I'm a High Fantasy Tax Collector, So What? A CKII Tax Collector Quest
- Thread starter hYGP
- Start date
- Original Fantasy
-
- Tags
- death ck2 quest all proceeds go to real spiders are we revolutionaries or reactionaries today criminal justice discussion makes the gm fuzzy don't count your boats before they sail granary management if i lose my meows get me likes to replace them justice spider knock knock it's the finance ministry meows for discussion while supplies last taxation taxes this is not an empire quest
frozenchicken
Does not have a custom title.
RER I think?
Also I love that Oskaria is doing well and the allies keep screwing it up.
Also I love that Oskaria is doing well and the allies keep screwing it up.
Last edited:
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Hm. So, the King of Oskaria has a Good Day, the allied armies have a Bad Day, the Baron has a Nice Day but not as nice as the King's.
??? has a Nice Day, the Beasts of Autumn have a Bad Day, Oskaria striking back has a Good Day, and the Return of Winter has a Good Day.
I can't help but wonder whether good rolls for things that we would normally consider bad are good for the enemy or good for us. Can never remember.
??? has a Nice Day, the Beasts of Autumn have a Bad Day, Oskaria striking back has a Good Day, and the Return of Winter has a Good Day.
I can't help but wonder whether good rolls for things that we would normally consider bad are good for the enemy or good for us. Can never remember.
- Location
- Somewhere over the rainbow
Never stated, but higher rolls are always better for you.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Hm. So, I guess... all-round Good Days, except that the allied armies perform poorly (which may not actually be so bad for us), and the Beasts of Autumn continue to be disturbingly badass, which is definitely and unambiguously bad even if Ophelia can go back to hulking out by mainlining the spiritual essence of sheer PATRIOTISM.
- Location
- USA
I'm really curious about Finance Minister Vivian's thoughts on all these crazy shenanigans in the capital.
Sirrocco
Pedantic
Actually... Beasts of Autumn crank up the "empowered local heroes" factor, which means that there might be advantage in having it keep going at a notable but manageable level for a while - moving all of our heroes up from "newbie" towards "badass". Admittedly, having a high population density of heroes might be a bit problematic (or at least interesting) in the long run, but in the short run, it's exactly the ticket to make invading armies sad.
Beasts of Autumn has been huge for the overall spiritual rearmament of Oskaria, basically. Seriously, though, I gotta wonder where they came from.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
I mean maybe, but "pain only makes me stronger" only works up to a point.
Given that we get bigger beasts when we roll low, I'm pretty sure it's from some malign force, possibly aligned with the one responsible for the insano winter stuff.
Sirrocco
Pedantic
Fair point. I was just arguing against the "definitely and unambiguously bad" part. Honestly, I think Beasts of Autumn might wind up being the thing that saves the country... it just needs to not also break the country.
Unless it breaks all the other countries too...
- Location
- Southampton, Great Britain
- Pronouns
- He/Him
@huhYeahGoodPoint Are the other countries suffering from the Beasts of Autumn?
- Location
- Queensland, Australia
@huhYeahGoodPoint Okay, because things keep going hilariously on the crusade, can you actually give us some idea on what would the... spiritual repercussions be if Oskaria takes the Baron down, the allies can't find their asses with two hands, a guidebook and an assistant during the crusade but then attack Oskaria in an attempt to partition it?
- Location
- Somewhere over the rainbow
Aight, I'm still writing the update, but I might as well talk about a few things.
First, and most important: The Fremen Mirage is a mirage and remains a mirage. Difficult times do not necessarily result in stronger heroes, and those heroes do not necessarily create good times - nor, then, is the criticism of decadence correct. It is worth remembering that the peak of Oskaria's strength came after almost six decades of peace.
Second:
Third:
This is more likely than you think.
One very important fact: early modern armies like the ones all the Crusaders are sporting are like sharks - if they don't move, they die.
And the Crusader armies haven't been doing much moving.
First, and most important: The Fremen Mirage is a mirage and remains a mirage. Difficult times do not necessarily result in stronger heroes, and those heroes do not necessarily create good times - nor, then, is the criticism of decadence correct. It is worth remembering that the peak of Oskaria's strength came after almost six decades of peace.
