Nice, thanks. And what about this:
Or do you prefer not saying?
Money and Power: A Xianxia Merchant Quest
- Thread starter Mr. Prokosch
- Start date
In the Matriarch Leads you'll be entirely in control of your own time. Theoretically you could pick it and then focus on cultivation, but you probably won't. More likely it will slow your cultivation the most as you focus on the clan like your brother is now.
With I can learn, your brother will monopolize most of your time for a while, and it won't be used for cultivation. It flows naturally into The Matriarch Leads, but I may hold a vote later to delegate the day to day to your brother once you have a handle on it.
With Figurehead, your brother will make sure you have more than enough time to cultivate.
With I can learn, your brother will monopolize most of your time for a while, and it won't be used for cultivation. It flows naturally into The Matriarch Leads, but I may hold a vote later to delegate the day to day to your brother once you have a handle on it.
With Figurehead, your brother will make sure you have more than enough time to cultivate.
Well, then. I like having the freedom to do what I want, and having the most options to pick from. So it sounds like I should vote:
[X] Keep her close
[X] The Matriarch Leads
[X] Keep her close
[X] The Matriarch Leads
- Location
- Sydney
[X] Back to the sect with your blessing
[X] I can learn
[X] I can learn
J.I.M.S
BookWyrm
- Location
- Latveria
This was hilarious to me.
HA going off of Tet and Itst the guy probably had more than a flaw.
Not incorrect but could have been phrased more diplomatically.
[X] Keep her close
Family is family. I believe she'll try to look out for us in her own way if she stays.
[X] Write-in: Review paperwork. Did our father and Lord Tlaloc have a contract? Look through it if so.
[X] Write-in: Buy the Heavenspan River. Whether through a large one time payment or through instalments the River will be ours.
[X] Write-in: A deal. In exchange for lowering rent and not charging for each gallon extracted from the Heavenspan River a tax of elixirs will be given. Surely the Lord is open to negotiation?
[X] Write-in: Do more with less. Experiment and find a way to supplement or outright eliminate the use of Heavenspan water in elixirs that use it.
[X] Write-in: Decline. Respectfully decline. If Lord Tlaloc will not be swayed on the matter than it's time to move operations. He can't control all the river right? Find it's source or go down it and resume operations there.
[X] Write-in: Investigate Lord Tlaloc. There's probably a reason why the Lord is now asking for rent and a price for every gallon extracted. Finding out could help in us in reinstating the clan's harvesting rights. Maybe.
[X] Write-in: Marriage?! Bind the clan and Lord Tlaloc's interests together through marriage. Surely the Lord will have a descendant or two laying around. Ideally it'll eliminate rent and the per gallon charge. For the clan!
[X] Write-in: Experiment. Improve elixirs that use Heavenspan water to justify an increase in price. Whether it be taste, activation time, side effects, potency of effects and or shelf life it can all be improved to justify a bump in price.
[X] Write-in: Price cutting. Is there a way to lower the cost of other things that go into making elixirs that use Heavenspan water? Vials, herbs, time, minerals, animal parts. Make it cost less. Now!
[X] I can learn
I came here for merchant simulator and you don't friggin skip the tutorial. IC we'll bond with the Teo and Tet will maybe come out to one up his brother in teaching his sister how things are done. Family bonding!
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The one thing that I am sure about is that Every new approach or idea will help so I want to get as many possible idea's and approaches out there as possible.
@Mr. Prokosch
Going back to an earlier idea that I had can people in transformation effect the land of a true noble by living there.
"Those who channel the earth walk the path of Nobility. They claim a piece of land and all the creatures who dwell upon it. They become the land, and the land becomes them. The two shape one another and draw strength from each other."
@Mr. Prokosch
Going back to an earlier idea that I had can people in transformation effect the land of a true noble by living there.
"Those who channel the earth walk the path of Nobility. They claim a piece of land and all the creatures who dwell upon it. They become the land, and the land becomes them. The two shape one another and draw strength from each other."
Having a higher population and having them at higher levels of cultivation will help a Lord, along with just more land, powerful spirit beasts, natural wonders, etc. It's all in aggregate though. The Lord's territory is fairly small, there are several True Lords that share the 1000 Rivers Region. He has roughly the territory and population of Oregon and the Rivers themselves are quite spiritually valuable.
One resident at the beginning of Transformation just doesn't have enough of an effect to be a negotiation tool. It's barely noticable, like a 0.1% change in overall power. For now your purification aura is good enough to make a neighborhood a little more pleasant to live in. While you're in the HQ everyone in the building will have noticeably fresher air and people standing outside or in neighboring buildings might notice it smells nice.
One resident at the beginning of Transformation just doesn't have enough of an effect to be a negotiation tool. It's barely noticable, like a 0.1% change in overall power. For now your purification aura is good enough to make a neighborhood a little more pleasant to live in. While you're in the HQ everyone in the building will have noticeably fresher air and people standing outside or in neighboring buildings might notice it smells nice.
