House Among Chaotic Kingdoms

Votes for this Turn:

A1 - Combat - 1

A2 - Leisure - 0

A3 - Scholarly - 33

A4 - Diplomacy - 4

A5 - Language - 0

A6 - Communications - 25

S1 - Wikipedia - 7

S2 - Steam - 23

S3 - Paradox - 33

S4 - World - 0

Ideas:

(0R) Omek - try to convince Ned to take Domeric Bolton as a Ward. - 26

(0R) Berenice - Stay at Winterfell - 23

(6R) Berenice - to Castle Black as a Healer (Investigate the Watch/Our Father). - 16

(12R) Omek - to King’s Landing to discover what's going on down there. - 9

(6R) Omek - to help the Last Rite Order to buff our reputation with the North. - 7

(6R) Omek - to investigate the God's Eye and the Green Men there. - 4

(6R) Berenice - to help the Last Rite Order to buff our reputation with the North. - 3

(6R) Berenice - to Castle Black as a Healer with a guard from Long Lake. - 2

(6R) Berenice - to investigate the God's Eye and the Green Men there. - 2

(0R) Keep them both in Winterfell. - 4

(10R) Omek - to Domeric Bolton in the Veil and invite him to Winterfell. - 1

(12R) Berenice - to King's Landing to discover what's going on down there. - 1

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Rolls for this Turn:

Personal: Prison Architect

Thanks to the Accountant, we are now Prodigious at Accounting.

This should help us manage financial accounts better, especially given the problem our lands have had with that in the past.

World: RuneScape Wiki

Thanks to Antipoison (Dungeoneering), Melisandre of Asshai now has “Cure Poison” as one of her abilities that she can call upon at will.

Though it can only be used once per day, and only cures poisons the target has already ingested, with no additional protection for poisons ingested after the fact.

It also instantly sobers a person up, though it does not cure hangovers.

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Story:

The next herbalore lesson with Sansa and Berenice took you farther out than the last one had, because Berenice said there was no point learning useful plants as though they lived neatly in jars when half the craft was knowing where they grew, when they were worth taking, and how not to ruin a good patch for everyone who came after you.

This time she started with spruce, which felt almost unfair in its plainness, because spruce had spent your whole life being nothing more than a tree until somebody finally bothered to explain that it could also keep people alive.

Berenice made the 2 of you look at it properly first, with its dark crowded needles, its drooping boughs, and the rough bark split here and there by weather and old damage.

The resin showed best where the trunk had been wounded, gathered in thick amber beads that looked almost like honey gone hard in the cold.

That, she said, was the part a healer prized most for salves, because once it was cleaned and worked properly it could be laid into certain wounds or mixed with other things to help keep rot from settling in.

She pointed out the younger tips too, softer and brighter than the older growth, green enough to stand out against the deeper shade of the tree, and said those could be taken in season for coughs, chest sickness, and the smaller miseries winter liked to drag through a hall.

After that she turned the lesson from what to take into how.

A greedy gatherer, she said, would hack resin and bark out of one tree until she had full hands and a half ruined trunk, but a sensible healer took lightly from many trees, spoiled none if it could be helped, and never forgot that the same stand might have to answer her again next year.

The tips were much the same, because if you stripped them all from one branch, or worse from one tree, then all you had really done was steal next season for the sake of this one.

Sansa took to that side of the lesson well enough, because there was a kind of order in it that suited her, while you found the whole thing settling into place with that same uneasy ease the subject always seemed to bring out in you.

From there Berenice led you into wetter ground and showed you rhododendron, which sat lower than the spruce and looked plainer at first glance, until you noticed how the dark leathery leaves gathered in clusters and how the plant spread thick through the softer colder patches where boots sank a little.

Its leaves were long, narrow, and tough enough to feel almost waxed when touched, and the whole thing grew in a stubborn low tangle as though it had no intention of yielding ground to anything else.

This was for sickness too, she said, though in a different way, because the leaves could be dried and used in preparations for coughs, colds, and the sort of weakness that settled over people after too much bad weather and too little warmth.

Again the lesson came back to restraint, because only a fool tore whole plants from the bog when clipped leaves and useful growth were enough, and only a worse fool took so much from one patch that nothing worth gathering would be there when winter came round again.

By the time the lesson ended, spruce and rhododendron had fixed themselves in your mind not as names from a page but as living parts of the land with their own uses, their own limits, and their own rules.

While Sansa had followed more eagerly than before, you had once again taken to it so quickly that the walk back to Winterfell left you pleased.

