Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Turn 10 - 2474.5
Winning vote:

[*] [Public] Plan Watch Expansion
-[*] The Watch takeover and the underground Watch had gone well enough, and theres a surprisingly untapped market for waste of all sorts. If we could get that organized, it could probably make even more money.
-[*] You have the southern regiments funneling their retired soldiers into the Watch and the Worden, Vigaun, Potting, and Nussbach local law enforcements had happily folded into your efforts. Considering the lack of any organized efforts there, this has been long in coming.
-[*] However, the market for competent and reliable administrators had been largely wiped out over recent years, unless some local schools are set up and given a few years to produce the needed clerks you'd probably need to hire from aboard, or to poach from existing organizations for the manpower to manage the Watch.
-[*] Though half the council already knows firsthand, the Haunted Hills are just regular Sylvanian and 'wild' undead. No sign of any necromancers or other organized efforts going on, thankfully, they can be handled not unlike wild beasts.

[*] [Private] Plan Minor Matters
-[*] To nobody's surprise you already have agents from the local merchants and nobles looking to penetrate into the Watch.
-[*] The Sewer Jacks report that dwarf trainers are unmatched for teaching people how to fight in tunnels, if we want them to reach professional capacity, a couple of dwarf trainers would be extremely useful. Still, dwarfs by reputation don't come cheap, so you'd be working on their finances before you start looking, but if he has or can make a few dwarf contacts at the Electors' Meet, that might be nice.
-[*] You've finally got the gear for your lab after literal years of trying. You should be able to more safely investigate the box, the juice and the swords soon. One at a time of course.
-[*] You've also been brushing up on your undead lore in preparation for the push. If he has any recommended readings you'd gladly prioritize them

[*] [Orders] Plan Watch The Dead Shit
-[*] The Purge of Haunted Hills will begin in a year. Perhaps there's a way you can contribute to the preparations.
-[*] Also for no particular reason, how about I see about building a unit in the army dedicated to catching terrible necromantic gribblies? In a way that conforms to Van Hal's criticisms.
-[*] The Wurtbadian Watch is now your attack dog - let it's reach spread across Stirland.
-[*] Write in: You could look into financing for your intelligence operations. It'd probably be worth a pretty penny to sell some of the less sensitive information to the various nobles and traders out there. You'd probably need to collaborate with Anton and Wilhelmina to be pointed to the best buyers however.
-[*] Write in: You could look into the financial possibilities of the gong farmers. If Wurtbad's situation is representative, simply having someone scooping up the crap stinking up the air and selling it to the farmers and tanners should make everyone happier and Stirland richer. Not glamourous and dirty work, but its money literally left to rot.

---

"As most of you are aware," Van Hal begins, "a purge of the Haunted Hills will begin in one year's time. So for the next year, most of our focus will be on martial matters." There's a round of nods at that; nobody benefits from Sylvania spilling into Stirland, so nobody can really disagree. "With that in mind, Schultz: how goes our Haunted Highway?"

"Apace, very much apace," he says with a smile. "With the 2nd deployed in force, the dead are no longer interfering with construction, but the threat of them is a fantastic motivator. I estimate another six months until it reaches where construction was abandoned on the Langwald end."

"Good. Keep at it. Gustav, how are the troops?"

"Casualties are low and morale is high," he says. You check your mental notes; according to the casualty figures your Network has access to he's underplaying casualties somewhat, but then, most of them were walking wounded and should be back to fitness by year's end. "The pistoliers are a fantastic fast response force, reinforcing the rank and file where needed. Which is often - I'd very much like to discuss an upgrade in armament."

"To rifles?" Van Hal asks, and gives a mirthless smile when Gustav nods. "After the purge, we'll look into the possibility. I'd rather have the troops stick with their tried and tested - only a year to acquire and train with new weapons could too easily end in disaster. For now, when the troops aren't on rotation protecting the Highway, I want them drilling."

"Yes, your Grace," Gustav acknowledges.

Van Hal turns to Wilhelmina. "How's the supply?"

"It's more or less as you said - supply was entirely ad hoc purchases from the open market. It was doing the job, but prices were already rising and it was completely vulnerable to market fluctuations, either natural or induced. I've set up a system of supply contracts at a set price to ensure that supply will continue uninterrupted no matter what happens to the market." Skimming right past that the one she signed those contracts with was herself, you note. The cost of the contracts was carefully calibrated, too; enough above the market price that the EIC would make a neat profit from buying in Southern Stirland or the Moot and selling to Fort Redemption, but not so much so that any one other trade group could offer a substantially better deal.

"Good. Set up something similar for the 4th up in Steinbachthal - keep it flexible, they'll be part of the Purge and I'm planning on rebasing them at some point in the future. Speaking of, Schultz, can the Fort hold the 4th?"

"With tents and hot-bunking, yes," he says after a moment's thought. "I'll have to add new stories to some of the existing buildings for anything more permanent, though."

"Good enough." He shuffles papers for a moment. "Oh yes, I've a letter here from Anton - he's getting on well with the Talabeclanders. While they're not willing to commit to full-scale military support, a company of each of their Knightly Orders is going to join in the Purge - I think that adds up to four hundred knights, though I can never keep track of them all. Gustav?"

"The Order of the Black Rose," he responds promptly. "The Knights Panther, the Knights of Sigmar's Blood, and the Order of the Blazing Sun."

"Thank you. They'll be a welcome addition to our ranks - when you add the Black Guard, that's fourteen companies of Knights."

"More heavy cavalry than light," Gustav notes disapprovingly.

"Stirland had no light cavalry at all until very recently; we go to war with the army we have, not the army we want. Anton's next stop is Ostermark; even if he can't convince them to join in, he's been authorized to hire any mercenary bands he can find, and Ostermark usually has a few skulking around." Wilhelmina winces, but doesn't voice her disapproval; you know for sure the treasury can afford it, but money spent on mercenaries is money not spent on the enrichment of Stirland, you suppose. "Mathilde, your report?"

"The Watch takeover has gone well enough," you say, glancing down at your notes, "as has the integration of the Sewer Jacks, the Rat Catchers and the Gong Farmers. There's a surprisingly untapped market for human waste - if I can get that organized, it could be very profitable for Stirland. The 2nd and 3rd are funnelling retired soldiers into the Watch, and I've expanded it to cover all the population centers in the County of Worden; considering how unorganized efforts were there, not before time, too.

"That said, my efforts at expanding the Watch has uncovered a troubling bottleneck: there's a dearth of competent and reliable administrators in Wurtbad, since the trade leagues have been hiring them up. Short term, we'll need to hire from abroad or poach hired ones at a premium for the Watch and for all other organizations; long term, it may be worthwhile to set up a clerk school in Wurtbad."

"Stirland can always use more people," Van Hal notes. "Altdorf is bursting at the seams with paper-pushers. Nuln, too. I'd rather import them than spend time and money making more. Anything else?"

"Though most of us know this already, I'll state it just so we're all on the same page: our foray into the Haunted Hills has given us good reason to believe that there's no Necromancy or any organized efforts behind the uptick in troubles in the Hills - it's just 'wild' undead causing these problems."

"And thank Sigmar for that," Van Hal says, with a murmur of agreement from around the table. "Very well, continue your work on the Watch. I want it to cover the rest of the population centres around Wurtbad, and if possible the Barony of Purgg as well - nastiness has crawled out of the Stirhugel in the past. Kasmir, what news?"

"The Chaplaincies for the 2nd and 3rd are filled. Many of them are 'learning as they go', so to speak - faithful laypeople ordained specifically for the Chaplaincy, but there's at least one experienced member of the clergy for each of the Gods watching over them."

"Good. Do the same for the 4th - reach out to the Black Guard while you're up there, they may be willing to provide the Morrite chaplains." He shuffles through the papers. "That would appear to be everything. To those of you heading back to civilization, safe travels."

---

You find Van Hal atop the keep, sitting on a stool and looking out at the Fort - and you feel a warm happiness when you notice that a second one is next to him, awaiting your arrival. He'd turned his head to look back at you as you clambered up the ladder, and he gives you a smile as you approach. "Not our usual setting," he comments, passing you his flask, and you sip it gratefully.

"Hell of a view, though," you say, and it is. The sun is starting to set, setting the clouds ablaze with reds and oranges. Below you, the Fort is, as always, teeming with life, as people walk this way and that in the thousands of daily tasks that keep an army operating, and at the opposite end of the Fort, one of countless carts of food and goods is coming through the gate. Besides the view, this time of day is always exhilerating for you, as Ulgu surges forth and claims the world for a time, before fading with the light.

"Mmm," he says. "Twenty-one thousand, two hundred men under arms. Plus Sigmar only knows how many administrators and camp followers. And that's only half of my army." He grimaces. "My army. It still sounds impossible."

"Your province, too. Your people," you say teasingly, and in response he reaches over and takes his flask back.

"Our province," he corrects. You wildly misinterpret what he could mean for a moment. "Seven people, responsible for all of Stirland."

Right. That's what he meant. "Better than bearing it alone," you comment vaguely, and he nods.

"So, what other fruit have your efforts borne of late?"

You take a moment to collect your thoughts. "There were a number of efforts to insert agents into the Watch; all from local merchants and nobles."

"They're probably feeling a little uneasy with how thoroughly you destroyed the Stirlandian League. Well, good. Teach them a little humility."

"The Sewer Jacks say that if we're serious about taking control of the undercities, we should look into dwarf trainers - they're unmatched for tunnel fighting. Though I recognize it won't be cheap-"

"Nothing worthwhile ever is," he interrupts. "Let me guess, the Elector's Meet?" You nod, and he thinks for a moment. "Unlikely. They'll all be heading off into the Badlands with their King Ironhammer." He snorts. "I think it's getting a bit ahead of yourself to declare yourself King before you even seize the Kingdom, but I'm not going to be the one to say that. Touchy lot, dwarves. That said, unless something else comes up Anton's next stop after Ostermark is going to be Zhufbar - letting them know that we're going to be pushing into the Haunted Hills, so if they've got scores to settle with the greenskins in the Ghoul Woods they can do so without the rest of Sylvania interrupting. Hopefully that'll give us a good starting point to talk about cross-training."

"Greenskins? I assumed... well, the Ghoul Woods, so-"

"Oh, it's got those too."

"Eugh. As if Sylvania wasn't obnoxious enough. Anyway, next point: finally got the equipment for enchantment studies. I can get started on looking into those swords and the box. And I've been brushing up on my undead lore, too - if you've got any recommendations...?"

He closes his eyes in thought. "The... second bookshelf on the left as you enter my study, top three shelves. There's all the standard Witch Hunter references: for the Undead, try the Malleus Immortuous, the Codex of the Insufficiently Dead, the Extremely Redacted Liber Mortis (Approved Edition). And parts of the Book of the Silver Hammer, and there's some useful bits in the Epistolary of Kurt III." He fishes a heavy iron key out of his pocket and hands it to you.

You had a copy of the Codex of the Insufficiently Dead, but the College didn't even mention the others. "Thanks, that should be a big help."

"Not at all. You've been at my side against the undead twice now, can't have you improperly armed."

You smile, and he returns it, and the two of you sit in silence together, watching the sunset and the bustling of Fort Redemption.

---

PLAN FOR THIS TURN

ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIONS - pick ONE from EACH of the categories 'Information Network' and 'Stirland Watch':

Information Network - pick ONE (no action expenditure required):
[ ] Consolidation: You currently have a patchwork of useful contacts. Backfill so that you can rightfully claim to cover entire towns.
[ ] Expand your information network into another province (choose one)
[ ] Expand your information network into another county or barony (choose one)
[ ] Expand your information network into the military (choose a Division)
[ ] Openly expand your information network into the military in the form of an Intelligence Attaché (choose a Division)
[ ] Off the Leash: Let Julia handle the network without your micromanagement from now on.

Information Network finances - expansion is hobbled by it's dependence on your discretionary income, and so is your budget. Perhaps you can get past that. Can be chosen INSTEAD of a selection from the above.
[ ] Information Broker: Start selling tidbits of information, just enough for your information network to start paying for itself.
[ ] Fixer: Work with the Wurtbad Thieves Guild, supplying them information in exchange for a portion of profits.
[ ] Special Branch: Pull some financial trickery to get the information network classified as part of the Watch, so that their costs are covered by the Stirlandian treasury.
[ ] Trade Delegation: Convince Wilhelmina and Markus to partner your network with the EIC based on the value of market information.

Stirland Watch - pick ONE (no action expenditure required):
[ ] Expand the ranks of the Watch, so that they're able to start covering even the poorer parts of their covered area.
[ ] Expand the ranks of the Gong Farmers, both increasing coverage of Wurtbad and expanding it to the other population centers covered by the Watch.
[ ] Improve the training of the Watch, hiring trainers and dedicating paid time each week to sharpening skills.
[ ] Integrate the Roadwarden network of covered areas into the Watch.
[ ] Hire administrators and clerks from Altdorf and Nuln.
[ ] Headhunt administrators from other organizations in Stirland.
[ ] Seek out a new leader for the Watch.


PERSONAL ACTIONS - CHOOSE BETWEEN FIVE AND SEVEN. ANY CHOSEN BEYOND THE FIRST FIVE WILL COME WITH RISKS - PLEASE SPECIFY THE 'ADDITIONAL' TASKS.:

As Per Orders: Perform your current assignment.
[ ] Investigate the possibility of adding a River Warden branch of the Watch.
[ ] Expand the Watch into the rest of the County of Wurtbad.
[ ] Expand the Watch into the Barony of Purgg.
[ ] Expand the Watch into the Barony of Munzhausen.
[ ] Formalize and organize the payments people make for the Gong Farmers to perform their service, as well as having the Watch start enforcing existing laws against dumping human waste in the street or the Stir.
[ ] Currently, solid waste is sent by cart and wagon out to the fields for a pittance. It could instead be used to create market gardens along the banks of the Stir (hopefully downwind) and increase revenue and provide jobs for the desperate by growing a variety of cash crops.
[ ] Tanneries have a seemingly limitless demand for urine, which explains a lot about the smell. A bit of fragrant research would allow you to identify how much demand there is and how much of a profit you can wring from this.
[ ] In Wissenland, there are a number of techniques in use to derive saltpeter from urine. It would take a great deal more effort than selling to tanneries, but saltpeter could be exported to Nuln for fantastic profit, or used to start gunpowder production in Stirland.
[ ] Use a Personal Action to perform another Organizational Action; can be taken once per organization.

Miscellany:
[ ] Financial Jargon: Everything with the EIC flew right over your head last time. Try again. Succeeding here will mean that you can take a more active hand in the company, adding it to the organizational actions; failing or not attempting means Mathilde will remain a silent partner.
[ ] Hang Out A Shingle: Spymasters don't advertise, but wizards sometimes do. Make an official announcement that there's a wizard in residence, and see who comes out of the woodwork.
[ ] Formal Proposal: Your idea for an undead research team was received poorly, but Van Hal is still open to the idea in theory. Write in details: Name, who it is technically a part of (Watch, Witch Hunters, Military, College, none), and whether it reports directly to you (becomes a new Organization you command) or, if not, who it would report to.

Self-Improvement: Things have been going well so far, but the skills of a Journeyman Grey Mage can only go so far.
[ ] Practice, Practice, Practice: Having been thrown into the deep end of imperial politics, it would probably be a good idea to brush up on your skills and internalize the lessons you've learned (choose which trait; can be taken multiple times; will be more effective if you've used the trait a lot lately).
[ ] Tutoring: One of your fellow councillors may be willing to teach you in their chosen field (choose who).
[ ] Pretty Good Swords: You've struck up a friendship with the Champion of the Greatswords and have discovered a talent for wielding them. Continue to cultivate this.
[ ] Combat Training: You're virtually surrounded by armed warriors of various sorts. See if you can convince one to teach you (choose who).
[ ] Combat Training, In The Free Market: You haven't made many heavily armed friends yet, but gold is good for that. Go out and buy some training. (-personal gold)
[ ] Enchantment: You're naturally talented at enchantment; so far, this just amounts to being able to make your desk meow for about an hour. See if you can improve on that, or at least figure out a way to make that useful.

Home Comforts: Your Palace-Shrine is bursting with potential. And also mud.
[ ] Diggy Diggy Hole, Remixed: You're getting sick of having workmen tramping in and out of your abode. Recruit an entire team and personally oversee them to clear out all of the reachable portions of the Palace-Shrine and be done with it. (-personal gold)
[ ] Enchantment: You've finally got the equipment, now you've just got to unpack it all and set up your laboratory. (NEW)
[ ] Filled with Potential: You've got a room cleared out and ready to be put to use. Decide what you're going to put there and get started on equipping it. (write in the purpose of the room)

Research:
[ ] Undead Research: This is Stirland. Time to bone up on your knowledge of the Undead, this time with the addition of Van Hal's personal library. (NEW-ish)
[ ] Snooping: Van Hal gave you a key to his Study. He didn't specifically say not to poke around and see what you could find. (NEW)
[ ] Shyish-kebabs: The Shyish swords are hideously dangerous as weapons, but fascinating as a subject of study. Try to reverse-engineer the lost enchantments woven into them.
[ ] Bound Spells: Though the corrosive Dhar made them high-maintenance, the design of the bound spells in the castle's infiltrators has fascinating possibilities. Try to adapt it for use with Ulgu.
[ ] Qhaysh Juice: Whatever it is, it's dripping out of the box at a steady rate. You've got two gallons of the stuff and it's still coming out. It's got to be good for something.
[ ] As a Journeywoman, the path to Magister is marked by mastering more than the two shadow spells you already know. Send to the Grey Order for the basics and work on figuring out one of the others.

Influence:
[ ] Thieves Guild: It's currently little more than a church group, albeit of a very unconventional god. If it could be expanded under your aegis, it could be a powerful tool.
[ ] Biderhof: This village based on woodcutting and agriculture, has adopted you as one of it's own. Maybe you should adopt it as your own, in a literal sense.
[ ] Non-Thief Guilds: Wurtbad, like all major cities, is home to a number of guilds. Reach out to them and enforce your will.

Relations:
[ ] Getting To Know You: Spend time with one of your fellow councillors or your liege, offering your help in their tasks and generally getting a feel for them (choose one).
[ ] Getting To Know You Whether You Like It Or Not: You've been given good reason to mistrust your fellow councillors. Perhaps you should see what they spent their time doing (choose one).
[ ] Letters Home: You might be able to wring more information out of your Master, or you might just be able to get news, information and guidance in general from the Grey Order.
[ ] Free Time: Now well-established in Wurtbad, you can spend some time in your scant off hours getting to know someone better. Pick one character. (no action required) (can be used to perform Snooping without spending an action)

---

FINANCES: NO ACTION POINT EXPENDITURE.

Personal Income: 60 gold/turn
Discretionary Income: 200 gold/turn
Informer Payroll unlocked

Currently paying Grey College tithe (-6 personal gold/turn)
Currently paying Grey College student loans (-35 personal gold/turn)

Not currently embezzling

Currently employing 6 veteran informants (-60 discretionary gold/turn)
Currently funding a number of Watch informants (-10 discretionary gold/turn)
Currently funding a number of EIC informants (-20 discretionary gold/turn)
Currently employing Julia Massif (-30 discretionary gold/turn)
Currently maintaining the staff of a townhouse in Wurtbad (-20 discretionary gold/turn)

[ ] Begin plumping the informer rolls (choose ratio of real:fake informers. Almost impossible to detect, but also very difficult to increase or decrease the amount quickly)
[ ] Change tithe payment/loan payment/embezzlement (specify)
[ ] These agents are getting expensive. Write up a proposal for your discretionary budget to be increased, instead of waiting for Van Hal to decide to increase it. (warning: attracts oversight to your current budget)

- You can write in orders, but something worth writing in is probably worth adding to the list of possible orders, so feel free to ask if your idea can be added.
- Don't forget Ranald's Blessing!
- If you take another swing at Formal Proposal, I would strongly recommend carefully reading through Van Hal's feedback to the previous iteration of the plan.
 
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Organizations
The Waystone Project

Active Members:
Lady Magister Mathilde Weber of the Grey Order
Lady Magister Elrisse of the Order of Light
Lord Magister Egrimm van Horstmann of the Order of Light
Magister Tochter Grunfeld of the Order of Life
Lector Aksel of the Cult of Halétha
Lord Hatalath of the Grey Lords
Vicereine Cadaeth of the Ward of Frost
Lecturer Sarvoi of House Tindomiel
Runelord Thorek Ironbrow of Karak Azul
Baba Niedzwenka of Erengrad
Ice Maiden Zlata of the Hromada Ledyanoy Ved'ma


Affiliated States and Organizations:

The Colleges of Magic
> The Grey Order
> The Order of Light
> The Order of Life

Laurelorn
> The Grey Lords
> The Ward of Frost
> House Tindomiel

Karak Eight Peaks
Karak Azul

Kislev
> The Ice Court


Headquarters: Former estate of House Elwyn
Extremely high-quality Eonir-furnished laboratories
Metalworking facilities
Luxurious and elegant living quarters

Accomplishments:
Praag-Lynsk Waystone Expansion, using Riverine Waystones, by Cothiquan Wizards. Began 2491, focused on cleansing of Chaos taint from Praag.
Templa Colonies, using Riverine Waystones, by Grey Lord Seilph and Grey Lord Sarumar. Began 2491, establishing farming and logging villages in the Misty Wood and Tangled Wood.
Cleansing of the Black Water, using Riverine Waystones, by Lothernian Wizards. Estimated completion date: 2496. Estimated completion of all currently planned fortifications of Waystone sites: mid-2500s.
Stirland Tributaries, using Aethyric Impluvium by Jade Journeymen. Estimated completion date: late 2493.


The Library of Kron-Azril-Ungol

Located in Kvinn-Wyr
Dedicated to the principle of Order, so that all visitors can find all books they seek
Granted official status of Affiliated Library of the Colleges of Magic by Supreme Patriarch Dragomas
Library staff provided by a colony of the We, currently in training.
Scribes recruited from the human and Halfling population of Karak Eight Peaks. Languages known: Reikspiel, Bretonnian, Gospodarinyi (including Sudevarin dialect), Tilean, Estalian, Khazalid.
Has institutional tension with the Cult of Verena.