Perhaps we could offer to use our Cleansing Touch on stuff/areas in his region? Say, a polluted part of the river he rules over or something.
[] Mention the principles of trickle down economics and talk about how you will commit to spending in his territory. Higher taxes mean higher prices which mean that less people will buy the item creating an overall loss. At the prices your asking we cannot afford it and it's unlikely that others can either. If getting the ingredient costs more then the potion sells for then a large part of the market will disappear and the building will sit empty.
[] Dive into other economics books to look into other theories that might help. Not something that I'm going to do
[] Shut down or scale back to something that you can afford without the Patriarch and use the money freed up to invest in something that you can maintain without the tax cuts even if it means losing employees and buildings.
It's disappointing but also expected my question had mainly been about if the tax breaks were about more then friendship and that was answered anyway.
[] Dive into other economics books to look into other theories that might help. Not something that I'm going to do
[] Shut down or scale back to something that you can afford without the Patriarch and use the money freed up to invest in something that you can maintain without the tax cuts even if it means losing employees and buildings.
It's disappointing but also expected my question had mainly been about if the tax breaks were about more then friendship and that was answered anyway.
Novel Solution 8
[X] Offer to handle an aspect related to your clan's operations in his lands that has instead been weighing on the Lord's shoulders until now (security, maintenance, labor, research/development, distribution, etc.)
[X] Offer to handle an aspect related to your clan's operations in his lands that has instead been weighing on the Lord's shoulders until now (security, maintenance, labor, research/development, distribution, etc.)
- Location
- Ireland
[X] Keep her close
[X] I can learn
I thinking keeping her close gives us the potential to gain a valuable ally who actually supports our control of the clan, of course we can't just give up control to our brother if that's the case. She could easily become our martial adviser, though I'm unsure how much value she would provide beyond one on one conflicts.
I want to be in charge of the clans business. Otherwise we might as well have went for the heir. Getting him to teach us could give us time and exposure to turn him to our side and get us our steward. An extremely important position in a merchant clan. I feel if we show ourselves willing to learn, take his advice and in time grow competent enough to lead the clan, he will fall in line so long as he gets an important position and influence to steer the clan.
I don't like that he straight away went and fired those most loyal to us though. This is not a sign of someone with our best interests in mind. Of course our mother may not be the most reliable source on his activities.
The spare worries me. Ideally he could be a good choice for our spymaster. But he seems the most ambitious and vindictive. Is it possible to turn him to our side? Give him benefits to his position? Or are we better just excising the rot?
[X] I can learn
I thinking keeping her close gives us the potential to gain a valuable ally who actually supports our control of the clan, of course we can't just give up control to our brother if that's the case. She could easily become our martial adviser, though I'm unsure how much value she would provide beyond one on one conflicts.
I want to be in charge of the clans business. Otherwise we might as well have went for the heir. Getting him to teach us could give us time and exposure to turn him to our side and get us our steward. An extremely important position in a merchant clan. I feel if we show ourselves willing to learn, take his advice and in time grow competent enough to lead the clan, he will fall in line so long as he gets an important position and influence to steer the clan.
I don't like that he straight away went and fired those most loyal to us though. This is not a sign of someone with our best interests in mind. Of course our mother may not be the most reliable source on his activities.
The spare worries me. Ideally he could be a good choice for our spymaster. But he seems the most ambitious and vindictive. Is it possible to turn him to our side? Give him benefits to his position? Or are we better just excising the rot?
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- Location
- Spain
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[] Keep her close
One thing about this option bothers me deeply ...
What if she wants to go back to the Sect? Forcing her to stay in the clan can make her hostile to us...
On the other hand, we don't have to vote for any of the "What should the Clan do?" option, right? Or do we have to vote? @Mr. Prokosch
By the way, "[] I can learn" it is also CKIII-ish?
One thing about this option bothers me deeply ...
What if she wants to go back to the Sect? Forcing her to stay in the clan can make her hostile to us...
On the other hand, we don't have to vote for any of the "What should the Clan do?" option, right? Or do we have to vote? @Mr. Prokosch
By the way, "[] I can learn" it is also CKIII-ish?
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J.I.M.S
BookWyrm
- Location
- Latveria
I don't know about following the Teo, trying to do a coup all sneaky like doesn't speak well for him as you said. Willing to learn and listen is fine, but I don't really know if Teo will really fall in line. When we get stronger definably.
Since we're clan leader I think(?) Mother is leaning on us to not get kicked out into the cold. She's probably gathering some loyal forces though. Also the people that got fired may have been her people as someone suggested earlier. So... Perhaps Teo was cutting off a coup in progress?! Who knows.
