I've got 20 points, so 5 to Selous (because I want that to go well, what with Frosting being mine-ish) and then I'll put the rest in the Davy Jones thing to max it out?
Thanks, but TempestK informed us that there would be three rolls to the Davy Jones encounter: Introductions, diplomactic talk and separation. Currently the diplomatic talk is maxed but there is nothing in the other two. Do you want to max one or split the point between them?
I mean, the British EITC seems to have eaten the Dutch EITC, and a few other colonial interests. I'm not sure about Dutch naval power at this time period, but it should be fairly hefty.
EDIT: Also, we can't forget that OTL the center of the British EITC was India. Here, India's a predator ruled wasteland. At least they have the ahistorical early Singapore? (Singapore OTL was founded in 1819, but we're working with Pirates of the Caribbean logic here, so it's already a thriving hive of scum and villainy.)
Singapore existed for centuries before that, but then the Portuguese burned the place out in the early 1600s, as I understand it. Maybe in the Pirates of the Caribbean timeline, that just didn't stick.
Thanks, but TempestK informed us that there would be three rolls to the Davy Jones encounter: Introductions, diplomactic talk and separation. Currently the diplomatic talk is maxed but there is nothing in the other two. Do you want to max one or split the point between them?
Of course at the same time we have no idea the kinds of DCs involved in this mess; though I doubt they're easy. I mean, this is POTC Davy Jones we're talking about. The 'man' isn't exactly what one would call friendly.
Okay, here's the current XP breakdown. All bonuses max out at 15:
Martial: 14 (CyberPhilosopher)
Stewardship: + 12 (TirelessTraveler) + 3 (mangawriter77) MAXED OUT
Diplomacy: + 15 (TirelessTraveler) MAXED OUT
Intrigue: + 15 (TirelessTraveler) MAXED OUT
Learning 1 (Heart Shaped Herb): 9 (Swedish15) + 6 (Tnoz) MAXED OUT
Learning 2 (A Green Thumb): 4 (Tnoz)
Occult: + 5 (TirelessTraveler)
Davy Jones Meeting
Introductions + 15 (CyberPhilosopher) MAXED OUT
Diplomacy + 10 (Jowlfe_beta) + 5 (MangaWriter77) MAXED OUT
Seperation + 15 (Thzomp) MAXED OUT
Life's a Zoo: + 15 (TirelessTraveler) MAXED OUT
Will: N/A, no roll, no XP needed
Tai Lung: + 6 (lifeandlice) + 9 (DaOneInDaCorner) MAXED OUT
Leah: + 15 (Swedish15) MAXED OUT
Selous: + 10 (TirelessTraveler) +5 (Thzomp) MAXED OUT
Martial: Create an army DC 20/40/80
Stewardship: Hold a grand market festival DC 40/80
Stewardship: Find a skilled merchant DC ???
Diplomacy: Take over local cronies DC 30/60/90
Intrigue: Search for Gummi Bear Magic DC 50/90
Learning: Plant an additional Gummi Berry bed DC 10
Occult: Search for a Court Magician DC 45/90
Igthorn: Write a Letter to Lady Bane DC 60/90
King Sigmund Igthorn Quest Phase 2 Turn 3
Well, now this is a sight. Dunwyn is yours, and the populace has come to accept you as their leader. People bustle through the castle square, preparing for both the mustering and the festival. Of course, cursed Gregor is still at large, and who knows what those damned Gummi Bears are up to - but you cannot do anything about this right now. So, you concentrate on what you *can* do.
Your braves are your elite troops, and they're both experienced and loyal, but that's not all you need. Looking at the scrolls, you think you can have a standing army again - it would, by necessity, be small after starving Dunwyn for a year, but it would be an essential defense.
You succeed beyond your wildest dreams. Somehow, your rough, aggressive *bandits* are well-liked by your civilians. The fact that they're able to show their ostentatious wealth, gained by pilfering the dead queen's jewelry, only makes them respected by those who do not know *how* that money was earned.
Regardless, within the month, you're able to field two banners of (inexperienced) pikemen and another one of archers. It'll take time to get good longbowmen, maybe longer than your lifetime - but you are working on it! And even more importantly, if you train these men correctly, if you *have* to go to war, they'll serve as sergeants and officers, increasing the effectiveness of your levies a dozen times over. You know, after all, what a difference good leadership makes!
Results: Three banners gained
(20 men each, inexperienced)
Cost 200 Gold/month
The festival is a success - not a rousing one, but still, dozens of wagons from all over the greater area peddle their wares. Be they sweets from the north, fish from the south, artworks of the Welsh, or beer from the city. (The latter you turn down, gladly.) The people enjoy the opportunity to trade with such remote partners. You enjoy the profits on the tariffs. Everybody wins, well, except Gregor, but who counts him?
