Feudal Quest

Arkeus · Apr 10, 2014

BFldyq said:
2) What are the arguments for Fire sorcery again? I do agree that raising Flesh sorcery would be more beneficial right now, though.

1°)We are soon coming into winter. Having decent Fire sorcery by winter means that where every other lords are cut off from their troops and everything in their castle, Dominic can say fuck that and do what he wants.

2°) Fire sorcery has a cleansing element, which not only means it's much safer to have it when we don't have Dita on hand, but it also means that whenever we are fighting vampire/monsters it's much more effective than just hitting hard.

3°) Fire sorcery has stupid synergy with either Force and Flesh sorceries. You can make flesh that's highly resistant to fire with it, or you can make some kind of fire-creatures, or even dragons-sort by melding force into it. As for force/Fire, you get access to stuff like concussion blast of fire, fire swords, etc etc.

4°) The ability to snuff out large fires is not to be under-estimated. One of the real dangers of our times are large-scale fire, after all. Likewise, snuffing out fires when going in an assault is scary as hell and can help for stealth beside.

5°) Fire elementals. Need i say more?

Thomasfoolery said:
Going to be honest, this is pretty irritating, if you guys didn't want to meet with Ezti why on earth did you vote to send a letter to her about it? Not going now just makes us look like a flake.

Looking back at the post, we actually didn't send a letter to Etzi about meeting her, but about discussing the Tarrifs and smugglers. So your complaints there is...weird.

Thomasfoolery · Apr 10, 2014

BFldyq said:
In order:
1) Please remember this is harvest time. No drawing upon the man-months until the harvest is finished, lest you want starving peasants.
2) What are the arguments for Fire sorcery again? I do agree that raising Flesh sorcery would be more beneficial right now, though.
3) ???
4) What issues, may I ask?

Yes it's harvest time, which is why I specifically said the garrison unit would be assigned to it.

I can't recall the exact arguments, something about claiming we'd be unbeatable in winter I think.

Stuff like resentment amongst the bastards for one, or that having a bunch of direct descendants of ours wandering about sounds quite likely to leave us open to magical attacks via them as a conduit. We also then have to spend a lot of time actually raising them if we want to try to get any use of of 'em. In general I don't like the plan at all but if people are really attached to it I think it should at least wait until we're much better established, as you say if we want to study pregnancies we can start on animals.

Edit:

Looking back at the post, we actually didn't send a letter to Etzi about meeting her, but about discussing the Tarrifs and smugglers. So your complaints there is...weird.

It's weird that I expect people to foresee entirely reasonable consequences of their actions? Sadly you might be right actually.

Arkeus · Apr 10, 2014

Thomasfoolery said:
It's weird that I expect people to foresee entirely reasonable consequences of their actions? Sadly you might be right actually.

Oh, her wanting to see us is completely reasonable, but this just means it's her wanting to see us and us saying it won't be for a month or so, and not us setting up a meeting that we are then cancelling.

So it's not as much of a flake thing.

Thomasfoolery said:
Yes it's harvest time, which is why I specifically said the garrison unit would be assigned to it.

Yeah, i have that with Dorga. I just feel that as KAt's time is one of our most precious ressources, we have to be careful only to point her at things where she is 100% efficient.

EDIT: I am likewise hesitating to switch a Fire Training action of Dominic to a Force Sorcery: movement buff spell (think: force jump).

I have to admit though, a good part of the Fire Sorcery training for Kat right now is because i want her to spend some time with Dominic, as we are soon going to marry and i want to make sure she feels secure.

BFldyq · Apr 10, 2014

Thomasfoolery said:
Yes it's harvest time, which is why I specifically said the garrison unit would be assigned to it.

I can't recall the exact arguments, something about claiming we'd be unbeatable in winter I think.

Stuff like resentment amongst the bastards for one, or that having a bunch of direct descendants of ours wandering about sounds quite likely to leave us open to magical attacks via them as a conduit. We also then have to spend a lot of time actually raising them if we want to try to get any use of of 'em. In general I don't like the plan at all but if people are really attached to it I think it should at least wait until we're much better established, as you say if we want to study pregnancies we can start on animals.

Okay, fair enough.

Arkeus beat you to it.

Unknown, Unknown, Agreed.

fitzgerald · Apr 10, 2014

Thomasfoolery said:
Going to be honest, this is pretty irritating, if you guys didn't want to meet with Ezti why on earth did you vote to send a letter to her about it? Not going now just makes us look like a flake.

Because it wasn't a Can we visit letter.

An offer was tendered for Ezti to essentially accompany us on a purchasing trip, to use our status as Petran for her to avoid tarriffs.

Ezti is responding in an attempt to have us visit and to sell us on marrying her.

Ghost · Apr 10, 2014

There seems to be 3 major types of actions characters can do; training, adventuring, and infrastructure. Seeing as how we are on a time crunch I don't think training is our best option, for necessary things like new sorcery research it's necessary, but adventures give a greater amount of experience and have an effect on our situation. Constructions are both necessary and useful but they are a huge time sink and we don't have access to our labor tax. Also, seeing as Kat seems to have a power up on the horizon it seems inefficient to waste her turn on magical construction now. Having Kat do something beyond magical construction also frees up Dita to be adventuring.

We have some major threats approaching and we need to up to the job, so we have to gain experience fast. We also need political, marital, and economic capital. Dita's issues come to a had in less than a year, our Uncle has some crazy shit going on, Rogatica may become an issue, and so may the lordling Kat pissed off. All that in mind here's my plan:

Major actions

Dominic
1) [X] Research: Fleshcrafting Sorcery technique (Enhance "sensing of a person's emotional state and physical condition (touch)" to be done from range)
2) [X] Train Dita in Diplomacy.
3) [X] Research/Investigate possible leads into the paperwork that may have been filed by Dita's father in order to declare her fit to rule.

Dita
1) [X] Research: Illusions/Stealth light magic
2) [X] Train with Dominic in Diplomacy.

Kat
1) [X] Survey lands for resources.
2) [X] If there is time, draw up a plan to train our troops in Roman construction techniques.

Jaroslaw:
[X] Guard Kat along with Rangers, search for evidence of threats when time permits while escorting Kat.

