We finally set sail. I was surprised. I thought the king would seize the ships or the Duke would betray me. As we hit the open Atlantic I learned my crews were pretty green. A week into the voyage they finally got a handle on things. Two weeks in and we had a Dutch sloop coming up on us. We were not going to outrun it. it was small, just 24 cannons. But they were experienced and I had green crews and just 20 shots per cannon. How many men? The captain of my ship said thirty sailors and maybe forty marines. I had the crew put me and my statue into a row boat when they were 200 yards behind. If the dutch ship didn’t pick me up I was screwed. They did. Ruby climbed up on deck and started the assault. Throwing sailors overboard. I climbed up after and shot sailors and marines when they came close. A few pistol shots hit Ruby but she was fine and the crew surrendered when there was just ten left. We tossed the 23 dead sailors overboard and the lifeboats too with supplies for the ten remaining crew. There were fifteen men in the water behind us. If they swam to the life boat the small sail on it could get them to land in a week.
I transferred twenty sailors to the Dutch sloop as a prize of war much to the shock and awe of the sailors. Getting to America was going to be difficult with thin crews. We hit a storm three days later and none of the ships were in sight when it cleared. Five days later the other galleon was sighted. The sloop might be lost at sea or the crew mutinied. Not the case…they had just gotten far ahead of us. A week later we caught them because they had cut sails.
The rest of the trip went ok. I had stockpiled oranges and we only lost three people to sickness. We also lost six chickens, two cows, one horse and seven goats to sickness. We had no male goats left too so that was an issue. We pulled into Jamestown and ferried everything to shore. The captain and his purser were to get what cargo and passengers they could and return to England. The sloop was to be sold to the Duke at a big discount in England and the funds going to my bank ledger.
The new colonial governor came to see me but I had the Duke’s writ so he wasn’t able to requisition anything from us. He did charge me a tax of ten pounds which I paid. It was very hot…early July hot. We left in a long train and I was told one of the blacksmiths and his wife were not with us. I had two men go to Jamestown to get them. The two men caught up to us and said he had signed on with the governor and they gave me his wages that I had paid him. I was very angry. I had recruited my craftsmen by agreeing to house them and feed them and pay them a low salary. They also were able to keep 30% of all profits from their craft. After 10 years they were released from my service with the option to stay on retaining 70% of profits but food would no longer be supplied and they would also have to pay rent. If I failed in my obligation to feed and house them they could also leave.
The first few days we made good time then entered heavier woods, swamps and other rough terrain. I had signaled the five golems to clear a trail due east from the end of road. I didn’t expect much but if they could make a few more miles easy for us I would be happy.
We encountered two settlers. One had built a cabin next to an apple tree I had grown. The priest kept asking about the church. I hadn’t told him it hadn’t been built yet. The trip took 15 days before we reached the trail. The site of the golems caused many to be upset and afraid. We were 30 miles from the tower and the shit had hit the fan. I couldn’t calm down the priest who was stirring up the craftsmen. I finally got everyone’s attention and told them I was a wizard like Merlin and if they didn’t want to serve me they could return to Jamestown. No one knew the Arthurian story besides the priest but it didn’t pacify him. In the end the priest left with the families of the baker, two farmers, two cabinet makers, two masons, and my other blacksmith. I gave them five days of food and that was it. The baker was angry I was keeping his yeast cultures but screw him. I expected the governor would send soldiers soon as well. I thought about killing the people leaving but discarded the idea.
We arrived at the tower and I was happy to see the dormitory for the women’s school was done with the exception of the roof. It was a large building 40’ x 160’. The first floor had a large kitchen, dining room and common room. The second floor had fourteen rooms that were 15’ x 20’. Each room had a small fire place on the outer wall and two windows. I had planned to house four women in each room but for now they would house my settlers. Tom and I brought the craftsmen to the map in the tower for an open discussion. The priority was to roof and finish the flooring for the dorm building. The farmers were going to need to get the animals secure as the second priority. I was happy to see no one was grumbling about working outside their profession. The first building to be built would be the glassworks. It was important to start making glass containers to store food. One of the brewer’s wives would take over as the baker. The next priority was to cut trees and set up more kilns to get lumber for the cabinet makers and coopers. With my thermal stone spell we could easily generate a supply of good planks. Then we could start working on individual houses for families.
After two days the people got used the golems. I spent most of my time in the following two weeks in the orchards. I was right and my trees were struggling in depleted soil so I had to use my advanced spell to help rejuvenate it. I also fruited trees for food. The olives were good and the wine makers were getting their wine press to work to make olive oil. I had cuttings for Riesling grape vines. I grew a half acre to get them going. I also made a lot stone tools for the people.
The children were required to attend school for 4 hours in the morning before working with their parents. The food was ample so far as I was able to get a deer every third day with my bullet spell. The community grew strong in the four weeks since we started and even in the summer heat and humidity things were going well. I even found my purify stone spell separated metal out of ore! I needed to find a silver or copper mine.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Well the governor had finally arrived with the wild priest. My sentinel golems by the road spotted his party. About 80 men total. I went out to meet them and pulled the golems to me. I was alone when I met the small force three miles from the tower. They were on my road out in the middle of nowhere and admiring the crushed stone and nice width of 25’. We started talking and apparently the priest wanted to put me on trial for witchcraft. I sighed and standing 20 feet away asked the governor to make a decision, side with me or the priest. He tried to say the trial would be fair. That was enough for me. I had all the golems move in and moved into cover. Muskets started firing and ten men charged my position and I picked them all off. It took a few minutes before everyone was dead. No one escaped. I had sixty flintlock rifles, swords, hatchets, and pistols. I stripped them of the gear and the golems buried the soldiers, priest and governor. I had just tipped the scales of history again against the English. There were maybe 1500 soldiers in the colonies and I had killed maybe 10% of them in the last year. There were more soldiers on warships as well but I was definitely affecting history. I added six horses to the village as well. Everyone was thrilled to see me alive.
