2c.
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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
2a
Lithium Flower
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2016
- Messages
- 1,832
Another 3 way tie. How do you guys keep doing this.
I figure updating 12 hours after my begging session seems like the right sort of uh interval tho. A roll determined that option 1) wins.
I figure updating 12 hours after my begging session seems like the right sort of uh interval tho. A roll determined that option 1) wins.
Lithium Flower
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2016
- Messages
- 1,832
I ought to continue work on my recollections of my time at war.
With the harvest concluded and the days too cold for any sort of profitable activity out of doors, you suppose that now is the best time to resume work on your memoirs. You take out the unfinished drafts you have stored in your desk and begin working on them once again.
However, it isn't new material that you devote yourself to, but the dreaded and singularly mind-numbing task of editing, revising, and polishing the work which you've already written.
It's a necessary task, but far from an enjoyable one. The search for misspelled words, poorly constructed sentences, and badly placed paragraphs proves to be a painful slog. Sometimes, you feel as if you would rather spend a day staring directly into the sun than read through your own writing again. Only the knowledge that such things must be done drives you to continue, day after day.
Day after day, you blot out errors and sometimes even rewrite entire pages, until your hands cramp and your eyes ache. You recall that the printing-houses of Aetoria employ men whose entire purpose is to do such work for years on end.
You cannot for the life of you figure out how they endure it, but you suppose they must make do, as you do, cracking on despite the pain.
You cannot say you envy them.
---
For week after week, you sit at your library desk with pen in hand, exercising the creative powers of your mind to the fullest as your body loses strength and your temper grows short and your good coat grows threadbare at the elbows.
Outside, the snow piles up and the winter winds howl…
You barely even notice.
---
You witness the coming of spring with no small amount of trepidation.
Oh, there is relief as well, a certain pleasure at knowing that you're no longer locked inside your home by frigid fetters of snow and ice. But it was that same snow and ice which kept your tenants and the Antari indoors among their own people, as well. With the coming of the winter thaw, they will once again be free to go out of doors, to mingle amongst each other—and to give opportunity for fresh discord.
The violent events of last year's High Harvest still weigh heavily upon your mind, and you cannot imagine that such incidents won't flare up again before long.
And that is not the least of your concerns, either.
When the Antari arrived last summer, you allowed them to stay in empty cottages on your estate free of charge. With the year too late for planting, it was the only practical thing to do at the time, but it could hardly be a permanent solution. Now that a new growing season has begun, you have no excuse to give them any further special treatment. They must pay their rents, like all your other tenants.
You don't suppose they'll be very happy about that.
---
You soon find it very tiresome indeed to be proven right.
The Antari don't merely grumble at the announcement of their new obligations, they are downright hostile. Many pack up and leave entirely, evidently more willing to take their chances in the open country than pay for a place on your lands. The rest behave little better, paying what you're owed with only the greatest reluctance, and only after trying every sort of low trick to avoid doing so. It soon becomes very clear that the newcomers harbour little in the way of loyalty or gratitude for all that you've done for them. Indeed, they seem to behave towards you more as an antagonist than a saviour.
More complaints arrive from your more established tenants, though perhaps not as many as the year before. Still, word begins to spread outside the borders of your fief, both of your troubles with the Antari and your inability to solve them. No doubt, at least some of your fellow Lords of the Cortes must be chuckling at your misfortune by now.
Still, you hold out some hope that things might improve. After all, you tell yourself, they can hardly get worse, can they?
That is, at least, until one morning, when you look out the window to see one of your tenants coming up the path from the village at a full sprint, his eyes wide.
"We're under attack!" he screams, voice shrill with panick as you step into the courtyard.
You hold him steady as he staggers into your arms, body sagging from exertion, heaving with great ragged breaths. "What's happened?" you demand with a crisp precision that comes to you as natural as breathing. "Who's attacking?"
He points frantically into the distance behind him, shaking, babbling. "They came out of the woods! They shot Cal and, and—"
"Calm yourself, sirrah!" you snap, sharp words connecting with all the force of a slap to the face. "Who? Who is attacking?"
Trembling, he looks up at you, his voice dropping to a terrified whisper.
"Roadsmen!"
