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Interest Post, will come up with something after work.
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Jul 5, 2016 10:42
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 01:53 |
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Amerigo Hieronymus: Tariff Collector and Adventurer Some will rob you with a six-gun, And some with a fountain pen.  When Leopold the III decided to reform his taxation system, he hired the best. Amerigo was a freelance wealth distributer whose travels took him up and down the coast and across trade routes and foreign lands, anywhere there was a profit to be made. No mere thug, the fourth son of a local lord of the oceanside Sevvran province of Hershka was highly educated and destined for the priesthood before he considered that cowled robes and meditation were an inferior substitute for flashing blades and oodles of money. The odd thing was, despite all the carnage and pillage, all of his actions were technically legal, (if requiring some squinting and creative reinterpretation of law.) Finally apprehended, Amerigo successfully defended himself by arguing every single one of his actions was sanctioned by any one of obscure laws, treaties on looting, eschew regulations, freelancer contracts, and the like. The second the court cleared him, he received a summons to an immediate audience with the king himself. There he was offered a bargain (with a heavy hint that the king is free to override verdicts as he sees fit): serve the needs of the kingdom, and a certain level of blind eye would be turned to his activities. Things went well over the next few years. Amerigo honestly threw himself into his work, introducing many new concepts to the antiquated accounting systems of his predecessors. Double entry book keeping, records on all noble and merchant estates, and a reform of all tax collection squads (each one to contain someone who can write, someone who can read, and someone to keep an eye on the two intellectuals). He considers himself firm but "fair". Everyone gets 30 seconds to hide the valuables when his men roll into town, and if their cooked books and creative accounting amuse him enough he doesn't even break out the toe nail pullers. Now that his idiot son is off squandering Amerigo's hard work, he's having second thoughts, and the amount of skim is steadily increasing. Old habits die hard, and he realizes he's essential; if the money dries up, that placeholder in the palace is just another thug with a sword. [Death and Taxes+4]: There's only two things inevitable in life, and Amerigo's skill with a blade is equaled only with his mathematical abilities and talent for ferreting out lies and deception. Nor has he forgotten where he came from; he maintains the odd hodgepodge of skills and athleticism needed to survive the life of a wandering [Gentleman and Scholar+4]: Despite the odd bit of ultraviolence and the obsession with money, Amerigo considers himself just a bit higher than some jumped up merchant thief turned petty bureaucrat. He's picked up quite a few bits of lore in his travel, and his skill with words and obsessive knowledge of the kingdom's laws and bureaucracy stands him well when clubs and sacks are too crude for the task at hand. [Thrillseeker -2]: It was never about the money, only how you got it. Amerigo cast off his life of relative ease for that of never knowing where, exactly, your next payday would arrive. He still harbors old adventuring impulses, and the unraveling kingdom is sure to give him plenty of chances to exercise his questionable judgement in the days to come. The Sevvran Royal Excise and Custom Bureau   Totally reformed, Amerigo has complete rebuilt the agency from its original, powerless status. He recruited equally from both scribes unemployed by the worsening economic conditions and smugglers offered a job in place of a rope around their neck. The Excise Bureau is an informed and brutally effective at its duties, both calculation and collection. [Where there's a quill, there's a way+2]: As a center for the small educated, secular class of Sevvran, the Bureau has quite the collection of records and information about the kingdom, and a topnotch team of accountants keeps tabs on who exactly has the wealth. [Cloaks and clubs+2]: The upside of hiring former criminals is they know how criminals, even of the more tepid tax evading sort, think. Their old skills come in useful for both audits and making sure certain tax free goods of interest reach their destination. [Hidebound and Larcenous-2]: The downside of hiring former criminal and nebbish book worms is that you're simultaneously plagued by too much adherence to the rules and too little. Money disappears before Amerigo has a chance to skim himself, and there's all sorts of petty, private ventures the men use to supplement this income. Not sure about the "homeland", I figured it was more relevant to who the PC is now than the land he came from but will change as required. Ronwayne fucked around with this message at 03:58 on Jul 10, 2016 |
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Jul 7, 2016 02:38
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Rewrote and combined my qualities, I have a stabby and taxy quality, and a talky and knowy one too. I'll put together IC reactions to the other PCs and NPCs in a bit its uh, quite the list.
