It all had started when Elizabeth had suggested he should try acting like a father. Do to her that you wished someone had done to you when you were younger.
*
Aife was twelve. She had completed a year at Hogwarts, and it had been amazing. It was like all her dreams had come true. She had befriended the Mauraders and alienated that traitor Pettigrew.
What happened now was a different turn of events. Her so called father had taken her on a trip. The coldest man she had ever met had tried to act like a father and had taken her on a camping trip deep into a forbidden forest in the north of Ireland.
What came as a surprise was that her "father" looked dorky as hell. The once stylish man, whose only redeeming trait was the way he looked and dressed, was wearing a giant black hat, a long silly black cape, and a blood red scarf. The rest of his attire was that of an evil pastor.
"Today I will teach you how to effetely kill and harvest vampires. "
She was baffled. She knew she shouldn't have expected a fishing trip, but this was too much.
"isn't that Illegal" she asked, remembering the books in her previous life.
"It certainly would be if those baboons in the ministry had gotten their will. I made sure eradicate any traces of the law as soon as it appeared. "
"What about garlic? I didn't see you bring any with us. "
"Garlic in its natural form would only alert them to our presence and scare them away. Since we intend to purge any living specimen of their kin, it would only hinder us. "
"You are the one who will be purged" a creepy voice from behind made her turn around. An hideous creature. Two tall slim men with bat like features was in front of them. They weren't hot at all.
"Lesser vampires. They are weaker than their kin, gives less useful resources and they hardly poses a challenge "
He threw a vial into the ground. White smoke engulfed them. It was only a moment later as she opened her eyes that she could see that all the vampires were dead. Only her father, who was looking somewhat content for once was still standing.
"White Smog. It paralyzes lesser vampires and slow their reaction time, it is something I developed in my youth. Now, watch me as I pull out its teeth. A vampire's fang works great as an ingrediency in potions for night vision and transformation". He took the head of one of the fallen creatures and started slowly dragging out its teeth with a plier.
"Your turn". He held the head of the other corpse towards her. Its glossy half open eyes staring at her
She wanted to scream, but it was simply to much. She simply stared. Only a low voice in the back of her head telling her "At least she had something to brag about when the school starts, right, Right?"
The climate in the United Kingdom is currently taking a turn for the worse, separatist movements are popping up right and left, some muggles, some wizards. It seems the statute of secrecy will soon be a thing of the past.
Still, time passes, and Dace couldn't allow himself to simply go with the flow, if he wanted to survive and thrive. Even with Asia being wiped off the map, he was fairly optimistic about Wales' chances of survival, should adequate preparations be made. Annoying the Carrows was a necessary evil, in that sense.
What was less expected, was Orion Black thanking him politely in his own manor, and asking him not to come back to him with easily obtainable information he already had, lest both of them lose presious time that could be employed elsewhere.
Which is precisely why he invited the person currently entering his office, and for a moment, he found himself speechless. He had to admit that, when he received her resume, he had no idea of what this woman looked like.
He had imagined as being a strict looking woman, maybe bespectacled, befitting of the record breaker of the Urbanism division in his Academy. What entered instead was a statuesque woman, easily half a head higher than he was, with straight, scarlet locks reaching her hips, stunning green eyes, a beautiful face, and curves that would have seemed exaggerated on anyone else, emphasized by a tight skirt suit that barely reached mid-thigh.
His first thought was that one of his manservants had invited a lady of the night who had then entered the wrong room, before remembering he had people guarding his door and that therefore, the woman in front of him was actually the Academy graduate he was waiting for.
He gestured at the woman to sit, which she did with a smile, and he folded his hands on the desk in front of him.
"First off, I would like to congratulate you for your excellent development within this academy." The woman giggled lightly, her mouth between her hand, but Dace ignored the interruption. "All of the reports I have received speak of you in a very encouraging fashion, although it seems there have been problems with several classmates?"
Her smile didn't falter as she replied.
"Yes. Most of the men I have dated conveniently forgot that I told them I wasn't looking for someone to go steady with yet."
"Indeed?" Dace raised an eyebrow. "You are surprisingly honest about your promiscuous tendancies."
"The reports I have been getting about you left me with the impression that as long as I did my job well and didn't make too many waves, you wouldn't really care who I decided to invite in my bed, sir."
Well, she did have some skill in dealing with people too, if she was that confident about her answer. Nevertheless, that left Dace with the decision on whether or not to hire her.
Does Dace hire Ava Lloyd ?
[] Yes (Since she'll get to choose a house to live in for free, her salary will be reduced to 500 G/t)
-[] Where is she assigned?
[] No
Meanwhile, after talking with Rosier Minor, It was agreed Aife would remain at the manor a bit longer, to recover for the tragic miscarriage she experienced. That didn't mean, however, that she would remain idle, now that she didn't try to kill him every passing second.
Does Dace hire Aife Rosier?
[] Yes
-[] Where is she assigned?
[] No
Note: It will take one turn for advisors to adapt to their new post and therefore, they cannot help on the turn thay are swapped or hired, save for exceptions that will be noted.
Aife : Diplomacy / Martial / Mysticism
Ava : Diplomacy / Stewardship
Monique: All of them.
Myriam: Stewardship
Gains:
Potion shops 'Montmorency' in England: + 40,000 Galleons/ Turn
Farmer, Farmer and Farmer : +10,000 Galleons/Turn ( Will double upon reaching high size settlement status.)
Potion shop 'Little Montmorency' : +5,000 Galleons/Turn ( Will double upon reaching high size settlement status.)
Spendings:
Gwallawg Academy of Superior Learning : -25,000 Galleons / turn , 1d6 – 3 Chance of Loyal Superior Unit, 1d100-95 chance of Loyal Hero Unit. (Muggleborn population : 95%)
Maintainance, taxes, salaries of the manor: 18,900 Galleons/turn (50 of them, 376 G/t on average)
Order funding: 20,000 Galleons/turn.
Salaries: Myriam Wells : 1 000 Galleons/turn
Resources:
-Lumber Mill. 16 Wood per turn.
- Crystal Mine. 8 Crystals per turn.
-Improved Gold Mine. 15,000 Galleons per turn. 2 Native gold per turn.
-Improved Gem Mine. 12 Gems per turn. 2 Elemental stones per turn.
-Improved Stone Quarry. 24 Stone per turn. 2 Flawless Marble per turn.
Result:
+5100 Galleons
+16 Wood
+24 Stone
+8 Crystal
+12 Gems
+2 Native gold
+2 Elemental stone
+2 Flawless Marble
Treasury:
254,562 Galleons
16 Wood
24 Stone
8 Crystal
12 Gems
2 Native gold
2 Elemental stone
2 Flawless Marble
Rumor mill:
Dace heard about whispers, nightmares, and rumours of odd, metallic, doglike creatures wielding wicked-looking weapons. Whatever those were, they appeared at the same time people disappeared in Northumbria....
[] What in the world...
Monique has approached Dace about his research for an Order anchor. She said that there was likely a chance of it having reappeared, but some readings from the monitoring charms indicated that something, or more likely someone, was triggering them right now.
[] Well then...
Turn 2 : Summer 1982
Diplomacy: Advisor : No one : Actions : 1
The world is currently spiraling out of control, and due to the panic, people's passions are exacerbated. Grudges will be aired, and feuds will be declared.
[] Visit the Welsh Ministry, try to build up contacts. The people over there like him well enough, and they are bound to be more competent that those english clowns, but one never knows who they can meet, and what they can find. The construction of his own little city-state probably didn't go unnoticed, so he might as well nip any legal problem in the bud.
40% Chance of success.
[] Attend Academy graduation. He is, after all, the owner, founder and the one who funds the Gwallawg Academy of Superior Learning, located in Cardiff. This will increase his chance of people with exceptional potential stepping up next year, such as Myriam and Miss Evans.
40% Chance of success.
[] Meet with your people (write in option). Just because they're already working for him doesn't mean that he has to neglect them.
60 % Chance of success. Chance to establish a SL with a named subordinate, chance to discover promising people, chance to increase loyalty.
[] Mingle with the populace. Being a proper lord is knowing one's people. And Dace really doesn't get people, so he hopes being seen will be enough.
40% Chance of success. Chance of people stepping up to help. Will reduce people's suspicions.
Stewardship: Advisor : Myriam Wells : Actions : 2
Available actions:
[][Myriam] All hands on deck : Myriam will take care of a stewardship action for Dace.
[][Myriam] Bookkeeping for dummies : Myriam will increase the efficiency of Dace's finances and businesses by a margin. (Need to be assigned to a specific taxk)
[][Myriam] Aggressive expansion: Myriam will look around and point out good business opportunities ripe for the picking.
Perhaps it was because she heard of the new graduate, or maybe it was because there wasn't much time left before the predicted collapse, but it seems that Myriam was doubling down on her efforts to either prove her worth, or at least to bring results. (94) And results, she brought. No price increase this turn.
[] Develop your budding empire, you need to spend gold to earn more gold, after all.
Costs: 10,000 G. Gains variable.
20% Chances of success
[] Find sources of building materials. Your contacts went out of business not that long ago, and you need good sources. Guaranteed access to Wood and Stone production facilities. Chance of getting access to Gem, Crystal, Sulfur or Mercury production facilities.
[] Sell business:
-[]Montmorency : 700,000 G
[] Build accomodations[Requires: Buy the surrounding lands] . Having those nearby means that Dace's servants could invite people to live there, increasing the pool of manpower he can draw on. It will also increase their happiness, since they won't have to worry overly much about their families. -[] Basic accomodations: Just a few houses, nothing too fancy.
Costs: 500G
Once settled, will gain Dace 91,250G (all charges and taxes taken care of) per turn.
-[] Middling accomodations: Enough houses to found a small village, with basic services in place.
Costs: 35,500G
Once settled, will gain Dace 182,500G (all charges and taxes taken care of) per turn.
-[] Major settlement: Housing, entertainment, animal pens and room for expansion, this small town is pretty much self sufficient.
Costs: 179,000G (Available due to previous choices)
Once settled, will gain Dace 912,500G (all charges and taxes taken care of) per turn.
The Abbot Family will like you more. + 10 to recruitment rolls. (Not GASL)
-[] Massive project: An expansive, fortified, self sufficient Large town that can house up to a hundred thousand of people, finished in time due to the abuse of the shortcut called magic. It has everything Myriam and you could think of, save for advanced magical learning establishments.
Costs: 521,500G (Available due to previous choices)
Once settled, will gain Dace 1,825,000G (all charges and taxes taken care of) per turn. + 20 to recruitment rolls.(Not GASL)
The Abbot, Carrow and Fawley families will like you more.
[] Settle. Dace will invite people to come live in that settlement of his, however, this means he won't be able to change its size as easily anymore.
[] Expansion: Dace hasn't got nearly enough place right now. He needs to correct that.
Costs: 200,000G
Dace will own most of the lands in the magical side of Gwynedd, Powys and Perfeddwlad.
[] Resource hunt. (write-in owned land) : The land has many riches. Whether or not they were discovered is another matter entirely.
Costs: 5000G
70% Chances of success
Martial: Advisor: No one. Actions : 1
This isn't really Dace's cup of tea, and it kind of shows. He also really hopes someone will come to do it for him soon, because he knows he isn't good at it.
[] Hire more security staff. Having people on hand to check whether or not people are trustworthy would save Dace lots of trouble.
Costs: 2,000G
40% Chances of success.
-10 to enemy infiltration rolls.
[] Find a Security Chief (Martial adviser). Dace needs all the help.
Costs: 5,000G
40% Chances of success.
Dace gets a Martial advisor.
[] But will that security chief be the best? No. Try to poach an auror or two! Considering what they're doing with them, they won't be missed. Risky, though in the current climate, it is much less than it would. In England, anyways.
Costs: 10,000G
40% Chances of success.
Dace gets a Martial advisor (high quality).
[] Militia. Dace has the lands, but he lacks the people to keep it safe. Surely, he could afford to hire a few people to keep the place safe, right?
Costs: 10,000G
40%Chances of success.
Dace gets the bare bones of a militia going on.
Intrigue: Advisor: No one. Actions : 2
Dace is not sure he'll ever find anyone he can trust with this to help him. Especially since... You know.
[] Plot against: (Will receive intel on their moves, plus additional actions if the opportunity arises.)
-[] Dumbledore's little club of vigilantes.
5% Chance of success.
-[] Voldemort's band of hooligans.
50% Chance of success + 10 (pride)
-[]The muggles
100% Chance of success
-[] The Ministry of Magic (English).
