Jonathon took a break from hauling two-hundred-pound bags of groats into the barn to look at the sky. There was one lonely dark cloud and a few wisps, but no sign of a storm. It was going to be clear until late tomorrow, but a little colder. Around him, the rest of the people of the hamlets kept working but were curious about what he'd see.

Jonathon had worked hard to gain a high perception and raise a set of skills most farmers either didn't take or never qualified for, but fit his position as Village Elder. Know the Land let him judge water drainage for miles around, showing him where drainage ditches and overflow ponds needed to be built, as well as what fields needed to lay fallow, or needed more fertilizer. See Down the Years let him notice trends and anticipate upcoming problems that ranged from a lack of apprentice beekeepers to a need for more root cellars to store potatoes. He'd used the enhancement points earned in the Gopher War and exploring dungeons to raise his perception whenever possible to get the most out of those skills. People in the Hamlets were used to their Village Elder staring out at the land, tasting the soil, or sitting on a fence and watching the clouds.

Cloudwatching was what he was doing now, using his Weather Sense. He always kept a careful eye on the sky, checking several times a day. Winter wasn't here in full force yet, but it was coming. "Looks good for the rest of the day, with no rain or flurries, but it will be colder tonight. We should bring in the lambs." This latest bumper crop of groats had taken even longer to harvest than last time. The grain was taller and the heads heavy. The fields were yielding a fourth part more bushels than the harvest only a few weeks before. And that harvest had been up over its predecessor. Everyone from the very young to the very old was helping bring in the harvest today and for the last three days. It was a true group effort that made him proud.

The Baron and Baroness had astonished everyone by showing up at dawn on the first day with a full score of his workers to help out. The strength of the Baron's people let them haul overloaded wagons from the fields and lift barrels into the barns with ease. The farmers of the hamlets were growing strong but there was a difference between 'Farmer Strong' and 'Juggle barrels of molasses' strong.

The Baron had also brought his Wizard with him, easily recognizable by his long white beard and pointed blue hat. The Baron's Wizard had looked over the storage of the grain, hay, and pickled vegetables, going with Jonathon from barn to barn and making suggestions that increase their storage space. He also chased away every rat and mouse from the barns, and set a ward to keep the hungry rodents away. More astounding, after Jonathon gave him his estimates of future harvests, Wizard Delbert lobbied the Baron for five more Big Red Barns. The Baron had barely thought about the request for a minute before Jonathon saw the Building Points transferred to the hamlets. And then the Baron complimented the two of them on their good sense, making more than one person who overheard shake their head in wonder.

"Good job, both of you. Anticipating problems is so much more efficient than having to solve them later. I'd hate to see all that hard work of growing and harvesting that grain go to waste because we didn't have a secure place to store it. You know best where to place those barns, Jonathon, and I'm happy to provide the points. Now, I'll leave you to your work. The Baroness and I want to stretch our muscles a little."

That was when all work stopped and everyone stared, as Baroness Layla and Baron William took off their fancy coats and each one borrowed a two-handed scythe to begin working their way around the fields, cutting huge swathes of groats as fast as any Farmer with Harvesting 6. They made a contest of it, competing with each other and the Farmers, cutting field after field until the last stalk was cut. The Baroness was judged the winner and the children made her a crown woven from golden stalks of grain. Dinner was a simple affair of bread, soup, and fresh fruit. The nobles insisted they not be fussed over, sitting with the now tired harvesters at the long wooden tables, eating the simple food and drinking the local ale. Afterward, they sat by the traditional bonfire, listening to stories and getting to know their tenants better.

The dancing lasted long into the night, even though morning came early and would bring more work. They would use every hour they had before the winter snow fell to prepare the fields for the next planting, care for their animals, and cut extra firewood. They would take several days of rest when the first major storm hit, cooking, eating, and catching up on their sleep. Old stories of other Winters would be told.

This was a good time in the hamlets. There was plenty of food, and enough stored for three long winters. The houses were warm with good roofs and no one would sleep in the cold. There were the usual winter worries of predators and blizzards, but the proximity of the unicorn herds and the thorn border made those threats smaller. And every family had a sack of coins hidden somewhere in the house for emergencies, or even safer, in the gnomish bank.

The Baron's word had been good and he'd bought every extra barrel of groats that the fields had produced. Five full harvests had been made since the Gopher Wars, the land doubly blessed by their victories and the local unicorns. The first harvest had been the best any of them had ever seen, and each one after that was better! Wagon after wagon left the hamlets and headed to Sedgewick, each barrel of groats paid for at a fair market value of 20 gold per barrel, as he had promised. Any other noble would have paid ten gold or less and then taxed that amount down to five. The Baron of Gadobhra scoffed at that. He could sell the grain to the Legion for twenty gold a barrel and insisted on paying the farmers a fair price.

