And I'm quite concerned about the apparent mental breakdown that the whole town is having. The updated mental simulation seems to mean that an emotional catastrophe is less of a blunt hammer destroying a game as it is an alarming and hard-to-fight menace.
I'm sorry for Dengusa, I really tried to save him. I had a little hope when he left hospital and just rushed to filled all his needs, becoming almost instantly focused. But no, he forged a couple of high quality blades and attacked people in the temple... If you ever want another human feel free to ask.
As for the spirale forming more and more clearly, yes ; this spring will be about everything I did to counteract the shadow of death that is looming over us, and we'll update our version early summer instead of late summer. We need to save Kimaeslo Ori
The Skull-breakers Emblem, a fractured skull, mace, and morningstar. There's only one way for a maceman to score an instant kill after all.[...] All of these are designed as door decorations, though simplified forms can be applied to shields, bucklers, and maybe body armor.
That's totally perfect. I most especially want to use them on tactical illustrations for battles and the such. To show where everyone is deployed and give clearer explanations of infort battles. Thank you so much. The squads has been renamed and now are more readable.
I've read through this whole thread again over the last few days. I love this story! The combination of the broad sweep of history, with the details of the lives of the people who get caught up in it.
I'm amazed that you would read the whole story, and I'm very happy someone did :') Thank you.
As soon as the next kid reaches puberty, you're in
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Spring 148
The relative calmness of spring 148 allowed the Aconilun to gather itself and recover from its losses of last year. They were great ; in just a year, it had lost almost ten percent of its population, mostly people who were endeared to the kingdom. The degradation of social order Kimaeslo Ori was to be remedied by a reinforcement of police forces and the augmentation of the number of trials. After a number of trials and adjudications, it was revealed that most of the crimes in the village were commited by mostly farmers ; Mathras, Olo, Noloc, Cek ; few others. The crimes were mostly crimes of despair vandalism, disorderly condudct and the like.
No crime for profit, not organized crime either. Police activity would be but a bandaid on a problem running deeper in the bridgetown : by in large, people were not happy in Kimaeslo Ori.
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The causes of discontentment were varied. Some were incompressible, such as the inclement weather or the stress to live in a wartorn country.
Those which were not, however, were mostly linked to the infrastructure. There were too few houses, organization was lagging behind the town's growing needs, the production of consumer goods notably clothing was too slow and people had difficulties to find activities to unwind.
There was certainly room for improvement and if the Aconilun was to finish the bridge, it would have to tackle the problem of its worker's misery.
Bannic is still tavern keeping*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Departing peacefullyRumors said that for now two years, the bridge was haunted by the souls of people unproperly memorialized specifically the souls of Oli (drowned in 146 in the underground caverns) and Ricgo (died of dehydratation after severe depression in 147). Whether those ghost stories are true or not, the Aconilun's public behaved as if they were, and those wandering spirits were taking a toll on their morale maybe more than we previously suspected. Something had to be done to console if not the ghost themselves at least their grieving relatives.
In the year 148, there was no organized religious institution in the bridgetown. The closest thing to a connection to the afterlife the village had was a small temple, cared for the population, where people would come and pray individually to their patron god. One would come to the temple, ask for guidance to their patron and leave with the feeling of having been listened to. For more complex offices such as burrials, the family and friends of the deceased would make council among themselves to decide of the rites. This was enough for the matter of ordinary belief, there was no need for an organized priesthood.
The case of Oli and Ricgo however was however more complex. The bodies of the two could not be retrieved, making the usual rites impossible. This is people believe what lead to their rise from the death as restless spirits.
Substituting herself to the would-be priesthood, lady Sug ordered tombstones to be cut and engraved, then added to a small cimetary next to the temple. Makeshift rituals were performed people gathered with no one really knowing what to do.
Although no one can say for certain it worked or had any effect the reports of wandering ghosts ceased the day after.
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Trivial pursuitsAnother demand that was very expressly communicated to the local lord was the construction of a small library. Some pearlites, it seems, value knowledge. Even tho they are culturally down-to-earth and find little interest in intellectual pursuits, some of our people clearly do not fit their mold and feel the need to read, write, argue and deliberate.
It took time and effort, but in early 148, the library was finished. It was a small building, much smaller than its equivalent in Thomocemir, and Lord Jalew was chosen to be the local scholar at least for now.
