Quick note on 3025 production of universal designs

The Inner Sphere and Periphery build a total of 2867 'Mechs per year. Supposing half of those are the the universal designs from the 2nd edition boxed set, then I think their annual production by each House should break down like this:

Total	1433.33 (half of 2867)
Davion	270
Kurita	135 (counting the 270 LAMs at half covers the other 135)
Steiner	270
Marik	270, +51.67 "-M" Variants
Liao	270
Periphery	166.67 (they don't build any other 'Mechs, just the universal designs)

This gives me a few clues about the other Houses. Most notably, it'll help me sort out the weirdness in the Marik production data, and it looks like Aldis Industries of Terra builds something other than Stingers for the Federated Suns.

Skull of God (eruption)

Half a day's travel in every direction from the skull, in sheltered valleys and on high plateaus, stand "the penitents" - closely spaced pillars of soft, dusty stone ranging from two to sixteen feet in height. People avoid them because of their vaguely humanoid shape (and because they make poor construction materials). Small birds, covered in like-colored dust for camouflage, nest among them. No other beasts dare approach.

Halfway up a plateau no one has ever climbed sits a monk, meditating, concerned that the tremors are imperceptibly escalating. The monk will relocate to a ridge only two hours hike from the skull for more direct observation.

The Monk: I had some initial ideas about who this monk should be, but after my talk last time of killing the sun and the moon, it's hard not to go with a monk (hah, that mouseover text) of the sun.

The Birds: I like these birds as the iridescent embers of a failed wish spell, ineffectively pursuing their task in perpetuity, but I also want them to be pieces of the "penitents'" souls so as to imply that a legendary Phoenix is a piece of the Skull's soul.

I'm of two minds about the terrain immediately around the skull. On the one hand, if it's flat and frozen, then the eruption could shatter it and make new hills and a lake where there were none before; on the other hand, having rivers and ridges already there would give the players some choice of where to weather the event. Plus ships would get stranded upriver, bridges would be knocked out downriver, and the river could run backwards for a ways. 

[The eruption is a great image, but it's more of an interruption than an adventure. Haven't worked out the larger scenario to drop it into yet.]


Eruption

The Aurigan Trail

From 2800 to 3000, hundreds of nation-states rose and fell in the Periphery, only to be replaced by still other powers, many no larger than a single world or continent (P1e, p125). By the end of the 30th Century, there were more than 60 known small kingdoms and principalities ringing the Inner Sphere (MW1e, p8). Both their numbers and their relative strength are in constant flux (MW1e, p135).