[Zilta]

1st entry

   I have decided to begin a chronicle of my experiments and experiences for use by arcanists and artificers in the future having been given the position of Artificer of House Skettus. I must first admit that the promotion was a shock to me, with the former artificer Robertus Reffas taking leave of the position to head up the creation and containment of creatures within newly created Skettus menagerie of animals. I understand that arcane talent within Skettus is at a moderate level and I am one of the greater practitioners of the house, but I still wonder if I am going to be able to live up to the expectations regarding the position.

   First and foremost, I must deal with properly securing the Hadrian estate now that it has been expanded, warding in the new areas will be the first task but in the meantime, I have set up alarm spells to supplement the normal wards in addition to laying down further alarms in the newly constructed basement levels of the house. While I must admit that attacks from below are unlikely, I refuse to allow any possible security threat to go without being dealt with. The Hadrian estate may not have the number of artifacts that the Valstiir vault does the house does contain a few of the items of lesser power and serves as a stopping place for artifacts before transportation to Valstiir proper.

   I believe I shall take advantage of what was gained from the Puppetmaster after the trip to what is existence? The place I shall not write of (for future artificers know that the record of the trip has been sealed for a reason, there is some knowledge not worth pursuing). Mass production of iron golems of lesser power to guard the lower levels should be enough, even if not as powerful as a normally constructed one. Based on the plans I have seen they can be created far swifter than normal and quality can be made up for with quantity. I shall have my apprentice assist me in this, it should prove to be an excellent learning experience for her and prepare her for my true experiments.

[Zilta]

Second Entry

Politics, a matter in which I hesitate to place in the journal as it is intended for the future artificer’s of Skettus to see the various experimentations and achievements I have obtained along with research to improve their ability to take what I have done farther in service to the house, though I suppose that an introduction to my methodology in such things will be useful for the future artificers to succeed in maintaining their position.

First, an overview. Everyone has desires, something that they want to see in a person they interact with along with things that they want deep down. The true goal of anyone who is forced to engage in such things is to ensure that you are seen as someone who can provide both of the above to those you wish influence over while internally remaining completely objective and viewing matters without emotion. Showing care to some, cruelty to others, security to one, and kindness to another, whichever obtains you the most reward for the minimal amount of effort after objectively weighing the options and acting in a manner that the one you wish to manipulate or gain the favor of most responds to without being swayed by foolishness like emotional decision making. Through this you can gain a clear understanding of how the cogs in the machine of people you build all work together and can allow yourself to anticipate the actions of others and move to take advantage of such a thing for yourself. The issue has arisen that one of these people has acted in a manner completely out of expectation throwing off the calculations that I have made about how to go about engagement.

The players in this situation should be first introduced with the problem character first. Lady Natassa Skettus is the sister of our Lord Jarren Skettus and the only member of Skettus to have a noble title outside of the lord himself. As of now she is in charge of the Skettus enforcers and has proven extremely effective at such things, coolly evaluating all consequences of her actions and acting with precision to ensure that problems to the house are taken care of or appropriate agents are assigned to take care of such things. In every interaction with her up to recent events she has displayed a calm and confident demeanor with just a bit of casualness to those who have proven themselves to be effective at furthering the cause of Skettus and the empire as a whole. Recently however, she made a decision which represents a departure from this previous attitude and raises a disturbing number of possibilities and actions that I have to choose from to solve the issue of this malfunctioning cog.

The second important member of this situation is head slave three. Head slave three is a gnome, something that perhaps future generations will not understand the significance of but in the current state of things this makes her enslavement important and means that she represents significant value both financially and status wise for Skettus to have. In addition to the significance of her race she also has trained in mind magics and the manipulation of others which allows Skettus to use her as a secret trump card in situations where danger arises, and a slave will not be considered as something to watch. Furthermore, the loyalty that this slave has shown to Skettus is extreme along with the meritorious service provided which includes but is not limited to Capturing a minotaur for our recently introduced menagerie, assisting in an expedition to another plane in exchange for the plans to the golems mentioned in the previous entry, entering dangerous battles to heal Skettus members at the risk of her own life, and being well liked enough amongst the various power brokers in Hadrian to be both a way of gaining favor with them and allowing for further manipulation of them.

