[ ] Plan "Nuanced Appeals"
-[ ] Lord Paenyl is a proud man, with reason to resent both you and the kind of people you truck with. Or that is to say, the kind they were before you started to truck with them. It is clear in precedent and demonstration that you tolerate little the service of unrepentant (in the legal sense) slavers, murderers and thieves. Each of these people do now take up service in your name adhering to the very letter of the law, and have all obviously done well for it. But if it was merely success or the rewards obtained from that success that mattered in the Admiral's eyes, he would not be so antagonistic towards you and your cause. Merely offering magic and wealth will sway him little, if not principles alone then goals that stretch far enough to change hands son to father keep him from viewing promise to see his family rich or honored or even to have his leg restored as little more than an insult. - Establishing character traits.
-[ ] Not to say his family couldn't stand to benefit in all those respects, but only after an understanding is reached. - If he plays ball, obviously like all minions we turn from the other side to ours, they will see the fruits of service are sweet indeed.
-[ ] Your approach is manifold. If needed, merely the stones needed to lay a foundation, or if possible a more lasting agreement. We will come seeking an audience with bread and salt, customary in Westeros if not Braavos. This signals multiple things. First, it is an ironic twist to our ordering of the public death of a prominent salt magnate who careful observation (or direct ties) will make clear was tied to us in some manner. Two, it acknowledges his families trade links to Westeros and the reasons therein, cementing that in principles we are alike if not the same, as well as our own binding ties to the West in one stroke. Three, it is traditional for the Lord offering Guest Right to make available the bread and salt, not the other way around. This is Viserys showing that he has overturned tradition and that in any hall he enters he is King, and it is to him to offer guarantee of polite and civil conduct to those he treats with. Never is his life placed in an enemy's hand, they exist merely at his own leisure. - This is to show a canny opponent that every single action we take is measured and thought out far in advance of how they could imagine responding to it.
-[ ] Upon obtaining an audience, you will cut to the quick as you think that Lord Paenyl will appreciate it. You will be civil if somewhat cool, but change tact if he might start listening further to reason. Viserys started his time in Braavos as a practically penniless exile, reviled the world over and painted with the same brush as his maddened father, West and East, regarded as little more than a curiosity at the best of times, and a hated enemy at the worst, for all that he had done no wrong. - This is just building up our story here. We knew nothing of him a week ago. He likely only has rumor to trade between people who dislike or adore us to go on. Let us give him some of the truth to disguise the bitter from the sweet.
-[ ] Of course we will not lie, some men in our service have committed crimes before, but in each instance those worst perpetrators were punished duly under the law as it was written or drawn for the purpose as the case may be by our own hand, keeping mind always precedent and the fiber of individual character. We have seen slavers who have committed atrocities hung and sellswords who swung their banners up and down for different masters, the same banners who have dipped in wane in like for countless generations, into raising ones out of loyalty to us, for all their uncanny foresight that soon their way of life would be completely unfeasible in the near future. - This is the follow through, yes we employ former sellswords, cutthroats, and in some cases men who had trafficked in the slave trade, but we do not at present truck with any of those sorts. It is more accurate to say they truck with Dragons, and in order to have the privilege change was indeed in order.
-[ ] Such foresight was not available to the corsairs who sailed the Narrow Sea when we first arrived in what would be known as Torturer's Deep. No mighty armies came at our command. No vast trade empires we had forged with a mind honed as sharp as Valyrian Steel, owed in no small part due to our experiences in Braavos. And while our magics had seen us through many a peril, they were not the earth shattering and sky cutting wonders they are now. They had merely hope for a better tomorrow and trust in our given word to buoy spirit that they were not passing into the hand from one maddened spell-weaver into that of another. - Acknowledges that we have changed mightily, points to our earlier comment about being painted with the same brush as our father, but other than power and character displayed, also seeks to contrast that there wasn't any reason for these men to expect more than the cutting board or the drink before we came, and helps sell the punch for the next statement.
-[ ] In a few short years, they have helped us toward ending slavery in Western Essos. They have helped us gather the wealth and influence in farflung ports that many men would hesitate to imperil themselves sailing towards for both legitimate profit and personal loyalty not just to a King who has promised them much, but a cause greater than themselves. Our fleet as much as our army or the branches of government are filled with people who have been ally and enemy, those who counted themselves loyal merely because of our name and the circumstances of our birth, and because we have shown them that our way is better and more enlightened. - Proof of the concept upon which we hope people like him will eventually fall under, instead of the knife or before churning waters as the Sealord suggested.
-[ ] If dishonest men can become traders and taxmen and soldiers or even bureaucrats, what could men of august lines, renowned for their good character and honor do with the right push and placed in the right position at the right time? - Here lies the bones of our offer. We have established our character throughout this conversation. We're not just someone who kills people who gets in our way, no. We want it all. We want the skill and loyalty of those who once thought better than us, where many men in our relative positions would think noting of a curmudgeon who hadn't the wit or guile to approach in any other manner but war and treachery.
-[ ] We have offered more than mercy and glory or wealth and honor to those who might have once chosen to oppose us before, more than false promises. We have offered a means to change the situation the world finds itself in. We are all of us part of a spinning sphere alight with the glow of a thousand flames, and it takes all working in concert to not only keep it spinning, but to keep that sphere from burning out. Join now, never, or later, you are part of this and it will not stop for your sole benefit, or any other. - The flat truth, once again, to show that with every move we have taken, the scale has merely grown. We have gone beyond petty grudges or grievances, our every action changing the paradigm upon which we all find ourselves.
-[ ] The only way to determine if those who you condemn might have genuinely turned out for the better, or if my words are nothing more than lies, is to take a chance and see from the forefront the truth of the matter for oneself. - If they respond well to this, we have probably gotten them, if not now then soon, after Pentos.
-[ ] Of course a man sailing to war for Braavos' sake should not do so upon one leg, so without artifice or any demand or promise for his later conduct, we offer to regenerate his leg, so that when off to war Braavos goes, it has its admiral to see it through. - Sealing the deal, with all hope.
Of course at any point he could prove to be intractable, in which case we can freely dispense with him, but this is decent for the general thrust of our goal here. And hopefully a bit of a character moment for Viserys as well.
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