Town Builder - 96 - State of Affairs

Just back from my 3 days in Maine/New Hampshire and lots of driving. This is last weeks Town Builder that I just ran through Grammarly. I still owe one Town Builder and 2 Seraphim Soldiers for this week that ends tomorrow.

Chapter 96: State Of Affairs

The streets of Malcum were lively, and the NPCs acted like their lives had not just been threatened two days ago. The successful defense gave a temporary moral boost, but my NPC morale was already at its maximum. So far, my NPCs in Malcum had been largely shielded from negative events. The other three towns in the Duchy had positive morale, but not close to maximum. 

I walked through the trade district and noted players running about as if every quest they were undertaking was a life-and-death matter. Some players were enjoying shopping and eating at the street vendors. It felt like a proper, diverse fantasy city with the variety of races. 

I didn’t get close to the Adventurer’s Guild but observed from a distance. It was by far the busiest building in the city. With the recent expansion, players had a large array of quests to choose from and training for basic skills. Neral, the Guildmaster, still helped us cheat by supplying me with the best chain quests that I passed on to Mad Dog to have one of the Silver Linings Playbook’s members pick up. I checked on Simba, who was outside of Malcum at one of the farms doing a tier two quest. Even though he was still slowly progressing excruciatingly, my adventure tier had ranked up. Simba’s level also now matched my own at level 42, and he had not even approached me to thank me. 

I walked across the bridge over the crescent lake to the industrial district. There were half a dozen fishing boats on either side of the bridge. I passed two town guards and quickly confirmed that were spawned guards with no AI. There must have been a sound buffer, because halfway across the bridge, the sounds of industry intensified. Breda had moved all industries with offensive smells, or that were loud to this side of the lake. 

I entered a workshop with stretched leathers in the courtyard. Curraen immediately stopped what he was doing to greet me. The powerful elf flashed a broad smile. “Lord Tallis! How can I assist you today?” A player who was working with Curraen's son widened his eyes in surprise at hearing my name. He seemed torn between running away and staying to listen. From his expression, I could tell he was spreading the word in his interface. I wasn't exactly disguised, but people could not use their analysis skills on me due to the mask of the Sullen god, so I had general anonymity.

“I am just checking in on some old friends,” I said amiably. “How is your work going?”

With a crooked smile, he answered. “The leather workers guild has grown to seven members—three of us are master level!” His stained hand indicated his son, “My eldest son will be taking the expert test soon. He was invaluable in the recent Incursion defense of Malcum.”

Curraen was the Guildmaster of the leather workers, so I didn’t see his son failing his test; however, nepotism might not be an NPC trait. Curious, it took me a moment to sort through the interface and display statistics from the Incursion. Curraen’s son killed two infantry gorillas but ranked near the bottom in damage dealt, so probably two opportunistic kills. Galana’s militia of NPCs manned the walls during the Incursion and only engaged when the enemy entered the city. 

I quickly checked the other two master leather workers in my interface. I employed Curraen directly, while the other two masters operated independently. One accepted only specialty requests in Phoenix’s Rest, and the other master produced non-armor items such as saddles and belts in Plainsrider. Both had arrived through immigration and not through the NPC auction. That was remarkable in itself, and the only negative was that I couldn’t manipulate the NPC in my interface at all and couldn’t even tell if they offered any quests.

I was fairly certain the only reason I was aware of their presence was that Curraen was the Guildmaster of the leatherworkers' guild. Almost all my recruited NPCs ran the profession guilds in the Duchy. Some, like candlemakers and coopers, were immigrated NPCs, and checking, I confirmed that I couldn’t see anything under the tabs for those guilds. It was interesting that there was a ‘fog of war’ on information. I sent a note off to Mad Dog to look into it.

Curraen gave me a beautiful pair of riding boots before I left, and I thanked him by granting him a title. ‘Friend of the Duchy’ provided a 10% bonus reaction with citizens of the Duchy. I primarily gave it to him to see if NPCs could be awarded this title, and they could. After that, I visited my other long-tenured NPCs.

Manarag, my panther catkin blacksmith, was not as congenial as Curraen on my visit. He was the Guildmaster of the blacksmiths' guild, which encompassed all metalworking professions. I had not realized that encompassed the machinists in Goatyah who worked on the skyships. Apparently, there was some friction between the blacksmiths and machinists. I solved the problem on the spot by spinning off the machinists into an engineering guild and putting Danny in charge of it for now. That didn’t boost my morale with Manarag, but he was less passive-aggressive as we discussed repairing and supplying weapons and armor to the army.

From there, I spoke with the orc matron Kytalia, the master of all guilds. She was responsible for balancing the NPCs for harvesting, production, and selling. Her job expanded massively when we became a Duchy, and her biggest headache was the unknown factors of foreign merchants and players bringing in large volumes of goods to sell, crashing micro markets briefly. 

We discussed expanding the guilds, and her only concern was creating professional guilds without a competent Guildmaster with integrity. I had not been aware, but the cobbler Guildmaster had stolen dozens of gold from its members that should have been paid in taxes to the Duchy. I sent a note to Black Beauty about this NPC crime since she controlled the spy network. She replied back quickly that she was already aware of the incident. 

