucracy, you know magic: choose between Water, Fire, Wind, Earth, or Wood. Face a reputation penalty for choosing anything other than wood, dork! Like all True Elves, the Incursion left a cultural mark that changed you, and disgusts the barbarian races. Gain standard stipend.

Wall-Whisperer: You are tasked with a monumental effort: raising a new section of the Wood Wall. A living, half-sentient wooden behemoth, the wall requires you be, and thankfully you are, a great sorcerer backed by the full might of the Elven Empire. It’s also not very responsive to you, or any True Elf before you, but you’re sure something will work… +10 to wood magic. Did I mention you’re HEAVILY attuned to wood magic, and thus get another +5 bonus to it? Gain a massive stipend, and start with additional resources. Yet, the Bureaucrat-Emperor sets a grueling pace: If you do not make progress on the wall each turn, bad things will happen to you. (you won’t make progress each turn)

Imperial Inquisition: Round up dissenters who dare denigrate the sacrifices needed to survive the Incursion! Although you start in an area, you are meant to move to and fro in a larger one, capturing race traitors who are rather easy to spot by their strange fair skin and green-brown color scheme. Still, the Bureaucrat-Emperor doesn’t provide as well for you. You must establish base camps to operate, and oversee larger areas. If problems arise, you get punished. Don’t get punished. You get a smaller than usual stipend, and must have multiple base camps. You need to find a way to raise the resources to continue your inquisition. Thankfully, the fear that you inspire gives you an easier time at court. +5 to investigation, and get your pick of the five elements without any penalties.

Also, pick an elemental attunement. Note: for professions except Inquisition, it's weird for you to not pick wood.
Fire
Water
Air
Earth
Wood

File: you.png (289 KB, 814x752)

289 KB PNG

On the subject of you, lets talk about you instead.
Every great effort of this age requires a leader. First and foremost, what is your name and gender?
>name?
>how many genders are there? what’s yours?

Also, if anything looks wonky, tell me and I'll fix it.

>>3143102
>Inquisitor
>Fire

>Baltazar Ignatius

>>3143102
Wall whispered.
Wood.
Baltazar Ignatius.

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>3143164
>>3143248
writing

“Balthazar?” Bu Royora, the protectorate general, commander of millions of souls, complete despot of the northwest part of the Elven Empire, and generally owner of your ass, didn’t look at you as he called out.

“Yes, my lord?” He seemed like he didn’t mind you around, but this looked ominous...

“You’re worried, right? I’ve been told you’re a good sorcerer. Why?”

“...My lord?”

“Your land grant has been processed. A gap in the wall just outside my new capital actually.” He shuffles awkwardly. “Ahem, why are you worried, I mean.”

“The wall hasn’t been responding well…” You stare intently, looking for his response.

“... Ah, that’s none of my business. There’ve been reports about that. It’s fine, though. I’m sure His Majesty the Emperor will have mercy on you for any complications.”

“Wait, you’re not directing this?” You pale instantly. The Chuangwei emperor… Not a good boss.

“Yes. His Majesty decided this was of Imperial importance. Don’t worry, I’m sure it will turn out well. You’re getting an Imperial budget now. Speaking of which, a parting gift?”

He gestures to a chest. What was in it?
>Do$h: A parting gift of… 1000 Silver Marks?
>Contracts: You’re going to receive 100 workers, free of charge, for the first 3 months (turns)

**The Jianshu Branch of the Living Wood Wall, in the Grand Protectorate of the Northwest**
**You:**
Name: Baltazar Ignatius
Social Status/Vocation: Wall Whisperer
Gender: probably attack helicopter
Modifiers:
Magical attunement:
True Elf: -5 to breeding rolls if you ever stop being a NEET and meet a nice mate, +5 to ranged rolls, +5 to general magic rolls, and can stack on your attunement/profession, non-evil races begin with a relation penalty, less affected by fear/corruption.
Master Wood Sorcerer: +10 to rolls dealing with wood magic.
Wood Prodigy (not jailbait i swear): Another +10 to wood magic rolls
Personal belongings:
Nothing notable.
Personal Relations:
The Chuanwei Emperor: Who are you?
Protectorate General Bu Royora: Aha, good luck?

**Faction: Jianshu Branch**
Relations:
The Elven Empire: work work work
The Grand Protectorate of Liangmin: thanks for the wall, not paying for it though
Income: 300 Marks/turn
+300 stipend
Expenses: 285 marks/turn
-90 Wages
-5 Food
-90 Camp Maintenance
-100 Logging rights and imported material
Reserves:50 Marks
Military:
25 Elven Rangers: (+5 morale, +0 melee, +10 ranged, +10 mobility, -5 defense)
You know the protectorate capital of Minzhu itself is charged to protect you. You estimate at least a thousand guards at any time.
**Settlement**
Jiangshu
Leaders: You (grants nonracial bonuses)
Resources: Lumber, Travel Fruit
Food supply: 2 Units of food, net change: 0 units/turn (1 eaten, 1 bought, a unit feeds 1000 for a month)
Landmarks: Manicured road, work site
Population: 1000 Drafted Workers
Current Project: wall wall
Happiness: 50%
Special Conditions: None!

god i hope i never need to update this beast of a civ sheet, but i will. I'll only show what changes on it, though.

>Do$H
Booyah, all my choices have won.

>>3143306
Money also male.

You’re eventually kicked out from the palace as the general has other work. Not too pleased, you, perhaps impulsively, immediately go to your camp. It’s a sprawling mess of tents that’s customary of any new wall section. The wall itself isn’t anywhere near your camp. That ‘gap in the wall’ stretches miles. 12 miles, or 64062 feet to be exact, and no one’s who let this happen...
Time to get to work?
Turn 1, AKA January, 204 A.I.
Wall: 0 feet.
DEADLINE THIS MONTH: 200 feet
What do you personally do?
>Your food situation is looking nice, but more never hurts, especially when you’re getting more workers. Go to the city and see what you can do.
>Honestly, your workers are lost right now. As leader, you give another +5 bonus to wall construction.
>Find more help: More workers never hurt anyone!
>Calling all Wood Warlocks: Put out feelers for another wood warlock to help you. Of course, they’re all VERY expensive. Gain 0-2 warlocks based on rolls, each gouging you for 50 marks/season. Every warlock received boosts your wall building by +3.
>Scout for suitable sections: Who said you had to build right where the wall ends? +0-10 depending on roll, and it applies for 4 turns.
>Anything else? I’ll think up a suitable reward for it if you succeed.

What does the settlement do?
>Build Wall, this is a no brainer. DC of 50 to even get it started (Don’t complain, you’ve got a modifier of 25 even without choosing to oversee it). Getting exactly 50 nets you 200 feet, every point above that on your dice earns 10 feet.
>Sustainability! Live dangerously! Build some houses and gardens to lighten the load. Modifies how much wall you get per roll result, lessen living expenses/maintenance. (maybe the empire will let it slide if you don’t work on the wall at all?)
>If you bring in 5 people, and they bring in 5 people… Use your workers to sucker in more unskilled labor. If taken with Finding more help, synergizes for even more workers.
>Anything else? As above, I'll think of a reward for success?

Do$h adds 1000 to your reserves.
New balance:
Income: 300 Marks/turn
+300 stipend
Expenses: 285 marks/turn
-90 Wages
-5 Food
-90 Camp Maintenance
-100 Logging rights and imported material
Reserves:1050 Marks
Oh, you're a guy too now. Congrats!
>>3143337

Also, to clarify, pick something for you to do any something for your camp to do.

Look for more food. Go to the city see what you can do.
Build wall.

Rolled 92, 8 = 100 (2d100)

Aight, I'll call it now.

Roll 1d100, best out of three, for both actions? I'm not sure if this is fast enough, so feel free to roll multiple dice in one post.

I'm just rolling for something else.

Rolled 64 (1d100)

>>3143474
Here's one.

checking off for dinner. I'll be back in like an hour or two. If we're missing rolls, I'll roll em all at once.

Rolled 30 (1d100)

>>3143584
One more. Fav anime op?

Rolled 89 (1d100)

Rolled 37, 88, 3 = 128 (3d100)

Aight, back. I'll roll three for the wall action and get writing.

Add 25 for the real result of each roll from your wood bonuses.

Early on in the month, a large caravan from the heartlands of the empire rolls through your stretch of land. The caravan leader, an elven woman named Zeanne, hawks wares to your settlement on a brief stop.

“I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard, but it’s a great shortcut!” The elf, strangely sociable and kind, babbles as you browse her wares. “Sorry I couldn’t sell you anything really nice. We’re actually headed for Alteser in the north.”

A human kingdom? Perhaps seeing your confusion, she elaborates.

“I’m not sure why we’re going there, or why we’re taking such an indirect path! Anyway, would you like to buy anything?”

Buy as many as you’d like:
>”So that we might have something authentic to travel to” An exhaustive guide on good spots to go in the northern stretches of the Elven Empire, and, strangely, what resources can be found there. +5 to finding any resources, although you’re not sure why you’d want to when you’re getting them already. Costs 30 Marks.

>A cargo of iron. Not very useful to you, but you never know. Grants a small iron stash, which you unfortunately don’t yet have time to work with. Costs 100 Marks.

>Elegant Dwarven crossbow. “This is actually is a heirloom that my great grandpa got! I’m not sure why you’re fixated on this.” +5 to personal ranged combat, you’ll get weird looks from other elves. Costs 80 Marks.

>A signed copy of Delegation for Dummies: Distributing Difficult Duties to Deficient Dorks. Special item, allows you to raise a generic person (one of your workers, one of your rangers) to a leadership position, giving a decent bonus to certain actions based on their background. “Yep! This is the jewel of my collection!” Costs 1200 marks, but she’ll let you have it for 1050 now so long as you pay her 450 later. “It could be worse. Not as bad as payday loans.”

>Soft Pillows. Ignore the indent on them strangely shaped like Zeanne’s head. They’re comfy, I guess. She was pretty insistent you buy these. Costs 10 Marks.

>”I can’t believe my husband is a centaur!” Zeanne isn’t even there when you look at it. A sheepish caravan member tells you about it. “... I haven’t read it. Zeanne thinks it's an accurate description of centaur culture.” Costs 50 Marks, if you really studied it you might get... Nothing out of it.

posting more separately, there'll be 3 decisions to make in total, then I'll post what changed over your turn, and then after that next turn's decisions.

Mingzhu is huge. With a population numbering in the low six digits, it’s one of the largest cities in the protectorate. Logically, most of the food that ends up in the city gets eaten quickly. Still, you spend a week whenever you’ve got free time comparing food prices and talking to merchants.

“That was very funny, Magus Ignatius. You won’t find food cheaper, anywhere. It’s the biggest bumper crop in decades already. But… I’ll make you a deal.” Franz Kobalaya is one of the few humans to thrive in the Elven Empire, and that makes him a savvy man. He leans in, shuffling in his seat as if telling you a secret.

“I can’t go cheaper, not at all.” Although you can’t tell from his expression, you know that he’s almost certainly not telling the whole truth. “I can’t even match the market. But, I’ve got good food, not like anything else you’ve got.”

Before you can voice any outrage, he raises a finger.

“Beef, potatoes, things you won’t get in your forests. Variety is the spice of life, and what's more I’ll make sure you get your food, on time, and as much of it as you need, no matter what.” He crosses his arms. “Human’s promise.”

You’ve found enough contacts to buy more food at 5 Marks per unit (which you found out is obscenely low) up to 10 units, or buy from Franz at 10 Marks per unit. Franz’s food is hearty, and grants a bonus of an extra foot of wall for every 50 feet lain.

>Sure (How many units do you buy from Franz per month? Can be changed every month)
>Nope. (Do you buy any food from the other vendors yet? How much per month? 5 silvers per unit, love)

Regardless, you know where you can buy food now.

===============

At the end of the month, you’re giddy with joy. 930 feet of wall. 930 feet. You’re astonished. No ominous noises, no wooden spikes killing warlocks like in other provinces, no stubborn refusals to grow! Even deep at night, when you should be asleep, you’re giddy and excited.

Unfortunately, you can tell the chaparral won’t hold your wood needs forever. Yet, that’s a problem for later! (Estimate import costs will increase in 2 turns if you keep building at this pace.)

>Do you report building more wall over 200 feet? (Grants Imperial favor, but increases expectations)
>Nope! (You’re going to be really far ahead of schedule, and have free actions to do whatever you want)

“hows your rash?” You look at your tent entranced, annoyed, as something shuffles by.

Yokels.

Two notes:
Specify how much wall you report, if you do report over 200.
Also, the math totally added up to 930 feet, not 830 like any other mathematician would tell you.

>>3144044
>>3144051
Soft Pillows. Ignore the indent on them strangely shaped like Zeanne’s head. They’re comfy, I guess. She was pretty insistent you buy these. Costs 10 Marks.
>Nope!
>Buy 1 unit.

>>3144064
I assume the Nope! refers to wall progress, right? Who did you want to buy food from? I admit I could've titled the options better.

>>3144086
Nope is for the wall. Report 400 feet. The cheaper vendors.

The first night you use the pillows, a few days after you’ve bought them, Zeanne has already been gone for a few days. Odd timing.

Something falls out of the pillows.

“if you can read thsi be careful. hide any fair skinned elves you might have. Inqiusitor coming, less than a month.”

“sorry, am being tailed by multiple groups.”

You don’t sleep well that week, at all. Why?
>You were scared your workers. Some are fair skinned, after all.
>You didn’t really care, but it’s just not comfortable in a tent.

========

“That is a shame. But that is also living.” Franz clasps his hands. “If you ever have need of real food, don’t hesitate to talk to me!”

You buy food from the cheaper elven vendors. They’re eager to sell extra cargo to you.
+1 unit of food for this turn, and unless you specifically vote for it, it’s just something for this turn. Of course, it doesn’t cost anything to decide whether or not to make it monthly.

=======

In the end, you write a report detailing building 400 feet of wall. The reply is suitably snooty.

“To the appreciated Warlock Ignatius,
The court is pleased to hear your progress, that you would build such a fine amount of wall in your first month.
The court has decided to increase your stipend, by 25 marks per month, and extend your land to encompass more lumber. The court and His Majesty look forward to continued excellence, as any who serve should strive towards, and…”

You roll your eyes.

“I, on behalf of the court, also charge you with your monthly quota: 500 feet per month. It is only expected that such great results can be repeated, and improved upon, as you establish yourself.
Signed, Sub-prefect of Works Shouleng Mao”

Absolutely maddening.

Results:

+1 unit of food, increasing your food situation to
Food supply: 3 Units of food, net change: 0 units/turn (1 eaten, 1 bought, a unit is worth 1000 people fed for a month)

Broke even on do$h for a nice set of pillows and food, next month’s finances are
Income: 325 Marks/turn
+325 stipend
Expenses: 285 marks/turn
-90 Wages
-5 Food
-90 Camp Maintenance
-100 Logging rights and imported material
Reserves:
1050 Marks

You got a nice set of pillows:
Personal belongings:
Some nice pillows!

You made new contacts:
Personal Relations:
The Chuanwei Emperor: Who are you?
Protectorate General Bu Royora: Aha, good luck?
Franz Kobalaya: Maybe next time?
Zeanne: Thanks, but selling my pillows was really mortifying…
Sub-prefect of Works Shouleng Mao: Acceptable.


And lastly, your wall:
Wall Length: 930 Feet
Deadline: 700 Feet by the end of the month

Ha! Now that you've got a decision to make, time to write up next turn

>>3144143
You were scared your workers. Some are fair skinned, after all.
Pick other things to do?

Turn 2, AKA Month 2, 204 A.I.
“Hello, hello hello!” A cheerful voice pierces through your camp. The Inquisitor. You did your best to hide the fair-skinned last month, in a way that doesn’t incriminate you, but you never know…

“Walk with me?” The Inquisitor, an athletic young man, doesn’t seem to sweat at all in his all black outfit, or dark purple skin.

Not seeing a reason to say no, or really talk since that might betray your nervousness, you walk with him through your camp. Slowly, you guide him to your tent, where you’re sure no fair skinned elves will intrude.

“It’s pretty hard, honestly. I’m not trying to be cruel or hateful, but it’s just hard to-” He stops, smile evaporating in an instant.

Right outside your tent.

He looks right at you.

“This… What happened?” Frantically, his eyes dart around the camp. He seems to age a decade in a minute.

“...What?”

“It’s dangerous… I can sense something, right at the edges of my vision. Something disgusting.”

You give him a flat stare.

“No, I don’t mean the Fair-Skinned.” He rolls his eyes. “They’re just pitiable. But… Have you noticed anything off?”

Anything you’d like to say?
>No, nothing. He stalks off, muttering to himself. He’s not going to leave your camp for a long, long while…
>Lie to hopefully throw him off and out of your hair
>write in? Questions for him, other plans…?

You sigh after a long day’s work calming the inquisitor. Now that that’s done… God, the wall.

**What do you do?**
>You know, more food never hurt anyone. And it’s supposedly the cheapest it’ll be in decades. Stockpiling never hurt anyone.

>It worked pretty well wall building last month, and maybe it’ll be better if you help. Besides, the wall is quiet. Toooo quiet.

>Find more help: If you had more workers, you could build more wall! E.Z.

