When I had gotten back to the base, I had treated everyone to a large meal in celebration of my plan moving faster than anticipated, and it had certainly raised the mood quite a bit. Especially with our two new recruits, who have spent the day hard at work in the mine. Speaking of whom, they're starting to get accustomed to living here, even becoming more friendly with Gavnuk.
Speaking of Gavnuk, I need to find some more underlings for him on the construction side of things. Our small production of supports for the mine simply won't be sufficient enough when we begin to go large scale, so some helping hands will be greatly useful. I doubt that I'll just find some people with prior carpentry experience just sitting around waiting for me to recruit, the world wouldn't be that generous. But the homeless of Falkreath will provide a sufficient work force. Even if they're untrained, we can just teach them what they need to know, and if they ever express a desire to learn more from Gavnuk and I, that'll just make them more competent at their job.
Making a mental note to start searching later today, I continue to walk around the base looking for a very specific person. I glanced into the makeshift dining hall and made my way inside, swiftly making my way towards my target.
I patted him on the shoulder, "Morbrukk! Just the Orc I wanted to see! I got a task for you if you don't mind."
Morbrukk placed his food back down on the table and turned in his chair to look at me, "..what do you need?"
"While you're out hunting and scouting, be on the lookout for a large white elk, it's very important to the plan and I've found reliable information that it's in the forests of Falkreath."
"…you do know I only scout around the closest portion of the eastern part of the falkreath hold right? If it's on the west or even northern most side, I won't be able to look for it."
"Yes yes I know Morbrukk, but in the off chance that it does show up around here we'll need to be prepared."
"Understood, I'll make sure to keep an eye out."
I grinned, "Thanks Morbrukk, you're the best!"
He blinked and turned back to his food, seemingly uncaring. But I had an inkling that he was pleased, call it a gut feeling if you must. I made my way outside and covered the bright sun with my hand, shading my eyes from the glaring light. It looks to be about early morning, if I head out now I can get a head start on finding my future minions.
(Neyna)
"Good morning my Jarl."
Siddgeir ignored my greeting as he leisurely made his way down the steps, and took his place sitting on the throne, cheek resting on his closed hand. He took a small, deep breath, and exhaled.
"Thank you Neyna, as always. What's on the itinerary for today?"
"My pleasure my Jarl. Now, today will be mostly about discussing new guard rotations and training of the new guardsmen. We will also be discussing upcoming taxes and what we're going to use them for. Your Uncle has also expressed a desire to meet up with you, he wouldn't tell me what it was about but it sounded rather urgent."
"hahhhh….anything else?"
"We've been getting an increasing amount of concerned citizens requesting more guards to be stationed on the roads. Bandit activity has been increasing lately and they're worried that they won't be able to travel safely. Our merchants district is also worried about not receiving the supplies and coin that they need to stay in business."
"I'll see to it that Captain Melrun positions more guards along the roads, but all of them would be unreasonable. We'll station them along the more frequently used roads at key points."
"But my Jarl we have more than enough guards to-"
"The issue has already been addressed, Neyna. Was there anything else that we need to discuss or am I free to get started on my duties?"
"Well, there is one thing…"
"Speak, Neyna. I don't have all morning."
"It happened yesterday my Jarl. I had delivered our deal proposal to Amelia as instructed when I ran into Ragnar."
Siddgeir blinked, "…is that it?"
"I had assumed you would want to start the conversation about taxing him and his mining operation given that tax season is in the coming months."
"I had said it before, Neyna, we will wait until next month before we act."
"But Jarl Siddgei-"
"My mind is already made up Neyna, we can't let him get spooked this early into the operation, otherwise we'll have chased him away, and we'll lose out on getting quality silver to deal with the constant werebeasts."
"My Jarl, surely one of our citizens would want to continue the business if it came to that?"
"Be that as it may, if we allow Ragnar to continue his operation on his own, we won't need to station guardsmen there to protect the workers, as he is not an official Falkreath citizen."
"…as you say, my Jarl."
"Yes, yes. Now, is that all Stewardess?"
"That is all I have for you now my Jarl, I'll be sure to update you if something comes up."
"Excellent! Now, let's get the day started. You! Guardsman by the war room, go find Captain Melrun and get the gates open, merchantmen from Cyrodiil and Hammerfell will be pouring through the borders now that the season is starting to warm up again."
"Yes sir!"
"If you need me Neyna, I shall be in the conference room on the second floor."
"Understood my Jarl."
(Ragnar)
"Oh thank you! Thank you so much Mr. Ragnar! Blessings to Lady Mara for this wonderous day!"
