Glancing at her cadre of new friends, she nods, “Once we’re all in fighting trim, we’re going to start entering all the tournaments and winning them. Superior techniques and superior equipment should be sufficient to allow us to place well every time we take the field. That should give you time to set up the production facilities and manufacture our gear. We’ll need some help to construct the foundries and water hammers, find the right ores, open the mines, build the processing mills, and start making steel. Once we can produce high-quality steel, we can consider expanding into other, more valuable alloys and metals, such as hardened bronze and mithril. That reminds me, I’d like to spend some time with Master Parth to review our horse breeding program. We’ll need a few different bloodlines for everything from war horses to pack animals. I’m told that we’ll need war horses for the tournaments.”
“You’re certain you can do this?” Ember says with a frown, “It seems… ambitious. We’ll have to buy land, hire staff, do a lot of building, and all before there’s ever a single copper of profit.”
“It was my family’s business,” Emlyn says, crossing her arms, “I might not have been privy to all the family secrets that my older brothers were, but I know enough to do better than what we can buy here. I’m told that what’s sold here is the best that there is to be had. If that’s true, we should be able to become profitable as quickly as Master Lokrag and I can work out the exact formula for arms steel. We’ll need slightly different mixes for tools, horseshoes, and other items, but first, we'll focus on swords and armor so that we can start entering the tournaments. Once we’ve shattered a couple of our opponents’ swords and our own remain unharmed, they’ll all be beating a path to our door.”
“I’ve seen the armor that you designed for yourself, and it isn’t very stylish,” Ember frowns. “What makes you think you can interest other people in that?”
“For the foppish peacocks who wear armor as an affectation, I don’t think I can change them,” Emlyn agrees, “They’re not who we want to sell to anyway. For anyone who sees combat, our armor will become the standard by which other suits are measured. However, what we make for others will never be quite as good as what we make for ourselves.”
“What are you three over here conferring about?” Saris says as he walks up, “I sense something’s brewing.”
“We’re discussing how to get better weapons and armor while creating enough profit to feed us better,” Emlyn grins, “So that everyone can have my meal plan.”
“What’s your plan?” Saris asks, intrigued. “If we can all get that, I might be a willing participant.”
“It’s simple. We start by making our own steel,” Emlyn grins while Ember laughs.
“That’s your idea of simple?” Ember chuckles.
“That’s only the start of it. Once that becomes profitable, we can start pursuing the next parts of my plan,” Emlyn grins.
“What’s the rest of your plan?” Saris asks.
“Farms, horses, dogs, literally everything we use. We produce what we need, keep the best of it, and sell off the rest. The animals we sell must be neutered, which is the primary requirement. Davilla says that she’s been quite successful with the new potions, and now our potions are better than anything else that’s currently available anywhere else. Our potions are either cheaper, more effective, or have effects no one else can offer, so we’re doing quite the business in potions. Any time there’s excess, it goes to the market, where the stall is empty, often before lunch and always by the end of the day. I want to apply that to everything else we use.”
Saris boggles for a moment before staring at her in surprise, “The idea is simple enough, I’ll give you that, but I don’t think it’s going to be easy.”
“If it were easy,” Emlyn shrugs, “everyone would be doing it. It will be challenging, time-consuming, and expensive to get it up and running. We must find the right sources for ores, set up mines, and get them producing. We’ll have to create kilns and smelters to purify the ores, which means we’ll have to put them near ore and fuel sources. Moving all those raw materials around will require having barges and large wagons, along with the big beasts to pull them. Then we’ll need forges where we can melt the metals down and blend them to create the alloys we need. Some things we can cast, but others need to be beaten out. All that hammering does something to the metal that changes its properties, and for swords and armor, hammering them out is the way to go. That’ll mean building a big water hammer.”
The rest of her cohort wanders over to listen to the conversation. Curious, Urlin looks at her, “Do you know how to do that?”
“I know most of it,” Emlyn shrugs, “I know the most critical bit, which is how to convert the spin of the water wheel into lifting and dropping the hammer. I also know how to get the water to power the bellows. If I’m missing anything, we can seek help from anyone who knows how to build sawmills or grain mills. And we’ll need those too, since we’ll need wood for building material and bread to feed the workers.”
“If you want my advice, build most of the water hammer out of stone or brick, since the last thing we want is a big fire. We’ll be working with fire and hot metal, so the risk of a fire will be high. We’ll need an architect to help lay it all out once we figure out the mechanics."
“So, quarry men, masons, laborers, who else?” Gethin questions her.
“We’ll need big leather belts to drive things, chains, carpenters, tiles for the roof, an alchemist who’s used to working with metals, assayers, survey men, miners, and foundry men to cast some of the parts. I want to implement something I saw at another keep once. The forges and hammers were built to let some of the heat out of the buildings, so that it’s not so sweltering in summer. This meant making parts of the roof able to open to release the heat and making parts of the walls movable to catch the breeze. That should help keep it bearable inside during the hottest part of the season.”
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“So, a dwarven architect to figure out the mechanics,” Ember sighs, “This is looking more and more expensive.”
“Just talk to the Goddess about it,” Emlyn shrugs, “I know that she’s had the smiths here trying to recreate my swords, but they’re not having any luck with it. I know that some of it’s due to technique, but the majority of it is the materials. The reason they’re not having any success is that the materials they’re trying to use are substandard, so the items they’ve worked so hard to create are also substandard. If we can start with proper materials, their probability of success goes up exponentially.”
“Wait,” Gethin breaks in, “This is something that the Goddess is already pursuing?”
