Feudal Quest

[Emdemian]

snip

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My bad, I stand corrected.

I had completely forgotten there was a new group of assassins in the kingdom that are very successful in the recent update. And your reasoning makes perfect sense. Sorry if I sounded harsh to anyone, this sudden talk of assassination came out completely at random for me and I posted out of instinct. I wouldn't mind the tactic as much if I thought there was a valid IC reason for it.

I quite like this quest even if I don't post much. Ironically, in my previous post the inner history buff clashed with the perpetually scheming inner CK2 player.

So what is our current plan of action again?

 

[Seventeen]

Getting slightly away from assassins and back to the topic at hand, in my opinion Zarana is the best marriage prospect so far, even if she doesn't provide a barony through inheritance. She has the ambition to get one, though, so given her specialty we'll probably end up assassinating Rogatica to weaken his barony and end up taking it. It certainly seems a better prospect than it currently is, if we have her assisting. As far as further conversation topics go, I support this:

She has brought up the subject of Etzi as a 'treasure', though, so maybe we could bring the subject toward the different neighbours we have already met or heard about: the young militaristic Baron Rogatica, the distracted Chesna and secretive Nikolai, the young devout heir Etzi, and the extremely religious Timis. Keep the conversation light about them: just our reaction on their temperaments, what we believe their goals to be, what we hear about them. Getting her opinion on our neighbour could be very important to gauge what kind of future actions she would deem acceptable.

Likewise, we could bring the subject toward the hint she gave us about the 'softeness' of the Petran toward magic and why the Balzar may appreciate it. It's quite possible that this refers to letting a scion marrying a Chosen of Inovia, but it could refer to other happen-stances, maybe even to our aunt Gravilla, other long dead family members or secrets we didn't know. So let's not act surprised. The goal here, if possible, would be to learn Zarana's own thoughts on Inovia. However, if the conversation goes somewhere else, we should not tip our hand and bring it back there.

All of those are possibilities, but they may have their own pitfalls, especially the last one about trying to see Zarana's opinion on the Chosen/Dita.

I also strongly believe we cannot yet tell her we have Flesh Sorcery: while it might mesh superbly well with Alchemy, it might also be possible that they could negate each other's effects; As long as she isn't officially an ally, such knowledge could make her a direct enemies of us.

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As well as this:

[X] Discuss Egypts new crusade and the oppurtunities it brings
-> Hold the fact that you are taking the more exotic refguees private.
[X] What one project to improve Corzu Keep {after all the repairs} would she suggest?

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[Walkir]

Yup, I'm supporting Arkeus and Fitzgerald here as well.
And definitely in favor of marrying Zarana.

 

[ShaperV]

Well, since this seems like the time to ask: roughly how likely, and how difficulty would it be, for Dominic to end up the king of Borjeria?

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Very difficult indeed, especially if you don't go evil.

In the short run the crown will go to the king's heir, and there will probably be a civil war over who acts as his regent. If the heir dies both Petran and Dardai can make reasonable claims to the throne, and the issue will be settled by force of arms. If your family wins most likely your grandfather would become king, but he's too old to reign for long. When he dies your father would take the throne, with Boris next in line.

In that scenario you'd probably end up ruling a barony or managing one of the crown fiefs, or something along those lines. For you to legitimately claim the throne your brother would have to die without heirs, which isn't likely to happen naturally. So you'd have to arrange it one way or another, but so far you haven't been playing Dominic as the kind of man who would do that.

If Dardai wins but you survive that obviously makes your becoming king pretty unlikely. There's also a real chance that no one wins (i.e. the kingdom fragments), or the current king's heir ends up keeping the throne somehow, or another nation takes advantage of the power struggle to invade. Predicting the future more than a few years out is complicated.

For assassination, how long could we have Dominic train up to be this guy?

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Why would you want to? You're a noble, not an assassin, and if you want to be sneaky you've got access to real magic.

And also if this weapon is viable enough to be built here?

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Gimmick weapons from videogames are almost always going to be inferior to real medieval weapons, and they're usually pretty impractical as well. This is a good example - the dwarves could make something like that, but why would you shell out a pile of gold for a fancy spring-loaded blade when you're entitled to wear a broadsword anywhere you like?

 

[Arkeus]

My bad, I stand corrected.

I had completely forgotten there was a new group of assassins in the kingdom that are very successful in the recent update.

Click to shrink...

Speaking about those, my inner paranoiac makes me wonder if those are the people Nikolai has been meeting with frequently. I do think we should follow that lead before it's too late and Pavel or someone else has an accident.

