>>5461059
>3. Mercantilism: Six years ago they gave you a small fleet of freighters and set you loose on the Yaugent system. Today, the trade network your built there is responsible for 12% of the Company's quarterly profits.

>>5461059
>3. Mercantilism: Six years ago they gave you a small fleet of freighters and set you loose on the Yaugent system. Today, the trade network your built there is responsible for 12% of the Company's quarterly profits.

>>5461059
>Pure luck: You consistently have been at the right place at the right time to make friends with powerful people, snag profitable deals and even repeal raids

>>5461059
>2. Tactics: You proved yourself again and again in battles against pirates, Porusian rebels and even Catar Company fleets.
Can we be the very model of a modern major gentleman?

>>5461059
>Pure luck: You consistently have been at the right place at the right time to make friends with powerful people, snag profitable deals and even repeal raids
When Napoleon asked for generals, he asked if they were lucky.

>>5461059
>3. Mercantilism: Six years ago they gave you a small fleet of freighters and set you loose on the Yaugent system. Today, the trade network your built there is responsible for 12% of the Company's quarterly profits.

>>5461059
>2. Tactics: You proved yourself again and again in battles against pirates, Porusian rebels and even Catar Company fleets.

>>5461059
>2. Tactics: You proved yourself again and again in battles against pirates, Porusian rebels and even Catar Company fleets.

>>5461059
>Pure luck: You consistently have been at the right place at the right time to make friends with powerful people, snag profitable deals and even repeal raids
>>5461232
based, let's do this

>>5461081
>Pure luck: You consistently have been at the right place at the right time to make friends with powerful people, snag profitable deals and even repeal raids

>>5461059
>3. Mercantilism: Six years ago they gave you a small fleet of freighters and set you loose on the Yaugent system. Today, the trade network your built there is responsible for 12% of the Company's quarterly profits.

>>5461059
>1. Connections: Over the course of the last six years you've ingratiated yourself to some of the most powerful men in the Territories. Admiral Basel himself knows your name.

>>5461068 >>5461074 >>5461081 >>5461223 >>5461232 >>5461247 >>5461435 >>5461439 >>5461689 >>5461935 >>5461972

Guess I can make my first ruling of the quest: in case of a tie, write-ins will take precedence.

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>>5461059
The meeting seems to be yet another consequence of your unusually good luck. From the moment of you were born, you seemed to have been blessed with a knack for being at the right place at the right time, and with cunning and charm to match. Not unlike your father. For the past six years, opportunities have all but fallen into your lap. You've repelled rebels, slipped past Catar Company blockades, befriended (and in some cases bedded--the heavens were generous in many ways) influencers who have the ear of the Porusian emperor himself. If Sir Arthur Weald has heard your name, it has been surely been prefaced with words like "unbelievable", "remarkable", and "extraordinary". It is a pity he does not know you are his son, he might have even taken some pride in your accomplishments. In you.

But you dismiss these foolish notions as you knock at Sir Arthur's door, an ornate carven slab. One that appears to be made of real wood (you shiver to think of its cost), but which retreats into a slot on the floor all the same. The viceroy sits behind a desk of what you fear must have cost a still greater fortune, but which on closer inspection appears to be just a synthetic imitation. The viceroy himself is dressed in more reasonable garb, if a little outdated in fashion, but the maid in stiff attendance beside him wears the latest fashion from Triton, and, more worryingly, the vacant, half-lidded gaze of a thrall. The floors of the office are carpeted with a Porusian rug of intricate geometric design.

"James Chapham," he says, turning his palm over at a chair some feet opposite the desk. You sit. He offers you water, tea, "something stronger, perhaps?" by way of his maid, and these being politely rejected, turns quickly to the matter at hand. "I assume you know why you've been summoned?"

"I believe that I do, sir. Forgive me, but do you prefer 'sir' or 'viceroy'? I never know with nobility." you say, finishing with a practiced smile (which some maidens of your acquaintance have even called "winning").

"I would prefer either to any denomination of that more familiar title."

Your smile falters and the rush of blood to your ears muffles what little speech you can manage. "Familiar title? I'm afraid you've lost me viceroy."

"Did you really think that you would escape my notice? Did you think that I wouldn't make inquiries the moment you requested--requested! I applaud your temerity--to be sent here, to this...outer dark? To me? Did you? Though what you thought you'd obtain from me, what you expected, of that I have not the faintest idea." He takes a sip of tea. "I have legitimate children enough to contend with..."

You can say nothing in response.

"Those children will never allow it. And I must observe decorum and, moreover, the law. You have no claim. That is the truth we both know. And yet, I am not wholly unsympathetic..." He licks his lips. "Silence, for a reasonable price, might be purchased..."

>How do you react to Sir Arthur's words?
1. Indifference: It'll take more than this to rile you up. Politely remind him that you arrived to your station by your own talents and luck, as he did
2. Indignation: How dare he speak to you that way, when he is the one at fault! You would not accept his favor nor his forgiveness were it offered upon his knees.
3. Interest: You were never one to look a gift horse in the mouth. You can do far more with coin than you can with abstractions like dignity
4. Write-in

>>5462293
>Indifference: It'll take more than this to rile you up. Politely remind him that you arrived to your station by your own talents and luck, as he did

>>5462293
>2. Indignation: How dare he speak to you that way, when he is the one at fault! You would not accept his favor nor his forgiveness were it offered upon his knees.

>>5462293
1. Indifference: It'll take more than this to rile you up. Politely remind him that you arrived to your station by your own talents and luck, as he did
Right and law has never stopped those who were opportunistic enough. But I didn't come here to beg for scraps of heirlooms or missing attention. I've come here to carve myself a future, and this outer dark has plenty of it.

>>5462293
Indifference
That'll really rile him up

>>5462293
>Indifference: It'll take more than this to rile you up. Politely remind him that you arrived to your station by your own talents and luck, as he did
Stiff upper lip! Besides, all things will fall into place eventually.

>>5462290
>in case of a tie, write-ins will take precedence.
That's pretty garbage

>>5462322 >>5462342 >>5462348 >>5462437 >>5462523
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What baffles you about the viceroy is not his prudence--that you could have predicted; it is even a point of admiration--but this display of sentiment is improper. It is true what they say: one should never meet one's heroes.

"Forgive me, viceroy, I was under the impression you had called me in to congratulate me on my recent success. Success that, I'm sure you're aware, was earned unassisted, through my own talents and luck, such as they are. If I had not been so summoned, I doubt I would have sought your audience for any other purpose. And if I have sought a position so far from the rings of Triton, I can assure you it was only because the glory we young men crave has been there exhausted, and not for any other, baser purpose."

The good viceroy studies your face, seeking some sign or tell, or perhaps simply admiring in it his own likeness, his forgotten youth. Finally he sighs. "It were better you had been legitimate," he says, "You're worth is greater than all my honest progeny combined, as your record can well attest." He taps with the back of his hand a small holopad on his desk. "If indeed we may bury our wretched past, then it is meet we should speak of our brilliant future."

"I am at your service, viceroy."

Sir Arthur begins by commending you on your efforts thus far. They are remarkable accomplishments for someone so young, particularly in their diversity; indeed, he has great need of someone of your varied talents. For the next hour or so he briefs you on your newest assignment, an operation as bold as it is profitable. The essence of it this: you are to travel to the Zemyna system, to one of the fifty-seven moons orbiting its largest gas giant, and there assist the young princess of Arien IV, Ksumi Kariya, with her moon's governance. You will be doing this without Company oversight, reporting directly to the viceroy himself. You will worm your way into the princess's confidence. And, when the time is right, you will be instrumental in seizing the moon for Queen and Company.

"In a few years Triton II Company will be seen as the folly it is, and its director seats absorbed into the Company proper. Undoubtedly there will be vacancies and who better to fill them than an young upstart with demonstrable results? An accomplishment of this magnitude will open doors in places you cannot yet even imagine. But, it need not be said that this a most sensitive operation. The moment you accept, you will no longer be working for the Company, but for me."

"Then I can expect no support?"

"None but what I can offer you now."

>Which support will you take?
1. Credits: A private expense account will go a long way towards assuaging any troubles that may arise.
2. Intelligence: Information is the principle medium of exchange in the territories; the light in this "outer dark"
3. Ship: A fully armed warship tends to settle arguments in a way that other means cannot
4. Write-in

>>5462642
2. Intelligence: Information is the principle medium of exchange in the territories; the light in this "outer dark"
Give me the lore dump

>>5462642
1. Credits: A private expense account will go a long way towards assuaging any troubles that may arise.

>>5462642
>3. Ship: A fully armed warship tends to settle arguments in a way that other means cannot

>>5462642
>Credits: A private expense account will go a long way towards assuaging any troubles that may arise.
Money makes the world go round. Especially if we want to influence a royal court.

>>5462642
>1. Credits: A private expense account will go a long way towards assuaging any troubles that may arise

>>5462642
>Credits: A private expense account will go a long way towards assuaging any troubles that may arise.

>>5462642
>3. Ship: A fully armed warship tends to settle arguments in a way that other means cannot

>>5462642
>3. Ship: A fully armed warship tends to settle arguments in a way that other means cannot

>>5462642
>Picking arms over intel
>For a mission involving politics

I hope the big guns are unnecessary

>>5463125
Intelligence

>>5462642
>1. Credits: A private expense account will go a long way towards assuaging any troubles that may arise.

Intel can be bought, armed goons can be hired.

A princess you say? Sounds like seduction time.

>>5463162
>>5463126

Good point, switching vote

>>5462650
Switching to
1. Credits: A private expense account will go a long way towards assuaging any troubles that may arise.

>>5462642
2. Intelligence: Information is the principle medium of exchange in the territories; the light in this "outer dark"

I say better to take advantage of the prepared intelligence portfolio of the big man himself rather than risk arriving to the moon with credits to purchase info, services, and firepower only to flounder from a lack of initial trusted local connections and no info to further orient us and our strategy around. Money can be acquired, we seem to be inserted into some operational or advisory role to the princess and with our charm we can acquire local funds if we don't already have a decent amount stashed away from our own individual success in life so far.

Alternatively with a ship we have the final argument of kings and we can always find ways to make a warship useful in order to earn money.

>>5462642
>1. Credits: A private expense account will go a long way towards assuaging any troubles that may arise.

Apologies for the delay gentlemen. I have work on the weekdays so posts may not come per day. I will try to post an update tonight.

>>5463929
Unacceptable OP, I expect you to have no life or responsibilities outside of writing the fiction I so desperately crave. I sentence you to death my Snu Snu.

>>5462650 >>5462703 >>5462745 >>5462824 >>5462909 >>5463011 >>5463044 >>5463046 >>5463125 >>5463162 >>5463793 >>5463898

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>>5462291

The viceroy seems quite intent on the success of this mission, for the support he offers you is not inconsiderable. He is even willing to grant you unfettered command over a fully armed Company Starship of the Line--an older model, granted, but more than enough to comfortably blockade a station port or bombard a lunar colony. Yet, even this appears to be a kind of test. The warship is garish, too much lacking in subtlety for a mission that demands so much of it. Not to mention the kind of message showing up with a warship would send to the princess. And the intelligence he offers you, a network of agents just starting to settle in, seems more of a hassle than an actual asset. You'd much prefer to build your own network.

That leaves the private expense account. It's a lump sum, which is never as useful as a steady source of income, but which is, nonetheless, substantial enough to get you started on creating such a source of your own. More importantly it's discrete. And most importantly, it's non-refundable. Whatever you don't spend of it and whatever else you earn with it, is yours to keep. The viceroy himself seems to approve of your decision, listening closely to your arguments, reinforcing your belief that this was indeed a kind of test and that you have passed.

"One last thing," says the viceroy, as you shake his hand. "I have been with these Porusians for many years now, they are primitives to us Tritonians, it is true, but even so, do not underestimate them. Do not underestimate the Princess."

"Porusian women are hardly more than thralls in their society."

"Yet they have their wiles all the same, and royalty has its own special subtlety. Be on your guard."

You bow your head, scoffing inwardly at the viceroy's romanticism. What you've seen of the Porusians thus far, does nothing to support this ridiculous entreaty for caution. Not that they are not men, not even that they are lesser men, but that they are men of pure and simple disposition, of elemental passions, and of transparent purpose, and perhaps, not even alone in their natures. Indeed, the stars here are sparse and scattered; their light is dim. What burns is the honest heart, and timidity is the fuel. It must be so. All denizens of the Third Arm must come, at last, to this final directness of existence.

---

In just a few minutes the civilian transport will touch down on the space port of Arien IV, whereupon you will be taken to the palace of Princess Ksumi Kariya and introduced to her court. Around you in the transport are strangers: high-strung water merchants, dozing pilgrims, the impossibly pale faces of virconium miners. Every precaution was taken to ensure the Company's deniability to the true cause of your mission. This is not even a Company ship and but for one trusted companion, you have been sent all alone.

>Who is that trusted companion?
1. Unchipped Thrall: Given by a Porusian merchant to make up for some damaged cargo, and parted from her control-chip by your own sense of propriety, the ex-thrall chose to remain in your employ anyway. What she lacks in education and status she makes up for with fanatical loyalty and knowledge of Porusian customs and language.
2. Veteran Bodyguard: You've known the old soldier since you were a child. An old friend of your mother's, he (probably by her insistence) decided to accompany you into the Third Arm.
3. Talking Cat: A Tritonian invention with a twist of your own design: a cat, chipped with an Alpha level artificial intelligence that is connected to a voice module embedded in its collar. He has superhuman memory and is capable of speech. He is also inordinately smug.
4. Write-in

>>5464530
2. Veteran Bodyguard: You've known the old soldier since you were a child. An old friend of your mother's, he (probably by her insistence) decided to accompany you into the Third Arm.

>>5464530
>2. Veteran Bodyguard: You've known the old soldier since you were a child. An old friend of your mother's, he (probably by her insistence) decided to accompany you into the Third Arm.

Can't go wrong with a hard hitter that you can trust watching your six.