I went through all the industries, talking to the NPCs in charge. Right now, the most profitable line was the paper mills creating runic paper, which was turned into skill and spell books to sell to players. These books were a shortcut for wealthier players to not have to find a spell trainer and to level up their skill without putting in the work.

The industrial sprawl had extended all the way to the copper mines, and I still found it amusing that players would get arrested just to learn and quickly level up their mining skill. The mines were my last stop before I headed to the upper city.

I met with Tanguin and Galana next. My two giantkin controlled the army and city guards respectively. Galana had no issues since she had control of the NPC buildings that spawned NPC guards, and her other NPC guards and detectives were growing with the population. It was actually one of Galana’s gnome detectives who discovered the elf Guildmaster cobbler skimming taxes.

Tanguin seemed reluctant to broach a subject but eventually got the courage. “Lord Tallis, we lost a number of valiant soldiers in the last conflict. We are replenishing our ranks with—less than desirable warriors. Could you build us a spawning barracks like you did for the city guard and skyships?”

I checked my interface to get a clear idea of the picture. The truth was maintaining such a large force for such a small population was expensive. If it hadn’t been for selling drafting plans, I would have gone bankrupt long ago. Now I had industries in Malcum and recently a steady flow of coin from the dungeon and player quests.

I now had a strong enough grasp of ritual enchanting to understand that the cost in essences for a building capable of spawning soldiers would be immense, especially if they had a modest level. Even the small specialty guard buildings required a lot of resources. I didn’t want to disappoint my general. “What exactly are you looking for?”

The massive fire giant chewed his lip, reluctant to speak. “I think a thousand giantkin infantry would carry us through,” he said hesitantly. I had to chuckle at the request. “Go big or go home,” he retorted and eyed Galana.

I tried to describe it to him from my viewpoint. “I do not think the investment would be a good investment for the Duchy. Their levels would always be fixed—and with such a large number, the level would be low.”

My general seemed to digest the words. “What about an elite unit? Something like the skyship marines that can be reassigned?” That was not a terrible idea. Spawning NPCs could not travel far from their origins, but the marines could be assigned to the skyship as their origin. I brought up the plans that spawned the marines to review them.

“Eternal” Epic Secret Cavern Naval Base, Health: 5,000,000. Requirements: Stone Magic: 43 Woodcraft Carpentry 23, Masonry Foundations 43, Masonry Structures 43, Ritual Magic 43. Spawns 50 Level 50 Marines (one every 24 hours), Special Effect: All ships docked inside recover 5% hull/day. Special Effect: Illusionary Entrance, Weapon Hardpoints: 4, Structure Regenerates 1% health every 24 hours (stacks with similar effects)

The naval base was a huge, ongoing project that was set to consume a lot of resources. I had been negligent in helping Sanso work on it with everything that was happening and planned to remedy that. Looking at the ritual runes in the plans for the marines, I started to understand how I had made it work. If a spawned marine wandered too far from their assigned skyship, they would likely take escalating damage and die. They would then respawn in the naval base. 

How far could an elite army force tethered to a building range beyond the Duchy? What could it be tethered to to do so? I gave Tanguin a cautious reply. “It could be possible. I need to think about it.” He received my reply with a broad grin.

Galana was a little more smug, “See, all you had to do was ask.” She slapped Tanguin hard on the back and made him stumble. Galana had reached level 75, while Tanguin was 82, but it was clear Galana was more of a strength focus in her class.

The rest of my stops in Malcum went a lot quicker. Since I also had a few players trailing me, I summoned my bodyguard, Yorick, so I would not be harassed and could leave the city without being followed. I rode Titan to Goatyah to check on things there. I met Danny and Ghostly Mermaid and snuck up to the secret dry dock.

The Eternal Legacy skyship was progressing well and appeared mostly assembled since Danny had her NPCs returned. It was an impressive vessel, but it lacked weapons and was relatively slow-moving. We moved into the hollowed-out mountain to find it well-lit, with Sanso diligently working to expand the cavern. The Naval Scoutship drydock was half complete.

“Eternal” Rare Naval Scoutship Dry Dock, Health 200,000, Requires Masonry Foundations 23, Woodcraft: Carpentry 23, Ritual Enchanting 23. Bonus: +25% speed to all skyships built. +10% hull health to all skyships built. Bonus: Structure Regenerates 1% health every 24 hours (stacks with similar effects)

“We are fabricating all the parts for the ship. We just need the drydock for the eventual assembly,” Danny said proudly. She was still upset about having to give her first skyship to Eternal Legacy after they kidnapped her NPCs, but I assured her we would get revenge in the Grand War. Our ship would be faster and much better armed when it came time for the games.

I had so many things that needed my attention but Sanso would need my help to complete this naval yard so the dry dock could be complete. Maybe Jaesmin and Joy would want to spend two weeks here and help push this project to completion. I toured the rest of Goatyah before returning to Malcum.

