...Oh hell...
What has the poor guy unleashed?
Prob not much difference, but voting for what currently is the only plan...
[X] Plan Concentrate On Fae & Moneymaking
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
What has the poor guy unleashed?
Prob not much difference, but voting for what currently is the only plan...
[X] Plan Concentrate On Fae & Moneymaking
Random Member
Gardener of Human Happiness
- Location
- Behind You
One Member, One Vote! It's just Democratic Centralism.
Also, let there be Revolution!
Last edited:
Solarstream
It's all in the cards
- Location
- Zombie World
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Plan Concentrate On Fae & Moneymaking
- Location
- Belgium
[X] Plan Concentrate On Fae & Moneymaking
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
I dunno, it's just hard for my brain to re-engage with What Is To Be Done.
My brain keeps skidding out.
If it's any consolation, I seldom vote in any other quests anymore...
My brain keeps skidding out.
If it's any consolation, I seldom vote in any other quests anymore...
- Location
- Attached to a wall
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I am going to put forth an alternate vote in the hopes that we can reduce the dice for getting rid of our calamity frame.
[X] Plan Fae, Moneymaking , with a diversion into Palmira
-[X] [Martial] Faerie Prep
-[X] [Diplomacy] Lawyer Up
-[X] [Intrigue] High Society Infiltration
-[X] [Intrigue] Tap Tap
-[X] [Learning] Old Palmira II
-[X] [Stewardship] Temporary Labor
-[X] [Stewardship] Contract Drafting
-[X] [Piety+Free] Into the Fae Court I
[X] Plan Fae, Moneymaking , with a diversion into Palmira
-[X] [Martial] Faerie Prep
-[X] [Diplomacy] Lawyer Up
-[X] [Intrigue] High Society Infiltration
-[X] [Intrigue] Tap Tap
-[X] [Learning] Old Palmira II
-[X] [Stewardship] Temporary Labor
-[X] [Stewardship] Contract Drafting
-[X] [Piety+Free] Into the Fae Court I
INTERREGNUM MONTH 7 ROLL CALL
- Location
- Somewhere over the rainbow
Plan Concentrate On Fae & Moneymaking wins.
Roll me 9d100s.
Martial
Faerie Prep
DC: 20. Roll: 22 + 5 + 2
Cost: 5 Budget.
Diplomacy
Lawyer Up
DC: 10. Roll: 20 + 2 + 2
Gain: 2 Budget.
Intrigue
High Society Infiltration
DC: 25. Roll: 19 + 2 + 2.
Cost: 2 Budget.
Intrigue
Tap Tap
DC: 20. Roll: 22 + 2 + 2.
Cost: 2 Budget.
Learning
Fey Aids
DC: 25. Roll: 23 + 2.
Cost: 2 Budget.
Stewardship
Temporary Labor
DC: 10. Roll: 24 + 2.
Cost: 0 Budget.
Stewardship
Contract Drafting
DC: 25. Roll: 24 + 2.
Cost: 0 Budget.
Piety
Into the Fae Court I
DC: 30. Roll: 25 + 3+ 2. Your sovereign is your sovereign, and our sovereign is our sovereign. Do not confuse the two.
Cost: 2 Budget.
Random Event Roll
Roll me 9d100s.
Martial
Faerie Prep
DC: 20. Roll: 22 + 5 + 2
Cost: 5 Budget.
Diplomacy
Lawyer Up
DC: 10. Roll: 20 + 2 + 2
Gain: 2 Budget.
Intrigue
High Society Infiltration
DC: 25. Roll: 19 + 2 + 2.
Cost: 2 Budget.
Intrigue
Tap Tap
DC: 20. Roll: 22 + 2 + 2.
Cost: 2 Budget.
Learning
Fey Aids
DC: 25. Roll: 23 + 2.
Cost: 2 Budget.
Stewardship
Temporary Labor
DC: 10. Roll: 24 + 2.