The more i think about it, the more i feel like ShaperV is laughing is ass off because Nikolai is totally loyal.

So what is our current plan of action again?

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Charm Zarana and marry her (at least that's what i am thinking we should do), turn Corzu into a much more powerful fief, maybe using some accident for Rogatica to get some of his territory, maybe not. Go on adventures that we learn of from our Aunt so that we can satsify our adventurous urge as well as help out the family. Slowly manipulate the kingdom so that our family has a good chance to get the regency. Convince our grandfather to give a chance to Dita, convince Dita to try to find a middle ground, maybe have Dita marry someone we both trust, etc.

Gimmick weapons from videogames are almost always going to be inferior to real medieval weapons, and they're usually pretty impractical as well. This is a good example - the dwarves could make something like that, but why would you shell out a pile of gold for a fancy spring-loaded blade when you're entitled to wear a broadsword anywhere you like?

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Or when we have force magic.

@ ShaperV

Other than by conquest is there any way to acquire a barony if we marry Zarana?

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... He just gave us some in his latest post: Our grandad becoming king would almost certainly net us one as it means our dad will soon be it. Other possibilities are "Bad things happen". If Pavel's side of our family gets killed off by enemies , we will probably get Pischia for example. Likewise, if Boris dies in one of his battles, we may have a barony/heir to the throne, etc.

 

[fitzgerald]

@ ShaperV

Other than by conquest is there any way to acquire a barony if we marry Zarana?

 

[megrisvernin]

Charm Zarana and marry her (at least that's what i am thinking we should do), turn Corzu into a much more powerful fief, maybe using some accident for Rogatica to get some of his territory, maybe not. Go on adventures that we learn of from our Aunt so that we can satsify our adventurous urge as well as help out the family. Slowly manipulate the kingdom so that our family has a good chance to get the regency. Convince our grandfather to give a chance to Dita, convince Dita to try to find a middle ground, maybe have Dita marry someone we both trust, etc.

I support this. Add in in Mary Kat if it doesn't raise merry hell with Zarana. From your own comments you seem to agree with me that she's open to the idea.

 

[fitzgerald]

Suggestions for next few turns

-> Discuss with Kat what a proper {on the small side} temple to Thoth would cost in time and money. The better to marry in after wedding {choice here}
-> Write Ezti with an offer to purchase equipment/steel for her &.avoid tarriffs as a favor
-> Figure out what a basic earth and wood fort would cost {to be built at villages}
-> Investigate if Dita is the Heir to her Barony ala Ezti

 

[ShaperV]

The Final Contender Pt III

[X] Discuss Egypts new crusade and the oppurtunities it brings
-> Hold the fact that you are taking the more exotic refguees private.

Zarana finds this a fascinating topic for speculation, but of course the upper Nile is so far away that no one here really knows anything about it. She seems to think that crusading against evil alongside the Pharaoh would be romantic, but being gone from the kingdom for so long would be impractical. Unless, of course, one were to turn the trip into an opportunity to gain access to secret Egyptian magical lore and maybe recruit with exotic foreign heroes. But it's still an uncertain venture, because who knows whether you could actually do any of that?

[X] What one project to improve Corzu Keep {after all the repairs} would she suggest?

"A bathhouse. One can hardly claim to have a civilized household without one."

[X] She has brought up the subject of Etzi as a 'treasure', though, so maybe we could bring the subject toward the different neighbours we have already met or heard about: the young militaristic Baron Rogatica, the distracted Chesna and secretive Nikolai, the young devout heir Etzi, and the extremely religious Timis. Keep the conversation light about them: just our reaction on their temperaments, what we believe their goals to be, what we hear about them. Getting her opinion on our neighbor could be very important to gauge what kind of future actions she would deem acceptable.

Well, this will precipitate a long and interesting series of conversations about the geopolitics of the region. Zarana thinks Baron Timis is a hypocritical old fool, while Rogatica is frighteningly competent but a bit hot-headed. She actually respects Ezti's father as an honest salt of the earth type, but thinks Nikolai focuses far too much on money at the expense of military matters.

While she doesn't come out and say anything too disreputable, her discussion of hypothetical future events has a certain cheerful ruthlessness to it that you're not used to hearing. You're pretty sure that she's perfectly comfortable with treachery and murder as political tools, and isn't likely to balk at anything she thinks could work. On later consideration, you suspect that she's letting you see this much on purpose because she doesn't want to end up married to someone who doesn't play to win.

Whether this is a good thing or a drawback probably depends on your future plans.