80% Chance of success
-[] The Ministry of Magic (Welsh).
15% Chance of success
[] Plots are good for the purse! With all those people dying left and right... A whole continent disappeared, someone has to step in , in the stead of those poor foreign investors...
-[] Plot to take over shops in Diagon Alley (England, London).
--[] Plot to have them come to Dace's new settlement. [Requires Major settlement or above]
Costs 10,000G/Business.
-[] Plot to take over shops in the Green Alley (Wales, Cardiff)
--[] Plot to have them come to Dace's new settlement. [Requires Major settlement or above]
Costs 10,000G/Business.
[] Compulsive plotting is also good for the morale!
-[] Go on a matchmaking spree. Chance to increase Diplomacy, gain RP with some people, reputation. Need to select your targets.
-[] Go on a trolling rampage an adventure! Chance to increase Intrigue, inconvenience enemies, gain RP with some people.
[] Keep an ear to the ground. Things happen around here, that Dace should keep an eye on.
Maintains Rumor mill.
Learning: Advisor: No one. Actions : 2
Dace's not letting anyone not from his family handle those books. Ever. Allowances may be made for a few other people, but he can count them on his fingers.
[] Attend lessons to his own Academy. Since he's the owner, he can attend for free. [You may only attend four of them in total, and then, never again] Choose 1 to 4 (will only take one action) :
-[] The economy section is booming with activity rignt now, because of the panic from America disappearing, and they have taking upon themselves the tasks of studying the effects of this event. Still, a few lecturers put together a few lessons about Basic Estates. + 1,000 Experience.
-[] He didn't think there were classes about basic self defense here, but there they were. Basic Combat is always reliable in a pinch. + 1,000 Experience.
-[] Strangely enough, there were a few shady personalities there, and it appears that there is a black market in his Academy. Oh well, life is the best teacher, and he was fairly sure Basic Stealth wouldn't be taught in a magical academy anyways. + 1,000 Experience.
-[] With all of the things going on right now, few people choose to focus on the old texts of old battles, however, Dace thinks Basic Tactics are still very much important. + 1,000 Experience.
-[] Half of the work with magic is to know how to defend against it, and here, in the wizarding world, knowing Basic Magic Resistance is paramount. [Requires Combat classes to be taken] + 1,000 Experience.
[] Relocate the Academy[Available due to previous choices][Requires massive project] : The world as Dace knows it is ending. He was certain of it. As such, it wouldn't be unreasonable to gather his resources and assets in order to keep them safe.
Costs: 100,000G
The Gwallawg Academy of Superior Learning will be relocated to the unnamed town. It will be safer and open the way for upgrades, but the limit of subjects taught to heroes will go down to four.
[] Open a new academy[Requires massive project] : This one will directly enter in conflict with Hogwarts, as it will take care of children from middle to high school. However, it won't teach just magic. As the GASL did, this one will teach everything the muggles do, and magical subjects.
Cost : 800,000G
Will increase people's loyalty and happiness, give bonuses to GASL due to synergy and open further options.
[] The old tales are sometimes true. (write-in. Must be something Dace came in contact with.)
The Gwallawg library may not be the biggest, but all of it is true, which is more than any other library can boast.
[] The Old kingdom. The enemy they're confronted to is old, very old, from an era thought lost. However, now, Dace knows better. The enmy was vanquished once already, time to try and find out what's needed to do it twice.
[] Matters of the Court. William Black, an enigmatic figure to be sure. Yet, when there's a hero-king, there's a bloodline.
[] A hero under any other name. Scythe is an enigmatic figure, but what's interesting here, are the people he interacted with.
Mysticism : Advisor: Monique Bridge: Actions : 2
Monique has settled pretty well, even if she essentially filled her office with two-toned bears and Aife seems deathly scared of her. And she babbles a lot about the nature of emotions. And then, there's her unfortunate tendancy of causing mischief by having people fight each other because she's bored....
Well, she was the most competent person for the job.
[][Monique] Secret mission! Dace sends Monique hunt down artifacts. Results variable.
[][Monique] Magical menagerie : Monique bragged that she was very good at hunting down creatures. Time to take her up on that boast.
[][Monique] The infernal machine: Monique will begin experimenting with scraps, materials, and magic to try and create golems.
[] Find himself an assistant. With all the chaos, someone has to be found. There are a lot of alumni of GASL running around, so it shouldn't be too hard to find anyone. Also, Dace didn't trust Monique to be left alone to her own devices for too long.
40% Chance of success.
Cost: 10,000G
Dace finds a Mysticism advisor.
[] Saint Graal. Dace has a Holy Grail. It's nice and shiny, but what would be even better would be two of them.
80% Chance of success.
Dace finds another Grail.
[] Anchor hunting. Dace remembers those, and the power they bring to bear. However, he still needs to look for them.
-[] Write in Anchor type ( Order, Death, Chaos, Nature or Life)
85% Chance of success.
[] Blue lines. Dace found those within him, and they don't feel like they belong to the five elements paradigm. Thefeore, they're probably something else...
70% Chance of success.
Costs: 1x Native Gold.
[] Dissection. Dace knows his enemy, and knows, more or less, how it works. He also knows he's resistant to the stuff, so why not get a sample and try to see what makes it tick in more detail.
20% Chances of success.
Costs: 5,000G, 1x Elemental stone.
[] The shattered tower. The warning was heard, however, Dace doesn't know anything about it. No where, no when, no how and no why. His current theory is about it being a nexus of some sort. Still, just because he would heed the warning, didn't mean anyone else would.
40% Chances of success.
Personal: Actions : 3 (5 if both Aife and Ava are recruited)
[] Spend time with Social Links.(+2 RP)
-[]Write-in
[] Personal supervision. Supervise an action from the other sections. Gain +10 to rolls if Stewardship or Diplomacy action, +20 if Martial, Leraning or Mysticism action, +30 if Intrigue action. (May be used multiple times, but not on the same actions.)
Aaaand here it comes, the dreaded... Interlude choice! (Withheld because most of the action was spread through turn 1 and 2 so separating wouldn't make much sanse)
[] The League of Extraordinary gentlemen CharlesQuest
[] I think I skipped an episode. Or ten. VoldieQuest
[] I can't even be upset about my plans failing. ConfluxQuest
[] I think I need a bigger shovel. DeathQuest
[] Diggy Diggy Hole. NatureQuest
[] Maniacal cackling 101. BladeQuest
Votes for the Interlude end in 24h, votes for the plans end in 72h.
[X] I can't even be upset about my plans failing. ConfluxQuest
Interlude 1 : ConfluxQuest
....
Make friends at the Ministry:
65+75 =140 : Met Lucius Malfoy.
After the good results of last month's visit at the Ministry, Albus was feeling pretty good about coming here once more. After all, reasonable people could be found everywhere, even if they, themselves, didn't know it.
Which was why he was walking beatifically towards young Lucius, his dark blue robes with yellow stars billowing slightly behind him. People cringed at his dressing sense, but little did they know, each and every one of those little stars had their own individual uses.
Fashion is useless to you if you're dead.
Being undead, however, presented an interesting conundrum.
Nevertheless, he arrived in front of Lucius, who disengaged from conversing with a small, portly man. Cornelius Fudge, Undersecretary to Minister Bagnold, if his memory didn't fail him.
The young man, despite his trying to hide it, was haggard. Troubled by something. All of his usual sneers and superiority were all but nonexistant, leaving the likely overworked young man a pale shadow of himself.
"Bearing the weight of society is a very heavy load, young Lucius." He smiled thinly at the young man who had exhausted himself trying to hold the economy together on his own.
The younger man gave a small start, then looked up at Dumbledore, before his body language became more guarded. Howerver, he still gave a small nod of greetings. Well well well, it seems Voldemort didn't stamp the respect off his followers. That, he could use.
Persuasion roll : 100 + 75+ 10 + 30 = 215
[Kind] trait activated.
"Yet, that is not what troubles you, is it?" He asked knowingly, causing Lucius to look uncomfortable. Albus allowed his expression to relax. He knew of the pain born from worrying about people dear to you. He knew it very well. "Is young Narcissa feeling better?"
Lucius' lips thinned in annoyance, before he walked off towards one of the meeting rooms. It seemed that he wished for their meeting to be more private, and he saw no reason not to oblige. Albus waved his wand in the air and established privacy spells once the door was closed.
"Narcissa... Isn't well." Lucius started, but caught himself and said no more.
"Expulsed or not, Andromeda was her sister. Narcissa always was the kindest of the three, no matter how much she tried to hide it, she loved Andromeda dearly." Yet another person he had failed, because he didn't insist... No. People had the right to make their own decisions, and there was no way he could have known what was going to happen. He could not, would not, allow himself to fall further down that line of thinking.
"Indeed" Lucius' lips twisted up slightly, fondly, thinking of his wife.
Dumbledore decided to take a bet.
"I don't suppose our... ah... mutual acquaintance has any idea of what was behind the murder of your sister-in-law and the abduction of her daughter?"
"If he does, he hasn't shared." Lucius answered tightly. Indeed, that would be the kind of card one would want to keep close to one's chest. However, he wasn't known for that.
"He probably did not want to cause a panic. After all, Jack of Blades being active in those times is an ill omen to the Black family. Even more so after Andromeda's death."
There. He said it. Lucius' already pale face became chalk white as his eyes widened. One could almost see the gears turning in his mind. The man schooled his features into a solemn look.
"I... I don't like muggleborns, and I despise muggles. I think they're a threat that should be controlled. I am not a kind man, and certainly not the kind that would make you look good. But... I want Narcissa, and Draco, to be safe more that I want to hold onto my pride." He closed his eye and breathed in, holding his left forearm." If you can promise me that, I will become your man." His eyes opened and bored into Dumbledore's own with a frightening intensity, but Albus wasn't offended by this.
Lucius really loved his family, didn't he? It brought a soft smile to his artificially aged face.
"I will not tell you not to worry, but I promise you this. I will fall to Jack's blade before I allow any harm to happen to your family."
In a corner of the room, Athena's grey eyes narrowed at him reprovingly.
Well, she should have known he would do this, he loved his redemptions, after all.
Lucius Abandons the Death Eaters. Lucius joins the Order of the Phoenix as consultant. Lucius available as Stewardship Advisor. Gain information about the Death Eaters for this turn and the next. +20 to all rolls against Death Eaters and Voldemort for 2 turns. Dumbledore now has an In with Old pureblood families. +10 to stewardship rolls and +20,000G/t due to better management.
Do you wish for Lucius to become your Stewardship advisor? (He'll do it for free, you couldn't pay his usual wages anyways)
[] Yes
[] No
Well, it seems you failing the game so hard last time gave you quite a bit of good karma to be spent here.
Lucius is kinda badass, when you think about it, he was the one holding together the economy, that probably needs a lot of stewardship... @LadyPanda, can we know his stats, now we've got him as a henchman?
Well~ Entrepreneurship 80 gives Mining rank up, Self sufficiency 80 Gives a holding for reduced price, Accounting 80 gives estate Rank up, and the Keystone is Nobility Rank up and +10% Gold gain~
Once we get our base, we're getting ourselves another one, then a Nature Anchor and give it to him. That way, when Riddle goes crazy, we get some measure of home base defense.
For some reason, Albus didn't feel reassured at all when he saw Ciara O'Donnell holding the file instead of her secretary.
The Irish Minister of Magic kept smiling at him with a rather satisfied expression as he explained that no, he wasn't intent on causing any trouble in Ireland, and no, he wasn't intent on taking her job either. The old man on the corner of the room was looking at him evaluatingly, which didn't reassure him either, but in the end, after papers were signed, he left, still with the impression that something was off with the entire interview.
Calm down the population 28 + 30 (PS) + 75 (Leadership) + 20 (Synergy) = 153
Albus was pretty satisfied with his speech, from what he could see people were feeling less hopeless, when a howl tore through the evening air, and a strange creature appeared from nowhere. It had a vaguely humanoid shape and was on its fours, body covered in dark, brownish fur, with a giant maw full of teeth and glowing yellow eyes.
The crowd began to scream, and the beast growled.
Dumbledore casts Sanctuary on the crowd. - 36 Mana, 224 Remaining.
[Double casting] Activated
Now that he didn't need to worry about the people around, he pondered on what to do. This looked like a particularly nasty case of lycanthropy...
Well, no time like the present to experiment.
Dumbledore casts exorcism on the Balverine -2 Mana, 222 Remaining.
Resistance roll : 86 : Pass
The beast growled and whined, its magic rebelling against Albus, who raised an eyebrow before willing his magic to assert itself.
