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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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[X] Plan Seventeen

@BoneyM , I agree with @DarkLight140 that the rapid update speed is one of the good things about this quest.
OTOH, if you ever feel the need to slow down don't hesitate to say and do so.
QM burnout is not good, and tends to lead to the dreaded 'H' word.
 
Seems solid. Asks for Asp money. Maybe ask if his Witch Hunter Order knows anything on how to deal with these "Thorned ones"?

Also, what about th idea of proposing self-improvement and reflection on what has gone well and badly? Especially now we're taking on subordinates. We certainly have... gaps in our experience. Might be nice to be ordered to take personal training actions?

And telling the Greatswords might be a few dozen too many people to know she's our second in command. And do our squads rotate? Will they *all* know in a month? Should be enough that she's a messenger and secretary, perhaps?

Seventeen said:
[X] [Julia] Plan Townhouse
-[X] Hire her, buy her a home in town near your residence. Somewhere where people coming and going at odd times won't draw a fuss.
-[X] Her job would be to manage your informant networks in general, particularly sorting through the reports and picking out what's significant versus chaff. It'd also involve independently expanding the networks as funds and opportunities allow after she has settled in.
-[X] The only ones who are should specifically know her position should be Van Hal, yourself, Markus and your assigned greatswords and anyone you assign to work for her. Otherwise, be subtle.
-[X] Provide funding for a handful of retainers to keep up appearances. If she has any family contacts she can call on to provide reliable and vetted guards and servants, or to assist with background checks on any such new hires, have her do so.
-[X] Introduce her to Van Hal.

[X] [Greatswords] Greatswords will stay in the castle, except when you're going somewhere publicly, or interrogating potentially hostile persons.

Cut the assignment to Julia, since we're trying to keep her position subtle.

[X] [Public Report] Plan Points for public consumption.

I don't have any problems with @veekie's public report.

[X] [Private Report] Plan Shorter Meeting
-[X] Tell him about everything you learned in the interview. Especially how they produce infiltrators.
-[X] You have acquired some subordinates.
--[X] You have hired a lieutenant, Julia Massif, to help manage your information networks. In case any unfortunate 'accidents' happens to you, he can have some continuity through her so he wouldn't need to start from scratch.
--[X] Several veterans have been assigned to gather low-level information.
-[X] You have a lead on permanently sealing the snake away. Give him as much information on the process as you have, if he's interested. Suggest he approve a one-time increase in the discretionary budget in the interests of keeping his favourite spymaster un-eaten-by-a-snake. It'll be around a hundred gold for the mirrors, plus the cost of a skilled artisan to assemble the mirrorbox.

Cut the private report back a bit. I don't particularly care to share the information about Anton's Jade Wizard contact, and him bribing the maid for snacks would be amusing to tell on, but not overly necessary. Also, no Ranald confession.

[X] [Orders] Plan Now, Back To That Other Guy...
-[X] The disappearance of your predecessor is very concerning, especially since he's actively trying to sabotage the hunt for him. He must be found, and you've got a lead: Julbach.
-[X] The Stirlandian League is a cancer eating at Stirland's economy, and it must be destroyed.
--[X] This would likely be difficult while the previous spymaster is still at large to run counterintelligence, but it can be done.
-[X] The spell used by the informants is like nothing you've heard of before. You want to investigate it, and see if you can detect or replicate it.
--[X] If you can replicate the technique, it will be a powerful tool for the Empire's defense. There's the problem of killing the user, but that is potentially a problem of source -- Dhar is corrosive by nature.
-[X] There's definitely evil afoot in Drakenhof. Perhaps there's a way to survive investigating this.
--[X] Recommend against it. With their sleeper agents uncovered and in the wind, there's no immediate threat, and the potential gain isn't worth the risk of a dead spymaster. Hint hint.

Replaced the religion section with magic research and made a handful of other minor changes.
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DarkLight140 said:
Eh?
She... is in the private report? And the one which you seem to be voting for according to the tally? Have I missed something here?
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The report is that "We acquired new minions. There's this girl Julia in them thats my prospective Number 2".
Alliterate said:
Also, what about th idea of proposing self-improvement and reflection on what went well and badly? Especially now we're taking on subordinates. Might be nice to be ordered to take personal training actions?
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Given how much shit is on fire, that's probably even less likely than being ordered to investigate the spymaster.
 
Actually I think we should find another lieutenant with decent diplomacy to be the facade of our operations, sit tight in castle, socialize and all that.
 
She has excellent Learning and Intrigue as well as her high Martial score. She's also a minor noble, which has its own benefits.

We have any number of Greatswords and, soon, Pistoliers and so on to kill people with.
 
