Feudal Quest

[staplesdex2]

[X] +1 Charm - Who needs magic when you've got a silver tongue?

 

[DarkLight140]

[X] +1 Charm - Who needs magic when you've got a silver tongue?

The pitch for this is pretty simple: While all other stats are incredibly useful, in the end a lord is a leader above all else. It's his job to get others to work for him, and to convince other leaders to see things his way. If we need something killed, magicked up, or designed, we can hire warriors, mages, and scholars. But it's a poor lord that has to have someone else do his talking for him, and anything truly important will be something that we're expected to speak on our own behalf for. Audiences with our superiors, negotiations with our peers, persuading our lessers to work for us and do so well- these things are abosolutely key, and they all come down to being able to personally speak well.

Virtually every turn for the rest of our life, we'll take at least one action where a high Charm will be of benefit to us. It's a stat that will see constant, intensive use. It's the one we need.

 

[Thomasfoolery]

I'm working on a preliminary orders list but have a few questions for ShaperV.

Do we need to assign someone to collect the taxes?

Can Kat only offer assistance to a project or can she be the only one tasked to it for a turn (I.E. can we have her clear the grounds around the keep or would we need some peasants on the job as well?)

Also is her engineering one score high enough for her to direct things like putting up a granary or repairing the keep, or do we still need a dedicated engineer to act as the project head for that sort of thing?

Finally what sort of benefits to we get from Sir Ditrik's fealty, is it pretty much just "call him up when a war is on." or are there any other perks?

 

[Malcolmo]

[X] +1 Soul - Magic is the solution to your problems!

 

[Seventeen]

[X] +1 Charm

 

[Jack Trade]

[X] +1 Charm

 

[drake_azathoth]

[X] +1 Soul - Magic is the solution to your problems!

 

[ShaperV]

It looks like the vote is split between +1 Soul and +1 Charm, so if you haven't weighed in yet you may want to do so.

Some comments on the implications of each choice:

Soul - You already have enough of this to be a decent mage, so raising it further only makes sense if you want to eventually become a legendary wizard. In the short term there's not much payoff, because you don't know any magic that strains your abilities. But if you keep putting an action or two into research every turn you'll eventually reach the limits of what can be done with your level of ability, and raising Soul increases those limits considerably. For instance, a wizard with Soul 3 might be able to summon a fire elemental to fight for him, while a Soul 4 wizard might have half a dozen creatures of that level on call.

Charm - You already have enough of this to be a decent leader, so buying more indicates a desire to be an epic general or statesman. This will have a substantial immediate payoff - Charm 4 means you can walk into a room full of bickering strangers and immediately have them all take you seriously, and it gives a substantial buff to all social skills. Put some training time into social skills to compliment this and you can build a character who easily collects allies, inspires loyalty and sways enemies to his side.

I'm working on a preliminary orders list but have a few questions for ShaperV.

Do we need to assign someone to collect the taxes?

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Yes. Someone has to travel to every settlement in Corzu collecting the money and recording the payments, which is quite a bit of work. They'll also be carrying hundreds of SP in cash around with them during the trip, so they'd better be trustworthy and escorted by enough guards to discourage bandits. This is probably a job for Traian, although Dita or Bialis could also do it.

Can Kat only offer assistance to a project or can she be the only one tasked to it for a turn (I.E. can we have her clear the grounds around the keep or would we need some peasants on the job as well?)

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Kat needs a conventional crew of workers for most projects - she can do the stonework, but you generally also need people to do a lot of carpentry and haul materials around. When building stone structures Kat can do about 80% of the work, so only 20% needs to be paid for normally.

Clearing ground is mostly a matter of cutting down underbrush and hauling it away, so Kat isn't very efficient at that. You're better off using the labor tax for that job.

Also is her engineering one score high enough for her to direct things like putting up a granary or repairing the keep, or do we still need a dedicated engineer to act as the project head for that sort of thing?

