You write back to Duke Aver, tentatively in favor of his proposal. You agree to provide what support you reasonably can in the construction of the new port, but invite him to meet with you in Port Helm to discuss the details in more depth.
With that answer on its way via his courier, you also write up a letter to Miklam with a general overview of recent events and asking for his advice concerning political games and other dealings with nobles.
It will be months before you could possibly receive any response from either man, so you return to your work setting Corwyn and Port Helm to rights.
Music and Lyrics 80+ Needed
Your first task, along with Leliana, is writing up a new song for your citizenry. While your last song was about yourself, you decide that the time has come to write something especially for the people of Corwyn.
[Roll: 85 + 42 = 127. Success]
And you get the feeling that your subjects appreciate it. Your new song is sung frequently enough, at least, to indicate that its message of rising from the ashes is not inappropriately timed. Or perhaps they're trying to curry favor with you. It's hard to tell.
Assist the Displaced 40+ Needed
Of course, your subjects are in rather dire straits, it turns out. Helan's census confirms that no less than 10% of the current population of Port Helm are actually homeless. And that's actually on top of the ones who are staying with family in housing that wasn't built to accommodate so many. Most of the homeless are refugees of the fighting that destroyed so many cities on the Bloodplains, but there are still a good few whose homes were destroyed during the siege of Port Helm itself.
[Roll: 19 + 32 = 51. Success]
Helan manages to organize a couple of temporary shelters and soup kitchens which ease a great deal of strain on this displaced population. At the same time he helps lost families reunite or find out where their missing members ran off to. Still, while he's managed to settle them down some, Helan warns you that you'll need to find a more permanent solution before Winter if you don't want a large chunk of them to die from exposure.
(Stewardship Options Unlocked)
Corwyn Trade Center 60+ Needed
While addressing your subjects needs is high on your list of priorities, your ever-shrinking treasury is a source of concern to both you and Helan, so you readily approved his plan for a centralized trading center in Port Helm.
[Roll: 19 + 32 = 51. Failure]
Unfortunately, while Helan does manage to locate an ideal site for the building and has even received multiple bids for the contract on construction, his other work eats up more of his time than either of you realized it might. The two of you are far too busy to pursue this plan any further just yet, so the plans sit idly on your desks. For now.
(+10 to a Second Attempt)
Squabbling Neighbors
One of those things keeping you busy is a pair of meetings with your closest peers, at least in geographical terms.
You met first with Lady Silva Farstoe, whose family hails from the central province back in the kingdom. Given the long history of her noble bloodline, she is surprisingly solicitous of your goodwill, and doesn't appear to hold any disdain for your commoner origins at all.
Lady Silva holds North Anselm, a land of farms consisting of mostly imperial colonists and a light sprinkling of Y'Elim natives. There is also a very minor port or two along the coast.
While your discussions are mostly focused upon trade agreements, and feeling out your opinions on the Tornament of Kings to come, you get the feeling that Lady Silva is not entirely happy about her new position in the Eastern province.
Of course, the reason for this becomes somewhat more clear following your meeting with Lord Devon Monair, an Earl whose family also hails from the central lands back in the Kingdom, and one that famously holds an ongoing feud with the Farstoe family.
The Monair/Farstoe feud is so ancient, and widely known, that it's practically an established part of the empire on its own. It's actually the kind of thing you had assumed you would manage to avoid out here in Eastern Province, but now you know better.
Lord Devon is a military man, through and through, and it seems that his primary concerns involve obtaining your support in maintaining the border with the Bloodplains. Which is amusing enough, because he actually has the smallest piece of the border of any of the new territories, yet he speaks as if he alone is holding the orcish hordes at bay.
Oh, and he's also a pompous ass who clearly has to fight his own instinct to look down his nose at you, commoner that you are.
Still, he's polite enough and clearly professional enough not to let it affect his decision making. You're sure of that because he mentions in passing that he has a sister who may be looking to marry…
Well, clearly you have a delicate situation with these two. While both of them appear to desire close relations and good will, it's highly doubtful that they'll manage to put their family's feud to bed here in their new lands. If you befriend either of them, you'll likely make an enemy out of the other. Definitely something you'll need to carefully consider.
(Diplomatic Communications Unlocked)
Gather Information 40+ Needed
Thankfully, while your neighbors pose a mixture of positive and negative opportunities, you won't be making such decisions completely blind as you finally found the time to train and send off spies to the various territories of the Eastern province.
[Roll: 87 + 38 = 125. Solid Success]
And the information trickling back to you as the informants return paints an interesting picture. While you already knew the Eastern province had been divided into 21 territories, you mange to get a firm understanding of the actual borders, as well as the name and history of your 20 peers.
(Setting Info: Map Updated)
Moreover, because of the relatively chaotic situation, nobody thought twice about a traveling stranger asking pointed questions, so your spies managed to get away with rather more leading questions than they might have otherwise. Piecing together the information they gathered is the work of several weeks for Leliana and Esther, but together they manage to present you with a basic picture of the primary political groups they expect to emerge in the coming years.
(Setting Info: Politics Updated)
The gist of which is that if you intend to have dealings with any one lord in particular, you now will have an idea for how such dealings are likely to affect your relationships with the rest of the province.
Late Night Shipping 60+ Needed
Of course, all of that will depend on your actually being Earl Corwyn for the foreseeable future. Something that Esther is much more worried about after spending a couple of months looking into the situation in Port Helm.
