[X][Seed]Get Riya, your physiomancer, and have the seed removed, for later possible use
M o t h e r o f d r a g o n s !
Seriously, being magically impregnated without our consent by a dragon spirit was quite an escalation from checkers and tea, quite a disturbing escalation if I may add, but it makes sense that he could way overestimate our offer of "Companionship".
Still, a Dragon "seed" can be a very useful resource down the line...
[X][Cabinet][Treasurer]Florencia Grecco
Let's become the Wolf of Wall Street of the Wildlands! I see a good sinergy with Nur Gupta for developing a mineral exports based economy.
[X][Cabinet][Ranger] Bob. Just Bob
Metaxas would probably be a safer choice, but I am intrigued by the blank and his possible uses against rival mages. He is also the cheapest option.
[X][Cabinet][Mining]Nur Gupta
Let's use some market magic on our mines! (Very tempted by the engineer, but it seems to risky to me, while Inthink promoting one of the mayors will only bring bad things in the long run, such as jealousy from the others, resistance to reforms and pribably graft/tax evasion).
Total upkeep: 500/year.
Hopefully our treasurer and miner can improve our income quickly, or our gold reserves might not last long.
[X][Seed]Get Riya, your physiomancer, and have the seed removed, for later possible use
M o t h e r o f d r a g o n s !
Seriously, being magically impregnated without our consent by a dragon spirit was quite an escalation from checkers and tea, quite a disturbing escalation if I may add, but it makes sense that he could way overestimate our offer of "Companionship".
Still, a Dragon "seed" can be a very useful resource down the line...
Yeah. The reason it COULD do that to you is because you're a witch, and thus, not only can you affect spirits and elementals more than a normal mage, but they can affect you too much more than they can a normal mage.
I put that possible result on the rolling list because of an idle 'well, that's something I guess could happen' but I didn't really think about the possibility of rolling it. Then I kinda freaked out and nearly rerolled. Then I decided not to. But I'm super nervous about it. I mean, fuck, I wrote it, and I find it incredibly disturbing.
[X][Seed]Carry the seed to term
[X][Cabinet][Treasurer]Cassandra Sawyer
[X][Cabinet][Ranger] Bob. Just Bob.
[X][Cabinet][Mining]Sophie Backoff
Cassandra has a decent history, even if she tends to leave, the improvements are what we want.
Bob is...well being chased by someone you can't sense is going to be interesting.
Sophia has enough competence and a personal interest in long term development rather than the more avaricious or ambitious sort.
As for the baby...why not?
We asked for companionship and got a child. Technically we asked for it.
[X][Seed]Carry the seed to term
[X][Cabinet][Treasurer]Cassandra Sawyer
[X][Cabinet][Ranger] Bob. Just Bob.
[X][Cabinet][Mining]Sophie Backoff
I like the idea of prioritizing locals. I honestly think we need a child to be a less weird person, if that makes sense.
And besides, they can help our administration function well in 20+ years.
[X][Seed]Get Riya, your physiomancer, and have the seed removed, for later possible use
[X][Cabinet][Treasurer]Cassandra Sawyer
[X][Cabinet][Ranger] Bob. Just Bob.
[X][Cabinet][Mining]Sophie Backoff
Florencia is a beautiful woman. She arrives to the interview dressed in a silky blue dress that simply clings to her body, and her face is framed with perfect brown curls and ringlets that probably took forever to get right. She's also wearing a pair of killer heels that make you wince when you look at them. Despite that, she comes across as very knowledgable about finance. She's also quite frank about why she's coming to work with you. She worked as a stock broker and fractional banker in the Rose Forrest, a district near central, before an affair with the Mage Administrator's son was caught, and she was paid to move away, or else. She asks for 200 shekels a year for her experience, a fairly steep price, but assures you that she knows what she's doing, and she knows how to use her looks to get better deals from suppliers.
Skilled at getting what she wants, but her affair highlights a particular lack of sense and restraint, which is rather important in a founding council member.
The cost would eat up a full 100% to 30% of our passive income at present.
