Feudal Quest

[Tetsurō]

[X] Persuade her that riding the borders is an important duty that only Chesna can currently perform, and that she can trust you and Ezti to keep her daughter out of trouble.
[X] Befriend Chesna. Show that girl a little excitement and you could have an ally for life.
[X] Agree to help Lala figure out how to take Chesna courting. This might end up taking an action or two over the next few months, but could get you Lala and Chesna's friendship.

 

[Seventeen]

[X] Persuade her that riding the borders is an important duty that only Chesna can currently perform, and that she can trust you and Ezti to keep her daughter out of trouble.

Assuming the rest are minor actions, I don't see much reason not to take as many of them as we can.

[X] Use diplomacy to try to discreetly convince Nikolai to abandon any schemes he may have going to steal money from Corzu.
[X] Agree to help Lala figure out how to take Chesna courting. This might end up taking an action or two over the next few months, but could get you Lala and Chesna's friendship.
[X] Befriend Chesna. Show that girl a little excitement and you could have an ally for life.

 

[fitzgerald]

[X] Persuade her that riding the borders is an important duty that only Chesna can currently perform, and that she can trust you and Ezti to keep her daughter out of trouble.
[X] Convince Chesna that this is going to be a grand adventure, and get her to help convince Lala.

[X] Use diplomacy to try to discreetly convince Nikolai to abandon any schemes he may have going to steal money from Corzu.
[X] Agree to help Lala figure out how to take Chesna courting. This might end up taking an action or two over the next few months, but could get you Lala and Chesna's friendship.
[X] Befriend Chesna. Show that girl a little excitement and you could have an ally for life.

 

[Arkeus]

[X] Persuade her that riding the borders is an important duty that only Chesna can currently perform, and that she can trust you and Ezti to keep her daughter out of trouble.

[X] Agree to help Lala figure out how to take Chesna courting. This might end up taking an action or two over the next few months, but could get you Lala and Chesna's friendship.
[X] Befriend Chesna. Show that girl a little excitement and you could have an ally for life.

I think that using diplomacy on Nikolai before we know how corrupt he is exactly is dangerous- if he sees us as too competent when he is stealing from us but we can't address the subject yet, he might get scared and so something dangerous for everyone. Likewise seducing Chesna/Lala/Nikolai are bad idea as they need to some very high investment for unknown return (especially the two latter).

I think, however, that getting Lala and Chesna's friendship is extremely important, especially if we manage to prove how corrupt Nikolai is, as we might be able to be the one who 'take over' the finances. Even being "Chesna's mentor", "her trusted older family member" or her "face", would be extremely useful.

(Also, stapledex please stop spamming the same thing but with a different target every post).

EDIT:

OTOH, it might be that talking to Nikolai about Chesna while appearing to trust him might in fact reassure him.

 

[Malcolmo]

[X] Persuade her that riding the borders is an important duty that only Chesna can currently perform, and that she can trust you and Ezti to keep her daughter out of trouble.
[X] Agree to help Lala figure out how to take Chesna courting. This might end up taking an action or two over the next few months, but could get you Lala and Chesna's friendship.
[X] Befriend Chesna. Show that girl a little excitement and you could have an ally for life.

As to befriending Chesna, why not ask her whether or not she can keep something secret and then tell her we can bring Dita along with us for riding the borders provided she doesn't tell anyone Dita's staying with us.
This relies on her personality not being that of someone who'd give away the secret within a few seconds though.

 

[Robotninja]

BTW Shaper, could we get an example of what a Soul 5 Skill ten spell would be capable of?

 

[staplesdex2]

@Arkeus:

Just because I voted to romance the different girls does not make it spam. Yes I admit I wanted to romance any possible hot girl to be the PC's mistress but I'm not voting on a bandwagon. I'm voting for what I vote, even if I'm against the majority.

