This is where the game will take place for you.  Please keep all things directly pertinent to story, actions, and other decisions here.

Begin [Week 1, Month 1, Year 1]

The last of the rubble is cleared out of the few rooms that seemed able to stand by their own power.
The throne-room was, surprisingly enough, one of the ones to survive - now it houses more than just the partially-repaired throne of course, as it's also the place for scouts to report, maps to be studied, and scribes to note down what's happened. But it is, in fact, still the throne room on top of all that.
Well, they call it a throne-room anyway - there's some disagreements on the matter, as it's unlikely a king ever lived here, but there's a bigger, fancier chair that was clearly meant for whatever Lord ruled the fort, and 'Lord's Room' sounds like a euphemism - so, Ronja used her 'I'm the boss' super-vote to settle the matter, declaring it close enough to be called a 'Throne Room'
Other than that, there's a few smaller rooms left barren after they broke apart the less important and/or redundant furniture for materials - they are now used for storage - and enough beds spread out between a few different rooms to house everyone who's there and the ten-man squad they intend to hire soon.
There used to be more beds, but they needed the materials more than the beds (and besides, the old sheets had long since either rotten away, or been taken by salvagers, and they only had enough spare sacks and such to make so many new ones)

In its better days, the fortress could likely have housed an army big enough to invade the town across the river, or hold off the forces off the closer town.
Now? Not only was much of the physical structure lost to the ravine, crumbling down into the abyss when the mountain and fort was split so long ago, but trying to move between the two halves of the fort is inconvenient - at least they've managed to get a make-shift bridge built out of somewhat-sturdy rope and wood, and a kind of horizontal cargo-lift (an 'aerial rope-way') for pulling material across, so passage is possible, if less than ideal.
It's not like the ravine's that big, mind: An exceptionally skilled jumper could get across, if they got a decent running start. But that also means the rope and/or bridge doesn't need to be as big, so it's still worth the work and materials, since they'd be unable to bring material (or anything heavier than some good shoes and, at a push, some light clothes for modesty) and a 'bad day' would mean death.

Nothing of the actual fortifications have survived, though, and even the 'natural' defenses have crumbled and/or been filled in with rubble - or at least, what remains of defenses helps any attackers as much as it helps the defenders.
Their only defense against raiders and/or being hunted down for 'stealing' land from the nobles, is that it's quite far out of the way.

With everything put away and looking like it'll last a week without repairs, with a bit of luck, the twelve current residents - spies and the like don't count, they don't really live there - set out on their tasks.

The 'armed workers', the Wild Minds, are off to look for a good site to get resources for fixing up some more of the keep/fort/castle.
While there's some closer forest to the north-west, they head to the north-east where the forest borders the river - it's less likely to be actively harvested, and it's an undesirable path by any wanders/merchants not going to or coming from the swamps (even those in Lothar across the water would be better off with the slight detour along the plains)

Ronja herself is off to get the extra ten people they prepared for in terms of food, beds, and pay.
While Moracku would be closer, the situation's not calm enough to do anything for a day or two - and with her mount, she could get to the capital, Havenin, by that time.
Between the two, Havenin's less likely to happen by her, or her 'hired help', when they're off doing more suspicious things (so it's less of a problem to have her face seen around town), and it's the more populated of the two (a bigger supply of 'people', in other words, which is her goal)
So, she's off to see if anyone's tired of living in the shadows of the ruling class.
Especially any elves - their speed and unparalleled skill with the bow would both come in handy.
Obviously, she can't just shout in the town square - she has no papers, not even fake ones (not enough time to draw any up yet), to support her 'ownership' of her lands.
Even if she found some peasants that wouldn't ask questions, they'd come expecting to work the fields or whatever, not serve as something between a sellsword and a poacher (so, a 'bandit', essentially)
What she needs are the ones who've started gathering in places the nobles don't see - run-down taverns selling rot-gut, under bridges made redundant when the town expanded and the marketplace moved, and so on - where they can complain and plan, but rarely do anything, since they are mice talking about putting a bell on a cat; Everyone agrees it's a great idea and will finally solve their problems, it's just such a shame that no one's got the guts for it.
But just like mice can be lured into certain death (a mouse-trap) with cheese, Ronja figures she can convince them to risk uncertain injury (so, a much lesser risk, really) in return for a promise of coin in their pocket, a roof over their head, and food on their plate - and, hopefully, a chance now and then to make the lives of the nobles more stressful.

Birk, son of Bork, heads to the 'Tower in the Sky'.
They don't know that much about it, but rumor says it holds the secrets to magic.
There's some less-popular rumors that it was built by goblin shamans, but the sources are less reliable there, and the basis seems largely to be 'well, obviously, it's usually goblin shamans who do the whole 'spirit' thing' which shows a farmer's lack of understanding of the matters of spirits and magic - elves in particular, Birk thinks on the way, have their own 'spin' on spiritual magic, it's just usually too quick and subtle for an inattentive (and often untrained) peasant to notice.

Name	Start	Action	Target	End	Notes
Ronja	H8	Conduct Diplomacy	D4	H8	With Donkey. Intent: Recruit Unit (Elves)
Dirk	H8	Diplomate Landmark	H7	H8	Intent: 'Perform a Ritual Cleansing and learn the power of Magic', a Diplomacy-focused Landmark choice, at the Temple in the Sky - mostly to see how it works with the 'can't fail 1st month' rule, but ideally learning Midas Touch or Cornucopia - to be clear, I'd rather waste the week than 'waste' my chance to learn magic by starting a quest I've no chance of beating before the deadline
Wild Minds	H8	Scout	I6	H8	Intent: Scouting in a very unfocused way, given the lack of Spymasters. Hoping for Lumber.

This message was last edited by the player at 19:35, Sat 22 Aug 2015.

Ronja Lovisdottir entered Havenin and was in for a heavy shock.  After the days of settling down in the small rooms that the Dirk and the Wild Minds had affectionately dubbed, 'the Lair', the massive space and population of Havenin was overwhelming.  Thankfully, the population played to Ronja's advantage; knowing full-well that with a new spring, many warriors and mercenaries would be available, seeking food and meade after the forced-hibernation that was winter.

Finding an adventurer's guild proved difficult only because of the winding streets and spiraling masses of peasants.  Entering, Ronja made her needs and intentions quite clear; as she tossed a bag of coins on the counter.  Eyeing the woman; the proprietor immediately stood-up and snapped his fingers.  Soon, plenty of mercenaries were standing tall in the foyer, looking as menacing as possible: afterall, menacing meant pay, and pay meant food.

---

Dirk's pleas and earnest efforts make him quite welcome at the Temple in the Sky.  The journey had been long - nearly two days of hiking up a series of winding paths that led to the crest of one of the mountain peaks in this area.  Although it was not literally perched in the sky; the view was tremendous and glorious.  Though the naked eye could scarcely make-out any of the terrain below, you felt as if you were in the clouds themselves.  Dirk's quiet and knowledgeable demeanor fills the temple officiates with a warm glow of respect, as they offer to instruct you how to conduct the ritual of cleansing...

---

The Wild Minds discover a series of treetop homes, all interlaced with hardened wood, almost as if the area had been grown into being.  Numerous leaf and wooden stair columns are arrayed in a playful fashion - their eyes settling on handfuls of Elves, in what you can only imagine to be a small hamlet, of maybe some 30 Elves.  After meeting a few of the inhabitants and learning the name - the Wild Minds depart.

[ Ronja achieves a Significant Success in Conducting Diplomacy with the Metropolis Havenin (D4). Assign 1 XP related to Diplomacy skill. ]
[ All standard items are available for sale. ]
[ You encounter a single Unit of Advanced Elves available to recruit: They are level 1 and are available for 10 Gold. ]
[ This Unit also comes with 1 skill XP.  Assign as you see fit. ]
[ Reply with your choice to recruit or not - and if so, what stat point and skill point to improve/gain. ]

[ Dirk achieves a Significant Success in (H7) at the Landmark: The Temple in the Sky. Assign 1 XP related to Diplomacy skill. ]
[ Dirk is given an offer to learn a Spell: You may learn a spell of your choice at the cost of 15 Gold, or learn True Cause OR Shroud at a cost of 10 Gold (may only choose one. ]
[ Reply with choice of purchase or to not. Either Leader may benefit from this, but, not both. ]

[ Wild Minds achieve a Significant Success in Scouting (I6)! Wild Minds gain 1 XP - which may be assigned to either Scout or Spy. ]
[ You discover a CP! (Detailed Below) ]
[ You discover a Normal Lumber Node.  It has an estimated 3 uses remaining. ]


The above CP will begin at HOSTILE Attitude unless you send an ELF Leader during the first Leader visit to conduct Diplomacy here.  For further information regarding the chart-above, see: http://wiki.rpol.net/?id=50711/Diplomacy and http://wiki.rpol.net/?id=50711/trading.
They are BUYING (from you): Ir(on) at Reviled (Rvd) status.
They are SELLING (to you): Lu(mber) at Reviled (Rvd) status.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:23, Wed 26 Aug 2015.

Ronja Negotiator 0->1
Yes, hire new unit: Gold 40->30
New unit Outmaneuver 0->1, Offense 1->2
Dirk Negotiator 0->1
'Purchase' players-choice spell (Midas Touch) for Dirk: Gold 30->15
Wild Minds Scout 0->1

This message was last edited by the player at 23:24, Sun 23 Aug 2015.

Now that you have consumed the Ritual of Cleansing - you may only return to conduct Diplomacy at the Temple of the Sky for the following:

1) To begin a Saga.
2) You may attempt another Ritual of Cleansing - but, will only be offered new magic opportunities if you roll a higher success (at least Significant.)  If you roll a significant success in the future - you will receive the result for a NORMAL success instead.

You may still send Unit(s) to Scout here as normal.

Begin [Week 2, Month 1, Year 1]

Ronja and Birk - the latter of whom was not overly amused at coming back to find that he had been written down as 'Dirk' for an entire week's worth of records, due to the scribes/record-keepers miss-reading Ronja's handwriting - head out the moment they're not needed for tossing orders around.
Birk doesn't even start explaining his newfound spiritual power until they're out on the road - in particular, he talks (or, rather, rambles) about how it could be a good way to get some 'leverage' with the nobles, especially if they can dig deeper into the tower's secrets.
But right now, mostly at Ronja's order, they are heading to the newly-found hamlet.
Mostly for 'diplomatic' reasons, which is to say they're planning to waste a bunch of time, gold, and effort, just to please some stuck-up shop-keepers and semi-racist leaders that might be calmed down if an elf comes by acting like he's wanting to do some trading.
They do need the lumber, mind, but not as much as they need the gold - so, again, the scale is 'tipped' because it should, ideally, make a good first impression.
This idea doesn't sit well with either of them, mind - it's the kind of wheels-within-wheels thing they ended up getting tired of before deciding 'screw it, we're making our own place' - but if they do a good job, it might be fun to beat people at their own game.

The newly-hired elves were declared the 'Fairhairs', explained as being a rough translation of a famous 'Suffix' from back when earning a title didn't require you to take over the world - but, of course, the name's first and foremost a joke at their expense and to Ronja's amusement (hey, Birk got the Wild Minds, in terms of joke names with some vague justification)
They grab the shovels and picks from the Wild Minds, who in turn go pick up the building-tools from the stockpile.
While, of course, the trees closest to the hamlet is bound to contain hidden elves that might get annoyed if their tree suddenly fell down, there are quite a lot of trees that most likely aren't actively used.
And being elves themselves, they might even be able to do it without leaving a lot of wasted and ugly wood in the ground (tree-stumps can sit around for ages, after all, and contain lumber the group needs) - for example, since they've got the right tools for the job, they might be able to find some trees where they can hack through the roots and, with some effort, pull down the tree without tearing off the bottom.

The Wild Minds are still out mapping the surrounding country-side.
Now they've been sent over to the only nearby mountains they don't know to contain anything, in the hopes the 'secrets' hidden in the apparent absence will be the trade-able kind.
It doesn't have to be an abandoned goldmine; Even just a forgotten warehouse of clay bowls might work, since a good bowl's practically a trade-good already - though in the mountains, they're more likely to find precious stones or non-tools-grade-metals.
The important part is that it needs to be valuable enough to be worth sending someone out to get - they can only haul so much weight in a week, simply by physical limitation of their body.
Particularly nice marble, as an example, would sell at a decent price, but it'd also be so heavy that they'd probably be better off using it in place of stone themselves, rather than sell it (which isn't what they're wanting here, but it might do as a consolation price)
On the other hand, actual gold, even when not in neat nugget forms, is valuable enough that you could buy a decent-sized village with the gold a single man could carry - and gems are generally even better.

Name	Start	Action	Target	End	Notes
Ronja	H8	Assist Birk	I6	H8
Birk	H8	Conduct Diplomacy	I6	H8	Donkey, bringing gold. Intent: Trade at Shamerius, buying 5gp's worth of Lumber. Remember he's an elf. Secondary intent: Hopefully get it up to Indifferent/Poor by trading 5gp for the trade-attitude, and getting at least a Significant Success for the general attitude
Wild Minds	H8	Scout	G8	H8	'Unofficial' Intent: Finding gold. Remember: They have Spyglasses. Given Construction Tools, Earthen Tools removed
Fairhairs	H8	Harvest (Lumber)	I6	H8	Given Earthen Tools. Intent: Harvest lumber - Pretty sure there's no real way to change the 'intent' on Harvesting

Entering the hamlet of Shamerius, Ronja and Birk climb their way up the long, winding, wooden stairways that lead to the tree-top homes of a rather wispy bunch of Elves.  Setting aside their woodcrafts and basket-weaving, the villagers eye you carefully as you approach what amounts to the town square.

Several moments pass as you approach some of the elder members.  Suddenly the swift jingle of coin as Birk draws a coin pouch from his belt; the newly minted coins offering a sweet clang opens the eyes and ears of the residents.  The town elder steps forward, his clothing and hair adorned in waves of alabaster and sparkling, but subdued jewels; greeting you he shows you to the central market area, both in the trees and on the ground where much of the harvested and blessed lumber is stored.  They explain their lack of access to Iron, and their need to acquire more.  As you take a look at the limited stalls, you feel the presence of minor magics, as bulbs of light glow wherever the sun cannot reach.

[ Ronja and Birk achieve a Significant Success in conducting Diplomacy at Shamerius (I6)! ]
[ Because you brougth an Elf Leader to Shamerius on your first visit; your starting attitude is Unfriendly! ]
[ You gain 1 XP in Negotiator!  Assign to either leader as you see fit (reply.) ]
[ Your success was enough to improve the Attitude Status to: Indifferent! ]

[ Reply with your choices of purchases. ]

[ Wild Minds successfully Scout (G8) ]
[ You discover a normal Gold Node [2d4]. It has an estimated 3 uses remaining. ]
[ You discover a poor Iron Node [2d4]. It has an estimated 2 uses remaining. ]

[ Fairhairs successfully Harvest Lumber from the Normal Lumber Node in (I6). ]
[ This node has an estimated 2 uses remaining. ]
[ You return with 5 Lumber. ]
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:03, Wed 02 Sept 2015.

Ronja Negotiator 1->2
Purchase 5 lumber at Reviled: Lumber 5->10, Gold 15->10 - Possibly upgrade trade-status from 5gp total trade.

Begin [Week 3, Month 1, Year 1]

At the current pace, each new expansion would take them a month, if not more.
There's no space for more workers - and, of course, making space would require the same resources they're trying to gather in the first place - and right now none in the 'band' has the arboreal knowledge it'd take to make hunting down a better logging-spot worth it.
So, not perhaps the most encouraging news when Ronja and Birk look over their progress so far.

