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It Belongs to a Museum

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picklepikkl said:
Where's the line between sandbagging and voting to emphasize the areas of a character concept you didn't vote for that you like more?

That's a serious question. It's not really something that's discernible from the outside, and I think it does bad things to quest communities when folks start becoming worried about that kind of vote-sabotage. Occasionally you get someone who tells on themself and goes "well, I'm just going to vote against ever doing this thing if [thing I don't support] wins!" but most of the time what you have is just people shrugging and making the best of it... which often includes voting to do something other than the thing that the supporters of an option were enthusiastic about, because if they were enthusiastic about it themselves, they'd probably have voted for it!

Like, I voted for neither the Imprudent Teacher nor Princess Fallenstar (actually, now that I take stock of it, I didn't vote for a winning option after the very first vote until the name and location one. Am I out of touch?). I'm currently voting for Prestige, not because I want to deny folks excited about spooky magic tutelage things that will make them happy out of spite, but because I genuinely am more interested in the "Nyarlathotep" vibe, as @The Phoenixian put it. I am sorry if that is frustrating people who expected this character concept to be all-in on spooky magic tutelage, but the alternative is that losers of major votes just shrug and disengage thenceforth, which I think is significantly worse.
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Well the first part about sandbagging it primarily starts by asking your self if you're voting for a thing because it goes against what was already voted for.
Like the options when a major vote happens and it's not what you wanted are two options
1. You leave the quest because it's not what your interested in ( I've done it before and imo as long as you don't make a seen about it nothing wrong with doing it)
2. You go along with what was voted for and look for options that came up that do interest you. That's what happened in this quest for me already I missed the first vote but I wouldn't have pick vampire coast but it won so I looked at the options we were getting and went with the one I found the most interesting

Like if Grief loses this vote I am
Pretty much ditching the idea of teaching this elf necromancy because we were told we're not getting a better chance than this. I will be only voting over options for her that give us cool beasts.
Derpmind said:
You're not alone in that. Nothing I've voted for so far has won. But that's just how quests go, sometimes.

I still want to read Boney's writing and see the history and lore, but if the quest keeps steering as hard as it can into villain territory it just won't be for me.
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See that's entirely reasonable part of the reason I'm voting for grief is the particular reason to teach her necromancy is it feels like the one with the most benign reason behind it
 
Alright, go on, then. Let's try to feel this out.


You are Princess Aelsabrim Fallenstar, noble of Tiranoc, daughter of a line of charioteers to equal any in the Kingdom, and your duty is to aid that once-great kingdom in maintaining its hold on one of the last of Ulthuan's far-flung strongholds. It is a duty that you sought to uphold, even as you knew that this post would be a long and relatively lonely one.

It is much, much lonelier now.

You and your husband went to the Citadel of Dusk with a plan: he would use his household's knowledge of the strange beasts that frequented the tip of Lustria and their contacts that dealt with them to ensure a steady stream of income, income that the two of you could turn into display and patronage and diplomacy and all the other grease upon the wheels of power – power that you each hoped, believed, would be enough to secure Tiranoc's place here, and both of yours with it. Now… Now he is gone. And you are left with those contacts growing colder, his household sympathetic but unsure in their support, and yourself… Alone.

Into your loneliness steps a creature of dubious origin and unknown motive. And he offers you one of two things.

Perhaps he offers you prestige – a grand display of the wonders that the Citadel guards, available to all who visit. Further to the North than you'd like, granted, but that will make it potentially the first thing that anyone travelling from Ulthuan sees of you. It is… Just the thing to secure you in your time of need, if only you would let him do so – reinforcing your position, providing a readily available counternarrative to anything that the Yvressian faction has to say about your tenure. You grant him means and he will bolster you.

Is it too good to be true? He will control your image. Others will come to him to hear of you and your achievements. That is a worrying amount of power to give to a stranger of uncertain reputation, power that will only grow with your and his success… Is it any worse than the bargains you fear you are already striking to keep yourself afloat? How much worse could it be?

Or perhaps… He offers you a tomb. A place for your husband to rest, safe from the torments of the Pale Queen that haunt your dreams at night – for you dare not even dream of the alternative.

