Scheming Princess Quest

[Wutnhammer]

[X] The best way to be sure Jill won't talk is to bring her in. It is unlikely she has necromantic talents, but she almost certainly has her own talents and viewpoint which may be useful.

 

[Blargh]

[X] The best way to be sure Jill won't talk is to bring her in. It is unlikely she has necromantic talents, but she almost certainly has her own talents and viewpoint which may be useful.

I was liking Sophia in this bit, I wonder if the Princess can subvert Sophia to her side over her brothers

 

[Briareus the Gardener]

[X] The best way to be sure Jill won't talk is to bring her in. It is unlikely she has necromantic talents, but she almost certainly has her own talents and viewpoint which may be useful.

 

[Emdemian]

[X] The best way to be sure Jill won't talk is to bring her in. It is unlikely she has necromantic talents, but she almost certainly has her own talents and viewpoint which may be useful.

Wow this is alive, nice.

Its revival inspired me actually, I've been planning a vaguely similar quest for a long time but never actually got around to starting. Time to take it off the backburner. Great to see this back.

I was liking Sophia in this bit, I wonder if the Princess can subvert Sophia to her side over her brothers

Click to shrink...

I find her interesting too but I think she's besotted with our brother.

 

[Seventeen]

[X] The best way to be sure Jill won't talk is to bring her in. It is unlikely she has necromantic talents, but she almost certainly has her own talents and viewpoint which may be useful.

Absorb all other magical girls

 

[Adyen]

[X] Offer to assist Jill in her work, and get Sophia to join you. Jill should forget soon enough and you can convince Sophia to keep this your secret together. As long as the excitement of secrecy lasts, Sophia will be less likely to go to your brother until she has something concrete.

 

[Akritedes]

[X] The best way to be sure Jill won't talk is to bring her in. It is unlikely she has necromantic talents, but she almost certainly has her own talents and viewpoint which may be useful.

 

[Guile]

It's late, and not very long, but at least it's not back on hiatus, right? I'd like to at least reach the end of Year 1 before the move, but we'll see how that goes.

Winning vote:

[X] The best way to be sure Jill won't talk is to bring her in. It is unlikely she has necromantic talents, but she almost certainly has her own talents and viewpoint which may be useful.

Click to shrink...

Year 1, update 3a


The falcon mews of the castle is a large, airy space, some thirty feet long and half that in both height and width. Some ancestors of yours clearly cared about the birds a great deal; no mere clean space with perches thrust into the ground, this. The entire space is a recreation of a scrubland. The walls are natural-looking crags with hollow areas for the birds to nest. The whole area is as hot as a dry savannah, alleviated only slightly by a strong wind that waves the brush and grasses about. Where the wind comes from, you're not entirely clear on. The roof – painted or enchanted to resemble the outside sky – contains a graceful curve of gold, a mosaic of sunstone and actual gold that is enchanted to produce something like a day and night cycle for the birds.

While you are of the opinion that royalty should be free to pursue their passions, this looks like a bloody waste of money and time. You're not much of a hawker or hunter.

Jill has been flitting about, calling the birds down to check them over and feeding them strips of meat, for nigh an hour. You have taken this time to settle on a rather unpleasantly hard outcropping of rock yourself, attempting to build a rapport. Learning about her work about the castle, asking after her parents and the birds, and so on. A more normal servant would be tremendously flattered that you care enough to spend your valuable time with them, but you're not entirely sure how well it's working in this case; the gardeners are a peculiar bunch.

You don't really having the time to spare her your full attention, regrettably. You have been attending to magical homework of a sort in your head:
[X] Attempting to read the future in the random meanderings of birds.
[X] Reminding yourself of the steps to the basic forms, now that they have started you on swords in your classes.
[X] Trying to remember the arcane details of the Three Kings War, which some – wrongly – claim was settled in Baruna's favor some 80 years ago. You have begun to notice Holguin's examples are suspiciously pro-Barunese propaganda.
[X] That necromantic ward keeps returning to your thoughts. You wish you had your reference books and a few uninterrupted hours, but you do recognize that you can't become a recluse over it, either.

