Karses II, Friend of Caesar, Heir to the Loam Coast, and Descendant of the Divine Clay Elf Bloodline:Condition: Fine
Holdings:
Cash Reserves (Aproximately 4.7% of Imperial Coin in Circulation)
29% of Total Shares in 'Sons of Caesar Trading Company'
45% of Voting Shares in 'Sons of Caesar Trading Company'
Mansion in the Heartland City of Portum
4 Docks in the City of Portum
Luxurious Apartment with the Imperial Palace
Country Home along the Imperial Highway
x19 Shops and Workshops (Scattered Across the Imperial Heartland)
x17 Vineyards and Plantations (Scattered Across the Known World)
x14 Mines (Mainly Precious Metals and Gems, Scattered Across the Known World)
x30 Imperial Merchantmen (Divided into two fleets)
'Wayward Clay' (Personal Flagship made from Enchanted Ceramic. Armed with two ballista and a crew of trained soldiers. Coming of age present from your father)
Traits:
Businesself
Networker
Negotiator
Public Speaker
Wealthy
Well Traveled
Greedy
Ambitious
Empathetic
Self Controlled
Living Legend (Civil Rights Icon, God Incarnate)
You decide to give Tsunamia and her fleet a few days of shore leave, but announce that all your ships will soon be setting out to join up with Tideus' siege force.
At your prompting, Tsunamia disembowels one of her father's prisoners for a reading of the entrails specifically regarding your father, brother-in-law, and Caesar.
After spending a few hours in the torture chamber, your bride-to-be offers the following report.Senator Brutus Canis only took up the case of your father as he is married to your sister and wanted to show that he was a dutiful husband and son-in-law.
Although he argued to spare your father to the best of his ability, Brutus didn't think for a moment he had any real chance of swaying the judges. Indeed, Tsunamia informs you, the judges are united in support of a conspiracy to dispose of Caesar Menas and replace him with a close blood relative.Tsunamia could not see the name of the conspirator in her reading,
but you have some good ideas as to who it might be. Caesar Prudens, the eldest son and heir apparent to the emperor, often complains that he fears his siblings are plotting against him.
Prudens is perhaps too virtuous to put a conspiracy into motion on his own, but he commands great loyalty in his underlings, and you wouldn't put it past one of them to act on his behalf and ensure he takes the throne before some treacherous brother bumps him off.For the most part, Prudens fear of brotherly betrayal is unjustified paranoia, but there is one brother of his you wouldn't put treachery past.
Caesar Cleptes is the emperor's third eldest son, and currently an imperial senator. Cleptes is not above a bit of skulduggery to advance his position; You know this from experience as he has often found ways to latch onto yourself and Brutus to exploit the elf rights movement for his personal gain. He also has serious bad blood with his older brother, as Prudens never hesitates to berate him for his many indiscreet romantic relationships.
Although you worry for Caesar and his family, a coup by either brother is likely of little threat to you in the short run. You are on pretty good terms with Prudens, and although your relationship with Cleptes is frosty in private, he is publicly an ally to the elf rights movement. That said, either could prove some trouble as well. Prudens, a huge advocate of imperial norms and virtues, will not be happy with you if you wind up 'going native' in either your love life or style of governance, and although you have a hard time imagining such a situation, you don't doubt for a second that Cleptes would destroy you if he thought it might benefit him.
---
You demand the truth about the scar from Tiber.
It takes only a little bit of prodding to get the loyal captain to talk. Apparently a female Clay Elf sailor named Estillixia seduced him, took him to bed, and then cried rape to the rest of the crew. A handful of sailors put in a damn good attempt to avenge their colleage's honor by trying to kill him, but luckily Tiber was able to defend himself long enough to talk sense into the group; Luckily for him, Estillixia has a reputation for pulling such stunts, so he was able to convince his initial attackers of his innocence, but rumors spread across his little fleet and fired up many sailors who didn't know Estillixia to oppose him.
---
Leaving Jericho and his men to recover, you pack your prisoners (and plenty of water to sustain them) and set out for Humpback Island. The journey is relatively short, the winds are in your favor, and the sea is calm, so you complete the trip in a little over four days.
After reuniting with the ships under Rixixifux's command, Tsunamia takes you into the heart of the blockade force to meet her father.Tideus' flagship,
Arctic Typhoon, is easily the most intimidating seafaring vessel you have ever seen. It is easily five times the size of any warship you have laid eyes on, and constructed from some strange glowing purple lumber. The bow is decorated with a mass of skulls that seem to independently shift around and chatter amounts themselves. Due to the difference in deck heights, you have to be brought aboard via winch and large bucket.
The sea demon himself is as frightening as his ride.
Tideus takes the form of a mighty walrus that stands one and a half times the size of an elephant with blood red flesh. His tusks are comprised of barbed and rotating segments, seemingly designed to drill into and rend flesh, or even wood. Only the upper part of your future father-in-laws face, which houses human-like brown eyes and a thick head of black hair, betrays the fact that a sentient being and not a monster stands before you.
Communication is rough, as aside from the native tounge of the frost elves, which you only speak at a rudimentary level, the pair of you has no common language, leaving Tsunamia to step in and translate often. The demon seems fond of you, and thrilled in anticipation for the wedding.
