Bonus OOC: Bone Temple Hill
I have index cards and lists and spreadsheets and text files and hex maps to keep track of the six-mile domains within Galaufabonne, and I’m still figuring out a good way to do that. As a result, a lot of stuff gets swept under the rug when I’m writing up a description of a session - all of the disorganized crap I don’t want visitors to see!
However, since Year 6 marked a full one-year anniversary (in-game) for the founding of Galaufabonne, I took some time to break out ONE of the six-mile hexes and its development over Year 5: Bone Temple Hill.
I chose Bone Temple Hill for a few reasons: it has a low Value, but is placed well for the highway; it ended the year with a city on it; and the party has been discussing it more than most of the others (Azure Hot Springs a notable exception), so I have more notes on it.
Bone Temple Hill is dominated by a semi-barren hilltop with ancient temple ruins on it. The highest point of the temple is high enough to be visible from about 9 miles away, or twice that if the other point is on a similarly high hill (or a mountain).
Land Value 6
0102: Rocky, flat area; stream from #0203.
0103: Ridge running SW.
0201: Small hill.
0202: Crest, sloping away from #0302.
0203: Ridge and mini-hill. Weak stream runs to #0102.
0204: Hill.
0301: Northernmost ridge running from the peak in #0302.
0302: Peak of highest hill; elven temple ruins.
An elven temple to the Lady - or the elven conception of the Lady - with shattered statuary, slender columnar obelisks (most broken in half, but some simply knocked over), and seven attractively placed, large flat rocks with smooth surfaces. A few steps are carved into a narrow cavern cleft, which is not very deep - inside are wondrous wall paintings of frolicking elves and animals (including, yes, pegasi). There were skeletons scattered across the temple, but these were cleaned up and given to a funeral pyre before the hex was declared "clean."
The peak is fairly flat and a quarter-mile across before sloping off into the rest of the Bone Temple Hill hex.
0303: Southernmost ridge running from the peak in #0302.
0304: End of ridge in #0303. Small cliff at southernmost end.
0401: Gentle slope N; meadowed with light trees.
0402: Gentle slope NE; meadowed.
0403: Sharp valley crease between the hill in #0502 and the ridge in #0303.
0404: High hill with an empty bear cave.
0502: Hill.
0503: High hill.
Upon completion of Galaufabonne’s central castle, 20 peasant families had moved in, almost all of them in
#0401 (taking advantage of the easier farming and proximity to the safe-ish highway zone there).
Accounting for the first month:
Land: +140 gold (20 x 6, +20 due to Morale +4).
Service: +100 gold (20 x 4, +20 due to Morale +4).
Tax: +40 gold (20 x 2).
Tithes: -28 gold.
Winter Festival: -100 gold (20 x 5).
4.65% of OVERALL domain accounting:
Starting Treasury: +26,050 gold.
Fortress Construction: -24,650 gold.
Stronghold Maintenance: -115 gold.
Garrison: -500 gold.
NET: +937 gold … but only because of the party chipping in.
Don’t worry, I’m not going to do the huge breakdown for every month!
Over the next 11 months, the population grew substantially. The Grim Fist adventured regularly and the Morale couldn’t budge from +4, so the growth looked like this:
01 > 02 > 03 > 04 > 05 > 06 > 07 > 008 > 009* > 010** > 011 > 012
20 > 27 > 35 > 44 > 55 > 69 > 86 > 109 > 131* > 148** > 181 > 219
- In month 9, Bone Temple Hill shifted to Borderlands.
** In month 10, 16 peasants were moved to the city (plus peasants from other hexes).
That growth is the result of pop x1.25 for adventuring (x1.2 months 9-12; x1.15 after month 12); then +4d10 families (+21 on average). The +1d10-1d10 balanced out on average.
By the end of the year, roughly 60 families each are in sub-hexes 1401 and 1402; and 3-10 families each in all of the other sub-hexes.
In month 10, Vulfelind constructed “her” city, Bone Temple. Predictably enough, she chose the central hilltop. Also, the player agreed to let me reproduce this section:
Bone Temple
V: Okay, a straight path north to the highway runs along a ridge - can we flatten the top of the ridge for a highway? A 3-mile, 12-feet wide dwarven highway at 3,600gp is too sweet to pass up.
C: Clearing rock first is more expensive. Call it 4,500 gold.
V: Done.
V: I would also like to renovate the elven temple. Or make Shad do it - that’s what the tithes are, right?
C: Without statuary: 3,000. With: 13,000. Shad can spend tithes how he wants, but you could sweeten the pot by making a land grant. It looks like the first month’s tithe for the region with be about 3,000, so that may be the way to start.
V: Done. Will email Shad.
V: The city will grow, but I want a wall to start with. I think I’ll have 1,000 fams pretty fast, so I’ll start with that. MDME says that’s 0.13 square miles. I want a hexagon, but you do the math.
