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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
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Seventeen said:
-[ ] Fief Management, Delegated (375 gc, no actions)
--[ ] Build a communal granary to store food for lean times (50 gc).
--[ ] Build a well (50 gc).
--[ ] Build a bailey for your subjects to shelter in and to encompass other structures (100 gc for wood).
--[ ] Investigate the farming possibilities of the land (50 gc for test crops).

I'm taking advantage of the ability to hire a manager that @BoneyM has graciously allowed us. The granary, well, and crops are basic quality of life improvements for the locals, while the bailey gives a basic amount of defensibility so those improvements don't get immediately wrecked. I'd like the dwarf fortifications instead, but without the income from Mathilde's position on the council we'd be running a little close to empty for my preference. A wooden bailey is at least easily replaceable if we do end up getting the money together, though. I would also have liked to take dwarf prospectors, but I couldn't find any room for the action and dwarf rep points are too scarce for me to feel okay about losing an extra.

The manor options aren't going to be necessary for a while. We've already decided we're staying in Wurtbad for the near future as of last turn, so I think it's a bit premature to take any of those just yet. Get the basic improvements up first and then we can see about personal accommodations.

-[ ] Spend some time getting to know Wilhelmina's sons.

While those dwarfs-and-Anton trade actions would be great to increase the EIC's income (and thus get our debt paid off quicker), I think it's best we get to dealing with Wilhelmina's sons first. They're already in positions of leadership in the company, so we need to make sure they align well with us. Expanding into Sonningwiese would be nice too, even if there's no particular financial benefit for us, but the investments we're making should outweigh its lack.

-[ ] Create market gardens outside the walls of Wurtbad, fertilized with the solid waste collected by the Gong Farmers.

Looks like this would be the most profitable of the gong farmers options, while also potentially being fodder for Stewardship improvement further into the turn. I almost went for organising the payments, which should hopefully increase the income from the gong farmers, but that maybe-bonus to Stewardship practice pushed it over the line. It's a little disappointing we won't be able to use the synergy of being in charge of the Watch to improve enforcement of the waste disposal laws for that option, though. I imagine that would have even more of an impact. For the other options, expansion will make the payments option harder to implement, so we need to leave that one a little bit and arming the gong farmers will hopefully not be necessary considering we never heard about serious attacks -- we may want to look into the Watch's operations in a few turns if we're worried the Sewer Jacks aren't keeping any bigger threats at bay.

For the nitre factory, I'd prefer one of the gunpowder options, but we may not be able to afford it at the moment. That's a lot of dwarf favour or probably a huge amount of gold for the non-dwarf option. Selling the crystals may be a viable interim solution, but probably not to Zhufbar or the Moot. Nuln should like them because they're high quality ("For being made by men," grumbles the dwarf chemist), but Zhufbar has their own source and higher quality besides, while for fertiliser it might further fuel Stirland's desire for the Moot if they increase their yields any more. I don't think we want to precipitate that particular war. Selling the factory would be a waste, and I don't think we're quite ready to absorb it into the EIC -- we'll want to provide a bit more strategic direction first, otherwise they may never move into gunpowder production, and we'll miss out on the opportunity to bring the dwarf experts in. I don't feel like I have any actions free just yet, though, so I won't take any of them.

-[ ] Internalized Lessons: Stewardship
As others have mentioned, this will help us manage our various enterprises. We have a reasonable chance of getting it with our success on financial learning last turn.

-[ ] Internalized Lessons: Intrigue
This is one I'm a little surprised nobody's chosen. We did about as well on the intrigue rolls last turn as we did for stewardship on an action that was much more involved, requiring actual action as opposed to just study. That should give us a good probability of success. We intend to take the Magister's test relatively soon and the Grey College promotes Intrigue almost as much as they do Learning, so an extra point or two shouldn't be ignored.

These two actions are on strict time limits, so they're going to push some other stuff out, which is annoying. In particular, I've been pushing finishing the palace excavation and enchantment practice as a combo for about half the quest so far, but without that Spymistress income we're not really in the position to invest in those actions just yet. If I could automatically cut the EIC, gong farmers, and nitre factory actions without having to worry about finding a new income stream, we'd be in a much better position for magical research.

-[ ] The New Boss: Keep an ear to the ground, learning what you can of Roswita's actions and plans.

Every plan should take this. R v H is the new most important and most influential person in all of Stirland, so we need to know what she's doing. If you're worried about her sending Witch Hunters after Mathilde, we need to know about that. If you're worried about her trying to take away control of the gong farmers and nitre factory, we need to know about that. Any person that has a particular fear about her actions that isn't voting for this option is just going to end up wasting actions mitigating the effects of something we don't know will happen. I'm thinking particularly about people I've seen saying we should develop the fief in preparation of moving everything out there to do research we're perfectly able to do in the Buried Palace. That's a lot of actions we may very well never need to take. Take this action instead.

