Alright. Explanation time. So it would appear that I have not been active lately, but that is not 100% correct. I was writing slow for two reasons; One was that I was sick and sleep deprived last week, so I could only write in short bursts as opposed to my usual marathon sessions. Secondly, the turn was a long one; I was getting through most of the meetings you suggested, and then two plot twists occurred, one planned, and one RNG.
I finished it Wed night, but when I went to post Thursday morning, b12 ate it because I had the reply page open for a week or so. Usually Chrome is pretty good about restoring input boxes in such situations, so I haven't been bothering to back things up, but this time it didn't work. Usually when this happens to me, it kills the game; The thought of redoing the hours of work I put into a turn is just too daunting.
That said...
I like this setting too much to let it die so easily. Instead, I shall channel my inner George RR Martin, and shift the focus to another character entirely for the time being. As such, I am changing the name of this game to The Redleaf Epic.
Without further ado, lets meet the next main character,
Dougpo Illeum of the Silver County Nature Mage's guild.2334th Year of Man, 5th Month, 20th Day:
Saturday"Are you sure you don't want me to handle it?" You ask as you pass the shroom-pipe to the teary eyed and naked young countess using your lap as a pillow.
"Not too many people can arrange the death of their parents, ensure that they are wounded during the killing to clear themselves of suspicion, and still be good to go without any support or rest save a visit to the healer and a good dwarven shafting. You should get some sleep, and let me handle it."Charlotte Marlowe takes a drag from the pipe, and playfully tugs at your beard with her free hand, before agreeing to your request.
"Yeah... its been a busy day. I should get some sleep..."You both rise from bed, and Charlotte jots down her instructions for the meeting to come while you put your clothes back on. The young countess is a talented scribe, and by the time your boots are laced, she has already stamped her message with the seal of King's Road County, and entertains you with a nude dance while you groom your beard.
When you finish, you take the letter, and kiss the countess goodnight.
"Goodnight... Guild Master." She replies as you depart. You are glowing as you make your way to the roof to greet the balloon full of key guild personnel, likely moreso from the promotion than the sex. God knows the job won't be easy, considering the circumstances, but you have dreamed of running the guild ever since you first joined thirty years ago.
---
When your first wife died, you were given permission to retire from the Manview Guard fifty years early as you felt you needed a change of pace. A few months later you followed a young balloonist's apprentice you were sleeping with downhill to human lands, and discovered that you qualified for a well paying Balloonist's job with the guild.
Over the years, your influence within the guild grew, and on several occasions you were called to fill the posts of Sky Armada Master, Sky Caravan Master, and even Archmage of Wind on an interim basis. Within seven years, you had earned enough seniority to take time off whenever you wanted, and began to explore the landmass in your balloon. One day, while paying a visit to goblin lands, it was suggested that you buy a book and try to teach yourself dark magic, as you were already an air mage and an enchanter. You have dabbled in the dark arts since, and although your talent is raw, you have managed to find a niche selling clean alpine air to air realm natives living elsewhere.
Ten years ago, the City State of Manview, suspecting that the Duke of Redleaf's proposed road into the Ironheart Mountains would compromise its independence, sought to establish closer ties with the guild, which also stood to lose much from Lord Riverland's proposal, by contracting it to police and regulate the elemental mages within its borders. As you were both a former Manview Guard, and a high ranking guild member, you were asked to transfer away from your post as a pilot, and establish the guild's operations in your home town. Instead of drawing a large salary for your services, you arranged it so that the guild would let you operate your own balloon caravan without paying them a cut, and three years ago this side business made you enough money to purchase and renovate a large estate dug into the summit of one of the Ironheart Peaks.
Although this new posting saw you largely stuck in one place and cut off from the guild's power structure, you would still hear news of happenings in the Duchy from time to time. The road was completed seven years ago, and as a consequence, the guild began to rapidly decline, but a year later a small miracle occurred; A group of highborn youth from Redleaf Duchy, led by the Duke's own daughter of all people, began investing in the guild and attending board meetings. None of them, at the time, had even reached puberty, but their ambition and intelligence had a radical effect.
