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Last posts were:
>>34029765
>>34029781

I'm requesting any last questions for Karise before moving on.

>>34029849
what can I do to help?

hey... can't taira teleport 500 people at once? that could really help getting people in fast.

Rolled 3

>>34029849
So, will they be working with Neir's current networks? Also, what are the projected expenditures of their activities?

>>34029781
Ask her if she wants us to teach her husband how to stroke fluffy tails. We could demonstrate on Taira.

On a more serious note, ask her about her plans on actual construction of the village.

>>34029849
>What has Sarnn been up to during all of this anyway?

>>34029849
Have we informed her that the dragon is aware of her spies yet? Check if she's heard anything from Ren and what her thoughts are on his coming to visit. Finally run the idea of having a group of her teleporters act as support for the group we're thinking of sending on dungeon crawl.

>>34029941
>>34029849

This guy knows what he's talking about. Supportan'.

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>>34029835
>huh? what is vad's discovery?
I forgot that was only mentioned in that random Vad x Nate smut piece I wrote. Basically, fox tails are stupidly sensitive after orgasm. Because they almost never play with them nobody really found out, or at least didn't tell anybody else as it was taboo.

>>34029884
>So, will they be working with Neir's current networks? Also, what are the projected expenditures of their activities?
"Neir's networks will integrate with ours, rather than the other way around, in the north. Further sound it will be the opposite. We're playing to each other's strengths at this stage.

"As for expenditures, don't worry about that. We're running them past Sarah and Undine. They said that if they're happy, you're happy. It's not like we'll cost that much anyway. There's less of us than servants in Harrowmont."

>>34029885
>
Ask her if she wants us to teach her husband how to stroke fluffy tails. We could demonstrate on Taira.
"That's no fun. Demonstrate on Sarnn so he can learn firsthand what it's like," Karise says with a toothy grin.

You quickly drop the topic after that reply.

>On a more serious note, ask her about her plans on actual construction of the village.
It'll be a mountain village. Relatively spaced out but very defensible and easy to hide in and escape from. We've modified the designs since Pharos but the basic principle is the same and it works.

"The construction itself can be quickly done by the foxes themselves. It's a good way to get the younger foxes pulling their weight and practicing more of the mundane techniques they should have down pat."

>>34029941
I think we should hold off on that. because while doing that they aren't available for their other work. and we just have too much other things for them to do yet

also, she isn't necessarily aware of each individual spy, she is aware that they are there

>>34029941
We actually should probably get Ren's foxes on that. When we get a deal going that is. We want to keep her spies at their best.

>>34029975
>"That's no fun. Demonstrate on Sarnn so he can learn firsthand what it's like," Karise says with a toothy grin.
>You quickly drop the topic after that reply.
.... I am actually ok with this.

>>34030002
its strange... im ok with it aswell...

>>34030002
Cute tails are cute anon. On the other hand Talon likes nubile young tails or ancient tails that are older then dirt. Sarnn tails too old but not ancient. Like grandma Tairas.

>>34030002
Me too.

>>34030002
>It's not gay if they have fluffy tails train keeps on rolling.

>>34029983
>>34029992
True. Speaking of we should see about forming a messenger corps of teleporters at some point. Make an imperial mail and delivery service maybe as a private company that we invest in. Unless one of the clans already has that niche. Maybe see if that was one of the things she was talking about when she mentioned sharing their abilities with the locals around their village.

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>>34029912
>What has Sarnn been up to during all of this anyway?
"Providing me with stress relief," Karise replies in a smartarse manner. "But more seriously, he's still in a transition period. He only turned sixty recently so he's got a few years before he'll be expected to take on the responsibilities of a true adult - in that time I'll whip him into a model citizen and useful agent."

It sounds harsh so you leave it at that. Maybe Sarnn likes it that way?

>>34029941
>Have we informed her that the dragon is aware of her spies yet?
"I've been acting on the assumption that Sylvian knows about them. The rest of the Mage Guard is likely more clueless. So long as you don't aggravate the dragon herself, we should be fine for some time but I have some escape contingencies in place should that fail."

>Check if she's heard anything from Ren and what her thoughts are on his coming to visit.
"Tsucchi knows more of his thoughts than I would but I do know that his recent actions have seriously worried the rest of the alliance. He suddenly flipflopped from wanting a united alliance front so that you could be strongarmed to making his own personal plans. He wrangled his own village into the deal by offering to be a trailblazer but now they're worried that they got screwed. Which is pretty much true."

>>34030002
>Vad walks in
>i thought what we had was special talon

>>34030073
"In what way are they screwed? I'm basically going to make them the same offer I did you and yours. Do you feel particularly screwed over?"

>>34030073
>"He wrangled his own village into the deal by offering to be a trailblazer but now they're worried that they got screwed. Which is pretty much true."

Feeling a little slow at the moment any idea how his village might have been screwed over by his flipflop?

>>34030087
... now i feel guilty.
no wait
>You are special baby

>>34030073
if that is the case, those other clans should be receptive to individual negotiations with us.

we should probably get on that. maybe we can wrangle for more of them to come over

>>34030066
I don't think there actually is enough teleporters to do this well. I think you need to be like 6th tail to pull it off well.

Kind of makes me curious when Vad will get his 5th.

>>34030122
they are screwed in the
>Now they got left behind in mage guard.
she doesn't know who are going to make them such an offer
i am not even sure if doing so is ok according to the alliance's terms with us.

but if we proceed cautiously we could get more.

>>34030136
>when Vad will get his 5th.
We'll celebrate by having him blindfolded and having our harem stroke each of his tails. Then we'll sneak in and take over and see how long it takes him to notice.

>>34030122

to clarify my post here >>34030153

They got screwed by Ren, their leader. not screwed by talon

>>34030136
Vad already has 5

>>34030176
Oh, ok. That actually makes sense.

>>34030183
I lose track sometimes other then of Taira and ren.

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>>34030136
>Kind of makes me curious when Vad will get his 5th.
6th, he already has 5. Vad's a good century away from it, just as Karise is from her 7th (well, she's probably only about 70-80 years away).

>>34030122
>"In what way are they screwed? I'm basically going to make them the same offer I did you and yours. Do you feel particularly screwed over?"
"I don't care what you offer them so long as you abide our agreement," Karise says bluntly. "And yes, Ren did screw them a bit. He negotiated a deal through the alliance and is using the loopholes he set-up in it to guarantee he still maintains a dominant position should you bring the others over. That works for me, too, as my foxes can forge a close relationship with his within your empire."

In other words, the movements were mostly about the internal politics within the Six-Star Alliance. You wouldn't have to tread to carefully currently, but the politics may influence Ren's behaviour towards you. It's interesting to note that Karise's assumption is that the alliance is going to relocate to your territory, however.

>Last questions for Karise

>>34030226
fair enough, no intention of reneging with her. none.

>>34030226
I think we're done with Karise now.

>>34030226
How long do you think we'll have before Pharos gets wind of the alliance's movements? How long until they start sending troublemakers?

>>34030345
i am wondering if there is any chance we can talk pharos into just leaving us be

>>34030370
I remember talk of evil spirits and black magic with their ruler on top of the bad blood with the foxes. I have a feeling that they'll probably have to be dealt with eventually in a non diplomatic manner.

>>34030370
Probably not. The golden clan seems to want them gone.

>>34030401
>>34030414
fair point. although it is probably worth a try.

actually, rather then when, I think a better question is how. the problem is that we can't risk sending our foxes on missions in their land to spy. So I would like a dossier of all their (known) previous actions against the gauron foxes. we can probably learn from history.

that being said, most of their agents come over on boat and we are earnestly working on gaining control over the continental coastline facing them. if we invest in a proper navy we could even pass by ships headed for RSK is the guard and scan those for foxes.

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>>34030345
They're probably already active.

>Moving right along

It’s several days after the tournament is complete when you receive word that Ren has arrived to talk about the plans for his clan’s village. The problem is that Karise felt the need to give you the news in the midst of Taira enjoying herself rather immensely. You’d thought your spymaster to be quite unflappable in regards to your sexual activities but clearly seeing her old chief participating was a bit much.

“If we do that in front of Ren it will be even more amusing,” Taira says as you dress yourself, not bothering to put her robes back on yet as she stretch out on your bed.

“From what Vad says he’d probably just join in,” you mutter darkly.

“Probably but he’d still give an amusing reaction first,” she replies brightly. “He’s cute that way.”

You have a feeling that Ren is many things but cute is not one of them. Before you can reply Undine steps into the room, dressed in her black jacket and slim trousers, her eyes sharp. She gives Taira a cutting look before scowling.

>continued

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>>34030553
“You should take a shower before getting dressed. There’s no need to make it appear that Talon is marking territory,” Undine snaps, clearly more on edge than you feel she should be.

You half expect Taira to respond in the sing-song manner she’s used with Sarah and Gnome whenever they try to chastise her but instead she looks down at herself before trooping off into the bathroom.

“Honestly,” Undine says, shaking her head. “Ren’s already going to be on edge. The last thing we need is for Taira to make it clear that she’s yours in more ways than mere fealty.”

“Ah, so that’s what you meant,” you saying, nodding slightly. Ren had been arranged to marry her once.

You’re alone with Undine momentarily. It feels like it’s been a while since you’ve talked with her like this. Her bad mood gives you an impression that something else has happened.

>1. Ask her if she’s worried about the meeting with Ren.
>2. Wait in silence to see if she trusts you enough to share her worries with you.
>3. Openly ask her what has her on edge.
>4. Custom

>>34030370
I don't think we have, unless they have very troubling issues themselves. They know the foxes over here will not just let them be forever, so they would want to abuse the turmoil in here to get rid of the problem if possible. Only reason they would accept such an offer would be because they have too much trouble on their hand to do anything over here anyways.

>>34030565
hug

>>34030565
>1. Ask her if she’s worried about the meeting with Ren.

>>34030580
>They know the foxes over here will not just let them be forever
see, that is the thing. we could possible wrangle that as a condition that any of "our" foxes swear off on revenge, they just let them be and give up on that continent and build a new life here. arguing that this constant attacks by sent agents is just going to ensure that local foxes will have a strong incentive to going back at them.

>>34030565
>2. Wait in silence to see if she trusts you enough to share her worries with you.