---
At first glance, the funeral is like every country funeral you've ever seen before: the small crowd in the market square, the heaped-up pile of rough timber stacked into a rough pyre in the middle, a small cluster of friends carrying the wrapped bundle of the dead man's body to the oil-soaked wood, as his widow and children stand aside and look on with the sort of dignified, silent composure expected of them. It seems no different than the half dozen which seem to happen every year, when a sickly child doesn't survive a fever or an aged heart finally gives out.
But there's a difference in the air today, as the torch is brought to the pyre and the flames leap into the clear spring afternoon, a fear in the expressions of your tenants, a fear in their eyes. You've seen the like before, in Antar, and all too often. It is that muddled and terrible confusion of hope and dread that reigns after a battle, after the fighting is done and the dead are burned. Hope, that the worst might now be over. Dread that it isn't. You can pick out the optimists among your people, the ones who seem more relieved the whole thing is over than anything else. You know what they're telling themselves: that this attack was a freak accident, that no right-thinking person would shoot a man in the back as he was tending his fields, that such pointless death is the exception, not the rule, as it must be in any just universe.
They think that it's over now, that the ordeal has passed. You know that, because once, long ago, you thought like they do.
Three days later, a party returning from market stagger into the village square, their clothes torn and their faces twisted in terror. They tell a story of a robbery in the woods, a threat delivered at the end of a pistol, the threat of violence, of murder, of worse. The news sends shock waves through the little community in your charge. If the roads leading out are no longer safe, then your fief is all but cut off, with no way to sell produce or buy the imports needed to keep every farm and shop running. By the end of the day, three sets of petitioners visit you in your manor; some are manic with fear, others turgid with an anxious bellicosity.
Yet their demands are the same: something must be done.
---
"The key, I believe, would be to maintain a sense of calm as much as possible," Saundersley tells you when you bring the subject up to him at dinner. "A situation like this needs a concerted, coordinated response, and the last thing we could possibly want at a moment like this is to spread a panick. Especially once things get worse."
"You seem very convinced that things will get worse," you point out. "They might get better."
Your solicitor replies with a look of resignation. "I fear they rarely do, my lord."
"If that is the case, would it not be better to declare a state of emergency?" you ask. "If things are bound to get worse, surely drastic action would be better than no action at all?"
Saundersley frowns. "It would also create disquiet, my lord, at a time when we might ill afford it."
"It would also give me justification to order more drastic action," you reply. "Cancelling the season's rents, for instance. The tenants have had it hard enough this year, even without being cut off from all markets and custom by a pack of brigands."
Saundersley answers with an expression of resignation. "I cannot recommend it, my lord, but the decision is yours regardless."
1. "I shall not resort to half-measures: declare an emergency."
"If my lord wishes to enact some further measure, it would be best to include the news in the same announcement..."
a) "Announce that I mean to raise a partial emergency levy, one crown per household."
b) "Make it known that I am calling for a full emergency levy: an additional six months' rent."
c) "I mean to offer relief to my tenants: no rents will be paid for this past six months."
d) "No, nothing quite yet."
2) "I will not act blindly. Let us wait and see."
3) "Panick serves no one. Let us seek to maintain calm."
[Notable changes:
1. Stats degraded, unfortunately, notably charisma down to 41% (perhaps not enough to prevent us from meeting checks that we would have otherwise met, however,) though Soldiering remains high at a fucking astonishing 70%
2. We are up to 148 households, and will hemorrhage slightly less money biannually. ][/spoiler][/spoiler]
With the harvest concluded and the days too cold for any sort of profitable activity out of doors, you suppose that now is the best time to resume work on your memoirs. You take out the unfinished drafts you have stored in your desk and begin working on them once again.
However, it isn't new material that you devote yourself to, but the dreaded and singularly mind-numbing task of editing, revising, and polishing the work which you've already written.
It's a necessary task, but far from an enjoyable one. The search for misspelled words, poorly constructed sentences, and badly placed paragraphs proves to be a painful slog. Sometimes, you feel as if you would rather spend a day staring directly into the sun than read through your own writing again. Only the knowledge that such things must be done drives you to continue, day after day.
Day after day, you blot out errors and sometimes even rewrite entire pages, until your hands cramp and your eyes ache. You recall that the printing-houses of Aetoria employ men whose entire purpose is to do such work for years on end.
You cannot for the life of you figure out how they endure it, but you suppose they must make do, as you do, cracking on despite the pain.
