Ambition

>>3966654
>Boredom
Things get dull when you're borderline immortal.

>>3966654
>Boredom

>>3966654
>Insolence

>>3966654
>Ambition

Rolled 2 (1d2)

Just gonna roll for this.

>>3966658
>>3966734
1

>>3966670
>>3966675
2

>ambition to make a new race of half elves, as any non full elf is obviously superior to elves, eventually breed the elf out

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Traveling by consignore always makes you hungry. You wonder if it's something intrinsic to the spell or just something unique to you. Do other elves become ravenous after teleporting several times in the same day? Or maybe it's the just the fact that you still had to hump from Melaia for three days and nights to get to the coast. When you consulted the consignore as to why he couldn't send you straight to Albyran Keep, he made some half-brained excuse about sea squalls interfering with the teleportation array. It's more likely a matter of money and risk. The array is expensive to set up and the borderlands are known neither for their stability nor their luxury. How many consignores would be willing to operate under such conditions? These are the kinds of elves that anoint their ears with scented oils, they are too accustomed to the public baths and the touch of concubines to live in the wild.

You adjust yourself on the saddle of the humpback. These shaggy white-feathered breeds are so much harder to ride than their featherless capital counterparts. You wonder if the hatchers even bothered to fully brake them in. You're almost certain that the merchant who sold them to you cheated you, but as it is beneath a prince to haggle with a commoner you let it be.

Well, no matter. The keep and the village come soon into view. Rolling golden hills fall to a backdrop of a mild gray-blue sea. It is picturesque but almost completely indefensible. If your father could see this, he'd probably lose the rest of his hair from worry. He was so adamant about your staying in the estate and helping him with drafting the new tax reforms for the Dominus, that you almost feel a little guilty. At the very least you feel bad for telling him that you found his work about as interesting as reading the complete histories of Aegrond. However, as your eyes run over the daub-and-wattle houses and especially the weathered stone keep that overlooks the coast, the guilt quickly gives way to excitement.

You look behind you at the packhump tied to your humpback, carrying all your things--which consist mostly of:

>Fine clothes and perfumes from the capital, writing implements and letters and a scrying orb (+3 starting Influence)
>Extra supplies and several small canvas bags filled with jewels and coins, raided from your father's treasury (+3 to starting Goods)
>Your collection of arcane tomes and journals, gathered over several decades (+1 starting Spell)

QM Note: You have three resources to manage, Influence, Goods and Spells. You spend these to do various actions throughout the year. In brief, Influence encompasses your rapport with your subjects as well as your pull with neighboring factions. Goods represents wealth and resources. Spells refers to how many spells you can cast per season.

>>3966771
>Fine clothes and perfumes from the capital, writing implements and letters and a scrying orb (+3 starting Influence)
Make plebs follow him with no questions ask.

>>3966771
>Fine clothes and perfumes from the capital, writing implements and letters and a scrying orb (+3 starting Influence)
Sounds about right.

>Your collection of arcane tomes and journals, gathered over several decades (+1 starting Spell)

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>>3966788
>>3966792
You look behind you at the packhump tied to your humpback, carrying all your things--consisting mostly of fine clothes and perfumes from the capital, letters and writing implements and of course, your scrying orb.

>Influence: 1 -> 4

You've always favored the pen over the sword. This latest challenge is merely another opportunity to sharpen your tongue and to push your powers of diplomacy past their old limits. As the great Linhadel once wrote: great empires are maintained by gentility. At any rate, it should be a far more interesting use of your abilities than returning day-to-day correspondences for your father. The fine clothes and perfume are something of an indulgence, as you don't expect to find their kind among the provincials. Besides the effect of regality that they confer to your bearing, your sisters have also been pestering you for the last decade and a half to choose a bride. It is traditional for the son to be married before the daughters and your sisters (especially the eldest) are beginning to grow impatient. The blackslik suit with the silver trim and sash should help in that regard. Though, part of the reason you chose the borderlands in the first place--despite your father's many offers to lord over some province in the central territories--is that you don't expect there to be many eligible ladies nearby. And if there is one, then she will certainly be worthy of your interest--at least more so than the vapid trollops of the capital.

You come to a fork in the path. One road leads down toward the village, the other swerves around toward the cliffs to Albyran Keep.

>It would not be proper for a prince to greet the commoners on humpback and with an empty stomach. Head for the keep.
>You are curious about the state of affairs in which the previous lord left his village, what better way to satisfy your curiosity than to experience them first hand?

>>3966826
>You are curious about the state of affairs in which the previous lord left his village, what better way to satisfy your curiosity than to experience them first hand?
A little false modesty never hurt.

>>3966826
>It would not be proper for a prince to greet the commoners on humpback and with an empty stomach. Head for the keep.
I'm all in on the spoiled lordling stereotype.

>It would not be proper for a prince to greet the commoners on humpback and with an empty stomach. Head for the keep.

>>3966826
>>It would not be proper for a prince to greet the commoners on humpback and with an empty stomach. Head for the keep.

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>>3966847
>>3966856
>>3966895

Rather than ride into the village, you take the swerving road that leads to the keep. It would not be proper for a prince to greet the commoners on humpback--human commoners at that, for you heard that Albyran was recently capitulated from a human kingdom. You shall meet your subjects soon enough, preferably on a covered palanquin shouldered by a cadre of human servants.

The road wends and weaves a mile or more until you reach the iron portcullis. From the promontory your view extends from the slanted red roofs, to the toothpick masts of small fishing boats, to a nearly featureless sky fused with a nearly flat horizon. White-winged corpsecrows cry amid the endless beat of waves upon the cliff. A guard hails you from the tower battlements--a human in mail and helm--and upon hearing your pedigree, hastens to call the gateman. The estate is of old gothic construction, all spires and cones and sharp points. The previous lord may have been overcompensating for something.

You dismount your humpback and hand it off to a stablehand. A handful of servants approach from the main keep to carry your things. You instruct them to be careful with the lockbox which contains the vials of perfumes but they simply return confused blank stares. You realize that none of the servants speak sonorese, high language of the Silvan. Luckily your years abroad have equipped you with a wide array of tongues and after a bit of trial and error you settle on a bathosian dialect, which though a little rusty and phonetically distasteful, is close enough to the native language to be understood.

While the servants carry your things inside you decide to:

>Meet with Captain Grym, the man who has been in charge since the previous lord's abdication
>Head to the dining hall for a light brunch, you're absolutely starving
>Follow the servants to your quarters, see what it is you're dealing with

>>3966915
>Head to the dining hall for a light brunch, you're absolutely starving

>>3966915
>Head to the dining hall for a light brunch, you're absolutely starving

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>>3966997
>>3967000

While the servants carry your things inside you head to the dining hall for a light brunch. You order one of the servants to lead you there and he quickly jumps to comply. You note that many, if not all of the servants are polymorphs, products of nymph and human intercourse. Humans have never failed astound the elven race with their limitless perversity and degradation. Laying even with the likes of animaloids. Disgusting. Perhaps it is because their lives are so short that they are so careless with their passions. Of course, that same passion makes them intense, doting lovers. Love to them is a matter of life and death, not the primitive hedonistic impulse of the elvettes nor the cold, clinically arranged affairs of the noblesse.

You note that many of the polymorphs are female and that they all move with a subtle dejection of spirit as though they were puppets held up by slackened strings. The way they wince at your orders and the way they only avoid your gaze with their eyes but with the whole of their bodies and the way they are dressed--the comely ones in obscene provocative attire, the others in rags--is suggestive of a hideous abuse. This Captain Grym will have much to answer for.

But first, something to eat. The dining hall is situated in a separate building, scandalously joint with the solider's mess. Indeed there are even some off-duty guards enjoying a smoke break around one of the tables. Your first impulse is to order them out, but you are simply too hungry to bother with them now. You seat yourself at the nearest table and have the servant relay your order to the chef. You nearly lose your temper when the servant informs you that there is no chef in the keep, only a handful of cooks. There is much work to be done in this place, much work.

Your meal's presentation is not fit for lowest caste of Silvan society, perhaps not even the little dogs that some of the younger elves like to raise. A mere bowl of gray sludge with chunks of who-knows-what. However, said sludge, to your great surprise, is both filling and delicious. You even order seconds. Thank Kelkalyn your eldest sister were not here to witness this piggish behavior, or else she would have teased you to the end of time.

You're half way through your third helping when a man dressed in a jeweled collar sits down across from you at the table. "Lord Eldarel Vartheon, thirteenth prince of the Dominion," he says.

>Interrupting a prince while he takes his meal is a hideous act of impoliteness, glare at him until he leaves
>The man looks to be somewhat more important than the common riffraff, be gracious and see what it is he wants
>The meal has dulled your acerbity, and all offense is pardoned. Return the greeting warmly.

>>3967063
>>The man looks to be somewhat more important than the common riffraff, be gracious and see what it is he wants

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The man looks to be somewhat more important than the common riffraff, not least because of his rotund figure. Among the elvettes, it is a sign of sloth and immoderation but the ancients flout it as a mark of their wealth and power. As far as you know the same is true of humans.

"I will excuse you just this once for interrupting my meal, because your address was proper and good. Who are you?"

He smiles. His right eye has been replaced with an artifice of glass, painted to match the one of flesh. It unnerves you a little.

"My name is Myrril Dasterian, mondu," he says, using the Trentch address for nobility. Indeed he has that same combination of golden eye and golden hair which is unique to the clan of Trent. "I work for House Vylan, and I have come as an emissary on behalf of Lord Somir Vylan, my master." He makes an elaborate bow, twirling his hand in front of him.

Come all this way to greet you--ha! These are transparent stratagems that children use to win sweets and sweethearts on the schoolgrounds. He is here to see about maintaining whatever status quo was established with the previous lord, Quent or Qunt or whatever his name was. Next he will try to profit over your presumed ignorance of that status quo.

"I don't know if you're aware, mondu, but the former ruler of Albyran, Lord Quent, had close ties to the Vylan House. He was not part of the family proper, of course--though offerings of marriage were tendered on more than one occasion--but my Lord Somir afforded him much patronage."

Ah, so now there's a twist. He wants to purchase your allegiance, not levy from your coffers. "Patronage?" you say innocently.

He clears his throat into his fist. "The Lord Quent had certain predilections. Thirsts and appetites for the nymphrey, which we supplied." He holds up his palms, closing his eyes. "Now, of course, I know mondu has no interest in that sort of business. I told my Lord Somir as much. 'The Vartheon are a proud, proper clan, untouched by dross' I told him."

He flatters well at least. He's hiding his abilities, probing you, trying to figure out where you stand in the hierarchy, your temperament and knowledge. You'll play along for now. "You spoke well."

"It is easy to speak the truth. But as I was saying, Albyran has always maintained friendship with the House and we have no desire to break those bonds now. To that end, I have brought with me some gifts--" Here we takes out a small lockbox and slides it across the table. "Mere trifles I'm sure, but I hope they are to your liking."

Choices next post...

Do you:

>Accept the gift and promise that relations will remain the same (+3 Goods, favor owed to House Vylan)?
>Press your luck and ask for more even at the risk of angering a neighbor (DC: Easy to Challenging, +6 Goods, favor owed to House Vylan)?
>Politely reject the gift, for no friend is made without also making enemies (-1 Influence)?
>Something else (write-in)?

You have: 4 Influence, 3 Goods, 1 Spell

QM Note: Favors will be cashed in by other factions in the form of special events. Failing to repay the favor when requested will incur a heavy Influence penalty. DC has five tiers: Trivial, Easy, Challenging, Difficult, Impossible, with each tier being a roughly a 20% jump in probability accounting for your current skill. As mentioned earlier, rolls are done behind the screen.

>>3967304
>>Press your luck and ask for more even at the risk of angering a neighbor (DC: Easy to Challenging, +6
"Mere trifles for the prince of Vartheon? Most would take this as an insult."

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>>3967317
"Mere trifles for the prince of Vartheon?" you say, throwing open the lid of the box. An assortment of gems, jewelry and silver rings, worth not an insubstantial amount of silver. "You wish to insult me." You snap the lockbox shut.

Myrril clears his throat into his fist again. He regards you with his good eye, brow slightly raised, re-evaluating his former assessment. "No offense meant of course, mondu--"

"You'll need at least double this much if you wish to remain in my good graces. And do not mention the former lord's filthy predilections to me again. Such discourse is hideous."