And it wasn't just the harvests that were growing. All of the people with the Farmer class had increased their levels quickly by growing so much grain. The Baron had encouraged them to gain the second and even the third Tier, unconcerned about the taxes he would have to pay.

"Let me worry about the taxes, that's my job. Yours is tilling the land and growing stronger. Use this year to erase the bad times under the old miser Baron."

Jonathan had never heard of such a thing. It was common knowledge and tradition going back hundreds of years that a peasant was restricted to the first Tier. Some advanced anyway but quickly found themselves burdened with paying the increased taxes themselves. Not here. No one was paying taxes this year. The Baron had declared that all of the profits from the land were theirs alone to help the people of Unicorn Vale recover from their long journey and losing their homes.

One time Jonathan had almost felt thankful to old Pennypincher for being such a bastard and driving them out of their villages. Then he came to his senses and cursed the old miser. Any thanks for how things turned out rightfully belonged to the Baron of Gadobhra.

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It was long past midnight when Billy and Layla walked home under the light of the moon. A few of their workers were with them, walking a few yards ahead, but they needed no bodyguards, not in their own lands wearing armor and carrying weapons. Both were actually hoping for something to randomly attack. Harvesting with a scythe helped with gaining skill, but they were both itching to try out their new weapons on monsters.

"What do you think, Layla dear? Should we try to find a few ghouls, or hunt up some charnel daemons over by the entrance to the Pit?"

"The ghouls just run away now, Billy, but the daemons are still fearless. I'd rather have something charge at me than have to run it down."

"Good point. Daemons it is. What are you estimating for profits from the harvest? The quality looked good."

"Very good. Even better than last time. The first harvest was over a hundred and fifty bushels per acre. That's just shy of three tonnes per acre, and the hamlets are growing three hundred acres of groats. Figure eight barrels per tonne. We bought half that first harvest from the farmers and sold 2700 barrels of groats to the Legion. The high quality of the grain let us sell for a little over normal market value which offset the cost of barrels. We broke even that time. The second harvest was better. Not only did they produce more, but the quality improved again, courtesy of higher-level farmers and a lot of unicorn fertilizer. We bought nearly all of the harvest since the hamlets were stocked up for at least a year. We made a 20% profit off of 3240 barrels of 'High Quality' groats. The Legion prefers them. More calories for the hay burners for the same amount of wagon space."

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"Damn, if that many barrels were sausage instead of groats at 20 gold a barrel, we'd have a dragon's hoard by now. Remind me to talk to Ozzy about the sausage factory and what he needs to set it up."

"Noted, but the groat profits aren't anything to be sneezed at. We cleared over three gold a barrel after expenses, nearly 10k on that harvest alone. The third and fourth harvests were 4050 and 5000 barrels. The Legion accepted them as 'Best Quality' grain, and we made five gold a barrel for a total of 45,250 gold."

"Damn! I like those numbers better. How about this harvest?"

"This is the good one. We're paying the farmers the standard rate of 20 gold a barrel, but the grain is up to 'Supreme Quality'. Frankly, I wasn't expecting that, even with the increases in levels and skills. But we're getting the same quality out of our own fields now, maybe even a little better. Our Contract Worker Farmers don't have enough to do at this point, that was one of the reasons I wanted to send ten of the best down south and retrain the others up here. There's more land down south for cultivation and we can expand quicker there."

Billy was amused, "Can you imagine if we put this in our reports? Gopher blessings, unicorn shit, dryads, special skills from high-level farmers? The board would have no idea how to interpret it. And I don't want Vern learning all of our tricks."

"The board looks hard at only a couple of numbers. They'll see our increase in profit, and the increase in acreage and that will be enough. I'm certainly not going to explain to them that I can sell a barrel of Supreme Quality groats for 35 gold a barrel, making 14 a barrel profit on 6300 barrels. With the profit from the hamlets and from selling some of the Sedgewick groats, we can bank over a quarter of a million gold pieces when the Legion pays its bills."

"Good, we're going to need a lot of gold. I'm not looking forward to this year's tax bill on the dungeons. Last year, they only knew a little about them and Rolly did a fine job of pulling rules out of their own books to prevent paying. They have a better idea of how deep they go now, and the taxes will be higher. Paying for the Menagerie, the Pit, the Chapel, and maybe the Dance, it's going to hurt."

Layla looked thoughtful. "True, but with more people going in, we're going to start making a much bigger profit selling magic items. Cashflow may be a problem initially. We're building up quite a supply of enchanted crap, but we don't have a direct way to sell it. Everything goes through the Kallveks right now. Although, I have been selling a lot to our local, homegrown adventurers. Over a hundred people from the hamlets have been into the low-level dungeon under the Tavern. Pumping all that gold into the economy be buying their groats is coming back to us in magic item sales."