-[ ] Free Time: Now well-established in Wurtbad, you can spend some time in your scant off hours getting to know someone better. Pick one character. (does not take an action)

Reasonable options for Free Time: Wilhelmina, since I'm taking the sons action; Anton, since he proved himself a great friend by resigning; Kasmir, if we think he might have shown up, for the same reasons we chose him last turn.



I am very tempted. It's something we will probably want to do before taking the Magister examination, but perhaps not just yet. A cat would be appropriate, being sneaky and favoured by Ranald just like Mathilde, but I could see us taking just about any of these options, except maybe the last. Too unsubtle for most of the possibilities there. Animals are better for that.

If only we were an Amber Wizard, we could spend all of our time collecting animal familiars.

Now, to collect it all together... and realise I've only chosen five actions. At least I can put Enchantment back in now.

[X] Plan Seventeen Can't Think Of A Name
-[X] Fief Management, Delegated (375 gc, no actions)
--[X] Build a communal granary to store food for lean times (50 gc).
--[X] Build a well (50 gc).
--[X] Build a bailey for your subjects to shelter in and to encompass other structures (100 gc for wood).
--[X] Investigate the farming possibilities of the land (50 gc for test crops).
-[X] Spend some time getting to know Wilhelmina's sons.
-[X] Create market gardens outside the walls of Wurtbad, fertilized with the solid waste collected by the Gong Farmers.
-[X] The New Boss: Keep an ear to the ground, learning what you can of Roswita's actions and plans.
-[X] Enchantment: You're naturally talented at enchantment; so far, this just amounts to being able to make your desk meow for about an hour. See if you can improve on that, or at least figure out a way to make that useful.
--[X] Ranald's Blessing
-[X] Internalized Lessons: Stewardship
-[X] Internalized Lessons: Intrigue
-[X] Free Time: Wilhelmina
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I wonder if investing in the fief buildings isn't premature? I don't think there is any local grain to store in a granary. A well, sure, always good, but will it actually be near our herder huts?

I'd rather do the investigations first- surveys, trial planting- then decide what we need. You could get human surveyors for the same 150g as the bailey.

@BoneyM are human and Dwarven prospectors mutually exclusive? Would we be able to hire human one (unsupervised) first, then if nothing turns up, hire Dwarves later? Presumably we'd get a lot of "Should or hired dwarves straight away" comments, but would there be any other harm?
 
Alliterate said:
@BoneyM are human and Dwarven prospectors mutually exclusive? Would we be able to hire human one (unsupervised) first, then if nothing turns up, hire Dwarves later? Presumably we'd get a lot of "Should or hired dwarves straight away" comments, but would there be any other harm?
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... Why would there be?

Prospecting is usually done by checking streams, or by excavating likely locations. I can't imagine what the humans could fuck up so badly the dwarves couldn't be called in later. Unless they, I dunno, critfail and cause an avalanche, and then we have other problems.
 
DarkLight140 said:
When we approach the Grey Order to become a Magister and they ask whether we've actually followed through on our promise to use our giant pile of money to improve our holdings, I would much rather be able to say "yes, and there have already been these results" than "I paid for someone to start looking into it just before I left".

That's fair. I too would rather live in Wurtbad than the back end of nowhere, as it happens, so hashing out a plan which aims toward that is fine by me.

Hm. I'm thinking I need to write my own plan, like many before me. How about this:

[X] Plan Much to Do Before Magistery
-[X] Internalized Lessons: If you've been using a particular trait a fair bit in the last year, you can spend some time on it to internalize what you've learned and increase the trait (Stewardship).
-[X] There's always room for more shadow spells in your repertoire. Send off to the Grey College for the basics on one of the others and get started on trying to learn it.
--[X] Doppelganger
--[X] Shadowcloak
-[X] Enchantment: You're naturally talented at enchantment; so far, this just amounts to being able to make your desk meow for about an hour. See if you can improve on that, or at least figure out a way to make that useful.
-[X] Diggy Diggy Hole, Remixed: You're getting sick of having workmen tramping in and out of your abode. Recruit an entire team and personally oversee them to clear out all of the reachable portions of the Palace-Shrine and be done with it. (-100 gc)
--[X] Ranald's Blessing
-[X] The New Boss: Keep an ear to the ground, learning what you can of Roswita's actions and plans.
-[X] Free action: Bring in prospectors to search for minable metals (100+50 gc).
-[X] Free action: Investigate the farming possibilities of the land (50+25 gc for test crops).
-[X] Free action: Gun Shopping: You're currently using a pistol that was a spare for the pistoliers. Visit Nuln or Zhufbar to upgrade. (does not take an action; will trigger a subvote next turn for what type and how many; will cost 100-300 gc, don't take this just to window shop - this is committing to the purchase)
--[X] Zhufbar
-[X] Free Time: Now well-established in Wurtbad, you can spend some time in your scant off hours getting to know someone better. Pick one character.
--[X] Wilhelmina

