Powerofmind
In Madness Fallen
- Location
- United States
Ominously high-is-good rolls, with 5/6, that's pretty solid.
Industrialization Quest
- Thread starter Rockeye
- Start date
- Original
Solarstream
It's all in the cards
- Location
- Zombie World
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Watch it fail anyway because we needed a crit
Note that OP called it the "ominous roll" and that OP has been kvetching about a mystery background doom roll for the past month and change. And we just rolled high on a six sided die.
Nah, I'm sure it's totally legit and nothing bad is going to happen.
I mean, 😈 what's the worst !*Is football tackled, violently, mid-sentence*!
Nah, I'm sure it's totally legit and nothing bad is going to happen.
I mean, 😈 what's the worst !*Is football tackled, violently, mid-sentence*!
Kanata.EXE
Programmer
- Location
- Indonesia
*Cock shotgun*
Well, the most obvious issue would be how people respond to our blatant audit. I hope that was the 5 out of 6 we rolled, as that means that other than a little grumbling people will be okay with us afterwards.
Rockeye
Plausible Engineer
- Location
- Midwestern U.S.
The personal action On The Nature of Crafts is kind of kicking my butt. Maybe it's that the character of Bertram isn't coming together very well? I don't want to just rob you of an action or make something sub-par so I might just cancel it and give out a free action next turn. This is the kind of thing you have to deal with with my sorry butt as QM.
Kanata.EXE
Programmer
- Location
- Indonesia
... Why don't you just tell us instead of show us?
Instead of describing something in character (ie showing us the results) describe it mechanically. For example, we should learn at leasat two things from this:
1: More about Bertram as a person (expanding our friendship)
2: More about the God Dreslin and craftsmanship
So create a list of the things we are supposed to learn, and give us that, perhaps with whatever you were able to write in character. It's not a good solution, but it's better than skipping the action.
Kanata.EXE
Programmer
- Location
- Indonesia
The inverse of show, don't tell.
Tell us, you don't need to show us.
Tell us, you don't need to show us.
Powerofmind
In Madness Fallen
- Location
- United States
I get the difficulty of making a character feel properly alive. If you have to do this, I personally wouldn't fault you for it. It's hard, especially when you have so many rich characters already. Bertram seems like one of the trickier ones, probably because his motivations and thoughts are a little more alien to you (I get the feeling you're on the rational side of things, while you see him as more of a faith-based character, that's an especially hard line to cross for getting into the right headspace), so it's fine if you want to hold off posting, or just hold off narrating and posting mechanics instead, because he's being difficult with you.
Turn 8 Results
Rockeye
Plausible Engineer
- Location
- Midwestern U.S.
Martial: A Monster Manual? You've had an idea for a guide to identifying dangerous magical wildlife - 'monsters', as they're called. Monsters are a problem for the whole world, but in Veschwar are mostly kept at bay by the relentless militancy of its people. Just last week one of the hunters killed a pair of zombie wolves. An identification guide - a monster manual - could help people recognize what they're dealing with, maybe even save lives. Write letters of inquiry to your new contacts in the Merchants' Guild.
Cost: 0. Difficulty: 5. See if anything like a Monster Manual already exists.
[74 + 7 = 81.] Great success.
You make sure to think carefully about how to phrase your requests for information. How you present yourself influences how people respond quite heavily, after all. And merchants will tune their offerings based on what they think another wants to hear or see. So you craft missives that give the impression of a frustrated and confused young officer overwhelmed and confused and very anxious about the different varied kinds of monsters.
The requests you sent off to a few different prominent booksellers - redundant, to be safe - were simply worded, every phrase and word chosen to give off the impression you want and specifying your interest in 'encyclopedias of monsters and ways of fighting them'. It's almost more like some kind of spycraft than a simple letter... But it's a useful mental exercise if nothing else.
(You also send a letter to Genevieve asking if she knows of anything like what you want. Her next reply says that she does not.)
It takes quite some time to get them back, but four of the five bothered to send return messages. One of those simply regretted their lack of such a tome, but the other three each listed out a half-dozen books about monsters. Of The Many Kinds of Drakes and Their Methods of Slaughter is the closest thing to a 'manual of monsters' that any of them suggests from their library of saleable tomes. You'll have to buy a copy, and maybe some of the other books - or get a loan of it somehow - and investigate how it's put together. Maybe you should also see what other reading material young officers use, so you can model the result after that? You don't remember being given anything like that... Hmm.
New actions unlocked!
Stewardship: Forgework. You have a deal with Mr. Smith to manage his money and shop in exchange for some of the extra coin he makes. When you really put the effort in, you can speed his own efforts and his apprentice-teaching along. Keep at it. Organize his tools, adjust prices a bit, help the apprentices, tally up demand for nails and horseshoes, round up men to fetch more ore, pitch the idea of new tools to folk, and so on.
Cost: 0. Difficulty: 15. Gain 1 Profit from excellent management and support of the blacksmith. Natural roll > 80 = 2 Profit.
[85 + 16 + 15 = 116.] Critical success.
The need to make a lot of money burning in the back of your mind, you set to work supporting the smithy with a vengeance. The oncoming busy season of harvesting and preparing for the winter, plus planting winter crops, leads more and more folk to get their tools repaired or commission new tools. All the smiths are busier than they've been in a long time. Mr. Smith doesn't flag at the long hours and hard work much, and urges his young apprentices onward, but it's Timothy Greens who really shines - it's as if the insane pace of work he put himself through back in Ganz means this much is easy.
You are pushed into a whirlwind of organizing goods, urging folk to the iron mine, urging folk to help with the construction of a second temporary bloomery, counting coins, scheduling work and tallying the number of nails, horseshoes, axes, hoes, sickles, shovels, pots, hinges, and everything else that is needed. You even get a surprising number of visitors from other villages in the Rostwald, and the homesteaders that dot the wild places between villages!
"I dare say you've done too well, Mr. Bismarck."
"Huh. How do you mean?"
"I reckon the whole Rostwald is yapping on about our good iron, good tools for cheap. Too few good tools in these parts, so everyone will want some. I'm going to stay this busy for a while... Good thing I'm training so many apprentices, I suppose... 'Bout time I released Greens. He's wanting to stay here and work with your sand... Thing. He'll need a forge of his own to do that, though. Not proper to Journey and stay in the same damned building."
+2 Profit. Timothy Greens will become a Journeyman Smith if you build a modest forge for him. Action unlocked.
