Sir Gracian and Lady Ariette spend the days touring her holdings on horseback. They are days without worries but instead full of laughter and joy and the long meaningful discussions of two people getting to know each other. And the evenings are spend with games and soft whispered words of love and lust

---

OOC: No rush, Teller. Take all the time you need.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:04, Wed 27 Sept 2017.

The Banneretcy of Stonewall was granted to Ariette's family in perpetuity.  In return, the holder must provide for and maintain 6 knights and 20 men-at-arms for the Duke of Gloucester in case of war and provide 6£ of food tot eh City of Gloucester per annum.

The benneretcy consists of four manors: Stonewall, Overton, Red Branch, and Lady's Hall.  In addition, the lord of the fief has the revenue from a quarry and additional fields.

The manor at Stonewall has a small castle, while the other three have fortified houses.  The income from the fief is 70£ with 38£ in expenses for a net income of 32£ per annum.

I will come up with some specifics on town populations, hyrds, hydes, etc.

The good Sir Gracian is starting to become nervous. Yes the lands his beloved Lady Ariette shows him are wonderful and beautiful indeed. Vast forests perfect for hunting. Good soil for growing crops. Cattle and sheep that spell both food and money. The lands are what the knight that grew up in poverty has always dreamed of. But now that he is about to suddenly gain possession of them he feel nervous. So many things to keep track of and his mental to-do list is now so extensive that he wonder how can get it all done in a lifetime. Yes he manage to smile bravely when Lady Ariette comment on how it would be nice with this or that building or what manor needs to be fortified. Then she mention brigands and Irish raiders and Sir Gracian start to develop tics and when she one evening casually mention the taxes he is to pay and his obligation to provide knight and men-at-arms in case of a campaign he lay awake all night wondering what if life wasnt easier back at Dinton.

Lady Ariette, whatever her faults, is not particularly stupid nor unobservant.  In the morning after a sleepless night, the two are having breakfast when Ariette stops eating and looks over at Sir Gracian with a comforting smile.  "You are worried," she says, putting a hand up to stop his denial, "I can tell.  I have watched it building.  You were not born into this, you have not lived this.  Your life has been a series of tasks.  Work for this knight, clean his armor, pitch his tent.  Become a knight, serve your lord, go on this campaign, find this item, fight this giant, find the Fae."

She puts a delicate hand on his arm, "but now you are facing an entirely new world.  Getting married, becoming the owner of multiple estates, becoming a banneret with knights serving you.  And still you have your old life as well."

She bobs her head to signify that thing happen, "life is full of change and no one expects you to get everything right from the start."  She gives a mischievous smile, "well other than the part about being my husband, you better not screw that up," she warns playfully.

"But I have been managing these estates for a while now and can continue to do so.  When I need help, I will ask.  When you see something you think should change, we will discuss why it is how it is and how we can make it better.  But you can do other things that I can't.  Leading your knights to get rid of the bandits or protect our lands from Irish raiders.  Keep the men in line and make sure they are well trained and getting what they need.  I can't do those things because I have not lived your life and could never lead men into battle.  And as you grow more comfortable, you can take over additional responsibilities.  We'll just take it one step at a time and deal with things as we need to," she says.

Leaning over she gives Sir Gracian a playful peck on the cheek.  "If I didn't think you could handle this, I would never have agreed to marry you."

Sir Gracian sits quietly and look at his future wife before he starts to laugh. It takes a while before he is able to speak and when he does he reach out and caress her hand. "Oh I am going to be you a good husband - it is the rest I worry about! Because you are right of course. This is so far from my world that it can possible be and I am lost. But I trust you my dear. I trust your wit and your ability to manage these lands more than anything else in this world and I that is just one of the many things about you that I love so dearly."

He spend the remaining time at Stonewall getting to know Lady Ariette better. He want to know her interests, her likings, her values. He want to spend as much time as he can with her before he have to return to Dinton and tend to his duties there. If there is time at Stonewall (which he doubts there is) then he will get an idea of the knights and men-at-arms that he will soon command. Perhaps (with a little luck) they will be able to tell him about the brigands that seem to trouble Stonewall and the other holdings.

