NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)

[Skippy]

I mean that does bring up the option for a way to solve our issues.

Go on a raid.

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There may well be a fair few local young men who are doing that both for this reason, and for an even simpler one: if they're away raiding then it's one less mouth to feed back at home.

If we do anything though, I'd prefer a peaceful trading mission for grain. I think this about the only kind of significant proactive action which is likely to get past the voters, too.

 

[DeadmanwalkingXI]

Well, we do have a boat, and it's only the start of the year.

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This isn't quite correct. This is Turn 2 of the year, and this turn's actions are spoken for, so we only have one turn to make any trading expeditions that we make before Winter sets in. We'd also need to somehow recruit enough people to make it viable (we'd need at least a dozen people or so on top of what we've got to man the ship decently). That said, it's not a bad idea to try for a quick trade run next turn...puts off the Undehouse until the turn after that, but it's potentially workable.

If we want to do that, we probably want to talk to Gary after Audrikr...he's the experienced merchant, after all. We'd also want to be recruiting people during and after the wolf hunt.

@Imperial Fister is this viable and what actions would it be to do it next turn? Bringing back food is self-evidently good, after all, and if it seems viable we'd probably go for it.

I mean that does bring up the option for a way to solve our issues.

Go on a raid.

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We're pregnant. Let's not actually go out looking for fights and invite a miscarriage, shall we? The wolves were urgent and we'll be with the best warriors in the valley, but I had some qualms even there. A raid is significantly higher risk.

 

[Toboe]

Like I think if we did this, the way we would do it would be to go out carrying some cargo that will net an okayish profit, even if it's something boring like timber or whatever, it just needs to be something we can collect quickly.

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Or valuable metals like silver and gold.

 

[Skippy]

This isn't quite correct. This is Turn 2 of the year, and this turn's actions are spoken for, so we only have one turn to make any trading expeditions that we make before Winter sets in. We'd also need to somehow recruit enough people to make it viable (we'd need at least a dozen people or so on top of what we've got to man the ship decently). That said, it's not a bad idea to try for a quick trade run next turn...puts off the Undehouse until the turn after that, but it's potentially workable.

If we want to do that, we probably want to talk to Gary after Audrikr...he's the experienced merchant, after all. We'd also want to be recruiting people during and after the wolf hunt.

@Imperial Fister is this viable and what actions would it be to do it next turn? Bringing back food is elf-evidently good, after all.

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Ah good point, for some reason I forgot we were in Summer Turn 2 and not Turn 1 right now.

But yeah, still, I think we can just about pull it off and do a quick run before winter sets in. We could technically go in the first turn of winter I suppose, but better to avoid any winter storms I think, and winter is when hunger will start to set in. The Underhouse isn't going anywhere. If we left Gabriel and maybe one other person out of our five sworn men to guard the fort back home, that gets us four rowers right away, so we need only eight to get to twelve, which seems doable?

Tuskpuncher seems an excellent person to ask, and if it's essentially Halla volunteering to help the community, I don't think he'd mind giving us some tips on nearby markets. We could even advertise for rowers right now, whilst we're still in town, get some guys signed on and and agree to all meet up at an agreed upon date or whatever.

 

[Alectai]

Yeah, a relatively low key trading trip would be a fun thing to do, and we can even potentially double it up with a couple other things here and there.

 

[DeadmanwalkingXI]

Ah good point, for some reason I forgot we were in Summer Turn 2 and not Turn 1 right now.

But yeah, still, I think we can just about pull it off and do a quick run before winter sets in. We could technically go in the first turn of winter I suppose, but better to avoid any winter storms I think, and winter is when hunger will start to set in. The Underhouse isn't going anywhere. If we left Gabriel and maybe one other person out of our five sworn men to guard the fort back home, that gets us four rowers right away, so we need only eight to get to twelve, which seems doable?

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It's a ship designed for 44 rowers. We need at least 22 or it's difficult to maneuver at best (to be clear, it's doable, but we'd be taking our chances with the sea or in fights). We probably don't need to leave Gabriel at home, though. Steinarr can keep an eye on our kids in a protective sense along with Kurt and Haydis getting in the harvest (they have enough Work Dice to get the full food allotment, though we may lose out a bit on money and goods), which should be fine all things considered.

Our easy recruits are ourselves, Abjorn, Gabriel, Tryggr, Trausti, Stigmar, Stigr, and probably Sten. That's 8 people and means we need another 14 or so to get to half the ship's complement and enough people. That's not impossible, though...there's a famine coming and this is a food run.

