The question is will he be able to pay it back, is it going to grow and just how much trouble is Abel in?

Well the simple answer is ALOT.

As you can see from the above picture my figures show Abel having an $8829 deficit each months…. ouch he’s in even more trouble than Valdermar was.

The disadvantage Abel has is that Gabriel has now pretty much blown his fortune paying waaay over the odd’s for Helena and her family and has already Sold Valdermar one of his male indentured, not that Abel has the money to buy one even if Gabriel could spare it.

This means i’m going to have to get really creative really quickly with Abel’s estate. 

Short term the only income increase on the horizon is in 2 years when Neo ages to Adult but the $250 increase in tax’s is still far short of what Abel needs.

My next port of call is to see if anyone else has any menfolk Abel could potentially bargain for.

The first logical choice is Deonte Gawen as his mother and brother live in Graymont and its where Deonte grew up.

Deonte is a freeman so he wouldn’t need to bargain with Orrick for him, however Brittany’s two sons are indentured. Chances are Orrick would consider selling the boys after all he doesn’t know they are Christophers sons, unfortunately the chances of Orrick releasing them to Abel are slim to none he is a Hamdun after all.

The next port of call is the other “freeman” unfortunately most of the freeman have already got themselves a pretty cushy deal and Abel has no money to build/buy houses to offer them something better at present.

So currently things are going no-where fast!

Luckily for Abel however Gabriel is not only the Hamdun with money and Hadrien has plenty to spare.   Having Hadrien loaning, Abel $100,000 will reduce Abels mortgage quite significantly and reduce his shortfall monthly quite nicely.

However this still does not fix Abel’s problem entirely and he still has a heavy shortfall, one that is unlikely to correct it’s self untill the current children start aging upto teen, so in essence am going to have an issue for what i foresee to be at least another 7-8 years.

This is not a good position for Abel to be in and i see it in Daniel’s interest to try and correct it as best he can. After all there is no benefit gained giving a nobleman an estate he can not possibly succeed with.

However the real question is “How?” do i create more family’s and perhaps introduce some more of the native inhabitance of Grimstead? Does Daniel re-claim a couple of indentured men from other nobles to give to Abel? Or does Daniel simply yet again lower the tax’s on Abel’s estate and wait for the 7 years till it becomes profitable?

I guess the question is how far to i want to bend things to make it work, i always feel like creating new family’s should be the last possible resort however we have to remeber that in about 4-5 years i am also going to need to re-build Griffinmoor for Adin and whatever i decide is more than likely the solution i will use for Adin’s estate who currently only has one family.

It’s certainly something to think about.

Looking at the figures it’s easy to see what is causing his issue.  He simply does not have any/many profitable families. All his familys are simply struggling which has a knock on effect on Valdermar.

Now three things have occured at the back end of 1041 which could turn things around for him, the first is that Baron Dacre (Vincent) has given Valdermar some money, regardless of wether or not people would have prefered him to save Holly this money will help.

Secondly  Gabriel has bought the indenturement of Helena and her Daughters.

Finally Daniel has made Gabriel the Earl of Valdermar’s estate and while we could say alot of things about Gabriel he has a head for money and will make sure Valdermar invests wisely.

I term’s of exact figures Baron Dacre has given Valdermar $50,000 and Gabriel has given him $200,000. Really if this doens’t dig Valdermar out of his hole nothing will.

Now dispite all this troubles Valdermar isn’t actually in debt at presant thanks to a chance card last round. What he is struggling with is making his estate turn a profit.

Im sure the first thing Gabriel will tell him to do is to lower his Tax’s this is bound to get quite a reaction from Valdermar but Gabriel is smart enough to know that peasants in the poor house isn’t the way to make an estate profitable.

lowering the taxes to $100 per adult and $10 per child eases the burden on these families somewhat. We still have 2 family’s in the red but its better than four.

The next step is to actually turn a profit, selling Helena really helped Valdermar and with the money he can buy a farm for that Land Daniel gave him.

The trick here is that Valdermar doens’t actually have any “farmers” none of his merchants/peasants come from a farming back ground.

This is the point where Gabriel is going to throw him a bone by selling Valdermar one of Aaron’s son’s Phelan. This uses up $100,000 of his funds but gives Valdermar an experienced farmer who will in turn be able to hire one of Helena’s son’s and teach him the trade.

Finally Valdermar spends $22,689  on building and buying the farm for Phelen and suddenly Valdermar is looking in a much better position financially, it will take alittle while to turn a profit but as we’ve found in the past a farm is a good investment.  The new farm isnt as grand as other farms I have, but its certainly servicable for Valdermar’s needs in the short term.

