- Pronouns
- They/Them
Vote closed, update on Wednesday.
The Lost Files (C:TL/Dresden Files) (CK2-ish)
- Thread starter The Laurent
- Start date
Ghost to Ghost, Part 5
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Ghost to Ghost, Part 5
[X] "I call myself a 'Changeling.': This would of course make sure not to hint at the fact, at least not yet, that there are over a hundred of them in this city. Details revealed would be that she was taken away by a being through the 'Hedge' and changed in certain ways, but that she then escaped and has powers based on this. Deeper information would be avoided, and the goal of this approach would be to set up a means to justify gaining more information on Wizards in the future in the guise of an 'exchange' of information.
"What am I?" Cora asked, her voice calm and level, "I call myself a Changeling. You have seen the Hedge, have you not?"
"Yes," Gabe said, frowning, looking at her. Cora did not like when someone looked at her that way, because it was clear that there was more going on. Perhaps Gabe was running through the etymology of the word, or perhaps it had a different meaning here than elsewhere. As a name, in some ways it was a contradiction of some ways it was used: the Changeling was the one taken, not the one left, and yet in a way it was even truer.
Some of her research and studies in anthropology had covertly looked at the way cultures explained, or even explained away, the fact of the abduction and the Fetches, though it was easier than one would think.
"There are beings that can be reached via the Hedge," she said, since if she said they were 'in the Hedge' that would technically be a lie, "One of these beings abducted me some time ago. I was made into the savior of the dead, comforter and member. There are parallels in some Buddhist mythology, if distorted. My form changed to match what was being done to me, then I escaped. I have some of the power of that place, of my escape, in me."
"It hides who I am, physically except from certain methods of seeing," Cora said, and that was a very careful way of hiding the fact that all Changelings could see her as she was.
Lillian was staring at her, and there was that pity, "God."
"Perhaps the being would like to think it is one," Cora said, "I never asked."
"...what are these things called?" Gabe asked
Fae existed in this world, so calling them the 'True Fae' would cause alarm that wasn't necessary.
"The Gentry is what many call them. Now," Cora said, "In this case I would like some reciprocity. I have asked about the Laws of Magic before, and I was not given a full answer."
"So you don't know…" Gabe began, and frowned at Cora. "My Sight, it saw all sorts of things and I'm not sure how to pull it all apart. Yet, the near soulgaze, and that someone did something like that to you--"
"What happened is in the past, and I have more pressing matters. Your pity is something I do not need now," Cora said.
"I'm sorry," Lillian said, "We don't need to press you about it. It's not something I'd ever want to think about."
Cora nodded, and Gabe eventually said, "Sure...so the Laws of Magic. Sure, I'll tell you about them, though I'm...not sure if they'd apply to you, though they'd apply if any of the Practitioners used it against you."
Information was already flowing in, and it seemed that the personal nature of her revelation gave it a certain value. That too was a trick she'd learned by watching others. Mayor Booster would give someone a small piece of himself, his favorite color, a childhood memory carefully stripped of any possible weakness, and he'd do it just right so that people thought it was a precious fragment, a shard of his true self lovingly given to them, and they'd smile and tell him things that were a hundred times more important than the information he had given.
This wasn't quite the same, but it was close.
So she waited.
"The first law," Lillian began, "Thou shall not kill--"
"People. With magic," Gabe said, "Harming people with magic is alright, and killing people without magic, or killing non-human beings with magic, it's all fine--"
"Legal," Lillian said, eyes hard, "Legal."
"Yeah, it's wrong to kill people, but it's with Magic that gets the Wardens chasing after you."
Another word to know. In the context, it was clear these were the law enforcement to some extent of these rules, though 'do not kill' seemed so very restrictive of a clause.
"And they are deadly, despite refraining from magic?"
"They can use magic, and there are even circumstances where they can use magic to kill others, such as if a Warlock is impossible to deal with otherwise and is harming many people in the process. A sword, a gun, and magic to set everything up is enough, my mentor used to say."
Her mentor, and from the way she phrased it, from the way she was frowning, it was clear that there was some form of master-and-apprentice system, and more than that, Cora thought…
Yes.
Gabe's master was a Warden.
Interesting. "Understood. Second Law?"
"Never transform another," Gabe said.
Cora knew of at least five methods using Sorcery that could temporarily transform people into animals, or other such forms, though msot of them came with drawbacks that made it best as a prank or a way to humiliate someone. The most common method, for instance, also made the victim invulnerable to more than minor physical harm and twisted the Wyrd so that it tended to end as, well, a comedy. Hence why it was called 'Bottom's Complaint.' It could certainly ruin a life if used right--comedy did not mean nice--but it was a limited tool.
None of that would track with it being a rule, so Cora tried to think about the matter. It was a little strange, because she had to discard assumptions she had internalized. The Wyrd dealt with any potential issues involving brain size, getting stuck, and other such complexities.
If someone didn't have that, then it would be rather dangerous, and potentially there were moral hazards added to it.
"Third law?"
"You...don't want to know more about it?" Gabe asked, and Cora realized that Gabe had expected her to comment on how she herself had been transformed. Changed.
"Not at the moment, though a full precis of the conditions would no doubt be helpful," Cora said absently.
"Never invade the thoughts of another."
That's another rule she didn't intend on keeping, but she was curious, "What counts as invasion?"
"Why, have you…" Gabe began, biting her lip.
"I do not think I qualify for your laws in any respect, and I might tell you more about it at some later date." A truth, but a meaningless one, because of the 'might.' She had to be careful. So far everything she had been told was true...at least so far as Gabe knew.
"Fourth Law," Lillian said, "Never enthrall another."
"Change their mind, their emotions, control it," Gabe said, "It's liable to do long-term harm to their minds."
Cora Graves was starting to wonder just how she was going to gradually introduce Changelings if apparently the Court Contracts were themselves a horrible law violation (and she knew that cultures tended to regard violations of their law with moral disgust even when the violators were not beholden to said law) that was mentioned on the same list as murder.
It was...a troubling matter to deal with.
But it wasn't a case where she could think of a solution right now, other than to hide it all in half-shadows, try to get an understanding of the relative harm, and hope that the 'human but not a Practitioner' umbrella was capable of sheltering them from the wrath of these Wizards.
There was a fierce part of her that was no doubt a shadow of Maggie's own views that said 'Let them try.' Yet that wasn't a very wise sort of thought to have, and so she allowed herself to consider it on its face. This would be an interesting thing to work around.
"The fifth law is to never reach beyond the borders of life. Raising the dead, creating zombies, but ghosts don't count in this respect," Lillian said.
"Ah, very well," Cora said.
"The sixth law is to never swim against the stream of time. Going backwards in time can wind up doing a huge amount of harm to everything and everyone," Gabe pointed out, and this was certainly a law that it was difficult for Cora to object to. Since Cora knew of no way for her, or most Changelings for that matter, to break it, it probably wouldn't be a sticking point. "The final law is never to seek knowledge and power beyond the Outer Gates."
"I...still don't really know what that means, entirely," Lillian admitted.
"Which is how it should be," Gabe said, "I don't know much, but learning more about it is a path to...problems. Deep problems."
Ah. The Outer Gates. And then there was the book that tried to drive men mad and open some sort of gateway or otherwise use the symbolic power of the Marble Arches of St. Louis as a spring-board.
So, Cora thought, that was another thing they must never know.
"Very well, I assume you'll be telling your superiors about me?"
"Y-yeah, I'm going to have to kick it all the way up there, let the Senior Council or whomever else is concerned deal with it."
So they were led by a council. A 'White Council' led by a 'Senior Council' whose enforcement arm was 'The Wardens' and who enforced seven laws of magic upon all human practitioners of magic. This organization was in some way exclusive, with the term 'Wizard' indicating, most likely, a certain level of skill and power.
"Very well," Cora said, "Are there any other matters to consider?"
"Just what powers did you...obtain, anyways?" Gabe asked, narrowing her eyes.
"Gabriella," Lillian chided, "That is rude to ask when she's--"
"That is," Cora said simply, "For me to know and you to find out."
"Lots," Jeanne supplied helpfully, "Powers beyond your wildest imagination. Like that one geniee in that movie. I don't think she has a magic lamp, though?"
Jeanne frowned, considering the logistics of magic lamps, perhaps. She had seen one, Cora knew, on a trip to the market. "Not at the moment," Cora said.
"I have so many questions," Gabe admitted, and then laughed, "Uh, this could have turned out a lot worse than it did." Something about her expression said that it still could, that if Cora was lying to them, or manipulating them, that there'd be hell to pay.
But that was fine: Cora hadn't lied, not once.
Telling all of the truth, on the other hand? Well, she hadn't mentioned others of her kind. Let them figure that out, let them gape when they realized the numbers, it wasn't Cora's job to reveal her people's logistics to outsiders.
"I don't necessarily have answers for you," Cora hedged. "But we should keep in contact."
"How?" Lillian asked.
"I'll find you," Cora said, "If that is acceptable?"
"I suppose it'll have to be," Gabe said, "Have a good afternoon."
Cora ignored, as best she could, that Jeanne stayed behind to stick out her tongue and pull her eyelid down at Gabe on the way out.
Effect: Have contact with Gabe, a Wizard of the White Council. The White Council might be hearing about this 'Mrs. Graves.' Might speed up the gathering of certain facts. Knowledge of the nature of the White Council, and more than that, their weaknesses. Knowledge of a potential threat in the form of the Fiddler and their plans, though no agreement to work together on that. ???.
A/N: The ending's a little bit weak, but...eh! It's how the cookie crumbled in regard to dice rolls. Who knows what these events portend. I'll figure out what else is going to be
[X] "I call myself a 'Changeling.': This would of course make sure not to hint at the fact, at least not yet, that there are over a hundred of them in this city. Details revealed would be that she was taken away by a being through the 'Hedge' and changed in certain ways, but that she then escaped and has powers based on this. Deeper information would be avoided, and the goal of this approach would be to set up a means to justify gaining more information on Wizards in the future in the guise of an 'exchange' of information.
"What am I?" Cora asked, her voice calm and level, "I call myself a Changeling. You have seen the Hedge, have you not?"
