Kylia Quilor
I Have Two Moods, and Bitter is One of Them.
- Location
- Hiding in the corner of your vision.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Eminently plausible plan.
You're the Queen - Now What? [CK2ish Character-Focused Quest]
- Thread starter Kylia Quilor
- Start date
- Mature Fantasy
Thank you!
I was tempted to ask about their application in civilian life first, but the issue is that I'd have nothing to compare it too.
It sounds like there aren't enough mages to significantly effect most people's day to day, if only slightly more than one in a thousand are supernaturally able. However… divination and fortune telling, at the highest echelons of decision making, is enormous.
They Want ME To Be Queen?
Kylia Quilor
I Have Two Moods, and Bitter is One of Them.
- Location
- Hiding in the corner of your vision.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
"Sir... could you run that by me again?" Vanessa had excellent hearing. She'd heard exactly what the Archmage had told her, but... that couldn't be it.
Cyril chuckled, raising a bushy white eyebrow, "You were never this inattentive when you were my apprentice, Vanessa, what happened in the last seven years?" Vanessa bit her lip, her mentor's sense of humor never his best feature, and let him go on. "The Estates-General couldn't agree on a more conventional candidate for the throne, and since only a handful of radicals in Eaglecrest actually liked the idea of having no monarch, they decided to look further afield. Someone suggested picking a non-noble who had distinguished themselves. They started calling it the Talcraft Solution, named for-"
"Olden the Great, from the village of Talcraft, and a commoner named to be king of Nerinthar after the overthrow of the Morvakian puppet-dynasty 134 years ago," Vanessa finished. She smiled, "I did pay attention in your lessons, as you said."
"Indeed." Cyril ran a hand through his beard, then took a puff from his pipe. "This rebellion didn't really have so clear a single leader, of course, and so there was a great deal of wrangling and debate. Count Vallefor and his lot were very resistant to the idea until your name was floated."
I suppose I can see why he'd be so resistant in general. Count Vallefor Trovus, of Vannecht County, was probably the most blueblooded nobleman in Halrun, and he made sure everyone knew it. In his ancestry he could claim connection to the nobility of the Necrotic Empire - his forebears were one of the few that were able to successfully defect to the Crusaders side when the Empire was pushed into Darkmoon forest - and refugee nobles from Iredan and the Tamilkirk married into his line early on in it's independent history.
Snobbish, arrogant and wealthy, the man thought that if you didn't have a title, and especially if that title didn't go back to before Halrun, at least, you were barely above gutter trash, no matter your wealth. She'd shied away from his offers of employment more than once for that reason, before the civil war.
"...What, because my mother was a noble in Veldros?" The Veldrosian nobility were about as venerable as the Count's, given their own ties to the Necrotic Empire, but... "I'm a bastard, sir. My father was blacksmith that my bored and unsatisfied mother fucked to spite her husband."
"That does still make you the most noble of the options that people were discussing. You know how it is, Vanessa," Cyril gesture a circle with his pipe, "All these nobles hate each other, or at least, enough do. No one could agree on more pedigreed candidate. And... frankly, though no one said it to my face, and I only attended some of the sessions of the Estates, the fact that you were my apprentice raises your standing with the more conservative minded nobles too. Mages are in a class of their own, and Archmagi..."
"Might as well be kings," Vanessa nodded, finishing the old saying.
So this was happening.
Vanessa dropped down into her chair, her half-packed travel chest and bags sitting, ignored on the bed.
Me? Queen? I don't even know the first thing about... ruling. Which was probably the point. Vanessa wasn't really a noble, whatever Vallefor thought. But she had been raised around nobility - the Academ Arcanum was mostly noble-blooded students, thanks to centuries of careful assimilation of any mages who were born into or moved to Veldros. A mage wasn't guaranteed to have a mage child, but it was more common.
And she knew true nobles were taught how to rule. How to assert their power. How to administer their domains, oversee justice... nothing Vanessa knew. Granted, sometimes they were still terrible at their jobs...
I couldn't possibly be worse than Syrokis, or the Kings of Zedarsh before they lost all their power...
But her lack of experience was probably a draw for many.
"How many of the people who voted for me in the Estates think they can lead me by the nose since I have no idea what I'm doing?" Vanessa asked, after a moment.
Cyril smiled, "There's the smart girl I taught. The answer is less than you'd think, but more than there should be. Vallefor is definitely among them, and despite her good intentions, I think Lady Balmain is too, which has to be the first time the two of them have agreed on anything."
"They should just fuck and get it over with," Vanessa quipped, quoting her friend Sasha. In the last parts of the rebellion, Vallefor and Balmain had both risen to prominence in rebel councils, and their fights were loud and frequent. The rough woman from the north seemed convinced that meant both were secretly attracted to the other.
Vanessa doubted it, but it was an amusing notion regardless.
Cyril, mid inhale, laughed hard enough to be reduced to a brief coughing fit, but before Vanessa could get to him and offer help, he recovered, and Vanessa returned to her chair. "If you do take the crown, I suggest you don't make that suggestion to either of their faces."
"...a fair suggestion, but..." Vanessa blinked, something else occurring to her. "And why are you the one delivering this message? You don't take orders from the Estates."
"I volunteered." Cyril replied with a mischievous note to his voice.
