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-[x] A Crisis of Faith: Van Hal's ongoing alienation with the Sigmarite faith is worrying. Maybe there's something you can do?
--[x] Attempt to convert him to Ranald.
Uhh, last turn had a huge debate on whether to convert Van Hal to Ranald or not. Specifically, to lay the groundwork for conversion. I'm pretty sure the consensus was to not do that. Other then that, the plan looks good.
 
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Hm.

Ultimately, once the Stirlandian League is destroyed, I'm not sure if I care about catching the old spymaster or his cronies. We've got a lot of stuff to do and while it's tempting to think "but surely he'll hit back", I suspect that's just paranoia. The idea behind hitting back is being able to regain one's old position by destroying the enemy, which is just never going to happen as long as Van Hal is in charge and with the entire military and legal might of Stirland on his side. I think it's much more likely that they'll take their money and run. Letting them get away sucks, but we need a healthy and prosperous Stirland more than we need to take vengeance on those who have damaged it.

From that premise, either assets or documents are the highest priority, depending upon whether we want a larger one-time boost or a larger +income/turn sooner. I am inclined to say that we want income/turn; if we give Van Hal a huge influx of cash he'll immediately spend it all and the economy will have a much harder time recovering to replace those funds, but making the economy return to a healthy state faster which means not only does he make more money, he'll also become more popular as Elector Count because everyone on all levels will start benefiting from the new state of things and know that he was responsible.

Aside from that, the mirror catch box+Ranald is basically mandatory, but nothing else is on fire so I'm inclined to throw ourselves wholeheartedly into training and socialization. We're already working with Wilhelmina professionally this turn, so let's swing a training action with Gustav- apparently our exciting tales of magical infiltrators impressed the rest of the council so we're in a good position to capitalize on that by trying to make a friendship out of training activities. Better to get in on the ground floor with him if possible than to go after Schultz or Kasmir and play catch-up.

We could investigate Julia's background but I'm inclined to say that we got a solid interview roll, her background is partially confirmed already via Anton and generally being a high-profile person. Instead, we should throw our free social action at her to learn more while also building a closer rapport with her- because we want our lieutenant to like and trust us personally. A snooping action would be more likely to catch any already existing flaws in her (chaos cultist, etc.) but much less likely to build personal loyalty, and building personal loyalty to the head spy amongst the spies is important. We want Julia's opinion of us to be 10/10 (even if it's unlikely to ever quite reach there).

Aside from that, we haven't learned a single new shadow spell yet and Take No Heed should be both relatively easy to learn and invaluable when running around doing shady things. It's important to change this "not studying magic" trend and while I'm all in favor of studying enchantment or spellbinding, learning actual spells takes priority over that in my mind- for now, at least.

Our discretionary income is feeling squeezed while our personal income is not, so we can cut down on the embezzlement for the moment and pay our student loans out of our actual pay.


[x] Plan Documents and Training
-[x] The documents of the Stirlandian League will allow you to rebuild the north-south trade network with speed and efficiency.
-[x] 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).
--[x] Learning (Overwork)
--[x] Intrigue
-[x] Combat Training: You're virtually surrounded by armed warriors of various sorts. See if you can convince one to teach you (choose who).
--[x] Gustav is well-known for his ability with cavalry, and as it happens you're very good with the Shadowsteed spell. See if he can teach you a few things about mounted combat to give you experience and training that matches your magical skills.
-[x] Personally construct the Mirrorcatch Box. Though being around that many mirrors for that long makes you antsy, there's nobody else you can trust with the task. (expense paid for by Van Hal)
--[x] Ranald's Blessing
-[x] You've got a handle on most of the Petty and Minor magics, but some still elude you. Dispel in particular could have come in very handy recently. Time to round up the rest of them.
-[x] 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)
--[x] Julia
-[x] Change embezzlement
--[x] Change to no embezzlement.
 
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Uhh, last turn had a huge debate on whether to convert Van Hal to Ranald or not. Specifically, to lay the groundwork for conversion. I'm pretty sure the consensus was to not do that. Other then that, the plan looks good.
I'm just deeply concerned with the crisis of faith trait worsening. Another Stirland Elector Count falling to Chaos would not end well for us.
 
