Kingdom of Veyrmont — Founding Monarch Sim

Season: Midsummer, Year 1 of Veyrmont | Treasury: 340 crowns | Grain: 5 months | Army: 800 (3 months' pay in arrears, camped outside the walls) | Order: Capital uneasy / Native towns sullen / Countryside quiet | Legitimacy: 30/100 | Ashvale: cool | Pending crises: soldier pay, harvest labor, no administration | Unfilled posts: all of them

The great hall of Thornhaven keep has no roof over its west half. Midsummer sun comes through it onto stone flags, and the air smells of dust and cut hay blown in from the valley.

There are no chairs. Someone has set out one stool, and it stands empty beside you.

They came because you summoned them, all of them, and now they stand in a loose ring in the surviving half of the hall: Captain-General Aldric Vayne, arms crossed, mud still on his boots from the camp; Lieutenant Sefa Rill, dry and immaculate, standing a half-step too near; Maera Dunn with three other valley elders, hands folded over her apron; Guildmaster Otho Bran, ink-stained fingers drumming his sleeve; Hosper Vail of the Silvergrave house, smiling faintly at the hole in the roof as though it were a bargain.

The harvest will be ready in six weeks, and half of it is still uncut for lack of hands willing to labor for a conqueror. The soldiers have drawn no pay since the grant was signed. There is no council, no court, no tax roll — nothing in this kingdom but you.

Aldric breaks the silence first. "Majesty. I've kept my people fed and patient through spring. Patience has a price, and mine are three months unpaid. I'll need your answer before the month is out."