Alright, this is great! I don't think I'll get inflamed like with the +1 SWORD debacle since this doesn't involve stats. Really, I think that most any of these options would be nice.
The way I see it, I think that I like option A for the first choice. Assuming that he doesn't question his subordinate's call (and if he does, the distraction from that diminished trust in his right hand agent and absence of real information combined with the hassle of setting up the expedition still serves our aims anyway), this could stir up trouble in the close relations of the kingdoms and the empire. All they need is some niggling paranoia-- Byarlant has worked its way into the royal family, now the Byarlantians are attempting to blackmail and gain power over the other cities of the kingdom. If rumors of that nature start to go around and make the lesser aristocracy distrustful of the Byarlantians, that could cause some big trouble in the kingdom.
My second choice would have to be E. It tips our involvement in this and gets everyone to think "Wow, he's an asshole!", but they were already thinking that anyway. I don't care about what the highest Methussian politicians think of us now quite so much as it's been my intention to fry a good portion of them with angelic laser beams until the rest submit and are willing to administer to the empire under us. Anyway, since this story is the closest to what actually happened, her details are much more likely to match up with expectations and there's an easier time in swallowing what's partially true and predicted (Hargreave already thinks ill of us, after all) so this is the most likely to protect the Duke and give him time to prepare.
By the way,
treave is there any chance that we got any of them to tell us what those golden daggers were intended to do to us or held on to them to figure out what effect they have? They seemed pretty desperate to nick us with them, and given a sort of similarity to the described weapons of that cult I wonder if there's some sort of connection.
For the second choice, I'm concerned with protecting the weaker members of our group. I don't think that Trider and Rin are in too much danger, but the others could be. There are two ways of going about this. One is in option A, which is going to fill the forests with all sorts of runes and wards to discourage or heavily damage those in the expedition who start approaching too closely as well as giving an early warning, which is really invaluable for preparation. This will also probably result in a lot more exploration of the forest and finding odd stuff-- remember that object that the guys we slaughtered at the start were looking for? Plus, who knows, maybe the Minotaur Firelord was out licking its wounds somewhere, it was supposed to eventually regenerate. The only problem with this option is that it represents an investment in this location, which I understand some of you to be leery of. This being a densely forested region of ill-repute and rumored incredible danger, I think it will both be unlikely for people to stumble across the site by chance and difficult to support a dedicated army within it for aggressors, and there's a good possibility of diplomatic accidents being caused by rash military action considering that the intersection of three borders is not far off. It's furthermore an area where all those kingdoms that nominally control it are greatly weakened.
What I mean to say by this is that despite the flaws with our location, in a lot of ways it is a really safe spot for our goblin village to exist, as evidenced by it not already having been depopulated with all inhabitants either enslaved or put to the sword. It's hard to come across such places. The only other one that I can think of is the forest where the slimes were, but if you look at the map that's at something like half the distance from Yuria that this forest is, which manifests itself in trainees and others coming to it all the time specifically to murder monsters while our present forest lies almost untouched.
I mean, yes, there are possibly other such places out in the east or the west beyond the mountain ranges. The thing is, since we haven't sent any scouts out either way and won't have by the time the explorers arrive (still butthurt about not letting Rin go off) we won't have identified any. There's this idea of using mass teleportation to bring our goblin village elsewhere, but if we haven't come across a suitable place to send them to then what's the point? Even if we put them all in the slime's forest, keeping in mind that the knights have probably been harrying that area as we determined earlier, that's not where they've been raising crops. We'd have huge and immediate problems with getting them all fed.
The goblin village isn't much, but it's still the only one under our administration and I don't think it will do to lose it. I'd like to protect the investment, so I will vote A>D.
The advantage in D over A is that we can probably transfer the shield generator around, while obviously the runed up forest is staying put and pretty specific to that area. Another advantage is that we can really go much more all out with our attacks without worrying nearly as much about the integrity of the village, though it'd be good to know more about the nature of the shield. Treave, will this be like the shield that was put up during the entertainment at the dinner? I still think we'll get more out of the early warning for preparation as well as the closer investigation of the forest.
For the last, as just a matter of personal preference, I'd like to train in the Way of the Fist and gain more abilities that aren't dependent on the expenditure of mana. If that doesn't pan out, the defensive magic is good to pick up. I remember there was definitely a point when Erd had regrets for not having more powerful defensive magic, and given the squishiness of our charges learning any that may be applied to someone other than ourselves is also important. I would love to pick up Gigadyne equivalents in other branches of offensive magic, sure, but we haven't even gotten to the point for where we need to use Gigadyne in the first place aside from domestic disputes with Rin.
So, in total, I'll be voting:
A>E A>D B>DIII
