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Guards? Guards! -- Altdorf City Watch

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As a newly minted lieutenant in the Altdorf City Watch, fight to try and improve your newly assigned district, while also making sure to take care of yourself. An experiment in a XCOM style management focused quest
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Character Creations: Origins and Commission
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    DrearyBear

    As you step into the dimly lit great room of the watch barracks, you just manage to catch the last of the gossip flying back and forth between the dirt-caked men who lounge around on chairs that probably haven't been cleaned since they were dumped here. A clamor of rough voices washes over you,

    "Bet they don't last more than a month, Percy saw them on the way in and said they looked like they had a bath no more than a week ago"

    "I miss the old Lieutenant, yeah he was crooked as my nan's back, but at least he was happy enough for everyone to get their own"

    "How do you think this one bites it? Shived with a rusty knife? Eaten by a mutant? Drowned in the river is always a solid bet"

    "Nah I reckon something but more exotic, maybe shot in the head during a duel with a former flame"

    "SILENCE", one of the sergeants standing toward the front of the Hall finally shouts out, before turning to you with a sheepish grin, "Sorry [SIR?/MAAM?], the lads have gotten a little rowdy without any real command for the past few months, you want to introduce yourself?"

    Clearing your throat, you give a brief overview of your history

    You are a:
    Former Soldier: You were born the sixth child of a poor peasant family, with no hope of ever seeing land of your own. As soon as you could you joined the Army of the Riekland, and served there for more than a decade, fighting against greenskins, beastmen, and occasional Brettonion border raids. It all went wrong when you were tasked with leading your men to rescue a fool noble who had decided to go hunting deep within greenskin infested forests. You and he were the only survivors, and as "thanks" you received a commission to the city Watch:

    • Pros:
      • Military Connections: Typically the Watch makes do with whatever surplus military supplies they can get, and shoves them into the hands of whoever is desperate enough to join. You could change that.
      • Reikland's Pride: Reikland prides itself on having the strongest army in the Empire, and prizes its soldiers and heroes. High natural reputation and trust with Altdorf's peasants and burghers.
      • Accomplished Warrior: Your decades in the army have honed you into a fine warrior, and accomplished leader. Bonus on rolls involving combat and leadership.
    • Cons:
      • Peasant Background: You come from a small farming village, and you never received much education before enlisting. You can't read and will struggle with any knowledge-based checks.
      • Newcomer: You have recently arrived in Altdorf and have little knowledge of the city or its residents. You are also painfully naive about the types of scams and thieves common to the area.
      • Caring: You were known to genuinely care about the fate of the men under your command and tried your best to see them kept safe and rewarded. In the city of Altdorf there is no question this will be used against you.

    Wastrel Noble: Growing up as the child of a prominent Riekland noble you never wanted for anything. You were dressed in the finest clothes, had servants to attend to your every need, and had access to whatever games and entertainment you desired. Over time, this excess turned to drink, carousing, and ended in disaster when you managed to drunkenly seduce a distant relative of the Unfähiger dynasty while pretending Bretonnian Knight. When you were discovered the next morning still in bed with her, disowning you was all your father could do to try and prevent you from being killed in a duel of honor. Still, some old connections were pulled, and a commission in the Watch was quickly secured:
    • Pros
      • Noble: You may no longer be your father's heir, but you are still a noble. The doors of judges, priests, and other nobles will be open to you in a way that would be impossible for anyone without your status
      • Smooth Talker: You may never have learned stewardship, logistics, fencing, or any of the myriad other skills your father paid for but your years of partying and debauchery made you a deft hand at getting into and out of awkward social situations. Advantage on any diplomacy or social roles
      • Well Educated: Unlike most of the Empire's citizens you received a formal education. You are literate and know the basic history of the Empire, its cults, and surrounding polities.
    • Cons:
      • Wastrel Noble: You have never had any real interest in having a job, and this is just a stopover until you can wiggle your way out of your current situation. Less free actions to pursue goals than other background choices.
      • Weak Survival Skills: Why train when you'll always have guards to keep you safe? Well, that's what you always said when you had guards. Now that you don't, and you are on your own, you're rethinking your stance.
      • Powerful Enemies: Just because your father disowned you doesn't mean that the slate is wiped clean. They may not be able to get at you through official means but expect some bumps in the night.

    Watchman: You come from the masses of partial citizens that make up the majority of Altdorf's residents, without much education, luck, or chance of success. Somehow you managed to secure a posting within the city watch, and over time clawed your way up to senior patrolman, and eventually watch sergeant. You've scrimped and saved, done too many favors that you know will come back to haunt you and just barely managed to stay ahead of your debts and secure this role:
    • Pros:
      • Institutional Loyalty: Your fellow watchmen know what a momentous feat it was to claw your way up to this position, and offer equal respect and fear for the cunning and brutality you must have employed. Higher initial morale, and bonuses on any social checks involving members of the watch
      • Secret Keeper: You've had to get your hands plenty dirty to get where you are, and in the process your eyes have been opened to the naked corruption of the City. You know who's crooked and who's not, who's palms can be greased by a penny and who will demand a crown, and where a mountain of corpses are buried.
      • Gossipmonger: You have a wide range of friends, informants, and contacts throughout the city. 3/4 times you will be able to find a contact to pass information, find you a rare resource, or find the location of someone. On the other hand, these relationships go both ways, and people will call in these favors
    • Cons:
      • Crooked Copper: You have sold your soul many, many times to keep your position and advance in the watch. You've maintained a careful balance of favors and relationships so far, but they will come calling now that you are a Lieutenant
      • Flat Broke: You come from no money, and you've spent every single bent copper you've ever touched to get this role. Even that wasn't enough, and in the end you had to borrow far too much from some characters you know are not to be crossed. You need to start repaying your debts as soon as possible unless you want to end up face-down in the river
      • Ignorant: You are from the slums of Altdorf and received no formal education. You can't read or write and have little knowledge of academic subjects, or the world outside of the city.
    Burgher: Your family has taken advantage of the reunification of the Empire, and has slowly grown a widespread network spanning its many rivers. Now, however, you are rapidly running into the limits of a young merchant house. Every time you try to challenge a major merchant, you find your efforts stymied through the guilds, through the Watch, through a noble claiming your goods as contraband. You, a younger sibling of the current house heir are an experiment in expanding the family's influence into the legal field
    • Pros
      • Well Financed: Your family is heavily invested in ensuring your success in your new role. You will receive an allowance from your family to pursue your personal goals, with the chance to receive a larger investment if you prove the value of your role. Access to your family's riverine trade networks will aid in securing access to rare equipment and items.
      • Merchant Training: Merchants have to be some of the best-educated commoners in the Empire: you were taught your sums, to read and write, and have a basic understanding of other languages: Bretoniaon, Tilean, and Kislevarinin.
      • Mercenary Contacts: Merchants are used to hiring mercenaries and adventurers to protect them and solve their problems. You will have a 3/4 chance to find common mercenaries to solve problems for you, without leaning on your Watch command
    • Cons
      • Familial Obligations: Your commission was explicitly purchased to boost your family's position within the guild system. Expect to turn a blind eye to some smuggling, and requests to put pressure on your family's rivals.
      • Familial Rivals: Of course, your family's rivals will be watching your progress warily, and you can expect sabotage or worse if you show even a hint of success within your role.
      • No Martial Training: No merchant of the Empire is truly helpless, the risk of bandits, mutants, and monsters is simply too high. However, few are particularly skilled in arms, and you are no exception. You will have to rely heavily on your men to protect you, as you have a disadvantage in combat


    With your introduction out of the way, and your new patrolmen still looking dubiously at you, the mood in the filth-caked great hall grows rowdier. The same sergeant that introduced you tries to tamp down on the rampant betting on your demise by cuffing heads and shouting insults so specific and vulgar that they make even you blush.

    Turning back to you he says, "They might not seem like much, but I assure you they are significantly worse than you would imagine. We have people on the take of the Hooks, the Fish, and at least three outlawed cults. You'll have your work cut out for you with trying to shape these louts into something even vaguely competent"

    Frowning, you consider his words, and the wary respect that all the watchmen seem to have for him. Whatever arrangements he has, or blackmail he knows, you suspect he will not be eager to part with or disrupt.

    This is a make-or-break opportunity for you. All of your remaining funds and connections were tied up in acquiring this commission -- and as you quickly realized when negotiating with representatives of the Commander of the Watch -- you are now a small fish in a very big pond. Your attempts to get a commission in a good neighborhood immediately fell flat. Grand Market? Controlled by a relative of the Prince. Turmgarten? They laughed in your face when you suggested it. Even a relatively innocuous district like Flottenliegplatz was priced far outside of your means.

    In the end, it came down to a choice between three of Altdorf's worst neighborhoods, each of which you never would have imagined being your commission within the City Watch.

    Ogasse: The only option available to you on the prosperous and powerful South Bank of the city, this formerly prosperous neighborhood has descended into crime and squalor. Partially at least, this fall was hastened by the neglect the Watch has shown the area. Every time someone suggests an improvement for the area, the required funds are inevitably spent on Ogasse's much more prosperous and influential neighbors. Still however, there are plenty of law-abiding citizens, particularly TIlean immigrants, who have made their homes here, and if the crime is dealt with the area could rapidly improve
    • Neighbors: Krankenfeld (Home of a temple of Shayalla, South Gate), Sudkuste (Wealthy district on the river)
    • Pros:
      • Prominent: It's just a fact that the rich and powerful of the city pay far more attention to the goings on of what they consider the "proper city" or the South Bank than they do anywhere else in the city. It will be easier to gain reputation and fame here
      • Safe and Stable: No part of Altdorf is free of crime, but the South Bank is safer than most parts. You're unlikely to be mugged during the day, and the gangs have a relatively light footprint in the area.
      • Rich: Compared to the rest of the areas you are offered, Ogasse is by far the wealthiest up front, meaning a strong influx of shillings right up front for you and your soldiers
    • Cons
      • Prominent: Because of the South Bank's prominence, every political striver in the Watch is also stationed here. It will be harder to advance, and many of these other lieutenants and captains will be more than willing to call in favors to break the knees of a potential competitor
      • Testy Mercenaries: As benefits the Tilean district of the city, this is the city's preeminent recruitment ground for mercenaries. Recently, with the brewing conflict with Parrovon, more mercenaries are funneling in causing problems
      • The Old Faith: Garden Hill is one of the few remaining holy sites for adherents of the Old Faith, and a stable population of adherents lives nearby and visits it's standing stones. The local Sigmarites have proscribed these practices, and religious based conflict is frequent

    Riekerbahn: Once this neighborhood was the financial heart of the city, with nearly every riverine shipment using its docks to transport goods. Over time, as the rest of the East Side slowly slid into neglect and poverty, merchants slowly shifted to using newer docks on the North and South Bank. Now, this neighborhood is almost completely controlled by the Fish, and the number one source of contraband entering the city. What residents do remain live in rundown tenements, barely scraping by
    • Neighbors: Isle of Eels, SchlectLaden (Best neighborhood in Eastend!)
    • Pros:
      • Low Oversight: The Watch has basically no presence in the Docks and any semblance of order you can provide will be regarded as an accomplishment. For the more shady Watch lieutenants, there are plenty of opportunities to establish them as a singular source of authority
      • Docks are Docks: Currently, the area's docks are primarily used for smuggling contraband, but as the city grows the city's merchants are constantly in search of more, and cheaper dock space. If you could somehow clean them up, a tremendous amount of money could be made by providing security
      • Easy Recruitment: The slums of Riekerbahn are filled with the most wretched, desperate dregs of humanity. In other words the only people willing to sign up for the Watch.
    • Cons:
      • DANGER: the East End is the most dangerous district in the city, and Riekerbahn is dangerous even by those standards. The Fish control the area, so don't hold out much hope for Watch reinforcements
      • Apathy: The councils of Altdorf have mostly given up on the district, and view any further investment as wasted crowns. Expect extreme difficulty securing any assistance from the Watch.
      • Hostile Population: Every watch officer ever posted here has had to be outrageously corrupt to find some way of coexisting with the gangs, and at this point, the people of the district trust the Fish more than they trust the watch. Long uphill slog to make the district trust you.