[X] Plan Getting Good and Doing Work
-[X] The assets of the Stirlandian League will be a huge boost to Stirland's coffers.
--[X] Ranald's Blessing
-[X] 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.
--[X] Intrigue
[X] Getting To Know You Whether You Like It Or Not: Schultz
[X] Personally construct the Mirrorcatch Box. Though being around that many mirrors for that long makes you antsy, there's nobody else you can trust with the task.
[X] You've got a handle on most of the Petty and Minor magics, but some still elude you. Dispel in particular could have come in very handy recently. Time to round up the rest of them.
[X] There's a vacuum where a dozen trade guilds should be. Found one of your own, and let information and profits flow through you, and see what the Stirlandian League does about it.
-[X] Change embezzlement
--[X] Change to no embezzlement.
-[X] Free Time:
--[X] Get to know Julia better.

Basics of the plan is doing our job well, getting a little better (seriously, dispel, move, and silence are amazing), and setting us up to expand. I'd like to look into Schultz now, before he starts building a lot of stuff.

Some questions though. Do we need learning to craft/enchant stuff or is that magic? Do we vote on where to spend the Renald bonus after the vote or somewhere inside it?
-[x] Change embezzlement
--[x] Change to no embezzlement.
Is there a particular reason for this?
 
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Some questions though. Do we need learning to craft/enchant stuff or is that magic?

You can currently do low-level enchantments (due to the choice made back during charbuild) but to perform more advanced enchantments you'll have to take the enchantment option at the bottom of self-improvement. Currently you can do temporary petty enchantments, which is a significant saving on candles but not that useful besides.

Do we vote on where to spend the Renald bonus after the vote or somewhere inside it?

Inside it - just say 'ranald's blessing' on one of the line items.
 
Is there a particular reason for this?
If you look at our character sheet, you'll see that we currently have 150 personal gold and 380 discretionary gold. If you look at the latest turn, you'll see that (although it's a little bit confusingly listed, because the embezzlement isn't showing as adding to personal) we're getting +45g personal and +25g discretionary per turn, before one-time/incidental expenses.

We are a Grey Wizard, sworn to avoid accumulating wealth beyond what is reasonably related to our job. It's reasonable to have a store of gold set aside for unexpected personal expenses and needs for our professional development, even a store as large as a couple hundred gold. But accumulating that much cash per turn when our professional budget is that squeezed, particularly when we're making a habit of going to Van Hal for additional funds when we have large one-time expenses? It's unjustifiable. We simply don't need the cash and we're not greedy enough to fuck our budget when it has a chance of impacting our job and is against our code besides.
 
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[X] Plan no fires.
-[x] The assets of the Stirlandian League will be a huge boost to Stirland's coffers.
-[x] 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.
--[x] Intrigue
-[x] 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.
--[x] Learning
-[x] Personally construct the Mirrorcatch Box. Though being around that many mirrors for that long makes you antsy, there's nobody else you can trust with the task. (Ranald's blessing)
-[x][ Enchantment: So far you've failed to find suitable equipment (damn Wizard Chic) but youcould always try again with local goods.
-[x] Free Time: Now well-established in Wurtbad, you can spend some time in your scant off hours gettingto know someone better.
--[x] Wilhelma
-[x] Change embezzlement
--[x] Change to no embezzlement.
Uhh, last turn had a huge debate on whether to convert Van Hal to Ranald or not. Specifically, to lay the groundwork for conversion. I'm pretty sure the consensus was to not do that. Other then that, the plan looks good.
Deleted the crisis of faith option. I'd like opinions on fixing the crisis, and I'll add the best one in.
 
For some reason I was under the impression we had increased the rate we pay off our debt. Gonna add that to my plan.
Deleted the crisis of faith option. I'd like opinions on fixing the crisis, and I'll add the best one in.
As much as I agree, I just don't think we're in a position to be of much help here. Saying that a lifetime of faith shouldn't be ruined by the actions of misguided men is about all we could do, and then it would be up to the roll. We simply do not know any priests reliable or trustworthy enough to help out.
 
