- Location
- il bel paese dove il sì sona
- Pronouns
- He
Der Tod und das Mädchen intensifies.
The crazy dice sometimes may become a bit annoying in quests, but here they are thematically appropriate and really fun. Looking forward to the next update!
Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest
- Thread starter Boney
- Start date
- Fantasy Users' Choice!
-
- Tags
- warhammer warhammer fantasy fantasy be gay do crimes (gay) female protagonist pansexual protagonist ck2 quest divided loyalties mountain vietnam ranald is real this is a dwarf quest (dwarfs) this is maybe an elf quest this is not a vampire quest this is not an empire quest try it and find out open voting
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
The crazy dice sometimes may become a bit annoying in quests, but here they are thematically appropriate and really fun. Looking forward to the next update!
- Location
- Aotearoa
A single 1-100 roll is always going to be very, well, swingy. Especially with typical modifiers being a very small part of the result. I've consequently never been a fan of percentile RPG systems. Using multiple 'dice' in a roll can give more bell-curve like results that tend to the mean. More 'realistic' perhaps, but less dramatic. Could use 2d50 for a bit of bias towards the middle.
Last edited:
Turn 10 Results - 2474.5
Winning vote:
---
"A what?" Gustav asks distractedly, his eyes locked on the hills to your right as the two of you rode side-by-side along the completed section of the Haunted Highway.
"An attaché," you repeat. "Observers attached to a military unit."
He turns his full attention to you, a frown visible only by the movement of his moustache. "Observing what, exactly," he asks stiffly.
"The enemy," you say, as reassuringly as you can. "I want to get a complete overview of the type and numbers we're dealing with."
"And you don't trust my scouts to do so?" He's standing stiffer in the saddle now, his eyes blazing with indignation.
"Your scouts are the pistoliers, aren't they? So they'd be where the fighting is thickest?"
"Of course! Bravest men in Stirland!" he booms.
"They can't fight and count rotting heads," you explain, resisting the urge to roll your eyes.
"Well... alright," he agrees, reluctantly. "They'd better not get in the way, though."
"I'll see to it they're well-prepared for life in the army," you say, concealing your smile.
---
Back in Wurtbad, you organize another round of recruits fresh from the Army. For now, they'll be going through a round of literacy courses, but you also start considering how you'll train them to identify undead. You sketch out the beginnings of a training course, but the real stroke of genius comes when you have the idea to make a series of forms that could be filled out in the field to gather the required information. You'll still teach your attachés to tell their wights from wraiths and ghouls from ghasts, but if they distribute the form to the officers of the unit they're attached to, you could have that many eyes collecting useful information. And they don't need to go through specialized training to fill in a form.
You also look in on Julia while your attaché candidates learn written Reikspiel in the next room. With the foundations of an information network in place, she's no longer inserting full-time agents; a handful of shillings here, a gold crown there, the occassional round of drinks, a little encouragement to the newly-hired Special Watchmen to send in reports of local events, and suddenly the influx of information has grown severalfold. Julbach has finally been ensnared, bringing you complete knowledge of goings-on in the County of Wurtbad; a few subtle enquiries later and you learn of a well-off noble from Wurtbad who maintained a house in Julbach and greatly valued his privacy, including, unfortunately, that he hasn't been seen there in several years.
On top of that, she's piggy-backed off both the Stirland Watch and her family's merchants to expand the network along the Nuln Road, covering Purgg almost as completely as Wulfbach. You've instructed her to keep a careful eye on the Stirhugel, and the news is worrying - there's been attacks on herds all across the range. Without the full picture, the local leaders attributed it to wolves, but when the reports from Lochen, Purgg and Ohlsdorf are compared, they paint a worrying picture that something is going on in those hills.
On top of all that, it seems almost rude of her to also have brought a few innkeepers and ferrymen in Munzhausen onto the payroll.
She's thoroughly proud of her accomplishments, and preens even further under your praise.
[Convincing Gustav to cooperate: Diplomacy, Req 50, 43+7=50]
[Attaché training: Learning, Roll, 67+16+20 (Ranald's Gift)=103.]