The beast fell to the ground, screaming and writhing, before dark streams flew out of it into the air, dissolving and burning, and its fur fell off, revealing the naked form of Ted Tonks.
Dumbledore stared. People stared. Then they stared at Dumbledore, who waved his wand and conjured a blanket to protect the man's modesty
It was at about that time that the aurors came.
Dumbledore looked at Minister Bagnold, who was scowling at him, and then casually started eating a lemon-flavored sherbet – he'd have to ration those until he got a production line up and running-
"Do you have any idea of what you have done?" She spoke out angrily, enuntiating each word clearly, while he ate yet another one, enjoying the tangy taste and the way it crunched loudly under his teeth.
"I may have an idea or two, however, I somehow doubt we have the same one at the moment." He answered placidly.
"This is not the time for games Dumbledore! the fact you can heal lycanthropy is a great deal already, your display out there? It just makes us look bad in comparison. We need you to step up and take that goddamn chair already!" She almost hit the table here, and he began to feel a familiar tiredness come over him.
Time and time again, he refused to become Minister of Magic, but it seemed people didn't understand his reluctance over gathering too much power. Thankfully, a message interrupted the meeting between the two. Aurors bearing the sigil of the Irish Ministry met him as he exited the room, to bring him back to the Ciara O'Donnell's office.
He knew something went wrong when he saw Lucius, in his best robes, standing in the corner of the room, looking as smug as physically possible.
The Irish Minister smiled at him, and gave him a paper.
It looked a lot like a petition.
He looked up, then at the paper again, before exhaling, a shocked expression on his face.
Due to the utter incompetence of the British Ministry both in protecting Ireland and stopping the Irish independence movement, Ireland, both Northern and Southern, had seceded from the British Ministry of Magic.
Due to the events, both the president of southern Ireland, and the Minister of Magic decided to reveal magic to the muggles.
Dumbledore was hereby named king of the constitutional monarchy that ensued.
Dumbledore became king of Ireland:
Anti-magic perception fields taken down
Land buy costs refunded.
Irish and Magical economy fused. Crash delayed to turn 6.
It took a few days and several escape attempts (he didn't know how, but somehow Lucius managed to convince Fawkes to keep him here.), but Dumbledore got used to his new station, if only because he was already used to running everything around him, before Lucius came in, with reports from the land he selected to build the base on, and his attempts to revitalize the economy.
As he suspected, give Lucius a competent staff and put him in a position to boss over someone and he'll move mountains. Or in this case, a country.
The land found was near the coast, between mountains and near a river. It had lots of room for expansion, and was rich with resources.It even includeda water element type vein running underneath it. If it weren't for the fact that being close to the coast meant that security would need more effort, this would be absolutely perfect.
Also, as an afterthought, Lucius mentioned that he fixed the economy problem, coordinated the muggle-wizard production chain, oh, and also, here was the remaining 500,000 Galleons of the budget he was allocated, so no need to try and cut corners on the construction.
Dumbledore was secretly terrified of the kind of damage a sufficiently motivated Lucius could cause.
Sooo, here's the end of Autumn 1982. Lots of stuff happening here, another disgusting crit in diplomacy, and Lucius being Lucius.
Kekre said:
On one hand, Panda's upset. On the other, we need to build a shrine to Lucius.
I dont know why you guys were so worried about Lucius last quest, the Welsh dude was clearly letting him go to waste like literally every thing else he had.Lets just steal his stuff this tine around!
Things sent rather well, all things considered. The names the Yaxley matriarch recommended delivered, and Dace had the very nice surprise of knowing that, while Powys was as barren as ever, Perfeddwlad, at least on the magical side of it, was overflowing with cinnabar. There were also a few pockets of crystal, and though it would need expert help to unearth, he could see something resembling gems deep down in the ground.
And this was not a second too late, as Dace received word from the agencies he contacted that other pureblood families have also been inquiring about land and buying, though, from what he gathered after investigating for a bit, there were three major problems.
Firstly, some families decided to call back their members and gather in specific locations, with the obvious intent to fortify their position and ensure their survival.
Secondly, it seems several families were eyeing up the same locations, meaning that there was a chance armed conflict would happen sooner rather than later.
Finally, two of those groups staked a claim south of Dace's territory, which didn't bode well, since, as far as he could tell, they were rival and enemies. Diplomacy may end up being needed soon.
Then, Ireland went dark, and people began fearing that it too, was in the beginning stages of being devoured by the Darkness.
The only silver lining in here was that the other purebloods weren't discreet when it came to moving, so Dace managed to draw a rather accurate map of their moves.
-200,000 Galleons
Dace may now build settlements on Powys and Perfeddwlad and build mines in the latter.
Further actions available next turn.
October 12th 1982
-[X] Plots are good for the purse! With all those people dying left and right... A whole continent disappeared, someone has to step in , in the stead of those poor foreign investors...
--[X] Plot to take over shops in Diagon Alley (England, London).
Rolled 31 + 30 + 75 (stealth):
---[X] Plot to have them come to Dace's new settlement. [Requires Major settlement or above]
Costs 10,000G/Business.
Rolled 72 + 35 (self sufficiency)
--[X] Plot to take over shops in the Green Alley (Wales, Cardiff)
Rolled 31 + 30 + 75 (stealth):
---[X] Plot to have them come to Dace's new settlement. [Requires Major settlement or above]
Costs 10,000G/Business.
Rolled 37 + 35 (self sufficiency)
Flourish and Blott's: Wherever there's a city, there's Flourish and Blotts. The company everyone's looking for to satisfy their book cravings.
+education, +happiness, +economy, +research
+10,000 G/T
The Drunken Leprechaun: While at first glance, this may be a simple tavern, this particular tavern from Cardiff is special in that it also is the headquarters of the Red Sons, a mercenary company that will offer their services to the highest bidder. Due to the climate around here, they're looking for a new place to crash.
++safety, +happiness, +economy
+5,000 G/T
The Red Sons become available for hire. (100 Merc available at 1,000 G/T rate.)
While the chaos spread, nobody really noticed Dace sneaking around, grabbing at what he could. He almost got caught several times, and some of his tries ended up in failure, but he got two positive results. First was a Flourish and Blott's shop in London, newly opened and immediately closed, and it took little effort for Dace to convince them to let him buy the book stock that was taking up a lot of space, both in the shop and their own warehouses. In fact, he may have ended up buying too much, but since he wasn't sure how the book industry was going to go, he decided this was probably for the best.
If possible, he had even less success in Wales, until he got approached by a middle aged man with a crippled leg in a cast, calling himself Jason Swallows. He said he had just opened a tavern, but that with the current climate, he wasn't sure this was for the best, and he heard about Dace's attempts to draw in shops for the town he created, and so he had his own offer. They'd be equal owners, and Jason would make a few calls for his friends who were in the 'security business'. More often than not, that meant mercenaries, but all things considered, this was a pretty good thing in the current climate. As such, he readily agreed to the terms, the perks being well worth the trouble, in his opinion.
Does Dace choose to hire the Red Sons?
[]Yes
-[] Have them patrol his lands
-[] Have them ready to fight
[]No
Blur - 2 mana
Combat - Blessing
Blur obscures the target's true position, increasing its Ranged Defense by 50%. A good archer has steady hands and keen eyesight. The hands are remarkably difficult to influence, unlike the eyes, which sit there at the front of the mind.
Magic Fist - 2 mana
Combat - Curse
Damage: 22 + 2 dmg/level + Wizardry
Magic Fist does a number of points of damage based on the level of the caster to a single target within the line of sight of the caster. A strong defense is paramount to one's survival, but battles cannot be won by defense alone. So when the time comes strike hard and fast.
Ice Bolt - 3 mana
Combat - Direct Damage
Damage: 44 + 4 dmg/level + Wizardry
Ice Bolt does a number of points of cold damage based on the level of the caster to a single target within the line of sight of the caster. Someone was needed to counteract the seering fire attacks favored by Chaos spellcasters.
Mass Precision - 5 mana
Combat - Blessing
Mass Precision increases the Ranged Attack of all friendly ranged targets by 25%, and also gives the target no penalty for range, walls and obstacles. Of course, nothing is a substitute for extensive training, but sometimes you are forced to work with inexperienced troops.
There were a few snags during the construction. From the crew coming in late, to construction accidents, bad weather, supplies disappearing, equipment breaking, the occasional haunting, and low morale due to the Asian continent's disappearance. At least Francesca put in a good word for him so that the builders would accept being paid later, in exchange for an exorbitant increase in price. The town had been in construction since June, which meant that he had to bear with 7 months of noises, cursing, and dirt. Lots of dirt.
Because when magic is involved, something was bound to go awry, like poor Sarah who still has bunny ears. Clearly, he'd underestimated her stoicism as she went around her tasks, looking like nothing was wrong in this world.
Still, despite all those little problems, Dace could see, from his manor that was overlooking the whole place, that he got everything he paid -or rather will pay- for.
Thankfully, now that his stone quarry was up and running, he wouldn't have to pay so much in materials anymore, especially since the Carrows would make him pay through the nose because of said quarry.
Unnamed town built and settled.
-964,775 Galleons
Info section updated
[]Choose new town's name
December 20th 1982
-[X] Anchor hunting. Dace remembers those, and the power they bring to bear. However, he still needs to look for them.
--[X] Order
85% Chance of success.
Rolled 4
-[X] Well then...
Not willing to wait for yet another year, Dace decided to go check things himself, to the consternation of Monique, who was advising focusing on something else. The travel was smooth due to the floo, and he was currently walking towards the small cavern in Orkney, that was flooded by indigo light, indicating that someone was extracting the anchor as he was arriving.
He walked faster, Monique whining slightly behind him, and he entered through the slightly narrow crack in the rocky cliff, taking care not to trip on the wet ground. Using his hand to steady himself against the wall, he barely slowed down and strode through the dimply lit corridor, to arrive to the room, where a crystalline pillar was rising, wreathed with energy streams.
There a figure stood, the cube floating in her hands.
She was average sized, with a light brown blaser and skirt, combat boots and her long brown hair up in a ponytail. She turned around and Dace remembered who she was. It was the vampire who met with Black in London.Upon seeing him, she grinned, revealing fangs glinting in the blue light.
"Oh my~"Her voice was slightly husky. "When you said we'd be talking soon, I thought this was just a method to run away from me, leaving your compatriots to their fates~"
It really was, though. In the blink of an eye her face was a few centimeters away from his.
"You're not playing very nice nowadays, are you?" She immediately leaned back, hands joined behing her back, before she shifted, her upper body leaning slightly forwards. "Well, it doesn't matter anyways, I suppose." She raised a glowing finger, before promptly taking a giant ice spike the size of a horse to the face. Dace felt the warm hand of Monique closing in on his wrist and dragging him at top speed towards the exit, her blond pigtails swaying in the wind. She raised her hand back from time to time, Ice launching behind them, as demented laughter rang through the narrow stone corridor, screaming "Bad idea! Bad idea! Bad idea!" at the top of her lungs.
Finally, they got out of the grotto, and a weight he hadn't noticed suddenly lifted from his shoulders, before he was overcome by the sensation of being squeezed through a narrow tube overcame him, just as the vampire burst out of the tunnel, covered in chunks of ice but otherwise uninjured.
He then reappeared next the the floo station, was grabbed by the back of his robes and thrown into green flames, to land on his face in his study. Monique quickly followed, closed the connection, and waved her wandaround in strange patterns, before an keening noise rang through the manor and the fireplace trembled as a voice, the vampiress' voice could be heard.
'hey hey heeeey, let me in, I just want to taaaalk~'
For a second, Dace thought it would explode, but after vibrating as if it was a door somebody knocked on, it settled, the voice disappearin gin a huff.
Monique finally fell to the ground, panting and looking red with exhaustion, before she turned to him, pointing at him with an angry look on her face.
"Bad. Idea."
Dace had to incline his head at this. It indeed looked like it was a bad idea. This was annoying though. Very annoying.
But more importantly, it lost him time. Precious time that could be used for something else, a lot more concrete than chasing a strange cube his dreams told him held some measure of ability. This one was clearly in high demand, and what more, sought after by powerful people, so it may be a good idea to give up...
[Diligent] activated.
No. Giving up was for the lazy.
[Proud] activated.
Giving up was also for the weak minded that were currently blubbering about the world ending while doing nothing. He wouldn't have managed to do anything done if he just folded and gave up at the first, or second, or third obstacle on his road, and he certainly wouldn't give up now.
Failure.
+20 % chances of success for next anchor action.