Since nothing's changed - and, while neither's honest enough to say it, they need some fresh air and quiet walks to clear their heads of the small squabbles and arguments (especially between the two) that tends to come along when the initial rush of a new plan starts petering out - they go their own ways for a week's time.
Ronja takes along her donkey, but only to carry her supplies while she walks by her own power.
While being an elf does not directly mean you're better at 'nature things', Birk (and Ronja, and a large amount of lower-class people for that matter) has often had to help forage so his family would have food enough to keep everyone fed - and unlike his technically-higher-ranking female counterpart, he does not have a donkey to carry his stuff.
So, while it slows him down somewhat, he's taken just enough supplies to make sure he can make it back (in case he is cursed with poor luck and finds nothing), and is planning to 'live off the land' to save his back - actually, Ronja is too (it's not like she put a week's food-supply on the poor animal's back), but she can stick to fishing while she rests and that kind of thing.

Actually, as a side-note, goblins out-forage elves most time.
People just think elves are better at 'nature things' because they're neater; Goblins are far more efficient, turning one tree into planks for several houses (rather than adding even more wood to it to make a single tree-house), or living off of the inhospitable swamp as easily as elves live off a bountiful forest, but they leave such a mess people think they're poorly skilled (rather than, as is the actual truth, skilled but messy)
The true strength of the elves is their skill with the bow, which hints at their brains being better suited than most humanoids for great accuracy at hand-eye co-ordination and long-distance spatial awareness.
But, so far the 'band' knows of no goblins outside of the major towns, so it's not relevant beyond explaining why an elf can be the 'equal' of a human in foraging (it's because he's not a goblin) and what kind of arguments the two can have over which race's smartest.

The workers, in the meantime, are sent out to fetch more lumber and gold.
It's a rather repetitive task, hence why the leaders decided going off on their own would be more interesting, and unlikely to cause much surprise.
But there are a few ways to improve, still.
No one in the band actually mined before, so the gold-gathering elves are working somewhat blind - but then there is such a thing as 'beginners luck'; Among other things, while gold-mining's probably never going to be 'fun', it's at least a moderately new experience (so they might actually try to be clever about it)
The humans sent out to continue where the elves left off, meanwhile, do have the elves' attempts to learn from - they don't have to repeat the elves' attempts at finding the best knot to tie stuff together for travel, or waste time figuring out which chopping technique to use (though, of course, mastering it is another matter), for example.
Neither of them are 'supposed to' be there gathering things they didn't pay for from land that isn't theirs, mind, so they do have to be subtle about it - scouts on lookout for passers-by, everyone trying to keep the noise to a minimum, and so on.
Not that mining's a very quiet action, but at least mountains offer a better view for the lookouts than the thick forest does.

Name	Start	Action	Target	End	Notes
Ronja	H8	Explore	I10	H8	Taking the donkey. Intent: Unsure, but ideally something that does not take the entire 10 spare gold. 'Free' random events preferred
Birk	H8	Explore	F6	H8	Intent: Unsure, but ideally something that does not take the entire 10 spare gold. 'Free' random events preferred
Wild Minds	H8	Harvest (Gold)	G8	H8	Swap out Spyglass for Earth Tools. Has Earth and Construction tools. Intent: Get lots of stuff
Fairhairs	H8	Harvest (Lumber)	I6	H8	Swap out Earth Tools for Spyglass. Intent: Get lots of stuff

[ Ronja achieves a Significant Success in Exploring (I10)! ]
[ Ronja gains 1 XP in Bard. ]
[ A traveling artisan gives you an offer:
If you can donate 1 x Shields or 1 x Melee Weapons to him: you may gain choose a single Unit (Unit only, not Leaders) to gain 3 XP in the skill(s) of your choice.  Must be non-combat skills.
]

[ Birk achieves a Significant Success in Exploring (F6)! ]
[ Birk gains 1 XP in Bard. ]
[ You receive a Quest Offer:

• Name: Rebuild the Monastery
• Type: Challenging Charge
• Mission: An old and nearly destroyed monastery (G7) is in of aid to rebuild and once again catalog knowledge.  Recent wars have made acquisition of materials and resorting their information difficult at best.
  
  1. Acquire at least 20 Lumber and Donate it to the Monastery.
  2. Loan a Single Unit to for one week to help the monks rebuild the Monastery (must have construction tools.)
  3. Loan at least two Units for one week (must be together)
  4. In lieu of steps 2 and 3, you can loan a single Leader who has the 'Scholar' leader bonus for one week.
  5. Optional: Donate one piece of knowledge.  (You can either send a Leader to provide training for a skill you already possess, or 'donate' information about a spell you know (you will not lose the spell.)  If you choose the first option: you must send the leader there for a week.  If the second - no time is required.
• Reward: A random piece of information is given (can be a CP, enemy forces locations, Node, etc.  If the optional is completed: a random spell is learned.

]

[ Wild Minds achieve an Astounding Success in Harvesting Gold from the Normal Gold Node in (G8)! ]
[ Wild Minds gain 2 XP in Digger. ]
[ You recover 8 Gold. ]

[ Fairhairs achieves a partial success in Harvesting Lumber from the Normal Lumber Node in (I6). ]
[ You return with 5 Lumber. ]

Ronja: Bard 0->1, 1xp
Birk: Bard 0->1, 1xp
Wild Minds: Digger 0->2, 1+1=2xp
EDIT: Wild Minds: Shield removed (and given to the event), Scout 1->4, 1+1+1=3xp

This message was last edited by the player at 00:33, Mon 07 Sept 2015.

Begin [Week 4, Month 1, Year 1]

As Birk's discussing the 'quest' he got from the monastery, Ronja is staring in increasing disbelief - cocking her eyebrow and so on.
When he finishes, she puts on a clearly forced smile and asks, "So, Birk Borkason, you think we should be giving away all our wood - you know, instead of building with it?!"
Having expected more approval than that, given he was fairly sure he'd mentioned the part about being taught even more magic, the elf hesitates long enough for her to continue, "That amount of wood's, what, a good twenty gold? And nearly enough to finally get the scouts out of my bloody throne-room so I don't have to trip over a pile of maps every-time I want to go do leader-stuff!"
Birk lifts a hand to stop Ronja before she starts ranting and says, "Well, twenty at the prices they charged last time, yes. But I know you saw the merchants cheer up; You should be able to go get about half-again what they'd sell last time for the same pay. Probably'll sell it even cheaper next time, if we find we need more wood."
While she still didn't seem entirely convinced, Ronja makes a dismissive gesture, "Fine, fine. Whatever. I'll go get the wood, put my 'feminine wiles' to work and all that. Try not to promise away the rest of our goods in the meantime"
And that's all that's said on the subject - Ronja finishes giving orders to the men (some of which are women; It's the general term, not specifically male humanoids) and packs up some trade-goods for the hamlet, while Birk heads back out on his own.

He really is going to make an effort to look for easier targets, too - maybe choose to talk to wanderers and lone cabins, instead of ruined churches or people shouting about armies destroying their homelands.

Ronja doesn't have a specific plan, but they know her by now so she figures 'smile and wave' (and have the coin ready) is going to be enough - when she was younger, she certainly always liked the traders that came by her town.
Mind you, she mostly met the ones selling luxuries (candy, proper cloth, and so on) and food in the marketplace - buying lumber won't get you 'exposure' with more than a handful of folk, if that.
She does make a token effort at finding people (in a marketplace, or by just asking around) selling or buying 'trade-goods' at about 'market value' - there might be jewelers who'd prefer gold chunks dug up by the Wild Minds to their own copper and mixed-metal coins, or farmers going through a 'rough patch' who might sell some heirloom if she offers more than they could likely get themselves (but about equal to what she, with more time to and talent at finding a good deal, could get later)
Trading like that, by definition, isn't going to get her any richer of course; The point is to be seen, and possibly even known for trading 'fair' (it'd not be good to be known as a 'sucker', but hopefully tossing out the occasional comment implying it's a one-time thing (could use some elven coin, an elven cloak-pin might make a good gift for Birk, and so on) will prevent it)
But that's all assuming she has time after making sure she's got the wood-deals arranged.
This might seem to contradict the earlier comment about no specific plan, but that's merely a quirk of narration; She herself did not know the plan until she'd started it, which means it was not a plan but rather improvisation.

The elves are sent off to get even more wood, again.
Though they take the opportunity to sharpen their axes and saws since it's not like they want to carry the whetstone with them.
They should be able to get the last of the trees they'd marked - after this week, the ones left standing around there should be either too thick for their make-shift 'travois' or too thin to be worth chopping down.
And besides, any longer and they'd probably start drawing too much unwanted attention.

The 'Wild Minds', meanwhile, have been ordered to find some food for next month.
As long as it's unprotected, it's ok if it's still in the ground (if less than ideal)
But they'll be exploring specifically the most fertile parts of the 'path' between Havenin and Moracku - exactly the kinds of places people are likely to build and travel.
If they find wagons whose owners lost a fight, or cabins whose occupants have mysteriously disappeared, for example, they should bring back anything useful they can find - wolves would leave any non-edible valuables alone, but even bandits would probably leave the wagon itself (made of wood the gang seem to never have enough of) and possibly even the occasional metal part that could get a decent price from a wagon-maker.
With some luck, there might even be a bag or two of grain gone overlooked by bandits too greedy for anything that doesn't glitter.

Name	Start	Action	Target	End	Notes
Ronja	H8	Diplomacy(Trading)	Shamerius (I6)	H8	Taking the donkey Intent: Improve the Attitude - the actual intent is trading, specifically 6gp's worth of wood to improve Trade and meet the quest objective, but I shouldn't need the bonus there (can't fail to trade, and cheaper prices just means more leftover wood, which is good but not the reason I'm doing this)
Birk	H8	Explore	H8	H8	Intent: Finding something 'quicker' than the month's work the last 'quest' required (a Simplistic Errand with a resource-based reward would be the specific goal) Stuff just lying around would be especially good, and would be the intent if I thought it was a valid goal, though so far I see no evidence Explore can find that (in this context, I would count finding someone willing to give wood to the Monastery on our behalf (or donate gold to what they might see as a charitable cause) as 'resources lying around', in case you'll consider that 'solving a step in a quest' (which IS an option of Explore))
Wild Minds	H8	Scout	F6	H8	Intent: Caches would be preferred, but I don't mind nodes (hopefully food, even if I can't specify). Reminder: Has Spyglass.
Fairhairs	H8	Harvest (Lumber)	I6	H8	Intent: Get loads of wood. Reminder: Has Earth Tools

This message was last edited by the player at 03:07, Wed 09 Sept 2015.

Ronja's efforts prove difficult at first.  Entering Shamerius once more, she finds the mood of all of its citizens to be dour at best.  Although there is talk of hope as the dew thaws from last winter's chill; few are in the mood to celebrate.  The sight of the lone traveler with a solitary donkey in tow raises eyebrows and a few, bleak smiles once more.  Once they recognize Ronja from her previous visit, a few wary merchants eye you carefully; but, open their stalls and warehouses as they see the coin roll between your fingers.

Prices were at their worst because they had to be for the townships to survive.  With more trade, the merchants knew they could offer more competitive deals; but, they needed the funds first.

[ Ronja achieves a partial success in conducting Diplomacy with Shamerius (I6). ]
[ This result was insufficient to improve standings. ]
[ Reply with choice of how much to trade.  Lumber is currently Selling to you at: Poor (2 Gold for 3) ]

[ Birk successfully Explores (H8) ]
[ Thanks to Birk's Scholar Bonus, despite only achieving a success; Birk still gains 1 XP in Bard. ]
[ You meet a traveling merchant who offers his wares to you.  He's in need of a quick sale, and is selling as he moves-around the countryside in an effort to avoid the taxes of the big city.
 He will sell any basic resource at the "Preferred" Rate (Lumber, Stone and Iron.)  He will sell up to 40 of any one resource.
]

[ Wild Minds successfully Scout (F6) ]
[ Thanks to Wild Minds' Human Bonus, despite only achieving a success; Wild Minds still gain 1 XP!  You may assign it to either Scout or Spy. ]
[ Reply with choice of how you assign XP. ]
[ Something special happens! (There is a standard 5% chance when rolling for Nodes that you gain some additional piece of information

 If you Scout (F7) within the next 3 weeks, you will gain a +10% bonus to the Scout Check.
]
[ You discover a Normal Food Node. It has an estimated 2 uses remaining. ]
[ You discover a Tiny Cache, it contains: 6 x Stone. ]

[ Fairhairs successfully harvest Lumber from the Normal Lumber Node at (I6). ]
[ They return with 7 lumber. ]
[ This node is exhausted. ]

This message was last edited by the GM at 10:35, Thu 10 Sept 2015.

Ronja: Buys 9 wood for 6 gold, Lumber 15->24, Gold 18->12 - this should bump it up, but if it doesn't I've misunderstood something and need to add gold (and possibly remove it from Birk's trade) until it does qualify (without being more than I can afford)
Harvest+Cache: Stone 0->6, Lumber 24->31
Birk: Bard 1->2 for 1xp, buys 16 lumber for 4 gold, Lumber 31->47, Gold 12->8
Midas Touch (Birk): Gold 8->12
Wild Minds: Scout 4->5 for 1xp

Upkeep: 10 gold, 2 food
Gold 12->2
Food 2->0

Begin [Week 1, Month 2, Year 1]

Preparations are finally being made for moving out the scouts, scribes, and such from the throne room and into their own place.
Without Birk around, though, it's not a guarantee that there won't be some mistake made while clearing out the debris and installing supports - it's not that he knows the fort better, she corrects him at least as often as the other way around, but there's still the occasional flaw in her plans that he helps point out - so until they've got at least part of the room stable enough to stay in, they're focusing on packing them up and getting ready.
Mostly they just need floor enough for a few tables to write on, and enough still-standing wall to hang maps, so the construction shouldn't be too difficult - though if they find time and have enough wood left, there might be a use for a proper 'war' table (or whatever you call the tables with the tiny miniatures that kings push around while their nobles either cheer their intelligence openly or whisper about their incompetence in secret)

Birk, meanwhile, is dragging a fairly large load of lumber off to the religious people.
Not just to hand over the material, mind; The lumber's more 'since he's going there anyway', otherwise they'd have sent a few workers along instead.
Mainly, he's going there to do the scholarly equivalent of trade: Help them by adding his knowledge to theirs, including the magic he'd learned from his somewhat recent spiritual journey, in the hope that what they'll teach back is worth giving it up.
Some might claim that giving away information has no 'cost' as you still have it yourself, but those people do not quite understand the actual value of information (and specifically how said value sinks the more it is known) - though it can still be useful to smile and nod along with such people, as they are often fools, and so easily parted from their coin if they believe you a friend.

Name	Start	Action	Target	End	Notes
Ronja	H8	Assist Wild Minds	H8	H8
Birk	H8	Quest-Specific Action	G7	H8	With Donkey. "Loan Birk, Donate Knowledge [of Midas Touch], Donate 20 x Lumber."
Wild Minds	H8	Construct Spymaster's Suite	H8	H8	Has Construction Tools. Swapping their Spyglass for the Fairhair's Earth Tools, in case it matters
Fairhairs	H8	Assist Wild Minds	H8	H8	Swapping tools with the Wild Minds

Helping rebuild the monastery turned-out to be an overwhelming success.  Birk's arrival, as he leads a donkey laden with lashes dragging a cart of lumber was enough to send the otherwise scholarly and stoic group into a lather of excitement.  When, upon beginning discussions for how to implement the lumber, Birk expressed his desire to bestow his knowledge of the arcane upon them; several fainted and fell over each other with bliss.

Although the work was difficult, Birk's scholarly knowledge helped them through the complications of re-establishing the heavy support beams and embedding everything into the foundation to hoist the once massive library.  As the work came to completion, a warm breeze slipped through the halls.  The shelves were still less than half-filled, but now- with time, they would attract scholars and high-minded people from around the land.  As Birk prepared to depart, they provided you with some arcane knowledge of their own...

