King Alfred NegaQuest: Turn 538 Court 2.1
Previous Winning Votes:
{} Admit the captain and her retinue
{X} Admit only the captain
{} Admit a negotiator, but not the captain
and
{X} Trade Plan Surprises And Boats
Vikings. Everyone is surely thinking it, but nobody speaks. They look to you for a decision. It would have been nice with some warning so that you could ask your council for advice. But here and now, the candle is burning, and you must exercise leadership.
"Our law and custom stand as before. The captain may enter, but not bring her men-at-arms in the presence of the King." you announce.
You see looks of relief going around the court, who are much less worried about one Viking than a boatload of them. They're still worried enough that you also see people checking their weapons.
Your decision is passed to the doorman, who passes it on to the Vikings. This is the tricky part. If their captain insists and tries to bring men-at-arms anyway, there's going to be a fight. Or she might suspect an ambush and refuse to enter alone. The court starts whispering and speculating. Fortunately, the Viking captain is diplomatic enough to accept the terms. She's a tall, red-headed woman. She gets a few steps into the hall, heading straight for you, then looks around and falters at the sight of the other
long hundred men all looking at her and thinking about violence.
"Uh, did I do something wrong?" asks the woman.
Halla, your wisebond whispers the name in your mind.
There's no violence that day, but there's some confusion and sneering at the latest petitioner who came unprepared. Halla tries to address you as merely "Alfred", and you suspect it would have been "Hey, Al" if Iohannes hadn't growled corrections at her. She asks for some beer mid-petition, tries to tell a story about one of her hunting trips before she's cut short, and makes an attempt to buy ink from your scribe, in personal quantities. You have to steer her back to the shipload of trade goods: mostly whetstones. You make an offer in silver, but Halla wants payment in food. Norway has worse land to begin with, then there are troll attacks on outlying farms, and seers warning of a hard winter. When the candle marks the hour, the negotiations are unfinished, and you direct Halla to go to one of the waiting rooms and speak with your representative to finish haggling out the details while you see the next petitioner.
Which is an excellent opportunity for Iohannes to go as your representative and make the less public offers: ask for the services of the Vikings to remind one of the breakaway courts how life is outside your protection, and see if you can get a tour of their ship, perhaps framed as a diplomatic gesture by the King.
Once you're done seeing other petitioners and resolving legal disputes and hearing pleas for mercy, Iohannes returns. "Your Majesty, Halla has accepted your terms. You'll get to see the Viking ship up close."
With your wisebond, you'll be able to learn far more than Halla expects, and collect yet another weapon for England's steadily growing arsenal, arming the country for Guttorm's return. But who should you bring with you? Your council definitely won't like the risk of you going alone on a Viking ship, while the Vikings probably won't like you bringing a retinue aboard their ship after you barred their retinue from your hall.
{ } Go alone
{ } Bring one servant
{ } Bring one retainer posing as a servant
{ } Bring several people
-{ } Write in who
(The breakaway court will be resolved separately.)