>>34030565
2

>>34030565
2

>>34030565
>2. Wait in silence to see if she trusts you enough to share her worries with you.
If she doesn't, it can wait until after the meeting with Ren

>>34030614
Yeah, the foxes over here will NOT just let them be forever. It could be a temporary truce at best.

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>2.

You elect to remain silent, save for giving Undine a quick squeeze on the shoulder. There’s a long awkward moment where she looks at you in confusion before closing in for a hug, nuzzling your neck. You rub her back while she does so, enjoying the pleasant minute with your Champion in your arms.

“You don’t need to worry so much about me, Talon,” Undine says, her voice slightly muffled as she speaks into your neck. The vibrations are quite ticklish, really.

“It’s difficult not to, Undine,” You response, kissing her hair lightly.

There’s a muffled giggle. “This is supposed to be the opposite way around.” A long pause, filled only by the sound of the shower running the bathroom. “Gnome and Caitlyn were being stupid about Tarfinn. I could understand Caitlyn but Gnome should know better. It’s so frustrating arguing with my big sister – even more so when even Salamander was arguing against her.”

“About Tarfinn?” you ask her, unsure if you want to know.

“He’s cute and they’re showing more interest in him than they should be,” Undine says. “Taira looks at him the same way. I’m sorry I snapped at her but…”

You’re pretty sure you know what’s happening here now. You…

>1. Defuse Undine’s mood. This isn’t the best issue to have sitting in her mind for the upcoming meeting.
>2. Try to get more details on what Gnome and Caitlyn wanted with Finn.
>3. Remain silent and let Undine vent some more while you cuddle her.
>4. Custom

>>34030780
>2. Try to get more details on what Gnome and Caitlyn wanted with Finn.

>>34030780
3

Daww motherly Undine is adorable

>>34030780
3

>>34030780
>>3. Remain silent and let Undine vent some more while you cuddle her.

>>34030780
>3. Remain silent and let Undine vent some more while you cuddle her.
> Tell her you will look into it after more urgent matter are out of the way
Which we should.

>>34030780

>3.

Clearly this is over Finn now being Rayza's...

>>34030941
Oh, to clarifiy, the second thing involves option one too. If that wasn't clear.

>From last thread
>Lynns position is accepted
>Some might look at it as the empire having a "pet dragon" so to speak
>Rumors of you two being an item
oh god, I just realized... the trashy novels about talon are certainly going to incorporate this now!
hahahaha

>>34030780
are we actually going to have the ren meeting tonight this thread? it is a pretty important meeting and I really would like to go to sleep.

>>34030992
>trashy

Those are well written pieces of historical events Anon bordering on art. Clearly you lack taste.

>>34031002
>Sleep

Sleep is for the weak anon.

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>3.

The silence routine worked well last time and so you instead just keep cuddling Undine. Surprisingly she doesn’t vent too much, instead just cuddling up to you for some time. The warmth, both physical and emotional, is pleasant and you greatly enjoy the peaceful moments with your Champion.

Until Taira punctures the silence. “So, did I interrupt some very slow foreplay?”

“No, Undine was simply talking to me about Tarfinn,” you say.

Taira nods. “Ah, let me guess – some of the other haremettes talked about how they wanted to jump his bones again.”

“You don’t have to put it like that, let alone make it appear justifiable,” Undine says, glaring at Taira across your chest.

“It is justifiable – he’s cute and unattached, even if that dragon had some fun with him,” Taira says. “With that said, I’m all for you keeping the reins on the other two. Though I do find it amusing that Gnome wants to jump him while Salamander doesn’t – quite funny given who is supposed to be the ‘slutty one’.”

Undine scowls. “That doesn’t escape me. Nor does the fact that you just want to jump him, too.”

Taira shrugs with a smile. “I’m still curious to see where he takes his little fling with the dragon first. I won’t encroach on him if he’s want to be monogamous.”

>continued

>>34031017
its almost 6am here

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>>34031031
With that the fox trots out, leaving you to marvel at her erratic behaviour. You ask Undine, “Was this really all over the other girls wanting to sleep with Finn?”

“Don’t act like it‘s normal. Do you really want them to be sleeping with Finn?” she asks you pointedly.

“Not really,” you say before hurriedly brushing the topic away with a deep kiss. Of all the sisters, Undine is the easier to distract – you just give her a passionate kiss and she’ll drop the topic if it’s not too important. Fortunately, she decides that the imminent meeting with Ren is important enough not to complain much more – though she does request another kiss before you enter the meeting room.

As you lock lips with your Champion, your mind wanders to the challenge ahead – Ren has his own plans and ambitions and your role is to juggle those with your own. You’ll need to be careful not to browbeat him too much with Taira but at the same time there’s no point in losing your most powerful weapon. You separate from Undine, then open the door to the meeting room.

>That’s the thread.

Next thread is on August 15th at 6:30pm EDT. I’ll also hopefully finish the Finn FTB this week and start the Taira one. I’d appreciate any opinions on the Finn FTB, given how I tried to change the style I write in a bit for it.

I’ll stick around for questions and banter as usual.

>>34031035
That was 5 hours ago for me.

>>34031035
7 PM here and not even tired.

>>34031045
What would have happened if Karise failed that sanity roll?

>>34031045
Thanks for the run. I always enjoy these character interaction threads.

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>>34031097
>What would have happened if Karise failed that sanity roll?
You would have been stroking her tails with hilarious results.

>>34031102
They can be good fun for a bit of a winddown. Let's me flesh out some of the little things that I otherwise wouldn't or just have some fun. It can feel a little wasteful with so much plot to plough through, though.

>>34031140
>thought your spymaster to be quite unflappable in regards to your sexual activities but clearly seeing her old chief participating was a bit much

Did Talon finally get her to blush? Or was this more making her have a hilarious facial expression?

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>>34031198
It was probably more arousal, given she walked in while you were enthusiastically playing with Taira's tails.

I'm really looking forward to writing that Taira FTB, as fun as the Finn one has been to write.

Great run Aspirational.

Kind of weird question. Karise mentioned once that her clan needs to be on mountains to cultivate their white tails. And we've been told that foxes draw on a lot of ambient energy out at least can feel it like the Source. That kind of got me thinking that foxes tend to grow with their environment and what it provides. So what would a fox born and raised in Harrowmont be like? More powerful, simply a different aesthetic, mature faster? Like I said weird question, and might be completely baseless.

>>34031367
>Taira FTB

Muh waifu. Taira is top tier.

Though I'm kind of sad Talon never went with Tssuchi. That would just be horrible for poor Ren. The women he was to marry and his sister.

So how does it feel to know you've convinced all of your players that fluffy tails are indeed their fetish and in fact the greatest thing ever?

>>34031367
I am really looking forward to that one too.

Talon & Sarrrn while Karise watches is best though.

Doubly so if they both refuse to have Karise join in when she makes her move.

>>34031381
That's actually a pretty good question. I wonder if a fox gets stronger there?

>>34031415
This is /tg/ anon. Dragongirls and fluffies are the norm.

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>>34031415
>convinced

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>>34031381
Nobody really knows, to be truthful. The foxes know that the environment they grow up in matters (or, to be precise, the environment they're carried to birth in and spend their first year in before they take on their human form).

White foxes have affinity with physical skills and they occur more often in mountainous terrain. Black foxes have affinity with odd spiritual techniques (like Vad's anti-fox ones) and they occur more often in foxes born outside of Pharos. Golden and silver foxes tend to be much more powerful than other foxes and also tend to get their tails faster and get more but nobody knows what cultivates them. It may be that Harrowmont might help with that or it may cause something else.

>>34031409
>Though I'm kind of sad Talon never went with Tssuchi.
Tsucchi isn't an easy catch but she's not off-limits.

>>34031415
Most of my players probably enjoyed fluffy tails already but I'm happy to have enlightened those that didn't recognise how great they were.

>>34031490
I can already see how this will go "Vad..Vad quickly I need to get a fox pregnant do you know any that you think would volunteer. Also she needs to be willing to stay in harrowmont the entire time."

>>34031490

>regarding foxes

So what you're telling me is science time?

Also I don't know if you've ever mentioned that foxes are kits before gaining a human form but that's so good damn adorable, fuck.

>>34031490
>first year in before they take on their human form
I suddenly want a foxy baby.

I think it's amusing that salamander and Undine agree on something for once and it's against Gnome of all people.

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>>34031546
And then Vad knocks up Nate.

>>34031550
>Also I don't know if you've ever mentioned that foxes are kits before gaining a human form but that's so good damn adorable, fuck.
I think it was supposed to come when Karise was explaining some things but was skipped over.

Mystic fox lifecycle is:
1. Female fox gets pregnant and carries the child to term in about 3 months (this short period is the primary reason why non-fox females need magical assistance to carry a child to term).
2. The child is born as a fox kit and remains that way for about a year.
3. The child takes on the human form of a five year old human child or so. They age rapidly in terms of mental age initially.
4. The fox then ages normally, gaining tails as they go. The period between birth and gaining their second tail sets the benchmark period for getting successive tails due to the quadratic nature of their aging (eg. 2nd tail takes 10 year, 3rd tails another 20 years, 4th is 40, 5th is 80 etc).

>>34031623
Sala is actually rather loyal.

>>34031642
>And then Vad knocks up Nate.

For SCIENCE of course.

>>34031490
>>34031620
>>34031550
I can imagine Talon playing with his fox toddler. The image is very cute.

It would cause more girls to crash harder on Talon.

>>34031679
>"Ah, Emperor Talon that is a cute little fox where did you get it?"
>"Muh waifu"

Something I've enjoyed is Caitlynn's character development. Recently her ums and ahs have all but disappeared and her speech in general is a bit more eloquent. Her gaining confidence in her own word and self while gaining experience leading is really fun to watch. She's come a long way and it's cool to see.

>>34031829
THE BITCH IS TRYING TO NTR US AND YOU LIKE HER MORE.

But I agree with you. Still, NTR nooooo.

>>34031882
Sharing with Finn is fine, anon.
Mal too, I guess.

Vad can fuck off, though.

>>34031829
I'm going to be pretty Glad when Finn is like that.

>>34031921
Sharing with Finn is father son bonding time.

And we set up Bad with a sexy pure flyer he should be happy with that much. I actually wonder if we'll ever get a scene with her now.

>>34031882
>NTR

The natural state of women anon ;_;

>>34031642
Just for the hell of it. The lord of steel and Raphael in a wrestling contest. Who wins?

