News item from BrettspielWelt
Prior Philip has a dream
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German introduction with original rules for Die Saeulen der Erde |
Jack stroked his grey hair and rubbed his chin, while he viewed the large grey sandstone cathedral. Proud yet tired, he surveyed the structure, although he still had doubt. He had spent the last decades of its life here. He had supervised the Shiring craftsman and had recruited the workers ifor the quarries and sand pits, to provide material for the daily trade at the Builder's Warehouse in Kingsbridge. He had spent many hours too in his client, Prior Philip of Kingsbridge, in order to obtain his favour.
At first the work went well, and soon the foundations were cast for this formidable building. Then came then first setbacks. The king suddenly demanded a high taxation, which nearly drove the Prior into bankruptcy. They had to stop work for a time and send their workers from the quarries to the Woollen Mill, in order to provide sufficient money, to complete the building. And then the fateful blow, when a strike, plotted by the competition, had sent the workers back to Shiring. Jack was then seen more frequently in the church, where he saught protection from the bishop in order to provide protection from such disasters. But there were also other fates of luck, which lifted up his spirits and let him advance his work further.
And now, as so often before, he is faced with the difficult decision of what was action should he do next. He urgently requires wood, but there is no money left. If he sends the workers back to the woollen mills, this would set him back by months. Sighing, he leans on the cold stone of the giant archway. Maybe he could at least keep the sculptor here, bsince there is still an ample supply of stone, and he needs this highly qualified artisan to complete the artwork on the western facade. Maybe he should speak to the King again, and somehow avoid the taxes, at least for a short time, in order to get hold of the metal that he so urgently requires. Then the tool maker could make items to sell for money. As he turned to go, he looked back once more at his life's work. The strong doors with their elaborate carvings. The massive window spacings with their pointed arches, which will soon provide sunlight through brightly coloured panes of glass into the napes and aisles. The two huge towers that reached up to the heavens, that flanked this marvel of the masons's art, both right and left - true pillars of the earth...(Säulen der Erde)