Turn 8 Planning, September 1138
Rockeye
Plausible Engineer
- Location
- Midwestern U.S.
You are Harold Bismarck and you hope things don't fall apart. It's... Unfortunate, that you didn't realize the goddess Dreselin would take so badly to you.
The village of Nesiwald is emptier than before. You noticed it last month, but as the work of summer speeds up and people prepare for the harvest, you hear mutters worrying about a weak harvest - food will rot in the fields if nobody collects it. Some hundred folk left to join the Eastern Army, and only twenty came back, rejected for unfitness.
When you tell people that over half the militia were rejected in total, there's a round of laughter and self-congratulations. "Aye, the Wald makes us all a bit harder than the softies who've never seen a zombie or climbed a hill in their lives!"
There's a subtle tension in the air. Or are you just imagining it? You've heard nothing of the war except a few vague rumors that nothing bad has happened... You're worried for your parents. Your mother came back horribly wounded one time, and was forced to mostly stay in bed for months and months. War is never a certain and painless thing. Most of you is furious at the eastern kingdoms for picking a fight that only leads to bloodsheed. But a small part of you, which speaks in Maisah Touati's voice, wonders if that's really the whole story...
You'll just have to wait and listen. It's not like you have a weapon design in your hands, or the command of any soldiers. In the meantime, there's work to do.
Plan Vote with the below actions. You have two free actions that can be used in any category.
Martial. 1 action.
You're starting to improve yourself. You know, at least, how to carefully think about martial matters and try to understand them - no general, but the ability to follow a general's thinking. If you're going to end up making equipment for soldiers, that's probably a good thing! Though you wonder what you can do to improve further...
[ ] Training Grounds? Everyone lamented the general unpreparedness of the militia at Ganz. So incompetent were the masses of volunteers that the army's leaders sent most of them away! This brings to mind the notion you shared with Cornet Renns when you first arrived - could Nesiwald build a simple training ground? You're not sure what it needs besides a flat open field to serve well, but you can talk to people and you remember your father's assembly field...
Cost: 0. Difficulty: 30. Figure out what a basic training ground needs.
[ ] A Monster Manual? You've had an idea for a guide to identifying dangerous magical wildlife - 'monsters', as they're called. Monsters are a problem for the whole world, but in Veschwar are mostly kept at bay by the relentless militancy of its people. Just last week one of the hunters killed a pair of zombie wolves. An identification guide - a monster manual - could help people recognize what they're dealing with, maybe even save lives. Write letters of inquiry to your new contacts in the Merchants' Guild.
Cost: 0. Difficulty: 5. See if anything like a Monster Manual already exists.
[ ] Hit the books? You've realized that if you want a broader understanding of martial matters, you need something to study. That's just how you think. You vaguely recall something about military history. Famous battles? Comparisons of the soldiers of old to those of now? Yes, please. That sounds like something that could help you imagine a soldier of tomorrow, and sell the idea to officers... Send to the Merchants' Guild for relevant books.
Cost: 1 Profit Burned. Difficulty: 20. Get a book on military history sent to you.
Stewardship. 1 action.
With your recent expenditure to acquire the iron mine, your plans to have the grand water mill in place by the end of the year might now be out of reach. There's definitely not enough time to finish it by autumn now, but maybe you can have it ready for next spring? There's plenty else to do besides that, too.
[ ] Forgework. You have a deal with Mr. Smith to manage his money and shop in exchange for some of the extra coin he makes. When you really put the effort in, you can speed his own efforts and his apprentice-teaching along. Keep at it. Organize his tools, adjust prices a bit, help the apprentices, tally up demand for nails and horseshoes, round up men to fetch more ore, pitch the idea of new tools to folk, and so on.
Cost: 0. Difficulty: 15. Gain 1 Profit from excellent management and support of the blacksmith. Natural roll > 80 = 2 Profit.
[ ] Actual Roads. The main routes in Nesiwald are simple dirt paths. No matter how grandiosely they may be called 'roads', they simply aren't. If you are going to be in Nesiwald for a while, especially if you are going to get it to grow in size and relevance, you're going to need real roads at some point. The Codex shows you how to make a good road: Stone pavers on top of a gravel bed which is itself on a flat surface of well-compacted dirt. Write up some plans, get enough people on board with the idea, and make a lovely main road for the village.
Time: Three months. Cost: 5 Profit burned. Difficulty: 50. Easier to move people and goods around within Nesiwald. Road-building experience.
