[X] Royal Allocation - Diplomacy
[X] Double Down - The Idea of Foreign Relations
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Turn 2: Results
Military
Raiding: There hasn't been any raiding done on the surface world for a long time, other than the occasional hunt and capture to supply the numerous animal farms in Azjol-Nerub. Nothing has caught the Empire's interest lately, but it doesn't know much about what is going on up there either. Since you have a weird interest in the surface world, Anub-Rekhan has asked if he could perform some raids on the Ice Trolls and Vrykul and Magnataurs to give his troops some much needed experience and collect prisoners to interrogate for information later.
Time: 1 Year. Chance of Success: 90%. Rewards: Much needed experience for the army. Loot. Food. Prisoners to interrogate and experiment upon. Anub-Rekhan relieves a lot of boredom. Cons: Heightened aggression by the Ice Trolls and Vrykul and Magnataurs, possible attempts at retaliation.
Needed: 10/100. Rolled 6/100. Crit Fail!
At first it went well.
Early on in the year you order Anub-Rekhan to begin raiding the surface-world with his army. Eager to impress and happy he gets to actually fight, your Commander immediately begins to plan and prepare for the raids. Using scouting reports gathered by the outposts in the regions where the Ice Trolls, Vrykul, and Magnataurs are predominate.
The Explorer's Guild was off the list for now. You are not sure how you want to deal with these new arrivals just yet.
The first problems encountered were ones you expect to, logistics. Your current military infrastructure proves again that it isn't capable of handling the great girth of your active army, forcing Anub-Rekhan to utilize the new settlements to house the bulk of the army. It irritates the Queens overseeing things there, but while a few are calmed after Anub-Rekhan personally visits them, a number of fights spill out between them and Anu-Surket when she went off to accompany the raiding parties.
The second major one was the raids themselves.
They were success, early on. Your forces had surprise and numbers at your side. The outlying villages of the Vrykul were attacked, their inhabitants slaughtered and captured. The same went for the Ice Trolls and the wandering tribes of the Magnataurs. It net you hundreds of prisoners of various races for use, a small supply of food, but little else. But a number of survivors and
their prisoners that you didn't escaped in the commotion.
Taunka, Tuskarr, and Furbogs all fled into the wilderness. They scream in sheer terror about the return of the Nerubian Empire, of things only dreamt in their nightmares or told as horror stories as they ran back home and told their tales.
Your scouts report that said races are likely hostile to you now.
And as the year went on the raids got harder, soon becoming impossible for any group not lead by Anub-Rekhan or supported by Anu-Surket and Maexxna on the rare occasions the Broodmother joined the hunt. After half-a-year an extremely frustrated Anub-Rekhan stops them all together after he and Anu-Surket suffer heavy injuries, barely surviving an ambush by King Ymiron, all his Elites, and a great flight of Proto-Dragons and their riders.
All of the races had seemly and impossibly rallied their forces together far quicker than Anub-Rekhan expects.
The fractured and savage Ice Trolls are uniting together under the threat of their hated and ancient foe. The numerous Vrykul clans, eager to face a new and worthy foe gathered under the banner of their King, Ymiron. Even the Magnataur tribes have joined together, each wanting to slay Maexxna, the bane of their existence for decades. And each of these races has sent their elites to find and discover the hidden entrances while these three armies still prepare.
Anub-Rekhan estimates if they aren't stopped they'll find them within the next year, their armies soon to follow if they do. War will be at the Empire's doorstep for the first time in history.
Damn it!
Rewards: Prisoners. Taunka, Tuskarr, and Furbog Reputation changed to Hostile! Anub-Rekhan and Anu-Surket gain the traits Injured. -1 to all Stats, -15% Fertility till healed, and Scarred! Anub-Rekhan gains trait Stressed -1 to all stats. War in 1 Year! Minor Nerubian Rep loss.
Survey: There hasn't been a detailed account to the surface world in a
long time. While you did travel up above in Northrend once, you never got a real good look at it before returning to Azjol-Nerub. You and Anub-Rekhan are curious to know what has changed in the last few centuries. It might be time for an actual expedition to the surface.
Time 3 Years. Chance of Success 60% per year. Rewards: Detailed information on every region in Northrend, but Stormpeaks. Information on interesting individuals and species. Nerubian curiosity piqued. Locked in for 2 more turns.
