I doubt that very much. I just wanted to make sure that while we weren't on totally stable ground, neither was the village. We're both negotiating from a position where we have strengths and weaknesses. It's not all in their favor.
That seems a reasonable settlement.
Well, we have to have room for four labs in this settlement - and that's in addition to living quarters for four magi and however many covenfolk we end up with. (How many do we expect that to be?) It seems to me that two two-story houses and two one-story houses will pretty quickly fill up with covenfolk, leaving the labs to be underground. So figure the excavations will be enough to cover four labs plus some moderate root cellars and the like.
All I meant by raising the question of the size of the gardens is that they should be of a size as you'd expect from a garden for similar buildings in the village. And any chance of keeping a couple of pigs and a cow/goat? Or can we expect to be able to buy milk and pork?
I agree that a stockade is more than we should ask for at this point. Consider as well, would we have enough grogs to man a stockade? I doubt it. Better to make sure that the houses are well fortified and leave it at that for the moment. As Dietlinde notes, we are on a fairly defensible plateau.
Nope, it is not. And the elders know it (or some of them, at least). Both sides are on shaky grounds, which is why there are negociations going on.
As I noted previously, the large houses would have a footprint of 1000 sq.feet per floor. So each floor has enough room for 2 standard lab. Leaving 2000 sq.feet, plus the two smaller houses (say another 1000 sq.feet) for living quarters, kitchen, etc.
Consider that in the village, a single-floor large house probably caters to a family of 8 to 12, perhaps even more, spread along 4 generations.
No chance at all of the village accepting that you would have any cattle, Dietlinde tells you. From the village's standpoint, any fodder that they lose mean the village's sheep and goat will starve come winter. And if their animals starve, so do they. Even the chicken, from their standpoint, will be a major concession.
Perhaps we put two magi in each large house, labs upstairs, living quarters downstairs, with the library in one building and the meeting room in the other. The covenfolk can then have the other two buildings.
True. But they don't have to deal with the Gift. That will require a little more space for the magi, hence my suggestion to leave the magi to the two big houses and the covenfolk in separate houses.
Hmm, maybe that can be the request that we give up on to get our basement excavations allowed.
As I understand it, we have 1000 sq ft on each of two levels to work with for each two-story house. I was figuring something like this:
First House:
Upstairs: 500 sq ft for first magus' lab
Upstairs: 500 sq ft for second magus' lab
Downstairs: 200 sq ft for first magus' sanctum (i.e., personal rooms)
Downstairs: 200 sq ft for second magus' sanctum (i.e., personal rooms)
Downstairs: 100 sq ft for meeting room
Downstairs: 500 sq ft for general living area
Second House:
Upstairs: 500 sq ft for third magus' lab
Upstairs: 500 sq ft for fourth magus' lab
Downstairs: 200 sq ft for third magus' sanctum (i.e., personal rooms)
Downstairs: 200 sq ft for fourth magus' sanctum (i.e., personal rooms)
Downstairs: 100 sq ft for library
Downstairs: 500 sq ft for general living area
That makes a 10x20 area for each magus to have as a sanctum - say, a bedroom and a study, a 10x10 room for the meeting room, and a 10x10 room for the library. Seems reasonable to me. The meeting room and the library would be only a small part of the first floor of the two houses.
I think this list of buildings and rooms looks very good to begin with.
At the start of the story we discussed a way to link the top of the cliff with the beach (or rocks perhaps) down below by excavating the cliff, gently of course. I still think we should do this even if we won't be allowed to do so in our contract with the village elders. Cellars beneath the two main buildings are a must to be allowed though. The rest of the excavation needs to be kept a secret to the village and basically anyone but us magi and the closest grogs. I believe this could also be an alternative to place our labs in the future. Japik have an idea to make his laboratory and sanctum connected to the sea somehow. I think Pytheas had similar ideas but I'm not sure how relevant that is now.
Japik has no opinion about the garden and animal keeping points. In his mind the food will be no problem when cliff and sea is connected... On the other hand he is not known for focusing on problems.
A stockade seems a bit overkill and as have been said may draw unwanted attention towards us.
If we can have one or 2 of the houses quite near the border of the cliff, we can have the cellars have windows, so they can be used as airy places. The holes can be made to look natural, of course, but instead of a dark place we have a good place to have a quiet lab. Or a secluded space for the magi to hold council and study in a place that is as far away from human yes as we can manage.
Not something we have to negotiate with the village, but something that would be interesting to consider when placing the actual houses.
After another round of negotiations, Dietlinde reports that the requirements would be amended as follow:
You will only build 4 houses, 2 of them no larger than the largest one from the village (which is about 25 by 40 feet with a single floor) and 2 of them smaller (the example given was about 20 by 25 feet). Their exact location will have to be mutually agreed to. The large houses can have a second floor and small cellars under them.
