Fort Weyr

A crop failure engages a fabric shortage in the Fort area. Fort Sea withholds supplies and part of the tithe to turn a profit when fabric prices skyrocket due to the shortages.

Turn 18
Early autumn/mid-to-late month 9 – Some of the early tithes come in short bolts of fabric, especially lightweight cottons like muslin. Three Tails Hold and Ghanoush Hold. Both are not primarily fabric producers with the fibers being a sideline. There’s little concern about this: a check in the ledgers shows that sometimes these holds put in the fabrics, sometimes they don’t and balance out their tithe with other materials. Still, they /have/ provided bolts over the last three tithes, with the one prior to that being a skipped turn and then a straight streak of five tithes with the cottons included.

Month 10 – Tithes are really starting to roll in and while most of the northern small holds are providing the usual expected items, some of the more southerly ones are also missing raw fiber and woven cloth. Most of these holds are ones that ship not over land but by sea through Fort Sea Hold. Discreet inquiries begin about the harvest and the tithes by sweepriders.

Month 11 – It’s readily apparent that /something/ serious is going on with the fabric situation. Sweepriders are instructed to check in at every small hold that hasn’t tithed yet to figure out what’s going on. The cotton crop failures come to light. It’s not every hold, but many of the cotton producers have been experiencing blight, late in the season just before the harvest. The blight is mostly affecting the most southern holds where the weather is more humid and holds that are relatively inaccessible by land and tend to ship by sea. These are also the holds that tend to tithe the latest, since their growing season goes later than the more northern portions of Fort. Some of these holds did send in the expected fabric tithes by ship, even in reduced quantity, with messages explaining the deficiency. Some tried to ‘make up’ the discrepancy with other materials.

Month 12 – The Weyr starts to seriously look into the whole business as the tithe season starts to wind down and things are definitely coming up /very/ short. The headwoman doesn’t think there’ll be enough cotton and canvas to last through the coming turn between what was left in stores and what has come in. Several holds that shipped through Fort Sea are adamant that they /sent/ tithes in, but those tithes never reached the Weyr. What’s going on? All eyes turn to Fort Sea.

Month 13 – All hell breaks loose politically when it turns out that Fort Sea hung onto the fabrics and sold them as exports outside the region given the hike in price due to the blight. Fort Hold is irate, Ruatha River tries to help out by becoming a subsititute port of call for bringing supplies in, but the Weyrwoman and Headwoman instruct all Weyr residents to start being careful about fabric usage.

Turn 19
Throughout the spring there’s a lot of back and forth between the Weyr and Fort Sea and a lot of bad feeling too.

7/7/19 – Fort Hold finally steps in and forces Fort Sea to release what’s left of the tithe it held onto. The Weyr and the Hold agree to ‘patrol’ Fort Sea together to ensure that no more shenanigans with supplies take place.