Dark Lord Potato
Aspiring OverLord from Canada
- Location
- Ottawa, Ontario
[X] Bread for the hungry masses
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
dinomannitro6
all your gender is belong to us
- Location
- The Land Where The Sunflowers Bloom
[X] Plan Accidental Sans-Culotte Leader?
[X] Plan Accidental Sans-Culotte Leader?
Probably decreases stability a bunch in its own right. Stability is a formula of dissatisfaction, desperation, the ability to act legally on dissatisfaction and the ability to act, period, on dissatisfaction after all.
Spirits and adventurers lower the power differential between the nobility and the masses, unlike RL parallels, the nobles with better armor, weapons and training can't be sure they'd win out if people genuinely got upset enough to trigger a mass uprising.
Considering how far up their ass some of the nobles we've seen are, I *think* theres probably been an extended period of peace and prosperity and a population boom prior to recent times? Or they'd have been more careful.
There is a major problem with the current plan to put things off for a month. What actions are we going to take to make it possible next month to advance the case?
We where already warned about this last month, which is why I wanted to pick Mail Search II to build up blackmail on the Sejm:
We would have had a 70% chance of success last turn. Now the both the cost and the DC has gone up:
If we don't take it this turn and succeed at it, then next turn, how in the world are we going to accomplish the diplomacy action, or even advancing the case? The current plan is just hoping the situation will improve if we delay, spending all our actions on mitigating the unprising at the expense of making any progress on the DCs that are probably going to only go up next turn.
Let's face it, we screwed up. And there are only two paths forward that I see now:
[X] Plan Can You Hear The People Sing?
-[X] [Martial] Safety in Numbers
-[X] [Diplomacy] The High Nobility
-[X] [Intrigue+Free] Noble Blackmail
-[X] [Learning] Magical Mapping
-[X] [Stewardship] City Organizer II
-[X] [Piety] Calling All Spirits
Basically... let the city blow up. Diplomacy will almost certainly fail (unless we roll a nat 100), meanwhile we get a 70% probability we get some blackmail on them. The Royal Army does whatever, we pull back our forces to keep ourselves safe, and feed the mob so they don't turn on us, we get the spirits on our side for next turn. Basically we hunker down, prepare some resources for next turn and hope we can pick up the pieces after the explosion.
[] Plan Can You Hear The People Sing?
-[] [Martial] Eyes on the Prize
-[] [Diplomacy] Bread and Peace
-[] [Intrigue] Noble Blackmail
-[] [Learning] Magical Mapping
-[] [Stewardship+Free] Advancing the Case V
-[] [Piety] Calling All Spirits
Pray we roll high, and try to get the case done so we can run away. This gives us a 50/50 chance on Advancing the Case, 40% chance on the Noble Blackmail, and 20% chance we succeed on the Diplomacy action.
Yeah, I going to go for cutting our losses.
We where already warned about this last month, which is why I wanted to pick Mail Search II to build up blackmail on the Sejm:
We would have had a 70% chance of success last turn. Now the both the cost and the DC has gone up:
If we don't take it this turn and succeed at it, then next turn, how in the world are we going to accomplish the diplomacy action, or even advancing the case? The current plan is just hoping the situation will improve if we delay, spending all our actions on mitigating the unprising at the expense of making any progress on the DCs that are probably going to only go up next turn.
Let's face it, we screwed up. And there are only two paths forward that I see now:
[X] Plan Can You Hear The People Sing?
-[X] [Martial] Safety in Numbers
-[X] [Diplomacy] The High Nobility
-[X] [Intrigue+Free] Noble Blackmail
-[X] [Learning] Magical Mapping
-[X] [Stewardship] City Organizer II
-[X] [Piety] Calling All Spirits
Basically... let the city blow up. Diplomacy will almost certainly fail (unless we roll a nat 100), meanwhile we get a 70% probability we get some blackmail on them. The Royal Army does whatever, we pull back our forces to keep ourselves safe, and feed the mob so they don't turn on us, we get the spirits on our side for next turn. Basically we hunker down, prepare some resources for next turn and hope we can pick up the pieces after the explosion.
[] Plan Can You Hear The People Sing?
-[] [Martial] Eyes on the Prize
-[] [Diplomacy] Bread and Peace
-[] [Intrigue] Noble Blackmail
-[] [Learning] Magical Mapping
-[] [Stewardship+Free] Advancing the Case V
-[] [Piety] Calling All Spirits
Pray we roll high, and try to get the case done so we can run away. This gives us a 50/50 chance on Advancing the Case, 40% chance on the Noble Blackmail, and 20% chance we succeed on the Diplomacy action.
