Let's Cover the Lands in Progress: Gold Release Community Colony

I Say! SEHR GUT!

 

Thank you, I wanted to make the photos look like old tintype photos.

 

I'll be doing my piece tomorrow. Any pressing matters I should attend to, @Jagwithtude ?

 

No, not really 6 bandits arrived but we hadn't seen them yet, we were researching the military and had enough pts to get personnal gear research so they have better defense when hit. My turn was rather quiet, only one fishmen raid and they wiped them out no problem.

 

Bitte.
Very Creative!

 

A very good idea!

 

Day 0

Hedonism is a tiring exercise. When I first came back from the Colony to announce its successful founding and first peaceful transfer of power, I was able to properly fête myself with common substances available from any druggist to any subject of the Crown, provided they were of Good Breeding. All I needed for that first success were a couple of bottles of laudanum, a goodly supply of whisky, and a few forgettable members of the Lower Classes. But between the decreasing effluvia levels in the Home Counties and the successful recruitment efforts bringing more Overseers to the Colony, I had to resort to unusual methods to stave off boredom for an extended period of time, increasing in cost and creativity each time the pains returned.

It is therefore with a heavy heart that I leave my apartments at Grafton Street for the last time. The whole complex was deemed unlivable after that Unfortunate Incident with that last mixture. But honestly, how could anyone have guessed how badly powdered coca would affect the poor? Perhaps the Lower Classes simply cannot handle the level of stimulation that I require to stave off ennui. Still, it isn't a total loss: some of the repair costs were covered by the Foreign Office in recognition of my success, and the rest was subsidized by the purchase of the property by a charming young Spaniard. So long as I continue to provide the same level of service that I have during my last two terms, I'll be back in the lap of luxury inside of a week.



Despite my extended absence, the colony seems brighter and more lively than I've ever seen it! People are smiling, working, even whistling! I permit myself a small smile of my own as I reach my office and consider my priorities and call for a report.



An initial report is delivered by a dour-looking sort in an NCO uniform. Introducing himself as Mudhooke, the sergeant ran down the list of immediate priorities. First on the list, as ever, was food. With the newly surging availability of housing, immigration waves will strain the already questionable reserves of food. Asking after the last NCO, Nellie Crimbleelm, Mudhooke merely curled his lip and muttered something about assaults from the sea. If I were at all superstitious, I might think the position of NCO was cursed: first the troubled but eager Mildred Fladgate, then the stalwart but unsightly Crimbleelm, and now this prim, dour man Mudhooke. Let this one last longer than the others, I suppose.



Mere minutes after his report was complete, Mudhooke's soldiers raised a cry of alarm! Apparently a gaggle of brutish thieves had the idea to raid the colony for supplies – not that we have much loot that might appeal to the desensitized thuggery arrayed against us. We have corn, corn stew, corn porridge...



Oh.



Ohhhhh.



These thieves will die by my hand! Or rather they will die by Mudhooke's hand. Or his soldiers' hands. But I gave the order to kill, which must mean I am culpable in some way for the deaths of the banditry!



Two redcoats trickle into a bandit ambush, dying in a hail of shot. The bulk of Mudhooke's squad arrives seconds later, taking the gang by surprise! Their shock is barely registered on their filthy faces before a fusillade of bullets rip them apart. The only things for me to do are to approve another plot for the graveyard and find some way to explain all this waste to the Ministry.



As the day wanes, the sounds of gunfire rise up again! It seems like some Dastardly Foreigners had taken the loss of two soldiers for weakness, and began recklessly damaging Her Majesty's property! Mudhooke's brave soldiery rises to the occasion, with a cascade of pistol shot seeing off the backwards foreigners.



Panicked citizens, already thoroughly ruffled already by the day's excitement, start shouting about fishmen! Supposedly a force of piscene attackers are headed this way, perhaps attracted by the scent of blood! Perhaps I can finally have a measure of revenge against the creatures that took my last two NCOs?



Good Lord! Those bulging eyes, that scaly flesh! Even from my office, I can tell that these fishy creatures hunt and kill with alien intent! I can only take solace in the fact that they die just as easily as the people they kill. Though no casualties were inflicted thanks to brave action by civilian and militiaman alike, grievous wounds are as common as corn in the colony as we all pretend to sleep.

I will have to replenish the militia with our own limited ranks: a grim prospect considering the effect this bloodbath will have on our relationship with the Foreign Office.

Day 2 begins in the next post.

 

Day 2



Sunrise. The people of the colony still haven't recovered from the mile-wide gunfight from last night: some people never slept, Mudhooke included. He was one of the first in, and the last out. He clutches his pistol and sidearm in each fist, fighting back sobs. He needs to pull himself together, damn it. I have a colony to defend and I've already given him enough staff to establish a perimeter!



Cog send its Plans to the Foreign Office! A band of hardy, even-tempered Stalmarkians have arrived to put an end to the colony's bandit problem! Colonists gather near the graves of their fellows to take grim pleasure in the deaths of those murdering thieves.



The sun shines brightly on the carnage: blood red stains on canvas and stone stand out in the light. My headache returns, but the taste of vengeance is still sweet on my tongue, soothing the pain like the bitter kiss of laudanum. Stoic in war and peace, none of the Stahlmarkians seem interested in looting the dead or searching their belongings, so I suppose the Cog helps those who help themselves...



