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Abandoned - Overland Trail -part 5- Wayward - Story 48

Started by Abandoned, September 23, 2019, 07:47:50 AM

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grammycat

I enjoy your stories and towns so much.  I find them inspiring for my own gameplay.  I also like the way you showcase, while testing, Kid's mods.  Thank you for all your stories.

Abandoned

#16
 :) Your welcome, I am glad you enjoy my stories.


Chapter 10


  Things were different this spring, the spring of year 10.  The sky darkened and the crows began to caw but the pouring rain did not come until later.  When the strangers appeared the crows cawed even louder and with a wild flapping of wings they took off in the direction of the cemetery and thicket.  One of the men that appeared had a large flaming torch, we assumed it was the reason for the crows rapid departure.  We also assumed this group of strangers came from a mining town, the women were wearing gold rings and necklaces with gemstones.  None of us had ever been out of this area so we had no idea if and where a mining town might be.

  Aurthurman thought we could make torches like the one the miner had and use them to scare the crows away from the thicket, however that would have to wait.  Shortly after the strangers arrived the wind began to blow and it began to rain, keeping torches lit would be next to impossible.  Everything became more difficult, we had very few days that weren't raining.  We had to hurry to get things into storage and under cover as soon as possible.  It was not easy doing that because the dirt roads were becoming soft and muddy.  We had plenty of stone and thought it worth the effort to start paving the roads. 

  It was autumn before we had days that were dry enough for Authurman and Glennwoody to experiment with the torches they made.  As they had hoped the crows flew away from the flames, but still the men could not penetrate the thicket.  It was as if some magical force prevented them from entering.  They tried calling out to those living behind the thicket but there was no sign of life and they got no response.  They had just returned to town to enlist the aid of our foresters when the hunter from the south hunting tree spotted your wagons approaching.  As you know, it began to snow quite heavily and you were lucky to have made it here when you did.

  We will be most interested to hear your thoughts and ideas about our problem.  You may want to take a walk to see the cart and the thicket before we talk again.


Abandoned

#17
Chapter 11


  As you suggested, travelers, we began building a trading post on the river, and we kept a torch lit in the corn field.  The crows did not return this spring, neither did the heavy rains when the new group of 10 strangers arrived.  A river boatman would surely know the names of other towns in the area where these strangers may have come from.  What did you say were the names of those towns with tree house? Ah, yes, Skyview and Respite, and when you mentioned the names to the strangers building the town's 3rd tree house they seemed more aware and alert like the couple we thought might be from the Mountain Mission.  I must say again that Aurthurman and I are very grateful you have decided to stay and help us to help these strangers.  We all agree there are likely to be more.  A boarding house has been built to the east of the hospital.

  We too are having a little trouble believing what that boy, Warnellis, told you after again saying he was sorry for doing what he did.  How is it possible that he was angry with his parents for wanting to migrate and he simply wished them into a cornfield?  And that something went wrong with the wish and he came to the cornfield with them?  Children do have wild imaginations, but still, some of the other children did say they were sorry too. 

  It is too bad the river boatman who was here in early autumn couldn't be more help.  What was his name?  Lamontgomer, the general goods merchant, yes.  You say he is rather new on the job and has not been to many towns, only : North Mining Town, Meadowbrook, and Cedar Creek to the north and S.W. Tequilaville and Riverboat Junction to the south.  Good to know they need logs and firewood to the south.  He's heard nothing about any missing persons, only stories about a missing wagon vendor from Refugee Camp who turned up in Cedar Creek, and rumors of pirates near someplace called Monkstown in the east.  You say Lamontgomer will make inquiries about missing persons and leave word at Riverboat Junction?  That is a step in the right direction, travelers.  We find it hard to believe you have been here less than a year and have made more progress toward solving our mystery than we have in 11 years.

Abandoned

Mod Note - Kid Tree Topper mod which includes tree trunkers (forester, hunter, gatherer) has been released.

http://worldofbanished.com/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=577

Also please see the 2nd picture in the last chapter of the trading post.  On the right side of the picture is a fantastic view of the oak tree that the Tree Troppers and trunkers are in.  Look at those oak leaves, fantastic.  The oak trees and maple trees are in Kid Tree Replacer and Tree ReplacerLight, the best oaks and maples in the game.  :)

http://worldofbanished.com/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=573

Abandoned

#19
Chapter 12


  Well, you were right, travelers.  You said if it was someone from behind the thicket that was stealing from the small shed they would be back before the snow began to fall.  The men caught the thief in the act before dawn.  It was the woman you met with the cart.  She did not know what possessed her to say there was a shortcut through the woods.  Just because she's made a few mistakes doesn't make her a bad witch.  She claims to be a witch?  Vanessee, the witch.

Vanessee told the men that she was no more than a girl studying magic and was sent away for making a few mistakes.  She tried conjuring a new hat and got a slew of cats instead.  She tried conjuring enough cat food and got a flock of big crows. She tried conjuring firewood and the woods caught fire.  She taught some children to cast a spell to send their bad parents to the cornfield but the children got sent away too. So, she admitted being responsible for the strangers?  More arrived In late spring of this year, year 12, 14 more of them.  We were already building more housing and we needed another tailor.  We still need more housing.

