Rolled 2, 2, 3, 2, 4, 4, 4, 6, 2 = 29 (9d6)

>>6101817

Rolled 6, 2, 2, 1, 3, 4, 1, 3, 2 = 24 (9d6)

>>6101817
My roll.

Rolled 1, 2, 1, 6, 2, 1, 3, 4, 5 = 25 (9d6)

>>6101817

Rolled 2, 5, 2, 1, 6, 4, 6, 1, 5 = 32 (9d6)

>>6101817

Rolled 5, 5, 4, 3, 2, 5, 4, 6, 4 = 38 (9d6)

>>6101817

Rolled 5, 4, 4, 4, 1, 6, 5, 6, 6 = 41 (9d6)

>>6101817
Seconding this character >>6101877

File: sheet.png (14 KB, 241x391)

14 KB PNG

Not exactly what I intended, but seconding roll does give users the choice to select, so we are going with this >>6101877

>Guel
You are Guel, son of Gidael, the 20-year-old heir presumptive to the High Kingdom of the Avethemen.


>Kingdom of the Avathemen
Avathemen are the third oldest people on the Island, only recently have the Castrian colonists been displacing the Avathemen.
The Kingdom itself is fairly new, and would not exist without the Castrians, whose intrusion into traditional Avatheman territory allowed the city-kingdom of Donura to insert its hegemony over six other Avathemen states, this happened when your grandfather was still a child.

So, the kingdom itself is merely a confederation and its king holds little power outside of the capital, Danonura.

>King Icustael
The current king is your childless half-brother, Icustael. And until he is able to produce a child of his own, you are his heir.
Icustael is a man of peace and has never been too fond of you. Icustael reversed late Gidael's policies of prosperity and focused on building co-existence.
His reign is generally seen as prosperous, but the Castrians power is growing, and many lords are concerned about it.

>Lady Diroana
Lady Diroana is your mother, he is not the mother of Icustael. She was one of many concubines of the late Gidael. She is a daughter one of the sub-kings of the kingdom. Following his ascension, Icustael took her as one of his concubines, making your half-brother also your stepfather. Regardless she holds some influence in the capital.


>Chapter I:
Five years ago, when your father died, Icustael sent you to the eastern Kingdom of Stisea, which is a Castrian realm, where you have remained since, as Icustael forbids you from returning.
It's typical behavior, as younger brothers is are typically made co-rulers, but instead, Icustael has deprived you of any authority and exiled you in all but the name.
Meanwhile, civil war is brooding over Avathemen, as the xenophobic faction wants to wage war on the Castrians, while xenophilic factions wish to co-exist in peace.

King of Stisea is not fond of the tribute he is forced to pay to your brother, and has teased you with the idea of helping you to overthrow your brother, of course, you might be seen as a Castrian puppet if you did that, and Stisea has little resources, so your success would depend on winning over the xenophobic faction.

What will you do? You don't necessarily have to arms against your brother, but that has certainly been on your mind.

>>6101913
High charisma and bravery? That's some good leader potential right there.

>>6101913

Convince the king of Stisea to give us a ship. We can't return to Avathemen but if we have a ship we can visit a few ports without breaking the kings command, perhaps trade for coin, kill a few pirates or plunder other realms, to earn the favor we need to move forward.

Ask Lady Diroana for support and information on the factions and news of the Kingdoms. Then we will know who we want to visit.

Lady Diroanas father, our grandfather, is a sub king. He might be someone who can be persuaded to favor Guen.

>>6101913
>Short term plan, aka. “Operation Black Apostle: Part 1”

1. Leave the Stisean capital (break out if we have to) and try to find a crazed religious type (not a mainline priest) who preaches against the Avathemen, preferably as some sort of demonic evil that the gods command be overthrown or whatever. Later, we will claim we did this because of a mysterious vision calling out to us.

2. Become the prophet's number 1 disciple and amplify his message within the region. We will get extra points because if an Avathemen prince says they're evil, you know it has to be true. This may involve resisting the Stisean king's attempts to get us back to court, but I doubt he will try too hard in the end.

3. Try and ramp this up to the point that people in and around the capital are clamoring for a war, which the king of course knows he can't win. This will cause him to start suppressing.

4a. Here is where the paths diverge. If the king's suppression attempts fail and we actually get a proper movement behind us, leverage it to take over Stisea. The prophet can hopefully be convinced to let us have temporal power, but if not we can be the shadow behind the throne or the trusted major domo.