>>5464530
>2. Veteran Bodyguard: You've known the old soldier since you were a child. An old friend of your mother's, he (probably by her insistence) decided to accompany you into the Third Arm.
Bodyguards are great

>>5464530
1. Unchipped Thrall: Given by a Porusian merchant to make up for some damaged cargo, and parted from her control-chip by your own sense of propriety, the ex-thrall chose to remain in your employ anyway. What she lacks in education and status she makes up for with fanatical loyalty and knowledge of Porusian customs and language.

The knowledge of the nuances of their language and custom should come in handy, true we could simply purchase a skilled translator, but the same could be said of a bodyguard, with her being loyal we don't have to worry about mistranslations meant spare our feelings or amuse the translator. The lack of status and education is disappointing but can be fixed with time. It is also important we have some knowledge of the language and culture right at the start of our stay here.

I'm fine with the bodyguard too though.

>>5464530
>Talking Cat
No one suspects the cat of being a spy. Also, its a cat and they're adorable.

>>5464530
>. Unchipped Thrall: Given by a Porusian merchant to make up for some damaged cargo, and parted from her control-chip by your own sense of propriety, the ex-thrall chose to remain in your employ anyway. What she lacks in education and status she makes up for with fanatical loyalty and knowledge of Porusian customs and language.

>>5464530
>3. Talking Cat: A Tritonian invention with a twist of your own design: a cat, chipped with an Alpha level artificial intelligence that is connected to a voice module embedded in its collar. He has superhuman memory and is capable of speech. He is also inordinately smug.
Cat funny

>>5464530
>Talking Cat
A talking cat? Voiced by Eric Roberts.

>>5464530
>1. Unchipped Thrall: Given by a Porusian merchant to make up for some damaged cargo, and parted from her control-chip by your own sense of propriety, the ex-thrall chose to remain in your employ anyway. What she lacks in education and status she makes up for with fanatical loyalty and knowledge of Porusian customs and language.

>>5464530
>1. Unchipped Thrall: Given by a Porusian merchant to make up for some damaged cargo, and parted from her control-chip by your own sense of propriety, the ex-thrall chose to remain in your employ anyway. What she lacks in education and status she makes up for with fanatical loyalty and knowledge of Porusian customs and language.

>>5464530
>3. Talking Cat: A Tritonian invention with a twist of your own design: a cat, chipped with an Alpha level artificial intelligence that is connected to a voice module embedded in its collar. He has superhuman memory and is capable of speech. He is also inordinately smug.

3. Talking Cat: A Tritonian invention with a twist of your own design: a cat, chipped with an Alpha level artificial intelligence that is connected to a voice module embedded in its collar. He has superhuman memory and is capable of speech. He is also inordinately smug

Cute af

>>5464530
>Veteran Bodyguard

>>5464534 >>5464558 >>5464596 >>5464598 >>5464620 >>5464774 >>5464840 >>5464854 >>5465003 >>5465293 >>5465334 >>5465539

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>>5464530

Mr. Mittens (a name which he thoroughly despises, preferring the more enlightened sobriquet of Mithradates) is the only companion you were allowed to bring with you, on account of his being a cat, and because the truth of his talents are a closely guarded secret, unknown even to the Company. You've had him since he was a kitten, a birthday gift from your mother the year you were admitted into the Academy. He is by all appearances ordinary, and if not for the strange round spectacles he wears over his eyes and the bowtie collar he wears around his neck (accessories nothing could persuade him to discard), none would give him a second glance. No one would guess that he possess human level intellect and superhuman memory, nor that, through the voice module in his bowtie collar, he could speak. No one would guess either that he is 23 years old and would probably outlive his master. Genetic modification has come a long way in Triton, despite its dubious legality.

Mr. Mittens has saved your skin on more than one occasion. He forgets nothing he sees or hears and is innocuous and resourceful enough to get into nearly any secure location with relative ease; a perfect spy. His only failing (if he would ever admit one) is his own vanity: too proud to mingle with the dumb brutes of his own species; too alien to join in the company of men. When he isn't running errands for you, he's browsing the Galnet on your holopad, filling his inexhaustible memory banks with material for his own inscrutable purpose.

On long trips like these, however, he prefers to doze. It is not until you disembark from the transport that he perks up and climbs up to his usual spot on your shoulder (garnering the cheerful attention of several children and young women). There he adjusts the bridge of his glasses with a paw and whispers into your ear. "I say, what a damnable place! I'm reminded of the bordello of Thalassa Prime. There at least was the presence of the devil and his temptations; here, is merely the absence of God."

You cannot well respond to him without looking ridiculous (as well he knows), but you feel you must concur. The dingy port is filled with kneeling beggars, thieving children, weary officials and half-naked slaves--not all of them even thralls. In one of the high-ceilinged round chambers, a group of merchants have set up an impromptu bazaar, selling everything from vacsuits to vasodilators. Hovercarts whizz by overhead at dangerous speeds, laden with stacked luggage. A dozen variations of the Porusian tongue mingle with Tritonian pidgin and Catar profanities. Three times you are accosted by over-zealous chauffeurs to take your non-existent luggage to an undisclosed location, possibly never to return. It is not until you pay one of them that the others cease in mobbing you, and that only by the efforts of the one thus employed.

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>>5465730

Finally you are brought outside the port, to one of its tube-enclosed roads. Arien IV has rudimentary shielding, but no atmosphere to speak of and no efforts have been made to terraform it. It is monstrously cold on the road, but waiting for you a few paces from the gate is a comfortable cab, driven, apparently, by the Princess's own chauffeur, a man with teeth blackened by chew. When asked about the condition of the base, he replies that it had once been much worse and that by the efforts of Ksumi-ma (the "ma" being an epithet half of endearment and half veneration), it has improved. You cannot imagine things being much worse, but then, the Princess has only been here a year, and has done enough to win the admiration of at least one subject--even if one of her own employ. One who has apparently lived here most of his life. You cannot help but remember the viceroy's warning. Perhaps caution would not be unwarranted.

When you arrive at the palace, you are surprised a second time. Far from the excessive manses of the Zapallan belt, with their domed towers and gaudy multicolored banners, here lies a structure of Tritonian brutalism. A fortress, built into the sides of a lunar crater, sporting at least two dozen heavy batteries pointed at the uncovered heavens. The fortifications are ancient; the guns, recent. You cannot imagine any member of the Zapallan royalty to reside in a place like this, let alone a young Princess. Inside the fortress however, the accommodations are closer to expectations. Porusians rugs, Porusian silks, refined speech and manners per the Porusian custom: men bowing to each other, hand over chest; women with powdered necks and faces (a Tritonian custom) lowering their eyes (a Porusian one). Beauty, down to the very incense that perfumes the long, rounded chambers.

Yet it is the Princess herself who is the crowning jewel. This is a beauty that could not be human, either given to man by God himself, or created by men in perverse defiance of His laws. As her gaze falls upon you from the high throne, you fall automatically to your knees and bow your head. In the hall is perfect silence, and then the rising ringing of her bangles and the rustle of silk. This is why the Tritonians abandoned perfection of the flesh. Over this, they nearly destroyed themselves in civil war.

"Mr. James Chapham," she says, with only the faintest of accents, "you are very timely."

It feels as if you've lost all reason, you cannot form your thoughts into words, you can hardly even breathe. But this passes quickly. Not all the perfumes of Porusia could trouble your heart for very long. You rise to your feet. Mr. Mittens (who had leaped off upon your impromptu genuflection) promptly returns to his perch on your shoulder, much to the Princess's amusement.

"I came as I soon as I could," you say.

"And well that you did, for I have need of you."

Here an older gentlemen, also Porusian, also wearing a turban, though white and not so elaborately jeweled as the Princess's, clicks in tongue in gentle rebuke, speaks rapidly to the Princess in a dialect unfamiliar to you, but for the word "Ksumi-ma". The Princess laughs. "He says, I am inhospitable. He says, you have traveled far and are weary, and it is very discourteous to speak of labor before you have bathed and eaten. For this he scolds me."

"It is your custom, Princess. But I have come not to enjoy your hospitality. I have come to endure your labor."

She claps her hands together. "Well said! You see, Hanno? Were all men so earnest, we should be prosperous without rain. But, no, Mr. Chapham, I have indeed been discourteous." She nods to a servant-in-waiting, perhaps a slave, and she shuffles to you and holds out her arm for you to follow. After some awkward dismissal of a gaggle of bathing attendants, you wash yourself, dress, eat a small meal in what is henceforth to be your chambers, and then are summoned to a smaller hall where the Princess is apparently negotiating with some water merchants--perhaps the same ones you saw on the transport--over the purchase of water for the colony.

The Princess seems to be there only in a superficial capacity. Her minister, Hanno, is the one doing all the negotiating, yet, it becomes quickly apparent that the merchants are grossly overcharging the Princess and perhaps have been doing so for some time. The figure the minister brings to the Princess and advises her to accept is nearly thrice the nominal market value, even accounting for the relative remoteness of the sector.

>What do you do?
>Resources: 3C | 0R | 0F*
>Skills: 0D | 0O | 0A
1. Assist the Princess: Attempt to renegotiate the deal yourself. It is not right to play politics with basic necessities like water. (Diplomacy roll required, DC: Easy**)
2. Line your pockets: Approach the merchants after the deal and threaten them with exposure in exchange for a cut of future profits and regular intelligence (+1 Credits, -1 Reputation, affects future events)
3. Allow the mistake: Let the Princess make the mistake, then confront her about it later, thereby cementing your competency and position (+1 Reputation)
4. Write-in

*C = Credits, an abstract measure of your available funds (personal or otherwise), R = Reputation, a measure of how well known and liked you are in the quadrant, F = Fleet, ships both commercial and military in your command
**Rolls in this quest will be best of 3 d20s. DCs range from 5 to 25, represented as Trivial, Easy, Challenging, Difficult, and Impossible. Rolls are modified by your skill levels: Diplomacy, Operations, and Administration.

>>5465733
1. Assist the Princess: Attempt to renegotiate the deal yourself. It is not right to play politics with basic necessities like water. (Diplomacy roll required, DC: Easy**)

>>5465733
>3. Allow the mistake: Let the Princess make the mistake, then confront her about it later, thereby cementing your competency and position (+1 Reputation)

>>5465733
>1. Assist the Princess: Attempt to renegotiate the deal yourself. It is not right to play politics with basic necessities like water. (Diplomacy roll required, DC: Easy**)

The viceroy's warning comes to mind. What if this is the first test from the princess?

>>5465733
>. Assist the Princess: Attempt to renegotiate the deal yourself. It is not right to play politics with basic necessities like water. (Diplomacy roll required, DC: Easy**)

Yeah, this has test written all over it

>>5465730
>"I say, what a damnable place! I'm reminded of the bordello of Thalassa Prime. There at least was the presence of the devil and his temptations; here, is merely the absence of God."

Mr. Mittens has won my heart already

>>5465733
>Assist the Princess: Attempt to renegotiate the deal yourself. It is not right to play politics with basic necessities like water.

Dude, I Love your writing, thats sick->>"I say, what a damnable place! I'm reminded of the bordello of Thalassa Prime. There at least was the presence of the devil and his temptations; here, is merely the absence of God."


And i Vote for 1. - surely will be a test , but leta try to Not make a Scene, so the Princess wont geht humiliated in Front of others

>>5465733
>1. Assist the Princess: Attempt to renegotiate the deal yourself. It is not right to play politics with basic necessities like water. (Diplomacy roll required, DC: Easy**)

>>5465733
>1. Assist the Princess: Attempt to renegotiate the deal yourself. It is not right to play politics with basic necessities like water. (Diplomacy roll required, DC: Easy**)

>>5465733
>>5465749 >>5465806 >>5465836 >>5465846 >>5465915 >>5465955 >>5465965

Roll 1d20

Rolled 6 (1d20)

>>5466018

Rolled 17 (1d20)

>>5466018

Rolled 10 (1d20)

>>5466018

Rolled 9 (1d20)

>>5466018

Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>5466018
crit.

>>5466018
>>5466021 >>5466037 >>5466042 >>5466162 >>5466273

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>>5465733
All life on the base depends on this water, including your own. It is not the time to consider politics or skullduggery. And as Minister Hanno is about to return to the merchants with the Princess's reply (given from behind a thin curtain which exposes only her slender silhouette in repose), you speak up. The water merchants are Company men or adjacent to them, not highly educated men, by their bearing and speech, but men who have learned their trade by salt and iron. You have dealt with their kind before.

"With your permission," you say, bowing to the silhouette, "if I might have a word with the gentlemen."

"What words?" says the minister, in plain Porusian, with a rapidly darkening brow.

"I believe I can strike a better deal," you reply, in equally plain Tritonian, a language the good minister seems not to understand for his brow darkens still further. Yet he does not speak, looking instead to the Princess. She answers in due time, her voice no longer so light and cheery as it was when she greeted you. "You have not been here a day and yet you presume to know better than my minister? Passion has its limits Mr. James Chapham."

The minister nods gravely in assent.

But this is no time to bow your head and retreat; this too may be a test of some kind. "You did say you had need of my services, Princess."

The shadow slaps the armrest of her divan. "Nothing so brazen as this!"

"Have we got a deal or what?" The merchants now begin to chime in as well. "If the terms' is not to your liking, Princess, we'll take our water elsewhere. Yours ain't the only moon you know, plenty of parched throats in the quadrant."

"Yet hardly enough to justify such obscene prices."

"And who're you, mate?"

"Mr. Chapham!" says the Princess, her voice now in a dreadful shrill, "I order you to--"

"Be warned, gentlemen, if there are many mouths to feed, there are also many merchants. I dare say it is you who are dependent on our goodwill more then we upon yours. We were to pass on your offer here we would by week's end find another more favorable to us, even if it were myself alone in the task. You, however, have spent your fuel, have crews to pay, and must consider the possibility of further rejection, if, for example, word were to spread to those other moons of what transpired here today. If I'm not mistaken, we are the seat of power here, not them."

