House Among Chaotic Kingdoms

Votes for this Turn:

A1 - Joffrey - 15

A2 - Hunt - 25

A3 - Study - 3

A4 - Robert - 0

A5 - Theatre - 19

S1 - Wikipedia - 36

S2 - Steam - 18

S3 - Paradox - 8

S4 - World - 0

Ideas: So Far

(6R) Hire Yara to teach fishing: Joffrey, Arya, & 2 necklaces: Arya/Kraken, Yara/Wolf. - 23

(2R) Hire Yara to teach Us, Joffrey, and Arya to fish. - 14

(8R) Increase production budget of play for the Royals - 9

(8R) A Kraken necklace for Theon and Yara - 5

(2R) A Kraken necklace for Yara. - 5

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

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

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

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

(14R) Buy 7 Small statues of Cat’s 7 Gods (+++++ Cat) - 2

(2R) A stag pendant too for Joffrey - 1

(4R) Hire Yara to teach Us, Joffrey, and Arya to fish + Kraken necklace as thanks. - 1

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

(20R) A Horse for Jon - 1

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Rolls for this Turn:

Personal: Wikipedia

Thanks to the Island Peril, guns in Westeros are more accurate than they should be.

This is a small buff spread across all of Westeros, but profound in the long run, especially for the sides that don't have guns… like the North, or Riverlands.

Specifically, what this does is makes the “aim in their general direction and hope” school of aiming work a bit more often than it really should, just like how in Island Peril and the game it was based off of, DOOM, you only need to aim in the direction of an enemy to hit them, regardless of if they were above or below you.

(This will benefit the Westerlands the most, with them needing to re-invent gunpowder, their guns will not be smokeless like those of Stannis Baratheon, and the unknown other party.

So the people using the guns are much more likely to use the “general direction” method of aiming.)

World: Legend of Zelda Wiki

Thanks to the Ending Blow, any attack we make with the explicit intention to kill our opponent is now much stronger and more damaging than it has any right to be.

However, this is a very specific move, it’s not just “fighting with the intent to kill”, but we must fully believe that “this blow will kill my opponent” for it to activate.

Additionally, if the opponent does manage to avoid or misdirect the blow despite the additional power in it, then the resulting knockback will daze us momentarily.

Finally, because the roll was low, we don't receive any prophetic dreams about this, and will need to discover it on the battlefield.

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Story:

Yara took the coin with a snort and a grin, then asked whether you were paying for fishing lessons or for her company, because those were different services and she ought to know which one she was being cheated on.

You told her it was both, which only made her laugh harder.

By the next morning, the four of you were riding out together with poles, bait, a basket for the catch, and just enough quiet understanding between you to know what the day was really for.

Arya rode close to Yara from the beginning, which wasn't unusual, though it felt sharper now with the royal party already changing the shape of Winterfell around itself.

Prince Joffrey, for his part, played the role of cheerful student with surprising grace, and if he found the whole business beneath him, then he had the manners not to show it.

The fishing spot wasn't far enough away to count as a real journey, though it was tucked off well enough beside a stream-fed pool and a bend of trees that it always felt a little secret when you reached it.

Yara swung down first and took charge at once, ordering where the horses would be tied, where the bait would be kept, and where Prince Joffrey ought to stand if he wanted any chance at all of not tangling his line like a fool.

Joffrey accepted the correction with a smile that looked genuine, which was the sort of thing that kept catching you off guard about him.

He was a prince, and a gifted one besides, yet when somebody knew something he didn't, he seemed perfectly willing to learn it.

Yara showed him the grip first, then how to cast without throwing half the riverbank with it, and then how to watch the line with patience rather than glaring at the water as if royal expectation might force fish into his hands.

Arya barely listened to the words at all, because she already knew enough to muddle through and cared much more about doing it beside Yara than doing it properly.

That was fine too.

You already knew most of what Yara was saying, and she knew that you knew it, so after a while, the lesson became more performance than teaching, though a kindly one.