[ ] The Watermill, Part 1. You've decided on an ambitious course of action, inspired by a quirk of geography that makes for a perfect water-drop, the ideal location for a waterwheel, to turn the power of nature into man's use. You have to lay a foundation and prepare the ground by building up and cutting away part of the hill, then start on the building's frame. This is going to be a big project, but it's not very complex or difficult, just a lot of work.
Time: Four months. Cost: 8 Profit Burned. Difficulty: 10. First stage of Large Watermill construction.
[ ] Start four-field crop rotation (buy). This should be an easy and simple way to improve food production in Nesiwald. Should. Get to know the farmers, and figure out who might be willing to divide up their fields in a new and radical way on your say-so. To guarantee that you'll actually see a return on your money and to secure long-term profits you'll buy a few fields and then get the farmers currently living on them to become tenants, working the land that now belongs to you. It's all legal, even if it would sure look like you're trying to set yourself up like a lord.
Cost: 10 Profit burned. Difficulty: 40 - 20 [Farmers Found]. Gain tiny tenant farms (four-field crop rotation) asset. Might cause backlash.
[ ] Start four-field crop rotation (convince). Alternately, you could just try to convince the farmers to adopt your idea, helping seal the deal by giving them a loan or buying them new tools and asking to be paid back in a few months. You won't see as any profit directly and it'll be even harder, since what does some cityfolk know about farming anyway? But improving local food production will have some very nice knock-on effects, increasing the amount of grain that you can feed the mill you plan to build and therefore the likely profits, and freeing up more people to work on all the other projects you have in mind.
Time: Two months. Cost: 4 Profit invested until end of next Spring. Difficulty: 60 - 20 [Farmers Found]. Four-Field Crop Rotation starts on some farms.
Learning: 1 action.
Learning what the Codex can teach you is going to be the bedrock of your plans to bring that miraculous future to this world. There will be three rough stages in bringing any new innovation to the real world. First, you study the Codex Crystal's visions to understand the general idea behind a new invention. This step will be essentially free - the only thing it will cost you is your own time and effort and perhaps a bit of paper.
Second, you will have to perform experiments on what you have deciphered. Watching someone else do it is not enough - you'll have to work with your hands to build prototypes, test methods, and learn the pitfalls and bad ideas. This could be expensive, depending on the item in question. And finally, once you have working knowledge or a prototype, you will be ready to use whatever you have been working on for real.
At least you have plenty of paper now. You can actually start to get something new done.
[ ] Ask the Codex about itself. You don't understand the Codex. You found it in a bunch of out-of-fashion jewelry in your parents' storeroom, but that doesn't go very far to explaining why such an obviously powerful magical artifact was waiting there for you to discover it. Or why nobody else can see the light it shines for you. The Codex is a lot more cooperative and calm now, for some reason. And you could swear you heard it whisper to you once... You might make good progress this time.
Cost: 0. Difficulty: Probably a lot easier now? Gain information. Repeatable.
[ ] All Mine, part 1. The book on mining you purchased in Ganz describes ways to follow an ore vein as it abandons the surface and dips back into the ground. Tunneling is tricky and occasionally deadly business, but it seems that most mines worth the name have to use it. There's only so much iron right on the surface. Organize a dig of a short experimental shaft with these support structures and follow the iron into the hills.
Cost: 2 Profit invested for 4 months. Difficulty: 50. Unlock All Mine, part 2 (Stewardship)
[ ] Call for Casting. Timothy Greens isn't ready for his own smithy yet and he has been refused the chance to try sand casting with iron so far, but if you weigh in on the great possibilities of the method, Mr. Smith trusts you enough that he'll let Greens have the forge in the evening if you pick up the slack on some of his other work. If you can figure out how to make cast iron plows, that will be wonderful for the ease of farming around here.
Cost: 0. Difficulty: 25/75. Try to make cast iron plows.
[ ] Seek new ideas. See what the Codex has to show you, spend time letting it wander to whatever it wants to display to you instead of directing it somewhere specific.
Cost: 0. Unlock new technology prospects depending on roll.
Codex Outlines: 1 action.
As the Codex Crystal becomes more biddable, patient, and stable, you're able to scribble down notes on what it shows you in less time than before. Rather than blocking out a whole day to try and make sense of any of it, you can take it in smaller chunks and do more overall.
New action category to split long-term study of the Codex Crystal and actual prototyping and experimenting! Pick a topic to research the outline of with the Codex Crystal this month. Free actions spent here can speed up your progress. Each action increases Progress by 2d60 + Learning. 58-60 on the d60s explode.