---

OOC: Basically I am fine with proceding to Winter Phase :)

Winter Phase 515AD

1.a Roll Gracian's Stewardship for Dinton Manor
Critical = +3£
Success  = +1£
Failure  = -1£
Fumble   = -3£

Base income is 6£.

Roll for Improvements.

1.b Roll Ariette's Stewardship (16) for Stonewall Banneretcy

Roll Stewardship
Critical = +5 to Harvest roll
Success  = +3 to Harvest roll
Failure  = No modifier
Fumble   = -3 to Harvest roll

If there was Raiding
No raiding.

Previous Harvest
Bad or Good  = No modifiers

Arthur's Reign
510 - 524  = No modifier

Curses or Blessings
No curses or blessings

Harvest Roll


Note:  Harvest Roll only affects food production, which is 84£.  Regardless of the harvest roll, Sir Gracian makes 68£ from non-food.

Expenses are 87£, including 12£ to be a Superlative knight.  So your Dinton income does not have to go toward supporting your upkeep.

2. Roll for Experience - Make rolls for all Personality Traits, Passions, and Skills in which you have an experience check.  Some buildings/holdings also give yearly checks.  If you roll 20, or above your current score, raise the value by 1.  If both sides of a Personality Trait have checks (e.g. Pious and Worldly), you must roll for both individually but can choose in which order you make the rolls.

3. Training and Practice
- Increase one of your squire's skills by 1.
- Choose one of the following options:
  o Gain 1d6+1 Skill points to distribute (cannot raise any Skills above 15)
  o Gain 1 point in a Skill (cannot raise a skill above 20)
  o Increase an Attribute, Trait or Passion by 1
    x No Attribute can be raised higher than its cultural value
    x No Trait can be raised above 19
    x No Passion can be raised above 20
    x SIZ cannot be increased after age 21.

4. Compute Glory
- Glory given during the year can be added immediately.
- Gain glory for exceptional traits/passions (16+) equal to its value
- Gain glory for quality of maintenance - Rich knight 10/year, Superlative 15/year
- Gain 100 glory if you are a Religious or Chivalrous knight
- Gain from Holdings, conspicuous consuption (like holding tournaments/feasts) etc.
Glory bonus - For every 1,000 Glory you attain, you get a Glory bonus: you may add 1 to ANY stat, skill, or trait.
Sir Gracian gains 893 Glory from marrying Ariette and 100 for becoming a banneret.

5. Determine Upkeep and conspicuous spending
- Upkeep:  Poor (4£) Ordinary (6£) Rich (10£) Superlative (12£)
- Hire any retinue for next year or make manorial improvements (http://www.eisinger.net/pbem/S...manorimprovement.pdf)

When you are done, update your character sheet / holdings.  I will come up with a mini-problem once you are done.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:18, Thu 12 Oct 2017.

Winter Phase 515 AD

1A. Dinton Manor

Sir Gracian rolled 13 using 1d20.  Stewardship @ 11 (Failure)

Sir Gracian rolled 2 using 1d2.  Income (Apiary)

Sir Gracian rolled 6 using 1d3+3.  Income (Logging)

Income for Dinton Manor: £6 - 1 (Stewardship Failure) + 2 (Apiary) + 6 (Logging) - 1 (Upkeep Apiary) = £12

Gains Check in Energetic.

1B. Stonewall Banneretcy

Sir Gracian rolled 8 using 1d20.  Ariette Stewardship @ 16 (Success; +3 Harvest Roll)

Sir Gracian rolled 23 using 1d20+3.  Harvest Roll (Superlative; Income 200%; State of the Land +3)

Income for Stonewall Banneretcy: £236 - 87 (Upkeep; Superlative) = £149

1C. Total Income

£12 (Dinton Manor) + 149 (Stonewall Banneretcy) = £161

2. Experience

Sir Gracian rolled 4 using 1d20.  Lance @ 13 (Failure)
Sir Gracian rolled 11 using 1d20.  Sword @ 14 (Failure)
Sir Gracian rolled 6 using 1d20.  Awareness @ 5 (Success)
Sir Gracian rolled 20 using 1d20.  Faerie Lore @ 2 (Success)
Sir Gracian rolled 1 using 1d20.  Courtesy @ 8 (Failure)

