Re: Solo Missions
Yurkal’s Mining Expedition
The following Skype transcript covers events between Mirtul 12 and Mirtul 29. It starts just after the group returned successfully from Hardbuckler, and finishes with Yurkal, Taeghen, and Obar returning to Hill's Edge after siting an iron mine in the plains.
DM: Are you going to leave Jindir with Porsevere for studding?
Yurkal: If she lends me a medium or light warhorse for the prospecting, then yes.
DM: She'll loan you a light warhorse, but gives you several blood-curdling threats of what she'll do to you if you don't bring it back in pristine condition. The woman takes horses *seriously*.
Yurkal: Well, Yurkal makes it clear as well that he expects no harm to Jindir.....
DM: She just looks at you. "He'll be having a grand old time for a stallion."
Yurkal: ....
DM: Okay, in order:
DM: Ildis is heading back across the river and to the northwest. You're staying on this side of the river and heading northeast. So your paths don't cross.
Yurkal: Alright, then Yurkal wishes a good and safe journey to him before he departs.
DM: Finius II [talking about Sakr]: "He's…" he searches for a proper word. "Slimy."
Yurkal: "Aahh, yes, if you want to put it like this. You should join an evening feast in one of the noble families in Calimshan. You would love it." Yurkal replies with a smile.
DM: Finius shrugs. "He's your partner. We're ready to move out when you have a site." He doesn't ask if you have one already. "I even found some gnomish smelters who are willing to smelt our ore in exchange for the slag."
(This is a standard practice: they'll resmelt it later and get more iron, but you'll get most of it)
Yurkal: "This sounds good. I willbe leaving tomorrow with the soldiers and five or six of the miners. We take enough material with us to establish a small camp once we found a site. Then we send message that you shall move and find us."
DM: "You're taking them all prospecting with you?"
Yurkal: "Well, i will take the ten mercenaries suited for heavy fighting with me, as well as a few miners. After our recent experiences out in the wild, everything else wouldbe foolhearted."
DM: "It's not exactly subtle, but very well." Finius shrugs. "They'll be ready."
Yurkal: (ooc: even Yurkal considers it too risky to move out with two or three mercs alone - the thunderbeasts and margoyles told him a lesson...)
DM: True, but you're sticking closer to home this time. But either way is fine. They've got food and they're your mercs.
DM: Ameena gives you a quick update on the hirelings, who all seem competent and no more drunken than you would expect for a frontier mining town
Yurkal: "Have them ready for departure in the morning, with enough provisions and Food for three tendays." Yurkal replies. "And here," he tosses the 800 Gold pieces over to Finius "use this and gather as many usable People and eventual soldiers in my Absence as possible. o mercenaries, People who Need a new start, preferably those having been mistreated by Zhent activities."
Finius blinks at you. "What kinds of people? For what? Doing what? Staying where?"
Yurkal: "Make contact to People having lost businesses, lost their homes, have lost dear Family members to zehnt activities. Not hire them outright. Offer Support to them. And let them know that we will Need honest and true hearted men and women for the mining camp we will establish around the mine. Also check for Young men like you, looking for a career as soldier under my guidance. I will see to get approval for this by your Family once I return. You know this town and many of its People. Also ask your Father and uncles. They will know such People as well." He steps closer towards Finius "we have a Mission, my Young friend. And this Mission will not end before the last Zhent has either been hanged for his crimes or chased out of town."
Yurkal: (ooc: Yurkal knows perfectly well that this will probably be his lifetime objective....)
DM: "The Zhents bring in a lot of trade, and they're careful to avoid bloodshed in the streets. They aren't liked, but they are respected, and more people have had their lives enhanced than broken by them." Finius smiles slightly. "And many of the misfortunes that do occur in a city like this could just as easily be Beshaba laughing as something organized."
Yurkal: "I Know, but I do think that you understand well what I mean. I know practises like this all too well from my home. Evil does not always Show itself openly and is difficult to spot for the untrained. But let me tell you a sentence from one of my wisest teachers, a Grand Knight of Tyr: ‘The biggest weapon of evil men, is the inactivity of the good men and the results of it.’ Consult your uncles and father. They know how People like the Zhents work - and you know as well."
DM: Okay, speaking as DM here, I need some guidance because I'm lost on this. Just what are you trying to do?