Minor Actions
1) [X] Heal up the disabled troops should they need it
2) [X] Give the books to Kat to read
3) [X] Give Kat whatever help you can with her staff
4) [X] Tell Traian to earmark some of the harvest tax for Bialis's requested equipment.
5) [X] Send a letter home asking our Dad how our doing the friends we had (our age) back in Korovala, and if any of them would be interested in coming to our keep. We might have to go to Korovalo ourself to convince them latter, of course.
6) [X] Authorize the use of Curzu garrison in construction products for this month.
7) [X] When training spells, Dominic should make a habit to be around Dita
8.) [X] Observe your mistresses, and talk with them and others. Make sure that no conflicts are brewing like they did early this year, or that you getting married won't cause any problems to pop up. Try and do it as subtly as possible.
9) [X] Observe what's happening with the anti-pregnancy wards after a bout with the mistresses. You might learn something.
10) [X] Talk to Dita about what she plans on doing after rescuing and redeeming/purifying Tavi.
11) [X] See if the chickens have layed any fertile eggs, or if any of the pigs are pregnant. If so, regularly check up on the developing chicken/pigs development.
12) [X] Write our sisters with greetings and news of the Keep
13) [X]Send a letter to Etzi, excusing us not to come this month as we might be hosting family members, but assure her that we will try to come in the next couple of months.

The investigation of Nicolai and the visit to Ezti should give us much needed experience. The investigation may give us necessary political capital, it may also help increase our relationship with Kat and Dita. The survey will let us know if we have any opportunities for economic advancement. Fleshcrafting is buff magic more or less and one action for a +1 to charm is really efficient.

Edit: New info/streamlining the vote.

Walkir · Apr 10, 2014

ShaperV said:
Dominic - Adventure: Old Man of the mountain
Dita - Adventure: Old Man of the mountain
Katiana - Adventure: Old Man of the Moutain

Send letter to Pavel to inquire about his involvement. Or ask otherwise, a letter might get caught.

Dominic - Research: Examine beastman corpses for flesh sorcery research info
[…]

Research Chain Unlocked - Permanent body alterations (bestial traits, enhanced senses, increased Body)

A step in the right direction for other permanent body alterations. *g*

Bialis - Promote to captain. Conduct minimal patrols, but focus mostly on training the troops.
Jaroslaw - Assist Bialis with training & leadership.
[…]
Bialis informs you that he plans to train both units up to Skill 2, discipline 2 over the next few months, and requests funds to upgraid them to Equipment 2 once the harvest tax is collected.

Is my plan as well, we need a proper military.

Traian - Construction Project: Improve Corzu's Roads (will promote to Treasurer when complete)

Good, but will bhe bound with the harvest tax for now.

Katiana - Note: Start working on keep repair after returning from adventure

Also great.

@ShapoerV: Can we f0ld several construction actions that add up to one month or less under one action?

Dragos - Appoint as Seneschal. Authorize clear grounds project.

Good to see this handled

Kat is quite interested in the books you've collected on Roman roads, fortifications and construction techniques,and would like to read them when you're done.

Her and Traian as well if he wantsd.

Ezti

Oh, and she fails to respond to your question about the smugglers. Perhaps it isn't something she wants to put in a letter?

Pretty much guaranteed to be that.

Order - Send letters to both Lala and Chesna, asking about Chesna's debut.

Good for our link to Czene.

Order - Get a cost estimate for what a simple wood and earth fort with a barracks would cost to build

[…]

The downside will be that such structures need a lot of maintenance, so you'd end up paying another 10-20% of the original cost every year to keep it in good condition. It also isn't going to stand up to anything more serious than a bandit attack, obviously.

We have more labor tax than we know what to do with currently, anyway.

Arkeus · Apr 10, 2014

Ghost said:
Dominic
1) [X] Research: Fleshcrafting Sorcery technique (Charm boost, similar to Body application)

I may be completely off about it, but Charm boosts from flesh seems to be, in my mind, either a pheromone or a shapeshifting thing. We have no clue how to do the former so far, and while shapeshifting (and later permanent body change) are great ideas that we WILL want to learn, just saying 'give charm boost' seems unlikely to work. It seems much more likely that it will come from a chain of studies about learning to shapeshift our body and learning what makes one more attractive.

It's also not something one can use without people noticing (though pheromones might).

All in all it seems, to me more likely that if we want a scene-long easy to learn charm boost fire could actually work quite a bit easier (Think impassioned speech/etc, instead of looks).

2) [X] Adventure: Nikolai's Associates

This.... seems pretty much to be the same adventure we had last month, except we chose to begin it via the Nikolai end. In a Doylist view, I don't want to do the same adventure right now. In a watsonian one, I say leave it off until we get access to Zarana's spies, Dita has access to stealth magic and Dominic knows some minor shapeshifting.

That, or do it when Boris comes via strongharming Nikolai. Because I am pretty damn sure boris can strong-harm him.

3) [X] Adventure: Visit Ezti

"Visiting Etzi" is not a adventure- it can turn into one, but it's not, as is. Moreover, she is likely inviting us because she wants to make a marriage, which we will have to refuse. It would be ok if we had the possibility to pimp our brother Boris, but we can't afford to speak for him, so that must wait until we actually meet Boris and knows better which path we want to take with Etzi.

Minor Actions
1) [X] Heal up the disabled troops should they need it
2) [X] Give the books to Kat to read
3) [X] Give Kat whatever help you can with her staff
4) [X] Tell Traian to earmark some of the harvest tax for Bialis's requested equipment.

I approve.

Walkir said:
Send letter to Pavel to inquire about his involvement. Or ask otherwise, a letter might get caught.

My plan, here, is to talk about it with Boris when he comes. He has more familial authority than we do, and he will be able to help us decide whether we want to strongharm Nikolai with his help.

Worse come to worse, Boris is the safest person to go and tell our dad what's going on. We really can't afford to put in writing that our uncle might be creating a band of assassins.

Walkir · Apr 10, 2014

Arkeus said:
We really can't afford to put in writing that our uncle might be creating a band of assassins.

Which is why I added the second part, yeah.