>Calling all Wood Warlocks: Put out feelers for another wood warlock to help you. Of course, they’re all VERY expensive. Gain 0-2 warlocks based on rolls, each gouging you for 50 marks/season. Every warlock received boosts your wall building by +3.

>Scout for suitable sections: Who said you had to build right where the wall ends? +0-10 depending on roll, and it applies for 4 turns.

>It’s kinda cool in there: See if you can find a better deal for goods in the City. DC 70 of finding a better deal for materials. Chance of buying more cool stuff or finding cool stuff in general.

>Play secretary on the boss tonight: nothing dirty, you’d just like someone to organize stuff for you. Gain ANOTHER personal relationship, Gain someone to help you organize your work, do business, interact with court, reach out to contacts. Will need to pay a salary of 5 Marks. Unlocks more actions.


There's more incoming. Still missing a settlement action.

**What does the settlement do?**
Have 930 feet of wall, need to have 500 feet by the end of the month.
>Build Wall, this is a no brainer. DC of 50 continue. As before, getting exactly 50 nets you 200 feet, every point above that on your dice earns 10 feet.

>Creature comforts! Look, you just want a house. Actually costs 1 turn of lumber, keeps public order in check, although people aren’t complaining yet.

>If you bring in 5 people, and they bring in 5 people… Use your workers to sucker in more unskilled labor. If taken with Finding more help, synergizes for even more workers.

>You know, they didn’t say you couldn’t exploit it: Look for resources and exploit them. You expect, in the chaparral, to find some metals, maybe coal. Gain access to more resources, which you can sell or use yourself.

>the forbidden fruit: Travel Fruit is technically a public good. Anyone can pluck the juicy, nutritious fruits that grow alongside the manicured roads of the Elven Empire. Of course, the army has first right to pick them, and nowadays it’s very offensive if you pick them without extensively checking if an army is coming… Let's pick them anyway! (Get 2-8 Units of food, has a low chance of failing DC 10, but oh man can it fail)

If anything seems vague or weird, ask!

>>3144215
No nothing.
Find more help.
>>3144218
Look for more resources.

Rolled 22, 75, 80, 22, 11, 96 = 306 (6d100)

>>3144266
Aight, calling it now. I'll just roll, best of three on both actions.
Also screwed up on >>3144218
Need to have 700 feet total, 500 this month, 200 last month. Still got enough though.

You rub your eyes. Your little recruiting spree went way, way better than you ever thought. Near the start of your adventure, you got a pointed message from the burghers of Minzhu to maybe look towards the villages for recruits. You were pretty miffed at being told to go away, but it turns out they had a point.
…
Well, a less hostile point.

The villages around Mingzhu proved to be fertile grounds for recruiting. Most hadn’t even seen more than a few pennies, let alone a sliver of a silver mark.

Can recruit up to 500 men. It costs .09 per man, so 100 would be 9 marks. Every 100 men adds another foot to your wall building ratio, so for example hiring 100 workers gives you 1100 total, thus giving you 200 feet upon successfully passing the DC 50 wall check, and another 11 feet per point above that.

===========

You send your workers to find resources this month. An assortment of rare materials only found in the chaparral, where forest meets plains, are nice and make a neat profit, but more importantly you find ores.

Copper, iron, coal. Heck, you’re just missing the expertise to make steel. Steel with weird copper chunks floating in it.

Still, you’ve not got time for that right now. You know where deposits are, and even have some excavations made so you can easily put people to work mining. However, you’ll probably just be mining it for now, no smelting or manufacturing.

Do you immediately put people to work?
>Yes (Define how many people are put to work, in increments of 100. Every 100 people grants +25 Marks/turn right now.)
>No (Can always do it later just by asking)

========

The inquisitor still hasn’t left by the end of the month, although he isn’t really hunting down the Fair-Skinned ones. You think he even saw some, but ignored them. Instead, he spends most of his days huddled outside your tent, tracing the same path through your encampment, or writing letters.

Do you want to ask him anything?
>Yea sure
>no not really

ehhh shit forgot to make a greentext option for the recruitment
here you go
>How many workers do you recruit, if any?

>>3144349
Hire 10 workers.
I don't know our population. At least 100 now.
Don't talk to him.

>>3144363
Population is 1000 workers, with 910 workers, you'll gain the base 200 for passing the check, plus 9.1 feet per dice point above the check, rounded down.
If you ever want a civ sheet (although it's a monstrous block of text), just ask
Maybe I'll include some basic stats in each post? Just an outline?

>>3144376
So putting 100 on mining will take off from wall building?

>>3144386
Yes. You've only started with 1000 drafted workers, each worker adds .01 feet per dice point.

I've actually going to call it for tonight! I'll leave the results and next turn for tomorrow afternoon or something.
Thanks for sticking with this, dude!>>3144386

also,>>3143590
haven't watched much, the only anime that's really held me so far was Code Geass, and I've only seen like 5 total anime.

Sorry I missed this, it looks bretty cool

In the end, the month went very well for you. You’ve got a small income separate from the court. You’re sure you’ve not even surveyed it all, and at your current rate, with 100 miners, you can maintain operations for two years.
Still, you shuffle a bit nervously at taking workers off wall duty.

The ten workers you hired are doing well, working as well as any other. However, you get the feeling you ruffled a few feathers by taking in so few after scouting so many villages. That’s not a problem right now, hopefully.

The inquisitor still hasn’t left, but by now most of your workers have learned to ignore him.

Ugh.

Changes:
Finances updated:
Income: 350 Marks/turn
+325 stipend
+25 mining
Expenses: 286 marks/turn
-91 Wages
-5 Food
-90 Camp Maintenance
-100 Logging rights and imported material
Reserves:
1089 Marks

Population updated:
Population: 1010 Drafted Workers: 910 working on wall (+9.1 feet per dice point above the DC), 100 mining (+25 Marks/turn)
You’ll need to do another recruiting action to get more workers.

Resources updated:
Lumber (4 turns of wall building), Travel Fruit, Small iron deposit (24 turns), small copper deposit (24 turns) small coal deposit (24 turns).

I’ll put a summary of your stats in the next update, which I’m writing right now.

Turn 3, AKA March, 204 A.I.
Minzhu is in an uproar. Not a bad kind, just surprised. For the first time in centuries, the empire opens up to outsiders. It seems trade has opened with Alteser, a human colony-kingdom in the north, and its ‘parent’ kingdom Veresil, further in the Shattered Sea.

Although you’re too busy to try your (rather inexperienced) hand at trading, everyone predicts food prices to rise by as much as 100% due to exports. (Food prices double at the end of the month.) Franz, however, lets you know that his prices have remained fairly stable, considering human foods are probably going to cheapen with the Elven glut. (Franz’ food now costs 12 Marks/turn per unit)

Things have gotten more orderly over the months. Without having to handle so many issues involving setting up camp, you’ve got time to get a more succinct summary of your camp.

**The Jianshu Branch of the Living Wood Wall, in the Grand Protectorate of the Northwest**
Leaders: You (Grant +25 to projects involving wood magic)
Resources: Lumber (4 turns of wall building), Travel Fruit, Small iron deposit (24 turns), small copper deposit (24 turns) small coal deposit (24 turns).
Food supply: 3 Units of food, net change: 0 units/turn (1 eaten, 1 bought, a unit is worth 1000 people fed for a month)
Landmarks: Manicured road, work site
Population: 1010 Drafted Workers: 910 working on wall (+9.1 feet per dice point above the DC), 100 mining (+25 Marks/turn)
Happiness: 50%
Income: 350 Marks/turn
Expenses: 286 Marks/turn
Reserves: 1089 Marks
Military: 25 Elven Rangers: (+5 morale, +0 melee, +10 ranged, +10 mobility, -5 defense), Minzhu’s large garrison is obligated to protect you.

Now then, what do you do this month?
>Food is going to get more expensive. Although it’s still going to be negligible, best to stockpile food now? (Buy up to 10 units, specify how much, for 5 Marks per unit)

>You’ve got to meet wall deadlines this month. Give an additional +5 bonus to wall building, if you decide to build the wall.

>Come crawling back: You still need more workers. You’ll need to spend a lot of time touring new villages and re-negotiating with last month’s villages.

>Calling all Wood Warlocks: Put out feelers for another wood warlock to help you. Gain 0-2 warlocks based on rolls, each gouging you for 50 marks/month. Every warlock received boosts your wall building by +3.

>Spend time in the city: It’s clear that a lot’s changing in the city. Not just food prices, but you’ve noticed the garrison getting rotated around. Gain information on food prices, the garrison ostensibly protecting you, shops, and business opportunities (which you can’t do without a secretary).

>Play secretary on the boss tonight: nothing dirty, you’d just like someone to organize stuff for you. Gain ANOTHER personal relationship, Gain someone to help you organize your work, do business, interact with court, reach out to contacts. Will need to pay a salary of 5 Marks.

**What does the settlement do?**
Have 930 feet of wall, need to have 1200 feet by the end of the month.
>Build Wall, this is a no brainer. DC of 50 continue. As before, getting exactly 50 nets you 200 feet, every point above that on your dice earns 9.1 feet.

>April showers! You might want houses before rain hits. There’s been a lot of grumbling already, and people are worried about spoiling goods. Builds houses, gardens, and storehouses. Costs 1 turn of lumber.


>Continue exploitation! There’s still a lot of nice stuff on your land grant. Either in the rare chaparral-only vegetation, or minerals under the surface, nice stuff lies just below the surface. Guaranteed do$h by selling rare vegetation, high chance of finding more metal to extract.

>Build Forges: Although you’re pretty sure very few people in your camp know blacksmithing, it’s a logical next step to sell- or use- smelted metals. Low chance of success, but very lucrative if you start selling manufactured goods. Costs 100 Marks to import the supplies and stone to build forges. Reduces camp maintenance if successful

>the forbidden fruit: Travel Fruit is technically a public good. Anyone can pluck the juicy, nutritious fruits that grow alongside the manicured roads of the Elven Empire. Of course, the army has first right to pick them, and nowadays it’s very offensive if you pick them without extensively checking if an army is coming… Let's pick them anyway! (Get 2-8 Units of food, has a low chance of failing DC 10, but oh man can it fail)

Three part update, joy. If anything looks off, please tell me!

>>3145106
>Spend time in the city
>>3145107
April showers! You might want houses before rain hits. There’s been a lot of grumbling already, and people are worried about spoiling goods. Builds houses, gardens, and storehouses. Costs 1 turn of lumber.

Rolled 52, 33, 89, 73, 47, 75 = 369 (6d100)

>>3145136
Writing now. Rolling dice (best of three for both actions) myself just to make it faster.

“Why is your stocks so… Varied?” You’re in a rather obscure shop, deep within Minzhu. You didn’t find it yourself, either. Franz knew some people who knew that this shop sold things that might interest you.

It’s all very eclectic.

Buy as many things as you like: You’ve got 1089 Marks to spend
>Large stick: It’s a large stick. Although on first inspection it’s useless, further observation shows its… Very light and hard? The wood is very nice, at least. Can be enchanted to poison targets or be harder, +3 to melee rolls at the moment. Costs 25 Marks.

>Sword of Mars: Just kidding! It’s a replica! Still, it’s what’s ‘hot’ in the city right now. You know the inquisitor cares about this kind of stuff, so it’d be a nice gift? Costs 10 Marks.

>An anatomically correct Locustman scale model 1:10: A large replica of an locustman. They’re not very well known, but the creator here somehow has a pamphlet including some facts about their society and anatomy. The section “How to kill a locustman” seems ominous, though. Costs 75 Marks.

>Joyeuse: On further inspection, it’s literally the same thing as the Sword of Mars replica. Costs 150 Marks because it’s an ‘original replica.’ The Inquisitor might be even happier if you gave this to him, but… The shopkeeper shrugs when you ask why he has two replicas.

>Dark Elven Chainmail Hauberk: Coif not included! Grants +10 to Defense rolls. Well forged steel and many, many rivets makes this armor very effective. Costs 150 Marks.

>The Art and Science of Ironworking: A detailed set of instructions on how to forge iron. Unfortunately, it’s just a detailed set of instructions to forge an outdated model for a single type of iron spearhead. Most spearheads are steel. Still, it would let you build forges without so much trouble, even if you’d be exporting not only outdated, but also very suspicious, items. Costs 500 Marks.

After shopping, you tour the city barracks. Although you’re technically not allowed in guards quarters, you’re important enough to the city’s defenses that no one stops you. According to your estimates, the guard is still pretty green, but has a strong core.

They’re rather interested in buying the iron from you at a higher price. Of course, you wouldn’t be able to smelt the iron: they’ve got better smelting services than anyone else in the protectorate. Still, they’d be very, very grateful.
>Sure! (Improves your mining income to 35 Marks/turn per 100 workers, improves Minzhu’s garrison, earns garrison’s gratitude. Can no longer build forges.)
>Nope! (Continue as is)

You also generally made contacts with everyone you could. Merchants, nobles, criminals… They all want you to do legally dubious things for them in exchange for cold, hard cash.

Finally, and most importantly, you secured better logging rights for your current land. You immediately transferred once you knew it was real.

This is part 1 of 2.

You sigh, lying on your nice, luxurious bed. It’s not much to write home about, but after months of sleeping in a tent, you’d do many, many things for a real home. Your pillows are finally coming in handy, too!

Generally, everyone’s happier to have real homes. Although it’s rather conspicuous to anyone nearby that you’ve not been working on the wall, it’s still early enough that it might be excused.

Huh. Wait, you’re not working for the protectorate general…

… Now what? You didn’t meet your deadline this month. What do you do?
>Lie about your wall. Claim that you hit the quota this month. The court shouldn’t be able to tell, but they won’t slacken the quota and it’ll be hard to keep a lie this big down for too long.
>Be honest. You probably won’t get worse than a slap on the wrist, every wall-whisperer eventually runs into problems on their wall.

=======
Finally, all the new buildings, gardens and even dirt roads are nice, but there’s one crowning jewel to your admittedly tiny village. It’s basically a village now, even if you’ve got to import food. What is it?
>A giant warehouse: Great to organize all your projects. Improves efficiency for wall building, adding another foot per dice point above DC. (currently 9.1)
>Barracks: A place to quarter the guards assigned to you. They ARE the most likely to rat you out for not fulfilling the deadline, after all. (Allows you to recruit your own soldiers, and placates the ones you’ve already got.)
>Mansion: alright, you admit your house isn’t that modest. You built yourself a mansion just because. It’s rather impressive, and built in the same fashion as other protectorate commanders. (Although mostly just because you wanted one, it is more defensible.)
>You literally just hid a section of the road: Now no one even knows you’d be harvesting travel fruit, even when an army rolls by! (+0.5 units of food per turn, travel fruit is a delicacy and this would raise happiness)

I'll post results for your turn after this

>>3145280
Don't buy anything.
Sure.
>>3145282
Be honest.
You literally just hid a section of the road

Rolled 63 (1d100)

In the end, you decided to quietly leave the odd man’s store. He doesn’t acknowledge you when you leave, but he had another replica sword in his hands.

The guard was rather happy with your decision to sell your ore to him. He confesses he was a bit anxious you’d try to flood the market with something stupid and dangerous, like defunct iron spearheads or whatever.

You cordoning off an entire section of road. It didn’t even lead anywhere, being a hopeful project of distant bureaucrats over a century ago. If they’d been more committed, Minzhu might have been at the end of this road.

Theeeen, the letter arrives. The court is not happy you’d “forsake a vitally important responsibility” but in the end the letter is just a bunch of complaints and accusations without any base. They didn’t even end off the letter.

…

Wait, what?

You turn the letter around. Crap.

*“The court, thus, denies you the visit the city. It is clear from the witnesses that saw you traipse through the city that it distracts you from a far more important duty.

Further, we empower the guard commander of your camp to monitor your progress on the wall. He will directly report to the court.

Finally, rebuking your erroneous decision to establish homes in a worksite, you will be responsible for partially quartering the garrison of Minzhu, five hundred men who will share homes with your workers. Food expenses will be your responsibility, but you ought to not let them distract you, and allow the garrison commander to care for his own.

Signed, Sub-prefect of Works Shouleng Mao”*

This is weird. You didn’t expect them to be so demanding. They didn’t even stall the quota, just slacken it for next month.

Results:
Finances change:
Income: 360 Marks/turn
+325 stipend
+35 mining (Increased from 25 via contract)
Expenses: 271 marks/turn
-91 Wages
-10 Food (1 unit for 10 Marks: food prices increased)
-90 Camp Maintenance
-80 Logging rights and imported material (Reduced from 100)
Reserves: 1178 Marks

Population changes:
Population: 1010 Drafted Workers 500 independent soldiers garrisoned
910 working on wall (+9.1 feet per dice point above the DC), 100 mining (+25 Marks/turn)

Food situation changes:
Food supply: 3 Units of food, net change: 0 units/turn (1.5 eaten, 1 bought, 0.5 scavenged)

Court angered:
No more personal actions in the city until you meet a deadline.
Your guard captain is monitoring your finances, wall progress, camp situation.
500 garrison from Minzhu arrive. Food is still cheap, but you’re sure they’ll need more than food eventually.