The shadow has now stood up, ready to cast judgement for your apparent insolence, but wiser heads prevail. Minister Hanno waves her down, waiting for the merchants' reply.

"We might go half," says one.

"You will go one-fifth."

"Ridiculous!"

"One-fifth gentlemen, or walk away now."

They look to the minister for help. The minister looks away.

"A third."

"One-fifth, and you may return to do business here another day, and then we may even be generous."

>>5466641
They groan and grumble, but they have little choice. One-fifth still nets them a profit, if only an honest one. You leave the details to the minster, while you await your sentence in your own chambers, banished there by a gesture from the Princess to her guards. Dinner is sent to you, a long table brought in bearing a meal fit for a king--or for a dead man. You eat with little appetite, offering the plentiful remains to Mr. Mittens when he returns from his spying.

"You've gone and done it now old boy," he says, attacking a large roast duck that serves as centerpiece of the ensemble.

"Furious is she?"

"Oh, you'll know in a moment. I say, is that mutton? Bless me, it is. When's the last time we had mutton, Jim? Have we ever had mutton? What IS mutton?"

"Quiet, there's someone at the door."

It seems the minister himself has come to deliver your punishment--and apparently be its executioner: an ornate pistol is held loosely in his hand and there is a general grimness about his face. While you've heard that Porusian royalty are sticklers about courtly etiquette--never looking a royal in the eye, never speaking out of turn or interrupting another's speech--you did not consider they'd go to such lengths.

"I don't suppose 'it was my first day' is a sufficient defense."

The minister, not missing a beat, merely offers you the pistol in reply, barrel down.

"I don't know what the custom is here, but I for one have never found suicide an acceptable alternative to dishonor. Live on in disgrace, I say. To live on, that's the real curse right there--so a great man once said."

"A gift," says the minister. "From Ksumi-ma. To welcome you. And to reward your efforts: those today, and those to come."

Taking a closer look at the piece, you see that it is probably ceremonial, far too laden with gemstones and gold leaf to be anything functional. You look to Mr. Mittens, who meows in a close approximation to mocking laughter. He just wanted to see you squirm, the rascal.

"Then she is pleased?"

"She is not angry. And if she was, it was on my behalf."

He points questioningly to an empty chair.

"Please, by all means," you say, taking a seat also.

"In truth, it is me she should be angry with. We've traded with those merchants for three seasons and not once did we perceive their duplicity. Rather than face that, or face the shame of it, it is easier to begrudge you."

"A Princess may make such blunders, especially a young one, but, forgive me, I find it hard to believe a minister of your years could have done so as well."

He scoffs. "Yes, a grand and wise minister, I am. The envy of all Porusia."

You return a blank look.

>>5466643
"I was the Princess's personal guard," he explains, "assigned to her at birth. I have watched over her all her years and hope to do so till I breathe my last, but at heart I am a soldier and these silks she's forced upon me are as a shirt of hair. I did not approve of her sending for someone such as you, for I would rather she quit all this foolish business and return to her father. But now I am glad you are come, for I can see that were we to leave, and you remain, the people might not suffer by it."

"You wish for the Princess to fail?"

"It is what is best for her. She, a child, and a woman--it was not right for her to...but I must not say more. She would not wish it."

>What do you do?
1. Team up: For the moment, you share a common goal and it would be better to have the minister as an ally than as an enemy, even if one you'll eventually have to betray
2. Persuade him: There is always the possibility that this is a clever ploy by the Princess, seeking to root out your true motives. Play the loyal servant for now.
3. Expose him: Now that you know his true motives it will not be difficult to remove him from the Princess's confidence, even if his intentions are in her best interest.
4. Write-in

>>5466645
2. Persuade him: There is always the possibility that this is a clever ploy by the Princess, seeking to root out your true motives. Play the loyal servant for now.

>>5466645
2. Persuade him: There is always the possibility that this is a clever ploy by the Princess, seeking to root out your true motives. Play the loyal servant for now.

>>5466645
2. Persuade

>>5466645
>2. Persuade him: There is always the possibility that this is a clever ploy by the Princess, seeking to root out your true motives. Play the loyal servant for now

>>5466645
>2. Persuade him: There is always the possibility that this is a clever ploy by the Princess, seeking to root out your true motives. Play the loyal servant for now.

>>5466645
>3. Expose him: Now that you know his true motives it will not be difficult to remove him from the Princess's confidence, even if his intentions are in her best interest.

>>5466645
2. Persuade him: There is always the possibility that this is a clever ploy by the Princess, seeking to root out your true motives. Play the loyal servant for now.

>>5466645
>3. Expose him: Now that you know his true motives it will not be difficult to remove him from the Princess's confidence, even if his intentions are in her best interest.

>>5466645
>3. Expose him: Now that you know his true motives it will not be difficult to remove him from the Princess's confidence, even if his intentions are in her best interest.

I don't buy the ploy idea.

No update tonight. I'll try to get one in tomorrow morning. We're almost done with the initial preamble though and the quest proper will have shorter updates and be more civ flavored.

>>5466645
>2. Persuade him: There is always the possibility that this is a clever ploy by the Princess, seeking to root out your true motives. Play the loyal servant for now.

>>5466645
>>5466647 >>5466648 >>5466680 >>5466726 >>5466869 >>5467107 >>5467206 >>5467223 >>5467356 >>5468107

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>>5466645
"You wish for the Princess to fail?"

"It is what is best for her. She, a child, and a woman--it was not right for her to...but I must not say more. She would not wish it."

The minister looks expectantly at you for some response to his confession, perhaps a promise in support of his benevolent sabotage. Yet, it is clear you have not all the facts. It is possible this is all an elaborate ruse by the Princess, or by the minister himself, to test your loyalties. And it is foolish to gamble without an edge.

"Your intentions are noble, minister, but your interpretations entirely backward. That is the solider in you, concerned above all by the health of your ward and not her happiness. It is for that I will keep all that has been spoken here in strictest confidence. But understand that my duty is to the Princess alone, first and foremost. She chose to come here. She chooses to remain. The customs of your people, or her reasons for flaunting them, or even her safety, are of less concern to me than my duties. If she wishes to make this a prosperous colony, then I shall oblige. I cannot work counter to that."

The minister nods and stands to his feet. He touches his heart with an open palm in respectful farewell. "I will tell her you have said so. I believe it will please her."

So a trap after all?

"Thank you for considering my words, and for your discretion," he adds, before politely departing.

The next day, the Princess cordially invites you to sup with her, possibly as a way of reconciliation. The minister must have put in a good word for you, as promised.

The Princess takes her meals in the fashion of her people, with carpets and cushions in place of tables and chairs, with many attending servants, and with soft music playing from two large speakers (the only piece of innovation in this antiquated ceremony). The Princess, watching you refuse the servants as they attempt to feed you, decides to do the same. Her servants can only watch awkwardly and with what seems like dejection, as she brings a spoonful of soup to her perfect lips. It is perhaps the highlight of their day to attend so closely to a being of such perfection, and denied of it on your behalf, they regard you with open malice. They are even more distressed when the Princess manages to burn her tongue on the soup, not having the foresight to blow on it beforehand.

"I am perfectly fine!" she says, batting them away, leering at you all the while.

"It's very good soup," you say, nonchalantly.

"I was told to accept your apology," she says, ordering a servant to take the soup away. You hadn't even finished yours.

"I don't remember apologizing."

"Yes, for making a fool of yourself in my court yesterday."

"Still less do I remember apologizing for something I haven't done."

"Are you always so insolent to your superiors?"

"When it benefits them."

>>5468333


"Never in my life have I been spoken to in this way." Though she has not yet reached that fevered pitch of voice she displayed the other day, her cheeks have flushed and her breath is quick. "My commands are never disregarded. Even my father the Emperor would not have done so."

"Flattery is cheaply bought, Princess, but at great cost."

"You speak boldly for one whose accomplishments were achieved mostly through luck. The water merchants agreed to your proposal because Arien III, our sister moon, is currently on the brink of rebellion. They would not have bought their water in any case. That which you said, your claim of our powers, was in error. Blind luck won the day."

That throws you for a moment. You really need to start gathering current intelligence on this quadrant as soon as possible. "I would rather a million times be blind and lucky, than with sight and foolish."

"How dare you!"

"You knew the facts, Princess, but you still failed to act. Even had the merchants walked, I would have made good my promise and found another. It is good that I am lucky, but I do not depend upon it."

The Princess seems as if she will retort with something cutting, but then merely pouts and hangs her head. The minister was right, she is still only a child at heart.

"You did not hire me to obey you Princess, but to advise you. Even when it is unpleasant to hear, even if it is insolent, I will speak if I believe it is best in your interest."

A long tense silence follows. The two of you nibble at the food, no longer having an appetite. Finally, the Princess speaks, in a soft, meek voice quite unlike her previous ones. "My father has sent me a small fleet of hunters--the last help we can or will accept from him." She looks up at you, to see if you will challenge this. Then, she continues. "What do you propose we do with them?"

>What is your suggestion?
1. Exploration: Fit the hunters with additional crew and supplies and send them out to explore the sector. There's no telling what they might find out there in the darkness. (affects future events)
2. Support: Lend the hunters to the governor of Arien III to squash their rebellion before it can get legs. You will prevent instability and garner a future favor from the governor to boot. (+1 Reputation)
3. Hunting: Let the hunters do what they do best. Order them to patrol the quadrant and police traffic for pirates, smugglers and outlaws. Increased stability means more trade, and more trade means more taxes. Not to mention what you can seize from the criminals. (+2 Credits)
4. Write-in

>>5468334
>1. Exploration: Fit the hunters with additional crew and supplies and send them out to explore the sector. There's no telling what they might find out there in the darkness. (affects future events)
Mystery box

>>5468334
>2. Support: Lend the hunters to the governor of Arien III to squash their rebellion before it can get legs. You will prevent instability and garner a future favor from the governor to boot. (+1 Reputation)

What did we gain for succeeding on the roll for assisting the princess with the negotiation? Any resource increase, or something less mechanically tangible but still useful like still useful in the story like influencing story beats or how the vizier/princess thinks of us or just getting the water cheaper, if indeed you are keeping track of stuff like that instead of just our resources?

>>5468382
I am keeping track of everything behind the scenes. They all influence events down the line (or more immediate scenes) in many different ways. The success in the roll meant you got the water for one-fifth the price, as written. The myriad consequences of this (besides change in standing with the Princess and the minister as shown in the last two posts) will be explored in updates to come--as with pretty much all choices going forward.

As a general rule, choices that don't have any resource attached to them will impact the story directly (usually via a special event/scene).

>>5468334
>1. Exploration: Fit the hunters with additional crew and supplies and send them out to explore the sector. There's no telling what they might find out there in the darkness. (affects future events)

>>5468334
>Hunting: Let the hunters do what they do best. Order them to patrol the quadrant and police traffic for pirates, smugglers and outlaws. Increased stability means more trade, and more trade means more taxes. Not to mention what you can seize from the criminals. (+2 Credits)

>>5468334
>1. Exploration: Fit the hunters with additional crew and supplies and send them out to explore the sector. There's no telling what they might find out there in the darkness. (affects future events)

>>5468334
>2. Support: Lend the hunters to the governor of Arien III to squash their rebellion before it can get legs. You will prevent instability and garner a future favor from the governor to boot. (+1 Reputation)
First get a stable base before expanding.

>>5468334
>Exploration
The Spice Melange must be ours!

>leering at you all the while
Wonder if we can use that to our advantage.
>ordering a servant to take the soup away. You hadn't even finished yours.
Unforgivable.

>>5468334
>>5468342 >>5468382 >>5468411 >>5468417 >>5468538 >>5468556 >>5468635

Your first thought is to send the hunters to assist the governor of Arien III. But hunters are designed for pursuit, not for blockades or orbital bombardments. Still, the rebels might think twice with a fleet of them in orbit, their broadsides ready to strike swift and true anywhere on the base.

However, this sector was once part of the First Expansion. You remember that from the viceroy's briefing. It's history reaches far beyond the Porusians and there may be remnants of that first doomed excursion out there in the black, ripe for the picking. To that end you advise the Princess to equip the hunters with additional crew and supplies and to send them out into the unknown.

The Princess seems not even to have considered this option, judging by her surprise, but after some thought (and some questions) is convinced its merits. She tasks you with the oversight of the mission and by moon's end you have the hunters refit for deep space exploration. Would that you could go with them! Instead, you occupy your time in other ways.

>What do you spend the moon* doing?
>Resources: 3C | 0R | 0F*
>Skills: 0D | 0O | 0A
1. Building your own private intelligence network that spans the base and the quadrant (-2 Credits, +1 Reputation)
2. Going over accounts with the minister, getting yourself up to speed on the base's operations (EXP towards Administration skill)
3. Setting up meetings with the governor of Arien III and the leader of the rebels to see if you can't resolve matters to your benefit (special event, EXP toward Diplomacy)
4. Write-in

*Turns are called moons in this quest, roughly equivalent to a month. You get one personal action (as above) and one general/advising action (as in the previous post) per turn. There may also be an event in a turn, which you will have to deal with, separate from these actions.

>>5468722
>3. Setting up meetings with the governor of Arien III and the leader of the rebels to see if you can't resolve matters to your benefit (special event, EXP toward Diplomacy)

>>5468722
>3. Setting up meetings with the governor of Arien III and the leader of the rebels to see if you can't resolve matters to your benefit (special event, EXP toward Diplomacy)

>>5468722
>1. Building your own private intelligence network that spans the base and the quadrant (-2 Credits, +1 Reputation)

Knowledge!

>>5468722
This quest seems kinda similar to that elf lord and feudal lord quest that ran awhile ago, I like it.

>1. Building your own private intelligence network that spans the base and the quadrant (-2 Credits, +1 Reputation)

We really oughta get this started even if the exp is juicy and current events move on without us. Besides, our word may not have much worth with the governor without reputation or intelligence. Plus I'd rather not fail any rolls during the event before we've really built our foundation.

