Feudal Quest

[Arkeus]

This seems ideal. What do our funds look like, before we collect taxes in the spring? Can we afford 10 new levies and fixing up the manor and whatnot?
I think we can put off adventures for now, until we're settled in and the spring thaw has come.

I'd be okay with using a slot for personal advancement (magic or training with our remaining militia and Bialis, not picky), though I'd prefer 'exploring with Jaroslaw' and 'beginning manor renovations' which are likely to take some time.

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Sounds good. As for personal training, i am an idiot that loves magic, and something like Flesh sorcery seems ridiculously good, depens on what it can do. It probably can help you notice if you are poisoned/ill with a bit more training, and even stave off those effects. Can it heal/enhance yourself?

 

[Guile]

Sounds good. As for personal training, i am an idiot that loves magic, and something like Flesh sorcery seems ridiculously good, depens on what it can do. It probably can help you notice if you are poisoned/ill with a bit more training, and even stave off those effects. Can it heal/enhance yourself?

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There's also apparently a thing called regency magic, which seems like a good thing for a lord to know.

 

[fitzgerald]

Dominic
- Hire Staff
- Train Flesh Sorcery
- Research Corzu

Bialas
- Raise Troops (Spearmen)

Jaroslaw
- Explore Corzu

Traian
- Study Account Books

Minor Actions

Write Letters of Introduction to neighboring Baronies

Write letter to Aunt Gavrilla and arrange a meeting in spring

 

[Graig]

I also support these the following actions but I am not sure about the letter to our aunt. Why would we want to arrange a meeting with her?

Dominic
- Hire Staff
- Train Flesh Sorcery
- Research Corzu

Bialas
- Raise Troops (Spearmen)

Jaroslaw
- Explore Corzu

Traian
- Study Account Books

Minor Actions

Write Letters of Introduction to neighboring Baronies

 

[Guile]

I also support these the following actions but I am not sure about the letter to our aunt. Why are would we want to arrange a meeting with her?

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Presumably he's worried about getting a bride chosen for us by our 'crazy aunt'.

 

[Pipeman]

Worrying about our aunt already seems rather premature, especially since we don't actually have any alternatives of our own to present her with.
If we invite her to meet in spring and don't manage to find any until then, we are more or less giving tacit approval for her to deal with this for us.

 

[fitzgerald]

At this point I'm aiming for achieving more input into the process.

As we are

A) Stuck in the backwoods of Grandpa's hunting lodge
B) Berefit of Romance options since we came to our Fief early

Giving our Aunt our criteria, & personal input is likely the best choice we'll get.

 

[ShaperV]

What do our funds look like, before we collect taxes in the spring? Can we afford 10 new levies and fixing up the manor and whatnot?

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Money is listed at the bottom of your character sheet. You currently have 370 SP and are spending about 35 SP a month on maintenance for yourself and your retainers. Basic staff will cost another 2 SP or so, and another 10 troops would run maybe 5 SP. So you'll spend maybe 160 SP on maintenance between now and the beginning of April, and the April 15 household and shop taxes are normally paid in cash.

You'll need to spend some extra on fixing up the manor house and buying arms and armor for the new recruits, but even so it looks easily doable.

I'd be okay with using a slot for personal advancement (magic or training with our remaining militia and Bialis, not picky), though I'd prefer 'exploring with Jaroslaw' and 'beginning manor renovations' which are likely to take some time.

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You don't need to spend an action fixing up the manor house, your staff will work on that once you hire them.

Now repairing the keep will take more hands-on supervision, but before you can do that you'll have to find a castle engineer who can direct the workd and come up with several hundred SP to pay for it.

Sounds good. As for personal training, i am an idiot that loves magic, and something like Flesh sorcery seems ridiculously good, depens on what it can do. It probably can help you notice if you are poisoned/ill with a bit more training, and even stave off those effects. Can it heal/enhance yourself?

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Yes, those would all be reasonable effects to research. Sensory abilities are within your current power, but you'd probably need to train up your Flesh Sorcery to level 2 before you can get useful buff effects or enhanced healing.