For all that, it does nothing for you.

Nothing but salve the pain that consumes your soul.

And yes, there is some manipulation in that – this offer would hardly be without compensation; he told you as much – but to use it to pull on you would have all the subtlety of a Caledorian Prince invited to remark on his deeds on campaign. To attempt to string along a widow through her husband's death would not merely be crass, it would be an insult to the political intelligence of one accustomed to courts whose machinations spanned only decades and whose missives and declarations were not delivered in the twists of Eltharin, let alone yourself. And even then – what would it gain him? The ear of a Princess whose position is weak and might collapse under the weight of Yvressian pressure at any moment, who may soon be a subject of shame and dismissal among her people?

Between that and the bizarre magics sunken into the creature before you that suggest he truly might be capable of what he says he is… It seems just possible that much in this offer is genuine. An offer not to help Princess Fallenstar, with all the leverage that that would entail, but to help Aelsabrim.

Would that be better?
 
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I admit, Prestige is my least favorite of the three top options, so I'm really hoping Grief will win. It's so much more interesting to me. Would have settled for Power, but it doesn't look like it stands much of a chance...
 
Honestly, we're not going to be a hero, we work for a Vampire Pirate Lord. We are, at best, an anti-villain or amoral. If you wanted that I'm afraid it was too late the moment we picked the Vampire Coast.

Even ignoring all that, necromancy doesn't have to be evil you know? Us teaching her necromancy doesn't mean she'll automatically have to become some mass murdering monster. She could just be happy, alongside her husband.

Edit: Actually, it just occured to me @Boney what is the name of Fallenstar's husband?
 
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theretrodragon said:
Honestly, we're not going to be a hero, we work for a Vampire Pirate Lord. We are, at best, an anti-villain or amoral. If you wanted that I'm afraid it was too late the moment we picked the Vampire Coast.

Even ignoring all that, necromancy doesn't have to be evil you know? Us teaching her necromancy doesn't mean she'll automatically have to become some mass murdering monster. She could just be happy, alongside her husband.
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One of my biggest hopes is that we take our desire to teach and because the head of the black college of magic, which would essential function as a college of magic but for necromancy and teach budding necromancers to properly wield their powers. It would be incredibly funny to have a bunch of necromancers who actually know what they are doing and are not insane due to dhar posoning. Extreme whiplash coupled with the empire having to deal with a surge of black magisters who defy all expectation of what a necromancer is would be funny.
 
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IronKnightofSilv said:
One of my biggest hopes is that we take our desire to teach and because the head of the black college of magic, which would essential function as a college of magic but for necromancy and teach budding necromancers to properly wield their powers. It would be incredibly funny to have a bunch of necromancers who actually know what they are doing and are not insane due to dhar posoning. Extreme whiplash coupled with the empire having to deal with a surge of black magisters who defy all expectation of what a necromancer is would be funny.
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Be careful, historically speaking that kind of attempt ends with a Grey Wizard loaded with runic equipment killing you and your students, burning your college and then taking the skull of the dragon skeleton you've spent so much time and effort assembling, just to use it as a fancy chair in her tower of doom.
 
Ergosum said:
Be careful, historically speaking that kind of attempt ends with a Grey Wizard loaded with runic equipment killing you and your students, burning your college and then taking the skull of the dragon skeleton you've spent so much time and effort assembling, just to use it as a fancy chair in her tower of doom.
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It's fine, it's fine - wizards like that are half a world away! Not like one of them's going to take up a post in Swamp Town or something!
 
Ergosum said:
Be careful, historically speaking that kind of attempt ends with a Grey Wizard loaded with runic equipment killing you and your students, burning your college and then taking the skull of the dragon skeleton you've spent so much time and effort assembling, just to use it as a fancy chair in her tower of doom.
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As I am reading that quest now
Still think y'all should have made a bathtub
 
Omegahugger said:
I suppose the thing I am wondering is why "I can teach you how to bring your husband(Grief) back" is being a tempter but "I can help you boost the fame(Prestige) and glory of the Fallenstar name" and "I can tell you how to navigate the world of politics(Power) to your advantage" aren't.
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For me, it's mostly this line:

"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."

