The Quest for Duilintinn

THIS PAGE IS STILL VERY MESSY AND I'M SORRY MOST OF THIS STUFF ISN'T EVEN IN POSTS ON THE AU BLOG YET

## The Buildup

**September 15 1547:** Henrik Born

**February 7 1550:** Sean Born

**July 10 1550:** Jackie Born

**August 11 1552:** Marvin Born

**November 1556:** Jackie orphaned, gets taken by the Guard Coalition to the Whetstone to be a squire

**April 11 1559:** Chase Born

**July 1563:** Jackie decides he doesn’t want to be a knight after all, quits and starts vigilante stuff

**May 1564:** Henrik arrives in Duilintinn for the first time

## Pre-Quest

**November 1556:**

When Sean was young, his family took a trip to Monacoil to get supplies or something. While he was there, he stumbled across an older woman. She was a bit odd, skittish, and seemingly trying to get away from someone or something. However, she stopped to tell Sean that she foresaw that he would meet and bond with a King’s Eye after his fifteenth name day. The old lady was soon dragged away by a younger couple, who apologized to sean’s parents for their “deluded mother.” Sean noticed that they also had a younger son, about 4 years old. And that is that. ;)

Meanwhile, that same month, Jackie is orphaned when bad raidy brigands come raiding their town and kill his parents in senseless violence. Lives alone for a while. Recruiters from the future Guard Coalition show up in town and the town is like “hey look go take that boy he’s small but fiesty and got the old blood and no parents anymore so he’s a good recruit and we can’t really care for him because HE WON’T LET US TAKE CARE OF HIM” and the guard recruiters are like “hey little boy you wanna go fight bad guys” and Jackie is like “YOU MEAN LIKE FIGHT THE SORT OF PPL THAT KILLED MY PARENTS” and they’re like “yep” and he’s like “okay” and then they take him to The Whetstone.

**July 1557:**

Jackie is a 13ish year old little squire boy. Keeps being told to be patient and his time will come to be a hero. Is almost old enough to be a real knight. Has an experience where he realizes that knights still have to answer to someone else and that someone else can be just as corrupt and power hungry as the ppl who do bad stuff on their own. Decides he doesn’t want to be a knight. Ends up running off in the middle of the night instead of quitting legitly because he doesn’t know if they’ll be okay with him quitting; the guard had and still has a big culture of loyalty and unity within the organization. He’s got a buds in the group named Steven and his brother Rodger who he feels bad for abandoning.

**May 1564:**

Henrik arrives in Fionport, where he meets a nice girl named Bridget and her friend Richard in the outskirts of the city. Richard always had a crush on Bridget since they were kids. Bridget never really reciprocated and became very attached to Henrik when he arrived as someone who a) respected her more and b) was foreign and therefore interesting. She taught Henrik common and hung out a lot at his clinic. Richard was jealous and tried to "compete" with Henrik for her attention for many years. Henrik perceived that Richard didn't like him but didn't know why, and stayed civil with him for Bridget's sake, as she was still Richard's friend.

## The Beginning

**Feb 1565-May 1565:** The Quest Begins. There’s some prophecy saying that there’s a King’s Eye that will bond with Sean when the boy is 15, so Sean goes on his own to look for the King’s Eye rumored to be in the forested mountains northwest of his home soon after his birthday. Has various mini-adventures along the way, starts out by visiting small villages and towns along the road for rumors, goes chasing after some dead ends and wild goose chases, feels stupid a lot, learns a lot about the forest, gets attacked by brigands from time to time, bumps into a few fae folk, and eventually FINALLY after THREE WHOLE MONTHS OF LOOKING he finally stumbles upon the King's Eye. And the King's Eye likes him. Yay! Sean calls him Samwise. This period of questing really shows Sean how chaotic and messed up the land kinda is atm, and bonding with the King's Eye really showed him that this destiny was more than just a “cool you got a pet” but a stepping stone to a much higher calling.

**June 1565-Early October 1565:** Five months of aimless “I WANT TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE BUT HOWWWWWWW” stress. He does some good deeds, solves some minor problems in the towns he was in before, but doesn’t feel like he’s actually making a big enough difference. People really respect him because of the King’s Eye, but no one is really latching onto the ideas of this kid who wants to make the world better. Frankly, the kid doesn’t even know what ideas he has. The concept of founding a kingdom has yet to enter his mind.

