We could ask her to grow a couple more fruit, and ask her if she thinks it'd be possible to control the local wolves by feeding them rabbits who have ingested the fruit.
That is a good idea, but honestly asking her is waste of time, at this point it should be pretty clear Nerissa is a bad source of information, to not talk about how she would have no way to know this just to start with and the QM explained even ust straigh feeding the fruits to animals isn't likely to produce something usefull.
Not a big fan of spending 150 of our 166 monies, but we need some more income for when the merchants raise their fees again. We may want to consider having the second construction team idle/help out the woodworkers and sawmill this turn and then have a construction action half outside the wall when we erect it next season. It would sacrifice an action, but save us another 100, which we'd badly need if the herbhouse gets delayed.
That is a good idea, but honestly asking her is waste of time, at this point it should be pretty clear Nerissa is a bad source of information, to not talk about how she would have no way to know this just to start with and the QM explained even ust straigh feeding the fruits to animals isn't likely to produce something usefull.
We were told feeding it to the animals wasn't likely to produce anything useful back when we didn't have any idea what it would do. Now that we know the fruit allows Narissa to have some control over whatever eats it, we should test that boundary to see if she has any control over anything that eats that fruit-hypnotized creature. As far as I can tell, there isn't any downside to us trying it out other than wasting a rabbit or two that we could've eaten ourselves.
And by asking her, I was more thinking she might have a better understanding of her own species' abilities regarding stuff like this. If anything, she could simply ask an older dryad if something like this is possible. She should be more than willing to at least try it with us, as it'll help her learn about her own powers, and potentially help us out by providing a way to keep our people and home safe.
@veekie your plan seens mostly good but can you change what we ask Nerissa ? Because as a young tree it is extremely unlikely for her to know interesting spots.
In terms of heating, we can save on thermal costs by using kilns to fire bricks more cheaply locally, which can then be used to build double layer housing walls with an air gap to keep the heat in. And potentially do heating with the smoke, but given our luck someone's going to fill a house with carbon monoxide instead.
How useful you do expect that secondary control to be? I mean, when Tristan was under the spell , he was forgetting to eat without a direct order. Sounds like it might be a hassle when applied to an animal.
...can't help but notice the wording. 'Someone', not 'Nerissa'. Does the charm make you extremely suggestible without regard as to who makes the suggestion?
And by asking her, I was more thinking she might have a better understanding of her own species' abilities regarding stuff like this. If anything, she could simply ask an older dryad if something like this is possible.
You may want to reread our interactions with Nerissa, the whole problem witht he fruit is that she had absolutely no idea about what she was doing due to how young she is, and when she tried asking her elders stuff the answer was that she would learn with age.
(waves hand) The point is that if there's nothing that seems particularly worth asking her about right now, might as well deepen the relationship by teaching her something interesting instead.
So I'll preface this with saying that I'm unlikely to update today, trying to work up motivation to write. I'm wondering why interest in this quest seemed to drop a ton past two updates. As well as how I could change things to improve it. Would people like it if I broke each turn into multiple segments to increase overall length and detail? I could do more segments on a smaller scale depicting individual battles or expeditions?
I'll admit this quest is significantly harder and slower in build than a normal empire quest, but I often felt like most empire quests progressed unrealistically fast, and felt this more reasonable. It felt like I had a decent number of people that felt this was reasonable, but I've watched votes drop from averaging around 15 to 11 to 5 over past two turns and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.
Also, wild idea, but could we have Narissa grow a couple more of those fruit, feed them to some captured rabbits, and then the rabbits to the wolves? Possibly get the wolves under Narissa's control to protect us?
That is a good idea, but honestly asking her is waste of time, at this point it should be pretty clear Nerissa is a bad source of information, to not talk about how she would have no way to know this just to start with and the QM explained even ust straigh feeding the fruits to animals isn't likely to produce something usefull.
We were told feeding it to the animals wasn't likely to produce anything useful back when we didn't have any idea what it would do. Now that we know the fruit allows Narissa to have some control over whatever eats it, we should test that boundary to see if she has any control over anything that eats that fruit-hypnotized creature. As far as I can tell, there isn't any downside to us trying it out other than wasting a rabbit or two that we could've eaten ourselves.
