To give some perspective, literally millions of IM in trade goods passes through customs in SD per month and millions more is shipped through the passage north and south.
Edit: Honestly... we are literally propping up the world economy to a degree right now. A lot of industries would have completely collapsed when you consider slavery's abolition and the changing flow/availability of goods and in the quantities they are appearing in.
For example, Braavos made back the losses of trade they suffered from piracy, exorbitant tariffs and so on thanks in no small part to us, but we have pretty much killed the northern Essos steel trade. Oh they are still very much buying steel, but producing? We out produce everyone. I'm sure there's still some surfeit of skilled metalworkers needed there, but a lot of them have to be immigrating south with the sponsored waves we've been paying for each month. Everfire Dale may be one of the faster expanding communities besides SD.
Even leaving aside steel production, the Hardening Chamber means that literally nobody on Prime Material can compete unless they manage to copy that.
Before we vassalized Riz'Neth we used to joke about him being used to highly superior hardened steel from Sorcerer's Deep, and him wondering if whatever Essosi traders that made it to his city were trying to rip him off by selling him normal metal.
Even leaving aside steel production, the Hardening Chamber means that literally nobody on Prime Material can compete unless they manage to copy that.
Before we vassalized Riz'Neth we used to joke about him being used to highly superior hardened steel from Sorcerer's Deep, and him wondering if whatever Essosi traders that made it to his city were trying to rip him off by selling him normal metal.
After initial negotiations they would be more likely to sell him arcane reagents, if he means to import anything. Most of the trade going on in Snake Port is going to be their exports, with Riz'neth's people taking in coin. Which he will likely spend on whatever else they happen to need from... well, us.
I wonder if in a potential future they would give some catchy name to our hardened materials.
I mean, the propaganda pieces themselves should outlive most books while on the wild, or even some stone structures depending on the weather due to the material.
It's like suddenly someone finding a plastic bottle thousands of years in the future when civilization had regressed back to stone age, or WE finding a plastic bottle and other such materials in a sealed room that was hidden for thousands of years.
I wonder if in a potential future they would give some catchy name to our hardened materials.
I mean, the propaganda pieces themselves should outlive most books while on the wild, or even some stone structures depending on the weather due to the material.
It's like suddenly someone finding a plastic bottle thousands of years in the future when civilization had regressed back to stone age, or WE finding a plastic bottle and other such materials in a sealed room that was hidden for thousands of years.
All things considered, if there was an advanced civilization on Earth in the distant past, erosion probably wasn't responsible for wearing all evidence away. We're stupid monkeys, we probably just didn't dig deep through all the sediment covering it up.
Or we did, and less dumb monkeys convinced more dumb monkeys that's a silly conspiracy!
@Goldfish, can we start pumping out Spontaneous Sesrch Stations instead, pretty please?
Thise are of far bigger importance than engineer supplies for Moonchaser.
Stations allow for security in our administrative buildings, Inquisition quarters and scjolarums, for keeping on top of co traband going through Planar Terminus and arriving in SD/other ports via ships, etc.
Moonchaser wont see battle for a fair bit still.
Nothing Tiamat's drakes can throw at it will break through either, for that late-next-month's engagement
@ctake, thanks for that remake, although I'm not sure what was the reason for it.
Will add to fleet-threadmark once I'm back home in... give-or-take 6 hours.
@Goldfish, can we start pumping out Spontaneous Sesrch Stations instead, pretty please?
Thise are of far bigger importance than engineer supplies for Moonchaser.
Stations allow for security in our administrative buildings, Inquisition quarters and scjolarums, for keeping on top of co traband going through Planar Terminus and arriving in SD/other ports via ships, etc.
Moonchaser wont see battle for a fair bit still.
Nothing Tiamat's drakes can throw at it will break through either, for that late-next-month's engagement
@ctake, thanks for that remake, although I'm not sure what was the reason for it.
Will add to fleet-threadmark once I'm back home in... give-or-take 6 hours.
Holy shite man. At this point Viserys has a +2 Cha Ring, a Ribbon of Disguise, and a charm monster staff, at 10. Seems like a terrible time to spend 3k gold on the fae sidekick, after spending 5k gold to help a Dragon talk to his food. What a wierd quest.