[ ] Niter Chemistry outline. Apparently you could possibly mine this white stuff, or extract it from... Bat poop? Well it's not any more disgusting than spreading cow dung into the fields. The Codex implies that it is very, very good for the growth of certain plants, and also good at burning, that could possibly make a nice weapon of some kind? And maybe for putting on meat to make it last longer? You're not sure about that bit, but perhaps it will clear up if you study it.
Cost: 0. Progress: 0/[??500-800??]
[ ] Standard Weights and Measures outline. What is the length of a foot? How much does a bushel of grain weigh, exactly, and how much ale is in a barrel, measured to the drop? You need to figure out a system of weights and measures that will allow a layman to measure a variety of physical properties and get the same results, every time. If you can get it to the point that others can follow a standard measure, everything will be so much easier. You could order nails exactly two and one-quarter inches long from five different smiths and know that they will all be the same. It's going to save you so many headaches down the line.
Cost: 0 Progress: 17/[??600-1000??]
[ ] Vodka Brewing outline. There are plenty of potatoes being grown in the local fields. They're an easy crop that grows in almost any kind of soil. The Codex is showing you methods to turn potatoes into a new kind of alcohol using fermenting and strange boiling processes. The new drink would probably be fairly cheap to make and could be a good source of income. Potatoes are cheap.
Cost: 0. Progress: 56/[??300-500??]
[ ] Beekeeping Outline. Honey is a deliciously sweet delicacy, a rare treat. Nobles love the stuff, and you would know! Given that you have to get it by tromping through forests looking for wax balls of angry and then poking them with a stick... It's understandable that few want the job of collecting honey. But the Codex Crystal has ideas about bees, and has been showing you ways to - you think - attract bees to specially made hives and collect the honey without being stung as much. A reliably source of honey could be very profitable.
Cost: 0. Progress: 0/[??300-500??]
Diplomacy: 1 action.
Now that the winter is past and the immediate memory of your disgrace and banishment is likely to have faded from popular consciousness, you think you could reach out to some people in the kingdom and start to feel out what it would take to 'return to grace', as it were. You have some contacts back in Ganz who didn't seem too irrepressibly hostile to you... The Merchants Guild in particular seems perfectly happy to take your money.
[ ] Come live with us! Your ideas for projects in Nesiwald call for it to turn to a bustling town, even a city in its own right, eventually. In particular you want mine workers. The glut of iron tools your mine and Mr. Smith's work provide should make things easier. You can offer to give homesteaders loans of tools, coin, animals, and land if they'll make their lives in Nesiwald, and start trying to induce the village to become a town.
Cost: 3 Profit invested for one year. Might recover Profit if action fails. Difficulty: 50. Causes Nesiwald to grow if successful.
[ ] Can I borrow a copper? You need money to do things. The more money you have access to, the faster you'll be able to do things. And you still have that severe penalty payment looming over your head... Maybe spending so much back in Ganz was a bit unwise? Well, one thing you could do now is outright ask the people of Nesiwald - and perhaps some travelling merchants too - for a loan. The excitement over the Mill might help with that.
Cost: 0. Difficulty: 30. Get loan offers from locals with terms depending on various factors. Loans are effective as of start of this turn. Likely to be relatively small loans.
[ ] Family Reachout. You sent a significant chunk of money off to your family a while ago, and last you heard of them both your parents were off to war. You really doubt they'll bother to answer you while there's still fighting going on, but at the same time surely nobody can fault you for sending worried letters to your family right now, disgrace or not. You can ask after your baby sister, and whether the money helped - and tell them about the watermill idea, couching it in 'once tested' and so on of course.
Cost: 0. Difficulty: 20. More correspondence with your family.
Intrigue: 1 action.
Alright, clearly there is more call for investigation and snooping than you initially suspected. Being aware of local gossip is nice enough, if not particularly useful - but there's other things you would really quite like to know or stealthily do, and you have to do them right but you only have so much time, attention, and subterfuge available to you.
[ ] Audit Preparation, blatant and thorough. At this point you're so unsure and confused on whether everyone has been paying their tithes correctly that you're going to need to do a rather invasive and thorough investigation to actually be sure, either way. It is, technically, your remit - the Lord Governor sent you to do this. But it will make your position of power obvious and perhaps invite resentment.
Cost: 0. Time: Two months. Difficulty: 30. Get information. May lower Nesiwald opinion.
[ ] More Gossip. You can't just walk out your front door and talk to the local gossips for the surrounding area. The other villages, hunters, homesteaders, horse patrols, and occasional wandering priest or herbalist in the sparsely-populated region you find yourself in might be a new source of gossip if you drop a few coins in the right palms in response to interesting stories. It might not be that much more interesting or useful than what you hear in Nesiwald itself, but more information is usually better. It'll help you keep a read on the area's mood if nothing else.