Needed 40/100. Rolled 7/100. The Dice Gods hate the unbelievers!
The Survey Expedition gets off to a bad start.
Again, the lack of good military infrastructure hampers them as they set out. And again forces the budding settlements to once again house the majority of them, further irritating the Queens there. Though no fights break out, the increased drain on their resources prevents some planned expansions for that year.
The Expeditions' choice in regions to survey limited due to the heavily increased military presence of the Ice Trolls, Magnataurs, and Vrykuls. It forces them to delay the expeditions to Zul'Drak, Dragonblight, Howling Fjord, and the Grizzly Hills for another year, all of eastern Northrend. That is if hostilities die down or the regions are subjugated enough for somewhat safe travel.
The western regions of Northrend are focused upon instead. The majority of problems arise from there. The expeditions there ran afoul with the newly discovered and old inhabitants of those regions.
In the tropical jungle basin of Sholzar Basin hostilities were initiated between the warring primitive Wolvar and Gorloc tribes when attempts to kidnap members of each for study were discovered and tracked back to the expedition's encampment there. Day and night raids by each tribe were launched numerous times throughout the year on them, rarely encountering one another. While your forces prove superior in a fight the unfamiliar terrain and fighting on the surface works against them. As does other hostile creatures that inhabit the region. They also report the strange feeling of being watched, judged by something unseen.
The expedition there holds for now, but is in need of reinforcements. A full report on the region will be delayed for another year.
Similar problems go for all other regions in Icecrown, Crystalsong, and Borean Tundra. The last ending in the near entire extermination of the expedition there after a heavy force lead by the apparent leader of the Explorer's Guild, Muradin Bronzebead assaulted the encampment to rescue his men being vivisected by Nerubian biologists.
Current Rewards! Nothing good! Gorloc, Wolvar, Explorer Guild status changed to Hostile! Minor Nerubian Rep Loss. Completion delayed for 1 more year. Information limited to only the Western Regions of Northrend.
Fortified Entrances: Five heavily guarded gates lead to Azjol-Nerub, protected more by their secluded and hidden nature more than anything else. Always a firm believer in the art of being prepared, Anub-Rekhan wishes to fortify and enchant and station more troops at these entrances in case of an attack.
Time: 1 year. Costs: 27,000 Gold. Reward: Better protection, bonus to defense rolls for attacks on the gates, able to hold out longer for reinforcements.
As your military troubles continue to mount over the year the project to heavily fortify the gates leading into Azjol-Nerub goes through no trouble at all. The now fortified gates grow thicker, stronger, wider, nearly glowing from all the protective master-class enchantments your enchanters weaved into every part of it as your workers expertly rebuilt it back from the ground up. More troops are stationed there, housed within the two new, large, and similarly reinforced bases built at each gate. One outside, built to protect the gate itself and another inside to delay intruders incase the impossible happens and they break into Azjol-Nerub.
Rewards: Fortified Gates! +10 On Defense Rolls for Gate Sieges.
Diplomacy
The Idea of Foreign Relations: As much as Nerubian culture prides itself on promotion of intellectual pursuits, individualism, and the like, it is ironically hidebound when it comes to dealing with others of a different race. If it came down to it, just about every Nerubian other than you would let the world burn if it didn't affect them... or if they even knew about it in the first place. Though you're not certain on it, this might need to change... eventually. You could always order them to change being their King, but it won't change anything in the long run and you are smart enough to know it. You'll have to convince them instead, you can't do it all on your own after all... but it might take a while.
Time: 5 years. Chance of Success: 30% per turn. Cost: 5,000 Gold per turn. Rewards: +1 Diplomacy Action, +3 Diplomacy, possibly able to send representatives to establish diplomatic relations with other races and trade. Cons: Lowered opinion of you. Nerubians might consider you to be crazy and illogical.
Needed: 70/100. Rolled 101/100 The Dice Gods pity you.
Your people consider it.
It is
far more than you expect them to, in all honesty.
The failures of the raids and of the Survey Expedition, along with starting hostilities with just about every race and faction in Northrend you might have wanted to have… err…
peaceful relations with should have hampered your attempts in introducing this idea to the debates and meetings you attended to this year.
Yet it didn't, because of the focused efforts of you and Azhar-Menthas, despite her hesitation on this. Like last year, inspiration strikes you again and you slowly start to convince some of the leading Nerubians to your side. It isn't quick or easy to do, even with your silver tongue. You are working against thousands of years of culture and an installed belief in xenophobia here. But it is working, faster than you thought it would.
