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[Gotdamnmiracle]

^Not my style, but that's a valid option.  However, what if they are convinced to change it?  Edits?

Bummer. Edited suggestions will be ignored.

[10ebbor10]

Wasn't that just a summer harvest/planting?  Growing in winter is still viable, that's the time when wheat is grown mainly.

I'm pretty sure we have 2 harvest a year.

[kaian-a-coel]

Wasn't that just a summer harvest/planting?  Growing in winter is still viable, that's the time when wheat is grown mainly.

I'm pretty sure we have 2 harvest a year.

we do.

I am against any assassination attempts.
We really should fortify our barracks and build some sort of prison.
We could send a letter to the count (yes, the count), to say that a certain wool merchant of his is apparently eyeing our mines for reasons we can't fathom, and as he is the nearest authority, he should look into it and do something about it. Italics included (not). That may or may not reduce the number of shady things happening, but that may also make the count wary and endanger the hostages.
Liberating the hostages is really too dangerous to consider.

[Mlamlah]

Wasn't that just a summer harvest/planting?  Growing in winter is still viable, that's the time when wheat is grown mainly.

I'm pretty sure we have 2 harvest a year.

we do.

I am against any assassination attempts.
We really should fortify our barracks and build some sort of prison.
We could send a letter to the count (yes, the count), to say that a certain wool merchant of his is apparently eyeing our mines for reasons we can't fathom, and as he is the nearest authority, he should look into it and do something about it. Italics included (not). That may or may not reduce the number of shady things happening, but that may also make the count wary and endanger the hostages.
Liberating the hostages is really too dangerous to consider.

You have a point, but this actually provides us with some really strong leverage when i come to think of it.
If we come to the counts lands with a small force to serve as "bodyguards" (really they are a criminal beatdown crew) we can march in to see the count very loudly and obviously, tell him that one of his subjects is tormenting the people of the counts domain and engaging in nefarious activity on our lands and demand that he allow us to see to justice, and allow us to rescue the hostages. This looks *really* good because it shows both nobility and common people that we are serious about honor and the welfare of people whether they are ours or anothers. Also, there won't be a lot the count could do against us that wouldn't look really bad and implicate him further, we would be forcing him into a situation he can't win.

There is another way though, if some don't feel we are ready to stir up the hornets nest we could still use the oppurtunity and talk to the Count's Marshal Sir Uriel Lope. I'm sure that part of his job includes the justice system, if we go under(?) the count's head on this there will again be little he could do to stop us, and we will still be crippling the counts use of the underworld against us. If we can capture the wool merchant, then bam, we can move on to making a case against the Count.

[Gervassen]

I would suggest we ask our council what thoughts/advice they have to make the town more populous/prosperous.  Maybe they'll have some insight that we yet lack?

Usually a cool idea. Never hurts to ask, after all, but let's do this next month when serious drama isn't going down! 

2)As soon as weather permits, FORTIFY THE BARRACKS AT THE MINES

4a)I say we arrange for him to be quietly arrested and brought before the Duke.

+1

No to the rest. The captives are a sad case, but not our business. No rescues. Releasing our prisoner just ensures that he will do more extreme things again for the kidnappers in order to rescue his own sister. Tell him that we'll help, get him witnessed by Denton and Percival, then forget about our promise. No releasing the prisoner.

If we warn the count that we have inside knowledge about this gambit, either directly or by attempting rescue of captives, the wool merchant gets eliminated quietly in an alley. The wool merchant is doing nothing that isn't merely a screen for the Count's orders. The merchant's a patsy, a fall guy to be disposed of when it's necessary. It's necessary to trace this to the top, to the real puppet master.

Let's try to arrange drawing the wool merchant into a trap, and nab him for questioning. He's a business man with legitimate appointments in his own business. The rat can use that to draw him to a fairly easy place, optimally dockside for quick escape in our felucca.

Get Denton and Percival to witness the confessions of the prisoner.
Ask them about military options against the Count
Get the rat to set up an abduction "arrest" of the wool merchant
Go down the river to the duke's city, confession, criminal, and plenty of archers and arrows on board.
That felucca had better outfitted for a battle, including water to douse fires.

This is more or less my final opinion, so bold.

[Gervassen]

To be honest, whenever I read "felucca" in the past, my natural optimism and overactive imagination substituted "longship" instead... but a felucca is a rather puny vessel, isn't it? Maybe we can contract or commandeer a larger ship from our harbor, plus the felucca as an escort. I do think by water is the way to go. Lugging a prisoner who can implicate the Count overland won't do it, since we're sure to be intercepted by fast horse.

