Northern Winds

[] Keep working in the kitchens and get to know your fellow slaves better.

Stability and probably opportunities to explore that trapdoor further (assuming its not under guard).

[] Serve the food for the guards, allowing you to roam and explore the clanhold some more.

Also a relative bit of stability, plus probably a lot more information about everything ongoing.

[] Keep your normal duties, but try to meet Nóri again. If you can get him to like you, he might be your way to freedom.

Feels a bit too chancy for me, given Nóri's reputation as a playboy.

[] Tend to the goats and see if you can convince Nechtan to let you come along to the markets.

I like this option, but at the same time there will definitely not be any chance of escape this way, IMO. They'll be watching Slaves who go outside the Clanhold very carefully.

[X] It seems Rannveig will not be eating with the family any time soon. Serve her food and try to get into her good graces.

I'm not sure there's enough time for us to work our way into her good graces before she sets off raiding, but it doesn't hurt to try.
 
I'm not sure there's enough time for us to work our way into her good graces before she sets off raiding, but it doesn't hurt to try.
It will likely take her months to organize something and it would be difficult for her to get a fleet together that would be able to safely traverse the seas in the middle of winter.
 
"She said that she would no longer stay at home while her father heaps glory on her brother to make him his heir. She wants to raid something in the west to prove herself." Towards the end, the other woman seemed to regain her composure, quiet unlike the feast hall who became louder and louder again. "I'm not sure myself what the axe means, but it seems she just declared a grudge against her father."

Suddenly it made a lot of sense that there now were clan members shouting at each other in the hall. There were even a few altercations that seemed on the way to becoming full blown fist fight. What became of it, you did not know, because that was the moment Ingomer grabbed your wrist and dragged you to the nearest door. It was unlikely that anyone missed the two of you.
Holy shit. o_O It's a good thing we're just a slave right now. I would not want to be caught in the middle of that.

[X] Serve the food for the guards, allowing you to roam and explore the clanhold some more.
 
It will likely take her months to organize something and it would be difficult for her to get a fleet together that would be able to safely traverse the seas in the middle of winter.

Oh, right. The feast was held because the raiding season was over.

That just makes choosing her even easier.
 
[x] It seems Rannveig will not be eating with the family any time soon. Serve her food and try to get into her good graces.

Dangerous in our position, but could also pay off.

Getting into her good graces might worsen our standing with the other clan members who would be staying. Depends on whether they are petty enough to get back at her through other means.
 
[X] Tend to the goats and see if you can convince Nechtan to let you come along to the markets.

Seems the most in character choice from the internal monologue so far. It's our best chance to see more of the city as well, which I'm curious about, even if we don't have the freedom to explore it.
 
[X] Serve the food for the guards, allowing you to roam and explore the clanhold some more.

Makes us more liked with the soldiery and gives us more knowledge about the holdings, because knowing how to move in here will be important for a former thief. We want to be a able to roam there freely with no one suspecting a thing.
 
[X] Serve the food for the guards, allowing you to roam and explore the clanhold some more.

Bottom line of this is that we'll have a mite bit more sympathy if we are caught doing something... improper.
We'd just have to bluff the shit of ourselves acting as if we didn't know that we made a faux paste.

I'm honestly not sure what we are trying to do IC long-term.
Are we trying to escape?
Go up the social ladder?
Find something extra-magical and then escape?
 
[X] Tend to the goats and see if you can convince Nechtan to let you come along to the markets.
 
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Hmm, i'm undecided between serving the guards and trying to accompany Nechtan to the markets. I guess my greatest priority right now would be trying to learn the language as soon as possible...
And since Nechtan is the only one, apparently, willing to extend an open hand, i guess I'll go with that. The guards might not care to exchange a fw broken words with us.

[X] Tend to the goats and see if you can convince Nechtan to let you come along to the markets.
 
[X] Serve the food for the guards, allowing you to roam and explore the clanhold some more.

Bottom line of this is that we'll have a mite bit more sympathy if we are caught doing something... improper.
We'd just have to bluff the shit of ourselves acting as if we didn't know that we made a faux paste.

I'm honestly not sure what we are trying to do IC long-term.
Are we trying to escape?
Go up the social ladder?
Find something extra-magical and then escape?
This does bring up a good point. At some stage we're going to need to figure out what our goals are IC. Right now we're just a slave girl trying to keep her head down.
 