You cannot say you envy them.
---
For week after week, you sit at your library desk with pen in hand, exercising the creative powers of your mind to the fullest as your body loses strength and your temper grows short and your good coat grows threadbare at the elbows.
Outside, the snow piles up and the winter winds howl…
You barely even notice.
---
You witness the coming of spring with no small amount of trepidation.
Oh, there is relief as well, a certain pleasure at knowing that you're no longer locked inside your home by frigid fetters of snow and ice. But it was that same snow and ice which kept your tenants and the Antari indoors among their own people, as well. With the coming of the winter thaw, they will once again be free to go out of doors, to mingle amongst each other—and to give opportunity for fresh discord.
The violent events of last year's High Harvest still weigh heavily upon your mind, and you cannot imagine that such incidents won't flare up again before long.
And that is not the least of your concerns, either.
When the Antari arrived last summer, you allowed them to stay in empty cottages on your estate free of charge. With the year too late for planting, it was the only practical thing to do at the time, but it could hardly be a permanent solution. Now that a new growing season has begun, you have no excuse to give them any further special treatment. They must pay their rents, like all your other tenants.
You don't suppose they'll be very happy about that.
---
You soon find it very tiresome indeed to be proven right.
The Antari don't merely grumble at the announcement of their new obligations, they are downright hostile. Many pack up and leave entirely, evidently more willing to take their chances in the open country than pay for a place on your lands. The rest behave little better, paying what you're owed with only the greatest reluctance, and only after trying every sort of low trick to avoid doing so. It soon becomes very clear that the newcomers harbour little in the way of loyalty or gratitude for all that you've done for them. Indeed, they seem to behave towards you more as an antagonist than a saviour.
More complaints arrive from your more established tenants, though perhaps not as many as the year before. Still, word begins to spread outside the borders of your fief, both of your troubles with the Antari and your inability to solve them. No doubt, at least some of your fellow Lords of the Cortes must be chuckling at your misfortune by now.
Still, you hold out some hope that things might improve. After all, you tell yourself, they can hardly get worse, can they?
That is, at least, until one morning, when you look out the window to see one of your tenants coming up the path from the village at a full sprint, his eyes wide.
"We're under attack!" he screams, voice shrill with panick as you step into the courtyard.
You hold him steady as he staggers into your arms, body sagging from exertion, heaving with great ragged breaths. "What's happened?" you demand with a crisp precision that comes to you as natural as breathing. "Who's attacking?"
He points frantically into the distance behind him, shaking, babbling. "They came out of the woods! They shot Cal and, and—"
"Calm yourself, sirrah!" you snap, sharp words connecting with all the force of a slap to the face. "Who? Who is attacking?"
Trembling, he looks up at you, his voice dropping to a terrified whisper.
"Roadsmen!"
---
CHAPTER III
In which the LORD OF THE CORTES
finds his lands BESET by BRIGANDS of
EXCEPTIONAL AUDACITY.
In which the LORD OF THE CORTES
finds his lands BESET by BRIGANDS of
EXCEPTIONAL AUDACITY.
At first glance, the funeral is like every country funeral you've ever seen before: the small crowd in the market square, the heaped-up pile of rough timber stacked into a rough pyre in the middle, a small cluster of friends carrying the wrapped bundle of the dead man's body to the oil-soaked wood, as his widow and children stand aside and look on with the sort of dignified, silent composure expected of them. It seems no different than the half dozen which seem to happen every year, when a sickly child doesn't survive a fever or an aged heart finally gives out.
But there's a difference in the air today, as the torch is brought to the pyre and the flames leap into the clear spring afternoon, a fear in the expressions of your tenants, a fear in their eyes. You've seen the like before, in Antar, and all too often. It is that muddled and terrible confusion of hope and dread that reigns after a battle, after the fighting is done and the dead are burned. Hope, that the worst might now be over. Dread that it isn't. You can pick out the optimists among your people, the ones who seem more relieved the whole thing is over than anything else. You know what they're telling themselves: that this attack was a freak accident, that no right-thinking person would shoot a man in the back as he was tending his fields, that such pointless death is the exception, not the rule, as it must be in any just universe.
They think that it's over now, that the ordeal has passed. You know that, because once, long ago, you thought like they do.
