Oh! Reow of poverty and fish that jump on deck; we should write out a will. Specify that the EIC shares and associated funds will revert to the elector count upon death or unpersoning of Mathilde. Make it very clear that we intend this to be for the good of the empire not us, even if we pointedly don't trust the stewardship of the current countess.
I'd also kinda love for Mathilde to pay her debt back, in person and in public, to Rosalita directly. We know she needs it, we don't, and we should get rid of cash asap. So let's be super petty about it.
What we probably need to do, is parley some College favour (maybe via people with Emperors Spymaster favour, hint hint Regimand?) into getting/forcing on Roswita a better Stewardship advisor.
If the balance of expertise between Roswitas Council and the EIC is redressed somewhat, that would probably head off the worst excesses, while Stirland is still bigger than the EIC.
I rather avoid that at the moment. While involving the College might help fix Roswita bad habits, their involvment might cause a lot of issues for not only Rowita council but also EIC. Last thing we want is the College finding out about EIC dangerous potential and nipping it at its bud by burning it to the ground. It doesn't help that this will play into Roswita paranoia and increase her fear for wizards, which is something that we don't want. This is a situation that require some finesse to it and the best person to deal with it would be Mathilde, since she is not only competent enough but also care enough about the people getting involved in this.
Anyway, I would say the EIC has... Not crossed any lines yet, but is getting precariously close to some and has a critical point of failure in the sense that if Wilhemina dies the whole thing is going to go up in smoke because few other chair-holders would have her integrity.
They aren't really a threat: we can smite the EIC at pretty much any moment, since it doesn't have a military. We should make sure it stays that way. But beyond that? It's pretty good if there's a company with a lot of cash that's ready to invest in both Stirland and K8P. It's capital we will need, particularly if we chose the steward job.
It's also kind of weird, the people who vote for the gun girl. Would Mathilde be willing to encourage Anton to marry a woman she doesn't really know anything about? I suppose we can say that she's trusting Wilhelmina's judgement on that, but given we've recently become concerned with Wilhelmina's judgement, that seems off.
You are Roswita Van Hal, Elector Countess of Stirland.
The pacification of Stirland continues apace. Building on the work of your father, and following the advice of your spymaster and grand marshal, you have continued the effort to as the peasants might put it "keep stomping".
Marshal Gustav is enthusiastic about the wide scale implementation of handgunners into the army and believes that effectiveness of handgunners will more than make up for the decrease in absolute number of troops. You know first-hand the value of a good gun in a tight spot, and are happy to agree with him.
Brother Kasamir reports that the people continue to be in relatively good spiritual health, and that the Blackguard of Morr are overwhelmingly happy with the continued excellent work in Sylvania itself. although he opines that you are still feeling the aftereffects of the victory at Drakenhof, and that more churches and priests are needed within Sylvania itself if that faith is to face true testing. Many still remember and fear their previous undead masters. Still this is not an urgent problem whilst the Unquiet dead are kept down.
Herr Schultz reports that erection of the new fortifications is proceeding on schedule. He also notes that the roads into Sylvania are in perfectly acceptable condition for present usage. You get the feeling he would very much like to receive an assignment that would have him remain in Wurtbad for a while. Or at least behind some city walls.
Your spymaster reports that he has unfortunately had no new leads on the location of Countess Gabriella von Bundebad. However, efforts to deny future Necromancers their troops by locating large concentrations of corpses for internment by the Blackguard of Morr have gone considerably better.
Last month you were struck with a tragedy as your steward, the former exciseman Fynn Hagel died after falling overboard from a barge whilst inspecting the latest efforts to stifle smuggling efforts in Stirland.
This is all the more unfortunate, as finding a replacement will take time and coin when the treasury is already tight. Although confiscations of smuggled goods, combined with recent sales of land in the formerly haunted hills, though at a lesser price than you had initially hoped, has helped somewhat ease the burden.
Status as of last briefing:
SMUGGLING: Secured against.
WEALTH OF STIRLAND: Moderate. Trending upwards
INCOME OF STIRLAND: Poor.