Learning: Call for Casting. Timothy Greens isn't ready for his own smithy yet and he has been refused the chance to try sand casting with iron so far, but if you weigh in on the great possibilities of the method, Mr. Smith trusts you enough that he'll let Greens have the forge in the evening if you pick up the slack on some of his other work. If you can figure out how to make cast iron plows, that will be wonderful for the ease of farming around here.
Cost: 0. Difficulty: 25/75. Try to make cast iron plows.
[33 + 16 = 41.] Success.
Once more, you spend late nights helping Greens attempt new and interesting variations of sand casting. You're starting to run down the supply of sand, as a little bit gets burned or lost in every attempt - thankfully you had the foresight to make several large sacks' worth back in Ganz.
"...This one came out pretty good. What do you think, boss?"
(...When did Greens start calling you 'boss'? Well, you're not complaining.)
"No holes... Sharp front... The recess where it'll fit together looks good... I think this one might be it! The first viable cast iron plowshare."
"Oh man, you think so? Oh, this is exciting!"
"Let's put it together with two of the good side plates."
This step involves a fair bit of muscle and sweating and a few swear-words. You had the long wooden pieces that frame the plow made and measured and adjusted a while ago, and it only takes a little bit of shoving to get everything to fit together.
After that, you drag it out onto the street and find a passing farmer willing to try it out. You and Greens follow the man and help hook the heavy plow to two large oxen, and watch with bated breath as he digs the tip of the plow into the soil and sends the animals forward...
...And the plow bites deep into the soil, turning the compacted surface to reveal soft loam with surprisingly little resistance, given how fast the two animals move forward. The farmer expresses his amazement and astonishment and bemoans how expensive it must be. When you quote him a price and say you'll buy it back for most of the money if it breaks, he offers to buy the plow on the spot. You and Greens grin at each other and clasp arms - and then he turns it into a hug that you fend off after a moment of spluttering.
You celebrate with some of the man's - Bartow Loam's - stash of beer. Much later, after tipsily cleaning up the forge, Timothy comments, "We'll definitely need more bloomeries if I'm going to make a lot of these, though. Thing's near twelve pounds of iron! That's like... A dozen score horseshoes! Wait, that doesn't seem right..."
"More like six? I think?"
"Yeah, more like six. Tha's better. Gods, it's finally working. I knew it was just a matter of time. There's still issues - I'm worried how brittle it came out - I'll figure it out eventually though. This is going to be big. Everyone needs a plow. Everyone."
"Yes, indeed... This is going to be big."
First Cast Iron Plow created! Stewardship Action unlocked.
Outlines: Vodka Brewing outline -- DOUBLE EFFORT, two actions applied. There are plenty of potatoes being grown in the local fields. They're an easy crop that grows in almost any kind of soil. The Codex is showing you methods to turn potatoes into a new kind of alcohol using fermenting and strange boiling processes. The new drink would probably be fairly cheap to make and could be a good source of income. Potatoes are cheap.
Cost: 0. Progress: 56/[??300-500??]
[25, 43, 28, 58 (explodes), 32, + 2x16 = 218.]
Alcohol is good business. And this mucking about with heating and cooling and vapors is actually pretty interesting... You spend a lot of time this month coaxing the Codex Crystal to show you the details of this process, measuring out and sketching out every little detail of the various devices as they work and trying to puzzle out what each little element does. There are a few different ways to do the same thing, which is good - those bizarre long curved thin tubes that some designs use are going to be near-impossible to make.
The actual brewing merits a little bit of attention, too. You talk to a few amateur brewers for opinions and get a lot of confused looks, but ultimately it seems the process of making potatoes turn into strong alcohol is not terribly different than that of making beer or wine. It just tastes awful by itself, apparently? But distilled beer isn't much different than distilled potato-beer, or vodka as one of the intermittent whispers the Codex Crystal seems capable of making now informs you.
You don't miss the warnings not so much hinted at as shoved at you that strong alcohol is rather flammable. Lots of things the Codex Crystal shows you are flammable, apparently. (You're quietly amused by the image of your cast iron plows suddenly bursting into flame.) You're still not quite sure on the heating and cooling processes or how to keep things sufficiently safe, but with a little bit more attention, you think you'll be ready to try making the equipment to make vodka, or at least strengthened beer and wine.
New progress: 274/300
Diplomacy: Family Reachout. You sent a significant chunk of money off to your family a while ago, and last you heard of them both your parents were off to war. You really doubt they'll bother to answer you while there's still fighting going on, but at the same time surely nobody can fault you for sending worried letters to your family right now, disgrace or not. You can ask after your baby sister, and whether the money helped - and tell them about the watermill idea, couching it in 'once tested' and so on of course.
Cost: 0. Difficulty: 20. More correspondence with your family.
[18 + 11 + 5 (Fire/Flame omake) = 34.] Success.
You pen the letters intermittently and send them off in the two months since you arrived at Nesiwald, then try to put them out of your mind. The letters keep to light topics, asking after the health of your siblings, the state of the lands and treasury, and whether the money you managed to send reached them - as well as hinting at a 'considerable project' of yours coming up that may be 'of great agricultural interest'. (You dither on whether to mention your encounter with a zombie and sparring to improve yourself, and eventually decide to include these bits, appropriately humbly.)
Both your parents are campaigning. If, gods forbid, they're both killed in the fighting, would the House return to you? Would Heileen or Grover take up the mantle, possibly with a regent? Or would you be able to return to your lands and take control? Surely such a thing would be doomed from the start, without sympathetic contacts in other nobles' courts or the Lord Governor's administration... Genevieve is the only one who might actually end up on your side, and it's almost dizzying imagining the ways people could react. Would your house be left alone, assumed to be irrelevant and weak? Picked at or taken over by some churl pushing hard to marry your sister? Put under a regent until your siblings are older, or dissolved entirely? It would probably depend on what the men-at-arms and local peasants decide to do.
(The thought that someone would put you back in your family's manor because it serves their interests somehow seems so ludicrous it doesn't even cross your mind.)
Thinking about the politics of succession distracts you from the physically painful wave of anxiety you get at such a thought. Your mother is a Knight, and she might die at any time, yes... But the idea fills you with dread and fear... It's almost certainly not going to happen, you reassure yourself, and move on to other things.
It's only at the end of the month when you see any word back from them, and when you do, you recognize your mother's handwriting.
