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shit, I was hoping we'd be able to write some of our friends back at school if they'd like to help us out when they advanced. Oh well, one day maybe.
 
Stirland is surprisingly deficient in heavy horse, considering it's land-obsessed aristocracy and gentry. I guess there's a lot of freeriders and lancers locked behind the retinues and private levies of the nobles?
 
Oh man, it's almost like warning your boss one his his major underlings is a zealot is a goose thing!

Anyway, @BoneyM our two criminal priest friends, how needed are they to keep their little cult going? Could one be spared to work directly with us?

I'm thinking we hire a couple of Vets, teach them to read and have our current contacts send more, mundane reports, so we can have records if we need to draw up a pattern.
 
But I'm thinking: to hell with the Grand Theogonist. If he's stopping me from protecting Stirland, then surely he can't be doing the will of Sigmar.

-[ ] He's having a crisis of faith. If he's growing apart from Sigmar, there are other Gods you can suggest. Including one you're quite close to... (write in god)
And finally, there is the most thoroughly and enthusiastically suppressed face of Ranald: Ranald the Protector. He is the God of Freedom, of defending the defenceless, assisting the poor, and standing up for the rights of the common man.

Not necessarily a good idea, but given Van Hal's stated priorities...it's eerie how he aligns.
 
Anyway, @BoneyM our two criminal priest friends, how needed are they to keep their little cult going? Could one be spared to work directly with us?

One person working full time could handle it, but they're both semi-retired and taking it easy. It'd be tough to convince them to do more than they currently are.

Stirland is surprisingly deficient in heavy horse, considering it's land-obsessed aristocracy and gentry. I guess there's a lot of freeriders and lancers locked behind the retinues and private levies of the nobles?

It'd be a good resource for a competent Marshal to draw upon, yes. And what do you know, the Outrider candidate just got hired...
 
So we have our work cutout for us.
  • Expand network
  • Find Van a new backbone (faith)
  • Recruit middle-management
  • Setup workshop
  • Become Full Magister
  • Convince Anton we have everyone's best interest at heart
  • Murder the Chaplain
  • Adopt a cat familiar Be adopted by a car familiar
  • Woo the Count
 
Okay, team, here's what I'm thinking. Note that it does NOT include any way of handling Van Hal's crisis of faith (such needs to be added), and it devotes a staggering five actions to investigating the castle and servants. I really do not want a botched roll on one action to stop us from succeeding in this investigation, and by the end of this turn we had better be able to tell Van Hal that the castle was properly swept for threats and give him leads on hunting down the sources of those threats. The remaining action is spent getting us a noble assistant to go along with the non-action veteran assistants; hopefully between the lot of them next turn we will have a much lighter workload.

[] Plan Turn This Castle Upside Down And Shake It
-[] Examine and interrogate the imprisoned infiltrator.
-[] Trace their actions inside the castle, investigate every facet of what they did and see if there's a way they somehow could have sabotaged something.
--[] Van Hal assists
-[] Walk back their movements, see whether they left the castle and if so, what they were doing.
-[] Closely interrogate every remaining servant.
-[] Go out to the nearby villages and confirm the details of every single servant claiming to be from there.
-[] Van Hal can get you veterans of the Army of Stirland - mostly uneducated and suspicious of magic, but unquestionably loyal to Stirland. (no action required, -10g discretionary/turn each)
--[] Assign one to each of the following locations with orders to move in, make friends and "friends", send us reports regularly on recent events with an emphasis on anything unusual or suspicious: Franzen, Halstedt, Marburg, Drebkau, Langwald. Veterans who have already retired into those locations or intend to do so anyway would be ideal.
--[] Take whichever two of them we think most capable of working with us well to act as our agents/representatives/assistants.
--[] Hire a scribe to ensure that they are all literate enough to send regular legible reports. (-15g discretionary)
-[] Delegation: Maybe it's time to start being less spy and more master. Though Gods know where you'll find someone competent and trustworthy enough to grant such easily-abusable power.
--[] Talk to Anton and see if there are any young nobles from Stirland who might be inclined toward a career in intelligence. Then investigate their backgrounds, conduct interviews, and hope that at least one of them is both competent and trustworthy.
-[] Home Comforts: Your Palace-Shrine is bursting with potential. And also mud.
--[] Diggy Diggy Hole, Outsourced: Pay someone to do the digging, then Mindhole them on their way out. (no action required, -personal gold)

I'd like to avoid spending an action on Gustav investigation without completely half-assing it by doing something like the below. This might still take an action, though, and if it does we might as well do the snooping personally. @BoneyM, comment on feasibility?
[] Order Gustav's staff to spy on him for you during the first few months of his service; if Van Hal is willing to make an appearance while you issue those orders to emphasize that they're his, so much the better. Report what is learned to both your masters.