Military recorded: Minzhou’s defenses include
250 Elven Imperial City Guards (-5 morale, +5 melee, +5 ranged, +0 mobility, +5 defense)
500 Elven Levy swords (-5 morale, +0 melee, +0 ranged, +5 mobility, -5 Defense)
500 Elven Veteran Skirmishers (+5 morale, -2 melee, +15 ranged, +5 mobility, +0 defense, Bu Royora’s personal guard)

These are results, posting next turn in a bit

Turn 4, AKA April, 204 A.I.
A letter makes it by your doorstep at the start of the month.

“sorry, need to ask for money. can’t explain bureaucracy censors if i try but very bad.

send 500 M to lantang please, will send back 7-D book that you couldn’t afford before.

srory.

-Zeanne”

Huh, weird.

>Send the money: You can’t make sure she’s not lying, but you remember she was part of a larger caravan company, and she’ll need to pass by you with her caravan.
>Ignore it. You’ve got better things to worry about.

Regardless, it’s time to plan out next month. You open your door to check your worksite. It’s raining. You’re not sure how the letter didn’t get wet.

You put off work another day.

**The Jianshu Branch of the Living Wood Wall, in the Grand Protectorate of the Northwest**
Leaders: You (Grant +25 to projects involving wood magic)
Resources: Lumber (3 turns of wall building), Travel Fruit, Small iron deposit (23 turns), small copper deposit (23 turns) small coal deposit (23 turns).
Food supply: 3 Units of food, net change: 0 units/turn (1.5 eaten, 1 bought, 0.5 scavenged)
Landmarks: Manicured road, work site, hidden road.
Population: 1010 Drafted Workers: 910 working on wall (+9.1 feet per dice point above the DC), 100 mining (+25 Marks/turn), 500 garrison soldiers.
Happiness: 60%
Income: 360 Marks/turn
Expenses: 271 Marks/turn
Reserves: 1183 Marks
Military: 25 Elven Rangers:
Minzhu’s garrison: 250 Elven Imperial City Guards 500 Elven Levy swords 500 Elven Veteran Skirmishers

Now then, what do you do this month?
>Consider buying more food. You’re sure there’ll be problems from suddenly getting 500 soldiers not under your command.

>You’ve REALLY got to meet wall deadlines this month. Give an additional +5 bonus to wall building, if you decide to build the wall.

>Uh, help?: You still need more workers. You’ll need to spend a lot of time touring new villages and re-negotiating with last month’s villages Wall building bonuses will be applied before you do any wall building, if you build walls.

>Calling all Wood Warlocks: Put out feelers for another wood warlock to help you. Of course, they’re all VERY expensive. Gain 0-2 warlocks based on rolls, each gouging you for 50 marks/month. Every warlock received boosts your wall building by +3.

>Play secretary on the boss tonight: nothing dirty, you’d just like someone to organize stuff for you. Gain ANOTHER personal relationship, Gain someone to help you organize your work, do business, including trade and investment, interact with court, reach out to contacts. Will need to pay a salary of 5 Marks. Unlocks more actions.

>Monitor your new peers: Your two new acquaintances, your old guard captain and the garrison commander, are here to keep tabs on you and mooch off you, respectively. Uh, actually, they might both be doing those two things. Make sure they’re not up to something!

**What does the settlement do?**
Have 930 feet of wall, need to have 1500 feet by the end of the month.
>Build Wall, this is a no brainer. DC of 50 continue. As before, getting exactly 50 nets you 200 feet, every point above that on your dice earns 9.1 feet.

>Continue exploitation! There’s still a lot of nice stuff on your land grant. Either in the rare chaparral-only vegetation, or minerals under the surface, nice stuff lies just below the surface. Guaranteed do$h by selling rare vegetation, high chance of finding more metal to extract.

>the forbidden fruit: Travel Fruit is technically a public good. Anyone can pluck the juicy, nutritious fruits that grow alongside the manicured roads of the Elven Empire. Of course, the army has first right to pick them, and nowadays it’s very offensive if you pick them without extensively checking if an army is coming… Let's pick them anyway! (Get 2-8 Units of food, has a low chance of failing DC 10, but oh man can it fail)

>Panic-build! Builds more wall, like a lot more wall, but your builders won’t be able to build for the next two turns. Turns the next two turns’ settlement actions into personal actions. Rolls 3d100. Since it’s a bit slap-dash to be putting so much wall, it’s only best out of two, so 6 dice.
these are getting pretty bloated

Aand I just realize I forgot to edit the small summary's mining income. It's reflected in your income, don't worry.

>>3145609
Ignore it.
Help build wall .
>>3145617
Build wall.

>Ignore it. You’ve got better things to worry about.
>You’ve REALLY got to meet wall deadlines this month. Give an additional +5 bonus to wall building, if you decide to build the wall.
>Build Wall, this is a no brainer. DC of 50 continue. As before, getting exactly 50 nets you 200 feet, every point above that on your dice earns 9.1 feet.

Build the wall make elfland great again

Rolled 23, 87, 27 = 137 (3d100)

Aaand back from dinner. Calling vote now: Building wall and helping build it win. I don't think you focusing on a wall really merits its own roll, since it's just a modifier. And I'd rather not worry about more rolls.
Rolling best of three for the wall

Roll 87, 87+25 (personal skill)+5(focus)=117
117-50= 67: 200 feet of wall + 609 feet extra(67*0.91): 809 feet total.
930+809=1739 total feet of wall.

You put everyone in a steady rhythm. Work, sleep, eat, work, sleep, eat… Everyone enters a measured, steady pace of wall building. You’re sure some people tried to contact you over the course of the month. Franz stopped by your camp a few times, trying to talk to you about amusing stuff in the city and wondering why you haven’t stopped by at all.

The garrison commander, a certain Yi Enlai, tried to talk to you about some stuff, but you mostly waved him off. Well, until he had his soldiers excavating on YOUR claims. You tried to stop him, but he shrugged you off, and you had to get back to work. Something about being for the defense of the city, but you think he was just happy to find coal and iron in the same place.

Your former guard captain, Lung Cambrai (weird name, weird parents you guess), is a little miffed at you, too. He wasn’t happy with you flouting your command when you lied about your wall progress to focus on other things like mining, but had nothing to say about your progress this month.

Regardless, you’ve actually surpassed your quota this month, and you’re all the happier. You surpassed it by quite a bit, too. Maybe that could help you earn the court’s favor again.
>Report 1700 feet (Possible reward from court, you’ll get some padding in case you fall behind again)
>Leave it be: (Quota will go on as normal, and you’ll be slightly ahead.)

You leave some time to relax at the end of the month. With your report in, and pointedly submitted to Minzhu’s bureaucratic branch, you’re back on track!

You’re about to light a fire using some cheap bark paper, and relax for the ni-

Wait, where did this come from? You look at the paper, clearly many, many short letters.

Eh, you did zone out for the month. You crack open a letter.

“sorry sorry sorry i’ll pay you back to” Ugh, Zeanne again. You throw that one in the fire.

“please please need more 600 medical expenses cant say more” That one goes in the fire. The writing got more erratic, too.

“cloudy what part of northwest did you live in?” Weird, but that’s also going to the flames.

“where do you live” Uh…

“what is protectorate general address” Maybe she’s really having an emergency? You set that one aside.

“when does protect gen. sleep? does he have guards” …

“tell him leave basin water by bed and sleep w/ door open.”

“want to tell something no guards meet me outside minzhu”

“hands are weird sorry if writing wierd”

“how do i bypass wall”

“bitch respond”

“bitch i have monee”

“bitch plase”

“will hurt”

“go to lantang alone mete me outside walls”

“sned anyone unarmed”

“hows your rash”

What the fuck.
>Talk to someone about this?
>Ignore these...

>>3146114
Report 1700 ft.
Talk to someone about it.

>>3146153
forgot to mention, but who?
You could talk to your guard captain, garrison commander, the inquisitor... You probably won't be able to get the Protectorate General to listen without real proof of a threat.

>>3146159
Garrison commander I guess.

“I don’t know what to tell you.” Yi Enlai shakes his head, resting on a fine chair as if he didn’t buy that with your iron.

“Well, tell me something at least!” You’re pretty shaken by Zeanne’s, or more accurately “Zeanne’s” letter.

“Look, what could possible stop you? There are 500 levy swords here…” he trails off at your flat look. “Alright, maybe they’re not the best. But, there’s the entire garrison to safeguard this camp, and you’ve got rangers nearby.”

“Who could’ve gotten her? She said she had many, many people trailing her. And if she was part of what happened in Alteser, she would’ve been part of an official diplomatic mission.” At your words, the commander nods.

“Hummmm… Not much gets by a spellsword or jian dancer. Still, could’ve been a prank. Can’t think of someone who’d wipe out an entire diplomatic mission only to taunt you, even if you’re helping with a critical part of the wall.”

“So…?”

“I don’t know. You’ve not gotten any enemies in court, even if you did drop the ball…” He ignores your glare. “I don’t know, really. I just know it’s powerful enough to stop a full detachment of elites, even if it probably caught them weakened and by surprise, and particularly wants to screw with you.”

“How do you know it’s me in particular…?”

“Bark paper, right? Most people either don’t write, or use trashy parchment or just bark. It definitely came from the diplomatic mission, or someone powerful enough to get it anyway.”

“...”

“Look, I’ll talk to the protectorate general. This really seems out of my league, but I’m sure he can help. Was there anything in the letters that only you could have known? Or anything that someone in the caravan wouldn’t possibly know about?”

>Yes: Specify something
>No: End conversation

>>3146253
Nope.

“Eh, I’ll go talk to the protectorate general. He might do something, especially since we don’t have any elite troops at all.” He shuffles awkwardly. “Is there anything else?”

You shake your head, and leave.

...Was he looking at a document about your iron reserves?

===========

“The court would-”

…

Heh? You zoned out!
You’re back in the courts graces for now, you guess?

Results:
Wall length increases to 1739 feet.
Finance changes: Reserves: 1267 Marks
Relation changes:
The Chuanwei Emperor: Who are you?
Protectorate General Bu Royora: Aha, good luck?
Franz Kobalaya: Maybe next time?
Zeanne: you e
Sub-prefect of Works Shouleng Mao: Don’t screw up again.
Yi Enlai: I’m sorry? Not really, but…
Lung Cambrai: Look, i’m all for keeping this professional.

Resource changes: Yi Enlai has his soldiers mine ores (you don’t get any money for these)
Lumber (2 turns of wall building), Travel Fruit, Small iron deposit (20 turns), small copper deposit (20 turns) small coal deposit (20 turns).

Military changes: Gain new garrison unit in Minzhu
250 Elven Spellswords (+10 mor, +20 mel, +10 ran, +10 mob, +15 def, on loan from nearby field army)

I've gotta go for tonight, thanks for sticking around!>>3146275

Note: If you ever want to talk to anyone in your camp (inquisitor, guard captain, garrison commander) just prompt it via greentext. It doesn't really cost anything.

I'll post next turn tomorrow, can't quite be sure when.

File: thumbsup.png (184 KB, 247x403)

184 KB PNG

Good night OP.
I'm really enjoying this quest-- frankly, it's a lot more involved than I expected from the civ premise. Might be smart to consider a rename next thread as to not drive people off.

>>3146388
Yeah instead of starting at the stone age we are castle? It's been a while since I've played AoE. Having history already in the world, dealing with the aftermath and politics. What would the name be?

>>3146477
>Making the Elven Empire Great Again

With the dilution of civ threads recently, it might be worth coming up with a decent name for this sort of thing. Civs have been doing stuff like this on and off for ages, but it'd be nice to split it off from the classic, stone-age start of the usual civ.

Turn 5, AKA May, 204 A.I.

Soldiers are congregating in Minzhu. You’re sure that part of it- the spellswords- are for your benefit. Yet, the news from further North probably spurred the rest.

A rogue dwarven warband of about 200 is roaming through the northern reaches of the empire. You’ve already gotten word that more men are being sent, and that the gap in the Wood Wall means they might swing by to hit the core regions further south.

You welcome the protection, even if it’s a reminder that they’re able to quarter in the city because the garrison is staying with you…

+500 Blue Standard Archers: (+10 mor, +0 mel, +15 ran, +5 mob, +5 def)

(I’ve actually got an entire unit roster if you guys would like to see it)

**The Jianshu Branch of the Living Wood Wall, in the Grand Protectorate of the Northwest**
Leaders: You (Grant +25 to projects involving wood magic)
Resources: Lumber (2 turns of wall building), Travel Fruit, Small iron deposit (20 turns), small copper deposit (20 turns) small coal deposit (20 turns).
Food supply: 3 Units of food, net change: 0 units/turn (1.5 eaten, 1 bought, 0.5 scavenged)
Landmarks: Manicured road, work site, hidden road.
Population: 1010 Drafted Workers: 910 working on wall (+9.1 feet per dice point above the DC), 100 mining (+35 Marks/turn), 500 garrison soldiers.
Happiness: 60% (Forgot to mention, but it’s base 50+10 houses, +5 travel fruit, -5 quartering soldiers)
Income: 360 Marks/turn
Expenses: 271 Marks/turn
Reserves: 1267 Marks
Military: 25 Elven Rangers:
Minzhu’s garrison: 250 Elven Imperial City Guards 500 Elven Levy swords 500 Elven Veteran Skirmishers 250 Elven Spellswords 500 Blue Standard Archers

Now then, what do you do this month?
>Buy more food/turn. Buying 1/turn now, specify new amount.

>Aid wall building. +5 bonus to wall building, if you direct the settlement to do that.

>Uh, help?: You still need more workers. You’ll need to spend a lot of time touring new villages and re-negotiating with old ones.

>Calling all Wood Warlocks: Put out feelers for another wood warlock to help you. Of course, they’re all VERY expensive. Gain 0-2 warlocks based on rolls, each gouging you for 50 marks/month. Every warlock received boosts your wall building by +3.

>Play secretary on the boss tonight: nothing dirty, you’d just like someone to organize stuff for you. Gain ANOTHER personal relationship, Gain someone to help you organize your work, do business, including trade and investment, interact with court, reach out to contacts. Will need to pay a salary of 5 Marks. Unlocks more actions.

>Monitor your new peers: Your two new acquaintances, your old guard captain and the garrison commander, are here to keep tabs on you and mooch off you, respectively. Uh, actually, they might both be doing those two things. Make sure they’re not up to something!

>Why are you running (there in particular): Why does your cordoned road exist? It’s obvious the builders knew there was something important enough to build a road to reach.

>Recruit soldiers: You’re still worried about those letters, and the warband. The city guard isn’t too far, but every minute counts in an emergency. Based on dice roll, get your pick of soldiers around the region.

**What does the settlement do?**
Have 930 feet of wall, need to have 1500 feet by the end of the month.
>Build Wall, this is a no brainer. DC of 50 continue. As before, getting exactly 50 nets you 200 feet, every point above that on your dice earns 9.1 feet.

>Continue exploitation! There’s still a lot of nice stuff on your land grant. Either in the rare chaparral-only vegetation, or minerals under the surface, nice stuff lies just below the surface. Guaranteed do$h by selling rare vegetation, high chance of finding more metal to extract.

>the forbidden fruit: Travel Fruit is technically a public good. Anyone can pluck the juicy, nutritious fruits that grow alongside the manicured roads of the Elven Empire. Of course, the army has first right to pick them, and nowadays it’s very offensive if you pick them without extensively checking if an army is coming… Let's pick them anyway! (Get 2-8 Units of food, has a low chance of failing DC 10, but oh man can it fail)

>Bizarre Bazaar: Although you’re only here ‘temporarily’, that still means you’re here for perhaps a decade… You’ve noticed merchants peddling wares with your workers. A central market would mean a new source of cash. Builds market, adds 25 Marks/turn in tax.

>>3146802
>>3146688
>>3146477
>>3146388

Thanks guys. To elaborate, I'm still pretty new to /qst/, so I wasn't aware that civ quests typically started in the stone age, or that they had bad reputations. I really liked the format, and wanted to try a situation where rather than starting in a vacuum, you had existing rights and obligations. Hence civlet, where rather than being a civ you're part of one, and are tethered to them in foreign relations and domestic policy, but have the chance to change it.

As for a name, I was thinking something like After the Incursion? Maybe with a colon, and another phrase to specifically imply elves and the wall.

>>3147172
We got a shitload of wall to build.

>Recruit more workers. 90 would do, to put to work on the wall to get us back up to 1000 wallworkers.

>Build Wall

Rolled 65, 87, 6, 18, 72, 19 = 267 (6d100)

>>3147199
.... I fucked up on the settlement action. You've got 1739, you need 2200. Still rougly the same amount of wall to build, but progress matters.
Calling now to stop embarrassment.

Most of the villages around are having a bit of trouble with the sudden price shock of food last month. Still, summer leaves many people stuck on their fields, sunk cost blinding them to your coin.

Of course, even on the frontiers of the Empire, that still leaves thousands of destitute, and hundreds of journeymen or partially skilled craftsmen.

With a clear goal in mind, you seek out only a few workers this time, taking care to not ruffle any feathers, you leave no one with false impressions.

Gain 90 workers. Population now 1100 workers. Free action (another small section under settlement from now on) allows you to hire up to 200 more without using a settlement or personal action.
Wall modifier up to 10 feet/dice point above DC
=======
Rolled 72+25= 97. 97-50=47. 47*10=470. 200+470=670 feet.

1739+670=2409 total feet.
Wall construction goes well. Your new workers easily fit into the rhythm, and before you know it you’re past your quota another month.

