Willing to change, though the whole thing on embezzlement for self enrichment is missing the point. We're not breaking our Grey Vows of poverty.
Developing magic is expensive. We need to set up a lab, we need to clean out our dungeon base, we've seen that for instance, building even just the one mirror cage costs a substantial amount of money(like, you can buy a goddamned house for that much), we've been trying to buy magic reagents and tools but we can't outbid Wizard Chic in terms of how much money they can throw at it.
Thus we need to keep some personal funds, and to be aware. I see no reason to change the embezzlement amount until we paid off our fees fully, and have everything set up. Self improvement is expensive.
Once our fees and debts are fully paid off, we need to buy books and other materials to get to Magister, by then we can shift the embezzlement down a notch, but we shouldn't go to 0 in any case. Van Hal would expand the budget once his income improves. Just mention that our networks are reaching the limits of funding in the report
I agree that self-improvement is both important and expensive... but, Van Hal has
explicitly authorized us to spend our discretionary income on self-improvement. We brought this up in one of our conversations with him. Buying spell components and equipping a lab are discretionary expenses, not personal ones, since we secured that permission. Remember this?
"I'd like to build an enchanter's workshop and lay in a supply of regents, for my investigations into the enchanted swords and for future projects for Stirland."
"In the castle, or in wherever it is you're living these days?" he asks, a teasing note to his voice.
"...hidden," you hedge.
He smiles, then thinks for a while, his fingers twitching as he moves sums around in his head. "Not right now," he finally says. "If you can make it happen with your discretionary budget you're welcome to, but we can't spare any more money right now, not when we're about to start fortifying the border and building the Langwald-Leigheburg road. Ask me again in a year or so, and we'll see."
So we don't need personal funds for our currently-known expensive magical development tasks. Those are all discretionary, and based upon current trends we'll be able to continue making our self-improvement costs discretionary as long as we ask him about them. So why embezzle at all when we can just openly write these costs off as business expenses, paid for by Stirland by the authority of the Elector Count himself?
As for overwork, it should be reserved for when shit is actually on fire and we have to scramble for everything. Habitual overwork can leave us exhausted when we need the extra actions. Leave it for turns where we actually need to commit 4 actions to just staying on top of things.
This seems like the biggest point of concern for the people voting for your plan over mine based upon feedback, and I'll think on it. I do feel like it's important to take social actions, though. Perhaps we could get GM word on whether we would still get the Intrigue/Learning study bonuses if we took one of the more social-study actions with them instead of solo-study.
@BoneyM, could you clarify?
Petty magic meanwhile is actually important: We don't even know how to dispel. If we had those spells last turn? We'd have been able to turn one of the enemy's agents by dispelling the Dhar and have a better lead for unraveling THEIR network.
No one so far has expressed more than a mild preference for shadow magic over petty/lesser magic in our studies, so I'm willing to swap those in my plan unless someone currently voting for it speaks up and expresses a strong preference.
While I might actually like your plan better than my own, but would you mind clarifying this? Bit confused on how she is double teaming this if we don't organize with her?
Also, I still firmly believe that not going for the trade guild now, before others have a chance to build up in the vacuum would lose us an opportunity for both new revenue and information. Is there any way I could convince you or
@DarkLight140 to change learning for either that or the option below?
My understanding is that our two-action commitment to destroying the Stirlandian League automatically implies coordination with Wilhelmina, and that any further actions involving her would be on top of that existing work together.
I agree that the Stirlandian League vanishing will be a major opportunity for traders and guilds to start up, as they can take advantage of the new economic circumstances. However, I don't think it has to happen THIS turn- the options mention that there is space for "a dozen guilds", and that's the kind of hole that doesn't close quickly. There will be opportunities to make money and build intel networks by exploiting the absence of the Stirlandian League for several turns to come at minimum.
