"Princess Nietharth was by far the weakest sorceress among her sisters,
but this really mattered not. When one can indiscriminately slaughter tens
of thousands with a thought and a gesture, one possesses the tools to rule
through fear and check other such tyrants through mutually assured destruction."
-Inscription upon the Chalice of the Inferno MonarchsSmith 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 currently helping her husband settle into his new role as leader of the assassin’s guild and suffering the middle stages of a rough pregancy.
The Song of Gunsmoke - Boosts the social skills of the wearer and luck of his/her offspring. Owned by Lord Kingscythe of Granite Towers, who is currently planning a feast for his king’s birthday.
Chalice of the Inferno Monarchs - Unknown Powers. Owned by Lady Nietharth Chance, who is currently struggling to cope with the recently awakened ambition and detachment from reality that runs in her bloodline.
Known Mortal Family:
(Husband - Absent) 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
(Toddler Son) Prince Dremscythe, Heir to Silent Hammers and the Marble City
(Infant Daughter) Princess Aurora the Younger, Heir to the Southernfrost Empire
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. (32/50)
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)
The Dark Fortress Oddearth Howl: A dark fortress that houses and defends up to 15 FU of military might. Can produce goblin slaves if you have access to goblin civilian housing and a skilled user of dark magic. Costs 1 Wealth to maintain per month.
Available Military Population:
14-3 Force Units of Human Phalanx (x1.2 Bonus to open field battle. Available for 97 more months, or until the Kingdom of Narm enters a state of civil war)
10 Force Units of Drugar Blood-Troopers (x3 Bonus to fighting diggers. x1.5 Bonus to putting down revolts)
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 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)
Civilian Population:
12 Labor Units of Assorted and Mixed Breed Diggers (2 LU to 5 FU Conversion Rate before material mod)
13 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)
3 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:
x18 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 pursue 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.
x63 Wealth (+3 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
+2 Tax on Thiefs Guild
-1 Oddearth Howl
-1 Quarry
Advanced Resources:
x52 Wood (The most basic construction resource. Artifacts made from wood tend to harness the power of nature)
x50 Living Wood (Construction resource sometimes used for advanced elfish builds. Artifacts made from living wood tend to harness the power of nature)
x33 Singing Wood (Construction resource sometimes used for advanced elfish builds. Artifacts made from singing wood tend to enhance the bearer's social skills)
x34 Bleeding Wood (Construction resource sometimes used for advanced elfish builds. Artifacts made from bleeding wood may transmute organic materials)
x20 'Forest Steel' Wood (Construction resource sometimes used for advanced elfish builds. Magical Military Resources with a 1.5 Material Mod. Artifacts of Forest Steel tend to have protective effects)
x20 Stone (A more sturdy and less flammable construction resource. Artifacts made from stone tend to harness the power of earth)
x31 Limonite (A more valuable form of stone that can be processed at a smelter to make iron. Artifacts made from Limonite tend to grant resistance to heat and/or skill in metallurgy)
x47 (+3 Per month for 97 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)
x57 Brick (A common construction resource. Brick is already a finished good, and cannot be used as a component for most artifacts)
x8 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)
x39 Plum Copper (A military resource with a .60 Material Mod. Surface Elves know how to process this into food. Artifacts made from plum copper affect one's metabolism)
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)
x10 Soul Stone (A magical military resource with no material mod. Both common gear and artifacts made from Soul Stone are particularly deadly towards all the surface elf 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)
x1 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)
x26 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)
x15 Dire Pine-cones (A magical resource used in elfish religious ceremonies. Artifacts made from Dire Pine-cones tend to have explosive effects)
x16 Wicked Salts (A magical resource used by goblins, undead, and other beings powered by dark magic as a potent and addictive stimulant. Artifacts made from Wicked Salts vastly enhance the raw mental attributes of such beings)
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.
The Opal Elves of the Trollish Wastes (Trade Partner) - A nomadic clan of wealth obsessed subdrow that roams the upper and midddle Trollish Wastes. Known for their skill as thieves, jewelers, herbalists, and merchants.
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 decide to turn Princess Truffle's offer to purchase your land down. The opal elf takes this surprisingly well.
"I respect your eye for long term profit over a short term cash infusion. My people would be glad to purchase your gems, or contract to work them on your behalf, once your mine is active."---
Gathering your court, you present a six month plan to haul your recently purchased resources, dig out a new quarry, and raise a dark fortress in the Trollish Wastes before explaining that you are about to enter another artifact making trance and will be indisposed for at least that long.
You then retire to your workshop with some Deep Sapphire, Bronze, Limonite, Singing Wood, Bleeding Wood, and Plum Copper. Time passes in a rhythmic fashion to the sound of hammer on anvil. You give birth during this time, but your trance is so deep not even going into labor is enough to interrupt your labor. Visions of flame, terror, and mighty human monarchs pass before your eyes, blocking out much of reality.
---
You snap back to reality with a scream and a jolt of pain. For some reason, this time, your trance didn't spare you from the pain of childbirth, but merely delayed the agony. You note a Bronze Chalice in your hand. It takes all the strength you have to order it sent to Lady Chance as a gift before you pass out. By the time you come too, another week and a half has passed. The artifact you made is gone, and you have missed your window to properly study its powers. You can tell by meditating upon the World Weld, however, that Lady Chance has received her gift. It also seems that the Opal Elves found a buyer for The Song of Gunsmoke, but you don't know anything about him save for his name, title, and hometown, which is one of the many city states in Emscythe's Greatwalls Alliance.
Once you have regained your bearings, you inquire about your children. The newborn is a female of dwarven blood, named Aurora the Younger by your court. Your forge has cooled while you were recovering, so you cannot read her fate at the moment. Your son Dremscythe is now walking, and the toddler antics of him and his trolls are driving your poor steward Bort crazy.
