Turn 1 - Results
rdc30
While you learned to write, I studied the blade.
Turn 1 - Results
When all things are considered, the first month of your operation went about as well as one could realistically expect when working with nothing more than a bunch of dirty, uneducated Human peasants. Progress was steady, if a bit on the slow side, but that is not exactly not of the norm when one is in the early stages of accumulating to a brand new organization and region. The minions sent along with you by the Grand Master are mostly competent, even if some of them tend to get on your nerves when tasked with performing tasks that, admittedly, fall outside of her actual specialization. The new recruits themselves from proven to be mostly reliable and willing to work, even if they lack even the most basic of education and require far too much supervision than you would prefer, but that is the cost of being forced to recruit from the unwanted waste of society.
Overall, you would say that the month turned out relatively well and you see no reason to report any of the minor, inconsequential stumbles that you encountered. In fact, the amount of progress you have made, with the limited resources you have access to, is actually rather impressive when compared to many of your previous operations. Of course, you are usually forced to be much more cautious and gradual in so aggressive you try to establish your operations in Quel'Thalas due to the fact that your opponents are also quite skilled, even if most of them still fall far short of your own capabilities. Out here, however, the most impressive skill the idiots of this wretched town seem to possess is their impressive ability to form semi-coherent sentences and cook their disgusting meals without burning their hovels down.
Still, you were always smart enough to take advantage of the foolishness of your enemies and, right now, there is enough foolishness around you to choke a Troll berserker. Next month should yield much better results since, by the time of your next report, you will have concluded many of the mundane tasks that are required get the cult running and will be able to devout more of your focus toward your mission instead of simply setting up.
Martial: Train Cultists (Martial)
The Cult of the Damned will eventually have to confront the defenders of Lordaeron eventually, so it is important that to prepare as many of your minions for that time as possible by teaching them how to properly defend themselves in a fight.
Cost: 100 Gold per Turn, Time: 2 Turns, Chance of Success: 90%, Reward: Cultists can defend themselves
You might not exactly be some sort of military genius or even some particularly skilled fighter, since you always preferred to leave such matters to your sister during your time in Silvermoon, but that does not mean you have not received some basic training during your adolescent years like all young nobles expected to eventually lead your people undergo as part of their core curriculum. In addition to those basic fundamentals of self-defense and military strategy, you also took frequent part in the various strategy briefings your family and your allies held prior to their raids against the Horde remnants or Amani Trolls that still plague Quel'Thalas.
Sure, you never actually participated in any battle that was larger than small skirmishes with Troll raiders on the borders of your family estate, but, for a genius of your caliber, memorizing and understanding something as simple the various drills and techniques used by your sister during her personal training sessions or the standard daily training regimen of your house troops is not exactly difficult. The vast majority of the techniques are completely useless to even the most experienced of Human warriors, much less the bumbling fools that are your minions, since they require the grace, agility and stamina of the superior High Elven physique, but there are some very rudimentary drills reserved for raw recruits or adolescent squires that, if applied correctly, should make even your pathetic minions passable fighters by the standards of slow and clumsy Humans.
Despite their insurmountable physical, mental and intellectual inferiority, you were still somewhat surprised when the fools actually managed to actually meet your pathetically low expectations by seemingly managing to keep pace with your childishly simply instructions without managing any major incidents beyond the usual idiocy you have come to expect from such low quality specimens. From what Yana has told you during your spare time, your disgusting minions are actually progressing at a relatively reasonable speed for such wretched creatures without any sort of physical standard they must adhere to as well as the amount of hours per day dedicated toward training.
By the end of next month, you estimate that your worthless cultists will probably at least be able to put up a fight against some disorganized peasant militia or the occasional brigand raiding party.
Roll Needed: 10, Rolled: 82 – 8 (Ariseth) = 74, Result: Locked in for 1 more Turn
Diplomacy: Introduce Yourself to Landowners
The Town Council and the Magistrate might call themselves the leaders of the town, but, in reality, they have little authority without the support of the rich and powerful landowners, which means that getting in touch with this powerful faction is vital to your success.
Cost: 0, Time: 1 Turn, Chance of Success: 90%, Reward: Establish relations with Upper-Class Residents
The town of Southshore is like most Human settlements in that the public faces of the local government, which in this case are the elected members of the Town Council and the Town Magistrate appointed by the Crown, are little more than puppets and figureheads. The real power in the region comes mainly from the rich landowners and entrepreneurs whose investments serve as the lifeblood of the town upon which everything else runs. In exchange for favorable legislation and occasionally looking the other way when something illegal occurs, the local politicians reap all the popularity from maintaining the economic boom as well as lining their own pockets with generous 'gifts' as reward for their cooperation. The only people who are somewhat shielded from this cycle of corruption are the local Alliance garrison and its paladin commander, but even they are still susceptible to the immense pressure and temptation from the local elite if they try to upend the situation too much.
That means that one of the quickest and easiest ways to subvert the region is to first subvert this small, but vital, group of families. One would think that such powerful people would be hard to reach and have little motivation to consort with a potential rival, but one of the main reasons you chose to establish your operation here was due to the region's unique political landscape.
In the aftermath of the Second War and the destruction of the Kingdom of Alterac, the powerful Kingdom of Lordaeron abused its position as leader of the Alliance to annex nearly all of its ancient rival's territory. The old aristocracy had their titles revoked and their holdings either auctioned off or rewarded to the heroes of the Second War. One particular family that benefited greatly from this little arrangement was House Barov of Caer Darrow, who were able to buy up massive swashes of underdeveloped land in Hillsbrad Hills and the Alterac Mountains. This could have potentially made the ambitious noble house the indisputably most powerful faction in the region if they actually wanted to make use of their political capital.