My son- I have not had much time to read your missives. Carol is well and was walking by the time I left. The others are being taken care of by Gerram and the castle staff. Apologies for letting you worry. In truth I can only respond now because I am escorting a valuable hostage to the capital! I'll ask you to keep it quiet - this is supposed to be a secret. He and his order fought damnably well, despite how far Veschwar outnumbers and outclasses the Polecs. We nearly had the lot of them helpless, a whole formation of elite knights captured for ransom, but in the confusion of battle some captain or another rallied and most of them escaped. Most - but not all! I unseated this one myself. I am sure it is a great victory for the realm, covers our house in glory and honor, the scar will be a good story, et cetera and so on.
Please don't let your father get to you. I know better than anyone that fighting is not the only measure of one's worth. He is frustrated and lashing out more than anything. And your money did arrive, sent onward by your sister. It paid for two dozen fine kite shields reinforced with strips of iron for the men-at-arms, and sacks of beans and salted meat, both of which seem to have served well for them. Ordnil knows a fine shield is a great help in just about any fight. Both your father and I insist you must have a fine weapon and a bad shield rather than a fine shield and a bad weapon, but both is best.
I understand you are taking initiatives towards development of various things. Heileen seemed quite excited about the potential of the Water Mill. Perhaps I will come see it for myself, no matter how the heckling crows squawk. That will not be possible until the trouble in the east is resolved, unfortunately, but I am already looking forward to what my brilliant son has made with his clever antics. Count on my visit sooner or later!
With love- Your mother, Dame Sofia Bismarck nee Catalina.
...Things seem to be going well. It warms your heart to read kind words from your mother like that. Of course the idea that your parents would die in war is ludicrous and far fetched. Phew.
[ ] Audit Preparation, blatant and thorough. At this point you're so unsure and confused on whether everyone has been paying their tithes correctly that you're going to need to do a rather invasive and thorough investigation to actually be sure, either way. It is, technically, your remit - the Lord Governor sent you to do this. But it will make your position of power obvious and perhaps invite resentment.
Cost: 0. Time: Two months. Difficulty: 30. Get information. May lower Nesiwald opinion.
[99 + 11 + 10 [Diligent] + 15 [Nesiwald Census] = 135.] Critical Success.
Your best attempts to quietly gather information went nowhere. Fine. You're not really suited to that sort of sneaking around, trying to gauge what other people are thinking and feeling. And you're thinking about Genevieve's story now, the warrior of paperwork finding corruption and subversion by checking everything for inconsistencies...
So that's how you'll do it. The first thing you do is bring out your census and look over all the notes and records you have for peoples' fields, scanning over the tables and sketches you made yourself just a few months ago, looking for anything strange... Nothing immediately pops out at you, but you've refamiliarized yourself.
Next, you make a point of going around town investigating the fields, in preparation for the harvest. You're worn a bit thin between everything else you're doing, and eventually straight-up ask people if they are really sure that their tithes are correct. They all say 'yes', of course, but a few look a bit nervous about it. You pay closer attention to them, watching them work in their fields as the days pass.
...Isn't that field supposed to belong to the Mathers? And be empty this year? You check your census. Yes, it is. From there, you realize something - a few fields are being worked by people who told you they didn't own the field. Fields that are supposedly owned by one family and left fallow are being worked by another family. You quiz the neighbors and see confusion on their faces... Aren't those fields jointly owned?
Ah. So, fields that each family says they leave fallow, end up being worked between the families. When you double-check, your census says that they have twice as many fallow fields as usual each, and smaller fields overall. Thus they grow more food, but pay less of it in tithe since you're expecting two fields worth of crop instead of three.
You knew something was up. And in the end all it took was a little bit of careful checking and poking really hard at the inconsistencies!
Technically, the administration of punishment falls to you, the Steward. Nesiwald's exemption from law has an exemption to the exemption regarding taxes, and your charter given to you by the soldiers who escorted you here has the words 'appropriate punishment' right in it, next to the bit about collecting taxes. You bring up the matter with Ludwig Nesiwald, but he says he's too old for this and tells you to deal with it, it's your job anyway. So you speak quietly to Cornet Renns about the matter next time his patrol passes by. After showing him the scroll that names you Steward of the town and bringing him in to talk to Ludwig as well, he agrees to support you with a show of military might however you want to respond to this little tax-dodging ring.
Action completes in one month! Twelve families are using a scheme of 'borrowed' fields to pay about 2/3 of what they should be and have been doing so for several years, possibly decades or longer. No opinion loss just from investigating. You have decently convincing evidence of all this.
How will you do this?
[][Tithe] Lenient. Make a speech to guilt-trip them and make it very clear that this will no longer be tolerated.
[][Tithe] Moderate. Publicly name and shame the guilty, then assess a fine to each family for tax-dodging.
[][Tithe] Harsh. Assign a sharp fine and have Renns's men cut the heads of the families' palms open, in the traditional punishment for fraud. This will hurt a lot and they won't be able to work very well for a while. They might even get infected and lose their hands or die. This is very harsh and won't win you any approval, but will resoundingly discourage any future tax cheating.
[][Tithe] Out of my hands. Send all this information to the Lord Governor's tax office (perhaps to Genevieve specifically) with a thorough explanation and a request for instructions.
River-God's faith. Ettri is a god of rivers and water, as you learned back in Ganz. You wrote down a common prayer and have a pewter holy symbol of his, so perhaps this god will like you a bit better than Dreselin did? Fire prevention and rivers are lovely domains when you're about to build a watermill that will create flammable flour dust...
Cost: 0. Difficulty: ??. Gain a bit of divine favor?
[?? + 11 = ??.] Result: Nothing.
You never really feel quite sure what you're doing when you pray. Your mind goes back to the displays of unity in the temple of Ordnil in Ganz - faith seemed to be a highly communal thing there, communicated through group acts and loud chanting. You felt a sort of magnetism and conviction from the preacher, and it certainly seemed like a powerful message, but you just... Don't get swept up in those sorts of things. You are a quiet and introverted person.
Trying to pray to the river-god is a strange experience. All you have for material is four pages of notes that are just neat enough not to be called scribbles, a couple of hours' conversation with a priest. A god of rivers, hmm...? Well, you can certainly place the holy symbol, a sort of swirling flowing sigil, in a place of honor and direct your thanks to it. The river gives water for the fields, and a scant few fish. You praise the merits of not starting any fires and try to think about the precautions blacksmiths take. You think about how water rains and pools in rivers and eventually flows into the ocean as you mutter stanzas.
You're distracted by niggling thoughts about money flowing from person to person, pooling and splitting and pooling again as merchants, taxmen, and ordinary laborers buy and sell things. If you think of money and goods as if they are water, the whole world has a sort of cycle to it, doesn't it? Even taxes collected by the king will eventually be spent in one way or another, though they might pool in great lakes called 'treasuries' for a while first. Only events like death, plague, war, and famine ruin this 'water' instead of moving it from place to place. Truly, trade is almost like a river.
