"If time is the salve that heals all wounds,
Money is the potent healing magic that mends them quickly."
-Inscribed upon the Doors of the Great Dwarven BankSmith Lord Aurora Wordfire, Refuge Queen of Silent Hammers, Empress Consort of the Southernfrost, and Queen Consort of Bedlamb and the Marble CitySkills and Abilities:
-Although my social skills are rusty from isolation, I am highly respected as one of the few remaining first diggers.
-I am the greatest mortal metal-smith and furnace worker, without question. My skills in this area even surpass those of some gods.
-I have also mastered many other crafting skills, unrelated to the furnace.
-So long as my history is recorded in the language of the diggers, my soul and mind cannot truly be snuffed out (Granted by the World Weld)
-I can create mighty artifacts by inscribing the items I create with the great deeds of myself or the item's intended recipient (Granted by the World Weld)
-I am aware of the general location and activities of those who wield my artifacts, and I may exert light influence over their behavior (Granted by the World Weld)
-I can detect the great deeds of others nearby (Granted by the World Weld)
Artifacts and Minions:
The World Weld - Links my soul, the digger language, and the laws of reality itself. Allows me to easily create lesser artifacts.
The Face of Fate - Makes the wearer a mighty fighter and assassin. Wielded by Mril-Minda, who is presently preparing for her next trip into the Beetle Queendoms.
The Song of Gunsmoke - Boosts the social skills of the wearer and luck of his/her offspring. Not yet wielded by a permanent owner.
Known Mortal Family:
(Husband - Present) All-Lord Ukareem the Silver, Emperor of the Southernfrost
(Husband - Absent) Scholar-King Emscythe, Monarch of the Marble City and Secretary General of the Greatwalls Alliance
(Husband - Absent) Bloodlord Haigen the Usurper, King of Bedlamb
(Mother-in-Law - Present) Trumil, the Slime Mold Hag
(Infant Son) Prince Dremscythe, Heir to Silent Hammers and the Marble City
Holdings:
Silent Hammers: A small city that provides 1 Wealth and 1 Food per month. Houses and defends up to 50 FU to military might. (23/50)
Dung Slopes Fungal Farm: A particularly fertile farm where up to 6 LU can work per month. Typically yields 1 Food per LU of labor.
Oddearth Cliffs Quarry: A mineral rich quarry where up to 8 LU can work per month. Typically yields 1 Stone per LU of labor. Typically yields 1 Limonite per 2 LU of Labor. Typically yields 1 Sulfur and 1 Wicked Salt per 4 LU of labor. Goblin workforce increases chance of positive random events. High chance of being targed by goblin raids. Costs 1 Wealth to maintain per month.
Axeltax at Tunnel's Mouth: A watchtower that Houses and defends up to 6 FU of military might. Yields 2 Wealth/month in collected taxes while at least 3 FU are stationed here. (3/6, Human Phalanx)
Available Military Population:
15-5 Force Units of Human Phalanx (x1.2 Bonus to open field battle. Available for 105 more months, or until the Kingdom of Narm enters a state of civil war)
5 Force Units of Dwarf/Drugar Militia (x1.3 Bonus to defending cities or fighting underground)
5 Force Units of Goblin Warslaves (x.75 Penalty to fighting in bright sunlight, does not need food to act)
3-3 Force Units of Charcoal Tribe Elf Rangers (x2 Bonus to fighting in the woods)
2 Force Units of Drugar Siege Operators (x4 Bonus to attacking cities, x1.5 Bonus to fighting megabeasts, x.25 Penalty in all other combat situations)
1 Force Unit of Weremule Warmonks (x3 Bonus to guarding VIPs, x.1 Penalty against Nickle Silver weapons, does not need food to act)
Civilian Population:
12 Labor Units of Assorted and Mixed Breed Diggers (2 LU to 5 FU Conversion Rate before material mod)
8 Labor Units of Halfling Commoners (2 LU to 4 FU Conversion Rate before material mod)
5 Labor Units of Goblin Slaves (2 LU to 4 FU Conversion Rate before material mod, does not need food to act)
4 Labor Units of Highborn Dwarves (1 LU to 4 FU Conversion Rate before material mod)
4 Labor Units of Highborn Drugar (1 LU to 4 FU Conversion Rate before material mod)
3 Labor Units of Educated Drugar Acolytes (1 LU to 4 FU Conversion Rate before material mod)
2 Labor Units of Human Commoners (2 LU to 7 FU Conversion Rate before material mod)
1 Labor Unit of Hobgoblin Drivers (2 LU to 7 FU Conversion Rate before material mod, does not need food to act)
Basic Resources:
x16 Food (+1 Per Month) - Your people can and do feed themselves, but food from the royal grainy must be provided for people to put aside their own livelyhood and peruse your interests. Spending 1 food allows you to issue an order commanding up to 5 FU or LU. Converting LU to FU will also usually cost additional food. You can deploy trade convoys to try and convert other resources into food.