 

[Walkir]

[X] Persuade her that riding the borders is an important duty that only Chesna can currently perform, and that she can trust you and Ezti to keep her daughter out of trouble.
[X] Befriend Chesna. Show that girl a little excitement and you could have an ally for life.
[X] Agree to help Lala figure out how to take Chesna courting. This might end up taking an action or two over the next few months, but could get you Lala and Chesna's friendship.

Edit: I'm not against romancing any hottie here, but that one isn't hot, she's ridiculous.

 

[Silenteight]

[X] Persuade her that riding the borders is an important duty that only Chesna can currently perform, and that she can trust you and Ezti to keep her daughter out of trouble.
[X] Befriend Chesna. Show that girl a little excitement and you could have an ally for life.
[X] Use diplomacy to try to discreetly convince Nikolai to abandon any schemes he may have going to steal money from Corzu.

 

[megrisvernin]

[X] Persuade her that riding the borders is an important duty that only Chesna can currently perform, and that she can trust you and Ezti to keep her daughter out of trouble.
[X] Befriend Chesna. Show that girl a little excitement and you could have an ally for life.
[X] Agree to help Lala figure out how to take Chesna courting. This might end up taking an action or two over the next few months, but could get you Lala and Chesna's friendship.

 

[fitzgerald]

I'm against romancing Chesna because compared to Dita so far, out of our two cousins only Dita comes close to being Dominics equal and thus interesting.



ShaperV

Could Dominic write to our Father and point out that you'd be eying Pischia to invade if it wasn't uncle Pavel's

 

[Robotninja]

With good enough Flesh magic, could we become something like a Shaper from the Geneforge series, ShaperV?

 

[ShaperV]

BTW Shaper, could we get an example of what a Soul 5 Skill ten spell would be capable of?

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Some examples of Soul 5 / Skill 5 spells? How about:

Mantle of Death
You cloak yourself in an aura of death that slays all who approach you. The effects lasts for as long as you maintain it, and you can key it to ignore up to (Mind x5) specific individuals. All others who come within 5 yards of you are struck by a withering curse (resisted by Body+Soul) that causes agonizing pain (-2 penalty on all actions) and inflicts one wound level per minute until the target is dead. Anyone who touches a victim (before or after death) will be similarly afflicted, with the contagion lasting until the next sunrise.

Heroic Restorative Trance
Places the subject in a healing trance which automatically stabilizes their wounds, dispels all active curses while negating their effects, and then causes the subject to regenerate any remaining physical damage at a rate of one wound level per hour. The spell will restore wound levels equal to twice the subject's Body, and subjects with Body 3 or higher can even regenerate lost limbs or organs.

Perfect Harem Benediction
A permanent undispellable enchantment that transforms a female subject into a physically perfected version of herself, giving +1 Body due to nearly perfect health and +1 Charm from greatly enhanced appearance. Subjects gain a high libido, exquisitely responsive erogenous zones and the ability to have intercourse for hours without discomfort. All subjects who receive the spell from the same caster will find one another sexually attractive regardless of their normal proclivities, and feel a strong sense of comfort and belonging in one another's presence. They also maintain a strong attunement to the caster of the spell - in his presence they feel his arousal and pleasure in addition to their own, and become intensely aroused whenever the caster so desires.

Could Dominic write to our Father and point out that you'd be eying Pischia to invade if it wasn't uncle Pavel's

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Yes. He can't do anything about it himself, but you could potentially bring the matter to your grandfather's attention if you want.

With good enough Flesh magic, could we become something like a Shaper from the Geneforge series, ShaperV?

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I'm not familiar with the series, but the answer is probably yes. There are lots of tales about mages creating new life forms in various ways, and some of them are pretty impressive. At Soul 3 that would be a long, involved process with a lot of limitations, while higher Soul levels would it progressively easier.

 

[Arkeus]

Ok, question: the reading of skills seems to indicate that they can be raised independently of attributes:

Skills are much more malleable, starting at 0 and increasing steadily as a character invests training time. The higher a skill currently is the harder it becomes to raise it, but famous specialists often have numbers in the 4-6 range.

