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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
3.
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2018
- Messages
- 453
Dangit guys, are you trying to get Lithium Flower to cheat in some hard cash? 
Let's go with 3, our only major is violence.
Let's go with 3, our only major is violence.
Yes, I've been wondering whether my... esteemed... co-voting colleagues were taking this into consideration.
Anyway, 3.
Lithium Flower
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2016
- Messages
- 1,832
[As before consensus = early update.
It is time to fuck and kill.]
Embody the Houseguard: I mean to defend my fief.
It is not, strictly speaking, a regular occurrence for a lord of your station to embody his Houseguard. Certainly, only the wealthiest country barons possess the income necessary to sustain the exceptional expense of a permanent force of professional soldiers of any size, let alone the sort of small private armies of men like the Earl of Castermaine and the Viscount Hugh—the sort which you fought alongside in Antar when they were mobilised into the King's Army.
No, for your family, the Houseguard has only ever been considered an emergency measure, and even then as one too expensive for all but the greatest of crises. So distant was the very memory of the last occasion it was exercised that you're obliged to direct Saundersley to root through your family's old archives, so you can find a copy of the last order of embodiment given out by a Baron Ezinbrooke—a document drafted during King Alaric's War, by your great grandfather.
But as much as you might like to contemplate the historical significance of what you're about to do, the roadsmen in the forest remain a very real threat, and one which cannot be put off. You waste no time in drafting an announcement, calling for volunteers who would be willing to submit temporarily to military discipline in the defence of their fief. You call upon them to muster in the village square at noon the next day. You sign the thing not with your title, but with your rank and regiment: 'Captain Alaric d'al Ortiga, the Royal Dragoons.' Let them remember that you are no amateur when it comes to leading men into battle.
Then, all you can do is order Saundersley to make the announcement…and wait.
---
The next morning, you arrive at the village square in full uniform, with your sabre belted to your side and your plumed Dragoon helmet tucked under one arm.
As noon approaches, you wait for volunteers to arrive.
You keep waiting for a long time.
It could not be that your announcement has gone unheeded. You can see your tenants making conscious efforts to avoid you as you stand in the square. Some give you a wide berth, others simply touch the brims of their hats and mutter a respectful 'my lord' before scuttling off as fast as their legs can carry them, their steps no doubt expedited by guilt and shame. Every person you come across flees before you have the opportunity to confront them with the reason for your presence, as if you were a particularly reviled street beggar.
You continue to wait in the square long into the afternoon, until it becomes clear that nobody is coming.
In the end, you return home disappointed, without a single volunteer. For all that your tenants have complained and petitioned and demanded solutions regarding the roadsmen problem, it comes as a rather rude shock that none seem particularly interested in subjecting themselves to the slightest risk in combating it.
Yet no matter your personal feelings on the matter, the fact remains: you cannot face the roadsmen without a force of your own. If you cannot attract volunteers through an appeal to their idea of collective responsibility and communal loyalty, then you shall have to resort to other means.
Perhaps the promise of coin will succeed where civic duty has failed.
[Except we don't have any fucking money so we can't pick that one.]
A direct appeal for volunteers may have more of an effect than an announcement.
If volunteers will not come to you of their own will, then you shall have to oblige them to join you through more active means.
The next day, you return to the village square, once again in uniform. This time, however, you do not allow your tenants to simply avoid you. When the first likely-looking bale-bodied man tries to pass you by with nothing more than a muttered greeting, you step firmly into their path.
"Roadsmen threaten the village," you declare as you wave towards the forest. "They are out there, waiting for the right moment to come, after all that you have worked for in your time here. Will you simply let them have their way, or will you join me to defend this place?"
Your tenant looks up, and then pointedly looks down again, his hands thrust deep into his pockets. "Oh aye, if it comes to that, my lord, we'll defend this place. But we are not Antari serfs milord, to meekly line up to die for you just because you say so. We are free men, and we will defend ourselves when the time comes, and not before."
"You are my tenant," you point out. "I have an obligation to defend you, but only if you help me defend yourself."
"Help us defend you?" he scoffs. "When have you ever defended us?"
You have little reply to that.
Again and again, you try to rally your tenants to the cause of their own common defence, but again and again you are rebuffed just as thoroughly. By the afternoon's end, it is clear that you will get nowhere.
You shall have to rely upon some other method.
[Fantastic. Thankfully, failing this option leads to no negative consequence. Thus, since we are not able to pay for our force nor raise volunteers, we are forced to choose the only remaining option:]
If they will not come willingly, I will simply order them to.
It is, perhaps, an extreme resort, but not one outside your authority. The same laws which had allowed the King's Army to conscript men for the war in Antar also allows you to compel your tenants to serve in your fief's defence in a time of emergency. Your tenants, of course, will object to being forced into service against their will, but you are far beyond caring about that, with roadsmen in the forests and your fief under threat.
So, you and Saundersley look through the village rolls, seeking in particular relatively young, unmarried men to fill out the ranks of your Houseguard. With two dozen or so candidates picked out, you have your solicitor draw up the appropriate warrants, commanding each individual selected to present himself in the village square the next morning, and order your footmen to deliver them that evening.
The next day, your unwilling recruits arrive sullen and dull-eyed. None have run in the night, which you suppose is a good start—though you'd imagine few would want to risk the roadsmen-infested woods simply to get out of the task of fighting the roadsmen anyway—yet they're armed only with the most ramshackle collection of makeshift weapons, and you doubt that the involuntary nature of their recruit will render them particularly receptive to discipline or drill.
Still, you have your Houseguard. Now you need only turn them into a real fighting force.
