Martial:
Push For Retreat:
DC: 22. Roll: 16 + 1 + 1 + 0.8 = 18.8
Diplomacy:
Uprooting Society I:
DC: 24. Roll: 17 + 4.8 = 21.8
Stewardship:
Gauge Resistance:
DC: 20. Roll: 23 + 3.9 = 26.9
You wanted to scream.
Actually, maybe if you tried that operatic singer spell you might be able to scream silently.
Because right now, the biggest impediment to getting the potato adopted was that stubborn-ass Countess!
You knew resistance to the potato was, by this point, set. Mobs were actually going around uprooting the crops and putting in grain seed, and depending on what your agents were saying, might be going around to beat up people who tried putting in the potato seed, when they weren't busy getting ready to burn down wherever the people taking money from the Countess were. Definitely you were hearing about the mobs of furious farmers unleashing their pent-up anger at mistreatment on the Countess' agents afield, but despite your entreaties she insisted on sending the patrols out in force to make sure that the peasantry was adopting the potatoes, with a reward if they did. Surely these peasants would be able to rationally select what would be in their best interest - she had made sure to educate them on the properties of the potatoes, and their complete superiority over the other fallow crops being grown.
You tried telling her politely that precisely none of that was actually happening.
Wait, but she was receiving reports of widespread adoption and payouts for that adoption, the Countess asks, confused. Weren't the fields in the countryside adopting the same practices as the farmers near the manor?
It's at this moment that you take a look at whatever possessed this naive fool - and suddenly realize that she was from Alanyiva. Just to check...she didn't happen to bring her staff over, did she? She confirmed your suspicion, and immediately you feel the need to scream again.
Totally different culture, totally different expectations.
You try to explain to her what's going on, to the best of your knowledge. Unlike her, you had decided early on to set up your own network of people that you could mostly trust - which meant, in practice, only the people you could monitor, while Cormag approached the problem from his authority as a member of the church, trying to hear them out and possibly handing out alms to the people in need. You still needed to occasionally show up in people's houses occasionally, but at least you could be mostly confident that your information was accurate - and from what you were hearing, none of what the Countess thought was happening was actually happening.
On the ground level, what was actually happening was that the group of people she had hired to spread the word were busy forcing farmers to unplant their grain crops and then put in potato crops, with none of the rewards for adopting the potato - that was all getting embezzled away, into buying off successively more of their own network. Even those potatoes that was being planted was being pulled from old stores, and if you had Tekla's research notes right of those the vast majority were simply not going to take in the soil - and so what she needed to do right this moment was order a withdrawal and downsizing, let the people cool off, and then start over, this time with actually trustworthy agents.
She politely thanks you for your advice, but naturally if everyone is untrustworthy she can't just take you at your word.
Like you said, you want to scream. You can't even try pushing to implement the strategy - it's far too dangerous to risk literally burning up your fledgling network on such a suicidal maneuver, so you simply pour the funds into making sure you can trust your network - even if you have to recruit children in order to make sure it's done right.
Intrigue:
Hit the Countess' Books:
DC: 27. Roll: 22 + 3 + 2.8 = 27.8
Fortunately, some good comes out of the heated discussions that you have with the Countess. With the majority of the Countess' security staff - sorry, personal waitstaff - waiting on her and watching you, Kerrie manages to slip into the files and come out with her actual documents.
Unfortunately you only had a moment to scan through her mountain of documents before she did her nightly review of those documents, which made things a little tricky.
As far as you could tell though...honestly, you were genuinely impressed at how well she was notating her accounts. She was able to produce internal documentation for outflows to her field agents, outflows to the importers importing her stock of potatoes, outflows to the farmers and maintenance - you were fairly sure she was actually paying people to build and maintain useful infrastructure, which was a definite step up - and then the inflows from the taxes and other investments she had inherited from her late husband. Aside from the fact that she was painfully out of touch and all the data that she was being fed was complete bullshit, she appeared to genuinely be trying to be aboveboard, even making sure to laboriously set aside a set of taxes in order to ensure that there would be no problem from people like you.
