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1 (11.1%)

Total Members Voted: 9

Voting closed: September 16, 2018, 11:40:20 pm

[TricMagic]

B

[Basil ii]

A

[Iris]

A

[The_Two_Eternities]

A.

[Shadowclaw777]

A

[Maximum Spin]

You okay the purchase of some foreign thralls.

Before long, it's time for the state funeral! The mood is sombre and the drinking hall is hung up in black velvet, but it's otherwise the same as any other dwarven party: lots of drinking. The key difference in this one, though, is that the lower classes are conspicuously absent; even those who wouldn't normally turn down an excuse to drink more have proven willing to take drinking alone in their rooms over celebrating the life of the old tyrant. Only the jarls, obliged by decorum, and a smattering of ambitious thegns have bothered to attend (as well as the thralls who wait upon them). It can hardly be doubted that the diplomats from outside the fortress have noticed this, though what they think of it is anyone's guess.

In any case, the visitors to Abystok fall into four main camps: a retinue from the Overking, sent mainly for show; a miscellany of minor dignitaries from other nearby dwarven holdings; a single diplomat from Graszdat's court, standing in for the Low Queen who is still secluded in mourning; and, most surprisingly, a small and out-of-place-looking band of representatives from the neighbouring human duchy. You've made your perfunctory greetings to all of them, but you're going to have to choose which with whom to make closer acquaintance. Select two.

A) Overking's retinue!
B) Local dwarven dignitaries!
C) Graszdat's diplomat!
D) Those weird humans!

[Iris]

BD

Also, question: are we literally underwater (like Rapture) or are we simply dug beneath the ocean floor?

[Shadowclaw777]

BD, yeah retinue is too much for us and we need to get as many trade routes as possible

[Maximum Spin]

Also, question: are we literally underwater (like Rapture) or are we simply dug beneath the ocean floor?

The latter. The majority of Abystok sits in the continental shelf under a wide bay of what the humans call the Great Sea, with a long, ostentatious entry tunnel leading to the coast. There are mostly-uninhabited tunnels stretching both under the deeper abyssal plain on the one hand and into the continent itself on the other, from when Abystok had an active mining program. Abystok is the only known undersea settlement in this part of the world; King Dominkan, if he really existed, seems to have been the first to think of it.

[crazyabe]

BD

[The_Two_Eternities]

AB.

[Basil ii]

BD

[King Zultan]

BD

[TricMagic]

CD

[Maximum Spin]

Okay, yep, you visit with the local dwarves first and then head over to check out the humans.

5*

You get along well with the dwarven representatives, most of whom didn't particularly like Hehrcog either; you do detect a hint of envy here and there which makes you suspect that you might not be the only one to have requested the right to attempt a rebellion, just the one lucky enough to have been first, but the dignitaries seem good-natured about it. The key theme they keep returning to in conversation, though, is their concern about how your rule will affect dealings between Abystok and the outside world, which is to say, how it will affect their own interests, especially as Abystok is a net exporter of food in the region. When all of Abystok's product legally belonged to Hehrcog, it was easily shifted around as needed to cover shortages, but now the nearby settlements are worried that you'll want to keep profit at home, which, of course, you will.

A) Reassure them that you intend to maintain business as usual.
B) Say something like "Oh yeah, believe me, things are going to change. Be afraid."

7*

Afterward, you speak to the humans. It appears that they're excited that you opened up trade with them instead of alternating between ignoring and warring with them like Hehrcog did; they're hoping to get in your good graces early to make the most of the change in command, but, more importantly, it eventually comes out that they have a debt with your runesmiths which will be coming due in seven years, and they're hoping you might be willing to renegotiate the price contracted to by your predecessor. (Nobody told you about this debt, but you're sure as Hel not going to let on about that.)

1) Sorry, dwarves don't renegotiate anything, unless it's to take more.
2) Sure, sure, for good friends like you, I can give you a discount. A small discount.

The other two diplomatic commissions seem to have accepted the attention you already gave them without a second thought, and spend the day milling about with the local jarls.