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>>34031952
>Just for the hell of it. The lord of steel and Raphael in a wrestling contest. Who wins?
Wrestling? Raphael, hands down. Pure powerhouse.

>>34031921
>Vad can fuck off, though.
Poor Vad.

>>34031944
>And we set up Bad with a sexy pure flyer he should be happy with that much. I actually wonder if we'll ever get a scene with her now.
Assuming you mean a social scene and not the other sort of scene (avoiding the random bit of smut I half-wrote), then that will probably happen.

>>34031985
>Raphael, hands down.

That's hardcore right there. Makes me wonder just how absurdly strong the shadow beasts are if he can't wipe them out himself.

>>34032091
The Shadow Beasts are strong enough to be a threat to the entire continent.
Kushan, the strongest individual being we know of got slapped down by the three lords.
Of course Raphael can't take the shadow beasts by himself, you underestimate the powers of armies.

>>34032150
>Kushan

I think it was more the lords+Archangels+everything else. Jumping him that caused him to lose.

Though it does make me wonder how absurdly strong the beings that are stronger then him in the pre-cataclysm age where.

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>>34032091
Raphael is a powerhouse but lacks versatility. Plus, no amount of raw power would give you the ability to overwhelm such a large mass of powerful creatures.

>>34032168
Speaking of Kushan, I have a theory that his ridiculous power is partially a result of binding sources to himself in a rather more personal way than a 'god aura' over a certain area.
So he'd actually be carting around an unending wellspring of magical energy.

You know thinking on it I'm kind of terrified what could be going on in pharos. Mainly because we have some idea of what to expect in Gauron. But for all we know the empire in Pharos might have two or three archangel tier beings running around.

>>34032237
It almost certainly does.
On the other hand, Gauron contains the four prime elementals of (iirc) the entire planet, which would lend some credence to a possible theory that it's some kind of central continent.

>>34032226
From what I've heard he seemed to me to be one of those once in a ten thousand years fluke. Someone born at just the right place with just the right resources and just smart enough to take advantage of his talent.

That and I'm pretty sure the sources where already in use at that time. Though thinking on this subject makes me wonder how well his empire could do against the shadow beasts..or the golden age of magic.

Going to be a bitch to build up a empire worthy of the past ;_; This must be how Alexander felt.

>>34032283
>From what I've heard he seemed to me to be one of those once in a ten thousand years fluke.
I don't think so, he might have been written off as that but someone so ridiculously far ahead of the rest of their race ever known is just not something that occurs, it's far more likely to me that he got his power from somewhere, or something, else.

>Going to be a bitch to build up a empire worthy of the past ;_; This must be how Alexander felt.
Bitch we're going full British Empire, our sun will never set.

I think we should go on a source finding journey as per that anon's plan (Have Taira teleport us to one) after we set things in motion. We will have a window of opportunity after dealing with current immediate business. One of our generals will be dealing with things up north, and we will have just decided on our political course which means there will be some time before things start moving according to it.

It should a couple of months maybe until the north is conquered. Going on such a journey to claim a source or two would be a good use of that time. We honestly need that power considering how we're just moving on to an upper scale.

On a more meta perspective I would like such a journey for a few threads before we start on the big war/conquer/politics chapter.

>>34032340
>Bitch we're going full British Empire, our sun will never set.
>British

Talon's empire is cursed now.

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>>34032237
One of the strange things about talking to Tsucchi and Taira about magic in Pharos is that it appears that the people that they refer to as sorcerors appear to use magic that Mal claims is impossible to do with actual sorcery. Clearly something is awry in Pharos and has been for centuries. At the same time, the methods that many of their spellblade equivalents (like Moonblade) are very similar to what you would expect of knights and mages, if far more codified. Presumably the lack of a Kushan to spread evocation meant that the only magical disciplines are whatever their 'sorcerors' use and the instinctive magic that many warriors learn from experience (and have been codified in their society).

>>34032366
My current plan for the near future is:
1. Termina/empire-building. This will cover the next 6-9 months in-quest.
2. Flashback arc. Some tactical battles at the start but more adventure/mystery style.
3. Some short arc before starting the heavy conquest part.

I might try to squeeze an adventure into the 3rd arc, depending on how people feel after the flashback (assuming I don't screw it up and lose everybody, of course).

>>34032366
We probably should go find some yeah. We probably shouldn't try to find all of them though.

If you ask me the best method would be to Taira teleport from Harromont to Gespad. Then to Gelburg. Once the POP is attuned there we flip over to Termina while the chaos is still there and go to Balkarin for Sylph and the last POP.

That way we can pretty rapidly get what we need in the shortest timeframe.

>>34032480
Going after extra sources also gives us the opportunity to load up on extra champions, in case one wasn't enough.

>>34032503
>Sources

Now sources will be an issue since we really don't know much about the others. Given the only reason Harrowmont isn't sealed is a mountain falling on top of it.

We should try to get Slyph relatively soon though. She is pretty close and it will be hard once the mage guard and us start fighting.

Over stretching for poorly protected Sources is a bad idea.

We have no idea their status, the fortifications around them, the settlements around them and etc. We couldn't properly protect or excavate if necessary half a continent a way, let along fund such endeavors. PoP hunt sure, Sources, not until we're within range and have the actual means to protect such an asset properly.

That and Talon should probably remain home within the next year or close to it. Given Falwick to the south is an unknown and the a mage guard to the north is tense.

>>34032540
Though thinking on it.

>1. Termina/empire-building. This will cover the next 6-9 months in-quest.

That's a pretty good thing. Because I think we should be able to pull some Mageplate templates out of the archmage around here.

>>34032569
We'd need to buff our AAs up, though.
The Archangel needs our troops in a year, remember?

>>34032624
He'll show up in a year to talk shit with us. He'll need troops in a couple of years.

>>34032624
Speaking of AAs I have an idea. Could we create bows that summon Ammunition? Or gloves? That way we could just keep on going and going without the need for normal ammo.

>>34032556
>PoP hunt
We can get the PoP up on Balkarin. I'd like to use it to either directly boost Talon or maybe if the place is an appropriate stronghold to give Talon power over the place so we can have a good foothold up north. It would both serve as a protection and bumper zone for our south lands against the darkness beyond the line and would also help secure most of our lands between our two strongholds.

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I'm off for the night. I'll catch all of you in about 8 hours if the thread is still up and answer any questions.

>>34032659
>Could we create bows that summon Ammunition? Or gloves?
Enchanted items summoning hard physical objects is very hard. Summoning magical versions is much easier but hard to maintain over distance - magical bolts effectively dissipate instantly at a certain range as the spell maintaining them collapses. Most likely you'd need to expand that particular variety of research.

>>34032714
Be far better used in our capital. Considering if the wall falls we are fucked anyway and being a demigod is fine too.

Although the moment we use it for Talon people will notice it. So we will need at least Termina before then. Though on the bright side Undine is 2/5 in her power level so far and their is a pretty close POP in Guelburg.

Though a lot of this depends. It might be a good idea to burn both to Talon then give the rest to Undine. That way we have full advantage of the being a god tricks we can pull off.

>>34032775
Yeah, I was more leaning on giving it to Talon too. He'll need it and will definitely make good use of it. I just hope it's not in some terrible place, it being in Mage Guard territory is bad enough. My biggest concern is reaching it. Getting out should be a simple matter with Taira.

>>34032852
Yeah. It may also help with all these random people popping up in Talons study room. Though the mage guard Territory shouldn't be too much of an issue I think. Most people don't know where the POPs are.

>>34032775
Demi god Talon's extreme make over of the keep proper is going to be the funniest, most egotistically driven event ever. We'll need about 50 statues of his bust alone

>>34032978
Honestly I imagine Talon would shift things around every other Tuesday. The real funny part is Ren plans on building a village right next door to harrowmont. Meaning each time he comes for dinner or whatever he'll be in range. It also helps with people breaking into Talons room.

>>34032978
I'd rather have 50 statues of Gnome's bust.
In 20x scale, down to microscopic detail.

>>34032758

Short ranged Summoned Ammunition.... Sounds like it might be something that subterfuge forces might make great use of... maybe apply it to a shortbow/crossbow, that way they don't have to worry about carrying a quiver of arrows/bolts and have the capacity for taking out guards at range without attracting too much attention or needing to retrieve the projectile...

Though in regards to AA upgrade research...
Helmets which have magical zoom and allow them to see in poor weather (i.e. heavy rain, fog, blizzards, ect.), possibly an enchant which shows invisible units...
Enough suits of armour enchanted with invisibility for one, maybe two small squads for force recon...
Braces of strength which allow them to pull the bow further to give greater range, speed and penetration to the arrows (not including the Arrows enchants)
Boots of Speed to allow for rapid redeployment/retreats, after all, we don't want our ranged units caught in an infantry charge...

Just going to mention that the PC sheet is pretty far behind. Like lacking 2 upgrades far behind.

>>34033113

I think a lot of the stuff is already applied but to what degree overall is beyond me. We never really sat down and came up with a Mage-Knight equivalent (think Flyers) that would encapsulate all of that and we can supply to our army en masse. So an AAMK. Which sounds silly but would put them on the next level and help highly specialize our best unit further. Definitely something we can sit down and do with all of the Foundries we have working now, and the two new Machinist we'll be getting.

As an aside I think doing that will help legitimize our Ranger Order further like so, AAMK:Ranger, MMK:Knight. I'd say we focus on that sometime soon along with the unified look people have been tossing around for awhile. If we're lucky we can field test in Termina a little.

>>34033351
What's needed for a MK is different then a AA. They have different roles so fusing them isn't the best of ideas.

>>34033381

It's more about creating a specialized template of the MK much like how the Flyers and Lights work. They serve different purposes then Medium but specialize the template to match the needs of the AAs, cutting the time in half to build one from scratch. It's about the enchantments and build of the armor.

>>34033351

There is an idea... we need a place specifically for testing out new weapons and magics... ideally somewhere that misfires or super-explosives won't affect anything or anyone else...

>>34029975

I am now shipping Sarnn harder than ever.

>>34033423
The biggest issue really is that Armor tends to fuck up your aim due to lack of sensation. That and the more we pour there the less the other knights can be made. Which slows down the advantage that AA can be mass produced rapidly.

AAs are at a good point currently. They should be fine with their enchanted bows, some selected enchanted for specific uses, and high amounts of mundane arrows.