There's also apparently a thing called regency magic, which seems like a good thing for a lord to know.

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Yes, there are some interesting tales about lords who could improve the morale of their people, sense enemy raiding parties on their land, or buff themselves in various ways when on their home ground. But you won't be able to work on that until you've actually finished the claiming process, and have a pool of regency power to experiment with.

 

[fitzgerald]

We can have Flesh Sorcery 2 by end of March / Begining of Apirl simply by allocating an action once a month

I will however suggest we add the following Skills over the coming winter for variety sakes

Ice Sorcery

Book Keeping

Archery

 

[Thomasfoolery]

Why do people want to raise a unit of spearmen? We have a horse, and it would be rather useful to have a unit of horsemen that we could take with us for back-up and be able to move at some speed instead of being stuck slogging it out with foot-soldiers anytime we wanted to take a unit with somewhere. As for splitting the unit in two to scout/garrison, sure that sounds fine, hopefully with us going along with the scouting.

As for the other contested actions I'll reiterate my previous two picks, explore and research. We came here instead of staying at the more lucrative area and doing stuff there precisely so we could get our land in order, so we should probably do that rather than training that we could've done as easily anywhere...

Speaking more generally on training/character direction and since the untapped potential make it somewhat pressing I'll state I prefer a different direction than a magic focus or training up a bunch of extraneous skills. I joined the quest hoping for a in your face melee monster and I'm hoping we can take the character in that direction, especially since our god seems to encourage it. So while I would like both stats to go to body that's probably unrealistic (we'd probably need to decide to go on an adventure for that, which seems hard to justify when we know literally nothing about the place as of yet) but getting at least one point there is a priority for me.

 

[fitzgerald]

I'm suggesting we raise a unit of Spearmen this turn for a reason

They'll provide a solid base for the Garrison

aka people we have to defend the castle


2nd Calvary will cost more to raise and maintain.

 

[dash931]

To add a third point to that: Do we even have the horses to make a cavalry unit?

 

[Graig]

I also think spearmen is a better idea. Regarding what stat improvements to aim for the most important thing is probably not to split our stats We have above average in all of them already so we should probably be aiming to get as good as possible in our specialization. I would prefer +2 to Soul but +2 to Charm would also be ok.

 

[Happerry]

Spearmen are our most useless choice. We already have a group of skilled men at arms, which will provide better melee power then anything peasants given pointy sticks can get and are perfectly good for defending the castle. We should either get Archers, to give us some ranged abilities, or the mounted scouts because horsemen are loads better at riding down bandits and generally acting as a police force then any infantry force on count of having mobility.

 

[Graig]

It takes far less time to train peasants into moderately competent spearmen than it takes to train them into archers or mounted scouts (and horses are probabky expensive). It would be good to have better soldiers but we are limited by both time and money.

The spearmens main job would be to do things like garrison our fort so that we can send all or most of our veteran men at arms on missions that require skilled soldiers.

 

[ShaperV]

The recruitment debate caused me to realize that I hadn't updated the 'Recruit Troops' project to reflect your new location. You were able to recruit just about anything in Kolarovo because your father has a large army and doesn't mind if you hire a few of his men away from him. But as you can see from the new version Corzu lacks a population of skilled fighters to recruit from, so all you can do is recruit peasants and train them up.

I will however suggest we add the following Skills over the coming winter for variety sakes

Ice Sorcery

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Sorcery abilities are innate - you can improve what you have, but you can't get new ones through training.

To add a third point to that: Do we even have the horses to make a cavalry unit?

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No, you don't currently have a source of cavalry mounts.

As for the other contested actions I'll reiterate my previous two picks, explore and research. We came here instead of staying at the more lucrative area and doing stuff there precisely so we could get our land in order, so we should probably do that rather than training that we could've done as easily anywhere...

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If Dominic spends an action on 'Explore Corzu' he's just duplicating Jaroslaw's action. The only benefit would be if you're hoping to find an adventure lead, since you'd be able to follow up on it immediately instead of having to hear about it from Jaroslaw and follow up next turn. So if that's what you're hoping for this would make sense, but otherwise you're better off spending the action on something else.

