Feudal Quest

It was actually explicitly stated that there are no magick teachers whatsoever around our father's.
We might have more luck in Corzu, due to it being more remote and therefor out of the eye of the church, but chances are we'll only get a mage by finishing an appropriate quest-line or something.

Aside from that, the whole issue with us having no idea what resources we have available in Corzu and what Corzu currently needs is why I want to go there now.
Sure, we'll be stuck there for a while and it'll be harder to recruit from there, but nothing says we can't send back recruitment requests to our father's in spring or that we can't visit somewhere during summer and hire there.
Besides, even if it turns out there's literally nothing for us to do once we arrive (which I highly doubt), we'd have massive amounts of time for self-study, which is not to be underestimated either.

Staying here on the other hand means we will have to deal with whatever urgent issues that need doing in Corzu while also having only a month time to get all the taxes in order and having no proper idea for which challenges we need to prepare ourselves.

 

Right you are. I somehow mistook

for the baron having sorcerous trainers.

 

I think we should just March to Corzu, there's certain to be stuff for us to do there and if we head out now then we'll have the whole winter to get stuff settled and then if need be can return here to pick up a more specifically tailored retinue after the thaw.

 

To some extent. Regular priests can basically give patients a modest bonus on their rolls to resist disease and recover from injuries. Exceptional priests can make serious wounds heal in days rather than months, and can sometimes save patients with otherwise fatal conditions. If you recruit one you'll probably get something between those two extremes.

So divine healing is much weaker than in most RPGs, but still a lot better than nothing.

Ah, a very good question.

Short answer:
It's fairly common for mages to either go nuts or turn evil, especially the powerful ones. Nobody likes being around when Gandalf decides to save Gondor with the power of necromancy.

Long answer:
The Church of Khersis believes that magical evil exists, and that working with magic makes humans more vulnerable to being corrupted by exposure to demons, undead, cursed ground, evil artifacts, etc. Wizardry is supposed to be especially risky, since it's all about connecting with the magical forces in your environment and commanding them to do things. Sorcery is less risky, since it's more a matter of applying your own innate magic, but the Church still considers sorcerers a bit foolhardy. Oh, and obviously some types of magic, like necromancy or demonology, would be shunned by any good person (so anyone practicing them is evil and should be killed).

Of course, this is all far too subtle for the average peasant - they tend to either go 'She's a witch! Burn her!' or 'He's a wizard! Do what he says, and don't piss him off.'

In your native land of Borjeria about 90% of the population worships Khersis the Lawgiver, a warrior god who's all about living by strict rules and smiting evil. But Khersis specifically forbids his priests from ruling territory, and his doctrine emphasizes the importance of heroic warrior-kings in leading a nation to greatness. So in Borjeria there's a balance between the physical and legal power of the ruling nobles vs. the influence and moral authority of the Church.

Generally the way this works out is that 90% of the nobles want to think of themselves as good Khersians, and they won't stray too far from the doctrines approved by the Church. But at the same time the Church doesn't want to strain the loyalty of the nobility too much, so they tend to look the other way when it comes to minor indiscretions.

So if you take the pious route you'll tend to have a good reputation in high society, and you can more easily get access to benefits like magical healing or curse removal. If you make a point of being non-pious you'll have a harder time building a good public reputation, but it will be easier to recruit mages or have dealings with magical creatures.

Oh, and about the other 10% of the population?

This setting is an alternate version of Earth. Borjeria is in Eastern Europe, about where Romania is in RL. Egypt is a major world power, with much more advanced magic than the European nations, and is an important ally against the vampires and demons that control most of the interior of Asia. So the Egyptian pantheon is worshipped by a few oddballs and foreign immigrants here and there, and Thoth is actually a semi-respectable god for scholars and wizards to worship.

There are a few secretive dwarven colonies in this part of Europe, who worship their own gods and don't have much to do with human religions. There's also some crazy elf goddess called Inovia who has a few cultists here and there, and a few immigrants from the far north who worship their own barbarian gods. You don't know much about any of these groups yet, though that may change depending on your decisions.

All forms of feudalism are pretty brutal by modern standards, but some are worse than others. In Borjeria the Church tries to instill a little sense of moderation in the nobility, possibly in hopes of making revolts less common. It doesn't always work, of course, but a lot of people at least pay lip service to the idea.