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Jul 10, 2016 03:59
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FM: Hieronymus, A., Minister of Excise and Taxation TO: Lady Beatrice de Wulfe RE: Massive, continent wide audit. Per your instructions, yer Ladyship, I've put together a plan for boosting the income stream in these trying times. I've formulated plans for each of these notables, however, while we will able to pay many of them a visit, trying to get all of it at once may prove to be a bit trying. Please see the note requesting the assistance of Lord von Voss to back up my men. I've noticed a bit of resistance to my noble endeavors the longer the King has been away. Money is the lifeblood of an Empire, and both of those are going to be splashed around quite liberally in the times to come. quote:
I view this as a personal challenge. Getting one of these beasts to part with its hoard makes extracting blood from a turnip look positively easy in comparison. (Why yes, that is that jar of red stuff I have on my desk you were inquiring about.) That said, rather than go after his wealth in the vaults, I recommend obtaining it while in transit to his clients and taxing them instead. They're far less likely to be covered in scales, talons, and breathing fire. Only two things are certain in this life, yer Ladyship, death and taxes, you've demonstrated the first applies to dragons, I'll make sure the second one applies as well quote:
A little birdy told me about this one, and I'm quite impressed with his setup and the little smuggling operations he gets into. There's no way I'm letting half a ton of powdered red moss just fly up the noses of the nobility without the Crown getting its piece. Time to make sure he shares his nest egg. I've dealt with many a cultist in my day, and this one appears to be more of the same. Actively antagonistic ones like these need a more personal hand when seizing their stupid golden frogman idol or whatever for taxes unpaid. From their dogma I'm expecting more roving fire related spirits and traps in their camps than the usual darts and spikes shooting out of the wall in some underground crypt. quote:
You know I do not say this lightly, but purge, burn, do not attempt to collect from his estate. The last thing I need is to open a coinpurse and see it wiggle its tentacles at me. quote:
Pirates without style or legal justification, I've caught more than one smuggling band that employed an ogre, well attempted to apprehend. The collection squad came away empty handed, as in literally missing hands. They work fantastically on this side of the law as well, you wouldn't believe the number of occasions where having an excise agent that can walk into a burning building comes in handy. Literal fire sales. quote:
I can see she has substantial...assets. We have to tread carefully here, wizards usually sit on large quantities of untaxed wealth. Getting it without being burned, exploded, or turned into a newt is the trick. quote:
Nasty nasty. People liked to say I'm an example of the nobility at its worst, but I'd like to point at the actual warlock poisoning the entire province instead. Siege, pillage, and sell it all off as fast as we can. Having cursed gold and objects sitting around in the vault tends to create quite the nasty vibe. von Voss reminds me of my father in many ways; old, angry, and despises my very existence. As I said earlier, I might require your Lady's aid in making sure he aids my work. For all his grumbling, its the coin my office pulls in that keeps his men fed and housed. quote:
We've heard reports of some sort of slumlord operating out of the Arks. Anyone nasty enough to survive long there is to be treated with caution. The only reason my office has taken notice is the rather elaborate market they've set up in the tunnels. Probably not much to be had there, but always a possibility if your Lady deems our situation dire enough. quote:
Another bandit king, his province is a major source of revenue but the constant harassment is going to make the cost/effort ratio somewhat skewed. I'll probably need help on this one unless you want my men tromping around forests looking for someone who's everywhere and nowhere. quote:
A strong, plucky, violent woman sitting on an entire temple of accumulated treasure? I think I know where I'm spending my next working vacation. quote:
And this brings me to the proverbial elephant in the room. With her behavior, I'm not sure how much she has left. Only a matter of time before she comes looking for a handout from state finances. (I'm only slightly sore at being ignored totally at the ball.) This would be less taxation and more kidnapping. quote:
Good gods. The maw of industry takes on quite the literalness with this guy. A reliable source of income, but if your Ladyship feels the need to be done with him, I think waiting for the gout to do him in may be quicker than putting a sword past that gut. quote:
We've either god a centuries dead Elven queen or someone impersonating such. If they manage to get that old kingdom up and running again I might have to pay them a visit personally. Those alien, inhuman races always have quite the treasure trove stashed away somewhere* *I'm not counting the frogmen or mushroom men and such that live in caves and use spores for currency. What a wasted weekend that was. quote:
Parasite, thief, pillager, under a guise of semi-legality. I like his style. That said I ask your Ladyship not to sent me to a barren wasteland where they horse apples for money, or whatever. quote:
What a travesty, a rogue agent taking a broken imperial agency now bloated with all sorts of newfangled powers. Um, well, I mean he could prove quite the ally if he can get over all those little "greed" clauses in the books. Render unto Leopold what is Leopold's. quote:
I try to avoid monsters that don't actually have anything worth taking. quote:
Per your instruction, your Ladyship, I've included this in terms of the entire nation's economic well being. I'll speak bluntly: the campaigns are bleeding us dry, if we don't get more income in, things will get ugly as we decide what parts of the government we don't need anymore, which is a bit like deciding which of your fingers you want to chop off first. quote:
Yes, the usury sermons are burned into my brain at this point. That said, when the dotage sets in might be the best time to do an audit on all the real goodies the church has been hiding away all these years. Remember: Render unto Leopold. quote:
Appears to enjoy only two things: 1: Being impossible to catch and 2: Being broke. Not a high priority. quote:
I'm not even going to surmise what's going on here, your Ladyship. quote:
Creepy, and appears to do what I do only focusing on the violence first and payment second. Scratch that, its the living that get taxed. While doable, you have to get a lot more creative to tax the dead. I'm ready for something, its not the first time a disgruntled citizen thought their liabilities would go away if I was out of the picture. quote:
Look, we all agree someone has to put the mad dog down, isn't the military or the inquisition, or the spymaster better suited to this? Just because I've survived more than one encounter with evil mages doesn't mean I want to make a habit of it. quote:
Once again, no comment your Ladyship. quote:
Look, I'm not exactly proud of everything I've done, but I try to keep things honest and straightforward enough that I don't have to remember which of 500 plots and lies I've made up that week to stay afloat. Also he's annoyingly good at using the law to get out of his taxpaying obligations. No I don't see the irony here. Ronwayne fucked around with this message at 12:40 on Jul 11, 2016 |
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Jul 11, 2016 06:47
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Yami Fenrir posted:Lucius The seneschals of several Houses that had banded together and were highly successful at legally stonewalling my attempts to get their masters to pay up. Things got substantially easier after that since a lot of these fat, posh blobs don't actually know how much they're worth. Gentlemen don't talk about money and other such nonsense. As much as I'd like to think I'm just that likeable, I'm sure he had his reasons. Most likely some of the deceased rivals or someone in the government with goals that happen to run parallel with mine. Or they're just trying to destabilize the nobility and accelerate the chaos to come, good times. I'd like to give the man credit for that whole "safe falls, crushes money counter" trick, I do appreciate the irony.
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Jul 15, 2016 13:23
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Sorry for not posting more promptly. I'll have a post up later today. I need to give all responding parties appropriate responses.
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Jul 23, 2016 16:48
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No worries, take care of yourself, first and foremost.
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Oct 11, 2016 00:17
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