Click to shrink...

However, it seems that lately there has been the impression that you can't raise a skill higher than the related attribute?

Taking a pair of 4s instead will give you a lot more flexibility, but your skills will max out at a level that's less extreme (4+4=8, instead of 5+5=10).

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Which is correct? Does it mean Dominic cannot raise Swordmanship anymore?

 

[ShaperV]

April Events pt 2

You decide to:

[X] Persuade her that riding the borders is an important duty that only Chesna can currently perform, and that she can trust you and Ezti to keep her daughter out of trouble.

[X] Agree to help Lala figure out how to take Chesna courting. This might end up taking an action or two over the next few months, but could get you Lala and Chesna's friendship.
[X] Befriend Chesna. Show that girl a little excitement and you could have an ally for life.


Chesna proves fairly desperate for both entertainment and companionship, and eagerly accepts your overtures of friendship. It only takes a handful of conversations to get her thinking of you as her cool older cousin who lives a fascinating life of magic and adventure, and after that she's all in favor of running off to have an adventure with you. She eagerly turns her influence towards getting her mother to agree to it, while pestering you about regency magic, packing advice, tactics, archery and every other topic a slightly manic teenage girl can think of.

Lala is actually pretty reasonable once you explain to her that this has to do with establishing your regency. She completely tunes out your actual explanation, apparently regarding that as complicated 'men's business' that she wouldn't understand and doesn't need to. But after a few shared meals and private conversations she apparently decides that you've grown up into a sensible young man, and after that she's happy to take your word for it.

She's also quite relieved at your offer to help her sort out her problems, but we'll get to that later.

So three days after arriving at Castle Pisch you depart with Chesna grinning and chattering excitedly at your side. Her mother sends a maid and two men at arms with her, more to keep her out of trouble than out of any thought that she might need protection. Of course, you're pretty sure the maid is firmly in cahoots with Chesna and would happily cover for her if it came up.

Chesna starts flirting with you the moment you're out of sight from Castle Pisch. But she's pretty playful about it, and you suspect she's just trying to feel you out at this point. The ride down to Igal where you're supposed to meet Ezti is fairly pleasant, although you're starting to miss your mistresses by the time you get there.

Ezti arrives just when she said she would. Her party is all mounted, and consists of a pair of knights leading a half-dozen men at arms and three squires. Their gear is all well-maintained but worn, and the general poverty of their barony shows in the fact that even the knights wear only chain hauberks instead of plate armor. But their horses are of good quality, and the whole group is well-disciplined and quite serious about protecting their charge.

It takes the dilapidated ferry three trips to get the whole party across the Sava, so you have plenty of time to notice them and make your way over to the docks before Ezti arrives on the second trip. Your first impression of her is, well:



Is it something in the water out here? While not as exotic as Kat or as top-heavy as Chesna she's quite an attractive young lady. She also moves with a confidence you're not used to seeing in women, and holds that polearm of hers like she knows how to use it. Interesting.

Ezti spots Chesna waiting for her, and leaps off the ferry before it's even docked to sweep her up in a hug.

"Chesna! It's good to see you again, my friend. I hope your mother hasn't driven you mad yet?"

Chesna does an eye roll. "Ugh! One more day of needlepoint and I'm going to stab someone! But no, I'm finally out of the keep for a change so I'm fine. How are you? How's Dita?"

Ezti blinks in surprise. "Dita? You're the one she lives with, Chesna. How would I know how she is?"

Now Chesna looks concerned. "What? But, I thought… oh, that sneak! She made me think she'd talked you into her crazy plan so I wouldn't worry. She's been gone since the new year, Ezti. Vanished in the middle of a snowstorm, and Nikolai's been going mad trying to find her without letting n that she's missing."

"Oh dear," Ezti frowns. "No, in our last letter I was still trying to talk sense to her. But where would she have gone if not to Kiscun? I hope nothing has happened to her."