4b. If the suppression is successful, then we will have to escape again to other Castrian regions, probably Cosfeila first. Then we start spreading the message again. Once again, gaining enough power to challenge one of the Castrian kings (or at least net some sort of concession) is our goal.

Note: As all this is going on, we have to make sure that news of the anti-Avathemen religion is reaching Donura, even with our name attached to it.

I have more steps floating around in my head, but let's see where this leads first.

>>6101954
Thanks qm. Stick it out; this is a slow-ass board.

File: avath.png (3.06 MB, 2758x1098)

3.06 MB PNG

While waiting on consensus, here is a more detailed map of the Kingdom of Avathemen and its neighbors.

Cities of Stucura, Tarusura, Esogura, Cinsura, Reinura used to be independent Avathemen city-states but were subjugated by Donusura.
So, the kingdom is made up 7 cities.

Also, the Kingdom of Stisea is the size of San Marino, and its capital is Stisea., the same as all Castrian cities, and other smaller kingdoms.
Hopefully, it isn't too confusing.

>>6101929
+1

>>6101913
Interesting. Reminds me of that Waoricia QM.

Anyways, support >>6101929

>>6102013
Oh, that was my previous game. Can't believe someone remembers it.
I'd like think this campaign is very different from Waoricia.

>>6102015
Huh. I knew it reminded me of that! I think I was the...blue...or red...no, I think blue player, one of the two nobles, rather than the church or the other guys.

How's the vidya game coming along?

>>6102025
I don't get how it reminded you, kinda scared I'm just repeating myself.

>How's the vidya game coming along?
Buried under other game projects, but I hope it's for the betterment. I'm learning more design and Unity every day, so hopefully I can get back to it at some point

>>6101929
King of Stisea grants you a humble ship. As you and your 20 retainers prepare to depart with a ship, the captain of your retainers, Hecarel, pulls you aside.

>"My prince, with great respect, I advise against departure. You are safe in Stisea. I heard a rumor that some of your retainers have been instructed to arrange an accident if you leave. We wouldn't want that happening, right?"
>"Just embrace life here, take a Castrian wife, drown yourself in wine, and lose yourself to excellent bathhouses. Let things back home unfold as the Gods intended them to."
>"Your father never wanted you to be involved in rule either way. Your mother is merely of princess of Cinsura. That city that should have been destroyed a long ago for its troublesome past."
>"That is to say, your blood isn't pure, is sullied by the filth of Cinsura. Your claim to the throne is about as valid as mine, which is none. Nobody would follow you, and end up a beggar."

What will you do?

>>6102050
Well, it's another no magic quest with a somewhat detailed terrain/political map, with upfront details on the various cultural groups. While this game takes place on an island compared to the last ones continent(?), there are some similarities. Like the chain of islands that our island is a part of in the south of the continent is vaguely similar to how the last map also had a small chain of islands in the south.

It's all just vibes really, impressions. Based on on the attention to detail in the maps and cultural differences.

>>6102120
By the Gods, Hecarel is far too free spoken. Claiming our blood is diluted, to know the intentions of our parents, saying that he knows of retainers (of whom he is the captain of!) that want to kill us.

>Demand to know which retainers are planning this accident, right now. Make him make the accusations. Then immediately confront the accused, rather than delegating the authority to deal with them to him. We don't want him disposing of genuinely loyal retainers with our say so. We'll pry the truth from them ourselves. If he's lying, we'll throw him overboard instead.

He is far too transparent in his intentions, even if he is speaking the truth. Hell, even if he has good intentions and just wants us to stay put to save our life, he's still acting against our interests. And I think we can all figure out that he likely flat out works for our half-brother, and does not have true intentions. Not to mention him apparently hearing of followers who want to kill us, who work under his watch, yet somehow failing to deal with them?!

>>6102147
+1. I’d also be interested in knowing how we were introduced to Hecarel.

>>6102120
idk if you want me to try and make this up, but hey I'll give it a shot.

"Hecarel though we share no blood you are like a brother to me ever since we hunted our first boar, my courage did not falter then nor will it now. That someone so fears if my shadow should even grace the wider world shows how weak they are. How lacking in courage."

"As for the women here, they are as weak as their wine and their baths are tepid. The Gods would have made them better if we were meant to stay."

"Father is at rest, as are his wants. Mine will not be chained"

"Perhaps that city of rogues should fall, but it has not. The Gods decree that it, and I, shall stand. There a man can find his own fortune regardless of blood, though often in the spilling of it. Once we are there I can speak to my grandfather and these so called retainers will be too busy guarding their own backs and purses to arrange anything."

