[Warhammer Fantasy: Colony Quest] Your Prize is Responsibility.

[Pillowsperky]

Magic is Spooky.

Not only in-universe but also mechanically, magic is straight up spooky to consider as a part-time writer and most-times dumbass like mysef. it represents a significant challenge to balance both mechanically and within the lore of the story.

I do not want to scam you guys, so I'll prewarn you that you're not getting Masters. Magister wizards have more to do with their day than sitting around getting trench-foot in Lustria. You will be hiring an experienced Journeyman, years into their study and looking to settle down after life as a dumbass adventurer, and you might get a master available as a very expensive Mercenary. IF you convince one to move to Lustria then they will be a Faction in and unto themselves.

As to how the Magical Advisor shall function?
Their Primary actions will not actually be using much magic at all. Things like investigating magical disturbances, scouting the local ley-lines and researching Magic related buildings or upgrades will be their sort or regular actions, along with simply being attached to one of your other advisors as an assistant, Granting a bonus to their efforts.
A larger bonus can be asked for in asking them to use magic during these actions, but that will have a 1% chance of injuring the wizard every week.

During a Defense, a Wizard is a Manpower of defenders all by themselves, with unique destructive abilities, but when deployed as such there is always a small (2%) chance for shit to go sideways with Miscasting, though equally there is a unique function they can serve in countering and duelling enemy wizards.

 

[DragonParadox]

Magic is Spooky.

Not only in-universe but also mechanically, magic is straight up spooky to consider as a part-time writer and most-times dumbass like mysef. it represents a significant challenge to balance both mechanically and within the lore of the story.

I do not want to scam you guys, so I'll prewarn you that you're not getting Masters. Magister wizards have more to do with their day than sitting around getting trench-foot in Lustria. You will be hiring an experienced Journeyman, years into their study and looking to settle down after life as a dumbass adventurer, and you might get a master available as a very expensive Mercenary. IF you convince one to move to Lustria then they will be a Faction in and unto themselves.

As to how the Magical Advisor shall function?
Their Primary actions will not actually be using much magic at all. Things like investigating magical disturbances, scouting the local ley-lines and researching Magic related buildings or upgrades will be their sort or regular actions, along with simply being attached to one of your other advisors as an assistant, Granting a bonus to their efforts.
A larger bonus can be asked for in asking them to use magic during these actions, but that will have a 1% chance of injuring the wizard every week.

During a Defense, a Wizard is a Manpower of defenders all by themselves, with unique destructive abilities, but when deployed as such there is always a small (2%) chance for shit to go sideways with Miscasting, though equally there is a unique function they can serve in countering and duelling enemy wizards.

Click to shrink...

That does make sense, though given that this is Lustria I assume that if they live long enough they can get that promotion to magister eventually.

 

[Sertorius]

That does make sense, though given that this is Lustria I assume that if they live long enough they can get that promotion to magister eventually if they manage not to die.

Click to shrink...

Our Wizard might have also stepped on somebody's toe and figured it would be a sound health plan to leave as far away as possible. Forced exile is also a possibility (or being ordered to Lustria as punishement).

 

[Pillowsperky]

That does make sense, though given that this is Lustria I assume that if they live long enough they can get that promotion to magister eventually.

Click to shrink...

To become a magister they will require three things.
Study
Accomplisments
Money.
The studying part they'll do automatically. The accomplishments will come with Events and Expeditions.
The money will come from You. XD
That's right. The colony is gonna be their sugar daddy. It's part of why they're so fucking expensive.

 

[Watcher's Eyes]

ca. 2302 IC - During the Great War Against Chaos, the Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided Be'lakor occupies the Citadel of Lead where he unleashes a nefarious plan to regain his corporeal body and end the curse long laid against him by the Chaos Gods.[9b][9c]

From the wiki

Hhm ok it seems be'lakor is currently in Albion preparing to cause trouble. I'm gonna speculate that else is sent to lustria by the surviving protectors of Albion being the druids and giants to beseech the lizardmen to help them take back the island and possibly stop be'lakor early before his plan come uphead. And he's been there for 93 years to date and his plan start to draw attention 2502 Ic so a century before it gets bad so I guess the defenders are still trying to fight back but I guess they need help.

 

[DragonParadox]

You know speaking of magic, I think Flynn has one of the three mutations that make a wizard, Sixth Sense, thankfully it is the one that's the least obvious from the outside and it poses no danger of his actually touching the Winds.

 

[Mystic Pentagram]

I was wondering, but would our Colony ever be able to become indipendent from the Empire?

Of course, this is purely a theoretical question. That is something done in the endgame, not anytime soon.

But, would it be theoreticaly possible?

I mean, the Empire would struggle with power projection all the way to Lustria. So with a big enough fleet and some allies, maybe the Elves or the local Lizardmen, it could be possible to force the Empire to give up on controlling the Colony.

 

[Sertorius]

You know speaking of magic, I think Flynn has one of the three mutations that make a wizard, Sixth Sense, thankfully it is the one that's the least obvious from the outside and it poses no danger of his actually touching the Winds.

Click to shrink...

Eve so, should a College Wizard find out about it, he is duty-bound to take him to the Colleges for training... or the Witch Hunters for burning. As long as he's in the Empire of course. Here comes the legal conundrum of jurisdiction in the colony and what laws rule there. Who is their superior? The council in Marienburg? Some Elector Count? Perhaps the Emperor directly?

