Question: Did we ever get charged for the 1st attempt at hiring Ninjas before we met Kimora? I'm not sure if we ever got charged for that, and we should subtract our funds accordingly, if not.
Out of curiosity, if we did get charged, how much did it cost? It's not directly listed and the Myeong Clan is now giving us free service so we don't know the amount.
Hiring Ninjas to attack was always "free", the cost of the action is just part of your normal maintenance.
Can you add the list of Cultivation Aids to Informational so we have a reference there as there's a 'standard list' with each type having a Stock, which means they don't run out or get switched. It'd be more accessible so we can plan for using them without checking Turn results.
They can deduce who might have done it and react accordingly but there isn't proof that allows you to take someone to the Imperial Court and punish them. Its slightly different questions.
Thoughts & Minor Questions:
When we do get to eventually training a Technique, there should probably be stages of progression that needs to be listed on the Informational post, so we can keep track. Just a suggestion.
Huh, Core Formation gets you Immortality? Neat. Is there an intermediate Foundation Building realm between Qi Condensation and Core Formation? My best guess is Foundation Building would be around Rank 6, that's why Elders start there, because Rank 10 would be the start of Core Formation.
Technically, your in Foundation Building now. But it doesn't have special mechanical privileges until Core Formation so I didn't really mention it.
Since Kimora's Earth-aspect helps endure bad weather, hopefully that'll mitigate some of her annoyance. Can we go further by providing our staff for her usage while visiting though, or will she decline our offer as a matter of trust? (i.e. She can't trust unfamiliar servants)
Something I noticed while reading the latest update.
Rank 1 = 0 - 99 power
Rank 2 = 100 - 199 power
Rank 3 = 200 - 299 power
Wouldn't this mean our 500+ power brings us to rank 6? This may change our decision making as we are now solidly in elder territory and may be strong enough to challenge the Zhou Clan guy to duel especially with our 10% bonus.
Either way, our opponents are likely planning on facing a rank 3 or at most a fresh rank 4 lord from their previous intelligence. its going to be a great surprise when their plans turn to ashes as they come up against our rank 6 might.
Something I noticed while reading the latest update.
Rank 1 = 0 - 99 power
Rank 2 = 100 - 199 power
Rank 3 = 200 - 299 power
Wouldn't this mean our 500+ power brings us to rank 6? This may change our decision making as we are now solidly in elder territory and may be strong enough to challenge the Zhou Clan guy to duel especially with our 10% bonus.
Either way, our opponents are likely planning on facing a rank 3 or at most a fresh rank 4 lord from their previous intelligence. its going to be a great surprise when their plans turn to ashes as they come up against our rank 6 might.
Adhoc vote count started by ChaosCircle on Sep 28, 2020 at 1:42 PM, finished with 36 posts and 12 votes.
[X] Plan Prepare for Cold War
-[X] Flood the Market - The Zhou Clan depended on revenues from Heizhu Valley to prosecute their war against you. If you disrupted that flow of income, you would disrupt their ability to attack you directly. Of course, this was not free. It would cost you 500 Silver Bars / Season in losses from your Alchemy products. That said, your spies estimated that would choke off almost all the money your enemies could afford to spend attacking you. A fair trade? You decide.
-[X] Acquire a Diplomat Adviser - Diplomacy was your weakest area of expertise, it was time to short that up with professional help. Have your spies seek out information on various candidates, screen them, then send the short list to you so that you might interview them for the position.
-[X] Border Forts - Establish a network of small forts to alert you to the presence of raiders and also to hold against those same raiders until reinforcements arrive. It would make you look good to your people and if you were expecting increased raids, it would reduce the damage they caused to your lands. This will strengthen you against Orc Raids but weaken you against Bandit Raids.
-[X] Heavy Road Patrols - Build defensible posts along the road to the Imperial Highway upon which most of your trade flows and establish heavier patrols along the roads. It will weaken your defense against Orc Raids but will strengthen you against Bandit Raids.
-[X] Tax Reform - Now that you have settled in and surveyed what there is to survey, you have some ideas on how to increase tax revenue. It may not result in a great inflow of cash but it is something. Increases tax revenue by 150 Silver Bars / Season.
-[X] Purification: You must cleanse yourself of corruption if you are to advance through Cultivation. This is the process by which impurities are purged from the flesh and the soul and you are covered in a black gunk.