+1 to Heraldry, Horsemanship, Singing, Orate and +5 to Faerie Lore

Sir Gracian rolled 8 using 1d20.  Valorous @ 15 (Failure)
Sir Gracian rolled 9 using 1d20.  Just @ 14 (Failure)
Sir Gracian rolled 1 using 1d20.  Energetic @ 16 (Failure)

+1 to Worldly

Squire Idres

Sir Gracian rolled 8 using 1d20.  Idres (First Aid) @ 6 (Success)

3. Training

Squire Idres +1 to First Aid

Training Option (1d6+1 Skill Points)

Sir Gracian rolled 2 using 1d6+1.  Skill Points

+1 to Romance, Games

4. Compute Glory

+10 Stopping the beating of a peasant
+125 Defeating the Serpent
+180 Defeating the Irish raiders
+100 Defeating Sangnoir the Giant
+50 Telling the tale of how Sangnoir the Giant was defeated
+100 Killing a Raven Witch
+10 Killing ambushing Archers
+10 Entering the Kingdom of Inapercu
+275 Completing the Quest
+150 Public Recognition from the King
+75 Defeating Irish Footmen
+100 Defeating the Irish Men-at-Arms
+75 Preventing the Princess' capture.

+16 Energetic
+21 Hatred (Sir Agravaine)
+16 Amor (Flydorill)
+16 Orate

+15 Superlative Knight

+893 Marrying Lady Ariette
+100 Becoming a Banneret

+4 Manor Improvements etc.

Total: +2343 Glory

+1 STR and +2 CON

5. Upkeep and Conspicuous Spending

Hiring Engineer (Cauras; Stonewall Banneretcy) (£1; Glory 1)
Hiring Steward (Albrecht; Stonewall Banneretcy) (£1; Glory 1)

Hiring Steward (Guy; Dinton Manor) (£1; Glory 1)
Hiring Steward (Berel; Dinton Manor) (£1; Glory 1)


Dinton Manor

Manorial Building: Sentimental Artwork (£5; Glory 1; Check Amour)
Manorial Building: Mosaic Floor (£2; Glory 1)
Manorial Building: Roman Baths (£3; Glory 1)
Dove Cote (£5; Upkeep £1; Income £1-2; Check Love Family)

All build using Roman Ruinae advantage reducing the combined cost to £5

Stonewall Banneretcy

Mill (£15; RH2)
Lead Roof (£8; +2 DV; Glory 1)
Logging (£1; Income £4-6; Check var)
Sheep Herd (£5; Upkeep £2; Income £1-4)

Not quite sure what to roll for with the Improvements. I dont know what Skill Level hirelings possess, so I kind of struggle to figure out just how many projects I can get going. Oh god I have so many plans :)

Purchase:

Destrier (£20)
Reinforced Mail (£5)

Total Expenses: £50

Total Glory: +4
This message was last edited by the player at 21:06, Mon 16 Oct 2017.

Provide a list of potential projects and I will let you know what can be done and who needs to be hired.

Your Winter Adventure:

As Ariette had earlier mentioned, Stonewall has been plagued by raiders and sure enough a large group of bandits attacked Red Branch and made off with food and clothing.  Reports suggest a group of 30-40 men with improvised weapons.

Sir Gracian was furious. Brigands on his lands? Yes Ariette had mentioned it a few times but he had been too focused on her ... eyes ... to really pay much attention to what she said. But now the lands were his, the wedding was over and the brigands needed to be stopped before Spring where Sir Gracian would be called away to deal with the Saxons to the south.

Sir Gracian started by gathering informations about all their attacks. The problem had been going on for a while but he suspected they were not very mobile and that they had a hideout somewhere and most likely close to Red Branch. Especially now during Winter.

He tried to learn as much as he could about the area around Red Branch talking to hunters and trappers, to vagabonds and drifters and to the villagers at Red Branch. The more he knew about the terrain he would be fighting in the better.