Vanessa snorted, "Of course you did. I should have guessed." She exhaled, pondering the offer. She - she'd never even imagined a crown, or even a noble title in her future. Insofar as she'd ever thought about her long-term future before the war, it had been about eventually retiring with her accumulated wealth from her various patrons, in one of the more mage friendly cities - Eaglecrest, Varyos, Gateway - when she was old and gray. But at 24, it had seemed silly to think that far ahead. It still seemed silly. She didn't think she'd live as long as Cyril, but she had at least a century of total life, barring violence.
Being Queen isn't exactly something I can just... quit. And Halrun was... in a state. She'd only paid loose attention to the Estates-General as they'd debated, but she knew they'd assumed rebel debts, or most of them, and she knew firsthand how damaged parts of the capital alone were. Couron and Tairos hadn't been fought over as badly, but still.
There were reports of bandits active in several parts of the kingdom - ex-soldiers (rebel or loyalist), or just people taking advantage of the chaos to get rich quick.
And the roads. The Roads. She'd already been planning to just buy a second horse to carry her things, rather than find a spot on a caravan, given the state of what had once been Halrun's pride and joy, the greatest thing Teran Halrun accomplished in his lifetime, in her mind.
If she accepted this offer, she'd have nobles trying to manipulate her, a massive pile of debts, unreconstructed Syrokis loyalists probably wanting her dead, someday Syrokis's own bastard might surface and cause problems, especially since his mother was no pushover, magically. And there were all sorts of other problems she didn't even know about, Vanessa was sure. Cyril's lessons about history, and especially the aftermath of wars, were quite thorough.
But if she accepted it... she'd have a crown. Power. She couldn't exactly say she hated the idea of having power. It wasn't like she didn't have her own opinions on how things should work, nebulous as they could be. And... she'd never have to worry about money, ever again. She couldn't do what Syrokis did and plunder the kingdom for her own enjoyment, and she couldn't do what the Kings of Zedarsh did and drive the Kingdom so deep into debt she lost all power.
Well, you could, but do you really think that will work out as well for you as it did for them? Vanessa didn't.
But she'd never have to worry about money. Never worrying she'd have a patron try to cheat her (hadn't happened to her, but you heard stories), or being between patrons too long. She'd have the surety that as long as she didn't go completely overboard - and she wasn't the sort anyway - she'd be set for life.
And the look on my mother's face...
Vanessa hadn't seen her mother since she was eleven, but she'd never been close to the snobbish bitch, raised by a nanny for a few years while they decided what to do with her, then sent off to the Academ Arcanum... a few visits, just to make sure Vanessa was representing her mother suitably.
Call me a mistake and a greedy little child just for asking for the slightest recognition of my birthday, will you? Veldros existed in Halrun's shadow, and knowing that a Queen took precedence over any of Veldros's nobles...
"So, are they attaching any prerequisites, before I can accept?" Never agree to something without knowing the full details.
"You have to provide a seal to all the decrees the Estates passed - the reversion to pre-Syrokis taxes, the lifting of Syrokis's expanded punishments and crimes, the confiscation of property of some of his biggest supporters, that sort of thing," Cyril ticked off. "But you'll also have to accept their demands for who goes on your Inner Council."
"Rucdorn Relcred for Keeper of the Royal Vaults, I'm sure," Vanessa considered, and Cyril nodded.
"Your Keeper of Correspondence will have to be Rykall Morn,"
"That excitable clerk with the Eaglecrest Militia?" Vanessa had only interacted with him a few times, since she'd mostly not been involved with the Eaglecrest forces.
"Technically he used to be a clerk for the King, and with so many above him dead, fired or quitting, General Kaptel and the rest of Eaglecrest pretty much insisted. Count Vallefor and Lady Balmain will both be on your Inner Council, though you at least get to pick what positions they'll be assigned."
"Really?" Vanessa let out a sigh, almost - almost - rethinking the prospect of accepting the throne. Having to deal with a man like Count Vallefor every day? And even Lady Balmain, for all that she was forward thinking and believed in merit more than blood, could be an insufferable, meddling and paternalistic woman.
"Really." Cyril nodded, chuckling at the way Vanessa dropped her head into her hand, fingers splayed across her forehead. "They are some of the most influential ones of their respective factions, after all," Cyril pointed out. "And neither liked being iced out by Syrokis before the war."
"And that means they have to be my headache for five years, until they get bored and quit or I have a secure enough position I can probably remove them safely?" Vanessa knew she was whining, something she hadn't done since she was a teenager, but really?
"No one ever said being Queen would be nothing but sunshine and roses." Cyril teased.
"I hate roses," Vanessa grumbled. "Who else am I being forced to accept?"
"More a short list of candidates you'll have to pick from, for the rest," Cyril said. "I think they're still drawing that part up."
Vanessa did her best not to grumble when she heard that, knowing all Cyril would do would be to laugh at her annoyance. And it was petty. She was quibbling about the price of a crown. The Estates would have a list of candidates foisted on her for the Inner Council, and that didn't sound fun, but it wasn't as if she couldn't work with that. And Vallefor and Balmain...
She knew how to handle people like them.
She sat there, thinking for a long moment, until something occurred.
If they're still drawing up the lists...