>>5468839
If it's the one I think you're referring to, (the one where we had a clone wife), yeah I took a lot of inspiration from that quest mechanics wise

>>5468867
I can't remember for sure, but I think it might be the same one. We got her from a witch or something, right? That quest was basically copying the elf lord one, which itself was an even better read. Basically the QM opined in qtg that the best basic formula for civ management quests was that of one managing abstract resources interspersed with unique events or something. There's been a few copycats over time.

>>5468722
>. Building your own private intelligence network that spans the base and the quadrant (-2 Credits, +1 Reputation)

>>5468722
>2. Going over accounts with the minister, getting yourself up to speed on the base's operations (EXP towards Administration skill)

>>5468722
>Building your own private intelligence network that spans the base and the quadrant

>>5468722
>1. Building your own private intelligence network that spans the base and the quadrant (-2 Credits, +1 Reputation)

>>5468722
>1. Building your own private intelligence network that spans the base and the quadrant (-2 Credits, +1 Reputation)
This will give us an edge in everything we do later.

>>5468722
>1. Building your own private intelligence network that spans the base and the quadrant (-2 Credits, +1 Reputation)

>>5468722
>1. Building your own private intelligence network that spans the base and the quadrant (-2 Credits, +1 Reputation)

We don't have the skills yet to stop a rebellion, we don't even know what it's about.

>>5468722
>>5468725 >>5468736 >>5468745 >>5468839 >>5469287 >>5469352 >>5469457 >>5469481 >>5469530 >>5469597 >>5469850

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>>5468722
A mistake like the one with the one with water merchants must not be repeated. You must secure a source of reliable intelligence and while it is true you can ask the Princess for information, it is better that you create a network of your own, separate from her control.

To that end you draw funds from your private accounts and make a few generous donations to some local, less-than-reputable watering holes. Word spreads quickly. Very soon you have the attention of several dozen specialists, a few operating from Arien IV itself, others hailing from Arien III, and even one from the Catar Company colony on Brabantine Prime, the third occupied moon in this sector. It will take some time for the network to start gathering useful intelligence, but so far, you've already discovered that there is a growing criminal underbelly in this quadrant, ruled by a mysterious pirate named Everett Gammon, colloquially called "Gamma Gammon" for his uncanny ability to get into places thought to be impenetrable. Triton Company prison hulks for one.

There is a sizeable bounty on his head, should you manage to capture him. The Princess seems to be aware of him as well, but tolerates his presence for its stabilizing effect on local trade and crime. No dares cross him and he even seems to have his share of admirers among the poorer citizens. He must be dealt with eventually.

As the new moon rolls in, you settle into your duties as adviser. You are a minister in all but name (the Princess will not confer upon you that title, reserved as it is for Porusian blood) and take to your work with relative ease. With the water bought so cheaply, there is a surplus this moon and the Princess, wishing to be equitable (or perhaps merely to save face) has decided to make you responsible for its use.

>What do you with the surplus?
1. Save most of it for a rainy day and skim the rest into your private account (+3 Credits, DC: Challenging, Administration roll)
2. Invest it in capital ventures on the base. Low interest loans to hopeful local traders and entrepreneurs will go a long way toward attracting further investment--say from Triton Trading Company (affects future events)
3. Purchase arms and hire a hand-picked assortment of experienced officers to train professional soldiers, for now to improve general security in the base, especially in the port. (+1 Reputation)
4. Write-in

>>5469997
>2. Invest it in capital ventures on the base. Low interest loans to hopeful local traders and entrepreneurs will go a long way toward attracting further investment--say from Triton Trading Company (affects future events)
Bussiness and later on guns.

>>5469997
>3. Purchase arms and hire a hand-picked assortment of experienced officers to train professional soldiers, for now to improve general security in the base, especially in the port. (+1 Reputation)

>>5469997
>2. Invest it in capital ventures on the base. Low interest loans to hopeful local traders and entrepreneurs will go a long way toward attracting further investment--say from Triton Trading Company (affects future events)

While refreshing our personal funds and saving could be good, as could improving security, I think skimming is risky with the DC 15 and while the vizier guy isn't the most competent administrator the two things I trust him with is being loyal to the princess and being good at security - those new guns on the walls are likely his doing - so better to invest the funds now in return for rewards later down the line.

Though now that I think about it we should probably improve security eventually, if not this moon then the next or the one after that. There may be a less visible aspect to this quest, in the sense that there may be more to it than simply making our Resources and Skills stats go up and succeeding at rolls. We should eventually see about actually resolving the issues presented to us, the rebellion on the other moon, forwarding our actual mission, improving the military and security so that we can actually deal with this mystery pirate should he show up to bother us, creating a well rounded foundation of personal resources here on Arien IV for us to assist the most urgent matters troubling the princess, etc.

>>5469997
>2. Invest it in capital ventures on the base. Low interest loans to hopeful local traders and entrepreneurs will go a long way toward attracting further investment--say from Triton Trading Company (affects future events)

>>5469997
>3. Purchase arms and hire a hand-picked assortment of experienced officers to train professional soldiers, for now to improve general security in the base, especially in the port. (+1 Reputation)
Just in case the rebellion spreads

>>5469997
>Purchase arms and hire a hand-picked assortment of experienced officers to train professional soldiers, for now to improve general security in the base, especially in the port.

>>5469997
>2. Invest it in capital ventures on the base. Low interest loans to hopeful local traders and entrepreneurs will go a long way toward attracting further investment--say from Triton Trading Company (affects future events)

>>5469997
>2. Invest it in capital ventures on the base. Low interest loans to hopeful local traders and entrepreneurs will go a long way toward attracting further investment--say from Triton Trading Company (affects future events)

>>5469997
>2. Invest it in capital ventures on the base. Low interest loans to hopeful local traders and entrepreneurs will go a long way toward attracting further investment--say from Triton Trading Company (affects future events)

Gotta spend money to make money

>>5469997
>3. Purchase arms and hire a hand-picked assortment of experienced officers to train professional soldiers, for now to improve general security in the base, especially in the port. (+1 Reputation)

>>5469997
>2. Invest it in capital ventures on the base. Low interest loans to hopeful local traders and entrepreneurs will go a long way toward attracting further investment--say from Triton Trading Company (affects future events)
BUY THE DIP

>>5469997
>2. Invest it in capital ventures on the base. Low interest loans to hopeful local traders and entrepreneurs will go a long way toward attracting further investment--say from Triton Trading Company (affects future events)

I will try and get an update out tonight, but I recently discovered the Untamed Civilization Quest on the board and, inspired by its random generation methods, want to develop something similar for this quest (working behind the scenes, of course). So, I might work on that today instead.

>>5471259
Nice, I'm also following that it. Did you try sending a private message to Damashi? Maybe he could help.

>>5469997

>>5470007 >>5470039 >>5470095 >>5470135 >>5470137 >>5470538 >>5470608 >>5470659 >>5470792 >>5470922 >>5471034 >>5471223

There is a strong temptation to sequester the funds for later, using that as an cover for wetting your own beak, but it does not last long. It is too early for such ploys. You are not yet well enough established and should you be caught, it is not certain that you would get out of it alive. Instead, you do the next best thing: re-invest the surplus in the base and its denizens. Through a local broker you offer long-term, low interest loans to anyone in the quadrant with a potentially profitable business, even only the idea of one. Within weeks you are swamped with applications ranging from outrageous, harebrained pyramid schemes to likes of more sedate mining ventures. It will take at least another moon to separate the wheat from the chaff, and for now you leave it in the hands of the broker and his men, trusting that they will do what is best for the base. Your real goal is to provide an opening for larger investments in any case, and that too will take time.

In other news, rebellion finally breaks out on Arien III when the rebels manage to capture a Catar Company frigate (with suspicious ease, according your intelligence agents) and destroy several outgoing trade ships (from Triton Company, surprise, surprise). The rebellion is quashed almost immediately in the battle that ensues. The loyalist forces are commanded by the governor of Arien III himself, William Davies, a former captain in the Tritonian Navy and a privateer for number of years before becoming governor. With only a host of poorly equipped trade vessels and transport shuttles, and an elite squad of marines consisting mostly of his former crew, he manages to outmaneuver and then board the rebel frigate, capturing it and the rebel leader in one fell swoop. Deliberations are ongoing as to what will be done with the rebels. One of their high-ranking members is apparently the Governor's own flesh and blood, his only son, and the governor has never been known for his mercy.

Other than this, this moon has been relatively quiet and you once again find yourself with some time for your own pursuits.

>How will you occupy yourself this moon?
1. Studying the holovids of the governor's battle with the old minister, hoping to learn a thing or two in the process (EXP toward Operations)
2. Spending some time with the Princess, accompanying her in her visit to Arien III to meet with the governor
3. Meeting with potential investors in the sector to speed up future commerce (EXP toward Diplomacy)
4. Write-in

>>5471414
>1. Studying the holovids of the governor's battle with the old minister, hoping to learn a thing or two in the process (EXP toward Operations)
Rebellions can happen at our moon too.

>>5471414
>2. Spending some time with the Princess, accompanying her in her visit to Arien III to meet with the governor

>>5471414
>2. Spending some time with the Princess, accompanying her in her visit to Arien III to meet with the governor
Might as well get to know our neighbor

>>5471414
Ah, well, I guess we know who our opposition is now.

>1. Studying the holovids of the governor's battle with the old minister, hoping to learn a thing or two in the process (EXP toward Operations)

We should probably start working towards improving our skills and resources, we've chosen a few prompts that affect the story and so we ought to prepare ourselves to exploit any rewards that may be reaped or deal with any fallout of our choices. I'm sure we'll meet our neighbours no matter what eventually.

>>5471414
>1. Studying the holovids of the governor's battle with the old minister, hoping to learn a thing or two in the process (EXP toward Operations)

>>5471414
>2. Spending some time with the Princess, accompanying her in her visit to Arien III to meet with the governor

>>5471414
>3. Meeting with potential investors in the sector to speed up future commerce (EXP toward Diplomacy)

>>5471414
>3. Meeting with potential investors in the sector to speed up future commerce (EXP toward Diplomacy)

>>5471414
>2. Spending some time with the Princess, accompanying her in her visit to Arien III to meet with the governor

>>5471414
>2. Spending some time with the Princess, accompanying her in her visit to Arien III to meet with the governor

>>5471414
>Studying the holovids of the governor's battle with the old minister, hoping to learn a thing or two in the process

>>5471414
>3. Meeting with potential investors in the sector to speed up future commerce (EXP toward Diplomacy)

>>5471414

>>5471423 >>5471424 >>5471577 >>5471644 >>5471763 >>5471800 >>5471997 >>5472015 >>5472294 >>5472392 >>5472400 >>5472579

Near the end of the moon, the Princess informs you that she will be taking a transport to Arien III to attend a meeting with governor Davies. Such meetings between the colonies are not uncommon, given their proximity and common interests, but they usually only involve the ministers. It seems the governor has something urgent he wishes to discuss, possibly in relation to the recent coup attempt. The Princess does not say it, but minister Hanno lets slip that she desires to have you with her in this meeting. You've been spending more time with her this moon, shadowing her as she makes her rounds in the fortress and around the base. For all her faults, she is a hard-worker, sincerely concerned with the welfare of her citizens, for which, in turn, her citizens worship her. Indeed, you imagine it would be difficult for anyone to truly hate her. Your admission of this to Mr. Mittens in a moment of weakness (brought about by the discovery of an untouched wine cellar in the fortress--the Princess being not very fond of spirits) has resulted in incessant, merciless teasing. But contrary to Mr. Mittens vulgar insinuations, you have not been smitten, nor forgotten your duty.

It is for that you nearly decline the invitation. However, two days before the trip, minister Hanno falls ill with a seasonal bug and there is little choice. The whole trip will take three days, due to the opposite positions of the two moons around the governing giant. With little else to do in the private transport, you and Princess converse and learn a little more about each other's histories. Your own is carefully censored to avoid mention of your relationship to Sir Arthur Weald and the Company, as you imagine hers is as well, around her own secrets. You do manage to a learn a little about her father, Emperor Zapal. He has apparently become something of a scholar in his late age, and is currently working on a unified treatise of law based on older Porusian texts, even to the negligence of his empire. This latter fact seems to be a point of contention between the two, and you suspect had something to do with the Princess's flight to this remote corner of her father's empire.

"His sons--my brothers--are wolves holding knives and forks; my sisters, their chefs and serving girls. How ardently they encourage his scholarship! With what honey! Truly, they are the ones who love my father most--they speak it often enough, when they are not expressing it by their happy obedience."

As for you, the Princess learns of your impoverished background, and a little of your struggles in the Academy (which seems to win both her sympathy and admiration). Less is spoken on either side about present ambitions.

---

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>>5472774
At Arien III you encounter a spectacle wholly different from the one of its sister moon. Where Arien IV is a mélange of disarray and disorder, Arien III is a veritable prison. You suspect at first that it may be because the base is on heightened alert since the rebellion, but once you meet with the governor you realize that it is not so. The people here live beneath a gray, homogenous brutality, enforced by an iron hand and watched over with secret eyes. The governor himself unnerves you and you begin to understand why the Princess would be wary to meet with him alone. You soon understand also that the cunning the governor displayed in battle pales in comparison to the far more ruthless cunning he employs in politics. For example, the capture of the Catar Company frigate was indeed a planned venture, but not between the Catar Company and the rebels--that was only a ruse. The whole thing was set up by the governor himself.

"It was the most efficient way to get all the rats onto the same sinking ship," he says, chomping down on a cigar and speaking with clear self-satisfaction. "By the time they realized I'd disabled their weapons and shields remotely, using the passcode from the Catars, it was too late. There are only some stragglers left now, but too few to cause any real problems."