The reasoning:
  • The emphasis here is preparing for a Magister test next turn by studying enchantment and two of the simple shadow spells to refocus ourselves on magic and develop our skills. Ideally we would learn a further spell next turn in order to increase our Magic to 5 before the Magister test, opening up the mid-tier ulgu spellbook for safe casting and making us a fair bit more skilled when it comes to things like magical experimentation.
  • Includes the Stewardship internalization as that's part of the leading plan I agree with- just look at how many of our future plans involve some sort of construction, trade, or economics!
  • It finishes off clearing out our Palace because we don't need to move out of Wurtbad, and puts the Ranald blessing on it because 1) we have never succeeded on a treasure roll, and 2) this is a much larger project than the previous ones and accordingly the risk of exposure is higher, which we don't want.
  • Keeps an eye on the new Elector Count because we didn't put almost of a decade of our life into Stirland to watch her piss it away without our even noticing
  • Does both slot-free investigation actions; if we get lucky and human expertise suffices, fantastic. If they fail, we're not out that much money and we can still use the dwarven expertise later.
  • Buys a new gun! Dwarven quality pistol, no action slot required, very nice. If we're ever going to upgrade there's no reason to avoid doing it now, and I for one will feel a lot happier shooting things if we have a top-shelf gun to do it with. Also, if we shoot someone/something during our combat test for Magister I will laugh so hard.
  • Talks to Wilhelmina as she is our single most important business partner at the moment, making good relations with her absolutely vital moving forward.
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Digging out the palace isn't a compounding action. We won't do anything with the rooms next turn (Magister test) leaving at least a year. Meanwhile, increased EIC or manor income would help. I'd rather do something like trade ties to Zhufbar (fictionally ties in nicely with the gun purchase). The increased income and profitability will work for us while we do other things.
 
Alectai said:
[X] Plan: Man what is this backlog of stuff I need to study
-[X] Internalized Lessons: If you've been using a particular trait a fair bit in the last year, you can spend some time on it to internalize what you've learned and increase the trait (Stewardship).
-[X] Enchantment: You're naturally talented at enchantment; so far, this just amounts to being able to make your desk meow for about an hour. See if you can improve on that, or at least figure out a way to make that useful.
-[X] Getting To Know You: Spend time with someone, offering your help in their tasks and generally getting a feel for them (Anton)
-[X] Volatility: Examine how to move your various fragile and magically sensitive bits and pieces without endangering them.
-[X] Qhaysh Juice: Whatever it is, it's dripping out of the box at a steady rate. You've got several gallons of the stuff and it's still coming out. It's got to be good for something.
--[X] Ranald's Blessing
-[X] There's always room for more shadow spells in your repertoire. Send off to the Grey College for the basics on one of the others and get started on trying to learn it.
--[X] Shadowcloak:
-[X] Free Time: Now well-established in Wurtbad, you can spend some time in your scant off hours getting to know someone better. Pick one character. (Wilhelmia)

It's crunchtime for us, and that means we need to start getting ready to relocate our stuff. Study another spell for exam preparations, but aside from that, it's a combination of "Get a nice, 'Public' base of operations started up that we can later fortify the fuck out of, and then figure out how to move our stuff over there. In the meantime, we can get caught up on our massive backlog of magical research now that we're not actually spending most of our time keeping everyone afloat.

EDIT: Revised the plan to touch base with Wilhemina and Anton, because they're our buddies and it's probably unhealthy to go all in hermit. Enchanting and Shyish-kebabs was dumped, but it let me put Ranald's Blessing on the Qhaysh Juice.

SON OF EDIT: Found a freebie social, took the paid one away and put it on Stewardship Training
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Probably one of my favorite options so far, because finally someone has some magic actions. I think we should also stick some free action fief improvements in though. A well for example seems like a good idea that everyone would like and a granary would be quite nice too. There's some other options but none quite as likely to build as much good will and be as simply useful as those. Building a 3 room manor would be good for both when we visit and for the steward to stay in and there's a number of investigation actions that could increase the profitability of the land (although I find these a bit dubious since the whole point of the land is that it's basically worthless).

Anyway This plan is quite similar to Much to Do before Magistery, although somewhat less forward thinking since the lack of intrigue option in this turn will make it harder to train intrigue later.

It also lacks a number of good free actions we could take.