Most of the improvements and enchantments you guys are thinking up are more suited for rangers. AAs are much like normal archer units, only with more power and range. Their main points of strengths are the still the same with normal archer units though; numbers and coordination. Loading them with other things would just lower their benefit. Those are better used on other specialized units; namely rangers (they could even branch out into various types in the future, they probably will in fact).

>>34034251
This and we don't have a infinite amount of Foundry slots so building a massive amount of shit like Speed boots, Invisibility,Armor alone is like 3 slots.

Right now I would rather Get FMK and LMK templates. Though it might be a good idea to get some mage units to help the archers.

>>34034138

And magic. That's basically how I respond to that. Hartman and his Knights(Rangers) use full armor like a pepper knight just focus their disciplines with magic towards their bows.

>>34034251
This does raise a good point. But the advent of Mage Knight plate is recent, before people used masses of MaAs to serve their purpose, it is something that can be obviously improved and was. AAs ate the exact same thing. In fact back when we first decided a long term direction for them the choice between bows and arrows or armor was presented, we choose the former obviously and haven't revisited the armor idea in awhile. Because as stated it would get pricey and the AAs at present serve via numbers. I'd say it isn't something to write off but not the absolute top priority. If we got a break down of what Hartman wears we could easily condense that down to a mass produced version for the less talented, which is pretty much how MK to Knights work at present

>>34034326

The idea is to combine them into a single template like how MK works now. So it would only take up one spot like how every other template works.

>>34034425
Which cuts down our numbers to probably around MMK or lower. Because now we are building a bunch of enchantments into them. That and it still takes two slots due to having to build the bows.

Like I could see Invisibility enchantments or something because it could also be used in other ways. Like spies or assassinations. Going full armor though seems unwise.

>>34034425
The point is, their real power comes from their bows and arrows. So, while it would surely help to have enchanted armor for them, it would be much better use of time and resources to produce various knight armors which are the biggest part of a knight's power.

>>34034518
Well that and if they ever get attacked we have bigger issues like the line being cracked.

Though personally I've been wanting to go for something like a Rapid wall building machine. That way we can just plop down and turn every battle into a siege. Without needing to burn mages.

>>34034518
Actually come to think of it after reading this. Why don't we use a method similar to what Taour used? Stick 10-15 mages and have them use rituals to create a barrier.

While we are discussing the basic AAs, their Bows are enchanted to have greater power and range, would each AA carry a quiver of Arcane Arrows for use against Mage-Knights and/or Mages, or would that ammunition only be handed out as required?

tldr; should AAs carry enchanted arrows, or should they be given out when needed?

>>34034512
>>34034518

Alright fair. Their very nature of being long ranged makes some of the enchantments unnecessary, I suppose it work around upon how we treat them in the future and use in different combat situations, the armor might be useful then. I wouldn't shelf the idea entirely, it might have future use, but I can agree Lights would be very useful right now. Depends upon war evolves

>>34034654
Mainly because we lack mages. Our little force of mages have much more important duties than to protect our long range archer who literally have the longest range among any type of units and should be well away from danger ideally.

Really, what it all comes down to is we have much better uses for our resources than to better our AAs, who are already pretty darn great. For now, I would more than settle for good bows and good arrows for them. I would love to have them better but we AAs in high numbers so trying to do more fancy things with them would require resources better used elsewhere.

>>34034660

We produce them at such a high rate and at a nigh negligible price that we can basically hand them out like candy now. If my memory serves correctly it was one of the first things we had our Machinist work on.

>>34034689

That said though, people were really high on the idea of showing the Archangel the AAs now, and he said to prefect them. If argue armor that makes them incredibly versatile units would be a step towards that. If nothing else, I think it should at least be a research project see where we get with it and deploy when we have the funds and need for them.

>>34034660
They will be handed to all AAs to use when necessary. Ideally we would fill their quivers with enchanted arrows but we will have to settle with however much we can get.

>>34034784
If I remember right Aspirational mentioned a long while back that to perfect AA would require something with summoning.

>>34034809
I'm actually fairly certain that the bows have enchantments for normal ammo too.

>>34034978

I honestly don't remember that, I need to go archive diving for some information soon anyway so I'll look out for that.

>>34034999
Bows are enchanted. That is beside the point. We are talking about enchanted arrows.

>>34035024
The bows enchant the arrows to I think. It's part of the trick Mal created in order to make things work better. So it isn't like without enchanted arrows they aren't efficient.

>>34035019
Yeah this was like way back. I think it was within the first 15 threads or something.

>>34032408
>2. Flashback arc. Some tactical battles at the start but more adventure/mystery style.

I think this is around the spot we figure out what Talon is.

>>34035076
>bows enchant arrows

That's really really wrong. We tried that route, with a quiver but we're told that items giving others enchants is really difficult.

An enchanted bow can use a regular arrow, it will only receive the extra force of the bow.

The enchanted arrows, which we produce en masse now, have their own enchantments, pretty much power up punch and puncture. And those coupled with the bows is what makes the AAs deadly when dealing with MMKs.

>>34035231
I do remember Mal did do this though. I might be thinking early on and the Foundry can't replicate that. Mainly because I vaguely remember someone saying that unlike Mal enchanting though bows won't work as well.

>>34034716
>Mainly because we lack mages.

The Taour mages might help there when we finally get them off house arrest.

>>34035352

Though that hinges on us wanting to use blood mages, or accused either or. I think that's actually one of the major decisions we'll need to make regarding Alyce's attitude towards us.

>>34035560
Given our mage shortage I think as long as there isn't any definite links we can just give them a pardon. Too valuable for the empire in the long term to give up.

>>34035905
That is probably what will happen. They will be put under care of some towers and will be closely watched to make sure they don't partake in blood sacrifices.

>>34035969
They really don't have a reason to use blood now. Only reason the others did was because they needed quick and cheap magical catalysts.

>>34036097

I think its' more the principle of it. Kind of a fucked up thing no matter who you look at it, because it involved the murder of quite a few people.

So yeah they don't need it now, and may have been forced into it, but they need to be dealt with. Lest we look like we're forgiving murdering people to create monsters, just so we can get a larger boost in our Mage numbers.

>>34036218
eh, the mages that did that are dead and most people don't even know it happened. So I"m not too worried.

>>34036242
>most people don't even know it happened.

Except for the 20k or so people we relocated from Hiien. And 2k that are in our military. And a lot of our military guys in general.

Yeah I'm pretty sure a lot of people know about that. Word about that would get around, especially if the Mage Guard heard about it and was ready to send their Inquisitors.

That said the main perps are likely all dead. But I think people would still be nervous about Taouran mages being admitted into their towers unless a screening happened first.

>>34036218
we already had this argument

>>34036674
Random arguments are the best though. Especially over ground we already covered.

So who else is patiently for tunnelbro to reappear so we can all ridicule and laugh at him again?

Rolled 11

>>34036788
TUNNELS

>>34036788
Tunnel bro ;_; I ridicule and laugh at you in my heart.

>>34032758
Questions: How powerful can normal elementals get? Say one that's been the familiar of a Grand Magester for decades. Or centuries in the case of a GM whose spent all his time in the Lord's territory.

>>34036788
>inb4 tunnelbro was also canalbro so he won half of his tunnel

bump

>>34031490
What do you think would happen if they grew up near Undine's POP? My money is on blue tails and superior water element techniques

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I'm here and kind of sick (clearly a weekend of drinking does not support my immune system), so expect me to be able to answer questions for most of the day.

>>34036788
I've actually worked out proper rules for tunnels and their applicability (benefits, drawbacks etc). If it comes up in a siege again then I'll hopefully handle it with more grace than last time.

>>34036987
Your regular elementals (sprites etc) can maybe get as strong as Bartom is now. Greater elementals like Bartom cap out at around the current power levels of Gnome and Sala. Pure elementals get to almost ridiculous levels of power - Gnome can build an enormous fortress like the star-fort Harrowmont in months from scratch at full power; Undine could make 100 miles of river effectively impassable.

>>34041381
Hey Aspie, what are the girls' heights? I'd like to have a comparison of our harem

>>34041381
What do most Grand Magester types use as a familiar? For that matter, what tends to happen if a GM has a sprite that he summoned earlier in his career that simply cannot keep up with him

>>34041494
I don't think it is that important. It is a matter of prestige of course but still, mages have many ways to get powerful and a powerful familiar is just one of them.

>>34041381
Pretty much a shot in the dark but was Mal the mage PC?

>>34040647
that brings up an interesting question: How close are the foxes to the POP? They might vet some interesting results.

>>34041567
no, dude's in Malantine. There have been multiple references to a powerful mage doing shift for them.

>>34041592
Karise is setting up the village on the mountains above the PoP.

>>34041635
For some reason I thought we had met the guy.

>>34041665
Nope, we haven't. We made some guesses over who could it be last Q&A but had no luck

>>34041640
yeah, but there in the same province and there is right above it.

>>34041716
Exactly my point.
>there
people will start using this for half of their vocabulary sometime soon.

>>34041769
sorry on a phone

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>>34033207
I'll likely be holding off on updating it for a bit as a lot might happen before it's necessary (e.g. battle).

>>34041471
I don't keep track of most of their precise heights but I know their relative heights.

Lynn (5') = Taira = Tarfinn < Sarah < Sala < Taira (fake form) = Tsucchi = Undine = Rayza < Karise = Gnome < Talon (6'1)

In terms of bust it's: Sala < Taira < Lynn = Rayza < Tsucchi = Taira (fake form) < Sarah = Undine < Karise = Gnome

>>34041494
>What do most Grand Magester types use as a familiar?
If they were summoning as a Grand Magister they would probably get a greater elemental or similarly powerful familiar.

If they something weaker earlier, most mages would probably stick with it simply out of companionship. They could potentially desummon the familiar, though.

>>34042058
>Lynn (5') = Taira = Tarfinn
>All three best girls are shorties
Why!..

>>34042058
> Taira grew her height in her illusion
How have we not ever make fun of this?

>>34032091
>That's hardcore right there. Makes me wonder just how absurdly strong the shadow beasts are if he can't wipe them out himself.
the way i see it, raphael can kill them all day long without taking a scratch. but he can't be everywhere at once and we are talking about continental scales here.
they are probably reproducing faster than he can kill them. and would have killed and converted everyone on the continent while he was fighting them if he didn't make and maintain the wall. what good is it for him to single handedly fight and defeat 10,000 of them and save a village if, in the meanwhile, the entire rest of the continent was completely overrun?