[ Ronja, Wild Minds, and Fairhairs achieve a Significant Success in constructing a Spymaster's Suite. ]
[ You gain 1 Skill XP.  It must be assigned as Mason. ]
[ You gain 1 Leveling XP.  It may be assigned to either Unit. ]
[ Reply with how you assign the XP. ]
[ You save 4 Lumber, consuming only 21 Lumber. ]

[ Birk manages to complete the Rebuild the Monastery Quest! ]
[ Birk learns: Telescoping ]
[ You learn about a Naga Hamlet in (J8) ]


This message was last edited by the GM at 18:53, Fri 18 Sept 2015.

Ronja: Mason 0->1
Humans: Level 0->1, Offense 1->2
Birk: Add Telescoping to Spells Known
Lumber: 47->27->6

Begin [Week 2, Month 2, Year 1]





This message was last edited by the GM at 13:36, Tue 22 Sept 2015.

The magic they taught Birk was perhaps not quite as good as what he'd taught them, but at least it should be usable - a flashier spell, like breathing fire or withering fields, would end up being more situational.
It doesn't help the mood much, though.
Ronja still skims the same reports over and over, hoping to somehow find a solution that doesn't involve taking far too long to do far too little.
Birk himself still tries to get some rooms cleaned out while Ronja's busy, only to have to abandon the idea when it's clear they need proper supports (which they pretty much knew, but he figured it'd be worth a shot)

After a few days, when people are rested and no brilliant solution's appeared from thin air, the 'workers' (for lack of a better term) are called together for the weekly 'here's what you're going to do this week' orders.
The gist of it is that while of course she is aware of the dwindling food supplies, the situation is quite under control - and besides, the supplies will last out the month.
So for now, they need to get to the not-quite-abandoned mine - before it's mined out by its owners.
Given how it's left unguarded for so long at a time, presumably until the original prospector runs out of what he gathered last time, it seems likely they don't realize that malachite's more than just a copper ore; Polish it right and you essentially get a green semi-precious gemstone, with a nice pattern to it.
A gem-mine, even if it's one of the more common stones, guarded as though it was a copper-mine is quite a good find, if your morals are a bit flexible.
Of course, none of the 'forts-people' are jewelers; Knowing what's valuable enough to stuff in a pocket's about the limit of their education on gems.
So, they'll probably end up polishing a couple of bits, and try to find a jeweler interested in more raw material that 'fell off a wagon' - though if they can't find any, it shouldn't be too hard (they think) to make some mediocre figurines, necklaces, and so on.
With a scout or two placed some way down the make-shift road, in case they get a 'visit' sooner than they'd like, the 'ex'-bandits (and newer recruits) set to work with pick and spade.
There's not much need to clean up; Two 'hauls' of ore, whether it's one by Ronja's crew and one by the rightful owner, or two by Ronja, is about what's left (or at least there wouldn't be enough left to bother with a third) - there might or might not be more ordinary copper ore further in, but not the malachite they want.
In other words, after the next time the prospector comes by, there's no more point in sneaking in; If they post guards after seeing there'd been thieves, it won't matter since it's already too late for Ronja.

Name	Start	Action	Target	End	Notes
Ronja	H8	Assist the Wild Minds	G8	H8	Bringing the Donkey
Birk	H8	Assist the Wild Minds	G8	H8
Wild Minds	H8	Harvest (Gold, Normal)	G8	H8	Intent: Get gold, lots of it. Sorry if I'm stretching your 'idea' of 'gold'; You didn't tell me exactly what the node represented this time, so I did my best at trying to be creative <.< Remember: Has Earthen and Construction tools.
Fairhairs	H8	Assist the Wild Minds	G8	H8

This message was last edited by the player at 08:51, Wed 23 Sept 2015.

With precision-focus and careful instructions to your workers in mind and spoken-aloud; everyone begins to dig in the prospector's mine for anything of even the remotest value.  Birk diagrams carefully a few different looks and striations of various minerals that might be found here; and soon a bevy of gemstones begin falling from veins of dross and dirt!

You almost weep at your fortune.  It was clear whoever had been digging here before did not have a keen eye for minerals of value.  As malachite and jasper begin to become visible, Ronja begins polishing with a fervor.  You know these will trade well wherever you deal with experienced merchants.  You saddle-up as many bags as you can and disappear back to Berg Fortress in the middle of the night.

[ Your Usurpation achieves an Astounding Success in Harvesting from the Normal Gold Node in (G8)! ]
[ You gain 2 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Digger.  Reply with whomever receives the XP. ]
[ You gain 2 Leveling XP.  Reply with whomever receives the XP. ]
[ You return with 12 Gold! ]

Gold 2->14
Fairhairs: Digger 0->2, 1+1=2xp. Level 1->2, Speed F->VF
Wild Minds: Level 1->2, Defense 1->2

Begin [Week 3, Month 2, Year 1]





This message was last edited by the GM at 11:09, Fri 09 Oct 2015.

"We've got coin (well, coin-equivalents), so let's get some food. I'll take the elves to go get what we've already found, but Birk and the rest will go see what's to find south of where we're going." Ronja straps on her pack, and everyone heads out.
Most likely, she'd have split it between humans and elves (rather than have a human lead the elf group, and visa versa), except Birk had that new magic thing going on and could really use some practice being the scout-specialist between the two.

The find wasn't amazing, but it'd be too risky to wait another week to get the report from the scouts; No time to buy more if they fail to bring back enough after that.
But they only need a month's worth to 'survive', and have a large stretch of plains to go through (and no real qualms about stealing)
If they go nocturnal, camping out during the day and sneaking around during the night, they should miss most of the 'sunrise to sundown' farmers.
A few barrels of wheat grabbed from sleeping farms, some apples and other fruit, maybe even some meat if they find any neglected life-stock (lazy sheep-herders, careless cow-ranchers, etcetera) - there's a lot of food to be found.
Mind, they have to be careful; Take a sheep now and then, and 'trim' their fields, they'll assume it's wolves and vagrants. Clearcut a field and take their cows out of secure barns, and they'll start searching for bandits (which is bad if you're essentially a bandit-queen)
Not to mention they'd prefer not to kill anyone.

Name	Start	Action	Target	End	Notes
Ronja	H8	Assist the Fairhairs	F6	H8	With Donkey
Birk	H8	Assist the Wild Minds	F7	H8
Wild Minds	H8	Scout	F7	H8	Has Spyglass. Remember bonus. Intent: Find another cache.
Fairhairs	H8	Harvest (Food)	F6	H8	Has Earth Tools.

Scouring the plains for provisions proves to be incredibly easy.  It seems that patrols had been redirected further north to deal with an incursion of Orcs; and, all available forces were levied to handle the issue.  You manage to sneak back into the smokehouse and gather several barrels of choice meats and fruits with ease.

[ Ronja and the Fairhairs achieve an Astounding Success in Harvesting from the Normal Food Node (F6) ]
[ You gain 2 Leveling XP. ]
[ You gain 2 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Forager. ]
[ They return with 10 Foodstuffs. ]
[ This Node is exhausted. ]

[ Birk and the Wild Minds achieve a Significant Success in Scouting (F7) ]
[ You gain 1 Leveling XP. ]
[ Due to the Human Bonus of the Wild Minds and the Scholar Bonus from Birk, you gain 2 Skill XP; which must be assigned as either Scout or Spy. ]
[ You discover an Exceptional Food Node
[ You discover a CP!
They are buying Melee Weapons and Shields.
They are selling Foodstuffs and Donkeys
Because you brought a Leader on your first visit, you gain a free diplomacy check.  Because Birk is not a human, the attitude status begins at Hostile.
[ You achieve a Significant Success in conducting Diplomacy with Maplecross! ]
[ You gain 1 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Negotiator. ]
[ Unfortunately, this was insufficient to raise your attitude status with Maplecross. ]

This message was last edited by the GM at 05:54, Fri 02 Oct 2015.

8 foodstuffs stored (2 discarded; Don't have space)
Fairhairs: Forager 0->2, 1+1=2xp
Wild Minds: Level 2->3, Strength 1->2. Scout 5->7, 1+1=2xp
Birk: Negotiator 1->2, 1xp

Begin [Week 4, Month 2, Year 1]






This message was last edited by the GM at 11:09, Fri 09 Oct 2015.

Correction: Did not see Fairhair leveling XP, Fairhairs: Level 2->4, Max Tools 1->2, Defense 1->2, 1+1=2xp - sorry, my fault entirely (unless there was some secret GM-hidden edit)

Their stores are filled to bursting with food (literally; They had to reinforce some of the less intact storage crates, since they were starting to crack under the weight)
So, since they don't need to head over to the town quite yet (though they'll want wood soon) they can head back to the mine.
After some discussion, they specifically decide Ronja'll take the elves to the mine - she did a good job gathering it last time, plus it's more her style - while Birk looks into the rumors about architects (they could use the help) and the wildminds head out to find some proper stone.

Name	Start	Action	Target	End	Notes
Ronja	H8	Assist Fairhairs	G8	H8
Birk	H8	Explore	H6	H8	Has the donkey. Intent: Finding the Architect the World Effect gives a bonus to finding
Wild Minds	H8	Scout	H9	H8	Unofficial intent: Finding stone, ideally one big find but if there's a smaller 'side find' I'd prefer caches to bad nodes
Fairhairs	H8	Harvest (Gold)	G8	H8

This message was last edited by the player at 05:13, Wed 07 Oct 2015.

[ Ronja and the Fairhairs achieve a partial success in Harvesting from the Normal Gold Node (G8). ]
[ You return with 5 Gold. ]
[ This node is exhausted. ]

[ Birk successfully Explores (H6). ]
[ You receive an offer:
An architect will Construct any 1 Room for you for 12 Gold. (takes no time, nor resources.)
]

[ The Wild Minds achieve a Significant Success in Scouting (H9). ]
[ You gain 1 Leveling XP. ]
[ You gain 1 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Scout. ]
[ You discover a CP:

]
[ You discover a Normal Stone Node.  It has an estimated 3 uses remaining. ]

This message was last edited by the GM at 11:25, Fri 09 Oct 2015.

Gold 14->19
Pay architect: gold 19->7, build Mysterious Room.
Wild Minds: Level 3->4, Offense 2->3, Scout 7->8
Midas: Gold 7->11
Upkeep: Gold 11->1, Food 8->6
This message was last edited by the player at 20:45, Sun 11 Oct 2015.

Begin [Week 1, Month 3, Year 1]







[ Intelligence Network: +10 Scout (G9). ]
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:36, Mon 12 Oct 2015.

Ronja sighs and tosses the last of the monthly updates back on the pile; Like most of the rest, it basically said the best place to find anything in the immediate future would be around the neighboring city.
That not being an option in her mind, especially since the flat-lands seem the least tempting at the moment, her best idea's sending her boy friend who happens to be male, Birk, along with the Wild Minds to look for some forgotten treasure (or whatever they can sell) around the tower.

For herself, it's really about time they bridge some of the rooms (the gap's not that big, after all. Building across it shouldn't be harder than building above the ground floor, which the original builders had already done)
The most obvious choice being the meet-up for the spies and such, which could sorely use more space for maps and records, to get a better idea of where to find what resources.
And they'd already done the work of finding a good out-of-the-way quarry-spot (or, rather, Birk and company did), so now they just need to head over to break the rocks up into usable chunks - given the intended use, the bigger the better, as long as they don't become cumbersome to transport, since one big rock's more stable than many smaller ones held together with mortar and faith.

Name	Start	Action	Target	End	Notes
Ronja	H8	Assist Fairhairs	H9	H8	With Donkey
Birk	H8	Assist Wild Minds	H7	H8
Wild Minds	H8	Scout	H7	H8	Probably-still-unofficial Intent: Finding some gold, before more 'expenses' show up. Pretty sure I need a lvl 2 (rather than 1) spymaster for actual node-intents.
Fairhairs	H8	Harvest Stone	H9	H8

As Birk departed, the Elf braced himself against the chill wind.  It had been a welcome reprieve to live in the warmth for the time he had; but, it was necessary to find a source of wealth and soon.

Ducking into a low cave, you hear sharp drips- a sure sign of water and thus natural erosion.  Following the trill echoes you eventually find a hollow cavern; your torch lights gleaming off of a small pond of water and lighting the an excellent site for a stone quarry within.  Even a few flecks of gold shine-through.  It doesn't look like much, but, it's something.

[ Ronja and the Fairhairs achieve achieve a Significant Success in Harvesting Stone from the Normal Stone Node in (H9). ]
[ You gain 1 Leveling XP, which must be assigned to the Fairhairs. ]
[ You gain 1 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Stonecutter. ]
[ You return with 9 Stone. ]

[ Birk and the Wild Minds succeeds in Scouting (H7). ]
[ You discover a Normal Stone Node.  It has an estimated 3 uses remaining. ]
[ You discover a Poor Gold Node.  It has an estimated 1 use remaining. ]

Fairhairs: Level 4->5, Strength 1->2
Ronja: Stonecutter 0->1
Stone 7->16

Begin [Week 2, Month 3, Year 1]







[ Intelligence Network: +10 Scout (G9). ]

As mentioned before, the plan for the stone was to add some flooring.
Walking around on something they know doesn't have anything but an abyss underneath will take some getting used to, but on the other hand they'd be just as dead if they 'merely' had one of the stairs collapse instead and tumbled down several floors of solid rock and hard edges - in other words, it's scary, but rationally speaking it's not as bad as it might seem (compared to the rest)
Mostly, they just need the floorspace so they can keep more detailed notes in a more 'visual' way (models of terrain, maps with figurines and notes, whatever) so they can plan out more of the scouting missions - in particular, it'd be good to get a good outline of what areas are 'suited' for what resources; Rock-types that can contain valuables, fertile land suitable for farming, and so on, so they can more reliably guess what they'll find.

While the rest of the 'band' works on the castle, the elves head out to sift through the gold-flecked mud and gravel that had been recently found.
They didn't have any pre-made sifts, but some makeshift ones can be made easily enough with 'fine' wire-netting nailed to some scraps of wood to hold on to and/or hold the dirt inside.
It'd been the wild-minds instead, except they're needed for their tool-using expertise in the construction work.

Name	Start	Action	Target	End	Notes
Ronja	H8	Assist Wild Minds	H8	H8
Birk	H8	Assist Wild Minds	H8	H8
Wild Minds	H8	Renovate Spymaster's Suite	H8	H8	I intend to choose the 'Choose the node' bonus. Tools shuffled around.
Fairhairs	H8	Gather Resource (Gold)	H7	H8

This message was last edited by the player at 00:25, Wed 21 Oct 2015.

The conditions were dismal in the dank and damp old quarry.  Finding your way through the heavy, but eroded stone took time.  Precious time.  As the embers to your first few torches let-out their last dying spark, you manage to relocate a few of the golden veins.  As the Fairhairs begin setting-in with their tools, a few take time to investigate and insure each other against a cave-in.

[ Fairhairs achieve a Partial Success in Harvesting from the Poor Gold Node (H7) ]
[ They return with 1 Gold. ]
[ This node is exhausted. ]

[ Ronja, Birk, and the The Wild Minds achieve a Significant success in Renovating the Spymaster's Suite in (H8). ]
[ You gain 1 Leveling XP, which must be assigned to the Fairhairs. ]
[ Thanks to the combined Scholar Bonus, You gain 2 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Mason. ]
[ You save 2 Stone, consuming only 8 Stone. ]

Gold 1->2
Fairhairs: Level 5->6, Offense 2->3
Ronja: Mason 1->3, 1+1=2xp
Stone 16->8

Begin [Week 3, Month 3, Year 1]







[ Intelligence Network: +10 Scout (G9). ]

The payout of the last trip to gather trade-goods was so low it didn't even pay for the effort of gathering it (quite literally; They spent a quarter of a month to gather goods worth about a fifth of a month's pay for the workers)
So the remaining time until payday will be split in half; The first half'll go to finding the best spot they can, then they'll resupply back at the fort and in theory head out to gather goods the last half.
Time's limited, so they'll have to choose a part of the mountain-range to focus on (the western third's chosen, mostly arbitrarily)

Luckily, though, the new-and-improved scout-HQ has in-depth notes on the rock-types found, as well as essentially a 'Dummy's Guide to Geology' - specifically, notes cobbled together from what the scouts could squeeze out of actual geologists regarding where and how to find various 'precious' rocks and metals.
They will still have to wander around looking for the signs, but at least this way they should be able to recognize enough of the little clues to essentially prospect themselves (rather than hope to just stumble across someone else's mine)
And they'd still have an edge on other prospectors; They don't have to care about property rights.
Though, of course, finding another mine would make things easier.