Cost: 0 Budget.
Stewardship
Contract Drafting
DC: 25. Roll: 24 + 2.
Cost: 0 Budget.
Piety
Into the Fae Court I
DC: 30. Roll: 25 + 3
Cost: 2 Budget.
Random Event Roll
Random Member
Gardener of Human Happiness
- Location
- Behind You
I'll roll then.
- Location
- New York
Attempting to roll now.
- Location
- Attached to a wall
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I curse the gods who wouldn't give me a low roll last time.
Last edited:
Random Member
Gardener of Human Happiness
- Location
- Behind You
I'll roll again then, since it doesn't seem to be progressing otherwise.
- Location
- Earth
Hope for the best...
Edit: Woot!
Edit: Woot!
Last edited:
- Location
- Attached to a wall
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I have forgotten for the moment.
Was 90+ a crit or was it 95+?
Was 90+ a crit or was it 95+?
- Location
- Earth
Looks like we passed the DC on everything, but only got a 20 on the RER? Hopefully it doesn't fuck us too bad.
- Location
- Somewhere over the rainbow
i'd say it's time for a run again but i went on a nice hour-long jog already today and my legs are totally dead, soooo...
Roles have been assigned. If one is to wear a mask to a courtroom, then does that not become their face to the court?
Critical on High Society Invitation.
Critical on Temporary Labor.
Roles have been assigned. If one is to wear a mask to a courtroom, then does that not become their face to the court?
INTERREGNUM MONTH 7.1
- Location
- Somewhere over the rainbow
Diplomacy
Lawyer Up
DC: 10. Roll: 20 + 2 + 2 + 4.3 = 28.3
Stewardship
Temporary Labor
DC: 10. Roll: 24 + 2 + 9.7 = 35.7
Intrigue
Tap Tap
DC: 20. Roll: 22 + 2 + 2 + 5.2 = 31.2
Intrigue
High Society Infiltration
DC: 25. Roll: 19 + 2 + 2 + 9.9 = 32.9
No event is ever unconnected.
It is the financial crisis that you only partially averted almost two years ago that drove the former occupant of your entire office floor out. Now you profit from their loss in order to acquire a binding ten year lease, paid in installments before the landowner fully realizes what a goldmine they're sitting on. You will admit, however, that you probably could not have pulled it off without Oskaria's help.
Except the lease is not for one office, even as tempting as that would be; no, you smell a real opportunity.
You lease the whole floor, and then immediately turn around to your lawyer acquaintances and tell them you're establishing a law firm with you as the consultant on site, always available for consultation, and with your name as the implicit guarantee to prospective clients. You not only promise that you will provide consultation, you also promise career guidance, and career promotion in a regular journal providing samples of all the promising attorney's best works in recent times.
You then turn around to your prospective clients, and tell them that you will be able to provide legal advising based on a handpicked team that will provide results no worse than if you had personally intervened - and the ability to review their legal chops in a private journal they will be able to access if they agree to come in for a consultation.
If this whole scheme worked, you could profit handsomely, continuously, and be paid thrice over for simply being available. Not to mention having a whole legion of underlings you could trust to continue the case should the Regent decide to step on a marked landmine and destroy his entire reform effort by some tyrannical yet technically legal letters of condemnation.
In order to make the scheme work, however, you needed to convince everyone involved to take a leap of faith, above and beyond how tempting this offer is.
Which is why you have Kerrie come in full plumage in order to appear as though you already had fabulously wealthy clients, and with only a bit of gumption and commitment, other lawyers could similarly profit.
The first batch of applicants come in shortly afterwards, and you're not particularly shy about welcoming in the young and untested; their drive and your occasional guidance should be enough to keep them from embarrassing you too badly. Moreover, with them attached to your work, you can have them begin to take advantage of all the job opportunities you used to have to decline out of lack of manpower.
Especially when you use your old network to start spreading the good word with potential clients seeking legal and writing help.
