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NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)

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A Jarl needs to reach out and claim Land for their own, bending it to their will. Saga Expansion is about reaching beyond your safety net and subjugating lands beyond it (Or in this case, Creating them), and presumably recruiting Spirits to live on your lands and Hersirs to oversee your new holdings, all of which will be paying you Taxes as recognition of being allowed to live on your Lands.

This is likely the benefits of a strong foundation--your lands are extremely valuable real estate compared to a lot of places, which means you have more bargaining power when it comes to sorting out new settlers, and you're more appealing in general as people who are stuck in marginal or overcrowded area are attracted by promises of expansive, high quality land.

After all, if you're going from an Odr Income of "The Gig Economy" to a steady salary of 4 per turn--but have to pay 1 of those as taxes... That's still 3 Odr you weren't getting beforehand, and there's nothing stopping you from running a side hustle either. Unlanded Spirits in this context are Outlaws--and that's a shitty existence. While landed ones like the ones we're likely trying to attract (Or recruit by giving opportunities), are proper Karls--productive members of society.
 
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Imperial Fister said:
"Heljarskinn's Warband?" Eric blinks and looks between the two of you as realization dawns, "Oh, sorry, I've been working on memorizing Warband Standards for my Iron Trials. The people who tortured me were Helhundings, though only Abjorn Hooknails and Alarik Dragon-Dancer were of Heljarskinn's Hird, while the rest of the raiders were free warriors of Rogaland and Aggilsfjord."

"Abjorn?" Wait, is that what Hooknails was named?!

"Abjorn Hooknails, yeah," Eric nods with a knowing grimace, "Yeah, there's, uh, some unfortunate irony in that one."
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Yeah that's a bit awkward.
 
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Getting Lost on the Way Home (Imperial Fister)
  • Apocrypha
    • "So, uh, are you a Steelfather or something?" The freakishly tall fiend's mouth twisted down as she asked her question. "Well, obviously not, you don't feel at all like the Jarl did. But, uh, what are you?"

    "I... am an Alchemical Exalt, of the Soulsteel Caste." The woman blinked as her face went slack, Arbi's words clearly meaning little to the foreigner. Arbi sighed, just knowing that today was going to be a long one.

    Weird things had been happening ever since these supposed 'traders' from 'the North' arrived. Massive eagles covered in iron spotted in the sky. People casually lifting buildings and chucking ships. You know, little things like that.

    Halla Longstride blinked once more as her brows furrowed and her frown deepened. "You're not made of steel, though."

    The Arbiter of Iron Law couldn't contain herself anymore, not in the face of such ignorance. Eyes wide and manic, she flung her hands toward the sky with irritation-fueled fervor. "I am made of soulsteel!"

    "...what?"

    0~0~0

    AN: This will likely be wild for @Alectai to see, lmao

    Regardless, this was a little blurb I wrote a long while back, after being inspired by Alectai's probably-dead quest, Essence of the Age.
     
  • Apocrypha
    • Mrrrrrrrrr >_<

    I liked Arbiter, but the spark left. Unlike a lot of my projects though, it's simple enough that I could pick it up if the inspiration takes me again, while others are more "If the inspiration is gone, I'll never get it back"

    Still, you hurt me.
     
    Exalted's hell might be an interesting place to drop Halla

    It definitely has enough weird stuff to keep a story from getting dull
     
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    Imperial Fister said:
    You only manage to find out who in the Valley has a fire-running trick, in the limited time you have to work on it. The results are something of a mixed bag, unfortunately, as there is only one person who has such a trick in the Valley—a boy by the name of 'Peter Flamestepper'.

    Peter was too young to fight in the raid, but is an eager servant to Dorri nonetheless.
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    Theory:

    0) Peter Flamestepper is Dorri's 'trusted' messenger.

    This is possibly what happened:

    1) Peter got ganked by a spirit, possibly one sent by Drysalt.
    2) Owner of this spirit uses Peter to set up the raid to kill Steinarr.
    3) Possessed(?)Peter provides the needed details for the raid to go so well.
    4) Dorri sends Peter Flamestepper to bring a message to Corpsemaker for help on the raid.
    - 5) Peter doesn't send this message. -
    6) Corpsemaker, at some point between 2-5, finds out that Peter had been doing some kind of correspondence between Dorri and Rogaland, and concludes that Dorri set up the raid on his own shores - Something supported by event 5).

