Hide our sciencey stuff,
You pack up your equipment and put it back where it came from (loose floorboards, fake bottomed chests, revolving bookcases, ect)
buy some farms,
You head down to the village and invest in Young William's potato farm for £100. After some discussion William hands you a piece of paper that says you half own his farm.
write back stating how we will follow the person's advice and go into agriculture,
You send a reply to your friend, leaving the letter with the villagers to be put in the mail at the next opportunity.
start a vegetable patch, build a shack,
You buy some seeds and building materials from the villagers. You then head home, and work at turning part of your garden into a vegetable patch. Once you have completed that you build a small shack out in the woods (using pieces of an old garden shed, of which you have plenty), where it will not be stumbled upon, and move your steam engine and (unfinished!) pump into it.
consider ways to make a early warning surveillance system thingy that will warn us of intruders.
Satisfied that there is nothing here to give you away, you start thinking about some sort of early warning system.
...
You've got it:
Get the villagers to stall the Inspector and have one of them run up and tell you he's there.
Genius, have it you do.
also the idea for forging harmless little toys etc. in the forge is a good one.
You make a set of fireplace ironwork in the forge. (poker, tongs, coal shovel and bucket)
If the Inspector is to be exactly on time, you still have three days before they arrive.
It is 24 days since you returned home. It is evening.
One (1) dusty old family home in the country
Crappy Forge
Vegetable Patch (growing vegetables)
Hidden Shack (contains medium Steam Engine, small Pump)
Estates surrounding your dusty old family home (forests and hills)
£195 in cashe
£0 in banke account
Etheric Steamworks Lab:
-Decent Etherical Equipment
-Poor Steamwork Equipment
-Shitty Alchemical Equipment
-Shitty Physical Equipment
Book on Alchemistry
Book on Physics
Tome of Spells
Tome of Etheric Guidelines
Licence to Science
A note on things: Unless otherwise noted, you have enough things to do all small-scale experiments and design prototypes.
Assorted Magical Crystals
Magical Reagents
Silver Wire
Samples of Rare Woods
Rusty Plumbing (Includes pipes, valves, boilers, ect)
Rusty Gears (mechanisms)
A further note on things: Many simple things can be found lying about the house. Your family did not throw things away.
Spells:
Local Fertility Boost: common herbs, uncommon herbs, animal sacrifice (>=chicken), 3 hours subtle preparation, 3 hours casting
Potions:
Spontaneously Combusting Goop: common herbs, uncommon herbs, 2 hours subtle preparation.
Beetle Killing Poison: common herbs, uncommon herbs, 3 hours subtle preparation.
Etherical Contraptions:
Unnamed magical 'gun': 1 uncommon gemstone, 1 piece of animal bone, 1 piece of plumbing, 1 gun stock/bits and pieces + 2 hours crafting, 3 hours crafting, 2 hours casting. Fires pain.
Steam Machines:
Medium Steam Engine: 10 pieces of plumbing, 1 boiler, some gears and pistons, 2 square meters of sheet metal, 1 big wheel, 4 days of crafting&forging. Consumes large amounts of coal, provides moderate power.
Small water pump: 25 pieces of plumbing, some gears and pistons, 1 water container, 2 days of crafting&forging. Consumes moderate power, provides moderate water.
Etheric Sciences (Lv3)
Steamworks (Lv2)
Spells cast:
Local Fertility Spell
Contraptions created:
The 'pain gun': Looks like a shoddily-constructed pistol. Fires magical bolts of pain on pulling the trigger.
Machines built:
Medium Steam Engine
Small Water Pump (almost complete)
Mundane Accomplishments:
£100 of Potato Farm
Fireplace Ironwork