House Among Chaotic Kingdoms

Votes for this Turn:

A1 - Combat - 11

A2 - Leisure - 2

A3 - Scholarly - 5

A4 - Diplomacy - 3

A5 - Language - 25

A6 - Communications - 6

S1 - Wikipedia - 3??

S2 - Steam - 25

S3 - Paradox - 10

S4 - World - 14

New Spell:

P1 - Powerful but Dangerous - 33

P2 - Practical but Temporary - 3

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Rolls for this Turn:

Personal: Steam Games

Thanks to Punch Club 2: Fast Forward, CQC is now learned at a Talented level while in the North, and those who learned CQC in the North will find themselves having an edge while in the North that their skill doesn't account for.

World: Bulbapedia

Thanks to Caterpie (Fusion Strike 1), the Stormlands now includes Caterpie, Metapod, and Butterfree.

Unfortunately for us, this was also an L2 roll, so all of these Pokémon will also be the possessive type, refusing to bond with anyone who already has another Pokémon of their own.

In slightly more heartwarming news, Edric Storm was one of the first people in the Stormlands to bond with a Caterpie.

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Story:

Omek had plainly meant to tell the lesson in the Old Tongue, because that was how he thought stories ought to sound when they were old enough to have roots in them, but Old Nan had no patience for children losing half a tale to language, so the 2 of them ended up telling it together, with Omek giving the older shape of it and Old Nan cutting in whenever she thought plain speech would do more good.

Arya loved that arrangement at once, because it meant the story kept all the weight of something ancient without ever becoming hard to follow, and you found you liked it too, since Omek gave it depth while Old Nan gave it teeth.

The tale was of Percisus, who in Omek’s telling was one of Garth the Gardener’s children, born in that half-mythic age when heroes wandered farther than sensible men and bloodlines in old stories had a habit of tangling themselves around kings and gods alike.

Old Nan said that only meant every old house south of the Neck liked to claim him afterward, because dead heroes were always easier to adopt than living ones.

From there, the story moved north to a hard, stony coast where black water broke against cliffs and tide caves gnawed into the rock below, and Omek said that a beast out of the sea had begun taking what it pleased, with sheep first, then fishers, then children, until the hall above the shore had learned to fear the surf.

He called it a thing of the Drowned God, not merely some great sea beast, and Old Nan said that meant the sea had sent up something to collect a debt.

That was where Yara first cut in, because she said the story was told differently on the islands.

In the Ironborn version, Percisus was no child of Garth at all but a son, or at least a favored one, of the Drowned God himself.

Omek did not care for that addition, but he went on anyway.

The folk of that coast, they said, tried prayers, fear, and offerings, but none of it turned the creature aside, so at last they bound a girl of the hall out upon the rocks and left her there for the tide to take with the beast.

Arya made a furious little sound at that, which Old Nan seemed to think was exactly right.

Then Percisus came to that shore.

In Omek’s telling, he arrived as a wanderer and found the hall already half broken in spirit, while Old Nan put it more simply and said he was the first man there to look at the bound girl and seem angry on her behalf.

When he asked why men who called themselves free had yielded one of their own to the deep, he was told the beast belonged to the Drowned God and could not be denied.

Percisus answered that then he would deny it himself.

That was where Arya leaned forward and stopped pretending to sit still.

Percisus armed himself and climbed down toward the tide caves with rope, spear, and blade while the sea struck the rocks below, and the fight that followed was told half in Omek’s old grave way and half in Old Nan’s sharper one, so between them it came out clear enough, with spray, black stone, and the beast heaving up from the surf all scales, pale belly, and jaws wide enough to take a man at the waist.

Percisus did not kill it neatly, but he bloodied it, drove it back, and dragged it far enough out of the tide that it could finally be finished on the rocks.

That was where Yara interrupted again.

On the islands, she said, Percisus did not merely kill the beast like some green land hero proving himself to shore folk, because in their telling, he struck it down and mastered it, showing that the Drowned God favored him more than the creature.

Old Nan said that was a very island ending, because Ironborn liked leaving monsters half alive so they could keep boasting about them later.

Omek ignored that and finished the tale in his own way, saying that whatever blood Percisus carried, whether green or salt or both, what mattered was that he stood between the shore and the deep and did not yield, and that was why the coast remembered him.

Arya wanted to know at once whether the beast stayed dead in Omek’s version or whether it was still down there somewhere under the caves.

Omek said that if the story had wanted the beast alive, it would not have given Percisus such good aim.

Yara said the sea kept what it liked regardless.

Arya seemed perfectly happy with both answers.

