Powder, Gears, and Blessed Steam - A WHF Engineering Quest

"That? Oh, that's the barracks of the Imperial Ostlanders. Odd lot they are. Only recruit from villages and hamlets around the Middle Mountains and then they spend all their time running around in the mountains."

Your brow raises as you stare at the building that looks much less like a military construction and far more like a library with the way bookshelf after bookshelf can be seen through the upper windows. Even the two people you've seen going in and out were dressed more like the exploration minded scholars you'd seen back at school with all sorts of pouches and oddities strapped to their bodies. Curious, you press the brat Alric had sent as your guide, "What exactly are they doing in the mountains?"

A shrug, "Not a clue. Supposed to be something to do with scouting but not a week goes by you don't see one of the lot carrying some weird thing or another inside."

'Interesting,' You smile a little as you turn to continue on down the street while taking note of the building for later.

...

Your eyes dart across the various temples arrayed around the common area your guide has brought you. A temple to Sigmar, one to Taal, one to Rhya, another to Ulric, yet one more for Shallya, a small one for Verena, and the understandable absence of Morr's Garden. It is the Temple District of Wolfenburg as the boy proclaims thought you can't help but to note the way the space seems dominated by Sigmar's presence more than any other. Sigmarite iconography adorns the space and the temple of Sigmar stands two or three times larger than any of the others here as the piece of architecture draws your eyes towards its harsh spires.

Despite your guide's suggestions that day, you do not end up touring each of the temples in turn. You certainly didn't hurry from the area though. Definitely not. He was imagining things when he said he noticed your hand going for Godri's gift.

...

Your trips with the guide Alric sends to help you see more of Wolfenburg are rather resounding successes as the boy, a kid in his teens that goes by Ralf, seems to know much of it like the back of your hand. He teaches you all of the major street names that act as thoroughfares for the city, while only four of them lead out of the city another four act as connections to the city center for the more maze like portions. You learn of the various barracks scattered throughout Wolfenburg housing Ostland's foot regiments, the place for markets and night markets alike, which portions of the city have been marked out by its version of gangs, and even get shown the Noble Quarter... Through an open gateway closely guarded by half a dozen private soldiers.

However, as the month begins to draw to a close you are guided along to a part of the city Ralf has never taken you before. Down one of the arterials he takes you until you arrive at an area where the external wall splits and cuts into the city, towers dotting the walls from which even now soldiers can be seen standing guard. Towering over the walls is a single grey keep, the windows strangely dark as the place gives off an abandoned feeling.

An angry snort comes from beside you as Ralf spits on the ground, "Königswald Keep. Seat of the von Königswald family of our oh so great Elector Count himself."

A light flickers on in one of the highest windows in the keep as you respond, "The von Königswalds?"

Ralf shakes his head as his eyes quickly dart around the road. His hand reaches over to grab your sleeve as he starts to guide you away from the keep, "Never seen them myself. The Grand Prince himself spends all his time in Altdorf letting Ostland rot. Supposedly the only people staying in the keep these days, besides the servants of course, are his son and the tutors. Fat lot of good he's doing us, aye?"


It is a process much like the first time you did it though this time with known quantities providing goods they've already started to gain some skill with... And, yet, for all of that it goes worse than before. Blaming it on the craftsmen would be shifting the blame for as you stare down at a trio of what you can only call subpar muskets you can only accept that it was your hands that caused the issues.

You'd put the screws in at an angle on one making the flint striker a little unreliable. On another you had warped the barrel a little at the end while putting it into place... A feat you are both slightly impressed by and truly embarrassed from even as Alric eyes with a sparkle in his eye. Yet another you had messed up the trigger assembly something awful and it was a rather finnicky beast to get to drive the ignition mechanism home...

Wrapped up in your failings, you jump slightly as Alric's hand claps onto your shoulder and the middle aged man looks down at you with a smile, "I know that look."

His hand pulls away as your attention is drawn from worry to him, the mercenary leader snatching up one of your flawed creations and bringing it to his shoulder with well practiced movements, "Success is success. We might not get to it how we want, but we do have to learn to take it when we can. Never forget who you're giving this guns too, Margaret."

He lowers the rifle and stares down at you with a stern glance, "Ostlanders to the last. Our people have been fighting the land itself with sticks and rocks longer than you've been alive. We can work around a few mistakes."

He grins, "Especially if it'll blow a fist sized hole in a beastman from a hundred paces."


After two months of struggling to even get an answer from people you are honestly floored by how much simpler having Ori along to help makes everything. Instead of randomly asking about you are instead asked to come sit at the bar from time to time as you drop off flintlocks for the Road Walkers. Each time Ori calls you over it is to lay out some new location he's dug up for you or to schedule a meeting with someone willing to talk about a property to sale...