Seventeen said:
[X] Plan Seventeen Can't Think Of A Name
-[X] Fief Management, Delegated (375 gc, no actions)
--[X] Build a communal granary to store food for lean times (50 gc).
--[X] Build a well (50 gc).
--[X] Build a bailey for your subjects to shelter in and to encompass other structures (100 gc for wood).
--[X] Investigate the farming possibilities of the land (50 gc for test crops).
-[X] Spend some time getting to know Wilhelmina's sons.
-[X] Create market gardens outside the walls of Wurtbad, fertilized with the solid waste collected by the Gong Farmers.
-[X] The New Boss: Keep an ear to the ground, learning what you can of Roswita's actions and plans.
-[X] Enchantment: You're naturally talented at enchantment; so far, this just amounts to being able to make your desk meow for about an hour. See if you can improve on that, or at least figure out a way to make that useful.
--[X] Ranald's Blessing
-[X] Internalized Lessons: Stewardship
-[X] Internalized Lessons: Intrigue
-[X] Free Time: Wilhelmina
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The other choice I like quite a bit, or at least I like the arguments for it and the fief choices but it doesn't have enough magic. Basically way too much stewardship right now especially when we're planning on taking the magister exams.


DarkLight140 said:
[X] Plan Much to Do Before Magistery
-[X] Internalized Lessons: If you've been using a particular trait a fair bit in the last year, you can spend some time on it to internalize what you've learned and increase the trait (Stewardship).
-[X] There's always room for more shadow spells in your repertoire. Send off to the Grey College for the basics on one of the others and get started on trying to learn it.
--[X] Doppelganger
--[X] Shadowcloak
-[X] Enchantment: You're naturally talented at enchantment; so far, this just amounts to being able to make your desk meow for about an hour. See if you can improve on that, or at least figure out a way to make that useful.
-[X] Diggy Diggy Hole, Remixed: You're getting sick of having workmen tramping in and out of your abode. Recruit an entire team and personally oversee them to clear out all of the reachable portions of the Palace-Shrine and be done with it. (-100 gc)
--[X] Ranald's Blessing
-[X] The New Boss: Keep an ear to the ground, learning what you can of Roswita's actions and plans.
-[X] Free action: Bring in prospectors to search for minable metals (100+50 gc).
-[X] Free action: Investigate the farming possibilities of the land (50+25 gc for test crops).
-[X] Free action: Gun Shopping: You're currently using a pistol that was a spare for the pistoliers. Visit Nuln or Zhufbar to upgrade. (does not take an action; will trigger a subvote next turn for what type and how many; will cost 100-300 gc, don't take this just to window shop - this is committing to the purchase)
--[X] Zhufbar
-[X] Free Time: Now well-established in Wurtbad, you can spend some time in your scant off hours getting to know someone better. Pick one character.
--[X] Wilhelmina

The reasoning:
  • The emphasis here is preparing for a Magister test next turn by studying enchantment and two of the simple shadow spells to refocus ourselves on magic and develop our skills. Ideally we would learn a further spell next turn in order to increase our Magic to 5 before the Magister test, opening up the mid-tier ulgu spellbook for safe casting and making us a fair bit more skilled when it comes to things like magical experimentation.
  • Includes the Stewardship internalization as that's part of the leading plan I agree with- just look at how many of our future plans involve some sort of construction, trade, or economics!
  • It finishes off clearing out our Palace because we don't need to move out of Wurtbad, and puts the Ranald blessing on it because 1) we have never succeeded on a treasure roll, and 2) this is a much larger project than the previous ones and accordingly the risk of exposure is higher, which we don't want.
  • Keeps an eye on the new Elector Count because we didn't put almost of a decade of our life into Stirland to watch her piss it away without our even noticing
  • Does both slot-free investigation actions; if we get lucky and human expertise suffices, fantastic. If they fail, we're not out that much money and we can still use the dwarven expertise later.
  • Buys a new gun! Dwarven quality pistol, no action slot required, very nice. If we're ever going to upgrade there's no reason to avoid doing it now, and I for one will feel a lot happier shooting things if we have a top-shelf gun to do it with. Also, if we shoot someone/something during our combat test for Magister I will laugh so hard.
  • Talks to Wilhelmina as she is our single most important business partner at the moment, making good relations with her absolutely vital moving forward.
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[X] Plan Much to Do Before Magistery

My absolute favorite, enough magic to satisfy although I'd prefer to swap enchantment with studying magic juice. It's been pointed out that long term it's actually more effective to do the enchantment now. This makes sense since for the next 3 turns we'll likely be spending the majority of out time clearing out magical backlog.

The other change I wouldn't mind seeing would be adding a well and/or granary to the lands. If we're going to have a bunch of people tramping all over the place I expect the locals would feel a lot better about it if they got something nice at the end of it.

But basically this satisfies me. Next turn I'd like to train Intrigue which should work well since this vote includes an intrigue option to keep us in good form.
 