---
This quickly proves more difficult than you first anticipated.
You thought you'd seen bad soldiering before, but even the raw recruits your regiment had received in Antar near the end of the war at least understood the words of command and the basic rudiments of the manual of arms. Here, even a command as simple as the order to stand to attention results in a fumbling mess as men prod each other with their makeshift weapons and stumble into a ridiculous array of stances, none particularly correct. Your perhaps overly optimistic attempts to order something more complex, like a right face or present arms, inevitably devolves into the most shambolic confusion.
What might even be worse is your new Houseguard's seemingly constitutional inability to maintain any form of discipline. Even if you get them formed up into ranks, it is only a few moments before they've broken up into their own knots once again, chatting and laughing and otherwise showing a mild contempt for even the very idea of martial order.
You can only imagine how useful a good sergeant would be right now, a leather-lunged brute to bellow and chivvy and cajole the men into position, and then keep them there through nothing but the threat and occasional application of his fists.
But all the good sergeants you know are in Fernandescourt with the Dragoons, or dead on the fields of Blogia and Kharangia and the site of a hundred other half-forgotten far across the Calligian Sea.
No, if you mean to turn this collection of wilful farmers into something even close to resembling soldiers, you shall have to do it on your own, with naught but your own resources, experience, and determination.
You can only hope that you'll have the time to do so before your efforts are put to the test.
---
As the days pass and spring turns to summer, the attacks continue. Every week seems to bring news of some fresh outrage, another group of travellers robbed on the road, another storehouse or barn raided. The roaming merchants normally so common in the summer do not dare to risk coming to your fief now, and some of your tenants are even too afraid to go to their own fields for fear of being attacked.
As the attacks continue with no end in sight, you begin to see signs of panick among your tenants. They are not obvious ones, but you've seen the like before, in Antar, among a village in fear of being despoiled: shutters locked shut in spite of the heat, wary eyes kept out towards the woods, pouches of coin and boxes of valuables being buried in front yards and back gardens to keep them out of the hands of any potential pillagers.
All you can do now is train your ramshackle little militia as best you can, hoping that they'll be ready to fight and die when things get worse.
---
Yet as the roadsmen continue their depredations through the height of summer, it becomes clear just how bad things may be about to get.
The village square, once full of stalls and hawkers and human voices, is now almost deserted. Fear stalks the land. The fields are almost entirely deserted now. With each fresh new raid, the roadsmen seem to grow bolder. Now they range almost to the village itself, attacking and robbing anyone who strays too far from the settled heart of your fief, as well as leaving marks of their presence carved into fence posts and barn doors, brazen acts of defiance against your ability to protect your tenants and their property.
As the noose seems to draw ever closer, some of your tenants begin to lose their resolve. Faced with the choice of staying in a village under siege or taking their chances at braving the brigands on the roads out, they begin to seriously consider the latter.
Already, each new day seems to bring with it the sight of some cottage hastily vacated in the pre-dawn gloom: cart tracks, doors left yawning open, piles of discarded objects too heavy to carry and not valuable enough to save, all the signs of headlong flight up the road. North, south, east, west, anywhere to get away from your fief and the roadsmen who have evidently become set upon its destruction.
It is the known troublemakers who start leaving first, those who were already dissatisfied with your way of handling things.
You know all too well that these will only be the first. If the roadsmen are not stopped, more of your tenants will flee your lands in order to escape them.
You must find a way to deal with this threat, and soon, or you may find yourself the only one left.
1) I must send an urgent message to the Intendancy, demanding aid.
2) If tenants are leaving, then the solution is simple: I tell them not to.
3) I must focus all my efforts into preparing my Houseguard.
4) I order my departing tenants to pass the roadsmen a message: that I'm still willing to talk.
It is time to fuck and kill.]
Embody the Houseguard: I mean to defend my fief.
It is not, strictly speaking, a regular occurrence for a lord of your station to embody his Houseguard. Certainly, only the wealthiest country barons possess the income necessary to sustain the exceptional expense of a permanent force of professional soldiers of any size, let alone the sort of small private armies of men like the Earl of Castermaine and the Viscount Hugh—the sort which you fought alongside in Antar when they were mobilised into the King's Army.
No, for your family, the Houseguard has only ever been considered an emergency measure, and even then as one too expensive for all but the greatest of crises. So distant was the very memory of the last occasion it was exercised that you're obliged to direct Saundersley to root through your family's old archives, so you can find a copy of the last order of embodiment given out by a Baron Ezinbrooke—a document drafted during King Alaric's War, by your great grandfather.
But as much as you might like to contemplate the historical significance of what you're about to do, the roadsmen in the forest remain a very real threat, and one which cannot be put off. You waste no time in drafting an announcement, calling for volunteers who would be willing to submit temporarily to military discipline in the defence of their fief. You call upon them to muster in the village square at noon the next day. You sign the thing not with your title, but with your rank and regiment: 'Captain Alaric d'al Ortiga, the Royal Dragoons.' Let them remember that you are no amateur when it comes to leading men into battle.
Then, all you can do is order Saundersley to make the announcement…and wait.
---
The next morning, you arrive at the village square in full uniform, with your sabre belted to your side and your plumed Dragoon helmet tucked under one arm.
As noon approaches, you wait for volunteers to arrive.
You keep waiting for a long time.
It could not be that your announcement has gone unheeded. You can see your tenants making conscious efforts to avoid you as you stand in the square. Some give you a wide berth, others simply touch the brims of their hats and mutter a respectful 'my lord' before scuttling off as fast as their legs can carry them, their steps no doubt expedited by guilt and shame. Every person you come across flees before you have the opportunity to confront them with the reason for your presence, as if you were a particularly reviled street beggar.
