House Among Chaotic Kingdoms

Votes for this Turn:

A1 - Joffrey - 7

A2 - Hunt - 0

A3 - Tyr + Myr - 27

A4 - Robert - 11

A5 - Cersei - 0

A6 - Theater - 11

S1 - Wikipedia - 0

S2 - Steam - 36

S3 - Paradox - 14

S4 - World - 7

Ideas: So Far

(4R) A wolf pendant for Sansa and Jon. - 14

(10R) Buy a Kraken necklace for Yara, Theon, and Robb - 8

(8R) A wolf pendant for Sansa, Jon, Arya and Robb - 8

(2R) A Kraken necklace for Yara. - 3

(2R) A wolf pendant for Arya. - 4

(14R) Buy 7 Small statues of Cat’s 7 Gods (+++++ Cat) - 3

(6R) A wolf pendant for Sansa, Arya, and Jon - 2

(2R) Some Veil-style food for Ned and the King. - 2

(2R) Some Westerlands food for the Queen. - 1

(2R) Some Crownlander food for the Royal Family. - 1

(6R) Hire a beekeeper for Long Lake. - 1

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

(20R) A Horse for Jon - 1

(8R) A weirwood bow for Rob and Arya. - 1

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Rolls for this Turn:

Personal: Steam Games

Thanks to Neverending Nightmares, anyone in the same space as Euron Greyjoy (Building, ship, Island if it’s small enough, etc) will experience continuous nightmares whenever asleep.

Additionally, Euron himself now has a case of OCD that will increase in severity over time.

However, since this was only “L5 = Slightly Convenient,” his OCD will be basically nothing to start, and will take a decade to progress to an extreme case.

Also, thanks to his Nightmare Aura, Euron himself no longer dreams (unless it’s prophetic), not dreams or nightmares, just black, then he’s awake.

World: Elder Scrolls Wiki

Thanks to the Skeever Infestation, Skeevers can now be found in the North, particularly in the Wolfswood and other forested areas.

Because this roll is only “L3 = Slightly Inconvenient”, this isn't an epidemic or sudden change, but is retconned to be a long-term thing in the North.

Sometimes Northern Rodents are just of an unusual size.

If the Wolfswood weren’t full of Mightyena, this would likely still be a bigger problem than it is.

Instead, we just have a more stable food supply for our local Pokémon, and a mildly more dangerous hobby in the form of Hunting.

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Story:

Maester Lewin caught you before your usual lesson and explained that the royal visit had pulled him in too many directions at once, between ravens, medicines, accounts, and every little problem a castle suddenly remembered once royalty was sleeping under its roof.

Rather than simply sending you off, he said Princess Myrcella was having lessons nearby and that joining her might do you some good, since a southern princess and her family were bound to have a different way of looking at things than Winterfell did.

That alone would've been reason enough to go, but then he mentioned that the lesson was being taught by Tyrion Lannister, which made the whole thing much harder to pass up.

You'd seen enough of him by then to know he was the sort of man who liked making a point sideways, and even when he was being serious, there was usually some joke lurking nearby waiting to bite.

Princess Myrcella received you easily, warm where some of the rest of her family had been stiff, and bade you sit with her as though it was the most ordinary thing in the world.

Tyrion only gave you one quick look before carrying on, cup in hand, saying that if you were going to intrude on a princess's education, then you might as well learn something useful from it.

At first, the lesson sounded plain enough.

He spoke about orchards, mines, and managed lands, and about how a fool could ruin a good source of wealth by forcing too much from it too quickly, which was nothing new to your ears.

That part was familiar country: don't strip the land bare, don't burn through tomorrow for the sake of today, and don't call it profit when all you've really done is cripple next year.

It was northern thinking, and sensible thinking, the sort that applied just as well to fish, timber, herds, herbs, and pretty much anything else a lord relied on.

Then Tyrion shifted the lesson a little, and suddenly it wasn't about what the land could bear but about what the market could bear, which was not at all the same thing.

He asked what happened if a lord's orchard could produce far more fruit than nearby towns could actually buy at a good price, and when you thought the answer was simply that the lord sold more fruit, Tyrion pointed out that a flooded market did not mean twice the profit.

Sometimes it meant lower prices, more labor, wasted stock, and a great deal of effort spent earning less than you'd expected.

From there, he moved to gold, and that was where the lesson began to feel very western indeed.

A lord in the West, he said, could not think of a gold mine as though more gold always meant more wealth, because gold only mattered in the things it could be traded for, and if too much of it hit the market too quickly, then the gold itself could lose some of its weight in practice.

