You decide to raise taxes for a year.
405 AEC, Spring
The trade goods from Xane-Peon arrive on schedule!
2to5, 5to6
Just like the last year, salt brings profit, cloth brings wealth and praise.
The envoy that accompanied the caravans does not have good news. "I'm afraid that our trade agreement for cloth will be suspended for a while. Peonian rebels have taken control of the cities producing these lovely fabrics and we cannot supply them to foreigners anymore."
405 AEC, Mid-Spring
Sad news come from Xane-Peon!
King Anreu died in the fighting with the rebels during the siege of Calabena. His (barely) fifteen-years old son, Anreu, has been enthroned as King Anreu II.
405 AEC, Summer
Tribute money is sent to Albarra, Maestrimar and Satorias.
A report comes from the mayor of the city of Saltena, located just a day ride north from the capital. The workers digging ground for a new section of the city walls have found a buried tomb!
The squiggly runes made with chalk on the stones, and tall, deformed skeletons wrapped in cloth, 'standing guard' against the uncovered part of the tomb's outer wall are clear evidence that it is the tomb of the ancient Aliums, the only race of beings that used magic as everyday tools.
They've also left behind their indecipherable pictograms, crystalline tableware, magical artifacts, deadly curses, forest demons, and the mystery of their spontaneous, mass disappearance from the world, centuries before the rise of Etreria.
The Saltenian mayor asks whether the tomb is to be buried under dirt and rock or opened and plundered.
A) GIB LOOT PLZ!
B) Bury it back from whence it came!