Also, a point that I haven't seen brought up is that NOT renegociating with Mira is actually the most suspicious thing to do if we end up interferring. Mira and any others that are aware of our agreement might end up wondering why we went up and above what was agreed for. Mira was shown to be a shrewd operator and us doing more than ahat was agreed for might enflamme her curiosity.
It's not suspiscious. When Chaos got involved we had the grounds to forgo politics and join with Alaric. Doing more than what she asked when we found out about the situation is her duty as a Magister. People who think that we had ulterior motives in this scenario probably don't think of us well in the first place.
After all, if Alric can succeed it can still assuage his ego even if he had help. It also proves to others that he's not completely good for nothing. After all, considering his recent setbacks, Alric might even be pretty happy to get a partial win. Don't forget that at least one of the Unfahigers died under his care, if more die, it's a very bad look for him that Mira can take advantage of. He doesn't know that we have a vested interest in the case.
He probably aims for a Great Deed. Getting half of that won't make him ingratiated. Talebheim is basically nowhere for the College I think, the assassinations should be old news that the Colleges should know about it. Alaric might have even been intentional in going where there's no other Magister presence so he could get full credit.
On the other hand, if we help him, we are appearing to be ready to compromise and put the good of the empire above all else. If anything it's more diplomatic than him learning that we interfered in his investigation without even talking to him. It's gonna hinder us quite a bit if we must do all of our investigation trying to stay hidden from the Patriarch of the order that specialises in revealing what is concealed while he's alert due to being on a mission.
Fair, Mathilde could spin this.
On renegotiation:
[ ] Renegotiate with Mira
If you're going to have to interfere with Alric anyway, you might as well see what Mira is willing to offer for you to do so, and clear the way to bring in your own Light Wizards.
This does two things:
1. A Better Deal than we have
2. Get our story straight
That all it does in the literal sense. This does not recruit Egrimm and Elrisse, saying that this will help in getting them on board while not wrong, is misleading.
This will help them get on board not because it is necessary for them to come, but because it comes from both of their practical-boss and literal-boss.
The better deal is for the sake of the waystone project, which we really really want. The deal is not for the investigation, this is because the initial deal was the exchange of help the Brights for helping the Project.
Saying that the Brights would be really helpful for the investigation would also be misleading. The recruited's resource is their bonus to rolls and their autonomous actions.
Anyone brought in will assist where appropriate and do their own zero-risk background investigations when they can.
Keep in mind that we already know this much on turn one without Mathilde having to lift a finger because of delegation. Taking renegotiating without recruiting this turn already reduces their sum value.
Finally, obviously I know nothing now, but there was a substantial majority who didn't want Egrimm and Alric in the same action. I don't know if the whole Chaos situation changes everything but I'm assuming it's not.
I want to take the renegotiation action, but my dream scenario is only getting the better deal without using another action to recruit the Brights. There's 2 greed actions with this and plunder and I don't know how hard the mini-turn will be.