He thereafter reveals the purpose of the meeting. "We've got ninety or so rebels. Normally I'd execute the lot of them, make an example of them to the rest. But, my acquaintances at the Company--I speak of Triton Trading Company, now--have proposed a more profitable alternative. They are willing to purchase these criminals at fair market value, given that these wild horses will have been broken by time they come into their possession. As enlightened Tritonians have renounced the technology to make it so, I thought of our sister moon and its more liberal Porusian science."

In short, he offers you 25% of the proceeds of the sale, in exchange for installing control chips on the rebel prisoners--and their families--turning them into mindless slaves, likely for the rest of their lives. Should you refuse the same deal will almost certainly be offered to the Catar Company colony on Brabantine, who will find some clandestine means to get the thing done, probably in exchange for a higher stake. The Princess, for one, is not enamored of the idea, but the money is not insubstantial. Given some privacy to think it over, she turns the matter immediately over to you.

>What will you suggest?
1. Accept the deal. It's ugly business, but profitable, and better Arien IV (and yourself) profit from this than the Catar Trading Company. (+2 Credits)
2. Refuse the deal. It's not worth getting in bed with someone like the governor, not over something this controversial.
3. Renegotiate the deal. 25% won't be enough to keep the governor's skeletons in Arien IV's closet. (+3 Credits, if Diplomacy roll successful, DC: Easy)
4. Write-in

>>5472780
>3. Renegotiate the deal. 25% won't be enough to keep the governor's skeletons in Arien IV's closet. (+3 Credits, if Diplomacy roll successful, DC: Easy)

>>5472780
Note: You have 1C right now.

>>5472780
>3. Renegotiate the deal. 25% won't be enough to keep the governor's skeletons in Arien IV's closet. (+3 Credits, if Diplomacy roll successful, DC: Easy)

>>5472780
>Refuse the deal. It's not worth getting in bed with someone like the governor, not over something this controversial.

>>5472780
>3. Renegotiate the deal. 25% won't be enough to keep the governor's skeletons in Arien IV's closet. (+3 Credits, if Diplomacy roll successful, DC: Easy)

This is ugly business for sure, the Princess isn't fond of the practice it seems, neither is the Tritonian public even if the company remains all to happy to make use of the thralls as long as they don't have to dirty their hands with making them themselves. Still, this is an easy DC and a chance to further prove our worth to the princess and work towards her best interests. Not to mention these rebels are probably going to end up thralls regardless of what we do.

I will say that I'm a tad wary of this governor. He seems comfortable doing business with both our employer and the Catar Company, but the remote access to a frigate and the rather suspicious destruction of some of our company's trade ships makes me think he is a bit closer to our competitor than to us.

>>5472780
>3. Renegotiate the deal. 25% won't be enough to keep the governor's skeletons in Arien IV's closet. (+3 Credits, if Diplomacy roll successful, DC: Easy)

>>5472780
>3. Renegotiate the deal. 25% won't be enough to keep the governor's skeletons in Arien IV's closet. (+3 Credits, if Diplomacy roll successful, DC: Easy)

>>5472780
>3. Renegotiate the deal. 25% won't be enough to keep the governor's skeletons in Arien IV's closet. (+3 Credits, if Diplomacy roll successful, DC: Easy)

>>5472780
>3. Renegotiate the deal. 25% won't be enough to keep the governor's skeletons in Arien IV's closet. (+3 Credits, if Diplomacy roll successful, DC: Easy)

Sometimes leadership is about being ruthlessly pragmatic

>>5472780
>3. Renegotiate the deal. 25% won't be enough to keep the governor's skeletons in Arien IV's closet. (+3 Credits, if Diplomacy roll successful, DC: Easy)

>>5472780
>>5472800 >>5472801 >>5472802 >>5472829 >>5473076 >>5473095 >>5473173 >>5473228 >>5473336 >>5473613

Roll 1d20

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>5473791

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>5473791
Crit.

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>5473791

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>5473791

>>5473819
>>5473919
>>5473945
wtf...

>>5474032
Very spooky

>>5473791
>>5473796 >>5473819 >>5473919 >>5473945
This repetition calls for something special.

Loading update...

>>5472780

There was a time when the Tritonians accepted thralldom, even believed that it was humane. The control chip was a marvelous invention, secreting the intellect into a dark recess of the mind, delivering it wholly from the burden of pain, of fatigue, of existence. They say it is like falling asleep or they say it is like dreaming or like memory. But whether it is reverie or oblivion, the Tritonians could not condone its practice for very long, at least not on Triton, where high-minded moralism was as much the fashion among the wealthy as their gaudy operas and machine ballets. Part of you, the ruthlessly pragmatic part, believes that the rise of automaton technology on Triton was as responsible for this sudden shift in opinion, as likewise the want of such technology here, responsible for its persistence. Yet, that pragmatism is only a part. You cannot help but also share in the Princess's disgust. Though thralldom is not forbidden amongst her people, it is not encouraged in her colony nor is she herself a practitioner.

In her flawless eyes is the secret hope that you will convince her of what she has already resolved. This, you cannot do. The profit is too enormous; the opportunity too uncommon. There are times you wish you were not so blessed by the heavens; even in their gifts, they are without mercy. When the governor returns for an answer, you respond in the affirmative before the Princess can speak, negotiating a higher cut of the profit in exchange for the expected discretion. The governor, perhaps having already accounted for such an ask, readily agrees--that is, once he receives reluctant confirmation from the Princess. Regarding the governor's son, you find out later that the governor managed to extricate him from the rebels and has, for the moment, confined him to his palace. Even the governor is not without his weaknesses.

The return to Arien IV passes in dismal silence. Where there was respect and a little of awe in the Princess's regard, there is now also something of fear. She does not admonish you for interrupting her this time, understanding, if only subconsciously, that you did it to absolve her of the guilt. Had she spoken, she would not have taken the deal--a half-truth, but one she can now convince herself is the whole.

Over the course of the next moon, you oversee the entire operation, in person, subjecting yourself to the sight of the cuffed rebels shuffling out of the transports, some of them with their wives and children, others too young to have families. You are in the room when they are strapped to the surgeon's chair, their lamentations and protest cut short by sedation, then severed by circuitry; visions and last moments which will live on in your nightmares.

---

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>>5474102

202.3

More and more responsibilities are passing to you now. Many administrative decisions which the minister used to make independently are now seldom done without your counsel or blessing. The Princess has sequestered some bloc of tasks for herself, with which she has not yet allowed you to interfere. These are most superficial things, however: face time with the public to keep them in high spirits, or meeting with minor leaders within the colony. One thing you are personally responsible for, a consequence of your recent efforts, is the management of trade and commerce. No longer can merchants take advantage of the colony's former naiveté, but neither are they unhappy to deal with someone well-versed in their craft.

One day, however, you receive a most unexpected visitor. He introduces himself as Mr. Aurelius Bellophoron, your half-brother. It seems your father was something of a lecher in his youth (and not much of an advocate for contraceptives). You have two other illegitimate siblings, sisters, "of much a higher standing than you or I", according to your brother. Aurelius is a few years older than you, with early grays in his hair and mustache, but still with the arrogance and energy of a man half his age. He has come not to welcome you into the strange family, but, like your father, to exploit your precarious position.

"I'm not a Company man," he says, smoothing his mustache. "I worked for them awhile. Twelve years ago they gave me a small fleet of freighters and set me loose on the Yaugent system. Today, that trade network is responsible for 12% of the Company's quarterly profits. That was mostly my doing. But I consider it a kind of sickness to gather in herds. No, I work for myself, and I have done reasonably well for myself. I trade water. I trade other things too: helium, hydrogen, electronics, minerals--if I can get them--but mostly I trade water. I have numerous concerns spread across this sector. I have many tankers freighting many thousand tons of water per day. Millions of lives depend on my freighters--I can see such frank discussion bothers you."

"No, not at all," you reply, quietly recalling your mother's advice to always allow others to sing your praises, and never yourself.

"I'm a plain speaking man, James. I deal in facts. About three months ago, I found out that one of my most profitable pipelines had been suddenly undercut--still profitable, still meeting the margins, but not terrific. I like things to be terrific. So I looked up the merchants in question, I interviewed them. And they told me about a bright young upstart that's been shaking things up at the Princess's palace. So I looked him up. And wouldn't you know it? He's my own brother, half my own blood. And so, to make a long story short, here I am."

"And what do you want, dear brother?" You too are a plain speaking man; your brother doesn't seem to like that so much.

"I want to return to our previous arrangement. I want to sell this colony water at a terrific price."

"The more's the pity. We're already buying it at a terrific price."

Your brother smooths his mustache again. "I don't think you quite understand, brother mine. This presents an opportunity for you. You'll find in me a most generous relation, if you'll permit it. We illegitimates ought stick together, don't you think? And if not, do remember that, while I don't control all the water that runs through this sector, I do control a great deal of it and I shake hands with the rest of them that do."

So much for plain speaking.

1. Accept. You'll have to come up with a story for the Princess, no doubt damaging your image of infallible commercial wizardry, but at least your bank account won't suffer for it. (+1 Credits, -1 Reputation)
2. Refuse. You won't be extorted, not even by your own brother--especially not by him. You'll find some other way to get water, you have time anyhow, at least till the end of the year. You'll gather it yourself if you have to.
3. You can't let the Princess find out about this, still less can you allow her to suspect your true motivations. Appease your brother for now using money from your own account, until you can come with a better solution. (-2 Credits)
4. Write-in

>>5474106
>2. Refuse. You won't be extorted, not even by your own brother--especially not by him. You'll find some other way to get water, you have time anyhow, at least till the end of the year. You'll gather it yourself if you have to.

>>5474106
4. Write-in
Just get better negotiators under your belt, brother. The fact that yourself have to come shows how much of your men are inexperienced or even worse inept.

>>5474121
+1, yeah, fuck this guy.

>>5474102
Huh...perhaps in retrospect it may have been wiser to make an impassioned appeal to the princess to reject the offer, mixing sentiment with some made up rational excuse on why that is the best course of action. We probably could've gotten closer to her that way. Though I'm not sure how important that part of our mission is, since we don't necessarily need her trust beyond what is necessary to do our duties and obtain more control of the moon.

>>5474105
"Sigh"

Let me guess, one of our sisters is a genius tactician and the other a genius diplomat too.

>>5474106
2. Refuse. You won't be extorted, not even by your own brother--especially not by him. You'll find some other way to get water, you have time anyhow, at least till the end of the year. You'll gather it yourself if you have to.

He'll have to do better than offering "generous relations". As we told those merchants, we have needs but so do they, as does our brother. This will only hurt him as well if we play hardball, and it is not him that has the ear of a princess.

If possible I'd actually like to offer a write-in, though I understand if this isn't acceptable for action economy reasons, as this is our response to a special event and not our regular turn per se.

>Refuse. You won't be extorted, not even by your own brother--especially not by him. You'll finance some initiative to obtain water right away. Asteroid mining, microwaving lunar permafrost, whatever.

Actually, stream of consciousness thought, that write-in isn't that different from the default one now that I think about it. It's more an attempt to get right on this issue right away instead of spending our regular turn dealing with it, probably not what QM intends to be a valid response.

Let me try another.

>Press him. You think you can get more out of this relationship. Demand he be more specific on what his "generous relations" entail. Start laying out tangible things you want in return, an introduction to his contacts and a good word, first-in-line access to his premium stock of electronics, information on the sector, quarterly check-ins for afternoon tea, - we are half-brothers after all, he's not getting this favour and ghosting us - and of course we'll want prompt access to his fleet in case we want to sell or transport something ourselves of course. (Maybe a high DC Administration or Diplomacy roll)

Alternatively...

>Bluff. You'll threaten him. He should know that the Emperor Zapal recently favoured his most beloved child a fleet of hunters, with a freshly produced heavy cruiser as a capstone for the fleet. Aurelius should be more careful who be makes threats to. We should talk about how he can make it up to us now. (Probably some kind of difficult roll.)

>>5474170
Write-ins are welcomed and encouraged, of course. To incentivize them, I've already ruled that I'll favor them in the event of a tie. I'll also say that I'll tend toward avoiding rolls with write-ins (unless egregious in the ask or when something important is at stake). What you wrote won't require an (immediate) roll.

>>5474170
who he makes threats*

whoops

>>5474106
>write in: Delay: You have to put him off for now gain time and use your Network to get leverage against him. You play down your authority and tell him that you have to consult with the minister and the princess, since otherwise you'll lose your delicate standing, which isn't completely untrue. And you tell him that if you establish yourself, he might benefit of it in the future. Illegitimates ought stick together and such.

>>5474574
Supporting this
>Delay
"Think of your lost profits as an investment on me, brother - there will be more profit, and less trouble, in the future for you this way. After all, us illegitimates ought to stick together, yes?"

No update today most likely (Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Americans). Will try and resume tomorrow.

>>5474574
I like the Delay line, plus this >>5474121

Personally I'm not as much a fan of going Delay because it just seems like a reworded version of the third prompt in a sense. I know the QM is encouraging write-ins but he did say they would tend to avoid rolls but not necessarily resource costs. I feel like this would change our tone and specific excuses we use but Aurelius would rebuff us anyways - write-in or no, presumably he'd still want us to appease him with funds right away - and we would maybe(?) be defaulted to either 2 or 3. Though the write-in does make clear that we'd move to seek leverage over him which I am in favour of.

I think we are all generally on a similar track of not wanting to go along with our half-brother but are split on whether to spend our time after this event on removing his leverage or securing some sort of leverage over him so he can't threaten us. I'm more in favour of refusing without the deceit and immediately moving to gain water security through creating our own water extraction facilities - we have basically a whole year to do so after all - with moving the emphasis on studying our mercantile half-sibling into a more long-term focus rather than the other way around.

OK, looking at the write-ins accepting the deal is obviously off the table. The consensus seems to be in trying to delay any commitment to the deal, citing your weak authority in the colony (a partial bluff), investment in a familial bond, the promise of future rewards, and the incompetence of your brother's traders.