Chesna chews her lip. "Maybe she went chasing one of those stories about hidden wizards? The earth sorceress, or the mountain sage? I don't know. Oh, but where are my manners? Ezti, this is my cousin Dominic, the new lord of Corzu."

Well now, that was unexpected. Do you:

[ ] Let the girls know that Dita is hiding out with you, and see what they have to say about her.
[ ] Keep quiet about Dita, and risk having them get mad at you when they inevitably find out you knew where she was.

 

[Arkeus]

[X] Let the girls know that Dita is hiding out with you, and see what they have to say about her.
Keeping quiet would only be useful if we didn't believe we can make sure that they take this well right now, and our diplomatic abilities should be more than good enough in order to make sure they feel that Dita did the right thing, and the same for us. Spinning a tale about taking her under our wing and showing her how we are managing our fief should do just fine.

The adventage is that we can make sure they arrive to a good conclusion for us, as well as learn what they think of Dita, and possibly arrange further meetings later on with all of them.

3) Send a letter to Ezti to see if she's amenable to an extended border walk with Dita.

Click to shrink...

ShaperV, this was in our turn- did we not send the letter, or should we be paranoid about it possibly being stolen?

 

[staplesdex2]

[X] Let the girls know that Dita is hiding out with you, and see what they have to say about her.

 

[megrisvernin]

[X] Let the girls know that Dita is hiding out with you, and see what they have to say about her.
Keeping quiet would only be useful if we didn't believe we can make sure that they take this well right now, and our diplomatic abilities should be more than good enough in order to make sure they feel that Dita did the right thing, and the same for us. Spinning a tale about taking her under our wing and showing her how we are managing our fief should do just fine.

 

[Graig]

[X] Let the girls know that Dita is hiding out with you, and see what they have to say about her.
Even if we don't tell them they will find out eventually.

 

[Thomasfoolery]

Huh, so everybody important being super attractive is apparently not just the standard fantasy trope, since we're remarking on it.

Anyway Chesna seems like she's solidly reliable for covering for Dita based on what she's said, Ezti is rather more uncertain though, and we should take into account the fact that Dita didn't consider either of them trustworthy enough to be worth the risk of bringing them into the secret. Let's sound them out a bit more before making any decisions.

[X] Keep quiet about Dita, and risk having them get mad at you when they inevitably find out you knew where she was.

 

[Robotninja]

[X] Let the girls know that Dita is hiding out with you, and see what they have to say about her.

 

[fitzgerald]

[X] Let the girls know that Dita is hiding out with you, and see what they have to say about her.

 

[drake_azathoth]

[X] Let the girls know that Dita is hiding out with you, and see what they have to say about her.

 

[ShaperV]

ShaperV, this was in our turn- did we not send the letter, or should we be paranoid about it possibly being stolen?

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I took it as meaning 'ride the border with you and Chesna' since Dita wasn't planning to be there with you and a couple of people were saying that's what they actually meant to write.

Huh, so everybody important being super attractive is apparently not just the standard fantasy trope, since we're remarking on it.

Click to shrink...

Yes. You'd normally expect noble ladies to be a bit more attractive than average, but not to this extent. Mind you, female heroes are almost always beautiful, so it's possible they just all have high stats...

(Why are female heroes beautiful? Partly because high stats -> very healthy -> attractive appearance, partly because their the one with strong influence from divine or draconic bloodlines.)

 

[Seventeen]

[X] Let the girls know that Dita is hiding out with you, and see what they have to say about her.
[X] Find out who this Mountain Sage guy is. I smell an adventure lead.

 

[Walkir]

[X] Let the girls know that Dita is hiding out with you, and see what they have to say about her.
Keeping quiet would only be useful if we didn't believe we can make sure that they take this well right now, and our diplomatic abilities should be more than good enough in order to make sure they feel that Dita did the right thing, and the same for us. Spinning a tale about taking her under our wing and showing her how we are managing our fief should do just fine.
[X] Find out who this Mountain Sage guy is. I smell an adventure lead.