Of course, such a wealthy and proud family would have little interest in living under such plebian conditions out on the frontier and the political scheming of a single small, if booming, town are of little interest to those with greater aspirations. A such, the Barov family were mainly interested control of the region as a way to gain more prestige within the royal court of King Terenas Menethil II, instead of caring too much about maximizing profitably or people living on their land as long as a steady stream is income is kept following. In fact, most people in the area do not even know who House Barov are despite having to pay rent every month because the family conducts almost all of its business through contractors. After the Grand Master subverted the family and turned Caer Darrow into a hidden Scourge stronghold, their interest in Southshore eroded even further.
With so little established spheres of influence, the result is a local plutocracy of moderately wealthy commoners who have taken advantage of the power vacuum left by the fall of the old aristocracy and the lack of interest by the new ones to gain far more influence than what they would normally be able to achieve. Of course, even by the standards of these filthy and barely civilized Human nations, these families and individuals are little more than irrelevant insects fighting over scraps that anyone with even the smallest shred of dignity would find laughable if it were not so pathetic.
Under normal rules of etiquette, someone of your lineage and reputation would normally not even associate with most Human noble houses unless they are connected to the crown or the Alliance. Which only makes the idea that the actual highest-ranking family in the region only holds the embarrassing title of Baronet absolutely degrading. As a Magister of Silvermoon and, technically, still the heir to ancient House Dawnspring, your rank would translate into roughly that of at least a Countess or even Duchess had you been given your birthright, which makes the fact that a Baronet is not even actual nobility all the more humiliating. You can barely keep your absolute disgust and contempt for them to a degree that could pass as haughty indifference as they eagerly invited you into their flimsy wooden residence that would not have been fit for livestock back in Quel'Thalas.
The upstart peasant pretending to be of good birth, a local man by the name of Vorrel Sengutz who stumbled into his fortune by getting several lucrative housing contracts from the Alliance to provide temporary lodging to refugees from Stormwind, and his wife were courteous enough as they showed you around their pathetic house. Despite the fact that they are one of the official leaders of the community, the family still lives in the same house they have lived in since before the First War and appear to be more interested in spending their profits on upgrading their inn instead of their own home.
The fact that their pathetic house seems infinitely more hospitable than the rotting ruins you have to live only make you even more disgusted.
After the pathetically short tour and getting to meet the relatively young couple's newborn infant, the wife, Monica or Monika or whatever, excuses herself to take care of the baby, while you and the esteemed Baronet himself retreat to what they probably think passes for a lounge to chat. The man offers you some cheap tea that you took one sip, which you almost instantly spit back out into his face, and nursed for the rest of the visit as well as a plate of simple Human pastries and a bottle of local spirit that you never even bothered to touch.
What does interest you is, of course, information on the political climate of the region, which you were easily able to convince him to detail for you by pretending to want to get to know the other so-called 'respectable' members of the local community. The fool is so excited at the prospect of someone of your standing finally bothering to take notice of this pathetic backwater settlement that all it took to push him over the edge is some not-too-subtle hints that you have connections with the Barov family, who have ignored their inquiries for years now.
According to him, there are several different overarching factions that make up the upper class of the town, who all have different ideas on what they think Southshore should become.
The majority of the Upper Class residents, including Sengutz himself, are in favor of greater integration with the Alliance in order to grow the town and fill their coffers in the process. When you asked him if he was concerned about the growing number of outsiders with ties to either the Alliance or the crown and how they might be sidelining the natives by disregarding the locals, Sengutz simply brushes aside your comment with some stupid drivel about how more funding is good for everybody. You have to resist the urge to roll your eyes as the fool proudly claims that his dream is to see his disgusting hometown become the Stratholme of the South during his lifetime.
The discussion eventually shifts, after much more pushing from you than should have been needed for the fool to take the hint, to the topic of the opposition faction. To nobody's great surprise, it turns out that some people are not as pleased as Sengutz and his friends are to see so many outsiders taking over their land and not even bothering to pretend that they hold even the slightest bit of respect for them as you have been doing. The leader of this faction is a male Human by the name of William Vishas, who once made a small fortune as one of the town's only merchants, but whose profits have been in decline due to competition from a growing presence of massive merchant companies. Judging by the amount of venom in Sengutz's voice when he speaks about his political rival, you get the distinct impression that the animosity between them is a lot deeper than one would expect from a mere political disagreement.
The last faction that could be considered influential enough to be mentioned are a loose collection of independent magi and members of the Kirin Tor, who live in isolated estates of varying sizes around the outskirts of the settlement. The most prominent of these magi is a senior member of the Kirin Tor named Helcular, who the locals believe uses his isolated estate as a place to conduct arcane research and experimentation. Sengutz himself does not have much of an opinion on them except the usual uneasiness and suspicion that simpleminded peasants like him tend to hold in regards to any mention of magic that does not fall under their beloved Church of the Holy Light. The ignorant fool actually has the gull to tell you that he and his associates were under the impression that you would fall into this category, which is why they have been slow to welcome you properly.
