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[Andres]

So I just finished reading Lordship and, just, wow. That ending. I was really disappointed when it just... ended there. Mlamlah, you are a damn good writer and everything you do is appreciated. Please remember that.


With that said, let's begin with the compulsory spellchecks.

Keshlan might serve us well if our agenda involves messing in Keshlan affairs.

Kel--

Keshlan

The Island Nation of Keshla

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Keshla is a nation comprising most of the islands within the bay of Mirdas, the sea that Analysse uses to make it's fortune. Keshla has a culture very different from the other local peoples, as the ancestors of the current Keshlans were sailors from southwestern lands which take quite some time to reach from either land or sea.
Until recently, these islands were united under a single elected emperor, an arrangement that has been held for hundreds of years. Of note to the downfall of this system of government, was the policy of literally collaring all Keshlan mages. These collars did not limit a mages powers, rather they allowed the emporer to use an ancient artifact to instantly kill a mage wearing one of these magical collars, or to harness the power of a nearby collared mage. How this artifact worked was apparently not clear to the last emporer, who was slain when it was made clear the gauntlet no longer functioned. Since then, several factions arose all vying for control of the island empire, the most powerful of which is headed by the very man who killed the emporer; a powerful sea-mage with a reported hatred for wealth and those who seek it, as such much of Keshla has become unsafe for merchants.

..........Huh. I guess it's officially Keshla now.

Malesha.

Malehsa.


And with that out of the way it's time to move to ACTUAL CONSTRUCTIVE DEBATE.

Beyond that, fair point on all your other suggestions, so long as we don't neglect Penrod too much. He is supposedly intelligent and savvy, so the way I see it, we have no way of ever knowing if he cruelly sees us as Kin, or merely as a pawn to use in the royal court of Analysse as he sees fit. The more time we spend with him, the more chances we have to get a glimpse of what he truly thinks... It is also worth noting that we will get more chances to chat with Eric and Will moving foward, but we will run into Penrod and our sister on a far less frequent basis. That said, I still think the points you raised are fair.

I'm of the opinion that we've moved past this stage of rightful paranoia in our relationship with Penrod. He's a decent chap and he's married to our sister; let's not spend time we could better use elsewhere being suspicious of literally every ally we have.

Unless something happens to Vukhara, or we suffer a falling out with our father, we have all the time in the world to learn the language from her at our own pace later. It would be nice to know more now, but not essential, and I think having some of the young nobles at court who intend to support us speak Keshlan might serve us well if our agenda involves messing in Keshlan affairs.

It is also a chance to get closer to whatever people also happen to show up to the lessons on any given day.

The thing is, we're not using Vukhara as our Kelshan Keshlan language tutor so she may and up being a distraction, and involving the other young nobles would definitely be distracting. Not only that, but it'll make us look 'uncool' in front of the noble kids for trying to get them - or rather, forcing them, as is what I think your plan entails - to learn some language they may or may not care about.

If we can outwit her than we should be able to outwit our brother Eric. Which says alot about what's in our heads.

We're not good enough of a face-reader to gleam a great deal about a person's personality from a game of chess, and to think we can outwit Eric by playing chess would be ineffective even if we were a high-level face-reader: in chess, we see all the pieces that are or can be in play. +1 to everything though, including the chess game. Just because it's not as useful as we want it to be doesn't mean it can't be fun.

[3man75]

((Ya that ending to this day still bothers me. But i remember pming mald about how sorry i was and he said it wasn't just the bitching/skepticism but also RL stuff getting in the way. It was a waste at the end with such a tremendous challenge which us the players had never seen. Gone partly because someone didn't like being whisked away into a hospital bed. Maybe he should have explained it was a explosion but honestly it's still our fault as players for de-motivating him.))

Maybe we SHOULD start learning how to read peoples faces though? It can help a whole lot. Also we should have vukhara invited over with us in the tutoring with Gorind (or whoever the tutor is) just so that we can use her as a "study buddy". Maybe ask about herself or how she sees her father. IDK but any info we can get out of her would be good in knowing if we can trust Sekhom fully or not.

