House Among Chaotic Kingdoms

Votes for this Turn:

A1 - Joffrey - 0

A2 - Hunt - 7

A3 - Study - 1

A4 - Robert - 43

A5 - Theater - 6

S1 - Wikipedia - 24

S2 - Steam - 0

S3 - Paradox - 0

S4 - World - 33

Names: So Far

Clan Hund of Hartshore - 20

Clan Lightcurtain of Lightshire - 16

House Cargyll of First Keep - 14

Clan Flaybreaker of Redwater - 6

Clan Soggs of Lakehall - 6

Clan Wull of the Broken Bucket - 5

Clan Umbra of Shadow - 5

Clan Icefox of Evergreen Valley - 5

Clan Longwaters of Barrowfell - 5

Clan Redroot of Heartstone - 1

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Rolls for this Turn:

Personal: Forgotten Realms Wiki

Thanks to the Balm of Peace, Ned Stark is now incredibly skilled while retreating and/or actively attempting to avoid violence.

This acts as a large boost to all of his skills during the specific moments when he is retreating, even if that retreat should involve violence, such as a counter, so long as Ned’s goal is to reduce the violence while he’s acting, then he keeps the boost.

This can't be fully loopholed, so acting with violence to reduce the overall violence in the world doesn't give him the boost, but seeking an end to a confrontation violently is acceptable so long as he’s doing it for the purpose of ending the violence, not other ideas, such as beating his opponent or doing the right/honorable thing.

Basically, this is a VERY strong ability, with some weird conditions to use it.

However, as this was an “L6 = Moderately Convenient,” Ned will receive some strange dreams that indicate he is more powerful when attempting to end violence, and that this should be his purpose while in the south.

That, combined with him inevitably discovering this ability in the training yard, should get him started on learning his new power and its limits.

World: Bulbapedia

Thanks to the Rowlet (MEP Promo 43), Rowlet, Dartrix, and Decidueye will begin appearing in Essos, but particularly in the lands of the Republic of Braavos.

Additionally, Daenerys Targaryen was one of the first to bond with a Rowlet and has already (at the advice of her brother’s Seer) begun bonding with and training it to fight.

(She will be able to Warg with it as well.)

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Story:

One nice part of the whole thing was that the hunt turned out smaller than you had feared.

You'd heard enough the night before to expect a proper royal disaster, with horns, banners, hounds, wagons, cooks, squires, and all the other nonsense that would've sent every living thing in the wolfswood running for the Wall.

Instead, King Robert came down in riding leathers with a spear at his saddle, a grin already on his face, and just enough men behind him to keep the thing respectable without smothering it.

He took one look at the extra attendants, spread his arms wide, and asked whether they were meant to hunt a stag or invade the Neck.

That got a laugh out of nearly everybody at once.

Then he jabbed a thumb toward one especially overloaded servant and declared that if a man needed three carts, two cooks, and a wineskin bearer to kill a deer, then the deer had already won.

In the end, the party was just the king, Uncle Ned, you, Jon, Sansa, a few guards for form's sake, and enough servants to keep the whole thing from turning feral.

Arya and Joffrey had stayed behind for some lesson in the yard.

That left the rest of you to ride out beneath a pale sky with the summer wind cool enough to feel fresh.

King Robert was in a good mood from the first minute and, worse for anyone hoping to stay solemn, he was the sort of man who could drag everyone else into it with him.

Not by force either.

He just had that way about him.

He'd laugh first, speak like he'd known you for years, clap a man on the shoulder like they were already friends, and somehow make the whole trail feel less stiff around him.

It was easy to see why people liked him.

Not because he was king, but because he was fun.

He rode like a man who belonged on horseback and had never once thought otherwise.

You'd heard mutters that he'd gone soft, and maybe there was some truth to that if you caught him in a hall after supper.

Out here with a weapon in hand and woods ahead of him, he looked a lot less like a worn king and a lot more like the sort of man songs got embarrassingly dramatic about.

Janus took one look at him and, for reasons known only to birds and old gods, decided the king was fascinating.

At first, the raven only followed from above, hopping from branch to branch and throwing out the occasional rude caw like he always did when you were outdoors.

Then Robert looked up, pointed at him like he'd just spotted an old accomplice, and said the bird had a soldier's eye and clearly knew quality when he saw it.

Janus fluffed up at that like a vain little beast.

Sansa looked personally betrayed.

She'd spent years winning that bird over with treats, patience, and all the careful dignity in the world.

Robert Baratheon had apparently managed the same thing in under a minute by being loud, cheerful, and pleased with himself.

Jon leaned over and muttered that if Janus started sitting on the king's shoulder, you'd have to declare treason against the whole species.

The truly strange part was that it nearly happened.

