Feudal Quest

You are Dominic Petran, a younger scion of the famous Petran family, one of the great noble houses of the Kingdom of Borjeria. Your family controls quite a number of fiefs – your grandfather is a Duke, your father and both his brothers rule Baronies, and there are any number of other small fiefs managed by family vassals or retainers. As the second son of the Duke’s heir you will no doubt be called on to play a significant role in ruling the family estates when the older generation passes on, but that is some years away.

For now you have just turned 18, and your father has gifted you with a minor estate called Corzu. A small territory with a half-dozen villages and a tiny castle, Corzu was used by your grandfather as a hunting lodge in his youth but has fallen into neglect these last 15 years. It borders the Barony of Pischia, ruled by your father’s younger brother Pavel, and has been administered by his retainers until recently. You are to go take ownership of the estate, and demonstrate your abilities by managing it until your family calls on you for greater things. That might happen in a year or two, or it could take decades - but you can probably find something to do with your time regardless.

It is currently November 1, and your presence won’t be urgently required in Corzu until the spring taxes come due on April 15. It would normally be a two-week trip to Corzu, but the roads are generally impassable from late November to early March due to snow. So you’ll most likely want to either leave right away to take possession of your new lands, or spend the winter in your father’s barony making preparations and then leave in late March.

All players are welcome to participate in this RP, but please read the ‘Rules’, ‘Knowledge’ and ‘Character Sheet’ posts below before posting.

Note: This thread is here rather than under NSFW because I don’t intend to write any lurid sex scenes, and the main focus of the quest is going to be plot rather than kinky exploits. However, that doesn’t mean I intend to avoid ‘adult’ topics. If you want to spend all your time seducing the female NPCs or trying to make PokeGirls with your flesh sorcery you can do that, but you can expect the results to be realistic rather than 'porn logic'.

Oh, and do note that I’m running an authentic feudal setting here, not one of those 'modern world with swords instead of guns' settings a lot of modern fantasy authors write. The NPCs have never heard of civil rights or equality, they take their class divisions seriously, there’s no such thing as birth control (unless you research magic for that), and so on. You can play Dominic as being a radical reformer who wants to introduce democracy if you want, but do keep in mind how alien modern ideas are to a medieval mindset...

Index​

Rules Character Sheet Resources and Status Lore Calendar

Players' Q&A Doc

Year 0
November - Update
December - Orders Results

Year 1
January - Orders Results
Event - A Wild Dita Appears Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
February - Orders Results
Event - I Must Have Them Both! Part 1 Part 2
March - Orders Results
Adventure - The Foreign Sorceress Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
April - Orders Results
Events - Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8
May - Orders Results
Events - Katiana Chosen
June - Orders Results
Events - The Cleansing of Corzu Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Noble Schemes Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
July - Orders Results
Events - The Final Contender Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
August - Orders Results
Events - The Old Man of the Mountain Part 1 Part 2
September - Orders Results
October -

 

Rules

Turns and Actions
Most of the time the thread will be in strategic mode, in which time progresses in a series of one-month turns. Every turn you can assign each military unit and NPC under your control a project to work on, and since Dominic has phenomenal PC competence he can personally work on three projects at once.

Normal projects don’t involve any die rolls - you automatically make one month worth of progress each time you work on it, and if it takes multiple months of work to complete I’ll show a progress indicator (i.e. [1/3] for 1 month out of 3 completed) next to it in the update. The exceptions are projects that involve a contest of skill (like busting a smuggling operation), or attempts to train your skills up to levels far in excess of anyone around you. In those cases I’ll give you a general idea of how difficult a proposed project would be, but as in RL you don’t get to see the exact numbers.

In addition to major projects, your character and his retainers can take any number (within reason) of minor actions. These are things that take anywhere from a few hours to a couple of days, like having a conversation with an NPC or riding into town to shop for an important item. But try not to get carried away with them, because if I decide you’ve got more than 40 hours or so worth of actions in a turn I’ll rule that Dominic doesn’t have time for a third project that month because he’s too busy with little stuff.

The turn-based approach should work for most situations, but every now and then you’ll want to go hunt down a monster or find yourself fending off an invasion. When something complex and fast-paced starts to happen we’ll switch to Adventure mode, as described below.

Adventures
When Dominic is off on an adventure play will be a lot more free-form than when we’re doing strategic turns. I’ll normally post an update about once per day describing what’s going on, and players can post suggestions about what Dominic should do.

Some ‘adventures’ are just brief dramatic events that need to be played out, like a bandit raid on your keep or a diplomatic meeting with a hostile Lord. These sorts of events count as Actions, and don’t affect your ability to get Projects done.

Other adventures take a more substantial amount of time to play out, but take place in or near your territory and can be resolved in a week or two. These will be things like hunting bandits, investigating a crime, or killing one of the local monsters. Short adventures generally count as a Project for yourself and any NPCs who are involved, and will often show up on your available projects list as ‘Adventure Leads’.

