House Among Chaotic Kingdoms

Votes for this Turn:

A1 - Fight - 6

A2 - Hunt - 5

A3 - Feast - 19

A4 - Sail - 23

S1 - Wikipedia - 17

S2 - Steam - 0

S3 - Paradox - 38

S4 - World - 0

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Rolls for this Turn:

Personal: Stellaris Wiki

Thanks to Desert Ruins, Long Lake is now one of the places ancient people got their Dragonglass from.

While more rare than other places, Dragonglass/Obsidian can be naturally found in and around Long Lake and thus features prominently among jewelry and “favorite rock” collections of locals.

World: Witcher Wiki

Thanks to Cow (Gwent card), the Rangeland of Long Lake Province (see map below) is now FULL of cows.

The province is now, among other things, known in the north for its abundance of dairy products.

Other places still claim to have higher quality Dairy products, but one thing is for certain:

If you need a lot of Beef or Cheese, then you make an order in HartShore or Heart of the Gods.

Is this good? bad?

No clue, but it was an “L4 = Just what's described” on a roll about cows, so it’s what we get…

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Story:

The little sailboat felt smaller than memory, which was probably more about you than the boat, but it still looked right out on Long Lake with Stark grey and white bright against the water.

It was your father’s boat, and that made the whole thing feel stranger than you’d expected.

Not heavy exactly, but close enough.

A thing could sit untouched for years and still start talking the moment you put your hands on it again.

For a while the two of you did not say much, because there was enough to do with the wind and the lines and the simple work of getting her moving cleanly.

You showed Jon how to watch the lake instead of just the sail, because the water would often tell you what the wind was doing before the canvas did.

You pointed out the little dark ripples where the breeze bit harder, the softer patches where it had gone lazy, and the way the boat answered best when you worked with the pull instead of trying to bully it.

He learned quickly enough.

Not perfectly, which made you feel better.

The first time he adjusted the line he did it too sharply and got the sail fluttering like a fool, but the second time was better and the third time looked almost natural.

That was when Jon finally said Uncle Ned had told him something important, and by his tone you could tell it was one of those truths adults sat on for years and then dropped into your lap as if that made them kinder.

He said Uncle Ned claimed he was not Ned Stark’s bastard after all, but the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark.

Then he showed you the dagger Uncle Ned had given him, a Valyrian steel blade that his supposed father had left with Lyanna before riding off to what turned out to be his death.

The dagger was real enough, and old enough, and expensive enough to make the whole thing feel more serious than you wanted it to.

Jon looked like he was waiting for the world to split open under him.

Instead you looked at him, thought about it for half a breath, and pointed out that he was being a bit dramatic about the practical side of things, because he’d been your cousin before this revelation and now, rather inconveniently for him, he was still your cousin.

Jon just stared at you for a moment.

Then he laughed, short and startled and real, which was good because he’d been drifting toward one of his darker moods and you had no desire to spend the afternoon letting him sink into it.

So before he could start brooding again you handed him a fishing rod and told him that whatever blood ran in his veins, it’d still be embarrassing if an officer of Long Lake Province turned out to be terrible at fishing.

That got another laugh out of him, and then the matter was settled for the moment because some things really did improve when you made them compete with a practical task.

Jon already knew a little about fishing thanks to Yara, but knowing a little was not the same as being decent at it.

So you showed him what Long Lake fishing actually looked like, or at least the version done from a small sailboat with decent weather and no urgency.

You pointed out the quieter water near the reeds and the darker bands where the depth changed.

You showed him how to cast without slapping the surface like an idiot and how to let the line settle where fish might actually be rather than where it was easiest to throw.

You reminded him that patience mattered more than pride in fishing, and Jon, to his credit, took that better than most boys would have.

He missed the first proper bite by pulling too soon.

He caught the second fish mostly by luck.

The third he got cleanly, and after that the whole thing began to look less like a lesson and more like the two of you simply spending a proper afternoon on the lake.

That was good too, because the trip had never only been about teaching Jon something.

Part of it was showing him Long Lake as it actually was.

Not as a map, not as a title, not as the place you’d been sent back to rule, but as living water and moving sails and a place where people noticed things.

You passed two fishing boats first, then a broader vessel farther out, and each time the men aboard looked over, saw Stark colors on the sail, and lifted hands in greeting.

You and Jon waved back, and there was something deeply reassuring in that.

A Stark was in residence again, and people on the lake were already noticing.

As the afternoon wore on and the light began going softer over the water, you found yourself pointing things out almost without thinking.

This stretch ran shallower than it looked.

That cove held perch more often than not.

The wind here tended to slip around weirdly toward evening because of the shape of the shore.

Little things, really, but little things were most of what made a place into home.

By the time you turned back toward the castle, the whole outing had done exactly what it needed to do.

It had pulled Jon’s mind away from all the blood and secrets and dead princes of it.

It had reminded you of the lake in a way no room full of books or ledgers ever could.

And it had shown the people out on the water that House Stark was not ruling Long Lake from far away anymore.

