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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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[X] Plan Reasonable
[X] [Execution] The stupid son of a .... Really? He barely escapes with his head attached once, and decides to try it again, right under the noses of a Witch Hunter, the Emperor's own spymaster and, hell, me? I'll probably feel bad later, but right now the level of stupid in evidence has me practically apoplectic.
 
[X] Plan Reasonable
-[X] Report: Stick to the facts. We very discreetly acquired Petr and Maksim von Stolpe, using the Count's authority to borrow troops. We looked at the burst of magic flooding into the mound, and reasoned our way to it coming from Drakenhof. We are starting to build a network of contacts now that we don't need to focus on tracking down the ledger.
-[X] One-on-one report: We've bought a shack for carrying out the kind of business that is impractical to carry out in the Elector Count's castle. If you need to get hold of us while we're there, send a messenger to this innkeeper, one of our nearby agents. We'd advise the Count not to show up personally as it would be likely to draw attention.
(Reasoning: The Count doesn't need to know about the underground shrine beneath it, or even its exact location for that matter, but he really should know 1: that we have a separate base, 2: how to contact us when we're out of the castle.)
-[X] Possible orders:
--[X] The disappearance of yourpredecessor is very concerning, especially since he's actively trying to sabotage the hunt for him. He must be found, and I've got a lead: Julbach.
--[X] The Stirlandian League is a cancer eating at Stirland's economy, and it can be destroyed now that we have the ledgers.
---[X] ...but you could also leave it in place so we can take it over from Wilhelm von Tarshof once we track him down.
--[X] I've got the budget for a proper network of informants, now it just needs building.
--[X] Variant Writein: Drakenhof. This must be investigated... at a distance. Let me do research and make inquiries among the Grey Order and in other high places.

[X] [Execution] While the Professor got what was coming to him, both for his crime and his stupidity, Mathilde is surprised by the casual manner in which van Hal carried it out. She'd expected a trial, or at least some kind of official statement before a formal execution, not just shooting him during the reports.
 
BoneyM said:
A peek under the hood, as well as conclusions Mathilde could reasonably make in hindsight: not presenting options related to the Stirlandian League aroused Van Hal's suspicions that you were going to suborn it for your own profit, and he was considering either a 'write-in' or investigating you. Your fantastic roll in response allowed you to present good, solid reasons why in a convincing manner, which immediately put his concerns to rest.
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I think what we should have done is noted it under the other options... that is, when we put forth
[] Find predecessor
-[] Note, this leads towards an option to properly taking over the league
[] Find books
-[] Note, this leads towards an option to properly dismantling the guild

So in the future when we have an important issue we don't want to tackle yet, we need to somehow reference it or proactively explain why we suggest we wait on it

Personally, I would suggest that we dismantle the guild. While it is an amazing engine of espionage, it is simply far too expensive and harmful to the economy of the fief. Built to enrich the former spymaster first, and collect intelligence second.

... unless the method in which we take it over means it actually is owned by the count van hel himself and thus its profits can be used to finance the fief. An accounted should be consulted about this.

And we should be a bit more discreet about our own skimming off the top in terms of cash than trying to take over such a merchant consortium
Alectai said:
Mathilde is just this comedy of just generally stumbling her way through matters she really has no business being so successful in.
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She is a trained grey mage with jedi mind trick... it is an amazing force multiplier for a spy
Night_stalker said:
Speaking of..... Anyone else find it odd? They take the things, dump them in the middle of a burial mound, and leave 'em? Not even like burning the things and just putting blank pages in there? That kinda seems lackluster.
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Remember that there was a very high turnover of lords in the past. They probably figured the current lord would die soon and their candidate would be able to get into power
 
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[X] Plan Reasonable
[X] Execution: While the Professor got what was coming to him, both for his crime and his stupidity, Mathilde is surprised by the casual manner in which van Hal carried it out. She'd expected a trial, or at least some kind of official statement before a formal execution, not just shooting him during the reports.
 