-[X] Social Actions (You may take 2 of these in exchange for 1 personal action)
--- [X] Have tea with the head of the Adventurer's Guild
--- [X] Have tea with Myeong Kimora
-[X] Send Wong Hui to Seclusion with Two Rank 2 Spirit Stones for 2x Speed per round of cultivation.
-[X] Provide all our Advisers One Rank 2 Spirit Stone for each round of Cultivation they undergo while at Rank 2. (Automatic until Stones run out or reaching Rank 3)
-[X] Report him to the Imperial Court and collect a reward of 20 Rank 3 Spirit Stones as a token of gratitude.
-[X] Do not buy Spirit Stones this Turn.
[X] Plan we need more everything
-[X] Flood the Market - The Zhou Clan depended on revenues from Heizhu Valley to prosecute their war against you. If you disrupted that flow of income, you would disrupt their ability to attack you directly. Of course, this was not free. It would cost you 500 Silver Bars / Season in losses from your Alchemy products. That said, your spies estimated that would choke off almost all the money your enemies could afford to spend attacking you. A fair trade? You decide.
-[X] Acquire a Diplomat Adviser - Diplomacy was your weakest area of expertise, it was time to short that up with professional help. Have your spies seek out information on various candidates, screen them, then send the short list to you so that you might interview them for the position.
-[X] Tax Reform - Now that you have settled in and surveyed what there is to survey, you have some ideas on how to increase tax revenue. It may not result in a great inflow of cash but it is something. Increases tax revenue by 150 Silver Bars / Season.
-[X] Enhance Spirit Grain Production (DC 100) - A steady diet of spirit grain was important to cultivation and you intended to have the best spirit grain in the Seto region. Of course the selective breeding spirit-energy infused rice was a time consuming endeavor and was fraught with difficulties. That said, why not shoot for the stars?
-[X] Hire Ninja to steal Technique Scrolls from a random clan. With the hot springs in play, a mastery of Earth or Water would play to your strengths. Both elements were also strong against the Fire techniques of the Zhou clan, shoring up your one weakness. Of course, you would make enemies of another clan if you were caught. So there was that. ( Accelerates Element mastery time from 2 years to 3 months. )
--[X] Water
-[X] Social Actions (You may take 2 of these in exchange for 1 personal action)
--[X] Have tea with the head of the Adventurer's Guild
--[X] Have tea with Myeong Kimora
-[X] Purification: You must cleanse yourself of corruption if you are to advance through Cultivation. This is the process by which impurities are purged from the flesh and the soul and you are covered in a black gunk.
-[X] Buy 6 Rank 3 Spirit Stones at a 10% discount. This would cost you 540 Silver Bars. (Because I forgot this option for the Fall Turn, not normally available)
[X] Plan Take Advantage Of Our Starting Skills
-[X] Flood the Market - The Zhou Clan depended on revenues from Heizhu Valley to prosecute their war against you. If you disrupted that flow of income, you would disrupt their ability to attack you directly. Of course, this was not free. It would cost you 500 Silver Bars / Season in losses from your Alchemy products. That said, your spies estimated that would choke off almost all the money your enemies could afford to spend attacking you. A fair trade? You decide.
-[X] Experimentation (DC 100) - You had an entire guild of Alchemists at your beck and call. It was time to fund some R&D and see what they could come up with. New products were new sources of revenue and you needed money for your clan's cold war with Zhou. The only real problem was research was high risk and there could be catastrophic failures and casualties. That said, funding it was relatively cheap and would not substantially impact your budget.
-[X] Enhance Spirit Grain Production (DC 100) - A steady diet of spirit grain was important to cultivation and you intended to have the best spirit grain in the Seto region. Of course the selective breeding spirit-energy infused rice was a time consuming endeavor and was fraught with difficulties. That said, why not shoot for the stars?
-[X] Tax Reform - Now that you have settled in and surveyed what there is to survey, you have some ideas on how to increase tax revenue. It may not result in a great inflow of cash but it is something. Increases tax revenue by 150 Silver Bars / Season.
-[X] Acquire a Diplomat Adviser - Diplomacy was your weakest area of expertise, it was time to short that up with professional help. Have your spies seek out information on various candidates, screen them, then send the short list to you so that you might interview them for the position.
