[X] Spend the expected amount in compensation. Your knights would fare a little better, your common soldiers a little worse, but in the end it was what was expected of you and that was OK. (-4 Silver Bars / Injured/Dead Man; -44 Silver Bars; Net: +136 Silver Bars to be spent as you see fit; Direwolf Cores sold to the Alchemist Guild)
[X] Leave them in peace. You knew about them now and could come back at your leisure to remove them. (Safe option)
[X] Investigate the Grass. (+7 Days to Expedition; Alchemy roll to discover the effects of the grass and their alchemical properties.)
Generosity is all well and good but we can't sustain it.
[X] Spend the expected amount in compensation. Your knights would fare a little better, your common soldiers a little worse, but in the end it was what was expected of you and that was OK. (-4 Silver Bars / Injured/Dead Man; -44 Silver Bars; Net: +136 Silver Bars to be spent as you see fit; Direwolf Cores sold to the Alchemist Guild)
We have clear winners so I'm closing the vote; post will probably be up tomorrow.
Adhoc vote count started by ChaosCircle on Sep 3, 2020 at 4:25 PM, finished with 20 posts and 17 votes.
[X] Spend the expected amount in compensation. Your knights would fare a little better, your common soldiers a little worse, but in the end it was what was expected of you and that was OK. (-4 Silver Bars / Injured/Dead Man; -44 Silver Bars; Net: +136 Silver Bars to be spent as you see fit; Direwolf Cores sold to the Alchemist Guild)
[X] Spend almost all of the money on your injured knights and to compensate the families of the fallen soldiers. (-110 Silver Bars; Net +70 Silver Bars; Direwolf Cores sold to the Alchemist Guild) Gain the Trait: Generous (+2 Diplomacy; Upgradeable). People will expect such generous compensation in the future and will be disappointed if you do not provide it. (-10 Silver Bars / Injured/Dead Man)
[X] Investigate the Grass Later. ( Adds an Investigate the Grass option to future turn orders as a personal action or as an action assigned to the Alchemist Guild. )
[X] Spend the expected amount in compensation. Your knights would fare a little better, your common soldiers a little worse, but in the end it was what was expected of you and that was OK. (-4 Silver Bars / Injured/Dead Man; -44 Silver Bars; Net: +136 Silver Bars to be spent as you see fit; Direwolf Cores sold to the Alchemist Guild)
[X] Leave them in peace. You knew about them now and could come back at your leisure to remove them. (Safe option)
[X] Investigate the Grass. (+7 Days to Expedition; Alchemy roll to discover the effects of the grass and their alchemical properties.)
Cultivation Roll to gather ambient spirit energy: 1D100+40 => 83
Alchemy Roll to research the grass: 1D100+30 => 95
Feature roll #2: 1D100+10 => 52
Feature roll #3: 1D100+10 => 96
Cultivation Roll to gather ambient spirit energy: 1D100+40 => 81
Note: These are singular acts of cultivation intended for assessment and not power increase. There is some marginal power increase but its not enough to be statistically relevant stats wise.
You were pleased the loot would cover your costs with a little extra even if the attack had led to injuries and death among your men. You paid out what was expected with an average of 4 silver bars per casualty. It was a fair price in the eyes of the law and your fellow nobles and that was what mattered. Peer pressure was a thing and if you were too generous or too miserly you would end be looked at as an oddity, an experience you very much wished to avoid. The mens' families would be happy with the payment, even if they would have preferred more. It was a sizable sum, representing a year's wages but it was not enough for them to be set for life. They wives would need to find new husbands to support them, that was just the way of things.
The casualties had left a bad taste in your mouth, your first taste of real combat with real monsters. You had no desire to taste it further and you established a fortified camp several hours from the direwolves' lair. You could send for adventurers to deal with the direwolves if you wanted to remove them. Those reckless fools were eager to fight such battles against such monsters, unlike common soldiers and knights who had more sense.