    TOTENINSEL: The Watch only maintains a token representation on this island of the dead, ceding almost all authority to the Cult of Morr's Black Templars. Few come here voluntarily, scuttling on and off the island to attend a funeral or provide for the needs of the Morrite temple. Crime here is sparse, but as the site of the Watches body dump and burn site, you may have some influence and knowledge of the whole city
    • Neighbors: Fishmarkt and Grandmarkt
    • Pros
      • North Bank: The primary reason to take this posting is simply that it's the only commission on the up-and-coming North Back you could afford. The university, main markets, Colleges of Magic, and economic Heart of the city are all nearby, and you may be able to spread your influence there more easily
      • Body Bank: The Altdorf City Watch finds a distressing number of bodies every week, and almost all of them end up here. You will quickly gain connections with other Watch officers across the city and may be the first to notice a city-wide trend based on the intake of bodies
      • Morrite Influence: The Morrites may not be the most powerful cult, but everyone does respect them. Who after all wants to see their recently deceased loved one come back as the thrall of a foul necromancer? Being so close to their centers of power m may grant you influence and insight few have.
    • Cons:
      • Isle of the Dead: Simply put, there are very few living residents of the island, and accordingly few opportunities for an entrepreneurial officer to make much money.
      • Reputational Risk: No one wants to think of death, and by association, no one wants to think of those who deal with the dead. You will find it much harder to build a solid reputation with this posting.
      • Necromancers: Trying to raise the island's dead is the very first thing that every wanna-be necromancer does when they get their hands on an artifact of Nagash. None make it very far with the Black Templars on hand but they have a bad tendency of killing the guards on duty before they're stopped. Hard to keep guards for long, and hard to recruit as well


    Notes
    I got suckered into buying the Warhammer fantasy Humble Bundle, and quickly got the itch to do some roleplaying in its universe. Unfortunately, I'm running a long-running ttrpg campaign, and don't want to blow it up, so here I am writing a quest for the first time.

    My biggest goal is to try out a new quest mechanic focused on squad management and soldier progression -- aka Xcom — which I feel quests are uniquely suited to versus traditional TTRPGS. You will try to keep control over your district, advance your soldiers, and work to unlock new equipment, support, and training. Of course, it's Warhammer, so expect the world to fight back hard at any hint of progress. Want to buy new equipment? How much do you trust your quartermaster to handle large chunks of money? Want to stop merchants from being harassed? The gangs are powerful and more than willing to hit back. Get too successful? Someone will resent you moving past them and try to ruin you.

    SV, can you resist the inevitable tides of corruption and chaos?

    Good Luck!


    Minutia:
    This quest will be set during the realm of Dieter the IV, as so much of that mad man's reign focuses on events within the city, and rising tensions with Nuln. However! Do not expect events to necessarily progress as expected, as your actions in Altdorf will have a wide-ranging impact on the many events of the era. In addition, I'll be following GWs own approach to cannon: try my best to follow along, and then invent some ridiculous special case for when I inevitably contradict myself!

    Please vote in plan format for:
    - Gender
    - Name
    - Background
    - Watch Location

    I owe a great deal to Boney and Toaoars Quests, and all of the other Warhammer fantasy media I have consumed over the years.
     
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    • Character Sheets and Control Panels
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    • Character Sheet:
    Wounds 10/12




    Finances:
    Personal ExpensesWatchhouse Finances
    Previous Total2 Shillings3 GC and 5 SS available
    Income7 Gold (Sale of two pistols)None
    Expenses1 Shilling (Living expenses)
    5 Crowns (House)    		None
    New Total2 Gold Crowns, 1 Silver Shilling 3 GC and 5 SS available

    Squad Tracker:
    SEE LINKED GOOGLE SHEET

    This squad tracker is designed to play much of the role the squad management screens in XCOM do, showing you exactly what training your soldiers have, as well as what relevant abilities and equipment they have access to. Of course, right now you have little idea of any of this, which is why almost all these fields are marked blank with a ???. As you take actions to learn your squads better, these will be filled in by me to the best of my ability, but if anything seems missing or wrong please let me know and I will fix it.

    A quick rundown of the various skills:
    - WS: Weapon Skill, or ability in melee combat.
    - BS: Ballistic Skill, or ability to shoot a bow or gun.
    - S: Strength
    - T: Toughness, or how able they are to shrug off wounds
    - W: Wounds, normally one for most humans
    - I: Initative, or how fast and nimble they are.
    - A: Attacks, or how often they can attack in a round.
    - LD: Leadership or how brave they are.
     
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    • Character Creation: Goals and Ideals
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    • [X] Necro Slayer
    -[X] Male
    -[X] Manfred Hartmann
    -[X] Former Soldier
    -[X] TOTENINSEL

    Introduction
    Personal progression in this quest will work a bit like in WFRP, where the most reliable way to advance is through completing personal or party goals. In this quest, your party goals will be tied to the advancement of your watch command. As the completion of goals is the primary way to advance in this quest, try and think about some that synergize well.

    As goals are completed, you will have the opportunity to replace them. I will do my best to ensure that the goals available reflect your current situation and represent possible paths forward for the quest. Goals can either be abandoned — or fail if they are no longer possible to complete— but as a consequence, you will not be able to select another short-term goal for three turns or another long-term goal for six turns to encourage you to be persistent even in the face of setbacks.


    The sergeant, whose name you still haven't quite managed to catch, turns to you and asks, "Begging your pardon Sir, but do you want to share your intentions for the Watch with the soldiers here? A bit of knowledge of your goals will go a long way to helping cheer the lads up and, uhhh, make sure that you aren't biting off a bit too much to chew"