That's certainly a viable option. There are a lot of potential epic adventures you could get involved in once you get established, and some of them may even change the course of history...

I should probably point out that you still get one project this turn even if you pick the 'Travel to Corzu Now' plan, so you could do one recruitment without delaying your departure.

You know that Kolarovo, your father's barony, is one of the more urban parts of the kingdom while Corzu is in a more rural area. But beyond that you'll have to go there to find out.

Correct. Either of your current henchmen could be sent off on a multi-turn mission to recruit people from Kolarovo, or wherever else you might want to send them.

 

How skilled a tradesman would we need for a steady stream of crossbowmen?

 

You can buy crossbows in any decent-sized town, and there should be several of those within a week's travel of Corzu. Really, you wouldn't expect to have trouble buying any common weapons or armor as long as you don't need them overnight.

But if you want to bring your own suppliers along you should be able to recruit an appropriate workshop staff with one action.

 

In case it isn't clear, here's what a compete set of turn orders would look like:

Dominic
1) Recruit an accountant
2) Travel to Corzu
3) Travel to Corzu

Bialis - Travel to Corzu
Jaroslaw - Travel to Corzu
Military Forces - Travel to Corzu

The above is the option that's currently in the lead, so I expect I'll be writing an update later today unless I see posts arguing for something different.

 

Departure​

Sunset finds your father still hard at work in his study. He looks up at your knock, setting aside what looks to be an inventory of the siege stores at one of the border castles.

“You wanted to see me, father?”

He nods. “Pull up a chair, son. I hear you’re leaving in the morning?”

“Yes. I want to make sure I have time to get my feet under me and deal with any urgent problems the fief might have before I need to collect taxes,” you explain.

You’re reminded of the years your father spent tutoring you in the arts of nobility. Many times he’s handed you some problem off his desk and asked you how you’d fix it. But this is the last time you’ll have him at hand to critique your ideas and offer advice. Corzu is your responsibility now, and in just a few weeks you’ll have to handle it on your own.

“That’s probably for the best,” he agrees. “But there are a few things I want to make sure you’re aware of before you leave. You remember how to claim a land?”

You’ve had this one down since you were twelve. “Visit each settlement, announce my lordship and make sure they publicly acknowledge it. Walk each border with my neighbor on the other side, and agree on where the boundaries are. Set a marker stone at each corner, anointed with a few drops of my blood, then do the ritual of claiming at whatever spot I’m going to use as a throne room. I’m hardly going to forget something so simple, father.”

Every competent lord knows at least that little bit of regency magic. It helps to cement your legitimacy in the eyes of your people, and some lords claim it gives them a bit of extra vitality when they’re on their own land. Not that anyone talks about such things often. It sounds too much like magic, and nobles practicing magic would be scandalous.

“You’d be surprised how many young lords get the order wrong,” your father replies. “But I suppose you have a talent for that kind of thing. Be sure to check the land for Haunts before you do the last step, though. You don’t want to claim some corrupted patch of land by mistake.”

“Now I’m sure you can handle running a minor estate, but there are some political issues I wanted to make sure you’re aware of. I’m sure you know that the King’s health is declining, and his heir is only five. What you may not realize is that the House of Lords may not be able to agree on a regent when the time comes.”

That is not good news. The King is in his sixties, and he’s been senile for some years. No one knows how long he’s likely to live - he might hang on for a decade, or he could fall down the stairs and break his neck tomorrow. When that happens the crown will pass to his one living grandson, but the boy is obviously too young to rule in his own right. You’d assumed that there would be a political fight to name a regent for him, but if the House of Lords can’t agree…

That could mean a civil war.

Your own family leads one of the kingdom’s three major factions, while your rivals the Dardais lead the other. The Czenes, who control the kingdom’s third duchy, lead a distinctly smaller faction that usually acts as a swing vote. But they could easily see a war between the Dardais and the Petrans as an opportunity, and there are a lot of unaligned barons who might agree.

“I see you understand,” your father continues. “Hopefully we’ll find a peaceful resolution before the time comes, but a wise man prepares for the worst. I need to you keep an eye out for ways to serve the family interest while you’re off in Corzu. The Baronies of Kiscun and Rogatica are both aligned, and Baron Rogatica seems to have some sway with the other backwoods baronies. We don’t have a lot of contact with any of them, so take advantage of being neighbors.”