Then you start subtly inserting that Kerrie has always been a noble into the well of common knowledge, and quietly lean on a few of the minor noble servants to lean on their masters to acknowledge Kerrie.
Slowly, it simply becomes common knowledge that the fancily dressed lady is a lady not to be insulted by comparison, and despite the paint still drying on Agueda and Partners, the firm is already part of the street and a local vanguard for the reform efforts. By day the firm is a bustle of activity, bringing in clients and papers and frenetic talking; by night the firm becomes a local hotspot for after hours lawyers discussing reform at length.
By your estimation, this idea has become a spectacular success.
??? INTERRUPT
When Thevenet comes to your offices one fine morning, you don't recognize him. On the crowded streets of Antigua, a foreign man dressed in a tight headwrap draws only some notice, but the sight is nothing unusual - in fact, the foreign merchants tend to be your best customers.
The moment he steps in the door and sweeps his eyes over your office, however, you are already paying attention. His sweep is extraordinarily focused and practiced, gaze snapping in the way you know your own eyes snap. He is an assessor as well, one you recognize as perhaps peers if not equals.
"Greetings, learned one. I believe I am your third and a half bell?" he says, with a warmth your instincts do not believe for a moment.
"I believe that you are, mister Sangha," you warmly greet him.
"Thank you," 'Sangha' says. "I apologize for the rudeness, but I'm afraid one as busy as yourself would not deign to hear me out unless I presented myself with a reason for you to hear me out. Would you still grant me the pleasure of a few words of advice?" he asks. You consider rejecting him on principle, but inwardly sigh in disgust. You have your own principles, and you agreed to the meeting ahead of time. "Especially with regards to the spirits you are looking for," he offhandedly drops in.
You pointedly do not stiffen, but it feels as though a biting wind has blown over your spine.
"Ah, but where are my manners? I am Brother Thevenet to my associates and Sangha to my friends. A little old lady has sent me to help you with the fae, I believe you call them. Consider my advice to be at your disposal, no charge to you."
"Is that so, Brother Thevenet?" you archly ask. "I recall your consultation fees."
"Things have changed since then," Thevenet says, smile still sitting naturally on his face as his hands turns up. By this point you deeply suspect the trick is that he lets you read whatever you want into that expression. "Though if you really must be so insistent, I do have other business with the fae - or as these fae specifically prefer, the Melusine Commonwealth."
"And if we insist otherwise?" you ask, unwisely pointedly.
"Well, then I suspect we will both be worse off; you because you'd lack a local guide to the Melusine, me, because I will have to go explain myself to a rather irate old lady. Though I do have business in the Commonwealth regardless, so I believe we will see each other soon, regardless of your decision here."
So.
Thevenet had at least three agendas. He was to help your group succeed, spy on your group, and also do whatever it is he personally wanted to do in the Melusine Commonwealth.
His offer was local knowledge and expertise - and his threat was that you would not be able to find any alternative, because he or his group had chased all the competitors out.
"Though as an additional free piece of information, the Regent's man in the Melusine is Besim Rosenberg; in fact, he should be entering the realm as we speak," he says offhandedly.
Clearly he was adept at using his leverage too.
Tch.
Under better circumstances you could tell him exactly where he could take his advice - but for now his group had probably driven off or warned off all the other guides to the Melusine, and he knew you were on a ticking clock and was willing to press that fact.
Worse, you knew that one of the reasons he was going along with this whole thing was to not-so-subtly spy on you, both for himself and for whoever his actual employer was. He was too mercenary to be doing this out of the goodness of his own heart.
And if he was clever and not tied to some very obvious lodestone like Ophelia then he probably had accomplices.
One way to view the problem was simple: either invite the obvious spy into your camp, or don't. Inviting the spy into your group creates an incredibly obvious security vulnerability. Not inviting the spy doesn't.