    What are your current goals for your command? Select up to Three:
    • Reduce Corruption: You're not an idiot. You know that your command is laughably corrupt. There is simply no way that any of the veteran watchmen could have survived through three murdered lieutenants otherwise. Your biggest question is only who exactly each one is in the pocket of, and how deep that influence spreads. Burning out the obvious surface-level corruption will be a challenge, but necessary for you to even vaguely trust your men
    • Base of Control: Currently your authority in the district extends no further than the front door of the watch house; if you are lucky. Getting a solid base of operation will give you some room to breathe, and hopefully, some shillings flowing in
    • Return to Strength: Technically, this watch station has space and funding for 8 full squads of five Watchmen and a generous support and logistic staff. Right now there are 3 raggedy squads available, and the most enormously fat quartermaster you've ever seen. Sorting out your staff will allow you to take more actions, and better address your other goals. Success if you double your active strength to six squads
    • Refurbish the Watch House: You're pretty sure the Watch House has not been cleaned since the reunification of the Empire a hundred years ago and the less that is said about the leaky roof the better. There were supposed to be funds available for the upkeep of the building, but they clearly have been siphoned off. Getting the building back to a habitable status will assist with the recruitment and morale of your command.
    • Establish a Uniform: No two watchmen you can see are dressed in even vaguely the same way. Having some standardization would make your men significantly easier to keep track of, and probably goa long way in ensuring their survivability.
    • Raise Morale of the Watch: As you've already heard when you entered, your watchmen have near zero confidence in your leadership. Before they follow any plans to clash with any serious groups, you must convince them you can be trusted to keep them safe. Figure out some way to make them trust your judgment, or at the very least, fear it
    • Raise Trust of the Rookeries: Few of Altdorf's residents are full citizens, and even fewer have any real influence or power. Still, they form perfectly serviceable mobs, and more than one Watch officer has been torn apart by them when they went too far. Right now they exist in a state of detached apathy, but if you get them on your side you will have an army of informants about gang and cult activity.
    • Raise Trust of Burghers: The Burghers represent the merchant class of the city, and as their economic might grows, the largest source of funding for the Watch and other civic institutions. They primarily desire stability, the protection of their goods, and ruthless suppression of any threats to the power of their guilds. While relatively few make their way to Tottenheim gaining their trust may be useful in advancing your career. Currently, they are faintly dismissive of you.
    • Raise Trust of Nobles: Nobles are still the most politically powerful force within the city. Due to the morbid nature of your district, it's not a popular location for nobles to live, but there are a few houses that have interests here. They may not have too much interest in your efforts to cleanup the district, but cross them and they can severely impact any future advancement in your career.
    • Take on a Minor Gang: You are nowhere near ready to take on the Fish or the Hooks —or any of their many affiliates — but there are plenty of small-time players operating within your district such as the knucklebones that pray on those too poor to afford fancy funeral rites by the Priests of Morr. Taking on one of them will prove you are serious about your job, and as you are simply reducing competition for the big gangs, it's not too likely to end with a knife in your back.
    • No casualty necromancer attack: Tottenheim and its cemetery is the first port of call for every wayward university student that finds a Nehekharan artifact and now thinks they are the next Nagash. Unfortunately, these initial attacks tend to pick off at least one watchman before being put down by the local Morrites. If you could get your soldiers trained to a decent baseline it wouldn't be too hard to survive until the Morrites make their counterattack.
    • Better relations with the Morrites: The temple of Morr is the real powerbase on the island of Tottenheim, but your predecessors have always kept them at an arm's length. Probably because they are so godsdamn creepy. If you manage to establish better relations with them, it would be a major stepping stone to having a more secure district.
    • Write in: Of course there may be goals that you have for your command that no one would suspect. (Feel free to write in additional goals. As long as vaguely reasonable, I'm always very happy for player input)
    Do you want to share your goals with the group?
    • Yes: they deserve to know your plans
    • No: you trust them as much as you trust the skewers of "real rat meat" currently being served outside
    Of course, you didn't pay all of that money in fees and bribes out of a selfless sense of municipal duty. You did it so you would be the one cooking the books for once! Ever since you were a child you have been dreaming of (Choose One):
    • Becoming a Noble: Not being a Noble in the Empire is frankly terrible. You have limited access to Justice, an extremely limited safety net, and can be dragged off by Witch Hunters with no real recourse available to your -- hopefully — grieving family. You don't care if you have to find a patron, become a folk hero, forge blackmail against a high noble, or marry the ugliest bachelor/spinster in all of Altdorf's high society, you will die a Noble.
    • Becoming Rich: It's a new era in the Empire and Handrich rules supreme. Become rich enough and there is nothing that can stop you, not even the Nobles who pretend to be better than honest Burghers; even as they cozy up to them to fund their wars, parties, and mistresses. You'll stop at nothing to become rich as sin yourself (Gain at least 10000 Gold Crowns)
    • Becoming Famed across Altdorf: The only true legacy you can leave behind is your name in the minds of those who survive you. Become famed across Altdorf for your deeds with the common people, and an aspiration for them to look up to. (Commit — or at least take credit for — three heroic acts that the whole city becomes aware of)
    • Become Watch Major: Lieutenant is not where you see yourself stopping. No, you fully intend to become Major of the entire Bank, with all the power and responsibilities that entails. You'll need to scheme your way past some of the most vicious, heartless, and downright criminal men in the city: your fellow Lieutenants if you want this role. Oh, and ensure a suitably timely opening in the position as well
    • Return to the Military: In your heart, you will always be a military man. This is nothing more than an unfortunate stopover and you will figure out how to scheme your way into a commission as a Captain within the Riekland's Army. This is either purchasable through coin, or social connections.
    • Become a Black Guard: Being a Knight was always outside of your social class, but maybe by providing enough value for the local temple you could be sworn in as one of their elites: the famous Black Guards. It's not the most prestigious of Knightly orders, but it certainly is one of the most valuable.
    • Write In: Very happy to have you specify a unique long-term goal, but it needs to be of an appropriate scale. Solving a case is obviously too small, while becoming Emperor is too expansive. If you've got something in mind feel free to reach out to me in the thread to discuss!
    You are a practical sort, however, and understand that your goal is still years away, locked behind succeeding at your current role as the head of the Tottenheim Watch. In the meantime, you have some more urgent matters to attend to (Pick Three):
    • Acquire Secure Lodging: You already have enemies, and if you do your job right you're going to have many more soon. Finding a safe place to rest your head — preferably with trustworthy guards -- will go a long way in keeping you alive, and able to pursue other goals. Until you can trust your Watchmen, and the Watchhouse, sleeping there is as dangerous as sleeping next to a hungry Ogre
    • Find out what happened to your Predecessor(s): Being a Watch lieutenant is no easy job, and many fine men never manage to survive until retirement. Even by those standards three lieutenants murdered within the space of a year is more than a little suspicious. Someone doesn't want the Watch's attention on this area of the city. But who? And why not just pay your predecessors off? And why not target the local temple? Something is not adding up
    • Collect the Money: Watch Lieutenants are expected to try and be largely self-sufficient, and fundraise to make any major improvements or expansions. Still, there is supposed to be some money coming in for base salaries and equipment. From what you've seen however that money hasn't made it to the district for years. Who's got your money!?
    • Alternate Income Streams: You receive a small stipend from the city for the maintenance of your men, but it's hardly enough to equip them, let alone recruit new ones or engage in any sort of major project. It's up to you to find some other source of income. Fundraise from locals. Provide private security for businesses. Look the other way on some smuggling. Shakedown some mutants. There are myriad options for an entrepreneurial Watch officer to make some extra coins. Choose one.
    • Acquire a Manservant/Maid: One of the trappings of your status is a manservant to attend to your grooming and personal chores. Finding someone is easy, but finding someone you can trust, who knows their sums to not be cheated at the market and has enough decorum to approach a noble Estate without being kicked out is far more difficult.
    • Eliminate Rival: The survival of that idiot noble, when so many of your chosen brothers lay dead from greenskins weighs heavy on your mind. You couldn't touch him while you were in the army, but now you have your own independent base of power, maybe you can do something to ruin him.
    • Acquire/Collate a Map: One thing that was a constant source of frustration as you prepared to take over the district was your complete inability to find an even vaguely up-to-date map. The Watch's official map hasn't been updated in over a century, and the locals laughed in your face when you tried to get one from them. How are you supposed to secure this area if you aren't even sure exactly what's in it?
    • Inspect all Squads: Your first impressions of your soldiers are that they are hardly worth the name. There is not a single piece of equipment they have in common: army surplus is common, but so are more rough clubs and the like. You think there may even be a Norscan belt holding up one particularly scruffy soldier's patched pants. Stil,l they are all you have, and getting to know them better is a priority. (See below for mechanics, but this will be what gives you basic info about squad composition)
    • Establish a Sanctum: You know you will need a secure space to conduct experiments and interrogations. It needs to be secure even to your soldiers, as one of its first uses will trying to figure out which of them is dirty. Choose well, because in the future this may be where you conduct experimentation and other types of personal research.
    • Hire a Spy: A lot of people won't talk to a watchman, and for good reason. That doesn't mean that you don't need to know what they know, however. Shopkeepers know when mutants are trying to steal food from them. Low-level thugs know when a big score is going to go down. You need to find someone — who you can trust — to listen in on conversations you and your men would never be allowed to hear.
    • Learn Morrite Rites: One of the biggest Gardens of Morr in the entire old world is within your district. Learning the basic rites of the Morrites, and respecting them, will help you ingratiate yourself with them, and may even offer some hints about how to combat your necromancer problem.
    • Recruit Army Colleagues: As the Riekland Army is slowly tearing itself apart from the interference of Dieter IV, more and more competent soldiers are being forced out. You suspect you might be able to track some of your former colleagues down, and with a bit of luck be able to recruit some to form a component core for yourself.
    • Find a Tutor: Now that you are expected to interact with the nascent bureaucracy of the Watch and Altdorf's Councils, your illiteracy is going to become a major issue. It's time to try and find a tutor. One that's willing to come all the way to Tottenheim, and can be trusted will be a challenge to find. You may need to establish a connection to the colleges of Altdorf
    • Build Competent Officer Staff: A Watchhouse of your size is technically supposed to have a quartermaster, a chief scribe, a barber-surgeon, an arms master, and a priest. Right now you have a quartermaster who clearly is terrible at his job. (Filling out the rest of your command staff will unlock more actions and opportunities for you to pursue)
    One of the soldiers raises their voice and drawls, "And who are you getting down on your knees for…. Religiously of course". His "question" needles you more than a little, but you were ready for this response. It's not like these men have any respect for you, and it's hard to imagine a group more fitting of the title of "uncouth". Still, you have your first major choice here: how to manage the behavior of your soldiers:
    • Permissive: You're not happy about the response, but you'll let it go for now. Blowing up in their face won't get you anything, they clearly don't respect you yet so all yelling will do will move the mockery behind your back. Build up their trust, inspire them, and their behavior will come around on its own
    • Plotting: Memorize his face, do nothing now, but strike back at your leisure. Put him on the worst shifts, dock his pay, steal his clothes while bathing. Make an example of him, and make sure the soldiers understand disrespect towards you is not in their best interest
    • Direct: You're an old hand dealing with people, and you know that he was set up for this by his fellow watchmen, perhaps even one of the sergeants. The solution? Dress him down verbally, establish what your standards are, and when he inevitably breaks them, have justification to throw him out on his ear.
    • Physical: Punch him in the face. You've got a hair-trigger temper and you're not ashamed of it. Show him the error of his ways physically. There's a small chance of physical risk if he decides to fight back, but you're pretty sure he'll be too shocked to draw steel.
    The question does make you think, who do you pray to
    • Sigma: The default option, God of the Mankind, founder of the Empire
    • Ulric: Sigmar's God, God of Winter Wolves and Warriors
    • Verana: Maybe the most fitting patron for a Watchman, Goddess of Justice and Learning
    • Morr (-2 Shiny in next phase): God of Death
    • Taal/Karog: Taal in the guise of Karog is worshiped as the God of Rivers and Forests, and has adherents amongst the riverine populations
    • Khaine: Outlawed by the Empire, cults off this elder god of Blood, Conflict and Bloodshed frequently pop up among soldiers
    • Ranald (-1 Shiny in next phase): Why a Watchman would worship the God of Thieves is a hard question, one Ranald himself may enquirer about
    • Heinrich: Goodes of coin and speding. Perfect for a crooked cop
    • Shayalla: Goddess of Mercy and Healing
    • Old Faith: Outside but parallel to the widespread beliefs of the Empire (only available for Oesteg)
    • Proscribed Cult: Hazardous for your health, but it's not like you're actually worshiping a chaos god right? Right!?
    • Agnostic: You have no particular affinity for the Gods, but make the occasional offering and attend common festivals to prevent any questions from being asked
    • Atheist: It takes a strong mind to see direct proof of the Gods and dismiss them as unworthy of veneration or respect, but some still do it.

    !!!Voting Moratorium for 12 hours!!!!

    As always, vote for your goals in plan format. In the next update, you'll finalize your character with some details, choose their weakness, and then we are off to the city for your first turn!


    That's probably enough for now! Till next we meet


    Minutia
    Okay, it's time to talk about mechanics for this quest a little bit, so for the next phase of character creation, you can make informed decisions about which perks you want to take. This quest will (to start!) follow a three-post cadence:
    1. Decisions: The first will set the current stage, and then ask for you to make a series of decisions very similar how to a lot of CKII quests work. Here, however, those decisions will be split into two categories:
      1. Personal Plan: This represents how you will personally spend your time and could encompass things like negotiations, training, spying, etc. You will have a pool of Action Points, and build a plan from decisions costing various action points. These decisions will be resolved with WFRP 4th edition (as best I can, part of my motivation for this quest is to learn/try out the system!)
      2. Squad Management: Here you will issue orders for each of your squads to do things like patrol a certain area, stake out a location, guard a shop, assault an enemy stronghold, engage in training etc. Resolution here will follow a bastardized system of personal design using something like Mordheim for combat, and something —vaguely— like gumshoe for investigations.
    2. Personal Experience and Resolution: The result of your personal actions written like a standard quest.
    3. Squad Resolution: These will be written like verbal/written reports. You cannot necessarily trust your subordinates, and having them provide the reports should prevent you from being too omniscient, you're not a Slann after all!
    The important parts here are that you will have an actual character sheet for your character, and can expect it to roughly follow the standard WFRP pattern. Each character within your command will be tracked within a Google sheet, and have the standard Mordheim stats (MOVEMENT (M), WEAPON SKILL (WS), BALLISTIC SKILL (BS), STRENGTH (S), TOUGHNESS (T), WOUNDS (W), INITIATIVE (I), ATTACKS (A), and LEADERSHIP (LD)) as well as up to five specific skills ranging from things like literacy to cultist knowledge.

    You may not know these values however, as many characters may keep skills close to their chest, especially if the knowledge is relatively proscribed. In addition, many skills will be unavailable for you at the start as you will not have any way to train your soldiers in them (if you can't read or swim, you can't teach someone else to!). A major source of advancement in the campaign — especially as you start — will be figuring out ways to efficiently discover what skills your soldiers and new recruits have, and forging connections to teach them new ones.
     
