Kingdom issues (after Darro ir'Lain's visit)

Rowan wrote:

Well that's about what I should have expected.

Not bad at all. Any time you average over 9 on a series of d20 rolls is a good day.

Thanks to having a solid infrastructure and economy, you actually succeed at selling a minor and medium item (generating 10 BP), generate 8 BP in general revenue (which puts you at 24 BP at the end of the month), avoid any major hits to the public loyalty due to the scandal, and don't lose a single block of buildings in the fire at Olegton.

In short - win, win, win!

And then that merchant caravan of yours gets destroyed in Aundair and you gain +1 to Unrest and lose 2 BP

Rowan wrote:

I'm probably tempting fate by rolling, but:

no wammies!

Listen you. Stop rolling for the group. Kthxbye!

Oh and No Wammies works for me.

NO WAMMIES!

The member 'Leonis' has done the following action : Dice roller

#1 'd20' : 16

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#2 'd20' : 11

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#3 'd20' : 19

At least the 17 was for Leonis' sex life. That confirms, it Rowan wants Leonis to have lots of sex. Leonis having sex takes attention away from Rowan being a drunk.

Leonis wrote:

Listen you. Stop rolling for the group. Kthxbye!

Oh, come on - there's so much more tension whenever Mike rolls!

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Oh and No Wammies works for me.

NO WAMMIES!

Nice rolling. I'll use those for the first three d20 rolls in the next month. But, for this one...

* * * * *
Though Darro ir'Lain's visit doesn't go quite as smoothly as either he or the rulers of Khatovar might have wished, the result is still generally positive for the small nation. The visit by one of the Aundairan triumvirate speaks to the stability and growing position of Khatovar and settlers continue to cross its borders, while it expands internally too.

More and more land is claimed and converted into habitable areas, some for people to settle in and other for farmland to feed the ever increasing population. The most recent acquisitions are along the Khatovar-Varnhold border, some in the southeast corner of the nation, bordering Aundair as well, and some around the ancient barrow where the rulers slew a wight and Kara obtained the powerful fey-slaying axe. The roadways increase as well, linking almost all of the small nation together.

The individual settlements improve as well. While Olegton grows more slowly, now consisting mainly of a small village in the middle of a large number of temporary shelters for new settlers, the construction of the Temple of Balinor to the north continues apace. All indications are that it should be fully functional in about a month, and Jhod Kavken has already begun attracting a few acolytes, since Balinor is a popular deity in the Reaches. In Lakeshore, the last area that the bralani attack had destroyed--the district where the inns and taverns were--is repaired and made functional. A good-sized park is also constructed, only awaiting a representative of the druids to consecrate it.

With their nation's improving status (and, secretly, due to concerns about Drelev's intentions and actions), the rulers begin to actively promote the nation at home and abroad, particularly attempting to attract ex-military people to emigrate here. Despite all the resources being spent on construction and development, the additional promotion is hardly a burden, with the nation's now quite stable economy generating a regular stream of wealth. The increased trade with Varnhold and Drelev, as well as the presence of Houses Orien and Lyrandar, contributes as well.

Khatovar's stability also helps to deal with the inevitable issues that do come up. The public accusation of Leonis having possibly fathered a child with a citizen's wife could have led to a scandal, but the hitherto stellar reputation of the rulers and their quick promise to take care of any offspring (if it turns out to be Leonis') defuses matters. Similarly, when a fire breaks out among the tents of the new settlers at Olegton, the presence of the House Lyrandar guild and the access to a decanter of endless water prevents it from causing serious damage.

The one thing which is beyond the control of the rulers are affairs beyond their borders, so there is nothing they can do when one of their trade caravans to Aundair is attacked and destroyed a dozen miles over the border, purportedly by bandits (though the presence of bandits in that area is quite odd). Luckily, Khatovar is stable enough to take the loss, and Kesten immediately makes plans to provide increased protection for future caravans.

Admin wrote:

Khatovar's stability also helps to deal with the inevitable issues that do come up. The public accusation of Leonis having possibly fathered a child with a citizen's wife could have led to a scandal, but the hitherto stellar reputation of the rulers and their quick promise to take care of any offspring (if it turns out to be Leonis') defuses matters. Similarly, when a fire breaks out among the tents of the new settlers at Olegton, the presence of the House Lyrandar guild and the access to a decanter of endless water prevents it from causing serious damage.

Think Leonis could bluff Grabthar into avenging his honor by taking care of the baby to be?

