Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

Meanwhile in a parallell universe, user MoneyB wrote:

Uncertain Loyalties - an Advisors Quest
Turn 3
"...with all due haste. Set by my hand and seal, Elector Count Abelheim van Hel."
You look down at that signature and smile ruefully. Funny how long it takes to get used to it. But then, you've been a Witch Hunter for twenty years and an Elector Count for just over one. There's a lot more paperwork, a lot fewer vampires going for your jugular and a lot of differences in general, but in one way it's just the same: You, your wits and a few good friends like Brother Kasmir, facing vast tides of evil. Tides that will almost certainly last beyond your own lifetime. Tides with only a few truly wicked leaders, and a great many dutiful subordinates, some of whom might have worked for you if things had been different.

You drip wax and stamp the letter, hand it off to a servant for post, and reach for the next piece of parchment. Flensburg, dammit. You sigh, reach for the next next piece of parchment, hold up the Lord Mayor of Flensburg's list beside the Countess of Flensburg's list, and decide that this is what you have advisors for. Wilhelmina or one of her clerks can collate the two accounts of the Guilds of Flensburg into one, and you'll review that afterwards.

Next up is a petition from a minor noble asking you to personally intervene in a border dispute...

After lunch, the High Council assembles for one of your regular meetings.

Marshal Professor Lucrezio de Verezzo ticks off points on his fingers, ever the lecturing academic, even when he tries to be politely deferential. "My Lord, the regular muster now boasts four thousand reserve, fifteen thousand blooded troops, eight thousand green but trained troops, three thousand new recruits, for a total of thirty thousand you can call on. From what I can tell, this is almost all the easily convinced volunteers, and recruitment is dropping off significantly. More will come of age during the coming year, of course, but they won't fill out the ten thousand you wanted." He then starts listing your options, from signing bonuses to mercenaries. It's all very dry.

Chancellor Anton Kissinger is just as friendly as ever, guileless and eager to please. He tells you about visiting this noble and that noble, forwarding your requests to them and bringing back their complaints. You cut him off partway through relating the new Baron of Nussbach's family tree; it's nice and all, but not really worth the High Council's time unless there's a vampire in it. He blushes, says there isn't, and stammers a little as he rushes through the rest of his reports. The Moot is quiet. The nobles like Anton, they are pleased that you appear to be a stable, competent Elector Count, and if anyone thinks differently Anton hasn't noticed.

Steward Wilhelmina Hochschild is still frazzled about the matter of the missing ledgers, and you can't blame her. Fortunately, most of the nobles are, if not exactly happy to pay taxes, then at least loyal and/or fearful and/or creatures of habit enough that they're still paying. She also reports that tolls and tariffs on the roads in Western Stirland have been re-recorded by the unorthodox means of borrowing a platoon of Greatswords, sending one to every bar in Wurtbad, and having them commiserate with elderly-looking travelers and merchants about how much lower the tolls used to be back when they were young and isn't it a crime how high they are now. It took a lot of cross-checking between unreliable memories and illiterate Greatswords, she says, but through sheer persistence she's gathered enough data to be confident about the facts. Unless, of course, every merchant over fifty is in on the conspiracy. Which is probably not the case.

Spymaster Journeywoman Mathilde Weber goes on for a bit about how the books must have been moved out of the castle, and they're bulky so they must have been moved in a cart, and the carts go through gates, and the Watch keeps a record of the gates, and she read through book after book of the Watch's records, and so forth, until she concludes with their last known location according to the carter: a burial mound halfway to Julbach. She adds that she interrogated the lying stablehand with the help of the Greatswords, and he was also from Julbach. On Wilhelmina's advice, Mathilde also went to Leicheberg and-
(Wait a moment. It's two weeks to Leicheberg and two weeks back. You're fairly sure you've seen Mathilde around at least once a week... oh, right, wizard. Magic horses don't get tired. You recall that being mighty convenient one time you had to chase down a fugitive.)
-baited Count Petr von Stolpe, quoting him as saying "If Wurtbad believes that I have been remiss in my tax obligations, I invite them to compare what they have received to what the feudal contract says they are owed." You look to Wilhelmina, and she confirms that Count von Stolpe has been one of the most remiss compared to what she thinks he should have been paying. Well, there's an obvious suspect.

Chaplain Brother Kasmir Heinz is much more brief. The Cult of Sigmar is supportive. The Morrites are supportive. There's been a significant increase in worship of Shallya in central Stirland after a miraculous healing. Nine chaos cultists were discovered and promptly executed in Pötting. There is no indication that they were part of anything larger.