The grass which your horses loved on the other hand was something that required immediate investigation. Spirit grain and other plants infused with spirit energy were unusually tasty. The grass was likely infused with such spirit energy, spirit energy that could be put to good use. It also explained the direwolf den, the animals that grazed here were likely filled with spirit energy. Spirit energy that would strengthen the spirit cores of natural wolves until they evolved into their powerful direwolf cousins.
Once the camp was established, you sat cross legged on a patch of grass set aside within the camp for this purpose. Your eyes closed as you slipped into a meditative trance, a common precursor to true cultivation. Green spirit energy glowed bright enough to be visible through your closed eyelids, a common side effect of areas of high spirit density. Green was the color of the Earth and it became clear that the source of this power came from deep within the earth, the grass merely fed upon it with their intricate root systems.
Satisfied with your initial investigation you moved on to the next step. You began to take deep, measured breaths of the pranayama variety as you attuned yourself to the spirit energy that surrounded you. You lost any sense of time as you meditated upon your breath, as you began to inhale and exhale raw Earth spirit energy. The final step was to filter that spirit energy through your body and into your spirit core, your soul. This process empowered mortal flesh with unnatural power.
After a few hours of inhaling and exhaling the spirit energy of the place, of concentrating it in your spirit core, you felt a burning sensation in your lungs that warned you it was time to stop. People who fought their way through that sensation would slowly destroy their lungs, dantians, and meridians. So you stopped.
You were certain the spirit density of the place was higher than was natural but not quite high enough to be considered of the second rank. Too bad, expanding the spirit grain farms would be a major coup for your clan. Few clans had a spirit grain farm and herb garden of their own. Only the very wealthiest had three such places.
Your initial, and most profitable, line of inquiry completed you moved onto to examining the grass more directly. You had a case with all sorts of alchemical fluids you could use to assess the potency and potential of the grass. Alchemy was your main reason for investigating the rural areas between these villages after all, a chance to find a source of rare herbs or other materials that might have some value to the clan. A sufficiently valuable discovery would cement your position as the lord of Bloodthorn Valley, even beyond the nepotism your father showed by appointing only his children to manage the clan fiefs. Once things settled, nepotism may not be enough to hold onto your position if you failed to show some degree of progress.
It took a couple days of experimenting with potions and elixirs to determine the basic properties of the grass. The news was both good and bad. The good was it was suffused with earth spirit energy and therefore useful for alchemy. The bad news is the horse begun to get sick, forcing you to march on foot for a couple days to get safely beyond the spirit energy infused grass so the horses could recover. It was mildly poisonous so the recovery took a few days but no horses were lost in the process.
Further testing revealed anything made from it would likely share that mildly poisonous quality which was unfortunate. However, in small enough doses tested on your men you were able to determine it was only mild nausea that did not lead to vomiting. So it was usable, just unpleasant.
It took you most of a week of research before you were able to determine some recipes it could work with. It could be substituted for root vegetables in most potions. That was the "grand" discovery you had found. The cheapest ingredient in potions could be replaced by a mildly unpleasant alternative.
That settled it. It was a poison that tasted good. That had value.
So you did what any alchemist would do, you found a volunteer and paid him handsomely to consume a concentrated dose of the poison. You were certain it would not kill him. You were not so unethical as to murder one of your soldiers after all.
The net result was the man was bed ridden for a day before making a full recovery. Symptoms were consistent with food poisoning.
Mild poisons like this had a market, usually to poison guards or cultivators in preparation for an assassination attempt. The fact it tasted sweet meant any dessert would be a suitable delivery vehicle. You did not want to become "known" as a seller of poisons, or so you thought. That said, volume would be higher if people knew about it. Higher volume meant a higher income. Decisions, decisions.
[ ] Sell the poison openly to the highest bidder once the wolves were cleared out. (+400 Silver Ingots/Year; 2/3rds of which would be lost to taxes and collection fees) Gain the "Nefarious" trait. (+2 Intrigue, -2 Diplomacy, Upgradeable)
--- [ ] Hire adventurers to clear out the wolves. -400 Ingots.
--- [ ] Leave the situation to be resolved later.
