Driftwood MMC - Year 1 - Winter - Morgreen / Mondegreen
Next up is our gentry family, the Morgreens. After marrying Primrose, Elliot seems to be settling into gentry life nicely. He spends plenty of time in the study, learning from his father-in-law.
Elliot is still in the military and won’t take over as “Lord of the Manor” until Lionel passes. He’s attained a very high rank though and counts as a Knight, now! Between him and his brother Reginald, the barracks should be in safe hands now that Sir Roberte has retired.
I’m not sure exactly how I want to differentiate between the Knighthood (Athletic default) and the military in gameplay just yet… I’ll have to think on that.
As for old Lionel, he’s officially retired these days. He suffered a head injury at work (ROS roll) and needs a lot of care. He’s not the best at resting though - he likes to keep his mind sharp!
Primrose started out the round with a want to befriend Isabel, from the orphanage, so I invited her round (with Grace, her caretaker). Primrose has shown an interesting philanthopic streak as of late! Maybe she and Elliot might be interested in adoption?
It actually took the newlyweds quite a long time to concieve - enough that I was starting to seriously consider adoption. But eventually she started showing all the telltale signs of pregnancy. Elliot’s delighted to hear the news!
Poor Hilda contracted pneumonia this round! I felt terrible, since she obviously wasn’t going to get a chance to rest and recover. In the end I decided to just buy a cure for her. Definitely a bit cheat-y, but I figured the Morgreens would want to take care of their servant! Especially as she’s been helping to keep Lord Lionel company, lately. The two of them are both knowledge sims and have struck up a bit of a friendship…
They do have a spark of chemistry, but I am frankly hoping they keep it professional and platonic!
Lord Lionel has a quiet word to Hilda about monolouging to a skull while she’s on the clock.
Primrose spends some time at the village green, where she bumps into old flame Michael Rudhall and is saddened to see him spending time with another woman. It’s probably for the best, though…
Meanwhile Clarissa is being her delightful self :)
Uncle Roberte comes over, and is happy to catch up with his brother and hear his niece’s big news!
Oh, and on the last day of the season Hilda steals the show again with her disastrous antics. Poor girl! Here’s hoping Elliot doesn’t tell the rest of the family - the last girl they hired got fired for starting a fire :/
And that’s the end of the winter round. I didn’t mention it, but I’ve decided to use the method mentioned in the MCC rules to give the gentry some extra income from their “holdings”:
“At the end of every Summer and Autumn season, roll (d9) x $5000 to find out how much your imaginary crops brought in for that season (amounts will be between $5000 to $45,000), and then add that amount to the Gentry/Noble’s bank balance.”
I think this makes sense, as land management is meant to be part of their lives! I’ll be adding some new peasant townies in Year 2 to work in the Lord’s fields. (And might have the other peasants pay rent to their liege lord rather than the crown… still figuring it out!)
New family portraint for the Morgreens. Primrose is settling into married life better than I expected, and she seems excited about her pregnancy. (She talks about toys a lot!)
As I mentioned, I’m also thinking of having them move in Hilda full-time, since her duties as a servant are expanding to cover caring for Lionel in his old age and possibly caring for the newborn, too… I think it might be a good option for her, as she’s a knowledge sim who could then get access to their lovely library and maybe learn to read! She can always move out later, if she decides she wants a family of her own.