The Farmer Profession

With the farmer’s profession, you become one of the businesses that refer to the basic chain of production. You take resources, transform them into something else and then sell the final product. Still, this character can have both advantages and disadvantages. On one side, you stink. You will spend most of your time shoveling things that smell bad. For that reason, your reputation bonus will come in more slowly than if you were, let’s say, a baker that can fill the streets with pleasant aromas. You may become wealthy and own vast parts of land, but you’ll always be the one who stinks the most.

Two things allow you to offset that unpleasantness: 1- being a farmer enables one to generate ingredients by himself. To be sure, he has to wait for them, while the sun and the rain do most of the work, but they’ll come in for free in his yards; 2- farming is probably the best profession to integrate vertically in a supply chain. The farmer grows crops, animals and herbs. All these items are used by bakeries to cook delicacies, and by innkeepers to brew beers and other drinks. If the player owns farms, bakeries and inns, he can create supply lines with his employees where his farms feed his other businesses, and thus generate vast sums of money for free.

Read Rob Janssen’ story below, to learn a little bit more about this exciting character’s profession and to think ahead of what you will do when you will play The Guild 3!

Walking around in the fields surrounding his land ‒ or, most likely, his Lord’s land ‒ Rob Janssen was thinking about everything that had to be done in the next few days on the farm and around it, now that the harvest was finished. This year had gone by really fast and not at all as planned. June had passed so fast with all its hay to harvest, to dry and to store. Rob had to pay several men to help on the land and even if it was worth it, it cost the Janssen family a fortune for that extra help.

Then came the period to prepare the crop. It was almost spoiled by all the harsh temperature but everyone managed to recover enough. And now that the whole crop was gone, loaded onto chariots, it was time to prepare the soil for the next wheat harvest. No time to waste here!

So much had to be done and Rob could not see the end of it. A little discouraged, he continued his way toward Josef Wagner, his right-hand man, wanting to be informed of the progress on the farm. He was busy scouring some manure -one of the worst downsides of working on a farm- and the smell was disgusting. Rob asked him about his day.

‘’How ya doin’ in the fields, man?

-Ah, I am tired, Rob. But it’s nothing I can’t put up with!

-Yeah, I know. Thanks for all your help, today.

-My pleasure. I know it’s been hard on ya. But everything is going well. I am just finishing, but the other men have gone home for the night.

-Good. Any news on the chariot?

-No. It’s weird. I haven’t heard anything. Not from Arnold, nor from Carl.

-Should we be worried ’bout them?

-Nah, probably not.

-Okay, then. I will let you finish your job. We can talk later.

-All right, mate! ‘’

Rob went down to his house right next to the farm, but Gabriele, his wife, wasn’t coming home until later, since she was still working at the bakery. Xaver, one of the worker, was working too at the inn tonight. Everything seemed under control but Rob just couldn’t shake this feeling that something was wrong; he couldn’t stop thinking about the last year and how they all made it through at the very last minute. As he was stepping inside the house, Rob seemed lost in his thoughts. These hard times had messed with the businesses as well. It wasn’t as easy to attract customers as it has been in the last few years. This season was a tough one for everyone. Once the crop had been harvested and prepared, Rob and the other farmers would return to the fields to plant new crops for the following year. No relief was allowed. As the autumn would move into winter, work on the farm would decrease as well and some of the outstanding chores would include repairing a building on the land, gathering firewood and bringing the animals in from the fields. The struggle to survive was a never-ending one, and tasks continued even under the blanket of winter snow.

Suddenly, Rob heard some noises at the front door. It was Josef, entering without even knocking. ‘’I’ve got some news for ya! said Josef.

– What’s wrong? ‘’, wondered Rob, frowning. It wasn’t like Josef to come running inside the house like that.

– I heard there was trouble with the chariot and the men we sent, this morning, said Josef. Some people just arrived and they want us to go and see for ourselves.

– Where are they? ‘’, asked Rob, while putting on his overcoat made of thick woollen material.

The two went outside and Rob followed his right-hand man to a group of people standing close to the gate. When they reached them, everyone started talking at the same time, thereby creating much confusion. Annoyed, Rob whistled and told them to talk one by one. It was then that someone finally told the group that he saw the chariot of the Janssen family being attacked by four or five masked men on the way to the city. Nobody had done anything; no one knew who the burglars were and what they wanted. Frustrated, Rob asked the group where all of this happened before sending everyone away. Again, there was no time to waste.

‘’You come with me ‘’, Rob ordered Josef.

The two of them, armed with axes and pitchforks, left immediately.

After a couple of hours in complete darkness, the two men finally arrived at the spot where the chariot was turned upside down. Nobody was to be seen but there were footprints of some evidence showing that there has been a fight. Josef, going around the chariot, tried to find something that would help them in their search.

‘’Where are Arnold and Carl? This is insane! They can’t disappear just like that!’’, cried Rob, seeming quite shaken by what he just saw. What was happening? What went wrong? Looking haggard, Rob was walking around, unable to answer his own questions. He and Josef continued to inspect and scrutinize the surrounding area during many more minutes, oblivious to all the wheat on the ground. Nothing was making sense. Finally, Josef lifted up a woollen cloth left in the chariot and saw something. Trying to pick it up, he realized it was Arthur’s compass. At the same moment, Rob just felt a cold breeze passing by him. Two glowing eyes, floating a little deeper in the forest, were looking intensely at him.

He shivered. Then everything went black.