Alastair Alms
Alastair couldn't be a bigger contrast to Florenica if he tried. He's a greasy young man with a tight and sour look to his face. He's not at all personable, and doesn't engage in small talk. For the interview, he simply asks to see your books, reads through them, and points out several places where you failed to get an optimal deal, as well as a few places where people were possibly either cheating you, or simply bad at their jobs. He asks for 240 shekels a year, but his show of expertise wowed you. He, however, provides no reason why he wants to work for you, nor does he provide prior references.
This guy is the textbook fresh graduate hotshot who thinks he's super smart and talks a good game. He also potentially costs more than our tax income.
He might be able to back it up, but at this price I'm not entertaining that.
Cassandra Sawyer
Cassandra Sawyer is an old lady. She arrives to the interview dressed in an outfit that was stylish before you were born, looking more like a cake than an interview applicant. She's been doing treasury work for decades, for various mage administrators, and says she's coming out here for the adventure of working on the frontier. When you look at her resume, you don't see stable employment: She tends to work at a place for five to ten years, then move on. However, the places she's worked have all come out of it better off than they were before, and when you send letters around to her prior references they say that she's a good assistant, but a bit of an odd duck. You don't think she's 'blow you away brilliant' but she seems quietly competent. She asks for a relatively low compensation of 180 shekels per year.
Experienced, eccentric, relatively cheap(still nearly a third of normal income). She tends to do improvements and then wanders off with good references once she gets bored because she's solved all the problems she cares to, which is what we kind of need at present.
Aelius Postumius Corvus
Aelius Postumius Corvus has the most pretentious name you have ever seen. You wonder what sort of parent could have saddled him with it. It's everything you can do to keep from snickering as the man in the overblown nettle cape settles himself across from you. He's wearing all sorts of pouches and daggers, and even has a crossbow strapped to his side. He has some sort of green and black camouflage paint across his face, so you can't tell what he actually looks like very well. You wonder what it is about your district that attracts crazy people to apply here.
Despite that, his interview goes well. He knows survival techniques quite well, and demonstrates his preparedness. He's worked as a survival skills teacher in the past, at other districts, for head rangers and is trying to get a promotion by moving to your district. The amount he wants is the lowest of your applicants, a mere 100 shekels a year, and he's had no administrative experience, only teaching and survival.
Skilled and weird, but he's not a LEADER, so much as a special agent. He'd probably do if we want him, but down the line we want someone who can actually do more than be a lone rider type.
Ianthe Metaxas
Ianthe Metaxas' name is pretty pretentious too, but less so than Aelius Postumius Corvus' name. When she shows up at your tower, she's dressed fairly plainly. She's a well-tanned woman of scars, and is missing an ear. She's worked as a head ranger before, she explains, in Pinehome, a district close to the frozen south, but she was let go when a new mage administrator took over, as the new administrator was less interested in preservation, and more interested in exploitation.
She worked there for about five years before being let go, and it was her first head ranger position. She's now looking for a second head ranger position from the more wild districts in the area. She explains her missing ear and scars as the result of a childhood run in with a bear, the very event that made her interested in becoming a ranger in the first place. She asks a reasonable for her experience 180 shekels per year.
Experienced, but prioritizes environmental preservation over exploitation enough to resign a rather big job. Overall not bad, but may cause some trouble down the line if there's a big resource we find but the local wildlife is camping on it...or if we want to terraform a section of our territory to be more usable.
Bob. Just Bob.
When Bob enters your tower, you assume at first that he's a servant. It takes you nearly two hours to realize that he's patiently waiting for an interview. He claims to be raised locally, though you have no way of checking that. The man is one of those uncommon humans without a soul, as you can sense no manaflow from him. It's actually useful for a ranger, as it gives him added stealth against people who can use magic, and the soulless sometimes prove to be resistant to sorcery. (though not so much to elementalisim)
Bob has no credentials to show you, nor does he have any prior work references. He does, however, know what he's talking about, and when you ask him about his management style and technique, gives you a 'record keeping' heavy rundown that would fit well with the type of roll he's supposed to forfill. He asks for a simple 120 shekels per year
No experience, dirt cheap, but skilled and good for our hire search.