## Anti Recruited

**October 10 1565-December 1565:** Enter Anti. Sean bumps into him in a pub one day during this aimless questing. Anti sees an opportunity when it bites him in the rear and gets buddy with Sean. Sam is very uncertain about Anti but Sam is also a little baby King's Eye and thus doesn’t have his character-reading instincts fully developed yet so he tolerates him because Sean seems to think Anti is cool. Anti is the ambitious, knows what he wants, charismatic person that took Sean’s aimless “idk i just want to be there for ppl and do something” and started pointing it in a specific direction.

Within a week, Antonius has gotten Sean an audience with local government officials. He can talk his way into and out of situations like nobody’s business. By the end of the year, he’s got Sean thinking bigger and jumping from town to town, volunteering their services. Sean offers to help with problems, while Antonius pulls the classic, subtle “and we’ll want something in return…” politics game with the politicians. This makes Sean seem more legitimate to them, since these people don’t trust someone who genuinely just wants to help and feels more comfortable in a situation familiar to them with politics and manipulation and promises and favors owed. This usually happens away from Sean, and Sean doesn’t question it for a while.

**October 31 1565:** Jameson found in the woods appearing to be age 5.

**January 1566-March 1566:** The new year comes, and Antonius starts thinking bigger. Over the course of months, Antonius starts putting ideas into Sean’s head about spreading his influence beyond the small area in the northern rim of the Draoidh Valley. They could go south, of course, but why not think bigger? Go east, see the rest of the world, help more people… Sean is uncertain at first. Just helping a few small towns and bringing joy on a local level seems enough for him. He can’t even imagine going bigger.

However, Antonius keeps pushing and the local people encourage Sean to go out and do greater things as well. By March, Sean is convinced.  Antonius takes Sean west over the Agrona Bridge to show him that there’s a big huge world out there beyond the valley waiting for him. Around this point, they hear the rumor of a vigilante in the south and start heading in that direction.

## Jackie Recruited

**April 1566-June 1566:** Sean and Antonius spend April running around the Monaidh Plains trying to track down this vigilante dude named Jackie. Lots of small adventures with the people there. The local groups who don’t like Jackie hear about these people trying to side with the vigilante and try to get rid of that threat. The people are scared that they are trying to kill Jackie and are very silent with their information. Overall, they aren't having much luck.

Eventually, the pair decide to try to get the information out of a group of people who tried to attack Jackie before. They get the location of this gang’s base from someone who tried to attack them and then go there to try to find someone who knows where Jackie is. Antonius is even suggesting that they pretend to side with these gangs so that they give them the intel, but Sean is not for it. Especially since Antonius had suggested earlier that they forget about the vigilante and just go cozy up to the gangs in the first place…

They get lucky tho and don’t have to do Antonius’s plan. Jackie beat them to the gang base and is kicking their butt as they arrive. Jackie doesn’t trust them at first. Says no and leaves. Sean and Antonius follow him. Jackie says to stop following him and shoves Sean.  Sam the king's eye shows up at this point to be all annoyed at Jackie for that. Jackie is suddenly reconsidering because HOLY CRAP A KINGS EYE THOSE THINGS ARE BIG LEGEND BIG BIG.

They agree to a trial period. Sean and Antonius can help Jackie with his vigilante stuff, and if Jackie thinks they are cool, then he’ll consider partnering up with them. At first Sean and Antonius are supposed to find their own place to stay, with Jackie somehow always knowing where they are and popping up to fetch them before each quest. Eventually, however, Jackie trusts them enough to let them stay in Fort Conchur. This takes place over most of May.

Jackie doesn’t want to abandon the people he was helping in this area. Setting off to seek helping more people felt like abandoning his roots. But eventually he realized he had to step outside of his comfort zone and try to save as many people as he could to be truly considered a hero. In mid-june he agreed to join Sean and Antonius. He shares that he heard rumors of a powerful mage on the other side of the lake and they should head off that way.

## Marvin Recruited

**June 1566-August 1566:**

Sean, Antonius, and Jackie attempt to cross Loch Glas. However, they get lost in the fog for a while and spend a week on the lake basically going in circles. Finally, they land somewhere random and have to find their way to Monacoil, where they know this mysterious mage is.

The trip through the fog on land is no better. Sean is somewhat used to this, but the fog is far worse at the bottom of the valley, closer to the lake, than it is in the northern portions of the valley. Antonius uses some magic to make a light, but it doesn’t work too well, especially because none of them know where they are in the first place. They spend another week wandering in circles in the marsh, nearly running out of food and water.

