- Location
- France
[X] [Interlude] The Rotting Crown
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
- Location
- Belgium
[X] [Interlude] The Rotting Crown
I am curious to see the king his thoughts and about what sort of task he is talking. Agueda strenghtened royal control with this case, so that should be pleasant for the king.
Gotta admit it's a tough choice though, since the other option also sounds very interesting. Honestly depending on the context this could become a problem for us. This sounds like one of the Count's (or one of his conspirators) family members wanting blood (probably ours). We've got to remember that the Count losing his titles, wealth and position will have a profound impact on his whole family. I remember a saying going something along the lines of "A man is much quicker to forgive you if you kill his father than when you take his inheritance."
Also it's good to see we managed to complete the case within the year (thus getting our shiny). Agueda made the claim and Agueda delivered.
I am curious to see the king his thoughts and about what sort of task he is talking. Agueda strenghtened royal control with this case, so that should be pleasant for the king.
Gotta admit it's a tough choice though, since the other option also sounds very interesting. Honestly depending on the context this could become a problem for us. This sounds like one of the Count's (or one of his conspirators) family members wanting blood (probably ours). We've got to remember that the Count losing his titles, wealth and position will have a profound impact on his whole family. I remember a saying going something along the lines of "A man is much quicker to forgive you if you kill his father than when you take his inheritance."
Also it's good to see we managed to complete the case within the year (thus getting our shiny). Agueda made the claim and Agueda delivered.
- Location
- USA
[x] [Interlude] Sheathed Blade, Sheathed Spite
[X] [Interlude] Sheathed Blade, Sheathed Spite
Because I'm curious about this one.
Because I'm curious about this one.
Interlude: The Rotting Crown
- Location
- Somewhere over the rainbow
King Julius the Bold, hero of the Third Wyvern War, is dying.
He knows this, the same way he eventually learns everything: through long, bitter failure.
It had started with an inexplicable tiredness that his viziers had suggested was merely a part of growing gray hair, of showing the seasons. It had progressed, over the years, to a persistent cough, that never went away. One night he woke up to find bruises he couldn't explain, and since then it had been a recurring condition. Recently, his coughs have begun to be flecked with blood - and yet, the viziers he relies on but cannot trust tell him that surely this tonic will work.
None of them have.
And yet here he is, swilling the vile things that his viziers hand him because he knows but cannot be certain that this tonic will be a failure like all them before it.
The sun is bright outside his window today. The chill air fills the room, and for once and all the times afterwards he hates it. He hates how enticing it is, how he once strode out there into the air to adulation of the crowds as the conquering hero - but those times are past him. His braveness, his boldness, the one quality he had been chosen as king for, made obsolete by the force of his own arms.
Of course, he's realized since that that wasn't what he had been elected for.
Damn his foolish, wasted early years. Unable to comprehend the lightning quick legislation that the nobles were telling him were good for the country, not before they got his stamp of approval, blindly trusting that the comrades he counted on for the grand campaigns would have his own interests when they reach the Sejm, foolishly believing that virtue and training would be enough.
He felt a sense of embarassment, raging and isolating the tenuous allies he had then. It wouldn't be able to bring them back, but he convinced himself that it was merely a sign of growth, of being learning through beatings and difficulty.
Ah, but that he was young and a warrior again! When he was leading the cavalry, hearing the deafening roars of the artillery, the sound and the fury of the musketeers, and at last, the glorious charge against the wyverns from which the Oskarian cavalry gained its wings!
But those days were in the past, the cannons slowly cut down and the musketeers drawn down with the depletion of the royal treasury - the nobility cited the lack of need for such a structure, when they presented it to him, and promised that as the king's retainers they would help maintain the cavalry for which Oskaria was so renowed.
He coughed again.
Damn. This imbalance of humors was doing him no favors. He wiped the blood off of his hands with a handkerchief stained black to hide the bloodstains.
His hands were trembling, and his gut roiled.
He knew this feeling.
He prayed to the Compact, hoping that anyone, anything would listen.
The answer came back, just as it had the day before and the year before:
There was one great task the Compact had for him and his holdings: a Crusade, against a blasphemer in southeastern Transulinia. One who defied the natural limitations of the world and the Compact through magics most foul. Should he do this, the Compact would support him, his troops, and lend the wind to his back for the one last great act he could perform.
King Julius laughed a wet laugh.
