SB in Dragon Pass IC-thread [Empire Builder]

Well, I've started writing the update but it appears we have a couple of Events before Fire season begins.

Boy, did you have some bad luck.

Events to follow soon for resolving. Outside of personal actions, if you wish to still change something, you can do so.

Oh dear...

Guys? We really ought to consider going with 1 magic held in reserve after all.

Well, considering what SakSak says, i would approve holding 1 magic in reserve.

The issue is, how many problems happened?

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

[/caps]

Yeah, might as well pull it out of trade and put it in reserve. That might be needed later this year. . .

Definitely hold 1 magic in reserve as I have a rather strong feeling that we are going to need it.

Ouch. Yeah, dropping Trade to keep some magic in reserve makes sense. Well, we knew we were gambling, but being between a rock and a hard place there aren't a lot of choices.

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3506833/

Rolls are in alphabetical order based on SB username.

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AceRaptor (Kevmoln Milner, Orlanth crafter)

(56)

With basics being taken care of by the clan's crafters, you focus your attention more to the high-quality crafts. Your position as Clan leader ensures you have your pick of materials, and over the season, many bars of bronze are turned to beautiful jewelry worth far more than the material they are made of. Wasting nothing, the multitude of bronze scraps left are melted together. You forge them into sharp spearheads and use stout oak to create good, balanced shafts. You finish both of them with rune-scripts intended to preserve the weapon and strengthen the shaft against blows intended to break it. On the night of full moon, you dip them in the river, then sprinkle them with earth, and finally on the new moon, cast your rune stones on them to complete the enchantments.

You are certain a good trader could sell them for a cow each.

(+1 trade good, +2 enchanted spears)

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Berzerker (Garran Kaldwell, Humakti fighter)

([27+57]/2 = 42)

See Event #1

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Brain_Caster (Hadran Orlafson, Chalana Arroy healer)

(10)

Despite your best efforts, there isn't much that can be done for many of the sick farmers. Examining them, you see their ailments are not of mundane origin but somewhat surprisingly caused by spirits. It was generally though in your clan that so far only animals had been their victims.

You do expend considerable efforts in an attempt to tire out the spirits, but treating one disease simple has the veritable curse to spawn a new one, ranging from shakes to high fever to sniffles and weakness. You do your best to help and manage to alleviate the symptoms for few, but even your exceptional skills cannot do a task requiring a team of shamans.

The only positive side is that none of the farmers are in danger of dying. The disease spirits will simply have their way with an individual for a few weeks and then leave them alone and go pester someone else.

If this is a new development from the disease spirits in the woods of your tula, or something that has simply gone unnoticed on previous years, you do not know.

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Darkandus (Ulf Hreda, Uroxi fighter)

(32)

The weaponthanes do not appreciate being dragged from their ale by a 'young hotheaded liar', as they seem to grumple about Ulf under their breaths. The small audience of carls and some cottars seem delighted by your praise of the weaponthanes, clearly believing this to be one more of Ulf's known lies or some form of sarcasm.

The weaponthanes are not appreciative of that either, seeking to slink into the shadows as the crowd begins to jeer at them and call them 'might heroes of legend' and 'certainly capable of beating Orlanth – in beer drinking'.

The training however proceeds better. Over the days, even the weaponthanes seem to sober up a little when consistently beaten in their own art of combat by said young hotheaded liar. When they leave for patrol with Garran and Ortossi, they do not seem quite as pathetic. Ulf wows to continue sparring with them when they return, and the weaponthanes reportedly flinch upon hearing this fact circulate the clan rumour mill.

Several of the carls take to the instruction better. Several had hoped to become weaponthanes, and had kept their skills at fighting sharp. Well, sharp as they can be for farmers and crafters. The 4 selected do show promise, and being instructed by one of the Ring who is also clearly capable in combat is taken to with glee. Ulf estimates a season or two more of intensive training, horses to ride, and proper armor and weapons will see them all inducted as weaponthanes and moving into the clan hall.

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DIT_grue (Tolar Gunnarson, Issaries trader)

(14)

See Event #2

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HecateGW(Astrid Hjortsdottir, Ernalda plant- and animal carer)

(1)

Spending your time on the fields, you give your advice and instructions freely. However, splitting your time with watching out for disease spirits, somewhere a comprehension between your instructions, traditions and what is actually being done is lost. The cottars manage to keep their mouth shut over what they feel is plainly wrong advice, while you become angered that your superior knowledge and position as Clan Ring member is not respected. One week into the planting, the carls finally confront you.

The argument is loud and memorable, and emboldened cottars take part in it as well. Some support your arguments, while others are against. Soon, instead of planting, two large groups of farmers spend hours upon hours shouting at each other and the argument is revisited many times over the weeks. In the end, no one remembers what they argued for or against, or even what you instructed. In the end, only a lot of time was wasted.

