Heroes taken on mission: Thea "Speaker for the East", Fuscus "Master of Coin", Viator "Courtier of Candlelight Keep"
The spotlight character is Thea. She made the difficult decision to focus on more resources rather than patching up things with Crescent Hold. Unfortunately, Thea still has a severe consequence, "Debt to Burgan Vale", which will no doubt make things more difficult. It's very likely the debt will rear it's ugly head during negotiations with Boar's Hollow.
Build Developments: No trade is possible with Crescent Hold, which will hurt the ability to gain ore. Luckily, Red Bank is fairly strong in ore reserves. Ideally, growing stronger in arcane or diplomatic developments is the highest priority.
Gained the Arcane Smith and Superb Casting. Very, very close to getting Superb Channeling - but settled for Arcane Smith instead. Still, most interested in pushing hard on the arcane track, which is happening. Would like to push on diplomacy some, but very constrained on luxuries and don't have a high enough relationship with Lily Manor to trade for them.
Challenge Phase: Thea, Fuscus, and Viator arrive in Boar's Hollow during a particularly brutal winter. Life is always difficult farming out in the hinterlands, but during blizzard conditions, it can be a struggle just to survive. It is in this context that Thea hopes to persuade the leaders of Boar's Hollow (Gerard, Hargeth, Leo, Gerda, and Talan) to join with Red Bank. Red Bank can provide both arcane and mechanical knowledge that will make life a little easier for the people of Boar's Hollow, in exchange for vegetables and grains.
Challenge Scene: Shoring Up Weakness - Diff 2, 3 Suns, Engineering / Wits : This scene triggered a complication for Thea. Given that Thea had some extra fate points left over from building developments, went ahead and paid it off. Particularly because there were no moons and it's a relatively easy challenge. I decided to use a hindering aspect, "A Brutal Honesty" from some magical robes Thea had. Then I drew a card with three moons! Talk about backfiring.
Thea spent time with Hargreth, looking at different architectural choices the people of Boar's Hollow had made. She spotted a number of serious problem areas. Rather than being tactful about rectifying them, she rather forcefully pointed out that they were not prepared for any conflicts. Her heritage with the Amber Hand came through, looking for military weakness. Hargreth was impressed with her knowledge, but less impressed with her tact.
Challenge Scene: Structural Weakness - Diff 6, 1 Moon, Command / Engineering : Fuscus and Thea spent a few weeks with Hargeth and Gerda going over plans. Finding support amongst the insular farmers was difficult. Fuscus used the power of the purse to help persuade Boar's Hollow to make changes.
Challenge Scene: New Friends - Diff 7, 2 Moons, Rapport / Society : Viator and Fuscus worked behind the scenes to gain the trust of Yula, a hedge magician friendly with Gerard. Viator employed magicks to help the duo achieve their goals. Having an ally close to Gerard, the ostensible leader of Boar's Hollow, could prove very useful.
Advantage Scene: An Apprentice : Viator spent more time continuing to mold Yula into a young apprentice worthy of his time. Yula was entranced by the prospect of working within Red Bank. A campaign aspect with two invokes was created, but it was immediately burned into an asset for Viator - "Yula, Hedge Magician from Boar's Hollow".
Conflict Phase (Diplomacy): Hargeth impressed upon Thea that he was concerned about cultural differences between Boar's Hollow and Red Bank (he managed to take the Culture issue). The envoys from Red Bank used their asset Yula to good effect in securing both Rule and Wrath - making sure Boar's Hollow understood what the Autarch was capable of and the benefits of joining together. In the end, Red Bank barely succeeded in taking three of the five issues.
Mission Status: Success! Boar's Hollow added to Sightrock.
Stability: Stronghold: -1
Ally Disposition: Burgan Vale +3, Crescent Hold -1 (dropped one), Gravewood -1, Lily Manor +2, Sunriders +2
Stronghold Developments:
Great Channeling
Great Casting
Superb Casting
Mana Forge
Trade Guild
Arcane Smith
Arcane Bowyer
Regional Income:
Obsidian Wood (Capital): 1 food, 2 timber, 2 mana
Echo Lake: 2 ore
Tarrydale Farms: 2 food
Boar's Hollow: 2 food, 1 ore
Green Vale: 1 food, 1 ore
Sightrock: 1 ore, 1 mana
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Total: 6 food, 2 timber, 5 ore, 3 mana, 1 luxury
Schemes: Infiltration 1. The Autarch hatched the beginnings of an infiltration attack on the Stronghold. This will most likely be ignored during Spring of next year. There are more important things to focus on.
Scheme Pool
These are special dice pools used for the solo version of WotA.
Diplomacy Pool: 1
Infiltration Pool: 1 (Schemes: 1)
Skirmish Pool: 1 (Schemes: 1)
Warfare Pool: 1
Region Threats: Obsidian Wood (Diplomacy 5)
Ouch! This one hurts. Obsidian Wood is a source of many resouces for Red Bank. Most likely this will have to be dealt with. Going down to -2 stability would also be fairly dire.
Faction Threats: None
Rules Musings:
Everything leading up to the diplomacy conflict worked well (not surprising - that stuff hasn't really changed). The diplomacy conflict, though, felt a little off. The rules didn't change from the last diplomacy playtest, but the number of players did. Mapping types of symbols to actions works well when there are relatively few opponents to manage. However, it potentially generates double actions (such as one moon and perhaps two suns, etc). This is both kind of slow when there are lots of opponents as well as pretty swingy. I think for diplomacy it might be a more compact chart where there are actions based on the number of symbols (so three different action types). That will probably help things.
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