Do you report more than your quota?
>Yes: Report 2400 (Maybe get benefits, quota increased)
>No: Report 2200 as normal (Keep your lead)

========

It’s deep at night. One of the last rainstorms of the year, you wager, hangs overhead.

Knock-knock knock! Grumbling, you leave bed. You were almost asleep.

The Inquisitor barges into your home, and you pale.

“Sh-shi-” He holds up a hand to silence you.

“Shh! It… Something’s out there tonight. I can feel it.” He clutches a sword and spell tome.

It’s clear he won’t let you go back to sleep, and he points in the direction of the wall.

“Yea, the wall gets weird li-”

“No. Not the wall. Near it.”

What do?
>Find someone (Guard captain, garrison commander)
>Go now

>>3147278
>Go now

>>3147278
>Go now

File: not stolen from anywhere.jpg (183 KB, 856x1200)

183 KB JPG

“happy birthday”

You hear something in the distance while trailing behind the Inquisitor. He has his sword out, an elegant thing of steel with an off-color poison.

“the line isn’t too bad at town right now”

You’re getting closer to it. It sounds like it’s right next to the wall.

“the forest isn’t scary at all sis”

You pop out into a small clearing. The Inquisitor’s face is pale. He stumbles back.

“its getting colder”

Ahead, a throbbing shape hunches over, as if pawing at the Wood Wall. Why isn’t it attacki-

A- a demon! You stumble back as it turns towards you, some strange organ barely attached to its body deflates.

“hows your rash”

The demon looks like a breaded, boiled crab. It steps forward on certain legs, scything claws stabbing deep into the ground, leaving furrows when they rise.

The Inquisitor trips. He grabs at your leg.

“Run!” He half-shouts.

What do?
>Run!
>Fight? With... what?

>>3147179
>>3147545
Run.
Lots of civs die in one thread. Nice change of pace.

>>3147545
>>Run!

You run, fast as your legs can carry you. Several times you nearly slip in the pasty mud, but you keep upright. Hastily applying your magic, you bend roots out of your way, cause branches to grow behind you. It’s effortless to you, but hopefully will deter the monster.
Behind you? You don’t know. The inquisitor is probably buying you time…

A meaty squelch and a scream echo in the distance.

You race through the chaparral. At points you feel footsteps behind you, but you make it back to the work site.

Both the garrison commander and guard captain are assembled, with a few men. They claim to have seen you leaving with the inquisitor, and got suspicious. The guard captain sticks his hand out, feeling the rain. He shakes his head. There will be no use for bows tonight.

Commander Enlai’s levy swords aren’t useful either. He turns to you.

“What was out there?” His gaze is hard, rather than the vague apathy he’s treated you with before.

“D-demon… It got the inquisitor…” The guard captain, Cambrai, spits, shaking his head. Enlai curses, but turns around to console the few men he has.

“We’re not ready. We’re both needed here, I wager?” Enlai shares a brief look with Cambrai. “No one here is ready for a demon, they might run if we’re gone.”

“What should I do?” You’re not ready, either.

“The way i see it, we’ve got three options. You can stay here and help us. If you can use these few minutes to weave a wood spell, that might turn the tide. Otherwise, another hundred levy swords would… help. Still, the best option might be the city. It’s ten minutes away if you run, but if you could get a platoon of spellswords? We stand a good chance then. I need to focus on what we’ve got. What can you do?”

>Weave a spell (Best out of two, roll a 1d100 if you’re voting for this. Add a +25 modifier.)
>Get the quartered soldiers. (Best out of 3, roll a 10d20 on how many you can rally. Levy swords might not help much, but it’s fast and you’re sure there’ll be bodies by the end.)
>Run to the city. (Best out of three, roll a 1d100 if you’re voting for this.)

The garrison commander has 20 levy swords with him, while all 24 of your rangers came, as well as the guard captain.

Rolled 91 + 25 (1d100 + 25)

>>3147659
>>Weave a spell (Best out of two, roll a 1d100 if you’re voting for this. Add a +25 modifier.)

Rolled 55 + 25 (1d100 + 25)

>>3147684
Can I do better than 91?

>No: Report 2200 as normal (Keep your lead)
>Weave a spell (Best out of two, roll a 1d100 if you’re voting for this. Add a +25 modifier.)
Both rolls are accounted for, so I'll just vote.

Breath. In. Out. In. Out You close your eyes. Flicking a mental switch, a thousand mummering voices flow into your head.

“water“ “help” “stop trample” “sinking” You cut out all the grasses and saplings who have yet to learn to truly talk. You tune yourself, filtering down to only the fully grown trees.

The wall looms large, muttering hatred. It tries to bear down, a sharp contrast to its former silence. This is what other wall whisperers deal with, a wall th-

No time.

You force yourself to listen to the trees talk.

“I am the face of the future forest. Build a hammer of uprooted wood, flailing around to crush bone and crack carapace”

“I was planted first, and remember. Cultivate an ally to save you, like your kind always does. I will embolden it.”

“I raise my jilted branches to cover the young, yet they shrink away. Run, this forest cannot withstand it.”

“I am the tangle of roots, hidden from sight but peering with frail leaves. Raise a spear when it least expects and drain its lifewater.”

“I am dying, yet in my prime as the tallest of them all. When it draws near, collapse me on it. I will stick it in place.”

Which option do you take? (No need to roll, your 91+25 carries over)
>Hammer
>Ally
>Flee
>Spear
>Trap

>>3147767
Spear.

>>3147767
>>Trap
(I'm cool with Spear too, though, so if you end up with a tie you can go Spear.)

Rolled 22 + 10 (1d100 + 10)

Ten minutes.

“it it coming. i feel it in my roots.” The tangled roots whisper to you as you work. You soften the ground while building a giant spear beneath the earth. The plants around you donate their roots and wood, and many trees sink slightly as you rip chunks off their bodies below the surface.

Eight minutes. Adrenaline floods your system, giving birth to ideas faster than you can grasp.

You shape the spear into a fine point. Roots wrap around it, lending aid. They chisel the tip, refining it to a mono-cellular point. You encase it in iron from deeper in the earth, leached up by friendly roots.

Six minutes.

You hollow it out, leaving only a strong structural frame inside a smooth, hard casing.

“it comes from the north”

Five minutes.

Four minutes.

Three minutes.

You put it in place. A few soldiers have drifted in.

Two minutes.

You mutter under your breath, imbuing the wood with your magic. It grows, wood coiling in to lengthen the shaft. Flowers bloom along the head, leaking dread poison.

“let the world remember one ninety seven”

One minute.

“you run. i’ll face it, it’s a champion’s duty”

Footsteps.

“it’s here.” You don’t who whether the roots or the demon said that. Still, you snap out of your trance, ending the connection.

It’s ugly pallid flesh glistens from torchlight.

“Adv-”

C-CCRACK! The ground explodes.

Ten feet, the demon is impaled.

Twenty feet, the spear keeps rising.

Thirty feet, the spear keeps rising. Blood and poison rain down in a sizzling mix.

Forty feet, The demon’s organ inflates near to the bursting, but all that comes out are the sounds of bells ringing.

Fifty feet. The Enlai snaps out of his shock. Your vision shimmers.

Sixty feet, the forest shakes.

Seventy feet, the demon shakes free, leaving chunks of itself on the spear as it tumbles.

Seventy five. The spear stops growing. Another slender spear buds off, catching the falling demon. It twists around, blocking the spear with a cracked claw. Its lower body convulses, a roar of pink life water splashing out with each pulse.

It turns to you. A vestigial claw, one of its few remaining, jitters before unfolding into a new scythe.

>Run?
>Run.
>Trip it?

Thirty levy swords, quivering in their boots, race towards the crippled beast.

>>3147829
Run.

>>3147829
>Run

>Run.

We probably need to talk a bit with our military after this. Maybe with anyone under us that is important.
Perhaps creating a small council.


The construnction of this part of the wall is vital for the empire, but we need to rule them.

>>3147969
Yeah, we're ahead on the wall so we need to focus on other matters. Hiring a secretary and monitoring peers are high on my list.

You barely make it a dozen feet before squelches and screams echo from behind you.

“it hurts”

You risk a glance back, using your burnt out magic to tap into roots, checking for any tripping hazards this time. Still, the mud leaves you slipping and sliding.

The demon’s scythe tears through flesh and bone with soft pops and near inaudible rips.

They don’t stand a chance. Rangers try to dart in, yet they’re also unused to melee.

That is, until the demon slips. Perhaps skidding on its own blood, or unused to missing a quarter of its body, it slips. A lucky ranger scores a hit, sinking a short sword deep into the demon.

A levy sword takes advantage of this, sinking his dao into the demon’s torso.

A flurry of blows, and the demon looks more like a pincushion than anything else. For a second, combat slows. Held breaths are released.

“two hundred and five will be a year of fire”

It bisects one ranger, before trying to dart out. Flesh rips, limbs are torn and severed as it furiously tries to move with so much metal in its body. It rushes you, moving far faster than it should. Your heart sinks, and your eyes dart around, looking for any escape. You don’t stop running.

The decaying tree. You rush towards it, scythes nicking at your clothes. You burn what’s left of your magic to snag one of the demon’s legs with a root, and sprint to the tree.

The tree groans, before completely collapsing. The sound shakes you, reverberating deep in your stomach. The demon glances upward for a moment, then in the next it’s crushed.

“two hundred and five will be a year of fire”

It is still.

You collapse.

============

Eyes fluttering open, the first thing you see is a doctor sitting down with a book.

“Awake? No real injuries. Just exhaustion and overuse of magic. Small cuts on your back.”

You shudder.

“Ah, where am I?”

“Minzhu. The Protectorate General wants to talk to you. Now.” He helps you up. You’re carted through several halls, until you find yourself in a private conference room. Bu Royora is seated, while Enlai lounges next to a vacant seat.

“There’s no need to bore you by asking for details. I must applaud your fast magic, though. Enlai gave me the details.” He straightens in his seat. “Still, you may have indirectly saved me, even if I didn’t know it.” He glares at Enlai. You wonder if he told the full truth. “The Inquisitor’s death is tragic, even if he did lapse in his duty. You mentioned the letters were trying to get information on me?”

“Yes. They wanted to know when you slept, and for me to convince you to make yourself vulnerable.” Royora shakes his head.

“Bad stuff. Not very important, either. I’d like to thank you more concretely.”

What did he give you?
>Land. Real woodlands that, although won’t cover your imports, ensure you’ll never run out of lumber.
>The title of Marquis, entitling you to a stipend of 20 Marks/turn, as well as preferential trade.

>>3148210
>Marquis; $ and preferential trade

More woodland isn't going to help us against demons. Need the dosh for competent soldiers, more developed wall commune

>>3148210
Land please.

>The title of Marquis, entitling you to a stipend of 20 Marks/turn, as well as preferential trade.
We need a secretary to take advantage of this, though.

Results:
10 Levy Swords dead.
10 Rangers dead.
Inquisitor dead.

Demon slain! If you had more time, you’d be able to leverage this to the court and the people of Minzhu.

Relations Changes:
The Chuanwei Emperor: A demon? What of it?
Protectorate General Bu Royora: Thanks, dude.
Franz Kobalaya: Maybe next time?
Sub-prefect of Works Shouleng Mao: Don’t screw up again.
Yi Enlai: That was terrifying. Thanks for the support.
Lung Cambrai: Sorry if I was a bit harsh. Keep doing your fucking job, though!

just thought i'd post the battle's results before moving on to the next turn.

Turn 6, AKA June, 204 A.I.
Life has gone back to normal. Well, as normal as it can be. The dwarven warband has been sighted as far north as Lantang and as far south as Uruqin, which is actually only a few dozen miles away. Most interpret this as another warband moving in, but who knows?

Soldiers haven’t arrived yet to fill in the gaps left by the demon. The court is slow to replenish you, too, and instead sends men further north. Supposedly, dwarven warbands were once a sign of incoming invasions.

You’ve been thanked a lot for stopping the demon. Franz shook your hand, Cambrai had the decency to be a bit apologetic about the whole reporting everything to the court thing.

That doesn’t stop Enlai from continuing to carve up massive chunks of your ore reserves! He even lied about who you consulted with about the letters, to evade blame for not reporting to the Protectorate General.

Dead men tell no tales, you guess.

Now, on to-

“Sir? Thank you for protecting us.” It’s a soldier from the garrison?

“Eh? No problem. Thanks for… standing in the way?” He laughs.

**The Jianshu Branch of the Living Wood Wall, in the Grand Protectorate of the Northwest**
Leaders: You (Grant +25 to projects involving wood magic)
Resources: Lumber (1 turns of wall building), Travel Fruit, Small iron deposit (15 turns), small copper deposit (15 turns) small coal deposit (15 turns).
Food supply: 3 Units of food, net change: 0 units/turn (1.6 eaten, 1.1 bought, 0.5 scavenged)
Landmarks: Manicured road, small village (yay), hidden road, giant spear.
Population: 1100 Drafted Workers: 1000 working on wall (+10 feet per dice point above the DC), 100 mining (+35 Marks/turn), 500 garrison soldiers (they immediately filled vacancies).
Happiness: 70% (Demon slain! Extra foot of wall per dice point if you build this turn)
Income: 380 Marks/turn
Expenses: 280 Marks/turn
Reserves: 1367 Marks
Military: 15 Elven Rangers:
Minzhu’s garrison: 250 Elven Imperial City Guards 490 Elven Levy swords 500 Elven Veteran Skirmishers 250 Elven Spellswords 500 Blue Standard Archers

**Wall Length: 2409 Feet**
**Deadline: 2700 Feet by the end of the month**

oh god this is a three part update

Now then, what do you do this month?

>Aid wall building. +5 bonus to wall building, if you direct the settlement to do that.

>Calling all Wood Warlocks: Put out feelers for wood warlocks. Of course, they’re all VERY expensive. Gain 0-2 warlocks based on rolls, each gouging you for 50 marks/month. Every warlock received boosts your wall building by +3.

>Play secretary on the boss tonight: nothing dirty, you’d just like someone to organize stuff for you. Gain ANOTHER personal relationship, Gain someone to help you organize your work, do business, including trade and investment, interact with court, reach out to contacts. Will need to pay a salary of 5 Marks. Unlocks more actions.

>Monitor your new peers: Your two 'friends', your guard captain and the garrison commander, are here to keep tabs on you and mooch off you, respectively. Uh, they might both be doing those two things. Make sure they’re not up to something!

>Why are you running (there in particular): Why does your cordoned road exist? It’s obvious the builders knew there was something important enough to build a road to reach.

>Tower? Tower.: Turn the giant fuckoff spear you raised into a tower, which serves as both landmark and watch tower. Minzhu is even interested in paying you if you turn it into a semaphore.

>Recruit soldiers: You’ve realized the city guard can’t always help. Every minute counts in an emergency. Based on dice roll, get your pick of soldiers around the region.

>Nae Nae on the Demons: Being a demon slayer makes you more popular in the region. Talking to certain powerful people (i.e. nobles who like this junk, merchants who benefit from demon hysteria, guard captains and aspiring champions) could help you leverage this reputation. You’re thinking a tour through Uruqin,

**What does the settlement do?**
>Build Wall, this is a no brainer. DC of 50 continue. As before, getting exactly 50 nets you 200 feet, every point above that on your dice earns 10 feet.

>Continue exploitation! There’s still a lot of nice stuff on your land grant. Either in the rare chaparral-only vegetation, or minerals under the surface, nice stuff lies just below the surface. Guaranteed do$h by selling rare vegetation, high chance of finding more metal to extract.

>the forbidden fruit: Travel Fruit is technically a public good. Anyone can pluck the juicy, nutritious fruits that grow alongside the manicured roads of the Elven Empire. Of course, the army has first right to pick them, and nowadays it’s very offensive if you pick them without extensively checking if an army is coming… Let's pick them anyway! (Get 2-8 Units of food, has a low chance of failing DC 10, but oh man can it fail)

>Bizarre Bazaar: Although you’re only here ‘temporarily’, that still means you’re here for perhaps a decade… You’ve noticed merchants peddling wares with your workers. A central market would mean a new source of cash. Builds market, adds 25 Marks/turn in tax.

>>3148361
Build tower.
Build more wall.

Free Actions (Optional)
>change amount of food bought/turn. Costs 10 marks/unit. You’re buying 1.1 units. Can buy as much as 10 units/turn. Franz offers food at 12 marks/turn, but at no limit. If you switch fully to him, you gain another +.1 to wall building. (yea i buffed his food so what)

>hire more workers: You know some destitute workers who you could easily higher. Can hire as many as 300 workers.

>Talk to someone: Can talk to Protectorate General Bu Royora (Ha! Being a marquis rocks), Garrison commander Yi Enlai, your guard captain Lung Cambrai, or **shudder** your boss, Sub-prefect of Works Shouleng Mao.

how did this happen
i'm a bit worried about all the stats. It would be a pretty daunting and obscenely dry block of text to post everything that gets updated.
I was thinking of a google doc that would have a more in depth view, and shorten the summary further. What do you guys think?

>>3148366
Any thing that makes it easier. I hear that quests in general are lots of work.

>Tower? Tower.: Turn the giant fuckoff spear you raised into a tower, which serves as both landmark and watch tower. Minzhu is even interested in paying you if you turn it into a semaphore.
>Build Wall, this is a no brainer. DC of 50 continue. As before, getting exactly 50 nets you 200 feet, every point above that on your dice earns 10 feet.