"You may never claim the Throne but your claim to my friendship was once true, we will weather the storms to come."

>Set sail for Cinsura, and I suppose something aught to be done about the traitors before we get there.

Our intrigue is shit, but our persuasion and bravery is solid. Some kind of test of faith like putting both our hands into a covered box of a ""lethally"" poisonous snake. Or maybe we tell them we found letters among their things that describe a plot to see me dead, and have summoned a trained dog to see who they belong to. They have until the dog arrives to come forward and their lives will be spared. Pull some real bullshit bluffs with our charisma to see if they buckle under the pressure.

Rolled 5 (1d24)

>>6102175
Appreciate this input, but other action was seconded...

>>6102174
Hecaral was assigned to you, when were sent to Stisea. He is a man of gentry and rose to prominence by fighting for your father. But since being assigned to you his rise to power has stagnated, at least that appears to be the case.


>>6102147

Your confront him, in order to get a truthful answer him, you have roll CUN,
Beat his score and he will the truth, fail and your CUN drops by one.
Are you willing to take that chance? Or do you back down.
If so, roll d12, your score is calculated by d12+CUN > this roll

I don't know if I should handle all rolling, or if people enjoy it.

>>6102601
And my ID has changed... going to use the tripcode from now on.

Rolled 12 + 5 (1d12 + 5)

>>6102601

>>6102601
I will say, as a rule anons enjoy rolling. The main exception being when activity is so low that the QM needs to roll rather than call for rolls in order to save time.

>>6102601
You do what you gotta do. Seemed like a good opportunity to flesh Guel out a bit with some responses to these tests of his resolve. That a person most strongly defined by his charisma and bravery would use those aspects first. A bit of color to a few things.

Though confronting this dude like its an episode of Columbo is funny in its own way. "Your career and theirs were thrown into the mud on babysitting duty. Back in Father's army your rise was through killing other men, in battle there are always men who have to die, how different would it be now. You wanted that promotion, DIDNT YOU!" Or however it goes.

>>6102612
>>6102632
>check succeeds
Confront by your commanding presence, Hecarel kneels:
>"It's true my presence here has stagnated my progress, and it does bother me at times."
>"Still, I do not hold any ill-will towards you, and believe it or not, nor does your brother."
>"There are bigger things at play than your my career or your claims to the throne."
>"Truth of the matter is, the Kingdom of the Avathemen is already as good as dead."
>"The Castrians cities see Icustael as gullible and are preparing to march on Donura, when they succeed they sack Danoura and divide the kingdom."
>"Of course the remaining six Avathemen cities will never accept it, but that's why we have you..."
>"Once your brother die in the sacking, you will become the king, at least nominally."
>"You will then sell your rights to the Kingdom and convince any potential rebels to stand down."
>"In exchange, you are allowed to live in luxury."
>"I hope you now understand why I can't let you leave and compromise the plan."
>"Think they have promised me... I will surely make up for the time I wasted babysitting you."

>>6102732
Given that we succeeded, I'm inclined to take Hecarel at his word that he genuinely believes that they would let us live, that we would live in luxury, that'd it be that easy to take over the Avathemen kingdom despite it being decentralized plus justifiably xenophobic and thus less liable to heed the words of an exiled prince now acting as the mouth piece of the invaders.

He is horribly naive.

>Take him prisoner.
>Explain to our remaining retainers about Hecarel's confession. Demand they kneel before us and redouble their prior oaths of fealty, good counsel and protection to us. Henceforth they will identify any ties to the Castrians they may have, and sever them. If they fail to do so, they may live and leave our service of their own free will, we'll let them off at the next port. Should any deceivers fail to identify and sever their Castrian ties or attempt disloyalty by continuing to act as puppeteers and spies for the invaders after swearing fealty to us, we'll kill them.

We now have proof of the Castrian's intentions and treachery. Lets use it. Originally I was gonna vote to kill him, and using violence to restrain him may still be necessary, but his use as a prisoner and witness is worth more.

Though, now that I think about it, perhaps we can use our rather high charisma to persuade Hecarel to serve us genuinely. He would have much to gain by serving the future king, and he would rise in the eyes of the masses and his peers alike in our upcoming war with the Castrians. After all, he seems to hold no loyalty to Icustael, thus making him likely to be swayed by ambition. We need people who are xenophobic against the Castrians but are who also don't like the current king.

On the other hand, what use is a single disloyal idiot? This guy served our father, yet is willing to betray his liege's kin, his country/people, and his honour, all for nothing. Just a life of luxury and the meaningless praises of treacherous foreigners.