 

[DragonParadox]

I was wondering, but would our Colony ever be able to become indipendent from the Empire?

Of course, this is purely a theoretical question. That is something done in the endgame, not anytime soon.

But, would it be theoreticaly possible?

I mean, the Empire would struggle with power projection all the way to Lustria. So with a big enough fleet and some allies, maybe the Elves or the local Lizardmen, it could be possible to force the Empire to give up on controlling the Colony.

Click to shrink...

I mean the Empire is hardly the British, they are not the preeminent naval power of the age. Just get the high elves to sign off on it somehow and that would do it. If we get in good enough with the Slann they might cough up something that would work as a bargaining chip even with the Asur.

Eve so, should a College Wizard find out about it, he is duty-bound to take him to the Colleges for training... or the Witch Hunters for burning. As long as he's in the Empire of course. Here comes the legal conundrum of jurisdiction in the colony and what laws rule there. Who is their superior? The council in Marienburg? Some Elector Count? Perhaps the Emperor directly?

Click to shrink...

No they are not, there is nothing to train, he cannot touch magic, Sixth Sense alone does not a wizard make. You need three things to cast:

1. The ability to see magic, he can get that with training. Check
2. The ability to feel magic going though one's soul Not There
3. The ability to shape magic Not There

You can technically make due without the second, in the sense that you can be a pianist without feeling in your fingers when a wrong key might blow you up but without the third you there is no way to be a wizard.

 

[Andres]

All humans can learn magic, but unless you have magical talent, exceptional academic ability, or a bunch of money, the Colleges won't take you on.

 

[Pillowsperky]

Propriety can go hang by the time your herald calls for the last and most spooky sort of advisors. Journeyman Mages. The manifestations of many superstitious people's worst fears. The placement of yourself, seated on the lap of your towering magical girlfriend, makes your own views on magic quite clear.

The idea of human idiots like you holding magical power does make bits of you shrivel in nervousness, however.

Spoiler: Wizards.

[Wiz] Johanna Kepler enters your office with a stylish neck-ruff and high clean hair knotted into perfect buns either side of her temples. She brings with her a dozen documents and three books carried by a nervous porter, and turns the interview into more of a mathematical lecture than a character study. Rapunzel seems enthused, and relays to you that Johanna seeks Lustria for its pristine skies, with unparalleled access to constellations unviewable from the Old World's north. Then they begin a chatter of numbers and sky-observations that make your brain ache.
Unique Trait: Observer of the Heavens - As a celestial journeyman Johanna can read premonitions of the future events and weather from the sky. Once per fortnight you may choose to reroll the Random Event rolled, based only on the name and a three word description.
Unlocks the Celestial Viewing Tower blueprint and Celestial Observatory upgrade for it.

[Wiz] Konrad Geznur emerges from the shadows of your office like a prowling panther, startling you out of your distracting -and headache soothing- smooches with Rapunzel. The unusually subtle amber journeyman relates how none but his master, Magister Simone, seem to believe in his goals. For Konrad is enthused with the belief that each clade of animal on Mallus have in them inherent inherited aspects which lead back to a natural progenitor. An Ur-Beast. A pure font of Amber magic which stamps their clade's form onto the world's magical sphere. He seems to desire nothing less than to find them, and Rapunzel at least shrugs and nods when he calls Lustria the housing of many primordial beasts. Though on the subject of Ur-beasts she remains mum.
Unique Trait: Ur-Beast Hunter - An expert in identifying every clade of animal known to man, and an expert in reading the physiology of the unknown, Konrad improves the chance of all Quest and Expedition rolls to Identify, Capture or Repel Rare and/or Exotic beasts by 30%.
Unlocks the Amber Glade blueprint and Exotic Beast Pen upgrade for it.

[Wiz] Ivahn Sekenof reminds you most of the Shallyan doves in his careful approach and in his choice of attire, green trimmed and jade-decorated as it is. He introduces himself foremost as a doctor before seeming to recall that he is a mage of the Jade college, stuttering as he retreads his words and lays out his pleading for passage to Lustria, a place that his Master, Magister Hoch, named as the locale housing the 'greatest and yet most dangerous font of jade magic in the known world'. The mention of this mystical font seems to light a grievous and somewhat spooky greed in the mage's eyes.
Rapunzel narrows her eyes a touch at it.
Unique Trait: Healing Font. A Jade mage with qualifications from the Altdorf surgeon's school, even as a journeyman, the potentially-insane Ivahn's help in healing and restoring the sick cannot be overstated. While in the settlement Ivahm reduces the chance of Plagues being spread by 20%, and Characters (Adventurers, Advisors and You) reduce the time to heal wounds by 1 week (to a minimum of 1). Unlocks the Jade Clinic blueprint and Jade Pool upgrade for it.

The Hiring Cost of all wizard advisors is 22 Mo.
They all have Learning 8 for the purposes of assisting or making rolls.
They require 4 Mo in upkeep per month, and their unique buildings will also require 1 Mo per month in upkeep.

I'm going to give you guys an hour or two to view and discuss these guys, and then I will post a big threadmark collating all the Advisors together for the official vote.

Please keep in mind that wizards, and indeed all advisors, are far more than their traits. They all have their manias and their own little quest-lines. None of them are traps, precisely, but some of their consequences will be troublesome.

