So when you do arrive back in Blutdorf, the answer to him is simple: ignore the harpies. Marry for love.
"Easier said than done," he sighs, but you instantly shake your head.
"Saying would be doing." You look over at the man standing just outside the door. "What's his name?"
Anton barely glances over. "Ermanrich."
"Ermanrich!" The man turns and peers into the room. Part of nobility is never having privacy, but good guards would pretend to be deaf until they were called upon. "If Anton told you to throw me out, would you?"
He looks at you doubtfully. "I would try."
"There you go. If these petty noble girls try to badger you, have them ejected. Doubt they'd put up more of a fight than I could. Might cause a political fuss, but less so than the headache they'd be if they succeeded."
You spend the next few days lingering in Blutdorf and trying to build up Anton's self-confidence in his ability to control his fate, and by the time you leave he's at least willing to give it his best.
Ranald bless our friend in his endeavors.
May he land on some fine true love.
First, there are the Journeymanlings. Esbern and Seija will be remaining at least until the spiders are sorted out, and it would be much easier to convince them to stay, and the Amber College to back your request, as a Court Wizard than it would have been as 'Head Ranger' or 'Marshal of the Undumgi'. Panoramia has fairly deep ties to the Halflings already and is likely to be making herself useful with them for years or longer. Maximilian will be learning as much as he can from his new friend in Clan Hazkal, and considering his appreciation for Dwarven artifice, he's likely to stick around even after his studies conclude. Johann's deception could give you an in to bring him under your authority, even though he's your equal and may have seniority over you.
On the other hand, time spent managing junior wizards would be time not spent pursuing your own tasks and goals.
Which of the Journeymanlings to recruit will be in plan format. Votes for individual Wizards will be considered votes to only hire that Wizard. This is because it would be optimal to have two or four without the trait, or three with it - unless you plan to hire more later.
[ ] Recruit Esbern and Seija
[ ] Recruit Panoramia
[ ] Recruit Maximilian
[ ] Recruit Johann
Okay, a couple of factors:
-For writing Papers, we want a wizard of each wind if we can manage it. Three Winds(Ulgu + 2 others) gives a good perspective bonus, more than that gives diminishing returns, we get more rolls, but no further bonus on the paper's Favor value.
--Johann as a Magister adds a +10 to his observation rolls as well, but while statistically significant, as a Magister he'd take more Favor from collabs as an equal partner and give less Favor for "Journeymen Wrangling"
-Remember the power of delegation. While they tie up our actions to manage, they can perform more actions than we spend on them. The average for a job is that the subordinate would take 2 actions per turn on a job, spending more if they're dedicated or its a crisis. Each action invested by us into minion wrangling gives us 4 actions, which are limited to the minion's actions.
--Esbern and Seija, we don't have any permanent projects for them to work on other than the spiders, Dragon Ogres, and potentially orc, skaven and troll autopsies. On the other hand, we get
two wizards taking 2 actions per turn for 0.5 actions per turn. This makes them good at LOOKING for curiosities
--Panoramia has literal years of work to do on agriculture, the magic mushrooms, and the various rare plants and drugs we might acquire off the trade route. She's a definite benefit, we're unlikely to run out any time soon. On the other hand its not like we need to actually command her for a while.
--Maxmillian is our paper mill. Useful any time we write a paper. His use as an actual investigator is limited by how green he is and how much of his actions are tied up smithing, but he with half an action, pays for himself easily.
--Johann is THE local most experienced and skilled wizard. As an investigator he's the best option, almost any situation is improved by having two differnet Magisters on the problem
-Remember responsibility. If a wizard is hanging around Eight Peaks and not under our authority, we're still going to be responsible for their actions in dwarf eyes as long as they're Journeymen or Apprentices. A Magister MIGHT not, but we'd be expected to poke them with a stick if they did.
--Esbern and Seija won't need any responsibility. If we don't keep them they'd be moving on.
--Panoramia got the shit scared out of her and she's naturally likable. She'd be fine.
--Maxmillian is definitely under our responsibility as the ranking Magister in charge. He's probably not going to get into trouble...except his diplomacy is terrible. So he will.
--Johann is a fellow Magister. This means he's nominally under our control, and the dwarfs WILL poke at us if he messes up or offends them, but under dwarf culture a Master of their craft is expected to be primarily responsible for themselves. Still better in than out though.
This establishes several combinations:
-2x - Most free time, but least action amplification.
--Good Papers:
---Maximilian + Esbern and Seija - Gribbly Research
---Maximilian + Panoramia - Rare Plants From The Far East Research
--Troubleshooting:
---Esbern and Seija + Johann - Find problem with riders, then drop two Magisters on the problem.
--Headache Mitigation:
---Maximilian + Johann - The most likely to cause trouble that we'd need to manage.
---Panoramia + Maximilian - This assumes that a Magister is responsible for himself with minor supervision. We'd have to expose him as a Magister one way or another though.
-3x - This costs a trait, so I doubt it'd win with so many good competitors, but in case it does:
--Good Papers:
---Maximilian + Esbern and Seija + Panoramia - Research in every field, and a writeslave
--Troubleshooting:
---Esbern and Seija + Johann + Panoramia - Find problem with riders, then drop two Magisters on the problem. Panoramia can interpret plant based problems for more coverage.
--Headache Mitigation:
---Maximilian + Johann + Panoramia - Literally everyone staying in the Peaks.
-4x - Get them all, then just accept being down 2 actions.
Posting this bit first. This took longer than I expected and the traits deserve their own analysis.
