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[NUKE9.13]

Given their relationship has gotten off to a rocky start, supernatural intervention to improve their opinion of each other would be helpful. An unhappy relationship could lead to problems in the future.
B

[Maximum Spin]

B but, you know, some people like bickering.
Still, too many children is a succession hazard.

[King Zultan]

B

[Ixarys]

The lord nods in approval, a grin on his face. The river spirit waves an arm, spraying water on your group, before crumbling back to the river.
The festivities continue for the rest of the day. You travel back next day without any pitfall.

302 AC, Autumn

Your steward comes to see you in the morning, a scroll in his hand.

"My lord, the royal treasury is barely covering the costs of living. In fact, it's stagnating!" he says, handing you the scroll to prove his words. "Meanwhile, bronze merchants are prosperous, with convoys entering and leaving Gedur every day! We should put a tax, either on bronze production or transport through Gedur."

He gets closer and start whispering on a conspiring tone.

"We could even pass it as a religious fee for the god of Crafts, it would be easier and shift the unrest on the clergy."

A) "Alright, a tax on the bronze for the well-being of my treasury"
B) "What about a tax on tin production instead?"
C) "Yes, let's put it as a religious fee!"
D) "What? No, we're doing well for now!"

[NUKE9.13]

We earned ourselves some respect from the priests earlier. While there could be merit in keeping them pleased, we can probably afford to annoy them a bit.
...on the other hand, a religious fee going into our personal treasury rather than that of the temple (or the city as a whole) seems more than a bit annoying. Sounds kinda blasphemous, now that I think about it. Maybe it would be better to just do a regular tax.
There is a slight risk in all these options- Stewardship appears to be our dump stat, so our personal attention to this matter could backfire. But doing nothing is worse, for the same reason.

A

[Fluffe9911]

A its just bronze I know its important for weaponry and stuff but aint like we are handing out a food tax (yet)

[King Zultan]

A

[Ixarys]

You wave your hand, agreeing on a tax for bronze. Surely your treasurer can take care of all those boring details. Right?

302 AC, Winter

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Stewardship roll: 1d20 = 18 (big, nasty failure)

"A delegation of the bronze merchants? But I thought the tax was fair?"

Your steward starts babbling and stuttering. Amongst the excuses he profusely gives you, you understand he first puts a higher than reasonable tax on bronze exportation. When smuggling sprung, he put an additional tax on production. As black market continued to develop and merchants began complain about it, he sent henchmen to watch over the sites. Fighting ensued, and now merchants have stopped the production, and twenty or so of them are waiting outside to directly express their discontentment.

Your steward doesn't know where to place himself as you angrily look at him, taping your fingers on your throne.

A) "Well, bring these merchants. Let's see if we can salvage something out of this"
B) "You performed poorly, but I must assert my power here. The army will take care of this"
C) "On a second thought, this tax was a terrible idea. Cancel it"

[NUKE9.13]

Time to put our high diplomacy stat to use, I think.

A

[Fluffe9911]

A

[King Zultan]

A

[Ixarys]

A dozen of prestigious bronze traders quite angrily enter. As you give them authorization to speak, they told you more or less the same story as your steward (at least he told you the truth).
After they exposed their demands, which can be summed up as "withdraw everything", you roll your sleeves up and start the show.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Diplomacy roll: 1D20 = 1 (Critical success! First one! How does it feels?)

Going down from your throne, you begin cajoling and rubbing them in the good way. You make it clear that your steward botched the work, twisting your intentions and going way too far.
In the end, it is them who offer excuses, even proposing to give funds and help to fix the corruption ongoing in the bronze market.
You won't escape nevertheless the recruitment of a new treasurer and a feast this evening with the guild of the bronze merchants.

303 AC

As you were taking a quick nap on your throne, you suddenly jump as you heard something like a drilling sound below you. Amazed, you observe the scriptures on its arms changing:

Stability: +
Army: -
Treasury: +
Population: -

And the news are good!

303 AC, Spring

Your chancellor enters. He looks grim.

"My lord, the last census has been done. The population is slowly growing, but the slaves number is rising faster than our citizen's. If this trend keep going, there may be more slaves than Gedurians in a few years!"

A) "Well, we can't do much, do we?"
B) "We can, uh, 'incite' good Gedurians families to have more children?"
C) "Let's free a handful of slaves then"
D) "Time to create a law to make slaves' children free citizen of our good city!"

[Maximum Spin]

B
if the slave population is increasing, we aren't working them hard enough

[NUKE9.13]

You know what? We have positive stability, and I feel like doing something ambitious. While we might have to walk it back some if the backlash is too severe, the potential large increase in citizens (citizens who will be very grateful to our dynasty) makes D a tempting option. It would also be a step towards making Gedur a more heterogeneous city, which could potentially let us integrate other interesting people in the future.

D

[Fluffe9911]

Id rather go with C while D is the objectively morally good option it would also mean we would be forced to buy/take slaves from other nations if we ever wish to repopulate our slave numbers to healthy levels so our economy doesn't die so while it would no doubt increase our citizen population and diversity it could also really hurt our economy in the long term since we now have to completely rely on outside forces for our supply of slave labor once our initial pool dies out.