"Of course not. I'd knew you would take some convincing. So, what are yourdemands, your conditions that you require before you do aid me?"
She laughs a little
"Demands?" She thinks for a moment, [2]
"Why would I betray my country and help the Traitor Queen? It would likely benefit me more to simply kill you and drag you back to Talama myself. I'm in a generous mood though, how about I simply ignore you and we continue on our campaign. I control the vast majority of the military currently. You could likely make it inside the city alone and deal with Lord Kathos I guess."Start establishing a town and search for the lands of any unaligned nobles nearby
[2/3] Your men don't find any usable land, not because there isn't any, but apparently they kept getting distracted and never really made it far from camp. Additionally, they didn't happen to find much in the way of other people in the area either. A few hermit farmers, but nothing large enough or social enough to warrant conversion to your efforts.
[3] You manage a decent base of operations, mostly just a large cleared area with camps set up for your men. It'll make a great foundation if you can manage to gather some peasantry to support your endeavors.
-Without releasing the name or identity of his spy, Terryn informs Lizzy of the current going-ons re: Dissidents being funded by an outside Lord. He requests that she not contact William, for fear of the courier being compromised while the trap is still being laid.
-If the Blacksmith can be found, he is to be arrested for vagrancy or some other small crime which might be punished with arrest.
[6] Lizzy agrees to keep mum for now. She will, however, let William know of your orders after the events conclude.
The blacksmith isn't hard to find. He was one of the largest in the city prior to the Drydock issues. Seems he made the vast majority of his income from supplying the dock with replacement parts for ships. Now he's reduced to horseshoes and other benign activities. [4/2] You could certainly trump up some charges against him, but given his position in town it might look suspicious. Your call...
Research for appropriate stone design, then thave it cut and polished to design. Request meeting with Cain.
[5] Material on hand and within the library at Shola contains various geological information regarding the shape of stones and their applications for
abnormal usage. Given what you could glean and after a few trials you seem to find a few shapes that will retain a larger portion of energy for a longer period of time than a raw hunk would.
[3] Cain, being a busy man, sends an advisor to your lab to determine what you want and if it's applicable for a face to face meeting.
"My Lord has sent me to you. I hear you have some interesting activities and research projects. To what degree would they require My Lord's hand of involvement?"