Tuskpuncher seems an excellent person to ask, and if it's essentially Halla volunteering to help the community, I don't think he'd mind giving us some tips on nearby markets. We could even advertise for rowers right now, whilst we're still in town, get some guys signed on and and agree to all meet up at an agreed upon date or whatever.

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That's my general thoughts, yeah. We could also ask Solrun's advice on where to go because, well, Seeress. And I'm up for advertising now if we can fit it in after Tuskpuncher.

 

[Skippy]

Or valuable metals like silver and gold.

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Well that's true, we could just buy the grain for cold hard cash, but carrying something on our outward journey nets us a little more profit rather than just sailing in empty.

The reason I thought of lumber is because we literally next door to a giant forest so it's right there. Given cultivators are superhuman and we have seven of them available, we could probably cut and strip enough trees to fill the Wavedancer in what, a couple afternoons working? So if we arrive at a trading port in a more agrarian developed region, a cargo of timber is actually likely to be decently (not amazingly) lucrative.

Obviously if we were spending more time and doing this for pure profit, we might go for the scarcer and maximal value cargo, but if this is going to work then it needs to happen quickly, so timber seems to make the most sense. We could probably just throw a couple Work Dice on woodcutting in the plan for the turn where we're doing the trading trip.

Yeah, a relatively low key trading trip would be a fun thing to do, and we can even potentially double it up with a couple other things here and there.

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Yeah, there's a few options for places within a couple weeks' sailing that would have grain for export, and I'm not sure which would be cooler to visit, even briefly? Like seeing the Baltic would be cool, but also we could probably hit England (the Danelaw or Wessex) or northern France.

Actually, given Bibles and other books are a staple for them, Christian lands would be a fantastic place to go if we wanted to buy a load of paper for book-making!

So that could potentially be one other bird hit with the same stone.

 

[Alectai]

I mean, I'm interested in checking out Wessex just to see about following up on the Gabriel Plot, plus seeing if we could pick the brain of a Knightly Armorsmith or something to further that Journal arc. Realized Armor is fantastic for most people, but Nordic Plate as a signature of Odr Cultivators would also have a point.

 

[DeadmanwalkingXI]

Obviously if we were spending more time and doing this for pure profit, we might go for the scarcer and maximal value cargo, but if this is going to work then it needs to happen quickly, so timber seems to make the most sense. We could probably just throw a couple Work Dice on woodcutting in the plan for the turn where we're doing the trading trip.

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Woodcutting is covered by the Goods we collect from our land. We'll have 32 or so by next turn and can definitely bring those on the trading expedition, in addition to providing cargo space to all the other people coming along to do the same and bringing a fair amount of cash and maybe some Meat-Keeping Sticks. We might also sell or trade our obsolete Tools (we actually have two sets, both Fine) and a Good Pot and Goode Scythe we're no longer using.

 

[Skippy]

Oh wait, I've thought of another thing we could sell.

Wolf pelts!

Like, we could tell the headman we're planning this trading mission soon, and offer to buy up the pelts from the wolves? Then he and the other guys sell the whole batch to us, and we make a modest profit on them. (Plus a bigger profit on our own personal share of the pelts). Then we round out the cargo with timber, plus the other stuff Deadman mentioned above.

It's a ship designed for 44 rowers. We need at least 22 or it's difficult to maneuver at best (to be clear, it's doable, but we'd be taking our chances with the sea or in fights). We probably don't need to leave Gabriel at home, though. Steinarr can keep an eye on our kids in a protective sense along with Kurt and Haydis getting in the harvest (they have enough Work Dice to get the full food allotment, though we may lose out a bit on money and goods), which should be fine all things considered.

Our easy recruits are ourselves, Abjorn, Gabriel, Tryggr, Trausti, Stigmar, Stigr, and probably Sten. That's 8 people and means we need another 14 or so to get to half the ship's complement and enough people. That's not impossible, though...there's a famine coming and this is a food run.

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Sorry, I think I misread you somehow as saying we needed 12 people for some reason, that makes sense. One thought I had RE: Gabriel is that if we ended up going to a Christian land to trade, he might want to come, maybe bring a letter for his folks or something? Not that we'd force him or anything, but he might want to. But yeah that sounds good.

That's my general thoughts, yeah. We could also ask Solrun's advice on where to go because, well, Seeress. And I'm up for advertising now if we can fit it in after Tuskpuncher.

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Oh yeah the Seeress is also a fantastic idea actually, good catch.