"Yes," Gabe said, frowning, looking at her. Cora did not like when someone looked at her that way, because it was clear that there was more going on. Perhaps Gabe was running through the etymology of the word, or perhaps it had a different meaning here than elsewhere. As a name, in some ways it was a contradiction of some ways it was used: the Changeling was the one taken, not the one left, and yet in a way it was even truer.
Some of her research and studies in anthropology had covertly looked at the way cultures explained, or even explained away, the fact of the abduction and the Fetches, though it was easier than one would think.
"There are beings that can be reached via the Hedge," she said, since if she said they were 'in the Hedge' that would technically be a lie, "One of these beings abducted me some time ago. I was made into the savior of the dead, comforter and member. There are parallels in some Buddhist mythology, if distorted. My form changed to match what was being done to me, then I escaped. I have some of the power of that place, of my escape, in me."
"It hides who I am, physically except from certain methods of seeing," Cora said, and that was a very careful way of hiding the fact that all Changelings could see her as she was.
Lillian was staring at her, and there was that pity, "God."
"Perhaps the being would like to think it is one," Cora said, "I never asked."
"...what are these things called?" Gabe asked
Fae existed in this world, so calling them the 'True Fae' would cause alarm that wasn't necessary.
"The Gentry is what many call them. Now," Cora said, "In this case I would like some reciprocity. I have asked about the Laws of Magic before, and I was not given a full answer."
"So you don't know…" Gabe began, and frowned at Cora. "My Sight, it saw all sorts of things and I'm not sure how to pull it all apart. Yet, the near soulgaze, and that someone did something like that to you--"
"What happened is in the past, and I have more pressing matters. Your pity is something I do not need now," Cora said.
"I'm sorry," Lillian said, "We don't need to press you about it. It's not something I'd ever want to think about."
Cora nodded, and Gabe eventually said, "Sure...so the Laws of Magic. Sure, I'll tell you about them, though I'm...not sure if they'd apply to you, though they'd apply if any of the Practitioners used it against you."
Information was already flowing in, and it seemed that the personal nature of her revelation gave it a certain value. That too was a trick she'd learned by watching others. Mayor Booster would give someone a small piece of himself, his favorite color, a childhood memory carefully stripped of any possible weakness, and he'd do it just right so that people thought it was a precious fragment, a shard of his true self lovingly given to them, and they'd smile and tell him things that were a hundred times more important than the information he had given.
This wasn't quite the same, but it was close.
So she waited.
"The first law," Lillian began, "Thou shall not kill--"
"People. With magic," Gabe said, "Harming people with magic is alright, and killing people without magic, or killing non-human beings with magic, it's all fine--"
"Legal," Lillian said, eyes hard, "Legal."
"Yeah, it's wrong to kill people, but it's with Magic that gets the Wardens chasing after you."
Another word to know. In the context, it was clear these were the law enforcement to some extent of these rules, though 'do not kill' seemed so very restrictive of a clause.
"And they are deadly, despite refraining from magic?"
"They can use magic, and there are even circumstances where they can use magic to kill others, such as if a Warlock is impossible to deal with otherwise and is harming many people in the process. A sword, a gun, and magic to set everything up is enough, my mentor used to say."
Her mentor, and from the way she phrased it, from the way she was frowning, it was clear that there was some form of master-and-apprentice system, and more than that, Cora thought…
Yes.
Gabe's master was a Warden.
Interesting. "Understood. Second Law?"
"Never transform another," Gabe said.
Cora knew of at least five methods using Sorcery that could temporarily transform people into animals, or other such forms, though msot of them came with drawbacks that made it best as a prank or a way to humiliate someone. The most common method, for instance, also made the victim invulnerable to more than minor physical harm and twisted the Wyrd so that it tended to end as, well, a comedy. Hence why it was called 'Bottom's Complaint.' It could certainly ruin a life if used right--comedy did not mean nice--but it was a limited tool.
None of that would track with it being a rule, so Cora tried to think about the matter. It was a little strange, because she had to discard assumptions she had internalized. The Wyrd dealt with any potential issues involving brain size, getting stuck, and other such complexities.
If someone didn't have that, then it would be rather dangerous, and potentially there were moral hazards added to it.
"Third law?"
"You...don't want to know more about it?" Gabe asked, and Cora realized that Gabe had expected her to comment on how she herself had been transformed. Changed.
"Not at the moment, though a full precis of the conditions would no doubt be helpful," Cora said absently.
"Never invade the thoughts of another."
That's another rule she didn't intend on keeping, but she was curious, "What counts as invasion?"
"Why, have you…" Gabe began, biting her lip.
"I do not think I qualify for your laws in any respect, and I might tell you more about it at some later date." A truth, but a meaningless one, because of the 'might.' She had to be careful. So far everything she had been told was true...at least so far as Gabe knew.
"Fourth Law," Lillian said, "Never enthrall another."
"Change their mind, their emotions, control it," Gabe said, "It's liable to do long-term harm to their minds."
Cora Graves was starting to wonder just how she was going to gradually introduce Changelings if apparently the Court Contracts were themselves a horrible law violation (and she knew that cultures tended to regard violations of their law with moral disgust even when the violators were not beholden to said law) that was mentioned on the same list as murder.
It was...a troubling matter to deal with.
But it wasn't a case where she could think of a solution right now, other than to hide it all in half-shadows, try to get an understanding of the relative harm, and hope that the 'human but not a Practitioner' umbrella was capable of sheltering them from the wrath of these Wizards.
There was a fierce part of her that was no doubt a shadow of Maggie's own views that said 'Let them try.' Yet that wasn't a very wise sort of thought to have, and so she allowed herself to consider it on its face. This would be an interesting thing to work around.
"The fifth law is to never reach beyond the borders of life. Raising the dead, creating zombies, but ghosts don't count in this respect," Lillian said.
"Ah, very well," Cora said.
"The sixth law is to never swim against the stream of time. Going backwards in time can wind up doing a huge amount of harm to everything and everyone," Gabe pointed out, and this was certainly a law that it was difficult for Cora to object to. Since Cora knew of no way for her, or most Changelings for that matter, to break it, it probably wouldn't be a sticking point. "The final law is never to seek knowledge and power beyond the Outer Gates."
"I...still don't really know what that means, entirely," Lillian admitted.
"Which is how it should be," Gabe said, "I don't know much, but learning more about it is a path to...problems. Deep problems."
Ah. The Outer Gates. And then there was the book that tried to drive men mad and open some sort of gateway or otherwise use the symbolic power of the Marble Arches of St. Louis as a spring-board.
So, Cora thought, that was another thing they must never know.
"Very well, I assume you'll be telling your superiors about me?"
"Y-yeah, I'm going to have to kick it all the way up there, let the Senior Council or whomever else is concerned deal with it."
So they were led by a council. A 'White Council' led by a 'Senior Council' whose enforcement arm was 'The Wardens' and who enforced seven laws of magic upon all human practitioners of magic. This organization was in some way exclusive, with the term 'Wizard' indicating, most likely, a certain level of skill and power.
"Very well," Cora said, "Are there any other matters to consider?"
"Just what powers did you...obtain, anyways?" Gabe asked, narrowing her eyes.
"Gabriella," Lillian chided, "That is rude to ask when she's--"
"That is," Cora said simply, "For me to know and you to find out."
"Lots," Jeanne supplied helpfully, "Powers beyond your wildest imagination. Like that one geniee in that movie. I don't think she has a magic lamp, though?"
Jeanne frowned, considering the logistics of magic lamps, perhaps. She had seen one, Cora knew, on a trip to the market. "Not at the moment," Cora said.
"I have so many questions," Gabe admitted, and then laughed, "Uh, this could have turned out a lot worse than it did." Something about her expression said that it still could, that if Cora was lying to them, or manipulating them, that there'd be hell to pay.
But that was fine: Cora hadn't lied, not once.
Telling all of the truth, on the other hand? Well, she hadn't mentioned others of her kind. Let them figure that out, let them gape when they realized the numbers, it wasn't Cora's job to reveal her people's logistics to outsiders.
"I don't necessarily have answers for you," Cora hedged. "But we should keep in contact."
"How?" Lillian asked.
"I'll find you," Cora said, "If that is acceptable?"
"I suppose it'll have to be," Gabe said, "Have a good afternoon."
Cora ignored, as best she could, that Jeanne stayed behind to stick out her tongue and pull her eyelid down at Gabe on the way out.
Effect: Have contact with Gabe, a Wizard of the White Council. The White Council might be hearing about this 'Mrs. Graves.' Might speed up the gathering of certain facts. Knowledge of the nature of the White Council, and more than that, their weaknesses. Knowledge of a potential threat in the form of the Fiddler and their plans, though no agreement to work together on that. ???.
Persuasion: 2 successes
Implications: 4 successes
Persuasion: 2 successes
Implications: 4 successes
Persuasion: 2 successes
A/N: The ending's a little bit weak, but...eh! It's how the cookie crumbled in regard to dice rolls. Who knows what these events portend. I'll figure out what else is going to be
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- Location
- Somewhere!
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I'm enjoying how half of Cora's thoughts about this are just "so how am I gonna spin it when they find out I do most of these things."
A pretty valid concern, the WC isn't going to be happy about anything. Although Changelings are a lot less immediate of an issue than the red court so I doubt we have to worry for some time.
A pretty valid concern, the WC isn't going to be happy about anything. Although Changelings are a lot less immediate of an issue than the red court so I doubt we have to worry for some time.
- Location
- Daybreak
Wait... How many Changelings are there? Vs. Wizards? ... What does Cora know about numbers?
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Well, overall she doesn't know, but she does know that one of the major factions in the city (White Court) has under thirty members in it. Another major faction (Red Court) has under twenty members in it.
The Freehold is numerically the largest faction in the city to Cora's knowledge. That's not the same as saying it's the most powerful, but she's reasoning that there's not several hundred Wizards crammed into the city somewhere who have managed not to be noticed or noticing anyone else.
The ratios overall are pretty wack. Like, New York City has under 30 Changelings. Yes, for *all* of New York, New York. It's not really directly related to population, it should be noted. So in some areas Changelings will be a small, outnumbered faction, and in others, they're over-and-away the largest faction present.
