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In Progress [LP] Lord Captain, you've served your time in Hell! Codex plays Lords of Infinity, a text RPG of Politics and Warfare
- Thread starter Lithium Flower
- Start date
1a
Lithium Flower
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2016
- Messages
- 1,832
I checked to see whether I am omitting context but I don't think so, and it seems pretty explanatory. You are not choosing actions as much as what you are going to tell people - the state of emergency is not some codified protocol, its literally like, "do you tell people that there is a threat or nah." Additionally, do you raise or lower rents in response to the emergency, which is dependant on telling people what's up, because its hard to justify an emergency levy without first declaring an emergency okay hope that helps my friend
)
Lithium Flower
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2016
- Messages
- 1,832
"I shall not resort to half-measures: declare an emergency."
Saundersley nods gravely. "I see, my lord," he replies, his disapproval quite evident. "I shall draw up an announcement for tomorrow."
Yet even so, it's clear that he has something else to say.
"What is it, Saundersley?"
"If my lord wishes to enact some further measure, it would be best to include the news in the same announcement," he replies. "It would serve to associate the measure with the exigency."
"Announce that I mean to raise a partial emergency levy, one crown per household."
Saundersley nods, his expression carefully neutral. Yet even so, he cannot help but resist offering you one last warning.
"Your tenants may not react well," he observes. "They may take it as a sign that the crisis is worse than it appears."
Perhaps this is an overreaction, but you will not compromise the safety of your tenants and your fief on maybes.
"They must understand," you insist. "My previous reduction of rents ought to convince them that I would not embark upon such a course of action unless it was absolutely necessary."
---
And so they do, for the most part.
There is some disquiet when the announcement of the state of emergency goes up, and some grumbling in regards to the extra rents you're levying, but the tenor of the complaints seem to be more resignation than anger. Perhaps it's the potential threat that the roadsmen pose, or perhaps they trust your ability to handle the crisis.
In any case, the extra rents are collected, and you soon put together a sizeable emergency fund, should things get worse.
---
Yet as the days go on, no roadsmen come spilling out of the woods, no fresh news of attacks cross your desk. With every passing day, the stench of fear which had come so raw and so fresh in those first early days floats away bit by bit, until it can be barely smelled at all.
After a week, some of your most intrepid tenants even try to make the trip to the market town down the road. They go armed with pistols, pitchforks, and the most fearful of anxieties, but when they return without incident, those that follow them take no such precautions and return no less unharmed.
When the Intendancy courier arrives with fresh letters from your bankers a few days later, he reports no sign of brigandage at all on the roads surrounding your fief.
Perhaps the crisis is well and truly over? For a few days, it certainly seems so. There are no more attacks, and a letter even manages to get through from your old subordinate Captain Sandoral, evidently now resident in Aetoria:
My Lord Ezinbrooke,
I hope this letter finds you well; and that your lands are enjoying the state of peace and tranquility which we fought so many years across the sea to safeguard and preserve.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Aetoria. The Old City seems to grow more wretched and restless with every passing week. Some streets now all but boil with the bodies of the destitute and the hungry, and there have even been incidents of such individuals being seen as far as the Castle Quarter, where I fear the private serving-men and houseguards of those residing in that place have answered with, at times, the most grievous degree of force.
The Duke of Wulfram has been most vocal about denouncing such actions and the circumstances which led to them. His words in the Cortes appear in the broadsheets daily, often accompanied by some blunt rebuke from those in support of the King, but never from the King himself. While I have every confidence that His Majesty is resolved upon a course of action, I fear that he has resorted to the methods he exercised in Antar, where he did not reveal the extent of his preparations until the very last moment. However useful such a measure may be on campaign, I fear it only feeds the sentiment that the King has no real answer to Wulfram's accusations, and that only he possesses the will to make right the situation.
I can only hope that His Majesty will see things the same way I do, and will take measures accordingly. After the victories he brought us in Antar, I have great faith in his ability to restore the confidence of the Cortes and the commons. I only hope he will do so quickly, before the current disquiet grows worse.
Perhaps then, I will be able to find the time to visit. I find myself at times missing the open space and freedom of the countryside. I find myself missing the regiment, and Blaylock, and even Garret. I pray it will not be long before I can renew those much-valued acquaintances.
Until then, I remain, your obedient servant,
Sandoral
---
It is not an unpleasant thing, to read the words of your old comrade-in-arms after so long, and yet some of what Sandoral recounts cannot help but sit uneasily in your thoughts. If the situation in Aetoria continues to worsen, and the King is seen to do nothing to alleviate the suffering of the commons, then you can only imagine that opposition to the Crown will only grow, not only amongst those Lords of the Cortes who might seek some advantage in taking up the cause of the commons, but amongst the common folk themselves.
But you cannot afford to dwell upon such matters, no matter how important they might be in the long run. You have other issues to deal with, ones closer at hand. The Roadsmen may have stopped their attacks for now, but that doesn't mean the course of the year has likewise halted. There is still the business of the spring planting, the coming summer, and the mundane but necessary business of managing your estate…
---
With the roadsmen in control of the approaches to your fief, prospective tenants dare not risk the journey for fear of robbery or death. Likewise, those of your people who might otherwise leave have been dissuaded by the potential danger. For good or ill, all of your tenants are effectively trapped within your barony.
In addition, Your fief's relatively low rents allow your tenants some measure of surplus coin, which invariably offers some small increase to prosperity and contentment. The process of clearing debris from the disused plots on your fief is now complete, too late for planting season, unfortunately. With patience and care, they will no doubt much improve the output of your lands, much aided by the relatively rich soil of your native region. In addition, you receive a letter from your bankers, who inform you that in light of your current circumstances, they have agreed to lower the interest rate on your debt to their minimum rate of two percent a year. You've driven your interest rates as low as they'll go. Only paying off your debt in full could decrease it further.
---
In addition, reports come to you that there's been a particularly violent brawl in the publick house of your village. Though you cannot speak as to the exact cause, you suspect that it might have something to do with the general air of insolence and discontent amongst your tenants as of late. After all, when they're made sullen or angry by factors beyond their influence, the baneless quite naturally turn to violence, and lacking any other outlet, they would just as naturally turn upon each other.
Whatever the reason, the result has been several grievous injuries, including one which may well prove fatal. The interior of the publick house was so damaged that the establishment must close to effect repairs—a substantial blow to the commercial life of the village. Worse yet, news of the brawl has spread throughout the region, something which is sure to give your barony a reputation as a violent, lawless place.
Needless to say, it is not welcome news.
---
With the latest reports taken into account, your current financial situation is as follows:
Bi-Annual Revenues
Rents: 296 Crown
Personal Income: 135 Crown
Bi-Annual Expenditures
Estate Wages: 150 Crown
Food and Necessities: 75 Crown
Luxuries and Allowances: 75 Crown
Groundskeeping and Maintenance: 50 Crown
Interest Payments: 107 Crown
Special Expenses: 0 Crown
Total Net Income (Next Six Months): -26 Crown
New Loans: 0 Crown
Current Wealth: 701 Crown
Projected Wealth Next Half-Year: 675
What do you wish to do?
[Copy-pasting previous voting instructions for reference;
Here is how I am going to ask you to vote:
Below are sections labeled I, II, and III. Each of the options in a given section is mutually exclusive with the options in the same section, at least for this management turn.
Therefore, please indicate one choice for each section, for a total of 3 choices. It would also be great if you were to copy-paste the phrasing of the choice itself. For a example, a full set of votes might look like this:
"I-100) I will pay off 100 crowns of debt beyond my interest payment.
II-5) I must try to renegotiate the interest on my loans.
III-3e) A new market hall might bring in new business."
I will count votes for each set of choices, never for each individual choice. Therefore, I encourage the more dedicated of you to submit a set of choices and explain your rationale, so that the rest can simply piggy-back on whatever set they think is best.
FINALLY, all of the actions will be performed in the same order as the section number.]
SECTION I: PAYING OFF DEBT
[Please submit your vote for this section in the following format:
I-x) I will pay off x crowns of debt, beyond my interest payment.
where x is the amount of debt you wish to pay off this management turn.
For example...
...if you wish to pay off no debt beyond my interest payment, please write I-0;
...if you wish to pay off 500 debt beyond my interest payment, please write I-500;
...if you wish to pay off 1337 debt beyond my interest payment, please write I-1337.
And so on.]
SECTION II: LOANS AND INTEREST
[Funds secured through these options will not become immediatelly until after this management turn, as it will take some time for your request to be mailed and considered.]
II-1) No changes
II-2) I mean to ask for a modest loan; 1000 crown, perhaps?
II-3) I am in need of a sizeable loan, 2500 crown or so.
II-4) I shall require a great deal of money; 5000 crown, at least.
II-5) I must try to renegotiate the interest on my loans.
---
SECTION III: CONSTRUCTION AND RENOVATION
[If you wish to build nothing, vote for the option directly below:]
III-1) No changes
[Otherwise, please peruse the catalogues below, and vote for ONE option from among those present across all categories.
The first two catalogues include upgrade options that expend the required wealth immediatelly and are built relatively quickly.
The last catalogue, concerning major projects, does not require expending any wealth at once - instead, its construction will have to be continously funded later down the line.]
Saundersley nods gravely. "I see, my lord," he replies, his disapproval quite evident. "I shall draw up an announcement for tomorrow."
Yet even so, it's clear that he has something else to say.
"What is it, Saundersley?"
"If my lord wishes to enact some further measure, it would be best to include the news in the same announcement," he replies. "It would serve to associate the measure with the exigency."
"Announce that I mean to raise a partial emergency levy, one crown per household."
Saundersley nods, his expression carefully neutral. Yet even so, he cannot help but resist offering you one last warning.
"Your tenants may not react well," he observes. "They may take it as a sign that the crisis is worse than it appears."
Perhaps this is an overreaction, but you will not compromise the safety of your tenants and your fief on maybes.
"They must understand," you insist. "My previous reduction of rents ought to convince them that I would not embark upon such a course of action unless it was absolutely necessary."
---
And so they do, for the most part.
