Week 1The reorganization of the Church continues. Army columns march towards to Heartlands, joined by bands of heroes, merchants and much more. In many places, it seems more like a circus than a religious march. Even so, the effects of the withdrawal continue to be felt. Fortresses are closed, watchtowers abandoned. Here and there, the Church goes to the effort of demolishing their fortifications behind them. In most places, they're simply abandoned in place.
Chaos continuesEvent : Chaos : Bonus to planning for all people.
- Apprentice Plots. Mild Failure, Crit Failure
- One serf builds a library
- Three serfs obtain resources, by theft or back-breaking labour. Their choice. (+5, +2, + 2) Neutral, Mild Failure, Mild Failure
As a proper mage your first priority is, of course, the installation a proper library. The work is simple consisting mainly of rearranging the tower's existing furniture, and several trips to nearby cities to pick all the nessecairy reference works. By the end of the week you have a decent, if sparsely filled library, with all the basic reference works to give someone the beginning of an education. It also contains a small shelf for whatever magical scrolls you may acquire.
Meanwhile, the rest of your serfs has been eagerly at work gathering wood, stone and other material from the surrounding area. Their work is, though not an outright failure, thoroughly disappointing. By the end of the week the three of them have only gathered as much resources as a dedicated worker could have acquired in a day.
At first it seems that your apprentice is working out well, but then things start to become a bit odd. She secludes herself, plans day and night, working on ever more esoteric plans. By the time, you intervene, she's actually developed a pretty decent cackling laugh. The culprit is the target of proposed raid. The Orb of Desire, a mundane and boring rock, upon which (once upon a time) a love potion was spilled. It's a valueless stone, but the powerful magic still occasionally affects those who consider it too strongly.
Since your apprentice only spent half a day doing actual work, the resulting plans are a bit lacking. Still, there's 1 promising lead. Before the Withdrawal, the Church was considering to renovate a smaller watchtower nearby. A lot of the materials were already delivered, and not sit at the site under only light guard.
Known opportunities :
Resource Stockpile : Risk : Low, Loot : Material, Notoriety : Neglible Time 3 weeks
Name: Johann Vrax
Archetype: Wizard (Master of the Magical and mundane: strong bonus to plotting)
Race: Human - of all the civilized races, perhaps the most prone to lofty ambition and through it, the temptations of evil.
Infamy: 0
Gold: 1250
Resources: 34
Magic : 3
Minions: (5/5)
- 1 Apprentice
- 4 Serfs
Base:
Description: A remote and ancient guard tower, predating even the Crusades. Cleansed and occupied by the Church, it has for centuries watched over the surrounding badlands for the taint of evil. With the withdrawal of Church forces to their heartlands, the tower was reluctantly abandoned, and has since found a new owner.
Buildings
- 1 Library
Traits:
- Shadowed Past : no-one knows who built this tower, for what purpose, or even when. Even after centuries of Church investigation, it still has secrets left to tell.
- Solid Construction: This tower has stood for centuries, and survived being stormed or seiged numerous times. Whoever built it clearly intended it to last, and knew what they were doing.
- Imposing location - atop a rocky outcrop, the tower commands views of miles around, dominating the surrounding land.
One (1) Thrall works on making one of the old storage rooms into a library, replacing the rotting shelves with proper book cases and repairing the walls, floor, and ceiling. (75 resources, 750 gold 1 Minion week)
Another Thrall, meanwhile, makes a room for training out of the old and admittedly small guards barracks, a fair distance away from the ruined dungeon and torture room, but still connected. (50 resources, 500 gold 1 Minion week)
Vivian herself starts planning her next moves, trying to find out what has happened in the many years since she last was awake and well. She tries to get some help from her two thralls, even if they might not be good conversationalists, let alone thinkers. Success, Great success
Meanwhile, the Bandit under her command would simply try to get a lay of the surrounding land, told to try and remain low. Any surrounding towns, villages, farms, temples, and other noteworthy landmarks where to be noted and, to some extent, mapped. Great Success
Construction on the library and training room proceeds apace. Old furniture is taken from the ruins, repaired as much as able, and brought into the fortress. Soon, you have a fully equipped library and training room.