Since I forgot to state it properly last time (though it was stated in the actual actions), for the record: The bonus I chose for the Spymaster is 'You may choose the first result when scouting (Node [type], Enemies, Cache, or CP)'

Name	Start	Action	Target	End	Notes
Ronja	H8	Assist Wild Minds	G8	H8	Riding the donkey
Birk	H8	Assist Wild Minds	G8	H8
Wild Minds	H8	Scout (Node[Gold])	G8	H8	Intent: Finding a Gold Node, with the secondary not-specified-by-Spymaster result, should there be one, ideally being a cache
Fairhairs	H8	Assist Wild Minds	G8	H8

Finding purchase within the mountains is getting easier with the warming spring time.  Scouring the rocky clefts, you deftly avoid notice of any hostile forces as you meander among the some of the areas that have recently thawed.  Spotting several caves that were frozen-over, the natural erosion of the dripping water seeking to hollow-out the areas over the years; you easily find suitable caves that lead into deep tunnels.

Marveling at the glittering cache of beautiful gems and gold veins, you almost regret sending the Fairhairs elsewhere last week with such a glorious deposit before you!

[ Your Usurpation achieves an Astounding Success in Scouting (G8)! ]
[ You gain 2 Leveling XP. ]
[ You gain 2 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Scout or Spy. ]
[ You discover a Grand Gold Node.  It has an estimated 4 uses remaining. ]
[ You discover a CP:
]
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:27, Mon 26 Oct 2015.

Wild Minds: Scout 8->9* (1+1=2xp, 9->10 would cost 2xp even with the discount), Level 4->6, Defense 2->3, Strength 2->3

Begin [Week 4, Month 3, Year 1]








[ Intelligence Network: +10 Scout (G9). ]

The orcs were yet another group to add to the growing list of groups that didn't like the band.
Given Ronja's a step above a bandit-queen, it's not like anyone can be blamed for being skeptical, but they'll quite definitively need to go make some friends the moment they're done scrambling to put together a working fortress.

With a find that good, the search had been called off a bit early so they could catch their breath back at base and still have a full week for the actual gathering.
Their toolset isn't perfect, in this case mostly lacking the right selection of 'finer' tools; They can cut beams to size to get supports up, and with some effort might even get the rope-ladder down into the caves to not saw itself to pieces against the coarse rock wall. But any cracked handles, chipped edges, or general maintenance of tools and constructions, would need to be done using improvised tools: Hammers a tad heavier than is called for, nails that are too thick, sharpening stones that leave scratch-marks, and so on. And other fine work too, but most of that's not needed when mining, generally speaking.
So the general rule is 'don't bloody break the bloody tools' and anyone too careless doesn't get to use any that are considered particularly good (like the pick that still had the leather grip, so it's not as uncomfortable to hold, or the sharpest of the wood-saws)
The actual mining's fairly by-the-book, and they even have their memories of the 'professional' mine (the one with the special copper ore) to copy from if they're not sure how things are done.
Plus, while 'higher education' isn't really their style, the workers have been given at least a basic instruction on the differences between the rock-types based on the 'idiot's guide to geology' the 'spies' put together (in our terms, sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous. They, being unlikely to have figured out the exact origins of all rock-types, no doubt call it something else, and certainly would not know igneous extrusive (cooled on the surface) versus igneous intrusive (cooled not on the surface). And the workers, even after the lesson, probably just call them 'soft, medium, and hard' rocks (maybe with an additional 'dust-like') though that's probably misleading.)
In other words, they should (hopefully) not be surprised if some rock's more prone to crumbling and other rock's harder to break apart, and the particularly bright ones might even warn the others if they see a change as they dig into the walls.

Name	Start	Action	Target	End	Notes
Ronja	H8	Assist Wild Minds	G8	H8	Riding the donkey
Birk	H8	Assist Wild Minds	G8	H8
Wild Minds	H8	Gather Resource(Gold)	G8	H8
Fairhairs	H8	Assist Wild Minds	G8	H8

Returning to the mountains, you have little trouble relocating the cave.  The work progresses quickly, and soon you have a plentiful harvest of gems, nuggets, and other shiny objects.  As you pile them-up, you quickly weigh-down your donkey who groans at the weight and pressure.

[ Your Usurpation achieves an Astounding Success in Harvesting the Grand Gold Node (G8)! ]
[ You gain 2 Leveling XP. ]
[ You gain 2 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Digger. ]
[ You return with 16 Gold. ]
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:08, Mon 26 Oct 2015.

Wild Minds: Level 6->7, Defense 3->4
Fairhairs: Digger 2->4 (1+1=2xp), Level 6->7, Offense 3->4
Gold 2->18
End of Month:
Midas x1: Gold 18->22
Upkeep: Gold 22->12, Food 5->3

Begin [Week 1, Month 4, Year 1]








[ Intelligence Network: +10 Scout (find a CP) or Explore (I8). ]
[ You are more likely to draw quest or skill/trainer opportunities this month from Exploring. ]

The two 'heads' of the band look over what's left after the workers have gotten their cut.
"There's more left than I expected." Ronja says, "Not a lot more, but I expected to give away about half and this seems more like twice what we gave the others (so, about two thirds of the total). Think I could get the rest of the materials in trade?"
Birk pulls at his shoulders as he looks it over, then says "Maybe. Probably. You'd be cutting it close though; You won't have any spare in case the price's raised. But go ahead, all the hard work's done with the mine, I can handle the rest myself. It's ours (well, kinda) for once, so there's half the usual work (no need to guard) and like I said the hard work's done - One person can easily do half the work of two."
With Ronja rolling her eyes and Birk grinning at his last comment, they head off towards their respective rooms.

Birk had been more or less right; Not much more needs to be done beyond continuing the digging.
He'll probably need to make some 'executive decisions', if someone screws up or otherwise is less than competent, but if nothing comes up the plan's just 'do what we discussed last week, and if you forgot what that was then ask me in private so you don't show everyone you're an idiot (I'll still laugh at you, though)'

The biggest obstacle for Ronja will probably be explaining where she got the trade-goods.
Malachite stuff, sure, it's not something someone like her would usually have, but it's not strange enough to raise suspicion.
But this time she'll be showing up with what essentially looks like part (or, one might say, a 'cut') of the contents of a noble's safe.
Sure, she got it mostly-legitimately (as in, she didn't own the land, sure, but if she had it'd been legitimate) but she'll just have to hope they're too hungry for the profit to accuse her of banditry.
That and getting back the funds later since they'll need a lot more money in the future, but the others are already working on that.

Name	Start	Action	Target	End	Notes
Ronja	H8	Trade	I6 (Shamerius)	H8	Bringing donkey, Intent: Buying 24 wood for 12 gold. Should also improve trade, but if not it doesn't change anything.
Birk	H8	Assist Wild Minds	G8	H8
Wild Minds	H8	Gather Resource(Gold)	G8	H8
Fairhairs	H8	Assist Wild Minds	G8	H8

As Ronja entered Shamerius, she found it bustling with life and fun.  Apparently a small fair and festival had begun in light of recent trade that had moved through the area.

Seeing Ronja's unladen donkey, merchants and townsfolk are more than happy to engage in long discussions to see you secure their goods.  Soon a few of the leading merchants work-out deals and begin to weigh coins on scales as they begin to plan for the influx of coin into their little place.

Taking a look-about, you see the orchards and gardens of Shamerius being plucked for an early harvest, with numerous and many-more rows beyond being tilled to prepare for more.

[ Ronja achieves a Significant Success in Conducting Diplomacy at Shamerius (I6)! ]
[ You gain 1 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Negotiator. ]
[ This was sufficient to raise your Attitude Status to Friendly. ]
[ Upon arrival you realize this CP had grown to Village-size since your last visit. ]
They are BUYING Iron at Reviled status.
They are SELLING Lumber at Sub-Par status.
[ If you return on subsequent visits, you may be able to recruit Elf Units. ]

[ Birk, the Wild Minds, and the Fairhairs achieve an Astounding Success in Harvesting from the Grand Gold Node (G8). ]
[ You gain 2 Leveling XP. ]
[ You gain 2 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Digger. ]
[ They return with 20 Gold. ]
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:01, Tue 03 Nov 2015.

Ronja: Negotiator 2->3 (1xp)
Wild Minds: Level 7->8, Offense 3->4
Fairhairs: Level 7->8, Defense 2->3, Digger 4->6 (1+1=2xp)
Loot: Gold 12->32
Buy 24 wood for 12 gold: Wood 6->30, Gold 32->20

Begin [Week 2, Month 4, Year 1]

CT = Crafter's Tools
Fo = Foodstuffs







[ Intelligence Network: +10 Scout (find a CP) or Explore (I8). ]
[ You are more likely to draw quest or skill/trainer opportunities this month from Exploring. ]
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:00, Tue 03 Nov 2015.

Assuming everything goes to plan, the new beds should be set up in one of the rooms meant for 'entertaining guests' away from whatever would be going on in the main hall.
Unlike the other 'renovation projects', it's not next to the 'Rift'; It's collapsed, probably from the earth-quake you'd expect to happen when a 'berg' splits, but at least there's no way to roll over in your sleep and fall into the abyss.

Having both leaders hanging around to oversee it probably won't be needed, but on the upside the lower work-load on each should mean more time to look for ways to improve their methods.
In particular, the workers are still far too reliant on having the leaders; Left to themselves, the workers end up fighting over supplies left where work needs to be done, some people working off the wrong plan (such as if they forgot a last-minute change or such), and other 'clashes'.

Name	Start	Action	Target	End	Notes
Ronja	H8	Assist Wild Minds	H8	H8	Donkey, just because.
Birk	H8	Assist Wild Minds	H8	H8
Wild Minds	H8	Construct Living Quarters	H8	H8	Intent: Building a Living Quarters, obviously. Discounts aren't that important (xp or surprise benefits would be more interesting) though still useful I suppose. Should cost 30 lumber, I think.
Fairhairs	H8	Assist Wild Minds	H8	H8

The work was arduous and painful.  Carving-out the new spaces was tedious as best.  As you direct The Fairhairs to relocate excess debris, the Wild Minds spend nearly the entire first day sifting rotted wood from good lumber.

After reviewing plans and blueprints, Ronja and Birk finally settle on a design for the Barracks that works with the existing landscape.

[ Your Usurpation succeeds in Constructing a New Barracks. ]
[ Thanks to your Scholar and Human bonuses - you gain 1 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Mason. ]
[ You saved 3 Lumber, consuming only 27 Lumber. ]

Lumber 30->3
Living Quarters accounted for
Ronja: Mason 3->4 (1xp)

Begin [Week 3, Month 4, Year 1]

CT = Crafter's Tools
Fo = Foodstuffs







[ Intelligence Network: +10 Scout (find a CP) or Explore (I8). ]
[ You are more likely to draw quest or skill/trainer opportunities this month from Exploring. ]
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:33, Wed 04 Nov 2015.

With the new beds ready but empty, Ronja heads out to get some more workers.
She (together with Birk, before he gets too busy with his own task) briefly consider trying to convince some of Shamerius' people to sign up, but even with their latest growth they still don't seem big enough to support a good pool of strong yet unemployed people.
While there is Moracku right at the base of the mountain, she still sets out for the much longer trip back up to where she hired the Fairhairs (where hopefully people will be less able to shadow her back).
This time, she should (in theory) already know at least one place to find men (the adventurer's guild she went to last time)

But while their economy is finally starting to get back on its feet, their magical pursuits have fallen quite far behind.
And the only civilized race they've found other than human or elf, are the grumpy mountain-orcs.
So while one leader heads off to hire more workers, the other (Birk) takes the twenty pseudo-bandits with their ten sets of spyglasses and goes looking for some swamp-dwellers.
After all, everyone knows goblins are the true masters of magic.
The 'spies' already have fairly good guesses as to where the biggest civilization in the area would be.

Name	Start	Action	Target	End	Notes
Ronja	H8	Conduct Diplomacy	D4(Havenin)	H8	Taking Donkey. Might also trade, if permitted, but finding workers (Ideally either Elves or Humans) is priority 1
Birk	H8	Assist Wild Minds	I8	H8
Wild Minds	H8	Scout	I8	H8	Intent: Finding a CP (Ideally Goblin and/or magic-focused) Don't forget: +10 to finding a CP there
Fairhairs	H8	Assist Wild Minds	I8	H8	If it matters, they swap their spyglasses for one of the WMs' tools, but it shouldn't matter which unit holds them.

This message was last edited by the player at 23:11, Wed 04 Nov 2015.

Finding the quaint little village of Horka was no difficult feat.  Navigating the treacherous trenches, ditches, ravines, however; proves to be quite dangerous and time-consuming.  As you enter the apparently well-guarded village, you are taken by surprise at the numerous Orcs and Goblins sharpening piles of weapons and battering shields back into shape.

Horka is a strange village, how they survive in the swamps is beyond your ken.

[ Ronja achieves a Significant Success in conducting Diplomacy with Havenin (D4). ]
[ You gain 1 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Negotiator. ]
[ You find an advanced Unit of Elves available for recruitment.  They are level 1, with 1 Skill XP. ]
[ Due to the world event, they will have 1 additional Skill XP. ]
[ Other standard Units are available. ]
They are selling Armor (Type 3) and Lumber at the Preferred (Pfd) rate.

[ Birk, the Wild Minds, and the Fairhairs achieve an Astounding Success in Scouting (I8). ]
[ You gain 2 Leveling XP. ]
[ You gain 2 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Scout or Spy. ]
[ You discover a CP:
]
Because you brought a Leader with you on your first visit, you receive a free diplomacy check.  Because your leader's race does not match with the residents of Horka (I7), the starting attitude status is Hostile.
[ You achieve a partial success in conducting Diplomacy with Horka.  This is insufficient to improve your Attitude Status. ]
[ You find an Exceptional Food Node.  It has an estimated 3 uses remaining. ]
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:58, Fri 06 Nov 2015.

Yes hire elves: Gold 20->10, Gold Upkeep 10->15, Food Upkeep 2->3
New Elves: Named 'Leaf Cloaks' since they're too lazy to name themselves, Speed F->VF, Outmanouver 0->2
Wild Minds: Level 8->9, Strength 3->4, Scout 9*->10!
Fairhairs: Level 8->9, Strength 2->3
Birk: Scout 0->1

Begin [Week 4, Month 4, Year 1]

CT = Crafter's Tools
Fo = Foodstuffs

SH = Shields
St = Stone

MW = Melee Weapons
SH = Shields
Fo = Foodstuffs
DoC = Donkey and Cart
A1 = Armor (Type 1)
A2 = Armor (Type 2)
OT = Construction Tools


SG = Spyglass



[ Intelligence Network: +10 Scout (find a CP) or Explore (I8). ]
[ You are more likely to draw quest or skill/trainer opportunities this month from Exploring. ]

[LOL to the Leaf Cloaks and the name =) ]
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:22, Thu 12 Nov 2015.