...Despite some intriguing introspection, nothing seems to happen and after a month of attempts at piously praying to the river-god, you get the feeling that this one just isn't for you.
Personal: On the nature of Crafts. You probably don't really understand Dreselin. The domain of crafts should mean she's glad of anyone making things, correct? Except that she seems to be a bit of a perfectionist. Maybe you can ask Bertram about it - you haven't talked with the man much, but he seems to know more about many deities than priests do.
Cost: 0. Discuss Dreselin with Bertram.
Bertram Cooper is the same stoic and quiet man he was when you first met him. A woodcarver and carpenter, and in fact the one who helped make the frame for your first cast-iron plow, he has a general serious and taciturn demeanor that is unphased by your choice of topic.
"Mr. Steward, what did you think of this place when you first came here?"
"...Honestly? A poor, irrelevant village in the middle of nowhere."
"And when I first saw you I expected you to be pampered, corrupt, or cruel. But you've found value in this place since then, and I in you."
"So, you're saying... Gods aren't always how they first appear?"
He nods. "Dreselin in particular I know. I offer her my thoughts sometimes, and her gifts help me in return, but despite being the goddess of crafts she is truly... The goddess of perfection. Gods think in strange ways, you know. Many of them are simple. Not stupid - simple. To Dreselin, creativity and hard work are both good, but the notion of 'good enough' is like slapping her across the face. It's not good enough unless it's best. That's just how this particular divinity is... Shallya loves with an intensity and certainty that we humans cannot comprehend. Everyone, even history's greatest villains. Even the Dead God, Shallya would offer mercy and comfort. No use arguing or debating about it, you'd have as much luck telling a tree to get up and walk around."
"...Huh."
You think for a minute.
"Wizards can do that."
"Maybe a wizard can get a god to change their ways then. Though, I sort of doubt it."
"Do you think Dreselin will act against me somehow?"
A shrug. "You said you got a damning message from her? Well, in my experience gods can send messages and give out blessings far more easily than they can do curses. Maybe. Maybe not. You would do well to remember that my perspective on gods is a bit different than most. They often help us polish up some of the best parts of ourselves. Whatever you want to be, there's a god to pray to so that you can aspire to be it... But unyielding faith is something many gods value - and folk are quick to get offended about many things, faith included. I don't see the point of getting worked up about it, is all. Being nice is much less uncomfortable than self-righteous tirades and probably more effective."
"I'll keep it in mind."
Got information.
Personal: Forcible education. You have learned something important by a stroke of sheer luck. Such a valuable secret is potent indeed... Sasha Nesiwald can't read. At last, the time of your inevitable revenge is at hand... The near-sadistic glee on Sasha's face as she bullied you through all that exercise (for your own good, and it turned to real joy when you did it) will be answered by her own punishment, of sorts. Teaching full-time is not something you want to do, but you can't let a friend of yours be an uneducated hick, now can you?
Cost: 0. Forcibly teach Sasha Nesiwald to read, write, and do arithmetic.
"...And that's the alphabet. Please repeat them back to me?"
She tries, face scrunched up in concentration.
"Good, good. Only a couple of mistakes. Impressive enough." You snatch away the paper and present a fresh one. "Write a 'B'." ..... "You call that a B? I can't B-lieve you think that's what it looks like!"
"Oi! That's a terrible joke."
"A terri-B-ly funny one you mean!"
"No no no stop!"
"You get one bad joke per mistake until I can't think of any more~. Now, here's how spelling works..."
(Several days later...)
"Sasha~~"
"Noooooooo!"
"Aren't you the one who asked me to teach you, hmm? Surely you're not giving up so easily. You spent weeks in the woods chopping wood and hunting, don't tell sitting down with some paper is worse than that."
"You're grinding down my head. I'm choking on numbers and letters!"
"If it's not hard, it's not helping you get better," you parrot her own words back at her.
"Muuurgh."
"Come on, two more and we'll take a break. You're getting the hang of it."
"Why is math math. Who came up with this stuff?"
"Well, I don't know the second bit but math is defined by a series of axioms which-"
"I don't understand any of those words."
"Math is math because we say so. Just like words are words because thinks they mean the same thing, and money is money because everyone agrees that we want coins. You could make up a whole new kind of math if you really wanted to."
"So seventeen parts can go into one hundred four times because I say so and it's easier?" You quirk an eyebrow at her. "Yeah, didn't think so."
"Let me tell you about triangles..."
"Not those again! This is torture!"
"Alright, alright, fine, we'll stick to arithmetic. For now."
(Several days later...)
"Water and mineral be consumedeth by the plant and, the- therefore, uh, the crop is much aided by good soil. Rye-wheat requires... Requires..."
"Fertilization."
"Rye-wheat requires fertilization by method of..."
(Several days later...)
"I know you can understand me. I don't have time for this. Grandpa Ludwig wants to know how many chickens your census thingy says the Stollers had this spring 'cause they have a lot of them now and it's suspicious."
You tap the sign again. 'I only understand written questions.'
"...Ugh. Fine." She writes out the question, tongue sticking out. 'How many chickens do the Stollers had?'
You correct the grammar, then page to the appropriate part of your long census report and put your finger on a particular part.
"Ten and... Wait, one... Six... Zero. So..." She counts on her fingers for a bit before waving as if to banish that habit. "So... They had about eight score when you wrote this?" You nod. "Great, thanks! May I look at the census again if I need to know something about Nesiwald?"
"So long as you take care not to damage the pages I see no problem with that," you answer magnanimously.
"-HA! I didn't write that one!"
You blush and stammer, "W-Well I made an exception because you played along!"
"Suuuuure."
...As the month closes you decide that you can't keep giving her such focused lessons for long, it'd take too long, but she seems to be picking things up well enough from the few other Nesiwalders who can read and write and do math. This is due to your excellent teaching giving her a solid foundation, of course. (...Well, you're not that arrogant, but you do think she wouldn't have learned as well from someone else. And it was quite fun to lightheartedly prod her into doing the exercises you devised.)
Sasha Nesiwald is (extremely basically) literate and numerate! She learned surprisingly fast, though that might have been because you teased her about all her mistakes a lot.
I'm getting a bit tired and frustrated by the initial slow pace, though it may have been good to begin with and give a strong sense of the world. The visit to Ganz, while useful for giving a picture of the wider nation of Veschwar, only made it more clear that I need to pick up the pace some if I want really exciting stuff to happen and good progress to be made. Things need to happen.
