Mistwater HarborDay 11 of the Grainworks Initiative
Mark woke up early in the Northridge inn. He quickly got dressed and packed his bags. He was ready for the trip home. Late last night, he had decided there was one more place he wanted to visit: the harbor and the Harbor Watch outpost. They were on the way if he headed south first rather than going farther east and then south through the forest. The roads were nicer there too, which meant better speed.
He stopped at Harbor Watch and tied up his horse. Looking around, he could see that it had grown since his last visit. More areas had been staked out for housing, and there were more people and activity everywhere. People played games, talked, and discussed the harbor and its changes. It was becoming a growing, thriving place.
He walked toward the harbor and stopped first at the Harbor Contribution Exchange. He opened the store interface and saw that the list of items was growing. There were new options to filter by price, type, quality, and size. Curious, Mark filtered the list by largest size and was surprised to find a sailing ship listed. The price made his head spin. He would have to run the instance daily for months to get that many credits. And if he bought it, would it just appear right out there on the ground or docked at the harbor? Mark just laughed and closed it. He then went over and touched the instance to bring up its interface.
[Mistwater Harbor Activities]
Available Activities:Combat | Contribution: LowUtility | Contribution: MediumTrade | Contribution: High
Selectable Difficulty: Levels Available 2/4/6/8
Cooldown: 10 Hours
Instances Available: 0/4◈ ◈ ◈
Mark smiled. As expected, it was slowly changing. You could now pick levels, which made it much safer for lower-level teams to try without getting overwhelmed by the missions. Mark asked a team standing by and learned there was a four-day wait. Teams had to register and were scheduled by priority. First-time runs took priority over teams that had already run it a dozen times, and low-level teams were also favored so they had a chance to grow more quickly.
He also learned that teams choosing a trade mission could basically cut the line because its priority was still the highest. Combat activities gradually dropped toward Very Low if they were not run enough, causing teams to earn almost nothing from each run. Mark let them know that he would spread word about those interested in trade missions.
He also checked and verified that the adventurers' guild was shared down here, and almost all were members. He even found out that the guild had information missions available that gave guild rewards for each of the types of activities run if they wrote a short report and submitted it to the guild so future teams could be better prepared.
Mark then headed over to the Harbor Administration office. He knew he could access the harbor interface remotely, but he wanted to see how the place itself was progressing. The first thing he noticed was that the sign on the door had been repaired, and the door now opened and closed without any trouble. The stairs leading upstairs had also been repaired. They could still use some paint, but they were no longer wobbly.
When he got into the office, he sat down at the desk, and before he could bring up the interface at the desk, he received a new System message.
[Steward Interface Updated]
Mistwater Harbor
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
New Administrative Function Available:Restoration Priority
Current Setting: Balanced Restoration
Available PrioritiesBalanced RestorationAdministrationHousingWarehousesDockyards◈ ◈ ◈
Mark was happy to see that the system was slowly improving the administrative function of the harbor. He wondered how long it would take for some of the previously mentioned functions, like warehouse network, navigation control, or lighthouse network, to open up, and when they did, what would they offer? He thought about changing the setting to maybe housing or warehousing but thought that maybe he should talk to the Beaver Crossing council about it and get their thoughts.
Mark left the administration building and started to walk around. He went over to the docks first and looked at them. They were slowly getting better. One of the sunken boats had now risen to the surface, but it did not look safe to board, let alone sail. He walked past a street light that looked brand new and then looked across the street at its matching partner. That one was still damaged, its light shattered, with a bird nesting in what remained.
He walked down a few of the roads. The changes were noticeable, though nothing life-changing. What stood out was that workers were not repairing the place; the System itself was doing it slowly. Everyone assumed the repairs were somehow tied to the Harbor instances, though no one knew for certain. Mark suspected the same. Every completed run probably contributed a tiny amount toward restoring the Harbor.
Mark found a warehouse he remembered entering before. There was less dust and debris around, though the door still protested when he opened it. The holes in the roof were gone. Water stains remained on the floor, but at least there were no holes left to let more rain in. He finally left the warehouse district and headed back toward Harbor Watch, heading down a street he had not explored before; it was full of shops, and to his amazement, one of them had a line of people at it.
There was a man and a woman sitting at a table, and they each had one person in front of them. The customers pulled out items and handed them over to be appraised, receiving trade offers in return. Mark knew that the system would take anything through the village interface, but if it already had too much of something or did not need an item, it gave almost nothing for it. These two had set up shop and were running their own trade business.
They had a display room of items that were for sale, and Mark went to look. He found lots of interesting items; some had been scavenged from the ruined port, and others had been brought back from instance runs. Most of it was junk, but Mark looked through it anyway. He did find a couple of harbor-related knickknacks and purchased them. One was a little anchor on a display stand, and the other was a model boat in terrible shape. Mark bought both partly to help the traders earn some credits and partly to have something to put in his cabin so it looked lived in.
Mark finally made his way back to Harbor Watch and got back on his horse. Taking one final look around the harbor, he headed back home. The ride went rather fast. The roads were great, and there was even a bridge over the stream that had not been there last time. He arrived shortly after dark and dropped his horse off at the stables and brushed it down before heading to his cabin.
When he got into the cabin, he looked for somewhere to put his two items, and finding nowhere, he set them on the floor to remind him when he got his bedroom set to put them on a dresser or the desk. He then looked at the list he had made. He had visited the Adventurer’s Enclave and helped them better understand the System and how to run it.
He had also visited the Timber Consortium; they were still a complete train wreck, but they at least now were talking about the issue and how to solve it. Mark thought about scratching them off the list but realized they were going to be an ongoing concern. So instead, he just added checkboxes next to each of their names.
Looking at his list, he thought Brightwater Valley Territory Influence would be the next best thing to work on. Not that he wanted to leave home so fast, but he wanted to get there and get more things organized with them. All three regional projects could use their help. Their food would push the work along, and of course the wheat and lumber might be useful to them.
He also needed to spread the Adventurers Guild in that direction. He was sort of hoping to get credit for all of it. Last he checked, he was still far down several rankings. Maybe he could send enough guild invites to make the recruitment list. Not that he cared, but the bragging rights would be fun. And he would get credit for exploring the zone and adding it to the map. He had seen that currently Ava was on top of the exploration list. Maybe he could give her a run for her money.