Feudal Quest

[Seventeen]

Do not say this. I shouldn't need to point out how badly this will piss her off.

Click to shrink...

If you don't want it to happen then suggest something else and get more votes. It's literally how the quest works, you don't get to veto other suggestions.

 

[Arkeus]

...Am i the only one getting the impression that Atalya Bartok is the one using some kind of mind control on people around her? After all, not only is her talk of 'shutting her down" each time the witch tried something very suspect, but she ALSO made sure to learn where the witch was in order to kill her as fast as possible. Wouldn't surprise me if it was because she was worried she knew too much.

We are the lord of the land where we are right?

As such:
X"I am the lord of these lands, and the death of a Baron's son is grave indeed. Give me every information you have and i'll make sure you are appropriately rewarded." If Atalya is the one responsible for this mess we'll make sure she is disposed of, and if not she'll be given half the reward. It's better to get the sorceress in our employ though, as not only does this sorceress know her earth sorcery she also probably knows way to boost sorcery with wizardry, and as such would be a great ally especially for a magic build like us. We might need to dome expensive gymnastic to get her and she might be costly in political coin to get, but worth it.

EDIT:

Once again we have a solid majority plan:
Dita
[X]Training: Light Sorcery Level (2/4)
[X] Adventure: The Foreign Sorceress
- Accompany Dominic

Click to shrink...

Well, Dita is with us, and she can see magic iirc. Once we are far enough from Atalya make sure it is so, and ask her if she has any protections from mind magic. If so, she will be invaluable if either Atalya or the Earth Sorceress are trying to whammy us.

 

[fitzgerald]

[X] Plan Arkeus

Since straight forward gutting this witch isnt the brighteet move

 

[Malcolmo]

[X] Plan Arkeus

 

[drake_azathoth]

[X] Plan Arkeus

 

[ShaperV]

The Foreign Sorceress, Pt II

You lean back in your chair and consider the woman. She doesn't seem nearly as obnoxious as the rumors paint her, and it could be useful having a local expert on magic to consult with.

But you don't trust her. Her story, her attitude, the way she hints about her own magic without saying anything definite about it - something seems off here. It might be nothing. But it might not be, and you're not going to take chances.

"I'd say you're thinking too small," you answer.

"The death of a baron's son is a serious matter, and I intend to see justice done," you go on. "But as your lord I have many other concerns as well, and the future always brings more problems. Often those problems are best handled with… unconventional solutions. If you can provide valuable assistance here rest assured that you will be appropriately rewarded, now and in the future."

"Oh? Making a test of it are we, young lord?"

You shrug. "The world is full of charlatans, Ms. Bartok. I need to see what you're worth before I can negotiate anything serious."

She cackles. "Aren't you a sharp one! Alright, young lord. You just wait here a moment."

She returns in a few minutes with an odd little object. A stick with a bit of twine wrapped around it, and a small twig of darker wood suspended from the twine. She holds it out, and the twig wobbles about for a moment before spinning to point south.

"See how that works?" She says proudly. "Points right at her little cave, no matter where you are. You can follow it right to the little bitch."

Perfect. Now you can get out of here.

You met up with Dita just outside of town. The girl is still nervous about being seen by anyone who might talk about her presence, and wasn't about to walk up to a possible witch's house. But she seems happy enough sitting in a tree holding a conversation with a small flock of birds…

You sigh. "Dita, that's going to attract a lot more attention than just walking into town would."

"Hmm? Oh, hi Dominic!" She tips backwards of the branch, and your stomach clenches. It's a ten foot drop to the ground, she's liable to break something-

But she does a casual backwards somersault on the way down, and lands lightly in front of you as if the fall was nothing. Yeah, no wonder the priests keep trying to exorcise her.

"Girl, you're going to give me a heart attack at this rate."

"What?" She looks up at you in confusion. "What did I do?"

"Never mind," you sigh. "Look, Atalaya gave me something to find this sorceress. Can you see what kind of magic it is?"

"Ew." Dita steps back from the dowsing charm. "That's a nasty looking thing. There's a little air spirit trapped in it, but what a mean way to do it. It's like the poor thing is impaled on spikes."