There is some disquiet when the announcement of the state of emergency goes up, and some grumbling in regards to the extra rents you're levying, but the tenor of the complaints seem to be more resignation than anger. Perhaps it's the potential threat that the roadsmen pose, or perhaps they trust your ability to handle the crisis.
In any case, the extra rents are collected, and you soon put together a sizeable emergency fund, should things get worse.
---
Yet as the days go on, no roadsmen come spilling out of the woods, no fresh news of attacks cross your desk. With every passing day, the stench of fear which had come so raw and so fresh in those first early days floats away bit by bit, until it can be barely smelled at all.
After a week, some of your most intrepid tenants even try to make the trip to the market town down the road. They go armed with pistols, pitchforks, and the most fearful of anxieties, but when they return without incident, those that follow them take no such precautions and return no less unharmed.
When the Intendancy courier arrives with fresh letters from your bankers a few days later, he reports no sign of brigandage at all on the roads surrounding your fief.
Perhaps the crisis is well and truly over? For a few days, it certainly seems so. There are no more attacks, and a letter even manages to get through from your old subordinate Captain Sandoral, evidently now resident in Aetoria:
My Lord Ezinbrooke,
I hope this letter finds you well; and that your lands are enjoying the state of peace and tranquility which we fought so many years across the sea to safeguard and preserve.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Aetoria. The Old City seems to grow more wretched and restless with every passing week. Some streets now all but boil with the bodies of the destitute and the hungry, and there have even been incidents of such individuals being seen as far as the Castle Quarter, where I fear the private serving-men and houseguards of those residing in that place have answered with, at times, the most grievous degree of force.
The Duke of Wulfram has been most vocal about denouncing such actions and the circumstances which led to them. His words in the Cortes appear in the broadsheets daily, often accompanied by some blunt rebuke from those in support of the King, but never from the King himself. While I have every confidence that His Majesty is resolved upon a course of action, I fear that he has resorted to the methods he exercised in Antar, where he did not reveal the extent of his preparations until the very last moment. However useful such a measure may be on campaign, I fear it only feeds the sentiment that the King has no real answer to Wulfram's accusations, and that only he possesses the will to make right the situation.
I can only hope that His Majesty will see things the same way I do, and will take measures accordingly. After the victories he brought us in Antar, I have great faith in his ability to restore the confidence of the Cortes and the commons. I only hope he will do so quickly, before the current disquiet grows worse.
Perhaps then, I will be able to find the time to visit. I find myself at times missing the open space and freedom of the countryside. I find myself missing the regiment, and Blaylock, and even Garret. I pray it will not be long before I can renew those much-valued acquaintances.
Until then, I remain, your obedient servant,
Sandoral
---
It is not an unpleasant thing, to read the words of your old comrade-in-arms after so long, and yet some of what Sandoral recounts cannot help but sit uneasily in your thoughts. If the situation in Aetoria continues to worsen, and the King is seen to do nothing to alleviate the suffering of the commons, then you can only imagine that opposition to the Crown will only grow, not only amongst those Lords of the Cortes who might seek some advantage in taking up the cause of the commons, but amongst the common folk themselves.
But you cannot afford to dwell upon such matters, no matter how important they might be in the long run. You have other issues to deal with, ones closer at hand. The Roadsmen may have stopped their attacks for now, but that doesn't mean the course of the year has likewise halted. There is still the business of the spring planting, the coming summer, and the mundane but necessary business of managing your estate…
---
With the roadsmen in control of the approaches to your fief, prospective tenants dare not risk the journey for fear of robbery or death. Likewise, those of your people who might otherwise leave have been dissuaded by the potential danger. For good or ill, all of your tenants are effectively trapped within your barony.
In addition, Your fief's relatively low rents allow your tenants some measure of surplus coin, which invariably offers some small increase to prosperity and contentment. The process of clearing debris from the disused plots on your fief is now complete, too late for planting season, unfortunately. With patience and care, they will no doubt much improve the output of your lands, much aided by the relatively rich soil of your native region. In addition, you receive a letter from your bankers, who inform you that in light of your current circumstances, they have agreed to lower the interest rate on your debt to their minimum rate of two percent a year. You've driven your interest rates as low as they'll go. Only paying off your debt in full could decrease it further.
---
In addition, reports come to you that there's been a particularly violent brawl in the publick house of your village. Though you cannot speak as to the exact cause, you suspect that it might have something to do with the general air of insolence and discontent amongst your tenants as of late. After all, when they're made sullen or angry by factors beyond their influence, the baneless quite naturally turn to violence, and lacking any other outlet, they would just as naturally turn upon each other.
Whatever the reason, the result has been several grievous injuries, including one which may well prove fatal. The interior of the publick house was so damaged that the establishment must close to effect repairs—a substantial blow to the commercial life of the village. Worse yet, news of the brawl has spread throughout the region, something which is sure to give your barony a reputation as a violent, lawless place.
Needless to say, it is not welcome news.
---
With the latest reports taken into account, your current financial situation is as follows:
Bi-Annual Revenues
Rents: 296 Crown
Personal Income: 135 Crown
Bi-Annual Expenditures
Estate Wages: 150 Crown
Food and Necessities: 75 Crown
Luxuries and Allowances: 75 Crown
Groundskeeping and Maintenance: 50 Crown
Interest Payments: 107 Crown
Special Expenses: 0 Crown
Total Net Income (Next Six Months): -26 Crown
New Loans: 0 Crown
Current Wealth: 701 Crown
Projected Wealth Next Half-Year: 675
Ezinbrooke, a barony within the Duchy of Cunaris, possessed of 148 rent-paying households.
Respectability: 30%
Prosperity: 45%
Contentment: 40%
Manor...
…Being a country house of middling size in very poor condition. encompassed by a low stone fence in a state of much disrepair. Outbuildings include stables, coach house, and guard house, all in exceptionally poor condition.
Interior consists of eighteen rooms, including six bedrooms, a kitchen, a library, a small ballroom, a dovecote and a gun room.
Estate and Grounds...
…Being a barony of middling size, composed of a manor house, market village, and surrounding fields and hinterlands. It is located a week's ride west from the city of Fernandescourt, a journey rendered easier by the fine state of local roads.
The village of Ezinbrooke is a small hamlet, possessed of a traveller's inn, a publick house, a somewhat worn shrine to the major Saints, and an open market square. The surrounding cottages are few in number but of excellent condition, having recently been repaired and refurbished. Fields bound the village on all sides, and all available land is under cultivation.
Respectability: 30%
Prosperity: 45%
Contentment: 40%
Manor...
…Being a country house of middling size in very poor condition. encompassed by a low stone fence in a state of much disrepair. Outbuildings include stables, coach house, and guard house, all in exceptionally poor condition.
Interior consists of eighteen rooms, including six bedrooms, a kitchen, a library, a small ballroom, a dovecote and a gun room.
Estate and Grounds...
…Being a barony of middling size, composed of a manor house, market village, and surrounding fields and hinterlands. It is located a week's ride west from the city of Fernandescourt, a journey rendered easier by the fine state of local roads.
The village of Ezinbrooke is a small hamlet, possessed of a traveller's inn, a publick house, a somewhat worn shrine to the major Saints, and an open market square. The surrounding cottages are few in number but of excellent condition, having recently been repaired and refurbished. Fields bound the village on all sides, and all available land is under cultivation.
What do you wish to do?
[Copy-pasting previous voting instructions for reference;
Here is how I am going to ask you to vote:
Below are sections labeled I, II, and III. Each of the options in a given section is mutually exclusive with the options in the same section, at least for this management turn.
Therefore, please indicate one choice for each section, for a total of 3 choices. It would also be great if you were to copy-paste the phrasing of the choice itself. For a example, a full set of votes might look like this:
"I-100) I will pay off 100 crowns of debt beyond my interest payment.
II-5) I must try to renegotiate the interest on my loans.
III-3e) A new market hall might bring in new business."
I will count votes for each set of choices, never for each individual choice. Therefore, I encourage the more dedicated of you to submit a set of choices and explain your rationale, so that the rest can simply piggy-back on whatever set they think is best.
FINALLY, all of the actions will be performed in the same order as the section number.]
SECTION I: PAYING OFF DEBT
[Please submit your vote for this section in the following format:
I-x) I will pay off x crowns of debt, beyond my interest payment.
where x is the amount of debt you wish to pay off this management turn.
For example...
...if you wish to pay off no debt beyond my interest payment, please write I-0;
...if you wish to pay off 500 debt beyond my interest payment, please write I-500;
...if you wish to pay off 1337 debt beyond my interest payment, please write I-1337.
And so on.]
SECTION II: LOANS AND INTEREST
[Funds secured through these options will not become immediatelly until after this management turn, as it will take some time for your request to be mailed and considered.]
II-1) No changes
II-2) I mean to ask for a modest loan; 1000 crown, perhaps?
II-3) I am in need of a sizeable loan, 2500 crown or so.
II-4) I shall require a great deal of money; 5000 crown, at least.
II-5) I must try to renegotiate the interest on my loans.
---
SECTION III: CONSTRUCTION AND RENOVATION
[If you wish to build nothing, vote for the option directly below:]
III-1) No changes
[Otherwise, please peruse the catalogues below, and vote for ONE option from among those present across all categories.
The first two catalogues include upgrade options that expend the required wealth immediatelly and are built relatively quickly.
The last catalogue, concerning major projects, does not require expending any wealth at once - instead, its construction will have to be continously funded later down the line.]
You spend some time in assessing the current status of your ancestral home. Marshalling reports, cost estimates, and your own observations, you narrow your options down to those immediately feasible.
You shall have to choose carefully, for any physical labour involved will have to be done by the men of your fief, and only so many will be able to spare the time away from their fields. If you mean to commit to a project, then you shall not have the workmen to spare on a second until the first is complete.
---
III-2a) The house must be repaired, extensively.
Though your manor's foundations remain more or less sound, the same cannot be said about most of its structure, much abused after generations of neglect. Between the broken windows, rotting floorboards, and serious draughts, a third of the house might well be uninhabitable, if not outright on the verge of collapse. Passers-by need only look at the weathered and dilapidated exterior to gain some appreciation of how badly your family has fallen on hard times. If nothing else, you would certainly need to shore up the house before planning any additions or further renovations. You estimate the cost to be around five hundred crown.