He then offered a reward of £1 to the person that gave information critical to the capture of the brigands.

Sir Gracian then gathered his Knights and his men and journyed to Red Branch. He brought with him supplies and building materials so the people at Red Branch did not suffer needlessly. He was there Lord and it was his duty to keep them safe - he had failed in that and he would have to pay the price.

Being in Red Branch also gave people an opporunity to see who it was Lady Ariette had married. He knew better than to pretend they were all equal, but he was determined to become known as a just and caring Lord that took his duties seriously.

And once in Red Branch the hunt for the brigands began ...

Arriving in Red Branch, Sir Pracian is approached by a squirrelly man clad in pelts.  He introduces himself as John, the trapper.  He has spent a lot of time in and around the area hunting small game and collecting furs.

"I hear ya'll's offerin' a re-ward for informashin 'bout them bandits ebnn up and round 'ere," he drawls.

When assured that this is the case, he spills his tale.  About two weeks ago he came across a large camp deep in the woods to the south.  It was a pitiful place but there must have been 80-100 people there, mostly women, children, the elderly and the infirm.  Ole John is sure this is where the bandits are from and they must have been out raiding when he came across the camp.

He will gladly show you where the camp is.

Sir Gracian listened carefully to Trapper John. Brigands were one thing but women and children? Somehow Sir Gracian had just thought of the brigands as marauders no different than Saxon and Irish raiders but now they turned out to be familymen trying to feed their women and children.

"Do you know where they come from, Trapper John? People dont just decide to live in the woods without a reason and with little chance of survival."

If Sir Gracian could figure out what had caused them to enter his lands then perhaps this could be settled without bloodshed. Saxon and Irish raiders could have caused them to flee their homes and settle here.

The trapper shrugs noncommittally.  He knows outdoors pretty well, why people move from place to place?  Not so much.  However, Sir Gracian knows or one of his knights can inform him, that there was a lot dislocation of villages and towns during the period after Uther's death and Arthur's wars of reunification.

Once a place is destroyed, it is not an easy thing for the people to find a new home.  Adding one POP to a town costs the yearly income from the town (I count this as the town only and not the villages associated with the town).  So adding 1 POP to one of Stonewall's small towns would cost 15£ and a failed roll could doom the effort with the time and/or resources lost.

Driving them off or killing them all?  Relatively cheap!

Sir Gracian leans closer to Trapper John and pause for a moment.

"You know if they have a leader? I am sure they do. So you go back to them and tell them that I want to talk to him. You tell him that I offer him and the people he lead a chance noone else will ever give them - I offer them a home. You tell him that and tell him that it is no trap. I am Sir Gracian of Dinton and Stonewall and he has my word as both a man and as a knight that no woman or child shall sleep on my land without a roof over their head but I will not accept that my people shall live in fear of being attacked by brigands."

He place a purse heavy with coins on the table between them.

"You tell him that and the money is all yours. If it makes him feel better he can pick the place for the meeting himself. I come with peace and I trust he will honor that."

Trapper John greedily takes the heavy pouch and heads off.  That evening he returns and provides a date and time for the meeting.  Next to a large tree in an open field, tomorrow at noon.

At the appointed time, Sir Gracian arrives alone on his horse at the tree.  He can see a hundred yards in each direction and there is no immediate sign of anyone.  After a couple of minutes, four men appear out of the grass not far away.  Apparently there is a small gully there.  Three are armed with bows and the fourth holds a staff.  The man with the staff approaches alone while the others watch wearily, arrows knocked but pointed toward the ground.

"I'm Flynn," the man announces expansively.

Sir Gracian dismounts and ties his horse to the tree before turning to the man speaking to him. He steps forward and lock eyes with the man. The eyes says alot about a man, he thinks as he tries to evaluate the man standing before him.

"Peace upon you, Flynn." he says. "I am Sir Gracian and I am lord of these lands. I have faced Saxon raiders and Irish marauders and them come to these shores to get rich. But I reckon you steal for another reason. Am I right, Flynn?"

