[X] Spirit Guards: Ayila seconds a few of her spirits to guard over you.
[x] Ayila working just for you: +5 to any one roll next turn. She had a good time, she's grateful for the latitude Kiralo showed her.
[] (You can sometimes be) Satisfied: Kiralo has had a really, really good experience here. He's in a very good mood. +1 to all dice rolls on personal actions, and his mood will be visibly and notably improved for the rest of the turn and next turn.
[] Bonus for 'Attractive' increased to +2 for same sex.
[X] +10 to Vend only. Merchant connections, and all!
[X] Spirit Guards: Ayila seconds a few of her spirits to guard over you.
[] Ayila working just for you: +5 to any one roll next turn. She had a good time, she's grateful for the latitude Kiralo showed her.
[X] Spirit Guards: Ayila seconds a few of her spirits to guard over you.
[X] (You can sometimes be) Satisfied: Kiralo has had a really, really good experience here. He's in a very good mood. +1 to all dice rolls on personal actions, and his mood will be visibly and notably improved for the rest of the turn and next turn.
[X] Spirit Guards: Ayila seconds a few of her spirits to guard over you.
[X] (You can sometimes be) Satisfied: Kiralo has had a really, really good experience here. He's in a very good mood. +1 to all dice rolls on personal actions, and his mood will be visibly and notably improved for the rest of the turn and next turn.
[X] Spirit Guards: Ayila seconds a few of her spirits to guard over you.
[X] (You can sometimes be) Satisfied: Kiralo has had a really, really good experience here. He's in a very good mood. +1 to all dice rolls on personal actions, and his mood will be visibly and notably improved for the rest of the turn and next turn.
[X] Spirit Guards: Ayila seconds a few of her spirits to guard over you.
[X] (You can sometimes be) Satisfied: Kiralo has had a really, really good experience here. He's in a very good mood. +1 to all dice rolls on personal actions, and his mood will be visibly and notably improved for the rest of the turn and next turn.
[X] (You can sometimes be) Satisfied: Kiralo has had a really, really good experience here. He's in a very good mood. +1 to all dice rolls on personal actions, and his mood will be visibly and notably improved for the rest of the turn and next turn.
Sad I missed the vote, but glad to see the winning options.
This was an awesome chapter. Loved the intricate description of the town and the walled hot springs... and the subtle flirting under Chao-Lu's. Tons of amazing lines... these two in particular:
Only children and lovers wore hair without anything in it. It was a form of nakedness as thorough as if Kiralo had stripped and thrown his arms wide open, revealing the fullness of his body. And so each time he removed something from the other man's hair, longer than was fashionable, and somewhat limp, but still having its own beauty, it was yet another thing out of the way
"Wow," Kueli said. "You're practically glowing. I've never seen a man glow without spirits before."
"I took your advice for once, that's all," Kiralo said. He looked at the other man, who seemed more tired than anything else, but who did have a grin on his face, to counteract everything else. "I don't know why that is so surprising."
"It isn't! But you've never taken my advice on these kind of things. Good job, Kiralo." Kueli was speaking in Southlander, and Kiralo knew that this was probably because he wanted to make rude comments without being overheard. "So, who was it? How did it feel?"
"You really want to know?" Kiralo asked, with the right sort of smile.
"Well, why the fuck not?" Kueli asked. "I know you want to shout about it."
The right sort of smile had failed. Kiralo blinked, "Well. Just…"
He shrugged. It felt strange to even be talking about the possibility of talking about it. It felt too personal, too close to him. Which didn't mean he might not write poetry about it. Might not try to contextualize it, make sense of what he'd felt and what he'd done and the way that the other man had seemed to open up, layer by layer. There was something there, certainly, in his outsider status, in the way he'd simultaneously been the strange outsider with the strange and powerful ways, but also the one who, well.