Having a rare ability is a plus for chasing down miscreants who won't even notice until he gets them.
Main point against him is basically the complete lack of records. He could well be someone's spy!
Nur Gupta
Nur Gupta is a merchant, not a miner, but he specializes in buying and selling rock and ores. He's a believer in the mercantile method: If he can get the miners in your district better prices for their ores, and cheaper prices on their tools then they will naturally upgrade their production. He also thinks that having the miners buy into refineries, earning shares in it by paying into it, would be a good way to finance such critical infrastructure. It's worked in a few districts previously, but most of those districts were already more developed than your district is now.
He's very experiences in administration, and knows quite a lot about mining and metallurgy: as a merchant who trades in such things must know. He's worked as head merchant in a district previously, and left it with good reviews. His reason for leaving was a personality conflict with another member of their staff. Mr Gupta also knows his own worth, and asks for a reasonable 180 shekels per year.
Capitalist angle, but based on the attitudes we've been exposed to thus far, I think the locals will not be taking the money and spending it optimally like he hopes.
Sophie Backoff
Sophie Backoff looks like she fell off of a wagon when she was little. She has a gap-toothed grin, and an easy-going attitude. She is apparently one of the mayors of the mining towns you met with on your whirlwind tour, but you frankly don't remember her. A few quick inquiries reveal that Riya does remember her, and that she seemed competent as mayor of a mining town. She has a deep abiding interest in this district, as it's her home and all, and so she's willing to offer you her services for less than what they're worth: Only 160 shekels per year.
Local, so she already has the connections and experience with local mining issues.
Main problem would be potential corruption/nepotism since she'd also bring local feuds with her, but she's cheap and at our level, she works for increasing production.
Dora Langbroek
Dora Langbroek is an engineer, and she arrives at your tower covered in tallow. She specializes in mining equipment, and used to work as second in command to the head smith of Blackstone district. Her credentials are impressive, she clearly knows her way around 'machinery intended to process and produce ores and metals', and she also clearly has administration experience. However, you quickly realize that she keeps talking about wanting to try fancy, and frankly expensive projects. You suspect that she's not prepared to scale back her projects for a more cash strapped district. She asks for 200 shekels per year.
Also kind of noticed while reading. The baby was the result of a chain of basically critical rolls huh?
-We impressed the Dragon in our opening encounter that he's as in love with us as a spirit could get.
-The dragon is expressedly young as spirits go and has had basically no prior interaction with ANYONE.
-We then played a variety of games, and rolled incredibly well with our witch-spirit interactions with bonding. Which apparently counts as sex where magic dragons are concerned.
So I think carrying to term could be a huge boon...that the dragon didn't know what he was doing and possibly couldn't replicate it if he wanted.
Based on the conversation I'm pretty sure neither of them knew what they were really doing even as they had mindsex.
Whoops? @Tithed_Verse
What DO we know about the following?
-The Dragon's nature and power
-Half-spirit children
The dragon had SLIGHTLY more awareness than you did, but only a little more awareness. Like... it knew it was GIVING you something. It didn't really know what it was giving you.
1. The Blood Dragon is an earth spirit that has been corrupted somehow with demonic blood magic. It can use blood magic, as well as the elemental magic that elementals normally use. He's also got a lot of toxic metals inside him, if you weren't an elementalist/alchemist, and thus capable of neutralizing heavy metals prior to ingestion, that tea would have been pretty deadly. As it was, you just dealt with it so as to not insult him.
Dragons are VERY powerful elemental spirits.
2. Old myths and legends say that half-spirit children were the original sources of magic: A half elemental child was the first witch, and the first mage was half god. Or so say the old, not necessarily true, legends. The witch communities know more about them, but don't talk about it to outsiders, and certainly not to you as you're very much a wildcard outsider and not a part of their complex structure of clans. Whatever they know, the Academy does not, and nor do any of the scholars that you've read the works of.
[X][Seed]Carry the seed to term
[X][Cabinet][Treasurer]Cassandra Sawyer
[X][Cabinet][Ranger] Bob. Just Bob.
[X][Cabinet][Mining]Sophie Backoff
I wonder if we should carry the seed to term?