After some pointed questions about where exactly those books and other newfangled equipment came from, your minions pointed out that they found a sympathetic merchant with long opening hours close by. The man turns out to a decent conversationalists, completely unfazed by your peculiar appearance or that of your thralls. He tells you a bunch of interesting stories, a few myth about the area, but among all of that you learn some very interesting things.
First, the Church of the Redeemer appears to be in full retreat. As a major local power, their sudden retreat has caused some very peculiar issues, leading to various shipments of the soldiers wages having to chase the soldiers across the country. One such shipment is expected to pass by tomorrow.
Second, there are rumors about the discovery of an ancient temple found in the woods. The church has patrols turning everyone away for a small section of the forest, and rumors go that they send a missive home to request the presence of an Inquisitor to purify the Temple.
Your bandit has completed his survey of the local area. Despite the fertile plains, it seems the area never really recovered from Church's wrath all those years ago. There's a fair amount of trade along the river and over the local roads, but outside that there are only a few small villages that mostly rely upon themselves. There are no particularly noteworthy areas that they could find, at least so far.
Available Opportunities :- Raid the wage transfer Risk : Low, Loot : Wealth, Notoriety : Neglible 3 weeks
- Scout the temple Risk : Low, Loot : Knowledge, Notoriety : None 3 weeks
- Take the Temple Risk : High, Loot : ???l, Notoriety :
3 weeks
Name: Vivian Powell
Archetype: Monster (This is not my final form)
Race: Human, once, now corrupted and change into something similar, but vampiric, by the goddess they follow.
Infamy: 0
Gold: 2750
Resources: 25
Magic : 2
Minions: (5/5)
- 1 Vampiric Bandit
- 4 Thralls
Description: Vivian Powell was long ago the third born daughter of a declining noble family. She had the teaching one would expect a child of her status would have, learning composure and proper speech, but she cared very little for such things. She was more interested in watching the guards training, stories of adventure, and freedom along with a few other things not considered proper for a lady mostly thanks to her father whom died when she was 8. However, sometime after her father had passed, her mother found out about her desires, and was very strict with her, but still this didn't dissuade her and if anything had the opposite effect, only making her more interested and even made her want to run away and be free, only to have her escape attempt foiled resulting in being under constant observation by the guards.
Eventually, at the age of 17, she was to be married off to someone she never met by her mother in the attempt to create ties with a stronger family and stop their own's decline however on the trip the carriage was attacked by a group of poorly equipped and trained bandits. The guards naturally took care of them quickly but while they where distracted she managed to escape after being chased by the guards a bit. The reason this was even possible was mostly due to the guard that was watching her having been lightly armoured and having taken a blow to the back of the head when he made the unwise decision to turn and try to see what the commotion out of the carriage was.
Once she was a fair way away and sure she was safe from being captured by her own guards, she tried to find something to use as a weapon so she could follow her dreams, though all she was able to get was an old spear she took from a dead body after about a day of searching. She actually struggled to get food or even find a village for some time, living on her own. At first she was worried as she didn't really know too much about survival, only hearing bits and pieces from the stories she loved, but eventually she understood some basics and loved every moment of it.
When she finally found a village, she asked around if they had any issues, but the only ones where a lack of cattle and people to work the fields. Naturally upset, she would ask individuals if they needed anything, only for them to request menial and uninteresting tasks. Eventually night came, and she rested in town until morning came and she went on her way to the next village.