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Right, so, there are some interesting things to note about Changeling population. Our Freehold's main rival is, as I understand it, the most successful and populous one in at least America, if not the world, and has about 1000 Changelings. The number per city drops sharply from there, with the New York example above actually being fairly typical because it's linked to mystical things instead of the human population. On the other hand, you can expect to find one of those twenty to fifty member groups in every city with a population above 10,000, which is so common that if they all somehow united they would probably be the single largest faction on Earth in DF. To put it another way, there are probably as many Changelings total as there are minor practitioners, and they're generally far more powerful than the practitioners.
For an idea of the power level, look at KCS, and consider while it takes most of them five years to get where she got in under a month, most of them have had that time.
Note that of the nWoD splats, Changelings don't really have an upper limit, unlike Vampires(hard cap on blood sources), Werewolves(soft cap on Lunacy stability), or Prometheans(soft cap on Disquiet/Wasteland stability). Mages, Geists and the like meanwhile are limited in origin stories, not exactly something that happens a lot.
As they are a created supernatural race, the primary gain limitation is just however many the Gentry want to steal and how many survive that. They don't really have a resource cap so much as a 'get on my nerves' cap, any number of changelings can feed off the same scene of emotions, so the carrying capacity is mostly political.
So you could POTENTIALLY have as much as a full 1% changeling population in a city(in practice the Gentry don't let THAT many get away)...which is kind of similar to the population of minor practitioners, yes.
As they are a created supernatural race, the primary gain limitation is just however many the Gentry want to steal and how many survive that. They don't really have a resource cap so much as a 'get on my nerves' cap, any number of changelings can feed off the same scene of emotions, so the carrying capacity is mostly political.
So you could POTENTIALLY have as much as a full 1% changeling population in a city(in practice the Gentry don't let THAT many get away)...which is kind of similar to the population of minor practitioners, yes.
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- Pronouns
- They/Them
Hell, you can potentially have a lot more than that. I mean, it's not likely, but at some point there was some small village somewhere where everyone was a Changeling. And then some outsider visited and was freaked out by their pagan rituals that turned out to be harmless.
And then he went around in a bear suit punching people and running from bees and got burned alive.
Sworl
Sparky
I doubt Cora will be fooling many Wizards through lies by omisson. DF fae are all about such word play and arguably are better at it than almost anyone else, simply because they are incapable of telling straight out lies. Considering the term Changeling draws a mental link to such beings, most wizards with experience will read between the lines as a matter of course.
I notice that during Gabes explanation, Cora only bothered to ask about the 'what' of the Laws and not the 'why'. This seems a bit short sighted as the latter is almost as important as the former, particularly when one is dealing with the supernatural.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
It matters that she hadn't told a single lie because her magical powers would have backfired if she did. Remember, Sight of Truth and Lies. As long as she never tells a lie, even a polite compliment that isn't true, during the hour duration she's able to tell if (in the opinion of the person talking, of course) someone is telling the truth or not.
So, like the DF Fae, it's less an affectaton to manipulate people and more a necessity.
Also, the why isn't actually easy to explain, and wouldn't make sense for most questions.
And also makes you look like an asshole in some cases.
"Don't murder people with magic."
"Why?"
It's also pretty obvious to her why time-travel or consorting with strange monstrous alien beings might be, um, illegal. Now, her learning, "Bad magic can twist the user" might have been useful, but she's not used to thinking that way at all, so why would she?
- Pronouns
- They/Them
So I had an original Quest idea:
I sorta got inspired to do this by @Crilltic 's Quest, though other than maybe the interesting pass-fail mechanic (I can talk about that later), I'm not sure how much I'd be cribbing from them mechanically. The mechanics are a bit of mish-mash.
*****
So that's what I have right now...feedback?
Behind the Throne: An Original Fantasy Quest of Betrayal, Politics, and Daddy Issues (CK2)
They called his father the Old Man, and many, many more things behind his back, but he had always been known as the Whoreson. But then, he'd never known his father, and when his mother had died in exile with him, that was the last bond severed. It wasn't as if the Old Man was someone to be trifled with, and yet in some ways he was the trifling ghost just off-stage in the Xialo Play[1] that was his life.
They said that a dutiful son learned the past of their father, and their fathers father, and their ancestors all the way down to when the first men rose from the ash of the spirits' war. But then, he'd heard a drunk once argue, why wasn't there a similar duty for the fathers to know their sons, as they so often did not.
Until he received the letter, he hadn't even known that his father knew he existed, not anymore. Ten years, ten years since he'd last received a message or anything from the man, and it came wrapped in demands as it had before.
Yet despite himself, who hadn't heard of the man who all whispered to be all but the Emperor? His deeds, his legends, his dark violence and moods and temperment had defined a generation. Even in the Southlands, where they bowed only so often to the Emperors of Csirit, and had at times even overtaken the Empire, only to be eaten alive from the inside, his name was feared. Feared and remembered.
How and why did Father rise to power? (Note, this probably won't directly give some sort of stat bonus. Like, the father who was a general doesn't mean that his son will be a general or have a boost to martial. What it will affect is the nature of his rule and the empire, and some of the resources and relationships that might be going down.)
[] The son of a Eunuch on Last Night[2], he only escaped his unknown father's fate by cunning, being sent as the assistant to an ill-fated attempt to conquer the Western Marshes of Bueli. There were many rumors as to what happened there, but the end result was that the upstart general in charge of the army died, his forces routed, and Father rallied the remnants and succeeded in forcing a peace, at the tender age of seventeen. The boy general rose and rose, victory following victory, swelling the Empire and protecting its borders. Every year, it seemed, the silver gong rang out thirteen times, and every year Father returned to bow ten times to the Emperor and give great gifts, expressing his humility and submission, all the while smirking as his power grew. Even now, over a decade after he last took the field, he holds sway over the armies, and yet there is rot within the ranks, and many speak of the cruelty and ambitions which drive him always to make an enemy of others. The bureaucracy and the hereditary governors hate him, and yet his power has waxed even into his waning years.
[] The son of a minor scholar of great distinction who passed the difficult exams of Highest Merit, his penmanship was always flawless. He wrote with distinction on all of the topics of the world, and if that is all Father had done, then perhaps the world would be a different place. But he entered into the bureaucracy in his twenties like a knife through a dying man, and when he ousted the Third River school, publically humiliating their policy and leading to the suicide of Go-Asho, he was on his way up. The master of these strange rituals, his penmanship is as perfect and cold as the northern frosts. Every inch of the realm is encompassed in his words, every goat counted. Everyone knows that there is nothing that does not fall under his sway, and yet the army chafes at his actions. For all know that he resents those who go to war. "It is the silver gong for a reason, and not the gold" went one of his most famous axioms. Under him the realm has turned inward, and he has polished it as a collector might polish an antique sword, or as his father's father might have polished his words until there was nothing spare.
[] Into the vipers' pit went the second and third sons of the hereditary governor of Hari-Bueli (Near Bueli). Only one of them emerged from court politics victorious, to go back to his father with the concessions he had wanted. The other, Father, stayed on and began to note the rivalries and tensions, to manipulate events from the bottom and the top. The right word to the right courtesan and a man could be humiliated, and his downfall, his failure, turned into opportunity. Every knife was his, every whisper was his as well, and he knew the names of the spirits that rested in the eaves of windows, he knew the names of everyone who could give him aid. He rose, and rose, yet did so in the shadows. When he unveiled himself, his enemies fled or bled and died, and the Emperor was his tool. The great massacre of Sarzi was his doing, and the Emperor in his wrath at finding traitors in his midst, turned over everything, one way or another, to one man. Father.
[] What do you call a man who has every talent and no talent? Who can sing and dance, can write a perfect verse of poetry and ride hunting through the woods in the same breath. Who dabbled at everything and excelled at many things? The first Emperor that Father met called him 'favorite' and 'lover' and cherished him close, and when his son rose to power, he was but a tool of Fathers. Father who was everywhere, talking endlessly, fighting endlessly, dueling any who stood in his way or beating them through bureaucratic tricks. There was nothing he couldn't do, except love a bastard. His power is vast and yet as fragile as the first snow, pure and clean in appearance, and yet soon sullied. Many thought he would be a passing man, like many other men and women who had traded love for influence, and yet even now, more than half a century after he had taken power, he held it still. It couldn't be by his looks, and so it must be by his excellence. Yet why would such a man, who had so long declaimed the power of the flesh, had gotten married only by politics and nothing more, now call his son back?
[] A monster is what he is. He had started out a student of the imperial academy, where the spirits were bound and the secret names of the world were compiled, strengthened. Learned. At the age of thirteen he had murdered a city of fifty-thousand people by doing the impossible. Even rumor only hints at how, but the plague that struck down the city at just the right time, and the credit that Father took for it, was but the beginning of a reputation of blood and mystical might that stretched beyond the borders of knowledge into legend. Even the priests hate him, and yet the Empire has grown strong under his rule, despite his apathy for the systems that are said to keep it going. The Emperor walks every day in fear of the man, and even as old as he is, none dare cross him. But then again, none dare love him either.
*****
But besides a Father, he had had a mother, and for the first twelve years of his life, she had been all he had.
Where did Mother come from? (Influences some other factors)
[] Southlands (Cities): In the south, before the deserts, spread out like gems against the sea, are the seventeen great cities, whose glory is known far and wide, for all that the Empire might claim them at one time or another or others might contest their power and glory. His mother was born in the same place that he would spend most of his life until the day his Father drew him home, and she was always most comfortable with these lands.
[] Southlands (Oasis): Mother was a woman of the proud tribes and fragmenting empires of the deserts and the lands beyond the deserts, who practiced the dangerous art of making spirits into tattoos. There was an entire line of Emperors who married into the holy imperial line after having conquered half of the Empire and splintering the rest, who have this blood, and this combination of antagonism and assimilation continues to this day.
[] Anlan: The only Kingdom of the West, beyond the long plains who has the right to trade back and forth with Csirit, Mother was the daughter of a merchant, and nothing more. Yet from them she inherited the strange looks which might have stirred some passion for the exotic from his Father. But not too exotic, it seemed.