-[X] Social Actions (You may take 2 of these in exchange for 1 personal action)
---[X] Have tea with the head of the Adventurer's Guild
---[X] Have tea with the head of the Alchemist's Guild
-[X] Purification: You must cleanse yourself of corruption if you are to advance through Cultivation. This is the process by which impurities are purged from the flesh and the soul and you are covered in a black gunk.
-[X] Buy 6 Rank 3 Spirit Stones at a 10% discount. This would cost you 540 Silver Bars. (Because I forgot this option for the Fall Turn, not normally available)
[X] Blackmail him
--[X] His old cultivation technique, since he is trying to use forbidden techniques, he won't need his old ones. Also, during negotiations, can offer any outsider part we have for sale, maybe a future deal seeing as how we have a rift to deal with
[X] Blackmail him
-[X] His old cultivation technique, since he is trying to use forbidden techniques, he won't need his old ones. Also, during negotiations, can offer any outsider part we have for sale, maybe a future deal seeing as how we have a rift to deal with
-[X] Cultivation resources
Adhoc vote count started by ChaosCircle on Sep 28, 2020 at 3:24 PM, finished with 39 posts and 13 votes.
[X] Plan Prepare for Cold War
-[X] Flood the Market - The Zhou Clan depended on revenues from Heizhu Valley to prosecute their war against you. If you disrupted that flow of income, you would disrupt their ability to attack you directly. Of course, this was not free. It would cost you 500 Silver Bars / Season in losses from your Alchemy products. That said, your spies estimated that would choke off almost all the money your enemies could afford to spend attacking you. A fair trade? You decide.
-[X] Acquire a Diplomat Adviser - Diplomacy was your weakest area of expertise, it was time to short that up with professional help. Have your spies seek out information on various candidates, screen them, then send the short list to you so that you might interview them for the position.
-[X] Border Forts - Establish a network of small forts to alert you to the presence of raiders and also to hold against those same raiders until reinforcements arrive. It would make you look good to your people and if you were expecting increased raids, it would reduce the damage they caused to your lands. This will strengthen you against Orc Raids but weaken you against Bandit Raids.
-[X] Heavy Road Patrols - Build defensible posts along the road to the Imperial Highway upon which most of your trade flows and establish heavier patrols along the roads. It will weaken your defense against Orc Raids but will strengthen you against Bandit Raids.
-[X] Tax Reform - Now that you have settled in and surveyed what there is to survey, you have some ideas on how to increase tax revenue. It may not result in a great inflow of cash but it is something. Increases tax revenue by 150 Silver Bars / Season.
-[X] Purification: You must cleanse yourself of corruption if you are to advance through Cultivation. This is the process by which impurities are purged from the flesh and the soul and you are covered in a black gunk.
-[X] Social Actions (You may take 2 of these in exchange for 1 personal action)
--- [X] Have tea with the head of the Adventurer's Guild
--- [X] Have tea with Myeong Kimora
-[X] Send Wong Hui to Seclusion with Two Rank 2 Spirit Stones for 2x Speed per round of cultivation.
-[X] Provide all our Advisers One Rank 2 Spirit Stone for each round of Cultivation they undergo while at Rank 2. (Automatic until Stones run out or reaching Rank 3)
-[X] Report him to the Imperial Court and collect a reward of 20 Rank 3 Spirit Stones as a token of gratitude.
-[X] Do not buy Spirit Stones this Turn.
[X] Plan we need more everything
-[X] Flood the Market - The Zhou Clan depended on revenues from Heizhu Valley to prosecute their war against you. If you disrupted that flow of income, you would disrupt their ability to attack you directly. Of course, this was not free. It would cost you 500 Silver Bars / Season in losses from your Alchemy products. That said, your spies estimated that would choke off almost all the money your enemies could afford to spend attacking you. A fair trade? You decide.
-[X] Acquire a Diplomat Adviser - Diplomacy was your weakest area of expertise, it was time to short that up with professional help. Have your spies seek out information on various candidates, screen them, then send the short list to you so that you might interview them for the position.
-[X] Tax Reform - Now that you have settled in and surveyed what there is to survey, you have some ideas on how to increase tax revenue. It may not result in a great inflow of cash but it is something. Increases tax revenue by 150 Silver Bars / Season.
