Lord of the Gallows - A Prison Colony Builder
- Thread starter Azel
- Start date
- Original Fantasy
Vote closed
- Location
- United States
I certainly won't say no to more and better troops if we ever get money for it.
Turn 2 - Summer of 2164 Anno Imperialis - Results
- Location
- Germany
Turn 2 - Summer of 2164 Anno Imperialis - Results
Legion Auxiliaries (1 Action)
- Scout the mountains. (Auxiliaries)
You need to know more about the mountains of this island, especially how much of the peasantry's stories of monsters and evil spirits are true. Maybe you can even find a better path to the plateau.
Benefit: Gain more knowledge about your surroundings. Potentially discovers additional paths into the mountains.
The reports coming in over the weeks were far from reassuring. Your Auxiliaries had done their best to comb the mountains and the forests on the way there and the peasants sadly had not told tall tales. Goblins seemed to be a serious problem of the island, and a few of your soldiers were wounded in ambushes by the skulking menaces. Worryingly enough, they did not all use clubs and primitive spears, but some were seen with crude swords they must have pilfered from somewhere.
The other common presence in the area were wolf- and warg-packs, which were likely the only thing keeping the goblins somewhat in check. However, they were also significantly more dangerous and three of the Auxiliaries had been killed as they ran into a group of wargs. Signs of trolls living in the woods and wyverns being sighted in the mountains rounded out the bad news. Even the stories of strange lights in the forests were repeated by your people, but at this point you suspect it was either torch bearing goblins or the stress of being out and about in the night.
As for the mountains, you had not much to show for the efforts spent. The small goat trail was still the only route that could be used to get to the plateau with every other lead leading only to ravines and sheer rock cliffs. Sure, the engineers could have likely made useful paths there, but so they could reinforce the trail you already knew about. The only good thing was that you had the first few reports from the plateau itself and since the path there was reasonably safe, you decided to have a look yourself.
Moderate Success.
Learned more about the dangers of the area.
Knowledge of the plateau itself gained.
Engineers (1 Action)
- Build a camp near the mountains. (Engineers)
While the tiny path to the plateau makes it impossible to explore it properly, let alone build something there, you could instead set up a temporary camp in the forests. It would make it easier to build something in the mountains later and cut down on the friction with the people of Vollug once you are out of the city.
Benefit: Gain basic camp in the forests near the mountains.
Meanwhile, the engineers busied themselves to erect a small camp in the forest. It was not a grant thing that they built there, just a few large houses to serve as barracks and storerooms at the same time, surrounded by a palisade, but it was something. The Auxiliaries were both happy and annoyed by the prospect of having to live there in the future. On the one hand, they were now far away from the city and it's entertainments, for which you were rather grateful, but on the other hand, they did not have to camp in the wilderness any longer while making their patrols.
Gained Forest Camp.
General Lothar Vanrich (1 Action)
- Bean counting.
Your expeditions funding is about as good as everything else about it. That is, barely adequate for the absolute minimum. Put your attention towards keeping the books to keep the waste of funds at a minimum. Maybe you can even figure out a way to bolster the budget a bit.
Benefit: Bonus to random event rolls. Can unlock special actions.
Checking the ledgers turned out to be a good idea, since after a few days you were quite certain that your quartermaster had been taught how to read and write by a pig. It was a right mess already and after deciphering the entries made so far, you decided to just start over. And to replace the quartermaster. Had this gone on for a few more months, there might have been some problems, but right now the damage was still limited. A few of the soldiers and one of the engineers had gotten their pay twice it seemed, and there were a few merchants who were still waiting for their payments, though both were sorted our quickly.
However, you also became painfully aware of how low your funds already were. The empire would not send any more silver until the first prisoners arrived and you would need to be careful to make what you had last that long. Maybe the Auxiliaries could have hunted a few of their meals themselves? The farmers certainly wouldn't have minded seeing the rabbits thinned out a bit and you doubted there were any laws about poaching around these parts. But what then? Even without the costs for building materials, your budget would have been tight in the coming years unless the empire would increase it once the first shipments of adamantine went out.