---
III-2b) The perimeter wall is in much need of repair.
At the moment, the stone wall around your manor is more tumbledown ruin than effective perimeter. Not only does it serve as a horrendous eyesore, it also allows admittance to any intruder who may wish to do you or your household harm. For perhaps two hundred and fifty crown, you could have the wall fully repaired and restored to a condition where it might serve as something more than a pile of stones.
---
III-2c) The outbuildings are in dreadful condition and ought to be repaired.
The state of your stables and coach-house were atrocious even before you left for war. Now, however, you have the means to do something about it. For five hundred crown or so, you could fully repair both buildings, rendering them once again proof against the elements. No doubt, such a measure would much improve the appearance of your estate, not to mention the living conditions of your horses.
You shall have to choose carefully, for any physical labour involved will have to be done by the men of your fief, and only so many will be able to spare the time away from their fields. If you mean to commit to a project, then you shall not have the workmen to spare on a second until the first is complete.
---
III-2a) The house must be repaired, extensively.
Though your manor's foundations remain more or less sound, the same cannot be said about most of its structure, much abused after generations of neglect. Between the broken windows, rotting floorboards, and serious draughts, a third of the house might well be uninhabitable, if not outright on the verge of collapse. Passers-by need only look at the weathered and dilapidated exterior to gain some appreciation of how badly your family has fallen on hard times. If nothing else, you would certainly need to shore up the house before planning any additions or further renovations. You estimate the cost to be around five hundred crown.
---
III-2b) The perimeter wall is in much need of repair.
At the moment, the stone wall around your manor is more tumbledown ruin than effective perimeter. Not only does it serve as a horrendous eyesore, it also allows admittance to any intruder who may wish to do you or your household harm. For perhaps two hundred and fifty crown, you could have the wall fully repaired and restored to a condition where it might serve as something more than a pile of stones.
---
III-2c) The outbuildings are in dreadful condition and ought to be repaired.
The state of your stables and coach-house were atrocious even before you left for war. Now, however, you have the means to do something about it. For five hundred crown or so, you could fully repair both buildings, rendering them once again proof against the elements. No doubt, such a measure would much improve the appearance of your estate, not to mention the living conditions of your horses.
You consider your options regarding the state of your fief and its village. After some thought, you narrow down your possible options.
You shall have to choose any prospective project with care. Any hard labour a project might involve will have to be done by the men of your fief, and only so many will be able to spare the time away from their fields. If you mean to commit to a project, then you shall not have the workmen to spare on a second until the first is complete.
---
III-3a) The roads should be my top priority.
Your fief's roads have always been terrible, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be the one to see them repaired. It won't be an easy task; generations of neglect have left some tracts nearly impassable, but if you were to spend the two hundred and fifty or so crown you'd need to fill in the worst potholes and shore up the retaining walls in the most dire condition, then you would not only make it easier for travelling merchants to visit your fief, but make things easier for your own tenants, as well.
---
III-3b) Let's see about making my land more suitable for farming.
While most of your barony's available farmland is under cultivation, there are some plots which have fallen into disuse. Clearing such land would be a time-consuming and expensive task, five hundred crown at least for the tools and labour involved. Yet if it were done, you could increase the agricultural output of your tenants tremendously.
---
III-3c) I'll not have my tenants living in such dilapidated cottages.
Though your tenants have the right to live in your cottages, it is your responsibility to maintain them. Unfortunately, this is a task which has been performed indifferently at best over the past few decades. As a result, many of your tenants' dwellings are in a wretched state, their walls crumbling and their chimneys leaking. If you could perhaps commit two hundred and fifty crown or so to pay for repairs, the problem could be much improved.
---
III-3d) A school would be the wisest investment.
While you benefited from the services of expensive private tutors in your formative years, your tenants can afford no such luxury for their children. If you were to build a schoolhouse in the village, where such children might at the very least learn their letters and arithmetic, then you have no doubt that your standing with those childrens' parents would be much improved. Of course, neither books nor qualified instructors are particularly cheap, but the goodwill of your tenants may be worth the five hundred crown such an enterprise is likely to cost.
---
III-3e) A new market hall might bring in new business.
Like most, the village of Ezinbrooke is built around an open square, in which merchants and shopkeepers might do business. However, such a space offers little protection from the elements. If you were to build a covered market hall in the centre of the square, then more merchants would likely be encouraged to ply their wares in your fief, especially if it means they may do so in comfort on a hot, rainy, or windy day. If you can afford the twelve hundred and fifty crown such an edifice is likely to cost, it may be well worth the price.
---
III-3f) Let's see to refurbishing the village shrine.
The shrine at the centre of the village of Ezinbrooke was an impressive building once, the legacy of some long-ago ancestor who paid half a fortune for its construction. Now, however, it is quite literally falling apart. Its brazier is in wretched condition, the figurines of the saints are cracked and worn, and your tenants have learned to watch their heads around the crumbling masonry of the shrine's façade. To restore the whole building would incur a substantial cost—seven hundred and fifty crown, at least—but it would much increase the standing of your fief among anyone who sees it.
You shall have to choose any prospective project with care. Any hard labour a project might involve will have to be done by the men of your fief, and only so many will be able to spare the time away from their fields. If you mean to commit to a project, then you shall not have the workmen to spare on a second until the first is complete.
---
---
III-3b) Let's see about making my land more suitable for farming.
While most of your barony's available farmland is under cultivation, there are some plots which have fallen into disuse. Clearing such land would be a time-consuming and expensive task, five hundred crown at least for the tools and labour involved. Yet if it were done, you could increase the agricultural output of your tenants tremendously.
---
Though your tenants have the right to live in your cottages, it is your responsibility to maintain them. Unfortunately, this is a task which has been performed indifferently at best over the past few decades. As a result, many of your tenants' dwellings are in a wretched state, their walls crumbling and their chimneys leaking. If you could perhaps commit two hundred and fifty crown or so to pay for repairs, the problem could be much improved.
---
III-3d) A school would be the wisest investment.
While you benefited from the services of expensive private tutors in your formative years, your tenants can afford no such luxury for their children. If you were to build a schoolhouse in the village, where such children might at the very least learn their letters and arithmetic, then you have no doubt that your standing with those childrens' parents would be much improved. Of course, neither books nor qualified instructors are particularly cheap, but the goodwill of your tenants may be worth the five hundred crown such an enterprise is likely to cost.
---
III-3e) A new market hall might bring in new business.
Like most, the village of Ezinbrooke is built around an open square, in which merchants and shopkeepers might do business. However, such a space offers little protection from the elements. If you were to build a covered market hall in the centre of the square, then more merchants would likely be encouraged to ply their wares in your fief, especially if it means they may do so in comfort on a hot, rainy, or windy day. If you can afford the twelve hundred and fifty crown such an edifice is likely to cost, it may be well worth the price.
---
III-3f) Let's see to refurbishing the village shrine.
The shrine at the centre of the village of Ezinbrooke was an impressive building once, the legacy of some long-ago ancestor who paid half a fortune for its construction. Now, however, it is quite literally falling apart. Its brazier is in wretched condition, the figurines of the saints are cracked and worn, and your tenants have learned to watch their heads around the crumbling masonry of the shrine's façade. To restore the whole building would incur a substantial cost—seven hundred and fifty crown, at least—but it would much increase the standing of your fief among anyone who sees it.
It's one thing to commit a few hundred crown and a season's labour to the improvement of a road or the expansion of your house. What you have in mind is something altogether more ambitious: a great undertaking which may well transform the shape of your entire fief and the lives of those who live within it for generations, if not centuries.
Such a project would be far from easy, of course. The material costs alone would be substantial, perhaps even overwhelming. The work of planning, organising, and finally realising such a feat would no doubt prove massively time-consuming, as well. And that's to say nothing about the way such an effort might build unrest amongst your tenants, who have more reason to resent the disruption to their lives which such a project might entail than to celebrate the potential for positive change which may not even manifest itself for years to come.
But you're committed to the idea. The costs may be great; but the potential benefits to the prosperity of your fief, the prominence of your family, and your personal fortune cannot be denied.
The only question that remains is which project, precisely, you mean to pursue.
---
After some thought, you manage to narrow your options down to four.
The most straightforward means of increasing the prominence of your fief would be to turn it into a local centre of commerce, and you suspect you already know how that might be achieved. The route of a major canal passes not two days' ride from your barony. If you were able to secure the funds and resources needed to extend that canal to your own lands, then you would not only allow your tenants to sell their produce further afield with much greater ease, but make your own barony the primary transshipment centre for the entire region, with the inhabitants of neighbouring villages being required to come to your fief and use your canal docks if they mean to compete with your tenants.
Alternatively, instead of making your village a centre of transport, you could just as likely render it a centre of production. A manufactory, appropriately equipped to turn locally produced raw materials into finished goods, could be precisely what your fief needs to elevate it to prominence. In addition, with so many Tierrans out of work, the prospect of employment in such an establishment would surely bring you a fresh influx of tenants—and a commensurate increase in income.
Of course, the problem with either of those two courses of action is that the costs of such an undertaking would be enormous, and that any benefit one might receive from them would surely be gradual in coming. It may take years before a canal or a factory might turn a profit, decades before they're able to make good on the vast fortune you would inevitably have to expend in their establishment.
You could certainly think of easier ways to make a profit quickly, and for less investment in time and money: your fief has a considerable amount of common land, broad expanses which aren't really being put to any organised, productive use. With permission from the Cortes, you could enclose it and use it to graze sheep or cattle, deriving substantial income from the proceeds. Of course, your tenants have long considered their access to common land as something of a right. They're unlikely to respond well to any news that you intend to enclose it.
Finally, there's the possibility of using the unique regional characteristics of your fief to some use. After all, Cunaris is well-regarded for its horses, if not necessarily famous for them. If you were to establish a stud farm, you would certainly have no trouble seeking out likely animals to populate it. With some luck, you might even be able to secure a contract to provide horses for your old regiment, especially if you introduce Thunderer's formidable Takaran bloodline into your prospective breeds. or any other which might be interested.