You frown. Is that witchcraft, or just a brutal flavor of wizardry? From the little you know it could be either.

"Oh, there's something on you too," Dita goes on. "Little wisps of something black and smelly. I don't think its a spell, just residue from being exposed to a lot of the stuff. Hey, let me try something."

She suddenly lights up with a bright golden glow, and hugs you. Your armsmen stare at her in surprise for a moment, and then studiously look away. You freeze, carefully keeping your hands at your sides.

"Dita, what are you doing?"

She steps back with a grin, and looks you up and down. "It worked! My light blew away the residue. That's neat, I wasn't sure it would work."

"I suppose that's good to know," you allow. "But lets avoid glowing hugs in public from now on, alright?"

"Oops." At least she has the good grace to look embarrassed this time.

The dowsing charm leads you south, although you wisely detour around Black Best Wood instead of trying to go through. The weather is cold and crisp, but most of the snow has melted by now and you make good time.

Dita takes to traveling outdoors like a duck to water, and proves invaluable as a scout. The girl can run like a gazelle, but has the endurance of a wolf and the enthusiasm of a kid with a new toy. Get her some woodscraft training and she could make an amazing ranger. But knowing she isn't all that tough in a fight you reign in her enthusiasm, and prevail on her to keep relatively close to the group instead of wandering all over the area.

Four days later you find yourself somewhere near the source of the Lim, trudging through the wooded foothills of a mountainous region that stretches south all the way to Kolarovo. Judging from the charm's behavior you're getting close to the lair of the sorceress. You have three experienced men at arms with you as backup, as well as Dita's magic. Speaking of which…

"Dita, do you have any resistance to mind magic?"

Dita frowns thoughtfully. "Maybe? I think it depends on how it works. I have a vague impression that the goddess left me some kind of resistance to being possessed or tainted with black magic, so something like a vampire's gaze probably wouldn't affect me. But if it's more of a sexy girl enthralling you with her hotness kind of thing I.. um… well, don't count on me to save you."

"Really?" You raise an eyebrow. "Doesn't that kind of thing usually only work on men?"

She blushes faintly, and looks away. "Usually."

The penny drops.

You clear your throat. "Ahem. Well, I'll keep that in mind."

So, how are you going to handle this? Go in alone, so the sorceress doesn't think you've come to arrest her? Send Dita in first for a little girl-to-girl reassurance? Bring your whole group up to the cave as a show of force? Or something else?

 

[Malcolmo]

You know, for someone who tells us to remain innocent Dita's not exactly very worldly herself.

 

[Thomasfoolery]

[X]Enter with yourself and Dita

We both have decent willpower, and it can be easier to see someone else getting whammied to alert you to the possibility of it rather than recognizing it happening to yourself. Also If we go in with Dita it will likely make her feel better about her possible employment prospects.

 

[Malcolmo]

[X]Enter with yourself and Dita

 

[fitzgerald]

[X] Enter with yourself and Dita
[X] Calmly announce that you are just here to talk

 

[fitzgerald]

Oh and ShaperV I'm suddenly seeing Dita as a Disney Princess. Congrats the little touches are just hilarious

 

[Graig]

[X]Enter with yourself and Dita

By the way how much do we trust the men-at-arms accompanying us with keeping these blatant displays of magic secret?

 

[drake_azathoth]

[X]Enter with yourself and Dita

We were already given a little idea of how things work with displays of magic and the church earlier. As a noble, we have a lot less to worry about, but we probably want to keep things low-key just in case.

 

[ShaperV]

You know, for someone who tells us to remain innocent Dita's not exactly very worldly herself.

Click to shrink...

Heh. No, she isn't nearly as worldly and cynical as she thinks she is.

Oh and ShaperV I'm suddenly seeing Dita as a Disney Princess. Congrats the little touches are just hilarious

Click to shrink...

Good, that's what I was going for.

By the way how much do we trust the men-at-arms accompanying us with keeping these blatant displays of magic secret?

Click to shrink...