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    • Scheduled vote count started by DrearyBear on Dec 2, 2024 at 8:28 AM, finished with 12 posts and 9 votes.
    • [X] Building Up and Training Up
      [X] Plan: Mercy is privilage of the strong
      [X] Plan Pride of the Reikland
      [X] Building Up and Training Up
      -[X][Watch] Raise Morale of the Watch
      -[X][Watch] Refurbish the Watch House
      -[X][Watch] No Casualty Necromancer Attack
      -[X][Trust] No: you trust them as much as you trust the skewers of "real rat meat" currently being served outside
      -[X][Personal] Become Watch Major
      -[X][Action] Recruit Army Colleagues
      -[X][Action] Collect the Money
      -[X][Action] Aquire/Collate a Map
      -[X][Manage] Plotting
      -[X][Diety] Ulric
    Click to expand...
     
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    • Character Creation: Boons and Banes
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    • [] Building Up and Training Up
    -[][Watch] Raise Morale of the Watch
    -[][Watch] Refurbish the Watch House
    -[][Watch] No Casualty Necromancer Attack
    -[][Trust] No: you trust them as much as you trust the skewers of "real rat meat" currently being served outside
    -[][Personal] Become Watch Major
    -[][Action] Recruit Army Colleagues
    -[][Action] Collect the Money
    -[][Action] Aquire/Collate a Map
    -[][Manage] Plotting
    -[][Diety] Ulric

    Boons and Banes

    Introduction:
    After that razor-close vote, it's our last step on the character creation journey and time for you to really make the character your own. In this section, you will have a budget to spend on boons. Unlike the rest of the phases, this will not have the framing device surrounding it; there were just too many options available for me to weave some sort of quantum ogre narrative around your choices.

    Here you will start with a budget of four shineys that can be spent on either boons for your character or your Watch command. Of course, looking at the lists of boons, you may want to take more than three points worth. If so, you can take a bane, each of which will give you back some shineys, but expect them to be a serious impediment to your character or your watch command. With that out of the way here you go!

    Personal Boons
    Physical:
    You were blessed with above-average physical traits:
    • Beautiful (1 Shiny): You were blessed with incredible looks, and over time have learned to use them to your benefit. (+10 Fellowship, unlocks options in certain circumstances)
    • Healthy (2 Shinys): You were the child who always followed the advice of your parents to not stick things in your mouth, and as a result encountered far fewer childhood parasites and diseases than your counterparts. Now you are a strapping man, that's never sick, and can take a lot more damage than other people you know (+10 toughness)
    • Tall (2 Shinys): Your parents were always a little cagey about the family history, simply saying that you come from "up north". Over time you have come to suspect that you may have a bit of Norscan Blood in you, considering the fact that you stand a comfortable half a head over the rest of your soldiers (+10 Strength)
    • Dextrous (1 Shiny): During your time in the army you became an expert whittler to pass the time. Now you're significantly more precise with your movements than the average person and can be trusted to have the steadiest hands around (+10 Dexterity)
    • Quick (2 Shinys): You rose quickly within the army not because you were necessarily the best with the blade, but how good you were at understanding exactly what your commanders wanted. Combined with some shrewd decisions about who to trust, you rapidly rose through the ranks of the army (+10 Intelligence)
    • FREE Either +10 to Weapon Skill or Ballistics Skill: Depending on what your role was in the army, you will get a natural boost to your fighting style of choice.
    Retainer(s)
    Over the course of your life you have managed to attract the attention and loyalty of an especially skilled follower. You get to name the character if you choose any of these options:
    • Norscan Bodyguard (2 Shinys): Norscans are an outlier in human society. Most are abnormally tall, all are heavily muscled, and the majority have an unfortunate tendency to worship the Chaos gods. You somehow manage to attract the loyalty of one, made sure he wasn't tainted by the Archenemy, and now employ him as very effective muscle
    • Halfling Cook (2 Shinys): Even the most bigoted members of the Empire will begrudgingly admit the food of halflings is exemplary. Having one on staff will allow you to be a better host to prominent members of society, as well as improve the morale of your men. They're also pretty good about sniffing out poison.
    • Journeyman Wizard (3 Shinys): Somehow you have managed to attract the attention of a young journeyman Amethyst Wizard who is striking out on their own for the first time. They creep you to no end, to be honest, but you have to believe their experience with the dead will be invaluable for your current role.
    • Disgraced Manservant/Maid (1 Shineys): You were able to offer a cot and a pot for a now-disgraced Manservant/Maid for a Noble house within the city. They had served the house their entire life but were unceremoniously fired to cover up for a social faux pas from one of the house's scions.
    Contacts:
    In addition to retainers, you may have a number of contacts
    • Friendly ?? Witchhunter x2: Johann is one of the most ostensibly grim people you've ever met. Covered in scars, missing an eye, four fingers, one foot, and most of his nose his true imitation factor becomes apparent when you talk to him revealing a burning faith in Sigmar and hatred of his enemies. It's someone to run to when things go bump in the night, but there's a good chance that if the problem is real he'll eliminate you as collateral damage in the cleanup. Still, he seems to be as generally fond of you as one of his kind will allow themselves to be.
    • Perpetual Apprentice x1: One of your good friends from childhood, Gunter, took a very different path in life from you and ended up as one of the perpetual apprentices of the University. Too useful to get rid of, but none of the connections needed to advance he still is an invaluable connection to understand who has real expertise in any given field.
    • Old Sewer Jack x3: The father of one of your former soldiers is an old sewer jack who's now reduced to doing old jobs around the city as his mind has largely gone. He spends his whole day ranting about the "rats in the dark" and how you are all DOOMED. He's pretty harmless as far as you can tell, but you try to take care of him In respect for your fallen soldier (A lead into the Conspiracy of Silence)
    • Poor Merchant House x2: Over your time in the army you forged a connection with a small merchant house that was significantly more honest with their wares than their competitors. The Saurlanders, as a result, are also significantly poorer than their fellows, but can be trusted to act in good faith, and will reward any favors sent their way.
    • Idiot Noble x1: Herta is one of the dumbest Nobles you've ever met. She is obsessed with sneaking out and "being amongst the real people", completely missing the small squad of none-too-inconspicuous soldiers her father sends after her as guards. You met her in the middle of a bar fight in a particularly seedy East-Side bar and quickly became reluctant friends. Still, the gossip she freely shares about her family and noble social circles is an invaluable peek into uppercrust society.
    • Spell Scrubber x1: The Colleges of Magic are a relatively new addition to the Empire and still viewed with a modicum of suspicion and fear. What's less known is how many people they employ to cleanup after their spell practices and experiments. No haughty mage is cleaning up the dead pigs they used to test their new spells on after all. Arda is one of those spell scrubbers and occasionally has some interesting info about what's going on inside the Colleges, in particular the Celestial Order.
    • Gate Guard x1: Another of your former colleagues -- Ebbo — recently took up employment as one of the guards at the northern gate of the city. He's a jovial drunk, and more than happy to help you out by passing on any rumors or observations he comes across.
    General Skills:
    You also have some unique skills that define easy categorization:
    • Gambler x1: You spent your free time playing games of chance against your fellow soldiers, and found you had a real knack for assessing odds and judging your opponent's intentions. Most importantly you learned how to balance your wins with minor losses to ensure people will continue playing with you. You will have a large advantage anytime you gamble with cards or dice, and are able to find games of chance much easier.
    • Skilled Briber x1: Small favors and bribes grease the wheels of the Empire's army, and you have become very good at playing these games (-33% reduction in bribe cost, more bribe opportunities available)
    • Paranoid Bastard x1: You watched far too many good — and bad — men lose their heads in greenskin ambushes to ever fully let go of your rightful paranoia. Sure, you've punched more than a few friends in the face but obviously that's a small price to pay to make sure you are never surprised. (Much much harder to ambush)
    • Craftsman x1: Being a soldier is surprisingly boring. Very little time is spent actually fighting, and far more is spent drilling, keeping care of camp, and doing various chores. Over time you gravitated to doing a certain type of task and gradually learned the trade. It was always your dream to retire from the army and set up shop as a (Merchant, Brewer, Carpenter, Blacksmith, Stoneworker, Tailor)
    • Superstitious x1: Most members of the Empire are at least moderately -stitious, but you are truly superstitious. There is not a single superstition you've encountered that you haven't picked up, and your day-to-day life is filled with seemingly strange behavior as you try and fend off the Empire's many terrors. Advantage to resist entrapment by vampires, skaven, witches, and chaos cultists. Cannot be taken with wizard retainer and will make your character come across as quite eccentric.
    • Terrifying x1: You are a large, well-trained man of war and you move like one. Your every move screams violence, and your high-quality but heavily worn armor shows you aren't afraid to use it. +1 Fear Rating the you choose to use it
    • Touched by Your God x2: You have an innate connection to your god and are instantly able to know when you have entered one of their holy places. You may receive visions from them, but expect the visions to be fragmented, symbolic, and frequently misleading.
    • Iron Jaw x1: You've taken so many blows to the head in training and war, that you've developed an impressive resistance to being stunned. Not much surprises you, and you'll keep fighting until you go down for good
    • Cunning Linguist x1: You always seemed to be the one in charge of speaking to the backward peasant villages that spoke in a dialect so strong you could hardly call it Riekspiel, or to the Bretonnians that raised across the border. You are preternaturally gifted at learning languages and can pick up the basics in a month, and be fully conversational within six with minimal instruction.
    • Natural Schemer x1: You didn't just get by in the army because of your skill with the sword, you discovered during your time there you have a natural talent for understanding political situations and maneuvering. Once per turn you can boost one political scheme's target rolls by +10, or ask a question to the QM about how your actions will be perceived
    • Sharp Shot x1: You are a natural marksman and can easily hit a target regardless of range. No penalties for long-range shooting, and +5 to your blackpowder weapon's skills
    • Unshakable x1: You've seen so much in your time in the army that few things manage to surprise you at this point. You are incredibly hard to shake, and skilled at acting as a beacon of stability in the face of chaotic situations. Significant bonuses on keeping your cool, and inspiring courage in others
    • Write in: Always welcome!
    Personal Banes
    • Viciously Ugly (+1 shiny): You have a vicious scar across your face from your time in the army, severely disfiguring you and making you incredibly unpleasant to look at (-10 Fellowship)
    • Sickly (+2 shiny): You were never the healthiest man, and an outbreak of the plague within your army camp permanently weakened you. Now you have a persistent cough that produces blood on occasion (-10 Toughness)
    • Short (+1 shiny): You are abnormally short for a human, and occasionally confused for a halfling. As a result, while you are plenty fast, you simply lack the strength of your bigger compatriots (-10 Strength)
    • Slow (+1 shiny): You're tough, you're loyal, and you're damn good with a blade in your hand. However, you never were the quickest to grasp new concepts, and there's a reason your parents didn't try harder to get you a formal education. (-10 intelligence)
    • Clumsy (+1 shiny): You always seem to have an assortment of odd injuries. Cuts on your hands from slipping with your blade. A twisted ankle. A black eye from falling in the night. Simply put you are one clumsy man. ( -10 Dexterity)
    • Divided Loyalties (+2 shiny): You are not completely your own man, you owe a powerful figure a huge debt for managing to get you out of the scrap with the missing noble, and they will have demands on you to repay them for their services. You aren't entirely sure who the figure is — they have always interacted with you through untraceable intermediaries — but you suspect them to be a high-placed noble within Altdorf.
    • Price on your Head (+2 shiny): The Noble that you rescued would prefer for the entire affair to be forgotten, and is in the process of cleaning up any loose ends. They have put out a price on your head, and intend for it to be collected.
    • DOOMED (+2 Shinys): (QM Note: I'll randomly generate a dooming, and from then on if you are making a check that could theoretically meet the conditions of the dooming, you will have -15 applied to the target of your rolls.)
    • Strict Ulrican (+1 Shiny): You rigidly adhere to the scriptures of Ulric and disdain ranged weapons. You will not use them and you will not let your soldiers use them either.
    • Honest (+1 Shiny): You were raised by parents that were unusually devoted to Verona, and were incredibly strict about always telling the truth. This persisted into adulthood and you now find it very hard to consciously lie. To lie you must pass a difficult willpower test. Cannot be taken with Compulsive Liar
    • Compulsive Liar (+1 Shiny): You were raised by Randalite parents who taught you the value of white lies and partial truths. You took their lessons to heart a little too strongly, and now find it difficult to speak entirely truthfully. To be fully open requires passing a difficult willpower test. Cannot be taken with Honest
    • Write in: Always welcome!
    In addition, I'd like to add a little bit of character to your watch command as well. Make them something more than "you guys". As a result, I've come up with some unique boons and banes for the watch command. To encourage you to take advantage of this, you can have one free shiny to use exclusively on the boons for the group.