 

[Fission Battery]

Konrad's got my vote. The Imperial Zoo will pay big money for exotic animals. Outside of big beasts, there's always smaller ones to sell as pets like tropical birds. It's helpful in figuring out what type of animals we're dealing with.

I also want to hear about him studying local fauna. It sounds like a fun character quest.

 

[DragonParadox]

[Wiz] Johanna Kepler enters your office with a stylish neck-ruff and high clean hair knotted into perfect buns either side of her temples. She brings with her a dozen documents and three books carried by a nervous porter, and turns the interview into more of a mathematical lecture than a character study. Rapunzel seems enthused, and relays to you that Johanna seeks Lustria for its pristine skies, with unparalleled access to constellations unviewable from the Old World's north. Then they begin a chatter of numbers and sky-observations that make your brain ache.
Unique Trait: Observer of the Heavens - As a celestial journeyman Johanna can read premonitions of the future events and weather from the sky. Once per fortnight you may choose to reroll the Random Event rolled, based only on the name and a three word description.
Unlocks the Celestial Viewing Tower blueprint and Celestial Observatory upgrade for it.

If this were anywhere besides Lustria I would vote for this. Re-rolls are amazing from a purely mechanical perspective, but we are in the land of the marching jungle and the dinos that hunt dragons. We need one of the others more

[Wiz] Konrad Geznur emerges from the shadows of your office like a prowling panther, startling you out of your distracting -and headache soothing- smooches with Rapunzel. The unusually subtle amber journeyman relates how none but his master, Magister Simone, seem to believe in his goals. For Conrad is enthused with the belief that each clade of animal on Mallus have in them inherent inherited aspects which lead back to a natural progenitor. An Ur-Beast. A pure font of Amber magic which stamps their clade's form onto the world's magical sphere. He seems to desire nothing less than to find them, and Rapunzel at least shrugs and nods when he calls Lustria the housing of many primordial beasts. Though on the subject of Ur-beasts she remains mum.
Unique Trait: Ur-Beast Hunter - An expert in identifying every clade of animal known to man, and an expert in reading the physiology of the unknown, Conrad improves the chance of all Quest and Expedition rolls to Identify, Capture or Repel Rare and/or Exotic beasts by 30%.
Unlocks the Amber Glade blueprint and Exotic Beast Pen upgrade for it.

This I think our path to safely getting some of the smaller dinos for the colony which would be very useful and would likely singergize with those goats. It is a cool concept but more of a mid game thing.

[Wiz] Ivahn Sekenof reminds you most of the Shallyan doves in his careful approach and in his choice of attire, green trimmed and jade-decorated as it is. He introduces himself foremost as a doctor before seeming to recall that he is a mage of the Jade college, stuttering as he retreads his words and lays out his pleading for passage to Lustria, a place that his Master, Magister Hoch, named as the locale housing the 'greatest and yet most dangerous font of jade magic in the known world'. The mention of this mystical font seems to light a grievous and somewhat spooky greed in the mage's eyes.
Rapunzel narrows her eyes a touch at it.
Unique Trait: Healing Font. A Jade mage with qualifications from the Altdorf surgeon's school, even as a journeyman, the potentially-insane Ivahn's help in healing and restoring the sick cannot be overstated. While in the settlement Ivahm reduces the chance of Plagues being spread by 20%, and Characters (Adventurers, Advisors and You) reduce the time to heal wounds by 1 week (to a minimum of 1). Unlocks the Jade Clinic blueprint and Jade Pool upgrade for it.

This is where we get less plague and maybe ever some projects to keep all the excess Ghyan out of our settlement eventually. I think plague is one of our largest dangers in the short term because we can't stab a plague in the face with out martial focused Governor.

 

[Sertorius]

No they are not, there is nothing to train, he cannot touch magic, Sixth Sense alone does not a wizard make. You need three things to cast:

1. The ability to see magic, he can get that with training. Check
2. The ability to feel magic going though one's soul Not There
3. The ability to shape magic Not There

You can technically make due without the second, in the sense that you can be a pianist without feeling in your fingers when a wrong key might blow you up but without the third you there is no way to be a wizard.

Click to shrink...

It's about gathering all magic-sensitive humans. Touching the Winds, casting spells or feeling anything are not required. No matter the talent, big or small, all such people have to be sent to the Colleges as a precaution. Seeing the Winds is very much enough to warrant that.

The vast majority of such people will never become Wizards, as you can guess, but they can serve the Colleges as Perpetual Apprentices and help
run the place, since there is always a lot of non-magical work to do or to serve in the field as agents when released back into the world to resume their civilian lives. Some can also be outfitted with magic-dampening jewelry to completely neutralize their gift and left at that.

 

[Watcher's Eyes]

Hhm I like konrad hopefully he's smart enough not to try to hunt a coatl or a troglodon cause both are sacred to lizardmen and Amazon's and are extremely dangerous.

Also with lustria being south america there's got to be either guinea pigs or better yet chinchillas to capture and sell to the empire or the elves cause they are cute and would sell for a killing. And maybe beautiful birds of paradise and lizards of many colors and sizes. The exotic pet trade irl is very lucrative let's tap into that goldmine here cause I don't think has done that yet in mallus.

 

[DeadmanwalkingXI]

[Wiz] Ivahn Sekenof

Click to shrink...

It is worth noting that, while not locked into one Wind because she's an elf, Rapunzel does specialize in Ghyran. She's sub-par compared to a journeyman due to being drained, but it is her area. Which has upsides and downsides when it comes to having another Ghyran focused spellcaster around (ie: if we get her issue fixed there's duplication of effort, but they could also have more in common or work together better).