Not at all, but the cat is already out of the bag. For some reason Dita has a lot of trouble remembering to act normal, so most of the castle staff have seen that sort of thing at least once by now.

-----

Working on the next update, should be posted tomorrow.

 

[ShaperV]

Not wanting to spook the fugitive sorceress you leave your men at arms camped well back from the cave, and approach on foot with only Dita as a companion

As you reach the cave mouth a female voice echoes out of the dark tunnel. "Stay out!"

"We don't mean you-" you being.

"Go away! I'm not hurting anyone! Why won't you stupid witch hunters leave me alone?"

"I can't answer if you keep shouting," you observe mildly.

"...sorry."

"We're not witch hunters, Kat," Dita puts in. "Look."

She lights up with her usual golden glow, and gingerly takes a step into the cave mouth. You see a flash of movement in the darkness. A human shape backing out of the light?

"See?" Dita calls. "Would that backwoods baron work with someone who has magic?"

"What about him?"

You hold out your hand, and conjure a candle-flame on one fingertip. "Also not a witch hunter. I just want to talk with you, miss. May we come in?"

There's a long pause.

"Fine. But if you attack me you won't like what happens."

The 'cave' turns out to me more like a tunnel, leading thirty feet or so into the hillside before making an abrupt turn and opening out into a small room. The construction is all smooth, flat stone, with a tile floor and mosaics inlaid in the walls. A stone fireplace with a chimney provides heat and light, although the pile of wood stacked neatly next to it is rather small.

A raised stone platform covered with moss and leaves apparently serves as a bed, and there are a couple of other stones shaped into a small table and chair. But aside from stonework the possessions in the room are pretty damned meager. A tattered blanket, a few wooden utensils, a worn-looking hatchet, and a dented tin pot seems to be the sum of her worldly goods.

You find the sorceress waiting in the dim light beside the fire:



You try not to stare, but good god. You might have seen a woman who can match her looks once or twice, but never dressed like that.

She nods warily. "Alright, strangers. I'm Katinka Nevyana, Seeker of Distant Truths. Who are you, and what do you want with me?"

Oh, right, talking. What were you doing here again?

"Ahem. Yes, I'm Dominic Petran, the new Lord of Corzu. This is my cousin Lady Dita Petran, Heiress Verzi. We're here because I heard about your altercation with Atalaya Bartok, and I was hoping to get to the truth of what happened."

"Oh! That bitch! Is she still telling stories about me? I can't believe the nerve of her!"

"So you didn't enchant anyone?" You probe, watching her reactions.

Her eyes flash. "Bast's tits, do I look like I need magic to get a bunch of old farmers to pay attention to me? All I did was smile and bounce a little. She's the one who came stomping in with her creepy swarm of bound spirits and terrified the village council into submission. Stupid me, I thought she was just feeling threatened and tried to reason with her. Then she has them tie me up and drag me back to her house, so she can try to steal my power."

"Ah. And her house?"

"When her quick-and-dirty necromancy couldn't penetrate my wards she started summoning her master. I… well, I'm no battle mage, but I have a few last-ditch tricks up my sleeve for getting out of bad spots. Fortunately one of them worked, or there's no telling what they would have done with me."

"I couldn't tell if she'd finished her summoning before the house collapsed, so I ran instead of confronting her. I've been hiding out here ever since, waiting for the heat to die down."

"I'm surprised you're still in the country," you observe. "You seem resourceful enough to find some way back to Egypt."

She sighs. "I… don't really have a home to go back to. Dad never mentioned any relatives, and mom… well, that definitely wouldn't work out. I grew up on the road, wandering all over Europe visiting strange people and looking for wonders. I suppose I thought I'd carry on alone when dad died, but that hasn't worked out very well."

"Britannia would probably be a better place for me, since I get along with faerie folk pretty well. But that's a long walk that I'm not equipped for, and there's no way I'd make it unarmed. Maybe if Baron Timis hadn't stolen my father's effects. At least then I wouldn't look like a vagabond, and I could try to pull the mysterious woman of magic routine."