Being able to consult reference materials gives a bonus to the topics they cover. +1 is the default bonus, with +1 for Extensive and +1 Obscure / +2 Antiquarian / +3 Esoteric for non-stacking rarity levels. Each bonus can apply once per race/country the books are from, as long as they have a solid knowledge base on the subject.
If purchased out of pocket, each +1 bonus costs 50 gold crowns, or local equivalent.
Natural Science

Anatomy +15 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive Bretonnian / Extensive and Esoteric Dwarven / Extensive and Obscure Asur
Astronomy +7 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive Asur
Chemistry +8 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Obscure Dwarven
Ecology +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Eonir
Geography +9 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive Dwarven / Extensive Asur
Humorism +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial
Hydrology +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial
Logic +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial
Mathematics +8 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Obscure Asur
Meteorology +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial
Mineralogy +10 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Esoteric Eonir
Physics +8 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Obscure Asur
Toxins +12 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Esoteric Dwarven / Extensive Eonir

Fauna
Arthropods +15 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Esoteric Dwarven / Extensive and Esoteric Eonir
Birds of Prey +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Eonir
Canines +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial
Centaurs, Minotaurs, and Harpies +2 - Extensive Asur
Chaos Spawn +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Eonir
Dragons and Draconids +13 - Extensive Imperial / Extensive Bretonnian / Extensive and Esoteric Dwarven / Extensive Asur / Extensive Eonir
Equines +3 - Extensive and Obscure Asur
Gors and Ungors +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Eonir
Ungulates +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Eonir
Rodents and Mustelids +6 - Extensive Imperial / Extensive and Antiquarian Skaven
Serpents +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Eonir

Flora
Old World Forests +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Eonir

Geography
Cathay +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Cathayan (T)
The Chaos Wastes +8 - Extensive and Antiquarian Imperial / Extensive and Antiquarian Dwarven
The Dark Lands +9 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Antiquarian Dwarven
Dragon Isles +2 - Extensive Dwarven
The Great Steppes +4 - Extensive Imperial / Extensive Dwarven
Mountains of Mourn +3 - Imperial / Extensive Dwarven
The Old World +11- Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Antiquarian Dwarven / Extensive Asur
Ulthuan +2 - Extensive Asur

Hydrography
The Far Sea +2 - Extensive Asur
The Great Ocean +2 - Extensive Asur
- The Sea of Claws +4 - Extensive Asur / Extensive Eonir
The Sea of Dread +2 - Extensive Asur


Social Science

Ethics +9 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive Dwarven / Extensive Asur
Law +9 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive Dwarven / Extensive Asur
Linguistics +17 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive Bretonnian / Extensive and Esoteric Dwarven / Extensive and Esoteric Eonir
Literature +7 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive Asur
Music and Poetry +15 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Esoteric Dwarven / Extensive and Esoteric Eonir
Philosophy +12 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Esoteric Dwarven / Extensive Asur
Rhetoric +12 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Esoteric Dwarven / Extensive Asur
Theology +8 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive Dwarven / Asur
Trade +12 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Esoteric Dwarven / Extensive Eonir

Civilized Realms
The Asrai of Athel Loren +10 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Esoteric Dwarven
The City-States of Tilea +10 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Esoteric Dwarven
The Druchii of Naggaroth +4 - Extensive Imperial / Extensive Bretonnian
The Empire of Man +10 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Esoteric Dwarven
The Eonir of Laurelorn +15 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Esoteric Dwarven / Extensive and Esoteric Eonir
The Estalian Kingdoms +10 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Esoteric Dwarven
The Great Cities of Nehekhara +6 - Imperial / Extensive and Esoteric Dwarven
The Halflings of the Moot +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial
The Karaz Ankor +14 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive Bretonnian / Extensive and Esoteric Dwarven / Extensive Asur
The Kingdom of Bretonnia +12 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive Bretonnian / Extensive and Esoteric Dwarven
The Old Ones +3 - Extensive and Obscure Asur
The Ten Kingdoms of Ulthuan +10 - Extensive Imperial / Extensive and Esoteric Dwarven / Extensive and Obscure Asur
The Tzardom of Kislev +10 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Esoteric Dwarven
The We +2 - Imperial / Dwarven

Enemies of Man
Beastmen +12 - Extensive Imperial / Extensive and Esoteric Dwarven / Extensive and Esoteric Eonir
Chaos Dwarves +9 - Extensive and Obscure Imperial / Extensive and Esoteric Dwarven / Skaven (Only Esoteric)
Daemons +6 - Extensive Imperial / Extensive Dwarven / Extensive Asur
Greenskins +13 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive Bretonnian / Extensive and Esoteric Dwarven / Asur
Hobgoblin Khanates +4 - Extensive Imperial / Extensive Dwarven
Marauder Tribes +4 - Extensive Imperial / Extensive Dwarven
Ogre Kingdoms +8 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Obscure Dwarven
Skaven +15 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive Bretonnian / Extensive and Esoteric Dwarven / Skaven / Extensive Asur
Undead +14 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive Bretonnian / Extensive and Esoteric Dwarven / Obscure Vampiric
Vampires +11 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive Bretonnian / Extensive Dwarven / Obscure Vampiric


Applied Science

Agriculture +6 - Extensive Imperial / Extensive Dwarven / Extensive Asur
Architecture +9 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive Dwarven / Extensive Asur
Carpentry +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Eonir
Engineering +16 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive Bretonnian / Extensive Dwarven / Extensive and Esoteric Skaven (T) / Extensive Asur
Forestry +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Eonir
Leatherworking +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Eonir
Metallurgy +12 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Esoteric Dwarven / Extensive Asur
Medicine +8 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Obscure Asur
Textiles +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Eonir

War and Combat
Archery +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Eonir
Greatswords +12 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive Bretonnian / Extensive Dwarven / Tilean (T) / Extensive Asur
Logistics +3 - Extensive Asur / Skaven
Polearms +3 - Extensive and Obscure Asur
Strategy +5 - Extensive Imperial / Extensive and Obscure Asur
Swords +3 - Extensive and Obscure Asur
Tactics +8 - Extensive Imperial / Extensive and Esoteric Eonir / Skaven
Unarmed +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Eonir


Magic

Teclisean Magic
Aethyr - The Warp +7 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive Asur
Sevir - The Winds of Magic +9 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive Dwarven / Extensive Asur
Qhaysh - High Magic +3 - Extensive Imperial / Asur
Ghyran - Life Magic +8 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Obscure Asur
Shyish - Death Magic +5 - Extensive Imperial / Extensive and Obscure Asur
Ghur - Beast Magic +5 - Extensive Imperial / Extensive and Obscure Asur
Chamon - Metal Magic +5 - Extensive Imperial / Extensive and Obscure Asur
Aqshy - Fire Magic +9 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Indic (T) / Extensive and Obscure Asur
Azyr - Celestial Magic +8 -Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Obscure Asur
Hysh - Light Magic +5 - Extensive Imperial / Extensive and Obscure Asur
Ulgu - Shadow Magic +8 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Obscure Asur
Dhar - Dark Magic +2 - Extensive Eonir

Advanced Magic
Divine Magic +4 - Extensive and Antiquarian Imperial
Elementalism +8 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Obscure Asur
Enchantment +7 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive Asur
Familiars +7 - Extensive Imperial / Extensive and Esoteric Eonir
The Old Ones +3 - Extensive and Obscure Asur
Potions +10 - Extensive and Obscure Imperial / Extensive Kislevite / Extensive and Esoteric Eonir
Power Stones +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial
Rituals +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial
Rune Magic +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial
Terraformation +2 - Extensive Eonir
Waystones and Henges +15 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Esoteric Dwarven / Extensive and Esoteric Asur

Magical Phenomena
Apparitions +8 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Obscure Asur
Elementals +6 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Kislevite
Forest Spirits +10 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Esoteric Eonir
Liminal Pathways +7 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive Eonir
Liminal Realms +10 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Esoteric Eonir
Prophecy +6 - Extensive Imperial / Esoteric Vampiric

Dark Magic
Beastman Wild Magic +10 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive and Esoteric Eonir
Chaos Sorcery +6 - Extensive Imperial / Extensive Dwarven / Extensive Asur
Gut Magic +2 - Extensive Imperial
Necromancy +2 - Extensive Imperial
Skaven Warp Magic +6 - Extensive Imperial / Extensive Dwarven / Extensive Asur
Waaagh Magic +4 - Extensive Imperial / Extensive Dwarven
Warpstone +9 - Extensive Dwarven & Imperial / Extensive and Esoteric Skaven


Divinity

Old World Pantheon
The Lady of the Lake +2 - Extensive Bretonnian
Manann, Lord of the Seas +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial
Morr, God of Death and Dreams +4 - Extensive and Antiquarian Imperial
Myrmidia, Goddess of Civilization and its Defence +3 - Extensive and Obscure Imperial
Ranald, God of Trickery and Thieves +7 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Extensive Bretonnian
Rhya, Earth Mother +3 - Extensive and Obscure Imperial
Shallya, the White Dove of Mercy +5 - Extensive and Obscure Imperial / Extensive Bretonnian
Sigmar Heldenhammer +3 - Extensive and Obscure Imperial
Taal, King of the Wild +3 - Extensive and Obscure Imperial
Ulric, God of Winter and Wolves +6 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Eonir
Verena, Goddess of Wisdom and Justice +3 - Extensive and Obscure Imperial
Gods of the Halflings +1 - Imperial
Minor Gods of the Old World +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial

The Gods of Kislev
The Ancient Widow +0
Ursun, the Great Bear +0
Tor, God of Thunder and Lightning +0
Dazh, God of Fire and Sun +2 - Extensive Kislevite
Salyak, Goddess of Healing and Comfort +0
Benign Spirits of Kislev +0

Dwarven Ancestor Gods
Grungni +5 - Extensive and Obscure Dwarven / Extensive Asur
Valaya +5 - Extensive and Obscure Dwarven / Extensive Asur
Grimnir +5 - Extensive and Obscure Dwarven / Extensive Asur
Thungni +2 - Dwarven / Asur
Smednir +2 - Dwarven / Asur
Morgrim +2 - Dwarven / Asur
Gazul +1 - Dwarven

Cadai
Asuryan, the Creator +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Eonir
Eldrazor, Lord of Blades +2 - Extensive Asur
Hoeth, Lord of Wisdom +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Eonir
Isha, the Mother +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Eonir
Kurnous, Father of the Wilds +2 - Extensive Asur
Ladrielle, Lady of Mists +2 - Extensive Asur
Lileath, Maiden of Dreams +2 - Extensive Asur
Loec, the Shadow Dancer +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Eonir
Morai-Heg, the Keeper of Souls +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Eonir
Vaul, the Maker +2 - Extensive Eonir

Cytharai
Anath Raema, the Savage Huntress +2 - Extensive Asur
Atharti, Lady of Desire +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Eonir
Ereth Khial, the Pale Queen +2 - Extensive Asur
Hekarti, the Hydra Queen +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Eonir
Khaine, the Bloody-Handed God +3 - Imperial / Extensive Asur
Nethu, Keeper of the Last Door +2 - Extensive Asur

Ellinill and the Ellinilli
Ellinill, Lord of Destruction +2 - Extensive Asur
Addaioth, Bringer of Wrath and Fire +3 - Asrai, Extensive Asur
Drakira, Queen of Vengeance +2 - Extensive Asur
Estreuth, Herald of Famine +2 - Extensive Asur
Hukon, the Sunderer +3 - Extensive and Obscure Asur
Mathlann, Lord of the Deeps +2 - Extensive Eonir

Nehekharan Cosmology
The Nehekharan Pantheon +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial
The Mortuary Cult +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial
Nehekharan Incantations +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial
Nehekharan War-Statuary +0

Dark Gods
Great Maw +1 - Imperial
Hashut +3 - Extensive Imperial / Dwarven

Notable Tomes:
Liber Mortis, by Baron Frederick van Hal of Sylvania and Prince Vladimir of Khemri (Holograph)
The Vampire Prophecies of the Scrolls of Zandri, by W'soran of Rasetra
The Creeping Flesh, annotated by the Von Drak Dynasty

A Modest Treatise on the Nature of Magic, by Magister Patriarch Gotthilf Puchta of the Gold Order
Araneae Sapiens (Holograph)

Rakilid un Thaggorhun / Queekish (Holographs)
The Loathsome Chaos Dwarves and All Their Vile Kin, by Quirin Waramunt (Holograph)
Anatomy of the Fire Dwarves of Zharr-Naggrund, in the original Queekish

Book purchase availability:
Empire: Mundane, Divine up to Extensive (via Barak Varr bookseller), Magical (via Colleges of Magic)
Bretonnian: Mundane up to Extensive, Divine up to Extensive (via Barak Varr bookseller)
Dwarven: Mundane, Divine up to Extensive (via Barak Varr bookseller)

Partner Libraries:
The Mootland Genealogical Library

Copying Rights secured for:
Aquila Academy (Nuln)
Imperial School of Engineers (Nuln)
Imperial Gunnery School
Minor Colleges of Nuln

Serving as Archives to:
College of Elementalists
Grand University of Nuln
The Library of Mournings

Other features:
The Halfling Annex - Halfling genealogical records and chronicles of the Mootland
Old One Vault - A heavily secured archive of copies of scrolls in an unknown language, allegedly detailing experiments the Old Ones performed at the dawn of the world.
Vlagian Runesmith Cache - The collected possessions of Karak Vlag's extinct Runesmith Clan, sealed away until the refounding of it alongside that of Karak Eight Peaks.
The Stacks - Storage of books that don't fit into the library's current categorization system. Contains writings on various Eonir sports and arts.


The Eastern Imperial Company



Founded as a result of a Boon granted to Wilhelmina Hochschild, the EIC is a state-sanctioned corporate entity focused on trade within Stirland, and between Stirland and neighbouring provinces. Its logo represents the three swords of Elector Count Abelhelm Van Hal, Sir Markus von Pfaffbach, and Dame Mathilde Weber. Incorporates the West Stirland Riverine Company.

Current Operations:
Complete dominance over Stirland government contracts.
Complete dominance over supplying goods and services in Karag Nar.
Complete dominance over Western Stirland gong farming.
Complete dominance of intra-Stirland trade.
Moderate dominance over trade in Stirlandian wool products.
Moderate dominance on the Aver.
Moderate presence in interstate trade in Stirland, the Moot, and Talabecland.
Minor presence in interstate trade in Averland, Wissenland, and southern Middenland.
Minor presence in Nuln, Altdorf, and Middenheim.
Minor presence in Barak Varr and Ulrikadrin.

Major Trade Route: Eastern spices from Karak Eight Peaks to Tor Lithanel
Major Trade Route: The Schadenweg, from Middenheim to Tor Lithanel via the Schadensumpf
Minor Trade Route: Western spices from Altdorf to Tor Lithanel
Minor Trade Route: Charcoal from Erengrad to Tor Lithanel via Hargendorf.

Major Product: Gerber-Kiesinger Repeating Rifle Factory in Blutdorf
Minor Product: Crossbow Factory in Blutdorf
Minor Product: Blackpowder factory in Wurtbad
Minor Product: Niter Factories in Wurtbad, Blutdorf, Franzen
The 'Stirland Repeater' has finally entered production, and Stirland's army will be phasing out the handgun in favour of an elite core armed with repeaters and the bulk of the ranged forces armed with crossbows. The Mk 2 boasts a smoother firing mechanism and a reduced chance of powder magazine detonation. The Mk 3 incorporates a redesigned breech that reduces the chance of misfire and imparts more impetus onto the projectile, allowing for more killing power and a flatter trajectory.

Key Partners:
King Byrnnoth Grundadrakk: Partnered with for the Skull River-Aver Reach canal project.
Elector Count Roswita Van Hal: Trusts the EIC to not take too much advantage of whatever economic control she sells to the EIC.
Grand Master Ruprecht Wulfhart of Ulrikadrin: Happy to maintain a trade link to the Empire.
Francesco Caravello of the Undumgi: Completely aligned with the EIC.
House Yavanna of Tor Lithanel: Purchaser of imported spices.


Leader: Governor Wilhelmina Hochschild (de facto: Dame Weber is for most purposes a silent partner and supports Wilhelmina's actions, giving her an effective majority).
Funding: Seed money provided by founding shareholders; currently reinvesting profits.
Headquarters: Wurtbad; townhouse on the same street as the Stirland Watch.
Recruitment: Recruits heavily from independent traders.
Shareholders: Dame Mathilde Weber (36%), Wilhelmina Hochschild (20%), Barony of Blutdorf (16%), County of Franzen (14%), County of Wolfsbach (14%)

Bone-Deep Truths:
Patriots: The EIC knows that the Empire's long-term financial well-being is utterly vital for the EIC.

Core Corporate Policies:
Don't Skin The Sheep: The EIC will always choose indefinite small profits over single windfalls.
Grudge-Averse: The EIC will never deliberately break a deal made with Dwarves, and will take any Dwarven complaints very seriously.
Riparian: The Dwarves are about to completely redraw the map. Be prepared.

Secondary Corporate Beliefs:
Tall, not Wide: The EIC prefers to dominate small areas than have small presences over large areas.
Insider Trading: The EIC likes to make profit from being the first to know important information.
Friends In High Places: The EIC likes to cultivate relationships with Elector Counts and other local rulers.
Eyes on Barak Varr: Though careful to cooperate rather than compete with Barak Varr, the eyes of the EIC have turned south.
Secrecy: A network of cipher disks have been adopted, ensuring that all important communications are unreadable to unfriendly eyes.


EIC Navy:
2 x 30-man Monitor Galleys, armed with crossbows and hand weapons.
All EIC crews trained with hand weapons, each ship has one Stirland Repeater.


Office of the Auditors General:
Headed by Rudiger von Bechafen
Office located in the Sunken Palace, somewhere beneath Wurtbad


Information being collected and supplied to Mathilde:
Military movements of Stirland, and the events of the campaigns it undertakes.
Unexpected events and changes in the mood among the Undumgi.
Rumour Mill (Currently: Stirland, Talabecland, the Moot, Barak Varr.)



The Weber Estate

The lands of Dame Weber, Knight of Stirland, are a series of rolling limestone hills suitable for herding sheep and goats and not much else. The locals are a hardy and independent lot. It is being overseen by a steward in your absence.

Estate Coffers: 418 crowns as of the beginning of 2489
Estate Profits: 50 crowns / turn
Pending Expenses: 50 crowns for Jade Wizard, 1 crown per sheep per year for East Westerlander breeding project (20-100 estimated)

Estate Upgrades:
'The Shadowkeep' is what the locals have taken to calling the collection of buildings encompassed by a wooden bailey that has become the center of their community, but as it's said with pride instead of fear, you leave it be. The keep itself is fairly modest, built atop a fairly small artificial hill, made of wood, and only a couple of stories tall, but the ability to fire sling-stones at any interlopers from safety would deter any threats the area is likely to face. The ground floor of the keep is your home should you choose to claim it, and until then is home to the 'Steward', which is a fancy title for a local lad who travelled all the way to Tarshof to learn numberin'. Apart from the local tradesfolk, the bailey also contains a number of newly-built huts and cottages.

Modest Manor
Wooden Motte and Bailey
Cobble road to Sonningwiese

Blacksmith, Dairy, Loom
Granary, Smokehouse, Well
Shrine to Ranald
Flint Mine

Sheep Breeding Project
Stirlandian Highlander (hardy)
Estalian Mayor (intelligent, fine wool)
East Westerlander (high milk yield)
 
Last edited:
Turn 10 Results - 2474.5
Winning vote:

[*] Plan Everything Checks Out
-[*][Information Network] Consolidation: You currently have a patchwork of useful contacts. Backfill so that you can rightfully claim to cover entire towns.
-[*][Stirland Watch] Hire administrators and clerks from Altdorf and Nuln.
-[*][Personal] Expand the Watch into the rest of the County of Wurtbad.
-[*][Personal] Expand the Watch into the Barony of Purgg.
-[*][Personal] Undead Research: This is Stirland. Time to bone up on your knowledge of the Undead, this time with the addition of Van Hal's personal library. (NEW-ish)
-[*][Personal] Pretty Good Swords: You've struck up a friendship with the Champion of the Greatswords and have discovered a talent for wielding them. Continue to cultivate this.
-[*][Personal] Use a Personal Action to perform another Organizational Action; can be taken once per organization.
--[*][Stirland Watch] Openly expand your information network into the military in the form of an Intelligence Attaché (Second Division)
---[*] Ranald's Blessing
-[*][Free Time] Free Time: Now well-established in Wurtbad, you can spend some time in your scant off hours getting to know someone better. Pick one character. (no action required)
--[*] Wilhelmina
Number of voters: 23

---

"A what?" Gustav asks distractedly, his eyes locked on the hills to your right as the two of you rode side-by-side along the completed section of the Haunted Highway.

"An attaché," you repeat. "Observers attached to a military unit."

He turns his full attention to you, a frown visible only by the movement of his moustache. "Observing what, exactly," he asks stiffly.

"The enemy," you say, as reassuringly as you can. "I want to get a complete overview of the type and numbers we're dealing with."

"And you don't trust my scouts to do so?" He's standing stiffer in the saddle now, his eyes blazing with indignation.

"Your scouts are the pistoliers, aren't they? So they'd be where the fighting is thickest?"

"Of course! Bravest men in Stirland!" he booms.

"They can't fight and count rotting heads," you explain, resisting the urge to roll your eyes.

"Well... alright," he agrees, reluctantly. "They'd better not get in the way, though."

"I'll see to it they're well-prepared for life in the army," you say, concealing your smile.

---

Back in Wurtbad, you organize another round of recruits fresh from the Army. For now, they'll be going through a round of literacy courses, but you also start considering how you'll train them to identify undead. You sketch out the beginnings of a training course, but the real stroke of genius comes when you have the idea to make a series of forms that could be filled out in the field to gather the required information. You'll still teach your attachés to tell their wights from wraiths and ghouls from ghasts, but if they distribute the form to the officers of the unit they're attached to, you could have that many eyes collecting useful information. And they don't need to go through specialized training to fill in a form.

