Of Winding Ways and Cunning Devices
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy Alt. History
@DragonParadox quest on hiatus?
It is not, will update today or tomorrow.
Vote closed, lets see how this goes
Arc 1 Post 27: Words in the Wind
Words in the Wind
7th of June 867 A.D.
In truth you might have missed your quarry if you did not stop at every likely place to provide shelter from the rain You eventually manage to find the girl drawn up under the shadow of an old knotted willow tree looking less royal and more like something the cat dragged in, not that you would be able to tell that from Helgi's reaction. Like he had found the sun and moon under a bushel. Doing your best not to laugh you and Ular draw back to let the youngsters talk and... plot.
From the way their hands tighten against one another you suspect there will be more talking of soft matters of the heart than anything else, but such are the demands of youth. More troubling is the fact that the girl does not seem to know who among her people would have cause to attack Rurik by stealth. Trade with the north in furs amber and good lumber is one of the more profitable route the Khazars have and there is little appetite in the court of the khagans for a war under the trees or at least so the lady claims. This must be a plot among the long houses of Rurik's folk... and the ones who would most profit are obvious: the brothers Signjótr and Thorvardur.
Even so someone had gathered men dressed in the manner of the steppe horsemen, you point out, someone had bid them kill the king and they had not been shy about their arrows. "A lucky bolt could have gone through his eye sure as the tide turns in the morning," you point out darkly. "If you would accuse the kin of the king lady be careful that you are accusing them of attempted murder and not some petty plot."
"That's... I didn't mean..." the young lady stutters. "I should just go before I make more trouble than I'm worth."
"You are the only one who can unknot this plot, likely as not why you were pushed to flee," you point out grimly.
So the four of you ride back among the little villages, turning round and round what you knew about the plot. One of the mead wenches to at the hall had come in the middle of the night with a message to Tzitzak claiming that the king intended to go to war with her people and that she would be made a hostage, she had ignored it as best she could at first, but the whispers, the omens had only grown. Even your own coming and the suggestion to send Helgi south had been taken as a a prelude of war with the Khazars.
There had been talk of how the horselords have been giving aid and succor to the inland tribes in an attempt to push the norsemen back into the sea and worse yet omens of battle, writ in the flight of birds and in the flooding of the spring rivers. Yet as you and Ular had heard little of all this, for what it's worth neither has Helgi, someone had been winding up Tzitzak like a bolt-caster, the only question is who the bolt had been aimed at in the end.
***
So it is with a weary gait that you ride back under the oaken gates of Alode-joki wondering which of them men throwing dark looks to your companion and muttering into their beard have more than rumors on their mind. Knowing as you do that plots spread like mushrooms in the dark you ride at once to the king's hall to place Tzitzak under his eye.
"Great king, warrior bold, know that I mean you no evil and only good, I did not give aid to men who brought steel against you, nor would I rejoice in the blood-spilling..."
As the proclamation goes out, spoken with fire and with passion, you look around the hall, the trestle tables far from their feast-time abundance, flat black bread, leaks and onions, jugs of milk in dubious states of souring and sour are the looks of the warriors beneath their beards, but at the call of the king the helms and arms of the enemy are brought out for Tzitzak to give account of.
"These are of the Mayaski tribe far and away to the south of here, they made a habit of taking Greek gold and now they will work for any who would pay them, they have no honor and no kin-but- blood-kin. Ask their masters in Constantinople what cause they would have to quarrel with you not the khagan."
"Easy it is to blame the Greeks who are not here," Rurik-king says from atop his blackened throne, his face like a thunder-cloud. "Until such a time as it is proven to me that the khagan did not seek my death by stealth-killing all traders of his people will be barred from this city and all my lands and further Lady Tzitzak of the Khazars will be kept as hostage."
"Father, no...!" You press a hand on Helgi's shoulder. No king could afford do turn his words just because of an impassioned plea and no prince should attempt it.
Looks like you will have more than an education to find in the City of the World's Desire. Still the boy's misfortune is not reflected onto you and Ular, you had recovered a fugitive and acquitted yourselves well in the ambush. Perhaps you might parley this favor into unraveling the plot you find yourselves in the midst of.
What do you do next?
[] Liv has an interest in seeing the city and the markets take her along
[] Buy goods for the journey south
[] Look into the king's brothers, perhaps they have been meeting with those they oughtn't of late
[] Write in
OOC: Well, that did not go as well as might have been hoped, but at least you now have a name for the assassins and a place of origin.
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- Location
- yorkshire
[X] Liv has an interest in seeing the city and the markets take her along
- Location
- Germany
@DragonParadox
Please don't take this too negativly, but are we ever getting to the start of regular turns or something like that?
You have announced and labeled it as a CKII Advisor Quest and so far we have spend about 4 months and well over 30 posts going around in a way not too different from our adventurer-protagonists in other quests of yours, just less mechanic-heavy.