[] Imperial Province (Hari-Bueli): Always on the border, between grassland and marshland, between foreign invasions that failed and invasions outward whose success has always been fleeting, it is provincial: which is another way to say backwards. Half-barbarian, people mutter. A land grown wild lately.
[] Imperial Province (Hari-Nat): The northernmost province, right up against the vast mountain range that, it is said, divides the world of the living from the dead. And indeed spirits seem to pour from the unseen peaks of the mountain, and dark things lurk in its shade, and yet people here, traded ice and what little they could mine in the danger and sacred nature (of many religions, but not all of them) of the mountains.
[] Imperial Province (Irit): The land of rivers and of the lake from which the first Emperor was said to have emerged ten-thousand years ago. If one believes the imperial myths and ignores all of the problems with the myths, the Empire has existed for that long, a chain unbroken truly, or at most only in letter but not in spirit. She was a shrine priestess on the holy island in the center of that holiest of lakes, and yet pregnancy is the one thing they could not accept, and far she fled, taking the teachings and secrets with her.
[] Imperial Province (Hari-Os): This long thin strip of a province is one of great wealth and power, though his Mother knew little enough of its power. Laying their on the coast, the vast cities competed with the Southlands and fought off the Sea-raiders, and traded and fought off the Water-People, whose acts had gone far beyond merely working with spirits into...into areas where no human should go, according to many religions. Wealth and power congregated into one area, and his Mother had been born in poverty and squalor. At least the Southlands weren't so different from her home, in the ways that mattered?
[] Imperial Province (Hirand): The most traditional of the provinces, and the part of the empire with the richest farmlands, their belief in the value of family apparently had its limits in Mother, since he had never heard a word of or from his Mother's family in all of their exile, in all of those years when they might have reached out. Its emphasis on traditions certainly had its effects on his Mother, who always kept to the state religion and even in the Southlands kept to the traditions of the empire, and not those of the barbarians.
[] Imperial Province (Yeadalt): The strangest of all of the provinces, home to the greatest number of non-official languages and even cultural groups, it is here that heresies and cults form like mushrooms. They form, they spread, they are harvested or destroyed. It is a province in which the ruling elite, of the Csiritan stock, is far outnumbered by those whose ways are not those of the empire. It is also home to some of the strangest tales, the strangest ways to do magic and live, in all of the twelve provinces, or so rumor goes. Besides the cults, the religions, and the many peoples, here flourish too criminal groups, who band together against all outsiders and cause banditry and chaos.
[1] A form of play involving actors in painted masks. The ghosts, or characters who are dead who are haunting those still alive, traditionally wear black masks.
[2] Those Eunuchs who are made so as adults as part of the Imperial Bureaucracy (or at least after they are children) have the traditional right to lay with a concubine on the night before their manhood is taken away. The few children who result are raised by the state and usually become eunuchs themselves.
******
A/N: This is, uh, very provisional and also might never happen, but eh.
They called his father the Old Man, and many, many more things behind his back, but he had always been known as the Whoreson. But then, he'd never known his father, and when his mother had died in exile with him, that was the last bond severed. It wasn't as if the Old Man was someone to be trifled with, and yet in some ways he was the trifling ghost just off-stage in the Xialo Play[1] that was his life.
They said that a dutiful son learned the past of their father, and their fathers father, and their ancestors all the way down to when the first men rose from the ash of the spirits' war. But then, he'd heard a drunk once argue, why wasn't there a similar duty for the fathers to know their sons, as they so often did not.
Until he received the letter, he hadn't even known that his father knew he existed, not anymore. Ten years, ten years since he'd last received a message or anything from the man, and it came wrapped in demands as it had before.
Yet despite himself, who hadn't heard of the man who all whispered to be all but the Emperor? His deeds, his legends, his dark violence and moods and temperment had defined a generation. Even in the Southlands, where they bowed only so often to the Emperors of Csirit, and had at times even overtaken the Empire, only to be eaten alive from the inside, his name was feared. Feared and remembered.
How and why did Father rise to power? (Note, this probably won't directly give some sort of stat bonus. Like, the father who was a general doesn't mean that his son will be a general or have a boost to martial. What it will affect is the nature of his rule and the empire, and some of the resources and relationships that might be going down.)
[] The son of a Eunuch on Last Night[2], he only escaped his unknown father's fate by cunning, being sent as the assistant to an ill-fated attempt to conquer the Western Marshes of Bueli. There were many rumors as to what happened there, but the end result was that the upstart general in charge of the army died, his forces routed, and Father rallied the remnants and succeeded in forcing a peace, at the tender age of seventeen. The boy general rose and rose, victory following victory, swelling the Empire and protecting its borders. Every year, it seemed, the silver gong rang out thirteen times, and every year Father returned to bow ten times to the Emperor and give great gifts, expressing his humility and submission, all the while smirking as his power grew. Even now, over a decade after he last took the field, he holds sway over the armies, and yet there is rot within the ranks, and many speak of the cruelty and ambitions which drive him always to make an enemy of others. The bureaucracy and the hereditary governors hate him, and yet his power has waxed even into his waning years.
[] The son of a minor scholar of great distinction who passed the difficult exams of Highest Merit, his penmanship was always flawless. He wrote with distinction on all of the topics of the world, and if that is all Father had done, then perhaps the world would be a different place. But he entered into the bureaucracy in his twenties like a knife through a dying man, and when he ousted the Third River school, publically humiliating their policy and leading to the suicide of Go-Asho, he was on his way up. The master of these strange rituals, his penmanship is as perfect and cold as the northern frosts. Every inch of the realm is encompassed in his words, every goat counted. Everyone knows that there is nothing that does not fall under his sway, and yet the army chafes at his actions. For all know that he resents those who go to war. "It is the silver gong for a reason, and not the gold" went one of his most famous axioms. Under him the realm has turned inward, and he has polished it as a collector might polish an antique sword, or as his father's father might have polished his words until there was nothing spare.
[] Into the vipers' pit went the second and third sons of the hereditary governor of Hari-Bueli (Near Bueli). Only one of them emerged from court politics victorious, to go back to his father with the concessions he had wanted. The other, Father, stayed on and began to note the rivalries and tensions, to manipulate events from the bottom and the top. The right word to the right courtesan and a man could be humiliated, and his downfall, his failure, turned into opportunity. Every knife was his, every whisper was his as well, and he knew the names of the spirits that rested in the eaves of windows, he knew the names of everyone who could give him aid. He rose, and rose, yet did so in the shadows. When he unveiled himself, his enemies fled or bled and died, and the Emperor was his tool. The great massacre of Sarzi was his doing, and the Emperor in his wrath at finding traitors in his midst, turned over everything, one way or another, to one man. Father.
[] What do you call a man who has every talent and no talent? Who can sing and dance, can write a perfect verse of poetry and ride hunting through the woods in the same breath. Who dabbled at everything and excelled at many things? The first Emperor that Father met called him 'favorite' and 'lover' and cherished him close, and when his son rose to power, he was but a tool of Fathers. Father who was everywhere, talking endlessly, fighting endlessly, dueling any who stood in his way or beating them through bureaucratic tricks. There was nothing he couldn't do, except love a bastard. His power is vast and yet as fragile as the first snow, pure and clean in appearance, and yet soon sullied. Many thought he would be a passing man, like many other men and women who had traded love for influence, and yet even now, more than half a century after he had taken power, he held it still. It couldn't be by his looks, and so it must be by his excellence. Yet why would such a man, who had so long declaimed the power of the flesh, had gotten married only by politics and nothing more, now call his son back?
[] A monster is what he is. He had started out a student of the imperial academy, where the spirits were bound and the secret names of the world were compiled, strengthened. Learned. At the age of thirteen he had murdered a city of fifty-thousand people by doing the impossible. Even rumor only hints at how, but the plague that struck down the city at just the right time, and the credit that Father took for it, was but the beginning of a reputation of blood and mystical might that stretched beyond the borders of knowledge into legend. Even the priests hate him, and yet the Empire has grown strong under his rule, despite his apathy for the systems that are said to keep it going. The Emperor walks every day in fear of the man, and even as old as he is, none dare cross him. But then again, none dare love him either.
*****
But besides a Father, he had had a mother, and for the first twelve years of his life, she had been all he had.
Where did Mother come from? (Influences some other factors)
[] Southlands (Cities): In the south, before the deserts, spread out like gems against the sea, are the seventeen great cities, whose glory is known far and wide, for all that the Empire might claim them at one time or another or others might contest their power and glory. His mother was born in the same place that he would spend most of his life until the day his Father drew him home, and she was always most comfortable with these lands.
[] Southlands (Oasis): Mother was a woman of the proud tribes and fragmenting empires of the deserts and the lands beyond the deserts, who practiced the dangerous art of making spirits into tattoos. There was an entire line of Emperors who married into the holy imperial line after having conquered half of the Empire and splintering the rest, who have this blood, and this combination of antagonism and assimilation continues to this day.
[] Anlan: The only Kingdom of the West, beyond the long plains who has the right to trade back and forth with Csirit, Mother was the daughter of a merchant, and nothing more. Yet from them she inherited the strange looks which might have stirred some passion for the exotic from his Father. But not too exotic, it seemed.
[] Imperial Province (Hari-Bueli): Always on the border, between grassland and marshland, between foreign invasions that failed and invasions outward whose success has always been fleeting, it is provincial: which is another way to say backwards. Half-barbarian, people mutter. A land grown wild lately.
[] Imperial Province (Hari-Nat): The northernmost province, right up against the vast mountain range that, it is said, divides the world of the living from the dead. And indeed spirits seem to pour from the unseen peaks of the mountain, and dark things lurk in its shade, and yet people here, traded ice and what little they could mine in the danger and sacred nature (of many religions, but not all of them) of the mountains.
[] Imperial Province (Irit): The land of rivers and of the lake from which the first Emperor was said to have emerged ten-thousand years ago. If one believes the imperial myths and ignores all of the problems with the myths, the Empire has existed for that long, a chain unbroken truly, or at most only in letter but not in spirit. She was a shrine priestess on the holy island in the center of that holiest of lakes, and yet pregnancy is the one thing they could not accept, and far she fled, taking the teachings and secrets with her.
