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Knight of Wessex (A Written World Quest)

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Zaealix said:
Sounds like in the alternate timeline where the fight plays out Audrey loses, but both got maimed in a way that basically turned the feud into the sort of childish dispute into 'the powers that be have to re-write their plans due to effectively a damn-fool thing in the Balkans forcing a rift when it could be ill-afforded!' In a manner where Audrey and Holman get sat down and sternly talked to.
IDK if Get-out of Death cards are things Knights can do or if that's Norseman only, but I suspect losing the year and the tournament to a shameful back-alley fight would definitely have been a swerve to the arc of both Knight's careers, and might end with an unsatisfactory 'no tournament but you now have Gillman as a whipping boy/servant and totally not a permanent reminder of your folly!' For Audrey, and Holman probably gets the humiliation of having to personally apologize as an adult plus some degree of compensation to the Estalonga family as a whole…
And of course, the actual feud probably still burns, especially on Audrey's side, but that's a factor for later…

Hrrm.
Seems to me the actual problem is that the Estalonga are expensive mercenaries made such in part by the anger of slighted Vassals, who maybe aren't seeing, or don't care, that they've not the numbers to fight the battles that need to be dealt with, or the strength to actually fight them.
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Nah, Audrey wins, but it's by a very, very narrow margin where she's out of Armor, out of Hama, and down to her last 10-20 Focus or so before she starts taking real Fort damage. But in the end, that outcome never really happened, gone, like tears in the rain.
 
Okay, first thing that comes to mind is to ask our elders for advice. Maybe our Knight and/or the Priest. We won't name names or anything, as we don't want to snitch or break a confidence. Maybe just say that we had an unpleasant encounter with a Thane, mention what he called us, and that we'd like wisdom about how we could resolve things peacefully.
 
Alectai said:
For the next six months Audrey does the following things. Note that, as part of the change to longer turns and due to her continued devotion to going to as many masses as possible, she is simply assumed to be doing that from here on out, and it may not be included in any plans.

[ ] Example Plan
-[ ] [Focus Action] Insert Action Choice Here
-[ ] [Secondary Action] Insert Action Choice Here
-[ ] [Secondary Action] Insert Action Choice Here
-[X] [Chancellery] Pick Red-Black Lightning
-[ ] Training and Zeal (28 Training, 42 Zeal)
–[ ] Spend 28 Training on whatever you desire (14 at most may be spent on Feats and Shapes)
–[ ] Spend 0-42 Zeal on ???
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Oh wow 6 months. Is this the last training plan before the tourney? If it is we should leave some Zeal free for emergency use in combat.
 
Here's what you were able to observe of Holman, incidentally.

Fortitude 100/100, Armour 40/40, Hama Field 50/50, Ealdor ??,
Lic 5, Hyge 5, Hama 5 (Maegen Limit: 10x Stat)
Prowess 4 (Initiative 2, Stamina 2, Speed 3, Capacity 5)

Arresting Eye: Bullshit Cheating gaze that can freeze things in place. Probably has a price, but you weren't fighting him long enough to discern what it was. He can absolutely use it to debuff you though, and the rep is that they can use it to full out paralyze people in place regardless of their strength, though you're not certain if he was unable to do that or just didn't have a chance to.
 
Alectai said:
Which is why her mouth purses and a spray of blood takes leave of her lips. Normal spit might be too clear for her plan to work—supposedly, the Waerings can use their bloodline through windows and on those cloaked in invisibility—so blood should hopefully be opaque enough to do the trick.

Misty blood heralds Audrey's advance as Holman's eyes widen to their maximum and the feathering reaches its zenith. Like an air bubble encased in a block of ice, the blood mist freezes midair; and leaves Audrey untouched.

Ducking under the mist, Audrey's shoulder drives deep into Holman's sternum as a ragged gasp rips its way through his throat.
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This was fucking sick! Awesome writing guys! Who came up with that tactic?
 
weeblypanda said:
This was fucking sick! Awesome writing guys! Who came up with that tactic?
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Audrey figured it out herself, she's a smart cookie!