You also look in on Julia while your attaché candidates learn written Reikspiel in the next room. With the foundations of an information network in place, she's no longer inserting full-time agents; a handful of shillings here, a gold crown there, the occassional round of drinks, a little encouragement to the newly-hired Special Watchmen to send in reports of local events, and suddenly the influx of information has grown severalfold. Julbach has finally been ensnared, bringing you complete knowledge of goings-on in the County of Wurtbad; a few subtle enquiries later and you learn of a well-off noble from Wurtbad who maintained a house in Julbach and greatly valued his privacy, including, unfortunately, that he hasn't been seen there in several years.

On top of that, she's piggy-backed off both the Stirland Watch and her family's merchants to expand the network along the Nuln Road, covering Purgg almost as completely as Wulfbach. You've instructed her to keep a careful eye on the Stirhugel, and the news is worrying - there's been attacks on herds all across the range. Without the full picture, the local leaders attributed it to wolves, but when the reports from Lochen, Purgg and Ohlsdorf are compared, they paint a worrying picture that something is going on in those hills.

On top of all that, it seems almost rude of her to also have brought a few innkeepers and ferrymen in Munzhausen onto the payroll.

She's thoroughly proud of her accomplishments, and preens even further under your praise.

[Convincing Gustav to cooperate: Diplomacy, Req 50, 43+7=50]
[Attaché training: Learning, Roll, 67+16+20 (Ranald's Gift)=103.]
[Julia's network expansion: Intrigue, Roll, 89+14=103]

---

You will never cease being grateful for Shadowsteed, you reflect as you return once more to Leicheberg to resume your training with Markus. Anyone else would spend weeks travelling to and fro. You've started cutting across the countryside from Halstedt to Leicheberg, your shadowy horse not caring for a moment about the broken terrain, and with that you're leaving Wurtbad at dawn and arriving at Fort Redemption at dusk, and not even that day is wasted because you're so confident on your horse of Ulgu that you spend the ride reading.

Markus is pleased to see you returning to his practice field, but not for long, because it quickly becomes clear that your skills have rusted. So you spend days hacking at dummies with a wooden practice sword once more until he decides your grip and endurance are back an acceptable level, then days more sparring with the youngest member of the Greatswords, who learns to take you seriously after you smack the grin right off his unprotected face. After that you're finally declared ready to pick up where you left off, and Markus starts teaching you personally once more; weeks fly by in a haze of exertion as you learn new techniques, then practice them until they're ingrained bone-deep. More than once you spot Van Hal watching you train, which only spurs your efforts.

Once you've achieved proficiency, Markus has drilled into you, then you can work on style. For now, your only priority is to swing the sword in such a way that it goes where you want it to, and to be able to do it over and over and over again until your lungs are burning and your muscles aching and then do it some more. Any fool can swing a sword when they're fresh; the mark of a soldier is to be able to keep swinging, no matter the conditions. At one point, a nasty bow slips past your guard and your entire arm ends up bruised from wrist to elbow, but you keep swinging anyway. There may come a time when the blade or claw does much worse to you, Markus instructs, and you need to keep swinging.

As dusk falls on another day spent entirely in the training yard, you're sparring with Markus for possibly the thousandth time, and you finally think you're holding your own. There's a look of concentration on Markus' face as he counters his swings and returns with his own. You're not pressing him - it'd take years of training until you can make the Champion of Stirland break a sweat - but he's actually having to focus on the fight, and you redouble your efforts. Minutes pass with the clatter of wood on wood, and then "hold," Markus commands suddenly, and the possibility of disobeying doesn't even occur to you.

You step back, breathing hard, and give him a quizzical look; in response, he nods at the sword in your hand. You look down at it, frowning. You're pretty sure it hasn't splintered; granted, it's a little hard to tell through the evening fog, but...

You stop, and look around at a training field utterly bereft of evening fog. And you concentrate, and release a tiny piece of concentration you never even noticed forming, and the fog emanating from the practice blade dissipates in an instant. You flex your fingers, and can feel the energies that are always within you itching to extend through your hand once more.

Hmm.

[Greatsword practice: Martial, Roll, 93+10=103]

---

There are, you know, just over forty thousand men enlisted in the Army of Stirland. The standard term is twenty years. On average, thirty-five men in every hundred would live to see retirement - and that's during times of relative peace. So, if one does the calculations, that means that around seven hundred men are retiring from the Army of Stirland every year, or about sixty a month.

So why is it so godsdamn hard to find recruits? For months you've been delaying your expansion of the Watch because the numbers weren't available to support it, especially after you snapped up so many for the attaché program, but eventually you get so frustrated at looking at week after week of no new recruits that you go into the Archives and dig twenty years into the past, and quickly find the source: the transfer of power from one ill-fated Haupt-Anderssen to another, which left the political apparatus of Wurtbad in limbo for a year until they finally arrived from their holiday home in Marienburg. For that year, there was nobody to authorize even the most routine of expenditures, so there was absolutely no recruitment into the ranks of the Army of Stirland. Which means that there's nobody entering retirement now, twenty years on.

Okay. Fine. That just means that in the near future there'll be a glut of them.

While you're neck-deep in the archives, you go through the roster of previous retirees. They're all drawing pensions or they accepted land in lieu, so either way you've got their addresses, and sure enough the majority are living in Western Stirland - it seems that twenty years in the Army left them with an urge to be as physically far from Sylvania as they could.

You spend weeks on the road, tracking down and meeting with dozens of retired soldiers. The initial reaction to you is almost universally suspicion, but that you're offering them more money from Stirland's coffers gets their attention. Half the standard pay of a Watchman is the offer, with all the rights and authorities thereof; they'd spend a month in Wurtbad being trained, then return to their homes and spend a couple of days a week working as Watchmen and the rest of their time enjoying their retirement or working on their land.

A gratifying number accept, and in the end you've got enough to cover the territory, at least until recruitment picks up. And, it occurs to you, having an additional pool of manpower you could draw from in emergencies could prove to be very useful for the Watch...

[Expanding into Wurtbad: Req 40, Stewardship, 22+13=35.]
[Expanding into Purgg: Req 50, Stewardship, 2+13=15.]
[Making it work without the numbers: Roll, Stewardship, 95+13=108.]

---

With the Watch's numbers expanded again, there's more reason than ever to expand its bureaucracy. But actually achieving that turns out to be more difficult than you expected.

"So," you ask, leaning slightly back in your chair to put some more distance between you and your interviewee. "What makes you think you would be a good fit for the administrative staff of the Stirland Watch?"

The man scratches at his chin as he considers the question, creating a rasping sound, like sandpaper on rock. "Well," he says thoughtfully through a Kislev accent that rendered him barely understandable, "I heard somewhere that if you're in Watch, they cannot arrest you."

You stare at him blankly, and he returns the look just as blankly. He drums his fingers on the table idly; you glance down and take in the tattoos of rings on his fingers, crudely done, each of a different design.

"Can you read and write?"

"I can spell my entire name," he says proudly.

This isn't even the worst candidate you've interviewed today. Either the word 'Stirland' has scared off all the qualified candidates or somehow the Empire has run out of bureaucrats.

[Hiring administrators and clerks from Altdorf and Nuln: Req 30, Stewardship, 6+13=19.]

---

When you return once more to Wurtbad, you're greatly relieved to have a chance to relax for a change. Days pass in a relaxing blur of books both referential and recreational, including the reference books borrowed from Van Hal's study. They're not as much help as you'd hoped, since most of the Witch Hunter's handbooks are less about identifying and more about burning, but you're gradually building up your general knowledge of the undead. And when Wilhelmina returns to Wurtbad at the head of a caravan of fleeces, you're waiting in the sunroom EIC headquarters to greet her. She stops in her tracks when she sees you. "Mathilde?" she asks. "I thought you were at the Fort."

"I was," you reply. "And also at Altdorf, and Nuln, and Oberwil, and Purgg..."

"Gods, that'd make magic almost worth it," she says with a sigh, stretching and then collapsing into an armchair. You swallow your reply. "How goes the Watch?"

You groan. "Could be better. Did you hire every competent clerk in the Empire?"

"Hah! I'm pretty sure I cleaned out Stirland, but I can't claim credit beyond that."

"Something must be up, then," you gripe, then your eyes narrow. "Actually, something might be up. Heard any news from the rest of the Empire?"

"Greenskin problems in Averland," she replies. "Beastmen activity in Ostland. Dwarves are up to something, Elector's Meet soon. Nothing major."

"That doesn't help. Maybe Van Hal will hear something at that Meet, though." Comfortable silence stretches, with Wilhelmina almost dozing in the sunbeam illuminating her chair. "How's things with your boys?" you ask gently.

She frowns, then sighs. "Off managing deals with Worden herders. Hopefully it'll teach them some humility." She sighs again, then falls quiet for a moment, as she considers whether to continue. "I kept my sons well clear of my work with Van Hal," she finally says, "thinking that it was going to lead to an early death for both of us, like it did my husband. Instead, there's all of this. But they've got no loyalty to him. A whiff of a burgher lifestyle and suddenly they see the Hochschilds as the next Great Merchant House and are in a hurry to get there, no matter how many sheep they have to flay in the process. Gods know what they learned at university, because it sure wasn't economics." That hangs in the air for a while, before she says with forced cheer, "what about you, Mathilde? You ever think of having kids one day?"

Now there was a line of thought you definitely weren't going to make public. "Maybe," is all you answer.

"So you can, then? I mean, I know the Brights and Jades do, and the Golds don't..."

You smile. "There's a joke in the Grey College: the ones that do probably shouldn't, and the ones that don't probably should."

[Undead study: Roll, Learning, 31+16=47.]
[Spending time with Wilhelmina: Roll, 77.]

---


Information Network: Wurtbad and Purgg now completely covered; Munzhausen and Wolfsbach improved.
Information Network: Gustav's agreement secured for attaché program, training has begun; creation of 'Undead Identification Form' ongoing
Stirland Watch: Special Branch formed; covering Purgg and Wurtbad. Further expansion impossible for next two turns.
Greatsword proficiency achieved!
Fitness increased to Advanced.
Spell mastered: Bless Weapon.
Undead Lore increased to Intermediate.
Nice chat with Wilhelmina: +1 to relationship


Discretionary Income: +200g
Regional informants: -90g
Watch informants: -10g
EIC informants: -20g
Julia: -30g
Townhouse staff: -20g
Literacy lessons: -10g
Attaché program: -60g
---
Net: -40g

Personal Income: +50g
Estate Profit: +10g
Tithe: -6g
Student Loans: -35g
---
Net: +19g

---

Once more the council meeting is in Fort Redemption. This time Anton has managed to make it down, fresh from Ostermark, and is deep in conversation with Van Hal. "Now, Anton," he's saying, "when I said that I was authorizing payment for mercenaries, did you note the plural?"

"Well, technically..." Anton begins.

"A steed doesn't count."

"I think this one does," you murmur. Once more, you look out the window at where an enormous jade-green dragon is being fed whole roast pigs by awed troops, under the watchful eye of an elf clad in bejewelled armour.

---

Public Report: Write in (optional; can write in word for word, or just outline what is focused on)
Private Report: Write in (optional; the private meeting is traditional at this point and will take place, simply say whether there's anything specific you want to bring up here)

Potential Orders:

Investigation:
[ ] There's definitely evil afoot in Drakenhof. Perhaps there's a way to survive investigating this.
[ ] You kind of regret learning exactly what you did to the Thorned One, but you did it. But the liquid leaking out? That's still an unknown. Will Van Hal let you look into it on the clock?
[ ] The spell used by the informants in Eagle Castle is like nothing you've heard of before. You want to see if you can detect or replicate it.
[ ] Something your Lieutenant said gave you an idea. Investigate the shores of the Black Water, see if it can truly be tamed.
[ ] If we've got vampire troubles, maybe you should spend some time investigating how to counter vampiric infiltration.
[ ] The Purge of Haunted HIlls will begin in six months. Perhaps there's a way you can contribute to the preparations.
[ ] It looks like something is stirring in the Stirhugel. This should probably be looked into.

Infrastructure:
[ ] Your intelligence infrastructure is becoming worthy of the title; perhaps you could dedicate some time to expanding it. And though Van Hal has knocked back Stirland financing it directly, there might be a way for costs to be reduced or defrayed...
[o] The Wurtbadian Watch is now your attack dog - let it's reach spread across Stirland. (impossible for the next year)
[?] The Wurtbad Thieves Guild, despite barely being a loose gossip network, really came through during the take-down of the Stirlandian League. Maybe you should cultivate this useful tool. (Van Hal has said: not until the Watch is greatly scaled up, does it count yet?)
[ ] How about a military police? It would mesh well with your current organization, and could be useful in keeping tabs on the military.
[ ] For no particular reason, how about I see about building a unit in the army dedicated to catching terrible necromantic gribblies? In a way that conforms to Van Hal's criticisms.

[] Other/s (write in)

- I was going to come up with a generic mercenary unit instead of using the Regiments of Renown, but Anton critted so I rolled a d28 against a list of them, and uh. Yeah.
 
Last edited:
Turn 11 - 2475
Winning vote:

[*] [Public Report] Steady Progress, Spotted Issue
-[*] The Watch has continued to expand at a steady rate; we have solid coverage over the counties of Purgg and Wurtbad. Bureaucrats have continued to be difficult to come by- even when we went to Altdorf and Nuln. We need that problem to be solved or this kind of expansion won't be sustainable. Further, our source of new Watchmen is cut off for the next year or so since no one will be retiring from the army, putting a temporary halt on expansion from that as well.
-[*] Gustav has kindly authorized our implementation of an intelligence attaché program; we hope that by the time the army moves into Sylvania we'll have enough well-trained observers alongside them to furnish us with detailed, accurate records of exactly what they encountered and where which we'll be able to analyze to produce all kinds of useful intelligence.
-[*] We have noticed some troubling trends in the Stirhugel- nothing blatant, but the attacks on herds throughout the area are an obvious sign once all the reports are gathered together, even if the locals are attributing it to animal attacks for now. In our opinion there is something going on there.

[*] [Private Report] He's Long Gone and Other Sundries
-[*] We finally got decent intelligence work done in Julbach; there was a reclusive noble from Wurtbad with a home there who hasn't been seen in years. Likely our predecessor as it fits with what else we know of him, but it could be some other group and there's nothing to follow up on easily.
-[*] With the Elector's Meet coming up, we're interested in Van Hal's take on external intelligence. We haven't prioritized it at all given Stirland's internal concerns and the importance of growing our network around home, but does he want us to be thinking about getting eyes elsewhere in the Empire?
-[*] You suspect that Gustav might be understating the army's casualties a bit, more as a result of his personality than anything malicious. Still, something to keep in mind if he's making a habit of it.
-[*] If Van Hal wishes, you could write the Colleges requesting that wizards come to Stirland for the upcoming campaign. They won't come cheap, but there's a lot to be said for a more battle-oriented wizard than you being part of any venture into Sylvania.
-[*] Are we expecting to confront the Von Carstein believed to live in Castle Drakenhof, who claims the title of Elector Countess, during this campaign? Our information on her from the captured infiltrator is sparse, but she has at least one skilled necromancer in her service based upon the spell they were using, so that could turn ugly fairly quickly.

[*] [Orders] Magic And Vampire Lore Would Help The Attack Too, You Know
-[*] The spell used by the informants in Eagle Castle is like nothing you've heard of before. You want to see if you can detect or replicate it.
-[*] If we've got vampire troubles, maybe you should spend some time investigating how to counter vampiric infiltration.
-[*] The Purge of Haunted HIlls will begin in six months. Perhaps there's a way you can contribute to the preparations.
-[*] It looks like something is stirring in the Stirhugel. This should probably be looked into.
-[*] Your intelligence infrastructure is becoming increasingly costly, and Stirland's finances are limited; perhaps you could dedicate some time to pursuing means of making it self-financing so that it can expand without constantly demanding more of the budget.

---

"Okay," Van Hal says as the last of the council take their seats. "Anton, I believe you have some interesting news to share with us."

"I spent a lot of time with Chancellor Hertwig, and we got on quite well." Van Hal opens his mouth to interrupt, then thinks better of it as Anton continues happily on. "He's very interested in pacifying his southern border, as it turns out. By the time I left they had already started mustering the army. Not to help down here, though - they're going to begin their own purge of the Dead Woods and the Eerie Downs in Ostermark, and then if all goes well they'll cross the border and see to Hel Fenn and the Misty Wood. He says that this way, if there's any pushback from Sylvania, we'll have it flanked."

"Not as immediately helpful as I'd hoped," Van Hal says, "but as long as they're killing undead in and around Sylvania, it benefits Stirland, even if it doesn't benefit the immediate campaign."

"Did he mention how much of the Army of Ostermark he'll be dedicating to the effort?" Gustav asked.

"About four fifths, I think," Anton replied happily.

Eyebrows rose all around at that. "A significant investment," Van Hal notes. "Hmm. Hertwig's a sensible man in his fifties, so it's not glory. Luitpold is young and healthy and recently married, so it probably isn't an attempt to burnish his good name for a bid at the throne. Buying a favour? Though the Elector's Meet is supposedly about dwarf business, far in the south." He frowns. "Now I'm wondering why he's bothering at all. The Dead Wood has been left be for near five hundred years, and for damned good reason. And the Eerie Downs has only been trouble to those foolish enough to wander into them."

"Their population is concentrated along the Talabec and the mountains," Schultz notes. "The Veldt is fertile and vast, and they could log the Gryphon Woods for another thousand years and not run out of trees."

"The southern border is also the banks of the Stir," you note. "Trade?"

Wilhelmina frowns. "Ostermark's riverboats serve it very well, but they're all on the Talabec. If they've got ambitions for Stir trade, they'd have to send their boats all the way to Altdorf and then back up the Stir. That's near two thousand miles. And there's nothing to trade, anyway - southern Ostermark doesn't produce much worth trading, and anything from northern Ostermark has to go over the Bleak Moors to get there."

Something tickles at the back of your mind - something Julia mentioned, in one of her fits of ambition. It never seemed all that practical for Stirland, but maybe... You know Van Hal always has his maps available at the Council meetings, and you search through them for Ostermark's and spread it out on the table, and immediately spot what you're looking for.



Right at the bottom of Ostermark, you trace a line between the uppermost reaches of the River Blut and the Stir North.

"Ten, maybe fifteen miles," you say. "Manpower from Eisental, expertise from Karak Kadrin..."

Wilhelmina sucks in a breath. "It would be hideously expensive, but if it worked... it would give them access to trade with the southern Empire and beyond without having to go through Talabecland." You glance sideways at Schultz, who is staring wide-eyed down at the map. "It would be well worth the cost."

"But it would require the upper Stir to be tamed," you say.

Van Hal frowns down at the map. "I would prefer nobler motivations," he says, "but this would give them more of a vested interest in bringing Sylvania to heel. Assuming that it is what's motivating them, of course."

"It's entirely guesswork," you admit, "but I can't think of any other reason they'd invest so much, and in the way they are."

"For the good of the Empire?" Anton suggests. You and Van Hal snort in unison.

"Well, whatever their motivations, we've got another Province willing to shave away at Sylvania from the North. And that isn't the only new ally we've acquired, as some of you may have noticed."

Eyes swivel to the window. The dragon is taking up one of the drill yards with its napping form, and the elf is imperiously watching over a few camp followers as they erect a gaudy silken tent to his specifications. "Prince Asarnil," Anton says happily. "Nice fellow. A bit impressed with himself, but I would be too if I'd done even a tenth of what he has. The stories he tells! I've sent away to the University of Altdorf for someone that speaks the elf language so that they can all be recorded - he really liked the idea but insisted it be in his language, which I suppose is fair enough, but it's jolly difficult to find someone that speaks it in Stirland."

"I speak it," you mention casually. Eyes swivel to you. "The language of magic, Lingua Praestantia, is technically a dialect of Eltharin." To be more precise, it is a devolved dialect, and blended with Old Reikspiel. But you, like the rest of the Grey Order, learned both, as it's necessary for some of the more fiendish and paranoid ciphers of the Grey Order. Only those that spoke Eltharin would be able to read the true message, and those that spoke only Lingua Praestantia would get a completely different one.

(And then there was another cipher, where those that spoke only Eltharin would get a false message, and knowledge of the debased dialect was required to find the true message. Such is the way of things in the Grey Order.)

"Gosh," Anton says. "I speak a little Bretonnian. For their poems, mostly."

"I know some Kislevarin," Wilhelmina chimes in.

"I learned Tilean in College," Schultz ventures.

"I suppose it won't surprise anyone to learn I'm quite fluent in Old Reikspiel," Kasmir says, smiling.

"Can we please get back on topic," Van Hal says. "More immediately relevant than stories is that we have a dragon on our side. I never thought I'd ever encounter something I'd consider overkill, but..."

"Seems kind of a waste to only purge the Hills," you say, voicing the thought shared by all present.

"I'm leery of overambition, but such an opportunity may not come around again in any of our lifetimes. The forces of two provinces, one and a half Orders worth of Knights, and one dragon. We start the purge here and push east, and if there's been no organized resistance by the time we reach the eastern edge of the Haunted Hills..." He smiles grimly. "We march on Castle Drakenhof, and tear the dark heart from Sylvania."

---

After that, you take a short recess; it would be hard to follow that up with mundane reports on recruitment figures and such. Upon reconvening, Van Hal's first nod is to Gustav. "So tell us. How are the Hills?"

He sits a little straighter, a proud smile twitching his moustache. "There's still all manner of creature crawling out of them, but they've stopped being trouble. The troops form an unyielding anvil and the pistoliers, the hammer."

"And the road construction is uninterrupted?"

Schultz consults his notes. "It will be done well in time for the 4th to travel down it to join us before the year is out."

"Excellent. How goes the drilling?"

"Well, there's been some interesting developments there," Gustav says, stroking his moustache. "The problem with pistoliers is that they've quite a short range and a long reload time. Conventional tactics involve either a volley followed by charging with sabers, which is bloody good fun but, I feel, doesn't make the best use of the pistols, or harassment, where the unit rides quite close to the enemy, fires as one, then rides off to reload and the whole process repeats quite tediously. So I've designed a maneuver I'm calling the Schnecke; a company advances towards the enemy, and the front rank fires and then falls back to the rear of the formation, and then the second rank - now the front rank - does the same, and so on. By the time all the ranks have fired the first rank has finished reloading, and thus the maneuver continues indefinitely, with the company as a whole remaining in place. The result is a constant withering hail of gunfire; a drain on morale for those that can feel fear and still a heavy weight of lead for those that don't. And it could even be quite easily adapted for use with repeater pistols," he finishes hintingly.