Ideally, had you the ability and the resources, you wouldn't have to choose at all, completing one project after the other. Alas, that is quite obviously not an option. Even one such undertaking will greatly tax the resources of your fief in its establishment and upkeep. It would be folly to embark upon a second.
Thus, you'll only be able to choose to embark upon one major project. It would be best to do so carefully…
---
III-4a) I think a canal would be the best option.
It would be easy to consider the extension of a canal not unduly different from the extension of a road, but after some thought, it becomes evident that such an assumption would be far from the truth.
While a road would only require a shallow bed to be dug and surfaced, a canal would have to be excavated to a substantial depth, to the point where many tonnes of earth would have to be moved simply to advance the whole of the route a dozen paces. That would only be the first of your concerns. Then there's the matter of lining the sides of the channel to prevent erosion, the installation of locks and weirs to control the water level, and the negotiation of the route with your neighbours—who may not necessarily approve of the idea of you digging a canal though their lands to benefit your own.
Even getting the necessary materials together would be a massive undertaking in itself: thousands of tonnes of timber and stone; implements of excavations large and small; hundreds of surveyors, diggers, and engineers. Actually finishing the project would require at least three or four years' worth of labour and thousands—perhaps tens of thousands—of crown.
But surely, such an effort would be worth it. Right?
---
III-4b) I ought to consider building a manufactory more closely.
Regardless of the particulars, building a manufactory hall and its outbuildings would surely be a considerable endeavour. Its size alone would almost certainly make it the most expensive and expansive construction project which your fief has ever seen. Once complete, you suspect that it would dwarf even your own manor.
Yet the hall itself promises to be neither the most costly nor the most important part of the whole undertaking, for a factory without the actual mechanisms of production would be little more than an empty shell. It is the machinery which will be at the heart of the project, and it will be that machinery which will almost certainly take up the lion's share of the cost: once ordered, it shall have to be painstakingly assembled in some faraway workshop, only to be shipped in pieces to the building site. Only once it is once again assembled and workers are trained in its use can even the first manufactured product be turned out.
The whole process could take three or four years to complete. Its cost would almost certainly stretch into the tens of thousands of crown. Yet a successful manufactory will not only bring you immense profit, but provide your fief's tenants with a reliable source of work and income—and elevate its stature greatly.
---
III-4c) I would like to consider enclosing my fief's common lands more closely.
In truth, enclosing your fief's common lands would almost certainly be the potential major project requiring the least expenditure of time and resources. The work of enclosing the commons itself could only be a matter of surveying and fence-building—the work of a season or two, at most. The acquisition of the needed stock to populate your new enclosures would only take another season more. Likewise, it would only take a year or two and maybe two thousand crown worth of investment for the whole enterprise to begin turning a reliable profit. Indeed, in terms of cost and benefit, enclosure has much to recommend it.
Where the problem lies is in the fact that enclosing your fief's common lands will inevitably cause great damage to your relationship with your tenants. Though they do not put the land to any real organised use, it still possesses some utility as a source of edible herbs and other plants, a playground for children, and grazing land for the small number of animals which the tenants themselves possess. Every tenant has a different, minor use for the commons, but what they all agree upon is the fact that they have an ancient right to do so. Deny them that privilege, and you'll surely arouse some substantial discontent.
Of course, that may not necessarily be so great a deterrent. The mood of the mob is fickle and ever changeable. Perhaps the proceeds from enclosure will be well worth the condemnation of your inferiors—and if things get too bad, you could always find some other way to secure their goodwill.
Right?
---
III-4d) Horse-breeding sounds like an interesting prospect.
There's little doubt at all that vast fortunes might be made through the careful and conscientious breeding of horses. After all, there's no sort of industry, cultivation, or warfare which doesn't need such animals bred to the appropriate specifications. Men will pay great sums of money to purchase the results of the finest bloodlines, or even for the right simply to introduce those lines into the inhabitants of their own stables. Succeed in an endeavour like this, and the rewards would be quite substantial, indeed.
Yet you're also well aware that such an undertaking will only lead to ruin if set in motion with too much ignorance or too little caution. Horse-breeding is a careful art, one which offers few tolerances for failure. A single oversight may well lead to the ruin of a promising bloodline, or one extinguished altogether. It may take two or three years of painstaking work and thousands of crown to establish a stud. Should you wish to set up a whole bloodline as well, it may take two or three years more.
If you succeed, you'll create a source of income which may well provide for your house for generations to come. If you fail, all of your efforts will have been for nothing.
Such a project would be far from easy, of course. The material costs alone would be substantial, perhaps even overwhelming. The work of planning, organising, and finally realising such a feat would no doubt prove massively time-consuming, as well. And that's to say nothing about the way such an effort might build unrest amongst your tenants, who have more reason to resent the disruption to their lives which such a project might entail than to celebrate the potential for positive change which may not even manifest itself for years to come.
But you're committed to the idea. The costs may be great; but the potential benefits to the prosperity of your fief, the prominence of your family, and your personal fortune cannot be denied.
The only question that remains is which project, precisely, you mean to pursue.
---
After some thought, you manage to narrow your options down to four.
The most straightforward means of increasing the prominence of your fief would be to turn it into a local centre of commerce, and you suspect you already know how that might be achieved. The route of a major canal passes not two days' ride from your barony. If you were able to secure the funds and resources needed to extend that canal to your own lands, then you would not only allow your tenants to sell their produce further afield with much greater ease, but make your own barony the primary transshipment centre for the entire region, with the inhabitants of neighbouring villages being required to come to your fief and use your canal docks if they mean to compete with your tenants.
Alternatively, instead of making your village a centre of transport, you could just as likely render it a centre of production. A manufactory, appropriately equipped to turn locally produced raw materials into finished goods, could be precisely what your fief needs to elevate it to prominence. In addition, with so many Tierrans out of work, the prospect of employment in such an establishment would surely bring you a fresh influx of tenants—and a commensurate increase in income.
Of course, the problem with either of those two courses of action is that the costs of such an undertaking would be enormous, and that any benefit one might receive from them would surely be gradual in coming. It may take years before a canal or a factory might turn a profit, decades before they're able to make good on the vast fortune you would inevitably have to expend in their establishment.
You could certainly think of easier ways to make a profit quickly, and for less investment in time and money: your fief has a considerable amount of common land, broad expanses which aren't really being put to any organised, productive use. With permission from the Cortes, you could enclose it and use it to graze sheep or cattle, deriving substantial income from the proceeds. Of course, your tenants have long considered their access to common land as something of a right. They're unlikely to respond well to any news that you intend to enclose it.
Finally, there's the possibility of using the unique regional characteristics of your fief to some use. After all, Cunaris is well-regarded for its horses, if not necessarily famous for them. If you were to establish a stud farm, you would certainly have no trouble seeking out likely animals to populate it. With some luck, you might even be able to secure a contract to provide horses for your old regiment, especially if you introduce Thunderer's formidable Takaran bloodline into your prospective breeds. or any other which might be interested.
Ideally, had you the ability and the resources, you wouldn't have to choose at all, completing one project after the other. Alas, that is quite obviously not an option. Even one such undertaking will greatly tax the resources of your fief in its establishment and upkeep. It would be folly to embark upon a second.
Thus, you'll only be able to choose to embark upon one major project. It would be best to do so carefully…
---
III-4a) I think a canal would be the best option.
It would be easy to consider the extension of a canal not unduly different from the extension of a road, but after some thought, it becomes evident that such an assumption would be far from the truth.
While a road would only require a shallow bed to be dug and surfaced, a canal would have to be excavated to a substantial depth, to the point where many tonnes of earth would have to be moved simply to advance the whole of the route a dozen paces. That would only be the first of your concerns. Then there's the matter of lining the sides of the channel to prevent erosion, the installation of locks and weirs to control the water level, and the negotiation of the route with your neighbours—who may not necessarily approve of the idea of you digging a canal though their lands to benefit your own.
Even getting the necessary materials together would be a massive undertaking in itself: thousands of tonnes of timber and stone; implements of excavations large and small; hundreds of surveyors, diggers, and engineers. Actually finishing the project would require at least three or four years' worth of labour and thousands—perhaps tens of thousands—of crown.
But surely, such an effort would be worth it. Right?
---
III-4b) I ought to consider building a manufactory more closely.
Regardless of the particulars, building a manufactory hall and its outbuildings would surely be a considerable endeavour. Its size alone would almost certainly make it the most expensive and expansive construction project which your fief has ever seen. Once complete, you suspect that it would dwarf even your own manor.
Yet the hall itself promises to be neither the most costly nor the most important part of the whole undertaking, for a factory without the actual mechanisms of production would be little more than an empty shell. It is the machinery which will be at the heart of the project, and it will be that machinery which will almost certainly take up the lion's share of the cost: once ordered, it shall have to be painstakingly assembled in some faraway workshop, only to be shipped in pieces to the building site. Only once it is once again assembled and workers are trained in its use can even the first manufactured product be turned out.
The whole process could take three or four years to complete. Its cost would almost certainly stretch into the tens of thousands of crown. Yet a successful manufactory will not only bring you immense profit, but provide your fief's tenants with a reliable source of work and income—and elevate its stature greatly.
---
III-4c) I would like to consider enclosing my fief's common lands more closely.
In truth, enclosing your fief's common lands would almost certainly be the potential major project requiring the least expenditure of time and resources. The work of enclosing the commons itself could only be a matter of surveying and fence-building—the work of a season or two, at most. The acquisition of the needed stock to populate your new enclosures would only take another season more. Likewise, it would only take a year or two and maybe two thousand crown worth of investment for the whole enterprise to begin turning a reliable profit. Indeed, in terms of cost and benefit, enclosure has much to recommend it.
Where the problem lies is in the fact that enclosing your fief's common lands will inevitably cause great damage to your relationship with your tenants. Though they do not put the land to any real organised use, it still possesses some utility as a source of edible herbs and other plants, a playground for children, and grazing land for the small number of animals which the tenants themselves possess. Every tenant has a different, minor use for the commons, but what they all agree upon is the fact that they have an ancient right to do so. Deny them that privilege, and you'll surely arouse some substantial discontent.
