My Life As A Gamer: Playing The Domain Game Again

It's the end of the month. Let's return to our nascent Domain, which I shall refer to henchforth as the New Model Colony.

When we left off, our Fighter and his companions successfully made landfall and took a ruined shell keep from a Hill Giant band that dominated the area. They also cleared out a handful of Orcs and a band of Ogres, both presumed to be subserviant to the Giants, as well as some giant lizards and Stag Beetles.

Now we look over the past few weeks.

The first task was to go 15 miles down the coast in both directions. The Thief went in one direction with his Henchmen and retinue, while the Fighter took his Henchmen only and did the same in the other. This course of action was done for two reasons. The first is that, with the sea on one side, it would be easy to keep their bearings. The second was that, being on the coast, if there were any settlements near enough to worry about they would be on or near the coast.

The Thief's party got halfway down the coast, passing out of the forest and through a lake into a marsh-like depression at the base of a small impassable mountain-like hill area. They encountered no one during this time, but they did encounter a crude hut that had been abandoned and examination resulted in detrius like that left by the Orcs, so they retraced their steps and return to the keep.

The Fighter's party was not so quiet. Two miles out, as the forest thinned into yards of brush, the Fighter encountered a massive Merchant caravan numbering 300 in size accompanied by a sizable mercenary company. Wisely seeking parley, and fumbling about for a common tongue for a moment, the Fighter spoke with the mercenary captain (Fighter 7) and his employers (Thief 9 and 8). They were coming from across a mountain range behind them to resettle the area and establish a trading post, and when they heard that the Fighter had beat them to it.

The Fighter offered the Merchants the opportunity to negotiate with him and his companies back at the Colony, which they accepted. When the Thief returned late that day and got up to speed, he insisted on being present with the Merchants; this proved to be wise, as he recognized fellow Thieves as the Merchant leaders.

After some preliminaries to ensure communication, the Colony traded access to the Colony by the Merchants in return for intelligence on the area- including where the Merchants came from.

The Colony's immediate area is bounded by Mountains in both directions, making this a valley between them, but that is not readily apparent from the seaward approach. It is was a solidly forested area with a river coming through it, but past events changed that and drove out past inhabitants.

The Merchants accept joining the Colony, and the mercenaries provide the path that they used to get to the Colony and they assimilate into the Fighter's forces. The Thieves meet with the Thief and come to an agreement, signing on with the Thief's Explorer's Society.

Meanwhile, the slower exploration driven by the logging parties has resulted in discovering some of those others: Treants.

The parties, not being paid to be stupid, backed away as soon as they could and reported back. The Colony's leaders mark the reports on the map and detail the Society to scout it out.

The Magic-User gets his accomodations in the Keep set-up, allowing for spell research and item creation. The Cleric gets a basic chapel erected. The Fighter and Thief use the fortified camp as headquarters for their domain actions, and the Merchants assimilate into the Colony by providing a cohort of tradesmen able to fulfil work orders for the Colony's milita force- from clothing to foodstuffs and everything in between.

At the end of the month, the three miles around the Keep are thouroughly pacified, inhabited, and patrolled. Another five miles is now regularly patrolled, and waystation tower sites are marked for construction. The Colony's leaders maintain regular parley with the Merchant leaders to gain intelligence on where they came up, and the map of the Colony's area slowly expands.

While the NPC Fighters are assimilated into the Colony's militia along with their men, the NPC Merchant leaders--the Thieves--are not and become open for taking up as Patron-level players. Until then, the information they provide has plenty of use as rumors to follow-up upon.

The last bit of good news is that mountains near enough mean that the stone question is sorted; it's just a matter of running a road out there and finding a good quarry site, and that becomes next month's objective now that wood and water are sorted.

Recap:

• The Name Level Patrons agree on a set of operations. (The DM is not required to do this; only to adjudicate results.)
• The Thief takes his retinue in one direction down the coast. The Fighter does the same down the other. The goal is to scout out 15 miles in each direction. Both parties fail to reach that goal; the Thief hits impassible Mountains eight miles away and the Fighter's encounter with a Merchant caravan two miles out.
• The Merchants agree, after successful parley, to join the Colony.
• Treants are found in Forested areas between three and five miles away from the Colony by logging parties.
• The area within three miles of the Colony is now Inhabited and Patrolled, with density of patrols increasing as watchtowers are erected.
• Additional information imparted by the Merchants is entered into the Colony's records.
• The NMC agree to deal with the Treants to avoid logging interruptions and try to establish a quarry at either of the Mountains so they can start more building projects.

The next update will be on the 30th of September.