"Yeah yeah no problem. Say, do you happen to know where there are other homeless people?"
"You would go so far to help people in need? You are truly a gift sent by Lady Mara. Yes, I know where there are other people like me. Follow me and I'll lead you to them!"
"Nice! Thanks man, really appreciate it."
"No no, it is I who should be thanking you Mr. Ragnar!"
Finding some homeless people wasn't as nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. Turns out, when your city is sandwiched between two mountains, and is in constant danger of werebeast attacks, there isn't a whole lot of room to expand your settlement. The only thing that the city could do was to make what houses they could build larger, in order to fit more families and people. But that means that there is a finite amount of housing to go around, and that will inevitably mean that there is a fair amount of homeless around.
Granted, Falkreath doesn't have the biggest population, so its homeless community is rather small, but those homeless people will stay homeless likely for the rest of their lives. With no job nor prior education or skills, there's no way for them to 'pick themselves up by the bootstraps,' as the saying goes.
Even so, there will be a substantial amount of homeless to add to my forces, and most will be coming in happy if I'm fortunate enough. And if I'm lucky, there will be those who are resentful enough to want to participate in my more…illegal operations. Those people will be sent to Umak to join our ever-growing forces, and if anyone asks ill just say they'll be trained to defend the fort. Which will actually be true to some degree, we will need forces stationed to defend the base.
"Just to be clear, you're fine with mining, carpentry, alchemy foraging, or otherwise right?"
"Sir, I'd be glad to do anything to get out being homeless."
"Good, good. I just wanted to make sure you knew what you and your friend will be signing up for."
"That's awfully kind of ya' boss."
(-)
"…boss."
"Yeah?"
"When you said you were getting help, I did not expect you to bring back 20 people!"
"Look I'm just as surprised as you are Gavnuk, but I couldn't just turn them all away, not when they were all right there."
I glanced back at the mass of hopeful homeless people waiting back at the entrance.
"Do you know how awkward it would be if I showed up, offered a way out, and only took like half, or even a quarter of the people here?"
"I mean, yeah that's fair, but that's not my concern boss."
"It's the food isn-"
"Your damn right it's the food! Sure, we'll have enough to feed this many people for one or two days, but what about after that?"
"Look I'll think of something, either I'll just spend more money on food or we can look into starting up a small farm. It'll be a bit of an investment but if we get started now it'll be up and running any day now."
"Do you have any idea how to farm?"
"…I'll look for books on it?"
Gavnuk started at me.
"Don't look at me like that!"
Gavnuk shook his head in exasperation.
"Looking past your careless decision,"
"OI!"
"having this many people will end up being a good thing in the end. Did you find out how many people want to do what?"
"Firstly, fuck you. Secondly, yeah, we discussed all of it on the way here. Six of them want to build with you, four of them would like to start mining, three of them want to gather materials with Umak, two wanted to hunt with Morbrukk, and the rest were undecided. Though, three of them seem like they could be…potential candidates for Guruk."
"I see, I'll go gather Umak and Morbrukk and we can introduce ourselves together as a group to the workers."
"And I'll go scouting for some good land to start a small farm."
"Oh no no no, you're not getting out of this easily. You can leave after we get everyone situated.
"When the hell did you become the boss Gavnuk?"
(-)
"Welcome to Dead Man's Dri- oh hello Ragnar!"
"Good evening, Valga."
"What brings you by?"
"Ah, well I recently just got a flush of new workers so I came back to get some food but all the stalls are closed. You wouldn't happen to have some potatoes to spare? I'll pay for all of it of course."
"Hmm…just for you I'll check downstairs."
"Thanks Valga you're the best!"
"It's no issue, think of it as thanks for helping me carry those huge mead barrels last week."
After some minutes searching, Valga returned upstairs struggling with a sack in hand.
"I, huff, managed to find these in the back. This should have about 40-60 potatoes huff."
I walked over and took the bag from her arms. She immediately let out a sigh of relief.
"Thanks Ragnar, that sack is mighty heavy!"
"Eh"
"Oh hush you."
"Gehehehe"
"Was that all you came down for or…?"
"Yeah, can't stay for too long, gotta get back to the workers and prep some food. They've been working all day long."
"Awfully kind of ya to do that. Oh! Before I forget, would you mind keeping an eye out for someone?"
"Uh, sure yeah I can do that. You got a name or…?"
"Yeah, a hunter named Valdr. He lives here ya see, he left with his hunter friends this morning to a cave northwest of here but he hasn't returned. I'm worried something might've happened to him, but I can't go out searching, and the guards refuse to go searching for him. In their own words, 'one man isn't worth sending out some guards to who knows where, when the likelihood of him dead is an almost certainty."