When the Compact put it that way, how could he possibly refuse?
Across the Kingdom, the word is going out: the Royal Army is recruiting, and so are the noble retainers, in a great bidding war for warm bodies. After all, come the campaign season, the army will be marching out at the head of a grand crusade to put down the heretics to the Compact. Money endlessly flows out of the royal treasury, to finance the production of those arms and the soldiers who would be wielding the force of Oskaria's arms.
-5 Cash Flow! Neighbors shift to Gathering Crusade! Military strength will increase!
That meant your job, in the Finance Ministry, was to go bust the big fraud rings, and hopefully earn somewhere close to the amount of money that your work the last year had managed to achieve. You scowled, but this was just the kind of thing you would have to do. Well, you think, time to leap into action.
[] [Case] Grainy Resolution
Ever since the near-disaster you averted during the July and September Days, you've been keeping your eye on whatever the hell has been going on in the eastern provinces. Their grain imports have been shooting up, and their grain payments to the capital have been dropping steadily, while the imports and exports of other goods don't seem to suggest either a mass death or migration. Considering that the army will have to either take an eastern route or southern route, somebody's going to have to figure out what is going on over there.
[] [Case] The Origins of Specie
The second factor is that you're fairly certain that the currency in the western provinces is devaluing. You have no real way to prove it; the currency seems broadly similar, and the weight of a bag of coin doesn't feel any different - but the prices have been steadily increasing on products that come from and move through that region, without output noticeably dropping. Considering how much manufacturing goes on in the nearby regions, it's worth investigating.
[] [Case] Highway Robbery
In the southern provinces, travelers are beginning to report a huge uptick in highway banditry - and so are the taxmen. Something more suspicious than the usual corruption is going on down there, and you need to figure out what.
In exchange for your lightning-quick dismantling and liquidation of the Gorlin Chai Ring, you have obtained 1 Shiny. Here are things you can spend it on:
[] [Shiny] Cold Hard Coin
Money talks, and loudly. Best to start with more.
[] [Shiny] Archbishops' Authorization
Due to your hard work, you've impressed some among the archbishops. With a little bit of cash, you can impress them a little more for an official permit to investigate matters related to the cloth.
[] [Shiny] Unidentified Objects
The liquidation of huge chunks of the conspirators holdings has meant that they've turned over some more esoteric things - and you might be able to snatch some of those. Loot Roll.
[] [Shiny] Wider Remit
It would be great to have a much wider remit to search for incriminating documents among persons of interest, and not just potential culprits.
Upgrades:
[] [Shiny] Well Organized
+1 Stewardship.
[] [Shiny] Well Spoken
+1 Diplomacy
[] [Shiny] Well Trained
+1 Martial
[] [Shiny] Inspired
+1 Learning
[] [Shiny] Unremarkable
+1 Intrigue
[] [Shiny] Faithful
+1 Piety
[] [Shiny] Party Upgrades
Kerrie gains +1 Intrigue, +1 Martial, Cormag gains +1 Piety, +1 Diplomacy, Tekla gains +2 Learning.
[] [Shiny] Null
Save the Shiny for later.
He knows this, the same way he eventually learns everything: through long, bitter failure.
It had started with an inexplicable tiredness that his viziers had suggested was merely a part of growing gray hair, of showing the seasons. It had progressed, over the years, to a persistent cough, that never went away. One night he woke up to find bruises he couldn't explain, and since then it had been a recurring condition. Recently, his coughs have begun to be flecked with blood - and yet, the viziers he relies on but cannot trust tell him that surely this tonic will work.
None of them have.
And yet here he is, swilling the vile things that his viziers hand him because he knows but cannot be certain that this tonic will be a failure like all them before it.
The sun is bright outside his window today. The chill air fills the room, and for once and all the times afterwards he hates it. He hates how enticing it is, how he once strode out there into the air to adulation of the crowds as the conquering hero - but those times are past him. His braveness, his boldness, the one quality he had been chosen as king for, made obsolete by the force of his own arms.
Of course, he's realized since that that wasn't what he had been elected for.
Damn his foolish, wasted early years. Unable to comprehend the lightning quick legislation that the nobles were telling him were good for the country, not before they got his stamp of approval, blindly trusting that the comrades he counted on for the grand campaigns would have his own interests when they reach the Sejm, foolishly believing that virtue and training would be enough.