Then there are epic adventures. These are extended expeditions to distant lands, often lasting for months or even years. Epic adventures can yield major rewards - rare and valuable loot, alliances with foreign rulers and wandering heroes, magical discoveries and potentially vital information about what the forces of evil are up to. However, they also represent a much higher risk than shorter adventures and require a major commitment of effort. Epic adventures interrupt the normal progression of time until they’re completed, although often you’ll find time to squeeze in projects as you travel long distances or wait for an audience with that foreign potentate.

Adventures of any size can be a very effective way to level up your character, since he’ll tend to quickly improve his abilities in the face of deadly danger. However, you don’t get to directly spend his XP. Instead I’ll apply it to whatever abilities he most relied on in the course of the adventure. So if you consistently use the same skills to solve your problems your character will get very good at them, while if you constantly change approaches he’ll tend to develop into a jack-of-all-trades.

One final note: do keep in mind that this is not a computer game, and encounters are not automatically scaled to be level-appropriate for your character. It’s up to you to investigate adventure leads and determine which ones you can handle, because at least some of the ones you pick up early on will be far too tough for you. If you’re too timid about picking adventures you’ll miss some major opportunities, but if you get too aggressive you can easily get yourself or your henchmen killed.

Orders and Voting
Unlike some Quest threads your protagonist here is not a mindless robot willing to go along with whatever crazy stunts a player proposes, and I’m not interested in spending half my time trying to tally votes. So instead I’m going to assume that the conversations in the thread reflect the ideas your protagonist has. If on any particular turn one plan obviously has overwhelming support that’s the one he’ll go with. If there are several plans with similar support he’ll pick the one he thinks will work out the best - which isn't quite the same thing as having the GM pick the best plan, but since Dominic is a smart guy who knows more details about his world than I could possibly write up in the thread it’s pretty close.

So if you want to see your ideas implemented the best way to do that is to compromise with whoever else is posting good plans and put together a proposal you can both endorse.

Character Sheets
This thread uses a fairly simple game system in which characters can have three sets of important numbers: stats, skills and abilities.

The four stats are Body (physical ability), Mind (wit and wisdom), Soul (passion, willpower and magic) and Charm (charisma and social skills). Stats are very hard to change, requiring years of dedicated training or steady use over the course of many adventures. Even then they’ll never change more than a point or two, so starting scores are very important here. Normal humans have stats in the 0-5 range, with 2 being average. Stats of 4 or more are very rare, indicating a genius or potential epic hero.

Skills are much more malleable, starting at 0 and increasing steadily as a character invests training time. The higher a skill currently is the harder it becomes to raise it, but famous specialists often have numbers in the 4-6 range.

Abilities are things like magical talents, or innate racial advantages. Some abilities are just an unchangeable note on a character sheet, like a dwarf’s dark vision. Others, like sorcerous talents, have a level and a list of common applications. The second type of ability can be improved with training just like a skill, except there are two different ways to improve. You can raise your level with an ability, which increases your raw power and lets you create bigger effects. Or you can practice new ways to apply the ability, which lets you add new ‘common application’ notes to it.

For example, say you recruit an NPC mage with Water 2 (find, purify and create water). You could have him spend several months training up to Water 3, which may allow him to affect several cubic meters at once instead of just a few gallons. Or you could have him research new applications like ‘conjure mist’ or ‘create current’, and eventually chain several related applications together to get a cool trick like ‘summon and command water elemental’ or ‘banish the water in an enemy’s body’.

Training
One type of project you’ll want to do a lot of is training. Your PC, NPCs and military units can all do training projects on any skill they currently have, and any character with a skill of at least 2 can teach it to other characters or units. Some exotic skills may have prerequisites, like a certain type of magic or a minimum stat score, but these will be rare. Most skills can be learned by anyone, given enough time and effort.

Typically it takes one training project to reach skill level 1, another four training projects to reach 2, another nine to reach three, and so on. Training doesn’t have to be continuous, but if you get partway through training up a skill and then get interrupted for several months you’re likely to start losing progress.

Training is also affected by attributes - an attribute that's much higher than the skill you're training may speed up traiing time significantly. But a skill that's higher than the related attribute will take longer to train, and will actually decline if you don't use it on a regular basis. So if you want a really high level of a skill you either need a high attribute to go with it, or you need to be a specialist who can afford to use and train that skill on a regular basis.

Skill checks are based on the character’s skill level plus the stat most relevant to what they’re trying to accomplish. So a swordsman with Body 3 and Swordsmanship 2 will generally defeat one with Body 1 and Swordsmanship 3, which is another reason to concentrate on skills you’re good at.