Edit: The choice on locations for the embedded village veterans was 1) the locations next to Sylvania where we don't have troops, and 2) major centers of governance which I don't particularly expect us to put in the personal work of setting up networks in soon but which we want eyes on. If someone has better ideas or choices, I'm all ears.

Edit2: No Ranald's Blessing yet either; opinions on where that goes are welcome. A lot of places I could see it really benefiting us.
 
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[] Order Gustav's staff to spy on him for you during the first few months of his service; if Van Hal is willing to make an appearance while you issue those orders to emphasize that they're his, so much the better. Report what is learned to both your masters.

The existing staff have been gutted by Van Hal's purges, so Gustav will be drawing an entirely new staff to him, and trying to suborn them all right out of the gate would be risky while they're flush with gratitude for their new jobs. You could see to it that one of the veterans you hire is within that staff, though it'd be chancy since you'd be relying on them not becoming more loyal to their commanding officer than they are to you. Alternately you could just have them hang out in the soldier bars and see what they can hear through the grapevine about the new guy, and try to buy a few drinks for the staff and get them to talk about their new boss.
 
Er dont love that plan dark.

We can do a proper workshop even if it goes expensive ( we could go to college to get proper parts ?)
i do agree that alot should be thrown at the purge but please dont forget the former spyaster who is running the stirland league wich is a massive problem for us and probably would be a horrific money source for the county to be honest not even mentioning what oot we could missapproitae .
 
--[] Assign one to each of the following locations with orders to move in, make friends and "friends", send us reports regularly on recent events with an emphasis on anything unusual or suspicious: Franzen, Halstedt, Marburg, Drebkau, Langwald. Veterans who have already retired into those locations or intend to do so anyway would be ideal.
This sounds wasteful. What about:
-[] Hire three retired Veterans and a scribe to teach them how to write and read. Order your contacts to send more reports, and have your new minions parse through for suspicious activity and odd patterns, and to generally keep you in the loop.

Then we get a properly sneaky minion or two, we order them to keep expanding the network itself, while the super loyal guys read reports, eventually one for each major region. At least in the short term.
 
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We may want to put the weapons and workshop on the shelf because Count's faith crisis and Sigma fundamentalist eating Stirland army are near top of the list.
 
Yeah, the way you're hooked into them is for them to send you news of anything unusual, but so far none of them have picked up on anything - it's the only way to manage things since it's still a one-woman operation. If you had an underling with the ability to manage it, you could set it up so they start sending more mundane news.
i was wondering if by any chance we can arrange for the zealot to be kill by the "infiltrators" well that is what the report to the church will say
 
This sounds wasteful. What about:
-[] Hire three retired Veterans and a scribe to teach them how to write and read. Order your contacts to send more reports, and have your new minions parse through for suspicious activity and odd patterns, and to generally keep you in the loop.

Then we get a properly sneaky minion or two, we order them to keep expanding the network itself, while the super loyal guys read reports, eventually one for each major region. At least in the short term.
You're talking about turning people who have low Intrigue and Learning scores into analysts. While we need analysts, that's a job where you need high Intrigue/Learning, which probably means hiring thieves, nobles, or thieving nobles. We can't rely on the veteran recruitment path for that.
 
i was wondering if by any chance we can arrange for the zealot to be kill by the "infiltrators" well that is what the report to the church will say

While i would like that, the Grand Hat would send another for the position; which have real risk of said person being more capable and just as zealous.

Murder is never the answer if people can claim you did it, evidence or not.
 
I think that we should obtain a copy of The Good Cookbook from Ostland and introduce Van Hal to the glory of Esmiralda. Then beat the zealot over the head with the Good Book.
 
While i would like that, the Grand Hat would send another for the position; which have real risk of said person being more capable and just as zealous.

Murder is never the answer if people can claim you did it, evidence or not.
it a gamble but the zealot almost lead to deaths
and he disobey a direct order he needs to go

also we need a capable person even if they are also a zealot we are likely in deep sh#t right now
 
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@BoneyM Is there a practical limit to the number of 'investigate the castle infiltrators' we can take? As constructed, the trail on say backtracking or sabotage will go pretty cold in four-five-six months time.
 