  Vanessee, the witch, also said she was a herbalist like her mother who was accused of being a witch and was burned at the stake and buried here with others like her.   Vanessee came here with her companion, Fitzhughie.  Their relationship met with disapproval because he was so much younger than she was.  They named their first-born daughter Casandia after her grandmother Cassandra.  Yes travelers, as she said there is a gravestone with the name Cassandra on it.  So, Vanessee and Fitzhughie built a herbalist hut, a storage shed, and then a house in a small hollow northeast of the graveyard.  When we came to the valley they conjured the thicket to remain hidden from view.  She was no good as a gatherer, her baskets were always empty, so she built a cart and borrowed what they needed from us.  Others came to join her and Fitzhughie as well.  They too were poor spell casters and none of them were tool makers, tailors, farmers, or hunters so the hoarding cart supplies kept them alive.  She was a bit defensive and mistrustful of the men, and would say no more.

  Good to know they liked our baked apples, but tell me about your meeting with the witch.

Abandoned

#20
Chapter 13


  Yes, it was a nice thing to do to let the witch fill her cart and return to her Coven.  It was also nice that the men took you and your spouse to the thicket to meet the witch.  You had spoken to her before so it made sense that she might speak with you again.  Which she did, but she says she does not know where the strangers come from and she does not know how to send them back.  You thought she knew more than she was saying.   Did you remember to ask about the stone circle? 

  So the stone symbol is not evil.  The 4 points of the star symbolize the 4 elements, fire, water, earth, and air, and the 5th point represents the 5th element, the spirit.  The circle symbolizes that when all the elements are in balance there is harmony and peace.  The Coven constructed the symbol near the graveyard hoping it would help their departed mothers and grandmothers rest in peace.

  It was good that you tried to assure her that we all want to live in peace and harmony here.  That you repaired the broken cart and returned it to her filled with supplies must have convinced her of that if she cleared a path through the thicket and gave you a tour of the Coven.  You say there are 7 families plus the witch's, a school with a wise owl hovering above, and the 7 Coven cabins and herbalist circled around it.   Farther back in the woods is a huge Coven Hall where they keep records.  That owl must be the one we hear so often.  You say the witch has a cauldron?  Interesting.

Abandoned

#21
Chapter 14


  Of course we will be more than happy to help the members of The Coven all we can, but our food production as of year 13 has declined with more strangers arriving every year.  We built more houses east of the hospital and planted more corn there even though we feared another patch of corn would bring even more strangers.  In late spring, 14 more arrived but only in the original corn field.  Like the others they seemed dazed and did not know where they came from.  But let me show you this, travelers, it's a map.  Lamontgomer came to port with map scrolls he was taking to Riverboat Junction.  A man named Savidan and a group of surveyors are mapping the rivers and towns to help the boatmen navigate.  Lamontgomer had the latest edition World Map year 61 SVT and he would let us have one, but the map scrolls were a special order so a few more trade goods were required.  We had just enough logs, firewood, tools, and coats to get one.  All the towns the surveyors visited to date are on the map.  The strangers must be from some of these towns.

  It is not surprising, travelers, with all the migrating you told me of, that the children have spread knowledge of the corn field curse to all corners of the world.  It is just too bad that hearing the name of their towns does not bring back all their memories.  But the strangers are more alert and happier it seems, so any improvement is a good thing.  And again you were right, you said you thought the witch knew more than she was saying and you arranged another meeting.   I am just a little surprised at her request, she will trade information in exchange for pumpkin pies.  And she gave you the recipe?  She wants 3 pies for every Coven family and has built a mini warehouse for us to put them in.  I am not sure dealing with a witch is a good idea but we have flour and have built a spice shack.  Baking 2 dozen pumpkin pies should not take long, and if it can help these strangers, so be it.

Abandoned

#22
Chapter 15


  At the beginning of year 14 we are again having to increase our food supply.  As soon as weather permitted we gathered as much wild foods and branches as we could.  We checked to make sure the new nut grove we planted last fall by the apple forester was doing okay, and that the spice shack and baker were making progress with the pies.  A butcher shop was built and we would soon have venison sausages.  And of course we built more houses.  Another 10 strangers arrived in the cornfield at the same time you took a couple of pies to the witch to sample.  Two dozen pumpkin pies were already delivered to the mini warehouse.  I must say those pumpkin pies smell and taste delicious.  I hope you thanked the witch again for the recipe.

  So, it is as easy as simply repeating the names of the towns 3 times rapidly to the strangers to break the forgetfulness spell that was included in the cornfield banishment curse.  It is working well so far and families are now decided whether to stay with us or return home.  The families were all about to migrate to begin with, upsetting the children, and resulting in their banishment.  It was a good thing that the spell did not work as it should have or the parents would have been separated from their children.  So far no one has decided to leave Wayward.  Now the question is, do we bargain with the witch again to stop the influx of more strangers.  What is it she wants before she will make the curse fail to work?  Soup?

