TimEd
Meteor maker
Why would he know anything about internal Empire politics?
Money and Power: A Xianxia Merchant Quest
- Thread starter Mr. Prokosch
- Start date
DangerKitty
shoddy writter
- Location
- lala land
the mountain king isnt empire bro. he has experience dealing with them, i suspect he would have ideas for making sure his new WEAKER business partner doesn't meet the same fate as his last one.
TimEd
Meteor maker
He is also the one who killed our father. I think you mean Garcino the giant.
And why would he care to do anything to help us? If we fail, he just needs to get another business partner. The dude is a self proclaimed muscle head who is only here to inform us about the details of the already set agreements.
I mean going to the emperor will completely screw over our clan for the rest of the game. I mean it might be survivable in that we could get to .5 prestige in a hundred years if we pushed but It's still stripping naked, setting your house on fire, and dancing in the ashes as the cops pull up to arrest you for multiple homicides and arson. If your going to do something that dumb then vote to talk to Teo first so that he can tell us in character that I am overreacting and going to the emperor isn't dropping the fuck everything button.
Well it's certainly a better variation then what we think his plan is but I'm still not all that enthusiastic about the plan anyway. We're already taking one extreme risk right now and starting up another would seem to be foolish. If it comes down to your plan or call in the emperor and ruin our reputation rather then telling him no and asking our older brother to keep a closer eye on him then I will vote for your plan but I would rather bring in an advisor to talk things over with first to make sure we aren't over reacting and also give us a different perspective over his actions.
I would prefer our mother because she's the one I would want to take over when we pretend we don't notice the treason but remove him for falling for the scam without officially admitting that we knew that he was planning treason the entire time but I'm not picky.
I'm going to assume your referring to how the walking people deal with the mountain people because our giant wouldn't have any idea on how to deal with imperial politics. He doesn't seem to have any idea of how to deal with the mountain people either except get strong or get sneaky.
DangerKitty
shoddy writter
- Location
- lala land
What would ge find more annoying, going shopping to potentially hostile clans for this deal which btw, is actually quite improbable as few have actually have access to the waters much less ways to actually make it useable, or just a few words about how his people try to avoid the mountain people?
ofc like why else would i ask the plains giant about how to avoid getting assasinated like our FATHER who we just found out got chumped.
I would assume our father didnt think the mountainking would assasinate him out of the blue and didnt make preps for it. We are weaker than him so we 100% need to. Who else is better to ask than the strongest man of the plains people, who deals with them on a regular basis.
Dunno why tf people think im asking him for advics on how to deal with imperial assasins. We probably know more than him about that
His advice about dealing with Mountain People assassins:
1. Get strong
2. Get sneaky
3. Move fast
4. Meet in the valley
5. Do not go near the Mountain
6. Don't tell them you're there.
7. Pay the walking people extra for help with the herd on the way back.
Seven took some work to get out of him. It's not in the original deal but he thinks some strong boys would be willing to lend a hand up to the border for fair pay.
I know people want advice on turning in / imprisoning / firing but depending on who you ask it scuttles the possibilty of taking the deal with the Abyssals. If it looks like that doesn't have a chance I'll bring in advice for dealing with Tet before a final vote.
1. Get strong
2. Get sneaky
3. Move fast
4. Meet in the valley
5. Do not go near the Mountain
6. Don't tell them you're there.
7. Pay the walking people extra for help with the herd on the way back.
Seven took some work to get out of him. It's not in the original deal but he thinks some strong boys would be willing to lend a hand up to the border for fair pay.
I know people want advice on turning in / imprisoning / firing but depending on who you ask it scuttles the possibilty of taking the deal with the Abyssals. If it looks like that doesn't have a chance I'll bring in advice for dealing with Tet before a final vote.
Last edited:
I did state that I assumed you were talking about how the walking people deal with the mountain people trying to kill them from context clues. Your response was formatted weirdly and it didn't help that I read bro as but in your response.