Luckily, they are found by young Marvin, who is very good at navigating in the fog. His grandmother had told him that there were visitors coming that he had to escort to Monacoil, because grandma knows ALL. Grandma had also told Marvin that these visitors were the beginnings of the group that would save Duilintinn from itself, led by the man bonded with the king’s eye. Marvin, being sick of all the corruption in Duilintinn, is very excited, but is NOT impressed by the group that he finds, weak, lost, and hungry in the swamp. However, he begrudgingly escorts them to Monacoil anyway, since Sean is bonded with a king's eye. They arrive sometime in mid-july.

Turns out, Grandma is the mage they heard about in the rumors. The group tries to convince her to help them. At first, grandma plays coy, saying “maybe… but first you have to do me some favors” in standard fairy-tale-witch style, sending the group on errands and adventures with Marvin. Of course, because Jackie and Sean are suckers for this sort of thing, they both immediately agree and think that being sent on fetch quests is the most natural thing in the world at this stage. Anti is Not Amused.

Jackie and Marvin butt heads quite a bit in the first month, with a big argument in mid to late July.

Finally, in mid-August, she admits that she never intended to go on the quest with them. She is old and not really up for adventuring. Instead, she said she was using this time to prepare Marvin to take her place among the group. Marivn is like WTF, no i’m staying with you and she’s like “look i’m fine we’ve got a growing group of mages here now that also think i’m pretty neat, i’ll be taken care of while you’re doing cool destiny stuff.” after all she knew that Marvin was big mad at all the bad things that happened and was always full of teenage angst and rage because he didn’t have an outlet to fix it and now here is an opportunity to have an outlet so TAKE THE OUTLET MARVIN. So he does.

*Detail I’m still not 100% certain about: did Marvin know? I think so; it seems very out of character for Marvin’s backstory and grandmother and all that for the grandma do keep this plan from him. It’s more likely that she fills him in that she doesn’t intend to go with the group. The question is whether she is like “hahaha pranking them” to Marvin too to get him to play along, or if she was completely up front about her desire for Marvin to go with them. Maybe both. Maybe says “hey i want you to go with but it’s up to you, and before you decide i want you to accompany them on these quests that will help the mages guild. It’ll be good time to think and get to know them if you decide yes, and if you decide no, it’s just the sort of spiteful ‘stick it to them’ thing you like doing, you immature doofus who i love if don’t always approve of.”*

The rest of the group isn’t super convinced to take Marvin with them at first, especially considering grandma's deception. Antonius especially is pisseeeeddd. Jackie and Marvin have built a begrudging respect in the last month or so and are pretty cool with each other. Sean is like alright that works, even if it’s a bit unexpected.

## Near Disaster at Cordoire

**September 1566-February 1567:** The group, now full of fighty beans who tend to address problems head on (except Anti but he’s overruled) goes and does that. They bounce around the Monaidh Plains taking out bandit camps and brigands and saving towns and stuff. Lots of bonding time between Marvin and Jackie. Meanwhile, Anti is still like “WE NEED TO THINK BIGGER” and insists that they need to address the root of the problem (aka lack of government or system or anything). They don't listen until February 1567 though.

ALSO THERE’S SNOW. SO MUCH SNOW. IT’S THE MONAIDH PLAINS IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER THERE IS SO MUCH SNOW

Finally, in Feburary, Antonius finally manages to nudge the group in the direction of Cordoire, aka the biggest and most influential city in the land that is the seat of what most vaguely looks like a government but is actually just a chaotic mess of warring groups who want power and keep deposing each other and don’t ever have time to do any actual governing. However, when they get there, they end up getting in a bad fight and Jackie gets hurt reallllyyyyyy bad. Poison. No one in Cordoire is able to help but one nice local fellow tells the group that there is a doctor in Fionport who might be able to help. Anti wants to stay in Cordoire and not go wandering off into another part of the kingdom again but gets shut down FAST by Sean and Marvin telling him on no uncertain terms that their friends are more important than any questy stuff. They book it over to Fionport, Fellowship of the ring gotta get to rivendell with the nearly dead frodo sort of montage.

Also there’s still a bunch of snow so they’re doing this IN THE SNOW so it’s probably gonna take them FOREVER

## Henrik Recruited

**March 1567-April 1567:** Get to Fionport after hiking through the snow with a poisoned Jackie. Meet Henrik. Henrik fixes up Jackie muttering about how it’s really simple blah blah blah. Meet Bridget. Meet Richard. Anti takes notes on both of them secretly.

Marvin is vaguely irritated the whole time because he’s going a bit stir crazy just sitting in the outskirts of this fancy city full of Rich People and wants to pull out the classic tumblr guillotines or something and Sean and Antonius keep having to tell him NO because these people are needed to be on their side later so Marvin just has to sit around looking grumpy while Jackie heals, Sean talks to Henrik, and Antonius collects his evil manipulation plotting info.