Second:
Yes.
Third:
Things get fucky. The spirits responsible for enforcing the Compact start splitting between "Oskaria's too powerful and needs to be curbed" and "Oskaria ought to be rewarded for victory in the Crusade" and "wait and see" and "no, it's the Etrellans going too far" and "no it's the Rusmysians that are the problem" and "hey have we considered propping up Vykkaltaria more as a counterweight" and no one knows how it'll all go.
This is more likely than you think.
One very important fact: early modern armies like the ones all the Crusaders are sporting are like sharks - if they don't move, they die.
And the Crusader armies haven't been doing much moving.
The compact is basically these guys in other words?
Always at odds with each other and jockeying for power and simply cant get anything done because they simply cant agree to anything, ironically seems very similar to what oskaria was like before everything started going crazy....
Sirrocco
Pedantic
Sure... but the actual creation of large numbers of spirit-blessed adventurer types, who then have an opportunity to develop their new abilities in combat against the foe, is pretty much guaranteed to improve the overall combat strength of the nation they come from, right? Like, this isn't something that happens in the real world to anything like the same degree, because the real world doesn't have a bunch of spirits who can just turn people into adventurers when they get sufficiently motivated. Likewise, I'm not saying that it will be good for us in the medium or long-term, but in the short term, switching to a wartime footing right before you get attacked rather than right after has some real advantages.
Admittedly, the fact that all of the other countries are getting hit by the same spirits cuts into that to a degree (and is honestly downright odd), but I'm guessing that it's still an advantage to Oskaria, because it's easier to recruit guys like that on the defense than on the attack.
Sirrocco
Pedantic
edit: You have my apologies for the double post. I just keep having thoughts. I think I may try to go off somewhere else and chill for a bit.
I note... if this goes down, and the other armies attack Oskaria while it's army is out of position because it was solo-winning a Glorious Crusade, and the Compact, as a whole, doesn't step in? The Compact's ability to convince countries to sign on for Crusades in a big way is going to crater. Given that they'd be doing this in a time of rising nationalism in Oskaria, the Compact's influence in Oskaria in general is also likely to be severely damaged. Local Compacts may well retain their influence, as long as they're willing to adjust policy a bit, but something like having them all realign as serving under Oskaria, rather than serving under the Compact at large, seems within the realm of plausibility. We may be able to get people to adopt the potato purely out of spite.
Last edited:
CASE: THE WEB OF TREASON MONTH 10
- Location
- Somewhere over the rainbow
Event Chain 3A [1/5]
Event Chain 3B [4/20]
Event Chain 4 [1/5]
The night is warmer than expected, the advent of winter still far away. The nighttime Aurora continued to shine in the night, the blood-red moon of that fateful night seemingly echoing every time a red shard of the Aurora shaded over the moon. You smell and hear the sounds of evening, at least reassuring you that the Beasts of Autumn aren't nearby. Crackling smoke rises from the fire at the heart of your group, everyone keeping their hands only one movement away from their weapons. Ophelia is the only exception, shivering under thick blankets and heavy clothing - but then again, none of you can gainsay it.
You specifically, however, are conjuring a wind to blow away the noxious smoke from the roasting meat over the fire, and the rotting remains of a Beast of Autumn. The smell attacks your nose with a vicious sharpness, as Tekla continues poking at the Beast of Autumn with a stick. The toxic scent and the dappled coat should tell you all you need to know about the animal's fitness for consumption, but nevertheless Tekla wants to poke at the damned things anyway.
"Well?" you ask, pinching your nose shut.
"Well, they're definitely toxic," Tekla nods. "Too toxic to be natural."
"No kidding," you drily remark.
"Yeah, yeah, Cormag. Their meat's also too stringy and tough to eat, even if you could get past the toxicity - it's almost like this thing was designed, which, uh, it probably was."
"Wonderful," you drily remark. "So you're telling me to figure out which spirit did it."
"That is your job," Kerrie commented.
You throw your hands up, Gnarled Rod dramatically raised in one hand. You're almost disappointed that no lightning comes down at your command, even if you didn't want to spend the energy to cast the lightning spell.
