[X][Crisis] Bring them back in with the fighting (Change Tinriver from Trading Post to Colony, will claim additional territory when fighting pirates, -1 Legitimacy)
[X][Main] Proclaim Glory (-6 Culture, -2 Econ, +1 Legitimacy, +2 Stability, +1 Prestige)
[X][Secondary] War Mission - Pirate Clans
[X][Secondary] Ironworks – Redshore (-3 Econ and Tech)
[X][Secondary] Invite to Games – Freehills (-1 Diplo)
[X][Secondary] Enforce Justice (1 Stability, +1-3 Centralization)
[X][Guild] Efficient Charcoal Kilns (-2 Econ & Wealth, -1 Tech, -3 Sustainable Forest used, other effects)
[X][Guild] Build Porcelain Works (-2 Econ, -2 Tech, 1 sustainable forest, +2 Wealth, +3 Culture, increased chance of innovations x2)
Provinces – [Main] Expand Econ, [Sec] Survey, [Sec] Study Alchemy (-2 Mysticism, -3 Wealth, +1 Tech, potential new discoveries x2), [Sec] Study Stars (-1 Wealth, +1 Mysticism, gives mid-turn astrological predictions), [Sec] Build Mills (-3 Wealth, -1 Tech, +3 Econ, potential for innovation x2)
Policies - Sacred Forest Baths (3/3), Redshore Block Housing (3/3), Significant Walls (28/58)
FC – Redshore (Skullduggery, -2 Diplo, +1 Intrigue), Redhills (City Support)
Heaven's Hawk – [Sec] Survey, [Sec] Trade Mission – Into the Wild (East)
Western Wall – [Main] Expand Econ, [Sec] Expand Forests
Gulvalley – [Main] New Settlement, [Sec] Survey
Greenshore – [Main] Expand Econ, [Sec] Raise Army, [Sec] War Mission – Pirate Clans
Tinriver – [Main] War Mission – Pirate Clans
Txolla – [Main] New Settlement, [Sec] Watchtowers
Thunder Speakers – [Main] New Settlement
Thunder Horse – [Main] New Settlement
Amber Road – [Main] War Mission – Hostile Tribes
Religious Settlement - Northern Boundary Hills
The clang of the hammer was a constant in Gaisyn's life, the water wheel driven hammer raising up and falling down in a steady rhythm, the heartbeat of his world. A senior apprentice, one of his primary duties was to take blooms and billets of metal and pound out the slag using the relentless energy of Snycruv River, the activity as much a mystical meditation as a practical. There was a beat to all things, and by learning it, one could become attuned to the world, to the iron in the billet, hammer, and anvil, one could become a better smith. Other duties involved directing the junior apprentices at the bellows, preparing the charcoal, and swinging a sledge for the journeymen and occasionally one of the masters when they were working on something that required a bit more precision that the trip hammers.
When he had first started at it, Gaisyn had known that smiths were a special lot, but he had soon learned just how magical they were. There was a tremendous skill involved in it all, in the knowledge of what colours of flame at what stages of the process produced the best result being one of the trickiest, most mystical, and most critical pieces. However, as his tutelage had shown him even the type of charcoal used was of unexpected importance. Hard, crumbly, and powdered all had their correct usages, with incorrect application bringing poor results. Further than that, the source of the char had effects, imbuing some of the qualities of the source into the piece, but only if done correctly. Sometimes you wanted the ferocity of wolves or bears, and sometimes you wanted the sturdiness of a hardwood. More than that, just because a charcoal had a particular source did not mean that the properties you wanted from that source would simply be imbued by association. The magic of smithing was a complex one, hence the long apprenticeship and great difficulty in moving from apprentice to master.
Of course, the king and the nobs on top had decided that the amount of quality iron in the world was insufficient and had been constructing a whole new artisan quarter in Redshore, massively increasing the facilities for blacksmiths and potters to create goods of value, along with enormous blocks of housing to hold them and great brick kilns to transform wood and bone to the charcoal that fed the forges and kilns of all these new artisans. Gaisyn himself might not have got his apprenticeship had these projects not started at the right time for the master of the forge to decide to take on three new apprentices instead of two. His family... well, he was just glad that the new artisan housing blocks were so available. He had a room on the sixth floor pretty much to himself, and while some days that was a major pain to hike up after working the forge, it was quiet enough that he could hear the ring of the hammer in his head and keep time with it.