Ghost · Apr 10, 2014

Arkeus said:
I may be completely off about it, but Charm boosts from flesh seems to be, in my mind, either a pheromone or a shapeshifting thing. We have no clue how to do the former so far, and while shapeshifting (and later permanent body change) are great ideas that we WILL want to learn, just saying 'give charm boost' seems unlikely to work. It seems much more likely that it will come from a chain of studies about learning to shapeshift our body and learning what makes one more attractive.

It's also not something one can use without people noticing (though pheromones might).

These seem to disagree, though I'd have to get ShaperV to clarify to be certain:

ShaperV said:
Regency magic is mostly good for making yourself stronger (by drawing energy from your fief), for gathering information about the state of your lands, or for subtly influencing the attitudes and mood of your citizens. Researching regency magic is going to work just like researching sorcery – you give me a general idea of what you want to achieve, have Dominic spend an action researching it, and I'll tell you what you invent.

ShaperV said:
Spell Progression
One thing I think still needs clarification is how to get to high-powered spells. You may have noticed that every research action gets you some kind of improvement in what you can do with your magic, but what may not be clear is that you can gt more powerful effects by continuing to work on the same thing. For instance, you could try making your burst of strength have a duration, then make it work on others, then make a group version, then try for an AoE version, then maybe a stackable or higher-intensity effect, and so on. You can keep doing this until you hit a limit imposed by either your Soul (which controls how big and/or intense an effect can be) or your skill (which controls what effects you can create, and how many modifiers you can stack onto the basic version).

So again you have a playstyle choice. You can research lots of useful little utility effects fairly quickly, and each of them will be a simple spell that you can spam frequently even with your current Soul. Or you can spend multiple actions working up a really powerful version of one effect, but then you won't have as much flexibility and you'll be more prone to running low on energy if you try to spam it.

Arkeus said:
All in all it seems, to me more likely that if we want a scene-long easy to learn charm boost fire could actually work quite a bit easier (Think impassioned speech/etc, instead of looks).
This.... seems pretty much to be the same adventure we had last month, except we chose to begin it via the Nikolai end. In a Doylist view, I don't want to do the same adventure right now. In a watsonian one, I say leave it off until we get access to Zarana's spies, Dita has access to stealth magic and Dominic knows some minor shapeshifting.

I'm not convinced that we can get into the metaphysical aspects of our sorceries, there is no precedent and it would seem to be a higher tier level. Get ShaperV to affirm it as valid and you may have a point, but that plan necessitates us multiclassing into fire and I just don't see us having enough time. Also, we don't have the time to wait, and this is slightly different, rather than subterfuge we have a chance to use our social skills to complete this mission. Beyond experience I want blackmail incase our Uncle wants to play hardball and/or we need urgent help with Dita's situation.

Arkeus said:
That, or do it when Boris comes via strongharming Nikolai. Because I am pretty damn sure boris can strong-harm him."Visiting Etzi" is not a adventure- it can turn into one, but it's not, as is. Moreover, she is likely inviting us because she wants to make a marriage, which we will have to refuse. It would be ok if we had the possibility to pimp our brother Boris, but we can't afford to speak for him, so that must wait until we actually meet Boris and knows better which path we want to take with Etzi.

Look at the story post with Zarana, we got 2 skill points out of one action, if we can get a similar amount from Etzi the action is already efficient. Just because we go now doesn't invalidate introducing her to our brother later. One of the goals of going is to steer Etzi towards our brother, going all incommunicado is not going to do us any favors. We can still be good friends and neighbors even if we don't marry her. Also, in regards to it not being an adventure, that's why I clearly labeled it, I'll have to trust the GM to understand my intentions (especially because I'm typing them out).

Arkeus said:
I approve.

They seem to be pretty universal objectives we all want done, so at least we shouldn't have arguments over this.

staplesdex2 · Apr 10, 2014

Question, why not train up to Flesh Sorcery 3?

Arkeus · Apr 10, 2014

staplesdex2 said:
Question, why not train up to Flesh Sorcery 3?

I think we all want to train Flesh to 3 sooner rather than later. My main reason for pushing Fire and then Force is that i am pretty damn sure that they all have rather good synergies, and because having abilities from each of our sorcery schools that are applicable no matter what our adventure is means that we will train them all much, much faster.

When it comes down to it, Dominic has made many many more advances in Flesh than anything else, so i don't want him to advance too far there before training up Fire and Force levels and spells, because the bigger the disparity between his sorcerous abilities the harder it will be to use the lesser ones.

As for me talking about 'synergies', a good canon example will be the Fire flame projectile, which uses our basic Force sorcery. I am pretty damn sure that if we want to make, say, gryphons, we need to have both flesh and force (the force being to give it better flight abilities and cheat the whole weight thing) to 3/4. And if we want to have a Dragon mount, well, we need fire too.

Not that i plan on riding to India on dragons, you understand.

staplesdex2 · Apr 10, 2014

Thanks for the answer. I still can't keep up with this adventure. I'm in this for mainly how Dominic would start chucking mountains or choking people via the Force. And the Harem.

Robotninja · Apr 10, 2014

Charm boost can totally be non-pheremones. Just by perfecting how someone looks you can do a lot.

Arkeus · Apr 10, 2014

Robotninja said:
Charm boost can totally be non-pheremones. Just by perfecting how someone looks you can do a lot.

That's why i meant by shapeshifting, yes. This is also why, amusingly, i belive that it's either to make permanent point of charm with Flesh Sorcery than temporary ones, as making your body look better for a scene is bound to raise questions.

Ghost · Apr 10, 2014

Or we could go with empathy, there are several different ways to do it so I'll ask ShaperV if it would be valid when he comes back on.

LeoAbogos · Apr 10, 2014

I've come up with a couple Flesh sorcery applications for the social side of things that we should be able to pull off at Flesh 2. The one I'm more confident in is voice control. Make his voice more pleasant or forceful as the situation merits, and more clearly projected. Far less conspicuous than inconsistent physical appearance. The other would be trying to expand our touch-based mood/physical status scanning ability to be short-ranged instead. Not sure if it's feasible, but it would give a definite edge in social arenas.

Two things to keep in mind are that at Flesh 2 Dominic can't do anything permanent and that the temporary overall body boost he uses was the result of multiple research actions.