I decided I needed to tip the balance further. There was a fort in northern Virginia that I had seen on my trip to New Amsterdam. It had 300 soldiers or so. If I eliminated them this winter it could help us.
All the gear from the battle was cleaned and stored in the tower. And I now had working windows thanks to the carpenters!
Amelia taught school in the morning and practiced cutting gems in the afternoon in the tower. She was getting better. School was teaching reading and writing on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It was science and math on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
I decided to start a town currency. I created stone molds for coins with the help of a carver. One side had an eagle with a sun behind it and the year below. The other side said City of Avalon around the perimeter with the value of the coin in the center. The coins came in 5 sizes. The smallest was worth 1, then 5, then 25, then 100, then 500. The wife of the architect was now the city’s banker. I made 20,000 coins at the value of 1, 20,000 coins at 5, 5,000 at 25, 1,000 at 100 and 1,000 at 500. Just like I was used to I called 1-100 cents, increments of 100 were dollars. They were all stone and hardened and became a black glossy color so I was the only person who could make them. The town’s bank held all the funds. If someone wanted they could exchange their coins for English currency. The exchange rates and prices were set by the banker.
The summer stretched to fall and we had no further troops of soldiers. We established trade with the Indians to the south and west and my community treated them well. We also added 15 Indian refugees to our town. Six widows, four elders and five children. My medicine women set them up. The group of Indians were put in charge of the apple and cherry orchards, harvesting the fruits.
As it got colder we had a wide paved road and twenty two story stone buildings lining the wide road. One of the men led church on Sunday service, reading a few verses and talking about being positive and thankful. The town was named Avalon. The winter was to begin the work on the dam and extend the road east and west.
The dam was going to take years. The architect did a survey and we needed a dam that was roughly ½ mile wide and 140 high to create the lake behind it. We would also put stone up the valley walls to prevent erosion but I wasn’t sure if that was necessary. Right now the stream that flowed through was maybe five feet deep at the center and twenty feet across. The reservoir would eventually supply water to the city with a much larger population.
The road west had about 12 miles before it ran into the mountains. I planned to tunnel through the Appalachian range in the future for a train track but for now we would just run the road to the mountains base. To the east we had six small stone bridges to build because I had the made the road mostly straight east. That would cover the 30 miles we had cleared so far. It was 380 or so miles to the coast so we had a long way to go.
The winter passed and the only exciting thing to happen was a pair of escaped slaves came. They were in their late teens and in love. They both had been abused. We built them a house and got them on payroll. The boy choose to work in the glassworks and the women to help cook in the communal dining room at the dormitory.
Spring was getting close and I was kind of relieved nothing big had happened. In early March I decided to attack the biggest English fort in Virginia. Before I left I meditated and checked my status.
Magic Pool: 132, Magic Regen: 11.4 per hour
Spell Design Points: 2
* Ageless II (Stone Magic Ability) – like all stone you are ageless, your body ages 1/11th as fast greatly increasing your life expectancy, each level increase slightly slows aging even further
* Shapeshift II (Nature Magic Ability) – you can shape change into one beast form healing injuries, each level increase adds another beast form, forms: Black Panther, White Wolf
* Stalwart Immunity II (Stone Magic Ability) – you have resistance to disease and infections, each level improves the speed at which you heal from injuries and poisons
* Stone Golem VII (Stone Spell – tier 9) – create a golem from 1 cubic yard of stone, each level increase adds density, strength and durability, COST: 9.2 Magic Pool, Evolutions: Reduced Golem Cost
* Soften Stone VI (Stone Spell – tier 3) – turns 1 cubic yard of stone to clay, each level increases affected volume, COST: .8 Magic per minute, Evolution: Purify Stone
* Strengthen Stone V (Stone Spell – tier 3) – improves 1 cubic yard stones resistance to damage, each level improves the volume and the stones strength, COST: 1.1 Magic, Evolution: lighten stone by 20%
* Stone Bullet VI (Stone Spell – tier 0) – temporarily creates a small stone and fires it at a target, each level improves the density and speed of the stone, COST: 0.1 Magic, Evolutions: Control the shape of bullet
* Nature’s Growth VII (Nature Spell – tier 5) – complete 1 year of growth on a single plant in 60 minutes, each level increases the plant’s growth, COST: 1 Magic, Evolutions: Rejuvenate the soil around the roots of the plant
* Plant Snare II (Nature Spell – tier 0) – activate a square yard of plants to entangle an animal within 50 yards, each level increases the area and range, COST: 0.3
* Thermal Stone V (Stone Spell – tier 3) – raises the temperature of 1 cubic yard of stone 104 degrees for 64 minutes, each level increases the temperature and volume, COST: 0.9 per 105 degrees, Evolutions: Can stack the spell to extend the time of the enchantment
I had made some advancements and chosen a second beast form, a white wolf. Raising the golem spell was bringing down the cost to maintain them. I left two golems to protect the city and took 6 with me. We travelled at night and got to the fort in a week’s time. I sent in the golems at midnight let them kill the soldiers. There were 527 soldiers. I had to kill 13 in my panther form that managed to flee out of the fort. Then in the fort I created a furnace with my thermal stone spell and the golems burn the bodies. The problem was it was taking too long so the golems created a pile to burn. It still took till the middle of the next day and the only reason no one came was it was a heavy rain. I had one of golems take the chest with coins and seventeen books. The rest of the golems carried 50 muskets and 50 quality swords from the officers. The fort overlooked a bay and fortunately there were no ships there. I read the missives and found the English had taken over New Amsterdam and renamed it New York.