Yeeeey. Other city states are gonna pop up at the beginning of next turn. Even more people to keep track of~
More seriously though, if this continues, this quest is not 'just' going to end up being a civilization cross, more than that of ck2. Unacceptable! (thinging of including the Way of life DLC )
-[X][Monique] The infernal machine: Monique will begin experimenting with scraps, materials, and magic to try and create golems.
After the little fright from last month, Monique decided that it would be for the best to provide the bare bones of an army to the newborn town. Then, she began speaking with Ava, and took enthusiastic walks, looking around, leading surveys and the likes.
It ended up with her somehow obtaining massive amounts of broken or useless things that she spirited away in her lab. A dark and stormy night filled with cackling later, Dace was faced with a strange looking... Thing.
It looked like an amalgamation of stone, metal, and dried wood and hunched over stood at a height of three meters. Metal plates were welded on to cover what he assumed was critical parts of its mechanism as well as the creature's jointed fists, for pretty obvious reasons. It's arms were abnormally long, and as if to compensate, its legs were rather short, with a huge chest part, giving it a less threatening and almost comical appearance. The ensemble was, rather surprisingly, pleasing to the eye due to some colored glass parts fused with the machine, making it gleam under the sunlight.
That feature was probably intentional, Dace mused as he read one of the many surveys, which were several pictures drawn by kindergardeners with the question 'which one do you prefer?'. It was first, but a big fisted, smal legged, yellow robot that had an expending hook/hand was a close second..
Monique, wearing a rather provocative muggle secretary outfit, complete with rectangular glasses and her hair pulled up in a side ponytail, was walking back and forth, before a blackboard that she was filling with diagrams and notes, while explaining her reasoning.
"...As you may see, the output from the recycling center project isn't even reaching a forty percent capacity. That is because the another forty percent will be used to help man the town's garrison for additional security. As for the remainder, they will be kept in reserve for further study and experimentation." She pushed up her glasses with a finger. "While unorthodox and seemingly counterproductive, I believe that this would be for the best to partition these two buildings. Furthermore, it will help maintain morale to have those golems help take the load off the more demanding and dangerous jobs, like mining, leaving people free to pursue other, more enjoyable, pursuits. Of course, that is contingent to the town attracting, or creating, its own industry."
She then pulled out a file out of thin air and dropped it in front of Dace, who began to leaf through it, and felt his eyebrows rise the more he read through it.
"This is... A very ambitious project here." He didn't even bother to hide his interest.
"Indeed." The blonde woman reached for the blackboard and flipped it, revealing writings on it that read as: 'Monique's awe-inspiring artificial anchor project!' with a rainbow over it and stick figures on each side raising their arms with 'yaaaaay' written over them.
"I have thought about your reservations about contracting any kind of anchor because you feared the possibility of influence, and I have found a solution, albeit it is a bit out of your reach for now. It seems, from my observations, that they were fashioned by different people, and intentionnally imprinted with their personality template, leading their successors to be led to continue their work. Now, I didn't get my hands on all of them, however..."
She trailed off, and reached for her bag, and gave Dace two items. One of them was a file containing the data about the cave in Orkney and the other was a cube, that seemed to be humming with energy. It also glowed a soft emerald light that made Dace recoil almost immediately, causing Monique to laugh at his reaction.
"That's an interesting reaction for sure." She got the cube back, put it on the table, and got a knife. " In any case, what you see here is the raw material for the project." She beamed at Dace, before stabbing the cube, a noise of glass breaking and echoes of a woman's scream rising through the air, as the outline of a green dragon appeared, before dissipating, leaving the inert, transparent item, with the knife still embedded in it. Monique continued as if nothing happened.
"As you can see, that anchor is now empty and inert. Which means that, by studying how it works, there is a chance that it could be reverse engineered into something less invasive. However, while I have a few ideas on the 'how', it will still take quite a bit of time and resources. Considering the current situation, we can skip the experimentation for a while, however, the theory can be worked on immediately."
New project available: Artificial anchor:
Pros:
Roster entirely customisable
Hero starting skills customisable
No mental contamination
No direct counter
Cons:
Will take more resources
Will have to research own spells.
Will have to find power source
Gained 98 x Scrap golems.
May build the Recycling center (Misc. building)(+ health, + econ, + safety, + happiness , produces 12 Scrap golems / turn for the workforce and the garrison for free)
May build the Golem assembly line (Military building) ( Produces up to 100 Scrap golems per turn , costs 300 g/u)
By using her own funds and quite a bit of Diplomacy, Monique bought and built her own shop in the town.
+50,000 Galleons.
Monique's Workshop of tricks : ++ econ, ++ joy, ++ research.
Monique's workshop, where anything technology-related, from muggle televisions, to antique clocks can be build, bought and repaired.
Technological research partially unlocked. Choose one to pursue this turn:
[] Innovation recuperation (Muggle): 0/40 complete : Dace will obtain one 'modern era' technology.
Will unlock:
Computers
Optic cables
Automation
[]Innovation recuperation (Wizarding): 0/40 complete: Dace will gain the ability to research Magical subjects.
Machines made of scrap metal, stone fragments, fused together by magic. They're very much prototype units and as such, weaker, though faster, than one would expect golems to be, however, they have some amount of resistance and they're easy to repair. The fact they're essentially walking recycling bins does have some interesting implications though.
Abilities:
Mechanical: Isn't affected by any spell targeting living or undead creatures, is unaffected by morale.
Magic dampening (self): unit takes -25% damage from spells, spell effects last 25% less time.
-[X] Matters of the Court. William Black, an enigmatic figure to be sure. Yet, when there's a hero-king, there's a bloodline.
Rolled 85 + 20 (Synergy)
William Black, the Archon, the Soulless. As one may guess, he was the progenitor of the black Bloodline, and after investigating some more, he learned a few more details by cross-referencing those facts with other reports.
The Black family is an odd, proud and secretive family, yet, they were rather easy to understand, due to the most prominent aspect of their bloodline: Morphing. This ability allowed their inner self to reflect on their appearence, the more they acted out on it. Alabaster Black was a Dark Lord that made the Isles tremble, and before his death at the hands of Julius Longbottom, he was said to have grey skin that bordered on chalk white, foot long curved horns, huge reptilian wings, larger eyes with black sclera and bright red irises, flies followed him and the earth itself was dying under his steps.
Incidentally, their family house gave birth to several metamorphmagi, who is thought to be a more evolved version of the Black's Morphing.
And each and everyone of them was either killed, or spirited away, only to reappear as crazed, twisted wizards and witches whose only objective is the destruction of their family.
The victims usually looked like Alabaster, however, their skin was also covered in black cracks oozing a virulent poison.
Now, that sounded familiar indeed.
-[X] A hero under any other name. Scythe is an enigmatic figure, but what's interesting here, are the people he interacted with.
Rolled 11 + 20 (Synergy)
Little is known about Scythe, however, he is most known for having taught Nostro, the future leader of the Heroes' guild, the secrets of Willpower, an enigmatic power that didn't seem to rely on magic, but has since disappeared completely from the records after the fall of the Old Kingdom of Albion.
Scythe was probably dead right now, although, considering he was said to have 'successfully escaped from Death', that wasn't certain. Since the old myths have mostly proven to be true, it's possible that Scythe is still around. It would explain why so little progress was made until recently by the Courts...
Further actions available next turn.
February 23rd 1983
-[X] But will that security chief be the best? No. Try to poach an auror or two! Considering what they're doing with them, they won't be missed. Risky, though in the current climate, it is much less than it would. In England, anyways.
Costs: 10,000G
40% Chances of success.
Dace gets a Martial advisor (high quality).
Rolled 56 (+20 Mercenary Synergy) : Success
Following the settlement of this town, Dace sent a few hidden invitations, and, surprisingly enough, he did get an answer. He was a lot less surprised after reading the files.
Angus Savage was a former rookie auror of the Ministry, the current situation leaving him to fumble around aimlessly after the Ministry let go of him until he met with a few mercenaries and joined their group to travel.
While average in size, his musculature made it clear that he was well trained, though as he said to his mercenary friends, he'd always been stronger than average. With his short cropped brown hair, hazel eyes, and naturally tan skin, people often mistakenly took him for being Italian, but, they weren't that far off, considering his maternal family was of Greek origin.
He's a competent fighter and wizard, though no one knows how he managed to get accepted in the English auror program since learning things seems to be physically painful to him. He also isn't really good with money management, much more interested in spending than in saving it.
Dace leaned back after reading the file.
Considering that most of his advisor staff were women, he was hesitant to allow a known skirt chaser in, but he needed all the help he could get, and if need be, he could ask Ava to make sure he didn't push any unwanted advances on Myriam or Aife. Not to mention, the results of his trying to seduce Monique would be entertaining.
Does Dace hire Angus Savage?
[] Yes
[] No
His resume also gave some details of his best abilities: (Select his advisor action for next turn)
-[] Spartan training: Train troops ( organic only) at double rate.
-[] Sentinel: +20 to any patrol he's attached to.
-[] Supervision: Angus can help with the law enforcement. +10% creature generation.
[] Plan Eyes on the Prize
-[] Innovation recuperation (Muggle): 0/40 complete : Dace will obtain one 'modern era' technology.
-[] Yes
--[] Spartan training: Train troops ( organic only) at double rate.
Turn 2 : Spring 1983
March 6th 1982
-[X] Visit the Welsh Ministry, try to build up contacts. The people over there like him well enough, and they are bound to be more competent that those english clowns, but one never knows who they can meet, and what they can find. The construction of his own little city-state probably didn't go unnoticed, so he might as well nip any legal problem in the bud.
40% Chance of success.
Rolled 3
It seemed that his creating a city hadn't gone unnoticed, if the glares he received from the officials in passing were anything to go by. Dace didn't think he'd done anything particularly wrong, and actually he thought it was necessary. However, he clearly underestimated how much this would annoy the Ministry. Or perhaps it was his poaching of the mercenaries that did it.
In any case, there was nothing he could do about it now.
At least that's what he thought, as an overwhelming magical wave tore through the building, causing people to fall haphazardly. The Ministry didn't seem to be damaged, but when Dace got up, he saw people frantically running everywhere.
He managed to stop someone as he headed towards the outside of the building, a mousy brunette, with dark shadows under her eyes and her hair looking like someone electrified her.
"O-Outside..! Ireland disappeared!"
Dace gave himself a moment to take in the information, before he let go of the frazzled woman and strode back into the building. He went intothe crowded observation tower and peering towards the West, he saw a curtain of iridescent colours in the direction of Ireland.
-[X] Mingle with the populace. Being a proper lord is knowing one's people. And Dace really doesn't get people, so he hopes being seen will be enough.
40% Chance of success. Chance of people stepping up to help. Will reduce people's suspicions.
Rolled 61
Dace decided to get out (i.e. was thrown out) of his manor to visit the town he built for the first time since its creation. Things went well enoughconsidering people didn't know who he was, until he decided he felt peckish and went to the tavern to get himself something to eat.
The place was packed, but one of the advantages of being a shareholder was that he had a seat with his name on it. So he sat and ordered himself something to eat.
Then, someone sat next to him.
When he turned around, he was met with bright green eyes and pale white skin.
His first reflex was to jump out of his seat, but an ice-cold hand clamped on his wrist and forced him to sit down.
"Now now, this is just rude~" The vampire lady smiled, her eyes closed, while drinking from a dark bottle with a straw. " I didn't take you for a man who didn't keep his promises, but what can we do, hm?"
Dace decided to keep silent. If the vampire managed to infiltrate the place and hide in plain sight, she most likely had an objective, doubly so if she revealed herself in such a public place. She stared at him for a while, and he had to check that she wasn't trying to read his mind, before she nodded to herself, letting go of him. She then turned back towards the mahogany walls in front of them.
"Now, that's interesting~" something appeared in her hand a disk of obsidian, with a strange symbol embedded on it. It was a sapphire eye surrounded by gold, twisting into a red eye surrounded with silver. Both eyes were pulsating and her smile grew, revealing her pearly white, slowly elongating teeth.
The item was pulsating with light faster and faster. The vampire's arm wrapped around him and she quickly dragged him out of the building towards an alley. Meanwhile she looked up, following something he couldn't see. What he could see though, were pebbles falling from the roof, as if things were walking on it. Whatever creatures were following them, they were fast and numerous.
The vampire pushed him to the ground and he saw a black sword sailing over his fallen form, hitting her arm in a shower of sparkles, her sleeve tearing and revealing a plate gauntlet underneath it.