You frown. “Wait, doesn’t Corzu border on Pischia? Uncle Pavel has held that land since before I was born. Hasn’t he been doing this already?”

“My brother is not a particularly diplomatic man. He makes a lot more enemies than friends, so we try to keep him away from the diplomacy. Besides, he’s been away on that damned crusade in Anatolia for most of the last six years, and it’s hard to make allies by writing letters. Last I heard he hasn’t even found a husband for that daughter of his.”

“I see. Well, I can certainly make the rounds and get the lay of the land. Am I supposed to be shopping for a wife?” As a second son you’ve always hoped to have the luxury of marrying for personal reasons, but if the situation in the kingdom is looking that unstable you’ll probably be needed for an alliance.

“I’d advise you to keep your eyes open and explore your options. Your Aunt Gavrilla is planning to make a circuit of the kingdom next year scouting out alliance possibilities, so don’t be surprised if she drops by to talk up the merits of some influential baron’s daughters at some point. If you want to make your own choice you might want to get her on your side before she starts proposing alliance plans to the Duke.”

Yeah, that’s a good idea. Your grandfather is a serious hardass, and he’s not going to be impressed by anything that looks like an attempt to get out of doing your duty to the family. If you ever want to inherit one of the baronies you’re going to have to step up and come up with something that’s advantageous to the family in the next year or so, or else you could easily end up getting trapped into whatever alliance your nutty aunt wants to arrange.

“Well, thanks for the warning, I suppose. Anything else I should know?”

“I think that covers it. Take care of yourself, son.”

--oOoOo--​

The journey to Corzu is relatively uneventful, as a large party of armed men isn’t an appealing target for bandits or beastmen. The cold weather makes for some miserable nights when you can’t find an inn and have to camp instead, but it’s nothing you haven’t dealt with before.

The trip is a bit of an eye-opener in other ways, though. You’ve been to the family estate in the capital a few times, but that trip was along a royal highway through the richest part of the Kingdom. Now you’re passing through poor country, and it’s a very different experience. The baronies of Rupia and Kiscun don’t seem to have paved roads or bridges, just ferries at the larger rivers. Inns are few and far between, and the service and food are both poor. The travelers you meet are mostly itinerant peddlers, minstrels, and the occasional teamster delivering a load of goods to some local bannerette.

Eventually you cross into Pischia, and locate a ferry across the Sava river into Corzu. It isn’t much of a ferry, just a raft manned by a couple of peasants with poles, and it takes two hours to ferry your party across. That puts you in Igal, the smaller of the two villages marked on your map of Corzu. It’s a run-down cluster of huts surrounding an overgrazed village green, with a few larger farmhouses dotting the surrounding fields.

From there the dirt track crosses half the length of Corzu to reach Tamasi, your other village. This is a considerably larger and more prosperous village, with several docks along the waterfront and a paved village square surrounded by the shops of various craftsmen. You stay overnight at a relatively comfortable inn, and the next morning make your way down another dirt track that should lead to your new castle.

Well, calling it a castle would be overly generous. Four hours later the trail passes through a little farming hamlet, and ends at Corzu Keep. It appears that this was originally a simple stone keep, maybe 40’ square and four storeys high, but at some point someone built a modest fortified manor house next to it and put up a 15’ curtain wall surrounding the ground between the two structures.

As a fortification it’s a bit weak, but it would be adequate for your needs if not for a few… problems.

You notice as you approach that the fields surrounding the keep haven’t been cleared properly in years, and are badly overgrown with underbrush and small trees. An attacking force could sneak right up to the walls with ease, and the fact that the moat is half collapsed and mostly dry means it wouldn't be much of an obstacle.

The outer gates seem solid, but the old caretaker who eventually answers your pounding turns out to be the only staff in residence. Apparently Pavel never saw fit to station anyone here while he was responsible for administering the territory, so the manor has been gathering dust for more than a decade. The ground floor is in reasonable shape, but the upper floor obviously hasn’t been cleaned in years and there are several spots where the ceiling has leaked and rot has set in.