We should have have our best archers in whatever we do float down there. If we do this.

(Edit: And our own cover story for docking in Folesden that night is that we're en route to visit Marna and more make arrangements with the Duke, plus other business arrangements, etc.)

[tryrar]

A felucca can hold 10 people easily

[Gervassen]

With our best marksmen, that could be enough. We need to leave some troops with Alan anyway, since this might end up in an open battle, depending on what Percival and Denton advise.

[tryrar]

I still say we also arrange a rescue of the hostages, preferably when we "arrest" the wool merchant

[Urist McDwarfFortress]

We need to find out if the wool merchant ever travels up our neck of the river to trade with the folks upstream. If he does, we could just intercept his boat and arrest him while he's on our land. Hold trial and execute him ourselves. If the count tried to intervene, it would be another point linking him to the attempted assassinations, and it would be a clear violation of our feudal rights!

Also, we should absolutely NOT just release the prisoner. He absolutely IS dangerous. As long as our enemies hold his sister hostage, he'll do whatever they tell him to do.

[Gervassen]

I still say we also arrange a rescue of the hostages, preferably when we "arrest" the wool merchant

The guards of the hostages probably don't deal directly with the Count--possibly the details of the mission aren't even known by the Count--and the hostages can only implicate the wool merchant, so grabbing the wool merchant means the hostages are safely in limbo, and the order won't be passed to kill them. Once we have the wool merchant, the Count won't care about anything but getting him back.

How's this then:
 
Arrange for the rat to send a man downstream of Folesden and wait. First thing we do to the wool merchant after he's aboard the ship and outside of the harbor, get him to tell us where the captives are. Make clear we have enough evidence on him, and the game's over, so cooperation gets him more leniency. The way things are, we could threaten to put him back on shore and take all this evidence to the Duke alone. That'll get the merchant thinking about his loyalties, and what the Count would do to rid himself of incrimination. If that's not enough, slice off a pinky and tell him we're done being nice to scum like him.

Information obtained, stick it to an arrow and shoot it at the designated rendezvous, the Rat's thugs liberate the captives while everyone in Folesden is panicking about our escape.

We need to find out if the wool merchant ever travels up our neck of the river to trade with the folks upstream. If he does, we could just intercept his boat and arrest him while he's on our land. Hold trial and execute him ourselves. If the count tried to intervene, it would be another point linking him to the attempted assassinations, and it would be a clear violation of our feudal rights!

Never thought of that. I assumed he was a burger who lived in the city and met with travelling merchants, but yeah, maybe he also travels to coordinate with his suppliers in the countryside. Maybe not to our lands, but anywhere outside the city is better than inside! We'll let the Rat determine the details of getting him close to us, then. Definitely don't execute him, though. This guy will turn. He'll sing.

[kahn1234]

I think we better set up watch posts around the mines or fortify the mines/barracks to make sure the workers and mine are secure.

also, organised drills and training to get our new halbardiers back to regular troops.

I dont have any good ideas on how to deal with the wool merchant. We need him aline if possible, with as much evidence as possible.

We then need to go to the Duke and get the Count arrested.

[kaian-a-coel]

I am against any bold rescue attempt, and merchant arrest.
Not that I am against the very idea of it (I would be for it), but that could easily put us in a very difficult situation. As in, the count could brand us as a criminal and traitor. He IS the highest authority there (short of the Duke), so if we kidnap the merchant, he'll call us criminals and we're utterly and definitively screwed.

The only way to do anything that won't allow the count to put a price on our head is to publicly denounce the merchant (if we have enough evidence). That will force the count to either defend him (and put himself in a suspicious position), or get rid of his cover. Win-win.
"But that will show us we're aware of his intentions" you say? No. We are not incriminating him. We show that we are aware that the merchant is up to something. For all he know, his cover worked.

After that, he'll do it again, sure, but so will we. And the more merchants (or whatever) he'll use, the more suspicion there will be on someone being behind them.

[Gervassen]

The wool merchant is a commoner, but not a serf. The count doesn't own him, or have a right to file a suit for him. Arresting him with a signed confession witnessed by other lords is solid gold proof as far as the lofty standards of this time, and ain't no treason. Treason against whom? The wool merchant's guild? He ostensibly is not connected to the Count.

Piers Gaveston, Abelard, and many other nobles met a rough kind of justice. A commoner is even less protected under the law. If we continue being a doormat, chasing after a 21st century notion of due process, it'll catch up to us eventually.

[tryrar]

Agreed with gerv, we need to step it up. Remember this Isn't 20th century America, there really isn't a such thing as due process here