[] Imperial Province (Hari-Os): This long thin strip of a province is one of great wealth and power, though his Mother knew little enough of its power. Laying their on the coast, the vast cities competed with the Southlands and fought off the Sea-raiders, and traded and fought off the Water-People, whose acts had gone far beyond merely working with spirits into...into areas where no human should go, according to many religions. Wealth and power congregated into one area, and his Mother had been born in poverty and squalor. At least the Southlands weren't so different from her home, in the ways that mattered?
[] Imperial Province (Hirand): The most traditional of the provinces, and the part of the empire with the richest farmlands, their belief in the value of family apparently had its limits in Mother, since he had never heard a word of or from his Mother's family in all of their exile, in all of those years when they might have reached out. Its emphasis on traditions certainly had its effects on his Mother, who always kept to the state religion and even in the Southlands kept to the traditions of the empire, and not those of the barbarians.
[] Imperial Province (Yeadalt): The strangest of all of the provinces, home to the greatest number of non-official languages and even cultural groups, it is here that heresies and cults form like mushrooms. They form, they spread, they are harvested or destroyed. It is a province in which the ruling elite, of the Csiritan stock, is far outnumbered by those whose ways are not those of the empire. It is also home to some of the strangest tales, the strangest ways to do magic and live, in all of the twelve provinces, or so rumor goes. Besides the cults, the religions, and the many peoples, here flourish too criminal groups, who band together against all outsiders and cause banditry and chaos.
[1] A form of play involving actors in painted masks. The ghosts, or characters who are dead who are haunting those still alive, traditionally wear black masks.
[2] Those Eunuchs who are made so as adults as part of the Imperial Bureaucracy (or at least after they are children) have the traditional right to lay with a concubine on the night before their manhood is taken away. The few children who result are raised by the state and usually become eunuchs themselves.
******
A/N: This is, uh, very provisional and also might never happen, but eh.
Okay, how about Mechanics?
Mechanics
Like every other CK2-Quest, I'll be modifying the basic formula. I'm not actually sure there is a basic formula for how much people mess with it, or exaggerate it, or add their own doo-dads on top of it. Each turn for at least the next while will consist of one month, and the details behind what turns will involve comes after we talk about stats.
Stats aren't everything, and there's also a lot of different stuff that needs to be addressed.
The stats are as follows:
Martial: Ability to command troops, manage supplies, keep up morale, anything and everything to do with the art of war, including the art of war in peacetime. There are traits that can allow this stat to be modified or increased by other stats for certain purposes (such as Stewardship for logistics), but it in no way covers personal combat, though barring certain exceptions, a high martial tends to correlate with a relatively higher Personal Combat. But this isn't a culture where the general must lead from the front.
Diplomacy: The ability to talk to other people, to convince them of what's best for them (whether it is or not), to lie to them, though also the means and forms of etiquette, how to write a lovely poem and how to know just the right diplomatic formalities to add to the missive to the foreign potente.
Stewardship: Both one's ability to navigate and control bureaucracy, and one's understanding of economic policy. To a certain extent, this is a very abstracted stat, since a good merchant might not make a good bureaucrat, but in this Quest it'll probably be a relatively important one, honestly. I was tempted to name it Statecraft, but there might be at least some element of financial control going on here.
Intrigue: The ability to manage, control, and use spies, hidden information, and covert operations to one's best advantage. Don't expect it to be a golden ticket, the world is wide, but it's something that most people in court are at least not going to be particularly incompetent in.
Learning: Knowledge, plain and simple. The type of knowledge depends, and my idea is that there will be traits that increase Learning in certain areas to represent specialties. A well-learned man is one who knows the great poets forward and back, who can recite the 100 Precepts and the 50 Ways, who reads multiple languages with ease, and yet knows the language of the non-barbarian, the only language that matters, to a degree beyond the commoner. Who knows history, rhetoric, astrology...it's a very versatile set of things packed into learning, really.
Personal Combat: Sometimes tied to Martial...but sometimes not. Represents ability to fight personally, ability to lead small groups of men (such as knowing how to cut through the chaos to order you and a friend of yours to punch your way through a bunch of drunks in a bar brawl), and also a character's ability in any sort of sport or hunting activity. Anything physical.
Magic: Everyone has a little, from the blacksmith who whispers to a local flame sprite for a little more heat for the forge, or to one of the lesser names of local iron for a stronger shoe for his wife's father's horse, to the grand scholars who attempt to do rather more than coax and beg the spirits. Some countries, of course, have less widespread knowledge, but in Csirit, everyone has a little knowledge. Emphasis on a 'little.'
The Scale
1-4: Mediocre
5-8: Subpar.
9-12: Average (for a courtier or other trained/educated/etc person in the field)
13-16: Skilled.
17-20: Exceptional.
21-25: Renowned.
26-30: Master in the area.
31-35: Legendary.
35+: All but unheard of.
Traits will be used a lot more, though a lot of them will have very specific or non-mechanical effects.
I'll likely be stealing from any and all Quests that I like.
*****
Now, as to the turns. There will be two different important pools to consider. Money is generally not an object less in the sense that you have infinite money than in the sense that it's not going to be a problem except on the large scale where it's going to mostly be the realm's problem. If money does become an issue, I'll figure out a way to manage it that doesn't involve figuring out an exact number of gold.
Besides which, this is an empire! This Quest is set in a decadent court that wastes disgusting amounts of money every day of every year. So it feels against the spirit of things to start counting coins...that's for dirty merchants.
So this Quest will use a two-part Influence Dice system. Influence Dice are a form of resource that was first seen by me in @Imrx's amazing Quest.
The second type of Influence is pretty much a straight lift from his own system. The voters choose where to put any Influence they have to do certain actions, with no minimum based on category. Putting multiple influence dice means that the highest roll is taken, increasing the chance of success or even critical success.
Influence will be really, really hard to grind up, and most likely the main character will be starting with 1 point of this type of Influence, which is called "Policy Influence." This Influence thus, yes, involves anything that would actually influence the world in the immediate term. This is what you use to fight wars, to gather armies and build or more likely repair roads, to humbly accept or arrogantly send diplomats from one of the lesser barbarian lands, assassinate foreign heads of state, replace all the tax collectors in a region with corrupt cronies that will funnel the money into black budgets to use to build your own personal army to overthrow the Emperor and other such worthy ventures.
Court Influence does none of that, and is far easier to acquire. Court Influence consists of most personal actions, and then a wide variety of lesser actions, from practicing one's poetry, to bribing minor officials, from assassinating a bureaucrat in your way and blaming the Eunuch who tried to deny you access to the Emperor, to winning the loyalty of the peasantry with lavish gifts, to helping the son of an ally cheat on his Civil Service Exam, thus gaining his gratitude in the future.
In other words, a lot of it is petty, venal, political shit. So why should you care? Because it's how you get shit done. It's how you gain Policy Influence, by successfully making sure your friends get ahead and your enemies get dead, by making sure the Emperor's courtesans are eating out of your hand, and whispering sweet lies in his ears…
This is what politics is, in a court like this. Do it for its own sake, or do it because it's the only way to get ahead, either way, most of the actions you'll be doing won't be transforming the world. If you're looking for discovering gunpowder (though too late on that) and inventing the printing press (also too late) and starting an industrial revolution (not likely), it'll be quite a while, if ever. But exercising, gaining, and holding onto power is its own constant treadmill.
You should reflect on the fact that the main character's father has been in the game for literally over half a century in almost all of the backgrounds, and has been all but in charge for decades, and then register what a feat it is.
But yeah, Court Influence is the sort of stuff that would fall below the notice of Imrx's Influence Dice. It's the ceremonies too (you can host banquets and stuff as an action as well), it's every little bit of what it's like to be in politics of this kind, at least hopefully.
It's not particularly glorious.
Finally, there are allies and assets and the like. These are pretty obvious, and come in both 'relevant for Interludes and/or Court Influence' levels and 'genuinely a big deal' levels. A personal bodyguard, no matter how amazing, isn't going to have much to say or do with, say, fighting your wars for you, but might provide additional option to gather together a personal guard or train you. A single assassin is certainly very helpful to have in your pocket, but good luck sending them halfway around the world to kill an upstart noble in the Southlands. They can try to help, but there's a limit.
On the other hand, a private army, a spy network, a top official who knows people who know people, a Hereditary Governor (some of whom qualify, others of whom are puppets themselves, or have all but given up their power to others in some way), or even just the sheer power of a vast network of court officials...these are things that can grant Policy Influence or open up some fascinating new options.
*****
And that's the basics of the system, what do you think?
Does this make you more or less interested in the Quest?
Mechanics
Like every other CK2-Quest, I'll be modifying the basic formula. I'm not actually sure there is a basic formula for how much people mess with it, or exaggerate it, or add their own doo-dads on top of it. Each turn for at least the next while will consist of one month, and the details behind what turns will involve comes after we talk about stats.
Stats aren't everything, and there's also a lot of different stuff that needs to be addressed.
The stats are as follows:
Martial: Ability to command troops, manage supplies, keep up morale, anything and everything to do with the art of war, including the art of war in peacetime. There are traits that can allow this stat to be modified or increased by other stats for certain purposes (such as Stewardship for logistics), but it in no way covers personal combat, though barring certain exceptions, a high martial tends to correlate with a relatively higher Personal Combat. But this isn't a culture where the general must lead from the front.
Diplomacy: The ability to talk to other people, to convince them of what's best for them (whether it is or not), to lie to them, though also the means and forms of etiquette, how to write a lovely poem and how to know just the right diplomatic formalities to add to the missive to the foreign potente.
Stewardship: Both one's ability to navigate and control bureaucracy, and one's understanding of economic policy. To a certain extent, this is a very abstracted stat, since a good merchant might not make a good bureaucrat, but in this Quest it'll probably be a relatively important one, honestly. I was tempted to name it Statecraft, but there might be at least some element of financial control going on here.
Intrigue: The ability to manage, control, and use spies, hidden information, and covert operations to one's best advantage. Don't expect it to be a golden ticket, the world is wide, but it's something that most people in court are at least not going to be particularly incompetent in.