Speaking more generally on training/character direction and since the untapped potential make it somewhat pressing I'll state I prefer a different direction than a magic focus or training up a bunch of extraneous skills. I joined the quest hoping for a in your face melee monster and I'm hoping we can take the character in that direction, especially since our god seems to encourage it. So while I would like both stats to go to body that's probably unrealistic (we'd probably need to decide to go on an adventure for that, which seems hard to justify when we know literally nothing about the place as of yet) but getting at least one point there is a priority for me.

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The stat gains will take into account discussion as well as action, so lobbying for a fighter build instead of a mage build counts as support for +Body. You also have the option to train your swordsmanship instead of magic - you're good enough already that it will take more time to get improvements, but getting to Swordsmanship 4 with Body 4 or 5 would make you a serious combat monster.

Also, I'm not going to apply the stat gains until enough has happened in-game to establish a pretty clear trend. If you spend all winter snowed in and playing poker out of boredom I'll just hold off until you get in an adventure or two.

 

[ShaperV]

After contemplating many options, you decide upon the following orders for December:

Dominic
- Hire Staff
- Train Flesh Sorcery (strength buff)
- Research Corzu

Bialas
- Raise Troops (Spearmen)

Jaroslaw
- Explore Corzu

Traian
- Study Account Books

Footmen
- Split Squad (half accompany Jaroslaw, half garrison Corzu Keep)

Minor Actions
- Send letters to neighbors to inform them of your presence and begin arranging to ride the borders this spring.


The month begins, and your various projects are now underway. However, in the course of pursuing these projects new complications have come to light.

Hiring Staff
Obviously you need a cook (with assistants), a head maid (with assistants) a stable boy or two, a carpenter and a couple of laborers as a minimal staff for your keep. You can easily hire all the necessary people from the two nearest settlements (Tamasi and the nameless hamlet next to your keep). But what will your general treatment of the staff be like?

[ ] Low pay and hard work. You've no money to waste, and peasants should be honored to serve their lord. (Stick)
[ ] Generous pay, and hire a few extra hands to spread the work. (Carrot)
[ ] Hard work for good pay. (Carrot and stick)

(FYI, castle servants are normally 'paid' mostly in barter - they get room and board, clothing or uniforms, and maybe a few coppers in cash as a bonus around major holidays. So 'well paid' servants have better food, better quality clothes and maybe a copper a month in cash.)

Also, what will your hiring standards be like?

[ ] Hire the needy. We don't want them starving.
[ ] Peasants are all about the same. Just take the first likely candidate for each position and move on to something important.
[ ] Hire only the most qualified candidates you can find for each position. Staff is vital.
-- [ ] Oh, and a well-qualified maid should be young, attractive and willing. Maybe you'll put them in cute uniforms with short skirts when the weather warms up.

Refurbishing the Manor House
Once you have staff they'll immediately set to work cleaning up the manor house and generally making it livable. This is a good thing, since currently your staff are all camped out in the main hall. But there's a lot of rot and mildew in the upstairs rooms, much of the furniture needs to be replaced, and the cupboards and cellars are bare. With cold weather and occasional snowstorms limiting travel your staff can accomplish no more than two of the following projects this turn:

[ ] Get four private bedrooms refurbished for you and your named retainers. (Cost: 20 SP)
[ ] Clean and refurbish the barracks rooms, so your men don't have to camp in the hall. (Cost: 10 SP)
[ ] Clean and refurbish some guest rooms, in case you get important visitors. (Cost: 10 SP)
[ ] Clean, refurbish and restock the stables, so your horses will be happy and well fed. (Cost: 4 SP)
[ ] Stock the cellar with enough food to last for a couple of weeks. (Cost: 6 SP)
[ ] Lay in enough firewood to last several weeks, in case you get snowed in.
[ ] Set up and stock a chicken coop, so you can have fresh eggs and a bit of meat now and then (costs 3 SP)

Note: You can get three of these projects done if you press your garrison troops into service as extra laborers, but this means they won't be manning the walls properly if something dangerous shows up.