Two of these children, the Marlowes, were the offspring of the count upon whose land the hated road began. As their father was ancient (by human standards anyway), and they promised to throttle trade on the road once they came to power, confidence in the guild's long term future rose. The young nobles convinced several other dwarven city states to invest, and weaseled their way into managing the vast majority of these dwarven investments. They also managed to secure for the guild (and similarly administer) investments from several Rising Isle crime lords based out of Gulf Land just north of Redleaf Duchy.
Two and a half years ago, young Horace Marlowe managed to dispose of his parents and take over the county, and you managed to score an invite to his ascension ceremony. After the prim and proper ceremony, which was attended by many prim and proper members of the human nobility, concluded, an after-party was thrown in the guild headquarters at Balloon Point, at which point the group of four young friends declared a desire to lose their virginity together, and an orgy was hastily arranged, which you attended.
As the orgy wound down, you were invited to a more private encounter with both of the Marlowe Twins; As it turns out, the siblings shared a preference for older men of the fair-skinned races, and likewise you could enjoy the tall and lithe body of a human regardless of gender. Shortly after this, you were promoted to be in charge off all guild operations in the Ironheart Mountains, and sent back to Silver County so that the Marlowes could continue to pay you visits. Eventually Horace settled on an exclusive relationship with one of his bodyguards, but his sister Charlotte continued to date you. Charlotte never offered nor demanded an exclusive relationship, but did quickly forge a deep friendship with you, which saw you quickly inducted into Chasity's inner circle.
You had a front row seat to watch Charlotte and her friends scheme and assassinate their way into control of King's Road County, before they turned their eyes to the biggest prize: Roe River County. Getting rid of the Kinkaids would earn Chasity so much prestige that there would be no way her parents wouldn't name her heir, the Marlowe's would be able to disarm the threat posed by their maternal grandparents, and the guild would gain access to North Bank City's mercenary market, one of the few places in the Duchy where nature mages could sell their services without paying the guild a cut.
To acquire the troops needed to pull the conquest off, Chasity enlisted the help of Prince Rubricon Emmit, a minor royal and fellow investor in the guild. All he asked in return was permission to name the new Count of Roe River County. You advised your young friend that Rubricon's offer seemed too good to be true, and Chasity agreed, stating that she would snuff out whatever he was planning by having him killed once he put crown troops under her command. This turned out to be a mistake.
Rather than helping Chasity, Rubricon employed the girl's contingency plan to dispose of her father (which she drunkenly divulged during a planning session that he attended), had Duke Riverland killed, and Chasity herself kidnapped to serve as his bride. Claiming control of the duchy himself, Rubricon ensured the compliance of the Marlowes and the guild by threatening Chasity's safety. Knowing that controling the Marlowes through fear and threats was not a great long term strategy for the Prince, you deployed balloons and demonic scouts, and spotted the host you knew was coming to dispose of them. After learning that it was lead by her parents, Charlotte Marlowe came up with her most sinister plan yet, one which you would play a key role in.
When the host arrived, Charlotte surrendered at once, and invited her parents and their officers to parlay over dinner. You attended the meal disguised as a servant, and when the demon you arranged to slaughter all the important guests did its job, you subtly collected their souls. The Demon falsely claimed it was sent by one Maeris Riverland, A known dark mage, Chasity's mother, and the Duke's widow, and when the few survivors relayed the story to the rest of the now headless fifteen thousand strong host, panic set it. It was then a simple matter of pulling in most of the Guild's high command structure to take over command of the host (the Marlowes had successfully been experimenting with mage lead troops since the Kinkaid's attacked them following the Duke's death).
This left you in charge of the now somewhat-hurting-for-talent guild, so you quickly hopped into your balloon, and returned to Balloon Point for an emergency meeting within twenty four hours of killing Charlotte's parents.
---
Of the few remaining guild officers, only a few are able to attend the meeting on such short notice. Archmage Ren, the archivist, is more interested in taking notes on the meeting than contributing anything, and Grand Archmage Lee only attends to inform you that he finds being made to serve under a dwarf to be degrading, and that he is considering resigning. This would hurt your already taxed officer supply, but it would not be unexpected. Lee hails from the Rising Isles, which is said to be the birthplace of humanity. With only a few exceptions, non-humans visiting 'the holy ground of mankind' are killed on site, and although they don't practice this while visiting other lands, rising isle natives are not the sort of people to make friends with dwarves.
