We could also just have our own sheep farms by just hiring people and buying sheep. As the wife of the local lord, we already own enough land to put them on. Hiring some builders to make/modify some buildings for us since that usually takes a long time, so that probably falls under long-term hiring. Also, I've been thinking of paying a merchant to buy animals from another Lord's territory and bringing them back.
We don't have any restriction regarding buying items. We just can't hire people. So technically, we can just let it be known we're interested in buying meat / sheep and we can do that.
Hiring builders is a good point though. Still, I only really imagine them building traps or defences on our border and well... Those defences would still need to be manned then. I feel tunnels full of Crawlers will do fine without builders.
Okay, I should finally be up to writing today, the lead vote is winning by more than 1 vote for once, and while discussion didn't stop after yesterday the way I was expecting I suspect now waiting a day wouldn't change the result, so I'm closing the vote.
Sabrina is suggesting trading for Cores, specifically for fireproofing, flight, and something like the priest Breed's voice-switch.
(I'm still surprised how this vote went. I was honestly expecting 'trade for Cores' to be the runaway lead but with more disagreement on what to ask for. Aside that I figured fireproofing would probably be universally agreed upon for obvious reasons)
Update incoming, please stand by.
Scheduled vote count started by Ghoul King on Sep 21, 2024 at 6:52 PM, finished with 43 posts and 22 votes.
[X]"I think trading Cores for Cores would be more than fair. Say, three types in exchange for our many copies of one type?" Your understanding of Cores suggests that an actual tit-for-tat per Core would be viewed as extremely greedy, but surely three different Cores for 50+ copies of one Core is fair? Maybe even generous to them?
-[X]"Zyzixion has fireproofing, and as the frontline against Burner Worms that would greatly help us do our duty."
-[X]"Flight would help us fend off the Szumowiny, and is currently outside our wheelhouse, but I notice it is very common in Soissons."
-[X]"I met a Breed who could modulate his voice to not offend the ears of non-Integrated humans. Could you provide anything like that?"
[X]"If the rules on long-term hiring could be relaxed in regard to non-military jobs, that would greatly improve our ability to actually use any funds paid for Cores, as well as improve our ability to develop our territory."
[X]"It would certainly help if more raw material could make its way to our castle, to cover the costs of growing the required Cores and help us prepare for future conflict with the Commoners."
[X]"I think trading Cores for Cores would be more than fair. Say, three types in exchange for our many copies of one type?" Your understanding of Cores suggests that an actual tit-for-tat per Core would be viewed as extremely greedy, but surely three different Cores for 50+ copies of one Core is fair? Maybe even generous to them?
"Well, Premièreombre Perilintheque, I was thinking trading Cores for Cores would be more than fair. Say, three types in exchange for our many copies of one type?" you comment.
"That depends on what you ask for, and how many copies you intend to deliver," comments Chistomique in a warning tone.
You nod acknowledgement at that, before saying, "I had three requests in mind. First, it's been mentioned that Premièreombre Zyzixion has fireproofing, and that would obviously be of extreme value in dealing with the Burner Worm menace."
The Council's attention swings to Zyzixion, who sighs somehow (You're not sure how she talks at all, honestly), and remarks, "I suppose I set myself up for this. So long as I get first priority on the sensor Cores, I can tolerate this condition." There's general noises of assent to that, aside Sussuron just giggling to herself for some reason.
That confirmed, you move on to, "Second, I've noticed that flight-capable Breeds are very common in Soissons. Given the Szumowiny threat lurking nearby, it would be especially appreciated to have flight capability ourselves."
This time the Council's attention seems more divided to you: you think it's overall collected on Zamvek, Chistomique, Efflu-zame, and Fa-Zoliv, but it's difficult to be entirely sure. The quiet drags on long enough you worry that this request will be shot down entirely...
... especially when Fa-Zoliv speaks up. "You have a neighbor specialized in flight if I recall correctly. You could trade with them."