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Mind 2 + Engineering 1 = 3, and an experienced professional in any field would have a 4. So she's competent but a little inexperienced - she can get the job done, but has a higher risk of delays or mistakes.

Finally what sort of benefits to we get from Sir Ditrik's fealty, is it pretty much just "call him up when a war is on." or are there any other perks?

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As your vassal he owes you 90 days per year of personal service. Normally this would be spent leading your troops on patrols, commanding part of the garrison at your keep, or other jobs along those lines. Technically he has the option of paying scutage (i.e. enough money for you to hire a knight to stand in for him), but he probably doesn't have that much cash on hand.

In time of war you can call him up to fight for you, but if the fighting lasts more than 90 days you have to start paying the upkeep costs for him and his men.

You can also negotiate other duties with him. For example, you could put him in charge of keeping a stretch of forest clear of beastmen in exchange for giving him hunting rights there.

 

[staplesdex2]

Do we have the option of interacting with the characters on retainer? By this I mean talking with them to gleam any information or just deepening any relationship we have with them?

 

[ShaperV]

Do we have the option of interacting with the characters on retainer? By this I mean talking with them to gleam any information or just deepening any relationship we have with them?

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Yes. Asking questions or having a conversation with anyone in the same location as Dominic is a free action. You can also put things like 'befriend X' or 'work on getting closer to Y' in as minor actions. If you decide to start focusing on that kind of thing I'll probably introduce a game mechanic for keeping track of the results.

 

[Tetsurō]

[x] +1 Charm

 

[staplesdex2]

Yes. Asking questions or having a conversation with anyone in the same location as Dominic is a free action. You can also put things like 'befriend X' or 'work on getting closer to Y' in as minor actions. If you decide to start focusing on that kind of thing I'll probably introduce a game mechanic for keeping track of the results.

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That's nice. I wanted to have the option of deepening the relationship with Katiana.

 

[Thomasfoolery]

I've been kinda swayed by charm I'll admit, still prefer body but I wouldn't mind at all if charm won. Anyway here's an orders list up for discussion, irritatingly it still doesn't start actually heading out and kicking ass, but it felt like a real waste to send out the rangers when they were one turn away from their upgrade, it also gives the opportunity for us to study healing magic before things kick off so as to hopefully limit our losses, so I felt the delay was worth it.

Dominic
Major actions
1) Travel to castle Pisch meet with Lala
2) Walk the border with Chesna and Ezti if all agree.
3) Train healing

Minor Action
1) Send a letter to Ezti to see if she's amenable to an extended border walk with Chesna.
2) While passing through Eztergrom on the journey to castle Pisch check to make sure Traian isn't having issues getting the access he needs.
3) Ask Kat for some birth control mojo
4) While in town commission the equipment you promised for Dita, get a list from Kat and Dita to round out the necessary essentials
5) Send a letter to the Baron of Rogatica accepting the offer.

Dita
1) Train Light magic 4/4
2) Study purificaiton

Kat
1) Investigate Atalaya

Sir Bialis
1) Collect taxes

Jaroslaw
1) Finish ranger training

Traian
1) Travel to Eztergrom to check insure we're not being cheated on the boating scheme.

Men at arms
1) 6 men accompany Sir Bialis, 4 accompany Traian, and 4 accompany Dominic

Archers
1)Garrison

Rangers
1)Finish training

 

[Graig]

I am torn between Charm and Soul. Whatever we do we should probably put both of our points in the same stat. For now I am going to vote for

[X] Soul

Soul - You already have enough of this to be a decent mage, so raising it further only makes sense if you want to eventually become a legendary wizard. In the short term there's not much payoff, because you don't know any magic that strains your abilities.

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Soul affects not only magic but also passion and willpower. Would there be some short term benefit from improving those?

How important is Mind for a learning and using wizardry?