He makes only two demands of you in exchange for his daughter. First, if he manages to win the right to navigate imperial waters under the flag of peace, he wants to be able to stop his fleet and purchase supplies at the ports of the Loam Coast. Secondly, he wants you to eventually send him a child should you have an abundance of offspring by his daughter.You learn that Tsunamia is actually heir to a small county in the heart of the Everstorm Lands, and aside from her childless middleaged aunt, your wife-to-be is the last of her bloodline. Tsunamia refuses her birthright - the blood of a sea demon flows strong in her to the point where she has do desire to rule over a territory more than a week's travel from the ocean, but Tideus loves her late mother too much to allow her lands to fall from the control of her family. Tideus would prefer you send him an heir to his lover's land at a young age, so that the child may be groomed for the job, but has no qualms about waiting a good amount of time to receive it. He can appoint a temporary ruler should Tsunamia's aunt die before a successor is ready.
The discussion then moves on to the topic of a dowry. As a show of his naval strength, the sea demon insists that the bulk of the payment be given in the form of two hundred unmanned warships.
He does, however, offer you a choice of interesting boons to go along with the boats.
Tideus floats the idea of binding a lesser demon to your service to help you in various ways at court. Right now he has available a Gladiator Demon (skilled in close quarters urban fighting and guard work), a Night Demon (skilled in the arts of spying and intrigue), and a Flower Demon (skilled in the natural sciences and some magics).
Tsunamia notes that the act of summoning and binding a non-petty demon would likely create new runes for her to experiment with.Outside of demonic servants, Tideus would be willing to give you a legendary ship from his personal collection. The
Misty Dawn is an incredibly fast and light combat worthy ship said to be one of the original vessels sailed by your ancestors from Elvir to the newly formed earth.
Infernal Revenge is an ancient vessel made from the bones and scales of a mighty dragon, and covered in runes spawned by the great lizard's death; The ships was commanded by many famed witches throughout history before falling into the demons hand, and would make a great flagship for his daughter. Lastly Tideus offers you the
Imperial Crown, a ship designed and built by Caesar's predecessor that was said to be the mightiest warship ever made by human hands. The
Imperial Crown famously proved a match for Tideus' might, until the demon used trickery to capture it.
Although the demon is estatic about giving you something spectacular, you could always request something more mundane,
such as the food, money, and/or raw materials required to rebuild the war ravaged Loam Coast. Also, although Tideus is quite frightening and difficult to communicate with,
you could attempt to leverage your powerful negotiation talents to walk away with more than one of the offered boons.
Next your conversation migrates to the details of the wedding itself, and in particular, its location.
It slowly begins to dawn on you that yours might be the most significant wedding of your lifetime, so the matter is worth some thought.
By putting the wedding in either the Everstorm Lands or the Imperial Heartland,
you would give either Caesar Menas or Tideus the opportunity to host the other in front of their court, thus strengthening the public appearance of the bond you hope the union will form. In the heartland you could host the wedding at your own mansion or country home, thus showcaseing your own personal wealth, or allow Caesar to host it at the impressive Imperial Palace. Tideus suggests either his home at Tusk Falls Castle, or the beautiful Cathedral at the Yawning Chasm on the land Tsunamia would have inherited, should you wish to get married in the Everstorm Lands. He also notes that thanks to his present war, the weather in his cursed kingdom should be perfect for the next year or so.
Although you doubt getting married to an outsider in the Loam Coast would endear you to your new subjects, it would provide you the opprotunity to hobnob with neighboring leaders, many of whom idolize you but despise your people. Traditionally, if the Pharroh of the Loam Coast gets married after the death of a litter-mate, as would be the case for you, the wedding is held at his litter's tomb so that the departed sibling can participate.
If you wish to toot your own horn, or pick a completely neutral site, perhaps the best place to hold the wedding would be in one of the Northern, Ancient, or Eastern provinces, places long held by the empire and home to some of your best work on behalf of the rights of elfkind. You could host the event at one of your many plantations, or rent out one of the many beautiful manors and palaces used by rich imperials for destination weddings.
Lastly, you could hold the wedding at sea, showing off the combined naval power of all parties involved in the wedding. You could hold a sea wedding off the coast of any of the aforementioned places, gaining most of the advantages and disadvantages of a land wedding in that area. Although fewer common-folk could attend such an event, you would have more control over the guests that do show up.
Tsunamia would prefer a sea-wedding, but as she understands the political gravity of the situation, will not make a big deal over it if you choose to get married on land.Eventually wedding talk wraps up, and Tideus briefs you on the Humpback Island situation. Tideus had initially started the war in hopes of destroying the ports at Humpback Island and depriving his rival Caesar a regional ally. With your upcoming wedding in mind, however, this has become less of an issue, and your future father-in-law is now willing accept some sort of significant ransom to spare the place. He plans to summon Mooselund XIII to the negotiation table tomorrow, and hopes to his foe will accept peace at the price of gold, a share in ownership of the island's mines, and one of his daughters a personal concubine to Tideus.
Your reputation as a legendary busniesself precedes you, so Tideus wishes to hear your feedback on his proposed terms, and invites you to run the negotiation on behalf of your new father-in-law should you wish to do so.
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Topic: (SG) Vassal: Rise of a Pharaoh (Read 23617 times)