Holy shite man. At this point Viserys has a +2 Cha Ring, a Ribbon of Disguise, and a charm monster staff, at 10. Seems like a terrible time to spend 3k gold on the fae sidekick, after spending 5k gold to help a Dragon talk to his food. What a wierd quest.
Holy shite man. At this point Viserys has a +2 Cha Ring, a Ribbon of Disguise, and a charm monster staff, at 10. Seems like a terrible time to spend 3k gold on the fae sidekick, after spending 5k gold to help a Dragon talk to his food. What a wierd quest.
In this quest you couldn't really spend gold on magic items, so to us it was basically useless at anything that wasn't kingdom management and cat herding related. Which to a good portion of the players was 'boring' at the time. And probably still is to a degree.
But we skipped the middle point that you might have expected of "having an actual magic marketplace to spend our money in",
and skipped right to "make our own magic academy to train enchanters to make stuff for us". And as for making gear for our PCs? We crafted the majority of it or looted it off the corpses of our enemies while their blood was still warm.
Eh, up to this point every magic item you have was crafted by buying mats with gold. @Goldfish seems about ready to pull his hair out for wasting gold back in 2017 lol.
Eh, up to this point every magic item you have was crafted by buying mats with gold. @Goldfish seems about ready to pull his hair out for wasting gold back in 2017 lol.
Again, there's a plurality there. While we can spend money on reagents to craft stuff, reagents were scarce since EVERYONE else on the plane was buying them too, and Lya can only craft X amount of stuff every month, and she's our only crafter of note at this time.
So from our point of view (the murderhobo quotient, if you will), money has three uses (at this point where you are). Keeping the lights on in Kingdom-place-where-we-keep stuff. Buying reagents to craft items. And glittering prettily and being otherwise totally useless.
So a lot of people who don't really care about things like "economics", "finance", "responsibility" and "common sense" will make sure we have EXACTLY the amount we needed to do #1, a little bit more than necessary for #2 (so we could keep crafting the next month) and just enough for #3 that the magpies don't get anxious. Everything else would get dumped into plot and character related chasms because what's the point in being rich when we can just fireball people and take their stuff?
We grew a lot from happy sociopathic little murderers... now we use soulless mechanisms of war to do that stuff for us.
Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Oct 28, 2019 at 5:06 AM, finished with 172 posts and 13 votes.
[X] Seek out an audience with the envoys of one of the other major realms -[X] Hampa to try and recruit more enchanters. With Viserys and Lya. -[X] Dalaqua to discuss alliance, trade or recruiting artisans. With Rhaella and Dany. -[X] Mardja to discuss alliance, trade or recruiting artisans. With Relath and Breath Taker. --[X] The goal is to secure more enchanters for our burgeoning war machine, and we can adjust the particulars from there as we will be personally negotiating, but also to get more crafters and artisans for our Underwater district more generally, hence the placement of our other envoys. Besides that, we would like to offer patronage to some artists and performers, or really anyone remotely capable of adding a bit of culture, sophistication and civilization to our submersed and hopefully rapidly growing aquatic population.
I wonder if in a potential future they would give some catchy name to our hardened materials.
I mean, the propaganda pieces themselves should outlive most books while on the wild, or even some stone structures depending on the weather due to the material.
@Goldfish, can we start pumping out Spontaneous Sesrch Stations instead, pretty please?
Thise are of far bigger importance than engineer supplies for Moonchaser.
Stations allow for security in our administrative buildings, Inquisition quarters and scjolarums, for keeping on top of co traband going through Planar Terminus and arriving in SD/other ports via ships, etc.
Moonchaser wont see battle for a fair bit still.
Nothing Tiamat's drakes can throw at it will break through either, for that late-next-month's engagement
@ctake, thanks for that remake, although I'm not sure what was the reason for it.
Will add to fleet-threadmark once I'm back home in... give-or-take 6 hours.
Everyone, I hate the idea of having "Summoning" taught as a STEM field. Conjuring is useful, but proper Calling spells like Planar Binding are stupidly dangerous and restricted for a reason.
By definition, any space travelling vehicle with decent speed is a WMD. Furthermore, due to how stupidly hard is it to defend a planet against an enemy in orbit, it's a WMD we can't really defend against.