Of course, that may not necessarily be so great a deterrent. The mood of the mob is fickle and ever changeable. Perhaps the proceeds from enclosure will be well worth the condemnation of your inferiors—and if things get too bad, you could always find some other way to secure their goodwill.
Right?
---
III-4d) Horse-breeding sounds like an interesting prospect.
There's little doubt at all that vast fortunes might be made through the careful and conscientious breeding of horses. After all, there's no sort of industry, cultivation, or warfare which doesn't need such animals bred to the appropriate specifications. Men will pay great sums of money to purchase the results of the finest bloodlines, or even for the right simply to introduce those lines into the inhabitants of their own stables. Succeed in an endeavour like this, and the rewards would be quite substantial, indeed.
Yet you're also well aware that such an undertaking will only lead to ruin if set in motion with too much ignorance or too little caution. Horse-breeding is a careful art, one which offers few tolerances for failure. A single oversight may well lead to the ruin of a promising bloodline, or one extinguished altogether. It may take two or three years of painstaking work and thousands of crown to establish a stud. Should you wish to set up a whole bloodline as well, it may take two or three years more.
If you succeed, you'll create a source of income which may well provide for your house for generations to come. If you fail, all of your efforts will have been for nothing.
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2018
- Messages
- 352
I-0
II-3
III-2a
We'll need extra money if we want to continue to build up. I'd say that the marketplace should come up next, but for now let's do something about the house - not sure if we're expecting any guests in the near future, but it'd certainly be unkind to expect our future wife to move into a pigsty.
II-3
III-2a
We'll need extra money if we want to continue to build up. I'd say that the marketplace should come up next, but for now let's do something about the house - not sure if we're expecting any guests in the near future, but it'd certainly be unkind to expect our future wife to move into a pigsty.
Oh this sounds... revolutionary.
This, exactly. We need to build up our barony's much damaged respectability.
The lowered interest rate is a welcome circumstance. Now let's see to the house.
Lithium Flower
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2016
- Messages
- 1,832
[Endemic's plan vs Optimist's plan. Only difference is in whether or not you take on extra debt.
Random roll determined that Endemic's plan won. You now have a frighteningly small amount of money - I wonder whether you will even have enough to build anything next turn. Or for the heap of trouble that is about to descend upon us.]
The house must be repaired, extensively.
You make a note to set aside the appropriate funds and draft a call for workmen to be posted in the village square.
By the time summer begins, you should have the materials and labour necessary to begin work in earnest. Until then, all you can do is wait.
---
At the beginning of the next week, three market parties head off down the road.
Within two days, all of them return, bruised, bloodied, and deprived of all of their goods and carts. When you question them, the stories they tell are all the same: the crash of musketry from the woods, a horde of rough-looking, heavily armed men swarming out of the underbrush. A scuffle, a robbery, a panicked flight back to the village.
The details are different in each retelling, but the cold, terrible heart of each one is the same: the roadsmen are back, in large numbers, and possessed of a determination to rob and despoil every party travelling to or from your lands. Your fief is effectively under siege.
Word spreads almost instantly. The fear that had almost faded away now returns, coupled with the sharp reek of certainty. There is no question as to the severity of the crisis now, or the intentions of those behind it.
You must take action.
---
As you see it, you have three options.
Under normal circumstances, dealing with brigandage is the Intendancy's business. In theory, the correct course of action would be to report your situation immediately to the nearest office in Fernandescourt, and then to await whatever aid they might be able to offer to resolve the crisis.
In practise, it may prove a fool's errand. Even if you could get a rider through the roadsmen-infested woods, the aid you hope for may never materialise. The King's Intendancy is not an office well-known for its alacrity or abundance of resources. Burdened with almost all of the duties of royal governance, perennially underfunded and understaffed, the Intendancy may take weeks or months to muster a response—if they have the means at their disposal to deliver one at all.
Then there's the possibility of negotiation, as repugnant as it may seem. If you're able to bring them to the negotiating table, perhaps with the promise of amnesty as a show of good faith, then you might be able to talk them into leaving your fief alone.
Of course, they will almost certainly demand something in return, a gift, they might call it, or a contribution—in short, a ransom. It does not sit well with you, but perhaps it would be better if you take the coin from your coffers willingly than from your tenants by brute force, and it may be the only way to avoid bloodshed.
Then there's the riskiest option of all. You might choose to embody your Houseguard, recruiting your tenants into a private army to deal with the roadsmen problem in the most direct and forceful way at your disposal.
You would be well within your rights to do so, and you cannot deny that some part of you yet yearns to return to some semblance of that time in your life when you led men into battle, when you traded in gunpowder and steel, not petitions and contracts.
But you're not in Antar anymore. Those you would be riding against would inevitably be your own countrymen. Those that you would lead against them would not be fully equipped professional soldiers, but your tenants, men with no experience of battle, men who you ought to be protecting, not sending into mortal peril.
Perhaps it would be like going to war again, but it would not be the war you once knew.
1) I must send to the Intendancy office in Fernandescourt with a request for aid.
2) I wish to try negotiation…if I can lure these roadsmen out of hiding.
3) Embody the Houseguard: I mean to defend my fief.
Random roll determined that Endemic's plan won. You now have a frighteningly small amount of money - I wonder whether you will even have enough to build anything next turn. Or for the heap of trouble that is about to descend upon us.]
The house must be repaired, extensively.
You make a note to set aside the appropriate funds and draft a call for workmen to be posted in the village square.
By the time summer begins, you should have the materials and labour necessary to begin work in earnest. Until then, all you can do is wait.
---
At the beginning of the next week, three market parties head off down the road.
Within two days, all of them return, bruised, bloodied, and deprived of all of their goods and carts. When you question them, the stories they tell are all the same: the crash of musketry from the woods, a horde of rough-looking, heavily armed men swarming out of the underbrush. A scuffle, a robbery, a panicked flight back to the village.
The details are different in each retelling, but the cold, terrible heart of each one is the same: the roadsmen are back, in large numbers, and possessed of a determination to rob and despoil every party travelling to or from your lands. Your fief is effectively under siege.
Word spreads almost instantly. The fear that had almost faded away now returns, coupled with the sharp reek of certainty. There is no question as to the severity of the crisis now, or the intentions of those behind it.
You must take action.
---
As you see it, you have three options.
Under normal circumstances, dealing with brigandage is the Intendancy's business. In theory, the correct course of action would be to report your situation immediately to the nearest office in Fernandescourt, and then to await whatever aid they might be able to offer to resolve the crisis.
In practise, it may prove a fool's errand. Even if you could get a rider through the roadsmen-infested woods, the aid you hope for may never materialise. The King's Intendancy is not an office well-known for its alacrity or abundance of resources. Burdened with almost all of the duties of royal governance, perennially underfunded and understaffed, the Intendancy may take weeks or months to muster a response—if they have the means at their disposal to deliver one at all.
Then there's the possibility of negotiation, as repugnant as it may seem. If you're able to bring them to the negotiating table, perhaps with the promise of amnesty as a show of good faith, then you might be able to talk them into leaving your fief alone.
Of course, they will almost certainly demand something in return, a gift, they might call it, or a contribution—in short, a ransom. It does not sit well with you, but perhaps it would be better if you take the coin from your coffers willingly than from your tenants by brute force, and it may be the only way to avoid bloodshed.
Then there's the riskiest option of all. You might choose to embody your Houseguard, recruiting your tenants into a private army to deal with the roadsmen problem in the most direct and forceful way at your disposal.
You would be well within your rights to do so, and you cannot deny that some part of you yet yearns to return to some semblance of that time in your life when you led men into battle, when you traded in gunpowder and steel, not petitions and contracts.
But you're not in Antar anymore. Those you would be riding against would inevitably be your own countrymen. Those that you would lead against them would not be fully equipped professional soldiers, but your tenants, men with no experience of battle, men who you ought to be protecting, not sending into mortal peril.
Perhaps it would be like going to war again, but it would not be the war you once knew.
1) I must send to the Intendancy office in Fernandescourt with a request for aid.
2) I wish to try negotiation…if I can lure these roadsmen out of hiding.
3) Embody the Houseguard: I mean to defend my fief.
As of the Spring of the 615 of the Old Imperial Era:
Sir Alaric d'al Ortiga, Baron Ezinbrooke
Captain, Royal Dragoons (half-pay)
Age: 27
Current Funds: 201 Crown
Debts: 10660 Crown
Bi-Annual Income (Personal): 135 Crown
Bi-Annual Estate Revenues: 296 Crown
Bi-Annual Estate Expenses: 350 Crown
Bi-Annual Interest Payments: 107 Crown
Total Net Income (Next Six Months): -26 Crown
Soldiering: 70%
Charisma: 41%
Intellect: 9%
Reputation: 37%
Health: 62%
Idealism: 60% ; Cynicism: 40%
Ruthlessness: 32% ; Mercy: 68%
You are a Knight of the Red, having the right to wear Bane-hardened armour and wield a Bane-runed sword.
Sir Alaric d'al Ortiga, Baron Ezinbrooke
Captain, Royal Dragoons (half-pay)
Age: 27
Current Funds: 201 Crown
Debts: 10660 Crown
Bi-Annual Income (Personal): 135 Crown
Bi-Annual Estate Revenues: 296 Crown
Bi-Annual Estate Expenses: 350 Crown
Bi-Annual Interest Payments: 107 Crown
Total Net Income (Next Six Months): -26 Crown
Soldiering: 70%
Charisma: 41%
Intellect: 9%
Reputation: 37%
Health: 62%
Idealism: 60% ; Cynicism: 40%
Ruthlessness: 32% ; Mercy: 68%
You are a Knight of the Red, having the right to wear Bane-hardened armour and wield a Bane-runed sword.
Friends and Associates
Javier Campos: Colour Sergeant, the Royal Dragoons.