Admin wrote:

The one thing which is beyond the control of the rulers are affairs beyond their borders, so there is nothing they can do when one of their trade caravans to Aundair is attacked and destroyed a dozen miles over the border, purportedly by bandits (though the presence of bandits in that area is quite odd). Luckily, Khatovar is stable enough to take the loss, and Kesten immediately makes plans to provide increased protection for future caravans.

The group will monitor the situation carefully, and Leonis would like to send a scout to that area. Given the oddness of such an event I wonder if this was not caused by one of our enemies.

Leonis wrote:

Think Leonis could bluff Grabthar into avenging his honor by taking care of the baby to be?

It never hurts to try. Wait - this is Grabthar. It might very well hurt to try.

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The group will monitor the situation carefully, and Leonis would like to send a scout to that area. Given the oddness of such an event I wonder if this was not caused by one of our enemies.

Makes sense. Let's say the scout is Naafreen, the shifter hunter whose niece you'd rescued from the lizardfolk. She doesn't have that much to report since a number of days had passed since the attack before she could make it there, but she does discover that it was a very well-coordinated attack by attackers on horses. That seems odd for bandits, as does the fact that there was certainly some magic used in the attack. Naafreen says, though she emphasizes that she can't be sure, that it seemed more like a small military troop than random bandits. They were also very thorough in covering their tracks, which combines with the passage of time to make it impossible for her to discover where they came from or where they went.

Now back to kingdom management:

Using Avi's first roll of the three he last made, you make your Stability check and reduce kingdom Unrest (caused by the above attack) back down to 0.

Now you again have to decide about the next two hexes you'll be taking. Here are some options:

1 - Claim the forest hex with the hot springs where you fought the giant frogs (in-game a year ago!). Being a landmark, it gives you +1 to Loyalty.

2 - Claim the forest hex with the overgrown statue of Balinor. It's also a landmark, giving you the +1 to Loyalty. To reach this one, you'd have to take the hex with the hot springs too.

3 - Claim the forest hex where Melianse's pool is. There's enough valuable timber in the area that it'll give you a +1 to Economy (without bothering her). The hex is two away from Lakeshore, so you'll have to take the intervening forest hex too.

4 - Claim one or both of the two remaining hexes on the Varnhold border between Lakeshore and Olegton. Both are hill hexes.

5 - Claim a grassland hex so you can create more farmland at the minimum cost. The only one you can reach this turn is next to the forest hex with the hot springs, so you'd have to take that as well.

Leonis wrote:

At least the 17 was for Leonis' sex life. That confirms, it Rowan wants Leonis to have lots of sex. Leonis having sex takes attention away from Rowan being a drunk.

Rowan's not a drunk! She can stop drinking at any time, she just chooses not to.

Besides, if you lived with Leonis, Grabthar, and Kara wouldn't you drink a lot too?

Admin wrote:

Now you again have to decide about the next two hexes you'll be taking. Here are some options:

1 - Claim the forest hex with the hot springs where you fought the giant frogs (in-game a year ago!). Being a landmark, it gives you +1 to Loyalty.

2 - Claim the forest hex with the overgrown statue of Balinor. It's also a landmark, giving you the +1 to Loyalty. To reach this one, you'd have to take the hex with the hot springs too.

3 - Claim the forest hex where Melianse's pool is. There's enough valuable timber in the area that it'll give you a +1 to Economy (without bothering her). The hex is two away from Lakeshore, so you'll have to take the intervening forest hex too.

4 - Claim one or both of the two remaining hexes on the Varnhold border between Lakeshore and Olegton. Both are hill hexes.

5 - Claim a grassland hex so you can create more farmland at the minimum cost. The only one you can reach this turn is next to the forest hex with the hot springs, so you'd have to take that as well.

Can you post a map of the region? I don't have a clear idea of how this all fits together geographically.

Rowan wrote:

Rowan's not a drunk! She can stop drinking at any time, she just chooses not to.

Besides, if you lived with Leonis, Grabthar, and Kara wouldn't you drink a lot too?

Good point!

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Can you post a map of the region? I don't have a clear idea of how this all fits together geographically.

Just emailed one out to the group.

Admin wrote:

Rowan wrote:

Rowan's not a drunk! She can stop drinking at any time, she just chooses not to.

Besides, if you lived with Leonis, Grabthar, and Kara wouldn't you drink a lot too?

Good point!

Before I saw your reply I literally was going to also right "Good point".

Mike: Now Rowan knows how Gareth felt for all that time

EDIT: I will defer to mike on these next hexes but I am thinking either getting closer to varnhold or taking the land which gives us +1 BP.

Leonis wrote:

EDIT: I will defer to mike on these next hexes but I am thinking either getting closer to varnhold or taking the land which gives us +1 BP.