Mechanically, she successfully Clever Deflectioned him and created an Opening, which she used to catch him in a Horde-Breaking Charge as a bonus target, then used him to bodyslam two of his minions out of the fight.
 
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For Training and Zeal expenditure, I think we should finish off Mastering Clever Deflection for 11, leaving us with 17. 6 each to Refine Faulty Ground and Horde-Breaking Charge or Francisca Toss to boost our control and opener abilities leaves us with 5 Training. I feel that spending 3 to get a Prayer to break out of grapples and general wrestling stuff might be a good idea, but our Armour mostly covers that I feel with Sanctity of Motion. Maybe rank up Hordebreaker, Ground or Web shape for 4 and then throw the last point at one of the others?
For Zeal, I think we can leave stats for now and boost our skills. Combat ranks seem like a good idea, and we can afford 1 there for 16 Zeal, putting our budget at 26, then maybe 4 on Precision as that gives us debuffs to Combat if it lags too far behind, putting us at 22, maybe 8 in Diplomacy as were meant to be good at it, and 8 in Tactics because thats always good to have, putting us at 6 left as either a panic button or burn 4 more on a minor skill, being Insight or Administration as Horsemanship isn't relevant yet and everything else costs at least 8 to rank up.
Those are my thoughts, and there is the option of ranking Soma or Psyche if we want more stats, I just feel that we have good stats for now and should shore up our skills in the near future. Maybe get the combat stuff to 5/6 before pivoting back to stats or cultivation, particularly as we need 74 Zeal to get to the 1st bloody Bead.
 
[X] Plan Improving our strengths & promise
-[X] [Focus Action] Investigate Holman. Why does he hate us? Is he the only one?
-[X] [Secondary Action] Ask our teacher for advice about dealing with our anger.
-[X] [Secondary Action] Train with Gilbert
-[X] [Chancellery] Red-Black Lightning
-[X] Training and Zeal (28 Training, 42 Zeal)
–[X] Spend 6 Training to get Through Their Eyes to Refined
–[X] Spend 6 Training to get Francisca Toss to Refined.
–[X] Spend 4 Training to get Fyrdsman yt Wol to rank 3.
–[X] Spend 1 Training to get Hordebreaker to 1/4 to rank 3.
--[X] Spend 11 training on Clever Deflection (putting it to 27/27 to Mastery).
--[X] spend 16 Zeal on Combat 5
--[X] spend 8 Zeal on Diplomacy 4
--[X] spend 8 Zeal on Tactics 4
--[X] spend 4 Zeal on Precision 3

I've stated my reasoning previously for most of this. For the rest: focus on our enemy, further work on mitigating Wrath so we're less likely to get baited and keeping our promise to Gilbert; Fyrdsman can always be used and our next Hordebreaker rank up will boost our Rebuke boost; and Precision for utility.
 
Okay that was a rather chaotic fight that ended okay-ish in the end.
Politics are difficult so I'm going to have to put in a lot of thought. I'll be writing my own plan hopefully soon. I agree with a lot of The Meddler's plan, but there are things that I very don't. Anyways, plan incoming.
 
CedeTheBees said:
So did taking the Enemy flaw mean we're always fated to have An Enemy? Will another one pop up to replace this asshole once we're past him?
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No, but he's your Tutorial Enemy when the stakes are fairly low to give you an idea of what kind of nonsense goes on, your actual Enemy shows up later when you don't have a dozen layers of experienced dudes protecting you.

Doesn't mean he can't fuck you up if you don't play your cards right though.
 
