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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Rakuhn said:
I think that we need to do two key things in regards to the EIC:
-Pay off our debt immediatly. The debt was offered in good faith on the assumption that we wouldn't be able to pay if off for a long time. We should return the good faith that we've fallen into good fortune, and thus protect purselves against accusations of greed or manipulation.
-Direct the EIC to pay a yearly fee for the right to tax farm. What they've done so far is legal, but the Empire has a monopoly of force. Stirland is going to need the continuous tax revenue to guard the Empire, and the Empire might decide that the contract isn't as important as Stirland's strength.
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I don't think the Empire has that much centralised authority, and is currently altogether too busy with the religious kerfuffle going on at the moment anyway.
 
Candesce said:
i. e., we're probably going to have to spend the occasional action making sure nothing's gone rotten while we're not looking, but we probably don't need more than that, yet.

It's probably worthwhile to include the EIC as one of the things we're keeping an eye on when we put together a spy network in K8P; that probably saves us action in the long run, the EIC is going to be involved in a bunch of the other stuff we'll want to keep eyes on, and it won't exactly be hard to do, given we'll more-or-less be in charge of the K8P branch and it's unlikely the various branches will be isolated from each other.

... We might also want to keep an eye on Julia, too, but I think we're not as well placed for that, and there's less risk of (perceived) impropriety on our part.
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I mean, we're the primary owner of the EIC, and it wouldn't even be remiss given our ownership and our background to sort of create an internal affairs department that reports directly to us. Wouldn't be difficult to get regular updates if an EIC office opens at K8P, and it's mere existence would be one hell of a reminder that Mathilde might not be there, but she's watching. Bonus points if we set it up with Anton and Wilhelmina before hand to guarantee its' authority before our bloc risks any loss of control.

As for Julia she isn't really our responsibility right now and one would hope the veteran Witchhunter Roswita has advising her (and she shouldn't be terrible at it either) can keep abreast of one of his chief lieutenants.
 
Ugh, why is there so much thread to catch up on.

[x] Marry me…
- [x] Soon.
[X] Stay single. Marry for love.

[X] 'Head Ranger' (Spymaster), Internal Focus
[X] 'Head Ranger' (Spymaster), External Focus
[X] Steward

Have a vote in the meantime.
 
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[X] Stay single. Marry for love.

Reinhild seems like she's not going to fuck with Anton and need a visit to their bedroom in the dead of night, so that seems nice. Wilhelmina is already aware of the consequences of getting too greedy so she doesn't need to be threatened, which is also nice.

EDIT: Yeah, I've been convinced that Anton deserves better.

As for Mathilde as a candidate, I'm still holding out hope that the thread comes to its senses and elects to bring back Van Hal, or perhaps for Kasmir to flex that renewed Piety and prod Sigmar into not being so shit.

[X] Court Wizard

In the medium term, I think the Stewardship position is a place where we can have a great deal of impact but in the long term, I think continuing to make Mathilde get swole would be better.

Rakuhn said:
-Direct the EIC to pay a yearly fee for the right to tax farm. What they've done so far is legal, but the Empire has a monopoly of force. Stirland is going to need the continuous tax revenue to guard the Empire, and the Empire might decide that the contract isn't as important as Stirland's strength.
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Nah, a lump sum for two years is a pretty good deal for Stirland, especially considering that the economic boom hasn't hit quite just yet and having the EIC to spur it on would help them out anyway.

If it comes down to it, they could take a low interest loan from the company to tide them over during their cleansing operations, then begin to repay it once Stirland really starts feeling that Silk Road trade and they have taxation again.
 
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Yeah, 'monopoly of force' by 'the Empire' doesn't seem right at all.
Ask Grand Master Ruprecht, or the Knights or Morr, or the Ar-Ulric, or the Elector counts facing off in Nordland...
 
Just make sure our friend knows she is on notice. Exploiting bad decisions is reasonable. Just make certain that she does not encourage any of them.
 
[x] Marry me…
-[x] Soon.
[X] Stay single. Marry for love.