Jackie is completely healed by the end of March, but considerably weakened from the ordeal. The group asks Henrik to join the quest. Henrik is conflicted. Richard actually encourages him to take the opportunity in a seemingly uncharacteristic moment of ‘looking out for you buddy’ advice. This is because, while Henrik and Bridget were never an official couple, the two were clearly close and Bridget obviously had her heart set on him. Richard didn't have a chance with Henrik around, but if Henrik left... Meanwhile, Bridget thinks the idea is incredibly heroic and all that.

Henrik hesitantly says yes, but on one condition; he’s not leaving with them until he’s 100% certain Jackie is up for it, even if the knight feels ready to go. Turns out the two may have bonded a bit… :) Anyway, during this time Jackie does physical therapy sessions with Henrik and there’s more bonding. And Marvin is even MORE stir crazy.

During this time, however, they also start talking about what their next plan will be. After the fight in Cordoire and subsequent weeks healing up and all that, the group comes to the conclusion that they’re gonna need some military assets to actually get this done. Aka they need to get the guard coalition on their side. Jackie is their best contact for that. Only problem is that Jackie didn’t exactly leave the coalition in the best way. Still, he agrees to go back to The Whetstone humbly and apologize to hopefully get them on their side. There’s probably a whole story in that conversation alone.

## Recruiting the Guard Coalition

**May 1567-July 1567:**

The gang goes to the Whetstone so Jackie can apologize and hopefully get the guard on their side. Jackie is humble and says “look, i should have been a big boy and left maturely instead of running off to be a vigilante, can we be cool so i can introduce you to my friends so you can help us save the kingdom from all this chaos.” and the guard coalition in general is very big about being organized and not having chaos so they end up saying yes on the condition that Jackie becomes a proper knight in the normal sense with training and all that.

Cue multi-month montage of Jackie showing that he still remembers the training that they gave him for seven years of his childhood. Cue montage of Jackie learning the things he missed when he left early. Cue montage of Jackie showing off some things he learned while doing his own thing. Finally, they say he’s actually ready to be a legit knight and that he’s proven himself and his fellows worthy of their allegiance. As a sign of this allegiance, the guard coalition leaders allow Sean to be the one to knight Jackie, indicating their respect towards him as potentially their future leader. This is the first time Sean knights someone and it’s a big deal all around.

This takes place over the course of about two to three months (May - Julyish) and ends with Jackie completing his training alongside the people coming in for recertification. Two of the knights there happen to be Jackie’s old friends Robert and Steven. WOOO. FRIEND MAKEUP TIME CATCH UP BE BUDS YAY. They end up asking permission (PROPERLY) to spend their knightly time following Sean and being the official coordination people between the guard coalition and the questers.

Meanwhile, back in Fionport, with Henrik now on the quest, Richard sees this as an opportunity to finally win Bridget's affections. He attempts to do so by showing off his strength and swordplay, having to undergo some character development when he realized that Bridget didn't want to sit and admire him swing his sword, but wanted to be taught and spar as well. However, Henrik and Bridget continued to write to each other during the two years they are apart, and Richard is unable to break through Bridget's fantasy of Henrik returning as a hero and sweeping her off of her feet. Again, while Henrik did often say he looked forward to seeing her again when he returned back to Fionport, he never (intentionally) implied this, thinking himself too old and unable to give Bridget a consistent life as someone running a charity clinic and currently on the move for the foreseeable future.

## The Monaidh Plains

**August 1567-December 1568:**

With the Guard Coalition on their side, getting the Monaidh Plains into a reasonable semblance of order takes just over a year. The Coalition is the most organized group in the area at the time and so they’ve got a good sense of the existing structures of government and local politics and culture that really comes in handy; heck, they are basically the ruling government of the Monaidh Plains already.

Within that year, every major political group or cultural group in the area is very, very loyal to Sean and his buds, or at least loyal to whoever the Coalition is loyal to. (psstttt this is another reason why the Coalition is so trusted and the go-to guard outfit in Duilintinn and kinda the king’s unofficial army).  Warring parties in Cordoire are still too wrapped up in their own mess to really care, especially since the Guard Coalition has been around forever and never stepped on their toes in the past. A few of these dudes, however, take note and either try to squish Sean (and get squished back) or join Sean.

This lasts until December 1568

## The Eastern Coast

**January 1569:**

Next stop, getting the merchants on their side. Rich people here we come. Sorry Marvin, hold your tongue pls. PLEASE. MARVIN WHAT DID WE JUST SAY?!