By the end of it Omek looked only half satisfied, because his lesson had been dragged into the Common Tongue and interrupted twice by an Ironborn, while Old Nan looked entirely pleased with herself, which was no surprise at all, and Arya had gone bright eyed in that particular way that meant she would be trying to live half inside the story for the rest of the day.

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Arya had been pestering the 2 of you for lessons for long enough that refusal had stopped feeling like a real stance and started feeling like a delay, because once she fixed on something she wanted, she did not really let go, she only kept at it until giving in became easier than pretending not to hear her.

So in the end, you and Jon took her out for a little lesson of your own, meaning to show her the bare bones of it, let her swing a practice sword about for a while, and send her off pleased enough to leave you in peace for a few days.

Instead, she proved astonishing.

Not merely quick, and not merely gifted, but prodigious, because almost at once she understood what her body ought to be doing and then simply did it, with her feet falling into place, her grip settling properly, and her weight shifting cleanly in a way that made the whole thing look less like learning and more like remembering.

By the end of that first lesson, she was already as good as you and Jon had been after your first year in the yard, and the 2 of you were so thoroughly thrown by that fact that for a moment, the lesson itself nearly stopped under the weight of it.

That was not the sort of thing either of you could keep to yourselves, so you took her straight to Uncle Ned and told him what had happened, and once he had heard you out, he sent for Ser Rodrik and had Arya perform the same movements again under a harder eye.

If anything, that only made it plainer, because she did not wilt under scrutiny or lose herself to nerves but simply did the work, and by the time she was done, even Ser Rodrik looked like a man who had just seen something rare enough to deserve respect whether he had wanted to or not.

So Arya was approved for basic lessons, because whatever else might be said of the thing, the girl quite plainly had a gods-given gift, and calling it anything less than prodigious would have felt dishonest.

Aunt Catelyn took it badly.

For several days after that, she would barely acknowledge your existence at all, and when she did, it was with that sharp, contained frost that made the hall around her feel colder, as though in her mind the yard had not only claimed Arya but done so with your help.

Even so, it was still nothing beside the weather she reserved for Jon, because what she turned on you faded after a time into something merely frosty, while what she kept for him remained older, deeper, and much crueler in its constancy.

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Skills:

Combat:

(5) Westerosi CQC - 35/100 (+35) (Talented In North) ←

(4) Westerosi Swordsmanship - 85/100 (+25)

(6) Northern Archery - 80/100 (+15) (Skilled)

(4) Northern Equestrianism - 56/100 (+12) (Knack)

(4) Heavy Armour - 75/100 (+15) (Skilled)

Diplomacy:

(5) Interpersonal Communication - 100/100 (+15) (Skilled)

(2) Public Speaking - 85/100 (+5) (Skilled)

(7) Management - 70/100 (+30) (Prodigious)

(3) Stewardship - 58/100 (+7) (Knack)

(3) Northern Law - 40/100 (+7) (Knack)

(3) Westerosi Law - 30/100 (+7) (Knack)

Language:

(5) Common Speaking - 100/100 (+36) (Knack)

(6) Old Tongue Speaking - 15/100 (+34) (Knack) ←

(4) Valyrian Speaking - 55/100 (+29) (Knack)

(5) Common Reading - 5/100 (+25) ←

(2) Westerosi Runes - 50/100 (+25)

(4) Valyrian Reading - 40/100 (+25)

Scholarly: (Knack in North)

(4) Math(s) - 55/100 (+10)

(4) Accounts - 55/100 (+10)

(6) Northern History - 30/100 (+15) (Knack)

(3) Westerosi History - 45/100 (+10)

(5) Northern Peoples - 10/100 (+10) ←

(4) Westerosi Peoples - 35/100 (+10)

Leisure: (Knack in North)

(4) Northern Hunting - 55/100 (+12)

(2) Fishing - 87/100 (+7)

(2) Swimming - 77/100 (+7)

(1) Seacraft - 28/100 (+3)

(2) Climbing - 7/100 (+7) (Skilled In North) ←

(2) Acting (Lying Convincingly) - 6/100 (+3)

(4) Gardening - 60/100 (+30) (Prodigious)

War:

(3) Strategy - 50/100 (+25) (Prodigious)

(1) Castrametation - 60/100 (+0)

(1) Poliorcetics - 60/100 (+0)

(1) Fleetcraft - 10/100 (+0)

(1) Battlewise (coup d’œil) - 10/100 (+0)

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Earning: 4

Spending: 0

Banked: 26

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Rolls for Next Turn:

T6 = Personal Power/Skill

L4 = Just what's described

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Voting:

Main Actions: (+ = Low, ++ = Mid, +++ = High)