- Location
- Ireland
[X] Stop it now
Don't want to get involved with anything like this right now. We're far too green to start down such a potentially disastrous intrigue route. Maybe if we had a trusted/ reliable Intrigue adviser, but we don't.
I'm tempted to fire him and could be persuaded to that end. He seems like a snake and I'm unsure we will ever truly get him on side.
[X] Airships
I feel like walking fortresses don't really play into our whole diversification shtick. Too few in number for truly diversifying and despite being heavily protected, they introduce big singular points of failure. If one of those shipments get taken out it would be extremely damaging.
While the carts increase our numbers it leans towards a quantity over quality approach and reduces our range. They are also much more susceptible to raiding.
I feel airships provide a compromise on a lot of issues; range, numbers, safety, speed. Plus airships are bad ass
.
Don't want to get involved with anything like this right now. We're far too green to start down such a potentially disastrous intrigue route. Maybe if we had a trusted/ reliable Intrigue adviser, but we don't.
I'm tempted to fire him and could be persuaded to that end. He seems like a snake and I'm unsure we will ever truly get him on side.
[X] Airships
I feel like walking fortresses don't really play into our whole diversification shtick. Too few in number for truly diversifying and despite being heavily protected, they introduce big singular points of failure. If one of those shipments get taken out it would be extremely damaging.
While the carts increase our numbers it leans towards a quantity over quality approach and reduces our range. They are also much more susceptible to raiding.
I feel airships provide a compromise on a lot of issues; range, numbers, safety, speed. Plus airships are bad ass
.
Last edited:
DangerKitty
shoddy writter
- Location
- lala land
upon review walking fortresses is in the solid lead, but we have an impressive multiway tie on what to do with our brother. after thinking about it for a bit, i think i'm hard against usurping his strategy, i wanna stop it but i'm not sure how far i'm willing to go. Heres my breakdown from my POV
Turn him in: clears us beyond doubt likely with the imperial family (assuming we don't have other practices we don't know about going on) but comes with several MAJOR downsides such as massive loss of face (stated by qm himself) which will end any possibility of us negotiating with the lord about getting our old/modified deal back as he would not want to associate with "traitors" like us. It sows distrust in our family, we took the most extreme measure and at the very least tried to get our brother executed on as suspicion. A well supported one, but a suspicion nonetheless. Do you think oku would stick around or stay loyal if even a simple frame job would immediately turn us against her and try to get her killed (via authorities).? same for our mother and brothers. this is clear putting the family second and would horribly damage our bonds thus loweing not only our public face, but also our stability.
imprison him: carries similar risks with our family trust + oku companionship trust but without the loss of public face. Brings in the question of what we do with said brother. if we don't kill him he is very likely to betray us in the future or plot against us. a possible exile might be the only thing our character would reasonably do as executing oku post duel was shown to not be available to us because our mc is not cold blooded, just naive.
fire him: the most middling option. We have plausible excuse if the imperials come knocking, saying we punished him based on suspicion and he hadn't even started trading if that even was his attention. Likely to dramatically worsen our relationship with said brother, probably to the point of plotting to overthrow us, but maybe not as extreme as the above options. Will likely raise questions with our family and depending on how well it is handled could result in setting people on edge, but unlikely to affect stability as much as the other actions. We make a clear stance that we intend to run a "clean business" and those who play dirty will be expelled.
Tell him to stop: Essentially a slap on the wrist. we call no harm done, no foul (if he hasn't already started). unlikely to greatly offend this brother. don't see him plotting against us just for this. we know he plays dirty so we will need to keep an eye on him/have a trusted aid (maybe our mother?) keep an eye on him. preserves stability and face. Draws a line that we want a clean business, but also might create an expectation that we won't heavily punish family members if they get caught in the act. Weak defense if imperials come knocking.