(Born 583 OIE)
Victor d'al Reyes: Eldest son of Baron Reyes. Major, the 8th Regiment of Foot. Formerly Commander, the Experimental Corps of Riflemen. ~Lost arm at Blogia~
(Born: 583 OIE)
James d'al Sandoral: Captain (half-pay), the Royal Dragoons.
(Born 592 OIE)
Efraim Saundersley: Solicitor-on-Retainer to the House of Ortiga.
(Born 570 OIE)
Octave d'al Touravon: Baron Touravon, Father of Alisanne d'al Touravon.
(Born 556 OIE)
Enemies
Hiir Cassius vam Holt: Takaran Ambassador to Tierra. Eldest son to Richsgraav vam Holt.
(Born 527 OIE)
Eleanora d'al Welles: Countess Welles. Proponent of Military Reform. Friend to Isobel, the Princess-Royal. ~Died at Blogia~
(Born 587 OIE)
Javier Campos: Colour Sergeant, the Royal Dragoons.
(Born 583 OIE)
Victor d'al Reyes: Eldest son of Baron Reyes. Major, the 8th Regiment of Foot. Formerly Commander, the Experimental Corps of Riflemen. ~Lost arm at Blogia~
(Born: 583 OIE)
James d'al Sandoral: Captain (half-pay), the Royal Dragoons.
(Born 592 OIE)
Efraim Saundersley: Solicitor-on-Retainer to the House of Ortiga.
(Born 570 OIE)
Octave d'al Touravon: Baron Touravon, Father of Alisanne d'al Touravon.
(Born 556 OIE)
Enemies
Hiir Cassius vam Holt: Takaran Ambassador to Tierra. Eldest son to Richsgraav vam Holt.
(Born 527 OIE)
Eleanora d'al Welles: Countess Welles. Proponent of Military Reform. Friend to Isobel, the Princess-Royal. ~Died at Blogia~
(Born 587 OIE)
Ezinbrooke, a barony within the Duchy of Cunaris, possessed of 148 rent-paying households.
Respectability: 30%
Prosperity: 45%
Contentment: 40%
Manor...
…Being a country house of middling size in very poor condition. encompassed by a low stone fence in a state of much disrepair. Outbuildings include stables, coach house, and guard house, all in exceptionally poor condition.
Interior consists of eighteen rooms, including six bedrooms, a kitchen, a library, a small ballroom, a dovecote and a gun room.
Estate and Grounds...
…Being a barony of middling size, composed of a manor house, market village, and surrounding fields and hinterlands. It is located a week's ride west from the city of Fernandescourt, a journey rendered easier by the fine state of local roads.
The village of Ezinbrooke is a small hamlet, possessed of a traveller's inn, a publick house, a somewhat worn shrine to the major Saints, and an open market square. The surrounding cottages are few in number but of excellent condition, having recently been repaired and refurbished. Fields bound the village on all sides, and all available land is under cultivation.
Bi-Annual Estate Revenues
Rents: 296 Crown
Bi-Annual Expenditures
Estate Wages: 150 Crown
Food and Necessities: 75 Crown
Luxuries and Allowances: 75 Crown
Groundskeeping and Maintenance: 50 Crown
Other Expenses: 0 Crown
Total Balance: -54 Crown
Respectability: 30%
Prosperity: 45%
Contentment: 40%
Manor...
…Being a country house of middling size in very poor condition. encompassed by a low stone fence in a state of much disrepair. Outbuildings include stables, coach house, and guard house, all in exceptionally poor condition.
Interior consists of eighteen rooms, including six bedrooms, a kitchen, a library, a small ballroom, a dovecote and a gun room.
Estate and Grounds...
…Being a barony of middling size, composed of a manor house, market village, and surrounding fields and hinterlands. It is located a week's ride west from the city of Fernandescourt, a journey rendered easier by the fine state of local roads.
The village of Ezinbrooke is a small hamlet, possessed of a traveller's inn, a publick house, a somewhat worn shrine to the major Saints, and an open market square. The surrounding cottages are few in number but of excellent condition, having recently been repaired and refurbished. Fields bound the village on all sides, and all available land is under cultivation.
Bi-Annual Estate Revenues
Rents: 296 Crown
Bi-Annual Expenditures
Estate Wages: 150 Crown
Food and Necessities: 75 Crown
Luxuries and Allowances: 75 Crown
Groundskeeping and Maintenance: 50 Crown
Other Expenses: 0 Crown
Total Balance: -54 Crown
3.
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2018
- Messages
- 352
Dangit guys, are you trying to get Lithium Flower to cheat in some hard cash? 
Let's go with 3, our only major is violence.
Let's go with 3, our only major is violence.
Yes, I've been wondering whether my... esteemed... co-voting colleagues were taking this into consideration.
Anyway, 3.
Lithium Flower
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2016
- Messages
- 1,832
[As before consensus = early update.
It is time to fuck and kill.]
Embody the Houseguard: I mean to defend my fief.
It is not, strictly speaking, a regular occurrence for a lord of your station to embody his Houseguard. Certainly, only the wealthiest country barons possess the income necessary to sustain the exceptional expense of a permanent force of professional soldiers of any size, let alone the sort of small private armies of men like the Earl of Castermaine and the Viscount Hugh—the sort which you fought alongside in Antar when they were mobilised into the King's Army.
No, for your family, the Houseguard has only ever been considered an emergency measure, and even then as one too expensive for all but the greatest of crises. So distant was the very memory of the last occasion it was exercised that you're obliged to direct Saundersley to root through your family's old archives, so you can find a copy of the last order of embodiment given out by a Baron Ezinbrooke—a document drafted during King Alaric's War, by your great grandfather.
But as much as you might like to contemplate the historical significance of what you're about to do, the roadsmen in the forest remain a very real threat, and one which cannot be put off. You waste no time in drafting an announcement, calling for volunteers who would be willing to submit temporarily to military discipline in the defence of their fief. You call upon them to muster in the village square at noon the next day. You sign the thing not with your title, but with your rank and regiment: 'Captain Alaric d'al Ortiga, the Royal Dragoons.' Let them remember that you are no amateur when it comes to leading men into battle.
Then, all you can do is order Saundersley to make the announcement…and wait.
---
The next morning, you arrive at the village square in full uniform, with your sabre belted to your side and your plumed Dragoon helmet tucked under one arm.
As noon approaches, you wait for volunteers to arrive.
You keep waiting for a long time.
It could not be that your announcement has gone unheeded. You can see your tenants making conscious efforts to avoid you as you stand in the square. Some give you a wide berth, others simply touch the brims of their hats and mutter a respectful 'my lord' before scuttling off as fast as their legs can carry them, their steps no doubt expedited by guilt and shame. Every person you come across flees before you have the opportunity to confront them with the reason for your presence, as if you were a particularly reviled street beggar.
You continue to wait in the square long into the afternoon, until it becomes clear that nobody is coming.
In the end, you return home disappointed, without a single volunteer. For all that your tenants have complained and petitioned and demanded solutions regarding the roadsmen problem, it comes as a rather rude shock that none seem particularly interested in subjecting themselves to the slightest risk in combating it.
Yet no matter your personal feelings on the matter, the fact remains: you cannot face the roadsmen without a force of your own. If you cannot attract volunteers through an appeal to their idea of collective responsibility and communal loyalty, then you shall have to resort to other means.
Perhaps the promise of coin will succeed where civic duty has failed.
[Except we don't have any fucking money so we can't pick that one.]
A direct appeal for volunteers may have more of an effect than an announcement.
If volunteers will not come to you of their own will, then you shall have to oblige them to join you through more active means.
The next day, you return to the village square, once again in uniform. This time, however, you do not allow your tenants to simply avoid you. When the first likely-looking bale-bodied man tries to pass you by with nothing more than a muttered greeting, you step firmly into their path.
"Roadsmen threaten the village," you declare as you wave towards the forest. "They are out there, waiting for the right moment to come, after all that you have worked for in your time here. Will you simply let them have their way, or will you join me to defend this place?"
Your tenant looks up, and then pointedly looks down again, his hands thrust deep into his pockets. "Oh aye, if it comes to that, my lord, we'll defend this place. But we are not Antari serfs milord, to meekly line up to die for you just because you say so. We are free men, and we will defend ourselves when the time comes, and not before."
"You are my tenant," you point out. "I have an obligation to defend you, but only if you help me defend yourself."
"Help us defend you?" he scoffs. "When have you ever defended us?"
You have little reply to that.
Again and again, you try to rally your tenants to the cause of their own common defence, but again and again you are rebuffed just as thoroughly. By the afternoon's end, it is clear that you will get nowhere.
You shall have to rely upon some other method.
[Fantastic. Thankfully, failing this option leads to no negative consequence. Thus, since we are not able to pay for our force nor raise volunteers, we are forced to choose the only remaining option:]
If they will not come willingly, I will simply order them to.
It is, perhaps, an extreme resort, but not one outside your authority. The same laws which had allowed the King's Army to conscript men for the war in Antar also allows you to compel your tenants to serve in your fief's defence in a time of emergency. Your tenants, of course, will object to being forced into service against their will, but you are far beyond caring about that, with roadsmen in the forests and your fief under threat.
So, you and Saundersley look through the village rolls, seeking in particular relatively young, unmarried men to fill out the ranks of your Houseguard. With two dozen or so candidates picked out, you have your solicitor draw up the appropriate warrants, commanding each individual selected to present himself in the village square the next morning, and order your footmen to deliver them that evening.
The next day, your unwilling recruits arrive sullen and dull-eyed. None have run in the night, which you suppose is a good start—though you'd imagine few would want to risk the roadsmen-infested woods simply to get out of the task of fighting the roadsmen anyway—yet they're armed only with the most ramshackle collection of makeshift weapons, and you doubt that the involuntary nature of their recruit will render them particularly receptive to discipline or drill.
Still, you have your Houseguard. Now you need only turn them into a real fighting force.
---
This quickly proves more difficult than you first anticipated.