[ ] Sell the poison quietly at wholesale to known traffickers in poisons. Let adventurers handle collections so your hands were clean. (+100 Silver Ingots/Year; 2/3rds of which would be lost to taxes and collection fees).
The mystery of the grass resolved you moved on to the village of Baoshan. Their fortifications were massive wooden stakes planted in the ground to form a stockade. It was clear they were prepared but not as well prepared as Mors for the orc raids. That was unfortunate but then again, Orcs tended to hit the first village they encountered and fade into darkness so perhaps there was some practicality to such minimal defenses. Riders had gone ahead to warn them of your arrival, now that the horses had recovered, and enabled them to prepare a competently executed feast of pork, duck, various vegetables, and rice. Your men enjoyed themselves, even if they had to eat outside, and the villagers were happy for the protection you provided their village. That, and of course, the Knight responsible for that village would be extremely unhappy if he was shamed by a failure to provide. It was a vassal's duty to house and feast one's lord when that lord visited.
The rural lands between Baoshan and Hongcun were devoid of anything but the normal herds of cattle and sheep that herders sometimes drove into the wilds to feed, particularly in spring when the fields of grass were still recovering from winter's effects. You had hopped for something of value but you would settle for no further injuries.
Hongcun had much in common with Baoshan. A stockade. Mud and wood huts. A stone mansion in the center for the local knight. A competently executed feast that left little room for variety compared to what the villagers would eat on feast days. The only real difference was Hongcun served lamb in place of pork as they tended to have more sheep than pigs. That was fair, you had no intention of starving your own peasants or demanding variety from them.
Your journey from Hongcun to Nanjing continued much as it had from Baoshan to Hongcun until you came across a lovely hot spring. A hot spring with enough water/earth spirit energy you could feel its presence from passive observation. This called for an investigation of course so you stopped your retinue for the night around the hot springs, letting the men bathe in it out of curiosity.
Once your men established camp, you immersed yourself in the hot spring and felt its energy flow into your body even before you began to meditate. It warmed you, it strengthened you. You closed your eyes and slipped into a meditative trance and within seconds you saw cyan spirit energy that glowed brightly enough to penetrate your closed eyelids. It was far brighter than the cao grass you had discovered earlier and that was promising.
Satisfied you moved onto the next step and took deep, measured breaths of the pranayama variety as you attuned yourself to the spirit energy of the hot spring. You lost track of time as you meditated upon your breath, as you inhaled the raw spirit energy into your lungs. Then you began to filter that spirit energy into your body and into your spirit core, your soul. This process granted cultivators their power. After a few hours of cultivation, you felt the familiar burning sensation in your lungs and stopped. It would do to damage yourself after all. Too many cultivators tried to cultivate too much, too fast and irreparably damaged themselves in the process.
You estimated the strength of this particular site was of the 5th rank, or Spirit Density 5. It seemed the local lords had been lax in their surveying of the land, an oversight you were now very glad you had remedied. This site would help cultivators gather power and cultivate with a level of efficiency few could match. The question was, did you keep this to you and yours? Or did you open a cultivation resort where you invited allied cultivators to augment their power and visit your fief? The revenue might be nice but it would lead to allies poking around year round.
[ ] Cultivation Resort: A site of powerful Qi in the nearby wilderness, where mages from the Bai clan or allied clans can go to cultivate
++ 1000 Ingots / Year in revenue; 2/3rds of which would be lost to taxes and collection fees
++ Allied cultivators to fend off attacks against your fief.
++ You (and your Knights/Advisers and Bai Clan members) may enter Seclusion to use the Cultivation Resort to speed up Cultivation by 2.5x, in addition to the usual effects of Seclusion. Earth and/or Water cultivators benefit 3x.
--- Allied cultivators poking around and potentially damaging your reputation if you do anything nefarious. Or just fail to settle things in their favor.
[ ] Cultivation Retreat: A site of powerful Qi in the nearby wilderness where mages from the Bai clan and their vassals may cultivate.
