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Settlement of Safehaven - A Hearthtree Series
Chapter Twenty Five - Sars' Raid Part Four .

Chapter Twenty Five - Sars' Raid Part Four .

Safehaven few hours after raid ended.

An hour after the raid ended Jack appears at the Hearthtree. “Welcome back Jack,” Mesa-la said.

“Thank you, did any of our citizen died other than troops?” I inquire.

“No citizen were killed, all but two of the troops died,” Mesa-la said sadly. “There is damage to the east and south wall, and the east gate at the bridge is destroyed. Two hovels are half damage, and the temple has minor damage to its doors. The Tower took heavy damage in the raid.

“Kari had collected the gear and the urns from the dead guards. Forty-six tridents were salvage. Thirty-nine serpent tooth dagger was also recovered. A lot of useless charms that was looted but unless you are a lizardman it will not help you. A few pieces of iron armor that can be melted down. No coins were found.” Mesa-la reported. “You have nine crossbows, twenty-eight daggers and leather armor, nine axes, and nine short swords. And a small pile of personal effects.

“Have the personal effect put in a chest I will look through them for any names or family. If none found I will have them sold and put into a fund for the troop to use as they see fit.

Trying to pull up the troop tab on the settlement. “Not seeing the troop tab, Mesa-la.”

“It is at the barracks if the barracks is destroyed it then move to the tower before return back to here if there is no other military building.” She said.

“Why not put it all here?” I grumble.

“I think they want you to use the building for what they are used for than just for show.” She said. “Oh, by the way, you receive another Settlement Point. That give you two points you can use.

“I forgot to go over the detail on what a settlement point is and what it can be used for,” I said frowning.

“A Settlement point can summon ten basic warriors during a raid or war without penalty equal to the level of the settlement. It can be used for the purchases of siege weapons, one point for a catapult, two for a trebuchet, In a few years to a few decades a cannon could be purchase if researched. Never know with gnomes or dwarves. Settlement points can be used for specializing troops or citizens for a settlement. They also can be used for specialty shops or building. Look under the tab Settlement Point at each of your building that you have an interface with.” she said.

Clicking on the settlement point in the interface it came up with the following.

Building: One point to purchase a blueprint for a Healer Hut, a Saw Mill, a Water Mill, a General Store, and a Wind Mill.

Citizen: One point to hire a Healer, a Miller, a Tinker or a Store owner.

Fortification: One point to add one point in Defense or Ten points in Health to all building and wall.

Troops: One Point: One day Troop Research Speed up, Plus one to the level of ten soldiers, or a Weapons engineer.

Clicking on the Healer Hut.

A healer hut can heal troops back to full health after ten minutes in the hut, while a reborns can recover time the level in a settlement in Health when they enter the hut. A Healer hut can research different type healers, spells and potion recipes. Missing body parts be can regenerate to full use after one day. If a Healer is present troops can heal to full health in five minutes.

A general store allows citizens and reborns to buy and sell items from the store. It will generate one merchant cart per level of settlement per month of goods arriving and leaving the settlement. A pier is required to have one merchant ship for each level of settlement to visit per month. Note: Merchant Ships and Carts cannot travel during four months of winter due to this area. Also, there is a percentage chance of a rare item to be bought equal to the settlement level. Once built a merchant can be hired, or one will arrive in three to six months.

A Sawmill will increase the number of boards from lumber. Base on the level of settlement, require three citizens to operate.

A Water Mill can increase the number of citizens it can feed by how much grain production times the level of settlement. A water mill can be used for many things. Increasing the output of Sawmills, Carpentry shop, moving water, powering siege weapons possibilities are endless with a tinker.

A Wind Mill uses wind instead of water. In this area the wind blows eighty percent of the time per year to keep a windmill going, it is not as dependable as a water mill, but it can do the same as water.

While I was clicking on the settlement building tab a list of the building I can purchase with money and experience. Not see any of the building listed but the healer hut and lumber mill. I went back to the settlement point tab and purchased a general store and a water mill blueprint.

Both of the blueprints appear in my hands, and I put them away. Telling Mesa-la, I was heading to the barrack. Sneaking away to make sure no one saw me as I head over to the barrack, touching the building and got a prompt to check the interface.

Two out of twenty troops are alive.

Do you wish to revive the dead name men-at-arms? Cost one hundred gold and one hundred experience.

Seeing only three of the men-at-arms were named I check the settlement reserve and saw over a thousand gold and a few silver. I was puzzle over how much was in the settlement's stockpile. “Mesa-la where did the extra money come from? Last time I look I had about six hundred gold?”