    Group Boons
    • Friends x1: The men of your watch have become a unit over time, fiercely resisting outside influence, with incredible loyalty to each other. They know each other's families, spend their free time together, and are fiercely protective of each other. It will be hard to earn their trust, but once you do you will have a remarkably cohesive group in your corner.
    • Sincere Morrites x1: Toteninsel is a pretty shit posting. You are constantly surrounded by dead bodies and their grieving families. As a result, the people who stick around tend to end up being pretty devout Morrites. They are still corrupt as all get out, but they do earnestly respect the God of the Dead and his followers.
    • Anatomists x1: The men of your command have seen so many dead bodies that they have become some of the most knowledgeable people in the whole Empire about the human anatomy. Unlocks the anatomy skill, increased chance to notice anatomy-based clues.
    • Docks x1: Toteninsel is where a plurality of the city's dead ends up, and the watch maintains a small set of docks here to transfer bodies found elsewhere in the city. You have access to a small vessel here and can use it to traverse the city much quicker than by foot. Also opens up some opportunities for river-based actions.
    • Smithy x1: This is one of the few Watch Houses with a fully dedicated smithy. It has a forge, anvil, bellows, and even a primitive drop hammer powered by a decaying waterwheel on the river. This will unlock basic production capabilities. Well, once you find a competent blacksmith and replace all the tools that have conveniently disappeared.
    • Cold Room x2: So many bodies go into your Watch House that the Empire House invested in installing a cold room here, using some enchantment out of the Colleges. Now it's primarily used to keep Noble corpses fresh for funerals and burials, but it could be easily repurposed to be used for investigations.
    • Write in: Always welcome!
    Group Banes
    • Bad Rumor (+1 Shinys): A persistent rumor has taken hold within the watchmen that you let your command be killed to advance your career. You are puzzled about how this information ever became known: you're sure the Noble involved was eager to sweep it all under the rug. Regardless, while this rumor persists you will find it incredibly hard to gain your subordinates' trust.
    • In Debt (+1 Shinys): So technically the Temple of Moor owns nearly 95% of the land on the island of Toteninsel, including the land your Watch House is built on. As one of the soldiers helpfully informs you, they haven't been paid for several years, and while they aren't currently coming to collect, they will start asking pointed questions if you make significant purchases before paying them.
    • Haunted (+2 Shinys): Your men report being woken up every night in terror and something keeps destroying every mirror in the building. There's no question that something is haunting the grounds, but it's definitely outside of your specialty, and an expert will need to be brought in to address the issue, which won't be cheap.
    • Cursed (+3 Shinys): You are pretty sure that something has cursed the entirety of the watch-house. Even in the brief time, you have been here you've seen someone trip over the absolute smallest rock possible, someone accidentally light their beard on fire while trying to light their pipe, and inexplicably a man slice open his arm with a suddenly sharp spoon while trying to eat a bowl of soup. (This will be a very rough start, and something will be actively working against any improvements immediately)
    • Write in: Always welcome!

    Conclusion
    Alright, I think that's it! Manfred Hartman is increasingly becoming a real character, and based on your choices here I will have a pretty good idea of where the quest will be starting => going in the immediate time frame.

    !!!Voting Moratorium for the next 12 hours, then the vote will be open for the following 24. !!!


    I'm going to take a day or two to get the character sheet created and shared, as well as make sure I've got a solid idea of all the relevant dramatis personae, but expect the first real quest post to come before the end of the week!
     
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    • Plan: Social Commander

    Beautiful     (1 Shiny): You were blessed with incredible looks, and over time have learned to use them to your benefit. (+10 Fellowship, unlocks options in certain circumstances)

    Quick (2 Shinys): You rose quickly within the army not because you were necessarily the best with the blade, but how good you were at understanding exactly what your commanders wanted. Combined with some shrewd decisions about who to trust, you rapidly rose through the ranks of the army (+10 Intelligence)

    +10 to Weapon Skill (FREE).

    Halfling Cook (2 Shinys): Even the most bigoted members of the Empire will begrudgingly admit the food of halflings is exemplary. Having one on staff will allow you to be a better host to prominent members of society, as well as improve the morale of your men. They're also pretty good about sniffing out poison.

    Skilled Briber x1: Small favors and bribes grease the wheels of the Empire's army, and you have become very good at playing these games (-33% reduction in bribe cost, more bribe opportunities available)

    Terrifying x1: You are a large, well-trained man of war and you move like one. Your every move screams violence, and your high-quality but heavily worn armor shows you aren't afraid to use it. +1 Fear Rating the you choose to use it

    Natural Schemer x1: You didn't just get by in the army because of your skill with the sword, you discovered during your time there you have a natural talent for understanding political situations and maneuvering. Once per turn you can boost one political scheme's target rolls by +10, or ask a question to the QM about how your actions will be perceived

    Unshakable x1: You've seen so much in your time in the army that few things manage to surprise you at this point. You are incredibly hard to shake, and skilled at acting as a beacon of stability in the face of chaotic situations. Significant bonuses on keeping your cool, and inspiring courage in others

    Price on your Head (+2 shiny): The Noble that you rescued would prefer for the entire affair to be forgotten, and is in the process of cleaning up any loose ends. They have put out a price on your head, and intend for it to be collected.

    Sincere Morrites (FREE): Toteninsel is a pretty shit posting. You are constantly surrounded by dead bodies and their grieving families. As a result, the people who stick around tend to end up being pretty devout Morrites. They are still corrupt as all get out, but they do earnestly respect the God of the Dead and his followers.

    Bad Rumor (+1 Shinys): A persistent rumor has taken hold within the watchmen that you let your command be killed to advance your career. You are puzzled about how this information ever became known: you're sure the Noble involved was eager to sweep it all under the rug. Regardless, while this rumor persists you will find it incredibly hard to gain your subordinates' trust.

    Haunted (+2 Shinys): Your men report being woken up every night in terror and something keeps destroying every mirror in the building. There's no question that something is haunting the grounds, but it's definitely outside of your specialty, and an expert will need to be brought in to address the issue, which won't be cheap.

    Introduction:
    Alright all, it's finally time to get started with the actual quest! I'm pretty excited about where the character creation has gone; it's not even close to what choices I suspected people would pick! For now, turns will be very short — one week per turn — while you are getting the swing of things but expect that to trend upward, towards maybe a month per turn after the first ten-ish turns. I'd love to cover a fair amount of Dieter IV's reign, and that means we need to be progressing through the years at a decent pace because he lasted a surprisingly long for his general level of incompetence.


    There's a dead body in the mess hall, and nobody is sure how it got there. It's obviously not a member of the Watch — the clothes are far too fine — but it's hard to tell much more with how decomposed the corpse has become. Drawing a handkerchief to your face, you fight the bile that rises in your throat at the scent. Maggots crawl over the body, and onto the tables you know the watchmen were eating breakfast at just a few hours ago. The skin has become blue and clammy, and the corpse's stomach has bloated to twice its original size, making the otherwise thin corpse look obscenely obese.
    Drawing close, you prod at the body with a wooden spoon you find on the table, brushing off the remaining porridge that Thumping — your longtime halfling cook — made this morning. It's an awkward dance trying to figure out how to prod open the corpse's various pockets without covering yourself with maggots, but it quickly becomes clear that they have been meticulously stripped clean removing any sort of identification Bizarrely, the corpses coin purse is still intact, and when you look inside the glint of several gold crowns peak out.

    Do you:
    • Keep the gold for the Watch (+ minor moral boost)
    • Keep the gold for yourself (+ 3 crowns, -morale hit)
    • Set aside to return (- minor morale hit)
    From the quantity of coins, and generally fine clothes, it's clear that this man was a noble of some rank before meeting his unfortunate demise. As you flip him over with your makeshift instrument, carefully making sure to not get any of the corpses fluids on yourself, you see that a large patch of fabric was ripped away.

    [Intellegence Check with Target 52 => Rolled 31 => Success!]

    They clearly were making sure to rip away any identifying mark on the victim, and this must have been a family crest. Not that it would have done you much good. With how unfamiliar you are with the local noble houses there's not a chance it would have helped you identify the victim.



    The other watchmen seem surprisingly unsurprised, balancing over at the body with some curiosity but a distinct lack of revulsion. One, whose name you still haven't caught says, "Looks like a floater, who thought it be a bright idea to lug this fine fellow into the mess hall?" No one makes an acknowledgment, but some make signs to Sigmar and several make obvious appeals to Morr for the soul of the deceased. A small conversation breaks out behind you,
    "Reckon this was a prank? Or was it that damn specter again?"

    "This is a bit of a lift for the ghost or whatnot that's been haunting us, Knocking over mugs of ale is pretty different than dragging an entire body out of the river, and all the ways here."

    "Not many of us would make a jape with a corpse, Morr doesn't look favorably at any who desecrate their rest"

    Further introspection is ruined by the sound of someone angrily pounding on the door of the watch-house and letting out deafening yells for attention. Making a snap decision you quickly scan the room for the watchmen who crossed you earlier and demand, "You there. Yes! You. What's your name?"

    "Oswald Kracht," he drawls back.

    "Oswald, you're in charge of taking this body to the Morrites, and see if they have any idea who he is or what killed him. Careful not to get too much of his juices all over yourself" you say levely.