After nearly a full morning of discussion, you finally decide that you have gathered enough information for this little session when the couple invite you to lunch. Like some kind of attention-starved mongrel who wants to please his new mistress as much as possible, Sengutz eagerly offers to introduce you to any of the other prominent families in town as well as the Town Council. You politely inform him that you are quite busy in the coming days, but that you might have some spare time for such things next month.
When you finally bid the couple farewell in Thalassian, the fools react as though that was the first they had ever heard anything except the disgusting Common tongue.
A rather fitting ending to an already distasteful meeting.
Roll Needed: 10, Rolled: 9 + 10 (Ariseth) = 19, Reroll (Ariseth): 51 + 10 (Ariseth) = 61, Result: Gained information on Upper-Class Residents, Contact established with Upper-Class Residents
Stewardship: Renovate Decrepit Manor
The old manor you have been given as your base of operations has been abandoned since the Second War and is barely fit for habitation, much less the seat of your power, and leaving it as such could even attract suspicion from the townsfolk, so it will be necessary to repair it as soon as possible.
Cost: 250 Gold per Turn, Time: 2 Turns, Chance of Success: 90%, Reward: Compound repaired
With the benefit of hindsight, you have come to the conclusion that it was probably not very smart of you commit as much as you did to living within this disgusting hovel that the Humans pass as a mansion before you had actually bothered to even step inside. The smart thing to do would have been to actually inspect the building yourself instead of just accepting the opinion of a common sell-sword with vastly different standards for what is considered habitable than you do, but, in your defense, your decision at the time was forced by that incompetent fool Chillheart, since you could hardly risk encouraging her outrageous behavior by validating her concerns.
By the end of the first week, however, you were finally starting to become somewhat acclimated to living in the musky suite where you slept and worked. You had, of course, picked the quarters that had the least amount of mold and decay as well as the most amount of intact windows that you could open to allow some fresh air in, so it was at least semi-tolerable. By the end of the month, you had managed to remove most of the mold, replaced most of the rotten wood and even killed most of the vermin that have been nesting in the walls for half a decade.
The rest of the building is still almost as awful as it was when you first arrived here, but that is only because you ordered your minions to simply focus on the occupied sections for the time being and save the rest of the renovations for later. Overall, you estimate that the building itself will be fully restored by the end of next month into a functional, if not exactly luxurious, level that you can at least deem acceptable for someone of your stature to live in without having to feel too ashamed.
Once completed, it might even serve as a simple form of motivation to reward useful minions by letting all the competent ones live there instead of jammed into their old longhouse like animals with all the other vermin.
Roll Needed: 10, Rolled: 62 + 2 (Ariseth) = 64, Result: Locked in for 1 more Turn
Learning: Set Up Lecture Hall
The key to creating a successful operation is the skill and intelligence of its members, which means that education and training facilities will be vital to your future success, so investing in a basic facility to elevate uneducated minions is a good first step.
Cost: 200 Gold per Turn, 1 Expansion Slot, Time: 2 Turns, Chance of Success: 90%, Reward: Lecture Hall – Increase Cultist Skill Level
One look at the quality of recruits that make up the initial members of your little cult told you exactly how useful they would be without at least some basic education to bring them up to a education level comparable to a child in any civilization society. Most of the them were nothing more than impoverished peasants and laborers who slept in barns or stables before you tempted them into your cut with promises of a better life. You can count the number of them who can read or write more than your own names in Common on one hand, which meant even basic arithmetic, not to mention more advanced trade skills, are about as comprehensible to them as you trying to communicate with them using Thalassian.
In a most likely futile attempt to alleviate this problem, you ordered Chillheart to make herself useful for the time being by supervising the construction of simple wooden hall that can be used to teach these worthless peasants some basic literacy and math. The whole process will most likely be painfully slow and the vast majority will never amount to anything beyond walking corpses that still require sleep and food, but, for the time being, you cannot simply turn them into more efficient undead minions, so you will just have to make due until you can start to lure in more useful recruits.
Of course, you should have known that someone like Chillheart was probably not the best choice to lead something as mundane as construction work, since she, evidently, likes to play fast and loose with your treasury. By the time you had tallied up your monthly expenditures, you realized that the simple project had already used up three fourth of its allocated funding while only halfway finished.
If not for your dire need of any semi-competent overseer at the moment, you would have told the wasteful fool to crawl back to the Grand Master along with a request for a more reliable minion.
Roll Needed: 10, Rolled: 7 + 6 (Chillheart) = 13, Result: Cost per Turn increased to 300 Gold, Locked in for 1 more Turn
Learning: Study Military Tactics (Yana Bloodspear)
You had your doubts about the assassin from Dalaran, but the Grand Master assured you that Yana Bloodspear is also a more than qualified tactician, which, combined with your own relative inexperience, means you might be able to learn something from her.
Cost: 0, Time: 1 Turn, Chance of Success: 90%, Reward: Increased Martial Skill
The first few weeks of any long-term operation in an isolated region with little opportunity to travel or receive support from more established operations are almost always incredibly chaotic due to the sheer about of work that needs to be accomplished to make the cult functional. With so little time to spare, one often has to sacrifice less important matters in the interest of the greater good, which, at the moment, basically means that you will have to personally pick up the slack of your less capable minions.
The sacrifice you had to make this month are the military briefings that you planned to have with Yana. Despite how much the assassin's intellect and wisdom pales in comparison to your own, you are not so arrogant as to think that someone like her could not have some useful insights or experiences to share that could offer you some unique perspective with which you can use to further refine your future plans.