Myrril twirls his hand again. "It shall be done. And forgive me, it shall never be brought up again." That was a quicker acquiesce than you were expecting. You were prepared from some level of token resistance. Either this Lord Somir is very rich or Albyran has hidden strengths which he considers indispensable. In either case, with the deal concluded you wave the emissary off to finish your meal in peace. Myrril promises to send another lockbox within the month, before offering another bow and taking his leave.

>Goods: 3 -> 9

Fully sated and a little sleepy you decide to:

>Head to your bedchambers for some much needed rest, you're weary from the journey
>Have Captain Grym meet you in the main hall: you'd like a full briefing on Albyran; why are the Vylan so eager to maintain relations?
>Take a trip down to the village (in a palanquin is possible) to see for yourself the state of your holdings

>>3967325

>Take a trip down to the village (in a palanquin is possible) to see for yourself the state of your holdings
No palanquin needed, let's see how things are

>>3967336
Support. Good to see the full situation, before dealing with captain.

>>3967336
sure +1

I like your writing OP, hope you aren't ded

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>>3967336
>>3967350
>>3967367

Myrril's round figure plays in your mind as you think about his words. You touch your own stomach--now a little swollen from the meal--perhaps it would be a good idea to burn some of it by taking a trip down to the village. Speaking with the servants you learn that there is in fact no palanquin available--yet another task for the heap. You opt for a humpback ride instead, this time in a box carriage that smells like old cabbage.

Down the winding road upon the hill and beyond plots of rolling farmland lie the numerous beam-and-timber houses. Again the lack of any serious defenses makes you wonder exactly what kind of imbecile was the former lord. A pawn and a pervert. No wonder he was so easily ousted.

The village is divided into various smaller quarters. There are maybe two hundred souls in all, more than half of them are polymorphs which serve either as second class citizens or slaves to their human masters. The Silvan are no strangers to slavery of course, deeming it the natural right of a superior race, but the humans are exorbitant in their practice, stooping to enslave even their own kind. Indeed you even saw some human children with enchanted slave-circlets on their heads. Truly an incorrigible people.

>Laborers: ~200

Among the common citizens there are also thanes, these are free men who have sworn marital fealty to the keep in exchange for small parcels of land. In short, they are the human equivalent of the warrior caste of the Dominion--though they are not as well trained or equipped, they are more resilient. It always amazes you how fervently a man will fight--to the death if necessary--despite the short length of their lives. For an elf, there is no glory in being a casualty of war. There are a dozen such thanes in all, many of which live up in the keep, each contributing an average of ten men to the defense of their lord, which he can draw upon at any time.

>Thanes: 12

The people live in relative destitution. Rags abound. Disease and pestilence with them. Beggers rove half-naked bearing on their necks and arms the characteristic rose shaped lesions of Dydisic disease. Starving dogs chew on gutter filth and garbage. Men are gaunt; children, emaciated. Slaves are beaten in the street. Criminals lie crucified on public streetposts. And everywhere you go, Quent's carriage is regarded with fear and hatred.

Cont.

Industry revolves around maritime activities: clamming, fishing, pearl diving, some trading along the coast. But these are grossly underdeveloped. There isn't even a proper shipyard or dock. Conversations with some of the villagers (who are initially reluctant to speak, but grow more voluble once you introduce yourself as the new lord) reveal external problems. Undead coastal raiders constantly disrupt trade and kidnap men to turn into thralls. While from land, the village is sometimes raided or even sieged by bandits, rival settlements and worst of all, the cyclopean minions of one they call Ogol the All-Seeing (who ironically no one has actually ever seen). The thanes do what they can to defend the village, but Quent frequently loaned them out to other settlements to fill his own coffers--or satisfy his lecherous appetites, as the case may be. The Vylan House apparently calls frequently on the thanes of Albyran.

By the time the trip is over and you have returned again to your keep, night has fallen.

>You're tired and have taxed yourself enough today, have a light meal and then go to bed
>Call an emergency meeting with Captain Grym to discuss the situation
>Burn the candle writing some letters to your father and eldest sister to reassure them of your safe arrival

QM Note: Laborers are necessary for certain projects and attain certain population thresholds will trigger specific events. Thanes represent your military strength and are represented as a 1d20 in combat rolls. The ratio of Thanes to Laborers can trigger certain events (1:10 is generally safe).

>>3967372
damn we have a lot of work before us, our people and land should reflect us, be beautyful and prosper, this is a disgrace.

and the humans fighting to the death makes sense, they have so little time to achive something noteworthy, as to be a hero in a campaing or some other nonsense, but as an elf, an early death is a tremendous waste of all those incountable years of achivement and glory that could be had
>>3967376

>Call an emergency meeting with Captain Grym to discuss the situation

>>3967376
>>Call an emergency meeting with Captain Grym to discuss the situation

>>3967376

>Call an emergency meeting with Captain Grym to discuss the situation

That was the last post for tonight. Will continue in the morning (around 12 noon PST).

>>3967386
thanks for running

>>3967386
Will be waiting for that

>>3967386
Those polymorphs will be quite surprised when we don't enforce the daily rape before sleeping that they were subjected before, what the hell was this other lord doing for Sylvian sake?

>>3967386
Pushing this back to 2 PM PST due to some errands.

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>>3967378
>>3967380
>>3967381
What you just have seen sickens you to your core. As Linhadel writes in his excellent Meditations On Statecraft: the empire reflects the emperor. Things cannot remain as they are, decay and dilapidation are as incongruent to your august image as a megapede missing its legs. You rub the sleep from your eyes as you march into the main hall. A passing servant scurries to call Captain Grym to meet there. The Captain arrives shortly after you are seated on the red cushion of the raised throne.

"My liege," he says, tilting his head slightly and clasping his fist in front of him. A soldier's address to his commander--disrespectful before a prince. You let it go. His blood besmirched blue cloak flutters near his ankles as he lifts his head. His hair has grayed, his skin has furrowed. He wears no helmet, no armor besides a cracked pair of leather bracers. No adornment of any kind besides a pin of amber-gold that holds together his cloak. He sneers as he regards you, as though he would just as soon spit on you as kneel before your feet.

"Del Gathar Grym, did you love your former master?"

The question catches him off guard, but he quickly narrows his eyes. "There was no love lost between us, my liege," he says between tight lips.

So the fault lay wholly with Quent. Even his own subordinates despised him. You lean forward on the armrest, steepling your fingers. "I shall make you this offer only once, think on a moment before you answer."

He slants his head to the right, full of curiosity. "As you wish."

"You may retire. I will put money in your purse and write you a letter of passage, so that you may go wherever you wish within the Dominion. For services thus far rendered you shall be paid a pittance--a pension for your family as well, if you wish."

He strokes the sides of mustache. "And if I should refuse?"

"You are old, Del Gather Grym," you say softly.

He stands erect. "I am more the match for any thane in Albyran. May my liege demand of me a demonstration, if he is unsatisfied with my words."

You smile. Spirited old fellow. Not like the half-asleep ancients with whom your father serves. "If you should refuse, you will remain in my service until the end of your days. I suggest you sleep on the matter--"

"My convictions cannot be slept away. I hesitate for another reason."

"Then speak freely."

He casts his eyes down upon the shadows of the muntins and the light of Amel-Fae, the silver womb. "I served Lord Quent out of duty, because his father was my good friend. But I failed them both. Well, there's not much a man can do when his council goes unheeded--but I make no excuses." He takes a breath, raising his eyes to your own. "My liege, why did you renew Albyran's pledge with the Vylan? Will you also live under their heel?"

>Warn him for his insolence, even sincerity can go too far
>Probe him for more, why is he so against them?
>Reassure him that the deal signified nothing permanent
>Write-in

>>3968031

>Probe him for more, why is he so against them?

Information

>>3968045
+1

>>3968031

>Probe him for more, why is he so against them?

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>>3968045
>>3968056
>>3968074

Your first impulse is to have him hung by his ankles for such impudence. These humans become so overweening from just a few decades of life. With the greatest exercise of restraint, you lean back upon the throne and rest your head upon your hand.

"Justify your hostility."

"If you have been to the village, as I have heard, then I need no justification. You've seen it for yourself."

Is he referring to Vylan's frequent use of Albyran thanes, leaving the village defenseless? "It is a poor state enough. I fail to see the connection however." Let's play dumb and see what comes up.

"The House Vylan uses our people as scapegoats. Lord Somir Vylan lives safely in his provinces while all the terrors of the world nip at our heels, steal our goods, torture our people. He keeps us defenseless, takes our thanes--not because he has any need of them, but because he wants the target he has painted on our foreheads, never to dry and peel. Though my liege seems of a different sort than Lord Quent, if he too will ally with the Vylan serpents--" He pinches his eyes. Dear Kelkalyn, the old fellow is crying! "I cannot watch these people suffer another careless monarch." He steadies his voice. "I will not."

"You threaten me, Captain Grym?" you say softly.

"I do no more than my duty demands, my liege. My duty to the people. And to my own honor."

You put on the mask of anger; it will be good to test his limits. "You would put your people and your honor above even your liege?"

"Yes." He grasps the hilt of his sword. "And I would expect no less of the one I serve."

Ah, humans. Such passion, such vigor!

>Punish Grym for such insubordination, he must learn his place
>Say nothing which commits you, you'll determine for yourself the right course of action
>Promise Grym that the deal you've made represents nothing permanent with Vylan House
>Immediately order that the gift you received from Myrril be returned, as a gesture of your good intentions

>>3968097
Very well


>Immediately order that the gift you received from Myrril be returned, as a gesture of your good intentions

But

>Punish Grym for such insubordination, he must learn his place

I can see merit in his argument but that doesn't excuse his insubordination so he will still be punished.

I didn't like that leecher Vylian anyway

>>3968097
I knew it was worth staying up late. Caught up on this earlier, I like your style OP. Mind dumping some background lore about the geopolitical environment later at some?

>Promise Grym that the deal you've made represents nothing permanent with Vylan House
We are but leaves on the wind, until we grasp the oars of fate. When a newcomer in a land, it is best to keep up old appearances, until you have gained an understanding of the situation, my dear Captain Grym.

>>3968097
>>Say nothing which commits you, you'll determine for yourself the right course of action
We decide what is good for us and our subjects.

If this goes on tie, making promise to Grym is fine aswell

>>3968097
"Your duty to the people? To the land? And you watched as the situation degraded to the state I find it now?

Rape under your nose, the village in compleate disrepair, and as you yourself stated, under the heel of another lord.

You said that you would put that duty above even your lord but that wasn't true in your relationship with lord Quent, you let him undulge himself at the cost of the people here and yet you hold me at a different regard or what you say about duty are only words?


What I saw today disgusted me to no end, I may not hold you responsible for it but you were present and your so called duty wasn't enough for you to do something was it?

Regardless, I trust that you will help me, out of debt to the people here to turn this around

And as for my relationship with that Lord


>Promise Grym that the deal you've made represents nothing permanent with Vylan House

I cannot show my true intentions yet, but at the state we are it would be unwise to shake the status, but make no mistake, that perverted man is one of the problems I intend to fix

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>>3968122
>>3968128
>>3968139
>>3968143
"Tell me, Del Gathar Grym, where was your duty when the people of Albyran reached up and cried for aid? Where was it when Lord Quent satiated his perverted appetites at the expense of his own retainers? Where were you when he nestled in Vylan's bosom and drew poison from his teat? You call that honor?" You rise from your throne, your anger is righteous and cool. Always an elf must be the exemplar of collectedness. The monkeys do as they see, and the elf, their superior, must therefore lead by example. "And then you dare to threaten me with violence?"

Captain Grym holds his ground, but immediately falls to his knees in shame. "You speak true, my liege."

"You have not answered my question."

"It was because he was the son of my friend, because I promised his father that no harm would..." He shakes his head. "No. I make no excuses for my failure. Do as you will."

"You let your emotions cloud your judgement. You let your passions run to treason. I have no use for such capricious men."

His shoulders tremble as they brace his body--bulky despite his age. "If you will give me some time to say goodbye to my men and my family..."

Ah, perhaps you went too far. Poor fellow thinks you're going to kill him. You descend the steps until your shadow enfolds him. You crouch down and touch his shoulders. "Rise, Del Gathar Grym. Though you are old, you may yet be a better man than you were. Serve me. In serving me, serve your people. In service to your people, restore your honor by your own hands."