[Julia's network expansion: Intrigue, Roll, 89+14=103]
---
You will never cease being grateful for Shadowsteed, you reflect as you return once more to Leicheberg to resume your training with Markus. Anyone else would spend weeks travelling to and fro. You've started cutting across the countryside from Halstedt to Leicheberg, your shadowy horse not caring for a moment about the broken terrain, and with that you're leaving Wurtbad at dawn and arriving at Fort Redemption at dusk, and not even that day is wasted because you're so confident on your horse of Ulgu that you spend the ride reading.
Markus is pleased to see you returning to his practice field, but not for long, because it quickly becomes clear that your skills have rusted. So you spend days hacking at dummies with a wooden practice sword once more until he decides your grip and endurance are back an acceptable level, then days more sparring with the youngest member of the Greatswords, who learns to take you seriously after you smack the grin right off his unprotected face. After that you're finally declared ready to pick up where you left off, and Markus starts teaching you personally once more; weeks fly by in a haze of exertion as you learn new techniques, then practice them until they're ingrained bone-deep. More than once you spot Van Hal watching you train, which only spurs your efforts.
Once you've achieved proficiency, Markus has drilled into you, then you can work on style. For now, your only priority is to swing the sword in such a way that it goes where you want it to, and to be able to do it over and over and over again until your lungs are burning and your muscles aching and then do it some more. Any fool can swing a sword when they're fresh; the mark of a soldier is to be able to keep swinging, no matter the conditions. At one point, a nasty bow slips past your guard and your entire arm ends up bruised from wrist to elbow, but you keep swinging anyway. There may come a time when the blade or claw does much worse to you, Markus instructs, and you need to keep swinging.
As dusk falls on another day spent entirely in the training yard, you're sparring with Markus for possibly the thousandth time, and you finally think you're holding your own. There's a look of concentration on Markus' face as he counters his swings and returns with his own. You're not pressing him - it'd take years of training until you can make the Champion of Stirland break a sweat - but he's actually having to focus on the fight, and you redouble your efforts. Minutes pass with the clatter of wood on wood, and then "hold," Markus commands suddenly, and the possibility of disobeying doesn't even occur to you.
You step back, breathing hard, and give him a quizzical look; in response, he nods at the sword in your hand. You look down at it, frowning. You're pretty sure it hasn't splintered; granted, it's a little hard to tell through the evening fog, but...
You stop, and look around at a training field utterly bereft of evening fog. And you concentrate, and release a tiny piece of concentration you never even noticed forming, and the fog emanating from the practice blade dissipates in an instant. You flex your fingers, and can feel the energies that are always within you itching to extend through your hand once more.
Hmm.
[Greatsword practice: Martial, Roll, 93+10=103]
---
There are, you know, just over forty thousand men enlisted in the Army of Stirland. The standard term is twenty years. On average, thirty-five men in every hundred would live to see retirement - and that's during times of relative peace. So, if one does the calculations, that means that around seven hundred men are retiring from the Army of Stirland every year, or about sixty a month.
So why is it so godsdamn hard to find recruits? For months you've been delaying your expansion of the Watch because the numbers weren't available to support it, especially after you snapped up so many for the attaché program, but eventually you get so frustrated at looking at week after week of no new recruits that you go into the Archives and dig twenty years into the past, and quickly find the source: the transfer of power from one ill-fated Haupt-Anderssen to another, which left the political apparatus of Wurtbad in limbo for a year until they finally arrived from their holiday home in Marienburg. For that year, there was nobody to authorize even the most routine of expenditures, so there was absolutely no recruitment into the ranks of the Army of Stirland. Which means that there's nobody entering retirement now, twenty years on.
Okay. Fine. That just means that in the near future there'll be a glut of them.
While you're neck-deep in the archives, you go through the roster of previous retirees. They're all drawing pensions or they accepted land in lieu, so either way you've got their addresses, and sure enough the majority are living in Western Stirland - it seems that twenty years in the Army left them with an urge to be as physically far from Sylvania as they could.
You spend weeks on the road, tracking down and meeting with dozens of retired soldiers. The initial reaction to you is almost universally suspicion, but that you're offering them more money from Stirland's coffers gets their attention. Half the standard pay of a Watchman is the offer, with all the rights and authorities thereof; they'd spend a month in Wurtbad being trained, then return to their homes and spend a couple of days a week working as Watchmen and the rest of their time enjoying their retirement or working on their land.