++ You (and your Knights/Advisers and Bai Clan members) may enter Seclusion to use the Cultivation Resort to speed up Cultivation by 2.5x, in addition to the usual effects of Seclusion. Earth and/or Water cultivators benefit 3x.
++ Increase in vassal loyalty from cultivators as they do not want to lose this privilege. Does not apply to revolts intended to remove you from power.
Seclusion: Seclusion is a personal action that consumes all personal actions for a given turn in return for doubling your Cultivation rate for that turn.
++ 2x Cultivation, each action consumed is the equivalent of one Cultivate action.
++ Characters in Seclusion have 50% passive resistance to assassination attempts.
--- Characters in Seclusion are unavailable to respond to intra-turn crises that might arise, such as orc raids.
--- Characters in Seclusion do not provide their normal bonuses (such as an Intrigue Adviser providing Intrigue Bonuses) as they are considered unavailable for that turn.
Cultivation: Cultivation is a standard personal action that causes a cultivator to cultivate. If a named character is a cultivator, it is assumed that they take this personal action if no actions are specified. (i.e. Your advisers will gain power each turn they can cultivate normally)
++ (1d100+Cultivation)/10 Power Increase.
2/3rds of income being lost? Ouch just what sort of taxes are we under?
Also that cultivation site is very nice, more than doubling cultivation growth is very good.
[X] Sell the poison quietly at wholesale to known traffickers in poisons. Let adventurers handle collections so your hands were clean. (+100 Silver Ingots/Year; 2/3rds of which would be lost to taxes and collection fees).
[X] Cultivation Retreat: A site of powerful Qi in the nearby wilderness where mages from the Bai clan and their vassals may cultivate.
Went with retreat for better vassal loyalty and not having to deal with the headache of an allied cultivator causing problems due to getting upset at treatment.
[X] Sell the poison quietly at wholesale to known traffickers in poisons. Let adventurers handle collections so your hands were clean. (+100 Silver Ingots/Year; 2/3rds of which would be lost to taxes and collection fees).
[X] Cultivation Retreat: A site of powerful Qi in the nearby wilderness where mages from the Bai clan and their vassals may cultivate.
++ You (and your Knights/Advisers and Bai Clan members) may enter Seclusion to use the Cultivation Resort to speed up Cultivation by 2.5x, in addition to the usual effects of Seclusion. Earth and/or Water cultivators benefit 3x.
++ Increase in vassal loyalty from cultivators as they do not want to lose this privilege. Does not apply to revolts intended to remove you from power.
[X] Sell the poison quietly at wholesale to known traffickers in poisons. Let adventurers handle collections so your hands were clean. (+100 Silver Ingots/Year; 2/3rds of which would be lost to taxes and collection fees).
[X] Cultivation Retreat: A site of powerful Qi in the nearby wilderness where mages from the Bai clan and their vassals may cultivate.
considering that our Fief already is considered pretty rich, we don't need the income right now. There is also something to be said for making our personal forces stronger and more loyal
[X] Sell the poison quietly at wholesale to known traffickers in poisons. Let adventurers handle collections so your hands were clean. (+100 Silver Ingots/Year; 2/3rds of which would be lost to taxes and collection fees).
[X] Cultivation Resort: A site of powerful Qi in the nearby wilderness, where mages from the Bai clan or allied clans can go to cultivate
[X] Sell the poison openly to the highest bidder once the wolves were cleared out. (+400 Silver Ingots/Year; 2/3rds of which would be lost to taxes and collection fees) Gain the "Nefarious" trait. (+2 Intrigue, -2 Diplomacy, Upgradeable)
---[X] Hire adventurers to clear out the wolves. -400 Ingots.
[X] Cultivation Resort: A site of powerful Qi in the nearby wilderness, where mages from the Bai clan or allied clans can go to cultivate
++ 1000 Ingots / Year in revenue; 2/3rds of which would be lost to taxes and collection fees
++ Allied cultivators to fend off attacks against your fief.
++ You (and your Knights/Advisers and Bai Clan members) may enter Seclusion to use the Cultivation Resort to speed up Cultivation by 2.5x, in addition to the usual effects of Seclusion. Earth and/or Water cultivators benefit 3x.