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As much as I agree, I just don't think we're in a position to be of much help here. Saying that a lifetime of faith shouldn't be ruined by the actions of misguided men is about all we could do, and then it would be up to the roll. We simply do not know any priests reliable or trustworthy enough to help out.
I mean, we could spend an action to try to find and vet a priest. Not sure how feasible that is, and it could end up finding no reliable priests.
 
[X] Plan Seize It
-[X] The assets of the Stirlandian League will be a huge boost to Stirland's coffers.
--[x] Ranald's Blessing
-[X] 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).
--[X]Wilhelmina Hochschild, Steward of Stirland: Work with them to seize and account league assets.
-[X] The documents of the Stirlandian League will allow you to rebuild the north-south trade network with speed and efficiency.
-[X] 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).

--[X]Gustav von Jungfreud, Marshal of Stirland: Work with them to seize and account league assets.
-[X] [ADDITIONAL] A Crisis of Faith: Van Hal's ongoing alienation with the Sigmarite faith is worrying. Maybe there's something you can do? (write in)
--[X] Ask Anton to invite head of local faiths to meet with Van Hal individually. Then meet with Van to talk to him about your god, Ranald.
-[X] You've got a handle on most of the Petty and Minor magics, but some still elude you. Dispel in particular could have come in very handy recently. Time to round up the rest of them. (NEW)
-[X] Personally construct the Mirrorcatch Box. Though being around that many mirrors for that long makes you antsy, there's nobody else you can trust with the task. (expense paid for by Van Hal) (NEW)

-[X] Enchantment: So far you've failed to find suitable equipment (damn Wizard Chic) but you could always try again with local goods. (-personal gold, action required to set up and learn to use equipment)
[X] 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) (NEW)
--[X] Julia


Basically grab everything we can from Stirlandian League working with Marshal and Steward, for speed and manpower as well as people to go through the book and documents. Then spend sometime on working up our magic, building viper trap, and finally overtime on Van's faith issue.
 
Thoughts on planning:

- With the Stirlandian League, I'm inclined to focus on seizing the League assets.

Stirland is in a reasonably decent position intelligence-wise with us in charge, but it's pretty poor and the army is under-equipped, under-led, and under-trained. Seizing the assets will help rectify that, and helps disarm the League - if we get the leaders but let the wealth escape, new leaders will probably rise up and use those assets against us. If we get the wealth, that effectively disarms them, and turns their source of strength against them. Plus it'll help convince van Hal to increase our budget.

This is also the most important task of the turn, so Ranald's Blessing should really go here.

- We could spend time getting to know Schultz - we have an informant in Langwald which he's building a road through, which might be useful for him. It would also be nice to work with him to help the road get built and meanwhile get some sources of info in his road crews and the 2nd/3rd divisions. We could also go the "I know you're Talabecland's agent; here's some info I found on the Stirland League you can send them since we both have a shared interest here."

- edit: We have 48 Shyish-swords left that are only useful as a source of reverse engineering enchantments and time-sensitive since they're going to turn into Dhar magnets sooner or later. There's really no real reason to hoard them to ourselves and keep putting them off until later - can we spend a free action sending a good chunk of them to the various Orders on the assumption that they'd have a much greater chance of reverse engineering the enchantment than we would, they'd hopefully send us notes if they figure it out, and it's good for the Empire to get this long-last enchantment figured out?

They are stable. We sealed it already
 
[X] Plan Getting Good and Doing Work
-[X] The assets of the Stirlandian League will be a huge boost to Stirland's coffers.
--[X] Ranald's Blessing
-[X] 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.
--[X] Intrigue
[X] Getting To Know You Whether You Like It Or Not: Schultz
[X] Personally construct the Mirrorcatch Box. Though being around that many mirrors for that long makes you antsy, there's nobody else you can trust with the task.
[X] You've got a handle on most of the Petty and Minor magics, but some still elude you. Dispel in particular could have come in very handy recently. Time to round up the rest of them.
[X] There's a vacuum where a dozen trade guilds should be. Found one of your own, and let information and profits flow through you, and see what the Stirlandian League does about it.
-[X] Change embezzlement
--[X] Change to no embezzlement.
-[X] Free Time:
--[X] Get to know Julia better.
 
@BoneyM some plans are making assumptions, so I'd like to check if we are reading this right?
[ ] The documents of the Stirlandian League will allow you to rebuild the north-south trade network with speed and efficiency.
-more likely to increase Stirland's per-turn income (faster)?