Quality private space travel means giving a private business access to WMDs. I am really not sure that that's a thing we want to do.
Accept private investment in our own program, fine. Maybe even do public-private partnerships if we want their R&D to help our R&D, or need some of their skilled employees. But any pilots and astronauts should be our own well-trained and vetted staff for now. Private businesses will probably try to vet their pilots (ships are still very expensive investments, after all) but the government has actual professional spy agencies and they don't. It's easy to on the NSA and FBI (they violate individual liberties, they're fucking creepy, etc) but sometimes it's really useful to be able to know functionally everything about someone.
At the very least, we would need very strong safety regulations and a strong space military capable of enforcing no-fly zones and stopping a spaceship turned into a stealthy asteroid.
IRL spaceships aren't really at that point yet (they're basically just weird planes, and most countries have radar/surveillance systems to keep track of flying vehicles + armed forces with planes that are able and willing to blow threats out of the sky - things aren't perfect, but there is some defense). But in this quest, a Moonchaser can get to stupidly high speeds, can maneuver very well, doesn't have to worry about fuel much, and is hard to detect (no special cloaking, but no special energy emissions either. And we don't exactly have radar or anything in the Imperium).
Basically in ASWAH a privately owned spaceship is rather concerning, because we can't defend against it easily.
You say that, but we still aren't mass-producing war Constructs! Until we have 6-digit numbers of Warforged and Ravens, we're still a Dragon commanding mostly mortal armies.
Everyone, I hate the idea of having "Summoning" taught as a STEM field. Conjuring is useful, but proper Calling spells like Planar Binding are stupidly dangerous and restricted for a reason.
Nothing says Summoning has to get as much attention as the other areas of focus.
Recognizing the dangers of the practice, however, plus what can or cannot be Summoned, how to prevent such Summoning, and how to recognize a Summoning gone wrong, are all important aspects of a good magical education if you don't want your land overrun by fiendish Outsiders.
Well, mortals are like packing peanuts... and cheaper to 'work on'.
The lack of constant low-level warfare resulted in Westeros using the glut of grain and the peace to farm the grain in, to grow exponentially in population by an exorbitant factor during Jaehaerys' reign...
Now magnify that by there always being enough grain available--too much even--irrespective of any other factor. And combine it with universal healthcare to prevent those bouts of infant mortality and a terminal case of the dead from childbirth.
I think we'll be using regular people to do most of our labor and military work pretty much indefinitely. They multiply damn fast in far worse circumstances.
Well, mortals are like packing peanuts... and cheaper to 'work on'.
The lack of constant low-level warfare resulted in Westeros using the glut of grain and the peace to farm the grain in, to grow exponentially in population by an exorbitant factor during Jaehaerys' reign...
Now magnify that by there always being enough grain available--too much even--irrespective of any other factor. And combine it with universal healthcare to prevent those bouts of infant mortality and a terminal case of the dead from childbirth.
I think we'll be using regular people to do most of our labor and military work pretty much indefinitely. They multiply damn fast in far worse circumstances.
They're so easily customizable, too. You just have to send them to the proper education facility, vocational instructor, or physical trainer, and before long you have a specialized muggle ready for action.
But I like dogs and other cute furry creatures, so I'm at least 1000% better than Asmodeus.
Seriously, though, when dealing with huge numbers of people, millions upon millions of them, they simply become a statistic. You can't get overly focused on the small stuff or the big picture starts to suffer, and the big picture involves existential horrors poised to wipe out all life, steal, eat, and/or torture mortal souls, etc. That doesn't stop us from trying to do right by them. There are tons of practices and laws in the Imperium placed solely to increase quality of living among the muggles who would otherwise be forced to live in a medieval feudal hellhole.
Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Oct 28, 2019 at 5:06 AM, finished with 172 posts and 13 votes.