But at this point I feel like I've done enough "settling in". You've gotten to know Harold, though he's likely going to be 'faceless MC guy' to some extent (or at least, I feel like I write him that way)... And the other Nesiwalders. You've gotten to know the world and I've provided a nice initial "establishment" sort of arc. It's time to move on, in my opinion.
I want to switch to quarterly turns now. I'll adjust things as necessary to make everything still make sense and nothing too penalizing happen - you'll probably get two actions for most categories and some other things will change too. In the end I am QM and I'll probably do this unless the thread is overwhelmingly against, but I want to gauge what you want.
TL;DR, would you like me to change to quarterly turns instead of monthly turns now? I'll take the vote and comments into account but the decision is ultimately mine.
[] Yes.
[] No.
[] Maybe later?
Cost: 0. Difficulty: 5. See if anything like a Monster Manual already exists.
[74 + 7 = 81.] Great success.
You make sure to think carefully about how to phrase your requests for information. How you present yourself influences how people respond quite heavily, after all. And merchants will tune their offerings based on what they think another wants to hear or see. So you craft missives that give the impression of a frustrated and confused young officer overwhelmed and confused and very anxious about the different varied kinds of monsters.
The requests you sent off to a few different prominent booksellers - redundant, to be safe - were simply worded, every phrase and word chosen to give off the impression you want and specifying your interest in 'encyclopedias of monsters and ways of fighting them'. It's almost more like some kind of spycraft than a simple letter... But it's a useful mental exercise if nothing else.
(You also send a letter to Genevieve asking if she knows of anything like what you want. Her next reply says that she does not.)
It takes quite some time to get them back, but four of the five bothered to send return messages. One of those simply regretted their lack of such a tome, but the other three each listed out a half-dozen books about monsters. Of The Many Kinds of Drakes and Their Methods of Slaughter is the closest thing to a 'manual of monsters' that any of them suggests from their library of saleable tomes. You'll have to buy a copy, and maybe some of the other books - or get a loan of it somehow - and investigate how it's put together. Maybe you should also see what other reading material young officers use, so you can model the result after that? You don't remember being given anything like that... Hmm.
New actions unlocked!
Stewardship: Forgework. You have a deal with Mr. Smith to manage his money and shop in exchange for some of the extra coin he makes. When you really put the effort in, you can speed his own efforts and his apprentice-teaching along. Keep at it. Organize his tools, adjust prices a bit, help the apprentices, tally up demand for nails and horseshoes, round up men to fetch more ore, pitch the idea of new tools to folk, and so on.
Cost: 0. Difficulty: 15. Gain 1 Profit from excellent management and support of the blacksmith. Natural roll > 80 = 2 Profit.
[85 + 16 + 15 = 116.] Critical success.
The need to make a lot of money burning in the back of your mind, you set to work supporting the smithy with a vengeance. The oncoming busy season of harvesting and preparing for the winter, plus planting winter crops, leads more and more folk to get their tools repaired or commission new tools. All the smiths are busier than they've been in a long time. Mr. Smith doesn't flag at the long hours and hard work much, and urges his young apprentices onward, but it's Timothy Greens who really shines - it's as if the insane pace of work he put himself through back in Ganz means this much is easy.
You are pushed into a whirlwind of organizing goods, urging folk to the iron mine, urging folk to help with the construction of a second temporary bloomery, counting coins, scheduling work and tallying the number of nails, horseshoes, axes, hoes, sickles, shovels, pots, hinges, and everything else that is needed. You even get a surprising number of visitors from other villages in the Rostwald, and the homesteaders that dot the wild places between villages!
"I dare say you've done too well, Mr. Bismarck."
"Huh. How do you mean?"
"I reckon the whole Rostwald is yapping on about our good iron, good tools for cheap. Too few good tools in these parts, so everyone will want some. I'm going to stay this busy for a while... Good thing I'm training so many apprentices, I suppose... 'Bout time I released Greens. He's wanting to stay here and work with your sand... Thing. He'll need a forge of his own to do that, though. Not proper to Journey and stay in the same damned building."
+2 Profit. Timothy Greens will become a Journeyman Smith if you build a modest forge for him. Action unlocked.
Learning: Call for Casting. Timothy Greens isn't ready for his own smithy yet and he has been refused the chance to try sand casting with iron so far, but if you weigh in on the great possibilities of the method, Mr. Smith trusts you enough that he'll let Greens have the forge in the evening if you pick up the slack on some of his other work. If you can figure out how to make cast iron plows, that will be wonderful for the ease of farming around here.
Cost: 0. Difficulty: 25/75. Try to make cast iron plows.
[33 + 16 = 41.] Success.
Once more, you spend late nights helping Greens attempt new and interesting variations of sand casting. You're starting to run down the supply of sand, as a little bit gets burned or lost in every attempt - thankfully you had the foresight to make several large sacks' worth back in Ganz.
"...This one came out pretty good. What do you think, boss?"
(...When did Greens start calling you 'boss'? Well, you're not complaining.)
"No holes... Sharp front... The recess where it'll fit together looks good... I think this one might be it! The first viable cast iron plowshare."
"Oh man, you think so? Oh, this is exciting!"
"Let's put it together with two of the good side plates."
This step involves a fair bit of muscle and sweating and a few swear-words. You had the long wooden pieces that frame the plow made and measured and adjusted a while ago, and it only takes a little bit of shoving to get everything to fit together.
After that, you drag it out onto the street and find a passing farmer willing to try it out. You and Greens follow the man and help hook the heavy plow to two large oxen, and watch with bated breath as he digs the tip of the plow into the soil and sends the animals forward...
...And the plow bites deep into the soil, turning the compacted surface to reveal soft loam with surprisingly little resistance, given how fast the two animals move forward. The farmer expresses his amazement and astonishment and bemoans how expensive it must be. When you quote him a price and say you'll buy it back for most of the money if it breaks, he offers to buy the plow on the spot. You and Greens grin at each other and clasp arms - and then he turns it into a hug that you fend off after a moment of spluttering.
You celebrate with some of the man's - Bartow Loam's - stash of beer. Much later, after tipsily cleaning up the forge, Timothy comments, "We'll definitely need more bloomeries if I'm going to make a lot of these, though. Thing's near twelve pounds of iron! That's like... A dozen score horseshoes! Wait, that doesn't seem right..."
"More like six? I think?"
"Yeah, more like six. Tha's better. Gods, it's finally working. I knew it was just a matter of time. There's still issues - I'm worried how brittle it came out - I'll figure it out eventually though. This is going to be big. Everyone needs a plow. Everyone."