[ ] The assets of the Stirlandian League will be a huge boost to Stirland's coffers.
-more likely to result in a larger one-time windfall, but not boost the regular income?
 
Given the state of Stirland, I would support either focusing on the leadership to help tie up loose ends with our predecessor, coodinating with other provinces to build goodwill, or grabbing their resources, to increase the treasury.
 
They are stable. We sealed it already
Shyishkebabs- are they? Do we really know that? When we specified that box, Mathilde/we were guessing. I don't recall anything saying we'd cut them off from the Winds completely. So... absorption, mixing, Dhar. Still a risk?

Like, do we in effect have a Waystone Box sitting in Eagle Castle? @BoneyM

In some ways, the safest thing to do would be put them back in the pure Shyish-barrow till we get round to them. Something to do with our Greatsword squad. :)
 
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"I've also got a lead on the Wisdom's Asp," you say, and Van Hal perks up, visibly interested. "My Master recommended a device theorized by da Miragliano, originally designed to trap light, that hopefully will. It's going to be rather expensive to build, though - if you could-?"

[REQUESTING FUNDS, Req ??, Stewardship, 89+10=99. Of course you can.]

"Of course, of course," he says, sketching a note to Wilhelmina. "Can't have my spymaster being eaten by a dream snake. da Miragliano - do you just have his blueprints, or do you have one of his writings?"

"A copy of Light and its Properties, from the archives of the Grey College."

"If you don't mind I'd quite like to borrow that once you're done with it," he says, smiling in anticipation. "I once fired a da Miragliano crossbow - it would recock itself, though you had to be wound quite vigorously every ten shots. Amazing device."

"Of course," you say with a smile.
Well, our boss has a nice hobby at least.
*Marks down on list of gifts: Tinkertech*

Option analysis:
[ ] The leaders of the Stirlandian League need to be rounded up so you can question them regarding their former patron.

THis would be the Backtrace option. Useful for intel, but I'm pretty sure we've given them enough lead time that their patron would have cutouts.

[ ] Rounding up as many of the individual members of the League as possible will make it clear that nobody can engage in this sort of behaviour without facing eventual consequences.

Making an example. Doesn't really work.

[ ] Though Van Hal didn't mention it, you could work with authorities in Talabecland and Averland to help them do their own purges parallel to yours. They'd likely be grateful, but it will come at the expense of your activities in Stirland.

Diplomatic route. However, we don't actually know what THEY think of the whole thing so it's prone to backfire.

[ ] The documents of the Stirlandian League will allow you to rebuild the north-south trade network with speed and efficiency.

Stewardship route. This is the link with Wilhemina, and most likely the most lucrative one long term.

[ ] The assets of the Stirlandian League will be a huge boost to Stirland's coffers.

Their material funds. This is a one shot boost in resources, but as per the update we are fine for immediate expenses. What we need is cash flow, not treasury.

[X] Plan Bless The Snake
-[X] The documents of the Stirlandian League will allow you to rebuild the north-south trade network with speed and efficiency.
-[X] 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).
--[X] Intrigue
-[X] 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).
--[X] Learning
-[X] You've got a handle on most of the Petty and Minor magics, but some still elude you. Dispel in particular could have come in very handy recently. Time to round up the rest of them. (NEW)
-[X] Personally construct the Mirrorcatch Box. Though being around that many mirrors for that long makes you antsy, there's nobody else you can trust with the task. (expense paid for by Van Hal) (NEW)
--[X] Ranald's Blessing
-[X] 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) (NEW)
--[X] Julia

6/6-8

Main difference points from the other plans:
-The League doesn't need the Blessing. We have the ledgers, we have Wilhelmina double teaming.

-As per our economy:
"Archives are as secure as a dwarvern vault. Nothing's getting in there that isn't allowed to be. Apart from that, nothing new on the money front - we've still got a bit of a surplus but that'll change soon." She glances at Gustav and Schultz.