"Yes, good point. Viable alternative. Closer," Efflu-zame chimes in, your heart sinking a little-
-until Plenarios snaps out, "Don't be childish." Then his attention focuses on you, and in his more usual Tired Old Man voice he says, "If you are willing to wait while specifics are sorted out among us, then I will ensure a fair arrangement for your reasonablerequest." You notice that Fa-Zoliv's mouth snaps shut for the first time in this meeting (Vanishing out of your sight in the process) and they skitter awkwardly in place, while Plenarios' gaze unsubtly swings to each of the four Premièreombre who (you infer) have flight capability in their repertoire. You're not sure if any of them are behaving as if chastised -Efflu-zame is particularly unreadable what with having never moved aside slight jiggling- but it seems likely?
You nod at that. "Thank you Premièreombre Plenarios. It's much less urgently relevant a request than the fireproofing, so that's fine. As for my third request..." this feels slightly embarrassing to ask for since it's really much more for you than for Caras, but you do legitimately think it would be useful. So after a moment of steeling your nerves, you finish speaking. "... well, I'm not sure how reasonable this is to ask the Council for, but in Soissons I met a Breed who had the ability to modulate their voice, switching between speaking as Gendarme normally do and speaking in a manner that does not grate on human ears."
"That what?" Zyzixion says in blank incomprehension.
"Oh dearie dear, you really don't know? And here you were lecturing us on ignorance a moment ago..." Sussuron adds in amusement, but you notice she doesn't explain further.
"'Grate on ears'?" Flittertrust contributes. "Speech cannot grate anything. What is this?"
"Ah," Oroxthanp surprises you by saying with comprehension. "The silly little priest. I know this. Efflu-zame, this is a good fit to your interests."
"'Priest'? Why would I want anything to do with religion?" Efflu-zame says... indignantly? Do they feel insulted?...
"It's a leftover. The priest job is secondary to the point. I'm surprised you didn't look into this sooner now that I'm reminded," Oroxthanp explains.
"Ah. Leftover with unique modification. I see I see." This time Efflu-zame sounds interested.
Oroxthanp then focuses on you. "We cannot promise delivering on this request in a timely manner. If Efflu-zame replicates the functionality quickly, we will provide a copy. If not, then we'll compensate you in coin for the final third of the Core deliveries."
You cautiously say, "That seems reasonable, Premièreombre Oroxthanp." You're not thrilled to hear this, but if they can't do it then they can't do it, and given you're here because Caras was in trouble you don't want to seem demanding.
"I believe that settles everything except the particulars of the contract, which will be drawn up outside this meeting," Zamvek comments.
There's a long pause where everyone seems to be waiting for someone else to add anything.
It turned out that drawing up the contract took another day or so -"They argue about every little thing," Yvette had commented dismissively- and so you'd ended up spending a bit more time about Soissons before heading home.
Specifically...
[]You spoke to a Kheprian merchant extensively out of curiosity since you'd availed yourself of more pertinent information in the prior days.
[]You spoke to a Cultivare group. Seriously, who were these people that a Freelander merchant had been passed off as one of them by Neustadt's priesthood? Maybe that decision would make more sense after speaking to this group.
[]You bothered a variety of non-Integrated humans about what Soissons was like for them, why they lived there, how they thought of this whole thing. If Caras ever approaches anything like Soissons in his own success, you want to know what concerns to expect.
[]You spoke to the Scaled Folk again. You'd been sort of hoping to get info on the Szumowiny last time and gotten quite distracted by Coraline's 'game'. If nothing else, it was a way to destress after this meeting.
[]You visited the smithing district. Using gear looted from dead Commoners was sort of distasteful and had practicality issues, and you were curious if the smiths might be able to provide you something better fit to you. Yvette had offered to pay for whatever you got in exchange for getting 25% more back once you were home, which you were confident Caras could cover. (And would probably not be too bothered by you springing such an expense on him given all the good news)
[]You spoke to the priest Breed again. You weren't entirely sure how you request regarding the voice-switch might affect his life, but you'd wanted to thank him and forewarn him so it wouldn't be a nasty surprise if that was a possible scenario.
[]You stumbled upon a strange individual (Were those horns?) Yvette identified as a Fomorian, attempting to spread the word about what sounded like another splinter of the Great Plan faith. You were pretty sure 'Fomorian' meant the 'Northseamen' that regularly raided Caras, and had risked them proselyting at you in hopes of getting more info about the raiders.