Raising Troops
Bialis can find a few likely lads from the local population to add to your forces, but he'd like to know how you want to equip them:

[ ] Archers (Cost: 40 SP)
[ ] Spearmen (Cost: 80 SP)

The Jan 1 update will be posted this weekend.

 

[Silversun17]

changing vote

the carrot approach mixed with the needy bit would win us support with the populace

the stick approch with qualfied and attactive maids bit would make us out to be an ass

I'm thinking this

[X] Generous pay, and hire a few extra hands to spread the work. (Carrot)
[X] Hire the needy. We don't want them starving.
-[X] The employment will last for the winter, at the end those who have shown skill and/or dedication will be kept on while the others will be let go for replacement by more qualfied staff.

[X] Stock the cellar with enough food to last for a couple of weeks. (Cost: 6 SP)
[X] Lay in enough firewood to last several weeks, in case you get snowed in.

[X] Archers (Cost: 40 SP)

 

[Thomasfoolery]

[X] Hire only the most qualified candidates you can find for each position. Staff is vital.
[X] Hard work for good pay. (Carrot and stick)

Hire quality workers, then make it clear we expect superior results from them, for which they get superior pay. That's more than generous enough for a feudal lord and doesn't cripple our staffing like trying to make this a welfare posting would, which would just waste our time in the future having to go through the process again.

[X] Spearmen (Cost: 80 SP)

We don't really have enough other units for archers to be worthwhile yet.

[X] Stock the cellar with enough food to last for a couple of weeks. (Cost: 6 SP)
[X] Get four private bedrooms refurbished for you and your named retainers. (Cost: 20 SP)

 

[Arkeus]

[X] Hard work for good pay. (Carrot and stick)
[X] Hire the needy. We don't want them starving.
[X] Clean and refurbish the barracks rooms, so your men don't have to camp in the hall. (Cost: 10 SP)
[X] Clean and refurbish some guest rooms, in case you get important visitors. (Cost: 10 SP)
[X] Spearmen (Cost: 80 SP)

 

[fitzgerald]

[X] Hard work for good pay. (Carrot and stick)
[X] Hire only the most qualified candidates you can find for each position. Staff is vital.
[X] Stock the cellar with enough food to last for a couple of weeks. (Cost: 6 SP)
[X] Lay in enough firewood to last several weeks, in case you get snowed in.
[X] Spearmen (Cost: 80 SP)

 

[kinglugia]

[X] Hard work for good pay. (Carrot and stick)
[X] Hire the needy. We don't want them starving.
[X] Clean and refurbish the barracks rooms, so your men don't have to camp in the hall. (Cost: 10 SP)
[X] Clean and refurbish some guest rooms, in case you get important visitors. (Cost: 10 SP)
[X] Spearmen (Cost: 80 SP)
Also, observe the men we hire, so that we can assign the jobs most suitable to them.
Like if Man A is good at fighting, but doesn't like killing, he could be an assistant or escort for the less dangerous adventure/missions/caravan/what-have-you.
BTW, are Sword Saints a thing? Like the one in Final Fantasy Tactics?
Because I liek a melee mons. With some ranged offensive as well.

 

[Graig]

We want competent workers. We will be greatly helping the overall community anyway even without hiring the needy.

The castle has not been attacked for a very long time and few people should know that we are here yet (and even if they knew traveling to our location would be almost impossible in the winter). Therefore there is little reason not to do 3 projects.

It is somewhat surprising that archers only cost half of spearmen. Are we giving spearmen expensive armor?

[X] Hard work for good pay. (Carrot and stick)
[X] Hire only the most qualified candidates you can find for each position. Staff is vital.
[X] Clean and refurbish the barracks rooms, so your men don't have to camp in the hall. (Cost: 10 SP)
[X] Get four private bedrooms refurbished for you and your named retainers. (Cost: 20 SP)
[X] Clean, refurbish and restock the stables, so your horses will be happy and well fed. (Cost: 4 SP)
[X] Archers (Cost: 40 SP)

 

[megrisvernin]

[X] Generous pay, and hire a few extra hands to spread the work. (Carrot)
[X] Hire the needy. We don't want them starving.
-[X] The employment will last for the winter, at the end those who have shown skill and/or dedication will be kept on while the others will be let go for replacement by more qualfied staff.