"Very good," Van Hal says after a pause, ignoring the hint. "And the infantry?"

"Oh, they're doing quite well, from what I've heard. I've left it to the Colonels, they seem to know the business better than I do."

You feign a cough to cover your smile, and after a further moment Van Hal nods, and then turns to Kasmir. "What news?"

"Morale in the ranks is good," he says; your own information agrees, and you know that morale would be poor if the drilling was going poorly, so that answered Van Hal's unasked question. "The 4th are now well-served with Chaplains; the Black Guards, sadly, declined to supply any from their ranks, but they did offer training to any Morrite chaplains that travelled to Siegfriedhof."

"Not ideal," Van Hal says, "but it does show a willingness to help on their part, I suppose. Wilhelmina?"

"The 4th's supplies are taken care of," she says. By the EIC, you mentally add. Though it's less to her benefit than you'd expected; apparently she lacked contracts in Central Stirland and had failed to find a local source of food, and had to eat the cost of bringing it up all the way from the Moot, which removed a significant portion of the profits. "I also looked into their logistical train, since they'll be moving here soon enough; a few wagons needed replacing or repairing, but it's all up to spec now."

"Good initiative. Everything looks on course for the Purge. Gustav, continue with the drilling. Schultz, once the road's completed, start putting together a siege train, just in case we need it. Nothing too dramatic, just the men and materials to make rams and siege towers. And possibly some catapults - rocks and muscle are cheaper than cannonballs and gunpowder, after all. Kasmir, Wilhelmina, repeat for the 1st what you did for the 4th - we may need them.

"And with all these military matters done with, we're left with the only one seeing to it that Stirland doesn't fall apart in our absence. How fares the Watch, Mathilde?"

"The Watch has continued to expand at a steady rate; we have solid coverage over the counties of Purgg and Wurtbad. However, we may have reached the limits of expansion for now - we haven't been able to find any suitable clerks for the Watch, even after looking through Altdorf and Nuln. On top of that, because of an army recruitment freeze twenty years ago, there won't be anyone retiring from the Army for around the next year, and thus no potential Watchmen.

"Our new eyes in Purgg has brought our attention to some troubling trends in the Stirhugel - nothing blatant, but the attacks on herds throughout the area are an obvious sign once all the reports are gathered together, even if the locals are attributing it to animal attacks for now. In our opinion, there is something going on there.

"Finally, Gustav," you nod to him with a smile, "has kindly authorized our implementation of an intelligence attaché program; we hope that by the time the army moves into Sylvania we'll have enough well-trained observers alongside them to furnish us with detailed, accurate records of exactly what they encountered and where which we'll be able to analyze to produce all kinds of useful intelligence."

"A mixed bag," he says thoughtfully. "The Stirhugel will probably keep until less busy times, as long as attacks remain restricted to herds. Will you be joining us on our jaunt into Eastern Stirland?"

"Of course," you say automatically. "I mean, if my duties allowed for it."

"Then for the next six months, I task you with preparing yourself. Consider what we may face, and arm yourself accordingly - with weapons, with knowledge, and with magic."

---

"There is a dragon in my Fort," Van Hal says in a tone of voice somewhere between wonder and outrage, as he stares over the keep's battlements.

"You did give Anton a rather free hand in Ostermark."

"I thought he'd come back with a few thousand Tileans with halberds and odd ideas about politics." He shakes his head again, then tears his eyes away. "So, what other news do you have for me?"

"I finally managed to get eyes into Julbach," you report. "There was a reculsive noble from Wurtbad with a home there, though he hasn't been seen in years. Chances are it's my predecessor, but the trail is truly cold by now."

"As expected. If he was still lingering there I'd have you grab him, but I feel it's not worth going out of our way for."

"Gustav's understating the army's casualty figures, though it's probably a personality quirk rather than any attempt to mislead. Still, something to keep in mind."

"Mmm. I'll go to the Generals for accurate figures, then."

You move down the mental list of things you meant to bring up. "If you want, I could write to the Colleges requesting that wizards join to the campaign. They won't come cheap, but a true battle wizard could come in very useful in Sylvania."

"I had considered it. Not for the initial stages of the campaign - the Purge is going to be long, slow, and methodical, which in my experience is poorly suited to most battle wizards. When it's time to march on the castle itself, then..." he hesitates for a moment, his brow furrowing. "Hmm. A formal request from an Elector Count, or an internal request from a fellow wizard... if your Master can recommend someone suitable, I'll have you write to them, otherwise I will."

"Very well. Speaking of the campaign, do you expect we'll face the Von Carstein claiming the title of Elector Countess? I don't have much information, but she has at least one skilled necromancer in her service based upon the spell they were using, so it could turn ugly fairly quickly."

"I would be shocked if there was only one," he replies. "I will be prepared for them, you can be sure of that. And yes, if all goes well, this campaign will be the end of this would-be usurper." He frowns suddenly. "At least I assume that's her intention. I do hope she doesn't see herself as a suitor."

So do you. Hope, that is. "Finally, with the Elector's Meet coming up, I'd like your input on our external intelligence. So far my efforts have been concentrated within Stirland..."

"Mine too," he says with a smile.

"But would you want us to start looking without as well?"

He muses on that for a while, looking at you oddly. "Sometimes I forget how young you are." You open your mouth to reply, but no reply presents itself. He continues on. "Have you fully grasped the fact that you are the second most powerful person in Stirland?" You blink rapidly as you try to take in this sudden change in direction. "Gustav's new to the role. Kasmir was damn near fired. Anton is..." he hesitates, then moves on. "Schultz serves a very specific niche. And Wilhelmina... is a very close third, actually. She's blossomed. But none of them have the combination of abilities, resources, trust and wide-open mandate that you do. And by Sigmar you do the job damn well. But your problem is that you don't believe in yourself to the degree that this job requires you to.

"You have access to all the information I do, and you have the luxury of spending the majority of your time and focus on intrigue, where I am pulled a dozen different ways. There is only one reason for you to ask me that question, rather than reaching a conclusion for yourself: because you lack confidence.

"I wish I had words to instil that confidence in you, but all I can do is tell you that if you allow self-doubt to erode your resolve, you will fail in the duty to Stirland we share. And while I would not hesitate to stand alone and die against all the evils of Sylvania, I would rather have you by my side and win.

"So stop thinking like a journeywoman, and start thinking like the Knight I know you are."

He claps you on the shoulder and leaves you there atop the keep, and you slump against the battlements to process his words.

---

PLAN FOR THIS TURN

ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIONS - pick ONE from EACH of the categories 'Information Network' and 'Stirland Watch':

Information Network - pick ONE (no action expenditure required):
[ ] Expand your information network into another province (choose one)
[ ] Expand your information network into another county or barony (choose one)
[ ] Expand your information network into the military (choose a Division)
[ ] Expand your Intelligence Attaché program to another Division (choose one)
[ ] Off the Leash: Let Julia handle the network without your micromanagement from now on.

Information Network finances - expansion is hobbled by it's dependence on your discretionary income, and so is your budget. Perhaps you can get past that. Can be chosen INSTEAD of a selection from the above.
[ ] Information Broker: Start selling tidbits of information, just enough for your information network to start paying for itself.
[ ] Fixer: Work with the Wurtbad Thieves Guild, supplying them information in exchange for a portion of profits.
[ ] Special Branch: Pull some financial trickery to get the information network classified as part of the Watch, so that their costs are covered by the Stirlandian treasury.
[ ] Trade Delegation: Convince Wilhelmina and Markus to partner your network with the EIC based on the value of market information.

Stirland Watch - pick ONE (no action expenditure required):
[o] Expand the ranks of the Watch, so that they're able to start covering even the poorer parts of their covered area. (cannot be taken until army retirement resumes in one year)
[ ] Expand the Special Branch into areas already covered by the Watch, so you have an additional pool of manpower you can call upon to supplement the full-time Watchmen. (NEW)
[ ] Expand the ranks of the Gong Farmers, both increasing coverage of Wurtbad and expanding it to the other population centers covered by the Watch.
[ ] Improve the training of the Watch, hiring trainers and dedicating paid time each week to sharpening skills.
[ ] Integrate the Roadwarden network of covered areas into the Watch.
[ ] Headhunt administrators from other organizations in Stirland.
[ ] Seek out a new leader for the Watch.

---

PERSONAL ACTIONS - CHOOSE BETWEEN FIVE AND SEVEN. ANY CHOSEN BEYOND THE FIRST FIVE WILL COME WITH RISKS - PLEASE SPECIFY THE 'ADDITIONAL' TASKS:

Miscellany:
[ ] Financial Jargon: Everything with the EIC flew right over your head last time. Try again. Succeeding here will mean that you can take a more active hand in the company, adding it to the organizational actions; failing or not attempting means Mathilde will remain a silent partner.
[ ] Hang Out A Shingle: Spymasters don't advertise, but wizards sometimes do. Make an official announcement that there's a wizard in residence, and see who comes out of the woodwork.
[ ] Formal Proposal: Your idea for an undead research team was received poorly, but Van Hal is still open to the idea in theory. Write in details: Name, who it is technically a part of (Watch, Witch Hunters, Military, College, none), and whether it reports directly to you (becomes a new Organization you command) or, if not, who it would report to.
[ ] Scribe: Anton's sent away to Altdorf for someone that speaks Eltharin. Well, you speak Eltharin. Maybe you can find the time to act as amanuensis for the prince-in-exile, though it would cut into your learning-how-to-not-get-eaten-by-Sylvania time. (NEW)

Self-Improvement: Things have been going well so far, but the skills of a Journeyman Grey Mage can only go so far.
[ ] Practice, Practice, Practice: Having been thrown into the deep end of imperial politics, it would probably be a good idea to brush up on your skills and internalize the lessons you've learned (choose which trait; can be taken multiple times; will be more effective if you've used the trait a lot lately).
[ ] Tutoring: One of your fellow councillors may be willing to teach you in their chosen field (choose who).
[ ] Really Good Swords: You have achieved proficiency with the Greatsword. Future progress is possible, though it will take more effort to see results. (NEW)
[ ] Combat Training: You're virtually surrounded by armed warriors of various sorts. See if you can convince one to teach you (choose who).
[ ] Combat Training, In The Free Market: You haven't made many heavily armed friends yet, but gold is good for that. Go out and buy some training. (-personal gold)
[ ] Enchantment: You're naturally talented at enchantment; so far, this just amounts to being able to make your desk meow for about an hour. See if you can improve on that, or at least figure out a way to make that useful.

Home Comforts: Your Palace-Shrine is bursting with potential. And also mud.
[ ] Diggy Diggy Hole, Remixed: You're getting sick of having workmen tramping in and out of your abode. Recruit an entire team and personally oversee them to clear out all of the reachable portions of the Palace-Shrine and be done with it. (-personal gold)
[ ] Enchantment: You've finally got the equipment, now you've just got to unpack it all and set up your laboratory.
[ ] Filled with Potential: You've got a room cleared out and ready to be put to use. Decide what you're going to put there and get started on equipping it. (write in the purpose of the room)

Research:
[ ] Undead Research: This is Stirland. Time to bone up on your knowledge of the Undead, this time with the addition of Van Hal's personal library.
[ ] Snooping: Van Hal gave you a key to his Study. He didn't specifically say not to poke around and see what you could find.
[ ] Shyish-kebabs: The Shyish swords are hideously dangerous as weapons, but fascinating as a subject of study. Try to reverse-engineer the lost enchantments woven into them.
[ ] Bound Spells: Though the corrosive Dhar made them high-maintenance, the design of the bound spells in the castle's infiltrators has fascinating possibilities. Try to adapt it for use with Ulgu.
[ ] Qhaysh Juice: Whatever it is, it's dripping out of the box at a steady rate. You've got two gallons of the stuff and it's still coming out. It's got to be good for something.
[ ] Qhaysh Skunkworks: It would take careful study to unlock the secrets of the liquid. It would take considerably less time to find out if it can be made to burn, or explode, or do something militarily useful. (NEW)
[ ] As a Journeywoman, the path to Magister is marked by mastering more than the two shadow spells you already know. Send to the Grey Order for the basics and work on figuring out one of the others.

Influence:
[ ] Thieves Guild: It's currently little more than a church group, albeit of a very unconventional god. If it could be expanded under your aegis, it could be a powerful tool.
[ ] Biderhof: This village based on woodcutting and agriculture, has adopted you as one of it's own. Maybe you should adopt it as your own, in a literal sense.
[ ] Non-Thief Guilds: Wurtbad, like all major cities, is home to a number of guilds. Reach out to them and enforce your will.

Relations:
[ ] Getting To Know You: Spend time with one of your fellow councillors or your liege, offering your help in their tasks and generally getting a feel for them (choose one).
[ ] Getting To Know You Whether You Like It Or Not: You've been given good reason to mistrust your fellow councillors. Perhaps you should see what they spent their time doing (choose one).
[ ] Letters Home: You might be able to wring more information out of your Master, or you might just be able to get news, information and guidance in general from the Grey Order.
[ ] Free Time: Now well-established in Wurtbad, you can spend some time in your scant off hours getting to know someone better. Pick one character. (no action required) (can be used to perform Snooping without spending an action)

---

FINANCES: NO ACTION POINT EXPENDITURE.

Personal Income: 60 gold/turn
Discretionary Income: 200 gold/turn
Informer Payroll unlocked

Currently paying Grey College tithe (-6 personal gold/turn)
Currently paying Grey College student loans (-35 personal gold/turn)

Not currently embezzling

Currently funding regional informants (-90 discretionary gold/turn)
Currently funding Watch informants (-10 discretionary gold/turn)
Currently funding EIC informants (-20 discretionary gold/turn)
Currently funding Intelligence Attaché program (-60 discretionary gold/turn)
Currently employing Julia Massif (-30 discretionary gold/turn)
Currently maintaining the staff of a townhouse in Wurtbad (-20 discretionary gold/turn)

[ ] Begin plumping the informer rolls (choose ratio of real:fake informers. Almost impossible to detect, but also very difficult to increase or decrease the amount quickly)
[ ] Change tithe payment/loan payment/embezzlement (specify)
[ ] These agents are getting expensive. Write up a proposal for your discretionary budget to be increased, instead of waiting for Van Hal to decide to increase it. (warning: attracts oversight to your current budget)

---

- Last turn I rolled for Anton's mercenary recruitment efforts to see who came back to the Fort with him; this week I rolled his diplomatic efforts in Ostermark, and now Ostermark is going all in.
- For those ready to beatify Anton, I will remind you that his efforts in Talabecland resulted in one notch above doing nothing. His dice aren't
always ridiculous.
- Technically,
Lingua Praestantia is more often known as 'Magick'. With a K. I refuse to use it because it is dumb.
- Just as I finally get done with figuring out the knock-on effects of Anton, Gustav nat 100s the drilling and I have to go research cavalry tactics.
- A write-in order from Van Hal, but as it was due to rather unpredictable circumstances, there was no relationship loss.
- A matter on the side: I invite the thread to suggest musics best suited for Mathilde's training montage. Excellence in one's suggestion may result in the granting of A Boon; the exact details of a Boon will be disclosed only to the recipient. And before anyone tries: No Rocky, and no Team America. Limit one per person, once you submit one you're locked out of further submissions, and for god's sake please at least glance at the lyrics and spend more than a couple of seconds thinking about it's suitability.
- Voting will be in Plan Format; don't forget Ranald's Blessing.
 
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I'll Make a Gish Out of You
I invite the thread to suggest musics best suited for Mathilde's training montage.
I'll Make a Man Gish Out of You - Mulan

Let's get down to business, to defeat the Dead
Did they send me zeroes, when I asked for ones?
You're the saddest bunch I ever met
But you can bet before we're through
Mister, I'll make a gish out of you

Tranquil as a new moon but illumined within
Once you find your center, you are sure to win
You're a spineless, pale, pathetic lot
And you haven't got a clue
Somehow I'll make a gish out of you

I'm never gonna catch my breath
Say goodbye to those who knew me
Boy, was I a fool in school for cutting gym
This guy's got 'em scared to death
Hope he doesn't see right through me
Now I really wish that I knew how to swing

Be a gish
We must be swift as the galloping nightmare
Be a gish
With all the force of a jump dragoon
Be a gish
With all the strength of a raging gryphon
Mysterious as the dark side of the moon

Time is racing toward us till the Purges arrive
Heed my every order and you might survive
You're unsuited for the rage of war
So pack up, go home, you're through
How could I make a gish out of you?

Be a gish
We must be swift as the galloping nightmare
Be a gish
With all the force of a jump dragoon
Be a gish
With all the strength of a raging gryphon
Mysterious as the dark side of the moon

Be a gish
We must be swift as the galloping nightmare
Be a gish
With all the force of a jump dragoon
Be a gish
With all the strength of a raging gryphon
Mysterious as the dark side of the moon
 
Elector Count Quest AU OP
Decided to write up what an OP of the Elector Count AU quest might have looked like from the perspective of Abelhelm van Hal's players.

.
Somewhere in a parallell universe, user MoneyB wrote:

Uncertain Loyalties - an Advisors Quest
Within the borders of the Empire of Man, the Elector Counts are among the highest of nobility, second only to the Emperor and - arguably, very arguably - the High Priests. Their word is all but law over the countless thousands of souls within their province.

In theory, at least.

In practice, many of them are constrained a thousand ways by the chains of command. Obligations of law and custom, duties to Emperor and to subjects, treaties with other Elector Counts and with foreign nations, gods-damned paperwork, outbreaks of orcs and undead and chaos cultists and other threats demanding immediate response at the cost of attending to practically everything else, shortages of money and manpower, the endless bickering of petty nobles wanting you to adjudicate, and simple inability to be everywhere at once means that even Elector Counts are sharply constrained in the extent of their rule. Needing to sleep doesn't help either. And some have it even worse than this.

Like you. What made you particularly unsuited to be Elector Count?

[] SPARE TO THE THRONE
Your first brother, taken by the plague. Your sister, abdicated after scarce two years and already withering with stress. Your second brother, killed in a hunting accident. You were not expected to take the throne, and know only the very basics of ruling, being twice inexperienced for your youth as well as lack of proper tutoring. You're not young enough to formally need a regency, but that won't stop some of your older advisors trying to regence on your behalf anyway.

[❌] WAR HERO
With the previous dynasty of Elector Counts in this province having come to an untimely end, the Electors came together in a special meeting to find a replacement. After a week of factioning around their own friends, they settled on you as a compromise candidate: a veteran warrior, well-decorated, known for dutiful loyalty to the Empire and stalwart rectitude, if perhaps rather unimaginative and unsuited to politicking.

[] SICKNESS UNTO DEATH
During the first year of your nominal reign, you took ill and fell into a coma. On death's door, preparations for the succession were already being made when a Jade Wizard intervened to say you would live and not die, so there was a regency. It lasted rather longer than planned. Two years later, you are finally conscious enough to carry out the duties of office, but still dreadfully weak, and your nominal subordinates and advisors have gotten used to getting their own way without your meddling.

[] LETHAL JOKE CANDIDATE
The last Elector Count was a little odd. When he returned a favour you performed for him by adopting you into his household, people shrugged. When he seemed to be infertile (or frigid?), people started to worry. When he died and his last will explicitly specified that the position should pass to you as though you were the son of his body, people objected quite loudly... but in the end, decided that you were probably better than risking a civil war.

[] THE FOP
Rank is supposed to be a privilege, not a responsibility! Court is for enjoying oneself. The flattery may be insincere, but does it really matter as long as they keep it up? In your view, your power and position are supposed to be for occasionally taking the visionary decisions that earn you glory and a place in the history books, not this constant stream of unimportant bullshit. Surely there's someone you could hand such things off to.

[ ] CORRUPTION
Loyalty to the darker powers has great costs, but greater rewards. Or was it the other way around?
Choice of Chaos (access to blessings of Chaos) or Vampire Counts (access to Necromancy and Vampirism); the downsides to such things are as obvious as they are numerous. You will have to be fairly reclusive.

In CK2 quests, you have your advisors, a handful of descriptive lines updated every half a decade or so that regularly spit out three or more neat little options for how to improve your lot in life. They are almost always trusted implicitly even among the most paranoid of threads unless they're described as twirling a moustache and carving chaotic sigils into the meeting room table, and I wondered what their life was like when they weren't delivering their annual reports. Do they truly have no desire other than to serve you, or do they have murkier motivations than their lord ever sees?
So in this quest, advisors will be a lot more important. Your advisors will all be fully statted characters who have attributes of their own and motivations divergent from yours, and you'll be playing the nominal boss who is very limited in 1) capacity to act, 2) your knowledge of the advisors, 3) the advisors' loyalty to you. Most state actions will have to be performed by asking one of your advisors to do them. How well they perform will depend on their attributes, not yours. You start out not knowing their attributes, either, until you take investigation actions. Worse, if your advisors are disloyal they might not do what you ask at all, just lie to you or pocket the money and run. And one of the things that will make them disloyal is - micromanagement. Your advisors, based on their own motivations and abilities, will present three or more options of their own choosing that they propose to do as projects each turn. You can order a write-in, but you are encouraged to choose from among their proposals, because a write-in implies you don't trust their judgment in their field of expertise.

So now it's time to see how you do when things are out of your hands and you're dependent on unknown NPCs. Will you select for competence first, or loyalty? Will you leave your advisors to get up to mischief, or look over their shoulders constantly? Will you try to buy friendship with gold, or will that just invite greed and corruption? Is a little nepotism and embezzlement an acceptable price to pay for an otherwise skilled councilor?

Traditionally, there are six advisors in an Elector Count's privy council, each serving a very different role, but all functioning as the Count's hands in some important domain. Most of these positions start out having been filled outside your control. Short of outright treason, it is very hard to remove any of your advisors, as the others will view this as a threat to their position and power too. But you get to ensure that at least one person starts out loyal to you and not entirely incompetent. Choose the position you have been so fortunate as to be able to influence initially.

[ ] Martial: The Marshal is in charge of military matters, making it the most important position to fill with a trustworthy subordinate. Having a rogue Marshal could mean the decline of your entire army, crime waves and rampant smuggling, the invasion of your province from without, or a coup from within if the Marshal gets ambitious and wins the loyalty of your troops, something he's well placed to do.