[]You spoke with the city's Breeds, using what you now knew to focus your attention particularly on...
-[]Zyzixion's.
-[]Sussuron's.
-[]Zamvek's.
-[]Hisstop's.
-[]Plenarios'.
-[]Flittertrust's.
-[]Efflu-zame's.
-[]Chistomique's.
-[]Oroxthanp's.
-[]Quevale's.
-[]Perilinthique's.
-[]Mortifère-ami's.
-[]Fa-Zoliv's.
(Pick 2 of this subset)
[]You revisited the topic of Integrated humans now that you had more context, attempting to speak more with...
-[]Zyzixion's Integrated. If nothing else, they might have more info on what to expect from Zyzixion's fireproofing.
-[]Sussuron's Integrated. You'd been uncomfortable in their barracks, but you hoped to learn more about extending the Integration safely and so on, especially now that you'd talked the Council into hopefully delivering a way to turn off the voice thing.
-[]Chistomique's Integrated. He was quite evidently one of the flight specialists, but aside that and his fondness for good reports you still weren't clear what he was about. If nothing else you'd hopefully get an answer on whether it was feasible for you to fly someday.
-[]Efflu-zame's Integrated. You're just really confused by Efflu-zame in general.
-[]Flittertrust's Integrated. You were curious about what Flittertrust brought to the Council, and also they'd seemed hostile and you weren't sure why?
-[]Hisstop's Integrated. As Hisstop seemed like a similar design to Caras himself, this seemed most likely to give you information directly pertinent to yourself. And maybe you'd learn about more about these concerts he ran?
-[]Fa-Zoliv's Integrated. You didn't have a clear goal in mind: Fa-Zoliv's appearance was sufficiently distinctive that in retrospect you were pretty sure you recognized what Breeds were theirs, but nothing about those Breeds had leaped out you as obviously useful. You were just curious.
-[]Mortifère-ami's Integrated. You didn't have a specific goal for this. Spiders are cute, okay?
-[]Perilintheque's Integrated. You were curious if their Integrated were able to breath underwater or similar: Caras had his Divers, so this might be a very relevant question to your life!
-[]Quevale's Integrated. Quevale had apparently been the member of the Council most directly making decisions regarding Caras and his territory, historically, so you hoped that Quevale's Integrated might give you more insight into how he thought or similar. The one meeting hadn't been very instructive, and it might be relevant in future.
-[]Plenarios' Integrated. He'd stood up for you on the flight Core issue, and now you were curious about him.
-[]Oroxthanp's Integrated. Oroxthanp had seemed hostile to start, but perhaps backed you at the end? You didn't have a clear sense of what he was about, and some aspects of how the session went have you wondering if he's 'first among equals' or some such. If he is, understanding him better might be especially useful for navigating Council politics.
(Pick one of this subset. Zamvek's Integrated were excluded deliberately, as Sabrina has interacted with them a lot already, but if people want to vote for that anyway I won't object)
[]Write-in. (If you have any ideas that seem likely to be realistic, feel free to do a write-in)
(Pick 2 of the over-options. Sabrina is more familiar with Soissons but doesn't have nearly as much free time as last time, so you get less picks overall but not proportionately less)
Hrrrm.
I want to do something nice for Zyxzion and maybe talk more with sussuron. Susa seems good for helping with Caras dislike of social contact, or at least, building more diplomatic ability/tradition to compensate for Caras' diplomacy malus. Plus Integration help which Caras WILL need, quite frankly- it's telling that all the council has integrated humans working under them…As much as it sucks from Sabrina's perspective.
Zyxzion strikes me as having the most relevant experience/perspective for Caras' position and we did kind of set her up, so I'm kind of wanting to do her a solid, or at least learn a bit more about her conditions so we can tailor the Core appropriately.
[x]You spoke to the priest Breed again. You weren't entirely sure how you request regarding the voice-switch might affect his life, but you'd wanted to thank him and forewarn him so it wouldn't be a nasty surprise if that was a possible scenario.
This just feels polite.
[x]You bothered a variety of non-Integrated humans about what Soissons was like for them, why they lived there, how they thought of this whole thing. If Caras ever approaches anything like Soissons in his own success, you want to know what concerns to expect.
