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Age of Ice and Blood: A Pathfinder System Heroic Fantasy Quest

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Vote closed. Let's see about that study.
Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Dec 11, 2021 at 2:21 AM, finished with 32 posts and 10 votes.
  • [X] Esha, she has the greatest breadth of lore, but no great skill at teaching
    -[X] If she is willing to teach Silver, perhaps she would also be able to give lessons to Inge and Roland as well, perhaps even Zaia, who still has much to learn of the languages of this world despite his dedicated study. Assuming the others have the time and inclination to learn, of course.
    -[X] If instruction is available and the timing of the lessons don't impact their duties, Marcella's crew might wish to sit in as well.
    [X] Zaia, he has only just learned a pair of scripts himself, but he was a tutor in his youth and still recalls how to best teach such skills
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Arc 8 Post 3: Of Script and Secret Words
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    • Of Script and Secret Words ​

    Thirty Seventh Day of Ashinu-ezna (Ashinu Ascendant) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)

    If the memories of your childhood spent bored and restless under the eye and at times the rod of your tutor are to be trusted, and not simply born of a child's desire to be loose under the sun and not locked in musty rooms at study, then Zaia is a much better teacher than any you had before in teaching a new script. Alas the task itself is harder by far.

    The cuma scripts used for Anwari does not assign a letter to every sound, but instead to every syllable, making it so one must learn vastly more symbols before one can even begin to decipher even the simplest of texts. Worse still the script does not even assign any marker for vowels, which means that a single sign could designate dozens of syllables and one is simply meant to guess from context which are which. Thankfully though the sharp jagged lines of cuma, favored for writing on stone or clay, are the most commonly in royal proclamations, religious stele and other writings meant to last the ages, they are not the only script in the lands you have sailed through. From the east there comes the arching cumis script, most used by those who can afford to write upon parchment wrought from the hides of goats, or even reed paper whom the Greeks called papyrus.

    The Faan folk who first wrought it of whom you know only tales of tales, for they dwell in what would be Syria and Holy Land in the world of your birth are skilled traders and masters of many tongues so it it meet that they script is meant to fit each of them somewhat if none of them perfectly. Thus Zaia judges it a good place to begin teaching you and Silver as it would serve you far and wide no matter whence the Marcella might sail... and it also does not make you guess the vowels.

    For the first few days it is a wonder and a marvel to see Silver lying with his legs tucked gingerly under him as he is trying to make out signs of chalk upon a piece of polished slate, but as with all things it draws less eyes with every morn and soon enough the busy life of the ship's deck has simply learned to adjust around your sessions. By the second week you are at least confident you can read any mead hall signs that see fit to write their signs over simple carvings. At the journey's end the two of you might even manage simple messages... assuming the weather stays clear and does not drive you into the hold where the unsteady lighting makes it nigh-impossible for Silver to see the signs properly. Apparently having two eyes pointing to the front of your head offers a great advantage when it comes to the task.

    It is on just such a morning when cold rain drips down from heavy grey clouds promising worse that a sailor interrupts your memorization and from the look in his eyes it is not to announce some new meal for midday. "Sir knight, the captain wants to see you if you have the time."

    "Ah, it seems you shall have to learn the intricacies of trisyllabic words without me for a bit," you say with mock-sorrow, but with a smile to Zaia to show you do not resent the teacher for the dryness of the subject matter.

    Once you are past the greeting and just as usual drink Antonio seems grimmer than you had seen him of late. "The other captains are asking that the dragon be counted under the profits of the journey and that they should get a share of it, or else a like sum of other wealth. I think Ulk put the captain of the Koire up to it, he is not the cunning sort. Seeing as it was not one soul among them who actually risked their hide to fight the damn beast I'm minded to tell them to go pound sand, but rumors of how much the corpse is worth have already made the rounds of the fleet so it will likely cause grumbling... and maybe the start of worse mischief deepening on what we find in the White Lands. What say you, should we give them some small portion to stem the talk of hoarding or would that just embolden Ulk more?"

    What do you reply?

    [] The dragon corpse was bought by bow sword and sorcery and not by wagging tongues and so it shall remain

    [] Surrender some small portion of the corpse to help keep the peace

    [] Agree to count it as part of your share for the journey, though it it no trade

    [] Write in

    OOC: In spite of rolling with a -2 from his vision, due to being a horse, Silver is slightly ahead of you on learning the local script.
     
