by Eric Ugland
Beyond the longhouse was a large tent next to a nice wagon, with a small paddock out behind where a few horses happily munched on some grass. The Northwoods flag flapped gaily in the breeze.
We needed a flag.
“We need a flag,” I said.
“Strangely,” Nikolai countered, “I feel there are more pressing matters.”
Nikolai continued walking towards the cliff face, but further west of both the town and the tunnel. I saw a distinct lack of activity taking place — all three of our wizards sat at a rough-hewn table next to an opening in the wall, Lee leaned against the wall.
“The prodigal one returns,” Lee said, getting to his feet.
“Yeah yeah,” I said. “I had things I had to do.”
“He was playing with wyrms,” Nikolai said.
Lee frowned, but the wizards were suitably impressed.
“Worms?” Lee asked.
“Let’s talk treasury,” I said.
“I think we should,” Essie replied. “I have a few ideas about that topic.”
“We need to talk housing,” Lee countered. “We need our people to be comfortable in order to work the hours we need them to work.”
“Respectfully,” Nikolai said, holding up his hand, “I disagree. Security is paramount, and whether that’s a wall or something else—”
Lee shook his head. “Security is housing. Housing is security.”
“We have housing, and it isn’t secure,” I said.
“The housing we have is embarrassing,” Lee snapped.
“So is our security,” Nikolai said.
“Hey,” I said loudly, “let’s hold off a minute and stop putting other ideas down. There’s a lot that needs to happen. I wanted to talk about the treasury but perhaps that’s not the most germane idea at the present. I guess there are other needs that are more pressing. I know I’ve been away and I should have been focusing on things here and I guess I mucked that up, but we do have coin again, so that’s step one. Nikolai, get together with Lee and figure out what supplies we need and where we can buy them. As far as construction priorities, let me think on this tonight, and we will convene tomorrow morning.”
“Tarry not, my lord,” Nikolai said. “The well finishes tomorrow, yes?”
Mercy nodded, and Essie replied, “Yes.”
“So we will have workers ready and available.”
“There are many unanswered questions here,” Lee said. “I don’t think—”
I raised a hand up. “I know. Trust me, I’ve got plenty of questions myself. But there are, uh, new things I need to figure out before, you know, we make any decisions.”
“He claimed the land,” Nikolai said.
Again, Lee was non-plussed, but the natives of Vuldranni seemed impressed.
“That would change things,” Essie said.
“I’m lost,” Lee said.
“Nikolai will fill you in,” I said. “I need to go for a walk and check some of this stuff out.”
Chapter Three
I headed to the woods. Which, you know, meant walking about 10 feet.
Boom.
Trees.
Everywhere.
I itched to pull out an axe and pull a Bunyan on the motherfuckers. But I didn’t. Instead, I found a nice big tree with a smooth trunk, sat down at its base, and leaned against it.
Then I closed my eyes and thought about menus. Notifications and tables and shit.
My character sheet came up in a heartbeat, and I took a look at it.
Montana - Lvl 24 Burgmann
Traits
Race: Royal Fallen
Height: 6’5”
Weight: 410 lbs
Eye Color: Hazel
Hair Color: Blonde
Renown: 175 - Some appreciate what you have done for them.
Statistics
HP: 429
STAM: n/a
MP: 636
Armor: +0 (none)
Active Effects: Frightful Presence
Attributes
Strength: 101
Agility: 36
Dexterity: 36
Constitution: 65
Wisdom: 24
Intelligence: 20
Charisma: 32
Luck: 34
Unassigned points: 0
Skills
Riding - improvised (Lvl 1)
Falling (Lvl 3)
Animal Handling (Lvl 5)
Harvesting (Lvl 5)
Swords (Lvl 22)
Spears (Lvl 39)
Unarmed Combat (Lvl 11)
Axes (Lvl 22)
Large Weapon Throwing (Lvl 28)
Warhammers (Lvl 25)
Light Armor (Lvl 5)
Heavy Armor (Lvl 8)
Stealth (Lvl 5)
Improvised Weaponry (Lvl 5)
Swimming (Lvl 16)
Fishing (Lvl 5)
Carving (Lvl 6)
Crafting (Lvl 5)
Wooden Weapon-Making (Lvl 1)
Intimidation (Lvl 10)
Detect Traps (Lvl 45)
Lumberjack (Lvl 15)
Tracking (Lvl 9)
Shields (Lvl 25)
Abilities
Darkvision
The Sword of My Enemy is My Sword
Iron Will
Make An Entrance
Stand Tall
Regal Bearing
Rallying Cry
Art of Movement
Labyrinthine Recall
Detect Mimic
Indomitable
Swift Tracker
Veritasium
Detect Metals and Minerals
Tremorsense
Boons
Powerful Build (Mister Paul)
Regeneration (Mister Paul)
Gift of Gab (Mister Paul)
Monstrous Companion (Typhon)
Indicium
Coggeshall Heraldic Achievement (incomplete) - You are granted permission to enter family buildings, granted permission to access family funds, and granted permission to use the family name.