Cost: 1 Profit Burned. Difficulty: 20. Unlock Rostwald Region rumor mill.
[ ] "Borrowing." You're going to have more money soon! You need a little bit more right now. Borrow it! Borrow a tool or sack of grain or some of the smithy's inventory to and use them as barter to pay people now, and settle up at the end of the month. You can probably stretch it out for a month or two with a little concerted effort, and since everyone borrows things from neighbors all the time, maybe nobody will even notice.
Cost: 0. Difficulty: 20 to pull it off. 40 to avoid anyone noticing. You can spend more money than you have this month, to be paid back out of end-of-season profits.
Piety: 1 action.
Gods. Divinities. You don't fully understand them, but you think nobody does. Whether the gods are truly benevolent and kind or if their blessings are some kind of partnership or hobby, or something else entirely, you're not quite sure. You've never seen an obvious miracle - a glowing bolt of light that leaves a man fully healed, or lightning from clear skies to strike an enemy - but their more subtle workings seem real to you.
Seeing an undead up close has renewed your disgust and hate for Azmal and his workings on the world. And it seems like your prayers to Ordnil may have been answered, steadying you and allowing you to defend yourself, something you had feared you would never be able to do again in the back of your mind.
[ ] The Healer. There's a small church to the goddess Shallya here. Gods can be inscrutable at times, but the blessings they provide to people who faithfully pray are real and undeniable. Shallya's domain is healing, a fairly popular subject when plague and fighting are both capable of ravaging entire villages. Go to the church and pray, asking Shallya for the strength to continue on despite misfortune.
Cost: 0. Difficulty: ??. Helps you rest and recover. Gain a bit of divine favor?
[ ] Faith of the Shield. Ordnil is the patron god of Veschwar. Whether or not he steadied your hand when you killed that zombie, you think a little bit of endurance and surety can't go amiss for you. You should take some time aside to pray to Ordnil. Maybe set up a small shrine by carving the tower shield symbol into one of your walls.
Cost: 0. Difficulty: ??. Helps calm and center you. Gain a bit of divine favor?
[ ] River-God's faith. Ettri is a god of rivers and water, as you learned back in Ganz. You wrote down a common prayer and have a pewter holy symbol of his, so perhaps this god will like you a bit better than Dreselin did? Fire prevention and rivers are lovely domains when you're about to build a watermill that will create flammable flour dust...
Cost: 0. Difficulty: ??. Gain a bit of divine favor?
Personal: 1 action.
You can't endure every moment of your days being devoted to productive work in the long-term. Personal projects and spending time with your friends should distract you from more complicated and difficult tasks and give you a bit of time to unwind.
Personal actions don't have difficulties.
[ ] Reading and Writing. You miss books. Ledgers, tallies, and your own close-spaced notes on the things the Codex Crystal shows you aren't books. You have some paper, so perhaps you can write your own stories at some point - maybe that would be relaxing - but what you really want is to send for a few books to keep you entertained, literate and cultured, and, well, sane.
Cost: 2 Profit Burned. Get a small collection of novels and nonfiction.
[ ] On the nature of Crafts. You probably don't really understand Dreselin. The domain of crafts should mean she's glad of anyone making things, correct? Except that she seems to be a bit of a perfectionist. Maybe you can ask Bertram about it - you haven't talked with the man much, but he seems to know more about many deities than priests do.
Cost: 0. Discuss Dreselin with Bertram.
[ ] Forcible education. You have learned something important by a stroke of sheer luck. Such a valuable secret is potent indeed... Sasha Nesiwald can't read. At last, the time of your inevitable revenge is at hand... The near-sadistic glee on Sasha's face as she bullied you through all that exercise (for your own good, and it turned to real joy when you did it) will be answered by her own punishment, of sorts. Teaching full-time is not something you want to do, but you can't let a friend of yours be an uneducated hick, now can you?
Cost: 0. Forcibly teach Sasha Nesiwald to read, write, and do arithmetic.
[ ] No relaxing, only work. Who are you kidding? The Codex Crystal - this wonderful incredible artifact that you don't understand and have kept a closely guarded secret - is the one and only gateway of these futuristic ideas. You are the only one who can bring the future here. You need to give it your all.
Cost: 0. Work harder. Gain a free action.