Tet I do not want to have compete all that much with Teo. It'd be exactly what the old man was doing. Other than that Tet's grudge seems to be with Teo and ScumLord, us learning from Teo could be seen as taking a 'side' or could be seen as a opportunity.
The itty bitty clan leader is trying to learn to run the clan. Adorable. Idiot brother is offering to help, better make sure he doesn't screw up or laugh at his failure. In fact, let's have baby sister join my side!
Something like that. Maybe. I'd prefer to have Oku, Teo, Tet, and Itst to all be on our side rather than their own side. Which might mean
- Making Oku strong
- Making Teo great
- Making Tet great
- Making Itst great
Tet might want to get rid of feelings of inadequacy due to being second best and maybe only really dislikes his brother mostly due to the thrice damned Patriarch? Itst doesn't want to be on the streets and apparently has plans to never end up there again?
Teo seems to see nothing but danger everywhere and sees himself as the only solution forward, we might be able to convince him that we can help him by him helping us? Oku might want to get strong, strong enough that she'll leave a legacy larger than what her gene donor left?
Donno, tis all speculation based upon the first threadmark.
All in all don't fear Tet just yet.
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This concern was kind of addressed by the QM here:
Keeping in mind that the Matriarch Leads is the one that's CKIII-style, this was kind of addressed by the QM here:
- Location
- Spain
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Oh!! Thanks a lot for the clarification and answering me @Epic Bygones!!!
Now, it's time to vote...
[X] Keep her close
[X] I can learn
Now, it's time to vote...
[X] Keep her close
[X] I can learn
[] Plan Variant what number, I don't know
-[] offer exclusive access to the herd of animals in your father's last deal in exchange for maintaining the water rights for another generation.
-[] An exclusive deal isn't a problem as we both need to build the herd up enough to be sustainable and need the water rights more then we need a new cash cow.
-[] Even though we don't know exactly what they are, they have to be valuable or father wouldn't have traded for them and a new resource that was considered on par or slightly below the water in exchange for something already in place is more then welcome to a lord.
-[] He can't take the herd by force because it doesn't exist yet and we need the water rights to get a hold of them in the first place which will give us a minimum of twenty years before he could change his mind.
-[] Undercutting an already signed deal would cause problems because they are outside of his territory and signed by the name of his dear friend.
Losing the opportunity that father bought with his life would hurt but if it would help maintain the position he created during his life then it would be worth it.
The opportunities you can reach are limited by needing to have someone that can survive the trip. Merchants live on trade routes and caravans which need to be protected by guards because of bandits and monsters exist. I would imagine that a lot of what she would be doing would be using her combat education base to train a loyal force of guards which would give her a powerbase that she could use in a future coop but also expand our ability to cover more dangerous trade routes. If we do that however we will need to increase our relationship with her because if any one faction gets to strong we could get removed.
Our mother is the one least likely to launch a coop right now because if we lose power her position takes a huge blow. what probably happened was that everyone is trying to get a better position in the aftermath because if someone can get enough support then our official position as clan leader won't matter to de facto control because we aren't the type of person to punch someone to death if we are told no. Teo won the battle because he convinced us to sign something that gave him power to crush her power block and take more control over the family.
If he gets complete control he would have won so we have to reign him in and we don't have an easy way to do so because giving his power to mother would make an enemy for life and damage our trade group which we can't afford right now.
This hypothetical scenario is making it so that even if we choose matriarch leads the only option that actually slaps him down we aren't actually over ruling him on the original issue but on a separate issue entirely. If we win he gets a solution to a problem that didn't have one and if we lose and it backfires it shows that we aren't ready to run the clan.
-[] offer exclusive access to the herd of animals in your father's last deal in exchange for maintaining the water rights for another generation.
-[] An exclusive deal isn't a problem as we both need to build the herd up enough to be sustainable and need the water rights more then we need a new cash cow.
-[] Even though we don't know exactly what they are, they have to be valuable or father wouldn't have traded for them and a new resource that was considered on par or slightly below the water in exchange for something already in place is more then welcome to a lord.
-[] He can't take the herd by force because it doesn't exist yet and we need the water rights to get a hold of them in the first place which will give us a minimum of twenty years before he could change his mind.
-[] Undercutting an already signed deal would cause problems because they are outside of his territory and signed by the name of his dear friend.
Losing the opportunity that father bought with his life would hurt but if it would help maintain the position he created during his life then it would be worth it.
The opportunities you can reach are limited by needing to have someone that can survive the trip. Merchants live on trade routes and caravans which need to be protected by guards because of bandits and monsters exist. I would imagine that a lot of what she would be doing would be using her combat education base to train a loyal force of guards which would give her a powerbase that she could use in a future coop but also expand our ability to cover more dangerous trade routes. If we do that however we will need to increase our relationship with her because if any one faction gets to strong we could get removed.
