There are several important facts which we have, but may not have considered the full implications of.
Most importantly,
Zarana is not our ally. There is a marriage alliance on the table, but at the moment her family is neutral, not friendly. They're allying with us if and only if we give them sufficient cause to do so, not because they truly need to; effectively, we are chasing Zarana in this interaction rather than her chasing us, as has been the case in most of our other marriage prospects. Do not forget this. It means that there is a very real possibility that if she finds out anything she doesn't like, Zarana can and will go back to her father the baron, tell him that we're a terrible prospect, and then every bit of information that we've given her becomes a liability. Similarly, if we marry someone else and she perceives it as a snub, whatever information she's gained is something that she can use against us.
Second,
Zarana is trained in intrigue. We are not. That means that we are entering into this social engagement at a disadvantage. It is likely that if she wants to withhold her true reaction to some bit of information from us, she can; likewise, she can be expected to take note of everything we say and analyze it for political value. Mistakes will be noted. Anything potentially embarrassing or incriminating can and will be reported to her family (see the first point). Her escort are likely to be lesser socialites operating in the same sort of way that men at arms back us in battle; they'll act to flank us, surround us, and support their lady in achieving her goals. In practice, this means that they're likely to chat up our retainers and servants and report all the gossip and information they can get to Zarana. Depending upon how bold and good they are, they may also act to support her directly in conversation.
Third,
Zarana has nothing to inherit on her own. If she was going to net us a barony it would already have been noted, which means she has at least one brother, possibly more. By marrying us she can be the lady of a fief, if a small one- something she won't be getting on her own. Landholding lords are not so common that she can afford to treat the opportunity to marry one lightly, both for her family's sake and because being the wife of one is more independence and influence than she is likely to ever see otherwise personally.
So, taking these into consideration, we have some basic conversational principles.
Avoid mentioning anything which would be severely damaging if it got into the hands of an enemy with high-powered intrigue talents. This means that we should mention none of these:
[ ] Your plans to become a powerful mage.
[ ] Your less than wholehearted adherence to church doctrine.
[ ] Your plans to continue supporting the chosen.
[ ] The fact that you're seriously considering making Katiana your second wife.
The mage one is something to avoid because, if we recall the very beginning of the quest, there are lines in it like:
the church doesn't approve of humans studying magic
It's fairly common for mages to either go nuts or turn evil, especially the powerful ones.
It sounds too much like magic, and nobles practicing magic would be scandalous.
We're really into magic, but that is bizarre, not normal, and while not necessarily unacceptable it's definitely a political negative. More than that, Gavrilla doesn't even take the idea that we might become a truly powerful mage seriously, because it's so uncommon. This isn't on the level of Dita's inherent crazy, but it is still a major angle from which we can be attacked socially.
Mentioning that we aren't into church doctrine is another one of those "even if it's true, don't bring it up, idiot" things. Supporting the Chosen, more of the same- and if the fact that we've done so thus far is brought up, we can play it off as being more than happy to give some shelter and trinkets to nearly anyone who shows up to kill demons, witches, and haunts that are posing active problems.
Katiana as a second wife is the sort of thing that's too potentially crushing politically to mention to anyone before we actually are set to go through with it. If Zarana is sharp, and she is, she'll already have decided that it's likely we'll want to keep Katiana around in some capacity in the long term and are likely to sleep with her because she's a beautiful woman who is almost certainly willing to sleep with us. The second wife bit is just a way of formalizing and strengthening that tie, and if Zarana hasn't thought of it then it's not a possibility that we want entering her head, or those of her family, before our family's alliance with them is entirely secured.
Thanks to her intrigue skills and posse of busybodies, we can assume that she'll find out minor/obvious secrets, so these are obvious things to share:
[X] Your sorcery.
[X] Katiana's wizardry, and the fact you plan to continue employing her.
She'd have to be blind not to learn about those, and both of them make us look slightly radical, but not so much that anyone could get a decent return on their effort for criticizing us. Her family will already know who Katiana is and her past if they've got an ounce of sense, and they do, so there's no loss in talking about it. Better, we show ourselves to have some strength and resources.
This last default option is trickier.
[ ] Your plans to continue going on adventures, at least within the kingdom.
A lot of whether this is a good thing to share depends upon our read of Zarana's personality. If she's the sort of woman who wants to basically run things while her husband does whatever, then it's likely that this will appeal to her and make her want us more. If she doesn't want an absent husband, or has serious concerns that she'll end up stuck living in a penniless backwater that her husband doesn't care about because he's never around anyway, then we don't want to bring it up because it could be a potentially serious negative. We want to learn more about what she wants before we decide whether to share this kind of information.