"All I've got is maybe something about the spirits of the river and the woods - at least, that's what the spirits of the deer were screaming," you vent.
"Ah, so it's just the very land itself rising up in rebellion. How wonderful," Tekla dramatically gestures. "I didn't want to grow old anyway."
"This isn't actually the first time this kind of thing has happened," Ophelia weakly contributes, dragging out the Eye Approaching Divinity. "I checked the books - this kind of rebellion has happened fairly recently, I think."
"Ophelia! Are you in any state to move?!" you exclaim, watching her fingers twitch just trying to operate the Eye Approaching Divinity. "We told you to rest!"
She gingerly takes one hand off the Eye and hides it under the cover as she winces in pain - every magical exertion must hurt, but she clenches her hand into a fist and continues anyway. "It's fine, Cormag. I can do this. Besides, just hit me with the numbing spell and I'll be okay. Trust me, you'll want to hear this," she says through gritted teeth.
Reluctantly, you turn the Wintercore Wand in her direction and cast the numbing spell - modified by the Wintercore Wand's natural chill.
"Ah, much better," Ophelia sighs.
"Anyways, as I was saying, this has happened before. A wave of disasters and monsters emerging from the wilderness all in quick succession hit Vykkaltaria about sixty to seventy years ago - though they were still the Western Kataltin Empire at that time. Supposedly, a few travelers recorded that the Western Kataltin Empire was starting to develop into a center of civilization with its own Gathering, when the land itself rebelled against them and hit them with waves of vicious monsters and unseasonably bad weather. Shortly afterwards, the Divine Gathering called for a Crusade against the Kataltin Empire, and, well, that's how Vykkaltaria became Vykkaltaria."
"..."
"I checked the records for other cases. A lot of them share a similar pattern of a series of steadily more cataclysmic disasters followed by devastating war, either internal or external. Cormag, you probably know what the church has to say in each of those cases, don't you?"
"In Vykkaltaria, at least, it was supposed to be about bringing them into accordance with the Compact of the Precursors - and the disasters were supposed to show that they were approaching something like a Calamity," you hesitantly say.
Ophelia nods. "Similar patterns, every time. In the footnotes, one of the scholars mentioned the concept of a Roche limit - every single time a society approaches a certain fraction of its people in cities, the same pattern happens inevitably occurs within thirty to fifty years. It happened to the Maryn, the Huizopotal, the Myuret, the Zhou, and dozens of others besides. Supposedly to the Far East, this happens so frequently there's almost a schedule. I looked up some of the letters attached in the appendices - scholars were discussing whether the Wyvern Wars should be counted as part of this pattern, since by all indications Oskaria prior to the Wyvern Wars was approaching the limit.
"There's only been a handful of exceptions the University of Cille's found," she whispered, and you could've sworn the entire world went dead silent. "One of them is Oskaria today."
"We passed the Roche limit about forty years ago."
Event Chain 2A [20/20] [6/30]
Event Chain 2B [9/10]
Event Chain 2C [5/5] [0/5] [5/5]
Event Chain 2D [3/10]
The glistening, unfathomably high spires of the Calamity-era ruins lingers off in the distance, a stark image to your discussion about the inevitable course of all civilizations. The high walls and the streets leading to the city are brightly lit with torches and seemingly devoid of movement, blasted craters and mounds of the beast corpses speaking to the ceaseless siege that Cille is subject to. The gates are barred, and when you arrive three ranks of musketeers stand up to the wall before they open the gate, fearful that the Beasts of Autumn might take the opening to burst through the gate and enter the city.
When you arrive in the city, you're greeted with relief and desperation. Finally, someone from a ways away! All anyone wants to hear about is the latest gossip from anywhere and everywhere - were the other cities holding out, or were they all besieged and slowly dying out?
You could at least assure them of the Capital's survival, and that the towns you passed on the route here were alive and well - after the furious defense of the capital on that night, the Beasts of Autumn haven't destroyed any settlements you came across. In return, they told you what they had heard from the ships along the way:
The King couldn't come back - the Gathering had demanded that he stay on the siege, apparently, but he was sending the majority of the Royal Army back to try and tame the Beasts of Autumn. His erstwhile allies in the Etrellans and Rusmysians were only starving the Oskarians and achieving nothing, stuck on the wrong side of the Smok River and unable to make headway against the vampiric baron's forces. At least the siege of Castle Liyovyi was finally on track, they said - no more risk of being completely driven off the field in one afternoon.