 

Character Sheet

Dominic Petran​

Age: 18 (birthday Nov 1)

Body 3
Mind 3
Soul 3 [4 in Corzu]
Charm 4

(untapped potential - will gain +1 stat point at some point in the first 2 years, to be voted on later)

Skills
Archery 1
Diplomacy 2 [+1/9]
Horsemanship 3
Intrigue 1
Leadership 2 [+2/9]
Seduction 1
Swordsmanship 3 [+3/16]
Tactics 2 [+2/9]
Woodscraft 2 [+2/9]

Abilities
Flesh Sorcery 2 [+3/9]

• Get a detailed sense of a person’s emotional state and physical condition (touch).
• Enhance your own body to produce sustainable bursts of strength or speed.
• Banish fatigue or stop bleeding (on yourself or others) (touch).
• Induce rapid healing (4x normal rate), maintainable with a few minutes/4-6 hours effort (touch).

Fire Sorcery 1 – You can light or douse flames with a touch, conjure a tongue of flame comparable to a torch, protect yourself from brief exposure to normal fires, and project a thin jet of flame several yards long.

Force Sorcery 1 – You can levitate small objects within a few feet of yourself.

Wizardry 0 – You've read a bit about the formalized rituals and procedures that academic wizards use to perform magic, but have no real training in the subject. You won’t be able to use this branch of magic unless you find a grimoire to study.

Possessions
Corzu
1 warhorse
1 suit of knight’s gear (plate mail, lance, broadsword, mace)
1 suit of ranger gear (leather armor, hunting bow & arrows)
Noble’s baggage (tent, clothes and finery for every occasion, misc small possessions)
1131 SP
Labor Tax: 1562 man-months remaining

 

Resources and Status

Allies​

Chesna - Age 16
• Body 0, Mind 2, Soul 2 Charm 3
• Diplomacy 1, Horsemanship 2

Your rather pneumatic cousin from Pischia, who desperately needs to find a good husband because it seems she's going to inherit the Barony.

Dita - Age 15, birthday February - 3 SP/turn
• Body 2, Mind 2, Soul 3 Charm 2
• Archery 2, Diplomacy 1 [+1/4], Leadership 1 [+1/4], Monster Lore 1, Swordsmanship 2, Tactics 1, Woodscraft 1 [+2/4]
• Light Sorcery 2 [+1/9] (can make self or objects glow any color, produce blinding flash and see in the dark)
• Holy Sorcery 1 [+1/4] (can briefly imbue people, objects and light spells with holy energy, and dispel taint)
• Faerie Gifts: Fleet Run, Light Step, Parkour, Second Sight, Wild Empathy
Note: Untapped potential, can gain +2 stat points before 18th birthday

Your Inovia-touched cousin. Dita is a friendly, energetic tomboy who would probably get a lot further in life if she was better at pretending to be normal. Unfortunately she forgets to hide her abilities when she's distracted, and does spooky things like walking across snow without leaving footprints.

Ezti - Age 16
• Body 2, Mind 2, Soul 1 Charm 3
• Archery 2, Diplomacy 1, Horsemanship 2, Leadership 2, Polearm 3, Woodscraft 1
• True Faith

The nice young lady from Kiscun who's going to inherit the barony, and needs to find a husband to protect her from Baron Rogatica. She's clearly eyeing you for the job.

Lala - Age 33
• Body 0, Mind 1, Soul 1 Charm 2
• Diplomacy 1, Gossip 2

Your aunt the Baroness of Pischia, who seems to be too helpless to organize a bake sale on her own.

Retainers​

Aldona - Age 15
• Body 0, Mind 2, Soul 1 Charm 2
• Seduction 2

Your sultry, scheming, enthusiastic mistress.

Sir Bialis – 5 SP/turn
• Body 3, Mind 2, Soul 1, Charm 2
• Horsemanship 2, Leadership 2, Swordsmanship 3, Tactics 2

A veteran knight, with years of service to your family. You suspect your father arranged for him to take service with you to give you a steady source of basic advice on military matters.

Dragos - 7 SP/turn
• Body 2, Mind 2, Soul 0, Charm 2
• Administration 2, Horsemanship 1, Leadership 2, Merchant 2, Swordsmanship 1

A younger son of one of your father's vassals, who has fifteen years of experience running various keeps, mines and other properties for the family. He's in his mid-30's but single, having lost his wife and son to an outbreak of plague some years ago.

Jaroslaw – 2 SP/turn
• Body 3, Mind 2, Soul 1, Charm 1
• Archery 3, Leadership 1, Swordsmanship 1, Tactics 1, Woodscraft 3

An experienced ranger formerly in your father’s service, who you decided to take with you on the theory that a man who’s good at sneaking around outdoors could come in handy.

Katiana Nevyana - age 17 - Cost: 7 SP/turn
• Body 0, Mind 3, Soul 4, Charm 3
• Engineering 1 [+2/4], Merchant 2, Seduction 2, Staff 1, Stoneworking 1 [+3/4], Woodscraft 1 [+1/4]
• Earth Sorcery 3 [+1/16] (shape, fuse & shatter earth & stone)
• Fire Sorcery 1 [+1/4] (light, extinguish & resist small fires)
• Wizardry 4 (dance magic, invocation, protection & wards, meta-magic) [+1/20 for stealth]

A beautiful young half-Egyptian sorceress you recruited with promises of good pay, a warm bed and protection from Baron Timis.