"Who else were the options that they were discussing, that I was the boat pedigreed of?" Vanessa asked, raising an eyebrow. If they were selecting prominent leaders of the rebellion, and people that presumably not enough people disliked for them to be able to agree on...
There could only be so many, and she was at least on positive terms herself with many of them. Capable people. People she might be able to get along with.
Especially Sasha, since they were even friends. She'd love to bring Sasha into her Inner Council as well, just to watch Vallefor squirm, but there were others - people she would work with, people who could help the Kingdom and people who could probably be acceptable for the short lists.
On the other hand, I don't know if I want to surround myself with people who were considered for the throne too. Vanessa had mostly skimmed over the writings of the philosopher Vatrelli, but she remembered a passage about being careful about keeping rival claimants to the throne too close, where people could rally around them and use them, even if they themselves weren't treacherous.
So maybe only pick one. Keep the others in mind for later, if they were ever looking for work. And did she really want to subject Sasha to Vallefor?
Cyril listed the names off. Vanessa was stunned to hear that Sasha's name was actually on the list of candidates for the throne too, which was... I mean, I suppose she could bring a no-nonsense approach to it all, but I think she'd go mad as Queen.
Rienne Novash's name was unsurprising - she cut the very perfect image of a warrior queen of the children's stories. Maria Durnova was another unsurprising choice, given her high, if common, birth, and the easy way she made friends. Zelirna Sorlkaeus...
Well, she was powerful. And she had that exotic cast to her. Vanessa hadn't really gotten on with her, finding it hard to really connect, but she respected the other woman.
Then she got to the last name Cyril listed - Girra Bladewit.
Wait, really? An orphan from the streets of Port Lest?
Well, I can see why Vallefor would rather me than her. Which did make the idea of bringing her into her council also appealing as well. And she got on with Girra well enough, though she wouldn't call her a friend...
"You're up to something." Cyril noted, eyes narrowing.
"Oh, just thinking about how I might be able to share the fun." Vanessa grinned.
The question was, which of the other five would she ask to join her Inner Council, and would they accept? She couldn't imagine they'd all be so thrilled about working for her, but Vanessa could be pretty persuasive if she wanted, and she could always use a little farsight to see what they wanted...
QM Note: The following tasks will all be +Diplomacy (Vanessa's). If you also choose to offer the additional incentive that Vanessa discovers via Farsight to figure out what they want, you'll get +5 to the task as well, as per her trait. Though obviously it does mean you'll need to uphold or make every good faith effort to uphold, your end of the bargain later, or that may cause problems.
Vote for up to two (2) choices below. The top choice will have their task rolled, and if Vanessa fails her task on the first one, then the second one will be asked. If she fails on both, well, she doesn't bring in one of the other candidates onto her Inner Council.
[ ][OTHER CANDIDATE] Ask Girra Bladewit (Base Chance: 55%)
-[ ]Promise to grant Some Form Of Formal Recognition To or Protection Of The Port Lest Thieves' Guild (Optional)
[ ][OTHER CANDIDATE] Ask Rienne Novash (Base Chance: 60%)
-[ ]Promise Rienne a noble title and lands to go with it. (Optional)
[ ][OTHER CANDIDATE] Maria Durnova (Base Chance: 52%)
-[ ]Offer to Help Maria Spite Her Wealthy and Influential Family (Optional)
[ ][OTHER CANDIDATE] Zerlina Sorlkaeus (Base Chance: 48%)
-[ ]Promise to get Cyril to let her see a few of his rare tomes. (Optional)
[ ][OTHER CANDIDATE] Sasha of the Surovyza (Base Chance: 65%)
-[ ]Promise Better Working Conditions and Wages for the Miners in the Korrid Hills (Optional)
Cyril chuckled, raising a bushy white eyebrow, "You were never this inattentive when you were my apprentice, Vanessa, what happened in the last seven years?" Vanessa bit her lip, her mentor's sense of humor never his best feature, and let him go on. "The Estates-General couldn't agree on a more conventional candidate for the throne, and since only a handful of radicals in Eaglecrest actually liked the idea of having no monarch, they decided to look further afield. Someone suggested picking a non-noble who had distinguished themselves. They started calling it the Talcraft Solution, named for-"
"Olden the Great, from the village of Talcraft, and a commoner named to be king of Nerinthar after the overthrow of the Morvakian puppet-dynasty 134 years ago," Vanessa finished. She smiled, "I did pay attention in your lessons, as you said."
"Indeed." Cyril ran a hand through his beard, then took a puff from his pipe. "This rebellion didn't really have so clear a single leader, of course, and so there was a great deal of wrangling and debate. Count Vallefor and his lot were very resistant to the idea until your name was floated."
I suppose I can see why he'd be so resistant in general. Count Vallefor Trovus, of Vannecht County, was probably the most blueblooded nobleman in Halrun, and he made sure everyone knew it. In his ancestry he could claim connection to the nobility of the Necrotic Empire - his forebears were one of the few that were able to successfully defect to the Crusaders side when the Empire was pushed into Darkmoon forest - and refugee nobles from Iredan and the Tamilkirk married into his line early on in it's independent history.
Snobbish, arrogant and wealthy, the man thought that if you didn't have a title, and especially if that title didn't go back to before Halrun, at least, you were barely above gutter trash, no matter your wealth. She'd shied away from his offers of employment more than once for that reason, before the civil war.