Yurkal: Yurkal tries to gather all kinds of usable People to "invite" into his mining camp. like Ildis for example. He is one Person Yurkal would like to work with or hire. his Job prevents him from doing so, but otherwise ildis would for sure be loyal to someone moving against zhents if treated fair. Finius shall ask his uncles for suitable other People like this, which might Need a new home like families having lost the father, Young Boys / men lost their parents due to Monster raids.....
Yurkal plans to be a protector of the poor and weak in his site for the mine, once it has been established. And he also wants to have some soldiers trained and swon to him, not only mercs.
In short: if the roustinghorns agree, he is preparing to found a fief around his mining site. I know the Problems there, but Yurkal is very ambitous and quite positive on things like this.
DM: Okay, that makes a bit more sense. You realize that if you don't manage to find a motherlode, you're going to run out of mine eventually
Yurkal: Pah, Yurkal will find the mother of all loads ;) LOL
Seriously, Yurkal knows this as skilled miner. But this is also the reason why he takes the Maximum time he can to find the best possible lode. And once this lode is being worked, he will begin securing other lodes to maintain stable flow of ore.
DM: Which brings us to the prospecting part of the trip. You do realize that if you take three weeks (21 days), you're going to have about another 20 days of actual mining before you're bankrupt, right?
Yurkal: Well, if I Count in the additional 800 Gold gained from selling the staff, we have a bit more, right?
DM: Assuming you don't just give it to Finius for your other project? It gets you 17 days.
Yurkal: I gave it to Finius to be able to Support People, not to spend 800 Gold on throwing out to beggars and orphants ;) Finius shall see that he keeps enough Gold to sustain us another 45 days after prospecting. the rest he can spend as aid on the Project.
DM: Wait, what? No, there's not enough gold there.
Yurkal: ?
DM: You're spending 1,401 gold/month on food and wages. You've already had your people on hire for 10 days
You're down to 43 days of funding right now, and you don't have a mine site. That's before adding the 800 gp. And remember you promised Sakr that neither of you would invest more money in the mine without written consent of the other If you're planning on taking 21 days for a prospecting trip, you'll have 22 days of funding left.
And it's going to take some number of days just to reach the vein before you can start pulling ore out
Yurkal: That is the Point i just wanted to Highlight. if sakr agrees.....
DM: He'll let you put more money in, but not change the percent ownership
Yurkal: Not on the mine, but i have the General rule on the site and thr rights of Taxation for trade should it come up. ;) (OOC: sheesh I am way more calishite than i thought ) ownership is equal on the mine itself.
DM: not following
Yurkal: you or sakr?
DM: me
Yurkal: well, Yurkal invests more, so if any trade other than the mining Comes up,
Yurkal is the benefitting from it, not sakr. Also Sakr has no right or anything outside the direct mining Business.
DM: That was understood from the start. Not that there's anything coming down from the north, except occasionally hordes of goblins
Yurkal: see, thats Yurkals Business anyway not sakrs ;)
Yurkal is making the Point in the direction that if a fief really develops around the mine, it is HIS fief, and not his and sakrs. For this he is willing to spend more Gold. Also he has a Long term Goal besides just making Money.
DM: Sure, okay. Sakr's focus is the mine and what's needed to support it. So if you want to put more money in, that's fine with him.
Yurkal: And Yurkal’s seeing the bigger Picture. ideally viewing him to raise an army of loyal followers to wipe out the zhents in hill's edge.
DM: Okay, so you put the 800 gold into the mining fund. You now have 60 days of funding remaining. And the fief-dom thing is more or less on hold (from Finius's perspective).
Yurkal: OK, i had not checked the numbers, my bad. But he shall still gather suitable Information.
DM: Which he?
Yurkal: Finius ;) mainly to make him stay in hill's edge and not have him out in the wild to follow the promise to his father.
DM: Uh, no. Without any resources, Finius refuses to stay behind. He says he didn't become your squire to twiddle his thumbs
Yurkal: OOC: darn, stubborn lil guy ;) )
DM: Yes. He also says that if you're taking the rest of the fighters, you should take him, who can fight just as well as they can.
Yurkal: Yurkal Looks directly into Finius eyes. "Alright my Young friend. be it as you said." he says. "Ready the men and Equipment for departure tomorrow morning. We will set a base camp out in the plains, from which we take the prospecting. You will be in Charge of the camp in my Absence, with Ameena as your right Hand."
Finius nods. "We'll be there."
DM: Okay, prospecting trip. So we'll end up saying that your first spot is about forty miles northeast of Hill's Edge, but it takes you about three days of riding to find a spot you think is worth spending the time on
Yurkal: Okay. Still Close to the river?
