Warsinger James Baldwin (read this if TXT) 📖

- you pump your hand like this, eh? Make a fist as tight as you can, relax it, make a fist again.”

Vash surprisingly didn't turn her order into a masturbation joke. He did wag his eyebrows, though, squeezing his fist until the bones in his hand creaked, then letting it go. His entire arm, from bicep to fingertips, was tattooed solid black, and he carried so little body fat that the tension made the vein pop out like a garter snake. My Field Medicine A.R guided me through the steps, walking me through a holographic minigame that used animations and arrows to direct me what to do. I flicked the needle a few times, swabbed his skin with alcohol and a small pad, and slid the needle in. The monk didn't even flinch - though he did grimace when I began to slowly depress the plunger. A timer started to count down, along with an animation that showed me how fast to push down on the contents of the vial.

“Well. This is more unpleasant than I expected. They don't call it Bloodscour for nothing, do they?” Vash broke into a hot sweat, grunting as he shifted on the bed.

“We'll give you some ibuprofen and you can walk it off,” I joked, speeding up a little as I noticed the level of the vial was higher than the level in the animation.

Behind us, Lazar rushed into the room. “Alright, here: put this under your tongue.”

“Ugh.” Vash opened his mouth, and accepted what looked like a pressed tablet of mashed herbs.

“What's that?” I asked.

“Oh! It's an anti-emetic,” Lazar replied. “A simple field remedy. Liquorice and hyssop lozenge.”

“Anti-what?”

“Anti-emetics stop you from vomiting,” Masha said. “Easy does it, now.”

We were down to the last two minutes, and Vash was clearly struggling. As the potion got to work, he closed his eyes, drew a deep breath through his nose, let it out of his mouth, and relaxed down onto the bed. I was about to try and get him to say something when a red exclamation mark flashed and a new kind of alert, one I'd never seen before, pushed into view.

[Kingdom Alert: The city of Karhad is rioting!]

Vash was lucky I didn't squirt the rest of the Bloodscour straight into him. My hands twitched, but I managed not to drop the transfuser. “Fuck! A riot is breaking out in Karhad. I have to go.”

“You have to attend your patient,” Masha said primly. “Concentrate.”

Lazar's eyes widened, and he pushed his glasses up along his nose. “Masterhealer, I can take-”

“No. Only a couple of minutes to go,” the woman said. “Easy does it, Tuun.”

Every fiber of my being twitched in the direction of the courtyard - where I could hear Suri, Vilmos, and Istvan galvanizing into action. Someone was ringing the alarm bell at the front of the barracks, yelling at the soldiers there to get their kit on and assemble. I forced myself not to bring up the KMS: to concentrate, and follow the holographic guide as the fluid level slowly descended toward zero. And in doing so, I gained another point of Will.

Vash was pouring sweat now, meditating through the crippling nausea and pain. It felt like an eternity before the plunger touched the glass. He shuddered through with a sudden chill as the A.R chimed.

[You have gained skill points! You have reached Level 15 in Herbalism, Level 11 Alchemy, and Level 15 Field Medicine!]

[You have reached Level 15 in two skills. To progress any further in these skills, you will need an examiner to promote you to Journeyman.]

The baleful red light slid away from Vash's head and heart, pulling back toward his shoulder. He grunted and writhed as Masha took a cold compress from Lazar and laid it over his soaked forehead.

“Go now and see to your people,” she urged. “The worst is over. We will keep him alive.”

“Yes ma'am. See you on the other side.” I pressed the transfuser back into her hands and bolted for the castle courtyard.

Chapter 23

Riots

Riots are a destructive form of protest which can damage your Renown and Infrastructure.

Managing civil unrest is a fact of life for all rulers, from village burghers to emperors. When your citizens' Happiness drops between 10-25% in one or more locales, the people of that locale will stage protests on a daily basis. On any given day, there is a base 35% chance that one of these protests will erupt into violence, causing a Riot.

Every day that your citizens riot results in a 1% drop in Happiness. If your citizens' Happiness drops below 10%, all protests will be violent. Continuous unmanaged Riots will lead to a Rebellion, which pits your personal security forces against the might of your own citizenry as they attempt to depose you.

Strategies to manage riots come in two forms:

Placation: Riots can be stopped by addressing the causes of the protest. Your Kingdom Management HUD will show you what metrics must be addressed to placate the riot, and will give you a list of activities you must perform to successfully do so. Placating riots is often considerably more expensive than suppressing riots, but gives net positive Renown and increases Happiness, sharply reducing civil unrest and increasing the interval between riots.

Suppression: Riots can be suppressed through the use of force. You must deploy soldiers or other security forces at a 20:1 ratio (1 soldier for every 20 citizens) to successfully put down a riot. Soldiers suppressing a Riot will be able to minimize casualties if you have the any of the following facilities in place: a Jail, Courthouse, Temple, or Hospital. For every facility you have, casualties will be reduced by 20%. If you do not have those facilities, your soldiers will violently suppress the riot, and there will be significant casualties.

Suppressing riots is less expensive than Placating riots. It will reduce the needs of your citizenry by 3% per successfully suppressed riot, reflecting their ability to live with less. However, you will lose Renown at an exponential rate and