For me, I'm very tempted to go with the Ranaldian Intrigue advisor plus the Celestial Wizard to create a 'we win events' combo. Which seems pretty good. The Amber wizard is also a very valid option, though.

 

[DragonParadox]

It's about gathering all magic-sensitive humans. Touching the Winds, casting spells or feeling anything are not required. No matter the talent, big or small, all such people have to be sent to the Colleges as a precaution. Seeing the Winds is very much enough to warrant that.

The vast majority of such people will never become Wizards, as you can guess, but they can serve the Colleges as Perpetual Apprentices and help
run the place, since there is always a lot of non-magical work to do or to serve in the field as agents when released back into the world to resume their civilian lives. Some can also be outfitted with magic-dampening jewelry to completely neutralize their gift and leave it at that.

Click to shrink...

We are not magically sensitive if Flynn cannot channel he's not not sensitive to magic beyond if he juggles warpstone he will get a mutation just like the next human. It's just that he might be trainable as a magic detector. Being a perpetual involves casting minor magics, or else being kept safe to in the mono-Wind environs of the College so you do not channel Dhar unconsciously. There is no reason to spend resources on someone who cannot channel.

 

[K von Carstein]

I want the seer, rerolling actions is incredible.

 

[Sertorius]

All humans can learn magic, but unless you have magical talent, exceptional academic ability, or a bunch of money, the Colleges won't take you on.

Click to shrink...

We are not magically sensitive if Flynn cannot channel he's not not sensitive to magic beyond if he juggles warpstone he will get a mutation just like the next human. It's just that he might be trainable as a magic detector. Being a perpetual involves casting minor magics, or else being kept safe to in the mono-Wind environs of the College so you do not channel Dhar unconsciously. There is no reason to spend resources on someone who cannot channel.

Click to shrink...

In any case, let's leave it at that.

I'm curious who will pick as our advisors... this is a large bunch of interesting people to choose from.

 

[Pillowsperky]

he's smart enough not to try to hunt a coatl or a troglodon

Click to shrink...

Not to spoil, but Konrad is possibly one of the best humans you can obtain to warn y'all about sacred animals (and other exotic beasts), due to his access to the Amber College's records and his quite uncommon obsession with studying them.
Many Amber journeymen, and indeed Amber Magisters, forgo paper records and ignore the records to saturate themselves all the deeper within the amber beast wind.

Konrad, in contrast, will be spending most of his upkeep on 1: Maxing out his requests for Amber Archival material, and 2: Posting Archival Materials back to Altdorf so they don't cut him off.

The trick will be getting his nose out of his studies to actually give that warning.

 

[Mystic Pentagram]

Konrad's got my vote. The Imperial Zoo will pay big money for exotic animals. Outside of big beasts, there's always smaller ones to sell as pets like tropical birds. It's helpful in figuring out what type of animals we're dealing with.

I also want to hear about him studying local fauna. It sounds like a fun character quest.

Click to shrink...

I absolutely want Konrad too. He is super useful with all the strange and exotic beasts of Lustria, and with his help we can tame those animals and use them for ourselves!

This is where we get less plague and maybe ever some projects to keep all the excess Ghyan out of our settlement eventually. I think plague is one of our largest dangers in the short term because we can't stab a plague in the face with out martial focused Governor.

Click to shrink...

I don't want the potentialy mad surgeon-wizard in our Colony. I feel like he is going to join a Nurgle Cult at the first chance he gets.

 

[Watcher's Eyes]

I absolutely want Konrad too. He is super useful with all the strange and exotic beasts of Lustria, and with his help we can tame those animals and use them for ourselves!

Click to shrink...

You know I hope he gets to have a storyline of befriending a skink chieftain and they help each other capture and tame greatest beasts of lustria. Or change that with a Amazon amber wizard so we can get a romance going with two animal lovers.

 

[Pillowsperky]

Taking the evening in after settling your choices of Colonists, You end the day as you hope to end them all going forward, freshly washed and nuzzling Rapunzel's milky hills as you and her share a quite comfy bed.
You could get a bed this comfy at the colony, surely?

The morning comes softly with a kiss, Rapunzel's lips seeking yours for a smooch before she pats your cheek until you wake with a grumble and a smouldering look, though you are restrained from further affection by her pointing toward the already-raised sun. It was time for the Advisor Interviews!

Perhaps after a good breakfast, of course.

Spoiler: Stewardship

[][Ste] Nobody.
[][Ste] Xiao Yun escorts herself in bright and early, the comely cathayan woman presenting herself in a neat marienburg style short gown with an elegant ruff, her almond eyes underscored by a red streak on her amber skin. She presents herself well, laying out a history as a lesser administrator in Cathay's central provinces before her prior lord -one 'Yuan Bo'- gave her leave to take this chance on distant shores. If she is given the chance to help, Xiao Yun assurse, you will find no aspect of her skills in administration wanting, for the training of Yuan Bo, master of stone and steel, has made Xiao an exemplary of management and of maintaining harmony with others.
Ste: 8
Unique Trait: Harmonious Chorus - When taking conjoined Advisor Actions, Xiao Yun adds bonus X% to each roll, where X is equal to the primary attribute points of each participating advisor.
Hiring Cost: 20 Mo