When you got back to the castle and came inside, you found out Tulin had returned north at last, though not yet to Long Lake itself.

Apparently he’d gone first to Winterfell, only to learn that you were no longer there, which meant it would still be a while before he actually reached you.

That was irritating, but only in the way good news often was when it insisted on arriving in stages.

Even so, you were pleased enough by it.

Sooner or later Tulin would get there, and then you’d hear whether the gifts for Shireen had been well received and whether the rumors out of Dorne had been true.

If they were, and if the silk producing animals really could be brought north alive, then all three major settlements on Long Lake had at least a small glass garden where a first breeding stock might be housed.

That was the sort of thought that could keep a lord happy for days.

Not because it was grand, not yet, but because it was possible.

A few creatures in a few glass gardens could become a native silk industry in the North for the first time anyone could remember, and that was the kind of change people talked about later as if it had always been obvious.

You’d just have to wait for Tulin to get there and tell you whether the whole mad plan had turned into a triumph, a disaster, or something much more interesting in between.

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Skills:

Combat:

(9) Westerosi CQC - 95/100 (+15) (Talented In North)

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

(10) Northern Archery - 45/200 (+10) (Skilled)

(7) Northern Equestrianism - 50/100 (+30) (Knack) ←

(10) Heavy Armour - 85/200 (+30) (Prodigious)

Diplomacy:

(9) Interpersonal Communication - 40/100 (+15) (Skilled)

(4) Public Speaking - 30/100 (+10) (Skilled)

(11) Management - 240/300 (+40) (Prodigious)

(5) Stewardship - 40/100 (+16) (Knack)

(5) Northern Law - 20/100 (+16) (Knack)

(5) Westerosi Law - 10/100 (+16) (Knack) ←

Language:

(8) Common Speaking - 85/100 (+5) (Knack)

(9) Old Tongue Speaking - 15/100 (+30) (Knack) ←

(7) Valyrian Speaking - 28/100 (+3) (Knack)

(6) Common Reading - 95/100 (+0)

(4) Westerosi Runes - 40/100 (+0)

(6) Valyrian Reading - 30/100 (+0)

Scholarly: (Knack in North)

(7) Math(s) - 85/100 (+20)

(9) Accounts - 50/100 (+40) (Prodigious) ←

(9) Northern History - 50/100 (+5) (Knack)

(6) Westerosi History - 75/100 (+0)

(7) Northern Peoples - 50/100 (+20)

(5) Westerosi Peoples - 55/100 (+0)

Leisure: (Knack in North)

(8) Northern Hunting - 75/100 (+0)

(5) Fishing - 45/100 (+30)

(4) Swimming - 80/100 (+30)

(3) Seacraft - 20/100 (+50) ←

(4) Climbing - 90/100 (+10) (Skilled In North)

(4) Acting (Lying Convincingly) - 3/100 (+0)

(10) Herbology - 85/200 (+25) (Prodigious)

(1) Warging - 30/100 (+15) (Gifted)

War:

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

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

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

(1) Fleetcraft - 35/100 (+25)

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

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Earning: 5

Spending: 0

Banked: 44

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Rolls for Next Turn:

T1 = Person/Event in the World

L2 = Moderately Inconvenient

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Voting:

Main Actions:

A1 - Patrol the Kingsroad with Jon to prove it’s not boys returning, but men.

Reputation: Small Boost with everyone at Heartsgrove.

A2 - Invite Sir Wylis on a hunt with yourself and Jon to get to know him again.

Reputation: Large Boost with Sir Wylis

A3 - Order a small feast to celebrate your return. (-10 Resources)

Reputation: Moderate boost with everyone at Heartsgrove.

A4 - Ask Berenice to teach us about local plants and their uses.

Reputation: Moderate Boost to Local Scholars.

A5 - Take a trip to some smaller farming communities on the South End of the Lake.

Reputation: Large boost with local Farmers, Moderate boost with Lady Heelis.

A6 - Ask Omek to teach some Northern History in the Godswood.

Reputation: Small Boost to everyone on the Lake’s South end.

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 - Updated Map

2 - A question for Thorison

I was going to include an option to visit HartShore, but it occurred to me that I would need to make up a bunch of OC’s for what is, at this point, your creation.

This will likely be a recurring character, so my own Lord Generic probably wouldn't do the clan you put the effort into fleshing out the justice it deserves.

So instead, I wanted to see if you’d write up a quick thing about who the current Chief/Lord of HartShore is and what they're like, and what their role was in recent history, such as Roberts/Greyjoy Rebellions, or if they're closer to Wulfric’s age.

So that when I do include the option, Wulfric, Jon, Jinx, Ghost, and Janus can meet the person you made.

Either way, thank you for the effort you've put into this Quest!

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Write-In/Questions:

1 - What should our personal little sailboat be named?

We’ll get to ordering our Minions once Tulin is back.

For now, what's a fun name for the little sailboat in Stark colors that our father commissioned, and that we’ll be using to navigate the lake from now on?

Examples:

Shore-Thing

Skipper

Breezy

Longwake