And you managed to do damage control keep your reputation intact too, despite the failures and unpopular decisions made this year.
Current Rewards: Nerubian Reputation Stays at Honored. +1 Base Diplomacy! Project Time Reduced By 1 Year!
The Queens: Currently the most powerful Caste in the Nerubian Empire. They are its heart and soul. Without them no Nerubian would exist today. And for some reason they all hate and shun your 2nd Queen Anu-Surket in all things. She doesn't look like she cares about their word at all, but you think she does. And it wouldn't do to have one of your own Queens hated by the Empire too. Best get to work then.
Time: 1 Year. Chance of Success: 80%. Rewards: Improved Spousal Opinion from Anu-Surket.
Needed: 20/100. Rolled 78/100
During your meeting with the other Queens you asked around about Anu-Surket, their opinions and why they hate her so much. Bad blood runs between them. You are curious and your Queen doesn't wish to talk about it, you don't need to ask her to see it.
And the Queens talk, spilling out their secrets to you. Their words have little bias and heat in them, not willing to anger you with lies and tall tales. You learn that the hostilities between Anu-Surket and the other Queens started early on in her youth, living within one of the larger communities in Azjol-Nerub. She was born strong, but strangely enough barely fertile by Queen standards.
An irregularity, but not one to condemn her, much of that was done by her lack of talent in any required to be a good Queen. Her constant failures morph her already abrasive personality into something far more toxic, alienating anyone who tried to help her. Things kept spiraling down after that as Anu-Surket drifted from community to community, before separating from them entirely and dedicated herself completely to the art of magic and combat.
There is even a little pity in their stories about her after Anu-Surket's injuries became known later in the year. But you couldn't fully convince them to turn their opinions on her around. That will require your Queen to do it herself, but you did get a promise from them that the other Queens will stop antagonizing her and try to reconsider their ways.
Anu-Surket quietly wheezes out a short '
Thanks' to you from her charred throat. Shortly after hearing of the Queens promise as you stayed with her in her nest while she recovered.
Rewards: Increased spousal status by Anu-Surket
Intrigue
Encryption: There are numerous and encrypted reports from the previous Spymaster that he left before traveling beneath Azjol-Nerub into the forbidden Old Kingdom with other spymasters and a force of engineers and workers. For what you don't know, but you are eager to find out. These reports are the first place to get started.
Time: 1 Year. Chance of Success: 55%. Rewards: Information.
Needed: 45/100. Rolled: 30/100. Nope.
Nezar-Azret manages to break the reports complex encryption after half-a-year of work, only to find that all the reports were utterly useless. All were filled with nonsensical junk designed to distract and delay others investigating this from the real stuff.
Like you.
Rewards: Nothing.
Kept Under Watch: With Anub-Rekhan's worrying reports on the Explorer's guild and the advent of the Survey Expeditions launch you decide that it might be best if you kept better track of their movements. While your outposts can do the job, it might not be enough. Nezar-Azret has her shadowy underlings. Best send
them to work and not your Queen. Never her.
Ever.
Time: 2 Years. Chance of Success: 75%. Rewards: Information on the Explorer's Guild forces and movements.
Needed: 25/100 Rolled: 21/100
Hidden scouts and spies keep watch over the Explorer's Guild growing base of operations.
Said hidden scouts and spies are rooted out and exterminated by them shortly after hostilities ensue between Survey Expedition in the Borean Tundra and the Explorer's Guild. Your last report on them there has Muradin Bronzebeard personally rewarding the party of adventurers for accomplishing the task.
Curses.
Rewards: Nezar-Azret pouts over the loss of her minions.
Stewardship
Mine Expansion and Cleansing: Over the course of thousands of years, the Nerubian Empire has just about mapped out nearly all the underground, Copper, Tin, Bronze, Silver, Iron, Gold, Steel, Mithril, Truesilver, Thorium, Cobalt, Titanium ore veins in Northrend. But they abandoned anywhere they encountered the accursed Saronite ore though. Unfortunately, there are far more of the last than all the others combined in continent, and are mixed in with the other veins at times. As you can expect this prevents a substantial number of your mines from expanding. You want to fix this, and Elder Nadox is still hesitant to support this despite being convinced by you, everyone else might not.