Mira - Age 15
• Body 0, Mind 1, Soul 2 Charm 2
• Seduction 1

Your buxom, enthusiastic, easily-pleased mistress.

Traian - 2 SP/turn
• Body 1, Mind 3, Soul 1, Charm 0
• Bookkeeping 3, Engineering 1, Merchant 1

A rather unimpressive-looking young man with a passion for numbers. He's the third son of one of your father's knights, so his loyalty to the family should be firm. Assuming he even notices anything that isn't written in a book, which seems doubtful.

Military Forces​

1st Corzu Foot (Skill 2, Discipline 1 [+1/4], Equipment 1) - 16 SP/turn
5 men at arms, 20 spearmen, 15 archers [1 currently disabled]

2nd Corzu Foot (Skill 2, Discipline 1 [+1/4], Equipment 1) - 16 SP/turn
5 men at arms, 20 spearmen, 15 archers

Corzu Garrison (Skill 1 [+2/4], Discipline 1 [+1/4], Equipment 1) - 14 SP/turn
5 men at arms, 20 spearmen, 10 archers

10 rangers (Skill 2, Discipline 2, Equipment 1) – 5 SP/turn

Other followers​

26 castle staff (Skill 2, Discipline 1) - 14 SP/turn
- Includes 2 mistresses (Mira and Aldona) - +1 SP/turn for minor gifts & rewards
- Includes the survivors of the hamlet the bandits took over

Total Cost: 91 SP/turn

Fiefs and Holdings​

Corzu
A poor country fief with a minor castle (Corzu Keep), two vilages (Tamasi and Igal) and five small farming hamlets. See Lore page for map. Current problems and opportunities include:

• Poor Roads - The roads between Tamasi, Igal and your hamlets are bare dirt, with a few crude wooden bridges that will need regular maintenance. Further improvements might lure peddlers and other overland merchants into Corzu.
• Smugglers on the Sava - There are still a few rumors floating around that there's some sort of smuggling operation on the Sava, but no hard evidence. Perhaps they've shut down the operation, or decided to lie low for awhile?

Corzu Keep
A dilapidated structure consisting of a fortified manor house, a square keep (currently a burned-out shell) and a curtain wall with a few small towers. See Lore page for plans. The manor house has now been restored to normal operation, and is a reasonably comfortable place to live. However, several major projects are needed before the complex will be a fully functional castle:

• Build a Bathhouse - You have fond memories of the heated pools in the family bathhouse back in Kolarovo, and washbasins full of cold water are getting really old. But a bathhouse is a complex, expensive project - you'd need to hire a really good engineer, and even a small one would cost several hundred SP not counting the additional staff.
• Lay in Siege Stores - At 1 CP/man-day food is cheap, and you'll get a lot from the harvest tax, but depending on how serious a siege you want to be able to weather you may need quite a lot of it. You should also put together reserves of lumber, iron and arrows at the very least, and that will probably run 100 - 200 SP for even a minimal level of preparedness.
• Recruit Craftsmen - A proper keep should have a significant collection of craftsmen (baker, cobbler, blacksmith, weaponsmiths and armorers, carpenters and masons, etc). You can do without for now because you have so few retainers, but if you want to recruit a real military force you'll need a proper support staff as well.
• Repair the Keep - Kat is currently working on this project, with the intention of setting up a proper audience chamber and comfortable quarters for all your people.
• Raise the Wall - The 15' curtain wall surrounding your manor is a weak fortification at best, but doing anything about that would be a complex and expensive project.
• Shaky Foundations - Katiana reports that much of the north wall is suffering from serious foundation damage, and is likely to collapse easily if it's ever attacked by siege engines. Normally the only way to repair this would be to pull the wall down and build a new one, but Kat can use her earth magic to repair the damage at a cost of 1 month of her time.
• Tower Loft - Kat currently plans to leave the top of the keep with a bare, flat surface just like it was originally build, but this will be prone to leaks and isn't terribly useful. As an alternative she could put up a sloped roof of slate, adding about two storeys to the height of the keep and creating an enclosed area that could be used for storage or additional living space. This would take her an extra month, and cost 20 man-months of labor tax and 30 SP cash.

Current Progress​

Katiana has begun Repair the Keep - 2 months of work will be needed to finish the project.

Available Projects​

Bless the Fields (Apr-May only) - Katiana can bless fields during the spring planting to increase their fertility for a year. She estimates she can cover all of Corzu with a month of work, and this should increase crop yields by about 25%. But that won't change your tax revenue, so maybe it's best not to work magic in front of the peasants?