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Alliterate said:
I wonder if investing in the fief buildings isn't premature? I don't think there is any local grain to store in a granary. A well, sure, always good, but will it actually be near our herder huts?

I'd rather do the investigations first- surveys, trial planting- then decide what we need. You could get human surveyors for the same 150g as the bailey.
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Yeah, I think you might be right there. The other thing I'm worried about is our extreme lack of income at the moment. I'm not sure that we can afford the static quality of life improvements I want before we've invested in making more money.

Klaus Wulfenback said:
[X] Plan Seventeen Can't Think Of A Name
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Terrible timing, but I've decided to change my plan right as you've voted. I've switched the bailey, well, and granary out for investigating mining opportunities.
 
BoneyM said:
This is the most backhanded 'compliment' I've received in this entire thread, and I'm mystified why you'd choose to post it instead of just saying nothing. There's not even any usable feedback here.
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Not what I was going for. It was meant to be a genuine compliment to show my appreciation and gratitude towards you for writing this quest. The other half of the post was just meant to be a notice and an expression of sadness regarding recent events in the quest. Please believe me when I say that I wasn't trying to insult you.

I'd like to give some feedback since you seem open to it. There is nothing driving the story anymore. Working with Van Hal was the emotional core of the story. With his death, the heart of the story was ripped out and his heir did everything she could to avoid replacing it. There's side stuff like the Qhaysh juice, but there's no overarching direction to the story, no primary motivation to do anything, nothing narratively meaningful to work towards. You're a great writer, this quest is excellent, and its current state of the story was because of the dice and not you, but it still feels like the story has nowhere to go.
 
Alliterate said:
Digging out the palace isn't a compounding action. We won't do anything with the rooms next turn (Magister test) leaving at least a year. Meanwhile, increased EIC or manor income would help. I'd rather do something like trade ties to Zhufbar (fictionally ties in nicely with the gun purchase). The increased income and profitability will work for us while we do other things.
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Fair point. The reason that I put it into this turn is that Ranald's Blessing is incredibly high-demand and wanted it on the excavation action. Next turn we'll want it on the Magister exam, and after that there are essential magical concerns to soak it up- reading the Liber Mortis without the Blessing on it would be reckless in the extreme, and the juice investigation, fog magic development, any attempts at making significant enchanted items, and so forth all desperately need the Blessing.

If I were to concede that the Palace is nonessential for the moment and swap it out, which at the moment I don't, I'd go for Internalization- Intrigue. We did just go stalking and interrogating a cultist, that's worth some stat gains, and Intrigue is a rather important stat.

WorldSlayer said:
My absolute favorite, enough magic to satisfy although I'd prefer to swap enchantment with studying magic juice.
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I want to include Ranald's Blessing on the juice study action and it's occupied this turn (see above). Expected study of the juice would be following our Magister exam on the first turn that we don't read Liber Mortis and thus have the Blessing to spare.
 
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WorldSlayer said:
The other choice I like quite a bit, or at least I like the arguments for it but it doesn't have enough magic. Basically way too much stewardship right now especially when we're planning on taking the magister exams.
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There's a reason for that. It seems like a lot of the other voters want to go for Magister as soon as next turn, whereas I would prefer another turn or two before that so we can improve our stats, income, etc. a bit more beforehand.
 
DarkLight140 said:
Fair point. The reason that I put it into this turn is that Ranald's Blessing is incredibly high-demand and wanted it on the excavation action. Next turn we'll want it on the Magister exam, and after that there are essential magical concerns to soak it up- reading the Liber Mortis without the Blessing on it would be reckless in the extreme, and the juice investigation, fog magic development, any attempts at making significant enchanted items, and so forth all desperately need the Blessing.

If I were to concede that the Palace is nonessential for the moment and swap it out, which at the moment I don't, I'd go for Internalization- Intrigue. We did just go stalking and interrogating a cultist, that's worth some stat gains, and Intrigue is a rather important stat.

I want to include Ranald's Blessing on the juice study action and it's occupied this turn (see above). Expected study of the juice would be following our Magister exam on the first turn that we don't read Liber Mortis and thus have the Blessing to spare.
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I understand the reasoning. At least move the training to the last action of the turn, the Zhufbar purchase might be a Stewardship roll.
 
Alliterate said:
I understand the reasoning. At least move the training to the last action of the turn, the Zhufbar purchase might be a Stewardship roll.
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Sure, done. In fact, I moved all free actions to the start of the turn on the grounds that any of them could potentially be Stewardship rolls, even Wilhelmina (presumably we might chat about trade over dinner or similar).
 
Article:
Legend: Green are free actions, by paying more money or free social.

