Last session: spent 9 days starting to recruit, then 42 days away helping 
Seekers, then 47 further days recruiting people in 1026. How many 
recruits did I get during that time? What levels? When did they arrive? 
(need to work out salary cost)

Aim was to recruit: 73 1st, 7 2nd, 4 3rd, 2 4th, 2 5th, 1 6th, 1 cohort 

Current modifiers to Tess' Leadership: 
- stronghold: +2 follower modifier
- familiar: -2 cohort modifier
18th level for followers is: 35 1st, 3 2nd, 1 3rd, 1 4th

Paid salary from 1026/09/14 for: 9 1st, 1 2nd ("Doctor" Madhuri)
Paid salary from 1026/11/09 for 27 1st, 3 2nd, 2 3rd, 1 4th, 1 5th
221.1gp for 67 days: average 1026/09/18 for 9 1st, 1 2nd
369.6gp for 24 days: average 1026/12/05 for 27 1st, 3 2nd, 2 3rd, 1 4th, 1 5th
-------
590.7gp
-------
**Budget for end of 1026 was 6,000gp. Additional expenses for stronghold
  and Graakhalians quarters of 5,180gp. Left over: 229.3gp.**

Tess has quite high favour for a follower of Rafiel. (Checked with Phoranin)

Tess went to Grakkhalia with one trade wagon, Janilee went with the
other trade wagon. 
*Took two weeks to get there. 1027/01/15 when we arrive.*

Most of the people come from the lower classes. They hate discipline.
On the other hand, when disciplined they become more loyal.

The Graakhalians are elves and gnolls, in some kind of weird hybrid 
society. Basically it's like madmax underground. They have a fairly 
primitive society. They lack many things surface dwellers take for 
granted, and don't have the widespread social spirit of the SE.
   They have spirit shamans and the like. They do follow two deities, 
male and female, but you don't recognise their names.
   Their magic, such that they have, tends towards the blunt, and lacks 
the finesse of traditional elven magic. They don't have any wizards at 
all, but they do have sorcerors.
   The Graakhalian are a cultures of survivors in a terrible hostile 
environments. so as the shadow elves cut their way with the creation of a 
strictly organised stantial society, the Graakhalians had chosen the way 
of demi-nomadism in order to survive.
   They are very interested in the stuff the party has to sell, but their 
goods are generally fairly crude. They do have some very fine pieces of 
artwork, generally carved soft stone. They are willing to trade firestone 
and those pieces for the some of the goods the groups bring.
   The cloth doesn't sell as well as Janilee hoped, but better than the 
others thought it would. The Graakhalians aren't willing to spend their 
small amounts of money freely, and they don't want some stuff. Over the 
the longer term trade with them will make a profit though.
   The Graakhalians have no crops. They let giant crickets loose amongst
Hule's forces. The crickets ate the Hulean's food. They use things like 
the slugs and such.
   Kinda hard to grow crops underground, SE notwithstanding. The Shadow 
Elves use magic a little, but they have the right crops for the job.
The SE were fleeing, starving, and otherwise even worse off than the 
Graakhalians. Then they found the refuge of stone.

Quote from Rafiel's teachings: Food for the Body, Food for the Soul
The Refuge of Stone doesn't teach anything like "give us this day our daily 
bread", but it does mention food, and the habits of the shadow elves in this 
regard are different enough to bear mentioning.
   The Way of the Shamans teaches several different techniques for food 
preparation and preservation; this is seen as Rafiel's way of protecting the 
nascent shadow elves from newly-encountered poisonous substances and also his 
way of allowing the elves to travel far on slim supplies.

   The Graakhalians were running, but Glenn doesn't remember what from.
They don't know of any other elves at all, before recent events. Their
elders are about 600.
    The Graakhalians speak 1/3 elvish, 1/3 gnollish, 1/3 something 
else, all in a very different accent.
   This is only the point where the central defenses were of the 
Graakhalians. They are normally spread out over quite a wide area, and 
are reasonably spread out now.
   Hule had orcs, ogres, kobolds, goblins, hobgoblins, gnolls and 
bugbears. The Huleans came in through holes in the ground. They don't 
know exactly - they aren't any survivors from the initial area. The 
Graakhalians think the Huleans creatures were very dumb. They slaughtered 
them. Until the Graakhalians got tired.
   Hule against Sindhi forces was relatively well organised, even the 
humanoids.
   The Huleans overran the first villages, and then used those as bases 
to strike deeper into Graakhalia. The GH retreated into the deeper 
caverns.
   The GH used guerilla tactics all of the time, as much as they could. 
They also did have barricades and stand up fights - they had areas they 
had to stand and fight. (The bane of guerrillas everywhere).
   The Huleans clearly weren't familiar with the terrain, and even 
stupidly let giant crickets into their areas for hunting or something.
They soon discovered why this is a bad idea ... the giant crickets aren't 
very dangerous. They just eat. A lot. The GC eat the Huleans out.
   Unfortunately, the H then needed to attack the GH to get their food 
supplies. Which they barely had any of themselves. Things only really got 
better when the GH had retreated so far that they encountered the twisted 
forest.
   The Graakhalians have had little help from outside. The biggest help was 
from the Rajahirajah, who came with an army and drove the last of the 
humanoids out. No help rebuilding infrastructure, no help providing  
education. Thora was turning up for a while and making large amounts of 
magic food, but she hasn't been in a while. They don't need as much food 
these days. Game is scarce, but since half of them are dead...

