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[AlanL]

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  uu       -- --   uu
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  nn         v     nn
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As the four explorers continued even further northward, they passed across a spring, the source of the waterfall they spotted earlier. Continuing northwest towards the third and final site, they find themselves approaching a cliff with visible mineral deposits, though exactly what mineral was difficult to discern from this distance. The thought of mining it passed through their minds but upon closer inspection, they found someone had already done it...

Code: [Select]

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       ___a                 _/____...
       o==oH  aaa          ,.0_|_|...
\,..,.,.,.,,.,.,,.,n.,,n,./             Mineshaft, (56,11)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ahead they found a mine shaft, old, broken mining equipment nearby showing it's disuse and disrepair.

"I'm going in with you this time!" "Alright, who's staying back then?" "I will, hey I volunteer this time!" The driver leaned back in his seat, yawning, "You go ahead, I'll catch a nap while you're in there." "Don't make it too long. Right, let's go in then!"

Two light torches, the third going slightly ahead. He had a dagger, but he hoped not to have to draw it here. Bootprints were visible going in and out, someone had been here recently!

Inside they found themselves in a chamber with several paths branching off, a relatively new-looking rope dangling down a shaft in the center, going both up and down. They test the rope to make sure it won't snap on them, and upon finding it secure, decide to go down one at a time. The frontmost, upon nearing the bottom, starts to hear voices from the cavern below, human voices:

"Look, I told ye there's more of it down here. Me pa was a miner here, he was always sayin that the mines never ran out." "I've just about had enough of this shite. You said that last month already, but I haven't seen a scrap of it yet.

They drop down into the room below, and try to find out which path the sound is coming from.

"I'll believe you. There might be more Zyrium down here. But I don't think you have the right motivation to find it. Bors, remind him." "What, no no please Eaaargh!"

CRUNCH!

"That'll do Bors. Remember that. We'll be back next week."

As the two others made their way down the rope, the frontmost stood still, waiting for torchlight to show the way. Whoever was here didn't sound like the friendliest bunch, and he didn't want trouble, but at least he actually had a weapon to get himself out of trouble if he needed to. What the heck was zyrium anyway? Looking ahead, he saw a human laying on the floor, cradling his own leg.

The human whimpers, "Who are you? More of Crotas thugs?" They look at eachother, then look at the human, "Um, hello! Are you alright?" "I think he broke my leg. Could you help me up, please?" They approach... it would be a bad idea to help him up with a broken leg, so one checks his leg first. The human continues, "Who ares ye? Never seen ye types before." After a brief pause, "I gots me a place nearby where I sleep and stuff. Could ye help me there? I got some bandages and things thar." After they find his leg isn't badly broken if broken at all, the frontmost speaks, "We're Anqip... we just got here." He offers a 3-fingered hand to help the human up, "Who's Crota, if you don't mind me asking?" The human replies, accepting the offer, "He's the bastard moneylender who I owes money to. Bought the deed to this here mine with it an' now I can't pay 'im back." The human then sighs, "Sometimes I wonders if me pa was wrong about this mine."

The human points out the way to his 'camp', and they help him towards it. On the way,"What's Zyrium?" Another continues, "I'm a bit curious about what's been going on here myself." The human replies, "Never heard of Anqip. But me pa always said not to judge a book by its cover. Oh Zyrium? It's a special ore, see. It's magic see. Mages pay loads for tha stuff. Tha only thing I found so far is loads and loads of Fyrite. There's tons of that. Not much of a market fer it though." The explorers discuss among themselves, "Fyrite? Never heard of that either." "Maybe he's talking about soulstone?" "I doubt it, but either way, the other place was loaded with silver, this mine might be a good investment for a camp." "You think so? I'd have a look around first, emm, maybe..."

"Ah, here we are." The man has lead the explorers into a small cave. There are some blankets on in one corner and a few crates on another, as well as a fireplace. "Wait, you actually -live- here?" "Aye, not much but it's home. Would ye like something to eat? Hardly any maggots." "No thanks, you'll probably need the food here anyway, we got enough back in our wagon. Pardon my curiosity, but is Fyrite another magic stone?" "Fyrites the twin ore of Zyrium. They're always found together, except here since all the Zyrium is gone already." "Ye see, Zyrium is very very sensitive to magic. Very handy for making magic things and all that. Fyrite is just the opposite. Nothing magical seems to touch it."

"One of our people is bound to know the properties of this!" "We left all our magic texts in the old world, and for crying out loud, we- wait, nothing magical seems to touch it?" The human speaks, "Oh aye. Damn thing can't be enchanted at all." The man sits down and looks for some bandages. "Say, if we ever run into magic guys who try to attack us, we could use a shield made out of that stuff!" The man thinks about it "Eh... I'd suppose the thing would glance off or somethin? Don't think it's ever been done. Never thought about it like that." "We used to have powerful magics, but we abandoned them. This makes us weak against any magical attackers I would expect, having a nice shield would come in handy!" The 3 sit. The man continues, "You could be right." The old man narrows his eyes. "So this would be.... valuable to you then?" The explorer in center chuckles, "We were already thinking of asking the price!" The man replies, "A thousand ducats should do it."

The explorers whister to eachother, "Considering the volume of this place, we might get several multiples return on this if magic opponents strike." "Still, I think he's asking the full price in excess of his remaining debt, there might be a little haggle room." "Alright then, good practice to keep one's overhead low."

"What would you say to 700 ducats?"

"Look here. I gots me a debt to pay, and if I gives away this place I gots nothing to live by. I need to eat and live like everyone else, see. I be way past retirement age anyhow. 950."

The explorers whisper to eachother again, "I'm not here to rip anyone off." "I'm not here to get ripped off myself either!" "We'll be earning a positive profit either way, he looks in a bad way, might as well give him what he's asking." "...well, alright then, I'm no jerk."

"950 it is, when and where should the money be delivered?"

The old man seems to brighten up considerably. "We'll right here is fine. But you better give me a note that promises you'll pay me or I'll get beaten up by Bors again. I'll even mark ye good places ter start. Fer an extra fifty I'll even draw ye a map." "Thanks! Though our home town, and therefore our money, is a long way away, it's going to take us a long time to get there and back here, we hope it's not a problem for you." "Well, I gots me plenty of food to last me the winter so it ought to fine. Can I expect ye back by spring?"

The explorers whisper amongst eachother, "50 for a map?" "Considering the convenience and not having to wait for inspectors, it's a good deal." "Yeah, well, we got plenty of gold from the cave."

"And yes, we'll throw in 50 for the map for an even 1000 all in all." "We should be back before spring, probably some time in winter... damn I hope I don't freeze solid out there." The man replies, "Sounds good then. I guess I'll make plans to move back to town. A nice house by the sea sounds perfect. Ever been to Dester?" "Nope, to be honest I thought we would be the only people around for hundreds upon hundreds of kilometers!" "We seriously have just arrived here." The human continues, "Cor, ye ought to visit it sometime. It's straight west from 'ere, by the sea. It used to be a pretty important harbor but it dried up with tha mine. Not many folk live there these days. Too cold fer some I guess. Pansies. 'ey, maybe yer business can bring back to life, eh? Bustlin' trade, new families movin in, that sort a thing." The old man seems lost in thought.

"Well, if there aren't any more hidden towns around here, any families moving in would probably have scales." "Speaking of that, does your town follow a god? Awkward question I know, thought I should ask." "Nah, the last preacher man moved out more n fifty years ago. We never were really religious I guess. Too bad fer the man. Was hard on 'im." "Sorry to hear." "Back on the first subject, a boomtown might end up forming here or one of the other sites if someone decides to haul the anvil all the way up here." "It'll probably be more pleasant than living in a metropolis anyway, big cities aren't my thing!"

After a moment, "Oh, and I never asked, do you need anything?" "Well, you could get me a crutch. I can't walk see?" "Would a walking stick work?" "Ye that might work." After a brief discussion about what to use on the way out, they emerge, find a good, sturdy branch that would work as a walking stick, two bringing it back, "Here you are!" They also had written up a note promising payment, and gave it to the human.