Our mother is the one least likely to launch a coop right now because if we lose power her position takes a huge blow. what probably happened was that everyone is trying to get a better position in the aftermath because if someone can get enough support then our official position as clan leader won't matter to de facto control because we aren't the type of person to punch someone to death if we are told no. Teo won the battle because he convinced us to sign something that gave him power to crush her power block and take more control over the family.
If he gets complete control he would have won so we have to reign him in and we don't have an easy way to do so because giving his power to mother would make an enemy for life and damage our trade group which we can't afford right now.
This hypothetical scenario is making it so that even if we choose matriarch leads the only option that actually slaps him down we aren't actually over ruling him on the original issue but on a separate issue entirely. If we win he gets a solution to a problem that didn't have one and if we lose and it backfires it shows that we aren't ready to run the clan.
Just a clarification, @Mr. Prokosch : is Tlaloc a True Lord, or a Lord but not a True Lord? And if the latter, what's the difference?
Unless I'm misinterpreting what you're saying (in which case, sorry, could you clarify?), I believe you're wrong. The Matriarch Leads option will overrule Teokuitlatlkopilli on the original issue:
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On a reread we didn't even ask about the issue that brought us there "the firing of employee's" we asked about taking back the power of representation which was a completely different topic so that's my bad. The power of representation is all about handling decisions like that one so it was on topic. If anything however that mistake only makes me more certain that we should focus on cultivation over learning the business.
Sometimes the role of a leader needs to be trusting people to do the job you can't. We know that he's desperately trying to hold things together because the clan is in a lot of trouble and we also know that having him teach us the basics of business will take away from the time he's using to hold everything together well creating someone that isn't as good so it's not that valuable right now well improving as a cultivator helps out a lot. We need to focus on what we can do the best and for us that's cultivating.
After we cultivate Diamond Mind and the situation calms down we might have an advantage to help us learn faster but for now I'm dropping the approval vote for I can learn and I'm only adding Matriarch if there's a group of people voting for Matriarch that are willing to take charge and then admit that he's right and that cultivating is the best way to help out right now.
The Tlaloc Dilemma
Keep Her Close and I Can Learn won.
Chachi stood awkwardly with her sister. She had to break the tension. She swooped in! Her sister danced away, her eyes searching for a weapon, cycling lightning in her aura at the unexpected attack. Chachi easily disrupted the enhancement, and had an inherent speed advantage. A few more steps, and victory! Her arms fully encircled her sister in a masterful hug!
She could feel Oku very hesitantly pat her back. "I know you've been away and things have been hard. I know you have grudges. Can you please let them lie? I don't know you either, but I know you're my only sister and I'd like to learn more about you. Will you stay for a while?"
Oku carefully extracted herself and rubbed the back of her neck, "yeah, I guess. I done my duty to the Sect. When I hit Transformation, I can take the Core test. Until then I'm free… And it's not like I have to take the test, if stuff works out."
"Great!" Chachi beamed, "and please don't punch my brother again."
"Don't knock it till you try it sister."
Chachi screwed up her face in an exaggerated frown.
"Have you seen his smug 'I know better than you because of my hundred years of selling used wagons' smile?"
"Oku…"
"Yeah, fine. I'll try not to punch his supremely punchable face until you give the OK."
---
Chachi stared down her older brother from her Giant Intimidating Executive Chair, but he wasn't impressed, at least not as far as she could see. His face was perfectly controlled. She switched off the Art of Evaluation. It could help her read the subtle expressions and underlying emotions of people but it was no help against her brother, who only showed exactly what he intended. She traded it for her other mental art, the 9999 Revelations Meditation. As her mind and spirit aligned, a flood of ideas entered her. She intuitively rejected unhelpful revelations, no, I can't just beat them up. The most valuable ideas, those blessed by heaven, naturally rose to the top of her mind. The meditation became more powerful with time, but she could only afford to use it for a few minutes with her brother staring at her.
She smiled confidently, "well, first of all we need to fix our relationship with Lord Tlaloc. Maybe a gift will help? I could look for something appropriate in the clan vaults, reproduce it, maybe make some improvements and personalize it, and then give it a few refinements. Three should be enough to make a gift fit for a Lord."
Her brother nodded curtly, "of course. We can only benefit by continuing to build positive relations with the lord. It will not be enough to make him drop these demands. Lord Tlaloc values sincerity, a gift at this moment will strike him as… Mercenary. Not an entreaty of friendship, but an attempted bribe. You have a certain charming sincerity to you, so perhaps if you present it in person he won't take it as what it is."
"A wedding is always sincere," Chachi mused. She wasn't sure where she got that, maybe her mother?