[X] Likewise, we could bring the subject toward the hint she gave us about the 'softeness' of the Petran toward magic and why the Balzar may appreciate it. It's quite possible that this refers to letting a scion marrying a Chosen of Inovia, but it could refer to other happen-stances, maybe even to our aunt Gravilla, other long dead family members or secrets we didn't know. So let's not act surprised. The goal here, if possible, would be to learn Zarana's own thoughts on Inovia. However, if the conversation goes somewhere else, we should not tip our hand and bring it back there.

Zarana is quite cautious on this topic. You have the impression that she doesn't want to say anything critical about a goddess, but she feels at least some shreds of compassion for the crappy situation of the Chosen. Which is interesting in itself, because it implies that she knows more about the general public.

Zarana ends up staying for the better part of a week, which gives the two of you time to form a decent impression of one another. She's a fascinating woman, and certainly has hidden depths you have yet to explore.

But that will have to wait. You say your goodbyes, and watch them right away.

Katiana joins you on the parapet once Zarana's party is well away.

"She's beautiful," she says speculatively.

You nod.

"Ambitious as hell, but practical," she adds. "I think I like her. Although she might stretch my boundaries a little."

You raise an eyebrow. "How so?"

"Did you notice how her maids never take off those little black chokers? They're almost like… collars."

"Collars? How odd."

She gives you a mysterious smile. "Not odd. Adventurous."

Naturally, you have no idea what she's getting at. But she'll be happy to tease you with hints until you start to get the picture.

-----

Congratulations, you've managed to weather Zarana's visit without any major disasters. You're pretty sure you've made a good impression on her, and the experience has taught you a few things as well:

+1/4 Diplomacy
+1/1 Intrigue

 

[Arkeus]

Yeeesh, i think Zarana's pretty much the one i will try to get Dominic to marry.

@ShaperV:
-Can we have a small explanation on what the intrigue skill apply to? Is it for social stuff, or for 'political strategy', or what? Does it use Charm or Mind? How does it differ from diplomacy? Also, i don't think we ever got an explanation of what Discipline was for our men.

 

[staplesdex2]

Me too. The rest would be mistresses if we get far enough.

 

[megrisvernin]

So...are we doing anything that Zarana would object too? She gave off the vibe at least of being open to the various schemes we're carrying out even if she doesn't explicitly know about them(as a spymaster I'm not sure how much of that was for our convenience.

I'm mean she doesn't have a problem with us not being exactly pious to the church teachings, she feels sorry for the chosen, she finds the idea of a husband engaging in adventures fighting evil(inside our country's borders) heroic & romantic. She doesn't have a problem with magic, infact our favorable reaction is a bonus in our favor. She likes Kat & gave hints she wouldn't mind her being with us on the side(that was my inference anyways).

 

[Arkeus]

So...are we doing anything that Zarana would object too? She gave off the vibe at least of being open to the various schemes we're carrying out even if she doesn't explicitly know about them(as a spymaster I'm not sure how much of that was for our convenience.

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My impression was that none of the scheme we have are things she would be opposed to by defaults, but at least some of the schemes some people want- Marrying Kat, help Dita fund a Inovia church for examples- would be things where should enforce strict plans in order not to lose influence or mess up in other ways.

Basically, she seems to share our views, so it's more about her wanting to succeed and less about her disagreeing with things on principles.

Or at least, that's how i am reading what we got of her.

 

[megrisvernin]

My impression was that none of the scheme we have are things she would be opposed to by defaults, but at least some of the schemes some people want- Marrying Kat, help Dita fund a Inovia church for examples- would be things where should enforce strict plans in order not to lose influence or mess up in other ways.

Basically, she seems to share our views, so it's more about her wanting to succeed and less about her disagreeing with things on principles.

Or at least, that's how i am reading what we got of her.

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I'll agree to that. As a spymaster I'd think she get a thrill out of a well laid plan of intrigue & manipulation especially since it put useful allies in our debt or tie them to us.

 

[ShaperV]

Update - August 1, Year 1​

Dominic - Hunt Threat: Beastmen
Dita - Hunt Threat: Beastmen
Sir Bialis - Hunt Threat: Beatsmen
Jaroslaw - Hunt Threat: Beatsmen
Rangers - Hunt Beastmen
1st Corzu Foot - 5 men at arms, 20 spearmen, 15 archers: Hunt Beastmen
2nd Corzu Foot - 5 men at arms, 20 spearmen, 15 archers: Hunt Beastmen

Most of your forces spend the month hunting beast men in the wooded terrain of Western Corzu. The beast men don't seem to have a central camp, so this campaign will be a series of skirmishes rather than a single big battle. Finding your elusive enemies in such wilderness is difficult, but by the end of the month your men have recovered 11 beast men corpses and probably wounded or killed quite a few others whose bodies were never found. The surviving beast men seem to have fled the area, probably by crossing the river into Rogatica.