[X]You spoke to the Scaled Folk again. You'd been sort of hoping to get info on the Szumowiny last time and gotten quite distracted by Coraline's 'game'. If nothing else, it was a way to destress after this meeting.
[x]You spoke to the priest Breed again. You weren't entirely sure how you request regarding the voice-switch might affect his life, but you'd wanted to thank him and forewarn him so it wouldn't be a nasty surprise if that was a possible scenario.
[X]You spoke to the priest Breed again. You weren't entirely sure how you request regarding the voice-switch might affect his life, but you'd wanted to thank him and forewarn him so it wouldn't be a nasty surprise if that was a possible scenario.
[X]You stumbled upon a strange individual (Were those horns?) Yvette identified as a Fomorian, attempting to spread the word about what sounded like another splinter of the Great Plan faith. You were pretty sure 'Fomorian' meant the 'Northseamen' that regularly raided Caras, and had risked them proselyting at you in hopes of getting more info about the raiders.
[X]You spoke to the priest Breed again. You weren't entirely sure how you request regarding the voice-switch might affect his life, but you'd wanted to thank him and forewarn him so it wouldn't be a nasty surprise if that was a possible scenario.
Hey buddy, just a heads up- you might get dissected soon.
[X]You revisited the topic of Integrated humans now that you had more context, attempting to speak more with...
-[X]Zyzixion's Integrated. If nothing else, they might have more info on what to expect from Zyzixion's fireproofing.
-[X]Sussuron's Integrated. You'd been uncomfortable in their barracks, but you hoped to learn more about extending the Integration safely and so on, especially now that you'd talked the Council into hopefully delivering a way to turn off the voice thing.
Hopefully we could get some info from them that's useful for Caras when he's using the cores.
Given the interest last vote in using money to buy meat, we might have room for a write-in about investigating that option. I'm sure there are merchants out there who exploit desperate young lords to get at their underused council stipends.
[X] Write-in: How did Sussuron put it? "Money has many uses." Caras didn't seem to think much of his treasure room, but perhaps there are traveling traders in the Freelands who might exchange it for more directly useful materials?
I feel a little like I'm pushing us towards, like, crunchy number stuff when Ghoul King is trying to show off their worldbuilding, tbh, but I think this could be an interesting avenue, too!
I feel a little like I'm pushing us towards, like, crunchy number stuff when Ghoul King is trying to show off their worldbuilding, tbh, but I think this could be an interesting avenue, too!
I'll note that I am in fact going to stay away from 'crunchy number stuff' simply because math is an exhausting struggle for me and what I've seen of Quests that embrace it pretty consistently results in Not My Thing.
But conversely I should note that I've already been implementing A Stratagem™ to this issue: Questors/Sabrina don't need hard numbers like 'X costs Y Money Objects' (I'll also admit I have yet to decide what to call Freeland money units, or how to organize them), they can get info like 'this sheep tax is low for the pop' and 'that's kind of a terrifying amount of money a Council member just quoted', and this is in certain respects superior for decision-making purposes. ("We'll pay 100 moneys for that thing." Okay, but is this like yen where 100 units isn't actually that much, or is this more like one hundred $1000 dollar bills, or what?)
So if Questors push the Quest more toward Sabrina The Bean Counter, it's still not going to turn into a mathematical nightmare for me.
A bigger concern is that I'm not very clear what the write-in is attempting to suggest Sabrina doing in Soissons: alright, talk to merchants I guess, but to do what? Sound out if they'd be willing to come to Caras' territory to sell their goods? Just get a better sense of How Merchantry Works in the Freelands? I'd intuit this write-in more readily if it was occurring once Sabrina was back home, but in this context if it ended up one of the lead votes I'd probably ignore it as 'I don't know what to write for that'.
[X]You revisited the topic of Integrated humans now that you had more context, attempting to speak more with...
-[X]Zyzixion's Integrated. If nothing else, they might have more info on what to expect from Zyzixion's fireproofing.
