House Among Chaotic Kingdoms

Votes for this Turn:

A1 - Combat - 27

A2 - Leisure - 0

A3 - Scholarly - 1

A4 - Diplomacy - 11

A5 - Language - 1

A6 - Communications - 12

S1 - Wikipedia - 12

S2 - Steam - 25

S3 - Paradox - 0

S4 - World - 15

Ideas: So Far

(8R) A Weirwood Bow for Jon and Sansa. - 17

(4R) A Weirwood Bow for Sansa. - 12

(14R) Buy 7 Small statues of Cat’s 7 Gods (+++++ Cat). - 8

(2R) A Kraken necklace for Yara. - 7

(16R) x4 Weirwood bows for Rob, Jon, Sansa, and Arya. - 3

(1R) Some Veil-style food for Ned. - 2

(6R) Hire a beekeeper for Long Lake. - 2

(8R) A Kraken necklace for Theon and Yara. - 1

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Rolls for this Turn:

Personal: Steam Games

Thanks to Rise of the Tomb Raider, Rob Stark will begin to remember his past life as an adventurer and archaeologist.

As a result, he gains a large boost to scholarly skills and languages, but most importantly for Quest mechanics, he is now Prodigious at CQC and has, tucked away in these strange dreams and pseudo-memories, knowledge of how guns and gunpowder work.

Unlike the other factions with guns, though, he’s unlikely to start working on the project immediately, though he’ll be a lot more prepared once his enemies start utilising them against him in the (near) future.

(He also has basic knowledge of things like electricity and germ theory, but the Guns thing is most relevant given the Lannisters and The Mannis, along with an unknown 3rd party, all have guns on their side.)

World: Tarraria Wiki

Thanks to the Mythril Waraxe, a Mythril Waraxe will be found and taken up as the new favoured weapon of the Mountain That Rides, “Sir” Gregor Clegane.

It’s not quite Valyrian steel, as it’s not invulnerable, but it carries the rest of Valyrian steel's qualities, such as lightness and extreme sharpness.

(Basically, this one was an L1, so now The Mountain has a weapon comparable to the best in Westeros.)

Still, if someone in the Northern Army manages to kill him, then it’s possible this Waraxe could end up as the new household weapon of a Northern House, or even another for the Starks…

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Story:

The archery lesson went well enough, which mostly meant that you won, Rob came close enough to complain, and Arya refused to let anybody think she minded losing.

Arya still didn't take to the bow the way she had taken to blades, footwork, and all the close-in nastiness that let a smaller fighter make bigger people regret underestimating her.

Even so, she kept at it with that fierce, stubborn look she got whenever something refused to bend for her on the first try.

At one point, Ser Rodrik stepped in to correct her stance, moving one elbow, turning one shoulder, and shifting one boot in the dirt before making her hold the draw without loosing.

Arya looked deeply unconvinced by the whole business, but when she tried again, the next arrow flew cleaner than the last and struck close enough to the middle to make her stare at the target like it had finally decided to stop embarrassing itself.

That one good shot seemed to settle her.

She still wasn't truly good with a bow, not yet, but now she had proof that she wasn't hopeless either, and that mattered enough to keep her trying with more patience and less pure spite.

Rob, meanwhile, had gotten very good.

Not in the easy thoughtless way Sansa had once taken to it, and not in the way some parts of combat came to you faster than they ought to, but in the hard-earned way.

Years of practice had done their work on him, and he shot like somebody who had refused to stay mediocre at anything for long.

Jon was third for once, though not by much, and seemed far too entertained by it.

Every few shots, he made some dry remark about how interesting it was to have the shoe on the other foot, since usually it was you getting stuck behind him and Rob whenever the yard turned from bows to blades.

It was a deeply Jon sort of mood, calm, amused, and just a little aggravating in a way that somehow stayed likable.

Ser Rodrik let the lesson run a while longer after that, perhaps because all of you were actually working for once instead of bickering.

By the end, your fingers were sore, your shoulder ached in that good, familiar way, Arya had managed enough solid hits to leave pleased, and Rob looked entirely too satisfied with how close he had come to beating you.