Hmm. If you're going to make her an offer, this would be a good time to do it.

-----

Well, it looks like you need to decide who to believe. Choose an option:

[ ] Obviously Kat is lying. Figure out a way to capture her for that reward.
[ ] This requires more investigation. (Specify details)
[ ] Obviously Atalaya is lying. Make Kat a job offer, and then start planning how to take out the witch.
[ ] There's nothing to gain from getting in between two feuding sorceresses. Stay out of it.
[ ] Write-In

If you do decide to hire Kat, what kind of offer do you make?
[ ] Hire her short-term to help with the haunts.
[ ] Hire her short-term to do some construction with that earth magic.
[ ] Offer her a permanent position as your court mage
- With bonus pay if she'll add mistress to the job description
[ ] Marry those boobs - um, I mean, that girl!

 

[Silversun17]

[X] Dita noticed darkness clinging Atalaya so Kat's claims of the witch using dark magic to try and steal her power make sense.
-[X] Propose that she demonstrate some of her magics in helping repair our castle, she will be paid for it of course, and if she does well we will offer to her a position as our court mage.

 

[DarkLight140]

[X] One of them is lying- probably Atalaya- but we have our own objectives and no real interest in taking sides in their sorceress' squabbles. Our real concern here is figuring out how to get both of them following our orders.

[X] Offer her a permanent position as your court mage
-[X] "But you have to stop dressing like a harlot."

Then we follow up with giving a substantial but way less than the bounty payment to the witch, make it clear to both of them that we are the lord here and if they use magic against each other or random civilians without our say-so then we will be expressing our displeasure via large numbers of men with swords, and we all move on with our lives.

On Atalaya lying to us: It's annoying. But she's got a standing grudge and doesn't quite grasp how things are yet, so she can be forgiven... once. It's much like we're hiring those poachers instead of having them all executed: We're her lord now, and that means she and her witcheries are by rights at our disposal. She can be paid well for it, like anyone else with a particularly valuable skillset to offer, of course.

There are potential weaknesses to this approach, mostly in that the women in question are likely difficult to please and enjoy bickering with one another, but if we can't recruit valuable retainers who are desperate for protection and resources, get our subjects to do what we say, and stop them all from slaughtering one another under our very nose, what kind of shitty lord are we?

 

[fitzgerald]

[X] Dita noticed darkness clinging Atalaya so Kat's claims of the witch using dark magic to try and steal her power make sense.
-[X] Propose that she demonstrate some of her magics in helping repair our castle, she will be paid for it of course, and if she does well we will offer to her a position as our court mage.

[X] When the subject comes up make it clear that Dominic wouldnt say no, keeping a potent earth mage around is of greater benefit than another mistress.
-> Besides getting married for politics is likely

 

[megrisvernin]

[X] One of them is lying- probably Atalaya- but we have our own objectives and no real interest in taking sides in their sorceress' squabbles. Our real concern here is figuring out how to get both of them following our orders.

-[X] Propose that she demonstrate some of her magics in helping repair our castle, she will be paid for it of course, and if she does well we will offer to her a position as our court mage.

 

[Arkeus]

[X]DarkLight140

 

[Robotninja]

Dude. They hate each other and the witch is not trustworthy IMO. Being greedy with someone who skirts the edge of dark magic strikes me as a good way to get burned, guys.

 

[Graig]

If her accusation about the witch having a master that she was trying to summon is true, this situation could be very dangerous. If that is true then Atalaya and/or her master might decide to strike first against us if she finds out that we recruited the sorceres.

We should ask her if she can think of some way to prove her accusation.

 

[Thomasfoolery]

I feel like Darklight has a decent plan on how to handle this, straight up hiring her on permanently I'm a bit iffy on but it will probably give her a bit of peace of mind, and if things really don't work out we can still give her the boot so it's probably fine.

I do think that after hiring her we need her on record as helping us handle one of the haunts (The tower and the well sound like decent prospects considering her ability set) as soon as reasonably possible though, both to justify to anyone why we're protecting her ("I wanted cheaper building costs" doesn't really fly as well to the priests/witchhunters as "She helps me destroy Evil!") and because we could use some good credit ourselves considering our actions thus far.