WEALTH OF SYLVANIA: Poor
INCOME OF SYLVANIA: Very poor
TREASURY OF STIRLAND & SYLVANIA: on the high side of poor.
Actions:
Martial:
[] Keep Stomping. Gustav has a high opinion of his new pistoleers. He is particularly proud of the strength and mobility of his mounted pistoleers. Tell him to keep the undead down.
[] A scouting effort. Sylvania doubtless still holds many threats within it's borders. Try and seek out knowledge of them.
[] Local Knowledge. Your efforts are being hampered by unfamiliarity with the areas involved. See if you can't recruit some more local talent to help you target things.
[] Pension them off. Maintaining the army at its present size is a significant drain on the treasury, however you worry about leaving the land less defended. However, you do have a decent amount of Sylvanian land remaining. Perhaps the latter could help the former. – Pensions off your veterans with new land in Sylvania. Reduces army size and upkeep. Slight boost to Sylvania province safety due to Old Soldiers keeping watch on their new lands. Reduces Sylvanian lands available for sale
Learning:
[X] LOCKED– Forts glorious forts. If you're going to hold Sylvania you'll doubtless need some forts sooner or later. Sooner is better.
[] Teach them – The people of Sylvania lag much behind the rest of the empire, holding even to an inherent distrust for gunpowder. Try and educate them.
[] Draining the swamp. Much of Sylvania is Marshland that hides dead things. Can anything be done about this?
[] Build them roads. Improve your road infrastructure further. Schultz looks particularly miserable at this prospect.
Piety:
[] Black Guard. The black guard of Morr has been very helpful, and it is their sacred duty to see the dead to their rest. See if you can't sponsor some more.
[] Wounded souls. Sylvania has suffered heavily under undead masters. See about saving some souls.
-[] City. The cities are your strongholds, and they must be bastions of faith in order to resist long held fear of the old night when it comes calling again.
-[] Countryside. Sylvania is a land of Dark Woods and Shadow Marshes. It takes a hardy soul to live away from the cities, where horrors may shamble across the moors at night. See about bolstering their spirits.
Intrigue
[X] LOCKED -Countess Gabriella von Bundebad. Find her, discover what she is so she can be ended.
[] An accident? Fynn Hagel, former exciseman apparently died by falling off a barge. You find this suspicious.
[] Corpse Caches. Whilst you can never find all the corpses in Sylvania, you can make it harder for a budding necromancer to find new minions in areas that might escape detection. Time and warning is a valuable thing.
[] The Witch, the mutant, the cultist. This is your spymaster's calling. Let him give it some extra attention.
Stewardship:
[] LOCKED Find a new advisor
[] Just keep selling. Sell more land in the Haunted hills
Personal:
[] Go Hunting. Sometimes you just want to fight the forces of disorder more personally. May increase reputation with martially inclined. Small chance of trait gain or loot.
[] Personal attention. Add your characteristic as a bonus to the rolls of a single action.
[] Speak with a Councilor
-[] Who?
[] Investigate a councilor
-[] Who
[] Ask the witchunters who raised you to investigate someone. - WARNING, May cause trouble if caught.
-[] Who? Your spymaster certifies himself as trustworthy.
-Your prayers have finally been answered. You can get a new stewardship advisor without Roswita's poor stewardship scores asking why you would do so.
-You may continue to sell land this turn without an advisor as the procedures are already in place. This does mean you don't have an advisor to actively manage things shoud the situation change however, so be careful.
-The various sales have meant that treasury reserves are actually not in a terrible position given your activities.
-Yes, it was still possible to get worse Stewardship advisors. Whatever you may think of him, Fynn did fulfil the mandate of getting you into a position where the treasury wasn't emptied out by the various military initiatives. I am still not telling you the roll that generated him.
-It may be possible to buy back the tax rights, although many of them will be at a mark-up. Some may have fallen in value though. Alternately, compulsory purchase is technically always an option, though one with obvious downsides.
-Don't forget you are still getting some income as people pay you from the farmed out tax rights. You will also need to re-establish the bureaucracy for taxing when you get them back.