Join him: we risk the whole clan for a quick buck. we commit to being a dirty business and our brother will get leverage to use against us to make us keep playing dirty. If we want to stop we will likely have to kill him because he can blackmail us for anything short of that. this option will probably start to swing the quest towards shady politics and deals and bribing with eventual drama when we eventually get caught. uncertain how our family and oku will react to this.
after writing all this out i believe that fire him and tell him to stop are the best options. It just depends what reputation we want for ourselves and how hard of a "line" we want to draw for our family and if we are willing to make an enemy of a family member to draw said line.
TimEd
Meteor maker
I mean, if a member of your family is risking the Extermination of your entire Clan, then I believe nothing short of their execution is necessary. That is putting the Clan/family first, since it places the value of the entire Clan above the greed of a single member.
Last edited:
DangerKitty
shoddy writter
- Location
- lala land
bro read everything i said. this would create big distrust within the family. We don't have irrefutable proof that this is what he is doing. It would let everyone know that a well executed frame job would be enough to get us to legit execute FAMILY. It was just stated this chapter that we have never sold shares because the foundation of our company is that it is a family business. Family IS first but you don't execute family members at the drop of a hat dude. If you found out your irl mother/brother/sister/whatever was thinking about getting into drug dealing because your family is in danger of being evicted from their home would you turn her in or try and dissuade her. More than that, would you turn her in if it was certain that would get her killed? killed AND greatly increasing your chances of turning your family out onto the streets?
there is a reason why companies these days IRL avoid the family model. It can get really messy really fast. Especially if someone tries to go dirty. If we execute our brother then we break trust with our family.
If you want to set a hardline then go for imprisoning, though i recommend firing.
Obviously i could be overthinking things, this is just a quest after all. It depends on OP what consequences our actions have and the people of this world may be totally ok with killing your siblings at the drop of a hat without affecting trust at all. However what i laid out is how it works IRL sometimes. Extreme measures tend to have extreme consequences.
Like i'm down to do some dirty business if thread wants, that can be fun. Dirty business has lots of juicy drama that is healthy and fun for stories (which is why there are lots of movies and books about it), i am no vibing with the opposite extreme for reasons already stated.
edit: its 2AM for me though so i'm off to bed. latter bro, have a great day/night (wherever you are)!
Last edited:
TimEd
Meteor maker
Eh, there was already an attempt to drive us into a figurehead position, a fangless leader, ignorant of background corruption, and to our face almost certain treason.
Lost trust has no bearing on my reasoning, since nobody except the one we beat in a face to face fight is taking us seriously.
I just dont see the Purge as a detriment, since it would clear any rot and fat in our already bleeding clan. And if the Treason is mere speculation, then the Purge will not be that bad right? Since that is speculation too.
But eh, I can see why others would balk at that.
Lost trust has no bearing on my reasoning, since nobody except the one we beat in a face to face fight is taking us seriously.
I just dont see the Purge as a detriment, since it would clear any rot and fat in our already bleeding clan. And if the Treason is mere speculation, then the Purge will not be that bad right? Since that is speculation too.
But eh, I can see why others would balk at that.
Last edited:
I'm not against doing a personal internal audit, but if we're doing it, we shouldn't imprison Tet first, 'cause that would alert his accomplices and give them time to do stuff. Speak with Teo + the Audit would work, but the latter is very likely going to be an Action option, and then probably require one or more Actions later on to actually deal with the problem. That's a lot of resources and time spent, especially with the trip to the Beast Lands looming.
The problem is that we're just one person and we can't bring in people without risking a lot.
The Empire doing all this sounds much better to me.
Once again, folks, I believe you're too paranoid. Let me see if I can ease your concerns.
First and perhaps most importantly, Word of QM:
Which means any option has upside if handled well, even taking the deal on our own terms, though I'd imagine that one would need a lot more juggling to be "handled well".
