SB in Dragon Pass [Empire Builder]

Do take note that the event isn't the only item on the agenda. Spring has come, and with it annual clam magic allocation and planting in addition to everything else.

At least 1 magic should be allocated to herds, IMHO, to increase our wealth. We should also consider clearing away some forests increasing the size of our croplands.

We don't have enough people for that unfortunately, we should put magic into healing the sick, providing more bountiful harvests and having more children I think.

Cattle are wealth. Even if we don't keep them, we can still trade them. And our herds do not appear to be particularly large by any standard, rather the opposite in fact.

I'm afraid I'm absolutely against putting magic into raising fertility. Children are not economically productive for at least 1 1/2 decades, and our clan is already poor. We don't want a population explosion at this point. And we already have almost as many children as we have adults.

What we need to do to raise our manpower isn't to make more children, it's to make sure the ones we have live to reach adulthood. And we need to avoid losing adults.

I would usually agree with putting magic into the harvest, but I'm not sure it's necessary this year... on the other hand, grain can be stored for a reasonably long time, and having a reserve certainly won't hurt. Alright, let's put at least 1 magic into crops.

We should do something to appease our ancestors. And we should focus heavily on upping our food supply, tats one area where consequences are still beyond dire.
As for the Clan magic i would say:
- 1 Crop
- 1 Herd
- 1 Trade

- 1 Reserve.

With four magic available, we of course need one each to protect our crops and herds. The last two need to be carefully assigned: the three most important uses I can see for them are Trade, Travel & Exploration, and keeping one in reserve, just in case.

I agree that we need to do something fairly significant about the disapproval of our ancestors. It appears that merely behaving in appropriate ways is not enough for them, so we'll need sacrifices and probably a shrine.

At this point, the primary limitation on achieving a stable food supply is our manpower. We need more people, faster than children can grow to adulthood. We put off seeking immigrants last year because of the food shortage, but this is a Catch-22 situation: we need more people to grow enough food so that we can recruit more people. We'll need to trade for food this year anyway, so shouldn't we try to attract more farmers before next year's planting?

Actually, to clear a misconception:
The ancestors are angry because the entire Clan Ring was replaced in one go with you young people. A move that was highly unconventional by the former leaders. That you managed to increase you clan's wealth and conditions was looked upon favourably. That you struck a deal with a dragonkin when your ancestors in Heortland wanted nothing to do with them either way or another (In clan history, you chose not to be involved in Dragonkill)

Had your history been about attacking the dragons, the ancestors would have been royally pissed about you helping one. Now, they were simply angry.

Agreed. And yes, we should do something about those angry ancestors.

So, our agenda so far:

Magic: - 1 Crop - 1 Herd - 1 Trade - Reserve
Agriculture: Plant mostly wheat, for maximal crop yield.
Herds: Sustained growth.
Trade: Send a trade caravan with the 5 cottars and 8 cows worth of goods for their stay and for sacrifices to the Hillhaven clan. Try to trade while we're at it, and perhaps procure a few horses for our weaponthanes-to-be. (Or do we already have enough horses?)
Ransom the two weaponthanes we captured.

From the IC thread.

Well, you had. But your character is now turning 20 years old and has something of a rep among the carls and cottars do to the backstory you wrote: "Partly because he was looking for a way of making a living that wouldn't jostle his arm, but largely because he'd spent years trying to talk his way out of doing chores or any work at all, he has developed his skills of persuasion and bargaining to a fine art. Unfortunately, no-one likes being fleeced at market, and in a very physical, warrior-centric culture his lack of such skills fails to inspire respect."

+ clan's past hardships. You weren't exactly the largest help even in basic day to day tasks during a time when the clan was seriously strugging to keep it together.

So, poor roll, overall circumstances simply did not help and past rep. But also, the younger generation did like your stories and visits (as I wrote in the update), because they haven't yet heard a large portion of the historical stories and general myths, and they do not remember you as the snot-nosed brat who weasels out of almost everything.

Looks good generally (and no, we don't have enough horses, that's the main reason they aren't already weaponthanes).

I was just thinking about a shrine to the ancestors again, and that led to the proposal of a shrine to Ernalda, which led to the excellent luck we've had both years so far in our crop omens. Maybe we need a thanksgiving sacrifice to her, rather than a request for even more fortune?

The only other issue is whether we want to make a try for the challenge of securing a Treasure?

I'll leave that to the other Ring members to decide. While it would be nice to have a treasure, raiding for one is not an option at the moment, and neither is heroquesting - trading might be though.

Any trade to get a treasure is probably going to be very costly (although that depends on the exact treasure), as such its unlikely its worth trying to attain it due to our current situation.

So, should I go for making trade goods or more (and better) enchanted weapons and armor? Or continue to improve my skills?

Sounds about right.

As for my character, she will probably be focused on dealing with both the harvest and keeping watch over the animals.

In regards to the pasture alert system, I was wondering if anyone had any advice to possibly improve it.

I think that we have come to a point that we might see diminishing returns on your improvement of skills due to a lack of better materials and tools readily available at the moment.

Personally, I would suggest more trade goods if only to help with our financial standings and possibly status among the other clans.

Hm, true enough, need iron or above for my most (currently) advanced enchantments.

Trade goods I guess.

Hm, SakSak, how hard would it be to make several enchanted trade goods with basic enchantments like making them more durable and stuff to sell?

Not too hard. But utility and value of such would be limited. While Orlanthi societies are far removed from capitalism, they do understand wear and tear, and have an instinctual if primitive notion regarding the time-value of money (thanks to a large portion of any clan's wealth being in actual cows). Almost no one will buy a set of enchanted goods that last for 20 years for double the price, if unenchanted ones last 9-11. And no one will care, if their piece of jewelry will last for a 100 years. It is slightly different with tools that people's lives depend upon (such as weapons), but even there the weapon would need to be really awesome to garner anything beyond triple-to quadruple the normal price.

To create noticeably more profit that way, you'd first have to create a demand for enchanted but otherwise mundane tradegoods. Not an impossibility, mind you.

Hm, well this turn/season, I'll make more sets of enchanted weapons and armor to improve our forces, we may not have numerous troops, but we are damn well going to give them as many enchanted weapons and armor as we can.

Okay, well... Kind of hate to do this, but...

Berzerker, you have not posted anything since the revival and were missing posts even before that. You now 24h to confirm your continuation and greater activity in this RP. If nothing is heard of you, you're out, and the RP will continue without you.