For the time being, I'm assuming "getting your freedom back" to be the main goal, since there hasn't been anything else that was articulated in the thread.

On another note, you will keep learning the language regardless of what is chosen here.
 
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For the time being, I'm assuming "getting your freedom back" to be the main goal, since there hasn't been anything else that was articulated in the thread.

On another note, you will keep learning the language regardless of what is chosen here.
Duly noted.

I guess in pursuit of that...

1. Learn the language, obviously
2. Get as many good contacts/friends from among the slaves, servants, and guards as possible
3. Learn as much about the local culture as we can to figure out the best path to freedom
4. Find some way to get our own assets and keep them safe from others (hiding weapons or something in a special hiding place)
5. Learn how to defend ourselves
6. Figure out what the hell we do once we're free
 
It would've been so much simpler to prioritize things had we gone for the route to holding Infinite Cosmic Power 😢
 
Pretty even split of the votes so far. Mind, you can always use approval voting if more then one option is appealing.
Adhoc vote count started by Azel on Jun 15, 2020 at 4:37 AM, finished with 16 posts and 10 votes.

  • [X] Serve the food for the guards, allowing you to roam and explore the clanhold some more.
    [X] Tend to the goats and see if you can convince Nechtan to let you come along to the markets.
    [X] It seems Rannveig will not be eating with the family any time soon. Serve her food and try to get into her good graces.
    [X] Keep working in the kitchens and get to know your fellow slaves better.
 
To be honest, it's a nice change to play a quest in which the protagonist isn't somehow Chosen or respected or overwhelmingly magical or whatever.
Well, such tropes are rather common because they slot the character right into the center of attention without spending any narrative effort on it. Can be good. Can be bad.

The downside of not doing it is the rather slow start of this quest.
 
Ah, I approve of the nice change of pace of this Quest.
That said, I cannot refrain from being extremely curious about runes, and would like our character to learn them. In my dreams Isee an apprenticeship to a shaman/priest to the northern gods...

Well, until then, let's make sure we have the means to survive

4. Find some way to get our own assets and keep them safe from others (hiding weapons or something in a special hiding place)
This especially seems like it could be quite important, seeing as the internal politics of this clan seem to be quite liberal with violence.
 
This especially seems like it could be quite important, seeing as the internal politics of this clan seem to be quite liberal with violence.
We're a slave though. Being armed (even for self-defense) all the time is not possible, so us hiding a weapon would only be useful for escaping, or comitting premeditated violence on another (which will likely end very badly for us, as we're a slave and likely to be punished extremely harshly if caught).
And fighting non-slaves sounds like something that we could be punished for regardless of what happens. Slave, again.
Honestly, our best bet in these situations is to hide, run, and/or talk our way out of it. We're basically furniture, so we may as well get the benefits in this one situation where it's actually convenient not to be a person with agency!

If you want to improve out ability to actually physically defend ourselves in a fight, IMO it'd be better to try to learn self-defense without weapons (dodging, maybe grappling, perhaps making or finding improvised weapons...). And that sounds difficult to arrange, to say the least.
 
If you want to improve out ability to actually physically defend ourselves in a fight, IMO it'd be better to try to learn self-defense without weapons (dodging, maybe grappling, perhaps making or finding improvised weapons...). And that sounds difficult to arrange, to say the least.
You do know some good old street brawling. Nothing remotely impressive, but it's better then nothing.

I'm still agonizing over which system to use for this quest, so sorry about not having a character sheet up yet.
 
[X] Serve the food for the guards, allowing you to roam and explore the clanhold some more.

Usefull contacts, more general info, probably will keep Nori away for a time, sneaking, maybe a smithy contact.
 
Added an informational threadmark that tracks the important people you've met or heard about.

Also, since it doesn't seem as if there will be any more votes, vote closed.
Adhoc vote count started by Azel on Jun 15, 2020 at 5:14 PM, finished with 24 posts and 11 votes.

  • [X] Serve the food for the guards, allowing you to roam and explore the clanhold some more.
    [X] Tend to the goats and see if you can convince Nechtan to let you come along to the markets.
    [X] It seems Rannveig will not be eating with the family any time soon. Serve her food and try to get into her good graces.
    [X] Keep working in the kitchens and get to know your fellow slaves better.
 
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