He looks up, astonished, and tears flow freely down his face. Though you must maintain the cold, aristocratic gaze, you admit even your heart is moved. Linhadel's words run through your mind: they are a weak, pitiful race, full of fire and lacking wisdom--but one day they may astonish us all.

He slams his head down on the carpet, speaking broken words between sobs. "I'll not fail my duty again, my liege. On my life, I swear it."

"Good. Because if you do, I'll kill you myself." You stifle a yawn. "Now begone, I must rest."

The furnishings in your bedchambers are surprisingly tasteful. Or perhaps not so surprising, given the habits of their previous owner. The curtains have been drawn on the bay window and the room is lit by a dozen candles upon sconces. The poster bed has its curtains drawn as well. As you change into your bedclothes, you notice a shadow stirring on the bed. The curtain reveals a young, frightened polymorph, dressed in ridiculous, titillating attire.

>Have the guards throw her in the dungeon for this gross offense
>Throw her out with extreme prejudice, this isn't a zoo
>The creature is obviously terrified, remain calm and ask for an explanation

>>3968268
>The creature is obviously terrified, remain calm and ask for an explanation
Punishment can come later

>>3968268
>Throw her out with extreme prejudice, this isn't a zoo

>>3968268
>>The creature is obviously terrified, remain calm and ask for an explanation

damn lord Quant, how many more perversions will we see before falling asleep?

I guess we get what we bargained for being bored at the capital and coming to the borderlands, a challenge at least

>>3968268

>>The creature is obviously terrified, remain calm and ask for an explanation

How did the old lord die? A venerial disease I imagine....let's hope not, one of those running amok among the populace would be an incredible headache

Sorry for that late reply, had to step out for a bit.

>>3968128
>Caught up on this earlier, I like your style OP.
Thanks!

>Mind dumping some background lore about the geopolitical environment later at some?
Details for the region you're in now will be revealed as we go (as Eldarel discovers them for himself) but stuff you already know, say Dominion politics, I can dump later on in a Q&A

>>3968288
I'm curious too, are we part of an elven empire(dominion) that is currently waging war or waged war in the past against a human kingdom, that explaining why we have human subjects?

>>3968268
>>Throw her out with extreme prejudice, this isn't a zoo
There is sleep to be had, begone thot!

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>>3968273
>>3968280
>>3968287

Stilling your disdain and indignation, you place your hand gently on the creature's steer-like horns. The ivory is adorned with golden ringlets and a circlet of the same. Her dress is fashioned from dyed silk and gold. Her body marked with glyphs that release a pleasant scent when touched. Armbands inset with gold, hairpins, chains, earrings. And yet, despite all this ornamentation--the sign of a favored concubine--she bears whip scars on her shoulders and arms.

"Do not be frightened. Tell me why you're in my bedchamber."

She gives you a confused look. "For my lord's pleasure," she says stuttering.

"You think I, a Silvan prince, would lay with a common animaloid?"

She instinctively raises her arms to protect her face. You gently pull them down. "Listen to me, and the tell the others of your kind, I have no interest in continuing the depravity that ruled here. I am Eldarel Vartheon, I do not lay with the likes of beast even for pleasure."

"Forgive me!" she says, laying her head down on the sheets.

"You are forgiven. Now begone, so I can rest in peace." She doesn't budge; her head remains on the sheets. "I'll not ask again."

"Forgive me, eminence. I have no where else to sleep. Lord Quent forbade it. They will...hurt me if I try."

>Throw her out, it's hardly your concern where she sleeps
>Let her sleep on the divan then, you can deal with it tomorrow
>Let her sleep at the foot of the bed then, it's big enough and the night is cold besides

>>3968342
>>Let her sleep on the divan then, you can deal with it tomorrow

no real skin out of our bones, we can set the general rules tomorow, do we even have a steward or some sort of master maid or something?

>>3968342
>>Throw her out, it's hardly your concern where she sleeps

>>3968342

>Let her sleep on the divan then, you can deal with it tomorrow
Sigh, whats next?

>>3968342

>Let her sleep on the divan then, you can deal with it tomorrow

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>>3968347
>>3968358
>>3968370
You allow yourself a yawn, waving the polymorph off your bed. "Go sleep on the divan then. And take a blanket with you, there is a chill this night." She scrambles to obey.

"Yes, thank you eminence," she says, bowing all the way to the floor.

"Yes, yes, be silent." There is much to do in the morning, much to change. This is an odious place, but that will make its transformation all the more interesting. For the first time in many years, you look forward to morning more than the night.

After breakfast (which consists of more poorly presented, yet delicious food) you call a council in the main hall. Grym is there, his cloak clean, his beard and hair trimmed and his overall countenance much improved. Also an elderly woman who claims the title of head maid. No courtier or steward. Not even a jester. You begin with a general announcement regarding the Vylan House, stating that though you've accepted their gifts, this does in no way represent any permanent alliance. You regard it a welcoming present, nothing more.

Moving on, you address the head maid directly. "Effective immediately, all servants are to wear appropriate attire. Abuse of the polymorphs is to stop, under penalty of public flogging. And the one that was sent to me last night--"

"Paina, milord."

"Paina. She is to be given a room of her own and reassigned to whatever duties she feels most fit to do."

"Was she not to your liking?"

"No beast is to my liking, maid. I have not come here to philander. Send no one to my chambers unless I request it."

"As you wish."

"Captain Grym."

Grym bows his head. "At your service."

"Let us speak of Albyran and its future..."

>Planting, 386 CE

General Decree:

>The first order of business is to make the village a bit more defensible, pay to have some basic fortifications built (-2 Goods, Ditch)
>Send out one of your thanes to explore for locations of interest (-1 Goods, -1 Thane this season)
>Request general aid from your neighbors, to see where they stand (DC: Easy-Challenging, +2-5 Goods, -1 Influence)
>Send gifts to your neighbors to impress upon them your arrival (-4 Goods, +2 Influence)
>Do nothing this season, conserve your resources
>Write-in

Personal Action:

>Send for a Steward to join your council
>Write letters to your neighbors
>Make an impassioned speech to the villagers
>Write-in

QM Note: This is the planning phase of the quest. Time moves in seasons: Planting, Growing, Harvest, Winter. One general decree and one personal action per season. Every season there will be an event, determined by your current situation. Events follow a branching structure, with decisions in past events leading to future events. You'll have to spend Goods, Influence and Spells as you go. You get some Goods every harvest as tax and rents (currently equal to 4 goods per year). Spells regenerate during the winter season when the world renews itself, but you can also spend actions to recover spells.

>>3968436
>>The first order of business is to make the village a bit more defensible, pay to have some basic fortifications built (-2 Goods, Ditch)
>Write letters to your neighbors

Can't go wrong with building defenses

>>3968436
>>The first order of business is to make the village a bit more defensible, pay to have some basic fortifications built (-2 Goods, Ditch)


>Send for a Steward to join your council
>Write letters to your neighbors

>>3968436

>The first order of business is to make the village a bit more defensible, pay to have some basic fortifications built (-2 Goods, Ditch)

>Write letters to your neighbors

>>3968436
>The first order of business is to make the village a bit more defensible, pay to have some basic fortifications built (-2 Goods, Ditch)
>Make an impassioned speech to the villagers

>>3968436
>>The first order of business is to make the village a bit more defensible, pay to have some basic fortifications built (-2 Goods, Ditch)
>Write letters to your neighbors

>>3968436
>The first order of business is to make the village a bit more defensible, pay to have some basic fortifications built (-2 Goods, Ditch)

>Write letters to your neighbors

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The task of laying down redrice, trousely, arrow yams, tiger hemp, soursquash, sunwheat can be done in a few days. Partly this is because there is not much farmland to cultivate, partly because much of the food in Albyran is imported from villages down the coast. Regardless, the idle peasants are happy to earn some extra money, especially when it concerns their own interests. Many do not even know about change in management and although your fortifications are merely some ditches dug along the border of the village and will not deter experienced or determined enemies, their construction quickly spreads news of your arrival. Normally humans are distrustful of elves, as of anything which goes beyond their limited comprehension, but in this case, even an unknown entity is better than a familiar one under whom they have suffered.

>Goods: 9 -> 7
>Ditch: Reduces material losses from enemy raids

Captain Grym gives you a briefing on local politics and you spend the season writing letters to your neighbors, attempting to set up a correspondence. Other than a few token responses and in one case a belligerent diatribe against the whole of the elven race, the majority go unreturned. One of the more pleasant responses comes from Lord Tassian Frey, of the Freian Clan, rivals to House Vylan in intent, if not in name. Whereas House Vylan have come from across the sea and their holdings here represent a colony, the Freian's are natives that can trace a long lineage. Their letter came with a basket of goods (you liked the Freian perfumes in particular, though they were too feminine for your tastes; you've sent some home to your sister) but made no allusion to future reciprocation. It seems there are some nobles living among these monkeys after all.

>Goods: 7 -> 8
>Influence: 4 -> 5

Near end of season when the rains are just beginning to fall, a weathered, wounded traveler requests respite in your keep. As it would be unseemly to violate the common customs of hospitality, you invite him to stay as long as he wishes. He reveals that he is a Hunter of Si-Urin-Gek, one of those chosen by the Judicial god to destroy the dread offspring born of his defilement of the silver womb, Amel-Fae. In other lands he has hunted the amorphous, shapeshifting, Dreq and men possessed by the whimsical Wyn. Here along the Raynan coast he hunts Ogol the All-Seeing and her minions. He tells you that his men were all captured by Ogol's cyclopes during an ambush. And he requests that you lend some a few of your thanes, "Four and the men that follow them, should suffice. I shall return them by harvest, when the raiders are most eager." He also hints at spreading word of your generosity to your neighbors. "All the children of Si-Urin-Gek are the enemy of all men. One never lights a candle without brightening the whole dark."

>Lend him the thanes he requests
>Lend him half the thanes he requests
>Give him some goods instead (-1 Goods)
>Refuse to lend him the thanes
>Write-in

>>3970285

>Lend him the thanes he requests

Well, i was mostly worried about public order but since we are giving the populace jobs I think they won't be restless.

It solves us a problem with thoae cyclops, since that is probably the responsible for most of the raids we suffer

Make sure to draw a contract with a sozeable amount of the spoils to ourselves

>>3970285

>Lend him the thanes he requests

>>3970285
>Lend him half of our thanes
2 more then he requested
>Venture with him aiding with our spells to be certain that practical scourge will be dealt with
Would increase morale among populace. More fame? Potential deanger? Ocasion to convice them to sattle/make base of operation in our lands.

>>3970345
I assume that would be our personal action for growing season

>>3970345
I like the going with but I'm tebtative to leave only 6 thanes to take care of 200 peasants so I'll support going with but still want it to be only 4 thanes

That would make sure we have our first pick of anything valuable

>>3970379
Alright I'm fine with that. 4 thanes it is

I want to go with him. Big reason being I would assume lair will have possibility of magic loot this monkey would destroy

>>3970356
Yes, if you choose to go with them that will take up your personal action for the next season (and will create a follow up event as well)

>>3970412
Before that happens what is equivalent of our magic? We can can fireball/magic missile once per month we can do ritual that can cause earth shaking? What is narrative equivalent of our +1 spell?

But also just to confirm it we still will be able to do General Decree?

>>3970412
I would support that

>>3970412
Lets go with him

>>3970421
>Before that happens what is equivalent of our magic?
Mechanically magic will confer some modifiers to the behind-the-screen rolls or have special effects. Narratively they are individual spells that can be researched (as a personal action) and advanced. You burn spellpoints to cast spells and recover 1 spellpoint per year (though this can be increased). You start with three basic spells (you'll get to choose from a list) and (generally) have no restrictions on which spells you can use nor how many times you can use them.

>But also just to confirm it we still will be able to do General Decree?
Yes, but as you don't have a Steward and the management would go to Captain Grym, rolls will suffer. Keep in mind you can send Captain Grym with the Hunter in your place.

>>3970526
Ok, thanks for clarification. No changes from me

>>3970526
Let's do this

>>3970285
>>Lend him the thanes he requests
I don't support going with him, we have a city to manage!

OK let me a clarifying vote here. Consensus seems to be to give him the thanes.