[][Ste] Pieter Azimov steps into your office next as a broad monolith of a man, bedecked in a long coat and and sturdy gloves, his fur lined hat hides a shock of wild short red hair. You stand to greet the man to find he is a deceptively giant individual, easily meeting 7' 3" Rapunzel eye to eye as he exchanges a slight nod with both you and the elf. Pieter's chair creaks as he sits after disrobing his coat, revealing a fine musculature with alabaster skin so pale that it resembles ice shifting like flesh. He introduces himself as the norscan-blooded son of a boyar from the far north of Kislev, trained to make the most of the worst conditions even under the insidious plotting of the dark powers. The man assures you that the warmth of Lustria will not be an issue despite his pale appearance.
Ste: 8
Unique Trait: Prepare for the Worst - Pieter reduces the population and resource (Money, Food, Building Resources) losses from Sabotage and Looting by 20%
Hiring Cost: 20 Mo

[][Ste] Porito De Lucci enters your office in a shockwave of rich, bitter-buttery perfume with a sweet undertone, though the man himself seems not at-all the type to use such delightful cologne, clad in a short-sleeved doublet that show off chemical burn scars on both arms. He introduces himself as a botanist and alchemist by trade, a maker of botanical tinctures. Though as of late he has become obsessed with the procurement and development of two particular beans, a rich yet bitter native of Lustria known only as 'cacao' and a smooth sweet sister known as 'vanill', both placed on his radar by a spicy yet intoxicatingly moreish drink named 'Xocolatl', shared with him by an Amazonian mercenary in his native port of Luccini.
Ste: 8
Unique Trait: Botanical Specialist - Porito passively increases the harvests of food by 10% (by a minimum of 1) and of Exotic Plants by 20%
Hiring Cost: 20 Mo

Spoiler: Martial

[][Mar] Nobody.
[][Mar] Gus 'Rockchewer' Stonegut emerges into your office like an oncoming wall of body heat with a suprisingly mild scent, a towering ogre whose steel plated boots make the floor shake with every ponderous and careful step. Though the strangley masked body odour is overshadowed by her gender. You weren't actually sure of female ogres existing, let alone imperial ones with a feathered militia cap and a gut-plate made from what looks like steel banded stone. Her name suits her incredibly strong jawline, and her voice is like an avalanche of gravel wrapped in satin. Gus speaks well in said tone, laying out with slow but clear and intelligent words that she has recently retired from life in the hochland military as an officer's bodyguard, and is looking to put her absorbed command skills to use. She is a powerful force, though brash.
Mar: 6
Unique Trait: An Ogress, milord - Requires an additional 1 Mo as upkeep, Assassination attempts against Gus and other Advisors sleeping in the same building take a 20% Penalty. Gus adds a 20% success chance to 'Personal Challenge' actions that she takes, and gives a 10% discount to hiring ogre Mercenaries. However Gus reduces prestige from military victories by 5%,
Hiring Cost: 20 Mo

[][Mar] Klaus Gorograv is a smaller presence than the ogre, certainly, but perhaps no less eye catching due to the sheer volume of his moustache and beard, almost dwarf-like in their grand enormity and level of grooming. He speaks with charisma with about the importance of layered defence, eyes sparkling as he lays out the challenges of defensive works in the environs of lustria and how he intends to meet them. Klaus's degrees are impressive, with top marks from the imperial military academy and a degree from the nuln engineering college. Why he intends to spend his talent in the lustrian hellscape is beyond knowing, though he does confess to earning an ostland noble family's ire due to a duel -fought over an insult to Klaus's beard- gone near deadly.
Mar: 8
Unique Trait: Defense as Mathematics - Klaus reduces the time to research defensive military blueprints by 1 week (to a minimum of 1), and walls grant an additional 5% to defense rolls.
Hiring Cost: 20 Mo

[][Mar] Diego Estevez enters your office like an estalian clone of yourself, with a swaggering stance and a tossed rose toward Rapunzel -who lets it bounce softly off her shoulder without even a look away from her book- before he bows low to you with a sweep of his hat and a spilling of shoulder-length braided blonde hair. He is Diego Estevez, he proclaims to the air, and he will be your Advisor in the art of enlightened defense.
For all his bluster Diego does present some stunning credentials, being an alumni of Magritta's finest tactical and stategic college, a devoted servant of Myrmidia with a commendation from her Righteous spears, and an apparently fine duellist of the sword-and-dagger school. He is also, despite his gift to Rapunzel, apparently more beloved of men than any poet could put into words.
Mar 8
Unique trait: Defense is an Adventure! - Adventurers used in the settlement's defense give an additional 2% to defense and attack rolls. Martial rolls for an Expedition that Diego helped to plan treat their attribute as one point higher.
Hiring Cost: 20 Mo

You take a brief rest between the last round of interviews and the next, slumping into Rapunzel who snickers and then giggles as you nuzzle her neck and then kiss down to the crest of her collarbone, her soft hand wapping your snoot to stop you smooching any lower.
You savour a hug before beginning the next batch of oddities.