You continue to wait in the square long into the afternoon, until it becomes clear that nobody is coming.
In the end, you return home disappointed, without a single volunteer. For all that your tenants have complained and petitioned and demanded solutions regarding the roadsmen problem, it comes as a rather rude shock that none seem particularly interested in subjecting themselves to the slightest risk in combating it.
Yet no matter your personal feelings on the matter, the fact remains: you cannot face the roadsmen without a force of your own. If you cannot attract volunteers through an appeal to their idea of collective responsibility and communal loyalty, then you shall have to resort to other means.
[Except we don't have any fucking money so we can't pick that one.]
A direct appeal for volunteers may have more of an effect than an announcement.
If volunteers will not come to you of their own will, then you shall have to oblige them to join you through more active means.
The next day, you return to the village square, once again in uniform. This time, however, you do not allow your tenants to simply avoid you. When the first likely-looking bale-bodied man tries to pass you by with nothing more than a muttered greeting, you step firmly into their path.
"Roadsmen threaten the village," you declare as you wave towards the forest. "They are out there, waiting for the right moment to come, after all that you have worked for in your time here. Will you simply let them have their way, or will you join me to defend this place?"
Your tenant looks up, and then pointedly looks down again, his hands thrust deep into his pockets. "Oh aye, if it comes to that, my lord, we'll defend this place. But we are not Antari serfs milord, to meekly line up to die for you just because you say so. We are free men, and we will defend ourselves when the time comes, and not before."
"You are my tenant," you point out. "I have an obligation to defend you, but only if you help me defend yourself."
"Help us defend you?" he scoffs. "When have you ever defended us?"
You have little reply to that.
Again and again, you try to rally your tenants to the cause of their own common defence, but again and again you are rebuffed just as thoroughly. By the afternoon's end, it is clear that you will get nowhere.
You shall have to rely upon some other method.
[Fantastic. Thankfully, failing this option leads to no negative consequence. Thus, since we are not able to pay for our force nor raise volunteers, we are forced to choose the only remaining option:]
If they will not come willingly, I will simply order them to.
It is, perhaps, an extreme resort, but not one outside your authority. The same laws which had allowed the King's Army to conscript men for the war in Antar also allows you to compel your tenants to serve in your fief's defence in a time of emergency. Your tenants, of course, will object to being forced into service against their will, but you are far beyond caring about that, with roadsmen in the forests and your fief under threat.
So, you and Saundersley look through the village rolls, seeking in particular relatively young, unmarried men to fill out the ranks of your Houseguard. With two dozen or so candidates picked out, you have your solicitor draw up the appropriate warrants, commanding each individual selected to present himself in the village square the next morning, and order your footmen to deliver them that evening.
The next day, your unwilling recruits arrive sullen and dull-eyed. None have run in the night, which you suppose is a good start—though you'd imagine few would want to risk the roadsmen-infested woods simply to get out of the task of fighting the roadsmen anyway—yet they're armed only with the most ramshackle collection of makeshift weapons, and you doubt that the involuntary nature of their recruit will render them particularly receptive to discipline or drill.
Still, you have your Houseguard. Now you need only turn them into a real fighting force.
---
This quickly proves more difficult than you first anticipated.
You thought you'd seen bad soldiering before, but even the raw recruits your regiment had received in Antar near the end of the war at least understood the words of command and the basic rudiments of the manual of arms. Here, even a command as simple as the order to stand to attention results in a fumbling mess as men prod each other with their makeshift weapons and stumble into a ridiculous array of stances, none particularly correct. Your perhaps overly optimistic attempts to order something more complex, like a right face or present arms, inevitably devolves into the most shambolic confusion.
What might even be worse is your new Houseguard's seemingly constitutional inability to maintain any form of discipline. Even if you get them formed up into ranks, it is only a few moments before they've broken up into their own knots once again, chatting and laughing and otherwise showing a mild contempt for even the very idea of martial order.
You can only imagine how useful a good sergeant would be right now, a leather-lunged brute to bellow and chivvy and cajole the men into position, and then keep them there through nothing but the threat and occasional application of his fists.
But all the good sergeants you know are in Fernandescourt with the Dragoons, or dead on the fields of Blogia and Kharangia and the site of a hundred other half-forgotten far across the Calligian Sea.
No, if you mean to turn this collection of wilful farmers into something even close to resembling soldiers, you shall have to do it on your own, with naught but your own resources, experience, and determination.
You can only hope that you'll have the time to do so before your efforts are put to the test.
---
As the days pass and spring turns to summer, the attacks continue. Every week seems to bring news of some fresh outrage, another group of travellers robbed on the road, another storehouse or barn raided. The roaming merchants normally so common in the summer do not dare to risk coming to your fief now, and some of your tenants are even too afraid to go to their own fields for fear of being attacked.
As the attacks continue with no end in sight, you begin to see signs of panick among your tenants. They are not obvious ones, but you've seen the like before, in Antar, among a village in fear of being despoiled: shutters locked shut in spite of the heat, wary eyes kept out towards the woods, pouches of coin and boxes of valuables being buried in front yards and back gardens to keep them out of the hands of any potential pillagers.
All you can do now is train your ramshackle little militia as best you can, hoping that they'll be ready to fight and die when things get worse.
---
Yet as the roadsmen continue their depredations through the height of summer, it becomes clear just how bad things may be about to get.
