Roads and halls. Mountains and woods. Both deserving of the circumspective eye of Civil Service Appraisers, and both rather simple in their innate request. A road is a simple thing. A hall for merchants is a simple thing. Nonetheless, it is the duty of The Civil Service (particularly its notable inventors, engineers and planners) to take a simple concept and find a way to make it cost an amount that causes various Senators a headache.
It is the opinion of The Civil Service that these estimates would remain accurate for a year, requiring reappraisal by Spring 227. The Senate is welcome to commission any or none of the following options, and the projects mentioned in ‘Legends are Not Found, They are Built’ also remain available. The following Appraisals are no longer available for commission;
- Defensive Palisade (Athermer’s Folly)
- The Mithril Fortress (Athermer’s Folly)
Road through the Steinvault Pass
“An Appraisal for a road through the Steinvault Pass, to allow movement throughout the year.”
The Steinvault Pass represents some of the most inhospitable terrain within The Concord. Massive glacially carved canyons of cold grey stone, unmelting stonedrifts, cruel wildlife, and a frost so pervasive it can kill even in the depths of Summer.
But where there is a will, we can purchase a way.
Concordian surveyors have managed to mark out a path which should be possible to carve. It would not be a quick process, and by no means would it be a cheap process, but it would be the only way to accomplish such a feat. Those who know how difficult such matters would be would certainly laud it as a great achievement, even if the common wanderer would scarcely notice. The question becomes, how complex and hospitable should this road be?
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The first option is a military road and it is the simplest option. Crushed stone marks the path, carved and sheltered campgrounds along the path offer places to rest an army on the march, but there is little else in the way of niceties. Certainly not enough for civilians, merchants, and priests to bother with the travel.
The Brawler’s Road
Location: The Steinvault Pass
Cost: 12 Vaults / 6 Arcstone / 20 Hartswood
Construction Time: 2 Seasons
Upkeep: 2 Vaults 15 Locks
Effect: The Steinvault Pass will lose its ‘Iceheart’ trait, allowing forces to move through it during the winter season. The Warden of the Pass will also receive a small amount of income each time this occurs.
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The second option is a greater expense, but routes the road through calmer paths (which will require more work to tame) and reinforces the campgrounds with stone walls, shelters for livestock, and even a handful of cabins. This will allow military forces to travel the pass in Winter, but so will civilians on their way between Windholme and Weiland. The tolls that these people will pay ensures that the way can be maintained, removing any need for taxes to pay the upkeep.
The Merchant’s Road
Location: The Steinvault Pass
Cost: 16 Vaults / 8 Arcstone / 20 Hartswood
Construction Time: 2 Seasons
Upkeep: None
Effect: The Steinvault Pass will lose its ‘Iceheart’ trait, allowing forces to move through it during the winter season. The Warden of the Pass will also receive a small amount of income each time this occurs.
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The final option, and perhaps the most extravagant, is to augment the Merchant’s Road with efforts to construct a settlement deep within the Steinvault Pass. The settlement would ensure that travellers in need of medical aid, resupply, and warmth, have somewhere that they can find such succor. It would also allow the Iron Valley in particular, to make good on their intent to better settle this wild land. But this is not without significant cost and work.
The Warden’s Road
Location: The Steinvault Pass
Cost: 18 Vaults / 8 Arcstone / 30 Hartswood / 20 Forgesteel
Construction Time: 3 Seasons
Upkeep: None
Effect: The Steinvault Pass will lose its ‘Iceheart’ trait, allowing forces to move through it during the winter season. The Warden of the Pass will also receive a small amount of income each time this occurs.
A settlement will be constructed within the Steinvaults, capable of shielding its inhabitants from the worst of these mountain maladies, granting additional opportunities, choices, and development to the Warden of the Pass, and the people interested in residing there. This would increase tax income within the Steinvault Pass.
Additional Note:
Only one of these commissions may be purchased.
Merchant Hall in the Hunter’s Wood
“An Appraisal for a Merchant Hall within the Hunter’s Wood, including the involvement of Diplomats of Coin wherever possible.”
