Cavern Quest : The City That Never Sees The Sun

[Happerry]

[X] Increase the City Guard and restructure : Battle Mages
[X] Mana Fount

After much discussion, the choice is made to not do any of the suggested options.. but a mix of them all. It is not enough just to throw waves of your limited manpower at things, and simply paying mages large amounts of money to back up poor troops with fireballs won't solve the issue of poor troops, as well as removing mages from important infrastructural and economic projects in the community.

Instead, you start by hiring heroes. Not to patrol your town.. but to train your guards. As well, a selection of more magically inclined heroes, both arcane and divine casters, prove to find the idea of a stable employment.. interesting. By the end of the first year you've seen both a dramatic increase in the city guard's skill levels, and are undergoing the first stages of integrating heavy magical support into the city's only military force. By the end of the third year, your mages have spent so long with the warriors they have started experimenting, as a group, with ways to combine both swordplay and spells. Sadly the lack of a good blasting hall to practice in is slowing them down, but they are confident that they'll have it down sometime soon..

(City Guard Warriors go from Average Level 1 to Average Level 4. Added Mages to City Guard Squads, Average Level 4. Added Priests to City Guard Squads, Average Level 2. Progress on Tier II class, Sword Magus, 1/2 complete. Progress on Prestige Class, Support Mage, 1/2 Complete)

Between the new combination of better trained guards and mystical support, as well as buying steel equipment from adventurers when possible, the new city guard is proving more then capable of defending the new farms, allowing the crops to be fully harvested, causing a minor population boom from the sudden abundance of food.

Meanwhile, rumors of a new city are sweeping the land, as some people are claiming the bandits which have started to plague trade routes since about ten years ago have founded their own settlement to serve as a home base. While no rumors can agree on where it is or how big it is, they all agree on the name of Downbellow Town. And certainly the bandits are displaying a new sneakiness... (Prestige Class Scout Unlocked, For Warriors, Rangers, and Rogues, For Bandit Characters only.)

The other Settlements are not resting on their laurels either, for Midway has just announced a breakthrough in their efforts to translate the tongue of the dragon, with some monks now understanding a few words of that language, just as Last Laugh has revealed it's new Hall of Beasts, an institute dedicated to understanding the animal life and ecosystems of the deep dark. In response, Cointown has announced new breakthroughs in Mushroom Farming, having learned to distill many new mixtures from the local plantlife, some more toxic then other.

Less noted, but still important, is Firepoint's creation of farms of its own, illuminated not by the power of a city's hearthstone but by the glowing lava that the city is built over, and Fort Salvation's new order of Grave Guards, to protect the great burial grounds that have grown around the city from grave robbers and other such unpleasant people. More worrisome might be the announcement from Tibero's Castle that they too are now offering Iron weapons.. While still a step behind the steel of Firepoint, it is still superior to the Bronze weapons and armor created in other cities...

(Prestige Class Dragon Speaker Unlocked for Monks in Midway. Beast Trainer Prestige class for all tier 1 classes unlocked in Last Laugh. Cointown now offers non magical potions and poison services. Tier II class Grave Guard unlocked, for Monks and Warriors. Tibero's Castle now offering Iron Gear.)



Current Population: 750 (+100)
Transient Population: 350ish (+150)

With the newly trained and equipped City Guard, some people are arguing that better facilities should be made available to them..
[ ] Main Hall : A Main Hall would give the guard a central location to be commanded from, as well as including storage for records and laws, instead of forcing the Head Guardsman to coordinate from one of the smaller local halls as he has been doing.
[ ] Jailhouse : Currently the only jail cells the guard has are small ones under the local branch offices, intended more for the days drunks then any real criminal. Adding a real jailhouse for repeat offenders would give the guard a choice between 'let them go' 'police brutality' and 'Killing offense' that they currently lack.
[ ] Healer's Hall : With the increased duties and numbers of the City Guard, so too are the numbers of guardsmen harmed in line of duty. While civilian medics and priests have so far been sufficient to treat those wounded, the establishment of an in house medical center would provide needed support for more serious injuries as well as larger numbers of wounded guards.
[ ] Armory : With the increased numbers comes greater need for gear, and the establishment of a dedicated armory for the storage, upkeep, and tracking of both equipment and other supplies could offer interesting benefits to the guard, as well as giving local smiths more practice with weapons and armor.