...

"Place has two stories and a basement. Got some furniture on the second floor, you can keep that. I just ask you keep your payment on time. Understood, girl?"

A part of you wants to rebel at being treated like a child by the matronly baker but refrains as you remember she seems more than capable of picking you up and snapping you in half from how she was handling sacks of flour earlier. Instead you look around the surprisingly clean room on the first floor and towards the almost spotless kitchen before heading for the most important space for you: the basement. The wooden door creaks open to reveal a flight of well worn steps leading into the dark.

A snort comes from behind you as the baker offers over up a lantern, "Last one living here left some of his stuff down there too. Said he wouldn't be needing it, something about buying even better stuff once he got to Marienburg. Verena certainly didn't bless that one with brains if you ask me."

You hold in a chuckle as you take the lantern and descend down. After only a few steps your face scrunches up as confusion settles in. Where paneled walls and support beams set up in a dirt hollow dug under the house should've been is instead a surprisingly large chamber carved from solid rock with support beams of stone reaching up to hold the house above.

Shelves and alcoves are carved into every wall and several wooden tables fill the space... And all of it is filled with a familiar assortment of glasswork, ceramics, woodcraft, and masonry. Words leave your mouth unbidden as the shock of it hits you, "An alchemist's lab?"

"Aye. What is left at least. Fool blew it up one too many times so I kicked him out the last time," The owner says as she waves towards the splintered remains of one table and the mess of shattered glass and oils surrounding it, "You'd have to clean it up yourself if you want to use it."

...

"This way Umgi."

You grunt in response as the Dwarf guides you to a large, single story stone building laying in the shadows of Wolfenburg's outer walls. A pair of large wooden doors mark the place as a warehouse once upon a time though the Dawi guides you towards a small door off to the side and unlocks it with a pair of keys pulled from... Somewhere. Together the two of you walk to the very center of the place and stand there for a long minute in absolute silence as you look around.

Several stacks of empty boxes. A wooden cart. Massive pillars of stone reaching up to the ceiling. And off against the far wall, a smelter that sits empty.

"We'll take the cart, but the rest will come with it."

"Ai."

"Ai."

...

"... What?"

Your head whips around the empty room you have found yourself in before turning back to stare at Ori who is currently leaning against the door with an open bottle in his hand, "Aye. Place can be yours to do your work. Two floors, some free furniture, and right behind the Rickety Wagon. Figured if you were shopping around then I might as well try."

He takes a swig from the bottle before pointing back out the door, "Puts you pretty close to your usual work as a bonus."

...

Which place do you choose for a workshop?
[] 23 Miller Street - A two story house with a basement owned by a local miller and baker who has offered the place up for a yearly rent. It's relatively small all things told, but comes with some bedroom furniture and a kitchen proper. Perhaps more importantly the basement is carved from solid stone and contains the remnants of an Alchemist's workshop that could be potentially very useful. Of course, from the way the owner spoke, too many accidents might get you evicted.
Costs 8 Wealth a year.
Remains of an alchemist's workshop?
Close to Wolfenburg's main streets.

[] 3 Underwall Road - A former warehouse involved in some form of ore smelting being put up for sell by a Dwarf. It is a rather sizable place that will come only with an old smelter in the back and some wooden crates, but it should be proof against any larger scale projects you want to take up. Of course, there is a rather concerning catch now that you know the lay of the land: It is right on the edge of Red Woodsmen turf.
Costs 12 Wealth to buy it outright.
Has a large smelter.
Near Red Woodsmen turf.
Very large space.

[] The Rickety House - One of several buildings surrounding the Rickety Wagon that Ori seems to own being offered up to you at a fairly reasonable price that can act not only as a house, but a small workshop for yourself. It would be perhaps the safest and most stable place you could choose in return for tying yourself even more tightly to the Road Walkers.
Costs 5 Wealth a year.
Right next to the Rickety Wagon.
Very safe space but close ties to the Road Walkers.

[] 39 North Street - A former carpentry workshop and furniture store directly on one of Wolfenburg's main streets being offered for yearly rental by the son of the carpenter who once worked their. It would need furnishing all on your own and would be a bit expensive, but perhaps the ability to run a shop directly on a main thoroughfare could prove worth it.
Costs 8 wealth a year.
Moderate space split between workshop, storefront, and living accommodations.
Right on Wolfenburg's northern main street.

[] None of them - Unsatisfied with what you found this month you decide to try again next month for a location more fitting your tastes and needs.