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Chapter 17: Lord of Bones II
🕑 Added 2024-08-19 05:26:06 +0000 UTCChapter 17: Lord of Bones
II
Settlement SystemV.2.1.7
Far-Reach Fort: Fife
Sustenance: 0 ▼ Resources: 0 ▼ Population: 0 ▼Power: 0 ▼
Water: 0 ► Wood: 0 ► Labourers: 0 ► Money: 0 ►
Food: 0 ► Stone: 0 ► Craftsmen: 0 ► Reputation: 0 ►
Herbs and Spices: 0 ► Metal: 0 ► Fighters: 0 ► Trade: 0 ►
Buildings: 5 ▼
Hunter’s Shack: Lv.1▼
A single person dwelling that can be built in dense forests, poorly camouflaged to avoid the wildlife's attention. This tiny structure allows for rudimentary butchering and skinning. The utilities are very basic and may frustrate an experienced Hunter if they are forced to use them for too long. This building can be upgraded to include nicer facilities, increase hunting efficiency, and increase the number of hunters that can use it at a time.
+3 Meat/Month
Requires a Hunter: 0/1
Lumber Camp: Lv.1▼
A simple collection of tents where freemen and serfs, under the direction of a Foreman, come together to prepare lumber. This structure only supports 5 labour’s and 1 Foreman at full capacity. The tents are made from old canvas and the beds scratchy straw, not the sort of place one would choose to work at for long. This building must be placed in or near a forest and is better placed near a source of water. This building can be upgraded to include permanent cabins for: processing lumber into planks, drying logs, Foreman’s accommodation, workers bunkhouse, ect.
+28 Wood/Month
Requires a Foreman: 0/1
Woodworker’s Shed: Lv.1▼
A rudimentary structure, though well made. This building puts a roof over at most three Woodworkers, allowing them to create things from wood, outside the effects of the elements. This structure is small and does not have enough storage for an experienced Carpenter’s tools but woodwork for other simple buildings can be done here. This building can be upgraded to include: wood storage, tool storage, apprentice’s haystack, head Woodworker’s bed, ect.
+150% Speed of Construction
Requires a Woodworker: 0/1
Farmer’s Steadings: Lv.1▼
A basic campus, including a stable, pen, grain-shed, and farm house. These structures are only large enough to contain: 1 beast of burden, 3 livestock, 21 bushels of grain, and 1 Farmer + family or 10 serfs + driving Farmer respectively. These facilities may be sufficient when starting a community but will be outgrown when farmland exceeds 3 acres. These buildings can be upgraded to include: large stables, sheds, slaughter houses, ect.
+210 Grain/Month
Requires a Farmer: 0/1
Village Hall: Lv.1▼
An elementary structure made from stone, with a thatched roof, and three or four times the size of a regular house. The Village Hall can be used for any number of things from housing settlers while residencies are being constructed, housing shows, boozing, teaching children or just keeping them out of the way, and sessions of prayer to any god (be warned, excessive prayer to a single deity may, overtime, be enough to constitute holy ground for that god, then their own rules will apply). The main function of the Village Hall is to organise town meetings and discuss the orders of the day/week/month/year. The structure is slightly too small to comfortably be used for any of the above actions. This building can be upgraded to include: a bar, pews, desks, a flag, ect. Once the Town Hall is built this building may be changed to better suit whichever rule it fills.
+10 Moral
Requires a Administrator: 0/1
I finally relented, giving in and letting the System’s notification appear before me. I had expected a short message, perhaps in relation to my knighthood but what greeted me was far grander. An entire new window, similar to the Status window I occasionally checked, there was even a tab system that let me navigate between the two.
I spent several minutes examining the information that had just been presented to me. It was a lot, and appeared to be able to expand to cover more, though that was currently unavailable. Out of curiosity, I tried building a Village Hall right where I was. For the first time the system changed form, moving from its windowed projection into a red ghostly illusion of a rather modest building, a single story version of the structure I had seen in Urila, during The Tower adventure.
Orlando looked at me strangely as I walked about the marshalling yard until I found a large enough clearing for the red image to turn blue. It appeared, much like regular system notifications, I was the only one able to see that which was intended for me.
I thought Place it here when the colour finally did change. The image locked in place, no longer moving with my thoughts and… that was it.
Why doesn’t it magically make me a Village Hall? I pondered, mildly annoyed.
Notification:
All building is done by Subjects, current Population = 0.
Building: Village Hall requires 10 Stone and 5 Wood to construct.
You can’t just magic up structures out of thin air; what do you think the System is? The structure you have placed would appear as a guide for any assigned builders, if you had any to order about. – D
That was… unnerving. Until this point I hadn’t thought much about the System reading my thoughts, it seemed emotionless and golemotic. The idea of some mysterious god, whose motivations I didn’t understand, looking through my thoughts gave me the ick. Creating mental defence spells had just risen on my to do list.
“Ht hum,” Orlando coughed, having finally grown tired of my pacing about, far off looks, and muttered rambling. He likely only tolerated it so long, as the people of this world would be used to seeing people staring off into space from time to time.
