Beastborne
Page 55
But anything that would help with Settlement building? That was practically all they were doing.
[Settlement Archetype]
Founding 1/1
The Founding perk grants a temporary buff known as “Founder’s Day,” which repeats once per year on the anniversary of this perk’s attainment. The initial “Founder’s Day” buff lasts for three days. Every year the settlement remains the “Founder’s Day” buff grows in strength.
Changes settlement type to outpost.
Unlocks Research Points.
Unlocks Manatree Control.
Unlocks Morale.
Grants Tier I Building Schematics.
Allows the formation of Gatherer & Crafter Bands.
Staging Points 0/1
Staging Points allow for the assembly of materials in an area near the construction zone rather than taking each of the required materials from storage and bringing them to the construction site to build on-demand.
Setting up these locations takes time and resources, but reduces the cost of constructing additional buildings in the area.
Unlocks Staging Points.
Staging Point
Allows for the swift construction and collection of materials to a specific location, reducing the CP cost of all constructed buildings within a quarter-mile by 10%.
Materials
Wood: 2t
Parameters
HP: 100
DEF: 0
MDEF: 0
Construction
Cost: 200
Difficulty: 1
Worker Limit: 10
Encampment 0/1
By dedicating your group to a given area and resting in it for at least a single night, you have begun to put down roots. An encampment is a higher tier Settlement type than an Outpost and provides access to new Building Schematics as well as reducing the Morale penalty of an outpost.
Changes Settlement type to encampment.
Grants additional Tier I Building Schematics.
Encampment
Consumption: +5%
Production: -5%
Influence Area: -15%
Settlement Morale: -35%
Research Points: -35%
Hal’s eyes lit up at the Encampment perk. While Staging Point would no doubt be useful, it cost CP and materials to set up. Not only that, but its reduction was 10%.
From what Hal could gather, Morale directly impacted CP generation. Every point of Morale was a direct 1% increase to CP. He was sure it impacted other facets of the Settlement as well but CP was the most important for the time being.
And while reducing the cost of nearby constructions by 10%, the Encampment perk would halve their losses on combined production and consumption. And the Morale penalty was 15% less than an outpost.
Which meant that technically, by upgrading to an encampment they were getting a lot more out of the deal than building Staging Points.
Provided nothing better showed up when they reached Guild Level 4, Hal would get the Staging Point perk. For now, the Encampment perk was too useful.
Selecting the perk and confirming its allocation, Hal was greeted with another notification.
Settlement Type
Encampment
Consumption: +5%
Production: -5%
Influence Area: -15%
Settlement Morale: +65%
Research Points: -35%
New Building Schematics Unlocked: Specialized Buildings.
Workshop
Housing readily accessible tools and supplies with its own storage for both, a Workshop makes crafting easier while keeping the workers out of inclement weather. Workshops are capable of being upgraded and specialized but doing so makes them less useful to other crafting disciplines.
Workshops are Tier I buildings, to upgrade to a specialized Tier II building the Settlement must be Village or higher.
Materials
Wood: 8t
Stone: 3t
Parameters
HP: 500
DEF: 15
MDEF: 15
Occupancy: 5
CP Generation: +15%
Construction
Cost: 320
Difficulty: 3
Worker Limit: 5
Study
Studying and learning are difficult to do out where distractions abound. A Study isn’t quite a Library but it is the first step toward one. A Study provides a safe, comfortable, and clean place to study and store knowledge. It is here that Research Points can be gained and new knowledge committed to books and scrolls for future use.
Like Workshops, Studies can be upgraded along specific paths to facilitate the learning and teaching of specific skills. A Settlement must be Village or higher in order to progress a Study along a specific upgrade path.
Materials
Wood: 12t
Stone: 5t
Parameters
HP: 550
DEF: 30
MDEF: 30
Occupancy: 12
Research Point Generation: +10%
Construction
Cost: 550
Difficulty: 3
Worker Limit: 8
“These new buildings look amazing,” Hal said. “They’re pretty costly but they’re both upgradeable and the Study is the only one I’ve seen that has anything to do with Research Points.”
Noth looked over, then her eyes glazed a little as she saw the same menus he did. As part of the Council, she could see all the new Building Schematics as well, she just couldn’t order them to be built like Hal.
“You could have the Ironspines make that in a day or two,” Noth said once she took a moment to read over them. “I do not pretend to fully understand what this RP does, but the faster we get some research going the better I think. It cannot hurt to have a resource building up in the meantime and not everybody is suited for hard construction.”
Deep in thought, Hal leaned the chair back on two legs. He barely had any warning as the legs creaked ominously once again and then snapped. Instinctively, Hal reached out his arms and his essence-limbs sprang forth. Eldritch essence-laced limbs braced him like coiling clouds of dark mist illuminated within by flashes of red lightning.
He was on his feet before he even realized what he did.