Jalew was litterate, having studied alongside human and dwarven thinkers back in Thomocemir where the nature of the ground left him few opportunity to express his talents as a miner.
He then spent spring researching and writing some very basic manuals on a variety of topics he knew about, producing the following titles : the
History of Opposites and
An Exploration of the Sums essays on mathematics concepts
Commentary on Anatomies a biology essay and one psychology manual,
Happiness ; the Easy Way.
Probably not the best topic to write about, while hating yourself after having killed your grandson.
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Out of the cavernsWhen the Aconilun first set foot on the bit of land that would later become Kimaeslo Ori, they dig some undeground home to protect themselves from the elements. Although they soon built wooden, then stone houses, the need for habitations grew faster than their ability to build them, and so for five years, the undeground facilities were still in use.
Unlike dwarves, humans are not made to live underground. The echoes, the lack of light, the deprivation of oxygen were taking a toll on their nerves. But the most unerving was probably the stench emaning from the butchery.
To produce bones, leather and meat, animals were regularly slaughtered, their skins tanned, their bones made into crafts, bolts and decorations, and their innards prepared and cooked. However, as the granary was becoming full with alcohol, oat bread and other farm goods, the meat often was abandonned in the butchery where it rotted and as it was undeground without a significant airflow, the whole area soon became embaumed in an abominable odor... and the area was a passageway to access the undeground section of the farm, affecting the farmers the most and explaining at least in part their high level of agitation.
The underground butchery was surely destroyed and rebuilt outside.
New butcher shop, building in progress*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Dealing with criminalsHauben and his squad now live in the casemate on the other side of the bridgeLast but not least, it was decided that criminality should be dealt with. Until the problems start to solve themselves and people start to converge toward a harmonious way of life in community, the police would have to get busy and pursue lawbreakers. Now the granary is full and the town acquired a well taking directly from the aquifer so there is, in fact, some good in the bad vandalism does not pose a death threat anymore, like it did in the past, but still act as a force opposed to our efforts.
Until we can be certain that the town will not fall apart anymore, both the noblemen and their retainers shall be on top of their game, preventing crime and incarcerating criminals.
Speaking of which, one of the prison's « good client », a farmer man called Lucmen, was recently released from jail. Because he had attacked several people and damaged a couple of shops in an access of rage, he was shown the door and wished good luck to. Lucmen left, but not without stealing a highly valuable pecan cup. Oh well. Our peace of mind worths well over a wooden goblet.
Expelling citizens is something we do not like to do ; it would be much better to acquire additional holdings to which they could be sent and continue to serve the cause of the Aconilun.
Actions toward that goal will have to be undertaken later.
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Of monkey and menDuring spring, the rhesus macaques attacked again, but the creatures were now harmless and ineffectual. Two kids, Keth and Oxul, were jumped on by the feral monkeys, but managed to fend them off. The rhesus monkeys managed to kill one of our young dogs before being sent fleeing in the four directlion by the militia, the animals and the general peasantry.
One of the macaques even was captured - those who were killed were butchered and skinned in our new outside butchery.
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Lastly, the last event in this spring was the yearly visit of the elves of Iferifiyopi. Most of the time, pearlites have little interest in commerce with elves besides maintaining good neighbourhood relations. To pearlites, elves are dangerous creatures, and commerce is a way to keep them in check. They bring little items of value beyond wood to fuel the furnaces
However, this time they did produce goods the Aconilun was interested in.
Ale, the elven chief trader, proposed two caged jaguars one male and one female. She also offered a tamed rhesus macaque a male, while the one captured earlier was a female.
That was two couples of exotic creatures we could assemble this spring. The jaguars, especially, are notorious for being able to be trained as war and hunting creatures. If we can produce a number of them, they would be an excellent addition to the invasion squads we are about to form.
The Aconilun traded some copper weaponry and offered wax and bone crafts to maintain good relations. Hopefully, Iferifiyopi merchants will come again next year with such deals.
Toki is now a legendary appraiser*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*--*-*-*-*-*
Last news of the season ; sadly, Gram did not survived his terminal depression. Condoleances to Toki, to his friends Hauben and Bannic, and to his squadmates. He is replace at the head of the police by Bemta.
Ari-Taskmo, the glassmaker, became mad and his doom is almost certain. He is replaced at the head of the glass industry by Gencesh, his elder son.