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[Plato Play-Doh]

Fine, but make it clear that any bullying is grounds for expulsion from the order. And he still can't be allowed to take charge right now. We're training our men, he is not important enough to impede on our drills.

"I'm afraid I cannot stop in the middle of drilling to allow you to step in. However, as a man of much strength and talent, I'm certain that you could help us train our knights. You will be given a place of honor, answerable only to myself and my lieutenant, but I must warn you, should you or one of your lackeys terrorize the weak rather than protecting them, forsaking the sacred duty of a knight, the offender shall be expelled from this honorable order. Do I make myself clear?"

[3man75]

Give him a task i say!

If cally wants to be sergeant then he has to stop the tricksters from one of their schemes HOWEVER he cannot threaten or harm them in any possible way. Should he succeed we make him sergeant and hammy our lieutenant. Should he fail he falls in rank and we'll explain to him "you have  to learn how to follow our vision before you can lead it". If he says no to our test we dismiss him from our levy/game.

Personally if he says no and leaves it would probably be the best option since his boys will follow him and we can teach them all a lesson instead of them bullying kids in our name.

P.S is it me or is hammy a bit...craven?

[Gervassen]

Roleplay III -- Coda and Bonus Round

"This is no mere training exercise, Cadmon." You throw down a haughty glare at him from your pony.  "Today, we create a noble order dedicated to the virtues of chivalry, to obeying your lord, upholding the law, casting out the unjust, and honing your strength not to harm but to help the weak." You pause to let Cadmon absorb your next words carefully. "If you can serve me and these ideas, then you've a place of honour here... but I must warn you, should you or one of your lackeys terrorize the weak rather than protecting them, forsaking the sacred duty of a knight, the offender shall be expelled from this honorable order."

"You, Hammy, are my First Captain, and you will bring four trained levy men in times of need. And you, Cadmon, are my Second Captain. Bring me four trained levy men when the call comes. Now come swear me fealty." You pull your wooden sword out of your belt, and they kneel beside your pony to kiss your blade and offer their vows.

You search for some way to distinguish Cadmon and Hammy further. Spying two stray goose feathers on the ground, you dismount to pick them up. "These feathers shall signify a captain of this new order. But look you, these two feathers are not light--each comes with a difficult task. Hammy, you must be able leap atop a window sill by yourself." The children giggle. "And Cadmon, you and your followers must prevent the mischief of Harry Noughting."

***

Weeks pass. When you see other children growing idle, the levy is occasionally called up to practice next to the training field, copying the drills that it observes among the adults there. Merely to be allowed to loiter so close to the training field is a mark of unusual honour for the small children, and that reinforces the special nature of the training. As an additional honour, you have the feathers of your two captains dyed gold, and present them with ceremony after their tasks are achieved. Hammy is a bit thinner now, and Cadmon and Harry Noughting have fallen out with each other after a series of running engagements between their gangs.

Other than the on-going friction between Cadmon and Harry, the bullying stops when Cadmon's father proudly sees his son wearing a badge of distinction from his lord. If you were to take away the badge according to your clearly worded warning, Cadmon is sure he would be flayed skinless by his father's lash. He proves himself a very useful addition as an enforcer persuading other children to turn out to the muster and by teaching the militia members--more importantly, you--many ] strength-building and wrestling techniques. 

And that is the quandary that you now find yourself in. Today, sensing a restlessness in the local children that could boil over into mischief, but also a certain growing ennui for drilling, you have decided to hold a tournament just like those in the idylls and romances. However, you must accommodate the limited abilities of the common children by exchanging bouts of staves and wrestling for more the noble forms of combat. You would like to best Cadmon in this tourney, but his size and strength advantage is such that you have never beaten him in a match.

You try to think of a clever way to beat Cadmon just this once.

Hmm. This segment didn't have nearly the bloodletting that I was anticipating, but when the prevailing mood was to train defensively without immediate confrontation, then I realised that the "Fond" status of your guardsmen would spur them to force their kids into joining your initiative when they saw it organising drills. At that point, only robbing Cadmon of his authority would have triggered a fight. And that didn't happen either.

