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[Devastator]

You rest uneasily.

First, there is a cave.  In stories caves might be decorated or glittering with gold, homes of dwarves or gnomes, or dragons.  This cave is simple stone, but nonetheless contains a growing evil, a malice.

Then there is a procession of heroes.  A champion, striding tall with glittering armor and a magic sword.  An assassin, moving as a half-imagined shape in the darkness.  A general, at the head of an army of more than ten thousand.  Swifter and swifter they come, the parade of human and not-quite human faces continues, all with the sense that they belong to you.  You, and none other.  All marching to face the dread inside the cave, under a sun being eaten by darkness.

You wake up.  You don't need it put more clearly.  This is not the first night you have recieved these messages, but you mean for it to be the last.  Whatever, wherever this evil is, you will face it, and you will face it with all the power you can raise.

Only.. where do you start?  You have a small pension, courtesy of your unknown father, likely a mandarin of middling rank, paying your mother for special services years ago.  You have a bit of silver, squirrled away from your serving duties at the embassy.  None of the faces belonged to a scraggly beggar girl or a young city woman of limited means.  You're going to need power.

[Devastator]

This is to be a suggestion game, where time is seperated into weeks.  Anyone can post suggestions.. the one with the most votes wins.

A week will give you five chances to do things, such as making plans, exploring segments of the city, finding new people, practicing, recieving instruction, and execution.  Plans will help you do things, as it will reveal the number and sequence of rolls required, which can let you increase your chances of success with more complicated actions.  Both people and skills can be applied to help solve problems, or to make plans run smoothly.

In the future, your assets will include lists of the plans you have ready to execute.

Spoiler: Assets (click to show/hide)

Prestige = 0
20 silver.
Employed as a servant with Huan Zhang.

Spoiler: Allies (click to show/hide)

Huan Zhang, diplomat, 2 prestige, 0 favor

Prestige is basically how well known and influental the person is.  If you want to get a meeting with a major foreign merchant, prestige would make doing so much easier.  It can be increased by doing notable things.  Favor is basically how much someone believes in your cause, over and above their freindship.  Favor can get people to do things they would not ordinarily do.  For instance, Huan would be happy to help you find a foreign language tutor, but you would need a favor from him to get him to teach you personally.

In all cases, you are more or less against the clock, having to find out what's wrong with the world, and fix it, by whatever means seem effective to you.

[Devastator]

The city is a large port city.  There are several distinct districts in it.

First is the Port District.  It consists largely of three parts.  There's the foreign docks, which are restricted access to locals, in an attempt to limit smuggling and properly apply taxes to imports and exports.  It works to some degree, but not perfectly, like everything.

Then there's the local docks, which are where domestic trading vessels and fishermen dock from.  It's much more loose, and the area is somewhat under the control of the Tongs, a criminal underclass.

Thirdly, are the Dockyards, where new ships are manufactured for sale, and is the military port, where they work on warships and dock elements of local fleets.  There are also barracks here for serving marines and sailors when they are on alert.

The next district is the Foreign Quarter, where there are many domestic high-end merchants in exotic goods for export, as well as represenatives of foreign powers, be they governments or trade groups.  If you need to find something that is truly exotic, this is where you look for it.  The diplomat you work for has his house here.

After that is the Merchant Quarter.  This is where the major land caravan routes meet the river docks, and where most of the more mundane and local goods are sold.  There are many shops of many types, along with most of the professional tradesmen.  Most everyone who lives in the city comes here, as well as most of the people from the other cities in the Empire.  The main station of the City Watch is also in this district.

Then there is the Government Quarter.  In it is the governor's 'mansion', a palace in all but name.  There are numerous law offices as well as the courthouse.  There is also a school for training civil servants here, which are the people who fill most of the offices of the government.

Lastly is the Magic Quarter, where there is the University, which trains augurs, nature mages, ritual mages, and spirit-shamens, for fairly steep prices.  There are also merchants here which deal with magical objects as well as factors who contract for exotic raw materials used in their work.