A gratifying number accept, and in the end you've got enough to cover the territory, at least until recruitment picks up. And, it occurs to you, having an additional pool of manpower you could draw from in emergencies could prove to be very useful for the Watch...
[Expanding into Wurtbad: Req 40, Stewardship, 22+13=35.]
[Expanding into Purgg: Req 50, Stewardship, 2+13=15.]
[Making it work without the numbers: Roll, Stewardship, 95+13=108.]
---
With the Watch's numbers expanded again, there's more reason than ever to expand its bureaucracy. But actually achieving that turns out to be more difficult than you expected.
"So," you ask, leaning slightly back in your chair to put some more distance between you and your interviewee. "What makes you think you would be a good fit for the administrative staff of the Stirland Watch?"
The man scratches at his chin as he considers the question, creating a rasping sound, like sandpaper on rock. "Well," he says thoughtfully through a Kislev accent that rendered him barely understandable, "I heard somewhere that if you're in Watch, they cannot arrest you."
You stare at him blankly, and he returns the look just as blankly. He drums his fingers on the table idly; you glance down and take in the tattoos of rings on his fingers, crudely done, each of a different design.
"Can you read and write?"
"I can spell my entire name," he says proudly.
This isn't even the worst candidate you've interviewed today. Either the word 'Stirland' has scared off all the qualified candidates or somehow the Empire has run out of bureaucrats.
[Hiring administrators and clerks from Altdorf and Nuln: Req 30, Stewardship, 6+13=19.]
---
When you return once more to Wurtbad, you're greatly relieved to have a chance to relax for a change. Days pass in a relaxing blur of books both referential and recreational, including the reference books borrowed from Van Hal's study. They're not as much help as you'd hoped, since most of the Witch Hunter's handbooks are less about identifying and more about burning, but you're gradually building up your general knowledge of the undead. And when Wilhelmina returns to Wurtbad at the head of a caravan of fleeces, you're waiting in the sunroom EIC headquarters to greet her. She stops in her tracks when she sees you. "Mathilde?" she asks. "I thought you were at the Fort."
"I was," you reply. "And also at Altdorf, and Nuln, and Oberwil, and Purgg..."
"Gods, that'd make magic almost worth it," she says with a sigh, stretching and then collapsing into an armchair. You swallow your reply. "How goes the Watch?"
You groan. "Could be better. Did you hire every competent clerk in the Empire?"
"Hah! I'm pretty sure I cleaned out Stirland, but I can't claim credit beyond that."
"Something must be up, then," you gripe, then your eyes narrow. "Actually, something might be up. Heard any news from the rest of the Empire?"
"Greenskin problems in Averland," she replies. "Beastmen activity in Ostland. Dwarves are up to something, Elector's Meet soon. Nothing major."
"That doesn't help. Maybe Van Hal will hear something at that Meet, though." Comfortable silence stretches, with Wilhelmina almost dozing in the sunbeam illuminating her chair. "How's things with your boys?" you ask gently.
She frowns, then sighs. "Off managing deals with Worden herders. Hopefully it'll teach them some humility." She sighs again, then falls quiet for a moment, as she considers whether to continue. "I kept my sons well clear of my work with Van Hal," she finally says, "thinking that it was going to lead to an early death for both of us, like it did my husband. Instead, there's all of this. But they've got no loyalty to him. A whiff of a burgher lifestyle and suddenly they see the Hochschilds as the next Great Merchant House and are in a hurry to get there, no matter how many sheep they have to flay in the process. Gods know what they learned at university, because it sure wasn't economics." That hangs in the air for a while, before she says with forced cheer, "what about you, Mathilde? You ever think of having kids one day?"
Now there was a line of thought you definitely weren't going to make public. "Maybe," is all you answer.
"So you can, then? I mean, I know the Brights and Jades do, and the Golds don't..."
You smile. "There's a joke in the Grey College: the ones that do probably shouldn't, and the ones that don't probably should."
[Undead study: Roll, Learning, 31+16=47.]
[Spending time with Wilhelmina: Roll, 77.]