Thomasfoolery · Apr 11, 2014

Don't have time to go over everything so I'll just mention a few things about the latest list. Dragos has no competency to work on the cellars, and it would be extremely slow even if he did, also I'll mention it forlornly one last time, the construction boost you speak of kicks in this turn. Finally another thing I'll mention for hopefully the last time, once we've promoted people we don't need to assign orders for them to do their jobs. Also what is your guys obseesion with sending Jaroslaw out to escort Traian when it's been repeatedly mentioned to be unnecessary and is a waste of an action for Jaroslaw?

fitzgerald · Apr 11, 2014

@ShaperV

On Elementals, summoning them via sorcery usually requires brokering a deal of some sort yes?

Ghost · Apr 11, 2014

Thomasfoolery said:
Don't have time to go over everything so I'll just mention a few things about the latest list. Dragos has no competency to work on the cellars, and it would be extremely slow even if he did, also I'll mention it forlornly one last time, the construction boost you speak of kicks in this turn. Finally another thing I'll mention for hopefully the last time, once we've promoted people we don't need to assign orders for them to do their jobs. Also what is your guys obseesion with sending Jaroslaw out to escort Traian when it's been repeatedly mentioned to be unnecessary and is a waste of an action for Jaroslaw?

First, the last update implies that Dragos can authorize and supervise the work. Second, we have to give general orders to our officers, I am willing to rephrase the project orders so that they have more operational freedom and agency. Third, it was common practice to send a retinue with tax collectors both because they may have cash on them and out of spite. I will add a note for Jaroslaw to attempt to get a better read on the peasants and to help collect the harvest tax.

Edit: Fourth, in regards to the staff, when the effect kicks in is ambiguous. It could be for this month or the one after.

ShaperV · Apr 11, 2014

BFldyq said:
Okay, I keep on meaning to ask these, but I keep on forgetting to:
1) Same as in the PM, with regards to the "Dita/Dominic Bastard Backup Plan", and more specifically, the reputation destruction/decrease(respectively), does that take into account Dita being known as a Priestess of Inovia or "known" as mistress of Dominic(true or falsely)? If not, how would those pieces of information affect opinion on the ploy?

The Church of Inovia does not have a good rep in Borjeria, and if the fact that Dita is a priestess gets out that will both hurt her reputation and make the fallout from any other scandal worse.

A baron's daughter is far too high-status to be the mistress of anyone but the King, or maybe a really powerful duke. If she became publicly known as your mistress the fallout for her would be just as bad as if she had your kid, although at least becoming pregnant afterwards wouldn't make things any worse.

BFldyq said:
2) Relatedly, Arkeus suggested the above plot might trigger a war. How likely would that be the case?

Depends on the personality of Dita's next of kin on her mother's side, which you don't know. But you'd guess the risk is low - if they were prone to that kind of reaction they'd be more involved with Dita's situation already.

BFldyq said:
3) What would it take for Inovian worship to be viewed as "acceptable", and relatedly, what would it take to discredit, or at least significantly diminish, Khersis's standing in Borjeria?

Unless the players come up with a truly brilliant plan you aren't going to be changing Borjeria's culture anytime soon.

BFldyq said:
4) Are the specialties of sorcery and wizardry different, or can you a wizardry specialty through the study of sorcery, whether your own or others?

There's no master list of specialties. A wizard can specialize in any area he can acquire sufficient arcane knowledge about. Having sorcery would function as a source of knowledge, but the wizard would still have to train to develop a mathematical and theoretical understanding of the field to go along with the instinctive affinity of a sorcerer. You're not sure how much benefit there would be in such a synergy, although Katiana is planning to find out over the next few years.

Thomasfoolery said:
Also the whole point of promoting the people is so we don't have to micromanage them in the order lists.

Correct. There's no need to give Bialis or Dragos orders unless you want to take them away from their main job for some special assignment. Othrwise just approve or reject their requests, and decide when you want to authorize major projects. They'll take care of the details.

BFldyq said:
I suggest we just start with animal pregnancies, actually. Larger sample base, and after we've analysed the pregnancies of various different animals, then move onto humans.

Dominic agrees. Pregnancy seems like a delicate process you could easily mess up by accident, and he doesn't want to use his own kids as experimental subjects.

Arkeus said:
1°)We are soon coming into winter. Having decent Fire sorcery by winter means that where every other lords are cut off from their troops and everything in their castle, Dominic can say fuck that and do what he wants.

Realistically this is only going to apply to small groups, like an adventuring party. Allowing military units to operate in winter would require much fancier spells (mass warmth?), which would take a lot of effort to reach (probably Fire Sorcery 3 and several research projects).

Arkeus said:
3°) Fire sorcery has stupid synergy with either Force and Flesh sorceries. You can make flesh that's highly resistant to fire with it, or you can make some kind of fire-creatures, or even dragons-sort by melding force into it. As for force/Fire, you get access to stuff like concussion blast of fire, fire swords, etc etc.

Fire and force have great synergy. Fire and flesh not so much - using fire sorcery on someone else without burning them would be really tricky, and making magical fire creatures would be really high-end (i.e. 4 or 5 in both types of sorcery, plus a lot of research).

Arkeus said:
5°) Fire elementals. Need i say more?

Using sorcery to summon and command elementals is probably level 3-4 magic, depending on circumstances and the strength of the elemental.

Arkeus said:
EDIT: I am likewise hesitating to switch a Fire Training action of Dominic to a Force Sorcery: movement buff spell (think: force jump).

That sounds like an easy effect to research, but you'd need to raise your Force Sorcery level first - right now you can't lift anywhere near your own weight.

Arkeus said:
[X]:Train Diplomacy with Dita. If that doesn't fly, Woodscraft.

Dita would like to know what you plan on having her do where diplomacy would be useful.

Arkeus said:
Dita:
[X]: Train Light Sorcery. If she believes it would also attract demons and is too reluctant to even try it, then train Light spells: stealth applications. Lowering the ambient light levels sounds like a feasible first-step on the path to stealth spells. Other classic methods include 'bend light around me', 'blur/haze effect to reduce noticeability', 'make a blinding effect to stop people from seeing anything'. Given that Dominic can use Fire sorcery to reduce fire to nothing, it seems very feasible for Dita to be able to use light sorcery to eliminate light. Hell, even 'glowing dark' could work in some cases.