Second:
It's a potential loss of face, which probably means we can do things to mitigate it or negate it depending on, once again, if we handle it well. I honestly believe that the odds are in our favor, here. We're the brand new Matriarch and one of our first acts is to go to the authorities upon discovery of terrible acts being perpetrated under our newfound power. Sure it could end badly, but it's much more likely, in my opinion, that it will end up improving our station and that of our clan.
Imagine a CEO of a business in our world, newly appointed after inheriting the position. They find something fishy going on, actually something extremely illegal, and go talk to the FBI or what-have-you. Won't they have a flock of lawyers to get assurances that their good deed will not see them, ironically, destroyed? And if the thing goes public, won't their PR department be able to spin it to grant them a LOT of goodwill with the people? Imagine the new head of NIKE calling a press conference and saying that they've personally found a factory employing child labor and worked with the police to get everyone involved in jail - isn't that great for them and NIKE in almost every possible way?
My opinion is that a potential gain of Prestige is more likely than a loss. If you want to worry about loss of anything, there's Stability to consider. We're definitely going to see that drop unless we keep Tet where he is, and personally, that's the last thing I want to do, so I made my peace with that.
Another potential. A boon. Once again, if we handle this well, the Empire is going to reward us. This could be potentially huge. It could be some kind of contract with them, so Income, it could be Resources, it could be administrative help during this transition, so Stability. It could be a mix of them. This also inherently comes with Prestige.
Finally, we'd get rid of a lot of poisonous snakes, greedy people willing to become traitors, and help a (possibly) evil and (certainly) opposing faction for money.
So, to summarize, turning Tet in has incredible potential and manageable risks.
Last edited:
Mrbrown1000
Working on a story, may post it soon.
- Location
- United states
- Pronouns
- He/Him
After a bit of thinking, I moved to a possition of firing him as it might make a investigation easier. We should totally assign people to tail/spy on him though. we might be able to catch some of his corrupt people who might get away in case of an imprisonment by doing so. Although, assuming this wins an oversight actin is very important.
Although, potentially maybe we could try to offer a more moderate deal. Rather than giving them free supplies for a share we could sell at a discount and get a much smaller share?
Although, potentially maybe we could try to offer a more moderate deal. Rather than giving them free supplies for a share we could sell at a discount and get a much smaller share?
For now I will go with this. Will be thinking more about it and perhaps come back later to change the vote '-'
[X] Turn him in
[X] Airships
======
Now, if we can have Tet out of our way as we continue with the deal, I may think it plausible. I don't trust him, he is a asshole and I am sure that he will betray us as soon as he finds a good opportunity (which is exactly what he was trying to do, forcing us into a deal that means betraying the empire without even saying anything).
[X] Turn him in
[X] Airships
Religion does it all the time, but religion has a symbolic holy and almighty idol - God. It only works because of belief in something greater and more powerful, a being that mortals cannot comprehend. Unless we can brainwash Tet and his followers, that is not gonna work. Alternatively, we can have a massive increase in power in a short amount of time, rendering all their plans and schemes useless. But I guess that is not gonna happen too.Ummmmm that's extreme. Care to elaborate why?
Converting isn't all that hard, religion does it all the time
======
Now, if we can have Tet out of our way as we continue with the deal, I may think it plausible. I don't trust him, he is a asshole and I am sure that he will betray us as soon as he finds a good opportunity (which is exactly what he was trying to do, forcing us into a deal that means betraying the empire without even saying anything).
Also, being auditted is EXPENSIVE.
It eats up time, ties up staff, and requires a bunch of extra paperwork to be done.
And then there's the potential costs of if any of the auditors leal clan secrets to our rivals
Last edited:
The Froggy Ninja
The Blade Will Never Die
I'd still rather imprison him until we finish our Oversight but I really don't want taking the deal to win.
[X] Turn him in
[X] Turn him in
DangerKitty
shoddy writter
- Location
- lala land
I'll concede that it might play out well, but i think you are playing down the risks quite significantly. Even if things go swimingly with the empire and we get the boon, i literally just do not see how this will not severely impact the family dynamics and drastically shake trust in us.