And by asking her, I was more thinking she might have a better understanding of her own species' abilities regarding stuff like this. If anything, she could simply ask an older dryad if something like this is possible. She should be more than willing to at least try it with us, as it'll help her learn about her own powers, and potentially help us out by providing a way to keep our people and home safe.
It's more that even if you have something utterly entrancing to animals it's hard to translate that into useful activity. You can tell a human what you want them to do in a human language and they understand it. There's no telepathic component to giving commands. So an animal still has to be trained to even know what you want from them. Plus with the dazing aspect of it they're less effective than a more conventionally trained animal in carrying out most tasks. So many would usually rather use a much lesser grade, something merely tasty and addictive rather than utterly intoxicating, as a treat for a more conventional animal training regimen.
Of course there's a number of details to it that she's still not privy to even after she begged a bit more explanation out of the Elder in what she was doing wrong in the days following the incident.
It is good to keep in mind that Nerissa is an unreliable information source though. She's a child, and sometimes they shut her out of information they don't think she should know yet, or don't want her to share, or any number of other reasons. Plus her life experiences are narrow. She's lived in 3 positions in her entire life, and it's worth noting that where she lives imposes a much smaller area on where she travels than would be the case for even a medieval human. It's a big part of why she wanted access to books after all.
In terms of heating, we can save on thermal costs by using kilns to fire bricks more cheaply locally, which can then be used to build double layer housing walls with an air gap to keep the heat in. And potentially do heating with the smoke, but given our luck someone's going to fill a house with carbon monoxide instead.
While thinking about it a brickmaker should potentially be an option, but I'm not sure how much benefit you'd get. It's certainly not the sort of thing you would effectively export.
Using smoke to do heating seems a bit dangerous to me in general, and that's compounded with the dice rolls in this. Overall though heating isn't too much of a problem for your area.
...can't help but notice the wording. 'Someone', not 'Nerissa'. Does the charm make you extremely suggestible without regard as to who makes the suggestion?
I know I still enjoy the quest as is, I'm just busy writing so it's hard to respond.
I'll go with Veekie's plan this turn at least.
[X] Plan Charging My Wallets
-[X][Construction] Herb drying house: 400 Denier profit per season, 100 Denier construction cost, 50 Denier upkeep
-[X][Construction] Expand Wall again (double building slots from 6 to 12). (50 Denier in needed materials) [this is using the current two squares as one of the walls basically, so from 1x2 to 2x2]
-[X][Personal] Investigate what's happened with your siblings.
-[X][Nerissa] Spend a personal teaching her.
--[X] Ask her about notable locations in the area
-[X][Hunters] Catch a bunch of rabbits for the rabbit pen. (Requires rabbit pen.)
-[X][Hunters] Scout to reduce chance of enemies slipping by.
-[X][Levy] Patrol, reduce chance of enemies slipping by.
-[X][Footmen] Guard
--[X] The base and sawmill
-[X][Captain] Command troops, raising morale and effectiveness
-[X] Olivia helps the Patrols
TBH, my problem is probably simply due to having a different background in terms of questing-I'm [still] not particularly keen on attempting to mess with CK2-style plan making despite it being super popular on SV.
I'm more just swinging by to say 'hi'/encourage you, this quest DOES look interesting, though it does seem to be kind of less forgiving on a level, though I'm not 100% sure of that.
So I'll preface this with saying that I'm unlikely to update today, trying to work up motivation to write. I'm wondering why interest in this quest seemed to drop a ton past two updates. As well as how I could change things to improve it. Would people like it if I broke each turn into multiple segments to increase overall length and detail? I could do more segments on a smaller scale depicting individual battles or expeditions?
I'll admit this quest is significantly harder and slower in build than a normal empire quest, but I often felt like most empire quests progressed unrealistically fast, and felt this more reasonable. It felt like I had a decent number of people that felt this was reasonable, but I've watched votes drop from averaging around 15 to 11 to 5 over past two turns and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.
I caught up on this quest very recently and it's pretty fun. As for votes, right now there's only one plan on the table and I don't know enough to make my own plan, so there doesn't seem much point in voting.
If you're looking to increase votes and debates, one thing you might try is having different versions of the same option with different risk-rewards. High risk-high reward, medium-risk-medium reward, low risk-low reward and like that. Though I suppose with the awful rolls this quest seems to get, it might be no one would be willing to chance high risk.
