3821, the third month of the year, and the first month of spring.
Adeeb Wasirri, Lord Governor of Dhum-Blud
20 years old
Health and Physical Abilities
Fit
Healthy
Social Skills
Practiced in Court Manners
Rogueish Charm
Practical Skills
Competent Swordsman
Competent Tumbler
Mediocre Rider
Novice Sneak
Personal Possessions.
A well bred riding horse. (Mare.)
An aging riding horse. (Stallion.)
A Fine Duelling Saber.
Several Sets of gentleman's clothes.
Walders old clothing and perfumes. (The former is gaudy and a little big, and the latter is a little too strong.)
Councilors, Vassals, Allies and Agents.
Formal Councillors
Aldagor. Barrister, Elderly noble courtier.
Balpher. Garrison Commander, noble courtier.
Desan. Steward, young noble courtier.
Elerik. Junior Garrison Commander,Low-born Wasirri Guardsman.
Agents
Vest. Friend, Lowborn duellist and former smuggler.
Eduard. Lowborn Courtier.
Vassals
Mayor Veera
Sir Madagor
Holdings.
Bonewatch
-Tiny Stone Keep on a hilltop.
--Sparse Furnishings
--Well Stocked Larder (Decent quality, including wine, salt pork, local spices and the other imported goods)
--Small dungeon under the castle. 12 cells.
-Stables (10/25)
-Barracks (Sufficient space and bedding to hold a little over a hundred men.)
-Armoury (Stocked with Spears, swords and bows of mediocre quality. Stocked with Quilted armour and padding of poor quality. Stocked with plenty of poor quality arrows.)
-Rickety wooden outer palisade.
-patchy overgrown "dirt" roads.
-Mostly Unmanned rickety wooden watchtowers.
-a handful of wooden homes within the walls.
-A well with plenty of fresh water.
-A few nearby farming families.
Bleak-Haven
-Village
--The Wretched Mut A seedy Tavern
--A well maintained Windmill
--A small shrine to the local patron spirit
--A few scattered homes.
--A few poor craftsmen.
-Your Manor
--A few Fine furnishings.
-Overgrown Patchy "Dirt" Roads
-An interconnected farming community in the local area.
Military
-Bonewatch Garrison. (53 soldiers of weak discipline and limited combat training. Armed with bows, spears and short-swords of varying quality. Girded in quilted linen armor, steel caps, and the occasional breastplate. Wearing the King's colours.)
-Unnamed Fortified Watchtower Garrison (20 soldiers of good discipline, wearing the King's colours.)
-Household Gaurd. (19 Skilled Fighters trained in urban and close-quarters combat. Armed with arming-swords, bucklers and longknives. Girded in Quilted Doublets, steel breastplate,open-faced helms, greaves and bracers, all of good quality. Loyal to your family and wearing your family colors.)
-Bleakhaven Community Watch. (A group of locals that fluctuates in number, protecting, keeping watch on and patrolling the town and outer farms.)
-Bleakhaven Garrison. (6 soldiers, functionally identical to Bonewatch Garrison)
Assets
-A heavy bag of gold "Crowns" (7/8)
-A chest half full of Silver "Crowns" (Many clipped and restamped.)
-Eight Light Riding Horses (local breed, frisky and quick, but also small and unsuited to long hard travel)
-4 Rickety Wooden Carts
-7 Months worth of poor quality local grain. (at current consumption)
-5 Months worth of Imported Food-Stuffs (at current consumption, includes beans, pickled vegetables, salt, butter and wheat flour all of decent quality)
You accept all of the applicants under your service. The smith you provide with one of the small unclaimed buildings in the broad area behind the palisade, and the other servants you place under your current household servants as subordinates.
Your primary concern however, is in gathering food, and on this matter you set several gears in motion. You have the newly assigned Bleakhaven Garrison gather their equipment and send them to your manor, giving them the task of sending the message to the local landholding families that you are holding them to their promise of gathering peasant labour on your behalf. They are to repair the village mainway, the local road already in the least disrepair, that cuts through town and leads to your manor. They are also to send out hunters on your behalf, to gather meat for your larder.