After a bit more chat and a goodbye, they set off. It was a long trip home, and they'd have to spend time prepping for their next voyage, but it'd be worth it. Even without piles of gold to haul back, they've struck a good long term investment! 1000 ducats, about 1500 gold, was NOT a small investment, not at all, but they had plenty in the bank. Surely, withdrawing 1500 gold shouldn't be a problem, right?

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Code: [Select]

________
][ ][ ][
========Cities:

1) Kavla Niti (59,23)

Population: 193

Pop Cap: 765

Task: Building a working government (background). Making a barracks and doing public works.

Code: [Select]

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aaaaaaaaa
---------Groups:

1) Explorers (57,16)

Size: 4

Task: Moving to Kavla Niti (59,23)

Code: [Select]

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Spoiler (click to show/hide)

                                                                     │
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│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ♣♣♣♣'''♣ ⌂▲▲▲⌂⌂⌂⌂ ○♣♣♣♣└┤♣  ♣└┤♣│♣│♣ ♣├┐♣♣♣≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ♣♣└─≈≈≈≈│
│24                                                                      │
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ─┐♣♣'''⌂ ⌂⌂⌂⌂○⌂♣♣ │♣♣♣♣♣└┐  ♣/└┐│┌┘♣ ♣││♣♣♣≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ┌○♣♣≈≈≈≈│
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ♣└────○⌂ ▲▲⌂⌂└┐♣♣ └┐♣♣♣♣♣│  ♣♣♣│├┘♣♣ ┌┘│♣♣≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ┘♣♣♣≈≈≈≈│
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│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ♣♣♣♣♣⌂⌂▲ ▲⌂♣♣♣┌─┘ └┐≈≈≈♣♣♣  ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈┘ ♣♣♣♣└┐♣≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ♣♣≈≈≈≈≈≈│
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈└ ──┐♣⌂⌂▲▲ ⌂⌂♣♣⌂│♣♣ ♣└─≈≈≈♣♣  ♣≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ♣♣♣♣♣│♣w ♣≈≈≈≈≈≈♣ ♣♣┌┘≈≈≈≈│
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈♣ ♣♣└─○▲▲▲ ○┐┌─○○⌂♣ ♣♣┌≈≈≈≈≈  ♣♣♣≈≈≈≈≈ ≈♣♣♣♣├┐♣ ♣≈≈≈≈≈≈♣ ⌂♣│♣≈≈≈≈│
│32

[nahkh]

Turn 6
Late autumn, year 1

Summer has ended, and the first frosts touch the landscape. In colder climates the first snow is falling and trees are shedding their leafy shrouds. Only the stout evergreens break the bleak monotony of sleet and drizzle. Most birds have gone to the south, and nights are darker and longer than before. The last peddlers make their way to their winter havens to huddle together against the coming cold.

OOC NOTICE: The next turn begins on Sunday, 21.00 GMT.

[coelocanth]

Status at start of turn 6

Settlements

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Location	Name	Population	Pop Cap	Modifier	Race	Next Turn
35,20	Astmeban	72	230	-1(Prisoners)	Daroth	83
35,20	Astmeban	1	0	1(Prisoners)	Ent Impling	1
42,27	Great Glade	110	1110		Ent Impling	148
42,27	Great Glade	1	21		Ent Lord	1
42,27	Great Glade	14	375		Ent Material	16
42,27	Great Glade	4	168		Ent Protector	4
21,36	Tribe	81	300		Nacka Rachti	87
20,60	Seristis tower	12	100	-2(Prisoners)	Mage	12
20,60	Seristis tower	2	0	2(Prisoners)	Iraxi	2
19,70	Ehn’gha / Odua	186	810	-7(Hospitality)	Iraxi	214
19,70	Ehn’gha / Odua	2	0	6(Hospitality)	Akkadian	3
15,84	Vol Sundar	74	280		Crocrolen	96
29,85	Tel Tikal	148	340	40(Trade)	Crocrolen	193
24,87	Tel Sarangis	153	630	-20(Trade)	Crocrolen	199
24,90	Vol Sirtis	108	540	-10(Trade)	Crocrolen	141
23,83	Vol Kendar	90	385	-10(Trade)	Crocrolen	117
13,44	Huis Hoop	158	465	-232(Flooding)	Ipetian	173
18,46	Zuiden Kust	31	740	-370(Flooding)	Ipetian	39
29,77	Akkad	225	800		Akkadian	270
34,78	Ac Acasid	48	440		Akkadian	57
59,23	Kavla Niti	241	765		Anqip	301
45,31	Stukiodia	56	750		Hrun	65
46,38	Halas	83	620	-1(Prisoners)	Hrun	96
46,38	Halas	1	0	1(Prisoners)	Ent Impling	1
46,38	Halas	9	310		Hrun Wolf Mount	11
41,22	(svarlbard)	37	750		Hrun	43
40,116	(unnamed base)	51	530		Silent Ones	58
39,8	Anmod	68	545		Covad	80
36,11	Modan	23	430		Covad	27

Groups

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Location	Leader Name	Population	Race
56,17	Sall	5	Daroth
12,61	Jaleen	12	Mage
33,86	(merchant navy)	10	Akkadian
19,69	(scouts)	6	Iraxi
18,71	(scouts)	6	Iraxi
21,71	(scouts)	6	Iraxi
22,70	(scouts)	6	Iraxi
20,79	(scouts)	7	Iraxi
31,37	Poltifar	19	Renegades
30,36	Celsius	4	Nacka-Rachti
42,30	Ka-ram	6	Ents (1,0,4,1)
57,16	(explorers)	4	Anqip
43,115	Doulos	25	Silent Ones
38,9	(scouts)	10	Covad
39,11	(scouts)	10	Covad
10,87	Yakar	10	Crocrolen
21,81	Kelenor	10	Crocrolen
16,77	Rekkol	10	Crocrolen
27,77	Beklar	15	Crocrolen

Adventurers

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Location	Name	Companions	Race
31,26	Mari Narena		Seyec
13,67	Bahad		Akkadian

[Dwarfaholic]

The Great Glade:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The trees were shedding their leaves. All around Futh- Ra, the ents were preparing for their usual period of rest during the winter, slowing down their vital processes until they moved as quickly as any tree's. For a small group of Implings, though, this was no time for relaxation. As they huddled together to keep warm in the cold wind, the massive figure of Ka- Ram loomed over them, barking them their orders.

"Maggots! As you know, winter is coming, and us good ents are going to sleep. But not you runts. I want you scumbags to set up outposts near this Glade to warn of any intruders! You will not hibernate, you will not falter, you will not fail, because if you do..."

The Implings cowered away from the Lord. With so many of them, nobody would mourn the loss of a few Implings, and they knew it. Still, when they left to their posts, they could not help but grumble. All winter without hibernation? Ka- Ram must be insane.

A- Kor:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

What an interesting place! It was so different from the Glades he had grown up in. For one, there were strange... things... around the place. A quick question from the druid revealed them to be sleeping places for the Hrun to sleep in. Apparently, they did not sleep under the sky. Fascinating. The buildings were about seven meters tall, and they were mostly made of stone. However, some were wooden, and A- Kor twitched a little every time they passed by one. But surely the Hrun did not know of the pain they had inflicted upon the forests? Surely they could learn?

In the middle of the village, there were two stone rings. A- Kor asked the druid of their purpose, and he revealed that they used these "wells" to lift up water deep from the soil.

"Why don't you just suck it out of the ground?", A- Kor asked.

Evidently, the Hrun could not do this. There was much to learn of these people, A- Ko thought. He would probably enjoy this place. If only he could convince them to stop killing trees...

Summary:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Four outposts set outside the Glade, each three tiles away from it.
Northern outpost: Tur- Dok, 7 Implings
Eastern outpost: Tur- Har, 7 Implings
Southern outpost: Tur- Telos, 8 Implings
Western outpost: Tur- Aarok, 8 Implings
Total: 30 Implings

[Istrian]

Crater Forest
Autumn - Seventh week

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Selene finally ended her preparations. "Not too soon" were thinking the other mages. Despite the enchantments of their robes and clothes they could feel the cold against the skin of their face. The leotaurs were more affected by it, being natives of a lush jungle with a sunny weather most of the year, and a nearby desert. And years of studies at the Aurea Tower, a much colder place, did nothing to help them get used to the cold.