--- Allied cultivators poking around and potentially damaging your reputation if you do anything nefarious. Or just fail to settle things in their favor.
[X] Sell the poison openly to the highest bidder once the wolves were cleared out. (+400 Silver Ingots/Year; 2/3rds of which would be lost to taxes and collection fees) Gain the "Nefarious" trait. (+2 Intrigue, -2 Diplomacy, Upgradeable)
---[X] Hire adventurers to clear out the wolves. -400 Ingots.
[X] Cultivation Resort: A site of powerful Qi in the nearby wilderness, where mages from the Bai clan or allied clans can go to cultivate
++ 1000 Ingots / Year in revenue; 2/3rds of which would be lost to taxes and collection fees
++ Allied cultivators to fend off attacks against your fief.
++ You (and your Knights/Advisers and Bai Clan members) may enter Seclusion to use the Cultivation Resort to speed up Cultivation by 2.5x, in addition to the usual effects of Seclusion. Earth and/or Water cultivators benefit 3x.
--- Allied cultivators poking around and potentially damaging your reputation if you do anything nefarious. Or just fail to settle things in their favor.
I think we should go for the money. Those taxes are brutal and something tells me we will need the money. Remember we need to send a pretty significant portion over to the family as tribute, orc raiders are coming and any resources we find in the mountains are going to require fortresses to keep safe. I can't imagine that being cheap. Also the nefarious trait isn't bad, especially since our speciality is poison anyway. People are never not going to see us as a potential poisoner due to being an alchemist.
[X] Sell the poison quietly at wholesale to known traffickers in poisons. Let adventurers handle collections so your hands were clean. (+100 Silver Ingots/Year; 2/3rds of which would be lost to taxes and collection fees).
[X] Cultivation Resort: A site of powerful Qi in the nearby wilderness, where mages from the Bai clan or allied clans can go to cultivate
[X] Sell the poison quietly at wholesale to known traffickers in poisons. Let adventurers handle collections so your hands were clean. (+100 Silver Ingots/Year; 2/3rds of which would be lost to taxes and collection fees).
[X] Cultivation Resort: A site of powerful Qi in the nearby wilderness, where mages from the Bai clan or allied clans can go to cultivate
This is a roughly 25% jump in profit, pretty tidy. @ChaosCircle is there an option to investigate what is empowering the grass?
[X] Sell the poison quietly at wholesale to known traffickers in poisons. Let adventurers handle collections so your hands were clean. (+100 Silver Ingots/Year; 2/3rds of which would be lost to taxes and collection fees).
[X] Cultivation Retreat: A site of powerful Qi in the nearby wilderness where mages from the Bai clan and their vassals may cultivate.
[X] Sell the poison quietly at wholesale to known traffickers in poisons. Let adventurers handle collections so your hands were clean. (+100 Silver Ingots/Year; 2/3rds of which would be lost to taxes and collection fees).
[X] Cultivation Resort: A site of powerful Qi in the nearby wilderness, where mages from the Bai clan or allied clans can go to cultivate
A third of our income as a tax? Is that including tribute to the family and such, or is the local taxation really just that brutal?
[X] Sell the poison openly to the highest bidder once the wolves were cleared out. (+400 Silver Ingots/Year; 2/3rds of which would be lost to taxes and collection fees) Gain the "Nefarious" trait. (+2 Intrigue, -2 Diplomacy, Upgradeable)
--- [X] Hire adventurers to clear out the wolves. -400 Ingots.
[X] Cultivation Retreat: A site of powerful Qi in the nearby wilderness where mages from the Bai clan and their vassals may cultivate.
I think that getting money is important, but I think loyalty is more important. Considered possibly waiting till later to resolve the wolves. But the only other way I can see of taking care of them is to send our own troops to do it. I don't know if an extra lost action is worth less than 400 Ingots typically. Also, In the description of the Resort it says that there could be trouble if people see us do nefarious things. If we are already doing poison trading, then that makes things likely to be found out. Or amplified to be worse
[X] Sell the poison quietly at wholesale to known traffickers in poisons. Let adventurers handle collections so your hands were clean. (+100 Silver Ingots/Year; 2/3rds of which would be lost to taxes and collection fees).