The other way to view the problem came from your own experience: if he was watching you, you were watching him. From that perspective, the choice was exactly opposite: you had the choice of being able to monitor the man's activities with a twenty-five to one manpower advantage, or the choice of trying to watch the man in a foreign country.
And you needed that evidence, if you really wanted to make sure that the Regent was sunk beyond measure. Any evidence you could steal from him would not only be tainted, but would immediately give him pretext for destroying your entire case. Only the testimony from the Melusine Commonwealth would be both sufficiently damning and unblockable.
Damn.
[] "We gratefully accept."
[] "We must respectfully decline."
Lawyer Up
DC: 10. Roll: 20 + 2 + 2 + 4.3 = 28.3
Stewardship
Temporary Labor
DC: 10. Roll: 24 + 2 + 9.7 = 35.7
Intrigue
Tap Tap
DC: 20. Roll: 22 + 2 + 2 + 5.2 = 31.2
Intrigue
High Society Infiltration
DC: 25. Roll: 19 + 2 + 2 + 9.9 = 32.9
No event is ever unconnected.
It is the financial crisis that you only partially averted almost two years ago that drove the former occupant of your entire office floor out. Now you profit from their loss in order to acquire a binding ten year lease, paid in installments before the landowner fully realizes what a goldmine they're sitting on. You will admit, however, that you probably could not have pulled it off without Oskaria's help.
Except the lease is not for one office, even as tempting as that would be; no, you smell a real opportunity.
You lease the whole floor, and then immediately turn around to your lawyer acquaintances and tell them you're establishing a law firm with you as the consultant on site, always available for consultation, and with your name as the implicit guarantee to prospective clients. You not only promise that you will provide consultation, you also promise career guidance, and career promotion in a regular journal providing samples of all the promising attorney's best works in recent times.
You then turn around to your prospective clients, and tell them that you will be able to provide legal advising based on a handpicked team that will provide results no worse than if you had personally intervened - and the ability to review their legal chops in a private journal they will be able to access if they agree to come in for a consultation.
If this whole scheme worked, you could profit handsomely, continuously, and be paid thrice over for simply being available. Not to mention having a whole legion of underlings you could trust to continue the case should the Regent decide to step on a marked landmine and destroy his entire reform effort by some tyrannical yet technically legal letters of condemnation.
In order to make the scheme work, however, you needed to convince everyone involved to take a leap of faith, above and beyond how tempting this offer is.
Which is why you have Kerrie come in full plumage in order to appear as though you already had fabulously wealthy clients, and with only a bit of gumption and commitment, other lawyers could similarly profit.
The first batch of applicants come in shortly afterwards, and you're not particularly shy about welcoming in the young and untested; their drive and your occasional guidance should be enough to keep them from embarrassing you too badly. Moreover, with them attached to your work, you can have them begin to take advantage of all the job opportunities you used to have to decline out of lack of manpower.
Especially when you use your old network to start spreading the good word with potential clients seeking legal and writing help.
Then you start subtly inserting that Kerrie has always been a noble into the well of common knowledge, and quietly lean on a few of the minor noble servants to lean on their masters to acknowledge Kerrie.
Slowly, it simply becomes common knowledge that the fancily dressed lady is a lady not to be insulted by comparison, and despite the paint still drying on Agueda and Partners, the firm is already part of the street and a local vanguard for the reform efforts. By day the firm is a bustle of activity, bringing in clients and papers and frenetic talking; by night the firm becomes a local hotspot for after hours lawyers discussing reform at length.
By your estimation, this idea has become a spectacular success.
??? INTERRUPT
When Thevenet comes to your offices one fine morning, you don't recognize him. On the crowded streets of Antigua, a foreign man dressed in a tight headwrap draws only some notice, but the sight is nothing unusual - in fact, the foreign merchants tend to be your best customers.
The moment he steps in the door and sweeps his eyes over your office, however, you are already paying attention. His sweep is extraordinarily focused and practiced, gaze snapping in the way you know your own eyes snap. He is an assessor as well, one you recognize as perhaps peers if not equals.
