>>279454
Establishing a spy network is a trickier and more delicate job. Once we've got a couple other maids, I think we might want to put Amelia on figuring out that job full-time, since she's loyal.

My guess on how to start would be going around town and meeting with people, being friendly and dropping hints that you would be interested in knowing any news that comes up. Pay only in promises until someone starts giving you information, then do something like buying drinks while they tell you things- inexpensive but effective as a reward for low-level people passing rumors and general news.

Of course, that only works for one town at a time. Once she has a good handle on that, get someone else in town- an innkeep or tavern owner, those are usually centers of news anyway- to agree to pass along anything interesting that comes to their ears in exchange for a fee or other considerations, tell other contacts in town that they can share anything interesting there, and move on to the next town to do it again.

Ideally your second level of contacts would communicate with a central location that isn't our tower fairly quickly and frequently- messenger pigeons are ideal but expensive and tough to set up; actual messengers would be more likely, or possibly using something like peddlers who travel between towns, or whatever else people normally use to send letters between towns and rely upon the presumed innocuous nature of the letters for security.

The details would likely have to be worked out as they go, but there's a basic plan for building a basic spy network. Hopefully someone else can help with polishing it up.

If it starts going well, Amelia can pick up an assistant after a few months and start training her as a higher-level agent, who knows both how to set up more networks and gets trained on how to observe supply shipments, assess people, etc. and know stuff about estates based upon that- Amelia should know all these things already as someone skilled in managing estates. But that's getting ahead of ourself, I think.

How about forming a cover business? A newspaper would have reason to employ reporters and journalists (a much less suspicious job board post than 'spies wanted'), and not only would give you access to a (relatively) unsuspected spy network, but allow you to control information flow to other princesses. And provide some extra capital.

A newspaper for who? Can the peasants even read? Do printing presses even exist?

id like to remember that our current expenses put us at about 40 GP left by the end of the year. making a company to earn money could work well, but remember that it will attract attention to us and will need investment. however, effectively handling a spy network trhu a newspaper sounds appealing, even if too expensive to maintain, and a victory by itself. im hoping the masses can use newspaper as well, considering the drama that the trials are, there could be a lot of space to work with.

amelia will have to handle the delicate work of spying. she will have to befriend people at the town and hope that good things come out of it. her cover isnt supposed to indicate we are on the trial nor attract attention to her to the point of being fed false information. i belive the best bet is for us to pass as our mother, on a grief vacation due to the failure of her daughter, us. misfeeding, deceit and a appealing dramatic story in one, i cant think of a more mary sue way to go.

ror will fall trees at least to sustain our own need for firewood. i am pretty sure we can use him as a worker, but as it comes, WE are the only one armed AND with a weapon. IF we are intending to hire a guard, it will have to be by indication of mother, that may know of actual trhustworthy people. anything else will either attract too much attention or actualy backfire.

so we will begin solo trainning until we figure out how to get money or a trustworthy guard. since we already have a rapier, getting a small concealable dagger to work as a main gauche sounds about good.

sending a message to mother asking for information would be cheating?

How long as the Trial tradition been going? Your average villager may be used by now to random sudden arrivals with odd customs, and can spot a princess a mile off. Best not to assume you are still undetected.
>IF we are intending to hire a guard, it will have to be by indication of mother, that may know of actual trhustworthy people
This is a pretty good idea for a vetting process.

We need to think about potential sources of income as well. Income means we can spend more, and have more options in the trial.

Are we near any rivers? Or any hills that get a decent wind across the top?

>sending a message to mother asking for information would be cheating?

Nothing is cheating, really. Asking for parental help isn't even frowned upon -- remember, they funded you, and the playing field isn't even. Recommendations for employees fall under the same category that money does.

You can send a letter in the town, but it will take at least two weeks before you get a response.

>Are we near any rivers? Or any hills that get a decent wind across the top?
The only bodies of water, not that it's exactly relevant to this line of questioning, are the ocean and the groundwater that your well pumps from.