Some time of travel, she was attacked by bandits, although they weren't like the ones who attacked her carriage, instead they where proper deserters. She tried fighting them, getting only broken bones and bleeding cuts for her efforts, along with everything except the clothes on her back and her spear, which the bandits thought of as worthless, taken. After a few years, at the age of 23. Things weren't going well for her, and she was starving, forced to steal to live, becoming not a hero like the stories but a bandit. However she didn't mind, she created her own action and she enjoyed that, however she didn't enjoy starving, and unfortunately no small group of anyone ever seemed to come by, just large ones she couldn't steal from.
She would eventually find herself extremely thin, her body malnourished and suffering until she found a nice looking town, large and bustling. She would have entered it and stolen plenty of food over the course of a few months, but she would be caught eventually and thrown into the dungeon, only for her to be taken by the lord of the town, and from what she heard from the nearby cell, he only took people who wouldn't be missed, and they never came back. She would have died down there and her body put in a crate in a hidden room underneath, but something spoke to her, something changed her, moulded her, and something kept her alive. And after many many years, it was time for her to wake up again.
Currently, her hair is black as pitch, skin white like a dolls and eyes red. She is similar to what she looked like before her death, or rather, what should have been her death, but obviously, the colour of her skin, hair and eyes where different. However she is unlikely to stay looking that way for long, most likely changing in the future, if she isn't vanquished anyway.
Base:
Buildings:
--Training Room
--Library
Description: An out of the way decrepit and crumbling fortress in a cold land surrounded by the ruins of a town or city. Once a thriving center of civilization it was destroyed and abandoned long ago and left to face the relentless force of time. Plant life has taken over a chunk of the town, yet the inside of the castle has a few secrets, leading to places more well maintained.
Traits:
Hidden Entrance
Actions: 2 servants build an inn (50 resources, 750 gold 2 Minion week)
2 servants build a road through the forest that passes by the Mothertree so that travelers pass through the forest. (cost unknown)
1 merchant is sent to assess the markets of nearby towns to find out what they produce and what they need
Work on the Inn progress rapidly and by the end of the week you have a neat, scenic Inn constructed among the trees. Construction of the road however takes a far longer period of time. Your minions manage to create a path, a trial, but any actual attempt to meaningfully cut back the forest is repulsed by the trees themselves. You minions fruitlessly saw into trees for day one end, and when they finally manage to topple one, they find that the very next day it has pulled itself right again.
Your merchant assesses the markets of the nearby towns. As expected, they're not particularly interesting. Just the usual demands for a tiny amount of affordable luxury goods, some magical medicine, and the usual tools, clothes and other necessities. Their production is equally boring. Many are farmers, or hunters, who simply provide what they catch or farm. A few craftsman live in each village, providing some tools. About the only thing of moderate interest is a retired priest who lives a few villages over, who occasionally heals the sick and wounded. Nonetheless, your eye for gold sees a few opportunities which you soon turn into reality.
Name: Tervra Malvine
Archetype: Merchant (Eye for gold)
Race: Wood Elf
Infamy: 0
Gold: 5000
Resources: 50
Magic : 2
Minions: (5/5)
- 1 Wood Elf Trader
- 4 Wood Elf Servants
Description: Tervra Malvine never took to the frugal living and balance with nature that was supposed to be her people's way even as a child. There was a sense of worth to be found in large pile of material possessions. It was an accomplishment to have a sizable stash of things she liked. But the things she gathered, made and hoarded were taken from her by her family as they chided her for taking more than she needed from the forest. The more her brothers and sisters pressured her to conform to their ways the more Tervra rebelled. Against their wishes she met with human traders and learned of the subtle power of gold, something that could be traded for anything else. An object that potentially could be converted to any other object. It awoke a fire in her. She desired the stuff more than anything else she had encountered. At first she sold furs, fish and berries but as she grew into a teenager she found that grew her well hidden stockpile of gold much too slowly. She needed more. She had no aims to use it for anything other than hording it but it was like an addiction seeing that small pile of coins grow larger. That was when she stole one of her tribes sacred fruits and sold it to outsiders for a kings ransom in gold coins. There was no question that it had been her who had stolen the fruit. Such an act could not be ignored, such a desecration could not go unanswered and so her family turned on her. With beatings and thrown rocks the people she loved cast her from her home and into exile.
