No research until the inspector gets here. Instead, go down to the village and inquire about purchasing a chicken coop and having it installed on your estate. This looks perfectly innocuous, but will actually provide us with free test subjects without ever arousing suspicion.
You head back down to the village. A polite enquiry leads you to a terrified villager who was looking to sell his coop. It takes some persuasion to make him accept money for it, but eventually you hand over twenty pounds in exchange for the coop, installation thereof, several chickens, and a month's worth of chicken feed.
As the villager and some friends carry it up the road you head down to the tavern to give the villagers a heads up on the whole Inspector issue and if they could fail to mention steam pumps and mysterious chicken experiments. The innkeeper recites a tale about your uncle and how when the soldiers came looking for him they sent them off into the wrong part of the forest where they were mauled by bears.
You take that as a yes.
You head home where there is no need, no need at all to help the villagers set up the coop and or fence, no sir, thank you sir.
Agreed. Afterward, read through our book of etheric guidelines and see how many of those guidelines we can break.
You consider this, then realise that the whole point of the guidelines is that they are not supposed to be breakable; they are supposed to be the infallible rules of 'Magic'. That does not mean that they are, but it does mean that you would have to have some new insights into the nature of Etheric Sciences before you could break them, as, you were the one who wrote them down in the first place.
Your Tome of Spells, on the other hand, is full of rules that can be broken; indeed, rules that cannot be broken are more an exception than rule. So you are not going to try to break these either, as what is the point of trying to break the rules when they are so easily broken?
The Inspector will arrive in two days.
It is 25 days since you returned home. It is evening.
One (1) dusty old family home in the country
Crappy Forge
Vegetable Patch (growing vegetables)
Chicken Run (contains 6 hens)
Hidden Shack (contains medium Steam Engine, small Pump)
Estates surrounding your dusty old family home (forests and hills)
£175 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