"Yes, indeed... This is going to be big."
First Cast Iron Plow created! Stewardship Action unlocked.
Outlines: Vodka Brewing outline -- DOUBLE EFFORT, two actions applied. There are plenty of potatoes being grown in the local fields. They're an easy crop that grows in almost any kind of soil. The Codex is showing you methods to turn potatoes into a new kind of alcohol using fermenting and strange boiling processes. The new drink would probably be fairly cheap to make and could be a good source of income. Potatoes are cheap.
Cost: 0. Progress: 56/[??300-500??]
[25, 43, 28, 58 (explodes), 32, + 2x16 = 218.]
Alcohol is good business. And this mucking about with heating and cooling and vapors is actually pretty interesting... You spend a lot of time this month coaxing the Codex Crystal to show you the details of this process, measuring out and sketching out every little detail of the various devices as they work and trying to puzzle out what each little element does. There are a few different ways to do the same thing, which is good - those bizarre long curved thin tubes that some designs use are going to be near-impossible to make.
The actual brewing merits a little bit of attention, too. You talk to a few amateur brewers for opinions and get a lot of confused looks, but ultimately it seems the process of making potatoes turn into strong alcohol is not terribly different than that of making beer or wine. It just tastes awful by itself, apparently? But distilled beer isn't much different than distilled potato-beer, or vodka as one of the intermittent whispers the Codex Crystal seems capable of making now informs you.
You don't miss the warnings not so much hinted at as shoved at you that strong alcohol is rather flammable. Lots of things the Codex Crystal shows you are flammable, apparently. (You're quietly amused by the image of your cast iron plows suddenly bursting into flame.) You're still not quite sure on the heating and cooling processes or how to keep things sufficiently safe, but with a little bit more attention, you think you'll be ready to try making the equipment to make vodka, or at least strengthened beer and wine.
New progress: 274/300
Diplomacy: Family Reachout. You sent a significant chunk of money off to your family a while ago, and last you heard of them both your parents were off to war. You really doubt they'll bother to answer you while there's still fighting going on, but at the same time surely nobody can fault you for sending worried letters to your family right now, disgrace or not. You can ask after your baby sister, and whether the money helped - and tell them about the watermill idea, couching it in 'once tested' and so on of course.
Cost: 0. Difficulty: 20. More correspondence with your family.
[18 + 11 + 5 (Fire/Flame omake) = 34.] Success.
You pen the letters intermittently and send them off in the two months since you arrived at Nesiwald, then try to put them out of your mind. The letters keep to light topics, asking after the health of your siblings, the state of the lands and treasury, and whether the money you managed to send reached them - as well as hinting at a 'considerable project' of yours coming up that may be 'of great agricultural interest'. (You dither on whether to mention your encounter with a zombie and sparring to improve yourself, and eventually decide to include these bits, appropriately humbly.)
Both your parents are campaigning. If, gods forbid, they're both killed in the fighting, would the House return to you? Would Heileen or Grover take up the mantle, possibly with a regent? Or would you be able to return to your lands and take control? Surely such a thing would be doomed from the start, without sympathetic contacts in other nobles' courts or the Lord Governor's administration... Genevieve is the only one who might actually end up on your side, and it's almost dizzying imagining the ways people could react. Would your house be left alone, assumed to be irrelevant and weak? Picked at or taken over by some churl pushing hard to marry your sister? Put under a regent until your siblings are older, or dissolved entirely? It would probably depend on what the men-at-arms and local peasants decide to do.
(The thought that someone would put you back in your family's manor because it serves their interests somehow seems so ludicrous it doesn't even cross your mind.)
Thinking about the politics of succession distracts you from the physically painful wave of anxiety you get at such a thought. Your mother is a Knight, and she might die at any time, yes... But the idea fills you with dread and fear... It's almost certainly not going to happen, you reassure yourself, and move on to other things.
It's only at the end of the month when you see any word back from them, and when you do, you recognize your mother's handwriting.
My son- I have not had much time to read your missives. Carol is well and was walking by the time I left. The others are being taken care of by Gerram and the castle staff. Apologies for letting you worry. In truth I can only respond now because I am escorting a valuable hostage to the capital! I'll ask you to keep it quiet - this is supposed to be a secret. He and his order fought damnably well, despite how far Veschwar outnumbers and outclasses the Polecs. We nearly had the lot of them helpless, a whole formation of elite knights captured for ransom, but in the confusion of battle some captain or another rallied and most of them escaped. Most - but not all! I unseated this one myself. I am sure it is a great victory for the realm, covers our house in glory and honor, the scar will be a good story, et cetera and so on.
Please don't let your father get to you. I know better than anyone that fighting is not the only measure of one's worth. He is frustrated and lashing out more than anything. And your money did arrive, sent onward by your sister. It paid for two dozen fine kite shields reinforced with strips of iron for the men-at-arms, and sacks of beans and salted meat, both of which seem to have served well for them. Ordnil knows a fine shield is a great help in just about any fight. Both your father and I insist you must have a fine weapon and a bad shield rather than a fine shield and a bad weapon, but both is best.
I understand you are taking initiatives towards development of various things. Heileen seemed quite excited about the potential of the Water Mill. Perhaps I will come see it for myself, no matter how the heckling crows squawk. That will not be possible until the trouble in the east is resolved, unfortunately, but I am already looking forward to what my brilliant son has made with his clever antics. Count on my visit sooner or later!
With love- Your mother, Dame Sofia Bismarck nee Catalina.
...Things seem to be going well. It warms your heart to read kind words from your mother like that. Of course the idea that your parents would die in war is ludicrous and far fetched. Phew.
[ ] Audit Preparation, blatant and thorough. At this point you're so unsure and confused on whether everyone has been paying their tithes correctly that you're going to need to do a rather invasive and thorough investigation to actually be sure, either way. It is, technically, your remit - the Lord Governor sent you to do this. But it will make your position of power obvious and perhaps invite resentment.
Cost: 0. Time: Two months. Difficulty: 30. Get information. May lower Nesiwald opinion.
[99 + 11 + 10 [Diligent] + 15 [Nesiwald Census] = 135.] Critical Success.
Your best attempts to quietly gather information went nowhere. Fine. You're not really suited to that sort of sneaking around, trying to gauge what other people are thinking and feeling. And you're thinking about Genevieve's story now, the warrior of paperwork finding corruption and subversion by checking everything for inconsistencies...