So I'll preface this with saying that I'm unlikely to update today, trying to work up motivation to write. I'm wondering why interest in this quest seemed to drop a ton past two updates. As well as how I could change things to improve it. Would people like it if I broke each turn into multiple segments to increase overall length and detail? I could do more segments on a smaller scale depicting individual battles or expeditions?
I'll admit this quest is significantly harder and slower in build than a normal empire quest, but I often felt like most empire quests progressed unrealistically fast, and felt this more reasonable. It felt like I had a decent number of people that felt this was reasonable, but I've watched votes drop from averaging around 15 to 11 to 5 over past two turns and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.
Hey man, y'know what just happened in the last couple of updates? College classes began.
I bet a decent chunk of your viewership just lost some free time.
As for me? I'm a lurker in this quest, not a college goer. I just happen to follow about 20 odd quests/game/read in my spare time, so I don't actively participate in a bunch of the quests I watch.
This one seemed to be moving along just fine without my input, so I felt no need to contribute. (Yes, like that implies I tend to participate in ones I think are struggling or ones that I really, really like)
May start posting here until participation picks up a bit and I can fade into the background again.
I've quite enjoyed the game myself and I don't think your doing anything wrong. It probably is what he said that its just college classes starting again I myself go back to college tomorrow. So hopefully once classes have been going on for a while everyone will be back and voting but you've done nothing wrong so do keep the quest going.
So I sold them to never actually vote in quests when I followed this for a bit and it's very fun with Wonderful World building. However the actual voting structure I've noticed increasingly complicated and most people are very lazy
The votes dropped. Those aren't to be conflated with interest.
I mean, we've had exactly 1 plan for each of the last two votes, and the differences we could have made to them didn't seem to be worth the hassle of creating a separate plan. The only purpose a vote serves under these circumstances is to signal that 'I'm still here', which I prefer to do just by commenting on the update. I mean, it's not that I wanted to - or even could - change the outcome. Buuut if it makes you feel better...
[X] Plan Charging My Wallets
As for why that is... well, to me it looks like the number of possibilities we have to choose from is rather low, and the path to survival is very narrow, so there aren't many feasible choices to be made to really make them worth discussing. The orders for units are for the most part unchanging; there are only a handful of Personal Actions that seem useful enough (and more actions get penalised); and you've been asking for building suggestions, which means there is only a couple options worth pursuing at any given time. And our economy puts a soft cap even on those limited numbers.
What could be done to alleviate that? Since the slow build up seems to be very much by design, one solution would be to offer enough choices that would be feasible even in our circumstances and with our budget. If we can't build workshops and smithies, let us build rabbit pens and... well, that's it, isn't it? That's the only building that costs 25 Denier to make. If there were more of these 'minor' options, we'd have something to actually choose from.
Another possibility would be to move away from plan voting in some capacity. Since our budget is so tight that a single options could send us in the red with ease, I don't think that would work very well with the options that have money costs attached to them. But there is always something that needs not be a part of the plan. For example, in the last two turns there was Mina's visit that prompted different reactions from the playerbase. I do believe that the vote on how to deal with her and Nerissa should have been a separate one, and not a part of any seasonal strategy... I think, a few others, like Metrux, mentioned it... and you even agreed, but otherwise it went completely ignored, and the next few votes included it under their plans.
Disagreement is crucial to generating votes, otherwise people just let the few active players who seem to know what they are doing decide for them. It is not always easy to come up with options that are controversial, meaningful (having consequences is important!), and divorsed enough from the rest of the gameplay that they could be voted for with most of the strategic plans and still make sense. And then, as a GM you'd have to make the voting rules clear to everyone, and uphold them. But those could produce discussion simply by their nature.
We don't have a shortage of dilemmas, after all. What is our opinion on - or the relationship with, - the rest of our family? What do we think about our older brothers who seem to be no less, ah, complex natures than Mina? What are we going to do about Olivia and our affair with her, that we likely can't make official... or can we? Do we have any problems with the discipline in our army, and how do we deal with that? What about a dozen of similarly small decisions that do not make or break empires, but nonetheless define Tristan as a man?
