I am very open to the idea of delaying the publication of one of the lexicons for six months in order to gain an action. We would effectively be paying a six month delay in publishing, plus whatever favors we'd get from a published paper next turn, for an extra AP, which is a very solid trade in my opinion.
I'm pretty sympathetic to the idea that we should do the Khazalid tranlation first, just to give Belegar as much Dwarf cred as possible when the rest of the dwarves find out he commissioned this very un-dwarfy idea.
That locks down Max, Serenity, and one of our personal actions.
So far, we've interacted with Qretch at least once each turn during the translation project, so keeping him sane didn't "cost" us any actions. That will change very soon, since we're moving on to other projects, so we need to dedicate an action to giving him other means to stay sane.
(Does the fact that I considered killing him now that he's expended his usefulness, just to save a single AP, make me a bad person?)
We know for a fact that the Waystone project is going to be a huge deal, and even if work doesn't start on it any time soon, this is the sort of thing we need to prepare for. Plus, we basically got an
order to brush up on Waystones from Algard. So that's the third AP tied up.
The AV faction has been rumbling a lot lately, so any plan with AV will have a significant advantage over plans without it. Of the available AV actions, I'd suggest doing as much as possible ourselves before bringing the Dwarves into things, since that'll reflect best on us.
[ ] Investigate the exact circumstances required to induce a transformation.
This seems like the best option for that. Nothing else in the plan is particularly special, so it'll probably get the Gambler.
That leaves the Overwork action.
A lot of people have brought up that the initial scouting of Drazh can be carried out by others, which is a fairly valid point. I do very much want to do it, but we may have more time on future turns.
Drazh aside, my personal preferences for this would be:
1). Practical Diplomacy
This should be done fairly soon. It will be critical in dealing with Ulrican politics, it will help us try to set up the Waystone project, it can help us deal with Belegar's increasing crisis with Thorgrim, it fills a gap in our skillset towards Lord Magister, and it counts as elf-land prep.
2). Power Stone Creation
This is additional instruction in magical theory as it relates to super-concentrated magic, which is likely relevant to Waystone handling, it's probably key to a lot of AV research, and it's necessary to create some really swanky magic items personally.
The EIC action getting us a Rumor Mill is another step towards Lord Magister status, and it makes sense to start at a more broad scope before installing more dedicated spying apparatus.
Johann should start work on his own Lord Magister thesis, once we publish the lexicons.
The ducklings can respond to whatever comes up.
Summary:
[MAX] Take Dictation (Khazalid Lexicon)
[JOHANN] Examine Skryre Notes
[DUCK] FREE
[EIC] Rumor Mill
[M1] Dictate (Khazalid Lexicon)
[M2] Give Qretch Stuff To Do Without Us
[M3] College Waystones 101
[M4] Basic AV Transformations
-[COIN] Gambler
[OVERWORK] Practical Diplomacy
[SERENITY] Reikspiel Lexicon (1/2)