Spoiler: Diplomacy

[][Dip] Nobody.
[][Dip] Sasyana Sashana slips into your office as a flower in a painted vase, her tone and shade telling you she is from the indish group you have accepted as colonists, her bright smile and ambitious eyes telling that she wishes to come up in the world as more than, she admits freely, the third wife of Bundi the Exile. Sasyana lays out her skills with charm, despite a lack of formal qualifications, and includes in the place of degrees a thick packet of letters, all signed and sent by notable envoys and merchants that her indish group have come across in their travels. As the third wife it was always Sasyana's task to entertain the guests of Bundi and see to their needs, and in doing so build her own web of allies and connections.
Dip: 6
Unique Trait: A letter now and then - Sasyana will get a 5% bonus to all Diplomacy rolls interacting with Factions above a Friendly level of relationship -Neutral<Connected<Friendly<Close-knit<Allied<Inner Circle-. The colony's faction relationships will also decay 20% slower.
Hiring Cost: 16 Mo

[][Dip] Imilar Entelfrin is an unusual elf, and you've met enough elves to know, if for nothing else than for the length of her hair. Shaved down to the skin save for a single thin mohawk which is seperated into stripes of colour, a spectrum of hot tones from bright robin-breast red to sunflower yellow. She seems shocked when you correctly name her 'Asrai' instead of 'Asur', and seems content to smile and chirp a little odd eltharin at Rapunzel -which returns a confused look from your lover. Imilar calls herself a 'Speaker under the Boughs' by profession, entreated with the purpose to seek communion with forests and peoples far from her home glades. She is eager, if largely trained by and with the wood elves.
Dip: 6
Unique Trait: Speak for the Trees - Imilar recieves a +10% bonus to rolls during actions interacting with elven factions, and with factions Close-Knit or better with the Spirits of the Forests. She however will take a -15% malus on rolls interacting with dwarven factions. Imilar also reduces the time taken by Diplomatic actions, though only those interacting with Factions Allied with the Spirits of the Forests, by 1 week (to a minimum of 1)
Hiring Cost: 17 Mo

[][Dip] Mater 'Berry' Muffin is a halfling who lives up to her name, about as sweet and as rounded as her namesake dessert. She enters your office with a whole tray of cookies and a jug of fresh-tapped cider, just to be friendly in the mootish tradition. Rapunzel nibbles on one between sips of cider as Mater lays out her qualifications with a smile. She ran a mootish enclave out in Stirland for 20 years through thin and fat, holding improvised court on disputes between rival villages, mediating famine relief. Her highest peak came from arguing down a marauding band of Ogres who hadn't been paid by the local graf, Mater talked them into only eating the Graf's sheep and none of the villagers who tended them, lubricating her diplomacy with a nice big vat of stew.
Of course then the Graf stiffed Mater on payment too, and so she sold her bakery and cashed in favours to make her way toward a new life.
Dip 5
Unique Trait: Mater's Knack - Mater has a +5% success bonus on diplomacy actions with all factions she has met personally -via envoy or visit-, and she may take a special action Food Parcel to spend 1 food and increase that bonus to 20% for 1 month from time of arrival. When taking an action to Negotiate with Mercenaries, Mater can reduce the cost of their contracts by 10% further than normal.
Hiring Cost: 14 Mo

Spoiler: Intrigue

[][Int] Nobody.
[][Int] Gertrude von Cumberbatch slips into your office with a furry friend around her shoulders, not dead or stuffed but fully alive and murring as she runs a hand over its fuzzy head. 'Gerard' she introduces him, a trained and 'adorable' Wasteland Swamp-Rat of which she has four, as 'less would be cruel'. Gertrude informs you that she has over a dozen other furry, feathery and scaley little friends within her mini-menagerie, all of them travel sized and with intelligence plus senses to help in her intriguing endeavours. She has, apparently, cultivated her collection for the last few weeks to ensure they are all suitable for the lustrian climate, and to ensure that her previous friends found fair homes amongst the Empire's vast collection of pet loving people.
Her Parrot swears like a sartosan sailor when you're introduced to him, and the feathery bastard somehow knew to do it in Bretonnian.
Intr: 6
Unique Trait: Odd helpers - Gertrude's collection of pets grant a 15% bonus success chance when taking the 'Detect Corruption/Plague', 'Track Agents/Infiltrators' and 'Investigate Cult' actions.)
Hiring Cost: 16 Mo

[][Int]'Two Nails' Sylvester enters your room like a true child of shady environments, checking the corners before stepping fully past the door and even looking up to the rafters with a shift of his head, as if trying to catch the shadows there off-guard. He makes the sign of Ranald before sitting, nervously -or piously- tumbling a knucklebone dice over his fingers as he lays out his pitch. He was a former criminal back in Altdorf, a danged good one, and not one of the 'bastards'. Then the steelers caught him, he served his time, and in that time he found Ranald. The god of luck turned Syl's life around in a big way, finding him a sympathetic judge and helping him evade old gang-friends trying to drag him back into the muck. And every dice Syl rolled led him further toward the coast, closer to Marienburg. He arrived in the city on the day your carriage arrived to the docks, and isn't that just fate calling?
Intr: 7
Unique Trait: Ranald's Blessing - Sylvester's repentant nature and devotion to Ranald grant him a 10% bonus to Intrigue rolls whenever he is opposed, and a further 10% bonus during Intrigue rolls caused by Random Events.
Hiring Cost 18 Mo

