World Progression Period 2022 7

[MonMarty]

This Thread will record all submitted Progressions as they are processed. Deadline for Period 7 is 20th of March , Midnight London Time. Submissions will be posted as replies until the Deadline is reached. (this deadline has already passed)

 

[MonMarty]

@MyJhintuition Northern Diplomacy of the dwarves

• Godrun, Brollo and Nikkidroth travel to the Jadryll Kingdom to speak with the rulers. Dignitaries are exchanged, but the locals don't seem too enthused about the sudden arrival of Regalian nationals. They aren't very interested in revealing too much about their relations with the other Velheim states in the Cains, but say they are "alright" and share a common Velheim culture. The locals say that the dwarves who lived here once long moved on further south, taking up Regalian citizenship in the Nordhjem realm between Drixagh and Gallovia. On his way back home, Godrun witnesses massive flocks of migratory birds squawking and flying overhead, moving south despite the weather becoming more mild normally welcoming seasonal birds back north.

@KKadoren Travel to Cain

• Sihn Traeliorn, Sihn Nilolok, Vivienne and Revna travel to Krismark Kristian, a very small and out of the way nation to do some diplomacy. The locals are (similarly to Javdryll) seemingly not too enthused about the arrival of regalian diplomats and at first are very skittish about even letting them into the Petty King's castle as this is the first time any Regalian diplomat has ever visited them. They say their relations with everyone are "fine". Attempts from Revna to suggest Urrlification seems to deeply offend the locals, who say they "already have enough trouble with these flea-ridden dungbags", implying they may be receiving more than a fair share of Url raiding on their countryside. Revna is as such also barred from the Helbolwen and expelled from the town for the remainder of the visit. Finally, Sign Traliorn visits local businesses to see if they would be willing to trade with the Sihndar, but as one might expect from relative world-unwise Velheimers who rarely if ever see Sihndar, they cannot fathom what a Sihndar could even contribute to them, or what they would even need from the Sihndar, and as such, the conversations fall flat. Some of the Regalian staff seems particularly unamused by this situation, but hold their tongue for now.

@Halsi Payment

• House du Poncaire pays 6 Wealth Tokens to House Bancroft.

@fantuinn Crookybooky

• The Crookback council issues a 100,000 Regals payment for repaving Crookback to modern standards. An additional request for a broken sightline is disregarded, as the officials state this would require breaking down and rebuilding part of the wall. Finally, the request as a whole is blocked because the bureaucracy has yet to receive approval from the Development Ministry that "Crookback is of sufficient respect to the Crown to warrant expenditure from the government", even if Crookback is paying for it themselves, they are essentially blocking the supply of bricks and laborers.

@Ocularum Equality Ministry Bureaucratic Queries

• The Bureaucracy remarks that very few Eronidas remain in the labor camps. While the Emperor's change in the law did not remove many of the existing Eronidas from their time spent there, the immigration offices already barely enforced the law even before the Emperor changed it. Turns out the immigration offers mostly just looked at an Eronidas (whether they looked clean, aggresive, rowdy, mean, etc.) and then decided whether to grant citizenship or labor camp on their personal preference. It is estimated roughly 2000 remain having varying sentences of 5 months to 18 months left.
• Eronidas labor camps barely if not at all contribute to labor camps, the bureaucracy indicates that any lost labor is quickly replaced with slave labor.
• The Bureaucracy is having a hard time to fielding data on exact soldier numbers in the Regalian military, as most Eronidas use contract service, not tenpenny service. Within the tenpenny army, Eronidas are in fact often declined entry because the formations are designed to Ailor, and Nelfin of like-size width. The trainers believe Eronidas are too large and wide to fit within the shield formations, thus weakening their cohesion, but this has never been tested.

 

[MonMarty]

@onearmsquid pulling out of Rutgher.

• House Faure successfully retreats into the Rifftamaan Kingdom, despite local objections. House Faure diplomats are able to smooth out the situation, and Faure was thus able to successfully retreat into neutral territory, but sometimes even the fairest of diplomats cannot undo the current diplomatic situation that affects even the neighboring neutral states.

