Army+of+the+Architect+Old+Responses

Response Turn 15
Your clanks are on the look out for enemy spies. You gain - espd.

Your diplomatic clanks have successfully convinced the Heterodyne to give the city of Madrid to the Kingdom of the Beshadowed Sun, albeit after the Jaegers tripped the place down of anything they could loot. One interesting note is that your agents in the court of the Heterodyne have picked up an increased paranoia regarding England, and while that is not entirely out of place given England's vast spy network they believe the paranoia is being stoked by an outside agent of some kind.

The Confederation of the Clock has joined the Baron Wulfenbach's Empire. They have taken their favor of you with them and spread it further across his empire, which now represents a fairly large portion of Europa. Lose influence with Confederation of the Clock gain ++ WO.

Your agents in the University note that another power has begun sending in agents and is attempting to subvert the University sparks. And they are doing so more efficiently than your own agents can stop them. (I should note that since you've been giving the University espionage for free every turn you've been accumulating influence with them.)

Between the massed troops of the Kaiser's Guard, the experienced monster hunter clanks of the Glorious Army and the expert tunnel fighter of the Mountain King the many monsters of the underground stand little chance. Soon piles of dead worms and oozes are being taken to the sparks of Germania and Transylvania to be examined for weakness before being burned to ashes by zealous Glorious Army clanks. So successful is the attack that rather than wait another year as might have been necessary the sparks are able to work out a series of goo counter measures and deploy them against the infested labs of the old Hessen Thuringia destroyed the source of the monsters. All participants gain + morale.

Your contingency plan did not take affect as the Kaiser's Guard left about a quarter of its troops top side to defend against monsters that slipped past the extermination lines and other threats.

It appears that the monsters broke out of the old sealed labs on their own.

Your agents find enough information to disprove the rumors and reclaim your lost WO if you would like.

OOC: Maybe I wasn't entirely clear. What your agents have discovered is that the Kaiser Guard has been spreading rumors implicating you in selling weaponry to the Skulding which they used in their rescue of the Loki'S Brigade. You know for sure that it was the Kaiser's Guard doing so. What you didn't know was whether the Kaiser's Guard had any actual evidence to back this up. Further investigation has proved that they do not.

The fact that you actually were helping the Skulding is irrelevant to this particular set of rumors. No solid evidence was actually given that you were. And your agents have gathered enough evidence that the rumors are false to poke holes all through it.

The monster suppressor is built and erected in Theosoph lands, chosen for both its proximity and the fact that the Theosophs contributed the largest number of sparks to the effort. Throughout France and Spain the many mobile relays do their job and large portions of the hordes stream out of the area docile, and ready to obey their new masters.Your forces are easily able to handle the remaining monsters in eastern France, however this is less because of the suppressors and more because of the streams of Jaeger reinforcements as the Heterodyne leads her army to confront the wretched Kaiser's Guard and protect her allies the Army of Othar. Unfortunately at this point things deviate from the plan. Because the Kaiser's Guard makes no move to enter France, instead fortifying its borders and apparently waiting to see what happens. Not quite willing to hit such a heavily defended border, at least not while there are so much more fulfilling targets at hand the Heterodyne then proceeds to play Monster Slayer and lead her armies through France alongside yours systematically hunting down monsters. However the Jaegers are also systematically looting gifts for their Lady. They ensure that the split of plunder between your forces is entirely fair and honest. With each army looting according to its contribution. Which unfortunately is the problem. The Heterodyne's forces are nearly the size of the entire combined Army of the Architect, Celestial, and Theosoph coalition, and your generals are not able to gain quite the amounts that their superiors had hoped for.

You gain - espd and ++- econ.

**Response**
With the aid of your forces Othar determines that there is no Puppetmaster. Something is quite definitely going on, but the revenants seem more unorganized than they would be under some overarching controller. Instead after cleaning up a few revenant nests Othar withdraws to work on his "Secret Project" Which he say will "Deal with the Spark Once and For All."

Influence Russia - They have good memories of you. They might not go out of their way for you, but they would listen to what you have to say.