  Well, lets take a look at those recipes she gave you while we build a market soup stand.  Why doesn't the witch just use her cauldron?  We are still building more houses for the strangers that were still in the boarding house plus for the newcomers.  There are adult children that want their own places too.  Their parents don't want to end up in a cornfield somewhere for keeping their children at home.  We can only hope there are not more cornfields elsewhere.  We are building a 2nd fish jetty but we do not have potatoes to make fish soup.   We do not have all the ingredients for the other soups either.  The witch will not be getting the soups for this winter.  How many did you say she wants?

kid1293

That's a fun way of describing nomads. I always thought they looked a bit lost :)

Abandoned

#24
Chapter 16


  So, the witch wants mushroom soup, fish soup, and our choice of one kind of meat soup and one kind of vegetable soup.  Fish soup needs potatoes, and if we make meat soup from beef and onion, and vegetable soup from potatoes and onion, then we would only need to trade for beef and potatoes or potato seeds. We could make potato and cabbage soup instead, if we get cabbage seeds.   Only skilled gatherers should collect the onions and mushrooms from the wild.  We can not risk the Coven folks becoming ill from bad onions or mushrooms, who knows what kind of curse could be cast on us.  If the witch wants each member of her family and each member of the Coven to have 1 of each kind of soup every week during the 3 winter months, then I calculate we need 26 soups X 12 weeks equaling 312 soups of each kind of soup.  We better get busy. 

  We can start making mushroom soup while we wait to get the other ingredients.  A seed trader is being built and if we have enough trade goods we will get both potato and cabbage seeds.  The seed trader was completed by spring of year 15 when 14 more stranger arrived.  Jerilynne, the seed merchant arrived a month later.  We had 2 crop field cleared by then but did not have enough trade goods for the potato seeds the merchant had.  She waited until we had enough but by early summer it was too late to plant the potatoes.  The witch would not get the soups for the coming winter and next spring we can expect more strangers.  Our food surplus continued to drop and our population by the end of year 15 was 223, 115 adults, 26 students, and 82 young children.  Our education rate was only 18%.

In early spring of year 16 the potatoes were planted as well as 4 more corn patches and 1 more pumpkin patch.  In spring, 13 more strangers arrived and, as was now standard procedure, we explained what happened and read them the town names for our map scroll.  They were welcomed to stay and we built more houses.  Lamontgomer, the general merchant, brought beef and we traded what we could for 400 units.  We could not trade firewood because it was needed by our 2 new market soups, one near the trading post would make meat soup and one not far from the potato fields would make vegetable soup.  We gathered branches whenever we could.  It was a good thing the witch put a preservative spell on the mini warehouse because the soups would not be ready before winter this year either.

Abandoned

#25
Chapter 17

  By early winter of year 16 we had the required number of mushroom soups in the mini warehouse and that market soup stand would begin making fish soup instead.  We were low on firewood so could not trade it for the beef we needed for the meat soup.  We collected every branch we could find and appreciated you setting up a forester tent and tiny chopper near your wagon camp, travelers.  We had already begun clearing trees from that area so you can get your wagons out when it is time for you to be on your way.  You will need to travel northeast past the Coven Hall to the pass that leads to the river that the Rescue Mission is on.  We were using the logs that were cut to trade for beef and to build more houses and another school.

  In spring of year 17, 19 more strangers arrived.  Hoping these would be the last, we added an extra worker to each of the 3 market soup stands.  We traded for more beef.  But all our efforts were not enough to have all the soups made by early winter.  We did however have the required number of vegetable soups.  The mini warehouse was filled nearly to capacity and when told, Vanessee the witch, decided to take the mushroom soup out for the Coven members to eat this winter thus making room for the  other soups.  She knew how eager we were to end the influx of strangers and we thought she might give in and stop the curse from working but we were wrong.  We needed a lot more fish soup.  A 3rd fishing jetty was build and another tree topper house.

  Wayward's population was now 282, 150 adults, 31 students, and 101 young children.

Abandoned

#26
Chapter 18


  We did not finish making the soups before 14 more strangers arrived in the spring of year 18.  We had enough meat soup and again the witch decided to take out some soups to make room for the last of the fish soup when it was done.  The 312 vegetable soups would be taken to storage in the Coven.   In summer we fulfilled our part of the bargain when the last of the required soup was delivered to the mini warehouse.

  Vanessee, the witch, paid a visit to the cornfield before returning to her spell books where she devised a counter spell that would cancel out the cornfield curse.  No more strangers will be banished to our cornfield.

  We can thank those hard-working strangers for helping Wayward grow into the town it is today, all the while preserving the Native hunting grounds northwest of town.  There is still plenty of room to the southeast for our children and grandchildren to live and grow.  The stone circle remains as a symbol of peace and harmony between the town of Wayward and the Witch's Coven.  And we are all most grateful to you, travelers, for your help in bringing this peace about.  We hate to see you go but you should have no trouble getting your wagons to the pass in the northeast.  It will take you to the river and from there back to the Rescue Mission.  Please stop at the Witch's House on your way to the pass, she has a small farewell party planned, with a small feast and a special herbal witch's brew.  Well, yes, we did provide all the food but she means well, she's not such a bad witch.


Fare thee well, travelers.


The End

kid1293


Abandoned