 

[MonMarty]

@NoctisUmbra

• House Gishkim army return to sender, and demobilizes.

@slurmancer Caerrhen mess

• Szaralaszotl, Haszlal, Velimir travel to Carrhen to try and meet with the triple alliance. They disavow the actions of the invading feudal armies as not being Regalia's official response, thus denouncing Houses Faure and Guentyr, and announce that Guentyr and Faure armies are retreating, which they are. They deny knowledge of a Unionist coup, but this all seems par for the course for the Caerrhen states who think this is just routine diplomatic bluster. The consult requests a peaceful settlement and asks for terms.
• The Alliance responds essentially with a longer version of "fuck off and forget about the Naval Acts in our States".
• Regalian bureaucrats indicate that this would certainly be possible, but caution that essentially stepping down from a confrontation now would mean a humiliation for Regalian, and that would especially be awkward given the other Velheim states currently looking for an excuse to cut off with Regalia in a moment of weakness, while also hopefully preventing the Caerrhen states from unifying in their defiance against Regalia if Regalia should launch an all out invasion. Without Sendrassians, Hadar or animosity among themselves, there seems no other common enemy to frighten them. Their help is, as per usual, just lists of things that could go wrong, instead of being useful and offering solutions.
• Finally, the bureaucracy admits that the diplomats are kind-of tacitly lying if they say Regalia did not have the intention of having the Unionists overpower the Old Gods believers. They say that is certainly happened too soon and the locals pulled the switch before everything was ready, and would have preferred a slower process, but that the end-goal of conversion and integration is a well established doctrine, and Regalia has been toppling governments like this for centuries. And to just be aware that even if the current government didn't plan it, doesn't mean the last 7 governments didn't.

@Birdsfoot_Violet supply dump

• de Azcoissia pays 4 Wealth Tokens to Torse & Arlora armies.

@Songaskia

• The Songaskian Masaya has canceled some routine trade agreements with state contractors. This is not that big of a deal, there mostly just precursory scouting attempts to see if a trade agreement between Regalia and the Masaya were even feasible, but the Masaya has seemingly decided they were not, and dismissed the traders from Court.

@Hemingway7 Money

• The War Ministry pays 2 Wealth Tokens to both de Azcoissia and von Schwarzkrau soldiers in Arlora & Torse. de Azcoissia troops now eat extra well.
• House von Schwarzkrau "welcomes all refugees and says to foot the bill of whatever is needed for them. This causes a problem later on."

@Birdsfoot_Violet @Hemingway7 @AColorfulPigeon Refugee crisis

• At the end of the two week period, the bureaucracy rings the emergency bells that de Azcoissia and von Schwarzkrau and Litvinova lands are completely overwhelmed by the strain of the refugees from Caerrhen (who have indeed conveniently all sailed around Petrou lands). While von Schwarzkrau offered some financial support (and de Azcoissia and Litvinova ignored it), these open-ended bills were not used by the Barons to prepare before their arrival, instead feeling confident to just bill the Duke after they arrived. As a result, the refugees could not be processed, local food supplies were severely disrupted, and the Temples mostly end up paying for the social care that the local system is completely inadequate for. Due to regional financial collapse, Houses de Azcoissia and Litvinova and von Schwarzkrau are both automatically billed 10 Wealth Tokens as local tax assessors say that pulling in that level of taxation in the middle of a crisis will initiate extreme poverty in the regions.

 

[MonMarty]

@Ocularum Finances

• House Morathes pays 1 Wealth Token to Marril.
• House Morathes pays 2 Wealth Tokens to Crookback Borough.

@Birdsfoot_Violet Manathar Contact in Farah'deen

• The group attempts to return to Ulwat, however find that the Songaskian state apparatus has already moved in, in force. They decide not to get any closer as there are plenty of Songaskian Priests present of the College, cleansing the area. On their way out, Anathema is able to disguise as one of the soldiers and overhear from one of the officers that they were tipped off to the Ulwat situation by a Regalian and thus moved in to cleanse it.

 

[MonMarty]

@NebulaePrimo Army

• House Guentyr retreats their army but does not demobilize it, and supplies it with 2 Wealth Tokens for supplies in the homeland.