Csiritin poetry didn't have a place for what he was, not entirely. It didn't have a place for the moment where it turns out a man was neither stallion nor mare, but instead a person. It was something very Southlander, some might say, even though there were older and shared traditions which were essentially that. Horses provided too good of a simile for such acts, but there was also an understanding that some people were some people.
At least, there was an understanding if you had power and respect, there was an understanding that the bedroom was not the battlefield, and that trying to make it so would only ruin the power there.
So, that was something he could write about, but not publish. Certainly not if he wanted to keep it a secret. It was amusing, in an odd sort of way, to see people falling over themselves to throw women at him in the hopes that he'd let their smiles and wiles distract him. So he should keep that up, but poetry was not merely public.
It could be private, it could be intimate. Between one person, or two.
"C'mon," Kueli said.
"Well, then." Kiralo let out a breath.
"It began…"
*******
On the road they hurried along, making up for the lost time and then even getting a little bit ahead of schedule. Not that there was a particular schedule, but they were racing against Prince Jinhai's forces, trying to anticipate them. Being too fast, and tiring his men out, would in fact be a problem just as much as crawling along, but still he was proud of how well that was going.
The merchants, on the other hand, argued and whined and wrung their hands. They talked about how hard it was to find women for the men, and how hard it was to deal with diseases. They talked about how bandits had raided them, and Kiralo promised to send people to deal with it. They were making a profit, and a very considerable one, preying on the lust and desire and bad judgement of the men, and it was definitely hurting things.
Of course, just as with deserters, it was often just a part of what war was. It wasn't clean, and it wasn't pretty, and sometimes it involved moving forward, passing by hilly cities as you tried to decide where to go from here. Tried to determine your next move, even as news came in from everywhere.
Kiralo kept up the best mood he could. He managed it, and some of the news was certainly excellent.
The army was repositioned perfectly, the the province was settling into peace just in time for it to be potentially broken by war, and at least at the moment there didn't seem to be any sign of obvious sabotage, as Kiralo had feared.
But Prince Jinhai wasn't making mistakes, and was plunging forward, still having not decided on a direction he wanted to go. He was clearly planning on murdering Kiralo, and hopefully the spirits buzzing around him like flies would help with that. It was a strange feeling, having so many spirits near him, and he had to adjust to it, though at least his spirits seemed to be taking well to them. He'd let them out, whispering their name under his breath, and they'd flee to mingle with the other spirits.
He'd learned the names of the new spirits so he could command them, and so he felt in a better position to survive assassination than before.
But all was not well. A series of losses in Hari-Bueli had driven back the army. There were rumors that a town had been sacked, its inhabitants slaughtered for cooperating with the hated Csirit, and the war seemed like it would only heat up. From the letters he was receiving, only luck and a sudden intervention had stopped one skirmish from turning into a rout, and anytime the army tried to catch the Bueli raiders, they faded away.
In Hari-Os, the Typhoon continued has rampage as the forces of Hari-Su made the smart move. Burning more and more, weakening the towards of the interior, trying to force the armies that were so desperately struggling with the Sea-Raiders to have to turn and face Hari-Su in battle or see their economy wrecked.
But if they did, they would no doubt find that the horsemen of Hari-Su could melt away at a moment's notice, reforming again and again. As long as they had the numbers, it was an effective strategy to tie down the enemy unless they had the skill and knowledge to set traps and outpace the horsemen. Make them think they were just ahead of the enemy, and then closing in the trap around them.
But if they were doing that, it hadn't succeeded yet, and in the meantime, every death, every destroyed village, meant more difficulty for everyone. It was a brutal strategy, but it was the one that was needed.
Brutality, though, was apparently not enough in some places. Dozens of tax collectors in Yeadalt, who had disappeared, according to the letter he received from the court, some weeks ago were now found, all dead and disemboweled, right outside the door to the Hereditary Governor's house. They'd been transported from across the whole province just to lay on his doorstep.