He felt a sense of embarassment, raging and isolating the tenuous allies he had then. It wouldn't be able to bring them back, but he convinced himself that it was merely a sign of growth, of being learning through beatings and difficulty.
Ah, but that he was young and a warrior again! When he was leading the cavalry, hearing the deafening roars of the artillery, the sound and the fury of the musketeers, and at last, the glorious charge against the wyverns from which the Oskarian cavalry gained its wings!
But those days were in the past, the cannons slowly cut down and the musketeers drawn down with the depletion of the royal treasury - the nobility cited the lack of need for such a structure, when they presented it to him, and promised that as the king's retainers they would help maintain the cavalry for which Oskaria was so renowed.
He coughed again.
Damn. This imbalance of humors was doing him no favors. He wiped the blood off of his hands with a handkerchief stained black to hide the bloodstains.
His hands were trembling, and his gut roiled.
He knew this feeling.
He prayed to the Compact, hoping that anyone, anything would listen.
The answer came back, just as it had the day before and the year before:
There was one great task the Compact had for him and his holdings: a Crusade, against a blasphemer in southeastern Transulinia. One who defied the natural limitations of the world and the Compact through magics most foul. Should he do this, the Compact would support him, his troops, and lend the wind to his back for the one last great act he could perform.
King Julius laughed a wet laugh.
When the Compact put it that way, how could he possibly refuse?
Across the Kingdom, the word is going out: the Royal Army is recruiting, and so are the noble retainers, in a great bidding war for warm bodies. After all, come the campaign season, the army will be marching out at the head of a grand crusade to put down the heretics to the Compact. Money endlessly flows out of the royal treasury, to finance the production of those arms and the soldiers who would be wielding the force of Oskaria's arms.
-5 Cash Flow! Neighbors shift to Gathering Crusade! Military strength will increase!
That meant your job, in the Finance Ministry, was to go bust the big fraud rings, and hopefully earn somewhere close to the amount of money that your work the last year had managed to achieve. You scowled, but this was just the kind of thing you would have to do. Well, you think, time to leap into action.
[] [Case] Grainy Resolution
Ever since the near-disaster you averted during the July and September Days, you've been keeping your eye on whatever the hell has been going on in the eastern provinces. Their grain imports have been shooting up, and their grain payments to the capital have been dropping steadily, while the imports and exports of other goods don't seem to suggest either a mass death or migration. Considering that the army will have to either take an eastern route or southern route, somebody's going to have to figure out what is going on over there.
[] [Case] The Origins of Specie
The second factor is that you're fairly certain that the currency in the western provinces is devaluing. You have no real way to prove it; the currency seems broadly similar, and the weight of a bag of coin doesn't feel any different - but the prices have been steadily increasing on products that come from and move through that region, without output noticeably dropping. Considering how much manufacturing goes on in the nearby regions, it's worth investigating.
[] [Case] Highway Robbery
In the southern provinces, travelers are beginning to report a huge uptick in highway banditry - and so are the taxmen. Something more suspicious than the usual corruption is going on down there, and you need to figure out what.
In exchange for your lightning-quick dismantling and liquidation of the Gorlin Chai Ring, you have obtained 1 Shiny. Here are things you can spend it on:
[] [Shiny] Cold Hard Coin
Money talks, and loudly. Best to start with more.
[] [Shiny] Archbishops' Authorization
Due to your hard work, you've impressed some among the archbishops. With a little bit of cash, you can impress them a little more for an official permit to investigate matters related to the cloth.
[] [Shiny] Unidentified Objects
The liquidation of huge chunks of the conspirators holdings has meant that they've turned over some more esoteric things - and you might be able to snatch some of those. Loot Roll.
[] [Shiny] Wider Remit
It would be great to have a much wider remit to search for incriminating documents among persons of interest, and not just potential culprits.
Upgrades:
[] [Shiny] Well Organized
+1 Stewardship.
[] [Shiny] Well Spoken
+1 Diplomacy
[] [Shiny] Well Trained
+1 Martial
[] [Shiny] Inspired
+1 Learning
[] [Shiny] Unremarkable
+1 Intrigue
[] [Shiny] Faithful
+1 Piety
[] [Shiny] Party Upgrades
Kerrie gains +1 Intrigue, +1 Martial, Cormag gains +1 Piety, +1 Diplomacy, Tekla gains +2 Learning.
