Lord of a Fief Quest [Xianxia/Western Fantasy Fusion, CK2-ish]
- Thread starter ChaosCircle
- Start date
- Original
Rolen von Keng
Sleeping Green Bear
- Location
- The Wilderness
[X] Plan Stabilized Foundation
- Location
- California
@Resonant I understand your points, however I disagree that working on cultivation is putting the cart before the horse. Surveying the lands appears to be better used as a short-term objective rather than a medium term objective. In the medium term, our actions with the short-term plans should have given us enough stability that improving our own skills would be long-term beneficial. And, excessive delay isn't good.
We are essentially in a Red Queen Race against others who would want our Fief and the impending civil war. We need to be (ourselves) skilled and powerful enough to help the Fief. Ignoring cultivation in the medium-term, which is what your plan does, ignores the fact that our character's skills directly impacts the outcomes of what will go on- be it in battle or in our job. As history has shown: the skills of those who rules matter.
Also, my plan does make sure we have a foundation to build on- Fortifying our Defenses and ensuring the accuracy of our books. It's just that, rather than doing a tour of the land to physically see the land, we are hopefully improving the wisdom and spirit of the Lord of the land.
We are essentially in a Red Queen Race against others who would want our Fief and the impending civil war. We need to be (ourselves) skilled and powerful enough to help the Fief. Ignoring cultivation in the medium-term, which is what your plan does, ignores the fact that our character's skills directly impacts the outcomes of what will go on- be it in battle or in our job. As history has shown: the skills of those who rules matter.
Also, my plan does make sure we have a foundation to build on- Fortifying our Defenses and ensuring the accuracy of our books. It's just that, rather than doing a tour of the land to physically see the land, we are hopefully improving the wisdom and spirit of the Lord of the land.
- Location
- UK
[X] Consolidation and Alchemy
-[X] Sneak into Toril and perform a surprise inspection on the books. If someone was skimming, you did not want to give them a chance to cover their tracks. With the Lord ill, who knows what he might have overlooked. Dying was a major distraction from one's duties.
-[X] Replace the previous Lord's people with handpicked individuals you know would be loyal to you and you alone. They might be loyal to the local lord, they might be spies. You had no way to know and you were confident in your spies ability to screen people for various posts. They are less effective at vetting the people already in place given you have so few spies in Bloodthorn valley to work with.
-[X] Focus on Pills. You love alchemy and you want to become the best alchemist you can spare the time to be. Your spies could acquire foreign pill techniques for you to use and you could research them yourself. It was also the fastest way to cultivate given many pills were cultivation aids capable of amplifying cultivation in one or more areas.
The way I see it, we need to consolidate our position as the new lord of our fief, and also start trying to improve our own personal power as well, and focusing on pills seems to be the most efficient way of going about that.
-[X] Sneak into Toril and perform a surprise inspection on the books. If someone was skimming, you did not want to give them a chance to cover their tracks. With the Lord ill, who knows what he might have overlooked. Dying was a major distraction from one's duties.
-[X] Replace the previous Lord's people with handpicked individuals you know would be loyal to you and you alone. They might be loyal to the local lord, they might be spies. You had no way to know and you were confident in your spies ability to screen people for various posts. They are less effective at vetting the people already in place given you have so few spies in Bloodthorn valley to work with.
-[X] Focus on Pills. You love alchemy and you want to become the best alchemist you can spare the time to be. Your spies could acquire foreign pill techniques for you to use and you could research them yourself. It was also the fastest way to cultivate given many pills were cultivation aids capable of amplifying cultivation in one or more areas.
The way I see it, we need to consolidate our position as the new lord of our fief, and also start trying to improve our own personal power as well, and focusing on pills seems to be the most efficient way of going about that.