Luckily for you, guild officers are not the only ones you invited to this meeting - Having spent years in power, you have managed to amass a decent collection of loyal underlings, who you are now in a position to exploit/reward by assigning them officer roles should you wish to do so.
Slant, a jungle orc Ice and Air elementalist, was one of your beat officers when you were in charge of policing Manview. Slant has an intuitive sense for detecting lies and spotting clues, but is otherwise not that bright. She is a very good hand with the net and trident, however, and knows her way around a carpenter's workshop.
'Rascal' Jourem Urisn is your old friend and fellow Manview Dwarf. You taught him just enough air magic to get him admitted to the guild, and he has been your secretary ever since the Marlowes sent you back to Balloon Point. Like you, Rascal was a member of the city-guard, but unlike you, he moonlighted as a housebreaker and drug dealer, and as such has all sorts of interesting criminal skills.
Mr. Milton is an orc of Clan Ivy's prestigious 'Agent' bloodline which incorporates the genes of demons and goblins as well. You purchased him off a demon, and had him programmed to experience a powerful and addictive high while obeying your commands. Mr. Milton is an accomplished druid, peerless sneak, and also practices divine magic relating to shadow, fear, endurance, and obedience.
Soren is an elderly human eunuch, who was booted from the inquisition for not being man enough after a demon castrated him. A badass fire elementalist, earth elementalist, druid, and crossbowman, Soren was one of your better officers back when you policed Manview's mages. He also has the potential to practice divine magic, but is too loyal to human law to do so without the blessing of a human priestly order, none of which will have him.
Also present is Silias, formerly Count Marlowe's bodyguard, presently his secret boyfriend, head of the Balloon Point City Guard, and fellow member of the 'Chasity Club'. Silias informs you that the host you just helped acquire is going to be sent into Silver County to flush out and hopefully destroy the raiding force of Count Phineas Kinkaid that has been harassing Silver County. If the new soldiers get very lucky, the legendary 'Iron Count' himself could be killed or captured, which would go a long way towards breaking the moral of the enemy.
Once Silias is done talking, you ask Archmage Ren for a report on the guild, and he happily provides an overview document, with the newly vacated posts highlighted for your convenience.
Balloon Point Nature Mage's GuildTurf:
The guild claims jurisdiction over all professional nature mages in the kingdom, but in practice it only actually controls parts of Redleaf and Tradewind Duchies, as well as some dwarven lands. Rather than divide operations by county, the guild clumps its territory into zones based on the tasks commonly preformed by nature mages in the area.
Headquarters Zone: The smallest zone in terms of area, The HQZ consists of the small city of Balloon Point on the northwest corner of Silver County. Home to guild HQ as the name suggests. As Guild Master, the HQZ is your responsibility.
Silver Zone: Consists of all of Silver County, save for the HQZ, as well as northern Roe River County. Here druids work the fields, and many types of elementalists work the silver mines. The post of regional master of the SiZ is vacant.
Six-Shrines Zone: A small zone that consists of Six-Shrines, a good sized city in Cleanriver County that was home to the Gulf Dynasty's religious nerve center. Nature Mages perform mercenary and criminal work, as well as other urban tasks. The lowborn human Rand runs the SSZ
Redleaf Zone: A large zone that consists of all the rural parts of Cleanriver, Port, and Southjungle Counties, plus the town of Basin Lake and the southern half of Gulf County. Nature mages here help with farming, fishing, and perform mercenary work. The RLZ is run by Janell Leaf, Archibald Horton's bastard daughter.
Gulf Zone: Consists of North Gulf County, and all of Cape County just across the border in Tradewind Duchy. The guild works to serve the criminal and naval interests of the Rising Isles. The GuZ is run by the kobold Fizzley.
Ironheart Zone: Consists of the territories of the following dwarven city-states: Manview, Barrelwalls, Rumland, Truegod, and Towercap. The guild is contracted to help these cities regulate and police their nature mage populations. The post of regional master of the IhZ is vacant, having been filled most recently by you.