Financially this whole re-vamp hasn’t fixed Valdermar’s short term, short fall. However he now has in place the means to grow as an estate and enough money in his pocket to last him untill his estate is providing for it’s self.

My prediction is that Valdermar may still see a lose on his estate for a round or two but as soon as the farm and whore start turning a profit things are going to start looking up.

I was very lucky to get a new PC for christmas off my husband because the old one kept dying however this has ment that i yet again had to go though the process of installing sims and sorting out the game etc. It’s taken me a while because of work but i do finally seem to have got there.

 Lynette round is quite straight forward, i did briefly concider having her take in an orphan but i decided against it in the end.  She’s financially stable with few outgoings so other than to say she is slowly putting abit of money away for the boys there is little else to say about her.

• Man - $100
• Woman – $20

I was growing alittle concerned that I have been out playing my rounds. In game I started playing  1042 in Aug 2010 (which seems like a long time ago when you think i’ve been playing a single round for over 12 months haha) but in the same period of time i have only written 6 months of story.

Now i guess the question i need to ask myself is am i writing too slowly or playing too quickly, frankly i suspect it’s a little of both. I do want Grimstead to span the generations and i guess if i keep up with my current rate my PC isn’t going to run Sims anymore before we actually get around to seeing Maegan’s kids grow up and get married.

I do like the fact that am detailing the story more than i used to back at a time when you didn’t see a character for 6 years but at the same time perhaps the current rate is a twee bit slow.

Still i decided this round to add a few more characters firstly i added some playable Garou and now it’s time to flesh out Vincent’s estate. Which is incidentally called Dacre Eastway.

The first family i moved into his estate was the Downsbrookes and here is the second family.

Because of a growing concern about the number of Sim files i had i decided to reuse some old characters here.  Re-named and reinserted as Indentured Peasants we have Parnell Carpenter, One of Jonas’s Son’s that didn’t make it past the baby stage and Helewys Silverhand. 

I have broken their family ties but I haven’t done any sim surgery on them as i didn’t feel there was the need.  They have never been seen as adults so i dont think they will confuse things.

There could be a potential “genetic’s” concern but i think this pair are significantly different class to the original sims that it won’t really matter i’ll just have to bare in mind that they can’t be bred into their orignal family’s for a few generation. 

Right now i feel that this pair are somewhat ranked in the same pecking order as townies i dont anticipate an appearance in story for either though i guess it’s potentially possible their kids will, but right now my only intention is to use them as fillers and background players to give Vincent’s estate more life.

For now they have been moved into the Downsbrookes farm. Next round i will hire them as employee’s to work in the shop and get this farm working in the same was as the Baev farm, however for this round they earn their money in the Servants career.

It’s important to note that i haven’t married these two sims. I have left their original aspirations turn on’s etc and as the round progress’ i find that they aren’t all that compatible.  I’m reasonably happy with this being the case as it mean’s i’ll get two family’s instead of one so i start to look for townie spouses for them as i begin to build up their careers.

This is where things get a little bit interesting. I find both sim’s a suitable “townie spouse” 

Eagae starts a relationship with Armando Cox (Who I Rename to Alric Miller) they get on pretty well and about half way though the round I marry the pair and move him in. 

Osric has a little more difficulty however, he strikes up a relationship with a townie called Alison Long (Renamed Acha) however their working hours seem utterly incompatible and when he’s at home she’s working and i have difficulty inviting her over it improve their relationship.

The day after Eagae marries Alric the moment he go’s to work, she jump’s into bed with Osric and get’s pregnant from a risky whoohoo.

What the hell is the deal with that?

She showed no interest in him untill that point, has no chemistry and yet … whoohoo here i come. I can only figure that ACR’s timer went off on poor Osric and because his highest relationship was with his roommate… in she got called.

DOH!

So there we have it Eagae’s first baby will be due start of next round, but it isn’t her husbands it’s her roommates.

Incidentally i do finally manage to build up Osric’s relationship with Acha and they also marry at the end of the round. 

Neither townie moves in with much money, but Acha actually moves into the house with a job much higher in rank than normally allowed for a woman. I let her keep it for now  as neither couple can yet afford a apartment of their own.

• $2,000

After a shaky couple of rounds I finally get into the swing of things. I can’t be sure what the problem was last round perhaps i just wasn’t as efficient on the business running as i should be or perhaps the extra rest Daisy needed because her pregnancy slowed me down.