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Resonant
Procrastinator Supreme
I've added some examples on what I think Surveying Lands entails that justifies it as a Medium-term objective:
The fact is, Short-term goals cannot cover the whole process of Creating a New Administration. It's suited for Single Projects like 'Go Fortify the Border' or 'Increase Taxes' without understanding the overall situation. That's why I used the word Foundation for the name of the plan, what else are we going to use to base our future planning on?
Let me ask you, can you guarantee the options we currently see covers all the potential unseen variables in our fief, which might worsen or pop up in the future, because we didn't have the foreknowledge to plan for it?
Improving our Cultivation is like you said a Long-term benefit, we need to secure our foundations first. The two Short-term actions are limited: your plan only covers 'Defense from External Threats' and 'Accurate Bookkeeping' but that doesn't even cover creating a loyal bureaucracy, for example.
We picked the Normal Difficulty; the Civil War is not an impending threat, it says right there we can stay neutral if we want to.
As for Rivals aiming for our lands, focusing on an External threat before Governing our Lands IS putting the cart before the horse. Improving the Lord's Cultivation to face a potential Rival without bothering to learn about our own lands isn't advised.
Like I said, the protagonist can be a once-in-a-lifetime Genius, if he only puts in minimal effort, the results won't be satisfactory either.
TL;DR My plan basically boils down to 'We just got thrust Lordship, the protagonist himself was initially NOT confident of his ability, how about we focus on our Lands for ONE turn, before we go Full Hermit and Power Leveling as soon as we arrive.'
EDIT:
Veekie brought up a good point, our fief is specialized for Cultivation Aids that boost our Speed, focusing on the land doesn't necessarily mean we lose out and slow down.
EDIT2:
Keep in mind there is synergy if the Objectives line up which might net us greater value than if we just split our attention between Pill Research and Governance.
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- Location
- California
According to father:
You literally chose a short-term goal to create a loyal bureaucracy. So, according to the choices, yes, creating a loyal bureaucracy could be a short-term goal. Also, that was in your plan since I think of it as uprooting the expertise in a location for political appointees: loyal to you but probably not as capable as the people they are replacing. Also, a great way to piss off a number of our Fief's government (which is apparently pretty loyal- not totally, of course).
Considering that this is a new quest and the QM could have Superman punch the world from space if they wanted...no. Of course not. But, I can point to issues that the QM has written are problems.
Such as:
Orc raids.
Our lacking in cultivation and that being a potentially existential threat to ourselves.
These are concrete problems facing our character.
So...how does your plan deal with that? By ripping part of the already existent system and replacing them with people personally loyal to us (but potentially less expert) and then going on a grand tour of the land. While ignoring the orc raids and letting us stagnate when we are already 40 years behind in cultivation and it has already been pointed out the threat that more powerful cultivators can have on us.
Well, as I stated, improving ourselves is improving the governing of our lands. Since, the Mind and Spirit of the character directly affects the rolls. Also, note that my plan does start with double checking the books- we should have a pretty good idea of the industries and economy of the fief (though not as great as literally touring the land, of course).
So, rather than trying to address hypotheticals and an assumption that the QM is hiding actions from us for whatever reason, I am addressing issues that the QM has written about in their post.
Don't get me wrong, it would be nice to go on a Grand tour of the land we just got. It's just...ignoring a lot of problems and not the best move. Also, we aren't skilled administrators (though with enough Cultivation, we may turn into one).
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- Location
- Germany
[X] Consolidation and Alchemy
- Location
- Florida
Its a reasonable medium term objective but it won't take a full year.
I'm trying not to sway opinions by giving opinions on plans unless they are really, really bad and likely to lead you off a cliff.
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- Location
- USA
I meant the first vote what did you think of those plans
- Location
- Florida
My answer is the same, I'm not here to judge the plans players make.
- Location
- Florida
I'm going to leave the vote up for another day given how few votes are in, I'd suggest voting for the top two plans.