That should give you some breathing room to do your real job:
Investigating the potential traitors to the Crown.
Remaining Budget: 345
You have 3 [Free] Actions that may be spent in any category.
You have 3 Minor Boons and 1 Major Boon that you may attach to any Action.
You can cooperate with your teammates to add +3 base stat to an action that you are cooperating on. It is represented by using your [Free] Action on one of your already-selected Actions.
Martial (Choose 1) {Kerrie Action}
[] [Martial] Manning the Gates
Every soldier and mercenary not dispatched to help escort merchants and refugee caravans is currently on the walls - which means that you can help defend the walls while also finding out more about their position. DC: 12. Gain: 1 Budget.
[] [Martial] Escort Mission
All of the merchants needed escorts, and many villages have to be outright evacuated under heavy guard. The City Authority will pay well for this kind of work. DC: 17. Gain: 2 Budget.
[] [Martial] Beast Hunt
For any adventurers brave and/or strong enough, the port authority was putting out substantial bounties for the heads of the Beasts of Autumn. DC: Scaling. Gains: Scaling.
Diplomacy (Choose 1) {Tekla Action}
[] [Diplomacy] The Academy
Formally, you're here to help investigate the loyalties of the city. Unofficially, you want to know more about this...Roche limit. DC: 20. Cost: 2 Budget.
[] [Diplomacy] The Merchant Houses
Cille lives and dies by the port it is founded by, and that means you need to assure yourself of the Merchant Houses' nobility - or at least, get an in with them. DC: 25. Cost: 4 Budget.
[] [Diplomacy] The Westerlies
The nobles, apparently, have a split between them in the Sejm, split between westerlies and easterlies. Here in Cille, the vast majority of the nobility are westerlies - which means you should check their loyalties. DC: 27. Cost: 4 Budget.
[] [Diplomacy] The Easterlies
On the other hand, the easterlies are at a major disadvantage against the westerlies in the power struggle for this court - this makes them extremely tempting marks for foreign adversaries. DC: 23. Cost: 4 Budget.
[] [Diplomacy] The Church
The presence of the Academy puts the church here on edge, especially with the Academy choosing, no matter how reluctantly, to shield Roche from the consequences of slandering the church. They'd appreciate someone to lend an ear to their problems. DC: 15. Cost: 0 Budget.
Intrigue (Choose 1) {Kerrie Action}
[] [Intrigue] Setting Down Roots
You were well seen as you came into the city, which means that you should probably take the time to chase off some of the obvious tails. DC: 22. Cost: 0 Budget.
[] [Intrigue] The Dockyards
Since the Dockyards are so vital, it'd be best to check out whether unsavory elements have taken up residence in there - and if they have, whether they're with or against the Crown. DC: 17. Cost: 0 Budget.
[] [Intrigue] The Port Quarter
Strangely enough, the Port Quarter is actually a little ways inland from the Dockyards themselves - but then again, you suspect that that distance suits the upper class just fine. DC: 24. Cost: 0 Budget.
Learning (Choose 1) {Tekla Action}
[] [Learning] Magical Marketplace
While Cille does not have quite the same regulatory environment that promotes so much sale of magical equipment there, Cille is a busy port city, so of course it has some sales. DC: Scaling. Cost: Scaling.
[] [Learning] Magical Mapping
You might want to check out the magical layout of this city, just as you've mapped all the other sites. DC: 25. Cost: 2 Budget.
[] [Learning] Alchemical Setup
Setting up the distilleries for Tekla to be able to fully commit to potion-making takes a while, but if given the space he can start manufacturing potions - for both personal use and sales. DC: 10. Cost: 2 Budget.
Stewardship (Choose 1) {Ophelia Action}
[] [Stewardship] Overview of Cille
With the Encylopeadia de Cille at hand, perhaps you can read it and get a general overview of the city. DC: 10. Cost: 0 Budget.