Okay. Mike - your call.

Does farmland only reduce consumption, or can it add BPs if we have a surplus? By my reading there are still two unclaimed plains hexes on the Varnhold border.

Are there any hexes that would be of strategic importance if we get into a conflict with Drelev? Would the abandoned tower be useful, or is it too far into the forest?

Could you post a map of the whole region? I'd like to know what the geography of Varnhold and Drelev are like.

Rowan wrote:

Does farmland only reduce consumption, or can it add BPs if we have a surplus?

It only reduces consumption.

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By my reading there are still two unclaimed plains hexes on the Varnhold border.

True. I'd originally planned to have the semi-visible hexes unavailable right now, but you can go ahead and claim them, if you want.

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Are there any hexes that would be of strategic importance if we get into a conflict with Drelev?

Right now, you don't really have much in the way of options in that regard. The forest hexes near the Drelev border would mainly be handy in slowing down an approaching army, but that's about it. What settlements you build and what defenses they have would matter more than just the terrain.

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Would the abandoned tower be useful, or is it too far into the forest?

It could be useful, as both a first line of defense and to provide warning of any advancing army. But it would take a long time to get functional. A forest site takes 2 months to prepare (costing 4 BP) before you can begin major construction there, so if you tried to build there it would take 5 months before a functional tower was constructed (2 months to get there, 2 months to prepare the site, and 1 month for the tower to become fully functional).

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Could you post a map of the whole region? I'd like to know what the geography of Varnhold and Drelev are like.

I just emailed one out, that should give you a little more info.

Speaking of info, based on your current information Drelev just doesn't have the resources to invade your territory right now, especially since he might soon have trouble with the Tiger Lord barbarians. Unless Aundair basically just gave him an army and a lot of supplies, it'll take months (a year and more, in all likelihood) before he can build up to a force where he can try a genuine conquest of your territory. Which would mean months for you to build up your strength as well. So you should take that into account when making plans. Drelev could potentially try to grab some of your land and hope you're too weak to retake it, but even that's very unlikely considering his current position and the fact that he hasn't even claimed as much land in his own territory as you have in yours.

Even if it takes 5 months to get a watchtower it would be useful. Since it may be a year before he can hit us we will have some line of defense.

Att least we should have scouts keeping an eye on the border.

If drelev tries to touch our lands we will kick his ass...I mean sneak in and murder him the good old fashioned way (grabthar)

Leonis wrote:

Even if it takes 5 months to get a watchtower it would be useful. Since it may be a year before he can hit us we will have some line of defense.

True. And it would give you another small settlement to use for helping the economy, since you can do a check to sell magic items for each district in all of your settlements combined.

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At least we should have scouts keeping an eye on the border.

I'm presuming you already have that in place.

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If drelev tries to touch our lands we will kick his ass...I mean sneak in and murder him the good old fashioned way (grabthar)

Nice, but I don't think Grabthar does sneaky that well. On the other hand, he could distract Drelev's army himself and let the rest of you go in the back way.

Im a rogue, is there any way other then the back way?

Leonis wrote:

Im a rogue, is there any way other then the back way?

Then why are you elgetting women pregnant?! I know you have a lousy BAB but how bad can your aim be?

Rowan wrote:

Leonis wrote:

Im a rogue, is there any way other then the back way?

Then why are you elgetting women pregnant?! I know you have a lousy BAB but how bad can your aim be?

Hmmm. Hey Shil, is it a touch attack or a regular attack? Maybe that will explain it.

admin wrote:

It could be useful, as both a first line of defense and to provide warning of any advancing army. But it would take a long time to get functional. A forest site takes 2 months to prepare (costing 4 BP) before you can begin major construction there, so if you tried to build there it would take 5 months before a functional tower was constructed (2 months to get there, 2 months to prepare the site, and 1 month for the tower to become fully functional).

Would we get a major discount on building it because of the partial structure already there? If not then we'd be better off building a settlement on the large river to the north of it, so it could watch over our plains there. Is that river (and the one the ruined tower is on) navigable all the way down to the lake?

Rowan wrote:

Would we get a major discount on building it because of the partial structure already there?

Yes. You could convert it into a Castle for half price (i.e. 27 BP instead of 54 BP), so there'd be a major saving, and the settlement there would start out with a big defensive boost.

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If not then we'd be better off building a settlement on the large river to the north of it, so it could watch over our plains there. Is that river (and the one the ruined tower is on) navigable all the way down to the lake?

Yes, both rivers are navigable, but the one near the abandoned keep is smaller and actually turns into swampland there.