"Damn, it seems like everyone I talk to has a problem with the guards."
"You haven't heard the half of it! Honestly I don't blame the individual guards for all this, I blame that captain of theirs. He's too busy kissing the ass of our Jarl to root out the bad apples amongst the guardsmen."
"Some commander that guy is. If I was in charge that guy would have been replaced immediately. The safety of the citizens is paramount after all."
"Well I woulda supported you in doin so!"
"Ha! Ahh, anyways. I should get going, and don't worry- I'll look out for your friend."
"Thanks Ragnar! This means a lot!"
(-)
Once I had gotten back yesterday, I had prepped a bunch of food for everyone. It was basically just some preserved meat and roasted potatoes, but damn was it filling. And my new guys absolutely loved it, and they loved me even more when they found out they get to stay at the base. Granted, they're taking up the biggest room in the fort that has a bunch of 'bunkbeds' (wooden frames with hay and sleeping bags), and that means we have no other beds to work with. However, Gavnuk and I are already creating plans to expand the space we have to work with.
We're planning to either dig more space into the mine closest to the entrance and make a sort of mountain living area, or we're going build a sort of community housing area. Sure, it won't be the best, but it'll do until we can get some serious construction going on for the base, and that'll take time.
But right now I'm making my trek up to Moss Mother Cavern, where I knew Valdr was likely dying out right now. I had a couple of healing potions on me just in case his injuries were more severe than I thought, it never hurts to be careful!
I had passed by Guruk and his gaggle of troops earlier, and things were coming along nicely! Looks like that spending the perk points was worth it after all if they're progressing at such a fast pace. Maybe I should do it again? I'll have to wait until I get land bonuses until I make such a decision though. But as I was making my way towards the cave, I found myself standing in front of a small house in the forest between Guruks tower and my destination. The house, more of a shack really, had a lot of drying meat and leather hanging, and two dead bodies of some hunters that appeared to be mauled to death. I carefully maneuvered my way around the bodies and stepped inside.
You have taken over Hunter's Rest!
+Hunter's Rest (+1 DEX)
Updating Territory profile…
Profile updated!
Land Controlled:
-Cracked Tusk Keep (+2 END)
-Halldir's Cairn (+2 INT)
-Bannermist Tower (+1 STR)
-Hunter's Rest (+1 DEX)
Erm, that was rather easy? Not that I'm complaining of course!
As the Cabin didn't belong to anybody, we deemed it acceptable for you to claim it as your own now that the residents are dead.
Well that was easy, barely an inconvenience! With that happy thought, I continue my way onwards, it shouldn't be more than another five or so minutes from here.
Sure enough, I found myself walking up the incline towards the entrance, no one in sight. I frowned slightly, he's not out here? I should look around the area in case he managed to drag his body further than he did in the game. But nope, even after another five minutes of searching the surrounding area I had no clue where he was. I glanced at the entrance, debated with myself internally, and slowly made my way inside, after reading my axe and shield of course.
The inside was…beautiful, frankly. Plants and flowers grew unopposed, tree stumps and fallen logs were scattered throughout the entrance, but I could hear the wind blowing on the leaves of taller trees further into the cavern. Speaking of hearing, I could hear the faint sounds of labored breathing. I made my way as quickly as I could while also being quiet and eventually stumbled upon a man taking small gasps of air, his chest raked with deep claw marks as blood pooled down his chest, stomach, and formed a puddle between his legs. I winced; I couldn't save the man. His injuries were far too severe for the potions I had on me.
His eyes slowly roamed from the ground to my legs, and up to my face, his eyes already starting to dim in color. He didn't have much time.
"pl….ease….d-…don't…g-…o"
Shuddering breaths escaped the mans lips, the only indication of any emotion the man must have been facing.
"…..d-….don't…..wa..nt…to….die…..al..on..e"
My thoughts raced back to my own death, how I had died alone unknowingly, and it left a hollow feeling in my heart. I knelt, and clasped my hand onto his shoulder, placing my forehead against his, and gently grasped his hand with my own, attempting to give some comfort in his dying time. One last act of kindness for a death that should have taken him long before now.
I never said anything, just letting the dying man have his final moments in silence, just being there for him. I stayed there, even as his breathing grew fainter and fainter, until it stopped, and even then, I continued to hold his hand as I gently laid the man to the ground. Call me sentimental, call me weak, whatever you want, but no one should die alone.