-[X] Enhance Spirit Grain Production (DC 100) - A steady diet of spirit grain was important to cultivation and you intended to have the best spirit grain in the Seto region. Of course the selective breeding spirit-energy infused rice was a time consuming endeavor and was fraught with difficulties. That said, why not shoot for the stars?
-[X] Hire Ninja to steal Technique Scrolls from a random clan. With the hot springs in play, a mastery of Earth or Water would play to your strengths. Both elements were also strong against the Fire techniques of the Zhou clan, shoring up your one weakness. Of course, you would make enemies of another clan if you were caught. So there was that. ( Accelerates Element mastery time from 2 years to 3 months. )
--[X] Water
-[X] Social Actions (You may take 2 of these in exchange for 1 personal action)
--[X] Have tea with the head of the Adventurer's Guild
--[X] Have tea with Myeong Kimora
-[X] Purification: You must cleanse yourself of corruption if you are to advance through Cultivation. This is the process by which impurities are purged from the flesh and the soul and you are covered in a black gunk.
-[X] Buy 6 Rank 3 Spirit Stones at a 10% discount. This would cost you 540 Silver Bars. (Because I forgot this option for the Fall Turn, not normally available)
[X] Plan Take Advantage Of Our Starting Skills
-[X] Flood the Market - The Zhou Clan depended on revenues from Heizhu Valley to prosecute their war against you. If you disrupted that flow of income, you would disrupt their ability to attack you directly. Of course, this was not free. It would cost you 500 Silver Bars / Season in losses from your Alchemy products. That said, your spies estimated that would choke off almost all the money your enemies could afford to spend attacking you. A fair trade? You decide.
-[X] Experimentation (DC 100) - You had an entire guild of Alchemists at your beck and call. It was time to fund some R&D and see what they could come up with. New products were new sources of revenue and you needed money for your clan's cold war with Zhou. The only real problem was research was high risk and there could be catastrophic failures and casualties. That said, funding it was relatively cheap and would not substantially impact your budget.
-[X] Enhance Spirit Grain Production (DC 100) - A steady diet of spirit grain was important to cultivation and you intended to have the best spirit grain in the Seto region. Of course the selective breeding spirit-energy infused rice was a time consuming endeavor and was fraught with difficulties. That said, why not shoot for the stars?
-[X] Tax Reform - Now that you have settled in and surveyed what there is to survey, you have some ideas on how to increase tax revenue. It may not result in a great inflow of cash but it is something. Increases tax revenue by 150 Silver Bars / Season.
-[X] Acquire a Diplomat Adviser - Diplomacy was your weakest area of expertise, it was time to short that up with professional help. Have your spies seek out information on various candidates, screen them, then send the short list to you so that you might interview them for the position.
-[X] Social Actions (You may take 2 of these in exchange for 1 personal action)
---[X] Have tea with the head of the Adventurer's Guild
---[X] Have tea with the head of the Alchemist's Guild
-[X] Purification: You must cleanse yourself of corruption if you are to advance through Cultivation. This is the process by which impurities are purged from the flesh and the soul and you are covered in a black gunk.
-[X] Buy 6 Rank 3 Spirit Stones at a 10% discount. This would cost you 540 Silver Bars. (Because I forgot this option for the Fall Turn, not normally available)
[X] Blackmail him
--[X] His old cultivation technique, since he is trying to use forbidden techniques, he won't need his old ones. Also, during negotiations, can offer any outsider part we have for sale, maybe a future deal seeing as how we have a rift to deal with
[X] Blackmail him
-[X] His old cultivation technique, since he is trying to use forbidden techniques, he won't need his old ones. Also, during negotiations, can offer any outsider part we have for sale, maybe a future deal seeing as how we have a rift to deal with
-[X] Cultivation resources
[X] Plan Prepare for Cold War
-[X] Flood the Market - The Zhou Clan depended on revenues from Heizhu Valley to prosecute their war against you. If you disrupted that flow of income, you would disrupt their ability to attack you directly. Of course, this was not free. It would cost you 500 Silver Bars / Season in losses from your Alchemy products. That said, your spies estimated that would choke off almost all the money your enemies could afford to spend attacking you. A fair trade? You decide.
-[X] Border Forts - Establish a network of small forts to alert you to the presence of raiders and also to hold against those same raiders until reinforcements arrive. It would make you look good to your people and if you were expecting increased raids, it would reduce the damage they caused to your lands. This will strengthen you against Orc Raids but weaken you against Bandit Raids.