[] [Stewardship] Reviewing the Maps
On the other hand, with the everpresent threat of the Beasts of Autumn, you will most likely need to check the maps of the city and the surrounding areas - and then revise them. DC: 24. Cost: 0 Budget.
[] [Stewardship] Expansive Lodgings
You need to secure some room to stash all of your various pieces of equipment, as well as generally having a space to yourself that you can work with - even if that's otherwise known as a warehouse. DC: 20. Cost: 1 Budget.
Piety (Choose 1) {Cormag Action}
[] [Piety] Ophelia Training
Ophelia's spent nearly the entire month and then some suffering the effects of channeling Oskaria for a month straight. She clearly needs more training, as well as some simple recovery if she wants to be able to repeat a performance like that. DC: 25. Cost: 0 Budget.
[] [Piety] Local Spirit Alliances
With the city besieged on all sides, the spirits are more willing to grant blessings to help defend the city - at a price, to maintain their own power. DC: 15. Cost: 3 Budget.
[] [Piety] Wandering Spirit Negotiations
With the constant flow of ships in and out of Cille's harbor, plenty of spirits come along with those ships - spirits that you may be able to strike deals with. DC: 25. Cost: 0 Budget.
If I've missed anything or made a mistake, please let me know.
Event Chain 3B [4/20]
Event Chain 4 [1/5]
The night is warmer than expected, the advent of winter still far away. The nighttime Aurora continued to shine in the night, the blood-red moon of that fateful night seemingly echoing every time a red shard of the Aurora shaded over the moon. You smell and hear the sounds of evening, at least reassuring you that the Beasts of Autumn aren't nearby. Crackling smoke rises from the fire at the heart of your group, everyone keeping their hands only one movement away from their weapons. Ophelia is the only exception, shivering under thick blankets and heavy clothing - but then again, none of you can gainsay it.
You specifically, however, are conjuring a wind to blow away the noxious smoke from the roasting meat over the fire, and the rotting remains of a Beast of Autumn. The smell attacks your nose with a vicious sharpness, as Tekla continues poking at the Beast of Autumn with a stick. The toxic scent and the dappled coat should tell you all you need to know about the animal's fitness for consumption, but nevertheless Tekla wants to poke at the damned things anyway.
"Well?" you ask, pinching your nose shut.
"Well, they're definitely toxic," Tekla nods. "Too toxic to be natural."
"No kidding," you drily remark.
"Yeah, yeah, Cormag. Their meat's also too stringy and tough to eat, even if you could get past the toxicity - it's almost like this thing was designed, which, uh, it probably was."
"Wonderful," you drily remark. "So you're telling me to figure out which spirit did it."
"That is your job," Kerrie commented.
You throw your hands up, Gnarled Rod dramatically raised in one hand. You're almost disappointed that no lightning comes down at your command, even if you didn't want to spend the energy to cast the lightning spell.
"All I've got is maybe something about the spirits of the river and the woods - at least, that's what the spirits of the deer were screaming," you vent.
"Ah, so it's just the very land itself rising up in rebellion. How wonderful," Tekla dramatically gestures. "I didn't want to grow old anyway."
"This isn't actually the first time this kind of thing has happened," Ophelia weakly contributes, dragging out the Eye Approaching Divinity. "I checked the books - this kind of rebellion has happened fairly recently, I think."
"Ophelia! Are you in any state to move?!" you exclaim, watching her fingers twitch just trying to operate the Eye Approaching Divinity. "We told you to rest!"
She gingerly takes one hand off the Eye and hides it under the cover as she winces in pain - every magical exertion must hurt, but she clenches her hand into a fist and continues anyway. "It's fine, Cormag. I can do this. Besides, just hit me with the numbing spell and I'll be okay. Trust me, you'll want to hear this," she says through gritted teeth.
Reluctantly, you turn the Wintercore Wand in her direction and cast the numbing spell - modified by the Wintercore Wand's natural chill.
"Ah, much better," Ophelia sighs.