You thought you'd seen bad soldiering before, but even the raw recruits your regiment had received in Antar near the end of the war at least understood the words of command and the basic rudiments of the manual of arms. Here, even a command as simple as the order to stand to attention results in a fumbling mess as men prod each other with their makeshift weapons and stumble into a ridiculous array of stances, none particularly correct. Your perhaps overly optimistic attempts to order something more complex, like a right face or present arms, inevitably devolves into the most shambolic confusion.
What might even be worse is your new Houseguard's seemingly constitutional inability to maintain any form of discipline. Even if you get them formed up into ranks, it is only a few moments before they've broken up into their own knots once again, chatting and laughing and otherwise showing a mild contempt for even the very idea of martial order.
You can only imagine how useful a good sergeant would be right now, a leather-lunged brute to bellow and chivvy and cajole the men into position, and then keep them there through nothing but the threat and occasional application of his fists.
But all the good sergeants you know are in Fernandescourt with the Dragoons, or dead on the fields of Blogia and Kharangia and the site of a hundred other half-forgotten far across the Calligian Sea.
No, if you mean to turn this collection of wilful farmers into something even close to resembling soldiers, you shall have to do it on your own, with naught but your own resources, experience, and determination.
You can only hope that you'll have the time to do so before your efforts are put to the test.
---
As the days pass and spring turns to summer, the attacks continue. Every week seems to bring news of some fresh outrage, another group of travellers robbed on the road, another storehouse or barn raided. The roaming merchants normally so common in the summer do not dare to risk coming to your fief now, and some of your tenants are even too afraid to go to their own fields for fear of being attacked.
As the attacks continue with no end in sight, you begin to see signs of panick among your tenants. They are not obvious ones, but you've seen the like before, in Antar, among a village in fear of being despoiled: shutters locked shut in spite of the heat, wary eyes kept out towards the woods, pouches of coin and boxes of valuables being buried in front yards and back gardens to keep them out of the hands of any potential pillagers.
All you can do now is train your ramshackle little militia as best you can, hoping that they'll be ready to fight and die when things get worse.
---
Yet as the roadsmen continue their depredations through the height of summer, it becomes clear just how bad things may be about to get.
The village square, once full of stalls and hawkers and human voices, is now almost deserted. Fear stalks the land. The fields are almost entirely deserted now. With each fresh new raid, the roadsmen seem to grow bolder. Now they range almost to the village itself, attacking and robbing anyone who strays too far from the settled heart of your fief, as well as leaving marks of their presence carved into fence posts and barn doors, brazen acts of defiance against your ability to protect your tenants and their property.
As the noose seems to draw ever closer, some of your tenants begin to lose their resolve. Faced with the choice of staying in a village under siege or taking their chances at braving the brigands on the roads out, they begin to seriously consider the latter.
Already, each new day seems to bring with it the sight of some cottage hastily vacated in the pre-dawn gloom: cart tracks, doors left yawning open, piles of discarded objects too heavy to carry and not valuable enough to save, all the signs of headlong flight up the road. North, south, east, west, anywhere to get away from your fief and the roadsmen who have evidently become set upon its destruction.
It is the known troublemakers who start leaving first, those who were already dissatisfied with your way of handling things.
You know all too well that these will only be the first. If the roadsmen are not stopped, more of your tenants will flee your lands in order to escape them.
You must find a way to deal with this threat, and soon, or you may find yourself the only one left.
1) I must send an urgent message to the Intendancy, demanding aid.
2) If tenants are leaving, then the solution is simple: I tell them not to.
3) I must focus all my efforts into preparing my Houseguard.
4) I order my departing tenants to pass the roadsmen a message: that I'm still willing to talk.
It is time to fuck and kill.]
Embody the Houseguard: I mean to defend my fief.
It is not, strictly speaking, a regular occurrence for a lord of your station to embody his Houseguard. Certainly, only the wealthiest country barons possess the income necessary to sustain the exceptional expense of a permanent force of professional soldiers of any size, let alone the sort of small private armies of men like the Earl of Castermaine and the Viscount Hugh—the sort which you fought alongside in Antar when they were mobilised into the King's Army.
No, for your family, the Houseguard has only ever been considered an emergency measure, and even then as one too expensive for all but the greatest of crises. So distant was the very memory of the last occasion it was exercised that you're obliged to direct Saundersley to root through your family's old archives, so you can find a copy of the last order of embodiment given out by a Baron Ezinbrooke—a document drafted during King Alaric's War, by your great grandfather.
But as much as you might like to contemplate the historical significance of what you're about to do, the roadsmen in the forest remain a very real threat, and one which cannot be put off. You waste no time in drafting an announcement, calling for volunteers who would be willing to submit temporarily to military discipline in the defence of their fief. You call upon them to muster in the village square at noon the next day. You sign the thing not with your title, but with your rank and regiment: 'Captain Alaric d'al Ortiga, the Royal Dragoons.' Let them remember that you are no amateur when it comes to leading men into battle.
Then, all you can do is order Saundersley to make the announcement…and wait.
---
The next morning, you arrive at the village square in full uniform, with your sabre belted to your side and your plumed Dragoon helmet tucked under one arm.
As noon approaches, you wait for volunteers to arrive.
You keep waiting for a long time.
It could not be that your announcement has gone unheeded. You can see your tenants making conscious efforts to avoid you as you stand in the square. Some give you a wide berth, others simply touch the brims of their hats and mutter a respectful 'my lord' before scuttling off as fast as their legs can carry them, their steps no doubt expedited by guilt and shame. Every person you come across flees before you have the opportunity to confront them with the reason for your presence, as if you were a particularly reviled street beggar.
You continue to wait in the square long into the afternoon, until it becomes clear that nobody is coming.
In the end, you return home disappointed, without a single volunteer. For all that your tenants have complained and petitioned and demanded solutions regarding the roadsmen problem, it comes as a rather rude shock that none seem particularly interested in subjecting themselves to the slightest risk in combating it.
Yet no matter your personal feelings on the matter, the fact remains: you cannot face the roadsmen without a force of your own. If you cannot attract volunteers through an appeal to their idea of collective responsibility and communal loyalty, then you shall have to resort to other means.
[Except we don't have any fucking money so we can't pick that one.]
A direct appeal for volunteers may have more of an effect than an announcement.
If volunteers will not come to you of their own will, then you shall have to oblige them to join you through more active means.
The next day, you return to the village square, once again in uniform. This time, however, you do not allow your tenants to simply avoid you. When the first likely-looking bale-bodied man tries to pass you by with nothing more than a muttered greeting, you step firmly into their path.
"Roadsmen threaten the village," you declare as you wave towards the forest. "They are out there, waiting for the right moment to come, after all that you have worked for in your time here. Will you simply let them have their way, or will you join me to defend this place?"
Your tenant looks up, and then pointedly looks down again, his hands thrust deep into his pockets. "Oh aye, if it comes to that, my lord, we'll defend this place. But we are not Antari serfs milord, to meekly line up to die for you just because you say so. We are free men, and we will defend ourselves when the time comes, and not before."
"You are my tenant," you point out. "I have an obligation to defend you, but only if you help me defend yourself."
"Help us defend you?" he scoffs. "When have you ever defended us?"
You have little reply to that.
Again and again, you try to rally your tenants to the cause of their own common defence, but again and again you are rebuffed just as thoroughly. By the afternoon's end, it is clear that you will get nowhere.
You shall have to rely upon some other method.
[Fantastic. Thankfully, failing this option leads to no negative consequence. Thus, since we are not able to pay for our force nor raise volunteers, we are forced to choose the only remaining option:]
If they will not come willingly, I will simply order them to.
It is, perhaps, an extreme resort, but not one outside your authority. The same laws which had allowed the King's Army to conscript men for the war in Antar also allows you to compel your tenants to serve in your fief's defence in a time of emergency. Your tenants, of course, will object to being forced into service against their will, but you are far beyond caring about that, with roadsmen in the forests and your fief under threat.
So, you and Saundersley look through the village rolls, seeking in particular relatively young, unmarried men to fill out the ranks of your Houseguard. With two dozen or so candidates picked out, you have your solicitor draw up the appropriate warrants, commanding each individual selected to present himself in the village square the next morning, and order your footmen to deliver them that evening.
The next day, your unwilling recruits arrive sullen and dull-eyed. None have run in the night, which you suppose is a good start—though you'd imagine few would want to risk the roadsmen-infested woods simply to get out of the task of fighting the roadsmen anyway—yet they're armed only with the most ramshackle collection of makeshift weapons, and you doubt that the involuntary nature of their recruit will render them particularly receptive to discipline or drill.
Still, you have your Houseguard. Now you need only turn them into a real fighting force.
---
This quickly proves more difficult than you first anticipated.
You thought you'd seen bad soldiering before, but even the raw recruits your regiment had received in Antar near the end of the war at least understood the words of command and the basic rudiments of the manual of arms. Here, even a command as simple as the order to stand to attention results in a fumbling mess as men prod each other with their makeshift weapons and stumble into a ridiculous array of stances, none particularly correct. Your perhaps overly optimistic attempts to order something more complex, like a right face or present arms, inevitably devolves into the most shambolic confusion.
What might even be worse is your new Houseguard's seemingly constitutional inability to maintain any form of discipline. Even if you get them formed up into ranks, it is only a few moments before they've broken up into their own knots once again, chatting and laughing and otherwise showing a mild contempt for even the very idea of martial order.
You can only imagine how useful a good sergeant would be right now, a leather-lunged brute to bellow and chivvy and cajole the men into position, and then keep them there through nothing but the threat and occasional application of his fists.
But all the good sergeants you know are in Fernandescourt with the Dragoons, or dead on the fields of Blogia and Kharangia and the site of a hundred other half-forgotten far across the Calligian Sea.
No, if you mean to turn this collection of wilful farmers into something even close to resembling soldiers, you shall have to do it on your own, with naught but your own resources, experience, and determination.
You can only hope that you'll have the time to do so before your efforts are put to the test.
---
As the days pass and spring turns to summer, the attacks continue. Every week seems to bring news of some fresh outrage, another group of travellers robbed on the road, another storehouse or barn raided. The roaming merchants normally so common in the summer do not dare to risk coming to your fief now, and some of your tenants are even too afraid to go to their own fields for fear of being attacked.
