Chapter 24- Stage 3 Begins

To start the day, Harley had to repair that broken sink in the kitchen, and Maria helped to mop the floors.  It was a Saturday, so she didn't have school.  

Now, I've changed the rules slightly to include repair work as a point earned.  Plus Regan here is cooking Breakfast for the household.

Now, because of the King's Neurotic trait, and his laws regarding the written word, I decided to put the castle bookcases, including the one in the servant's quarters, into long term storage, i.e. the family bin, and to get rid of any books they had in their inventories.

Even though Queen Lynne is pregnant, she enjoys sculpting, and painting.  As her profession is a self employed painter, any paintings she makes, by freewill alone, I will have her sell.

Here, Maria sits at the castle table to do homework with Princess Stacy.  Maria is allowed to sit at the royal table because she is doing the work with Princess Stacy.

Harley, Regan, and Maria must wait until the Royal family eats breakfast, before they can help themselves to the leftovers of the meal.

 I thought it was unusual for the royal family to use the servant's bathroom, so I locked the door to exclude them from it.  I also locked the door to the office too.

By noon that day all the beds were made, earning them another point.

Harley took the morning off to harvest some plants from the community gardens.  He figures they will make a nice addition to the empty castle garden.

Here, maria is playing Hopscotch in the castle garden.

Unfortunately, keeping everyone from using the royal family's things is difficult at times.  Here, Regan is found playing games on the royal computer.  King Richie is not happy to find her in his desk, so he sends her straight to the dungeon.

Here, I've given her a little better of a cell than when the family was outlaw status, but it's still pretty bad.  Now, I could have technically sent anyone to the dungeon, and child Maria would have been the most strategic, but I just couldn't see sending little Maria to jail for her mother's crime.

When Harley gets home, he plants what he had gathered earlier, leaving the rest in the fridge.

Regan had brought her guitar into the dungeon, and managed to earn that 10th skill-point.

Regan misses the cosy bed she had in the servant's cottage.

Harley finishes the Laundry.  How it managed to dry on the clothesline in the rain, he'll never know.

Later that evening, Harley ages up to an adult sim.

Harley misses his wife too, and looks forward to seeing her tomorrow.

Unfortunately, due to a royal, late night pantry raid, I failed to get the point for no dirty dishes on the lot.
In total for the first day, I've earned 5 points.  One for cooking, for repair, for laundry, for beehive care, and for making beds.  I'm not counting the garden, because they were only just planted.  I am not sure to count Maria's Do homework with, as a tutoring action, as in my newest addition to the rules.

The next morning, Harley gets some garlic bread, leftovers from the royal pantry raid of the night before, and takes it to the prison.  Regan is very hungry, and happy to see it.

Later that morning, Queen Lynne goes into labor, and rushes off to the hospital.

She shocked poor Harley as he was making the beds.

Maria and Princess Stacy, however, play a water balloon fight game in the courtyard.

Harley weeds his garden, feeling proud to have something tangible for his hard work.

Harley soon regretted his wardrobe decision to clean out the beehive that was in the old tree in the castle gardens.

King Richie is rising quickly in the Nerd Guild (social group).

He also aged up today to an Adult.  Harley served them coffee with their dinner tonight to earn an extra point.

Regan is happy to finally be home with her family.  The cottage never seemed nicer.

And Queen Lynne's new baby, Princess Robin, is sleeping well in the castle nursery.   She got the traits Genius and Light Sleeper.

For this 2nd day I earned a total of 8 points:  One for Laundry, for Beehive Care, for Cooking, for Drinks, for Making the Beds, For taking care of the Baby, and 2 for the Garden (there are 7 plants in my garden, that's 2 groups of 3, making it worth 2 points.)

For both days together, I have earned 13 points.

Chapter 23- Setting up Phase 3

To start, I built a one-room log cabin for Devin and Ella to retire in.  I did this so story progression could continue without any issues.

It's just a simple room with all of the basic furniture, plus an outhouse.

Meanwhile Harley, Regan, and Maria are summoned to the castle.  (I used Edit Town mode to move them in with the royal family.   Unfortunately, due to the 8 sims per household limit, I had to move King Kenrick, Queen Clarissa, and their pet horse out of the house.  I decided to enact my newest rule change to allow a young adult prince to take over the throne at the player's decision.)  Prince Richie Burb (He married the King's Eldest Daughter, Princess Lynne) decided the time had come to put the nation under new management.  It only took a few of the right herbs, and a sizable bribe to the castle cooks, and the next morning the King was found singing his rendition to the latest Robin Hood Ballad, in his birthday suit, by several notable castle guests.  Next his advisers suggested he retire, and give the crown to Prince Richie, or else the nation would loose all respect internationally.