The removal of the strange sphere did not seem to help the ecosystem recover, but it could also be the unfamiliar autumn. At least the excessively strong flow was gone. Everyone looked at the specimens of exotic plants and animals they were bringing back home for study. Dazhmar was looking at surrounding trees with a look of hatred, of murderous hatred.

The portal finally appeared, showing the white marble arrival platform built over water, on the other side. The Runeblades carried the specimens through the portal. When everything had been moved the Mages started entering the portal, with Selene and Dazhmar going last.

Before entering Dazhmar turned around and shouted "THIS IS PAYBACK !". With that he suddenly grasped the flow of fire and created a dozen fireballs, which he sent flying in every direction. The whole surrounding forest was set on a quickly spreading fire. Dazhmar stepped through, and Selene did as well.

Finally, in that blazing inferno the portal closed.

Seristis Tower - Grand Council
Later that week

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

"And now you all know of the situation with the Iraxi." finished Shugak.

His presentation had left many questions to the now fully assembled council. How could we be sure of their reactions ? Would they turn out to be able to use magic ? How far in time was their civilization able to make so many enchanted items ? And more importantly, who of the mages was going to get a trip to the sunny southern lands during the cold winter that was to come ?

The assembled mages eyed each other greedily. Except for Xanthis, who knew he was going to matter what, which made his old bones very happy.

"Obviously I should be part of the delegation, as I am the only one around here who can make a permanent portal from there to here." said Selene.
"They might be suffering from other sicknesses besides the parasite, I might be able to help them with that" said Akrashah, the only Leotaur of the Council.
"And a transport is necessary to the southern continent-" started Elestris.
"-a transport I can provide of course" finished Jaleen.

The discussion carried on for a while, until the final expedition was decided. The delegation to the Iraxi would consist of Jaleen, Akrashah, Selene, Xanthis, Sirilanai and Athan. Three Runeblades would escort.

"I think an expedition to the north would be justified as well" said Xanthis to sow despair among the remaining mages.

And it was pointless to argue, so another group was formed. Elestris, Lithios and the restless Dazhmar would go northwards with two Runeblades. The Council was about to depart when Ostralin stood up.

"I believe we have delayed this decision for too long, but now that we are going to have contact with a new civilization, we need to show a strong and united leadership. We must decide who will be Elchmaster of the Seristis Tower."

It was something that had been on everyone's mind for a very long time and everyone was dreading and eagerly expecting this moment. One of them would get supreme leadership over Tower matters on Seristis, as well as the right to use the Purple Seal.

After long hours of debate and deliberation the most likely candidate became clear. It was avery symbolic and yet a very sensible choice. Werelath, the Grandmistress Illuminator would bring light to this new world of darkness. And as she was also a Lost Elf, it was most likely that she would outlive most of them, so the choice was heavily motivated.

And so, the Council ended. And at the beginning of the eighth week of Autumn two parties left the Tower, one to the north and one to the south.

Seristis Tower - Outside
Autumn - Ninth week

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Sendar looked around. This was the perfect place to do what he wanted to do. The rock was harder and the underground felt aquiferless, so it would be easier. It was also far enough from the Tower to avoid endangering the structure. But it would still take months until it was done. And yet he wanted to do it and wasn't bothered by the cold, being a dwarf.

He gathered the flow and slowly pushed downward, creating a small tunnel going underground. It was slow work, but it would be nice when everyone will be able to have a place to run away from those pesky students who would soon invade this place.

Southern Iceberg
Autumn - Tenth week

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

"Haven't you noticed womething strange about our friends ? Somehow they seem different from what they were a while ago" said Selene.
"You mean the way they seem to take more time to formulate answers to simple questions ? The way they sometimes start staring into nothingness with a blank look ? Even the way they walk or do things seems slower" answered Athan.
"So you have noticed as well." said Xanthis "It is a well-known effect to us Psychomancers that we sometimes get to see in those rogue mages we have to brainwash from time to time. They tend to remember basic magic faster but the actual flow manipulation is more difficult for them as their brain has already learned that part, but they cannot remember it."
"Is it really so ? Interesting..." said Athan. "Can it be cured as well ?"
"In this case, using my magic to control the thoughts of the Iraxi I can simulate the strain the parasite caused to their brains. Though I do not want to do that with every single Iraxi we cure. For me it would be a waste of time.."
"Then, what about the plan ? What should we do ?"
"Do not worry, I already have an answer to that. Instead of curing every single Iraxi of the parasite I will only cure the newly born as they will yet have gotten used to its presence and will not be affected by its loss."
"What about these two ?" asked Athan.
"I will have to keep them around, to make sure they live through it." answered Xanthis

((For the record :
Northern Party : Elestris, Dazhmar, Lithios, Partavel, Morticia
Southern Party : Jaleen, Akrashah, Selene, Xanthis, Sirilanai, Athan, Karkish, Inifius, Alexius and the two Iraxi scouts))

Movement map :

│48                                                                      │
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈♣ ♣♣♣♣♣│.≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈♣  ≈≈≈≈≈≈.. ┌┘♣.≈≈≈≈ ♣≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈│
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ♣♣♣♣♣└≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈  ≈≈≈≈≈≈.. │..≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈│
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ♣♣♣♣♣.≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈  ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. │.≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ~~~≈≈≈≈≈│
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈♣♣♣.≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈  ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈~ √√√~≈≈≈≈│
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈♣♣♣♣≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈... ♣≈≈≈≈≈≈≈  ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈~ √√√~≈≈≈≈│
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈♣♣♣≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈.. .│≈≈≈≈≈≈  ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ♠≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ~~~≈≈≈≈≈│
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈♣♣≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈t≈≈≈≈ .○⌂⌂≈≈≈≈  ≈≈≈≈≈≈♠♠ ┌┘♠≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈│
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈♣≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈  ≈≈≈≈≈♠♠┌ ┘♠♠♠≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈│
│56                                                                      │
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈♠≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈  ≈≈≈≈│♠♠│ ♠♠♠♠┌≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈│
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈♠♠♠≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈  ≈≈≈≈│♠┌┘ ♠♠♠┌┘≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈│
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ♠♠⌂╞≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈  ≈≈≈♠└┐│♠ ♠♠♠│♠♠≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈♠≈≈≈≈≈│
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈♠ ♠⌂≈─┘≈≈≈ ≈≈≈T♠≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈  ≈≈≈♠♠└┤♠ ♠♠♠│♠♠♠≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈♠♠≈≈≈≈│
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈♠ ⌂▲⌂?╞≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈  ≈≈♠♠♠♠└┐ ♠≈≈┘♠♠♠≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈♠≈≈≈≈│
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ┌○⌂╞╞≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈  ──♠♠♠♠♠│ ⌂▲≈≈≈♠♠♠ ♠≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈│
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ │⌂⌂╞≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈♠  ♠♠└─┐♠⌂○ ▲^⌂≈♠♠♠♠ ♠♠≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈│
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈♠♠♠≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈♠♠  ♠♠♠♠├──○ ⌂⌂○┐♠♠♠♠ ♠♠♠≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈│
│64                                                                      │
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈♠♠≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈t≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈♠♠  ♠♠♠┌┘♠♠♠ ⌂⌂♠│♠♠♠♠ ♠♠♠♠≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈│
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈♠≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈♠♠♠  ┌──┘♠♠♠♠ ♠⌂♠└┐♠♠♠ ♠♠♠♠≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈♠≈≈≈│
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈♠┌──  ┘♠♠♠♠♠♠♠ ♠♠♠♠│♠♠♠ ♠♠♠≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈♠♠♠♠≈│
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈♠♠≈≈ ≈≈≈♠└┐≈≈ ≈≈♠┌─┘♠♠  ♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠ ♠♠♠♠└┐♠♠ ♠♠♠≈≈≈≈≈ ≈♠⌂▲○─≈≈│
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈♠♠♠♠≈ ≈≈♠♠♠└─┐ ♠♠┌┘♠♠♠♠  ♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠ ♠♠♠⌂⌂├┐♠ ♠♠≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈⌂▲^▲⌂≈≈│