Three days later, a party returning from market stagger into the village square, their clothes torn and their faces twisted in terror. They tell a story of a robbery in the woods, a threat delivered at the end of a pistol, the threat of violence, of murder, of worse. The news sends shock waves through the little community in your charge. If the roads leading out are no longer safe, then your fief is all but cut off, with no way to sell produce or buy the imports needed to keep every farm and shop running. By the end of the day, three sets of petitioners visit you in your manor; some are manic with fear, others turgid with an anxious bellicosity.
Yet their demands are the same: something must be done.
---
"The key, I believe, would be to maintain a sense of calm as much as possible," Saundersley tells you when you bring the subject up to him at dinner. "A situation like this needs a concerted, coordinated response, and the last thing we could possibly want at a moment like this is to spread a panick. Especially once things get worse."
"You seem very convinced that things will get worse," you point out. "They might get better."
Your solicitor replies with a look of resignation. "I fear they rarely do, my lord."
"If that is the case, would it not be better to declare a state of emergency?" you ask. "If things are bound to get worse, surely drastic action would be better than no action at all?"
Saundersley frowns. "It would also create disquiet, my lord, at a time when we might ill afford it."
"It would also give me justification to order more drastic action," you reply. "Cancelling the season's rents, for instance. The tenants have had it hard enough this year, even without being cut off from all markets and custom by a pack of brigands."
Saundersley answers with an expression of resignation. "I cannot recommend it, my lord, but the decision is yours regardless."
1. "I shall not resort to half-measures: declare an emergency."
"If my lord wishes to enact some further measure, it would be best to include the news in the same announcement..."
a) "Announce that I mean to raise a partial emergency levy, one crown per household."
b) "Make it known that I am calling for a full emergency levy: an additional six months' rent."
c) "I mean to offer relief to my tenants: no rents will be paid for this past six months."
d) "No, nothing quite yet."
2) "I will not act blindly. Let us wait and see."
3) "Panick serves no one. Let us seek to maintain calm."
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: 579 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: 213 Crown
Total Net Income (Next Six Months): -132 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: 579 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: 213 Crown
Total Net Income (Next Six Months): -132 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: 31%
Prosperity: 32%
Contentment: 45%
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. A number of fields lie adjacent to the village, but much arable land is wasted for want of proper clearance.
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: 31%
Prosperity: 32%
Contentment: 45%
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. A number of fields lie adjacent to the village, but much arable land is wasted for want of proper clearance.
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
Spring, 615 OIE
The Duke of Wulfram once again announces his plans to present a budget without the assent of the Crown in the upcoming session of the Cortes. This time, he is believed to have the support of much—if not the majority—of the chamber.
Winter, 614 OIE
Tierra suffers its hardest winter in thirty years. For the tens of thousands of homeless vagrants and and Antari refugees caught in the open, it is an almost certain death sentence. The Orders of the Blue stretch themselves to the breaking point to offer aid, but by the end of the winter, the country roads and city streets of the Unified Kingdom are choked with frozen corpses.
Autumn, 614 OIE
The Count of Leannejouwe, a veteran diplomat, arrives in Aetoria as an envoy from the Kian Emperor and his Grand Staff, with the stated mission of establishing and maintaining a permanent embassy in Tierra. Some speculate that this move is intended to counter the recent establishment of a permanent Takaran embassy, another move in the deadly game betwixt the two great powers.
Changing fashions in the capital create a sudden demand for cotton and linen, offering some relief to a Tierran textile industry hard hit by the end of the war.
Summer, 614 OIE
During the first session of the Cortes, the Duke of Wulfram proposes a budget which calls for the reduction of the King's Army, an end to war taxes, and a moratorium on spending for the next five years. He does this without the King's approval, an unheard-of act of defiance against the Crown's authority and conventions of the Cortes. It is defeated on the Cortes floor—by a narrow margin.
The first session of the Army Reform Commission meets in Aetoria. Comprised mostly of veteran army officers, the commission seeks to use the lessons learned from the War in Antar to reform the King's Army into a more effective force. Already, voices in the Cortes are denouncing it as a wasteful expenditure in a time of fiscal crisis.
Spring, 614 OIE
With the arrival of spring, many groups of Antari refugees take to the countryside in search of work. Many find themselves met with hostility by distrustful locals, who fear that their lords may evict them from their plots to replace them with the Antari.