I think that especially it will shake oku's faith in us for reasons i have already stated. You may think i'm taking it too seriously, calling me paranoid. I think you are ignoring all the possible downsides and fallout this can and likely will have. Extreme measures tend to have extreme consequences. Thats even assuming that your best scenario plays out exactly how you are hoping it will. I seriously doubt that things will play out that smoothly and i'm not a fan of the likely consequences, succeed or fail.
The Froggy Ninja
The Blade Will Never Die
I'm pretty confident we're going to confront him before turning him in and Oku thinks our brothers are terrible. I doubt she'll be too broken up about us turning in the slimiest one in for crimes he actually did commit.
J.I.M.S
BookWyrm
- Location
- Latveria
K changed my vote to stop the deal because I think turning in Tet is a bad idea.
Now it's a tie between Turning In & Stopping
Jeez though y'all are just thinking the absolute worst in Tet. Like the guy must have some way of insuring he wouldn't get caught. But disregarding that we haven't even gotten to know the guy and just because he almost pulled one over on us a couple of people are like 'murder, give up, interrogate'.
Mom with her agents that Teo got rid of could have pulled one on us. And she was angling for Head of Finance. Nada, no 'murder, give up, interrogate'.
Teo did pull one over on us by asking and getting Power of Representation. Teo pushed for expansion when the clan has low Stability. Zip 'murder, give up, interrogate'.
Oku so far is pretty legit. Good sister.
Like... dang guys everyone (Not Oku yet) is out for some sweet sweet sweet power. Chill on Tet a bit?
Now it's a tie between Turning In & Stopping
Jeez though y'all are just thinking the absolute worst in Tet. Like the guy must have some way of insuring he wouldn't get caught. But disregarding that we haven't even gotten to know the guy and just because he almost pulled one over on us a couple of people are like 'murder, give up, interrogate'.
Mom with her agents that Teo got rid of could have pulled one on us. And she was angling for Head of Finance. Nada, no 'murder, give up, interrogate'.
Teo did pull one over on us by asking and getting Power of Representation. Teo pushed for expansion when the clan has low Stability. Zip 'murder, give up, interrogate'.
Oku so far is pretty legit. Good sister.
Like... dang guys everyone (Not Oku yet) is out for some sweet sweet sweet power. Chill on Tet a bit?
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- They/Them
[X] Stop it now
[X] Fire him
[X] Imprison him
Letting that harebrained scheme proceed seems like asking for trouble and will inevitably come back to bite us when we get found out. Otoh turning him in and triggering an official audit right now is inevitably going to lead to more illegal shit being found, as I'm sure the rest of our family also have their own pet projects going on. We just started investigating ourselves after all and already found High Treason. While I expect the rest of our clan to at least be more competent I'm pretty sure the Imperial auditors are going to find more shit we don't know about yet and I don't think we should take the blame for that.
[X] Walking Fortresses
If there's trains on offer I always go for trains
[X] Fire him
[X] Imprison him
Letting that harebrained scheme proceed seems like asking for trouble and will inevitably come back to bite us when we get found out. Otoh turning him in and triggering an official audit right now is inevitably going to lead to more illegal shit being found, as I'm sure the rest of our family also have their own pet projects going on. We just started investigating ourselves after all and already found High Treason. While I expect the rest of our clan to at least be more competent I'm pretty sure the Imperial auditors are going to find more shit we don't know about yet and I don't think we should take the blame for that.
[X] Walking Fortresses
If there's trains on offer I always go for trains
I'm actually pretty confident that Oku will like us more the harsher we are with Tet, since she absolutely hates his guts:
Those are the words of someone who would jump for joy if we got rid of Tet, saying that he deserved it and worse.