You're talking about turning people who have low Intrigue and Learning scores into analysts. While we need analysts, that's a job where you need high Intrigue/Learning, which probably means hiring thieves, nobles, or thieving nobles. We can't rely on the veteran recruitment path for that.
Not necessarily true - profession doesn't always correlate closely with skills. It'd be worth checking out whether any veterans might have useful skills/hidden depths before we hire. I'd suggest checking out the state archer regiments too (since they're presumably more skirmisher/independent-minded) except we apparently don't have any - just huntsmen militia.
 
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Alright here goes:

[X] Plan Solid Core
-[X] As Per Orders: Perform your current assignment. Choose ONE to have Van Hal's assistance with.
--[X] Examine and interrogate the imprisoned infiltrator.
---[X] Van Halp
--[X] Trace their actions inside the castle, investigate every facet of what they did and see if there's a way they somehow could have sabotaged something.
--[X] Walk back their movements, see whether they left the castle and if so, what they were doing.
--[X] Go out to the nearby villages and confirm the details of every single servant claiming to be from there.
---[X] Overwork

-[X] Influencing Van Hal: You're going to be spending time with him anyway, that's a lot of time to talk. Choose up to ONE. If 'Sucking Up To The Boss' is chosen, choose up to TWO.
--[X] He's seriously considering getting rid of Kasmir. Spend some time with him and suggest a specific approach, or try to talk him out of it. (write in approach and reasons)
---[X] Approach: You'd suggest to avoid doing anything as extreme as to the late Marshal, as that would ensure that the clergy of Stirland and the general Church of Sigmar would go from passive interference to active disruption. Which leaves two ways:
----[X] Rehabilitation: Approach it as a strategic exercise for Kasmir, that he cannot effectively convert the residents of Stirland back to Sigmar's will if he does not know the opposition. Challenge Kasmir to find out what needs are met by Morr, Ulric and Shallya which Sigmar's servants have not been meeting, then meet them. More importantly, find out how to tell apart those who are of different faiths, from those who are loyal to abominations unto Sigmar, of the vampires and necromancers that blight the world, take examples from Sigmar's own trials under each god to gain their blessing and how his own priests should emulate their god in uniting the gods of Man against the forces of Night. There's nothing to be lost but time and possibly patience from trying this approach first.
----[X] Provocation: Appoint influential local priests of Morr, Shallya, Rhya, Ulric, and maybe even Handrich, Myrmidia and whatever the halflings follow as Kasmir's advisory council, in addition to a local Sigmarite priest. Either he'd learn to work with the other faiths, achieving the objective without having to cross the Grand Theogonist, or Kasmir would be goaded into doing something unfortunate to his advisory council, in which case you'd be able to fire Kasmir for criminal action. Bonus if you can make sure that said priests come from noble backgrounds so as to make the resultant mess as hard to sweep away as possible.
----[] Sabotage: You're hesitant to suggest this, but it would be possible to plant evidence in Kasmir's rooms that he's been working with the contents of the East Wing in secret. Which would give Van Hal the justification to execute him if successful. The problem is that given the way such things work, its all too easy for a lie to become reality and you'd really rather not touch any of it yourself.
----[X] You'd recommend trying to rehabilitate him before going with the the provocation approach, since it SHOULD be useful even if it fails, and theres really nothing stopping the Grand Theogonist from sending endless and increasingly worse lines of zealots as he removes each one. The best course of action is one which makes Kasmir an asset, as the Grand Theogonist cannot replace him or censure us if we change Kasmir's mind on things.
--[] Use extra action if an action is needed.

-[X] Backtracking and Side Operations:
--[X] Okay. A report on the new Martial. Follow them around for a while, see what you can find out about them. (NEW)
---[X] Van Hal gets a copy as well.
--[X] Try to tail the messenger who you give the report to. (NEW)
---[X] Ranald's Blessing



-[X] Van Hal can get you veterans of the Army of Stirland - mostly uneducated and suspicious of magic, but unquestionably loyal to Stirland. (no action required, -10g discretionary/turn each) (NEW)
--[X] Get five.
---[X] Assign one to Bidenhof, Tarshof and Julbach each. Preferably someone who comes from those villages. Their job is to keep you up to date with the village rumors and point out what's just local custom, and whats unusual for those villages, as well as to acquire more gossips/informants from the village outlying farms in their own time.
---[X] Assign one to keep in touch with Swartzhafen, preferably someone who knows the Commander there.
---[X] Assign one to summing up the Wurtbad Watch's reports and to personally get to know the Watchmen.
--[X] Pay for them to be taught literacy, and basic sums if necessary. Check if they have any useful side skills. Assign to other tasks if they do.
--[X] You'll get someone more educated(and no doubt, more expensive) from Anton later to manage what these guys churn out, but for now their job is to expand the not-at-all subtle informants and save your ass from riding up and down the country all year.

