One of the rooms is written off when it's found that the ceiling has collapsed, and is filled back in with scree from the other rooms and bricked shit.
Not sure if typo or if someone shat a lot of brick when they heard about the Witch Hunters.
Two of the rooms are empty, but three are interesting. One is, from all appearances, a former stable, which confirms that the Palace once stood at street level. The wooden carriages are long since rotted away to nothing and the skeleton of a horse that was uncovered is just depressing, but adjoining the stable is the long-lost workshop of a blacksmith, anvil and forge and a wall covered in hundreds of useful tools, implements and devices.
Useful for enchanting I think. If nothing else we can cart it over to our manor and hire a smith to keep the tools of our tenants in repair. The anvil and forge aren't cheap.
The second room is far less prosaic. Uncovering silver candles and fragments of stained glass gave you the hint that the room was once a chapel, but when the workers finally uncovered the altar the shocked oaths and murmured prayers drew you over immediately. The open jaws of a great silver shark greets your gaze, and you lift the idol free from the debris that encased it and almost stagger under the weight. Silver-coated iron then, rather than pure silver. Still valuable... at least, if you're willing to risk the wrath of Stromfels, the Shark God, by further profaning what must have once been a shrine to him.
With the Witch Hunters in town...we probably want to get rid of this. Unlike Ranald he's NOT liked at all by even the common people.
God knows why there's a shrine to the bloody shark god on a town nowhere near the sea.
The last room is even more striking. The door, now that you pay more attention, was once reinforced with iron before time and moisture turned it to a few scraps of rust; that helps explains why a skeleton was found chained to one wall of the buried room. Once, this was a dungeon.
The skeleton yields scarce few clues as to its identity. What clothes it once wore are long since rotted away to nothing. There is one item that appears untouched by time, despite the raw iron it appears to be wrought from, and the Aqshy running through it is as much proof of its identity as the starburst of rubies mounted on the ring. Forged by the first of the Bright Wizards under Teclis for use in the Great War Against Chaos, capable of emitting great fireballs in the hands of the untrained and doing even more in the capable hands of a Bright Wizard; this is a Doomfire Ring.
O.O
Thats something alright. Probably worth a lot of favors to return that.
And probably should make DAMNED sure the corpse is handed over to the Morrites anonymously. Necromancers could probably do a fair bit with a wizard corpse.
Meanwhile, work continues elsewhere, urged on by your outlay of coin. It is a fact of life that precious metal can buy just about anything, but it's a fact that takes a great deal of scrutiny to actually understand. Gold, unless one is a Gold Wizard, is mostly useless. It's shiny, sure, so it makes for nice jewellery and ornaments, but why does that mean that everything revolves around it? Steel, now steel is useful, and steel ingots would be a much more sensible medium of exchange... but also hideously unwieldy. Is that it? Is gold the medium for exchange just because it's rare enough that a single unit of it is light?
You observe the actions of the workers you hired, you observe the inner mechanisms of the EIC, you see over and over useful items and valuable labour exchanged for shiny metal. And then you look once more at a piece of that shiny metal, seeing not just the composition of it but the markings stamped upon it: a year, the familiar skeleton of Stirland's banner, and causing a clench of sadness in you, Abelhelm's name and his head in profile.
Not just any gold, but gold issued and guaranteed by the Empire...
[Studying Stewardship: Roll, Req 60, 76. +2 Stewardship]
Framed in Ulgu, economics is the lie that gold has intrinsic value. The truth is far grander, that the coin has meaning because the Empire says it does.
Days pass in mind-numbing concentration, and progress is gained an inch at a time as Ulgu lies trapped within the stone a little longer before breaking free once more and dissipating in a puff of smoke. As tedious as the work is, you refuse to let your concentration falter, even as days turn to weeks. Each day the Ulgu bends a little easier to your will. Each day the gap between you releasing your mental grasp on the stone and the Ulgu wriggling free lengthens. And finally, at long, long last, the day comes when it doesn't escape at all, so thoroughly cowed by your will it remains where it is placed, the nature of the wind leaking into the rock itself and turning it ever so slightly translucent when held up to a light.
It is the least of victories. But it is a step forward on a very valuable road.
[Studying Enchantment: Req 70, Learning, 42+18+10(workshop)+10(Enchanter)=80]
Progress!
It looks like we definitely want a dedicated library for this.
On another note, with the scrolls came a note from your Master, hinting that soon you should either pursue advancement or find another way to serve the Empire. It's not quite a command, but it is a reminder that he has the ability to give that command, at least until you graduate from Journeywomanship, and that you are expected to at least metaphorically journey. But you still have some time before those nudges turn into shoves.
I think we're mostly agreed on going to test for Magister soon. Just need a few more spells under our belt.
"I've given notice," Wilhelmina says, over the extended working lunch that your Shareholder's meetings tend to turn into. "The Council had enough holes kicked in it, would have been bad if I had quit on the spot."