I'll rule that this will require a Diplomacy roll (DC: Easy, instead of Challenging, due to the detailed justifications). If you fail, Aurelius will ask for monetary appeasement (-1 Credits, instead of -2; note, you have 4 Credits). If you succeed, he'll leave on just the strength of your word, promising to return in six months to gauge your progress.

If that works for everyone, that's what I'll be writing. Feel free to link this post and add on anything I missed. Otherwise, go ahead and roll 1d20.

>>5475509
I still want to tell him to fuck off.

>>5475513
You'll still be doing that. Just politely. He is family after all.

>>5474170
>You'll finance some initiative to obtain water right away. Asteroid mining, microwaving lunar permafrost, whatever
I support this. If we send our own ships to carry water from wherever it's imported from it can't be more expensive than what our brother wants. In the meantime we could compromise with him, go partway between the previous price and the new price and use the new stability on Arien III as an excuse for the princess since that's why we were able to land that deal in the first place.

Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>5475509
Yeet!

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>5475513
I think we'll be doing that in six months or so when we've either obtained water security or found leverage on him using the time we won through this delay and by using our intel network, or both.

>>5475509
Rollin'

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>5475509
Fine I'll roll, but I don't like it, because I wanted to outright refuse.
If you have pay the Danegeld, you'll never get rid of the Dane.

>>5475566
gg, no re

>>5475569
Well, we haven't actually agreed to go back to the original water price or even to pay him, (given our successful rolls) the Delay write-in seemed to very much to basically be a bluff while we worked on getting leverage over him so he could no longer strong arm us.

>>5474106
"I fear this assessment of my position and perhaps even of my talents may have been exaggerated. I'm no minister to the Princess, merely her advisor."

"You have her ear."

"But not her position, nor even her confidence. Were I to bring this matter to her attention and place your demands at her feet (for that is indeed where I would have to place them) the best I could hope to accomplish is to see myself relieved of the little clout I do possess. That I was able to achieve this thing in the first place was a combination of your traders'--shall we say--inability to perform their duty? And some external circumstances beyond my control that I was fortunate enough to exploit to my advantage. It was not I, but the leverage we possessed at the time that convinced the Princess to accept the deal."

Your brother frowns and looks at his tea, dropping yet another lump of sugar into it. "Then it is not possible. You have no powers here."

"Not at present," you say, smiling in your winning way. "If you'd permit it, I can recompense you from my personal funds. I'm sure you've traveled a long way to see me..."

A touch of color rises to your brother's cheeks. You've known men like him your whole life. What they despise most is dishonor. The mere opportunity of it arouses their rancor because they know how easily they may fall into its temptations, because at heart they are fallen men and they know this. To take money from a brother--a younger brother at that--offered so freely and with such a scent of charity is to imbibe poison. He stands up quickly and pulls down on the hem of his coat, straightening it. "That will not be necessary. I came to see if we could do this thing because it might have been to both our benefits, but..." He looks down at his shoes, suddenly as shy and self-conscious as a schoolboy. "We are brothers. Cut from the same cloth if I'm not mistaken. I came because I was curious, because I wanted to see you, because... because your existence makes mine a little less lonely." When he looks up at you, you see in his eyes the fleeting trace of a childhood longing, a privateness and a privation that has manifested in the pull of honor. In some it is that way, for others, there is avarice or ascetism or ambition; we are all of us, fallen men. "You'll forgive my frank speaking," he mutters.

"You are always welcome company, brother." You rise and take his hand in yours. He gives it a firm shake.

"It is more than can be said of our sisters."

"You've met them?"

He shakes his head. "They didn't want to associate with me. They've risen far beyond their origins and have no desire to be reminded of them." He speaks no more on the subject. He does promise to return in six months to "see your progress". It is possible this is to make a second attempt at negotiation, yet you somehow doubt he will come as the water trader, and not merely as your brother.

---

>>5475846
It has been almost three months since you sent out the hunters to explore the quadrant. You've long since lost contact with them and the Princess, and especially minister, have only grown more anxious with time. You do not know what the loss of the hunters would represent for minister Hanno, but for the Princess it would be an unbearable embarrassment before her father and her siblings. However, just before the Princess can descend into full blown panic, one of the three groups you sent out docks to port. They claim to have found the site of a great battle, littered with fallen starships from a long forgotten conflict. Many are beyond repair. A few might be easily salvaged.

The leader of the group (and minister Hanno's own son), Captain Hyrum, delivers a full report. "...I believe, with the proper equipment and personnel, we might be able to recover three Starships of the Line, maybe four, and bring them into full working order. Even without that there is much we could salvage from the other ships, goods amounting to a sizeable fortune."

The Princess is practically salivating at prospect of acquiring warships not under the father's employ. Minister Hanno is decidedly less enthusiastic. He thoroughly questions his son on the cost of such an operation and deftly argues against bearing such a cost. The surplus money is still tied up with your investment project and the money from the thralls was put aside for improvements within the base, deliberations for which are still ongoing. What's more, the captain reveals that while out exploring their scanners picked up, on several occasions, foreign signatures on their tail. Likely local pirates keeping tabs on a potential threat, but they are likely to have seen the site as well. Gammon does not have the resources to salvage the ships but he is sure to harass anyone that does and attempts it. He will have to be paid off or dealt with for the operation to be a success.

>What will you advise?
1. Agree with the minister and ignore the ships for now. Pray no one else in the quadrant gets wind of it.
2. Side with the Princess and refit the hunters for salvage, using money from your own pocket. You'll need those ships eventually. (-4 Credits, +3 Fleet)
3. Contact Gammon to work out a deal. The pirates will help with the salvage operation in exchange for a substantial cut of profits from the goods. (+3 Fleet, DC: Challenging, Diplomacy roll)
4. Write-in

>>5475847
Note: you have 4 Credits

>>5475847
>2. Side with the Princess and refit the hunters for salvage, using money from your own pocket. You'll need those ships eventually. (-4 Credits, +3 Fleet)

>>5475847
>3. Contact Gammon to work out a deal. The pirates will help with the salvage operation in exchange for a substantial cut of profits from the goods. (+3 Fleet, DC: Challenging, Diplomacy roll)
I suspect that emptying out all our funds is not a good idea, but at the same time, a fleet is a fleet, and force is a very persuasive argument. And fortune favors the bold.

>"We are brothers. Cut from the same cloth if I'm not mistaken. I came because I was curious, because I wanted to see you, because... because your existence makes mine a little less lonely."
Now I pity the guy and like him. Good writing! Dad is such a deadbeat.

>>5475847
>3. Contact Gammon to work out a deal. The pirates will help with the salvage operation in exchange for a substantial cut of profits from the goods. (+3 Fleet, DC: Challenging, Diplomacy roll)

>>5475847
>2. Side with the Princess and refit the hunters for salvage, using money from your own pocket. You'll need those ships eventually. (-4 Credits, +3 Fleet)

>>5475847
>2. Side with the Princess and refit the hunters for salvage, using money from your own pocket. You'll need those ships eventually. (-4 Credits, +3 Fleet)

>>5475847
>2. Side with the Princess and refit the hunters for salvage, using money from your own pocket. You'll need those ships eventually. (-4 Credits, +3 Fleet)

>>5475847
>2. Side with the Princess and refit the hunters for salvage, using money from your own pocket. You'll need those ships eventually. (-4 Credits, +3 Fleet)

>>5475847
>3. Contact Gammon to work out a deal. The pirates will help with the salvage operation in exchange for a substantial cut of profits from the goods. (+3 Fleet, DC: Challenging, Diplomacy roll)

>>5475847
>Side with the Princess and refit the hunters for salvage, using money from your own pocket. You'll need those ships eventually.

>>5475847
>3. Contact Gammon to work out a deal. The pirates will help with the salvage operation in exchange for a substantial cut of profits from the goods. (+3 Fleet, DC: Challenging, Diplomacy roll)

>>5475847
>3. Contact Gammon to work out a deal. The pirates will help with the salvage operation in exchange for a substantial cut of profits from the goods. (+3 Fleet, DC: Challenging, Diplomacy roll)

>>5475847
>3. Contact Gammon to work out a deal. The pirates will help with the salvage operation in exchange for a substantial cut of profits from the goods. (+3 Fleet, DC: Challenging, Diplomacy roll)

As I understand it, there is salvage worth a lot of money in the site. So the resource gains/losses confuse me a bit. In 2 we outfit our hunters for salvage, which takes our credits. Is there no listed credit gain because it is assumed to still be a net loss or is it because the goods would take more time to acquire? In 3 there is no credit loss because we are not refitting our ships for salvage, yes? Instead we are having the pirates do the salvaging?

Either way I think we ought to try and work out a deal with Gammon or do a write-in, because I think 2 will lead to either a disadvantageous operations roll or just a straight up loss. After all, the update straight up says the pirates are sharking around and Gammon is said to be formidable.

I know I'm late but I'd like to propose an alternative.

>Instead of spending funds to refit our hunters into salvagers - thus compromising their combat function, presumably - we'll use that money to hire salvagers and escort them with our hunters.

This will garner us salvagers who actually have experience...well...salvaging and lets us keep our hunters in combat configuration and allows them to take up patrol/overwatch positions instead of having them salvaging. Hopefully this will be enough of an advantage to take on the pirates.

There are other variations on this or other things we could do too. Try and hire mercs to bolster our strength, then bait Gammon into pitched battle around the site while pretending to salvage the area, or convert only half our ships into salvagers so as to retain some combat capability and accept the decreased speed of salvage, etc.

Anyways, 3 is my actual vote, tying things up since I think 2 will result in us getting pirated. Just wanted to see if people would be open to some last minute switches.

Adding a write-in to my original vote of 2 to avoid the write-in preference rule going int favor of 3
>Don't refit all the hunters, make sure they are always together to stand guard
My ID changed so I don't know who I am

>>5476711
My ID didn't change even though my internet went down, nice.
>>5475857
It's an addition to this vote

>>5476707
It's a credit loss because it's taking from our personal account and investing on the moonbase itself. The profits don't go directly to us.

>>5476707
It's because you wouldn't be focusing on salvaging the goods, just on recovering the ships. To do both requires more upfront credits than you have currently, which is why I didn't include it as an option. How much you would have gotten for the goods is variable, but there would have been >50% chance that you at least break even, though that money would come in over time. That option would have looked something like this:

>Spare no expense to recover both the ships and the goods, hiring professionals to handle the salvage operation. (-6 Credits, +3 Fleet, +2d6 Credits from future sale of goods)

In option three, there is no net credit gain because even though you are recovering the goods, the pirates will take the bulk of it as payment for their help and the rest will go toward offsetting any remaining costs and not into your own personal accounts.

Apologies. I should have made this clearer in the options.

>>5476714
This is another valid explanation, though I kind of assumed you would be taking a cut from the goods (if you had recovered them) to pay for your initial investment. There would have been no penalty/roll to this, since you're putting your own money at stake in the first place. Taking out more than though would have required a Administration check.

>>5476730
>>5476735
Thanks for explaining anon QM. You dropped your trip by the way.
For some reason it feels weird when someone has one but not a name

>>5476711
My write-in isn't an addition to 3 but an intended alternative to avoid weakening our hunters so that they can deal with the pirates better. (I'm making an assumption that converting them weakens them)

For it to get tie-breaking priority the write-in itself would have to tie, not 3.

>>5476730
Thanks for clarifying.

>>5476742
>For some reason it feels weird when someone has one but not a name
Yeah it's why I stopped using it. Plus this board already implements ids. I'll just use this name going forward.

My real concern isn't even the goods, it is compromising the security of the salvage operation with our ship conversions when we have a known pirate group led by a supposedly quite skilled leader sharking about. Though to be fair, I am again, making the possibly false assumption that the ship conversion weakens them and that Gammon will actually for sure attack and that our hypothetical losses would be total rather than acceptable.

>>5476757
>I am again, making the possibly false assumption that the ship conversion weakens them
Yes, refitting them definitely lowers their combat capabilities.
>and that Gammon will actually for sure attack
He is sure to try and profit from this in some way, though you can assume (based on your gathered intelligence) that Gammon is reasonable and would just as soon take that profit without any risk to his men or ship if he can.
>and that our hypothetical losses would be total rather than acceptable.
It is very unlikely (though not impossible) that you suffer a total loss.

>>5476753
You should use both a name and a trip so that no one can impersonate you.

Tie breaker roll?

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>5477500
Yep. Although I won't be able to write an update today. I'll try to do it tomorrow morning/afternoon.

1 => Side with Princess
2 => Contact Gammon

>>5477512
Rolls now?

>>5477515
Yes, Diplomacy roll 1d20.

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>5477517

Rolled 9 (1d20)

>>5477517

Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>5477517

Well, I guess dealing with Aurelius drained all the luck for now.

>>5477558
Gotta have a bout of bad luck to balance out our good luck. Just think of it as "recharging" our good luck.

Rolled 16 (1d20)

>>5477517
Is there a limit to the number of rolls?

>>5477656
Typically QM's here use best of three it it isn't just one roll

>>5477656
It's best of 3. See >>5465733

Rolled 6 (1d20)

>>5477517

Rolled 10 (1d20)

>>5477517

>>5475847
>>5475855 >>5475857 >>5475946 >>5475949 >>5475964 >>5475976 >>5476139 >>5476232 >>5476376 >>5476454 >>5476456 >>5476550 >>5476707
"What's the matter old boy?" says Mr. Mittens, sedately watching you pace back and forth in your chambers from his high perch on the bookcase. Your mind is elsewhere and you do not hear him. He leaps down from the case and nuzzles against your leg, nearly tripping you over.

"Don't do that. You know I hate it when you do that."

"You've been wearing the carpet down for the better part of an hour now. Perhaps its time to take counsel from better minds than yours."

"This coming from the cat who mistakenly courted a 47 year old male accountant on the galaxynet, thinking he was a, and I quote, "buxom blonde hardbody"."

Mr. Mittens swipes your pants leg, claws bared. "We agreed never to speak of that! And I made him look the fool in the end, so it doesn't count."