The other options just straightforwardly state what kind of material benefits we can get out of them (access to goods, access to Ulthuani politics, etc.), without mentioning how Fallenstar is (emotionally) affected by them. [Grief] is the only option that directly draws attention to how we can manipulate Fallenstar with it. It sounds more sinister in its phrasing, is all.
 
Sovereign Hunt said:
For me, it's mostly this line:

"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."

The other options just straightforwardly state what kind of material benefits we can get out of them (access to goods, access to Ulthuani politics, etc.), without mentioning how Fallenstar is (emotionally) affected by them. [Grief] is the only option that directly draws attention to how we can manipulate Fallenstar with it. It sounds more sinister in its phrasing, is all.
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I meant to be fair just because you're tripping. Somebody doesn't mean you're doing it for the wrong reasons just like how you have to take a dog and a small child into taking medicine
 
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Conquered Death
  • Apocrypha
    • AN: Here's a little omake that probably doesn't match either her characterization or her husbands, in a scenario that might not even happen. Alas, mine is a fickle muse. Also yes, this is propaganda for Grief, how could you tell?

    "I am one who has conquered death."

    Princess Aelsabrim Fallenstar twists and turns in her bed, unable to sleep even as the sun has long ago set. Those words keep echoing in her head.

    Death... Conquered death…

    She turns around again, grasping at the empty space where she knows there should be warmth and joy.

    "My princess… I regret to inform you that-"

    She shoves the memory away, grabbing his pillow and burying her face in it as if it will change anything.

    The hole in her heart gnaws, love twisted into a bottomless hole of grief. Her eyes sting, but she feels too empty to even cry.

    He's gone. Gone and never coming back. Never laughing at her stupid little jokes, or telling her about this neat animal or that annoying customer. He's gonegoneGONE-

    'Except.' A voice whispers in her mind. Her own. 'He doesn't have to be.' She tries to ignore it, to shove it down like she does all her other thoughts, but it persists. 'I could bring him back.'

    "He wouldn't be the same." She murmurs weakly into the pillow. "He would be undead." And she is well acquainted with the undead, far more so than most elves.

    And yet that disgustingly cloying hope still clings to her chest, growing like a mold despite her efforts to kill it, because it would still be his soul wouldn't it? The very man she loved.

    "I would be exiled, maybe even killed." She tries again, from a different angle. For all that necromancy itself wasn't illegal, she doubted people would be happy about it. Why she may be the catalyst that makes the art illegal. How marvelous, she can go down in the history books.

    Except… 'They've already abandoned me, haven't they?' She turns around, looking up into the ceiling. 'In this far off land beyond the sea.' She looks at the beautiful woodwork, and can't help but think of when her beloved had enthusiastically told her about how certain birds lived differently in these lands trees than the ones of Ulthuan or the old world.

    "Would it really be worth it to give up everything to be with him, even as an undead?" She asks herself, even as she knows the answer deep down. "Yes." She whispers, as if the admission could summon a Swordmaster to cleave her in twain if said too loudly.

    He was her world, her everything. 'Didn't you say you'd do anything to get him back when he died?' She scolds herself. 'Why are you afraid now when you can finally do it.'

    She steels her eyes. "So be it, whatever comes I will face it with him by my side."

    And thus was born, the first elven necromancer.
     
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  • Apocrypha
    • Those vote os proving to be quite the knife fight.

    General reminder that Boney has confirmed that the elf princess going necromancer would not automatically disqualify her from being an access point to elven politics or connections.
     
    Sinsystems said:
    Those vote os proving to be quite the knife fight.

    General reminder that Boney has confirmed that the elf princess going necromancer would not automatically disqualify her from being an access point to elven politics or connections.
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    Teclis ends up throwing his weight around to vouch for her so he can get primary source delivered insights into a fresh magical field without having to multitask to counterspell. :p
     
    [X] [ACQUIRE] Awakening Armoury - Ranged
    [X] [ACQUIRE] The Dread Abyssal

    [X] [LEVER] Power


    [X] [LEVER] Prestige
    Not a huge fan of prestige but really don't like Grief
     
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