The Gap is one of The Concord’s busiest roads, and one of its most dangerous. Passing through the Hunters Wood at its thinnest point, it allows travellers from Andash and Lerona Mere to cross this stretch of blighted forest as swiftly as their carts can travel. But the road is poorly appointed. With no notable inns, certainly no settlements, and no watch stations, it is home to bandits, monsters, and apparently sedition.
A settlement in this space has long been discussed, but never put to hand, until now. Civil Service workers have identified a central location that would be advantageous and will be able to support a settlement of some kind. While opinions differ now on what this waystation should look like.
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The first is that of a minor settlement, with an inn, a stockyard, and a handful of homes. Enough to ensure that merchants within the space have a safe haven to rest their bones, and perhaps do a small amount of trading. Centralised settlements like this are always of use within the Weald, but are rarely worth writing home about.
Hamlet on the Road
Location: The Hunters Wood, along The Gap
Cost: 8 Vaults / 4 Thunder Oak / 15 Forgesteel
Construction Time: 2 Seasons
Upkeep: None
Effect: A small settlement will be constructed along The Gap in the Hunter’s Wood, providing a waystation for travellers passing through the Weald between Lerona Mere and Andash. This will increase trade income in The Hunters Wood, reduce (but not remove) the likelihood of negative economic effects within the region for both taxation, and investments / enterprises, and provide additional opportunities, choices, and developments for the Baroness of Resinderholz regarding the township.
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The second proposal instead doubles down on this core ideal, investing more time, more money, and more attention, in creating a township within the territory that is worthy of note. This new settlement, if it is successful, would be larger than Krezenberg, and would intend to be a destination in its own right, providing easy access to Wolstad, but also including additional constructions such as churches and artisans.
Town at the Crossroads
Location: The Hunters Wood, along The Gap
Cost: 12 Vaults / 6 Thunder Oak / 15 Suns Iron / 15 Forgesteel / 2 Mithril
Construction Time: 3 Seasons
Upkeep: None
Effect: A town will be constructed along The Gap in the Hunter’s Wood, providing a waystation for travellers passing through the Weald between Lerona Mere and Andash, as well as a new township within the territory to centralise the Havens, while also housing a sizable Merchant Hall. This will increase trade income in The Hunters Wood, reduce (but not remove) the likelihood of negative economic effects within the region for both taxation, and investments / enterprises, and provide additional opportunities, choices, and developments for the Baroness of Resinderholz regarding the township. This commission will also include a road from this township to Wolstad.
In addition, the Baroness of Resinderholz title will gain a small income, proportional to tax income within the territory. This income will tend to be in the form of currency.
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The final option is perhaps the most esoteric. Within the Weald, Priests of Panoply have a cultural role as travellers, diplomats, assayers, arbitrators, and world-wanderers. This tradition of ‘Diplomats of Coin’ (more commonly known as ‘Talervochts’) is sometimes seen as the sixth guild, albeit one never recognised. While this tradition has fallen into abandonment in recent years (particularly since the death of Baron Gilbert Schwarzand the defeat of Baron Valentin Vought), giving these priests of Panoply a chance to oversee this settlement would perhaps reignite this dwindling golden flame.
The Sanctum of the Talervocht
Location: The Hunters Wood, along The Gap
Cost: 8 Vaults / 4 Arcstone / 15 Suns Iron
Construction Time: 2 Seasons
Upkeep: None
Effect: A small waystation and church will be built along The Gap in the Hunter’s Wood, providing a waystation for travellers passing through the Weald between Lerona Mere and Andash. This will increase trade income in The Hunter’s Wood. This commission will also include a road from this township to Wolstad.
This waystation will act as the base for Talervocht’s (Taal-er-vokt) and the progression of this priestly pursuit into becoming a Guild within Resinderholz. If this pursuit was completed to its fullest extent, this site would qualify as a Sanctum.
Additional Note:
Only one of these commissions may be purchased.