Jill flings her hand upward, one last bird of prey – chocolate brown and cream colored, with red tipped wings – flapping away to settle on a rocky outcropping. It settles in and fluffs itself while eying the girls with one sharp yellow eye, looking vaguely pleased and self-important. Jill ambles over and throws herself into the scratchy scrub grasses beside you, ignoring what must be at least a few rocks digging into her butt.

"You must be bored," she says amiably.

"Not at all," you demur, lying at least a little bit. You feel no shame in it, since lies are the currency of social interaction anyway.

"Uh huh," she says, thinking before visibly brightening. You briefly wonder why all the girls you know are so open and honest. It's a little bit creepy. "Hey princess, wanna come check out the forest?"

"Why would I do that?" you wonder.

You're familiar with the place in a theoretical way, having never been inside. 'The forest' is a warded off section of greenery on the palace grounds that is used for hunting and hawking purposes by bored noblemen. It's maintenance is another job entrusted to the royal gamekeepers.

"What, the forest is fun!" Jill pouts, sensing she's losing you.

"Aren't there a great many beasts inside?" you point out dubiously. That is the point, is it not? You're given to understand it's quite an impressive construct inside, but you're not a nature mage who can talk for hours (and they do) about the properties of plants or beasts. Animals are just animals, no matter how impressive their strength or pedigree.

Jill wobbles her hand to illustrate when she says, "A few. Dad mostly keeps them penned to certain areas unless there's a hunt on."

"But seriously, it's great!" she adds, picking up enthusiasm again like a horseless carriage gaining steam on even roads. "You see all kinds of interesting people in there."

"In… the royal forest?" you repeat slowly.

"Sure! It's not like you guys use it much. The wards are pretty simple, some kind of spatial warping thing. So you get people looking for trysts and meetings and all kinds of weird stuff."

By 'simple' she presumably means 'permissive', since spatial warping sounds by no means simple. You are aware that some parts of the castle are larger on the inside than they would appear thanks to such spells – it's actually kind of a problem, given a few centuries of various archmages enchanting this or that section to suit their purposes. But you weren't aware the forest was one of those.

As for people using a restricted area for something as meaningless as romantic assignations, you're not sure how you feel about that. 'Stupid' comes to mind, but you have made peace with the fact that people can be that very thing all too often.

Jill rolls over so she can look up at you.

"Or we could go to town?" she inquires. "Dad usually lets me run his errands, it's a nice break."

How long has it been since you last walked the streets of the castle town? Years, you think; not since well before your parents died. And even in those warm, sun-lit memories, such visits were quite uncommon. Commoners came to the king, not the other way around.

It is only a few minutes' walk from the castle proper, but it might as well be another world, far removed from your everyday life. Of course your every need is met and exceeded by your competent serving staff. There is no need for a princess to run errands. The whole idea is faintly ludicrous, like naming a peasant a king for a day, or simply trusting that food given to you is not poisoned.

But you can't say you aren't a little curious.

Which course laid out for you do you choose to follow?
[X] The forest. It seems to contain secrets you did not expect. Secrets which others know but you do not are dangerous secrets.
[X] The castle town. Commoners in their natural habitat. You suppose you will need more guards, but a visit could be manufactured.

 

[Bobs Beard]

[X] That necromantic ward keeps returning to your thoughts. You wish you had your reference books and a few uninterrupted hours, but you do recognize that you can't become a recluse over it, either.
[X] The forest. It seems to contain secrets you did not expect. Secrets which others know but you do not are dangerous secrets.

After Jill talked it up in all her blase glory as the place to be for sneaky stuff (for those who are shit at actually being sneaky), I totally wanna see what kinds of rubes can be found.

Also, we clearly identified a top tier, already-defended base to set up in for necromantic shenanigans, so why wouldn't the princess research her secret base to be an important feature of her home?

 

[RubberBandMan]

[X] The forest. It seems to contain secrets you did not expect. Secrets which others know but you do not are dangerous secrets.

We're here to make friends, aren't we?

And

[X] Trying to remember the arcane details of the Three Kings War, which some – wrongly – claim was settled in Baruna's favor some 80 years ago. You have begun to notice Holguin's examples are suspiciously pro-Barunese propaganda.

FUCK people trying to push that kinda shit on us. Personal skills are important, but being sure that someone isn't screwing with our knowledge or setting us up for something is important.

