by Adam Elliott
The line was one of six similar indentations that surrounded a section of Bastion. Six equal length lines set at a 120-degree angle to the next to form a perfect hexagon.
It was a hex map.
“Just when you think Babel can’t get any nerdier.” Silver said, shaking her head.
Cayden snorted. “At least we know what the Movement statistic is for now.”
At Cayden’s direction, Roberta continued to zoom out, pulling back until the entirety of Bastion was in view. The city took up a total of sixteen hexes in a roughly rectangular shape three hexes wide and five hexes long, with a final hex sitting at the end where the keep itself was located.
“Valserys, how big would you say each of these hexes is?” Michael asked once he’d finally managed to stifle his mirth.
“Hmm.” The Elan pondered, stepping forward to lean over the edge of the frame, stroking his absurd mustache. “I will have to check the keep records to be certain, but I would venture the keep grounds themselves to be roughly three miles across.”
“Makes sense.” Silver said. “The Developer tended to use easy numbers whenever he could get away with them.”
“It’ll make for slow movement.” Michael all but ripped the words from Cayden’s tongue as he chimed in again. “If we’re assuming one point of movement per hex. Eight miles each day isn’t much more than a brisk walk.”
Cayden shook his head. “Let’s not assume.”
At this distance seeing individual units was impossible, let alone selecting them, but drawing a line around one of the city districts still provided Cayden with a list of all available soldiers. He chose one at random, then double tapped the empty plain in a hex just outside the city gates.
As before, a blue line sprung into existence, glowing brighter at the location of the soldier and dimming into non-existence as he passed. What was different was the speed. Where before the War Frame had tracked every movement of the soldier, as he marched from his post to the designated location, this time it tracked the entirety of the soldier’s travel, a mile of distance, in mere seconds.
“Did he just teleport?” Silver asked her eyes on Roberta.
It wasn’t until Cayden nodded at the Elan builder that she acknowledged the question. Apparently, she held a bit of a grudge.
“Not unless he could do so under his own power,” Roberta said. “As I explained, the War Frame only directs soldiers to-”
“Then how do you explain this?” Silver interjected, gesturing to the image before them.
Cayden had zoomed in while they had been speaking, the image now filled with the plains hex. Zerald, the lucky volunteer, stood amidst tall grass, idly looking this way and that but otherwise at full attention. He responded to further orders, walking forward, then backward, this way and that at Cayden’s direction.
“This is complex magic that I am unfamiliar with.” Roberta continued, bristling at Silver’s tone. “My best guess is that this is either a projection of what will happen upon his arrival or that there is some other function to the artifact that I am unclear on.”
“A manual from the Great Emperor would have been nice,” Cayden grumbled, tapping on the soldier once again to bring up his statistics. As expected, his movement statistic now read 7/8.
Michael chuckled at that, only to grow silent as a thought crossed his mind. “Is there an options menu?”
For an instant, Cayden rolled his eyes at the suggestion. Then the insidious nature of the idea crept upon him. It wasn’t that crazy after all, was it? This was a game, after all, and there were menus for everything else. Why not this War Frame?
Once the idea had been planted, it proved easier to find than expected. The board itself had no such function that they could find with any number of somatic gestures, but as the owner of the War Frame, Cayden’s mirror did. It was a new category under the existing options menu, one that proved initially disappointing. The majority of the options were quality of life sliders of the sort one might find on any PC game, the kind that allowed him to adjust the zoom and scroll speed of the War Frame, or to choose how quickly he needed to touch the board in order to double tap. It was only at the bottom of the menu that he found anything interesting.
Always Display End Turn Button.
He toggled the option to Yes, and a new button labeled End Turn instantly bubbled up from the fluid material of the War Frame.
“End Turn?” Silver said, her voice dripping with disdain.
Cayden shrugged. “Are you that surprised?”
Silver pondered the question, then shook her head. “No, I suppose not.”
There was one more option of note in the menu, one that Cayden flipped without a moment’s hesitation. Always Display Detailed Combat Log.
At his instruction, the long edge of the board opposite Cayden erupted as a wave of that grey material took to the air, eventually coalescing to form a window roughly three feet high and six feet long. The window shifted slightly as Cayden moved, always altering its position so that it was directly in front of him, even if it had to bump into his allies in the process.
It was empty, as he’d expected a combat log to be. Sadly, it probably wouldn’t stay that way for long.
“So what’re we thinking?” Michael asked after being forced to join Cayden on his side of the table by the combat log’s sudden appearance.
“I’m thinking we need to learn when turns end.” Cayden shrugged.
“There are probably three a day.” Silver said absently; her eyes narrowed in thought.
Michael raised a brow. “How do you figure?”
The mage’s gloved right hand reached out to indicate Zerald’s movement points. “Eight movement.” An expression of understanding dawned on Cayden’s face, but when Michael’s remained blank, she continued. “Eight miles a day is too low, as we agreed, right? Well if they refresh three times in a day, then that would be twenty-four.”