-[X] Home Comforts: Your Palace-Shrine is bursting with potential. And also mud.
--[X] Wardrobe Expansion: Start wearing a tunic and breeches under your wizard's robes. (no action required, -personal gold)
--[X] Diggy Diggy Hole, Outsourced: Pay someone to do the digging, then Mindhole them on their way out. (no action required, -personal gold)
--[X] Enchantment: So far you've failed to find suitable equipment (damn Wizard Chic) but you could always try again with local goods. (-personal gold, action required to set up and learn to use equipment, action expenditure can be postponed) (NEW)
---[X] Postpone action. Just buy the stuff first.

-[X] Research:
--[X] That damn Asp has still been quiet, but now you've got a lead. Peruse the book Light And It's Properties, by Leonardo da Miragliano. (NEW)


Personal business shelved while we deal with infiltrators. Van Hal is not good at investigating traces and the like, but he's an expert interrogator, so we should put him on the interrogation.
However, I'd note that close interrogation of every remaining servant is going to be fiddly, we don't HAVE a basis to catch them other than to stress them with terror until they leak(which leaves us shitty servants afterwards)
Basically EVERYTHING shelved in fact. Fortunately our base isn't in the castle(or even publicly known) or everything would be compromised, but like Van Hal said the previous turn, if your admin center is infiltrated, your operations are SHIT.

Assuming Influencing Van Hal doesn't take an action of its own, since its implied to be a freebie.

7/6-8 actions

Overall thrust is to get to the bottom of the infiltrators. We CAN'T have HQ be suspect!
 
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[X] Plan madness

-[ ] Examine and interrogate the imprisoned infiltrator.
--[] Van Hal assists
-[ ] Closely interrogate every remaining servant.
-[ ] Go out to the nearby villages and confirm the details of every single servant claiming to be from there.

-[ ] Okay. A report on the new Martial. Follow them around for a while, see what you can find out about them.
-[ ] Try to tail the messenger who you give the report to.
---[X] Ranald's Blessing

[ ] Van Hal can get you veterans of the Army of Stirland - mostly uneducated and suspicious of magic, but unquestionably loyal to Stirland. (no action required, -10g discretionary/turn each)

-[ ] Pretty Good Swords: You've struck up a friendship with the Champion of the Greatswords and have discovered a talent for wielding them. Continue to cultivate this.

[ ] That damn Asp has
still been quiet, but now you've got a lead. Peruse the book Light And It's Properties, by Leonardo da Miragliano.

My immediate personal preferences. Van Hal helps with the infiltrator so we can have his high learning score help figure out what it is, the other two actions complement each other as the first gives us more info to check up on with the other.

Next we start figuring out exactly who we are give the info to because after this incident with the infiltrator we have to be sure of even the chance we are being tricked and this maybe the only chance we get for a while.

Acquiring veterans because... well its a start and it doesn't take an action.

Swords to continue advancing our trait and attempt to repair the damage last turn we had with our friend.

Finally, Investigating the Asp because we finally have someway to potentially combat it and I am not waiting for the other shoe to drop when the only reason it hasn't been a problem so far has been bad rolls.
 
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Alright here goes:

[X] Plan Solid Core
-[X] As Per Orders: Perform your current assignment. Choose ONE to have Van Hal's assistance with.
--[X] Examine and interrogate the imprisoned infiltrator.
---[X] Van Halp
--[X] Trace their actions inside the castle, investigate every facet of what they did and see if there's a way they somehow could have sabotaged something.
--[X] Walk back their movements, see whether they left the castle and if so, what they were doing.
--[X] Go out to the nearby villages and confirm the details of every single servant claiming to be from there.