(They are also easier to understand the implications of than big plans that have big numbers attached to them... and more engaging on an emotional level, too)
If we can't have great flexibility on the Empire-building front, then I suppose giving us flavor options that would establish something about our character could work as a substitute... but then you'd have to come up with the consequences for them, too.
Thank you all for the feedback it's been quite comforting and helpful. Next turn update should be up shortly. I wanted to reply to these separately though because it annoys me when quote/replies are in update posts.
Most people seemed to think that the current vote was good enough or didn't know how to make their own plan, and since there was only one plan there's no need to vote. That reasoning makes sense and I guess is some comfort. I don't know how to effectively diversify the options available for plan votes more than I already have. Though I'll admit that I've been very surprised by people not aiming for the docks the moment options towards that became available because I would have.
What could be done to alleviate that? Since the slow build up seems to be very much by design, one solution would be to offer enough choices that would be feasible even in our circumstances and with our budget. If we can't build workshops and smithies, let us build rabbit pens and... well, that's it, isn't it? That's the only building that costs 25 Denier to make. If there were more of these 'minor' options, we'd have something to actually choose from.
Another possibility would be to move away from plan voting in some capacity. Since our budget is so tight that a single options could send us in the red with ease, I don't think that would work very well with the options that have money costs attached to them. But there is always something that needs not be a part of the plan. For example, in the last two turns there was Mina's visit that prompted different reactions from the playerbase. I do believe that the vote on how to deal with her and Nerissa should have been a separate one, and not a part of any seasonal strategy... I think, a few others, like Metrux, mentioned it... and you even agreed, but otherwise it went completely ignored, and the next few votes included it under their plans.
Disagreement is crucial to generating votes, otherwise people just let the few active players who seem to know what they are doing decide for them. It is not always easy to come up with options that are controversial, meaningful (having consequences is important!), and divorsed enough from the rest of the gameplay that they could be voted for with most of the strategic plans and still make sense. And then, as a GM you'd have to make the voting rules clear to everyone, and uphold them. But those could produce discussion simply by their nature.
We don't have a shortage of dilemmas, after all. What is our opinion on - or the relationship with, - the rest of our family? What do we think about our older brothers who seem to be no less, ah, complex natures than Mina? What are we going to do about Olivia and our affair with her, that we likely can't make official... or can we? Do we have any problems with the discipline in our army, and how do we deal with that? What about a dozen of similarly small decisions that do not make or break empires, but nonetheless define Tristan as a man?
(They are also easier to understand the implications of than big plans that have big numbers attached to them... and more engaging on an emotional level, too)
If we can't have great flexibility on the Empire-building front, then I suppose giving us flavor options that would establish something about our character could work as a substitute... but then you'd have to come up with the consequences for them, too.
The next update is going to have 2 votes that are separated from the main plan vote. They are clearly marked as such. I will split them out from plans manually if required. And people can feel free to vote for just them (so long as some sort of plan vote at least exists).
[X] Plan Charging My Wallets
-[X][Construction] Herb drying house: 400 Denier profit per season, 100 Denier construction cost, 50 Denier upkeep 52 +5 -5
-[X][Construction] Expand Wall again (double building slots from 6 to 12). (50 Denier in needed materials) [this is using the current two squares as one of the walls basically, so from 1x2 to 2x2] 73 +5 -5
Construction continues the recent string of success. The drying house is a relatively simple structure focused on keeping herbs out of the weather and drying them for transport. It's mostly just a series of racks from which sprigs can be hung. A few peasants are recruited and trained for the job as well. Though they're quite worried about going into the Overgrowth, the prospect of such an easy job for decent pay is enough to overcome that, at least with the military presence involved.
The wall is expanded again, with you now having three sections to your outpost covering four times the area of the original one. Just in time as you'd just filled up the area you had. This new area should hold you for a while.
-[X][Personal] Investigate what's happened with your siblings. 1d85 = 27
You take your father's advice and go looking into what your siblings have been up to of late. You don't bother with Mina since you already have a decent enough idea, and you seriously doubt you could uncover anything she didn't intend for you to find out. Not like there's all that much public knowledge of her activities anyway.
While admittedly you know more about how Nicola is doing than the rest you investigate him first. He's the one you liked best after all. There's a lot of rumors that he's gay flying around, though you personally doubt it. You can understand them though given what you've gathered about what he's been doing.
