It didn't end well for old Domenico. He (I) got succeeded by his cowardly son.
I have to bribe some council members to keep them happy. After succession you get a harsh "short reign" penalty. And for some reason it pays off to keep your spymaster befriended...
Iacopo keeps expanding the family's demesne. I now own a coastal city in Zeta.
And with my spymaster happy, I keep getting results from intrigues against the other families. Despite my own poor intrigue stats...
And yet the other families plot against ME. I try to put them into jail, or rather I try to fail to put them in jail so they'd rise in rebellion. In that case I could smash them and then put them in jail, which would allow me to strip the traitor's titles. This guy rather flees to Pisa unfortately.
And when the old duke of Dubrovnik dies, the truce expires and I grab Zeta itself:
The Byzantines aren't Dubrovnik's best neighbours either, they're grabbing his other lands. And the Byzantine bitch empress isn't even trying to be my nice neighbour:
That's what I was afraid of. As I see it, there are two possibilities to survive the angry Byzantine expansion drift: become their vassal, or pray for a huge succession war in the Byzantine empire. For now, I go with the latter. I surrender Zeta for now. I do get my revenge though, I manage to kill the Byzantine heir:
The Croats keep declaring war on me. I don't really mind, because this nets me prestige and gold.
And every time he declares war on me, I don't need to keep the truce afterwards. So I keep expanding my territory. As a bonus, the first time I see a crusade for the holy land succeeding.
Yes, that actually happened.