If possible we should also get her side of the story about the issue with the baron and his son, for example she's mentioned he stole her father's items, along with the other issues already brought up it seems like a decent start to justify not turning her over, but more would be better.

She also mentioned witchhunters, if she's killed a bunch of church sanctioned folk since running out on the lamb that would be a real issue we need to find out about.

 

[uju32]

Um.
Isn't necromancy evil in this place?
If Atalya is actually using necromancy, that's an active danger to you and yours, as well as something that your enemies(and you will have some) can use to smear you.
I really don't think you can afford to ignore it.

 

[Walkir]

[X] Fitzgerald

It's clear from the IC that Dominic wouldn't say no, but I doubt he would be crass enough to say out loud that it's a business transaction. Everyone knows it is one, but there's no need to make it explicit.

Edit: Interesting BBCode...

 

[fitzgerald]

And tied damn it

Anyone willing to take Kats side if I swap to hiring Kat permently?

 

[Marthis]

[X] Dita noticed darkness clinging Atalaya so Kat's claims of the witch using dark magic to try and steal her power make sense.
-[X] Propose that she demonstrate some of her magics in helping repair our castle, she will be paid for it of course, and if she does well we will offer to her a position as our court mage.

[X] When the subject comes up make it clear that Dominic wouldnt say no, keeping a potent earth mage around is of greater benefit than another mistress.
-> Besides getting married for politics is likely

 

[ShaperV]

Well, this is a close vote. It's going to make a big difference which way you go, so I'm going to leave voting open a bit longer and see if a stronger consensus develops.

To clarify a few points:
1) Not only is necromancy illegal, it's one of the few things so illegal they'll actually execute a noble for it. But it also tends to be hard to prove, since very few people can see magic and none of them are witch hunters. Usually witches only burn for it if they get caught with a zombie or something equally obvious.

2) Demon summoning is equally illegal. That's what Kat thinks Atalaya was summoning, but she can't prove it.

3) You aren't stuck with Dominic being a horndog. He's 18, so he's going to be easily impressed by hot chicks, but if a majority of the players vote for something like 'keep our relationship with Kat professional even if she makes a pass at us' he'll keep his impulses in check.

4) You suspect that Kat is fairly desperate, so she'll probably be eager to jump on any reasonable deal you want to offer. Although, as an interesting side note, court mages are so rare that there really isn't any such thing as a standard pay scale for them. So you'll need to decide what you think she's worth to you at some point, and the answer could be just about anything.

 

[Thomasfoolery]

Alright it's sounding like my desire to leave this on the back burner until all the haunts are dealt with is somewhat ill-conceived, so since on balance I feel Kat has the stronger case, as well as being more useful, I'll vote for a more aggressive strategy.

[X] Obviously Atalaya is lying. Make Kat a job offer, and then start planning how to take out the witch.

Everyone hates her already so killing her even if we can't produce foolproof evidence should be alright, plus we have some advantages over standard witchhunters in sniffing that sort of thing out. We'll probably want to handle this soon though or who knows what she'll get up to in preparation.

[X] Offer her a permanent position as your court mage
-Keep the relationship professional

Might as well take her on full time with this course of action, as for pay, nothing to extravagant since we're taking a pretty hefty cost in other ways for hiring her, as well as giving her living accommodations a goodly step up from a cave in the wilderness. We shouldn't accept her as a mistress both because we already have two and there are only so many hours in the day, and it would be very awkward after we get married, as she's too useful to send away so we'd be stuck with an undesirable situation.

 

[drake_azathoth]

[X] Obviously Atalaya is lying. Make Kat a job offer, and then start planning how to take out the witch.

Everyone hates her already so killing her even if we can't produce foolproof evidence should be alright, plus we have some advantages over standard witchhunters in sniffing that sort of thing out. We'll probably want to handle this soon though or who knows what she'll get up to in preparation.

[X] Offer her a permanent position as your court mage
-Keep the relationship professional