All great ideas so far, keep 'em rolling!
This might be really out there or even whack, but how about maybe building an air ship that allows for quicker 1 way transport from the south to peltarch (costs more than a boat, 30g for 1 transportation up north, double for tallies since they take up more room >:3)
Just an idea, I can understand if it might be too much of a headache for devs, but be fun to get things done engineering wise.
SPEAKING OF WHICH
Might be a good drive to get the engineering guild to do things, finding proper power stones, resources, ETC to build people some neat trinkets in town.