“We should get moving,” he reminded in an authoritative tone, waiting for me to start.
“Not so fast - as I said before, I believe I should cast a scrying spell to see if I can find whatever enemies you expect to be lurking before they find us.”
“What are you waiting for? Cast it then,” he said with a furrowed brow and slight irritation in his words.
“I need some ingredients,” I explained.
“Ingredients? Can’t you just select the Spell on the Status page? Come to think of it, you have been using an exceptionally wide range of spells. I know little of magic but most Wizards I have seen were limited to one type of magic, you almost remind me of–”
“I’m a ritualist,” I said, pulling that out of my arse to stop that train of thought before it left the station. Orlando had been brightening slightly from talking but the sombre air returned when I cut him off so I continued my bullshit explanation in the hopes it might divert his attention.
“Yes, a ritualist. We use items with some magical or mundane significance to create magic organically. Not directly manipulating mana with our will but encouraging it with natural formations and ingredients,” I lied, impressed with my unexpected eloquence. Orlando took a moment to think over the idea, absently kicking a sharp bit of flint through a tree.
“I lived a long time, and if I learned anything it is that I know nothing.” I let out a breath, grateful he had bought it, although his tone was mildly haunting. “I have never heard of such a thing but it’s never too late to learn,” he ended, trying once more his shaky signature grin.
“Exactly,” I encouraged, patting him through the back.
“What would you need for a scrying spell? I know all too well how important it can be to know the fight you’re getting into.”
“There are any number of things I could use. I say we have a look around what remains of that fort,” I said, gesturing toward the bailey to this motte.
“You go ahead,” he replied, “I’ll stand guard out here, there’s only one way in and out, and we don’t know when we could be attacked.” There was more behind his words but I decided not to press.
“Do you think I’ll find anything?” I asked, conversationally, as I looked up at the collapsed balcony on which Pater once stood.
“It’s quite likely. When I was a boy, this area of the frontier was quite safe. There was always the occasional creature that wandered forth from the wilds to the east but it was mostly peaceful.” The Paladin’s face deepened. “That was until the entire fort was lost in a single night. We still aren't sure exactly how it happened but a necromancer took the whole castle with nothing but low level undead.”
“Really?!” I asked, feigning surprise. Orlando looked at me sidelong, my acting lacking, but continued:
“That was only the start of the troubles, a sign of what was to come. An… interesting… person got rid of all the undead and at the time I thought that was an end to things. The King would give the land to some other noble and things at my home would return to normal. That was not the case. This was shortly before the vampire uprising and, as it turned out, they had a base on the edge of the wilds. When whatever old monster that lived there left to join the war against the living in the capital it revealed the truth behind the peace here at Far-Reach. The truly strong monsters were being scared off from our part of the frontier by the especially powerful undead. When they left this place was swarmed with monsters.”
He paused looking out, I followed his gaze to the collapsed pile of rubble which was once a gate. “An army of irregulars was sent to defend this fort, alongside a couple of mages, the bulk of the military was focused on the vampires. Someone took the title to this land without The King’s permission so they never stood a chance at a proper defence. The men and women of that force were never heard from again, and in my lifetime Far-Reach was never reclaimed from the wilds. It would appear that hasn’t changed. Whatever that army took with them is likely inside,” he finished, gesturing into the fort proper.
“Noble titles can aid in defence?” I asked. He clearly wasn’t expecting the question and took a moment to think it over.
“The System grated powers of Noble titles are a state secret and I am honoured not to share them, even in death. Sorry lad,” he said, ruffling my hair. The experience was awkward for the both of us and we each seemed relieved when it was over.
“I..” he started then trailed off.
“I’ll have a poke about,” I supplied instead.
I walked in through an entryway filled with arrow slits, added to by a number of claw marks that had made it all the way through the stone. My feet crunched on the bones of a wide variety of monsters, the skull of a large cat, the femur of a cow-like creature and what might have been the skeleton of a massive frog?
Rotting shreds of tapestry made a haunting mural as I stepped in through the remains of a once great blockage. The remains of heavy oak furniture, mostly decayed, still laid strewn about the main chamber. An attack having breached the fort. This place had not been taken easily. My eyes roamed over the long dead resistance, bones from a wide range of races; never had I seen such diversity since my brief pirate adventure, they were irregulars - perhaps there was more acceptance among the criminal class?
I wandered about the ruin, looking for something of use. Some of the rooms had collapsed, all containing the results of battle. Eventually I made my way to the highest point of the building, entering the master chambers. One wall was completely missing and I could see out for miles, atop a hill as we were. There were nothing but endless trees as far as the eye could see, a sea of green. The interior of the building wasn’t such a pretty picture. This had been the final stand for most of the defenders and chunks of bone carpeted the floor. I scooped down, picking up the remains of a shattered wand. Its core was made from the hair of a Spatial Owl, perfect for my purposes. I couldn't help but think whomever this was couldn’t have been a very good spatial magi if they ended up trapped.