Prince Joffrey caught on quickly enough to make a respectable showing of himself, and when he finally landed a small trout, he held it up with such pleased surprise that Arya laughed out loud.

Yara rolled her eyes at that, though she looked pleased too.

You caught two fish yourself without much trouble, then a third soon after, and by then it had become obvious that Yara and Arya were drifting toward one another more than toward the lesson.

There wasn't anything dramatic in it.

They just kept ending up side by side, speaking lower, smiling at things nobody else heard, and moving with the easy rhythm of people who'd already spent years being fond of one another.

Joffrey noticed it too.

He glanced your way after a while, then toward the little stretch of deeper water where Yara had started talking Arya into taking off her boots and wading in, and the look he gave you was so politely deliberate that it might as well have been spoken aloud.

So the two of you made your decision together without either of you needing to say much.

You remarked that there might be rabbits or birds worth taking farther up the tree line, and Joffrey agreed at once that it would be a shame not to make the most of the day.

Neither Yara nor Arya called after you, which said enough by itself.

Once you were a little way off, with the sound of water and laughter dulled behind you, Joffrey let out a breath that sounded more thoughtful than tired and rested one hand on the bow at his shoulder.

"I'd like her to keep her friends," he said after a moment, his tone easy though the words beneath it clearly weren't, "but liking a thing and permitting it publicly aren't always the same."

You glanced over at him, then kept walking.

He didn't seem bothered by the silence.

"At court," he said, "what matters almost as much as truth is appearance, and after that comes what other people think your appearance means."

That sounded miserable, and you said so.

He laughed at that, quiet and real.

"Sometimes it is," he admitted, "but it's also part of the work."

He stooped then, touching two fingers to a broken tuft of grass and the edge of a print you hadn't noticed until he pointed it out, then rose again without breaking the flow of the conversation.

"If I were seen being too warm with Yara Greyjoy," he said, "then some would call it softness toward rebels, others would call it insult to those who died in the war, and still others would decide it meant I could be pushed on matters that ought not be pushed."

You frowned at that, and he only shrugged.

"It wouldn't matter that they'd be wrong," he said, "because once enough people believe you might think a thing, then you have to answer the belief whether you ever thought it or not."

For a while after that, you walked in silence, following easy game sign more than truly hunting, and your head kept turning over the shape of what he'd said.

You'd known, in some vague distant way, that southron court life was full of masks and smiling traps, but hearing it laid out so plainly by somebody your own age made it feel smaller somehow.

Like a cage built out of glances and rumours.

Joffrey, meanwhile, seemed almost at peace with it, not happy exactly, but prepared, as if he'd been raised knowing that every gesture might be measured and every kindness might need a cover story before it could safely exist.

That was no way to live, as far as you were concerned.

Still, it was clearly the way he'd have to.

The two of you ended up taking a brace of rabbits and one fat grouse before turning back, which was more than enough to make the walk useful without delaying too long.

By the time you returned to the stream, Yara and Arya were both wet to the knees and pretending not to be, with two more fish laid out nearby and Silco watching them both like a furry little sworn shield.

Arya's face had that bright look she got when she'd been genuinely happy and hadn't yet remembered to hide it.

Yara looked calmer than she had all week.

That made the whole scheme worth it by itself.

As the four of you gathered your things and began the ride back toward Winterfell, your hand brushed against the little wrapped bundle tucked safely in your things, and Prince Joffrey's earlier words came back hard enough to settle the matter for you.

You'd meant to wait until supper, but now that felt clumsy.

Too public, and too easily turned into something performative when it wasn't meant to be.

So when the walls of Winterfell came back into sight through the trees and the road widened enough for you to slow the horses, you pulled the bundle free and called for Arya and Yara to wait a moment.

They both looked at you.

So did Joffrey, though the faint look on his face said he already knew what you were doing and approved of the timing.

You handed the first necklace to Arya.

Its pendant was shaped like a kraken, small but well-made, dark metal worked into curling arms and a clever little loop so it sat properly when worn.

Then you handed the second to Yara.