On the subject of hills, you can take your pick. The surrounding area is far from flat, so if you wanted to set up a windmill, you could have your choice of distances from your tower and the town. You'd have to cut down a few trees to build on them, though.

>A newspaper for who? Can the peasants even read? Do printing presses even exist?

The average peasant is illiterate. Then again, the average peasant lives out in the fields; a third of the population in the parts of the town you bothered to look at could benefit from a newspaper. Printing presses exist and are an acceptable for you to use. A newspaper would blend in better in a larger settlement like Redvale, however.

>>279697
A windmill would be a great idea. Not only will the local populace be grateful for another place to grind their wheat, but it would generate a source of income in the harvest season. A fairly large one I would think. Finally, this would be a way of showing your competence, improving the infrastructure of an area shows that you have the acumen for ruling on at least some level. And finally, you could hook the windmill up to a rotary printing press as well allowing you to churn out copies faster.

we shouldnt "double invest" in something specialy if it will require so much GP. maybe later when we get enougth GP. alas having a income only on harvest season sucks.

send a letter to mom asking for reliable guards that are on the surrounding. im sure it will fail because we are being too specific, but its better to be safe that sorry.

i liked the idea of becoming self sufficient. maybe we can return home with 200GP. a small business company could work even to hide our identity.

so, how hard would it be to get a press here and delivery boys to the nearby cities? we would need to look for customers and journalists somehow, it would be a long term investment to make a journal to cover 2 or 3 cities so soon.

>>279708
wait i think i got it.

a publishing company. this would downgrade what we can do with information but should be a safer means of getting money.

eventually when we get a steady supply of customers possibly from out of town we can make the journal.

>>279712
In that case a windmill hooked up to a rotary printing press is a damn good idea. (You know, the windmill powers the printing press that's set up with a rotating barrel with the movable type on it? Just need to feed the thing paper and ink?) An expensive and complicated start up, but it would bring down publishing costs a TON, letting us undercut any existing publishers, or simply have a huge profit margin.

>>279714

Windmill to flywheel to press is a better set up, but I agree with the idea in general. Besides, newspaper presses can be used to print fliers, circulars, and other sorts of literature. Make it a newspaper with an attached publishing business.

>>279697
>long message transit time
>land covered in tall towers
IT'S CLACKS TIME.
Has the benefits of information control, along with access to many, many towers. Plus huge profit potentials even after the trial.

Djierks!!VlZTV0LJAy 2011/02/08(Tue)17:22 No. 280343 ID: 52599b
File 129721453244.png - (43.11KB , 405x317 , engineerproposal.png )

You tell Amelia that her job for the day is to investigate the group of stoneworkers, while using any task, real or imaginary, as an excuse to be around the tower. After that, she is to travel into town, investigate any suspiciously expensive food purchases, and acquire some contacts. Upon hearing this, she looks up from the floor, nearly making eye contact, but in a split second she composes herself. Amelia gives you a curtsy that is slightly more enthusiastic than usual and exits.

You tell Ror that his job for the day is chopping down trees. This is business as usual for Ror, who nods and picks up the hatchet on his way out.

It's not high on your list of things to do, but you spend about and hour practicing basic rapier maneuvers on your own. It doesn't compare to having someone to spar with, but when you're done you do feel a bit less rusty. You manage to get some good practice in on your basic balance, as well as your draw speed.

On the way to the town, you think about setting up a series of signal relay towers. It's a good idea -- the towers themselves wouldn't have to be very complex, and you could probably use some sort of flag code to actually relay the signals. There might be another way to relay signals, too, but nothing springs to mind immediately. You start taking mental measurements, keeping in mind how big a signal flag can reasonably be. By the time you make it to the town, you're pretty sure you know the range of a relay tower. To get from Arbormount to Redvale, you need eight. You might be able to get away with using your windmill as a tower if you place it either immediately adjacent to the town, or on a direct path to Redvale.