Yeah, I going to go for cutting our losses.
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- Location
- USA
[x] Plan Can You Hear The People Sing?
BREWING SUSPICION MONTH 9 ROLL CALL
- Location
- Somewhere over the rainbow
Vote Closed. Plan Accidental Sans-Culotte Leader? wins 10-2-2-1.
Roll me 8d100.
Martial: Eyes on the Prize: DC: 15. Base Stat: 16. Cost: 0 Budget.
Diplomacy: Bread and Peace: DC: 25. Base Stat: 17. Cost: 15 Budget.
Intrigue: Making a Point: DC: 20. Base Stat: 18 + 2. Cost: 0 Budget.
Learning: Magical Mapping: DC: Scaling. Base Stat: 20.
Stewardship: Slowing the Case: DC: 20. Base Stat: 22. Cost: 0 Budget.
Stewardship: City Organizer: DC: 25. Base Stat: 22. Cost: 10 Budget.
Calling All Spirits: DC: 22. Base Stat: 20 + 2. Cost: 2 Budget.
Roll me 8d100.
Martial: Eyes on the Prize: DC: 15. Base Stat: 16. Cost: 0 Budget.
Diplomacy: Bread and Peace: DC: 25. Base Stat: 17. Cost: 15 Budget.
Intrigue: Making a Point: DC: 20. Base Stat: 18 + 2. Cost: 0 Budget.
Learning: Magical Mapping: DC: Scaling. Base Stat: 20.
Stewardship: Slowing the Case: DC: 20. Base Stat: 22. Cost: 0 Budget.
Stewardship: City Organizer: DC: 25. Base Stat: 22. Cost: 10 Budget.
Calling All Spirits: DC: 22. Base Stat: 20 + 2. Cost: 2 Budget.
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Solarstream
It's all in the cards
- Location
- Zombie World
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Here we go...
- Location
- USA
I can't talk the talk. And I don't think my sacrifices were up to par this time.
Edit: The dice gods have spoken!
Edit: The dice gods have spoken!
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NeonLights
Formerly Reliable_2IC
- Location
- In shambles
Do you believe in magic?
- Location
- USA
I'm gonna steal an extra, lol
Edit: My work here is done. Time to see if we crit fail the RER!
Edit 2: No one should be afraid of the next roll That's an auto pass. The roll after is RER though
Edit: My work here is done. Time to see if we crit fail the RER!
Edit 2: No one should be afraid of the next roll That's an auto pass. The roll after is RER though
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Ill roll too!
So basically everything passed. Time to see what the random event roll is.
- Location
- Pittsburgh PA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Totally random
Should be nothing happens or at least nothing bad.
Should be nothing happens or at least nothing bad.
- Location
- USA
The best RER. The average roll of nothing unexpected happening!
You kid, but given the craziness that has been happening lately the general public really could use some calmness.
CANON OMAKE: Mercenary Musings
Mercenary Musings
The day is clear, with the sun shining clear and bright on a fine Autumn day.
Except, of course, it's not a fine Autumn day- not now. Not in the volatile and dangerous September Days such as these.
But the two men looking out to the city cast in the glare of a sun that may scorch it alight are not regular men.
"So, Patsy- did you ever think it would come to this?" One is a man with salt and pepper beard grown almost haphazardly on his face.
A low growl answered him. "Once more, Yakob, it is Patxi." Another... isn't quite a man at all. Grey matted fur cover his lupine form in full, as half-irritated blue eyes peer on the man. "And no- we did not."
The Captain of the Ainsworth Company smiled grimly. "Do you think our employer would get us through?"
The Yaga of the Yarognev looks at Yakob oddly. "You do not have faith?"
"On something like him? Hardly. He's an employer- a damn good one at his job- but he's The Assessor for a reason. We're not Adventurers, wolfman." A note of envy shines through.
"No, we are mercenaries." A matter-of-fact nod accompanies that. "Quantity is more than quality, at least in this."
"Hmph." Undeniable- The Ainsworth is a premier band for a reason in Gorlin- Their weaponry are eclectic but always high in quality. Even now in Royal Village, their stash of weaponry are within reach- bribed officials look the other way for the stashes of armours within reach of the Company... and the arms in closer, more hidden, reach.
"Wolf got your tongue?" A twinkle of amusement is clear on the Yaga's eyes.
"Oh shut it. Still, who do you think are going in the Capital?"
"Good question." He looks appraisingly at the... not old, but definitely veteran soldier. "You have prestige and flexibility in spades while me and the lads are well- you know."
"Not everyone in your motley crew are Yagas."
