Turn 1 Results:
[X] Feeding the Poor: Erengrad is the largest port in Kislev, and traders from far and wide are known to stop here. Boyar Yelchukov suggests you commission a few merchants to haul grain from abroad nonstop in order to feed the peasants. They'll be operating at a loss, so you'll have to compensate them for their time. Cost: 50 Time: 1 Year Chance of Success: 85% Reward: Food Situation in Erengrad improved one step(Any improvement beyond stable will go to feeding the rest of the country)
Needed: 15 Rolled: 59 Success
The captains are hired, the ships are sent, and within a few weeks wagonloads of grain are being distributed to the poor of the city. The dole proves unsurprisingly popular, although you do have problems ensuring that people don't cheat the system by lining up multiple times. A system of tickets is established, with one ticket providing food for the day for a household. The process slows the distribution down somewhat, but no one is getting more than their fair share, and almost everyone is fed.
Reward: Food Situation improved one step, no waste of food being brought in.
[X] Reorganization: The Pulk of Erengrad took a severe mauling in the Great War, though they fared significantly better than many other pulks. They will need to be tallied and reorganized into a fighting force that suits their reduced numbers before they can be used in any significant way. Cost: 0 Time: 1 Year Chance of Success: 100% Reward: Composition of Army known, can be deployed.
Needed 1: Rolled: 69 Success
The news is… less grim than it could have been. Out of an army of some twenty thousand men that marched to Praag, about five thousand men remain. Mostly Kossars, solid men armed with axes and bows. A few rangers, some Druzhina light cavalry, and a handful of Ungol horse archers. The worst losses are among the lancers. Out of twenty rota, two thousand men, only three hundred remain. Erengrad will not be launching any major campaigns soon, unless you wish to leave the city defended solely by the militia.
Reward: Military added to State of the Realm post
[X] Settling Claims: The war drove many from their lands, and there are refugees from across Kislev huddled in Erengrad, unable or unwilling to return home. There are also huge tracts of land that are going unplowed with their owners and heirs killed. The land will need to be divided up and redistributed in order to be worked. Get the refugees out doing something productive and feeding themselves. Cost: 50 Time: 1 Year Chance of Success 100% Reward: Food Situation Improved by one step, fewer refugees on the streets.
Needed: 1 Rolled: 63
This takes up much of your time over the course of the year. Untangling several hundred years of land deeds and shifting borders is a frustrating process, and in the end you take advantage of the depopulation to redraw the maps significantly. Grids are drawn up and noble estates of now dead families are combined and smoothed out. Families are given a plot of land roughly five acres in size and a bag of seeds, and ordered to produce a crop by the next winter. In most of the Old World this would be unreasonable, but Kislevites are nothing if not adaptable, and by the end of summer the plants are growing nicely. Unfortunately, much of it turns out to be Chaos-tainted and has to be burned, but what remains is enough to feed more of your citizenry.
Reward: Food Situation improved by one step, less overcrowding in city. +50 Peasant Tax
[X] Wood for Ships: If you want to protect yourself from the Norscans, you're going to need ships. Warships, not the converted merchantmen you rely on now. In order to build warships, the first thing you'll need is lumber. Fortunately, the Grovod Forest is just to your north. Cost: 50 Chance of Success: 85% Reward: Lumber camp established in Krovas +50 Logging Income
Needed: 15 Rolled: 30
This very nearly goes wrong. A horde of beastmen erupt from the forest, and come close to overrunning Krovas entirely. Fortunately a patrol of Kossars were nearby, and they managed to rally the militia and hold against the tide long enough for reinforcements to come. Other than that, work continues apace. A proper lumbermill is established in Krovas, and wagons of planks and logs are sent around the forest to Erengrad from the south. The path is long and dangerous, but after their initial attack, the beastmen raids have mostly subsided.
Reward: Logging Camp established in Krovas, +50 Lumber Income
[X] Find a Spymaster: Put out the word you're looking for someone skilled in the subtle arts, and see what you get. Or even better, don't put out the word and see who responds! You'll have to think about it.
Needed: 1 Rolled 54 Secret Stat Roll: ??
You begin your search by looking for any contacts among your father's old spy ring. Unfortunately, if any survived the war, they have gone to ground and have proven impossible to find. Next, you begin looking for someone trustworthy among your court with the necessary skills. This too proves fruitless. Either they are of unfriendly or uncertain loyalty, or simply too incompetent to serve you in such capacity. You've almost begun to give up when… (Continued Below)
[X] Purging the Taint: Though not as bad as around Praag, the taint of Chaos spread to your lands during the invasion. The Priests of Dazh are willing to go around the countryside and ensure the lands are clean. This will require quite a bit of fire though. Cost: 0 Time: 1 Year Chance of Success 85% Reward: Food Situation Decreases by one step. Land is clear of chaos taint.