 

[ShaperV]

I am torn between Charm and Soul. Whatever we do we should probably put both of our points in the same stat. For now I am going to vote for

[X] Soul
Soul affects not only magic but also passion and willpower. Would there be some short term benefit from improving those?

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Soul is used to resist overt forms of mental influence, both magical and mundane. But having Soul > Mind also makes you more prone to acting on your emotions even when common sense says you shouldn't, so there's also a drawback there.

How important is Mind for a learning and using wizardry?

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Dominic already has enough Mind to make it a non-issue. An NPC with Mind 1 would have trouble learning such a complex art, while one with Mind 3 (like you) would benefit from faster research times.

 

[megrisvernin]

[x] Charm

 

[fitzgerald]

To both Dita and Kat:

How hard is it for sorcereers to pool their efforts? In particular I was wondering about combining either fire or light with eartu magics to cleanse taint at the same time

 

[al103]

[x] Charm

 

[ShaperV]

While both options have their attractions, Dominic finds himself unable to decide between Charm and Soul. As a result, his untapped potential will remain unspent for now.

So, orders for next turn?

Also, for those of you who wanted to investigate Atalaya, you have a couple of options:

1) Minor Action - Collect some easy information. Some of your staff are from Tamasi, so they should know what stories there are about the alleged witch. You can also ask a few questions of some of your military recruits, maybe make cursory effort to verify a few stories, and have Dita see what kind of magic she can see on Atalaya's house.

2) Full Action - Have someone conduct a real investigation of Atalaya's history in Tamasi. Talking to lots of people and compare their stories, track down her alleged victims and see if they've really been cursed, have Dita and Kat examine whatever examples of Atalaya's magic you can find, and so on.

You'll need to put one or the other in your orders if you want to find out anything.

 

[staplesdex2]

Wait, I thought Charm was winning for the untapped potential?

 

[Thomasfoolery]

Alright, I've swapped out Kat's option from building to investigating, the keep isn't that urgent anyway and she's pretty much the most logical choice considering her magic savvy as well as her solid charm level.

 

[fitzgerald]

Dominic
Major actions
1) Travel to castle Pisch meet with Lala
2) Walk the border with Chesna and Ezti if all agree.
3) Train healing

Minor Action
1) Send a letter to Ezti to see if she's amenable to an extended border walk with Dita.
2) While passing through Eztergrom on the journey to castle Pisch check to make sure Traian isn't having issues getting the access he needs.
3) Ask Kat for some birth control mojo
4) While in town commission the equipment you promised for Dita, get a list from Kat and Dita to round out the necessary essentials
5) Send a letter to the Baron of Rogatica accepting the offer.

Dita
1) Train Light magic 4/4
2) Train woodcraft

Kat
1) Investigate Atalaya

Sir Bialis
1) Collect taxes

Jaroslaw
1) Finish ranger training

Traian
1) Travel to Eztergrom to check insure we're not being cheated on the boating scheme.

Men at arms
1) 6 men accompany Sir Bialis, 4 accompany Traian, and 4 accompany Dominic

Archers
1)Garrison

Rangers
1)Finish training

[X] Plan Arkeus

 

[mishie]

Well, if it's not too late:
[x] +1 Charm
Mainly because of the fact that with a high Charm, we can just convince high level wizards to work for us instead of needing to do it ourselves.

As for investigating Atalayae, the way I see it, the half action is the safe option in that we don't get much but there's very little risk to it, but the full action looks like it will get us more information, but she may find out we're asking around about her.

 

[Arkeus]

While both options have their attractions, Dominic finds himself unable to decide between Charm and Soul. As a result, his untapped potential will remain unspent for now.

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Ah, swift kick to the nuts. Next time it will teach me better than to go 'i like both but slightly prefer soul, i'll just wait and be happy whatever the result'.

If it can still count however, switching my vote to:
[X]Charm
Because it's the more immediately useful and it actually increase our odds to get items/teacher/etc for better magic later. And it's something that will be needed anyway.