The village square, once full of stalls and hawkers and human voices, is now almost deserted. Fear stalks the land. The fields are almost entirely deserted now. With each fresh new raid, the roadsmen seem to grow bolder. Now they range almost to the village itself, attacking and robbing anyone who strays too far from the settled heart of your fief, as well as leaving marks of their presence carved into fence posts and barn doors, brazen acts of defiance against your ability to protect your tenants and their property.
As the noose seems to draw ever closer, some of your tenants begin to lose their resolve. Faced with the choice of staying in a village under siege or taking their chances at braving the brigands on the roads out, they begin to seriously consider the latter.
Already, each new day seems to bring with it the sight of some cottage hastily vacated in the pre-dawn gloom: cart tracks, doors left yawning open, piles of discarded objects too heavy to carry and not valuable enough to save, all the signs of headlong flight up the road. North, south, east, west, anywhere to get away from your fief and the roadsmen who have evidently become set upon its destruction.
It is the known troublemakers who start leaving first, those who were already dissatisfied with your way of handling things.
You know all too well that these will only be the first. If the roadsmen are not stopped, more of your tenants will flee your lands in order to escape them.
You must find a way to deal with this threat, and soon, or you may find yourself the only one left.
1) I must send an urgent message to the Intendancy, demanding aid.
2) If tenants are leaving, then the solution is simple: I tell them not to.
3) I must focus all my efforts into preparing my Houseguard.
4) I order my departing tenants to pass the roadsmen a message: that I'm still willing to talk.
As of the Summer of the 615 of the Old Imperial Era:
Sir Alaric d'al Ortiga, Baron Ezinbrooke
Captain, Royal Dragoons (half-pay)
Age: 27
Current Funds: 201 Crown
Debts: 10660 Crown
Bi-Annual Income (Personal): 135 Crown
Bi-Annual Estate Revenues: 286 Crown
Bi-Annual Estate Expenses: 350 Crown
Bi-Annual Interest Payments: 107 Crown
Total Net Income (Next Six Months): -36 Crown
Soldiering: 70%
Charisma: 41%
Intellect: 9%
Reputation: 37%
Health: 62%
Idealism: 60% ; Cynicism: 40%
Ruthlessness: 42% ; Mercy: 58%
You are a Knight of the Red, having the right to wear Bane-hardened armour and wield a Bane-runed sword.
Sir Alaric d'al Ortiga, Baron Ezinbrooke
Captain, Royal Dragoons (half-pay)
Age: 27
Current Funds: 201 Crown
Debts: 10660 Crown
Bi-Annual Income (Personal): 135 Crown
Bi-Annual Estate Revenues: 286 Crown
Bi-Annual Estate Expenses: 350 Crown
Bi-Annual Interest Payments: 107 Crown
Total Net Income (Next Six Months): -36 Crown
Soldiering: 70%
Charisma: 41%
Intellect: 9%
Reputation: 37%
Health: 62%
Idealism: 60% ; Cynicism: 40%
Ruthlessness: 42% ; Mercy: 58%
You are a Knight of the Red, having the right to wear Bane-hardened armour and wield a Bane-runed sword.
Friends and Associates
Javier Campos: Colour Sergeant, the Royal Dragoons.
(Born 583 OIE)
Victor d'al Reyes: Eldest son of Baron Reyes. Major, the 8th Regiment of Foot. Formerly Commander, the Experimental Corps of Riflemen. ~Lost arm at Blogia~
(Born: 583 OIE)
James d'al Sandoral: Captain (half-pay), the Royal Dragoons.
(Born 592 OIE)
Efraim Saundersley: Solicitor-on-Retainer to the House of Ortiga.
(Born 570 OIE)
Octave d'al Touravon: Baron Touravon, Father of Alisanne d'al Touravon.
(Born 556 OIE)
Enemies
Hiir Cassius vam Holt: Takaran Ambassador to Tierra. Eldest son to Richsgraav vam Holt.
(Born 527 OIE)
Eleanora d'al Welles: Countess Welles. Proponent of Military Reform. Friend to Isobel, the Princess-Royal. ~Died at Blogia~
(Born 587 OIE)
Javier Campos: Colour Sergeant, the Royal Dragoons.
(Born 583 OIE)
Victor d'al Reyes: Eldest son of Baron Reyes. Major, the 8th Regiment of Foot. Formerly Commander, the Experimental Corps of Riflemen. ~Lost arm at Blogia~
(Born: 583 OIE)
James d'al Sandoral: Captain (half-pay), the Royal Dragoons.
(Born 592 OIE)
Efraim Saundersley: Solicitor-on-Retainer to the House of Ortiga.
(Born 570 OIE)
Octave d'al Touravon: Baron Touravon, Father of Alisanne d'al Touravon.
(Born 556 OIE)
Enemies
Hiir Cassius vam Holt: Takaran Ambassador to Tierra. Eldest son to Richsgraav vam Holt.
(Born 527 OIE)
Eleanora d'al Welles: Countess Welles. Proponent of Military Reform. Friend to Isobel, the Princess-Royal. ~Died at Blogia~
(Born 587 OIE)
Ezinbrooke, a barony within the Duchy of Cunaris, possessed of 143 rent-paying households.
Respectability: 30%
Prosperity: 45%
Contentment: 34%
Manor...
…Being a country house of middling size in very poor condition. encompassed by a low stone fence in a state of much disrepair. Outbuildings include stables, coach house, and guard house, all in exceptionally poor condition.
Interior consists of eighteen rooms, including six bedrooms, a kitchen, a library, a small ballroom, a dovecote and a gun room.
Estate and Grounds...