Dace's eyes followed the black blade towards the empty space holding it, a figure bleeding into existence. It was a male, tall and very muscular, clad in a platinum and gold engraved plate armor. The armor looked ancient, pauldrons asymmetrical, the right one rising into two spikes and the left one reinforced by golden plates. The same plates were surrounding the collarbone and neck area, rising up slightly to allow the great helm's movement without compromising the wearer's protection. The silvery chaimail was covered by plate chestpiece and gauntlets while the plated boots were gleaming in the evening sun.
The vampiress hissed, grabbed Dace by the collar, and jumped back before sending him sailing through the air to fall roughly on some cardboard boxes.
He blinked the dizziness away and sat up, only to immediately fall back on his back to dodge the horse sized fireball flying his way. The armoured man and the vampiress were fighting, and neither of them seemed to be holding back. She preferred to use spells and control the area while the other was using force, cleaving through her ice pillars with ease.
"For f... Come here." Dace felt himself be dragged further in the cardboard pile to see a grizzled man with an eyepatch, crouching under the only box that survived his landing.
Perception roll : 38 + 20 (people) = 58 : Failure
It was too dark to see much more of the man, who turned his head towards him.
"You the boss of the place?" He asked Dace, eyes never leaving the fight through the tiny holes in the box.
The wizard nodded slowly, wondering what was up with the man.
"Then follow me, if you want to live." He whispered harshly slowly moving away, the sides of the box pushing Dace to follow.
Stealth check passed by ally.
Three alleys away, the man sprang from the cardboard box and began running, Dace deciding to follow him through the alleys, to finally arrive in front of his manor. The man grunted at the guards while pushing Dace to advance.
"Who are you?" The wizard finally managed to speak up, causing the greying man to raise an eyebrow.
"Took you long enough to ask. Name's Ishmael."
Dace paused for a moment, before shaking his head. Coincidence.
"And what are you here for, Mister Ishmael?" Dace asked, walking along his manor's hallways towards his study.
"Woke up from my coma. Found everything in fire. America got destroyed, so now I'm investigating."
"And you found that this town was the best place to investigate?"
The man shrugged.
"Most organized place when it comes to that wizarding mumbo jumbo."
Dace blinked.
This man was a muggle?
He tried reading his surfece thoughts, only to find that the magic disappeared before it could even reach him. It seemed like he was among the very few magical immune muggles.
Still, that presented him with a rather interesting problem. Here was a magicly immune man with obvious martial and stealth training. There were many uses he could find for such a man, but could he be trusted?
Dace thought hard.
It wasn't really up to him, since the man just saved his life, the reason pretty obvious. He sighed.
"Very well."
Advisor/ hero unit obtained : Ishmael.
You may choose to set him as either
[]Martial
or
[]Intrigue
Advisor
April 10th 1982
-[X] Blue lines. Dace found those within him, and they don't feel like they belong to the five elements paradigm. Thefeore, they're probably something else...
70% Chance of success.
Costs: 1x Native Gold.
Rolled 27 + 20 Needed 30 : Success.
It was a bit painful to have the gold imbedded in his forearms, however, the very moment he concentrated over the energy he felt was slumbering within him, it was as if floodgates suddenly opened and he almost exploded, as the power was thrumming around him.
This... This was too much.
He drunkenly walked to the library, streams of blue energy floating around him as his mind and... emotions were assaulted by unknown stimuli. He didn't have to search for a long time to find out what was happening to him.
Truly, he didn't really know how to feel at all.
The mark on his neck fizzled and popped.
Character sheet updated.
May 1st 1982
-[X] Spend time with Social Links.(+2 RP)
--[X] Aife Rosier
Dace spent the following month in an intense state of confusion, walking around almost timidly and trying very hard not to blow anything up by accident. His scheduled meeting with Aife was much the same.
Both were very uncomfortable, for different reasons.
Dace couldn't help but wince at his rather callous treatment of her, especially since she didn't get therapy after her fit of madness, and he did lock her up in her bedroom save for when she would be of use to him.
Well then, no time like present.
"I... Would like to apologize, for my behavior towards you."
Aife looked up at him and almost jumped away, her eyes widened in utter surprise.
"Are you alright? Do you still feel ill? Wait for a bit, I'm getting the nurse!"
He breathed in, reining his temper in, and continued.
"I have recently come to an epiphany. And that, maybe, I have been too hard on you recently."
This time, she did jump away and ran out of the room, followed by several members of Dace's security, running into the room and stunning him.
When he woke up, it was to the sight of several people wearing medical uniforms, one of whom was the specialist he had hired to monitor his condition.
That's when he was told that he had eight years left to live.
+2 RP with Aife.
Didn't expect that huh. Neither Did I.
Anyways, time for an Interlude choice!
Preferred format :
[] Negaverse
[] Classic
Quest :
[] Now what? Deathquest
[] Badgering the lion. Heartquest
[] Doing God's work ???
[] Rome wasn't built in one day ???
[] A deal with the Devil ???
[] ALl YoU caN eAt aT HAlf thE pRiCe ???
[] A veela, and undead and a cowboy enter a bar...???
Back from the no-internet zone, with extra insomnia ! (votes end in 24h)
Wizardkind as a whole had become soft, Edmond Rowle thought with disgust as he extracted his maul from a muggle rebel's skull. Even now, as the world was ending, they were unwilling to do what needed to be done.
He raised his head and looked around proudly. From the oldest adult to the youngest child, weakness wasn't tolerated. If your arms couldn't lift a weapon, you needed to use a wand. That underage ban on magic was bullshit anyways. His own children were the perfect example of that.
Marcus, his son and heir, was only ten, but already knew the essential bombardment spells, that he was putting to use. Francis, his second, had to play it smarter and laced his tiny blade with poison, using his weak, seven year old appearence to trick people into thinking he was harmless. His youngest and the surprise of the lot, little Silvia, got a pass because she was born three months ago and didn't even speak or walk yet.
His dear wife would probably chop his head off with a rusty axe if he tried anything with the kid, he grinned in a rather silly fashion as she ducked under a gunshot and swiveled around, the momentum adding to the strength of his blow as he struck the muggle law enforcer, the enchanted metal making short work of whatever armor they had.
Not that his lovely wife wouldn't try to kill him anyway. In fact, he would have been disappointed if she didn't. Julia Zabini was an infamously well known black widow, skilled in poisons, spellwork, and conventional weapons, which is why he bothered to court her in the first place when she already had a child. Sure, she tried to kill Francis daily, but the boy confessed to enjoying to workout so whatever. His dear Rosalind would always have a place in his heart, as she was his first love and the mother of his sons, but she was dead now, she had been for years, and he needed to move on. Violence and Death were the only two constants of a Rowle's life after all. She would have strangled him with their 'playtime' chains if he didn't.
Anyther thing Julia was too sophisticated for, but Edmond hoped in time she would become more open towards the 'give' aspect of a relationship.
He sidestepped, still in thought, before turning his head slightly causing his brown bangs to fall over his eyes. Speaking of the devil and she appears.
His new wife, clad in black in anticipation of his death, making her dusky skin glow, though it may be the small gold flakes she uses in her cosmetics that do so, had just thrown a red hot poker in his direction, with a surprising amount of strength too, since he could see it vibrate a bit embedded in the wall from the corner of his eye.
"Attempt number three hundred and twelve, failed again." The high pitched voice of two years old Blaise Zabini came from his left, the dark-skinned child making the shovel acconpanying him spin in the air.
Here too, was an interesting character. Julia's first husband, turned into a child due to a freak potions accident, now being called their child. The boy didn't even seem upset at his wife's proclivities, rather than that, they amused him.
To be fair, he would be too, if he were in the same position. His wife hunting down the people responsible for said freak incident, seducing them and killing them one by one in various painful and some would say disturbing ways would provide entertainment for a long while. Though the fact that this happened because Mister Zabini had a habit of seducing every female in the room, especially the married ones, put a bit of a damper on Edmond's respect of the man.
Seducing people's wives and not expecting the husbands to do anything about it was dumb. That he was left at the mercy of the wife he cheated on was only poetic justice, in his mind.
Julia's impassive face morphed into a pout as she crossed her arms and huffed, stomping away, followed by her 'child'.
Edmond's arm snaked to his right and his hand closed around the throat of the muggle who had thought to sneak attack him.
"Really now?" He squeezed more and more, his victim struggling as thay were being lifted off the ground. "I expected more from the local law enforcement. How sad." He finally added that tiny bit of pressure and heard the awaited cracking noise, before he opened his hand and left the corpse fall.
Muggles truly were a weak species, if even without magic his family could make short work of their protectors.
The sound of hands clapping echoed through the alley, the bleached bricks barely noticeable in the moonlight. Edmond turned around towards the origin of the noise, his body seemingly relaxed, yet ready to pounce, before he froze slightly.
The man in front of him was tall, wearing a dark cowl that may be red, though it was hard to tell at night, hiding a white, sewed on mask with darker streaks of color. The rest of the body was covered in black armor that may be leather, though it seemed odd with the other man's muscular physique.
The figure walked sliently, stepping over the bodies littering the floor with practiced ease betraying habit.
"It has been a while since I've seen such carnage. It is almost nostalgic." His voice was deep and the echo within it, entirely too unnatural to be innocuous. "Yes, it has been too long." Rowle snorted, as his ears prickled and he violently threw his surprise attacker to the ground, revealing a little girl.
She was entirely too pale to be healthy, even with the low amount of moonlight, but what made him rise an eyebrow were her features. Cheekbones, eyes, even the chin and nose. Those were pure Black. While her being a bastard was a possibility, it was unlikely considering how paranoid they were about who they bedded, which left...
"Would you look at that, the lost Black child, Nymphadora Tonks herself... Working for her family's killer, no less."
The little girl's eyes widened suddenly and she turned towards the hooded figure in an expression close to betrayal, mixed with despair as her eyes watered. Hood snorted, before lifting his hand, causing the girl to fall bonelessly to the ground. Alive, as she was still breathing.
"I wonder how many people you killed through your reputation alone." Hood asked in an almost whimsical tone as he caught the back of the girl's shirt and lifted her in the air, throwing her unceremoniously over a hunched creature made of shadows.
"Too many." Edmund snorted, his fingers gripping his maul a bit more tightly.
There was a bit of silence, where Hood stood still, not even to breathe, before he nodded impeccably. Edmund absentmindedly unchecked the 'strangling' and 'drowning' possibilities in his 'how to kill' list. That person was a troublesome one, he could already tell. Even more so if the shadow creatures behind him were of the same make as the Darkness that had everyone panicking.
Hell, what was he wondering about, of course it was. His own family's words were 'it gets worse', after all. The grin he wore was threatening to split his face when Hood signalled for one of the shadow beasts to attack him. The creature was the size of a horse, but clearly modelled after some sort of silverback wolf.
It pounced fast, but he expected it, the pike of his maul burying itself where the face of the beast should be. The wizard them pushed, stepping forwards to force the beast to stagger and once he freed his weapon, he quickly stepped back, shifting his weapon to put the hammer side faced outwards, and brutally swung down, the sick crunch of a skull breaking reaching his ears. The shadows dissipated, revealing the twisted mockery of a werewolf.
"Hm, it seems this much isn't enough." The glee in Hood's voice was telling and he lifted his hand again, several more creatures jumping at him and his world dissolved into a flurry of claws and teeth.
He managed to kill them all, save one of them who managed to down him. His right arm was totaled, his knee was injured, and he had at least three ribs broken, but his bloody grin was still here, even if his cheeks began to hurt. He was sitting, back to the wall, and the masked figure was staring at him silently.
"See something you like?" Edmund asked, repressing the cough in favor of calling out the only one who stayed out of the fight.
"Yes." Was the blunt answer. "You may be of use after all." Hood's mask turned towards the alley's exit, where a figure, clad in robes appeared. One that the Rowle Head recognized immediately.
"Well, I'll be damned." He muttered with something akin to horrified fascination in his voice.
"You will." Hood answered easily. " At least the Queen of Hearts isn't the one who got to you first."
Seeing the state of the person in front of him, he did indeed think being brutally murdered by a stranger in an alley was much preferable to that.
"Thar's rude." The newcomer commented. "Though expected of the one who thought screaming your plans for everybody to hear was a good idea."
Hood's relaxed stance shifted a bit.
"What's the point of doing all of this if there is no enjoyment to be derived from that? But let's not speak about that. Tell me, minion, has your mistress left her little hole after the defeat dealt to the Hearts by a noncombatant?"
The newcomer frowned.
"As a matter of fact she did not. She believes in planning and not running half-baked into a fight after all. That is not why I came here however." He turned toward the downed wizard.
