I'm a High Fantasy Tax Collector, So What? A CKII Tax Collector Quest

[Great Greedy Guts]

[X] Plan: The Green Friar Tuck

I think there's a lot of benefit to looking into the bandits, and I just know I'm going to regret not doing that later... so let's do it!

I do think the Party Upgrade would be more worthwhile right now than the item, to help shore up Kerrie's stats, but... not sure if there's time for the vote to swing and I don't want to split it.

 

[Neptune]

[x] Plan: Archbishops Treasonous Party
-[x] [Case] The Web of Treason
-[x] [Shiny] Party Upgrades I
-[x] [Shiny] Archbishops' Authorization

Given we're going to heavily focused on the team itself the party upgrade will pay off wonderfully given it's broad nature, and we've had quite a few sitatuions where the authorization would have been very helpful for our investigations so it's worthwhile getting now. Given we're going to be investigating the power players of the kingdom, that's going to innately involve the Church given the incestuous relationship they have with nobles given it's where the non-inheriting sons wind up.

 

[Sirrocco]

Not voting for this, but this it what I'd prefer if we went with Web of Treason. Party Upgrades makes everything easier, while Archbischops' Authorization gives us more avenues to investigate potential treason.

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I seriously considered that, but when I looked at it deeper, the thing the Archbishop's Authorization does is it lets us investigate the Church - no more, no less. We don't currently have any indication that the church has turned traitor, and attempting to use something like that as leverage can get... awkward. I'm not saying that it would be useless. I don't believe it would necessarily be useless... but comparing that to, say, 1/3rd of a three-pointer next round, I couldn't really justify it.

 

[Themarineguy]

Above all else, you focus on the King's expressions, even as you see out of your other eyes how the ministers shuffle and react to this recording.

The Minister of State speaks up first, high and cold. "You bring before the King gossip and expect anything other than a swift punishment?"

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And the minister completely dismisses the potential our evidence shows.....
At least we did not suggest, with no solid evidence that local nobles might be involved, cause that might have led to it going very badly......

[] [Case] The Web of Treason
You have the words of a geassed servant about how some of the nobility are in talks with foreign nobles about betraying Oskaria. See if you can get your team to dig up some more proof of this across the nation. Agueda will not be available for this Case - he will be migrating the Colonies and conducting his own investigations in the eastern provinces.

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Considering the situation, and the fact there is a very real possibility of some of the kings advisors being in on it means that we need to sort this out before the crusade ends....

 

[Vocalend]

We can ask the matter of urgency right now. @huhYeahGoodPoint, in Agueda's estimation, does the team investigating the bandits counts as a reasonable interpretation of 'finding out evidences' or is it toeing the line of the King's orders, considering the urgency and all?

 

[hYGP]

We can ask the matter of urgency right now. @huhYeahGoodPoint, in Agueda's estimation, does the team investigating the bandits counts as a reasonable interpretation of 'finding out evidences' or is it toeing the line of the King's orders, considering the urgency and all?

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In Agueda's estimation (borrowed from Vivien), the exact wording is "I request in my capacity as King that you investigate this matter further."

He does not include a time frame or appends anything saying it's the absolute highest priority - he wants you to look into it at your own pace and report back to him.

Agueda's simply estimating that the treason's going pretty deep, and the longer he takes the more nobles are going to flip - although Ophelia-Oskaria drawing that bright line might help hold it back a little bit.

 

[Sirrocco]

So... basically, if we ignore the noble situation, it is likely to get significantly worse over time. If we ignore the bandit situation... who knows? It probably won't get better, but it doesn't have the automatic built-in snowball effect.

 

[Sentient Tree]

So... basically, if we ignore the noble situation, it is likely to get significantly worse over time. If we ignore the bandit situation... who knows? It probably won't get better, but it doesn't have the automatic built-in snowball effect.

Click to shrink...

So the question then is whether having Agueda's stats with us is worth DCs being higher and more nobles already being traitors.

 

[Oshha]

In light of the QM's post on how bad Agueda thinks the noble situation is, I am switching my vote to deal with the treason sooner rather than latter.

[X] Plan: Goal-focused

 

[Mortenkam]

[x] Plan: Goal-focused

 

[Sentient Tree]

[x] Plan: Goal-focused

As someone who also plays Marked for Death, I find all this trying to prevent treason to be rather ironic.