[X] 'Head Ranger' (Spymaster), Internal Focus
[X] 'Head Ranger' (Spymaster), External Focus
[X] Steward
 
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WanderingEye said:
1. Selling part of our share (5%?)
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Currently, our shares are a lot of our leverage against the EIC going out of control. I'd prefer not to hand any of it over to Roswita until we're sure she won't do something stupid with it like sell it back to Wilhelmina.

After all, if her council was on the ball, this wouldn't be an issue in the first place.

... Also, be careful giving Elector Counts large gifts. It might not be taken the way you want it to be.
 
Actually~~~ Can we transfer some of our shares to friendly churches? Get some favor from share and observer in EIC.
 
Rakuhn said:
I think that we need to do two key things in regards to the EIC:
-Pay off our debt immediatly. The debt was offered in good faith on the assumption that we wouldn't be able to pay if off for a long time. We should return the good faith that we've fallen into good fortune, and thus protect purselves against accusations of greed or manipulation.
-Direct the EIC to pay a yearly fee for the right to tax farm. What they've done so far is legal, but the Empire has a monopoly of force. Stirland is going to need the continuous tax revenue to guard the Empire, and the Empire might decide that the contract isn't as important as Stirland's strength.
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WanderingEye said:
About EIC:

I think we need to do something about this, how do people feel if we like, negotiate somethings with Roswita? Maybe

1. Selling part of our share (5%?)
So they might have small income still, even though this could be taken as we making them dependent on us

2. Sell back some of the taxation rights
let's be honest, they probably need it more than we need and it neatly solves any potential problem that might arise in the future.
plus we are making a branch in K8P, that'll make more profit and hopefully covers any loss we might have get.

I imagine with Wilhemina and Anton on our side, negotiating with Roswita should be not too difficult.
(I'm thinking of with either of options, we would get some sum of money/Stirland will owe use some sum of money with small amount of interest)
Eitherway that should solve the problem of EIC getting too big and powerful methinks.
Opinions?
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None of these are needed.
1. The Debt, we are paying it off exactly the way it was intended. It binds us to the empire and gives Stirland recurring revenue for a while.

2. The Tax Deal, is only for two years. There's no problem here, Stirland regains tax rights by default and were paid well for the privilege.

3. Selling Our Shares, Stirland is fully capable of purchasing shares if the government wants to, there is no reason for us to sell them ours. Nor is it in anyone's interest that we do, since our shares allow us to comfortably influence the EIC before it starts messing with things better left alone or if Wilhemina's sons decide to be fuck-ups.
 
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Robotninja said:
Just make sure our friend knows she is on notice. Exploiting bad decisions is reasonable. Just make certain that she does not encourage any of them.
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I think the issue with this is that we're the biggest shareholder now and well, as a member of Grey Wizard, we probably under more scrutiny and this would make us look bad I think.

veekie said:
Bad idea. We're better off waiting for her to realize the treasury is running dry and doing a white knight investment.

Shares and assets not in cash given to her get used up to smite evil, not make money
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Candesce said:
Currently, our shares are a lot of our leverage against the EIC going out of control. I'd prefer not to hand any of it over to Roswita until we're sure she won't do something stupid with it like sell it back to Wilhelmina.

After all, if her council was on the ball, this wouldn't be an issue in the first place.

... Also, be careful giving Elector Counts large gifts. It might not be taken the way you want it to be.
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qwolfs said:
None of these are needed.
1. The Debt, we are paying it off exactly the way it was intended. It binds us to the empire and gives Stirland recurring revenue for a while.

2. The Tax Deal, is only for two years. There's no problem here, Stirland regains tax rights by default and were paid well for the privilege.

3. Selling Our Shares, Stirland is fully capable of purchasing shares if the government wants to, there is no reason for us to sell them ours. Nor is it in anyone's interest that we do, since our shares allow us to comfortably influence the EIC before it starts messing with things better left alone or if Wilhemina's sons decide to fuck-ups.
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Ah I missed the two year thing, but yeah good point on the shares.
conceded I guess
 
Selling our shares is a bad idea. Our shares are the primary reason why we can so easily dismantle the EIC if we wanted to. To reduce the shares we own means it'd be more difficult to bring down the organisation if it turns into something bad.
 