I raised myself from the ground, spared the man a glance, and continued forward. I saw two dead bears and another dead man as I continued onwards, but eventually I made it to the 'main area.' A small clearing with a lake, waterfall, and tall trees. And in the middle? A man fighting off three Spriggans with nothing but two daggers.
Readying my axe, and before I gave myself time to think, I rushed forwards while the three were distracted. Within seconds I was already upon my first victim, my axe cleaving through the air as I slashed deeply into the monster. It screeched in pain as it stumbled back. I bashed my shield into the second one, stunning it long enough for the man fighting them earlier to lodge one of his daggers into the eye socket of the spriggan. The third one raked its claws against my seemingly bare arm and let out a noise of confusion when the sound of scratching metal echoed out.
Without sparing it a glance, I was already on the first spriggan I had attacked. I gave the monster no quarter as I hacked and slashed as fast as I could, giving it no opportunity to counterattack. It screeched and roared, but that didn't save him from my axe cleaving the things head off its neck. The second one screamed some inhumane noise and splayed his hands outwards, green magic shooting out and encompassing me. Immediately I could feel my health draining away as I slowly but surely grew weaker. With no time to spare, I let out a roar and charged the bastard, tackling it to the ground and disrupting the magic it was using. We struggled on the ground: it trying to get free and me trying to pin it to the ground, but I managed to gather enough strength to trap the fucker between my legs as I raised my axe high into the air and smashed it down into its face. Caving in the wood that resembled a head, green sap leaking out of his destroyed face.
I immediately threw my axe at the last spriggans back, who was still fighting the man from earlier. My axe struck the monster in the back, lodging itself between where its shoulder blades would have been. It screeched in pain as I ran and tackled it from behind, taking us both to the ground. The man wasted no time and stabbed both of his knives into the beasts neck, dealing a lot of damage to the bastard. I raised my shield and brought it down on its neck repeatedly, making sure to strike the butt of the knife to lodge them deeper and deeper into its neck. The spriggans struggles grew weaker and weaker with each blow, until it lay still under me. Even then, I didn't stop until I knew it was dead.
You have defeated three Spriggains!
+2 Lv Axe Proficiency [25/100]
+1 Lv Blocking [18/100]
+150 EXP
+Moss Mother Cavern added to Territory (+1 INT, +1 DEX)
Updating Profile…
Profile updated!
Name: Ragnar
Race: Nord
Level: 9
EXP: 370/ 500
Health: 200 Magicka: 280 Stamina: 200
STR: 16 (17)
INT: 25 (28)
END: 18 (20)
DEX: 16 (20)
SP: 2
PP: 5
Land Controlled:
-Cracked Tusk Keep (+2 END)
-Halldir's Cairn (+2 INT)
-Bannermist Tower (+1 STR)
-Hunter's Rest (+1 DEX)
-Moss Mother Cavern (+1 INT, +1 DEX)
People under your leadership:
Happy: 22
Neutral: 10
Unhappy: 0
[NOTIFCATION]
Read now or later?
Read that later system, and allocate those two points I just gained to INT.
"Whoa! That was mighty close, thanks friend! If you hadn't shown I would have surely died."
"Are you Valdr?"
"Why yes I am! How'd ya know?"
"Your friend Valga sent me after you."
"Well mara be damned, I gotta thank her most profusely when I get back."
"Mhm."
"…did you happen to see my two friends back at Falkreath? I told them to run and get help while I held those spriggains back."
"Their bodies are just up ahead."
"…o-oh."
"…if it's any consolation, the bears that attacked them were dead too. They died bringing their foes down with them, I'm sure they'll be in Sovngarde."
"…thank you, stranger, for giving me that brief moment of comfort."
He clapped me on my shoulder as he started to slowly make his way out, but stopped.
"Oh yeah, as thanks for saving me I guess you can have this."
He handed me a sharp looking steel dagger, maintained and cleaned, but obviously has a history given the scratch marks along the blades body.
"This dagger was given to me by my best friend, and it's given me some tremendous luck. Maybe it'll give you some of that same luck it's given me over the years."
"What will you do now?"
"Now? I'm taking a break on the whole hunter thing, at least for now. This whole experience has been a huge wake up call, so now I'm gunna go do something I should have done a long time ago. In a way, I have you to thank for that realization stranger.
"My name is Ragnar."
"Like the king of old? Weird, but whatever, thank you Ragnar. And hey, if you're ever in need of me, I'll be in Falkreath at the Dead Man's Drink."
With his piece said, Valdr made his way out of the clearing, leaving me with the dead bodies of Spriggans in this lovely cove. With him gone, I was free to search around. If I remember correctly then there was supposed to be a chest up near the base of the tree?