They head back to Fionport, prompting a cute reunion between Henrik and Bridget as they weather out the winter storms in the city and start planning how they’re gonna do that.

This is a LOT harder to plan out than the monaidh plains because there is no big pseudo gov that they have connections to to get this done for them in the same way there is in the plains. At first, the group thinks that the merchants are gonna be the same deal as the guard coalition. They try a more direct approach, getting Antonius to get them an audience with the rich merchants and pitching their plan for peace, unity, and structure. This, however, does not appeal to the merchants. The group is confused at first.

Then research happens. This research is mostly Marvin going around being sassy about Rich People and corruption and knowing exactly who to talk to to hear all the juicy gossip about these rich ppl. He’s not very quiet about it, but he gets the job done. Turns out, the city has an actual government based on commerce and merchants and being rich and making money and sometimes exploiting people. The benefit of this is that all the disposable income allows things like science and literacy and all that cool stuff to be funded. Downside is that these things are only open for the rich ppl, meaning that intelligence was kinda a status symbol.

Marvin also learns that this government has an annoying habit of siding with whichever warring party in Cordoire that seems most likely to win at the time and betrays people a lot. This is very useful information. Good job Marvin. Unfortunately, the government has also heard of this annoying mage with a very, very identifiable mask talking shit about them. Bad job Marvin.

There’s no way the group is gonna be able to convince the Rich People to side with them on pure charm alone. Marvin destroyed that possibility, altho frankly, it wasn’t working before either. So, a new plan. If these Rich People side with who they think is winning this insular political war for the kingdom, then gosh darn it, they would prove it would be them.

**February 1569:**

 The group has realized that, in order to get the support of the rich ppl, they have to somehow prove that they’re gonna come out on top of this war for the kingdom that’s happening right now in Cordoire.

So they need to come up with a plan to prove that.

How they do this is they offer to prove their worth to the Rich People that the quest group is more likely to win long-term than the other warring parties by completing tasks to sabotage or otherwise undermine the warring parties that the Rich People assign them. Kinda like the tasks of Heracles.

So for example, Rich People might say “okay well if you really want to prove it then go make sure that this dude’s food suddenly gets moldy,” because this will benefit the current allies of the Rich People (which change very quickly) and also gets them to assess whether these little upstarts will actually have something going for them. They don’t really expect the upstarts to have any chance, but free labor is free labor.

So, in late February 1569, a deal is struck, and plans are made.

**March 1569:**

Rich people say do THING 1.0. The first mission they were given was fairly easy. It was targeting Group #2 (influence/favors ppl). The group had captured a very very very valuable source of information for them and planned to torture this person until they gave up all the information. The Rich People paint Group #2 as the worst, most evil people EVER. The job of the questers is to rescue the person, without letting ANYONE know. The emphasis on the stealth of the questers is very, VERY heavily emphasized.

Planning begins. This part of the operation is coordinated by Henrik, who is very thoughtful and meticulous and knows his way around what hurts people and what doesn’t; Sean, who is the one who makes the final calls on whether that’s something he feels good/right about doing; and Antonius,who is the master of stealth and plans the actual infiltration bits that will get them in position to execute Schneep’s plans. However, for this first mission as they’re getting used to it all, Antonius, Sean, and Henrik have a spat over whether they should pick a plan that is the most intimidating, morally sound, or efficient, respectively.

In Mid March, after the initial planning spat, Henrik realizes that Jackie doesn’t know how to read after the thing is planned as they are discussing practicalities, and there is bonding. They spend the rest of the month and a bit of april practicing enough that Jackie can read the missions. There is bonding.

**April 1569:**

The plan has been made for Trial #1. Meanwhile, Jackie and Marvin are leading the teams of actual infiltrators together, with Jackie leading soldiers for more physical sabotage and Marvin leading the mages they had on their side for magic-focused sabotage.

The teams of mages and soldiers are starting to learn to work together and practice executing the plan. Marvin expresses skepticism about being a leader with Jackie and there is bonding. Marvin tries to play it off as being “responsibility is stupid i’m wasted in this crap” but really he’s just scared out of his mind.

This gives Marvin and Jackie their bit of bonding time, especially when Marvin has to be held back by Jackie when the mage wants to jump the gun and ignore Henrik and Antonius’s plan. In early missions, Marvin wouldn’t listen to Jackie, maybe sabotaging all of the sides instead of the one they were supposed to sabotage, prompting everything to go terrible, but later, Marvin will listen, because CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT.