-[X]Sussuron's Integrated. You'd been uncomfortable in their barracks, but you hoped to learn more about extending the Integration safely and so on, especially now that you'd talked the Council into hopefully delivering a way to turn off the voice thing.
[X]You spoke to a Cultivare group. Seriously, who were these people that a Freelander merchant had been passed off as one of them by Neustadt's priesthood? Maybe that decision would make more sense after speaking to this group.
[X]You spoke to the priest Breed again. You weren't entirely sure how you request regarding the voice-switch might affect his life, but you'd wanted to thank him and forewarn him so it wouldn't be a nasty surprise if that was a possible scenario.
I'll note that I am in fact going to stay away from 'crunchy number stuff' simply because math is an exhausting struggle for me and what I've seen of Quests that embrace it pretty consistently results in Not My Thing.
But conversely I should note that I've already been implementing A Stratagem™ to this issue: Questors/Sabrina don't need hard numbers like 'X costs Y Money Objects' (I'll also admit I have yet to decide what to call Freeland money units, or how to organize them), they can get info like 'this sheep tax is low for the pop' and 'that's kind of a terrifying amount of money a Council member just quoted', and this is in certain respects superior for decision-making purposes. ("We'll pay 100 moneys for that thing." Okay, but is this like yen where 100 units isn't actually that much, or is this more like one hundred $1000 dollar bills, or what?)
So if Questors push the Quest more toward Sabrina The Bean Counter, it's still not going to turn into a mathematical nightmare for me.
A bigger concern is that I'm not very clear what the write-in is attempting to suggest Sabrina doing in Soissons: alright, talk to merchants I guess, but to do what? Sound out if they'd be willing to come to Caras' territory to sell their goods? Just get a better sense of How Merchantry Works in the Freelands? I'd intuit this write-in more readily if it was occurring once Sabrina was back home, but in this context if it ended up one of the lead votes I'd probably ignore it as 'I don't know what to write for that'.
Thanks for elaborating. I do agree, I usually prefer quests like this much more than quests like that. I'm just responding to Caras not spending what he has, rather than really wanting Sabrina to spend all of her time dealing with money.
About the write-in phrasing, I was sort of trying to imitate the style of the rest of the options, where Sabrina is going to talk to a group of people with no specific outcome. Learning about trade overall, and what they think of our region, sounds good to me. A long-term goal would be trading Caras' money for meat, but I expect we'd learn several reasons why it isn't practical for now. Clarifying it probably won't matter, but it doesn't hurt.
[X]You spoke to the Scaled Folk again. You'd been sort of hoping to get info on the Szumowiny last time and gotten quite distracted by Coraline's 'game'. If nothing else, it was a way to destress after this meeting.
[x]You spoke to the priest Breed again. You weren't entirely sure how you request regarding the voice-switch might affect his life, but you'd wanted to thank him and forewarn him so it wouldn't be a nasty surprise if that was a possible scenario.
I feel like taking to the priest is a necessary politeness. I'd rather try again to get more scaled folk info, either on them or their perspective on the szumowiny.
[X]You spoke to the Scaled Folk again. You'd been sort of hoping to get info on the Szumowiny last time and gotten quite distracted by Coraline's 'game'. If nothing else, it was a way to destress after this meeting.
[x]You spoke to the priest Breed again. You weren't entirely sure how you request regarding the voice-switch might affect his life, but you'd wanted to thank him and forewarn him so it wouldn't be a nasty surprise if that was a possible scenario.
[X]You bothered a variety of non-Integrated humans about what Soissons was like for them, why they lived there, how they thought of this whole thing. If Caras ever approaches anything like Soissons in his own success, you want to know what concerns to expect.
If we are going to have our Breeds interact with humans more, it is good to learn what the humans think about it. There are bound to be a wide range of people in the capital; from those that have lived their whole life there to those that are just visiting.
[x]You spoke to the priest Breed again. You weren't entirely sure how you request regarding the voice-switch might affect his life, but you'd wanted to thank him and forewarn him so it wouldn't be a nasty surprise if that was a possible scenario.
[x]You bothered a variety of non-Integrated humans about what Soissons was like for them, why they lived there, how they thought of this whole thing. If Caras ever approaches anything like Soissons in his own success, you want to know what concerns to expect.
