State Allies

The Selection Options

In reply to Caramip Scheppen (msg # 74):

That may be very true. It probably will be an impossible DC to get both those removed from Restov and the Swordlord. But we still should have a vote to make sure that we get everyone involved.

State Ally votes...

Swordlord - Elena, Borric
Restov - Elena, Borric


Need votes from Caramip, Dom and Kael

Logically; just removing 'excludes loyalist' isn't enough to allow a loyalist, we'd also need to remove 'excludes separatist' from the target loyalist(s). It's doubling increase in actions/difficulty for everyone we want to mingle. However, removing 'pledge of neutrality' from Mivon is a singular action. Does anyone have Sleight of Hand?

Dominique would vote for neutrality even if we're able to persuade Mivon, though. War is bad for business. If pressed he'd support Rostland's freedom, but no reason to go upsetting Surtova so soon.

What exactly are the effects of discovering Artanix's secret?
This message was last edited by the player at 17:52, Thu 12 Aug 2021.

In reply to Dominique Telvari (msg # 77):

This sounds like a vote.


State Ally votes...

Swordlord - Elena, Borric, Dominique
Restov - Elena, Borric, Dominique

Still need Caramip and Kael :)
Can we make this unanimous?

In reply to Borric d'Tor (msg # 78):

Someone's trying to steal the election!

Dom was voting for neutrality.  Kael was also pretty firmly in favour of neutrality, making it 2 v 2.

Making Cara the tie-breaker.  (Cara sounded pro loyalist, but it was a little ambiguous.)

DOH! I've been corrected :)
So does Dom, Kael or Cara wish to change their vote to swing with Elena/Borric or go against us. LOL.

Please be clear on picking one.
(Neutrality with the Swordlord/Restov? I'm in favor of going with Swordlord/Restov and trying to gain neutrality, but that 2nd part may be too high of a hurdle. I'm just trying to get us to pick a side)

This message was deleted by the player at 19:36, Thu 12 Aug 2021.

Yeah, Kael is in favour of neutrality. In this case, going with Mivon and then trying to get other deals that would not drag us in one faction or the other. Ideally we would get some kind of a deal with Restov that would not mark us as separatists, if that's possible. Anyway, that's Kael's take.

So is your stance to side with Mivon (1st). Could you also include getting Mivon to drop their exclusivity, etc?

Well, I'm in favour of siding with Mivon precisely because they wish for us to stay neutral. I don't mind other deals as long as we don't actually join one faction. Basically, I'm fine with whatever does not get us involved into a civil war.

The Swordlords are Separatists......not Loyalist

Cara realizes that we are not prepared to face Pitax and given what has just happened and the fact Restov and the Swordlords funded the expedition we should go with them, even if that excludes others. Otherwise we will make another potential enemy who will feel jilted in funding the expedition and getting nothing....

We also need to work out deals with Drelev and Varn, something perhaps more than just border recognition :)

What is name of our region?

Need to secure allies

(E) Exclusive clause
This message was last edited by the player at 04:43, Fri 13 Aug 2021.

How about this chart.
This chart summarizes all of the potential allies. Let me know if we want to add others to this list.

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Well it doesn't sound like we have a majority on our VOTE.
But that's ok. I'm sure that things will become clearer as we continue with the rounds of Combat with wine and cheese!

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Religion - Looking good, but still have a bit more to do to secure all 3.
Noble - No gains yet
Trade - No gains yet

Looks like team separatist wins, 3-2!
This message was last edited by the player at 03:05, Fri 13 Aug 2021.

Drelev  --- need border agreement at least
Varn    --- need border agreement at least
Garess  --- steady supply of ore and materials would be nice (especially iron if we plan to fight).
The Druids not wanting us to chop up the woods maybe (communications and early warning of Pitax incursions).

In reply to Caramip Scheppen (msg # 90):

Edits made to the table above. Let me know if I made any errors.

Waiting on actions from Cara/Kael/Dominique for the 5pm slot...

I was waiting for a response to this. I have no idea how any of this works mechanically, but per your other responses I guess it's not actually mechanical.

I'll get on writing my next action now. And I think I'll go ahead and tattle on the ambassador-assasin to our hosts, though I'll try to make it so that he does not know Kael is responsible for that. I thought about waiting a bit, but there's no telling how soon the guy is going to make his move. It will be a shame to lose our leverage over him, but we are the good guys after all. I think.

DM, would I need a separate action to inform the Aldori about the problem? If so, I'd like to do that first, and leave the Mivoni ambassador for the next round. Also, is Jamandi around or should I just talk to the Aldori representative?
This message was last edited by the player at 11:22, Thu 19 Aug 2021.

Does my perception check revolve before I decide on an action, that's mostly what I was waiting on?

Well hang on, let me summarize:

Motivation: Understanding (and using) their motivations gives you a bonus for all future interactions with them be it deal making, secret finding etc.

Secrets: Finding and using a secret gives you basically a free automatic success to alter a deal. No roll needed, just straight up blackmail "I will tell everyone X unless you give me Y". Now it doesn't have to be so aggressive but using a secret gives you a free deal change.

Optional Objective: There are lots of side deals you can make. Presumably they were sent here with orders from their House/Church/Country etc. but that doesn't mean they themselves are not powerful and influential. Learning about their side deals lets you make more deals. Not necessariliy with the church/house/country itself but with them individually. Usually these are going to be much smaller in scope but not necessarily.

Deals: Once you are ready you can sign a deal. If you want the deal as written you can do it without a roll. Otherwise the more you change it the harder the roll becomes. This is also where knowing their motivations is important because you can figure out what parts of the deal are most important and which ones are least important.

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Cara: Your perception check is good enough to determine that everyone from the Pitax delegation left. None of them "slipped away" during the commotion.

As for finding out if anyone at the party is working for Pitax, that is beyond the ability of a simple Perception check. There are hundreds of servants and dozens of minor nobility. The room is packed and while you could find servants or minor nobles acting suspicious there is no easy way to figure out who they are working for or why they are acting suspicious, at least not without getting extremely lucky or spending hours observing them.

Did I do something wrong?

I voted to stay with the separatists, but I'm honestly kinda rethinking it after the situation with the assassins.  Between the mass-murder at the start of the game, letting the Pitax delegate casually walk away after turning our fellow expedition into a pile of severed heads, and letting the latest assassin escape to make his move elsewhere, the Swordlords seem pretty much unable or unwilling to protect their allies at all.

I'm kinda tempted to have Elena confront Caleb Aldori over it, and decide whether to ditch them based on his response.  Would everyone be okay with that?  Or is that a conversation that someone with more relevant skills wants to have?
This message was last edited by the player at 13:33, Tue 31 Aug 2021.

I'm in favour of neutrality, but I don't think Aldori should be blamed too much for not wanting to play a spy game and just driving the guy away. It's only been a month since their last debacle with Daggermark assassins, and it was the safest thing to do. Well, for them at least.

Anyway, I'm fine with us going whichever way we take.