-The EIC shares on the other hand are in the wind. You are not getting them back for love nor money. Well, maybe a lot of money.
-Technically you are still receiving income from the EIC in the form of debt repayments. I am warning you now OOC that any clever plans to call this in early (either to get a lump sum or force a default to give you shares) will not work.
-Accidents can happen. So can "Accidents". This death could be the result of either.
Got inspired by the latest update. I expect that negaverse players were literally screaming at the stewardship advisor they were stuck with. In this version, Roswita is facing a lot of bad choices in order to try and keep Sylvania down, and is too low stewardship to realise that her best option is to fire her current steward.
"Fynn" may or may not have been thrown overboard by a Grey order magister worried about a localised version of Dieter's reign.
I am imagining the Stirland troops return happens in the results part of this turn.
I mean, not everything is spiralling out of control yet, and probably won't so long as Wilhelmina is the one calling the shots, but if she suddenly died (keep a damn close eye on the sons) then we'd be far too close to a situation where the EIC shareholders can basically stage a coup 'd'état: we should get Wilhemena and Anton in a room and have a talk where we make it very clear that the EIC will, at the very least, agree to not be quite so eager to become stirland's economy, or at the most, get them to start shuttering the company, splitting some of it apart, moving some into the elector count's hands, etc.
We aren't anywhere near this level of power yet, not in the way these actions would imply. We've got a powerful position within Stirland, so?
Stirland competes with the rest of the Empire, which competes with the rest of the world. The EIC is a small fish in an ocean. It's something to keep an eye on, but since we haven't been sold taxation rights in perpetuity and aren't strangling the livelihoods of Stirlands citizens we're not the Kraken that such imagery might conjure.
If we take the Court wizard position would I be correct in my thoughts above that we could essentially hire a magister or journeymanlings as part of the position and therefore have the state budget of K8P involved?
Roswita doesn't like mages though and it is her prerogative to make poor financial decisions.
As long as nothing shady in general and in particular nothing Chaos or Vampire or some other clear baddie rears its head there doesn't seem to be much reason to intervene.
You missed the edit, where I suggest we'd parley our influence into someone else's with Imperial influence of some kind, and there is absolutely reason to look on the EIC with concern.
Mathilde was doing so in the update, after all, and Stirland remains her backyard (36%!)
Chaos or Vampires. Thats also missing the point. It's also not so much to stop Roswita mismanaging, its to make sure there's someone competent up there who will naturally want to keep the EIC aligned with the interests of Stirland and the Empire.
If that happens, there is less to worry about- if the Steward can keep Wilheimina in check, we don't need to. Win/win.
It's also kind of weird, the people who vote for the gun girl. Would Mathilde be willing to encourage Anton to marry a woman she doesn't really know anything about?
@BoneyM So I'm wondering, neither Thane Skaroki nor Head Ranger Ulthar can occupy positions as advisors. Are they going back to their holds, or do they occupy a different position that prevents them from being advisors to Belegar?
I must say, I'm pretty surprised that Court Wizard is the majority option here, particularly when one of the 2 best runelords of the entire Karaz Ankor is the alternative
I must say, I'm pretty surprised that Court Wizard is the majority option here, particularly when one of the 2 best runelords of the entire Karaz Ankor is the alternative
[STOP=So this is not okay at all]
So I'm sure that everyone participating in this thread is aware of the rules and guidlines of SV. But despite my certainty of this fact, it confuses me that things like this:
Are being stated on the site. So let me break this down real quick; this comment is a very hateful comment that's advocating genocide on an entire race. That's not okay. Regardless on whether or not this is a fictional race or a real one, that is not okay. So!
Because you like doing things like this, take 25 and a week off from the thread, since you couldn't even attempt to backtrack after being advised to do so by a moderator participating in the thread. Don't do it again.
As for everyone else...well, practice self-control and be kind with each other, and try to make sure things don't get out of hand in this thread guys.
[/STOP]
ok sorry but I am not arguing this or anything stupid like that.
Just asking for clarification.