First, you visit the engineer. He takes some notes as you describe what you want built. Finally, after putting his pen down, he points out the difficulties of building a windmill printing-press. He will need to supervise the construction at several stages. It's possible, but you're going to have to pay him up front, both for materials and sub-contracted skilled labor for the woodworking, construction, and the metalwork. He can arrange to have the whole thing done for 70 GP in one month - or for 40 if you can provide lumber on the spot. You immediately think about hiring a small swarm of unskilled laborers to speed the process up.

Djierks!!VlZTV0LJAy 2011/02/08(Tue)17:22 No. 280344 ID: 52599b
File 129721455816.png - (41.94KB , 353x247 , maids.png )

Next, you start your hunt for a couple of maids. They need to be decent looking, but in a way that emphasizes your looks in comparison. Also, they need to be smart enough to take hints and accomplish tasks with minimal direction. Actual skills required are minimal. After wandering around for a bit, you find a couple of qualified volunteers (0.5 GP per month, each).

Djierks!!VlZTV0LJAy 2011/02/08(Tue)17:23 No. 280345 ID: 52599b
File 129721458660.png - (46.47KB , 405x331 , daggeroptions.png )

You make a brief stop at the blacksmith to ask about parrying daggers. He can make you a standard parrying dagger for 0.5 GP in two days, or a spring loaded trident dagger for 3 GP in four. The trident dagger isn't really any better at parrying, but if you do manage to parry, it tends to keep the other weapon out of the remainder of the fight.

Finally, you stop by the carpenter's workshop to ask for an estimate on a minimal relay tower. The carpenter listens to your description, and assuming you only want a framework, a ladder, a spot to sit, and a small amount of space for equipment, he can build a tower for 12.4 GP, counting the expense of traveling to remote locations with materials. When you point out that you might be able to provide materials on-site, he lowers the price to 8 GP, which covers other materials, labor costs for him and his two apprentices, travel time, and the inefficiency of having to work outside of a workshop. Each tower would take four days to build, and can't be reduced to anything lower than two no matter how much extra help you hire.

>confirm or cancel hiring two lower-quality maids
>confirm or cancel hiring engineer to build a windmill/printing press
>confirm order of parrying dagger or trident dagger, or cancel
>confirm order of 8 relay towers, or 7 if you locate your windmill in one of their places
>other

the windmill already puts us on negative. we need a sampler design.

the relay towers are confusing me. why? they would cost 64 GP total.

and all of those projects are for a month? we definitively need to think this over.

i think the maids are a good idea, it will give amelia a good feeling of power over others.

oh the trident dagger is a yes for me. we need a sample printing press, and the price of a regular windmill.

i re-read everything. why relay towers? i dont get it.

>the relay towers are confusing me. why? they would cost 64 GP total.
They're essentially a peasant-powered telegraph. You could charge people money to send messages between Arbormount and Redvale in a fraction of the time they could by hand.

>the windmill already puts us on negative.
Only in the long term, and even then only if it doesn't make its money back.

>and all of those projects are for a month?
Give or take a few days, yes.

Hmm... maybe ask your parents for additional money? I mean, this setup would have a huge profit potential, it could simply be a 0% interest loan if they don't just want to GIVE us anymore money. And the signal towers are from the clacks towers thing. Basically just for rapid information exchange. Like allow us to command activities in the town without having to travel there.

>price of a regular windmill.
50 GP, or 20 if you can deliver usable lumber to the spot. The printing press on its own costs 20 GP, which isn't really reducible in any way. It's made of metal and individual bits of type are labor intensive.

>>280349
SO the concept of periodic payments with interest exists here? Or you just saying we'll be able to find venture capital of some form easily? Either is pretty good for projects.

>SO the concept of periodic payments with interest exists here?
Yes.

>Or you just saying we'll be able to find venture capital of some form easily?
For something smaller, yes. For something of this size, it would take some research.

Cost summary:
Printing Press: 20 GP
Windmill: 50 GP (20 GP with lumber provided)
Relay Tower: 12.4 GP (8 GP with lumber provided)
Parrying dagger: 0.5 GP
Trident dagger: 3 GP
Maid: 0.5 GP/month (x1 or x2)

You currently have 96.8 GP, with 38.5 of it reserved for upkeep costs throughout the year.