[ ] Diplomacy: The Chancellor is responsible for contact both within and without, making it the most important position to fill with a trustworthy subordinate. Having a rogue Chancellor could leave you isolated from everyone from the Emperor to the peasantry. Worse, the Chancellor's silver tongue makes them the greatest risk for suborning other members of your Privy Council too.

[❌] Stewardship: The Steward is responsible for taxes and the economy, making it the most important position to fill with a trustworthy subordinate. A trustworthy Steward means you can hire replacements for any failures, and if you can't buy friendship, well, you can least rent it. But a rogue Steward will fill their pockets at the expense of your treasury, leaving you unable to do important things like pay soldiers.

[ ] Intrigue: The Spymaster is the master of soft power in the realm, making it the most important position to fill with a trustworthy subordinate. Having a rogue Spymaster means having little idea what plots and plans are going at best, if your Spymaster is merely idle or incompetent. At worst, the Spymaster may start actively plotting against you.

[] Faith: The Chaplain is responsible for the souls of an entire province, making it the most important position to fill with a trustworthy subordinate. Where the other advisors can merely steal from you or hurt you, a rogue Chaplain might see you excommunicated, the memory of your name erased, or your people fallen to Chaos.

[] Learning: The most nebulous of all the roles, this role is usually filled based on the Elector Count's desires and prejudices, making it the most important position to fill with a trustworthy subordinate. This is the post of court wizards and witch hunters, Leonardo da Miragliano and other geniuses and madmen, innovators and reformers with the greatest amount of leeway for grand and unusual projects. A skilled and loyal Philosopher (title varies) might catapult your entire province to greatness; a rogue one might blow up your castle and burn down your city, on accident or on purpose.

Finally, in what province have you come into power?

(Province vote elided because it would be too short on interesting content and too much copypasta of the actual OP. If this post seems incongruous with the other Elector Count apocrypha, it's because "Part 1" was written first as a one-off joke and this OP came later with more knowledge.)
 
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Turn 11 Results - 2475
Winning Vote:

[*] Plan Practical Combat and Magic
-[*] Expand your Intelligence Attaché program to another Division (choose a Division)
--[*] Fourth Division
-[*] Expand the ranks of the Gong Farmers, both increasing coverage of Wurtbad and expanding it to the other population centers covered by the Watch.
-[*] Tutoring: One of your fellow councillors may be willing to teach you in their chosen field (choose who).
--[*] Gustav
-[*] Undead Research: This is Stirland. Time to bone up on your knowledge of the Undead, this time with the addition of Van Hal's personal library.
-[*] Bound Spells: Though the corrosive Dhar made them high-maintenance, the design of the bound spells in the castle's infiltrators has fascinating possibilities. Try to adapt it for use with Ulgu.
-[*] As a Journeywoman, the path to Magister is marked by mastering more than the two shadow spells you already know. Send to the Grey Order for the basics and work on figuring out one of the others.
--[*] Take No Heed
--[*] Burning Shadows
---[*] Ranald's Blessing
-[*] Free Time: Now well-established in Wurtbad, you can spend some time in your scant off hours getting to know someone better. Pick one character. (no action required) (can be used to perform Snooping without spending an action)
--[*] Gustav



It's not what I expected would win, but the lyrics are incredibly suitable and actually a little dark in the context of a Warhammer wizard. I looked up the song: it was written to be the training montage music in a movie called No Retreat No Surrender, about a teenager who is trained by the ghost of Bruce Lee to stop Jean Claude Van Damme from taking over all the dojos in America. The eighties were a magical time. The entire movie is on Youtube if you want to experience it for yourself. The winner, @HanEmpire, has been granted their Boon, and has decided the form it will take; if they wish they may share the details of it, but the thread is not to badger them for it if they decide to keep it to themselves. Do know, however, that they were explicitly forbidden to seek the thread's help with deciding the Boon.


---

In the coming years, very much will rely on Gustav. Your past investigation of him revealed that he was a suitable if not outstanding candidate, but there's no way to tell if he'll flourish or flail with thirty thousand lives resting on his shoulders. So, you reason, there's two possibilities: either he'll rise to the occassion and therefore will be worth learning from, or he'll be a burden in the near future and will need a very close eye kept on him. Either way, you'll benefit from having spent time with him now.

That reasoned out, you approach him one morning in the dining room of Fort Redemption's keep, and say to him: "Gustav, I would like you to teach me to be a better warrior."

He looks up from his breakfast of bread, sausage and cheese. "Hmf. You are an odd one. Known a wizard or two in my time, and none of 'em like you - but then, none of them were your colour." He carefully cuts a piece of sausage and chews on it while he thinks. "You left that vague on purpose, I suppose?"

"Yes. Whatever you think is most important."

"Hmm. Hell of a question, that is. Ask fifty fighters, get fifty answers." He thinks it over for a while, munching his way through the rest of his sausage. "Suppose that was your intention. That ghost horse of yours, it only does what you want it to, right?"

"That's right."

"Damned useful, that. Half of training a cavalryman is teaching him how to get his horse to cooperate." He puts down his knife and fork and strokes his moustache thoughtfully, and then nods at the scabbard on your back. "I've seen you training with that thing, you seem to be decent at it, so I won't try to argue you into using a nice sensible saber instead. But here's something a lot of young would-be warriors die learning: there's many a thing in this world you cannot win against once they get at blade's length. There's no amount of training that will make you stronger than a minotaur or faster than a vampire or bendier than an elf. For things like that," he pats his hip, "you shoot them. Sure, there's a lot of things that won't die to a bullet, but nothing that fights better with a bullet in them." He takes a long drink out of the wooden mug, then stands. "Let's go. No better time to start than in the dawn light."

---

You'd think it was simple - point it at the target and pull. But it turns out there's more to it than that, and as you send hundreds of rounds through the spare pistols from the Pistolier regiments, if it weren't for Gustav's instructions progress would have been agonizingly slow. Every time he visits you at the earthen bank used as a firing range, he has you fire a few shots, corrects some small thing that surely wouldn't make a difference, but sure enough you're that much closer to the target. After a few months of daily practice, you're hitting a target the size of a man's torso reliably at twenty yards, a puff of sinister-looking fog arising from each impact. You're happy with the progress you've made, but you're aware that to truly call yourself proficient, you have to start doing so without taking time to line up a shot. In what little free time he has, you spend time with the man, getting to know him better while picking his mind further; while a master of light cavalry, you're starting to get the impression that as a Marshal, he's out of his depth. Time will tell, you suppose.

[1-10 Saber, 11-40 Pistols, 41-70 Rifles, 71-85 Leadership, 86-100 Military Tactics: 29, 46. Both rolls are firearms, so he will focus entirely on the first.]
[Learning roll: Martial, Breakpoints 20/50/80, 35+11=47.]
[Teaching roll: Martial, Breakpoints 20/50/80, 69+16=85.]

Your days are also filled with reading; both of the few as-yet-unread books of undead lore that the Colleges are willing to loan out, and of the very heavily encrypted spell-scrolls delivered directly to your hand by a harried apprentice with stern instructions to burn them after reading. They are densely packed with intricate and jargon-heavy instructions in the language of the Colleges, so it's doubtful any thief could even begin to understand them even if they could crack the code, but you take the warning to heart anyway.

Take No Heed is in an interesting spell. Where Mindhole assaults the mind of your target, Take No Heed changes you in such a way that you slip right through the minds of all but the most attentive or the strongest of will. One morning, you're sitting in what may be the only quiet corner in Fort Redemption - the 4th has arrived, and though a number of tents have been set up outside the walls there's still nearly twenty-five thousand men inside them - when Gustav stumbles across you on his way to one of his innumerable other duties, and evidently finds himself curious enough to delay them. As he approaches and asks what's consuming your attention, you're grateful that you don't have to make up a lie about what you're reading - you left your other reading materials in Wurtbad. You pat the small pile of reading material beside you. "The scrolls are from my Master, instructing me in spells; the books are on the topic of the Undead, and how to destroy them."

He looks torn between wariness and curiosity at that. "Spells, eh? Anything useful?"

You close your eyes and let Ulgu flow into you, and take a pinch of nothing, and release it into the air, disturbing its fall with a few gestures and whispering a few mystical words. "Turn around and walk ten paces, then turn and return back to me."

He gives you a quizzical look, but does so; when he turns back around, his eyes look back and forth, and rest on you for a moment before passing by. Then he frowns, thinks, shakes his head and looks back at you, then returns to you. "That was bloody odd," he says. "I could clearly see that there was a person there, but I didn't notice anything about them, and it didn't occur to me to pay any attention to them until I stopped and thought about it and reasoned that you must be that person."

You smile. "It's not quite invisibility, and it fails if against the strong-willed and the determined, but it should prove useful."

---

Burning Shadows is not so easily demonstrated on a live target, but you can practice on scrolls from your Master and reports from Julia that need destroying anyway. It's more complex than any spell you've ever attempted, and the typical material component is the poison known as Black Lotus, and is ruinously expensive and sourced from half a world away besides. And you don't know enough about pharmacology to find a local source you could harvest yourself.

So you find yourself hunched over a candle night after night, trying to instil magic into the the shadows your hands cast. Doing so at all is easy - Ulgu needs little encouragement to fill the shadows - but to have it turn corrosive is an entirely new skill. It's only after long weeks of effort that the scrolls that you're targeting start to blacken where your shadow falls, but once you've learned the knack of it, it grows in effect by leaps and bounds, and soon the parchment is turning to liquid where your shadow falls, and leaving nasty stains and burns on your writing desk.

The tricky part, both magically and mechanically, is distance. Within about twenty yards, it's simple enough to both cast the shadow and instil it with the required effect, but beyond that it takes a brighter light and greater concentration. You practice at night from the watchtowers of the Fort, where a shadow thrown by a torch can go for hundreds of yards; it takes commensurately more time and concentration to perform, but with enough time and concentration you manage to blacken the shape of your hand into a large patch of grass at just under two hundred yards. Now that could come in handy.

[Learning Take No Heed: Learning, Req 60, 93+16=109.]
[Learning Burning Shadows: Learning, Req 70, 58+16=74.]
[Burning Shadows at a distance, Roll, 30+16+20 (Ranald's Blessing)+9 (rollover from Take No Heed)=75.]

You also spend some time trying to recreate the bound spells back from the business with the infiltrators; sadly, with almost three years passed you spend most of your time trying to recall hazy details. Weeks of concentration and meditation refreshes the memory of the spell's structure in your mind, but your attempts to divine how it works so you can start to replicate it with Ulgu instead of Dhar are frustrated at every turn. You don't even have the enchantment vocabulary to keep notes. All you can do is hold a picture of the spell's structure in your mind, and you know it will fade with time. If you had more time or more general knowledge or if the memories were fresher, you know you could manage this, but with so many other priorities you eventually have to put it aside.

More prosaic is your continued readings into the restless dead. With your upcoming excursion into Sylvania, your Master appears to have pulled some strings and had the College library send a few of their more restricted tomes, along with the usual dire warning as to what would happen if you were to lose them. Explanations into the magical side of the undead are conspicuously absent, but there's still a great deal of data, sometimes contradictory and pulled from a thousand sources though it may be. By the time you finish reading your way through the document, you're ready to put the finishing touch on the paperwork for your Intelligence Attachés, refining it down to a single page of twenty questions that, if answered accurately, would allow the knowledgeable - such as you - to identify the form of undead as reliably as if they had seen it themselves. You have the finished form delivered to Julia, who takes a moment away from her expansion of the Attachés into the 4th Division to commission some time from a printing press in Altdorf, and soon enough you have a stack of forms taller than you to be distributed to every officer in the Army of Stirland.

[Bound Spell reverse engineering: Breakpoints 50/70, Learning, 58+16-20 (two full years passed)=54. Time penalty reset.]
[Studying the Undead: Breakpoints 20/50/80, Learning, 86+16=102.]

---

Before you threw yourself into training in earnest, you empowered the former leader of the Guild of Nightsoilmen and the de facto leader of the equivalent branch of the Watch to increase their ranks and scope, and now it is your unfortunate fate to have to read the report this produced; you really must see about getting a leader for it one of these days. The report says that recruitment was easier than expected; that it was on the government payroll meant that it was seen as a more stable and legitimate occupation than when it was an independent guild, though it was still necessary to offer slightly more pay than usual for unskilled labour to make up for the obvious downsides of the job. They also found no trouble expanding alongside the Watch, absorbing local guilds in Worden and Purgg and bringing new but badly needed services to the villages.

The end result is impressive - it's still not close to making the Watch revenue-neutral but it is defraying a significant portion of the costs. And depending how the next few months go, Stirland might badly need every shilling.

Your other reports make for easier reading, as information from all over Stirland flows to you:
- The mood across Stirland is acceptable as rumour of the Purge's ambitions spread, split between those that think that Van Hal's ambition is going to lead to a lot of deaths and those that think that finally putting a Witch Hunter in charge might allow actual process in pushing back the Dead.
- Morale in the 2nd is high, though only average in the 4th.
- Events in the Stirhugel came to a head much faster than you expected, with the Watchmen in Ohlsdorf managing to pick up a trail of whatever it was that was preying on the sheep. To the relief of everyone involved, it turned out to be mere bandits; the Watchmen went back to Ohlsdorf, deputized a number of the burly locals with strong opinions about the theft of livestock, and led them into the camp with sword and bludgeon. Those that survived the assault were subjected to swift and merciless trial, and had already been hanged by the time a report had been prepared. The rural folk of Western Stirland take a very dim view of rustlers.
- The Knights promised by Talabecland are on the way; when the report was written, they were in Wurtbad, so they're likely at least at Halstedt by now.
- The Attachés to the 4th was mostly without problem, though with no retirees coming out of the Army of Stirland she had to cannibalize the Watch for recruits. Their numbers are now stretched worryingly thin, and they may be less effective until numbers are brought back up to a good place.

In closer news, the would-be scribe that arrived from the University of Altdorf didn't manage to perform the duty expected of him; the banished Prince quickly grew sick of being asked to explain things every few minutes and sent the scholar packing. As a member in good standing of the University of Altdorf's longstanding rival, it pleases you to see one of them humbled, but as someone that was looking forward to reading the end result it's more than a little frustrating. A shame, but then, you have more pressing concerns than elf stories.

---

Information Network: Intelligence Attaché attached to 4th Division.
Stirland Watch: Gong Farmers have now expanded into every city the Watch has a presence in, and will continue to do so automatically if/when administrative staff or a Leader is acquired.
Acquired skill - Pistols: Advanced.
Take No Heed learned!
Burning Shadows learned!
Undead Lore proficiency achieved!
Weapon acquired: pistol.

---

Discretionary Income: +200g
Regional informants: -90g
Watch informants: -10g
EIC informants: -20g
Julia: -30g
Townhouse staff: -20g
Literacy lessons: -10g
Attaché program: -120g
---
Net: -100g

Personal Income: +50g
Estate Profit: +10g
Tithe: -6g
Student Loans: -35g
---
Net: +19g

---

There is no formal meeting of the council this month; there may not be one for quite some time. You've delivered written reports to Van Hal, though you're not sure if he's been able to read them - he's been entirely occupied with the finishing touches to the plans for the Purge, and in a rare minute you manged to snatch with him he said to use your judgement and then hurried off. You did manage to get informal updates on everyone's progress - Wilhelmina and Kasmir have the 1st provisioned and serviced by Chaplains, Gustav is happy with the preparedness of the men, and Schultz's road is long-finished and he's putting the last touches on a rather uninspired siege train. You even have a rare chance to talk to Anton as he returns from Zhufbar; they're apparently quite pleased, in their understated Dwarvish way, that the manlings are taking action against the blasted dead, but they're too engaged in battle with some sort of beastmen in their lower hold and the greenskins in their immediate surrounds to sally forth in the immediate future. Then he's off again to Averland.

As thirty thousand men break camp and prepare to march, you consider your own path for the coming months. You itch to join them, though you're not sure if that's the best use of your time. Will the initial push into the Hills be more or less frantic than later on? Would it be useful for you to be personally present for every yard of five thousand square miles of purging?

---

PLAN FOR THIS PURGE TURN

ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIONS - pick ONE from the category 'Information Network' and NONE from 'Stirland Watch':
The Stirland Watch actions can still be taken with personal actions; the action chosen for the Information Network will be their direction for the next three Purge Turns.

Information Network - pick ONE (no action expenditure required):
[ ] Expand your information network into another province (choose one)
[ ] Expand your information network into another county or barony (choose one)
[ ] Expand your information network into the military (choose a Division)
[ ] Expand your Intelligence Attaché program to another Division (choose one)
[ ] Off the Leash: Let Julia handle the network without your micromanagement from now on.

Information Network finances - can be chosen INSTEAD of a selection from the above.
[ ] Attaché Paperwork: The Intelligence Attachés are your biggest expense by far - see if you can have them paid for by the Army of Stirland instead.
[ ] Information Broker: Start selling tidbits of information, just enough for your information network to start paying for itself.
[ ] Fixer: Work with the Wurtbad Thieves Guild, supplying them information in exchange for a portion of profits.
[ ] Special Branch: Pull some financial trickery to get the information network classified as part of the Watch, so that their costs are covered by the Stirlandian treasury.
[ ] Trade Delegation: Convince Wilhelmina and Markus to partner your network with the EIC based on the value of market information.

Stirland Watch - pick ONE (no action expenditure required):
[o] Expand the ranks of the Watch, so that they're able to start covering even the poorer parts of their covered area. (cannot be taken until army retirement resumes in one year)
[ ] Expand the Special Branch into areas already covered by the Watch, so you have an additional pool of manpower you can call upon to supplement the full-time Watchmen.
[ ] Improve the training of the Watch, hiring trainers and dedicating paid time each week to sharpening skills.
[ ] Integrate the Roadwarden network of covered areas into the Watch.
[ ] Headhunt administrators from other organizations in Stirland.
[ ] Seek out a new leader for the Watch.

---

PERSONAL ACTIONS - CHOOSE BETWEEN TWO AND THREE. ANY CHOSEN BEYOND THE FIRST TWO WILL COME WITH RISKS - PLEASE SPECIFY THE 'ADDITIONAL' TASK:

Genießt den Krieg - join the divisions entering Sylvania:
[ ] Attach yourself to the general staff, so you can be present for anything interesting that might happen and keep a finger on the pulse of the war.
[ ] Attach yourself to a specific regiment so you can spend some time in the thick of things.

Miscellany:
[ ] Financial Jargon: Everything with the EIC flew right over your head last time. Try again. Succeeding here will mean that you can take a more active hand in the company, adding it to the organizational actions; failing or not attempting means Mathilde will remain a silent partner.
[ ] Hang Out A Shingle: Spymasters don't advertise, but wizards sometimes do. Make an official announcement that there's a wizard in residence, and see who comes out of the woodwork.
[ ] Formal Proposal: Your idea for an undead research team was received poorly, but Van Hal is still open to the idea in theory. Write in details: Name, who it is technically a part of (Watch, Witch Hunters, Military, College, none), and whether it reports directly to you (becomes a new Organization you command) or, if not, who it would report to.
[ ] Scribe: Altdorf's scribe did not get on well with the Prince. He's going to be rather busy with burning things, but maybe that'll put him in a better mood if you offer your own services. (NEW-ish)
[ ] Gun Shopping: You're currently using a pistol that was a spare for the pistoliers. Visit Nuln to upgrade. (Choose: dueling pistols for accuracy and range, repeater pistols for weight of fire, dragons for hand shotguns. Choose: whether you will acquire and use two pistols at once or keep one hand free.) (NEW)
[ ] Write up a proposal for Wilhelmina to approve a short-term increase in Discretionary Income, for the duration of the crisis. (NEW)

Self-Improvement: Things have been going well so far, but the skills of a Journeyman Grey Mage can only go so far.
[ ] Practice, Practice, Practice: Having been thrown into the deep end of imperial politics, it would probably be a good idea to brush up on your skills and internalize the lessons you've learned (choose which trait; can be taken multiple times; will be more effective if you've used the trait a lot lately).

[ ] Tutoring: One of your fellow councillors may be willing to teach you in their chosen field (choose who; can choose which, or you can let them decide).
[ ] Really Good Swords: You have achieved proficiency with the Greatsword. Future progress is possible, though it will take more effort to see results.
[ ] Pistols at Dawn: You've taken some great strides in an entirely new form of combat, but you're still not entirely proficient. Finish your training. (NEW)
[ ] Combat Training: You're virtually surrounded by armed warriors of various sorts. See if you can convince one to teach you (choose who).
[ ] Combat Training, In The Free Market: You haven't made many heavily armed friends yet, but gold is good for that. Go out and buy some training. (-personal gold)
[ ] Enchantment: You're naturally talented at enchantment; so far, this just amounts to being able to make your desk meow for about an hour. See if you can improve on that, or at least figure out a way to make that useful.

Home Comforts: Your Palace-Shrine is bursting with potential. And also mud.
[ ] Diggy Diggy Hole, Remixed: You're getting sick of having workmen tramping in and out of your abode. Recruit an entire team and personally oversee them to clear out all of the reachable portions of the Palace-Shrine and be done with it. (-personal gold)
[ ] Enchantment: You've finally got the equipment, now you've just got to unpack it all and set up your laboratory.
[ ] Filled with Potential: You've got a room cleared out and ready to be put to use. Decide what you're going to put there and get started on equipping it. (write in the purpose of the room)

Research:
[ ] Undead Research: You know the basics, now. Perhaps a great deal of effort will allow you to advance further. (NEW)
[ ] Snooping: Van Hal gave you a key to his Study. He didn't specifically say not to poke around and see what you could find.
[ ] Shyish-kebabs: The Shyish swords are hideously dangerous as weapons, but fascinating as a subject of study. Try to reverse-engineer the lost enchantments woven into them.
[ ] Bound Spells: Though the corrosive Dhar made them high-maintenance, the design of the bound spells in the castle's infiltrators has fascinating possibilities. The memories had faded but you've managed to refresh them. Try to adapt it for use with Ulgu. (NEW-ish)
[ ] Qhaysh Juice: Whatever it is, it's dripping out of the box at a steady rate. You've got two gallons of the stuff and it's still coming out. It's got to be good for something.
[ ] Qhaysh Skunkworks: It would take careful study to unlock the secrets of the liquid. It would take considerably less time to find out if it can be made to burn, or explode, or do something militarily useful. (NEW)
[ ] As a Journeywoman, the path to Magister is marked by mastering more than the two shadow spells you already know. Send to the Grey Order for the basics and work on figuring out one of the others.