Faced with worsening brigandage in the country, increasing poverty and unrest in the cities, and widespread political opposition to his plans for reforming the army, the King calls his Cortes to draft the year's budget and hopefully strike a compromise with the Duke of Wulfram's increasingly powerful faction.
Winter, 613 OIE
Destitute veterans and war refugees from the War in Antar become common sights on the streets of Tierran towns and cities, joining those impoverished and rendered homeless by the Crown's high taxes. Shunned by many communities, thousands freeze or starve to death through the winter. In desperation, some turn to theft or brigandage to survive.
In Tannersburg and in Aetoria, the Duke of Wulfram organises a relief programme to bring food and warm clothing to the worst affected. Despite the best of intentions, it seemingly does little to alleviate the problem.
Autumn, 613 OIE
The draft peace treaty is quickly ratified by the Cortes. The League Congress similarly agrees to the draft after a "mere" nine weeks of deliberation. The war between Tierra and Antar is finally over.
With the end of the war, the Royal Tierran Army is drawn down from wartime strength. The Houseguard regiments are disbanded into their component forces, and the permanent regiments are placed on a peacetime footing, leaving tens of thousands of officers and men without work, or on half-pay.
Displaced by the terms of the peace settlement and the vagaries of Antari politics, hundreds of thousands of Antari serfs leave (or are removed from) their homes. Many head for Tierra in hopes of rebuilding their lives.
Summer, 613 OIE
The news that the Crown's war taxes will be retained for at least another year triggers widespread demonstrations and disorder in major cities throughout the Unified Kingdom.
For his crucial role in winning the pivotal Second Battle of Kharangia, Sir Louis-Auguste d'al Palliser is awarded a victory title by the King. He is now Viscount Palliser of Kharangia.
The Tierran delegation to Antar, headed by the ailing Earl of Leoniscourt, reports that a peace agreement with terms generally in Tierra's favour has been drafted. Copies are sent to the Tierran Cortes and the Antari League Congress for ratification.
Spring, 613 OIE
Under Takaran mediation, peace negotiations betwixt the Unified Kingdom of Tierra and the League of Antar continue. A draft treaty begins to take shape.
Confident that an official end to the war is soon to be at hand, Grenadier Square begins the return of the King's Army's regiments from Antar.
Sporadic publick demonstrations against the Crown's war taxation continues in Aetoria and Tannersburg.
The Duke of Wulfram once again announces his plans to present a budget without the assent of the Crown in the upcoming session of the Cortes. This time, he is believed to have the support of much—if not the majority—of the chamber.
Winter, 614 OIE
Tierra suffers its hardest winter in thirty years. For the tens of thousands of homeless vagrants and and Antari refugees caught in the open, it is an almost certain death sentence. The Orders of the Blue stretch themselves to the breaking point to offer aid, but by the end of the winter, the country roads and city streets of the Unified Kingdom are choked with frozen corpses.
Autumn, 614 OIE
The Count of Leannejouwe, a veteran diplomat, arrives in Aetoria as an envoy from the Kian Emperor and his Grand Staff, with the stated mission of establishing and maintaining a permanent embassy in Tierra. Some speculate that this move is intended to counter the recent establishment of a permanent Takaran embassy, another move in the deadly game betwixt the two great powers.
Changing fashions in the capital create a sudden demand for cotton and linen, offering some relief to a Tierran textile industry hard hit by the end of the war.
Summer, 614 OIE
During the first session of the Cortes, the Duke of Wulfram proposes a budget which calls for the reduction of the King's Army, an end to war taxes, and a moratorium on spending for the next five years. He does this without the King's approval, an unheard-of act of defiance against the Crown's authority and conventions of the Cortes. It is defeated on the Cortes floor—by a narrow margin.
The first session of the Army Reform Commission meets in Aetoria. Comprised mostly of veteran army officers, the commission seeks to use the lessons learned from the War in Antar to reform the King's Army into a more effective force. Already, voices in the Cortes are denouncing it as a wasteful expenditure in a time of fiscal crisis.
Spring, 614 OIE
With the arrival of spring, many groups of Antari refugees take to the countryside in search of work. Many find themselves met with hostility by distrustful locals, who fear that their lords may evict them from their plots to replace them with the Antari.
