Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Maldevious]

You begin with an impassioned, if somewhat exaggerated account of your "reconciliation" with Count Foles at the spring fair last year, before swinging to a bold implication that his half-sister was moved in suspiciously close to his father's death.

Arthur nods his head, seeming to take it in, and his eyes widen a few moments after you mention the swiftness with which his half-sister and her husband took up residence. "You think... you think that she was involved somehow?"

You give a noncommittal answer, saying that it is merely... suspicious. But it is clear that the seed you sought to plant has clearly taken root.

Seizing this momentum, you launch into an impassioned speech on how helping Arthur gain the County is the right thing to do, despite his father's well-documented excesses and errors. Rising to a crescendo, you talk of your shared common backgrounds, and how that knowledge breeds fair and accomplished rulers. You finish, practically bellowing by this point, by asking for his permission to advance his claim as the true Count Foles of Folesden.

Your passion and argument has clearly affected the boy, because he drops to one knee in front of you. "Sir Stone, I promise you that I will not rest until the County of Folesden is in my rightful hands." Again, playing the moment, you pull him to his feet, clap him on the shoulder, and tell him that he needs not bow to you, for he is a Count in your eyes from this day forward. You incline your head to him, and you see his chest swell with confidence.

Any further discussion for the evening, or do you have plans to set into motion for the winter?

[jaass]

Speak to Marna about this plan, she has the right to know what we are doing.

edit: If she get angry tell her why we are doing this.

[kaian-a-coel]

Yup, we definitively need to have her on our side on this.

[Mlamlah]

Agreed.

[Talvara]

personally I feel like we've fell into this claimant thing a bit to fast, but I'll hold my peace and leave it to you guys.

[Gervassen]

Fast is the only way you do it. The slow people are on the bottom of the heap... or dead.

We need to take things very fast indeed, and during winter, when everyone is indoors and fairly idle, that is a perfect time to spread whispers and slanderous songs. Meanwhile, feel out which of the old guard members of the Count's court are unhappy with Owen and his bunch sweeping in. We have an advantage in that they apparently expect no contest and have not been greasing their way to power.

1. Owen's wife has always been the life of the party, and now we plant the slander that she's whoring it up and slagging around behind her less than suave husband. We plant this slander in the taverns and inns friendly to the Rat and let it grow out organically from there.

2. Plant rumours that the Count was about to acknowledge a bastard son whose examples of virtue and piety had rebuked him and shamed him into resolving to make a new start. Now other rumours about the murder can hang themselves on a juicy hook. The Count had to be eliminated before he ruined his daughter's ambition. Owen murdered him at his wife's orders. The righteous son fled and is off afar now, perhaps negotiating with Prester John himself, and gathering a force to liberate his rightful lands from the grasping ambitions of the plotters.   

3. With blood in the water, start to feel out the old guard that may have been rubbed wrong. We want the Captain of the Guard, the Steward, and perhaps Uriel himself on assurances that whoever turns now keeps his office under a true Foles from Folesden. Grease as necessary, and season to taste.

Also, about Marna, sure--but no one else. Foles is our distant cousin from a remote rural village, who might become our second squire in the spring. We don't even let Luther know.

Ask Arthur about the reliability of the whore, and pay her off.

[Plato Play-Doh]

Write out a letter to the Rat, telling him to plant those rumors. Send the whore back to Folesden with instructions to give the letter to whoever gave the Rat's letter to her (or to say the same if she was just sent by the head of the establishment or something). She could also help spread the rumor. Maybe she could brag about having personally met the Count, then say that another whore got him. "Strange, her son seems to have run off not long ago." She'll say, making her suitors put two and two together, especially with the Rat's rumors running rampant on the streets. If this was an establishment used by the Count, then it's probably pretty posh, as brothels go, so she could put shades of doubt into the heads of some very influential people.

[intelligentmoron]

Give the rat something shiny too, only fair considering how spectacularly he came through for us.

[Plato Play-Doh]

Yes. Lots and lots of shiny things for the Rat. We need him to stay loyal.

[Gervassen]

Actually, at this point, it would help to confer with the Rat in person once again. I wouldn't think an actual RP session is necessary, but get him to come to us for a planning session on the winter gossip campaign to maximize its effectiveness. I'm already nervous about written instructions at this point, even though we've no one on our scent yet, it could be evidence later on--and besides, pinging each other with streams of letters isn't nearly as effective as meeting and making sure that we're synchronised.

As for the whore, she should lie low, perhaps even here in town. I'm uncomfortable with someone who actually knows his real whereabouts being active in the further intrigue.

[Urist McDwarfFortress]

Move now, before Sir Owen can react. Swear fealty to Count Arthur Foles and publish his claim among all the other vassals asking them for their allegiance to him. Let the Duke know about the true Count of Folesden. Call up the troops, and bring any other vassals who are willing to come, march on Folesden, depose the false count.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Move now, before Sir Owen can react. Swear fealty to Count Arthur Foles and publish his claim among all the other vassals asking them for their allegiance to him. Let the Duke know about the true Count of Folesden. Call up the troops, and bring any other vassals who are willing to come, march on Folesden, depose the false count.

-1

I suggest we let our rumors stew over the winter like suggested above, and only once his claim is weakened make our final move. Maybe in the early spring.

[Gervassen]

Good instincts, Urist... just that it's winter right now and declaring for a bastard no one has heard of before would take both our enemies and our potential allies equally off-guard. Once we get our allies used to the idea that there's an alternative floating about somewhere, we can spring him from an unexpected quarter.

Btw, as I think about it, our lands are too hot to hold the new Count for winter storage. We're not the backwater we used to be anymore. We get one last person in on this gambit. Percival. We send our distant cousin off to squire for Percival, whose lands are further upriver and of much less note. But Percival is the last conspirator, and he is told to treat Arthur as a true squire even in front of his wife.  The people who know are now: Us, Rat, Whore, Marna, Percival. No town councillors, no steward, no Luther.

We should go visit Percival tomorrow with our distant cousin, and talk about this matter while out riding in an open area. The more time we can put between this lad's journey upriver into obscurity and the beginning of rumours that there's a bastard somewhere, the better for all.

[Plato Play-Doh]

I disagree. We need Arthur to stay with us. Meeting the Rat in person is a good idea, though.

[GreatWyrmGold]

I disagree. We need Arthur to stay with us.

It may be putting all our eggs in one basket, but getting a second one may attract the...fox? Do foxes eat eggs?