-[X] Heavy Road Patrols - Build defensible posts along the road to the Imperial Highway upon which most of your trade flows and establish heavier patrols along the roads. It will weaken your defense against Orc Raids but will strengthen you against Bandit Raids.
-[X] Tax Reform - Now that you have settled in and surveyed what there is to survey, you have some ideas on how to increase tax revenue. It may not result in a great inflow of cash but it is something. Increases tax revenue by 150 Silver Bars / Season.
-[X] Purification: You must cleanse yourself of corruption if you are to advance through Cultivation. This is the process by which impurities are purged from the flesh and the soul and you are covered in a black gunk.
-[X] Acquire a Diplomat Adviser - Diplomacy was your weakest area of expertise, it was time to short that up with professional help. Have your spies seek out information on various candidates, screen them, then send the short list to you so that you might interview them for the position.
-[X] Social Actions (You may take 2 of these in exchange for 1 personal action)
--- [X] Have tea with the head of the Adventurer's Guild
--- [X] Have tea with Myeong Kimora
-[X] Send Wong Hui to Seclusion with Two Rank 2 Spirit Stones for 2x Speed per round of cultivation.
-[X] Provide all our Advisers One Rank 2 Spirit Stone for each round of Cultivation they undergo while at Rank 2. (Automatic until Stones run out or reaching Rank 3)
-[X] Report him to the Imperial Court and collect a reward of 20 Rank 3 Spirit Stones as a token of gratitude.
-[X] Do not buy Spirit Stones this Turn.
You settled into Toril for the long winter months, the cold months annoyed you but they were a fact of life this close to the Tian Shen Mountain range. Even your newfound power could not fully protect you from the chill winter air. You remained secluded in your palace, enjoying all the comforts that your position had to offer. Although, not women. It would not do to be seen consorting with other women while you engaged in courtship with a noblewoman of rare pedigree. That was a horse you did not want to spook by acting wanton.
The situation was much as it was in the Fall and you gave orders to continue to flood the market with valuable alchemical products and medicinal plants. You could not afford to take your boot off the throat of Heizhu Valley's economy until this war was resolved. Their economy was as heavily invested into alchemy as yours was so it was expensive for both sides but you had the edge as long as you played your cards correctly. Your products were better so Heizhu Valley had to go even lower when it sent its product to market. It might have less effect in the winter months when only cultivators dared travel outside the Imperial Highway but the final shipments at the start of winter and the shipments just before the turn of spring would still make this a relevant play.
From there you moved on to more important matters, such as sending a message to Myeong Kimora to invite her to tea so the two of you could grow better acquainted. Courtships were a delicate business and if you wanted this particular woman, some work would be required on your part. Then again, for any worthy woman who was not a courtesan you would have to put in work. Women did not want to think of themselves as easy conquests.
You also looked into martial matters and decided to establish a series of border forts in the Tian Shen mountains that would be manned year round by worthy soldiers of the Bloodthorn Military. It was an expense but a worthy one. It would leave you with hundreds of troops in fixed positions, limiting your ability to respond to other threats but such was the risk vs. reward of these things. One could not have an army everywhere one wanted, they could only be in one place at one time. That was unfortunate but such was life.
The other martial matter you invested in was heavier road patrols between your villages, particularly the ones along the road that connected you to the Imperial Highway. You also established defensible army outposts that bordered on being worthy of the name fort along the route so that your patrols had secure locations to camp each night. All in all, it would fortify your province against bandits but also would tie up hundreds of soldiers which would leave you in a very awkward position if your border forts were ever overrun. Then again, it protected your investment in the watermills even against Orcs so the advantages might very well outweigh the disadvantages.
The next matter you gave orders on was the matter of taxation, specifically you had ideas on how to raise taxes on certain low value activities while lowering taxes on other, more valuable activities. The net result would be a slight tax hike for the population as a whole but one they could afford to pay. This exhausted the last of your painless options to increase tax revenue, unfortunately. You would have to resort to legitimately weakening your economy to raise taxes further and that was something you simply would not do. The Bloodthorn Valley economy was simply too important to be disrupted by heavy taxes, a part of you even wondered if it would be worth lowering taxes to stimulate economic activity.