It's not bad, but not really what I joined up for either...
Please don't take this too negativly, but are we ever getting to the start of regular turns or something like that?
You have announced and labeled it as a CKII Advisor Quest and so far we have spend about 4 months and well over 30 posts going around in a way not too different from our adventurer-protagonists in other quests of yours, just less mechanic-heavy.
It's not bad, but not really what I joined up for either...
I mean you are in Rurik's court, solve this and you can become his learning or intrigue advisor.
- Location
- Russia
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Honestly, this is certainly what I am looking for!
[X] Look into the king's brothers, perhaps they have been meeting with those they oughtn't of late
Rolen von Keng
Sleeping Green Bear
- Location
- The Wilderness
[X] Look into the king's brothers, perhaps they have been meeting with those they oughtn't of late
Vote closed, looks like we are looking into the King's brothers.
Arc 1 Post 28: A Story for the Birds
A Story for the Birds
8th of June 867 A.D.
It is not hard to find people willing to talk about Signjótr's 'unseemly drinking', by which you gather he is none too discerning about fighting or flirting when he is in his cups or Thorvardur' temper which had seen two men fall in Holmgang in the last year according to Thyra, but being bad at holding your mead poorly is not treason, nor being bloody minded in either twist of the word. After all both men are known for being skilled warrior and 'loyal as their torques shine'. Gold their bear upon their arms, a gift from Rurik King and golden he counts their words, but they never seem to ask for anything too expansive. Not once, Thyra confudes had either man asked for a village of his own, a fort with cattle and fields of barley which might in time be counted a threat to the rule of Rurik, still a sapling in a land of mighty oaks.
To your ears that rings as loud and urgent an alarm as fire bells at the dockyards, folk lacking in ambition do not linger next to thrones to give counsel out of their unending love of the one on the throne. That is as much a fantasy of kings as an man of two hundred thinks a lover a quarter his age sought him out for his skills in the bedchamber.
The drink is poor, the bones roll worse and raucousness of the locals far less endearing now that you have to drag secrets out of them, but other than some offers of dubious cargo to carry south 'mixed furs' and 'judges of honey' you gain nothing for it, until that is a familiar red-haired girl pops up with news unbidden.
Anything Obvious?: 30 +14 (intrigue) +5 (Connections) = 49 (Partial Success)
"Thorvardur beat up a boy named Bjorn last week, broke his arm. I heard it from one of his friends while they were playing toga-honk on the south field by Sigurn's smithy," Liv proclaims.
"So what is what you have been spending your days with eh, watching boys drag each other through the mud pulling on a rope?" you laugh, though as much in relief at being out of the windowless longhouse filled with third and fourth sons bound and determined to make up for the sour mead by boasting twice as hard.
Alas your teasing seems to have flown entirely off mark as the girl simply continues her story. "It was cause Bjorn shot a pigeon so the story goes that he was saving it to gift to some lady that struck his fancy. Well that is the most common one at least, but the rest are silly, he was saving it for his favorite stew or that he was trying to do seid with it.,"
You are only listening with half an ear, knowing all too well what pigeons were good for, neither stew nor sorcery, but letters to places far off. the Army had used it when you had been part of it, though only for messages from one fortress to another because the birds were none too clever and they could only return whence they had come. Which means someone must have brought them to Alode-joki...
Looking Around the Marketplace : 65 +12 = 77 (Success)
Lost 5 Silver Ships
***
10th of June 867 A.D.
It takes two more days of searching and creasing no small number of palms with silver, but you find your war to Hrolf the Herder, a thin sun-burned fellow with a mess of hair that had almost been bleached white before his time. He had not been a herder in a long time if rumors were to be believed, he traded down south with the Greeks... and perhaps with the Khazars. The question now is how do you get the man to talk? If he is part of a conspiracy a direct question will see him seal up faster than Ular's purse passing a brothel, but if he is just a patsy well the peril of drawing the ire of the king should be enough to get him singing like a lark.
What do you do?
[] Tell the merchant the pigeons he carried north might be involved in treachery most foul
[] Bribery should do the trick, coin will often loosen the most stubborn tongue
-[] Write in upper limit
[] Try to trick the answer out of him by talking about trade with the south in general and bringing up live cargo
[] Write in
OOC I know I have not been updating this as often as some of my other quests, but it is still alive as you can see.
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Welcome back
- Location
- yorkshire
[X] Try to trick the answer out of him by talking about trade with the south in general and bringing up live cargo
- Location
- Russia
- Pronouns
- He/Him
And I am glad of this!
By the way, maybe you'll add "Finding a spark" into signature?
[X] Try to trick the answer out of him by talking about trade with the south in general and bringing up live cargo
Rolen von Keng
Sleeping Green Bear
- Location
- The Wilderness
[X] Try to trick the answer out of him by talking about trade with the south in general and bringing up live cargo