Results: Market Festival held
Trade Routes stabilized (+100 Gold per turn)
Gain +5 to Find a Skilled Merchant
DC 40/80: 21 + 16 + 10 (Toadie) = 47
And there's even a tiny yet fierce weapons merchant! Red vest, black hair tied in pigtails, she can't be much older than the dreaded Ca... don't think the name. Don't think the name, Igthorn.
Either way, the girl is standing in front of a wagon called "Knives'n'More" and surrounded by at least two dozens of blades of commendable quality.
"Hello, my dear. I'm King Igthorn. Let us talk business..."
Gained contact: Vex
Gained supply run for weapons
Gained enough weapons for 200 men-at-arms
Lost 1000 gold
Vex will return in two turns; you can then make a plea for her permanent services.
DC ???: 90 + 16 + 10 (Toadie) + 5 = 121
Things you never considered to be your problem: Being too skilled. You have played at being the good King. Of course, you have your spies and a small crew of criminals who work with you, but you have created a good set of laws, at least for both your men and the local populace, and enacted them with efficiency. And now you look for clerks and other staff, preferably pre-corrupted so you can put them quickly into your pocket.
And they're all gone. All of them. Not a single one listed by your spies is still in the city.
You can't help but facepalm. You are, indeed, suffering from success.
Results: Failure. Cronies seem to have fled Dunwyn. You have relatively new, naive, underqualified, and as of yet uncorrupted clerks as a staff.
+1 Stress
You know, roughly, where the Glen of the Gummi Bears is. So, accompanied only by faithful Toadie - such a wretched creature, really, but he's stuck with you through all your problems, and that loyalty accounts for something - you descend into the depths. The Glen is still ravaged in parts by the super termite's wrath, both your most significant coup and the reason for your downfall.
The two of you search for hours, with Toadie trying to cheer up with his useless noises. "Oh, great King, look at this trinket! Loyal Toadie has found something!"
These findings are invariably useless, but when your sole remaining ogre stumbles and falls down some stairs, you find a remaining... wooden sled? In some kind of metal tube? You check the mechanism - and you cannot see the necessary drive. Downwards, yes, gravity will do the thing, but how to get these sleds back up?
Especially since they seem to be ready to go at a moment's notice...
Results: You have found the remains of the Gummi Bear Glen. The Great Book and the Amulet seem to be gone, but you have found some kind of technology that surpasses your own
Gained decision: Will you 'volunteer' Toadie for a test ride?
DC 50/90: 37 + 25 + 10 (Toadie) = 72
You plant a second bed of Gummi Berries. You use your own balcony this time, carefully planting the seeds and watering with just the right amount. You neither drown them, nor dry them out, you put manure with a tiny trowel on the plants, you speak to them, yell at them a bit. It is a welcome break from stupidity and lack of fitness for the task.
Results: Second Gummi Berry bed planted. Berries are blossoming well.
Discovered the soothing effects of gardening: Stress reduced by 1
DC 10: 51 + 21 + 10 (Toadie) = 82
Looking at the scrolls, at your alchemic repertoire, you realize something dreadful: You need a mage to support you. You're good, for a layman, with arcane terms and strange concoctions. But as long as Lady Bane still spurns your advances, you are dreadfully open on that flank, and in the empire of a sorceress, that is not a safe position. You begin to compose a missive to the Association when somebody knocks on the door.
You gesture to Toadie to open it, and a short, somewhat round man enters your chamber. He's dressed humbly, a long red shirt under a brown vest. His eyebrows are bushy, unkempt, and as white as the remainders of his hair.
"King Igthorn," he says with a courtly bow that belies his well-cared yet also well-worn clothing.
"My name is Dallben, and I have left my home to serve as your court magician. I am an enchanter of some skill, and I can cast divinations with, as you will admit admirable precision. I would love to speak with you longer, but...."
And the world goes dark and green as you realize the magic of Europe's Mistress grabs you, tears you through the place between places. Your heart, your heaaaaaart!
Results: Crit enhanced result by one level
Gained Court Magician: Dallben
You fall on black stone, forced into kneeling by the agonizing pain in your chest. Your crown, thankfully, doesn't fall off your head. The room is large and cold, and the large throne on the dais in front of you is intimidating.