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    • [X] The Dragon corpse was bought by bow, sword, and sorcery, and not by wagging tongues and so it shall remain
    -[X] We are not raiders or pirates or sellswords, sharing our plunder for lack of pay. This is a trade voyage first and foremost, and the crews of our ships are being paid for their service. How those of the Pride of Koire are compensated is no concern of ours. The actions of Roland and those who helped to slay the Dragon, to prevent it from becoming a threat in the future and to save the Otter-folk should it awaken, are in no way related to our trade mission. More importantly, when we sought to do battle with the Dragon, no one from either ship stepped forward to offer their skills or their strength to the effort, not even when we offered to pay them. So no, there will be no sharing of any profit made from selling the Dragon's corpse.
     
    BTW, @DragonParadox, the winning vote was for Esha to do the teaching instead of Zaia. I don't mind it being Zaia, so long as it doesn't impact his progress in becoming an Alchemist, but it doesn't actually look like it would be too difficult to just edit the chapter in a few places to change mentions of Zaia to Esha.
     
    [X] The Dragon corpse was bought by bow, sword, and sorcery, and not by wagging tongues and so it shall remain
    -[X] We are not raiders or pirates or sellswords, sharing our plunder for lack of pay. This is a trade voyage first and foremost, and the crews of our ships are being paid for their service. How those of the Pride of Koire are compensated is no concern of ours. The actions of Roland and those who helped to slay the Dragon, to prevent it from becoming a threat in the future and to save the Otter-folk should it awaken, are in no way related to our trade mission. More importantly, when we sought to do battle with the Dragon, no one from either ship stepped forward to offer their skills or their strength to the effort, not even when we offered to pay them. So no, there will be no sharing of any profit made from selling the Dragon's corpse.
     
    DragonParadox said:
    Welp, hope you guys enjoyed the arc, it had some of the most fun moments in the quest for me, but also that trouble with the Temp HP that I am sorry bogged down the moment in mechanics talk. I would love to hear your thoughts on all this. Did the Dragon work as an antagonist? Did you like how the character interactions were shown? Is there something you would like to see more of, or conversely less of? I ask now in particular because we are about to get into sort of the 'mid levels' of the quest and I would like to know what worked and what did not in this first part of it.
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    He was like the side antagonist from Redwall which was Asmodeus.

    So they're getting greedy now.
     
    The only person to consider a share is the lone survivor as blood money over a misunderstanding.

    Otherwise the rest of them if Roland has the charisma needs to shame them.
     
    [X] The Dragon corpse was bought by bow, sword, and sorcery, and not by wagging tongues and so it shall remain
    -[X] We are not raiders or pirates or sellswords, sharing our plunder for lack of pay. This is a trade voyage first and foremost, and the crews of our ships are being paid for their service. How those of the Pride of Koire are compensated is no concern of ours. The actions of Roland and those who helped to slay the Dragon, to prevent it from becoming a threat in the future and to save the Otter-folk should it awaken, are in no way related to our trade mission. More importantly, when we sought to do battle with the Dragon, no one from either ship stepped forward to offer their skills or their strength to the effort, not even when we offered to pay them. So no, there will be no sharing of any profit made from selling the Dragon's corpse.
     
    Goldfish said:
    BTW, @DragonParadox, the winning vote was for Esha to do the teaching instead of Zaia. I don't mind it being Zaia, so long as it doesn't impact his progress in becoming an Alchemist, but it doesn't actually look like it would be too difficult to just edit the chapter in a few places to change mentions of Zaia to Esha.
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    Damn it, sorry about that, I misread. I now have the option of rewriting most of the update... or just hand waving away the loss of progress as Esha helping him so things stay as they should behind the scenes. I rather like the chapter so of there are no objections I will go with the latter.

    Sorry for the derp guys. :oops:
     
    [X] The Dragon corpse was bought by bow, sword, and sorcery, and not by wagging tongues and so it shall remain
    -[X] We are not raiders or pirates or sellswords, sharing our plunder for lack of pay. This is a trade voyage first and foremost, and the crews of our ships are being paid for their service. How those of the Pride of Koire are compensated is no concern of ours. The actions of Roland and those who helped to slay the Dragon, to prevent it from becoming a threat in the future and to save the Otter-folk should it awaken, are in no way related to our trade mission. More importantly, when we sought to do battle with the Dragon, no one from either ship stepped forward to offer their skills or their strength to the effort, not even when we offered to pay them. So no, there will be no sharing of any profit made from selling the Dragon's corpse.