Of course, there were other options. Your orders were to mine as much adamantine as possible, but was keeping your ledgers balanced not necessary for that? The Korprey islands imported all their metal goods, so if you were to find and mine some iron, you could have cut your costs by making your own tools and sold the surplus to the merchants. That was certainly within the remit of your orders. The alternative was to appeal to the crown for more funds, though with how you had come to this post in the first place, that seemed unlike to work. For now, what you had would have to suffice and once you had some successes, the matter might look different already.
Moderate Success.
Proper accounting set up.
Unlocked metalworking industry.
Your clothes were heavy with sweat by the time that the last ridge of the climb came into sight and sore muscles eagerly reminded you of one too many years spent at the writing desk instead of the training grounds. The handful of Auxiliaries that made up your guard seemed a lot less bothered by the exertion, even if it was a rather warm and sunny day, and while they were two decades younger, they were also not exactly the empires finest. At least you had an excuse for the slower pace. Master Becker's pudgy frame heaved and puffed like a torn bellow and his entire face was red as an apple. 'Engineers work with their minds, not their bodies,' he had said half-way up the mountain and since then he had said not much at all.
The gravel crunched under your boots as you crested the last ridge and beheld the plateau for the first time with your own eyes. The reports did not do it justice. The centre of the plateau was dominated by a great meadow, the lush grass only broken up by the occasional boulder, patch of shrubbery or small hill. Even from this far away, you could make out the shapes of a herd of deer that was peacefully grazing near one of the hills. Two small rivers framed it all, marking the borders to the lush broadleaf forests that slowly shifted to evergreens as they climbed up the hills and mountains. The rivers joined near the edge of the plateau among a few hills, right before they disappeared among the overgrown cliff's leadings down to the marshes and then to the sea.
It was almost idyllic. As if an artist had been asked to paint this scene. A cry sounded, loud, harsh, and easily heard across the entire plateau. Indistinct shapes were circling the far mountains, but you had heard this cry before and could easily imagine the beat of leathery wings propelling serpentine bodies through the air. Wyverns. And the tales of trolls had also been proven true by the scouts, the tell tale signs of their hunger easy to spot, though they had not yet seen a living one. There was a reason this land was still wild and untouched by mortal hands.
"That hill looks as if there was a hillfort on it once," came the voice of master Becker, startling you out of your revery. At some point he had come next to you, looking still rather exhausted, and was now pointing a meaty finger vaguely in the direction of a row of hills near the eastern border of the great meadow. "Might as well build there. Whoever came before us had likely more time to look for a good spot and I would rather not risk all our work to come tumbling down the first time it rains a week strait again."
You looked over to the Auxiliaries who had come along as they all seemed rather uncomfortable with the idea. "Making camp close to the forests means we have to live with the beasts roaming it. No offense master Becker, but even you would be hard pressed to make a palisade sturdy enough to withstand a troll." The man only scoffed in response and you were glad to not have declared it impossible, lest the man dig his heels in and see it as even more of a challenge."
"Close to where the old reports say a small deposit might be in the eastern mountains though. You would need to patrol the forest anyway, or the things there would have your workers for supper." The engineer shook his head and pointed vaguely at a formation of cracked hills that jutted out of the northern mountains. "The big deposit is supposed to be over there, and we could probably fortify the place, but it will be misery to build anything except huts there. No running water either."
"What about the hills where the rivers meet?" You waved your hand towards the western side of the plateau. "It is a defensible place with good farmland all around and plenty of fresh water. We would need to fortify the mines either way, but there is no need to have the main camp as exposed. Could we not use boats to haul the ore over the rivers and have the smelters there?"
Master Becker thought for a while, idly wiping the sweat from his bald head. "Maybe. The hills look solid enough, but I can't guarantee that to remain the case when we cut the bushes and start erecting walls. I could have may people take a look at the site and the others, but that will take most of the autumn and we won't be able to do anything in winter. We could see if we can find any adamantine while we are at it though. The calls is yours, general."
Where do you plan to build your main camp in the future?
[] On the old hillfort.
+ sufficient space and stable ground
+ nearby freshwater
+ close to a suspected minor adamantine deposit
- close to the forest and its creatures, most notably trolls
- far from the most likely adamantine deposit
[] In the broken hills.