No matter how useful they might be in the long-term, however, you, regretfully, had no other choice except to postpone the briefings until next month while you focus most of your attention on more immediate concerns such as making sure none of your new minions wander off into the wilderness or something.
These vermin will never fully grasp just how privileged they are to have a leader as generous, caring and brilliant as you.
Roll Needed: 10, Rolled: 4 + 1 (Ariseth) + 0 (Yana) = 5, Result: Locked in for 1 more Turn
Intrigue: Train Cultists (Intrigue)
The success of your operation relies on secrecy and deception, which means that you must remain hidden from the eyes of the mortal nations before you are ready to strike and teaching your members the basics of keeping their affiliations a secret is a vital first step.
Cost: 100 Gold per Turn, Time: 2 Turns, Chance of Success: 90%, Reward: Cultists understand basic espionage
The trouble with large covert operations deep inside enemy territory with little to no support from your allies and having to recruit locals to supplement your ranks is that these kinds of operations tend to fall apart since success depends upon all members having the bare minimum amount of function brain-matter needed to simply keep their mouths shut in front of outsiders. With that humble goal in mind, you decided to set upon the ambitious task of teaching some of the most incompetent creatures belonging to an already mentally dull species exactly why they should not talk to or get drunk around outsiders.
You expected a certain amount of childish resentment, but, to your pleasant surprise and immense relief, however, the pathetic socioeconomic rejects that comprise the entirety of your little cult were actually able to understand most of the basics of your reasoning and instructions on how to maintain barest standards for operational confidentiality. Of course, most of what you told to them do basically amounted to something that one would expect children of average intellect to be able to deduce for themselves, so the fact that these fools have to be told to not rush into the local tavern to reveal everything they know about your operation is not actually something anyone should be proud of.
Nevertheless, you suppose you should just be thankful that the dimwitted peasants seem receptive to your lessons and pray to the Lich King that another month of drilling these same basic instructions into their thick deformed Human skulls would be enough to not ruin your entire operation, reveal the existence of the Undead Scourge to the Alliance before the Lich King is prepared and instantly subvert your path to greatness.
The thought that your destiny now rests are the shoulders of these vermin makes you physically ill.
Roll Needed: 10, Rolled: 56 + 8 (Ariseth) = 64, Result: Locked in for 1 more Turn
Piety: Construct a Desecrated Shrine
You currently have to hold your sermons in the mess hall of the compound, which does not exactly create an atmosphere of piety, so the construction of a dedicated shrine where rituals can be conducted will be vital to creating a successful cult.
Cost: 200 Gold per Turn, 1 Expansion Slot, Time: 2 Turns, Chance of Success: 90%, Reward: Desecrated Shrine
One can hardly create a successful operation based around a brand new religion that goes against pretty much everything taught by the foolish priests of the Church of the Holy Light when that pathetic religion is so widespread and popular among the local population. A less cunning and experienced leader might try to simply recruit minions that have little to no faith, but the true difficulty, however, lies in having to walk a very narrow path in terms of just how religious potential recruits are, because, while those with little faith might be more open to a new religion, they are often less likely to actually become faithful and loyal members. On the other hand, while a truly pious individual would be harder to convince to abandon their religion, once they do, they tend to be much more devoted followers and much less likely to sell you out when it becomes more beneficial to them than remaining with the cult.
Such careful screening, however, requires a much larger pool of candidates than what you had access to around the area and more resources than you had access to in order to actually monitor them to confirm their suitability. You would normally just expand the search area instead of lowering your recruiting standards since you tend to place more value on long-term goals instead of short-term results. This time, however, you do not have the usual luxury of slowly building up your infrastructure over decades, because, as ironic as it might seem, the dead apparently have little patience and you will not jeopardize your ambitions by disappointing the Lich King on such a vital mission.
With so little time to indoctrinate your new minions properly, you decided that the best way to handle the initial batch is to give them a little push in the right direction and then use them to facilitate the integration of future recruits. You had always planned to erect some kind of shrine or chapel to the Lich King eventually, but the fact that the decrepit mansion you have moved into actually has a small chapel to the Holy Light inside makes it the perfect way to accomplish both goals at the same time.
After a short little sermon in which you were able to paint the church as one of the pillars of the corrupt and uncaring society that so callously threw them tossed aside like trash, you called upon them to cast aside their faith and take up arms in service to a more worthy master. Once the gullible fools were sufficiently enraged and they began to lose themselves in the enraged roars of the crowd, all you had to do was point them to the only visible extension of the entity they were now convinced was the source of all of their suffering. Like frenzied animals, most of the recruits did not even hesitate before they started to tear down the moldy religious tapestries, rip up the dusty tomes used by the priesthood and smash the eroded busts of various champions of the Holy Light.
The blasphemous acts the recruits perpetrated in their rage, along with a little help from your magic, was actually able to taint the entire chapel with powerful necromantic magic that would make future rituals much more efficient and, over time, twist the minds of its inhabitants to make them more susceptible to the will of the Lich King.
One particular individual stood out among the recruits for the way he naturally assumed a leadership role within the small mob without even seeming to realize it. This male Human by the name of Amnennar, one of the many Stormwind orphans left to fend for himself after the defeat of the Horde at the end of the Second War, could become potentially prove to be a worthwhile invest with a little bit of training.
