Remove ads

Gold and Treachery - A Trade Magnate Quest

Reader mode
@Azel notices this.
[ ] Make Contacts (1 AP)
--[ ] House Senwet

is the Bolded supposed to be Senmet?

Edit: just checked the front page, Senwet seems to be the correct spelling. So is Patriarch Awety Semnet supposed to be part of the Senwet family or is there a separate Semnet family?

Relevant since @Ylla wants to reach out to them. If it's Senwet, I feel like that's actually one of the hardest diplo targets. They've just endured some scandal of their own via their patriarch marrying Ms. Scandal. Generally people do not get back in the "in group" by budding up with other people in the "out group" unless you do some serious upheaval. In other words I think their best chances at being accepted back into polite society would be everyone (including them) being too busy dunking on us to care about them. Vice versa for us.

Not to mention per the front page their issue is that Alumahi High Society sees them as peasants. Maybe we could've reached out earlier when he had our "good name" intact but now we pretty much have nothing to offer them.
 
Last edited:
A_Somebody said:
They've just endured some scandal of their own via their patriarch marrying Ms. Scandal. Generally people do not get back in the "in group" by budding up with other people in the "out group" unless you do some serious upheaval. In other words I think their best chances at being accepted back into polite society would be everyone (including them) being too busy dunking on us to care about them. Vice versa for us.

Not to mention per the front page their issue is that Alumahi High Society sees them as peasants. Maybe we could've reached out earlier when he had our "good name" intact but now we pretty much have nothing to offer them.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Forgot about the rumors and overall poor state of Senwet's influence. The only other "in" that I could see would be spending time at the Kassarium which doesn't seem like it would bring any significant changes, and Sarraqu seems to be in similar position to Senwet. My vote will probably stay with contacting Senwet if only to build relations with a more stable Trade house.
 
Okay so in terms of trade house diplomacy let's see what Lipern brings to the table
  • Kinda stable finances?
  • No rumors of bankruptcy
  • Privileged access to spice trade
  • A stink of scandal
  • Now, general rumors of financial incompetence
  • Being a foreign pawn of invaders
Okay let's try and look at Sarraqu. From char Gen we know that they're really good at naval stuff but are generally distrusted and suspected of being filthy pirates. Their recent scandal is the heir fucking off to do who knows what. Maybe pirates, they have pirate ties.

Senwet are relatively poor but stable, and their patriarch looks like he married a noble lady steeped in scandal to try and leverage wealth into a noble title. See him paying for a religious all clear for wifey.

It's a question of who'd be more likely find our main plus--the spice trade access--enough to offset our maluses--our name being mud with regards to reliability and filthy foreign ties. Not sure if not!Muslim ties would significantly worsen Sarraqu's rep or if it'd be seen as more of the same and maybe they could leverage their privlesged sea route access with our spice market access? On the other hand Senwet could be in the market for a riskier "get rich quicker" partner.

My gut is leaning towards Sarraqu. I think maybe there's some personal synergy from our dude being a hood engineer and good at shipbuilding and their naval focus. Also to me it feels like scandal wise Senwet's problems are the most similar to ours. Sarraqu had an heir fuck off to ??? but I think that's not necessarily a super big deal if he doesn't go priate king. After all, impetuousess of youth, what he took shouldn't greatly impact Sarraqu's ability to do their day to day business etc. Senwet and our scandal were direct prestige hits, Senwet's wife giving him horns in the bedroom, our steward metaphorically giving us horns via stealing behind our back. And I feel Senwet socially has the most to gain from bagging on our scandal. And the most to gain in terms of "taking our spot" in high society. I think Sarraqu is an established "noble" house so they aren't new money looking for an in.

Of course maybe my social analysis is completely wrong and Azel is having a stroke from not telling me how wrongly Im reading the situation.
 
[X] Plan Steady We Go
-[X] Demolish and rebuild the tenements. (1 AP, 3 Wealth, expected income of 1 Wealth)

-[X] Practice Philosophy (1 AP)
--[X] Natural Philosophy

-[X] Gather Rumours (1 AP, DC 0 Espionage check)

-[X] Spend time at the Kassarium (1 AP)

-[X] Spend time with your wife (1 AP)
 
Profectus said:
I think we should spend time with fellow nerds to help our guy cope with this massive reputation loss.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Also I'm getting the impression that intellectualism is actually respected in this city. The party had MC and Hasna discussing a clock and an audience of people listening to them talk about a clock. There's also that "Classical Education" trait, which only specifically works against others with that trait. I assume that means it's reasonably common in this city, at least among the higher classes. To me it implies a culture that thinks debate and discussing intellectual stuff is worthwhile as opposed to a more martial culture that'd spit on such a thing as wasting time you could spend sparring or killing some large animal.
 
Why doesn't anyone want to pay off the loan? The effect will be the same as building.
Only it is not known what kind of people will live in our houses. Especially considering our reputation. I would not like to be famous for the creator of the slums.

And the payment should improve our reputation. The Liperns always pay their debts.
 
Mr. Sandman said:
Hmmm, I thought overspending only added to material cost. If that is the case, I'll shuffle it around. Thanks for bringing this to my attention! @Azel, could you please bring some clarity to this situation? Would overspending cost 2 AP, 1 Wealth or 1 AP, 1 Wealth?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
No. Overspending adds both AP and Wealth cost.

If you take that action normally, it takes 1 AP. If you also overspend, it's 2 AP and 1 Wealth total.
A_Somebody said:
@Azel notices this.
[ ] Make Contacts (1 AP)
--[ ] House Senwet
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That's an error in the Rumor Mill. They are the same house.
 
[X] Plan Building Clout

Plan Steady We Go looked nice, but I'd prefer to take actions in which we learn rather than actions in which we show off (Practicing Philosophy feels like one of those).
 
Azel said:
They lost in the end, though it had cost the life of three guardsmen
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
"lives"
Azel said:
You were either credited with finding out by accident, or it was claimed that it was actually Menodoras achievement.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Menodora's
Azel said:
"the traitors blood running is thin and will thankfully soon die out".
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
"the traitors' blood is running thin"
Azel said:
He left in the summer on the houses newest war galley
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
"house's"
Azel said:
The sordid tale seemed to have reached its finale when she disappeared without a trace from her families mansion.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
"family's"
Azel said:
They knew the waters of the Ioation region well enough to keep the trade going, but it would have been folly to expect any more then that from them.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
"Iotian", "than"

"Treason by incompetence". They sure know how to frame the case. :D

I wonder if the modifiers can be lessened, or if we are stuck with the stigma of the scandal for a good while. It is likely that having some financial successes would allow for a more positive interpretation of the event.

Nothing to do but business then.

[x] Plan Building Clout
 
Profectus said:
ngl I find it very funny how quickly we got rid of both our starting advantage and disavantage.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Well not really. We're still in debt. Just more manageable debt.

Bylba said:
Why doesn't anyone want to pay off the loan? The effect will be the same as building.
Only it is not known what kind of people will live in our houses. Especially considering our reputation. I would not like to be famous for the creator of the slums.

And the payment should improve our reputation. The Liperns always pay their debts.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The thing is, do we have the money to pay off either debt? Smallest one is five Wealth. Our expected surplus is four.
 
So what's the plan with the tenements if we won't be turning them into brothels and gambling dens right now? Wait until our reputation recovers and do it then?
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top