[Roll: 40 + 38 = 78. Success]
She was able to track down a couple of docks where the shipments coming in at night were clearly not being reported to Helan's tax men. While originally she got the impression she was just dealing with tax dodgers, Esther caught hints of something much more serious when she got a look at some of the cargo.
Weapons. Somebody is shipping weaponry into your territory. It's not illegal to ship weapons…but it is illegal to do so in secret.
While Esther attempted to track the shipments back to their final destination, she ended up losing them somewhere in the slums. She has a suspicion that there was sorcery involved, because otherwise she never would have lost track of it.
(Intrigue Options Unlocked)
Build a Rapport: Esther ???+ Needed
You take the opportunity to work more closely with Esther in response to the possible threat, and smooth over any hurt feelings that might have resulted from your snooping.
[Roll: 19 + 23 = 42. Success?]
It's actually somewhat difficult to tell how Esther feels about you at any given time. You get the feeling your spymistress is averse to giving any information away ever, and consequently defaults to playful flirting regardless of her actual feelings about somebody. Still, you're not without experience in reading people, and you think she understood there was nothing personal about it. She accepts your apology happily enough, anyway, and mentions that she would have been disappointed if you hadn't tried to look into her background.
Sorcery At Large 60+ Needed
You were hoping that Zenthalas might be able to help Esther track down the missing shipments, but for some reason she's been having difficulty of late sensing any sorcery at all.
[Roll: 28 + 27 = 55. Failure]
There's something about Port Helm that's preventing her from narrowing down the location of the sorcery that she had been detecting. Something of a cloud over the area, she claims. She doesn't know if the sorcery she'd been detecting previously is related to Esther's missing shipments at all, but either way, she doesn't manage to find it despite searching to the best of her ability.
In the end, she spends a week or so meditating in the Keep in order to sharpen her senses.
(+10 to a Second Attempt)
Build a Rapport: Dominic ???+ Needed
With some unknown party shipping weaponry into your territory, you decide that it might be a good idea to check in with your military forces, such as they are and what there are of them. And of course, while you've been happy to catch back up with Dominic in the odd moment here or there between work, you've been looking for a reason to spend a little more time with your old friend.
[Roll: 91+ 23 = 114. Solid Success]
Dominic is happy to reminisce on the good old days, and it's clear that he couldn't be more pleased to see you rising so high in the world. His noble family always looked down on his association with you, and he's been getting a certain amount of satisfaction at the way several of them are now begging his forgiveness in their various letters while pleading for an introduction.
Personally, he suggests you ignore the two-faced bastards, but he understands that sometimes there are political considerations to be made, so he offers to make any introductions you'd like.
(Diplomatic Communications Unlocked)
He's intrigued at the idea of sticking around after his battalion has been disbanded, but seems hesitant for some reason. Ordinarily you'd let something like that slide and give the man some time to think about it, but this is your friend, despite the long years between you, and you manage to convince him to see reason.
(See Interlude: The Casualties of War)
Recruit Naval Crews 0/500 Needed
After your visit with Dominic, you finally get around to checking in with Alvarez on his progress. The old sailor has been making good use of Helan's census to locate a number of willing hands for the new naval force your assembling.
[Roll: 52 + 25 + 10(Naval Bonus) = 87. +87 Progress to 87/500]
He's making good progress, although not enough to completely man one of your War Galleys just yet. He urges you to consider taking a personal hand in the recruitment in the coming seasons, both Naval and Army, because otherwise he doesn't think you'll have a strong military as soon as you'll be needing it.
Master and Commander 60+ Needed
You promise to consider it, but aren't sure how soon you'll be able to get involved personally. Thankfully, one of Alvarez old comrades has responded to his call for officers, and you are able to meet him at the same time.
[Roll: 29 + 25 + 10(Cookie) = 64. Success]
Doular Mandrake served as an imperial pirate hunter based on Farest, the large island between Aldorea and Elimorea. The man has seen quite a bit of action aboard his vessels. He's never participated in large scale fleet actions such as blockades, but Alvarez would gladly entrust complete tactical command to his old friend in any battle at sea.
(+10 Tactical Naval Martial Rolls, Doular Mandrake Added to People of Interest)
Unfortunately, Mandrake doesn't have a ship to captain just yet, so he'll be pitching in with the recruitment effort instead for the foreseeable future.
(Fall Naval Recruitment Action Bonus)
Which is good, because Sara gave you a reason to see those pirates lurking around off your coast taken care of sooner rather than later.
Improved Galleon 40+ Needed
Sara had already figured out her plans for an improved method of construction for the seagoing vessels, and with your funding she's finally able to put her plans to the test.
[Roll: 44 + 32 = 76. Success]
And she was just as smart as she claimed to be. The new galleon is 20% larger than the older standard version, and can consequently carry that much more cargo, making trade that much more profitable. Of course, all of that doesn't do you much good without a crew to man the new vessel.
Rapport Roll Activated. DC 80.
[Roll: 88 + 23 = 111. Success]
Sara surprises you though, by assembling a crew out of several poor local families that are willing to work for you. It turns out that her original goal in building the new ship was to improve their lot in life. And after getting to know you better, she doesn't feel that you'll be too onerous of a master.
Gain Merchant Marine.
Gain 1 Fully Crewed Improved Merchant Galleon
Status:
Corwyn: War-torn, recovering.
Port Helm: Discontent, bustling.
Ministers: Hard at work.
Treasury: Approximately 33%, diminishing
Army: Borrowed. Gathering resources.
Navy: New ships, recruiting.
*NEW* Merchant Marine: One Ship, Inexperienced.