Do you:

>Also accompany him yourself, as the expedition should be interesting
>Order Captain Grym to accompany him to give him something to prove himself by
>Just give him the thanes, it is not for a prince to stoop to such bloody work

>>3970780
>Just give him the thanes, it is not for a prince to stoop to such bloody work

>>3970780
>>Just give him the thanes, it is not for a prince to stoop to such bloody work

>>3970780

>Also accompany him yourself, as the expedition should be interesting

We came here because we were bored after all

>>3970780

>Also accompany him yourself, as the expedition should be interesting

>>3970780
I want to go with but I see that other anons don't so I think a good compromise would be to send our captain, that way he would secure our interests and we would still be around, since more or less this is what everyone wants

if that is not possible, just go then

>>3970780
>>Also accompany him yourself, as the expedition should be interesting

>>3970807
ummm we still would be managing it

>>3970780
>>Order Captain Grym to accompany him to give him something to prove himself by

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Against the heartfelt protests of your Captain, you not only supply Rauk the Hunter with thanes but decide to accompany him yourself. Four thanes are chosen among the twelve, three younger and one older, seeking glory in a worthy quest or else seeking a glorious death. The Hunter leaves to gather more thanes from the neighboring settlements, and returns during the new moon with three more in his party. Among the thane's men, one or two are chosen to serve as squires bringing the total count to nineteen: seven thanes, the Hunter, yourself, and ten warriors.

The thanes ride on humpback while you ride in the box carriage. The Hunter leads, indefatigable and faster on his feet than on the hump, while the warriors follow behind. Rain accompanies the first moon of the Growth season slowing the slog through northern mires and peatlands to a snail's pace. In that time you skirmish with roving bands of Ogol's minions: sightless ghouls--Craith in the Silvan tongue--commanded by their cyclopean captains. Eventually the capture and interrogation of one of these cyclopes reveals the location of a hideout where Rauk's companions are being held.

The cyclopes have encamped in an abandoned watchtower whose bricks and battlements have nearly crumbled. You lay siege to the tower, cutting through dozens of Craith as they spill forth from the stairs above your heads, amid the whistle of cyclopean arrows through the murderholes. The siege holds for three days, the thanes pushed back each time. On the fourth day one of the captives is thrown from the ramparts--a Trent woman, her golden hair sheared off, her skull crushed, and her eyes torn from their sockets. On that day Rauk displays a ferocity scarcely known to the elven kind, or even to the race of men and breaks through the ranks of ghouls and takes the tower in one fell swoop. The remaining captives are found alive, but blinded like the first. No quarter is given to the enemy prisoners.

Four of the thanes were injured or fell to sickness in the course of the expedition. Two of them your own. Five of the thaneguards were injured but none were killed.

As for your part in all this:

>You provided magical assistance (-1 Spell)
>You fought bravely with your thanes even suffering a wound yourself (+2 Influence)
>You handled logistics and supplies ensuring no casualties from wounds or sickness (-1 Goods)

QM Note: Your Wounds require you spend a personal action to recover or else take a severe penalty to rolls. Spellpoints can be recovered via a specific personal action. As mentioned earlier you recover 1 Spellpoint at the end of each year. Thanes have a chance to die from their wounds or illness.

>>3971388
>You provided magical assistance (-1 Spell)
Can we pick more than one option?

>>3971400
Yes, feel free, but as you see each option comes with a price.

>>3971388
>>You handled logistics and supplies ensuring no casualties from wounds or sickness (-1 Goods)

>>3971403
>>3971400
Ok thanks I will switch to
>You provided magical assistance (-1 Spell)
>You handled logistics and supplies ensuring no casualties from wounds or sickness (-1 Goods)
To impress and to ensure that thanes and people we come to rescue survive

>>3971407
+1

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In addition to managing the logistics and supplying the goods necessary for the journey, you also aided the expedition with a spell:

>Salutore: An elementary healing spell which you used to restore the captive's eyesight
>Furore: A minor mass strengthening spell which helped the thaneguards kill more enemies
>Sensore: A simple scrying spell which led to the discovery of some hidden caches of pilfered goods
>Write-in (describe the spell effect, I'll come up with an appropriate name)

QM Note: You have three spells available to start, choosing one of these will take up one of those slots.

Meanwhile, back in Albyran Keep, Del Gathar Grym strolled every day atop the battlements. His old joints ached from the foul weather and he had long ago established the habit of looking after the men on watch, not to hector them, but to be near them and to hear their concerns, to inquire of their families, to congratulate them on their joys, mourn their losses. He showed courtesy even to the thaneguards because he remembered the days when he too had worn the carven armband of bronze, before he had earned the one of gold and because he saw in their ruddy faces the shadow of his youth, and of his son. For that, they all loved him and it was perhaps for him alone that the thanes had remained in the keep while their former lord disgraced himself. It was perhaps for him that they remained still, while a foreigner--and an elf at that--deigned to rule them.

But for Del Gathar Grym, Lord Eldarel Vartheon was more than a second chance, he was a second life. That day when the lord had lifted Grym in his hall, Grym had felt the greatest relief of his life; a runner's second wind. He had felt the creeping infirmity fall away like an old molt. His daughter would later remark that he came home that night with cat's eyes. She did not like him to stroll out in the rain, he knew, but as he used to with her mother, he did not heed her either. He loved rain from boyhood and felt he thought more clearly in it.

He puzzled over his lord's vagaries. That an elf of such high birth would come here to rule was strange enough, but that he would, on the one hand, show such wisdom and masterful governance but on the other have the wild impulse to go off on a random hunt, seemed a complete paradox. His insistence on being paraded around on a palanquin (whose construction Grym had dutifully begun this season) was more in line with his experience of elves; the priggish, prideful, patient race. He often found himself looking out across the hills, trying to peer into the mists crawling inland from the sea, praying for his lord's safe return. It was not for himself he did this, but because he believed Lord Eldarel would save them all.

>Growing, 386 CE
>You have 6 Goods, 4 Influence, 0 Spells

General Decree:

>Continue the fortifying the village by building a watchtower (Goods 6->4, Watchtower)
>Send out one of your thanes to explore for locations of interest (Goods 6->4, -1 Thane this season)
>Hold a tournament to find candidates for thanehood (Influence 4->3, +1 Thane)
>Hold a feast for the thanes (Goods 6->3, Influence 4->6)
>Do nothing this season, conserve your resources
>Write-in

Personal Action:

>N/A: You are AFK (away from keep)

QM Note: Available decrees change based on who is in command of the keep. You can put anyone in your council (currently just the Captain) in command. Cost of actions change based on season. it is harder to explore in the Growing season because of rain but labor is cheaper because the peasants are idle. Thanes and peasants are generally at odds, favoring one over the other leads to certain events--good and bad.

>>3971467
>Salutore: An elementary healing spell which you used to restore the captive's eyesight

>Continue the fortifying the village by building a watchtower (Goods 6->4, Watchtower)

>>3971469
>candidates for thanehood (Influence 4->3, +1 Thane)
>>3971469

>Salutore: An elementary healing spell which you used to restore the captive's eyesight
Healing is always useful

>>3971469

>Continue the fortifying the village by building a watchtower (Goods 6->4, Watchtower)

>Salutore: An elementary healing spell which you used to restore the captive's

I'll leave the tournament for when the lord is in the keep since that would be a good chance to meet some minor nobles and interesting characters

>>3971476
+1

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>>3971476
>>3971481
>>3971493

Although you've always found sorcery and spell-scholarship to be tedious subjects, you cannot deny their utility. The consignores that manage the teleportation arrays are the most obvious example, but you cannot discount the salutores that act as physicians to the royal family. Indeed, both of your younger sisters owe their lives to their powerful (and expensive) magics. It was for that you studied for five years under Magis Soliania, one of the three most powerful spellcasters in the Dominon and a consummate pervert who reveled in the attentions of younger elves. She took students based purely on looks and manners. Accepted no tuition fees. And generally took great pleasure in teasing her students. She refrained from going any farther perhaps only to avoid major scandal, though her reputation among her peers was hardly immaculate. It was she, lithe, austere, aesthetic, still retaining her youthful looks by the closely guarded spell which had made her fortune, who you remember when you heal the eyes of the rescued captives.

Your salutore is only at an elementary level and thus, to heal an organ as delicate and complex as the eye, requires several sessions over a period of several weeks. Within a fortnight you are able to reconstitute the nerves and white matter and by the time you return triumphant to Albyran, the patients are able to make out fuzzy shapes and colors--even the shape of the new watchtower standing some ways from the village.

Rauk seems more thankful than even the healed. His gratitude is tinged with sorrow however. The Trent woman who had been thrown from the battlements was his lover. He carries her carcass upon his back, carefully preserved with secret ointments and salts, all the way to the keep. With your permission he requests that a raft and pyre be built so he can send her soul to be judged by Si-Urin-Gek. You grant it merely out of curiosity. It is not the custom of elves to burn their dead, but to turn them into stone.

After the funeral, Rauk and the thanes convene to divide up the spoils. Besides the small bits of silver and equipment found on the roving bands, the watchtower held the loot of a recent pillage. Your share is in accordance with the thanes and the assistance you provided. And in addition to this, for healing his companions, Rauk offers you a Hunter's horn. "That you may call upon me and my kind, when we are needed."

>Goods 4->7
>Favor from Hunters of Si-Urin-Gek

Captain Grym informs you that it is traditional to reward the thanes with some of the spoils. Not doing so will offend them, while distributing the reward completely among them will greatly favor them towards you and spread word of your generosity.

>Keep the spoils for yourself
>Give them the customary amount (Goods 7->6)
>Distribute the whole reward among them (Goods 7->4, Influence 4->6)

>>3971537
>>Give them the customary amount (Goods 7->6)

also,
kek at elven christmass cake tempting young boys out of puberty

and turning the dead to stone makes for quite facinating graveyards I imagine

>>3971537
>Distribute the whole reward among them (Goods 7->4, Influence 4->6)

>>3971537

>Distribute the whole reward among them (Goods 7->4, Influence 4->6)

Can we use influence to have magical supplies delivered to us?

>>3971553
>Can we use influence to have magical supplies delivered to us?
Yes, with two caveats:

1. You can request them from the Dominion as a personal action, but this will take a season to arrive (no extended travel in winter however)

2. You can request them from your neighbors as a general decree and they will arrive within the season

Also magical supplies can either be research materials to improve or learn new spells or ritual components to restore your spellpoints.

>>3971537
>>Distribute the whole reward among them (Goods 7->4, Influence 4->6)

>>3971537
>>Give them the customary amount (Goods 7->6)

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With harvest coming soon and the taxes and rents with them, you can afford to be a little generous with the spoils. It's important that you win the thanes to your side to avoid dissension and the possibility of betrayal. Nothing quite inspires loyalty like a gift of rings and silver. The thanes from your neighbors look on enviously at your largesse and you are certain they will spread word of it.

Goods 7->4
Influence 4->6

Rauk and his companions take their leave soon after the meeting and you convene with Captain Grym to inquire the status of the village while you were gone. He tells of you the construction of the watchtower--which you commend--but it's the palanquin, complete with canvas tarp and cover, which pleases you most.

"There was also an incident. I tried to settle it as best I could, I hope my liege will approve my decision."

You gesture toward Paina, the horned polymorph--who has since become your personal chambermaid by her own request--to get some servants for the palanquin, while you step under the tarp and take a seat. "What incident?"

"A representative from a party of brigands came to negotiate a protection fee. We pay them now and they promise to leave us alone for the coming harvest."

"And you did not let them enter the keep, I hope."

"Of course not. I had one of the thaneguards address them from the gate."

The old fellow has good sense. The idea of such scum within your walls would have soured your mood. "And so, what did you do?"

>He gave them the fee they asked, in the knowledge that the harvest would be greater (Goods 4->3)
>He convinced them to spend their efforts elsewhere (Influence 6->5)
>He gave them nothing and had one of them shot by arrows as a warning
>He captured and interrogated them for the location of their hideout (DC: Difficult-Impossible)
>Write-in

>>3971591

>He convinced them to spend their efforts elsewhere (Influence 6->5)

Pimp palanquin acquired, now we only lack grapes

>>3971591
>>He convinced them to spend their efforts elsewhere (Influence 6->5)

>>3971591
>>He convinced them to spend their efforts elsewhere (Influence 6->5)

>>3971591
>He gave them the fee they asked, in the knowledge that the harvest would be greater (Goods 4->3)
Influence is worth more than goods don't spend it on brigands

To be honest I would be perfectly fine with this
>He gave them nothing and had one of them shot by arrows as a warning
If others would support it. We have fortification watchtower and our advisor is military specialist. All of our thanes are taken care of with high morales and healthy. We can take them

>>3971596
>>3971597
>>3971601
Guys don't spend influence. One influence is easily converted into two or three goods

>>3971603
You convinced me, fuck the bandits.