The final matter of importance was to have your spies investigate potential cultivators who might serve as viable diplomatic advisers for your council. People that were well liked and competent in their execution of various diplomatic tasks. It would take a load off your shoulder and shore up one of your personal weak spots. Weaknesses were always best covered up by hiring someone competent who would not take advantage of you. Besides, you could always shower them in spirit stones to encourage their cultivation to keep them loyal.
Satisfied that your messages were relayed and orders carried out, you used the meditation chambers of the palace to purify your body and soul. Weeks of meditation led to black gunk that oozed out of your flesh, it smelled horrific as it rolled down your body and landed on the marble floor. Thankfully there was a shower installed for this very reason in the meditation chamber and you were able to quickly clean your body of the gunk of purification. Corruption was a vile, filthy thing and cleansing your body of it made it manifest physically as actual gunk.
Once you finished your weeks of meditation, reports from your spies reached you on people they considered potentially suitable diplomats. Particularly with your recent breakthrough, your options have improved in terms of quality of your advisers. People would be hesitant to serve a weak lord but a lord of the sixth circle was another matter. They expected an administration led by such an individual to last and therefore saw benefits in advising it.
The options presented to you were:
[ ] Han Kang - 200 Power, +25 Diplomacy, Improved relations with the Han clan
A member of the powerful Han Clan, it would be a way of honoring your alliance with them by taking such an adviser on board. In addition, he was competent at the job which meant you were not sacrificing anything in the name of nepotism. He had recently achieved the third rank and as such was more powerful than your other advisers but his talents lay in wind and he would love to be allowed to seclude himself in extended meditation. While he was not a major player in the Han Clan, they would likely provide him with some funds to improve his cultivation base so he could eventually reach core formation.
[ ] Myeong Enji - 200 Power, +25 Diplomacy, Improved relations with the Myeong clan
You were courting the third daughter of the infamous Myeong clan but it never hurt to build an even closer relationship with a particular clan. This is doubly true if one intended to lean on them for favors in the cold war with the Zhou Clan. He was, thankfully, competent at the job and of the third circle of foundation establishment which made him relatively powerful for an adviser. Much like Han Kang, Myeong was not a scion of the clan and the resources devoted to him would be limited but he would enjoy spending his time in seclusion and using what coin he received on improving his cultivation base in the hopes of achieving core formation.
[ ] Ka Wei - 200 Power, +25 Diplomacy, Improved relations with the Ka clan
The Ka Clan was your only ally with a legitimate, operating spirit stone mine and it never hurt to have friends that could sell you spirit stones. With your backing and that of the Bai clan, the growth of their clan could accelerate from a single fief to perhaps two or even three fiefs. This was one way of signaling your intent to back their challenges to other fiefs as well as a warming of relations between your two clans. In addition, Ka Wei is an Outer Sect disciple of the Spirit Stream sect and it would give the sect face for you to take on one of their disciples as your personal adviser. Unlike the other options, Ka Wei is the third child of the Ka patriarch and is viewed as a scion of the clan. He will push for time in seclusion so that he might improve his cultivation base and will likely do so speedily with spirit stones given to him by his clan.
Flood the Market: 1D100+30 => 108 v. 85
Acquire a Diplomatic Adviser: 1D100+10 => 75
Border Forts: 1D100+33 => 85
Heavy Road Patrols: 1D100+33 => 67
Tax Reform: Autosuccess due to High Stewardship
Purification: 1D100+30 => 116 / 25 = 4.64 = 5 = 44 - 5 = 39
So, who wants to hire bandits for the spring sowing season. Best way to mess some farmer up is to delay their planting. Also, should we improve herbs, since we are bottoming out the market, if we grow better stuff, we can recoup some of the losses
Ka Wei seems to provide the highest benefit for us. The Ka Clan are weaker and still growing so they'd appreciate the favor, plus if we help a rising clan grow it'll be mutually beneficial because Bai Clan is currently weak too.
We're already courting Myeong so it's bit redundant to double down on them.
Tentative Actions for next Turn:
1. Learning: Flooding the Market (-500 Silver)
2. Military: Reforms/increase spending (urgent after spread thin)
So, who wants to hire bandits for the spring sowing season. Best way to mess some farmer up is to delay their planting. Also, should we improve herbs, since we are bottoming out the market, if we grow better stuff, we can recoup some of the losses
I don't want to hire Bandits which costs money when we can Hire ninjas which are Free and can directly sabotage Zhou Clan's alchemy products compared to simply disrupting trade, which likely has diluted effect.