…Being a barony of middling size, composed of a manor house, market village, and surrounding fields and hinterlands. It is located a week's ride west from the city of Fernandescourt, a journey rendered easier by the fine state of local roads.
The village of Ezinbrooke is a small hamlet, possessed of a traveller's inn, a publick house, a somewhat worn shrine to the major Saints, and an open market square. The surrounding cottages are few in number but of excellent condition, having recently been repaired and refurbished. Fields bound the village on all sides, and all available land is under cultivation.
Bi-Annual Estate Revenues
Rents: 286 Crown
Bi-Annual Expenditures
Estate Wages: 150 Crown
Food and Necessities: 75 Crown
Luxuries and Allowances: 75 Crown
Groundskeeping and Maintenance: 50 Crown
Other Expenses: 0 Crown
Total Balance: -64 Crown
Respectability: 30%
Prosperity: 45%
Contentment: 34%
Manor...
…Being a country house of middling size in very poor condition. encompassed by a low stone fence in a state of much disrepair. Outbuildings include stables, coach house, and guard house, all in exceptionally poor condition.
Interior consists of eighteen rooms, including six bedrooms, a kitchen, a library, a small ballroom, a dovecote and a gun room.
Estate and Grounds...
…Being a barony of middling size, composed of a manor house, market village, and surrounding fields and hinterlands. It is located a week's ride west from the city of Fernandescourt, a journey rendered easier by the fine state of local roads.
The village of Ezinbrooke is a small hamlet, possessed of a traveller's inn, a publick house, a somewhat worn shrine to the major Saints, and an open market square. The surrounding cottages are few in number but of excellent condition, having recently been repaired and refurbished. Fields bound the village on all sides, and all available land is under cultivation.
Bi-Annual Estate Revenues
Rents: 286 Crown
Bi-Annual Expenditures
Estate Wages: 150 Crown
Food and Necessities: 75 Crown
Luxuries and Allowances: 75 Crown
Groundskeeping and Maintenance: 50 Crown
Other Expenses: 0 Crown
Total Balance: -64 Crown
Lithium Flower
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2016
- Messages
- 1,832
Dangit guys, are you trying to get Lithium Flower to cheat in some hard cash?
Nah, no more of that.
At the end of each chapter (or upon a game-over, which I believe may be triggered by death or destitution,) we do have the option to go back to the start of the chapter. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, but in the event that we, for instance, trigger a fail state by running out of money, I might very well roll back to last building turn and go with your plan of getting an extra loan. Or I might have you guys vote as to which branch of choices to redo.
Tangentially, someone has privately suggested that I return to posting more loredumps etc - my recent humiliations in this thread have made me a bit more vary of my own conjecture, whether mechanicool or narrative. But if someone has specific questions about either, feel free to ask. And I'd like to get around to write a lil' interlude about last summer spent with Alisanne OwO I'm sure you are all dying to read it UwU
You know what started it all? Not mobilising a full search party for the poachers. We would have had a proto-Houseguard already learning the ropes back then, and perhaps even dissuaded shady elements from prowling our Barony altogether. But nooo, "no xp sharing". Sheesh.
3.
3.
3) I must focus all my efforts into preparing my Houseguard.
I obviously wish in hindsight I'd voted for a mobilization, but I didn't think we could pass a Charisma check to get them together. I was gambling that tracking poachers would fall under Soldiering, instead of Intellect. I was wrong.
Salt on the wound: given recent events, it seems obvious to me in hindsight that we probably would have been given the option to just force able-bodied scouts into service in exchange for a ding to Contentment. I wish I'd thought of that (I figured at the time it would just flat fail). Lesson learned.
I obviously wish in hindsight I'd voted for a mobilization, but I didn't think we could pass a Charisma check to get them together. I was gambling that tracking poachers would fall under Soldiering, instead of Intellect. I was wrong.
Salt on the wound: given recent events, it seems obvious to me in hindsight that we probably would have been given the option to just force able-bodied scouts into service in exchange for a ding to Contentment. I wish I'd thought of that (I figured at the time it would just flat fail). Lesson learned.
I mean... this is the KKKodex way. I'm just glad we didn't vote for
Lithium Flower
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2016
- Messages
- 1,832
I must focus all my efforts into preparing my Houseguard.
As far as you're concerned, there's only one way to force a conclusion to your situation now: to prepare your Houseguards as thoroughly as possible for an open confrontation before sending them into the forest to either defeat the roadsmen or force them to seek less well-armed prey.
Yet even after weeks of drill, it's clear that your makeshift fighting force still has a long way to go.
They can form ranks now, and move in straight lines without entangling themselves amongst each other, which you suppose is a vast improvement over their initial condition. Yet still, the sight of them parading in the open seems more a scene of farce than martial ardour, and despite your best efforts, much of your force remains slow to accept discipline, if not outright insolent in their resistance to orders. They may be your tenants, and you may be their lord and a gentleman of the blood, but it is clear that they remain steadfastly opposed to the idea that they've been reduced to nothing more than unquestioning common soldiers in the power of a highborn officer.
And that is the least of your problems. Even perfect drill and discipline would be of little use without the equipment needed to take advantage of them. While you doubt the roadsmen are as well-armed as the men you commanded in Antar, you have little doubt that they're far more formidably equipped than your gaggle of half-trained farmers and their odd assortment of hunting pieces and farming implements.
As things are, you fear that your improvised force will stand little chance against a gang of violent, hardened criminals. You shall have to effect some great improvements indeed if you mean to rectify that sorry state of affairs.
