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 talk a little more with the Mayor in your sitting room, mostly of small, trivial matters. You attempt to subtly gauge his economic competence, though you slip a little, and probe perhaps a little too openly with some of your questions. You learn that not only is he the mayor, but also the town's most prominent landholder. Mostly he owns farmland, though he also owns a few small businesses in town and has a stake in the local copper mine, though the mine remains almost entirely owned by the town itself, and therefore is administered by the mayor. He mentions that he has acquired some modest wealth in his lifetime, mostly by seeking out good advice in managing his affairs, he contends that this habit is also why his town was hit lightest by the plague.
More than merely gauging his competence however, you ask him about potential trade opportunities with neighbouring Velgarian provinces, the potential for bringing in skilled craftsmen, and resources in the area that might be readily accessed. He presses that the first obstacles to trade are the roads, which need to be made safe and maintained. That might at least encourage the flow of trade, and allow local merchants the security to begin their own caravans. The second thing to encourage trade that might be done is secure more trade resources. In theory the resources of Dhum-Blud might very well be plentiful and untouched, but the province is so poorly developed and so dangerous that many of the most tempting prospects are currently out of reach, and others potentially undiscovered. The province is teeming with huge forests and rocky hill-lands, ideal for industries of lumber, quarrying and mining, but also ideal for hiding danger. Holdings known and unknown are home to bandits, warrior chiefdoms and wild beasts, the deep forests hum with old world magic, and the hill-lands hide many a monster lair. The lands currently within your grasp are certainly a good deal safer, but establishing the industry and infrastructure nececcary for expansion was something your predecessor never managed, and it meant he ended further behind than he started. Skilled craftsmen might prove difficult to lure without the promise of prosperity, but enough coin ought to do the trick if need be. Trade alliances might prove difficult to procure considering how little economic security there currently is in the province.
Soon, you move on to dinner. Your courtiers gather at your table with the Mayor and his daughter, a dinner party of seven. The meal is simple fare, but in the current company you suppose it's not a great embarrassment at least. Eduard and Desan both remain mostly silent throughout the meal, one out of restraint and the other out of what you've come to understand as habit. Aldagor and Balpher seem to lack either the restraint or habit, and chat quite a bit, with the mayor indulging them diplomatically. At dinner Veera seems to gesticulate quite a bit more than he did with you privately, and though his daughter Elara speaks little she strikes you as quite fidgety, and the rare time she does speak her wit strikes you as quite clever. During the dinner conversation very little of consequence is said, and you mostly take the effort to get to know your Vassal and his youngest child. He himself seems polite, composed and observant, though his opinions strike you as often very conventional.
Towards the end of the meal, the mayor mentions that there are various ways he might be able to be of service to you. Of course he is willing to honour his feudal obligations of taxation and call to arms. His military forces are modest, and his town not rich, but if need be he can levy part of the populace into military service in preparation for any inevitable battle. He also mentions that there are a handful of people he has been employing that he no longer has want or need of. "
One is a sort of Hedge Magician, a Rat Speaker he calls himself. I hired him hoping he could exterminate the rat population, but he prefers to keep and breed them as servants and fighters. I've no use for that, but he's yours if you want him. Also hired some travellers and mercenaries to deal with a gremlin nest that sprouted up nearby.After it was finished three of them banded together as adventurers and are looking for work, they've a tracker, a former mercenary and a Rune-Warrior*. I've also a scribe who's no longer safe in town, i'm afraid he was caught in an uncompromising position with a local barkeep's wife, but he's competent enough. Just let me know if you want to take any of them off my hands and i'll send them to you."
"
And... if i may be so bold Lord-Governor, may i be privy to what you intend as our new administrator? I'm very interested to know what you might have planned for the future, even if your plans remain nebulous."
*
In this setting, magic is often very powerful, but also remains limited and dangerous. Sorcery for instance, involves channelling raw magic through ones body, which has a habit of "afflicting" the spellcaster (and sometimes those around the spellcaster) with powerful mutations of body and mind. Rune Warriors use magic very similiar to sorcery, but circumvent the danger by imbedding branded silver runes into their flesh. These runes are themselves enchanted, each rune serving as a protection from a specific piece of magic, allowing them to channel it through their body with no malignant effects. Rune Warriors all belong to chapters that strictly dictate who can be taught, and how much.
Author
Topic: Delegation: A fief management suggestion Game (Read 25623 times)