    Of course people are seeking to profit on our own achievements despite taking none of risk.
     
    DragonParadox said:
    Damn it, sorry about that, I misread. I now have the option of rewriting most of the update... or just hand waving away the loss of progress as Esha helping him so things stay as they should behind the scenes. I rather like the chapter so of there are no objections I will go with the latter.

    Sorry for the derp guys. :oops:
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    I like the chapter how it is. Just let Zaia keep his progress without being affected by the side job and I won't complain.
    DragonParadox said:
    For the first few days it is a wonder and a marvel to see Silver lying with his legs tucked gingerly under him as he is trying to make out signs of chalk upon a piece of polished slate, but as with all things it draws less eyes with every morn and soon enough the busy life of the ship's deck has simply learned to adjust around your sessions.
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    The imagery of Silver sitting upon Marcella's deck with his chalk and slate while learning to read is really endearing. That becoming just another fact of life on the strange ship is even better. 😁
     
    [X] Invite Ulk and the captain of the Pride to have a talk in the Marcella
    -[X] The talk will be had near the dragon's corpse/head/what remains of it, and nearby will be our armsmen training for the day.
    -[X] Point out that if someone wanted to profit from facing down a dragon, they could have perfectly done so when we gave everybody the chance. And, if they considered the pay to be insufficient, they could have very well said so in our face.
    -[X] Nevertheless, we recognize that the expedition was delayed for a bit because of the hunt, and so we are willing to offer compensation for the time lost. We will make it very clear that even if everyone profited from the stop by getting to eat anything other than hardtack, we are willing to compensate them anyway.
    -[X] We shall offer a compensation by putting part of the dragon's corpse as a share for the journey, but they don't get to keep any of it. Again, they didn't face a dragon, so we don't see why they should keep it.
    --[X] This has a condition, though. And that is that Ulk starts instructing us on how to deal with the people of the White Lands as per our agreement. It also makes him less useful if in the future, and that allows us to get rid of him more easiliy should we need to do so.
    ---[X] If he considers these conditions insufficient, we will consider our agreement with him void and forcefully detain him below the Marcella for being an insufferable little shit sedition and causing resentment among the crewmembers. We will compensate everybody anyway.

    I'm totally fed up with the bastard. He has a negative wisdom score and will cause deaths in the future.
     
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    Tomcost said:
    [X] Invite Ulk and the captain of the Pride to have a talk in the Marcella
    -[X] The talk will be had near the dragon's corpse/head/what remains of it, and nearby will be our armsmen training for the day.
    -[X] Point out that if someone wanted to profit from facing down a dragon, they could have perfectly done so when we gave everybody the chance. And, if they considered the pay to be insufficient, they could have very well said so in our face.
    -[X] Nevertheless, we recognize that the expedition was delayed for a bit because of the hunt, and so we are willing to offer compensation for the time lost. We will make it very clear that even if everyone profited from the stop by getting to eat anything other than hardtack, we are willing to compensate them anyway.
    -[X] We shall offer a compensation by putting part of the dragon's corpse as a share for the journey, but they don't get to keep any of it. Again, they didn't face a dragon, so we don't see why they should keep it.
    --[X] This has a condition, though. And that is that Ulk starts instructing us on how to deal with the people of the White Lands as per our agreement. It also makes him less useful if in the future, and that allows us to get rid of him more easiliy should we need to do so.
    ---[X] If he considers these conditions insufficient, we will consider our agreement with him void and forcefully detain him below the Marcella for being an insufferable little shit sedition and causing resentment among the crewmembers. We will compensate everybody anyway.

    I'm totally fed up with the bastard. He has a negative wisdom score and will cause deaths in the future.
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    I would mostly be good with this, except for the part about compensating them for the delay by sharing part of the Dragon profits. We were stopped for three or four days and were able to restock our fresh food stores during that time, largely with help from the Otter-folk. With their help, it ended up not being much of a delay at all.
     