**May 1569:**

Despite struggles in the test runs, they finally pull it off and THING 1.0 gets done. Jackie freaks bc PTSD from the first disastrous incident in Cordoire in the middle of the operation but doesn’t tell anyone. The thing is a smashing success, everyone does their roles perfectly, it all goes incredibly well except for Jackie’s moment of panic, which no one else really noticed except for his friends, who didn’t push it.

After the success of trial 1, everyone celebrates. It has gone so well that everyone thinks the Rich People will be on their side by the end of the year. Marvin gets drunk and tells everyone how he thinks the Rich People are crying in their rooms right now because the poor scoundrels did what they couldn’t pull off. Henrik proposes to Bridget. Sean is being congratulated by basically everyone. Antonius is… Antonius. Creepy sitting in the corner, you know. And then Jackie… Jackie feels alone. Like he doesn’t deserve to be happy like the others, because something happened to him in the battle that he didn’t understand and couldn’t control and it scared him. No one else had noticed but that only meant that he carried this alone and the burden of dealing with it alone, and he felt like he didn’t deserve to celebrate the victory that he could have messed up.

**June 1569:**

 Henrik’s wedding was held on the Iolla Cliffs in the early morning of June 1569. It was a very private affair; the other quest members were there, and Bridget had a few family members, but that was it. This is why it was held in the early morning, but can you imagine watching the sun rise in the east over the ocean? And the way they’d paint the white stone of the cliffs with all sorts of colors? It’d be gorgeous.

They got married in the time between the success of their first trial and the summons for the next one. In fact, one of the messengers from the Rich People showed up at the beginning of the wedding with the message, but kept getting redirected to the gift table, since the group thought the guy was a guest. There was a lot of dancing and celebration, and the messenger ended up sitting thru/participating in all of it, until finally the wedding ended and he made it very clear that the group should return to Fionport asap for the next mission.

Rich people say do THING 2.0. Jackie starts feeling a bit sick at the prospect of it because PTSD is a butt but tries to ignore it.

Thing 2.0 is targeting Group #3. These are the violence ppl. They are to sneak in and sabotage the vast stores of food they’ve got stored to feed their massive recruited armies from their allies. They are reminded again to be as stealthy as possible, or at least to make sure that nothing is tied back to the rich trading ppl.

Jackie hopes that this will be easier on his mind because he’s more used to dealing with brute-force types like these ppl. Of course, the type of people they’re dealing with has nothing to do with his ptsd, but he’s trying to ignore that.

**July 1569:**

Jackie is not sleeping. Every time he sleeps he gets nightmares. This is classic early-second-semester-freshman-year PTSD. He’s barely going out. He’s being dragged into things by his friends. He really only ever goes out voluntarily to see Henrik but refuses to talk about it. He dives headlong into the practices for the next mission, thinking that if he trains hard enough he’ll avoid the same situation. :(

**August 1569:**

Trial 2.0 gets done, but Jackie freaks during the mission again. This time he freaks worse because he’s sitting there expecting it to happen and hoping that it won’t happen and of course then it happens because brains are assholes. He actually ends up having to sit it out and give the leadership to Steven, he’s that messed up.

Note: Thing 2.0 is targeting Group #3. These are the violence ppl. They are to sneak in and sabotage the vast stores of food they’ve got stored to feed their massive recruited armies from their allies. They are reminded again to be as stealthy as possible, or at least to make sure that nothing is tied back to the rich trading ppl.

The thing that messes with Jackie is the realization that the same people that they were trying to get were the same people that attacked them when they tried to pass through Cordoire. He learns this long before the day of the mission, and he’s like “i can handle it i can handle it i can handle it” but then the day comes and he’s so freaked he feels downright sick and he’s like “oh crap i can’t handle it”

Jackie can’t pretend that nothing is wrong anymore when he had to actually sit out this mission he’d been doing nothing but obsessing over. Jackie admits it to Henrik first. He doesn’t know what is wrong with him, just that something is, and Henrik felt like a good person to talk to since he’s a doctor. Henrik explains that this is a condition of the mind, not the body, and he can’t do much to help but be a friend. He then admits to Jackie that he too, suffers from PTSD. He relives the moments he lost patients constantly. The two have a long time just sitting and talking about it. Henrik is the Me and Jackie is the Vio, where Henrik says “yeah it sucks but i promise you’ll learn to live with it and still be happy eventually”

Jackie then goes to Sean, saying that he feels like he isn’t fit for duty and tries to resign. Sean is like “dude no. We are all messed up and I don’t want perfect people on this team I want human people, since that’s what this kingdom is made of. If I can’t lead a small group of broken, imperfect people, how am I gonna rule a kingdom with millions of the same sorts of ppl?” Bonding bonding BONDING!