Benedict Carnifex has reported that his entire lineage is boring, contrary to the blood-mouthed legends his family name might imply. Generations upon generations of clerks, copy writers, batsmen, homemakers, valets, and the occasional mediocre banker populate his family tree. He declares in no uncertain terms that he must fix this and make a name for himself through daring action. I note to him that he has traveled further and faced more danger than his father, his grand-father, and his great-grand-father combined between the bandit attacks, foreign ambushes, and assaults by fishmen. He brightens considerably, and whistles as he returns to the barbershop.



As the second day fades, gunfire erupts again! Screams of panic echo from the farm – but it's only a few Prarie Beetles. With this last spell of panic, most of the population drifts off to sleep.




I dream of Shapes.

Day 3 in the next post.

 

Day 3



Rustling bushes and eyes in the darkness nearly erupt into another small war, but for the familiar Clockworkian grumbling about undergrowth and insects. And thank goodness for that: if such a crowd of people were actually after our goods, Mudhooke would have a time of it and no mistake! As it stands, perhaps I can finally staff a chapel with this lot: something calming and inoffensive.



A letter arrived by carrier pigeon with a notice: the colony, under my careful guidance, has exceeded thirty souls! Doing my part in reducing the excess population in the Home Counties and fighting the Spectre of Malthus has its rewards: the letter has offered me a commemorative bar of gold for use here in the colony. A smaller red letter was delivered to me by the new Overseer, Chauncy Pater. It informs me that new apartments have been found for me with the Usual Amenities. Cog bless the Foreign Office.



I put Everett Chainbreaker back in the Foreign Office and set him to work toadying to my friends back home. Between setting my living situation aright and the timely intervention of Curiously Disinterested Foreigners, I owe them at least a few good words.



After a restful, uneventful night, dawn comes once again to greet my airship home. The adrenaline from the Little War has faded, cleansing some of the chemicals from my system, and leaving me feeling almost...natural. This is, of course, intolerable. A clean slate is only useful insofar as one can write on it, after all! I board the airship, papers in hand, and begin sketching out potential plans to further test the effects of powdered coca on the Lower Classes.

Notes:

• The food situation is better than it seems, and I have instructed the kitchen to begin building up a buffer of corn for our eventual transition to wheat.
• Our scientist has been switched from Military to Agriculture in a bid to free up Corn Labor. This is a long term project, of course.
• The Foreign Office should remain staffed. The continued assaults on our colony has tanked our rating, and we need our bureaucrats to start making this place smell like roses instead of death.
• A Naturalist's Office and Chapel should be our next goals, in my opinion. We need a Naturalist to start scouting a better location for a Mine, and a Chapel to placate some of our hard cases.
• We have bunches of glass, and I have begun construction of bric-a-brac using said glass to make decor. Placing rugs in the Spider-Lab is vital, as the Scientist is currently afflicted with Bad Stuff.

 

Wow! What a lively mandate! You were lucky you didn't get even a Foreign Invasion About that, should we avoid that event, for now, by befriending the hostile Novorus? (I they are the hostile ones? Maybe I'm wrong?)

On a more important note: I have to skip my turn . I have an exam this Monday, and no free time allowed (except for sleeping...).

 

Very exciting but I do have a question, did I mess up the save I posted here so that you could not play it? sorry if I did, I am asking because the save you just played was not the one I thought I uploaded as I dismantled the mine, built a naturalist's office, fixed a few houses and fixed the trading office,

ETA, I just went into my saved game and saw that I uploaded the save before I built the naturalist's office but the mine was not there and the trading depot and living quarters were the way I left them and not as they are in the photos you took of the game you played, they look like the game I started with.

 

Try downloading the file you attached and check if it's they right one. Check the day number to be sure.

 

Hej @Cthulhu_Awaits I did that when I first noticed the photos odd prophet uploaded, that is why I added the edit to my post, as I wrote, the save I posted was not the final save but the save just before I built the naturalist's office (which you can see in my photo with the beetle) I played from sunrise day 30 to sunrise day 33, if you download the latest game save posted it ends on sunrise day 33 as well.

 

Been reading your story from the beginning (right now at Alephred’s post day 24) just like to say it is a great story and a fine initiative, surely I will follow.

 

Strange. I took the file you uploaded, and made certain to delete other saves. Did you want another swing?

 

Sorry, I didn't understand you took the save from the forum, but I thought you checked only your save file from the loading menu. Honestly, I should have thought you would do even this check

In the end did you lose half a day or what actually happened? (the thing about the mine being demolished was supposed to be in the save file that it was uploaded?) I'm just a bit confused that's all...

So, did we lose something? On which save we should continue?
[ keep in mind that [UN]-luckily I'm not the next in line ]

 

I essentially overwrote @Jagwithtude 's save. I think it would be best if Jag simply took their turn again, taking it from my save.

 

No, it's cool, I just thought that I did something wrong as the save I uploaded here was the last time stamp I had so I thought that that was the latest save, please forgive this newby, my next turn, I will be more careful and check the save before I upload it here.

ETA the save I uploaded looks like its day 31 so just use Oddprophet's save.

 

FAIR ENOUGH. Hey @Unforked , you're up!

 

The most important thing is that we got a good story out of it all. In the end, does it really matter of it's preserved in a save file someplace?