Sandu, the caretaker, is old enough that he has trouble getting up and down the stairs, and apparently hasn’t been up them in a long time. He seems mortified by the condition of the place, but pleads that he wasn’t notified that you were coming and that ‘Nicolai’ never answered any of his requests for funds to hire a maid staff.

But the worst of it is the keep. Apparently the roof was set on fire by a lightning strike several years ago, and with no one in residence most of the upper floors burned. Fortunately the fire didn’t spread to the manor house, but with all the damage from flame, smoke and water it’s pretty much unusable. To your eye it looks like the stonework is still sound, but repairing the damage and making it habitable again would require a major renovation.

Now what?


Turn Results

You have arrived in Corzu.
You have gained a new retainer: Traian the Accountant

Note: Status posts are now up to date.

 

I'm thinking we authorize funds for a some servants to be hired and to get work making the place livable while we to the rituals to claim the fief.

 

Here's a possible action list I came up with that tries to get some of the basic groundwork taken care of.

Dominic Petran
-Research Corzu
-Explore Corzu
-Recruit Staff

Sir Bialis
-Recruit Troops (cavalry scouts)

Jaroslaw
-Explore Corzu

Traian
-Study Accounts Book

 

Well, our new accountant should probably be going through the Accounts Book and I see no real reason our ranger Jaroslav shouldn't be exploring Corzu for us.

Don't see much point in sending our Men-at-arms anywhere before our ranger comes back, so they can just do some garrison duty.
Sir Bialis should probably recruit some additional troops though, so we can actually send guys out to deal with stuff that comes up without leaving ours keep entirely undefended. Not really sure which type though.

That leaves us to hire some staff and maybe read up on the places history and stuff?
Not sure what to do with the third action.
Did we just skip over the whole proclaiming and claiming stuff?
If not and we still have to do that, we can probably get started on that.
Otherwise we can maybe start figure out what we'd need to get some of those repairs going, assist our ranger or something.

 

I think we need to explore for the previously mentioned haunts before doing the claiming. Forgot we also had a troops action though, I agree garrison is probably fine for them.

 

The formal claiming bit will actually take some work to arrange. You'll need to:

[list type=decimal]
[*]Find all the settlements within your fief. The records book mentions two farming hamlets in addition to Tamasi, Igal and Corzu Keep, but you don't know where they are.
[*]Make a formal visit to each settlement announcing yourself.
[*]Contact your neighbors, and arrange to ride the borders with a representative from each of them.
[*]Do the claiming ritual back at Corzu Keep
[/list]

Exploring the fief would take care of the first item. The second and third will each take a project because of the amount of travel time involved. But riding the borders will probably have to wait until spring, because your neighbors probably aren't going to want to go wandering around in the snow to get it done sooner.

 

In that case exploring with Jaroslav instead is fine.

 

The castle has not had a garrison for a very long time. Would it not be better to have our soldiers train instead?

We have a skilled ranger who can do the exploring so we should probably use our last action on training magic.

 

Could probably see if any of the brush is usable for some of the repair work, maybe look into inventing plywood or fiberboard. Going to want to touch base with the local guilds and see what opportunities lay there, maybe profitable ventures can be found.

 

Villages and farming hamlets don't normally have guilds, since they rarely have more than one craftsman in any given profession. The neared guilds would probably be in Eztergrom, a town that's about 30 miles away in Pischia.

You can try to invent new technology if you want, but keep in mind that your PC isn't a time traveler. You could spend a project trying to make an idea work, but unless it's really simple the result is going to be something like "nope, can't make plywood because we don't enough glue, and besides it would take too much labor to press all those pieces of wood together".

 

so it has to doable with local resources and knowlage

 

I'll point out that IRL, wood laminates are a very old technology, dating back to Ancient Egypt.

 

weren't the roman shields laminated wood too?

 

Dominic
- Explore Corzu
- Hire Staff
- Study Flesh Magic: Making oneself stronger faster etc

Bialas
- Work to restore Keep to fighting trim

Jaroslaw
- Organize hunts for fresh meat

Traian
- Study Account Books

Minor actions
Write letters of introduction to neighboring Fiefs.
Inquire with Aunt if there is an appropriate time place for a meeting this spring

 

The most immediate issue, I should think, is making the Keep livable. The grounds themselves, the ground floor and a reception room at least. This isn’t just good for us (not having to live like a savage), but we’ll want to entertain eventually. Good relations with the neighbors means being friendly that way.