BoneyM said:
A peek under the hood, as well as conclusions Mathilde could reasonably make in hindsight: not presenting options related to the Stirlandian League aroused Van Hal's suspicions that you were going to suborn it for your own profit, and he was considering either a 'write-in' or investigating you. Your fantastic roll in response allowed you to present good, solid reasons why in a convincing manner, which immediately put his concerns to rest. This prevented any loss of relationship points as well as leading him to investigate the Professor instead of you. He doesn't just show up once every six months to listen to reports and hand out orders - he's got Personal Actions and he uses them.

Maybe he's confident enough now in your abilities and motivations that he wouldn't blink if you made a case for taking over the Stirlandian League. Maybe you'd have to do some fast talking to justify it. Maybe he'd just smile and nod, but make a mental note to keep a closer eye on you. You don't know him well enough to say.
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Ahh Vindication.

I don't want to say 'I told you so' but ...
I told you so.
Sundry persons who want to to Plan Mushroom the Count ignore the fact that he is a Witch Hunter.
Don't know his Intrigue, but his Investigation stat is out the wazoo.
This is why I wanted to tell him about the threat to declare us rogue right from the start.
Even if we tell him now, we have been hiding it for a year and some, his reaction is not going to be as pleasant.
If we dont tell him, WHEN not if, he discovers it for himself, well ...
 
Considering he just shot another adviser in the head without warning for embezzling knowing he worked for imperial intelligence I'm not particularly eager to tell him we're working for some mysterious other player.
 
Exmorri said:
Short version: Capital of Sylvania. Vampire Counts.
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Oh man... we are so not ready to face them... but this totally explains things.
The spooked horses? those were vampires taking the ledgers.
Hiding instead of burning them? they wanted to sabotage van hel, and were hoping to place their own patsy of vampires unto van hel's seat once he is ousted. Probably that petty noble we captured who was stupid enough to brag about his involvement. Once vampire patsy is installed the ledgers would be returned as they are necessary for the financial operations of the country
Night_stalker said:
And you want to take the chance our orders won't change to feature that?

Because he just retired the martial advisor right in front of our eyes. I'm not keen on that befalling us.
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One thing I have considered but am conflicted about, is to share with him the exact orders we receive and what we reply about them. So long as he can be discreet about it... actually I don't think our "backer" specifically ordered us to not tell him. although it goes against the spirit of the orders

As I said though, I am conflicted about this
 
[X] Plan Reasonable
[X] Execution: While the Professor got what was coming to him, both for his crime and his stupidity, Mathilde is surprised by the casual manner in which van Hal carried it out. She'd expected a trial, or at least some kind of official statement before a formal execution, not just shooting him during the reports.
 
[X] Plan Reasonable
[X] Execution: While the Professor got what was coming to him, both for his crime and his stupidity, Mathilde is surprised by the casual manner in which van Hal carried it out. She'd expected a trial, or at least some kind of official statement before a formal execution, not just shooting him during the report


Ps. What people don't seem to realize, while count admits that he doesn't expect his advisors to be paragons of virtue, and that he fully expects for them to have some ultior motives, that doesn't mean his advisors should admit their flaws.
There is such a thing as a plausible deniability.
The count just marked his line in the sand. Minor corruption will be tolerated, as long as it doesn't hamper Stirland's survival/defense.
 
Maybe a half truth. Admit we are working for someone else, we assumed it was the emperor's spymaster... now we're not so sure. Also we owe a lot of money to the collage, we're handling it with our wages buuuut we do owe it to the Gray and we are sneaky buggers.
 
Chronic said:
I strongly suggest not giving Van Hal the Drakenhof option. Whoever is holed up in there has some serious magical oomph.
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If we choose to not put forth that option, then our report should include an explanation as to why, otherwise he will call us into his office to ask us to justify ourselves via dice roll again. And on a bad roll we are in trouble.

I mean, we can actually come up with some plausible explanation such as:
"When exploring the mound we triggered an alarm, some time later a necromantic spell came hurtling forth towards us. Based on my knowledge of magic I have calculated that the necromancer who placed the alarm and sent the necromantic spell is currently in Drakenholf.

This paints a particularly ugly picture when you consider the multiple individuals who took the tax ledgers out of the castle operated at night and spooked horses.

We are almost surely dealing with a vampire necromancer, one with multiple vampire underlings, who seems to have been plotting to take over the fief. Likely placing their puppet as he next elector count and then bringing him the tax ledgers. Which would also have let them act against nobles who have intentionally underpaid their taxes during the time they were gone.