Your men suffer several casualties during this campaign, but only two of them are fatal. This is a very good performance, especially considering how poorly equipped your men are. Morale is high, and Bialis observes that the men have gotten some good combat experience. But most of the credit for the success goes to the fact that you had four named characters leading the men.

Dita did particularly well, and seems to be developing a real talent for this kind of wilderness fighting. Her mobility and enhanced senses have been very useful for locating your enemies before they become alerted to your presence, and Jaroslaw opines that she would make an amazing ranger with a bit more training.

Dominic - Meet with Zarana
Already reported.

Dominic - Research Flesh Sorcery (Healing)
With further practice you have managed to improve on your copy of Emma's regeneration. You can now induce rapid healing that allows the subject to recover at 4x normal speed, although maintaining the effect requires a few minutes of attention every 4 to 6 hours. Unfortunately, further improvements will likely require a higher level of flesh sorcery.

Dita - Train Swordsmanship
Training succeeded.

Katiana - Finish Granary
Katiana finishes the granary just a few days behind schedule. The new facility can store 20,000 SP worth of grain in relative safety. Katiana is eager to get back to renovating to keep, in hopes of finishing the job before winter so you can all have a bit more living space.

In her spare time she has started working on a proper wizard's staff to replace the temporary one that she used when you went after the witch. She hopes to complete this project in a couple of months, at which point she thinks that shall be able to speed up her construction work considerably.

Traian - Prepare for Harvest
Your accountant has revised and updated his plans for collecting and storing the harvest, and placed orders for the necessary transport in Eztergrom. About a third of the wagons have already been delivered, along with draft animals to pull them. The rest are due to arrive over the course of the coming month.

This is been a fairly expensive project, in both money and manpower. There isn't room in the keep to store the wagons or pen the oxen, so he was forced to call in some of your labor draft to construct the necessary facilities in the nearby hamlet. So far this has cost you 230 SP and 24 man-months of labor tax.

Corzu Garrison - 5 men at arms, 20 spearment, 10 archers: Garrison
No problems with the garison.

Order: Talk to Dita about Tavi
At long last, you finally managed to get Dita to open up to you about this. But the story she tells is rather disturbing.

Dita herself does not know all the details, but apparently her mother made quite a few unusual contacts during her time as a Chosen. When Dita was 12 one of these beings contacted her mother seeking help.

Sumata was a rakshasa high priestess of Kali, a dark goddess of creation and destruction. By virtue of her position she was the spiritual head of some rakshasa kingdom in darkest India, leading her people in the worship of Kali's aspect of destruction. But after centuries of evil her clashes with the Chosen, and in particular Dita's mother, had somehow led her to want a better life for her daughter.

According to Dita, luring evil creatures to the side of Light is an old and honored tradition among the Chosen. While Sumata was too powerful for her nature to be changed, the same was not true for her daughter Tavi. So Dita's mother organized a secret Inovian ritual designed to reverse the young rakshasa princess' magical nature, turning her into a creature of Light instead of Darkness. Sumata intended for her daughter to reign as high priestess of Kali in her aspect of creation, and lead her people away from their destructive habits and into a brighter era.

But such alignment-changing rituals require a link with a being of the desired alignment in order to be permanent. After meeting Tavi and having the whole situation carefully explained to her Dita volunteered for this job. She and Tavi became fast friends almost immediately, and when the rakshasa girl (rather predictably) collapsed in a fit of self-loathing after the ritual Dita swore that she would always be there to be her conscience.

Then a party of rakshasa and demons arrived to recapture their wayward priestess and her daughter. With two chosen and the Lightbringer (the Inovian angel responsible for watching over this world) present in the keep this led to quite a battle. But Sumata died in the fighting, and then the witch hunters showed up. The rakshasa recaptured Tavi and fled, and you know what happened to Dita's family.

Since then the combined efforts of human witch hunters and Tavi's tender relatives have drastically weakened the sole bond between them, to the point where they can no longer communicate through it. Dita can feel that Tavi has been subjected to a brutal series of magical corruption rituals, and forcibly transformed back into a creature of darkness. But every now and then the two girls still manage to connect in their dreams, and Dita is convinced that Tavi is desperately awaiting rescue and a chance at redemption.