Meanwhile, as the Guild Expands, it becomes time to increase the Guildhall's facilities.
[ ] Blasting Range : Construct a dedicated testing and practice hall for combat spells, giving combat focused mages a group area to train and practice, as well as try out new spells, generally increasing magical skills, combat or not, from increased training.
[ ] Living Quarters : Construct a new building that combined living quarters for journeymen and masters with a second floor library. While not as comprehensive as either a true Archives or Dormitory, the Living Quarters offers some of the benefits of both.
[ ] Deep Storage : If the ground below the Mage's Guildhouse could be excavated, the new basements could be turned into a large high security storage center for rare and valuable supplies as well as stocks of potions, general gear, and enchanting ingredients usable should the worse happen and the city be placed under siege.
[ ] Relay Crystals : Properly designed and treated, some crystals could have sympathetic links to the Mana Fount set up, allowing leaders in the Mage's Guild to generate their own aura of Mana, akin to but weaker then the Fount's effect.
[ ] Fount Amplifier : A correctly designed geomantic array could amplify the Fount's effect, both increasing its power and at least doubling the area that it would cover.
[ ] Laboratory Hall : While mages can achieve notable advancements working on their own, with only their staves and heads as tools, it is widely agreed that a proper lab would make magical experimentation and testing much easier, allowing for mages to better design their own spells and new enchantment schemes.

 

[Carrnage]

[X] Main Hall : A Main Hall would give the guard a central location to be commanded from, as well as including storage for records and laws, instead of forcing the Head Guardsman to coordinate from one of the smaller local halls as he has been doing.
[X] Blasting Range : Construct a dedicated testing and practice hall for combat spells, giving combat focused mages a group area to train and practice, as well as try out new spells, generally increasing magical skills, combat or not, from increased training.

 

[Emral282]

[X] Jailhouse : Currently the only jail cells the guard has are small ones under the local branch offices, intended more for the days drunks then any real criminal. Adding a real jailhouse for repeat offenders would give the guard a choice between 'let them go' 'police brutality' and 'Killing offense' that they currently lack.

[X] Blasting Range : Construct a dedicated testing and practice hall for combat spells, giving combat focused mages a group area to train and practice, as well as try out new spells, generally increasing magical skills, combat or not, from increased training.

 

[Marked_One]

[x ] Healer's Hall

[X] Blasting Range

 

[Robotninja]

[X]Main Hall. Central command is huge.

[X]Labratory Hall- This will have many of the benefits of the blasting range, but it will also have benefits for domestic usage. I want to get started on creating more and more magitech.

 

[Wing101]

[X] Main Hall : A Main Hall would give the guard a central location to be commanded from, as well as including storage for records and laws, instead of forcing the Head Guardsman to coordinate from one of the smaller local halls as he has been doing.
[X] Blasting Range : Construct a dedicated testing and practice hall for combat spells, giving combat focused mages a group area to train and practice, as well as try out new spells, generally increasing magical skills, combat or not, from increased training.

 

[Ephemeral_Dreamer]

[X] Main Hall : A Main Hall would give the guard a central location to be commanded from, as well as including storage for records and laws, instead of forcing the Head Guardsman to coordinate from one of the smaller local halls as he has been doing.
[X] Blasting Range : Construct a dedicated testing and practice hall for combat spells, giving combat focused mages a group area to train and practice, as well as try out new spells, generally increasing magical skills, combat or not, from increased training.

 

[Pipeman]

[X] Main Hall : A Main Hall would give the guard a central location to be commanded from, as well as including storage for records and laws, instead of forcing the Head Guardsman to coordinate from one of the smaller local halls as he has been doing.
[X] Living Quarters : Construct a new building that combined living quarters for journeymen and masters with a second floor library. While not as comprehensive as either a true Archives or Dormitory, the Living Quarters offers some of the benefits of both.

Happerry mentioned that so far our city has practically no books on magic.
This means that something as complicated as magic is passed on through oral tradition.
It also means that the apprentices can't do anything to learn on their own whenever their master is sick or busy with his own work.
Kind of need to remedy that before too much is lost.

 

[Robotninja]

Next turn we need to do a dedicated upgrade where we do two upgrades to the hall. Or maybe even three.

 

[Pipeman]

(9:32:31 AM) Happerry: Though you won't be getting another mage guild upgrade next turn, you'll be somewhat distracted by the natives, the bandits, and Tibero's Castle's newest 'fun idea'.

Click to shrink...