---
Information Network: Wurtbad and Purgg now completely covered; Munzhausen and Wolfsbach improved.
Information Network: Gustav's agreement secured for attaché program, training has begun; creation of 'Undead Identification Form' ongoing
Stirland Watch: Special Branch formed; covering Purgg and Wurtbad. Further expansion impossible for next two turns.
Greatsword proficiency achieved!
Fitness increased to Advanced.
Spell mastered: Bless Weapon.
Undead Lore increased to Intermediate.
Nice chat with Wilhelmina: +1 to relationship
Discretionary Income: +200g
Regional informants: -90g
Watch informants: -10g
EIC informants: -20g
Julia: -30g
Townhouse staff: -20g
Literacy lessons: -10g
Attaché program: -60g
---
Net: -40g
Personal Income: +50g
Estate Profit: +10g
Tithe: -6g
Student Loans: -35g
---
Net: +19g
---
Once more the council meeting is in Fort Redemption. This time Anton has managed to make it down, fresh from Ostermark, and is deep in conversation with Van Hal. "Now, Anton," he's saying, "when I said that I was authorizing payment for mercenaries, did you note the plural?"
"Well, technically..." Anton begins.
"A steed doesn't count."
"I think this one does," you murmur. Once more, you look out the window at where an enormous jade-green dragon is being fed whole roast pigs by awed troops, under the watchful eye of an elf clad in bejewelled armour.
---
Public Report: Write in (optional; can write in word for word, or just outline what is focused on)
Private Report: Write in (optional; the private meeting is traditional at this point and will take place, simply say whether there's anything specific you want to bring up here)
Potential Orders:
Investigation:
[ ] There's definitely evil afoot in Drakenhof. Perhaps there's a way to survive investigating this.
[ ] You kind of regret learning exactly what you did to the Thorned One, but you did it. But the liquid leaking out? That's still an unknown. Will Van Hal let you look into it on the clock?
[ ] The spell used by the informants in Eagle Castle is like nothing you've heard of before. You want to see if you can detect or replicate it.
[ ] Something your Lieutenant said gave you an idea. Investigate the shores of the Black Water, see if it can truly be tamed.
[ ] If we've got vampire troubles, maybe you should spend some time investigating how to counter vampiric infiltration.
[ ] The Purge of Haunted HIlls will begin in six months. Perhaps there's a way you can contribute to the preparations.
[ ] It looks like something is stirring in the Stirhugel. This should probably be looked into.
Infrastructure:
[ ] Your intelligence infrastructure is becoming worthy of the title; perhaps you could dedicate some time to expanding it. And though Van Hal has knocked back Stirland financing it directly, there might be a way for costs to be reduced or defrayed...
[o] The Wurtbadian Watch is now your attack dog - let it's reach spread across Stirland. (impossible for the next year)
[?] The Wurtbad Thieves Guild, despite barely being a loose gossip network, really came through during the take-down of the Stirlandian League. Maybe you should cultivate this useful tool. (Van Hal has said: not until the Watch is greatly scaled up, does it count yet?)
[ ] How about a military police? It would mesh well with your current organization, and could be useful in keeping tabs on the military.
[ ] For no particular reason, how about I see about building a unit in the army dedicated to catching terrible necromantic gribblies? In a way that conforms to Van Hal's criticisms.
[] Other/s (write in)
- I was going to come up with a generic mercenary unit instead of using the Regiments of Renown, but Anton critted so I rolled a d28 against a list of them, and uh. Yeah.
---
"A what?" Gustav asks distractedly, his eyes locked on the hills to your right as the two of you rode side-by-side along the completed section of the Haunted Highway.
"An attaché," you repeat. "Observers attached to a military unit."
He turns his full attention to you, a frown visible only by the movement of his moustache. "Observing what, exactly," he asks stiffly.
"The enemy," you say, as reassuringly as you can. "I want to get a complete overview of the type and numbers we're dealing with."
"And you don't trust my scouts to do so?" He's standing stiffer in the saddle now, his eyes blazing with indignation.
"Your scouts are the pistoliers, aren't they? So they'd be where the fighting is thickest?"
"Of course! Bravest men in Stirland!" he booms.
"They can't fight and count rotting heads," you explain, resisting the urge to roll your eyes.