Learning: Knowledge, plain and simple. The type of knowledge depends, and my idea is that there will be traits that increase Learning in certain areas to represent specialties. A well-learned man is one who knows the great poets forward and back, who can recite the 100 Precepts and the 50 Ways, who reads multiple languages with ease, and yet knows the language of the non-barbarian, the only language that matters, to a degree beyond the commoner. Who knows history, rhetoric, astrology...it's a very versatile set of things packed into learning, really.
Personal Combat: Sometimes tied to Martial...but sometimes not. Represents ability to fight personally, ability to lead small groups of men (such as knowing how to cut through the chaos to order you and a friend of yours to punch your way through a bunch of drunks in a bar brawl), and also a character's ability in any sort of sport or hunting activity. Anything physical.
Magic: Everyone has a little, from the blacksmith who whispers to a local flame sprite for a little more heat for the forge, or to one of the lesser names of local iron for a stronger shoe for his wife's father's horse, to the grand scholars who attempt to do rather more than coax and beg the spirits. Some countries, of course, have less widespread knowledge, but in Csirit, everyone has a little knowledge. Emphasis on a 'little.'
The Scale
1-4: Mediocre
5-8: Subpar.
9-12: Average (for a courtier or other trained/educated/etc person in the field)
13-16: Skilled.
17-20: Exceptional.
21-25: Renowned.
26-30: Master in the area.
31-35: Legendary.
35+: All but unheard of.
Traits will be used a lot more, though a lot of them will have very specific or non-mechanical effects.
I'll likely be stealing from any and all Quests that I like.
*****
Now, as to the turns. There will be two different important pools to consider. Money is generally not an object less in the sense that you have infinite money than in the sense that it's not going to be a problem except on the large scale where it's going to mostly be the realm's problem. If money does become an issue, I'll figure out a way to manage it that doesn't involve figuring out an exact number of gold.
Besides which, this is an empire! This Quest is set in a decadent court that wastes disgusting amounts of money every day of every year. So it feels against the spirit of things to start counting coins...that's for dirty merchants.
So this Quest will use a two-part Influence Dice system. Influence Dice are a form of resource that was first seen by me in @Imrx's amazing Quest.
The second type of Influence is pretty much a straight lift from his own system. The voters choose where to put any Influence they have to do certain actions, with no minimum based on category. Putting multiple influence dice means that the highest roll is taken, increasing the chance of success or even critical success.
Influence will be really, really hard to grind up, and most likely the main character will be starting with 1 point of this type of Influence, which is called "Policy Influence." This Influence thus, yes, involves anything that would actually influence the world in the immediate term. This is what you use to fight wars, to gather armies and build or more likely repair roads, to humbly accept or arrogantly send diplomats from one of the lesser barbarian lands, assassinate foreign heads of state, replace all the tax collectors in a region with corrupt cronies that will funnel the money into black budgets to use to build your own personal army to overthrow the Emperor and other such worthy ventures.
Court Influence does none of that, and is far easier to acquire. Court Influence consists of most personal actions, and then a wide variety of lesser actions, from practicing one's poetry, to bribing minor officials, from assassinating a bureaucrat in your way and blaming the Eunuch who tried to deny you access to the Emperor, to winning the loyalty of the peasantry with lavish gifts, to helping the son of an ally cheat on his Civil Service Exam, thus gaining his gratitude in the future.
In other words, a lot of it is petty, venal, political shit. So why should you care? Because it's how you get shit done. It's how you gain Policy Influence, by successfully making sure your friends get ahead and your enemies get dead, by making sure the Emperor's courtesans are eating out of your hand, and whispering sweet lies in his ears…
This is what politics is, in a court like this. Do it for its own sake, or do it because it's the only way to get ahead, either way, most of the actions you'll be doing won't be transforming the world. If you're looking for discovering gunpowder (though too late on that) and inventing the printing press (also too late) and starting an industrial revolution (not likely), it'll be quite a while, if ever. But exercising, gaining, and holding onto power is its own constant treadmill.
You should reflect on the fact that the main character's father has been in the game for literally over half a century in almost all of the backgrounds, and has been all but in charge for decades, and then register what a feat it is.
But yeah, Court Influence is the sort of stuff that would fall below the notice of Imrx's Influence Dice. It's the ceremonies too (you can host banquets and stuff as an action as well), it's every little bit of what it's like to be in politics of this kind, at least hopefully.
It's not particularly glorious.
Finally, there are allies and assets and the like. These are pretty obvious, and come in both 'relevant for Interludes and/or Court Influence' levels and 'genuinely a big deal' levels. A personal bodyguard, no matter how amazing, isn't going to have much to say or do with, say, fighting your wars for you, but might provide additional option to gather together a personal guard or train you. A single assassin is certainly very helpful to have in your pocket, but good luck sending them halfway around the world to kill an upstart noble in the Southlands. They can try to help, but there's a limit.
On the other hand, a private army, a spy network, a top official who knows people who know people, a Hereditary Governor (some of whom qualify, others of whom are puppets themselves, or have all but given up their power to others in some way), or even just the sheer power of a vast network of court officials...these are things that can grant Policy Influence or open up some fascinating new options.
*****
And that's the basics of the system, what do you think?
Does this make you more or less interested in the Quest?
I sorta got inspired to do this by @Crilltic 's Quest, though other than maybe the interesting pass-fail mechanic (I can talk about that later), I'm not sure how much I'd be cribbing from them mechanically. The mechanics are a bit of mish-mash.
*****
So that's what I have right now...feedback?
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Turn 3--B
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Turn 3-B
Bloody Business
1d100=11,
There was very little progress, and in fact, considering some of the close scrapes, it was clear that the vampires had already undermined their operation in some way. It couldn't be from the inside, not directly, so it had to be related to the employees that some of the corporations (such as the Private Investigators that sometimes work for Fall) and groups use are being undermined. Attempts to infiltrate or find problems in the businesses of the enemy, in other words, fail.
It was a miracle, or rather the result of good planning, that worse didn't happen. That, or the vampires had been restraining themselves, and that seemed unlikely for more than a few reasons. If such poking continued with such ineptitude, however, there was no guarantee that next time a Changeling or allied mortal might not pay the price.
*****
Every Hallowed Tradition
1d100+10=49
1d100+10=83
1d100+20=62
It's that time of year again, and again Cora found herself grateful for it. If nothing else, setting up the committees and beginning the work to prepare for yet another Halloween gave her something she could talk about over the dinner table. What with how Jason Smiles and Eva and Jonathan all had varying levels of clearance into what she wanted them to know and not, the fact that what she was doing was genuinely harmless was a treat.
So she talked to them about how there had been troubles supplying the costumers for the Masquerade ball, and how the catering companies they'd relied upon would have to be replaced.
"Costumers?" Jason "Smiles" had asked.
"There are some people who cannot afford a good costume, especially fitting to the standards some of the Spring set insist on giving even to a Fall celebration. Costumes are given free of charge to those who do not have the resources or time and yet wish to participate. Thus, the ball is open to everyone."
"Can I go this year?" Jonathan asked. He had in previous years, so Cora glanced at him, trying to divine his meaning.
"Of course you can."
"Can Jason and Eva go?"
"I do not need to if you don't want," Eva began.
Cora held out a hand. "Why?"
Jonathan puffed up, and for a moment she wondered at his father, yet knew that he was her son, because she knew that expression, she knew that careful weighing of options. He had his passions and interests, but he wasn't a slave to them. "Because they are my friends, and this new world, from what little you said...you need every friend you can get, don't you?"
Eva frowned at that, but nodded.
Cora leaned back, considering the point. "So you'd want me to include mortals not directly tied to Changelings in proceedings, or is this a special exception?"
"Both, I suppose," he said, "Try opening up more events to people beyond usual, if you think you can trust them, and see how it works. Mom, I have no idea what you actually do half the time, but I know you're paranoid about all of it. But trying a little trust and knowing that if a little is too dangerous, if a party or two is too threatening, you can just...withdraw it, that isn't so bad, is it?"
Cora knew of a dozen arguments against this, each stronger than the other, but at the moment she decided that now wasn't the time. She was smart enough that she could compensate for any problems they or any others caused.
*****
Guts of Red, Voice of White, Heart of Black
1d100=77
"There are three of them," King Stoneguts began when he strode into the room, limping. "No, four."
Cora Graves was over him, or rather they were unwilling to be casual with each other, but that didn't mean that her cold heart didn't leap when she saw the blood and cuts and bruises. She frowned, and when she spoke her voice was as steady and clear as an icy pool of water. "Try not to track blood everywhere while you're telling me what three you're talking about."
It didn't fool him, not for a moment, and he merely smiled and said, "Three types of Vampires, plus one more that I wasn't able to figure out. Three types of vampires, and three Court systems. It works simple enough, they have nobles and they scheme, and a King who supposedly gives them orders."
Cora nodded, "That is to be expected. Please, sit down." They're in her study, and he was still standing.
"And track blood everywhere?"
She knew that voice, and she settled in her chair for a moment, tinges of warmth filling her body. Memories of bodies and the things bodies do. The association is indirect: certainly blood hadn't been involved, but maybe she's tired, and maybe she was still dealing with far too many things. Everyone had been distracted lately, in fact. "If that's what it takes to get you to sit down and relax, yes."
"Very well then. The Red King is surrounded by a circle of advisors known as the Lords of Outer Night. Below them are Dukes on downwards, and only those who have 'Noble' blood can trasnform others. This much is obvious. The White Court, on the other hand, is born, not made. Each member is conceived as any other child is, and through some means becomes more than that. It seems to relate to puberty, and I suspect that it has to do with murder. And then there is the Black Court of vampires."
"Ah, what I was mistaken for?"
"Walking corpses, and dangerous. Infectious beings, spreading all about: they've clashed repeatedly with multiple powerful Freeholds in the east, and while the Freeholds have managed to come out ahead or get away by surprise, they're...powerful and terrifying, and have few restrictions on spreading."
"What of weaknesses?" Cora asked, carefully.
"I can put together a basic list, though in some ways it is as expected," King Stoneguts said. "Most interesting were the rumors of a Jade Court."
"The wounds, though?" Cora asked.
"Ukraine," King Stoneguts said, "There was a minor incident. I can look into the Jade Court, though considering how secretive they are, it might be best if I use agents for this. I only hesitated to do so in this case because…"
Cora knew the answer. Because if there were two areas where they were running relatively blind, it was in Eastern Europe and Asia. Their networks had never been as universal as rumors had hinted at, not even close, but there were areas that were very large blind-spots.