So, orders for next turn?

Also, for those of you who wanted to investigate Atalaya, you have a couple of options:

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Dominic:
[X]Conduct a real investigation of Atalaya's history in Tamasi. Talking to lots of people and compare their stories, take Jaroslow with you track down her alleged victims and see if they've really been cursed, have Dita and Kat examine whatever examples of Atalaya's magic you can find, and so on.
[X] Travel to castle Pisch meet with Lala and walk the border with Chesna and Ezti if all agree.
[X]Take some time with Kat to learn more about corruption and test out how it pertains to your Force and Flesh magic.

Dita:
[X]Conduct an investigation about Atalaya with Kat and and Dominic and Jaroslow.
[X]Train light Sorcery.

[X]Conduct investigation
[X]Help Dominic test out his sorcery and learn how corruption pertains to it

Minor Action
1) Send a letter to Ezti to see if she's amenable to an extended border walk with Dita.
2) While passing through Eztergrom on the journey to castle Pisch check to make sure Traian isn't having issues getting the access he needs.
3) Ask Kat for some birth control mojo
4) While in town commission the equipment you promised for Dita, get a list from Kat and Dita to round out the necessary essentials
5) Send a letter to the Baron of Rogatica accepting the offer.

I would also be interested in helping Kat get back her Grimoire soonish, but not sure how to make a plan for that.

Upon further reflection those are bad ideas and a waste of time. Let's think more...

EDIT:

Magical Construction - Kat is quite adept at stonework. Assigning her to help with a construction project will yield an extra 80 SP progress per month.

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Repair the Keep - You'll need to find and hire an engineer before you can even begin this project, and it's likely to cost as much as 1,000 SP (although most of that can probably be barter and labor taxes). This will make the keep usable again, giving you a lot more space to work with.

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Raise the Wall - The 15' curtain wall surrounding your manor is a weak fortification at best, but doing anything about that would be a complex and expensive project.

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Kat's ability to repair the keep sounds waaaay too low given her demonstrated abilities- it shouldn't take her a year to repair stonework or raise a wall.

Am i misunderstanding something?

 

[fitzgerald]

In the case of the keep it isn't just the stone work involved.

For the wall well keep in mind a much taller wall surrounding Corzu is a bloody big project.

Kat in theory gives us 960 SP in construction a year (not likely)

The real advantage is that Kat takes care of the difficult parts / expensive parts and lets us focus labor on the not difficult but labor intense parts of the job.

For example new / better roads. We still need peasents to clear the path of woods / debris etc then Kat comes in after the route has been set to lay down stone roads.

 

[Arkeus]

In the case of the keep it isn't just the stone work involved.

For the wall well keep in mind a much taller wall surrounding Corzu is a bloody big project.

Kat in theory gives us 960 SP in construction a year (not likely)

The real advantage is that Kat takes care of the difficult parts / expensive parts and lets us focus labor on the not difficult but labor intense parts of the job.

For example new / better roads. We still need peasents to clear the path of woods / debris etc then Kat comes in after the route has been set to lay down stone roads.

Click to shrink...

And that not only doesn't comform to what we could see of Kat's skills, but is also next to useless- Apparently Kat cannot speed up the project, just makes it less expensive.

Given what we saw of her that's completely ridiculous (The keep is actually fairly small, and both repair and wall shouldn't take her more than a couple of months) , AND it makes putting her to work quasi-useless as she doesn't speed it up unless we have no other ideas for what to do with her.

So, i was thinking of the lore we have had so far, and here is a rough timeline for what seemed to have happened:
+Something happened 2000 years before quest, and a lot of monsters appeared. It is unknown if magic was known beforehand
+1500 there were Wizard-kings in the middle east that created beastmen/etc
+The middle easts (and Persia too??) is now a wasteland.
+Egypt took up the worship of a middle east Babylonian goddess (Ishtar), which hints that a lot of wizard king emigrated there.
+India seems to work the same way the middle-east did before it got wastelands, except that it's much more accepting of 'monsters'. It is unknown whether the monsters are actually evil of Khersis keeps being an asshole.