Time: 2 years. Costs 90,000 Gold. Chance of Success 69% per year. Rewards: +200,000 yearly income once cleared. Mines are open and ready for further expansion. 20% lower cost for metal research and forging actions, Saronite Ore available for research. Cons: Workers sent to clear might go mad, lower opinon for trying this stupid idea.
Needed: 31/100. Rolled: 98/100. The Dice Gods take pity again.
The troubles you expected would arise from this incredibly dangerous task did arise, but were minor,
very minor. The voluntary Workers sent into nearly all your mines to clear Saronite ore did their jobs with incredible efficiency and speed, despite the clear fear in their eyes. What should have taken two years was done in one.
The veins of Saronite ore were mined, gathered, and shipped off to isolated areas in the Empire's tunneling system deemed suitable for to quarantine the evil ore. Little else could be done. Saronite is notoriously hard to even damage, let alone eradicate. Signs and labels written in all known languages were put at these deposits, blocked by numerous enchanted walls.
No one deserves to be corrupted and under control by the Old Gods. Not even the Ice Trolls.
Some workers did go mad. It was inevitable for something like this, but all were accounted for and summarily put out of their misery. The short and various shifts performed by a different mining crew each hour, done every day helped keep the corruption from setting in their minds. It would have been impossible if you had fewer Workers to use, but there was more than an abundance to pick from.
And lastly you secretly had a small shipment of Saronite Ore delivered to a specifically built and prepared base on the outlying outskirts of Azjol-Nerub for study. While you know the dangerous of Saronite, its potential benefits are great and numerous.
Rewards: +200,000 yearly Income. Mines are open and ready for expansion. Saronite Ore Available for Research. 20% lower cost for metal research and forging actions.
College Of the Mystic Arts: Like his other proposal up above, the Elder Nadox wishes to expand what few schools of magic exist in Azjol-Nerub. While many of the Seers and Viziers prefer to teach their hand-picked apprentices themselves, they leave the other, weaker magically capable Nerubians behind for overburdened schools to take in. It is wasteful in the Elder Nadox's opinion.
Time: 1 years. Costs: 54,000 Gold. Rewards: Numerous Magic Colleges. Better educated Seer Caste, more Seers gained per year. Minor improvement to reputation.
Like the educational expansion that took place a year before you set a similar project to further art of magic. It is a trait rare to be born with in the Empire, only available to the Seers, Viziers, Queens, and Spider Lords caste. Even then the talents vary and dedicated magical tutors only take the best as their apprentices. The others are left behind to further the art themselves, which is always dangerous.
Magic always is, one of its constant and first rules.
A series of grand colleges for the paths mystic arts is built in Azjol-Nerub, each as big as the largest university built for the physical arts. They are situated in the outskirts of the capital, heavily reinforced by the strongest materials and enchantments the Empire has to offer, away from the population centers incase anything disastrous occurs. They are nearly a fortress onto itself with a town built around it to house all the inhabitants as your mages flock to it, happy they finally get collages dedicated to them.
Rewards: Numerous Magic Colleges. Better educated mages, more gained per year. Minor increase to reputation. Magic Research Options Available Next Turn.
Research
Improved Husbandry: A number of handlers of the numerous tamed beasts your Empire uses for everyday life, has asked for funding to expand the zoos and farms and improve upon the animals themselves. Evidently, things are started to get crowded in there and the handlers have been forced to keep the populations down through various means.
Time: 2 years. Costs: 20,000 Gold. Chance of Success 75% Per Year Rewards: More food. More and stronger Locusts, Giant Spider, Beetle, and Jormungar strains for use. Locked In For 1 More Turn!
Needed: 25/100. Rolled: 96/100 Crit Success!
Apparently your handlers and breeders for your animals have reported that their experiments in breeding the new and improved beast strains have succeeded wildly!
The new Locusts, Giant Spider, Beetle, and Jormungar strains are far better than they predicted. All of them are stronger, faster, heartier, more resistant to damage, disease, and the elements. The most notable were the Giant Spiders, who are now naturally born with tough chitin armor that covers their bodies like Maexxna's.
A giant population boom for your expanded animal farms is also reported as a result from these experiments, but the real treat comes from a pair of twin Jormungars recently born from the massive strain. Named Dreadscale and Acidmaw, these two are the biggest and strongest yet for their kind, but still too young for use for your military.