"Fuck off Ernest..." Edmund snorted, the blood loss getting to him. "Should have expected you to turn coat the moment there was danger, you little bitch."
Ernest scoffed.
"As if you weren't about to accept that... Thing's offer instead?"
Of course there was an offer, and not a simple murder. Hood wouldn't have thrown minion wave after minion wave otherwise. Not in such a private setting, at least.
"He proved his strength, the strong rule, it's the law of nature." Was the simple answer
"Not a bad one to live by." Hood noted, toying with curved dagger, before flinging it towards the uninjured wizard, who immediately went down as it hit his right knee. He then strode towards the fallen form with the grace of a cat, before grabbing him by the hair and lifting him up. He must have told him something, for the other's face dissolved in utter panic and he limped away as fast as he could as Hood let go.
There was a bit of silence, before Edmund sighed.
"So, what would you have me do boss?"
"Conquer Wales, of course." He answered easily.
"Not to make excuses or anything. " He felt the need to point out the plan's obvious flaw. "But the guy up North may disagree with that and his daughter is way stronger than I am."
"Ah yes, the daughter. Don't worry about them for now and focus on the South for now. I will do something about that. Well then..." Hood seemingly disappeared, his voice echoing through the air. "I have returned. After an eternity away from you all, Jack of Blades is back."
Funny, he thought he heard that name before.
Oh.
Oh shit.
At least he'd be in for a good fight?
Here it is, the interlude 'the most pertinent to your current situation'
Not the best in fine strategically speaking, but you guys got what you asked for~
+1,870,000 G/T
+16 Wood
+24 Stone
+8 Crystal
+12 Gems
+ 2 Native gold
+2 Elemental stone
+2 Flawless Marble
Spendings:
Gwallawg Academy of Superior Learning : -25,000 Galleons / turn , 1d6 – 3 Chance of Loyal Superior Unit, 1d100-95 chance of Loyal Hero Unit. (Muggleborn population : 95%)
Maintainance, taxes, salaries of the manor: 18,900 Galleons/turn (50 of them, 376 G/t on average)
Salaries:
Myriam Wells : 1 000 Galleons/turn
Ava Lloyd : 500 Galleons/turn
Ishmael : 10 000 Galleons/turn
Angus Savage: 2 000 Galleons/turn
The Red Sons : 100 000 Galleons/turn
Resources:
-Lumber Mill. 16 Wood per turn.
- Crystal Mine. 8 Crystals per turn.
-Improved Gold Mine. 15,000 Galleons per turn. 2 Native gold per turn.
-Improved Gem Mine. 12 Gems per turn. 2 Elemental stones per turn.
-Improved Stone Quarry. 24 Stone per turn. 2 Flawless Marble per turn.
Result:
+1.713.500 Galleons
+16 Wood
+24 Stone
+8 Crystal
+12 Gems
+ 2 Native gold
+2 Elemental stone
+2 Flawless Marble
Current funds: 743.287 Galleons
32 Wood
48 Stone
16 Crystal
24 Gems
3 Native gold
4 Elemental stone
4 Flawless Marble
GASL Rolls : 96 6 Mysticism advisor appears!
Despite his intense state of confusion, and the ensuing house arrest, Dace still had things to do, paperwork to sign, and graduations to oversee, although due to the current climate, most people left the Academy this year, leaving the truly exceptional only.
This year was one he looked forward to as one Sally Danvers was graduating. The girl graduated from the Mysticism division and was already called 'the next Albus Dubmbledore' due to her magical abilities that broke all the records previously in the Academy and even rivaled Dumbledore's scores when he himself passed the practical portions of his exams during her stay at Hogwarts.
However, she also has been noted to be quite shy, despite her demonstrated ability for public speaking and it is the reason why she isn't currently in his office right now.
Does Dace recruit Sally?
[]Yes
-[] Diplomacy
-[] Learning (Dace does not trust her)
-[] Mysticism
[] No
Advisors decisions :
Current Roster:
Diplomacy: Aife Rosier
Stewardship: Myriam Wells, Ava Lloyd
Martial: Angus Savage
Intrigue: Ishmael
Learning:
Mysticism: Monique Bridge
Swap advisors ?
[] Write-in advisor choice
Note: It will take one turn for advisors to adapt to their new post and therefore, they cannot help on the turn they are swapped or hired, save for exceptions that will be noted.
Diplomacy: Advisor : Aife : Actions : 2
[][Aife] Local approval 100% : Aife will visit authority figures to try and smooth things over.
[][Aife] Diplomatic ties : Aife will engage in talks with a neighboring organization (or family) of your choice and open the way for further actions. [Write-in option]
[][Aife] The cheerleader : Aife will motivate the population of your town. (+4 happiness for 4 years (may stack)) Aife's roll : 73 + 75 (Presence) = 148 , T1 Success. No Riots, No morale loss
The panic is complete. Europe has disappeared, and nobody has managed to reach Africa or Asia. Now, people are either waiting for the end, or preparing themselves for survival in isolation. Still, for all of her faults, Aife did a good job at keeping the people here peaceful. That she also kept them from being too affected by the recent events was a surprise, in the good way.
[] Visit the Welsh Ministry, try to build up contacts. Thigs have become a bit problematic after Ireland's disappearence, but after they realized it was some exotic form of barrier, people calmed down, though many have felt insulted by that, not to mention, some are whispering thet the Ministry of Magic's days are numbered.
Cost : 0
40% Chance of success.
Reward: Contacts, chance of obtaining promising recruits.
[] Reach out to the neighbors. Southern wales has been rather occupied, with all those pureblood families struggling for dominance. Now would be a good time to see if it's possible to obtain some promises or favors for your gracious help.
-[] Write in family to support. (must be currently in Southern Wales. See 'Pureblood Spread' in 'Strategic data' for further information.)
Cost : 0 – 50,000 Galleons, some troops.
60/40/20% Chances of success.
Reward: Increased disposition with the family, chance of alliance down the line, increased chance of family dominance in their area.
[] Meet with the employees (write in option). Just because they're already working for him doesn't mean that he has to neglect them.
Cost : 0
60 % Chances of success.
Reward: establishes a SL with a named subordinate, chance to discover promising people, chance to increase loyalty.
[] Mingle with the populace. Being a proper lord is knowing one's people. Though Dace is unsure whether he is up to par or not.
Cost : 0
40% Chances of success.
Reward : People like you more, chance of people stepping up to help.
[] Politicking. While Dace has a healthy dose of disdain for political games, now that he is the Lord of the Gwallawgysol Dinas (jokingly called Galatine) , he has to step up, unfortunately.
Cost : 0
40% Chances of success.
Reward : Politics of the town mapped out, nascent 'undesirable' movements squashed.
Stewardship: Advisor : Myriam, Ava : Actions : 3
Available actions:
[][Myriam] Bookkeeping for dummies : Myriam will increase the efficiency of Dace's finances and businesses by a margin. (Needs to be assigned to a specific business)
[][Myriam] Aggressive expansion: Myriam will look around neighboring counties and point out good business opportunities ripe for the picking.
[][Myriam] All hands on deck : Myriam will take care of a stewardship action for Dace.
[][Ava] Bookkeeping for dummies : Ava will increase the efficiency of Dace's finances and businesses by a margin. (Needs to be assigned to a specific business)
[][Ava] Booming Business : Ava will facilitate the birth of several businesses in Gwallawgysol Dinas.
[][Ava] On the lap of Luxury : Ava leverages luxury resources to improve the quality of life and morale. Happiness gain from luxuries doubled. Ava's Roll : 97 + 75 (entrepreneurship) = 172, T2 Success / Myriam's roll: 16 + 65 ( accounting) = 81 Failure. 0% price increase within territory due to using local labor and material. Massive Price increase outside of borders.
For a time, it looked like the economic collapse taking place was going to affect the newborn town negatively, however, while Myriam had no success to maintain decent prices outside, Ava did surprisingly well, the flighty woman not only kept things stable within Dace's territory, but she came out of the experience with lots of ideas to improve on what Dace had.
[] Develop your budding Town. It lacks many things in the way of production and entertainment after all.
Cost: from 100,000 to 500,000 Galleons
70 / 45 / 20% Chances of success
Reward : Dace creates another business with himself as the owner.
[] Let's build an amusement park! Magic is convenient. In one flick of a wand one can easily kill someone, or cause flowers to bloom, or just about anything. A few animation and/or levitation spells can go a long way towards speeding up construction or cutting down the costs. Ava decided it would be a good idea to have a place where people could forget the current circumstances and just enjoy themselves. Of course, Ava being Ava, some changes are to be expected...
Cost : 300,000 Galleons, 5 crystal, 5 gems.
100/75/35% Chances of success [Needs 'On the lap of luxury' to be taken].
Reward: Amusement park : +++(+ depending on rolls) happiness, ++ economy, + 10,000 G/t. Takes a misceallaneous slot.
[] Diamonds are a girl's best friend. At least according to Ava. Which is why she came up with the idea to build a jewelry business. On the side, she gace Dace a sealed box and told him to open it alone.
Cost : 100,000 Galleons, 10 Gems, 5 crystal.
100/75/35% Chances of success [Needs 'On the lap of luxury' to be taken].
Reward: Jewelry stores : ++ happiness, ++ economy, +(+ if secret ops is taken) safety, + 10,000 G/t, -1 Gem/T
[] Build accomodations While Dace has his small town, there won't be enough space forever, and he's just acquired the neighboring lands, so might as well put them to use.
Cost: Variable
100% Chances of success.
Reward: New town. -[] Basic accomodations: Just a few houses, nothing too fancy.
Cost: 500G, 5 Stone
Once settled, will gain Dace 91,250G (all charges and taxes taken care of) per turn.
-[] Middling accomodations: Enough houses to found a small village, with basic services in place.
Cost: 35,500G, 15 stone, 5 wood
Once settled, will gain Dace 182,500G (all charges and taxes taken care of) per turn.
-[] Major settlement: Housing, entertainment, animal pens and room for expansion, this small town is pretty much self sufficient.
Cost: 179,000G, 20 Stone, 10 wood
Once settled, will gain Dace 912,500G (all charges and taxes taken care of) per turn.
The Abbot Family will like you more.
[] Settle. [Requires building another settlement] Dace will invite people to come live in that settlement of his, however, this means he won't be able to change its size as easily anymore.
[] Expansion: Gwallawgysol Dinas is a bit small, for his supposed capital. Might as well remedy to that.
Cost: 10,000,000 Galleons.
100% Chances of success.
Duration : 2 turns.
Reward : +1 slot in every category, +100,000 Population limit.
[] Resource hunt. Powys may be barren of resources, but Perfeddwlad certainly is not. Dace decided it would be useful to set up a few mines and laboratories to exploit those resources.
-[] Build a Mercury exploitation : Costs 40,000 Galleons, results variable (expected +12 Mercury/t).
-[] Build a Crystal mine: Costs 40,000 Galleons, results variable (expected +8 Crystal/t).
-[] Build a Gem mine: Costs 40,000 Galleons, results variable (expected +4 Gem/t).
[] Building (free action): Dace's gor some blueprints just begging to be built.
-[] Recycling center (Misc. building)(+ health, ++ econ, + safety, + happiness , produces 12 Scrap golems / turn for the workforce and the garrison for free) (10 Stone, 10 Wood, 50,000 Galleons)
-[] Golem assembly line (Military building) ( Produces up to 100 Scrap golems per turn , costs 300 g/u) (15 Stone, 5 Wood, 100,000 Galleons)
Martial: Advisor: Angus. Actions : 2
Available actions:
[/][Angus] Spartan training: Train troops ( organic only) at double rate. (taken this turn due to previous choice)
[][Angus] Sentinel: +20 to any patrol he's attached to.
[][Angus] Supervision: Angus can help with the law enforcement. +10% creature generation. Angus' rolls: 34 + 50 (strategy) = 84 Failure.
Angus settled in alright enough, even if, as expected, his hitting on Aife was taken badly by his daughter. Then Dace's new hire began admonesting him about his habits, his training regimen, his way of dressing, his lack of professionalism... Just about his everything. Mostly though, it was according to the newcomer, Angus' inability to do anything right.
[] Hire more security staff. Having people on hand to check whether or not people are trustworthy would save Dace lots of trouble.
Cost: 2,000G
40% Chances of success.
Reward: -10 to enemy infiltration rolls.
[] Find a Security Chief (Martial adviser). Dace needs all the help and Angus may or may not cut it.
Cost: 5,000G
40% Chances of success.