Influence:
[ ] Thieves Guild: It's currently little more than a church group, albeit of a very unconventional god. If it could be expanded under your aegis, it could be a powerful tool.
[ ] Biderhof: This village based on woodcutting and agriculture, has adopted you as one of it's own. Maybe you should adopt it as your own, in a literal sense.
[ ] Non-Thief Guilds: Wurtbad, like all major cities, is home to a number of guilds. Reach out to them and enforce your will.

Relations:
[ ] Getting To Know You: Spend time with one of your fellow councillors or your liege, offering your help in their tasks and generally getting a feel for them (choose one).
[ ] Getting To Know You Whether You Like It Or Not: You've been given good reason to mistrust your fellow councillors. Perhaps you should see what they spent their time doing (choose one).
[ ] Letters Home: You might be able to wring more information out of your Master, or you might just be able to get news, information and guidance in general from the Grey Order.
[o] Free Time: Now well-established in Wurtbad, you can spend some time in your scant off hours getting to know someone better. Pick one character. (not possible during Purge Turns)

---

FINANCES: NO ACTION POINT EXPENDITURE.

Personal Income: 60 gold/turn
Discretionary Income: 200 gold/turn
Informer Payroll unlocked

Currently paying Grey College tithe (-6 personal gold/turn)
Currently paying Grey College student loans (-35 personal gold/turn)

Not currently embezzling

Currently funding regional informants (-90 discretionary gold/turn)
Currently funding Watch informants (-10 discretionary gold/turn)
Currently funding EIC informants (-20 discretionary gold/turn)
Currently funding Intelligence Attaché program (-120 discretionary gold/turn)
Currently employing Julia Massif (-30 discretionary gold/turn)
Currently maintaining the staff of a townhouse in Wurtbad (-20 discretionary gold/turn)

Totals:
+19 personal gold/turn
-90 discretionary gold/turn

Bills will be paid every third Purge Turn. You can go into 'debt'; normally this would draw negative attention as you defer payments and take on loans in Stirland's name, but during the Purge it is to be expected; if you make good by the end of the turn immediately following the end of the War, all will be well.

[ ] Begin plumping the informer rolls (choose ratio of real:fake informers. Almost impossible to detect, but also very difficult to increase or decrease the amount quickly)
[ ] Change tithe payment/loan payment/embezzlement (specify)
[o] These agents are getting expensive. Write up a proposal for your discretionary budget to be increased, instead of waiting for Van Hal to decide to increase it. (Van Hal does not have the attention to spare)

- Welcome to the Purge. Each Purge Turn will be two months; you get two actions per turn and Julia will get an action every three turns. Feedback and oversight will be at best utterly minimal and more likely nonexistent; if there ever was a time for boldness, or to try to get away with something, it is now.
- Size comparisons: the Haunted Hills, at about 5000 square miles, are about the size of Connecticut or Northern Ireland, and makes up about a quarter of Sylvania. While we're at it, Stirland (without Sylvania) is about 80k square miles, or the size of Kansas or Austria. Squinting at a map of the Empire gives me a figure of about 650k square miles - Alaska, or two and a half Texases, or two Germanies.
- If you use a personal action to get a leader for the Watch, they'll be able to take actions on their own like the Information Network is during times like this.
- If you venture into Sylvania, you will be accompanied at all times by your bodyguard platoon of 25 greatswords.
- I didn't give you a Mastery for Take No Heed despite the crit because it didn't occur 'in the field' - you can't develop a deeper understanding of it while learning it by rote from scrolls.
- What you learned of Gustav has already been added to the
Dramatis Personae threadmark.
- Ranald's Blessing will still be available, but will have a lesser effect during these turns.
- Note that there's two sets of finances in the post, which could get confusing. The first set is the finances for this turn; the second is the projected income and costs for next turn.
 
Last edited:
Purge of the Haunted Hills - Nachgeheim, 2475
Winning Vote:

[X] Plan The Front Don't Need Us Yet
-[X][Intel] Information Broker: Start selling tidbits of information, just enough for your information network to start paying for itself.
-[X][Personal] Seek out a new leader for the Watch.
-[X][Personal] Scribe: Altdorf's scribe did not get on well with the Prince. He's going to be rather busy with burning things, but maybe that'll put him in a better mood if you offer your own services. (NEW-ish)
--[X] Ranald's Blessing(if available)

---

It surprises you to find Wurtbad unchanged as you ride in. Thirty thousand men are marching to war and ten thousand more just outside the walls are prepared to join them, and Wurtbad is as it always was. The Watchmen at the gate salute as you pass, and your shadowhorse barely draws a glance from the citizenry, long accustomed as they are to your comings and goings.

You allow your horse to dissipate as you enter the townhouse that is the public face of the Information Network of Stirland. Stirland's coffers are strained by the war, and so are your discretionary funds - at the current rate your funds will be exhausted within three to four months, and at that point you'll have to start dipping into your personal funds, which would negate the whole purpose of having embezzled them in the first place.

"Madam," Julia greets you from her chaise longue, where she is skimming through files with an air of relaxed authority while tended to by a cloud of retainers she'd imported from Flensburg. She waves an air and in an instant all but one of them has left, who stands beside Julia, looking off to one side. "What news from the front?" You eye the remaining retainer, and Julia smiles. "This is Madeline, completely deaf and completely loyal. You can speak freely."

You consider testing it, but then, you hired Julia so you didn't have to micromanage things like that. You take a seat across from her. "Let's talk finances."

"Oh good," Julia says. "Gold has been flowing out like water and we're rapidly approaching a drought, I'm sure you're aware."

She has mentioned it a time or two... in every single report to you for the past year. "I am. Information brokerage is the solution I want to discuss."

She takes up a slate, scrawls on it with a piece of chalk, and then taps the girl on the elbow to get her attention; the girl peers at it and then disappears into the next room. "Hmm. It's not an immediate solution to our money troubles but it will at least put off the trouble for a few years - I've been collecting little bits and pieces for this eventuality. Limits?"

"Nothing that hurts Stirland, of course. Nothing that would empower competitors to the EIC, for obvious reasons." You consider further. "Nothing that would destabilize Western Stirland - with Flensburg sorted out, Anton's father happy and Wolfsbach and Franzen occupied with the upcoming marriage and their joint riverine ventures, everything's just how Stirland wants it." She smiles at that - you wonder how well her family is doing of late. "I'll give you a free hand in the rest of Stirland - just don't destabilize Central and Southern Stirland at the same time. We will need supply lines to remain open."

"Got it," she says, scribbling notes on the slate. "I take it that playing with internal Flensburg politics would be okay? I'd be propping up my own family, naturally, but also get a profit from playing the other families against each other." You nod, and she grins. "Shall we expand specifically for this? Our current agents aren't ideally placed to locate juicy gossip..."

You think for a moment. "We need to be trending towards the black. If your collected information brings in enough of a lump sum, you can reinvest some of it in new agents, but otherwise work with what we've got."

"Got it." Madeline comes back into the room, hands you a cool glass filled with some sort of... fruity-smelling cordial, and passes a folder to Julia, who skims through it with a smile. "Anything else I can help you with?"

"Maybe. Do you know a good candidate for a leader for the Watch?" You take a sip of the drink - it's quite nice, some sort of sweetened apple cider by the taste of it. Very refreshing after a day spent on the road. Alcoholic, but not nearly as much as the brandy you share with Van Hal.

"Hmm..." she nibbles her lip thoughtfully, still skimming through files. "If it weren't so important I'd probably try to talk you into one of my brothers, but to be honest they'd be thoroughly mediocre candidates. And it'd probably be a good idea to get at least one of the Hochschild boys out of the EIC, but they'd be terrible for the Watch." She pauses, then flips pages backwards. "Hand on. There's... here we go. The head of the castle guard at Steinbachthal is, by all accounts, wildly overqualified. And it just so happens that he's about to be out of a job, since someone is going to be selling information of his rather torrid affair with the Count's eldest daughter, who is supposedly a reclusive and respectable widow on the market for a new husband after her previous one passed away."

"Have your people keep an eye on him after he's encouraged to seek work elsewhere, then. I'll meet him for an interview later in the month."

[Martial candidate, Roll, Intrigue, 86+14=100.]

---

With that taken care of, you bring your own efforts to bear in searching for a suitable candidate for the position. You briefly consider your own personal contacts, but none of them seem suitable. Those that you've trained with in the Army of Stirland... well, none of them worth hiring would leave it at such a crucial time. Anyone from your time in the Colleges? You mull that over for a while, but none of them seem even remotely suitable. Your brothers and sisters in Ranald's Faith? You can't help but laugh at the thought.

Your only source of reasonable candidates you can think of is the mercenaries that Wilhelmina's been using to guard the EIC convoys between towns, and they're mainly the ones too cowardly or understrength to offer their services in proper wars. But then you have another idea.

[Candidate search: Roll, Diplomacy: 10+7=17.]
[Candidate search: Roll, Martial: 23+11=34.]
[Candidate search: Roll, Stewardship: 38+13=51.]
[Candidate search: Roll, Intrigue: 70+16=86.]
[Candidate search: Roll, Piety: 6+16=22.]
[Candidate search: Roll, Learning: 14+17=31.]

---

High atop the streets of Wurtbad, a shadowed figure runs along the rooftops, leaping from one to the other, the evening fog muffling his sounds. The route was carefully mapped in advance, and he had timed it perfectly so that he could pass unnoticed. He reached his destination without trouble, a townhouse near the Castle - and far from the two townhouses that everyone in Wurtbad's criminal community knew not to touch. With a grin of triumph, he reached into the sheath at his belt for his trusty crowbar made of blackened steel-

The window was already open.

He hesitated, but stiffened his resolve, slipping the crowbar back into the sheath on his belt. After a moment of thought, he reached to the other sheath and confirmed the presence of his sword. He slowly bent down to peer into the room, searching for anyone standing guard. Clear - nobody waiting for him. He relaxed. A careless servant, perhaps. He slipped through the window soundlessly and into the sitting room, and suddenly, in full view of the window, where he knew he had looked and seen nobody, was a slight figure all in grey, wreathed in the evening fog that rolled in through the window to curl around her almost lovingly.

---

"The Dämmerlichtreiter," the man breathes.

You blink in surprise at him. "The what now?" You had been prepared for all sorts of reactions, but not calling you that.

He stares, wild-eyed, pointing accusingly. "You! The Rider of Dusk! The woman who rides the coming of night across Stirland, bringing ruin to the enemies of the Hunter-Count!"

You stare back, and a delighted smile spreads across your face. "I mean... gosh. I hadn't realized people had been noticing. The Rider of Dusk? That's... wow." You bask for a moment, but duty calls. "Anyway. Not why I'm here."

The man's hand edged toward his sword, but an indecisive moment later away from it. "I will not resist the will of Stirland."

"What? No, I mean, yes, technically, but I'm not here to arrest you or anything. In fact, go ahead and rob them, they haven't paid taxes since '62. I'm here to offer you a job."

The man thinks that over, and relaxes somewhat. "Okay. What's the item?"

"Oh, not that sort of job. Meet me at the Golden Eagle Inn at dawn tomorrow, and we can discuss it." You walk past the man, patting him on the shoulder as you go, and climb out the window. You can feel his eyes on your back as you climb down empty air like a flight of stairs, and can't keep from grinning at how thoroughly you nailed that dramatic exit.

---

The man sits at your table as you work your way through your morning sausages. You glance across at him as you chew. Jack Albright, career thief and a damn good one at that. Originally of Marienburg, but attracted too much attention to himself and now on a protracted tour of the Empire. Charismatic, well-travelled, skilled in a variety of thieving arts and possessing of strong morals. You smile across at him. "Good morning. You look tired."

"I didn't sleep well," he mutters.

"The night before an interview," you nod understandingly. "Don't be too put out with your Fence. He would have warned you if he had remembered me." You smile at the wild-eyed look you get from him. "So, I take it you've heard of news with the Watch?"

He looks around the inn nervously - it's usually crowded, but not this early, and there's nobody within earshot. He lowers his voice anyway. "You're fighting the War Below."

"The War Below," you say musingly. Overly dramatic name for fighting against vermin and smugglers, but it has a nice ring to it. "The Watch is looking for a new leader. Ideally, someone with the creativity and inside knowledge to bring it success as it expands across Stirland."

"You want me to betray those I work with," he mutters.

"If I thought you would, you wouldn't be worth hiring. Besides, I envision the Watch as an organization with its attention elsewhere." As you talk, you dip a finger in your mug of small beer and draw an X on the table. Jack looks down at it thoughtfully as you wipe your mouth with a napkin, and then you place the napkin atop the X. "There are many threats to the good order of Stirland and the Empire, and a few thieves are the very least of them."

"I... think I understand," he says.

"Good. I'll give you some time to think it over - I've got to interview another candidate in Steinbachthal tomorrow morning, so if you're willing drop by my townhouse the day after, where I'll be receiving visitors." He stares at you, likely mentally calculating the distances, and you smile again. Being a wizard was so fun, sometimes. "Have a nice day."

---

The candidate in Steinbachthal is another story entirely, much less awed and more morose. Jacques Seingalt sits in the tavern, already half-drunk despite it barely being lunchtime, and barely reacts when you introduce yourself. "And what," he says in the overly-clear diction of someone concentrating to keep from slurring, tinged with a faint Tilean accent, "does the Spymistress of Stirland want with a fired castle guard?"

"To offer him a job," you say, and he perks up slightly at that. "The Stirland Watch is expanding, and needs a new leader. When I'd heard you'd been released from your duties, I decided to come see you for myself."

He straightens himself in his seat. "Then you have fine taste in employees. I am Jacques Seingalt, duellist, doctor, and leader of men, famed across the Old World for my abilities."

You'd heard similar. His career had begun in the mercenary bands of Tilea, before he befriended a travelling Bretonnian knight and went with him back to that strange land and led forces of men-at-arms against the greenskins ravaging the countryside in the unhappy aftermath of the disastrous Errantry War that wiped out a generation of Bretonnian knights. Since then he has travelled the length of the Old World, leading men of every nation against every enemy of mankind. It would be a mystery why he had settled for a lowly position as leader of a Count's household guard, if you didn't know well the full story. "I had heard as much. Would you be willing to perform this role?"

He drains his tankard thoughtfully. "Normally I am dismissive of petty thief-takers, but rumour has spread of your ambitions for the Watch, how they spread across Western Stirland, how they protect even the smallest villages and ride forth to purge banditry from the countryside. This may be a suitable role for one of my skills; I will ride with you back to Wurtbad."

You conceal a smile. "I think you will find it difficult to keep up."

He scoffs. "No man, nor woman for that matter, can match me in the saddle."

You end up impressed that it only takes him a week longer than you to arrive in the capital.

---

You rejoin the army a month after the Purge has begun. Your information attachés had kept you well informed of their progress; or rather, their lack thereof. The first stage was to purge the Hills around Leicheberg and west of the river, but the projected two weeks had already turned into four and the job seemed no more than half done. The jagged countryside seemed to contain more nooks and crannies than should be possible, and any given stretch of land needed to be passed over in force a half-dozen times or more before things would stop appearing. It was hoped that as the troops and leadership learned, that this would be accelerated, but the fear was the opposite would be true - as they pressed deeper into Sylvania, it would only get worse.

Still, at least Asarnil seems to be enjoying himself. He appears to be treating the operation as a massive hunt, with the armies acting as beaters to flush the undead out of wherever they were hiding so he could dive upon them - a symbiosis the troops are completely fine with. And the local shepherds who are flooding into the newly-cleansed hills with their herds have taken to sending sheep as tribute to Deathfang, the mighty jade-green dragon, who feasts on fresh mutton every evening surrounded by awed soldiers who play music on carved wooden pipes and kettledrums and crude mandolins in impromptu orchestras for him.

Asarnil himself is less taken with the crowds, and broods in his massive tent alone each evening. He's occupied with buffing his armour with a cloth, but turns as you enter with a scowl and his mouth open to deliver a cutting rebuke, but upon seeing you he stops, surprised. "That manner of dress - why, you're one of Teclis' little ones!"

You're rather taken aback at that. "I- well, I am part of the Colleges of Magic, yes-"

"I'm so glad that you're still doing well. Which of them are you? Wait, don't tell me, you must be one of the Grey ones, right? Ulgu?"

"Yes, I am of the Grey Order."

"So few believed it would work, but Teclis proved them all wrong. And didn't Finubar hate that! He didn't even have the bravery to forbid one of those two brothers from doing what they pleased, but he predicted such ruin, and yet here you are." You're completely taken aback by this, but that last bit at least partially explains it - the tale of Asarnil's banishment from Ulthuan is well-known, and so something that tweaks the Phoenix King's nose would definitely please him. But you're starting to get the annoyed feeling that you're being treated like a child that has learned a particularly clever trick. "He taught you something of our language as well, didn't he? Is that still being passed down? Of course, not the proper thing, but a few words to use like we would use Anoqeyån."

"Ulgunar kirior onai Tar-Eltharin, caladai-eldoir-kurn," you retort, and he stares at you, quite surprised.

"I haven't heard-" he breaks off, and almost haltingly continues in Eltharin. "I have not heard the tongue of the True Elves in close to two centuries."

"If it would please you, I would be happy to converse with you in it,"
you respond.

"Of course!" he stops, and looks frustrated with himself. "Of course. I would like that very much."

The two of you talk for some time on the progress of the campaign without touching on anything of any consequence, but the Elf seems to almost draw sustenance from hearing his language spoken, although he corrects your pronunciation a few times. And then you make your offer to him; though the scholar that was brought was inadequate for the task, you would be honoured to immortalize his campaigns in the Old World. He happily agrees - apparently it was Anton's unthinking comment of 'gosh, this should be written down so everyone could hear it' had planted the thought in him that some record of his acts should be made, to preserve his legacy in the unlikely event that he ever encounters something capable of striking him down.

Week after week passes and parchment accumulates as one hundred and seventy-three years of battle are preserved in ink, beginning with the Battle of the Siren's Rocks that destroyed the entire naval fleet of Miragliano and ended them as a naval power and only growing from there, stopping only for you to sleep and for Asarnil to perform his duties in the Hills, though Deathfang takes to going off without him to keep himself occupied. The stories continue. A thousand battles, tens of thousands of skirmishes, hundreds of thousands dead by claw and flame and sword and lance, every one of which bought at an exorbitant price. He has fought for every realm of Man in the Old World from Kislev to Araby, for the mysterious elves of Athel Loren, for the lizard-people of the Southlands, and strangest of all, for dwarves.

He shrugs at that. "I understand what it is to hold a grudge against the Phoenix King." Fair enough, you suppose.

In the end, you've got an enormous and unruly pile of parchment containing the Dragonlord's account of every battle he has fought as a Mercenary. Asarnil claps you on the shoulder, dons his helm, and walks out of the tent to rejoin the campaign.

[Purge progress: Roll, 30.]
[Befriending the Elf: Req 70, Diplomacy, 93+7+10 (Likes Wizards)=110.]
[Writing the stories: Roll, Learning, 51+17+10 (reader of tales)+10 (Ranald's Blessing=88.]

---



CANDIDATE FOR LEADER OF THE STIRLAND WATCH - CHOOSE ONE

[ ] Jack Albright, career criminal.
[ ] Jacques Seingalt, wandering adventurer.
[ ] Neither.


WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THE TALES OF ASARNIL? CHOOSE ANY NUMBER.

[ ] Hand them over to him in their current form; he would be fine with this, and would take his own actions with them.
[ ] Have a scribe transfer them into book form - one copy for you, one for the Imperial College, one for Asarnil.
[ ] Hire some printing press time and a translator, and start selling Reikspiel versions to anyone who's interested.
[ ] Hire some printing press time and find a merchant willing to ship and sell as many copies as they can to Ulthuan.

---

PLAN FOR THIS PURGE TURN

ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIONS - pick NONE. For reference only, as actions can be taken as Personal Actions.

Information Network - pick ONE (no action expenditure required):
[ ] Expand your information network into another province (choose one)
[ ] Expand your information network into another county or barony (choose one)
[ ] Expand your information network into the military (choose a Division)
[ ] Expand your Intelligence Attaché program to another Division (choose one)
[ ] Off the Leash: Let Julia handle the network without your micromanagement from now on.

Information Network finances - can be chosen INSTEAD of a selection from the above.
[ ] Attaché Paperwork: The Intelligence Attachés are your biggest expense by far - see if you can have them paid for by the Army of Stirland instead.
[ ] Fixer: Work with the Wurtbad Thieves Guild, supplying them information in exchange for a portion of profits.
[ ] Special Branch: Pull some financial trickery to get the information network classified as part of the Watch, so that their costs are covered by the Stirlandian treasury.
[ ] Trade Delegation: Convince Wilhelmina and Markus to partner your network with the EIC based on the value of market information.

Stirland Watch - pick ONE (no action expenditure required):
[o] Expand the ranks of the Watch, so that they're able to start covering even the poorer parts of their covered area. (cannot be taken until army retirement resumes in one year)
[ ] Expand the Special Branch into areas already covered by the Watch, so you have an additional pool of manpower you can call upon to supplement the full-time Watchmen.
[ ] Improve the training of the Watch, hiring trainers and dedicating paid time each week to sharpening skills.
[ ] Integrate the Roadwarden network of covered areas into the Watch.
[ ] Headhunt administrators from other organizations in Stirland.
[ ] Neither candidate is suitable - continue to seek out a new leader for the Watch.

---

PERSONAL ACTIONS - CHOOSE BETWEEN TWO AND THREE. ANY CHOSEN BEYOND THE FIRST TWO WILL COME WITH RISKS - PLEASE SPECIFY THE 'ADDITIONAL' TASK:

Genießt den Krieg - join the divisions entering Sylvania:
[ ] Attach yourself to the general staff, so you can be present for anything interesting that might happen and keep a finger on the pulse of the war.
[ ] Attach yourself to a specific regiment so you can spend some time in the thick of things.