Teokuitlatlkopilli's expression became much more considered, "you're right. Even if it's offered for purely cynical reasons, there's nothing stronger than a bond of blood. Sadly, entering into their Lord's direct line is a popular ambition among the clans. We'd be marrying significantly up in status. It would need to be someone very important in our family, a direct descendant of our father, marrying someone unremarkable in his. He would not accept one of his children as a second spouse, so that rules out Tet and I. Oku is Oku. I would say we have just a single bachelorette with the status, charm, talent, and closeness to our father to appeal to the Lord." He quirked up an eyebrow.
Right, ok.
Moving on, "then there's the specific issue of the Heavenspan water. I have a few questions. Is there a reason we can't just get it somewhere else?"
"Like many of the 1000 Rivers, the Heavenspan River is a unique natural wonder. It runs through three territories: Lord Huitzilopochtli, Lord Ehecatl, and our own Lord Tlaloc. They are bitter rivals. I'm sure I can get a better deal from Lord Huitzilopochtli, but that would sabotage our other significant interests in Lord Tlaloc's territory and we would gain a powerful enemy. He would see it as a betrayal. We should consider it a last resort."
"Why is this such a problem to begin with? Aren't we in the same position as our rivals, now that we all have to pay for the water?"
Teokuitlatlkopilli's tone sounded much like her tutors when she asked a particularly remedial question, "recipes and infrastructure, the heart of the elixir business. There are many ways to reach more or less the same result but everyone who makes elixirs protects their formulas so rivals can't steal them. We developed many of our elixirs to use Heavenspan Water because of its availability to us. Our rivals use different bases. Even if we did steal our rival's recipes, we would need to shift our infrastructure so we can acquire their other rare ingredients in mass. Perhaps an illustrative example will help. BLUE-C-3 is our internal term for the elixir we currently sell under the name Revitalizing Dew of Spring. If the imbiber is in Hungering, the elixir will quicken their waterways, permanently increasing their ability to restore Teotl. Outside of hungering, it will refresh the imbiber and hasten Teotl restoration for the next few hours. The primary ingredients are Heavenspan Water, 100-sunny-day sunflower seeds, and 1000 year cinnamon. Therefore, we need access to Heavenspan Water, and the facilities to safely extract and dilute it. Then we need fields of sunflowers and treasures that absorb and emit sunlight to insure they have 100 sunny days. We also need a supplier of 1000 year cinnamon, a remarkably easy ingredient to produce so long as you started 1000 years ago. Even if our rivals had our exact formula, it would still take significant effort to reproduce our network of suppliers and investments. The Ueyak clan sells LIQUID TEOTL – MAX POWER EXTREME. It increases the Hungering imbiber's ability to restore Teotl, outside of Hungering it will refresh the imbiber and hasten Teotl restoration. The effects are not technically identical, our elixir is of higher quality and lasts longer, but they are close enough for the non-discerning consumer. I do not know their full formula, but I know it does not use Heavenspan but does use the milk of a very powerful Cow Spirit and Crimson Grass. So if we stole their formula, we'd need to find a cow of our own and a field saturated with blood essence."
"I don't suppose we have a contract?"
"Nothing binding. It was a gentleman's agreement. Lord Tlaloc's word is his bond. Personally, I believe he made the promise in haste and regretted it since, but honor bound him to keep it. We exploited the river much more heavily than he anticipated and he saw none of the vast profits besides a few gifts and tax revenue on the elixirs themselves. He conveniently doesn't recall that the river was a novelty, even a hazard, before our honored father discovered its potential."
"Doesn't he benefit from our other businesses here? Surely our many investments in his territory have created prosperity in his cities and strengthened his cultivation?"
"Of course. In the centuries since our father started his business, Lord Tlaloc's portion of the 1000 Rivers has developed substantially. Much of that can be attributed to us. I do not believe Lord Tlaloc sees it that way. From his perspective, our prosperity is due largely to his largesse, and his own prosperity to his savvy and the blessings of heaven. I doubt we can convince him otherwise with words alone."
Chachi nodded, her 9999 Revelations finally settling on a single plan.
"We bring him into our latest deal. We need Heavenspan Water for the Dracoxen, and they're like cool oxen or something, so they'll need a place to graze? If he can continue to give us access to the Heavenspan River, we'll make sure the entire herd stays on his land. We can even give him the prize males in the herd while we keep the mares. We pay him for breeding rights so he can see the income coming in directly. Lord Tlaloc loves exotic animals, and he'll like having such a direct hand in our business. If we can't sell him on rights in perpetuity, we sell him on twenty year increments for a flat payment. We can diversify the business in the meantime."
Your brother listens closely, "It's an interesting approach. We'd need to convince him, which is not certain, and you assume we will honor our father's last deal. You are the only person in the Clan who can survive a trip to the Beast Lands. I was not inclined to risk you in the same place that killed our honored father, but perhaps it is necessary.
"Here is my idea," your brother waves his hand, and a dynamic image floats in front of him. Ohhhh, visual aids! That's a neat technique. Maybe once the rigid spirit is under control….