University - The University regard you as good allies. Better allies than the Celestial Empire in fact.They actually used your espionage aid to hide some of their less savory dealings away, such as their work with the Skulding, from a Celestial security sweep. They also thank you for your tip. Following your advice they focused on the sparks that the Celestials sent them and it appears that one remains loyal to the Celestial Empire.

Corsica/Italy - The mainland Italians thank you for your aid in exposing a plot against them. Now however they want you to leave and stop meddling in their internal politics. There are several pointed remarks, about not being stupid enough to rely on University mercenary sparks. After all if they work for you who knows who else they might be working for.

The Corsicans are considerably more friendly, but are in the process of realigning with the rest of their Italian brethren.

Heterodynes - Regard you as curious specimens of some spark's work with autonomous clanks. Agatha would very much like to take you apart and see how you tick. The Jaegers would probably remember your old aid enough to make sure she put you back together again.

Skuldings - Regard you as good sources of information, but think you are weak for hiding behind a mask of goodness.

Othar Tryggvassen - Thinks you are good helpers in his quest. He is willing to let you go your own way as long as you don't also go back to your old murderous ways. He reminds you that he is after sparks not the minions of sparks. In otherwise slaughtering some one and then claiming you had to because they were preventing you from getting to the evil sparks is a no go. Othar is a hero. If he encounters a massive army protecting the evil castle he doesn't build a massive death ray to melt them into puddles of goop, he goes around them. And he expects you to do the same.

There are five major Italian factions The Southern Italians favor actions that will ally Italy more closely with Spain. The Northern Italians prefer actions that will ally Italy more closely with France. Central Italians favor a conservative isolationist stance. The Progressive movement wants a more powerful Italy at the expense of everyone else. The Birds of Prey also want a more powerful Italy, but are being quiet and more conservative while they recover from the political blow they just took.

**Response**
You gain - morale and +++++ - espd from random growth.

Your attack on the Theosophs is basically unsuccessful. Your forces get there just in time to see a mammoth flying city of some sort fly off surrounded by numerous smaller escorts, and they are unable to catch up with it long enough to get through its automated defenses before it crosses the border into France. The Skuldings are fairly happy. The Theosophs left behind a large network of automated refineries that they have been able to plunder for substantial amounts of ore and precious metals. However your own aims go unfulfilled as all the Theosoph sparks have long since boarded their flying city leaving only a few scattered villages of peasants behind.

Your efforts to tarnish the name of the Mountain King reports some progress, but not enough to actually have an effect on enough Europans to matter.

Similarly in Corsica your efforts at both setting up an anti monster brigade and sparking some anti Spark movements have not yet yielded significant results, although your clanks and agents report that they have nearly completed both projects.

This last year the Loki Brigade spent significant efforts improving their ability use their espionage offensively. They also bought several new airships to increase their fleet. They also sent out three raiding fleets. One attempted to raid and plunder Corsica, but was beaten off by combined Italian and Celestial Empire forces. One fleet headed to the University of Celaenae and the last to the former Ottoman Empire. Upon realizing that both targets were now essentially part of the Celestial Emprie the two fleets recombined and attacked. Due to committing forces to foreign deployments the Celestial Empire did not posses the capability to repulse the attack and the Loki Brigade was able to plunder a small amount of econ and leave with minimal losses.

Othar agrees to look into the Slaver Wasp thing. He also lets you know that hes impressed that you tried to take on the Theosophs, and doesn't hold the fact that they ran away before you could get to them against you.

The University agrees that they'd rather the Celestial Empire not expand their spark program. Combined with the fact that the Celestial Empire appeared to be more worried about protecting Corsica than the University grounds they are worried that the Celestial Empire is starting to see them as unnecessary and is looking for a way to get out of its agreement to let them handle all spark related matters in return for protection. If this is indeed the case it obviously leaves the University in a very exposed position.

The Skulding chieftain is pleased with how things went against the Theosophs. They didn't have to fight the impressive Theosoph military and still netted a large amount of plunder just as planned even if the plan didn't go quite the way it was supposed to. They have already forwarded the agreed payment to the University and is interested to know if you have any ideas as to further good targets before they go back to their normal raiding pattern.

**Response**
Othar is pleased by your support in his efforts against the Knights Hospitallers. Not only was he succesful, but he even had time to make some upgrades to your clanks. You gain ++ mil.