>>6102757
Yeah its quite the result and I needed a minute to think on it. Would that he had turned out to be our super conservative buddy instead but I think I got the feel for how to progress.

This is confronting the fact that men of this age want to follow a charismatic king, where he can live to the best of his abilities as Hecarel did in rising to prominence. In absence of a charismatic king, after his unfortunate death, such men fall prey to petty ambitions. Thats just how men are, but that shouldn't exclude a chance for redemption. Our father thought Hecarel was worthy of service, and apparently so did the Castrians lol, and he does seem to know an awful lot about their plans. Its a test of Guel's charisma as a leader of men to try and turn him, failing that yeah just take him prisoner and sort out the rest at Cinsura where we can talk to Guel's grandfather.

>>6102732
>Persuade Hecarel to serve honorably as he once did with Father.

Rolled 18 (1d24)

>>6102757
>>6103087
you can try charming him with charisma roll

d12+CHA, in case I will roll for his roll Hecarel

Rolled 11 + 10 (1d12 + 10)

>>6103352

>>6102754
In case why you wonder why I went with other's input, was because I decide if only two anons are playing, I might just rotate who gets to choose action.

>>6103368
Hecarel is convinced by your speech and vows homage to you.

>"Together we shall go far..."
>"Other retainers have no clue about the plot are not a danger."
>"Now that you know the truth, what do you wish to do?"
>"Will we travel to Donura to warn your brother?"
>"Though, I'd consider that foolish as there is no stopping the army marching towards it."
>"There is another option.."
>"While I only have 19 men to command here, with bit of luck we might able to slay the king of Stisea, what happens after that is tricky"
>"If the king's guards recognize your rule over Stisea, we might able to hold ocntrol the city, otherwise we would likely be driven out."
>"Reason I'm suggesting is that once, Donura falls, Stisea might be used as temporary capital"

>>6103422
You could just roll a d2, but I didn't super mind in this case.

I'm surprised at how fast things are moving. If Hecarel speaks the truth, the combined Castrian army may actually get there before we arrive by ship. And apparently will be sufficiently unopposed as for this coup de main to be considered a sure thing. I'm guessing they are bypassing Esogura? Or else just detaching an element to siege it? I suppose the distance between the Castrian cities and the capital is only like 10 or 20 kilometers.

QM, why does Hecarel think taking Stisea is possible. I mean...it is daring and bold. I can certainly see us taking the king hostage. But I highly doubt the king's guard, or any other nobles, or the people would accept us as ruler. That just seems insane. Is there some context we're missing?

Without further knowledge I'll vote
>No. Lets set sail for Cinsura. We'll inform our grandfather of the Castrian's schemes, then petition him for an army. From there we'll rally the sub-kings against the Castrians, like in our Kingdom's founding. We can use the war as a pretext to centralize more power. Cinsura is as good a backup capital as Stisea, as we have kin there, and the populace isn't foreign.

Perhaps we'll delay rescuing the capital long enough for the Castrians to do the deed and ensure our inheritance, with us arriving 'just tragically too late'. Then again, our mother is probably in the capital, and I wouldn't want to expose her to danger in the sacking.

>>6103422

>>6103670
Moving real fast.

I must say I don't know. If I think of the king's guards as Praetorian Guard types where they will pull someone out from behind a curtain and make them emperor if it suits them, I could see it. If we took his wife or his daughter to help keep an air of legitimacy, maybe that'll help.

Apparently this guy was paying tribute to Guel's brother the king and wasnt happy about it to the point of slyly suggesting that we overthrow him. Say he tried to tempt us into fratricide and usurping, which is true, and we weren't having any of it. If we refused we would fear for our lives remaining here as we could not return home. It had to be done or else this whole kingdom would bleed.

Maybe hes been taxing these guys and not rewarding his men, so we promise to smooth things over with the King and stop the tribute they'll get their rightful dues. Once the army hits the capital it solves the tribute anyways lol, and war means the chance for plunder and glory. Thats about all I can think of to smooth it over.

>>6103702
That could work. Depends on how strong whatever sense of proto-nationalism these guys have is. Are vertical ties stronger than horizontal ones in Castrian culture? Will people accept a foreigner as king as long as they like his policies better?

If you can come up with a plan for taking Stisea that you think is good, I'll support it. Otherwise I think mine is safer. Gotta sleep now though, weekend or not.