Then there was the letter. His enemies in court were asking already after his performance. Rumors that he'd been harsh, even cruel, when he should be gentler. People, the letter said, from a minor ally of sorts he'd made during the round of parties month before, were talking about telling the Emperor about what he'd done to some of the worst deserters. The idea was, Kiralo immediately understood, that being a child, he would react with the innocence of a child and make demands that would unseat him.
As it was, there was constant criticism coming in, and it was increasingly clear that the Prince wasn't the only one with spies in the camp. Instead, it looked like everyone was watching for an excuse to remove him, even though the distance was growing greater and greater by the day.
He was a man walking a narrow path indeed, and on each side, there was only a drop into choppy, raging waters.
And as he approached the end of Csrae, he had a decision to make that might well knock him off.
Which way does the army go?
[] Angling north. If Prince Jinhai moves into Hirand primarily, then this would intersect with him, and that's good. If he angles straight, then the army can turn around and march back, but if he moves into Irit, then it would be out of position and would have to chase him and hope it can catch up.
[] Angling South. If he goes for Hirand, there will be some chasing involved, but if he lunges towards Irit, he'll be caught. It's a gamble.
[] Towards the center. The worst, or perhaps the best, of all worlds, this continues the trajectory that will lead to them running into each other if nothing is done, and through some terrain that could be used to Jinhai's advantage, but it denies him the ability to juke left or right and not have Kiralo react.
Prince Jinhai: 1d100+13=96
Irit: 94
Hari-Su Attack: 1d100+8=72
Hari-Os vs. Pirates: 99 vs. 103...oh, huh.
Hari and Hari-Bueli. 19...oh, crap
Yeadalt: 1d100=13. Double crap
Rerin: 1d100=63
Court: 22, well.
Army Marching (x3): 35, 110+1d100=165, 57
-[X] Counter-'Bandit'
Need: Variable, Rolled: 1d100+15-1 (Doom)=55
-[X] Vend Only
Need: 40, Rolled: 1d100+8 (Stewardship)+3 (Rassit Captain)+1 (Organizer)+1 (Satisfied)-1( Doomed campaign)=42
The luck of the prince is starting to become really annoying... It would be nice to see him fail for a change.
[X] Towards the center. The worst, or perhaps the best, of all worlds, this continues the trajectory that will lead to them running into each other if nothing is done, and through some terrain that could be used to Jinhai's advantage, but it denies him the ability to juke left or right and not have Kiralo react.
[X] Angling north. If Prince Jinhai moves into Hirand primarily, then this would intersect with him, and that's good. If he angles straight, then the army can turn around and march back, but if he moves into Irit, then it would be out of position and would have to chase him and hope it can catch up.
The warnings that say Kiralo is likely to die within a week says Jinhai is making a play on Kiralo's life, so with that presumption and that Jinhai will want to take advantage of the General of the army being assassinated I feel he's most likely to go into Hirand.
Should he pivot towards Irit I'd still feel comfortable as all our units will have arrived there now, will be in hills and forests, there will be a great deal of magic and spirit users, and it will be fortified. He can't really go through there with any speed at all given it takes 8 weeks to march normally through Irit into Csrae, and that's without the maneuvering and fighting an army hindering it.
[X] Angling north. If Prince Jinhai moves into Hirand primarily, then this would intersect with him, and that's good. If he angles straight, then the army can turn around and march back, but if he moves into Irit, then it would be out of position and would have to chase him and hope it can catch up.
The warnings that say Kiralo is likely to die within a week says Jinhai is making a play on Kiralo's life, so with that presumption and that Jinhai will want to take advantage of the General of the army being assassinated I feel he's most likely to go into Hirand.
Should he pivot towards Irit I'd still feel comfortable as all our units will have arrived there now, will be in hills and forests, there will be a great deal of magic and spirit users, and it will be fortified. He can't really go through there with any speed at all given it takes 8 weeks to march normally through Irit into Csrae, and that's without the maneuvering and fighting an army hindering it.