Any building materials from the plateau (stone, for the most part) shall be provided by the village, based on their capacity to do so.
Any building materials brought from down below (wood and metals, for the most part) shall have one part in ten paid to the village, either in kind or in coin.
For each worker you hire from down below to work on the plateau, you will hire a worker from the village to also work on the plateau. That is true both during the construction and afterwards. Workers from the village will be paid wages equal to those from down below.
You will not farm the land, beyond a small garden equivalent to those that can be seen in the village. You will not raise animals, beyond a dozen chicken. You will not excavate the land, beyond the small cellars within the houses.
You will build an enclosure around the tree, to prevent the village’s sheep and goats from reaching it. That enclosure can surround the houses and garden, but no land beyond that.
Dietlinde notes that the spinning woman, whose name is Imma, was sometimes present during the negociations, although she did not speak and kept spinning throughout. But often, the wording of one clause or another was slightly changed on the next meeting whenever she was present.
+1 house. OK. 4 houses total is acceptable. The problem will be the number of hearths, since each lab is likely to need one (4 total) plus some common areas need one as well. That restricts us, even if heating and temperature control is provided by magic in some of the less common areas of the covenant, like the cellars. Maybe we have to negotiate this with the danish overlord.
The change in the use of the plateau workers does not make sense and restricts us A LOT int e kind of usage we can get from the labour we are paying for. Only acceptable if they allow more extensive underground building since this restricts our use of obberland locals for work elsewhere, even on expeditions. That will mean that any responsibility positions will be restricted to people from down below and the obberland workers will be restricted to unqualified labour for the most part. A pity since we were hoping to build a strong obberland community here. Dietlinde can tell them that.
Building materials are also negotiable as long as we can be granted better cellar space.
No problem with the rest.
Can we get more info on that spinning woman? Like casting a sight range intellego vim spell on her? InVi10 (base3: detect magic of 6th magnitude, +3 sight). Spont casting total for Quercus (in the aura with bold gestures and voice, so he will look like a gesticulating madman from the village if they see him): 2+4+5+3+2=16+roll.
Info dietlinde and the others can get will also be useful.
Quercus will try to instruct Fresse to try to act friendly and gather info around on the going ons in the village while the women negotiate. He will offer to help in hard chores like transporting heavy stuff up from down below to gain the trust of the villagers if that works.
"And what do you propose I offer them in exchange, magus?" Snaps Dietlinde, casting an angry glance at Quercus. "You keep asking for more and more, as if by keeping the same demands over and over will change their position. Phah!" She shakes her her, "Only an idiot would not understand that they want to limit the number of people we have on the plateau. They live here and they want it to remain like that. They simply don't want a flood of strangers invading. Nor do they want to be pushed into jobs away from their home. Why don't you get the message and move all non-essential activities down below? If I keep pushing, they'll simply add other restrictions. All you are doing by asking for more, right now, is come across as arrogant want-it-all assholes." The fat woman then stomps off out of the warehouse, to cool off her temper into Meden town.
This is not immediately possible. The woman spends most of her time indoors, and when she is present for negociations (which is not all the time) it is because they take place at her house.
So it might be days et even weeks before Quercus gets a chance to cast his spell.
The villagers are not receptive at this time. Fresse and Dietlinde are referred back to Louke for any question, and offers of help are politely but firmly refused. Apparently the village is waiting for the results of the negotiations before deciding how to act towards the strangers invading their plateau.
"These terms will get us enough space to live and install our laboratories," Pytheas adds. "It seems an acceptable start to me. We can try and negotiate a better deal over time once the villagers start to see the benefit we bring to them."
Quercus nods. If my sodales consider such conditions enough, I will agree with them. I would prefer better conditions for us, but alas, it seems it cannot be. For starters at least. Let's see what we can end up being with.
After another day of negotiations, Dietlinde is able to obtain two minor concessions.
If there is an agreement between the magi and the village elders, the villagers will start gathering stones from all around the plateau and bring them close to the oak tree. Once the exact location of the first house has been agreed to, construction will begin. (Discussing the details of the construction will be moved to the Covenant Planning and Construction thread.)
The magi have now been on the island for almost three weeks now. Their current accomodations in Meden town has cost them a bit over a pound of silver. Summer is about three more weeks away.
Quercus looks satisfied. Hah! Seems our hard bargaining paid of in the end. We will need to smooth relations afterwards, but now we at least have a strong foundation (never better said) to build our main covenant buildings. Well done Dietlinde.
"I think it's great. This is a start and we should be able to develop it from there later on. Now, how fast do you think we will be able to get something up and running?" Japik is positive and eager as always to get started.
"Certainly, maybe we should send someone to the mainland with the sailors to try to recruit some quarrymen or stonemasons for us, unless there are any here on the island."