x21 Wealth (+2 Per Month) - A representation of the various coins and paper currency in your treasury. Used to buy other resources and favors, and is generally the most effective resource to use as a trade good.
+1 City
+2 Axeltax
-1 Quarry
Advanced Resources:
x12 Wood (The most basic construction resource. Artifacts made from wood tend to harness the power of nature)
x6 Stone (A more sturdy and less flammable construction resource. Artifacts made from stone tend to harness the power of earth)
x23 (+3 Per month for 107 months) Marble (A more valuable form of stone that can be combined with iron to make steel at a smelter. Artifacts made from Marble tend to harness the power of light)
x20 Brick (A common construction resource. Brick is already a finished good, and cannot be used as a component for most artifacts)
x9 Bronze (A military resource with a .80 Material Mod. Artifacts made from bronze tend to harness the power of fire)
x15 Iron (A military resource with no Material Mod. Artifacts made from iron tend to enhance the wearer's metalworking ability)
x4 Steel (A military resource with a 1.5 Material Mod. Artifacts made from steel tend to have protective effects)
x4 Bloodstone (A magical military resource with no material mod. Both common gear and artifacts made from Bloodstone are particularly deadly towards all the digger races)
x5 Mithiril (A magical military resource with a 1.7 material mod. When using this as a material for an artifact, choose two other component materials and boost their effect on the finished piece)
x1 Night Mithiril (A magical military resource with a 1.7 material mod. Artifacts made from Night Mithiril tend to aid in criminal activity)
x2 Deep Sapphire (A magical Military resource with a material mod of .5. Gear and artifacts made from Sapphire are great at drawing out the sorcerous power within one's blood)
x6 Sulfur (A magical resource used in the worship of wicked gods and construction of advanced siege weapons. Artifacts of sulfur are favored by wicked gods)
x1 Ensouled Leather of the Sailor (A magical resource gifted to you by the skin cutter nymphs to help tame predator lake. Unknown effect if used outside its intended artifact purpose)
x1 Ensouled Leather of the Princess (A magical resource gifted to you by the skin cutter nymphs to help tame an unruly child. Unknown effect if used outside its intended artifact purpose)
x1 Ensouled Leather of the Champion (A magical resource gifted to you by the skin cutter nymphs as a means to defend yourself. Unknown effect if used outside its intended artifact purpose)
Known Allies and Enemies:
Bardhill County (Ally, Trade Partner) - The fertile and clay rich human territory that completely encompasses your land. The ruler, Count Chance, deeply respects the craftsdwarfshipp and military skill of the diggers. In exchange for resources and a loan of troops, you have agreed to aid him in an anticipated civil war against his fellow counts when the king dies.
Southernfrost Empire (Ally) - The southernmost and mightiest of the northern dwarven civilizations. Southernfrost is rich in bronze and labor. The empire is ruled by your husband All-Lord Ukareem the Silver.
The Greatwalls Alliance (Ally, Trade Partner) - A loose confederacy of prosperous drugar city-states that pays tribute to your husband, Scholar-King Emscythe. Rich in copper, sulfur, and flux stone.