“The Dragon's Roar Guild donate five hundred gold to help with the settlement, they gain plus one to the guild reputation for each five hundred gold they donate,” she spoke up in his head.

“Not sure I like that, it like giving them a get out of jail free card by just paying their way out of trouble, anyway I can put a higher penalty on bad behavior?” telling Mesa-la.

“You could impose penalties as high as you want for each offense and you can also have a guild do a guild quests to restore their reputation.” She said.

Thinking about it for a few minutes, hearing my name being called in the distance. “Okay, here what I want to be done. Donations can be used to raise reputation by one point at a time for one gold time their current reputation level. Only twenty reputations a week max can be raised. A Settlement quest must be accepted for at each level of reputation. To raise from Trusting to Kindly, they must do a quest. Any citizen that is killed by a member of a guild will reduce a clan to negative one reputation. Restitution must be paid to the family of the deceased, a fine and one year jail time with hard labor or ten-year banishment to the one that did it. The Clan must do a special Settlement Quest to restore half of their reputation. All other actions will defer to a judge once a town hall is built. If a Clan reach minus one hundred they lose their clan hall and is barred from the settlement.” I told Mesa-la.

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“For every hundred points in reputation give them a plus one to their Clan members interaction with the locals on buying and selling. If no donation in a year by a guild drops their reputation by ten for each year, they stop donating” that should keep the donation coming. “Individual can raise their reputation by quest or deeds.” Feeling pleased with the idea.

So reputation for a settlement goes as follow.

-500 Hate

-400 Threateningly

-300 Dubiously

-200 Apprehensively

-100 Suspicious

0 Neutral

+100 Suspicious

+200 Trusting

+300 Kindly

+400 Friendly

+500 Ally

I was looking over the difference of a Guild and Clan. A guild is a group of individual that banded together to work toward a cause most times only using the guild to further itself. While it can build up a reputation, it takes twice as long. A guild member can only hurt a guild by a hundred point of reputation when they have done something harmful to a settlement. While a Clan is like a family that can build up a reputation with a settlement or kingdom. An individual can harm or increase a clan reputation by their deeds. To join a Guild a player only have to meet the requirements which can be low from a test to giving money to join. A clan requires a member to accept someone into the clan as a member of a family. Not only can the new member hurt the clan reputation it can also harm the sponsor.

“Offer Kari a plot of land inside the wall to build a Great hall for their clan or give them the option to build and defend a gatehouse as their clan Great Hall if they make one to my specification. Mesa-la, please notify Kari that they if they accept the offer they will no longer be a Guild but a Clan.

“Make The Roaring Dragons a Clan if Kari agrees and put their clan at plus two hundred reputation points,” I spoke aloud.

“I will send her a message,” Mesa-la responded.

Rubbing my hands together and saying, “Back to the troop. I pay the three hundred gold and three hundred experience to revive those named men.”

Alright, now the cost of replacing the rest of the troops will cost ten gold plus one hundred experience per soldier.

That came to one hundred and fifty gold and one thousand and five hundred experience. Checking my experience I see that I am almost to the next level. “This is going to hurt.” groaning as I click yes on replacing the dead troops and there went my experience.

Out of the barrack walk, fifteen dwarven levels two axemen, ten crossbowmen, three Artillerist. Puzzling over not seeing the other three I look around and saw three humans Artillerist walking this way from the temple.

Getting another prompt telling me the research for the corporal-at-arms was finished earlier. I went ahead and paid the four hundred gold to hire one. Out step a dwarven corporal-at-arms level five. The Hill Dwarf march over to me and saluted. “Corporal Randal Rockhurst at your service sir!” The Corporal stood about four foot five inches tall blond hair that is shoulder length in a ponytail. His blond beard goes down to his navel in three braids each one with three rings binding them. His gray eyes are piercing

with a long hawk nose that been broken many times. Corporal Rockhurst is wearing ringmail armor with a green cape and a metal cap helmet. A large-sized double-bladed ax is hanging from his back, and a short sword is belted on his left hip. There is a scar on his right cheek.

“Welcome corporal until I can get some more Corporals hired. So you are currently in charge of the troops. Do you have a family?”

“Yes, Sir! I have a family, permission to send for them? Sir! He said.

“Permission granted. When do you think your family will arrive?” I asked.

“Four to five months, sir!” he responded.