With both the players introduced I shall state the problem succinctly as possible. According to the seeker of whispers head slave three refused a direct order and acted in a manner that was insulting and above her station as a slave to him. Given that leeway has been provided for slave three to offer constructive criticism of plans in the past this is perhaps an inevitable consequence of offering her too much freedom. Looking at the matter logically and taking into consideration her value the best option would have been to internally punish her with a lashing carried out by the seeker of whispers. This would succinctly solve by focusing the slave’s frustration on the one who reported the matter against her, a lack of availability of Skettus leadership could also further direct frustration at the Seeker of whispers and a such limit the frustration at providing what she believed to be in the interests of the house to a single man while using the rest of the house to provide a soothing hand to her after punishment to not only teach her to avoid abuse of freedoms given but also to increase loyalty to the house as a whole as a result of the kindness showed after, a simple manipulation that would succinctly solve the issue with minimal fuss.

The Lady Skettus chose a different path that was out of character for her, this is in addition to the conversation I had with her after the punishment which disturbed me. Lady Skettus had the slave tied to a pole in the town square while a hired whip publicly lashed her fifteen times. The issues arising from this knee jerk reaction are nearly uncountable. The first and most obvious issue is that by doing this publicly we imply that Skettus is unable to control its slaves, something that reduces the prestige of the house. Second, every organization that viewed head slave three as a friend has now found itself questioning whether it should support Skettus as the member used as our primary method of friendship and manipulation was harmed. Third, as this was public and viewed by all and directly ordered by Lady Skettus the slave will feel as though they were punished by the house for attempting to serve the house in the best manner they could, causing a reduction of loyalty in the slave. Fourth, this reduction in loyalty coupled with the control the slave has over the minotaur for the menagerie allows for the possibility of an emotional act of vengeance that would result in unacceptable resource losses for the house. Fifth, a seeker with a close relationship to the slave will be angry at this and have a reduction in loyalty to the house as well.

Furthermore, after conversation with the Lady Skettus afterwards she seemed livid and unable to accurately asses the consequences that her actions would have on the house and threatened to have the slave’s head mounted over the fire should such a thing happen again and tasked me with ensuring it does not as “I pull her strings” as she put it. I do pull the strings, and I pulled the strings further by acting as a friend to her after the lashings and helping her heal, at the very least I increased her loyalty to me personally which through my loyalty to Skettus can make up for some of the issues arising from the situation though this is little more than a thin bandage. Furthermore, I am the artificer of Skettus, I spend my days researching how to properly contain and guard the house, wasting my time with ensuring that a slave acts the way they should is a massive misuse of my abilities and house resources.

All of this has led me to three possible conclusions for the lady Skettus. First, she was hiding her personality the entire time and now for some reason sees no reason to conceal herself, I find this particularly unlikely given the timing and lack of reason for such a thing. Second, she has come across a situation that has made her emotionally compromised and is affecting her judgement to a significant degree for some reason, this is plausible, but I have no triggering event to determine the truth of the matter. Third, she has been adversely affected by one of the artifacts Skettus has found resulting in manipulation of the mind, this is plausible as well though I cannot do anything about it if so unless her brother allows for a thorough examination of her mind.

Thus, we come to the crux of the matter, do I report her behavior to the Lord Skettus in the hopes that it can be corrected or does that represent an unacceptable risk to my position through either her or his retaliation for my concern? I have no answer at the present though I shall monitor the situation while continuing with my other plans and repairing what damage I can from this event.

Take this as a lesson future artificer, failure to remain objective and emotionally detached only leads to problems, problems that in all likelihood you will have to clean up whether you wish to or not.