 

[Alectai]

Woodcutting is covered by the Goods we collect from our land. We'll have 32 or so by next turn and can definitely bring those on the trading expedition, in addition to providing cargo space to all the other people coming along to do the same and bringing a fair amount of cash and maybe some Meat-Keeping Sticks. We might also sell or trade our obsolete Tools (we actually have two sets, both pretty decent).

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We should definitely bring the Meat-Keeping Sticks with us in the upcoming throwdown, the more of the Wolf carcasses we can preserve, the better.

 

[Toboe]

Tuskpuncher seems an excellent person to ask, and if it's essentially Halla volunteering to help the community, I don't think he'd mind giving us some tips on nearby markets. We could even advertise for rowers right now, whilst we're still in town, get some guys signed on and and agree to all meet up at an agreed upon date or whatever.

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Or he might be interested in joining us.
He brings some rowers of his own and gets to use a share of the Cargohold for his dealings.

Well that's true, we could just buy the grain for cold hard cash, but carrying something on our outward journey nets us a little more profit rather than just sailing in empty.

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'cold hard cash' 'sailing empty'
Silver and gold are barter goods.

Realized Armor is fantastic for most people, but Nordic Plate as a signature of Odr Cultivators would also have a point.

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But that sounds like devolving to just copying knightly armor when we could try to get realized armor to bond with Odr cultivators.

 

[Shard]

I mean, I'm interested in checking out Wessex just to see about following up on the Gabriel Plot, plus seeing if we could pick the brain of a Knightly Armorsmith or something to further that Journal arc. Realized Armor is fantastic for most people, but Nordic Plate as a signature of Odr Cultivators would also have a point.

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It's probably significantly more straightforward to just take Squire/Knightly Armor off their former owner TBH. Stuff like that sounds like mega trade secrets that people take to their graves.

 

[DeadmanwalkingXI]

Oh wait, I've thought of another thing we could sell.

Wolf pelts!

Like, we could tell the headman we're planning this trading mission soon, and offer to buy up the pelts from the wolves? Then he and the other guys sell the whole batch to us, and we make a modest profit on them. (Plus a bigger profit on our own personal share of the pelts). Then we round out the cargo with timber, plus the other stuff Deadman mentioned above.

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This seems solid, yeah.

Sorry, I think I misread you somehow as saying we needed 12 people for some reason, that makes sense. One thought I had RE: Gabriel is that if we ended up going to a Christian land to trade, he might want to come, maybe bring a letter for his folks or something? Not that we'd force him or anything, but he might want to. But yeah that sounds good.

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Yeah, I was saying we needed, like, a dozen on top of what we had already. And yeah, Gabriel coming with us helps us convince Christians we're here to trade rather than raid. So he's useful for that at the very least. I feel like Wessex may or may not be too far away for a quick trip like this? Dunno, really, but he's useful anywhere in Christendom.

Oh yeah the Seeress is also a fantastic idea actually, good catch.

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It's probably one of our three topics to discuss with her next turn, but that's definitely worth it.

We should definitely bring the Meat-Keeping Sticks with us in the upcoming throwdown, the more of the Wolf carcasses we can preserve, the better.

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Good call, yeah. We have 8, so that'll preserve a fair bit.

Or he might be interested in joining us.
He brings some rowers of his own and gets to use a share of the Cargohold for his dealings.

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I get the impression Gary has his own ship, and may be doing the same thing but separately from us. Which is fine.

 

[Shard]

What's the population of the Asvir and Hading Valley? I was going through some old posts and some of them said there were 80-100 for example, but other information obviously contradicts that.

 

[Skippy]

'cold hard cash' 'sailing empty'
Silver and gold are barter goods.

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Oh sure, in that case completely agreed. I'm sure we'll be using silver and gold as exchange mediums along with the goods changing hands, to round stuff out.

Or he might be interested in joining us.
He brings some rowers of his own and gets to use a share of the Cargohold for his dealings.

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Yeah, it would be good to offer, assuming he doesn't have his own ship.

Woodcutting is covered by the Goods we collect from our land. We'll have 32 or so by next turn and can definitely bring those on the trading expedition, in addition to providing cargo space to all the other people coming along to do the same and bringing a fair amount of cash and maybe some Meat-Keeping Sticks. We might also sell or trade our obsolete Tools (we actually have two sets, both Fine) and a Good Pot and Goode Scythe we're no longer using.

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Could we potentially allocate a Work dice or two to specifically going out to the Hading and just clear-cutting to get a large bulk load of timber? It feels logically like Halla or Abjorn can probably cut down and carry a large spruce by themselves, and in an afternoon or two's work could easily cut enough timber to fill a ship. So we could do this on top of the normal Goods generation of our farm if we specified it.