- Location
- Canada
[X] Plan Stabilized Foundation
-[X] Sneak into Toril and perform a surprise inspection on the books. If someone was skimming, you did not want to give them a chance to cover their tracks. With the Lord ill, who knows what he might have overlooked. Dying was a major distraction from one's duties.
-[X] Replace the previous Lord's people with handpicked individuals you know would be loyal to you and you alone. They might be loyal to the local lord, they might be spies. You had no way to know and you were confident in your spies ability to screen people for various posts. They are less effective at vetting the people already in place given you have so few spies in Bloodthorn valley to work with.
-[X] Focus on Surveying. You are a newly appointed Lord; without the necessary preparation and background you will almost certainly make a mistake in the future. Take a tour around your new fief to familiarize yourself with the locals and get a feel for how the previous Lord's administration worked so that you'll have better understanding on how to run yours. (E.g. Scout potential sites or natural resources for future development; observe whether the ecosystem of fauna & flora is balanced; understand which issues plaguing the fief to prioritize, establish a relationship with the Adventurers, locate which areas require fortification, read about the history of the land, etc.)
-[X] Sneak into Toril and perform a surprise inspection on the books. If someone was skimming, you did not want to give them a chance to cover their tracks. With the Lord ill, who knows what he might have overlooked. Dying was a major distraction from one's duties.
-[X] Replace the previous Lord's people with handpicked individuals you know would be loyal to you and you alone. They might be loyal to the local lord, they might be spies. You had no way to know and you were confident in your spies ability to screen people for various posts. They are less effective at vetting the people already in place given you have so few spies in Bloodthorn valley to work with.
-[X] Focus on Surveying. You are a newly appointed Lord; without the necessary preparation and background you will almost certainly make a mistake in the future. Take a tour around your new fief to familiarize yourself with the locals and get a feel for how the previous Lord's administration worked so that you'll have better understanding on how to run yours. (E.g. Scout potential sites or natural resources for future development; observe whether the ecosystem of fauna & flora is balanced; understand which issues plaguing the fief to prioritize, establish a relationship with the Adventurers, locate which areas require fortification, read about the history of the land, etc.)
- Location
- Florida
Voting is closed, update will be tonight or tomorrow.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Plan Stabilized Foundation
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Damit still won tho
- Pronouns
- He/Him
dose anyone else know of any story like this (cultivation lord) I cant find any.
Spring, 1032 - The Chamberlain
- Location
- Florida
[X] Plan Stabilized Foundation
-[X] Sneak into Toril and perform a surprise inspection on the books. If someone was skimming, you did not want to give them a chance to cover their tracks. With the Lord ill, who knows what he might have overlooked. Dying was a major distraction from one's duties.
-[X] Replace the previous Lord's people with handpicked individuals you know would be loyal to you and you alone. They might be loyal to the local lord, they might be spies. You had no way to know and you were confident in your spies ability to screen people for various posts. They are less effective at vetting the people already in place given you have so few spies in Bloodthorn valley to work with.
-[X] Focus on Surveying. You are a newly appointed Lord; without the necessary preparation and background you will almost certainly make a mistake in the future. Take a tour around your new fief to familiarize yourself with the locals and get a feel for how the previous Lord's administration worked so that you'll have better understanding on how to run yours. (E.g. Scout potential sites or natural resources for future development; observe whether the ecosystem of fauna & flora is balanced; understand which issues plaguing the fief to prioritize, establish a relationship with the Adventurers, locate which areas require fortification, read about the history of the land, etc.)
5 people have voted
-[X] Sneak into Toril and perform a surprise inspection on the books. If someone was skimming, you did not want to give them a chance to cover their tracks. With the Lord ill, who knows what he might have overlooked. Dying was a major distraction from one's duties.
-[X] Replace the previous Lord's people with handpicked individuals you know would be loyal to you and you alone. They might be loyal to the local lord, they might be spies. You had no way to know and you were confident in your spies ability to screen people for various posts. They are less effective at vetting the people already in place given you have so few spies in Bloodthorn valley to work with.