"No, but there's enough." Undeniable yet again- The Yagas aren't necessarily stronger than humans- but they are more agile- with fangs sharp and claws, concealed behind padded gloves here in the Royal Village, sharper still. Their howls too, can pierce through the din of chaos, and when modulated in certain ways gives way known to a simple communication cipher known only to the Yarognev Group.
Power versus versatility. Either will be useful in a city in chaos. But only one can come.
"Hmph. Then we best prepare either way."
To that, there's no dissent- as the two look at the vistas of the city in the distance.
The day is clear, with the sun shining clear and bright on a fine Autumn day.
Except, of course, it's not a fine Autumn day- not now. Not in the volatile and dangerous September Days such as these.
But the two men looking out to the city cast in the glare of a sun that may scorch it alight are not regular men.
"So, Patsy- did you ever think it would come to this?" One is a man with salt and pepper beard grown almost haphazardly on his face.
A low growl answered him. "Once more, Yakob, it is Patxi." Another... isn't quite a man at all. Grey matted fur cover his lupine form in full, as half-irritated blue eyes peer on the man. "And no- we did not."
The Captain of the Ainsworth Company smiled grimly. "Do you think our employer would get us through?"
The Yaga of the Yarognev looks at Yakob oddly. "You do not have faith?"
"On something like him? Hardly. He's an employer- a damn good one at his job- but he's The Assessor for a reason. We're not Adventurers, wolfman." A note of envy shines through.
"No, we are mercenaries." A matter-of-fact nod accompanies that. "Quantity is more than quality, at least in this."
"Hmph." Undeniable- The Ainsworth is a premier band for a reason in Gorlin- Their weaponry are eclectic but always high in quality. Even now in Royal Village, their stash of weaponry are within reach- bribed officials look the other way for the stashes of armours within reach of the Company... and the arms in closer, more hidden, reach.
"Wolf got your tongue?" A twinkle of amusement is clear on the Yaga's eyes.
"Oh shut it. Still, who do you think are going in the Capital?"
"Good question." He looks appraisingly at the... not old, but definitely veteran soldier. "You have prestige and flexibility in spades while me and the lads are well- you know."
"Not everyone in your motley crew are Yagas."
"No, but there's enough." Undeniable yet again- The Yagas aren't necessarily stronger than humans- but they are more agile- with fangs sharp and claws, concealed behind padded gloves here in the Royal Village, sharper still. Their howls too, can pierce through the din of chaos, and when modulated in certain ways gives way known to a simple communication cipher known only to the Yarognev Group.
Power versus versatility. Either will be useful in a city in chaos. But only one can come.
"Hmph. Then we best prepare either way."
To that, there's no dissent- as the two look at the vistas of the city in the distance.
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- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Plan Accidental Sans-Culotte Leader?
Random Member
Gardener of Human Happiness
- Location
- Behind You
Okay, so if I understand these rolls correctly we managed to feed and organize our mob, convinced the military to not just stand down but side with said mob, and got the spirits to bless our revolutionary struggle. 
Yes! Now all we need to do next turn is our actual job! Remember when we where just trying to arrest someone instead of keeping the capital from exploding?Okay, so if I understand these rolls correctly we managed to feed and organize our mob, convinced the military to not just stand down but side with said mob, and got the spirits to bless our revolutionary struggle.
- Location
- USA
Vote closed already and we did the rolls. That plan won
CASE: BREWING SUSPICION MONTH 9
- Location
- Somewhere over the rainbow
Martial:
Eyes on the Prize:
DC: 15. Roll: 16 + 1 + 2 + 2.3 = 20.3
You sigh. Considering the situation, the choice was obvious. Leave the Ainsworth's mostly human company to stay with the humanoid nobility, call back the Yarognev's largely Yaga-based company because that had less consequences in the city. It might inflame tensions with the Royal Army, but ultimately you weren't going to try and convince them with kind words, so it didn't really matter.
"That's a really long-winded way to say you want someone to scritch your back," Patxi said, eyebrow raised.
Well yes, that was an added benefit, and more importantly, that wasn't a sign to stop!
Patxi laughed.
"For someone of your reputation, and, uh, you," he said, gesturing to your legs, "you're surprisingly...hm, what's the best word for it...similar to us," he laughed.
It's okay, they can admit that bipedalism was a mistake.
"Actually, that reminds me: how the hell do you hold anything? It's not like you have, well, fingers or anything..."
Magic, you deadpan.
Patxi huffs a laugh.
Fortunately, that's the extent of the threat you face during October.