Are we capable of that?
On the other hand, I really don't want to know what happens if our demon blood and the tainted dragon's interacts wildly.
Definitely keeping it then.
For science!
And babies!
The dragon had SLIGHTLY more awareness than you did, but only a little more awareness. Like... it knew it was GIVING you something. It didn't really know what it was giving you.
Ah...so we got a sheltered dragon teenager knocking up a sheltered witch teenager with neither really realizing it was even possible.
1. The Blood Dragon is an earth spirit that has been corrupted somehow with demonic blood magic. It can use blood magic, as well as the elemental magic that elementals normally use. He's also got a lot of toxic metals inside him, if you weren't an elementalist/alchemist, and thus capable of neutralizing heavy metals prior to ingestion, that tea would have been pretty deadly. As it was, you just dealt with it so as to not insult him.
Hmm, that's quite interesting. He'd be quite useful for dealing with the poisoned ground and identifying good mining sites.
And IIRC from the previous iteration, Blood Magic is less Evil and more Unknown, while potentially having applications in dealing with demons(which we would have to). Also politically a hot potato, but since we're out in the boonies with no priests, we're fine.
So the kid is going to be something special, though HOW special is unclear.
2. Old myths and legends say that half-spirit children were the original sources of magic: A half elemental child was the first witch, and the first mage was half god. Or so say the old, not necessarily true, legends. The witch communities know more about them, but don't talk about it to outsiders, and certainly not to you as you're very much a wildcard outsider and not a part of their complex structure of clans. Whatever they know, the Academy does not, and nor do any of the scholars that you've read the works of.
I wonder if we should carry the seed to term?
Are we capable of that?
On the other hand, I really don't want to know what happens if our demon blood and the tainted dragon's interacts wildly.
We don't have demon blood, and we're capable, or at least I don't expect the result of a chain crit to be a dead end like that.
We never had an older Witch give us the Talk though. So we got knocked up without knowing
Definitely keeping it then.
For science!
And babies!
Ah...so we got a sheltered dragon teenager knocking up a sheltered witch teenager with neither really realizing it was even possible.
Hmm, that's quite interesting. He'd be quite useful for dealing with the poisoned ground and identifying good mining sites.
And IIRC from the previous iteration, Blood Magic is less Evil and more Unknown, while potentially having applications in dealing with demons(which we would have to). Also politically a hot potato, but since we're out in the boonies with no priests, we're fine.
So the kid is going to be something special, though HOW special is unclear.
Hmm, interesting again here, since I think it was mentioned that you needed to be a witch to have a half-spirit child to begin with?
We don't have demon blood, and we're capable, or at least I don't expect the result of a chain crit to be a dead end like that.
We never had an older Witch give us the Talk though. So we got knocked up without knowing
It's never been recorded to have ever happened to a non witch, other than those old legends. Which might be a pack of lies. In fact, they probably are. On the other hand, mage school taught you that it was a pack of lies when the witches claimed it too.
Yeah, the SV one is male too. Technically, I mean he's a demon blooded physiomancer/sorcerer so he can be whatever the fuck he wants, but he doesn't know that yet. Demon Blooded stacks really powerfully with Physiomancy. Once my temp ban expires, I think I'll update the SB one too. I need to stop rudely requesting that the politics people to treat each other nicer ;/\;
This one is for the Province Szenna. The SB one is for Blood Cove
@veekie blood magic is demonic because it comes from demons, not because it's evil.
[X][Seed]Carry the seed to term
[X][Cabinet][Treasurer]Cassandra Sawyer
[X][Cabinet][Ranger] Bob. Just Bob.
[X][Cabinet][Mining]Sophie Backoff
You hire your cabinet carefully, and invite them to a subdued little party in your tower to celebrate their hiring. As they drink your wines, and sup on your food, you make sure to gently remind them that you want plans for the improvement of Szenna on your desk by the end of the week. Sophie Backoff reacts by spraying a fountain of wine across the table, drenching Bob.
Cassandra just hands you an already completed parchment with her plans on it. You're getting ready to retire when someone dressed as a Central Herald bursts through your tower door. "Where's the Mage Administrator?!" He demands.