Nicola apparently doesn't ever dock his ship, instead having supplies brought out to it by boat by bare-chested men. You presume that's so he can tell they aren't Mina in disguise. He requires all crew members to be of body types that wouldn't allow for her to blend in either with her, admittedly seductive, frame. He's been quite successful at deterring piracy, bringing down multiple corsairs. His capabilities have been seriously diminished by the logistical and maintenance issues of never docking however. There's apparently a betting pool on how long his ship can remain seaworthy without drydock time. His crew turnover rate is a bit higher than average due to people objecting to his paranoid precautions, but less than you expected. There's also a rumor going around that he's bought quite a lot of poison, far more than would be needed for any one target.
The next on your list to investigate is Kaleb, as an elite military unit would certainly be helpful to you. There's a lot of talk going around about his unit. It's not as large as you originally presumed, probably numbering less than your own forces. It's only in sheer quality that it shines. Each of his most basic infantry is probably worth several of yours, and he has a good number of the sort of elites that can tear through whole platoons on their own.
His unit has been highly effective at dealing with bandits, rebels, and raiders, no one disputes that. However the casualty rate has been quite high for such an elite unit. The savagery with which he slaughtered an entire town which failed to pay its taxes has also caused even greater spread of discontent.
You don't end up having the time to investigate Adolfina and Edgar this season though.
Do you want to contact one of them? (This is a separate vote from main turn vote, and may prompt a mini-update)
[][Contact] Nicola
-[] Write-in reason
[][Contact] Kaleb
-[] Write-in reason
[][Contact] No one
-[X][Nerissa] Spend a personal teaching her. 1d85 = 18
--[X] Ask her about notable locations in the area 91-20
Nerissa has been working on growing a patch of the herbs for your people to harvest in her outer grove this season. Seeing a single sprig of an herb replicated across a couple hundred square yards in the space of months is impressive. Especially as it's hardly any concern to her, a little attention now and then.
You spend more time this season teaching Nerissa more, and she's made quite good progress. She's reached a point where she can probably read books on her own of an appropriate level to increase her reading ability over time naturally. Though of course you've kind of gotten used to spending time with her anyway.
One day you have an idle curiosity as you're reading to Nerissa from one of the rather dry books on plantlife the herbalist brought with her, for lack of other things to read. "Do you know any interesting places in the forest?" You don't really expect much since she's stationary.
"Hmm?" Nerissa thinks about it scrunching up her face a little. "Well right at the center of the forest there's the hole."
Well that makes you curious, since to your knowledge no human's ever been to the center of the Overgrowth, or at least no one has ever returned to talk about it. "What's the hole? I doubt you'd mention it if it was just a hole in the ground."
"Well it's normally given fancier names, like the lifespring or wellspring of life, and it's where the magic that powers the forest comes from. It's still a hole though," she says nonchalantly. Your mind is racing with the very idea though.
-[X][Hunters] Catch a bunch of rabbits for the rabbit pen. (Requires rabbit pen.) 11+7+3-5
Your hunters efforts to catch rabbits alive fall a little short this season. Catching them was easy enough; it was the alive part they struggled with. Many times they came across traps that had caught one, before some predator came along and ate them. Or traps designed to catch them killed them through misfires or stupidity on the part of the rabbit. On the plus side you got a bit of extra food this season, but you didn't catch a proper starting population.
(-20 upkeep this turn)
-[X][Hunters] Scout to reduce chance of enemies slipping by. 1+7+3-5-5+10 natural 1
-[X][Levy] Patrol, reduce chance of enemies slipping by. 29-5+10+10=44
-[X][Footmen] Guard 40+50+20-5-5+10+10
--[X] The base and sawmill
-[X][Captain] Command troops, raising morale and effectiveness
-[X] Olivia helps the Patrols 1d50 = 19
"Well the orcs have brought in wolf riders now," Leo proclaims as he barges into you office one day.
You're still blinking at the sudden intrusion. "What?"
"Human horse cavalry isn't nearly as effective in a forest, but orc wolf riders are dangerously effective. Half the hunter unit was wiped out in a coordinated strike before they plowed past our lines and went onwards into the countryside," he says as he drops into a chair.
"Are they the same wolves we've been dealing with?" you can't help but ask, given how they have seemed dedicated to making your lives shorter.