Later that day, you went into Winter Town because the bowyer had finally sent word that your commission was ready.

That alone kept you in a good mood all the way there, even with Janus hopping along overhead like he meant to supervise the purchase personally, and Jinx pacing beside you with that odd half-grown grace she had never quite lost.

The bowyer brought the two bows out wrapped at first, though not for long, and once the cloth came off, you forgot about everything else for a moment.

They were beautiful.

Both were weirwood, pale as bone and smooth enough that the grain seemed almost to move when the light struck it right.

Along the limbs ran the engravings you had asked for, with Jinx, Ghost, and Lady Vi hunting together through carved brush and trees as though the next inch of wood might show them springing right out of it.

For a long moment, you only looked.

At last, you ran a thumb along one of the carvings and told the bowyer they were better than you'd hoped.

He grunted at that, which from a craftsman usually meant he was pleased and trying not to show it too openly.

Then, when you asked about the wood, he explained the trouble of it.

Nobody worth the name was going to cut a heart tree for bow staves, and nobody sane was even going near one with an axe, so all he got was what fell naturally, what split cleanly, and what hadn't gone half bad before somebody bothered to bring it in.

That meant odd lengths, thin stock, and very little room for mistakes.

One bad cut could ruin something rare, costly, and sacred all at once, which made working weirwood less like ordinary craft and more like waiting for luck to behave itself.

That made the bows feel heavier in your hands, though not in a bad way.

They weren't just fine things.

They were the sort of fine things that could only exist if skill, patience, and luck all agreed to cooperate for once.

You carried them back wrapped again, though only because exposing them to every curious eye in Winter Town felt like tempting fate.

Most of the walk home, you spent thinking less about the cost and more about why you'd wanted them made in the first place.

You had hunted with Jon long enough now that it was hard to remember when those little trips into the wolfswood had still felt new.

Sansa had joined later, but by now she belonged there as surely as either of you did, with a bow in hand, Lady Vi nearby, and that sharp, pleased look she got when the day outdoors turned into a good one.

Those hunts had become one of the steady things in your life without you ever really deciding that they would.

They were just there, year after year, and you wanted to mark that somehow.

You wanted Jon and Sansa to each have something fine, something lasting, something that would always remind them of those years in the woods together.

You made it back to Winterfell in time for the evening meal, which turned out better than you could've planned.

Everybody was there, or near enough to it, and conversation dipped the moment the bows were brought forward.

Arya nearly climbed over the table, trying to get a better look before one glance from Aunt Catelyn stopped that idea dead.

Rob recognized at once that these weren't ordinary purchases, while Sansa stared, blinked, and then stared again in the way people did when they'd already realized exactly what they were looking at.

Jon looked from the bows to you and back again, and for once seemed to have misplaced whatever dry line he might've offered.

You handed one bow to Sansa and one to Jon, because dragging the moment out any further would've only made things worse.

Sansa took hers first.

When she found the engraving of Lady Vi beside Ghost and Jinx, her whole face changed, and all that careful composure dropped away for a second under something much simpler and brighter.

That was when you glanced toward Aunt Catelyn and caught the look on her face.

She was pleased, that much was obvious, because Sansa's joy would've been hard for any mother to miss.

Still, there was something tighter underneath it, because however elegant the gift might be, it was still a bow, still a hunting thing, still one more sign that Sansa was growing into a very northern kind of lady.

Jon took his own more slowly, though that was only Jon being Jon.

He turned it in his hands, tested the balance, studied the carving, and then looked at you with the sort of expression that meant more from him than a longer speech would've from almost anyone else.

"This was a good gift," he said.

Coming from Jon, that was practically poetry.

Rob, naturally, leaned over just far enough to inspect the work and then huffed out something halfway between amusement and complaint.

Now, apparently, he'd have to beat the both of them with ordinary bows, which hardly seemed fair.

Arya informed him at once that life was full of hardship and that perhaps he should bear it bravely, which got a laugh around the table and even pulled one from Uncle Ned.

