1222.OOC

You seem to have misplaced your post, JL!

...Either she'd fail and Alexei might hate her forever for trying to do something he wants himself, or she would succeed and he will suddenly think she is THE Perfect Woman :stuck_out_tongue:

Misplaced my post? I'm not following.

Some funny things happened with that post. It had several copies of the same quote from you. I edited those out. I still see the post, however.

Weird, all I see is you quoting my text (just once) and nothing else.

I said...

I will point out that if the objective is to stay alive and avoid a Guernicus assassination attempt, it didn't work out too well for the previous occupant of that position... :laughing:

The last guy didn't have an elaborate deception planned, to make the Inner Council think they'd bought him!

@jebrick: I think we need to iron out some inconsistencies here...

Note, because you open Abigail's Arts in Summer, you've satisfied the Code demands of teaching for 1222. You can choose to assign her a text to read, and I think there are plenty to choose from in the library, not being used in Winter of 1222. Note, having her help installing a Greater Feature doesn't provide her or your any benefit, and you can't simultaneously teach her while installing the Greater Feature (a two season project).

I'm also nixing the use of Glaukopis in your lab to assist in the LR. If he was your familiar it wouldn't be a problem, but Laetitia is the helper, not the other way around. He counts as another assistant, and without a Leadership score, you're unable to handle more than one assitant. In her lab, she could have you and he helping, but of course, her CrCo lab scores are lower.

Also, I hadn't done a final ruling on Leadership and help in the lab, as I discussed here. I'm not sure I had clear consensus, but I'm inclined to go with Leadership +1 for # of assistants in the lab, with the Bonisagus getting Leadership +2. So if he were to acquire a leadership score along the way between Spring and Fall, somehow, he could certainly have more than one assistant in the lab. Hint: Abigail edges Glaukopis out slightly as she is Brilliant and Ra'am taught her MT during Winter of 1221.

I had to push stuff around since I made my list.

Korvin:1222
Spring - trip to Salamanca
Summer - Open Abagail's arts.
Autumn - LR for L Cr27+Co 17+In3+MT7 + 5(Paion)+Lab(+3)+Inventive Genius (3)+aura 5 +10 from Laetitia and +6 from Glaukopis = LT 86 (MT+2)
Winter - refining his lab ( size +2 now). MT+2

1222 activities for Abagail filia Korvin
Spring : travel to Mons Electi
Summer: Open arts
Fall: read Esse Est Percipi by Laetitia scholae Guernici, Intellego summa, L10 Q12
Winter: Read: A Primer on Origination (Creo Summa, Level 6, Quality 21)

Don't forget, you don't get Glaukopis, unless and until you get your Leadership score up. And then Abigail is a better deal...

Who said anything about being public or prominent?

Doesn't sound exactly quiet. Circulate is an active verb. If you said setup a surreptitious network for distributing the scrolls without my House knowing the source, I wouldn't have said anything.

Oh please. It's Laetitia, not Alexei :slight_smile: "Surreptitia" is her childhood nickname!

I've always appreciated the simplicity of "Hulk Smash."

Also, since I've laid bare the Darkness within House Guernicus, I wouldn't mind hearing opinions on what players are thinking about the overall direction of the saga. From this point forward the saga is definitely going to be more player directed, so gauging response is important for me to work any issues out.

I've always believed that there is so much room for reinterpreting the actions and motives of House Guernicus, and what if they instigated almost all the troubles of the Order? Vast conspiracies, while unlikely in real life, are great story fodder...

Personally, I'm somewhat lost. You said in PM that we were nowhere near ready for open conflict, but OOC, it doesn't really seem like we have any other viable options. I'm in that weird position where, as a player, I think my character's ideas for handling a situation are totally doomed to failure-- like, I want to throttle Laetitia and scream "THEY'RE NOWHERE NEAR THAT STUPID! DON'T BE SO BLOODY OPTIMISTIC!" and yet, I don't think any other options look any better.

Consider Reynault's comment about Apollodorus thinking they would act rashly if his identity was discovered. The general sense that your characters don't see options is perfectly reasonable. This is a cold war, not open and direct conflict. Players shouldn't feel their characters are in immediate danger, but the characters themselves should be completely unsure of exactly what to do because their understanding of the Order is built on faulty assumptions or teachings.
Laetitias comment about Valerian killing Apollodorus as an official act also has no basis under the Code. His actions were completely illegal, and indefensible. However proving that is problematic.

I love it as a meta plot. It creates a new "villain" with a lot of political power that you can not just smash.

That's exactly what it is. I've just revealed the chief antagonists of the saga. Yeah, there may be holes in their motivations and actions, but that's the trouble with vast conspiracies. And if the characters/players focus on the problems, and not their resources, they will feel overwhelmed...

The Inner Council may not be stupid, but they may be focused on different things. Think the Empire and the Death Star. The Empire and Emperor and Vader were by no means stupid, but they were focused on something else entirely: crushing the rebels. The weapons they built and tactics they used weren't adequate to fight the rebels. It is likely that their actions (destroying Alderaan) ended up creating more rebels.

What if democracy doesn't end with thunderous applause?

My initial knee-jerk reaction was "Crap! The Diedne had the right idea...let's go to the Magic Realm and hide until the Resurrection!" But then I stopped panicking and started thinking about it.

I think the main thing we have going for us is knowledge. We now know the truth about Guernicus and the history of the Order...or, at least, we think we do – Fiona's still not 100% sure. Everything she's been taught and believed for the last forty years was wrong, and she's basically stripping gears right now. But she'll come around.

So, we know the truth. We know about the Duresca scrolls, even if we don't actually know what's in them. (Do we even have the scrolls? Not sure, I'd have to go back and check). But Guernicus doesn't necessarily know that. They know Apollodorus/Xenophon was a very secretive, cunning, and manipulative s.o.b. It may be possible to convince them that we're ignorant about what happened, that we know nothing about Xenophon or the Duresca Scrolls or anything, that we're all Good and Loyal Servants of the Order and pose no threat to them.

Meanwhile, possibly use the Magic Realm as a "safe house," hide anything and anyone we don't want discovered there while we look for the Diedne. I doubt that we can convince them that we're sorry about what happened...in fact, it's possible they may be "shoot first, summon the shade, shoot it, summon the shade again, then ask questions," but if we can convince them of our situation, they might be invaluable allies.

I'm thinking the fact that we were chosen to host the next Tribunal might actually work in our favour. I doubt that they will wipe out the whole covenant and leave the Tribunal in the lurch, and Tribunal might be an opportunity to make some allies just in case.

I also find myself wonder if (1)the ex Misc Census might be of use to us in this situation, and (2)whether the giants with Parma might have anything to do with this, or if they might be somehow recruited in our coming battles.

when this was calculated, there was no Abagail. What is her MT?

It's 5 with an Int of 3, so she'd add 8 to the lab total.
To use her, you need to have a Leadership score of at least 1 or not use Laetitia as all.

You get 1 assistant and your familiar without leadership
You get 2 assistants and your familiar with leadership 1. As leadership score increases so does the number of assistants, although I'll impose some limits based on the size of the lab if it gets ridiculous.

I like it, but need to study some more and consolidate Alexei's strength. I've always wanted to see conflict on the Schism War's scale.