"Hard to say, the orcs do breed their own wolves for the job, but we probably aren't that lucky." Of course you aren't.
It occurs to you you had Olivia out with the patrol today, which makes you ask a bit anxiously, "What happened to the levy patrol?"
Leo sees right through you though. "Don't worry about your girl, she smacked around the couple that thought to tangle with her. Unfortunately they're a bit smarter than I'd like because most of them just ran past out of reach."
That's comforting at least. "Any danger of them attacking us here?" You straighten out the requisition forms you were looking at before, trying to look more professional.
"I doubt it. Cavalry, even wolves, aren't that effective against a walled defensive position. We've got a sturdy enough base that as long as we keep a garrison I doubt they'll strike. They're not going to suicide against the walls," he concludes with a shrug. "The bigger problem is a lot of them are going to slip past our patrols to raid the civilians beyond us. It would be better if they were more interested in hitting us really."
(Orcs now have a wolf rider cavalry unit. -50% Hunter 2 unit, morale broken cannot act next turn, -10% additional from desertion due to low morale.)
(Merchants surcharge increase to 15%)
(Automatic replacements +15% footmen unit, footmen unit morale to Medium)
It's strange for there to be even one way that life in this outpost beyond civilization is better than the comforts of the city, but being able to be openly affectionate with Olivia is nice. At home you wouldn't have dared be so brazen. Admittedly your older brothers have gone further in public with far more women, but it was the lack of care they had that made that okay. Just running your hand along her back at the breakfast table lovingly feels more forbidden than anything they ever did, and yet you enjoy it more because of that.
Until your fingers come to some strange bump and Olivia practically jumps out of her chair, twisting her back away from you.
"What was that?" you can't help but inquire.
"N-nothing, nothing at all," she stutters through a rapid reply.
"You won't mind me taking a look then will you?" you cut straight to the point.
"Um… that would be improper?" she struggles for an excuse and fails miserably. Your only response is a level stare.
She sighs in defeat and turns around. You pull up her shirt. Her smooth back is barely a distraction at all. There's a few red marks trailing up her spike, but what you felt is rather obvious. You lean in to get a closer look. There's a green scale. You run your finger along it and pick at the edges a bit with your nail, setting off a bit of squirming. It seems quite attached. Flicking it only serves to make your finger a bit sore.
You cease your inspection and let her clothing settle back into place. Her shoulders slump a bit, and you decide the best thing to do is hug her from behind.
"Why didn't you want me to see?" you ask as you hold her tight, her body warm against yours.
She fidgets a bit. "Um… well… It's just so ugly! A zit would be bad enough, but scales! I didn't want you to see." She always worries so much about her appearance.
You can't help but laugh, causing her to tense. You quickly respond in a comforting tone: "You shouldn't worry about that. I'm not going to be upset with you over growing scales or anything else. It's clearly my fault and I take responsibility for that."
She relaxes into you.
"I'm guessing from the red marks that's not the first one, just the first I found?" you question.
"They started sprouting when I started spending more time in the forest. I was plucking them off before coming home," she admits.
You slowly let go of her so she isn't startled. "Did you keep them? I'd like to see them."
She sighs. "I did, I suppose I expected you would want to."
She gets up and goes to her room, swiftly returning with a small pouch that she empties on the table. A dozen forest green scales tumble out.
You can't help but be fascinated by them. They're similar in size to a fingernail, but around two or three times as thick. The shapes are roughly circular, and the surface is very smooth. You tap them against the table and each other, but the sound doesn't really tell you anything in particular. Trying to bend one only serves to hurt your fingers though.
"Well I no longer think that blood I used was from an ogre," you state the obvious, but you succeed in getting a smile out of Olivia at least. You don't let your face show the other worries going through your brain now though. "I'm not mad you hid this, but you need to tell me if you have any other symptoms you're hiding though, no matter how embarrassing they may be," you tell her seriously with a note of command to your voice.
Olivia sighs heavily. "I've put on weight, maybe." You raise an eyebrow at that. "Well it seems to go up and down?"
You really have to make sure to eliminate the obvious. "Not in the normal way?"
"It's not like I'm putting on any fat," she explains rapidly with some hand waving, "but sometimes I feel heavier than others?"
You're not entirely sure what to make of that. You may need to get a scale to measure it accurately.
