You know, I think the Border prince option is probably the best out of all the other options and is probably the best comprimise between solving everyone wants and desires from this quest and i'll try and express why here so i can more easilly argue for it when Boney makes the big post as communicating thoughts to readable, understandable English is real hard more me to do so quick so here we go.
Welp the first point for It I guess is that it conveniently positions us near enough to K8P, Stirland, Altdorf etc so we won't have to worry about losing acces to all our backers and we will have the backing of Barack varr, colleges if we want to pull them to help us in something like towers, ad the dwarven empire like for example building a fortress with cash and favours which was an option at the when we were fired from Stirland I believe.
Either way, this leads onto my next point is that this job means we can still have acces to K8P which means if we decide on the big library boon or the research centre or heck even both we can still acces them. I think Pickle has a quote on what research centre will do so i'll try looking for it... ah here it is.
A would probably result in it subsuming the current Duckling/Johann/Max half-turns and having three half-turns dedicated to managing the Branch and its employees or performing collaborative research, which would also make it that practically any research task could be performed with those half-turns. B would be a lot trickier to work into the narrative so I'd have to think about how it'd work, but at the very least it would make it much more likely that some more Wizards would arrive to work with.
It however might be subject to rework if Boney decides it doesn't fit the naritive system but it will surely give us many benefits. Point is we can still go back to K8P and acces the research center for the bonuses it gives us like maybe half research actions, managing other wizards projects for our benefit and border prince benefit like say PanPan project to make good land in the border princes, and more cool magic projects to keep the tide of Waghs, orcs, and goblins at bay.
Point is we can still have acces to all of this cool research stuff as well as waystone research as K8P is still nearby and probably keep our writer boi as he can go still work with the dwarves.
Theirs Also another point i think i should bring up the fact were running out of cool things to investigate at K8P and our job their seems to be coming to an end.
Mathilde was hired as the weird shit poker and Karak Eight Peaks is running out of weird shit to poke. That's the actual problem here. Tearing holes in the justification for how Mathilde can seek a new job with a clear conscience and no loss of face doesn't change that. Sure, Belegar could keep taking care of more traditional problems to leave Mathilde free to poke at weird shit, or he could invent a new weird shit poker title, but none of that actually addresses the weird shit shortfall.
Mathilde can kick back and accept a sinecure, or she can go ham on pumping out even more defensive superweapons, or she can pivot to a weird shit troubleshooter for the wider Karaz Ankor, or she can begin a tripartite research project on the Waystones. But what she can't do is keep doing the same job exactly as it's been done up until now, because once more for the people at the back, Karak Eight Peaks will not spontaneously develop weird shit on a biannual basis just to justify Mathilde's occupation.
Theirs also this point that while BoneyM is offering a research Sabbatical, if he gets bored he will start baiting plot hooks and we'll probably leave K8P and no longer have the job offer of working at a place near K8P within teleport tower range like we have with the border prince.
'Research sabbatical' will be an option, with the disclaimer that if I get bored I'll start baiting plot hooks.
I don't think we'll be given the option of staying more then 5 years at most for a research sabatical while if we choose the border prince job i expect to probably stay their for at least a decade exploring it for cool shit, keeping order in the border princes, and making more magical weapons and magical solutions to problems in the border prince area.
Either way i think this job preferable then any other options as we can still be a mage and leave deplomacy, piety, stewardship, martial to the wolves, etc to other peeps on our council while we might spend 2 - 4 ap doing direct diplomacy with local princes and rallying support for our cause from other sources like the empire or the dwarves or other religous institutions like Kasmir did.
Also for those worried we'll be dumped with the job i would point out it's just a popularity contest of which option does Malthitide look into with more depth so i think we can expect a year or 2 befpre moving onto our new job and settling old socials with other peeps.
- The current plan for Mathilde's next raison d'être is similar to how romance was handled: a vote will be held where everyone is invited to vote for any offers they feel are interesting, and the most popular ones will have Mathilde seek more information about the arrangement before any final decisions are made.
Meh just my thoughts on why i think border princes is the best option as just like with being Belegar's court wizard we can still continue to focus on magical prjects to help defend our position from the local rulers and gribbles, etc while still exploring the border prince as an adventurous location wwhich was once home to Nehekaren colonies and i believe Elven wights and adventurers so that could be fun.
Just my prefered job as we can still have access to all the resources we have at K8P and do magic shit while PanPan works her magic to terraform good land for the border princes future residents like we did at K8P and more cool adventure.
Sorry if this might seem like a ramble, really sucks to try and communicate my thoughts on something without it taking like 30 minutes to an hour and discussion is already dead and i'd like to prevent that when i argue for this option when the vote actually comes.
