It Belongs to a Museum

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[X] [LEVER] Power
[X] [LEVER] Prestige

Let's not start of our relationship with targeting the woman's emotional weak point.
 
While Grief calls out to me, that is a door best opened after we'e established a profesional connection.
We have Word of QM that this isn't the case:
No. The best time to offer her necromancy was when she held her husband's corpse in her arms. The second best time is now. Waiting will give her grief time to fade, her heart time to heal, and her husband's spirit time to move on into whatever afterlife awaits him. Trying to take advantage of all of that will be harder and will have lesser results than doing so right now.
The reason to vote for something other than Grief is because you want those things more than Grief, because the best time to open this door is now.
 
[X] [ACQUIRE] The Dread Abyssal
[X] [LEVER] Prestige
I want that high elf knowledge to help us become an even more knowledgeable old man. If we keep helping her without offering dark temptations she will let her guard down. Don't start the process by bringing out the big guns; rather, start small. We know a lot about what it takes for a young princess to succeed given our niece is the one woman in the setting who can match Morathi.

[x] [ACQUIRE] The Dread Abyssal

[x] [LEVER] Prestige

"I have conquered death!" is just not first meeting material. Prestige opens the door for elven visitors to come, and that means she can always visit to talk about the conquest of death when we've already established a rapport.

[X] [LEVER] Power
[X] [LEVER] Prestige

Immediately going with grief doesn't seem the most in character at this point.

Boney straight up said that no, this is in fact the best time to open up with the big guns. Unless you think the QM is misleading us, the time for grandiose claims about conquering death is in fact now. And as for claims regarding the IC-ness of it all, this is a man quite literally labeled, "The Imprudent Tutor," as his character creation option. This is incredibly in-character.

It also lets us see how constructing an artificial afterlife works, which is pretty dope.
 
Honestly talking about in characterness when these aren't write in options is weird to me. Obviously they're in character, Boney wouldn't give us these options if they weren't. It shouldn't even come into consideration.
 
Perhaps worth emphasising: Pahtsekhen is a Liche Priest. Tending to the dead is his job.

Moreover, not revealing his capability in this area to Princess Fallenstar now and only later mentioning it may well be viewed as manipulative by her. If somebody could perform rites of protection over your dead loved one - or even bring them back - but only offered it to you months or years after said loved one died, no matter how good their excuse, I think you might reasonably be a little put out!
 
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One of the things about Grief is that strikes me as playing on the original promises of the Mortuary Cult: Your loved one has met with a terrible fate. Entrust them to us, and we will keep their soul safe and secure.

The tutelage in necromancy is a rather newer addition, but the opening strikes me as a big part of how they might have become so influential to begin with.

I prefer Power and Prestige because they play on Pahtsekhen's own motivation (Either a personal connection to a student in Power, or a large pool of students and academics in Prestige) but I felt it was a neat little note.
 
With Mathilde we had more or less a blank slate and our choices were often influenced by who we wanted her to become. Our dear imprudent uncle here has already been around the block for a few thousand years with an established identity so I'm less inclined to make choices based on what is "optimal" or "wise." Time to just have fun seeing the consequences of whatever ill-advised choices Pahtsekhen would make.

[X] [ACQUIRE] Lizard Trinkets

[X] [LEVER] Grief
[X] [LEVER] Power
 
[x] [ACQUIRE] Awakening Armoury - Ranged
[X] [LEVER] Prestige

Prestige is by far the coolest answer to me. I don't really care about the necromancy, I just want to make a kickass museum, and having it semi-legitimized by the the elves would be both neat and very very funny.
 
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One of the things about Grief is that strikes me as playing on the original promises of the Mortuary Cult: Your loved one has met with a terrible fate. Entrust them to us, and we will keep their soul safe and secure.

The tutelage in necromancy is a rather newer addition, but the opening strikes me as a big part of how they might have become so influential to begin with.

I prefer Power and Prestige because they play on Pahtsekhen's own motivation (Either a personal connection to a student in Power, or a large pool of students and academics in Prestige) but I felt it was a neat little note.
I feel that Pahtsekhen's motivation is less about getting students, in power or otherwise.
He wants to help.
In front of her is a young girl over her head and grieving for her beloved.
And he has the ability to help.
 
I don't exactly dislike the current frontrunners but IMO it's more fun to lean in a bit more to our history, in both respects - offering tutelage & expounding on the wonders of ancient Nehekara.

[x] [LEVER] Power
[x] [LEVER] Grief
[x] [ACQUIRE] Awakening Armoury - Ranged
 
[X] [ACQUIRE] Awakening Armoury - Ranged
[X] [LEVER] Grief
You nod. "I would also be willing to pay for any remains of suitably impressive creatures, both to study and to impress the courtiers back home."

She takes a moment to respond. "Would this necessitate fresh corpses?" she asks, doing a good job of concealing the suspicion in her eyes.

You do your best to mimic the mild disgust common to amateurs dealing with moderately fresh corpses. "Fresh would be preferable to unfresh, but I believe skeletal would be less unpleasant to deal with than either, as well as easier to transport."

That doesn't completely remove the suspicion she seems to be feeling - zombies might be easier to wrangle for amateurs, but considering who she must suspect you of working for, skeletons would be just as viable.
These requirements also seem to neatly apply to the ToS for our potential "Get your dead husband back*" service.
 
It seems to me that Grief is the most reliable hook of all offered. Aelsabrim will later be able to gain power, prestige, and authority from other sources. Perhaps even in large numbers if we make strong enemies willing to buy her loyalty.
But almost no one can offer to save and preserve her husband's soul as well as we will.
 
I feel that Pahtsekhen's motivation is less about getting students, in power or otherwise.
He wants to help.
In front of her is a young girl over her head and grieving for her beloved.
And he has the ability to help.
I'll contend with this one. "Just helping" doesn't really have the strongest tie to Pahtsekhen's listed motivation from Character Creation 4, and I think the blurb below shows a bit of a prospective inner monologue, and the motives behind it.

Give this answer to broach the topic of her recently-deceased husband, who perished tragically young and so far from home. You have the knowledge to build a tomb to safeguard and nurture his spirit instead of hoping for the mercies of far-away Elven Gods, and once that spirit is secure, so close and yet so far away, the temptation of a truer reunification can be dangled in front of her.

End bit bolded since it seems most relevant. Given Paht's whole deal, those strike me less as the words of someone helping for it's own sake and far more the words of someone who wants to teach someone a very specific skill.
 
I'll contend with this one. "Just helping" doesn't really have the strongest tie to Pahtsekhen's listed motivation from Character Creation 4, and I think the blurb below shows a bit of a prospective inner monologue, and the motives behind it.

Give this answer to broach the topic of her recently-deceased husband, who perished tragically young and so far from home. You have the knowledge to build a tomb to safeguard and nurture his spirit instead of hoping for the mercies of far-away Elven Gods, and once that spirit is secure, so close and yet so far away, the temptation of a truer reunification can be dangled in front of her.

End bit bolded since it seems most relevant. Given Paht's whole deal, those strike me less as the words of someone helping for it's own sake and far more the words of someone who wants to teach someone a very specific skill.
Paht doesn't seem to know necromancy. At least, he doesn't know it well enough to show up on his listed skills. So I suspect it would be someone else from Awakening teaching.
 
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