So that's how you'll do it. The first thing you do is bring out your census and look over all the notes and records you have for peoples' fields, scanning over the tables and sketches you made yourself just a few months ago, looking for anything strange... Nothing immediately pops out at you, but you've refamiliarized yourself.
Next, you make a point of going around town investigating the fields, in preparation for the harvest. You're worn a bit thin between everything else you're doing, and eventually straight-up ask people if they are really sure that their tithes are correct. They all say 'yes', of course, but a few look a bit nervous about it. You pay closer attention to them, watching them work in their fields as the days pass.
...Isn't that field supposed to belong to the Mathers? And be empty this year? You check your census. Yes, it is. From there, you realize something - a few fields are being worked by people who told you they didn't own the field. Fields that are supposedly owned by one family and left fallow are being worked by another family. You quiz the neighbors and see confusion on their faces... Aren't those fields jointly owned?
Ah. So, fields that each family says they leave fallow, end up being worked between the families. When you double-check, your census says that they have twice as many fallow fields as usual each, and smaller fields overall. Thus they grow more food, but pay less of it in tithe since you're expecting two fields worth of crop instead of three.
You knew something was up. And in the end all it took was a little bit of careful checking and poking really hard at the inconsistencies!
Technically, the administration of punishment falls to you, the Steward. Nesiwald's exemption from law has an exemption to the exemption regarding taxes, and your charter given to you by the soldiers who escorted you here has the words 'appropriate punishment' right in it, next to the bit about collecting taxes. You bring up the matter with Ludwig Nesiwald, but he says he's too old for this and tells you to deal with it, it's your job anyway. So you speak quietly to Cornet Renns about the matter next time his patrol passes by. After showing him the scroll that names you Steward of the town and bringing him in to talk to Ludwig as well, he agrees to support you with a show of military might however you want to respond to this little tax-dodging ring.
Action completes in one month! Twelve families are using a scheme of 'borrowed' fields to pay about 2/3 of what they should be and have been doing so for several years, possibly decades or longer. No opinion loss just from investigating. You have decently convincing evidence of all this.
How will you do this?
[][Tithe] Lenient. Make a speech to guilt-trip them and make it very clear that this will no longer be tolerated.
[][Tithe] Moderate. Publicly name and shame the guilty, then assess a fine to each family for tax-dodging.
[][Tithe] Harsh. Assign a sharp fine and have Renns's men cut the heads of the families' palms open, in the traditional punishment for fraud. This will hurt a lot and they won't be able to work very well for a while. They might even get infected and lose their hands or die. This is very harsh and won't win you any approval, but will resoundingly discourage any future tax cheating.
[][Tithe] Out of my hands. Send all this information to the Lord Governor's tax office (perhaps to Genevieve specifically) with a thorough explanation and a request for instructions.
River-God's faith. Ettri is a god of rivers and water, as you learned back in Ganz. You wrote down a common prayer and have a pewter holy symbol of his, so perhaps this god will like you a bit better than Dreselin did? Fire prevention and rivers are lovely domains when you're about to build a watermill that will create flammable flour dust...
Cost: 0. Difficulty: ??. Gain a bit of divine favor?
[?? + 11 = ??.] Result: Nothing.
You never really feel quite sure what you're doing when you pray. Your mind goes back to the displays of unity in the temple of Ordnil in Ganz - faith seemed to be a highly communal thing there, communicated through group acts and loud chanting. You felt a sort of magnetism and conviction from the preacher, and it certainly seemed like a powerful message, but you just... Don't get swept up in those sorts of things. You are a quiet and introverted person.
Trying to pray to the river-god is a strange experience. All you have for material is four pages of notes that are just neat enough not to be called scribbles, a couple of hours' conversation with a priest. A god of rivers, hmm...? Well, you can certainly place the holy symbol, a sort of swirling flowing sigil, in a place of honor and direct your thanks to it. The river gives water for the fields, and a scant few fish. You praise the merits of not starting any fires and try to think about the precautions blacksmiths take. You think about how water rains and pools in rivers and eventually flows into the ocean as you mutter stanzas.
You're distracted by niggling thoughts about money flowing from person to person, pooling and splitting and pooling again as merchants, taxmen, and ordinary laborers buy and sell things. If you think of money and goods as if they are water, the whole world has a sort of cycle to it, doesn't it? Even taxes collected by the king will eventually be spent in one way or another, though they might pool in great lakes called 'treasuries' for a while first. Only events like death, plague, war, and famine ruin this 'water' instead of moving it from place to place. Truly, trade is almost like a river.
...Despite some intriguing introspection, nothing seems to happen and after a month of attempts at piously praying to the river-god, you get the feeling that this one just isn't for you.
Personal: On the nature of Crafts. You probably don't really understand Dreselin. The domain of crafts should mean she's glad of anyone making things, correct? Except that she seems to be a bit of a perfectionist. Maybe you can ask Bertram about it - you haven't talked with the man much, but he seems to know more about many deities than priests do.
Cost: 0. Discuss Dreselin with Bertram.
Bertram Cooper is the same stoic and quiet man he was when you first met him. A woodcarver and carpenter, and in fact the one who helped make the frame for your first cast-iron plow, he has a general serious and taciturn demeanor that is unphased by your choice of topic.
"Mr. Steward, what did you think of this place when you first came here?"
"...Honestly? A poor, irrelevant village in the middle of nowhere."
"And when I first saw you I expected you to be pampered, corrupt, or cruel. But you've found value in this place since then, and I in you."
"So, you're saying... Gods aren't always how they first appear?"
He nods. "Dreselin in particular I know. I offer her my thoughts sometimes, and her gifts help me in return, but despite being the goddess of crafts she is truly... The goddess of perfection. Gods think in strange ways, you know. Many of them are simple. Not stupid - simple. To Dreselin, creativity and hard work are both good, but the notion of 'good enough' is like slapping her across the face. It's not good enough unless it's best. That's just how this particular divinity is... Shallya loves with an intensity and certainty that we humans cannot comprehend. Everyone, even history's greatest villains. Even the Dead God, Shallya would offer mercy and comfort. No use arguing or debating about it, you'd have as much luck telling a tree to get up and walk around."
"...Huh."
You think for a minute.
"Wizards can do that."
"Maybe a wizard can get a god to change their ways then. Though, I sort of doubt it."
"Do you think Dreselin will act against me somehow?"
A shrug. "You said you got a damning message from her? Well, in my experience gods can send messages and give out blessings far more easily than they can do curses. Maybe. Maybe not. You would do well to remember that my perspective on gods is a bit different than most. They often help us polish up some of the best parts of ourselves. Whatever you want to be, there's a god to pray to so that you can aspire to be it... But unyielding faith is something many gods value - and folk are quick to get offended about many things, faith included. I don't see the point of getting worked up about it, is all. Being nice is much less uncomfortable than self-righteous tirades and probably more effective."