Does this rule include races whos entire purpose is for the attempted genocide of other races? AKA the kind of race whos only purpose is to serve as the irredeemable evil race whos only purpose is to kill and destroy and biologically and genetically need warfare to survive as a species? (literally they gain sustenance from warfare!)
just asking this as I did not know the rule applied to that kind of species. I thought it only applied to species capable of anything other than war.
I intended to eventually include this as an option in my own quest to wipe out the Grimm after all who also tick off all these boxes. Not the exact method but genocide nonetheless.
Stewardship Advisor, Trade Focus You will be in command of the Undumgi and Karag Nar, and will be first point of contact for Ulrikadrin. You would be responsible for protecting the incredibly vital route back to Barak Varr; the side benefit is that if Death Pass is a safe passage, trade caravans to the Far East become merely very risky instead of insanely dangerous, and the Karak would stand to benefit hugely. Other candidates for the position are Princess Edda Grimbrow, who would emphasize a traditional Dwarven artisanal economy; Miner Durgrim Redmane, who would emphasize a mining-based economy; and Priestess Hluodwica Stoutheart, who would emphasize an agricultural economy. Keep in mind that these parts of the economy will still be functioning even if they aren't emphasized, and you will be able to choose whether you bring them under your purview or allow them to function independently.
Underlined. The reverse of this should also be true even if someone else handles Stewardship: trading and caravan stuff will continue to happen. Mathilde, as a Knight and a powerful Wizard and the inhabitant of Karag Nar's penthouse will still have a LOT of influence in that area, it would just have to be part of her "side-projects" rather than her focus. Like the Niter Factory. And if the Steward tries to fold it all into their purview or restrict trade for some reason, Mathilde could assist or try to talk them down.
It's highly unlikely to be an all-or-nothing proposition. If there's any weird or mystical goings-on along the trade routes, the Court Wizard would be obliged to investigate as well.
You are Roswita Van Hal, Elector Countess of Stirland.
The pacification of Stirland continues apace. Building on the work of your father, and following the advice of your spymaster and grand marshal, you have continued the effort to as the peasants might put it "keep stomping".
Marshal Gustav is enthusiastic about the wide scale implementation of handgunners into the army and believes that effectiveness of handgunners will more than make up for the decrease in absolute number of troops. You know first-hand the value of a good gun in a tight spot, and are happy to agree with him.
Brother Kasamir reports that the people continue to be in relatively good spiritual health, and that the Blackguard of Morr are overwhelmingly happy with the continued excellent work in Sylvania itself. although he opines that you are still feeling the aftereffects of the victory at Drakenhof, and that more churches and priests are needed within Sylvania itself if that faith is to face true testing. Many still remember and fear their previous undead masters. Still this is not an urgent problem whilst the Unquiet dead are kept down.
Herr Schultz reports that erection of the new fortifications is proceeding on schedule. He also notes that the roads into Sylvania are in perfectly acceptable condition for present usage. You get the feeling he would very much like to receive an assignment that would have him remain in Wurtbad for a while. Or at least behind some city walls.
Your spymaster reports that he has unfortunately had no new leads on the location of Countess Gabriella von Bundebad. However, efforts to deny future Necromancers their troops by locating large concentrations of corpses for internment by the Blackguard of Morr have gone considerably better.
Last month you were struck with a tragedy as your steward, the former exciseman Fynn Hagel died after falling overboard from a barge whilst inspecting the latest efforts to stifle smuggling efforts in Stirland.
This is all the more unfortunate, as finding a replacement will take time and coin when the treasury is already tight. Although confiscations of smuggled goods, combined with recent sales of land in the formerly haunted hills, though at a lesser price than you had initially hoped, has helped somewhat ease the burden.
Status as of last briefing:
SMUGGLING: Secured against.
WEALTH OF STIRLAND: Moderate. Trending upwards
INCOME OF STIRLAND: Poor.
WEALTH OF SYLVANIA: Poor
INCOME OF SYLVANIA: Very poor
TREASURY OF STIRLAND & SYLVANIA: on the high side of poor.