Later, when Robert started reminiscing about old hunts, Janus swooped down and landed on a low branch right above him, cawing at exactly the right moments like he was trying to join the conversation.

Robert looked up and answered him as if that were perfectly normal.

By the third exchange, even Uncle Ned was fighting a smile.

The hunt itself turned out to be better than expected because Robert liked the same kind of hunting you, Jon, and Sansa did.

You'd expected horns, shouting, and enough noise to warn half the North.

Instead, he waved off two different suggestions from the guards and said a proper hunt was meant to be felt in your boots and your lungs, not announced to every creature within ten miles.

Then he picked the narrower trail west and added that if they made enough noise to wake the dead, they'd spend the whole day hunting rabbits too deaf to run.

That got Sansa laughing.

Jon smiled the way he did when something actually landed.

You were grinning too, because the whole thing stopped feeling like a royal performance and started feeling like a real day out.

Robert did most of the talking, and somehow that only made it easier for everyone else to join in.

He pointed out a stream crossing and said it reminded him of a hunt in the Vale where he'd nearly broken his neck chasing a stag with only Ned beside him.

A little later, he swore he'd once spent three wet, miserable days with Uncle Ned, Elbert Arryn, and Denys Arryn, only for Ned to bring down the best buck after the rest of them had frozen half to death.

Then he laughed harder while saying Jon Arryn could sometimes be dragged along too, though only if enough people pestered him first and promised not to sing.

At that, Uncle Ned actually smiled.

A real one, too, not the thin polite kind he used for half the world.

Robert saw it at once, clapped him on the arm hard enough to rock him in the saddle, and announced that your uncle had been every bit as grim at sixteen as he was now, and that if he hadn't been such an unfairly good shot, none of them would've tolerated him.

Uncle Ned said some men mistook noise for charm.

Robert answered that some men mistook brooding for depth.

Then he looked over at Jon, nodded once like he'd solved a mystery, and said that at least one bastard in the party had inherited the proper balance.

That got a real laugh out of Jon.

Even Sansa covered her mouth and laughed.

That was the thing about Robert.

He filled the air without choking it.

He kept things moving, made people answer him, gave them something easy to bounce off, and somehow left everyone feeling brighter than before.

At one point, he asked Sansa whether she meant to outshoot the rest of you again.

She lifted her chin and said she might.

Robert slapped his thigh and declared that was the sort of answer he liked, because false modesty had never once improved a hunt.

Then he turned to you and Jon and said if either of you lost to a lady, you'd best lose with dignity because nobody respected sulking.

The worst part was that he said it in exactly the sort of easy, amused way that made it impossible to resent.

You could see where Joffrey got it.

Not the specific words, maybe, but the likability.

That bright, easy charm.

That sense that when he turned it on, a room tilted his way almost before anyone realized it.

The hunting itself came in waves.

There were long, quiet stretches where you, Jon, and Sansa traded observations about bent grass, broken twigs, damp prints, and the difference between fresh sign and old.

Robert listened with obvious amusement at first, then with real approval once it became clear the three of you knew what you were talking about.

When Sansa pointed out where a boar had rooted near an old birch stand and noted how the earth had already begun to dry, Robert gave her a sharper look.

When Jon explained why the beast had likely turned downhill toward wetter ground, Robert nodded and said that if more lordlings learned to read mud before men, half the realm's troubles might solve themselves.

Then he added that the other half could probably be managed with a hammer, a skin of wine, and better in-laws.

That one got Uncle Ned to shut his eyes for half a second, like he'd seen the line coming too late to stop it.

Sansa laughed anyway, and so did you.

Even one of the guards snorted hard enough to choke.

You got your own bit of praise later when a set of faint tracks led you off the main trail and toward a thicker cut through the pines.

They were easy to miss beneath the needles, and Robert reined in when you called the halt.

He leaned over, studied the sign, gave a satisfied grunt, and said it was a good eye and that paying attention would save your life one day, whereas charging ahead loudly would only save everyone else the trouble of wondering where the fool had gone.

By midday, the whole ride had settled into something strangely easy.

Sansa was smiling more freely than she had since the royal party arrived.

Jon looked almost unfairly content.

Uncle Ned had gone quieter again, though this time it was the warm kind, like the king's noise had done the work for both of them.

Robert noticed all of it.

At one point, he looked across the three of you and said he understood now why Ned had encouraged these hunts.

Then he corrected himself and said allowed sounded too weak, because judging by the look of you, the three of you would've hunted anyway and simply claimed the woods had invited you.

He said too many noble children were raised half indoors and full of themselves, while the three of you at least looked like you'd learned something worth carrying.

Uncle Ned said the wolves and raven had likely done as much teaching as anyone.

Robert replied that if the wolves had better sense than half his court, then perhaps he ought to appoint one to the small council.