Shipping Lane Zone: The largest zone by area, Consists of King's Road County in Redleaf Duchy, and White River, Survivor, Bandit, and Merchant's Road Counties in Tradewind Duchy. Nature Mages in this zone mainly serve as mercenaries, protecting trade moving to and from the ports by road. Piercing of Clan Scarab, one of Greent's mercenary friends, runs the SLZ.
The Board
The guild is a large and loosely structured organization. In general, each of your officers may do as they please so long as they don't go against objectives set by the board or disobey your directly stated wishes, and you may do as you please so long as you don't do against objectives set by the board. The board meets at the end of the seventh month of each year, and votes upon objectives and guidelines for the guild to follow.
Current Set Objectives and Guidelines - [Likely Subject to Drastic Change at the Next Board Meeting]
1: The guild opposes the use and development of all direct overland trade routes between the eastern duchies of the kingdom and the Ironheart City-States.
2: The guild supports a top secret investment in Roe River County as planned and executed by Chasity Riverland.
3: The guild respects the sovereignty of dwarven city-states that are either neutral in their foreign dealings or aligned with interests foreign to the kingdom.
Major Investors - [Non-Employees that have bought the right to vote at the meeting]
Cleanriver Holdings - A firm administered by several young human nobles that manages the money and sees to the interests of many of the guild's foreign investors. Cleanriver Holdings gets nine votes at the next board meeting, where it will likely be represented by Count or Countess Marlowe.
Rubricon Emmit - An unsavory businessman who uses his kinship to the king and generous royal allowance to overcome his untrustworthy reputation. His bloody gambit to make himself Duke of Redleaf will likely spiral into a bloody civil war that disrupts guild busniess, but as the guild's largest individual investor, with six votes at board meetings, it is not like you can call him out.
Clan Scarab - Greent Strongcurrent has been quietly building a collation of local businessmen and orcish leaders willing to help drive the Kinkaids from Roe River County. For fear of discovery, these potential partners hide their investments under the name of a large Orcish Clan tied to North Bank City's mercenary business. Greent represents these investors with three votes at the meeting, if circumstances allow him to attend.
Archibald Horton - A disgraced and exiled count who has tied himself financially to the guild in hopes of exerting some influence over Duchy affairs. He has two votes at the board meeting, and usually sends one of his many bastard offspring to represent his interests.
The Priestly Order of the Inquisition - The inquisition rarely operates in Redleaf Duchy. When they do, they often contract the guild for protection and knowledge of the local magical community. They have purchased the right to a single vote, but in reality they only attend meetings to make sure guild activity remains on the up and up.
The Archmages
These seven elders are appointed to advise the officers and investors of the guild, as well as occasionally provide a moral boost by employing their great magical strength in the field where needed. One Archmage represents mastery of each of the six nature magics, and a seventh archmage is a lore master who tends to the guild libarary. The Archmages elect one of their number to lead them as Grand Archmage, who wields their single vote at the board meeting. Most of the Archmages have been tapped to help the Marlowes lead the troops you have won them, leaving many vacancies to be filled.
-Kuzu Lee serves as Grand Archmage and the Archmage of fire. He claims to have trained under a dragon in his homeland, and is easily the most powerful Fire Elementalist to ever affiliate himself with the guild. He is no fan of Rubricon's aggression or war effort, and refused conscription, but you doubt he'd be willing to answer to a non-human such as yourself.
-Delcom Ren serves as Archmage of Lore. The old man was Prince Rubricon's steward, before that role was given to an alleged mistress two years ago, and Ren was given his current post as a consolation prize.
-The Archmage Positions for Frost Elementalism, Water Elementalism, Air Elementalism, Earth Elementalism, and Druidism are presently vacant, and it will reflect poorly on you if they remain unfilled when the board meeting rolls around.
The Master Officers
These officers run the day to day affairs of the guild, and make major decisions between board meetings. Unless otherwise stated, each master officer has a single vote at the board meeting. It would reflect better upon you if you filled all the vacancies here before the board meeting, but you will control the vote of any unfilled office, so perhaps leaving one or two empty wouldn't be the end of the world...