"Well... alright," he agrees, reluctantly. "They'd better not get in the way, though."
"I'll see to it they're well-prepared for life in the army," you say, concealing your smile.
---
Back in Wurtbad, you organize another round of recruits fresh from the Army. For now, they'll be going through a round of literacy courses, but you also start considering how you'll train them to identify undead. You sketch out the beginnings of a training course, but the real stroke of genius comes when you have the idea to make a series of forms that could be filled out in the field to gather the required information. You'll still teach your attachés to tell their wights from wraiths and ghouls from ghasts, but if they distribute the form to the officers of the unit they're attached to, you could have that many eyes collecting useful information. And they don't need to go through specialized training to fill in a form.
You also look in on Julia while your attaché candidates learn written Reikspiel in the next room. With the foundations of an information network in place, she's no longer inserting full-time agents; a handful of shillings here, a gold crown there, the occassional round of drinks, a little encouragement to the newly-hired Special Watchmen to send in reports of local events, and suddenly the influx of information has grown severalfold. Julbach has finally been ensnared, bringing you complete knowledge of goings-on in the County of Wurtbad; a few subtle enquiries later and you learn of a well-off noble from Wurtbad who maintained a house in Julbach and greatly valued his privacy, including, unfortunately, that he hasn't been seen there in several years.
On top of that, she's piggy-backed off both the Stirland Watch and her family's merchants to expand the network along the Nuln Road, covering Purgg almost as completely as Wulfbach. You've instructed her to keep a careful eye on the Stirhugel, and the news is worrying - there's been attacks on herds all across the range. Without the full picture, the local leaders attributed it to wolves, but when the reports from Lochen, Purgg and Ohlsdorf are compared, they paint a worrying picture that something is going on in those hills.
On top of all that, it seems almost rude of her to also have brought a few innkeepers and ferrymen in Munzhausen onto the payroll.
She's thoroughly proud of her accomplishments, and preens even further under your praise.
[Convincing Gustav to cooperate: Diplomacy, Req 50, 43+7=50]
[Attaché training: Learning, Roll, 67+16+20 (Ranald's Gift)=103.]
[Julia's network expansion: Intrigue, Roll, 89+14=103]
---
You will never cease being grateful for Shadowsteed, you reflect as you return once more to Leicheberg to resume your training with Markus. Anyone else would spend weeks travelling to and fro. You've started cutting across the countryside from Halstedt to Leicheberg, your shadowy horse not caring for a moment about the broken terrain, and with that you're leaving Wurtbad at dawn and arriving at Fort Redemption at dusk, and not even that day is wasted because you're so confident on your horse of Ulgu that you spend the ride reading.
Markus is pleased to see you returning to his practice field, but not for long, because it quickly becomes clear that your skills have rusted. So you spend days hacking at dummies with a wooden practice sword once more until he decides your grip and endurance are back an acceptable level, then days more sparring with the youngest member of the Greatswords, who learns to take you seriously after you smack the grin right off his unprotected face. After that you're finally declared ready to pick up where you left off, and Markus starts teaching you personally once more; weeks fly by in a haze of exertion as you learn new techniques, then practice them until they're ingrained bone-deep. More than once you spot Van Hal watching you train, which only spurs your efforts.
Once you've achieved proficiency, Markus has drilled into you, then you can work on style. For now, your only priority is to swing the sword in such a way that it goes where you want it to, and to be able to do it over and over and over again until your lungs are burning and your muscles aching and then do it some more. Any fool can swing a sword when they're fresh; the mark of a soldier is to be able to keep swinging, no matter the conditions. At one point, a nasty bow slips past your guard and your entire arm ends up bruised from wrist to elbow, but you keep swinging anyway. There may come a time when the blade or claw does much worse to you, Markus instructs, and you need to keep swinging.
As dusk falls on another day spent entirely in the training yard, you're sparring with Markus for possibly the thousandth time, and you finally think you're holding your own. There's a look of concentration on Markus' face as he counters his swings and returns with his own. You're not pressing him - it'd take years of training until you can make the Champion of Stirland break a sweat - but he's actually having to focus on the fight, and you redouble your efforts. Minutes pass with the clatter of wood on wood, and then "hold," Markus commands suddenly, and the possibility of disobeying doesn't even occur to you.