-[X] Focus on Surveying. You are a newly appointed Lord; without the necessary preparation and background you will almost certainly make a mistake in the future. Take a tour around your new fief to familiarize yourself with the locals and get a feel for how the previous Lord's administration worked so that you'll have better understanding on how to run yours. (E.g. Scout potential sites or natural resources for future development; observe whether the ecosystem of fauna & flora is balanced; understand which issues plaguing the fief to prioritize, establish a relationship with the Adventurers, locate which areas require fortification, read about the history of the land, etc.)
5 people have voted
The Imperial Highway that connected all the fiefs of the Empire were regularly patrolled by His Imperial Majesty's troops. Given that it was no surprise that the trip to Bloodthorn Valley was uneventful. Your entourage was relatively small for a full fledged lord, just twenty talented soldiers. A company was more the norm for a man in your new position but then again, your twenty men were worth a company of common soldiers.
The sky was a beautiful blue, the sun beaming down upon you. The valley itself was bright with the colors of spring. Flowers dotted the ground as you traversed an old stone road that paralleled the river. The river itself was lovely, its crystal clear water a sight to behold. You could see healthy schools of fish swimming downriver toward the ocean, salmon perhaps. There were no spirit beasts to interrupt your travel, thankfully. Now that you were in the valley proper that was a risk, spirit beasts wandered down from the mountains from time to time to snack on the tasty spirit cores of humans that called the valley home. The local guardsmen patrolled, of course, but it took a proper cultivator to handle such a beast. Hence the need for a proper lord for the valley, one who could kill the spirit beasts with his bare hands if need be.
As you approached Toril you changed from your noble traveling clothes to something a bit more worn, a bit more peasant like. You took a horse and rode on ahead, intending to use what little ninjutsu you knew and the badge of your new office to find your way to the fief's accounts. It was critical you gave no warning for if someone was embezzling, the first thing they would do with that warning would be to examine their accounts and correct them. Embezzlers were naturally a lazy sort and it took a real threat for them to do their best work. If they were honest men, willing to work hard, they would not need to embezzle after all.
The city walls were twelve feet tall with sigils chiseled into the stone, the wooden gate was ten and equally adorned with sigils of power. It was a sizable defense, one that would keep out all but a determined spirit beasts. The local ones anyway, there had been no sightings of a tenth rank spirit beast in Bloodthorn valley in generations. And that was good because it would be years before you were able to handle such a powerful spirit beast and dare to venture into the mountains unescorted. The city itself seemed prosperous, the homes and business in good repair. The roads that wove their way through the city proper were made of proper stone, a sign of wealth for a border town such as this. It seemed your predecessor did a good job if the city could afford such luxuries.
The city guards did not stop a lone, poor traveler to demand bribes as one would expect of such frequently corrupt groups. An investigation of your guardsmen was next on the list after you went over the accounts and the people who collected them. So much to do and so little time to do it before people became aware there was a new Lord and cover their tracks.
The palace itself was modest, just a mansion with two wings and likely less than fifty rooms. It was enough to house your personal guards, the servants, and your advisers but not much more. It was within the realm of expectation for such a place and a sign the Lord himself was not skimming funds. The first sign of a Lord embezzling is an impressive palace to convince his guests he was more powerful than he was.
There were two guards on a small servants entrance, likely the one used for deliveries of food for the kitchen. The two guards were attentive but no match for a proper cultivator, a fact you would need to keep in mind for your own protection. You knocked them out to clear your way and slipped inside. Someone would likely raise an alarm soon but by then you hoped to have corned the Chamberlain in his office, the place where the accounts would be kept as such a man was responsible for both the receipt and the paying out of funds for a Lord's household. A Lord's household was synonymous with a fief's government in these times.
No one paid much attention to you as you traveled the servants' halls to your destination. The servants were too busy with their jobs to be aroused to curiosity by a stranger in their midst. It helped that you carried nothing, had nothing that could be interpreted as taken from the Lord's home.