Known map :

          ≈≈≈
          ≈t≈
          ≈≈≈
          ≈≈≈
         ≈≈≈≈≈≈
    ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
  ≈─┘≈≈≈≈≈≈T¤≈≈
  ⌂?╞≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
  ⌂╞╞≈   ≈≈≈≈≈≈
   ♠≈     ≈≈≈≈
          ≈≈≈≈
          ≈t≈≈
          ≈≈≈≈
          ≈≈≈≈
          ≈♠└┐
          ♠♠♠#
          ♠♠♠♠
          ♠I♠♠
         ┐♠♠♠

[coelocanth]

Vol Sundar

Yakar and Kelenor's groups return and report their findings

Yakar:
"The river meets a western sea one moon's journey downstream. We followed the coast and soon came upon the edge of the forest where it turns once more into the same savanna we have east of here. There are two sites with good hunting in the forest and wet ponds."

Kelenor:
"The western sea has a bay to the north of here, the area of forest between the sea and the river is small, and we could only find one good site"

Fukrim (leader):
"That is good, we shall wait for Rekkor to return though.  There is still enough hunting in this place for a while longer."

In the northern forest

Rekkor's explorers were following the western side of the river, when they spotted a huge structure towering over the forest. They went closer to explore.
Soon they came upon a large clearing in the jungle, with a huge set of buildings made of some kind of smooth grey stone.
"Be careful, there may be giants living there"
The group divided in two and circled the clearing, remaining in the trees. There were no signs of life from within, so they decided to approach.
The western side had a high opening, and the interior space was large. Dirt and mud covered everything, but they discovered what looked like a giant furnace loaded with dirt covered black and red rocks, and corroded metal ingots on the ground. The other machinery, they had no idea what it was for.
"This is surely the kind of thing Fukrim wanted us to find, we shall return and report"

((Rekkor's group discover a huge ruin at 14,74
and return the direct way toward Vol Sundar, finishing up at 15,78))

Akkad

As the explorers approached the water gate, there was a shout from one of the towers. Within minutes, the river was surrounded by Akkadian soldiers.
"Come with us, and leave your weapons here", they demanded.
The explorers, outnumbered, obeyed and were marched through the city streets. They had time to admire the detailed facades of the buildings.
Finally, they were taken inside the tower, where robed Akkadians demanded to know who they were and what they were doing here.
"We are explorers, searching for a way through the desert following this river"
The robed figures seemed to accept this, and explained in a patronising tone that the river led only to the sea at the port city of Ac Acasid, but the other branch of the river had a source in a northern rainforest.
The explorers were given a tour of the city, and lodgings in a "tavern", and left the city in the morning to head upstream.

Tel Sirtis

Construction of the pier is completed, work continues on rebuilding the lighthouse
(if the akkadian ship encounters somebody, they would be given directions here)

Tel Sarangis

50 Settlers leave to build Vol Santos (22,93)

Vol Kendar

Building a smelter for producing bronze


┌─────────God View──────────────────┬─────────Western Civ View──────────┬─────────Eastern Civ View───────────┐
│72      0        1        2        │72      0        1        2        │72      0        1        2         │
│≈≈≈≈♠♠≈≈8≈≈≈≈♠♠♠│6♠└┐♠♠♠♠&4♠♠♠♠~~~~│        8        6        4        │        8        6        4         │
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈♠&#♠└ ┐♠│♠♠#♠○ ~~~~~~~~│             ♠♠♠│                  │                        ♠○ ~        │
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈♠♠♠♠♠ │♠└┐♠♠♠f ──┐~&~~~│             ♠#♠└ ┐                │                        ♠f ──┐      │
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈♠?♠♠ │?♠│?~~~ ~~└─┐~~~│             ♠♠♠♠ │                │                        ~~ ~~└─┐~   │
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈♠♠ │♠♠│~~&~ ~┌─↑Ç#──│               ♠♠ │                │                           ~┌─↑Ç#─>Ç│
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈f♠ └¤&○~~~~ ┌┘~~↑~~~│               ♠♠ │                │                        ~~ ┌┘~~↑~   │
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈≈≈♠└┐ &○⌂I⌂~~┌ ┘&~~~~~≈│             ≈≈f♠ └                │                        ~┌ ┘~       │
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈♠♠♠♠└ ○▲▲▲⌂⌂ç┘ ~~~~~~~~│           ≈≈≈♠└┐ ⌂                │                     ▲⌂⌂○┘ ~~       │
│80                                 │80        ≈≈♠♠♠♠└ ○                │80                                  │
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈♠♠♠♠⌂ ⌂▲▲▲▲⌂⌂⌠ ~~~¤¤~?~│          ≈≈♠♠♠♠⌂ ⌂                │                     ▲▲⌂⌂⌠ ~        │
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈♠♠♠♠┌○ ▲▲^▲⌂⌂≈$ ~~~~~~~~│         ≈≈♠♠♠♠┌○ ▲▲               │           ♠♠♠♠      ▲⌂⌂≈⌠ ~        │
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈♠♠┌─┘⌂ ⌂▲▲▲⌂⌂F─ ┐~~~~~~&│         ≈≈♠♠┌─┘⌂ ⌂▲               │           ♠♠┌─┘⌂ ⌂▲ ▲⌂⌂F─ ┐~~~     │
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈♠┌─┘♠F" ⌂▲▲▲▲⌂⌠⌠ └─┐~~~~~│      ≈≈ ≈♠┌─┘♠F"                  │          ♠┌─┘♠F" ⌂▲ ▲▲⌂⌠⌠ └─┐~~~~  │
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈┌ ──┘♠♠♠"" ○⌂▲▲⌂○⌠⌠ ⌠$└─F┐~~│     ≈≈┌ ──┘♠♠♠""                  │            ♠♠♠"" ○⌂▲▲⌂○⌠⌠ ⌠⌠└─F┐~~ │
│≈≈≈≈≈≈♠│ ♠♠♠♠♠♠"┌ ┘⌂⌂▲⌂≈⌠⌠ &⌠⌠⌠⌠└┐~│    ≈≈♠│ ♠♠♠♠♠♠"                   │             ♠♠"┌ ┘⌂⌂▲⌂≈⌠⌠ ⌠⌠⌠⌠⌠└┐~ │
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈┘ ♠♠♠♠♠""│ ""○⌂○⌠⌠F ⌠≈⌠⌠$$≈≈│     ≈≈┘ ♠♠♠♠♠""                   │                │ ""○⌂○⌠⌠F ⌠≈⌠⌠⌠⌠≈≈ │
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ♠♠♠""""│ ""│⌂⌠≈⌠$ ⌠⌠≈≈≈≈≈≈│      ≈≈ ♠♠♠"""                    │                  ""│⌂⌠≈⌠$ ⌠⌠≈≈≈≈≈≈ │
│88                                 │88                                 │88                                  │
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈♠"""?"& ""│⌠⌠⌠⌠⌠ ⌠≈≈≈≈≈≈≈│       ≈ ≈♠""                      │                  ""│⌠⌠⌠⌠⌠ ⌠≈≈      │
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈¤"""""│ "┌┘⌠≈&⌠F ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈│       ≈ ≈""                       │                  "┌┘⌠≈⌠⌠F ≈≈≈      │
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈""""$"│ "│"⌠⌠⌠⌠≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈│         ≈""                       │                    "⌠⌠⌠⌠≈ ≈≈       │
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈"""""└ ┐│""⌠$⌠≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈⌂│                                   │                     "⌠⌠⌠≈ ≈≈       │
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈"""#"" ├┘""⌠F⌠≈ ≈≈≈≈≈≈⌂^│                                   │                     "⌠F⌠≈ ≈        │
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈"""""" │""""⌠⌠& ≈≈≈≈≈♠♠#│                                   │                     ""⌠⌠⌠ ≈≈       │
│≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ≈≈≈"&"?" │""#"⌠≈⌠ ⌠≈≈≈≈≈≈┘│                                   │                     ""⌠≈⌠ ⌠≈≈      │
│≈≈≈≈$≈≈≈ ≈≈≈""""" &┐""""⌠⌠ $≈≈≈≈≈≈≈│                                   │                                    │
│96                                 │96                                 │96                                  │
└───────────────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────────────┘

[Emperor_Jonathan]

-------
Covad.
-------
It was an uneventful turn

--------
Anmod.
--------

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Nanyt's messenger he sent a week ago arrived at Anmod.