As the attacks continue with no end in sight, you begin to see signs of panick among your tenants. They are not obvious ones, but you've seen the like before, in Antar, among a village in fear of being despoiled: shutters locked shut in spite of the heat, wary eyes kept out towards the woods, pouches of coin and boxes of valuables being buried in front yards and back gardens to keep them out of the hands of any potential pillagers.
All you can do now is train your ramshackle little militia as best you can, hoping that they'll be ready to fight and die when things get worse.
---
Yet as the roadsmen continue their depredations through the height of summer, it becomes clear just how bad things may be about to get.
The village square, once full of stalls and hawkers and human voices, is now almost deserted. Fear stalks the land. The fields are almost entirely deserted now. With each fresh new raid, the roadsmen seem to grow bolder. Now they range almost to the village itself, attacking and robbing anyone who strays too far from the settled heart of your fief, as well as leaving marks of their presence carved into fence posts and barn doors, brazen acts of defiance against your ability to protect your tenants and their property.
As the noose seems to draw ever closer, some of your tenants begin to lose their resolve. Faced with the choice of staying in a village under siege or taking their chances at braving the brigands on the roads out, they begin to seriously consider the latter.
Already, each new day seems to bring with it the sight of some cottage hastily vacated in the pre-dawn gloom: cart tracks, doors left yawning open, piles of discarded objects too heavy to carry and not valuable enough to save, all the signs of headlong flight up the road. North, south, east, west, anywhere to get away from your fief and the roadsmen who have evidently become set upon its destruction.
It is the known troublemakers who start leaving first, those who were already dissatisfied with your way of handling things.
You know all too well that these will only be the first. If the roadsmen are not stopped, more of your tenants will flee your lands in order to escape them.
You must find a way to deal with this threat, and soon, or you may find yourself the only one left.
1) I must send an urgent message to the Intendancy, demanding aid.
2) If tenants are leaving, then the solution is simple: I tell them not to.
3) I must focus all my efforts into preparing my Houseguard.
4) I order my departing tenants to pass the roadsmen a message: that I'm still willing to talk.
As of the Summer of the 615 of the Old Imperial Era:
Sir Alaric d'al Ortiga, Baron Ezinbrooke
Captain, Royal Dragoons (half-pay)
Age: 27
Current Funds: 201 Crown
Debts: 10660 Crown
Bi-Annual Income (Personal): 135 Crown
Bi-Annual Estate Revenues: 286 Crown
Bi-Annual Estate Expenses: 350 Crown
Bi-Annual Interest Payments: 107 Crown
Total Net Income (Next Six Months): -36 Crown
Soldiering: 70%
Charisma: 41%
Intellect: 9%
Reputation: 37%
Health: 62%
Idealism: 60% ; Cynicism: 40%
Ruthlessness: 42% ; Mercy: 58%
You are a Knight of the Red, having the right to wear Bane-hardened armour and wield a Bane-runed sword.
Sir Alaric d'al Ortiga, Baron Ezinbrooke
Captain, Royal Dragoons (half-pay)
Age: 27
Current Funds: 201 Crown
Debts: 10660 Crown
Bi-Annual Income (Personal): 135 Crown
Bi-Annual Estate Revenues: 286 Crown
Bi-Annual Estate Expenses: 350 Crown
Bi-Annual Interest Payments: 107 Crown
Total Net Income (Next Six Months): -36 Crown
Soldiering: 70%
Charisma: 41%
Intellect: 9%
Reputation: 37%
Health: 62%
Idealism: 60% ; Cynicism: 40%
Ruthlessness: 42% ; Mercy: 58%
You are a Knight of the Red, having the right to wear Bane-hardened armour and wield a Bane-runed sword.
Friends and Associates
Javier Campos: Colour Sergeant, the Royal Dragoons.
(Born 583 OIE)
Victor d'al Reyes: Eldest son of Baron Reyes. Major, the 8th Regiment of Foot. Formerly Commander, the Experimental Corps of Riflemen. ~Lost arm at Blogia~
(Born: 583 OIE)
James d'al Sandoral: Captain (half-pay), the Royal Dragoons.
(Born 592 OIE)
Efraim Saundersley: Solicitor-on-Retainer to the House of Ortiga.
(Born 570 OIE)
Octave d'al Touravon: Baron Touravon, Father of Alisanne d'al Touravon.
(Born 556 OIE)
Enemies
Hiir Cassius vam Holt: Takaran Ambassador to Tierra. Eldest son to Richsgraav vam Holt.
(Born 527 OIE)
Eleanora d'al Welles: Countess Welles. Proponent of Military Reform. Friend to Isobel, the Princess-Royal. ~Died at Blogia~
(Born 587 OIE)
Javier Campos: Colour Sergeant, the Royal Dragoons.
(Born 583 OIE)
Victor d'al Reyes: Eldest son of Baron Reyes. Major, the 8th Regiment of Foot. Formerly Commander, the Experimental Corps of Riflemen. ~Lost arm at Blogia~
(Born: 583 OIE)
James d'al Sandoral: Captain (half-pay), the Royal Dragoons.
(Born 592 OIE)
Efraim Saundersley: Solicitor-on-Retainer to the House of Ortiga.
(Born 570 OIE)
Octave d'al Touravon: Baron Touravon, Father of Alisanne d'al Touravon.
(Born 556 OIE)
Enemies
Hiir Cassius vam Holt: Takaran Ambassador to Tierra. Eldest son to Richsgraav vam Holt.
(Born 527 OIE)
Eleanora d'al Welles: Countess Welles. Proponent of Military Reform. Friend to Isobel, the Princess-Royal. ~Died at Blogia~
(Born 587 OIE)
Ezinbrooke, a barony within the Duchy of Cunaris, possessed of 143 rent-paying households.
Respectability: 30%
Prosperity: 45%
Contentment: 34%
Manor...
…Being a country house of middling size in very poor condition. encompassed by a low stone fence in a state of much disrepair. Outbuildings include stables, coach house, and guard house, all in exceptionally poor condition.
Interior consists of eighteen rooms, including six bedrooms, a kitchen, a library, a small ballroom, a dovecote and a gun room.
Estate and Grounds...
…Being a barony of middling size, composed of a manor house, market village, and surrounding fields and hinterlands. It is located a week's ride west from the city of Fernandescourt, a journey rendered easier by the fine state of local roads.
The village of Ezinbrooke is a small hamlet, possessed of a traveller's inn, a publick house, a somewhat worn shrine to the major Saints, and an open market square. The surrounding cottages are few in number but of excellent condition, having recently been repaired and refurbished. Fields bound the village on all sides, and all available land is under cultivation.
Bi-Annual Estate Revenues
Rents: 286 Crown
Bi-Annual Expenditures
Estate Wages: 150 Crown
Food and Necessities: 75 Crown
Luxuries and Allowances: 75 Crown
Groundskeeping and Maintenance: 50 Crown
Other Expenses: 0 Crown
Total Balance: -64 Crown
Respectability: 30%
Prosperity: 45%
Contentment: 34%
Manor...
…Being a country house of middling size in very poor condition. encompassed by a low stone fence in a state of much disrepair. Outbuildings include stables, coach house, and guard house, all in exceptionally poor condition.
Interior consists of eighteen rooms, including six bedrooms, a kitchen, a library, a small ballroom, a dovecote and a gun room.
Estate and Grounds...
…Being a barony of middling size, composed of a manor house, market village, and surrounding fields and hinterlands. It is located a week's ride west from the city of Fernandescourt, a journey rendered easier by the fine state of local roads.
The village of Ezinbrooke is a small hamlet, possessed of a traveller's inn, a publick house, a somewhat worn shrine to the major Saints, and an open market square. The surrounding cottages are few in number but of excellent condition, having recently been repaired and refurbished. Fields bound the village on all sides, and all available land is under cultivation.
Bi-Annual Estate Revenues
Rents: 286 Crown
Bi-Annual Expenditures
Estate Wages: 150 Crown
Food and Necessities: 75 Crown
Luxuries and Allowances: 75 Crown
Groundskeeping and Maintenance: 50 Crown
Other Expenses: 0 Crown
Total Balance: -64 Crown
Lithium Flower
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2016
- Messages
- 1,832
Dangit guys, are you trying to get Lithium Flower to cheat in some hard cash?
Nah, no more of that.
At the end of each chapter (or upon a game-over, which I believe may be triggered by death or destitution,) we do have the option to go back to the start of the chapter. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, but in the event that we, for instance, trigger a fail state by running out of money, I might very well roll back to last building turn and go with your plan of getting an extra loan. Or I might have you guys vote as to which branch of choices to redo.
Tangentially, someone has privately suggested that I return to posting more loredumps etc - my recent humiliations in this thread have made me a bit more vary of my own conjecture, whether mechanicool or narrative. But if someone has specific questions about either, feel free to ask. And I'd like to get around to write a lil' interlude about last summer spent with Alisanne OwO I'm sure you are all dying to read it UwU
You know what started it all? Not mobilising a full search party for the poachers. We would have had a proto-Houseguard already learning the ropes back then, and perhaps even dissuaded shady elements from prowling our Barony altogether. But nooo, "no xp sharing". Sheesh.
3.
3.
3) I must focus all my efforts into preparing my Houseguard.
I obviously wish in hindsight I'd voted for a mobilization, but I didn't think we could pass a Charisma check to get them together. I was gambling that tracking poachers would fall under Soldiering, instead of Intellect. I was wrong.
Salt on the wound: given recent events, it seems obvious to me in hindsight that we probably would have been given the option to just force able-bodied scouts into service in exchange for a ding to Contentment. I wish I'd thought of that (I figured at the time it would just flat fail). Lesson learned.
I obviously wish in hindsight I'd voted for a mobilization, but I didn't think we could pass a Charisma check to get them together. I was gambling that tracking poachers would fall under Soldiering, instead of Intellect. I was wrong.
Salt on the wound: given recent events, it seems obvious to me in hindsight that we probably would have been given the option to just force able-bodied scouts into service in exchange for a ding to Contentment. I wish I'd thought of that (I figured at the time it would just flat fail). Lesson learned.
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