I also found a silver bed pan which I polished up enough to be reflective. I debated going back to Orlando and showing him my magic but something held me back. When he sent me in alone, I sensed he needed a minute to himself so I decided to go ahead with the working here. It would take at least a quarter of an hour to complete.
Using the hair as a component and making sure to enunciate every arcane word. When I had fully initiated the spell I stared into the shiny metal. My vision was drawn in and soon I was floating above the castle, looking down on the forest. Sacrising some of my blood to the spell as the prospective continued to rise, everything hostile highlighted in red.
Congratulations:
You have learned the Scrying spell
“Do you want the good news or the bad news?” I asked as I stepped back out into the courtyard. Orlando was sat, head in his hands, on a stump of his own making when I appeared but swiftly stood, trying to give off an aura of confidence he clearly lacked.
“Let’s start with the good,” he responded, his voice cracking at the start. We both ignored it.
“The good news is we don’t have to worry about the monsters who live around here and took the fort.”
“That sounds like good news but you don’t seem happy,” Orlando commented.
“That’s because of the bad news.”
“Go ahead.”
“They’ve been scared off by the army that’s starting to encircle us.”
“Oh… that’s not good.” Orlando said astutely. “How bad is it?”
“To the east there is a giant bronze bull, crashing through the forest, burning the trees it can’t trample with its flaming breaths. In its wake is a horde of ash creatures which move in a strange motion.”
“And the west?”
“A pack of giant colourful frogs that seem to appear and disappear when I look at them from above, perhaps teleporting.”
“To the south is the ocean, what about the north.”
“I don’t know what’s there, I can’t see whatever it is. But I know there are a number of enemies.”
“That’s really not good.”
“No.”
“How long do we have till they get here?”
“Best guess? A day at the inside, two at the out.” I answered.
“That’s tight. We have to stand and fight, you don’t want to try and break through one force with another at your back. I’m sorry kid, but it doesn’t look good.” A moment of silence hung between us, “You can use items with powerful mana to create magic?”
“Yes?” I replied hesitantly.
“I’m going to go and get something. I should only be a few hours, you stay here and use those rituals of yours to get this place into the best shape you can manage,” he ordered, some of his mojo returning.
“Yes sir!” I replied with a mocking salute. The jest had the desired effect as I saw a grin tug at the corner of his mouth.
“If you were one of my men you would be properly clothed.” he jabbed, indicating my still shitless condition.
“I think my body is my greatest asset,” I boosted, striking a couple of poses and showing off a complete lack of muscle. This time he did chuckle briefly before within me well and jumping clear over the wall. I was left slack jawed for a moment, I really should have expected as much.
I spent the first few hours gathering together the hardest looking stones from the debris. Once they were separated from the rest I used a spell I had been wanting to use for some time:
Congratulations:
Earth Golem has reached lv.6
Fort Far-Reach’s Labourers has risen from 0 to 3.
Three figures began to pull themselves together from the rubble, each around seven feet in height and in the rough shape of a humanoid; bipedal, with a head, body and two arms. Three was the maximum number of expert spells this body could handle in a day, but there was a reason I splurged my mana budget on these guys. The Golems waited patiently as I fiddled about with the Settlement SystemV.2.1.7, eventually I was able to get what I wanted. Using the holographic illusion for building I was eventually able to get it to fill the gaps in the crumbling walls. The system automatically relayed these orders to the golems and they set to work moving the loose rubble into precision. I purposely left the largest crack in the wall open as a strategic choke point since the gate was nothing but a pile of stone.
I spent the next day making every preparation I could think of. I was beginning to worry when I started to hear the war machine in the shape of a bull as it ploughed its way through the woods as the moon was rising. Orlando was still gone and I wouldn’t be able to hold my land alone. Smoke rose from the trees in the direction of the coming army and I was forced to suppress memories I’d thought I’d forgotten.
“Are you alright?” a voice with some balance returned asked.
“Orlando!” I bleeted, nearly jumping out of my skin. I hadn’t detected his approach. “Where have you been?”
He grinned more earnestly before replying, “What's the matter, did you miss me?”
I looked at him flatly, he coughed and dropped the jovialities.
“It was harder to find than I thought it would be. I buried it under my old farmhouse but that’s long gone and nothing looks the same as it did.” he explained, hoisting an iron banned chest with three locks.
That’s not what I think it is? I thought with some excitement, already being able to feel that it was.
He seemed to hesitate but after a moment he opened the trunk. Reaching inside he pulled out something I instantly recognised, a yellowed bone with black runes.
“This may not look like much,” he said, tossing me my radius, “but there’s a lot of power in these. Don’t use them unless as a last resort,” he cautioned, seeing my look of glee. “And probably just one of the small ones,” he added after a moment's pause, “the pinky toe shouldn’t be missed.” he said under his breath. I was too excited to be annoyed at the comment, this was exactly what I needed. Before I had been hesitant about the upcoming fight but now I couldn’t wait.