Of course, Marvin gets word of all this because Marvin is the queen of gossip. Marvin is hurt and kinda betrayed that Jackie was considering quitting and doesn’t hesitate to tell Jackie that. After all, Jackie had pushed Marvin to be a leader even when Marvin didn’t feel like he was able to, and even with PTSD Jackie was still a better leader than Marvin, so what gives? Of course, Marvin is trying to play this off as a “How dare you that’s so lazy and unfair,” but what he really means is “I would miss you and you’re my friend pls don’t go” and Jackie actually picks up on that and the two have bonding time yayyyyyyyyyy

**September 1569 - November 1569:**

Rich people summon the group again. Rich people say do THING 3.0.

Thing #3 is targeting Group #1 (money ppl). Money people are hiring foreign mercenaries. They will arrive in a month (october). Questerns need to find a way to make sure that these mercs leave again by early november, before the storms force the mercs to stay in Duilintinn.

 I would love it if they somehow managed to convince the mercs that the fae had come to kick them out or the place was haunted or something. Maybe if the mercs came from a preserve-the-body mummification culture that didn’t let the soul out for ages and thought that the practice of letting the soul just do whatever was scary scary bad bad?

The group is torn between being excited because they think that this might be the last trial, and being uncertain if that’s actually the case. Marvin mood: “THEY BETTER HAVE THIS BE THE LAST ONE OR SO HELP ME- but tbh it’s probably not they are too corrupt.” Jackie mood: “We’ve done such a good job, we’ve worked so hard, this has to be the last one (also i don’t know if i can take more).” Henrik mood: “I don’t see why they would make us do more. They’ve switched sides three times in the last year, each time they’ve sent us to target a different side, and there are only three sides to this conflict. If there was anything that proves that we can beat all sides, it’s beating this last one.” Antonius mood: “Of course they will, it’s our destiny! ;D” Sean mood: “I don’t want to get my hopes up but I really hope this is the last one, but if it’s not, we’ll keep going and we’ll get to the end eventually.”

This quest is not a case of planning a single operation, but a long-term series of tiny operations that are trying to deter the people. So instead of holing up planning and training and practicing they’re doing more consistent daily operations and analyzing results and getting intel and all that.

They do succeed though. Then they’re put on hold for agesssss.

**December 1569:**

Rich people summon the group again. Rich people say do THING 4.0. This thing targets Group #2, aka the influence/favors ppl. Word is that Group #2 and the people who owe them stuff are meeting up together in Cordoire for some big plans. They are going to sabotage the meeting somehow. The methods are left ambiguous. The only goal is to make sure that the meeting never ends up happening, as such open coordination from a group that normally works in the shadows to make other people do their bidding is a bad sign that shows they are very confident.

Everyone grits their teeth but determines to keep going. Even Marvin. They aren’t backing down now. They are just bummed because they had over a month since they last heard from the Rich People so they thought this would maybe be the end. However at the same time some of them were a bit relieved because they were worried the silence meant the Rich People had decided they weren’t worth it.

**January 1570 - February 1570:**

So the group starts making plans to sabotage this meeting. Part of their plan relied on using a storm to their advantage. Only problem is that the storm showed up too soon. Because yay. So the group was cut off from Cordoire the day they were trying to do the sneak because they were all stuck in the middle of a freaking blizzard for DAYS.

The few that managed to get into Cordoire before the storm stranded everyone else (namely, Antonius, Marv, and maybe Sean?) were in for a nasty surprise. Group #2 (influence/favors group) knew that they were coming. Turns out, the meeting that the group was supposed to sabotage? Fake. Group #2 fed the Rich People this info to get the questers trapped. After capturing the abandoned and disoriented questers as they tried to navigate the streets of Cordoire in the snowstorm, they trapped them in a room in the capital and had a nice long monologue.

Turns out, the rich trade people that were sending them on these tasks were lying to them. The questers had suspected that they were exaggerating how “evil” their target was, especially when their targets changed every single time. The truth was even worse. Turns out, the Rich People were SIDING with the people that they sent the questers to sabotage. The Rich People profited SO MUCH from the conflict that these three warring parties created, that they were using the questers to sabotage the group on top! After all, the groups were warring more for the aid of the Rich People than for any other cause at this point (sorta like an arms race) since that was a sign of power. The Rich People would benefit more from this war continuing than any peacetime. The Rich People had told the questers to be sneaky and silent about who sent them on their missions because they were trying not to get caught by their targets… but now the group realized that this was to ensure that the people they were supporting at the same time were unaware of the betrayal.