[X] Plan Magic Building and Expansion
-[X] Build a large home for yourself, with plenty of spare rooms to expand into (6 rooms, 150 gc).
--[X] Hire Manager (225 gc total)
-[X] Build a tower, either into an above structure or on its own (1 room, 100 gc, bonus to room's purpose).
--[X] Hire Manager (150 gc total)
-[X] Build a communal granary to store food for lean times (50 gc).
--[X] Hire Manager (75 gc total)
-[X] Build a well (50 gc).
--[X] Hire Manager (75 gc total)
-[X] Bring in dwarvern prospectors to search for minable metals (-1 Dwarf Rep)
-[X] Investigate the farming possibilities of the land (50 gc for test crops).
--[X] Hire Manager (75 gc total)
-[X] Use your friendship with Anton to build trade ties along the Nuln Road.
-[X] Fold them into the EIC; no need for you to have personal control of them. (no action needed)
-[X] Sell the produced niter crystals as fertiliser in Stirland.
-[X] Internalized Lessons: If you've been using a particular trait a fair bit in the last year, you can spend some time on it to internalize what you've learned and increase the trait (choose which trait; can be taken multiple times; will be more effective the more you've used the trait lately).
--[X] Fitness
-[X] Enchantment: You're naturally talented at enchantment; so far, this just amounts to being able to make your desk meow for about an hour. See if you can improve on that, or at least figure out a way to make that useful.
--[X] Ranald's Blessing
-[X] Your experience with the so-called Fog of War has given you a lot of ideas for new applications of Ulgu. Investigate them to see what might be possible.
-[X] Free Time: Now well-established in Wurtbad, you can spend some time in your scant off hours getting to know someone better. Pick one character. (does not take an action)
--[X] Magister Regimand


I disagree with the training of stewardship as Mathilde's actions are too precious to be spend on things that mangers exists for. So this plan focuses on expending our fief into a proper center for magical research as well as being financially self-sufficient. The EIC action was spent to link up Wilhelmina (head of EIC) with Anton (heir of a barony with excellent noble network) for formation of Weber-Hochschild-Kiesinger alliance, both for mutual protection as well as resource share. Weber providing intrigue/wizard help, Hochschild with stewardship/money, and Kiesinger with noble connections/muscle.
  • Spends 600 out of 1,291 earmarked fund as we told Grey accountants, using managers to save action
    • Builds large house with tower
    • Well and Granary
    • Farming tools
  • Spends 1 dwarf rep and 1 action for prospectors
  • Folds gong farmers into EIC, have Factory sell fertilizer
  • Connecting EIC to Anton's area, to work toward an alliance between Webber, Anton, and Wilhelmina.
  • Trains Fitness Skill to make sure Mathilde is healthy, Studies Fog of War and Enchantment
  • Talk to Mathilde's master for Grey Wizard related things, as well as the puppet situation.
  • No overwork
 
@BoneyM is there a timer on "Your experience with the so-called Fog of War has given you a lot of ideas for new applications of Ulgu. Investigate them to see what might be possible."?

[x] Plan A good thing to do

Highlight of the plan. I'm worried about Kasmir.
-[x] It's literally none of your business, but you can try to track down Kasmir anyway.

I want a cat. Also if it works, Ranald's Blessing will make it spectacular.
-[x] You'll have a cat, damn it. Spend time with the alley cats of Wurtbad and see what you can find. (low chance)
--[x] Ranald's Blessing

We want to know how she operates.
-[x] The New Boss: Keep an ear to the ground, learning what you can of Roswita's actions and plans.

Last turn we finished a vampiric conspiracy. That's a big milestone, let's exctract lessons from it.
-[x] Internalized Lessons: If you've been using a particular trait a fair bit in the last year, you can spend some time on it to internalize what you've learned and increase the trait (choose which trait; can be taken multiple times; will be more effective the more you've used the trait lately).
--[x] Intrigue

Long due.
-[x] Enchantment: You're naturally talented at enchantment; so far, this just amounts to being able to make your desk meow for about an hour. See if you can improve on that, or at least figure out a way to make that useful.

I want that option. Not necessarily right now but I'm afraid this option can expire.
-[x] Your experience with the so-called Fog of War has given you a lot of ideas for new applications of Ulgu. Investigate them to see what might be possible.

