Emissary assassinated

[Gilrandir]

I would like to describe a strange accident that happened to me. I never had anything like that in all my years of playing MTW.
I was the Aragonese in high expert and within the first several turns I endeavored to bribe El Sid of Valencia (a four-star general at the beginning of a game is not a thing to disregard). So, I sent my emissary with a bribe offer and next turn I was informed that my emissary was murdered (it seems by El Sid personally as rebels cannot have assassins - or am I wrong?). Moreover, the cash that my emissary had on him was confiscated by El Sid. Well, there I was, bereft of my ambassador and virtually of all the starting money. I had to re-start the campaign.
Has anyone had something like that? Can someone else except assassins kill agents? How can the money be taken but the bribe turned down?

[drone]

I have not seen anything like this before, but I rarely use emissaries so that's no big surprise. The fact that you lost your money would lead me to believe that the emissary's bribe roll was an epic failure, not that he was killed by an assassin. Maybe your emissary was caught staring down Jimena's corset?

Interesting tidbit though, this might have to go in the wiki.

[Gilrandir]

I have no idea what the emissary could have been doing but it seems that one can't safely send people having cash (not credit cards or travel checks) about the MTW world. Highway robber is what I think of El Sid (or is it Cid? - one should call him El COD) now. But probably someone can offer a plausible explanation of what has happened to me?

[Trapped in Samsara]

Wow GilRandir! That emissary of yours must have had a total charisma bypass. Did he have negative stars perchance? ;~}

"Moreover, the cash that my emissary had on him was confiscated by El Sid."

Did the, 'Your obnoxious emissary has been quite understandably murdered' message actually say El Sid has confiscated the cash?

I too have never encountered or heard or read of anything like this before. Don't you just love this game? So full of delightful surprises.

Actually, I think I've worked out what happened. Your emissary mistakenly went to see El Sid - the notorious 11th century East End villain - instead of El Cid, real name Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar. An understandable error. Now it all makes sense.

V

[Prince Cobra]

Did you offer all you have? If you offer the general less than his price there is a risk for your emissary to be murdered and his cash confiscated. In my case the general was offended by the offer. I tried to bribe the Trebizond rebels in Byz/High as I was besieging the rebels in Constantinople. This ended with me losing money and my emissary. The story ended badly for the general several turns later but that's another story. Yet, i am disappointed. Game offers you challenge and you re-start. You still have army and income, maybe princess. And in early it takes time before AI attacks.

[Axalon]

Maybe your emissary was caught staring down Jimena's corset?

That has to be it...

Anyway, I can further confirm that Prince Cobra is right in "there is a risk for your emissary to be murdered"-part. I am not much of
a "briberman" myself and that may explain why I have only seen it a few times. I'm guessing it is a fairly rare event in MTW...

- A

[Martok]

Did you offer all you have? If you offer the general less than his price there is a risk for your emissary to be murdered and his cash confiscated. In my case the general was offended by the offer.

I'm very willing to bet this is what happened to Gilrandir's emissary. Having played the Spanish a lot -- and thus, having bribed El Cid a lot (or at least attempted to!) -- I can testify from personal experience that a general can and will execute your diplomat if the bribe offer is below what he was demanding.

[Kralizec]

My condoleances.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Also, Prince Cobra is right. It's been a while since I've played MTW but I distinctly remember things like this. Basically, when you attempt to bribe you get a message where the emissary suggests paying 10000 (for example) for the army; but since you don't have that amount of money, you get the choice of simply offering all that you have. If you're unlucky, you'll get a message next turn saying "the general was so insulted he took the life of your emissary!" or something like that, and they'll take your money anyway.

[Gilrandir]

I don't remember the details - I mean whether I offered all I had or not - but it seems unfair both to kill the emissary and to purloin the money. El Cid might have chosen this or that. But now that I know what a failed bribe offer may lead to (and the replies to my message confirm that it was not at all exceptional or accidental) I will be more cautious.
As for Prince Cobra's disappointment - well, actually I didn't re-start right away. I dawdled for a couple of years with an empty teasury and no chance to train anyone or build anything watching kingdoms around me expand and prosper (perhaps it was my demented imaginination - how can one prosper in a couple of years?). Then I tried to invade something and my game crashed on transition to the battle map. So I figured out I had some problems with the game and started to look for solutions. When everything was fixed I thought I'd better commence anew.
And finally. To whom it may concern (read victorgb). English is not my mother tongue. My game is not in English. So I tentatively associate the titles, units, terms and names I see in MTW with what I guess to be their English-language counterparts. This is the reason for spelling (and probably other kinds of) inaccuracies I sometimes may sport. If the said inaccuracies offend your linguistic feelings in any way, I apologize. Being often pressed for time so that I don't do any googling before I post something I don't always live up to your expectations.