...Although we do want Work Dice for generating as much food as possible one the farm, and this would be a Turn where the farm will have less hands if we're spending time away, so, hmmm. Have to think whether that would really be worthwhile.

 

[Shard]

Good call, yeah. We have 8, so that'll preserve a fair bit.

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We also want to clear out Our Fylgja slots so we have space to stuff into our Fylgja.

Suddenly we ask questions like 'was that Deer carcass worth 1 Food'?

 

[I.F. Ister]

@Imperial Fister, two questions:

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Two, eh? ;P

(1) How much grain would this translate to?

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1 Food = 1 Storage Space

(2) If it was portioned out properly, how many of our neighbours could this help get through the winter?

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Probably all of them. To feed the entire Valley for the winter, it would take about 1,450 food

@Imperial Fister is this viable and what actions would it be to do it next turn? Bringing back food is self-evidently good, after all, and if it seems viable we'd probably go for it.

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It would be your visit action. As the visiting limits have been lifted for the duration of the famine, you can do it fine. If you chose to socialize with the felag, then you can probably find a few volunteers and/or they will know people who would be willing to help

 

[Skippy]

Two, eh? ;P

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😅

1 Food = 1 Storage Space

Probably all of them. To feed the entire Valley for the winter, it would take about 1,450 food

It would be your visit action. As the visiting limits have been lifted for the duration of the famine, you can do it fine. If you chose to socialize with the felag, then you can probably find a few volunteers and/or they will know people who would be willing to help

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Awesome!

Do we have time this afternoon to see Tuskpuncher to ask him for tips on where is likely to have the cheapest export grain, and go see the Felag?

 

[DeadmanwalkingXI]

What's the population of the Asvir and Hading Valley? I was going through some old posts and some of them said there were 80-100 for example, but other information obviously contradicts that.

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My impression is that the town is about 80-100 and then the valley adds that many more.

Could we potentially allocate a Work dice or two to specifically going out to the Hading and just clear-cutting to get a large bulk load of timber? It feels logically like Halla or Abjorn can probably cut down and carry a large spruce by themselves, and in an afternoon or two's work could easily cut enough timber to fill a ship. So we could do this on top of the normal Goods generation of our farm if we specified it.

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Up to the QM really. I suspect there are a variety of obstacles to overlogging the Hading, but getting some extra out of it is far from impossible. @Imperial Fister can we allocate Work Dice to get more Goods for trade like this, and what would the problems and consequences be?

...Although we do want Work Dice for generating as much food as possible one the farm, and this would be a Turn where the farm will have less hands if we're spending time away, so, hmmm. Have to think whether that would really be worthwhile.

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We actually 'max out' on the amount of stuff we can get from our property directly with 18 Work Dice to spare. We've been using them for extra Research Dice and Meat-Keeping Sticks, but we could cut down on one or both of those.

It would be your visit action. As the visiting limits have been lifted for the duration of the famine, you can do it fine. If you chose to socialize with the felag, then you can probably find a few volunteers and/or they will know people who would be willing to help

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Sweet. We definitely want to go talk to Gary and the Felag as our two actions after Audrikr, then. That'll let us start to get this show on the road.

Do we have time this afternoon to see Tuskpuncher to ask him for tips on where is likely to have the cheapest export grain, and go see the Felag?

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We should. We normally get 3 things in Asvir and Audrikr doesn't count because we spent a Social on him separate from the Visit. They'd be all we could do after Audrikr, but that's fine.

 

[Shard]

Also we get to find out about Odr Cultivation on a ship!

 

[Alectai]

Sounds pretty good. Audrikr should be free and we usually get three things to do.

 

[Toboe]

Yeah, it would be good to offer, assuming he doesn't have his own ship.

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I get the impression Gary has his own ship, and may be doing the same thing but separately from us. Which is fine.

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Could be.
Could also be that his ship has worse cargospace/rowers ratio.
Or that his ship is too big and he couldn't get all the rowers needed on short notice.
Or that the speed of more rowers focussed on one ship is more valuable to him in this situation.

If we are gonna ask him about tips anyway, asking him to join us is free.

 

[DeadmanwalkingXI]

If we are gonna ask him about tips anyway, asking him to join us is free.

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Oh, we will 100% ask, I'm just saying I think him joining us is unlikely.

 

[Shard]

If we somehow managed to bring in enough food to feed the entire valley through the winter, that would be a shitton of Orthsirr.