"...What, because my mother was a noble in Veldros?" The Veldrosian nobility were about as venerable as the Count's, given their own ties to the Necrotic Empire, but... "I'm a bastard, sir. My father was blacksmith that my bored and unsatisfied mother fucked to spite her husband."
"That does still make you the most noble of the options that people were discussing. You know how it is, Vanessa," Cyril gesture a circle with his pipe, "All these nobles hate each other, or at least, enough do. No one could agree on more pedigreed candidate. And... frankly, though no one said it to my face, and I only attended some of the sessions of the Estates, the fact that you were my apprentice raises your standing with the more conservative minded nobles too. Mages are in a class of their own, and Archmagi..."
"Might as well be kings," Vanessa nodded, finishing the old saying.
So this was happening.
Vanessa dropped down into her chair, her half-packed travel chest and bags sitting, ignored on the bed.
Me? Queen? I don't even know the first thing about... ruling. Which was probably the point. Vanessa wasn't really a noble, whatever Vallefor thought. But she had been raised around nobility - the Academ Arcanum was mostly noble-blooded students, thanks to centuries of careful assimilation of any mages who were born into or moved to Veldros. A mage wasn't guaranteed to have a mage child, but it was more common.
And she knew true nobles were taught how to rule. How to assert their power. How to administer their domains, oversee justice... nothing Vanessa knew. Granted, sometimes they were still terrible at their jobs...
I couldn't possibly be worse than Syrokis, or the Kings of Zedarsh before they lost all their power...
But her lack of experience was probably a draw for many.
"How many of the people who voted for me in the Estates think they can lead me by the nose since I have no idea what I'm doing?" Vanessa asked, after a moment.
Cyril smiled, "There's the smart girl I taught. The answer is less than you'd think, but more than there should be. Vallefor is definitely among them, and despite her good intentions, I think Lady Balmain is too, which has to be the first time the two of them have agreed on anything."
"They should just fuck and get it over with," Vanessa quipped, quoting her friend Sasha. In the last parts of the rebellion, Vallefor and Balmain had both risen to prominence in rebel councils, and their fights were loud and frequent. The rough woman from the north seemed convinced that meant both were secretly attracted to the other.
Vanessa doubted it, but it was an amusing notion regardless.
Cyril, mid inhale, laughed hard enough to be reduced to a brief coughing fit, but before Vanessa could get to him and offer help, he recovered, and Vanessa returned to her chair. "If you do take the crown, I suggest you don't make that suggestion to either of their faces."
"...a fair suggestion, but..." Vanessa blinked, something else occurring to her. "And why are you the one delivering this message? You don't take orders from the Estates."
"I volunteered." Cyril replied with a mischievous note to his voice.
Vanessa snorted, "Of course you did. I should have guessed." She exhaled, pondering the offer. She - she'd never even imagined a crown, or even a noble title in her future. Insofar as she'd ever thought about her long-term future before the war, it had been about eventually retiring with her accumulated wealth from her various patrons, in one of the more mage friendly cities - Eaglecrest, Varyos, Gateway - when she was old and gray. But at 24, it had seemed silly to think that far ahead. It still seemed silly. She didn't think she'd live as long as Cyril, but she had at least a century of total life, barring violence.
Being Queen isn't exactly something I can just... quit. And Halrun was... in a state. She'd only paid loose attention to the Estates-General as they'd debated, but she knew they'd assumed rebel debts, or most of them, and she knew firsthand how damaged parts of the capital alone were. Couron and Tairos hadn't been fought over as badly, but still.
There were reports of bandits active in several parts of the kingdom - ex-soldiers (rebel or loyalist), or just people taking advantage of the chaos to get rich quick.
And the roads. The Roads. She'd already been planning to just buy a second horse to carry her things, rather than find a spot on a caravan, given the state of what had once been Halrun's pride and joy, the greatest thing Teran Halrun accomplished in his lifetime, in her mind.
If she accepted this offer, she'd have nobles trying to manipulate her, a massive pile of debts, unreconstructed Syrokis loyalists probably wanting her dead, someday Syrokis's own bastard might surface and cause problems, especially since his mother was no pushover, magically. And there were all sorts of other problems she didn't even know about, Vanessa was sure. Cyril's lessons about history, and especially the aftermath of wars, were quite thorough.
But if she accepted it... she'd have a crown. Power. She couldn't exactly say she hated the idea of having power. It wasn't like she didn't have her own opinions on how things should work, nebulous as they could be. And... she'd never have to worry about money, ever again. She couldn't do what Syrokis did and plunder the kingdom for her own enjoyment, and she couldn't do what the Kings of Zedarsh did and drive the Kingdom so deep into debt she lost all power.
Well, you could, but do you really think that will work out as well for you as it did for them? Vanessa didn't.
But she'd never have to worry about money. Never worrying she'd have a patron try to cheat her (hadn't happened to her, but you heard stories), or being between patrons too long. She'd have the surety that as long as she didn't go completely overboard - and she wasn't the sort anyway - she'd be set for life.
And the look on my mother's face...
Vanessa hadn't seen her mother since she was eleven, but she'd never been close to the snobbish bitch, raised by a nanny for a few years while they decided what to do with her, then sent off to the Academ Arcanum... a few visits, just to make sure Vanessa was representing her mother suitably.