That was fun to catch up to.

[X] Steward

Ultimately I think this is how we can best support The Empire and Belebro at the same time. If anything does come up we can dedicate an Action or two to making A Peak Scream In Fear.


BoneyM said:
IIRC, the more mundane lessons available in the Grey College were purchasable in favours or gold, but the exact figure escapes me.
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What would lessons in Diplomacy/Stewardship/Intrigue cost us in Gold?
 
Just wanted to say something about the current situation we are in. While we know that the EIC has gained a tad too much power for our liking, we still need to remember that the EIC was and is still beneficial for us and Stirland. It is not some kind of corrupt organization like the Stirlandian Guild that takes advantage of the people, it's an organization that we made with our trusted allies to help us get a profit and better Stirland. Yes, there is a possibility that EIC might go rogue and cause headaches, but in the same time, we also want to ensure that it keeps flourishing. Because by the end of the day, while it is a big and scary beast of an organization, it is our big and scary beast and it would be remiss of us to cause its downfall if we can help it.

As for being a court wizard, while being able to assist Belegar with more esoteric threats is pretty good, the position also allows us the best place to help grow a magical community in K8P. The engineering guild will still be able to function and develop itself through the resources that Thorgrim granted, while Kragg and Karak Azul runepriests already resulted in a pretty decent amount of runepriests present and able to assist. With that, the only one that is really lacking is the human magical community that has only been managed by us at the moment. By taking this position, we would gain more resource and actual support from Belegar to invite more journeymanlings or perpetual apprentice to K8P.

Also, in regards to the Steward, while I like the options we can do with it, I feel that it can still do fine without us leading it. Yes, the trade will probably not be as good if we are not in the steward position, but it's not going to be non-existent. Same in regards with the other positions. The people under Belegar are quite competent in their own rights and they have been proven to be so over the course of the expedition. Hence, this is why I wanted to support court wizard even more, because it is the one position that practically nobody could take upon (Johann probably, but dude rather poke dead rats than help dorfs) other than us who has the influence, talent, and resources to make this work.
 
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It seems like taking up position as Steward and outright using the EIC as our tool for information gathering would be a logical, simple and efficient method of both achieving our goals and keeping it in line.

Also makes being a filthy rich CEO not too much of a problem, Mathilde herself noted the information would be more valuable than the profits.

[X] Steward
 
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[X] Stay single. Marry for love.

[X] No role

there a pile of snake juice, a book that burning a hole into the ground and other junk

i want them finish and not dilly dallying around being useless
 
BoneyM said:
"Do tell Magister Johann to stop playing silly buggers. He can poke at the ratties if he really must, but it's unseemly to play pretend with our allies."
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What did I say? What did I say?
Imrix said:
Oh please, Johann is clearly a Magister gone off the books for the sake of plausible deniability due to the physical and political risk. This way if he succeeds he can go back home and submit a report about the advanced technology of ratmen that will be dismissed with chuckles about the naivety of students, before the higher-ups turn to the samples and allow that they are quite interesting, probably of corrupted dwarf manufacture. 'Journeyman Johann' will be written off as too willing to believe in wild stories, but has a keen eye for technical analysis if something real is put in front of him, and Magister Not!Johann will get hearty backslaps and free drinks behind closed doors.
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[X] Marry me...
- [X] Soon.

Here's a thing I've learned: Love is not a feeling. Love is a choice.

Ask anybody who's been married ten, twenty years. That first flush of passion fades. What keeps people together is a choice, a commitment, to stay together and work it out. You can't keep that flame going forever - but the difference between couples who part and couples who make the long haul is, when the flame goes out, do they accept that and walk away, or do they talk, and find what broke and what's changed, and find new reasons to stay, or rediscover old reasons.

Love is something you build. Time after time, stone upon stone.

Anton is kind, and cute, he knows who he is and he knows who we are. Is that love? No, but it's a firm foundation to build love upon, and how appropriate is that, when Mathilde is clearly going to be living among dwarfs for the foreseeable future?
 
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