The first year has drawn to a close.
{18} The winter was unusually long and cold this year. The shack's insulation was completed before the first snowfall thanks to an advance from the merchants. The new heatstones, by Miss Sara and Vorg, were enough to keep everyone warm most nights. The colder nights had Vorg providing heat himself, while grumbling good-naturedly about 'soft city-dwellers.'
{98} One of the village elders was very sick. He was initially mistrustful of the magic heatstones, but eventually accepted one as a gift. Even Father Bloom's best care narrowly avoided making his situation worse, but he greatly appreciated the heatstone's comfort. The elder recovered, and, in gratitude, gifted the guild a small quantity of imported spices and preserved fruit, which must have been expensive for his family.
{55} On Leader Hagel trying to leave alone, the guards panic, and two agree to escort him for the year. At the end of the year, they return, bringing a pair of potentiates with him, both in early adult-hood. The first is a soft-spoken girl. The second-
"You mean this .. this storage shed is it? One kick would bring it down."
"We can maybe make it better? Imagine, being here to watch a grand hall, built from nothing!"
"I'm gonna burn- It's gonna fall apart on it's own in a month. Just watch."
Neither Father Bloom nor Miss Sara discover any particularly useful plants growing nearby throughout the year.
Father Bloom's healing made small progress in getting the villagers to open up. It should now be safe for a guild member to walk through the village alone now.
The heatstones didn't quite work out as planned. It takes about two weeks to make one, and by the third night of use their charge starts to run out, lowering their effectiveness until they completely stop. They take little effort to recharge, but she needs a few minutes before putting them in a fire to personally prepare them. The runework degrades through repeated charging. By the end of the year, she can add enough redundancies that they last about three weeks, up from around two weeks after the first 'finalized' design.
Village Report
The local population count is roughly 75.
The villagers live off of hunting, trapping, and fishing.
Traders visit four times per year, to supply the guild, buy furs and sell tools and occasionally luxuries.
There are three main factions, based on families. Two are opposed to the guild's presence, while one is neutral.
Overall, the village remains uncooperative towards the guild.
Financial Review
You earn a stipend of 80 drachma per month.
You spend 60 drachma per month on basic upkeep - It would be 30, but the traders now visit once per season purely for your benefit, and need to make a profit.
Food and shelter is provided by the guild to its members. There are neither guild dues nor guild payments.
The guards buy their own food.
Possessions Review
The guild owns a three-room shack. It is insulated, but has only rugs for furniture.
The guards have no plans for further expansion. It would be unsafe to build more off of their low-quality efforts regardless.
Personnel
5x Guards, paid for by the king. They are light infantry armed with short swords, slings, and partial leather armor.
Their primary mission is guarding the guild and its mages. They will likely follow guild instructions to further this goal.
2x Mage potentiates.
Currently, nobody is adding to the guild's knowledge. Should one die, their knowledge dies with them. Your main options are to put training completely on hold and record everything they can, to write down their most interesting findings as they train, or to hold off on that entirely for now - You need to buy parchment, and the current shack is not well suited to keep a library.
Training is currently set to low intensity.
You may encourage members to spread their training or focus in one area at a time (of your choice, if you wish to micromanage). The former would generally be more efficient, reducing boredom and allowing time to consider different approaches. You may also allow them to train what-ever they please, for even more efficiency.
MissionsSearch for recruits!
Send someone on a year-long trip, getting acquainted with nearby settlements and looking for those with magical potential. Due to financial limitations, no more than two would be brought back, but more may be noted for future searches.
Consider sending some guards.
Suggested Skills: Level 2 in any magical skill would greatly increase the chances of finding at least one recruit. Learning about nearby settlements would still help future searches. More recruits would badly strain your finances.
Heal the villagers
Father Bloom is a healer. He could make himself available for healing any new wounds the villagers receive. It would be good practice, but they may become upset if he fails to heal someone who's wounds are too severe to heal, and mistakes with magic could happen at any time.
More Heatstones
Since Miss Sara needs to personally recharge them, they won't work as trade goods for the caravans. Still, it was good practice, and working through the warmer months could get them a decent supply for gifts or to trade with the villagers.
Travel to the capital
It won't take long for the new recruits to unlock their magic. Assuming either of them survive, you could immediately take them (and a heatstone) to show your progress to the king, who may increase your funding. This would take a full year, and you'll need to send an experienced guild member with them. There will be time for simple training along the way, and they won't need to show off more than basic magical abilities, so a magical catastrophe in front of the king is unlikely.
Financial DecisionsThere is enough money to do one task poorly.
Buy parchment, ink,
plus perhaps candles and improved parchment storage, allowing magical knowledge to be preserved.
Father Bloom would like to hold a religious festival to improve relations with the village.
The new recruits are of unknown loyalty. Buying some luxury goods and better furniture may combat the notion that you can't afford nice things.
Your accommodations are poor. You may begin saving money to pay the villagers to build a second building. More living space and room for a library would be welcome.
Remember, new recruits may try to learn a random school themselves, or may train under someone experienced. ((Do note that people with only a single level in a school tend to lack the understanding to be capable teachers in that school.))
((I still don't know what the guild's name is.))
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Topic: Arcane Guild of Hybise - Ended (Read 15662 times)