You collapse backward on a divan, shading your eyes with the back of your wrist. You've barely slept 10 hours since the meeting with Captain Hyrum. It's been a week and still no news from your intelligence agents. Mr. Mittens leaps on to your stomach and lays down, looking at you over his glasses.

"Still worried about Gammon are we?"

"It shouldn't take this long merely to arrange a meeting, no matter how much of a recluse he might be."

"Gammon isn't the type to kill the messenger."

"Why would you say that? What a horrible thing to say!" You sigh. "Well, I suppose you're right. The reports about him at least suggest he's possessed of reason, motivated by self-interest like the rest of us, and in some ways even generous."

"To his men."

"And to the poor. I daresay the Princess underestimates the extent to which the underclass are supported and secured by his influence."

"Yes, the pirate with a heart of gold. Yet I still can't help but wonder how the Princess will feel about all this, once she finds out."

Before you can respond, there's a knock at the door, followed by someone entering the room and kneeling before your divan. It's one of your agents (you still haven't gotten used to the kneeling, a Porusian custom).

"Speak," you say.

"My lord, we have made contact. He wishes to speak with you."

"Excellent, bring in the holoprojector."

"No, my lord. He would meet with you in the flesh."

"What? That's out of the question! ...when?"

"Now, my lord."

You sit up from the divan. "He's here?"

"His ship is orbiting a nearby moon. One of his agents will take you."

"I don't suppose we know which one?" Some leverage wouldn't hurt. But the agent shakes his head.

"If we had more time..."

"He would only use it to escape. Very well, ready the shuttle. And... inform the Princess."

---

>>5478037
The Princess was not happy about being informed so late in the scheme, but your plan, once explained, intrigues her enough to not only accept it, but also (against your objections) to come along with you in the meeting (in disguise, at least). Mr. Mittens also insisted on coming with you, "for your protection" (though you think he's just curious about Gammon, as the Princess), and is on his usual spot on your shoulder, licking his black paws. "Shall I stay behind?" he whispers in your ear, as you board the pirate ship. The suggestion is tempting but quickly proves to be impossible the moment you enter Gammon's office. He has a dog, a great black-furred beast with pale, reflective eyes that mirror the reflective round lenses of his master. It's lying on a large cushion when you enter, but perks its head up upon sighting (or smelling) Mr. Mittens, who hisses in response. Mr. Mittens has never liked dogs.

The office itself is surprisingly modern, as if it was ripped from the pages of a Tritonian furniture catalogue. The only oddities are the two artificial candles on the desk, real flames burning a secret scented oil, and the worn-down harmonica which Gammon wears around his neck.

"James Chapham," says Gammon, completely ignoring the Princess. Gammon's thick accent is neither Porusian nor Tritonian, but something akin to Catari. "Your reputation precedes you--and by this I mean I do not know anything at all about you. You are a very dangerous man, I think. Or you are completely harmless. I have not decided. Come in. Sit. You too Princess. Lebkuchen?" He offers each of you a small flat cookie in the shape of a little man. When you refuse, he snaps off its legs and tosses them to his dog, who licks them up noisily. The Princess is stiff as a board beside you. You were sure the disguise was foolproof.

"I believe my position requires me to be heard but not seen," you say, pulling a chair out for the Princess and standing behind her, now that the jig is up. "Discretion is the better part of valor."

"Then you are not completely harmless," he says.

"Heaven forbid."

"I have looked at your proposal. There are many problems."

"Problems?" asks the Princess, growing incensed. "We're giving you the lion's share of the goods, you should be over the moon--" You gently touch the Princess on the shoulder. It's strange. She's removed her veil, yet her unnatural beauty, which has had an effect on everyone who has interacted with her thus far (even yourself), irrespective of background, predilection, or even gender, seems to have no effect at all on Gammon. He barely even registers her, and speaks only to you, as though she were merely an appendage of yourself.

"What would you do James Chapham, if you were me? Would you accept this proposal which so much changes the balance of power here? We are very comfortable now. We like this balance of power. You knew this. Why did you bring this to me if you knew this?"

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>>5478044
"We brought this out to you as a courtesy, because, even if we do not respect what you are, we have respect for the way you do things."

"You brought this to me because I knew about it already," he snaps. Then he brings the harmonica to his lips and plays a short riff. "You are afraid. That is why."

Your hand, still on the Princess's shoulder, must give it another gentle squeeze to prevent another outburst. She clenches her fists. She obeys for now, but will not be silenced a third time.

"What we fear, we have in common," you say. "Waste. And the meaningless loss of lives."

"All loss of life is meaningless," he says.

"Then I must ask you, sir, if you will not help us, that you will at least not interfere."

"This is not a favor you are asking of me."

"No. It is not."

"Not completely harmless, James Chapham. Not completely harmless. But we can also think about it another way. We can also tell someone else about the prize. Or we can... destroy the prize and then no one can have it. So that the balance of power remains."

"That would be a grave mistake."

"Maybe we have done it already."

"You're bluffing," says the Princess, ignoring your hand. "He's bluffing, James. If it were true he wouldn't have met with us." She gives you a look of smug satisfaction. "I'm right aren't I?"

"I must concur with the Princess," you say, looking to Gammon.

He calmly feeds another cookie to his dog. "It is what we could do," he finally says. "If that is the price of our freedom, we will pay it." It's exactly what you most feared. Gammon is not motivated by self-interest, at least not alone, he has invested in an ideal. Such resolutions are to the death, and you fear, this time, it would not be his own. For once, your luck fails you. You have no response to Gammon's ultimatum.

But the Princess does.

"Then take one of the warships for your own," she says.

This finally forces Gammon to turn his attention to her. He stares at her so long that you can feel her start to grow uncomfortable-- despite no doubt having grown used to such stares--though, in this one, there is no trace of the usual infatuation. In the end, however, he turns back to you. "This is your opinion also?"

But the Princess will not let you steal her thunder. "He is merely an advisor. I, am a Princess. My word is law."

"Very dangerous," mutters Gammon, petting his dog, who peers above the desk to look at the two of you. "Very dangerous."

"Wait, I don't think the Princess--"

"I accept," says Gammon. "The goods and a warship. Yes, this is acceptable."

"Excellent." The Princess puts her veil back on. "My minister will contact you with the details. Peace be with you."

"And also with you."

You have your first heated argument with the Princess on the shuttle back. An argument that ends with her in tears and with you promising to make the best of the horrendous mess she's created.

>>5478045
Mr. Mittens, whom you would have expected to pounce on this embarrassment, is strangely pensive throughout.

"Did you notice the scar on his left temple?" he asks, when you're in private. "He would have gotten that from a first generation control chip."

"An ex-thrall?"

"That's what I thought at first, but the surgery to remove it should have given him a different kind of scar." He pulls up a model on his holocomputer. "The scar should be a cross like this."

"Maybe you saw wrong. I didn't see any scar."

Mr. Mittens gives you a look.

"Well, it's not possible for him to be a thrall. You were there. He was speaking in full sentences for heaven's sake."

Mr. Mittens has no answer to that but the idea remains burrowed in the back of your mind. Because, in truth, you did see the scar... and it wasn't a cross.

---

With the salvage operation now underway and handled with joint supervision from minister Hanno and Gammon himself, you are free to focus on the investment project you started last moon. The brokers are still sorting through the backlog of applications for the loans, and promise to have a report for you by the beginning of next moon. There is, however, some development on the foreign investment front. A member of the Porsuian royalty, one of the Princess's distant cousin's (one of the wealthier ones), has made overtures about financing a mining operation on Arien IV. It's long been a pet project of the Princess's, and expecting her eager agreement, you bring the matter to attention immediately.

You find her less than enthusiastic. "Have you lost your mind?"

"I don't understand."

"Tell him, we've found other investors. No, tell him we wouldn't take his money were he the last man in the galaxy. No, no, tell him I would rather chew glass--"

"I've already invited him to come visit with us."

"You did what!"

"I don't see what the big deal is. You'll dine with him, take him to inspect the site. From what I've heard, he's a perfect gentleman. I daresay the you might even find you enjoy his company."

The Princess leers at you. "My father's gotten to you hasn't he?"

"What?"

"He's not here for business, James," (enunciating your name like it was a synonym for "idiot") "He's here because of me."

"What?"

"He courted me once, if you must know."

"What?"

"Once, I even thought I... but he proved himself to be quite the gentleman afterward, when I found him in the arms of his paramour."

You decide not to bring up the fact that such practices are quite commonplace in Porusia. The Emperor himself, her father, has more than forty wives and an uncountable rotation of concubines (many of which, he has of late, released from their obligations) You're more astonished that anyone would choose a common paramour over the Princess, in the first place.

>>5478046
"No, perhaps this is just the opportunity I need. A chance to squash him once and for all and to remind father of my independence here. You will help me, of course, James. You will accompany me in this outing, as my concubinus."

"What!"

"Yes, you're right, that won't be enough. No, you'll have to say you're courting me. Yes, that will crush him." She drives her small fist into her palm, lost in her dark machinations. Then she remembers your existence. "You won't be wearing that will you? I'll send you my tailors."

>Your Diplomacy Skill has increased!*
>What will you do?
1. Go along with this insanity in the hopes that you get the money for the mine by the end of it.
2. This seem an opportunity in disguise, a way to depose the Princess without violence. You'll sabotage her plans and help this suitor win her heart.
3. If Princess wants to play games, she should know whom she's playing with. You won't just go along with this ruse, you'll make it real and seduce her, thereby gaining her permanent confidence.
4. Write-in

*Decided to change the skill/exp system a bit. Going forward you'll get experience whenever you attempt to use the skill (i.e roll).

>>5478048
>3. If Princess wants to play games, she should know whom she's playing with. You won't just go along with this ruse, you'll make it real and seduce her, thereby gaining her permanent confidence.
Fuck it, I'm going all in.

>>5478048
>3. Seduce her
She might be joking, but she's lit a fire in you - a deed you will reciprocate.

Fuck around and find out!

>>5478048
>3. If Princess wants to play games, she should know whom she's playing with. You won't just go along with this ruse, you'll make it real and seduce her, thereby gaining her permanent confidence.
Ahahahaha

>>5478048
>3. If Princess wants to play games, she should know whom she's playing with. You won't just go along with this ruse, you'll make it real and seduce her, thereby gaining her permanent confidence.

Trap card activated

>>5478048
>1. Go along with this insanity in the hopes that you get the money for the mine by the end of it.
For some reason, I feel that seducing the princess or getting her seduced by another is not a good idea. We always need more money.

>>5478045
I'm...honestly entirely okay with this. I was actually going to suggest the same thing had the update stopped early to allow us to offer up another solution. Gammon basically seems to wants us to avoid becoming a hegemon in this system, though I doubt he'd willingly refrain from becoming such himself out of courtesy if offered a similar chance. He knows that if we ever obtained such a status that we'd eventually turn to destroy him or offer him a choice he couldn't refuse, not necessarily to the people's detriment despite what he might think.

>>5478048
...hahahaHAAHAHAHA!

3. If Princess wants to play games, she should know whom she's playing with. You won't just go along with this ruse, you'll make it real and seduce her, thereby gaining her permanent confidence.

We still have 4 C, we'll find some use for it. I don't know how much the mines would take to get off the ground but we'll find a way.

>>5478048
>2. This seem an opportunity in disguise, a way to depose the Princess without violence. You'll sabotage her plans and help this suitor win her heart.

No update today.

I think might need to take a break from questing for a bit and work on some other projects. Haven't decided yet but will let everyone know when I do.

>>5479442
Thanks for the update. It's disappointing news given the quality of the writing and the short run time of the quest, but if you are burning out or losing interest then it can't be helped. I hope you continue this soon.

OK, after taking a little break and thinking on it some more, I've decided to continue the quest. I'll have an update up tomorrow night.

>>5478048

The Princess sits upon the throne in the grand hall, bouncing one of her legs up and down. "He's late," she says. You adjust the enormous turban on your head for the umpteenth time, feeling about as comfortable in these loose Porusian clothes as an elephant in ice skates.
"The transport has docked at the port. I'm sure he'll be here any minute."
"You said that five minutes ago."
"I recommended we meet him at the port, if you'll recall."
"Don't be ridiculous. What kind message would I be sending him if I did that?"
That she's gotten over him, for one. "I suppose you're right." You don't want to argue. You've agreed to play the role of the perfect companion tonight, and to entertain the Princess's juvenile fantasies. What the Princess does not know is your rather more mature designs for tonight's conclusion. The money is no longer of any consequence, only the Princess's bed. The farther she will try to escape from her cousin's advances, the farther she will fall into your own.

Unfortunately, it seems the heavens have an altogether different design in mind.
"Introducing Lord Gisco and... his fiancee, Lady Valeria," says the doorman, allowing the two of them to enter through the double doors. The Princess has gone completely still, her hands clenched on the stone armrests of her throne as if they alone were supporting her whole existence. The figure of Lady Valeria, tall, lithe, and seductive, has captured her whole attention. So much the better, for she does not see the pallor and confusion upon your own face.
"Princess Ksumi Kariya!" says Lady Valeria, in that awful girlish voice you've since come to associate with lies, skullduggery and theft. With shame. And with lust.
"How happy I am to see you cousin!" says Lord Gisco, rushing up the steps to take the Princess's hands. He is dressed in a Tritonian suit of rather an older design, but fit so well to his physique it almost challenges the vogue. His speech is also Tritonian, the accent indicating an education in one of Triton's more elite institutions of learning. The Princess mutely stands to her feet and allows him to kiss her on both cheeks. Though Lord Gisco does not possess the engineered, inhuman beauty of the Princess, nature itself has been kind to him. The Princess stares up at him in a daze, unable to speak.
"Lord Gisco, very glad you could come," you say, offering your hand.
"You must be...no, no, don't tell me. James Chappingham?"
"Chapham, my lord."
"Chapham! Yes, of course. I love the turban; going native eh? Charming!"
"You've left me quite all alone here, darling," says that awful bubbly voice.
"Do forgive me, dearest. My wife-to-be," says Lord Gisco, "Valerie."