Dita likes this idea. She's pretty sure it's only Holy Sorcery that makes her a demon beacon, and sealth would be useful.

Arkeus said:
[X]Try to use Flesh magic to keep the beastmen corpses, or what's left of them, to rot completely.

Too late. They've long since rotted away and been disposed of.

Arkeus said:
@ShaperV: we are waiting for an answer from our Parents and Aunt about Zarana, correct?
Likewise, adventure leads from Gavrilla should be coming soonish?
As for Dita, she only is reluctant to increse her Holy sorcery? Light is fair game when it comes to being seen by demons?

Correct on all counts. You expect to hear back from your family in another week or two.

Ghost said:
There seems to be 3 major types of actions characters can do; training, adventuring, and infrastructure. Seeing as how we are on a time crunch I don't think training is our best option, for necessary things like new sorcery research it's necessary, but adventures give a greater amount of experience and have an effect on our situation.

There's actually a bit of a conflict here between gaining personal power and playing feudal lord. If you focus on the former you want to do lots of adventures, but for the latter you actually want to let time pass so your improvements can get built and slow-moving political plotlines can develop. Adventure updates tend to take almost as much effort to write as turn updates, but they only advance your character and not your fief.

I'm fine with running either approach, but if you want to do a lot of feudal politics and warfare you might want to ease off on the adventures and let more time pass.

Ghost said:
1) [X] Research: Fleshcrafting Sorcery technique (Charm boost, similar to Body application)

Dominic doesn't think this will work (see below)

Walkir said:
@ShapoerV: Can we f0ld several construction actions that add up to one month or less under one action?

Yes. I'm actually tracking everything in terms of nominal SP cost, and both Kat's time and normal labor tax months have a conversion to that. Alternatively, you could just give Kat a list of approved construction projects and tell her to get them all done as efficiently as possible. She seems perfectly capable of scheduling her own time.

Walkir said:
We have more labor tax than we know what to do with currently, anyway.

Yes. Dragos will point out that lords frequently use the labor tax to have peasants farm extra land directly for them. Unless you're planning a lot of big construction projects you may want to look into that option for next year.

Arkeus said:
I may be completely off about it, but Charm boosts from flesh seems to be, in my mind, either a pheromone or a shapeshifting thing. We have no clue how to do the former so far, and while shapeshifting (and later permanent body change) are great ideas that we WILL want to learn, just saying 'give charm boost' seems unlikely to work. It seems much more likely that it will come from a chain of studies about learning to shapeshift our body and learning what makes one more attractive.

Correct. You'd need Flesh Sorcery 3 for permanent changes, and then a few actions figuring out how to do different kinds of cosmetic changes. You suspect that low Charm scores will be easier to raise than high ones, and for Dominic doing women will be easier than men (because he has a better idea of what to do to make a woman beautiful). Plus you'd be buffing appearance only, while Charm also includes charisma and other intangibles.

Arkeus said:
All in all it seems, to me more likely that if we want a scene-long easy to learn charm boost fire could actually work quite a bit easier (Think impassioned speech/etc, instead of looks).

That would actually be even harder. Invoking metaphorical fire instead of the physical kind is probably level 4, although if you ever get to that level it would be a plausible way to buff actual charisma rather than appearance.

Ghost said:
Or we could go with empathy, there are several different ways to do it so I'll ask ShaperV if it would be valid when he comes back on.

Working out improved versions of your body sense ability would be good for a bonus to Diplomacy or Seduction. The main weakness is that it's a physical ability rather than a mental one, so while it works great for detecting hunger or lust it tends to miss more cerebral responses.

fitzgerald said:
On Elementals, summoning them via sorcery usually requires brokering a deal of some sort yes?

No, that's how wizards do it. A really powerful sorcerer can just call them up and command them (your sorcery level is effectively a Charm buff vs. elementals of the correct type). But the summoning part of that is probably level 3, and you probably want better fire resistance before you try ordering fire elementals around.

Arkeus · Apr 11, 2014

ShaperV said:
Dita would like to know what you plan on having her do where diplomacy would be useful.

I'd tell her we are currently working to prove to the family that they can trust her not to ruin their reputation, and as such her having a solid understanding of the social skills like diplomacy, intrigue and seduction is extremely likely to make things much easier for everyone. After all, appearances are a good parts of their fears, and if she can get them not to fear for their reputation it will be ridiculously easier for her to get short term training and freedom, mid-term support for her quest to India, and long term power.

We are also worried that Zarana's coterie will be able to manipulate her- she has seen by herself how able they are with words and emotional approach. We really want her to be able to fend for herself and not be overwhelmed by our possible wife's entourage.

Lastly, if we are not able to come with her to India (we want to go, but we might not be able to), she'd almost certainly be forced to use social skills somewhere sometimes there, and she should be ready.

ShaperV said:
Dominic agrees. Pregnancy seems like a delicate process you could easily mess up by accident, and he doesn't want to use his own kids as experimental subjects.

Right, that's fair, though i was mostly planning on just letting nature run their course with the mistresses and use flesh magic to detect everything about the pregnanices as it moves along.

OTOH, i guess it's much easier to check if anyone else is pregnant around

ShaperV said:
Realistically this is only going to apply to small groups, like an adventuring party. Allowing military units to operate in winter would require much fancier spells (mass warmth?), which would take a lot of effort to reach (probably Fire Sorcery 3 and several research projects).

Even being only able to apply this to small group is a god send, and having the ability later on to apply it to all our troops would be ridiculously good.

@ShaperV Question: Do we need Wizardry to do enchanting, or is it possible to, say, create a coat of warmth with Fire 3 or so?

Ghost · Apr 11, 2014

ShaperV said:
Correct. There's no need to give Bialis or Dragos orders unless you want to take them away from their main job for some special assignment. Othrwise just approve or reject their requests, and decide when you want to authorize major projects. They'll take care of the details...

Realistically this is only going to apply to small groups, like an adventuring party. Allowing military units to operate in winter would require much fancier spells (mass warmth?), which would take a lot of effort to reach (probably Fire Sorcery 3 and several research projects).