In addition to your family, your court has also grown. While you were entranced, the halfling mafia situation seems to have sorted itself out. Fifteen FU of Drugar Blood-Troopers, soldiers wielding heavy bloodstone weapons, arrived from the Kingdom of Bedlamb and aided Don Huck and Donna Sherry in purging their rivals within the organization. The leader of these troops, Deathlord Morgu the Massive, is a high ranking officer in Bloodlord Haigen's secret police who has joined your court as a military adviser in hopes of earning points with his master by aiding his master's wife. 10 FU of his men are now at your disposal, while the rest answer to Don Huck, the new Don of Dons. Donna Sherry, meanwhile, has retired as leader of the drug runners and taken the role of coin-keeper for the Halfling mob while also joining your court as spymaster.
It seems that you have been out for just over seven months. You request a condensed briefing on what has happened in this time from your court.
Oddearth Cliffs Quarry Construction Report:Toil and Woe!
Tragedy has struck the quarry construction site, as our construction team unexpectedly breached a buried ancient burial temple. The mummified monsters flooded into the work site putting everybody they could catch to the sword. We lost one LU of Drugar Highborn (including many of my family and friends) and one FU of human phalanx before we were able to evacuate the quarry. When the incident occoured, we had already moved all brick to the build site, and in our haste to retreat we had to abandon it.
Construction is a little more than halfway done (18/30), but we cannot resume until the mummies are dealt with. Sadly, we have no way of knowing just how many of the blighters are in the burial temple. Phlanax commanders advise me that unless we go in with an overwhelming numbers advantage, or troops specially trained to combat the undead, causalities on any attempt to reclaim the quarry and loot the temple will be high.
-Foreman Iteum Gerstone
Diggers strike the earth!
Nothing warms a Drugars heart like the thought of bending weakminded goblins to do one's work for you. Leading the construction of a dark fortress has been very therapeutic in the wake of recent tragedies at the new quarry site. Your new Dark Fortress of stone has risen, Smith Lord, and we have named it Oddearth Howl. Soon we may drown both our enemies and menial labor concerns under waves of goblins! All we need now is a Bugbear or other such Goblin maker...
-Foreman Iteum Gerstone
Labor continues, crop yield continues to mostly meet expectations, whores are still present.
Our window to attack the goblins has closed for the time being. They have relocated their camp to parts unknown, and have taking to harassing any soldiers I send out as scouts with archers and riders. As my duty is primarily to defend the farmers, I have stopped deploying scouts beyond the boundaries of the farm whatsoever.
-Phalanx Officer Lexington
Labor and output continue a maximum capacity; My whip is sated.
To appease local goblin and troll populations who might otherwise raid the quarry for the wicked salts it produces, I have set up a fighting pit where workers and native locals alike can compete and gamble to win negligible amounts of wicked salt. Because of this, my quarry is now a hotspot for the toughest bastards in this region of the trollish wastes. If you ever want a bodyguard, champion, or just to shoot the breeze with some local goblin and troll tribal leaders, you should pay us a visit, digger queen.
-Slave Driver Terrorgrin
The surface is a strange and wonderful place. Just partaking in the short journey to Goldears several times was enough for me to understand why Maygrunzil misses and covets spending time under the sky.
I could tell that many of the other diggers in the party were not thrilled working under a feather drugar, but everybody did their job with minimum complaining, and I managed to learn alot about humans from the residents of Goldears, so I would call the mission a success. All brick and wood has been hauled and stored.
-Acolyte Rainbringer
-Silent Hammers has received decent infusions of food and wealth, from the Tiger Head raiders and Opal Elf artifact sale respectively.
-The recent 'restructuring' of the local halfling criminal element has given you control of The Shadow Holes, a halfling neighborhood in the Ring of Leisure that did not yet answer to you. Silent Hammers now controls 5 more LU of halflings.
-The halfling criminal element is now friendly towards your government. You can now build on the two improvement slots in the Ring of Leisure without fearing blowback from the dons.
-Prince Neptune has already begun petitioning for coin to erect his gem foundry in the Ring of Leisure.
-The local theifs guild, which formerly represented your largest adversary in the halfling underworld has been broken, and its leadership purged. Although it does not answer to you directly now, it does provide half its monthly income to the crown as tax and penalty.
-Much of Silent Hammer's population fears your new underling Deathlord Morgu the Massive and his terrifying Blood-Troopers, who seem to be cruel troops specially trained to oppress citizens opposed to your husband's rule of Bedlamb, and ill suited to be garrisoned in a non-rebelling city.
-Count Chance sends his thanks for sending his wife an artifact, and promises to return the favor with a small convoy of resources sometime in the upcoming months.
-Hxnub, the Hobgoblin leader of your warslaves, proposes sending out a peaceful (but well defended) convoy bearing Wicked Salts as gifts for the troll and goblin leaders of the wastes in hopes of making friends and allies. You would need to send at least 1 LU for every unit of Wicked Salts you wish to haul, and ideally some educated goblins or Drugar to handle the diplomacy.
-Conflict brews beyond the pinewoods to your north. Dwarf King Trakion of the Raven Peaks, who is already aggressively raiding Bloodlord Haigen, has declared war on the Southernfrost Empire because Ukareem 'has allowed himself to be seduced by a lover of the wicked drow and drugar'. Your war council predicts that this conflict will be a long lasting cold war, as Ukareem's army is too large for Trakion to seriously consider invading, and likewise the fortifications of Raven Peaks are considered impenetrable.
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Topic: (SG) Rise of the Smith Lord (Read 20744 times)