Loot
Cost: 10 Budget.
"What a haul you've had me pick up, Agueda," Tekla boisterously laughed. "Took me the better part of a month to get this thing cracked open, but hoo boy were the little sneaks clever. Anti-magic wards on the outer layer to keep us from cracking the inner layer of wards to keep us from cracking the lock inside, which, by the way, was incredibly sophisticated - I think there's maybe one person in the kingdom, no, all of Vinimrond who could manage such precision in the furnace!" he gleefully said, wiggling his fingers out. Ophelia looked on, duly impressed - you simply nodded along, and said nothing about what you suspected was the real origin of all this wealth. Kerrie and Cormag looked at each other with the long patience of being Tekla's minders, and you agreed with them.
"On with it," Kerrie imperiously said, and you knew that it was only inside the comfort of your company that she could be so carefree.
The chest swung open, and you saw riches.
A small bag of gold and shiny silvery - no, aluminum coinage presented itself before you, the cover for the wealth inside. You nearly audibly hear Ophelia's excitement to see the rest, and by instinct and the feel of the ground you know that Cormag and Kerrie are tapping their feet and leaning in.
+25 Budget.
Ophelia audibly gasps at the uncovered treasures. Kerrie starts chuckling to herself, no doubt imagining herself wearing the vestments, while Cormag seems to sag his shoulders slightly as he smirks.
You and Tekla take a sharp step back, faces hardened in shocked and anxious resolution. Ophelia still hasn't realized, her own senses not quite so keen yet, but Kerrie and Cormag pick up on the shift in mood. Tekla turns to look at you, and you nod back. You'll take the lead on this one.
It's not the stacks of beautiful, enchanted abacuses that draw your eye, nor the enchanted garments, nor even the globe of clear glass with gold filaments and a diamond viewport in the center that must have cost the fortune of nations to produce.
It is the plain, unassuming card in the center, blue and gold stripes on a white background, with a golden hollow ring at the end where a black band of an unbelievably fine weave, frayed from what must have been centuries of neglect, forms a necklace. You have only seen something like it once, and only in an illustration of the ancient manual you had found.
It is the key to a Calamity Frame.
And you deftly take it out and breezily say that whoever left this chest must've been more sentimental than you thought, to leave such an old wind charm among their other treasures. Tekla jumps on to your lie, just a little too quickly, but as you carefully eye Ophelia you see that she easily swallows it regardless. Kerrie and Cormag seem a little more dubious, but decide to trust your instincts - and besides, there is so much other valuables here that a white lie like your own is to be ignored. There is too much in treasure for the incident to be remembered afterwards, and the joy of toying around with the crystal ball that could seemingly find anything in the town soon outshines the memory of the wind charm.
But you do not forget who had pointed you to the hill, and who had wanted you to find this.
Gained: Interlocked Abacus Array, Enchanted Vestments, The Eye Approaching Divinity.
Interlocked Abacus Array: Grants +2 Stewardship when working with large numbers of great numeric operations, such as processing financial documents or organizing business expansions.
Enchanted Vestments: +2 Diplomacy up to a Base Stat of 25.
The Eye Approaching Divinity: Grants Piety/10 + 2 Stewardship to your base Stewardship in any Stewardship Action.
Gained: Calamity Frame Key.
Martial
Self-Defense
DC: 15. Base Stat: 18 + 2 + 3.1 + 1.5 = 24.6
Fortunately for you, the Sarkozy family has limited itself to complaints, as you undoubtedly understand that they're looking for lawyers to press damages against you and the King by extension.
Kerrie smiling on the roof with a glowing sword strapped to her back may have had something to do with it, you idly note.
Diplomacy
What's Good For Business
DC: 25. Base Stat: 20 + 3 + 1 + 1.3 = 25.3
Ophelia Action.
Intrigue
Convincing Nobles
DC: 24. Base Stat: 22 + 2 + 9.1 = 31.1
You begin your work of isolating the Sarkozy family by working with your servant network to spread distrust about the Sarkozy Family, or arranging clandestine meetings for Kerrie to show up and hand them cash in order to speak ill of the Sarkozy House.
Meanwhile, you and Ophelia begin the actual scheme - creating a business whose sole purpose was primarily to absorb bad debt and redeem them for great value.
You take first your stock options in many of the cooperatives that you had helped create in the middle of the market crash all those months ago, and you repackage them under a company in your own name - and advertise it as such, making sure to pay off the servants to tell their masters that yes, it would be a good investment. Lastly, you offer to allow stocks to be paid in debts - and the quicker nobles catch on, but the slower ones have to be told about how much the stock prices have been rising.
Debts are then exchanged for stocks, as the set of stocks you set aside to own entirely for yourself rise in incredible value too. You continue to hype up the conversation, insinuating out loud and speaking fully in private that you hoped that they would buy stocks with their debts that they could not collect in order to gain some value out of the whole thing - and hand them some coin to get them to see things your way.
The stock price climbs. You track who owns what, as the overeager nobles hear the sounds of their friends profiting greatly off the purchases of these stocks - never mind the fact that you had paid them to make it happen, and never mind the fact that you had paid them to advertise it. The stock price climbs, and larger debts are exchanged for smaller amounts of shares, until you've sucked away a huge chunk of the paper debts into the stocks. Ophelia helps you every step of the way, a pretty face and the promise of Oskaria backing her to accomplish things that you realized you alone could not accomplish - even as at night you explain how the whole scheme works over and over again to her, who remains confused about how the nobility could be so vapid as to fall for the scheme.
