The three members of the scouting party crossed the river with the help of the fishing boat. The fisherman promised a return trip before he went out to sea for the day; he would wait until they finished their observations from the top of the cliff. Once they reached the summit, they carefully observed the view. The other side of the cliff sloped gently down to another beach that curved slightly to the north. The view to north of this curving beach was the endless canopy of the dense forest right up to the natural break caused by the river. On the town side of the river, the forest continued to stretch out for as far as they could see in every direction. There were a few breaks in the canopy and a straight line through the canopy marking the influence of the road. Namon imprinted three landmarks to define the path for the patrol before leading others back down to the river.

*****

Frank drank in the view while traveling down the road to the bottom of the hill to meet with Therod in front of the longhouse where many residents of the town resided for the foreseeable future. When he arrived, Therod was talking to the builder about the buildings that could be built, so Frank asked if the materials were available for another longhouse to give the residents in tents a sturdy palace to live. He mentioned that he would like to extend the current line of buildings here on the north side of town to form a barricade that offers some protection for the town. Both Therod and the builder got the hint and assured him that they would start the project today with six people not assigned to other task. Frank emphasizes that anyone that wants to be a builder or develop that skill should be chosen.

Frank motions for Therod to follow him to where they may talk privately. The topic was the state of the economy since it was not defined at all. Frank quickly ask Nimrod. What is the state of the treasury?

"You could pull up that information from the town or empire Management screen, but the answer to your questions is that the current balance was 35 platinum 1,200 gold 562 silver 980 copper. "

Once Frank knew there was enough of a buffer to implement his plan, Frank described that he wanted to transition to a self-driven economy as soon as possible; even though, it was clear that the town was not ready for the transition. He wanted everyone to be paid a wage that reflected their skills and experience where the government picked up the tab this week. It was very important that a multiple week development plan was in place by the end of the week. He wanted to assign projects to community leaders or craftsmen next week where a budget was established and the leader was responsible for paying general labor. Further, there was a need to establish general prices that the empire would pay for goods and services. The government buys at a 10% discount, an implied tax, to encourage individuals to sell directly to buyers if possible, but the government would be a guarantor of always buying goods for the near future. It could not continue forever which is the reason he needed to jump start the economy.

The next task on his list was to make sure that eight additional fishing poles were available. There were currently 2 in the town supply within the small shed that was built to hold tools. The current poles were already in use by some want to be fisherman besides the two that accompanied the fisherman out to the sea this morning. He need to stop by blacksmith and the carpenter to make sure the materials were available for the fisherman to assemble tonight.

*****

Namon watched as Travor and Barki struggle and fail to limit the noise of their passing and catch up to him, the leader of their scouting patrol. The moderately dense woods limited line of site which should have made it difficult for him to track the stragglers but they were very loud as they moved. Stealth was not going to be possible today.

Based upon the observations from the cliff earlier in the day, he anticipated that they completed almost half of their assigned patrol route. It was time for the two newbie scouts to catch their breath. Namon tenses as an awful feeling of dread floods his conscious mind draining a significant chunk of his power pool and producing a vision of Barki being mauled by a jaguar. Namon activates his precognition power with his remaining power points while drawing a shuriken for each hand and sending each on the path predicted by his power. Barki begins to turn toward where he perceives the shurikens will strike, one shuriken strikes the Jaguar just below its eye and the other strikes its neck, and the jaguar knocks Barki to the ground landing on top of Barki without being in position to maul him.

Namon lands a [CRITICAL STRIKE] with thrown weapons for 48 HP damage to the level 8 Jaguar. The jaguar will bleed for 2 HP of damage every 10 seconds for one minute.

Barki takes 30 HP of damage from claw strikes and impact damage.

Namon having pulled his short sword immediately after releasing the shuriken rushes forward to enter close combat; Travor is just pulling his sword after recovering from being surprised; the jaguar bites Barki's left arm; and Barki struggles without success to shove the jaguar away from his body.

Barki takes 25 HP of damage from a vicious bite. Barki is bleeding for 2 HP every 10 seconds.

Travor swings his sword overhand toward the middle of the jaguar; the jaguar releases Barki's arm and jumps directly into Namon's thrust with his short sword; and Barki wriggles across the ground after being released from the jaguar's mouth.

Namon lands a massive [CRITICAL STRIKE] directly to the heart of the jaguar dealing 6x damage of 60 HP to the level 8 jaguar.

Congratulations your party defeats a level 8 jaguar!

Namon is exhausted after using all of his power points, but he moves quickly to apply first aid to Barki to stem the loss of HP.