Your participation in the expedition against the orcs went relatively unnoticed by most. Of course, no one even tried to make a secret of it, but a military expedition lasting a couple of months in an orc-infested region discouraged anyone who wanted to take your head. No doubt, it distanced you from your potential enemies for long enough for your colleagues on the Ostermark Council to deal with them.
When you returned, there was no great celebration of your persona. Sure, you had been involved in a few skirmishes, but they had gone largely unnoticed. On the other hand, your part in the avalanche had gone largely unnoticed and uncomprehended. And, to be honest, you were clearly outclassed by the Provincial Marshall riding at the head of the column in plate armor.
So you returned to a quiet life in the provincial capital, taking the opportunity to return to your normal routine. You had a few weeks until the next meeting of the Chancellor's advisors, so you took this as an opportunity to rest from your adventures.
When you arrived at the Elector's castle on the appointed day, you were met with the usual discussion of matters related to the life of the province. You were probably the only advisor who did not have something impressive to report.
Karl had terrorized the orcs northeast of Ostermark. Isolde described how she had managed to organize a wedding between the daughter of a large merchant from Talabheim and the son of one of the local aristocrats, detailing her achievements in the matter of locating a new business in the province. Oscar had organized seizures of land from the aristocrats who had tried to kill you. Finally, Oswald said that his men had caught several hunter-poachers from Sylvania near the southern border of the province, who were trying to carry out demigryph eggs from the province.
However, this time there were no questions for you, while your boss turned to you:
"I want you to continue your work from where you left it. I need Weldt to become habitable. We were able to obtain even more land in this area, and I need more hands on this task. But at the same time, I need it to be done with a minimum expenditure of money. We are already starting to buy out the serfs, and buying so many people at once is a big blow to the budget available to us, even if we get the money quickly in the future."
Oskar decides to intervene in your discussion:
"Have you thought about trying to arrange a bank loan to be able to finance a short-term project?" He takes out a stack of coins and starts to arrange them, demonstrating his idea, "We have land that we can offer as collateral for the money. And if we do not have severe droughts, the province will be able to repay the loan without any problems."
"Hmm… We could use that option. But first, we need to find someone willing to invest in our backwater. But I'll be glad if you can find someone suitable for that. Now, I think you're free to go."
*****
You have six actions that will be completed within three months. Vote in plan format. The presented option separation is present to separate options that are related by a common purpose.
There is a small change in the mechanics of your budget. Starting from this turn, your budget is burned if it is not spent. This leaves you with 30 crowns to spend in one turn, plus 45 crowns in reserve in case you need even more money for your work.
Your personal wealth: 67 crowns + 15 crowns each turn by salary - 15 crowns each turn for tithes and debts.
Your budget: 45 crowns + 30 crowns each turn for waste money for your work - 5 crowns each turn for your bodyguard - 10 crowns for living
Your strange task:
[] - Try to find sources for debt borrowing in order to expand economic activity in the province.
- [] - You could approach the banks in Altdorf. Unlike Nuln, this city was not sacked by the orcs, and they may offer you a loan to start financing your activities.
- [] - You could approach Marienburg, although this is a rather sensitive political issue. The Empire still refuses to officially recognize Marienburg as independent, even if it is done de facto.
- [] - You could approach one of the Imperial Cults to provide you with funding. But another question remains - which Cult would be best suited for this?
- - [] - Write-in: What exactly cult?
- [] - Dwarves? This is… a rather unorthodox option, but you could try. After all, Karak Kadrin depends on your food supplies, and you have recently killed orcs.
- [] - Other: write-in. You have many other options, although they are more difficult and risky. Go to Kislev for gold? Try to contact one of the electors of other provinces? Borrow money from the knightly order?
[] - The second important aspect in this work is obtaining workers who will have to cultivate the land. You need to somehow get more manpower for this task so that the project moves quickly and smoothly.
- [] - You will contact the free peasants of the empire, offering them to leave their old land plots and receive much larger land territories in the Veldt. It won't be easy to convince them to leave their old life, but you might be able to combine profit and persuasion.
- [] - With additional funding, you could try to work on increasing the purchase of serfs. However, it would be highly advisable to find funding for this task.
- [] - An idea occurred to you that you could try to attract foreigners who are not actually native to the Empire. You could try to propose accepting settlers from Kislev, where the climate is similar. Or you could accept people from Sylvania.
- [] - You will try to create a mechanism for the legalization of runaway serfs. It won't be entirely legal, but if you succeed, then no aristocrat can prove that this respectable tenth-generation resident of Ostermark belongs to him, even if he has a clear Stirlander accent.
- [] - Other: write-in. You have many other options that you could use, if you were brave enough. Settlers from the Border Princes or Bretonnia? Try to organize resettlement from the ruined Wissenland?
[] - Your work on working in the climate of Ostermark is hardly great academic achievement, and a few years of peasant work will give experience that surpasses yours. But your book helps to ensure that these very first few years will not be a complete failure. Most likely, your small book will be printed, but, even so, you might want to pay closer attention to this issue to make sure.
[] - Other: write-in.
Other actions:
[] - Work with Colleagues. As your boss said, interaction with colleagues is encouraged, so there's no reason why you couldn't offer your services to help. It will take your time, but you will learn more about other people. Choose one at cost of one action:
- [] - Lady Isolde. Somehow she holds the provincial aristocracy under an iron grip. You could help her and learn about her methods.