I say go for the windmill/printing press and do the towers on installment payments. If you can arrange for people to chop down the trees that is. (That ok with everyone?)

>>280362

Let's pick one, eh? It's bad enough that we are doing this instead of actually planning out a way of being the most beautiful princess in the land.

>>280384
We're a thoroughly mediocre princess. All we've got going for us that others lack is the voices in our head. Standing out in terms of beauty is pretty much a losing battle.

>>280357
Get maids x2, trident dagger, and do the windmill/printing press aiming for the lumber discount.

In the medium term, if we can turn that printing press into an excuse to have people search out the other princesses- and, if we're lucky, even conduct interviews with them and then publish/sell those interviews and overviews of how the princess wars are going- it could be awesome. And both highly lucrative and highly useful for our intelligence network. Far more so than merely passing messages faster, I think.

>>280389

+1 Trident, +1 both maids, +1 paper press, +1 windmill.

We're going to have to worry about pulping/paper creation, bindings, labour (skilled, no reason for expert book crafters,) stuff like that also. And a bunch of other stuff that was discussed in IRC.

Djierks!!VlZTV0LJAy 2011/02/08(Tue)21:25 No. 280421 ID: 52599b
File 12972291469.png - (32.83KB , 268x433 , toweroutsideday2.png )

You put in the order for the trident dagger with the blacksmith, hire the new maids, confirm your desire for a windmill and printing press with the engineer (promising a supply of lumber on the site). You spend a few minutes working out specifics, and agree to schedule the start of construction the day after tomorrow, to give everyone time to get organized.

In anticipation of this, you will need some woodcutters on the location you agreed on with the engineer, just outside of town. If you start cutting down trees tomorrow, you should be able to present the builders with lumber the following day. While you probably only need three or four if you want to keep up with the builders' needs, you can probably speed up construction by having spare woodcutters do some heavy lifting when they aren't cutting wood.

When you arrive just before sunset, new maids in tow, you find yourself in possession of a medium sized log. The branches, chopped into manageable chunks, are in a neat pile by the stove. Ror is sitting on the log, his shirt off and the hatchet dangling from one hand.

The stoneworkers have managed to make significant progress without actually blocking access to any part of your tower. The last of them is on his way out. They've left some raw materials and one of their carts behind.

Amelia isolates you and tells you about her day immediately. In her opinion, the stoneworkers are safe. It's a family business, and the one you negotiated with is quite interested in keeping his sons and nephews employed. In other words, the group is nearly impossible to infiltrate. Unless someone has been buying out all of the workers in the town, you shouldn't have much to worry about from them.

The rest of her day was more interesting. Amelia started off by talking to food vendors in the open air market. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a young woman spending several GP on a small package at the spice vendor's stand. This is suspicious -- normally, anybody who could afford to spend so much in one place would live somewhere more exciting than Arbormount. Amelia tailed her at a safe distance back to a house in the richer area of town. She didn't get a good look inside, because she prioritized being inconspicuous, but she did catch a glimpse of two very expensively dressed young women through the window. She apologizes for saying this, as she assumes it is a mistake.

Amelia has little progress to report on the spy network. She did stop by various taverns to make as many friends as she could, but her efforts have not born fruit just yet. She tentatively mentions that she might be able to accomplish more with a budget -- less than 1 GP, in small coins, would be enough to have a significant effect.

>immediate actions
>number of wood cutters hired (0.5 GP/month each)
>adjustments on Ror and Amelia's to-do lists
>assignments for maids
>your own to-do list
>other

>>280421
You have 53.8 GP left.

>>280421
For a single day's efforts, Amelia did quite well. I'm willing to allocate a handful of gp to building a spy network over the next couple months, though I would expect Amelia to be able to work mostly on promises and flirting except when getting serious results from people she's actively recruited as informants. We will hopefully have plenty of money to throw around later; at the moment we're on a budget.

Amelia should keep focused on spying on people and building up a network for the next while.