While my illusions are very effective against humans. At my current state as a journeyman I am simply not the match of a vampire necromancer. I feel that if we do decide to investigate them more closely we would need to bring a military force instead.

I would also like us to finish interrogating count whatshisname"
... the problem with the above is that its kinda cowardly... also, unless we literally stumble on the vampire necromancer we would probably be inspecting their human servants instead. And van hel is mainly interested in targetting sylvania so i am not sure i want to admit to not be suited for it.

Alternatively, we could just go "finish interrogating count X"first to get clearer picture of what we are dealing with. And in the meantime maybe work on the league or my predecessor problems."

TotallyNotEvil said:
Agreed, destroying it is utterly wasteful. Stirland can't afford waste.
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It isn't "destroyed" in the sense of "set on fire" but in the sense of "Van Hel repossesses it all as penalty for tax evasion". Also, the league is actively harmful to the economy.

Furthermore, your plan forgets we are the adviser not the count. we are supposed to offer both options but then coach them in a way that tries to convince van hel to vote for the one we want. Not REFUSE to offer him the options we don't want him to pick. remember he can write in and QM warned us it would be a tough sell to convince him to let us keep the league. A good explanation on why we think he should do X would work better than trying to "hide" the option from him and hoping he doesn't use write in power
 
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I understand the criticism of the Sanity plan, but I figure the longer we let the League lie the more difficult it's going to be to assume control over it. Also we already mention it as an option to Van Hal so he knows it's at the forefront of our mind now that the ledgers have been found, and I figure we're going to be tracking down our predecessor next turn regardless of whether van Hal orders us to do it or not.
 
Siual said:
I understand the criticism of the Sanity plan, but I figure the longer we let the League lie the more difficult it's going to be to assume control over it.
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The league is currently being controlled by our predecessor, actively. We need to actually find said predecessor to have a chance of taking over the guild.
Furthermore, dismantling it is not "destroying trade", it is repossessing it by the state for tax evasion. And the league itself is actively stifling trade and actively hurting the economy.

Also, how exactly do we find out who agents of our predecessor are and get them to answer to us? they currently still answer to him.

Honestly dismantling it could help us potentially catch him easier. And taking it over doesn't sound like it will take fewer actions that building our own network
[X] Execution: While the Professor got what was coming to him, both for his crime and his stupidity, Mathilde is surprised by the casual manner in which van Hal carried it out. She'd expected a trial, or at least some kind of official statement before a formal execution, not just shooting him during the report
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I really dislike this "trial" nonsense. We had a stable hand tortured for info, and just disappeared a noble at night so he can be tortured for information based entirely on the fact he implied that he knew what was going on from his body language... also, we are a freaking grey mage. And our count is a witch hunter...
this trial expectation makes no bloody sense
 
[X] Plan Reasonable
[X] [Execution] The stupid son of a .... Really? He barely escapes with his head attached once, and decides to try it again, right under the noses of a Witch Hunter, the Emperor's own spymaster and, hell, me? I'll probably feel bad later, but right now the level of stupid inevidence has me practically apoplectic.
 
mrttao said:
The league is currently being controlled by our predecessor, actively.
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Err...no. He's gone completely missing. One of the nobles in the League might be sheltering him, but that's far from certain. Even less certain is that he's actually running affairs in the League, especially since he wasn't even an official member.
 
Siual said:
Err...no. He's gone completely missing.
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1. He hasn't gone missing, he has left the castle and gone into hiding. there is a very significant difference.

2. We literally caught one of his spies which he inserted into the castle to sabotage our attempts to find him.

3. Just because we don't know where he is doesn't mean that he doesn't still control his previous assets. and in fact investigating them is a good path towards finding him

... also in retrospect didn't we find that the spy he sent came from the same town as that crooked noble we captured? maybe there is some connection there? maybe he was being sheltered there? and if that is the case does that mean he has connection with the vampires trying to usurp the province and the death of the previous elector counts?

[X] Plan Reasonable
[X] [Execution] The stupid son of a .... Really? He barely escapes with his head attached once, and decides to try it again, right under the noses of a Witch Hunter, the Emperor's own spymaster and, hell, me? I'll probably feel bad later, but right now the level of stupid inevidence has me practically apoplectic.
 