Consider this a bonus round then! Can you beat Cadmon? Barring a brilliant plan that I haven't thought of--and those are always enthusiastically welcomed--there is only one way to beat him at wrestling, which I mentioned several times in case Cadmon got mad and challenged you to single combat by wrestling. In medieval wrestling the goal was usually to grab an opponent and throw him off his legs or outside a ring. It requires strength and a good grip. I'll give an appropriate skill boost if you win!

 

[3man75]

how about a simple race from point A to B and back? he may be strong but we can negate that in a simple run and that puts us even.

IF we can get him to a sword competition i think we would have the advantage.

If we fist fight or wrestle him were basically boned. Also maybe we can demand tribute from other gangs not in the keep?

[Plato Play-Doh]

I think this calls for a joust! Or perhaps we could stage a melee amongst all of our knights? I'm certain Hammy would join ranks with us until the end, and we could defeat him once it got to that point. Ask Ludda about organizing such an event, and have him help us prepare.

[Cheesecake]

I say we fight Cadmon in a wrestling match. We can't hide from how much stronger the enemy is. Plus, we'll learn just how tough he is, and maybe learn something from our mistakes.

Question: How many levied children are in our ranks? If it's not too much, could we get a list on their names and their parent's profession? In fact...

Have Hammy and Cadmon list all of the children and ask them about their parent's profession.

[Plato Play-Doh]

A census makes sense. Let's do that. Not sure about wrestling, though. Feels more Greco-Roman than Medieval to me, not the sort of thing a knight would do. Idk, was that a thing back then?

[Cheesecake]

A census makes sense. Let's do that. Not sure about wrestling, though. Feels more Greco-Roman than Medieval to me, not the sort of thing a knight would do. Idk, was that a thing back then?

I dunno. But, it's still better to learn more than one way to fight.

[Gervassen]

3man, demanding tribute from gangs outside the keep might not be a good idea. While the castle children are indeed gaining a little skill and practice at wooden weapons, I daresay in the city beneath the castle, there are many half-feral children cutting purses with real knives! Harry, with his h-dropping accent, probably has contact with city children, or pretends, at least.

Question: How many levied children are in our ranks? If it's not too much, could we get a list on their names and their parent's profession? In fact...

Sure, I'll put a roll call in the next update, Cheesecake. I like creating medieval-sounding names. The levy would be between 18 and 12 children, depending on the strenuity of the "enforcing" by the captains.

Idk, was that a thing back then?

Wrestling is timeless. Medieval wrestling didn't have the rolling on the ground of Greco-Roman wrestling, but had locks and throws. Usually pushing someone out of a ring, throwing them off their feet, or locking them was a victory.

[3man75]

If im reading correctly we have 10 levies with no-names with us. Plus cal and ham as our captains.

And gerv may i remind you that we have like 13-harde{ning} knights? what better way to get the axiety out then to fight the hoodlums!

Besides imagine the reputation we would get growing up.

townsmen: "hey bob did you hear about the kid count isaac beating up that hoodlum gang in north-west?"
Bob: "well i say i like our chances for a clean society after the plague are looking up gods be praised!"
townsmen: "Indeed"

[Maldevious]

There is no way we will be allowed to go fight street gangs. We are a six year old future count. Can you imagine what Lady Marna would do to the guardsman who let us toddle by him on our way to being beaten and stabbed by a pack of young vagrants made tough by the school of poverty and want?

Regarding wrestling Cadmon... check this out: remember how Hammy was all slippery and covered in lard, and we couldn't get a grip on him when we tried to pull him up on our horse? Let's grease our body up, leaving our hands and arms ungreased. We'll be able to grip Cadmon, but he won't be able to grab us. A bit underhanded, but we'd win.

But is winning more important than being a fair competitor? I am unsure on this point. Would Isaac bend the rules to win, or would he allow one of his men to best him in a fair fight and come off as magnanimous in defeat? This is a pretty big decision for our character, and I don't come down strongly on either side. Thoughts?

[Plato Play-Doh]

Wrestling is timeless. Medieval wrestling didn't have the rolling on the ground of Greco-Roman wrestling, but had locks and throws. Usually pushing someone out of a ring, throwing them off their feet, or locking them was a victory.