Roll Needed: 10, Rolled: 94 + 3 (Ariseth) = 97, Result: Desecrated Shrine complete, Cult Faith increased to Devout, Cult Loyalty increased to Acceptable
When all things are considered, the first month of your operation went about as well as one could realistically expect when working with nothing more than a bunch of dirty, uneducated Human peasants. Progress was steady, if a bit on the slow side, but that is not exactly not of the norm when one is in the early stages of accumulating to a brand new organization and region. The minions sent along with you by the Grand Master are mostly competent, even if some of them tend to get on your nerves when tasked with performing tasks that, admittedly, fall outside of her actual specialization. The new recruits themselves from proven to be mostly reliable and willing to work, even if they lack even the most basic of education and require far too much supervision than you would prefer, but that is the cost of being forced to recruit from the unwanted waste of society.
Overall, you would say that the month turned out relatively well and you see no reason to report any of the minor, inconsequential stumbles that you encountered. In fact, the amount of progress you have made, with the limited resources you have access to, is actually rather impressive when compared to many of your previous operations. Of course, you are usually forced to be much more cautious and gradual in so aggressive you try to establish your operations in Quel'Thalas due to the fact that your opponents are also quite skilled, even if most of them still fall far short of your own capabilities. Out here, however, the most impressive skill the idiots of this wretched town seem to possess is their impressive ability to form semi-coherent sentences and cook their disgusting meals without burning their hovels down.
Still, you were always smart enough to take advantage of the foolishness of your enemies and, right now, there is enough foolishness around you to choke a Troll berserker. Next month should yield much better results since, by the time of your next report, you will have concluded many of the mundane tasks that are required get the cult running and will be able to devout more of your focus toward your mission instead of simply setting up.
Martial: Train Cultists (Martial)
The Cult of the Damned will eventually have to confront the defenders of Lordaeron eventually, so it is important that to prepare as many of your minions for that time as possible by teaching them how to properly defend themselves in a fight.
Cost: 100 Gold per Turn, Time: 2 Turns, Chance of Success: 90%, Reward: Cultists can defend themselves
You might not exactly be some sort of military genius or even some particularly skilled fighter, since you always preferred to leave such matters to your sister during your time in Silvermoon, but that does not mean you have not received some basic training during your adolescent years like all young nobles expected to eventually lead your people undergo as part of their core curriculum. In addition to those basic fundamentals of self-defense and military strategy, you also took frequent part in the various strategy briefings your family and your allies held prior to their raids against the Horde remnants or Amani Trolls that still plague Quel'Thalas.
Sure, you never actually participated in any battle that was larger than small skirmishes with Troll raiders on the borders of your family estate, but, for a genius of your caliber, memorizing and understanding something as simple the various drills and techniques used by your sister during her personal training sessions or the standard daily training regimen of your house troops is not exactly difficult. The vast majority of the techniques are completely useless to even the most experienced of Human warriors, much less the bumbling fools that are your minions, since they require the grace, agility and stamina of the superior High Elven physique, but there are some very rudimentary drills reserved for raw recruits or adolescent squires that, if applied correctly, should make even your pathetic minions passable fighters by the standards of slow and clumsy Humans.
Despite their insurmountable physical, mental and intellectual inferiority, you were still somewhat surprised when the fools actually managed to actually meet your pathetically low expectations by seemingly managing to keep pace with your childishly simply instructions without managing any major incidents beyond the usual idiocy you have come to expect from such low quality specimens. From what Yana has told you during your spare time, your disgusting minions are actually progressing at a relatively reasonable speed for such wretched creatures without any sort of physical standard they must adhere to as well as the amount of hours per day dedicated toward training.
By the end of next month, you estimate that your worthless cultists will probably at least be able to put up a fight against some disorganized peasant militia or the occasional brigand raiding party.
Roll Needed: 10, Rolled: 82 – 8 (Ariseth) = 74, Result: Locked in for 1 more Turn
Diplomacy: Introduce Yourself to Landowners
The Town Council and the Magistrate might call themselves the leaders of the town, but, in reality, they have little authority without the support of the rich and powerful landowners, which means that getting in touch with this powerful faction is vital to your success.
Cost: 0, Time: 1 Turn, Chance of Success: 90%, Reward: Establish relations with Upper-Class Residents
The town of Southshore is like most Human settlements in that the public faces of the local government, which in this case are the elected members of the Town Council and the Town Magistrate appointed by the Crown, are little more than puppets and figureheads. The real power in the region comes mainly from the rich landowners and entrepreneurs whose investments serve as the lifeblood of the town upon which everything else runs. In exchange for favorable legislation and occasionally looking the other way when something illegal occurs, the local politicians reap all the popularity from maintaining the economic boom as well as lining their own pockets with generous 'gifts' as reward for their cooperation. The only people who are somewhat shielded from this cycle of corruption are the local Alliance garrison and its paladin commander, but even they are still susceptible to the immense pressure and temptation from the local elite if they try to upend the situation too much.
That means that one of the quickest and easiest ways to subvert the region is to first subvert this small, but vital, group of families. One would think that such powerful people would be hard to reach and have little motivation to consort with a potential rival, but one of the main reasons you chose to establish your operation here was due to the region's unique political landscape.
In the aftermath of the Second War and the destruction of the Kingdom of Alterac, the powerful Kingdom of Lordaeron abused its position as leader of the Alliance to annex nearly all of its ancient rival's territory. The old aristocracy had their titles revoked and their holdings either auctioned off or rewarded to the heroes of the Second War. One particular family that benefited greatly from this little arrangement was House Barov of Caer Darrow, who were able to buy up massive swashes of underdeveloped land in Hillsbrad Hills and the Alterac Mountains. This could have potentially made the ambitious noble house the indisputably most powerful faction in the region if they actually wanted to make use of their political capital.