[X] Stock the cellar with enough food to last for a couple of weeks. (Cost: 6 SP)
[X] Lay in enough firewood to last several weeks, in case you get snowed in.

[X] Archers (Cost: 40 SP)

 

[Malcolmo]

[X] Hard work for good pay. (Carrot and stick)
[X] Hire only the most qualified candidates you can find for each position. Staff is vital.
-- [X] Oh, and a well-qualified maid should be young, attractive and willing. Maybe you'll put them in cute uniforms with short skirts when the weather warms up.
[X] Stock the cellar with enough food to last for a couple of weeks. (Cost: 6 SP)
[X] Lay in enough firewood to last several weeks, in case you get snowed in.
[X] Archers (Cost: 40 SP)

 

[ward201]

[X] Generous pay, and hire a few extra hands to spread the work. (Carrot)

[X] Hire the needy. We don't want them starving.
[X] Hire only the most qualified candidates you can find for each position. Staff is vital.
-- [X] Oh, and a well-qualified maid should be young, attractive and willing. Maybe you'll put them in cute uniforms with short skirts when the weather warms up.

I'm voting for both of these trying toget the the very best as a well paid core and a bunch of near useless warm bodies just to throw at problems and paid the bare minimum. that might be what (Carrot) is about but its a bit vague

[X] Clean, refurbish and restock the stables, so your horses will be happy and well fed. (Cost: 4 SP)
[X] Stock the cellar with enough food to last for a couple of weeks. (Cost: 6 SP)
[X] Lay in enough firewood to last several weeks, in case you get snowed in.

[X] Archers (Cost: 40 SP)
[X] Spearmen (Cost: 80 SP)

 

[Happerry]

[X] Hard work for good pay. (Carrot and stick)

[X] Hire the needy. We don't want them starving.

[X] Clean and refurbish the barracks rooms, so your men don't have to camp in the hall. (Cost: 10 SP)
[X] Get four private bedrooms refurbished for you and your named retainers. (Cost: 20 SP)

 

[ShaperV]

Amazingly close votes on some of those issues, including several ties - it's a good thing I'm using Dominic's commons sense as a tiebreaker here or we could see a long argument about hiring needy vs. qualified or what order to do the refurbishing projects. At any rate, I'm now writing the update so voting is closed.

BTW, are Sword Saints a thing? Like the one in Final Fantasy Tactics?

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No, I'm using a more realistic take on heroes that you'll see in any video game. Exceptional fighters might be able to fight several mooks at once, but they can't single-handedly cut their way through an army. The top-end heroic swordsmen would be comparable to John Carter or Conan the Barbarian.

We want competent workers. We will be greatly helping the overall community anyway even without hiring the needy.

Click to shrink...

True.

It is somewhat surprising that archers only cost half of spearmen. Are we giving spearmen expensive armor?

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No, those prices are for unarmored troops because you currently can't afford to put them in armor. The price difference is because iron is expensive in Borjeria, especially in the rural regions, due primarily to the high tolls that the nobles exact on all trade. A bowyer can walk out into the woods and cut down a tree to make a bow, but a blacksmith has to buy iron that started out expensive and went through multiple 20-30% markups during shipping

-- [X] Oh, and a well-qualified maid should be young, attractive and willing. Maybe you'll put them in cute uniforms with short skirts when the weather warms up.

Click to shrink...

I'm surprised this option only got two votes on QQ. So apparently Dominic is enough of a pervert to consider the idea, but he puts solving practical problems first.

 

[Silversun17]

I'm surprised this option only got two votes on QQ. So apparently Dominic is enough of a pervert to consider the idea, but he puts solving practical problems first.