Flynn regards Sir Gracian with a wary look of his own.  He is silent for a moment after the knight speaks before he replies, "we'z just tryin' a survive, Sir.  Been chased out a five places in az many years.  If yur offers fer real, we'd be might 'preciative."

"The offer is real. The wars were brutal and left people homeless and lost. We are trying to rebuild our lives, if not for our own sake then for our childrens sake. I am the lord of these lands but how can I be true to myself if people - men, women and children - live in the woods like hunted animals and starve?"

Sir Gracian takes a step closer to the man.

"If you swear to obey the rule of Law and help me rebuild this land, then I promise you a home on my lands. Do not mistake this for weakness, Flynn. I am not weak and nor is the King but if we are to create a Kingdom of Peace then we must work together instead of fighting against each other.

What do you say, Flynn?

Flynn gratefully accepts the offer and leads Sir Gracian and his knights to their camp.  The conditions there are . . . primitive.  It takes some time to get everyone moved and land and buildings set aside to increase the size of one of the towns.  However, everything works out by the end of the year (516).

Sir Gracian made his rolls to supervise increasing the population of the town from 3 to 4.  Probably choosing a town that the group was not raiding would be a good idea.  The cost of the upgrade is 12£ (a slight discount as you have the population and just need the space).

Sir Gracian gets checks in Just, Energetic, and Generous.

And finally, after months of waiting, the wedding day has come and gone.  What a perfect day, seeing all of his friends and how well they are doing, standing next to his beautiful bride, Ariette, and now inheriting more wealth than he ever dreamed of.

As he approaches his room in Dinton Manor, it is hard not to be a little sad and apprehensive, too.  There are those who are not here.  And many new responsibilities.  Opening the door and stepping in he sees something that drives all such thoughts from his mind.  Standing next to the bed in an outfit his friend Sir Perin would note is immodestly French, is his new bride, Lady Ariette de la Belle Sourire.

"My lord," she says demurely.

It takes some time for Sir Gracian to figure out how to unfasten, unhook, and undress his wife but it is a fun time.  After nine months of waiting, he finds that it was all very much worth it.

In the morning, Sir Gracian feels a great deal more relaxed for his friend's wedding than he did for his own.

Spring Tournament (516 AD) First Day Feast

Sir Gracian approach Diarmuid when there is a chance to do so. "Peace upon you, Diarmuid. It is good to see you again but it is not the only reason I come to you. I fear a friend of mine, young and gallant Sir Garym, is in need of your wise words and knowledge. Can you come to our table and listen to his tale?"

The Druid smiles as Sir Gracian approaches, "well met, Sir Gracian.  I hope that you and Lady Ariette are doing well?  So many new responsibilities, it is like living in a different world, is it not?"

With a chuckle he retorts good-naturedly, "I hope not more women problems like poor Sir Perin.  Can you believe that he is going up against a lion tomorrow?"  He just shakes his head rather sadly.  "I sort of liked the fellow."

Turning more serious he goes on, "I could stop over to your table later on and see if there is anything that I can do."

"It certainly is a very different world. And truth to be told then I have alot to learn ..." Sir Gracian answers with a tired grin on his face.

But then he turns more somber. "It is indeed about a woman but I fear a woman that is either under a dark spell or that has lost her mind. It is quite the mystery and poor Sir Garym seem willing to go to the end of the world to save her."

"Learning is what life is about," the Druid responds sagely.

With a chuckle, Diarmuid notes, "Salisbury men seem to enjoy a challenge when it comes to women.  I am happy to take a look at the lady.  I know some practical medicine and I have magical resources but what you are talking about may be outside of my ability to diagnose much less cure."

Sir Gracian - convinced that everything is alright now that Sir Garym has been properly introduced - returns to his beautiful wife to dance, laugh and enjoy life. He is determined to dance all night long when not busy making conversation with visiting nobility.

---

I am going on a holiday with my son tomorrow so I will be probably be unable to post for a few days, so I am fine with Sir Gracian doing harmless things like trying to get a check in Dancing and Courtesy ;)

The pair head out to the dance floor and spend some quality time spinning effortlessly around the room.  All too soon it is time to resume their seats.

Sir Gracian gets a check in Dance.