@Aurelian30k Financing the Sucker Punch

• House di Civita pays 6 Wealth Tokens to Omaberos Wynn

 

[MonMarty]

@Lutowski Sanguine Skirmish

• Medea, Cordenia, Arahael, Vulrnn and Silver travel to Ellador to poke at a sort belly-side target of the Dorkarthi State. The group has to spend quite a while traveling before finally happening upon a smaller slave camp where they are able to land and pick a fight with the locals. Quickly however, despite the magical skill of Cordenia, the group is seemingly overwhelmed. Vampires appear faster and faster out of nowhere and swarm the place from the shadows, seemingly empowered by the red crystals that grow around the area. Fierce fighting occurs on the ground between Silver and Arahael and the Vampires, while many of them jump on Cordenia who continues to zap several of them out of the sky, but has to resort more and more to defensive spells. Even in the sky, with Vulrynn and Medea on wyverns, the Vampires seemingly coast by on the wings of shadows and claw and bite at their wyverns. They are able to release a few slaves but have to eventually break off their attack because the Vampires just keep multiplying, jumping out of what appears like shadow portals created by the red crystals.
• On their way out, the slaves seem very exhausted and barely know anything. The only thing they can really say is that the Vampires are moving slaves further north to sacrifice them for something, and that they would always pick the weak ones.
• It becomes fairly obvious in this happenstance, that more military is needed than even five strong fighters can accomplish, as they are attempting to take on the military of a whole state, not just a small town.

@WaterDruppel Diggy diggy hole

• House de Azcoissia funds Amir, Naajy, Xaella, Saren, Seishan, Cecil, Anya, Gehrman and Argo (hello, m'am you're exceeding your sign up pool!) with 30 Wealth Tokens to excavate Misrit, along with a whole assortment of diggers, miners, and equipment brought from home. The whole excavation takes quite a few days with a number of equipment breaking down in storms. Xaella notices very early on that the group is very distinctly sighted by flying patrols of undead birds and their Ordial priest masters, but they seem not to get too close. Some of the desert travelers pop by on occasion also to make gossip and try to figure out what is in the hole, but they are obviously denied entrance. When asked to speculate about why the Songaskian priests aren't arresting them, the nomads say they have no clue, though astutely rogueish, Saren observes that recently there have been tensions between Regalia and the Masaya. They likely will not want to arrest de Azcoissia, a powerful family, for obviously threspassing on their sovereign territory with intent to colonially plunder and cause an international incident with Regalia so short after losing a war. He however also rogueisly observes, that they should not find comfort in this fact, and that they will probably send some sort of winded complaint directly up to the Emperor about it, and that this is not the last time they will hear of it, and that the only thing protecting them right now is their name.
• The group eventually finishes the excavation site fully and manages to clear the main antechamber. A large door still remains, which the group decides to leave closed for now until it can be opened manually. The mages of Hexenblood assist de Azcoissia by creating a direct elemental gateway, but insist that this long distance is not feasible, and that it will only remain stable for a few days.
• This event will be concluded in-game. as my writing cannot substantially translate what should happen when they open that door.

 

[MonMarty]

@Arhbi @NoctisUmbra @Lionfiles Even though these didnt hit the deadline, I decided to process them otherwise they would slip the cracks.

@Arhbi Payments & THINGS

• 4 Wealth tokens to Delmotte army, 4 Wealth tokens to War Ministry wallet.

@NoctisUmbra Daenshore Cleansing

• Akurgal, EWlewisa, Eric and Barbossa treavel to Daenshore to look at the ruins of the Azcoissia funded Clinic, They then offer to build their own like-wise alchemical rehab clinic. At first the local Mayor is dumbfound, then cackles, then is dumbfound again, before promptly expelling the part from Daenshore and banning them from re-entering.
• Later on the way back home, a sailor comments that they probably either didn't pay attention to the recent events between the Regalian State and the locals, or severely underestimated their own identity as Regalian heartland nobles, and how deeply they are hated by the Daenshore locals, as well as any grandstanding and overreach by Regalian nationals, let alone the fact that the ruling classes in Daenshore make a lot of money off the addition of the lower classes.