“Yes,” Emlyn nods, “I’ve been working with Master Lokrag to try to provide as much assistance as I can, but the materials here are…” She pauses at a loss for words and finally leans in and whispers, “I’ve scraped better things off the bottom of my boot. We wouldn’t even have used them for tableware, yet I’m told that these are the best available. I’ve scoured the marketplace myself. Master Lokrag is correct, they are the best that’s available here. Since what we need isn’t available, we’ll have to make it. I can’t see any other way to do it.”
“I’ll take it up with her,” Gethin nods, “She may not be willing to do it, given the outlay that you’re proposing, but I’ll take it up with her. Now off with all of you, you have a party to enjoy. You shouldn’t be huddling in the corner, nattering with older men. You should be dancing and flirting and having some fun.”
Sighing, Emlyn nods, “I suppose I should go dance with Dru and Jessop again.” Smiling, Emlyn turns and sails off in the direction of the brothers.
Chuckling, Garmer elbows Madil, “That should bolster support among the nobility.”
Madil rolls his eyes, “I only hope they don’t get any ideas about abusing their position.”
“I don’t think they’d do that,” Falnor says slowly, “They’ve offered her friendship and seem intent on having her attend many of the social events. Dancing with an agreeable young lady at the balls should certainly give the nobility a very different view of our Order.”
“Even the prince seems to be quite taken with her,” Hiltar chimes in, “Enough so that he sent a present knowing that she’s got nothing to send back.”
“Paladin charisma in a female,” Benger nods, “That’s bound to be a devastating combination for some bored lordling. Make sure to send at least one of us along as her escort just in case any of them get any untoward ideas.” Ember nods in agreement as Benger wanders off.
As the rest of the cohort wanders off in search of punch or dance partners, Shu-Jin approaches from where he’s been keeping watch to fend off gossips and eavesdroppers, “I caught a bit of the discussion.”
Master Yanthus wanders over, “What was the big huddle about?”
Thinking quickly, Ember grins, “Gather the other Masters quietly, and let’s convene in my office and bring Lokrag.”
Ember makes his excuses and departs. Shu-Jin and Gethin quickly join him. One by one, the other masters of their craft trickle in with Lokrag and Benduri arriving to round out the group.
Once everyone is seated, Gethin waves his cane, and the room is sealed inside a shimmering barrier.
“She’s got an audacious plan that she thinks will solve your problems around recreating her swords,” Ember sighs and nods at Lokrag. “She says that the materials that you’re working with are simply never going to yield the results that you’re looking for.”
“So, what’s her plan?” Lokrag says,
“Mines, foundries, smelters, for starters,” Ember shrugs, “But that’s just for starters. She wants us to get involved in horse breeding for everything from draft animals to pack animals to war horses. She wants the temple to venture into leather working, weaving, and even farming eventually.”
“I stopped by my office on the way to check the figures,” Gethin interjects, “and these new potions have been generating a lot of income. More than I think you realize, Ember. I think we’re looking at this in the wrong order. If we expand Davilla’s operations first, it should generate enough profit to fund this next expansion into mining and metal craft. Now that our stores are topped off, Davilla has sold off all the old formula potions, and as she makes new batches, she’s been selling off the oldest of our existing stock. As a result, what we have in our stores is the freshest and most potent. Even with selling the older, potentially stale potions, the profit on all of them has been huge. Many of the new formulas are much less expensive to produce. Others are about the same in terms of cost but work better. Others are completely new, like this Armor in a Bottle. Did you know that we’ve had a market stall for over a month? They’ve been paying for the stalls out of the profits, and those stalls aren’t cheap. Every time they open, they sell out. She was right about that. They’ve even raised the prices a few times, and they’re still selling out. If we can cut the costs even more by producing some of the ingredients ourselves, it should fund the rest of her plan.”
“If her plan with the metals succeeds, that will fund the next expansion she wants to undertake into horse breeding,” Lokrag says slowly, “How does she plan to let everyone know we have these wondrous metals?”
“Her plan for that is simple,” Gethin chuckles, “She’s going to train her cohort, and they’ll enter all the tournaments and win them. She says that once they’re able to shatter a sword or two, everyone will be beating a path here to get their swords and armor from us.”
Yanthus laughs loudly, “If she can pull that off, she’s right. It will work. Lokrag, you have your work cut out for you to make her a sword like that.”
Parth looks thoughtful, “Now I see why she wants to get into breeding. We’ll need draft animals to transport the ore and metals. They’ll need war horses to enter certain events in the tournaments. If we’re to go prospecting for ores, we’ll need pack animals, and once the mines are opened, we’ll need ponies to help work them.”
“Not to mention,” Gethin adds, “Tanneries for the leather, lumber mills for the timbers, potters for the roof tiles, quarries for stone and gravel, sand for glass, and grain mills to help keep everyone fed.”
“Can the Temple even do that? If we do, will she even be around to see it? It’s quite ambitious,” Wex nods, “It seems like enough work for several lifetimes.”
“If she joins the Four,” Amon points out, “She might well be here to see it through.”
Snorting, Branaulf joins the conversation, “She’s already planning for that. Unless I misread her, she’s got something bigger in mind, and this is just a stepping stone on that path.”
“Neit wants to try to resurrect as many as he can find to see if he can recreate the Cymry,” Gethin says, “I wonder if she’s preparing for that.”
Ember rocks back and his jaw hangs open in surprise.
“I think she is,” Shu-Jin grins and nods, “She’s got plans within plans that would be worthy of a Shedim. This would lead me to think that perhaps she has understated her mastery of The Path.”
“I’m almost certain of that,” Branaulf chimes in, “She told me that she understates her capabilities lest her opponents realize what they’re up against and that she had deliberately understated her proficiency as an archer.”
What do you think of Emlyn's big plan? Is it possible to succeed or doomed to fail? Let me know in the comments.