Man, I want a publicity tour, I want a secretary, I want to know about the road, I want to monitor our peers... but making a giant awesome tower outweighs that all.
I also want a market and exploitation, but we have that wall bonus and all. Choices, choices.

>>3148366
Google doc or pastebin (people usually do pastebin for whatever reason) should be fine. Just include any important things to know in the post because people may or may not click on outside links.

Rolled 49, 33, 72, 5, 21, 88 = 268 (6d100)

Calling vote now
Thanks for the feedback! I'll look into pastebin.
I should've mentioned, but both actions get a +25 since they're both wood magic.

Rolled 78, 4 = 82 (2d100)

>>3148398
So 2d100? I think the 25 will have to be added manually.

72+25=97
The spear hasn’t eroded. It juts out of the ground aggressively. The trees nearby greet you when you open your sight.

They’re rather pleased with you, too. Even the tree that collapsed on the demon greets you when you open your senses, even if it’s sluggish and probably going to die.

You give it a once over. It’s pretty hard to make roots grow where it shouldn’t but it’s still nothing for a master. It’s a little bit like a mini-Wood Wall, with roots sunk into the ground and basic sentience with a dash of magic. It lives!

Huh, that’s a good idea, actually…

Regardless, you modify the spear the best you can. That of course means doubling the height and width. You can comfortably lay down there now, and the thing is actually alive, albeit in a lump of animated flesh way.

Over the course of the month, your dream tower takes form. What does it do, anyway?
Pick 2 options:
>Watch Tower: You’ve been caught unaware by a lot of stuff recently. Zeanne’s caravan, the demon, the Inquisitor (kinda)... If you made a watchtower, you’d probably get a panic action whenever something approaches. Make it both taller and wider.
>Landmark: Some trees actually dwarf the spear. If you made it really, really tall, you’d be able to prevent people nearby from getting lost, and be the first thing anyone sees when they enter the surrounding area. The Landmark forces me to roll a dice checking who pops by to visit your little village every turn. These visitors can be good or bad, but be mindful that most baddies would think twice before visiting a fuck-off spear.
>Semaphore: Minzhu would like it if you alerted them of large threats. It would mean installing a bunch of junk… Minzhu wants to build a semaphore network to nearby towns, and you’d make a good starting point. +20 Marks/turn stipend, If any large (spatially) threats pop by, Minzhu would spot it, and send soldiers preemptively. Note: would only spot large warbands.
>Deep mine: You could program the tower to send roots deep, deep underground and slowly leach metals. Of course, without you to painstakingly turn the leached metal from a weird organic compound into elemental form, it’s still ore. +20 Marks/turn, and doesn’t run out, ever.

======

88+25=113. 113-50=63, 63*11= 693. 200+693=893 feet of wall gained.
893+2409=3302 feet of wall.

You’re a bit surprised at how hard everyone worked. It was a lot of back slapping and congrats about killing a demon. You expected a reward or something, but this is nice.

Still, your eyes boggle at the end. As far as the empire knows, you built 1100 feet of wall in a month.
>Report more wall than the deadline: Given a deadline of 2700, indicate how much to report. May result in a reward if you report a lot over 2700.
>Report just the deadline: You’ll basically have a month free to yourself if you wish, you’re that far over the quota.

>>3148404
I usually roll in the post where I call the vote. It's a 6d100 because I like to do best out of three. I also add the modifier myself.
Thanks though.

>>3148410
Deep mine: You could program the tower to send roots deep, deep underground and slowly leach metals. Of course, without you to painstakingly turn the leached metal from a weird organic compound into elemental form, it’s still ore. +20 Marks/turn, and doesn’t run out, ever.
>Watch Tower.
Report just the deadline: You’ll basically have a month free to yourself if you wish, you’re that far over the quota.

>>3148410
>Landmark
>Semaphore
It's good to make friends. And money. And the QM roll more dice.

>Report just the deadline
Because damn do we need some time to sit down and focus on other things. We can claim rewards once we're done with getting infrastructure up.

>>3148413
I guess we're going to have to fight to the death now.
Consider, though: Semaphore gets us the same 20 marks/turn (less reliably, I'll admit) plus a watered-down watchtower and a relationship boost with Minzhu.

Aha... I think I'll actually call it a night. Thanks everyone for sticking with it another day!
I'd rather not break another tie without giving more time for others to weigh in.

>>3148432
Have a good night!

>>3148416
Another option is mine + semaphore. For extra money.

>>3147179
How have you managed to happen over this God-forsaken place? Where do you come from? Genuinely interested.

>>3148410
>Semaphore
>Report 2900

>>3148410
Hey i just caught up. Whats the full situation with the mine. Would it be realisitc to spend 900 of our marks on 10000 workers and put 8000 of them in the mine for 2800 a turn till we run out of ore

>>3148410
>>3148786

Also report just the de cost dline and semaphore.

>>3148700
You get two, bud.
>>3148788
As do you.
>>3148786
We're basically in the backcountry to build up this big wall made of living wood, so diverting so much manpower to totally different activities would probably raise our superiors' eyebrows. We'd want to start much smaller scale.

>>3148835
Well still we can get the 10k workers and put 3000 on mining 7000 on wall amd still recoup our costs with 1050 a turn

>>3148835
Whoops

>Semaphore
>Deep Mine

You divide the tower into two levels, widening it such that you can fit all the sensitive semaphore equipment. On the top, you fireproof the tower and shape it to optimize smoke flow. On the bottom, you set up basins for various metal sludges.

+40 marks/turn total
If large warbands come near Minzhu, soldiers from the city will be alerted.

What do you name the tower?
>name?

=======

You spend a few days relaxing after sending the report. All over, your workers are taking a break from a hard month. Some have spent their wages on alcohol already, while others rush to the city, carrying crude letters or envelopes full of money for their families. The rain has ended, and summer announces itself. The sun hangs high in the sky.

Then, a letter arrives.

“To the Esteemed Warlock Ignatius” Huh, this is a new one.

“I am writing you with unofficial business. As you no doubt have heard, the Prefect of Works has died. That was a joke. You wouldn’t know if he was dead, you’ve never even met him.” ...Who the hell is writing this?

“However, that makes his position vacant. I would like his position. Now, you wonder what that has to do with you. It has become evident, to my disquietude, that you have become the principal part of my responsibilities. Your good guard captain has written his own reports to me on how you ‘underestimate’ your wall’s length. He is a good man, but perhaps too strict.” That was probably inevitable. You didn’t so much smell a rat as feed it and have to talk to it every week.

“I have taken the liberty of making these reports disappear. Honestly, I don’t care so long as there are no problems. I do, however, have a proposal. If I were to report a significant increase, of say a thousand feet of wall, to the Imperial Court next month, that may cement my ascension. You would continue to receive my protection against your rogue captain, and grant you more funds or perhaps administrative staff.”

“I hope to hear your response soon.
Sub-prefect of Works Shouleng Mao”

Maybe it was inevitable someone would notice you pretending entire sections of your wall didn’t exist.

>Agree: You must have 3700 feet of wall by next month. Gain a larger stipend and a ‘secretary’. Your guard captain can no longer snitch on you. The court will expect more of you (deadline increments by 600)
>Decline: Lose the option to under-report wall length

Results:
Wall length now 3302 feet. Deadline 3200 feet by end of next month.
Finance changes:
Income: 420 Marks/turn
+325 stipend
+35 mining
+20 noble stipend
+20 Semaphore
+20 Deep Mine
Expenses: 320 marks/turn
-99 Wages
-11 Food (1.1 unit for 10 Marks)
-90 Camp Maintenance
-120 Materials and Logging Rights
Reserves: 1466 Marks
Resource changes: Ran out of lumber!!!!
Resources: Travel Fruit, Small iron deposit (10 turns), small copper deposit (10 turns) small coal deposit (10 turns).
Updated Landmarks: Manicured road, Small village, Hidden road, Unnamed Tower

>>3149476
Agree.

Name? Root spire?

>>3148786
You could definitely put more men in the mines, but the current projections (10 turns until the ore runs out) accounts for only 100 workers. If you put 200 people at work, you'd have 5 turns on each. Meanwhile, your guests keep mining on your ore deposits, too.

>>3148624
I've done a couple quests here before. Before that, I mostly just participated in them at other sites. If you've been to Sufficient Velocity, one quest, Path of Civilizations, is what really hooked me on civ quests, even though it's a completely different format. It's a several hundred thousand word epic that's actually completed, although its sequel is stalling.

>>3149476
>Devilsbane

>Agree
Declining will net us a similar downside with no upsides.

Also, we need to get lumber somehow.

>>3149501
Apologies for the trip.

I'd like to clarify the decision so it doesn't seem so railroad-y: 'secretary' doesn't specifically mean a secretary on your side, and losing the ability to lie about your wall length isn't permanent. It is a free action to talk to anyone in your camp, after all.

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>3149491
>>3149501
Calling vote, and rolling for name

Turn 7, AKA July, 204 A.I
You get a few other letters confirming what your promise. He says he'll get you your goods after you get him his report.

Today, however, you're in your tower.

You sometimes talk to the trees to pass the time. They ask you where the demon’s corpse went.

…

Good question. You never sent anyone to move it. There aren’t any markings where the demon decomposed, and none of the trees remember digesting it.

… Shi-

ALERT.

ALERT.

ALERT.

A nearby semaphore tower is shining at you. It puffs out smoke in a code, which you grab a piece of parchment to deciper.
D W A R F (stop) B A N D (stop) C O N F R O N T (stop) U R U Q I N (full stop) G O (stop) (south) (full stop) 500 E L I T E

Shiiiit. You signal the next tower. Over the course of the day, soldiers mill around, but it’s evident the warband was moving elsewhere.

**The Jianshu Branch of the Living Wood Wall, in the Grand Protectorate of the Northwest**
Leaders: You (Grant +25 to projects involving wood magic)
Resources: Travel Fruit, Small iron deposit (10 turns), small copper deposit (10 turns) small coal deposit (10 turns).
Food supply: 3 Units of food, net change: 0 units/turn (1.6 eaten, 1.1 bought, 0.5 scavenged)
Landmarks: Manicured road, small village (yay), hidden road, Devilsbane Tower.
Population: 1100 Drafted Workers: 1000 working on wall (+10 feet per dice point above the DC), 100 mining (+35 Marks/turn), 500 garrison soldiers (they immediately filled vacancies).
Happiness: 60%
Income: 420 Marks/turn
Expenses: 320 Marks/turn
Reserves: 1467 Marks
Military: 15 Elven Rangers:
Minzhu’s garrison: 250 Elven Imperial City Guards 490 Elven Levy swords 500 Elven Veteran Skirmishers 250 Elven Spellswords 500 Blue Standard Archers

**Wall Length: 3309 Feet**
**Deadline: 3200 Feet by the end of the month**

Now then, what do you do this month?

>Aid wall building. +5 bonus to wall building.

>Calling all Wood Warlocks: Put out feelers for warlock help. Of course, they’re VERY expensive. Gain 0-2 warlocks based on rolls, each gouging you for 50 marks/month. Every warlock received boosts your wall building by +3.

>Monitor your new peers: Your two new acquaintances, your old guard captain and the garrison commander, are here to keep tabs on you and mooch off you. Make sure they’re not up to something!

>Why are you running (there in particular): Why does your cordoned road exist? It’s obvious the builders knew there was something important enough to build a road to reach.

>Recruit soldiers: You’ve realized the city guard can’t always help. Every minute counts in an emergency.

>Demon Consultation: Spend time talking to people knowledgeable on demons, as well as giving consultations and talks about what a demon might do. Too late for a tour, but you can still leverage your fame a little.

>Master Wood Warlock 4 Hire: Perform difficult wood magic tasks for people. Based on dice roll, gain silver marks by working.

**What does the settlement do?**
>Build Wall, this is a no brainer. DC of 50 continue. As before, getting exactly 50 nets you 200 feet, every point above that on your dice earns 10 feet.

>Continue exploitation! There’s still a lot of nice stuff on your land grant. Either in the rare chaparral-only vegetation, or minerals under the surface, nice stuff lies just below the surface. Guaranteed do$h by selling rare vegetation, high chance of finding more metal to extract.

>the forbidden fruit: Travel Fruit is technically a public good. Anyone can pluck the juicy, nutritious fruits that grow alongside the manicured roads of the Elven Empire. Of course, the army has first right to pick them, and nowadays it’s very offensive if you pick them without extensively checking if an army is coming… Let's pick them anyway! (Get 2-8 Units of food, has a low chance of failing, but oh man can it fail)

>Bizarre Bazaar: Although you’re only here ‘temporarily’, that still means you’re here for perhaps a decade… You’ve noticed merchants peddling wares with your workers. A central market would mean a new source of cash. Builds market, adds 25 Marks/turn in tax.

Free Actions (Optional, take as many as needed)
>change amount of food bought/turn. Costs 10 marks/unit. You’re buying 1.1 units. Can buy as much as 10 units/turn. Franz offers food at 12 marks/turn, but at no limit. If you switch fully to him, you gain another +.1 to wall building. (yea i buffed his food so what)

>hire more workers: You know some destitute workers who you could easily higher. Can hire as many as 300 workers. Each worker adds 0.01 feet of wall per dice point above DC.

>Talk to someone: Can talk to Protectorate General Bu Royora, Garrison commander Yi Enlai, your guard captain Lung Cambrai, or Sub-prefect of Works Shouleng Mao. Specify what to talk about.

>Change workload: You have 1100 workers. Select how many build the wall, and how many mine.

>>3149591
Demon consultation.
>>3149601
Build wall,duh.

Rolled 10, 93, 82, 17, 91, 25 = 318 (6d100)

Calling vote, and rolling for actions.

“And it wrote letters to you, and when you fought it, it referenced those letters?” Deputy Supervisor Kail of an academy further in the empire’s core lands, strokes his chin. “If it was as easy to kill as you say,” He cuts off your squawk of outrage with a wave of his hand. “ And believe me, I am awed at your capability to kill something normally reserved for elite kill teams, it couldn’t have been sentient.”

You stare blankly.

“Most aren’t sentient. It is believed all, or nearly all, sentient demons were killed by human champions or elven elites over the past two centuries. Still, that meant it was likely teamed with a vampire.” He shakes his head. “Bad news, but I’m sure if you could kill a demon, then the vampire won’t be too hard.” You nod, satisfied that it’s not going to come back to life to drink your soul.

“What type of demon was it, do you think?” You’ve got something else to ask...

“As far as we know, they’re simply called Friends. It looked like a crab, with purple-pink blood, yes?” You nod. “They’re known for having remarkable diversity. Yours had an artificial voice organ, a common feature. They’re able to fake sentience by repeating certain phrases they’ve heard before, usually from victims. That’s why you shouldn’t take much stock in its prediction.”

“So, they’re rather strong...?” Kail sighes.

“There is a large bounty." You don’t stay much longer than that. You’ve got another appointment.

You slip through the academy, before finding the main library. You wait there for a few minutes, before a quivering noble finds you. You take the initiative to greet him.

“Ah, Lord Ebos, I presume?” He nods, hopeful. “I’ve read your description, but I want to corroborate if it really is a demon you’re hearing. You see, I was just lecturing my good friend Deputy Supervisor Kail about my encounter with a demon some know as a Friend...”

Your tour goes well, and you find many sympathetic voices. What gift shone above all else?
>Quicksilver Beam: Made of a spring steel alloy and copious magic, the sword’s shining point is the mercury based toxins that grant intense, accelerated mercury poisoning. Not very good against vampires, but cripples anything living. +15 melee, grants horrendous poisoning to enemies.
>Men: The court somehow was alerted feat, and allowed an elite team of men to join you, provided you pay them. May hire up to 2 Imperial Gas Units (+15 mor, -20 mel, +60 ran, -5 mob, -15 def. Inflicts horrendous poison in addition to initial damage. Bypasses magic and poison resistance. Artificial crits = full crits. Dark elf special unit) Costs 20 Marks/turn for each unit hired.
>Connections: You were pretty blind to it, and are still nearsighted, but you realize there’s a VAST amount of connections and friends you could leverage in court. When you unlock Imperial Grace (court influence) with your secretary passively gain 1/turn.

Oh, uh, your wall building goes well
91+25=116. 116-50=66. 66*10=660. 660+200=860 feet of wall built. 860+3309=4169 feet of wall.

Shouleng Mao was pretty happy, He’s Prefect now, and rather happy.

Your new secretary is a little rude, though. Lin Rasit is a former peasant turned mathematical genius, yet it’s clear she’s not going to cooperate unless you’re playing into the prefect’s hands.

Results:
Finances:
Income: 470 Marks/turn
+375 stipend
+35 mining
+20 noble stipend
+20 Semaphore
+20 Deep Mine
Expenses: 320 marks/turn
-99 Wages
-11 Food (1.1 unit for 10 Marks)
-90 Camp Maintenance
-120 Logging rights and imported material
Reserves: 1816 Marks (200 marks from consultations)
Finance actions unlocked
*Certain* Court interactions unlocked
Imperial Grace unlocked: starts at 20 Grace Boy Points (GBP), (+10 for good wall progress, +10 touring)
Wall Length: 4169 Feet
Deadline: 3800 Feet by the end of the month (Increment by 600)

>>3149821
>connections.