(-5 fields planted. - Mood for carls and cottars)

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Lilithium (Erina, Lhankor Mhyian lawspeaker)

(56)

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Vizzi (Ortossi, Orlanth Rune-magician and chaos hater)

([27+57]/2 = 42)

See Event #1

I would say accept the 10 Oxen, but trading is not my forte, would it be a bad deal?

My actions will be to enhance the men with greater speed, and perhaps if possible try to ensnare the feet of the skeletons.

What would Ortossi do? Considering his knowledge of combating Chaos?

This is bad for Astrid Hjorstdottir and the rest of the clan.

Nothing was done and the carls and cottars are more uncooperative as ever.

If possible, I would like to request the aid of Ulf Hreda and Hadran Orlafson in dealing with these pesky carls who started this problem.

In the meanwhile, I will focus the majority of my efforts towards planting the harvest and listening to what both the carls and cottars have to contribute.

This time, I will gently rebuke them if they are wrong, but offer encouragement to come back and offer better advice for how to properly plant and care for our upcoming harvests.


OOC: Would giving my advice and instructions freely without consulting what anyone else thought have contributed to the carls anger towards my character?

That depends on Ortossi

Though you both are fully aware that physical violence is effective against skeletons, and a number of weaponthanes fighting an equal number of skeletons always ends in the weaponthanes favour. The problems of skeletons come from their numbers, and the tendency of panicking among the not quite as well diciplined people have upon seeing corpses walk.

Yep. Natural 1. Not only was your entire Sea Season wasted, it was actively counter-productive.

I am not so evil as to hamper your decision regarding how much to plant wheat though. That went on as planned. You simply have less active fields this year round.

What numbers are on the patrol?

Would it be possible to use magic to calm the men, boost their willpower or some other way to make them not panic?

"The patrol of Garran, Ortossi, two weaponthanes and 5 footmen cannot retreat without first creating an opening,"

as I believe was decided earlier.

As for the magic: yes. Not to the degree of a blanket Remove Fear type effect, but rather a short-range area-type Resist: Fear, if we were to make up names for such a spell that is within your current capability. Helpful, but not fool-proof.

Ah, i am blind!

How long to cast such a spell? How long for example to cast Speed Enhancement? Or Entangle Feet? Do i have to stay stationary to cast them? How long does it take for me to recover the spells? Do they weaken me? How many spells can i cast?

Disease spirits... damn...

I must admit, I'm at a loss on what to do here. Well, actually I have a few ideas, but all of them costly and/or with no guarantee of success.

We could:

Sacrifice to Chalana Arroy, ask her to deal with this for us (problem - will cost us many cows)
Have Shamans deal with it for us (problem - where to find them, and what price will they ask?)
Ask help from our ancestors (problem - our ancestors are currently angry with us)

Hmmm.... we have a trickster, right? And magic in reserve. Perhaps he can arrange for something to send the disease spirits somewhere else? (though it must be said that as a follower of Chalana Arroy, my character can not really endorse that kind of action - it's still better than propitiating Malia though)

I'll try to think of something.

It's something you can cast probably before being beset by the skeletons. It does not weaken you - Rune Magic in this BROB functions primarily by taking time (hours, days, at times weeks) to learn, mould and prepare one-shot spells, which you release with using runestones as casting aid.

You can cast... let's say, enough spells. Almost your entire focus is on being a Rune magician. On longer combat lasting an afternoon you are likely to find yourself running dry, but on a short scirmish, not so much. Consider it an ever-increasing difficulty roll against your Magic skill, one that you literally cannot fail at early stages of battle.

You have limited maneuverability while casting spells, enought to keep some attention in the situation around you, but not enough to really want to engage in a close-range duel against someone like Garran. Think of it as penalty to dodging, and having a limited move-action.

I'm trying to not get into too sharp specifics here, for the simple reason that this is primarily about leading the Clan (as opposed to a full-blown character role play). So you do not need to go, for example here: "I cast Magic missile, then fireball", but can just state "I blast them with my magic, beginning from the one closest to me, followed by something to take care of the rest in one go."

That's why I'm trying to give more of a general idea of what you are capable of.

Oh, and once we settle the events, you can have the clan sheet for Fire season along with the general intro to it. But that might take a while, seeing as I'm going to be busy for tomorrow and probably will go to sleep pretty soon. So ponder in peace!

Alright i think i have enough for my actions then.

Ortossi Actions - Seeing the Undead approaching he quickly begins weaving his magic's in a spell of Resist: Fear, before doing such he calls out towards the men to stay calm and watch over him.

After casting the spell he will move with the men, taking time to cast some spell of enhancements and if he feels the situation needs it to blast or bind the skeletons.