A1 - Train with Jon, and sometimes Rob, and Ayra in the Yard. (Combat Focus)

(Reputation: +++ Arya, ++ Jon, + Rob, - Cat)

A2 - Go on Hunts With Jon and Sansa. (Equestrianism + Leisure Focus)

(Reputation: ++ Jon, ++ Sansa, + Ned, - Cat)

A3 - Keep up your studies with your cousin, Sansa, and Maester Lewin. (Scholarly Focus)

(Reputation: +++ Sansa, + Cat, + Ned)

A4 - Act as your Uncle Ned’s page with Rob and Theon. (Diplomacy + War Focus)

(Reputation: ++ Ned, + Rob)

A5 - Spend your time speaking the Old Tongue with Arya and Omek. (Language Focus)

(Reputation: + Arya, + Yara, + Ned)

A6 - Follow Rob until he shares his Friends and Activities with you. (Communications Focus)

(Reputation: +Rob, + Cat, + Ned)

Personal Rolls Sources:

S1 - Wikipedia (On Cooldown 2/2)

S2 - Steam Games (On Cooldown 1/2)

S3 - Paradox Wiki's (D30)

S4 - World Rolls List (D12)

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Information:

1 - What's all this with Arya and Swords?

Since it’s Easter, I decided to give you lot the effects of one of the “what should we buy” votes that probably won't win soon enough to matter.

Specifically, I had this whole thing planned out where we discover Arya is Prodigious at both Swordsmanship and CQC for a while, but it didn't seem like it’d ever win, so I set it aside… until today.

Normally, I’d let you vote on this kind of thing, but this time it’s a gift, meaning it’s free (no resource cost, and no need to spend a “what should we buy” turn on it) but you don't get a choice in what it is.

(Plus, it kind of ruins the idea of an Easter gift if we vote on it just for the thing not to actually happen on Easter.)

So what was the Reputation Change?

Cat: -5

Rob -1

Arya: +3

Yara: +2

Ned: +1

Jon: +1

Plus, Arya now joins Jon and Sansa in getting a +1 every few turns for free.

If you disapprove of this action, then I'm sorry, but gifts can be like that.

For everyone else, I wish you the best in deciding what to vote for next turn.

What with A1 and A3 the way they are as a result of this and or other recent actions…

2 - Reputations as of Chapter 34

Jon - Close Friends

Sansa - Close Friends

Arya - Close Friends

Cat - Good (-)

Ned - Close Friends

Rob - Friendly (-)

Yara - Friendly (-)

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Theon - Friendly (-)

(Neutral → Fine → Ok → Good → Friendly → Friends → Close Friends → BFF’s)

(+) Means we’re one “+” with that person from it going up a rank.

(-) Means we’re one “-” with that person from it going down a rank.

For people who want the ranks in order, then:

Closest to us are Sansa and Ned. (Tied)

Second closest to us are Arya and Jon. (Tied)

Third closest to us are Rob, Yara, and Theon. (Tied)

The least close to us is Cat.

3 - It’s crunch time!

This is the part where it becomes relevant that we can't get everyone up to BFF.

Uncle Ned is easy to please, he just needs to see us getting along with his kids, but others will need to be focused on if we want to get them to BFF before they leave Winterfell.

And to be clear, if we were not BFF (but are lifelong Friends) with Jon, then we can still get him to go to Heartsgrove instead of the Wall, but he’d still be leaving.

Similarly, we can get Sansa wary of Joffrey if we were lifelong friends by then, but that's just us betting against his prodigious acting skill.

But getting her to the point of not agreeing to the betrothal in the first place would require BFF.

Cat, Rob, and Yara aren't getting to BFF at this point, but you can still vote for their actions if you want to go the “get everyone as friendly as they can be” route instead.

Theon, unfortunately, is a lost cause because of how our past actions have altered the worldbuilding.

Though he’ll remain fairly warm towards us for a while to come…

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Write-In/Questions:

1 - What should we have Berenice do now?

We've got 26 resources and will have 30 next turn, and that's enough for at least a brief trip to pretty much anywhere in Westeros.

Here are the runner-up options from last time:

(6R) Go to Castle Black as a Healer (Investigate the circumstances of the Watch/Our Father).

(0R) Stay Local to buff our Local Reputation.

(6R) White Harbor to ask merchants how much damage the calamities caused.

(6R) Help the Last Rite Order as a Healer to buff our Reputation in the North.

(6R) Investigate Long Lake people's contentment/problems.

Some High-Risk-High-Reward Options:

(25R) Try to heal Willas Tyrell’s leg in Highgarden.

(35R) Try to heal Doran Martell’s Gout in the Water Guardens.