Diplomacy:
Bread and Peace:
DC: 25. Roll: 17 + 9.3 = 26.3
Stewardship:
City Organizer II:
DC: 25. Roll: 22 + 7.9 = 31.9
The City Must Be Fed
Your highest priority, above all, is to ensure that the city is fed. Feed the city, the rioters go home with a full stomach and don't come out the next day. Starve the city, and violent revolt is not a possibility but an inevitability.
So that means you need to attack the problem from every angle you can get your hands on.
Your second priority, then, is to ensure that this doesn't end up with the Dukes in the city deciding you were the cause of the rabble; best to get ahead of that by coopting them and their works, along with judicious use of a King's seal to make it clear that you had at least some authority to do everything you were doing. Probably wasn't going to make some people happy, but with the right shareholders in your pocket you didn't need them to be happy.
You just needed to step a few things up.
First: You needed grain merchants to heavily expand their operations. As in, hire bands of young laborers to head out with them and ferry back as much grain as they could, even if they had to import it from farther away. Ideally, this would cause the laborers to leave the city and reduce pressures on grain here, while also bringing back more grain from afar to prop up the food prices. Fortunately (or not), your reputation was great enough that with one hand you could knock on the door, with another you could drag a bag of coin, and with a third you could hold out your credentials as a a tax inspector to make the merchants pretty much comply with anything you had them do.
Second: You needed the grain speculators to open up their doors. This step was even easier - as a tax inspector, you were nearly completely certain that all of them had at some point committed tax fraud, so all you had to do was show up with the Yarognev Company besides you with a warrant up and most of them were plenty willing to listen to what you had to say, especially since your offer was "let me buy grain at these prices and I will record you as having paid your back taxes, or I will have you hauled before the court and the streets for tax evasion, do you understand?"
Third: You needed to start actually getting grain into the mouths of the hungry or at least in the hands of the mob. To that end you started just throwing around lots of money to give to the mob so that they could afford to pay for the bread, as well as hooking back into the old networks that you allowed to somewhat run themselves in order to more efficiently coordinate information about who had what bread at what time and how to make sure that everyone was at least going to be able to survive.
Fourth: You needed to be conspicuously showing the King's authority, so that the King would at least be forced to take a stand against you if anyone complained about it. With the right maneuvering, you could also obtain license to help "quell the riots at the source" - which you do, albeit not with force like they envisioned.
So you do.
The paper sprawls across the floor and starts creeping up the walls as you grab, sign, and read papers almost as fast as they're being handed to you, but you make it work. Sheet by sheet, empty load of grain cart by grain cart, and granary by granary, the city is fed.
Absently, you check towards the end of the month why the bread ration for some of the neighborhoods dropped over the last few weeks.
The answer is hesitant, and that confirms the suspicions curdling in your gut.
They starved, and died of sickness.
But the survivors, at least, are fed.
Learning:
Magical Mapping:
DC: Scaling. Roll: 20 + 2 + 9.4 = 31.4
Piety:
Calling All Spirits:
DC: 22. Roll: 20 + 2 + 4.0 = 26.0
Which is why the next thing you do as part of your efforts is to bring in the spiritual background. Supposedly, this was caused by the spiritual imbalance of the grain causing fast acting rot, or perhaps simply grain-borne pestilent spirits. With the cooperation of the Gnarled Rod and the request of the spirits begging you to do what you did those months before, you manage to get a rough sketch of what happened to the grain in the fields.
Or more precisely, what happened to the grain in the river barges. What appears to have happened was that some damn fool had offended some river spirit or another, and as a result the spirit had cast a minor curse, cursing the grain to rot should the products of the village ever be washed in the river again. This didn't sound like a big issue, except...well, the spirit apparently hadn't been too careful with the curse, and also the town was a minor foresting town.
Cue the use of the lumber in river barges, who were almost guaranteed to get "washed in the river" again by some hapless buyer about three days downstream.
Cue the mass rotting of all the grain in those barges.
With the full approval of the city authorities, you sent Cormag on his own expedition in order to soothe the river spirit or find a different source for lumber or something.
Hopefully, he'd be back within a month.
Hopefully -
Oh, who were you kidding. You'd have to go sort this shit out yourself soon.
Oh well. At least you had a good map of what the city's magical network was supposed to look like, along with a whole host of sweet boons.
+2 Diplomacy, +2 Intrigue, +2 Stewardship party-wide buff for this turn only. +10 Budget.