So; Garran, two weaponthanes, five footmen, and Ortossi against sixteen skeletons?

Ok, we can work with this.

Garran's Actions: Lead a rapid breakthrough through the weakest part of the ring of skeletons. Once we've escaped from the encirclement, turn as a group and engage the remaining skeletons in succession. Garran will use personal spirit magic to enhance and defend himself (Bladesharp, Protect, Heal, etc.), but will not use divine magic unless he is in immediate danger of death.

(When Tolar returns, he will of course meet with the Ring to report on his trade mission and catch up on the news. He is likely to open, "I'm sure I overheard one of the carls saying [idiomatic translation: 'if it weren't for bad luck we'd have no luck at all']. Things didn't go so well here either?")

<Event (in quote tags?) that can't be quoted>

Well this isn't encouraging, but at least it's not a disaster.
[x] 15 cows for 10 oxen.
Because I expected that I'd probably have to take some loss, and going home without any oxen would make the entire trip a waste. The third option is even more extortionate, even accounting for the deferral of payment. And it looks like our poor reputation does our trade no favours.

Garran's Actions: Lead a rapid breakthrough through the weakest part of the ring of skeletons. Once we've escaped from the encirclement, turn as a group and engage the remaining skeletons in succession. Garran will use personal spirit magic to enhance and defend himself (Bladesharp, Protect, Heal, etc.), but will not use divine magic unless he is in immediate danger of death.
--
Ortossi Actions - Seeing the Undead approaching he quickly begins weaving his magic's in a spell of Resist: Fear, before doing such he calls out towards the men to stay calm and watch over him. After casting the spell he will move with the men, taking time to cast some spell of enhancements and if he feels the situation needs it to blast or bind the skeletons.
--

With Garran's sword leading the charge and Ortossi's magics keeping the few carls and cottars from panicking straight up, the groups quickly finds itself outside of the encirclement. No longer surrounded, the patrol only faces groups of two and three skeletons coming at them one after the other. With both Ortossi and Garran keeping the men fighting as a unit, the skeletons fall against them in quick succession. Most of them were cut down by Garran, a few were felled by the weaponthanes and the footmen mainly hacked to pieces the ones Ortossi ensnared with the harsh immobilising winds of Orlanth. Thanks to quick action, only receding terror and shortness of breath remain among the patrol to remind them of this encounter. The skeletons carried nothing worth taking and as there are no more of the undead creatures mobile at the moment, the patrol returns to the Teghori village to report of the dire news of what Humakt's vision meant. More skeletons are certain to rise over the passing of weeks and months.

Clan Teghori
Fire Season, 1349

Total population: 459 people
Clan lands: 212 field measures
Herds: 300 cows worth
Horses: 16
Stored food: 92 Ernalda's bushels
Tradegoods and available wealth: 8 cows worth
Magic reserve: 1
Primary Deity: Orlanth, the Storm King.

Clan mood: Desolate
Mood of carls and cottars: Desolate
Mood of weaponthanes: Doomed

The carls and cottars are technically separate social groups and castes. However the difference is both at the same time fundamental, and simple: wealth. All that separates a carl from a cottar is the possession greater number of items, greater amount of land, and owning at least some herd animals. If a carl ever looses too much of this wealth, he becomes a cottar. On the other hand, a cottar who amasses wealth and a small herd either through work, divine favour or as gifts, can become a carl.

In clans with no thralls, it is most often the cottars that do the most menial tasks, such as herding pigs or clearing wildlands into pasture. This is not out of oppression, but rather tradition and an unspoken rule of an Orlanthi society. In return, the better off carls dedicate some of their wealth and time to maintaining basic fighting equipment and associated skills, and focus more on the equally important but more difficult pursuits required to make a clan prosper. Generally speaking, the carls and cottar get along well. The cottars understand they are reliant on the carl's hunting and crafts and herds to survive. Carls understand that without the cottars, they would not have the time to pursue trading opportunities, train to become weaponthanes or priests, or focus their attentions to creative arts like crafting, or poem writing.

Every animal in a clan is owned by some individual. Majority usually belongs to the carls, but naturally priests, leaders and elders have their own herds, along with the occasional cottar. It is also not unusual for weaponthanes to own herds, these are simply left entirely to the care of carls and cottars. As such, the loss of a herd animal is not only a loss for the clan, but a loss for an individual within the clan. Conversely, gaining new animals means not only more wealth for the clan as a whole, but riches individuals within the clan. The respect given to the leaders is nowhere else more evident, than in the fact that clan members trust their animals to the protection and political decisions of the Clan Ring, to be sacrificed or traded for the good of the clan if required.