>>34032775
people have already noticed.
raphael knows, foxes know, alyce figured it out, its likely that sylvian knows, who knows who else knows

hey, there is even that demon who shocked with the dwarf thing who might have looked up on us and some fae might have noticed us killing one of their kind off and looked us up as well.

so, we are a lot less anonymous then we thought
and besides, our greatest concern was the angels and so far we are on good terms with them and they know

>>34032659
anon, a weapon can hold a limited amount of magic.
at the moment we use a magitech foundry to manufacture magic arrows and magic bows. both designed to maximize damage
if we get rid of the magic arrows we reduce power, if we swap out some of the damage boosts enchantments on the bow with ammo summoning enchantments we lose power.

so, i am certain its doable, its just going to be all around inferior.

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>>34042101
>Tarfinn
>girl
Poor Finn...

>>34042121
I did note that she got shorter at the time she dropped her illusion.

>>34042121
and her bust

Is there a preset import tax or relative price on cocoa, spices, and other Pharos centric imports that you have behind the scenes or have you not thought about that?

I ask because the potential for them to place embargoes or raise those prices on TYE when we inevitable tell them lol fuck off over foxes, or even before that, seems like something we should head off. Neir's businessman brother in law might be interested in bringing some of those over, whether snuggled or not, and attempt to get our own supply running before such a thing happened, or just in general so we aren't reliant entirely on trade of those items.

>>34042549
how close are karise's people to Undine's POP

>>34042643

Haha typos. That was a good slip.
*smuggled

>>34042101
>Best girls
that is mean to just rank them like that
besides, everyone knows undine is best girl

>>34042812
>undine is best girl

This Anon speaks truth.

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>>34042643
Pharos imports are subject to import duties like all other products (and the preferred merchant license scheme). It's important to remember that other nations import the products so it would be very hard for them to place an embargo on you without doing so to the whole continent (and crippling their trade revenue).

With that said, I intend on offering some business development stuff on the side with the Termina arc. If you have any schemes of your own (like the one you just proposed) then it could be used.

>>34042678
They would be on the very edges of the PoPs influence.

>>34043291
> I intend on offering some business development stuff on the side with the Termina arc.

Ah alright that's good to know for being a nation with a significant port and soon to be significant portion of the eastern sea border we do surprisingly little in terms of business ventures. Pretty much have all the makings of a trade power, especially with the canal project, just need to get to work on that. So we can fund all sorts of stupid shit.

I assume the Olive plantations is one of those developments?

>>34043291
how close are gnome and sala to leveling up. Same with Mal

Aw just realized we didn't do a Sarah birthday flashback scene. I wanted to see Talon agonize over getting a present for her.

Nor have we talked to Corrfax yet. I wonder how he's liking his new digs.

>>34043665
well, it happened, we just didn't dedicate threat time to it, we are doing a lot of time skips

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>>34043563
Mal and Sala will level up before Gnome (or they should) and it will be relatively soon.

>>34043497
>Ah alright that's good to know for being a nation with a significant port and soon to be significant portion of the eastern sea border we do surprisingly little in terms of business ventures
Well, a lot of that is undertaken by the populace. Plus you've been a bit distracted by rebuilding two cities.

>I assume the Olive plantations is one of those developments?
Yeah. The RSK used to be the largest producer of olives and olive oil and also the largest consumer. The best olive oil comes from them. Except the war has turned approximately half their plantations to ash and taken out a few of their production facilities of the oil. As olive trees can take 5+ years to mature (even with magic) this is a big deal so Fenix placed an embargo on all olive oil exports from the RSK.

That leaves you with the prime opportunity to make a fair bit of money.

>>34043665
I'll try to squeeze those scenes in over the next few threads. I definitely want to do a Corrfax scene at some point.

>>34042262
Judging by the fae-knight's memory there's different kinds of shadow beasts, so while most of them are about human-sized you would get massive monstrosities that could actually threaten the settings' big shots.

What's up with Foxes and not having last names?

>>34043752
So, what do you think the odds are that Sarah will be in favor of turning Vitria into the largest Trading port in Garoun?

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>>34043952
They don't have much use for them.

>>34044512
Pretty good.

Oh so speaking of the canal. How close would the southern route run to Harrowmont? I had in my head something close to Minas Tirith and Osgiliath, but was unsure.

Also are Bascule and Swing Bridges a thing with magic involved? Or would we need to innovate those if we didn't want to make super tall bridges over the canal?

>>34045030
How big are the Farun, Companion and Termanian miltaries? How are they equipped?

...In retrospect, I probably should have asked this question before we decided to conquer them.

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Because I suck at drawing in pretty much all ways, I've simply attached some rough measurements to the old Harrowmont map instead of redrawing the whole thing to scale. All distances are for a given segment and are in miles.

If somebody who can actually use CAD programs wants to redraw it to scale, be my guest. Otherwise it will just serve to give people a sense of how huge the fortress is.

>>34045347

We have been given some rough sizes before at least.

Farun maintains a small force because of their generally peaceful nature.

Companion is limited by the Mage Guard and because of the Magi League/RSK conflict mercs are limited.

And Termina has I'd assume the largest.

All three are small though.

>>34045383

Architect anon here. Whenever I get back to my office/home in the next month I'll give it a go.

But damn that is huge. They weren't messing around. How does one even defend the large of a wall properly?

>>34045408
Yeah, but I don't really have a feel for how many and what kind of Mage-knight gear they have.

>>34045469
Lots and lots of people.

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>>34045469
Magic and a bit of help from scale.

The walls are too big to easily scale - 30m tall walls (about ten storeys) makes ladders unfeasible and siege towers hugely expensive and difficult to construct at that size. The walls are warded against flyers, forcing them to go very high to go over (and become sitting ducks). They're very thick and warded against heavy impact and magic, so you can't easily punch through them, either.

Otherwise, you will need plenty of men to hold it against a large force. This was built to be a secondary seat of power for Darlesia and it wasn't too small of a nation (probably ruled about 6m people at the time).

>>34045347
The combined might of all three nations probably matches your current military power, excepting yourself and immediate retinue. Farun probably holds about half that power but Termina has more mage-knight gear.

Are their ethnic groups within Gauron? Or the world in general? It doesn't really matter, just kind of curious about it.

For some reason I keep imagining Phrace as a young Idris Elba, it's how I keep him and Parras separate in my head.

>>34045745
Interesting. Farun is a tougher nut than I realized. Makes their position seem much more reasonable.

>>34045745
>The combined might of all three nations probably matches your current military power, excepting yourself and immediate retinue. Farun probably holds about half that power but Termina has more mage-knight gear.
So, 3-4K Mage knight gear of various types?

>>34045745

Termina sounds like the ideal time to field test any new innovations/designs for the AAs, specifically the Ranger Order...
We could put our new Grandmaster in charge of the Companion Campaign, Ideally after having her learn from the Commanders side of the Farun campaign...

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>>34045748
There are a variety of ethnic groups, though many have long since separated from where they would traditionally be over the centuries. Many of them don't really ahve names anymore as they've been somewhat subordinated into other nations (e.g. the arab-like ethnic group in the western half of the Three Lords territory). Malataine tends towards a more Mediterranean look. There were the Farloun, who actually had very different magical potential to many other humans.

By and large, ethnicity is less of a divide than nationality, species, class and magical potential.

>>34046390
I'll probably put together hard numbers now.

>>34046470
You can send both Finn and Lynn off to learn to lead better. If you want Lynn in charge then you should probably do so with an advisory council, though.

>>34045745
One thing I was pondering was those General stat blocks you were making. Might I suggest adding in a retinue skill?
Like not having the skill means you don't have any aides or secondary commanders, and you're army is basically a mob (and you're fucked)
Retinue 0 means you've got a bunch of rookies (or are saddled with political incompetents or a terrible army organization)
1 Means you've got a group of professionals
2 Means that you've got a better than expected group of aids, or a better organizational structure than the traditional noble arrangements (most of our guys would be hear)
3 Means that you have a bunch of genius's
4 is a legendary cabinet of leaders

>>34046616
>By and large, ethnicity is less of a divide than nationality, species, class and magical potential.

Huh. That's interesting, real shame the whole genocide of the Farloun though. Suppose we'll meet that one mage some day at least.

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>>34046838
This sort of idea mostly makes me think I need a more systematic way of handling things such as army organisation, logistics etc. Currently that's just sort of there but I may give attributes to armies for the purposes of campaigns on top of the generals (e.g. you might have an organised army consisting of 10,00 soldiers with good organisation but their logistical capacity is poor as they're too far afield).

I dunno. It's going to become something to think about as I have to start worrying about big campaigns.

Rolled 73, 67 = 140

>>34046616
>I'll probably put together hard numbers now.
Gotta request: can Farun or Compangion have some LMK? It would be nice to encounter that type of unit before we begin our major campaign

>>34047302
Yeah, I was suggesting to combine a lot of the army organization and such into a single skill. Ours would probably be better than most of our opponents because of our military reforms, but once that becomes obvious the enemy will probably copy us.

>>34047378

>enemy copying us

I'm awaiting the day when we battle someone who stole our AA idea, the outrage will be beautiful.

>>34046838
>>34047302


sounds interesting, but I feel a sub-list of what kind of people a General has as their advisor. For example; an officer from the AA corps would have a different tactical opinion than a Heavy Mage-Knight Officer would. Then you could also have Public speakers who can effect the order of a territory in conflict by use of propaganda, a Spy who can provide more detailed information dependant upon the status of our networks in the area...

Then again, it may prove a trife overcomplicated...

>>34047526

Man that sounds super complicated. I always kind of figured it was one of those things Aspirational hand waved as "your men take care of this".

>>34047403
Clearly we will counter with our Arcane Ballistae, Arcane Heavy Repeater Crossbows and enchanted pavises.

>>34047725
>enchanted pavises

Speaking of, I'm kind of surprised we don't have our AAs using those as of now anyway. They'd certainly suit them for open field and siege, plus we could get away with slapping a griffon on every last one of them.

>>34047827
Longbows are superior for a bunch of reasons. Mainly, with Low Draw High Power bows we can maintain Maximum rate firepower indefinitely, which removes the primary advantage of crossbows.

>>34047827
People prefer Longbows, and frankly retooling at this point is really dumb.