"Anyways, as I was saying, this has happened before. A wave of disasters and monsters emerging from the wilderness all in quick succession hit Vykkaltaria about sixty to seventy years ago - though they were still the Western Kataltin Empire at that time. Supposedly, a few travelers recorded that the Western Kataltin Empire was starting to develop into a center of civilization with its own Gathering, when the land itself rebelled against them and hit them with waves of vicious monsters and unseasonably bad weather. Shortly afterwards, the Divine Gathering called for a Crusade against the Kataltin Empire, and, well, that's how Vykkaltaria became Vykkaltaria."
"..."
"I checked the records for other cases. A lot of them share a similar pattern of a series of steadily more cataclysmic disasters followed by devastating war, either internal or external. Cormag, you probably know what the church has to say in each of those cases, don't you?"
"In Vykkaltaria, at least, it was supposed to be about bringing them into accordance with the Compact of the Precursors - and the disasters were supposed to show that they were approaching something like a Calamity," you hesitantly say.
Ophelia nods. "Similar patterns, every time. In the footnotes, one of the scholars mentioned the concept of a Roche limit - every single time a society approaches a certain fraction of its people in cities, the same pattern happens inevitably occurs within thirty to fifty years. It happened to the Maryn, the Huizopotal, the Myuret, the Zhou, and dozens of others besides. Supposedly to the Far East, this happens so frequently there's almost a schedule. I looked up some of the letters attached in the appendices - scholars were discussing whether the Wyvern Wars should be counted as part of this pattern, since by all indications Oskaria prior to the Wyvern Wars was approaching the limit.
"There's only been a handful of exceptions the University of Cille's found," she whispered, and you could've sworn the entire world went dead silent. "One of them is Oskaria today."
"We passed the Roche limit about forty years ago."
Event Chain 2A [20/20] [6/30]
Event Chain 2B [9/10]
Event Chain 2C [5/5] [0/5] [5/5]
Event Chain 2D [3/10]
The glistening, unfathomably high spires of the Calamity-era ruins lingers off in the distance, a stark image to your discussion about the inevitable course of all civilizations. The high walls and the streets leading to the city are brightly lit with torches and seemingly devoid of movement, blasted craters and mounds of the beast corpses speaking to the ceaseless siege that Cille is subject to. The gates are barred, and when you arrive three ranks of musketeers stand up to the wall before they open the gate, fearful that the Beasts of Autumn might take the opening to burst through the gate and enter the city.
When you arrive in the city, you're greeted with relief and desperation. Finally, someone from a ways away! All anyone wants to hear about is the latest gossip from anywhere and everywhere - were the other cities holding out, or were they all besieged and slowly dying out?
You could at least assure them of the Capital's survival, and that the towns you passed on the route here were alive and well - after the furious defense of the capital on that night, the Beasts of Autumn haven't destroyed any settlements you came across. In return, they told you what they had heard from the ships along the way:
The King couldn't come back - the Gathering had demanded that he stay on the siege, apparently, but he was sending the majority of the Royal Army back to try and tame the Beasts of Autumn. His erstwhile allies in the Etrellans and Rusmysians were only starving the Oskarians and achieving nothing, stuck on the wrong side of the Smok River and unable to make headway against the vampiric baron's forces. At least the siege of Castle Liyovyi was finally on track, they said - no more risk of being completely driven off the field in one afternoon.
That should give you some breathing room to do your real job:
Investigating the potential traitors to the Crown.
Remaining Budget: 345
You have 3 [Free] Actions that may be spent in any category.
You have 3 Minor Boons and 1 Major Boon that you may attach to any Action.
You can cooperate with your teammates to add +3 base stat to an action that you are cooperating on. It is represented by using your [Free] Action on one of your already-selected Actions.
Martial (Choose 1) {Kerrie Action}
[] [Martial] Manning the Gates
Every soldier and mercenary not dispatched to help escort merchants and refugee caravans is currently on the walls - which means that you can help defend the walls while also finding out more about their position. DC: 12. Gain: 1 Budget.
[] [Martial] Escort Mission
All of the merchants needed escorts, and many villages have to be outright evacuated under heavy guard. The City Authority will pay well for this kind of work. DC: 17. Gain: 2 Budget.
[] [Martial] Beast Hunt
For any adventurers brave and/or strong enough, the port authority was putting out substantial bounties for the heads of the Beasts of Autumn. DC: Scaling. Gains: Scaling.