Call me a mistake and a greedy little child just for asking for the slightest recognition of my birthday, will you? Veldros existed in Halrun's shadow, and knowing that a Queen took precedence over any of Veldros's nobles...
"So, are they attaching any prerequisites, before I can accept?" Never agree to something without knowing the full details.
"You have to provide a seal to all the decrees the Estates passed - the reversion to pre-Syrokis taxes, the lifting of Syrokis's expanded punishments and crimes, the confiscation of property of some of his biggest supporters, that sort of thing," Cyril ticked off. "But you'll also have to accept their demands for who goes on your Inner Council."
"Rucdorn Relcred for Keeper of the Royal Vaults, I'm sure," Vanessa considered, and Cyril nodded.
"Your Keeper of Correspondence will have to be Rykall Morn,"
"That excitable clerk with the Eaglecrest Militia?" Vanessa had only interacted with him a few times, since she'd mostly not been involved with the Eaglecrest forces.
"Technically he used to be a clerk for the King, and with so many above him dead, fired or quitting, General Kaptel and the rest of Eaglecrest pretty much insisted. Count Vallefor and Lady Balmain will both be on your Inner Council, though you at least get to pick what positions they'll be assigned."
"Really?" Vanessa let out a sigh, almost - almost - rethinking the prospect of accepting the throne. Having to deal with a man like Count Vallefor every day? And even Lady Balmain, for all that she was forward thinking and believed in merit more than blood, could be an insufferable, meddling and paternalistic woman.
"Really." Cyril nodded, chuckling at the way Vanessa dropped her head into her hand, fingers splayed across her forehead. "They are some of the most influential ones of their respective factions, after all," Cyril pointed out. "And neither liked being iced out by Syrokis before the war."
"And that means they have to be my headache for five years, until they get bored and quit or I have a secure enough position I can probably remove them safely?" Vanessa knew she was whining, something she hadn't done since she was a teenager, but really?
"No one ever said being Queen would be nothing but sunshine and roses." Cyril teased.
"I hate roses," Vanessa grumbled. "Who else am I being forced to accept?"
"More a short list of candidates you'll have to pick from, for the rest," Cyril said. "I think they're still drawing that part up."
Vanessa did her best not to grumble when she heard that, knowing all Cyril would do would be to laugh at her annoyance. And it was petty. She was quibbling about the price of a crown. The Estates would have a list of candidates foisted on her for the Inner Council, and that didn't sound fun, but it wasn't as if she couldn't work with that. And Vallefor and Balmain...
She knew how to handle people like them.
She sat there, thinking for a long moment, until something occurred.
If they're still drawing up the lists...
"Who else were the options that they were discussing, that I was the boat pedigreed of?" Vanessa asked, raising an eyebrow. If they were selecting prominent leaders of the rebellion, and people that presumably not enough people disliked for them to be able to agree on...
There could only be so many, and she was at least on positive terms herself with many of them. Capable people. People she might be able to get along with.
Especially Sasha, since they were even friends. She'd love to bring Sasha into her Inner Council as well, just to watch Vallefor squirm, but there were others - people she would work with, people who could help the Kingdom and people who could probably be acceptable for the short lists.
On the other hand, I don't know if I want to surround myself with people who were considered for the throne too. Vanessa had mostly skimmed over the writings of the philosopher Vatrelli, but she remembered a passage about being careful about keeping rival claimants to the throne too close, where people could rally around them and use them, even if they themselves weren't treacherous.
So maybe only pick one. Keep the others in mind for later, if they were ever looking for work. And did she really want to subject Sasha to Vallefor?
Cyril listed the names off. Vanessa was stunned to hear that Sasha's name was actually on the list of candidates for the throne too, which was... I mean, I suppose she could bring a no-nonsense approach to it all, but I think she'd go mad as Queen.
Rienne Novash's name was unsurprising - she cut the very perfect image of a warrior queen of the children's stories. Maria Durnova was another unsurprising choice, given her high, if common, birth, and the easy way she made friends. Zelirna Sorlkaeus...
Well, she was powerful. And she had that exotic cast to her. Vanessa hadn't really gotten on with her, finding it hard to really connect, but she respected the other woman.
Then she got to the last name Cyril listed - Girra Bladewit.
Wait, really? An orphan from the streets of Port Lest?
Well, I can see why Vallefor would rather me than her. Which did make the idea of bringing her into her council also appealing as well. And she got on with Girra well enough, though she wouldn't call her a friend...
"You're up to something." Cyril noted, eyes narrowing.
"Oh, just thinking about how I might be able to share the fun." Vanessa grinned.
The question was, which of the other five would she ask to join her Inner Council, and would they accept? She couldn't imagine they'd all be so thrilled about working for her, but Vanessa could be pretty persuasive if she wanted, and she could always use a little farsight to see what they wanted...
QM Note: The following tasks will all be +Diplomacy (Vanessa's). If you also choose to offer the additional incentive that Vanessa discovers via Farsight to figure out what they want, you'll get +5 to the task as well, as per her trait. Though obviously it does mean you'll need to uphold or make every good faith effort to uphold, your end of the bargain later, or that may cause problems.
Vote for up to two (2) choices below. The top choice will have their task rolled, and if Vanessa fails her task on the first one, then the second one will be asked. If she fails on both, well, she doesn't bring in one of the other candidates onto her Inner Council.