But your honeyed words and bribed servants does the work for you - and you reach a point where you can begin the real scheme, with the accounts of the nobles and the debts all laid out before you.
You begin your stock buyback program, offering to forgive accumulated debts in exchange for shares back - and you start with the highest ratio of held debt to shares held so that you could drive the share price even higher, and entice nobles to buy out more of the stock price, already brushing up against the outer bounds of the Aurora. Slowly, piecemeal, you acquire more debts through sales of shares and acquire more shares through the cancellation of held debts, and whatever ones remain you continue to hold as part of the holding company, because after all, you were an extremely trustworthy citizen of Oskaria, deputized by the King himself to conduct his business.
By the end, your company continues to retain a sustainable amount of debt, while also holding a wildly disproportionate share price for its nominal business, but that's alright.
Royal Antiguan Holdings Company established! Total valuation of the company: 3.5 Cash Flow. Will generate 0.2 Cash Flow every year for another ten years as part of debt refinancing.
Learning
Compass Tinkering
DC: 17. Base Stat: 21 + 1.7 = 22.7
By the end of the month, Tekla has taken your second-hand divination compass and turned it into a fairly impressive working array, although it had to be carried in a suitcase rather than a pocket now.
Unfortunately, for all his work it could not equal the Eye Approaching Divinity - and when you had that, well, this divination compass does not appear quite so impressive, huh.
Secondhand Divination Compass upgraded fully to Tekla's Custom Diviner's Equipment: Grants +2 Stewardship up to a maximum of 26 Stewardship.
Stewardship
Document Analysis
DC: 15. Base Stat: 23 + 1 + 3.6 = 27.6
With your time properly dedicated to sorting through the pile of documents, you painstakingly reconstruct the state of the Sarkozy House's finances - as well as your comparisons to the meeting minutes that the Sarkozy House's servants reported, the notes of these clandestine meetings for debt negotiations carefully established.
As that smug bastard Thevenet had pointed out, the Sarkozy Family had lied about the state of its own finances when it made those loans to the other houses, and kept records of their untrustworthiness. This meant that those other houses, especially the ones who had come to harm about it, had a cause for war against the Sarkozy family, at least as much for the amount against them. Such a sum was substantial, possibly enough to make a serious impact in the country's finances - which gave you an opportunity to cut a deal with the Sarkozy Family first.
Piety
The Local Spirits Again
DC: 24. Base Stat: 23 + 2 + 3.2 = 28.2
This month, you decide to do the rituals yourself, and leave Ophelia to try and understand what you just got the nobles to agree to by pouring their debts into a stockholding company. It goes...somewhat okay - you're a little ashamed to admit that it appears your lackluster performance last month wasn't just a one-off thing but rather an ongoing mistake, which the spirits don't let you forget - even as they bless you again with some minor assistance.
+1 Diplomacy, +1 Stewardship for the next month.
Diplomacy
Ear to the Ground
DC: 25. Base Stat: 20 + 1 + 5.8 = 26.8
Random Event Roll: 65
It is the moment of truth. With the Royal Antiguan Holdings Company established and shares duly bought back from the nobility in exchange for debt, the debt that had burdened the nobles for what must've been years creates overnight one of the most nominally valuable companies in all of Vinimrond in exchange for literally decimating the debts of the nobility. With that looming sword thus removed, the nobles begin reinstating feudal dues, and here is the moment you've been awaiting with bated breath.
But the harvest, after the slack harvest last month, has picked up. The nobles do not push hard for the grain, and so the peasants grumble, and mutter darkly, but pay it on time they do - and thus the province begins to get back on its feet, and will pay the taxes on time as due.
Negotiations Expense: 14 Budget.
Salaries and Wages Expense: 5 Budget.
Spiritual Expense: 2 Budget.
Net Loss: 21 Budget.
Gains on held assets: 25 Budget.
Collections of Accounts Receivable: 20 Budget.
Purchase of Available for Sale Securities: 5 Budget.
Unrealized Gain on Available for Sale Securities: 2 Cash Flow
Remaining Budget: 68 Budget.
Accounts Receivable: 25 Budget.
Market Value of Available for Sale Securities: 2 Cash Flow*
*wildly inflated as part of debt forgiveness program
Well, your part in this province's financial recovery is slowly winding down, despite the lingering threat of a Sarkozy lawsuit. So you're surprised somewhat when a messenger from Vivien comes to you, addressed in your official role of royal tax inspector. Apparently, at the end of this year's campaigning and the great victory the King's Pillars (and you note that now it is Pillars, plural) had won, a great feast was being held in the Capital, and all those of note were invited. On that list included many of the nobles in this province, and many besides - and since you were an agent of Vivien's finance ministry, you were invited as well.
And then you see the postscript, written on the borders.
The King's Minister of the Interior has a request for you.
[] Go. (Will cost 1 Month, will answer the request of the Minister of the Interior, ???)
[] Stay. (Will ignore request of the Minister, will continue with month as planned)