You coldly approach him. "Speaking" You say.
"There's been a murder in your district, ma'am" He says
"Unless it was a mage, I don't see why it should involve me." You reply, confused
"It was a mage. One of your candidates. Nur Gupta has been found dead in Szenna Province."
"Nur Gupta is not a mage" You say, confused
"Actually, he was. He's registered as a sorcerer/psychomancer."
You attempt to cuss inventively. It does not work well.
[][Mystery]Have Bob investigate
[][Mystery]Have Riya investigate
[][Mystery]Hire a private investigator
[][Mystery]Investigate personally
[][Mystery]Request a professional from Central.
(Choose as many as you'd like)
I'm taking the way the vote currently stands as
[][Mystery]Have Bob investigate
[][Mystery]Investigate personally.
After some consideration, you decide that this murder is important enough to investigate it alongside Bob.
Obviously, the first thing you do is check the location that the body was found. It takes a couple of days to get there, meaning that the body had been rotting for at least three days.
The 'town' in which it occurred is on your border, near Valin's Wood. The whole population consists of 14 people: a family of ten, covering four generations, and their hired workers. There's only the two buildings, a traveler's inn, and their stables. You notice they have their writ prominently displayed on the wall, they've authorized by central, and receive subsidiary funds direct from central to run the inn.
The family consists of the innkeeper, Parvati, her husband Diederich, her mother, her father in law, her uncle-in-law, her sister, her daughter and two sons, her eldest daughter's son, and her eldest son's husband.
The hired hands consist of a cadre of 3 musician/dancers who provide entertainment, and a priest. Obviously, the priest is the only one who you suspect would be capable of actually taking on a mage.
The inn itself is a massive building, with a detached and sprawling stables, and a smaller set of discreet barns... they look newer and less well built than the stables and inn. All of it is within a poorly maintained set of wooden walls. The clear inference is that the structure was originally built as a barracks during the demon war, and has since been converted into an inn for servicing agriculture workers and travelers passing between szenna and Valen's wood. It was clear why such an inn was being funded, despite it's lack of profitability. Your district was still held to be a potential invasion route by demons, and such infrastructure would be necessary should worse come to worse.
There's a small chef's garden, and a few animals being kept in premise, both by the innkeeper, and by the traders who are passing through.
Right there you have a potential motive: the man who was killed was a finance worker, even if he hadn't interviewed as such, if they were doing anything wrong at all, he'd likely have noticed. Being a mage would make him seem more threatening, and then more likely to employ more secretive means.
But why would he hide being a mage from you? There was likely more to it.
Unfortunately, just because there is a population of, doesn't mean there are not other travellers in the inn. There's been about twenty travellers in the inn these last four days now, and there are currently seven in attendance.
The inn keepers didn't even make any effort to preserve the crime scene: they carried the body down into their cellar, and sold to room to someone else the next day.
The body, at least, is somewhat preserved, but it shows clear signs of struggle, apparently ruling out the possibility that the inkeeper's family was somehow responsible for his death.
Bob says that there are tacks though the fields, and that the fight may have happened a ways away: There's evidence that the body was dragged back to the room, and into it through the first floor window.
Choose 4
[][Investigate]Interview the family
[][Investigate]Interview the Priest
[][Investigate]Check the books
[][Investigate]Check outdoors
[][Investigate]Attempt to magically view the past of the room
[][Investigate]Attempt to investigate the mage's ghost
[][Investigate]Arrest everyone
[][Investigate]Investigate the guests
[][Investigate]Check who was in the inn at the time
[][Investigate]Lockdown, noone in nor out
[][Investigate]Investigate the 'morgue'
[][Investigate]Look into the history of the Inn
[][Investigate]Write in.
Adhoc vote count started by Tithed_Verse on Dec 8, 2017 at 11:32 PM, finished with 84 posts and 8 votes.