Actions:
Martial:
[] Keep Stomping. Gustav has a high opinion of his new pistoleers. He is particularly proud of the strength and mobility of his mounted pistoleers. Tell him to keep the undead down.
[] A scouting effort. Sylvania doubtless still holds many threats within it's borders. Try and seek out knowledge of them.
[] Local Knowledge. Your efforts are being hampered by unfamiliarity with the areas involved. See if you can't recruit some more local talent to help you target things.
[] Pension them off. Maintaining the army at its present size is a significant drain on the treasury, however you worry about leaving the land less defended. However, you do have a decent amount of Sylvanian land remaining. Perhaps the latter could help the former. – Pensions off your veterans with new land in Sylvania. Reduces army size and upkeep. Slight boost to Sylvania province safety due to Old Soldiers keeping watch on their new lands. Reduces Sylvanian lands available for sale
Learning:
[X] LOCKED– Forts glorious forts. If you're going to hold Sylvania you'll doubtless need some forts sooner or later. Sooner is better.
[] Teach them – The people of Sylvania lag much behind the rest of the empire, holding even to an inherent distrust for gunpowder. Try and educate them.
[] Draining the swamp. Much of Sylvania is Marshland that hides dead things. Can anything be done about this?
[] Build them roads. Improve your road infrastructure further. Schultz looks particularly miserable at this prospect.
Piety:
[] Black Guard. The black guard of Morr has been very helpful, and it is their sacred duty to see the dead to their rest. See if you can't sponsor some more.
[] Wounded souls. Sylvania has suffered heavily under undead masters. See about saving some souls.
-[] City. The cities are your strongholds, and they must be bastions of faith in order to resist long held fear of the old night when it comes calling again.
-[] Countryside. Sylvania is a land of Dark Woods and Shadow Marshes. It takes a hardy soul to live away from the cities, where horrors may shamble across the moors at night. See about bolstering their spirits.
Intrigue
[X] LOCKED -Countess Gabriella von Bundebad. Find her, discover what she is so she can be ended.
[] An accident? Fynn Hagel, former exciseman apparently died by falling off a barge. You find this suspicious.
[] Corpse Caches. Whilst you can never find all the corpses in Sylvania, you can make it harder for a budding necromancer to find new minions in areas that might escape detection. Time and warning is a valuable thing.
[] The Witch, the mutant, the cultist. This is your spymaster's calling. Let him give it some extra attention.
Stewardship:
[] LOCKED Find a new advisor
[] Just keep selling. Sell more land in the Haunted hills
Personal:
[] Go Hunting. Sometimes you just want to fight the forces of disorder more personally. May increase reputation with martially inclined. Small chance of trait gain or loot.
[] Personal attention. Add your characteristic as a bonus to the rolls of a single action.
[] Speak with a Councilor
-[] Who?
[] Investigate a councilor
-[] Who
[] Ask the witchunters who raised you to investigate someone. - WARNING, May cause trouble if caught.
-[] Who? Your spymaster certifies himself as trustworthy.
-Your prayers have finally been answered. You can get a new stewardship advisor without Roswita's poor stewardship scores asking why you would do so.
-You may continue to sell land this turn without an advisor as the procedures are already in place. This does mean you don't have an advisor to actively manage things shoud the situation change however, so be careful.
-The various sales have meant that treasury reserves are actually not in a terrible position given your activities.
-Yes, it was still possible to get worse Stewardship advisors. Whatever you may think of him, Fynn did fulfil the mandate of getting you into a position where the treasury wasn't emptied out by the various military initiatives. I am still not telling you the roll that generated him.
-It may be possible to buy back the tax rights, although many of them will be at a mark-up. Some may have fallen in value though. Alternately, compulsory purchase is technically always an option, though one with obvious downsides.
-Don't forget you are still getting some income as people pay you from the farmed out tax rights. You will also need to re-establish the bureaucracy for taxing when you get them back.
-The EIC shares on the other hand are in the wind. You are not getting them back for love nor money. Well, maybe a lot of money.