"Greetings, learned one. I believe I am your third and a half bell?" he says, with a warmth your instincts do not believe for a moment.
"I believe that you are, mister Sangha," you warmly greet him.
"Thank you," 'Sangha' says. "I apologize for the rudeness, but I'm afraid one as busy as yourself would not deign to hear me out unless I presented myself with a reason for you to hear me out. Would you still grant me the pleasure of a few words of advice?" he asks. You consider rejecting him on principle, but inwardly sigh in disgust. You have your own principles, and you agreed to the meeting ahead of time. "Especially with regards to the spirits you are looking for," he offhandedly drops in.
You pointedly do not stiffen, but it feels as though a biting wind has blown over your spine.
"Ah, but where are my manners? I am Brother Thevenet to my associates and Sangha to my friends. A little old lady has sent me to help you with the fae, I believe you call them. Consider my advice to be at your disposal, no charge to you."
"Is that so, Brother Thevenet?" you archly ask. "I recall your consultation fees."
"Things have changed since then," Thevenet says, smile still sitting naturally on his face as his hands turns up. By this point you deeply suspect the trick is that he lets you read whatever you want into that expression. "Though if you really must be so insistent, I do have other business with the fae - or as these fae specifically prefer, the Melusine Commonwealth."
"And if we insist otherwise?" you ask, unwisely pointedly.
"Well, then I suspect we will both be worse off; you because you'd lack a local guide to the Melusine, me, because I will have to go explain myself to a rather irate old lady. Though I do have business in the Commonwealth regardless, so I believe we will see each other soon, regardless of your decision here."
So.
Thevenet had at least three agendas. He was to help your group succeed, spy on your group, and also do whatever it is he personally wanted to do in the Melusine Commonwealth.
His offer was local knowledge and expertise - and his threat was that you would not be able to find any alternative, because he or his group had chased all the competitors out.
"Though as an additional free piece of information, the Regent's man in the Melusine is Besim Rosenberg; in fact, he should be entering the realm as we speak," he says offhandedly.
Clearly he was adept at using his leverage too.
Tch.
Under better circumstances you could tell him exactly where he could take his advice - but for now his group had probably driven off or warned off all the other guides to the Melusine, and he knew you were on a ticking clock and was willing to press that fact.
Worse, you knew that one of the reasons he was going along with this whole thing was to not-so-subtly spy on you, both for himself and for whoever his actual employer was. He was too mercenary to be doing this out of the goodness of his own heart.
And if he was clever and not tied to some very obvious lodestone like Ophelia then he probably had accomplices.
One way to view the problem was simple: either invite the obvious spy into your camp, or don't. Inviting the spy into your group creates an incredibly obvious security vulnerability. Not inviting the spy doesn't.
The other way to view the problem came from your own experience: if he was watching you, you were watching him. From that perspective, the choice was exactly opposite: you had the choice of being able to monitor the man's activities with a twenty-five to one manpower advantage, or the choice of trying to watch the man in a foreign country.
And you needed that evidence, if you really wanted to make sure that the Regent was sunk beyond measure. Any evidence you could steal from him would not only be tainted, but would immediately give him pretext for destroying your entire case. Only the testimony from the Melusine Commonwealth would be both sufficiently damning and unblockable.
Damn.
[] "We gratefully accept."
[] "We must respectfully decline."
Random Member
Gardener of Human Happiness
- Location
- Behind You
[X] "We gratefully accept."
- Location
- USA
[x] "We must respectfully decline."
- Location
- Belgium
[X] "We gratefully accept."
By my reckoning, Thevenet is seemingly completely corrupt, but likely a long-time figurehead for some other faction. They seem to oppose the current invasion of Oskaria though, so meh let's see how much damage a few words at the wrong time to the wrong ears can do to us...
[x] "We gratefully accept."
[x] "We gratefully accept."