Another matter to deal with.
Effect: Know basics of each vampire court and their (basic) structure. Potential options over the next few turns.
*****
Magic Circle, Magic Circle
1d100=74, considerable progress
Sometimes, many hands make lighter work. Certainly, Cora Graves knew that teamwork could help, but it was almost impressive how much they scrambled to see her will done. By the end of it, she'd learned a lot, though an easy explanation still evaded them.
What she'd heard a lot of was theories, including from one strange Reason courtier who had called her at three in the morning to talk to her about how, "I think I've figured something out and it's insane. You know how Sorcery can sometimes do without certain props, I think that the circle doesn't matter as much as the imagining of the circle. The existence of a circular...it sounds bizarre, but I think that in theory someone could just imagine a circle."
"Your evidence?" Cora had asked.
"Well, I don't have evidence yet, but I think that's the only thing that makes sense. I've been doing some studies, and it doesn't matter what the circle is made out of. If you place jelly beans down in the right distance and do it right, it'll work. No material matters at all, as long as it creates a perfect circle."
"That the material doesn't matter does not mean that the material is unnecessary," Cora pointed out, though she found the idea of it fascinating. She was always interested in magic, and if it was true it was such a strange facet of this new magic. But she had not yet seen any direct demonstration of what the magic could do, though the descriptions of the combat that Harry Dresden had engaged in certainly seemed to indicate that they could do spells that didn't involve ritual components.
"True, true. I'm going to keep working on it," the man said, sounding exhausted, "It's...god, it's fascinating, if highly illogical."
"Plenty of things are," Cora said absently, glancing down at the notes she'd been looking at. Another fact that seemed bizarre is that even without the necessary 'will' (whose exact nature was hard to pin down, apparently) blood could help to close a magical circle. Once it was closed, however, the user couldn't leave it without breaking it, even if they didn't actually scuff the chalk. And its effects on Changeling magic were confusing at best. It didn't seem to block most things, but there was an occasional Contract that interacted strangely with the circle.
"I guess so...but that just means that we'll have to figure it out," the man said, taking an awfully familiar tone for someone whose name she only now remembered. Daffy Donald, as some called him.
Well, if the idea worked, it worked.
******
According to Rumor
1d100=87
Two words. Unseelie Accords. Those tell Cora far more than she expected. First, the fact that Seelie and Unseelie were important terms, and if she could guess that, a few things started to fall in place. So, agreements made that in some way connect with the mythological Unseelie Court.
If there was an Unseelie Court, then it seemed likely there was a Seelie Court. The nature of these accords was apparently written down, but this was not accessible, but what it seemed to be was an agreement between the major supernatural powers that set limits, guidelines, and some manner of the nature of peace and war.
Obtaining a copy might be useful, and in fact, very necessary, but finding one would take some doing.
Where does Cora and the Freehold turn?
Where book?
[] Attempt to scour bookstores, and search high and low for a copy of the Accords that is not in the hands of someone that you would have to negotiate with.
[] Ask Gabe for a copy. This would require careful negotiation, and might turn into yet another trade which could very well be detrimental to the Freehold.
[] Tug the strings: the Duchy of the Phoenix in Chicago knows a Wizard. Cora could tug strings and offer a reward if the Freehold would carefully ask this Dresden for a copy (for it would be only logical that a Wizard would have one, being a signatory), and thus mask Cora from direct involvement, though Chicago would likely read it as well: which is no problem, frankly. They aren't enemies, or even potential enemies at the moment.
[] Write-in.
*****
Arch Comments
1d100=59
There was something odd about the Gateway arches. That's all that Cora's subordinates can guess, that something was off about it when they'd visited it and seen it from a distance, even though to all photographs it was the same. Now, hunches weren't something that Cora Graves always trusted, but she understood that many of the people who had these hunches were trustworthy people. So, she had best not screw up just how she is going to approach this, not if she doesn't want to potentially wind up with another enemy or worse.
How does she approach it? Location, Location, Location.
[] Come in from the Hedge-side using a portal if at all possible.
[] Walk in on foot.
What time does she visit?
[] Morning.
[] Evening.
What does she do once there?
[] Investigate for suspicious characters.
[] Attempt to draw attention to herself if there was anyone magical in the area.
[] Study and examine the arch itself for any signs of changes.
[] Act as a tourist, and see whether whatever force, being, or person was making the area seem strange act.
*****
A/N: Some good rolls, some not so good rolls, I still think I might have been too forgiving with the business thing, but other than that, an interesting set of results indeed.
Bloody Business
1d100=11,
There was very little progress, and in fact, considering some of the close scrapes, it was clear that the vampires had already undermined their operation in some way. It couldn't be from the inside, not directly, so it had to be related to the employees that some of the corporations (such as the Private Investigators that sometimes work for Fall) and groups use are being undermined. Attempts to infiltrate or find problems in the businesses of the enemy, in other words, fail.
It was a miracle, or rather the result of good planning, that worse didn't happen. That, or the vampires had been restraining themselves, and that seemed unlikely for more than a few reasons. If such poking continued with such ineptitude, however, there was no guarantee that next time a Changeling or allied mortal might not pay the price.
*****
Every Hallowed Tradition
1d100+10=49
1d100+10=83
1d100+20=62
It's that time of year again, and again Cora found herself grateful for it. If nothing else, setting up the committees and beginning the work to prepare for yet another Halloween gave her something she could talk about over the dinner table. What with how Jason Smiles and Eva and Jonathan all had varying levels of clearance into what she wanted them to know and not, the fact that what she was doing was genuinely harmless was a treat.
So she talked to them about how there had been troubles supplying the costumers for the Masquerade ball, and how the catering companies they'd relied upon would have to be replaced.
"Costumers?" Jason "Smiles" had asked.
"There are some people who cannot afford a good costume, especially fitting to the standards some of the Spring set insist on giving even to a Fall celebration. Costumes are given free of charge to those who do not have the resources or time and yet wish to participate. Thus, the ball is open to everyone."
"Can I go this year?" Jonathan asked. He had in previous years, so Cora glanced at him, trying to divine his meaning.
"Of course you can."
"Can Jason and Eva go?"
"I do not need to if you don't want," Eva began.
Cora held out a hand. "Why?"
Jonathan puffed up, and for a moment she wondered at his father, yet knew that he was her son, because she knew that expression, she knew that careful weighing of options. He had his passions and interests, but he wasn't a slave to them. "Because they are my friends, and this new world, from what little you said...you need every friend you can get, don't you?"
Eva frowned at that, but nodded.
Cora leaned back, considering the point. "So you'd want me to include mortals not directly tied to Changelings in proceedings, or is this a special exception?"
"Both, I suppose," he said, "Try opening up more events to people beyond usual, if you think you can trust them, and see how it works. Mom, I have no idea what you actually do half the time, but I know you're paranoid about all of it. But trying a little trust and knowing that if a little is too dangerous, if a party or two is too threatening, you can just...withdraw it, that isn't so bad, is it?"
Cora knew of a dozen arguments against this, each stronger than the other, but at the moment she decided that now wasn't the time. She was smart enough that she could compensate for any problems they or any others caused.
*****
Guts of Red, Voice of White, Heart of Black
1d100=77
"There are three of them," King Stoneguts began when he strode into the room, limping. "No, four."
Cora Graves was over him, or rather they were unwilling to be casual with each other, but that didn't mean that her cold heart didn't leap when she saw the blood and cuts and bruises. She frowned, and when she spoke her voice was as steady and clear as an icy pool of water. "Try not to track blood everywhere while you're telling me what three you're talking about."
It didn't fool him, not for a moment, and he merely smiled and said, "Three types of Vampires, plus one more that I wasn't able to figure out. Three types of vampires, and three Court systems. It works simple enough, they have nobles and they scheme, and a King who supposedly gives them orders."
Cora nodded, "That is to be expected. Please, sit down." They're in her study, and he was still standing.
"And track blood everywhere?"
She knew that voice, and she settled in her chair for a moment, tinges of warmth filling her body. Memories of bodies and the things bodies do. The association is indirect: certainly blood hadn't been involved, but maybe she's tired, and maybe she was still dealing with far too many things. Everyone had been distracted lately, in fact. "If that's what it takes to get you to sit down and relax, yes."
"Very well then. The Red King is surrounded by a circle of advisors known as the Lords of Outer Night. Below them are Dukes on downwards, and only those who have 'Noble' blood can trasnform others. This much is obvious. The White Court, on the other hand, is born, not made. Each member is conceived as any other child is, and through some means becomes more than that. It seems to relate to puberty, and I suspect that it has to do with murder. And then there is the Black Court of vampires."
"Ah, what I was mistaken for?"
"Walking corpses, and dangerous. Infectious beings, spreading all about: they've clashed repeatedly with multiple powerful Freeholds in the east, and while the Freeholds have managed to come out ahead or get away by surprise, they're...powerful and terrifying, and have few restrictions on spreading."
"What of weaknesses?" Cora asked, carefully.
"I can put together a basic list, though in some ways it is as expected," King Stoneguts said. "Most interesting were the rumors of a Jade Court."
"The wounds, though?" Cora asked.
"Ukraine," King Stoneguts said, "There was a minor incident. I can look into the Jade Court, though considering how secretive they are, it might be best if I use agents for this. I only hesitated to do so in this case because…"
Cora knew the answer. Because if there were two areas where they were running relatively blind, it was in Eastern Europe and Asia. Their networks had never been as universal as rumors had hinted at, not even close, but there were areas that were very large blind-spots.
Another matter to deal with.
Effect: Know basics of each vampire court and their (basic) structure. Potential options over the next few turns.
*****
Magic Circle, Magic Circle
1d100=74, considerable progress
Sometimes, many hands make lighter work. Certainly, Cora Graves knew that teamwork could help, but it was almost impressive how much they scrambled to see her will done. By the end of it, she'd learned a lot, though an easy explanation still evaded them.