Finally, your Architect Detlef Schultz reports on the state of the castle. The chapel is completed, and work everywhere else progresses but needs more funding. As usual, he wants men, materials and money for a whole host of refurbishments: repairing the walls, reinstalling cannon, excavating the basement, doing something about the East Wing, laying in supplies for a siege, restocking the armory, digging a new well. As usual, you are short on all three and will probably have to reject most of these proposals. Again.

Bonus: Your spymaster approaches you in the evening after the meeting and asks for a moment of your private time. When you grant it, she says she's been looking into the rest of the council a bit. She alleges that Professor Lucrezio is secretly a fraud and an embezzler, but it's been hushed up by Imperial Intelligence, who used this blackmail to make him their eyes and ears in your court. She also claims that Anton is dim, naive, and only liked because he's viewed as completely harmless by the rest of Stirland. The nobles could run rings around him and he wouldn't even notice, she says. Do you believe her?

Choose one action for each advisor. Voting in plan format.
Loyal, well-funded advisors may carry out additional projects on their own time to gain your favor, but this is not reliable.
In every category, you may also []Write-in.

(This is an AU post, you should not actually choose or vote for anything here.)

[] Martial:
-[] Tell de Verezzo to show some initiative and see if he can come up with other ways to increase recruitment. (unpredictable)
-[] Pay to increase signing bonuses. That'll get a lot more people joining the army.
-[] Pay to hire mercenaries. It may be a short-term solution, but they'll be a lot more experienced than fresh meat.
-[] Lower the standards (age, health, et cetera) for recruitment.
-[] Spread rumors that Stirland is about to go to war.

[] Diplomacy:
-[] Have Anton continue to schmooze with the nobles of Stirland, he seems to be doing a good job of that.
-[] Have Anton branch out to Talabecland, you could use some friends there.
-[] Reach out to the temples, knightly orders, guilds and other official powers.
-[] Reach out to the merchants and other unofficial powers.

[] Stewardship:
-[] Send Wilhelmina out to reconstruct the tolls and tariffs in the rest of Stirland the same way.
-[] Start work on a replacement taxation system in case you can't recover the one you should have.
-[] Look into other potential methods of funding. Mines? Trade routes?
-[] Issue a special one-time tax. Several previous Elector Counts have done this when they were in dire straits. Some even did it repeatedly, making them very unpopular.

[] Intrigue:
[-] Count Petr von Stolpe is definitely tied up in the ledger theft. I can go get him for you, and bring him back in chains.
[-] I need a proper information network. Please fund me wandering around making friends.
[-] The disappearance of your predecessor is very concerning, especially since he's actively trying to sabotage the hunt for him. He must be found, and I've got a lead: Julbach.
[-] A dozen centuries of tax ledgers and records don't just vanish. And I may have found them. Let's go raid a tomb.

[] Faith:
-[] Continue to schmooze with all the religious orders in general, great and small.
-[] Reach out to the Sigmarites in particular, they could support your sadly lacking army.
-[] Reach out to the Morrites in particular, they could help your legitimacy.
-[] Organize an expedition to the barrow-mound to look for the tax ledgers.

[] Learning:
-[] Refurbish Eagle Castle's basement.
-[] Restore Eagle Castle's guns.
-[] Rebuild Eagle Castle's fortifications.
-[] Open the East Wing and begin work there.
-[] Build something new. (This is basically write-in, but I think it deserves particular note.)

Choose three Elector Count actions.

[] Personal:
-[] Intervention: Select a second project for one of your advisors this turn. Cannot be chosen with Assistance.
-[] Assistance: Select one of your advisors, their project gets +10 to all rolls this turn. Cannot be chosen with Intervention.
-[] Investigate one of your councilmembers. (Choose which one.)
-[] Replace one of your councilmembers. (Choose which one, triggers subvote on potential replacements.)
-[] Staying In Practice: Select an attribute to train. Higher attributes are harder to raise. Failing this action increases the chance of it succeeding if you pick it again the next turn.
-[] Organize an expedition to the barrow-mound to look for the tax ledgers. (If you choose this, you may bring Kasmir without using up his action.)
-[] Read up on Sylvania. You know the generals, of course, but it's worth staying up to date on just which Vampire Counts are most likely to do what, where, and when.
-[] Write to some of the other Elector Counts and ask for advice on ruling well.

Management wishes to remind you that shadow turns are for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken as reflective of events in the true quest.