Oh, and the deadline? Among the rakshasa the office of high priestess is hereditary. When Tavi turns 18 she will be ritually dedicated to the goddess, and married to her brother (who will be the temporal leader of the kingdom) at the same time. Whether she becomes high priestess of Kali the Creator or Kali the Destroyer depends entirely on what her magical nature is at the time, but once the initiation is done she'll be stuck with whatever her alignment is at the time.

Order: Call up Ditrik to help hunt the Beastmen
Ditrik arrives with reasonable promptness, and doesn't seem to have any objection to hunting beastmen. He proves to be a fairly skilled hunter, although he certainly doesn't have the tactical or leadership skills of your own military retainers.

Order: Analyze Dita's Magic
Dita's magic is a bit like the residual powers that the Chosen would retain if she lost her divine blessing after having served for several years. The power is actually part of Dita, not being granted from some external source. This is rather interesting considering its holy nature, since it confirms that Dita was actually born as a supernatural creature of good. You suspect that it might be possible for her to strengthen an ability by training it extensively, in a manner analogous to buying up a sorcery level. However, this could obviously be rather time-consuming.

Dita does seem to have something that vaguely resembles the connection to a higher power that the Chosen enjoy. However, it's much smaller, almost vestigial. This puzzles you for a bit, until one day you happen to catch her while she's meditating on those visions from Inovia trying to figure out how the whole business of giving the Chosen assignments is supposed to work. The connection is a bit more active at that point, leading you to suspect that it has something to do with being a priestess. But even then there's nowhere near enough energy involved for it to do much.

Order: Analyze Katiana's Magic
Katiana's personal magic has a very different feel to it than Dita's, being aspected towards earth and air instead of light and holy power. But it's tied to her body and life force in a way that's somewhat similar. As long as she doesn't make a habit of depleting her magic she's unlikely to ever get sick, and will generally enjoying enhanced health and longevity. She's also a bit more durable than a normal person, and would probably be more resistant to hostile magic even without her wards.

Those wards, however, are a work of art. She has multiple levels of protection against numerous types of magic, including a lot of stuff you've never actually seen. You can definitely see why Atalaya's magic didn't seem to be able to affect her. Unlike the Chosen's magic resistance this is a multilayered defense designed so that she can allow people to heal her or do divinations (like this project) without leaving herself vulnerable to death spells, mind control, or other nastiness.

Order: Write a letter to Boris inviting him to visit Corzu
you get a reply from Boris saying that he's tied up at the capital investigating prospective suitors for the next couple of months. However, he'd like to come out and visit in late September or early October if that works for you.

News: Chosen Activity
Inga stops by once to pick up her new chain mail, and tells Dita she's headed north to make a sweep of Scandinavia clearing up monsters that have popped up while she was in Anatolia. She mentions that she intends to tell Brisen, the third active Chosen, about Corzu while she's there, but since Brisen mostly covers Brittania she may not actually visit. Emma visits twice early in the month, then says she's been called off to Subotica and parts west. Dita has started meditating and praying to Inovia on a regular basis, but hasn't gotten the hang of this vision thing yet.

Event: Your Seneschal Arrives
Dragos, the seneschal your father sent you, arrives near the end of the month ready to get to work. But there is one embarrassing complication – you're out of rooms. Presumably you'll work out some way to rearrange things to fit him in, but this is definitely a sign that you need more space.

 

[staplesdex2]

For Dominic train on Flesh Sorcery, deal with the smugglers.

For Kat have her work on the Keep.

For minor actions:
- Spend time with Kat

 

[Seventeen]

Halfway-ish through, just a couple of notes on the update so far.

The new facility can store 20,000 SP worth of grain in relative safety.

Click to shrink...

Any chance we can get this value as a tonnage? Measuring it by the value of the grain is a little silly considering we've already started thinking about plans to manipulate the price of it.

Sumata was a rakshasa high priestess of Shiva, a dark goddess of creation and destruction.

Click to shrink...

Shiva is a god, not a goddess. Has been since worship of him appeared. Is this an intentional change?

 

[BFldyq]

*drums fingers* Okay, this is a pickle, Dita's situation, but not a insurmountable one. The question is: does the rest of the family know this?

Of course, even if this is true, convincing them of it would be difficult. Would it be possible for us/Dita to get the Lightbringer to show up and confirm the story, to both us and the family? Of course, convincing even with that would probably be difficult...

Now, the real question is: can we convince Dita to return and act as a member of the family even if she succeeds in converting Tavi to the Light?

Oh, and what would Gavrilla's reaction be to it being proven that her brothers death was completely pointless?