Faced with worsening brigandage in the country, increasing poverty and unrest in the cities, and widespread political opposition to his plans for reforming the army, the King calls his Cortes to draft the year's budget and hopefully strike a compromise with the Duke of Wulfram's increasingly powerful faction.
Winter, 613 OIE
Destitute veterans and war refugees from the War in Antar become common sights on the streets of Tierran towns and cities, joining those impoverished and rendered homeless by the Crown's high taxes. Shunned by many communities, thousands freeze or starve to death through the winter. In desperation, some turn to theft or brigandage to survive.
In Tannersburg and in Aetoria, the Duke of Wulfram organises a relief programme to bring food and warm clothing to the worst affected. Despite the best of intentions, it seemingly does little to alleviate the problem.
Autumn, 613 OIE
The draft peace treaty is quickly ratified by the Cortes. The League Congress similarly agrees to the draft after a "mere" nine weeks of deliberation. The war between Tierra and Antar is finally over.
With the end of the war, the Royal Tierran Army is drawn down from wartime strength. The Houseguard regiments are disbanded into their component forces, and the permanent regiments are placed on a peacetime footing, leaving tens of thousands of officers and men without work, or on half-pay.
Displaced by the terms of the peace settlement and the vagaries of Antari politics, hundreds of thousands of Antari serfs leave (or are removed from) their homes. Many head for Tierra in hopes of rebuilding their lives.
Summer, 613 OIE
The news that the Crown's war taxes will be retained for at least another year triggers widespread demonstrations and disorder in major cities throughout the Unified Kingdom.
For his crucial role in winning the pivotal Second Battle of Kharangia, Sir Louis-Auguste d'al Palliser is awarded a victory title by the King. He is now Viscount Palliser of Kharangia.
The Tierran delegation to Antar, headed by the ailing Earl of Leoniscourt, reports that a peace agreement with terms generally in Tierra's favour has been drafted. Copies are sent to the Tierran Cortes and the Antari League Congress for ratification.
Spring, 613 OIE
Under Takaran mediation, peace negotiations betwixt the Unified Kingdom of Tierra and the League of Antar continue. A draft treaty begins to take shape.
Confident that an official end to the war is soon to be at hand, Grenadier Square begins the return of the King's Army's regiments from Antar.
Sporadic publick demonstrations against the Crown's war taxation continues in Aetoria and Tannersburg.
[Notable changes:
1. Stats degraded, unfortunately, notably charisma down to 41% (perhaps not enough to prevent us from meeting checks that we would have otherwise met, however,) though Soldiering remains high at a fucking astonishing 70%
2. We are up to 148 households, and will hemorrhage slightly less money biannually. ][/spoiler][/spoiler]
On purpose
Spectral Pontifex
Educated
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2022
- Messages
- 458
Everybody gangsta until Antari invade in the next game.
1a. "I shall not resort to half-measures: declare an emergency. Announce that I mean to raise a partial emergency levy, one crown per household."
Well, at least we finally have a situation to deal with which lies squarely within our prodigious talents. Nothing suits us better than bringing fire and the sword to those who would persecute, rob and oppress our people.
That said, we've proven ourselves clearly incapable of taking on all tasks at once, given our failure with the "poachers" (hmmmm...) last year. We will need equipment, men, training, and good intelligence on the lay of the land. Most importantly, we absolutely must find the location of the brigands' base, in order to raze it to the ground. A light burden on our tenants is required in order to fund this undertaking. Most likely we will need to draft able-bodied men for a fighting force, and search for potential trainers (or, in the event of it, train them ourselves) to whip them into shape. They will surely grumble, yet investment in future success will be much appreciated in hindsight.
Well, at least we finally have a situation to deal with which lies squarely within our prodigious talents. Nothing suits us better than bringing fire and the sword to those who would persecute, rob and oppress our people.
That said, we've proven ourselves clearly incapable of taking on all tasks at once, given our failure with the "poachers" (hmmmm...) last year. We will need equipment, men, training, and good intelligence on the lay of the land. Most importantly, we absolutely must find the location of the brigands' base, in order to raze it to the ground. A light burden on our tenants is required in order to fund this undertaking. Most likely we will need to draft able-bodied men for a fighting force, and search for potential trainers (or, in the event of it, train them ourselves) to whip them into shape. They will surely grumble, yet investment in future success will be much appreciated in hindsight.
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
- 453
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
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