[X] Plan Forewarned is Forearmed
-[X] [Focus Action] Investigate Holman. Why does he hate us? Is he the only one? Start carrying around pocket sand to counter his eye if necessary.
-[X] [Secondary Action] Ask our teacher and our family for advice about dealing with our anger.
-[X] [Secondary Action] Train with Gilbert
-[X] [Chancellery] Red-Black Lightning
-[X] Training and Zeal (28 Training, 42 Zeal)
–[X] Spend 6 Training to get Through Their Eyes to Refined
–[X] Spend 6 Training to get Francisca Toss to Refined.
–[X] Spend 3 Training to learn a Feat to easily recover our weapon through Web Shape. This should function by always having threads attached to our weapons while they're on our person, so we can use those threads to immediately pull it back towards us. The focus should be on quick recovery of the weapon/tool, not on using it as a projectile on its return.
–[X] Spend 2 Training to get Faulty Ground to 2/6 to Refined.
--[X] Spend 11 training on Clever Deflection (putting it to 27/27 to Mastery).
--[X] spend 16 Zeal on Combat 5
--[X] spend 8 Zeal on Diplomacy 4
--[X] spend 8 Zeal on Tactics 4
--[X] spend 4 Zeal on Precision 3

Mostly the same as The Meddler's plan. I kind of wanted to add more about communicating with our family because of
Alectai said:
Huh, when was the last time she thought about her family?
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but all of those other things are very important.
 
H2F2 said:
What is the essence of the conflict?
Isn't the cultivation of Thanes dominating the Anglo-Saxon world now, which should make them more privileged than the Carolingian cultivators?
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In terms of numbers Thanes are still a lot more numerous. In terms of privileges and resources, a Knight generally receives significantly more than any but a King's Thane and gets significantly more glory than anyone due to their cultivation allowing them to fight more enemies. The latter is mostly only a factor for certain kinds of thane, but it is a factor. There's various other factors involved as well.

That said, Holman's faction is not a majority, but it's not just him either.

The Meddler said:
Oh wow 6 months. Is this the last training plan before the tourney? If it is we should leave some Zeal free for emergency use in combat.
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There will be one more after this.
 
I'm opposed to learning to deal with our anger. We haven't even really snapped yet! Besides, Holman would have deserved what he got.
 
DeadmanwalkingXI said:
Investing one more secondary action into your anger is not gonna get rid of it. That is not how this works. Ongoing efforts will help but not like that they won't.
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I don't think it'll get rid of it, but I imagine it will at least help reduce the anger or help us keep it down better. I want to be healthy and not address the problem until after we violently explode
 
Theaxofwar said:
I don't think it'll get rid of it, but I imagine it will at least help reduce the anger or help us keep it down better. I want to be healthy and not address the problem until after we violently explode
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Audrey is gonna violently explode. Probably more than once. Her putting in work might, with a fair bit of luck, keep any violent explosions to acceptable targets. Or at least keep from doing anything irreparable to any unacceptable ones.

In fact, Audrey already exploded once...or did you guys think her dropping her sword and then brutally smashing a Norseman's head against the cave floor long after he was dead until nothing was left but paste in some sort of fugue state was a healthy and normal reaction? Because, uh, it was not.
 
DeadmanwalkingXI said:
In fact, Audrey already exploded once...or did you guys think her dropping her sword and then brutally smashing a Norseman's head against the cave floor long after he was dead until nothing was left but paste in some sort of fugue state was a healthy and normal reaction? Because, uh, it was not.
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I took that less as her anger exploding and more as she just survived almost dying.

But its probably both.
 
weeblypanda said:
This was fucking sick! Awesome writing guys! Who came up with that tactic?
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First things first, thank you very much.

Second things second, can you clarify the question, please?
The Meddler said:
Oh wow 6 months. Is this the last training plan before the tourney?
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As Deadman says, you've got another 6 month turn after this. We've pretty much accomplished all we set out to do in the tutorial (introduce the setting and give you folks a chance to experience the common human threats you'll be facing), all that's really left is to give you folks a taste of fighting Chivalrics and boom, we can speed on to the end and get to the funny manor management section.
 
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