Needed: 15 Rolled: 73
It's a good thing you let the priests do their job, you decide. A plague nearly starts in the crops you had planted, and most of them are found to be poisonous and must be destroyed. The priests of Dazh take note of where the corrupted plants came from, and go to each farmstead and conduct their rituals. At sunrise, the ground is covered in holy oil and set alight, while the priests offer prayers to their god. According to Father Zhukov the ground should be fit to produce a fine crop by next spring.
[X] A Better Beer?: Alcohol is a way of life in Kislev, between the climate and the company your country keeps. Lev, an avid drinker himself, wishes to experiment with brewing different beers. Dazh knows your people could use some cheer in desperate times. Cost: 50 Time: 1 Year Chance of Success: 85% Reward: New alcohol, happier, drunker populace.
Needed: 15 Rolled: 2
This started off so well. Due to the shortages of barley and other grains, Lev was experimenting with other sources of alcohol. He discovered that a potent beer could be made from wood of all things, and excitedly, you ordered the brewers of the city to begin produce it at once. Saving your precious grain and producing alcohol, you thought it couldn't get any better. Dozens of cases of blindness and other horrifying injuries persuade you rapidly that this was a poor idea, and now the peasants are accusing you of trying to poison them! You could wring Lev's neck for this.
Failure: -1 Peasant Opinion
[X] Praise the Sun: You feel lost. Father was supposed to live for another decade at least, and then this would be Antony's job, with you supporting him as you'd been learning to do. Now you are alone, and thrust into a job that would be difficult in the best of times. You need guidance. Perhaps Dazh can help you? Cost: 0 Time: 1 Year Chance of Success: ?? Reward: Center oneself through prayer. Chance of losing trait Depressed.
Needed:1 Rolled: 74
After the fiasco with the wood alcohol, you spend much of your time in silent contemplation, casting your prayers to Dazh every sunrise and sunset. Am I worthy? Can I serve as my father did? Questions with no answers, perhaps. But even though you receive no response, the knowledge that Dazh is there and listening sustains you. You may be only half the man your father was, so you'll simply have to work twice as hard. You cannot fail.
Success?: Faith in Dazh reconfirmed, no further negative trait gain.
[X] My Brother's Keeper: Your sister-in law Natalya hasn't been seen for weeks. If it were not for the trays of food left outside her door disappearing and empty ones appearing you wouldn't know if she was alive or not. Your nephew Josef is attended to by his wetnurse and a veritable army of maids, but he needs his mother. And you could use a friend in these times. Cost: 0 Time: 1 Year Chance of Success: ?? Reward: Natalya starts interacting with world again, accepts the loss of her husband.
Needed: 1 Rolled: 93
You knock on the door for the fourth time this week. No response. You call out "Natalya, please open the damn door." No response. "Your son needs you. Antony is dead, but Josef needs you." Again, no response. Enough of this. You have been patient, accommodating, and tactful but now, you have reached your limit. Seizing a bench in the hall, you lift it bodily and smash your improvised ram into the door. It buckles, and you force your way into the bedroom.
The first word you would use to describe the room is filthy. The remains of half eaten meals are scattered across the floor, and furniture has been torn up and smashed to pieces against the walls. Your sister-in-law lies on the grand bed, far too large for just her alone. The fire is out, and the room is bitterly cold.
"Leave me alone," she says, idly flinging an empty bottle of some Tilean wine at you. It goes far wide, and shatters against the wall. Her face is lined and tearstained, and there are large bags under her eyes.
"How much longer are you going to stay like this? Antony is dead. Domovoi is dead. My father is dead. But your son is alive, and he needs you. Are you going to abandon him?"
At that, she starts upright. "How am I supposed to care for my son when all I see when I look at him is Antony? When all I think about is the mangled corpse of my husband? He's better off without me."
At this the rage in your heart dies, and you look upon Natalya with new understanding. Like you, she is lost. Like you, she is afraid. You have been sustained by your faith and your duty. "You're wrong," you say. "You are needed, Your son needs you. And I..I need your help as well. I know you were training to manage the spies for Antony when my father died. Will you help me?"
She stands, and you see a cautious hope in her weary eyes. "Do you truly mean what you say?"
"Yes," you answer.
"Then I will do what I can."
Reward: Natalya Rukov loses trait Depressed. Natalya Rukov begins to raise her son and your current heir. Natalya Rukov becomes your spymaster.
AN: Whew. That took longer than I expected, especially the last bit. You needed a 75 on prayer to lose Depressed, btw. Economy will be updated soon. Rumor mill over the weekend, then Turn 2 will be up by Monday hopefully.
And we need to get right on helping Natalya start overcoming her grief and doing so ourselves.