C: The hex is 2,000 feet across; each side is 1,200 feet long. Six sides is 7,200 feet long. Pick a wall and go. Will NOT count toward infrastructure, but WILL count toward defensive structures if Galaufabonne Castle falls.
V. Ugh. Okay, no wall. We’ll make walls when I’m swimming in platinum.
V: How much do I have to define the “infrastructure”?
C: As much as you want. Anything you don’t define, if it comes up, we’ll just use something basic and standard and easy.
V: No no no. My city has to be the best.
C: I think that answers your question of how much you want to define, then.
V: You are so mean LOL. Okay. What is the starting point?
C: 1,000 families is 3.5 million square feet and needs 40,000 gold in wells, administrative buildings (including a town square), streets, fees paid to draw up the city charter, flattened areas suitable for erecting wooden buildings on, and any small extras your city is known for.
V: Sewers?
C: Not standard. Hm. Good sewers will let a city pack the same people into a smaller area. You still needs the same number of wells, administrative buildings, and fees, but the streets and flattened areas are halved. So 40K + ??? - ??? for savings?
C: I’m going to rule this as a construction-like problem. Rather than price the sewers per se, I’ll just say that you can halve the area of the settlement with “improvements” worth +50% gold, or quarter the area for +100% gold. So 60,000 gold and 80,000 gold, respectively. In both cases, the extra gold halves the area, but does not count toward allowing a higher population.
V: Will it count for the extra family growth rate?
C: Hmm… yes. That seems sensible.
V: What about secret passages?
C: Heh.
C: Okay, revised rule: +50% per “city improvement.” Improvements include:
- Density: halve area required. Gain bonus families when built. Aquaducts, sewers, raised streets, building complexes, grid design, etc.
- Secret Passages: Grants +1 to relevant thief guild tasks. No other benefit.
- Feng Shui: Grants +1 on arcane Magic Research rolls. No other benefit.
- Religious Shui: Grants +1 on divine MR rolls. No other benefit.
C: Each can be taken twice. You will also have to keep them up when the city expands, if you want to keep the benefits.
V: Hmmmmmmmmmmmmkay. I want sewers. Annnnnnd secret passages. So starting out, the city will cost 20,000gp for a 10,000gp settlement; and for my purposes, the initial expansion will be 60,000gp for +30,000gp in settlement value. Can I add density improvements later?
C: Yes and yes.
V: And if I quarter the size of the city, the walls cost…?
C: If area is quartered, lines are halved. You know this
V: Ugh. Not enough.
V: So no walls and highway brings the total to… ugh. 84,500gp. Well, that’s my allowance for a while.
C: Don’t forget that your first month might not be profitable.
V: Well, I’ll burn that bridge when it comes. Maybe I can wheedle some cash out of Chlod.
Bone Temple grew rapidly: starting with 250 peasants in month 10, it grew to 433 in month 11 (helped along by Vulfelind’s investments), and 628 by the end of the year. It is now a Class IV large town!
Demand modifiers:
Modifiers: age 0-20; water source none; climate deciduous forest; elevation hills; land value 6; within 144 miles of Atanung and Orléans (which are, themselves, not QUITE within 144 miles of each other).
Both are Class II, so I just averaged them for Bone Temple’s modifiers, with Orléans winning on 0.5 values for being slightly larger. After rolling 2d3-4 for each and modifying the values appropriately:
-3: wine & spirits, fine textiles.
-2: beer & ale, arms, cloth, silk
-1: gems, semiprecious stones, preserved meats, common metals, precious metals, salt, wood, and rare woods.
+1: monster parts.
+3: spices.
And since Vulfelind is planning to build it into a Class I megalopolis, I’m keeping the original scores for when the tables are turned on Atanung and Orléans:
-3: wine & spirits, semiprecious stones, common metals, precious metals, salt, cloth, fine textiles.
-2: ivory, silk, wood, and rare woods.
-1: animals, arms, common furs, tools.
+1: mounts, pottery, glassware, tea and coffee.
+2: spices.
Obviously, trade demand between the two larger cities has warped the local demands!
Accounting for month 12:
Land: +1,533 gold (219 x 6, +219 due to Morale +4).
Service: +1,095 gold (219 x 4, +219 due to Morale +4).
Tax: +438 gold (219 x 2).
Tithes: -310 gold.
5.59% of OVERALL domain accounting:
Vassalage: -460 gold.
Stronghold Maintenance: -140 gold.
Garrison: -600 gold.
Bone Temple City:
Revenue: 5,970 gold.
Garrison: -1,260 gold.
Upkeep: -940 gold (repairs, city officials, and similar).
Defensive Structure Upkeep: -45 gold.
Tithes: -600 gold.
Vassalage: -1,200 gold.
NET: +3,241 gold.
A Morale +4 city makes a substantial difference in income!
Vulfelind’s chosen garrison is fairly simple: 50 heavy infantry and 30 longbowmen, equipped with decent gear and a badge showing a rearing sphinx.