[][Int] Else von Stein slips into your office like a wraith in her large and ill-fitting cloak, her large and oddly luminous eyes twitchy as she takes her seat and seems hesitant to talk for a moment, introducing herself briefly by another name before shifting to her far more familiar riekspiel one. Her accent is odd, thick in odd places and soft yet twisty on the palate. She speaks with conviction as to her qualities as a woman to spot threats, to see the 'weft and weave' of coming treachery. Her skin has odd lines of pale blue in places, like faded tattoos, in particular around her eyes in a barely-gone knot. You catch her stumbling on the names of gods a few times, her lips making unfamiliar shapes before she pauses to recall the Empire's pantheon. Rapunzel tugs your arm as Else sweats in her chair, your lover murmuring that she recognises the odd foreign words spoken by the suspicious woman as Albish of all tongues.
Albion has attractively muscled and painted women on it? -Your previous encounters with tales of Albish mercenaries gave impressions of druids built like muddy twigs- You wonder if this one is simply travelling to meet her sisters, the Amazons.
Intr: 6
Unique Trait: Visionary Guidance - Else's visions -which she insists are merely 'hunches'- grant her flashes of foresight, providing a +10% bonus to Intrigue rolls when countering the efforts of Cults and enemy agents (heroes). Additionally, her uncanny awareness grants a passive -10% penalty to enemy assassination and sabotage attempts.
Hiring Cost: 16 Mo

Propriety can go hang by the time your herald calls for the last and most spooky sort of advisors. Journeyman Mages. The manifestations of many superstitious people's worst fears. The placement of yourself, seated on the lap of your towering magical girlfriend, makes your own views on magic quite clear.

The idea of human idiots like you holding magical power does make bits of you shrivel in nervousness, however.

Spoiler: Wizards.

[][Wiz] Nobody.
[][Wiz] Johanna Kepler enters your office with a stylish neck-ruff and high clean hair knotted into perfect buns either side of her temples. She brings with her a dozen documents and three books carried by a nervous porter, and turns the interview into more of a mathematical lecture than a character study. Rapunzel seems enthused, and relays to you that Johanna seeks Lustria for its pristine skies, with unparalleled access to constellations unviewable from the Old World's north. Then they begin a chatter of numbers and sky-observations that make your brain ache.
Unique Trait: Observer of the Heavens - As a celestial journeyman Johanna can read premonitions of the future events and weather from the sky. Once per fortnight you may choose to reroll the Random Event rolled, based only on the name and a three word description.
Unlocks the Celestial Viewing Tower blueprint and Celestial Observatory upgrade for it.

[Wiz] Konrad Geznur emerges from the shadows of your office like a prowling panther, startling you out of your distracting -and headache soothing- smooches with Rapunzel. The unusually subtle amber journeyman relates how none but his master, Magister Simone, seem to believe in his goals. For Konrad is enthused with the belief that each clade of animal on Mallus have in them inherent inherited aspects which lead back to a natural progenitor. An Ur-Beast. A pure font of Amber magic which stamps their clade's form onto the world's magical sphere. He seems to desire nothing less than to find them, and Rapunzel at least shrugs and nods when he calls Lustria the housing of many primordial beasts. Though on the subject of Ur-beasts she remains mum.
Unique Trait: Ur-Beast Hunter - An expert in identifying every clade of animal known to man, and an expert in reading the physiology of the unknown, Konrad improves the chance of all Quest and Expedition rolls to Identify, Capture or Repel Rare and/or Exotic beasts by 30%.
Unlocks the Amber Glade blueprint and Exotic Beast Pen upgrade for it.

[Wiz] Ivahn Sekenof reminds you most of the Shallyan doves in his careful approach and in his choice of attire, green trimmed and jade-decorated as it is. He introduces himself foremost as a doctor before seeming to recall that he is a mage of the Jade college, stuttering as he retreads his words and lays out his pleading for passage to Lustria, a place that his Master, Magister Hoch, named as the locale housing the 'greatest and yet most dangerous font of jade magic in the known world'. The mention of this mystical font seems to light a grievous and somewhat spooky greed in the mage's eyes.
Rapunzel narrows her eyes a touch at it.
Unique Trait: Healing Font. A Jade mage with qualifications from the Altdorf surgeon's school, even as a journeyman, the potentially-insane Ivahn's help in healing and restoring the sick cannot be overstated. While in the settlement Ivahm reduces the chance of Plagues being spread by 20%, and Characters (Adventurers, Advisors and You) reduce the time to heal wounds by 1 week (to a minimum of 1). Unlocks the Jade Clinic blueprint and Jade Pool upgrade for it.

The Hiring Cost of all wizard advisors is 22 Mo.
They all have Learning 8 for the purposes of assisting or making rolls.
They require 4 Mo in upkeep per month, and their unique buildings will also require 1 Mo per month in upkeep.

Please keep in mind that wizards, and indeed all advisors, are far more than their traits. They all have their manias and their own little quest-lines. None of them are traps, precisely, but some of their consequences will be troublesome.

You have a Budget of 350 Mo.
The Upkeep of all Advisors is 1 Mo per Month for every Attribute Point over Four. This upkeep may increase as you construct buildings to support their efforts and as they advance through their questlines.
1 hour moratorium after this is posted to Construct Plans and discuss. Then there will be a 24 hour voting period.

 

[Pillowsperky]

I've come to appreciate how much, in looking back on this, how very clearly Rapunzel is an emotional and mental safety anchor for Flynn, in this trying time of being a responsible and heavily obligated human being.

Thinking is hard, and even harder for an adventurous and guileless man whose sole wish previously was just to travel the world, posing magnificently for portraits while working on his swordplay.

 

[Mystic Pentagram]

Okay, this is my plan.