Noth stared at him, startled. She sighed and put her chin in her palm, her elbow propped on the small table they were eating at. “I miss my wings.”
Hal dismissed the essence-limbs and gave her a sheepish look. “You don’t talk about your past much,” Hal pointed out.
She rolled one shoulder in a lazy shrug. “What is there to know? I Reaped souls, Hal. It wasn’t exactly a… how does the phrasing go, ‘a nine-to-five job’.”
“Still,” he pressed, “you don’t mention anything about it. Does it make you sad to think about what you were?”
Noth shot up suddenly like somebody had pricked her with a pin. Her golden eyes flashed to Hal, then away just as quickly. “It used to… but you were right.”
Hal leaned forward smugly with a wide grin. “Oh, do go on.”
That eased the tension that was rolling off Noth enough for her to shake her head at least, instead of refusing to meet his gaze. “I was immortal. I lived for millennia. Longer. And in less than a single turn of this world’s sun, I have felt more. Experienced more. Lived more than I ever did before.”
She tilted her head to look straight at him. “The measure of my years was long but they were empty. As you so eloquently put it to me once, it was not the quantity of my years that mattered, but the quality. And here… with you, with everybody? I finally have a home. I am happy.”
Noth’s gaze drifted from Hal, reaching over his shoulder to the unknown lands beyond the gap to their newfound home. “And I will never let anybody take this home away from us.”
94
The rest of the day was a blur of motion and activity.
In the end, the Ironspine Band managed to erect a total of 4 Earthen Bulwarks. The other Bands
working on the Earthen Bulwarks were less fortunate, but out of the other 2 Crafting Bands at the Gap, only one other Earthen Bulwark was put up.
That was one of the farthest east along the gap, the one that benefited the most from Hal’s increased Tactician skill. The only reason a single extra Earthen Bulwark was completed was because of the difference Hal made with the CP reducing adjustments to the layout and building plan.
The other 3 Earthen Bulwarks were completed in all but name. That night, when Hal had time alone to reflect and relax by the warm glow of a campfire just outside his wagon, he looked over the day’s earnings.
Each of the additional Earthen Bulwarks were off by such a small amount of CP that an hour or less of concerted effort would see their completion.
Almost all of the dwarves were in on the construction efforts, with assistance from some of Luda’s disciples. Another Crafting Band was assembled with the express instruction to find an adequate Quarry site and one for a Lumberjack’s Hut. Those, however, were less critical than the walls.
In fact, until Hal saw how large the gains were for joining the Ironspine Band, he was about to recall everybody who was focused on another task to join in the wall efforts.
But that was wholly unnecessary.
With Luda extending the Founder’s Day buffs, for more than a week everybody would get a massive 25% boost to both EXP and skill. And with so many people poorly skilled in Construction, it led to a series of fast skill ups within the first day alone.
Adding to that, Hal’s introduction of epiphanies to his Band meant that they Leveled Up quite a good deal faster.
On his own, Hal gained 4 total Levels of Bonecrafting taking it to Level 16. His newly acquired Construction hit Level 5, and he received a Level in Persuasion though he didn’t quite understand why.
With everybody’s Levels at such a low starting point, a single Level Up or two in Construction was practically a doubling of their base CP. The addition of tools, which were locked by Levels in Construction were soon becoming available.
By the end of the day, there were several dwarves who had proper iron tools, hammers, saws, and the like. Until that point, they had to make do with well-made but significantly weaker tools that barely were better than the sturdy folk’s hands.
Hal took a moment to look over his Construction skill:
Construction
Integral for any soul seeking to live with a roof over their head, Construction allows for the creation of assembled parts into a building or structure. In whole or in part, Construction requires the ability to properly read and understand Building Schematics in order to create a structure.
His CP went from 1.23 at Level 1 Construction up to 3.91 at Level 5. If everybody else in the Ironspine had a similar CP - and theirs would likely be higher given that many could equip the tools that were Level 7 and Level 8 respectively - that placed their base CP rate at nearly the same as their total augmented CP was earlier that day.
Each day they were able to keep the boosts from Founder’s Day and the Crafting Band buffs would see dramatic gains in skill and CP rate. Hal’s precaution of needing each person to build Earthern Bulwarks was all for naught.
The truth was, the Ironspine Band alone could cover the construction of each of the Earthen Bulwarks. If he and Noth once again lent them their aid, with a baseline of Hal’s CP growth as a metric, they could get 6 Earthern Bulwarks built tomorrow.
Added to the 5 already constructed that day, and they were practically halfway done after one night and two days. Even if they stayed at that pace, the Ironspines would be done in a few days tops.
His plan of making bone [Palisade Spikes] wasn’t a bad one, but it was also largely unnecessary. With the glut of CP they now had, Hal could prioritize certain structures that he was wary of building before.
Reaching out to his mug of hot tea resting dangerously close to the fire to ward off the chill of the night, Hal chuckled.