Also, by not paying the premium for the lower floors, he could afford to go to the good baths more often. The artisan baths were okay, but given the amount of char, ash, and soot impregnated sweat working in the district produced, the waters in them were always at least a bit grey, and if you went at the wrong time they had a consistency more comparable to the more viscous body fluids. No, better to save some silver on housing and be able to go to the private baths with the exotic northern tribal bath attendants. While their skin was too pale to ever be considered high class, a few of them had natural blonde hair, which was just too fascinating not to want to get to see up close. There were even rumours that up in Amber Road the occasional natural redhead had been seen among the tribes, which was just so fantastical and wild that it seemed impossible.
Gaisyn's thoughts about possibly going to his favourite bath after his shift were interrupted by the distinct voice of Master Hygrallyn calling out for him. Starting, he immediately checked his current bit of work, but found that he hadn't made any sort of mistakes in his daydreaming. Instead, he carefully set his current work aside and went over to where the master was standing, a man in priest's robes with bright, multi-coloured sashes over the white cotton next to him.
"Gaisyn, I've got a special project for you. I'd like you to meet Master Alchemist Fythulwyn, who has made a request of some of our more specialized skills," Hygrallyn explained, causing Gaisyn to bow respectfully to the powerful magician.
"Well met Master Fythulwyn," Gaisyn said respectfully.
"Well met apprentice. As I understand it, you are a most skilled fire tender," Fythulwyn began, more stating something he already knew than asking for confirmation.
"I, ah, yes? Master, I-" Gaisyn began, only to be cut off by a casually raised hand from the master smith.
"The best fire tenders are senior apprentices. The journeymen and masters here may be better at knowing fire, but their skills at actually tending it will degrade from developing skills with a hammer and from getting apprentices to do it for them," Hygrallyn explained confidently, although Gaisyn couldn't help but feel a little unease. He had the strangest feeling that the situation wasn't quite like that.
At the close of day, a very dirty and tired Gaisyn found himself in one of the upscale bathhouses, the one where you got a private heated room with a Hospitality Guild trained attendant, ordering a large jug of wine and a skilled masseuse with the rewards for his efforts. Very shortly after he was relaxing in one private bath of porcelain tile lined brick, the small fire beneath it getting it hot enough to almost be uncomfortable, while the very attractive and verging on matronly woman who the host had assigned to him helped him to scrub the grime off his body and knead the knots out of his muscles.
"Ugh... I think my guild is trying to kill me," Gaisyn complained even as the tension left him.
"Now, now, many young men complain about such things," the woman - Darsyna, that was it! - chided even as she squeezed the sooty water from her sponge and rewet it from a bucket of cooler water.
"Yeah, but my guild master, today he had me work the firebox of some weird alchemist contraption. I had to keep it almost to point of gutting out for half the day, scrambling to keep it fed with coal and air and to shovel out the ashes, but to never let the glow get greater bright than a dull carmine. Which is bad, but its also not having some maniac of a priest randomly shouting 'wait, don't breath for a few heartbeats!' because his demonic contraption just had some sort of hiccup and spewed poison everywhere! Gah, I know that I was picked because I had just the right combination of talent and expendibility - I can shovel the char like a smith, but if I go mad from the fumes it won't matter," Gaisyn groused as he poured out a cup of wine.
So engrossed, Gaisyn did not see Darsyna raise an eyebrow, although he did hear her curious, "Really?"
"Yeah, something about quicksilver and gold. I was excited by the gold bit, but once they started explaining the quicksilver..." Gaisyn shuddered at remembrance of the warnings. "As best I can tell, the contraption is some royal alchemist building a bigger version of some newfangled thing that combines and then separates gold and mercury, and collects them in two different places... I dunno, didn't make any sense."
"Some might say that the magic of the smiths doesn't make sense, to separate stone into metal and vitriol," Darsyna noted as she began to lather her sponge from a bar of soap.