**1000gp invested, -150gp on this run. NEED TO TAKE THIS MONEY OFF. **

Need one or two merchant guys per caravan. Can reduce the number to one,
once the trade route is well established.

Tess recruits some Graakhalians, some of whom have dependents. You are 
basically getting second line people. Not hunters and such, but the 
desperate. That said, they are all quite good. Good enough to be scouts in 
the Darokin army anyway. (1st level warriors). They have ranks in things like 
move silently, hide, etc.

   The typical Darokinian scout is a warrior
http://www.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au/~knight/campaign/norsedata/tess/average.chars.military

Tess: "The competent Grakkalian women are welcome to come and work with 
us. I've got room for at most 20 or so. They need to bring along 
additional people to help taking care of the children. I'll assign 
quarters as we have some spare. We'll need to make separate housing for 
the children and them - away from trouble, in a more caring Grakkalian 
(i.e. not Sindhi) environment.
   "I'll pay salaries for the 20 that work for me, according to their 
competence. That pay will more than suffice to feed and care for the others, 
and save some money. (Based on Grakkalian levels of poverty - it will be 
better for them.)
   "Tess gets to veto who comes, and he wants to make sure people he 
picks will be competent, or at least fairly loyal. Nearby natural caves 
sound fine - we had a branch of the caverns unused."

Get 15 Graakhalians willing to abandon what they have and follow you for 
the promise of food, money and equipment. 7 of those are females with 
dependant children, 4 are family groups (two groups), and the rest (4) are 
old (but presumably wise). There are 8 children. One of the family groups 
has no children.
[Barracks are 400gp for 10 people. A pair of bedrooms are 700 gp.]

Tess to Janilee: "I want you to stay here until our next set of trade 
caravans arrive. You will help with those trade negotiations. In the 
meantime: learn to speak their language as best you can, and work out 
where they can best be helped in terms of rebuilding their society. I'm 
going to chat with Phoranin and see if we can arrange any agricultural 
crops or other help. Find out what you can about their religion and what 
else they might be interested in trading too."

Janilee: "Will do. Boss. Err, can I have a guard or two? Please?"

Tess: "If you don't want to do this, say so. I think you're competent for 
this job, and it will give us a chance to find out more about them and 
how to help them. I don't like seeing a place this messed up. Yes.
Anything else you think you will require Janilee?"

Janilee: "No, I'll stay. I just don't want to be alone here.
Some supplies, food etc, but I can take care of that."

Tess: "Okay, good, thank you. Also, any info about Hule which they learnt 
from fighting Hule. Which routes Hule came in on, composition of Hulean 
forces - e.g. were any Huleans human? elvish? did some appear as gnolls? 
did they get some of the Grakkalians to help initially?"

[Janilee gets two "roguish trainee" types, level 1, assigned to guard her 
... people who will benefit from some cross-cultural exposure. Janilee's 
guards here are to learn the language too.]

Tess paid 2gp/week for good Graakhalian language trainers for his 3 
people. Tess would appreciate if they give Janilee help finding out about 
the Graakhalian history of fleeing, religion, and what help they need 
rebuilding their infrastructure. Tess will make it clear that that's a 
temporary arrangement.
   As stated, anyone who works directly for Tess, get's same wages as 
Sindhi folks, so that's not an issue. It's hard to rate what salary's 
should be in this poverty situation they have here.
   The wagons head back to Ghola Keep. Tess teleports to visit Phoranin.

Tess buys a 10gp good carving that he thinks Phoranin will like.
*Tess studies Phoranin's garden carefully, and somewhere outside.* 

Tess gave Phoranin the carving and they exchange small talk.
Phoranin's face lights up when Tess walks into the room.

Tess: "This carving that I've given from you ... it's from the society of 
Elves and Gnolls that I mentioned."
Phoranin: "The one you were investigating. It's very nice."

Tess: "They were devastated by the Hulean forces, and live underground. 
They have very little food, and no established agriculture ... The 
underground conditions look like they could support some of the crops 
that we have, though I'm no plant farmer. My father farmed for silk."
Phoranin nods. "Janilee is posted there for the moment, learning their 
language and finding out about their religion, society and so forth."