 

[Thomasfoolery]

Alright, I've a partially done list but It'll likely have to wait until tomorrow to be finished. But just to get a sense of things what does the thread think about pursuing the Old Man of the Mountain adventure lead? Seems like something we're pretty well equipped for right now and could yield a useful contact. Also I think it's prudent for us to maintain a steady diet of adventures to continue growth.

 

[BFldyq]

That reminds me, we need to deal with the Poachers. The longer we leave it, the more it's going to end up a problem.

 

[Thomasfoolery]

Yeah, I currently have Jaroslaw and the rangers on that, though I might add in Dita if she can get XP for it.

 

[staplesdex2]

Not to mention the smugglers. We're still losing some money by their actions.

Edit: Damn ninja'ed.

 

[ShaperV]

Shiva is a god, not a goddess. Has been since worship of him appeared. Is this an intentional change?

Click to shrink...

Wow, that was an impressive derp on my part. Wrong deity name - should have said Kali, fixed now.

And yes, I know 'creation and destruction' is a vast oversimplification that isn't entirely accurate, but Indian deities always seem to have enough complexity to support a few hundred mutually exclusive interpretations. No promises that Dita's info is accurate, or that the game version will have more than a passing resemblance to real mythology.

 

[Seventeen]

To be fair, Shiva and Kali both carry those aspects as their main ones, among others. For Shiva, it's literally The Creator and The Destroyer, whereas for Kali it's The Mother and The Killer.

Edit: I'm just waiting on the stats and adventure leads pages to be updated, so I should have my suggestion up pretty much straight away once ShaperV's done with that.

 

[Jomiculormph]

We've still got a chunk of labor tax that hasn't been spent, and some pressing things to spend it on. We also don't want to spend it during harvest. By priority -

Rebuilding the keep (habitable space) - as noted, we've run out of rooms for our retainers.

Building housing for the expected refugees. IIRC, we're expecting 300 or so, and the empty village only had room for 60 or so. Therefore, we'll need to have more housing built.

We've got several villages without a connection to the road network, so they need a connection. Also, fixing any sections of existing road in bad shape (e.g., a bridge that needs repair).


Other things -

As noted, our troops have lousy gear. We can afford a set or two of level 2 gear - outfitting the remainder with level 3 can come later.

Talking to Dita about finding a solution to her barony's succession issue. We fully intend to help her with Tavi, but getting her cooperation on a solution could take that pressure off. Perhaps she could designate someone else the heir instead of her (possibly Dominic?). My reasoning is that the family has been mostly unwilling to let Dita inherit while Inovia-touched, so if she's no longer in line to inherit land, she'd be largely free to do as she pleases.

The peasants in Ditrik's village seemed nervous about something a while back, but we haven't looked into it.

I assume Dominic is passing along his observations on Dita's magic to her?

Dominic's first attempt at flesh sorcery healing seemed like a magical band-aid - sealing the surface wound stops external bleeding and infection from getting in (infection was a far bigger threat then the wound itself, before modern medicine). This is great for minor and moderate wounds, but isn't likely to do too much for really serious wounds (which are likely to have significant internal bleeding). Perhaps the next step for first aid healing would be to find a way to repair damage to blood vessels? Note - the Chosen-derived fast healing is useful, but is not first aid.

More flesh sorcery speculation - hardening skin into a second layer of armor at a thought. This would be self-only (and need another two or three levels in flesh sorcery, probably), and would likely reduce mobility while active. However, being able to shrug off almost all physical attacks without injury would be huge on extended adventures (like rescuing Tavi would be)

On the refugees - IMO, the ideal solution would be to mix the refugees among the Borjerian peasants (as opposed to putting the refugees in a single village of their own). This would discourage a 'chinatown' from forming, and encourage cultural assimilation. Each village with refugees in it will likely need a translator for a year or two. However, depending on when they arrive, we should be able to get some extra work out of them, since they won't have a harvest of their own to take care of. We will need to earmark some of the harvest tax to feed them until their own harvest.

Speculation on the aftermath of the Black Beast adventure - while that area is no-man's land now, if Dominic ever somehow defeated it, I don't think there would be a real objection to that land being annexed to Corzu (plus, there's an excellent chance the family would back Dominic on this). Since the beast is older then Borjeria, defeating it would be REALLY prestigious. On that note, depriving a hero of even a part of their just spoils would make someone look really bad. The corollary is that if say, Rogatica killed the beast, Dominic would have no claim on the land. Incidentally, as the enclave is (almost certainly) unpopulated, it'd be worth a lot less then even Corzu now - land isn't worth a lot without population to work it.