Fire and force have great synergy. Fire and flesh not so much - using fire sorcery on someone else without burning them would be really tricky, and making magical fire creatures would be really high-end (i.e. 4 or 5 in both types of sorcery, plus a lot of research).

Dita likes this idea. She's pretty sure it's only Holy Sorcery that makes her a demon beacon, and sealth would be useful.

Correct on all counts. You expect to hear back from your family in another week or two.

There's actually a bit of a conflict here between gaining personal power and playing feudal lord. If you focus on the former you want to do lots of adventures, but for the latter you actually want to let time pass so your improvements can get built and slow-moving political plotlines can develop. Adventure updates tend to take almost as much effort to write as turn updates, but they only advance your character and not your fief.

I'm fine with running either approach, but if you want to do a lot of feudal politics and warfare you might want to ease off on the adventures and let more time pass.

Dominic doesn't think this will work (see below)

Correct. You'd need Flesh Sorcery 3 for permanent changes, and then a few actions figuring out how to do different kinds of cosmetic changes. You suspect that low Charm scores will be easier to raise than high ones, and for Dominic doing women will be easier than men (because he has a better idea of what to do to make a woman beautiful). Plus you'd be buffing appearance only, while Charm also includes charisma and other intangibles.

That would actually be even harder. Invoking metaphorical fire instead of the physical kind is probably level 4, although if you ever get to that level it would be a plausible way to buff actual charisma rather than appearance.

Working out improved versions of your body sense ability would be good for a bonus to Diplomacy or Seduction. The main weakness is that it's a physical ability rather than a mental one, so while it works great for detecting hunger or lust it tends to miss more cerebral responses.

Thanks for the new/clarified info, regarding the part about adventuring and feudal lord, unless I really misunderstood we have at max one year to either come up with a solution to Kat's problem that resolves in to our Grandfather's satisfaction or acquire the political capital and personal power to make up for the loses our Grandfather will take when she runs away, and I'm not going to support giving her over without her consent. Remember we will probably be held liable for those losses so we either make an enemy out of our family or we compensate them. Also, she will be dead set on finding and rescuing Tavi, meaning we need to be able to help with that. So my point about the time crunch stands. As for the flesh sorcery I updated my plan, do you mind looking it over and telling me if I put down something we can't do? Lastly, will visiting Ezti count as an adventure for experience purposes?

BFldyq · Apr 11, 2014

ShaperV said:
A baron's daughter is far too high-status to be the mistress of anyone but the King, or maybe a really powerful duke. If she became publicly known as your mistress the fallout for her would be just as bad as if she had your kid, although at least becoming pregnant afterwards wouldn't make things any worse.

So not unless something happens to our grandfather, and our father and/or brother don't take the title for some reason. Can someone choose to give up their claim to a title/land?

Plan Bastard remains the last ditched plan.

ShaperV said:
Unless the players come up with a truly brilliant plan you aren't going to be changing Borjeria's culture anytime soon.

Only thing I can come up with is some mass-brainwashing spell, possibly through high level usage of Flesh, Fire and Regency magic, which would only work if we're king.

Well, that and figuring out a way to kill Khersis in some public and unquestionable manner.

ShaperV said:
There's no master list of specialties. A wizard can specialize in any area he can acquire sufficient arcane knowledge about. Having sorcery would function as a source of knowledge, but the wizard would still have to train to develop a mathematical and theoretical understanding of the field to go along with the instinctive affinity of a sorcerer. You're not sure how much benefit there would be in such a synergy, although Katiana is planning to find out over the next few years.

Actually, I was wondering if Kat, and Zar if she actually practices Wizardry instead of Sorcery, would be interested. Kat, because it would a rare, if not unique specialty, and Zar because it would potentially have great synergy with her Alchemy, at with regards to the Alchemy that affects someone's body.

Also, I can't help wonder if Nobles would make an unofficial "exception" to wizardry, like they did so the Regency magic ritual, in return for a ritual that ensure a child of a certain sex, or one that ensures the child is free of any defects and is as healthy as it can be.

fitzgerald · Apr 11, 2014

Dominic

[X] Train Force Sorcery
[X] Train Fire Sorcery .
~~[X]:Train Tactics with Dita.~~
[X] Train Diplomancy with Dita

Dita:
[X]: Train Light Sorcery.
~~[X]: Train Tactics with Dominic.~~
[X] Train Diplomancy with Dominic

Traian:
[X]Treasurer, collect harvest Taxes

Bialis:
[X]: Train Corzu Foot

Kat:
[X]: Survey Corzu for minerals, wealth and fertile soil

Jaroslaw:
[X] Guard Kat along with Rangers

Minor Actions:
[X] Write Ezti, excusing us not to come this month as we might be hosting family members, but assure her that we will try to come in the next couple of months.
[X] Write our sisters with greetings and news of the Keep
[X] Let Kat read the books on Roman roads

BFldyq · Apr 11, 2014

Dominic
[X] Train Force Spell: imbue strike. Basically increase the telekinetic power of a strike. Might be easier with downward strikes. This is in order to get a increase in Swordmanship that stacks with the flesh boost. It might also be possible to do the same with Arrows, though it would be more finicky.
[X] Train Fire Sorcery .

When training spells, Dominic should make a habit to be around Dita, as her spell-vision is a tremendous asset that could immediately tell us what we are doing wrong.

[X]:Train Diplomacy with Dita.

Dita:
[X]: Train Light Sorcery. If she believes it would also attract demons and is too reluctant to even try it, then train Light spells: stealth applications. Lowering the ambient light levels sounds like a feasible first-step on the path to stealth spells. Other classic methods include 'bend light around me', 'blur/haze effect to reduce noticeability', 'make a blinding effect to stop people from seeing anything'. Given that Dominic can use Fire sorcery to reduce fire to nothing, it seems very feasible for Dita to be able to use light sorcery to eliminate light. Hell, even 'glowing dark' could work in some cases.
[X]: Train Diplomacy with Dominic.

We are currently working to prove to the family that they can trust her not to ruin their reputation, and as such her having a solid understanding of the social skills like diplomacy, intrigue and seduction is extremely likely to make things much easier for everyone. After all, appearances are a good parts of their fears, and if she can get them not to fear for their reputation it will be ridiculously easier for her to get short term training and freedom, mid-term support for her quest to India, and long term power.

