Helixen knew nothing about the Count of Basel's grand strategy. And just as with the lord of Wischelbach, I didn't tell him. It was valuable negotiating material, and I planned to spring it at the decisive moment.
"The lord of Wischelbach told me the provincial lords aren't on good terms with the Swiss Confederation."
"More precisely, we've been suffering under Zurich's high-handedness."
"The merchant guildmaster offered to connect me with the Swiss Confederation."
"Those followers of Mammon would naturally prefer the honey the Swiss Confederation hands them. The reason our lands have no specialty goods left is entirely because of those wild dogs of Mammon that Zurich sent in."
Basel has already suffered an economic invasion by the Swiss Confederation. Outside of farm produce, nearly every manufactured good is Swiss-made. And even the farm produce ends up going to the Swiss Confederation at cheap prices.
