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Are there any plans that use Max's action on dictation? Seeing as we have a clutch of mostly faded papers this round it feels like it might be advisable to help winnow some of them before the malus kicks in.
 
Why would we setup a shadow headquarters in the middle of nowhere instead of the beating heart of Stirland's capital? Wurtbad has the perfect aesthetic with the Underground Palace, it has the advantage of being Ranald-blessed and has the nearby Thieves' Guild for an existing network of informants.

It just seems ham-fisted to try and bring the fief into relevance with a very Inefficient method by setting up a headquarters there.

[x] Plan: Slow and Steady Research with Double Recruitment
 
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EIC: Insert agents into Talabecland administration to start gathering their secrets

I just realized that this is very in character for Mathilde. She's paranoid that Alric is up to something, but also paranoid that he'll catch her, so she's investigating him obliquely.

Also, I wonder how the Hochlander will feel being asked to investigate a Patriarch without actually investigating him.
 
Are there any plans that use Max's action on dictation? Seeing as we have a clutch of mostly faded papers this round it feels like it might be advisable to help winnow some of them before the malus kicks in.
I would have, but I feel that getting more of the social lay of the land with the elves is more important. I want to understand the politics of Laurelorn better before we start aligning ourselves with factions.
I just realized that this is very in character for Mathilde. She's paranoid that Alric is up to something, but also paranoid that he'll catch her, so she's investigating him obliquely.

Also, I wonder how the Hochlander will feel being asked to investigate a Patriarch without actually investigating him.
Also, there's an element of plausible deniability. Last year, Mathilde also ran an intel op in Talabecland. The oblique investigation of what Alric is up to can easily be justified as part of the same investigation, which might provide us some synergy with the Hochlander's previous efforts into the bargain.
 
Also, there's an element of plausible deniability. Last year, Mathilde also ran an intel op in Talabecland. The oblique investigation of what Alric is up to can easily be justified as part of the same investigation, which might provide us some synergy with the Hochlander's previous efforts into the bargain.

Not to mention the synergy with the light recruitment. If we can find even a whisper of what Alric's doing, we can sell that to Mira. Being the free agent who put a Matriarch into power is very useful leverage.
 
For the sake of clarity, @Boney - is my plan of investigating what Alric was doing in Talabecland obliquely by investigating Talabecland instead of Alric at all workable?

I'm fully cognizant that it will have drawbacks compared to a direct investigation - for one obvious thing, it won't tell us anything about what Alric did after he left Talabecland - but is this a case of "this is a reasonable approach with pros and cons", or is this a case of "if you want to know what Alric did, vote to investigate Alric"?

It seems reasonable to me both in and out of character, but I figure it's worth making sure that you as the QM feel the same.
 
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Why would we setup a shadow headquarters in the middle of nowhere instead of the beating heart of Stirland's capital?
It gives the Hochlander an out-of-the-way base of operations to do the sorts of things that require a base of operations. Large-scale information-gathering, recruitment, training, that sort of thing.
Because training a lot of spies tends to be something you don't necessarily want to do in the middle of a busy city, since it can draw attention and make it easy for any rival institutions to keep tabs on who your spies are. Because having your information processing center being well away from an area with a lot of unknown-civilian traffic means that security gets a lot easier. Because not every spy the Hochlander trains is going to be a Ranaldite. Because if we are going to have a base of operations, we would prefer to set it up in a place we firmly control ourselves, which narrows the field a great deal.
 
Because training a lot of spies tends to be something you don't necessarily want to do in the middle of a busy city, since it can draw attention and make it easy for any rival institutions to keep tabs on who your spies are. Because having your information processing center being well away from an area with a lot of unknown-civilian traffic means that security gets a lot easier. Because not every spy the Hochlander trains is going to be a Ranaldite. Because if we are going to have a base of operations, we would prefer to set it up in a place we firmly control ourselves, which narrows the field a great deal.
The middle of a busy city would better serve to conceal any activities compared to an isolated village that normally sees no traffic. A sudden increase of new recruits traveling to and from the fief would be very noticeable.