My idea by using influence was to convince the bandits to raid that scummy lord that our captain hates, taking them down a notch would benefit us I imagine and it would be on par with the captain character to try to divert the bandits attention to them

But is there is support I say we do ankore active defense and send the bandits on their way

>>3971603
Fine
>He gave them nothing and had one of them shot by arrows as a warning

>>3971613
I think we should pay them this and even maybe next year 1-2 goods isn't that much of a hit to our coffers. If we start dealing with threats to fast other lords might see us as too much of a threat and try to deal with us prematurly.

>>3971591
>>He gave them nothing and had one of them shot by arrows as a warning

>>3971624
This is argument for paying and against shooting them. People like Lord Somir Vylan might see us as a threat if we start being too active in clearing our lands. And to be honest I prefer to make him think we are naive and gullible.

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"I had our thaneguards shoot one of them down. The other I let go so that he could tell his leader that we in Albyran did not suffer the words of scum."

A bold gesture, and one you thoroughly approve of, but this is an opportunity to probe the good Captain. "Did you consider that the Vylan House might take this as a show of excessive strength and radical change? News spreads quickly. I had hoped to keep them pacified for the time being."

"Would you have had me pay them off?"

"They had not asked for much."

"My liege! Feed the corpsecrows just once and they will never leave. As for the Vylan, I had considered it. But then I asked myself one question and everything became instantly clear."

"What question was that?" Your servants have come. You order each to a strut and they lift the vehicle onto their shoulders. You sit above the heads of the general world--as it should be.

"Does Albyran fear Lord Somir and his House? Does my liege?"

"No, he does not. And while it is prudent to play the coward and fool, we should not be cowardly or foolish. You did well, Captain. I trust however, that should these bandits retaliate your gesture, you will be ready to meet them on the field?"

The Captain bows. "On the field, on the walls, in the village; anywhere, anytime."

"Very well. Now then, I think I'll go for a stroll." You snap your fingers and as the bearers heave forward toward the gates you feel content.

>Harvest, 386 CE
>You have 4 Goods, 6 Influence, 0 Spells

General Decree:

>Continue the fortifying the village by building stakes to repel cavalry (Goods 6->3, Stakes)
>Send out one of your thanes to explore for locations of interest (Goods 6->5, -1 Thane this season)
>Send out a trade caravan with a thane escort, to establish a permanent trade route (Influence 6->5, -1 Thane this season)
>Prepare a festival to celebrate your first harvest in Albyran; there's only one first after all (Goods 6->4, Influence 6->8)
>Petition your neighbors for magical components and research materials (DC: Challenging-Difficult, Influence 6->5)
>Do nothing this season, conserve your resources
>Write-in

Personal Action:

>Write home requesting magical materials
>Correspond with Lord Frey and invite him to your keep
>Personally supervise the harvest to ensure nothing goes wrong
>Write-in

>>3971701
>Prepare a festival to celebrate your first harvest in Albyran; there's only one first after all (Goods 6->4, Influence 6->8)

>Personally supervise the harvest to ensure nothing goes wrong

>>3971701
>Prepare a festival to celebrate your first harvest in Albyran; there's only one first after all (Goods 6->4, Influence 6->8)

we got the support of the thanes, time to pacify the people and try to have a good time.

can we order a second decree?

I think during the harvest any construction will be too expenve since we would have to take people out of the fields and that increases the price, and sending thanes away right now would be foolish since the harvest is the prime time for bandits and we just provoked a group of them, so

>Petition your neighbors for magical components and research materials (DC: Challenging-Difficult, Influence 6->5)


as for personal

>Personally supervise the harvest to ensure nothing goes wrong

can we invite Lord Frey to the festival?

>>3971740
>can we order a second decree?
Only 1 per season. Same with personal actions. Limitation of choice is intended to encourage careful action.

>can we invite Lord Frey to the festival?
If you choose the correspondence option as a personal action, yes. Otherwise you can invite him, but as he doesn't know you, he isn't likely to show up.

>>3971753

then go with my intended actions, festival and supervision

>>3971716
+1
this should be
>Prepare a festival to celebrate your first harvest in Albyran; there's only one first after all (Goods 4->2, Influence 6->8)
As we only have 4 goods

>>3971760
Yes, nice catch. I mixed up Influence with Goods.

>>3971716
+1

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As it is the first harvest under your management you feel an obligation to make sure things go perfectly. You personally supervise the harvest, settling minor disputes over shares, orchestrating shifts and organizing stores. To celebrate the first harvest and the efforts of the peasants, you prepare a grand festival to take place on the last full moon of the season, paid for by the taxes and rents levied from the peasants.

>Goods: 2->6

It is on the second moon however, when the harvest is half-way through, that the promised bandits come to collect their reparations. The watchtower spots them well before they reach the town, giving your thanes enough time to arrive for the defense. It's near evening when they attack. Your twelve thanes commanding approximately one hundred and twenty men against four bandit leaders and forty brigands.

You and Captain Grym watch the battle through your scrying orb.

"They'll avoid a straight fight, my liege," says Captain Grym.

That much is obvious. Nearly the entire enemy force is mounted and will attempt to use their superior mobility to create diversions and swerve around or through your lines.

Their objective is to raid your stores and perhaps take some of your villages prisoner, not a prolonged engagement. Your objective on the other hand is to:

>Try and capture the bandit leaders (DC: Difficult)
>Protect your stores and people (DC: Challenging)
>Kill as many of them as possible (DC: Challenging-Difficult)

>>3971812
>Protect your stores and people (DC: Challenging)
Challenging we have 40% of success Difficult only 20%

>>3971812
>Protect your stores and people (DC: Challenging

>>3971812

>Kill as many of them as possible (DC: Challenging-Difficult)

>>3971812
>>Protect your stores and people (DC: Challenging)

>>3971855
if we do well initially in this engagement, we could always try to kill them all. but #1 priority should be taking care of our own

>>3971812
>>Protect your stores and people (DC: Challenging)

>>3966654

This is good quest with good writing and you should feel good about yourself, OP.

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Your objective runs exactly counter to theirs. The thanes have been instructed to fall back to the storage houses in the event of a breakthrough. If the enemy retreats, not to pursue. Two of the thanes have been assigned to escort straggling villagers up to the keep (mostly the infirm, the sick and the very young). You have put the safety of the villagers and their stores above all, not only to ensure that the rents are paid but to totally win their trust--even in the event of failure. In fact, if blood is spilt here defending their interests, they will know you are not the same lord that sold them out to satisfy his own pleasures.

The scrying ball gives you a bird's eye view, miles above the darkening fields. The bandits are organized into four small clumps on humpback, the thanes and their men fall into ranks behind the ditches. The bandits fire a volley of arrows into the lines, but the men are well-protected behind their shieldwall. The four clumps then join together into two larger clumps shaped like arrow-heads, which promptly charge two points in the line. The ditch (which you suppose cannot be seen at ground level) catches a few of the riders by surprise, trapping them. The others leap over and fight with such ferocity that the thaneguards lose cohesion and allow the bandits to slip through.

The thanes keep their wits about them, however, and guide their men back to the storehouses as planned. The bandits try different angles of attack but the thaneguard's javelins keep them well at bay as the remainder of the men come to reinforce them. Sensing that the bandits might get trapped in the town, their leaders order a full retreat. The clumps scatter into little grains like a handful of rice thrown upon a flat surface. The thanes hold; the bandits rout. Regrouping near the hills, they pause, considering whether they should attack again. They flee instead.

The men cheer. The day is theirs with minimal casualties. A few injured thaneguards and one thane that fell off this hump and broke his leg. The stores are safe and none of the villagers were hurt. The bandits escaped to raid another day, but otherwise, it is a complete victory, the kind written of in Aegond's histories (if you'd ever bother to read them) and one whose news will surely spread to the rest of your enemies.

>Influence 6->7

>>3972239
I agree a 100%

>>3972273
>Prepare a festival to celebrate your first harvest in Albyran; there's only one first after all (Goods 4->2, Influence 6->8)
>Influence 6->7
8->9?
Or because of raid action was canceled? It would make sense

>>3972287
I think it hasn't taken place yet, and all the more reason to celebrate now that we won

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The rest of the season passes in peace. The festival is doubly joyful for the successful defense, a rare case of both peasant and thane contented. Villagers from neighboring settlements come to peddle their wares and mooch free food and drink.

It gives you an occasion to wear your one of your silk suits (not the blacksilk, it is not a special enough occasion) and turn some heads in the village--including little Ryanna, the Captain's daughter, much to his dismay. Although you have not caught what the strapping elvettes in the capital call "monkey fever", you deign to give Ryanna the first dance, merely to tease her father. The human dances and accompaniment are jangled acoustic violence lacking any semblance of grace, harmony or depth, but what they lack in technique they make up for in ebullience. Admittedly elven dances are more akin to human funerals in comparison. You even find yourself laughing out loud a few times. Totally unseemly.

You kind of like it.

>Influence 7->9

>Winter, 386 CE
>You have 6 Goods, 9 Influence, 0 Spells

General Decree:

>Continue the fortifying the village by building stakes to repel cavalry (Goods 6->2, Stakes)
>Send out one of your thanes to explore for locations of interest (Goods 6->3, -1 Thane this season)
>Make sacrifice to the gods to renew your spirit, as they renew world (Goods 6->5, +1 Spell)
>Spread word to your neighbors of your bounty, to gather more thanes and peasants (-1 Influence)
>Do nothing this season, conserve your resources
>Write-in

Personal Action:

>Correspond with Lord Frey and invite him to your keep
>Drill the thaneguards in elven unit tactics
>Do some cleaning and redecorate, tis' the season
>Write-in

QM Note: Peasants don't like to work in the winter and no one likes to travel in the snow. Making sacrifice gives you a spell point in addition to the one you already gain by default.

>>3972239
>>3972274
Thanks! I was discussing the theory of how to run a good civ quest in the QTG and figured I should put my money where my mouth is.

>>3972297
>>Make sacrifice to the gods to renew your spirit, as they renew world (Goods 6->5, +1 Spell)
>Drill the thaneguards in elven unit tactics

>>3972297
>Make sacrifice to the gods to renew your spirit, as they renew world (Goods 6->5, +1 Spell)

>Send for a Steward to join your council
Can we spend influence to have someone better?

>>3972305
>Can we spend influence to have someone better?
Yep. You can spend 1 Influence to send for a competent Steward.

>>3972304
Switching to >>3972304

>>3972310
Then definitely spend it i would probably would spend 3 or more for someone extra component but I doubt anyone like that would be willing to come to our service

>>3972297
>>Make sacrifice to the gods to renew your spirit, as they renew world (Goods 6->5, +1 Spell)
gotta please the elven gods, maybe even teach a thing or two for the locals about proper religion

>Correspond with Lord Frey and invite him to your keep
allies

>>3972305
+1 with influence spenditure
Maybe we can get more worth for our goods with a competent steward around

>>3972313
Sorry meant >>3972305

>>3972297
>>Send out one of your thanes to explore for locations of interest (Goods 6->3, -1 Thane this season)
>Send for a competent Steward to join your council (-1 Influence)

>>3972324
Seconding this.

>>3966654
Good quest, OP

>>3972297
>>Make sacrifice to the gods to renew your spirit, as they renew world (Goods 6->5, +1 Spell)
>Do some cleaning and redecorate, tis' the season

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Winters in the Raynan coast are affairs of hail and snow. The days grow short and the nights grow cold. Silence reigns over the wilds as animals crawl into their holes and nooks to hide and hibernate. It is the time when the gods recreate the making of this world, a good time for ritual and magic.