Woot I around to vote for once

Turn 8, AKA August 204 A.I.
More news flows south. Two dwarven warbands have been confirmed. One is around your area, right outside Minzhu’s semaphore network. The other?

Pillaging the north. Lantang’s fields are burning, and thousands of refugees flee south. Such is life on the frontier. Well, furthest reaches of the frontier.

Food prices are going to rise again, as opportunistic merchants prey on food shortages up north.

Still, if you felt like hiring more men next month, cheap refugee labor pads the numbers now.

Food supply shrinks, you may not buy more than 5 food/turn.

Amount of people you may hire as a free action increases to 1000.

**The Jianshu Branch of the Living Wood Wall, in the Grand Protectorate of the Northwest**
Leaders: You (Grant +25 to projects involving wood magic)
Resources: Travel Fruit, Small iron deposit (5 turns), small copper deposit (5 turns) small coal deposit (5 turns).
Food supply: 3 Units of food, net change: 0 units/turn (1.6 eaten, 1.1 bought, 0.5 scavenged)
Landmarks: Manicured road, small village (yay), hidden road, Devilsbane Tower.
Population: 1100 Drafted Workers: 1000 working on wall (+10 feet per dice point above the DC), 100 mining (+35 Marks/turn), 500 garrison soldiers (they immediately filled vacancies).
Happiness: 60%
Income: 470 Marks/turn
Expenses: 320 Marks/turn
Reserves: 1817 Marks (screwed up change log, this is correct)
Imperial Grace: 21 GBP (+1/turn)
Military: 15 Elven Rangers:
Minzhu’s garrison: 250 Elven Imperial City Guards 490 Elven Levy swords 500 Elven Veteran Skirmishers 250 Elven Spellswords 500 Blue Standard Archers

**Wall Length: 4169 Feet**
**Deadline: 3800 Feet by the end of the month**

Now then, what do you do this month?

>Aid wall building. +5 bonus to wall building, if you direct the settlement to do that.

>Calling all Wood Warlocks: Put out feelers for warlock help. Of course, they’re VERY expensive. Gain 0-2 warlocks based on rolls, each gouging you for 50 marks/month. Every warlock received boosts your wall building by +3.

>Monitor your new peers: Your two new acquaintances, your old guard captain and the garrison commander, are here to keep tabs on you and mooch off you, respectively. Uh, actually, they might both be doing those two things. Make sure they’re not up to something!

>Why are you running (there in particular): Why does your cordoned road exist? It’s obvious the builders knew there was something important enough to build a road to reach.

>Recruit soldiers: You’ve realized the city guard can’t always help. Every minute counts in an emergency. Based on dice roll, get your pick of soldiers around the region.

>Master Wood Warlock 4 Hire: Perform difficult wood magic tasks for people. Everybody has a garden, or fields to oversee, or rare alchemical ingredients to grow, or… Based on dice roll, gain silver marks by working.

(personal actions to be continued)

>Benevolent Embezzlement: You never thought you’d say those words. All those Marks technically belong to the project, but maybe if you invest those you’d get more money on the project. Not like you’re hurting for money. (If chosen, pick an investment from a list, roll best out of ONE.)

>Rent-a-worker: You know, as long as you make sure they’ve got no complaints, you don’t need to have your people working on the wall, or even on your worksite. Rent away workers in increments of 100, 20 Marks per 100 workers rented out per turn. Risk of them being injured or worse.

>Caravaneering: Right now, vast amounts of Marks are being spent and earned from trade. Given a small investment in goods, you can reap the rewards of trade, too. Opens another list of trade targets, decide on how much money to invest (Minimum 200 Marks)

**What does the settlement do?**
>Build Wall, this is a no brainer. DC of 50 continue. As before, getting exactly 50 nets you 200 feet, every point above that on your dice earns 10 feet.

>Continue exploitation! There’s still a lot of nice stuff on your land grant. Either in the rare chaparral-only vegetation, or minerals under the surface, nice stuff lies just below the surface. Guaranteed do$h by selling rare vegetation, high chance of finding more metal to extract.

>the forbidden fruit: Travel Fruit is technically a public good. Anyone can pluck the juicy, nutritious fruits that grow alongside the manicured roads of the Elven Empire. Of course, the army has first right to pick them, and nowadays it’s very offensive if you pick them without extensively checking if an army is coming… Let's pick them anyway! (Get 2-8 Units of food, has a low chance of failing, but oh man can it fail)

>Bizarre Bazaar: Although you’re only here ‘temporarily’, that still means you’re here for perhaps a decade… You’ve noticed merchants peddling wares with your workers. A central market would mean a new source of cash. Builds market, adds 25 Marks/turn in tax.

Free Actions (Optional, take as many as needed)
>change amount of food bought/turn. Costs 10 marks/unit. You’re buying 1.1 units. Can buy as much as 5 units/turn. Franz offers food at 12 marks/turn, but at no limit. If you switch fully to him, you gain another +.1 feet per point above DC to wall building.

>hire more workers: You know some destitute workers who you could easily higher. Can hire as many as 1000 workers. Each worker adds 0.01 feet of wall per dice point above DC.

>Talk to someone: Can talk to Protectorate General Bu Royora, Garrison commander Yi Enlai, your guard captain Lung Cambrai, or Sub-prefect of Works Shouleng Mao. Specify what to talk about.

>Change workload: You have 1100 workers. Select how many build the wall, and how many mine.

Grace actions come in the results phase, when writing your report.

>>3150152
Monitor your peers.
>>3150155
The forbidden fruit.

>>3150152
Why are you running, or soldiers. Things are getting hairy in our neck of the woods.

>>3150155
Exploit for profit, will need resources/capital for soldiers or whatever is at the end of the fruit rainbow.

Hire 200 more miners

>>3150152
> Hire 1000 600 miners 400 wall.
> recruit soldiers
>build wall

With any luck we will have enough to expore next turn for a new resource to exploit

Rolled 77 (1d100)

I think I'll do the midturn thing I usually do now, and wait for a tie breaker.

ALERT.

ALERT.

ALERT.

D W A R F (stop) W A R B A N D (stop) (incoming) (from north) (full stop)

Semaphores light up, shooting smoke signals that quickly coruscate to Minzhu.

They’re finally approaching. You’re not sure how they’ve survived so long, especially when-

U P D A T E (stop) 500 (now) 1000 (full stop)

...How did they gain more men?

Soldiers rush through your fief, tearing northward. Bu Royora send a dispatch, asking you to come along and advise him, along with the garrison commander.

Every war-ready unit in the city is going.

Do you go?
>Yes (see what happens firsthand)
>No (let the chips fall as they may, stay out of this nonsense)

>Monitor peers
I think we missed our chance for soldiers.
>Build wall
>Yes

>>3150456
Yes
Lets see if we are any decent as a commander

>>3150456
Go look.
>>3150461
I can switch fruit to wall. Support.

File: not stolen either.png (7 KB, 640x426)

7 KB PNG

“Stop! Stop!” Forces from the city are arrayed in what paltry woods can cover them. Spell-swords, Blue Standard Archers, and Veteran Skirmishers stand behind unorganized ranks of levy swords. For a moment, things look grim. Last time, there were 500 elites. If they suddenly had a thousand…?

Then, tall, dark figures blossom over the horizon. Elves. Untrained ones. What the-

“Stop! Stop!” Bu Royora shouts down some twitchy Blue Standardmen.

“Indeed, stop!” A deep, yet obviously young, voice shouts from the opposing side.

Tension. Suddenly, everyone is on guard. The enemy commander must be moving to the front.

In fact, a short, metal-clad dwarf does muscle his way past the elves. Odd banners rise behind him, as more soldiers pour into the field. He opens his mo-

“Prisoners?!” Royora’s face hardens. “This will not go unavenged!”

“No! No! Stop, please!” The enemy commander shouts down Royora’s order to ready arrows. “They joined me of their own accord! Please, I wish to petition your Court!”

Royora’s face scrunches in confusion. He looks to you, mouthing if you’ve got any spells woven into the battlefield. You nod. It’s not too hard, when you had nearly half an hour.

“Speak quickly, Dwarf.” Royora rides to the front.

“We are rebe- No, we are revolutionaries! Fleeing the Dwarf Holds in the west!” Some men shift, confused. “We seek to fight the unjust order!” You blink. No dwarf…

“I don’t believe you.”

“Speak to these elves, speak of the warband pursuing us in the North, in the city you call Lantang!”

“They are your people.”

“They are no people of ours. They set themselves above us, like that damned City!” Cheers rise from his ranks. Royora mutters to himself.

“Send hostages, your best soldiers, unarmed. Come to my side, alone and unarmed. We will verify your claims.”

“No. no hostages. I will meet you in the center, my officers with yours. I may have ideals, but I am no fool.”

“This is the battle’s fulcrum. Where everything gets decided.” Yi Enlai, who stands next to you, mutters to anyone and no one in particular.

Who spoke first?
>You (risky, insubordinate?)
>Enlai (wild card?)
>Royora (wary)
>The dwarf (conciliatory)
>An arrow (fight!)

Locking with monitor peers and wall building. Right?

>>3150487
>you
> lets let them prove themselves by building a wall! Totally realistic plan.
> realistically enlai

Yeah switch to moitor peers from recruit soldiers
Still want to hire the full 1000

... I may have forgotten to prompt you guys for something to say if you chose to speak
Advocate for peace? Spring your trap?

>>3150494
>>3150491

My vote is for advocate for peace... if they build our wall.

Rolled 9 + 20 (1d100 + 20)

“Give them the chance, they might have something useful to offer!” You speak first, thinking mostly of the elven levies they have.

Then, you have an idea.

“Let the wall prove their innocence!”

“... The wall?” Royora looks upwards, pondering your words. “That may work.” He looks at the dwarf. “How does that sound? You surely know, by how you passed it, that we don’t control it any longer. It is a fair arbiter.”

“... It will do. I will go with some men. Armed. The rest of my forces will stay close.”

======

“Here, add wood to it.” You pass wooden planks and logs to the soldiers.

“Huh? Is this part of the ceremony?” The dwarf looks at you, appraising your words.

“No. I just need to get this thing built…” His gaze sours. He mutters something unkind in a language you can’t understand.

The soldiers go to add logs to the wall…

(1d100+20(???))

>>3150510
Do we roll?

I love our candidness.
Nah dude we just gotta build the fuckin thing .

Rolled 54 + 20 (1d100 + 20)

>>3150513
>>3150510

Rolled 11 + 20 (1d100 + 20)

>>3150510
Oh dear.

The wall scythes out, sending angry, black splinters. Dozens are impaled instantly. The dwarf leader looks on in surprise.

“Stop! We truly want aid!”

“Well, that’s one way to decide it.” Soldiers try to rush to the wall and save their leader, but you know your beast. It’s far stronger than what you could add to it: you simply extended the brutal, vast magical framework.

Dozens of hardened soldiers: Silvercity crossbowmen, Dwarven axe warriors, and City Guard die to the wall. Roots spring up, tearing through warm corpses.

“Archers! Loose!” Royora… Roars. Arrows spring forth, planting themselves precisely in chinks of armor. Dozens fall again.

Then another volley comes. Dozens fall again. The wall scythes, cutting scores of men even shorter.

By the end, perhaps a hundred men die before the dwarves can rally. Their leader is dead. The enemy’s elves try to flee, but are hemmed in by levy swords until they surrender.

Four hundred mostly disorganized dwarves stand, with wild eyes. They break, fleeing into the chaparral. Royora has his men pursue them.

What do?
>Help mop up the enemy (looks like i need to redo this entire combat system, roll 1d100+25, best of two)
>capture the elves! (roll 1d100 for elf POWs)
>eh just go home (none of your business)
>Is the wall ok? (Investigate the wall. Why did it lash out? Roll 1d100+25, but the DC is 90)

Sorry guys! Shouldn't have written the dice thing at the bottom. No rolls, was writing.

>>3150524
Capture the elves.

File: shitty combat shortcuts.png (17 KB, 893x112)

17 KB PNG

Rolled 85 (1d100)

>>3150561
I'll call it, roll, write another update, and probably call it tonight. Thanks everyone for trucking through another day!
By the way, here's a picture of the rolls for the fighting. Yea, system needs work.

The elves are easy to grab. Most are unarmed, terrified, and think you lured the dwarves to their deaths.

You capture three hundred of the roughly five hundred strong unit before Royora returns, bloodied but victorious. He’s not too pleased by the bloodshed, but thankful the wall made it lighter.

“Was that you?” Enlai has his levy swords capture some of the enemy, too.

“... No. I don’t know why the wall did that. They must have been lying, somehow?”

“And the wall’s that big a force for good?” He gives you a flat look. “No offence, but doesn’t it sometimes eat sorcerers? Randomly, too?”

“Yea…”

What do you do with the prisoners?
>Clap irons over their hands, put them to work! (Costs ALL of your imperial grace to not get immediately fired for enslaving a fellow True Elf. Will cause problems)
>Turn them over to Minzhu: (Pleases Royora)
>Imprison them yourself!: (Increases food consumption, reduces happiness, but you get the chance to further interact with these curious… traitors?)

See you guys tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

>>3150575
Turn them over to minzhu.

>>3150575
>Turn them over to Minzhu.
The Somebody Else's Problem is strong with these bandits.

>>3150575
>turn them over to minzhu

Rolled , , , , , = 0 (6d00)

Sorry for the delay today. Going to roll now for your two turn actions

======

A line of dwarves and elves saunter into Minzhu. The people look a little uncertain, but relieved. You don’t stick around much longer. Royora gives you some platitudes, but you can tell that’s just because he’s too busy right now.

He offers to let you interrogate the prisoners if you want. Just, don’t wait too long.

Rolled 44, 74, 98, 33, 91, 30 = 370 (6d100)

well that didn't work

Enlai and Cambrai aren’t close to each other, despite their similar names. Your guard captain mostly makes sure everything is in order when he’s not writing reports. It seems his weird propensity to follow the rules extends to your resources too: He hasn’t touched any of them.

Enlai, meanwhile isn’t shy about stealing your resources. He shrugs and has the decency to look a little embarrassed, but continues to have his soldiers strip mine alongside your men.

“Hm? Yea, sorry. But what can I do about it?” Is he serious…?

“Pay me, maybe?”

“... I guess. Fine.” That is pretty ea-

“That’s not even close to the amount you’ve taken.”

“Well, we went through a lot of work extracting it- I mean, we haven’t taken that much!”

You huff, but in the end you have no real standing to force him to stop mining. You angrily take the Marks, worth perhaps a quarter of what he’s extracted.

(+250 Marks)

==========

Knock! Knock! Your door opens.

“Warlock Ignatius?” Cambrai is at the door.

“Hmm?” You VERY quickly hide your papers. Even if it isn’t happening, the hypothetical plans your secretary drew up to embezzle funds are suspicious.

“I noticed that our friend the garrison commander has stopped mining your claims.” His lips curve upward just a little. “I got a bit suspicious, so I went to check.” He throws down a strange bar. It’s golden yello- That’s orichalcum.

“Where did you get this?” You paw at the bar, but Cambrai rolls his eyes and grabs it back.

“Orichalcum isn’t too hard to make, if you’ve got all the resources and some competent mages. I got it in the city, and you’ll need to pay me back once I explain this to you,” He glares down your protests, “but I noticed there weren’t any mines that could produce this. No established gold mines in the region, or gold finds that would reach Minzhu so fast.”

“So, what is it?” He puffs up his chest, eager to boa- “It’s Enlai?” He deflates just as quickly, and nods stiffly.

“I saw some miners further north.”

“Thanks. How did you avoid getting found out?”

“I was in a tree.”

“Wouldn’t you stick out like a sore thumb? Large trees actually attract attention here.”

“Yep. I was in a tree, though. That’s also how I learn about your reports.” You glare at him, but get an... idea.

“... Is that why that tree rustled so much that one time, when Lin-”

“Not a word! I didn’t know she was in the living room, I thought it was you! How did she even see me?” He leaves.

There’s at least a little gold in these hills. What do?

>Conveniently steal those gold claims (Becomes another resource)
>Leverage it to the city (Minzhu pays you a flat fee per month for 5 turns. City is slightly grateful.)
>Rent it to nearby nobles and merchants (Flat fee and gain 1 Grace/turn for 5 turns)
>Leave it be.

+You’ve shamed Cambrai into not peeping at you. He can no longer tell when you’re falsifying reports.

91+25=116 (Geez, you’ve gotten a 91 at least three times, all on wood magic)
116-50= 66, 660+200=860 feet. 4169+860=5029 feet of wall

The wall continues, as it does. Your report isn’t any different.

At least until your secretary nudges you.

“You could petition the court for aid. Everyone does that.”

“Oh, like money, or material?” She nods.

“Yes. Or soldiers.”

“What about other things, like a lighter quo-”

“Nope!”

“What do you mean? That would be pre-”

“No.”

“...” You give her the look.

“I will not write it, and the Prefect of Works will almost definitely burn it if I do.”

You beat the deadline of 3800. How much do you report?
>3800
>More than 3800: List how much, will receive Grace if you report a significant amount over the deadline.

Court Interactions: Some of them are disabled. You have 21 Grace. (OPTIONAL)

>Petition the court for funds: The court always has plenty of money, even if they try to run a tight budget. There’s a little wiggle room, and although it’s embarrassing and doesn’t inspire much confidence, asking for more do$h is very lucrative if the court already likes you. Costs 10 grace.