She had kept hold of the money the outsiders had paid her. In anyone else's hands it would be used to settle down and make a new life. But in Tervra that fire still burned, that addiction still gripped her. She had talked often with the human traders and learned much of how they did things but now she had seed money of her own, it was time for her to become a trader. Using the skills her estranged family had bestowed she moved goods through dense forests impassible to most other traders. She exploited the ancient knowledge of her people for profit. Her hoard grew. She bought out other merchants and began expanding her business. When merchants wouldn't sell she'd pay for goons and mercs to muscle them out.
Years would pass before Tervra would return to the grove of her home. She had bought the deeds to the forest out from under them and had come with armed men and eviction notices. She watched with a wicked smile as her family was cast out of their homes and driven from her forest. And what a plentiful forest it was too, this place was going to make her so much money.
Base:
Buildings :
- Inn
Description: Tervra's base is located in the branches of the Mothertree where her clan made their home. It is a giant tree with a number of structures nestled gently in it's branches. Tervra has installed stairs and walkways cutting into the living wood of the Mothertree at points. The Mothertree is located deep in a dense forest but Tervra is working on clearing a route so she can bring in work crews easier.
Traits:
- Secrets of the forest elves: The forest hides many trees, though exploiting them may take a significant amount of work
1 Regular Builds Training Room (-500 Gold, -50 Resources)
2 Regulars Build Inn (-750 Gold, -50 Resources)
1 Regular gathers Resources, by hook or crook (
1 Social attempts to purchase Resources with Gold
Construction of a simple Inn and a training room progresses rapidly , though a minor accounting error means that Inn is much more expensive than you originally expected. Apparently, your original estimates where based on prices that were quite a while out of date.
Your other minions where tasked with finding more resources. One of them cleverly manages to liberate 10 resources from a passing Trader. The other simply asks the price. The trader is willing to sell you up to a 100 resources, at a price of 10 gold pieces, which is an outrageous sum of a money. You can decide what amount you desire to purchase.
Name: Adjari
Archetype: Merchant (Wealthy Business)
Race: Djinn
Infamy: 0
Gold: 5250
Resources: 10
Magic : 2
Minions: (5/5) [1 Social, 4 Regular]
4 Djinn Regular
1 Djinn
Base:
Building :
- Training Room
- Inn
Description: An opulent-looking palace (or the rather sparse beginnings of one) located in a sheltered oasis valley in the desert.
Traits: 6000
- Protected Oasis
- Ostentatious Palace
- Illusions of Wealth
- Mythical Palace
- Deadly Desert
- Major Trade Route
I'm gonna have two of my men set up an inn nearby, While another two scout around the area, and the last one forges for resources.
Construction of the Inn takes but a single week, and soon you have a neat little Inn set into the hillside with a secret entrance in the winecellar (but no wine, sadly).
Your forager manages to acquire 10 resources.
Scouting of the immediate area provides a few usefull results. There's a nearby warehouse, decently guarded, where Gold and resources are kept.
At the same time, you also come across two interesting opportunities. First, a message tower for the church, where messenger doves are kept and dispatched, second a minor shrine to a local God. Infiltrating the former could provide a wealth of information. Defiling the latter would a be a great source of money, and a spectacular way to put your name on the table.
Name: Dyrn Bleakwoods
Archetype: Overlord (Undying Loyality)
Race: Halfling
Infamy: 0
Gold: 1750
Resources: 85
Magic : 2
Minions: (5/5)
5 Regular Halflings
Base:
Description: A small wood fort off in the woods, which expands farther below ground then above.
Traits: -4000
- Underground
- Secluded
- ?? (Suggestions are fine)
Author
Topic: The Third Age of Darkness: Fantasy Villainy (Read 3387 times)