My idea is that with this Advisors, we can exploit the Resources avaiable in Lustria in the best of ways. Those Resources begin mainly exotic plants and animals. At the same time, we can use Gertrude to keep Plagues and Corruption at bay, and Imilar to grow closer with both the Elves and the native civilizations of Lustria.

[ ] Plan Lustrian Resources
[][Ste] Porito De Lucci enters your office in a shockwave of rich, bitter-buttery perfume with a sweet undertone, though the man himself seems not at-all the type to use such delightful cologne, clad in a short-sleeved doublet that show off chemical burn scars on both arms. He introduces himself as a botanist and alchemist by trade, a maker of botanical tinctures. Though as of late he has become obsessed with the procurement and development of two particular beans, a rich yet bitter native of Lustria known only as 'cacao' and a smooth sweet sister known as 'vanill', both placed on his radar by a spicy yet intoxicatingly moreish drink named 'Xocolatl', shared with him by an Amazonian mercenary in his native port of Luccini.
Ste: 8
Unique Trait: Botanical Specialist - Porito passively increases the harvests of food by 10% (by a minimum of 1) and of Exotic Plants by 20%
Hiring Cost: 20 Mo
[][Mar] Gus 'Rockchewer' Stonegut emerges into your office like an oncoming wall of body heat with a suprisingly mild scent, a towering ogre whose steel plated boots make the floor shake with every ponderous and careful step. Though the strangley masked body odour is overshadowed by her gender. You weren't actually sure of female ogres existing, let alone imperial ones with a feathered militia cap and a gut-plate made from what looks like steel banded stone. Her name suits her incredibly strong jawline, and her voice is like an avalanche of gravel wrapped in satin. Gus speaks well in said tone, laying out with slow but clear and intelligent words that she has recently retired from life in the hochland military as an officer's bodyguard, and is looking to put her absorbed command skills to use. She is a powerful force, though brash.
Mar: 6
Unique Trait: An Ogress, milord - Requires an additional 1 Mo as upkeep, Assassination attempts against Gus and other Advisors sleeping in the same building take a 20% Penalty. Gus adds a 20% success chance to 'Personal Challenge' actions that she takes, and gives a 10% discount to hiring ogre Mercenaries. However Gus reduces prestige from military victories by 5%,
Hiring Cost: 20 Mo
[][Dip] Imilar Entelfrin is an unusual elf, and you've met enough elves to know, if for nothing else than for the length of her hair. Shaved down to the skin save for a single thin mohawk which is seperated into stripes of colour, a spectrum of hot tones from bright robin-breast red to sunflower yellow. She seems shocked when you correctly name her 'Asrai' instead of 'Asur', and seems content to smile and chirp a little odd eltharin at Rapunzel -which returns a confused look from your lover. Imilar calls herself a 'Speaker under the Boughs' by profession, entreated with the purpose to seek communion with forests and peoples far from her home glades. She is eager, if largely trained by and with the wood elves.
Dip: 6
Unique Trait: Speak for the Trees - Imilar recieves a +10% bonus to rolls during actions interacting with elven factions, and with factions Close-Knit or better with the Spirits of the Forests. She however will take a -15% malus on rolls interacting with dwarven factions. Imilar also reduces the time taken by Diplomatic actions, though only those interacting with Factions Allied with the Spirits of the Forests, by 1 week (to a minimum of 1)
Hiring Cost: 17 Mo
[][Int] Gertrude von Cumberbatch slips into your office with a furry friend around her shoulders, not dead or stuffed but fully alive and murring as she runs a hand over its fuzzy head. 'Gerard' she introduces him, a trained and 'adorable' Wasteland Swamp-Rat of which she has four, as 'less would be cruel'. Gertrude informs you that she has over a dozen other furry, feathery and scaley little friends within her mini-menagerie, all of them travel sized and with intelligence plus senses to help in her intriguing endeavours. She has, apparently, cultivated her collection for the last few weeks to ensure they are all suitable for the lustrian climate, and to ensure that her previous friends found fair homes amongst the Empire's vast collection of pet loving people.
Her Parrot swears like a sartosan sailor when you're introduced to him, and the feathery bastard somehow knew to do it in Bretonnian.
Intr: 6
Unique Trait: Odd helpers - Gertrude's collection of pets grant a 15% bonus success chance when taking the 'Detect Corruption/Plague', 'Track Agents/Infiltrators' and 'Investigate Cult' actions.)
Hiring Cost: 16 Mo
[Wiz] Konrad Geznur emerges from the shadows of your office like a prowling panther, startling you out of your distracting -and headache soothing- smooches with Rapunzel. The unusually subtle amber journeyman relates how none but his master, Magister Simone, seem to believe in his goals. For Konrad is enthused with the belief that each clade of animal on Mallus have in them inherent inherited aspects which lead back to a natural progenitor. An Ur-Beast. A pure font of Amber magic which stamps their clade's form onto the world's magical sphere. He seems to desire nothing less than to find them, and Rapunzel at least shrugs and nods when he calls Lustria the housing of many primordial beasts. Though on the subject of Ur-beasts she remains mum.
Unique Trait: Ur-Beast Hunter - An expert in identifying every clade of animal known to man, and an expert in reading the physiology of the unknown, Konrad improves the chance of all Quest and Expedition rolls to Identify, Capture or Repel Rare and/or Exotic beasts by 30%.
Unlocks the Amber Glade blueprint and Exotic Beast Pen upgrade for it.