Voting Moratorium - Don't Vote For Two Hours To Allow A Bit Of Discussion First Please
If it looks like I missed something, feel free to let me know. Also, if you have ideas for actions, tell me about them and I might add them in future turns.
The village of Nesiwald is emptier than before. You noticed it last month, but as the work of summer speeds up and people prepare for the harvest, you hear mutters worrying about a weak harvest - food will rot in the fields if nobody collects it. Some hundred folk left to join the Eastern Army, and only twenty came back, rejected for unfitness.
When you tell people that over half the militia were rejected in total, there's a round of laughter and self-congratulations. "Aye, the Wald makes us all a bit harder than the softies who've never seen a zombie or climbed a hill in their lives!"
There's a subtle tension in the air. Or are you just imagining it? You've heard nothing of the war except a few vague rumors that nothing bad has happened... You're worried for your parents. Your mother came back horribly wounded one time, and was forced to mostly stay in bed for months and months. War is never a certain and painless thing. Most of you is furious at the eastern kingdoms for picking a fight that only leads to bloodsheed. But a small part of you, which speaks in Maisah Touati's voice, wonders if that's really the whole story...
You'll just have to wait and listen. It's not like you have a weapon design in your hands, or the command of any soldiers. In the meantime, there's work to do.
Plan Vote with the below actions. You have two free actions that can be used in any category.
Martial. 1 action.
You're starting to improve yourself. You know, at least, how to carefully think about martial matters and try to understand them - no general, but the ability to follow a general's thinking. If you're going to end up making equipment for soldiers, that's probably a good thing! Though you wonder what you can do to improve further...
[ ] Training Grounds? Everyone lamented the general unpreparedness of the militia at Ganz. So incompetent were the masses of volunteers that the army's leaders sent most of them away! This brings to mind the notion you shared with Cornet Renns when you first arrived - could Nesiwald build a simple training ground? You're not sure what it needs besides a flat open field to serve well, but you can talk to people and you remember your father's assembly field...
Cost: 0. Difficulty: 30. Figure out what a basic training ground needs.
[ ] A Monster Manual? You've had an idea for a guide to identifying dangerous magical wildlife - 'monsters', as they're called. Monsters are a problem for the whole world, but in Veschwar are mostly kept at bay by the relentless militancy of its people. Just last week one of the hunters killed a pair of zombie wolves. An identification guide - a monster manual - could help people recognize what they're dealing with, maybe even save lives. Write letters of inquiry to your new contacts in the Merchants' Guild.
Cost: 0. Difficulty: 5. See if anything like a Monster Manual already exists.
[ ] Hit the books? You've realized that if you want a broader understanding of martial matters, you need something to study. That's just how you think. You vaguely recall something about military history. Famous battles? Comparisons of the soldiers of old to those of now? Yes, please. That sounds like something that could help you imagine a soldier of tomorrow, and sell the idea to officers... Send to the Merchants' Guild for relevant books.
Cost: 1 Profit Burned. Difficulty: 20. Get a book on military history sent to you.
Stewardship. 1 action.
With your recent expenditure to acquire the iron mine, your plans to have the grand water mill in place by the end of the year might now be out of reach. There's definitely not enough time to finish it by autumn now, but maybe you can have it ready for next spring? There's plenty else to do besides that, too.
[ ] Forgework. You have a deal with Mr. Smith to manage his money and shop in exchange for some of the extra coin he makes. When you really put the effort in, you can speed his own efforts and his apprentice-teaching along. Keep at it. Organize his tools, adjust prices a bit, help the apprentices, tally up demand for nails and horseshoes, round up men to fetch more ore, pitch the idea of new tools to folk, and so on.
Cost: 0. Difficulty: 15. Gain 1 Profit from excellent management and support of the blacksmith. Natural roll > 80 = 2 Profit.
[ ] Actual Roads. The main routes in Nesiwald are simple dirt paths. No matter how grandiosely they may be called 'roads', they simply aren't. If you are going to be in Nesiwald for a while, especially if you are going to get it to grow in size and relevance, you're going to need real roads at some point. The Codex shows you how to make a good road: Stone pavers on top of a gravel bed which is itself on a flat surface of well-compacted dirt. Write up some plans, get enough people on board with the idea, and make a lovely main road for the village.
Time: Three months. Cost: 5 Profit burned. Difficulty: 50. Easier to move people and goods around within Nesiwald. Road-building experience.
[ ] The Watermill, Part 1. You've decided on an ambitious course of action, inspired by a quirk of geography that makes for a perfect water-drop, the ideal location for a waterwheel, to turn the power of nature into man's use. You have to lay a foundation and prepare the ground by building up and cutting away part of the hill, then start on the building's frame. This is going to be a big project, but it's not very complex or difficult, just a lot of work.