 

[Adyen]

[X] Trying to remember the arcane details of the Three Kings War, which some – wrongly – claim was settled in Baruna's favor some 80 years ago. You have begun to notice Holguin's examples are suspiciously pro-Barunese propaganda.
[X] The castle town. Commoners in their natural habitat. You suppose you will need more guards, but a visit could be manufactured.

Being personally powerful is a great thing if you have no responsibilities over hundreds of thousands of people, but being wise will help you actually rule.

 

[Seventeen]

[X] Attempting to read the future in the random meanderings of birds.
[X] The forest. It seems to contain secrets you did not expect. Secrets which others know but you do not are dangerous secrets.

I want more Clairvoyance XP.

 

[Blargh]

[X] That necromantic ward keeps returning to your thoughts. You wish you had your reference books and a few uninterrupted hours, but you do recognize that you can't become a recluse over it, either.
[X] The forest. It seems to contain secrets you did not expect. Secrets which others know but you do not are dangerous secrets.

 

[Wutnhammer]

hmmm, if we were to head to the town it'd help our reputation as the champion of the people... but i suppose the point of this outing is to get close to jill and she clearly wants us to take an interest in the forest.
I think we should consider taking a trip or two into town at some point in the future
[X] The forest. It seems to contain secrets you did not expect. Secrets which others know but you do not are dangerous secrets.

 

[Briareus the Gardener]

[X] Trying to remember the arcane details of the Three Kings War, which some – wrongly – claim was settled in Baruna's favor some 80 years ago. You have begun to notice Holguin's examples are suspiciously pro-Barunese propaganda.
[X] The forest. It seems to contain secrets you did not expect. Secrets which others know but you do not are dangerous secrets.

A hard choice to make, but the warded tomb should keep; finding out what the shit's going on with our tutor is more time-sensitive.

Good catch there, RubberBandMan.

 

[megrisvernin]

[X] Trying to remember the arcane details of the Three Kings War, which some – wrongly – claim was settled in Baruna's favor some 80 years ago. You have begun to notice Holguin's examples are suspiciously pro-Barunese propaganda.
[X] The forest. It seems to contain secrets you did not expect. Secrets which others know but you do not are dangerous secrets.

 

[Delcer]

[X] That necromantic ward keeps returning to your thoughts. You wish you had your reference books and a few uninterrupted hours, but you do recognize that you can't become a recluse over it, either.

[X] The forest. It seems to contain secrets you did not expect. Secrets which others know but you do not are dangerous secrets.

 

[Sivantic]

[X] Trying to remember the arcane details of the Three Kings War, which some – wrongly – claim was settled in Baruna's favor some 80 years ago. You have begun to notice Holguin's examples are suspiciously pro-Barunese propaganda.
[X] The castle town. Commoners in their natural habitat. You suppose you will need more guards, but a visit could be manufactured.

 

[DarkLight140]

[X] That necromantic ward keeps returning to your thoughts. You wish you had your reference books and a few uninterrupted hours, but you do recognize that you can't become a recluse over it, either.
[X] The forest. It seems to contain secrets you did not expect. Secrets which others know but you do not are dangerous secrets.

I am sympathetic to the desire to get our political and historical knowledge straight, possibly uncover the terrible truth that our Barunese tutor is, in fact, pro-Baruna and might even have contacts or something we could get from associating with him, and similar options down that path.

However, you don't become an unstoppable magical grandmaster of your chosen discipline before reaching your age of majority by splitting your focus. If we want to be good at necromancy in a game-changing sort of way, we need to choose it at every reasonable opportunity. Since that is indeed something I want, I have to vote for it here.

 

[Arkeus]

However, you don't become an unstoppable magical grandmaster of your chosen discipline before reaching your age of majority by splitting your focus. If we want to be good at necromancy clairvoyance in a game-changing sort of way, we need to choose it at every reasonable opportunity. Since that is indeed something I want, I have to vote for it here.

Click to shrink...

Indeed.

[X] Attempting to read the future in the random meanderings of birds.
[X] The forest. It seems to contain secrets you did not expect. Secrets which others know but you do not are dangerous secrets.

 

[Nolrai2]

[X] Attempting to read the future in the random meanderings of birds.
[X] The forest. It seems to contain secrets you did not expect. Secrets which others know but you do not are dangerous secrets.