I do have a write-in here:
[X] Your plans to improve Corzu's conditions and economy.
I don't see a significant potential downside to showing ourselves to be ambitious in terms of stewardship; that's something which we can't be attacked on politically and which is potentially a very important part of how Zarana perceives us. Yes, we're running a run-down backwater, but doing so and being content with that is very different from doing so and having plans to fix everything- build granaries, repair and improve the keep, construct and repair roads between all the settlements, increase the population, and more. It is one of our genuine virtues as a lord that we want to strengthen our fief and it's a potentially key part of putting our best face forward. The biggest potential downsides are showing that Corzu is weak (which was obvious anyway) and turning Zarana off if she was hoping for a husband that would leave the fief and let her run everything (unlikely to be a deal-breaker).
On suggested questions for Zarana... in short, the most supported group are ridiculously specific and shouldn't be used in their current forms. Generalized versions of them are viable, but as things stand none of them are something to say. As the GM phrased this, they're what we "want to try to get answers to" rather than actual questions we ask, but that's only a small saving grace.
[X] Is the magic she has with her maid Sorcery or Wizardry?
This question says "I've picked up on the magic on you and want you to tell me about it." Considering how subtle it is, that's effectively a show of force- basically, saying "my magic-fu is stronger than yours". This is potentially desirable, but given that we haven't locked them in as an ally, we might not want to let them know that we've caught on to their buffs. Why not try this first?
[X] See if Katiana can discern the purpose and nature of the magic on them without making it obvious that she's looking.
From there, we can either return to inquiring directly (and why ask if it's sorcery or wizardry, instead of a more general question about what it does?) or give a more forceful message as to our own competence by being able to compliment them specifically on their fine whatever-the-heck-it-is. Or politely not mention it, if it's something that bears politely not mentioning.
[X] Was she so ready to come and see us because she already knew things about us that interested her more than about Boris?
[X]If so, was she looking at this alliance partly because of our access to a powerful Wizardess?
Our family has literally been trying to negotiate this alliance for years. We've had Katiana in our corner for mere months. This line of questioning is either meant to wildly flatter Zarana as to her own prominence within her family and information-gathering abilities, or simply shows our own ignorance of politics and spying. Neither is desirable, so we shouldn't be saying these. Generalizing is possible, things like
[X] What does she consider our better qualities?
[X] What are her feelings on magic, in general or as she sees it used by us and our retainers?
[X]Is she looking toward learning Wizardry herself, being in the company of a hero, or just looking toward having access to both for her intrigues?
This is a ridiculously leading way of framing this question. Learning wizardry- since when is that even on the table? Being in the company of a hero- how self-absorbed is that, to call ourselves a hero? Skip the details and generalize to get more useful information.
[X] What would she look forward to after marriage?
[X] What are her primary interests?
[X]Stance toward neighboring baronies, Timis, Rogatica, and Kiscun specifically.
[X]What exactly she's expecting from the marriage, and how far from cultural norms she's willing to go.
[X]How much she knows about magic.
These are good questions.
Edit: Good questions in that we really want the answers, not in that we can bluntly ask them right out. She'll probably pick up on what we're looking for even if we start with a few careful probing questions, given her background and training, but so long as we are delicate about it I don't think getting these answers will bite us too badly. The neighboring baronies one can be spread to apply to more than just those three and might reveal that we haven't been fully briefed on high-level politics in the region, but so long as we keep things personal ("Have you visited Place A/met Baron X? What did you think of it/him?") it shouldn't be too much of an issue, I hope.
I know this isn't in the suggested "get answers" format, but it's worth noting:
[X] Be as engaging and charming as reasonably possible.
Sure, she's trained in intrigue and probably isn't that susceptible to being seduced. That doesn't mean that Charm 4+Seduction 1 is irrelevant, and a woman who genuinely wants and likes us as well as being politically/intellectually interested is one who will be much easier to deal with overall.
As a final general note, we want to be spending a lot of time with her to get to know her as much as possible and get her to think well of us as much as possible, and that means talking a lot. The more relatively harmless topics we have to talk about so that we can fill time without touching on sensitive matters, the better. Secrets are secret, but much of our life isn't, and socialization empty of meaning is fine if only because it lets us know whether we can enjoy her company.