Time: Four months. Cost: 8 Profit Burned. Difficulty: 10. First stage of Large Watermill construction.
[ ] Start four-field crop rotation (buy). This should be an easy and simple way to improve food production in Nesiwald. Should. Get to know the farmers, and figure out who might be willing to divide up their fields in a new and radical way on your say-so. To guarantee that you'll actually see a return on your money and to secure long-term profits you'll buy a few fields and then get the farmers currently living on them to become tenants, working the land that now belongs to you. It's all legal, even if it would sure look like you're trying to set yourself up like a lord.
Cost: 10 Profit burned. Difficulty: 40 - 20 [Farmers Found]. Gain tiny tenant farms (four-field crop rotation) asset. Might cause backlash.
[ ] Start four-field crop rotation (convince). Alternately, you could just try to convince the farmers to adopt your idea, helping seal the deal by giving them a loan or buying them new tools and asking to be paid back in a few months. You won't see as any profit directly and it'll be even harder, since what does some cityfolk know about farming anyway? But improving local food production will have some very nice knock-on effects, increasing the amount of grain that you can feed the mill you plan to build and therefore the likely profits, and freeing up more people to work on all the other projects you have in mind.
Time: Two months. Cost: 4 Profit invested until end of next Spring. Difficulty: 60 - 20 [Farmers Found]. Four-Field Crop Rotation starts on some farms.
Learning: 1 action.
Learning what the Codex can teach you is going to be the bedrock of your plans to bring that miraculous future to this world. There will be three rough stages in bringing any new innovation to the real world. First, you study the Codex Crystal's visions to understand the general idea behind a new invention. This step will be essentially free - the only thing it will cost you is your own time and effort and perhaps a bit of paper.
Second, you will have to perform experiments on what you have deciphered. Watching someone else do it is not enough - you'll have to work with your hands to build prototypes, test methods, and learn the pitfalls and bad ideas. This could be expensive, depending on the item in question. And finally, once you have working knowledge or a prototype, you will be ready to use whatever you have been working on for real.
At least you have plenty of paper now. You can actually start to get something new done.
[ ] Ask the Codex about itself. You don't understand the Codex. You found it in a bunch of out-of-fashion jewelry in your parents' storeroom, but that doesn't go very far to explaining why such an obviously powerful magical artifact was waiting there for you to discover it. Or why nobody else can see the light it shines for you. The Codex is a lot more cooperative and calm now, for some reason. And you could swear you heard it whisper to you once... You might make good progress this time.
Cost: 0. Difficulty: Probably a lot easier now? Gain information. Repeatable.
[ ] All Mine, part 1. The book on mining you purchased in Ganz describes ways to follow an ore vein as it abandons the surface and dips back into the ground. Tunneling is tricky and occasionally deadly business, but it seems that most mines worth the name have to use it. There's only so much iron right on the surface. Organize a dig of a short experimental shaft with these support structures and follow the iron into the hills.
Cost: 2 Profit invested for 4 months. Difficulty: 50. Unlock All Mine, part 2 (Stewardship)
[ ] Call for Casting. Timothy Greens isn't ready for his own smithy yet and he has been refused the chance to try sand casting with iron so far, but if you weigh in on the great possibilities of the method, Mr. Smith trusts you enough that he'll let Greens have the forge in the evening if you pick up the slack on some of his other work. If you can figure out how to make cast iron plows, that will be wonderful for the ease of farming around here.
Cost: 0. Difficulty: 25/75. Try to make cast iron plows.
[ ] Seek new ideas. See what the Codex has to show you, spend time letting it wander to whatever it wants to display to you instead of directing it somewhere specific.
Cost: 0. Unlock new technology prospects depending on roll.
Codex Outlines: 1 action.
As the Codex Crystal becomes more biddable, patient, and stable, you're able to scribble down notes on what it shows you in less time than before. Rather than blocking out a whole day to try and make sense of any of it, you can take it in smaller chunks and do more overall.
New action category to split long-term study of the Codex Crystal and actual prototyping and experimenting! Pick a topic to research the outline of with the Codex Crystal this month. Free actions spent here can speed up your progress. Each action increases Progress by 2d60 + Learning. 58-60 on the d60s explode.
[ ] Niter Chemistry outline. Apparently you could possibly mine this white stuff, or extract it from... Bat poop? Well it's not any more disgusting than spreading cow dung into the fields. The Codex implies that it is very, very good for the growth of certain plants, and also good at burning, that could possibly make a nice weapon of some kind? And maybe for putting on meat to make it last longer? You're not sure about that bit, but perhaps it will clear up if you study it.
