Well my own thoughts so far are like this.
[] Plan Want to Murder Some Research?
-[ ] Retainer Reconfiguring:
[Cost: 1 retainer action] Can be taken once every variable number of turns. Change some aspect of your retainers. The Hearth Guard are a fine force of Dawi, but much like the defences of a Karak, there is potentially more to be done. It will take some time for these steadfast retainers of yours to adjust to whatever changes you make, but the length of it definitely correlates to the number of changes you want done.
1 Retainer Action.
--[] Change Numbers:
[Cost: +1 turn until change] +1/-1 retainer action per every 60 retainers added/removed. Increasing or decreasing the number of Retainers you wish to take on permanently. It signals that you either require more or less of their services. While you will not remove retainers currently services if you wish to downsize, it means you simply will not replace them in the event one of your loyal followers falls in the line of duty or simply to the vagaries of time.
Add 60 Retainers.
-[] Teach your apprentices:
[Cost: 1 action] Locked in until end of turn 33. Apprentices can now be released into the world
--[] Release them:
[Cost: 2 apprentice actions permanently] Gain 1 action next turn. Karstah and Nain are ready, you have trained them and they have not failed to meet your expectations from them as apprentices. The only thing that can hold them back is themselves now, and under the crucible of the Trial they will either be tempered or broken by it.
-[] [Simple] Yorri's Request:
[Cost: 2 apprentice actions] Due whenever. Gain 2x Yorri prods. Your master wants twenty axes from each one of your apprentices. Fine, it makes no sense to you that someone his age would purposefully commission work from an apprentice but you aren't going to, publicly, judge him for it.
2 Apprentice Actions.
-[] Silverwood:
[Cost: (4 -1) = 3 actions] Student of the Odd and Soul of the Earth will proc. An entire forest odd silvery Wutroth is now under your ownership. While a large profit driver as you are well aware, there's an odd feeling in your belly when you look at the stuff. Beautiful like nothing else, and stronger than regular Wutroth as well. You know a few runes that require Wutroth to make, but maybe this has something special to it as well?
1 Action.
--[] Craftsdwarf Expertise:
[Cost 5 Favour from one Hold] Gain 1 progress. Can be taken 2 times and without actions. Call upon the aid of Master Craftsmen for their insight into the more mundane properties of these materials. You would still have to confirm their findings yourself out of professional and personal pride, but it would doubtlessly speed the process along. Ultimately leaving you with the work of figuring out how they interact with Runes.
10 Kraka Drakk Favor.
-[] Hearthstones:
[Cost: (4 -1) =3 actions] Student of the Odd and Soul of the Earth will proc. This deep orange gem glows with never-ending heat, never enough to boil water, but enough to sleep comfortably at night and keep a bowl of stew warm long after it's left the stove. You have a few theories about how useful the material will be, but you can't ever be sure. At least it's likely to be a profitable resource when you can get some actual production going though.
1 Action.
--[] Craftsdwarf Expertise:
[Cost 5 Favour from one Hold] Gain 1 progress. Can be taken 2 times and without actions. Hearthstones are a known commodity, there's likely someone who knows more than you at least in regards to its mundane properties.
10 Kraka Drakk Favor.
-[] Durazkul:
[Cost: (4 -3) =1 action] Student of the Odd and Soul of the Earth will proc. The tubers sit in your home right now, waiting to be tested. You've at least confirmed that they do in fact provide a useful amount of improved healing. Combining the effects with Valaya's spring does not do as much as you'd hoped, but it does increase a dwarf's natural healing more than if they had only used one of either method. Perhaps there's more to it than you think?
1 Action.
-[] Zhufazul:
[Cost: 4 actions] Student of the Odd and Soul of the Earth will proc. The Liquid sits in warded kegs, ready to be poked and prodded at. Preliminary tests confirm it is not in fact some odd water, but something wholly different. Having undergone some no doubt maddening and downright foolish transmutation through the powers of perfidious magick. Harrumph.
--[] Craftsdwarf Expertise:
[Cost 10 Favour from Kraka Drakk] Gain 1 progress. Can be taken 3 times and without actions. You've heard there are some experiments being done by the Metalsmiths Guild, see if you can't jostle some insight loose.
30 Kraka Drakk Favor.
Yet I don't see the point of spending actions like water this turn when we could spread it out instead. If only to spare Soulcake a 15k words update.
To achieve his, and other's desire of shortening the research list and prepping for the Chain so we have less distractions. Actions are meant to be spent if we can spend them. That's how we get things done the fastest, by taking opportunities presented to us when we can spend something that is really cheap with how much we have saved.
And then something that wraps up Odd Places, which has already been brought up by other planmakers.