[x]You spoke to the priest Breed again. You weren't entirely sure how you request regarding the voice-switch might affect his life, but you'd wanted to thank him and forewarn him so it wouldn't be a nasty surprise if that was a possible scenario.
[x]You bothered a variety of non-Integrated humans about what Soissons was like for them, why they lived there, how they thought of this whole thing. If Caras ever approaches anything like Soissons in his own success, you want to know what concerns to expect.
[x]You spoke to the priest Breed again. You weren't entirely sure how you request regarding the voice-switch might affect his life, but you'd wanted to thank him and forewarn him so it wouldn't be a nasty surprise if that was a possible scenario.
Not sure what to pick for the second vote, locking in this for now.
[X]You stumbled upon a strange individual (Were those horns?) Yvette identified as a Fomorian, attempting to spread the word about what sounded like another splinter of the Great Plan faith. You were pretty sure 'Fomorian' meant the 'Northseamen' that regularly raided Caras, and had risked them proselyting at you in hopes of getting more info about the raiders.
[X]Hisstop's Integrated. As Hisstop seemed like a similar design to Caras himself, this seemed most likely to give you information directly pertinent to yourself. And maybe you'd learn about more about these concerts he ran?
Formorian guy's got horns, and is preaching an alternative splinter religion…I kind of want to see if these guys are the source of the Commoner's "Teufel" bogeyman.
Hisstop is apparently "old guard" from before some event that wasn't elaborated on, and I want history lore.
Now that the meeting with the council is over, I tried to decipher who they are, and figure out what could be added to the blurbs on the Notable Beings threadmark.
Didn't figure out that much.
Zamvek
The green mist might be some sort communication or sensing adaptation.
Zyzixion
Martial minded(likes it when you kill enemies). Might have started as a border lord?
Flittertrust
Disdains unproven youths.
Efflu-zame
Laconic. Interested in unique modifications?
Chistomeque
Liked the detail and precision of Virmire's prior reports.
[X]You spoke to a Cultivare group. Seriously, who were these people that a Freelander merchant had been passed off as one of them by Neustadt's priesthood? Maybe that decision would make more sense after speaking to this group.
[X]You spoke to the priest Breed again. You weren't entirely sure how you request regarding the voice-switch might affect his life, but you'd wanted to thank him and forewarn him so it wouldn't be a nasty surprise if that was a possible scenario.
Well, so far talking to the priest Breed is very firmly winning. (This is funny to me: I seriously considered not including it, because it's not like it serves a clear purpose in advancing goals, right? Apparently I underestimated voter politeness. Glad I did include it)
Second place is technically 'talk to non-Integrated humans a lot', but it's only barely in the lead, with multiple things close behind it.
I'll point out that it's been brought up that paying for meat is a thing Caras already does -it was brought up again with the tax discussion, that Virmire goes around and pays some of the smaller villages for meat in place of the normal tax approach. So it's being done to at least some degree already.
But I do like the latter half of this commentary. One of my favorite bits of writing this Quest has been striking a balance where Caras isn't optimal in his decisions, there's certainly room for improvement, but he does in fact usually have pretty good reasons for his current practices (Aside the occasional 'his reason is amazing ignorance' moment) and so Questors can't push A Basic Obvious Thing to Instantly Make Everything Tons Better. (Which is a general Quest/fanfic thing I generally find frustrating for a variety of reasons) Seeing that this is getting picked up on is a nice little surprise.
Now that the meeting with the council is over, I tried to decipher who they are, and figure out what could be added to the blurbs on the Notable Beings threadmark.
Didn't figure out that much.
Zamvek
The green mist might be some sort communication or sensing adaptation.
Zyzixion
Martial minded(likes it when you kill enemies). Might have started as a border lord?
Flittertrust
Disdains unproven youths.
Efflu-zame
Laconic. Interested in unique modifications?
Chistomeque
Liked the detail and precision of Virmire's prior reports.
I'll point out that it's been brought up that paying for meat is a thing Caras already does -it was brought up again with the tax discussion, that Virmire goes around and pays some of the smaller villages for meat in place of the normal tax approach. So it's being done to at least some degree already.