You send your new courtier Eduard out to contact and negotiate with the travelling merchants trading foodstuffs to the locals, arming him with the promise of gold and bulk purchases. He expresses optimism in his ability to make a fair deal with the travelling businessmen.
You also send one of your gaurdsmen out to the outer watchtower, which you are told is some five hours ride away to the west. Balpher, apparently having heard of your order seeks you out soon after. He explains that the outer watchtower is the first line of defence against raiders, protecting both the local populace and providing quick word to Bonewatch of encroaching enemy forces. He claims that the tower is manned only by the best of the soldiers Bonewatch has at it's disposal, a claim that you suppose will be tested soon.
Since you've the time you visit Aldagor in his chambers and question him on the legality of melting down clipped coins. After giving the matter a few moments of thought he decides that would likely fall under destroying forged currency, something well in the rights of a representative of the crown.
...
First your gaurdsmen returns with news from your watchtower, Balpher arriving to speak with you at nearly the same time. Your guard explains that the situation at the watch-tower seems quite good. There are exactly twenty men residing there, well supplied, and when he had arrived some of the men had been out hunting, though they returned shortly. The troops there seem to keep their equipment in order, and keep two horses on hand so that they may send riders if they need. A few of the men had superficial wounds from a fight with a few bandits they chased off of a nearby farmer's property, but overall the troops there seemed in good health and spirits. Your Garrison Commander seems awfully smug as the report is relayed to you, and dismisses himself afterwards, apparently having forgotten the reason he came to speak with you in the first place.
Eduard returns next having negotiated and secured the purchases you had hoped for. Their prices had apparently been driven up by the danger and isolation of the local area, but Eduard managed to use the bulk purchases as leverage so that some of the merchants would compete with eachother to ensure the sale. He secured the purchase of beans, pickled vegetables, salt, butter and wheat flour in bulk, all of decent quality. In smaller amounts, for your larder he bought wine of common quality, salt pork, and the cheaper regional spices. Soon enough the merchants arrive at your castle, unload their goods and receive their gold, gold neither cheaply bought or given. All told your supplies increase appreciably from these efforts, and though the quality of the food still isn't what you are used to the spirits of the garrison and court improve greatly from the better diet, and you note that not only have you increased your supplies, but that the grain you already have will now probably be stretched farther.
The hunting does not go nearly as well, with most of the sparse game brought to you being unfit for consumption at a nobles table. A pair of rabbits are brought to you that you deem suitable however, so you send them to be prepared for a meal with the mayor once he arrives. It is good at least that you have plenty of salted pork on hand, a noble's table lacking meat is a great sign of poverty, a thing you would gravely hate to express.
...
You spend about eight days in wait for your vassal. Having sent out others to tend to your affairs this leaves you a great deal of free time, during which you train with the garrison and your guards, talk amicably with Vest, and when he's around continue to instruct Eduard. Within that time nothing huge is accomplished by your efforts, though the gradual progress in your affairs is beginning to abate the despair you feel at thinking about the poor state of affairs within your "province".
By the time it's time to receive your vassal you have relocated your court, gaurds and better servants to your manor at Bleak-Haven. Whoever built the home did a relatively good job of it, and it's not quite the eyesore that Bone-Watch is. Despite that however, it's currently quite indefensible, the most prominent defence on the property being a sturdy locked door that can easily be circumvented by breaking a window. The road however, has been seen to nicely. You are told that the locals used hoes, draft animals and logs to properly flatten and shape the earth, and that it should drain well when it rains, whatever that means. There is a small bit of grumbling about the distraction from planting, but it's at least been seen to quickly.
At mid-day on the ninth day Veera arrives on horseback with four guards and a daughter. The mayor himself is tall and broad, dressed stylishly and with a duelling sword at his hip. He's riding the edge between middle and old age by the look of him, but he seems to wear the years with dignity. He speaks to you respectfully upon meeting you, giving all the appropriate honorifics, though perhaps due to his age his bow is a little less deep than one might expect. His daughter he introduces as Elara, his youngest. She manages the appropriate curtsey, though says little, appearing shy and nervous. She's perhaps a little older than you, though not by much.
How will you receive your guests? It is mid-day, hours before an appropriate dinner-time.
Author
Topic: Delegation: A fief management suggestion Game (Read 25628 times)