Cost: 0. Progress: 0/[??500-800??]
[ ] Standard Weights and Measures outline. What is the length of a foot? How much does a bushel of grain weigh, exactly, and how much ale is in a barrel, measured to the drop? You need to figure out a system of weights and measures that will allow a layman to measure a variety of physical properties and get the same results, every time. If you can get it to the point that others can follow a standard measure, everything will be so much easier. You could order nails exactly two and one-quarter inches long from five different smiths and know that they will all be the same. It's going to save you so many headaches down the line.
Cost: 0 Progress: 17/[??600-1000??]
[ ] Vodka Brewing outline. There are plenty of potatoes being grown in the local fields. They're an easy crop that grows in almost any kind of soil. The Codex is showing you methods to turn potatoes into a new kind of alcohol using fermenting and strange boiling processes. The new drink would probably be fairly cheap to make and could be a good source of income. Potatoes are cheap.
Cost: 0. Progress: 56/[??300-500??]
[ ] Beekeeping Outline. Honey is a deliciously sweet delicacy, a rare treat. Nobles love the stuff, and you would know! Given that you have to get it by tromping through forests looking for wax balls of angry and then poking them with a stick... It's understandable that few want the job of collecting honey. But the Codex Crystal has ideas about bees, and has been showing you ways to - you think - attract bees to specially made hives and collect the honey without being stung as much. A reliably source of honey could be very profitable.
Cost: 0. Progress: 0/[??300-500??]
Diplomacy: 1 action.
Now that the winter is past and the immediate memory of your disgrace and banishment is likely to have faded from popular consciousness, you think you could reach out to some people in the kingdom and start to feel out what it would take to 'return to grace', as it were. You have some contacts back in Ganz who didn't seem too irrepressibly hostile to you... The Merchants Guild in particular seems perfectly happy to take your money.
[ ] Come live with us! Your ideas for projects in Nesiwald call for it to turn to a bustling town, even a city in its own right, eventually. In particular you want mine workers. The glut of iron tools your mine and Mr. Smith's work provide should make things easier. You can offer to give homesteaders loans of tools, coin, animals, and land if they'll make their lives in Nesiwald, and start trying to induce the village to become a town.
Cost: 3 Profit invested for one year. Might recover Profit if action fails. Difficulty: 50. Causes Nesiwald to grow if successful.
[ ] Can I borrow a copper? You need money to do things. The more money you have access to, the faster you'll be able to do things. And you still have that severe penalty payment looming over your head... Maybe spending so much back in Ganz was a bit unwise? Well, one thing you could do now is outright ask the people of Nesiwald - and perhaps some travelling merchants too - for a loan. The excitement over the Mill might help with that.
Cost: 0. Difficulty: 30. Get loan offers from locals with terms depending on various factors. Loans are effective as of start of this turn. Likely to be relatively small loans.
[ ] Family Reachout. You sent a significant chunk of money off to your family a while ago, and last you heard of them both your parents were off to war. You really doubt they'll bother to answer you while there's still fighting going on, but at the same time surely nobody can fault you for sending worried letters to your family right now, disgrace or not. You can ask after your baby sister, and whether the money helped - and tell them about the watermill idea, couching it in 'once tested' and so on of course.
Cost: 0. Difficulty: 20. More correspondence with your family.
Intrigue: 1 action.
Alright, clearly there is more call for investigation and snooping than you initially suspected. Being aware of local gossip is nice enough, if not particularly useful - but there's other things you would really quite like to know or stealthily do, and you have to do them right but you only have so much time, attention, and subterfuge available to you.
[ ] Audit Preparation, blatant and thorough. At this point you're so unsure and confused on whether everyone has been paying their tithes correctly that you're going to need to do a rather invasive and thorough investigation to actually be sure, either way. It is, technically, your remit - the Lord Governor sent you to do this. But it will make your position of power obvious and perhaps invite resentment.
Cost: 0. Time: Two months. Difficulty: 30. Get information. May lower Nesiwald opinion.
[ ] More Gossip. You can't just walk out your front door and talk to the local gossips for the surrounding area. The other villages, hunters, homesteaders, horse patrols, and occasional wandering priest or herbalist in the sparsely-populated region you find yourself in might be a new source of gossip if you drop a few coins in the right palms in response to interesting stories. It might not be that much more interesting or useful than what you hear in Nesiwald itself, but more information is usually better. It'll help you keep a read on the area's mood if nothing else.