She continues hesitantly: "And my cycle has ceased, for too long to be the normal reason. It hadn't been regular since you enchanted me, but now it's completely stopped."
The regular reason isn't likely anyways since you had the same access to contraceptives that made Edgar's lifestyle possible without an endless string of bastards, and the likelihood of Olivia having a child with someone else is laughable.
You should probably do something about this.
(Special vote, I will count this separately from turn plan.)
[][Olivia] Clearly the magic of the forest is feeding into her condition. You'll have her stay out of the forest, which will hopefully stop the effect and eliminate risks.
[][Olivia] Clearly the magic of the forest is feeding into her condition. You'll lean into it and have her spend even more time in the forest to accelerate whatever is happening. Maybe feed her more food from there as well. The effects seem beneficial to her really.
[][Olivia] Have her do what she's already doing. You don't understand the underlying phenomenon and nothing that's happened so far seems dangerous. Best to not change things till you do get it.
[][Olivia] Write in
Plans for Winter (Winter construction and travel malus applies, no longer noting on each action): (Base costs shown, increase 15% for merchants issue)
You now have 2 construction actions (For clarity specifying number of structures inside wall now, you are at 6/12):
[][Construction] Construct a second sawmill. (100 Denier ongoing cost, 200 Denier expected profit.) [Requires basic recruitment be taken to activate, no upfront cost for the workers though]
[][Construction] Forge: 200 Denier construction cost, 50 Denier upkeep, reduces costs by 10% on first 1000 per turn before merchant mod. (10 discount to upkeep with charcoal burner, but in general lack of ore hurts you here.)
[][Construction] Charcoal Burner: 100 Denier construction cost, 100 Denier upkeep, 200 Denier profit.
[][Construction] Build a Tavern and hire some appropriate staff 200 Denier cost. Increases morale.
[][Construction] Reinforce the wall (2 actions)
[][Construction] More housing at current quality +6 housing slots (200 Denier)
[][Construction] Build route to the sea. (Unknown cost without survey)
[][Construction] Write-in
2x d85s or 1x 1d100.
[][Personal] You could produce some basic enchanted gear for one of your units. Sharper blades and harder armor are staples for a reason. (100 Denier in needed materials)
-[] Specify a unit.
[][Personal] Have Leo give you a bit of training. However much you hate it, being better at fighting will help a lot if something is trying to eat you. (Must be taken with appropriate Captain action)
[][Personal] Recruit basic units. Specify what kind.
-[] Replace losses, 158 denier
-[] What units?
[][Personal] Recruit one Specialist unit (Enchanter, Elite, Healer, Potioneer) These units need special persuasion or negotiation so can't be hired in bulk. (Note this will involve traveling to them)
[][Personal] Find a way to make it so you can recruit without taking so much of your time. You'll either find an assistant that can do recruiting for you or just build a network of contacts willing to do it for a fee. (Cost variable dependent on roll, will have option to refuse and retry or recruit normally)
[][Personal] Investigate what's happened with your siblings.
[][Personal] Study what's happening with Olivia. You'll need some specialized equipment for the job though, it might come in handy later anyways though. (50 Denier, +5 to research related tasks as well)
[][Personal] Write-in
There's always something nice about taking time out of your day to visit with Nerissa. (Can ask something of her as a subvote. Do keep in mind she's still maintaining a chunk of defense for your base and an herb garden regardless.)
[][Nerissa] Spend a personal teaching her.
[][Nerissa] Buy her some books? 25 Denier
[][Nerissa] Nothing
(1 Hunter units available)
[][Hunters] Hunt for food, reduce upkeep by 50
[][Hunters] Scout to reduce chance of enemies slipping by.
[][Hunters] Catch a bunch of rabbits for the rabbit pen. (Requires rabbit pen.)
[][Hunters] Explore the forest, collect flora and fauna samples. Attempt to map out the notable locations
[][Hunters] Survey the coast for a potential way to the water and a place to build a docks. Keep in mind the coast is a cliff.
[][Levy] Patrol, reduce chance of enemies slipping by.
[][Levy] Train with the captain (must be taken with captain action, is not advised at this time)
-[] Upgrade to footmen, 200 Denier upfront, 50 upkeep
[][Levy] Guard
-[] The base and sawmill
-[] The merchants that bring your supplies (eliminate 15% modifier)
[][Footmen] Patrol, reduce chance of enemies slipping by.