Miscellany:
[ ] Financial Jargon: Everything with the EIC flew right over your head last time. Try again. Succeeding here will mean that you can take a more active hand in the company, adding it to the organizational actions; failing or not attempting means Mathilde will remain a silent partner.
[ ] Hang Out A Shingle: Spymasters don't advertise, but wizards sometimes do. Make an official announcement that there's a wizard in residence, and see who comes out of the woodwork.
[ ] Formal Proposal: Your idea for an undead research team was received poorly, but Van Hal is still open to the idea in theory. Write in details: Name, who it is technically a part of (Watch, Witch Hunters, Military, College, none), and whether it reports directly to you (becomes a new Organization you command) or, if not, who it would report to.
[ ] Gun Shopping: You're currently using a pistol that was a spare for the pistoliers. Visit Nuln to upgrade. (Choose: dueling pistols for accuracy and range, repeater pistols for weight of fire, dragons for hand shotguns. Choose: whether you will acquire and use two pistols at once or keep one hand free.)
[ ] Write up a proposal for Wilhelmina to approve a short-term increase in Discretionary Income, for the duration of the crisis.

Self-Improvement: Things have been going well so far, but the skills of a Journeyman Grey Mage can only go so far.
[ ] Practice, Practice, Practice: Having been thrown into the deep end of imperial politics, it would probably be a good idea to brush up on your skills and internalize the lessons you've learned (choose which trait; can be taken multiple times; will be more effective if you've used the trait a lot lately).

[ ] Tutoring: One of your fellow councillors may be willing to teach you in their chosen field (choose who; can choose which, or you can let them decide).
[ ] Really Good Swords: You have achieved proficiency with the Greatsword. Future progress is possible, though it will take more effort to see results.
[ ] Pistols at Dawn: You've taken some great strides in an entirely new form of combat, but you're still not entirely proficient. Finish your training.
[ ] Combat Training: You're virtually surrounded by armed warriors of various sorts. See if you can convince one to teach you (choose who).
[ ] Combat Training, In The Free Market: You haven't made many heavily armed friends yet, but gold is good for that. Go out and buy some training. (-personal gold)
[ ] Enchantment: You're naturally talented at enchantment; so far, this just amounts to being able to make your desk meow for about an hour. See if you can improve on that, or at least figure out a way to make that useful.

Home Comforts: Your Palace-Shrine is bursting with potential. And also mud.
[ ] Diggy Diggy Hole, Remixed: You're getting sick of having workmen tramping in and out of your abode. Recruit an entire team and personally oversee them to clear out all of the reachable portions of the Palace-Shrine and be done with it. (-personal gold)
[ ] Enchantment: You've finally got the equipment, now you've just got to unpack it all and set up your laboratory.
[ ] Filled with Potential: You've got a room cleared out and ready to be put to use. Decide what you're going to put there and get started on equipping it. (write in the purpose of the room)

Research:
[ ] Undead Research: You know the basics, now. Perhaps a great deal of effort will allow you to advance further.
[ ] Snooping: Van Hal gave you a key to his Study. He didn't specifically say not to poke around and see what you could find.
[ ] Shyish-kebabs: The Shyish swords are hideously dangerous as weapons, but fascinating as a subject of study. Try to reverse-engineer the lost enchantments woven into them.
[ ] Bound Spells: Though the corrosive Dhar made them high-maintenance, the design of the bound spells in the castle's infiltrators has fascinating possibilities. The memories had faded but you've managed to refresh them. Try to adapt it for use with Ulgu.
[ ] Qhaysh Juice: Whatever it is, it's dripping out of the box at a steady rate. You've got two gallons of the stuff and it's still coming out. It's got to be good for something.
[ ] Qhaysh Skunkworks: It would take careful study to unlock the secrets of the liquid. It would take considerably less time to find out if it can be made to burn, or explode, or do something militarily useful.
[ ] As a Journeywoman, the path to Magister is marked by mastering more than the two shadow spells you already know. Send to the Grey Order for the basics and work on figuring out one of the others.

Influence:
[ ] Thieves Guild: It's currently little more than a church group, albeit of a very unconventional god. If it could be expanded under your aegis, it could be a powerful tool.
[ ] Biderhof: This village based on woodcutting and agriculture, has adopted you as one of it's own. Maybe you should adopt it as your own, in a literal sense.
[ ] Non-Thief Guilds: Wurtbad, like all major cities, is home to a number of guilds. Reach out to them and enforce your will.

Relations:
[ ] Getting To Know You: Spend time with one of your fellow councillors or your liege, offering your help in their tasks and generally getting a feel for them (choose one).
[ ] Getting To Know You Whether You Like It Or Not: You've been given good reason to mistrust your fellow councillors. Perhaps you should see what they spent their time doing (choose one).
[ ] Letters Home: You might be able to wring more information out of your Master, or you might just be able to get news, information and guidance in general from the Grey Order.
[o] Free Time: Now well-established in Wurtbad, you can spend some time in your scant off hours getting to know someone better. Pick one character. (not possible during Purge Turns)

- You will find out the financial effect of the Information Network decision at the end of the Purge Turn after this coming one.
- There are three votes - Watch Leader, the elf stories, and the turn proper.
- Don't forget Ranald's Blessing.

---

Added to this threadmark for posterity:


-[*] Attach yourself to a specific regiment so you can spend some time in the thick of things.

...I could have sworn this said 'specify which'. Though it might be better to have it be an informed decision. Okay, minivote time.

Empire tactics 101: spears receive the charge, swords countercharge. Each Division has two spear regiments, one sword regiment, and one crossbow regiment. The Regiment you choose will determine what sort of action, if any, you find yourself in. You can also attempt to join one of the other presences on the battlefield.

- Herr Schultz with the 2nd Division will be pushing up the Hilltop Road about halfway to Vanhaldenschlosse. Once there, they will find a hilltop close to the road and fortify it, to be used as a fallback position and supply depot. They will also be scouting the nearby area as well as standing ready to support the 3rd or 4th if needed.
- Gustav with the 3rd Division will be circling around the outside of the Hills to approach one of the tallest peaks in the range, home to many a local legend, most of which are worrying light on details but something called a 'Blasphemy of Blood' keeps coming up. Gustav is confident that whatever it is, it will prove vulnerable to at least one of steel, cannonballs, or dragonfire.
- Van Hal with the 4th Division will be scouring the hills between the two upper forks of the river, northwest of Naubonum. This is expected to be business as usual, though Van Hal will be intending to examine the problem of why any patch of given land needs to be scoured several times to be free of undead.

From the preliminary results of processing all the reports and paperwork coming in, most of what has been faced has been the restless dead - zombies, skeletons, and the occasional wight. Ghouls have been spotted, but not in any great number and most have been seen scampering away at high speed, and they've only been rode down when knights or pistoliers were close at hand.


2nd Division
[ ] Flensburg Spear Regiment
[ ] Franzen Spear Regiment
[ ] Flensburg Sword Regiment
[ ] Blutdorf Crossbow Regiment
[ ] 1st Pistolier Cohort
[ ] 2nd Pistolier Cohort
[ ] Talabeclander Knights

3rd Division
[ ] Steinbachthal Spear Regiment
[ ] Schramleben 1st Spear Regiment
[ ] Halstedt Sword Regiment
[ ] Marburg Crossbow Regiment
[ ] Artillery battery (10 cannon, 10 mortar)
[?] Asarnil the Dragonlord

4th Division
[ ] Schramleben 2nd Spear Regiment
[ ] Sigmaringen Spear Regiment
[ ] Leicheberg Sword Regiment
[ ] Hornau Crossbow Regiment
[ ] Knights of Morr
 
Last edited:
Purge of the Haunted Hills - Brauzeit, 2475
Winning vote:

[*] Jack Albright, career criminal.

[*] Have a scribe transfer them into book form - one copy for you, one for the Imperial College, one for Asarnil.
[*] Hire some printing press time and a translator, and start selling Reikspiel versions to anyone who's interested.
[*] Hire some printing press time and find a merchant willing to ship and sell as many copies as they can to Ulthuan.

[*] Plan Get Stuck In
-[*] Bound Spells: Though the corrosive Dhar made them high-maintenance, the design of the bound spells in the castle's infiltrators has fascinating possibilities. The memories had faded but you've managed to refresh them. Try to adapt it for use with Ulgu.
--[*] Ranald's Blessing
-[*] Attach yourself to a specific regiment so you can spend some time in the thick of things.
--[*] Leicheberg Sword Regiment

---

Forewarned by Van Hal's stern instruction to make you welcome, the Colonel in charge of the Leicheberg Swords stands still long enough to acknowledge your status and inform you that his men have been instructed to make you welcome and obey all reasonable requests, before hurrying off to see to the last minute arrangements of getting thousands of men back on the march. Having been posted in Steinbachthal and therefore out of the nexus of activity that Fort Redemption has become, the 4th are apparently still finding their feet - which may be why Van Hal is taking charge of them personally.

You get in touch with the members of your attaché, and have a look over the paperwork that has yet to be sent on its way to Wurtbad. The forms are proving their worth; the details are recorded while memories are still fresh, and instead of having to wonder whether vague reports of 'walking skeletons' could refer to the rare and dangerous wights, one only needs to refer to the entry for 'Colour of Glow of Eyes or Eye Sockets'. There's even inferences that can be drawn that didn't occur to you when you made the forms. The entries for 'armament' and 'substance said armament is formed from' reveals that the skeletons are wielding an eclectic mix of modern steel, older iron and much older bronze, which implies that the undead are not sourced from any one battlefield but rather the result of thousands of years of accumulated restless dead. Back in Wurtbad, Julia is probably working on an organizational system to index this information - you hadn't asked her to, but it's the sort of thing she does.

Hours later the army is finally ready to leave, and off they march at something of a relaxed stroll. You summon your shadowsteed and join the head of the column, where the General and four Colonels - part of an endless cloud of military men whose names you're glad you never have to learn - are planning the day's march, or as best they can with the map pinned over the horn of Van Hal's saddle and the wind doing its best to pluck the map free and carry it off. As far as you can tell, the full day's march will take the troops about as far as you could go in twenty minutes. You're starting to regret your decision to join the rank and file.

---

Two agonizingly dull days later, the army finally reached the bridge that leads to Naubonum. Another day of organizing later, and the army disintegrated; five companies stayed in place to maintain and guard the camp while twenty plunged into the hills to start performing their task. You pick the first one where nobody makes the sign of the hammer as you approach and introduce yourself to the Captain, who's name you honestly tried to remember, and the Lieutenant of the swords contingent of the company, whose name you might be able to remember if you thought about it for a moment. You also introduced yourself to the Knight of Morr that would be accompanying you, though of course you received no reply. And with that, fifty spearmen, twenty-five swordsmen, twenty-five crossbowmen, one Knight of Morr and a wizard ventured off into the hills, and it takes you less than an hour to realize the insurmountable problem that this campaign faces.

It is, unfortunately, not one you are qualified to solve. The cause of these seemingly regenerating undead is not mystical, but geographical. You had pictured softly rolling hills, covered in grass, perhaps of a sickly colour due to the Sylvanian atmosphere. Instead the landscape is jagged, like it had been sliced apart by some enormous blade, and covered in impenetrable scrub and unnaturally still lakes and fathomless caves.

The Leichebergian troops, native to these lands, are happy to share with you an all-new vocabulary of the land they call the Wold. Combes, steep, narrow valleys without watercourse, almost always impassably filled with thorned scrub. Scarps, the sheer cliffs separating two otherwise level pieces of land, as if the land had been broken apart and then put back together off-center. Dew-ponds, artificial hilltop lakes built longer ago than man remembers, that somehow remain full without being fed by spring or river. Karst, the bizarrely smooth caves that absolutely riddle the hills. Doline, when the land atop the aforementioned caves has surrendered to the pull of gravity, creating enormous depressions like the impact of some unbelievably enormous missile - and, they warn, sometimes the land is just waiting to collapse in on a karst cave and form a doline, so never march in time atop the Wold.

And compounding the geographic terrors, there are the botanical ones. Mother-die, the horrifically-named tree that grows out rather than up, with soft white flowers and shiny red berries and jagged thorns as long as a man's hand. Spined Spurge, a sprawling climbing shrub with every stem festooned with barbed spines - they say that if a man dies touching a Spurge, it will envelop his corpse and never let it rise, which makes it popular among villages unsupervised by the Morrites. The Brambles, a variety of dense shrubs with tasty berries that can grow as fast as a man can walk, or so they say, and are - inevitably - covered in thorns.

They also speak of ancient tales, though none can agree if those that feature in them were the Fennone or the Asoborn - you privately theorize that it was both, and the Southern Stirlanders have always been a blend of Sylvanians and Stirlanders. The tale tells of hills covered in dense, choking woodland that jealously covered the sky so that nothing below could live, and how the people of prehistory fought it over generations with axe and saw until the forest was killed and life returned to the hills. For millennia the Wold was host to grass and grazers and shepherds, tamed and peaceful and quiet... until, of course, it became just one victim among countless others, when Sylvania fell to plague and beastman and necromancy in the time of Van Hal's infamous ancestor.

All very interesting in a bucolic sort of way, you suppose, but the end result is a land that can't be easily searched. Any given hour's walk will find an impassable cliff, an impenetrable valley, the entrance to a cave network of unmappable complexity, and acre after acre of dense, thorned scrubland. One doesn't clear such a land - one just marches back and forth along the few passable routes until they stop finding enemies to kill.

You wonder what Van Hal is going to make of all this.

---

Weeks pass atop the Wold. Each morning you emerge from your tent, cursing the late autumn chill, and try to find solace in the dawn mist. Each day you march, and you inevitably find something; usually skeletons, sometimes zombies, and once a wight, that might have broken up the monotony if your pistol shot, trailing Ulgu, hadn't punched right through its skull and dispersed the fell magic holding it together. You have the opportunity to watch the forms you designed in action, and are pleased to see the diligence with which the officers fill them out, and the odd air of satisfaction with which they do so. As if performing a final tally of the dead - they're slain, they're given rites by the silent Knight, their details are taken down, and all the forms will be sent off to the capital all nice and neat and that's that undead beastie dealt with for good, nice and neat and official.

Only once did you or the Swords see proper combat, when you stumbled across the entrance to some vast underground chamber filled with milling dead. Without a good open battlefield to form neat units, the swords and spears stood side by side at the opening to the cave, and your pistol barked once before they were upon your lines, and your flamberge rose and fell in time with the swords of those at your side until finally no more emerged. Forty of them, all told, four of whom were slain by your hand; six injuries among the ranks of the living, none serious. Over the course of the month, you claim another dozen, all from pistol-shot and all just before the crossbows would have achieved the result anyway. The task at hand is thoroughly lacking in glory - if anything, it's a chore. A chore with a small but significant chance of getting you killed, and not even in any interesting, glorious way.

You're relieved when the month draws to an end and the army reassembles to head back to Fort Redemption before winter settles in.

---

Before fleeing to the comforts of home, you sat in on the council of war that convened in the usual council room at Fort Redemption. Van Hal was... well, if it was anyone else you'd say they were sulking. He had clearly been expecting some sort of horrible necromantic curse to unravel, and instead it was just a matter of geography.

Gustav had greater luck with his adventure; what was once the tallest peak in the western Wold is now very much not so, and he's quite pleased to add 'killing a mountain' to his list of deeds. The 'Blasphemy of Blood' had turned out to be some sort of bizarre cursed spring in a cave atop the peak. It burbled blood-red water, which local vermin drank and drank and drank from, growing bloated and sloshing, and the only thing they thirsted for more than the liquid of the spring was the true blood that ran in the veins of men. Sadly for the creatures, it turns out that in this case water does not beat fire, and Deathfang had dealt with most of their population in a single contemptuous exhalation. The problem of what to do with the spring was puzzling for a while, and then he'd apparently decided that thinking was for other people and decided to hit it until it went away, and to do that he had roped in the 3rd Division and their siege train. For three weeks boulders the size of cows had been flung at the peak, and though at first it just caused the cursed spring to overflow its pool and run down in a crimson waterfall, he'd persevered until one day, finally, against all reason, the waterfall ran clear.

He produced a flask of water, which he'd said the chaplains had already inspected; you give it a close examination, but there's absolutely nothing to indicate it's anything but completely normal water. You're slightly annoyed that 'hit it until it stops doing evil magic stuff' has proven effective even against inanimate objects.

---

It is the aptly-named Kaldezeit and you are incredibly glad to be back in Wurtbad, and especially Wurtbad's hot springs. Once a vibrant tourist attraction, the misrule of the Haupt-Anderssens had rendered them little more than a local luxury, but such a luxury they were. You idly consider the possibility of getting one piped in to your buried palace.

Once you get that out of your system, you check in with Jack, who appears to be settling in quite well to his position - he's been taciturn about his previous experience and the Watchmen have, understandably, reached the conclusion that he's a former spy. You check in with Julia, who's busily distilling thousands of freshly filled-out forms from the front into usable information. You check in with the printers, who assure you that they'll get to it when they get to it and to please stop breathing down their necks about your elf story; the scribe you hired for the three properly scribed copies says something similar. Then, satisfied that everything is ticking over nicely without you, you turn to magical experimentation. With your memory of the lattice of Dhar that had ensorcelled the infiltrators refreshed, you try your damnedest to adapt it for Ulgu. It's a great deal trickier than you first thought; it could be said to be similar to trying to achieve with ice what someone else had done with water, except magic has ten forms instead of the three of matter. Dhar has an inherent tendency to degenerate, so your hope is that the same trick done with Ulgu will lack the tendency to break down and unleash the held effect; but Dhar also has a tendency to stick to people, where Ulgu does not.

Weeks pass in experimentation. Theory turned to practice, and now a corner of your spare room has been fenced off and is now the temporary home of a half-dozen chickens. On a piece of wood you've set up as a workbench, one has been sent to Sleep while you hunch over it, weaving Ulgu into its tiny feathered frame. You've been at it for hours, and this is the third time you've tried today - over in the pen one chicken is clucking distressingly as fog spills from its beak, and another is confusedly preening its newly-grey feathers. It's like trying to build a spiderweb inside of a soap-bubble, and then building a model ship inside the spiderweb. The framework for the spell is built inside the physical body of the creature - without, obviously, being able to physically interact with where the metaphysical framework is being built - and then the spell needs to be cast inside that framework. It is, in short, hideously fiddly.

Finally, finally, it is done. You pull away from the chicken with your breath held, and observe. The spell is there, glowing softly to those with the eyes to see, but frozen as if in amber at the moment of culmination.

You shift in your seat, a little awkwardly. There was really only one suitable spell for testing this - Drop would rarely have an effect on a chicken and as for Mindhole, how did you even tell if a chicken remembered you? So the spell you had woven inside the chicken was Sleep.

You poke it, gingerly, your breath held and watching for any sign of destabilization from the lattice inside the bird. But it holds firm even as it stirs, and then it takes one look at you and dashes off the surface of the bench, flapping its way to the floor as it clucks in distress.

"Test," you say, and the chicken continues scampering away from you. "Balderdash." Still nothing untoward; it apparently decides the distance is now safe and starts scratching at the floor. "Danoi," you say, and the chicken instantly collapses forwards onto its feathered breast, eyes closed.

You step forward and pick up the bird gingerly, examining it closely. Sure enough, the spell that had been held within it was gone, the once-frozen magic having fulfilled its purpose and dispersed. But, to your surprise, the framework that once held the spell remains. Interesting. And potentially useful.

You once again begin weaving Ulgu into the hapless bird.

[Bound Spell research: 93+17+10 (Ranald's Blessing)=120.]

---


Pistol proficiency acquired!
'Bound Spells' adapted for Ulgu.
Jack settling in to the Watch - 'free' Watch action will be available after next turn.
70g spent on books - 10g for personal copies, 40g for printing plates for the books, 20g for the initial print run

---

PLAN FOR THIS PURGE TURN

ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIONS - pick NONE. For reference only, as actions can be taken as Personal Actions.

Information Network - pick ONE (no action expenditure required):
[ ] Expand your information network into another province (choose one)
[ ] Expand your information network into another county or barony (choose one)
[ ] Expand your information network into the military (choose a Division)
[ ] Expand your Intelligence Attaché program to another Division (choose one)
[ ] Off the Leash: Let Julia handle the network without your micromanagement from now on.

Information Network finances - can be chosen INSTEAD of a selection from the above.
[ ] Attaché Paperwork: The Intelligence Attachés are your biggest expense by far - see if you can have them paid for by the Army of Stirland instead.
[ ] Fixer: Work with the Wurtbad Thieves Guild, supplying them information in exchange for a portion of profits.
[ ] Special Branch: Pull some financial trickery to get the information network classified as part of the Watch, so that their costs are covered by the Stirlandian treasury.
[ ] Trade Delegation: Convince Wilhelmina and Markus to partner your network with the EIC based on the value of market information.

Stirland Watch - pick ONE (no action expenditure required):
[o] Expand the ranks of the Watch, so that they're able to start covering even the poorer parts of their covered area. (cannot be taken until army retirement resumes in one year)
[ ] Expand the Special Branch into areas already covered by the Watch, so you have an additional pool of manpower you can call upon to supplement the full-time Watchmen.
[ ] Improve the training of the Watch, hiring trainers and dedicating paid time each week to sharpening skills.
[ ] Integrate the Roadwarden network of covered areas into the Watch.
[ ] Headhunt administrators from other organizations in Stirland.

---

PERSONAL ACTIONS - CHOOSE BETWEEN TWO AND THREE. ANY CHOSEN BEYOND THE FIRST TWO WILL COME WITH RISKS - PLEASE SPECIFY THE 'ADDITIONAL' TASK:

Genießt den Krieg - join the divisions entering Sylvania:
[o] Attach yourself to the general staff, so you can be present for anything interesting that might happen and keep a finger on the pulse of the war. (army is bunked down for the winter)
[o] Attach yourself to a specific regiment so you can spend some time in the thick of things. (army is bunked down for the winter)
[ ] By all accounts the entire general vicinity it was in has been pulverized, but there could be a shadow of a ghost of a chance that something might remain of the Blasphemy of Blood that could be studied? Maybe? (NEW)

Miscellany:
[ ] Financial Jargon: Everything with the EIC flew right over your head last time. Try again. Succeeding here will mean that you can take a more active hand in the company, adding it to the organizational actions; failing or not attempting means Mathilde will remain a silent partner.
[ ] Hang Out A Shingle: Spymasters don't advertise, but wizards sometimes do. Make an official announcement that there's a wizard in residence, and see who comes out of the woodwork.
[ ] Formal Proposal: Your idea for an undead research team was received poorly, but Van Hal is still open to the idea in theory. Write in details: Name, who it is technically a part of (Watch, Witch Hunters, Military, College, none), and whether it reports directly to you (becomes a new Organization you command) or, if not, who it would report to.
[ ] Gun Shopping: You're currently using a pistol that was a spare for the pistoliers. Visit Nuln to upgrade. (Choose: dueling pistols for accuracy and range, repeater pistols for weight of fire, dragons for hand shotguns. Choose: whether you will acquire and use two pistols at once or keep one hand free.)
[ ] Write up a proposal for Wilhelmina to approve a short-term increase in Discretionary Income, for the duration of the crisis.