For all we know he could have other allies that are using him to get to us...PARANOIA EXTREME!!

But let's be honest after assassination attempts like the ones before, we should be questioning of everything.

Btw Maybe we should ask our brother in private when we talk about the black magic incident and/or his new career path of being a warden mage. This is William btw not Eric.

Possibly we could get through to him and show him we still care about him. An possibly see what we can do to find those who set the guy up. I mean chances are he'll NEVER want to be king again but let's see if we can clear his name one day.

EDIT: Also i agree -1 to having lunch with penrod and ritalia, we should spend as much time with our courtier allies and some of our..potential future brides. Notice how i said potential. I want to communicate that these are NOT are only options. Although i am taking a liking to malehsa. She seems pretty bad ass and should definitely interact with her be it chess game, combat practice, talking over lunch, or anything really.

EDIT 2: When we scry at night it should be noted that we not scry on penrod or ritalia. There likely to be protected by freidrich (penrods brother/cousin/family) an he's a warden. If were detected by him than it could damage relations with us and we should avoid being seen by other wardens. For that matter during the day make sure to know where the wardens are, if any, and avoid scrying in there direction. If were found out than we'll lose our magical secret, which could us in the future. It's already sort of saved us from assassins (who may or may not have lived to tell the tale of our crude wind magic).

[Andres]

+1 to everything except:

For all we know he could have other allies that are using him to get to us...PARANOIA EXTREME!!

But let's be honest after assassination attempts like the ones before, we should be questioning of everything.

His other allies may or may not be interested in some foreign, unlanded prince who isn't even the current heir to the throne. We can never know. But just talking with the guy and being friends with him can't be that bad. If we were to start detailing troop movements or informing him of skulduggerous acts or something then that's a different story.

Also, while it is prudent to watch steps we're about to make, it doesn't mean that we should stop taking steps. We were operating on exactly zero intel during that assassination attempt and with no contingencies should something go wrong. We're going to need to take some risks if we're going to get anywhere far and chatting up our close friends shouldn't be too dangerous.

It's already sort of saved us from assassins (who may or may not have lived to tell the tale of our crude wind magic).

The assassin that we used it on was killed very soon after and to literally everyone - including the target assassin - it seemed like she just stumbled, which isn't improbable. I think we're safe and we don't have to worry about that.

[3man75]

Well actually i think some got away. who MAYBE was one that got away. Maybe he lived and saw it or not but we should operate that they do now.


EDIT: That said, your right we shouldn't be overly paranoid but always have aces up or sleeve in case of another ambush or magical attack from the trees. Or fireballs from the rooftops.

Anyways yeah, but his allies could be annalysians who said "let me invest in this revolution and see if i can help robilard or eric bump off the prince." or "hey let me infiltrate this organization to see if i can get incriminating evidence on the prince. That could be worth alot to someone.".

[Andres]

Nope. Everyone that involved were either running away of fighting when we did the wind push so they wouldn't have noticed. The person we wind pushed was that woman who lured us in the first place and when we inquired about her health we were told that she was decicively killed and was very, very dead. Granted, there were some assassins who escaped but they couldn't have seen anything, seeing as they were running for their lives or fighting for their lives, and we were relatively subtle about our magic use.

[3man75]

Nope. Everyone that involved were either running away of fighting when we did the wind push so they wouldn't have noticed. The person we wind pushed was that woman who lured us in the first place and when we inquired about her health we were told that she was decicively killed and was very, very dead. Granted, there were some assassins who escaped but they couldn't have seen anything, seeing as they were running for their lives or fighting for their lives, and we were relatively subtle about our magic use.

Okay, that said maybe we should learn to use our wind magic to cut through things or at least push heavier stuff like small boulders. That way if we fight two enemies one day we can push one with wind, kill the other who's stunned, and then finish the last one. That's warmage training btw which we shouldn't do now on the trip but rather our own palace, as discreet as possible..

