by Ember Lane
Yet he knew he had a timespan. War was coming to the land, and what better time to build a refuge. What better time to do Joan’s work. He just had to figure how the land worked. Could it be that he could only use the timber that the trees could grow, so the sawmill was more to do with replanting the trees, or the volume each forest in the vale produced. The land must have to be in balance, and because he was cut off from everything, he had to maintain this vale’s balance. Or, build sawmills outside of the vale…that thought skimmed his mind…
He smiled again, knowing the constraints would make it so much easier to cheat, to manipulate, and filed those thoughts away in favor of another, sprouting idea. This place, Lincoln now thought; this place right here, on the banks, between the copse and the bulrushes; this place would be his. Five, he suddenly decided. He’d build five homes along here, one for each of them—not his companions now—but one for Alexa Drey, for Pog, Brandon, and the rude girl. A lakeside hut for them, if he could ever find them, that was. Or rather, if they could ever find him.
“Lincoln?”
He turned to see his city guide, Bethe, hovering by him. She looked remarkably…futuristic. He decided that guardian more suited her role.
“Would you like me to do anything for you?” Bethe asked.
“The workers that come with the cottages; tell me, are they true inhabitants, or just…helping hands?”
“They’re simple builders, farmers, and miners, but they are no way as effective as NPCs. You will need to attract folks to live here.”
“Do you know how remote this place is?”
“I have mapped a schematic of the local area, as any guide would. You may initially end up with an imbalance of elves and dwarves. Mantilees are fairly common in the forests beyond the western caves, other than that. There is a…pull…once a cottage is built and empty. They will come, eventually.”
“So, to get things done, I’ll have to rely on the workers.”
Bethe looked back toward the half-built cottage. “It would certainly get things built…correctly.”
“Tell me, when they build a cottage, what order do they do it in?”
“Walls, roof, windows, and then door. Why?”
“Just a thought.” Lincoln sprang up and walked back to the site of his settlement.
“Ho Grimble! Ho Ozmic!” he called, as he approached.
They had managed to get two sets of four logs on top of each other in an L-shape. Not bad for an hour or so, but the allotted day looked like a distant target to Lincoln.
“What?” Ozmic growled.
“I want to try something.” He leaned in and told Ozmic and Grimble his plan. Two hours later they had a building consisting of two walls just over a foot high, and a front door hung in a frame. They all stood back.
“What now?” Ozmic asked.
“Well, if I’m not mistaken…”
Congratulations! You have just completed a level 1 cottage. You are awarded 10 XP and allotted 10 settlement workers. You can now house 10 folks. Increase to level 2 to increase the cottage’s capacity. You are rewarded 500 iron.
Ten workers appeared out of thin air. Like Bethe, they were copper in color, but unlike her they were featureless: just head, arms, legs and a torso. They immediately started completing the cottage properly.
“Bethe.”
“Yes, Lincoln,” she answered stiffly.
“I’d like to make another cottage.”
“Yes, Lincoln.”
“Oh, and Bethe.”
“Yes, Lincoln.”
“It’s not cheating, it’s just a shortcut.”
“Yes, Lincoln. Anything else?”
“Nope.” He turned to the dwarves. “Let’s build another front door.” This time, they had it done in under an hour.
Congratulations! You have just completed a level 1 cottage. You are awarded 10 XP and 10 settlement workers. You can now house 10 folks. Increase to level 2 to increase the cottage’s capacity. You are rewarded 500 iron.
“Bethe?”
“Yes, Lincoln.”
“I’d like to build another cottage.”
Once they had six cottages being rebuilt, Lincoln decided they needed a rest. They consisted of him and the dwarves. Aezal and Crags had returned a little while ago and watched in awe as the workers set about the cottages. Sitting, Lincoln had time to think things through a little further. He lit his pipe and wished he had some more ale. Unfortunately, they’d only traveled with the bare bones.
“Bethe?”
“Yes, Lincoln.”
“What do I need to build a sawmill?”
“One hundred food, 100 lumber, 250 stone, 300 iron. I have some plots allotted that would be perfect. Would you like to inspect them?”
“I trust you. How many workers? By my calculations we have thirty spare. It was five to build a cottage and not ten, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. It costs five to construct a sawmill, and two to keep it functioning, but you can replace them as soon as you have settlers available. Do you wish to know the last thing that gets built to cheat again?”
“Will it produce lumber before it’s complete?”
“No.”
“Then there’s no benefit. Divert fifteen workers to build three sawmills, please.”
“It will be done. You have fifteen workers spare.”
“Quarries?”
“One hundred and eighty food, 500 lumber, 150 stone and 400 iron. Five workers, two to keep it maintained. I have plots allotted.”
“Two, please.”
“It will be done. Mines?”
“Can I afford one?”
“Two hundred and ten food, 600 lumber, 500 stone, 200 iron, and yes. At level 1 the rewards outstrip the cost, so yes, but you will lose 2 workers again.”
“Fine, do it.”
“Can I help you with anything else?”
“No, and sorry about the cheating.”