Cost: 1 Profit Burned. Difficulty: 20. Unlock Rostwald Region rumor mill.
[ ] "Borrowing." You're going to have more money soon! You need a little bit more right now. Borrow it! Borrow a tool or sack of grain or some of the smithy's inventory to and use them as barter to pay people now, and settle up at the end of the month. You can probably stretch it out for a month or two with a little concerted effort, and since everyone borrows things from neighbors all the time, maybe nobody will even notice.
Cost: 0. Difficulty: 20 to pull it off. 40 to avoid anyone noticing. You can spend more money than you have this month, to be paid back out of end-of-season profits.
Piety: 1 action.
Gods. Divinities. You don't fully understand them, but you think nobody does. Whether the gods are truly benevolent and kind or if their blessings are some kind of partnership or hobby, or something else entirely, you're not quite sure. You've never seen an obvious miracle - a glowing bolt of light that leaves a man fully healed, or lightning from clear skies to strike an enemy - but their more subtle workings seem real to you.
Seeing an undead up close has renewed your disgust and hate for Azmal and his workings on the world. And it seems like your prayers to Ordnil may have been answered, steadying you and allowing you to defend yourself, something you had feared you would never be able to do again in the back of your mind.
[ ] The Healer. There's a small church to the goddess Shallya here. Gods can be inscrutable at times, but the blessings they provide to people who faithfully pray are real and undeniable. Shallya's domain is healing, a fairly popular subject when plague and fighting are both capable of ravaging entire villages. Go to the church and pray, asking Shallya for the strength to continue on despite misfortune.
Cost: 0. Difficulty: ??. Helps you rest and recover. Gain a bit of divine favor?
[ ] Faith of the Shield. Ordnil is the patron god of Veschwar. Whether or not he steadied your hand when you killed that zombie, you think a little bit of endurance and surety can't go amiss for you. You should take some time aside to pray to Ordnil. Maybe set up a small shrine by carving the tower shield symbol into one of your walls.
Cost: 0. Difficulty: ??. Helps calm and center you. Gain a bit of divine favor?
[ ] River-God's faith. Ettri is a god of rivers and water, as you learned back in Ganz. You wrote down a common prayer and have a pewter holy symbol of his, so perhaps this god will like you a bit better than Dreselin did? Fire prevention and rivers are lovely domains when you're about to build a watermill that will create flammable flour dust...
Cost: 0. Difficulty: ??. Gain a bit of divine favor?
Personal: 1 action.
You can't endure every moment of your days being devoted to productive work in the long-term. Personal projects and spending time with your friends should distract you from more complicated and difficult tasks and give you a bit of time to unwind.
Personal actions don't have difficulties.
[ ] Reading and Writing. You miss books. Ledgers, tallies, and your own close-spaced notes on the things the Codex Crystal shows you aren't books. You have some paper, so perhaps you can write your own stories at some point - maybe that would be relaxing - but what you really want is to send for a few books to keep you entertained, literate and cultured, and, well, sane.
Cost: 2 Profit Burned. Get a small collection of novels and nonfiction.
[ ] On the nature of Crafts. You probably don't really understand Dreselin. The domain of crafts should mean she's glad of anyone making things, correct? Except that she seems to be a bit of a perfectionist. Maybe you can ask Bertram about it - you haven't talked with the man much, but he seems to know more about many deities than priests do.
Cost: 0. Discuss Dreselin with Bertram.
[ ] Forcible education. You have learned something important by a stroke of sheer luck. Such a valuable secret is potent indeed... Sasha Nesiwald can't read. At last, the time of your inevitable revenge is at hand... The near-sadistic glee on Sasha's face as she bullied you through all that exercise (for your own good, and it turned to real joy when you did it) will be answered by her own punishment, of sorts. Teaching full-time is not something you want to do, but you can't let a friend of yours be an uneducated hick, now can you?
Cost: 0. Forcibly teach Sasha Nesiwald to read, write, and do arithmetic.
[ ] No relaxing, only work. Who are you kidding? The Codex Crystal - this wonderful incredible artifact that you don't understand and have kept a closely guarded secret - is the one and only gateway of these futuristic ideas. You are the only one who can bring the future here. You need to give it your all.
Cost: 0. Work harder. Gain a free action.
Voting Moratorium - Don't Vote For Two Hours To Allow A Bit Of Discussion First Please
If it looks like I missed something, feel free to let me know. Also, if you have ideas for actions, tell me about them and I might add them in future turns.
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