That part sat oddly in your head.

Up North, if something sold and you could make more of it without wrecking the source, then the usual answer was to do exactly that and thank the gods for the chance.

Fish were caught, timber was cut, and wool was shorn.

Trade was trade, and so long as you weren't gutting the future to feed the present, nobody spent much time wondering whether it might be clever to hold back good produce on purpose.

But Tyrion said that sometimes a lord did exactly that.

Sometimes he slowed production because the market was already too full, and a little scarcity would drive prices back up.

Sometimes, he increased production because he needed quick coin and judged the future loss worth it.

Sometimes, he even accepted a short-term loss because it hurt a rival more than it hurt him.

That was the bit that caught you.

Not because it was too hard to understand, but because it was the sort of thinking you'd almost never heard put plainly before.

The North taught you not to be wasteful.

The West, apparently, also taught you how to be calculating.

The two weren't opposites exactly, but they weren't the same thing either.

Princess Myrcella followed the whole lesson well, and asked good questions besides, especially when Tyrion started speaking about long-term profit rather than simple output.

That made the whole thing feel less like some dry recitation and more like listening in on how the Lannisters actually thought about wealth, which was useful in its own right.

As you listened, you found yourself thinking of Long Lake.

On a map of Westeros, it looked small enough that a man from elsewhere might think it took no time at all to cross, when in truth a boat going from Heartsgrove Castle to Heart of the Gods town and back would lose a day to the trip.

If you'd never seen a proper map and had only your own memory to go on, you'd probably draw Long Lake so large it swallowed half the North.

That was what the lesson started to feel like.

Not just a lesson about orchards and mines, but about how easy it was for a thing to look simple when you were standing too far away from it.

By the time it ended, the part that stayed with you most wasn't even the mines or the fruit.

It was the idea that value was not only in what you had, but in timing, in judgment, and in knowing that what seemed obvious from one part of Westeros might look half foolish from another.

When you left, Tyrion remarked that if nothing else, he hoped you'd come away a little less trusting of easy answers.

That, at least, he managed.

---

It was a few days later, during another lesson with Tyrion, Myrcella, Sansa, and yourself, that the terrible news came crashing in all at once.

Jon burst into the room without ceremony, breathing hard enough that nobody even thought to scold him, and the moment he got out Bran's name, you and Sansa were already moving.

The two of you ran for Bran's chambers at once, with the rest of the lesson abandoned behind you like it had never mattered at all.

What you'd pieced together by the time you got there was bad enough.

Bran, in what was quite possibly his most ambitiously stupid climbing attempt yet, had tried to reach the top of the broken tower.

That would've been dangerous enough from the inside, but for reasons known only to Bran, he'd tried to climb it from the outside and had then fallen from damn near the top.

In the end, it was Ser Jaime Lannister of all people who'd saved his life.

Apparently, he and the queen had been out walking the grounds when they saw Bran fall, and Ser Jaime had moved quickly enough to fetch Berenice before the worst of it could settle in for good.

Bran was still unconscious when you saw him, and looked badly broken besides, with his legs and spine hurt badly enough that even looking at him made something cold settle in your gut.

Still, Berenice said he'd live, and more than that, she thought he'd walk again with time, healing, and a great deal of caution.

Which was a bit dark humor, given that lack of caution was what had put him there to begin with.

If she'd gotten to him only a few minutes later, she said, that might not have been true.

He'd likely be laid up for months, and there was no promise at all that he'd be sensible for quite a while.

You never did learn every detail of what happened that day, not right then at least, but you did see Uncle Ned thank both the queen and Ser Jaime personally for their part in saving Bran.

That seemed to warm both of them somewhat toward House Stark, which under the circumstances felt like a very good thing indeed.

---

After all the panic with Bran, you found yourself wanting to do something, even if it was only something small, because just sitting with all that fear in the air felt far too much like waiting for the next bad thing to happen.

So you gathered up a bit of your spare coin and had three little pendants made, one in the shape of Ghost, one in the shape of Lady Vi, and one in the shape of your own Jinx.

Then you gave Jon and Sansa theirs as a memento of the three of you and the years you'd spent together, ranging through the wolfswood, hunting, arguing, learning, and growing up half wild in each other's company.

It wasn't some grand gesture, and you knew that perfectly well, but it did what you'd hoped it might.

It made both of them smile, if only for a little while, and for the moment that was enough.

