Building Strongholds

[mlangsdorf]

Originally Posted by scc

Actually for the cost of a smithy I'd use the cost of equipment, however that is never defined to my knowledge.

Smith's Kit, Low-Tech p 30.

[scc]

Originally Posted by mlangsdorf

Smith's Kit, Low-Tech p 30.

I thought those should have been in there somewhere but couldn't find them. There's also the bit that that's a portable kit, not a proper emplaced forge.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by scc

I thought those should have been in there somewhere but couldn't find them. There's also the bit that that's a portable kit, not a proper emplaced forge.

The blacksmith builds his own forge until very recently and maybe still a lot of the time.

[mlangsdorf]

Originally Posted by Railstar

Depends on the trickery and ceremonial magic. Pyramid 3/25 has the quartermaster mage, who essentially exploits ceremonial magic and the “1 energy per unskilled assistant” with 100 unskilled assistants to produce massive effects. Examples listed are Shape Earth moving 100 cubic yards of earth, or 50 cubic yards of stone. Casting time 10 seconds. Earth to Stone transforms 33 cubic yards of earth into stone.

It takes 10 minutes IIRC of rest to recover 1 fatigue. So the wizard can do the same thing every 10 minutes and get a pretty massive wall.

Architect-wizards would be popular. I’m a big fan of the idea of magical terraformers, but I think the main worry is people not wanting to rely too much on Earth to Stone or Create Earth because a Dispel Magic could destroy such a fortress.

Huh, so he could. At the cost of 3 FP per hex of wall dispersed, it's resisted by the original casting, etc etc but I why take the risk? Shape Earth/Stone is a spell with a duration, but stable forms stay stable after the duration ends.

Okay, shape earth at 100 cubic yards or shape stone at 50 cubic yards per ceremonial casting, 45 (effective) castings per day. 10,000 cubic yards of stone facing, 25,000 cubic yards of earth filling. 200 castings of Shape Stone brings up the walls. Another 250 castings of Shape Earth fill them. Total time: 9 days.

Work-crew cost:
1 wizard-architect $4,000/month
100 cultists: $400/month each
6 guards to dissuade hostile onlookers: $750/month each.

$48500/month, and you need them for half of it, so your castle costs $24,500. Nice.

[mlangsdorf]

Originally Posted by scc

I thought those should have been in there somewhere but couldn't find them. There's also the bit that that's a portable kit, not a proper emplaced forge.

In High-Tech, workshops cost 25x as much as a portable tool kit and weigh 100x as much. I'd just use that: $41K, 11750 lbs.

[Railstar]

Originally Posted by mlangsdorf

Huh, so he could. At the cost of 3 FP per hex of wall dispersed, it's resisted by the original casting, etc etc but I why take the risk? Shape Earth/Stone is a spell with a duration, but stable forms stay stable after the duration ends.

Okay, shape earth at 100 cubic yards or shape stone at 50 cubic yards per ceremonial casting, 45 (effective) castings per day. 10,000 cubic yards of stone facing, 25,000 cubic yards of earth filling. 200 castings of Shape Stone brings up the walls. Another 250 castings of Shape Earth fill them. Total time: 9 days.

Work-crew cost:
1 wizard-architect $4,000/month
100 cultists: $400/month each
6 guards to dissuade hostile onlookers: $750/month each.

$48500/month, and you need them for half of it, so your castle costs $24,500. Nice.

And a lot of the time the wizard might not need to supply his own cultists, since no skills are required to be unskilled helpers - if someone wants a castle built, such as a lord, then they could probably just have their troops or some of their peasants turn up to join the chant.

If it's cleric's doing it, then the whole thing could be like religious Mass.

[scc]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

The blacksmith builds his own forge until very recently and maybe still a lot of the time.

In the Situation I describe you could be a character who is a blacksmith building his stop.

Or you could be the lord of some castle deciding that he wants a smithy in his castle, in which case he would be building and owning the smithy, possibly building it to his first smith's specifications.