[X] Plan Enjoy The Peace While We Can
-[X] Dog Knights: Cost: 600. Time: One Year. Reward: Diamond Dog Knights.
-[X] Elder Statesgryph: Cost: 100. Time: One Year. Reward: Elva Retires, New Diplomacy Advisor, New Actions Unlocked.
-[X] Ahoy me Buckos!: Cost: 300. Time: One Year. Reward: Diplomatic Relations with Libertalia, Peace Agreement, Further Actions Unlocked. Chance of Success: 70%.
-[X] Rail Network: Cost: 1500. Time: Four Years. Reward: National Freight Railway Network Constructed. Increased Tax Income. New Options Unlocked.
-[X] Sea Mines: Cost: 500. Time: One Year. Reward: Naval Mines Developed.
-[X] Crystal Heart Studies: Cost: 300. Time: One Year. Reward: Information on the Crystal Heart, Additional Actions Unlocked.
-[X] Arming the Abolitionists: Cost: 700. Time: One Year. Reward: Abolitionists gain access to quality weapons and armor. Chance of Success: 60%
-[X] Stirring up Trouble: You've gotten your people back, but you're not quite finished with Maretonia. You and your people aren't comfortable sharing a border with a kingdom of slavers, and the abolitionists, riding high on their success, are jonesing to take further action against the Maretonian nobility, with or without your support. Ravenburg and Ambrosia have been sending a flurry of secret missives back and forth, exchanging ideas and opinions, and have come up with a complicated series of interlocking plans meant to spread disorder and discord throughout Maretonia by spreading misinformation and sowing strife between the rival noble houses of the realm. If the plan works, Queen Mareia and her vassals will be too busy searching for traitors and schemers amongst themselves to worry about you and their escaped property. You might even be able to leverage the situation to get some of the Abolitionists into greater positions of power and usurp some of the biggest slaveowners in Maretonia. It's worth a shot at least. Cost: 600. Time: Two Years. Reward: Maretonian nobility discredited/at each other's throats, Abolitionists gain more power and influence, Maretonia becomes less concerned about Gryphus. Chance of Success: 55%
-[X] Crystal Pastimes: Pearl, much like her siblings before her, has found her attentions divided and her passions unfocused. She's in need of a hobby to occupy her time. What manner of time-sink shall you guide her towards, and what skills shall she gain from it? Cost: 0. Time: One Year. Reward: Gleaming Pearl gains a Hobby/Stat Modifier
-[X] A Question of Faith: Cost: 300. Time: One Year. Reward: Council of Faiths Interlude. Chance to unlock Piety Category.
-[X] Getting to Know You: Cost: 0. Time: One Year. Reward: Gawain Improves Relationship with a Friend, May Lead to Further Developments and Benefits Down the Road. (Does not cost an Action. May only develop one relationship per Turn)
—[X] Isabelle Brissette: Brochard's Niece is not what you'd expected...then again you're not really sure what you'd have expected her to be like. You're proud of your son for looking beyond her family's past. Hopefully he can help her come out of her shell a bit.
Instead of going to War with Maretonia, let's make it tear itself apart on the inside. We're objectively an bigger threat to Maretonia than Maretonia is to us, so unless we directly provoke them, I don't think they'll be wanting to go to go to war while their nobles are at each others throats.
Plus, I want to drop another reason I think the Heist shouldn't be done until we've discovered and talked to these allies of Maretonia. We have no idea if Maretonia is an ally, just a trade partner, an ally of convenience, or what.
By doing the Hiest, we are putting a chip on our back in regards to future dealings with this new civilisation. It would nuke our relationship with them if they ever found out we helped raid one of their ships.
Plus, if attacking a trade ship will serve as a valid reason to go to war for Maretonia, then it sure as hell will serve as one for the actual owners of the ship.
I know pirate heists are cool guys, but this option is the ecquivlant of seeing a diamond in a raging fire and sticking our hand in the fire to grab it. Sure we could get out with only a few tiny burns, but there is a higher chance of us coming out with an heavily burnt hand and no diamond. If we're going to stick our hand in the fire, I want to go in prepared.
That means putting Maretonia into dissarray internally and figuring out who these traders are. Like... for all we know we could be stealing a potential future allies stuff. Like, what if it turns out that this trade partner of Maretonia is actually an military power? We could very easily be jabbing a tiger in the eye here, resulting in us fighting against another nation as well here.
Please hold your ponies on the Heist until we've done basic intel gathering and recon on this new factor. Next turn we'll send out scouts in the direction of these Allies of Maretonia, all the while laying the groundwork for the Hiest with more intrigue options setting Maretonia into internal chaos. If these allies also turn out to be slave traders or hostile, then we can go ahead with the Hiest. If they turn out to be more neutral, we can try and turn them against Maretonia, making it a 4 V 1 situation rather than a 3 V 2. But that option will be jeopardised by us helping literal pirates steal their stuff and inevitably attack their citizens on that trade vessel.