You spend the season in careful sacrifice to your gods: Kelkalyn, who founded the Silvan from the stragglers of the Edhelriel when the Enderwyrms had decimated the race of elves. To Kelkalyn you pour molten silver into the eyes of a black ram whose throat his been slit with a blade of ice. To Arids and Keya the eternal twins, you give milk to a new litter of kittens. To Iolas who slew the Enderwyrm Temdius and was slain in turn, you offer your own pure elven blood, mixed with snow, and burned to steam. Finally to Vartheon, your ancestor, son of Iolas and Temdius, you burn the clean entrails and liver of a she-goat and sing his funeral song--which each elf must write for himself before he dies or else lie asleep in stone forever. You cannot do the rendition the same justice as can your sisters, but Vartheon was a gifted poet and many of the servants stay late into the night to hear his dirge and though they cannot understand the words, they weep with you regardless.

As life returns to the earth by the gods will, so magic returns to your spirit like wind beneath a kite. Your sacrifices are accepted and you receive a double charge.

>Goods 6->5
>Spells 0->2

You also use the recent good news to send word for a Steward. Captain Grym is good at what he does, but he has no brain for management or administration. Among the few candidates that brave the winter storms to knock at your gates, you choose one: a flat fat man from Jov, severe in punishing transgression but patient and fair. He has an inordinate affection for little children, having none of his own because of his wife's barrenness. It was this which clinched him as the candidate, for as Linhadel writes: the governance of a province is like the governance of a household: all lords are fathers; all subjects, children.

The days of winter fall quickly, but one day mid-moon, you get a mysterious letter. It comes to you not by the post, but from the beak of a corpsecrow fluttering by your window. The letter has no address. No mark of the sender. The message is a riddle-poem following the old form of Morgon, but embellished even further by combining thirteen different written scripts of three different languages, a few that you only hazily remember from your days sitting on your sister's lap and listening to her recite ancient songs. Whoever crafted the poem is a master to rival the even elves of the Gwaelon. These are bards that stake their very lives in duels of verse and meter. It is beyond intricate, beyond even beauty. Asking around you learn that such missives have been sent before, and to many other places, but none have been able to understand, let alone return, the letters.

>Such trifles are not worth your time and may even be dangerous, burn the letter and move on.
>Your youngest sister enjoys such ciphers, send it to her. She's been moping ever since you got her the wrong thing for her last birthday.
>The mystery personally intrigues you and you alone must get to the bottom of it. It'd be cheating otherwise and a prince never cheats.

QM Note: The letter will require personal actions to decipher.

>>3972785
>>The mystery personally intrigues you and you alone must get to the bottom of it. It'd be cheating otherwise and a prince never cheats.

let's do it

>>3972785
>The mystery personally intrigues you and you alone must get to the bottom of it. It'd be cheating otherwise and a prince never cheats.
also
>Make a copy and send it to sister

>>3972810
+1

>>3972785

>The mystery personally intrigues you and you alone must get to the bottom of it. It'd be cheating otherwise and a prince never cheats.

I'm going write the next update in the morning, but as we have rounded up the first year I think it's a good time to also do the Q&A. I will answer any question which Eldarel would know the answer to, given his background.

>>3973068
How did the elves came into possession of human landes? If by war, how long ago?

How is the general region? Any forests nearby?

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it was precisely for mysteries like these that you came out into the border territories to being with. Briefly, you consider sending the letter to your youngest sister, as reparations for your poor show at her last birthday--you'd completely forgotten about it because of the preparations for your journey. In the end you decide against it. A poem of such complexity could only have been penned by an archminstrel, it is quite possible--though unlikely--that the poem possesses mind-altering effects. It is partly the reason the ancients of the Gwaelon clan are so feared--even by the royal family--for though they are sworn to use their skills only for their art (in some case for therapeutic effects), they can just as easily take over the entire Dominion with a well-placed missive. Besides, it would be cheating to let someone else solve it for you, and a prince never cheats.

---

The darkness passes over the world, the snows recede and another year turns upon the whetstone.

>Planting, 387 CE
>You have 5 Goods, 9 Influence, 2 Spells

General Decree:

>Continue the fortifying the village by building stakes to repel cavalry (-1 Goods , Stakes)
>Send out one of your thanes to explore for locations of interest (-1 Goods, -1 Thane this season)
>Send Jov, your Steward, to make overtures with your neighbors for friendly relations (DC: Easy-Challenging, -1 Influence)
>Establish a new codex of laws more in line with Silvan common law; less punitive, more remedial (-2 Influence)
>Hold a large tournament, calling candidates from all around to compete for thanehood (-2 Influence, +1 Thane)
>Do nothing this season, conserve your resources
>Write-in

Personal Action:

>Request useful intelligence from your neighbors: maps, guides, old wive tales, anything of interest
>Drill the thaneguards in elven unit tactics
>Work on deciphering the mysterious letter
>Write-in

>>3973432
>Hold a large tournament, calling candidates from all around to compete for thanehood (-2 Influence, +1 Thane)

>Drill the thaneguards in elven unit tactics

>>3973432
>>Send out one of your thanes to explore for locations of interest (-1 Goods, -1 Thane this season)

journey is dificult during growing and very expensive during winter, and during the harvest it is not adviseable to send thanes away so I think planting is the ideal time to send thanes in search of interesting stuff

for personal

>correspond with lord Frey
we still haven't secured him as ally

>>3973432

>Send out one of your thanes to explore for locations of interest (-1 Goods, -1 Thane this season)


>Work on deciphering the mysterious letter

>>3973378
>How did the elves came into possession of human landes? If by war, how long ago?
Not by war. They legally claimed the land after Quent died, citing some old records indicating that the land belong to the Dominion several hundred years ago.

>How is the general region? Any forests nearby?
The region is called the Raynan coast and extends several thousand miles around southern peninsula. East lies the Raynan sea, west, the Dominion. To the north are more minor human kingdoms, but across the sea there are rumors of an empire. In your immediate surroundings there are hills, peatland and bog to the south that becomes swamp the deeper you go, a mountain range northwest, and a dense evergreen forests that extends north all way up its side.

>>3973432
>Send Jov, your Steward, to make overtures with your neighbors for friendly relations (DC: Easy-Challenging, -1 Influence)

>Request useful intelligence from your neighbors: maps, guides, old wive tales, anything of interest

>>3973432
>>Hold a large tournament, calling candidates from all around to compete for thanehood (-2 Influence, +1 Thane)
>Work on deciphering the mysterious letter

>>3973444
are our lands conected by border with the dominion? or are there other people between them and us?

how long does an elf live in the setting? what is our age and what is considered adulthood for elves?

how many times larger is the dominion compared to the lands we own, just for me to get a rough idea of how big is our parent country

>>3973449
>are our lands conected by border with the dominion? or are there other people between them and us?
They are not connected by border in the sense that there are several hundred miles of wilderness. The Dominion measures its border by the presence of a consignore, and the nearest one is three days journey away in Melaia.

>how long does an elf live in the setting? what is our age and what is considered adulthood for elves?

Elves are not immortal, let's just get that out of the way. They can live up to thousands of years, but most go crazy well before then and are forcibly turned to stone. The ancients are 500+ years old but most elves get stoned around 300. The concept of adulthood is a little wonky, in terms of sexual maturity/puberty this is reached at the usual age (13-16) but such elves are still considered children socially. It's around age 60 that they're supposed to start acting like adults (though elven equivalents of manchildren are a serious problem in the current era). Most elves get married by 80, elfettes around 60-70. You are currently pushing 78 so your sisters are understandably tapping their feet. 70-120 is considered the prime of an elf's life and by 200 he is expected to retire from public service and work on managing his estate, his family, and his hobbies. Past 250, he works exclusively on his own funeral song, the completion of which is swiftly followed by stoning.

>how many times larger is the dominion compared to the lands we own, just for me to get a rough idea of how big is our parent country

The way the Dominion holds territory is via the aforementioned consignores and teleportation arrays. The combined territory in that sense is maybe only 10-20 times the size of yours, but the land which is actually claimed and controlled is about 10 times that (so 200 times yours).

>>3973462
what season is our birthday? do elves celebrate every year or more by the decade since they live so long? or not at all?

it would be nice to make a big celebration when we turn 80 and invite some other elves to mingle with us. We'll just have to make sure things are at least presentable.

>>3973463
>what season is our birthday? do elves celebrate every year or more by the decade since they live so long? or not at all?

Males elves tend not to celebrate birthdays as much as females as its considered a feminine activity. Females like to celebrate every year (especially before they reach adulthood/get married) but the lower caste ones may only do it every other year or every leap year. Males will celebrate milestone birthdays, generally scheduling great changes in their life to coincide with that day, weddings, job promotions, etc. It's considered poor taste for a male to celebrate his birthday after the birth of his first child however, even for milestones.

>>3973462
>You are currently pushing 78 so your sisters are understandably tapping their feet.

Oh boy, how long until they start sending "visitors" or portraits and letters "by accident"

>>3973490
I think all of the above happend

>>3973443
+1

>>3973432

>Send out one of your thanes to explore for locations of interest (-1 Goods, -1 Thane this season)


>Work on deciphering the mysterious letter

Excellent quest OP, hope you stick with it. I just caught up.

>>3973432
>>Hold a large tournament, calling candidates from all around to compete for thanehood (-2 Influence, +1 Thane)
>>Drill the thaneguards in elven unit tactics

>>3973432
>>Hold a large tournament, calling candidates from all around to compete for thanehood (-2 Influence, +1 Thane)
>Drill the thaneguards in elven unit tactics

Looks like there's a tie for the general decree. I'm going to go with the exploration option for reasons stated here >>3973439 as you might end up waiting another year otherwise (and I'd like to have an opportunity to exhibit the exploration mechanics before we get any further).

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Jov takes over the day-to-day administration. As it is planting season you are free to fret over other things. Gifts for your sisters' birthday for instance. Since they were all born in the same month, they have graciously (i.e with respect to your father's coffers) agreed to celebrate all their birthdays on the same day. Your eldest sister has already passed the age when such celebrations are in poor taste, even for an elfette, but as she is still unmarried into her 90's and petulant by nature, she insists on being part of them anyway.

Inspired by the mysterious riddle-poem, you prepare the greatest gift an elf can receive on any occasion: a well-written set of verses in their honor. Though you are no archministrel, the family teachers had always claimed that you'd been gifted with Vartheon's poetic talent. Your father even urged you to go and study with the Gwaelon, but the vows of celibacy they must keep during the education turned you away. Imbuing some pleasant feelings through the specific combination of meter and rhyme is simple enough, however. In the process, you make some headway in deciphering the mysterious letter as well.

What you initially thought was thirteen scripts is actually sixteen. The last three are older variants of a bathosian orthography: same characters but entirely different phenomes. Once you've identified the languages at play, it is trivial to translate into plain sonorese--though it is a pity to do it as the languages were carefully selected for maximal aesthetic effect. Regardless the riddle goes as follows:

Taken by a love
And granted for a fortune
I can hurt when closed
And can receive when open
Some use me to steal
Others to conceal
Or to reveal
I can be held
Yet also can hold
Used when men cry
And when they say goodbye
What am I?


---

Soon after the planting is complete, another matter comes to your attention. Myrril Dasterian returns to collect the favor he had framed earlier. His glass eye winks with reflected light as he speaks, giving the impression of secret mischief. "House Vylan is plagued with cyclopean raiders, and overland trade and travel have become risky. My Lord Somir believes we've found a major stronghold of theirs and we are requesting martial aid to fight this growing menace."

You sit upon one of the high chairs in the main hall. Jov has conveniently brought in a long dining table to make a meeting hall for your private use. Paina feeds you some sucorberries from a tray, a little out of season so that they taste more tangy than sweet, but the seeds are easier to take out that way. "I trust I am not the only one being petitioned?"

The ambassador twirls his hand in front of him. "It is as you say, mondu. To others we have given gifts in exchange for their thanes, but as Albyran and the Vylan have close ties already--"

You spit out a seed onto the tray, glaring at Paina. "I thought told the kitchen to remove all the pits."

She bows deeply. "My sincerest apologies eminence, the blame rests entirely with me. Without the seeds, I felt the fruit would be too sour so I told them to leave them in for the really unripened ones." She looks down and fidgets. "Shall I be punished?"

You sigh. At this point you're starting to think she likes being punished. "No, but give me the ripe ones first."

"As you wish, eminence."

"My apologies, ambassador Dasterian, you were saying something about close ties?"