He displays the Heavenspan River, and the flow of water from the extraction facilities. The facilities shut down, and key parts marked in red disintegrate.
"We decline the deal. We give him our facilities instead of paying rent for them, but we strip them down first so he cannot uncover our extraction and distillation techniques. It is a difficult and dangerous process, I believe more so than he realizes, I doubt he will be able to reproduce it with other partners in the next few years. We do not move operations to his rivals, it will only provoke him, but we stop selling elixirs entirely in this saturated market. Instead we invest more heavily in transportation and sell them further afield where we can get higher profit per unit."
He shows a huge map 1000 Rivers Region and its neighbors in the Empire, the Vast Swamp, the Crystal Desert, and the Turtle Isles. A network of trade routes crawls out from the 1000 Rivers to these distant lands.
"We've been over-extracting for some time now to establish a strategic reserve. We can continue production at the current rate for three years without any new extraction. We can stretch it to five years by selling fewer elixirs in distant markets. The Lord will see a marked decrease in prosperity in that time, while we maintain something resembling our current profits. After three years we offer to manage our former facilities on his behalf, for a share of the water we extract."
He sighed, "it's a gamble. We cannot hope to get free access again without a marriage and we cannot negotiate for a more reasonable deal when he is being obstinate. I am hoping that he will understand the valuable service we provide in processing this water into elixirs for his region once he sees what our absence looks like."
Chachi titled her head, considering his idea versus hers. Her idea wasn't bad, she felt it was brilliant. But maybe it would have been better if she knew about the strategic reserve, or the difficulty involved in processing Heavenspan water, or the relative profitability of the different markets. She lacked fundamental knowledge about the business.
"We'll go with your idea."
Teokuitlatlkopilli's smiled.
"But I'm taking back the power of representation anyway, for now."
His smile died, "we agreed…"
"I agreed to nothing. You proposed a duel and barreled through like I'd already accepted. I am the Matriarch. You're right that I don't really know what I'm doing, but I'm the Matriarch regardless. We cannot have the Matriarch acting in ignorance. You will move your desks to my office immediately, from now on we work side by side. You will explain every order you want to give in my name. You have to teach me the fundamentals as well, like our father would have. I will consider restoring your power to speak with my voice once I really understand what I'll be saying.
"If I have to slow down right now…"
"You'll figure it out. You have your orders."
Teokuitlatlkopilli bowed.
1.Do you want to marry one of Lord Tlaloc's younger sons?
[Marriage]
[] Yes
[] No
[] Try to sell him on a cousin
2. Do you want to go on a personal expedition to the Beast Lands to trade Heavenspan Water for Dracoxen and a sampling of exotic ingredients? You will have to leave sometime this year to fulfill the first part of the contract.
[Trade]
[] Yes
[] No
Chachi stood awkwardly with her sister. She had to break the tension. She swooped in! Her sister danced away, her eyes searching for a weapon, cycling lightning in her aura at the unexpected attack. Chachi easily disrupted the enhancement, and had an inherent speed advantage. A few more steps, and victory! Her arms fully encircled her sister in a masterful hug!
She could feel Oku very hesitantly pat her back. "I know you've been away and things have been hard. I know you have grudges. Can you please let them lie? I don't know you either, but I know you're my only sister and I'd like to learn more about you. Will you stay for a while?"
Oku carefully extracted herself and rubbed the back of her neck, "yeah, I guess. I done my duty to the Sect. When I hit Transformation, I can take the Core test. Until then I'm free… And it's not like I have to take the test, if stuff works out."
"Great!" Chachi beamed, "and please don't punch my brother again."
"Don't knock it till you try it sister."
Chachi screwed up her face in an exaggerated frown.
"Have you seen his smug 'I know better than you because of my hundred years of selling used wagons' smile?"
"Oku…"
"Yeah, fine. I'll try not to punch his supremely punchable face until you give the OK."
---
Chachi stared down her older brother from her Giant Intimidating Executive Chair, but he wasn't impressed, at least not as far as she could see. His face was perfectly controlled. She switched off the Art of Evaluation. It could help her read the subtle expressions and underlying emotions of people but it was no help against her brother, who only showed exactly what he intended. She traded it for her other mental art, the 9999 Revelations Meditation. As her mind and spirit aligned, a flood of ideas entered her. She intuitively rejected unhelpful revelations, no, I can't just beat them up. The most valuable ideas, those blessed by heaven, naturally rose to the top of her mind. The meditation became more powerful with time, but she could only afford to use it for a few minutes with her brother staring at her.
She smiled confidently, "well, first of all we need to fix our relationship with Lord Tlaloc. Maybe a gift will help? I could look for something appropriate in the clan vaults, reproduce it, maybe make some improvements and personalize it, and then give it a few refinements. Three should be enough to make a gift fit for a Lord."