>>34047611

It can get very complicated, exponentially so as you add more types of advisors... then you have to consider the competence of the advisor; i.e. how much training they have had, how much experience, are they naturally suited to that particular role....

All I can say is that I have spent too much time on pointless things...

>>34047884

wat.

>A pavise (or pavis, pabys, or pavesen, all of them words stemming from the name of the city of Pavia, in Italy) is a large convex shield of European origin used to protect the entire body.

>The pavise was primarily used by archers and crossbowmen in the medieval period, particularly during sieges. It was carried by a pavisier, usually an archer, or, especially for the larger ones, by a groom. The pavise was held in place by the pavisier or sometimes deployed in the ground with a spike attached to the bottom. While reloading their weapons, crossbowmen would crouch behind them to shelter against incoming missile attacks.

Think we're talking about different things. Though I'm not going to get into the whole Longbow/Crossbow debate, not the thread for that.

>>34047884
>>34047930
Pavises are shields, anons, not crossbows.

>>34047993

Thank you, I thought I had lost my mind for a moment.

>>34047952

It's okay Anon, you're just one of the ones who likes to get into the nitty gritty of things. Despite how impractical it is for the quest itself. If we had infinite time, I'd be okay with it.

>>34047971
We might have Pavises. I don't think we ever really described their armor.

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Garrison troops attached. This includes details on your current garrison as well as the troops of the Terminan nations as reported by your spies.

Special troops are those that are attached to a particular feature of the territory (e.g. a city or monastery) rather than actual military.

>>34047526
This would become too complicated too quickly for me and would likely take up a lot of time in the quest. The idea is mostly to abstract where possible. I'll probably work on ways to abstract away important army/general elements at the same time I work out how to the same for your governance (so that you can know what's happening in your states without doing boring, time-consuming stuff like voting in governors and the like).

>>34048081

I would have thought it would have been brought up if did, as having it would really up their versatility on the field.

But who knows they might.

>>34048115
Holy shit, Darlesia needs an infusion of troops, stat.

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>>34048164
Your main military is hanging around there in large numbers. Remember that your garrisons are separate to your professional military, which is different to how I account for other nations.

Rather than equip them with Pavises, couldn't we just assign some earth mages/elementals to errect and remove emplacements as they advance/retreat?

That would be less physically taxing on the archers as they wouldn't have to carry anything, and Mal's research on the mana crystals could potentially let a single earth mage/elemental provide cover for a squad of AAs...

>>34048202
True. On the other hand, that standing military is stuck there isn't it?

>>34048208
Hmm, can we make activated enchantments? So the pavises could have an enchantment of lightening that is disabled when put down?

>>34048115

Damn we got a solid pick up with absorbing Lyyph.

Though this reminds me of how random question. When it comes to Knight Orders can we assume every major city has at least a few, but only the major ones get mentions? Because they seem like major assets, but they get glossed over a bit I feel.

>>34048300

I think that's how enchantments work. With way back when Phrace activated a pile of his heavy enchantments when we sent him in that room of doom and Arail mentioned they would load up on speed enchants during recon and supply hits.

Shouldn't be something beyond them.

>>34048302
>Damn we got a solid pick up with absorbing Lyyph.
True, Farun isn't to sloppy either (and I'm personally expecting that they'll be going shopping since they seem much less stupid than the merchants)

Talk of random research projects had me thinking.

Can we nix some of the ones going on in Vitria for the more practical stuff?

The hoverbike thing seems silly now that we're making a degree of headway into Patterns.

The Sending Device is still useful, but I don't know if we'll need it with Karise being in our ear constantly.

Seems we'd be better served innovating current tech to be better and upgrading soldiers, like the pavise idea.

>>34048588

I thought Vitria's R&D was into commercial goods, i.e. things which could be sold at great profit but would mostly be used by nobles and merchants... so a noble lord might get his son a hoverbike to show off how affluent his family is, while a merchant may buy some sending devices to have readily accessible communications with favoured business partners or with his holdings in other cities...

>>34048409
Bets on where they will get the suits?

>>34048735
Bunch of options really:
Any of the three factions of the RSK which aren't the king
Shroopam.
Pharos (because of our foxes)
Malantine (foxes)
Elements of the Mage guard (not genociding the Vampires)

>>34048718

Well all Foundries have Civvie factories, a required two. They produce goods, i.e. Vitria's old heat producing windows factory. However our Machinist in Vitria was mostly tasked with military installation of those two items. In fact his special little machine, that I cannot for the life of me remember the name of, seems the most geared towards testing military design so we don't waste the time on poor templates and having to redo them. Civvie production of those items seems ridiculous when we have a man that can produce military grade templates at half the time others can.

>>34048115
So, Baccia has no special troops for its super secret fortress church?

>>34048917

Yes, but unfortunatly it is located in our Trade Hub... Ideally we should have it moved to a more militaristic city, however moving Factories is a troublesome process, not to mention having to recalibrate them to work in their new location due to ambient magics...

Therefore, I suggest that we use that factory line as a Skunkworks, then we can export designs which prove successful to our Military factories located in a more suitable location...

Yes it will slow down the process, but it will mean that we won't have our specialist weaponry and equipment sat in a warehouse in what could arguably be called the busiest city in our Empire (thus far)...

>>34049177
On the flip side, if we do the canal it will be at the center of our logistics system as well.

>>34049177

Seems an unnecessary amount of work just to move one item that is already well in place and working just fine. Not to mention Vitria is more then a trade hub it is the second largest mustering point in the empire at present and Harrowmont's back up should it be attacked.

At present our Machinist is already heading up the other two factories anyway, so we can safely assume any designs there would be being sent off anyway. And with how mages work, as we saw Mal doing in this thread, they like to set up networks so that the two new Machinist we'll be getting can have their own RnD teams but still be working with the Vitria factory from afar.

That's not to say building another civvie factory in Vitria is a bad idea. But with the canal idea it seems thru trade will be the biggest breadwinner, not local.

>>34049247
>>34049353

Fair points. I conceed the point to you anons...

I guess my wanting to keep the weapons in an off-site armoury are mostly influenced by some misplaced paranoia about enemy raids...

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>>34049176
Your spies don't have much intel on the place. The Disciples of Theros are supposedly very paranoid.

>>34048300
Easily done.

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>>34045299

>Oh so speaking of the canal. How close would the southern route run to Harrowmont?
It would likely be within a few miles of Harrowmont itself.

>Also are Bascule and Swing Bridges a thing with magic involved?
Missed this. Bascule bridges are more widely used than swing bridges and they’ll typically be placed at most locks (for obvious reasons).

Also, I’m still trying to bed down the timeframe of construction for the canal. I’ve got a decent idea of its length (you’ll need to construct about 230 miles of it) and I’m abstracting away the additional lock and bridge work with the time that will be gained from canalising existing stretches of river. My dimensions are relatively wobbly but I’m basically planning it as a two-way ship canal.

Current estimate for maximum build-time is about 8 years but I’m not too sure on that. I’m not sure how much general labour would normally be involved in this sort of work, all I know is that Gnome is worth about 5,000 labourers when it comes to general excavation by my (very rough) calculations.

>>34050626

I think your best real world equivalents would be Canal du Midi through France and the C&O Canal in Pennsylvania and Ohio. The former was about 150 miles, it took roughly 12 years during the 17th century. The latter was 290 miles, and was upwards of 22 years between delays, but also opened up a lot of in between routes that still functioned to get early trade going.

Given the tech levels of the setting and Gnome herself, I'd say 8-10 years is a fair estimate. If we take the southern route it would also be easy to begin partial funding through easier trade routes from Harrowmont to Vitria, and subsequently Darlesia to Vitria, with all of our metal working provinces in between.

I do know Canal du Midi was dug a lot by hand, and certain sections through mountains were with early explosives. That's actually one of the quicker parts, it's building the locks, aqueducts and maneuvering around the landscape that takes more time.

It's been a bit since I've stupid canals, but that's what I remember off the top of my head. Side note, Canal du Midi is still gorgeous and a work of architectural genius.

>>34050995
*studied

Fucking auto correct.

>>34050995

Oh also something to consider, as canals tend towards being built for barrages you'll want to think of how you address that issue. Vitria and Ahm could both easily create a small fleet of them, to rent out, and a dry dock to keep them, and potentially seaworthy vessels if the trader is just going back and forth. Or we could go for the "bring your own barrage" route. Unless we're building a canal that can accommodate seafaring vessels in which case I'd bump your estimates up a bit.

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>>34050995
Thanks for the other sources.

I think the main mistake I've made is overestimate the necessary size of the canal. A canal 15m x 3m could easily fit cargo ships carrying 100 tons of wheat apiece both ways (and it could probably be smaller, too).

>That's actually one of the quicker parts, it's building the locks, aqueducts and maneuvering around the landscape that takes more time.
Part of the problem with historical comparisons is that earth elementals are more like modern digging equipment. Plus they can remove logistical constraints by creating stone, iron etc on-site, can do impressive diagnostics on the ground without any equipment and little time and tend to also be skilled engineers. Accounting for them is a pain as they can decomplicate many areas that would be pain-points IRL.

>>34051449
I considered having it be a canal for seafaring vessels but it honestly doesn't make much sense. Those sorts of ships are built for much longer voyages so it strikes me as more efficient to use smaller barges that can be self-propelled by magic rather than relying on a mixture of magic and wind (that might not be present).

I think my current estimate is around 2-4 years for the main excavation work plus some amount of time for additional complications.

>>34051552

Along with Gnome pretty much being the best engineer in the world we can completely skip over the old world issue of hydraulic engineering, because Undine. That was one of the larger issues with Canal du Midi, as it was mostly done on the fly and an unstudied science for the most part then and with 80 some locks it took a bit.

I suppose main construct would take upwards of 5 years. A year or so added for locks, bridges, aqueducts, and whatever other ridiculous things we comes up with.

Also the man power and funding it would likely be significantly lower than historical references. Canal du Midi was about 12k people at its height, with Gnome and Undine taking out problem areas like dams and construction we could probably do it with... 4000 people, including engineers, familiars, tradesmen(masons, blacksmiths, etc.) and possibly Bartom who would be his own thing entirely. Funding split between Ahm, TYE, and Vitria would be the most likely areas we collected from, and you know your math on that better than I, but probably paying the workers, a bit lower than a field solider per year sounds about right to me.