So from the top of my head: Talk with william in private (like our personal carraige), talk with eric about polotics or anything that can overwelm him (also gauge him when having a normal talk. Let's see if he really likes us or if his mom brainwashed him to compete with us.), learn keshlan with Gobind the Merchant, combat training by sparring with Malehsa/roayal protector/ and courtier allies, and have lunch with our courtier allies. Make sure to chat them up to make freinds (as best as possible, DO NOT GIVE OUT FAVORS OR PROMISES!).

EDIT: Are we already done discussing? Wow that was shorter than the last time.

BTW Mlam is that info dump on the different parts of the kingdom done yet?

EDIT 2: Found this pic that looked cool. If our Prince has brown hair and a five o clock then this could be him. http://www.deviantart.com/art/Braxis-473602389

Please know that this isn't canon and that Blue and Yellow seem to be our families colors.

[Andres]

That goatee, the way he has his eyes narrowed, the way he's pursing his lips, and the way he has his head tilted makes him look too deceptively evil to be Raynor. But otherwise, yeah, he might look like Raynor in a few years. Or maybe perhaps Eric.

[3man75]

That goatee, the way he has his eyes narrowed, the way he's pursing his lips, and the way he has his head tilted makes him look too deceptively evil to be Raynor. But otherwise, yeah, he might look like Raynor in a few years. Or maybe perhaps Eric.

Raynor has solid political skill and i know that HAS to make him cynical so he should be deceptive. Plus i remember when he came back home to annalyse he said "back in annalyse to do annalysian things, the more you think of the word annalyse the less meaning it has" showing our character is a bit cynical. Also that's not word per word but a basic jist of it.

[3man75]

Question: Do we still have Elwer the Squire with us? It's in the spoiler but he hasn't been mentioned in a long time...

[Andres]

He probably just hasn't been mentioned because he's not important. Maybe we can sacrifice him to whatever pagan spirits exist in this world for better magical abilities.

[3man75]

He probably just hasn't been mentioned because he's not important. Maybe we can sacrifice him to whatever pagan spirits exist in this world for better magical abilities.

Lol if your messing around. If your serous than -1. It's been said in the OP that these same spirits are liars and usually consume people they make deals with. There all basically satans little dirty demons.

I'm just asking because the more guys around us, an it seems like the knight and warden are still with us, the better. We could have that private talk (or have a RP section) with our brother William in the cart on the first night. The warden will ward it so no one could eaves drop magically and tell our Protector, Guards, and mercs to make sure NOBODY disturbs us with our talk with William.

What we could talk about if the people who sabotaged him are targeting us since were basically in line once were 16. Basically try to get him to agree to helping each other uncover as much about the old wizard dynasty and he uses whatever connections he has to find the ones connected with the attempt at our life. He probably has some knowledge of it i'm sure.

[Andres]

+1 to the William talk.

He probably just hasn't been mentioned because he's not important. Maybe we can sacrifice him to whatever pagan spirits exist in this world for better magical abilities.

Lol if your messing around. If your serous than -1. It's been said in the OP that these same spirits are liars and usually consume people they make deals with. There all basically satans little dirty demons.

Of course it's a joke. Babies are just as useful for sacrificial purposes and you can even purchase them in bulk if you know the right people.

Hehehehehehe

Heh heh

...

Actually we could use a dungeon. What else are we gonna do with all the bandit prisoners we will inevitably acquire? Seriously, what are we gonna do with the prisoners, besides putting them in captivity? We should discuss this. You can go ahead and write up the turn if you want Mlamlah, we've pretty much finished talking about what we're gonna do on the trip.

[3man75]

Well..maybe build a prison? An make them do hard labor?

Maybe we could force them them to build roads or help level mountains so that carts can go up easier? IDK tbh. When there doing said work they'd be in chains and be watched but um, they could be liberated pretty easy...

Maybe publicly execute them and be a defender of justice/trade? Could be good for an image. We could keep them in the dungeons an sell them for questionable experiments of magical origin. Could be a pretty penny an well, if caught our image could suffer.

Thoughts thus far?