That eased the whole room.

Sansa thanked you more than once before the meal was through, and Jon did too in his own quieter way, and both made it plain enough that the bows would be coming on the next hunt.

That more than anything pleased you.

A gift like that wasn't meant to sit untouched, looking pretty in some corner.

It was meant for open sky, for the wolfswood, for years of use until nobody could quite remember the time before it had belonged to them.

And really, for a gift, that seemed just about perfect.

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Skills:

Combat:

(7) Westerosi CQC - 35/100 (+40) (Talented In North) ←

(5) Westerosi Swordsmanship - 100/100 (+25)

(8) Northern Archery - 70/100 (+35) (Skilled)

(5) Northern Equestrianism - 65/100 (+15) (Knack)

(7) Heavy Armour - 55/100 (+50) (Prodigious)

Diplomacy:

(7) Interpersonal Communication - 20/100 (+15) (Skilled) ←

(2) Public Speaking - 25/100 (+5) (Skilled)

(10) Management - 110/200 (+30) (Prodigious)

(4) Stewardship - 38/100 (+7) (Knack)

(4) Northern Law - 18/100 (+7) (Knack)

(4) Westerosi Law - 8/100 (+7) (Knack)

Language:

(7) Common Speaking - 35/100 (+15) (Knack)

(7) Old Tongue Speaking - 50/100 (+15) (Knack)

(5) Valyrian Speaking - 90/100 (+15) (Knack)

(6) Common Reading - 5/100 (+10) ←

(3) Westerosi Runes - 50/100 (+10)

(5) Valyrian Reading - 40/100 (+10)

Scholarly: (Knack in North)

(5) Math(s) - 70/100 (+10)

(6) Accounts - 20/100 (+30) (Prodigious) ←

(7) Northern History - 85/100 (+15) (Knack)

(3) Westerosi History - 60/100 (+10)

(6) Northern Peoples - 25/100 (+10)

(5) Westerosi Peoples - 50/100 (+10)

Leisure: (Knack in North)

(6) Northern Hunting - 45/100 (+15)

(3) Fishing - 79/100 (+7)

(3) Swimming - 39/100 (+7)

(1) Seacraft - 79/100 (+7)

(3) Climbing - 52/100 (+7) (Skilled In North)

(2) Acting (Lying Convincingly) - 61/100 (+3)

(7) Herbology - 60/100 (+30) (Prodigious) ←

War:

(4) Strategy - 50/100 (+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: 8

Banked: 8

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Rolls for Next Turn:

T3 = Objects/Effect on Another Place

L5 = Slightly 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 (On Cooldown 1/2)

S3 - Paradox Wiki's (D30)

S4 - World Rolls List (D12)

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Information:

1 - Reputations as of Chapter 42 (In order of best to least.)

Jon - Lifelong Friends

Sansa - Lifelong Friends

Arya - Lifelong Friends

Ned - Lifelong Friends

Rob - Friendly

Yara - Friendly

Cat - OK (+)

(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.

Worth noting is that both Rob and Yara are only a few points away from “Friends,” which will make a difference in how they treat us in the future.

Friendly is lukewarm and doesn't mean much, but Friends is the lowest level where they’d go out of their way for us, even just a bit.

And it has been quite a while since we’ve done an acting turn with Rob…

Our ability to lie is kind of pathetic compared to the rest of the Starks.

Even Jon’s better at it than we are, and that's just sad.

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Write-In/Questions:

1 - What should the Mountain-That-Rides call his new Mythril Waraxe?

Feel free to go crazy with the names here, Gregor Clegane is Capital “E” Evil, and his favoured weapon’s name should tell you that.

But keep in mind that it might end up as the weapon of some northern house, so try to go with names that could stick around.

(If it’s too brutal, the next person will just rename it, but if it's thematic, like “Widow’s Wail” from canon, then it could keep its name as the next user takes it up.)

Examples:

Ruin

Widowmaker

Kingsbane

Mercy’s End

Last Word

Red Harvest

Reckoning