---

A few days later, Omek came to fetch you without saying much beyond that Uncle Ned had called for you, and by the time he led you near the godswood, you found your uncle waiting there with Rob and Jon, which was enough to make the air feel heavy even before you understood why.

Then you saw the man.

Uncle Ned told you plainly that since you were now ten and three, he had judged you old enough to witness the last and hardest part of a lord’s duty to his people, which was not feasting, taxing, or leading men in war, but sentencing one of his own to death and carrying that sentence out himself.

The crime, he explained, was stealing food on three separate occasions.

The first two times, the man had been caught cleanly enough and offered work that would have let him feed himself honestly, but he had refused it out of pride.

This third time, there was not enough proof to satisfy your uncle fully, and he did not hide that from any of you, but the man had no alibi, no strong evidence clearing him, and the methods used to break into the food stores were nearly identical to the ones he had used before.

That, Uncle Ned said, was part of what made lordship so hard, because sometimes a man had to judge with less certainty than he would like, and if he judged wrongly, then the weight of it was his before gods and men alike.

Uncle Ned had offered him the Wall too, and not only as form or ritual but seriously, even taking the time to press the choice on him and explain it plainly, because service there would at least have left the man alive and fed.

But once again, pride ruled him where sense should have, and he refused every road but two, demanding either release or the block.

After that, there was very little ceremony left.

Ice came down fast.

You had known the sword was huge, and you had known Valyrian steel was meant to cut better than common metal, but the speed of it still felt wrong to your eyes.

Because one moment there was a living man on his knees and the next there was a body with no head upon it, and your mind lagged so badly behind the act that you found yourself staring at the corpse for several long moments before it finally caught up to you that the man was dead.

Jon was the one who got you moving again.

He did not say much, only put a hand on you and guide you back inside while the cold seemed to have found its way into your bones in a new and unpleasant manner.

Behind you, Omek stayed with Uncle Ned, and though you could not hear all of what passed between them, you did catch one name clearly enough to make the whole thing feel stranger still.

Domeric Bolton, of all people, was mentioned.

---

It was only a few days later that you learned Omek had asked for Domeric Bolton to be called to Winterfell, seeing as he was near enough Rob and Jon in age to fit among them neatly, and was expected to be returning soon from his warding in the Vale.

Why Omek of all people had been the one to press the matter on your uncle was less clear, though Uncle Ned had plainly agreed it was a sound enough idea, which only made the whole business more interesting because Omek did very little without deciding there was something to be gained from it.

Rob, for his part, became immediately convinced that Uncle Ned meant to betroth Domeric and Sansa, and once the idea had been spoken aloud it was impossible not to see why he thought so.

Sansa herself seemed harder to read on the matter, though she did say, with more honesty than she likely intended, that if she had to be married someday it would at least be pleasant to remain in the North, since she had no wish to give up hunting and archery just to turn herself into the sort of proper southern lady other people seemed so fond of imagining for her.

As for you, there was nothing for it but to wait and see what sort of person this Domeric Bolton actually proved to be once he finally arrived.

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Skills:

Combat:

(6) Westerosi CQC - 95/100 (+20) (Talented In North)

(5) Westerosi Swordsmanship - 75/100 (+10)

(8) Northern Archery - 35/100 (+15) (Skilled)

(5) Northern Equestrianism - 50/100 (+10) (Knack)

(7) Heavy Armour - 5/100 (+30) (Prodigious) ←

Diplomacy:

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

(2) Public Speaking - 20/100 (+5) (Skilled)

(10) Management - 80/200 (+30) (Prodigious)

(4) Stewardship - 31/100 (+7) (Knack)

(4) Northern Law - 11/100 (+7) (Knack)

(4) Westerosi Law - 1/100 (+7) (Knack) ←

Language:

(7) Common Speaking - 20/100 (+15) (Knack)

(7) Old Tongue Speaking - 35/100 (+15) (Knack)

(5) Valyrian Speaking - 75/100 (+15) (Knack)

(5) Common Reading - 95/100 (+10)

(3) Westerosi Runes - 40/100 (+10)

(5) Valyrian Reading - 30/100 (+10)

Scholarly: (Knack in North)

(5) Math(s) - 60/100 (+30)

(5) Accounts - 90/100 (+60) (Prodigious)

(7) Northern History - 70/100 (+35) (Knack)

(3) Westerosi History - 50/100 (+30)

(6) Northern Peoples - 15/100 (+30) ←

(5) Westerosi Peoples - 40/100 (+30)

Leisure: (Knack in North)