DM: Relatively. Maybe two and a half miles inland to the east.
Yurkal: Okay
DM: Go ahead and roll your mining check for the prospecting
Yurkal: It takes him a while, but on check three he scored a 1 - pretty much the best possible. the other two will have failed since he has skill 10
DM: So you don't think there's anything at the first site, pack up and move to another site a few miles further north, spend another seven days prospecting, and can't find anything there either
Finally you move another few miles away, your followers starting to grumble, and finally manage to find a site you're sure has iron under it. During all of this, you don't attract that much attention. There are other prospectors wandering north or south, and several caravans coming down from the north
You had to move further inland to find your spot; you're three miles from the river and maybe forty three from Hill's Edge
Yurkal: Once the site is found, Yurkal immediately orders all necessary steps to be undertaken. The site first and foremost Needs to be secured from predators and raids. at the same time a well has to be dug. Taeghen for sure wouldbe of aid here as well.
DM: Right. And sending back for the rest of the miners
Yurkal: err, i thought we had them with us?
DM: You said just take 5 or 6, and half the guards. And that's not even getting into the support staff. Cooks, blacksmiths, carpenters, etc. You left most of the group back in Hill's Edge
Yurkal: misexpressed eventually: when he said to Finius to ready all the men and Equipment i meant ALL the men and Equipment. if finius is with us, we would want to be as big a Group as possible. but as said, expressed weak.
DM: Okay. You get a later start than you planned, because Finius understood just the group you originally meant. So it takes several hours to track the rest of the people down, buy supplies, etc. You leave around noon. And learn not to assume
DM: I'm going to say it takes 1d6 days to get the mine head started and dug down to the ore
You're in luck: 2 days
Yurkal: nice
DM: Note that there are no trees anywhere around. You're not going to be able to build in wood without importing it. Or use it for mine supports without the same. You have enough to get the mine started, but not very much more.
Yurkal: Once the first ore is coming out, Yurkal will have the mining overseer assist him to ratify the Quality of the ore.
DM: The two of you hunker down over fires of beech wood and strips of treated paper, and fairly soon have a decent idea of the ore's quality: decent. Not bad, not great, more or less middle of the road ore
Yurkal: Good. but worth mining ?
DM: Yes
Yurkal: So on the dwarven table, like 4, 5 6 ??
DM: Something like that, yeah
Sakr, meanwhile, has been methodically setting up the mining camp. Siting tents, digging wells, digging latrines well away from the wells, establishing the commisary, etc. He seems to have things well in hand
The gnomish smelters remained behind in Hill's Edge, but you send word to them once you start pulling ore out of the ground.
Yurkal: Ok, good. On patrols within 1-2 hours of the site, are there any Monster tracks or similar?
DM: There are all kinds of tracks going in all kinds of directions, but nothing seems very recent
By the way, the ore seems to be running East-West. It's descending shallowly to the east, and going straight west.
Yurkal: This is what i meant. Yurkal will, as soon as he sees the main camp is orderly fnctioning, begin to look for further spots to mine until he detects a mother lode, securing years of mining, not only a few months. Or something Close to a mother lode.....
DM: You can't detect a mother lode. You can only hope to stumble across one. You don't have any idea how much iron would be in a mine unless you have some serious magic to bring to the effort. You can keep prospecting if you like, though the rest of the group might head off and do other things while you do
Yurkal: Yurkal will, in a second step, order a large area to be Setup and protected in the same way as the main camp, so he can give shelter to bypassing Caravans.
DM: The only caravans coming from the north would be Zhents coming out of Yellow Snake Pass
Yurkal: hrmmmm. tempting. but even Yurkal is not that stupid...... i mean to attack them or similar. Okay, but if Caravans are spotted, they are closely watched to avoid sudden attacks or similar.
DM: Right. That's easily enough done. The Zhents have closed the Pass to non-Zhent traffic
When do you head back to Hill's Edge, or do you try to get the group to meet you at your mine? Sakr comes and tells you he has things under control the day they start pulling ore out of the ground
Yurkal: Ok, so i wait until this hppens, then depart back towards Hill's Edge as fast as possible. I will let Sakr know that Finius is in Charge of all my mercenaries etc. and that Ameena is his right hand. Ameena is told to watch nothing happens to finius, and to watch Sakrs activities also closely. Back in Hill’s Edge I will inform the smelters where the mining site is. and also inform the Roustinghorns we have been successful.