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Skills:

Combat:

(8) Westerosi CQC - 15/100 (+20) (Talented In North) ←

(6) Westerosi Swordsmanship - 40/100 (+10)

(9) Northern Archery - 30/100 (+15) (Skilled)

(6) Northern Equestrianism - 5/100 (+10) (Knack) ←

(8) Heavy Armour - 75/100 (+30) (Prodigious)

Diplomacy:

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

(3) Public Speaking - 20/100 (+7) (Skilled)

(11) Management - 30/300 (+30) (Prodigious) ←

(4) Stewardship - 66/100 (+7) (Knack)

(4) Northern Law - 46/100 (+7) (Knack)

(4) Westerosi Law - 36/100 (+7) (Knack)

Language:

(7) Common Speaking - 95/100 (+15) (Knack)

(8) Old Tongue Speaking - 10/100 (+15) (Knack) ←

(6) Valyrian Speaking - 50/100 (+15) (Knack)

(6) Common Reading - 45/100 (+10)

(3) Westerosi Runes - 90/100 (+10)

(5) Valyrian Reading - 80/100 (+10)

Scholarly: (Knack in North)

(7) Math(s) - 25/100 (+25) ←

(7) Accounts - 60/100 (+50) (Prodigious)

(8) Northern History - 70/100 (+30) (Knack)

(6) Westerosi History - 25/100 (+25) ←

(6) Northern Peoples - 80/100 (+25)

(5) Westerosi Peoples - 5/100 (+25) ←

Leisure: (Knack in North)

(7) Northern Hunting - 65/100 (+15)

(4) Fishing - 34/100 (+7)

(3) Swimming - 94/100 (+7)

(2) Seacraft - 34/100 (+7)

(4) Climbing - 26/100 (+10) (Skilled In North)

(3) Acting (Lying Convincingly) - 20/100 (+3)

(8) Herbology - 80/100 (+30) (Prodigious)

War:

(6) 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: 5

Spending: 4

Banked: 20

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Rolls for Next Turn:

T2 = Person/Event at Home

L4 = Just what's described

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Voting:

Main Actions: What will you be doing with the Royal family next turn?

A1 - Training in the yard with Jon, Arya, and Joffrey.

Risk: Mid

Reward: Gain a Friendly reputation with Joffrey, +++ Arya.

A2 - Go on a Hunt with Sansa, Jon, Arya, and Joffrey.

Risk: Low

Reward: Gain a Friendly reputation with Joffrey, OK with the King, and ++ Arya.

A3 - (On Cooldown)

Risk: Low

Reward: Meet a new Myrcella and Tyrion, and gain a friendly reputation with them.

A4 - Go on the Hunt with your Uncle Ned and the King, and Jon.

Risk: Mid

Reward: Gain a Friendly reputation with the King, and +++ Uncle Ned.

A5 - Staying with your Aunt Cat, The Queen, and the Younger Children.

Risk: High

Reward: Annoy the Queen and Your Aunt.

A6 - Putting on a play for the Royals with Rob, Domeric, and…?

Risk: Low

Reward: Gain an Ok reputation with the whole royal party and a Friendly one with…?

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 - Reputations as of Chapter 46 (In order of best to least.)

Sansa - BFF

Jon - BFF

Arya - Lifelong Friends

Ned - Lifelong Friends

Rob - Friendly (+)

Yara - Friendly

Domeric - Friendly

Tyrion - Friendly

Myrcella - Friendly

Cat - Fine (+)

(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.

Side Note:

I got things wrong last turn, Aunt Cat should have been “Fine (+),” not “OK (-).”

Side Note 2:

Normally, Aunt Cat would have gained a + from this turn, but because she dropped down to Fine, she no longer grants + to most things.

This is doubly bad because Aunt Cat doesn't have a regular action, so we don't really have a way to bring her up, aside from gift-giving, until the royal party leaves.

However, as most of you have expressed a lack of care for our reputation with Aunt Cat, I will simply remind you that it can not go any lower than “Distaste,” which is one level below Neutral, given that we're family, and she cares too much about that to truly hate us like she does Jon.

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Write-In/Questions:

1 - How many turns should the royals stay for?

If you're enjoying the opportunity to build a reputation with them before they (and others like Ned and Arya) leave for the South, and we don't see them for several years.

I can keep them up to 4 more turns for a total of 6 months in Winterfell, or if not, then as little as having them leave after the next turn (3 Months).

I’d like to hear your reasoning, but all you need to do to vote here is say:

1 More

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