You step back, breathing hard, and give him a quizzical look; in response, he nods at the sword in your hand. You look down at it, frowning. You're pretty sure it hasn't splintered; granted, it's a little hard to tell through the evening fog, but...
You stop, and look around at a training field utterly bereft of evening fog. And you concentrate, and release a tiny piece of concentration you never even noticed forming, and the fog emanating from the practice blade dissipates in an instant. You flex your fingers, and can feel the energies that are always within you itching to extend through your hand once more.
Hmm.
[Greatsword practice: Martial, Roll, 93+10=103]
---
There are, you know, just over forty thousand men enlisted in the Army of Stirland. The standard term is twenty years. On average, thirty-five men in every hundred would live to see retirement - and that's during times of relative peace. So, if one does the calculations, that means that around seven hundred men are retiring from the Army of Stirland every year, or about sixty a month.
So why is it so godsdamn hard to find recruits? For months you've been delaying your expansion of the Watch because the numbers weren't available to support it, especially after you snapped up so many for the attaché program, but eventually you get so frustrated at looking at week after week of no new recruits that you go into the Archives and dig twenty years into the past, and quickly find the source: the transfer of power from one ill-fated Haupt-Anderssen to another, which left the political apparatus of Wurtbad in limbo for a year until they finally arrived from their holiday home in Marienburg. For that year, there was nobody to authorize even the most routine of expenditures, so there was absolutely no recruitment into the ranks of the Army of Stirland. Which means that there's nobody entering retirement now, twenty years on.
Okay. Fine. That just means that in the near future there'll be a glut of them.
While you're neck-deep in the archives, you go through the roster of previous retirees. They're all drawing pensions or they accepted land in lieu, so either way you've got their addresses, and sure enough the majority are living in Western Stirland - it seems that twenty years in the Army left them with an urge to be as physically far from Sylvania as they could.
You spend weeks on the road, tracking down and meeting with dozens of retired soldiers. The initial reaction to you is almost universally suspicion, but that you're offering them more money from Stirland's coffers gets their attention. Half the standard pay of a Watchman is the offer, with all the rights and authorities thereof; they'd spend a month in Wurtbad being trained, then return to their homes and spend a couple of days a week working as Watchmen and the rest of their time enjoying their retirement or working on their land.
A gratifying number accept, and in the end you've got enough to cover the territory, at least until recruitment picks up. And, it occurs to you, having an additional pool of manpower you could draw from in emergencies could prove to be very useful for the Watch...
[Expanding into Wurtbad: Req 40, Stewardship, 22+13=35.]
[Expanding into Purgg: Req 50, Stewardship, 2+13=15.]
[Making it work without the numbers: Roll, Stewardship, 95+13=108.]
---
With the Watch's numbers expanded again, there's more reason than ever to expand its bureaucracy. But actually achieving that turns out to be more difficult than you expected.
"So," you ask, leaning slightly back in your chair to put some more distance between you and your interviewee. "What makes you think you would be a good fit for the administrative staff of the Stirland Watch?"
The man scratches at his chin as he considers the question, creating a rasping sound, like sandpaper on rock. "Well," he says thoughtfully through a Kislev accent that rendered him barely understandable, "I heard somewhere that if you're in Watch, they cannot arrest you."
You stare at him blankly, and he returns the look just as blankly. He drums his fingers on the table idly; you glance down and take in the tattoos of rings on his fingers, crudely done, each of a different design.
"Can you read and write?"
"I can spell my entire name," he says proudly.
This isn't even the worst candidate you've interviewed today. Either the word 'Stirland' has scared off all the qualified candidates or somehow the Empire has run out of bureaucrats.
[Hiring administrators and clerks from Altdorf and Nuln: Req 30, Stewardship, 6+13=19.]
---
When you return once more to Wurtbad, you're greatly relieved to have a chance to relax for a change. Days pass in a relaxing blur of books both referential and recreational, including the reference books borrowed from Van Hal's study. They're not as much help as you'd hoped, since most of the Witch Hunter's handbooks are less about identifying and more about burning, but you're gradually building up your general knowledge of the undead. And when Wilhelmina returns to Wurtbad at the head of a caravan of fleeces, you're waiting in the sunroom EIC headquarters to greet her. She stops in her tracks when she sees you. "Mathilde?" she asks. "I thought you were at the Fort."