Janus cawed from above at that like he'd taken it as a serious offer.

Robert pointed up and said there, you see, ambition already.

By late afternoon, you had enough game to count.

Nothing fit for a song, nothing enormous.

Still, it was enough to justify the ride back and leave everyone in a good mood.

More than that, it had made the king feel real.

Not less royal, because that still sat on him too deeply to vanish in a single afternoon.

Just more human than the castle had allowed.

Out here with mud on his boots, a spear in hand, old stories in his mouth, and your traitor raven acting like they'd been drinking companions for years, he felt less like some distant king from songs and more like the man Uncle Ned had missed all this time.

And if Janus had decided King Robert was the finest person he'd met in months, then clearly ravens were just as vulnerable to charm as everybody else.

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Skills:

Combat:

(8) Westerosi CQC - 85/100 (+20) (Talented In North)

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

(9) Northern Archery - 75/100 (+15) (Skilled)

(6) Northern Equestrianism - 50/100 (+30) (Knack)

(9) Heavy Armour - 55/100 (+30) (Prodigious)

Diplomacy:

(8) Interpersonal Communication - 45/100 (+30) (Skilled)

(3) Public Speaking - 60/100 (+33) (Skilled)

(11) Management - 110/300 (+50) (Prodigious)

(5) Stewardship - 3/100 (+30) (Knack) ←

(4) Northern Law - 83/100 (+30) (Knack)

(4) Westerosi Law - 73/100 (+30) (Knack)

Language:

(8) Common Speaking - 25/100 (+15) (Knack)

(8) Old Tongue Speaking - 40/100 (+15) (Knack)

(6) Valyrian Speaking - 80/100 (+15) (Knack)

(6) Common Reading - 65/100 (+10)

(4) Westerosi Runes - 10/100 (+10) ←

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

Scholarly: (Knack in North)

(7) Math(s) - 45/100 (+10)

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

(8) Northern History - 100/100 (+15) (Knack)

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

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

(5) Westerosi Peoples - 25/100 (+10)

Leisure: (Knack in North)

(8) Northern Hunting - 20/100 (+50) ←

(4) Fishing - 48/100 (+7)

(4) Swimming - 8/100 (+7)

(2) Seacraft - 48/100 (+7)

(4) Climbing - 58/100 (+8) (Skilled In North)

(3) Acting (Lying Convincingly) - 26/100 (+3)

(9) Herbology - 50/100 (+40) (Prodigious)

War:

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

(2) Castrametation - 10/100 (+25) ←

(2) Poliorcetics - 10/100 (+25) ←

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

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

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Earning: 5

Spending: 0

Banked: 30

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Rolls for Next Turn:

T3 = Objects/Effect on Another Place

L2 = Moderately Inconvenient

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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, Rob, Arya, and Joffrey.

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

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

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

A3 - Learn from Tyrion with Sansa and Myrcella.

Reward: Study with Myrcella and Tyrion, and gain a more friendly reputation with them.

A4 - (On CoolDown)

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

A5 - Putting on a play for the Royals with Rob, Domeric, and…?

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

Personal Rolls Sources:

S1 - Wikipedia

S2 - Steam Games

S3 - Paradox Wiki's (D30)

S4 - World Rolls List (D12) (On Cooldown 1/1)

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Information:

1 - Action + Shopping = Synergy

When you're voting for what to buy and what action to take, try to keep synergies in mind.

If a shopping choice and an action choice fit together, then winning both results in an additional reputation gain on top of the normal rewards.

Example:

If you vote for the A2 hunting trip action and also hire Yara as a fishing tutor, the chapter would be about the fishing trip and everyone bonding over it, and the result would be an extra reputation boost that comes from the synergy between both parts.

The same thing applies to the other actions.

If you buy the Western Foods Option and then also spend time learning with Tyrion and Myrcella, then those synergise with each other.

This also works with Write-Ins.

If you pick the A5 acting action and also write in something like: “Buy costumes, props, etc for the next play.”

Then that synergy would produce an additional reputation gain that might just bump Rob and Domeric to proper “Friends” rather than the lukewarm “Friendly.”

So when you're voting, try to keep the synergies in mind for what you’d like to happen, since we only have 2 more turns to set our reputation with these people, then they're gone for years.

It’s best to take advantage while we can.

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Write-In/Questions:

1 - What should we buy and for whom?

Examples:

(2R) Hire Yara to teach Us, Joffrey, and Arya to fish.

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

(2R) Some Westerlands food for the Queen.

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

(2R) A wolf pendant for Arya.

(2R) A Kraken necklace for Yara.

(6R) Hire a beekeeper for Long Lake.

(8R) A Kraken necklace for Theon and Yara

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

(20R) A Horse for Jon