    Goldfish said:
    I would mostly be good with this, except for the part about compensating them for the delay by sharing part of the Dragon profits. We were stopped for three or four days and were able to restock our fresh food stores during that time, largely with help from the Otter-folk. With their help, it ended up not being much of a delay at all.
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    Do note that we will only detain him is he keeps being an ass despite getting paid for not doing anything.

    This is as much a negotiation as taking further measure of him, because if he keeps riling up everybody against us there will be a mutiny, and that means dead people.

    And I refuse to lose men over an idiot.
     
    Tomcost said:
    Do note that we will only detain him is he keeps being an ass despite getting paid for not doing anything.

    This is as much a negotiation as taking further measure of him, because if he keeps riling up everybody against us there will be a mutiny, and that means dead people.

    And I refuse to lose men over an idiot.
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    I also don't want to negotiate with them. At all. I'd vote to leave Ulk on a random shore somewhere before I even pretend to negotiate with him.

    I doubt he would be able to foment a mutiny. The crew of the ship he's captaining were handpicked by Antonio, plus they're not fighters. They know how poorly that would go for them without us having to spell it out for them.
     
    Goldfish said:
    I also don't want to negotiate with them. At all. I'd vote to leave Ulk on a random shore somewhere before I even pretend to negotiate with him.

    I doubt he would be able to foment a mutiny. The crew of the ship he's captaining were handpicked by Antonio, plus they're not fighters. They know how poorly that would go for them without us having to spell it out for them.
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    Okay. For me this is also not negotiating, just showing some good will.

    I won't bank my hopes on someone's common sense. I wanna end this one way or another.
     
    [X] The Dragon corpse was bought by bow, sword, and sorcery, and not by wagging tongues and so it shall remain
    -[X] We are not raiders or pirates or sellswords, sharing our plunder for lack of pay. This is a trade voyage first and foremost, and the crews of our ships are being paid for their service. How those of the Pride of Koire are compensated is no concern of ours. The actions of Roland and those who helped to slay the Dragon, to prevent it from becoming a threat in the future and to save the Otter-folk should it awaken, are in no way related to our trade mission. More importantly, when we sought to do battle with the Dragon, no one from either ship stepped forward to offer their skills or their strength to the effort, not even when we offered to pay them. So no, there will be no sharing of any profit made from selling the Dragon's corpse.

    I think by this point we should begin considering just killing Ulk, detaining him sounds like too much trouble.
     
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    [X] Invite Ulk and the captain of the Pride to have a talk in the Marcella
    -[X] The talk will be had near the dragon's corpse/head/what remains of it, and nearby will be our armsmen training for the day.
    -[X] Point out that if someone wanted to profit from facing down a dragon, they could have perfectly done so when we gave everybody the chance. And, if they considered the pay to be insufficient, they could have very well said so in our face.
    -[X] Nevertheless, we recognize that the expedition was delayed for a bit because of the hunt, and so we are willing to offer compensation for the time lost. We will make it very clear that even if everyone profited from the stop by getting to eat anything other than hardtack, we are willing to compensate them anyway.
    -[X] We propose a monetary compensation for the time lost, Antonio will determine the amount of compensation.
    --[X] This has a condition, though. And that is that Ulk starts instructing us on how to deal with the people of the White Lands as per our agreement.

    This is basicly Tomcost's proposition, I've just smoothed out some harsh moments.
     
    Arhin said:
    [X] Invite Ulk and the captain of the Pride to have a talk in the Marcella
    -[X] The talk will be had near the dragon's corpse/head/what remains of it, and nearby will be our armsmen training for the day.
    -[X] Point out that if someone wanted to profit from facing down a dragon, they could have perfectly done so when we gave everybody the chance. And, if they considered the pay to be insufficient, they could have very well said so in our face.
    -[X] Nevertheless, we recognize that the expedition was delayed for a bit because of the hunt, and so we are willing to offer compensation for the time lost. We will make it very clear that even if everyone profited from the stop by getting to eat anything other than hardtack, we are willing to compensate them anyway.
    -[X] We propose a monetary compensation for the time lost, Antonio will determine the amount of compensation.
    --[X] This has a condition, though. And that is that Ulk starts instructing us on how to deal with the people of the White Lands as per our agreement.

    This is basicly Tomcost's proposition, I've just smoothed out some harsh moments.
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    Okay, I can support this version. I guess I'll be voting against one of my own plans again. It's always funny when that happens.

    [X] Arhin
     
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