When did you ever hear about Admiral John Paul Jones?
I had to do a report/presentation on some randomly selected American revolution, and I got him. It’s kind of difficult to find stuff on them though, what with the Navy not being very strong at the time
“I have only just begun to fight!”
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I’m sorry if this has been asked, but could someone tell me how to get the “trysting” achievement, or how to save Horion and Linos from dying without kidnapping them?
There’s no way to save Horion and Linos, no. I really, really doubt they’re actually dead, however.
As far as I can tell, Horion/Linos will always get killed somehow unless they are kidnapped. And I have a feeling that even if you do this, then a Kryptast will sneak in and waste them before the Phalangites arrive.
Of course, it could be amusing that since it is through rumor you first hear of their deaths, they might have actually survived, and spread the rumors themselves…perhaps to test the mettle of your character.
As for ‘trysting’…you need to be a noble, and try to summon Hector to speak with you.
What makes you think they are alive?
I’d imagine if they planned on faking their death and framing us there wouldn’t be a better time than when we ran into them. Or letting us know when we are privately discussing matters of revolution, theology, and Xaos Storms.
No need, we’ve already got at least one and more likely two with us and possibly in our inner circle too.
Well if they did plan on faking their deaths it would be more convenient to not tell the ones you’re planning to frame.
It also helps to drive up tensions between the Hegemony and the Rebels and tensions within the Hegemony between Horion’s cousin and the Alastors, while they can take advantage of the opportunity to quietly dissapear, or if they really are rebels they can take advantage of the chaos and the fact that nobody is looking for them to quietly set up their own organisation. All quite clever really, if true.
True, but it assumes a bit more malicious intent than I would expect from Horon and Linos. Especially if you treat them well and find out everything else about their trip. It seems odd that he wouldn’t discuss the idea with us privately if we were on good terms with him.
Except they are veterans of the imperial courts, where one has to play a political and intrigue game just to survive and thrive.
Are we to the point in our relationship that he knows we are on the straight and narrow with him?
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Even if you do treat them well, you’re still not “one of them”, even if you are both a noble and a mage and treat them as nicely as possible. In the end, no matter how nice you are, you’re just one more mouth who might inadvertently blab the wrong thing to the wrong person, as we do have a kryptast in our organisation, possibly even in our inner circle and it would be far better for Horion and co if they could honestly report to their masters that even we genuinely thought they were dead and (rogue) Alastors to have killed them.
I don’t see how it’s enough of a leap of faith from telling us everything else to keep us in the dark, and then implicate us for it. The reports might be false but I don’t think Horion is the one orchestrating it if they are. I could see the alastors blaming it on us if they couldn’t get Horion and hoping he keeps his head down.
One reason I figured Horion/Linos might be alive is that the MC is surprised when they find out (via a merchant, etc.) that the rebels were blamed for the death…and comments just how fast news traveled in that time.
I couldn’t wonder if maybe the Thaumaturchy assumed the bandits would kill Horion/Linos out of hand (just for their wealth), and Kryptasts started spreading the news…without knowing Horion/Linos might actually be alive.
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If by “telling us everything” you mean that he might have let it slip that he was heading to Wiendrj to meet up with a supposedly rebel theurge, that might have been a half-truth at best. If part of it is even true I think the location is an obvious misdirection and they’re laughing their asses of in Erezza while everybody either assumes they’re dead or at worst looks for them in the wrong place.
Like @Zolataya said, Horion is both very clever and no stranger to intrigue, in fact growing up in the halls of power of Hegemony controlled Shayard I think its fair to say that it comes to him as naturally as breathing.
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I suppose I just don’t see the motive for him to fake his death or lie to us about that information. Part of being a savvy political player is knowing how and when to lie. I don’t see why he would feel the need to do that with some of the only people openly against the Hegemony he’s meet up with for awhile.
Does he even know we will survive the year, or perhaps he is concerned that if we are captured we’ll talk regarding him and his journeys?
We are a new player on the world stage and acceptance won’t really come until we prove ourselves to be more then merry bandits in the forest.
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That’s the whole point isn’t it we’re openly against the Hegemony, whereas he’s more likely to be covertly against it (for the time being, at least). While I wouldn’t say we started our Rebellion on a whim exactly we had to seize the opportunity that was presented to us and make up any grand plans and strategies as we go along, whereas Horion, assuming he truly is a rebel, does not seem like a man who would strike before he had all his dominoes lined up and was fairly certain of the outcome.