>Petition the court for land: Similarly, there’s plenty of free land on the frontier. The court was prepared for you to deplete your original designation, although they need convincing to not make you rely on imports. Gain 10 turns of lumber supply. 10 grace.

>Protest logging rights expenses to the court: It’s a little bit ridiculous you’re paying for the materials to build something for the public good. If you can convince the court to say… Pay for ALL logging rights you’ll need throughout the entire project. Very hard to convince the court to do this. If successful, opens the way for more… unscrupulous actions. Costs 15 grace.

>Petition the court for soldiers: Events have proven there’s danger on the frontier. The mighty armies of the Elven Empire are hulking colossi, but enemies always slip through the cracks. Petition the court for soldiers. Costs 10 grace.

(eeh, tripcode)

>>3151916
>Rent it to nearby nobles and merchants.
>>3151918
Report truthfully.
Petition the court for land.

>>3151916

Steal it so for all those new workers were not getting gyped by some second party again fuckers.
>>3151918
Soldiers hopfully rent free.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>3151931
>>3152312

Writing!

Turn 9, AKA September, 204 A.I.
You receive quite a bit of praise in court, or so you think. Building 5000 feet of wall in less than a year is quite the feat, according to them.

Your land request is granted, although you’re only allowed to harvest lumber from it, and you find quite a bit of Grace at court.

You’ve seen Enlai fuming a bit, too. His soldiers mostly laze around your small settlement these days, unable to compete legally with the various nobles you’ve rented to. Serves him right! Your ore mines are depleted because of him! That’s income lost!

Still, you’re sure the nobles are cutting corners, since they’re only paying a monthly fee.

September seems to be a fine month, at least during the first few days. But then…?

The harvest fails. A cascading series of failures that have left everyone baffled. Agricultural professors, bureaucrats, and farmers alike shake their heads at the near simultaneous collapse of almost every major crop in the empire. Even now, people flee from abandoned fields to the cities. More laborers crowd into Minzhu.

It’s not as it could be. The cities can feed themselves, if only barely, and there’s enough game and forage in the forests to tide everyone over. Yet, that takes time to get. You’ll have trouble, soon.

Harvest failure! Starting Month 1 of next year, Starting (Turn 13) will not be able to buy food from Minzhu! Franz has updated his prices significantly…


**The Jianshu Branch of the Living Wood Wall, in the Grand Protectorate of the Northwest**
Leaders: You (Grant +25 to projects involving wood magic)
Resources: Travel Fruit, Lumber (10 turns), Gold Reserves (Sold!, 5 turns, +50 Marks//Turn, +1 Grace)
Food supply: 3 Units of food, net change: 0 units/turn (1.6 eaten, 1.1 bought, 0.5 scavenged)
Landmarks: Manicured road, small village (yay), hidden road, Devilsbane Tower.
Population: 1100 Drafted Workers: 1100 working on wall (+11 feet per dice point above the DC). 500 independent soldiers garrisoned
Happiness: 60%
Income: 485 Marks/turn (+50 mining rights, -35 mining income lost)
Expenses: 280 Marks/turn
Reserves: 2022 Marks (screwed up change log, this is correct)
Imperial Grace: 25 Grace +2/turn
Military: 15 Elven Rangers:
Minzhu’s garrison: 250 Elven Imperial City Guards 490 Elven Levy swords 500 Elven Veteran Skirmishers 250 Elven Spellswords 500 Blue Standard Archers

**Wall Length: 5029 Feet**
**Deadline: 5629 Feet by the end of the month**

Now then, what do you do this month?
>Aid wall building. +5 bonus to wall building, if you direct the settlement to do that.

>Calling all Wood Warlocks: Put out feelers for warlock help. Of course, they’re VERY expensive. Gain 0-2 warlocks based on rolls, each gouging you for 50 marks/month. Every warlock received boosts your wall building by +3.

>Why are you running (there in particular): Why does your cordoned road exist? It’s obvious the builders knew there was something important enough to build a road to reach.

>Recruit soldiers: You’ve realized the city guard can’t always help. Every minute counts in an emergency. Based on dice roll, get your pick of soldiers around the region.

>Master Wood Warlock 4 Hire: Perform difficult wood magic tasks for people. Everybody has a garden, or fields to oversee, or rare alchemical ingredients to grow, or… Based on dice roll, gain silver marks by working.

>Benevolent Embezzlement: You never thought you’d say those words. All those Marks technically belong to the project, but maybe if you invest those you’d get more money on the project. Not like you’re hurting for money. (If chosen, pick an investment from a list, roll best out of ONE.)

>Rent-a-worker: You know, as long as you make sure they’ve got no complaints, you don’t need to have your people working on the wall, or even on your worksite. Rent away workers in increments of 100, 20 Marks per 100 workers rented out per turn. Risk of them being injured or worse.

>Caravaneering: Right now, vast amounts of Marks are being spent and earned from trade. Given a small investment in goods, you can reap the rewards of trade, too. Opens another list of trade targets, decide on how much money to invest (Minimum 200 Marks)

>Throw Your Weight Around: As Marquis, you have the right to several important trades, such as food. Force the vendors to sell you more food, even if it means taking it out of other’s mouths. Increases amount of food you can buy. Hurts relations with Minzhu.

**What does the settlement do?**
>Build Wall. DC of 50 continue. As before, getting exactly 50 nets you 200 feet, every point above that on your dice earns 11 feet.

>Continue exploitation! There’s still a lot of nice stuff on your land grant. Either in the rare chaparral-only vegetation, or minerals under the surface, nice stuff lies just below the surface. Guaranteed do$h by selling rare vegetation, high chance of finding more metal to extract.

>the forbidden fruit: Travel Fruit is technically a public good. Anyone can pluck the juicy, nutritious fruits that grow alongside the manicured roads of the Elven Empire. Of course, the army has first right to pick them, and nowadays it’s very offensive if you pick them without extensively checking if an army is coming… Let's pick them anyway! (Get 2-8 Units of food, has a low chance of failing, but oh man can it fail)

>Bizarre Bazaar: Although you’re only here ‘temporarily’, that still means you’re here for perhaps a decade… You’ve noticed merchants peddling wares with your workers. A central market would mean a new source of cash. Builds market, adds 25 Marks/turn in tax.

Free Actions (Optional, take as many as needed)
>change amount of food bought/turn. Costs 10 marks/unit. You’re buying 1.1 units. Can buy as much as 2 units/turn. Franz offers food at 25 marks/turn, but at no limit. If you switch fully to him, you gain another +.1 feet per point above DC to wall building.

>hire more workers: You know some destitute workers who you could easily higher. Can hire as many as 2000 workers. Each worker adds 0.01 feet of wall per dice point above DC.

>Talk to someone: Can talk to Protectorate General Bu Royora, Garrison commander Yi Enlai, your guard captain Lung Cambrai, or Sub-prefect of Works Shouleng Mao. Specify what to talk about.

>Interrogate Prisoners: Minzhu has let you interrogate the captured elves, but only for a bit. Don’t delay if you want to do this.

>Change workload: NONE (Cannot change at this time)

>>3152459
Check the old abandoned road.
>>3152460
The forbidden fruit.
Up the amount of food to 2 units. Does excess food store?

>>3152507
Yep! You have 3 stored units from some earlier food gathering.

Rolled 8, 52, 13, 63, 1, 38 = 175 (6d100)

I'll call the vote now, and get to writing. Dice, go!

You trip, and curse. Another stone… It seems like there are way more stones here than anywhere else. It’s weird. The stone is clearly good, but why build a settlement here? Why not just a quarry?

Maybe they didn’t expect Minzhu to be so big? It was a surprise when Royora made it his capital, and it still shows in its garrison…

You spend some time wandering, a bit lost, before you notice there are very, very few trees around. At first, it puts you on edge. So much of Elven combat doctrine relies on the woods, after all. Then, you notice everything’s green. Rather than the matted brown of core Elven lands, the land is green and fertile. For a second, you think this was meant to be farmland. Still, why isn’t anyone farming it? There are no tilled fields, or soldiers from Minzhu patrolling.

Then, you find the spring.

It’s not too big, and forms barely a creek going South. However, it’s got an almost uncanny amount of magic in it. Water magic, but with a lot of Wood in it too. It… This region isn’t the most fertile, and you never really wondered how Minzhu got so large, or really checked the farms along Minzhu’s River Ingjiu. This is the frontier. How could Minzhu have sprouted in just a few generations, when similar cities took thousands of years given your kind’s struggle to breed?

This stream, obviously. The water is incredibly refreshing, almost to the point of healing you. Even if it got diluted ten thousand times over in the River Ingjiu flowing past Minzhu, it would still have effects if drunk from consistently.

+For better or worse, you know Minzhu’s secret. A few documents and inconspicuous questions revealed this road was meant to be torn down. A few more questions to Royora confirms it: soldiers sometimes pop by to check if anyone’s interfering with the spring.

=====

Everything goes wrong. Your men tried to pick the travel fruit, when all of a sudden, a certain General Jia Jian marched through the region, backed with an entire army to fight the dwarves raiding Lantang.

A hundred are dead, or crippled such that they can’t work anymore. You’re in… Quite a bit of hot water. You got your food, but at what cost? The court is not pleased, not at all. The general himself wants answers, and although apologizes for mistaking your men for bandits, is very mad at your violation of Elven etiquette.

>Apologize and give him your food (Do not lose Grace, lose the food you gathered. The general is touched)
>Snub him! (Lose 5 Grace)
>Demand compensation. (Roll a 1d100. Lose 10 Grace)

And for the families of the injured and dead?
>Give compensation (Costs 50 Marks)
>That’s life (Lose 10% Happiness)

=====

Then comes time for your report.

You’re behind. You’re very behind.

Lin throws a book at you.

“Idiot! This is awful. You don’t understand how much this will cost the Pref- uh, us!” You roll your eyes.

“I’m sure it won’t be that bad…”

“THAT BAD? NO, IT WON’T.” She calms down a little. “Alright, here’s how it’ll go. The Prefect can defend you and, as loathe as he is to do it, allow you to request a lightened quota. After the fact that you failed to build a wall. So late in the month.” At least her rage has cooled to a simmering hatred.

How much do you report?
>Lie and say you met the quota: (The prefect will stomach this, if you promise to catch up. No penalties, but the quota moves on to 6200 feet. You cannot be caught this time, but next time?)
>Be honest: (The prefect will NOT be pleased if you don’t petition the court for a reduced quota.)

Court Interactions: “I REFUSE to write you anything but this!” -Lin. (OPTIONAL) Depending on your response to General Jian, you will have either 15, 20, or 25 Grace. Because of your partnership, you are allowed to lend grace from the Prefect this time. With interest.

>Petition the court for a lighter quota: Suspends your quota for this turn. The Imperial Court will NOT be happy. Costs 20 Grace, but prevents you from being penalized.

.

.

God damn, everything went wrong this turn, didn't it...? I think that's the first natural 1 of this quests, or maybe even your first turn with a sub-70.

>>3152593
Snub him.
Give compensation. Dam one.
What games you playing?

>>3152597
So only 20 Grace left?
Be honest. Petition.

God fuckin dammit im gonna abondon this quest becuase all the anon make such shitty decisions my god we are just gonna die. Seriously fuck you goddamn idiots we had so many methood to make money, grace and not fail the wall but you guys cant look more then 5 fucking feet infront of you its infuriating holy shit.

>>3152597
> Lie through our teeth
> apologize and give food
> get more FUCKING WORKERS ALL 2000 JESUS CHRIST there literally mo reason not to they will make the money back more then the food costs why are we NOT FUCKING DOING THIS.

On some reflection, maybe 30 of voting minutes isn't quite enough for a civ quest.
I think a full hour of voting would be better. Input?

>>3152613
It's mostly been me making all the decisions, more players are welcome. There is a food shortage coming, sustaining the population will be harder. Also bad rolls.

>>3152613
Will support.

Aight! Locked and writing!

“Oh? I’m…” General Jia Jian stares at your food. He trails off, lost in thought

“...” You wait for him to gather his thoughts.

“... Don’t do this.” You blink.

“I thought you would be livid.”

“It’s been a few days… I didn’t think the famine would be that bad.” He gets up and walks over to your crates. “I can’t say no. It’s been months. There is not going to be any food in Lantang. Bandits have probably taken anything we can forage up north.”

“I didn't think it would be that bad, sir.”

“It always is… Thank you for your kindness. If I survive, I will tell the court. For now, I’ll give you… ”

He glances around the room, a little impatient, but mostly regretful. His eyes settle on a crate of seeds.

“These. These are supposed to be for Lantang. But, I can tell it’ll be the same down here”

There’s not much more to talk about after that. You leave.

…

Gained Court-Issued Seeds: Lets you plant food immediately. Continues growing non-stop, until next harvest.

=====

You lie in your report. It’s not too hard to make it convincing. You just say your men are experienced now, and a wood warlock of your skills is a guarantee of good progress. Lin sits next to you the entire time. She takes your parchment afterwards, and leaves little seeds of doubt, hints of trouble that imply you’d be the only one at fault.

For what it’s worth, she shoots you an apologetic look.

=====

You head into the city later on. Everything is normal. There’s a few whispers of famine, but anyone well-informed enough knows there’ll still be food to go around, if barely enough.

After a bit of negotiating, you spot your familiar friend, Franz Kobalaya, is sitting pretty. He has a near stranglehold on the food market for anyone outside the city, such as yourself, and he somehow has enough food to promise literally any amount on time.

“Ah, Magus Ignatius, it is good to see you. I’m going away next year, you know. My partners would like it if I got out of here. Rumblings about being attacked by hungry mobs. They are misinformed, don’t worry.” His Elvish has improved. “Still, if you would like food, I can sign you up to get it even when I’m gone.”

“Thank you. But I’d like to check with other vendors first.”

“Ah, they are still greedy. They’re going to run out soon.” You roll your eyes.

“I know. I’ll see you soon.”

Regardless, the calculations aren’t quite good, once you finish hiring. Two thousand more workers, increases your total population to 3500. You’ll need… 3.5 units of food. You gather 0.5. Ok, maybe the math wasn’t too bad. You rush over to Franz, later on, and arrange to buy a unit of food from him.

=====

And you need to pay compensations. You write it and… Try not to think of it. You wonder if you even care about keeping them safe, if it takes this much.

1/5...

These are just a list of changes to your settlement this turn. There will be your short summary afterwards. This is getting a little obscene, and I'll try to cut back in future turns. Thankfully, I'll leave after dumping this update, so feel free to pour over this as much as you'd like.

Results:
Income: 485 Marks/turn
+375 stipend
+20 noble stipend
+20 Semaphore
+20 Deep Mine
+50 Mining Rights
Expenses: 485 marks/turn (No, I didn’t plan this at all .-.)
-270 Wages
-45 Food (2 units for 10 Marks each, 1 unit for 25)
-90 Camp Maintenance
-80 Logging rights and imported material (Mistyped it last turn. Total Expenses were correct though)
Reserves: 1972 Marks

Personal belongings:
Some nice pillows!
Marquis Contract
Magical Seeds

Personal Relations:
The Chuanwei Emperor: Hm?
Protectorate General Bu Royora: Thanks, dude.
Franz Kobalaya: Maybe next time?
Prefect of Works Shouleng Mao: Idiot!
Yi Enlai: Not cool!
Lin Rasit: Sorry, not sorry!
Lung Cambrai: No comment.
General Jia Jian: I’ll honor my promise.

Imperial Grace: 7 +2/turn

Wall Length: 5029 Feet
Deadline: 6200 Feet

Food supply: 3 Units of food, net change: 0 units/turn (3.5 eaten, 3 bought, 0.5 scavenged)

Population: 3000 Drafted Workers 500 independent soldiers garrisoned
3000 working on wall (+30 feet per dice point above the DC (Maxes at 50 feet per right now))

Turn 10, AKA October, 204 A.I.
It’s getting worse. October is meant to be the month of plenty, yet there’s barely enough to keep everyone fed.
Royora, for some reason, has tightened security on the Elven prisoners and thrown more in jail. The mood in Minzhu sours, as more laborers crowd into the city. Still, things are just grim, not openly horrible.

“Why did you cut down the trees?” Cambrai frowns outside your window. Now that you can see him, it’s far easier to lie on your reports. “Why didn’t the court punish you?”

“They understand it’s a mess everywhere. They’re way too busy with Lantang and other issues.” He nods at your words, and leaves you.

Another thousand workers are available for hire in Minzhu.

**The Jianshu Branch of the Living Wood Wall, in the Grand Protectorate of the Northwest**
Leaders: You (Grant +25 to projects involving wood magic)
Resources: Travel Fruit, Lumber (10 turns), Gold Reserves (Sold!, 4 turns, +50 Marks//Turn, +1 Grace)
Food supply: 3 Units of food, net change: 0 units/turn (3.5 eaten, 3 bought, 0.5 scavenged)
Landmarks: Manicured road, small village (yay), hidden road, Devilsbane Tower.
Population: 3000 Drafted Workers 500 independent soldiers garrisoned
3000 working on wall (+30 feet per dice point above the DC (Maxes at 50 feet per right now))
Happiness: 60%
Income: 485 Marks/turn
Expenses: 485 Marks/turn
Reserves: 1972 Marks (screwed up change log, this is correct)
Imperial Grace: 7 Grace +2/turn
Military: 15 Elven Rangers:
Minzhu’s garrison: 250 Elven Imperial City Guards 490 Elven Levy swords 500 Elven Veteran Skirmishers 250 Elven Spellswords 500 Blue Standard Archers

**Wall Length: 5029 Feet**
**Deadline: 6200 Feet by the end of the month**

Now then, what do you do this month?
>Aid wall building. +5 bonus to wall building, if you direct the settlement to do that.