Jaesmin was not in the Lord’s Manor, and I discovered it was her turn for a dungeon run. I felt confused when I entered my drafting room. A thick rolled-up paper and a small vial of sparkling dust dominated my workspace. There was also a note from Jaesmin. 

The Matriarch dropped these off.

I unfurled the paper, and a grin spread across my face. I had completely forgotten about the terms. I went to my interface to confirm the event had occurred, sifting through world announcements. There it was: a player had drafted a set of legendary building plans and received the accolade for it. Now that a player had accomplished this, my legendary library plans had been returned to me. The sparkling vial must be the divine dust that Jaesmin had collected—it was a legendary ingredient for alchemy and artificing. I sensed I was too weak to use in my ritual enchanting.

I reviewed the library plans. They had been downgraded to epic until someone else had crafted a legendary item. Apparently, it had to be a legendary building plan, as I knew there had already been both a legendary potion and legendary boots crafted by players. It shouldn’t take much to convert the work done on the epic library to this legendary variant.

Legendary Grand Library of the Sullen God, Health 750,000 Requirements to build: Woodcraft: Carpentry 43, Masonry Foundations 43, Masonry Structures 67, Arborist 23, City Bonus: +50% learning skill growth of NPC city occupants, Bonus +100% skill advancement from manuscripts, Special Effect: Structure recovers 1% health/day

If we completed this library, players from around the game world would come to Malcum to use their skill books. It would be silly to waste a master level skill book to only get +1 to a skill when there was an option to get +2 sill points. The epic version of the library plans skill had this benefit but dropped the NPC skill growth.

Epic Grand Library, Health 500,000 Bonus, +100% skill advancement from manuscripts, Requirements to build: Woodcraft: Carpentry 43, Masonry Foundations 43, Masonry Structures 67, Arborist 23

Strangely, the resources required to build the legendary version were not that much more significant. Maybe they would have been before I had accumulated a stockpile of essences, but now it made sense to convert the current build progress toward the legendary variant. We would only lose a little progress.

Since I had a quest tied to its completion, I went to confirm with Kuba that the switch was agreeable to him. I would have hated to switch over, only to discover my grand master archeologist leaving Malcum due to a failed quest.

His personal assistant gave me a smirk as I entered his office. “Felona, can I meet with Kuba?”

“Only if you pay the toll, Lord Tallis,” the succubus assistant said in her sultry voice.

“Felona!” Kuba’s voice echoed from his office. “Show in Lord Tallis!” I probably should have just used my interface to summon him. His temporary office was a mess, but the old man moved spryly as he greeted me. “Come to check on my progress?”

“Your staff has been doing a great job with the skill books. I actually came to see if we can modify our agreement.” His expression immediately turned dark. “After I present my offer, we can still maintain the original offer if you do no approve.” Kuba slowly nodded and waved Felona away.

I handed him the legendary plans. “I would like to make these modifications to your future library.” He unrolled the plans, skepticism on his face. It immediately turned into a grin as he identified them.

“Any other changes you wish to make to our agreement?” he asked cautiously, still reviewing the plans. 

Was he trying to trick me? “No, just the building. Maybe give me another 30 days?”

Kuba was already nodding when I received the quest notification update. My relationship with Kuba even improved slightly. We briefly discussed the shortage of tier three runic paper needed to create master-level skill books before I left. The only solution was either to draft a specialty building or have one of the two papermakers drastically increase their skill level.

With the extension on the Grand Library confirmed, I could secretly shift more builders to the naval base project. The ballista towers for Phoenix’s Rest remained a priority before the next Incursion, but I wanted to begin work on the skyship drydock. When Jaesmin returned from her dungeon run, I took her and Joy to Goatyah to join the workforce. Mad Dog stayed back to hold down the Duchy while I worked in secret with nine other NPCs. I had a small drafting station in the cavern but only focused on drafting plans for the player auction.

It took twenty-two days, Sanso working double shifts, and Mad Dog putting out dozens of fires in the Duchy before the naval yard was completed. Danny, Ghostly Mermaid, Jaesmin, Joy, and the other NPCs stood proudly in the center of the massive artificial cavern. “See, it took half the time you thought it would, Sanso!”

The earth elementalkin gave me a sidelong glance. I had given him just about every reward I could to motivate him. Our relationship had still dropped slightly as I pushed him over the three weeks. He could have a few days rest for the moment. The NPC auction was concluding in three days, and three days beyond that, the next Incursion was coming. 

Before leaving the cavern, I identified the space and the drydock as the first marine spawned.

“Eternal” Epic Secret Cavern Naval Base, Health: 7,750,000. Spawns 50 Level 77 Marines (one every 24 hours), Special Effect: All ships docked inside recover 5% hull/day. Special Effect: Illusionary Entrance, Weapon Hardpoints: 4, Structure Regenerates 1% health every 24 hours (stacks with similar effects)

“Eternal” Rare Naval Scoutship Dry Dock, Health 300,000, Bonus: +37% speed to all skyships built. +15% hull health to all skyships built. Bonus: Structure Regenerates 1% health every 24 hours (stacks with similar effects)

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