Thought you might want to know this.

 

[Happerry]

You don't get to choose what you update anyway.

 

[Liam-don]

Well I guess the idea of sending a delegation to Firepoint to negotiate a trade of food for better gear is moot now.

Maybe it's time we start to thing about where we're going to take our development? Pick a focus, since we can't do everything at once.

As far as I can tell, there three big paths we can take:

-The battlemage-adventurers symbiosis, where we focus essentially on our military might. Better combat spells, better gears and we dig into our ruins for goodies.

- The pure power, Archmage aristocracy. One man army sorcerers, Legendary Artifacts wars would be fought over.

- The magitech route. Streamlined spells, and focus on creating more and more complex tools and vehicles powered by mana batteries. Cheap, mass produced tools that are easy to use and maintain.


Obviously, there's neither exhaustive nor shut us out completely from each other, it's just general direction to take our civilization to.

 

[R.A.G.]

[X] Main Hall : A Main Hall would give the guard a central location to be commanded from, as well as including storage for records and laws, instead of forcing the Head Guardsman to coordinate from one of the smaller local halls as he has been doing.
[X] Blasting Range : Construct a dedicated testing and practice hall for combat spells, giving combat focused mages a group area to train and practice, as well as try out new spells, generally increasing magical skills, combat or not, from increased training.

 

[Lilithium]

[X] Main Hall : A Main Hall would give the guard a central location to be commanded from, as well as including storage for records and laws, instead of forcing the Head Guardsman to coordinate from one of the smaller local halls as he has been doing.
[X] Living Quarters : Construct a new building that combined living quarters for journeymen and masters with a second floor library. While not as comprehensive as either a true Archives or Dormitory, the Living Quarters offers some of the benefits of both.

 

[Biigoh]

[X] Main Hall : A Main Hall would give the guard a central location to be commanded from, as well as including storage for records and laws, instead of forcing the Head Guardsman to coordinate from one of the smaller local halls as he has been doing

[X] Blasting Range : Construct a dedicated testing and practice hall for combat spells, giving combating focused mages a group area to train and practice, as well as try out new spells, generally increasing magical skills, combat or not, from increased training.

[X] Archival libraries. Places where knowledge can be preserved by mages dictating to scribes their knowledge or doing the scribing themselves.

 

[Scia]

[X] Jailhouse : Currently the only jail cells the guard has are small ones under the local branch offices, intended more for the days drunks then any real criminal. Adding a real jailhouse for repeat offenders would give the guard a choice between 'let them go' 'police brutality' and 'Killing offense' that they currently lack.
[X] Living Quarters : Construct a new building that combined living quarters for journeymen and masters with a second floor library. While not as comprehensive as either a true Archives or Dormitory, the Living Quarters offers some of the benefits of both.


Could we do the following side Project?
[X]Time pases as we all know and so it might be time to secure more of our Knowledge to prevent it from dying with its bearers. And so you order the Mages to start writing down there tomes of Knowledge and Spells.

 

[Jiven]

[X] Healer's Hall : With the increased duties and numbers of the City Guard, so too are the numbers of guardsmen harmed in line of duty. While civilian medics and priests have so far been sufficient to treat those wounded, the establishment of an in house medical center would provide needed support for more serious injuries as well as larger numbers of wounded guards.

[X] Blasting Range : Construct a dedicated testing and practice hall for combat spells, giving combating focused mages a group area to train and practice, as well as try out new spells, generally increasing magical skills, combat or not, from increased training.

 

[Vindictus]

[X] Main Hall : A Main Hall would give the guard a central location to be commanded from, as well as including storage for records and laws, instead of forcing the Head Guardsman to coordinate from one of the smaller local halls as he has been doing

[X] Blasting Range : Construct a dedicated testing and practice hall for combat spells, giving combating focused mages a group area to train and practice, as well as try out new spells, generally increasing magical skills, combat or not, from increased training.

 

[hunter09]

[X] Main Hall : A Main Hall would give the guard a central location to be commanded from, as well as including storage for records and laws, instead of forcing the Head Guardsman to coordinate from one of the smaller local halls as he has been doing

[X] Blasting Range : Construct a dedicated testing and practice hall for combat spells, giving combating focused mages a group area to train and practice, as well as try out new spells, generally increasing magical skills, combat or not, from increased training.