32
[X][Seed]Carry the seed to term
[X][Cabinet][Treasurer]Cassandra Sawyer
[X][Cabinet][Ranger] Bob. Just Bob
[X][Cabinet][Mining]Sophie Backoff
[X][Investigate]Check outdoors
[X][Investigate]Check who was in the inn at the time
[X][Investigate]Attempt to magically view the past of the room
[X][Investigate]Attempt to investigate the mage's ghost
[X][Personal]Food concerns with Kora Bloodmoss
[X][Personal]Diplomacy with The Blood Dragon
[X][Personal]Build a Manapump for the mana spring in Blood Creek Springs (Bonus due to survey of blood creek springs)
[X][Personal]Hire assistants to begin developing your district
[X] Check who was in the inn at the time
-[X] They're not permitted to leave
[X] Interview the Priest
[X] Attempt to investigate the mage's ghost
[X] Look for and attempt to interview nearby spirits.
[X][Investigate]Interview the family
[X][Investigate]Check the books
[X][Investigate]Attempt to investigate the mage's ghost
[X][Investigate]Check who was in the inn at the time
[X][Seed]Get Riya, your physiomancer, and have the seed removed, for later possible use
[X][Cabinet][Treasurer]Cassandra Sawyer
[X][Cabinet][Ranger] Bob. Just Bob
[X][Cabinet][Mining]Sophie Backoff
[X][Personal]Food concerns with Kora Bloodmoss = 49-humans penalty + Frustrated bonus
[X][Personal]Diplomacy with The Blood Dragon 74+spirit bonus +Frustrated bonus
[X][Personal]Build a Manapump for the mana spring in Blood Creek Springs (Bonus due to survey of blood creek springs) 07+survey bonus +Frustrated bonus
[X][Personal]Hire assistants to begin developing your district 64-humans penalty + Frustrated bonus
[X] Plan Eventually Make A Conglomerated River Spirit To Help Clear It Out
[X][Personal]Survey the northern, planes half of your district
[X][Personal]Food concerns with Kora Bloodmoss
[X][Personal]Spend time with more spirits
[X][Personal]Study Binding
[X] plan good servant
[X][Personal]Survey the northern, planes half of your district
[X][Personal]Request immigration of skilled workers for your capitol (Bonus due to survey of blood creek springs)
[X][Personal]Hire assistants to begin developing your district
[X][Personal]Food concerns with Kora Bloodmoss
[X][Personal]Survey the northern, planes half of your district
[X][Personal]Food concerns with Kora Bloodmoss
[X][Personal]Research the strange plant that grow near the Demon Gate
[X][Personal]Study Binding
[X][Seed]Get Riya, your physiomancer, and have the seed removed, for later possible use
[X][Cabinet][Treasurer]Florencia Grecco
[X][Cabinet][Ranger] Bob. Just Bob
[X][Cabinet][Mining]Nur Gupta
Adhoc vote count started by Tithed_Verse on Dec 15, 2017 at 9:22 PM, finished with 15 posts and 5 votes.
[X][Investigate]Check outdoors
[X][Investigate]Check who was in the inn at the time
[X][Investigate]Attempt to magically view the past of the room
[X][Investigate]Attempt to investigate the mage's ghost
[X][Investigate]Interview the family
[X][Investigate]Check the books
[X][Investigate]Attempt to investigate the mage's ghost
[X][Investigate]Check who was in the inn at the time
[X] Check who was in the inn at the time
-[X] They're not permitted to leave
[X] Interview the Priest
[X] Attempt to investigate the mage's ghost
[X] Look for and attempt to interview nearby spirits.
Adhoc vote count started by Tithed_Verse on Dec 28, 2017 at 9:01 PM, finished with 18 posts and 6 votes.
[X][Investigate]Check outdoors
[X][Investigate]Check who was in the inn at the time
[X][Investigate]Attempt to magically view the past of the room
[X][Investigate]Attempt to investigate the mage's ghost
[X][Investigate]Interview the family
[X][Investigate]Check the books
[X][Investigate]Attempt to investigate the mage's ghost
[X][Investigate]Check who was in the inn at the time
[X] Check who was in the inn at the time
-[X] They're not permitted to leave
[X] Interview the Priest
[X] Attempt to investigate the mage's ghost
[X] Look for and attempt to interview nearby spirits.