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mrttao said:
I really dislike this "trial" nonsense. We had a stable hand tortured for info, and just disappeared a noble at night so he can be tortured for information based entirely on the fact he implied that he knew what was going on from his body language... also, we are a freaking grey mage. And our count is a witch hunter...
this trial expectation makes no bloody sense
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Warhammer is very loosely based on exaggerating the bloodiest, nastiest and fightiest bits of an already unfortunate time period where the category of "trial" stretched very widely to include things like "Torture him and see if he dies of it; if he lives, he's innocent". (For example, making the accused wear red-hot iron shoes.) I'm not expecting anything modern. I'm expecting something more than just shoot him like a dog.
 
[X] Plan Reasonable
[X] [Execution] The stupid son of a .... Really? He barely escapes with his head attached once, and decides to try it again, right under the noses of a Witch Hunter, the Emperor's own spymaster and, hell, me? I'll probably feel bad later, but right now the level of stupid inevidence has me practically apoplectic.
 
Hope we got some time, I'm heading to work and got a few ideas on the options, but not enough time to type it over breakfast
 
Exmorri said:
Warhammer is very loosely based on exaggerating the bloodiest, nastiest and fightiest bits of an already unfortunate time period where the category of "trial" stretched very widely to include things like "Torture him and see if he dies of it; if he lives, he's innocent". (For example, making the accused wear red-hot iron shoes.) I'm not expecting anything modern. I'm expecting something more than just shoot him like a dog.
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I am 100% certain that the vote of "I expected a trial not an execution" (which happened after a thorough investigation has proven guilt) is not actually using the word trial to refer to "torture a confession out of him before executing him"

The MC was raised by the college of illusion aka college of spies since early childhood.
She has explicitly according to charsheet internalized intrigue.
She backstabbed that diplomacy guy with aplomb and stated how he is wholly unsuited for the "dark side" of his job in a way that implied she is
She has allowed that stableboy we captured to be tortured for info without any issues.
She has disappeared a nobleman in the night in order to torture info out of him and then quietly dispose of him, no trial, just based on implied connection to some plot.

This aboveboard trial is just extremely ridiculously OOC for her.
 
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New
[X] Plan Reasonable
-[X] ...with a slightly shaken partial confession? "Someone pulled strings to assign a fresh journeyman wizard here, and until now I'd thought it was either Imperial Intelligence/the Emperor or the Grey Tower. They've just asked for a report on Anton for now- possibly as he was the only holdover- but the chance is good they'll ask for more. I truely want to help my home, my people, the commoners of Stirland, and you seem to want the same thing. End the Vampire threat. Build up the province.

So... What do you want me to do? Play along but work to reduce the damage this could cause? Tell them no and pray? Set things up so it looks like I made a serious effort to do what they asked and failed? You are the boss here, all I can do is lay out options for you, what do you want me to do?"
[X] [Execution] The stupid son of a .... Really? He barely escapes with his head attached once, and decides to try it again, right under the noses of a Witch Hunter, the Emperor's own spymaster and, hell, me? I'll probably feel bad later, but right now the level of stupid inevidence has me practically apoplectic. ...At least I can try to focus on my indignation, not my nausea that I got him killed.
 
Alliterate said:
-[X] ...with a slightly shaken partial confession? "Someone pulled strings to assign a fresh journeyman wizard here, and until now I'd thought it was either Imperial Intelligence/the Emperor or the Grey Tower. They've just asked for a report on Anton for now- possibly as he was the only holdover- but the chance is good they'll ask for more. I truely want to help my home, my people, the commoners of Stirland, and you seem to want the same thing. End the Vampire threat. Build up the province.

So... What do you want me to do? Play along but work to reduce the damage this could cause? Tell them no and pray? Set things up so it looks like I made a serious effort to do what they asked and failed? You are the boss here, all I can do is lay out options for you, what do you want me to do?"
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1. Ew, no. There goes all of my enjoyment of her character if she start grovelling like that.
2. Line breaks mean the second half won't be counted as a vote. Be brief and keep it to one paragraph.
 
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