Of course, such a wealthy and proud family would have little interest in living under such plebian conditions out on the frontier and the political scheming of a single small, if booming, town are of little interest to those with greater aspirations. A such, the Barov family were mainly interested control of the region as a way to gain more prestige within the royal court of King Terenas Menethil II, instead of caring too much about maximizing profitably or people living on their land as long as a steady stream is income is kept following. In fact, most people in the area do not even know who House Barov are despite having to pay rent every month because the family conducts almost all of its business through contractors. After the Grand Master subverted the family and turned Caer Darrow into a hidden Scourge stronghold, their interest in Southshore eroded even further.
With so little established spheres of influence, the result is a local plutocracy of moderately wealthy commoners who have taken advantage of the power vacuum left by the fall of the old aristocracy and the lack of interest by the new ones to gain far more influence than what they would normally be able to achieve. Of course, even by the standards of these filthy and barely civilized Human nations, these families and individuals are little more than irrelevant insects fighting over scraps that anyone with even the smallest shred of dignity would find laughable if it were not so pathetic.
Under normal rules of etiquette, someone of your lineage and reputation would normally not even associate with most Human noble houses unless they are connected to the crown or the Alliance. Which only makes the idea that the actual highest-ranking family in the region only holds the embarrassing title of Baronet absolutely degrading. As a Magister of Silvermoon and, technically, still the heir to ancient House Dawnspring, your rank would translate into roughly that of at least a Countess or even Duchess had you been given your birthright, which makes the fact that a Baronet is not even actual nobility all the more humiliating. You can barely keep your absolute disgust and contempt for them to a degree that could pass as haughty indifference as they eagerly invited you into their flimsy wooden residence that would not have been fit for livestock back in Quel'Thalas.
The upstart peasant pretending to be of good birth, a local man by the name of Vorrel Sengutz who stumbled into his fortune by getting several lucrative housing contracts from the Alliance to provide temporary lodging to refugees from Stormwind, and his wife were courteous enough as they showed you around their pathetic house. Despite the fact that they are one of the official leaders of the community, the family still lives in the same house they have lived in since before the First War and appear to be more interested in spending their profits on upgrading their inn instead of their own home.
The fact that their pathetic house seems infinitely more hospitable than the rotting ruins you have to live only make you even more disgusted.
After the pathetically short tour and getting to meet the relatively young couple's newborn infant, the wife, Monica or Monika or whatever, excuses herself to take care of the baby, while you and the esteemed Baronet himself retreat to what they probably think passes for a lounge to chat. The man offers you some cheap tea that you took one sip, which you almost instantly spit back out into his face, and nursed for the rest of the visit as well as a plate of simple Human pastries and a bottle of local spirit that you never even bothered to touch.
What does interest you is, of course, information on the political climate of the region, which you were easily able to convince him to detail for you by pretending to want to get to know the other so-called 'respectable' members of the local community. The fool is so excited at the prospect of someone of your standing finally bothering to take notice of this pathetic backwater settlement that all it took to push him over the edge is some not-too-subtle hints that you have connections with the Barov family, who have ignored their inquiries for years now.
According to him, there are several different overarching factions that make up the upper class of the town, who all have different ideas on what they think Southshore should become.
The majority of the Upper Class residents, including Sengutz himself, are in favor of greater integration with the Alliance in order to grow the town and fill their coffers in the process. When you asked him if he was concerned about the growing number of outsiders with ties to either the Alliance or the crown and how they might be sidelining the natives by disregarding the locals, Sengutz simply brushes aside your comment with some stupid drivel about how more funding is good for everybody. You have to resist the urge to roll your eyes as the fool proudly claims that his dream is to see his disgusting hometown become the Stratholme of the South during his lifetime.
The discussion eventually shifts, after much more pushing from you than should have been needed for the fool to take the hint, to the topic of the opposition faction. To nobody's great surprise, it turns out that some people are not as pleased as Sengutz and his friends are to see so many outsiders taking over their land and not even bothering to pretend that they hold even the slightest bit of respect for them as you have been doing. The leader of this faction is a male Human by the name of William Vishas, who once made a small fortune as one of the town's only merchants, but whose profits have been in decline due to competition from a growing presence of massive merchant companies. Judging by the amount of venom in Sengutz's voice when he speaks about his political rival, you get the distinct impression that the animosity between them is a lot deeper than one would expect from a mere political disagreement.
The last faction that could be considered influential enough to be mentioned are a loose collection of independent magi and members of the Kirin Tor, who live in isolated estates of varying sizes around the outskirts of the settlement. The most prominent of these magi is a senior member of the Kirin Tor named Helcular, who the locals believe uses his isolated estate as a place to conduct arcane research and experimentation. Sengutz himself does not have much of an opinion on them except the usual uneasiness and suspicion that simpleminded peasants like him tend to hold in regards to any mention of magic that does not fall under their beloved Church of the Holy Light. The ignorant fool actually has the gull to tell you that he and his associates were under the impression that you would fall into this category, which is why they have been slow to welcome you properly.