The Tavern has never been a big earner like the farms but its always kept the Talons living comfortably and this round I manage to pay all the bills and keep enough aside for Gabriel’s round.  As well as paying a couple of thousand off their mortgage.

Last round i talked a little bit about my plan’s for Farid, storyline wise he’s currently semi mixed up with Alice Karogar. Honestly at this stage i haven’t decided if i will keep the pair together. 

Storyline wise it open’s up some interesting possibility’s due to the incompatible nature of the two species (mage, werewolf) however i’m also away any such storylines are likely to be quite grim.. and im not sure i want to go down that route just yet.

For the time being im holding out, there will be a “new kid” on the block in Alices life pretty soon and i’d like to write him in and see how it go’s sometimes you can plan for one storyline only to find when you write it that it evolves into something else. Thomas for example was never ment to marry Holly but … when i wrote them together they just seem’s to good to keep separate.

Either way im not in great rush to marry off Farid, I see him somewhat as a late bloomer anyway and im quite happy for him to continue helping his father and Daisy run the tavern for the time being and waiting till Daisy and Falcon have finished their own baby making.

In terms of baby making, it would be easy to think Falcon and Daisy are almost “done” with their own family. Yes the house is packed with little feet as it is, but you have to remember most of the kids currently in the house are Falcons and Bellari’s. 

ACR determines ‘most’ of the baby want’s on the number of children the woman has and currently Daisy only has two which means they are still in full baby making swing which means it’s probably a good thing im in no rush to marry off Farid. However no baby’s this round, there is one attempt but it’s unsuccessful.  

• Aiden (Age :13)

There has been a massive changes for the barrack’s this round as every single boy has left.  Quillen, Duncan and Alistair all had their training withdrawn by Daniel.

Quillen and Duncan have been sent because to their parents and Alistair has now gone to the mainland to complete his with the help of Vince Bendett.

while Lorcan, Joseph and Aiden have also headed to the mainland to start university. This pretty much leaves Danson rattling around in the barrack’s on his own.

Ok so it’s at this point i realise i’ve kinda screwed up here’s too. Boy’s are supposed to be a minimum of 15 years old before they are sent to university and while i’ve written it into the story that on this occasion the university have agreed to take Aiden and Joseph a little shy of the correct age.

 It’s now however that i realise that both boy’s aren’t 14 infact Aiden only turn’s 13 in 1042.  Therefore at the current point in the story he’s only 12! this is a tad shyer than i had anticipated.  

For this reason i have been a little naughty and i have removed references to Aiden going to university and moved him back into the barrack’s with Danson for at least another couple of years. 

Technically I should potentially do the same with Joseph but i have written too many story’s involving him and Ailana and him leaving for it to be possible to do that kind of backtrack.

Now here I guess is a good time to mention some other screw ups I have made of late.   I admit i have been a little over eager at growing up some of my teen’s in storylines and storylines which were initially written as coming of age teen posts grew into something more than they were initially intended to be.

Joseph and Duncan’s storylines are the prime examples in this case. Initially the Duncan and Quillen storylines and Duncan’s interest in Alice was supposed to be a “cute coming of age” story.  Where the boy’s realise they are interested in girls.

However the introduction of Ailith’s interest in Duncan progressed things more than I’d originally intended and had the cute coming of age first kiss story turn into something more.  

It was only when Duncan and Ailith where fairly heavily involved.  That i suddenly when Whah! Duncan is only 13!! 

Realising an interest in an actual sex was possibly a little premature!  Yes at 13 he would likely be interested in the idea of sex but more in a giggled conversation with Quillen than actually doing it. 

This is incidentally it’s why i actually broke up their relationship. Sex is certainly something Ailith/Alice are potentially old enough for at 15 almost 16 but it’s still a bit soon for Duncan who is significantly younger.    

I think the main reason i got confused on this one and forgot his actual age was because i was writing Maegan first experiences posts and it seem appropriate that if she was doing it he would do it too.

I guess its only now i realise that she wasn’t really ready but as a married woman she had little choice where as he’s a young man able to go at his own pace and at the moment that leap is perhaps a leap too far.

Don’t get me wrong the Ailith / Duncan / Alice / Farid square of utter madness isn’t dead, there are still some major plan’s in the works for all these characters (and a new teen) however I have been reminding myself of the actual age of these people. In a few years the age difference between the boys and girls won’t matter so much but right now the 2 years difference between Alice and Duncan is potentially a problem especially as girls do tend to mature in that respect a little quicker than boys.