You finally arrived at the Chamberlain's office after several minutes of travel. The guard posted at the door frowned at you and said, "You do not belong here, sir. Let me escort you out."
You, in turn, presented your signet ring of office. The seal of the Lord of Bloodthorn Valley. The guard frown deepened but he said nothing as he opened the door for you. He had no idea why some peasant would have that ring or need access to the Chamberlain's office but it was not his place to question. That and the Chamberlain was in so if there was an issue it would be resolved quickly.
The door opened and a portly man in traditional robes sat behind a desk, pen to scroll. He glanced up at you and said, "Why are you bothering me with this riff raff, Yang? Escort the peasant out."
You shrugged and presented the ring again and said evenly, "I am Bai Shen, Lord of Bloodthorn Valley. I am here to examine your books, specifically your household accounts and tax rolls."
The Chamberlain frowned but could tell the ring was legitimate and he was aware that someone would come to replace his dying lord eventually. He said evenly from his seat, "Why, a member of the family? A pleasure to meet you. I suppose there is nothing confidential in the household accounts so there is no reason to deny your request, even if the way you've gone about it is most unusual. Sneaking in here looking like a peasant."
The words were met with another shrug of your shoulders. No warning was best and no warning did the good chamberlain have. You replied, "I prefer to keep a low profile. The displays of wealth that interest other men are of no interest to me. Now, the books."
The Chamberlain rose from his chair and escorted you to a closet in his office. He opened the door to reveal a large number of shelves filled to the brim with books. He said, "All our tax records and household accounts for the past ten years are here. If you want older, you'll need to go down to the archives."
You smiled and replied, "No, ten years should be more than enough. I'll need your desk as well."
The Chamberlain huffed and left you in his office, undoubtedly to fetch the current lord of the manor to complain but there was nothing he could do. The man's position was at the pleasure of the head of the Bai family and that had expired.
The first thing to strike you was the household accounts themselves were a bit sloppier than you'd like, the handwriting clearly rushed. Legible, of course, but still not something that should be penned by the Chamberlain of a Lord as wealthy as Bloodthorn Valley appeared to be. It took you the rest of the day to examine a couple years worth of household accounts but you found an odd consistency in the form of regular payments of identical sums to various supplies like clockwork. The only notation was "supplies" which was odd given how detailed the rest of the notations were. The other payments to suppliers also varied month to month and year to year while the payments you had taken note of did not.
Satisfied something was amiss, you decided to fire the Chamberlain and replace him with your own man. A more thorough investigation of the tax rolls and the collectors of such taxes would be something you saved for tomorrow.
Tax Collection Investigation Options
Tax Office: 50 Effectiveness, 50 Tradition
[ ] Thorough. One Month. You would send out your personal guards to spot check as many accounts, spanning the entire fief, as they could in a month. Each time asking what the person recalled paying and comparing it to the actual tax rolls in the Chamberlain's office. It was important to have things as accurate as possible. Of course, it would take a month of your time and you would be left without real protection for that time since you had no one else you could trust in place yet. (-20 Tradition, +20 Effectiveness)
[ ] Substantial. Two weeks. You would send your personal guards out to spot check the accounts from the nearest villages, no need to check out the entire fief. A cautious thief would steal from as far away as possible to discourage investigation but you would catch the worst offenders. (-10 Tradition, +10 Effectiveness)
[ ] Limited. One week. You would just examine the tax rolls themselves for oddities and not worry about sending your guards out. It would only catch the stupidest thieves, or thieves that had bribed the dishonest Chamberlain to sloppily cover for them. (+5 Effectiveness)
New Stats:
Tradition represents how stable and infiltration-resistant an institution is. It is the "defense" stat when an institution is attacked by an outside party. Low tradition can also have bad consequences to institution morale and result in corruption from random events.