Are you? Unless the QM wants to integrate Imprison him or at least Fire him as part of Turn him in, then I don't see why we would confront him. It just presents unnecessary risks. Maybe @Mr. Prokosch could shed a light on this, though? I was assuming we were going to turn Tet in somewhat secretly, if we picked that option, or am I wrong?
Anyway, I was thinking about something else. I don't know if this is frowned upon here, and if it is, I apologize and will promptly delete/edit this post, @Mr. Prokosch , so just let me know. Basically, I'll be metagaming from now on, which to some people and in some contexts can be distasteful. Either way, here goes...
I have the distinct impression that the QM doesn't want Tet out of the story, not so soon at least. I surmise this from:
-Common sense: the Spare was one of the original picks for character creation, so it's very likely the QM had/has plans for him.
-Narrative conventions: he's what you could call a main character, has big and potentially juicy ties to the other main characters that will reasonably pay off in the future, and is being built up to something.
-Meta within meta reasoning: there wasn't a Kill him/Have him killed option in the vote. This line of thinking is also enforced by the Kill her option being crossed out for Oku (another main character) in one of the earlier updates.
So, if this assumption is correct, and none of our current options will result in Tet being written off, one way or another, what can we deduce about the consequences of the possible courses of action?
-Take the deal on your own terms & Stop it now: neither of this ever implied getting rid of Tet, so the point is moot in their cases.
-Fire him: either this doesn't work and he actually manages to avoid getting fired (he forces us to reconsider by threatening or persuading us, or he has the power to overrule us on this by way of a ironclad contract/clan council support or whatever) or we do fire him but he stays relevant to the story on a different level (he wages a legal battle against us, or he creates problems for us from outside the clan, or whatever).
-Imprison him: this option was added later after a player asked for it, but it is mostly a temporary measure that would have us make a different decision about the situation later on, so Tet will still be in the quest at least until that happens.
-Turn him in: similar to the Fire him option, this could simply not work (the accusation doesn't stick for lack of evidence, or the Empire does a terrible job, or whatever) or it could and yet still not get us rid of him (he wages a legal battle against us, or he creates problems for us from prison, or whatever).
If the assumption is incorrect and the QM is perfectly willing to write off Tet immediately, though, then all of the above doesn't really matter, of course.
I'm surprised some people are not thinking the worst of Tet, and I'm also surprised that you think that the other character you think is "pretty legit" and a "good sister" is the one who tried to murder us, or at least beat us up.
Do you really want to compare:
-Teo's "Hey, sis, will you please sign this document which I'm openly telling you gives me power of representation for the clan?"
-Mom's "Hey, honey, will you make me Head of Finance so that I can better assist you (though I'm not telling you but you might suspect I'm looking to strengthen my position in the clan)?"
-Tet's "Hey, sis, will you approve this great deal I have in mind (but actually I'm not telling you that it's just a front for a different deal, with a different and very unsavory business partner, one that I will milk for my personal greed, and that if discovered will be treated as high treason and result in our very likely execution)?
Last edited:
- If turn him in wins you'll smile and nod to whatever and then walk on over to the nearest Imperial Representative to have a serious conversation about High Treason. You'd have no reason to tell him you're about to have him executed.
- Killing him isn't an option because Chachi has never killed anyone and starting with the murder of her brother is a tall order. Turning him in might be killing him in the end, but it's the proper patriotic thing to do and 'out of her hands' psychologically. You shouldn't assume that I'll go out of my way to keep him alive when logic would dictate his death. He doesn't have plot armor. He does have the cunning trait though, so he may have a trick or two to let him go down swinging.
- Killing him isn't an option because Chachi has never killed anyone and starting with the murder of her brother is a tall order. Turning him in might be killing him in the end, but it's the proper patriotic thing to do and 'out of her hands' psychologically. You shouldn't assume that I'll go out of my way to keep him alive when logic would dictate his death. He doesn't have plot armor. He does have the cunning trait though, so he may have a trick or two to let him go down swinging.