"Captain! Nanyt requests assistance at Modan, ten men sir! At least five soldiers! We are to leave now."

"Well you heard him men! Let's go!"

With that they started off.

--------
Modan.
--------

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It was quiet at Modan, nothing of importance happened.

----------
Summary.
----------

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Anmod: 5/6 of the wall is complete.

Modan: 4/6 of the Palisade is complete.

---------
End map.
---------

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

┌────────────────────────────────Map──64*128──────────────────────────────┐
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│16                                                                      │

[Zako]

Halas:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Winter was almost here, Erak could feel the familiar cold approaching, closing quickly.

"Come on you lot! Move your beards! We have to prepare properly for winter before its too late!" he yelled at some workers preparing food, salting meat and brewing plants.

Already the forge had been smelting the tetrahedrite found in the nearby hill, and had made some silver bars and copper bars. The smith had been smelting non stop, making useful tools and even the odd batch of coins from the silver. Always good to have a bit of loot to share out, right? And there may be traders on this new world, however unlikely that may be.

The druid noticed the impling twitching everytime they passed any wooden structures, and asked if they distressed it. Haering what translated to a yes, he replied that they mainly use stone, and that they only use wood if they had no time for stone constructions. Seeing the imp cheered up at this, he smelt the wind and felt the coming chill of winter. He smiled fondly at the thought of their homeworld, and realised that compared to the winter over there, this was boiling hot! Unfortunately, the impling didn't agree to this, and had been shivering lately, slowing down for hibernation as it said. An interesting bit of information the druid thought, and he decided to report it to Erak later.

The 3 new ships were almost completed, and more stone huts had been constructed for them to live in. Already some of the wooden huts had been dismantled for them to use the wood. Some of the wood had been used to be made into firewood, and to make 2 hatches for the wells, as well as thick doors. The Hrun were used to the cold, some even liked it, but they knew the wisdom of storing heat. Erak had even asked if the impling wanted shelter from the cold, but it refused, saying that it would be fine.

Stukiodia:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The Hrun that lived here had built themselves some stone huts for them to shelter in, and had even made 2 wooden paddles to break up any ice that may form in the water storage. A warehouse had been made to protect the food supplies, and the people stationed there were working fast and hard to make plenty of food for themselves and others that may stop here. They had also created a walkway for guards to patrol on at the top of the palisade.

The 3 scouts from up north had also arrived here with the autumn wind.

New settlement:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

They had wasted no time, some of them even working into the night to make shelter and the palisade. Having no time to make a stone wall, the made a wooden walkway around near the top of the wall, so guards could patrol there. The Misia who had traveled with them wasted no time in naming the settlement: 'Svarlbard, Dorr step to the mountains'.

They had built some temporary huts to live in and had made 6 workshops, namely 2 carpenters, 2 masons, a still (for vital booze the Misia had said) and a kitchen to prepare food. They were working hard on improving the 2 stone wells that would be in the middle of the town, accessing the aquifier below, fed from the nearby rivers, also a vital source of potential food.

Erak's plan:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

He had decided on what to do with the impling, he would give the tree-man the choice of either returning to his kind, with him and the druid as a embassadors for their kind, or the impling could live here if it wished. It would be freed of all restraints but would be watched carefully incase it made an attempt to kill anyone, an escourt would always follow it when it wanted to explore the town and would guard it when it rested.

He continued to finesse his plans, and would ask the impling at the beginning of spring. In the meanwhile, the impling would be treated like it was now, and would be looked after with care and respect.

[deadlycairn]

At Apoikismos:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 Dekanos looked at the mess in front of him. Although it had been six weeks since the volcano had erupted, they had only just begun to recover. The wall, which they had only just finished building, had been destroyed. The guard towers had toppled. The houses had managed to stay reasonably intact, their foundations able to weather the tremors. Still, nearly all of them had suffered some degree of damage. The only accomplishment which hadn't toppled around his ears was the farms, and most of the farmers were laid up after having their roofs fall on their heads. Dekanos himself had nearly impaled himself on his own sword, he was training when the first tremor had hit. When Doulos had heard of the damage, especially the collapsing of the wall and guard towers, it had been all Dekanos could do to convince him not to call off the explorations and march his men right back home to help with the rebuilding efforts. The discovery of magical artifacts of any kind was more important than ever, as with the volcanos eruption 13 more Silent Ones had arrived. Dekanos couldn't help wondering that the volcano's eruption and their arrival was somehow linked. If it was, they had more than made up for it, replacing the injured workers and helping to rebuild the wall. This time round it would not fall. Made with the best craftsmanship their band had to offer, it was slowly being rebuilt, sturdier than ever before, and designed to handle whatever nature, or enemies, could throw at it. 20 feet high, it had foundations of solid rock and made with the wood of hundreds of trees, with guard towers built in at systematic intervals. That was the plan, anyway. Already some farmers were experimenting, attempting to manipulate the abundant magic of the world they were in to 'encourage' trees to grow faster and hardier than normal trees should. They had met with limited success, and had accidentally stumbled on a way to 'weave' the logs that would be the body of the wall together, forming a seamless surface. Everyone was excited by the new developments, and the prospect of manipulating the abundant magic of this new world, but for now progress was going slowly. The foundations were only just being laid now. It would be a long time before the wall came even close to being finished, focused as they were on making it as sturdy as possible.In the meantime, Dekanos relied on the traps he had started setting up just before the tremors for defense. They had been one of the few things not toppled, although a few of them had been sprung. Not only did they make the hunters lives easier, but, with a massive number of nefariously-placed traps laid throughout their surroundings, enemy invaders would have to approach with caution if they did not want their numbers vastly diminished before ever reaching the village. Dekanos smiled at the thought. Now if only he could get those cooks to make something other than that blasted deer stew...

By the Cave:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 Doulos fumed. Months they had been waiting here, while his people dealt with the damage at home. Apart from training his fighting force non-stop during the monotonous hours, he had managed nothing of value. The volcano's eruption had caused a massive landslide, injuring a large number of his soldiers, and partially obstructing the entrance to the cave. It had taken them this long to dig it out, and for the soldiers to recover. But finally all was ready. He outlined his plan to the soldiers: The scouts were to enter first, as they were stealthier and faster than the other soldiers. They would explore the caves, keeping contact with Doulos via telepathy at all times. If they encountered anything hostile, they would lead it outside, where Doulos and his men would be waiting in ambush. Steeling themselves for whatever horrors that may lie inside, the scouts drew their daggers and entered the cave... (need Nahkh for what happens next)

OOC: Remember to tell me if anythings wrong. I think the traps may be a bit overpowered, but Dekanos is just paranoid like that . Also Akroma can you rename my settlement to Apoikismos, the (unnamed settlement) is driving me nuts. Also Nahkh, I'm not sure if I managed to send you my reply detailing my plan, or if I pushed a wrong button or something, so its outlined in this post 

[Akroma]

The tribe


Crossing the mountains and then wandering threough the forest for a few weeks, they are approaching the Obsidian tower.


----

Celsius group


Celsius retreated back to the obsidian tower. If she wanted revenge on the biests in the lost city, she would need more men, so she patiently awaits the tribe.

----------------
The mind of Jikul Nevercold, the ice-age of the renegades

For many nights, ever since the renegades entered the radius of the eternal winter, Jikul had the same, reoocuring nightmare.