[ ][OTHER CANDIDATE] Ask Girra Bladewit (Base Chance: 55%)
-[ ]Promise to grant Some Form Of Formal Recognition To or Protection Of The Port Lest Thieves' Guild (Optional)
[ ][OTHER CANDIDATE] Ask Rienne Novash (Base Chance: 60%)
-[ ]Promise Rienne a noble title and lands to go with it. (Optional)
[ ][OTHER CANDIDATE] Maria Durnova (Base Chance: 52%)
-[ ]Offer to Help Maria Spite Her Wealthy and Influential Family (Optional)
[ ][OTHER CANDIDATE] Zerlina Sorlkaeus (Base Chance: 48%)
-[ ]Promise to get Cyril to let her see a few of his rare tomes. (Optional)
[ ][OTHER CANDIDATE] Sasha of the Surovyza (Base Chance: 65%)
-[ ]Promise Better Working Conditions and Wages for the Miners in the Korrid Hills (Optional)
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Kylia Quilor
I Have Two Moods, and Bitter is One of Them.
- Location
- Hiding in the corner of your vision.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Voting is open. Missed the checkbox for opening voting when I posted.
- Location
- My house, probably
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X][OTHER CANDIDATE] Ask Rienne Novash (Base Chance: 60%)
-[X]Promise Rienne a noble title and lands to go with it. (Optional)
[X][OTHER CANDIDATE] Sasha of the Surovyza (Base Chance: 65%)
-[X]Promise Better Working Conditions and Wages for the Miners in the Korrid Hills (Optional)
-[X]Promise Rienne a noble title and lands to go with it. (Optional)
[X][OTHER CANDIDATE] Sasha of the Surovyza (Base Chance: 65%)
-[X]Promise Better Working Conditions and Wages for the Miners in the Korrid Hills (Optional)
[X][OTHER CANDIDATE] Ask Girra Bladewit (Base Chance: 55%)
-[X]Promise to grant Some Form Of Formal Recognition To or Protection Of The Port Lest Thieves' Guild (Optional)
-[X]Promise to grant Some Form Of Formal Recognition To or Protection Of The Port Lest Thieves' Guild (Optional)
[X][OTHER CANDIDATE] Ask Rienne Novash (Base Chance: 60%)
-[X]Promise Rienne a noble title and lands to go with it. (Optional)
Here's my argument. She's good at what Vanessa is bad at, and it's also one of the easiest requests to grant. There are a lot of noble titles vacant right now, and frankly we could probably use someone to take the reigns on one of these domains held by a former loyalist.
Rienne is a superior candidate to Sasha IMO.
-[X]Promise Rienne a noble title and lands to go with it. (Optional)
Here's my argument. She's good at what Vanessa is bad at, and it's also one of the easiest requests to grant. There are a lot of noble titles vacant right now, and frankly we could probably use someone to take the reigns on one of these domains held by a former loyalist.
Rienne is a superior candidate to Sasha IMO.
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Brightflame
Lord of the Dance
- Location
- Inkopolis
[X][OTHER CANDIDATE] Ask Girra Bladewit (Base Chance: 55%)
-[X]Promise to grant Some Form Of Formal Recognition To or Protection Of The Port Lest Thieves' Guild (Optional)
-[X]Promise to grant Some Form Of Formal Recognition To or Protection Of The Port Lest Thieves' Guild (Optional)
I am really not loving "formal acknowledgement of a criminal enterprise". Seems... bad?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X][OTHER CANDIDATE] Ask Rienne Novash (Base Chance: 60%)
-[X]Promise Rienne a noble title and lands to go with it. (Optional)
[X][OTHER CANDIDATE] Ask Girra Bladewit (Base Chance: 55%)
What are the critical areas we need to cover in order to protect our throne in this trying time? We need trustworthy control over our military, and spies to root out plots against us. Vanessa is also poor at Martial, and so-so at best in Intrigue. So Rienne first, because her ask is by far the easiest to provide - there's bound to be some dead nobles - our un-lamented predecessor's cronies most likely, whose lands can be claimed and given to her. Girra, as the second choice, but really, as Briefvoice says, doing something to protect/legitimize a known criminal organization is doing something that will likely come back to bite us in the future.
Also, Rienne specifically has traits showing strength in leadership and organization, which Sasha lacks.
-[X]Promise Rienne a noble title and lands to go with it. (Optional)
[X][OTHER CANDIDATE] Ask Girra Bladewit (Base Chance: 55%)
What are the critical areas we need to cover in order to protect our throne in this trying time? We need trustworthy control over our military, and spies to root out plots against us. Vanessa is also poor at Martial, and so-so at best in Intrigue. So Rienne first, because her ask is by far the easiest to provide - there's bound to be some dead nobles - our un-lamented predecessor's cronies most likely, whose lands can be claimed and given to her. Girra, as the second choice, but really, as Briefvoice says, doing something to protect/legitimize a known criminal organization is doing something that will likely come back to bite us in the future.
Also, Rienne specifically has traits showing strength in leadership and organization, which Sasha lacks.