-Technically you are still receiving income from the EIC in the form of debt repayments. I am warning you now OOC that any clever plans to call this in early (either to get a lump sum or force a default to give you shares) will not work.
-Accidents can happen. So can "Accidents". This death could be the result of either.
Got inspired by the latest update. I expect that negaverse players were literally screaming at the stewardship advisor they were stuck with. In this version, Roswita is facing a lot of bad choices in order to try and keep Sylvania down, and is too low stewardship to realise that her best option is to fire her current steward.
"Fynn" may or may not have been thrown overboard by a Grey order magister worried about a localised version of Dieter's reign.
I am imagining the Stirland troops return happens in the results part of this turn.
The idea of her putting a ton of effort into hunting down Gabriella is hilarious. Even better, the Grey Order almost certainly know about it and just don't want to admit to disappearing her.
@BoneyM So I'm wondering, neither Thane Skaroki nor Head Ranger Ulthar can occupy positions as advisors. Are they going back to their holds, or do they occupy a different position that prevents them from being advisors to Belegar?
ok sorry but I am not arguing this or anything stupid like that.
Just asking for clarification.
Does this rule include races whos entire purpose is for the attempted genocide of other races? AKA the kind of race whos only purpose is to serve as the irredeemable evil race whos only purpose is to kill and destroy and biologically and genetically need warfare to survive as a species? (literally they gain sustenance from warfare!)
just asking this as I did not know the rule applied to that kind of species. I thought it only applied to species capable of anything other than war.
Let me be clear. It is no adequate defense to say that a race or group in fiction was written to be entirely evil or irredeemable or that it exists only to be an acceptable target for killing. Nor is it adequate to say that they "can't be anything other than what they are". Not so long ago, those very arguments were used to justify the enslavement and torture of blacks and other minorities in our own world - and undoubtedly they will continue to be used to justify horrors.
In short, fiction is a choice. The way characters, individuals, groups, races, ethnicities and religions are written is a choice of the author. It is not fixed in stone. If the author decides to create a black-and-white caricature for the purpose of doing violence to it, that is unacceptable.
As we have said before, this is a particularly sensitive issue in quests, where we expect the QMs to keep a fairly firm handle not only on their own writing, but also on their community participation to prevent it from drifting into unacceptable areas.
I have handed out a few infractions but I want it to be clear that this is a warning to everyone that if this behavior reoccurs, I will take stronger action.
ok sorry but I am not arguing this or anything stupid like that.
Just asking for clarification.
Does this rule include races whos entire purpose is for the attempted genocide of other races? AKA the kind of race whos only purpose is to serve as the irredeemable evil race whos only purpose is to kill and destroy and biologically and genetically need warfare to survive as a species? (literally they gain sustenance from warfare!)
just asking this as I did not know the rule applied to that kind of species. I thought it only applied to species capable of anything other than war.
I intended to eventually include this as an option in my own quest to wipe out the Grimm after all who also tick off all these boxes. Not the exact method but genocide nonetheless.
For the foreseeable future we will be in Karag Eight Peaks, home to dwarves, halflings, Ulricans, and former mercenaries.
Mathilde has casted strong doubt on the possibility of marrying a dwarf, which I see as the most likely group for a character to come out of that will be generally well received by everyone.
Who exactly are people expecting to find later down the line? Marrying for love is all well and good, but I'm afraid that a perfect candidate scarcely exist, and should not be relied on.
The same rejection happen with Abelhelm, and I fairly certain that he will continue to be the most popular love interest for Mathilde, and he's dead, and staying dead.
It all seems to be pointing towards a celibate protagonist. Which is fine. It just seems the most likely outcome, barring, of course, a dwarf whose interested in that stuff.
I do hope Anton will be happy with gun lady. He's a charming guy. He'll win her over.
ow of poverty and fish that jump on deck; we should write out a will. Specify that the EIC shares and associated funds will revert to the elector count upon death or unpersoning of Mathilde. Make it very clear that we intend this to be for the good of the empire not us, even if we pointedly don't trust the stewardship of the current countess.