He and the renegades were in the mountains, fighting a swarm of small, dragonlike creatures.

The whole group bombarded the wyrms with everything they had, and it rained their torn up cadavers from the sky. All of his companions did splendid, shooting balls of all elements towards the sky, into the endless swarm of wyrms.

One of the wyrms got out of the group, and soared towards him. It didn't look very threathening, so Jikul simply threw a bolt of ice-magic towards it to freeze it.

The magic impacted on the wyrm, doing nothing.

Suprised, but not scared by this, he once again tried to freeze the wyrm, but his magic bounced off as if he threw a basketball at the creature.

Crashing into him, the wyrm started to tear away at his flesh, riping apart his skin, ripping out his guts. Jikul was near to death, as a fireball from one of the other mages blew the wyrm off, killing it.


Jikul's eyesight had faded, the wyrm ripped them out, but he heared the faint voices of his comrades, which sounded like they were standing over his destroyed body, and still like they were coming from far, far away.


"Haha, that's out Jikul. Always trying to bite off more than he can chew!"

"Yeah, right, he sure is a damn weakling. these wyrms are nothing more than lizards with wings, and he can#t even make them slow down midflight. Hahahahaha"

"Aww mean, he sure got beaten up. Can you heal him?"


"I guess..."

"What do you mean "Iguess" ?"

"Well...I could heal him you know. But I mean, should I? He is a weakling, and we will face much stronger things in the future. Let's just let him be and rot her, he will be nothing but a burden."

"Hmm...yeah, he sure is a weakling. Who else things we should let him die here?"

In unison, all of the renegades shouted "Yeah".




----------------------


Kasshyks turn:

A group of 20 settlers is send south-west, to erect an outpost at the tower of the old lady.

A group of 5 scouts is send eastwards, to surround the mountains and find out what is north of it.

The scoutgroup on the eastern island travels further northwards

[Poltifar]

If a job is worth doing it is worth doing well

Turn 6: The Children of the Winter Demon

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The Renegades continue on their way to their foretold adventures, and see an obsidian tower in the distance. As they approach it, they enter an area of unnatural cold. But such a simple obstacle can not deter the brave mages that the Renegades are. They head on into the cold towareds the tower.

As they approach the tower, they see many ruins in the surrounding forest. From behind some cover, a blue-skiined girl emerges, next to her are 3 strange dogs, growling at the Renegades.
Poltifar immediately shouts to his comrades, "Ready spells! Cast the shields! Cast the illusions!", and all the Renegades except Poltifar become invisible.
The girl calmly speaks, "Who is that so suspiciously sneaks up on our tower ? Speak quick, these dogs have little patience, I never know when they might come and rip your throat apart."
"Ha," replies Poltifar, "rip our throat, as if they could get near enough to touch us." He snickers.
"I asked you a question, stranger"
"I am Poltifar Chaoswielder"
"You are trespassing on our land, and judging by the way you do it, you are up to no good. Dispel your trickery, and I shall lower my weapon. I am not in the mood to fight"
Poltifar seems to be considering the threat, then calls to his mages to lower the veil of the spells.
"And now," continues the girl, "Speak. Why are you traveling these lands like you were trying to hide from the eyes of whomever?"
"We have since time forgotten hidden from outside eyes. It is our nature."
"You must have noticed that you crossed a wall of unnatural cold, yet you did wander through it, ignoring the warning. Why ?"
"We are unafraid of such minor... happenings."
"What is your purpose of this travel ?"
"We search for adventure and treasure. Such an area is bound to be full of artifacts of great magical powers."
"Then i take it you are a band of rouge mages ?"
"Precisely", says Poltifar with a wide smile.
"I have been following your little band of mages for 6 days now, and you have been heading for out tower, straight, without taking any detour. I was hoping that you were headed elsewhere, but your travel leaves no doubt that you are heading straight for us. Why ?"
"Why do you think we are? For the same reason you are here. I am sure you are not the builders of such structures, since they are deserted. You have come here opportunisticly, for treasure and such, and have gone to the tallest and most prominent location that can be seen from afar. we did the same thing"
"Well, instead of treasure, you found me"
"Yet we want treasure. And we shall walk over your cold frozen corpse if we have to to get it"
"There are easier ways to get whatever little treasure was left in that tower. I don't need it. But in response, there is something I need from you. As mages, you know your way about artifacts, do you ?"
"Surely we do. Infact, i doubt you'd find any mages in this whole land better at creating items of power."
"What about 'transfering' power ?"
"It all depends on the power you ask to transfer."
"We shall discuss the details later. As it seems now, we are on good ground for trade. Follow me, I will lead you to our camp"
" I first demand to know your own name. You already know mine"
"My name is Celsius Malvakov. They call me the one who will hunt you down"
"I see. I shall order some of my people to get the rest of our caravan to your camp"

After the group moves all their wagons to the Rachti camp, Poltifar continues with the discussion, "So, tell us about your race."
"We are the ones whose soul belongs to the eternal winter. Our usualy way of living is nomadic, but we plan on making the tower you see behind us a temple, to help our lord enter this world more easily"
"From what i gather of you and your minions, that lord must be some kind of demonic entity. Is that correct?"
"It is correct if you chose to force our lord into a stigmatized role. Gods will call other gods by the title of demon to reduce his powers by scaring away his believers. He is just as divine and powerful as all of them, sitting in their skypalace, or wherever they choose to live"
"It seems you do not like the other gods. We understand how you feel We too, do not like the way they work, thinking themselves above all others."
"Gods and their followers are fools. They devote whole decades to serve their gods, abiding to even his smallest rules, just to obtain a tiny sliver of their lords power, a tiny bit of clerical influence. Gods that enslave you like that and in the end give you hardly anything for it are not better than the kings that rule nations"
"When you die, your soul will fly up to that god, but yet you earned nothing for it. He ripped it off you."
"We agree wholeheartedly. We have been forsaken by our nation, our rulers, and even the gods. That is why we now follow no one but ourselves, our own ambitions. But enough of this philosophy. You spoke about trade. What would you like to trade with us? we can only offer you tons of gold, as well as our magical services"
"Your gold holds no value for us, it is nothing but a ton of metal that is too weak to form proper tools off. However your magical service is something we could verily need"
"We have many services to offer. What would you wish of us? Only this transfer of magical power you spoke of?"
"We will see. For now, let me demonstrate"
Celsius takes the scepter from her pocket, then walks over to a deer that has remained tied to keep it fresh. She strikey down on it, and with a flash of blue light, the deer is comletely frozen over and shatters like glass from a shockwave of the scepter.
"As you can see," continues Celsius, "I recently got my hands on this scepter. But it is useless as it is. However, if this power was inside a spear, it would hold great value for me. That is your task"
"Hmm, this is quite a powerful power we have here. It would take some time, and lab equipment and maybe some research. We sadly do not have any of those right now"
"There are some left in the tower. They are old, but if I am reasoning correct, they belonged to the same mage that created this very artifact. It should be useful to you"
"Definitely. We shall take care of this task, although it is not known how much time to shall take, and there are no guarantees that it shall work. Now, lets discuss the price", says Poltifar while he smiles an unnatural smile.
"We have plenty to offer you. We have a storage of many precious metals, gems, and other artifacts (not necesarily magic ones). The amount should be equal the load of 2 of your wagons"
"I infer you found those in this here tower? We will want to see these treasures and examine them beforehand, for any tricks that may be cast on them. But mere material treasures would not suffice for such a task. As you said, they are pretty much useless in practice"
"Useless in practise," says Celsius as they go up the tower stairs, "yet valueable enough for you to carry 4 wagons of it, and nothing else in these wagons. No food, no weapons, only 4 wagons of gold. If you tell me they are worthless to you, I have problems believing you"
Poltifar laughs, "True, True."
"I am sure you will see their true value once you lay your eyes on THIS:"
Celsius opens the door to the vault.
"Treasures worthy of a king", says Celsius.
All the members of the renegades gasp, but Poltifar just widens his smile and a gleam appears in his black eyes. Poltifar signals Anna and the philosopher to cast their spells. After a nod from Anna, Poltifar continues, "They seem to be fine. We have an agreement, on one more condition. Ounce our work is done, we take with us not only the treasure, but all the lab equipment and books in this tower. I am sure they are useless to you"
"They are, and they are yours. Let me lead you to the room that was formerly a laboratory I assume"
Leading them to the labs, Celsius continues, "I hope these instruments are sufficent for you"
"Yes, they are"

∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞

About a week later, Celsius comes to Poltifar, who is staying at the Rachti camp.
"Say, Chaoswielder," Says Celsius withought even bothering to greet Poltifar, "does your range of magical services also include ellimination requests?"
"Of course. Those are probably my favorite service to give."
"You see the wound in my face. It is mostly healed, but was inflicted not long ago. South from here, there is a deserted city. All that is left in it an unnatural spawn of guardians that swarm around in that necropolis. About 2 months ago, I and 4 of my men were scouting that city. As you can see, only 3 of them returned. I need you to lay waste to these guardians"
"I see. What can you tell me of these creatures? Surely they must be exceptionally powerful to not have cowered before your feet the moment they saw you", replies Poltifar mockingly.
"They are creatures that hide their hideousness from our eyes with robes. Walking on their hind-legs, our scout mistook them for cultists. But they are far from that. They are viscous beasts. They move so fast the eye can barely follow, and mind you, I have the eyes that can shoot flies out of the sky at a distance of 30 meters with ease.Their claws are sharp, and their muscles thick.  But they are not simple beasts, they are intelligent. Very intelligent"
"And how many of them do you think there are?"
"Our information is very limited in that regard. Could be a dozen. Could be a battalion"
"Hmm... and how much time do you give me to accomplish this service? I prefer to have my full party of mages to do the work, and 3 of them are currently researching for your artifact. Also, I might need time to examine them from afar and to prepare. So it would take many months. Unless you can provide some reinforcements?"
"I myself will be your reinforcement. My lord has given my the ability to summon his minions to do my biding. Last time i was not prepared, but against the power of a Yash'natam, and a whole army of Usuzureelya, they will stand no chance. As long as your mages cover my back"
"Then we can accompany you as soon as you wish, and withought waiting for the other members of my group. Infact, i shall even concede to following any plan you might think of, as long as i find it reasonable."
"We will set out when autumn is close to it's end. Our tribe will soon arrive here, and to summon the higher creatures of my lord, I will need some assistance from them"
"I accept this deal. Yet we still have the matter of the price to discuss."
Celsius laughs. "When we first met, you said you were a wandering group of mages, only motivated by the search for adventure. Isn't the opportunity to measure yourself against a horde of magicaly created guardians payment enough for you ?"
"You must have misunderstood. We only search for adventure, for the treasure and power we gain from them."
"These creatures were created for the single purpose of guarding the temple in that city. That alone should tell even the slower ones among you that this temple holds on to something that is worth creating an army of monsters for to guard it, even after their creator is long gone since"
"I have thought of that. My point is, how much of the temple's treasures do we get?"
"Take from it whatever you see fit. I do not want to destroy them to get into that temple. I want to destroy them because they humiliated me"
"So do we agree on the price being all that is found in the temple?"
"All that you want, yes"
"Then it is agreed."

∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞

The rest is OOC stuff:
The ice mage, the Scholar, and the Magesmith get to work in the labs, researching whatever is needed for the transfering of the power from the scepter to Celsius's spear.

The other mages divide their attention into many different ways: they get to know the Rachti and learn some of their history, traditions, culture, etc... , they continue their Golem related research, and they build 3 more basic magewagons. Also, Poltifar finishes his experimentationon his current project.

Status

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Members of the Renegades:
(I've fleshed out some more of them)

-Poltifar Chaoswielder: Master of all arcane secrets known to the Renegades and some not, he is one of the most powerful mages of his race that has ever lived. Very powerful melee and ranged warriormage, using melee weapon (normally longsword) in unison with magic. The leader of the organization. 17 years old (atleast, in appearance...)
-Seandar Ironfist: A grizzled old warrior, favoring the greatsword. He has lived through many battles and campaigns, and thus has alot of experience. 49 years old.
-Jonil Truestrike: Seandar's young son, and an already well-trained user of the greatsword, as his father is. 17 years old.
-Emily Dawnbow: A very skilled bow-user, also dables in the arcane arts, allowing her to shoot magically enhanced amunition. 16 years old.
-Terna Farstrider: An experienced explorer, having seen alot of the old continent and wanting to explore the new one even more thouroughly. Experienced with the bow and spear. 27 years old.
-Ernest Windwalker: A daydreaming scholar who has great power in the wind and weather domains. 25 years old.
-Klin Diceking: A merry rogue and gambler with incredible luck and great skill in stealth and light weapons. 21 years old.
-Farn Earthmover: A stubborn yet sympathetic earth-wielding mage, also a good fighter when using the hammer and axe. 24 years old.
-Inglan Steelshaper: A young magesmith who still hasn't really proven himself. 19 years old.
-Anna Dreamweaver: A spirit mage with a wide array of spells and power, yet most are non-offensive. Also, a diviner and has some powers over dreams. 20 years old.
-Godroy Fireheart: The group's pyromancer, has a quick temper yet is very charismatic. Very powerful in offensive fire magic, but not much else. 25 years old.
-Jikul Nevercold: A boastful ice mage, always ready to show off his magical powers. 24 years old.

The rest: I wanted to flesh-out all members and give them all names now, but I will only give their profession and develop their characters during the game as they are needed. But consider them all as powerful as the ones above.:

-1 medic/healer
-2 swordsman
-1 spearman
-1 crossbowman/hunter
-1 builder/architect
-1 scholar/philosopher

Magical research:

-Poltifar's current project: COMPLETE 4/4 turns of research, 5/5 subjects used
-Basic Golem research (clay): 3/6 turns of research
-Artifact ice-staff research: 1/? turns of research

Holdings:
-Basic Magewagon (x7): 4 carrying tons of gold, 1 carrying 5 mongloid villager prisoners, 2 empty

Other:

	plains	forest	jungle	hills	swamp	desert	rocky hills	tundra	high montains	sea	on river
Normal Renegade Speed	8	9	5	8	4	7	8	6	1	N/A	5
Basic Magewagon speed	8	7	3	7	N/A	6	6	5	N/A	N/A	4
Pop Cap	80	90	70	60	20	10	20	8	5	60	+40

[Prometheus]

This was a great day for the Empire. A large part of the population of Ehn'gha would split into five groups and leave for the surrounding ruins and begin massive reconstruction.
The Emperor looked at the throng of people on the plaza. He was, to say the least, rather nervous. Despite his attempt to clear whatever was clouding the minds of his people, there were still behavioural aberrations. He feared that the thought-numbing illness would resurface later. Something would have to be done.
At least some good news had reached him. The group sent south had found indications of ore and were beginning extraction. The first new pieces of metal in the Empire in thousands of years.

After an inspiring speech, the Emperor watched one hundred Irax leave the city, dividing into groups of five. Twenty would migrate to each of the ruins.
With some effort the ruins would turn into habitable cities in a few years.

[Nhiphanter]

Ehn'gha, embassy

The two mages, Khmer and one other, were sitting around the crude summoning circle the merchants had set up and frowning. This wouldnt do, not at all. It had managed to sustain the energy of summoning them from the desert to this place, but it could never sustain jafars plans that they were supposed to prepare and finally carry out.
The bigger summoning circle they would manage to draw, the better.

Supposedly they were in the city of some creatures that called themselves "Iraxi" and these creatures were said to resemble squids. They would need to insert parasite to someone soon to spy a little on this city...

Akkad

There was a great deal of things happening these months in the capital of the sultanate, for a great deal had happened to affect the happenings.
There had been foreigners visiting the city which had aroused a lot of curiosity among the citys inhabitants. There had been some activity around the lodgins these creatures had taken after their visit to the tower, but to the disappointment of the entertaintment hungering citizens, nothing had happened to them and the frogmen had next morning continued north.