After nearly a full morning of discussion, you finally decide that you have gathered enough information for this little session when the couple invite you to lunch. Like some kind of attention-starved mongrel who wants to please his new mistress as much as possible, Sengutz eagerly offers to introduce you to any of the other prominent families in town as well as the Town Council. You politely inform him that you are quite busy in the coming days, but that you might have some spare time for such things next month.
When you finally bid the couple farewell in Thalassian, the fools react as though that was the first they had ever heard anything except the disgusting Common tongue.
A rather fitting ending to an already distasteful meeting.
Roll Needed: 10, Rolled: 9 + 10 (Ariseth) = 19, Reroll (Ariseth): 51 + 10 (Ariseth) = 61, Result: Gained information on Upper-Class Residents, Contact established with Upper-Class Residents
Stewardship: Renovate Decrepit Manor
The old manor you have been given as your base of operations has been abandoned since the Second War and is barely fit for habitation, much less the seat of your power, and leaving it as such could even attract suspicion from the townsfolk, so it will be necessary to repair it as soon as possible.
Cost: 250 Gold per Turn, Time: 2 Turns, Chance of Success: 90%, Reward: Compound repaired
With the benefit of hindsight, you have come to the conclusion that it was probably not very smart of you commit as much as you did to living within this disgusting hovel that the Humans pass as a mansion before you had actually bothered to even step inside. The smart thing to do would have been to actually inspect the building yourself instead of just accepting the opinion of a common sell-sword with vastly different standards for what is considered habitable than you do, but, in your defense, your decision at the time was forced by that incompetent fool Chillheart, since you could hardly risk encouraging her outrageous behavior by validating her concerns.
By the end of the first week, however, you were finally starting to become somewhat acclimated to living in the musky suite where you slept and worked. You had, of course, picked the quarters that had the least amount of mold and decay as well as the most amount of intact windows that you could open to allow some fresh air in, so it was at least semi-tolerable. By the end of the month, you had managed to remove most of the mold, replaced most of the rotten wood and even killed most of the vermin that have been nesting in the walls for half a decade.
The rest of the building is still almost as awful as it was when you first arrived here, but that is only because you ordered your minions to simply focus on the occupied sections for the time being and save the rest of the renovations for later. Overall, you estimate that the building itself will be fully restored by the end of next month into a functional, if not exactly luxurious, level that you can at least deem acceptable for someone of your stature to live in without having to feel too ashamed.
Once completed, it might even serve as a simple form of motivation to reward useful minions by letting all the competent ones live there instead of jammed into their old longhouse like animals with all the other vermin.
Roll Needed: 10, Rolled: 62 + 2 (Ariseth) = 64, Result: Locked in for 1 more Turn
Learning: Set Up Lecture Hall
The key to creating a successful operation is the skill and intelligence of its members, which means that education and training facilities will be vital to your future success, so investing in a basic facility to elevate uneducated minions is a good first step.
Cost: 200 Gold per Turn, 1 Expansion Slot, Time: 2 Turns, Chance of Success: 90%, Reward: Lecture Hall – Increase Cultist Skill Level
One look at the quality of recruits that make up the initial members of your little cult told you exactly how useful they would be without at least some basic education to bring them up to a education level comparable to a child in any civilization society. Most of the them were nothing more than impoverished peasants and laborers who slept in barns or stables before you tempted them into your cut with promises of a better life. You can count the number of them who can read or write more than your own names in Common on one hand, which meant even basic arithmetic, not to mention more advanced trade skills, are about as comprehensible to them as you trying to communicate with them using Thalassian.
In a most likely futile attempt to alleviate this problem, you ordered Chillheart to make herself useful for the time being by supervising the construction of simple wooden hall that can be used to teach these worthless peasants some basic literacy and math. The whole process will most likely be painfully slow and the vast majority will never amount to anything beyond walking corpses that still require sleep and food, but, for the time being, you cannot simply turn them into more efficient undead minions, so you will just have to make due until you can start to lure in more useful recruits.
Of course, you should have known that someone like Chillheart was probably not the best choice to lead something as mundane as construction work, since she, evidently, likes to play fast and loose with your treasury. By the time you had tallied up your monthly expenditures, you realized that the simple project had already used up three fourth of its allocated funding while only halfway finished.
If not for your dire need of any semi-competent overseer at the moment, you would have told the wasteful fool to crawl back to the Grand Master along with a request for a more reliable minion.
Roll Needed: 10, Rolled: 7 + 6 (Chillheart) = 13, Result: Cost per Turn increased to 300 Gold, Locked in for 1 more Turn
Learning: Study Military Tactics (Yana Bloodspear)
You had your doubts about the assassin from Dalaran, but the Grand Master assured you that Yana Bloodspear is also a more than qualified tactician, which, combined with your own relative inexperience, means you might be able to learn something from her.
Cost: 0, Time: 1 Turn, Chance of Success: 90%, Reward: Increased Martial Skill
The first few weeks of any long-term operation in an isolated region with little opportunity to travel or receive support from more established operations are almost always incredibly chaotic due to the sheer about of work that needs to be accomplished to make the cult functional. With so little time to spare, one often has to sacrifice less important matters in the interest of the greater good, which, at the moment, basically means that you will have to personally pick up the slack of your less capable minions.
The sacrifice you had to make this month are the military briefings that you planned to have with Yana. Despite how much the assassin's intellect and wisdom pales in comparison to your own, you are not so arrogant as to think that someone like her could not have some useful insights or experiences to share that could offer you some unique perspective with which you can use to further refine your future plans.