Michael continued to stare at her, somehow more confused than before her explanation. “So what?”
“One day of overland movement in Dungeons and Dragons is 24 miles,” Cayden explained.
“Oh for…” Michael threw up his hands in frustration. “Is there anything in this damn game that doesn’t have some nerdy as hell backstory?”
“Three turns.” Cayden continued, ignoring Michael. “Morning, Afternoon and Evening?”
“That was my guess.” Silver nodded. “There is probably some sort of night phase as well, but if the Developer is splitting movement the way we think he is, then you’re probably intended to rest during the evening.”
“You’re making a lot of assumptions,” Michael said, his tone still sour.
She nodded. “We’ll have to test all of it, yeah. But assuming that it is all based on some obscure geek factoid is probably the safest of the many assumptions we’re going to have to make today. Wouldn’t you agree?”
While the two continued to debate the subject, Cayden turned his attention back to the War Frame. His fingers played over the polished wood of its edge, shifting the zoom level and adjusting the positioning and rotation until Bastion alone filled the display. He selected a number of his units, twenty in total, and send them in the direction of Warrior’s Keep, then turned his attention to Roberta. “We have training weapons, right? How do I alter their equipment?”
“I am not entirely sure.” She frowned. “Perhaps the keep itself?”
“Good an idea as any.” Cayden agreed as he tapped a finger to the jagged outline of Warrior’s Keep.
A trio of new windows sprung into existence at that mere touch. One hovered above the frame itself, high enough to be out of the way, while still low enough that he didn’t have to crane his neck to see it. The other two shimmered into existence on the left and right sides of the frame itself, their edges connected to the Combat Log in a way that most reminded Cayden of an old-timey GM screen.
“Uh, thank you Roberta.” Cayden laughed.
“My pleasure Cayden.” She replied sweetl
y.
“In retrospect, it might have been better to start here.” He added, eyes scanning over the new data. The new windows contained a wealth of information, with even more seemingly hidden under minimized tabs. There was so much that Cayden found it difficult even to begin to decide where to focus, especially since so much of it lacked any context.
In the end, he settled on the top window. It was by far the smallest of the three, and the information it contained seemed simultaneously most critical, and the easiest to understand. The most important things often were.
The window consisted of a series of colored symbols, each of which rested next to a set of either one or two numbers. He’d seen similar interfaces in other games, and with that context alone what he was seeing was easy enough to understand. The small corn symbol next to the number 200, with a smaller +10 inset next to that, for example. Food. They had 200 Food, and they were producing 10 per turn. Next to that was a treasure chest overflowing with coins. Their treasury, no doubt. A beaker with only a single positive number? That would be their research. The glittering eight-pointed cross next to it was more difficult, and he couldn’t begin to guess the purpose of the Crown.
I can touch them. The thought struck Cayden like a bolt of lightning, in part, because it wasn’t his own. Imparted Knowledge, Roberta had called it. Cayden knew, instinctively, that he had only to reach out touch the display for it to expand upon the information it was giving him. So he did:
Food: 200/+10
Grand Zenni: 100/+10
Magic: 100/+10
Influence: 100/+10
Production: +10
Research: +10
Touching each resource caused a new surge of material to waft up from the table, creating a small bubble of information to describe the function of each particular resource. Food was as simple as he’d imagined it. The city needed food to support civilians and soldiers, insufficient food would cause people to leave or wound his soldiers, while a surplus would cause immigration. Grand Zenni was a measure of how much taxation was being imposed on the citizens, filling coffers that could be used in various ways to improve the city and its soldiers.
The Influence resource served as a combination of a diplomatic resource, and a morale stat. He could expend it to influence Elan and other non-player settlements to adopt his policies or do things in his favor. However, the city gained a percentage boost based on his it’s current Influence, meaning that using it to influence others made the city weaker in general.
Both Production and Research lacked a running pool of resources and were instead spent entirely each turn. Production applied to whatever buildings, items or other constructs were in the queue, while any research produced went towards discovery of the magical or scientific concepts he designated.
And then there was magic. The description was not entirely clear, but if he was reading it correctly, ambient magical energy was stored in the sleeping Warrior inside the keep itself, as a sort of magical battery. That magical power could be harnessed by casters, both Elan and Human, to fuel magical abilities far beyond their natural potential, as well as to provide a consistent source for large-scale, permanent magics, such as wards.
“Cayden, you know that when all this is over, I’m probably not going to be able to stop Luxuria if she wants to take this from you, right?” Silver said with a surprising amount of worry in her voice.
He could only laugh, raising a hand in apology as he saw the concern for him begin to morph into anger. “I appreciate the thought, but how about we burn that bridge after we survive crossing this one.” Cayden smiled. “Besides, technically I think this still belongs to Duke Elazio, correct?”
Valserys nodded grimly. “That is correct, Field Marshall.”
“There you have it. She can take it up with the Duke. We’re just squatters.”
“Mhmm.” Silver replied skeptically.
