I'm curious about the mechanics behind all of this. Just what were the dice rolls behind the scenes? Who did the best and the worst?
Every organization involved got their own rolls, per turn/half-turn/more depending on the intensity of the actions.
As I've mentioned in the past, I roll Kislev as if it were its own separate Dynasty Quest, i.e. they have an Action Economy based around Martial/Diplomacy/Stewardship/Research/Intrigue/Personal. I just don't bother writing out the whole thing because...why on earth would I subject myself to that.
HOWEVER, as a result of it being a full on Nation-Level Dynasty Quest, they have additional Actions Per Turn, as well as National Level Council stuff, an additional table which Ostland does not have access to.
As you might imagine, Alexandra heads the Intrigue Section of the Kislev Quest.
HOWEVER, as also noted for Ostland, being the main point of the quest, multiple factions are allowed to do their own work. And mechanically, also not only get to do rolls for their own operations, but to
conceal said operations, on occasion.
For instance, Ostland has an ongoing Intrigue action which is a trade war, yes? It took an action to get into Marienburg, then another separate action to start operations properly. With caveats for critical successes or failures, yeah?
But also noted, on occasion, are the opponents in said trade war doing things
in Ostland. Basically a background roll series vs. background rolls, for Kislev.
The Lahmians, being Lahmians, have a very high bonus to their rolls, coupled with bonuses from other actions taken previously to build those bonuses. The Yellow Fang, being one of the more secretive groups, failed their rolls/Lahmians succeeded their rolls by enough that they were subverted without them knowing. Therefore they had a penalty, going forward, to discovering said subversion while simultaneously
gaining Lahmian bonuses to
their (Yellow Fang) rolls to subvert the Humble Ones and Prosecutors of Justice. Who, themselves, once subverted, by way of success on the part of the Lahmians->Yellow Fang/Failure To Discover Said Subverting, gained, again, the Lahmian Bonuses to their own now directed Intrigue Efforts.
The Kislev Quest, for their part, has to choose their action economy as well, and in their case, were focusing on suppressing/eliminating any and all Chaos-tainted/still worshipping Dolgans amongst the immigrants and targeting the Bohka in different ways - subverting Bohka mercenary contract making attempts, targeting Bohka supply lines, outright attempted assassinations and poisonings, attempting to break down relationships between the Bohka and subordinate nobility, between the Bohka and the Ungols, and so on.
The kicker is that they were VERY successful in repelling vampiric infiltration attempts in Kislev City, early on. And, after that point, the Lahmians took a step back and took the long way around to fucking about.
This goes back to a discussion we've had in the thread before, specifically to the Trade Package. In which the fact of the matter is - if the enemy succeeds on their Intrigue Rolls, guess what?
You're not going to necessarily somehow see them coming when they come for you. There are measures that can be put in place, like on the Front Page, anti-sabotage efforts, etc, which effectively act as constant Penalties/rolls for you against to the specific thing they were built to go against.
Like this one ->
Anti-Industrial Espionage Upkeep
That's a flat penalty to enemy Intrigue Rolls in general, if any are made, and potentially depending on the action in question an outright full background roll to discover something happening before it happens.
So anti-vampiric work is ongoing, yeah? But NOT, necessarily, as much effort is being put into going after these lesser, more 'ignorable' groups like the Prosecutors and Humble Ones.
So they literally subverted/circled around the protections that they put in place.
That I put in place. Against myself. Because obviously myself being myself as Kattarin myself would defend against the vampiric threat after seeing it in the Vampire War I was running as myself so defenses have to be made. But how could I expect myself to change the game on myself without myself being aware, and going behind my own back to myself in the smaller Cults so that I could attack myself in an unexpected manner that I wasn't expecting myself to use, myself of all people? Because obviously I would attack myself, I have to go after myself, I am the Ur-Enemy force, I am the narrative of bad things in the story which have to be used against myself, who is the pseudo-controlling mind protagonist of myself being the NPC self that is me, with the family of me, generated by me, against me, to sabotage myself except for the ones that aren't going to because that's not what I would do if I were me.
Anyway, if someone does good on Intrigue, you're just going to have to deal with a dagger appearing in your back. Cause that's how someone succeeding on being sneaky just
works sometimes.