+ likely location of a major adamantine deposit
+ very defensible once fortified
- no running freshwater
- difficult to reach
- little building space
[] Where the rivers meet.
+ much fertile land
+ defensible once fortified
+ far from any dangers
+ freshwater access
- far from all adamantine deposits
- potentially unstable building ground
[] Let the engineers survey the plateau first.
+ gains more information before making the choice
- locks in Engineer action for next turn
- can not construct further buildings until spring
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- Location
- United States
Imo the two things we can't compromise on is access to fresh water and proximity to the adamantine mines on the plateau. In light of that the old hillfort is looking like the least of all evils. But at the same time I don't want a mutiny of men trying to run away from Trolls.
Edit: Looking it over I think letting the engineers prospect first might be a better call. Mostly because the action doubles as looking for adamantine deposits which we definitely need to do.
Edit: Looking it over I think letting the engineers prospect first might be a better call. Mostly because the action doubles as looking for adamantine deposits which we definitely need to do.
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- Location
- United States
Duly noted. It would probably help to have the roads shores up...
@Azel, as a secondary concern, how can we increase Auxiliary proficiency now that training isn't going to progress anymore? Would monster hunting do it?
The other half that makes me attracted to the prospecting option is the chance at a better spot and more info on all the spots. Not to mention a hope of a bonus in building after prospecting is done? Each one of these spots is okay in their own right but we're gonna be here for a while, so we aught to pick our base camp carefully.
Edit: actually, fuck it. No. I saw we'd be missing two seasons of actions from engineers. We could have roads and walls built in that time.
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- Location
- Germany
Ultimately, you need better recruits. These people washed out of general training for the empires legions for a reason.
You shouldn't expect to be able to further improve them any time soon.
- Location
- Germany
Yes, but that's a very long-term project.
Expect a good few years of using rainwater and people having to haul fresh water from the nearest river.
- Location
- UTC+0
- Pronouns
- He/Him/They
Couldn't we just build wells? Or do we not know how the watertable is set on the isle?
- Location
- Germany
Since that area is right above the suspected adamantine deposit, having high enough groundwater to dig a useful well would be rather bad for mining.
- Location
- United States
[X] Let the engineers survey the plateau first.
- Location
- United States
@Azel, so in doing this for the next turn, we lock it in and we can't construct any buildings, but can we survey farmland over the winter?
I noticed that it only said we can't do it in the summer.
- Location
- Germany
The "can't do any work in the summer" refers to him being unable to do any practical work on the farmlands at that time. The survey can be done in spring, summer or fall and is a prerequisite for further farmland improvements.
As it stands, the engineers will likely have no available actions in winter at all, since you don't have anything for them that would not become impossible due to frost and snowfall. That will change in later years, but it was pretty much expected for the first winter, unless you had really rushed construction.
Modified dice rolls. Normally I'm very open with the system, but this time, I'd rather not, due to the subject matter of the quest.
- Location
- Germany
Not even repairs in the city?
Keeps them busy and the citizens friendly.
- Location
- Germany
Prying frozen cobblestones out of the ground isn't working all that well.
On that note, I'd like to point out that you have no dedicated quarters for prisoners yet. If you do the survey, you should consider if you want them crammed into the forest camp or risk having them in the city for a season or two.
- Location
- United States
Ah, damn. The time limit. Yeah, we can't afford to lock in the engineers and not be ready for the prisoners. That forest camp is only a few buildings and a palisade and absolutely will not cut it.
[X] On the old hillfort.
[X] In the broken hills.
We can build water storage easy enough and hopefully with some expansion build out of the space limits. We have good engineers but bad troops. Better then to pick the fortified position to compensate for our military weakness and rely on our good engineers to deal with the difficult land. Plus being close to the mines will be best to defend them and ensure the work continues no matter what.
We can build water storage easy enough and hopefully with some expansion build out of the space limits. We have good engineers but bad troops. Better then to pick the fortified position to compensate for our military weakness and rely on our good engineers to deal with the difficult land. Plus being close to the mines will be best to defend them and ensure the work continues no matter what.