This had homever aroused some discussion among the magistrates about the safety of the planned mining city of Jyarez, whiches founders would probably be sent to the western mountains soon.
The decisions were homever set back because of more pressing matters of preparing the raising spell for the hydra the merchants had bought from the crocrolen.

The ship, shores of the swamps.

The crew had just landed onto the soil of what was known simply as southern swamps, and was known to be the homeland of peculiar creatures called crocrolen. They had been sent to this humid and wet place to fetch the body of one of its more legendary inhabitants. The hydra.
Supposedly some caravan had bought it from the crocrolen at great price.

They had homever seen somesort of activity near the shores and were going to visit the place for directions to the hydra parts and maybe guidance through the swamps. They would need to construct some wagons first homever...

Bahad, New lands

Bahad, drenched in seawater and his clothes stiff from salt, emerged from the sea. The scattered pieces of his small raft were floating on the shallow water of the rocky shore around him.

Pulling himself out of the water, Bahad took a look on the lands before him. It was rainforest before him. Cursing under his breath for the curse of the rainforests, Bahad tried to see if there was anything salvageable in the remains of the raft, but to his dismay, all the supplies had toppled off into the sea. Even his stone axe.
Luckily he still had his old steel shamshir that had been tightly tucked under his belt during the voyage over the strait.

As he walked deeper into the shore he could already hear the screeching of birds and the moaning of apes from the rainforest, and could spot some threatening looking clouds rolling over from the west.

So this is north...

¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤-¤

summary:
-The ship arrives to Crocrolen swamps and searches contact, after which crew members will build several wagons to carry the hydra pieces across the swamps.
-A settler group leaves to western mountains to create a mining colony.
nothing else map affecting happens this turn


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[Mel_Vixen]

Macaque

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The days got much shorter in the last weeks and the temperatures were dropping fast in the mountains. Mari was lucky that he had bought this thick winter clothes from the travelling traders.

He was seeking the way as an half rotten fruit hitted him on the back of his head. Mari did draw his sword turned around and spotted an Group of Macaques. He then sheathed his sword again and tried to shoot one of this apes as his meal with his crossbow. Unfortunately the Bolt did go wrong and impacted in an tree. The apes fled.

"Dangit."

After an quick search mari found his Bolt as well as some yellowish fuits to eat an little fire made the camping more comfortable.
*Sigh* "Time to camp. I have to find this ruins fast before it becomes any colder. I should have bought an tent too." he spoke to himself as he prepared the his campsite for the night.

Later that night he was woken by an unusal noise. On of the Macaques was searching throught his stuff.

"Hey you bastard thats my stuff!" He yelled. The little ape surprised or not grabbed one of his climbing boots and run off.

"Shit." Mari placed the ring on his finger and the night was becoming instantly brighter. He then readyed the crossbow and rushed after that macaque.

As he found the macaques he noticed that the Ape had droped the boot for its kids. He was approaching and scarring away the younglings of the apes as suddenly two of the females were running at him probaly atacking him. The first got an bolt in the ripcage but the other was to fast to get clubed by the Mari with the Crossbow and tried to byte him in the arm. Mari smashed its head with his fist and the ape in pain let go and did run away.

"Filthy monkeys stay away from me." he shouted after the female macaque.

He then gathered his boot as well as the dead Monkey and which he later eat. The Skin of the creature should become the first part of an new ritual cloak.

[AlanL]

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              |Turn   -- --  -  |
              |        \ /   |  |
              |         v    -  |
              \_________________|

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

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               (*)
 /\   aaaa
.,|.,.o==oH,.,..,..,,++++++ The four make their way back to Kavla Niti.
All except for the driver watched the sun rise. "1426 gold, it turns out to be." "We'll need to pick up some swords and maybe a gun or two too, you think they got a good smithy's open by now?" "Yeah, It's gunna get a bit nippy too, let's get some better coats first." "And food that won't be damaged by the cold." "Yeah that too!" "So, you think 1600 gold would cover all that?" "Probably..."

-----------------
0 A while later... 0
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     _____
    /=====
    0 a-a
++++====== The Bank... the 4 returning were quite surprised to see the town in good shape, a network of roads and infrastructure present!
"1600 even." "Sixteen -hundred-?" "Yeah, 1600."

The teller looked through his papers, looked through them again, then hesitated for a moment.

"One moment please..."

The teller vanished behind a moment...

He told Kafar, "Problem, the group Ziken wishes to withdraw 1600 gold and erm, well... you loaned out a lot of it it looks like, there's not 1600 in the vault for them." Kafar replied, "They WHAT? I... hold on..." She left the back room and went to the vault. Only she and the trusted vault keeper knew the proper sequence to open the lock. Upon opening the door slightly, she looked around, "There's over 5000 in here total..." She shut it, and returned, replying to the teller, "It doesn't matter who's account the loans came out of, just give them their 1600." "Wouldn't that be, well, not their 1600, ma'am?" Kafar looked directly at the teller, "That doesn't matter anymore, it's a change of plans, we're consolidating the debts. Tell the rest of the staff too." "Alright then, as you wish."

It took a while to load, but the large sum of gold was transferred to the wagon. The smithy's was open and well stocked. There was a barracks underway, but it wasn't done. Luckily, that meant the smith wasn't all that busy with it, and the 4 didn't have to wait long for their weapons. It took a few days, but the end result was four shortswords, two muskets and associated equipment, and no adornments. They paid the smith in excess, which the smith seemed very happy about indeed! Surprisingly happy, actually.

On the way out of town, they noticed a sign stuck in front of a small shop... the owner had defaulted on her loan, and now the shop was property of the bank.

"Eh I don't recall forclosures happening all that much..." "It happens though." "Let's go up to the mine first, then revisit our rat friends on the way back." "Yeah we'll have more time to practice with these things too, they won't be worth much if we don't know how to use them!" "Let's go, you checked the barrel right? Last thing we need is water getting in the powder if it rains you know!" "I checked it twice already!"

Everything as it should be for them, the four set out.

-------------------------$
Meanwhile
-------------------------$

Vinn was just getting done making a late dinner, "How was it?" Kafar replied, "Errh, someone took out a fortune today and I had to consolidate everything." "I told you, loaning out of people's accounts is a bad idea!" "I just wish people could leave the damn gold in the vault!" "Kafar, it's not like people are going to trade with I-O-U cards!" Kafar sighed, "I-O-U cards..."

She paced for a moment, then sat. After a brief period of silence, something seemed to occur to her. Her frustrated expression became a wide smile. She immediately walked over to Vinn, grinned, and kissed him, "You're a genious!" "Well that's news to me!" She chuckled, "This isn't a problem Vinn, It's an opportunity... Gold, silver, copper, they're all heavy and inconvenient for carrying around and all that, dont'cha think?" "What are you getting at?" "We've got plenty of funds, we can pay someone to set up a press and make notes exchangable for gold." "I don't know if that'll help anything or not." "I dunno either, but it's worth a shot, if it catches on people will trade with the notes and leave the gold with us, heck, we can print more notes than we have gold for and nobody'll be the wiser!"

"Kafar?"

"Yes, my love?"

"I don't think this is right!"

"Why not? We're not stealing from anyone here. We're just making trade a little more convenient, that's all!"

"Making money out of nothing, Kafar? Remember what I said about the 25 gold rice grain? In the time it takes to mint 25 gold, one could print 25,000 notes..." "The townsfolk will generate more wealth and expand. An easily expanded source of currency would actually help them grow!" "I suppose, but still, this feels wrong." "Don't worry Vinn! I'll just experiment with it, and see how well it works. It'll be a boon for us all, I promise!"

Vinn thought about it... more money, convenient to use, WOULD cause business and trade to blossom, but printing more notes than you have gold to back, making money out of nothing... it seemed that sooner or later it would cause serious problems. He vaguely remembered, wasn't there some old text that cited words from Rolitokovo himself that warned against printed "currency"?