Alright. Fine by me.

If im reading correctly we have 10 levies with no-names with us. Plus cal and ham as our captains.

And gerv may i remind you that we have like 13-harde{ning} knights? what better way to get the axiety out then to fight the hoodlums!

Besides imagine the reputation we would get growing up.

townsmen: "hey bob did you hear about the kid count isaac beating up that hoodlum gang in north-west?"
Bob: "well i say i like our chances for a clean society after the plague are looking up gods be praised!"
townsmen: "Indeed"

We're a child. It's entirely possible we've never even left the keep, and if we have it was for a short excursion with our parents. We certainly wouldn't be allowed out on our own. We probably assume that everyone lives like us, anyway, since we've never actually seen poverty or the like. We're a naïve little boy who thinks that little kids who are bullies is the biggest problem with the world, other than dragons who like to steal princesses. Not only would we die if we did this, but in character, there's no way this would plausibly even cross our minds. My vote is a resounding NO to that idea.

Edit: ninja'd.

Also, I don't think we should resort to cheating. Try to find a competition we're most likely to beat him at, but no foul play. We're an honorable knight after all. Naïve little boy, remember?

[Cheesecake]

There is no way we will be allowed to go fight street gangs. We are a six year old future count. Can you imagine what Lady Marna would do to the guardsman who let us toddle by him on our way to being beaten and stabbed by a pack of young vagrants made tough by the school of poverty and want?

Regarding wrestling Cadmon... check this out: remember how Hammy was all slippery and covered in lard, and we couldn't get a grip on him when we tried to pull him up on our horse? Let's grease our body up, leaving our hands and arms ungreased. We'll be able to grip Cadmon, but he won't be able to grab us. A bit underhanded, but we'd win.

But is winning more important than being a fair competitor? I am unsure on this point. Would Isaac bend the rules to win, or would he allow one of his men to best him in a fair fight and come off as magnanimous in defeat? This is a pretty big decision for our character, and I don't come down strongly on either side. Thoughts?

I'd prefer us being a leader that wants to see his men become strong along with him, instead of appearing godlike and unstoppable. These cases were the fall of many dictators. I believe that they should win fairly. Having weak generals accompanying a narcissistic leader isn't a good plan.

Bob: "well i say i like our chances for a clean society after the plague are looking up gods be praised!"

Nitpick: The people at this time were Christian. They only have one God.

If im reading correctly we have 10 levies with no-names with us. Plus cal and ham as our captains.

And gerv may i remind you that we have like 13-harde{ning} knights? what better way to get the axiety out then to fight the hoodlums!

Besides imagine the reputation we would get growing up.

townsmen: "hey bob did you hear about the kid count isaac beating up that hoodlum gang in north-west?"
Bob: "well i say i like our chances for a clean society after the plague are looking up gods be praised!"
townsmen: "Indeed"

I don't think we should fight. We should hold on till we're older then help stop the poverty. It's better to clean a dirty plate than to smash it and buy a new one.

[Gervassen]

Actually, Mal is dead-on. The grease is the story hook that I inserted if you had ever needed to defend yourself against Cadmon challenging you, where leveling the odds would have saved you from serious injury. As it happens, this will just be a bonus competition where this sort of prank gets a laugh. Incidentally, Leifr Eiriksson uses this tactic to beat a bigger opponent in the Saga of the Greenlanders, so if it's good enough for viking explorers, it's good enough for me.

However, if you think Isaac is above a prank, I'll leave that out... I should still give a skill boost somewhere from recognising the tactic. Maybe another observation increase.

[3man75]

Fighy fairly with the real militia watching (and one as a referee so we minamalises injury) if we lose fine take it like a man like our honorable father and learn. Count stone dosent cheat unless its a war...which technically isn't cheating.

Also come on Harry's not going to last against cal,hal,the levy(which should be named something cool),isaac, and quennies bunch facing him on the day we've trained our guys. Plus he'll probably just call truce and then whay? Distribute food? Endless parties? Talk about ideas for food?

Edit:question are we doing unspecified rel or real world rel here gerv? Not my call but unreal is better to keep bad things out if you know what I mean.