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Royal Moon Circles
831d71
You should probably do the talking, Moss. This'll be your first big appearance as a Marshal, and you want the rumours to be that you brought Cheese here to help you out, not that she brought you here to help her out. Talk it over with her, quietly, before you go in, but you take the lead once you're in there. It'll keep Cheese from being more of a target to people, too, if she's seen as a minion rather than a ringleader. You might have to look like you're bullying her a bit.
First, keeping him from killing you. That's easy enough, just make it sound like you have a trail behind you that'll tell people what happened if you go missing. Which you have! He'll know you're new, so when you're introducing yourself, you can mention that Krix has been angry about the disrespect he's been getting from lesser nobles, and his underlings going behind his back on things, so he pulled you out of your cell to try do what his other Marshals couldn't. That'll let him feel that Krix is going to pay attention if you die and that you're dangerous (since you were 'in prison' when he recruited you). You tell him that you decided to come here after exchanging some missives with Sir Gauche, so he knows you'll be missed (if he's smart he'll know Cheese is on Gauche's employ, too - give her a visible glance when you talk about talking to Gauche). Then you tell him you will be continuing more inspections after this, and while you already know there's some... irregularities, here, you expect that there'll be different levels of 'priority' in the things you find along the way - things that need dealing with first. People who seem like they want to get in the way of a marshal's investigation will be higher on that list than people who are helpful. The more helpful, the lower on the list. Right?
Yes, that's basically soliciting a bribe, but this way you can see if you can help the workers, too. If some of them are from Krix's prisons, that's good, that gives you another link to say why you're here when you're in Krix's employ. Start off looking like you're thinking to investigate everything, and when he tries bribe you, tell him extra gold in your pocket it hard to hide, but information in your brain is easy - so long as it's trustworthy. Don't turn away bribes entirely, but only accept bribes in the form of information for your job, which hopefully Daspotta can remember for you. Let him 'talk you down' in what you investigate here, with offers, but let him know the two things you'll need solid answers on are the condition of the mines and the condition of the workers. Let him fill you with information on other people of interest if it lets him feel like he's making himself safer and getting him something from you (that you didn't care to keep anyway), but hold fast that the two things you need to be certain of, and detailed on, are the conditions of the mine and the mine workers. They're the two real assets that Krix is interested in, here, after all. The mine is what can be gotten out - and what do you know, Krix's territories are right nearby, so that's important to him - and the workers are how it's gotten out, and troubles involving either are expensive. Dead workers don't produce, sick workers aren't much better, and Krix's people do make note how many replacements he gets asked to send out here from his cells. Isn't it cheaper to hire a mage now and then? Especially when Krix has other uses for the able bodies in his prisons? You can try give him a look with that last bit, as if you're revealing some clue to him by saying it. The rumours that spread from that might get Krix being looked at harder by other nobles, but you probably want that, yourself.
Ask Cheese for some other realistic-sounding things to 'want to investigate' that you can mention and then be 'persuaded to give up on'.
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