But not as much as its occupant. The Empress of Magic, she who has woven her spells into you in exchange for her aid, she who rules with an iron fist within a soft silken glove, looks down upon you. Her beauty is beyond compare - even the lovely Lady Bane withers against her, whose every movement is graceful like a swan. Besides her sits a well-dressed and probably good-looking man, cowering, brown hair shaggy. He is shivering, and barely aware of you, but you do not think him weak. You have seen these symptoms before, after all, when men drank too much of the juice at once. And if Kriemhild keeps him by her side, he must have potential.
Your ally - for you are the sole remaining King on the Isles of Albia who does not need to bend his knee, even if the pain pushes you down - arises. The sable of her cloak only contrasts her pale skin, and she speaks with a firm voice.
"King Igthorn", and here she bows, "I call upon you to return the favor I once gave you. Within a year, the French will attack the shores of our islands. They will bring black magic, blasphemous rituals, and hordes of men. They will bear strange weapons, stranger armor. I need you to do this: Throw them back into the sea. Muster your armies, and I shall clad them in magic. Call your banners, and lead them against the hordes of the mad Pope. Win, and I shall consider your debt repaid. Lose, and all of us are forfeit. Four seasons I shall hold back their attack. Then I will use my powers to bring you to a close with the enemy. Prepare well, King Igthorn."
Then, with another wave, you are sent back. You crash into your bed, cold sweat running down your body. You have been given a literal deadline, and strange enemies will come, and your kingdom has just started to rally again.
But you are King Sigmund Igthorn.
The French Army will fail.
Results: Stress +3 (Unplanned teleportation, favor's tugged, war incoming)
You have six turns before the French arrive. Best prepare.
INTERRUPTED
Current status:
Stress: 6/10
Dunwyn Loyalty: 6
Warband Loyalty: 20
City Funds: 11,620
City income: 5,650
1000 Local Tax Revenue
1600 Trade Tax Revenue
1000 Wood harvesting
400 Granite trade
1000 Trade with Lady Bane (Alchemic ingredients) + 10% = 1100
500 Trade with Jean-Claude + 10% = 550
Current Upkeep costs: 500 Mercenaries (Igthorn's Own), 500 Sawmills, 250 Trade Caravan Protection Detail, 200 Quarry Upkeep, 50 Alchemic production line upkeep, 200 Standing Army
2,300 Upkeep total
Actual Income: 3,350
First of all, sorry this took so long to come out. I had some personal health issues - which aren't all cleared up yet, but thankfully the treatment has become less time-consuming.
The French Army has mustered for some turns now, but Kriemhild has realized the threat and tasked her best general with solving the problem. Yeah, that's you - you might be allies, but Kriemhild for *sure* thinks you're her inferior. Well, you can change that, of course...
And no. You do not get any bonus except Dallben on the crit. Why? Check his character sheet. And he's starting relatively loyal to you. Which, for a good-aligned character, is a rarity. As for how powerful Dallben is - if he had Hen Wen and was willing to use her oracular powers and have some preparation time? He could go toe-to-toe with almost any mage in this setting - and that includes some of the victorious villains. Thankfully, he's too humble and too averse to war for this.
Oh, and while Gregor has been quiet, that does not mean he has been inactive. Call back, if you may, to the early turns of this quest...
Martial - 5 - Dallben is not a warrior, but his humble life has kept him relatively fit, even in his advanced age.
Stewardship - 8 - Not shrewd, not too cunning as a merchant, Dallben is intelligent and wise enough to keep his affairs in order.
Diplomacy - 12 - Dallben is courteous, kind, wise, and clever. Just because he is no longer at court or isn't able to take Taran properly to task, that doesn't mean he's terrible at interpersonal relationships.
Intrigue - 10??? - There is something strange about Dallben. But from what you can see... you don't *think* he's a liar.
Learning - 20 - One of the supreme enchanters of the realm, able to weave spells and keep a proper farm. Oh, and there have been stories of him going back at least 200 years...
Occult - 28 - Master of the Book of Three. That is all that needs to be said.
Prowess - 25 - Dallben is not a warrior, and no man has ever died by his hand. But his spells are enough to arrest even the Horned King for a short time.
TRAITS
Master Enchanter - Dallben is almost hilariously overqualified at creating magic gear. Just because he doesn't want to and tries to use magic only when needed, he knows what to do, when, and how. +15 to all rolls concerning Enchantment.
Master Diviner - Even without Hen Wen, Dallben knows what's up. +15 to all rolls concerning Divination.
[???] - undiscovered
[???] - Not available
EDIT: After conferring with TempestK, I'll switch Igthorn to the two-months long turns of the main quest, thus you have 6 turns until the French arrive.
Absolutely stunning work! I love that Calla's name is apparently one that Igthorn doesn't even want to think for fear of her appearing. And wow, Grimhilde has seriously upped her game.