"We just have to push our crazy people harder to find a way to repair that broken teleportation stone. Vladimir said he had some ideas he wanted to try out."

"And I want a bank of our own in Gadobhra. It's unbelievable that somehow Suzette wrangled the gnomes into putting a Gold Bank in Sedgewick. I still haven't been able to find out how that happened, no one is talking, especially not the banker." Layla was working hard to tamp down her inclination to compete with Suzette. The barmaid was a valuable asset and drinking partner. But old habits died hard.

"We'll get one. Mr. Coppertwist said a Copper Level banker was on the way, they only had to sort out the paperwork. I get the distinct feeling the gnomes take their paperwork as seriously as an ACME accountant. We'll want a prime spot for the bank, right on the main courtyard. It can't come soon enough, I get the feeling things are going to accelerate soon."

She stopped, then waved to the workers to keep going. "I have an idea that I want you to think about. It goes against everything we ever learned at ACME."

"Hit me with it and I'll try not to wince." At ACME, it was all about the bottom line. Heresy was considered leaving money on the table.

"I want to skip taxes on the hamlets again, next year."

"Oof, yeah, that would get you burned at the stake if anyone in upper management heard you. Tell me your plan to make that work, although, I'll admit I would love not to have a Baronial tax collector if we can swing it."

She leaned on the handle of her scythe and looked around. "We lucked into a good deal here and I don't want to lose it. Oh, sure, we put in a lot of work, have been uncommonly generous at times, and have done our share. But I'd rather milk a cow twice a day forever than four times a day and kill it in a year."

"My, what a down-home way to put it. I see we've been practicing our 'farmer talk'."

"Oh, I have. Now look at the math. Even if the acreage stays the same, these people will produce more bushels a year, giving them an increased amount of profits if we keep buying at 20 a barrel. But we benefit both from the increased amount of grain as well as the increased quality. The profits will be huge, and we have a big advantage over any competitor. We sell the best grain for a premium, and whatever we grow in the southern fields we can use to crush the markets of any competitor that annoys us. And that's enough. We can skip the taxes."

"Yeah, I can see that. And none of these people are going to want to leave when they have such a good thing. They get a share of the profits, no taxes, good protection, and other benefits. Like increasing their levels. If they go anywhere else, they have to pay taxes and deal with idiots. I like it."

Layla smiled. "Great, I'll come to the winter festival and make the announcement."

"You?! I'm the Baron!"

"So, I have a lovely new crown and the children adore me."

"This is the start of your rebellion against me, isn't it?"

Further talk of the origins of The Groat Rebellion would have to wait. The drumming of hooves announced the arrival of the Baronial Courier. Mudhead came running at a fast gallop. Billy swore it was over sixty miles an hour. Ben leaped from the horse in a flashy dismount and Mudhead went on to the village, smelling fresh hay and ground groats.

"Greetings, your Excellencies. I bring word from General Themis and Duchess Claudia. The recent problems with the teleportation system are solved but Ice Wizard Terrorists attacked Wolfsburg, attempting to kill the Duchess. The dastardly blackguards have been dealt with, (and trust me, there is a story to tell you about that), but the General wants to strike immediately with a fast attack squad, and she sent me with a shopping list. The General specifically said to tell you she doesn't have time for haggling. She's paying 50% more than standard Legion pricing, in gold, for immediate delivery. She also wants to buy wagons, and rent the services of our people for delivery."

Billy looked at the list. "I do love a customer who's in a hurry. Do what you need to do to make it happen, but make sure we get that gold. I'll trust the General this time, but not any of the coin counters who work for the Empire. You said you had a story, does that mean Ozzy set this up while he was shopping in Wolfsburg?"

"Yes, I believe he did. Saved the Duchess and knocked down some buildings. He brought the list back with him and I rode off on my trusty steed to find you."

Billy put his seal on the paper and handed it back to Ben. "Fine. I see they want some potions and sausage. Tell Suzette and Ozzy that his bonus for setting up the deal is the two of them can keep all the profits this time."

"I'll do that. And now I have to go find my horse before he overeats." He ran down the road to the village where his horse was destroying his third helping of grouts.

Layla laughed, "My, aren't we in a good mood? Foregoing profits to give our little workers a bonus?"

"Just following in your footsteps. He set up the deal, it's a small enough reward to let them keep all the profits from a couple of slabs of bacon or a box of healing potions. Need to keep our people happy, so they keep us profitable. Now, how much do you think we can get per day for renting out Contract Workers and heavy wagons?"