The Kingdom of Bedlamb (Ally) - Nation of drugar ruled by your husband Bloodlord Haigen the Usurper. Rich in iron, flux stone, and gems. Currently defending against invasion from an unknown drugar kingdom, and raids from an unknown dwarf kingdom.
The Beetle Queendoms (Enemy to All Diggers) - A drowish nation that sits between Silent Hammers and The Greatwalls Alliance. Traders can navigate around it, and they are currently too busy dealing with surface elf raiders to pose a threat.
The Pinewoods Tribes (Hostile) Small yet fierce surface elf civilizations that separate Silent Hammers from the Southernfrost Empire and the Kingdom of Bedlamb. They find the very ideas of commerce and industry to be deeply offensive, and slaughter trade convoys on site as a rule.
You pay a visit to the local dark pits, and have all the Hobgoblin drivers gathered to hear your address. You open by congratulating their hard work, before reminding them that not everybody assigned to work under them is a weak-willed goblin peon.
"Us diggers are willing to work hard, but we do very much value breaks to sleep and enjoy some good ale, and are not so keen on 'motivational' beatings. If you lot find yourselves in charge again, keep that in mind. Next time I'll give the guards permission to beat you back if you mistreat non-goblins."The Drivers all nod in agreement. Some even apologize.
---
Back home, you summon Bort and instruct him to distribute two units of wealth from the treasury to those who were abused by the goblin drivers. The Hill Giant nods, and crawls under the tiny door to your chambers to go carry out his duties.
---
You ponder your options for following up on Trumil's investigation. Prince Neptune is the first person who springs to mind, as he was at one point responsible for running his father's dungeons. His methods, however, would likely involve rounding up everybody in the boarding house and tormenting them until the sorcerer spills the beans. It might just be more humane to round them all up, ship them to Count Chance, and see who turns into a were-eagle should you choose to go that route.
Although she lacks the social skills, your personal physician Liula may know enough of anatomy to pick out somebody with sorcerously unusual ancestry based on physical appearance. Liula, however, is only 55, which for an elf means she is barely out of childhood; A skilled sorcerer could pose quite a serious threat to her, but then again the same is true for almost anybody.
You could, of course, tackle the problem with a larger-scale solution, and deploy several LU of your more educated citizens to get to the bottom of the sorcerer's identity.
---
While trying to sleep, you spend some time pondering the Tiger Heads. By appearance, they are literally pre-divide diggers with the head of a tiger on their shoulders. They most commonly live in jungles and other tropical areas on the surface, although many amoung their numbers are wanderers and can be found almost anywhere.
Your personal experience with Tiger Heads has been entirely positive. Back in the old days, when it would take you decades to make even simple artifacts, it was members of their race who would most commonly attend to you while you were entranced. During the early days of the bloodwar, when it was feared that either the dwarves or drugar would attempt to claim the Oven of Origin by force, several clans of their kind served as your personal protectors. You would even go so far as to say they bear some responsibility for the World Weld; Tiger Heads are physiologically incapable of normal speech, and thus communicate with roars and writing. It was your desire to communicate with your bodyguards during the war that eventually lead you to first become literate.
The hatred directed towards them stems from the fact that, like many minority races, they were excommunicated from worshiping the digger gods. While this alone is pretty damning, the alternative religion they came up with made matters much worse. As opposed to deities, the Tiger Heads worship artifacts. The chief pillar of their faith is that it is not their purpose to create, but to exalt the creation of other diggers; Because of this Tiger Heads refuse to partake in most forms of honest labor, and most make their livings as criminals and mercenaries. In recent centuries, as fewer and fewer diggers allowed them access to artifacts to worship, the Tiger Heads have taken to actively aligning themselves with enemies of the dwarves and drugar, in hopes of claiming artifacts by force.
Another tenant of the Tiger Head faith, however, is to protect and serve the great craftsfolk among the first diggers, so you have no doubt that they could be trusted if you could get your other citizens to not revolt over their presence.
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Topic: (SG) Rise of the Smith Lord (Read 20758 times)