We are also worried that Zarana's coterie will be able to manipulate her- she has seen by herself how able they are with words and emotional approach. We really want her to be able to fend for herself and not be overwhelmed by our possible wife's entourage.

Lastly, if we are not able to come with her to India (we want to go, but we might not be able to), she'd almost certainly be forced to use social skills somewhere sometimes there, and she should be ready by then.

Traian:
[X]Treasurer, collect harvest Taxes. Get a armed escort, obviously.

Bialis:
[X]: Train Corzu Foot (Do your job. Not sure we even need to say it).

Kat:
[X]: Survey Corzu for minerals, wealth and fertile soil

Jaroslaw:
[X] Guard Kat along with Rangers

Dragos:
[X] Carry on.

Minor Actions:
[X] Write Ezti, excusing us not to come this month as we might be hosting family members, but assure her that we will try to come in the next couple of months.
[X] Write our sisters with greetings and news of the Keep
[X] Send a letter home asking our Dad how our doing the friends we had (our age) back in Kolarovo, and if any of them would be interested in coming to our keep. We might have to go to Kolarovo ourself to convince them latter, of course.
[X] Let Kat read the books on Roman roads .
[X] See if the chickens have layed any fertile eggs, or if any of the pigs are pregnant. If so, regularly check up on the developing chicken/pigs development.
[X] Check if any of the female staff are pregnant. If so, try and observe the developing pregnancy(without doing anything to the developing child).
[X] Observe your mistresses, and talk with them and others. Make sure that no conflicts are brewing like they did early this year, or that you getting married won't cause any problems to pop up. Try and do it as subtly as possible.
[X] Observe what's happening with the anti-pregnancy wards after a bout with the mistresses. You might learn something.
[X] Talk to Dita about what she plans on doing after rescuing and redeeming/purifying Tavi.

OOC questions: who is Dominic's mother, what family is she from and what is she like? Also, how many of the Dardai and their close allies are their? I'm talking family, not retainers, troops or peasants.

Arkeus · Apr 11, 2014

Ok, updating my list given the new info we have (and people talking):

Dominic
[X] Train Force Spell: imbue strike. Basically increase the telekinetic power of a strike. Might be easier with downward strikes. This is in order to get a increase in Swordmanship that stacks with the flesh boost. It might also be possible to do the same with Arrows, though it would be more finicky.
[X] Train Fire Sorcery .

When training spells, Dominic should make a habit to be around Dita, as her spell-vision is a tremendous asset that could immediately tell us what we are doing wrong.

[X]:Train Diplomacy with Dita.

Dita:
[X]: Train Light Sorcery. If she believes it would also attract demons and is too reluctant to even try it, then train Light spells: stealth applications. Lowering the ambient light levels sounds like a feasible first-step on the path to stealth spells. Other classic methods include 'bend light around me', 'blur/haze effect to reduce noticeability', 'make a blinding effect to stop people from seeing anything'. Given that Dominic can use Fire sorcery to reduce fire to nothing, it seems very feasible for Dita to be able to use light sorcery to eliminate light. Hell, even 'glowing dark' could work in some cases.
[X]: Train Diplomacy with Dominic.

We are currently working to prove to the family that they can trust her not to ruin their reputation, and as such her having a solid understanding of the social skills like diplomacy, intrigue and seduction is extremely likely to make things much easier for everyone. After all, appearances are a good parts of their fears, and if she can get them not to fear for their reputation it will be ridiculously easier for her to get short term training and freedom, mid-term support for her quest to India, and long term power.

We are also worried that Zarana's coterie will be able to manipulate her- she has seen by herself how able they are with words and emotional approach. We really want her to be able to fend for herself and not be overwhelmed by our possible wife's entourage.

Lastly, if we are not able to come with her to India (we want to go, but we might not be able to), she'd almost certainly be forced to use social skills somewhere sometimes there, and she should be ready by then.

Traian:
[X]Treasurer, collect harvest Taxes. Get a armed escort, obviously.

Bialis:
[X]: Train Corzu Foot (Do your job. Not sure we even need to say it).

Kat:
[X]: Survey Corzu for minerals, wealth and fertile soil

I like this idea, as we don't really need to hire people, and it's fairly important to know about this is we want to be able to plan things well for when our refugees arrive.

Jaroslaw:
[X] Guard Kat along with Rangers

Dragos:
[X] Carry on.

Minor Actions:
[X] Write Ezti, excusing us not to come this month as we might be hosting family members, but assure her that we will try to come in the next couple of months.
[X] Write our sisters with greetings and news of the Keep
[X] Send a letter home asking our Dad how our doing the friends we had (our age) back in Kolarovo, and if any of them would be interested in coming to our keep. We might have to go to Kolarovo ourself to convince them latter, of course.
[X] Let Kat read the books on Roman roads .
[X] See if the chickens have layed any fertile eggs, or if any of the pigs are pregnant. If so, regularly check up on the developing chicken/pigs development.
[X] Check if any of the female staff are pregnant. If so, try and observe the developing pregnancy(without doing anything to the developing child).
[X] Observe your mistresses, and talk with them and others. Make sure that no conflicts are brewing like they did early this year, or that you getting married won't cause any problems to pop up. Try and do it as subtly as possible.
[X] Observe what's happening with the anti-pregnancy wards after a bout with the mistresses. You might learn something.
[X] Talk to Dita about what she plans on doing after rescuing and redeeming/purifying Tavi.

@ShaperV: When we were ambushed by the bandits we had a Bow with us, but Dominic has no Archery skill. How does that work exactly?

Ghost · Apr 11, 2014

Ok, I'm a bit unsure how to go about this, but since votes are weighted by argument I'll attempt to rebut:

Arkeus said:
Ok, updating my list given the new info we have (and people talking):

Dominic
[X] Train Force Spell: imbue strike. Basically increase the telekinetic power of a strike. Might be easier with downward strikes. This is in order to get a increase in Swordmanship that stacks with the flesh boost. It might also be possible to do the same with Arrows, though it would be more finicky.
[X] Train Fire Sorcery .

I don't see much utility for this at the moment. Being able to sword better isn't going to help the problems we have at the moment.