"Yes--"

"I hope you did not mistake your earlier gift as the establishing of anything permanent."

He stares at you for a second, clearing his voice into his hand and groping in his pocket for a handkerchief. Unable to find one he runs his forefinger across his forehead instead. "Nothing beyond friendly relations, of course, mondu."

"How many thanes do you need?"

"The Carlyttes have given six to the cause and the Velor four. One or two from the minor settlements. And Lord Frey has agreed to participate personally in the siege. We expect the siege to last a year at most, though we hope to break them during the harvest season when they are weakest."

"You still have not answered my question. I asked how many thanes you need, not how many others have given."

"Six should suffice I think, mondu. More of course, is welcome."

>Grant them the thanes (-6 thanes till Winter or Planting of next year)
>Offer half the thanes instead (-3 Thanes)
>Offer to participate in the siege yourself (no personal actions till Winter or Planting of next year)
>Give them the Hunter's horn, to call upon Rauk and his companions instead of your thanes
>Refuse to give them even a single thane, reneging on the favor owed (-5 Influence)

QM Note: You can either guess the answer to the riddle or spend another personal action solving it.

>>3974121
>Taken by a love
>And granted for a fortune
>I can hurt when closed
>And can receive when open
>Some use me to steal
>Others to conceal
>Or to reveal
>I can be held
>Yet also can hold
>Used when men cry
>And when they say goodbye
>What am I?
A Hand

>>3974126
>>Offer to participate in the siege yourself (no personal actions till Winter or Planting of next year)
Now we can meet Lord Frey in the flesh

>>3974126
The answer is hand

Question: how would the forces of Rauk conpare to six thanes in number and quality

And if we need them in the harvest to defend the town, how long would it take for them to arrive?

>>3974162
>>3974164
Guys you are voting to be away from the keep for an entire year and without the possibility of doing any personal actions, think this through, we have much to do before this place is stable enough for us to be away for so lobg

>>3974126

>Offer half the thanes instead (-3 Thanes)

He asked for 6 knowing we would give less. Send the captain with them

>>3974173
>Question: how would the forces of Rauk conpare to six thanes in number and quality
The six thanes include ~60 thaneguards as well, so in sheer numbers Rauk would be beat. However, remember that Rauk and his Hunters are specialized to fight against the spawn of the Silver Womb (of which Ogol and minions are one form) so in terms of actual strength/utility they are almost comparable.

>And if we need them in the harvest to defend the town, how long would it take for them to arrive?
They'd arrive within the season. If not Rauk himself, others in his stead.

>>3974126
>>3974184
Let's save Rauk for when we need to fight non-human things, using them to fight bandits seems pretty wasteful
>Offer half the thanes instead (-3 Thanes)

>>3974184
So if fighting them is what they do best I say we offer the horn then

>>3974189
>>3974184
But the horn seems to valuable so I'll change again

Send 3 along with the old man like mentioned before

OK consensus seems to be offer half. To clarify, will you:

>Accompany the thanes yourself
>Let Captain Grym lead the thanes
>Let the thanes go by themselves

>>3974126
>Offer half the thanes instead (-3 Thanes)
As an excuse tell him lands are in worse state than we anticipated

>>3974195
>Let Captain Grym lead the thanes

>>3974195
>Let the thanes go by themselves
We could go ourselves but then we waste a lot of time
We could send Grym but I expect foul play and we might not see him again
Send them alone we might loose them but at least we aren't loosing anyone important

>>3974195
>>Let Captain Grym lead the thanes
Send a letter of introduction to Lord Frey with the Captain

>>3974126
>Grant them the thanes (-6 thanes till Winter or Planting of next year)
We can't ruin our reputation, lets get more thanes from touraments during the year.

And heading off for whole year seems like bad idea, we have better things to do.

>>3974195
>Let the thanes go by themselves

>>3974195
>>Let the thanes go by themselves
We can't waste a whole year of our life, and it seems that everyone forgot that Grym hates House Vylan.

>>3974287
>>Let the thanes go by themselves
You've convinced me, supporting.

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Lending half your thanes seems in line with what the Captain told you before. It's possible this is all a trap. But having fought the cyclopeans yourself, and having seen what they are capable of, it's equally possible that the threat is legitimate. Especially if Lord Frey is involved--which you'll have to confirm before you make a decision--still, six thanes is too much. If nothing else, Captain Grym may take such a commitment of force as a breaking of your earlier promise.

"I offer three thanes."

Myrril smiles and bows his head. Perhaps he'd asked six knowing you'd give three. Well, you're happy to lend a hand if its to kill cyclopeans. You bolt up in your seat. Lend a hand. Taken by a love/ And granted for a fortune.

"Then I shall leave the instructions with your captain, mondu."

You wave him off, pinching your lower lip in thought. Do the other verses fit as well? Yes, they all do. You retire immediately to your chambers, telling Paina that no one is to disturb you unless it's an absolute emergency.

You should be able to return the letter via the corpsecrow which had carried the message here in the first place. It has been roosting in your aviary since the winter, restless to take wing. But how to return it? Verse should be met with verse of course, but to truly craft something worthy of the letter will take a whole season of labor.

Captain Grym storms your chambers later that night, while you are in the midst of drafting a first attempt.

"My liege, are we to serve House Vylan after all?" he says, bulging with veins. "Were your words to me only honey-glazed? Do we fear them after all?"

You sigh and touch your cheek. "Are you quite finished?"

"I just don't understand, my liege," he says helplessly.

"The benefits outweigh the risk, that's all. If Lord Frey is going then I have every confidence in this venture, and further: an opportunity to correspond with him. Cyclopeans are a problem for everyone and destroying one of their fortresses will be to our benefit as well-- even if indirectly. The men will get some experience in real battle, the keep will earn some spoils, and the Vylan debt will be repaid."

The Captain bows. "Forgive me, my liege, perhaps I had not thought it through. Still, when it comes to the Vylan, I cannot help but think of a snake in the grass. "

"Yes, yes. Now you wouldn't happen to know a three-syllable word for frost would you, preferably in sonorese?" He gives you a blank stare. "Never mind. Good night."

---

Near the end of the season, the thane you had sent off to explore the surrounding land returns with tidings. He's found shards of sturdite in the forests to the north and paw prints indicating the presence of a spiny raptid--akaroth, or "blade lizard" in sonorese. The sturdite is an excellent material for making arrow- and spearheads, because of its sharpness, hardness and light weight. Hunting the beast may prove dangerous however, as raptids are highly territorial and possess spiked tails that can cut through armor as easily as Enderwyrm teeth cuts through loam.

>Growing, 387 CE
>You have 4 Goods, 9 Influence, 2 Spells

General Decree:

>Continue the fortifying the village by building stakes to repel cavalry (-1 Goods , Stakes)
>Send out a hunting party to find the spiny raptid's lair (DC: Challenging-Difficult, -1 Goods, -2 Thanes this season)
>Hold a large tournament, calling candidates from all around to compete for thanehood (-2 Influence, +1 Thane)
>Establish a new codex of laws more in line with Silvan common law; less punitive, more remedial (-2 Influence)
>Send out some thanes to raid one of less friendly neighbors (DC: Challenging, -3 Thanes this season)
>Do nothing this season, conserve your resources
>Write-in

Personal Action:

>Scry your neighbors at the risk of being caught
>Sit in on some village meetings and arbitrate their disputes
>Work on returning the mysterious letter
>Write-in

>>3974317

>Continue the fortifying the village by building stakes to repel cavalry (-1 Goods , Stakes)
This is the last chance to fortify against the bandits.
They are all mounted so stakes are a must
And they are specially more needed since we will have less troops this year since we sent some away for the cyclopean problem


>Work on returning the mysterious letter
Let's be done with this so we can work on something else during harvest

>>3974317
>Continue the fortifying the village by building stakes to repel cavalry (-1 Goods , Stakes)
>Work on returning the mysterious letter

>>3974325
Supporting.

>>3974325
>>3974326
Agreed

>>3974317
>Send out a hunting party to find the spiny raptid's lair (DC: Challenging-Difficult, -1 Goods, -2 Thanes this season)

>Venture with hunting party you just have spell for it
We either kill lizard with lightning strike or something similar or if QM allows it we could tame it with magic?

>>3974337
>We either kill lizard with lightning strike or something similar or if QM allows it we could tame it with magic?
Yes, you still have two more spell slots (the first was used up for the healing spell) so either of these are possible. That latter would naturally be harder than the former, even with magic. And both would require your presence (i.e personal action for this season).

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With a quarter of your thanes and thaneguards away in the siege, it seems prudent to build additional fortifications. You have Grym supervise the construction of a perimeter of stakes. As for yourself, you cozy up in the keep, sipping herbal tea and experimenting with verse amid the sound of rain dripping down from the rafters. You make excellent progress and expect to be finished come Harvest.

A domestic incident ruins an otherwise peaceful season, one which requires your authority, as it concerns one of the thanes. Jov briefs you as you enter the main hall to take your seat upon the throne. Several people are kneeling before you. "It is thus noble master: this thane called Brythan is accused of seeding this demihuman, called Karia, but he is already married to this woman, Roza. It is thus: Brythan's seed does not take root in Roza, they are childless." Jov pauses and looks to the woman kneeling to the left of the thane, whose head lies solemnly bowed. The polymorph, already showing the first swellings of her fruit, is bowed prostate on the ground behind them. The thane is kneeling, but with his head and back held insolently straight. Jov's eyes mist over as he regards the woman, but furrow as soon as it passes over the thane.

"The law is thus: the thane has right over the child because the demihuman is his rightful property. The dispute runs thus: the woman, his wife, wishes to keep and raise the child for herself."

You rest your temple on your fingers. "And the polymorph?"

"The law is thus: she has no say in the matter."

In Elven common law, the children of slaves are born free. Of course, elves are not in the habit of engaging in beastiality nor would they, like humans, be able to seed any species except their own. "Though it is her own child, she has no say in the matter."

"The law is thus: it is not her child, but the child of the thane."

"Then speak, thane Brythan. What would you have me do with your child?"

"My lord, to see such a thing born would be a disgrace to me and my family name. i would have them put to death, or failing that, banished."

The polymorph's body, still prostate, rocks with sobs. Small tears fall from the wife's eyes. Jov leans into your ear to whisper, "The thanes are thus: that they may look unkindly upon a judgement which offends Brythan, who is popular among them."

"They'll perish from the journey in this weather."

"It is thus: noble master knows best."

"Pardon this lowly creature for speaking in your great hall, your eminence--" the polymorphs speaks in an a thin, anguished voice.

"Be silent!" roars the thane. "My apologizes lord, it will not speak again."

>Let the polymorph speak her mind, though it is against custom (Influence 9->8)
>The woman will raise the child with the polymorph, against the wishes of the thane (Influence 9->6)
>Banish the polymorph and her child and lend her the box carriage to take her safely to another village ( Influence 9->8)
>Have the polymorph put to death
>Write-in

>>3974317
>>Hold a large tournament, calling candidates from all around to compete for thanehood (-2 Influence, +1 Thane)
>Sit in on some village meetings and arbitrate their disputes

>>3974428
>>Have the polymorph put to death

>>3974428

>Let the polymorph speak her mind, though it is against custom (Influence 9->8)

I sense she will offer a different solution

>>3974428
>>Let the polymorph speak her mind, though it is against custom (Influence 9->8)


these barbarians laws are extremely shit compared to elven law

we should use this incident as an excuse to make those changes in the legal system we have been putting off

>>3974428
>Let the polymorph speak her mind, though it is against custom (Influence 9->8)

>>3974428
>>Let the polymorph speak her mind, though it is against custom (Influence 9->8)

>>3974428
I don't get it dude can't have children with current wife, he fuck polymorph makes her pregnant and his wife wants to raise that child as her own. He refuses wants polymorph and her child dead or banished... wtf?
>>3974445
Dude why?

>>3974505
It would be luke a southern plantation owner recognizing a child with a slave.

Of course this is not our concern because he was degenerate enough to not only be unfaithful but with a polymorth, and on top of that to not make sure no child could come of it. He is quite stupid if you ask me.

>>3974505
I'm thinking either second thoughts or he didn't mean to impregnate the demihuman.