"Her own doing," you note, trying to keep bitterness out of your voice.
She nods. "That as may be, but I've long experience with putting up with unruly children who know a great deal less than they think they do. Might have been satisfying, but it would be Stirland that suffered for it."
You nod, conceding the point. "Schultz? Kasmir?"
[Rolling... 95]
[Rolling... 97]
"Schultz is staying on - the girl has some plan for reinforcing the bridge across the Drak, turning it into a memorial to her father. And Kasmir's reappeared. He apparently spent most of a year tending to the people of the town of Drakenhof, filling the spiritual void left by the necromancers and vampires. Searching for meaning, he said. Seems to have found it."
Good news here, at Drakenhof at least.
You swallow a hundred bitter comments. If Kasmir's made peace with Sigmar having failed Abelhelm, that's his business. Instead, you move on to an equally bitter topic. "And my... former position?"
[Rolling... 14]
"The Witch Hunter that was travelling with her has taken the job. Abelhelm kept that lot on a leash, but I worry that they've got her on one."
But this is a hint that we probably should rebase. The underground palace is nice, but obscurity won't protect it forever.
[Minable minerals: 21]
[Farming Possibilities: 5]
Word comes back to you from those investigating your land for mineral wealth and farming possibilities; one figuratively barren and fruitless, the other literally. There appears to be no mineral wealth at all lurking under the thin topsoil of your land, and no plant can be persuaded to take root in it save for the hardy grass and scraggly bushes that the sheep and goats thrive upon. You had been watching them on and off through the months as part of your study into the mystery of gold's command over people, and you know they actually performed the work, so you're forced to accept their conclusion and thank them for their time.
That sounds like a thick layer of limestone bedrock.
Oh well. Any mines would be an expensive endeavor.
Best focus on the niter and powder.
Marksdwarf's Pistol: This pistol is based on the tried and true single-shot design that still reigns supreme in the Empire, but both the firearm itself and the odd self-contained capsules of powder and ball are so finely built that the only restriction on accuracy is the wielder. It is currently missing the handle, for the simple reason that one will be built to match the wielder's hand when it is purchased.
Reliable, but low rate of fire.
Not much point using this except for sport shooting, though possibly dismantling a bullet for study is nice.
Hand Blunderbuss: The brilliance of this design is not in the firing itself, but in the system of tubes and piping that absorbs the blast of the massive blackpowder charge, making recoil manageable with one hand. It fires anything that can be crammed down the barrel and does so without breaking the wielder's wrist.
High output. This probably has some synergy with enchantment, we could make some nifty specialty ammo with it.
Dwarven Revolver: Similar to the Repeater Pistols of Nuln, except instead of having eight separate barrels it has only one, and the chamber holding the balls revolves to line up with the one barrel instead.
Eight shots between reloads. Extremely reliable.
If we plan to fight with it on the field, this is probably the best.
Dwarven Pistol: A cutting-edge single-shot Dwarven design, this fires a massive, spiralling bullet with extreme velocity and decent accuracy.
One At Sufficient Velocity.
It's as close to a sniping tool as you can get with a pistol I think.
Blacksmithing Tools:
[ ] Keep
[ ] Sell (+75 gc}
So for the tools, selling them should be left for when we run out of money. We can keep tools as enchanter gear or for our fief, but we'd need to justify gold.
Shrine to Stromfels:
[ ] Sell the idol for its silver, tear down the altar and use the room for something else. (+150 gc, +1 room, ???)
If we do this I hope we don't plan on going on the water any time soon. Nice amount of gold though.
[ ] Melt down the idol, cast it into a new one to Ranald, call in your priest friends to re-sanctify the room. (bonus to rolls and reduced cost to creating a second shrine to Ranald, either in your Estate or elsewhere, +1 room, ???)
This pits Ranald against Stromfels. If it works out, the consequences probably should be reduced(mostly because he has to go through Ranald first) and Ranald would be happier...if it doesn't we might wind up praying to the wrong god?
[ ] Leave the idol on the altar and brick the room up. No sense taking risks.
No sense pissing off a god, even a nasty one. But it does mean that if the Witch Hunters find it we'd be in a bunch more trouble than we would for the Ranald shrine.
Doomfire Ring:
[ ] Keep it.
[ ] Sell it (+??? gc).
[ ] Return it to the Bright College (???).
Keeping it would be a problem, we'd face Questions if we're seen hurling fire.
Best return it to the Bright College.
So my vote:
[X] Keep (Blacksmiths Tools)
[X] Melt down the idol, cast it into a new one to Ranald, call in your priest friends to re-sanctify the room. (bonus to rolls and reduced cost to creating a second shrine to Ranald, either in your Estate or elsewhere, +1 room, ???)
[X] Return it to the Bright College (???).
[X] revolver and blunderbuss
[X] Hand Blunderbuss, 50 gc.