 

[Malcolmo]

[X] Main Hall : A Main Hall would give the guard a central location to be commanded from, as well as including storage for records and laws, instead of forcing the Head Guardsman to coordinate from one of the smaller local halls as he has been doing

[X] Blasting Range : Construct a dedicated testing and practice hall for combat spells, giving combating focused mages a group area to train and practice, as well as try out new spells, generally increasing magical skills, combat or not, from increased training.

 

[Happerry]

[12] Main Hall
[2] Jailhouse
[11] Blasting Range
[2] Healer's Hall
[1] Laboratory Hall
[3] Living Quarters

For the next five years, things get.. interesting, and not in the fun ways. While the completion of the Blasting Range causes a general increase in the local mage's ability to destroy things, and the creation of a Main Hall allows for a surprise expansion of the City Guard with the new ease of paperwork and coordination of local offices, Outside the city the rumors of a new Bandit Settlement are proving highly likely by the sudden, and extreme, increase in bandit attacks on traders. Some Bandits are even so brave as to launch attacks within the view of a City, and Cointown is even raided by a high level sqaudron of bandits in a failed attempt to raid the bank coffers.

(City Guard Mages go from average level 4 to average level 6. Tier II class, Sword Magus, now available. Support Mage Tier I Prestige Class now available for Mages. City Guard Support Mages now average level 4)

Citadel, especially, is feeling the crunch as their distant position from other cities makes the limited trade routes leading to the city even more vulnerable then normal to disruption, and the lack of Steel Gear and high quality medical supplies, much less the luxury shipments of fish, are proving to have negative effects on the city economy.

In response to these transgressions, Tibero's Castle is calling for an all city meeting to discuss the creation of a League to allow for coordination of the response and search for the bandit settlement of Downbelow Town.

More locally, with the first stirring needs to project military force, the arguments over what kind of military force to create is growing strong. Meanwhile, with all the new growth and expansion, the city government is outgrowing it's old buildings, and soon it will become time to decide where to build new, bigger, structures for its use.


Current Population: 800 (+50)
Transient Population: 400ish (+50)

Army Arguments
[ ] Copy the current set up of the City Guard. Long squads of twelve warriors, with mages and priests as officers, with two officers a long squad as to allow them to break into twin squads of six men plus an officer, with ten squads assigned to as a Sector, led by a command squad made of officers, with attached support staff.
[ ] Mage Army. Make the entire army consist mainly of mages, making it be small but to have extreme magical power and high amounts of artifice.
[ ] Mercenaries. Cointown has a number of Mercenary groups, some of which could be convinced to move to and take on a long term retainer with the city, and the large amounts of adventurers render a fertile recruiting ground.
[ ] Commandos : Sword Magi are already proving to be far more deadly and skilled then normal mages, and with the other advanced applications of the arts of both magic and combat developed in other cities it's unlikely they will be the only advanced class discovered. As proven by the effectiveness of heroes, small groups of highly skilled and equipped elites can be very deadly, when properly used.

New Location for the City Government
[ ] Expand the Guild Hall. The mages already rule the city anyway, we may as well simply combine the two buildings for ease of governance.
[ ] Market Square. Locating the City Hall in the merchants quarter would provide the traders with fast and easy access to the government, insuring that later dicisions would take into account the needs of the economy.
[ ] Adventurer's Sector. With both the individual power of many Adventurers, and the fact that the majority of our cities services are focused around getting money from them, close connections with the local heroes can only prove to be good.
[ ] Don't Move. While it would be somewhat expensive to expand the current facilities, so would moving the operations somewhere else, and the current location of the city government is nice and neutrally located.

(Miniturn after this one of the big meeting that was called.)

 

[Vindictus]

[ ] Commandos : Sword Magi are already proving to be far more deadly and skilled then normal mages, and with the other advanced applications of the arts of both magic and combat developed in other cities it's unlikely they will be the only advanced class discovered. As proven by the effectiveness of heroes, small groups of highly skilled and equipped elites can be very deadly, when properly used.

[ ] Market Square. Locating the City Hall in the merchants quarter would provide the traders with fast and easy access to the government, insuring that later dicisions would take into account the needs of the economy.

 

[Ronall]

Synergy Time

[ ] Commandos : Sword Magi are already proving to be far more deadly and skilled then normal mages, and with the other advanced applications of the arts of both magic and combat developed in other cities it's unlikely they will be the only advanced class discovered. As proven by the effectiveness of heroes, small groups of highly skilled and equipped elites can be very deadly, when properly used.