 Anyways, after his takeover, King Richie had to replace the old castle staff, after all he couldn't keep people around who would be able to be paid off.  So he summoned the Leighton's because he had heard about their talent for music, and he wanted a newer, more up-lively castle environment.

The Leighton's will be limited to a "Servant's Cottage" on the castle grounds to live in.  It includes the Castle Kitchen, and a small living quarters.  Upon moving in, the castle sink was broken, perhaps from the previous staff's tampering before they were removed.

The Upstairs to the Servant's Cottage, it has 4 bedrooms.

I will also be allowed the far left tower, containing the Laundry room.  As you can see there is a pile of dirty laundry that had been collected recently.

Above the Laundry Room is the Wine Press,and the Wine storage room.  I may use the space as a workshop space, but any Nectar produced is considered the King's property.  

 I may also use anything in the stables, as well as the near, right tower.  Above this is a pottery and mechanical workshop.  I may use them too.  

The rules for this stage of the challenge:  

I am not allowed to use any items outside of the above designated "Servant's Areas" of the castle, for recreational or personal purposes.  This means that, unless I'm cleaning it, fixing it, or other servant's duties, I cannot use anything in the main castle house, or other towers.  

I will need to perform a number of chores each day to earn points, so we can progress to the next stage of the challenge.  See the whole list on the Challenge Instruction's post.  By the time I got everyone in and settled, It was late, so I will officially start to keep track of points tomorrow morning.  

King Richie Burb's Traits are:  Loner, Neurotic, Clumsy, Vehicle Enthusiast, and Eccentric.

His Neurotic trait means that he will, in paranoia, enact a law forbidding the written word.  Going to the Library or Book Store, Reading, or Writing is considered Illegal, and will deserve 24 hours spent in the dungeon.  

The previous King's Trait based laws:  No Telling Jokes, and Tax Breaks for Horse Owners, were both repealed by the new King.   

Chapter 22 - With the Passage of Time

When we left off, young Maria had just aged into a Toddler.  Regan soon began to fill her days with teaching Maria how to walk and talk.  They could not potty train her because they had no toddler sized toilets in the inn.

Regan met some interesting people in the inn, even King Kenrick, holding the young princess.



She played her guitar whenever she could, earning a total of 9 skill points, and level 2 band career.

Harley reached level 9 of the band career.  After this he needed a total of $35,417 in tips to get to level 10.

I didn't take daily photos of the rest, but I posted here what I did take.  
On day 2:  Harley needed $30,443 to progress
On day 3:  $24,194
On day 4:  $19,347
On day 5:  $12,916
On day 6:  $7,489
On day 7:  $1,791

The Royal family has some news too.  Princess Windy married a man named Jamil Dolan, and had a child named Princess Edna.  Princess Stacy aged into a child.  Her parent's, Princess Lynn and Prince Richie Burb are pregnant again.

Devin was even invited to play for Princess Windy and her royal party guests.

Rumors have it the queen was especially pleased with his music.

Young Maria has aged into a child.  Due to her lack of potty training she rolled the daredevil trait.

Due to the lack of beds in the inn, Young Maria sleeps in a sleeping bag.

The next morning I gave Maria a makeover.  Her everyday outfit:

Regan kept playing her guitar in the inn that morning.

Meanwhile Maria rides her bike to her first day of school.   She was so excited about the new friends she would make, that she hardly noticed the rain.

Devin and Ella, who had both since made it to level 9 band career too, continued to work for tips.

Below is Maria, standing outside the school.

Later that morning, Harley earned that last dollar in tips that he needed and reached level 10 band career.  He was approached by a representative from the King that they were being summoned to the royal court.

And this ends Stage 2 of my challenge.  I found I forgot many nights to pay the cost at the inn, though I soon reached a point where it didn't matter financially.  I did, on several occasions get rid of a larger chunk of cash such as $10,000 to make up for missed nights.  I will possibly change it to be a weekly cost, as that may be easier to calculate.

Soon I will start Stage 3 of my challenge.  I plan on building a small log cabin on their original lot, because the game doesn't treat homeless characters too well, then I will have Harley, Regan, and Maria move into the castle to be servants for the royal family.