Self-Improvement: Things have been going well so far, but the skills of a Journeyman Grey Mage can only go so far.
[ ] Practice, Practice, Practice: Having been thrown into the deep end of imperial politics, it would probably be a good idea to brush up on your skills and internalize the lessons you've learned (choose which trait; can be taken multiple times; will be more effective if you've used the trait a lot lately).

[ ] Tutoring: One of your fellow councillors may be willing to teach you in their chosen field (choose who; can choose which, or you can let them decide).
[ ] Really Good Swords: You have achieved proficiency with the Greatsword. Future progress is possible, though it will take more effort to see results.
[ ] Combat Training: You're virtually surrounded by armed warriors of various sorts. See if you can convince one to teach you (choose who).
[ ] Combat Training, In The Free Market: You haven't made many heavily armed friends yet, but gold is good for that. Go out and buy some training. (-personal gold)
[ ] Enchantment: You're naturally talented at enchantment; so far, this just amounts to being able to make your desk meow for about an hour. See if you can improve on that, or at least figure out a way to make that useful.

Home Comforts: Your Palace-Shrine is bursting with potential. And also mud.
[ ] Diggy Diggy Hole, Remixed: You're getting sick of having workmen tramping in and out of your abode. Recruit an entire team and personally oversee them to clear out all of the reachable portions of the Palace-Shrine and be done with it. (-personal gold)
[ ] Enchantment: You've finally got the equipment, now you've just got to unpack it all and set up your laboratory.
[ ] Filled with Potential: You've got a room cleared out and ready to be put to use. Decide what you're going to put there and get started on equipping it. (write in the purpose of the room)

Research:
[ ] Undead Research: You know the basics, now. Perhaps a great deal of effort will allow you to advance further.
[ ] Snooping: Van Hal gave you a key to his Study. It's been a while since he's been in Wurtbad; he probably forgot he did so, and won't remember until he returns. And he didn't specifically say not to poke around and see what you could find.
[ ] Shyish-kebabs: The Shyish swords are hideously dangerous as weapons, but fascinating as a subject of study. Try to reverse-engineer the lost enchantments woven into them.
[ ] Publish Or Perish, Part 1: Though it's currently of limited utility to you personally, sharing your discovery might bring it to the attention of hundreds of wizards who could put it to great effect. Though before you do that, you'll need to learn the vocabulary to communicate exactly what it is you're doing, since you can't exactly submit the poor chicken as part of your paper. (NEW)
[ ] Qhaysh Juice: Whatever it is, it's dripping out of the box at a steady rate. You've got two gallons of the stuff and it's still coming out. It's got to be good for something.
[ ] Qhaysh Skunkworks: It would take careful study to unlock the secrets of the liquid. It would take considerably less time to find out if it can be made to burn, or explode, or do something militarily useful.
[ ] As a Journeywoman, the path to Magister is marked by mastering more than the two shadow spells you already know. Send to the Grey Order for the basics and work on figuring out one of the others.

Influence:
[ ] Thieves Guild: It's currently little more than a church group, albeit of a very unconventional god. If it could be expanded under your aegis, it could be a powerful tool.
[ ] Biderhof: This village based on woodcutting and agriculture, has adopted you as one of it's own. Maybe you should adopt it as your own, in a literal sense.
[ ] Non-Thief Guilds: Wurtbad, like all major cities, is home to a number of guilds. Reach out to them and enforce your will.

Relations:
[ ] Getting To Know You: Spend time with one of your fellow councillors or your liege, offering your help in their tasks and generally getting a feel for them (choose one).
[ ] Getting To Know You Whether You Like It Or Not: You've been given good reason to mistrust your fellow councillors. Perhaps you should see what they spent their time doing (choose one).
[ ] Letters Home: You might be able to wring more information out of your Master, or you might just be able to get news, information and guidance in general from the Grey Order.
[o] Free Time: Now well-established in Wurtbad, you can spend some time in your scant off hours getting to know someone better. Pick one character. (not possible during Purge Turns)

- Finance details will be at the end of the next Purge Turn.
- Don't forget Ranald's Blessing.
- Any questions you have about the undead statistics, ask - though keep it general, because I'm
not going to calculate and detail exact casualty figures.
- Before anyone tries - no, you can't wield a greatsword in one hand and a pistol in the other and get a total of +6 martial.
 
Last edited:
Purge of the Haunted Hills - Ulriczeit, 2475
Winning vote:

[*] Plan Research
-[*] By all accounts the entire general vicinity it was in has been pulverized, but there could be a shadow of a ghost of a chance that something might remain of the Blasphemy of Blood that could be studied? Maybe?
--[*] Ranald's Blessing
-[*] Publish Or Perish, Part 1: Though it's currently of limited utility to you personally, sharing your discovery might bring it to the attention of hundreds of wizards who could put it to great effect. Though before you do that, you'll need to learn the vocabulary to communicate exactly what it is you're doing, since you can't exactly submit the poor chicken as part of your paper.

---

It's not difficult to find your way to the former peak that hosted the Blasphemy of Blood. The passage of ten thousand men leaves quite a trail, and all you have to do is follow it before the snow buries it. You and your Greatsword bodyguards venture out into the grip of winter and make camp at the foot of the demolished peak. And demolished is, if anything, an understatement. Boulders the size of cows litter the landscape everywhere you look, and all around the base is chalk rubble that fell in giant landslides from the former peak.

The trail up to the peak was one of the casualties of the bombardment, so every morning you have to clamber your way up over sliding gravel and unsteady rock, and every evening you have to fight gravity every step of the way to keep your descent from occurring at literal breakneck speeds. And the time in the middle is an endless lesson in frustration. You had one of the officer sketch the peak as it appeared before Gustav happened to it, and as far as you can tell the top tenth has been completely removed. The only remaining landmark is the spring in the middle of it all, happily burbling up from the rubble and then pouring back down the mountain in an innocent little stream. You spend days examining the stream, even excavating all the loose scree until you uncover the natural fissure that the spring emerges from, and nothing about it is anything but completely innocent. You brought a chicken along for the trip, one of the leftovers from your previous experiments, and for the entire month you water it on nothing but springwater, and by the end of it it's just as lively as ever and is showing no evidence of any sort of bloodthirstiness.

You go over the rubble yard by yard, searching for any evidence of malign magical energies, but if the cause of the bloody water had soaked into the rock you can't find any of it, seeing as it's spread across an enormous area. Towards the end, you have to brush falling snow off every pebble just to examine it.

But in the end, it's not the rapidly worsening weather that puts an end to the expedition. You're right on the border of the 'pacified' Wold, and with the troops bunking back in Fort Redemption, either some malign force or just the natural ebb and flow of Sylvania decides to take back some of the purged land, and one morning as breakfast porridge is boiling, the crunch and click of bony feet approaching at speed is the only warning you get before the white of falling snow gives way to the white of gleaming bone.

Even now your Greatswords stand ready, and steel meets ancient bronze as the initial attacks are parried. You are less aware, and all that saves you as you clamber for the flamberge you left in your tent is that the skeleton - the wight, because you can see the terrible glow in its eyes as it approaches - stumbles on a tent rope, giving you the precious seconds you need to reach your weapon. You tear it free from its scabbard and turn and meet your attacker, and moments later it is bearing down on you with a sequence of attacks the equal of any you faced on the training ground, backed with the terrible strength of the dead. You parry each blow sent your way just as the skeleton rebuffs each you attempt upon it, fighting with the martial skill of a warrior dead for millennia.

But while the wight's bones may be stronger than flesh, bronze is no match for steel - especially bronze after thousands of years of corrosion. A mighty blow from the creature is met by a textbook parry, and against ancient bone and trained muscle and forged steel, bronze stands as the weak link in the forces brought to bear, and the blade shatters. The skeleton has barely a moment to look at the hilt that remains in its hands, the skull unable to show whatever emotion it could be feeling, before your blade impacts it in the temple and shatters the skull as surely as it did the sword.

All around you the battle is already dying down - the wights attacked in numbers such that there were two Greatswords for every wight once all the men had been roused from the tents, and with those odds the results were a foregone conclusion. But one man lay dead nonetheless, the one who had been standing watch in the direction the wights had came from and apparently had not seen them coming through the snow until it was too late.

With a heavy heart, you order the men to break camp. If there are secrets left to be found here, the snow will soon bury them.

[Study the pulverized fragments of the general area: Req 100, Learning, 29+17=46.]
[Initial assault: You 29+12=41 vs Wight 12+15=27]
[First round: You 66+15+10(Ranald's Blessing)=91 vs Wight 79+15=94]
[Second round: You 57+15=72 vs Wight 2+15=17]
[Seize the advantage: 53+15=68 vs 19+15=34]
[Greatsword reaction: Roll, 66.]

---

You had thought that when you returned to Wurtbad two months ago, you were relieved to escape the chill of late autumn. Having just subjected yourself to the grip of Ulriczeit, you feel like you may never be warm again, and are eternally grateful when the hot springs of Wurtbad prove you wrong. In a blatant sin against the Colleges, you linger in the baths for days as you read through the books the libraries sent. The Amber and Jade Wizards provide a few useful scraps, but the books are clearly transcripts of oral lessons and suffer for it. The Celestial Wizards have a few more pieces of the puzzle, but their focus on curses limits how much use they can be. In the end it is the Gold Wizards, as focused on measurable, recordable and replicable results as they are, that provide the bulk of your education in the vocabulary of magical matrices.

The problem is an obvious one - how do you record a three-dimensional shape on a two-dimensional piece of paper? And it's a problem that's been solved. You learn of x, y and z, of the bizarre and aggravating art of trigonometry, of angles and sines and tangents. By the end of a month of study, you're far from an expert, but you've picked up enough of the concepts to know how to communicate the shape of the magical lattice that holds the spell captive in the chicken roaming freely through the tunnels of your buried palace, still showing no negative effects of the magic within her.

[Trig 101: Req 60, Learning, 94+17=111 - bonus to next step of writing the paper]

---

As the year draws to a close, you check in with your staff - so far it's just Julia and Jack, but you like the sound of having a staff, so you refer to them as that in the privacy of your own mind.

Julia reports on her forays into Flensburg politics with glee, how a great deal of money had been made selling information on the trade families to each other so that everyone had paid quite a lot to end up no better off. She had apparently been stockpiling secrets for this for years in the anticipation of one day selling them. This single-handedly brought the budget for the half-year into the black. She also passes on news from the military - as Spring sets in, they're going to march in force to Vanhaldenschlosse, and if nothing unexpected is found there, then the army will separate by Division and sweep the northwestern Hills between the two rivers.

Speaking of the military, the information of the beginning stages of the Purge have been properly sorted, organized, compiled and distilled, and the end result is three pages of raw data. Almost entirely skeletons, some wights, a handful of zombies - not enough 'fresh' bodies in the area to result in them, it's theorized - and the occasional ghoul either too stupid to run or unlucky enough to have encountered the knights or pistoliers. You encode the information and pass it on to your Master, to be passed on in turn to Sigmar knows who.

Jack has settled in as best he could, but there's tension in the Watch - there's a number of Watchmen with a decade or more of service under their belt who are unhappy with the direction the Watch, with the resignation of the former head, with the association with the dregs of society that hunt rats and shovel waste, and with the requirement to go marching through the sewers on a regular basis. You're not sure if this has been simmering below the surface all this time and Jack has been able to pick up on it, or if taking over the Watch has inflamed matters, but either way it's bad news. Perhaps things will blow over on their own, or it might be better to directly address the troublemakers - either gently or firmly.

In brighter news, the gong farming expansion went quite well. The dregs of society in every population center covered by the Watch now have a final recourse other than crime to provide an income, and many of them have taken that opportunity. Human waste is a rarer sight than ever on the streets, and the financial burden of the Watch on Stirland's treasury has been lessened somewhat. There's still a great deal of room for improvement, but then, there always is.

---

PLAN FOR THIS PURGE TURN

ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIONS - pick ONE from 'Information Network' and 'Stirland Watch'. These will last for the next three Purge Turns.

Information Network - pick ONE (no action expenditure required):
[ ] Expand your information network into another province (choose one)
[ ] Expand your information network into another county or barony (choose one)
[ ] Expand your information network into the military (choose a Division)
[ ] Expand your Intelligence Attaché program to another Division (choose one)
[ ] Off the Leash: Let Julia handle the network without your micromanagement from now on.

Information Network finances - can be chosen INSTEAD of a selection from the above.
[ ] Gossipmongers: Hire a number of informers specifically for their ability to pass on saleable information.
[ ] Attaché Paperwork: The Intelligence Attachés are your biggest expense by far - see if you can have them paid for by the Army of Stirland instead.
[ ] Fixer: Work with the Wurtbad Thieves Guild, supplying them information in exchange for a portion of profits.
[ ] Special Branch: Pull some financial trickery to get the information network classified as part of the Watch, so that their costs are covered by the Stirlandian treasury.
[ ] Trade Delegation: Convince Wilhelmina and Markus to partner your network with the EIC based on the value of market information.

Stirland Watch - pick ONE (no action expenditure required):
[o] Expand the ranks of the Watch, so that they're able to start covering even the poorer parts of their covered area. (cannot be taken until army retirement resumes in six months)
[o] Expand the Watch into a new county or barony (choose which) (cannot be taken until army retirement resumes in six months)
[ ] Expand the Special Branch into areas already covered by the Watch, so you have an additional pool of manpower you can call upon to supplement the full-time Watchmen.
[ ] Improve the training of the Watch, hiring trainers and dedicating paid time each week to sharpening skills.
[ ] Integrate the Roadwarden network of covered areas into the Watch.
[ ] Investigate the possibility of adding a River Warden branch of the Watch.
[ ] Headhunt administrators from other organizations in Stirland.
[ ] Try to soothe those in the watch upset by recent changes.
[ ] Force out those that would resist your changes to the Watch.

Stirland Watch finances - can be chosen INSTEAD of a selection from the above.
[ ] Formalize and organize the payments people make for the Gong Farmers to perform their service, as well as having the Watch start enforcing existing laws against dumping human waste in the street or the Stir.
[ ] Currently, solid waste is sent by cart and wagon out to the fields for a pittance. It could instead be used to create market gardens along the banks of the Stir (hopefully downwind) and increase revenue and provide jobs for the desperate by growing a variety of cash crops.
[ ] Tanneries have a seemingly limitless demand for urine, which explains a lot about the smell. A bit of fragrant research would allow you to identify how much demand there is and how much of a profit you can wring from this.
[ ] In Wissenland, there are a number of techniques in use to derive saltpeter from urine. It would take a great deal more effort than selling to tanneries, but saltpeter could be exported to Nuln for fantastic profit, or used to start gunpowder production in Stirland.

---

PERSONAL ACTIONS - CHOOSE BETWEEN TWO AND THREE. ANY CHOSEN BEYOND THE FIRST TWO WILL COME WITH RISKS - PLEASE SPECIFY THE 'ADDITIONAL' TASK:

Genießt den Krieg - join the divisions entering Sylvania:
[ ] Attach yourself to the general staff, so you can be present for anything interesting that might happen and keep a finger on the pulse of the war.
[ ] Attach yourself to a specific regiment so you can spend some time in the thick of things.

Miscellany:
[ ] Hang Out A Shingle: Spymasters don't advertise, but wizards sometimes do. Make an official announcement that there's a wizard in residence, and see who comes out of the woodwork.
[ ] Formal Proposal: Your idea for an undead research team was received poorly, but Van Hal is still open to the idea in theory. Write in details: Name, who it is technically a part of (Watch, Witch Hunters, Military, College, none), and whether it reports directly to you (becomes a new Organization you command) or, if not, who it would report to.
[ ] Gun Shopping: You're currently using a pistol that was a spare for the pistoliers. Visit Nuln to upgrade. (Choose: dueling pistols for accuracy and range, repeater pistols for weight of fire, dragons for hand shotguns. Choose: whether you will acquire and use two pistols at once or keep one hand free.)
[ ] Write up a proposal for Wilhelmina to approve a short-term increase in Discretionary Income, for the duration of the crisis.

Self-Improvement: Things have been going well so far, but the skills of a Journeyman Grey Mage can only go so far.
[ ] Practice, Practice, Practice: Having been thrown into the deep end of imperial politics, it would probably be a good idea to brush up on your skills and internalize the lessons you've learned (choose which trait; can be taken multiple times; will be more effective if you've used the trait a lot lately).
[ ] Tutoring: One of your fellow councillors may be willing to teach you in their chosen field (choose who; can choose which, or you can let them decide).
[ ] Really Good Swords: You have achieved proficiency with the Greatsword. Future progress is possible, though it will take more effort to see results.
[ ] Combat Training: You're virtually surrounded by armed warriors of various sorts. See if you can convince one to teach you (choose who).
[ ] Combat Training, In The Free Market: You haven't made many heavily armed friends yet, but gold is good for that. Go out and buy some training. (-personal gold)
[ ] Enchantment: You're naturally talented at enchantment; so far, this just amounts to being able to make your desk meow for about an hour. See if you can improve on that, or at least figure out a way to make that useful.

Home Comforts: Your Palace-Shrine is bursting with potential. And also mud.
[ ] Diggy Diggy Hole, Remixed: You're getting sick of having workmen tramping in and out of your abode. Recruit an entire team and personally oversee them to clear out all of the reachable portions of the Palace-Shrine and be done with it. (-personal gold)
[ ] Enchantment: You've finally got the equipment, now you've just got to unpack it all and set up your laboratory.
[ ] Filled with Potential: You've got a room cleared out and ready to be put to use. Decide what you're going to put there and get started on equipping it. (write in the purpose of the room)

Research:
[ ] Undead Research: You know the basics, now. Perhaps a great deal of effort will allow you to advance further.
[ ] Snooping: Van Hal gave you a key to his Study. It's been a while since he's been in Wurtbad; he probably forgot he did so, and won't remember until he returns. And he didn't specifically say not to poke around and see what you could find.
[ ] Shyish-kebabs: The Shyish swords are hideously dangerous as weapons, but fascinating as a subject of study. Try to reverse-engineer the lost enchantments woven into them.
[ ] Publish Or Perish, Part 2: With a mindful of trigonometry, it's time to formally record the process for creating 'Bound Spells'. And, optionally, pick a catchier name for it than that. (Optional: Write in name) (NEW)
[ ] Qhaysh Juice: Whatever it is, it's dripping out of the box at a steady rate. You've got several gallons of the stuff and it's still coming out. It's got to be good for something.
[ ] Qhaysh Skunkworks: It would take careful study to unlock the secrets of the liquid. It would take considerably less time to find out if it can be made to burn, or explode, or do something militarily useful.
[ ] As a Journeywoman, the path to Magister is marked by mastering more than the two shadow spells you already know. Send to the Grey Order for the basics and work on figuring out one of the others.

Influence:
[ ] Information Network: Work alongside to Julia to administer the network. Choose another Organizational Action for the Network.
[ ] Stirland Watch: Work alongside Jack to administer the Watch. Choose another Organizational Action for the Watch.
[ ] Financial Jargon: Everything with the EIC flew right over your head last time. Try again. Succeeding here will mean that you can take a more active hand in the company, adding it to the organizational actions; failing or not attempting means Mathilde will remain a silent partner.
[ ] Thieves Guild: It's currently little more than a church group, albeit of a very unconventional god. If it could be expanded under your aegis, it could be a powerful tool.
[ ] Biderhof: This village based on woodcutting and agriculture, has adopted you as one of it's own. Maybe you should adopt it as your own, in a literal sense.
[ ] Non-Thief Guilds: Wurtbad, like all major cities, is home to a number of guilds. Reach out to them and enforce your will.

Relations:
[ ] Getting To Know You: Spend time with one of your fellow councillors or your liege, offering your help in their tasks and generally getting a feel for them (choose one).
[ ] Getting To Know You Whether You Like It Or Not: Though you no longer mistrust them, perhaps you should see what your fellow councillors spend their time doing anyway (choose one).
[ ] Letters Home: You might be able to wring more information out of your Master, or you might just be able to get news, information and guidance in general from the Grey Order.
[o] Free Time: Now well-established in Wurtbad, you can spend some time in your scant off hours getting to know someone better. Pick one character. (not possible during Purge Turns)

---

Discretionary Income: +200g
The Flensburg (Metaphorical) Coup: +150g
Information Brokerage: +50g
Regional informants: -90g
Watch informants: -10g
EIC informants: -20g
Julia: -30g
Townhouse staff: -20g
Literacy lessons: -10g
Attaché program: -120g
---
Net: +100g

Personal Income: +50g
Estate Profit: +10g
Tithe: -6g
Student Loans: -35g
Elf Stories: -70g
---
Net: -51g

Bills will be paid every third Purge Turn. You can go into 'debt'; normally this would draw negative attention as you defer payments and take on loans in Stirland's name, but during the Purge it is to be expected; if you make good by the end of the turn immediately following the end of the War, all will be well.

[ ] Begin plumping the informer rolls (choose ratio of real:fake informers. Almost impossible to detect, but also very difficult to increase or decrease the amount quickly)
[ ] Change tithe payment/loan payment/embezzlement (specify)
[o] These agents are getting expensive. Write up a proposal for your discretionary budget to be increased, instead of waiting for Van Hal to decide to increase it. (Van Hal does not have the attention to spare)

---

- Don't forget Ranald's Blessing.
- There was a chance of finding something interesting re: the Blasphemy of Blood, but the chance was very, very slim after Gustav spent months hurling boulders at it. If you really, really want to, you
can write in trying again, but the odds of finding anything will be even slimmer.
 
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