Was Ezti's opposition to marrying Rogatica ever explained? He seemed decent enough when Dominic met him for the border walk (although the sort who could easily become a real rival). Unless he's an enormous chauvinist, since Ezti is pretty radically feminist for a medieval setting. On another note, depending on how old he is (up to maybe 30, considering the setting), engaging Izabela to him could be worth some thought - this would make him a Petran ally, and take that pressure off Ezti if we don't marry her (possibly putting her in our camp even without a marriage). His fluff on the first page also mentions he's influential among the backwoods fiefs, so that could be worth something, too.


Nitpick - it's duchy, not dutchy (dutchy sounds like some bizzare condescending way of addressing someone from the Netherlands)

 

[BFldyq]

Talking to Dita about finding a solution to her barony's succession issue. We fully intend to help her with Tavi, but getting her cooperation on a solution could take that pressure off. Perhaps she could designate someone else the heir instead of her (possibly Dominic?). My reasoning is that the family has been mostly unwilling to let Dita inherit while Inovia-touched, so if she's no longer in line to inherit land, she'd be largely free to do as she pleases.

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I'm pretty sure we'd need her mother's families approval for that.

Oh, and out of random interest(I highly doubt this'll be in any way useful), what's the Inovian stance on marriage?

 

[Walkir]

Me too. The rest would be mistresses if we get far enough.

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Nah, Kat agreed to become second wife, so no point in insulting her by making her a mistress.

Collars, huh? Well, as long as she doesn't try to do that with us - but she has a good understanding of a marriage, so that shouldn't be a problem.
And hey, I wanted the bathhouse anyway.
Now it's time to finish the Keep - including the loft, of course.

Not to mention the smugglers. We're still losing some money by their actions.

Edit: Damn ninja'ed.

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Yup, talk to Ezti about that. I want to get her in contact with Boris - inform him as well -, so if it's really just they trying to circumvent our tariffs we should be able to work around that issue.


Edit: Just to be sure, which skill do we need at 5 for Perfect Harem Benediction?

 

[Seventeen]

@ShaperV, I have a couple of questions.

How much work does Kat's partial action allow her to do? Would she be able to complete, say, the repairs to the Unstable Cellars -- a two-week job?

Is Dita providing taint removal services small enough to count as a minor action?

 

[Arkeus]

Alright, I've a partially done list but It'll likely have to wait until tomorrow to be finished. But just to get a sense of things what does the thread think about pursuing the Old Man of the Mountain adventure lead? Seems like something we're pretty well equipped for right now and could yield a useful contact. Also I think it's prudent for us to maintain a steady diet of adventures to continue growth.

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Old Man of the mountain is one of those adventure lead that I want Kat and Dita to be there for, both to detect his magic (Dita) and to talk shop (Kat). Kat is currently super-occupied, so not sure about this being the right time.

Oh, and what would Gavrilla's reaction be to it being proven that her brothers death was completely pointless?

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After much denial, probably a period where she feels really really broken down and/or doubt herself. Proving to her that her brother's death was pointless may not actually be a good thing at all, especially in the current political climate.

Oh, and out of random interest(I highly doubt this'll be in any way useful), what's the Inovian stance on marriage?

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Inovia is a Elven goddess. While Feudal elves don't seem to be TMU elves (not nearly dickish enough for that), Dita being gay (or at least on the gay side of Bi) might just be her being Elf-straight. It would be interesting to ask Dita about marriage and Inovia, because it wouldn't surprise me if she considered it a silly human custom that has no links to the 'real world'.

We've still got a chunk of labor tax that hasn't been spent, and some pressing things to spend it on. We also don't want to spend it during harvest. By priority -

Rebuilding the keep (habitable space) - as noted, we've run out of rooms for our retainers.

Building housing for the expected refugees. IIRC, we're expecting 300 or so, and the empty village only had room for 60 or so. Therefore, we'll need to have more housing built.

We've got several villages without a connection to the road network, so they need a connection. Also, fixing any sections of existing road in bad shape (e.g., a bridge that needs repair).

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Yes, I REALLY want to use those man-hours of the peasants. I am kinda hoping they could begin reconstructing the Dark Well village- it was supposedly once prosperous, so it will probably need a lot of time, but it could definitely be worth it once done.

The roads are important too though, and probably something Traian can begin working on. Poor guy, he expected to be an accountant.