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>>34051777
>Canal du Midi was about 12k people at its height
That's good to know. Finding sources for labor in building canals has been hard.

>4000 people, including engineers, familiars, tradesmen(masons, blacksmiths, etc.) and possibly Bartom who would be his own thing entirely.
An anon suggested through email forming an engineering corps that would contain mages, engineers and familiars. I figure that there'll be self-contained units, each of which contains an earth elemental or equivalent and some other experts. Bartom would fall into this. This approach simplifies things a bit as I can simply say each engineering unit is 0.5 Gnomes or something. The amount of these you have on the construction, the faster it goes.

>Along with Gnome pretty much being the best engineer in the world we can completely skip over the old world issue of hydraulic engineering, because Undine.
Yeah, Gnome and Undine will basically design the canal and construct most of the really complicated parts (water bridges, complex locks, aqueducts etc). The biggest of these on the south path are the water bridge just across the border in the League and the fact you'll need to repurpose Castle Gimbon into a thoroughfare for the canal (or else take a 50 mile detour).

>Funding split between Ahm, TYE, and Vitria would be the most likely areas we collected from, and you know your math on that better than I, but probably paying the workers, a bit lower than a field solider per year sounds about right to me.
Ahm's funding will be separate as they'll be responsible for building their section of the canal (about another 200 miles). The idea of hitting up the Vitrian nobles for a portion of the cash is a good idea, though.

>>34051987
>Finding sources for labor in building canals has been hard.

Incredibly, for most of the older world stuff we don't have it. The records kept for Canal du Midi were pretty solid because it was ran on an individual contract basis. That's why I thought it was one of the better ones to source as we have a lot of information on it. Whereas modern examples are significantly lessened by the advent of modern technology. I think I still have a book on it somewhere from school, I'll dig it out if there's any other questions you need answered.

>Engineer corps.

I like that, it would significantly cut down on guess work by just simplifying our units by Gnome. Would also provide a good basis for later projects like the star-fort and minor construct projects so you'll already have the set up got costs, personnel needed and time. Something we can take into account as well when proposing new ideas. I'd personally call it a subset of the Mage Towers, only with more defined purpose, like the Ranger Order, wouldn't be a bad idea to throw Argimages in there as well so they can get their ideas out there more often(especially if we go for the bringing exotic flora over like cocoa idea).

>Vitrian nobles

Canal du Midi was funded as so: 40% by the King, 40% by France tax, and 20% by the engineer behind it all Riquet, the latter of which had the ownership handed over to his family for their part of the payment. I figure we can do 60% TYE, and 40% Vitrian nobles, give them primary ownership of the canal(including paying for maintenance, upkeep, etc.), though it would mean less money funneled directly towards the Empire, as it would pass through Vitria's hands first so they could skip their portion off, it would significantly cut down on costs for us, and be pretty much negligible in the longer run.

>>34051987
>>34052336
We should talk to Sarah about the Vitrian noble idea. Maybe she can leverage it in a way to improve her support (and ours) in the process.

>>34052425

I think that's the idea behind it. They'd be all about owning the single most important canal in the Empire, especially if we continued expanding it. That's probably the biggest and best bone we could throw them for all the other dick moves.

>>34052455
Part of me still wants us to remove that one noble from power who surrendered to Talon. I'd always felt that the guy was trying to teleport to her spire and when he failed she just pretended to have minimal involvement. But on the bright side if the Vitrian nobles rebel we can wipe the lot of them off the map and dance on their graves.

>>34052336
I would prefer we don't give ownership to the vitrian nobles
they have too much power already and are not huge fans of us.

>>34052586
>they have too much power already and are not huge fans of us.

What power they do have is really curtailed by Sarah's loyalty to Talon, and if we petition them for a portion of the costs it would likely involve at least partial owners. And I have a feeling that would be something that would make them like Talon more, wants them involved in building something that would make them a trade center of the world. He'd be literally handing them future money, I think they'll be happy.

Besides ownership isn't the best word for it. TYE would likely still own the canal as a part of the Empire, they would be responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of it, while getting their extra portions to pay back their debt and interest, skim their portion off the top for other things, and the taxes that come with. It's ownership in the sense you have a stake in the business.

>>34052537

>grave dancing

The only grave I want to dance on is Blackwaters.
Someday we'll dance on upon it with glee. Someday.

>>34042058
>Lynn (5') = Taira = Tarfinn < Sarah < Sala < Taira (fake form) = Tsucchi

Short girls are best girls. Ignoring Finn this is almost a list of the top girls.

>>34042440
Yes. But using it is a beacon that tells the world. So I'd like to have Termina before sending a world wide sign across the planet. Though we need to do it soon.

>>34052669
>What power they do have is really curtailed by Sarah's loyalty to Talon
You are thinking of their "power" to vote in that pseudo congress (which can be problematic in of itself since sarah is not 100% in authority there)
But when I said they have power what I meant was they have private armies, MASSIVE caches of wealth, and powerful individuals (since nobles tend to come from bloodlines of powerful mages AND have the best education, they tend to be knights and wizards), not to mention we even made the local wizards and knight orders into nobles too.
Wealth is a big source of power that they can strong us over, and lets them hire even more private soldiers.

Also, I honestly don't see what they have done to deserve getting all this wealth just literally handed to them for no reason whatsoever. Most of this is going to be funded by taxpayer money, or build by talons own personal familiar (gnome) and champion (undine). Furthermore, it is basic infrastructure of the nation itself.

To take taxpayer money and just hand it off to nobles is robber baronism. To take the labor of talon's personal familiar and champion and just hand that off to noble is a ridiculously generous gift.

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>>34052336
>I like that, it would significantly cut down on guess work by just simplifying our units by Gnome. Would also provide a good basis for later projects like the star-fort and minor construct projects so you'll already have the set up got costs, personnel needed and time.
Yeah, that was kind of the point. It also means I can just quickly determine how long it would take Gnome to do something (and compare her to what she could do at full strength where she's literally 20x more capable).

>Vitria noble funding
I'll likely be using this as a player choice with varying benefits and drawbacks. The discussion in the thread will probably be used towards that a bit.

>>34052818
>No Gnome
I sad.

>>34052843
PS. even without owning the canal and even with paying taxes on it. it will massive increase their wealth already.
They could move goods cheaper and faster, meaning their overhead costs are reduced (preservation and transport costs). they already own all the storage and distribution centers (warehouses, shops, ships, etc), so with more goods flowing through the city they make more of a profit there as well.

>>34052896
the fact that The Gnome is not a constant unit makes it rather unsuited for such measurements.
It is probably better to come up with a some basic unit. say, the equivalent of 1000 workers using normal tools, then put a figure on gnome's current capacity.
eg, gnome can currently do 5 TWU worth of work. but at her peak can do 100 TWU worth.

>>34052909
PPS. which incidentally disadvantages merchants who are left out (eg, the termina region)

>>34052843

I'm seeing what you mean, but disagree on the basis that keeping nobles happy so their wealth is not cloistered within their families but instead spent on the Empire that supports them. Nobles are valuable resources, I think we need to do more to make them happy.

I'm tired and don't feel like arguing much more, so I'll agree to disagree. It'll probably come up as a vote thing anyway. Just another option.

>>34052843
Its not being a robber baron if they pay in to the construction of the canal and pay upkeep costs. That's just them getting a fair return on an investment. The reason I brought up running it by Sarah though is so that she can manipulate the situation to the best benefit of the empire and herself by using the opportunity to garner support and sooth some noble buttpain. She also has Talon's interests in mind so its unlikely that she'll allow the nobles too much power. Basically the more leverage we give her over the other houses the better able she should be able to keep them in line. This project could be a golden opportunity to cultivate some good will.

That being said I'm all for wiping out any and all noble houses from before our ascension to Emperor and making it so people we actually trust and appreciate are the ones with power. That's just because noble houses offend my sensibilities though, meritocracy vs nepotism and all that.

>>34053014
How is taking taxpayer money and just handing it over to them making their wealth not cloistered within their families?

And building the canal in the first place will make them very happy, it will RUIN their competitor and massively increase their profits.

Now, if you want to hit them up for investment where they get a PROPORTIONAL cut of the profits that is something else.
So if a specific noble pays for 2.7% of the construction he gets 2.7% of the shares and thus 2.7% of the incoming profit, and if 70% was paid by government than 70% of tolls go to government... well, that is completely different than just handing them the whole thing as a taxpayer funded gift!

I am not too sure about that plan either since honestly we could get away with taxing them a little for it without giving them a cut of the tolls because of the simple fact it will make them a ton of money anyways (crushes compagnom competition, cuts their costs on transport, cuts preservation costs, increases volume of goods, increases their income from warehousing and sorting and other facilities, etc etc etc).

>>34052896
>Gnome

Oddly enough I really don't like her much. She's fun but I enjoy Taira/Salamander/Lynn more.

That reminds me we know Mal is leveling up relatively soonish. But how is Talon? We gonna need a lot of level 3 skills for Falwick.

>>34053077
>Its not being a robber baron if they pay in to the construction of the canal and pay upkeep costs

Just because they paid SOMETHING doesn't mean it wasn't robber baron. the taxpayer still had a massive amount of money taken and handed off to the nobles.
The proposal was explicitly to have them pay 40%, taxpayer pay 60%, and then nobles get 100% of ownership even though they paid only 40% of costs.

So, if the total cost, is say, 5 million, they pay 2 million, taxpayer pays 3 million, they get a 5 million asset. the robbery was of 3 million of taxpayer monies which were taken from them and then gifted to the nobles

>>34053077
>meritocracy

Just as inefficient. The Chinese when that way and it needed with bribes and caring more how you do it then how logical it was that you did it.

>>34053096

Oh that's the issue?

No no, the portion that the TYE taxpayers put in will still be kept within the Empire, 60 or 70 percent, whatever. We aren't handing that over to them as well, that's ridiculous and we'd lose all support. They are getting returns on investments, plus overhead to keep maintenance which TYE taxpayers will then not have to pay for.

Of course they are going to get rich off of this regardless. This just gives them the extra incentive to make it happen earlier will fostering some good will between Talon and them. I see it as more of working with them, to build the empire, not build the empire despite them.

>>34053145
>Taxpayers
>Owning the money

That's a good one.

>>34053145

The issue is you're taking the literal meaning of ownership. They own a stake in the business of the canal. Not the entire thing, I apologize for not making clearer earlier.