Garrison - A keep without a garrison is just a big pile of rocks. Assigning a unit to garrison duty ensures that you have gate guards, sentries and other basic defensive measures, just in case.

Hunt Threat - A military unit or adventuring band can be sent into the wilder parts of Corzu hunting beastmen, bandits, pirates, smugglers or any other problem group that turns up.

Magical Construction - Kat is quite adept at stonework. Assigning her to help with a construction project will yield an extra 100 SP progress per month (x2 if Dita is available to cleanse her periodically).

Organize Road Maintenance - Travel around Corzu appointing someone to manage the maintenance of local roads and bridges in each settlement, and make arrangements for the work to be done as needed in exchange for reduced labor taxes.

Plan Road Improvements - Requires Engineering. Spend a month surveying Corzu's rather minimal roads and planning improvements. This will give you cost numbers for Improve Roads construction projects to upgrade your roads from Poor to Average and then from Average to Good.

Patrol - You can send a military unit out to patrol the fief looking for trouble, or do it yourself if you're in the mood for adventure. Patrols will tend to clean up bandits and minor monster infestations, but your men may suffer casualties in the process.

Recruit a Retainer – There aren't a lot of skilled retainers in Corzu, but you could travel to the nearby town of Eztergrom (in Pischia) if you need to hire someone.

Recruit Troops – Allows you to recruit 20 local peasants to train up as soldiers of some sort, and procure basic equipment for them. You can currently produce basic spearmen (160SP, +8 SP/turn maintenance) or archers (80SP, +8 SP/turn maintenance). Basic troops are recruited with Equipment 1, which means they basically just have weapons and clothing, and they'll have Skill 1 Discipline 1 unless your recruiter gets lucky and finds some talented locals.

Train – There aren't a lot of experts in the area, but you could study under one of your retainers or self-train.

Train Unit - Regular troops can't train themselves, but you or either of your NPCs can spend a project improving either the Skill or Discipline of a unit.

Upgrade Unit (Equipment 2) - You can upgrade a 20-man unit's Equipment level to 2 for a cost of 250 SP up front and +3 SP maintenance cost. This gives them helmets, leather armor, shields (if appropriate), decent boots, cloaks and tents. New units can be created with this level of equipment simply by paying the additional cost.

Upgrade Unit (Equipment 3) - You can upgrade a 20-man unit's Equipment level to 3 for a cost of 500 SP up front and +8 SP maintenance cost. This gives them better weapons, chain mail armor and either porters or pack animals to help carry supplies.

Adventure Leads​

Menace in Verzi - Something has been lurking in the rivers of Verzi for several years now, sinking boats and occasionally emerging to smash buildings on the riverbanks and devour hapless peasants. The few surviving witnesses all agree that it's a huge, scaly aquatic monster, but beyond that details are scarce.

Nikolai's Associates - Chesna reveals that there's an especially shady group whose agents regularly deliver payments to Nikolai, probably a bribe for him to ignore their activities. She's never been able to learn more, but someone good at snooping around might well be able to determine who they are and expose the connection to embarrass Nikolai. Chesna is eager to help with sure a project.

Operation Remove the Problem - Baron Rogatica is the last of his line, and if he dies without an heir there's going to be quite an argument between various distant relatives over who should replace him. Arguments like that generally require a war to settle, which would certainyl keep the barony out of your hair for awhile and might even be an opportunity. Of course Ezti wouldn't approve of such underhanded methods, but who says she has to know?

The Black Beast of the Wood - In the forest south of Corzu lives a great black beast, part bear and part serpent, that devours anyone who enters its land. It has lived there since before Borjeria was reclaimed from the darkness, and some primal evil taints its woods. Lords, paladins, priests and wizards have all faced the beast and fallen, unable to rid the land of its terrible evil.

The Hand - You've learned from Zarana that a new criminal organization calling itself 'The Hand' has set up shop in several of Borjeria's larger cities. They run prostitution rings, sell a potent new drug called white lotus to the masses, and offer the services of their highly trained spies and assassins to nobles willing to do business with them. Obviously a group like that must be part of an evil plot, right?

The Hand in Pischia - You've discovered two hidden camps in the remote valleys of northern Pischia, one farming some unfamiliar plant while the other apparently training boys as fighters of some sort. Perhaps further investigation is warranted?

The Howling Peak - One of the mountains in eastern Ikula is haunted by a huge, hairy beast whose occasional howls can be heard for miles. The rough terrain has foiled efforts by the Duke's knights to hunt the thing down, and an extensive range that was once used by shepherds has been abandoned out of fear of the creature.

The Silent Stalker - Something is killing people in Zarand, the very capital of the nation. It's victims, usually prostitutes or street people, are found nailed to alley walls and flayed alive. But though these attacks have been taking place every week or two for months now no one has seen the monster responsible. The hero who finds the perpetrator and stops the attacks will win considerable prestige.