Every quarter has, in addition to what was listed above, numerous housing districts, and many services.  All quarters have drinking-houses, tea-rooms, salons, boarding-houses, brothels, inns, barbers, as well as many basic shops.

[Devastator]

The first question, then, is, what do you do about your job?  And what do you do for the first two actions?

I'm happy to answer questions as to what you know without spending time.

Spoiler:  Status (click to show/hide)

Week 1.  Time available, two actions.

Assets and Abilities:
Prestige = 0
20 silver.
Employed as a servant with Huan Zhang.


Allies:
Huan Zhang, diplomat, 2 prestige, 0 favor

[High tyrol]

ptw

[Empiricist]

This ought to be interesting to watch. By the way, the spoiler tag in the second post is broken.

[Radio Controlled]

Reporting in.

Maybe we should first make a little list of who's who in this town, who has standing and influence with who, or who is just a figurehead, with someone else with the real power. Ask around a little, try to get a rough idea of their personalities.

Secondly, think/ask about who/what is making good money in this town with what activities. We'll probably need to start making some fortune somewhere.

[Egan_BW]

Obviously we need to start killing some trash mobs. Look for rats in your basement.

Additionally, if we can do it without using an action, we should talk to our employer about our dream.

[Radio Controlled]

We might want to keep our cards close to us for the moment, so to speak. We don't even know what kind of person he or she is, so we might scare him off with what sounds like a mad story, whereas having that extra connection might do us good. We can still tell once we know better if we can trust him and if said person is receptive to something like this (or maybe until something happens that might warrant more belief in strange premonitions, like the sun glowing black or demon cabaret groups or something).

[Egan_BW]

He's unlikely to believe it's more than just a dream anyway, and it would be good to talk to some body about it, to help decipher symbolism and such. Maybe he can even convince us that it actually is nothing, and we can get to live in a doomed timeline (the weave of fate has been severed!)

[Devastator]

(rolls a few dice for Huan's personality)

Huan is diligent and efficient at his work, charming without being sleazy, and as all good diplomats are, good at hiding or controlling his own feelings.  You are uncertain at how he would react to knowledge of your dream, but are fairly certain that he would not react strongly either positively or negatively.

[Radio Controlled]

How close is our relationship to this Huan? Purely professional?

By the way, those two actions I proposed earlier, are those valid actions?

If yes, do any of my two conspirators have a better idea instead, or shall we go with those?

[TheBiggerFish]

Oh hey.

You get a PTW.

[Devastator]

How close is our relationship to this Huan? Purely professional?

By the way, those two actions I proposed earlier, are those valid actions?

If yes, do any of my two conspirators have a better idea instead, or shall we go with those?

Professional.

'Who is making money right now'?  Sure, sounds good.  Any particular part of the city, or should I leave it up to the dice?

The other action is good too, but if you're investigating, I'd like a little more direction.  What district?  or what kind of people you want to ask?  This is a big city and there are lots of people who are powerful in different ways, and anyone can be important if they are in the right place at the right time.  I'd also like to leave it somewhat up to the dice, so I'd rather not roll up hundreds of people.  Important politically?  Economically?  Major traders?  Guild leaders?  (trades, manufacturing), important moneylenders?  Important foreign traders and dignitaries?  Notable entertainers?  Soldiers?

[Devastator]

Secondly, think/ask about who/what is making good money in this town with what activities. We'll probably need to start making some fortune somewhere.

You decide to spend your time in the merchant quarter, concentrating more on the local merchants, rather than the stream of caravaners and visitors to the city.

After a couple hours walking the streets and eating a dish of gaifan with some fresh vegetables, you find out that the leathercrafter's guild is hurting for new apprentices, and has temporarily reduced its apprentice fees.  More interestingly, there has been a small fire in a porcelain warehouse, and a fair amount has been ruined, including a number of pieces intended as courting gifts for the upcoming festival of flowers.  If you can get your hands on some similar pieces, you should be able to make good money.

One action remains of the week.