Assignments for maids: Cook, clean, that sort of thing, naturally. Buy any sundry supplies we require in the course of whatever we're doing. As the construction project approaches completion, have them find out where we can locate the materials and labor needed to make this printing press concept work- hunting that stuff down is probably going to be time-consuming but not overly difficult. We can handle the actual purchases and negotiations ourselves.

Hire six woodcutters, if it'll speed construction; getting this going faster would be better. If they have

We should keep tabs on the construction project, and as we locate sources of materials and potential employees for the paper concept we'll need to be the one who heads up negotiations. It should be obvious, but do none of this dressed as a princess.

>>280485

In fact, on the matter of attire, it may be time to get some sensible business noble clothes. I think that would be the optimal guise while operating a newspaper for the locals. Simply state it's a trial run.

amelia will have to stay for at least 5 days to organize the maid's work. it may help to make things a bit more secretive as well.

we should give her the gold she needs. thats the butter of our bread after all...

we need ror to not only supply US with lumber but to also work on the tower. i am considering replacing the moot with something that may warn us of possible trespassers. a bell system of sorts. ror would be the one to either re-dig or cover the moat.

for now we really should get trainning apparatus. cant we use a dummy of sorts to practice?

oh yeah, amelia should be the one to hire the woodworkers. and we needed her to investigate the carpenter too.

damm. maybe we just need her to do everything. what can the princess investigate without calling too much attention? maybe the carpenters, if we appear as a second in command to the business we are trying to raise?

Djierks!!VlZTV0LJAy 2011/02/11(Fri)00:07 No. 280884 ID: 52599b
File 12974116301.png - (22.35KB , 504x209 , windmillpart.png )

You tell Ror to reduce enough of the log to firewood to last a while, then tell him to assist the windmill-site's six woodcutters and carpenters as needed. You also give him the lower priority assignment of building you a training dummy. You give Amelia roughly 0.5 GP in the smallest coins you have available. She promises to keep careful track of her purchases.

Over the next few days, you put in an order at the tailor's for a slightly more formal set of clothes (0.4 GP), find the best deal you can on paper and ink in bulk, send a letter back home asking about sources of reliable guards, and start looking into finding some literate help for your growing business.

Additionally, construction on the windmill starts; your six woodcutters, with intermittent help from Ror, are able to keep ahead of the carpenters' requirements, and help assemble the simpler components when they run out of their own work to do. Progress is good, and the windmill actually resembles the skeleton of a building. The head carpenter estimates that it is nearly half complete.

By the end of the week, your new clothes are ready, the stoneworkers are finished with their modifications, and you have managed to get a little bit of practice in with your rapier and new trident dagger. Ror's training dummy was built with minimal attempts to resemble a human, but it does let you get some valuable practice making precise strikes on a moving target. The inside of the tower is also looking much nicer, thanks to the labor of your new maids.

Djierks!!VlZTV0LJAy 2011/02/11(Fri)00:08 No. 280885 ID: 52599b
File 129741168525.png - (47.37KB , 640x319 , dummy.png )

Amelia has given you daily intelligence reports throughout the week. While she did make an additional trip past the suspicious house, confirming a dress color (gold) and a hair color (red), she mainly focused on attempting to casually gain information from servants in conversation, without outing herself as a spy. Aside from confirming her suspicions on the budget of the wealthiest locals (much lower than what your suspected Princess' budget must be), she uncovered very little until today, when she undeniably struck pay dirt.

Today, Amelia went to a tavern and met a prominent local businesswoman's servant. A new neighbor had invited her employer to her home for lunch. The servant spent most of the encounter standing silently in the background with the host's two well-dressed female servants.

The detail Amelia was so excited about? The other woman had red hair, wore a gold colored dress, and wore a crown.

>52.9 GP remaining
>Build 3rd floor replica of your room for Amelia to sleep in, as originally planned
>alterations to anyone's standing orders
>personal to-do list
>other

A princess in town is newsworthy. That will give our girl reporter here an excuse to do a little more digging on the rival.