(6) Northern Hunting - 30/100 (+15)

(3) Fishing - 72/100 (+7)

(3) Swimming - 32/100 (+7)

(1) Seacraft - 72/100 (+7)

(3) Climbing - 45/100 (+7) (Skilled In North)

(2) Acting (Lying Convincingly) - 58/100 (+3)

(6) Herbology - 30/100 (+30) (Prodigious) ←

War:

(4) Strategy - 25/100 (+25) (Prodigious) ←

(1) Castrametation - 85/100 (+0)

(1) Poliorcetics - 85/100 (+0)

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

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

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Earning: 4

Spending: 0

Banked: 12

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Rolls for Next Turn:

T2 = Person/Event at Home

L6 = Moderately Convenient

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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 Sansa, Maester Lewin, and Berenice. (Scholarly Focus)

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

A4 - Learn Lordship from your Uncle Ned with Rob. (Diplomacy + War Focus)

(Reputation: ++ Ned, + Rob)

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

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

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

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

Personal Rolls Sources:

S1 - Wikipedia

S2 - Steam Games

S3 - Paradox Wiki's (D30) (On Cooldown 1/1)

S4 - World Rolls List (D12)

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Information:

1 - On Characterization.

I think we are getting close to the point where some future choices are going to look “out of character/OOC” if people are still judging everyone against canon.

The main thing I want to stress is that this is a quest.

Votes do not just change Wulfric’s skills, they also change the world around him.

Wulfric has been in Winterfell for six years going on seven, but more importantly, our choices have spent those years pushing him toward certain people, strengthening some bonds, weakening others, and changing the emotional shape of the Stark household.

So these are not just canon characters with one extra cousin standing nearby.

They are people who have grown up in a different version of Winterfell and have become different because of it.

Sansa is probably the clearest example.

Canon Sansa at this stage, should be more southern-facing, less interested in things like hunting or archery, and much less rooted in her own family.

Instead, this Sansa has grown into a much more northern kind of lady.

She is still ladylike, but she also enjoys hunting, is genuinely skilled with a bow, and is especially close to Wulfric and Jon because those are the relationships the quest has actually centered and rewarded.

That change in Sansa also creates change in Arya.

Canon Arya defines herself a lot against canon Sansa, but that dynamic does not really exist here in the same way.

This Arya has a positive elder sister to look up to rather than a model she feels she has to reject, and she also has Yara, who is her favorite person in Winterfell bar none.

Because of that, she is actually more ladylike here than her canon self, not less.

She still has her edge, but she is more willing to learn conventional skills when someone she respects says they matter, and she and Sansa have far less reason to see each other as opposites.

Jon is another major example.

In a more canon household, he should probably be closest to Rob, with Theon folding naturally into that group.

Instead, Wulfric has been pushed so close to Jon for so long that Jon’s strongest bond is there, and that has changed him, too.

He is more comfortable in himself because he has had friends who value him not as an obligation, not as an afterthought, but for himself, and who see him as an essential part of their trio.

And if Jon shifts, Rob shifts too.

If Jon is not primarily his closest companion, and if Theon also leaves earlier than he otherwise would have, then Rob does not get to keep that easy central brotherhood around him.

So instead, he has been pushed outward into Winter Town and toward the local people.

This version of Rob has taken on some of canon Arya’s social role, building friendships and a reputation among locals and smallfolk and becoming more of a man of the people than his canon self.

A lot of the changes in this story work like that.

One relationship shifts, and then the people around it shift too.

So when these characters start making choices that their canon versions would not make, that is not me forgetting canon.

That is the story of following through on years of altered relationships and altered development.

And to be honest, part of why I am spelling this out here is that I do not trust myself to make every one of those changes feel perfectly organic on the page.

I am trying my best to show them over the course of the story, but I also do not want people to be blindsided later and call something random when it is really the result of long-term quest fallout.

The short version is this:

In a quest, votes change the world, not just the protagonist.

So yes, these characters are different.

And as we move forward, those differences are only going to become more visible.

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Write-In/Questions:

1 - Who should we buy something for, and what should we buy them?

Some ideas from the last few:

(8R) A Weirwood Bow for Jon and Sansa.

(4R) A Weirwood Bow for Sansa.

(2R) A Kraken necklace for Yara.

(8R) A Kraken necklace for Theon and Yara.

(1R) Some Veil-style food for Ned.

(6R) Hire a beekeeper for Long Lake.

(14R) Buy 7 Small statues of Cat’s 7 Gods (+++++ Cat).