>>6103670
Support

>>6103726
Been a bit busy today so I'll just try and put together something. I think even Proto-nationalism might be a stretch. Our own confederate kingdom which currently holds power over the eastern half of this island? Continent? has total power over his own city and the loyalty of about half his own lords of the same culture who wanted to follow his place of coexistent peace. That says to me policy is fairly influential here. The Strisea King gives tribute to a stronger king and his people probably aren't happy about it. Its every city out for itself, and apparently every prominent man out for himself in absence of a charismatic leader or lacking that a weighty ass in a throne. We have a political map of a bronze age land with some notes and stats to work with.

For the sake of an escape plan, we ask for a farewell event. A scenic hunt near the shore, where we can have the ship just off shore to escape to if things go badly. We kill the king, then give the pitch to his guards. Their King was treacherous and corrupt to give away his kingdoms wealth to another, depriving his guards and nobles of their rightful share. We will talk to our brother and arrange to drop the tribute, and stop any retribution from the dead king's endangering my own life with his plots. If they dont go for it we cut our way out to the ship.

Honestly I don't know what Guel and Hecarel are smoking, actually maybe its all the lead in the wine for flavor, but w.e Guel is crazy brave and charismatic so maybe he really is chosen by the Gods. Otherwise fuck this place.

>>6103670
>Moving real fast.
I can give you more time.

>I'm guessing they are bypassing Esogura?
Yes, if they march from Rildesa to Donura.

>QM, why does Hecarel think taking Stisea is possible.
Stisea is size of San Marino, and King only has a guard of 50, many of whom lack combat experience. While the city's population is 5,000.


>>6103726
> Will people accept a foreigner as king as long as they like his policies better?
Who is to say

>>6104097
>Time
No need, I'm fine with the pace. I meant that things are moving quickly in-fiction. The Castrian armies already on the move, to the point where Hecarel considers our capital already as good as gone. Basically we're starting in control of our character *very* close to a major inflection point. It's just a bit shocking, I thought we'd have more downtime to map out the taking of our throne, with the main plot/conflict initially being us having to manage intrigues as we attempted a coup. Instead we started out with the war being already in motion, on the day of, practically.

>size
Ah, figures. I was guessing it was a small city, given the tiny hinterland. Just thought it'd be bigger than 5000.

>accepting a foreigner
I thought it unlikely, given that the culture map doesn't have a ton of overlapping territory between cultures. And no visible cities that have a different culture from their ruler.

>>6104076
>island or continent
It's an island, I'm pretty sure. Check the first image. The bottom right image has our island highlighted in green. We're the biggest island in an island chain off the south of the mainland. You can also tell by the measuring scale up top given in kilometers.

>Tribute
There is the issue of what happens when we inherit the Avathemen throne. Paying taxes will be sort of like paying tribute then. Unless they are paying extra on top of their normal taxes, in which case we can easily cut that extra out. Or, we could tell the people that we'll earmark *their* taxes for the development of their city/territory exclusively. That should solve the issue.

>escape plan
Could work. To me, the emphasis should be on defeat in detail, confronting as few of the king's guards as possible with the most of ours, to ensure the kinetic aspect of the plan goes off well. Our charisma should take care of the persuasive aspect relatively cleanly, but defeating twice the number of guards as our own is the hard part, I think.

>lead in the wine lul
It must be something like that, or else Guel has some Alexander the Great ego, Hecarel too.

To be sure, I got this right.
Your decision is to sail to Cinsura?

>>6104109
>It's an island, I'm pretty sure.
Yes, it's size of Sardinia. Mainland next is the size of Greenland.

>>6104611
Unless the other anon wants to go with some other plan, yes.

>>6104611
Set sail

>>6103670
You, and your retainers sail to Cinsura successfully.
As you march through the city of Cinsura, you find a surprising amount of dead men, women, and children on spikes.
However, sitting on the throne of the subkings of Cinsura, you do not find your grandfather there, but your cousin, Lestel.

>"Dear, cousin, what a surprise it is to see you here at this critical time."
>"Things are not great... Those filthy Castrians disturbed the peace of your brother's reign by marching on Donura and besieging it."
>"Our grandfather marched to relieve the siege, but that might not be sufficient, supposedly the Castrian army is formidable."
>"He took with him, most fighting men we had, only leaving me a meager 100 men to manage this city in their absence."
>"But I became afraid the many Castrians migrants here would be boldened to revolt if Donura would fall, so yesterday, I decided to purge the Castrians within Cinsura,"
>"Unfortunately, some 500 managed to escape into the mountains, and I'm beginning to fear they might return with revenge."
>"What do you reckon we should do?"