Who built the house the rival is staying in? If they're still around we may be able to get the floor plans.

Which princesses match that description anyway? Red hair isn't that common.

>A princess in town is newsworthy. That will give our girl reporter here an excuse to do a little more digging on the rival.
You can probably come up with some writer and reporter candidates before the windmill is finished construction. Any overall plans?

>Who built the house the rival is staying in? If they're still around we may be able to get the floor plans.
It's an ordinary house in the richer area of town (if more upscale, even in comparison to the neighbors), not custom built recently to be sure. The house is at least several decades old.

>Which princesses match that description anyway? Red hair isn't that common.
Red hair puts her place of origin very far to the North of your home, and somewhat far to the North of your current area. She might hail from the Ethusian region, which is distant enough to be little more than a name to you.

At least she isn't enjoying a home-territory advantage.

>>280895

Well, the masons that originally built it may still be around. If not, the previous owner or tenant may be.

>>280885
we shouldnt ad the fact that we got a princess on our doorstep. it may warn that we are a princess too!

we should begin planning the kidnapping. for the press, we should sell our printing services. when we get a bit on income we try our newspaper business.

we will have to look for journalists and writers as well. and their payment...

>>280885
Aha, Amelia does excellent work. Did she find out what the princess wanted with that local businesswoman, by the way? Always good to know one's rivals' plans.

Now we need to decide how to play this. Is it too early in the game for a kidnapping? We'd preferably come up with a good way to pull it off in style, but even without anything of the sort we'd at least quickly eliminate a nearby rival- and quite possibly gain her funds to work with in the process, allowing us to expand our operations proportionately and carry out more impressive acts later. I am wary of leaving any princesses at large in the immediate area, since our tower is far from subtle- we might as well have a target painted on our back. Besides, being successful at even a single relatively standard kidnapping would meet the minimum requirements for not shaming our family in this endeavor, since obviously many princesses are early victims and don't manage even that. We might as well get it out of the way quick.

Alternately, we could choose to play a more subtle game; keep an eye on her, and once our paper is up and running try to exploit her existence as an excuse to try and get our paper a reputation as a means by which any princesses can make announcements, brag about their accomplishments, and otherwise communicate with one another through a public and relatively safe venue. If we can successfully manage to get that kind of reputation the intel will keep pouring in throughout the entire year we'll have our pick of targets, probably make a lot of money, and be able to manipulate others' reputations as well. Not to mention that I would expect a certain level of international demand as kings and queens everywhere try to keep track of their darling daughters' progress or evaluate the relative worth of their sons' prospective brides.


Personally, I lean towards the latter path, at least for now; we don't really have the resources that we'd need to make our kidnapping a good one and aren't so desperate for money that we'll need to take risks for it. Keep an eye on the princess, and if she's hiring new people see if we can get a double agent planted- after all, we pretty much just picked up random maids in town; that's not exactly a high-security method. If she's equally foolish we could exploit that.

While that is ongoing, we'll need to make sure that our paper can start up as soon as the windmill is done. We'll need reporters (call it 4-5 to start), writers, and a distribution network set up, which probably means either using whatever transport network already exists (selling papers to merchants, who sell them as they go?) or creating our own (paperboys, messengers bringing papers between towns, etc.). We'll also need an editor to make the whole concept work; no one wants to read a poorly done paper.

Figuring out what is needed to make this work, and finding decent people to take up these jobs, is probably going to be a full-time occupation for a couple weeks. Present ourselves to our employees as a businesswoman/entrepreneur rather than a princess, obviously. Pay reporters on a per-story basis, pay scaled based on quality of the story- interviews with princesses get top dollar, human interest pieces get a bit of twine and a bottle cap. We can probably find decent reporters amongst the relatively young but fairly educated population- apprentices and such- while our editor should be someone more experienced.

>>280983
>see if we can get a double agent planted- after all, we pretty much just picked up random maids in town; that's not exactly a high-security method.
Thinking on that, best to keep an eye on our maids for a while. We may think we've got the drop on this 'new arrival', but best not to underestimate them.