Exactly, but at this stage he has little to gain by telling us the whole unvarnished truth, we can either be captured by the Hegemony or the kryptast(s) in our organisation might relay something to them. Even if that does not happen, at this stage he gains nothing by telling us everything, at worst we’d kill him and steal his ideas. Also if we keep him hostage he could try to release his more valuable plans, intel, and information to us in tiny drops while he waits for an opportunity and plans his escape.
As always @Zolataya puts it more succinctly than I can.
Also true, besides now he knows who we are and where to find us, should we survive to become important enough, while we don’t know where to find him, a situation that would suit him perfectly as he retains (a large degree of) the initiative this way.
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I certainly understand his hesitation on sharing these things with us, but if he reveals his plan to go to Szeric and meet up with a rebel Theurge I don’t know why he would hide his plan to throw alastors off his trail by faking his death. (Assuming he is telling us the truth.)
I’ll probably just want to do a reread of that bit to see if there isn’t something I’m missing about Horion that your picking up on.
Righto, my patient friends. I’m going to post this crap – though I’m sure you’re going to find a million problems, it should be playable-through without too many game-breaker bugs, and I’m keen to get your feedback.
Major changes from last time include:
- As discussed upthread, the symbol of the Thaumatarchy is the omphalos; this now pops up in a couple places, usually while describing Alastor armor.
- An aristo MC gets to choose a family crest in Ch 1. (The story now also mentions that the Keriatou crest is a ram, and their color is kermes/crimson).
- The game now measures your credibility with the yeomanry as well as other social groups.
- Surviving the winter in Chapter 2 is now a week by week struggle. Well, hopefully a struggle, especially for the pacifist; I’m not convinced I’ve quite got the balance right yet. But I’ve dumped the (perhaps somewhat obscure) mechanic of my earlier Ch 2, that when you picked a raid it automatically meant you were going to keep doing it all winter long.
- Similarly, the confusion of wealth v income should hopefully now be history.
- You can now sell and (in 2.2) buy weapons, including (if noble, and if you were able to go home to collect it in Ch 1) your own sword.
- Splitting the band is however no longer an option; it can only split if it disintegrates entirely for the winter.
- Everyone should get the chance to pick a label for Theurgy (if you’re a Theurge) and a symbol/sigil for your rebellion.
- From the point that you become a rebel leader, it should now be clear that your Cosmopolitan/Devout/etc scores reflect how you’re publicly seen, not your personal convictions. You can choose to have your image reflect the actual convictions you’ve expressed to date, or to paint a different image for yourself (with only Breden really appreciating how wide the gap can be – I haven’t written that bit yet.)
- You can choose to be a secret Theurge. There are more discreet Theurgy options.
- Yebben is (if alive) now your quartermaster, not just a hacking cough like Poor Poric and Ailing Alless.
- Being thought highly compassionate or ruthless can give you a big morale boost near the outset of winter, which may save some lives (and partly balance the additional followers that the other two opposed stats can get you late in Ch 3).
- You can steal from a priestly Tithe Barn or yeomen farms as well as a helot or aristo barn.
- You can deploy some of your raiders to hunt bear or rabbit.
- You start choosing how participatory you want to be in decision-making.
- You should now have a choice of emotional response following your first kill, which depending on your choice may return later in the chapter.
- The outcome of the tax raid is now significantly different if you end up with a new band member.
I think those are the main ones – but basically, Ch 2 has been completely changed. I’m sure some will hate it, hopefully some will like it. Both views are welcome, along with suggestions to improve it.
You’ll hopefully find the playtesting shortcuts useful, though I recommend that you play through the early running of Ch 2 a few times before using the “Skip ahead to W 1” option.
I haven’t gone through for Notoriety yet to confirm which choices give you a Notoriety bump – that’ll be part of linking it to Ch 4.
Please do critique the prose as well. If things feel clunky or repetitive, it’s probably because (a) I’ve lost track of the flow with all the gosubs and conditional text in a given section or (b) I got tired and used the same trope/word/phrase too often. Both should be fixable.
PS: And I know the coding is a horrorshow, apologies. 
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First problem I ran into is in the part when it asks how you wish to be seen, after you have joined the bandits…
On the page that reads:
And slightly
- Ruthless
- Compassionate
… - Cosmpolitan
Every choice doesn’t go anywhere; it is like it is stuck into a loop on itself.