It is now fall, and the busy peasants can be seen harvesting their fields.
Darius cons peasants into joining the military.
{1} - Darius sets up recruitment in the nearby town of Pleasantville. Several half-starved looking peasants actually take him up, despite his barrel-scraping recruitment bonus. He empties the palace armory to equip them, mostly with an assortment of old iron arms and leather armor.
As he does not having the funds to actually feed two-score peasants, they all take the equipment and desert, turning to banditry.
Sir Biscuits hunts down that stray dog.
{1} - Weeellll. The stray dog is really a metaphor, see. When the knight hunts it down, he ends up slaying a bear cub instead. The bear-mom is not amused. {4}+1 vs {1}+3 - He slays the murderous beast with nary a scratch. The men are heartened by the tale, and the king appreciates his new rug.
Locke continues arguing with the king. ((Repetitive tasks take penalties.))
{5}-1 - After several well made arguments, the king has begun to slightly change his views.
Zechtenmarkus
sues the fake alchemist. vets the con man PC's hedge wizards for con men.
{5} - See below.
Sage Holtze hires some hedge wizards out of his own pocket.
{6} - Holtze manages to round up virtually every hedge wizard in the kingdom. Many are surprisingly talented - made clear now that money is on the line.
Roughly one-in-five had no magical talent, and promptly exiled. Of the remaining 52, three are especially talented - One in pyromancy, one in body magic, and one in necromancy. Priestess Imeremifava investigates the latter. She is cursed to occasionally hears whispers from the gods of the Cult of Shadows, but, as yet, helds onto her morality.
Holtze has spent nearly all of his wealth hiring them for a year.
Asha uses Religious Ferver on Lack of Manpower.
{5} - Asha gives sermons throughout the kingdom. She manages to recruit a good quantity of worthy men, and gets enough donations to feed them for the next six months ((two turns)). Unfortunately, none of this food made it in time to stop Darius' recruits from falling to banditry.
Mangrove uses money to hire adventurers for a quest to recover the money generating artifact.
{1} - A large band of adventurers, the only capable-looking group interested in the quest, took a sizable up-front fee. They have not returned, and are obviously all dead. Hopefully they didn't make a super-druid angry at the kingdom!
King Roland make a private announcement.
"Ah, my friends. It is good to see that my kingdom is doing so well! Jester John's tales, outlandish as they are, have gotten me to thinking. Serfs and peasants are kinda worth more than most other goods, since they create new goods. They can even be made to take goods from others, or - Ooh, they even make more of themselves! So, I've been thinking we'll try something different.
If we let them take enough food that they're not hungry, and don't stab them, they might produce more goods! Maybe different, more interesting goods!
The king picks up a piece of fruit from a nearby table.
Hmm. Like mannafruit wine! Does it come in wine? Someone get the wineryfolk to try that. Now, let's eat! Immortality awaits!" The king takes a large bite, and bursts into tears of pain.
Taxes reduced, and are now moderate.
The kingdom economy is stable.
The military grows.
A group of bandits is operating near the capital.
The local economy is
struggling.
The kingdom economy is
struggling.
The local levies are
limited and
are barely unafraid of stray dogs.
The kingdom levies are
moderate and
of poor quality.
The king wants painwine and no more invigorating peasant stabbings.
John Locke (nosaneinme), the palace fool, has had a minor victory for liberalism.
Sir "Biscuits" McGee (NJW2000), knight of the crown and head of military finance, is currently bragging about easily slaying a bear.
Sir Mangrove (Harry Baldman), the Secretary of Love, Worldliness and Quests, is currently worried about angry druids.
Sage Holtze Pzchun (Nunzillor), Import/Export Economic Adviser, is currently trying not to look like he's not eating a painfruit.
Asha Imeremifava (penguinofhonor), Priestess and Religious Adviser, is currently leading a band of troops back to the castle.
Darius Welthon (Coolrune206), Economic Adviser, is contemplating bandits.
Classified (ATHATH), assassin, is currently annoying the GM.
Zechtenmarkus (crazyabe), Royal Mage and Adviser of magical Affairs, is 'enjoying' conversations with a handful of redneck hedge mages.
Can I be put on the waitlist, I have a character in mind, who will probably attempt to stifle the painfruit importation, through fire and poison, or maybe by whispering lies into the kings ears.
((ATHATH hasn't done anything. If this continues, he's gone at the end of this round. If you get a sheet and an action up, and he doesn't respond, then you may have an action this turn.))