Djierks!!VlZTV0LJAy 2011/02/12(Sat)20:44 No. 281201 ID: 52599b
File 129757229392.png - (28.79KB , 504x288 , windmill.png )

According to Amelia, the local businesswoman and the Princess talked about the weather, their shared neighbors, the ingredients and preparation techniques involved in their tea and sandwiches, and their health. Based on the story told by the servant, Amelia conjectures that the Princess was very knowledgeable with regards to her neighbors. She promises to speak to the servant again soon, as well as to find the previous owner of the house, as you recommend. Over the next week, she speaks to the servant several times, but uncovers very little.

The construction of the windmill continues on schedule, with the printing press complete a few days before the power supply is up and running. The project has gotten a fair amount of attention; windmills don't spring up outside of town every day. With the interest levels as high as they are, you should have more demand for grain processing than you have the capability to serve, assuming you use the windmill for its usual purpose. You calculate that the windmill will be able to grind enough grain to make you 0.5 GP each week. You also hear from several people interested in paying to publish their own work, as well as advertising in your paper, but the exact amount of money you can make there is a bit hard to quantify just yet. Regardless, the windmill and printing press finish on schedule, after another week of work.

During this week, you find a qualified editor -- a young man named Miles who is having trouble finding enough work as a scribe. You also find a pair of reporters -- a young man and a young woman -- who are literate, presentable, and willing to work on a sliding scale per-article basis.

After a few days of checking the mail, the letter you were waiting for arrives! Most of the first page concerns updates on local affairs, as well as questions about your experience so far. Then, the bit you were waiting for:

"I am quite sorry to hear that you are having trouble finding trustworthy underlings.

I have explained your situation to several of my trusted friends. One of them, the Baron John of Loxford, agreed that it was quite the unfortunate situation. The Baron suggested that his second son, who has been looking for an opportunity for real-world experience, would make a fine head of security for you. The arrangements are made, and he should arrive within a week after you receive this letter, giving you enough time to prepare for him.

You should be able to hire mercenaries with a wide variety of skills in Arbormount if you need additional security. If you are still concerned with infiltrators, take advantage of their unreliable nature -- hire unaffiliated underlings, then take them aside individually and offer rewards for reporting attempted bribes and betrayals by your other minions.

Love,
-Clarissa von Eupersberg III"

>Confirm hiring windmill operator (1GP/month)
>Confirm using printing press down-time to grind grain (0.5 GP/week)
>Preparations for John of Loxford II
>Tasks for Ror
>Additional tasks for Amelia
>Confirm hiring editor/reporters
>Assignments for newspaper employees
>Kidnapping plans, long term or short term
>Other

Miles would cost you 1.5 GP per month, by the way. It's rather a lot, but he seems confident that he can run whatever aspects of the paper don't interest you entirely on his own.

>Confirm using printing press down-time to grind grain (0.5 GP/week)
Ah, income. Wonderful.
>Confirm hiring windmill operator (1GP/month)
...apparently somewhat less income than initially apparent, but still some. Do both, since I assume that the former requires the latter.

>Preparations for John of Loxford II
A baron's second son is hardly up at our rank, but he's still someone of stature. Set aside a room in our tower for his use, make sure it's nice enough to not embarrass us. Our maids should be able to arrange it.

>Tasks for Ror


>Additional tasks for Amelia
She needs to be pulling in the intel and building up more contacts to pull in more intel, all the time. Being a spymaster- or just a spy- is a full-time job, and she needs to get more results than she has even if finding another princess so quickly was quite a coup. She needs many people feeding her information, and from more than just this town. She can draw some funds and start traveling around; within a month or so I would like to have informants working for us in either several more towns nearby or a significant city. Amelia needs to set this up, find people who will do spying work for us- or at least general passing on of gossip- without bleeding our purse dry. It's a big job and outside her training, but she's what we have- and if she does a good job at this and we do well in the trial, there's no way in hell she'll stay merely our maid once this is done.