    Turning your back, you leave Oswald to his new duties. Either he does them and receives a valuable lesson in the consequences of drawing your ire, or he doesn't and you have a great excuse to throw him out on his ear. Either way, Oswald will be an example to the others and should help tamp down on any resentment for you assuming command of the group as an outsider.

    The yells reach a fever pitch as you make your way through the dingy hallways leading from the mess hall toward the front door and past the fortified desk a greeter would have sat at during better times. Wrenching the door open to a squeal of rusty hinges, you come face to face with an extravagantly dressed merchant. His screams abruptly cut off when confronted with your snarling expression.

    Your first impressions of him are not flattering. He's wearing extremely tight-fitting crimson red tights, and a garish yellow jacket with puffed sleeves with the entire thing covered in pearls and semi-precious stones. He's gone partially bald, and a small river of sweat is winding down his head onto his face even in the cool morning air. Taking a minute to dab his moist face with a lace handkerchief he quickly regathers himself and starts yelling.

    "I've been robbed, hustled, scammed and my faith shaken, and all, on your watch!", he bursts out. Talking through the situation with him, he was here on the island to pay respects to his late father-in-law when he was approached by a group of men who appeared to be Sigmirate Priests. They claimed to have recently come into possession of a relic of Sigmar — a small lock of his hair — and were approaching this merchant because of his pronounced devotion.

    "When I went back to my home, and showed it to my guests, however, one of them noticed that the hair was actually horse hair, not human, and certainly not from Sigmar. I've never been so humiliated!" he exclaims. Putting his finger into your chest he dramatically points and says, "I came back here with my guards to find the culprits, but they've vanished. I want you to find them, get my coins back, and then burned alive for their heresy. When you finish doing your job bring my coins back to the Welker estate".

    You've no love for Sigmarites, and this merchant is a particularly toadying example, but you're still inclined to investigate the case. For one, religious scammers are the type of situation likely to attract the attention of the Witch Hunters. As an Ulrican you're intimately aware of the type of pressure they can apply to you, even if you are doing nothing wrong. More importantly, for this merchant to be trying to claw the money back instead of just sweeping the issue under the rug in his embarrassment the sum of money must be quite large. That might be a nice little nest egg if you can skim a bit off of the top.

    And unfortunately, money is a bit of a pressing issue. You and Thumping have been staying at a local inn — the Raven and Portal— that primarily caters to Morrites visiting the local temple but it's quickly eating into your already limited funds. The inn is comfortable and relatively secure with its connection to the local temple, but if you want to stay there you ultimately are going to need more coin and quickly. Alternatively, there surely are some options about where to make a base for yourself and your hopefully growing personal staff.
    Well, times awasting and you've got a mountain of work to eat through. You don't love how out of shape your soldiers look, and their equipment is frankly incredibly shoddy. Your Watchhouse seems to be about to collapse, and you still have to get a sense of the district as a whole.

    Personal Actions: You have four Action Points (APs) that you can currently spend your time on. If you manage to find servants to take care of some of your domestic duties, or better lodging, you may be able to raise this number.

    • Time Sensitive:
      • Assist a Case (x1 AP): You are a novice at investigations, but your status as an officer will potentially open doors that would be otherwise closed to your soldiers. Plus, you have a different background and might be able to provide a different perspective.
        • Mysterious Dead Noble: This noble appeared dead in your mess haul with few identifying marks. You aren't sure if it was a prank, a haunting, or something else, but finding out what's going on with him might offer clues to the watchhouse's haunting. The fact that it's a noble means that solving it successfully will raise your profile as well.
        • Relic Fraud: Someone is going around scamming merchants with fake relics. The fact they are pretending to be Sigmarites might draw Witch Hunters' attention, and the scale of money involved is tempting for personal embezzlement.
    • Social
      • Go Pub Crawling (x2 AP, 2 Shillings): You're pretty sure that some of your former colleagues from the army have ended up in Altdorf, but you honestly have no idea where. Based on your knowledge of soldiers though, they probably can be found in one of Altdorf's many, many pubs. Spending your evenings trawling through the pubs to see who you can find.
      • Introduce yourself to the Morrites (x1 AP): There's no escaping the fact that the local Morrite temple dominates this district. Frankly, you're lucky you don't have to worry about paying them rent. Introducing yourself and making a good first impression will be important to establishing a solid working relationship and understanding their current issues.
      • Meet your Captain (x1 AP): Captain Romberg is one of the few female watch officers and your direct commander. A noble by birth, she is an extremely distant relative of the Prince of Riekland, and spent much of her life training to be a knight, before joining the watch after her sister's murder. She currently is in charge of the districts of Toteninsel, Fishmarkt, and Grandmarkt. You are by far the least important of her territories.
    • Travel and Exploration
      • Exploration + Mapping: (x1 AP per quadrant): This is your first time visiting Toteninsel, and you are still getting your bearings on this island of the dead. Talking to a few hawkers on the street, you've got a rough idea of the island. By your reckoning, the island is split into 4 quadrants by the island's two main streets. They meet in the island's center, spilling out into a square where your watchhouse and the temple of Morr are located. Exploring all four quadrants will finally allow you to collate a detailed map of the district, as well as better understand where your watchmen can best be utilized.
        • Explore North Quadrant
        • Explore South Quadrant
        • Explore East Quadrant:
        • Explore West Quadrant:
      • Find Ulrican Shrine (x1 AP): Ulric does not begrudge Morr the dead, but it rubs you wrong not to be able to offer your god his dues. You have no idea where your god of the wild can be found in this deeply unnatural city, but there has to be somewhere. Right?
    • Administrative
      • Inspect a Squad (x1 AP): To get the best use out of your soldiers, it's important to understand what they are good at. Spend some time getting to know one of the squads, and knowing what their equipment is will help you make better decisions about what sort of tasks they should be assigned to (Leadership Dramatic Test for inspection quality)
        • Inspect Squad One
        • Inspect Squad Two
        • Inspect Squad Three
      • Meet with the Quartermaster (x1 AP): You've got a lot of questions for him. The Watch seems destitute: its people are poorly equipped and trained and even the building is falling down all around you. You receive money from the City for the maintenance of your command, and you see zero evidence of it around you. Where's all the money gone!?
    • Economic
      • Go Shopping for something specific in Grandmarkt (x1 AP): You came to the watch only with the clothes on your back, your trusty cook Thumping, and a letter of commission. Altdorf is one of the economic hubs of the Empire and nearly anything can be purchased here. (This is a write-in if you want to buy something)
    • Training
      • Train a Squad(x1 AP): You have had the dubious honor of being a drill sergeant and are intimately aware of how to whip a squad into shape. Spend time personally training a squad. (Leadership Dramatic Test for training quality)
      • Receive Training LOCKED: You know that just like when you joined the army you will need to learn new skills to succeed in your changed circumstances. Right now you have no idea what you need to learn, or who to reach out to teach you.


    Squad Assignments: Right now you have little idea of who makes up your squads, what they are good at, or even where they can be posted. It's hard to feel confident making informed decisions, but you expect that as you grow into the role effectively assigning your men will be critical. For now, choose where/how to assign your squads:
    • Cases: You can assign squads to cases, and they will attempt to solve them to the best of their ability. To a large degree, their success will depend on the skills that the squad has available to them. For instance, if the squad is illiterate, assigning them to financial embezzlement cases is a waste of time. For now, while you aren't too sure of their capabilities, don't worry too much about what squad to assign, just focus on what you want to accomplish.
      • Mysterious Dead Noble: This noble appeared dead in your mess haul with few identifying marks. You aren't sure if it was a prank, a haunting, or something else, but finding out what's going on with him might offer clues to the watchhouse's haunting. The fact that it's a noble means that solving it successfully will raise your profile as well.
      • Relic Fraud: Someone is going around scamming merchants with fake relics. The fact they are pretending to be Sigmarites might draw Witch Hunters' attention, and the scale of money involved is tempting for personal embezzlement.
    • Locations: Assigning a squad of Watchmen to a location will generally reduce the level of crime present there, and should prevent major attacks. It will also earn the Watch a bit of coin from grateful merchants and nobles who will see their taxes at work.
      • Main Bridge: Reaper's Crossing is the main entrance to the island, and the bridge primarily used by mourners and visitors. It leads directly to the island's vast cemetery and then onwards to the temple of Morr and the island's central square.
      • Secondary Bridge: The Raven's Flight is a smaller bridge, that leads directly to the island's business and residential areas, and then onward to the Island's central square. This is used much more heavily by the merchants and residents of the island.
      • Main Square/Watch House: The island's main square is almost exactly in the center of the island, and home to the district's watchhouse and Temple of Morr. This is also where your watchmen would call for backup from, so spare squads can be stationed here for backup if needed.
    • Actions
      • Train: You can assign a squad to train a new skill, or break them up to learn individual skills. This is mostly locked as you have few contacts with skills to train them, or the coin to pay for training.

    Lastly, you have some work for your cook to do:
    • Serve meals in the Mess Hall: An army marches on its stomach, and the quickest way to their heart is through their stomachs. Serving for so long in the army of the Reikland taught you the importance of good food in winning the loyalty of men, and Thumping's transcendent cooking will work wonders.
    • Find Temporary Employment: Altdorf has a large population of other halflings, but Thumping's Thumping good cooking stands out even here. He could easily find temporary employment and reduce your current expenditure on housing by half.
    • Do a task for you (write in)

    Conclusion:
    Okay, we are off to the races now! I'm going to be a little strict about having a voting moratorium for the next 12 hours for once, but after that, I'll keep this vote open for ~24 hours and then should have the first turn's results out pretty quickly.

    Please vote for your personal choices in plan format, and then for each squad assign them a task. So something like
    • [ ] Squad 1: Bridge Duty
    • [ ] Squad 2: Train
    • [ ] Squad 3: Do the boogie-woogie
    One last note here is that GW's documentation of Altdorf is hilariously contradictory and changes nearly every single time a new game is released (Between the 2nd and 4th editions the dwarf district teleported from the north to east side of the city for example). Accordingly, I just wanted to lay down a couple of generic facts that are too "meta" to fit into the plot:
    1. In general, I will be using the 4th edition splatbook Altdorf: Crown of the Empire as my cannon
    2. The population of the city is ~one million people
    3. Toteninsel is not a particularly well-documented location. Some of the details here are products of my imagination.
     