 

[Sirrocco]

So the question then is whether having Agueda's stats with us is worth DCs being higher and more nobles already being traitors.

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I'd say no. Among other things, "nobles who are not traitors" is the kind of resource that our country is going to need once the neighbors come knocking... and there's always the possibility that if we wait on the end of the Crusade, we might not have time to deal with the noble situation fully before the war kicks off.

Also, the longer they're traitors, the more strategic advantages the neighbors can potentially glean from them. Just catching them all at the end isn't going to claw all of that back.

 

[Byzantine]

[X] Plan: Goal-focused

 

[Vocalend]

The biggest concern here, I feel, is that doing this basically might well locks us to the Finale. Both sides need their prepworks. And Ophelia still needs to mature out a tad- both in channeling Oskaria and in being more than an young lass in a worldstate like this. Sure, the nobles will get stronger- but we also did the OO Reveal. We just entrenched an event to stop some of the nobles from being traitorous, after all. If the Highway Robbery Case gets successful, we will either end a small peasant's uprising/commoner insurrections or fold them as a hidden factor to help us in the Finale as well as making Ophelia mature more and piece Oskaria together before the showdown.

 

[Random Member]

If we ignore the bandit situation... who knows? It probably won't get better, but it doesn't have the automatic built-in snowball effect.

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*6 months later*
The bandits:

 

[Oshha]

The biggest concern here, I feel, is that doing this basically might well locks us to the Finale.

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Okay, if you want statements like this to have any merit to them, can you show where your evidence for the treason case being the finale of the quest? Because I don't see it and it makes no sense for the quest to becoming to an end when it has begun to hit its stride.

Unless you got something to be back it up, I cannot take any of this 'finale' talk seriously.

 

[hYGP]

In a real sense, it's true - this quest is very much not equipped to well handle what happens when royal authority collapses due to the death of an sickly king and an ineffectual (some might even say sabotaged) tradition of selecting new rulers as the neighbors circle around and think "how much land can I seize for myself?"

I wonder, though. The choice thus far has been defined between choosing between the Bandit problem to the southwest, and the Web of Treason all around the country - choosing to focus on the sociopolitical problems of "treason" and "banditry" over the literally upstream economic problem of rapidly spiking lumber prices, one that's been underway since almost the July Days. As lumber prices continue to increase, so too does all the products of lumber, including ships, machining, charcoal, which directly feeds into iron and steel manufacturing.

Agueda's fairly worried about this problem - it's thus far shown up twice as a problem, with the understanding that hopefully the situation will stabilize. If it doesn't, however - well. That would be...mm, halting economic crash as iron and steel cannot be produced for lack of fuel sounds about right.

 

[Whenyouseeyou]

Imagine we became king that would be something

 

[Oshha]

That would be...mm, halting economic crash as iron and steel cannot be produced for lack of fuel sounds about right.

Click to shrink...

Would this be limited to Oskaria or would it impact on our neighbours as well?

 

[hYGP]

Would this be limited to Oskaria or would it impact on our neighbours as well?

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Well, it'd certainly make your economy a lot more dependent on foreign fuel imports to try and keep the industries running, that's for sure. Beyond that, fuel demand goes up and Oskarian manufactured good exports goes down, which would (in the foreign nobility's eyes) strengthen their own economies while also making yours terminally weaker.

 

[veekie]

Would this be limited to Oskaria or would it impact on our neighbours as well?

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This sort of thing usually hits one country first, and then the neighbors feel it lighter a while later, unless they got a modern trade network, feedback is slow

 

[WallFlower]

In a real sense, it's true - this quest is very much not equipped to well handle what happens when royal authority collapses due to the death of an sickly king and an ineffectual (some might even say sabotaged) tradition of selecting new rulers as the neighbors circle around and think "how much land can I seize for myself?"

I wonder, though. The choice thus far has been defined between choosing between the Bandit problem to the southwest, and the Web of Treason all around the country - choosing to focus on the sociopolitical problems of "treason" and "banditry" over the literally upstream economic problem of rapidly spiking lumber prices, one that's been underway since almost the July Days. As lumber prices continue to increase, so too does all the products of lumber, including ships, machining, charcoal, which directly feeds into iron and steel manufacturing.

Agueda's fairly worried about this problem - it's thus far shown up twice as a problem, with the understanding that hopefully the situation will stabilize. If it doesn't, however - well. That would be...mm, halting economic crash as iron and steel cannot be produced for lack of fuel sounds about right.