[There are 4 ways to upgrade our houseguard, and we have enough time to pick 2 of them. However, one of the options (unlocked by our high soldiering!) costs nothing beyond time, one is locked out to us, and the other two cost an amount of wealth such that we cannot afford both of them. So, I have automatically picked the first, free option, and will let you vote on whether to buy one of the other upgrades, or instead save your money.]
I must lead by example and teach them how to drill like proper soldiers!
It's clear to you now that the impersonal, rather distant methods you've been using to drill your Houseguard aren't working. The problem, it seems, is a simple one. Under the circumstances to which you're accustomed, it's usually the corporals and sergeants who do most of the work of actually drilling the men. Though the officer shouts the words of command, it is his common-born subordinates who step in to observe closely, ensure orders are followed, and apply correction, with their fists if needed.
Unfortunately, you have in your force no men particularly suitable for the job. Though some of your Houseguard certainly show qualities of leadership, they don't have the sort of ingrained, instinctual knowledge of the manual of arms and King's regulations which any competent drill instructor must inevitably possess in order to do his job.
In fact, the only one within twenty kilometres in possession of such is you.
It does not please you, to be reduced to a sergeant's job, but the idea of sending your Houseguard into battle completely untrained and unprepared likes you even less. So, you swallow your pride and get to work.
The task is not an easy one, not by a long measure. You discover that quickly enough. It isn't enough for a drill instructor to wave his arms about and shout; one must also watch for imperfections in drill as they happen and seek out any source of confusion before it occurs, even the slightest stray expression to keep the attention of the men fixed upon the matter at hand at all times. It is a job that requires eyes in the back of one's head and arms capable of reaching out twenty paces, and even then, you'd imagine it would be hard going.
You manage. You didn't survive twelve years of war by being unable to adapt to changed circumstances. Despite a few rough moments in the beginning, you quickly fall into the role. By the end of the first week, it almost comes easily to you. By the end of the second, your Houseguard shows marked improvement.
But it won't be enough defeat the roadsmen, not by itself.
1) I must purchase weapons and ammunition to properly equip my Houseguard. [Cost: 150 Wealth]
2) My Houseguard still needs subordinate leaders. Perhaps if I were to offer pay… [Cost: 120 Wealth]
3) Nothing more can be done, I've made all the preparations I can.
[Btw, we are now down to !133! tenants]
As far as you're concerned, there's only one way to force a conclusion to your situation now: to prepare your Houseguards as thoroughly as possible for an open confrontation before sending them into the forest to either defeat the roadsmen or force them to seek less well-armed prey.
Yet even after weeks of drill, it's clear that your makeshift fighting force still has a long way to go.
They can form ranks now, and move in straight lines without entangling themselves amongst each other, which you suppose is a vast improvement over their initial condition. Yet still, the sight of them parading in the open seems more a scene of farce than martial ardour, and despite your best efforts, much of your force remains slow to accept discipline, if not outright insolent in their resistance to orders. They may be your tenants, and you may be their lord and a gentleman of the blood, but it is clear that they remain steadfastly opposed to the idea that they've been reduced to nothing more than unquestioning common soldiers in the power of a highborn officer.
And that is the least of your problems. Even perfect drill and discipline would be of little use without the equipment needed to take advantage of them. While you doubt the roadsmen are as well-armed as the men you commanded in Antar, you have little doubt that they're far more formidably equipped than your gaggle of half-trained farmers and their odd assortment of hunting pieces and farming implements.
As things are, you fear that your improvised force will stand little chance against a gang of violent, hardened criminals. You shall have to effect some great improvements indeed if you mean to rectify that sorry state of affairs.
[There are 4 ways to upgrade our houseguard, and we have enough time to pick 2 of them. However, one of the options (unlocked by our high soldiering!) costs nothing beyond time, one is locked out to us, and the other two cost an amount of wealth such that we cannot afford both of them. So, I have automatically picked the first, free option, and will let you vote on whether to buy one of the other upgrades, or instead save your money.]
I must lead by example and teach them how to drill like proper soldiers!
It's clear to you now that the impersonal, rather distant methods you've been using to drill your Houseguard aren't working. The problem, it seems, is a simple one. Under the circumstances to which you're accustomed, it's usually the corporals and sergeants who do most of the work of actually drilling the men. Though the officer shouts the words of command, it is his common-born subordinates who step in to observe closely, ensure orders are followed, and apply correction, with their fists if needed.
Unfortunately, you have in your force no men particularly suitable for the job. Though some of your Houseguard certainly show qualities of leadership, they don't have the sort of ingrained, instinctual knowledge of the manual of arms and King's regulations which any competent drill instructor must inevitably possess in order to do his job.
In fact, the only one within twenty kilometres in possession of such is you.
It does not please you, to be reduced to a sergeant's job, but the idea of sending your Houseguard into battle completely untrained and unprepared likes you even less. So, you swallow your pride and get to work.
The task is not an easy one, not by a long measure. You discover that quickly enough. It isn't enough for a drill instructor to wave his arms about and shout; one must also watch for imperfections in drill as they happen and seek out any source of confusion before it occurs, even the slightest stray expression to keep the attention of the men fixed upon the matter at hand at all times. It is a job that requires eyes in the back of one's head and arms capable of reaching out twenty paces, and even then, you'd imagine it would be hard going.
You manage. You didn't survive twelve years of war by being unable to adapt to changed circumstances. Despite a few rough moments in the beginning, you quickly fall into the role. By the end of the first week, it almost comes easily to you. By the end of the second, your Houseguard shows marked improvement.
But it won't be enough defeat the roadsmen, not by itself.