Khersis seems to be the semi-standard for-loyal-neutral paladins with a heavy bent on patriarch-ism and making sure sorcery doesn't become too powerful or women too accepted. As i am not seeing a real god called Khersis, this may me wonder if he is inspired by the same asshole Kersis god in TMU.

 

[acegunman89]

[X]Charm

 

[Walkir]

[X] +1 Charm

Edit:

You note in passing that Sir Ditrik's villagers seem rather afraid of him, especially the three local girls who live with him. But that's his business, right?

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Yeah, we need to deal with this sooner or later...

 

[ShaperV]

Wait, I thought Charm was winning for the untapped potential?

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We started with Soul in the lead, then Charm caught up enough to tie it. But since then several more people have chimed in for Charm, putting it clearly in the lead.

So, now that we have a clear winner I'm going to go ahead and give Dominc his +1 Charm this turn. That way you get to use it to make a better impression on all the neighbors and potential allies you're about to meet.

Given what we saw of her that's completely ridiculous (The keep is actually fairly small, and both repair and wall shouldn't take her more than a couple of months) , AND it makes putting her to work quasi-useless as she doesn't speed it up unless we have no other ideas for what to do with her.

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Your expectations are a bit off. Medieval construction of structures like castles and cathedrals normally took decades, and was frequently a multi-generational project. Faster results were usually a result of a king or other especially wealthy noble throwing massive resources at a modest project. Kat currently produces about as much output as a 25-man construction crew, which is nothing to sneeze at.

But Kat's ability to do large-scale construction is also severely nerfed by the fact that she has to spend most of her time managing corruption effects - every time she casts a big earth spell a surge of corruption accumulates in her wards, and she has to spend time carefully draining it back into the Earth so it doesn't build up and eventually overload her protection. She suspects that she can find better ways to handle this with a bit of research, she's just never been in a position where it was her highest priority before.

So, i was thinking of the lore we have had so far, and here is a rough timeline for what seemed to have happened:
+Something happened 2000 years before quest, and a lot of monsters appeared. It is unknown if magic was known beforehand

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It was, but ancient magic was a lot more primitive than what's in use today. There also aren't many records from that far back.

+1500 there were Wizard-kings in the middle east that created beastmen/etc
+The middle easts (and Persia too??) is now a wasteland.

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Yep. Overrun by various sorts of monsters that either eat humans or keep them as pets.

+Egypt took up the worship of a middle east Babylonian goddess (Ishtar), which hints that a lot of wizard king emigrated there.

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Isis is also an Egyptian goddess according to my references - I think she's one of those deities that was worshipped by multiple cultures.

But yes, Egypt took in a significant number of refugees during the collapse of the Middle Eastern empires. One of Egypt's great claims to fame is the fact that the 'eternal' rule of the pharaohs weathered this era without being toppled.

+India seems to work the same way the middle-east did before it got wastelands, except that it's much more accepting of 'monsters'.

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More like it's run by the 'monsters', but they keep humans as pets / slaves / peasants (details are unclear).

Khersis seems to be the semi-standard for-loyal-neutral paladins with a heavy bent on patriarch-ism and making sure sorcery doesn't become too powerful or women too accepted. As i am not seeing a real god called Khersis, this may me wonder if he is inspired by the same asshole Kersis god in TMU.

Click to shrink...

Yes, that's exactly where I got him from.

 

[drake_azathoth]

Khersis seems to be the semi-standard for-loyal-neutral paladins with a heavy bent on patriarch-ism and making sure sorcery doesn't become too powerful or women too accepted. As i am not seeing a real god called Khersis, this may me wonder if he is inspired by the same asshole Kersis god in TMU.

Click to shrink...

What's TMU?