The Exiled ElfMirai only ever left her homeland because of Arthur. Her peoples departure from their ancient religion and culture was leaving her increasingly aggressive and angry and it would likely lead to disastrous results.
Shortly after her adventure with him though she decided to go her on way and visit more dwarven lands. The silly bearded fools upon seeing her immediately gifted her a barony in their lands. Why? They wouldn't say, but her own investigations turned up that the rate of death of barons was disturbingly high.
No one wanted the jobShe didn't want it either, although the challenge of surviving whatever forces seemed to hunt dwarf barons sounded exciting and she was prepared to drop the job and return home until a courier arrived.
She was no declared an official elven ambassador to the dwarves and humans of these lands, and was to retain her role as dwarven baroness until she was recalled.
"A century or two to grow and mature in these lands would do you some good" chortled Ami the courier.
They wanted her to die hereShe would not. By the forces of nature that guided her she would overcome these pitiful lands and return home one day.
Until then she needed help from the two people she could trust: Arthur and Maloy
Rise of the Wolf-LordMaloy craftsroars did something he hadn't done since he had lost, and later regenerated, his leg.
He left home. The whole thought was drastically stressful to him and he had rarely left his keep since his curse had taken hold.
He was trying to adjust himself to the new schedule and ruling his little town, and he even had two new religious leaders staying in his keep which made it hard to find space to transform and wait. Usually he sat in one of the watch towers.
Arthur and Mirai were back and forth over the years. Arthur said he wanted to make Incenseorder the base of his small merchant operation, but he went home often
Mirai started to come around more and what's worse she had been promoted. Technically Incenseorder belonged to the dwarven kingdom even though no dwarves lived there and he had been given a human position, and Mirai had shown up one day a Baroness of the kingdom and technically his superior.
She laughed at him and lorded it over, before moving on.
She was in town waiting for Arthur's next arrival and Maloy decided it was high time to act on some things.
1. A large amount of time on the watch towers allowed him to look at his hometown. It was mostly ruined, as it had been his whole life, and he desperately wanted to rule over more than just a ruin
2.The ear insisted they go searching. It had become aware of other parts of it's body, or the body part it was inhabiting whichever, and wanted to find the other parts.
Maloy was scared to leave town, but at least he knew his body could regenerate now and his two friends, his only friends, could act as guides to their destination: The elven jungles of the far north!
They wandered the jungles for sometime. Most had no interest whatsoever in moving to the "greatest city in the world" that Maloy chalked it up to being, but some did. He also noted as to why Mirai seemed to complain about their homeland a lot.
The elves had modernized! They had woodburners, metal workers, and all the modern amenities even if they chose to still live in trees. This infuriated the traditional elven woman, but Maloy liked it. He found other cultures unfortunate and usually a sign of being less civilized and so this was a sign these people could be enlightened in the right circumstances. They recruited 6 members of the elven lands. 3 merchants and 3 laborers. Arthur recruited the merchants from his small network after enlightening the merchant about the large amount of jewels Incenseorders trades in
Sadly, Maloy's new fox form didn't elimate his need for food like if he became a vampire or necromancer and so he had to hunt the mostly empty lands. This turned out tragically as the laborers all attempted to help him fish and drowned in the nearby river. Everyone was horrified at the result, but Maloy's reaction was mostly just frustration.
They went home the same way they came. Razorbridges. The ear remained mostly silent on the journey to, but on the way back it manifested it's power in full over Maloy. Many dwarves were swayed and all swore oaths of allegiance to him, pledging to make Incenseorder the jewel of the world.
For the ear this was to make sure the dwarves stayed out of the way as they approached the fabled pedestal: The arm. Maloy descended to it's resting place with a veritable army behind him and there was...nothing.
It was gone! GONE!
The ear screamed and howled in rage and only Maloy could hear it. For Maloy this was no great loss and without his knowing might have protected him from the ear growing more powerful and assuming control again.
They returned to Incenseorders after and Maloy retired to his keep for busines, but asked that Arthur and Mirai continue the work.
The dwarves were given a house across from the keep and the merchants were set up in the tavern.
Merchant-PrinceArthur was glad to be of help in establishing trade and immigration between his people and Maloy's. On the selfish side this benefited him personally as a merchant, but he also truly and deeply wanted his people to prosper as well as his friend.
Only a few of his contacts back home were willing to uproot and move south though and Maloy had some sort of urgent...business he had to attend in his keep.
"Search the lands nearby! Anyone in any of the villages that we don't already trade with needs to come here."
Arthur did search the lands. Humans lived in a state of desperation constantly bordering death. They kept the bodies of their dead in their homes and slept amongst them. He was too polite to ask them why, but every home was littered with bodies and those who chose to stay and live with them. With all this desperation he had no trouble recruiting volunteers as he told the story of the great Wolf-Lord who was heralding in a new age from Incenseorders providing food, work, and clean housing to any who would come!
By the time his circuit was complete Arthur had made many trade contacts with new towns and recruited 20 new volunteers who would stay at the tavern until they were properly settled.
The tavern in Incenseorder had been abandoned for many years. A constant reminder of bygone days, but now it was full of people chatting, singing and reciting poetry.
Arthur reclined at one of it's tables with his two dear friends and raised a glass in toast
"So, tell me my dear friend." Arthur said while motioning towards Maloy "What awaits next for the glorious wolf-lord of Incenseorders?"
Maloy looked thoughtful, or conflicted? He sometimes responded slowly as if he was in the middle of a great debate in his mind
"I want this place to become a jewel. I want adventurers and artists from all across the world to come here and for it's streets to be full of life again!"
"I want armies marching in the streets as the lands are brought to order and the gauntleted claw of my new empire stretches across all the lands" said the ear, but only Maloy could hear it.
"That is a beautiful sentiment, my friend." Arthur said "And what of you baroness?"
"I want to cleanse our homeland of it's blasphemy and take revenge on those who would imprison me in these lands" She said entirely calmly and plainly as if it was the most common thing in the world. She drained her wine and Arthur was left looking stricken and Maloy curious
"And you?" she said to Arthur
"I want peace." he said and looked down.
OOC:
Short and not super narrative, but I really did spend most of my turn just recruiting folk!
I do have a few goals for my next turn, barring something crazy happening in-game that changes it:
1.I want to claim all towns nearby that aren't adventurer ruled and acquire more actual fighters since I'm good on artists
2.I want to train Maloy's combat skills so he's useful. I want to train his social skills too, but that is so tedious and time consuming
3.Locate more of Braal's body parts. I haven't gotten around to searching wiki and legends viewer to see where others might be
4.Locate suitable offering for the museum
Also research on social stuff that people might already know, but I learned:
Many of the people I recruited and then told to wait in Incenseorder adapted. Some of them moved to other parts of town including buildings and some even took on new professions entirely! There really was a guy reciting poetry and another singing in the tavern at the end
Some did mindlessly wait around for the next set of orders though and so I'm not sure how all the game calculates that.
Taking people from their home towns and dropping them in Incenseorder and then cancelling our agreement just led to them going home instead of sticking around.
I COULD be crazy and be having memory issues, but I swear that a few more buildings in Incenseorder are no longer flagged as abandoned in the fast travel screen. If people did settle in the town that makes sense.
I suspect the ones who adapted and changed when they waited there officially settled while the ones standing around did not, either way it is nice to confirm that one can change a town through means other than killing