The newbies could probably use some time working with some who have been around a bit longer, to make sure they get 'integrated' rather than isolating themselves into their own circle.
Mind, it's not like anyone spends that much time working outside of their ten-man unit, but at least it'd be good to keep a single 'work-culture' in the fort.
And it just so happens that there's a job for a bunch of people at once: Getting the rest of the valuables from the mine.
There's not as much need to reinforce things anymore, as they won't bother coming back again; If it can hold for a week, it'll be fine.
At the end, they will break or yank out whatever supports are easily accessible from a safe location, see if they can get the place to collapse; No point leaving signs of an unlicensed mine.

The humans could probably have helped out somewhat too, but twenty workers all stuffed into a single cavern's probably already pushing what is safe, even if not all are working mining-duty all at once.
Instead, they can go look around the plains, see if there's some wild plants they can gather up.
A proper trip to get food can happen next month, but it wouldn't hurt to get a bit extra.
Even if they find no food, there's bound to also be plenty of scrap left by the wayside - things fallen off the back of wagons and then gone unnoticed by people who aren't the expert scouts they are and/or haven't got spyglasses to scout much more area at a time.

Name	Start	Action	Target	End	Notes
Ronja	H8	Assist Fairhairs	G8	H8	Taking the donkey
Birk	H8	Assist Fairhairs	G8	H8
Wild Minds	H8	Scout Location	F7	H8	Intent: Finding a Cache (ideally food). Swapped tools with the Fairhairs.
Fairhairs	H8	Gather Resource (Gold, Grand)	G8	H8	Swapped tools with the Wild Minds.
Leaf Cloaks	H8	Assist Fairhairs	G8	H8

Ronja and Birk team-up once-more, this time bringing the newly recruited Leaf Cloaks.  The work moves handily, despite the Leaf Cloaks' relative inexperience, they manage to throw their collective weight into the task at hand, and manage to clear a large and loose section of dirt.  The agile and flowing movements of the crew makes quick-work of sifting through the dirt to find the heavy nuggets of yellow beauty.

[ Ronja, Birk, the Fairhairs, and the Leaf Cloaks achieves an Astounding Success in Harvesting from the Grand Gold Node in (G8)! ]
[ You gain 2 Leveling XP. ]
[ You gain 2 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Digger. ]
[ You return with 25 Gold. ]

[ The Wild Minds achieves a Significant Success in Scouting (F7). ]
[ You gain 1 Leveling XP, which must be assigned to the Wild Minds. ]
[ Thanks to the Human Bonus, you gain 2 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Spy or Scout. ]
[ You discover a Medium Cache containing:
4 x Gold
2 x Foodstuffs
1 x Shields.
]
[ You discover a Normal Food Node.  It has an estimated 2 uses remaining. ]
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:47, Tue 10 Nov 2015.

Loot:
Gold 10->35->39
Food 3->5
Shields equipped to Wild Minds

Upkeep:
Gold 39->24, 24->28 (Midas)
Food 5->2

Leaf Cloaks: Level 1->3, Defense 1->2, Max Tools 1->2
Fairhairs: Digger 6->8

Wild Minds: Spy 0->2

Begin [Week 1, Month 5, Year 1]

CT = Crafter's Tools, Fo = Foodstuffs

SH = Shields, St = Stone

MW = Melee Weapons, SH = Shields, Fo = Foodstuffs, DoC = Donkey and Cart

A1 = Armor (Type 1), A2 = Armor (Type 2), OT = Construction Tools


SG = Spyglass



[ Intelligence Network:  +10% to Scouting (Find a CP) or Exploring (H7).]
[ You are more likely to find Special Opportunities. ]
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:23, Thu 12 Nov 2015.

It might have been a waste of time to send anyone out for food last time, given this week's food-run might end up bringing back more food than they've got space for.
Still, they've not got the food they'd need for another month and 'all the food they've room for' is probably plenty food for now.
What's not mentioned, because it's good manners not to talk about the scary thing when everyone's worried, is that no one wants to hang around the mountain when it's shaking like this; They've spent half a year living next to proof that earth-quakes can literally split mountains, they'd really rather not be present if that happens again elsewhere.
So Ronja grabs all twenty non-Birk elves and head out to do some cover-of-day (given a lot of swamp-dwellers are probably nocturnal) raids on the local flora and/or fauna.
Chances are nothing'll be readily edible, but as long as they butcher any animals (rather than dumping them whole into a stew or something), throw out anything that looks 'weird', and give everything a long and hot boil, it should end up fine.
Most swamps are just really wet, after all - the 'dark death-traps smelling of death and decay' style swamps, while iconic, are notable because they're rare (and generally aren't going to happen in terrain like this)

Since the task is already fairly likely to be 'too successful', the ones who can be sent elsewhere (Birk and the Wild Minds. Ronja too, technically, but someone's gotta watch the workers) are sent elsewhere.
Birk's off to see if he can find any travelers or vagabonds of useful talent along the paths to and from the elven village.
Ideally an elf (or human), to help prevent inter-group conflict, given what they've seen of the discrimination elsewhere.
It's a fairly unlikely task, since he's relying on pure fate with no reason to expect any to be around (well, perhaps not pure fate; knowing the right questions to ask and the right signs to watch for does help) but he might at least stumble across something else, if not what he's looking for.
The Wild Minds, meanwhile, are just sent out again to look for more loose valuables.
In particular, if they could track down some ruined structures or other loose stone, the fort only needs a small amount more to do some work on improving the stockpiles.

Leveling XP not applied to Wild Minds last time: Wild Minds level 9->9*

Name	Start	Action	Target	End	Notes
Ronja	H8	Assist Fairhairs	I7	H8
Birk	H8	Explore	I6	H8	Riding Donkey. Intent: Finding an Elven (or Human) Extra
Wild Minds	H8	Scout Location	H9	H8	SMS-Boosted Intent: Finding a cache, ideally stone
Fairhairs	H8	Gather Resource (Food, Exceptional)	I7	H8	[Narrator Edit: fixed]
Leaf Cloaks	H8	Assist the Fairhairs	I7	H8

This message was last edited by the GM at 23:24, Thu 12 Nov 2015.

As Birk strolled-out into the eastern forests, he remarked-upon the beauty of the excellent and fertile reaches of the trees.  Having been well-fed and nurtured by the eastern rivers; it was easy to see why many would settle and log here.

Stumbling across a large patrol of Elves, they entreat you for aid.  They are in need of some warriors to help cover a gap in their defensive perimeter, whilst their less-prepared and equipped villagers harvest and maintain the farms and orchards.

[ Ronja, the Fairhairs, and the Leaf Cloaks succeed in Harvesting from the Exceptional Food Node (I7). ]
[ You discover 8 Foodstuffs. ]

[ Birk succeeds in Exploring (I6). ]
[ You receive an interesting militia offer:
Loan 1 x Unit for 1 Week. Eliminate Upkeep of that Unit + 1 Unit of your Choice for the Month.
]

[ The Wild Minds achieves a Significant Success in Scouting (H9). ]
[ You gain 1 Leveling XP, which must be assigned to the Wild Minds. ]
[ You gain 1 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Scout or Spy. ]
[ You discover a Medium Cache:
12 x Stone
1 x Crafter's Tools.
]
[ You discover a Normal Stone Node.  It has an estimated 3 uses remaining. ]

Food 2->9, lumber dumped to make room, remaining 1 food wasted (no space)
Yes to loan: Will repeat it in next week's action post, but 'Loan away Leaf Cloaks, eliminate upkeep of them (the Leaf Cloaks) and the Wild Minds'.
Wild Minds Level 9*->10, Speed M->F Spy 2->3
Stone 8->20
Crafter's Tools equipped to the Wild Minds

Begin [Week 2, Month 5, Year 1]




[ Decide to Loan Unit or Not. ]

[ Intelligence Network:  +10% to Scouting (Find a CP) or Exploring (H7).]
[ You are more likely to find Special Opportunities. ]
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:23, Wed 18 Nov 2015.

The food that didn't fit into the proper storage had been stacked in whatever corners and hallways that weren't used at the moment.
And, predictably, they then went from there to the ground, abyss, or just underfoot of people walking around, given the mountain's still giving the occasional shake this week.
They figure if they change the shelves to be more quake-proof (mainly just adding ledges, but it does also mean they need to be sturdier and they have to account for force applied in directions other than 'towards the ground') and start actually putting everything in crates or bags (rather than leaving the 'bigger' pieces lying around because it's easier/faster) it'd help prevent this in the future.
Plus, with all the new stone, they can just straight-out build/rebuild some more stone walls to get more space.

While more workers would get the job done faster, so far the weekly scheduling has worked well, and one week's plenty even with just twelve people working.
So, the Wild Minds are sent back out on their own, to look for more goods.
This time it's to the eastern rivers; It's not entirely certain what they'll find there, but hopefully some interesting things have washed up along the shores.

Name	Start	Action	Target	End	Notes
Ronja	H8	Assist the Fairhairs	H8	H8	Donkey, I guess
Birk	H8	Assist the Fairhairs	H8	H8
Wild Minds	H8	Scout Location	J8	H8	Intent: Specify first result as a cache, ideally equipment (armor'd be great, as would ranged weapons), though gold's good too
Fairhairs	H8	Renovate Storage Room	H8	H8
Leaf Cloaks	H8	Being Lent	N/A	H8	These are being lent out, as per the special event, in order to eliminate the upkeep of them (the Leaf Cloaks) and the Wild Minds

Ronja and Birk set-about figuring-out how to make more use of the space, the mountainside being precarious as it is.  As you begin carving-out a new level to the storage room, the Fairhairs construct a series of ledges and stairs that let them easily traverse the now much-wider and higher space necessary.  Thankfully the work moves along speedily and with little difficulty.

[ Ronja, Birk, and the Fairhairs Achieves an Astounding Success in Renovating the Storage Room in (H8). ]
[ You gain 2 Leveling XP, which must be assigned to the Fairhairs. ]
[ You gain 2 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Mason. ]
[ You save 3 Stone, consuming only 7 Stone. ]

[ The Wild Minds succeeds in Scouting (J8). ]
[ You discover a Small Cache containing:
12 x Stone
4 x Gold.
]
[ You discover a Poor Food Node.  It has an estimated 1 use remaining. ]

[ The Leaf Cloaks perform militia duty.  Reducing Your Usurpation's Upkeep.  You need not pay upkeep for neither the Leaf Cloaks and the Wild Minds. ]

Fairhairs: Level 9->10 (2xp), Strength 3->4
Ronja: Mason 4->6
Stone 20->13, Storage Room lvl 1->2
Stone 13->25
Gold 28->32
Upkeep 15 gold, 3 food-> 5 gold, 1-3 food (depending on answer in OOC) Not recorded in lair (as it only applies once); I'll gamble on my memory not failing me next upkeep.

Begin [Week 3, Month 5, Year 1]




[ Intelligence Network:  +10% to Scouting (Find a CP) or Exploring (H7).]
[ You are more likely to find Special Opportunities. ]

A proper make-over to the throne room would probably take the rest of the month, but for now they're sticking with what they can do in a week; They may or may not finish the rest next week.
For example, the throne is decidedly worn, and the garish colors say more 'wannabe noble' than 'bandit queen'.
Carving away the surface wood (which has been exposed to the elements for so long) and sculpting it into a more utilitarian design, and perhaps a fresh coat of a more subdued paint-color, should help.
And while it's one of the sturdier rooms (wouldn't do to have Ronja or Birk knocked out by a falling brick) there are still plenty of cracked bricks and make-shift braces - New stones could help give it a less 'ruins'-esque look.

Given Ronja's the better architect of the two, Birk's the one sent out to the elves; The band still needs so much more space and furniture for all their plans, both of which require plenty of wood.
At least the elves seemed to finally be offering 'fair' prices, last time they were there, so getting the wood going forward shouldn't be much of a problem.

Name	Start	Action	Target	End	Notes
Ronja	H8	Assist Fairhairs	H8	H8
Birk	H8	Diplomacy (Trade)	I6	H8	Riding Donkey. Intent: Buying lumber from Shamerius
Wild Minds	H8	Scout	I7	H8	Intent: Still 'Specify first result as a cache, ideally equipment, though gold's good too'
Fairhairs	H8	Renovate Throne Room	H8	H8
Leaf Cloaks	H8	Assist Fairhairs	H8	H8

Upon entering Shamerius once more, the villagers are overly jubilant at seeing you.  Covered in dirt, and looking famished; the mayor and several villagers beg you to hear their tale of woe!
Shamerius has suffered from a hefty series of disappearances of their primary source of game.  This has left their hunters ill-practiced and prepared for alternative sources, and is leaving Shamerius dangerously short of food.  Shamerius needs some food to shore-up their storehouses to prevent famine.  Shamerius' hunters are in sore need of new bows to begin hunting again.

They are so desperate and are willing to swear an oath of fealty to you if you can help them!


[ Ronja, Fairhairs, and the Leaf Cloaks achieve a Significant Success in Renovating the Throne Room. ]
[ The Throne Room becomes Renovation Level 2 ]
[ You gain 1 Leveling XP. ]
[ You gain 1 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Mason. ]
[ You save 2 Stone, consuming only 8 Stone. ]

[ Birk achieves a Significant Success in Conducting Diplomacy with Shamerius (I6). ]
[ Birk gains 1 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Negotiator. ]
[ This is sufficient to improve Shamerius' Attitude Status to Loyal. ]
CT = Crafter's Tools, Fo = Foodstuffs

[ You receive a Quest from Shamerius:

• Name: "A Lousy Hunter"
• Type: Challenging Errand
• Mission: Shamerius has suffered from a hefty series of disappearances of their primary source of game.  This has left their hunters ill-practiced and prepared for alternative sources, and is leaving Shamerius dangerously short of food.
• Task 1: Shamerius needs some food to shore-up their storehouses to prevent famine. [Mechanics: Donate 5 x Foodstuffs.]
• Task 2: Shamerius' hunters are in sore need of new bows to begin hunting again.
• Reward: Fanatical Status with Shamerius.  4 Artisan XP.
• Duration: 4 x Weeks.

]
[ You receive an offer from an Extra:
]

[ The Wild Minds achieve a Significant Success in Scouting (I7) ]
[ You discover a Medium Cache containing:
1 x Earth Tools,
1 x Armor (Type 1),
4 Gold
]
[ You discover a Normal Stone Node.  It has an estimated 3 uses remaining. ]
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:40, Sat 05 Dec 2015.

Stone 25->17
Leaf Cloaks: Level 3->4, Offense 1->2
Ronja: Mason 6->7
Birk: Negotiator 2->3
Earth Tools equipped to the Leaf Cloaks
Armor 1 equipped to the Fairhairs
Gold 32->36

No to the extra - to be clear, and to reduce the chance of misspeakingwriting, I do not want to hire them.

Donate 5 foodstuff right now; I won't be able to complete the quest yet (need to go buy ranged weapons) but it'll free up storage: Food 9->4

Buy 36 lumber at 'Standard' 1-gold-per-3-lumber: Gold 36->23, Lumber 0->36

Begin [Week 4, Month 5, Year 1]




[ Intelligence Network:  +10% to Scouting (Find a CP) or Exploring (H7).]
[ You are more likely to find Special Opportunities. ]



This message was last edited by the GM at 17:17, Thu 26 Nov 2015.

The renovations to the throne room get put on hold, temporarily, in favor of a new project.
In the leaders' opinions, it has been far too long since they made any progress on the whole 'understanding magic' front, and their scouts really need to be able to recognize any ancient artifacts they stumble across.
But any study of such things would require specialized equipment: Exactly the kind of things they are trying to install into one of the more isolated rooms of the fort.
Half of the runes and charms they intend to hang up likely won't do anything, but with their spotty understanding it'd not be wise to skip anything, just in case.
Mostly, though, the room just needs to be sturdy enough that if an artifact explodes, it won't take the rest of the fort with it.