Unfortunately, that's all the time you have to scan the stack of documents before you hand them off to Kerrie to sneak back into her office, and even then Kerrie mentions there being a close shave with the Head Maid.
Sheesh. Working against competent people was hard.
Learning:
The Root of the Issue III:
DC: 15. Roll: 20 + 2.0 = 22
Still feeling a little out of sorts from his month spent bedridden, Tekla continues to make progress on his research into the potatoes. After three months of growing the potato, he notices some of them have ripened - so naturally the most important part of the research comes next. He uproots all of the potatoes in his small plot and immediately examines them. Only a small handful have actually ripened - so he cuts those up into tiny pieces. Some pieces are cut according to the Countess's instructions; others are cut up in some pattern that apparently only he can see, and he replants them. However, he leaves most of the field unplanted, because he needs to check the most important question of all: can high-intensity crops like grain be planted after a season of potato growing?
There's only one way to find out, he says, planting the spring wheat.
Piety
Local Politics:
DC: 27. Roll: 23 + 2 + 1.6 = 26.7
You begin testing the waters for making the case that the potatoes have a clear and present need based on the need to feed the incoming army and their horses. While the spirits see your point that it is a huge load for the peasantry to support, they argue that the army could be fed on wheat, as was tradition, if only the Countess would let up on the amount of troops forcing everyone to adopt the potato. You do manage to convince them that should you get good evidence for the potato working, then maybe they'll consider it. As a stopgap.
FRIENDLY INTRIGUE INTERRUPT
Late into the month, the Countess apologizes for not taking you at your word and acting sooner. She had found out through her own sources - you look over at the Head Maid, who is conspicuously looking away - that what you said was broadly correct, so she immediately stopped the payments and recalled the people she was sending out to adopt the potato. For stealing from their lord and failing to live up to their obligations, they will be judged according to the laws of the land, she insists.
You nod, and thank her for actually working with you on this matter.
HOSTILE INTRIGUE INTERRUPT
Unfortunately, in the confusion of the past month the Wahner family appears to have slipped out of their jail cells. Fortunately, they slipped out of their cells late at night, but you're going to need to either press a case against them soon or deal with the situation somehow, because otherwise they might decide to start hitting you the ways that nobility can hit back.
Really not what you need.
Random Event Roll: 91
And then...something miraculous begins happening. Maybe it's some shift high in the Aurora, but whatever it is, the weather is unseasonably good for planting. So unseasonably good, in fact, that the farmers nearest the Countess' manor, where she can actually enforce the potato adoption personally have harvested their first batch of potatoes, and then planted the spring wheat in those fields.
And...the spring wheat takes.
It takes into the soil, and ye spirits in the land and on high, it takes well!
Rumor spreads like wildfire, and while the sentiment has still hardened against it out towards the farther reaches of the territory, the farmers nearest the manor are all clamoring to replant as much of the potatoes as possible, since it's both edible and the Countess is still granting complete tax immunity for the duration of the initial experiment with potatoes.
You have...decidedly mixed feelings.
Administrative Expense: 1 Budget.
Salaries and Wage Expense: 9 Budget.
Spiritual Expense: 2 Budget.
Net Loss: 12 Budget.
Remaining Budget: 74.
With three to five months until the army came through, you were coming down to the wire on the harvest. If the harvest was going to come in on time, you needed to make sure that the planting began now or you wouldn't going to be able to get anywhere.
Add to that the Wahner Family breaking out of jail and undoubtedly planning to get up to things and you had a bigger problem on your hand. At least now the Countess was willing to listen to your counsel, and especially the Countess' Head Maid, who you were mostly certain was doing her own thing that seemed mostly aligned with the Countess' intentions. The Head Maid then went one step further and offered cooperation: they would help cover either Screwing Wahner or Staying Honest, if you couldn't get around to either.