Hers was shaped like Silco, done in the same metal, all sharp ears and lean lines and that alert little posture the wolf had when he thought something interesting might be about to happen.

For one moment, neither of them spoke.

Arya looked down at hers so fast it was almost a flinch, while Yara went very still in that way she had when she was trying not to show she'd been hit somewhere tender.

Then Arya touched the kraken with two fingers and looked up at you with a strange, fierce kind of gratitude that made her seem older and younger all at once.

Yara snorted softly and said, you were getting sentimental in your old age, which would've landed better if her voice hadn't gone just a little rough at the edges.

So you took Prince Joffrey's lesson and did the same as he did.

You didn't make a spectacle of it, and you didn't name what it meant.

You just nodded once, said that the two of them had better wear the things rather than hide them in a stupid chest somewhere, and turned your horse toward the gate as if this were all perfectly ordinary.

Joffrey, bless him, followed your lead at once and started talking about the rabbits you'd caught and whether the cooks could be convinced to do anything interesting with them.

That gave Arya and Yara the room to recover without needing to recover.

By the time you all rode through the gate, the moment had folded itself neatly into the rest of the day, private where it needed to be and visible only in the smallest ways.

Arya sat a little straighter.

Yara kept touching the wolf pendant like she hadn't realised she was doing it.

And you, with your head still full of court politics and appearances and all the rotten little traps hidden inside public life, thought maybe there was something to be said for a gift given at the right time, quietly, where it could still mean exactly what it was supposed to mean and nothing else.

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Skills:

Combat:

(9) Westerosi CQC - 55/100 (+20) (Talented In North)

(6) Westerosi Swordsmanship - 85/100 (+10)

(9) Northern Archery - 90/100 (+15) (Skilled)

(6) Northern Equestrianism - 80/100 (+30) (Knack)

(9) Heavy Armour - 85/100 (+30) (Prodigious)

Diplomacy:

(8) Interpersonal Communication - 60/100 (+15) (Skilled)

(3) Public Speaking - 65/100 (+5) (Skilled)

(11) Management - 140/300 (+30) (Prodigious)

(5) Stewardship - 10/100 (+7) (Knack)

(4) Northern Law - 90/100 (+7) (Knack)

(4) Westerosi Law - 80/100 (+7) (Knack)

Language:

(8) Common Speaking - 40/100 (+15) (Knack)

(8) Old Tongue Speaking - 55/100 (+15) (Knack)

(6) Valyrian Speaking - 95/100 (+15) (Knack)

(6) Common Reading - 75/100 (+10)

(4) Westerosi Runes - 20/100 (+10)

(6) Valyrian Reading - 10/100 (+10) ←

Scholarly: (Knack in North)

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

(8) Accounts - 50/100 (+30) (Prodigious)

(9) Northern History - 15/100 (+15) (Knack) ←

(6) Westerosi History - 55/100 (+10)

(7) Northern Peoples - 10/100 (+10) ←

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

Leisure: (Knack in North)

(8) Northern Hunting - 55/100 (+25) ←

(4) Fishing - 100/100 (+52)

(4) Swimming - 35/100 (+27)

(2) Seacraft - 55/100 (+7)

(4) Climbing - 65/100 (+7) (Skilled In North)

(3) Acting (Lying Convincingly) - 46/100 (+20)

(9) Herbology - 90/100 (+40) (Prodigious)

War:

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

(2) Castrametation - 10/100 (+0)

(2) Poliorcetics - 10/100 (+0)

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

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

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Earning: 5

Spending: 6

Banked: 29

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Rolls for Next Turn:

T1 = Person/Event in the World

L6 = Moderately Convenient

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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 and Arya.

A2 - (On CoolDown)

Reward: Gain a more Friendly reputation with Joffrey, 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 - Go on the Hunt with your Uncle Ned and the King, and Jon.

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 (On Cooldown 1/2)

S2 - Steam Games

S3 - Paradox Wiki's (D30)

S4 - World Rolls List (D12)

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Information:

1 - A Clarification on what the Skill Levels mean now:

So, I am now three for three on underestimating the power scale in my own writing.