BTW, I should have mentioned another option. Though you might not remember, many months ago a couple called Loy and Latricia Rezbin had asked for permission to begin a settlement within your territory. They began a village called Tatzlford (it's marked on the map, above and to the right of Tiressia's grove), so if and when you expand that far, you'll gain another settlement automatically and benefit from the blocks of buildings (just a couple, admittedly) they've built in it. You could claim it this month by taking the hex with the boggard (adjacent to the Temple of Balinor) and then the Tatzlford hex. You would have to make a Stability check to avoid increasing Unrest, due to having to add a large number of citizens who didn't consider you their rulers, and if you blow the check it's fairly bad (2d4 Unrest), so you could save it for later when you're more stable.

Decisions, decisions...

Ohh we should definitely go for that settlement, and later go for the castle. That would give us four settlements and a large boost.

I'll be happy to roll for the unrest

That settlement gets us 2 squares closer to the castle anyway, so the settlement would be a good idea on that front too. How difficult would the Stability check be though? Is there any way we can ease their transition through diplomacy/negotiation?

Rowan wrote:

That settlement gets us 2 squares closer to the castle anyway, so the settlement would be a good idea on that front too. How difficult would the Stability check be though? Is there any way we can ease their transition through diplomacy/negotiation?

It would be a DC 35 check and you currently have a +28 on Stability (due to the temporary +1 bonus from last month's promotion), so it's a 70% success chance. The check is with the presumption that you're already doing what you can to ease the transition.

If you take a hex near Tatzlford this month and another one, and then take Tatzlford as your first hex next month, it'll be a DC 36 check. But the Temple which you'll presumably gain this month would get you +2 to Stability and if you built a Graveyard there (only 2 BP, due to the Temple) you get another +1. Spend a BP on promotion again and you would be making a DC 36 check with a +31 bonus. That might be your best bet mechanically and otherwise.

Admin wrote:

Rowan wrote:

That settlement gets us 2 squares closer to the castle anyway, so the settlement would be a good idea on that front too. How difficult would the Stability check be though? Is there any way we can ease their transition through diplomacy/negotiation?

It would be a DC 35 check and you currently have a +28 on Stability (due to the temporary +1 bonus from last month's promotion), so it's a 70% success chance. The check is with the presumption that you're already doing what you can to ease the transition.

If you take a hex near Tatzlford this month and another one, and then take Tatzlford as your first hex next month, it'll be a DC 36 check. But the Temple which you'll presumably gain this month would get you +2 to Stability and if you built a Graveyard there (only 2 BP, due to the Temple) you get another +1. Spend a BP on promotion again and you would be making a DC 36 check with a +31 bonus. That might be your best bet mechanically and otherwise.

That's a good idea. It would also enable us to claim one of the Plains hexes, so we could cheaply make more farms. And since the Graveyard is super cheap, we could save up to build a Garrison, or maybe even start building it this month. If we couldn't afford a garrison yet, then spending 3BP on a dump would get us +1 stability, or 6BP on a watchtower would get us +1 stability, +2 defense, and -1 unrest. Does it matter where we build the buildings? A watchtower would make the most sense for Olegton, since it's a border town.

Rowan wrote:

That's a good idea. It would also enable us to claim one of the Plains hexes, so we could cheaply make more farms. And since the Graveyard is super cheap, we could save up to build a Garrison, or maybe even start building it this month. If we couldn't afford a garrison yet, then spending 3BP on a dump would get us +1 stability, or 6BP on a watchtower would get us +1 stability, +2 defense, and -1 unrest. Does it matter where we build the buildings? A watchtower would make the most sense for Olegton, since it's a border town.

Where you build the buildings doesn't matter where it comes to the effects to Economy, Loyalty, Stability and Unrest. It does matter for Defense bonuses, since they apply to the individual settlement only.

You wouldn't be able to build a Garrison this month, since it costs 28 BP, but might be able to next month. Here are the numbers on the options we've been discussing:

You have 22 BP right now.
Claiming the 2 hexes, whichever they are, will take 2 BP.
If you have a grassland hex to convert to farmland , it would take 2 more BP.
You'll be able to build a Temple this month for half price, which would cost 16 BP.
Building a Graveyard in the same settlement as the Temple would be 2 BP.

So you'd have used up all your BP and be unable to risk any on trading or promotions. But you would have gained Loyalty +4, Stability +2 and an extra area to sell magic items from (so you could potentially sell 1 medium and 2 minor items a month, making 12 BP from it on top of your normal Economy check to generate money). Unless you roll a 1 on the month-end Economy checks, you would make anywhere from 19 to 23 BP at month's end.