1069-70 Family and ambitionHaving won honor and glory in warfare at only minor cost of a few hundred of other people lives, mostly peasant and other irrelevant rif-raf, Urist returned home to find his wife laboring to deliver him a bundle of joy.
"She is beautiful, isn't she?"
"Yeah, and look at those eyes taking the world, shes a bright little child, just like her mother."
"Tough, she seems a little... short even for her age?"
"Short? Nonsense. She is just the perfect size for an Urist"
A short bundle of joy"... Yes, well. We need to prepare for her baptism."
"And the feast afterwards! Days of celebrations! Don't Worry dear wife, I will make sure its the party of the year! There will be cake. A big one. I need to invite a bounch of bakers and tasting sesion. I must get the steward and a couple tankards with me to cellar and find our best beer since there need be served a lot of beer. No. Wait. we gotta baptize her in beer! You think the church is gonna agree to that? They must!"
"Oh dear..."
Urist enjoys preparing for the feast a little too much..."Oh, oh! And a poet. We definitely need a poet to write down our family chronicles now that I finally got one going.
Its only a few pages long, a family pamphlet in anything but name, but still."Sweetling, slow down, its sound wonderful but are you sure we can afford all that?"
"Sure we can. Or rather, the townspeople can, they aren't using their money on anything but wenches anyway. I am sure they will be more than happy to pay a little extra taxes for the sake of our newborn child."
Its not like a barony level vassal can do anything but whine
Playing the game of counties
"Sire! My lord! Good news! Remember the poet who wrote your, ah, family chronicles? Well, I helped him with his research and in the process discovered that your late father may actually have been the bastard child of the son of the second cousin once removed of the Count of Argyls Grandfather."
"My father is what now? I don't..."
"Anyway I have been working on legitimizing this and finally found a captains books with a ledger showing that your what seems to be your father having stooped on our isle to restock at the right time and later returned with a small chest of money that was delivered here. Likely child support for your father that paid for his education as a smith. What I am saying is that you have claim on the county of Argyl!"
Totally legitimate"I do? Sweet! You there boy! Do your job and go get me my Marshal"
"Of course, all this traveling and bribing the right people to get this info wasn't exactly cheap, and admitting your father being born out of marriage is not good for your image."
"Hm, yes well, you gotta make sacrifices to get ahead in life. Ah, there you are Boris. It turns out that Argyl is by right mine Ready the forces! We got a county to claim. We set sail for Søreya by the morrow!"
"What? Wait. Why are we sailing for Søreya? You got a claim on Argyl, right?"
"Don't be daft. The count is not independed, to get his land we need to take on the duke on Gudrod which means taking his holdings. And as it happens his count Søreya have just been taken over by rebels, its weak and ready for the taking."
"But even with the trouble with revolts the Duke have he is still a mighty foe, he is lord of many times the land you claim. It would be extremely dangerous, there is little chance of winning this!"
"So? Are you a coward? Show some bravery. Its now or never, now that he is weak. Its time to strike. And Findlay? I wan't you to use the contacts you made finding this claim to try and sow further strife in the dukes domain."
"We ride to war as the sun rises. Dismissed."
Continuing my theme of pushing out updates at a snails pace I hope to finish this in the current century...
On a positive note, I made a new banner for first page to make up for it! :-D
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Topic: Isle of Man; The Little Isle That Could - A CKII succesion game - Yearly Update (Read 17031 times)