So this is a tentative plan, with some alternatives. Any feedback would be appreciated.
[X] Plan Preparations for Spring
@notbirdofprey
-[X] Issue Command (House Manderly): To send shipwrights to aid House Mormont in their fleet construction. Resources devoted to this: Eddard to make the most of his relationship to Lord Manderly (his grandfather) and Lord Mormont (father of his betrothed); 300 Gold, 1 influence.
-[X] Issue Command (Western Lords): Establish Shipyards at (Bear Island). Resources devoted to this: Edwyle to make the most of his relationship with Lord Glover (father of his betrothed); 750 Gold.
-[X] Gifted Warriors: There are nearly a thousand wargs in Wintertown, and more scattered about your lands. There are a few hundred men and women blessed with incredible strength, albeit not to the level of the Mormont berserkers. There are people who can heal with a touch, people who can steal the courage of their foes with a song…the blessings of the Old Gods are many and mighty. Brandon intends to organize some of the Gifted into a force to be reckoned with upon the battlefield, or possibly in the more strategic sense. He has filled papers with possible uses for wargs alone – everything from delivering messages to using armored bulls as living battering rams. Time: 3 seasons. Cost: 600 gold, upkeep. DC: 55. Reward: Some sort of Gifted force attached to Winterfell guard. Type will be determined by dice rolls.
In think next turn we will want to build a fleet at Torren's Lake.
@notbirdofprey Will that still meet the deadline for their Power Block quest?
-[X] Matters of Trade: Some of the other peoples of the world are amenable to trading with you at least. Northern steel and wool crosses the Narrow Sea and travels southward, and food and salt and fine goods from Essos and Westeros come north. House Manderly has grown fat off this trade and your coffers benefit as well. Formalizing your relationships with your trading partners and ensuring dockyard inspectors are not being…problematic will strengthen the flow, although you suspect for the moment value is leaving the north rather than coming to it – wool returns as cloth and fine tapestries, timber as furniture. Only steel and silver and copper and gold arrives in a form less valuable then it leaves. Time: 2 seasons. Cost: 200 gold. DC: 40/80. Reward: Formalized, normalized trade agreements. Increase to trade/ Favorable trade agreements. Substantial increase to trade.
-[X] Speak to Pyrite: The Rite in the Vale is something of a concern, as is the sudden presence of beastmen and House Upcliff. While your relationship with the Vale is generally fairly good, it is not good enough to get the sort of information you need by going through Queen Sharra, so you must speak to Pyrite, who is still loyal to you in many ways. Even though he has been reluctant to broach many of these subjects in detail, if you ask he will surely tell you, right? Time: 1 season. Cost: 20 gold. DC: 70. Reward: Partial information about the Vale ritual, Lord Upcliff, and the beastmen.
--[X] DOUBLE DOWN on Speaking to Pyrite
Matters of Trade has the side benefit of helping the Manderlys achieve their goal which should help with gaining better artisans, plus they should be happy with us, making them more amenable to our command to help the Mormonts. Try and get a little more info on what is happening in the Vale. We might also want to consider how we can do something to benefit Pyrite, or at least benefit the Royces, which Pyrite can take credit for.
-[X] From Wool To Yarn: You have arranged for a sheep farming business that is doing well enough, but you want to improve it. Selling yarn is much more valuable than selling raw wool. Hire some more workers and have them scour and card the raw wool and make it into yarn to sell. Time: 2 seasons. Cost: 300 gold. DC: 55. Reward: Increase to trade.
-[X] Water and Steel: Construct waterwheels by the Royal Forges, and link them to enormous hammers, allowing the metal to be beaten with greater force and more regularity than is humanly possible. Most likely the main use will be for helping to process ore for the smelters and for producing more wrought iron. It will not revolutionize smithing, but it will make iron cheaper and increase the amount of good quality metal in the North, and neither is a bad thing. Time: 2 seasons. Cost: 200 gold. DC: 30. Reward: Increase to trade income, increase to farming income.