Her brother nodded curtly, "of course. We can only benefit by continuing to build positive relations with the lord. It will not be enough to make him drop these demands. Lord Tlaloc values sincerity, a gift at this moment will strike him as… Mercenary. Not an entreaty of friendship, but an attempted bribe. You have a certain charming sincerity to you, so perhaps if you present it in person he won't take it as what it is."
"A wedding is always sincere," Chachi mused. She wasn't sure where she got that, maybe her mother?
Teokuitlatlkopilli's expression became much more considered, "you're right. Even if it's offered for purely cynical reasons, there's nothing stronger than a bond of blood. Sadly, entering into their Lord's direct line is a popular ambition among the clans. We'd be marrying significantly up in status. It would need to be someone very important in our family, a direct descendant of our father, marrying someone unremarkable in his. He would not accept one of his children as a second spouse, so that rules out Tet and I. Oku is Oku. I would say we have just a single bachelorette with the status, charm, talent, and closeness to our father to appeal to the Lord." He quirked up an eyebrow.
Right, ok.
Moving on, "then there's the specific issue of the Heavenspan water. I have a few questions. Is there a reason we can't just get it somewhere else?"
"Like many of the 1000 Rivers, the Heavenspan River is a unique natural wonder. It runs through three territories: Lord Huitzilopochtli, Lord Ehecatl, and our own Lord Tlaloc. They are bitter rivals. I'm sure I can get a better deal from Lord Huitzilopochtli, but that would sabotage our other significant interests in Lord Tlaloc's territory and we would gain a powerful enemy. He would see it as a betrayal. We should consider it a last resort."
"Why is this such a problem to begin with? Aren't we in the same position as our rivals, now that we all have to pay for the water?"
Teokuitlatlkopilli's tone sounded much like her tutors when she asked a particularly remedial question, "recipes and infrastructure, the heart of the elixir business. There are many ways to reach more or less the same result but everyone who makes elixirs protects their formulas so rivals can't steal them. We developed many of our elixirs to use Heavenspan Water because of its availability to us. Our rivals use different bases. Even if we did steal our rival's recipes, we would need to shift our infrastructure so we can acquire their other rare ingredients in mass. Perhaps an illustrative example will help. BLUE-C-3 is our internal term for the elixir we currently sell under the name Revitalizing Dew of Spring. If the imbiber is in Hungering, the elixir will quicken their waterways, permanently increasing their ability to restore Teotl. Outside of hungering, it will refresh the imbiber and hasten Teotl restoration for the next few hours. The primary ingredients are Heavenspan Water, 100-sunny-day sunflower seeds, and 1000 year cinnamon. Therefore, we need access to Heavenspan Water, and the facilities to safely extract and dilute it. Then we need fields of sunflowers and treasures that absorb and emit sunlight to insure they have 100 sunny days. We also need a supplier of 1000 year cinnamon, a remarkably easy ingredient to produce so long as you started 1000 years ago. Even if our rivals had our exact formula, it would still take significant effort to reproduce our network of suppliers and investments. The Ueyak clan sells LIQUID TEOTL – MAX POWER EXTREME. It increases the Hungering imbiber's ability to restore Teotl, outside of Hungering it will refresh the imbiber and hasten Teotl restoration. The effects are not technically identical, our elixir is of higher quality and lasts longer, but they are close enough for the non-discerning consumer. I do not know their full formula, but I know it does not use Heavenspan but does use the milk of a very powerful Cow Spirit and Crimson Grass. So if we stole their formula, we'd need to find a cow of our own and a field saturated with blood essence."
"I don't suppose we have a contract?"
"Nothing binding. It was a gentleman's agreement. Lord Tlaloc's word is his bond. Personally, I believe he made the promise in haste and regretted it since, but honor bound him to keep it. We exploited the river much more heavily than he anticipated and he saw none of the vast profits besides a few gifts and tax revenue on the elixirs themselves. He conveniently doesn't recall that the river was a novelty, even a hazard, before our honored father discovered its potential."
"Doesn't he benefit from our other businesses here? Surely our many investments in his territory have created prosperity in his cities and strengthened his cultivation?"
"Of course. In the centuries since our father started his business, Lord Tlaloc's portion of the 1000 Rivers has developed substantially. Much of that can be attributed to us. I do not believe Lord Tlaloc sees it that way. From his perspective, our prosperity is due largely to his largesse, and his own prosperity to his savvy and the blessings of heaven. I doubt we can convince him otherwise with words alone."
Chachi nodded, her 9999 Revelations finally settling on a single plan.
"We bring him into our latest deal. We need Heavenspan Water for the Dracoxen, and they're like cool oxen or something, so they'll need a place to graze? If he can continue to give us access to the Heavenspan River, we'll make sure the entire herd stays on his land. We can even give him the prize males in the herd while we keep the mares. We pay him for breeding rights so he can see the income coming in directly. Lord Tlaloc loves exotic animals, and he'll like having such a direct hand in our business. If we can't sell him on rights in perpetuity, we sell him on twenty year increments for a flat payment. We can diversify the business in the meantime."