Click to shrink...

when it comes time to expand the staff we can afford to get them to be young and willing. we'll have experienced staff to train them when the time comes this way.

 

[ShaperV]

Update - January 1, Year 1​

Orders​

Dominic
- Hire Staff
- Train Flesh Sorcery (new applications)
- Research Corzu

Bialas
- Raise Troops (Spearmen)

Jaroslaw
- Explore Corzu

Traian
- Study Account Books

Footmen
- Split Squad (half accompany Jaroslaw, half garrison Corzu Keep)

Minor Actions
- Send letters to neighbors to inform them of your presence and begin arranging to ride the borders this spring.

Decisions:
[X] Hard work for good pay. (Carrot and stick)
[X] Hire only the most qualified candidates you can find for each position. Staff is vital.
[X] Stock the cellar with enough food to last for a couple of weeks. (Cost: 6 SP)
[X] Get four private bedrooms refurbished for you and your named retainers. (Cost: 20 SP)
[X] Clean and refurbish the barracks rooms, so your men don't have to camp in the hall. (Cost: 10 SP)
[X] Archers (Cost: 40 SP)

Project Results​

Hire Staff
Your decision to carefully screen your new staff led you to spend quite a bit of time and effort on the hiring process, including several day trips to Tamasi to interview groups of candidates there. Procuring good-quality work clothes for them was also a bit of a trial, especially when you decided they should have shoes. The local cobbler was happy to have the work, but it took him a couple of weeks to deliver them all.

But your hard work paid off when the staff began arriving, because all of them immediately threw themselves into their tasks with a will. All of your staff are now working long hours to fix the many, many problems the keep suffers from.

Research Corzu
Your research into local lore has revealed several adventure leads (The Dark Moon Well, Three Bells Tower, The Black Beast of the Wood, The Foreign Sorceress) and a number of the fief's problems (The Witch of Tamasi, Smugglers on the Sava). You've also uncovered some interesting tidbits about the local political situation.

According to the locals, the Baronies of Rogatica, Pischia and Kiscun have quite a bit of mutual animosity. Recent disputes and their causes include:

• About a decade ago Baron Pavel led a campaign against the previous Baron of Rogatica that ended with the seizure of Pest (a prosperous village with a nearby castle) and a large stretch of neighboring woods. Rogatica has been looking for payback ever since.
• Pischia and Kiscun have a longstanding dispute over the disposition of Gorjani, a bannerette's fief on the border between the two. Currently Pischia controls the fief, but there's a family in Kiscun with a good claim to being the rightful owners.
• The Lim river tends to change its course periodically, so there's considerable room for dispute about where the border between Rogatica and Kiscun should be. This is a significant issue because there's a prosperous village called Gataia right on the border, and the two baronies have fought three wars over it in the last twenty years.
• Corzu's border with Rogatica could be subject to similar disputes, but luckily there's nothing especially valuable along that stretch of river to argue over.

You get a general impression that Rogatica is a fairly prosperous fief with growing military power, Kiscun is a poor territory but has a population with unusual loyalty to their lord, and Pischia is a once-great barony that's been slowly declining for a long time.

Train Flesh Sorcery
You spend quite a bit of time this month trying to find a way to do something useful with your talent for flesh sorcery. Some of your ideas proved impractical (hard to train poison detection without poisoning yourself) and others were beyond your current skill (healing requires level 2). But with some experimentation you were able to figure out how to channel your magic into a momentary burst of superhuman strength, which seems like a useful starting point. You've now practiced this move enough that you can use it in combat, and you can call on it several times in the space of an hour.

Bialis - Recruit Archers
Your trusty knight was able to find a few dozen locals with some skill in archery, and he recruited ten likely-looking lads for your military. All of them are competent with a bow, and after a month of training they now seem reasonably capable of standing watch and obeying orders. Bialis reports that the recruits seem hopeful that your arrival will mean the start of a better era for Corzu - apparently Pavel's men haven't been paying much attention to the place, and there have been growing problems with bandits, beastmen and gouging tax collectors for years now.