Clearly, an encampment Settlement wasn’t usually filled with so many sturdy dwarves to help with the construction. Hal couldn’t begin to imagine what this would be like without them.
If they had come here as they originally planned, if Murkmire hadn’t gone so horribly wrong and they felt forced to swing for the fences with that florking Coffin Contract….
Hal could only shake his head.
They would have numbered less than 20 people. Sure, they likely would have arrived in the Shiverglades much faster and through a potentially safer route. But he doubted they would have been able to keep what little land they managed to claim as their own.
Especially if this was the reception the Shiverglades gave its pioneers.
Sipping his still hot tea, Hal leaned back in his chair and crossed one ankle over the other. The encampment was still and quiet for once. Everybody who could work was doing just that.
Each and every person knew how much every bit of progress mattered. If they couldn’t get enough wood and stone for their construction efforts, they would be unable to use the superior CP granted to them.
Using his bone for the [Palisade Spikes] was a stop-gap. One that, if Hal was being honest with himself, was rather cool looking. The [Eldritch Palisade Spikes] were twisted about with deceptively sharp edges. White as marble but streaked with crimson glowing crystal, they made for a beautiful - if imposing - façade that would greet anybody coming to their new Settlement.
But Noth was right. She wasn’t being utilized to her full potential but he had to admit, he liked having her there. More than her quiet support and company, she helped him to think. He could talk about what he was planning and by discussing it with her, could arrive at a better solution than the one he originally planned on.
Everybody else in his usual group was busy with one task or another. He hadn’t seen Elora all day. Not since she left that note and those trinkets.
Her dwarven accomplice had been hard at work, however, and a full quarter of the Guild was equipped with the warming items. It wouldn’t last much longer into the winter, but Hal was hoping that they wouldn’t have to.
For now, they were good on food supplies and with their growing pool of CP, each person could have a small cabin to call their own. A Bunkhouse - despite its efficiency - wasn’t necessary. And that would only further mitigate the coming Morale crash.
Everything he was planning on doing was to blunt that issue when it came. And it would come. It was only through Luda’s gift that they could extend it beyond its initial window.
With its massive 75% effective CP increase, it was as if they had well over a hundred workers all striving to carve out a life here in this valley.
No doubt the higher Settlement Tiers would have outrageously expensive buildings that were on par with a larger population and skill Level than they had. But until that time, Hal could direct the flow of CP to make not only Earthen Bulwarks, but convert those already created into Palisades.
The beauty of a Palisade was that they could be erected after the Earthen Bulwark went up. He had tested it out just before they quit working that day. And to his great surprise, his Tactician skill worked as well.
Being partially made already, the Earthen Bulwark’s portion of the construction was deducted from the total of the Palisade’s cost. Resulting in a rather scant 150 CP cost.
Before Hal went to bed, he mentally organized the remaining Bands that were working at the Gap. Despite needing to leave the safety of the valley, he could not ignore the massive boost he provided the Ironspine Band.
The 15% epiphany chance alone was impossible to quantify as each time a person Leveled Up a crafting skill their CP rose which made the work go faster. And that made more people Level Up as each completion of a craft - or in the case of Construction, every 25% of the building’s completion - seemed to not only give a large amount of skill EXP but the chance for epiphany to trigger was fairly high as well.
Since the Ironspines were about the highest CP Crafting Band in the entire Guild, it would be up to the
m to make the Earthen Bulwarks largely on their own. That would give Hal the ability to enhance each new construction with Tactician.
At the same time, the other Crafting Bands could come after and with the [Eldritch Palisade Spikes] Hal created, could construct the Palisades over the newly created Earthen Bulwarks. Essentially upgrading their defenses immediately after creating them by layering the spikes vertically in front of the Earthern Bulwarks, turning the already sturdy wall into an even stronger Palisade.
Not to mention, Hal thought as he finished the last of his tea and kicked dirt over the dying flames of the campfire, it also allows me to double-dip Tactician.
He went to bed that night, considerably more relaxed than the night before.
95
Smack.
Smack. Smack.
Smack. Smack. Smack. Smack.
Hal started awake just as another tiny velvety brown paw swung at his face, smacking his cheek. He grumbled, recognizing Komachi instantly as she laid on his chest staring at him with those soulful dark eyes.
Realizing she succeeded in waking Hal up, she nodded sagely, said, “Komachi,” and then promptly smacked him again.
It didn’t hurt, her paw was so tiny and soft that it was almost like being tickled. “Komachi?” Hal asked muzzily.
“Elora is going to be gone for a little bit. She’s helping the sexy sneaky barbarian.”
Hal tried to work through what she was saying. “You mean, Elaise? Where have they gone?” A knot of worry began to grow in his stomach. While they didn’t necessarily need every person constructing at the moment, the very fact that Elora had gone off without saying anything was worrying.
And why with Elaise?
Elora’s familiar nodded. “Komachi,” she intoned.