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It's difficult to judge based on Silvan law. Although it is not unusual for randy elvettes to lay with human concubines (in part because they make far better bedmates than elfettes and in part because it does not need to be followed up with a hefty dowry), there would never be a case involving children. Furthermore, even concubines have the right to consenting intercourse. With slaves it's more tricky but laying with one's own slave is tantamount to social suicide anyway, the equivalent of declaring to the world ones own incompetence with the fairer sex.

Still, what passes for law among these monkeys needs to change at some point. Might as well start now.

"I would hear the polymorph speak."

The thane stands to his feet. "My lord! That is highly--"

"You dare raise your voice against me? And in the course of a judicial proceeding?" you say softly.

The thane pales, stutters and falls back into a kneeling position.

"Therefore: speak, polymorph, raise your head so that the noble master may hear you clearly," says Jov.

"Thank you, your eminence. This creature only wanted to add a few things which her master did not mention. This creature was a gift to the madam from her father, to serve as her personal attendant. She has known her since childhood, she wishes to tell her that she did not lay with...she did not lay with her master--"

"These are lies!" says the thane.

"Silence. Continue, polymorph."

"Her master took her by force. Many times. And swore her not to tell the madam. She did not wish to hurt her madam in any way, she wishes her to know this."

"She's lying my lord, these creatures will say anything--"

"My lord, if I may speak here," interjects the wife. "I believe her."

The thane turns to his wife, violence in his breath.

"If this creature may say one more thing, your eminence? She has had a vision of the child's birth, she has dreamt of a darkened sky beneath a red star."

The others have no reaction to this strange admission, but you sit up straight. A red star indicates a recreation of the Judicial god's defilement of the Silver Womb. It happens rarely. To be born beneath such a sign...it is significant of tremendous deeds to come--but whether for good or ill, you cannot say.

"It is thus, noble master: if the demihuman speaks true, then the wife has some claim to the child as well. And the thane has violated your laws."

>You have already decreed that abuse against polymorphs will be severely punished, not only must the thane lose claim over the child, he must be publicly flogged as an example to others (Influence 8->4)
>The woman will raise the child with the polymorph, against the wishes of the thane (Influence 8->5)
>Banish the polymorph and her child and lend her the box carriage to take her safely to another village ( Influence 8->7)
>Buy the slave and raise the godchild in your own keep (Goods 4->2, Influence 8->7)
>Have the polymorph put to death, it is too great a risk given these omens
>Write-in

>>3974574
>The woman will raise the child with the polymorph, against the wishes of the thane. Remind the thane of the flogging law and tell him you won't be so lenient next time. Also, decree that one of the three must update the court on anything unusual the child does; this could be a great or terrible thing.

>>3974574
>>The woman will raise the child with the polymorph, against the wishes of the thane (Influence 8->5)
Also we should definitely make law reform a priority after this

>>3974574

>Buy the slave and raise the godchild in your own keep (Goods 4->2, Influence 8->7)

Seems reasonable to me, harvest is coming up too and this indiscretion of the damn thane already cost us enought influence.

With the child at the keep we may influence that his gifts be put to good not to ruin too, I imagine that if it was to suffer the influence of the thane the child would have no other choice than to be a villain

>>3974574
>Buy the slave and raise the godchild in your own keep (Goods 4->2, Influence 8->7)

I would pick to flog that sack of shit but losing 4 Influence? OOF!

>>3974574

>Buy the slave and raise the godchild in your own keep (Goods 4->2, Influence 8->7)

Godchild get.
Make sure to let the thane's wife have free access to visit and be around both the polimorth and the child

>>3974603
Oh, and of course, the payment goes to the wife since the slave girl was s gift from her father

>Buy the slave and raise the godchild in your own keep (Goods 4->2, Influence 8->7)
Portents like that necessitate a close watch.

>>3974636
It won't change much.
wait...
>>3974574
QM could we heal infertility with our healing spell?

>>3974674
It'd require some magical research, as it's not a common occurrence among the elves, but it's certainly doable.

>>3974704
It would be weird to do it for peasant anyway

>>3974574
>>You have already decreed that abuse against polymorphs will be severely punished, not only must the thane lose claim over the child, he must be publicly flogged as an example to others (Influence 8->4)
The law is clear

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You were leaning toward banishment (with a proper escort) before the revelation of the omen. Now you can only consider two options: killing the child or raising him under your close supervision. The last person to be born under the red star founded the human empire that lies across the sea, of which House Vylan is only a minor part. Before that was the elven archmagis, Zastan, who fought with Dominus Morthil two hundred years ago for the throne, nearly laying waste to the entire Dominion. The official histories say he was slain in the final battle, but according to your former master, Magis Siliania, he escaped--wounded, but very much alive. She also spoke his name with something she seldom, if ever, displayed before: fear.

The portent could merely be a dream of course, and part of you hopes that it is, but if it is not, then the silver you must pay for a genuine godchild is a small price indeed.

>Goods 4->2
>Influence 8->7

As a bonus, your decision delights all the parties involved, except perhaps the wife who remains childless. The polymorph gets to raise her baby in peace and the thane gets to bury his shame with discretion and even profit from it. You reprimand him for violating the law you set down, threatening less leniency the next time, but he seems to little heed your words. Although you tell the wife she is welcome to visit the child and the polymorph whenever she wishes, you both know that her husband will never allow such a thing.

>Harvest, 387 CE
>You have 2 Goods, 7 Influence, 2 Spells

General Decree:

>Send Jov to establish a permanent trade route with a neighbor (DC: Trivial-Easy, -1 Influence, +1-6 Goods)
>Hold a large tournament, calling candidates from all around to compete for thanehood (-1 Influence, +1 Thane)
>>Send out a hunting party to find the spiny raptid's lair (DC: Challenging, -1 Goods, -2 Thanes this season)
>Establish a new codex of laws more in line with Silvan common law; less punitive, more remedial (-2 Influence)
>Send out some thanes to raid one of less friendly neighbors (DC: Easy, -3 Thanes this season)
>Do nothing this season, conserve your resources
>Write-in

Personal Action:

>Send word for a court wizard to help with magical research
>Drill the thaneguards in elven unit tactics
>Request astrological information from the Dominion regarding the red star
>Write-in

>>3974924
>>Establish a new codex of laws more in line with Silvan common law; less punitive, more remedial (-2 Influence)
>Drill the thaneguards in elven unit tactics
I'd say we get some training in in case the bandits come again

>>3974924
>Send Jov to establish a permanent trade route with a neighbor (DC: Trivial-Easy, -1 Influence, +1-6 Goods)
>Request astrological information from the Dominion regarding the red star

this kid could be a trump card if we're ever on our last legs. our secret project

>>3974928
Switching to this, but keep the idea of the kid being a secret project in mind.
>>3974924

>>3974924
>Establish a new codex of laws more in line with Silvan common law; less punitive, more remedial (-2 Influence)

>Send word for a court wizard to help with magical research
And again if we can spend influence to get someone better

>>3974928
+1

>>3974924
>>Send Jov to establish a permanent trade route with a neighbor (DC: Trivial-Easy, -1 Influence, +1-6 Goods)

we are almost broke

>Drill the thaneguards in elven unit tactics

>>3974928
+1

>>3974924
I don't know if this counts as an action but I have a simple question to Paina our personal aid

What is the story of the polymorphs in the region, I understand they are all slave and treated rather harshly, are they all the product of rape and indiscretion with slaves? has there ever been such a thing as free polymorph around?

I ask because we just saved the Polymorph Messiah, and based on the way the creatures are treated by the law of this land I imagine this kid will have a thing or two to say to the human empire that enforces those laws

>>3974924
>>Hold a large tournament, calling candidates from all around to compete for thanehood (-1 Influence, +1 Thane)
>Drill the thaneguards in elven unit tactics

>>3966654
>go to the nearest orc or human settlement, bend over, and do the only thing elves are good for

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To avoid such annoying disputes in the future, you pass a series of legal reforms that shift the codex to be more inline with Silvan common law. You cannot stop the monkeys from laying with polymorphs, but you can ensure that any offspring born out of such a union is free of their parent's bondage. You also add clauses allowing polymorphs to purchase their own freedom, to have marriages which are protected by law, and to have the right to a legal defense when accused of a crime.

Such sweeping changes to the status quo wins you no favors with the thanes, nor even the peasants. But to the polymorphs--who make up more than half your population--you are a godsend. Rarely can you go to the village now, before your palanquin is mobbed by admirers, wishing to touch your hands or feet, to see your face, to hear you say a word. Such worship is perfectly natural from a lesser race, of course, but the humans in Albyran are displeased by your apparent favoritism. They can hardly complain for all you've done for them already, but for such short lives they seem to have even shorter memories.

>Influence 7->5

As the peasants are busy with the harvest you refrain from any additional constructions, focusing instead on training the thaneguards in elven unit tactics. The humans are used to fighting in rank and file and strategies operate the level of the entire army, focusing more on brute force and a decisive exchange. The thanes are completely subordinate to their commander, dependent on them for both intelligence and order. But though Grym is a skilled combatant and tactician, even he cannot equal the collective intelligence and creativity of his individual thanes.

Elven tactics, which are instead focused on coordination, maneuvering and force concentration, and which depend not on the genius of one individual but the multifarious talents of many, should grant your army a flexibility and responsiveness thus far unknown to human warfare. That is if you can get the thanes to actually practice the drills. The thaneguards and some of the younger thanes are eager enough but the older thanes adamantly refuse to abandon tradition. It is thane Brythan who eventually convinces them to your cause, perhaps out of gratitude for your discretion in his earlier dispute.

The harvest goes unharrassed this season. But another matter requires your attention. Baron Veil Velor wants your support in a dispute with House Vylan. They ask nothing from you at present except your word, that you will stand with them when Vylan holds council.

"Tell me of the dispute," you say, seated upon your throne.

The representative shifts uncomfortably on his feet. A strand of curled hair hangs down his face, separating his narrow eyes. "A matter of marriage, I'm afraid. Heated tempers. Last year Baron Velor captured a group of Viragoth warrior-women from a terrible and costly battle. House Vylan were interested in ransoming the women to serve as wives for his thanes. A steep ransom. However, the women were not as interested in being domesticated. And the Baron's own son fell in love with one of them. He helped them escape and ran away with them. Now Lord Somir demands that we repay him double the ransom, as reparation--or else capture the women again."

You look to Jov. "What says the law?"

"The law is thus: House Vylan is owed only what silver was given."

"Which we have offered," says the representative. "But it has been refused and returned with threats. We know that Albyran has always been friendly with the Vylan so we expect your support will convince them to drop the matter."

"And in exchange?"

He nods. "Our gratitude." He snaps his fingers and a serving boy approaches with a small chest of jewelry: bangles, anklets, earrings, armbands of gold and silver and pearl. Your coffers have been feeling a little empty lately. And no elf is immune to the sacred allure of gold.

"There is a question: what if the negotiations should fail, even with our support?" says Jov.

The representative pulls on the strand of hair. "We expect your word to be as good as your bond. Furthermore, should you find the women yourself or manage to capture them, we expect you will do the right thing."

>Agree to the terms, it's a lot of gold for very little work (Goods 6->8)
>Offer to send out a search party for the women instead (-2 Thanes next season)
>Ask for more, the risks are great if they fail (Goods 6->9, Velor owes you a favor)
>Refuse the terms, you have no wish to get involved with this dispute (Influence 5->4)
>Write-in

>>3975915
>>Ask for more, the risks are great if they fail (Goods 6->9, Velor owes you a favor)

>>3975196
>What is the story of the polymorphs in the region, I understand they are all slave and treated rather harshly, are they all the product of rape and indiscretion with slaves? has there ever been such a thing as free polymorph around?

It was mentioned before that the polymorphs are the offspring of nymph and human co-mingling. Other than creatures with shapeshifting abilities like Dreq and Enderwyrms, humans are the only race that can procreate with any other race. Elven records indicate that the polymorphs and humans coexisted once upon a time (though both races will deny this) until some calamitous event led to a schism. In human dominated lands polymorphs are second class citizens at best. Vice versa for places where polymorph rule. The closest polymorphs can get to total freedom outside of their own lands is in the Dominion, where they generally occupy the same social strata as other non-elves. Elves tend not to care about the social mobility of non-elves anyway, since non-elves don't live as long. Consequently while there's occasionally a polymorph or human that can rise to the level of councilor, the other elves barely acknowledge him.