Diplomacy (Choose 1) {Tekla Action}
[] [Diplomacy] The Academy
Formally, you're here to help investigate the loyalties of the city. Unofficially, you want to know more about this...Roche limit. DC: 20. Cost: 2 Budget.
[] [Diplomacy] The Merchant Houses
Cille lives and dies by the port it is founded by, and that means you need to assure yourself of the Merchant Houses' nobility - or at least, get an in with them. DC: 25. Cost: 4 Budget.
[] [Diplomacy] The Westerlies
The nobles, apparently, have a split between them in the Sejm, split between westerlies and easterlies. Here in Cille, the vast majority of the nobility are westerlies - which means you should check their loyalties. DC: 27. Cost: 4 Budget.
[] [Diplomacy] The Easterlies
On the other hand, the easterlies are at a major disadvantage against the westerlies in the power struggle for this court - this makes them extremely tempting marks for foreign adversaries. DC: 23. Cost: 4 Budget.
[] [Diplomacy] The Church
The presence of the Academy puts the church here on edge, especially with the Academy choosing, no matter how reluctantly, to shield Roche from the consequences of slandering the church. They'd appreciate someone to lend an ear to their problems. DC: 15. Cost: 0 Budget.
Intrigue (Choose 1) {Kerrie Action}
[] [Intrigue] Setting Down Roots
You were well seen as you came into the city, which means that you should probably take the time to chase off some of the obvious tails. DC: 22. Cost: 0 Budget.
[] [Intrigue] The Dockyards
Since the Dockyards are so vital, it'd be best to check out whether unsavory elements have taken up residence in there - and if they have, whether they're with or against the Crown. DC: 17. Cost: 0 Budget.
[] [Intrigue] The Port Quarter
Strangely enough, the Port Quarter is actually a little ways inland from the Dockyards themselves - but then again, you suspect that that distance suits the upper class just fine. DC: 24. Cost: 0 Budget.
Learning (Choose 1) {Tekla Action}
[] [Learning] Magical Marketplace
While Cille does not have quite the same regulatory environment that promotes so much sale of magical equipment there, Cille is a busy port city, so of course it has some sales. DC: Scaling. Cost: Scaling.
[] [Learning] Magical Mapping
You might want to check out the magical layout of this city, just as you've mapped all the other sites. DC: 25. Cost: 2 Budget.
[] [Learning] Alchemical Setup
Setting up the distilleries for Tekla to be able to fully commit to potion-making takes a while, but if given the space he can start manufacturing potions - for both personal use and sales. DC: 10. Cost: 2 Budget.
Stewardship (Choose 1) {Ophelia Action}
[] [Stewardship] Overview of Cille
With the Encylopeadia de Cille at hand, perhaps you can read it and get a general overview of the city. DC: 10. Cost: 0 Budget.
[] [Stewardship] Reviewing the Maps
On the other hand, with the everpresent threat of the Beasts of Autumn, you will most likely need to check the maps of the city and the surrounding areas - and then revise them. DC: 24. Cost: 0 Budget.
[] [Stewardship] Expansive Lodgings
You need to secure some room to stash all of your various pieces of equipment, as well as generally having a space to yourself that you can work with - even if that's otherwise known as a warehouse. DC: 20. Cost: 1 Budget.
Piety (Choose 1) {Cormag Action}
[] [Piety] Ophelia Training
Ophelia's spent nearly the entire month and then some suffering the effects of channeling Oskaria for a month straight. She clearly needs more training, as well as some simple recovery if she wants to be able to repeat a performance like that. DC: 25. Cost: 0 Budget.
[] [Piety] Local Spirit Alliances
With the city besieged on all sides, the spirits are more willing to grant blessings to help defend the city - at a price, to maintain their own power. DC: 15. Cost: 3 Budget.
[] [Piety] Wandering Spirit Negotiations
With the constant flow of ships in and out of Cille's harbor, plenty of spirits come along with those ships - spirits that you may be able to strike deals with. DC: 25. Cost: 0 Budget.
If I've missed anything or made a mistake, please let me know.
..........
Looks like it is localized to us, and it is some sort of measure to keep society advancing beyond a certain point.
Welp, things are only going to escalate from here.