 

Lore

Creatures​

Beastmen - Originally created by the great wizard-kings of the Middle East more than 1,500 years ago, these magical soldiers were originally a cross between men and various animal species. Originally there were distinct breeds representing crosses with wolves, bears, rats, hogs and more exotic creatures, but cross-breeding between and among beastman tribes has produced many blended lineages. The tribes encountered in and near Borjeria are mostly comprised of large (200 - 300 lb), furry humanoids with keen senses and the long-distance endurance of wolves, along with an admixture of smaller (40-70 lb) creatures and an occasional leader in the 500 - 600 lb range. Beastmen are a primitive race, lacking the skill to forge metal or create complex tools, but are often skilled hunters and ferocious fighters.

Families​

Czene - The smallest of the kingdom's major noble houses, they control the Dutchy of Czene in the SE part of the kingdom but have no other major holdings.

Dardai - The chief rivals of the Petrans. They control the Dutchy of Dardai in the SW part of the kingdom, as well as the Barony of Borsa and a minor fief called Matyuz.

Petran - Your family. You control the Dutchy of Ikula in the far NW part of the kingdom, as well as the Baronies of Kolarovo, Pischia and Verzi and assorted minor fiefs.

Magic​

Chosen - The goddess Inovia sometimes calls young girls of exceptional will to become her Chosen, imbuing them with a fraction of her own divine power so that they may fight evil in her name. A typical Chosen gains +2 Body, +1 Soul, regeneration, magic resistance and various movement and sensory enhancements, with the details varying a bit depending on the personality of the recipient. The magic gradually changes the Chosen, transforming them into magical beings with their own supernatural powers in addition to Inovia's blessing, and a Chosen who has survived for several years can become as powerful as a dragon or demon. But the strain of channeling such power can sometimes drive them mad, especially when combined with their grim lifestyle.

Sorcery - The ability to work magic by calling upon your own internal power. Humans with sorcery are rare, and are usually the product of interbreeding with more magical races or of exposure to magical energies before birth. Most sorcerers can work with only a single element or theme, but with diligent practice can grow to be quite powerful. Sorcery also has the advantage of being nearly instant to use, with no need for complex tools or materials and often no visible hint that magic is at work.

Witchcraft - A foul practice whereby women have congress with demons and offer blood sacrifices in order to gain magical powers. A weak witch must conduct elaborate rituals and offer sacrifices to work a spell, but stronger ones gain innate powers similar in some ways to sorcery. But while a sorcerer may command an element like air or ice, a witch will command dark powers such as pestilence, enfeeblement, delusion or obsession. Powerful witches often have imps or other minor evil spirits as servants, but the corruption of their own magic slowly twists them into a ghastly parody of their original forms. This would be a sure way to recognize them, except that often they find ways to disguise their true appearance by stealing the beauty of another or cloaking themselves in illusion.

Wizardry - A scholarly, academic approach to magic. A wizard must spend years diligently studying and meditating upon the nature of magic, spirits and the supernatural before attempting even the simplest spell. Experienced wizards often command an impressive breadth of magical abilities, but require long rituals and complex physical preparations to work their magic. Wizards are widely known for their ability to create enchanted objects, and over the course of years can combine ritual, enchantments and bargains to become beings of terrifying power. But very few men have the intellect, wisdom and willpower to walk that path, and the vast majority will eventually overreach and be destroyed by the forces they sought to command.

Maps​

Borjeria
Factions in Borjeria

Pischia Region
Corzu

Corzu Keep
Ground Floor 2nd Floor 3rd FLoor 4th Floor 5th Floor 6th Floor

People​

Bianca Petran - Your older sister (by three years). She married the Baron of Supola when you were 13, so you haven't seen her recently. But you remember her as a kind, thoughtful girl who loved gardening and philosophy.

Boris Petran - Your older brother (by a year), and heir apparent to Kolarovo. Boris is an amazing warrior (Body 3, Skill 3), a highly capable military leader who may well be a tactical genius, and a complete horndog. For the last few years he's been leading a company of your father's troops, which he has turned into an elite unit with a very unorthodox organization. He also seems to have a mistress in every settlement he visits, and flirts shamelessly with every lady in sight at social events.

Chesna Petran - Pavel and Lala's eldest daughter.

Dita Petran - Your cousin.

Izabela Petran - Your younger (by two years) sister, a mischievous little imp who's always getting into trouble but has an amazing talent for playing innocent.

Lala Petran - Pavel's wife.

Lew Petran - Your father, the Baron of Kolarovo.

Gavrilla Petran - Your maiden aunt, who you're beginning to suspect is actually the family diplomat/spymaster.

Pavel Petran - Your uncle, the baron of Pischia.

Places​

Corzu - Your fief.

Kiscun - The barony on your SE border. Hill country with poor roads, and lots of little farming settlements but no major towns.