Effectiveness represents how effective and honestly an institution is at performing its job. It applies to actions the institution takes on your behalf. (i.e. Collecting taxes) So higher tax revenue comes from having higher effectiveness in this instance.
New Chamberlain
[ ] Ito Akari - Stewardship Adviser: +20
Frugal - Ito Akari will decrease expenses for all projects by 10%
[ ] Huang Zhao - Stewardship Adviser +20
Greedy - Huang Zhao will increase tax revenue by 10% but is prone to skimming some of that extra revenue.
[ ] Liu Chen - Stewardship Adviser +30
Please vote by plan.
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- Location
- USA
[X] Plan: Broken Tradition for a Effective tomorrow
-[X] Thorough. One Month. You would send out your personal guards to spot check as many accounts, spanning the entire fief, as they could in a month. Each time asking what the person recalled paying and comparing it to the actual tax rolls in the Chamberlain's office. It was important to have things as accurate as possible. Of course, it would take a month of your time and you would be left without real protection for that time since you had no one else you could trust in place yet. (-20 Tradition, +20 Effectiveness)
-[X] Liu Chen - Stewardship Adviser +30
-[X] Thorough. One Month. You would send out your personal guards to spot check as many accounts, spanning the entire fief, as they could in a month. Each time asking what the person recalled paying and comparing it to the actual tax rolls in the Chamberlain's office. It was important to have things as accurate as possible. Of course, it would take a month of your time and you would be left without real protection for that time since you had no one else you could trust in place yet. (-20 Tradition, +20 Effectiveness)
-[X] Liu Chen - Stewardship Adviser +30
[X] Substantial. Two weeks. You would send your personal guards out to spot check the accounts from the nearest villages, no need to check out the entire fief. A cautious thief would steal from as far away as possible to discourage investigation but you would catch the worst offenders. (-10 Tradition, +10 Effectiveness)
[X] Liu Chen - Stewardship Adviser +30
[X] Liu Chen - Stewardship Adviser +30
- Location
- Where I an right now
[X] Plan Frugal Fools
-[X] Substantial. Two weeks. You would send your personal guards out to spot check the accounts from the nearest villages, no need to check out the entire fief. A cautious thief would steal from as far away as possible to discourage investigation but you would catch the worst offenders. (-10 Tradition, +10 Effectiveness)
-[X] Ito Akari - Stewardship Adviser: +20
Frugal - Ito Akari will decrease expenses for all projects by 10%
Projects always get really expensive later on, this 10% will save a lot in the mid to late game
-[X] Substantial. Two weeks. You would send your personal guards out to spot check the accounts from the nearest villages, no need to check out the entire fief. A cautious thief would steal from as far away as possible to discourage investigation but you would catch the worst offenders. (-10 Tradition, +10 Effectiveness)
-[X] Ito Akari - Stewardship Adviser: +20
Frugal - Ito Akari will decrease expenses for all projects by 10%
Projects always get really expensive later on, this 10% will save a lot in the mid to late game
- Location
- UK
[X] Plan: Broken Tradition for a Effective tomorrow
Also, I don't really see the point for half measures regarding corruption. Far better to go through a month of disruption now to completely eliminate it, than to have to deal with it later during a war or something, let alone if we just leave it be and suffer from corruption for the rest of the quest.
Projects will also get more difficult later on, and a bonus of +30 is 50% more than +20. In general anyway, the more efficient our stewardship, the less likely we'll have to deal with costly delays on projects, and stuff like that.
Also, I don't really see the point for half measures regarding corruption. Far better to go through a month of disruption now to completely eliminate it, than to have to deal with it later during a war or something, let alone if we just leave it be and suffer from corruption for the rest of the quest.
- Location
- Germany
[X] Plan: Broken Tradition for a Effective tomorrow
- Location
- Where I an right now
If tradition takes to many hits, then there is a good chance of more corruption showing up