Progress Report November #2

In the last Progress Report, I detailed the outlining for the Pinebeach Section.

In this Progress Report, I'm happy to say we've begun the section proper.

I also realized that the Free Folk were probably absolutely confused as to what the fuck was going on because I did two update drops as if they were Progress Reports lol, so I'ma report everything I've done thus far lol

Our second day on the lake begins with:

A dream. Master Feren's words seem to haunt us.

The scene moves forward, and if Michael is traveling with you as your secretary, you'll get a small bonus scene with him as well.

After that, Cariel our new honorguard, knocks on the hatch. Here we see a small scene in which our canine companion gives the okay, and Ronnel asks for permission to participate in the competitions.

You can give it, ask what it's about, etc. Moving on, we get to disembark the Mother's Joy and watch as how the crew has to tie the ship in place to the port deck, and either witness the beaching process of the escort triremes or just head into town.

Here, I choose the scene that shows you how it's triremes are pulled into a beach.

Ngl, before researching a bit, I legit thought triremes were beached ram first lmfao... they are NOT.

They come in butts first and people on shore take the rope dropped by those aboard and pull that fucker in.

Though, I must confess this is mostly fiction on my part cause I just wanted to write a beaching by triremes. Realistically, beaching is incredibly risky. It depends on many things, like the slope of the beach to even the grain size of the sand itself.

Normally, you'd only take a trireme out of the water with the help of something like the Piraeus of Athens, a place where there's a shit ton of ship sheds that allow the "easy" pulling of triremes out of water.

In Assassin's Creed Odyssey you get to actually see the ship sheds!

These buildings were a major investment to any seafaring nation or city-state that wanted triremes, for they meant having a military presence in the water.

The Carthaginian Cothon is one of the most famous examples of such a complex (and a big reason why that nation grew to rival Rome) and we drew schematics for it when meeting Count Rageon with our dad.

What would usually happen in a port where there's no such ship sheds?

They'd still go butt first, only they wouldn't get pulled in. They'd let the butt "perch" on the bank and keep the rest of the boat afloat in the water, allowing port workers to waddle up close and get the goods. Or drop a ladder for the sailors to get off, leaving behind a small complement of sailors to guard or be on board if it floats away.

Buuuut that is boring lol, so i wrote the scene above!

If you choose to not watch, they comment on Ronnel and his desire to rise above his station, and then education in the kingdom:

You comment on it and move deeper into Pinebeach's settlement. Inside, you'll see the marvels of civilization that isn't shielded by your retainers. You then hear the announcement.

The rest of the scene is you listening to your father describe the grand strategy going forward, and being assigned your duties.

Our purpose is revealed! We'll aid our father in pushing the barbarians out of the duchy and into the northern forests, and once they're pushed back into their strongholds we have the task of holding the line while Uriel leads an expedition north. We'll face counterattacks, raids, and more.

We have to ensure our father remains supplied, in the winter.

Charles, our companion, will in turn keep you supplied and reinforced alongside his father.

Onwards, we then discuss the competitions that're being held, as discussed in the previous Progress Report.

After this, we get a scene with our furry lil buddy!

Their personality comes out, and we get to see how she behaves. You also get the chance to finally bathe and relax before the coming storm.

The scene then transitions over to Captain Jorel of the Silver Wolves and our father in a discussion. What they speak of will only come to be revealed in the other two routes when he meets with Remiel and Adelina. It's uh, big news. Important shit.

We can also ask our dad if he's sleeping or nah.

Next, we're finally free to look around the competitions and see what our people are up to. We'll also have three Silver Wolves assigned to us, and choose whether or not to keep them close or at a distance. Our first event will be javelin throwing, and the scene plays out differently if you have the guards or not, and if Michael is there or not. So lots of different bits that causes time development time to expand lol

The below is pretty much where I left at before getting sidetracked today by visitors this week.

Come Monday, it's back to work! The above, plus the outlines already drafted (which are 6k by itself) totals day two to 16k words of content!

Dat's all for the progress report!