Arkeus said:
When training spells, Dominic should make a habit to be around Dita, as her spell-vision is a tremendous asset that could immediately tell us what we are doing wrong.

Good idea, I'll put it in my minor actions

Arkeus said:
[X]:Train Diplomacy with Dita.

Dita:
[X]: Train Light Sorcery. If she believes it would also attract demons and is too reluctant to even try it, then train Light spells: stealth applications. Lowering the ambient light levels sounds like a feasible first-step on the path to stealth spells. Other classic methods include 'bend light around me', 'blur/haze effect to reduce noticeability', 'make a blinding effect to stop people from seeing anything'. Given that Dominic can use Fire sorcery to reduce fire to nothing, it seems very feasible for Dita to be able to use light sorcery to eliminate light. Hell, even 'glowing dark' could work in some cases.
[X]: Train Diplomacy with Dominic.

We are currently working to prove to the family that they can trust her not to ruin their reputation, and as such her having a solid understanding of the social skills like diplomacy, intrigue and seduction is extremely likely to make things much easier for everyone. After all, appearances are a good parts of their fears, and if she can get them not to fear for their reputation it will be ridiculously easier for her to get short term training and freedom, mid-term support for her quest to India, and long term power.

We are also worried that Zarana's coterie will be able to manipulate her- she has seen by herself how able they are with words and emotional approach. We really want her to be able to fend for herself and not be overwhelmed by our possible wife's entourage.

Lastly, if we are not able to come with her to India (we want to go, but we might not be able to), she'd almost certainly be forced to use social skills somewhere sometimes there, and she should be ready by then.

No, I disagree drastically here. Your proposed way of satisfying our Grandfather, who Dita believes killed her mother, necessitates a turn of events I don't think will work. She, in order, find a good marriage, most likely consummate, most likely be pregnant, most likely deliver an heir, and then she may be allowed to leave the country. That both takes too much time and asks too much of her. She has a year until she need to be in India for Tavi and we need to get the problem solved in that time frame.

Arkeus said:
Traian:
[X]Treasurer, collect harvest Taxes. Get a armed escort, obviously.

Bialis:
[X]: Train Corzu Foot (Do your job. Not sure we even need to say it).

Kat:
[X]: Survey Corzu for minerals, wealth and fertile soil

I like this idea, as we don't really need to hire people, and it's fairly important to know about this is we want to be able to plan things well for when our refugees arrive.

Jaroslaw:
[X] Guard Kat along with Rangers

Knew I forgot something, I'll add giving a guard to Kat, and I think I'll ask him to look for evidence of threats while out and about.

Arkeus said:
Dragos:
[X] Carry on.

Minor Actions:
[X] Write Ezti, excusing us not to come this month as we might be hosting family members, but assure her that we will try to come in the next couple of months.
[X] Write our sisters with greetings and news of the Keep
[X] Send a letter home asking our Dad how our doing the friends we had (our age) back in Kolarovo, and if any of them would be interested in coming to our keep. We might have to go to Kolarovo ourself to convince them latter, of course.
[X] Let Kat read the books on Roman roads .
[X] See if the chickens have layed any fertile eggs, or if any of the pigs are pregnant. If so, regularly check up on the developing chicken/pigs development.
[X] Check if any of the female staff are pregnant. If so, try and observe the developing pregnancy(without doing anything to the developing child).
[X] Observe your mistresses, and talk with them and others. Make sure that no conflicts are brewing like they did early this year, or that you getting married won't cause any problems to pop up. Try and do it as subtly as possible.
[X] Observe what's happening with the anti-pregnancy wards after a bout with the mistresses. You might learn something.
[X] Talk to Dita about what she plans on doing after rescuing and redeeming/purifying Tavi.

@ShaperV: When we were ambushed by the bandits we had a Bow with us, but Dominic has no Archery skill. How does that work exactly?

Arkeus · Apr 11, 2014

Ghost said:
Ok, I'm a bit unsure how to go about this, but since votes are weighted by argument I'll attempt to rebut:I don't see much utility for this at the moment. Being able to sword better isn't going to help the problems we have at the moment.

Actually, we are going to receive a numbers of Adventure lead from our aunt Gavrilla this month, and at least some of those would need us to fight. Having another boost to fighting by using Force Sorcery not only makes Dominic just a bit stronger, but it also means he can get experiences for Force sorcery whenever he is adventuring, and that's really useful.

Ghost said:
No, I disagree drastically here. Your proposed way of satisfying our Grandfather, who Dita believes killed her mother, necessitates a turn of events I don't think will work. She, in order, find a good marriage, most likely consummate, most likely be pregnant, most likely deliver an heir, and then she may be allowed to leave the country. That both takes too much time and asks too much of her. She has a year until she need to be in India for Tavi and we need to get the problem solved in that time frame.

This argument was already done, and it's been confirmed by ShaperV that if Dita marries someone our granfather trust, she will have 5-10 years before the issue of an heir becomes important, and by that time the regency business will have happened, which would change things drastically.

So, no, if we Dita finds someone she can likes and whom we can sell to the family, she doesn't need to become pregnant and any such things.
Here is a list of Q&A from the author.

Basically, we need to sell -something- to our grandfather, and anything we sell will be easier if he sees a politically savvy and polite young woman, which Diplomacy/Intrigue/Seduction would be key for.

Walkir · Apr 11, 2014

I'd rather have a) Kat continue building and b) Bialis train the Garrison in skill, as the foot units just reached full level 2 while the garrison is still at 1.5

Actually, the garrison is the only formation still worse than skill 2.

Feudal Quest

Crazy cat guy

Mt.

Crazy cat guy

It's pronounced Be-Fled-Ick

Experienced.

Writer

Super Happy Awesome Fun Time

Crazy cat guy

Super Happy Awesome Fun Time

Writer

Status: CLASSIFIED

Crazy cat guy

Status: CLASSIFIED

Connoisseur.

Crazy cat guy

Writer

Versed in the lewd.

Mt.

Experienced.

Writer

Experienced.

Crazy cat guy

Writer

It's pronounced Be-Fled-Ick

Experienced.

It's pronounced Be-Fled-Ick

Crazy cat guy

Writer

Crazy cat guy

Super Happy Awesome Fun Time

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