Reward: Dace gets a Martial advisor.
[] But will that security chief be the best? No. Try to poach an auror or two! Considering what they're doing with them, they won't be missed. Risky, though in the current climate, it is much less than it would. In England, anyways.
Cost: 10,000G
40% Chances of success.
Reward: Dace gets a Martial advisor (high quality).
[] Militia. After a row between Aife, Ishmael and Angus, the younger ones had to yield, halfheartedly, to the experience of the oldest, who slapped both upside the head about the 'disorganized mess' and 'insulting' way they treated their job, though he cut some slack to Aife on accounts of her being a civilian and diplomat, not career soldier. Still, he's revamped the entire supplies, patrol routes and training plans.
Cost : 400,000 Galleons
80/20% Chances of success.
Reward: Militia Barracks, produces Militia units (Tier 1), patrols the town automatically.50,000 G/T Upkeep.
[] Organize patrols. After the incident this Spring, Dace doesn't want to leave it to chance. People are invading his property illegally, and he wants them out. Whil this won't stop the vampire lady or the armored man, it may very well help againt invaders of a lowre caliber.
Cost : 10,000 Galleons.
80/50/20/0 % Chances of success
Reward : people are kept out of Dace's territory.
[] Military expedition : The government's about to fall, people are bickering, the situation is instable, this is the moment to strike.
-[] Write-in a neighboring county to attack.
--[] Write in the assigned troops and mandatory Hero.
Intrigue: Advisor: Ishmael. Actions : 3
Available actions :
[][Ishmael] Venomous Snake : Ishmael will hunt down and discredit your opponents as he sees fit.
[][Ishmael] Sneaky Snake : Ishmael will keep tabs on people and the likes. +20 to all rolls involving outsides due to accurate intel.
[][Ishmael] Naked Snake :Some people should just disappear, for the good of the people. Ishmael's the man for the job. (write in target's name)(must be criminal, terrorist or abuse their power) Ishmael's rolls: 52 + 70 (Stealth) = 122 : Tier 1 success, Town cleaned of infiltrators, for now.
Ishmael has taken to his role with gusto, and after a week, people developed a healthy paranoia of cardboard boxes, potted plants and dark corners. On another note, there was a slew of mysterious disappearances and the files the guards had also mysteriously disappeared.
[] Plot against: (Will receive intel on their moves, plus additional actions if the opportunity arises.)
-[] Voldemort's band of hooligans.
50% Chance of success + 10 (pride)
-[]The muggles
100% Chance of success
-[] The Ministry of Magic (English).
80% Chance of success
-[] The Ministry of Magic (Welsh).
15% Chance of success
[] Plots are good for the purse! With all those people dying left and right... A whole continent disappeared, someone has to step in , in the stead of those poor foreign investors...
-[] Plot to take over shops in Diagon Alley (England, London).
--[] Plot to have them come to Dace's new settlement.
Cost 300,000G/Business.
-[] Plot to take over shops in the Green Alley (Wales, Cardiff)
--[] Plot to have them come to Dace's new settlement.
Cost 300,000G/Business.
[] Secret Ops. Ishmael had a suggestion, one that Interested Dace, though before his being 'fixed' he would never have entertained agreeing with. Since he couldn't do everything himself, he needed to have people to act as his hands in feet. This is where the organization the man had in mind would come in.
Cost : 500,000 Galleons, 100,000 G/T Upkeep
70/40/20% Chances of success.
Reward: a fledgeling organization of spies and secret agents will be formed. Rumor Mill automatically opened. (2 Slots)
[] Compulsive plotting is also good for the morale!
-[] Go on a matchmaking spree. Chance to increase Diplomacy, gain RP with some people, reputation. Need to select your targets.
-[] Go on a trolling rampage an adventure! Chance to increase Intrigue, inconvenience enemies, gain RP with some people.
[] Keep an ear to the ground. Things happen around here, that Dace should keep an eye on.
Maintains Rumor mill.
Learning: Advisor: No one. Actions : 2
Dace's not letting anyone not from his family handle those books. Ever. Allowances may be made for a few other people, but he can count them on his fingers.
[] Attend lessons to his own Academy. Since he's the owner, he can attend for free. [You may only attend four of them in total, and then, never again] Choose 1 to 4 (will only take one action) :
-[] The economy section is booming with activity rignt now, because of the panic from America disappearing, and they have taking upon themselves the tasks of studying the effects of this event. Still, a few lecturers put together a few lessons about Basic Estates. + 1,000 Experience.
-[] He didn't think there were classes about basic self defense here, but there they were. Basic Combat is always reliable in a pinch. + 1,000 Experience.
-[] Strangely enough, there were a few shady personalities there, and it appears that there is a black market in his Academy. Oh well, life is the best teacher, and he was fairly sure Basic Stealth wouldn't be taught in a magical academy anyways. + 1,000 Experience.
-[] With all of the things going on right now, few people choose to focus on the old texts of old battles, however, Dace thinks Basic Tactics are still very much important. + 1,000 Experience.
-[] Half of the work with magic is to know how to defend against it, and here, in the wizarding world, knowing Basic Magic Resistance is paramount. [Requires Combat classes to be taken] + 1,000 Experience.
[] Relocate the Academy : The world as Dace knows it is ending. He was certain of it. As such, it wouldn't be unreasonable to gather his resources and assets in order to keep them safe.
Cost: 700,000G
50% chance of success
The Gwallawg Academy of Superior Learning will be relocated to the unnamed town. It will be safer and open the way for upgrades, but the limit of subjects taught to heroes will go down to four.
[] Open a new academy : This one will directly enter in conflict with Hogwarts, as it will take care of children from middle to high school. However, it won't teach just magic. As the GASL did, this one will teach everything the muggles do, and magical subjects.
Cost : 800,000G
Reward: Gwallawg School for the youth : +++ Research, + econ, ++ happiness, give bonuses to GASL due to synergy and open further options. 50,000 G/T upkeep.
[] The old tales are sometimes true. (write-in. Must be something Dace came in contact with.)
The Gwallawg library may not be the biggest, but all of it is true, which is more than any other library can boast.
[] The Old kingdom. The enemy they're confronted to is old, very old, from an era thought lost. However, now, Dace knows better. The enmy was vanquished once already, time to try and find out what's needed to do it twice.
[] Look for Scythe. That elusive individual may or may not still be alive, but if he is, chances are he has all the answer Dace needs.
10% Chances of succes.
Reward: Scythe found.
[] Research. What it says on the tin. Has various results. (Uses Research skill + city's research) (the latter is automated and will be used regardless of whether action is taken or not.) Due to high research total score, you have 45 research excess points that will be attributed to designated research subject.
-[] Muggle subjects
-[] Innovation recuperation (wizarding): 0/40 complete: Dace will gain the ability to research Magical subjects.
-[] Lost Wonders: 0/40 complete: Dace will gain the ability to research subjects related to Willpower.
Mysticism : Advisor: Monique: Actions : 2
Available actions:
[][Monique] Secret mission! Dace sends Monique hunt down artifacts. Results variable.
[][Monique] Magical menagerie : Monique bragged that she was very good at hunting down creatures. Time to take her up on that boast.
[][Monique] The infernal machine II: Monique will continue her experiments with the golems, while also spending some time working on the Blank Anchor. Monique's roll : 86 + 11 (extra roll) + 140 (lore) = 237 : Tier 1 success. +237 to the Blank anchor project.
Monique has been a busy bee, and decided to work on the Blank Anchor project in her free time.
[] Find himself an assistant. With all the chaos, someone has to be found. There are a lot of alumni of GASL running around, so it shouldn't be too hard to find anyone. Also, Dace didn't trust Monique to be left alone to her own devices for too long.
45% Chance of success.
Cost: 10,000G
RewardDace finds a Mysticism advisor.
[] Anchor hunting. Dace remembers those, and the power they bring to bear. However, he still needs to look for them.
-[] Write in Anchor type ( Order, Death, Chaos, Nature or Life) +20 to anchor type action (only on one of them)
85% Chance of success.
[] Anchor creation I : The research. Dace has always loved personnally tailored things, be it clothes, schools or meals. He also hates mind contril. Taking both facts into account, it isn't hard to understand why he would try to have his own custom anchor. +20 to anchor type action (only on one of them)
237/400 Research complete
[] Dissection. Dace knows his enemy, and knows, more or less, how it works. He also knows he's resistant to the stuff, so why not get a sample and try to see what makes it tick in more detail.
20% Chances of success.
Costs: 5,000G, 1x Elemental stone.
[] The shattered tower. The warning was heard, however, Dace doesn't know anything about it. No where, no when, no how and no why. His current theory is about it being a nexus of some sort. Still, just because he would heed the warning, didn't mean anyone else would.
40% Chances of success.
Willpower: Advisor : No one. Actions : 2
Last year has been full of surprises for Dace, and the last, but certainly not least, was that there was a whole other magic system hidden from him. One he sowed considerably more skill in. Still, self-teaching can probably only go so far...
[] When there's a will, there's a way. There must be someone who has an idea of how it's done, right?
Cost : 0 – 100,000 G
10 / 0 % Chances of success
[] Will training. Running around with uncontrolled magic is dangerous for everyone.
--[] Offensive spells
--[] Environmental spells
--[] Defensive spells
Cost : 0
50% Chances of success
Reward : increased skill.
[] The Heroes' guild I. He'd seen the name several times during previous research, and knew it was an organization similar to the current magical schools, albeit a lot more mercenary, and that it was dissolved due to its master's hands off policy towards its 'alumni''s behavior, but the more practical knowledge and precise history elude him.
Cost : 0
40% Chances of success.
Reward : The Heroes' guild II available, Dace may unlock other people's willpower.
Personal: Actions : 7
[] Spend time with Social Links.(+2 RP)
-[]Write-in
[] Personal supervision. Supervise an action from the other sections. Gain +10 to rolls if Stewardship or Diplomacy action, +20 if Martial, Leraning or Mysticism action, +30 if Intrigue action. (May be used multiple times, but not on the same actions.)
[] Workshop. After seeing Monique faff around her newly built workshop, Dace decided it would be time to have one of his own.
Cost : 40,000 Galleons
Reward: a state of art workshop covering about every subject Dace could think of added to the Manor
[] Investigate the illness. Dace is dying, he even knows in detail how his body is going to breakdown, however, he is unsure as to how he will remedy this.
70/40% chances of success
Reward: Dace may start working on a cure.
[] Way of life. All work and no play would make Dace a very sad wizard. As such, he decided he wanted to find himself a hobby to relax. Word of warning, the selected choice will cause quests to appear, sometimes at inconvenient moments. Dace may only have one Lifestyle.
-[]Socialize
-[]Play games
-[]Architecture
-[]Paperwork
-[]Duelling
-[]Hunting
-[]Scheming
-[]Seduction
-[]Astrology
-[]Theology
-[]Magic
-[]Teaching
-[]Adventuring
-[][Needs The Heroes' guild rank III mission to be cleared]
That list isn't getting any shorter, it seems.
Anyways, poor Angus failed, and contrary to Myriam who had a few successes under her belt, the guy didn't even get to prove himself. It doesn't help that Ishmael is better at Martial than he is at Intrigue and constantly hovering over the guy's shoulder. Oh well , I've read somewhere that lions pushed their cubs off cliffs to toughen them up or something
Anyways, votes end in 72h, votes by plan etc...
P.S. : Unbetaed because I already had Math go over the interlude
Edit : Of course , if you have no idea [/] Do nothing is also an option.
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Delphine Trelawney-Noir, the Little witch (canon) + 24
Delphine was an eight year old little girl who was completely normal.
Save for the fact that she was a witch.
And that she could see the future.
Alright, let's forget what I've just said, Delphine Trelawney was anything but a normal little girl.
She was the child born between a squib named Cepheus Noir and Camelopardalis Trelawney, an Irish witch and incompetent seer. Not that she'd ever admit to it, mind you.
Her early childhood had been rather... Disturbing.
Between her crazy father who thought elves were a delicacy and hung their heads aroun the house's walls, and her mother who was always busy to make (fake) predictions involving the end of times, she used to linger at the library. Her sanity depended on it.
Her favorite book was "L'histoire de l'écore des sorciers anglais", a book narrating the adventures of a group of friends, who also happened to be very powerful wizards.
Her first bout of accidental magic actually happened while reading that book, when she turned into a man, tall with icy green eyes, holding a lance and wearing a strange ring.
Weird, right?