Eona’s Blessing of the Spear - Eona blesses you with +10 spear, +7 swimming, +5 fishing, +10% movement in water, +3 Agility
Indicium of Imperial Prerogative: Magic - You are permitted to perform magic within the Empire of Glaton
Royal - You are identified as being of Royal Blood, and gain the abilities Stand Tall and Regal Bearing
Dungeon of the Ancients Indicium - You gain the following skills and/or abilities: Duelist, Labyrinthine Recall, Detect Mimic 20 ft, Indomitable, Detect Traps +45 levels, Swift Tracker, Veritasium, and Endure Destruction.
Slayer - As a living embodiment of death, know that you cause Frightful Presence. Your enemies now have a chance to be frightened when they are aware of you.
Typhon’s Mark of the Beast - Typhon blesses you with +10 intimidation, tremorsense, labyrinthine recall, and +5 Strength.
Titles
Duke of Coggeshall
Duchal heir of Old Lattimoore
Count of Duhamel
Count of Helgand
Count of Dunnismeer
Relationships
Rumib Pass (destroyed) - Liked
Osterstadt - Distrusted
Languages
Goblin
Imperial Common
Mahrduhmese
Dark Goblin
Spells
Lifeform Identification (Lvl 1)
Heal Other (lvl 3)
Humus (lvl 1)
Identify Object (Lvl 3)
Tame - Greater (Lvl 1)
There was a lot of information to parse through. Also, a notification popped up as I looked over my attributes.
CONGRATULATIONS. You are the first being in this era to reach over 100 in strength. Due to this momentous achievement, you gain the ability, Unbreakable Skeleton. Wherein, your bones do not break. Ever.
Huh. Unexpected, but nice. I had felt some painful strain on the ol’ bones when I’d been pulling off some of the more, well, impressive events, like pulli
ng the granite block and the like. I resisted the urge to use my arm as a lever and try and move rocks with it though. At least, for the moment.
Instead, I moved through the menus until I got to HOLDING, which was now in color. I selected it.
Congratulations on having a holding, The Dukedom of Coggeshall. You currently have zero towns in your holding. You currently have two complete structures and two incomplete structures in your holding. Currently, less than 25% of the population follows you, thus, all within your holding receive the benefits of your abilities.
Note: You must choose your leadership path.
1. Autocrat - You are the greatest resource you have. Everything should be designed to help you. That’s how others might help themselves. You receive 20% of your followers experience points. Morale penalties doubled.
2. Warlord — War, what’s it good for? Absolutely everything. It’s time to go to war. Soldiers sworn to you do 5% more damage, but crops grow 5% slower. When at war, morale bonuses doubled. When not at war, morale penalties doubled.
3. Builder — Build me up, buttercup. Your holding is more efficient working with raw resources. Structures require 10% fewer materials.
I sighed, and punched the ground next to me. Making so many choices was exhausting, not to mention stressful. This was not the game I wanted to play. I was supposed to get away from everything, to just exist in a quiet corner of the world, and maybe occasionally help out a neighbor if they really needed it and they could find me. I was angling to be the angler in the woods kids told stories about. But left alone. Instead, I had to decide what kind of leader I wanted to be.
There was really only one choice that made any real sense: Builder. Sure, I could probably do pretty well as a warlord, but I was already tired of killing things. And I couldn’t see any long-term benefits to constantly being at war.
I chose Builder.
You have chosen Builder. Are you sure? This choice cannot be changed until your holding has gained five levels.
Shit. My holding had levels. Games within games in this world.
I was sure, and I selected yes. I needed to focus on building stuff. To be fair, when I’d played RTS games in the past, I’d definitely been the type to turtle and build a shit-ton of defenses before slowly heading out to conquer the rest of the world. It just wasn’t necessarily the way I’d built myself, or my character, in this world. Here, I was a one-man wrecking crew.
That out of the way, I looked at the information in front of me.
Dukedom of Coggeshall
Lvl 1 Dukedom
Mood: Hopeful
Morale: Low
Your holding has a population of 58 followers, representing less than 25% of the total population of your holding. Caution: if this is not brought above 25% in six months, your holding will lose a level and shrink.
16 Dwarves.
26 Battenti
22 Humans
2 Lutra
2 Elves
1 Kistune-Girl
1 Woch
1 Fallen
You have filled no positions.
You have no towns.
You have built two structures.
Longhouse
Structure Type: Trash
Structure Class: Shelter
Material: Wood and cloth
Durability: Low
Description: A longhouse is a general residential structure used to offer communal living space and protection from the elements.