Guild Master [You] - As guild master, you hold ultimate executive authority over guild affairs, the right to apoint any due paying member to any vacant Master Officer or Archmage Post, and the authority to set the agenda of the annual board meeting. You have two votes at the board meeting, plus the right to wield the vote of any absent or vacant master officer.
Lash Master [Vacant] - The Lash Master, or whip, does the guild master's busywork. Typically the whip balances the guild budget, coordinates with the other officers to carry out the Guild Master's wishes, and runs the HQZ if the guild master dosn't wish to do so himself.
Armada Master [Tim Fletcher the lowborn human] - The Armada Master commands the guild's thirty strong fleet of war balloons, which is traditionally tasked with keeping non-guild aligned balloons out of guild airspace. Tim Fletcher, a former apprentice and lover of yours, was appointed to this post a month ago when Horace Marlowe appointed Tim's predecessor to a military post.
Customs Master [Vacant] - The Customs Master is responsible for registering, regulating, and taxing merchant balloons that wish to operate in guild airspace, and also staffs and commands the fifteen cargo balloons directly owned by the guild.
Rivers, Lakes, and Fields Master [Knuck the Kobold] - Tasked with providing advice, marketing, and other resources to the numerous dues paying guild members who make a living using their powers to help farmers and freshwater fishermen. Grand Archmage Lee managed to talk your predecessor into giving the post of RLF Master to the foreign pyromancer's Kobold servant.
Boots Master [Orchid the Kobold] - Tasked with providing advice, marketing, and other resources to the numerous dues paying guild members who make a living doing mercenary or guard work. The post is currently held by the well educated servant of a crime lord from the rising isles, who has been using her position to train guild members to steer and propel boats with water and air magic, which some fear might earn the ire of the much more powerful sailor's guild should Orchid get too noisy about it.
Turf Masters [See Turf Section Above] - The officer in charge of each zone is tasked with registering members, collecting dues, running off non-guild nature mages, and arranging contracts in their zone. The SSZ is considered to be too small to be worth a vote at the board meeting, and the voting power of the HQZ is covered by your office. The office of IhZ master gets two votes, a gift from the Marlowes when you held the post, and the office of GuZ Master gets two as well, reflecting the growing influence of the Rising Isles over the guild.
---
It is said that in Silver County only birds and balloonists get to see the sunset, which is obscured to most local viewers by the Iornheart Mountains. Life is good at thirty thousand feet, as your magic keeps the air warm and thick enough for you to comfortably lounge in your undergarments and smoke a pipefull of relaxing herbs. You allow yourself the indulgence of watching the sunset like this, by staying at work late and gaining needless altitude on the way home, several times a week, and are quite sure that doing so keeps you sane. Your job is stressful, and with your new responsibilities it is sure to only get even more crazy. The guild had firmly banked upon Chasity's agenda and ambition, and between her rebellious hag of a mother and distasteful kidnapper of a husband, you are sure things are going to get real complicated real fast. Unless your brilliant ringleader can free herself soon your best hope of success, and perhaps even survival, is take the future of the guild into your own hands at the upcoming board meeting.
With a long drag on your pipe, you banish stressful thoughts from your head and instead count your blessings. You own an impressive home, and now have access to the fully furnished Guild Master's Suite at work. You have a steady income in both silver and souls, and enough mortal and demonic business contacts outside of the guild to ensure that your salary is only a small portion of your revenue stream. What you lack in terms of close family ties, you make up for in friends, friends with benefits, and trusted underlings. With your personal balloon, you can safely reach any point in guild territory and the Ironheart Mountains, as well as some places in orc and goblin lands, in under three hours. Most importantly, however, you are confident that you have the skills and experience to handle whatever is thrown at you.
Tomorrow is Sunday, and you intend to take the day off and split your hours between celebrating your good fortune and catching up on your sleep. The fate of the guild can wait until Monday, and you need some time to consider
what your first orders of business will be then anyway.
Author
Topic: (SG) The Redleaf Epic (Formerly Widow: A Duchess Scorned) (Read 66258 times)