    Supporting ideas:

    The Raiders knew to hit Halfdan's Farm + Dorri and Logi both were shocked at how well the raiders knew what was going on.

    Corpsemaker is pretty sure that Dorri invited the raid, but doesn't know that the raid was invited to kill Steinarr (If Corpsemaker knew the raid was invited to kill Steinarr he would tell us to get us on the anti-Dorri side of things).
    Corpsemaker didn't know about the raid until it was too late, and he wasn't lying about it (that would be Nid).

    Peter Flamestepper was too young to defend against a raid, and we know that younger people are more vulnerable to possession attacks.
    Peter Flamestepper was likely beneath notice for a possession attack.

    The Hading has a spirit possession problem - See Stigr.
    There's a doppleganger problem in among the Dwarves and Solrun was watching out for it.
     
    We can probably check it out by asking Dorri to let us examine Peter Flamestepper.

    Between us, Sten and Solrun we can probably extract all relevant data. Rule of 3, too.
     
    Shard said:
    We can probably check it out by asking Dorri to let us examine Peter Flamestepper.

    Between us, Sten and Solrun we can probably extract all relevant data. Rule of 3, too.
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    Yeah, I'm hoping we can get a request in to do something like that this turn since the doppelganger investigation mentioned bringing our conclusions to the authorities if we had any. We'd probably still need to do an action next turn, but hopefully only the one.
     
    DeadmanwalkingXI said:
    Yeah, I'm hoping we can get a request in to do something like that this turn since the doppelganger investigation mentioned bringing our conclusions to the authorities if we had any. We'd probably still need to do an action next turn, but hopefully only the one.
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    I will say that, if you're accusing someone close to an authority figure of something, you'd better have ironclad evidence of wrong-doing.
     
    Imperial Fister said:
    I will say that, if you're accusing someone close to an authority figure of something, you'd better have ironclad evidence of wrong-doing.
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    The thing is, we're not accusing him of wrongdoing. We're worried he got possessed and want to check. That seems like it'd need a lower evidentiary standard.

    Like, we don't think the kid did anything wrong, we're worried about his health and safety.
     
    We don't know how to check for eithed doppelgangers or possession do we? We need to ask both Solrun and the Ducklings for help.

    DeadmanwalkingXI said:
    The thing is, we're not accusing him of wrongdoing. We're worried he got possessed and want to check. That seems like it'd need a lower evidentiary standard.

    Like, we don't think the kid did anything wrong, we're worried about his health and safety.
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    This might come better if it's from the Seeress responsible for the spiritual safety of the valley people. We should talk to Solrun first and see if we can get her to do the check.
     
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    I mean there is an easier option here, Dorri got impersonated by the doppleganger who provided the funds from another third party and used Peter Flamestepper to invite the raid. And Peter Flamestepper might have been chosen because he could spill the beans and finger Dorri.
     
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    Maybe the raid was an attempt to replace as many people as possible with doppelgangers, and that's why so many of the defenders lived (they died and were replaced with a doppelganger) and so many attackers died (the doppelganger that was pretending to be them is now pretending to be someone else).
     
    The Lone badger said:
    Maybe the raid was an attempt to replace as many people as possible with doppelgangers, and that's why so many of the defenders lived (they died and were replaced with a doppelganger) and so many attackers died (the doppelganger that was pretending to be them is now pretending to be someone else).
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    Uh, no, most of us lived because we achieved local superiority at almost all points and crushed them with greater concentration of force, defeating them in detail. And only a third of all Fatalities will generally stick to boot, and Halla's good enough at field medicine that anyone who doesn't meet their Fated Day will be up and running for the next fight again. They got stackwiped because routing in the middle of enemy territory generally means "Everyone dies unless you can outrun everyone else", a tough prospect when Vikings are involved.

    It's actually ludicrously unfair how much endurance she adds to any unit she's attached to.
     
    Bass11 said:
    I mean there is an easier option here, Dorri got impersonated by the doppleganger who provided the funds from another third party and used Peter Flamestepper to invite the raid. And Peter Flamestepper might have been chosen because he could spill the beans and finger Dorri.
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    Dorri is a harder possession target than a kid, I'd bet. We've also been around him and seen no signs. But we'd want to test him as well if we can arrange it, yes.
     
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