The 5th action I suggest another Sabotage attempt over a Learning action to improve Spirit Grain because its less efficient in our fight against Zhou. Easier to make them lose vs. Innovating a new type of Product (DC 100)
If we want to Research it's better to use Personal actions imo. Speaking of which, would Bai Shen's Horticulture (+40) bonus affect the 'improving Spirit Grain' action @ChaosCircle? Because there is no Personal action for growing crops. EDIT:
I don't want to hire Bandits which costs money when we can Hire ninjas which are Free and can directly sabotage Zhou Clan's alchemy products compared to simply disrupting trade, which likely has diluted effect.
Our ninjas keep getting spanked by his ninja, honestly, I think I would prefer a ninja option to investigate where the highly trained orcs are coming from
If we want to Research it's better to use Personal actions imo. Speaking of which, would Bai Shen's Horticulture (+40) bonus affect the 'improving Spirit Grain' action @ChaosCircle? Because there is no Personal action for growing crops.
Something I noticed while reading the latest update.
Rank 1 = 0 - 99 power
Rank 2 = 100 - 199 power
Rank 3 = 200 - 299 power
Wouldn't this mean our 500+ power brings us to rank 6? This may change our decision making as we are now solidly in elder territory and may be strong enough to challenge the Zhou Clan guy to duel especially with our 10% bonus.
Either way, our opponents are likely planning on facing a rank 3 or at most a fresh rank 4 lord from their previous intelligence. its going to be a great surprise when their plans turn to ashes as they come up against our rank 6 might.
Our ninjas keep getting spanked by his ninja, honestly, I think I would prefer a ninja option to investigate where the highly trained orcs are coming from
That's a good idea, if we can find solid proof of links between Orcs and Zhou cooperation, we can smear their reputation and get our Allies to help more directly. Should be a suggested action.
After a few months of secluded mediation, you emerged with the power of a 5th rank cultivator. An impressive improvement considering it only took you a few months time. Soon, you were confident you would catch up to the ranks of your peers and enjoy the privileges of the 6th rank of cultivation.
The first was that the Lord of Heizhu Valley had stopped consuming cultivation aids altogether. It seemed he intended to focus on his war with you and spend that cash elsewhere. That was both a good and a bad sign. In theory, you could eclipse his cultivation and challenge him directly. However, he was a cultivator of unknown power and might be of the 7th or even higher rank. It would be a risky gamble to do so.
Discrepancy: Paragraph needs tweaking since Bai Shen is already Rank 6, so he already potentially matches the Lord of Heizhu Valley.
The latter caution about him being potentially Rank 7 or higher is still valid.
Yeah, I'd like to send ninjas or spies to see what's up with that trained Orc. If it is our antagonist then we might be able to peg them for high treason for giving cultivator secrets to the enemy.
Let's honor our alliance and strengthen our relations with the powerful clan which can act as detterant until our Bai clan can recover. With a previous rank 3 promising but weak noble now jumping to a rank 6 elder power and with the cultivation bonus to the Bai clans cultivators and vassals, we are well on our way to recovery.
@ChaosCircle, is our MC in the 5th circle or 6th, because two different statements in two successive updates have made me confused. Calculations say that he is in 6th circle , but...
@ChaosCircle, is our MC in the 5th circle or 6th, because two different statements in two successive updates have made me confused. Calculations say that he is in 6th circle , but...
He's in 6th Rank. The previous statement regarding 5th rank was a mistake. Each Rank is about 100 Power.
We were at Power 250 (Rank 3) then gained +300 Power so we jumped 3 ranks to Rank 6.[
[X] Han Kang - 200 Power, +25 Diplomacy,
On 2nd thought, I do think Han Clan is better for Diplomacy:
+ They're active within Imperial Court, letting us coordinate with them to present a good image of Bai Clan there.
+ They are stronger, thus have more connections and allies. We'd get more use out of an established Diplomat compared to Ka Clan, who still needs to gain Rep.
+ He has less obligations and ties binding him unlike Ka Clan, who is both a Main Clan Member & Sect Disciple, which means his loyalty is split 3 different ways.