Rewards:
Armored Giant Spiders. Increased Food Supply. Heroes Pets Dreadscale and Acidmaw available for use in 4 Turns.
Armor Sets: Looking through the vast stores of unused metals neatly sorted and organized inside the numerous vaults that make up your treasury and after listening to Anub-Rekhan military proposals it might be good to commission an actual armor set for all castes to use. Possibly. Made out of what you aren't sure, you're no blacksmith. It'll be best if you leave it to the experts.
Time: Goes on till its canceled or finished. Costs: 5,000 Gold per turn. Chance of Success 65%. Rewards: New sets of armor made of different metals available for use for all castes every year.
Needed: 35/100. Rolled: 21/100. Another Nope.
Full armor sets, you learn is surprisingly difficult for Nerubians to make and use. Their large and differently shaped and spider-like bodies prove hard for your blacksmiths to craft an armor set capable of protecting all parts of them without limiting their high mobility despite the sheer quantity and variety of metals at their disposal.
Many prototypes and plans are implemented and thrown out. The failures just keep mounting.
Maybe next year.
Current Rewards: Nothing.
Weapons: As with armor, the same thing goes for weapons. You have all the ore and eager blacksmiths ready for work. It'll likely be cheaper and easier to make than the armor too.
Time: Goes on till its canceled or finished. Costs: 2,500 Gold per turn. Chance of Success 80%. Rewards: New and improved weapons of various kinds available for all castes every year.
Needed: 20/100. Rolled: 91/100. Great Success!
While armor is hard for your blacksmiths the new and improved weapons you requested your blacksmiths to craft is a far easier task for them. They test out and try the myriad of ores you gave them.
By the end of the year Titanium proves to be the greatest among them, though quite hard to smelt and shape and even supply for mass-production. Weapons forged out of it are best served for your elites. For the regular units in your army Cobalt weapons would be best used instead, the metal while weak compared to Saronite and Titanium, is the most common metal to be found in Northrend.
Although supplying your massive army with them is going to be hellishly expensive… far more when the armor sets are finally done.
Rewards: Various Titanium Weapons for Elite Units. Cobalt weapons for the Regular Army. +7,500 to Army Upkeep.
Personal Actions
Your Queens: You have three Queens living with you in the Royal Citadel. Not many by Spider King standards, but its manageable enough that you can spend time getting to know each of them without ignoring the other in favor of another.
Time: 1 Year. Rewards: Minor spousal approval for all three.
You spend time with your three Queens whenever you can, uncertain of the troubled future. The military failures of this year weight heavily on your mind despite your incredible successes elsewhere. Successes you thought wouldn't occur and failures you didn't expect.
The irony of the situation is not lost to and is an ever present burden as the year winds down.
Azhar-Menthas and Nezar-Azret do their best to comfort you and Anu-Surket as she recovers. Your Warrior Queen quietly tolerates their presence, throwing the occasional glare at them first, expecting them to insult her hideous appearance. Numerous third-degree burns cover her body from Proto-Dragon fire, a jagged scar runs across her face down to her chest, done by King Ymiron himself throbs with repressed anger and frustration.
But your Queens kept whatever negative thoughts to themselves and stayed with her, with you, and bond in silence.
Rewards: Minor Spousal Approval between all Queens. Relations between your Queens slightly improve.
Mending: Anu-Surket, your 2nd Queen and one of the deadliest warriors in the Empire. She's angry and frustrated for not getting to fight Maexxna. You know that. You don't regret it either. She'd likely have died against her, but it doesn't change things and saying it won't help matters. Words
might not help you here, but action instead. You just have to find the right ones...
Time: 1 Year. Rewards: Improved Spousal approval for Anu-Surket.
"I want his head." Anu-Surket rasps the day after your other Queens egg clutches hatch, birthing a sixty Spiderlings all together, six of them future Spider Lords. She watches some of them swarm beneath your eggs with disinterest.
Any damage done to your relationship from last year has long since been erased by this point. Your efforts and the time spent with her greatly changed her opinion of you. While not friendly like your other Queens, she only tolerates you now, but you can work with that.
"King Ymiron is yours." You promise.
Rewards: Anu-Surket Opinion changed to Tolerated. Will assist in Research Actions once recovered. Gains Trait Revenge: Desires King Ymiron head, won't stop till she gets it.
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I'll post the rumors later on.