Having an information processing center in the middle of nowhere might provide some security from the isolation but that also makes it harder for information to travel and complicates coordination.

Not every spy needs to be a Ranaldite, but it does make it easier to work with an existing network and the Thieves' Guild isn't exclusively open only to them.
 
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The middle of a busy city would better serve to conceal any activities compared to an isolated village that normally sees no traffic. A sudden increase of new recruits traveling to and from the fief would be very noticeable.
It will be very noticeable in the fief, moderately noticeable in nearby towns (for a given value of "nearby") because they'll see the traffic but the spies can just lie about their destination, and be completely opaque otherwise because a medieval setting lacks the easy communications of the modern world.
 
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For the sake of clarity, @Boney - is my plan of investigating what Alric was doing in Talabecland obliquely by investigating Talabecland instead of Alric at all workable?

I'm fully cognizant that it will have drawbacks compared to a direct investigation - for one obvious thing, it won't tell us anything about what Alric did after he left Talabecland - but is this a case of "this is a reasonable approach with pros and cons", or is this a case of "if you want to know what Alric did, vote to investigate Alric"?

It seems reasonable to me both in and out of character, but I figure it's worth making sure that you as the QM feel the same.
Unless I missed something, Alric's last known location was in Talabecland. There's nothing indicated he had plans to move on, so I suspect he's still there, doing whatever he got stuck into.
 
not the best day to be too busy for high engagement.

[X] Plan: Slow and Steady Research with Double Recruitment

because it has AV

[X] Plan: Elves first, Ninja
[X] Plan: Elves first, Talabec

because at least someone remembered all the work I put into Windherding ideas when they were making plans...
 
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not the best day to be too busy for high engagement.

[X] Plan: Slow and Steady Research with Double Recruitment

because it has AV

[X] Plan: Slow and Steady Research with Double Recruitment
[X] Plan: Slow and Steady Research with Double Recruitment

because at least someone remembered all the work I put into Windherding ideas when they were making plans...
I'm not sure you intended to vote for slow and steady three times.
 
not the best day to be too busy for high engagement.

[X] Plan: Slow and Steady Research with Double Recruitment

because it has AV

[X] Plan: Slow and Steady Research with Double Recruitment
[X] Plan: Slow and Steady Research with Double Recruitment

because at least someone remembered all the work I put into Windherding ideas when they were making plans...
Obligatory you sure you voting for what you want? The one you're doing has Engrimm recruiting instead of windherding. [[] Plan: Slow and Steady with windherding.

is the only one with that so far.
 
[X] Plan All Work Ninja Village
[X] Plan Mostly Work Ninja Village

I'll spring for this. I don't want to waste EIC on a place we've already looked into, twice, without actually specifying that we want to look at Alric.

Seriously, what's the political blowback? "The grey order was keeping tabs on me"? Good! That is what we are supposed to be doing! I don't actually see the rush that makes people worried about this. He's a has-been politically, we've already explicitly interfered in light college politics, and this sort of keeping tabs is well within the grey college's wheelhouse. We're aren't going to alienate anyone we need, and we would likely build good will with the new light matriarch and our own light magister if we do it.
 
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[X] Plan All Work Ninja Village
[X] Plan Mostly Work Ninja Village

I'll spring for this. I don't want to waste EIC on a place we've already looked into, twice, without actually specifying that we want to look at Alric.

Seriously, what's the political blowback? "The grey order was keeping tabs on me"? Good! That is what we are supposed to be doing! I don't actually see the rush that makes people worried about this. He's a has-been politically, we've already explicitly interfered in light college politics, and this sort of keeping tabs is well within the grey college's wheelhouse. We're aren't going to alienate anyone we need, and we would likely build good will with the new light matriarch and our own light magister if we do it.

'Grey order perpetual mysteriously killed by brigands'. Investigate Y/N
AP sink: Guaranteed

I do not want to take the chance of having to spend more time on something I do not care about all that much. We are not a Magister Vigilant.
 
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