1) I must purchase weapons and ammunition to properly equip my Houseguard. [Cost: 150 Wealth]
2) My Houseguard still needs subordinate leaders. Perhaps if I were to offer pay… [Cost: 120 Wealth]
3) Nothing more can be done, I've made all the preparations I can.
[Btw, we are now down to !133! tenants]
As of the Summer of the 615 of the Old Imperial Era:
Sir Alaric d'al Ortiga, Baron Ezinbrooke
Captain, Royal Dragoons (half-pay)
Age: 27
Current Funds: 201 Crown
Debts: 10660 Crown
Bi-Annual Income (Personal): 135 Crown
Bi-Annual Estate Revenues: 266 Crown
Bi-Annual Estate Expenses: 350 Crown
Bi-Annual Interest Payments: 107 Crown
Total Net Income (Next Six Months): -56 Crown
Soldiering: 70%
Charisma: 41%
Intellect: 9%
Reputation: 37%
Health: 62%
Idealism: 60% ; Cynicism: 40%
Ruthlessness: 42% ; Mercy: 58%
You are a Knight of the Red, having the right to wear Bane-hardened armour and wield a Bane-runed sword.
Sir Alaric d'al Ortiga, Baron Ezinbrooke
Captain, Royal Dragoons (half-pay)
Age: 27
Current Funds: 201 Crown
Debts: 10660 Crown
Bi-Annual Income (Personal): 135 Crown
Bi-Annual Estate Revenues: 266 Crown
Bi-Annual Estate Expenses: 350 Crown
Bi-Annual Interest Payments: 107 Crown
Total Net Income (Next Six Months): -56 Crown
Soldiering: 70%
Charisma: 41%
Intellect: 9%
Reputation: 37%
Health: 62%
Idealism: 60% ; Cynicism: 40%
Ruthlessness: 42% ; Mercy: 58%
You are a Knight of the Red, having the right to wear Bane-hardened armour and wield a Bane-runed sword.
Friends and Associates
Javier Campos: Colour Sergeant, the Royal Dragoons.
(Born 583 OIE)
Victor d'al Reyes: Eldest son of Baron Reyes. Major, the 8th Regiment of Foot. Formerly Commander, the Experimental Corps of Riflemen. ~Lost arm at Blogia~
(Born: 583 OIE)
James d'al Sandoral: Captain (half-pay), the Royal Dragoons.
(Born 592 OIE)
Efraim Saundersley: Solicitor-on-Retainer to the House of Ortiga.
(Born 570 OIE)
Octave d'al Touravon: Baron Touravon, Father of Alisanne d'al Touravon.
(Born 556 OIE)
Enemies
Hiir Cassius vam Holt: Takaran Ambassador to Tierra. Eldest son to Richsgraav vam Holt.
(Born 527 OIE)
Eleanora d'al Welles: Countess Welles. Proponent of Military Reform. Friend to Isobel, the Princess-Royal. ~Died at Blogia~
(Born 587 OIE)
Javier Campos: Colour Sergeant, the Royal Dragoons.
(Born 583 OIE)
Victor d'al Reyes: Eldest son of Baron Reyes. Major, the 8th Regiment of Foot. Formerly Commander, the Experimental Corps of Riflemen. ~Lost arm at Blogia~
(Born: 583 OIE)
James d'al Sandoral: Captain (half-pay), the Royal Dragoons.
(Born 592 OIE)
Efraim Saundersley: Solicitor-on-Retainer to the House of Ortiga.
(Born 570 OIE)
Octave d'al Touravon: Baron Touravon, Father of Alisanne d'al Touravon.
(Born 556 OIE)
Enemies
Hiir Cassius vam Holt: Takaran Ambassador to Tierra. Eldest son to Richsgraav vam Holt.
(Born 527 OIE)
Eleanora d'al Welles: Countess Welles. Proponent of Military Reform. Friend to Isobel, the Princess-Royal. ~Died at Blogia~
(Born 587 OIE)
Ezinbrooke, a barony within the Duchy of Cunaris, possessed of 133 rent-paying households.
Respectability: 30%
Prosperity: 45%
Contentment: 34%
Manor...
…Being a country house of middling size in very poor condition. encompassed by a low stone fence in a state of much disrepair. Outbuildings include stables, coach house, and guard house, all in exceptionally poor condition.
Interior consists of eighteen rooms, including six bedrooms, a kitchen, a library, a small ballroom, a dovecote and a gun room.
Estate and Grounds...
…Being a barony of middling size, composed of a manor house, market village, and surrounding fields and hinterlands. It is located a week's ride west from the city of Fernandescourt, a journey rendered easier by the fine state of local roads.
The village of Ezinbrooke is a small hamlet, possessed of a traveller's inn, a publick house, a somewhat worn shrine to the major Saints, and an open market square. The surrounding cottages are few in number but of excellent condition, having recently been repaired and refurbished. Fields bound the village on all sides, and all available land is under cultivation.
Bi-Annual Estate Revenues
Rents: 266 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: -84 Crown
Respectability: 30%
Prosperity: 45%
Contentment: 34%
Manor...
…Being a country house of middling size in very poor condition. encompassed by a low stone fence in a state of much disrepair. Outbuildings include stables, coach house, and guard house, all in exceptionally poor condition.
Interior consists of eighteen rooms, including six bedrooms, a kitchen, a library, a small ballroom, a dovecote and a gun room.
Estate and Grounds...
…Being a barony of middling size, composed of a manor house, market village, and surrounding fields and hinterlands. It is located a week's ride west from the city of Fernandescourt, a journey rendered easier by the fine state of local roads.