"I was," you reply. "And also at Altdorf, and Nuln, and Oberwil, and Purgg..."
"Gods, that'd make magic almost worth it," she says with a sigh, stretching and then collapsing into an armchair. You swallow your reply. "How goes the Watch?"
You groan. "Could be better. Did you hire every competent clerk in the Empire?"
"Hah! I'm pretty sure I cleaned out Stirland, but I can't claim credit beyond that."
"Something must be up, then," you gripe, then your eyes narrow. "Actually, something might be up. Heard any news from the rest of the Empire?"
"Greenskin problems in Averland," she replies. "Beastmen activity in Ostland. Dwarves are up to something, Elector's Meet soon. Nothing major."
"That doesn't help. Maybe Van Hal will hear something at that Meet, though." Comfortable silence stretches, with Wilhelmina almost dozing in the sunbeam illuminating her chair. "How's things with your boys?" you ask gently.
She frowns, then sighs. "Off managing deals with Worden herders. Hopefully it'll teach them some humility." She sighs again, then falls quiet for a moment, as she considers whether to continue. "I kept my sons well clear of my work with Van Hal," she finally says, "thinking that it was going to lead to an early death for both of us, like it did my husband. Instead, there's all of this. But they've got no loyalty to him. A whiff of a burgher lifestyle and suddenly they see the Hochschilds as the next Great Merchant House and are in a hurry to get there, no matter how many sheep they have to flay in the process. Gods know what they learned at university, because it sure wasn't economics." That hangs in the air for a while, before she says with forced cheer, "what about you, Mathilde? You ever think of having kids one day?"
Now there was a line of thought you definitely weren't going to make public. "Maybe," is all you answer.
"So you can, then? I mean, I know the Brights and Jades do, and the Golds don't..."
You smile. "There's a joke in the Grey College: the ones that do probably shouldn't, and the ones that don't probably should."
[Undead study: Roll, Learning, 31+16=47.]
[Spending time with Wilhelmina: Roll, 77.]
---
Information Network: Wurtbad and Purgg now completely covered; Munzhausen and Wolfsbach improved.
Information Network: Gustav's agreement secured for attaché program, training has begun; creation of 'Undead Identification Form' ongoing
Stirland Watch: Special Branch formed; covering Purgg and Wurtbad. Further expansion impossible for next two turns.
Greatsword proficiency achieved!
Fitness increased to Advanced.
Spell mastered: Bless Weapon.
Undead Lore increased to Intermediate.
Nice chat with Wilhelmina: +1 to relationship
Discretionary Income: +200g
Regional informants: -90g
Watch informants: -10g
EIC informants: -20g
Julia: -30g
Townhouse staff: -20g
Literacy lessons: -10g
Attaché program: -60g
---
Net: -40g
Personal Income: +50g
Estate Profit: +10g
Tithe: -6g
Student Loans: -35g
---
Net: +19g
---
Once more the council meeting is in Fort Redemption. This time Anton has managed to make it down, fresh from Ostermark, and is deep in conversation with Van Hal. "Now, Anton," he's saying, "when I said that I was authorizing payment for mercenaries, did you note the plural?"
"Well, technically..." Anton begins.
"A steed doesn't count."
"I think this one does," you murmur. Once more, you look out the window at where an enormous jade-green dragon is being fed whole roast pigs by awed troops, under the watchful eye of an elf clad in bejewelled armour.
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Public Report: Write in (optional; can write in word for word, or just outline what is focused on)
Private Report: Write in (optional; the private meeting is traditional at this point and will take place, simply say whether there's anything specific you want to bring up here)
Potential Orders:
Investigation:
[ ] There's definitely evil afoot in Drakenhof. Perhaps there's a way to survive investigating this.
[ ] You kind of regret learning exactly what you did to the Thorned One, but you did it. But the liquid leaking out? That's still an unknown. Will Van Hal let you look into it on the clock?
[ ] The spell used by the informants in Eagle Castle is like nothing you've heard of before. You want to see if you can detect or replicate it.