-[x] Free Time: Now well-established in Wurtbad, you can spend some time in your scant off hours getting to know someone better. Pick one character. (does not take an action)
--[x] Anton

Will be handy, I think. Also it's good to have a backup pistol.
-[x] Gun Shopping: You're currently using a pistol that was a spare for the pistoliers. Visit Nuln or Zhufbar to upgrade. (does not take an action; will trigger a subvote next turn for what type and how many; will cost 100-300 gc, don't take this just to window shop - this is committing to the purchase)

I don't care about the manor so no actions spent on it, but I don't care about the money too, so I'll do the cheaper options.
-[x] Build a communal granary to store food for lean times (50 gc).
-[x] Build a well (50 gc).
-[x] Build a bailey for your subjects to shelter in and to encompass other structures (100 gc for wood).
-[x] Bring in prospectors to search for minable metals (100 gc).
-[x] Investigate the farming possibilities of the land (50 gc for test crops).
-[x] +50% for a manager for a total of 525 gc
 
[X] Plan Much to Do Before Magistery

VoidZero said:
I disagree with the training of stewardship as Mathilde's actions are too precious to be spend on things that mangers exists for.
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Incorrect. Stewardship is used to manage the managers.
We use it on our personal, secret accounts, we use it on the gong farmers, we use it on the EIC. We use it to manage our fief.
 
veekie said:
Incorrect. Stewardship is used to manage the managers.
We use it on our personal, secret accounts, we use it on the gong farmers, we use it on the EIC. We use it to manage our fief.
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The steward of an entire province had stewardship of 16, where Mathilde have 14. This is more than enough.
 
Alliterate said:
@BoneyM are human and Dwarven prospectors mutually exclusive? Would we be able to hire human one (unsupervised) first, then if nothing turns up, hire Dwarves later? Presumably we'd get a lot of "Should or hired dwarves straight away" comments, but would there be any other harm?
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As Guile said, short of a critfail from the humans, there's nothing stopping you from trying one then the other.

Andres110 said:
I'd like to give some feedback since you seem open to it. There is nothing driving the story anymore. Working with Van Hal was the emotional core of the story. With his death, the heart of the story was ripped out and his heir did everything she could to avoid replacing it. There's side stuff like the Qhaysh juice, but there's no overarching direction to the story, no primary motivation to do anything, nothing narratively meaningful to work towards. You're a great writer, this quest is excellent, and its current state of the story was because of the dice and not you, but it still feels like the story has nowhere to go.
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This can all be put, with minor changes in wording, in Mathilde's mouth. What is her purpose now? Currently, it's shooting for her Magistership; after that, she'll have to decide where next to go and what purpose to find in her life. A few of the possibilities I've been dangling so far are Advisor to another province, advisor to a Dwarfhold, Dwarf Vietnam 2: Electric Boogaloo, and a mercenary career.

vsh said:
@BoneyM is there a timer on "Your experience with the so-called Fog of War has given you a lot of ideas for new applications of Ulgu. Investigate them to see what might be possible."?
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No, it's from the Warrior of Fog trait.
 
[x] Plan A Modest Home for a Modest Wizard
[x] Bring in dwarvern prospectors to search for minable metals (-1 Dwarf Rep) - Overwork
[x] Estate manager
-[x] Investigate the farming possibilities of the land (50 gc for test crops).
-[x] Pigeon coop (50 gc)
-[x] Build fortifications into your home, turning it into a hillfort, or motte (50 gc for wood)
-[x] Build a communal granary to store food for lean times (50 gc).
-[x] Build a well (50 gc).
-[x] Build a bailey for your subjects to shelter in and to encompass other structures (100 gc for wood)
-[x] Build a modest home for yourself, equal in size to the rooms you're using in the Sunken Palace (3 rooms, 50 gc).
-[x] Build a tower, either into an above structure or on its own (1 room, 100 gc, bonus to room's purpose). [Enchantment]

Should come out to 750 gc, netting us a modest estate to be working out of including a place to be doing our enchanting while leaving the door open for later investment in whatever mineral opportunities may or may not lie under our estate.


[x] Magic Muscles Flex
[x] Your experience with the so-called Fog of War has given you a lot of ideas for new applications of Ulgu. Investigate them to see what might be possible.
[x] There's always room for more shadow spells in your repertoire. Send off to the Grey College for the basics on one of the others and get started on trying to learn it.
-[x] Shadowcloak
-[x] Doppleganger
[x] Enchantment: You're naturally talented at enchantment; so far, this just amounts to being able to make your desk meow for about an hour. See if you can improve on that, or at least figure out a way to make that useful.
[x] Qhaysh Juice: Whatever it is, it's dripping out of the box at a steady rate. You've got several gallons of the stuff and it's still coming out. It's got to be good for something.
-[x] Ranald's Blessing
[x] Internalized Lessons: Stewardship

Idea here is to work on addressing our backlog of research projects (snake juice!) and try to get Magic 5 in time for magister testing next turn. Next turn's plan would include internalizing Learning increases as well as, hopefully, continuing either enchantment or spell mastery research.

