GrainfieldsDay 12 of the Grainworks Initiative
Mark left the inn shortly after his conversation with Sarah. He went and found his horse and saddled it up. This trip was different from his last; he went to see if something was there. This time he was going to explore more of it to finish one requirement for his next class upgrade. He also had some side things he wanted to accomplish. He wanted to share the guild and get Brightwater fully into his connected zones with trade and help improve the quality of life for everyone.
His first stop was Rivergate Landing this was his new outpost that he and Garrick mapped out just days ago. Garrick promised to get at least the river dock done before the barge showed up. It could be here any time now. The trees had been significantly cut back now, and there were large piles of logs in various stages of being chopped up. There were wagons all over dropping off trade items to be sent downriver when the barge showed up and others dropping off construction items like rock, clay, nails, hinges, and other things Garrick had ordered to build this outpost.
To Mark, it looked like a mess, but knowing Garrick, there was some type of organization to it. The dock was empty, and he could not see anything downstream, so he had beaten it here. He looked around for one of the construction workers he knew and asked them if they had any word on the barge. He said that they were told it should either show up tonight or in the morning early. Mark took one last look around and then headed south on the new towpath to find the barge.
It did not take long to find them on the new towpath when he got to them, they were parked on the bank of the river doing a little repair. Mark spoke to Ron and found out they had recently hit a rock and had to fix a small issue in the barge. He said downriver they were all marked out on the map as the bad ones that cause navigation issues. He was, of course, adding the same notations now farther upriver.
Ron told him it had been an easy trip until they got to the end of the current towpaths, but the work crew passed them still heading south a day or two back and were working on making a solid trail, fixing all the holes and wet spots that were found by the oxen. Ron could hardly stop talking about the oxen and their strength. Mark let Ron know that a second pair was on its way to riverbend and would be there and ready when he got back from this trip and that he had ordered four more exclusively for Ron’s use that would be available in a few more weeks.
Mark thanked them for their hard work and promised them a big bonus when they docked at the outpost that was under construction and let them know that it was currently a single dock with a staging area with materials for them to take downstream. Mark also asked if he could expand his deal and have Ron build a second barge for his business and make Beaver Crossing an investor in his business with funds enough to crew, build, and maintain another barge and build facilities dedicated to his business in the Riverbend Traiding post.
Ron was delighted with the idea, and the fact that this trip had made more than he had made the last four months combined was just cream on the cake. Mark wished him well and continued on his surveying trip. Looking at his map, he was about half the length down the farms at the Sunvine farms outpost. He decided he needed to go west until he found the road that was being built from Rivergate to Sunyvine, as that part of his map was blank on the guild maps even though part of it was mapped on his steward maps.
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When he finally got to Sunvine Farms, he stopped for lunch and visited briefly with the leaders of the outpost. He had the same message he planned to share at all locations the first thing was to explain the guild, its benefits, the maps, and the ability to see the world and find more trading partners. He showed them how to bring up the guild maps and showed them how close rivergate landing was from them just heading north on the new road his people had finished only days ago.
He then had them pan out the map to look at the regions, and then picking one of them at random, they looked at the forest zone. He showed them in that zone where Forgeworks was and explained the metal being forged. Abilities to buy raw ore, nails, hinges, and other items, they would love to improve their quality of life. He then encouraged them to share the guild with anyone they thought would find it interesting. He also pointed out to them the two system-controlled zones and explained their benefits.
With his distraction to their life done, he continued south down the road towards Goldbulb farms. He repeated the same effort, and it went about the same way. Goldbulb farm was having a wood shortage, and finding out that there was trade for wood available in Silvermere excited them. Mark just thought about how life-changing this was going to be for all the zones. More food choices, and they would have growth opportunities from the things gained from the new zones they had access to.
About halfway to his next destination, he received a system message.
[Skill Acquired]Mounted Travel (Level 1)
Improves comfort during long-distance riding.• Reduces fatigue while traveling on trained mounts.• Improves basic control during routine travel.
Mark was happy about the skill gain, as he had been riding now for a while, and this was his first skill in that direction, and it excited him to finally get one. The less fatigue sounded great too.
Mark then headed south again towards the Meadowrun Dairy; he had totally missed this place the first time and was excited to visit it. Dale had made sure to get trade contracts for milk, cheese, and beef if those were available. The stop here was longer. He spent the same amount of time sharing the adventure guild with them and explaining, like the other places, but he wanted a tour; he had never seen a working dairy.
Mark toured the pastures, the cheese plant, the creamery, and the butter makers' shop. In each location he made small purchases, sharing the guild going into fewer details with the workers but sharing it all the same. His final stop was the barns, and he got there at milking time. Mark was delighted to be able to milk a cow. He had originally grown up in a city, and cows had always been a fun thing to see on a road trip, but he had never had the opportunity like today.
As Mark milked it, he realized that this took way more skill than he had. He saw others milk 10-15 cows during the time he milked one. And the cow was kinda mad at him near the end. Mark was apparently not handling it well enough for the cow’s liking. Some of the workers laughed at the difficulties he was having, but it was all in fun. They had been there once.
In the end they bottled up the milk he got and gave it to him to take home with him, which totally delighted Mark. It was dark by that time, so he stayed the night in a cabin reserved for traders passing through. Tomorrow his next stop would be to see the Ferry south of Riverbend; he had been told about it on his last trip but wanted to see it this time.