Breakfast today was made by Mara, and Mark could see that she was an experienced hand in the kitchen. The group quickly packed up their gear and gave a last look around the future fishing outpost and headed north.
Garrick began discussing the build order immediately. The northern outpost had to come first, followed by trails connecting the major locations. He would supervise the route and bridge placements himself. Once access and storage were established, work could begin on the mill and permanent structures.
He would supervise a team himself to make sure that the bridge placements were perfect and find temporary crossing points until the bridges could be built. After all the roads were started, the mill would have the next priority, along with storage locations and storehouses at all the outpost locations, including the village site.
Until the roads and storehouses were ready, Garrick wanted the settlers housed in tents. Permanent construction would come after supplies could move reliably.
Mara added the agricultural needs: irrigation, grain storage, livestock fields, orchards, and eventually crop rotation. Ava focused on patrol routes and protecting the workers and new residents.
Mark just listened to it all, but his mind was only on the regional management that he had totally forgotten to look at before in all the rush of activities and settlement creation and, of course, this planned scouting trip.
They stopped at the clay deposits to check their quality. Garrick was very pleased with the size and scope of the deposit, more than enough for their needs.
The group continued until they got to the camp Mara and her husband had been staying in. She took Mark over and showed him the amazing growth of the animals that the kids had befriended and the Murder Pig that had fallen in love with Dale. Mark was shocked at the different growth patterns. Two of the chickens were almost full-grown chickens. Mara said they should be producing eggs soon; one was a hen and the other a rooster.
There was discussion of getting more chicks before they started harvesting eggs. The growth when there was active work with the animals gave months’ worth of growth in only a few days. She showed him a gardening experiment she was doing. She had planted two sets of vegetables, both the same type. The first she planted and watered but paid no attention to. The other ones she cared for daily, checking their growth and making sure they were healthy. Her husband called it talking to the plants.
She told him to look at them. One patch had good growth more than normal but looked like it had been growing for a few weeks. She let Mark know they had been planted only four days earlier. The other patch looked like it had been growing for two-plus months and would be ready to harvest in a couple weeks.
Mara pointed to the stronger patch. “That one was planted the same day as the other. Elias says it is the one I have been talking to. The system seems to help more when I actively care for the plants.”
Mark and the others bid her farewell; he would have to think on this and discuss it with the others. This could speed up a lot of their plans and make things easier in some ways. Maybe harder in others.
As they traveled north on the path, they saw people going in both directions, some to the marsh, others to the Burrow Cluster, and even a few on their way to explore the southern zone and help harvest wheat.
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When they finally got back to Forest’s Rest, the place was busy. There was a line of people waiting for a table to eat, and Dale was rushing around madly trying to feed people. He could smell the smoke from the charcoal pits around the area, with smoke rising from their vents as they produced charcoal.
Traffic going east and west on the road was heavy. Then he realized it was an actual road now, wider and able to have two hand-pulled carts pass each other. People were working on the Forgeworks tasks, and as Mark checked the lists, there were as many or more tasks to do than he saw last time.
Two men were talking to Tom about an order they were delivering as part of a trade agreement with the zone to the east. They were trying to determine where to deliver it and collect the promised trade goods in exchange. They were really looking forward to the wheat they were promised.
Mark wished the others farewell and went into his A-frame which had been moved again. When looking for it, he realized one of the cabins was now finished along with the storage and most of the work area. It seemed only the other two cabins were left along with some finishing work.
Sitting on his bed, he brought up the regional management panel.
[Forest Region]
Regional Control: 83%
Active Outposts: Forest’s Rest, Cave Camp, Eastwatch, Crossroads, and Wayrest
Population: 147
Average Regional Level: 5.8
Infrastructure Rating: Developing
Regional Stability: Stable
Threat Pressure: Elevated
Active Regional Project: Sanctioned Forgeworks, 8%
Known Major Threats: Rootmaw Territory, reduced; Northern Forest Overpopulation, increasing.
Resources are strong in timber, resin, and food; moderate in stone, clay, and herbs; and low in metal, cloth, and skilled labor.
Migration and cave traffic are increasing, along with the region’s trade potential.
◈ ◈ ◈
The first major thing Mark noticed was that the population had almost doubled since the last time he opened this up. More than 75 people had migrated here since the Rootmaw fight. Another major change was that the average level had dropped, which meant most of those coming in were of a low level and would need training, skills, and jobs.
Mark realized he was getting distracted again, looking at the screen, and opened up the zone control options.
POSSIBLE CONTROL OPTION
[Regional Threat Pressure]
Current: Elevated
Options:
Reduce Spawn Pressure
Maintain Current Balance
Increase Regional Challenge
◈ ◈ ◈
Mark thought about the number of people in the zone and the stress that would cause if the threat stayed elevated. There were too many people now, and with all those people, an elevated threat would end up leading to loss of life, so he selected the option for Reduce Spawn Pressure.
[Regional Influence Applied]
Forest Region
Threat Pressure: Guarded
Expected Effects:
Reduced hostile creature migration and aggression
Lower chance of another large-scale threat
Tradeoff:
Fewer combat encounters and slightly slower experience gain
◈ ◈ ◈
Mark thought about lowering it a second time but decided that he alone should not be making all of the decisions, and he would talk with others over the next week or so and decide if they needed it to go down one more level.
On the menu, though, he found the list of future management options that were locked at this time but would become available depending on his work to relieve the current regional pressures around the people and labor issues.
[Locked Management Options]
Migration guidance, road maintenance, wildlife pressure, settlement influence, trade analysis, and environmental strain will unlock through future performance.
◈ ◈ ◈
Mark then spent some time looking at the overlays on the map about soil quality, forest density, path maintenance, water levels, and migration patterns. That last one really interested him, as it showed that the migration was all heading to the cave, which soon would be a real problem.
Mark finally closed all the displays and went out and got dinner. Dale told him that he needed to double the cooking staff and maybe add twice the number of tables outside. As frustrated as Dale made it seem, Mark could tell he was happy and would like it no other way.