Jaroslaw - Explore Corzu
Your crusty old ranger reports that Corzu is a dangerous place to travel, and it's a good thing he took a squad of experienced troops with him or he probably wouldn't have made it back. Numerous problems have been added to Corzu's status based on his reports (Beastmen on the Lim, Pirates on the Sava, Bandits in the East Woods, Poachers, Poor Roads).

He's also discovered three hamlets that aren't mentioned in your records. One of them has a landed knight in residence, an older man named Ditrik who seemed a surprised by your arrival. That probably explains why the hamlet isn't listed in your accounting, since the farmers would pay taxes to their local knight instead of to the lord of Corzu, but someone must have been pretty lax in their record-keeping to not even mention his land grant.

The other two hamlets seem newer, and may well have been founded in an effort to evade taxes. There aren't any roads leading to them, but the inhabitants seem more prosperous than most of your other settlements despite the presumed lack of trade.

Jaroslaw also produces a rough map of Corzu marking his discoveries (see Status post).

Traian - Study Account Books
Your accountant reports that the early portion of Corzu's account book was kept by your grandfather, and is meticulously detailed. The same is true of the early years of Pavel's administration, but the quality of the records slowly declines over the years. After reviewing the whole document Traian is convinced that Nikolai, the retainer Pavel left in charge of Pischia while he's off crusading, is almost certainly cheating on his tax accounting. Here's what he's found:

• Household Tax - Every household in Corzu is supposed to pay a 1 SP tax on April 15th, and craftsmen pay an additional tax on their shops. But the number of new households added has been much lower in the last 5 years than in the preceding decades, and there are at least two shops in Tamasi that aren't listed. Last year Nikolai's men reported 917 SP in taxes, but you obviously need to do a fresh survey of all your settlements to make sure all households are accounted for.
• River Tarrifs - Apparently there's a considerable amount of river trade along the Sava, and Corzu is supposed to be getting a 30% cut of the tarrifs on the stretch between Eztergrom and the Igal. But the actual tax collection is done through some complicated scheme involving boating licences sold by the harbormaster in Eztergrom, and you don't have any accounting on how it works. Last year Corzu's share was reported at 1,402 SP, but with no oversight you have no idea how honest that number is.
• Harvest Taxes - All of your peasants pay a set amount of the harvest from each field they work, which normally amounts to 25-40% of their crop depending on how good the harvest it. This is your major source of income, but since grain in Corzu isn't much use to a duke on the other side of the kingdom the practice in recent years has been to ship it all downriver and sell it to the grain factors in Eztergrom. Last year this raised 3,076 SP in cash, and you could probably keep doing the same thing. But Nikolai has been organizing the whole effort, taking out a substantial cut to cover transport expenses, and the grain factors pay low bulk prices. If you keep the grain in Corzu and barter it back to locals to buy things it would be worth at least 10,000 SP, but then you'd need local infrastructure like wagons and a granary.
• Labor Tax - In theory every household in the fief owes you 60 days per year of service at whatever sort of labor you desire, which is usually how lords take care of projects like keeping their castle grounds clear and maintaining roads. With no lord in residence this hasn't been enforced in years, so there will probably be grumbling when you start it up again.

Corzu Staff
Your new staff has been working hard to impress you, and you pressed our garrison troops into service to help out with the renovation of their own barracks. As a result, the following projects have been completed:

[X] Stock the cellar with enough food to last for a couple of weeks. (Cost: 6 SP)
[X] Get four private bedrooms refurbished for you and your named retainers. (Cost: 20 SP)
[X] Clean and refurbish the barracks rooms, so your men don't have to camp in the hall. (Cost: 10 SP)

You can expect your dedicated, competent staff to complete 3-4 projects per turn in the future.


Other Events
The weather continues to worsen as the month passes, and by the new year there's enough snow on the ground to be a serious impediment to travel. The road to Tamasi is still more or less passable, but routine travel anywhere else is no longer practical. You could still lead a party out to go adventuring, but travel will be slow and unpleasant.

By late December your manor house is becoming reasonably comfortable, and you're settling in to consider how best to spend the cold, quiet months of January and February.