Intrigue:
Making a Point
DC: 20. Roll: 18 + 2 + 9.9 = 29.9
Effect: Free Incriminating Documents (Nobility)
Meanwhile, you task Kerrie with the job of making sure the Army group outside the city didn't do anything. By slipping into their camp and making their situation clear, you say. You'll retroactively approve just about anything she can get away with, so long as it doesn't descend into murder, or worse, depleting their supply, because then they'd take the grain from the city and that'd set off a whole new firestorm.
Kerrie, who you only have to crane your neck up slightly to see, agrees.
You have no idea what else she's up to for the rest of the month, as she almost never returns to bed - what you do know is that for all the bluster, the Army group stays camped on the outskirts of the city, buying up grain at unaffordably high prices, and occassionally harassing the groups that you send out into the countryside for grain.
Finally, at the end of the month, Kerrie comes in carrying a thin stack of documents to your command center, where you have documents spread out all over the floor. Drily, she comments on you returning to your old habits with the whole web of documents you have laid out.
Hands occupied by other reports, you wave her off and point it to the western point. Automatically, you thank her for her work - and then she doesn't leave, asking if you want to hear about what she did or not.
Fine, you say, setting down the grain stockpile trackers you have written up to check when the last time you sent out the grain groups.
She coughs lightly, and you feel more than see the breeze threatenting to disrupt your carefully arranged documents.
Fine, you say, setting down your documents. What does she have for you?
Blackmail, ethically sourced from the officers trying to counterblackmail the high nobility, she blithely states. Also, stop drooling, it's unbecoming.
Don't care, you say, wiping your mouth. She did incredible work.
Stewardship:
Slowing the Case:
DC: 20. Roll: 22 + 1.4 = 23.4
Busy as you are, you can only quickly summon the legal precedent for nobility delaying a court case under the pressing needs of a present feudal obligation, and as Ser Tekla was the lead plaintiff, he was serving his pressing need of an obligation at this current moment in the city so please hold the grand jury trial for a month.
The Sejm, prone to indecision on the best of days now, quickly agrees.
Random Event Roll: 57
Mercifully, it all...works. The crowds, pushed to the boiling point, simmer down with the arrival of grain, and the army groups, floudering for something to do, quietly slink away when their time is up. The heated September Days fizzles out over the course of October, as the weather chills and fields are harvested more fully.
HOSTILE INTRIGUE INTERRUPT: DC: 20. Roll: 13 + 7.9 = 20.9
Except...in the middle of this, the Count and his conspirators had slipped away! Fortunately, they slipped away towards the end of the month, so they couldn't've gone far, but...
Service Revenue: 10 Budget.
Cost of Services Sold: 6 Budget.
Mercenary Expense: 6 Budget.
Public Relations Expense: 15 Budget.
Administrative Expense: 10 Budget.
Salaries and Wage Expense: 2 Budget.
Lodging Expense: 2 Budget.
Net Loss: 31 Budget.
Remaining Budget: 42 Budget.
You're so close to finally sealing the deal on the trial, you just need to actually see this thing through. You have peace in the city, some amount of blackmail on the nobles...all you need is just that little bit extra!
Just that little bit, and you'll be able to deliver on your boast right on time.
This turn, you may spend up to all of your remaining Budget.
You have one [Free] Action that you may spend on an action in any category.
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 Action (Choose 1) {Kerrie Action}
[] [Martial] Knock Knock
You have two companies of mercenaries, you know the Count's network, and you have yourselves. You're going to get answers about where they went, by force if necessary. DC: 25. Cost: 2 Budget.
[] [Martial] Speed Is King
You only need the mercenary companies' most elite teams and horseback in order to ensure that you can move as swiftly as the conspirators. You'll lose a lot of mercenary strength...but you'll get speed. DC: 20. Cost: 8 Budget.
Diplomacy (Choose 1) {Cormag Action}
[] [Diplomacy] The Noble Faction
Now that things have come down to this point, you can try to remove the roadblocks the noble faction is putting up in their jury trial. DC: 24. Cost: 10 Budget.
[] [Diplomacy] The Royal Faction
You can also work to ensure that there are absolutely no cracks in the royalist faction, in order to make sure that the other efforts don't go to waste for no reason. DC: 20. Cost: 10 Budget.
[] [Diplomacy] The Neutral Faction
By far the most nobility lay in the neutral faction, however, so you can work to sew up their willingness to convict the Count and his conspirators. While it won't be completely unanimous, if you can convince them of it you can get them to leverage the noble faction into giving way. DC: 22. Cost: 10 Budget.
Intrigue (Choose 1) {Agueda Action}
[] [Intrigue] Chasing the Count
With your previous efforts to figure out exactly who the Count's conspirators are, you can roll in hot on his trail. DC: 26. Cost: 8 Budget.