Effects: Decreased morale for anyone forced to sleep inside. Current overcrowding exacerbates the morale penalty. Population growth penalty. Worker efficiency penalty. Poxivity penalty.
Upgrades: None Available due to structure type.
Barn
Structure Type: Common
Structure Class: Animal Shelter
Material: Wood and stone
Durability: Medium
Description: A barn is a structure designed to shelter animals.
Benefits: Provided the barn is not overcrowded, animals left inside at night gain increased healing rates and increased birthing rates.
Upgrades: Available but not purchased or installed. Build additional buildings to unlock more details.
Resources
No current storehouse.
Well, there we go. Plenty of information. Lots more stuff to keep track of. And here I was, a guy who hated keeping track of things. I shook my head, trying to figure out how to get out of the situation I’d found myself in. I was just so far out of my element. Why should anyone follow me?
And yet, that’s where I was. I didn’t want to sink into a hole where I’d defeat myself. I’d done that once, on Earth, and it hadn’t worked out so well. This was the spot I was in, this was what I had to do, and I just had to do my very best.
I had to—
Something hit my face.
I opened my eyes.
Something else hit my face.
I scrambled to my feet and saw Ragnar sitting opposite me, also against a tree.
He had a handful of acorns, and was in the act of throwing another one my way. I watched as it arced toward me and bonked me right on the nose.
“Dinner time,” he said, then hopped to his feet and walked away.
I got the feeling something was bugging him.
Chapter Four
Dinner in the camp was a subdued affair. We ate stew made mostly of vegetables and a small amount of meat, which was tasty and flavorful, but nothing I could identify. No one talked. There was a lot more morose looking around — staring into the fire, looking off into the darkness — than actual conversation happening. I wondered if this was the fault of the morale dip caused by the longhouse. Finishing the stew, I walked over to the longhouse, and I took a look inside.
It was worse than I remembered. There were bedrolls everywhere, save a small aisle down the middle and the area around the small stove at the far end. There was a distinct stench to the place, unwashed sweat. And the roof rustled in the mild breeze. It had to be hell during a storm.
A young woman edged by me and made her way down the house until she got to her spot. She looked at me, and I smiled as soon as we made eye contact.
She looked away.
I walked out of the longhouse and found Nikolai.
He gave me a look, like he wanted to eat his dinner in peace.
“I looked into the, uh, taking of the dukedom,” I said.
“At which point you discovered an issue?”
“Yeah, we’re up against a time limit.”
“For?”
“Getting more than 25% of the population in the dukedom to be followers.”
“Do you know what it is currently?”
“Under 25%.”
“That is the extent of your knowledge?”
“Yep.”
“So it might be 24 or less than one.”
“Correct.”
“And our time limit?”
“Six months. Six months and then we lose a town level. Or settlement level. Not, like, an individual level.”
“And I assume we are at level one?”
“Yeah.”
“If holdings follow the rest of the gods’ games, there is no level zero. You will lose the holding.”
“You think I can just claim a new holding?”
“I doubt it is anything that simple.”
“Never is.”
“Six months is not a long time…” He took a bite and chewed. And chewed. Then he swallowed with a little difficulty. “I think this meat might have turned. Anyway, we have two possibilities here. One, we convert everything in the dukedom to follow you. Two, we bring in more people to follow you.”
“I don’t exactly know many people, so I think option one is where we can, you know, be proactive.”
Nikolai scooped one last spoonful into his mouth.
“I have a few things I might set in motion,” he said. “But this is a real issue we must face and overcome. Be prepared.”
Then he wal
ked away.
I looked around, noticing several people pointedly not looking at me. So I just took a seat by the fire. I was miffed, tired of everyone being afraid of me, but not exactly knowing what I could do to make anything better. So I joined in on the hottest trend taking over my holding: I stared at the fire.
“Evening,” came a soothing voice.
I looked over to see Lady Eliza Northwoods sitting next to me. She had a small glass of wine in one hand, and a bowl of stew in the other. She held the glass towards me.
“Mind holding this whilst I eat?” she asked.
“Uh, sure,” I said, taking the glass as carefully as I could, worried I’d accidentally break it.
“This is quite the adventure for me,” she said, taking a dainty bite of the stew.
“Yeah,” I replied, feeling ever so eloquent.
“I have so many questions for you,” she said.
“Ask away,” I said.
She took her glass of wine so she could sneak a sip, then handed it back to me. Her eyes had a sparkle to them, like she was always just about to smile. When she actually did, phew, those eyes lit up.
“Before you ask me a question,” I started, “perhaps you’d let me ask you one.”
Her eyes went a little wide, and she started to say something, but then realized she had a mouthful of stew. She nodded, and swallowed.