Note, it's a bit less than this. Because that 8 weeks was counting some of what he'd done so far in travel. That said, yes, it will take some time to get through Irit to go into Csrae, more than it'd take to get from where he was to Csrae through Hirand.
[X] Towards the center. The worst, or perhaps the best, of all worlds, this continues the trajectory that will lead to them running into each other if nothing is done, and through some terrain that could be used to Jinhai's advantage, but it denies him the ability to juke left or right and not have Kiralo react.
[X] Angling north. If Prince Jinhai moves into Hirand primarily, then this would intersect with him, and that's good. If he angles straight, then the army can turn around and march back, but if he moves into Irit, then it would be out of position and would have to chase him and hope it can catch up.
Our army is in pretty good shape for marching - if we have to pick up the pace for a chase we have the legs. Irit is a bad place for Jinhai to try and race ahead of us. If it's hostile enough to his foragers he may choose to face us rather than let us get completely in behind and cut his supply lines.
[X] Angling north. If Prince Jinhai moves into Hirand primarily, then this would intersect with him, and that's good. If he angles straight, then the army can turn around and march back, but if he moves into Irit, then it would be out of position and would have to chase him and hope it can catch up.
[X] Angling north. If Prince Jinhai moves into Hirand primarily, then this would intersect with him, and that's good. If he angles straight, then the army can turn around and march back, but if he moves into Irit, then it would be out of position and would have to chase him and hope it can catch up.
Adhoc vote count started by The Laurent on May 29, 2017 at 10:52 AM, finished with 10 posts and 8 votes.
[X] Angling north. If Prince Jinhai moves into Hirand primarily, then this would intersect with him, and that's good. If he angles straight, then the army can turn around and march back, but if he moves into Irit, then it would be out of position and would have to chase him and hope it can catch up.
[X] Towards the center. The worst, or perhaps the best, of all worlds, this continues the trajectory that will lead to them running into each other if nothing is done, and through some terrain that could be used to Jinhai's advantage, but it denies him the ability to juke left or right and not have Kiralo react.
[X] Angling north. If Prince Jinhai moves into Hirand primarily, then this would intersect with him, and that's good. If he angles straight, then the army can turn around and march back, but if he moves into Irit, then it would be out of position and would have to chase him and hope it can catch up.
The warnings that say Kiralo is likely to die within a week says Jinhai is making a play on Kiralo's life, so with that presumption and that Jinhai will want to take advantage of the General of the army being assassinated I feel he's most likely to go into Hirand.
Should he pivot towards Irit I'd still feel comfortable as all our units will have arrived there now, will be in hills and forests, there will be a great deal of magic and spirit users, and it will be fortified. He can't really go through there with any speed at all given it takes 8 weeks to march normally through Irit into Csrae, and that's without the maneuvering and fighting an army hindering it.
[X] Angling north. If Prince Jinhai moves into Hirand primarily, then this would intersect with him, and that's good. If he angles straight, then the army can turn around and march back, but if he moves into Irit, then it would be out of position and would have to chase him and hope it can catch up.
The warnings that say Kiralo is likely to die within a week says Jinhai is making a play on Kiralo's life, so with that presumption and that Jinhai will want to take advantage of the General of the army being assassinated I feel he's most likely to go into Hirand.
Should he pivot towards Irit I'd still feel comfortable as all our units will have arrived there now, will be in hills and forests, there will be a great deal of magic and spirit users, and it will be fortified. He can't really go through there with any speed at all given it takes 8 weeks to march normally through Irit into Csrae, and that's without the maneuvering and fighting an army hindering it.
Well then, all we have to do is prevent Kiralo from getting himself killed and everything should probably be fine. I'm glad the bonus to Vend Only wasn't needed, if we had failed we probably would have needed to do something about that, but the army is basically okay the way it is. So my plan for next turn would be to throw all our dice at stopping the assassination, bar some extremely important action suddenly appearing.
)