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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.

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

[Devastator]

Wait, weren't we here already?

Yeah.  A few years ago I ran this same suggestion game.  It ended.. non-optimally.  Everything is as it was when that game started, although things may develop in a different manner from this same position.

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=157668.0

You're getting a second chance, at least while I'm busy getting ready for my time off.  Maybe longer.

Good luck!

[NRDL]

Okay, so no need for a name or anything else right now, I'm assuming that comes later.



1. Look into getting a knife, how much it costs, if it's possible to just make one.

2. Try to make contacts and charm anybody we meet, including our employer.

[IronyOwl]

Talk to Huan Zhang about quitting our current job. Explain that while we have appreciated working for him, we have recently developed other interests.

Look into martial arts training. Being able to defend ourselves will open up many opportunities that normal people would consider too risky.

[NRDL]

Whoops, wasn't sure if we got 5 actions in a week or otherwise. I'll change my action.

[IronyOwl]

I only knew because I read the prequel and was chatting with Dev elsewhere.

[Egan_BW]

QUIT JOB, BUY TRAVELING SUPPLIES AND A SWORD
THEN ASK AROUND ABOUT TROUBLES LIKE A DF ADVENTURER

[Devastator]

Quit job, shop for a weapon.

Try to do things in a charming manner.

You quit your job.  Well.. sort of.  As you calmly and professionally broach the subject with your boss, Huan Zhang, he, over the course of an hour, skillfully debriefs you about your dreams.

You end up telling him somewhat more than you originally considered, and he's certainly taking some notice of things, wondering what you're going to do next, and offering his assistance.  It's nice to hear of his concern, but you can't help but feel it is just a bit more than the concern warranted by a trusted servant requesting to leave his service.  Perhaps he has some feelings for you?

You end up deciding not to dwell on your decision to leave, and decide to go shopping.  You know that your savings are enough to buy a fine weapon, and that if you are to acquire power, the ability to defend yourself is going to be important for whatever direction you should choose to do in the future.

While you are walking around the Merchant Quarter, looking for weapon shops, you end up stuck in a throng of people.  There is a fight going on, on the streets, as two downtrodden looking merchants have ran into each other while hauling hand carts.  Neither one came off the better of it, with one merchant breaking a pottery honeypot, and another one suffering a rack of broken eggs.  It's very difficult to press through, and you can't help but be curious as to the fight, for you yourself are aiming to get some training in that line.  The two merchants are mostly talking, and occasionally throwing a fist, but after a couple minutes they set upon each other, grappling and tumbling around the circular opening in the middle of the crowd.  Before it can come to a conclusion, a whistle goes up, and the fighters jump to their feet and skillfully leap over the crowd, leaving behind their carts.

..On a hunch, you check your money purse.  It's lighter than it should be.. you've been taken by pickpockets.  Cursing, you look around, seeing several others in the same position as you.  Inevitably, the carts are filled with sacking and wood chunks, only looking like full carts of goods, with some decoys on top.

At least they only took about five silver.  While not a small amount, it's not your full savings.  You must have moved around before the thief could take it all.

..grumbling, you go back to shopping, staring some daggers for the long-vanished thieves.  Not next time.

This time, sticking to upmarket stores, you find a stand from an excellent manufactory in the city, one that normally makes fine, upperclass wares for the wealthy.  There are a lot of.. some quite excellent pieces, at least to your untrained eye, although most of them seem a bit costly.

That said, after a while perusing the store, and keeping in mind what little you know of noble fashion, you find a somewhat more reasonably priced long dagger with a concealable scabbard, meant for being worn underneath clothing.  It's a serious weapon, none-the-less, with a nine inch blade and a stabbing point, a weapon for active defense and not show.

The price is pretty reasonable, but still, with your pocket somewhat lighter, decide to try to see if you can bring it a bit down.  With a bit of active listening, and careful monitoring of the other customers and the shopkeeper, you notice that he seems a bit tired today, slightly annoyed by the stream of servants and endless rounds of negotiations done to properly assuage the self-importance of the nobles they work for.

So, when it's your turn to be served, you be a bit more forthright, taking a forceful, confident stance and mentioning the quality and obvious effectiveness of the weapon with simple, unassuming compliments, and request a small deduction in the price anyway, trading off how the piece is one for use and not for show, and thus somewhat outside the current fashion.  This ends up working quite well, and you walk away with the weapon for a very good price of five silver.

(-10 silver, Gained concealable fighting dagger)
(Also, gained Charming skill)

Spoiler:  Status (click to show/hide)

Week 1.  Time available, two actions.

Assets and Abilities:
Prestige = 0
10 silver.
Concealable fighting dagger

Skills:
Charming, +1

Allies:
Huan Zhang, diplomat, 2 prestige, 1 favor
Upscale Weapon Shop.

[Devastator]

With that done, the week passes.

There are no dreams this week.

The weather this week is cloudy and overcast.  The city is likewise quiet.  Well, mostly quiet.  Someone stole an antiquity belonging to the city, a century-old banner from some relatively unimportant noble house who once produced a general that fought and won some battle near the city.  You're sure some of the upper classes care about such things, but it's not much of a deal for people of more modest means like you.

It is week 2.  You have five actions this week.

Do note that you don't need to do all of them in one turn.

Spoiler: Money (click to show/hide)

Twenty silver is enough for a fairly average horse, and fairly close to the normal apprentice fees.  If you didn't have your pension, it would be enough to live on in your current lifestyle for about twenty weeks.  Five silver is enough for a set of tailored clothes, a piece of cheap jewelry, a boat ticket upriver to the mining city of Chenyao, a set of thieves' tools, or a bribe to a magistrate for a ruling in a minor civil dispute.

Spoiler:  Status (click to show/hide)

Week 2.  Time available, five actions.

Assets and Abilities:
Prestige = 0
10 silver.
Concealable fighting dagger

Skills:
Charming, +1

Allies:
Huan Zhang, diplomat, 2 prestige, 1 favor
Upscale Weapon Shop.

[Egan_BW]

Well, we have to gain power. How does one go about accumulating power, really?

[Egan_BW]

Hey, I know, let's ask about vampires! If we can become vampire we'll probably become stronger, and more importantly harder to kill.

[NRDL]

1. Search for a master willing to train us in weapon skills

2. Continue making contacts with people, it's always a good idea to have people like us.

[Egan_BW]

We have more than 2 actions now.