Thankfully, this time you guys were nice enough to agree that the level cap should be removed, because that gives us a lot more room to work with going forward.

That said, I do want to clarify what that means, because with the cap gone, 10 is no longer the exclusive realm of the greatest people alive.

At this point, I’m viewing 10 much more as the level of someone who is fully trained in a subject.

Not the best in the world.

Just somebody who has spent years learning properly and has reached the point where a master has more or less taught them what can be taught in normal circumstances.

Related to that, 5 was never meant to be average for a grown adult.

Five was always meant to be basic competence, or the level of somebody who is new to a role but can do it properly.

So if a farmer has a 5 in farming when they first come of age, that makes perfect sense.

If that same farmer still has a 5 in farming at forty, then either they picked it up late or they are not exactly carrying the village intellectually.

That also means some skills are going to slow down once they hit that fully trained point.

Westerosi CQC is the obvious example, because once we hit 10 there, Sir Rodrik has probably taught us just about everything he personally knows.

After that, improvement is less about lessons and more about experience, actual fighting, and learning what works when somebody is trying to crack your ribs open.

On the other hand, prodigious skills are still going to keep climbing hard, because the whole point of those is that Wulfric keeps absorbing more so long as there is more to absorb.

Management is the clearest example of that.

If there is more to learn there, then the Old Gods, RNGesus, or whatever is probably still going to keep feeding us more of it.

So the big thing I’m trying to get across is that just because some of our skills are hitting 9s and 10s, that does not mean we should be imagining Wulfric as one of the greatest people in Westeros at age 14.

Jon is probably the easiest example.

He has been grinding combat skills for years now, and I would not be shocked if he is sitting somewhere around a 13-14 in Westerosi Swordsmanship by this point.

I am also still pretty sure that any actually competent Kingsguard would beat the brakes off him.

Same thing applies outside combat.

Our Interpersonal Communication is getting pretty solid, but Robert Baratheon is probably on some absurd tier there.

Not because we are bad, but because he is a grown man who has been winning people over his whole life and is just naturally prodigious at it.

So the rough scale I’m working with now is basically this:

5 is basic competence.

10 is fully trained.

Anything above 10 is where we start getting into people who are genuinely exceptional.

That gives us room to keep growing without doing the thing where a teenager who has mostly trained in peace somehow ends up already being better than half the legends in the setting.

It also helps avoid the Born of Bad Odds problem, where we more or less max out early and then spend the rest of the quest with nowhere left to go.

So yes, Wulfric is doing well.

Yes, he is ahead of where most people his age would be.

Yes, by the time we head south, he is probably going to be basically competent or better in just about everything.

What he is not is some complete monster who is already a god of combat, administration, diplomacy, and warfare before he is even properly grown.

If we want him to become that sort of figure, then we are going to have to build him into it over the rest of the quest, which I think is a lot more fun anyway.

2 - Reputations as of Chapter 49 (In order of best to least.)

Sansa - BFF

Jon - BFF

Arya - Lifelong Friends (+)

Ned - Lifelong Friends

Joffrey - Close Friends (-)

Yara - Friends (+)

Rob - Friends (-)

Bobby B. - Friends (-)

Domeric - Friendly

Tyrion - Friendly

Myrcella - Friendly

Theon - Friendly (-)

Cat - Distaste (+)

(Fine → Ok → Good → Friendly → Friends → Close Friends → Lifelong 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.

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Write-In/Questions:

1 - Do you guys want to keep going down the path with this possibly reformed Joffrey, or should we keep up with the tentative alliance between the Starks and Stannis Baratheon?

This won't affect much in the immediate term, but I want to see what you think, given we can't go down both paths, and it’ll matter sooner or later which way we think the wind is blowing…

This one is a discussion, not a vote, so feel free to get nuanced with your answers, or even just go for neither, if you want.

I just want to get a read on you lot’s feelings on the issue.