I made my way up the little slope, and sure enough there was a large orange and black chest resting at the base of a tree. I eagerly tried to open the chest, but it was locked. I cursed, but ultimately gave up on trying to open it.
Instead, I hacked against the top of the chest with my axe until the top of it caved in from the amount of force I was using. With the new hole created, I dug my hands into it and pried outwards, enlarging the hole for me to see into the chest a great deal better.
Inside was a couple of gemstones, some bags of coin, some ruined books that I decidedly ignored, and a steel sword. I packed up all the valuables in my backpack and headed out. I'll have to tell Guruk of my recent conquests so he can factor in the new territories to whatever plans he has, oh and I should tell Umak about the cavern, I'm sure he'll be able to find shit to make potions with.
(-)
I had finally arrived back at the base early evening. I had to stop by Guruks to inform him of our expanded territory, and spent the last three hours detailing my adventure and hashing out patrol times/routes with him. I had also informed him of potential grunts I would be sending his way, and he had thanked me for telling him in advance.
He hopes to be able to use the Moss grove as a second base of operations, and I agreed with him. It was quite spacious, and there was only one base entrance that they had to defend. Guruk was quite strong on his own, and with his minions backing him up I'm confident that they'll be able to deal with any wild animals that try and claim the territory.
Regardless, I was dead tired from everything, so I walked past everyone, giving small greetings as I went, and went straight to my room. I stripped myself of all my armor and collapsed face first into my bed, letting a sigh of relief leave my lips.
I laid there for a long time, but I knew I couldn't stay face down in my bed forever. So, reluctantly, I turned over and sat up in my bed. Scrolling through my settings and combing over my skills to see if I wanted to purchase any perks. I ultimately never spent anything like I always do, but it never hurts to check, right?
Finally, with all the little things out of the way, I bring out that notification I had gotten from defeating all those Spriggans.
[Notifcation]
Would you like to read now?
Very much so, yes.
[Congratulations! You have conquered five named locations and have now unlocked Territory Benefits! Territory Benefits are similar, yet different to follower bonuses. For one, you can not upgrade what you get with Perk Points. Furthermore, unlike Follower bonuses, as there are a finite amount of landmarks to conquer, territory benefits are collectable at a more linear pace.]
With that out of the way, choose your Territory Benefit!
Fertile Land: The land that's under your control is amazing for farming. Crops/resources you plant in your territory will grow twice as fast.
Resource Aplenty: Your Territory is rich in resources. Including, but not limited to; ore, wood, animals, etc.
Helloooo, quick update huh? It's been a while since I've been able to do an update a week after the last one, but I've started to get settled into the Junior life.
I have ended the chapter with a decision to make. Why? Because I'm letting you guys choose which one he gets. I figured that way the story will be a bit more engaging and depending on what you guys choose will affect Ragnars plans in a more drastic way. For example: more resources means more trading, but better soil means more food which means faster recruiting, and later down the line maybe people will want to move into Falkreath because the land is so good for farming. Either way, they're huge benefits to either side.
OMAKE:
Valdr left me alone with the dead Spriggans, which meant that I was free to look for the treasure I knew was here at my leisure. And sure enough, there was a chest sitting at the base of a tree on a small slope near the back. A large orange and black chest greeted me as I moved closer to it, and with a flick of my wrist the top of the chest flew open and I was met with a chest full of golden septims.
I greedily shoved my hands inside looking for more treasure, pulling out large diamonds and other gemstones as I laughed maniacally. But then my hand hit something large. I paused, frowning as my hand caressed the weirdly shaped sphere I knew was in there, but couldn't see. Frustrated, I shoved my other hand into the gold, found the object, and pulled it free.
"A new hand touches the beacon."
….oh hell no.
"Listen, hear me and obey! You shall ta- hey! Where are you going!"
I tossed the ball into the lake and sprinted out of that hellhole
"How dare you throw my beacon into this dirty water! GET BACK HERE MORTAL AND TAKE MY ORB TO MOUNT KILKREATH!"
"NEVER!"
Name: Ragnar
Race: Nord
Level: 9
EXP: 370/ 500
Health: 200 Magicka: 300 Stamina: 210
STR: 16 (17)
INT: 27 (30)
END: 18 (20)
DEX: 16 (21)
SP: 0
PP: 5
Land Controlled:
-Cracked Tusk Keep (+2 END)
-Halldir's Cairn (+2 INT)
-Bannermist Tower (+1 STR)
-Hunter's Rest (+1 DEX)
-Moss Mother Cavern (+1 INT, +1 DEX)
People under your leadership:
Happy: 22
Neutral: 10
Unhappy: 0