>Tasks for Ror
I have no idea what to do with this guy. Something generally productive.

>Confirm hiring editor/reporters
Yes, definitely. Finding another couple reporters would be good, too.

>Assignments for newspaper employees
Miles' job is to make this newspaper concept work- hammer out all the details and bring them to us for approval. How often can we afford to print the paper? What can we charge for it? How many articles will that require, as compared to what we can expect on a per-reporter basis? How many independent people- writers and advertisers- can we expect to get contracts from on a regular basis, at how much money? All these problems fall on his desk. I would like to publish weekly if possible but that may or may not be feasible based upon the details.

Our reporters are getting sent out after being told they need to find a big story- or preferably one each. Our opening issue has to be a good one, with exciting news that will incline people to start reading it- otherwise the whole concept could flop. Ideally they'd track down a princess or two that's already pulled off an exciting kidnapping and get an interview about it, but I'm not picky- ANY big news will do. Tell them that we expect the princess contest to provide fairly reliable interesting news for the rest of the year, so they should get on finding places to get news on the topic, but we're not incredibly particular as long as whatever stories they bring in are both verifiably true- no yellow journalism allowed- and of interest to many people. As a side note, they might run into people during their travels who would like to try their hand at reporting as well; these people are to be told that a high-quality article will be considered an excellent resume.

>Kidnapping plans, long term or short term
I'm willing to put these on ice for now. Have Amelia set things up before she leaves so that someone will subtly keep an eye on that princess so that we'll know if she moves, is taken, or pulls something major, but for the moment let's mostly focus on setting up business and intel.


>Other
Aim to publish our first issue of the paper in 2 weeks. That means good initial stories in, advertising contracts arranged, resources for continued publishing secured, distribution methods and pricing established, all details accounted for- because after that we churn them out regularly, on either a weekly or bi-weekly basis depending upon what our resources can manage. This is a rather large project and we should bend our personal time to seeing that it goes on smoothly.

>ror tasks
how can we have issues getting ror a task? i just dont get it.

so far i belive we need to cover the moat. give ror some GP and let him buy trap parts, he should try his best to make a warning system on the moat's dig site. hopefully the baron's son will be able to use him more that we do.

>princessnappings
we may need to make it long term. we need to know the princess's routine. so far amelia has been questioning quite a lot, maybe we will need to get a better excuse as to why she has been snooping around.

also, if our enemy knows her villagers, we will have issues finding solid, trusthworthy work for the mill press and actualy snooping in her. worse of all, amelia is from outside so she already rings quite a lot of bells there, even more so for asking around.

afaik all of the newspaper and mill business may be by itself a way of her to gather info on us, so if possible, we should handle it the most professionaly de-atattched as possible.

the cool thing on this is that we may have already suceeded. a princess that sets a working business in record time is bound to make a tawdry tale.

>amelia's
she has been helping us train, hasnt she?

ask the carpenter for wooden weapons. its time for the student to become the teacher =3

wait, how much GP we have left?

we may need to delay something depending on the amount left. the trainning tools and trap implements can definitively wait, as long as amelia didnt got attention to us as a princess.

oh, how about amelia uses a disguise?

she can show up as a noblesman's maid, scouting for possible spectators for our newspaper business. this could get attention of us a little bit, and with the baron's son arriving soon, it will really look like it.

>she has been helping us train, hasnt she?
Amelia has been very busy spying. You've had whichever lesser maid was closest operate the training dummy for you.

>wait, how much GP we have left?
Your last expense (not shown) was paying the woodcutters for slightly over two weeks, which put you at 51.4 GP.

>>281422
thats a no on the sparring weapons then. we may need to wait for the baron son's to train properly.

seems we actualy have funds to pull out both business at once. the mill can grind at night too?

We need to make sure that Amelia remains loyal. Praise her every once in a while.

For printing press: Also begin printing some books that may be profitable. Religious texts are amazing sources of income and will earn you approval from the local church.

Good job everyone, now we control the press and public opinion. We may need to control the business elites next. Long term plan of course. Then we should get the church to support us.