Two actions for fixing up the place (cleaning staff and getting a carpenter or mason in here to start light renovations), and one for the ranger investigating the area, seems wise. We’ll want to locate those hamlets, and have a good idea of the lay of the land before we try and hash out boundaries with the neighbors. They’ll be on home turf, so to speak, and we want to make a good showing- not haggling hard, but not being a pushover. Well, no matter, that’s for after the winter snows.

Once we’re settled a bit and look a little more like a Count, we can meet the local peasants. So that's for next turn.

I wouldn’t have picked the accountant, but since we have him we can trust him to study the books and keep our report succinct.

 

I'm a little confused as to how many actions are taken each turn.

What I've looked at from ShaperV suggests that there's a hard limit of three actions, with each retainer assisting with, or completely taking over, a single action which suits their skills.

Most of the other posters seem to believe that Dominic gets three, and every retainer adds one to that. It's possible they're seeing something I'm missing.

Three does seem like a good limit to make it easier to write, so, for now, I'm assuming that's what it is.

I'm with Guile on making the house/castle/main holding livable and setting up for step one of the claiming territory where we go through the land looking at each settlement, but I'd rather spend only one action on housekeeping.

I'd want Dominic to improve one of his personal skills with the third action. Preferably magic, with an additional preference for the flesh one. Making super soldiers/mounts/giant-dragons-of-doom seems to be where that skill would eventually lead.

 

You get three actions for Dominic, plus one action for each named retainer, plus each military unit can be assigned a mission. But of course retainers can only do projects that fall within their areas of expertise - Bialis would be a great choice to organize patrols or train up a military unit, for example, but telling him to study your accounts or research magic isn't going to be very productive.

 

Dominic
- Explore Corzu
- Hire Staff to restore and maintain the keep in working under.
- Explore the different settlements with Jaroslaw once he has found them.

Bialas
- Train the local militia/guard

Jaroslaw
- Investigate the areas (find the different hamlets, etc).

Traian
- Study Account Books

Here i am assuming that there is a militia or guards. If there isn't, possible Bialas should try to find ways to enlist people, i guess.

 

We have 20 men-at-arms, but I'm kinda doubting there's much of a local militia.

Levies, maybe, in wartime - but they'll be doing their own thing right now. Farming, probably.

 

Dominic
- Explore Corzu
- Hire Staff
- Research Corzu

Bialas
- Work to restore Keep to fighting trim

Jaroslaw
- Explore Corzu with Dominic

Traian
- Study Account Books

 

It looks like there's broad agreement on what to do with a lot of your actions:

Dominic
- Hire Staff
- ??
- ??

Bialas
- ??

Jaroslaw
- Explore Corzu

Traian
- Study Account Books

This partial plan addresses some of your more critical needs (get your house in order, get the lay of the land and figure out what your finances look like), but it leaves some important holes.

Jaroslaw will point out that exploring an unfamiliar territory alone in December is pretty foolhardy - there could easily be wolves, bandits or worse lurking in the woods, and getting lost in a snowstorm can easily be fatal. His suggestion will be to split your military unit in half, and let him take a 10-man squad with him while the other ten men stay home to guard the keep. This will leave you too short-staffed for a proper garrison, but Bialas could use his action to recruit them back up to strength from the local peasants.

As for your own actions, there are a few options:

- You could go along with the exploration trip. This probably won't change what gets discovered, but you'll get a first-hand look at it which might have some value.
- You could do personal training. You could easily get some skill-ups before spring if you work at this consistently.
- Look for adventure leads. You could probably find yourself and adventure of some sort during the winter, which would be worth XP and potentially get you some advancement. Of course, this is the most dangerous season for that kind of thing - summer would be quite a bit less risky.

 

I suggest the following

Dominic;

Raise Garrison force
Train Fleshcraft

Bolios

Train Garison

 

This seems ideal. What do our funds look like, before we collect taxes in the spring? Can we afford 10 new levies and fixing up the manor and whatnot?

I think we can put off adventures for now, until we're settled in and the spring thaw has come.

I'd be okay with using a slot for personal advancement (magic or training with our remaining militia and Bialis, not picky), though I'd prefer 'exploring with Jaroslaw' and 'beginning manor renovations' which are likely to take some time.