Money flows as you get your most valuable contract yet done and over with. More lumber than you've seen in your life is treated in great alchemical vats which harden it to steel-like hardness with the flexibility of fresh greenwood.
Elsewhere in the world, great mountains of munitions are shipped to the waiting Roman armies, loading cannon and preparing soldiery for any future wars which threaten this land.
Shaking your head, you count the Stavraton instead of focusing on the wonders and riches of the world.
A good year.
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Physician, Supply Thyself.
150 Stavraton+80 (Cynna, Master Alchemist)-50 (Closed Market)
Critical Range 1-14
Roll=28 (Success)
"You want….. Medicine?" Cynna asks, somewhat confused. You grin, responding affably, "Yes, exactly!"
"Just….medicine. That's it? No specific illness? No issue you can describe?" She asks, now very much confused, "You do know that's not how that works, right?"
Smirking, you gesture vaguely to the wall of chemicals she has in her workshop, "Each of those can cure an illness, or vaguely help, no?" Pulling your hands back and to your front, you continue, "Thus, every piece of that is some form of medicine! I want it all dear, every part of it." The eerie glow of greed must be showing clearly on your face.
"You're a madman Magnus, an utter madman." Cynna complains, looking to her books, "But, I think, no promises are being made, I think I can help." She writes down an address on a piece of an empty page and tears it from her notebook, a sacrilegious waste of paper.
As you take and read it, it directs you to an address in the city, "There you will find a man similarly mad, he has been working on something to this effect for the past decade." Nodding fiercely at Cynna, you respond, "I can always count on you, love." Comes from your mouth idly as you lean over and plant a kiss on her lips.
You had intended to leave now, but the firm grab from Cynna quickly erases that plan. Later, then.
======
A few hours later, you found yourself in the home of a positively mad man. Your initial introduction to him was quite literally seeing his face melt off in a horrific show of alchemical mishandling before a second potion quickly replaces said flesh in a flurry of regrowing flesh, displaying medicinal capacity beyond anything you've seen in the hospitals and physicians therein.
This was followed by some very pleasant conversation wherein the man truly proved his utter madness and finally, you get him to agree to….industrialize his production of medicine by promising to allow him to experiment freely so long as he keeps a reasonable amount of production.
The cost to start this operation up was somewhat unseemly, but manageable with the fact you did not need to pay the man anything, simply get him his machinery and vast vats to work with.
200 additional Stavraton Spent to create Alchemical Laboratory, it is using its 30 units of production to make Medicine currently. It costs 45 Stavraton a turn for maintenance and supply.
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Copper Buyers
100 Stavraton
Roll=87 (Success)
Negotiations for this are easy enough, copper is a vital material to make brass, something useful for the finest workings of clockwork science. However, prices are not as favourable. A profit is acquired with the Ochimata crafters of Ankara, but they are only willing to pay a bare amount over the market price for you handling transport costs.
Cursing slightly, but accepting the mild profit you will make, you settle in agreement, placing the letter received into a folder to keep safe.
Ankaran Ochimata Fabricators-2.5 Stavraton Per Unit-Unlimited Units Intake
400KM from Constantinople Overland, 730KM from Trebizond Overland. No direct Sea Route.
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Mercy for the Poor
100 Stavraton+100 (Servicing a Desperate Need)
Critical Range 1-20
Roll=4 (Critical)
The first time you go to the bishop assigned with dealing with the "administration" of the Church's finance and offer to move the poor, he practically shoves money your way before you get to the part where you will do it for free.
Conveniently omitting that fact as soon as you fully realize what they just said, you instead begin negotiating the arduous task of moving such numbers of folk across vast distances to unsettled lands.
Very apparently, the crown beat you to this idea, having funded many social programmes to incentivize movement away from the vastly overpopulated urban centres to the very edges of the Empire and in doing so, made an amount of money available for it.
Indeed, the amount of money is amazingly idiotic in size, as you discover in negotiations for price.
Upgraded Open Contract-Targoviste Passenger Route-2.5 Stavraton Per Passenger Unit
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Paper Actions
Paper Mill Workers
60 Stavraton+40 (Concrete Examples of a Workplace)
Target-100
Roll=85 (Success)
With a whole Mill as proof of employment, hiring workers becomes much easier. Once an actual miller is found, many more can be put into apprenticeships which you subsidize and then, finally, paper begins coming out in thick sheets which are carefully sliced for sale.
Now, where to sell it?
Workers found, Paper Mill begins production.
Paper Mill produces 55 Units of Paper a turn, it costs 30 Stavraton a Turn in Maintenance.
Paper Contracts
Bonus immense, contract found with church ties.
Thankfully, your previous conversation with the church comes in handy, as their purpose of keeping all records known to man consumes more paper than is strictly sane.
With a quick bit of negotiation, you acquire a generous price and begin the sale of paper, converting the inherently worthless sheets of wood pulp into actually valuable silver.
Paper to Hagia Sophia-No Distance-3.5 Stavraton Per Unit-90 Unit Demand-No Duration
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Golden Sheafs
100 Stavraton
Target-100
Roll=53 (Success)
Purchasing land is quite easy, no one really owns much and the amount of money you offer for even an acre is life-changing for the landowners here, allowing you to amass an acreage of significant size, perhaps a few dozen when all is said and done.
The ready-made land to work is appreciated by arriving migrants as they immediately get to work, tilling and preparing for seeds to arrive.
Sensing that need, you immediately hop to, attempting to acquire industrial quantities of staple food crops from wherever you can.
Farming Estate Purchased, Up to 250 Units of Production a Year, no options to produce yet.
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Staple Stocks
50 Stavraton+35 (Botanist Connections, Courtesy of Cynna)
Target-85
Roll=31
You would have had to range far and wide if not for Cynna's help. Off-handedly she mentioned that the botanists have experimented with creating a superior food crop for the Empire, but so far, due to lack of funding and apparent raw difficulty of the matter, efforts have generally faltered and died.
This does, however, mean that the local guilds have millions of wheat, barley and rice seeds in storage, completely unused. Now, you have no idea how to grow rice and you doubt your sharecroppers do either, but wheat and barley are perfect for your purposes.
A simple letter gets a fair price for them, and you purchase the lot and ship it to Targoviste to be disseminated between the sharecroppers as per your desires.
Farming Estate adds Grains as a production choice. Automatically started planting.
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End of Turn Balance
Balance=827 Stavraton
Upkeeps already factored in. See Economics.
Copper Route could not be run, no demand in Constantinople for Ship, need more Transport methods.