Edit: And damn, Soul 5 just became way more important than I thought...

 

[Robotninja]

Is it possible to make enchanted items that cast predefined spells on the people who use them?

 

[Arkeus]

Edit: And damn, Soul 5 just became way more important than I thought...

Click to shrink...

Well, keep in mind that we are getting another stat point 'soonish', and that we can get more statpoints after many adventures/years of effort. Given that the Dita thing happens in a 4 years deadline, and that simply raising Flesh/Fire/Force to 4 and learn skills would take forever anyway, getting to Soul 5 would probably happen sooner than we get capped on our magic learning. If we do enough adventures and get it to 4 beforehand, that is.

ShaperV: have you missed my question about Attributes and skills there?

 

[ShaperV]

Is it possible to make enchanted items that cast predefined spells on the people who use them?

Click to shrink...

Probably, but you don't currently know how to do it. Kat knows how to attach permanent protective spells to a tattoo, but she can only do it with things she can cast herself. It's also a pretty involved process - it takes a full project for each spell she puts in place.

Well, keep in mind that we are getting another stat point 'soonish', and that we can get more statpoints after many adventures/years of effort. Given that the Dita thing happens in a 4 years deadline, and that simply raising Flesh/Fire/Force to 4 and learn skills would take forever anyway, getting to Soul 5 would probably happen sooner than we get capped on our magic learning. If we do enough adventures and get it to 4 beforehand, that is.

Click to shrink...

Probably so, yes.

ShaperV: have you missed my question about Attributes and skills there?

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Updated the rules post to address this. In Dominic's case you could train Swordsmanship to 4 normally without worrying about backsliding, since he does weapon practice several times a week anyway and that isn't likely to change. But if you wanted to reach 5 you'd be hit with extra training time, and you'd start having to invest a significant amount of daily time to keep your skills sharp.

 

[ShaperV]

April Events Pt 3

[X] Let the girls know that Dita is hiding out with you, and see what they have to say about her.

No need to make yourself look bad keeping secrets when these girls are obviously in cahoots to some extent anyway. You give Ezti a warm smile.

"Good to meet you, Lady Ezti. Oh, and I wouldn't worry too much about Dita. She's been guesting with me for a couple of months."

Ezti gives you a relieved smile. "I'm glad to hear that."

"Dominic!" Chesna squeals. "Why didn't you tell me? I've been so worried!"

"Well, she did ask me to keep it secret," you explain. "I had to be sure you wouldn't run off and tell your mother. Although maybe you two could fill me in on this 'crazy plan' of hers? Every time I ask she tells me I'm better off not knowing."

Chesna rolls her eyes. "That's just like her! Always trying to protect everyone else, and never mind what it does to her. At least she's away from those crazy priests."

"Now Chesna, I'm sure Monsignor Alfons means well. He's simply a bit overzealous in assuming that all magic not of the Church flows from the corrupted Earth. He seemed open to my suggestion of finding a priestess of Inovia to evaluate Dita's condition."

"Right, and then Nikolai gave him his quarterly payment and he went back to saying she's 'under evaluation'. I know you don't like to think ill of the Church, Ezti, but it's time to face facts. Grandfather really is bribing the witch hunters to keep her out of circulation, and that means she might actually be right about the rest of it."

Ezti frowns, and glances around at the villagers and guardsmen. "Perhaps this topic should wait for later."

Well, you can be patient.

Unfortunately most of Corzu's borders are too overgrown for horses, especially along the river border. So the three of you will spend a lot of time traveling the banks of the Sava on foot with half your escorts, while the rest wait bank at camp with the horses or circle around to meet you at the next open patch.

You can tell the leader of Ezti's guards isn't too thrilled about this, but it isn't you they're concerned about. Apparently there's serious concern that Baron Rogatica will kidnap Ezti and marry her by force if he gets the chance, outrageous as that may seem. Amazing the things these backwoods nobles get up to, out here where no one is watching but the neighbors.