Pischia - The barony on your northern border. Your uncle Pavel is the baron, but he's been away crusading against the vampires in Anatolia for years. You've heard that his wife Lala and daughter Chesna are in residence, but you have the impression he left one of his men in charge of running things.

Rogatica - The barony on your western border. You've heard that the baron is influential in the more rural parts of the kingdom, but other than that you don't know anything about the place.

Verzi - The barony Dita's father ruled. Currently being administered by your grandfather Duke Petran, although you're pretty sure he has a retainer there actually doing the work.

 

Calendar

Year 0
November - Game start. Your father gives you the deed to Corzu. You recruit Traian, and travel to Corzu to set about claiming the place.

December - Dominic & co spend the turn investigating Corzu, and discover the sorry state the fief is in.

 

[X] Get to our fief. the people there will likely cooperate more if we are taking this seriously enough to go their soon.

 

Is there anyone near Dominic's father's holdings (besides the retainers) that he already has an in with, and who would be useful to bring along? He did grow up here after all, and if anyone is looking to move up from apprentice to journeyman they'd probably be pretty easy to convince.

Dashing off to a new home is all well and good, but it's probably worth spending the time here if he'd just end up snowed in as soon as he got there.

Not sure which skill set would be most important to look for in a follower, but Dominic already has twenty-two soldier types and nothing else. Someone more of a mind to help with the civilian (surf?) side of things wouldn't be amiss, with unskilled labor being the least important thing to look for.

 

We need an accountant or whatever they call it in the feudal times.

 

I knew I'd forgotten something. Status post has been updated with a list of obvious projects you can currently do. Naturally you can also try things that aren't on the list - just ask, and I'll give you an idea of how practical it is.

 

Yes, you can recruit pretty much whatever skilled people you want. Convincing people to move to a fief a couple hundred miles away with you takes a bit of work, but you've got plenty of contacts and there are lots of prospects. Each project you spend on this will get you one really good NPC (like the two you already have), or a handful of less skilled ones (like the option for recruiting a household staff), or a small unit of troops.

You can do that. Recruiting an accountant is one action.

 

Do we have any boon companions our age that might be interested in going with? It was my understanding that medieval lordlings tended to have a few for roughhousing and training and hawking and such. If so, I'd be game for 'recruiting' them first.

Otherwise, best to head for our fief now. We'll have fewer creature comforts if we winter there, but a better understanding of what moves to make in the spring (plus we can get the ball rolling on some things over the winter). I assume we'll take the ledger along if we leave early? It is our fief now, I don't think our honorable father would need old accounts lists of the place - and we'll need it for taxes and potential exports and things. Find out what the villagers grow, what areas are prosperous, etcetera.

 

I really think it would be worthwhile to look over the account books and history of Corzu. People will probably try to take advantage of the new leader if we don't. Recruiting another skilled NC would probably be a good idea for the last slot.

 

Well, 'take advantage of' might be a bit much.

Feudal mindset, the system tends to be set in stone between noble/non-noble castes. Fleecing a lordling is... insanely risky, and I don't think many people would even think of it.

 

[X] Recruit a priest who has been trained in matters of accounting

Preferably another noble scion who took to the priesthood and still enjoys the hunt

 

Okay. Feudal mindset. So peasants are basicly objects to us.

I say we try to invent mind magic eventually. Being able to buff our multitasking and stuff, read minds, and such is hilariously helpful for a noble.

 

You have an older brother, two sisters (one older and one younger), and several childhood friends who belong to lesser noble families that owe fealty to your father. A couple of them are knights, and you could probably recruit one of them to come with you if you want.

That's correct, you'd take the ledger with you.

Incidentally, your father has never read it. Corzu has been in the care of your uncle Baron Pavel for about the last decade, and the ledger book was just recently delivered to your father so he could hand it over to you along with the title to the fief.

A commoner wouldn't dare, unless he was sure you'd never be able to identify him. That goes double for your own people, since they've got no legal recouorse if you decide to do something nasty to them in retaliation.

Another noble might, of course. Same for another noble's retainer, although of course there's a lot of risk there.

More like pets. Most Borjerian nobles see peasants as inferior beings who need to be taken care of by their lords, but they also think nobles have an obligation to be good rulers. So abusing your peasants without a good reason is crude, low-class behavior that will make your neighbors look down their noses at you and take you off the guest list for their parties.

That could easily be done if you devote time to it.

Magic is fairly rare in this setting, and it tends to be subtle and relatively small-scale. So a powerful mage isn't going to be able to destroy armies or anything, but the fact that people don't usually expect to encounter magic makes it that much more effective.

Most priests of Khersis (the main local religion) are nobles who don't stand to inherit titles, so that would work. But it's worth mentioning that the church doesn't approve of humans studying magic, so if you're going to be a mage you probably don't want one hanging around to cramp your style. OTOH, priests do get divine healing magic, which can be very handy to have.

 

Divine healing magic - thereby proof that god is real, and would probably look kindly on you for having a chaplain - or the hundred little conveniences in daily life that come with light telekinesis.