Bethe held his gaze. “No you’re not, and it was quite inventive.”
“Do you know any other shortcuts?” Lincoln asked.
“I’m a guide, and I can only tell you the rules.”
“Bethe,” Aezal called.
“Yes, Aezal.”
“Do we get more workers if we upgrade the cottages?”
“No.”
“But we’ll get them if we build another ten cottages.”
“Yes, but you haven’t got the population.”
Lincoln grinned at Aezal. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“If you’re thinking we build a bunch of level 1 cottages and just leave them be until we’re done with the workers, then yes, that’s what I’m thinking, but not tonight, eh? Tomorrow we’ll have a cottage each and one spare for any who happen along.” Aezal sat back while Crags put some more logs on the fire.
“Folks’ll have a hard job finding that fissure, let alone climbing through it,” Ozmic muttered. The dwarf’s Mohican had flopped down and was now just a mess of mauve hair.
“We’ll get our worker friends to make it a bit easier,” Lincoln said. “Bethe, is there another way in and out of here?”
“There is a route under the ridge nearly opposite the fissure.”
“We’ll check it out tomorrow,” Grimble yawned as he said it. “You think it’ll rain tonight?”
Aezal snorted. “Nah, we’ll be okay.”
“Good,” said Lincoln. “I’m too tired to move.”
One by one, they all fell asleep.
The heavens opened two hours later.
13
Expansion
Lincoln woke, Aezal standing over him.
“Time to train.”
Looking around, Lincoln saw it was barely dawn. “Really? Now? After yesterday?”
“There will never be a good time: you’re about to build a settlement, about to become a leader, a politician, a teacher, and a warlord. Tell me, what spare time will you have?”
Lincoln pushed himself up, his bones actually aching. Aezal imm
ediately steered him away from the site of the settlement and into a hollow, small hillocks all around.
“Here,” he said, and set his sack down, retrieving a pair of staffs. He threw one at Lincoln. “Sooner we get this done, the sooner you can play with your village.” He swung his staff, and he knocked Lincoln from his feet.
As the sun finally blinked over the eastern ridge, a sweaty, rejuvenated Lincoln finally set eyes on his newly built cottages. The six were evenly spaced along the lake’s bank, with enough room around each to upgrade.
They were simple affairs, but easily big enough to accommodate ten. He'd decided that he would improve them to level 2 the minute he had spare resources and labor. He wanted each to have a stone hearth more than anything, and a welcome fire to come home to. They had done it in under the allotted day, but then they had benefited from having extra workers on it from the start. With that in mind, Lincoln dispatched ten of the workers to go and help bring the sawmills, quarries, and the mines up to scratch faster.
Calling Bethe over, he walked to the river and along to its narrowest point.
“I want to build a bridge over the river. Can the workers do it?”
“A simple bridge? For a cart?”
“Yes.”
A prompt flashed up in Lincoln’s mind.
Bridge—cost: Food 200, lumber 1000, stone 500, iron 100. 5 workers 2 days. Do you wish to proceed? Y/N
Lincoln accepted, and the remaining workers walked over; the materials appearing soon after.
“You will have to build a warehouse soon. You only have a limited time where I can hold the settlements resources, though each mill, mine, quarry, and farm can store some,” Bethe told him.
“A day or two?” Lincoln asked, and Bethe told him yes.
Aezal and Crags had stoked the fire and were now cooking up a pot of broth while Grimble and Ozmic were fighting over the identical huts, each one wanting the one the other had claimed, and then changing their minds as soon as they swapped. Lincoln ambled over, but only once he’d watched the workers wading across the river, tying down a rope from bank to bank—the beginnings of a temporary crossing. Bethe was hovering by.
“Bethe,” he said, noticing her floating along beside him. “The sawmills. Tell me; how do they collect the wood?”
“A level 1 sawmill will use about a tree every ten days, so it requires an area that can sustain that production. With the amount of forests in the surrounding vale, you will only be able to have five high-level mills, unfortunately, the forest beyond the ridge could support countless sawmills, but it is outside your settlement’s range. Had you formed your settlement close to the edge, then you could have utilized it.”
“And that?” Lincoln asked, pointing at the mountain.
“You are favored with near limitless stone and iron. Should you be able to divine mineral seams, you may also build specialized mines.”
“But lumber will be an issue?”
“Yes, for higher-level buildings.”
“The workers. Tell me; they can do near enough anything, is that correct?”
“If you can imagine it, they can build it. What are you thinking?”
Lincoln imagined the fissure, and then widened it slightly and formed even, but still testing steps. Then he imagined all the chiseled stone laid out in pathways between the cottages and leading toward the bridge. After, he imagined the surplus piled up to one side of the bridge.
“That is some task,” Bethe said.
“But can it be done?”
“Not at present. You would need fifty workers for ten days. That would cost ten thousand food. You would also need four hundred lumber and fifty iron to make the carts, barrows and chutes needed for such a task.”
Lincoln whistled, but did the math. Each worker munched through about twenty food a day while laboring. “How much food does a level 1 farm produce?”