  • View discussion
    • Vote closed
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    • Scheduled vote count started by DrearyBear on Dec 5, 2024 at 9:05 AM, finished with 9 posts and 7 votes.
    • [X] Plan: Time Sensitive Matters and Inspections
      -[x] Assist a Case (x1 AP)
      --[x] Mysterious Dead Noble
      --[x] Relic Fraud
      -[x] Inspect a Squad (x1 AP)
      --[x] Inspect Squad One
      --[x] Inspect Squad Two
      -[x] Squad 1 - Case: Relic Fraud
      -[x] Squad 2 - Case: Mysterious Dead Noble
      -[x] Squad 3 - Location: Secondary Bridge
      -[x] Serve meals in the Mess Hall
      [X] Plan: Active Investigation and Meetings
      [X] Set aside to return
      [X] Plan: Hit the Ground Running
      - [x] Assist a Case
      --[x] Relic Fraud
      - [x] Inspect a Squad
      -- [x] Squad 1
      -- [x] Squad 2
      -- [x] Squad 3
      - [x] Squad Assignment
      -- [x] Squad 1 - Case: Relic Fraud
      -- [x] Squad 2 - Location: Main Bridge
      -- [x] Squad 3 - Location: Secondary Bridge
      -[x] Serve meals in the Mess Hall
      - [x] Keep the gold for the Watch (+ minor moral boost)
      [x] Keep the gold for the Watch (+ minor moral boost)
    Click to expand...
     
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    • Turn One - Results
  • View content
    • [X] Plan: Active Investigation and Meetings
    -[X] 2x Assist a Case
    --[X] Mysterious Dead Noble
    --[X] Relic Fraud
    -[X] Meet your Captain
    -[X] Meet with the Quartermaster
    -[X] Squad Assignment
    --[X] Squad 1 - Case: Mysterious Dead Noble
    --[X] Squad 2 - Location: Main Bridge
    --[X] Squad 3 - Location: Secondary Bridge
    -[X] Serve meals in the Mess Hall
    -[X] Keep the gold for the Watch


    Introduction:
    I had to make one minor change to the voted-on plan because I did not catch it in the original post. If you will be assisting a case, you need backup and extra hands. As a result, I switched one of the squads from guarding the secondary bridge to the relic-fraud case. I will be more careful about proofreading plans in the future to avoid this kind of situation.

    In the end, it takes most of the rest of Wellentag to get a semblance of organization into the guards. There's a persistent edge of distrust that makes even simple instructions difficult. It's very clear that your soldiers don't trust you, and they are not shy to make that clear. Instructions are "forgotten" and justification has to be given for any command. In one memorable case, it felt like playing tag to get a squad together to give them orders. Every time you would get four in the room, one would be missing, and by the time you found them another would have "gone to take a leak", "went to sharpen my blade or the transparently obvious excuse of "thought I heard someone knocking on the cellar door"

    It's not your first time commanding a new group and you expected some resistance. It's in human nature to resist changes, and you have no real idea of what sort of relationship the men had with the old commander. You had thought that perhaps you'd have to square up with some troublemakers or shout others down. Straightforward conflict honors Ulric, and you are nothing if not a dutiful son. This is different.

    [Leadership test => Target 51 + 20 = 70 => Rolled 44 => Success!]

    This is not conflict. This is defiance and contempt. Your men treat you like a rabid dog: dangerous but also pathetic. You wrack your mind to figure out what you could have done. This is a level of hatred totally inappropriate for a new commander, and you're a savvy enough leader of men to recognize that being direct about it will only lead to disaster. This is personal. When you're the monster, direct confrontation doesn't make you respected, it makes you a danger to be put down.

    In the end, it's Thumping who manages to clue you into what's going on. People tend to let halflings blend into the background. Despite the guards being perfectly aware of his association with you, they happily gossiped within earshot while he was cleaning up after lunch. Somehow a rumor has taken firm hold of the watchhouse that you abandoned your men to make a last stand against a Bretonnian horde, while you schmoozed up with your commanding officers.


    [Cool test => Target 51 = 51 => Rolled 53 => Failure!]
    [Unbreakable triggers]
    [Cool test => Target 51 = 51 => Rolled 41 => Success!]

    You feel your vision tunneling in even as a growl slowly rises from your throat. The idea that you abandon your soldiers, your soldiers who were as close as brothers to you, just to suck up to some noble officer enrages you. Before you lose your cool, and go RIP OFFF the head of those wretches who DARE to insult their memory, you see Thumping taking a step back at your sudden burst of rage. Slowly you calm yourself down and force yourself to think through the situation and find it makes no sense.

    You know the noble, the heir of Count Schwarzenbach, would not be spreading this information around freely. His irresponsible actions nearly got him disowned, and he wants the matter dropped in its entirety. You can't believe that he would bring this up, even to discredit you when just letting it die off would be so much better for his chances of going unpunished and unremarked upon. It was Count Schwarzenbach who managed to get the records completely sealed and bribed you with a Watch Commission to ensure your silence.

    Who then would be interested in seeing you discredited and why? Maybe a relative of one of your slain soldiers who misunderstood the situation? You aren't aware of any in Altdorf, and you were close enough to your men to be pretty confident you aren't missing anyone. One of your rivals within the army? You suppose it's possible, but why spend their time and effort further discrediting you when you're already removed from competition by being forced out of the army?

    You don't have enough information right now to make a determination, but the fact that this rumor has trailed you from your life in the army makes you distinctly uncomfortable. You'd thought you'd left that part of your life behind you and being forced to confront it brings back all of the bitter emotions and grief you still feel about the loss of your command. Turning to Thumping you ask him in a rough voice, "You okay? I'm sorry to frighten you"

    Thumping replies back, "It's alright sir, I knew you'd be furious when you heard. It's a right bad business, and no amount of time will ever change that. Do you want me to see if I can track down who's been spreading it?"

    You slowly nod an affirmation, your mind whirling and trying to figure out the situation, and just what it means. You hope that Thumping comes up with a lead because it's clear to you now that until you can break this rumor, and prove it wrong, you will never really be trusted by your new men.
    Assist Case: Relic fraud with Squad Three
    The next morning the rest of the squad shows up in drips and drabs, far later than the 2nd bell you called for. Sitting there — your frustration slowly mounting — you try to make the best of the wasted time by asking about how common scams are in the district. The response is bleak. Some form of scam is occurring nearly constantly in Altdorf, and is especially common on Totinsel. The grieving and nearly dead make easy marks.

    Or, you suppose, so do enormously foolish merchants. Unfortunately, he hardly gave you any information, remaining cagey in what you suspect is an attempt to reduce his embarrassment. There were three men. They dressed as Sigmirate Priests. This occurred three weeks ago. No, I will not be taking any more questions, do your goddamn job. That sort of tone..

    [Intellegence test => Target 42 + 20 = 52 => Rolled 41 => Success!]

    Imitating a Sigmirite Priest is a significant escalation on the normal scamming, and carries a great deal of inherent danger. Whoever did this is almost certainly an established player, and worked their way up to this big score. Turning to the squad you spot your favorite target and ask him,

    "Say Oswald, who's been brought in for scamming? Is there anyone who you've had trouble with before?" You ask.

    He thinks for a minute, looking towards his companions for permission to speak, and at their hesitant nod replies, "Aye, there are a few that we've hauled it before and had flogged."

    "Any that have ever done really big scores before, pushed the envelope more than the others?" You follow up with.

    He pauses to think for a minute, and then responds, "I reckon not. The Fish and Hooks don't come by here much. They'd never admit it, but they're mighty scared of being denied service by the Morrites when they meet their just demise to poke around in the Temple's backyard. Most of our criminals are locals who know that the Temple cares little for such mortal concerns"

    Stumped for a minute you pause to think a little before responding. If it's not a slow rise in intensity then what could it be? After a few minutes chewing it over, you think you've got the kernel of an idea. When a warrior presses the attack and explodes in a frenzy of violence, it's normally either because they are confident they can beat their opponent and sense weakness, or because they are suddenly desperate and trying to disrupt the fight.
    Just then, the last member of the squad enters the watchhouse. Turning towards them you flatly say, "You're late, but we'll discuss that later. Who's the best barber-surg-, wait no physician, you have here on the island?"

    Bemused the watchman replies, "I suppose Freer?"

    "Right, time to visit the physician"
    ______________________________________________________________________

    On your way to the physician, you briefly explain your theory to the rest of the squad. If you don't have any accomplished scammers in the district, then you have to believe this massive escalation was due to desperation. There is a dawning recognition on the faces of the men around you, and some begrudging "could be"s muttered so quietly you can barely hear them.

    The physician's residence is a short walk away from the watchhouse, but along the way you observe how the guards interact with the locals. It seems like there is an uneasy understanding between the two sides. Few friendly greetings, but most don't go out of their way to avoid the patrol.

    [Gossip test => Target 44+20 = 64 => Rolled 24 => Success!]

    Still, you notice plenty small signs of corruption. A man coming halfway into the road to greet a guard before snapping his mouth shut when he sees you. A small package being slipped to one of the men. One of the guards, Sigmudson, loudly proclaiming he, "doesn't know anything about that" to something a poor woman says just out of your earshot. You stop what you can but you're all too aware that they will return to their regular habits the minute your back is turned. You'll need people you can trust in positions of power to crack down on this, and even then it will likely remain a challenge.
    .
    As you approach the small storefront, you direct two of the men to find the back entrance and be prepared to catch any runners. Meanwhile, you check over your sword and make sure the rest of the men are ready to apprehend some desperate men. Finally, you hear a loud whistle from the back of the store, and you know it's time to enter.

    Slowly you walk up to the door, keeping an eye out for any sudden movement. You knock, and wait briefly before calling out, "Hello, is anyone there?"

    Several tense seconds later, you hear the unlatching of a door, before a small, wiry man with pronounced bushy eyebrows opens the door, "Yes. Yes. I heard you. What's your Ailment? Pox? A wound? You better have coin, my services are not free you know."

    Frowning, you reply, "No, we are on the official business of the Altdorf City Watch. I need to know if you have any patients with serious ailments recently, especially ones from a poorer background."

    he man, Physician Freer you suppose, turns serious and says, "I have had one case that matches your description. A young girl that came down with a particularly nasty set of skin lesions. I've been treating her with the finest Cathaian Herbs after her brothers came into some money from a distant relative"

    "Is the girl and her brothers here now? " you ask.

    The physician replies, "They are, but I won't be having any violence in my office! It would reflect terribly on my reputation if you were to haul a bleeding patient out of my store."

    Smirking, you reply, "Well how would it reflect your precious reputation if we told the Witch Hunters there were frauds pretending to be Sigmirate Priests here? Suspect it might affect it a little bit, even if they don't take you for a little light 'questioning'".

    Crumbling, the physician opens the door, "Do what you must then", and lets you walk past him into the building.

    The physician's office is one of the nicest buildings you've ever been in, with dark wood paneling and small oil lamps providing a flickering illumination. As you rush past, you see an embossed sign with the sigil of the Altdorf Physicians Guild; what you idly presume to be some sort of certificate of his membership.

    Bursting into the backroom you are met by three pimple-faced young men gathered around the bed of a sick child, no more than ten years old. They jump to their feet in surprise, and you see one reaching for a knife.