The village of Ezinbrooke is a small hamlet, possessed of a traveller's inn, a publick house, a somewhat worn shrine to the major Saints, and an open market square. The surrounding cottages are few in number but of excellent condition, having recently been repaired and refurbished. Fields bound the village on all sides, and all available land is under cultivation.
Bi-Annual Estate Revenues
Rents: 266 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: -84 Crown
Lithium Flower
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2016
- Messages
- 1,832
Friendly note: given that you have 201 wealth, and will lose 53 next biannual turn, buying weapons may or may not lock us into a fucking fail state :D
Lithium Flower
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2016
- Messages
- 1,832
Lol. Lmao.
Lithium Flower
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2016
- Messages
- 1,832
I would assume it would look like this:
-Say we spend 120 Wealth, down to 81.
-Next turn we lose 53, and are left with 28 (math!)
-We apply for credit that same turn.
-?Credit arrives the following turn? Just in time for us to get dinged, preventing us from going into the negatives and losing the game.
But this is my assumption. If a certain unnamed western government insider is still reading this thread, perhaps he can elucidate in an email or something.
-Say we spend 120 Wealth, down to 81.
-Next turn we lose 53, and are left with 28 (math!)
-We apply for credit that same turn.
-?Credit arrives the following turn? Just in time for us to get dinged, preventing us from going into the negatives and losing the game.
But this is my assumption. If a certain unnamed western government insider is still reading this thread, perhaps he can elucidate in an email or something.
Lithium Flower
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2016
- Messages
- 1,832
Upon hearing a strange noise (that sounded suspiciously like a communist computer god "voice-to-skull" transmission, you know, the one that everyone hears at 3 o'clock in the morning) I investigated my backyard where I discovered my pet dog being tortured and raped by a gang of high value alpha male business elites, presumably for adrenochrome extraction purposes - which was kind of weird, because the dog wasn't prepubescent, plus I don't recall owning any pets in the first place. Taking cover from NWO squadrons of black helicopters and stealth tic-tac-tech jets deploying chemtrails overhead, I retreated into the safety of my prepper bunker, constructed entirely from tinfoil and shungite (does anybody here know what shungite is ? No, not Suge Knight, I think he's locked up in prison. Talking shungite - anyways, it's like a two billion year old, like, rock/stone that protect against frequencies and unwanted frequencies that may be traveling in the air. That's my story, I bought a whole bunch of stuff, put them around la casa, little pyramids, stuff like that,) and accessed my stash of all-natural homeopathic GMO-free alt-medicine supplies.
After munching on some delicious halal-free beef-fed grass and injecting a triple dose of Ivermectin directly into my urethra, my mind was finally able to breach the false material confines of the Demiurge-Qliphoth matrix and received a divine providential message directly from the immaculate Sephirotic angel-grid, which I will summarize below:
-Slipping into negative wealth or failing to pay your interest payment isn't enough to trigger a game-over in itself, as the game will let you get a loan to remain in the green - however, at some point this will result in your interest rates spiking and your loan requests getting refused, and at that point failing to secure extra funds will result in a game-over. But it takes a long chain of financial fuck-ups and over-borrowing to get to that point.
-Even in the rock-bottom scenario of exhausting your loan options there will be an additional set of emergency options to but yourself some extra time to stabilize your situation - though those options will be very costly to your relationships and reputation.
-You are encouraged to be more financially irresponsible, especially to compensate for flubbing the refugee arc. Stimulus go brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
-In short, V O T E and don't worry about all the pesky money stuff it totally won't become a problem in the future
I'd share more but its hard to type with these hooves neeeeeeigh
After munching on some delicious halal-free beef-fed grass and injecting a triple dose of Ivermectin directly into my urethra, my mind was finally able to breach the false material confines of the Demiurge-Qliphoth matrix and received a divine providential message directly from the immaculate Sephirotic angel-grid, which I will summarize below:
-Slipping into negative wealth or failing to pay your interest payment isn't enough to trigger a game-over in itself, as the game will let you get a loan to remain in the green - however, at some point this will result in your interest rates spiking and your loan requests getting refused, and at that point failing to secure extra funds will result in a game-over. But it takes a long chain of financial fuck-ups and over-borrowing to get to that point.
-Even in the rock-bottom scenario of exhausting your loan options there will be an additional set of emergency options to but yourself some extra time to stabilize your situation - though those options will be very costly to your relationships and reputation.
-You are encouraged to be more financially irresponsible, especially to compensate for flubbing the refugee arc. Stimulus go brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
-In short, V O T E and don't worry about all the pesky money stuff it totally won't become a problem in the future
I'd share more but its hard to type with these hooves neeeeeeigh
1) I must purchase weapons and ammunition to properly equip my Houseguard.
Sending even trained and drilled householders into battle against men inured to violence, already whetted on previous abuse and killings, is tantamount to suicide for them. We would doubtless reap a bloody harvest, but our men would be fodder. They need weapons and ammunition to go with their training. Hopefully the experience of battle against a nasty enemy in defense of their homes will enliven their communal pride and our estate's respectability.
Hopefully...
Sending even trained and drilled householders into battle against men inured to violence, already whetted on previous abuse and killings, is tantamount to suicide for them. We would doubtless reap a bloody harvest, but our men would be fodder. They need weapons and ammunition to go with their training. Hopefully the experience of battle against a nasty enemy in defense of their homes will enliven their communal pride and our estate's respectability.
Hopefully...
I would advise against purchasing anything, seeing as how we are cut off from the outside world. The bandits are likely to intercept our weapons. The same is true for any officers we hire, but the bandits at least can't steal them.
Therefore 2.
Therefore 2.
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