What she'd heard a lot of was theories, including from one strange Reason courtier who had called her at three in the morning to talk to her about how, "I think I've figured something out and it's insane. You know how Sorcery can sometimes do without certain props, I think that the circle doesn't matter as much as the imagining of the circle. The existence of a circular...it sounds bizarre, but I think that in theory someone could just imagine a circle."
"Your evidence?" Cora had asked.
"Well, I don't have evidence yet, but I think that's the only thing that makes sense. I've been doing some studies, and it doesn't matter what the circle is made out of. If you place jelly beans down in the right distance and do it right, it'll work. No material matters at all, as long as it creates a perfect circle."
"That the material doesn't matter does not mean that the material is unnecessary," Cora pointed out, though she found the idea of it fascinating. She was always interested in magic, and if it was true it was such a strange facet of this new magic. But she had not yet seen any direct demonstration of what the magic could do, though the descriptions of the combat that Harry Dresden had engaged in certainly seemed to indicate that they could do spells that didn't involve ritual components.
"True, true. I'm going to keep working on it," the man said, sounding exhausted, "It's...god, it's fascinating, if highly illogical."
"Plenty of things are," Cora said absently, glancing down at the notes she'd been looking at. Another fact that seemed bizarre is that even without the necessary 'will' (whose exact nature was hard to pin down, apparently) blood could help to close a magical circle. Once it was closed, however, the user couldn't leave it without breaking it, even if they didn't actually scuff the chalk. And its effects on Changeling magic were confusing at best. It didn't seem to block most things, but there was an occasional Contract that interacted strangely with the circle.
"I guess so...but that just means that we'll have to figure it out," the man said, taking an awfully familiar tone for someone whose name she only now remembered. Daffy Donald, as some called him.
Well, if the idea worked, it worked.
******
According to Rumor
1d100=87
Two words. Unseelie Accords. Those tell Cora far more than she expected. First, the fact that Seelie and Unseelie were important terms, and if she could guess that, a few things started to fall in place. So, agreements made that in some way connect with the mythological Unseelie Court.
If there was an Unseelie Court, then it seemed likely there was a Seelie Court. The nature of these accords was apparently written down, but this was not accessible, but what it seemed to be was an agreement between the major supernatural powers that set limits, guidelines, and some manner of the nature of peace and war.
Obtaining a copy might be useful, and in fact, very necessary, but finding one would take some doing.
Where does Cora and the Freehold turn?
Where book?
[] Attempt to scour bookstores, and search high and low for a copy of the Accords that is not in the hands of someone that you would have to negotiate with.
[] Ask Gabe for a copy. This would require careful negotiation, and might turn into yet another trade which could very well be detrimental to the Freehold.
[] Tug the strings: the Duchy of the Phoenix in Chicago knows a Wizard. Cora could tug strings and offer a reward if the Freehold would carefully ask this Dresden for a copy (for it would be only logical that a Wizard would have one, being a signatory), and thus mask Cora from direct involvement, though Chicago would likely read it as well: which is no problem, frankly. They aren't enemies, or even potential enemies at the moment.
[] Write-in.
*****
Arch Comments
1d100=59
There was something odd about the Gateway arches. That's all that Cora's subordinates can guess, that something was off about it when they'd visited it and seen it from a distance, even though to all photographs it was the same. Now, hunches weren't something that Cora Graves always trusted, but she understood that many of the people who had these hunches were trustworthy people. So, she had best not screw up just how she is going to approach this, not if she doesn't want to potentially wind up with another enemy or worse.
How does she approach it? Location, Location, Location.
[] Come in from the Hedge-side using a portal if at all possible.
[] Walk in on foot.
What time does she visit?
[] Morning.
[] Evening.
What does she do once there?
[] Investigate for suspicious characters.
[] Attempt to draw attention to herself if there was anyone magical in the area.
[] Study and examine the arch itself for any signs of changes.
[] Act as a tourist, and see whether whatever force, being, or person was making the area seem strange act.
*****
A/N: Some good rolls, some not so good rolls, I still think I might have been too forgiving with the business thing, but other than that, an interesting set of results indeed.
[X] [Accords]Tug the strings: the Duchy of the Phoenix in Chicago knows a Wizard. Cora could tug strings and offer a reward if the Freehold would carefully ask this Dresden for a copy (for it would be only logical that a Wizard would have one, being a signatory), and thus mask Cora from direct involvement, though Chicago would likely read it as well: which is no problem, frankly. They aren't enemies, or even potential enemies at the moment.
Hi Harry.
[X] [Location] Come in from the Hedge-side using a portal if at all possible.
More dangerous, more informative, and Cora has bonuses to Hedge side.
[X] [Time] Morning. Spiritually safer. Less informative, but less chance of horrors [X] [Action] Study and examine the arch itself for any signs of changes. Differences are telling, Cora knows the old Arches, so a comparative study would tell her what it does differently[/Time]
Hi Harry.
[X] [Location] Come in from the Hedge-side using a portal if at all possible.
More dangerous, more informative, and Cora has bonuses to Hedge side.
[X] [Time] Morning. Spiritually safer. Less informative, but less chance of horrors [X] [Action] Study and examine the arch itself for any signs of changes. Differences are telling, Cora knows the old Arches, so a comparative study would tell her what it does differently[/Time]
Last edited:
notanautomaton
I've got 99 quests, I've finished one
[x]Tug the strings
[X] Tug the strings: the Duchy of the Phoenix in Chicago knows a Wizard. Cora could tug strings and offer a reward if the Freehold would carefully ask this Dresden for a copy (for it would be only logical that a Wizard would have one, being a signatory), and thus mask Cora from direct involvement, though Chicago would likely read it as well: which is no problem, frankly. They aren't enemies, or even potential enemies at the moment.
Make Harry a friend!
Make Harry a friend!
[X] Tug the strings
The same reason as others, and should this be successful slows the Chicago court access to the information.
[X] Evening.
It's when things happen, and Cora gets a negative modifier during the day.
[X] Walk in on foot
[X] Act as a tourist, and see whether whatever force, being, or person was making the area seem strange act.
Shows us the arches infraction with it's surroundings and whether it's being noticed, which is important if Cora wishes to keep it secret.
The same reason as others, and should this be successful slows the Chicago court access to the information.
[X] Evening.
It's when things happen, and Cora gets a negative modifier during the day.
[X] Walk in on foot
[X] Act as a tourist, and see whether whatever force, being, or person was making the area seem strange act.
Shows us the arches infraction with it's surroundings and whether it's being noticed, which is important if Cora wishes to keep it secret.
- Location
- somewhere over there.
- Pronouns
- They/It
transform
[X] [Accords]Tug the strings: the Duchy of the Phoenix in Chicago knows a Wizard. Cora could tug strings and offer a reward if the Freehold would carefully ask this Dresden for a copy (for it would be only logical that a Wizard would have one, being a signatory), and thus mask Cora from direct involvement, though Chicago would likely read it as well: which is no problem, frankly. They aren't enemies, or even potential enemies at the moment.
[X] [Location] Come in from the Hedge-side using a portal if at all possible.
[X] [Time] Morning. [X] [Action] Study and examine the arch itself for any signs of changes.[/Time]
[X] [Accords]Tug the strings: the Duchy of the Phoenix in Chicago knows a Wizard. Cora could tug strings and offer a reward if the Freehold would carefully ask this Dresden for a copy (for it would be only logical that a Wizard would have one, being a signatory), and thus mask Cora from direct involvement, though Chicago would likely read it as well: which is no problem, frankly. They aren't enemies, or even potential enemies at the moment.
[X] [Location] Come in from the Hedge-side using a portal if at all possible.
[X] [Time] Morning. [X] [Action] Study and examine the arch itself for any signs of changes.[/Time]
[X] [Location] Come in from the Hedge-side using a portal if at all possible.
[X] [Time] Morning. [X] [Action] Study and examine the arch itself for any signs of changes.[/Time]
- Location
- Tarn-Vedra
[X] [Accords]Tug the strings: the Duchy of the Phoenix in Chicago knows a Wizard. Cora could tug strings and offer a reward if the Freehold would carefully ask this Dresden for a copy (for it would be only logical that a Wizard would have one, being a signatory), and thus mask Cora from direct involvement, though Chicago would likely read it as well: which is no problem, frankly. They aren't enemies, or even potential enemies at the moment.
[X] [Location] Come in from the Hedge-side using a portal if at all possible.
[X] [Time] Morning. [X] [Action] Study and examine the arch itself for any signs of changes.[/Time]
[X] [Location] Come in from the Hedge-side using a portal if at all possible.
[X] [Time] Morning. [X] [Action] Study and examine the arch itself for any signs of changes.[/Time]
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Vote closes Thursday, because I have, like, four different *major* projects going on at the same time.
lkmcclenahan
That which doesn't kill me, only makes me stranger
- Location
- UK
[X] [Accords]Tug the strings: the Duchy of the Phoenix in Chicago knows a Wizard. Cora could tug strings and offer a reward if the Freehold would carefully ask this Dresden for a copy (for it would be only logical that a Wizard would have one, being a signatory), and thus mask Cora from direct involvement, though Chicago would likely read it as well: which is no problem, frankly. They aren't enemies, or even potential enemies at the moment.
[X] [Location] Come in from the Hedge-side using a portal if at all possible.
[X] [Time] Evening. [X] [Action] Study and examine the arch itself for any signs of changes.[/Time]
[X] [Location] Come in from the Hedge-side using a portal if at all possible.
[X] [Time] Evening. [X] [Action] Study and examine the arch itself for any signs of changes.[/Time]
Arkatekt
Harbinger of Shitluck
[X] [Accords]Tug the strings: the Duchy of the Phoenix in Chicago knows a Wizard. Cora could tug strings and offer a reward if the Freehold would carefully ask this Dresden for a copy (for it would be only logical that a Wizard would have one, being a signatory), and thus mask Cora from direct involvement, though Chicago would likely read it as well: which is no problem, frankly. They aren't enemies, or even potential enemies at the moment.
[X] [Location] Come in from the Hedge-side using a portal if at all possible.
[X] [Time] Morning. [X] [Action] Study and examine the arch itself for any signs of changes.[/Time]
[X] [Location] Come in from the Hedge-side using a portal if at all possible.
[X] [Time] Morning. [X] [Action] Study and examine the arch itself for any signs of changes.[/Time]