Your brother listens closely, "It's an interesting approach. We'd need to convince him, which is not certain, and you assume we will honor our father's last deal. You are the only person in the Clan who can survive a trip to the Beast Lands. I was not inclined to risk you in the same place that killed our honored father, but perhaps it is necessary.
"Here is my idea," your brother waves his hand, and a dynamic image floats in front of him. Ohhhh, visual aids! That's a neat technique. Maybe once the rigid spirit is under control….
He displays the Heavenspan River, and the flow of water from the extraction facilities. The facilities shut down, and key parts marked in red disintegrate.
"We decline the deal. We give him our facilities instead of paying rent for them, but we strip them down first so he cannot uncover our extraction and distillation techniques. It is a difficult and dangerous process, I believe more so than he realizes, I doubt he will be able to reproduce it with other partners in the next few years. We do not move operations to his rivals, it will only provoke him, but we stop selling elixirs entirely in this saturated market. Instead we invest more heavily in transportation and sell them further afield where we can get higher profit per unit."
He shows a huge map 1000 Rivers Region and its neighbors in the Empire, the Vast Swamp, the Crystal Desert, and the Turtle Isles. A network of trade routes crawls out from the 1000 Rivers to these distant lands.
"We've been over-extracting for some time now to establish a strategic reserve. We can continue production at the current rate for three years without any new extraction. We can stretch it to five years by selling fewer elixirs in distant markets. The Lord will see a marked decrease in prosperity in that time, while we maintain something resembling our current profits. After three years we offer to manage our former facilities on his behalf, for a share of the water we extract."
He sighed, "it's a gamble. We cannot hope to get free access again without a marriage and we cannot negotiate for a more reasonable deal when he is being obstinate. I am hoping that he will understand the valuable service we provide in processing this water into elixirs for his region once he sees what our absence looks like."
Chachi titled her head, considering his idea versus hers. Her idea wasn't bad, she felt it was brilliant. But maybe it would have been better if she knew about the strategic reserve, or the difficulty involved in processing Heavenspan water, or the relative profitability of the different markets. She lacked fundamental knowledge about the business.
"We'll go with your idea."
Teokuitlatlkopilli's smiled.
"But I'm taking back the power of representation anyway, for now."
His smile died, "we agreed…"
"I agreed to nothing. You proposed a duel and barreled through like I'd already accepted. I am the Matriarch. You're right that I don't really know what I'm doing, but I'm the Matriarch regardless. We cannot have the Matriarch acting in ignorance. You will move your desks to my office immediately, from now on we work side by side. You will explain every order you want to give in my name. You have to teach me the fundamentals as well, like our father would have. I will consider restoring your power to speak with my voice once I really understand what I'll be saying.
"If I have to slow down right now…"
"You'll figure it out. You have your orders."
Teokuitlatlkopilli bowed.
1.Do you want to marry one of Lord Tlaloc's younger sons?
[Marriage]
[] Yes
[] No
[] Try to sell him on a cousin
2. Do you want to go on a personal expedition to the Beast Lands to trade Heavenspan Water for Dracoxen and a sampling of exotic ingredients? You will have to leave sometime this year to fulfill the first part of the contract.
[Trade]
[] Yes
[] No
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DangerKitty
shoddy writter
- Location
- lala land
[X][Marriage] No
[X] [Trade] Yes
[X] [Trade] Yes
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] No
[X] Yes
Maybe we can find a better alternative for a gift later once we solidify our footing. Being tied down by marriage ain't really that good and selling off one of our cousins might be viewed as an insult or something close to that...
Oh wait, do we actually need to trade right now or can we do it later?
[X] Yes
Maybe we can find a better alternative for a gift later once we solidify our footing. Being tied down by marriage ain't really that good and selling off one of our cousins might be viewed as an insult or something close to that...
Oh wait, do we actually need to trade right now or can we do it later?
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- Location
- Ostren
[X][Marriage] No
[X] [Trade] Yes
[X] [Trade] Yes
J.I.M.S
BookWyrm
- Location
- Latveria
He quirked up an eyebrow.
====
[X] No
[X] Yes
Teo was hilarious on the marriage bit and also when Chachi played the word game 'I never agreed' HA genius!
I suspected it'd have to be Clan Leader to marry otherwise it'd be creating a new power block that'd technically (maybe probably) have more power than the Matriarch.
I can't help but wonder if Tet is using a technique to eavesdrop on the conversation. Perhaps putting a glass cup to the wall or having some little birdies listening in. Or maybe that's a mom thing?
Liked how Oku mistook a hug attack as a real attack lol.