@Lionfiles Oprichnyy Visit

• Aleksandra Dragíc visits the Oprichnyy, and states her unequivocal support for the activities. The Oprichnyy go like "oh okay", and then ride out and round up a record number of Magic users in the Krainivaya lands.

 

[MonMarty]

@Transistor The hole

• Haqet, Bludritter, Bennet, Abigail and Cecil travel to Ivenna with the intent of investigating the mysterious hole in the ground that is still occupied by the wing-less gray scaled Dragon.
• The whole group travels in du Poncaire style disguises to avoid detection, and is able to largely remain unseen through use of Vampiric gifts while the non Vampires use them as cover.
• Bennet attempts to sneak closer to the Gray scaled dragon, cursing himself (and probably Abigail?) for being roped into this, and wondering which idiot thought it was a good idea to try and screw with a Dragon. Naturally, the Dragon notices him practically immediately as he reaches across the hill, it just lazily turns its head and looks at him, double lidded eyes unflinching. This causes a rather awkward stand off where Bennet decided to try the "maybe he can't see me if I don't move" tactic by just remaining entirely crouched with his hands wide all rogueish, while the Dragon continued to stare at him. Eventually his upper legs gave way, as his thighs were not able to sustain a squatting position for more than ten minutes, causing him to collapse. The Dragon didn't do anything however, it just continued staring at him. If he tried to move closer, it would huff from its nostrils, but if he backed away, it didn't do anything. He simply chose to do nothing at all, and just watch the Dragon from afar, who then started pacing back and forth while occasionally watching him.
• The other four attempt to locate the origin of the birds and the stones that would appear in the sky. Using Coraveau's Void powers. Haqet would order the Ravens to descend and deliver a rock to themselves, to Abigail and Cecil each (who lack the competency to analyse them, but can take them with to Regalia) while Haqet crushed theirs. The Dragon didn't seem to respond immediately, at least.
• Bennet would notice several Ravens landing around the Dragon, who seemed to be silently communicating with them while they were shrieking at it. The Dragon then suddenly stood on its hind legs, something that looked utterly rediculous, like a poodle trying to walk on its back legs, before crashing its front legs back into the ground and giving Bennet a showcase of Draconic Magic the likes of which had not been seen in the world for hundreds of years.
• As the Dragon's front legs crashed into the ground, the ground itself ruptured open, rock splitting open as if it was mere paper, and gravity itself seemingly being nullified in the area. The Dragon smashed its legs into the ground, over and over and over, to the point that the rumbling and earthquake reached even Ivenna. Haqet assumed the Dragon was attacking Bennet and tried to use Coraveau's powers, but found that something was blocking them from using any part of Coraveau's powers, some field was disabling all Magics. Bennet slowly lifted up into the sky along with sediment, plant matter and pebbles all around him while the land around him started writhing and contorting, rocks jutted out of the ground and parts of the forest ebbed away, leaving only sinkholes behind. On and on the Dragon went, smashing its front legs into the ground as dust sprang up all around, and even water spring bent and twisted. The nearby town that was devastated by an earthquake caused by the Dragon's arrival was devastated for a second time, this time utterly as all buildings collapsed. And then all of a sudden, a mountain rose out of the ground, stone piling onto stone and merging as if merely liquid. Bennet was flung higher and higher up in the air spinning all around, as the mountain raised higher and higher, seemingly having taken the pipe in the ground as its focal point, now becoming a steep and jagged cliff nigh impossible to scale. The Dragon was raising the land around the hole into the air to try and deny entry to any would be excavations in the future, seemingly as a response to the disruption. When the Dragon was finally done, Haqet was also finally able to use Coraveau to quickly evacuate Bennet, who arrived just somewhere above Abigail, covered in dust and coughing up fine sand, before landing on top of Abigail who made a loud squeaky deflating noise. When they recovered Bennet and cleaned him up, the group returned home.

 

[MonMarty]

There is now a sharp mountain in the forest heart of Osteiermark.