>>5482298
She mounts the steps, taking Lord Gisco's hand and allowing him to plant a kiss upon her own. Her eyes pass over you briefly, and she flashes you a coy, knowing smile. She remembers you. There is a disturbing amount of elation in that, which you quickly bury. It would have been better if she didn't recognize you at all. It will be all but impossible now to maintain the ruse, better excuse yourself quickly and--
"I also have a fiance, Gisco," says the Princess, reaching for you. You stand there looking at her hand like it were the mouth of a Tritonian lamprey. Her eyes widen. Her lips purse. Her hand twitches with impatience.
"Yes," you say, weakly, taking her hand. "We're in love."
"Madly," adds the Princess.
"Madly?" asks Lady Valeria, trying not to smile.
"Madly," you confirm, as though with a gun to your head.
Lord Gisco, oblivious to everything, gives you an appraising once over. Confused at first, he eventually just shrugs and then, with a bracing hug, welcomes you into the family. This is apparently not the effect the Princess was hoping for, as she quickly storms out of the room.
"Where are you going--er, dear?" you say.
She waves without turning around.
"I guess she's a bit overwhelmed to see you after all these years," you say, to Lord Gisco.
He tilts his head.
"Because you courted her once," you explain.
"You did?" says Valerie, giggling. "You old rogue!"
"I'm afraid you're quite mistaken, Chappingham. I've never even had the opportunity, let alone the motive."
"Chapham. And the Princess herself confessed as much to me. You courted her and then were found in the arms of your..." You clear your throat. "You deny it?"
Lord Gisco squints, searching his memory. Then he laughs. "I see. Charming! She must be thinking of the time when we were children--we've only known each other as children, you know--and I ran away from her for some reason or another--she was something of a bully to me then--small as I was for my age, and mature as she was for hers--and sought comfort from my governess. In her arms, my cousin would've found me. From that, she spun such a tale, eh? How droll! What imagination!"
"How lucky for you, Mr. Chapham," adds Lady Valeria. "The rival you may have expected is merely a figment of your fiancee's imagination."
"No, no, dearest. Chappingham wouldn't think so basely as that, would you Chappingham? For, how could I have eyes for anyone else but you, dearest?" He kisses her hand again.
You smile tightly. "Would you excuse me for a moment?" You calmly walk out of the grand hall and would have broken into a full sprint back to your chambers, had you not spotted the Princess sitting alone on a bench in the hall, below a mural of her father, weeping pitifully into her hands.

>>5482301
>What do you do?
1. Call off the operation. Have one of the servants take the Princess back to her chambers and handle the rest of the night by yourself, making up an excuse for the Princess's abscence.
2. Double down on your original motive. Exploit this moment of weakness to initiate your seduction.
3. Bring the Princess into your confidence. Tell her the truth about Lord Gisco's fiance: she's a con artist, a liar and a thief.
4. Write-in

>>5482305
1. Call off the operation. Have one of the servants take the Princess back to her chambers and handle the rest of the night by yourself, making up an excuse for the Princess's abscence.

This situation is extremely funny. Seducing the princess is something I care little for and informing her about Valeria’s true occupation cannot go well. The princess is too irrational for a reasonable response.

>>5482305
>2. Double down on your original motive. Exploit this moment of weakness to initiate your seduction.

>>5482305
>3. Bring the Princess into your confidence. Tell her the truth about Lord Gisco's fiance: she's a con artist, a liar and a thief.

>>5482298
Ah...so she's an old flame or something. Guess our luck ran out during one of our youthful dalliances. They can't all be winners.

>>5482305
>2. Double down on your original motive. Exploit this moment of weakness to initiate your seduction.

Stick to the plan. I'd also like the princess around to continue to stoke the flames of...whatever this is. Maybe we can later threaten Valerie into working with us to play the princess off against Gisco and into our arms and in exchange we can help her with her own goals for tonight. The threat would be revealing what we know of Valerie to the princess and hopefully ruin whatever her intended aspirations are tonight. All hypothetical for now, lets see where this leads us.

>>5482305
>3. Bring the Princess into your confidence. Tell her the truth about Lord Gisco's fiance: she's a con artist, a liar and a thief.
She is not over him. Exploiting her weakness may work in the short term, but will definitely bite us in the ass later. Bringing her into our confidence will work better, both to improve our own relationship with her and torpedo her relationship with the cousin when he still chooses the con artist over her.

>>5482305
>3. Bring the Princess into your confidence. Tell her the truth about Lord Gisco's fiance: she's a con artist, a liar and a thief.

It is the better path

>>5482305
>Bring the Princess into your confidence. Tell her the truth about Lord Gisco's fiance: she's a con artist, a liar and a thief.

Better long term strategy

But she shouldn’t reveal that she knows this - we’re telling her to give her the confidence to go back out there and complete the operation

>>5482313 >>5482322 >>5482367 >>5482370 >>5482372 >>5482537 >>5482754 >>5482305

You wish Mr. Mittens were here to give counsel. He has better way with words when it comes these kinds of sensitive situations, for he is affected by feminine tears. In some men, such tears will summon the humors of pity, but wounded beauty has never moved you. In the opera houses of Triton, in forced attendance by other company, you endured the most celebrated scenes of pathos--the high voices and the strings--with stifled yawns and paper cranes folded from the torn pages of the libretto. In the little education your mother and her kind provided you, there was at least this: inoculation from damsels in distress.

"This is pathetic," you say, walking up to the bench.
The Princess peers up at you from the tips of her fingers. The tears have gone, but, like a child, her breath catches occasionally from half-remembered sobs. "Go away."
You sit down beside her. "You loved him when you were children, and, because you are still a child, you still love him."
"I don't love him!"
"He told me the whole story," you say, as though she hadn't just screamed. "There was no courting, no paramour, no dramatic betrayal, just one-sided, juvenile infatuation. Unbecoming of even a common woman, let alone a Princess of Porusia."
"Who told you you could speak to me this way?" Her hands, finally fallen from her face, are clenched now in tiny fists.
"Weeping like a rejected schoolgirl, and under the gaze of her unapproving father no less. There are limits to puerility, Princess."
She attempts to strike you, but the blow is caught easily, her wrist as brittle as straw, and she is cowed without further struggle. "Unhand me," she whispers.
You loosen your grip but do not release her. "If you do not love him, if you wish to destroy him, if you hate him, know that his fiancee is a fraud, a swindler, an eater of men. If there is any love in that engagement it can be cut and measured in karats."
She grabs your sleeve. "How can you know this?"
You flush, remembering Valarie as she was in the Academy, when she was only Val, only an initiate of her future trade. And you were only practice, you realize now, you were only a whetstone on which she could sharpen her blades, herself unconscious, or else uncaring, of the marks she might leave behind.
Seeing all this in your face, the Princess's gaze now softens into one of pity and you throw down her arm and stand and turn away.
"If this is so, have we--have I--not a duty to tell him?" she asks. "Are you certain she is a fraud?"
"At the very least, she was not a Lady when I knew her."
"But are her designs malicious?"
You shrug. "Does it matter?"
"I'll not condemn an innocent woman."

>>5483737
"Innocent! Innocent!" You stop short and close your eyes and take a moment to settle your breathing. You too did know something of innocence once--even with your upbringing, with your mother's company--before she took it from you. "It is possible she has changed," you admit, eyes still closed. "Even a rogue may find religion. And love is a powerful catalyst for such alchemy."
"You believe she loves him?"
"I believe he loves her, and if you wish to hurt him--"
"I don't wish to hurt him," she blurts out, wrapping her fingers around her neck. "Or her. Or you."
"My sufferings, if there were any, should never come into it."
"I see. Well, he would crush her, perhaps," she muses aloud, carefully studying your reactions. "His Tritonian education has not enlightened him as far as clemency or Porusian justice. Execution, electrocution... exile."
The worst of these, of course, is exile. Marooned on a planet or moon or abandoned station too distant from the trade lanes to ever be discovered. A lifetime supply of bland nutrient slop and a tool just sharp enough to cut the packaging. A fate far worse than death. A fate which even gives you pause. "I'm merely an advisor. I provide counsel. I have provided counsel. There my involvement ends."
"If only you were so principled in your other involvements. Fine, I will decide myself whether to tell him. I have not decided yet. Your task will be to confirm this woman's true intentions. Is it love or lucre which motivates her?"
"How do you propose I do that?"
She smiles. "Seduce her," she says.

That's all I can manage for today. I'll finish up the update and write more tomorrow.

>>5483740

The rest of the evening will forever remain one of the most uncomfortable of your life. At dinner, you sit beside the Princess on one side and Valeria on the other, juggling the pretense of the perfect companion, while attempting to make equally false, adulterous advances, as the last member of the party remains blissfully ignorant of it all.

It is not until after dinner just before heading off to inspect the mining site, that you get a moment alone with Valeria,. Her signs at dinner were ambiguous and you were unable to interpret her true feelings toward you. In that moment of privacy, however, it is she who speaks first, discarding her bubbly affectation.
"I'm surprised at you Jimmy. I thought by now you would have had me in chains."
"I might have, if I didn't know how much you enjoy that sort of thing."
She sighs, nodding. "True. Sadly, my fiance is of another mind. You don't know how much I suffer."
"No valuable undertaking is without its abstract cost."
"Speaking from experience?"
"From memory."
"You're not still sore about what happened all those years ago?"
"Just disappointed. I should have seen you for what you were, given what I am."
"And what am I?"
"A whore."
She grins, but you know better. She only ever showed her teeth when she was upset. "It's a bit uncalled for, don't you think?"
"It's the whore that takes money."
"I never took any money from you."
"I never had any."
"What does that make you then?"
"Practice, if I had to guess."
She laughs, a high tittering sound. "We did have a lot of 'practice' didn't we?" She slides her arm up your chest, toward your neck. You lean away and bat her off.
"What would your husband think?"
"I don't think he would mind."
You scoff.
"Isn't this what you wanted?" she snaps. "What was all that during the dinner about, then?"
"I wanted to know if he was another mark. Now I do."
"Oh like the Princess? Betrothed to a direct descendant of the Emperor, Jimmy? Talk about marrying up! A mere advisor--and even that's suspicious. You were never the type to kowtow to anyone, even as a Company man. Oh don't look so surprised. Of course I did my research before coming here. Who do you think convinced Gisco to invest here in the first place? This out-of-the-way nothing of a rock. Who recognized your name in the dossier? Who convinced Gisco to come in person? And if you think I did it for the Princess's sake--"
"You didn't do it for mine."
"For whose then?"
"For your own."
"You're wrong! About this, about what you meant to me back then. About what I am. And about Gisco. I don't love him, but he isn't a mark."
"A retirement plan, then."
"When did you become so cynical, Jimmy?"
"Take a wild guess."
She sighs and looks down. A pause. "I know I've hurt you. I'm sorry."
Contrition was the last thing you expected from the likes of Val. And the last thing you'll accept without suspicion. "Very good," you say, clapping, "the initiate has become the master."

>>5484439

Her chest heaves, her cheeks flush with heat, but you know that the cardinal rule of the con is to never give it up. She must double down on her deception.
"I won't let you destroy an innocent man," you say.
"You'd be the one destroying him."
"If I let you stay with him--"
"Listen to me--"
"--he'll lose everything."
"--he needs me!" She grabs your sleeve. "Do you understand that? He needs me."
"He doesn't need a liar, a pretender--"
"He needs me because I'm a liar and pretender."
"What are you talking about?"
"He knows my history. Whatever you would tell him, he already knows. I'm not using him Jimmy, he's using me. But if you reveal your hand today, it'll force him to get rid of me, to his own loss. And you'll lose your deal."
"I don't care about the deal. What do you mean he's using you? How?"
"I've already said too much. Please, I'm begging you, Jimmy..." She sighs. "This isn't what I wanted in coming here."
"What did you want?"
"I don't know. Just to see you again, I guess."
"Not good enough." You begin to walk way.
"I'll tell her about you, then."
You stop.
"I don't know why you're here, but it isn't to be her advisor. You wouldn't quit the Company for something like that, and you're not the type to get swayed by a pretty face."
"You'd know would you?"
"I know you. I admired you. Your ambitions aren't so small as this. I'll let the Princess know as much, if you make any move against me. It won't be enough, I know, but it'll make things harder for you."

You spend the remainder of the night in intense, internal debate, unable to come a final decision. There is no way of knowing what is the truth. The night ends with everyone returning with everything they wanted: the Princess got her money, you kept your position, Valerie kept hers, and Lord Gisco left none the wiser. It's possible Val was telling the truth, just as its possible that in a few months Lord Gisco will be on the news; just another victim.

Time will tell.

203.4

The broker finally brings you the most promising candidates for your investment program. He's narrowed applicants down to just three: a proposal for a ship repair operation, staring with a few additions to the existing port, a research facility, to attract scientists and academics to engage in esoteric research considered taboo in the coreworlds, and a more involved operation to scoop liquid metal hydrogen from Arien IV's governing gas giant.

The repair operation does not promise much immediate profit, given that the Catari already have a repair station on nearby Brabantine. However, if you can somehow expand this into a fully fledged shipyard, you would be able to manufacture your own starships, making you the undisputed power in the quadrant, possibly the whole sector. The research station, on the other hand, could result in the discovery of completely new technology--a slim chance, admittedly, but the company of academics may bring with it other opportunities as well. Finally, liquid metallic hydrogen is one of the most useful and most valuable materials in the galaxy, but its extraction from 2 million bars of pressure and 23 thousand degrees Kelvin of temperature is not for the faint of heart. Not to mention the costs of storing the hydrogen afterwards. Pulling it off, however, would bring this backwater colony to the attention of everyone from company presidents to emperors.

There are a few other projects as well, runner-ups by the broker's estimation.

>What will you fund?
>Repair Station
>Research Station
>Scooping Station
>One of the runner-ups (Write-in)

>>5484445
>>Repair Station

Low risk, but the potential for high reward.