This age issue is also what happened with the Ailiana/Joseph storyline i guess because she’d already done it before i forgot that he was much younger than she was and he probably wasn’t thinking in that vain yet.

Sure he was/is certainly old enough for the fumbles and kissing, the first post i introduced them together he just wanted to “See” and i have no problem with the age appropriateness of that for a 13 year old boy.  However I now see did progress things too quickly, especially when he started putting pressure on her to go the whole hog with him.

It was this realisation that spurred the “Danson talk”  it was my way of pulling that relationship back a few steps by adding the idea that Joseph didn’t really understand or want sex but it was something that all the other boy’s where doing so he thought he should be too.  This worked quite well considering many of the boys he was hanging around with at the time, like Lorcan who is much older than he is.

Phew …. Anyway there are some explanations for why a few things have happened in story.

Now then getting back to Danson, who has remained single for far far longer than I anticipated. The Natural choices for him have always been either Raeanne Vaux who is two years his senior or Ailiana Hamdun who is 13 years younger than him.

Considering he was a townie recruited to give Thomas and Holly a shoulder to cry on I’ve become somewhat fond of him. 

Danson is possibly one of the most selfless character’s in Grimstead but this often works against him. His honour and standing mean the world to him and in many ways in story I feel he’s somewhat getting in his own way.

He clearly likes Ailiana, he clearly likes her more than he’s willing to admit to himself right now and for this reason I am looking at other options for wives.  Beyond Ailiana and Raeanne the next most fitting options fall to Tara Bendett or Emily Vaux both are currently very young  (Tara Bendett 13 and Emily Vaux 12) however unlike other lord I do not envision him being prepared to marry a girl so young.   

Emily is perhaps the less suitable option of the two as her mother was a commoner and the Vaux’s standing in the kingdom is somewhat slippery at best, allying himself with the Vaux’s though marriage would immediately make an enemy of the Hamduns. However Tara is a reasonably “safe” option her family might not be the best breeding but they are universally respected and she is certainly a better option than merchant class.

There really isn’t an awful lot to say about this lot. Mostly they just tick though the year they arent making much money at the moment because the church bills are quite high, im not sure what exactly is making them so high and they don’t really seem to be going down but they are chugging along without too many problems.

It’s unlikely however that they will be able to save much in the way of money for Sander for when he leaves the church and becomes a hamdun peasant. Im not overly worried tbh he is a peasant after all its perfectly acceptable for him to mearly survive.

• Maud : Faulkes Mother (age: 52)

• 1 man – $100
• 1 woman – $20

Ok so it’s time for the first appearance of the Dacre Estate. I’ve decided to make this first entry a double entry for 1040 and 1041.  So that Faulke has chance to make a home for him and Asha for a round before they potentially wed.

His family are supposed to have lived on this farm for 15 years but it’s unfeasible for me to actually play 15 rounds so 2  will have to do.

He’s been moved into an apartment on a large farm identical to Jeds however by the time i’ve spend his money on the rent and furnishings there isn’t an awful lot left over.

Experience tells me these farm houses do tend to take a little time to warm but so he may struggle for a little while which he needs the head start, however he has a good apartment and a lot of earning potential as a farmer.

I tick though the two years comfortably its hard going the first year but by the end of the second Faulke has managed to buy himself a Market Stall and got it to rank 2.  While both he and Maud gain gold gardening badges and a small collection of sales / restocking type ones.

Ok granted he isn’t rolling in cash but things are certainly looking positive.

• $2,100

I really don’t seem to have been very organised this round, I was preparing to play the Talons only to discover that like Tarik’s family i forgot to post their update from last round.

So yet again here it is better late than never.

Asha moved out at the beginning of this round for storyline reason’s she has moved to live with Tarik up in Darkfire the result of a storyline which has also introduced a possible husband for the young woman in the form of Faulke the human son of Lar’s Karogar. He’s a farm owner but generally im much happier with the idea of the match than i was with any previous option’s.

Meanwhile the rest of the family tick along nicely. Falcon and Daisy finally get permission to marry and when they do i finally allow them to whoohoo which results in a pregnancy due at the end of the year.

financially i’m a little confused though there net worth is up on last round i’ve logged in to find Falcon owing Gabriel $2.5k im not sure why he’s in debt but i figure i simply must not have left enough cash on hand to cover the tax’s that go out on.

However as the round tick’s along it becomes clear that moneywise they are struggling a little bit, the re-payments on their mortgage is making it difficult to put any savings away or even begin to pay it off.