EAGLE CASTLE: Archives reinforced.
WEALTH OF STIRLAND: Poor.
INCOME OF STIRLAND: Mediocre.
TREASURY OF STIRLAND: Poor.
We need income, we have enough budget for Right Now, but we need cashflow to pay for everything. Hence, focus on their documents so we don't leave Wilhemina needing to build a nation-spanning trade route from scratch

-We DO want to bless the mirrorcatch box. Getting rid of the snake is going to be risky due to working with mirrors. We want Ranald looking out for us so the snake doesn't bite us during construction.

-Not meddling further with Van Hal's religious beliefs since we're not really suited to any of the other angles than conversion to Ranald, and well...thread decided thats not good.

-Also given our magical ability capping out the Petty Magics, the next step will require higher Learning and Intrigue.
--Fortunately we've done a shitload of Learning and Intrigue rolls last turn. We have a good bonus to make it work.
 
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Shyishkebabs- are they? Do we really know that? When we specified that box, Mathilde/we were guessing. I don't recall anything saying we'd cut them off from the Winds completely. So... absorption, mixing, Dhar. Still a risk?

Like, do we in effect have a Waystone Box sitting in Eagle Castle?

In some ways, the safest thing to do would be put them back in the pure Shyish-barrow till we get round to them. Something to do with our Greatsword squad. :)
Ask @BoneyM whether the swords are stored safely then.
 
Hm.

Ultimately, once the Stirlandian League is destroyed, I'm not sure if I care about catching the old spymaster or his cronies. We've got a lot of stuff to do and while it's tempting to think "but surely he'll hit back", I suspect that's just paranoia. The idea behind hitting back is being able to regain one's old position by destroying the enemy, which is just never going to happen as long as Van Hal is in charge and with the entire military and legal might of Stirland on his side. I think it's much more likely that they'll take their money and run. Letting them get away sucks, but we need a healthy and prosperous Stirland more than we need to take vengeance on those who have damaged it.

From that premise, either assets or documents are the highest priority, depending upon whether we want a larger one-time boost or a larger +income/turn sooner. I am inclined to say that we want income/turn; if we give Van Hal a huge influx of cash he'll immediately spend it all and the economy will have a much harder time recovering to replace those funds, but making the economy return to a healthy state faster which means not only does he make more money, he'll also become more popular as Elector Count because everyone on all levels will start benefiting from the new state of things and know that he was responsible.

Aside from that, the mirror catch box+Ranald is basically mandatory, but nothing else is on fire so I'm inclined to throw ourselves wholeheartedly into training and socialization. We're already working with Wilhelmina professionally this turn, so let's swing a training action with Gustav- apparently our exciting tales of magical infiltrators impressed the rest of the council so we're in a good position to capitalize on that by trying to make a friendship out of training activities. Better to get in on the ground floor with him if possible than to go after Schultz or Kasmir and play catch-up.

We could investigate Julia's background but I'm inclined to say that we got a solid interview roll, her background is partially confirmed already via Anton and generally being a high-profile person. Instead, we should throw our free social action at her to learn more while also building a closer rapport with her- because we want our lieutenant to like and trust us personally. A snooping action would be more likely to catch any already existing flaws in her (chaos cultist, etc.) but much less likely to build personal loyalty, and building personal loyalty to the head spy amongst the spies is important. We want Julia's opinion of us to be 10/10 (even if it's unlikely to ever quite reach there).

Aside from that, we haven't learned a single new shadow spell yet and Take No Heed should be both relatively easy to learn and invaluable when running around doing shady things. It's important to change this "not studying magic" trend and while I'm all in favor of studying enchantment or spellbinding, learning actual spells takes priority over that in my mind- for now, at least.

Our discretionary income is feeling squeezed while our personal income is not, so we can cut down on the embezzlement for the moment and pay our student loans out of our actual pay.
I'm down for pretty much everything you're suggesting, but I do think being able to bind a spell to our agents should take priority over learning a new spell. Even now, when we can only bind Armor or Shadowsteed instead of Invisibility or whatever, that is an amazing ability we should acquire ASAP.

I also prefer constructing the Mirrorbox via an artisan, since that would give us an interesting potential asset and is much less personally dangerous, but with Ranald's blessing we should be safe enough.


[x] Plan Documents and Training
 
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Oh, and... what do we do with Discretionary Income left over, if we're not embezzling? Do we just roll it over to next turn?
 
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