Ezti has brought along a meticulously annotated map and journal prepared from her father's notes of when he rode this border with your grandfather. There are islands in the Sava here and there that have to be identified as belonging to Corzu or Kiscun, and a few places where the stone border markers have toppled or been overgrown and need to be fixed. Fortunately your own notes seem to agree with Ezti's, so you don't have any problems agreeing on your borders.

In the course of this you do, however, note that Ezti isn't just her father's presumptive heir. She's actually undergone the rituals to claim her position as future ruler of Kiscun, and has a firm grip on the regency magic of her land. This is a bit surprising, especially since it turns out that she's a devout Khersian.

Over the next few days you'll learn lots of interesting bits and pieces of information about the girls:

Dita apparently believes that your grandfather's plan is to adopt some commoner or minor landless noble into the family and force her to marry him. Once the marriage is safely consummated he can then arrange for an 'accident' to befall Dita, removing the 'taint' of her magical heritage from the family and leaving Verzi in the hands of a man thoroughly beholden to the Petrans. Chesna thinks the forced marriage is plausible but the rest is one of Dita's absurd paranoid fantasies. Ezti is too polite to come out and say that it sounds perfectly in character for the Petrans to her.

Dita has been about as closed-mouthed with Chesna and Ezti as she has been with you, but over the years they've managed to worm some details out of her. They both think she's in love with this girl in India she wants to rescue, which Ezti thinks is unseemly and Chesna finds terribly romantic. The girl's name is Tavi, and they aren't entirely sure she's human. Ezti knows about Dita's magic and thinks it's a divine calling of some sort, while Chesna thinks her mother's magic just made Dita a half-elf or half-angel or something. Dita has hinted a few times that she has some kind of magical connection to Tavi, which Chesna takes to mean they have some kind of romantic soul-bond. Ezti mutters darkly about covens and familiars and bound spirits when the topic comes up, and is rather irate with Dita's late parents for involving a child in such things.

Meanwhile, Ezti seems to be sizing you up all through the first day. She asks a lot of questions about you, Corzu, your plans and so on, and by the end of the day she's apparently decided she likes what she sees. When Chesna goes back to flirting with you over dinner Ezti joins in, although she's a bit more reserved about it.

You're really missing Mira and Aldona by this point.

Naturally you'll be evaluating Ezti as well, and most of what you see is positive. She seems to be an intelligent, level-headed girl with a knack for leadership - her father's men actually treat her as their commander rather than their charge, which is incredibly rare. She'll find an excuse to spar with you at some point early in the trip, which reveals that she has Body 2 (extremely impressive for a woman of her build) and Polearm 3 - but she seems quite pleased when you beat her. She also has enough skill in diplomacy to delicately make sure you're aware of her situation without making it sound like a proposition, which is fairly impressive. The girl is definitely shopping for a husband, but she's trying to be classy about it.

However, she's a devout Khersian. As in, devout enough that her prayers sometimes get answered. That would play well with the populace, and she does seem oddly tolerant of things most priests would eagerly condemn as sinful (for instance, she playfully teases Chesna about having practiced kissing with Dita instead of condemning her for it). But being involved with her would definitely require staying on good terms with the Church and avoiding black magic, which might cramp your style.

Chesna on the other hand is more of a party girl. She's hot, and playful, and definitely has a wild side - if you want a wife who enjoys kinky bedroom games and doesn't object to having mistresses around she's the best bet you've found so far. She also doesn't seem especially devout, and is fascinated by magic. But she doesn't seem to have much in the way of practical skills, and sees no need to change that.

The flirting increases a bit on the second day, as the girls seem to be encouraging each other without really realizing it. Will you:

[ ] Banter a bit, but don't let things go too far. You aren't going to make any commitments right now.
[ ] Encourage one, and discourage the other (write in which one).
[ ] Encourage them both, and see how far they'll go. This could be fun.
[ ] Charm powers activate! Clearly they want you to seduce them.
- Both. At the same time. Imagine the possibilities.