Part 4: 1402-The Golden Company

The Golden Company





By the time 1402 began, the justice and righteousness of Dagmaer's rule was apparent for all to see. The people of the kingdom were secure in their persons and property, disputes and crime were dealt with firmly and even-handedly, and any honest dwarf could be assured that their traditional freedoms were under no threat from the Queen. Her repute grew with her wise rule.

Fame is directly deducted from the gold you need to spend on wages for military units, to a minimum of zero. It also increases the chances of heroes and some other opportunities presenting themselves to you. An undocumented effect of Just Cause is that it also reduces unrest by 1 in every town in your kingdom. We now have no need to worry about unrest in any town until it reaches population 20.




By the time Vigny and her band of scouts returned to Goldwash, they were seasoned by travel and exploration. The town they returned to bustled with industry, sawmills processing timber into lumber used in construction, barrelmaking, furniture-making, and assorted minor crafts.

The description of the Sawmill is potentially misleading. It is simply a 25% bonus to the base production created by the population of the town, rather than modifying bonuses from forest squares. It does, however, require at least one square of forest to be built in the first place.

By Sixthmonth, a team of skilled builders set out from Goldwash, beginning to cut a track through the terrain and pave it with cut stones, starting a road northward along the coastal plain. Runes were carved on each milestone outside the town according to the information in some old texts, creating a magical wind that flowed along the road to bear travellers at the speed of a gale.

Roads in Myrror are automatically enchanted, allowing them to be traversed at no movement cost.





Meanwhile, Queen Dagmaer's studies into the magical arts continued, granting her the power to unravel some other magics with her own.

There is a neat little animation where the name and short description of a spell is converted from undecipherable runes to plain text when you discover it. I captured this mid-animation.



Since his failure to gain the crown in the Kingsmoot, Harald Gjafvaldursson had been focusing on assembling and training a little band of mercenaries, armed with crossbow and broad-bladed swords. Several of the merchants of Goldwash, whose fortunes had been burgeoning in the general prosperity, petitioned Queen Dagmaer that they might support Harald and his ten dwarves as their own personal force to see to their security. Queen Dagmaer granted the petition, and the Golden Company was born. The wealth of the merchants backing Harald did much to speed the development of the kingdom.

Seriously, we have no open connection to the other world, where the Nomad race is native. I'm going to take this hero as home-grown. His Noble ability gives us ten gold every turn, in place of us having to pay upkeep on him.

The Kingdom in Twelfthmonth 1402



Goldwash continues to grow swiftly, with over 5,000 burghers and tradesmen in the town. Work to expand the mines surrounding the town proceeds rapidly, well-supplied with equipment and expertise. Vigny's scouts and the Golden Company reinforce the swordsdwarves defending the town.



Stonegate grows slowly, more people now working its farmlands and fisheries to feed the town and its garrison, which has been bolstered with a second company of swordsdwarves recruited from the local population. The trade of the town is still sluggish compared to that of Goldwash, although investment and lending to the businesses of the town has been slowly growing.



Engineers are slowly cutting a road through the foothills of the Gray Mountains. Between the crown and the merchants of Goldwash, 8,200 silver marks are available for investment in projects across the the kingdom.

Engineers build roads at different rates across different kinds of terrain. Open grasslands are the fastest, while hills and forests are slower. Mountains, obviously, are slower still to build roads through.



Queen Dagmaer has begun to accumulate more magical power in reserve, husbanding her strength for future wonders. Her repute amongst the people has grown, and she is a well-beloved queen.

Checking the mirror will give us a report on our fame and our heroes, as we can see.

1402 dwindles, and 1403 approaches. Whatever the future holds for the kingdom, its people can be assured that their Queen has an ear to their wishes, and that she shall ever take their petitions into consideration.