BoneyM said:
Being a mayor, even a Grand Mayor, is not a noble title.
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Mayors are usually non-nobles yeah. Upjumped merchants is common.

Guile said:
I imagine the problematic wording is "Introduce him to your Number 2." That usually involves her being there to be introduced.
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Which doesn't need her to be there when we give the report?
Its just so he knows who we're actually referring to. We could point her out through the window if necessary, and we've never really needed that kind of micromanagement yet.
 
veekie said:
Which doesn't need her to be there when we give the report?
Its just so he knows who we're actually referring to. We could point her out through the window if necessary, and we've never really needed that kind of micromanagement yet.
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I think the point of contention comes from the wording. "Introduce" has different connotations from "discuss" or "tell him about". You're right in that introduce doesn't necessarily mean have him meet her in person, but that is what it usually implies. It's up in the air which way the QM would have interpreted it without discussion on the matter. Miscommunication would have resulted in just that happening regardless of intent. Not as a matter of micromanagement, but miscommunication.

tl;dr: It's one of the tiny things that need to be clarified for good communication on both sides.
 
Speaking of nobles, who is Countess Gabriella von Bundebad and how is she holding onto a Sylvanian barony successfully while being acknowledged by Stirland as the rightful ruler?

veekie said:
Which doesn't need her to be there when we give the report?
Its just so he knows who we're actually referring to. We could point her out through the window if necessary, and we've never really needed that kind of micromanagement yet.
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Look, the vote is "[ ] During private report -[ ] Introduce this woman". It doesn't say to talk about her, or to point her out through a window; it says to introduce her. That means she's there, during the private conversation, or the vote can't do what it says. Maybe Mathilde will have her wait outside for the rest of the conversation, or maybe not, but she will be there and she will be introduced during the private report because that's what the vote says to do.

It's not that out there for her to be present because if we're introducing her as our chosen heir, which means that presumably we have a high level of trust in her. High enough, perhaps, for her to be aware of what's said in secret meetings between the Elector Count and his spymistress. Therefore it's not something that GM can reasonably be expected to automatically sanity check away when making the vote happen.

Now, I totally missed this connotation when I first read the vote. But that's what it says, rather definitively. If you want it to say something else, you should change it so that it actually says what you want it to say.
 
veekie said:
--[X] Introduce him to your prospective Number 2 in Julia after the meeting. In case any unfortunate 'accidents' happens to you(like say, the pseudo-demonic snake), he can pick up some of your networks through her so he wouldn't need to start from scratch.
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Added. After the whole mess with rejecting a vote over too much micromanagement and deliberately trimming things down, wind up micromanaging on demand anyway. Bleh.
 
Stirland has pretty low standards. But hey, "pays taxes and doesn't eat people" is definitely two very solid qualifications!

...

I wonder if they'd put up with a vampire who paid taxes.

As long as we're asking questions and getting answers, @BoneyM, two more. Do we have a map of Sylvania to go along with our map of Stirland, and can you clarify the point that @Alliterate raised here about whether our squad of greatswords are permanently assigned to us or on rotation through the greater group? I had assumed permanent assignment as that would make it easier for each council member to become familiar with their guards and for the guards to get to know what the councilor wants and expects of them, but if Van Hal has actually assigned the greatswords for reasons other than simple protection he might have them rotating instead.
 
Guile said:
Honestly, it feels like it takes a couple hours for the voting blocs to even emerge, so I don't consider a voting moratorium to be necessary.

Of course, I never consider a voting moratorium to be necessary, so that that as you will. It's done to prevent bandwagoning, but in a quest like this where votes are by necessity huge sprawling affairs there's only ever going to be a few people who make votes anyway.
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BoneyM said:
I've been thinking about that. Is that a problem to be solved, or just an inherent part of this type of questing?
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HavocKeeper said:
This happens in most quests. There are always going to be a few front runners that make the plans that everyone else chooses between. This happens because either people don't feel comfortable creating a plan or don't have the time to. I know I don't most of the time because I'm usually at work when things update. A moratorium can help but you're still going to have the same few people hashing out plans for the most part, the extra time will just allow them to compromise easier, before the bandwagoning makes them hesitant to change what they have.
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This quest seems to have gone past regular bandwagoning on "a few front runners" though. This turn we were approaching a point where veekie's plan was pretty much the only thing in sight with 90% tally support, but half of veekie's nominal supporters didn't like part of veekie's plan as written. Rather than vote for something else, they mostly asked veekie to change it, despite the fact that veekie's plan was modular and swappable parts were on offer. That led to the main vote becoming rather weird and then we got a semi-re-implementation of the voting system one level down with the "what to do with veekie's plan" minivote.

This is not necessarily a problem if veekie remains highly active and responsive. But neither do I think it's an inherent part of questing.
 
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