But it didn't stop there. Sometime around her ninth birthday, she began to have some sorts of episodes, when she felt herself lose focus more and more, and her dreams began to take rather ominous tones. One particularly bright night -which may or may not have been because of nearby car fires-, as she felt herself fall asleep, she began seein scenes of fighting. A man in a black armore with a helmet fashioned to look like a lion was standing between the flames, then turned around, towards her, and the omnipresent feeling of terror had her recoil and brutally wake up. She told herself she needed to read less books and went back to bed, her sleep uninterrupted this time.
The feeling of paranoia didn't leave her though, and accompanied her, growing each and every day as the world was collapsing around her. Her dreams continued too, and in the end, the only thing she could do was ask her father for help during dinner, after he took a mouthful of a still-twitching elf's arm.
The man was delighted, the fire of insanity shining brightly in his eyes, and he taught her the wonders of what he called the 'best multipurpose tool in the world' called Greek Fire.
One year later, Delphine Carina Trelawney-Noir was 10 years old. Being born in November, she wouldn't receive her letter until next year. She still wasn't very good when it came to making explosives, or running, or anything physical in fact, and her attention span equalled that of a goldfish, but she excelled when it came to aiming and throwing things. Like explosive flasks. She was also following, like every self-respecting pureblooded witch, pre-Hogwarts lessons, economy lessons and speech lessons. Even if her parents, strangely enough, refused to have her exposed to the rest of the wizarding world, she would obviously become a Great businesswoman!
While rereading her language lessons -French was such a chore-, she felt herself being observed and turned around. Her eyes scanned the scenery, but in the end, she was nothing.
She decided not to risk it and got out of the library, avoiding the people hitting the cars with lead pipes, ans headed back home, only for something strange to happen. A squat, fat creature was hobbling down the street, a big hammer in its chubby hand, and it was grunting in a strgange fashion. It tried to catch her and she jumped back, causing the other creature to trip and fall face first on the floor. On its side, the hammer hit the bottom of the next building's wall, that had been weakened by the fire and crumbled, falling onto the creature, who almost exploded like a blood filled balloon.
Her right cheek was splashed by the liquid and she screamed, running the rest of the way back. Her mother was here and she jumped, crying, into her arms.
Camelopardalis then knew that the feared day had come.
Her daughter has begun to follow Her Destiny.
It will be filled with strife, and fraught with danger, but she would rise above all in the end!
While her mother was hugging herself, giggling wrigging weirdly with an exctatic expression on her face, and her father just jumped from the house's second floor to land on a runaway elf, Delphine felt her left eye twitch.
-[X] Workshop. After seeing Monique faff around her newly built workshop, Dace decided it would be time to have one of his own.
Cost : 40,000 Galleons 28 + 70 (crafting ) = 98 : No special bonuses.
Dace realized, one morning, that he hadn't touched a cauldron for several years, which was an utter waste of his skills and he therefore decided to do something about that.
Finding the materials was trivial, considering how the city was set up, and how well stocked his manor was, at least in terms of tools. He really needed to find some way to obtain ingredients.
It took him the better part of the month to find somebody qualified for the task and unlikely to sabotage the project, and the both of them poured on the project. The man in question was good at what he did, and for a time, Dace thought he could recruit him to work on his numerous projects, however, as Dace was convinced he had gotten his attention, Monique swanned in, almost abducting the poor man and dragging him away, citing several things she would like him to do.
What shocked and annoyed Dace in equal measures was the fact that the interruption was deliberate. Even more than that, it was clear that Monique was doing it with a specific goal in mind, one that didn't just involve annoying him at inopportune times. Thinking back on her actions, she has been going behind his back a lot, and did some things that should have required his approval, but somehow didn't.
He knew she was an eccentric, however, to need the services of that particular man, she needed to have a lot more money that he estimated she did. Moreso because she worked for Dace for free. Which was worrying.
It seems Monique is planning for something big, what will Dace do? [] Confront her. Her acting suspiciously was one thing. Her actively hampering Dace's efforts was another entirely. [] Monitor the situation. Letting her run free comports risks, and he doesn't need her accidentally releasing a plague or something similar on top of everything else. [] Hands off. Monique may be strange, but he couldn't deny everything she did was beneficial to him so far.
In the end though, Dace had his workshop and laboratory, up to his admittedly high standards, which led him to think on a matter that barely occupied his thoughts for years.
Namely, the matter of heirs.
While he could remarry to try and sire a son, he didn't really feel like doing it. Besides, he had Aife already, though only one heir is dangerous. He could do several things to deal with the present situation.
[] Encourage Aife. She is a married woman, after all. Having a child wouldn't be remiss of her, it may even help her overcome her trauma. [] Remarry. He wasn't sure Aife had gotten over her own recklessness, and there was the matter of Rosier. Therefore, it would probably be a good idea to look for somebody to marry, for the sake of alliances, if nothing else. [] Make a heir. His situation definitely counts as an emergency, therefore, using the 'emergency box' in his manor's lab wouldn't be unwarranted. Besides, the idea of creating his own heir with his own hands had something appealing to it. [] Do nothing. Things are not urgent yet.
In the end though, while the workshop was up to his standards, he still had the niggling feeling it could have been something more...
Dace's Workshop added to the manor, + 20 to all of Dace's research, experimental and crafting rolls, the latter only applies to non-potions related subjects.
September 19th 1983
-[X] Way of life. All work and no play would make Dace a very sad wizard. As such, he decided he wanted to find himself a hobby to relax. Word of warning, the selected choice will cause quests to appear, sometimes at inconvenient moments. Dace may only have one Lifestyle.
--[X]Magic 48
Now that things were calming down, at least compared to last year, Dace could feel the nervous claws of stress digging at his mind, and he sighed.
He needed to get himself a hobby, at least so that it could help him keep his mind clear by providing some measure of relaxation.
Truthfully, he would have enjoyed teaching the younger generations, however, his interactions with that man left him thinking it was probably a pipe dream anyways. Architecture was but a passing fancy, he also told himself, and much too costly in the current situation. In the end, he had to compromise between his wants and his pragmatism, whittling down the list to Magic.
One could never go wrong with magic after all, even though it was an extremely temperamental subject centuries of geniuses and prodigies didn't manage to explain. Not even the Department of Mysteries did it.
And so, it was with a feeling of excitement, and the disctinct impression he was biting a lot more than he could chew, that Dace decided to try and unravel the secrets behind magic itself.
October 20th 1983
-[X] Investigate the illness. Dace is dying, he even knows in detail how his body is going to breakdown, however, he is unsure as to how he will remedy this. 28 + 40 (Lore) + 20 (Dace's workshop) – 10 (???) = 78. Failure
8 + 70 (Research) + 20 (Dace's workshop) – 10 (???) = 88. Failure
Perception roll : 48 + 60 (perception) = 108. Tier 1 success.
Even in his new workshop, even when he gave up large amounts of time for his research, it did not bear fruit. However, he didn't spend all of that time for nothing, for he noticed a pattern in the accidents keeping him from making any progress. A pattern, which makes the reason behind the failures apparent.
Someone was actively keeping the syndrome from being healed without anyone noticing.
In other words, this wasn't an illness, or a birth defect.
It was a curse.
Futher actions available next turn.
October 22nd
-[X][Monique] The infernal machine II: Monique will continue her experiments with the golems, while also spending some time working on the Blank Anchor. 15 + 140 (lore) = 155
Monique's work continues to advance steadily, though it slowed down quite a bit due to the fact she's been dividing her focus and refused to share her work with anyone.
+77 points towards anchor's development (314/400)
78/100 towards golem upgrade.
-[X] Anchor creation I : The research. Dace has always loved personnally tailored things, be it clothes, schools or meals. He also hates mind control. Taking both facts into account, it isn't hard to understand why he would try to have his own custom anchor. +20 to anchor type action (only on one of them)
--[X]Double down 15 / 15 + 20 + 40 = 75
Despite the increased amount of time he alloted to the research, it brought exactly the same results. No matter though, he was still getting closer to the objective.
+75 points towards anchor's development (389/400)
November 1st 1983
-[X] Relocate the Academy : The world as Dace knows it is ending. He was certain of it. As such, it wouldn't be unreasonable to gather his resources and assets in order to keep them safe.
Cost: 700,000G 67 +20 (PS) + 40 (strategy) + 20 (Snake) = 117 Interrupted by enemy Nat100
Everything began well enough, the outsides were scorched and savaged by the riots, but the people and precious items were sill safe. Then, as Dace was trying to help the librarians to move their books around, he heard screams and immediately ran towards the door, wand out and followed by the bodyguards he selected for this day.
All he could see outside were fires and corpses.
A tall figure, in bulky black armor stood amidst the flames, the lion helmet almost snarling into the yellow light. All around them, small black creatures were flying, forming black clouds billowing in the smoke. People were running all around them, yet, the figure stood still, before slowly turning around.
The person, who was most likely a man, man stood for a few more seconds, before he raised a foot and began walking.
Above their heads, rain began to fall, the thunder growling in the sky.
The armored man's pace was slow and even. He opened a hand, and in a flash of silver, a sword appeared. Ti was made of silver, with rubies incrusted in the pommel. Along the blade, a name, gleaming slightly because of the light, could be read.
Godric Gryffindor.
The sword in the man's hand cloaked itself with a dark smoke as it began to warp while the armored man was running towards the aurors, and it screamed as it tore the first auror in half. Nobody seemed to manage to land a hit on him, as he was alone in the middle of the fray. Even worse, some aurors ended up hitting and incapacitating their own friends, leaving the man with less and less enemies standing.
Finally, he stopped.
Nobody save him was up in the battlefield, the street running red with blood under the heavy rain. Then, he raised his sword once more, this time towards Dace's group in that was evacuating the Academy.
"Nice evening we're having here." A voice tore through the silence and rain, and another figure appeared from the shadows. A man, tall and thin, clad in brown leathers and wine red silks walked casually, his relaxed stance would have seemed unthreatening, were it not for the ivory gun at his belt. His black hair was swept to his right, and his chin was adorned with a small goatee. The armored man was still, similar to a blood covered statue.
"Not going to speak up, Gryff? I'm hurt, and here I thought we were friends." The newcomer raised his hands to his heart, clearly mocking his opponent.
"You know of the price to be paid." Another voice, muffled by the helmet and making Dace's bones rattle came from the armored figure. "Therefore there is no need for words." The man, likely Gryffindor himself, moved.
Lightning struck and the sound of a firearm shooting could be heard, echoed by the thunderclap. The tall man had jumped back distances that shouldn't be humanly possible, while Gryffindor was hot on his heels. The sword was swung once more, its owner's intent clear, but the tall man simply leaned away, the blade missing his neck by a mere inches, while he raised the gun, shooting and once more jumping away.
His opponent raised his arm once more, but the sound of metal screaming had him stop. The helmet turned towards ht chestplece and he once again moved his arm, the metal whining once again.
The tall man smirked, his face visible due to the lightning storm brewing above their heads, and from behind his back, he got one more pistol. He then raised both towards the armored man.
"Would say it was nice to meet you kid, but it would be a lie." he said lightly, almost playfully, as he opened fire, bullets rushing towards the immoving opponent, only to plink against an invisible barrier. "Now, that's cheating." He complained, ducking under a jet of dark red energy.
The armored man stood still once more.
"I have gotten what I came here for."
And disappeared in black fog.
Having a bad feeling, Dace ran towards the evacuation room to find the escorts dead and that most of the teaching staff had disappeared, along with several old artifacts, funds and students. The rest was either unconscious or heavily injured.
"Nice house you got here. Too bad it's burning."
The tall man appeared from behind his right, guns back to his side and back holsters, commenting on this situation as if nothing was wrong.
"Indeed." Dace gritted out. "A shame."
The other man raised an eyebrow, clearly amused, before betting a paper from a pouch on the right side of his belt. He looked at it for a moment, then at Dace.
"You wouldn't happen to be Dace Gwallawg, would you?" He looked him up and down in a way that left Dace feeling rather uncomfortable. " You do look like a Dace."
Dace raised his hand to deny, to find it imprisoned in the other man's vice-like grip.
"So you are. Good, good." The man gave his hand a forced shake. " My name is Reaver. Pleased to make your acquaintance."
Charm of Mana
Class: Treasure
Slot: Miscellaneous
Effect: This charms helps you recover 1 extra mana point per day.
Part of the ]Wizard's Well] combination artifact.
Crown of the supreme magi
Class: Minor
Slot: Head
Effect : Worn on the head, his item increases hero's mana by +40.
Another unbeta-ed update because between my exams and Math's... Math-ness, we can't seem to be able to log on discord at the same time to do the beta thing.