Also yeah mlam, were just trowing ideas against the wall here, post whenever most convenient.

[Andres]

If we get the SMMC on retainer then that'll mean we own a mercenary company and it's formally part of our own actual army, rather than just auxiliaries as all mercenaries are. We could then perhaps get the most gifted recruits and use the prisoners as live practice - DF style.

On that tangent we could use those prisoners for target practice for our archers or we could use them as live sparring/target practice for ourselves.

Instead of selling the prisoners to be used for magical experiments as you suggested, we could ourselves use them for our experiments. Air blast directly into the lungs anyone?

We can also use them to train any war dog squadrons we want in the future. if Rome 2 has taught me anything is that war dogs are SO DAMN EXCELLENT at killing off light foot troops.

Going back to using them as sparring "partners", we could perhaps strap them to a table and experiment on them to find the most sensitive sources of pain, pressure points, etc. to give us a slight edge in melee combat.

We could perhaps do some ad-hoc surgery/autopsies. It'll help with first-aid, the RSMC will take less post-battle injury-related deaths, our understanding (and by extension, the world's understanding) of the human body will increase, and we may or may not get some experience with knife-play.

We can also have them test any potentially dangerous inventions, machines, or traps we make if we decide to go that route. Lightning-powered, artificial light? Prisoners collect the lightning. Portable, exploding powder? Prisoners light it. New bear-taming technique? Prisoners test it.

Personally, I think we should avoid selling them into slavery or making them slaves because slavery is wrong and amoral and it is a practice that we should try to ban.

EDIT: Maybe we can try to cut out some male prisoner's sperm and place it into a cut-open female prisoner's womb, and then sew up the womb. That way we can have a renewable source of prisoners without resorting to rape (serious here: we should never, ever do anything to do with rape unless it involves stopping it or preventing it) or having to give incentives to the prisoners so they'll agree to breed. It'll also function as primitive in vitro fertilisation so we would've advanced humanity's understanding of biology. If that, as I strongly suspect will be the case, doesn't work, we can introduce magic to the mix.

Branching from the above note, we could perhaps use magic on gametes or a fertilised womb and then observe the results. Innately psychic babies? Genetic abominations? Human-animal hybrids? The sky's the limit!

EDIT 2: Now to check the Forum Guidelines to see if I should remove the above two paragraphs or if I can leave them up there. This can't be that much worse than mermaid farming after all.

EDIT 3: Hmm. It said not to include any sexual material which I don't believe the two paragraphs are. Reproductive - yes. Surgical - yes. Sexual - no. My opinion may be wrong so if Mlamlah/an admin want me to take them down I will though.

[3man75]

I think we should be getting ownership of the SMMC some time in the not so distant future so long as someone dosen't buy out verack with fat wats of cash or a huge lump sum of hand over fists of cash.

Also the only things i seem to like here are the following:

Dog kennels to have a doggy corp along with our regular troops. Preferably handled by actual animal trainers though or at least very small. I don't want like 50 dogs and handlers, 15 should be good. Plus we could pick the best one for our personnel protection. So that'd be 

Sparring partners is a definite no. They'll have a AWESOME chance to escape and i'm not having it if i can help that. -3

Surgery, well we could just hire a surgeon off the regular kings army or something. I'm sure he has guys like that around for our troops. Plus i think in these times infectious limbs were just cut off. Maybe a magic healer like the one our sister had would be better. We'll have 3 each with magical abilities to heal and herbal meds for pain numbing.

As for using our magic to hurt the prisoners...i'm for it so long as there heavilly restrained onto the walls. This way we can test our powers fully BUT once we start the subject MUST die. Also only people we trust (which i doubt we have anyone but barrck) may be present during said experiments. We don't want the secret to get our and once were done the subject must be killed and no allowed to speak with anyone else. Else our secret may get out and i again want to keep this as a ace in our deck. The kind that assasins won't see until it's too late.

Also -1 to prisoner breeding initiaves. What the hell are we going to do with babies, train spartans? No let's just let this die quickly and quitely. I don't want this game being flagged.