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Eternal_0bserver
(Unverified Bookworm)
- Location
- Earth, Northern Europe
[X][OTHER CANDIDATE] Sasha of the Surovyza (Base Chance: 65%)
-[X]Promise Better Working Conditions and Wages for the Miners in the Korrid Hills (Optional)
[X][OTHER CANDIDATE] Ask Rienne Novash (Base Chance: 60%)
-[X]Promise Rienne a noble title and lands to go with it. (Optional)
-[X]Promise Better Working Conditions and Wages for the Miners in the Korrid Hills (Optional)
[X][OTHER CANDIDATE] Ask Rienne Novash (Base Chance: 60%)
-[X]Promise Rienne a noble title and lands to go with it. (Optional)
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X][OTHER CANDIDATE] Ask Rienne Novash (Base Chance: 60%)
-[X]Promise Rienne a noble title and lands to go with it. (Optional)
[X][OTHER CANDIDATE] Sasha of the Surovyza (Base Chance: 65%)
-[X]Promise Better Working Conditions and Wages for the Miners in the Korrid Hills (Optional)
Ok so Rienne just seems like the obvious choice to snag for a Martial councilmember-honorable, inoffensive to the nobility, merc background makes her more familiar with normal army/soldier stuff, easy request to fulfill. Based on typical CK2 councils though, we seem to only have one free spot to use to pick our council. If Keeper of Correspondence is Diplo then that's slotted in, same with if the Vaults=Stewardship, so our free slots are Martial, Intrigue, and Learning. I'm generally confident that Rienne will trump either Balmaine or Vallefor in Martial, and while I'm sure Bladewit could compete or trump them in Intrigue too, I'd rather have someone trustworthy (and more importantly loyal to just us) in charge of our armies over Bladewit in charge of Intrigue, especially since I dislike her concession of legitimizing a thieves guild of all things. I'm tossing Sasha in too since she has decent intrigue, high chance of acceptance, another presumably easy price to pay, and she's mentioned as already being a friend to our Queen as well. While she can't be a councilmember, she could make an amazing bodyguard and ally to have in general, and we definitely need all the allies we can get lol.
-[X]Promise Rienne a noble title and lands to go with it. (Optional)
[X][OTHER CANDIDATE] Sasha of the Surovyza (Base Chance: 65%)
-[X]Promise Better Working Conditions and Wages for the Miners in the Korrid Hills (Optional)
Ok so Rienne just seems like the obvious choice to snag for a Martial councilmember-honorable, inoffensive to the nobility, merc background makes her more familiar with normal army/soldier stuff, easy request to fulfill. Based on typical CK2 councils though, we seem to only have one free spot to use to pick our council. If Keeper of Correspondence is Diplo then that's slotted in, same with if the Vaults=Stewardship, so our free slots are Martial, Intrigue, and Learning. I'm generally confident that Rienne will trump either Balmaine or Vallefor in Martial, and while I'm sure Bladewit could compete or trump them in Intrigue too, I'd rather have someone trustworthy (and more importantly loyal to just us) in charge of our armies over Bladewit in charge of Intrigue, especially since I dislike her concession of legitimizing a thieves guild of all things. I'm tossing Sasha in too since she has decent intrigue, high chance of acceptance, another presumably easy price to pay, and she's mentioned as already being a friend to our Queen as well. While she can't be a councilmember, she could make an amazing bodyguard and ally to have in general, and we definitely need all the allies we can get lol.
[X][OTHER CANDIDATE] Sasha of the Surovyza (Base Chance: 65%)
-[X]Promise Better Working Conditions and Wages for the Miners in the Korrid Hills (Optional)
[X][OTHER CANDIDATE] Maria Durnova (Base Chance: 52%)
-[X]Offer to Help Maria Spite Her Wealthy and Influential Family (Optional)
-[X]Promise Better Working Conditions and Wages for the Miners in the Korrid Hills (Optional)
[X][OTHER CANDIDATE] Maria Durnova (Base Chance: 52%)
-[X]Offer to Help Maria Spite Her Wealthy and Influential Family (Optional)
Crawkid
Lover of quests and community
- Location
- holed up in my room
[X][OTHER CANDIDATE] Ask Rienne Novash (Base Chance: 60%)
-[X]Promise Rienne a noble title and lands to go with it. (Optional)
[X][OTHER CANDIDATE] Sasha of the Surovyza (Base Chance: 65%)
-[X]Promise Better Working Conditions and Wages for the Miners in the Korrid Hills (Optional)
-[X]Promise Rienne a noble title and lands to go with it. (Optional)
[X][OTHER CANDIDATE] Sasha of the Surovyza (Base Chance: 65%)
-[X]Promise Better Working Conditions and Wages for the Miners in the Korrid Hills (Optional)
Kylia Quilor
I Have Two Moods, and Bitter is One of Them.
- Location
- Hiding in the corner of your vision.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
You are correct, the Queen candidates, overall, are generally meant to have better beginning stats than the councillors, which is why I'm only allowing the one other candidate for the council. You can check the stats of both Vallefor and Balmain, in the character index post.
I have one more of your starting generals to add (as you have two, with an option for a third if Rienne or Sasha wins, at this point), and then it will be complete in terms of who is there at the start, plus whoever wins this vote (and gets a successful task). Some early decisions will include filling some other positions on the council, but you do have the general gist of things.