Of the three most common types of grain planted and cultivated by Orlanthi people, wheat is the most temperamental and as such, the most prized. Loosing a wheat harvest can happen with relative ease, but as a food source it is unmatched by other grains and makes for a good trading commodity as well.
Barley is not quite temperamental, and can survive conditions where wheat would die. While it is compareable in nutrition to wheat, barley is also required for animal fodder and beer. As such, part of barley harvest cannot be used to feeding people directly.
Rye is a curious plant for the Orlanthi, discovered 1200 years ago and considered almost a weed back then. While it is nutritious to the extreme once properly prepared, actual harvest sizes tend to be small and food prepared from it less tasty than wheat. Rye simply does not produce a comparable amount or quality of grain. It is however an extremely hardy plant, and night impossible to kill off by accident or lack of care. Planted and growing rye fields have been known to shrug off floods, blizzards, and even hailstorms severe enough to harm buildings, though fire of course will burn them.


Sustained herds means not slaughtering any animals that aren't old or sickly. It is normal in these circumstances to put down the animals and salvage whatever meat and products are acceptable. As such, herds that are not specifically slaughtered, tend to slowly grow in size due to offspring. This is of course barring extraordinary disasters, such as meat-rotting diseases that renders the animal all but worthless in every regard. While it is rare for entirely nomadic clans to exist, some do rely more on their herds than crops. In such clans, the herds are kept at a constant size as opposed to sustained growth, by culling grown up individuals at the rate which new ones are born. Such herds produce more food, roughly an additional 5 to 10% of the herd's value as cattle per year or 50% to double the food of sustained growth ones, but such herds do not grow without trade or raiding.

The construction and maintenance of a shrine or a temple goes beyond the simple materials they are build of. There are rites to be conducted and annual sacrifices of goods and animals to keep the area sanctified. Truly prosperous clans might sustain several Grand Temples, and a large number of shrines, but smaller clans usually only have a few shrines and a single temple dedicated to their most important Storm Tribe deity. It is not unusual for devout followers of gods to make use of a temple in another clan's tula, if their own clan lacks one to that god or goddess. Of course, other clans are not under any obligation to foreigners to use their temples, but between Orlanthi denying permission is considered bad manners.


Building a shrine costs the equal of 10 cattle, at least some of which must be cows for purification rites. Maintaining a Shrine costs 1 cow or ox, 4 cows worth of goodsand gifts, and 5 sheep every year.
Building a Temple costs the equal of 50 cattle, at least 10 of which must be actual cattle. Maintaining a Temple costs 3 cows or ox, 10 cows worth of goods and gifts, and 10 sheep every year.
Building a Grand Temple costs the equal of 100 cattle, at least 30 of which must be animal sacrifices and additional 20 must be actual cattle. Maintaining a Grand Temple costs 7 cows, 20 cows worth of goods and gifts, and 20 sheep every year.

1349

Fire Season (Summer)

Fire season, so named for the prevalent sunshine and warmth of weather, but also for the propensity of the clans to go raiding during this season. After all, crops have been planted, animals are on the pastures and during this time, a minimal group can maintain crops for short periods, without affecting the harvest. Suddenly most of the farmers find themselves with a reduced workload, and weaponthanes glamour more than usual for a chance to fight.

This is also the season that many clans fail to adequately prepare for. Being raided in turn can cause injuries or loss of cattle, and prolonged battles can tramples some of the crowing crops. Worse, an enemy timing their attack towards the end of this season can starve a clan by burning their fields. Such a brutal tactic is only rarely seen, but warlike clans have been known to exploit such to devastating effectiveness.

Clans that do not go raiding are usually seen preparing for the future, for work is never truly done. Some attempt heroquests, trusting the availability of worshippers to help them succeed. Some begin to count pastures and croplands for the future and use the available manpower to cut down forests in preparation for the next years planting season. Prosperous clans, with good food stores and plenty of wealth, may expend these in feasts and festivals or in gift-giving, knowing their fields will provide plentiful harvest not too far into the future. The more trade minded clans use the clear and good weather to speed their caravans along, or perhaps send exploration groups to study their tula or surrounding lands. After all, large tracts of Dragon Pass remain uncharted from even times before Dragonkill, and plenty can change in two centuries. The most lucky ones find relics of ages past, or discover friendly spirits holding secret knowledge. The unlucky ones are eaten, killed or found a decade later as thralls to beastmen.

For Clan Teghori, food however might be a more pressing concern. The hunters did not do all that well, managing to bring in only 2.5 bushels worth of game. The carls and cottars eye the dwindling food storages with concern rightfully estimating it will not last until harvest has properly begun.

(Oh God, I so sorry! My extended family come over to visit these past days and the computer has been acting weird again, but it's fine now.)

Seeing as Erina knows some shamanism she decides that it would be a good idea for her to confront the disease spirits with whom ever may wish to help her. Hopefully she will be able to chase them away, if not Erina will start planning the construction of a shrine to Orlanth.

No worries, these things happen