[] [Shiny] Null
Save the Shiny for later.
- Location
- Southampton, Great Britain
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] [Case] Grainy Resolution
[X] [Shiny] Party Upgrades
[X] [Shiny] Null
Grainy Resolution because we have already begun looking into it or at least similar matter while Party Upgrades because I feel benefits of stat-boosting our companions is more beneficial to us than directly improving our PC.
@huhYeahGoodPoint Is possible to recruit another companion with our Shiny or is that just not an option?
Edit: Added Null as an approval vote due to liking the idea of saving up for a tier-two or higher trait.
[X] [Shiny] Party Upgrades
[X] [Shiny] Null
Grainy Resolution because we have already begun looking into it or at least similar matter while Party Upgrades because I feel benefits of stat-boosting our companions is more beneficial to us than directly improving our PC.
@huhYeahGoodPoint Is possible to recruit another companion with our Shiny or is that just not an option?
Edit: Added Null as an approval vote due to liking the idea of saving up for a tier-two or higher trait.
Last edited:
- Location
- France
[X] [Shiny] Party Upgrades
[X] [Case] Grainy Resolution
[X] [Case] Grainy Resolution
- Location
- Somewhere over the rainbow
Your other potential companions have either wandered off (Eduard the Trader) or are busy drawing up armed forces in preparation for the Crusade (Dame Yulianna). They won't be an available option for this Case.
Random Member
Gardener of Human Happiness
- Location
- Behind You
[X] [Case] Grainy Resolution
Hoarders, grain speculators, kulaks!
[X] [Shiny] Party Upgrades
Hoarders, grain speculators, kulaks!
[X] [Shiny] Party Upgrades
- Location
- Somewhere in the area
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
[X] [Case] Grainy Resolution
[X] [Shiny] Party Upgrades
[X] [Shiny] Party Upgrades
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
@huhYeahGoodPoint
If we bank the Shiny, could we later buy one of those really sweet two-Shiny traits from character generation? Because the value of those traits was more than proportionate to the price...
If we bank the Shiny, could we later buy one of those really sweet two-Shiny traits from character generation? Because the value of those traits was more than proportionate to the price...
- Location
- Southampton, Great Britain
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'm going to second wanting to know this. While it didn't occur to me, if banking our shiny now for when we get a second one gets us some of the tier-two traits available to us, I would seriously consider saving our Shiny instead of spending it now.
- Location
- Somewhere over the rainbow
That's pretty much precisely the use-case for banking Shinies, yeah.
- Location
- Attached to a wall
- Pronouns
- She/Her
This made me wish that we bought that tonic from that seedy merchant.
[X] [Case] Grainy Resolution
[X] [Shiny] Archbishops' Authorization
This will take some of the wind out of the sails of the people calling us heretics.
- Location
- Belgium
[X] [Case] Grainy Resolution
[X] [Shiny] Archbishops' Authorization
I wonder if whoever would be the POV from the Sheathed Blade, Sheathed Spite interlude is the culprit (or an accomplice) behind the Highway Robbery problem.
[X] [Shiny] Archbishops' Authorization
I wonder if whoever would be the POV from the Sheathed Blade, Sheathed Spite interlude is the culprit (or an accomplice) behind the Highway Robbery problem.
- Location
- USA
[X] [Case] Grainy Resolution
[X] [Shiny] Null
I'd say save the shiny for next time to see if we can get one of the great Tier 2 options.
[X] [Shiny] Null
I'd say save the shiny for next time to see if we can get one of the great Tier 2 options.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
[X] [Shiny] Null
NeonLights
Formerly Reliable_2IC
- Location
- In shambles
[X] [Shiny] Null
...so uh, Oskaria is in a deficit right now? How long would this deficit last, if Agueda don't miss his mark?
[X] [Case] Grainy Resolution
This is something foreshadowed hard enough- we need to take this, if only because losing grain stock amidst war is worse than currency devaluation. Though that is much like saying being shot in the kidney is worse than being shot in the leg.
- Location
- Somewhere over the rainbow
Realistically, as long as the war lasts, and probably a little after that; loans will likely be needed to finance the war, especially since the Gorlin Chai Ring bust was a surprisingly huge infusion of cash in a very short period of time.
- Location
- Toronto, Canada
[X] [Case] Grainy Resolution
[X] [Shiny] Null
[X] [Shiny] Null