Phoranin: "Hmmmm. We could do with allies. Besides, I don't like to see 
possible relatives starve. We aren't the green elves."

Tess: "They're a fairly disordered society in general, and Hule has 
ripped up their society badly ... very few men ... it's not good."

Phoranin: "I'm concerned about these gnolls. Are they civil?"

Tess: "I spoke with the gnolls as well as the elves. Yes, they are 
equally civil, if I can put it that way. Their poor conditions and hunter 
gatherer lifestyle make things very rustic in a .... not technologically 
advanced sense.
   "What I'm suggesting is that we give them some help setting up 
agriculture. It will help their society, reducing the number of people 
gathering food. It will give them more of a chance to rebuild."

Phoranin: "Hmmm, well, I could swing this. In a plotical sense I mean.
Janilee is there? How long has she been there?"

Tess: "Furthermore, they're fairly disorganized, so I don't think 
religion is organized in any sense. Some of them may be interested in 
other religions. Janilee was there with me, helping with trade 
negotiations. I've left her with a couple of my people that she's worked 
with."

Phoranin: "This is good."

Tess: "She may be able to find out if they're at all related to us. 
Apparently they were fleeing something. Janilee is competent, she shows a 
lot of promise."

Phoranin: "They could be related. I'd be surprised if they aren't in 
fact."

Tess: "My plan was to have her as my main liaison with them. She's 
disguised as an Alfiesh Elf. (There's at least one Alfheim Elf working 
with the Sindhi.)"

Tess informs Phoranin where they are, rough numbers. The logistics he 
worked out briefly while he was there (lack of food, what know-how they 
do have, scarce monetary resources). Hardly anyone knows about them.
"It might be best if the Shadow Elves happen to come across them, and 
offer help. Janilee knows I'm speaking to you about this, but I haven't 
told others."

Phoranin: "I will ensure a scouting party finds them there. We easily 
have enough food, we can transport trania there easily enough. [..]
I'll want to ask Janilee some questions. Can I do that through you?"

Tess: "Janilee should have additional logistic info that you need in the 
next 4 weeks or so that she is there, she'll be picked up with the next 
set of caravans. I can post her there for longer if you wish. Sure. Do it 
through me. I can arrange to be on one of my trade caravans and come 
across some of your people, or I can talk to you directly."

Phoranin: "I'd rather her opinions after 4 weeks than a more complete 
opinion at a later date. Well, I think it best if you talk to me directly. For 
security reasons." (Big smile.)

Tess will laugh softly and hug her tight, and says, "Who's keeping who 
safe?"

(Just as well you are in Phoranin's private chambers. The scandal if 
anyone saw you now.)

Tess: "On a different note ..."

Phoranin: "Yes?"

Tess: "I'd been planning to make some more preparations before I asked, but I 
realised when I asked you out to dinner in public that my subconscious had well 
and truly made a decision ... Phoranin, will you marry me?" 

Phoranin: "Of course silly!" Phoranin gives Tess a kiss. Not a light peck on 
the check either. Tess smiles, looks stunned briefly, then cheers up and hugs
her as a flood of emotions go through him, and he kisses her back.
[OOC Dave: (how long have they been dating?? slightly longish even for Shadow 
Elves methinks) Glenn: (Rather.)] "Do you have a date in mind? A nice big 
wedding would be nice. Not too long before the wedding date. No more than a 
year."

Tess: "There's arrangements to be made of course ... not precisely ... but 
given circumstances ... I was thinking perhaps two ceremonies would be best ... 
one ... at a place of your choosing ... the temple in the City of Stars? And 
another with a few surface friends, somewhere simple ... just a confirmation of 
our love to those we trust above.
   "T'saz is supposed to be heading to the Hollow World in 6 months or so, but 
I would like her to be at the second ceremony, I know 6 months is short notice 
for preparation but ... do you think we could manage things by then?"

Phoranin with a serious expression: "Yes, the wedding will have to be at the 
temple.I don't know the last time someone as high as I am got married."
Tess will look a little surprised. (Lots of things Tess hadn't thought about.)
"6 months...yes, we could do that. Why not! Lets take a leaf out of the human 
book." Tess laughs. "Two ceremonies sounds fine to me." [Tess' bank balance 
winces.]

[Phoranin's people will organize the City of Stars wedding.]

Tess: "I'll see what I can arrange here. Serraine might be a central point to 
choose, but it's not exactly quiet."

Phoranin: "Quiet? Who wants quiet?"

The wedding date is Yarthmont 15. Late spring, the 5th surface month.

Shadow Elven and Thyatian calendar equivalents:
http://www.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au/~knight/mystara/thyatis/
http://www.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au/~knight/mystara/shadow/secal.txt
http://www.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au/~knight/campaign/norsedata/tess/shadowelf_dates.txt

*Tess will spend two days with Phoranin to 1027/01/17.*