As You Command OOC

[JbeJ275]

- Our naval assets (Pirate mercenaries and captured enemy flagship) are present, but the pirates won't stick around unpaid for long. We probably need to develop a revenue source for them (maybe fortifying a cove to act as a Tortuga-esque pirate haven for them to live under the protection of the castle. Maybe an Outer Court "Master of the Navy" who is a pirate lord/lady with one foot in legitimate sailorship. Like Barbossa when he's working with the English. Are we not King's men?

- Our biggest asset is the castle, but it's in bad repair and the effort to repair it more fully is going to take years. I've always liked the Lyre of Building magic item, which basically turns a bard into a one man construction team - maybe we need an Master Engineer, and then get a Lyre of Building for him so he can personally crank out several hundred Man-Days of work each week, plus organizing a labor force to do the more technical work.

- We have a little land, and we have an army. We need serfs to work that land and feed that army. We can expect a trickle of dissidents fleeing from the Empire; but if there's a neighbouring kingdom going through turmoil we can poach some refugees out of, all the better. Heck, if we can find a tribe of orcs or something who are willing to take parcels of land, and don't mind an authoritarian boot grinding down on the back of their necks while they do it, we might have to make them an offer. Maybe even one they can't refuse.

- Speaking of the crappy land, a good way to get that land productive quickly would be getting a circle of druids on our side - maybe the kind who are indifferent to mortal suffering in favor of the environmental big-picture. Maybe we can find a grove of druids who are being hunted or hated, and offer them sanctuary?

- Monetizing our ability to give the mad and bad of the world sanctuary is one of our key potentials here. We might want to start paying moles in other kingdoms to disseminate the information that the Unbowed Isle is offering protection for all manner of enterprising ne'erdowells.

Do you guys have personal character projects you'd like to deliniate?

Regarding the plan to forge a Tortuga esque pirate base, doing that would almost certainly require forging a good relationship with the Coral Corsairs, or else making an effort to grow the very small number of pirates who have been marked as unacceptable by the corsair courts and survived to tell the tale. The corsairs don't currently have a refuge in the same sea you're currently serving in, but would be unlikely to accept too many limitations on their activity, and the established blocks in those courts might come to see you as a rival.

Reagarding places to Steal Magic items, the vast majority of those currently in use are relics from the Old Empire, the majority of those being found in the old Imperial vaults beneath what is now Ordana and Thassalonia, but both of these places guard them jealousy and have the power to back it up. More plausibly, the old Imperial capital was known to once sit on the Marcellian coast, but sunk beneath the waves, with ships attempting to evacuate valuables being struck and brought down in the swell.

The traditional way for an ambitious and talented lord to gain the population for a new fief in this world has been freeing the Landsmen of Odrana. Though their golems are formidable they are poorly managed enough that most can set the ground prior to fighting one, and they're not intelligent combatants, and while the grounds of their empire are warded they’re not unified enough to respond to quick incursions and not motivated to spend elven lives chasing down stolen chattel. The mostly human landsmen on the other hand are hardy folk, and willing to labour gratefully for new lords as long as they retain basic rights and freedoms. There are other more monstrous groups, closest to hand being the mountain goblins, hobgoblins and orcs found in the south east of the continent, but you know little of their conditions.

Regarding druids, most local ones are part of Creadurynasllawerofnadwy or the Beastclans as everyone else in the world calls them. The beastclans aren't really united as a single nation, instead divided into clans that bicker between themselves. You can find druids of most alignments there, though in particular the Dyfnderoedd underclans that inhabit the island to your south have a reputation for brutal practises, poor relations with outsiders and strange religious practises.

As for recruiting general outlaws, it has potential. But despite the miracle ensuring your brother lacks the naval strength to bring the fight to you at the current moment you'll have to prove your strength and resilience before they really start coming in.

Lamorak - A diminished but by no means spent force. He is still the only hope Cypher has of getting revenge on his enemies and tearing down their institutions. Losing Mala'kharn might even be an advantage, fiends wish all mortals to suffer after all, even those in their thrall.

Maiabel - He feels some strong sympathy with her, knowing well the pain of having one's family destroyed by fools serving Marcellian II. However, he must not let that cloud his judgement. The time is long past for her to be a planted agent of the Emperor, but something is not what it seems. She is neither unintelligent nor unwise but yet she follows all orders without the slightest hesitation or question. She may simply be another traumatised victim of Marcellian Ii's regime, but a calculated attempt to ingratiate herself with Lamorak is just as likely. To what purpose, he will wait and see...

Sharkan - A lycanthrope spy from the Gift of the Moon seems highly unlikely, what could they possibly want on the opposite side of the continent? Cypher still doesn't trust him in the slightest though. Sharkan's arcane abilities could plausibly have made him an outcast from The Gift, but he hasn't completely ruled him out as a spy from the Magocracy of Thassalonia or Odrana. He is certainly too charismatic by half and must be watched in case he uses Lamorak's currently reduced might to seize control of our remaining forces and carve out his own territory.

Cypher is very happy with the infiltration/assassination abilities of all three subordinates, and hopefully between us we can smuggle the boss in if stealth is vital to any missions we do. In combat Lamorak will be a great centre for the more glass cannon members to fight around.

Cypher would want to move cautiously, strengthening our position and undermining the Empire before acting directly against them and risking restarting the civil war. Inside the Empire he would like to try and drive a wedge between Marcellian Ii and the College of wizardry. Assassinations might need to wait until there is enough of a distraction going on that we can get in and out more easily or avoid an instant reprisal.

Outside the Empire, Ordana seems most ripe for a neighbouring nation to cause strife in, or at the very least recruit peasants from. A false flag attack provoking conflict between the Marcellian Empire and Ordana or [unspellable celtic nation] also seems possible, but starting an all out war might just prompt a neighbour to take over the Empire and deny us the opportunity.

We are in a very unstable position and an alliance with the Coral Corsairs might ensure we have good supply lines and prevent other seafaring nations from moving in. There is currently very little the pirates could want to take from us, which hopefully would make us relatively safe from them betraying us in the short term. We should avoid the Magocracy like the plague. The giant nation and artillery nuts don't seem easy to manipulate to our benefit in any way.

I love the master engineer idea. Cypher's knowledge skills might be quite helpful if we want to roam the lands trying to track down powerful magic items or people to help us. Making a haven for outcasts and starting a recruitment drive sounds fun but might work better once we can make the island a more attractive proposition.

Regarding false flag attacks, the issue with Odrana is that you'd have to actually strike at the city, or one of the few conclaves of elves to get any sort of emotional reaction from the city's powerbrokers, and those are well defended indeed. You might be able to tempt an attack from them out somehow but the desires of the powerful in that city are difficult things to keep track of.

As for the beastclans you might have better luck there. While they're disunited and many have good relations with the Kingdom others frequently engaged in raids until Marcellian the First used Statesmanship to make that untenable and then blunted any remaining raiders militarily. They've since settled, and some have even converted to the Kingdom's faiths but could potentially be roused again.