“Okay Corporal get the men to line up and assign them a position on the wall, we just got raided by the lizard men, and there will be at least a month reprieve from another raid from them. The East gate is destroyed so get some men to work on the gate, I will see if Joseph can help. We will be repairing the wall as we go and fix some of the other building. The barracks and the tower are your troop quarters so decide which one you want to stay in.

“Dismiss!” I said he saluted and marched over to his men. I went back to the interface as he was bellowing at his men. Putting the Sergeant-at-arms up on research next it gave me six days before it will be completed. Looking over the barracks noticing that it can be upgraded to a level two if only I had a warehouse. Well, guess a warehouse is next!

Hearing Ann is hollering my name. “Over here Ann!” hollering back.

Waiting for her to get there I can see that there is damage to the tower and several of the building, Dead lizardmen being stack near the East Gate which looks like it is under repairs. Only to know it is going to take one of them all day to do the buildings and two of them to fix the walls.

Mesa-la commented, “if you have a town hall, a warehouse a Stonemason and Carpenter building you can put repairing on auto, the warehouse gets four workers per warehouse level. The Town Hall will allow you to get a Stonemason and a Carpenter along with two apprentices.”

“Reading my mind Mesa-la?” Commenting aloud.

“Don't have too, I can see you were looking around and frowning at all the damage,” she said with a laugh.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry for shooting you, Jack.” Ann cried as she slams into him engulfing him in a hug.

Caught by surprise, he patted her back, “No harm done I am still alive.”

“I shot you, you must have been worry about Safehaven and everyone!” she said while still holding him in an embrace.

“I trusted you and all of the rest in keeping the place safe,” I said. Trying to ignore being so close to Ann, the smell of roses from her hair fill my nose as she hugs me. Holding her until she stopped crying the feeling of not being along flooded me that made me panic a little, so I work my way free of her. Taking her hands and looking into her eyes and grinning. “Did you have to shoot me in the ass?”

She wipes away a tear while grinning. “Well, I was aiming for the largest area...”

We both had a good laugh over the accident when Kari and the others found us. After three hours of assessing the damage. I went ahead and got ten more Axmen for the walls. Seeing I am short a warehouse and about a thousand stones and a hundred units of lumber. I let everyone know that I will be busy for a few days building a warehouse. Cara and Fire spent two days fixing the walls and the buildings damaged.

Thirty Miles to the Southeast in the Black Claw Tribal Land.

The pain from the battle did not hurt as much as Sars' pride in losing to the soft ones. Just hours ago when the raid ended with only a dozen of his warriors still alive most so injured that it will be weeks before they are fully healed. It is going to be months before he has enough young hatchling to train years before he will have at least forty warriors if they all live through the hatchling process. The Black Claw Tribe pride themselves on being stronger than all of the other tribes by forcing their young to fight to survive until it was time for training to become warriors. Out of a hundred eggs, ten may reach adulthood to become warriors while other tribes hatchling has a better survival rate.

Sars smelt the smoke before coming into view of his clutch. The smell was different than the smell of cooking fires they normal smell. Not seeing any of the younger guards they left behind. The image of the Old One smiling before he died form in his mind and dread fills his heart as he rounds a bend in the path the high marsh grasses no longer blocking the view of his clutch. Thirty huts and the three barracks are in ruins, nothing left of the building except for the foundation. He ran to the nesting pit where the hot springs flow out of the ground and seeing that the hundreds of eggs are missing. Hearing a growling noise, he jerks out of his daze realizing the growling was coming from him. They found the ten guards all dead lay side by side waiting for burial. A totem stood over them as a warning to Sars. Carved in the ground, in front of the dead, a drawing of Sars with his head cut off and ten eggs as a reward. Glancing at his men he moves to wipe out the sign as each of them look at each other and him. Narrowing his eyes as his men start to pull out their weapons, Ten eggs is a sizable reward for a young male.

Settlement of Safehaven Level 2

First Tower 38 /200 10 Defense 1 Building level

6 Hovel 20/ 20 2 Defense 1 Building level

1 Hovel 18/ 20 2 Defense 1 Building level

1 Hovel 13/ 20 2 Defense 1 Building level

Barracks 80/ 80 8 Defense 1 Building level

North Wall 100/100 10 Defense 1 Building level

North Gate 50/ 50 10 Defense 1 Building level

South Wall 68/ 80 10 Defense 1 Building level

South Gate -/- 10 Defense 1 Building level

East Wall 65/100 10 Defense 1 Building level

East Gate 0/ 50 10 Defense 1 Building level

West Wall 95/100 10 Defense 1 Building level

West Gate 36/ 50 10 Defense 1 Building level