[X] Cultivation Retreat: A site of powerful Qi in the nearby wilderness where mages from the Bai clan and their vassals may cultivate.
++ You (and your Knights/Advisers and Bai Clan members) may enter Seclusion to use the Cultivation Resort to speed up Cultivation by 2.5x, in addition to the usual effects of Seclusion. Earth and/or Water cultivators benefit 3x.
++ Increase in vassal loyalty from cultivators as they do not want to lose this privilege. Does not apply to revolts intended to remove you from power.
[X] Sell the poison quietly at wholesale to known traffickers in poisons. Let adventurers handle collections so your hands were clean. (+100 Silver Ingots/Year; 2/3rds of which would be lost to taxes and collection fees).
[X] Cultivation Retreat: A site of powerful Qi in the nearby wilderness where mages from the Bai clan and their vassals may cultivate.
As always, I think publicly announcing and opening a Cultivation Resort when the Protagonist is only a newly established Rank 3 Cultivator is literally begging for Nearby Rivals to infiltrate our fief, especially concerning with our weak '30 Tradition' bureaucracy.
Character Creation clearly outlined the downsides of our Rich Fief, namely everyone salivating over the potential wealth from stealing our land, do we really want to add yet another potentially growing issue to our workload?
This behavior is also why I advocated not to go All-in on Scouting, our time is precious because we're on shaky ground.
[X] Sell the poison quietly at wholesale to known traffickers in poisons. Let adventurers handle collections so your hands were clean. (+100 Silver Ingots/Year; 2/3rds of which would be lost to taxes and collection fees).
[X] Cultivation Retreat: A site of powerful Qi in the nearby wilderness where mages from the Bai clan and their vassals may cultivate.
We can switch these options later to be more public, but we can't switch from being public to being sneaky. Let's be quiet about our discoveries, at least for now.
Excellent to have that cultivation site, we need to work on personal cultivation soon.
[X] Sell the poison openly to the highest bidder once the wolves were cleared out. (+400 Silver Ingots/Year; 2/3rds of which would be lost to taxes and collection fees) Gain the "Nefarious" trait. (+2 Intrigue, -2 Diplomacy, Upgradeable)
--- [X] Hire adventurers to clear out the wolves. -400 Ingots.
[X] Cultivation Retreat: A site of powerful Qi in the nearby wilderness where mages from the Bai clan and their vassals may cultivate.
Selling the poison openly is likely to lead to other opportunities presenting themselves such as other ingredients or clients, which is handy given our character is an alchemist so we can actually exploit them. It will also be valuable information for us to know just who would be buying it.
I went for the retreat as we're still in the early game and loyalty is still vitally important. We don't really want to double down on other reasons to exemplify our wealth if it'll make others more greedy. Better in the short term to empower our clan and vassals, then later on open it up.
[X] Sell the poison quietly at wholesale to known traffickers in poisons. Let adventurers handle collections so your hands were clean. (+100 Silver Ingots/Year; 2/3rds of which would be lost to taxes and collection fees).
[X] Cultivation Retreat: A site of powerful Qi in the nearby wilderness where mages from the Bai clan and their vassals may cultivate.
Can we learn another element?
Adhoc vote count started by ChaosCircle on Sep 4, 2020 at 3:16 PM, finished with 19 posts and 16 votes.
[X] Sell the poison quietly at wholesale to known traffickers in poisons. Let adventurers handle collections so your hands were clean. (+100 Silver Ingots/Year; 2/3rds of which would be lost to taxes and collection fees).
[X] Sell the poison openly to the highest bidder once the wolves were cleared out. (+400 Silver Ingots/Year; 2/3rds of which would be lost to taxes and collection fees) Gain the "Nefarious" trait. (+2 Intrigue, -2 Diplomacy, Upgradeable)