Talking to Dita about finding a solution to her barony's succession issue. We fully intend to help her with Tavi, but getting her cooperation on a solution could take that pressure off. Perhaps she could designate someone else the heir instead of her (possibly Dominic?). My reasoning is that the family has been mostly unwilling to let Dita inherit while Inovia-touched, so if she's no longer in line to inherit land, she'd be largely free to do as she pleases.

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Her Barony comes from her mother's side, and the nearest relatives on that side are the Arany people- who are strongly allied to the Dardais. This is why grandfather is so worried, as Dita dying/etc before marriage is not only losing the barony, but giving it to his rival.

So she can't go "I give it to my cousin", as Dominic's claim on the Barony or worse than the Arany's, and it will provoke a conflict (Blood relative > Adopted ones).

I assume Dominic is passing along his observations on Dita's magic to her?

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Hopefully.

Speculation on the aftermath of the Black Beast adventure - while that area is no-man's land now, if Dominic ever somehow defeated it, I don't think there would be a real objection to that land being annexed to Corzu (plus, there's an excellent chance the family would back Dominic on this). Since the beast is older then Borjeria, defeating it would be REALLY prestigious. On that note, depriving a hero of even a part of their just spoils would make someone look really bad. The corollary is that if say, Rogatica killed the beast, Dominic would have no claim on the land. Incidentally, as the enclave is (almost certainly) unpopulated, it'd be worth a lot less then even Corzu now - land isn't worth a lot without population to work it.

Was Ezti's opposition to marrying Rogatica ever explained? He seemed decent enough when Dominic met him for the border walk (although the sort who could easily become a real rival). Unless he's an enormous chauvinist, since Ezti is pretty radically feminist for a medieval setting. On another note, depending on how old he is (up to maybe 30, considering the setting), engaging Izabela to him could be worth some thought - this would make him a Petran ally, and take that pressure off Ezti if we don't marry her (possibly putting her in our camp even without a marriage). His fluff on the first page also mentions he's influential among the backwoods fiefs, so that could be worth something, too.

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While I doubt the Hero thing is true, even if it were it doesn't change that the black beast is now a natural barrier (think impassable mountain) that makes it somewhat harder for Rogatica to wage a war against Kisnuc and Corzu at the same time.

As for Ezti disliking Rogatica, it might appear strange until you remember how many of her family members just had 'accidents' to pave the way to Rogatica's taking the barony. Also, it might also have to do with her family and his having been rivals for a long time (not sure about that one).

For Dominic train on Flesh Sorcery, deal with the smugglers.

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Right-oh, here is something important I feel: Dominic should lay off learning more Flesh sorcery for now beyond the very urgent things. Not to say we can't use it anymore at all, but we are good enough right now that taint might become a problem soon. Later on we'll have Kat to train us up in Wizardry (she is too busy right now) for having our own tattooes/whatever against taint, but right now we already have access to at least one type of magic that can help there: Fire magic.

I strongly feel that Dominic should hurry and get to level two of Fire Sorcery as fast as possible, and then learn some ways of fire purification, both for himself and others. Likewise, Dita training up her Holy Sorcery will be good.

While we aren't in the position of Kat whose Sorcery need extreme measure just to be used, we should keep in mind that Flesh sorcery at least has its own danger. For example, right now we have beastmen corpses, and learning about them might give us a lot of taint. We will probably need Dita there as well as Kat to gain a minimum of info from them.

And, yes, the beastmen corpse thing is probably one of the more dangerous use of flesh sorcery we could do right now, but they are not going to stay in decent state for long, so i am thinking of assigning one of Dominic's project being 'analyze Beastmen corpses', and assigning one of Dita's being 'keep taint off of Dominic while he does that/tain Holy Sorcery'.

@ShaperV: We have recovered beastmen corpses right?

 

[Walkir]

I did a bit of work on the googledoc. Currently only an index for the text document and log of what we did constructionwise as well as a spreadsheet (linked in the text doc) compiling our char sheets, troops, castle staff and monthly upkeep.

Which is 85 by now (not counting the seneschal) unless I screwed up a formula.
Some of these might not have the copy process from a German Excel as well and just ended up as numbers instead of formulas.

Edit:I would have added income and a full finances sheet, but am missing data about tax amount and dates.
Labor tax... let'S at least clear the grounds.

Traian... Yeah, good guy. We made him head accountant/head of acquisition (which is complementary, anyway) and second engineer... Guy's invaluable.
It is clear that the guy will never marry left on his own, but I wonder. What do the women that actually deal with him, think about him and what does he himself think... Would finding some nice other knight's girl (was shortly even considering Dita) for him to marry be considered a punishment by either side?