Tis not the season to focus on trees, seed drills, etc. Making yarn, and improving our steelyards seem the best plan. Prepare for eventually developing a textile mill, and expand the use of water power.
-[X] Improving Rivers: Not all rivers are suitable to place waterwheels on. Some don't have the necessary current to drive a wheel, some don't have a steep enough drop, some are simply to narrow. There are beasts which can shape the water to their needs – most prominently beavers, which are admittedly rare through much of the North. But if they can do it, surely men can as well? Time: 3 seasons. Cost: 600 gold. DC: 65. Reward: Dams, weirs, and mill ponds. New actions unlocked.
-[X] Valyrian Steel Link: Have Archmaester Wyllym send you some trustworthy acolytes with a Valyrian steel link or two to help make sense of all these new magics and study some of the examples of more hostile magic such as the skin you found on the sea. Time: 1 season. Cost: 300 gold. DC: 70. Reward: New actions unlocked, bonus to some Piety and Learning actions, further attention from Citadel.
I think we should continue along the water power path, we actually have a loot of rivers, so it should be good for us.
-[X] Strange Magics: Frost has heard reports of strange and dangerous magic in the Westerlands and on the sea, not to mention whatever is going on in Harrenhal and the Riverlands in general. And of course, there is the ritual in the Vale, although that is probably far less hostile than the other examples. He does not know them, or how to counter them, and so he intends to retreat to Castle Green for a time to contemplate what they could be and visit the sea to try and make his own judgment on this skin as well. You have your suspicions, which you have shared, but unless you examine it again you will not be able to confirm them. And you need more skill for that…Time: 3 seasons. Cost: 50 gold. DC: 60. Reward: Information about the Beasts of the Westerlands and the skin on the ocean.
-[X] Further Afield (Essos): You have ways of hearing what happens in the immediate south, but now you find yourself concerned with what's happening even further away. Pick a kingdom or nation and let Snow get to work. Time: 2 seasons. Cost: 100 gold. DC: Varies. Reward: Rumor mill for chosen location.
-[X] Further Afield (Iron Islands): You have ways of hearing what happens in the immediate south, but now you find yourself concerned with what's happening even further away. Pick a kingdom or nation and let Snow get to work. Time: 2 seasons. Cost: 100 gold. DC: Varies. Reward: Rumor mill for chosen location.
Lets start getting our rumor mills set up more broadly.
-[X] The God's Eyes: While you can open the God's Eyes more or less at will now, it can be difficult to keep them open, especially in places full of magic like Winterfell. You also suspect you are missing a great deal of nuance when you look at people or more complicated items like your crown, which just looks like plain metal. Or that skin, which makes you shudder whenever you think of it. Further practice could also extend how long you can use this gift. Time: 1 season. Cost: 0. DC: 70. Reward: Greater control and skill with the God's Eyes, more information about the skin.
-[X] Train Your Children (Diplomacy): You have been making your sons go to lessons like green boys. Now it is time to teach them like men. Have them learn by shadowing you, by leading their own projects, and by discussion. You'll probably rely a lot on history for those discussions, ones you remember having with your own father as he taught you the arts of persuasion and deception. You will have to decide what to focus on teaching your sons of course. Time: 3 seasons. Cost: 0. DC: 55. Reward: Eddard's and Edwyle's stats improve, chance of trait, chance of your stats improving.
Picking Diplomacy since it's one of the few places Eddard is weak, plus it will also help strengthen Edwyle (giving him a place to serve as his brother's diplomacy adviser). Also hopefully it will synergize with what we are doing with the Manderlys and Mormonts. Plus we get to spend time with our wife while doing it. Just a win win all around.
Picked God's Eyes and Strange Magics since that skin on the water is a sure sign we will have to deal with hostile magic during the attack on the Iron Isles.
-[X] FREE ACTION: Uplift Anti-Fouling Sheathing: You recall an invention or system, and try to figure out how it worked well enough that someone else can make it a reality. Time: 1 season. Cost: 0. DC: Varies. Reward: New action unlocked
Total Cost: 2860