Click to shrink...

Potential treason sounds as if it is going to become a problem in a very short period. If it is not though then I would rather wait until next year and have Aguades stewardship to look up all the different documents.

We were doing the origin of species in order to be able to correct for the price increases in the wood industry. I would rather do that if this mess isn't going to explode this year.

[X] Plan Paperwork is made from wood
-[X] [Shiny] Party Upgrades I
-[X] [Shiny] Null
-[X] [Case] Log Jam

 

[Oshha]

In a real sense, it's true - this quest is very much not equipped to well handle what happens when royal authority collapses due to the death of an sickly king and an ineffectual (some might even say sabotaged) tradition of selecting new rulers as the neighbors circle around and think "how much land can I seize for myself?"

Click to shrink...

Switch to backing the Oskaria rump state or a worthy successor to Oskaria as Agueda and his team try to salvage something worthwhile from the collapse of Oskaria and do their best to help turn whichever faction they back into a better version of Oskaria.

 

[storybookknight]

Potential treason sounds as if it is going to become a problem in a very short period. If it is not though then I would rather wait until next year and have Aguades stewardship to look up all the different documents.

We were doing the origin of species in order to be able to correct for the price increases in the wood industry. I would rather do that if this mess isn't going to explode this year.

[X] Plan Paperwork is made from wood
-[X] [Shiny] Party Upgrades I
-[X] [Shiny] Null
-[X] [Case] Log Jam

Click to shrink...

Sounds reasonable to me.

[X] Plan Paperwork is made from wood
-[X] [Shiny] Party Upgrades I
-[X] [Shiny] Null
-[X] [Case] Log Jam

 

[Sirrocco]

The biggest concern here, I feel, is that doing this basically might well locks us to the Finale. Both sides need their prepworks. And Ophelia still needs to mature out a tad- both in channeling Oskaria and in being more than an young lass in a worldstate like this. Sure, the nobles will get stronger- but we also did the OO Reveal. We just entrenched an event to stop some of the nobles from being traitorous, after all. If the Highway Robbery Case gets successful, we will either end a small peasant's uprising/commoner insurrections or fold them as a hidden factor to help us in the Finale as well as making Ophelia mature more and piece Oskaria together before the showdown.

Click to shrink...

I don't agree. The finale (if there is one) is going to be the invasion, and that's going to happen based on when the Crusade ends. That timeline isn't something we can delay by running around doing side-quests. If we don't put in the effort to catch the nobles in time... then the nobles don't get caught.

In a real sense, it's true - this quest is very much not equipped to well handle what happens when royal authority collapses due to the death of an sickly king and an ineffectual (some might even say sabotaged) tradition of selecting new rulers as the neighbors circle around and think "how much land can I seize for myself?"

I wonder, though. The choice thus far has been defined between choosing between the Bandit problem to the southwest, and the Web of Treason all around the country - choosing to focus on the sociopolitical problems of "treason" and "banditry" over the literally upstream economic problem of rapidly spiking lumber prices, one that's been underway since almost the July Days. As lumber prices continue to increase, so too does all the products of lumber, including ships, machining, charcoal, which directly feeds into iron and steel manufacturing.

Agueda's fairly worried about this problem - it's thus far shown up twice as a problem, with the understanding that hopefully the situation will stabilize. If it doesn't, however - well. That would be...mm, halting economic crash as iron and steel cannot be produced for lack of fuel sounds about right.

Click to shrink...

I would absolutely love to run around playing "tax spider quest" for five or six more cases, slowly acquiring awesome points as we go, and dragging our country out of the utter pit of a starting condition bit by bit via main force... but that's not the world that you've handed us. The world that you've handed us is one in which a climax is coming, basically immediately, the treason of major nobles is a big deal to the immediate survival of the country, and our team is the only one actually in a position to do things about it. As you've said of the lumber crisis, "hopefully the situation will stabilize". The noble situation has no such hope. If we absolutely must choose one (and it seems that we must) then...?

In truth, if there were an option that I thought could delay or prevent the invasion, and thus give us more time to try to resurrect this rotting hulk of a country, I'd absolutely be advocating for it, but there's nothing like that available as an option. Agueda and his team must work with the world they are given, not the world as they might wish it to be.