Gaisyn mulled that for a moment before he said, "We don't really work with the vitriol, it comes from the leftover stuff from turning ore to iron when it sits in water, but I suppose you have a point there. Still, quicksilver. Crazy. Like, it apparently literally makes you mad if you inhale the fumes too much. I got some spells of warding, but that mad alchemist definitely got more."
"And they do this in the city?" Darysna asked.
"Not sure if its going to stay there, but, yeah, obviously it was in the artisan district," Gaisyn explained.
Darsyna hummed to herself for a moment before she asked, "While I have the soap out, would you care for a shave?"
"Oh, that would be nice. Ugh... don't even want to think if there might be anything clinging to my hair," Gaisyn noted.
"Excellent. Would you care for full service?" Darsyna asked conspiratorially.
"Full service?" Gaisyn asked with a flush to his cheeks not from the bath. This was not his first time to the baths, but he had never had such a pretty or skilled attendant before.
Grinning conspiratorially, Darsyna said, "I have a very delicate touch, so you will be in good hands."
"Well then... how can I say no?" Gaisyn asked cheerily, pouring himself another cup.
"Perfect. Now, why don't you tell me more about your day?" Darsyna said.
About a season later, King Myranyn received a report that essentially went, "So Redshore is almost ready to riot over the new artisan district. Turns out many citizens now think all the new smiths and alchemists are dumping poisons into the water... and they might not be wrong. The smiths are upstream for their waterwheels, the charcoal kilns are next to them, and the porcelain kilns are next to them, and it could all be winding up in the drinking water. They're also complaining about the soot and char and the baths being inadequate for all the dirty workers from the new developments."
The king groaned at that and asked, "So is there any way to head this off?"
"Build a second aqueduct, basically. They want one set for drinking water, and one set for the waterwheels and waste disposal," the advisor explained.
"That's... surprisingly sensible," Myranyn noted, somewhat in awe of the fact that he wasn't dealing with raw stupidity.
"Local leaders caught wind of the rumours early and started talking with the mayor and priests about the issue - part of the incitement was that prototype alembic of Fythulwyn's, and he built it where it was because he wanted good smiths on hand while he worked out the kinks and didn't want to risk damage by moving it, and in his last report he said that he was ready to build a new one where the ore actually is - and they started circulating potential solutions alongside the rumours," the advisor explained.
"Huh. Good on them," Myranyn noted. He then glanced at the scrolls containing some of his other reports and said, "Ah, if only all my subordinates could be so proactive."
"I take it the fighting against the pirates continues to go poorly?" The man asked.
Sighing, the king nodded and said, "At the very least the pirates remain disorganized."
Reaction (Note: Build Aqueduct - Redshore will prevent Stability loss. Any other options allow 1 Stability damage to occur, and 2 Econ to head off to the Western Ymaryn)
[] [React] Build Aqueduct - Redshore (2x-3 Econ)
[] [React] Main Raise Army
[] [React] Sec More Spiritbonded + Sec Raise Army
[] [React] Sec More Warships + Sec Raise Army
[] [React] Main Build Mills
[] [React] Main Build Docks
Personal Stewards
[] [PSN] Sec Expand Econ (-1 Centralization, -5 EE, -1 Tech, +5 Econ)
[] [PSN] Main Expand Econ (-2 Centralization, -10 EE, -1x2 Tech, +10 Econ)
[] [PSN] Sec Gold Mine (-1 Centralization, -3 Econ, -1 EE, -2 Tech, +8 Wealth, trade good, gold mine)
[] [PSN] Main Gold Mine (-2 Centralization, -4 Econ, -1 EE, -3 Tech, +11 Wealth, trade good, gold mine)
[] [PSN] Sec Expand Forest (-1 Centralization + Cost)
[] [PSN] Main Expand Forest (-2 Centralization + Cost)
[] [PSN] Sec Expand Vineyard (-1 Centralization + Cost)
[] [PSN] Main Expand Vineyard (-2 Centralization + Cost)
Astrological Prediction: Those who help those in need will find themselves aided (90)
AN: This update got away from me, so cut off here and do diplo stuff later. I will update the front page tomorrow morning
) when death comes knocking.