- [] - Karl von Kaltenbrunner. Defends the province from threats from the east, keeping the orcs and goblins from invading Ostermark.
- [] - Oswald Smolny. A descendant of refugees to the Empire from Kislev, he now spends his time overseeing the Empire's northern borders.
- [] - Wolfgang Dirkschneider. Works on setting up shelters as part of a deal between the Elector Count and the Cult of Shallya.
[] - Research local Witch Hunters. You're sure they'll have questions for you, but why not ask them first? At this point, you can find out their position in relation to your person.
[] - Research skill. At the moment, there are several professionals like you, and you could ask them to teach you new things. (Write-in one skill and who will teach you)
- [] - Tralec can teach you a lot about metalworking. Ore mining, metal smelting, forging. You can learn an awful lot.
- [] - Helena is a priestess of Verena. Who else besides her can give you more knowledge regarding the theology of her goddess?
- [] - Martin has extensive experience working with precision mechanisms and clockwork. You could learn a thing or two from him.
[] - Martial training. As you would expect from the Empire of Man, positions close to power are filled with a huge number of armed people. One of them could teach you how to use a weapon. (Write-in who)
[] - Learn Spell. You could contact the Golden Order for materials to learn spells. Although, given that you have an unfriendly Lord Magister, it is quite possible that you will not receive any answer at all. (Choose one spell from this list: Armour of Tin, Crucible of Chamon, Curse of Rust, Enchant Weapon, Fault of Form, Feather of Lead, Glittering Robe, Golden Touch, Metal Mended, Meteoric Ironclad, Mutable Metal, Prismatic Refraction of Habermas)
[] - Other: write-in.
Research: Please note that the options in this section may require you to spend some money on your work. They will be taken from your budget. Unless otherwise stated, you do not know how much money it will cost to implement your experiments.
[] - You could begin your study of alchemy by preparing several healing potions from Maria's book. These will not be powerful magical artifacts, of course, but they will be saturated with the necessary wind of magic to maximize their effect.
[] - You were able to get an autoclave that can be used to sterilize medical instruments, and you were convinced of the success of this project. But besides this, you could also try to make a larger version, the main purpose of which is to cook food under high temperature and pressure.
[] - You have an ingot of new metal, and therefore you could try to use this metal in a practical way. You just need to choose a possible practical application.
- [] - Write-in how.
[] - You know the properties of the new metal in almost pure form, but what about alloys using the metal? You can easily create an alloy with a small addition of a given metal and find out its properties. And of course, you can make several different alloys, with different percentages of metal.
[] - You received new metal. With an understanding of at least the basic properties of its work, you can write an article devoted to your discovery of a new metal, or at least its processing methods and properties. Of course, continuing to research the metal to gain new knowledge about its properties will be even better. In addition, you learned that you were the actual discoverer of this metal, since its properties were unknown even to the dwarves.
- [] - Write-in new name for metal.
[] - You have worked on the theoretical organization of the Veldt territory into a single complex, which will have to function with maximum efficiency. You could write a scientific article on this topic, and present it from the point of view of planning the agrarian territories of the Empire.
[] - Find a source of bodies for autopsy. Medicine is closely related to the study of dead bodies, and you might want to try to gain access to them. Your status gives some guarantee that you are not a necromancer, so someone might even agree.
- [] - Temple of Morr. They get most of the bodies in Bechafen. However, it will be difficult to get anything from them, since working with bodies is an important religious process for them.
- [] - Sewer Watch. They usually deliver to the temple of Morr those bodies that end up in the city sewer for one reason or another. It wouldn't be that hard to ask that some bodies not get there.
- [] - Road Watch. They deal with those bodies that are found outside the cities. Sometimes they don't even bother to deliver them to the temple of Morr, given the distance.
[] - As a practicing surgeon, you could advertise in the city and see if there is anyone willing to come to you for the opportunity to perform an operation with a scalpel and a saw. If all goes well, you'll get practice and possibly money. If things end badly... gardens of Morr become a little bigger.
[] - As a practicing surgeon, you could turn to the city residents in search of difficult cases where surgery is required, but even the priests refuse to guarantee the success of such operations. Each such case will be a mystery for you, requiring a creative approach to try to save a person's life or limb.
[] - Other: write-in.
Free actions:
[] - Change place of life. You currently live in Neuschwanstein Castle. This gives you free housing, but you are still somewhat limited in what actions you can take here. You could find another place to live.
- [] - Guard tower on city walls. Not particularly suitable for your specialty, but who can doubt that you are a wizard? Cost: probably zero cost.
- [] - Townhouse inside Bechafen city walls. You could find yourself a fairly respectable home inside the city that matches your status. Cost: 10 crowns in turn.
- [] - House outside Bechafen city walls. The location won't be as well protected, but you can choose a suitable location near a river, and the likely building will have plenty of living space. Cost: 5 crowns in turn.
- [] - Neighboring settlements. A somewhat remote location, but close enough for a day trip so you can quickly move between cities. Cost: less than 5 crowns in turn.
- [] - Other: write-in.
[] - You could start purchasing the necessary makeup items to hide your differences from ordinary people. Makeup on your face will help you hide unnatural skin color, and a pair of gloves is great for hiding the skin color on your hands. As a result, you will be able to hide your true appearance in most cases. Cost: 1 crown in turn.
[] - Other: write-in.
*****
It was a while since there was normal turns. But yeah, it's main turn, so I set 8 hours moratorium to make people read update and start making vote plans.
