hmmm.
@BoneyM How much is some kind of subterfuge possible here? Skull river flows from Black Water lake at Zulfbar to Barak Varr. Since Mat has not checked in on the canal project, I'm guessing she doesn't know how the work is separated. Would it be possible to convince the dwarves to delay the Empire specific part of the canal, the Zulfbar to Aver Reach part, while letting them push on for the locks and infrastructure they need to connect Barak Varr to Black Water?
I don't think Marienburg would have a leg to stand on, or be ready for the kind of diplomatic fracas meddling in internal dwarven matters that would bring, if the canal was only meant to link two dwarven Karaks better, linking Barak Varr to Zulfbar.
That would let the dwarves keep working, get Marienburg off our backs, slow the canal project while giving the Empire time to recover. Once all the stuff is set up internally for the Dwarves, they could jump onto Phase Two, building the Aver Reach segment with as much speed as they could, without other distractions. That would shorten the amount of time the blocade would hold, punt the problem into the future when the Empire might be less streched for resources and let the canal continue on, if slower.
TLDR: Get the dwarves to turn the canal project into a Two Step thing, with one Canal-waterway project as an internal dwarven thing that between Zulfbar to Barak Varr along Skull River and Black Water lake. The dwarves can then solve any problems inherent in that segment and focus wholly on it, while the Empire can tell Marienburg point blank that no canal is being built on the Aver Reach to Zulfbar and be truthful about it.
But once the dwarves are done with taming the Black Water and the Skull River, a planned for speed Phase Two can go. Espetially if Zulfbar and surroundings can be convinced to be quiet about when work starts, can blitz ahead and try and minimize harm to Empire and the dwarves by shortening the blockade further. And the Vampire issue might be more manageable by then.
The two big stubling blocks are convincing Marienburg that the Empire can stop the dwarves from building the canal from the Aver Reach, but not in purely dwarven lands, possibly while also sacrificing/delaying the other canal being built in Empire territory to show they mean it. This would be the job of the person before us.
The other is convincing all the dwarves involved to be sneaky, so as not to start another pissing match with the Elves of Ulthuan over the Empire/Marineburg line. That would be Mat's job.
If both those two can be done, we can come back to this in a year or three, and revisit the issue from a better position.
@BoneyM Thoughts?
EDIT: As long as Phase two is officially a dwarven secret, Marienburg can suspect and accuse till the end of time, without proof and with dwarves denying it, they shouldn't be able to do much.