"I'll keep it in mind."
Got information.
Personal: Forcible education. You have learned something important by a stroke of sheer luck. Such a valuable secret is potent indeed... Sasha Nesiwald can't read. At last, the time of your inevitable revenge is at hand... The near-sadistic glee on Sasha's face as she bullied you through all that exercise (for your own good, and it turned to real joy when you did it) will be answered by her own punishment, of sorts. Teaching full-time is not something you want to do, but you can't let a friend of yours be an uneducated hick, now can you?
Cost: 0. Forcibly teach Sasha Nesiwald to read, write, and do arithmetic.
"...And that's the alphabet. Please repeat them back to me?"
She tries, face scrunched up in concentration.
"Good, good. Only a couple of mistakes. Impressive enough." You snatch away the paper and present a fresh one. "Write a 'B'." ..... "You call that a B? I can't B-lieve you think that's what it looks like!"
"Oi! That's a terrible joke."
"A terri-B-ly funny one you mean!"
"No no no stop!"
"You get one bad joke per mistake until I can't think of any more~. Now, here's how spelling works..."
(Several days later...)
"Sasha~~"
"Noooooooo!"
"Aren't you the one who asked me to teach you, hmm? Surely you're not giving up so easily. You spent weeks in the woods chopping wood and hunting, don't tell sitting down with some paper is worse than that."
"You're grinding down my head. I'm choking on numbers and letters!"
"If it's not hard, it's not helping you get better," you parrot her own words back at her.
"Muuurgh."
"Come on, two more and we'll take a break. You're getting the hang of it."
"Why is math math. Who came up with this stuff?"
"Well, I don't know the second bit but math is defined by a series of axioms which-"
"I don't understand any of those words."
"Math is math because we say so. Just like words are words because thinks they mean the same thing, and money is money because everyone agrees that we want coins. You could make up a whole new kind of math if you really wanted to."
"So seventeen parts can go into one hundred four times because I say so and it's easier?" You quirk an eyebrow at her. "Yeah, didn't think so."
"Let me tell you about triangles..."
"Not those again! This is torture!"
"Alright, alright, fine, we'll stick to arithmetic. For now."
(Several days later...)
"Water and mineral be consumedeth by the plant and, the- therefore, uh, the crop is much aided by good soil. Rye-wheat requires... Requires..."
"Fertilization."
"Rye-wheat requires fertilization by method of..."
(Several days later...)
"I know you can understand me. I don't have time for this. Grandpa Ludwig wants to know how many chickens your census thingy says the Stollers had this spring 'cause they have a lot of them now and it's suspicious."
You tap the sign again. 'I only understand written questions.'
"...Ugh. Fine." She writes out the question, tongue sticking out. 'How many chickens do the Stollers had?'
You correct the grammar, then page to the appropriate part of your long census report and put your finger on a particular part.
"Ten and... Wait, one... Six... Zero. So..." She counts on her fingers for a bit before waving as if to banish that habit. "So... They had about eight score when you wrote this?" You nod. "Great, thanks! May I look at the census again if I need to know something about Nesiwald?"
"So long as you take care not to damage the pages I see no problem with that," you answer magnanimously.
"-HA! I didn't write that one!"
You blush and stammer, "W-Well I made an exception because you played along!"
"Suuuuure."
...As the month closes you decide that you can't keep giving her such focused lessons for long, it'd take too long, but she seems to be picking things up well enough from the few other Nesiwalders who can read and write and do math. This is due to your excellent teaching giving her a solid foundation, of course. (...Well, you're not that arrogant, but you do think she wouldn't have learned as well from someone else. And it was quite fun to lightheartedly prod her into doing the exercises you devised.)
Sasha Nesiwald is (extremely basically) literate and numerate! She learned surprisingly fast, though that might have been because you teased her about all her mistakes a lot.
I'm getting a bit tired and frustrated by the initial slow pace, though it may have been good to begin with and give a strong sense of the world. The visit to Ganz, while useful for giving a picture of the wider nation of Veschwar, only made it more clear that I need to pick up the pace some if I want really exciting stuff to happen and good progress to be made. Things need to happen.
But at this point I feel like I've done enough "settling in". You've gotten to know Harold, though he's likely going to be 'faceless MC guy' to some extent (or at least, I feel like I write him that way)... And the other Nesiwalders. You've gotten to know the world and I've provided a nice initial "establishment" sort of arc. It's time to move on, in my opinion.
I want to switch to quarterly turns now. I'll adjust things as necessary to make everything still make sense and nothing too penalizing happen - you'll probably get two actions for most categories and some other things will change too. In the end I am QM and I'll probably do this unless the thread is overwhelmingly against, but I want to gauge what you want.
TL;DR, would you like me to change to quarterly turns instead of monthly turns now? I'll take the vote and comments into account but the decision is ultimately mine.
[] Yes.
[] No.
[] Maybe later?
Last edited:
- Location
- At my computer
[X] Yes.
[x][Tithe] Moderate. Publicly name and shame the guilty, then assess a fine to each family for tax-dodging.
[x][Tithe] Moderate. Publicly name and shame the guilty, then assess a fine to each family for tax-dodging.
Last edited:
- Location
- United States
[X] Yes.
[X][Tithe] Moderate. Publicly name and shame the guilty, then assess a fine to each family for tax-dodging.
[X][Tithe] Moderate. Publicly name and shame the guilty, then assess a fine to each family for tax-dodging.
Forgothrax
Not Going Gently
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Boss, is there a leader among these families in general, or one person who can be assumed to have started this? Can we write in slicing such a person's palm and sharply fining everyone else?
[x] yes
Rockeye
Plausible Engineer
- Location
- Midwestern U.S.
S
Sure, tho a roll to correctly discern the ringleader will be made.
Kanata.EXE
Programmer
- Location
- Indonesia
[X] Yes.
- Location
- USA
Varie...what?
[x][Tithe] Moderate. Publicly name and shame the guilty, then assess a fine to each family for tax-dodging.
[x] Maybe later?
Last edited:
- Location
- Vault 111
- Pronouns
- He/him
[X] Yes.
[X][Tithe] Moderate. Publicly name and shame the guilty, then assess a fine to each family for tax-dodging.
[X][Tithe] Moderate. Publicly name and shame the guilty, then assess a fine to each family for tax-dodging.