Recent... 'Generosity', so to speak, has left the food-stores fairly depleted.
So, any workers not busy with the new constructions join up with Birk for a hunter-gatherer trip.
There's not too much pressure, though; The food will last another month, so they can focus on getting the 'good stuff' and not sweat it if they get chased off before gathering a full load.

Name	Start	Action	Target	End	Notes
Ronja	H8	Assist Fairhairs	H8	H8
Birk	H8	Assist Wild Minds	I7	H8	With donkey
Wild Minds	H8	Gather Resource (Food)	I7	H8
Fairhairs	H8	Construct Mysterious Room	H8	H8	Unless I've messed up, base cost should be 35 lumber
Leaf Cloaks	H8	Assist Wild Minds	I7	H8

The need for understanding the magic within this region was very important.  Ronja could feel it in her breast that a change was coming, and the time to build a facility to house such energies was now.  It took Ronja two straight days to work out the diagrams from her notes and the various tomes brought-in by her Intelligence Network to piece together the perfect housing and pillars necessary to harness and channel the energies needed to discover the lands in this artifact, but, with the Fairhairs hard at working; expertly carving beams and laying the foundations the work formed into a beauteous spectacle of almost magical craftsmanship.

As the Wild Minds and the Leaf Cloaks begin to scour the stores of the well-stocked and equally abandoned food storage you had discovered, Birk begins tabulating the food and is overjoyed that thanks to your generous efforts this month - your stores will be completely stocked and full!

[ Ronja, and the Fairhairs achieve an Astounding Success in Constructing a Mysterious Room. ]
[ You gain 2 Leveling XP, which is lost. ]
[ You gain 2 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Mason. ]
[ You save 7 Lumber, consuming only 28 Lumber. ]

[ Birk, the Wild Minds, and the Leaf Cloaks somehow achieve an Astounding success in Harvesting the Exceptional Food Node in (I7) ]
[ You gain 2 Leveling XP. ]
[ You gain 2 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Forager. ]
[ You return with 15 Foodstuffs! ]
[ This node is exhausted. ]
[ Yes - you can consume the Excess Foodstuffs before 'losing' them, since it is the end of the month. ]

Do not forget (when calculating upkeep) to calculate your temporary upkeep reduction you earned.
---The Leaf Cloaks perform militia duty.  Reducing Your Usurpation's Upkeep.  You need not pay upkeep for neither the Leaf Cloaks and the Wild Minds.---
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:53, Fri 27 Nov 2015.

Ronja: Mason 7->9
Lumber 36->8
Leaf Cloaks: Level 4->6, Strength 1->2, Offense 2->3, Forager 0->2
Food 4->19, in 'limbo' until after upkeep.

Upkeep:
Midas Touch: Gold 23->27
3-2=1 unit that needs upkeep: Gold 27->22, Food 19->18
18 food fits in storage (level 2 times 10 equals 20 spots, 2 spots used for one not-full stack each of lumber and stone) so nothing is actually wasted.

Begin [Week 1, Month 6, Year 1]



[ Intelligence Network:  +10% to Scouting (Find a CP) or Exploring (I8).]
[ You are more likely to find Special Opportunities. ]



ALERT!  You receive word from your Spy Network that Mistfield (H9) has been destroyed!
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:52, Sun 29 Nov 2015.

After the usual weekly instructions, Ronja is loading most of their valuables, and a decent load of the food as well, unto the donkey.
With a decent bit of luck, there should be plenty to trade for the bows they'd been asked for.
Since it's a big place, she's taking Birk along as backup (both backup for trading, to make finding merchants easier, and in case of emergencies)

With no 'overseers' to keep them on task, it seems likely the workers (or 'workers') will end up unfocused.
But the Wild Minds have done a decent job on their own, so hopefully twenty extra pairs of legs and eyes will help them cover more ground.
The mountain-chain has shown itself rich with various rare minerals and gems so far, so they'll primarily be looking for signs of the 'high value' finds (assuming they can still remember what they'd been taught about geology)
Thirty people make for enough spare hands (especially with just the one set of spyglasses) that if they stumble across something interesting they can take the time to dig it out or the like.
But the focus should still be on finding some trade-goods, given there'd be nothing to pay the workers with otherwise.

Name	Start	Action	Target	End	Notes
Ronja	H8	Diplomacy (Trade)	G9	H8	Donkey. Intent: Buying 2 sets of ranged weapons and selling some food - amount yet to be decided.
Birk	H8	Assist Ronja	G9	H8
Wild Minds	H8	Scout Location	G8	H8	Intent: Specify first result as a Gold node. If there are any secondary finds, a 'free' cache is better than a small extra node I'd need to spend actions harvesting.
Fairhairs	H8	Assist Wild Minds	G8	H8
Leaf Cloaks	H8	Assist Wild Minds	G8	H8

After last month's sudden and drastic mood-swing among the major cities, you find it a welcome change that they are allowing strangers back into the gates once-more.  Entering the market, you are relieved to find several Elven vendors, who apparently also were in great need of plying their wares - and find a significant supply of beasts of burden and bows.

[ Ronja and Birk achieve a Significant Success in Conducting Diplomacy with Moracku (G9) ]
[ You gain 1 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Negotiator. ]
[ You encounter a single Advanced Unit available to recruit: They are level 1 with 1 Skill XP, and are available for 10 Gold.  If you choose to recruit - choose a standard race. ]
[ Donkeys and Ranged Weapons are selling at the Preferred (Pfd) Rate, this week. ]
[ They are buying Lumber at the Preferred (Pfd) Rate, this week. ]
[ All other items/resources are available at standard prices. ]

[ The Wild Minds, Fairhairs, and Leaf Cloaks achieve a Significant Success in Scouting (G8). ]
[ You gain 1 Leveling XP. ]
[ You gain 1 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Scout or Spy. ]
[ You discover an Exceptional Gold Node.  It has an estimated 3 uses remaining. ]
[ You discover a Normal Stone Node.  It has an estimated 3 uses remaining. ]
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:12, Wed 02 Dec 2015.

Ronja: Negotiator 3->4
No to the recruit.
Sell 8 lumber for 4 gold, because I can just buy more from the elves AND improve their size/trade-rate: Lumber 8->0, Gold 22->26
Buy 2 sets of Ranged Weapons: 2x9=18, Gold 26->8, ranged weapons not noted (they should be gone by next week, if I understood right)
Sell 6 food for 6 gold to free storage: Food 18->12, Gold 8->14
Two ranged sets will be donated to the elves as soon as possible, which might be immediately after buying them, but I should have the space to hold them for one 'sub-turn's worth of time if needed.

Leaf Cloaks: Level 6->7, Strength 2->3
Birk: Scout 1->2

This message was last edited by the player at 09:38, Wed 02 Dec 2015.

Begin [Week 2, Month 6, Year 1]



[ Intelligence Network:  +10% to Scouting (Find a CP) or Exploring (I8).]
[ You are more likely to find Special Opportunities. ]


You successfully complete the Quest "A Lousy Hunter" upon donating the Ranged Weapons.

You gain 12 Gold.
You gain 4 Skill XP, which must be assigned in any Harvesting Skills of your choice (provided that you meet the prerequisites.)  You may assign to whom you see fit.
Shamerius improves to Fanatical Status!  Additionally, all of your trade statuses improve by one (will be reflected in STT).  You are now capable of improving to "best" (once you reach "Favored" it will automatically improve. - which has triggered.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:54, Thu 03 Dec 2015.

If the wild-minds are to get to the competition on time next week, they can't go wandering around the country-side like usual.
Nor would it be wise to have them exhausted when they get there.
So they are set to finishing the renovation of the throne-room (supervised by Ronja, who's only just short of having mastered the art of architecture) - for the most part, there is plenty to be done with just improving what's already there (but flawed), though there should be time to add a new painting or some potted plants if they find any pots either not broken or broken into pieces large enough to fix with paint and glue.

Birk heads out with the rest to dig into the new vein.
They don't have to go far, but Birk's borrowing Ronja's donkey anyway to help with the load.
It's even closer to the local thug-Lord, if only in one direction (west), so they will have to be extra quiet.
Which will take some skill, given the task involves breaking rock apart with brute force (focused to a small impact-area using a pick and such), but if anyone can be subtle when mining it'd be twenty-one elves.
Heck, Birk's gotten all buddy-buddy with Shamerius (or at least their traders), who can at least partially hide an entire village inside a forest even while chopping enough trees to support an entire fort-restoration, so he should be able to steal some ideas from them.

Gold 14->26
Fairhairs: Digger 8->9
Leaf Cloaks: Digger 0->3

Name	Start	Action	Target	End	Notes
Ronja	H8	Support the Wild Minds	H8	H8
Birk	H8	Support the Fairhairs	G8	H8	w/Donkey
Wild Minds	H8	Renovate Throne Room	H8	H8	Should, if I did it right, cost 15-out-of-17 stone, minus discounts
Fairhairs	H8	Gather Resource (Gold)	G8	H8	Possibly H8, but that's probably a typo
Leaf Cloaks	H8	Support the Fairhairs	G8	H8

Renovating the Throne and its ensconcing room, was become more and more necessary to showcase the growing splendor of Ronja's household of bandits and ruffians, who were rapidly growing into a true and concerted force.

As Birk began to direct the others, the burlap sacks began to flow and fill with yellow, red, blue and a swirl of beautiful colors.  The gleam shone across Birk's eyes as you began counting the coins that would soon fill the coffers.

[ Ronja and the Wild Minds succeed in Renovating the Throne Room. ]
[ You successfully Renovate the Throne Room to Ren Level 3! ]
[ You save 1 Stone, consuming only 14 Stone. ]

[ Birk, the Fairhairs, and the Leaf Cloaks achieve a Significant Success in Harvesting Gold from the Exceptional Gold Node in (G8). ]
[ You gain 1 Leveling XP. ]
[ You gain 1 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Digger. ]
[ You return with 10 Gold. ]

EDIT: You recover 3 Gold from the Retroactive changes to the Throne Room.
26 -> 29
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:06, Sat 05 Dec 2015.

Gold 29->39
Stone 17->3
Leaf Cloaks: Level 7->8, Defense 2->3, Digger 3->4

Begin [Week 3, Month 6, Year 1]



[ Intelligence Network:  +10% to Scouting (Find a CP) or Exploring (I8).]
[ You are more likely to find Special Opportunities. ]

With the tournament starting soon, the Wild Minds hand over any tools the elves can carry - both to lighten their own load, not being likely to need any tools, and in case they are needed while they're away - and head off to fight for fame and fortune.

There is still plenty of treasure to be pulled from the western rocks, so Birk takes the rest of the 'workers' back that-away.
While it's not a guarantee that they'll be back after this, it'd be nice to have the option.
So they will be hammering in supports for the roof and walls still, and getting the rope equivalent of a 'railing' to hold unto to make the slippery slopes less of a hazard - besides, even when they leave, it'd be a shame if travelers slipped and broke something here. Both because he isn't heartless, and because if they are going to die anyway they might as well at least survive until they get to where the 'gang' is more likely to find their bodies (and their belongings)

Ronja's off to get another load or two of lumber from the elves.
She's curious to see if the place has grown any since last time.
At the very least it'd be interesting to see how the incompetent hunters are doing now that they've gotten a chance to recover.
By now chances are the locals both know and don't question where she gets her goods - nor why she's bought enough lumber over the months to build a small village.
Or they suspect they know, given she's still got her rather worn clothes and gear.
Mind, she still has to hide what he brings in case she's spotted by bandits or the like, but she's not had trouble before.

Name	Start	Action	Target	End	Notes
Ronja	H8	Diplomacy (Trade)	I6 (Shamerius)	H8	Bringing donkey. Intending to purchase lumber, if it matters.
Birk	H8	Assist the Fairhairs	G8	H8
Wild Minds	H8	Event Stuff	Event	Event	'On Week 3, Month 6, you may send ONE (1) Unit of your Choice to the Tournament.' These are the ones I choose. They won't return this week due to the event.
Fairhairs	H8	Gather Resource (Gold)	G8	H8
Leaf Cloaks	H8	Assist the Fairhairs	G8	H8

This message was last edited by the player at 16:35, Wed 09 Dec 2015.

The Wild Minds spend many hours preparing bundle of food, washing what clothing they have, and otherwise preparing mentally for the tournament.  They know that their participation may not only result in greater fame and renown for Ronja, but that they may acquire much needed information.

Entering Shamerius, it had been some time since your last visit; and you were surprised to see the sizable monument erected in your honor!  The young woman, girded in what appears to be heavy rags well-suited for moving among the forests; armed with a bow and sword; the visage strikes a powerful likeness.

[ Ronja succeeds in conducting Diplomacy with Shamerius (I6). ]
[ Thanks to the Scholar bonus - you gain 1 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Negotiator. ]
[ Ronja receives a Special Opportunity!  This will be a DF3 Quest.  If you complete it - your Usurpation will forever gain a Special Ability. ]

[ Birk, the Fairhairs, and the Leaf Cloaks achieve a Significant Success in Harvesting from the Exceptional Gold Node (G8). ]
[ They return with 14 Gold. ]

[ The Wild Minds depart for the tournament. ]

Doesn't sound like I have anything I can choose regarding the quest, since it's not choose-your-own-difficulty like the new Explore quests, but I do want to accept (or at least hear) it.
Ronja: Negotiator 4->5
Gold 39->53, and fixed not taking the Throne Room into account on my upkeep.
Trade 1 gold per 5 wood: Lumber 0->85, costs 17 so gold 53->36

Begin [Week 4, Month 6, Year 1]



[ Intelligence Network:  +10% to Scouting (Find a CP) or Exploring (I8).]
[ You are more likely to find Special Opportunities. ]

• Name: "Ranger's Bounty"
• Type: Challenging Charge
• Mission:  Shamerius wants you to prove your competence.  If you can, they will reward you with a fabled secret.
• Task 1 Narrative: Seek-out the Monstrous Spider in the nearby Forest
• Task 1 Mechanics: Attack Monstrous Spider in (H6) Grid.
• Task 2 Narrative: Prove your connected with the forests.
• Task 2 Mechanics:  Succeed in Harvesting at least 20 Lumber. (may require more than 1 Week.) Must be harvested to count.
• Reward: Gain a Special Ability
• Duration: 4 x Weeks.

The leaders have a lengthy discussion about whether or not to even try to 'prove' themselves to the elves.
For starters, they're not exactly the greatest woodsmen, so the idea of spending most of a month trying to gather the wood isn't too appealing.
But on the other hand, without it they've no short-term goal, and Ronja personally finds the temptation of a mysterious secret hard to resist.
It's such rotten timing too, with the humans off at the tournament; They could really use some trained scouts.

They still can't let their plans fall apart entirely, so she heads out with the more 'veteran' of the elves to get the rest of what's worth digging for in their mine.
This really will be the last week they bother going out there, so on the way back they can yank out or break any supports that aren't too sturdy or stuck - even if nothing collapses, it'll be less stable at least.
And it's not so important to be 'methodical' about their mining now; With limited time, it's better to get all the big finds and leave some more sparse areas un-dug, than try to mine everything as you find it and have to leave before getting all the good spots.

Birk, the closest the two have to a designated scout-leader, takes the leaf-cloaks out to find some good trees.
The 'spies', who likely do less spying than they do writing reports and bits of info for the scouts, have started on a tree-equivalent to their geology notes, but with so little warning it's still rather superficial.
The wood doesn't have to be good, since it's mainly for the sake of proving themselves, so a species with soft, easily-chopped wood would probably be best.