[X] Seek out an audience with the envoys of one of the other major realms -[X] Hampa to try and recruit more enchanters. With Viserys and Lya. -[X] Dalaqua to discuss alliance, trade or recruiting artisans. With Rhaella and Dany. -[X] Mardja to discuss alliance, trade or recruiting artisans. With Relath and Breath Taker. --[X] The goal is to secure more enchanters for our burgeoning war machine, and we can adjust the particulars from there as we will be personally negotiating, but also to get more crafters and artisans for our Underwater district more generally, hence the placement of our other envoys. Besides that, we would like to offer patronage to some artists and performers, or really anyone remotely capable of adding a bit of culture, sophistication and civilization to our submersed and hopefully rapidly growing aquatic population.
The next two days are filled with minor diplomatic fetes in which you find yourself once more in a familiar position, the curiosity from a far off land, the opportunity for daring traders hoping perhaps that you had not sold off all your goods yet and they can still ride the wave to handsome profits. Alas for them that particular well has run dry, which is not to say that you are not interested in trade of any sort.
You find the envoy of the Emir of Hampa, a cheerful merman with a love of fine foods and kelp wine, quite willing to offer a letter of introduction practically from the moment you and Lya approach him, though that may have been from the mistaken impression that it would ignite draconic tempers should he refuse. After some more time spent calming his fears and giving a fuller accounting of your realm he calls on some of his kin and allies back home to gather 'ventursome enchanters'. Though you suspect it is more often a case of enchanters whose debts are too large to refuse the suggestion you do not speak up against it, the contracts you are presented with are fair enough to the mages, well removed from what you might consider debt bondage. Perhaps they will even decide that Sorcerer's Deep is a better place for them than Hampa after a few years.
Unfortunately the envoy of Dalaqua, a prideful man in shimmering Mithral scales, proves more resistant to the offer your mother and Dany bring. Trade is of course welcome, for no ruler would be so foolish as to bar the gates of his realm to profit, but an alliance he insists must be discussed with the Emir himself. "Even Dragons do not command mighty Dalaqua," are his final words, leaving you quite relieved that you had not sent Relath to negotiate there. He has been doing remarkably well in showing the people of Vialesk more of draconic charm than draconic arrogance, but it is always best not to tempt fate.
Speaking of Relath, distant Mardja has proven more amenable to the notion of an alliance, though Caravan Master Zorund, the current envoy to Vialesk, is in no position to discuss artisan contracts of any sorts. He writes you a long letter of introduction to his lord and several more to the heads of the most influential guilds. Though that leaves the matter of sending an envoy to the distant court or leave the matter for another day.
Gained Mardja Letters of Introduction
As these discussions were taking place behind gilded doors many other citizens of Vialesk decide to answer the other call you had bid the horn bearers carry far and wide, calling on all who might add to the culture and presence of Sorcerer's Deep as an undersea city as much as one that exists beneath the waves. Here it seems your free hand with silver has paid for itself once again. The crowd is so large you momentarily find yourself wondering how you are going to carry them all back, until you remember the Moonchaser, moored below the city. Actors and entertainers, poets, painters, singers and so many more flock at the chance to obtain passage to the Garden where they might try their luck, gold clinking merrily in their pockets.
Lost 50,000 IM
Sorcerer's Deep sees an influx of aquatic artists and performers
What do you do next?
[] Seek out an audience with the envoys of one of the other major realms
-[] Zerbat to discuss alliance or trade
-[] Dawa to discuss alliance or trade
-[] Kela to see if you might be able to rid the Emir of his dragon foe
-[] Dyutho to learn more of the Deep Realms and perhaps the harvesting of Riverine
[] Travel to one of the Emirates whose envoys you have spoken to in person
-[] Dalaqua, perhaps the Emir should prove less prickly than his envoy
-[] Mardja to build on a good first impression
[] Seek an audience with the envoys of one of the Dragon Dominions
-[] Althazi the Deathless to see about hiring his services, or those of his subjects
-[] Vornath and Thyrax, you have made use of raiders before, perhaps you could keep them in line long enough to unleash upon the Deep Ones
[] Buy something
-[] Exotic warbeasts for the Tritons
-[] Write in
[] Deal with the weightier of Relath's grudges, a Dragon's hoard would not go amiss and neither would more goodwill from the Lord of Tolos
[] Write in
OOC: I did a bit of summarizing above since nothing particularly interesting happened at the meetings. The rolls were quite low except for Relath, though Viserys made up for it with sheer weight of buff spells.
