I was going to wait until the end of this turn but if we're giving our plans, here's what I suggest for the next turn.
First, the
free actions:
[ ] Attempt to bring a non-Order magical tradition into the Waystone Project (Hedgewise - Halethians)
[ ] Spend time assisting or ingratiating yourself with someone else: reach out to house Tindomiel to see about their interest and potential contributions to the Waystone Project, and about their faith and Goddess.
[ ] Explore one of the Wards of Laurelorn: Frost
OR
[ ] Investigate Alric personally
We are turning the coin to the face of the father and talking to some suspects next turn. I will die for this. I can see why other people may want to do other things but
there will always be other things to do. There will not be a better moment - we have to strike while the iron is hot or risk the fifth face of the coin going the way of apparition binding.
As to the actual actions: I've already said why I think we should recruit the Hedgewise, and I'm sure I will post more on this when the turn vote arrives so for now I'll just leave it at that. House Tindomiel is the only magically inclined house that isn't anti empire, and I think we should reward good will rather than beg those who hate us to join our club. That said, we need to talk, both to make sure that they are actually willing and able to contribute and to ensure that Hekarti won't cause us to run into article related trouble.
As for the third action: I really do want the ward of frost. They are the ones who approached us in the first place, and they have their weird waystone trees which is unique knowledge I don't know where else we can find. This is also one of the only ways to get the forestborn on the project, which I think is nice for political and moral reasons. Like with Tindomiel, I want to get the know them before we actually recruit them. So why an exploration option? I think, since the ward of frost is ruled by a 'council of forest beings' and forestborn, we need to get to know the forest rather than any one person.
But, uh, maybe Boney will clarify that Mathilde needs to take a personal action to fulfill her obligation to investigate Alric, in which case the ward of frost will have to wait.
Second, the
WEB-MAT actions:
[ ] MAX: Study an artefact: books and rubbings from an Asur explorer of Lustria and the Southlands.
[ ] MAX: Learning: Gyrocopter piloting
[ ] EGRIMM: Investigate what Alric is up to
OR
[ ] EGRIMM: Learning: Take the College class on Ritual Magic
OR
[ ] EGRIMM: Learning: Take the College class on powerstone creation
@Deathbybunnies already explained why Max is perfect for studying the Lustrian books, but I want to add another reason as to why we want to do this right now: there may very well be sketches of creatures the explorer saw in Lustria, and if those sketches include their hands we may have something to add to our upcoming paper on Johann's lazer hand, which right now is looking kinda lackluster.
We also need a gyrocopter pilot, the sooner the better. Max is both extremely trustworthy and comfortable enough in his position as our subordinate to not be offended when we ask him to be our chauffeur, and those are the two basic requirements we must demand from any potential pilot. Magister Egrimm probably won't take the request as well, and Lord Magister Egrimm definitely won't, and we also knew him for a much shorter time and trust him much less than our good friend Max.
Finally, Egrimm is either going to investigate Alric,if that suffices for the purpose of placating Mira, or do something else. I think taking a lesson with Egrimm is the best use of his time right now: powerstone creation is my personal choice, as we're going to need that for our future AV research, but ritual magic is more likely to be useful to the project. But for all we know Egrimm already knows one or both of those, in which case we'll have to reconsider. I would like to point out another use of powerstone creation: powerstones are sometimes used in enchantments, and future windherding projects with Egrimm may somehow benefit from Egrimm's knowledge of powerstone (but honestly I mostly want to learn this for the AV).
Where is the Johann action, you ask? There is none. I think people are too freaked out about giving every one exactly one action every turn. The truth is, Johann is very good at what he does, but what he does is very specific: Johann is good at material science and punching things. We are currently out of things to punch or materials to science, so Johann is going to spend a turn wrestling with Kadoh or something, I'm sure he'll forgive us. Next turn we can have him take a look at the Kurgan weapons or something, but I really think both Max actions should happen now so someone has to take a breather, and Egrimm is just more versatile.
So yeah, that's my plan. As far as when to start the project, I think that after the Hedgewise we should bring in the ward of frost and a single magically inclined house, probably Tindomiel, and then we're good to go.