“One hundred per hour. What are you thinking?”
Lincoln sat next to Aezal, who passed him a bowl of broth. “I’m thinking, I need some more front doors built and a few farms. That’s what I’m thinking.”
He took a spoonful of broth and slurped it down.
“And the warehouse?” he asked Bethe.
“One hundred food, 1500 lumber, 1000 stone and 300 iron.”
“Fine,” said Lincoln.
“We getting us a warehouse?” Aezal asked.
Lincoln nodded. “The ability to conjure workers nearly at will is a fault in the ga…in the land’s set up, but, it’s not that critical. Normally you wouldn’t need loads of workers, so I doubt many if any would exploit it. For us, its crucial. We need ways in and out of this place, and apart from food, with spare workers we can get it done a whole lot quicker. In short, Aezal, we need food. Plus, winter’s coming, and we five will starve without storage. Somehow, I think this little slither of luck we had manipulating the cottage build might just save our lives if winter is harsh.”
Aezal grunted. “Are you normally lucky? Because I can’t see that attribute bump you seem to keep getting giving you as much good fortune as you seem to attract. Winters here will be dreary, but not harsh. South, you get it worse. Here, just more rain, a bit of sleet, and a touch of snow.”
“So nothing that would stop us?”
“Not for more than a few days.” Aezal took Lincoln’s bowl, and so Lincoln took out his pipe. He was running low on the smoking leaf that Aezal had given him, so he just partly filled his pot. Lighting it, he mulled over his progress. In a day, it was beyond his dreams. Lumber, though, he couldn’t afford lumber to be an issue. Building low-level buildings was usually relatively painless, but once you got higher…
“Bethe,” he muttered.
“Yes, Lincoln.”
“Can I have more than one city?”
“Of course. You can build an army and take as many cities, villages, and hamlets as you wish. However, once you take ownership of a settlement, you are responsible for its moral, defense, and maintenance.”
“No,” Lincoln said. “You’re missing the point. Can I found another city?”
“You are only allotted one city token. You can only found a city with a token,” Bethe told him.
Aezal looked confused. His forehead furrowed in confusion. “Where are you going with this?”
Lincoln hovered his hand over his sack and snatched Alexa Drey’s token out. He turned his fist over and opened his fingers. “What if I’ve got two?” he said.
He knew he was overstepping his silent promise to Alexa to keep her beginner’s pack safe, but now he reasoned that the greater good might come in to play. Plus, the token was fading in value the longer it remained dormant. With everyone growing in the game, if Alexa were to use the token in, say, a year’s time, then she’d be so far behind everyone else that the token would be near enough worthless. At least this way, he could build her something of worth. He could build her a city, while she struggled to recover from what would almost certainly be a desperate start. With a thriving pair of cities, he could send out scouts to find her, to find Pog, possibly even the others.
Joan was clearly mulling Lincoln’s revelation over. “With two, you’d have two guides, two cities that your attribute points would affect. You’d have to be in the city to instruct the build to take advantage of your politic attribute points—which you haven’t allotted yet, by the way.” Bethe was rambling now, as though she was actually quite excited by the possibilities, but Lincoln held his hand up to stop her.
“But is it possible?” he asked.
“I have searched all the rules and guidelines, and I can’t see why not. We will only know when you try and use it.”
Lincoln nodded. “Good enough.”
“So,” said Crags, all of a sudden. “What are we up to today?”
“Mischief,” Lincoln said. “First, we’re all going to get wet.”
“I’m still wet from the night,” Ozmic moaned.
“Then you won’t feel it. We’re crossing the river using their
rope.” Lincoln tapped out his pot and jumped up. “Are we all ready?” he asked. Now his optimism was in overdrive. Now his way was certain.
The workers had already fashioned a rope bridge across the river, so they didn’t need to wade through the river, much to everyone’s relief, and once they’d all crossed, Lincoln told Bethe he wanted to build six cottages. Ozmic and Grimble got straight on with the job of building the doors. Lincoln then instructed her to build five level 1 farms on that side of the river, and divert any spare workers to upgrade the existing sawmills to level 2. He worked out that he was okay for all resources apart from food in the short term. Once that was all done, he asked Bethe to show him the other way into the vale, and asked Ozmic and Grimble to keep an eye on the place.
Initially, the dwarves weren’t too happy about being left behind, but once Lincoln told them that the three of them would explore the mountain the day after, they soon puffed out their chests and got on with the job of hanging a door on a partly built wall.
Bethe said she’d escort Lincoln, Aezal, and Crags to the cave that led through the western ridge. The lay of the land on the other side of the river was a near mirror image of the eastern side of the vale; intermixed patches of grassland, forests, bushy thickets, hillocks, hollows, and streams. Lincoln couldn’t shake the damp from his cloths as he hiked toward the red ridge, nor could he shake the feeling that he was being watched. They didn’t stop until midday though, and by that time, Lincoln was near certain they were being followed.
“You feel it?” Aezal asked.
“Sure do,” Lincoln replied. “Bethe, who’s likely to already live here?”