>Calling all Wood Warlocks: Put out feelers for warlock help. Of course, they’re VERY expensive. Gain 0-2 warlocks based on rolls, each gouging you for 50 marks/month. Every warlock received boosts your wall building by +3.

>Recruit soldiers: You’ve realized the city guard can’t always help. Every minute counts in an emergency. Based on dice roll, get your pick of soldiers around the region.

>Master Wood Warlock 4 Hire: Perform difficult wood magic tasks for people. Everybody has a garden, or fields to oversee, or rare alchemical ingredients to grow, or… Based on dice roll, gain silver marks by working.

>Benevolent Embezzlement: You never thought you’d say those words. All those Marks technically belong to the project, but maybe if you invest those you’d get more money on the project. Not like you’re hurting for money. (If chosen, pick an investment from a list, roll best out of ONE.)

>Rent-a-worker: You know, as long as you make sure they’ve got no complaints, you don’t need to have your people working on the wall, or even on your worksite. Rent away workers in increments of 100, 20 Marks per 100 workers rented out per turn. Risk of them being injured or worse.

>Caravaneering: Right now, vast amounts of Marks are being spent and earned from trade. Given a small investment in goods, you can reap the rewards of trade, too. Opens another list of trade targets, decide on how much money to invest (Minimum 200 Marks)

>Throw Your Weight Around: As Marquis, you have the right to several important trades, such as food. Force the vendors to sell you more food, even if it means taking it out of other’s mouths. Increases amount of food you can buy. Hurts relations with Minzhu.

**What does the settlement do?**
>Build Wall. DC of 50 continue. As before, getting exactly 50 nets you 200 feet, every point above that on your dice earns 11 feet.

>Continue exploitation! There’s still a lot of nice stuff on your land grant. Either in the rare chaparral-only vegetation, or minerals under the surface, nice stuff lies just below the surface. Guaranteed do$h by selling rare vegetation, high chance of finding more metal to extract.

>Bizarre Bazaar: Although you’re only here ‘temporarily’, that still means you’re here for perhaps a decade… You’ve noticed merchants peddling wares with your workers. A central market would mean a new source of cash. Builds market, adds 25 Marks/turn in tax.

>Panic Build: As it was before, you have the option of firing on all cylinders. Lose the next two settlement actions, but you do three build actions this turn. Only roll best out of two for each action, so I’ll roll six 1d100s total.

Free Actions (Optional, take as many as needed)
>change amount of food bought/turn. Costs 10 marks/unit. You’re buying 1.1 units. Can buy as much as 2 units/turn. Franz offers food at 25 marks/turn, but at no limit. If you switch fully to him, you gain another +.1 feet per point above DC to wall building.

>hire more workers: You know some destitute workers who you could easily higher. Can hire as many as 2000 workers. Each worker adds 0.01 feet of wall per dice point above DC.

>Talk to someone: Can talk to Protectorate General Bu Royora, Garrison commander Yi Enlai, your guard captain Lung Cambrai, or Sub-prefect of Works Shouleng Mao. Specify what to talk about.

>Interrogate Prisoners: Minzhu has let you interrogate the captured elves, but only for a bit. Don’t delay if you want to do this.

>Change Workload: You can assign people to farm now. Given your magic seeds, each 100 people produce 1 food unit, and you can farm now, even though the harvest should have ended. This accumulates the more turns you farm, until month 12 when you get your food all at once.

I’ll admit a lot of stuff here was reactive to what you guys said.

Night guys! See you tomorrow!

>>3152634
>>3152692

Honeatly Sorry for being a salty asshole i was really a dick, ive just been bottling it up for 4 days as im never around this late in my time zone to vote.

> recruit soldiers, we need a solid defense and deployment team espically as things are getting hairier

> BUILD THAT WALL BOIS lets really try not to fuck this up.

> hire 2000 workers

>This turn set 1000 to farning for 10 food start selling back to the city at reduced prices from the other elves there doing 10?lets sell at 8 gain good will so they will cover our backs.
> 4000 on wall if we can use those recruits right away?
Is the mine just empty now?

So if 50= 200 we only need 75 to pass with 4000 and a 99 if we only can use 2000. We are honestly pretty fucked here lets hope for luck? Or switch personal action to supporting wall.


> tall to the protectorate general about the food situation and how we can help freely jf they can keep providing us significant labor and wood mages on the cheap if possible.

>>3152692
Goodnight I super enjoy your quest. Even if i get salty.

>>3152686
Oh also lets talk to franz about setting up a long standing contract in case we have a time of need. something like insurance qe pay you this much every month and it guarantees us first service when shit hits the fan famine wise. As well lets see if he will buy out excess foods to sell in human markets.

>>3152720
Can we even put people on farming? Can we do write ins op?

>>3152692
>(we) Invest 500 marks in caravaneering
>(settlement) Build wall
>(free) Hire 2000 workers
>(free) Assign 1000 workers to farming

Rolled 17, 5, 81, 12, 45, 29, 23 = 212 (7d100)

Back! Locking vote now.
It seems settlement and free actions are in agreement

>>3152720
No problem. It probably wasn't optimal to only give 30 minutes when there's so many things to vote on. I'm not too sure about selling food, especially because it's not grown yet, but lets experiment? I'll assume selling food is only available right now because it's a promise, but you've got a good reputation+court issued seeds. Anyone can cancel it if there's a majority.

The mines did run out: Enlai did a good job having hundreds of soldiers mining each turn.

>>3152735
Assigning farmers is a free action. I said something about write ins being allowed because I'm probably going to miss stuff. However, I'll decide on a reward for doing write-ins.

For now,
>>3152720
>>3152981
While settlement actions and free actions are clear, there's a tie on personal actions. I'll roll another 1d100 (assume it's a 1d2 and less than 50 means 1) in addition to your actions.

>>3153989
Pls let that 81 be wall

>>3153989
I vote for trying trade.

First thing’s first, you find as many workers as you possibly can. Two thousand had flooded into Minzhu during the famine, and you hire all of them.

You put a thousand to work farming.

The other thousand you put to work on your wall. Hopefully, it’s enough to catch up...

You now gain +40 feet/dice point above the DC.
+10 Growing Food/turn. You get the feeling that, when you switch to back normal seeds, you’ll probably get half that with the same amount of farmers.

=====

“So… You’ve been busy?” You notice that Franz has gotten a lot richer in the past year.

“Yes. It is unfortunate that the circumstances are so dismal, but I cannot deny things have… Gone my way.” He frowns slightly. “In a human city, I would have been torn apart by hungry mobs. I’m grateful things are different here.” Unspoken is the fact that he’s exploiting the famine, even if it’s not his intention.

“... Right. You mentioned a long time ago that you had different foods back home. I’d like to propose a trade. You’d happily take elven food to human markets?” Franz rubs his chin.

“It’s hard to tell. There’s no famine going on in human lands. Different crops.” He turns away, towards a sheet of parchment, and doodles a few calculations.

“Fifteen Marks. But, I can’t bet on food that isn’t here. My clients will need to make plans on food. If your harvest goes bad? Chaos. I would lose all my credibility.”

You nod.

“I’d also like to set up a contract with you. It’s… This insurance thing I’ve heard about.”

“Oh? I’ve heard elves have been pioneering finances lately. The Northern Bank, right?”

“... Anyway. I want a guarantee that you’ll sell me food if things go sour.”

“That is difficult.” He nearly stumbles over his words.

“I can offer you something in return.”

"Well..."

“I have money. Marks every turn if you guarantee I’ll be first on your list.”

“... Let’s negotiate, then.”

+On Month 12, have the option of selling food to Franz at 15 Marks/unit.
+For 10 Marks/Turn each turn, can buy an unlimited amount of food from Franz at a consistent 25 Marks per unit/turn, whenever you want. Or until Franz gets into trouble.

=====

“The documents, Lin?”

Available Units (I think a good fix to combat would be to split soldiers into regiments. Rather than having each person be an individual, a regiment is 50 soldiers, except when stated otherwise):
Hire as many as you want.
>Up to 5 Regiments of Elven Levy Swords (Melee): (-5 mor, +0 mel, +0 ran, +5 mob, -5 Def) (Costs 5 Marks/Turn for each regiment, and .1 Units of food/turn)

>Up to 3 Regiments of Green Standard Infantry (Melee): (+5 mor, +10 mel, +5 ran, +0 mob, +5 def) (Costs 15 Marks/Turn for each regiment, and .1 Units of food/turn)\

>Up to 2 Regiments Blue Standard Archers (Ranged): (+10 mor, +0 mel, +15 ran, +5 mob, +5 def) (Costs 20 Marks/Turn for each regiment, and .1 Units of food/turn)

81+25= 106. 70-50=66. 66*40= 2640 feet. +200= 2840 feet. (I’ll let it be wall building, this time.)
5029+2840=7869

You smash through your deadline. Utterly.
How much do you report?
>Just 6200
>More than 6200: Every 100 feet above 6200 means 1 Grace.

You don’t have enough Grace to do any Court Interactions.

=====

“Sir?” The Protectorate General doesn’t notice you enter. He’s busy balancing numbers.

“Hmm? Ah. sorry. I’ve been a bit busy lately. Thank you for taking all those workers off my hands, by the way. I see you’ve made quite a bit of progress on the wall.” Indeed, half a mile in a month is… Astonishing. You’re sure others have had more progress, but they had far, far more workers than you.

“Food trouble?”

“... Yes. You wanted to discuss something?”

“I’ve got people farming. It’s not too much, but any bit helps, right?”

He nods. “And you’d like to sell me food?”

“No. I’d actually prefer lumber, or perhaps mages.”

“No mages. Lumber is easy enough, however. I’d keep you supplied if you can get me 4 units of food each month.”

“... Nothing better?”

“No. That’s all I can do. I’m sorry, but if I didn’t trust your word, it would be worse.”

Food mega vote:
You’re growing 10 units per turn. If you don’t promise any, you can sell it at 15 Marks/unit to Franz.
>Sell to the merchants: (5 Marks/Unit/Turn) (They don’t quite trust food that isn’t grown.)
>Give 4 units/turn to Royora: (No lumber costs when this is active)

Do you buy food insurance?
>Yes: Costs 10 Marks/Turn. Franz gives you a strange envelope and address. Can buy unlimited food from him at 25 Marks/Turn whenever you want.
>No

NOTE: You are running a big deficit with 5000 workers. If you want, you can fire some next turn. It won't make them happy.
Income: 485 Marks/turn
+375 stipend
+20 noble stipend
+20 Semaphore
+20 Deep Mine
+50 Mining Rights
Expenses: 715 marks/turn
-450 Wages
-95 Food (2 units for 10 Marks each, 3 units for 25)
-90 Camp Maintenance
-80 Logging rights and imported material
Reserves: 1972 Marks (I haven't deducted for the end of this month yet)

>>3154155
>>3154145

> one group of green infantry one group if blue archers. 35 is a bit but the extra defense under our hold is necessary.

Thank fucking god on the wall
> yes lets get thr food insurance. If shit falls apart we can buy and sell back.
>give 4 food to royora and save the rest to sell to franz for the 15 per later.
If we save up a ton of food amd sell it in bull we can male quite the tody profit.

Rolled 4, 64 = 68 (2d100)

Locked, and a die, for no reason at all.
I'll assume reporting just the deadline.

>>3154402
Yeah shit meant to say just deadline

Month 11, AKA November, 204 A.I.
Things are calm. Fighting in the north wasn’t too bad. Unlike the warband that you destroyed, the one near Lantang was clearly out of position and poorly trained.

General Jian kept his word. A letter to court describes you helping pick fruit for him ahead of time. +5 Grace

There’s not too much to write home about besides that. There’s been an uneasy equilibrium with the food supply, but everyone’s worried about winter.

Meanwhile, your settlement has become quite the town. Although incredibly small by the standards of the core, it’s as large as any town in the frontier regions. You’ve started seeing even more peddlers or people from the woods going door to door selling goods. However, you’re starting to worry about overcrowding as winter looms. (The houses you built are not sufficient for your population)

**The Jianshu Branch of the Living Wood Wall, in the Grand Protectorate of the Northwest**
Leaders: You (Grant +25 to projects involving wood magic)
Resources: Travel Fruit, Lumber (9 turns), Gold Reserves (Sold!, 3 turns, +50 Marks//Turn, +1 Grace)
Food supply: 3 Units of food, net change: 0 units/turn (3.5 eaten, 3 bought, 0.5 scavenged)
Landmarks: Manicured road, Town, hidden road, Devilsbane Tower.
Population: 5000 Drafted Workers 500 independent soldiers garrisoned
4000 working on wall (+30 feet per dice point above the DC (Maxes at 50 feet per right now)) 1000 Farming (+10 banked food units/turn)
Happiness: 60%
Income: 485 Marks/turn
Expenses: 765 Marks/turn
Reserves: 1692 Marks
Imperial Grace: 14 Grace +2/turn


Military:
1 Regiments Elven Rangers
1 Regiments Green Standard Infantry
1 Regiments Blue Standard Archers

Minzhu’s garrison:
5 Regiments Elven Imperial City Guards
10 Regiments Elven Levy swords
10 Regiments Elven Veteran Skirmishers
5 Regiments Elven Spellswords
10 Regiments Blue Standard Archers

**Wall Length: 7869 Feet**
**Deadline: 6800 Feet by the end of the month**

Now then, what do you do this month?
>Aid wall building. +5 bonus to wall building, if you direct the settlement to do that.

>Calling all Wood Warlocks: Put out feelers for warlock help. Of course, they’re VERY expensive. Gain 0-2 warlocks based on rolls, each gouging you for 50 marks/month. Every warlock received boosts your wall building by +3.

>Recruit soldiers: You’ve realized the city guard can’t always help. Every minute counts in an emergency. Based on dice roll, get your pick of soldiers around the region.

>Master Wood Warlock 4 Hire: Perform difficult wood magic tasks for people. Everybody has a garden, or fields to oversee, or rare alchemical ingredients to grow, or… Based on dice roll, gain silver marks by working.

>Benevolent Embezzlement: You never thought you’d say those words. All those Marks technically belong to the project, but maybe if you invest those you’d get more money on the project. Not like you’re hurting for money. (If chosen, pick an investment from a list, roll best out of ONE.)

>Rent-a-worker: You know, as long as you make sure they’ve got no complaints, you don’t need to have your people working on the wall, or even on your worksite. Rent away workers in increments of 100, 20 Marks per 100 workers rented out per turn. Risk of them being injured or worse.

>Caravaneering: Right now, vast amounts of Marks are being spent and earned from trade. Given a small investment in goods, you can reap the rewards of trade, too. Opens another list of trade targets, decide on how much money to invest (Minimum 200 Marks)

>Throw Your Weight Around: As Marquis, you have the right to several important trades, such as food. Force the vendors to sell you more food, even if it means taking it out of other’s mouths. Increases amount of food you can buy. Hurts relations with Minzhu.

**What does the settlement do?**
>Build Wall. DC of 50 continue. As before, getting exactly 50 nets you 200 feet, every point above that on your dice earns 40 feet.

>Continue exploitation! There’s still a lot of nice stuff on your land grant. Either in the rare chaparral-only vegetation, or minerals under the surface, nice stuff lies just below the surface. Guaranteed do$h by selling rare vegetation, high chance of finding more metal to extract.

>House building: You’re not sure about letting your workers stay in tents over the winter. Housing everyone should keep people happy, and prevent and unnecessary issues. Does not cost lumber this turn, maintains current happiness and prevents winter casualties.

>Bizarre Bazaar: Although you’re only here ‘temporarily’, that still means you’re here for perhaps a decade… You’ve noticed merchants peddling wares with your workers. A central market would mean a new source of cash. Builds market, adds 50 Marks/turn in tax.

Free Actions (Optional, take as many as needed)
>change amount of food bought/turn. Costs 10 marks/unit. You’re buying 2 units out of 2 max from vendors at 10 Marks/Turn. Buying 3.2 units from Franz at 25 Marks/turn.

>Talk to someone: Can talk to Protectorate General Bu Royora, Garrison commander Yi Enlai, your guard captain Lung Cambrai, or Sub-prefect of Works Shouleng Mao. Specify what to talk about.

>Change Workload: You can assign people to farm now. Given your magic seeds, each 100 people produce 1 food unit, and you can farm now, even though the harvest should have ended. This accumulates the more turns you farm, until month 12 when you get your food all at once.

>>3154472
Embezzlement, bad rolls be cursed.
House building.
Talk to military leader.

>>3154472
>>3154475
>caravaneering 500 points
>house building we have enough wall
>recruit as mant workers as we can.

How does workload work if we aren't building wall and doing housing instead?

>>3154535

The way I imagined it is that anybody on wall duty does whatever settlement action you choose.
Also, there are no freely hire-able workers right now, unless you want your personal action to find more.

>>3154535
Embezzlement seems pretty similar, want to give it a try?