>>34053172
well yea, someone literally suggested that we hit up the nobles for 40% of construction costs and then give them 100% ownership and 100% of all toll income when its done.

at most we will allow them to buy shares.

that being said, I am not a huge fan of letting them buying shares either. They are already going to tremendously profit from it

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>>34053121
Firstly, there's a reason I've been offering sparring with Sala. Talon's magic skills have been levelling up slower, however, which also slows Gnome's development.

>>34053096
>I am not too sure about that plan either since honestly we could get away with taxing them a little for it without giving them a cut of the tolls
That was going to be one of the other options. Basically argue that the nobles will be getting a disportionate increase in their wealth relative to their input (property taxes in Vitria contribute pretty small amounts of your coffers compared to agricultural taxes). Apply a levy on them to capture some of that gain for the canal.

>>34053199
Any option to give the Vitrian nobles a slice of the pie would be subject to the general fact that you're the Imperator and you technically own everything anyway. You'd still be able to seize their slice back and compensate them for their loss (or don't, if you don't mind inciting rebellion down the track).

>>34053217
We should make a preferred merchant system where we tax the Nobles 300% more than merchants. Okay maybe that's too petty.

>>34053217

What if there are Nobles that actively want to put their money up for the project? Without the extra incentive, they just want to work with Talon.

I'd say we've spited a lot of the Nobles in Vitria already, no reason not to let them get in on this to cut down on our overall costs. It means construction starts earlier, and as such finished during times when we are actively pushing west to conquest.

>>34053263
>I've been offering sparring with Sala.

I've voted for that every time too. ;_; Level 3 weaponry never.

>Talon's magic skills have been levelling up slower

Makes sense Talon pretty much never uses magic skills and he doesn't understand his astral so he can't use that efficiently at all.

>>34053263
>You'd still be able to seize their slice back and compensate them for their loss (or don't, if you don't mind inciting rebellion down the track).
my problem with that is that seizing it after the fact is going to
1. be a lot more disruptive and inciting
2. make it very hard to get voluntary funding in the future since we went back on our word

I don't see why we even need to directly involve them since we already have a system of bonds and loans for state funding anyways. Its basically some deficit spending, as long as we are sensible about it. we are basically loaning the money and pay it back once we start collecting tolls on the thing or from future taxes. Also, a massive portion of our yearly budget went to reconstruction in darlesia and taour, recostructing the damaged magitech foundries. As well as being lost to all the burned farms from the war. So whether we do deficit spending this year or wait until next year to start canal construction, we could fully fund it without noble assistance

>>34053357
speaking of reconstruction. that in itself is already a start for our engineering corps. and I would rather focus on rebuilding those two cities fully first instead of reassigning all these workers, elementals, etc to the canal project.
Any increase in our engineering corps should be immediately assigned to further boost reconstruction of the war ravaged cities. Piles of rabbles and refugees in tents don't benefit from a canal highway system

>>34053263
I remember it being mentioned that dwarves would be interested in the rapidly depopulating undercity of taour (as the humans move to the surface).
How is this working out?

>>34053413

I think we need some solid dates on when those projects will be wrapping up and then our yearly projection in order to make the decision proper on the canal.

Involving the Nobles hinges on whether we want to start work immediately, while only draining our coffers somewhat, or simply do the work alone, draining out coffers more and wait until we have the money on hand.

Since we are also in war time, we have to consider our money also needs to go to future recruitment, arms and armor, and other infrastructure. So getting the nobles involved would leave us more wiggle room to still pay out for other things, in my opinion.

>>34053413
I wonder if any of the Fox clans are useful for engineering? I mean besides the ever useful ability to teleport and punch army sized holes in things. I'm looking forward to getting some administrator foxes on board.

>>34053482
>I wonder if any of the Fox clans are useful for engineering?
IIRC there is one. have to double check the old thread to make sure.

>>34053479
the wars are another thing to consider. Aside from our need to invest in troops and the like, this civilian project is a large investment in a very small portion of the continent. its large portion of the empire now, but in a few years we could have a LOT more territory.

Aside from that, I am wondering if we can revisit our recruitment choice. last time we chose to limit our recruitment and NOT recruit as many people as were willing to join into our standing army. a whole year didn't pass yet, and what changed is that we set up on course to fight shropam and mage guard, both with significantly larger military.

>>34053575
>this civilian project is a large investment in a very small portion of the continent. its large portion of the empire now, but in a few years we could have a LOT more territory.

Well seeing as the project reaches all the way out to Ahm it isn't that small, but yes this is true.

However I believe one of the more practical effects of the canal was it would allow us to supply train troops from the heart of the empire to westward conquest with ease and reduced costs/time. If we continued the canal past Ahm it would serve purpose even further inland. So it does have practical effect on our army and supply trains for them.

>>34053575
>what changed is that we set up on course to fight shropam and mage guard, both with significantly larger military.

I think it's hilarious because I told everyone we will need as much men as we can get. Though on the bright side we do have a advantage here.

It's Talon's empire vs Shropam vs the Mage Guard. In general they should be focusing on each other due to the larger armies of both.

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>>34053468
There'll be more on dwarves once Termina is taken. They have a trading post there.

>>34053413
>>34053479
Your Darlesia reconstruction ends in mid-March but Gnome will be free at the end of the current month. She'll need time to survey and design the canal as well as any plans for expanding Harrowmont. You'll also have that time to plan a ramp-up in your engineering resources.

>>34053575
I'll revisit recruitment and production as part of the Termina threads.

>this civilian project is a large investment in a very small portion of the continent
You'll likely be continuing to expand the canal as you expand your empire. It will be the most effective way to transport your troops around your empire without new technology or magic.

>>34053694
>I think it's hilarious because I told everyone we will need as much men as we can get.
Yea, I said the same thing too. It made me very sad when the "only hire some men" thing won.
But now we have an excuse to revisit this decision because what we TOLD people was gonna happen, happened (namely, upcoming war where we are vastly outnumbered)

>>34053725
>You'll likely be continuing to expand the canal as you expand your empire.
oh, certainly. its just that at the moment we are looking at 8 years for just this one section. We conquered taour in 2 months. at the current rate, we will conquer the entire continent before this one segment of it is finished

>>34053694
>I think it's hilarious because I told everyone we will need as much men as we can get.

I was at work during that thread and was incredibly dismayed by that decision. At least when we take Termina, we'll have those options again.

>>34053725
Time to build magical teleportation gates then? Can just imagine how that would go with Mal

"I need this ancient secret of the golden age found by Tuesday. A magical item able to teleport armies by Thursday. Make sure to have a couple of patterns for me by Saturday though."

>>34053756

Well the other two sections of Termina are suppose to take upwards of nine months, so we can assume taking an entire province, especially one particularly well dug in will take even longer. Also pretty sure the projections got changed above to something like 2-4 years.

>>34053800
How does this work out? we are basically mobilizing a massive force on farun while lypph does the same from his side in a pincer maneuver. then bullying compagnom to surrender before even invading.
All in all it should take less time than the taour war

>>34053848
They are probably more prepared. That and I think Talon isn't going to be involved in the war because he wants his troops to get used to battle.

>>34053848

I haven't the foggiest I just remember Aspirational saying it somewhere. Unless I'm misremembering. I'll see if I can find it.

>>34053900
Here bro.

>>34032408
>1. Termina/empire-building. This will cover the next 6-9 months in-quest.

>>34053900

Scratch that it's in this thread.
>>34032408 1. Termina/empire-building. This will cover the next 6-9 months in-quest.

So it'll be within the timeframe.

>>34053884
I don't get that point at all.
we have expanded our command structure to accommodate this exactly.
Also, ideally we want them to surrender when they see just how badly outnumbered they are. for one thing fewer widows and orphans is going to make the transition easier, for another we could keep all those soldiers and use them against shropam and mage guard
for another, we need this done ASAP.

We already have several generals. we want to train more? well, put them in leadership over smaller squads at a lower level. You can't just take someone who is a grunt and thrust him or her into generalship and expect them to do well and learn well. and this will also sit poorly with the troops.

>>34053943

Training as in getting our Conscripts and Greens bloodied, its about the overall whole of the army getting more use in the field and gaining experience, while also raising our established Generals and down Leadership qualities.

I don't understand why this doesn't make sense.

>>34053943
>we have expanded our command structure to accommodate this exactly.
by that i mean we added more ranks so there is something between "squad" and "general"

>>34053981
>Training as in getting our Conscripts and Greens bloodied
Anon said "talon sit it out", this seems to clearly refer to previous suggestions such as letting lynn or tarafinn play general to let them learn how to.
If it meant to let arail or our other established generals handle this alone then it is less crazy but still a bit odd. talon himself needs all the practice he can get and nothing is stopping him from being in there with them and deferring to their judgement while seeing exactly what works and what doesn't

>I don't understand why this doesn't make sense.
Because you are literally suggesting we sacrifice the lives of our own soldiers and the soldiers of the nation we are just about to conquer so that the soldiers get "experience".
We should be aiming to win with minimal casualties. If we can intimidate them into surrendering without even fighting we should take it.
The notion that we should intentionally get a bunch of soldiers killed just to give the survivors "experience" is madness

>>34053943
I think the idea is Talon sends out Lynn/Finn/Rayza to smash shit while he commands and gets people used to combat.

Though depends a lot on how we do this. I think the ideal way is Deodain houses two armies and attacks Teret and Illin while we attack Arrine from Craol and Darfus keeps the Farun busy. Then after Farun is under control we attack Avinou along with bribing some merchants.

>>34054034
another point is, a lot of our future battles are going to involve hero units on both sides.
The RSK generals are absolute monsters, there are several archmages we might have to fight, a helldragon, etc.
So getting more experience in working around those is actually MORE important and valuable than having them sit on the side and having the men get more practiced in "fair fights"

>>34054058
>I think the idea is Talon sends out Lynn/Finn/Rayza to smash shit while he commands and gets people used to combat.
What do you mean by that? smash shit implies property damage rather then killing people
are you saying we send them alone? or just have them lead squads on the front lines while talon sits in a command tent and directs all his troops and hones his strategy?

>>34054083
The hero units probably won't be as efficient now. Just because now it's fighting tens of thousands of men. So we have the risk of being overpowered.

>>34054034
Technically speaking if we really wanted to win in a week we could just call out Taira. She could literally smash their armies in like 10 minutes.