[] [Intrigue] Noble Blackmail
Since Kerrie's got some of this blackmail, it would be a shame to leave it unused - and you still probably need to get some blackmail on the rest. DC: 27. Cost: 4 Budget.
Learning (Choose 1) {Tekla Action}
[] [Learning] Sympathetic Resonance
While Tekla was toying around with some of the things he got as part of the grab bag of things that the nobility had effectively discarded, he suddenly realized that one of them was a magical tool that helped draw sympathetic resonances between items; and since you had things of the Count, you could in theory set up a link between those items and a tracker. DC: 25. Cost: 4 Budget.
Stewardship (Choose 1) {Agueda Action}
[] [Stewardship] Trial in Absentia
Oh well, if the Count and his conspirators doesn't want to speak in his own defense you can make sure to make the trial go ahead anyway in absentia, and then just vote to strip him of all his titles and wealth. DC: 28. Cost: 0 Budget.
[] [Stewardship] A Fair Trial
On the other hand, if you can drag the Count and his conspirators back here in time, well...the Count's escape would practically seal their fate. Requires the capture of the Count. DC: 15. Cost: 0 Budget.
[] [Stewardship] Sales
At this point, you have a huge collection of things you could sell for quite the tidy profit. Do so. DC: 15. Gain: 30 Budget.
Piety (Choose 1) {Agueda Action}
[] [Piety] Spiritual Interrogation
With the right appeasements to the land, the land itself may be able to help point you in the direction of the Count. DC: 24. Cost: 4 Budget.
[] [Piety] Justice, Unerring and Unflagging
Alternatively, you could try praying to Justice again, and see whether Justice might be able to help you track down where in the world the Count went, especially after fleeing the trial. DC: 26. Cost: 0 Budget.
Eyes on the Prize:
DC: 15. Roll: 16 + 1 + 2 + 2.3 = 20.3
You sigh. Considering the situation, the choice was obvious. Leave the Ainsworth's mostly human company to stay with the humanoid nobility, call back the Yarognev's largely Yaga-based company because that had less consequences in the city. It might inflame tensions with the Royal Army, but ultimately you weren't going to try and convince them with kind words, so it didn't really matter.
"That's a really long-winded way to say you want someone to scritch your back," Patxi said, eyebrow raised.
Well yes, that was an added benefit, and more importantly, that wasn't a sign to stop!
Patxi laughed.
"For someone of your reputation, and, uh, you," he said, gesturing to your legs, "you're surprisingly...hm, what's the best word for it...similar to us," he laughed.
It's okay, they can admit that bipedalism was a mistake.
"Actually, that reminds me: how the hell do you hold anything? It's not like you have, well, fingers or anything..."
Magic, you deadpan.
Patxi huffs a laugh.
Fortunately, that's the extent of the threat you face during October.
Diplomacy:
Bread and Peace:
DC: 25. Roll: 17 + 9.3 = 26.3
Stewardship:
City Organizer II:
DC: 25. Roll: 22 + 7.9 = 31.9
The City Must Be Fed
Your highest priority, above all, is to ensure that the city is fed. Feed the city, the rioters go home with a full stomach and don't come out the next day. Starve the city, and violent revolt is not a possibility but an inevitability.
So that means you need to attack the problem from every angle you can get your hands on.
Your second priority, then, is to ensure that this doesn't end up with the Dukes in the city deciding you were the cause of the rabble; best to get ahead of that by coopting them and their works, along with judicious use of a King's seal to make it clear that you had at least some authority to do everything you were doing. Probably wasn't going to make some people happy, but with the right shareholders in your pocket you didn't need them to be happy.
You just needed to step a few things up.
First: You needed grain merchants to heavily expand their operations. As in, hire bands of young laborers to head out with them and ferry back as much grain as they could, even if they had to import it from farther away. Ideally, this would cause the laborers to leave the city and reduce pressures on grain here, while also bringing back more grain from afar to prop up the food prices. Fortunately (or not), your reputation was great enough that with one hand you could knock on the door, with another you could drag a bag of coin, and with a third you could hold out your credentials as a a tax inspector to make the merchants pretty much comply with anything you had them do.
Second: You needed the grain speculators to open up their doors. This step was even easier - as a tax inspector, you were nearly completely certain that all of them had at some point committed tax fraud, so all you had to do was show up with the Yarognev Company besides you with a warrant up and most of them were plenty willing to listen to what you had to say, especially since your offer was "let me buy grain at these prices and I will record you as having paid your back taxes, or I will have you hauled before the court and the streets for tax evasion, do you understand?"