No matter how useful they might be in the long-term, however, you, regretfully, had no other choice except to postpone the briefings until next month while you focus most of your attention on more immediate concerns such as making sure none of your new minions wander off into the wilderness or something.
These vermin will never fully grasp just how privileged they are to have a leader as generous, caring and brilliant as you.
Roll Needed: 10, Rolled: 4 + 1 (Ariseth) + 0 (Yana) = 5, Result: Locked in for 1 more Turn
Intrigue: Train Cultists (Intrigue)
The success of your operation relies on secrecy and deception, which means that you must remain hidden from the eyes of the mortal nations before you are ready to strike and teaching your members the basics of keeping their affiliations a secret is a vital first step.
Cost: 100 Gold per Turn, Time: 2 Turns, Chance of Success: 90%, Reward: Cultists understand basic espionage
The trouble with large covert operations deep inside enemy territory with little to no support from your allies and having to recruit locals to supplement your ranks is that these kinds of operations tend to fall apart since success depends upon all members having the bare minimum amount of function brain-matter needed to simply keep their mouths shut in front of outsiders. With that humble goal in mind, you decided to set upon the ambitious task of teaching some of the most incompetent creatures belonging to an already mentally dull species exactly why they should not talk to or get drunk around outsiders.
You expected a certain amount of childish resentment, but, to your pleasant surprise and immense relief, however, the pathetic socioeconomic rejects that comprise the entirety of your little cult were actually able to understand most of the basics of your reasoning and instructions on how to maintain barest standards for operational confidentiality. Of course, most of what you told to them do basically amounted to something that one would expect children of average intellect to be able to deduce for themselves, so the fact that these fools have to be told to not rush into the local tavern to reveal everything they know about your operation is not actually something anyone should be proud of.
Nevertheless, you suppose you should just be thankful that the dimwitted peasants seem receptive to your lessons and pray to the Lich King that another month of drilling these same basic instructions into their thick deformed Human skulls would be enough to not ruin your entire operation, reveal the existence of the Undead Scourge to the Alliance before the Lich King is prepared and instantly subvert your path to greatness.
The thought that your destiny now rests are the shoulders of these vermin makes you physically ill.
Roll Needed: 10, Rolled: 56 + 8 (Ariseth) = 64, Result: Locked in for 1 more Turn
Piety: Construct a Desecrated Shrine
You currently have to hold your sermons in the mess hall of the compound, which does not exactly create an atmosphere of piety, so the construction of a dedicated shrine where rituals can be conducted will be vital to creating a successful cult.
Cost: 200 Gold per Turn, 1 Expansion Slot, Time: 2 Turns, Chance of Success: 90%, Reward: Desecrated Shrine
One can hardly create a successful operation based around a brand new religion that goes against pretty much everything taught by the foolish priests of the Church of the Holy Light when that pathetic religion is so widespread and popular among the local population. A less cunning and experienced leader might try to simply recruit minions that have little to no faith, but the true difficulty, however, lies in having to walk a very narrow path in terms of just how religious potential recruits are, because, while those with little faith might be more open to a new religion, they are often less likely to actually become faithful and loyal members. On the other hand, while a truly pious individual would be harder to convince to abandon their religion, once they do, they tend to be much more devoted followers and much less likely to sell you out when it becomes more beneficial to them than remaining with the cult.
Such careful screening, however, requires a much larger pool of candidates than what you had access to around the area and more resources than you had access to in order to actually monitor them to confirm their suitability. You would normally just expand the search area instead of lowering your recruiting standards since you tend to place more value on long-term goals instead of short-term results. This time, however, you do not have the usual luxury of slowly building up your infrastructure over decades, because, as ironic as it might seem, the dead apparently have little patience and you will not jeopardize your ambitions by disappointing the Lich King on such a vital mission.
With so little time to indoctrinate your new minions properly, you decided that the best way to handle the initial batch is to give them a little push in the right direction and then use them to facilitate the integration of future recruits. You had always planned to erect some kind of shrine or chapel to the Lich King eventually, but the fact that the decrepit mansion you have moved into actually has a small chapel to the Holy Light inside makes it the perfect way to accomplish both goals at the same time.
After a short little sermon in which you were able to paint the church as one of the pillars of the corrupt and uncaring society that so callously threw them tossed aside like trash, you called upon them to cast aside their faith and take up arms in service to a more worthy master. Once the gullible fools were sufficiently enraged and they began to lose themselves in the enraged roars of the crowd, all you had to do was point them to the only visible extension of the entity they were now convinced was the source of all of their suffering. Like frenzied animals, most of the recruits did not even hesitate before they started to tear down the moldy religious tapestries, rip up the dusty tomes used by the priesthood and smash the eroded busts of various champions of the Holy Light.
The blasphemous acts the recruits perpetrated in their rage, along with a little help from your magic, was actually able to taint the entire chapel with powerful necromantic magic that would make future rituals much more efficient and, over time, twist the minds of its inhabitants to make them more susceptible to the will of the Lich King.
One particular individual stood out among the recruits for the way he naturally assumed a leadership role within the small mob without even seeming to realize it. This male Human by the name of Amnennar, one of the many Stormwind orphans left to fend for himself after the defeat of the Horde at the end of the Second War, could become potentially prove to be a worthwhile invest with a little bit of training.
Roll Needed: 10, Rolled: 94 + 3 (Ariseth) = 97, Result: Desecrated Shrine complete, Cult Faith increased to Devout, Cult Loyalty increased to Acceptable
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