[][Footmen] Train with the captain (must be taken with captain action, is not advised at this time)
[][Footmen] Guard
-[] The base and sawmill
-[] The merchants that bring your supplies (eliminate 15% modifier)
Herbalist changed to simply add a bonus to all actions where herb lore would be useful automatically.
[][Captain] Command troops, raising morale and effectiveness
[][Captain] Train Olivia
[][Captain] Recruit new units. Specify what kind.
-[] Replace losses, 158 denier
-[] What units?
[][Captain] Train regulars (must be taken with appropriate action)
[][Captain] Train you (must be taken with appropriate action)
123 starting -957 upkeep this turn +22 (hunting upkeep reduction, compensating for merchant modifier) -165 construction +600 season payment +200 sawmill profit +200 wood workshop = 23
Upkeep next turn: 905+15% (100 you +100 leo +100 sawmill + 200 construction crews +70 hunters + 50 levies +85 footmen +50 herbalist +100 woodworkers+50 harvesters)
Income next turn: 600 base stipend + 200 Sawmill profit +200 Wood Workshop +400 herb sales
Oh look income is actually outpacing upkeep now (1400 income vs 905 base upkeep). Though that nat 1 is going to hurt as the hunter 2 unit is down for a while combined with orcs slipping past. Dice continue to be unfriendly it seems. Forge may be a good choice to offset the upkeep costs since we are almost at the max base upkeep it can discount. More so as we can make a charcoal burner at the same time.
Study what's happening with Olivia. You'll need some specialized equipment for the job though, it might come in handy later anyways though. (50 Denier, +5 to research related tasks as well)
This seems like a good choice since it is providing a boost to some of our other actions as well.
[][Olivia] Clearly the magic of the forest is feeding into her condition. You'll have her stay out of the forest, which will hopefully stop the effect and eliminate risks.
[][Construction] Forge: 200 Denier construction cost, 50 Denier upkeep, reduces costs by 10% on first 1000 per turn before merchant mod. (10 discount to upkeep with charcoal burner, but in general lack of ore hurts you here.)
[][Construction] Charcoal Burner: 100 Denier construction cost, 100 Denier upkeep, 200 Denier profit.
[][Personal] Find a way to make it so you can recruit without taking so much of your time. You'll either find an assistant that can do recruiting for you or just build a network of contacts willing to do it for a fee. (Cost variable dependent on roll, will have option to refuse and retry or recruit normally)
[][Personal] Study what's happening with Olivia. You'll need some specialized equipment for the job though, it might come in handy later anyways though. (50 Denier, +5 to research related tasks as well)
[][Nerissa] Buy her some books? 25 Denier
[][Hunters] Scout to reduce chance of enemies slipping by.
[][Levy] Patrol, reduce chance of enemies slipping by.
[][Footmen] Guard
-[] The base and sawmill
[][Captain] Command troops, raising morale and effectiveness
Expenses for plan: 375
Funds Left Over: 7.25 (+85 if charcoal burner finishes, 200 profit, 115 upkeep, Forge finishing as well +42.5, +100 from upkeep reduction, -57.5 upkeep)
Sooo...Scales that may or may not be draconic.
Navy dude...Ehh, we can certainly reach out and make contact, but just between you, me and the fence? I want to give him a port of mystery that no-one knows about.
Basically, I want to send him a letter informing him of our brand-new port, and then he sails in, vanishing from the seas for a bit, then returning.
Mina no-doubt will pay us a visit at some point and be somewhat peeved at us spoiling the fun of hearing her brother's ever-escalating paranoia... But she might get a kick out of getting to solve the mystery of our brother's seemingly eternal vigil on the high seas...Or at least a part of it.
Army bro on the other hand...Uhh. Hrrm. He's got the finest men, but bloody habits- he loses lots of men and has to keep replacing them, he wiped a town brutally...I'd rather not draw his eye, is what I'm saying. And unlike Navy bro where we can offer him a port...We don't have much nice things he'd be interested in, I think.
That might work, swap it in place of doing the forge and the costs are account for. Still do the charcoal burner to get some more money flowing and setup doing the forge next turn.