[X][OTHER CANDIDATE] Sasha of the Surovyza (Base Chance: 65%)
-[X]Promise Better Working Conditions and Wages for the Miners in the Korrid Hills (Optional)
[X][OTHER CANDIDATE] Ask Girra Bladewit (Base Chance: 55%)
-[X]Promise to grant Some Form Of Formal Recognition To or Protection Of The Port Lest Thieves' Guild (Optional)
While on the matter…..
Are Stat checks actually d100+Stat? Surely not.
Stats seem a bit.. small, for the d100 scale.
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Kylia Quilor
I Have Two Moods, and Bitter is One of Them.
- Location
- Hiding in the corner of your vision.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
No.
I realize now that, split apart like it is, it isn't very clear (since I only make it clear that it is roll-under in the second part), and I'll edit something into the top post/rules section to clarify. 😅Mea culpa.
But a task has a base chance of success - for instance, recruiting Rienne to the Council has a chance of 60%. Rienne is a professional merc, so taking orders isn't new to her. She's got ambitions to have a noble (we can all dream) title and land to retire on someday, and working for a Monarch (even if you hadn't picked her incentive) is a clear path to that. Also, while not friends with Vanessa, they get along, and respect eachother. So it's a 60% chance, without modifiers. That means, a roll on the % dice (d100) of less than 60 is a success. Now, in this case, Vanessa's diplomacy brings it up to 69% (Nice!) and the Farsight bonus, if applied, will take it up to 74.
So what that means is a roll under 74 is a success on the task.
Now, as per the Ironsworn borrow, the idea is that I'll roll twice.
- If both rolls are a success (say, you rolled a 27 and a 65 against 74%), that's two successes/a strong success/a strong hit (I'll try very hard to use only one term, but I may interchangeably use all three 😅) then you succeed without complications, everything goes exactly according to plan.
- If one roll is a success (say, you rolled a 27 and an 86 against 74%) then that's one success/a weak success/a weak hit, which means you succeed, but there's an unexpected cost, or a complication that arises, or a new problem emerges, or you just don't succeed completely.
- If neither roll is a success, you fail. (Say, you rolled a 76 and a 92 against 74). Failure doesn't come with any extra cost other than failing - you fail to convince a person, you spent money on some road rebuilding and something went wrong, you lose the battle, whatever.
So you do want higher numbers - you want a high base chance, and a high bonus to the base chance. No matter what, a nat 100 is a failed rol on the task, even if you somehow contrive to have over 100% as your target number (but remember, you roll twice, so the odds of two Nat 100s is very unlikely).
Separately, and not yet implemented, because I'm debating it, I'm considering borrowing a system I've seen in other quests, where players that write Omakes/sidestories that get made canon by me/provide artwork (i.e. if they do some google legwork for me or whatever) that I can later use for character images (as sooner or later, I'm going to get past my repository of saved character art, which, honestly, is mostly female adventurer-type characters, rather than nobles and merchants and diplomats)/other things tbd they can get a 'Bounty', which will allow them to, if they choose, later modify a roll after it's made by like 5-10 (haven't decided), but before I write up the post - i.e. in the no successes example above, they could subtract 5/10 from the 76, making it below 74, and thus turning the roll into a weak success.
I have not yet decided to do this, so if you do find character art you think the quest could use, saving it for now could earn you bounties later, if we do that. (I probably will do this, but I'm debating implementation among other things)
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Kylia Quilor
I Have Two Moods, and Bitter is One of Them.
- Location
- Hiding in the corner of your vision.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
A clarification of the rules has been added to the first post. My apologies for the poor phrasing originally.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Glad to see I'm thinking in the right direction haha. And I hadn't noticed the character index before but looking at Vallefor and Balmain's stats just makes me more confident in my votes lol.
Huh I missed that in my previous reading of the rules so I do have a question.
How big are the potential cost/down side's to just passing the succusses threshold once, I hop it isn't to much because the way it's structured unless we manage to raise the threshold high on every check most checks would lend on one success and one failure.
I would advise thinking on this some more, letting players affect dice rolls can very quickly break the balance of the game, doubley so when they can spend it after the fact (after seeing the dice) and spend it wisely to evert the great mistakes or push the great succusses even further.
Its not a great recipe for quest health in my experience, at least have players commit before the roll, that way they'll at least spend it on what they find interesting/important instead of hording it waiting for a good moment to purposely tip the balance.
In general, "bounty" systems need to have a good deal of thought to them (and some limitation like only X amount of bonus allowed in a turn or on a particular roll) as they greatly change the balance of the game.
You might also want to consider the various other ways QM's choose to reward omake/fanart. Some choose to answer OCC question (which is rare for a good reason but it dos work for some format's which empire builder do count among them although with this being more character focused that might not be true in this instance), some give a thematic bonus corresponding to the content of the omake, like giving relationship point's if the omake fucus is about interaction with another character and the like (this work less well with non-written forms of fan works as they give less to work with) or just straight up give XP for skills (which works beast when the skill tree is large enough that a small amount of XP both feels meaningful while not tipping the balance overmuch).
All this to say, rewarding fanwork is something that should be carefully considered both initself and in the context of the quest your running.
- Location
- California
[X][OTHER CANDIDATE] Ask Rienne Novash (Base Chance: 60%)
-[X]Promise Rienne a noble title and lands to go with it. (Optional)
-[X]Promise Rienne a noble title and lands to go with it. (Optional)