[ ] Something your Lieutenant said gave you an idea. Investigate the shores of the Black Water, see if it can truly be tamed.
[ ] If we've got vampire troubles, maybe you should spend some time investigating how to counter vampiric infiltration.
[ ] The Purge of Haunted HIlls will begin in six months. Perhaps there's a way you can contribute to the preparations.
[ ] It looks like something is stirring in the Stirhugel. This should probably be looked into.
Infrastructure:
[ ] Your intelligence infrastructure is becoming worthy of the title; perhaps you could dedicate some time to expanding it. And though Van Hal has knocked back Stirland financing it directly, there might be a way for costs to be reduced or defrayed...
[o] The Wurtbadian Watch is now your attack dog - let it's reach spread across Stirland. (impossible for the next year)
[?] The Wurtbad Thieves Guild, despite barely being a loose gossip network, really came through during the take-down of the Stirlandian League. Maybe you should cultivate this useful tool. (Van Hal has said: not until the Watch is greatly scaled up, does it count yet?)
[ ] How about a military police? It would mesh well with your current organization, and could be useful in keeping tabs on the military.
[ ] For no particular reason, how about I see about building a unit in the army dedicated to catching terrible necromantic gribblies? In a way that conforms to Van Hal's criticisms.
[] Other/s (write in)
- I was going to come up with a generic mercenary unit instead of using the Regiments of Renown, but Anton critted so I rolled a d28 against a list of them, and uh. Yeah.
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Omegahugger
Inattentive Idiot
So, about that Waifu vote...
Night_stalker
Slava Ukraini!
- Pronouns
- He/Him
A crit.
I'm more curious what he offered. It's not gold.....
So what, basically a vacation?
DocMatoi
Theoretical Lover of Girls
- Location
- within 2 hours of the White House
- Pronouns
- They/Them
[x] WAIFU THE DRAGON
A crit, and then rolling on a list filled with variations on 'slightly better than average pikemen' and getting the guy on a dragon.
Night_stalker
Slava Ukraini!
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Nah, too honest. That said, we should def send this guy otu ASAP. I don't know what we're paying him, but I don't think we can afford it for long.
We have a effective martial of 19 when we use a shadowsteed + greatsword combo, which is nothing to sneeze at.
Mathilde's met Anton Senior. He's an amazingly uncomplicated fellow, and while he's always been proud of his son, he's now extra proud.
If we train in unarmed combat to the point our hands are deadly weapons, could we punch a ghost?
- Location
- Norway
Well, Mathilde started with Martial 6 and then piled on this long list of bonuses, +1 Brave, +2 Blooded, +1 Interrogator, +1 Training (+3 with Greatsword), +5 Shadowrider until she's sitting at a whopping 18 on a good day. (19? Is that +3 Greatsword additional or replacing?)
I imagine Anton has perhaps been piling it up similarly. Speculative possibilities: +1 Gregarious, +2 Honest (-1 Intrigue), +2 Trusting (-1 Intrigue), +1 Kind, +1 accumulated reputation, +1 Count's Right Hand (+3 when on official Stirland business), +2 The Fixer of Flensburg, and maybe took a +1 training action along the way.
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- Location
- United States
Okay, Anton has to have gotten a trait out of this!
In other news, our dice continue to be a dizzying mix of awful and amazing. It's irritating that our watch expansion has been nuetered, but on the other hand I don't be think we had a single success that wasn't critical for one reason or another. That greatsword success was particularly satisfying!
In other news, our dice continue to be a dizzying mix of awful and amazing. It's irritating that our watch expansion has been nuetered, but on the other hand I don't be think we had a single success that wasn't critical for one reason or another. That greatsword success was particularly satisfying!
Additional.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Yeah, seriously. "Any weapon you wield is Magical" is a big deal.
It's what lets you pull shit like walk with a staff and then beat a ghost to death with it.
EDIT: Wow. Buffed up, Mathilde is comparable to the Elector Count in combat. That's no small feat.
It's what lets you pull shit like walk with a staff and then beat a ghost to death with it.
EDIT: Wow. Buffed up, Mathilde is comparable to the Elector Count in combat. That's no small feat.
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