Third: You needed to start actually getting grain into the mouths of the hungry or at least in the hands of the mob. To that end you started just throwing around lots of money to give to the mob so that they could afford to pay for the bread, as well as hooking back into the old networks that you allowed to somewhat run themselves in order to more efficiently coordinate information about who had what bread at what time and how to make sure that everyone was at least going to be able to survive.
Fourth: You needed to be conspicuously showing the King's authority, so that the King would at least be forced to take a stand against you if anyone complained about it. With the right maneuvering, you could also obtain license to help "quell the riots at the source" - which you do, albeit not with force like they envisioned.
So you do.
The paper sprawls across the floor and starts creeping up the walls as you grab, sign, and read papers almost as fast as they're being handed to you, but you make it work. Sheet by sheet, empty load of grain cart by grain cart, and granary by granary, the city is fed.
Absently, you check towards the end of the month why the bread ration for some of the neighborhoods dropped over the last few weeks.
The answer is hesitant, and that confirms the suspicions curdling in your gut.
They starved, and died of sickness.
But the survivors, at least, are fed.
Learning:
Magical Mapping:
DC: Scaling. Roll: 20 + 2 + 9.4 = 31.4
Piety:
Calling All Spirits:
DC: 22. Roll: 20 + 2 + 4.0 = 26.0
Which is why the next thing you do as part of your efforts is to bring in the spiritual background. Supposedly, this was caused by the spiritual imbalance of the grain causing fast acting rot, or perhaps simply grain-borne pestilent spirits. With the cooperation of the Gnarled Rod and the request of the spirits begging you to do what you did those months before, you manage to get a rough sketch of what happened to the grain in the fields.
Or more precisely, what happened to the grain in the river barges. What appears to have happened was that some damn fool had offended some river spirit or another, and as a result the spirit had cast a minor curse, cursing the grain to rot should the products of the village ever be washed in the river again. This didn't sound like a big issue, except...well, the spirit apparently hadn't been too careful with the curse, and also the town was a minor foresting town.
Cue the use of the lumber in river barges, who were almost guaranteed to get "washed in the river" again by some hapless buyer about three days downstream.
Cue the mass rotting of all the grain in those barges.
With the full approval of the city authorities, you sent Cormag on his own expedition in order to soothe the river spirit or find a different source for lumber or something.
Hopefully, he'd be back within a month.
Hopefully -
Oh, who were you kidding. You'd have to go sort this shit out yourself soon.
Oh well. At least you had a good map of what the city's magical network was supposed to look like, along with a whole host of sweet boons.
+2 Diplomacy, +2 Intrigue, +2 Stewardship party-wide buff for this turn only. +10 Budget.
Intrigue:
Making a Point
DC: 20. Roll: 18 + 2 + 9.9 = 29.9
Effect: Free Incriminating Documents (Nobility)
Meanwhile, you task Kerrie with the job of making sure the Army group outside the city didn't do anything. By slipping into their camp and making their situation clear, you say. You'll retroactively approve just about anything she can get away with, so long as it doesn't descend into murder, or worse, depleting their supply, because then they'd take the grain from the city and that'd set off a whole new firestorm.
Kerrie, who you only have to crane your neck up slightly to see, agrees.
You have no idea what else she's up to for the rest of the month, as she almost never returns to bed - what you do know is that for all the bluster, the Army group stays camped on the outskirts of the city, buying up grain at unaffordably high prices, and occassionally harassing the groups that you send out into the countryside for grain.
Finally, at the end of the month, Kerrie comes in carrying a thin stack of documents to your command center, where you have documents spread out all over the floor. Drily, she comments on you returning to your old habits with the whole web of documents you have laid out.
Hands occupied by other reports, you wave her off and point it to the western point. Automatically, you thank her for her work - and then she doesn't leave, asking if you want to hear about what she did or not.
Fine, you say, setting down the grain stockpile trackers you have written up to check when the last time you sent out the grain groups.
She coughs lightly, and you feel more than see the breeze threatenting to disrupt your carefully arranged documents.
Fine, you say, setting down your documents. What does she have for you?
Blackmail, ethically sourced from the officers trying to counterblackmail the high nobility, she blithely states. Also, stop drooling, it's unbecoming.
Don't care, you say, wiping your mouth. She did incredible work.
Stewardship:
Slowing the Case:
DC: 20. Roll: 22 + 1.4 = 23.4
Busy as you are, you can only quickly summon the legal precedent for nobility delaying a court case under the pressing needs of a present feudal obligation, and as Ser Tekla was the lead plaintiff, he was serving his pressing need of an obligation at this current moment in the city so please hold the grand jury trial for a month.