-[X] Influencing Van Hal: You're going to be spending time with him anyway, that's a lot of time to talk. Choose up to ONE. If 'Sucking Up To The Boss' is chosen, choose up to TWO.
--[X] He's seriously considering getting rid of Kasmir. Spend some time with him and suggest a specific approach, or try to talk him out of it. (write in approach and reasons)
---[X] Approach: You'd suggest to avoid doing anything as extreme as to the late Marshal, as that would ensure that the clergy of Stirland and the general Church of Sigmar would go from passive interference to active disruption. Which leaves two ways:
----[X] Provocation: Appoint influential local priests of Morr, Shallya, Rhya, Ulric, and maybe even Handrich, Myrmidia and whatever the halflings follow as Kasmir's advisory council, in addition to a local Sigmarite priest. Either he'd learn to work with the other faiths, achieving the objective without having to cross the Grand Theogonist, or Kasmir would be goaded into doing something unfortunate to his advisory council, in which case you'd be able to fire Kasmir for criminal action. Bonus if you can make sure that said priests come from noble backgrounds so as to make the resultant mess as hard to sweep away as possible.
----[X] Sabotage: You're hesitant to suggest this, but it would be possible to plant evidence in Kasmir's rooms that he's been working with the contents of the East Wing in secret. Which would give Van Hal the justification to execute him if successful. The problem is that given the way such things work, its all too easy for a lie to become reality and you'd really rather not touch any of it yourself.
----[X] You'd recommend the provocation approach, since it SHOULD be useful even if it fails, and theres really nothing stopping the Grand Theogonist from sending endless and increasingly worse lines of zealots as he removes each one.
--[X] Use extra action if an action is needed.

-[X] Backtracking and Side Operations:
--[X] Okay. A report on the new Martial. Follow them around for a while, see what you can find out about them. (NEW)
---[X] Van Hal gets a copy as well.
--[X] Try to tail the messenger who you give the report to. (NEW)
---[X] Ranald's Blessing


-[X] Van Hal can get you veterans of the Army of Stirland - mostly uneducated and suspicious of magic, but unquestionably loyal to Stirland. (no action required, -10g discretionary/turn each) (NEW)
--[X] Assign them to maintaining correspondences with the villages(preferably their home village, where they'd be the ) and collating the City Watch reports.
--[X] Pay for them to be taught literacy, and basic sums if necessary. Check if they have any useful side skills. Assign to other tasks if they do.

-[X] Home Comforts: Your Palace-Shrine is bursting with potential. And also mud.
--[X] Wardrobe Expansion: Start wearing a tunic and breeches under your wizard's robes. (no action required, -personal gold)
--[X] Diggy Diggy Hole, Outsourced: Pay someone to do the digging, then Mindhole them on their way out. (no action required, -personal gold)
--[X] Enchantment: So far you've failed to find suitable equipment (damn Wizard Chic) but you could always try again with local goods. (-personal gold, action required to set up and learn to use equipment, action expenditure can be postponed) (NEW)
---[X] Postpone action. Just buy the stuff first.

-[X] Research:
--[X] That damn Asp has still been quiet, but now you've got a lead. Peruse the book Light And It's Properties, by Leonardo da Miragliano. (NEW)


Personal business shelved while we deal with infiltrators. Van Hal is not good at investigating traces and the like, but he's an expert interrogator, so we should put him on the interrogation.
However, I'd note that close interrogation of every remaining servant is going to be fiddly, we don't HAVE a basis to catch them other than to stress them with terror until they leak(which leaves us shitty servants afterwards)
Basically EVERYTHING shelved in fact. Fortunately our base isn't in the castle(or even publicly known) or everything would be compromised, but like Van Hal said the previous turn, if your admin center is infiltrated, your operations are SHIT.

Assuming Influencing Van Hal doesn't take an action of its own, since its implied to be a freebie.

6-7/6-8 actions

Overall thrust is to get to the bottom of the infiltrators. We CAN'T have HQ be suspect!
As your plan will almost certainly get more traction than mine, but we're not a million miles off, maybe I can persuade you to adjust?

[ ] Plan They're coming out of the walls (but hopefully not the mirrors)
My thoughts on the Martial report: Rather than spend an action:
--[ ] One of our not-quite-yet but soon-to-retire recruits is to provide a report on the new Martial advisor. Theres a lot to be learned from how he addresses the men, who he surrounds himself with, what if anything he changes in army drills, organisation, etc. Add (some of?) this to our report. (free?)

I also really disagree about spending 140g/month for old soldiers to sit in pubs and report on gossip... they're just not the right people or in the right position.

[ ] Van Hal can get you veterans of the Army of Stirland - mostly uneducated and suspicious of magic, but unquestionably loyal to Stirland. (no action required, -10g discretionary/turn each)
-[ ] Looking for three. One bodyguard/assistant/messenger/apprentice. One to regularly cycle round the regional Watches and bring back reports. One to insert as retiree/veteran observer in Leicheberg (on the border, main army base. At least this guy will hear the back-from-patrol gossip from the border force).
 
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