Ok, this is confusing me a bit. From what I understood, there was just a Sheep Tax that meant people payed taxes in meat. Is there a completely different type of tax?
Anyway, what Virmire is doing sounds strange to me. Most medieval tax was payed in kind or labor instead of in cash; a farmer would pay in produce, a shepherd in animals, a smith in shaping metal, a carpenter fixing a building, etc. There wouldn't be enough coin to go around, especially in a poorer border territory. Is Virmire getting the taxes and immediately turning around to trade for meat?
Ok, this is confusing me a bit. From what I understood, there was just a Sheep Tax that meant people payed taxes in meat. Is there a completely different type of tax?
Anyway, what Virmire is doing sounds strange to me. Most medieval tax was payed in kind or labor instead of in cash; a farmer would pay in produce, a shepherd in animals, a smith in shaping metal, a carpenter fixing a building, etc. There wouldn't be enough coin to go around, especially in a poorer border territory. Is Virmire getting the taxes and immediately turning around to trade for meat?
You also find reams of notes on the human populations in Caras' territory. For all the quantity, though, the notes are fairly lackluster, and don't even note dates. Looking over them -skimming, really- gives you basically:
Estvallee: Once the second-largest town in Caras' lands, slaughtered completely when Caras finally realized his sunproofed Gatekeeper design was blind to Burner Worms, adjusted it back, and discovered that everyone in the village was infected. One set of notes implies that villagers dying of dehydration was his first hint. Provided fifty sheep every year, before they were slaughtered. Apparently in the northeastern part of his lands, at the edge of the forest and close to the border of Burner territory.
Ville Lumineuse: The largest town in Caras' lands. Sixty sheep a year, on average. One of the Virmires noted that Ville Lumineuse's inhabitants are somewhat uncooperative, and are probably underreporting their size, but this doesn't seem to have been followed up on. Set between the smaller forest -The Bearded Woods- and the larger forest -the Green Blight.
Terre de Moutons: A small town that borders the badlands, just northwest of Caras' castle. As the name suggests, they have a disproportionately large number of sheep, as for whatever reason their sheep are unusually vigorous and healthy. Thirty sheep a year, with a note commenting the number of humans would normally mean they'd only be taxed for ten. There's a triple-underlined note from Virmire II that they're a priority to defend -and every Virmire afterward has repeated this on the same paper. In fact, it was nailed into the desk at Virmire's eye-level, impossible for him to miss when entering the room!
Abandonne: Your hometown! Set somewhat into the Green Blight to the southeast, and prone to covering a third of its sheep tax in hunted foods. You didn't know that. Usually provides 25~ sheep worth of meat each year, which is apparently 'underperforming'.
Lac de Glace: Deep into the Green Blight, and normally covers almost all their 'sheep tax' with fish. Not actually set next to the Ice Lake, though. Usually provides 30~ sheep worth of meat in a year, which is 'about on target'.
And then there's a half-dozen other towns that are so tiny the sheep tax is not imposed on them in a uniform manner -instead there's three points in the year where Caras sends Virmire with a crew of Haulers to pay them for whatever meat they're willing/able to provide. Between them all they usually end up providing 25-35 sheep worth of meat over the course of the year, but it's very unstable.
There's also several more villages upon Ice Lake's shores that are unclaimed or in a dispute between Caras and the Baron of Subterran Maggots. Would it be practical to get them to pay taxes? Food for thought.
By the time you feel you are reaching a point of serious diminishing returns on the notes -you really wish you'd found other maps- it's... past noon, honestly. You'd probably be starving if Virmire hadn't considerately sent that breakfast ahead.
tl;dr Caras taxes in sheep except the really tiny villages he instead outright pays for meat with the coin apparently coming from the council (though that's mentioned in another post)
tl;dr Caras taxes in sheep except the really tiny villages he instead outright pays for meat with the coin apparently coming from the council (though that's mentioned in another post)
A medieval setting where the taxman comes around and pays you for stuff. It makes sense in the context of Caras not caring about money, but it is still very strange to me.
It slots into my thought that Caras is not utilizing his position or resources properly. So much more development could be going on just by having people do a labor tax outside of the planting and harvesting seasons.