Name	Start	Action	Target	End	Notes
Ronja	H8	Assist the Fairhairs	G8	H8	With donkey.
Birk	H8	Assist the Leaf Cloaks	H6	H8
Wild Minds	H8	Event	Event	H8	Last week of the tournament
Fairhairs	H8	Gather Resource (Gold)	G8	H8
Leaf Cloaks	H8	Scout Location	H6	H8	Intent: Specify lumber with S-Suite, secondary results would ideally be an extra lumber node

[ Ronja and the Fairhairs achieve a Significant success in Harvesting from the Exceptional Gold Node (G8). ]
[ You gain 1 Leveling XP. ]
[ You gain 1 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Digger. ]
[ You return with 9 Gold. ]

[ Birk and the Leaf Cloaks achieve a Significant Success in Scouting (H6). ]
[ You gain 1 Leveling XP. ]
[ You gain 1 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Scout or Spy. ]
[ You discover an Exceptional Lumber Node!  It has an estimated 4 uses remaining. ]
[ You discover a CP:
]
Because you brought a leader on your first visit, you receive a free Diplomacy Check.  Because the race of your leader matches one of the race(s) in the CP, your starting Attitude Status is Unfriendly.
[ Birk achieves a Significant Success in conducting Diplomacy with Lastdale (H6). ]
[ This was sufficient to improve your Attitude Status to Indifferent. ]
They are BUYING Armor (Type 1), Construction Tools, and Stone.
They are SELLING Lumber, Spyglasses, and Ranged Weapons.

[ The Wild Minds return from the Tournament! ]
[ They gain 3 Leveling XP, which are wasted. ]
[ They gain 3 Skill XP, which must be assigned as a Combat Skill. ]
[ The Wild Minds took 2nd place! ]


As a result of achieving 2nd place in the Tournament, you glean some information:

Alhamandriel's Unit:

As a result of achieving 2nd place in the Tournament, you gain the following rewards:
1 x Spell of your Choice,
30 Gold.

Should have reminded me about upkeep: Almost forgot, being scatterbrained.
Pretty sure the Fairhairs' Level-XP is wasted.
Ronja: Digger 0->1
Leaf Cloaks: Level 8->9, Offense 3->4
Birk: Scout 2->3
Wild Minds: Parry 0->3

Spell: Birk gains Seer.

Gold 36->45
Gold 45->75

Upkeep:
Gold 75->63
Midas: Gold 63->67
Food 12->9

Trade:
Buy 1 RW, Gold 67->51, trade up 2 steps
Buy 1 RW, Gold 51->49, trade up 1 step, to Standard
Progress on expansion: 28/50 gold
Weapons equipped to both elves.

This message was last edited by the player at 05:51, Thu 17 Dec 2015.

Brief description of final tournament fight.

As Ronja's Wild Minds and Sylvia's 3 Tusks face-off in the tournament, tensions are high.  The last round of the tournament culminates in a battle between a rag-tag band of disheveled and unkempt Humans against a lock-step unit of heavily armored Orcs.

The Wild Minds take the initiative and attempt to cut into the formation, but find the heavy shields and disciplined wall of the 3 Tusks impossible to penetrate.  The slower, but determined Orcs steadily work in measured steps around the arena, battering against their shields with even strokes.

The fight goes on for what feels like hours.  Many spectators, so immersed in the moment, pass-out from the sun's intense heat; littering the stands as people lapse into unconsciousness from exhaustion.  Just as people were becoming bored, suddenly the 3 Tusks spot a hole in the 3 Minds dashing and dancing.  Striking fast, they land several blows which tear-apart the team.  The crowds leap back into excitement and begin cheering as the 3 Tusks steadily fell the remaining Wild Minds.

Begin [Week 1, Month 7, Year 1]



[ Intelligence Network:  +10% to Scouting (Find a CP) or Exploring (H9).]
[ [ If you Explore, you are more likely to find information about Necromancers and Magicians. ]

• Name: "Ranger's Bounty"
• Type: Challenging Charge
• Mission:  Shamerius wants you to prove your competence.  If you can, they will reward you with a fabled secret.
• Task 1 Narrative: Seek-out the Monstrous Spider in the nearby Forest
• Task 1 Mechanics: Attack Monstrous Spider in (H6) Grid.
• Task 2 Narrative: Prove your connected with the forests.
• Task 2 Mechanics:  Succeed in Harvesting at least 20 Lumber. (may require more than 1 Week.) Must be harvested to count.
• Reward: Gain a Special Ability
• Duration: 3 x Weeks.

This message was last edited by the GM at 18:09, Tue 22 Dec 2015.

The 'pen-champions', so to speak, are likely bringing back some bruises and cuts with their prize, but there's no time to lie around with the 'quest' looming.
Though at least it'll be another couple of weeks until the spider, with or without backup depending on how the lumber-harvest goes.
There's plenty workers in the other spot, so they'll have to find their own place - given they'll only work it a week or two, Birk, as the leader, is looking for 'quality' over quantity, though soft wood's still preferred (still more about the criteria than the actual lumber)
Sure, they're still so not upholding the spirit of their task, but a band of bandits are never going to be 'in tune' with anything; At best, they 'exemplify' freedom and wit, at worst selfish destruction and greed, and in all cases they are independent by (and definitely from) nature. So upholding the letter is going to have to be enough.

Ronja and the elves (not to be confused with 'Ronja and the Elf', the common way for the less attentive to refer to the leaders when they forget Birk's name) head out to get what had been found already.

Name	Start	Action	Target	End	Notes
Ronja	H8	Assist Fairhairs	H6	H8	Donkey
Birk	H8	Assist Wild Minds	G6	H8
Wild Minds	H8	Scout Location	G6	H8	Intent: Specify lumber node, secondary results preferred as cache. Spyglass grabbed from others.
Fairhairs	H8	Gather Resource (lumber)	H6	H8
Leaf Cloaks	H8	Assist Fairhairs	H6	H8

Ronja's leader proved instrumental in your attempts to harvest lumber.  It's been a hard road for the followers of Berg Fortress; but, a sudden change in the woods; possibly spurred on the by challenge of the quest, you find yourself immersed in the unending song of the wind rustling through leaves as you carefully choose and fell the choicest bits.  Stacking them onto canvas sleds, your troops are halted for a moment and feel a sudden great calm wash over them as you become confident of your completion of the quest.

[ Ronja, the Fairhairs, and the Leaf Cloaks achieve an Astounding Success in Harvesting Lumber from the Exceptional Lumber Node (H6). ]
[ You gain 1 Leveling XP, which must be assigned to the Leaf Cloaks. ]
[ You gain 1 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Woodsman. ]
[ You return with 33 Lumber. ]
[ You successfully complete Task 2 of the "Ranger's Bounty" quest! ]

[ Birk, and the Wild Minds achieve achieve a Significant Success in Scouting (G6). ]
[ You gain 1 Leveling XP, which is wasted. ]
[ You gain 1 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Scout or Spy. ]
[ Due to the world event, you discover a Grand Lumber Node.  It has an estimated 4 uses remaining. ]
[ You discover a CP:
Iron, Earth Tools, Ranged Weapons, Lumber.
]
Because you brought a Leader with you on your first visit, you receive a free diplomacy check.  Because your leader matches that of the races inhabiting the CP, your starting attitude status is Unfriendly.
[ You succeed in conducting Diplomacy with Redforest (G6).  Unfortunately this is insufficient to raise your attitude status with them. ]

Seer activates!
[ You discover a small cache containing:
12 x Lumber,
1 x Construction Tools.
]



Apologies for the lateness!  Thought we had completed your turn.  Once you get your response in - I will try to get it caught-up immediately.

Lumber 85->118, space left 5->4
Lumber 118->130, space left 4->3
Tools given to Fairhairs
Leaf Cloaks 1/2xp to lvl 10
Ronja: Woodsman 0->1
Birk: Scout 3->4

Begin [Week 2, Month 7, Year 1]



[ Intelligence Network:  +10% to Scouting (Find a CP) or Exploring (H9).]
[ [ If you Explore, you are more likely to find information about Necromancers and Magicians. ]

• Name: "Ranger's Bounty"
• Type: Challenging Charge
• Mission:  Shamerius wants you to prove your competence.  If you can, they will reward you with a fabled secret.
• Task 1 Narrative: Seek-out the Monstrous Spider in the nearby Forest
• Task 1 Mechanics: Attack Monstrous Spider in (H6) Grid.
• Task 2 Narrative: Prove your connected with the forests.
• Task 2 Mechanics:  Succeed in Harvesting at least 20 Lumber. (may require more than 1 Week.) Must be harvested to count.
• Reward: Gain a Special Ability
• Duration: 2 x Weeks.

Ending up a musical number short of an impromptu theater piece has left the mood rather strange, at least amongst the ones who went to the woods with Ronja.
But, as they say, the show must go on.

Specifically, while things might be ahead of schedule, the scouts (the Wild Minds and the increasingly-mystic Birk) can still head out to see what this 'spider' is like.
It's probably going to be fine, it's outnumbered and outmatched, but this'd be the first true 'battle' so it'd be best to take it slow.
They still don't let their guard down, mind; Just because the bug's not a problem doesn't mean there might not be other, more dangerous, beings wandering around.

The plan, or rather the improvised plan when the original plan to gather lumber wasn't needed, had been to have Ronja oversee the new constructions.
Since apparently the bandits are blessed by fate - to the continuing confusion of everybody involved - it'd be nice to have a room dedicated to people working with heavy and sharp tools.
It'd have to be one with a chimney, since they're going to need some sort of a forge - they're still not entirely sure how forges are supposed to work, but hopefully it's enough to build a heavy-duty fire-place with some bellows. It just needs to heat metal enough to soften it, after all.
Mostly, though, it'd be great to be able to process lumber into things other than smaller pieces of lumber or crude planks, and that takes space and equipment too heavy to carry around.

However, not long after Birk has left, Ronja gets bored.
The men can handle themselves; They're not that dense (actually, they've been pretty smart so far, in terms of picking up new skills, they're more dumb in the way intelligent soldiers are dumb)
And, really, they could use some edge right now; A mage, maybe even just an expert who isn't as biased as Ronja and Birk are towards their plans, or some mystical artifact.
So, donkey in tow, she sets out towards where there used to be a human hamlet with less than stellar attitudes towards the band - with any luck, there'll be someone who's claimed a house, or some powerful heirloom ignored by whatever killed the inhabitants.

Fixed: Mystical Room apparently not noted down?
Was built via Architect in [Week 4, Month 2, Year 1]

Name	Start	Action	Target	End	Notes
Ronja	H8	Explore	H9	H8	Bringing donkey, intent: Finding (information on) an artifact ideally, though mages would work too
Birk	H8	Assist Wild Minds	H6	H8
Wild Minds	H8	Scout Location	H6	H8	Intent: Getting info on the spider. I don't want to find MORE enemies, so if scouting the spider happens no matter what, I'll specify 'cache' using the Suite (otherwise, obviously, I'll specify 'enemies')
Fairhairs	H8	Construct Workshop	H8	H8	Keep in mind both've got Con-tools and Earth-tools
Leaf Cloaks	H8	Assist Fairhairs	H8	H8

Ronja traverses heavy hills of the southern parts of the region.  Vast and rolling, your feet find themselves tired and aching from the journey.  Finally settling upon a high-point, to give you proper vantage and sight around you.  After a fitful bit of sleep, you awaken to a heavy stench of foul smoke wafting across a narrow channel of hills.  Certainly no army would camp here, but you wondered all the same who would be out here.

Shambling in a haze you come across a strange man, huddled-over a series of candles, dirt-scratches, and a bizarre collection of totems and fetishes.  Seeing you, he looks-up and straightens.  Cackling he points to you and points to a book on a stack of bones.  You can scarcely control yourself, the smog clouding your senses as you approach.  You sit for what feels like hours as you watch his strange ritual...

[ Ronja achieves a Significant Success in exploring (H9) ]
[ You gain 1 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Bard. ]
[ You may select a Quest between DF2 and DF5 (inclusive). ]
[ You gain a one-time opportunity from a Necromancer:
[ Siphon the energy of one of your Units or Sacrifice one Extra of your Choice. (If a Unit, choose a number of levels to lose up to to 5. Multiply this # by 3, you gain this much Gold and this much skill XP. If this causes a Unit to be reduced below level 0, it dies.

If you sacrifice an Extra, instead: receive 1 Spell of your Choice. Then, multiply the Extra's Tier by 4: gain this much Skill XP, which you may assign as you see fit to whomever you see fit. ]
]

[ Birk and the Wild Minds achieve a Significant Success in Scouting (H6). ]
[ Thanks to the Wild Mind's Human Bonus, you gain 1 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Scout or Spy. ]

[ You succeed in conducting recon on the Monstrous Spider in (H6)

* Single Entity: Does not degrade as damage is taken.  Able to attack as if it were a Unit.
* Webbing: 1 x Enemy Unit is reduced by -1 Speed for the duration of Combat.
* Poison: Any Unit that takes damage by Monstrous Spider, receives a cumulative -2% Combat penalty each round.

It does not have weapons/armor
]
[ You discover an Exceptional Lumber Node.  It has an estimated 3 uses remaining. ]
[ Seer Activates! ]
[ You discover a two small caches containing:
You gain 1 x Crafter's Tools,
You gain 12 x Lumber,
you gain 2 Gold.
]

[ The Fairhairs and Leaf Cloaks succeed in Constructing a Workshop. ]
[ You save 4 Lumber, consuming only 36 Lumber. ]
[ You construct a Workshop! ]

Choose DF5, because I'm reckless like that, even though I could have gone with DF4 and settle for a spell (from the world-update) rather than vague artifact-info.
Ronja Bard 1->2
Drain Fairhairs 5 lvl, 10->5. Defense 3->2, Strength 4->2, Offense 4->2, 5 stats.
5x3=15gp and skill-xp
Gold 49->64
Wild Minds: Parry 3->5, Warder 0->3, total 5
Ronja: Leadership 0->10, total 10
Birk: Scout 4->5
Crafting tools installed in Workshop (space was available to store it, in case it technically has to enter the storage first)
Lumber 130->142
Lumber 142->106, free space 3->4

Begin [Week 3, Month 7, Year 1]



[ Intelligence Network:  +10% to Scouting (Find a CP) or Exploring (H9).]
[ [ If you Explore, you are more likely to find information about Necromancers and Magicians. ]

• Name: "Ranger's Bounty"
• Type: Challenging Charge
• Mission:  Shamerius wants you to prove your competence.  If you can, they will reward you with a fabled secret.
• Task 1 Narrative: Seek-out the Monstrous Spider in the nearby Forest
• Task 1 Mechanics: Attack Monstrous Spider in (H6) Grid.
• Task 2 Narrative: Prove your connected with the forests.
• Task 2 Mechanics:  Succeed in Harvesting at least 20 Lumber. (may require more than 1 Week.) Must be harvested to count.
• Reward: Gain a Special Ability
• Duration: 2 x Weeks.

• Name: "Eschew the Brew"
• Type: Audacious Charge
• Mission: A Witches coven has been stealing the incredibly difficult-to cultivate herbs and spices that is this small village's lifeblood for their vile magics! You must save the peasants from certain famine and destruction!
• Task 1 Narrative: Help stave-off famine and starvation
• Task 1 Mechanics: Acquire and Donate 12 Foodstuffs
• Task 2 Narrative: Find the Witches who started this mess!
• Task 2 Mechanics:  Scout the Witches' Coven in (J8) River Grid. (Astounding)
• Task 3 Narrative: Defeat the evil coven once and for all.
• Task 3 Mechanics:  Kill the Witches (2 x Level 1, 2 combat spells each.)
• Task 3 Narrative: Train the peasants so that they can defend themselves in the future.
• Task 4 Mechanics:  (Must be completed last) Loan a Unit(s) with a Combination of 10 levels and/or Skill Ranks (combat Skills) to the village to train their Militia. (1 week)
• Reward: Gain a Special Ability
• Duration: 5 x Weeks.

Notes: 2 and 3 must be completed in order.  Task 4 must be completed last.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:06, Wed 20 Jan 2016.