There was one more icon on the display that Cayden had yet to touch. It was a picture of an anvil set upon a red background, set far enough apart from the others to be clear that it was something other than a basic resource. The numbers 0/1 appeared next to it, and as he touched it, the map below adjusted to show a small, hilly area some three miles away from the city itself. “Roberta, what am I seeing?”
To his surprise, it was Valserys that answered. “That is the location of a collapsed mine, Field Marshall. My men scouted it just before dawn and have it currently marked off limits.”
“Monsters?” Michael asked.
“Quite a number, yes.” The soldier replied.
Cayden studied the location.“If it were to be cleared out?”
“We could set up operations once again,” Roberta said. She’d been anticipating his question, or perhaps expecting to inform him of the situation, and she came prepared with a large, dusty scroll. “I had this pulled from the Duke’s archive. Apparently, the mine contains all the necessary materials to provide for an Albieth Steel forge.”
“Needless to say, having the materials to produce our own steel would be invaluable in arming any further soldiers you might muster,” Valserys added as if he needed the explanation.
“Would we be required to clear it ourselves?” Michael wondered.
Valserys gave Michael a steady look, the professional equivalent of laughing derisively before he responded. “You have an army at your beck and call. That would seem an ill use of your time.”
“We are quite a bit stronger than the typical soldier,” Cayden said in rebuttal, bemused to find himself defending Michael of all people. “If we can spend our time and energy to keep soldiers alive, I would rather we take that opportunity.”
“Of course, Field Marshall.”
Cayden smiled. “For now, let’s send a small detachment to investigate the mine and determine the intensity of the threat.”
Valserys eyed him steadily.
“Hmm? Oh! Right.” Cayden blushed, looking back to the War Frame. Just one more thing on the list that he would need to puzzle out. How to send his units on a scouting mission.
“This would be our build queue then?” Silver asked, snapping Cayden out of his thoughts.
Her eyes were focused on the right pane of what he was calling the Keep Menu, and from what he could see, she was right on the money.
The window contained a little over a dozen individual entries, divided up among four different categories.
Unit Equipment
Elan Infantry
Elan Heavy Infantry
Elan Cavalry
Elan Archers
Elan Workers
City Development
Keep Wall Repair (3 Turns)
Inner Wall Repair (3 Turns)
Outer Wall Repair (3 Turns)
Lower Township Repair (2 Turns)
Upper Township Repair (2 Turns)
Keep Repair (1 Turn)
Territory Development
Mine
Magic
None
“The mine I get. Unit production is off limits because?” Cayden asked.
“We lack the required resources to produce weaponry. The aforementioned steel,” Valserys explained. “In addition, the city’s current population is zero, and thus, there is no one to arm or train as soldiers or laborers.”
“Thought as much.”
“Your people can have the keep repaired in a single turn?” Silver said with some measure of surprise.
Before Roberta could respond, Cayden spoke for her, gesturing to the War Frame “No. Look here.”
Keep Repair
Preliminary repairs of the keep are now underway. (1/6)
Cost: 10 Production
Influence: +5
Food Storage: +50
Housing: +25
Additional areas of the Keep will become accessible.
“Ah. Well, that explains that.” Silver nodded. “Going to have to prioritize quite a bit. Can we work on more than one thing at a time?”
“Good question. I think so.” Cayden reached
out, touching a pair of the wall repair options to highlight them. Upon touching the second, the indicator beside each flickered for a moment, then returned as a six instead of a three. “Yeah, we can, but it is splitting the labor. Useful if we’re worried about going over on something, I guess, but I can’t see much of a point otherwise.”
“If there is a limit to how many people can be working on a single project maybe?”
Roberta thought about that, then gave a slight incline of her head. “I can’t be certain regarding how it would interact with the War Frame, but diminishing returns from manpower on a worksite is certainly an issue we may contend with on larger projects.”
“What are you thinking of starting with?” Michael queried.
“Well, let’s look at the rest before we start making decisions,” Cayden replied, reaching for the list once more:
Upper Township Repair
The upper township prefers to run on a gold standard. He who has the gold sets the standard. (1/6)
Cost: 20 Production
Civilian Housing: +250
Grand Zenni: +5
Lower Township Repair
Lower in class as much as location, this district grows the backbone of any fledgling town. (1/6)
Cost: 20 Production
Civilian Housing: +250
Production: +1
Wall Repair
An unassailable position often goes unassailed. (1/5)
Cost: 30 Production
Defense Bonus: +10
Upkeep: -1 Grand Zenni
All three walls were identical in their effects and descriptions, with the deciding factor being one of location. Repairs of the outer wall would protect the entire city but were assailable from more angles. The inner wall was more easily defended but left the lower city to rot, and of course, the Keep wall would allow them to concentrate their entire force, at the cost of leaving the whole city to burn.
For Cayden, it was an easy choice, but he waited for his two compatriots to finish reading, watching each of them intently as they studied their options. Eventually, Silver was the first to speak. “The Lower Township.”
Cayden smirked. He might not get along with Silver, but their minds were all too often on the same wavelength. “Michael.”
