[X] Plan Be the Bigger Witch
[X] Plan: Magic Duties to clean up!
I like the idea of maintaining a pen pal relationship with the new van Hal. Perhaps familiarity will dull the edge of her discomfort of us?
To be fair we will have a bit of a support base in the form of our shares in the EIC and our estate. I sort of like the idea of upgrading our estate and creating an elite guard (yes I want Smoke Knights) all with enchanted equipment, then showing up the next time Stirland goes to war and steal the spotlight.
If we were going to go the Smoke Knights route, there's a few things we should recognize right out the gate; firstly, there is no way we should make this something the Grey Colleges find out on their own. We tell them our intentions and do not make it look like we're making a power grab, because that's the sort of thing the zero-tolerance policy is there to nip in the bud. We could
probably manage with the antipathy of Witch Hunters who find out by happenstance, but it's probably better to find a reasonable moderate to sanction it with us. We can probably justify things to an extent as being how House Weber pays its feudal dues, but that's a fine line to walk.
Secondly, we would need to be on the watch for Big Blue poking his unwanted beak into our operations. Chaos isn't Stirland's typical Destruction force to contend with, but sneaky wizards training up ninjas is probably like rainbow-catnip to him.
Thirdly, we probably will want to set up some sort of partnership with Zhufbar to supply equipment, as a sort of dwarfy Q Division.
Lastly, if we were to do something like this, we'd have to do it right. Hidden village somewhere in our fief, get some trainers from vetted smugglers, horse thieves, poachers etc. to train up our people. This we can probably be pretty overt about actually; instead of mustering run of the mill slingers, having scouts and rangers would synergize with Mathilde's 'fog of war' trait. If we felt secure in doing so, get some dwarf rangers to help with the training, have the actual smoke knight training come when they've demonstrated reliability and loyalty, start training them on how to operate in an urban environment and on things like proper use of gunpowder (smoke bombs, hoy!)
What I mean to say is, if you wanted to do 'smoke knights' be prepared for it to be a long haul. It isn't an unreasonable route to go (see; house motto) but it's a time sink and I know a few people are getting antsy to do some wizard-y things like 'learn spells' and 'see what the delicious snake juice is all about'. I know I am.
@BoneyM I checked the 2e Old World Armory for firearm prices. Should I expect them to be
reasonably accurate vis a vis obtaining similar specimines in this game?
