[X] [Main] More Blackbirds
[X] [Main] Restore Order
Valleyhome - Study Stars
Northshore - Expand Economy
Sacred Forest - Study Forest
Nomirrah carefully plucked the bright red berry from the tree, careful not to squish it lest the juices it was being harvested for be lost. Not looking away from her work, she said, "You need more practice Jumtyyn."
An exasperated sigh from behind her answered in response, "Nomirrah, I gave up trying to sneak up on you two seasons ago."
"You weren't walking casually," Nomirrah countered, examining another cluster of berries for ripeness.
"Actually, the elders instructed us to walk lightly all the time so it becomes habit," Jumtyyn responded, leaning against a tree within Nomirrah's line of sight.
The duskier woman just hummed patronizingly again, much to the exasperation of the Blackbird trainee attempting to flirt with her. Still, he tilted his head at the berries and said, "Trying again to see if you can cook them stronger?"
"Yup," Nomirrah said. "I think that if you cook them on different kinds of rocks you get different kinds of potency for the final poison."
"Huh. Interesting, if true," Jumtyyn said, peering at the basket full of potential death. At the moment they might just make your lips numb and cause vomiting if you were stupid enough to eat them, but with the right preparation...
Half smiling, half glaring, Nomirrah asked, "So is your interest in these purely professional, or are you interested in the status of my fields again?"
Holding up his hands as if burned, Jumtyyn said, "Hey now, your mother made her opinion of me well enough know the last time this conversation came up."
Smirking slightly as she continued to pick the berries, Nomirrah said, "She simply has strong opinions on the possibility of her daughter losing her husband as she did, hence her efforts to drive away suitors that might end up dying early."
"Yeah, yeah, well Blackbirds don't do much dying, you know?" Jumtyyn replied flippantly.
"No, they just spy on people," Nomirrah said, setting down her basket so that she might have both hands free to count off on them. "Also, I do believe that there are what, three conflicts that you might get deployed to? There are the nomad raids in Northcoast to deal with, the conflicts with people along the southern shores, and no one is quite sure how the Highlanders and Thunder Horse will behave once they finish chewing on the corpses of the Dead Priests."
Rolling his eyes, Jumtyyn said, "Stepping outside your continued preternatural ability to gain information, there's only one confirmed conflict, and that's with the nomads to the north. No one's quite sure if the stuff to the south is in any way serious yet, and for all the rumours of major victories against the Dead Priests, the chiefs are all warning us to not act like they're gone yet, or that the people currently killing them are going to immediately turn around and attack us."
"Hmmmm," was Nomirrah's enigmatic reply as she leaned up against a tree in the forest.
"Anyway, your mother really needs to realize that the situation isn't that bad, and besides, with you learning all the spirit stuff you do you're more likely to disappear into some sacred glade or cave somewhere than I am to vanish in battle and war. And then how would I feel? Huh?" Jumtyyn said with all the bravado and logic of a young man attempting to convince a far more sensible young woman of his point of view.
Still, even as she shook her head, Nomirrah was smiling, and she said, "She just does not want her story to repeat over the generations. She wants a nice, levelheaded man who can take care of our fields and forests and not go anywhere." Her smile turned mischievous for a moment before she said, "Now, if you might like to demonstrate how you would till my fields in the off season, I would be willing to give you an audition, and show you how I make bread." She raised her eyebrows at that even as she ran a finger along the hem of her dress.
After a moment of Jumtyyn freezing up, Nomirrah leaned in and whispered in his ear, "Huh, you are getting better at being quiet."
For the king, the little dramas of his subordinates was entirely lost to him, more concerned with reports of outsiders and the way the crackdown on localized corruption - amazing how useful having observers outside the local power structures who could stealthily observe and record what they saw was in preventing abuses of power - than with who was interested in courting who. While the raids by nomadic tribes on the newly integrated Northshore were a definite issue, and the absolute thrashing the Dead Priests were reportedly earning from the Highlanders and Thunder Horse were simultaneously pleasing and yet long term concerning, in some ways he was more worried about the reports of minor raids and skirmishes along the southern shore border, mostly because the people they were in conflict with there were using boats somewhat similar to their own and thus could move fast and far. Perhaps an exploration mission to find out where they came from and who they were? Then again there was so much else to do...
Bah! He should take a moment to focus on the positive, like not only had many of the lowest level chiefs and clan heads been thoroughly shamed and punished for their disruptive behaviour, but one new Blackbird trainee had decided that he wanted a more ornate and decorated bow and had somehow stumbled on a way to make stronger bows. This of course meant that the people using them had to be stronger, but the few examples of the new design could fire much harder and further than prior bows. Given that half the trouble with fighting nomads was catching them, more range was always good news.
Pick a problem to immediately respond to...
[] Reinforce Northshore
[] Send ships to explore the southern coasts
[] Send a trade mission to congratulate the Highlanders (-1 Diplo, +1-2 Diplo next turn)
[] Send a trade mission to congratulate the Thunder Horse (-1 Diplo, +1-2 Diplo next turn)
The chiefs in Northshore have requested increased autonomy to deal with nomadic raids
[] The king will deal with the problems as they come (No change)
[] Send additional resources to assist (-1 Centralization, allows Northshore to spend Econ on defensive measures while being attacked)
[] Allow a free hand to deal with invaders (-1 Centralization, automatic actions to deal with invaders will be spent by subordinates instead of the king)
The Dead Priests are getting their teeth kicked in, and there are people caught up in the middle. This time many are coming from more core territories...
[] Many of these people are dangerous, bar their entry (Chance of stability loss)
[] The People always welcome the needy (-1 Stability, +2 Econ)
[] Actively encourage the abandonment of the Dead Priest leaders by their people (-2 Stability, -1 Diplomacy, +4-5 Econ, chance to collapse the Dead Priests)