Tough choice.

 

Hmm I should adjust the vote to suggest a less than pious priest

 

Rare and subtle mind magic? Hell yes. We want it. Just being able to enhance our ability to read people and stuff will be priceless. Then add making subtle suggestions, reading peoples minds, and other stuff, and you have something very handy.

Nobles looking after peasants? Seriously? Feudalism had constant revolts for a reason in real life.

 

Most war-related deaths in medieval times were the result of wounds getting infected. Presumably, healing magic would be able to alleviate that.

Important question, though: why does the Church look down on Arcane magic?

 

when it's theoretically possible for peasants to end up with magic you likly get some horror stories about nobles who act like assholes too much getting roasted alive by a pissed of hedge witch.

 

Sorry, that was a joke.

Given that God is pretty clearly real, I am definitely voting for falling in with the church and being a pious little lordling.

 

I'm thinking that's going a bit far.
There are several settings with more or less provably real deities and in a lot of them being a pious little lordling does still not give a definite advantage over those that aren't.
Can we get some more information on how influential the church is, how rare casting priests are and what scale they cast at?
Given that magic in general is less setting breaking here, I would assume that divine magic isn't the be-all and end-all either and can probably be somewhat substituted for through conventional medicine and non-divine magic with healing applications.
I'd also assume the fact that the church doesn't approve of magic (and all of the other stuff churches rarely approve of) also means that being a pious little lorlding closes just as many doors as it opens.

For now I'd rather not saddle us with a priest until we have a better handle of the setting and what we want to do with our life.
That way we can act freely while we figure stuff out without having to worry about upsetting the guy we spent our first recruitment and action slot on.

 

I would advocate neutrality really hard. Our holdings are the arcanodivinity Switzerland. The extra pious can not like the wizards as much as they want, and the wizards can versa the vice, and we just stay out of it unless things come to metaphorical blows and someone needs to spend the night in the allegorical drunk tank.

Corzu will accept you and all your foibles, as long as you obey our law. Cause trouble, and the hammer comes down right on your head.

 

And then, thanks to the fact that we rule over the most stable and neutral place ever, we get to go on epic adventures on which we do crazy shit all the time without having to worry that anything happens in Corzu aside from our treasury filling itself.
I like this plan.

More relevantly, staff we can get in Corzu and retainers I don't really want to hire until we've seen the situation in Corzu.
Same for training really, which leaves me with starting to march and either researching about Corzu or studying the accounts book.
I'd prefer researching Corzu since that seems more likely to result in follow-up projects we want to do early once we arrive.

 

Well, we could run into issues with that. If this is sort of analogous to medieval Europe, the Holy See doesn't accept a 'wait and see' approach. You're either giving tribute and killing heretics, or you get repudiated (at best) or get a crusade on your ass (at worst). Like those churches and hospitals in WWII that treated all wounded equally, several of them ended up being bombed by one side or the other.

I guess I'll second the question about how powerful the church is in this setting, and how separate the powers of church and state.

 

Trainers and experienced tradesmen are available here, and I don't think we have any information on what's available in Corzu. So I'm in favor of taking advantage of that, and putting off heading out until we actually have to.

For the three actions, I advocate Researching Corzu, training in either Leadership or Tactics, and Recruiting a skilled blacksmith.

Magic is apparently self-study, and while it's clearly awesome, we don't actually benefit from studying it here any more than we would from studying it anywhere else.

Examining the Ledger can be put off until we're either on the road, or have arrived.

On priests, if they're rather frowny about magic, then I don't want one looking over Dom's shoulder, but having a church/shrine/temple/what-have-you in Corzu where there's at least one healer to take people wouldn't be out of place. Healing on the move might sound good, but if one ends up as a traveling companion they might do the style cramping thing.

 

Not if you want to recruit tradesmen before heading out. It's a good idea, it'll increase the amount our exports would go for at market for relatively little cost.

But little villages like that have probably only got one or two good exports. So if we hire a carpenter we need to know they have some nice hard woods in Corzu waiting for us. And a blacksmith is generally a 'safe' bet but would be much more useful if we have any deposits of ore or - even better - coal. If there's nothing like that over there, we'd be better off using the services of an itinerant tinker or something.

The benefit is that they have teachers of most conceivable magicks here in your father's barony.

In Corzu, we'd be reduced to self-study, which is probably just Fire, Water and Force. Which are fine anyway, they're very versatile.

 

Re: Resources and Status

I'm getting 'magic is self-study only' from this:

That said, now that I think about it, I'm not actually opposed to just starting magic immediately and never stopping.



Your thoughts on the ledger are probably smarter than mine though, Guile. I'd kinda assumed the accounts book would just be tax numbers, and that 'research Corzu' would get us the information you're talking about.

Silly of me in retrospect, knowing who is in Corzu is probably more important than what is around it.