I’m not even all that sure how to fix it. The Tavern has always managed reasonably well but it seem’s like Asha’s leaving his put a crimp in their plan.

Mostly they keep running out of food to sell and don’t seem to have enough time to make it.  Also because they started off in debt i’m struggling to buy the fish and veggy’s i need to replace it.  Things should level out i think when Daisy isn’t pregnant so can work more but for now it’s struggle.

Finally im still not sure what i’m going to do with Farid long term, there are certainly options.  Looking upwards in the class list it might be that Farid is able to swoop in and steal Emily Vaux from Farron though im not sure Orrick would agree living on Gabriel’s estate is any better than Valdermar’s. 

In his class there is now a new girl on the block in the form of Alice Lar’s Daughter the only problem with this is that she’s a warewolf and the bloodlines are incompatible. Basically this means that they would be very lucky to have a baby survive and that might not make for a happy marriage.

Hannah Carpenter is a good option as is Sarah Farmer and Krista Raha. Whatever i decide it seem’s unlikely that i’ll need to look down to peasant class for Farid as there for a heir to a tavern there are certainly plenty of options.

Meanwhile the round ticks along and eventually Daisy gives birth to their first daughter together Claire.

It is perhaps unsurprising that like Sophie, Malkav was a human seer able to predict the future.  Hence why Siren immediately thought of Isabel for the young woman’s embrace.  

It is not known which of the second generation vampires embraced Malkav but it’s suspected to be Enoch the first kindred embraced by Caine. Twin to Arikel (The Toreador Founder) Malkav is said to have been the second oldest Antediluvian.

According to Malkcavian legend when Malkav fell, he called all his children and grandchildren to him and commanded them to drink his blood.  Malkavian’s claim, this mass diablorie allowed their father to live on within them and because of this they still hear him speaking with him in their minds.

This claim is highly speculative within other clan’s but what is known but little understood is that the Malkavian clan do have a strange link with each other. This link is sometimes known as the cobweb or Malkavian madness network.

The extent of this “network” is unknown to all outside the clan. The Malkavuan’s claim this network contain’s the thoughts and knowledge of every member of their clan including thoughts not yet even had. This bold claim is highly is held in suspicion by most, however what is irrefutable is that this link seems to allow all Malkavian’s to not only communicate with each other but grants them knowledge most would only dream of. Making them useful tool’s for Kindred princes around the world and the first choice for advisors.

This said there powerful and extensive knowledge about all things past present and future is not what make the clan infamous. Like all clan’s there is a clanwise disadvantage but unlike most the Malkavian flaw can be fairly crippling. Upon embrace Malkavian’s go incurably insane. Couple this with the fact that members of this clan to actively seek out the already insane for embrace and it’s easy to see why the results are often highly unpredictable.

It is said, you never really knows what you’re going to get when dealing with members of this clan.

At the time of Grimstead, Malkavian’s possess the disciplines of  Auspex (Heightened sences, inc Telepathy), Obfuscate (the ability to hide ones self or change appearance) and Dementation (The ability to make others insane).

Dementation is a highly powerful and unstable “Gift” it’s use can not only make people insane but it can quite literally change the way people view reality, the gift does not however come without drawbacks and each use can quite literally make the user mad which is why it’s use is rarely seen outside clan malkav.

I have mentioned before than Grimstead is set at an interesting time in Vampire history. Rumbling’s have already begun which eventually split Vampire Society in two. It’s worth noting at this point that while some clan’s fall on one or other side of this split, Clan Malkavian split’s cleanly though the middle.

However this was not the intention of the Malkavian elders, not only did the elder’s pick a side but they also decided that if their clan was to survive and not go completely insane they needed to rid themselves of the power of dementation.

The Malkavian elder’s called a meeting. During this meeting the clan was not only told which side of the war they were going to be on, but the Elder’s cast a ritual that on mass replaced the clan’s inherent gift of Dementation with the more stable gift of Dominate (the gift of mind control) .  This replacement is still known today as the “Great Prank”.

The irony here is that none of the Malkavian elder’s seemed to realised that expecting a group of insane supernatural being’s to be in one place at one time was shear folly . As such not every member of the clan made it to the meeting.

Those that missed the meetings not only kept their gift of Dementation but they also found themselves fighting for what the rest of the clan considered to be the wrong side.

In summary, the only thing one should expect from a Malkavian is to expect EVERYTHING. Malkavian’s come in many shapes sizes and colour’s. Ranging from those that you’d scarcely believe where malkavian to raging and rampaging lunatic’s.  Suffice to say, in comparison to some, Isabel seem’s quite sane.