Post by The Seven on Jun 10, 2008 21:57:29 GMT -5
Lord Hacke rubbed his temples. He had been working on the castle budget for nearly three hours and there was no end in sight. Balon’s spending had been eradicate and spontaneous and the costs his mother instituted in the short time of her rule had made the situation worse. If things kept going the way they were House Hacke would have been bankrupt by this time next year. There were too many guards, not enough food being grown, and it seemed that half the stewards were corrupt to the point of blatantly stealing money.
Fighting off another headache Harwin scribbled a note on a scroll, reminding him to dismiss and arrest Eric, Arthur, and Oberyn as they all had stolen well over 400 dragons from the Hacke treasury. Getting away from corrupt officials he then turned his attention to the guards. The barracks must have been packed as they were housing nearly twice as many men as they were built to hold and the price was ridiculous, nearly 3,000 dragons a month. As Harwin was making a note to cut the guard in half and reissue new, better equipment a steward walked in holding a missive. It contained the food production numbers for all the houses in the Stepstones and it was clear they were in bad shape. While it was true the Stepstones were just islands they were not making nearly their potential for food. He ordered his steward to write a letter to each bannerman which commanded each of them to grant 50 acres of land to five families. This land must be used for farming and only farming food crops.
After seeing the letters off and the stewards arrested Harwin made his way down to the yard, with him he carried a dulled arakh. In the yard he commanded two guards to duel him. With a sigh the two guards got up and exchanged their live steel for dull swords. Standing in the center of the yard, blade gleaming, Harwin waited for the men to attack. As they were wary of this exotic weapon they came in slowly, not dedicating to any strike. Then, as quick as a viper, Harwin whirled the arakh over his head and struck on of the men behind the neck and he went down. Seeing the damage that the curved blade could inflict the other guard backed away from the young lord, however, after it was clear that Harwin would not attack, the man charged in. Surprisingly, Harwin was hard pressed to block the flurry of blow, the guard was fast, strong, and well trained, however due to fighting a new weapon the guard was also unsure. Using this to his advantage Harwin swung the blade over his head and, because of the curvature, was able to strike the guard in the shoulder-blade when a straighter sword would have struck the man’s neck. After helping the man up and giving them both a tip for the duel Harwin went back up to his solar to wrestle with the mess of an economy his family had left him.
Increase Arakh +2
Increase Stewardship + 2
Fighting off another headache Harwin scribbled a note on a scroll, reminding him to dismiss and arrest Eric, Arthur, and Oberyn as they all had stolen well over 400 dragons from the Hacke treasury. Getting away from corrupt officials he then turned his attention to the guards. The barracks must have been packed as they were housing nearly twice as many men as they were built to hold and the price was ridiculous, nearly 3,000 dragons a month. As Harwin was making a note to cut the guard in half and reissue new, better equipment a steward walked in holding a missive. It contained the food production numbers for all the houses in the Stepstones and it was clear they were in bad shape. While it was true the Stepstones were just islands they were not making nearly their potential for food. He ordered his steward to write a letter to each bannerman which commanded each of them to grant 50 acres of land to five families. This land must be used for farming and only farming food crops.
After seeing the letters off and the stewards arrested Harwin made his way down to the yard, with him he carried a dulled arakh. In the yard he commanded two guards to duel him. With a sigh the two guards got up and exchanged their live steel for dull swords. Standing in the center of the yard, blade gleaming, Harwin waited for the men to attack. As they were wary of this exotic weapon they came in slowly, not dedicating to any strike. Then, as quick as a viper, Harwin whirled the arakh over his head and struck on of the men behind the neck and he went down. Seeing the damage that the curved blade could inflict the other guard backed away from the young lord, however, after it was clear that Harwin would not attack, the man charged in. Surprisingly, Harwin was hard pressed to block the flurry of blow, the guard was fast, strong, and well trained, however due to fighting a new weapon the guard was also unsure. Using this to his advantage Harwin swung the blade over his head and, because of the curvature, was able to strike the guard in the shoulder-blade when a straighter sword would have struck the man’s neck. After helping the man up and giving them both a tip for the duel Harwin went back up to his solar to wrestle with the mess of an economy his family had left him.
Increase Arakh +2
Increase Stewardship + 2