You sigh. Time to get crunching, and fast.
With 74 Budget remaining and needing to start planting crops now, you are free to spend up to 30 Budget this turn.
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 (Choose 1) {Kerrie Action}
[] [Martial] Protection Detail
With the Wahners on the loose, it may be for the best to pull the Countess' agents back to protect your group instead of sending them out afield. DC: 22. Cost: 0 Budget.
[] [Martial] Out Afield
On the other hand, you request to dispatch the agents further afield - with extremely strict rules of engagement because ye gods the last thing you need is more rumors of the Countess' thugs beating up more people - to help make sure the potatoes were in the field. DC: 15. Cost: 0 Budget.
Diplomacy (Choose 1) {Cormag Action}
[] [Diplomacy] Let Them Have Grain II
Okay, time to admit it: the Countess would need to replace her entire network in order to get the mass adoption of the potato, which would come at great expense and also would probably be limited at best. This isn't a retreat, it's just an acknowledgement: the peasants want to plant grain out there, just let them. DC: 25. Cost: 0 Budget.
[] [Diplomacy] Uprooting Society II
On the other hand, these potatoes are so wildly productive that the more of it you can get out there the better off everyone is going to be. With your agents in place helping guide the Countess' new group of hires, this might actually be...well, less impossible. DC: 22. Cost: 4 Budget.
Intrigue (Choose 1) {Agueda Action}
[] [Intrigue] Sloshing An Ocean
On the one hand: the Wahner family's complete inability to keep straight records even within the family makes the case for tax evasion that much harder to prove. On the other hand: since their records are so shit you could probably steal some without anyone the wiser, now that they've been so heavily disrupted. DC: 25. Gain: 6 Budget.
[] [Intrigue] Screw Wahner
Now that they're out of jail - mostly illegally, you might add - you need to keep them from doing anything too annoying to either you or the Countess. DC: 20. Gain: 2 Budget.
[] [Intrigue] Judicial Honesty
Fortunately, for a small province like this there are only a handful of judges - a handful which you can immediately bribe. DC: 15. Cost: 6 Budget.
[] [Intrigue] Staying Honest
You need to watch over the fledgling network that you and the Countess are setting up, and keep them from punishing theft or dishonesty. DC: 15. Cost: 0 Budget.
Learning (Choose 1) {Tekla Action}
[] [Learning] The Root of the Issue IV
Now that Tekla is starting to head into the real trials for the soil health, you're going to need him to continue studying the viability of potatoes as a fallow-season crop. DC: 15. Cost: 0 Budget.
[] [Learning] Magical Mapping
Part of the problem is that the spirits feel threatened by the changeover from the three-field system to one revolving around grain and potatoes - perhaps by assessing their territory and calculating impacts, you might be able to alleviate some of these concerns? DC: 25. Cost: 2 Budget.
Stewardship (Choose 1) {Agueda Action}
[] [Stewardship] Bringing A Case
You no longer have time for "precisely tight legal arguments" - you mostly need the Wahner family to sit down and shut up, and you're willing to bring some charges which may not be completely watertight in order to do it. DC: 25. Cost: 2 Budget.
[] [Stewardship] Organizing Distribution
If you're going to seriously start distributing the potato on a far greater scale, you're going to need to organize them, and you're fairly good at that, if you're willing to tout your own abilities. DC: 25. Cost: 4 Budget.
Piety (Choose 1) {Agueda Action}
[] [Piety] Local Politics II
Well, you have some tenuous evidence that the potato can work as a fallow-land crop, but well, it's still going to take more work. More money, of course, always helps. DC: 26. Cost: 3 Budget.
[] [Piety] A Call For Justice
If you're going to try to get the Wahners prosecuted, you might as well pray to Justice and see what help Justice can send your way. DC: 25. Cost: 0 Budget.
