Only the deserving warrior wins the battle. So earn the right for your place in the sun.
I am Hosfyrd Reev and I say this:
Those of you who refuse to accept that Sanctuary is closer to the brink of destruction than it ever has been are wrong. As I have said in the past, the machinations of craven men have crippled Sanctuary. You, the citizens of Sanctuary, need to rise to the occasion and fix our weaknesses. The way Sancturians can do this is by electing for leadership strong men devoted to the security of the city. And so, I offer myself up to you all for Councilorship.
I will forgo the sweeping, ambitious promises that the smooth-tongued politicians of this city so favour. I am a simple man who enjoys the simple pleasures of life; a ribald joke, a warm, willing body in my bed, the laughter of children and the blaze of the sun on my back.
Yet I walk these streets and hear wails and pleas, not jests. I walk these streets and see women offering themselves up desperately to men for coin, not love. I walk these streets and see starved children crying, not laughing. I see people who have forgotten the warm kiss of the sun, or those who have never had that joy.
My agenda is thus fourfold. By Tempus, I will do my utmost to reinstall the sense of pride and hope that citizens of this city, comfortable in their security, once had. I will do my utmost to create jobs. I will do my utmost to secure food. And I will do my utmost to find a route to the surface.
These are my policies for Sanctuary:
Militarization: To live in this underworld is a battle, and to win battles you need soldiers with real mettle, of which we have few. Under my leadership the Watch will be greatly enlarged. Unskilled refugees from Lower Sanctuary will be conscripted into the expanding Watch. Rather than languish in the streets, hungry and desperate, these new soldiers fighting for Sanctuary will be fed, housed and trained, an offer extended to families as well. The Arena will be put to use as a barracks and training facility for the expanding Watch rather than kept as an unused, run-down building. Improved Watch training procedures will be implemented and a new ranking system introduced which accords seniority to ability, not political stance. Monuments to the great heroes of Sanctuary will be raised and the services of skalds, bards and playwrights will be sought with city funds to recapture the valour of past Sancturians who stood against the darkness that threatens this place. A sense of pride and hope will be refashioned.
Jobs: The war for survival that we fight down here everyday cannot be won without the equipment and steel needed to fight it. Under my leadership, the large pool of skilled refugees from the Lower ward will be organized into a cohesive workforce and will be employed, fed and housed once more. A great city forge will be constructed for the production of arms. The abandoned mines will be reclaimed with a solid campaign I will personally lead and its ore mined once more. The unemployed and desperate will be formed into a Sanctuary Worker's Guild charged with the construction and maintenance of Sanctuary buildings and defense structures. The expanded Watch will guard the new city forge and ensure the safety of its workers. Gone will be the days of protection rackets run by petty gangs and the murder and intimidation that requires honest families like the Mikkelsons to be hiring guards out of their own pockets. The subsidized Sanctuary production will mean we can increase the tariffs the filthy slaving races must pay on their exports. The soldiers of Sanctuary will not have to pay filthy slavers for overpriced, shoddy weapons. Sanctuary warriors will wield fine Sanctuary steel, fashioned by fine Sanctuary craftsmen.
Food: A healthy, well-fed army fights a better battle than a malnourished one. Under my leadership, Sanctuary will embark on a massive reform of its food production. Tracts of land will be claimed or reserved as needed for the construction of a great city rothe pen that will dwarf all others that came before it. Starving street beggars will be offered work breeding the mighty rothe at a rate that will ensure all Sanctuarians are fed. A great city granary will be constructed to store and monitor foodstuffs coming from newly-expanded fungus farming subsidized by the Council. These initiatives will ensure Sanctuary citizens are fighting fit and healthy.
The Surface: Every army must have an objective, every battle a purpose, ever soldier a hope. Under my leadership, Sanctuary infighting will be stamped out. The sniveling, cowardly men who infest this city with lies and intrigue and posit brother against brother will find no place here. This city will begin to focus once again on the largely forgotten surface and how we might all return there. The drow know, the duergar know, the abberant menaces know. They know the slaving routes that lead up to freedom, up to the sun, up to our families, up to our homes. Yet will they tell us, the lowly 'slaves', weak and disorganized as we are? No. That path must be acquired from a position of strength, as part of the terms of victory in arms. Traensyr is reportedly wracked by inner conflict; but not forever. This is our last chance, people of Sanctuary. We must strike, swift and true as the Foehammer teaches. I will not lie to you; this will require sacrifice, preparation and dedication on all of our parts, but the reward is well worth the risk.
The Money: You may well ask where all this money will come from to embark on these projects. Well enough, I'll tell you. Firstly, expenditure on administration will receive a cut. Why do we need so many records, so much paperwork? Sanctuary will not endure the darkness for long. Money needs to be spent on projects that will see us to the surface. The Spellguard budget will also be cut. Their budget will be focused on animatrons and defense enchantments, rather than fat salaries, the improvement of their Tower and obscure research on the machine. The unused Sanctuary Unity Fund, or that which has survived plunder by the corrupt of the city, will also be utilized.
Citizens, those are my policies, sharp and clear. I know what I want and I stand prepared to fight for it. Rather than take this chance to point out the personal flaws in many of my election opponents, I simply ask which ones have lain out their goals so bare for scrutiny? None.
Vote Reev for security, jobs, food and surface.