The Sejm, prone to indecision on the best of days now, quickly agrees.
Random Event Roll: 57
Mercifully, it all...works. The crowds, pushed to the boiling point, simmer down with the arrival of grain, and the army groups, floudering for something to do, quietly slink away when their time is up. The heated September Days fizzles out over the course of October, as the weather chills and fields are harvested more fully.
HOSTILE INTRIGUE INTERRUPT: DC: 20. Roll: 13 + 7.9 = 20.9
Except...in the middle of this, the Count and his conspirators had slipped away! Fortunately, they slipped away towards the end of the month, so they couldn't've gone far, but...
Service Revenue: 10 Budget.
Cost of Services Sold: 6 Budget.
Mercenary Expense: 6 Budget.
Public Relations Expense: 15 Budget.
Administrative Expense: 10 Budget.
Salaries and Wage Expense: 2 Budget.
Lodging Expense: 2 Budget.
Net Loss: 31 Budget.
Remaining Budget: 42 Budget.
You're so close to finally sealing the deal on the trial, you just need to actually see this thing through. You have peace in the city, some amount of blackmail on the nobles...all you need is just that little bit extra!
Just that little bit, and you'll be able to deliver on your boast right on time.
This turn, you may spend up to all of your remaining Budget.
You have one [Free] Action that you may spend on an action in any category.
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 Action (Choose 1) {Kerrie Action}
[] [Martial] Knock Knock
You have two companies of mercenaries, you know the Count's network, and you have yourselves. You're going to get answers about where they went, by force if necessary. DC: 25. Cost: 2 Budget.
[] [Martial] Speed Is King
You only need the mercenary companies' most elite teams and horseback in order to ensure that you can move as swiftly as the conspirators. You'll lose a lot of mercenary strength...but you'll get speed. DC: 20. Cost: 8 Budget.
Diplomacy (Choose 1) {Cormag Action}
[] [Diplomacy] The Noble Faction
Now that things have come down to this point, you can try to remove the roadblocks the noble faction is putting up in their jury trial. DC: 24. Cost: 10 Budget.
[] [Diplomacy] The Royal Faction
You can also work to ensure that there are absolutely no cracks in the royalist faction, in order to make sure that the other efforts don't go to waste for no reason. DC: 20. Cost: 10 Budget.
[] [Diplomacy] The Neutral Faction
By far the most nobility lay in the neutral faction, however, so you can work to sew up their willingness to convict the Count and his conspirators. While it won't be completely unanimous, if you can convince them of it you can get them to leverage the noble faction into giving way. DC: 22. Cost: 10 Budget.
Intrigue (Choose 1) {Agueda Action}
[] [Intrigue] Chasing the Count
With your previous efforts to figure out exactly who the Count's conspirators are, you can roll in hot on his trail. DC: 26. Cost: 8 Budget.
[] [Intrigue] Noble Blackmail
Since Kerrie's got some of this blackmail, it would be a shame to leave it unused - and you still probably need to get some blackmail on the rest. DC: 27. Cost: 4 Budget.
Learning (Choose 1) {Tekla Action}
[] [Learning] Sympathetic Resonance
While Tekla was toying around with some of the things he got as part of the grab bag of things that the nobility had effectively discarded, he suddenly realized that one of them was a magical tool that helped draw sympathetic resonances between items; and since you had things of the Count, you could in theory set up a link between those items and a tracker. DC: 25. Cost: 4 Budget.
Stewardship (Choose 1) {Agueda Action}
[] [Stewardship] Trial in Absentia
Oh well, if the Count and his conspirators doesn't want to speak in his own defense you can make sure to make the trial go ahead anyway in absentia, and then just vote to strip him of all his titles and wealth. DC: 28. Cost: 0 Budget.
[] [Stewardship] A Fair Trial
On the other hand, if you can drag the Count and his conspirators back here in time, well...the Count's escape would practically seal their fate. Requires the capture of the Count. DC: 15. Cost: 0 Budget.
[] [Stewardship] Sales
At this point, you have a huge collection of things you could sell for quite the tidy profit. Do so. DC: 15. Gain: 30 Budget.
Piety (Choose 1) {Agueda Action}
[] [Piety] Spiritual Interrogation
With the right appeasements to the land, the land itself may be able to help point you in the direction of the Count. DC: 24. Cost: 4 Budget.
[] [Piety] Justice, Unerring and Unflagging
Alternatively, you could try praying to Justice again, and see whether Justice might be able to help you track down where in the world the Count went, especially after fleeing the trial. DC: 26. Cost: 0 Budget.
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