    [Basic Melee with Surprise 36 (you) vs 70 + 20 them => Major success]

    Before you punch him in the face and he crumples to the ground moaning. The other two warily raise their hands as the other members follow you in, weapons drawn. For a moment, the room is silent beside the moans of the injured young man

    Everyone is tense, waiting on your command, while you wrack your mind to think of how you want to handle the situation. If you follow the merchant's instructions you should take the young men in to be burned at the stake by the Witch Hunters, and seize the gold from the Doctor, almost certainly leaving the orphaned young girl being kicked out onto the street. Alternatively, the letter of the law would have the men's tongues cut out. Lastly, a devout Veronan might make the decision that the truly just option would be to put the fear of retribution into the youths and sweep the matter under the rug, but your men might not keep their mouths shut about the issue.
    Making a decision you declare:

    "Men"
    • [ ] Take them to the Witchhunters: They will almost certainly be burned at the stake, but such a quick and public response will endear you to the local burghers, and demonstrate to your men your swift and harsh sense of justice.
    • [ ] Take them to The Palace of Retribution: The punishment for large-scale frauds such as this is the removal of the tongue, and sticking to the letter of the law is sure to endear you to your superiors.
    • [ ] Tell them the brothers to skip town: The most merciful option would allow the brothers to escape without retribution. But if someone talks, and you have little loyalty from your men and none from the physician, you may find your career impacted.
    • [ ] Write-in: (any actions will have consequences, but with your natural plotter ability, I'll provide some guidance about what the possible fallout could be)
    You then go up to the physician and say, "So about those coins":
    • [ ] Keep them for the Girl's Treatment: You are loathe to kick a sick young girl out into the streets, especially when she may be losing her brothers. But just because you wish to shelter the young as Ulric commands, doing so here may invite consequences
    • [ ] Hand them Over: The physician will be annoyed, and almost certainly kick the girl out, but Ulric condemns any sort of trickery and you are loathe to give even tacit approval to such a scam.
    Meet your Captain:
    The next morning you split from Thumping at the door of the inn, and make the turn towards Grandmarkt to meet with your new commander. The weather is pleasant, and the walk offers you an opportunity to observe the district for the first time. You and Thumping came into the city on a river barge that disembarked directly onto the island, so this area is new to you.
    You are amazed, and slightly off-put by the scale and busyness of the City. Growing up in the small hamlet of Bad Driburg, the local village had seemed huge and crowded to you. This is on a completely different scale, and you marvel at all of the different styles, presentations, and even species you see. Here is a noblewoman being taken by carriage to a dressmaker. Here is a peasant coming to sell their winter pelts. Here is even a dwarf lumbering by with the finest mail you've ever seen worn as a casual outfit.

    Your wonder at your surroundings eats up far more time than you expected, and you are running late by the time you make it to the office of your new commander. The first thing that strikes you is how much nicer the Grandmarkt Watchhouse is than yours. This is a fortress of solid worked stone, with prowling guards, cannons on the walls, and a constant stream of petitioners and servants going in and out. The soldiers look sharp and trained; they are well-equipped as well.

    Making your way over to the entrance, you hail down one of the guards and introduce yourself, showing your letter of commission to prove your identity. You are quickly taken to a well-furnished parlor and told the captain will be here shortly. A servant even comes by to see if you would like some wine after a few minutes have passed.
    You are left waiting for a while, to the point you are startled by the door suddenly banging open and the largest woman you've ever seen striding in. She's over six feet tall and built like a wrestler with huge arms, thick legs, and a generous stomach all covered in a practical set of leather clothing bristling with knife hilts.

    "Lieutenant Hartman I presume?" She barks out.

    You nod in the affirmative, and before you get out a word she's bluntly explaining the situation that you find yourself in.

    "You've been fucked, and you're too fresh to even realize it yet" she says.

    "Toteninsel is the dumping ground of the whole City Watch. Anyone too corrupt, violent, or radical is put there in the hopes that a necromancer attack will pick them off. I can't even help you much. Sending in money or arms would be seen as folly, and I'd be kicked out of my job by the sharks that make up the City's councils. The only way out is through. If you manage to turn things around and make the watch there stable, I can then happily reinforce you, and tell the councils to fuck right back off to their gilded halls." she explains.

    "Now you've heard about the deaths of your predecessors right?" She follows up with.

    Hesitantly you nod. It's the first real input you've had into the conversations so far, and you're still slightly stunned about the strength of her personality.

    "Right then, I think they got got by those louts you've got out there on the island. I sent some of my investigators to take a look, but they weren't able to find anything. Hell, every single member of the command was supposedly out on patrol when the last commander was knifed in the back. I can't pin it on them, otherwise I'd have them clapped in irons and off to the Palace of Retribution, but I know they've got a hand in this all. Be careful out there, I'd hate to see such a frail and delicate man as yourself meet an unfortunate end."

    With that she stands to get up, and moves quickly to the door, turning once back towards you and saying, "There's going to be a mass execution Festtag of some cult up on Crackle Hill. Expect a big shipment of bodies." With that, the door closes leaving you in sudden silence.

    You sit there in silence for a minute, bemused by the extremely one-sided conversation you just had. A servant comes in, and asks, "First time eh?". At your fervent agreement he responds, "She's always like that. Think I've gotten about 5 words in over the ten years I've been working for her. You'll get used to it if you last long enough."
    Meet Quartermaster
    The next few days are spent trying to get a handle on the responsibilities that you have as a Watch Officer. To your surprise, you find it a much more involved role than being an officer in the Army. For one, you have very little direction. Your commanding officer is wholly uninterested in what happens on your dreary little island, and it's up to you to set priorities. For another, there is far less of a support organization. In the army, everything was provided by the army's quartermaster and his staff. As an officer simply received your rations and pay, and didn't worry about where you could get a tent replaced or your blade sharpened.

    One of your first priorities is to understand the layout and contents of the watch building, and so you set to exploring your newfound home. From the large front door, there is an easily defensible waiting area, with a dusty reception desk kept safe by thick cast iron grating. The hallway then continues into a large open mess hall that is the heart of the watchhouse, and capable of seating up to sixty people.

    The rest of the building branches out from there. In the back, there are dusty dorms for soldiers who don't have lodging in the district. You see only a few of the beds are currently in use, but there is easily space for fifty soldiers to sleep here at once. Also in the back is a dusty armory, completely stripped of goods, with only a few warped batons left. Currently, it seems to have been turned into a makeshift root cellar, and you see signs of Thumping having organized it recently.

    To the right of the mess haul is a small hallway, which leads into three empty rooms, one of which seems to have been used as a training rink at some point in the past. For now, these rooms are empty and ready for use as you choose.

    Finally, you cross back across the mess hall and towards the small area set aside for the officers of the watch. You have a generous office here, with an impressive desk and a mountain of parchments. Unfortunately, they are currently useless to you. You really do need to find a tutor to teach you to read. There are also a number of other offices for other possible officers: a Barber-Surgeon, Priest, Scribe, and as well as a small room for 2-3 servants. All are nailed shut, abandoned for as long as any guardsmen can recall.

    Finally, you turn your attention to the reason your'e here: the quartermaster's office. Knocking on the door, you are quickly greeted by the plump face of the quartermaster Wilbert. He exclaims, "Come in, come in. I was wondering when you'd get around to me." And then wanders back over to his desk.

    As he sits back down heavily he begins, "Look, I know things don't appear to be in my favor, but I can explain. We receive pitifully little from the city for the maintenance of the watch: five silver shillings per watchman, per month. Well, a watchman gets paid one silver shilling a week, which means that training, equipment, food, and medical care have to come out of that singular last silver shilling. Are you with me so far?"

    "Yes, I understand so far" you reply.

    "Well, in a normal watch command, this overhead is tight, but at least theoretically manageable. Still, most watch offices supplement this income with personal sources. Our captain uses her allowance from her father, while other less savory charters might use bribes or mild racketeering" he explains.

    He continues, "Now here's where we get to the issue. We've not had a consistent commander for quite a while. The old commander, he's been here for years and had significant investments in some local businesses. Unfortunately, he got his throat torn out by an undead dog during a necromancer attack. The second was a drunkard, and used what little funds we had available to buy himself booze before eventually getting his neck snapped in a bar fight gone wrong. The last one only lasted a month, but hardly helped the situation with his instance we investigate any reports of rats of all things."

    "But we are not a standard Watch Command, we take far more casualties than standard watch commands. I've been here nearly a decade, and in that time over twenty guards have been killed, and they've been replaced by some of the laziest, sticky-fingered yokels I've ever encountered. I've been trying to help the families of the dead with coins here and there, but combined with the general looting that goes on around here, I've been barely able to keep us fed and paid, let alone make any positive changes. I could walk you through the books?" he asks.

    After far far more discussion you leave frustrated. You were hoping for a quick fix for your financial woes. Kick out the corrupt quartermaster and you would be fine right? Instead, it seems yours is annoyingly clean, and instead making every copper count when trying to deal with a bad situation. You are going to have to get more creative with the coin.
    Assist Squad One Dead Noble
    Finally near the end of the week, you find time to check back in on the case of the dead noble. You're pleasantly surprised that the squad you've assigned to this has actually done a little bit of investigation on their own. As the sergeant ramblingly tells you the first thing they did was reach out to the local noble houses to see if anyone has gone missing.

    While Toteninsel is primarily the domain of the dead, it is the permanent home to a respectable number of residents, including three noble houses. The Hozehellers are a prominent house from Stirland that maintains a small manse on the island to coordinate with the Black Guard about Sylvania. The Von Totens are the original owners of the island and one of the founding noble houses of Altdorf. Much reduced from their origins as river pirates, and forced to sell most of their land to the temple of Morr, they still have an impressive compound on the southern tip of the island. Finally, the Ettingers are a relatively recent noble house, having been raised to nobility for their founder's action as a Black Guard during the third Vampire War.

    The fact that all of these young houses have been seen in public since the incident confirms the word of the noble families. Unfortunately, this makes the case significantly more difficult, because just who was this dead noble? And why were they visiting the island in the first place?

    A lucky break occurs when you take the squad out searching and show a sketch of the dead man to the cemetery attendants. One recognizes the man as a regular visitor to the graveyard, and that he was always visiting the grave of his wife who had died around a year ago in childbirth. The gravedigger last saw him around two weeks ago.

    At this news the squad you are with makes eye contact with each other, clearly aware of the importance of this date.

    [Intelligence test => Target 42 + 20 = 52 => Rolled 80 => Failure!]

    As much as you wrack your brain, however, you can't understand the significance yourself and the soldiers have gone completely mum about the case.

    The gravedigger knew his first name was Johann, and the name of his dead wife was Gertrude, but unfortunately, he has no recollection of the surname, and the simple gravestone offers no more clues. In desperation, you instruct them to post sketches on the local bridges, but no one comes forward with an identity for the young man.

    When you head back to the watchhouse, you also receive a quick verbal report from the sergeant you sent to patrol the main bridge, "nothing happened". You prod and pry about what they were doing, but he refuses to answer. It's been a tough week, but at least you think you know better where you stand, and what your biggest issues moving forward will be.

    Conclusion
    Renaissance-era justice was harsh and permanent and accordingly offers few neat solutions to any situation with a modicum of nuance. Still, it is your job as a Watch Officer to decide the punishment for commoners in your district, and each of the options you have available has positives and negatives. Choose wisely.

    Votes will be opened immediately and then closed in ~24 hours. I think in this case free voting is appropriate.
     
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