[ ] Plan Business Wizard

[ ] Use your reputation to build trade ties with Zhufbar.
[ ] Use your reputation to build trade ties with Karak Kadrin.
[ ] Use your friendship with Anton to build trade ties along the Nuln Road. - Overwork
[ ] Investigate whether Ostermark is building a Talabec-Stir canal near Karak Kadrin.
[ ] Expand the Gong Farmers into the rest of Western Stirland.
[ ] Sell the produced niter crystals as fertiliser in Stirland.

Plan here would be to make the best of our ability to commute and leveraging our reputation with the dwarfs to do meet & greets for the EIC (I recall the dwarfs considering neoptism to be a good thing, and while this isn't exactly that keeping business arraingements between aquaintences seems like something they'd prefer. Also helps Wilhelmina lock down dwarf goods trade (though does not ensure it, obviously). Followup turns would probably include diplomacy and stewardship training and possibly intelligence work with Julia. Selling fertilizer to Stirland is meant as a way for rising tides to raise a multitude of EIC-approved boats, while the Gong Farmer expansion sets us up for both extending the fertilizer option and should hopefully give us a bit of slack for having at least one facility that makes gunpowder. I imagine the place to try that is Blutdorf; Anton's a friend of ours (though hardly an exclusive title to hold) and his father is keenly interested in trade with Wissenland; having dwarf-quality powder is very likely something he'd be keen on.

I don't have a solid preference on free social actions, but would be happy to add one to either plan if there is a strong preference from other people.

Also, looking at towers, I begin to understand why so many wizards' keeps are depicted as 'towers everywhere', those things look handy. How many do we think we want? I'm sure at least a library tower, an enchantment tower and a 'casting magic/ritual' tower for sure. I could go on, but then it starts becoming indulgent.
 
You know everyone, it occurs to me that crystal niter is valuable, especially to dwarves. And it doesn't blow up as easy as gunpowder.

General recommendation:
Since:
2. Low Expectations: With most good candidates finding somewhere less... Stirland-y... to practice their trade, incompetence is expected and competence will be considered greatness.
is in effect, do NOT build a gunpowder factory in Stirland. It will likely blow up. Instead, best choice seems to be to Expand EIC trade to Zulfbar or another dwarf hold, and sell them the niter crystals, as they will appreciate their true value, unlike in the Empire.
 
DarkLight140 said:
Fair point. The reason that I put it into this turn is that Ranald's Blessing is incredibly high-demand and wanted it on the excavation action. Next turn we'll want it on the Magister exam, and after that there are essential magical concerns to soak it up- reading the Liber Mortis without the Blessing on it would be reckless in the extreme, and the juice investigation, fog magic development, any attempts at making significant enchanted items, and so forth all desperately need the Blessing.

If I were to concede that the Palace is nonessential for the moment and swap it out, which at the moment I don't, I'd go for Internalization- Intrigue. We did just go stalking and interrogating a cultist, that's worth some stat gains, and Intrigue is a rather important stat.

I want to include Ranald's Blessing on the juice study action and it's occupied this turn (see above). Expected study of the juice would be following our Magister exam on the first turn that we don't read Liber Mortis and thus have the Blessing to spare.
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Interesting foresight on the usage of the blessing, I'm quite impressed.

I wouldn't mind swapping the turns around either (Studying the Juice and then doing the Magister exam on the next turn) if we're unsure on if our magic is up to scratch.
 
Seventeen said:
Only because Stirland has terrible low standards. Why on Earth would you want to accept that for Mathilde?
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Because training fitness is much healthier for Mathilde and 14 stewardship is more than enough?

Edit: look at the stat list, diplomacy would make much more sense since it help migrates general hostility of being a wizard, as well as connecting to other humans something easily overlooked.

Article:
Diplomacy: 11+1-1-1=10 - You're social enough among your fellow wizards or the commoners you spent your youth around, but are slightly uncomfortable with anyone else.
Martial: 8+3+1+1+1+1+2+2=19 - You're no longer just a wizard that can wave a sword - you have become a warrior in your own right.
Stewardship: 10+3+1=14 - Your grasp of logistics and paperwork has shored up your ability to understand financial matters.
Intrigue: 14+2+1=17 - You've developed a somewhat frightening understanding of how to disassemble the human psyche.
Piety: 16+1=17 - You know implicitly that Ranald exists, and that he watches over you, and that he's actually kind of insufferable. Ranald finds this entertaining.
Learning: 17+1+1-1=18 - The more you learn of magic, the more you realize how ignorant everyone else is.
 
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@BoneyM, there's some stuff I wanted to ask about Mathilde's character.

Channelling a wind of magic changes a person over time not just physically but mentally. In the case of Ulgu, it makes its users "mysterious, puzzling, and fleeting". Mathilde seems completely sane, not yet having used so much that it warps her personality.

Does Mathilde like her sanity? Is it something she'd put effort into retaining as much as possible or is it something she's willing to partially give up on to become a more powerful wizard and use powerful spells?
 
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