Since our town relies a great deal on adventurers, and we've used them to train our city guard before, training our military to act like them seems like it would be easier to impliment. Hiring a few Adventurers to act as military instructors has worked well in the past training the city guard, we could put the prior experience of having them as trainers to good use. Having a small elite cadre means we can push the envelope crafting the best enchantments possible for them, helping pave the way to stronger enchantments, which we can later sell.

[ ] Adventurer's Sector. With both the individual power of many Adventurers, and the fact that the majority of our cities services are focused around getting money from them, close connections with the local heroes can only prove to be good.

With our city guard, military, and a good chunk of our economy benefiting from Adventurers, it only makes sense to encourage their effors, not only will this bring in more people to spend money and take up adventures, but this would also get us access to better heroes we can hire to train the guard and military. Also this works well with our adventures bonus.

 

[Jiven]

[X] Commandos : Sword Magi are already proving to be far more deadly and skilled then normal mages, and with the other advanced applications of the arts of both magic and combat developed in other cities it's unlikely they will be the only advanced class discovered. As proven by the effectiveness of heroes, small groups of highly skilled and equipped elites can be very deadly, when properly used.

[X] Don't Move. While it would be somewhat expensive to expand the current facilities, so would moving the operations somewhere else, and the current location of the city government is nice and neutrally located.

 

[Carrnage]

[X] Mage Army. Make the entire army consist mainly of mages, making it be small but to have extreme magical power and high amounts of artifice.

[X] Expand the Guild Hall. The mages already rule the city anyway, we may as well simply combine the two buildings for ease of governance.

 

[Darik29]

[X] Commandos : Sword Magi are already proving to be far more deadly and skilled then normal mages, and with the other advanced applications of the arts of both magic and combat developed in other cities it's unlikely they will be the only advanced class discovered. As proven by the effectiveness of heroes, small groups of highly skilled and equipped elites can be very deadly, when properly used.

[X] Adventurer's Sector. With both the individual power of many Adventurers, and the fact that the majority of our cities services are focused around getting money from them, close connections with the local heroes can only prove to be good.

 

[Biigoh]

[X] Upgrade and Restructure: Sword Magi
While the Sword Magi are certainly more deadly and skilled than normal mages OR armed soldiers. However, there in lies a problem; elite units while powerful and focused could only be deployed in so many places at any given time without their efficiency being lost. Thus, it behooves that when creating elite units that the support units of ordinary swordsmen and "ordinary" battlemages are encouraged to work together with said elite units as battle support; swordsmen as barrier and shield units, battlemages as artillery, and sword magi as commanders that sling spells as easily as they swing a sword.

In addition, it also helps to continue recruitment of both swordsmen and battlemages, with incentives being given to both sides if they attempt to upgrade to Sword Magi.

[X] Upgrade: City Hall and Guild Hall
While it could be easier to simply combine the two buildings or even leave them as they were. The best solution is not to affect things if they worked and they did. Thus, rather than combining or leaving as they were. Upgrade (make larger and taller) the current central governce building, so they can better handle paperwork, as well as upgrade the guild hall by building upwards and outwards. This allows the mages to do what they do best and the bureaucrats to do what they need to do.

 

[Latewave]

Plan Bii

 

[Wing101]

[X] Upgrade and Restructure: Sword Magi
While the Sword Magi are certainly more deadly and skilled than normal mages OR armed soldiers. However, there in lies a problem; elite units while powerful and focused could only be deployed in so many places at any given time without their efficiency being lost. Thus, it behooves that when creating elite units that the support units of ordinary swordsmen and "ordinary" battlemages are encouraged to work together with said elite units as battle support; swordsmen as barrier and shield units, battlemages as artillery, and sword magi as commanders that sling spells as easily as they swing a sword.

In addition, it also helps to continue recruitment of both swordsmen and battlemages, with incentives being given to both sides if they attempt to upgrade to Sword Magi.

[X] Upgrade: City Hall and Guild Hall
While it could be easier to simply combine the two buildings or even leave them as they were. The best solution is not to affect things if they worked and they did. Thus, rather than combining or leaving as they were. Upgrade (make larger and taller) the current central governce building, so they can better handle paperwork, as well as upgrade the guild hall by building upwards and outwards. This allows the mages to do what they do best and the bureaucrats to do what they need to do.

 

[hunter09]

Plan Bii