Gathering the entire thirty men (and if you want to keep your teeth in your mouth you'll never imply that a bandit is not a man - the fact they might also be women is not relevant) is, just like the scouting mission, probably excessive.
But, as she's told the men in no uncertain terms, Ronja doesn't trust them not to screw anything up if they're not watched - well, other than the Wild Minds in the specific case of scavenging on their own, but they're the most important part of the plan - She's told them this mostly in the hopes it'll encourage them to stop being so unreliable, but probably also partly just to vent some steam (they really can be annoying sometimes)
It's especially excessive given the whole deal with a necromancer stopping by with gifts of wealth and knowledge - Best not to question where the knowledge of war-strategy came from, though it's not like a necromancer leaves many possibilities.
Feels kind of strange, really, having the knowledge of a veteran general without having lead a battle before this.
Sure, they had to let him drain the elves of some strength, but they can just do some physical therapy or something - they'll be fine.

She's confident she will be able to 'wing' most of the decisions on-scene, given her new talents, but she still wants a basic plan ready beforehand.
It won't be a long trip, compared to most they make, so they'll pack light; If they spend the week there (rather than a few days there and the rest of the week recovering at the fort) it'll be because someone got wounded too badly to travel, which still leaves plenty others free to go get more supplies if needed.
Given what the scouts had found, they should expect webbing thick enough to be a problem for humanoids, and a venom that won't be immediately lethal.
While neither will be usable during the fight, too unwieldy, bringing some torches will help them deal with the webs once they've killed the beast (so they can loot in peace without getting stuck to things), and anti-venom should come in handy for anyone that gets bit but still survives until the end of battle.
There's supposedly just the one spider, so if the Wild Minds go in front and the elves stand ready to pepper it with arrows, the spider should be hit by an ambush even if it makes the first move.
Of course, ideally, no one's heard and they all squash the spider before it even wakes, but at that point they might as well start asking the heavens to rain coin down upon them given how optimistic an idea it is.

Name	Start	Action	Target	End	Notes
Ronja	H8	Assist Wild Minds	H6	H8	Bringing donkey
Birk	H8	Perform Diplomacy (Trade, Shamerius)	I6	H8	Intent: Buying food.
Wild Minds	H8	Attack Monstrous Spider	H6	H8	Warder enabled, should be 90% to work (50+2x20), with no tactics subtracted since it's a dumb spider. Intent: Specifically attacking the spider in the quest. I, of course, want the usual ranged-rounds stuff.
Fairhairs	H8	Assist Wild Minds	H6	H8
Leaf Cloaks	H8	Assist Wild Minds	H6	H8

This message was last edited by the GM at 01:48, Fri 22 Jan 2016.

Armed with the wisdom of many battles fought and lost - Ronja enters the woods carefully, arming her men with torches and lanterns to avoid being caught by surprise.  Spiders were crafty - Monstrous spiders were unbelievably so.

Finding the spider's home again took little effort; the tell-tale signs of its webs and the many burned scorch-marks from its acidic and poisonous fangs had left huge black splotches in the trees.

the Leaf Cloaks' keen ears pricked up to the sounds of small chittering and subtle shifts in the treeline.  Signaling to Ronja, she immediately began waving this way and that - getting her bandits into position.  Spiders were well-known for enjoying the taste of Elf-flesh, but the sight of the Wild Minds, pretending to be trapped in some of the outer webs was too much for its simple mind to resist and it dove onto them, launching webs with reckless abandon.

The real trap was sprung!  The Fairhairs and Leaf Cloaks pulled strings on their arrows and let fly.  As the jaws of the creature descended towards the first of the Wild Minds - two-score arrows landed and sank into the creature's thick carapace.  Losing balance it fell from its own web line and plummeted to the hard earth, little legs twitching as it let out its final death throes.


[ Ronja, the Wild Minds, the Fairhairs, and the Leaf Cloaks Obliterates the Monstrous Spider. ]
[ You gain 1 Leveling XP. ]
[ You gain 1 Skill XP, which must be assigned as a Combat Skill. ]
[ You gain 38 Gold. ]
[ You complete Task 1 of the "Ranger's Bounty" Quest! ]
[ This completes the "Ranger's Bounty" Quest! ]
[ You gain 16 Gold. ]
[ Your Usurpation gains a Special Ability!
Ranger's Harvest: Units add their Ranged Weapon's offensive bonus (including quality, if any) to Harvest-Lumber checks.
(This effect is "Global" to your Usurpation - and affects all of your Units.)
]

[ Birk achieves an Astounding Success in Conducting Diplomacy with Shamerius (I6). ]
[ You gain 2 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Negotiator. ]
[ You receive a recruitment offer from an Extra!

]

Comment: couldn't stop laughing at the physical therapy!  hahah!

Fairhairs: Level 5->6, Defense 2->3
Wild Minds: Warder 3->4 (base 90->110%)
Gold 64->102->120
Taking the reward as is.

Birk: Negotiator 3->5
Hire the extra, for now: Gold 120->110
Buy 12 food for 9 gold, Gold 110->101, food 9->21, temporarily over storage limit.
Donating 12 food to the quest, Food 21->9, Free space 4 still

EDIT: Extra upkeep added: 12->16 gold per month, with 1gp Throne Room discount.
2nd EDIT: Due to changes in the rules, my decisions were changed.

This message was last edited by the player at 00:53, Mon 25 Jan 2016.

Begin [Week 4, Month 7, Year 1]



[ Intelligence Network:  +10% to Scouting (Find a CP) or Exploring (H9).]
[ [ If you Explore, you are more likely to find information about Necromancers and Magicians. ]

• Name: "Eschew the Brew"
• Type: Audacious Charge
• Mission: A Witches coven has been stealing the incredibly difficult-to cultivate herbs and spices that is this small village's lifeblood for their vile magics! You must save the peasants from certain famine and destruction!
• Task 1 Narrative: Help stave-off famine and starvation
• Task 1 Mechanics: Acquire and Donate 12 Foodstuffs
• Task 2 Narrative: Find the Witches who started this mess!
• Task 2 Mechanics:  Scout the Witches' Coven in (J8) River Grid. (Astounding)
• Task 3 Narrative: Defeat the evil coven once and for all.
• Task 3 Mechanics:  Kill the Witches (2 x Level 1, 2 combat spells each.)
• Task 4 Narrative: Train the peasants so that they can defend themselves in the future.
• Task 4 Mechanics:  (Must be completed last) Loan a Unit(s) with a Combination of 10 levels and/or Skill Ranks (combat Skills) to the village to train their Militia. (1 week)
• Reward: Gain a Special Ability
• Duration: 5 x Weeks.

Notes: 2 and 3 must be completed in order.  Task 4 must be completed last.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:13, Sun 31 Jan 2016.

After some discussion between the leaders, Birk ends up setting out with the new 'specialist' and the increasingly-independent Wild Minds.
Finding the witches will be a rather tough task, and it's a fair chance they'll end up regretting not going all-out (or at least bringing Ronja) but Birk insisted he had a good enough shot it'd be worth trying.
From what they've heard, the witches are good enough at hiding that it would probably be pointless to search for them by asking around; No one that wasn't actively hunting them would find any useful clues.
But there might be trails, mysterious purchases, and so on that don't match up with known settlements.
This place is dangerous enough that few people are going to have a 'summer cabin' or other temporary home out in the middle of no where.
If they find any signs of humanoid life away from settlements and trade-roads, that's a good lead for finding groups that aren't well-liked.
They'll just have to hope they find the witches before accidentally uncovering a bandit-camp or such (that would get awkward, given the whole 'working for miss self-proclaimed Bandit Queen')

Making deals with mysterious, and quite probably evil, figures went amazingly well last time.
The necromancer's gone to who-knows-where, unfortunately, but Ronja figures she can find someone else willing to make morally ambiguous trades for power.
Things are getting far too... Elven around the fort, however, so for a change of scenery it's out into the swamp for her and her packmule.
Besides, the swamp seems the best place to hunt hermits with hermetic powers - hopefully some shamans will be easier to bargain with than your average wizard.

The rest of the men are set to doing something useful with all the lumber.
A lot of it isn't suited for particularly sturdy structures, given how they went for easily-chopped trees over solid ones.
But if they use the least durable wood for furniture (they especially would need beds), there should be space to fit another squad into the make-shift sleeping-area of the fort.
Some walls will need support ones they clear the load-bearing rubble away (the fact that there is still such a thing should give a hint as to how much work is left to do in the place), and it would be preferable to reinforce it further so it becomes even more shake-proof than when it was whole.
There should be enough wood for that, though.


Cornucopia removed from Birk, pretty sure he's not supposed to have that anymore.

Name	Start	Action	Target	End	Notes
Ronja	H8	Explore	H9	H8	Bringing donkey. Intent: Finding 'information about Necromancers and Magicians', ideally something I can benefit from immediately like last time (though I wouldn't mind a decent extra, ideally one with valuable skills of their own rather than a talent for training others)
Birk	H8	Assist Wild Minds	J8	H8
Wild Minds	H8	Scout	J8	H8	Intent: Finding the witches. Probably specifying 'Enemies', to do so, but if that doesn't apply in this case I'll just specify Cache (since I don't want a stone-node and don't want more enemies)
Fairhairs	H8	Construct Barracks	H8	H8
Leaf Cloaks	H8	Assist Fairhairs	H8	H8

This message was last edited by the GM at 16:51, Sat 30 Jan 2016.

As Birk and Ronja beam smiles of pride at their extraordinarily competent Wild Minds, who set out to scout the edge of the riverbed.  The river rages and crashes as it flows down, sometimes deafening Birk's highly advanced ears altogether.  You soon realize why these witches have become such a menace; the numerous caves, alcoves, small patches of trees, and other natural environment debris makes for a wondrous realm of hiding places.  However, the Wild Minds are more than up to the task and soon solve the puzzle!  After coming back to what seemed like the exact same burnt-out campfire, you soon realize it's all an illusion!  Marking the path this way and that the Wild Minds soon come across a small channel leading away from the main river.  Stepping into the ravine, you begin to smell pungent brews and aromas wafting from a tiny cave entrance just behind a dip in the river - forming a tiny waterfall.  You've find them!



[ Ronja achieves a Significant Success in Exploring (H9). ]
[ You gain 1 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Bard. ]
[ You may select a Quest between DF2 and DF5 (inclusive). ]
[ You encounter a mysterious necromancer:
Siphon the energy of one of your Units or Sacrifice one Extra of your Choice.
[*] If a Unit, choose a number of levels to lose up to to 5. Multiply this # by 3, you gain this much Gold and this much skill XP. If this causes a Unit to be reduced below level 0, it dies.
[*] If you sacrifice an Extra, instead: receive 1 Spell of your Choice. Then, multiply the Extra's Tier by 4: gain this much Skill XP, which you may assign as you see fit to whomever you see fit.
]

You forgot to mention where Ruith went this turn - so, I will assume Ruith goes with Birk and the Wild Minds.
[ Birk and the Wild Minds achieve an Astounding Success in Scouting (J8). ]
[ You gain 2 Leveling XP, which is lost immediately. ]
[ You gain 2 Skill XP, which must be assigned as Scout or Spy. ]
[ You complete Task 2 of the "Eschew the Brew" quest. ]
[ 2 x Level 2 Witches, both with +1 in Offense.  They have four spells in total: Tremendous Might, Fervor, Stalwart, and Armament. ]
[ You discover three packs of Lizardfolk wandering in (J8). ]
[ Seer Activates! )
[ You discover a Medium cache containing:]
1 x Earth Tools,
2 x Foodstuffs,
1 x Armor (Type 1)
]

[ The Fairhairs and the Leaf Cloaks succeed in Constructing a Barracks in (H8). ]
[ You save 4 Lumber, consuming only 41 Lumber. ]
[ You succeed in adding a Barracks to (H8)! ]
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:27, Sat 30 Jan 2016.

Ronja: Bard 2->3
Choose DF4 quest.
Ruith going with the scouts is correct - I had it planned, but did indeed forget to write it down. It won't matter in the long run, because:
I'll Sacrifice Ruith, for Tier 3x4=12 skill XP and a spell.
Birk: Learn Cornucopia.
Wild Minds: Warder 4->5, 12->11 xp (Base success chance 110%->130%)
Ronja: Bard 3->5, 11->9 xp, Negotiator 5->10, 9->4 xp
Fairhairs: Outmanouver 1->3, 4->2 xp, Aggressor 0->1, 2->1 xp
Leaf Cloaks: Aggressor 0->1, 1->0 xp
No gold, as far as I understand, from Extra sacrifices.
Ruith dies, so gold upkeep 16->12.

Birk: Scout 5->7
Armor put on Leaf Cloaks.
Tools put in storage, free space 4->3
Food 9->11, Free space 3->1

Lumber 106->65, stacks 6->4, free space 1->3
Barracks added: Living Rooms 3->4, empty rooms 0->1, expected base cost for next room 45->50 lumber.

This is the end of the 4th week, so I'll do upkeep even though you didn't tell me to:
Midas Touch + 3/2 other spells: Gold 101->107
Cornucopia + 3/2 other spells: HQ food 0->2, Free Space 3->1
3 units, all discounted for race: Gold 107->95, non-HQ food 11->8, Free Space 1->4

Begin [Week 1, Month 8, Year 1]



[ Intelligence Network:  +10% to Scouting (Find a CP) or Exploring (G9).]
[ If you Explore, you are more likely to find information about Architects. ]


Eschew the Brew Notes: 2 and 3 must be completed in order.  Task 4 must be completed last.

• Name: "Clumsy Beast"
• Type: Challenging Charge
• Mission: Having recently entered a nearby village. You hear a loud roar emitting from the mayor's home. The place is nearly deserted until you approach the mayor's home. You see a score of militia attempting to keep at Ogre at bay to stop it from destroying the town!
• Task 1 Narrative: You rush into the fight, but are pulled-back by some of the militia.
• Task 1 Mechanics: Conduct Diplomacy (achieve at least a success) with the townsfolk.
• Task 2 Narrative: While the militia focus on securing the exists, you deal with the threat.
• Task 2 Mechanics: Attack the Ogre (1 x Level 2 Ogre.)
• Task 3 Narrative: The Ogre left the place a mess, and the townsfolk beg your assistance in rebuilding their homes.
• Task 3 Mechanics: Loan at least 1 x Unit (Must have Mason Skill). Must have Construction Tools.
• Reward: Recruit a Unique Unit
• Duration: 5 x Weeks.

Tasks must be completed in order.

With the witches still on the loose, there's no time to go ogre-hunting.
Hopefully the place will survive a week or two on their own.

After a temporary trip back to the Fort to bring the archers, and to get ready for a more violent outing, it's back out.
Unlike the spider, these are potentially valuable as prisoners... But the men are still told to go for the kill, just don't slit anyone's throat once they're already down.
Ultimately, the spells they've apparently got just mean they're less incompetent as fighters; They can summon weapons out of nowhere, but all thirty men already have plenty of weapons, they can strengthen themselves, but they'd probably still lose an arm-wrestle with the Wild Minds, and so on.
As long as they approach the witches as though they were trained fighters, they don't seem to have any particularly 'mystical' abilities that could surprise them.
With a bit of luck, they won't have any defense against the initial hail of arrows and the bandits will just casually tie up a bunch of frail old women writing in agony.

Name	Start	Action	Target	End	Notes
Ronja	H8	Assist Wild Minds	J8	H8	Donkey
Birk	H8	Assist Wild Minds	J8	H8
Wild Minds	H8	Attack Witches	J8	H8	Warder enabled, should be 130%, minus tactics, to succeed. I'd prefer to avoid also fighting the lizardfolk, but I guess it wouldn't be a deal-breaker - I'd just have to hope they're incompetent lizards
Fairhairs	H8	Assist Wild Minds	J8	H8	Definitively want to try for extra ranged rounds, but I don't think I need to specify; It's pretty much always a good thing, and as far as I understand has no negative consequences for failure.
Leaf Cloaks	H8	Assist Wild Minds	J8	H8