The questers have different reactions to this revelation. Antonius is quite pleased, thinking that this is all a great plot. Marvin is torn. On one hand, playing the powerful for fools and using their own manipulative game against them had a strong appeal. On the other hand, he doesn’t like being toyed with and hates the idea of becoming the same poisonous thing he hates in people with power. After all, Marvin was always very up front about his intentions when he was younger…

Group #2, meanwhile, is sadistically pleased with giving this revelation. They were incredibly angry that they were fooled and tricked in Trial #1. After all, they should have known that; they are the ones with the information. Not only that, but the person that the questers rescued during Trial #1 had such important info that, if they had gotten it, would have likely won Group #2 the entire war.

They inform the questers that they will be allowed to leave, and that they must continue obeying the Rich People as if they were never told anything. If they tattle to the rich ppl, Group #2 will shift the blame to the questers, telling the Rich People that the questers revealed the plot instead. This would end any chance of getting the Rich People on their side for the kingdom quest.

Group #2 also says that they will feed the Rich People a lie that the meeting was moved to next month due to the storm, and that the questers should do a mock operation to stop it from occurring. They would then feed the Rich People intel implying the fake mission was successful at stopping the fake meeting, avoiding suspicion.

Group #2 also informs the trapped questers that they will not need to worry about being let go; their friends were planning a rescue mission even as they speak. Sure enough, Jackie and Henrik show up soon afterwards with a bare-minimum backup enough to get the questers out and bring them back.

Turns out, Jackie and Henrik had done the sensible thing and called off the mission, sending most of the soldiers home the moment the snow started dying down to get fixed up because everyone had frostbite and cold and hungry and were in no fit state to do a thing.

At the same time, they took a squad of volunteers to rescue the others who were trapped within. A scout that had braved the snow had reported that the group had been captured. Jackie had sat this mission out as a background commander because of his PTSD, but braved it to save his friends with the help of Henrik at his side.

With everyone reunited, they returned to Fionport. When they returned to Fionport, they found that, just as Group #2 had promised, they fed the rich trading people info that the meeting had been cancelled and moved to the following month because of the same storm that trapped the questers. Then they had to wait for people to fix themselves up and form an ENTIRELY NEW PLAN that was also completely fake while trying to fool the rich ppl, so they also had to make sure that their new planning sessions were super duper secret. They also had to figure out how to handle this new discovery that THEY WERE BEING USED AND THIS WHOLE ORDEAL WASN’T EVEN FURTHERING ANY OF THEIR PLANS.

**March 1570:**

So they did a fake-out mission, the meeting “never happened” and that was that. Everyone is extremely annoyed with the whole charade throughout the whole planning, “operation” of the plan, and the return back to Fionport… but it gets worse.

Normally, when the group returns from Cordoire, they get a few weeks to recover back in the outskirts of Fionport. However, the SECOND they get back to Fionport, the Rich People confront them. Apparently, they had taken too long, and so they had to get “back on schedule,” so they were giving them another trial IMMEDIATELY. Not only that, but this trial was expected to be done by the end of April, just over a month away. It targets Group #3, the violent war people group. These people are receiving considerable aid from one of their allies, and this relationship must be severed at any cost. Of course, the questers now know that this is really with the intention of ensuring that the rich trade people have absolutely no competition…

This is the straw that broke the camel’s back. Everyone is upset. Jackie and Henrik both put their heads down and bury themselves in the work to get it done, often falling asleep at the table together after staying up late planning. Antonius is angry and hates that they are being treated like disposable garbage, but keeps it together knowing that they will overcome and show these people exactly who they are dealing with. Sean is just doing his best to keep the group sane.

Marvin, meanwhile, is PISSEEEDDDDDDD because it’s been a year at this point and this isn’t cool and how long are they gonna be left hanging and also how dare you tell us we went slow do you not see the SNOW! THE MEETING WE WERE SUPPOSED TO SABOTAGE GOT MOVED! Not to mention that the whole thing was a massive trick, but Jackie manages to hold Marvin back before he spills that particular detail. Tbh Marvin probably needs to be held back by Jackie from getting up in the Rich People's faces when all this goes down. Marvin is not being very cooperative with the rest of the group, drawing the ire of Jackie and Henrik who are working their butts off trying to make this rushed mission happen. Antonius and Marvin get a bit buddy buddy at this point, with Antonius starting to put some ideas into Marvin’s head that validate his current bitterness and annoyance at being “used” by both friend and foe...

**April 1570:**

Trial #5 is a rushed rushed mess in the planning stages, and a lot relies on them doing everything EXACTLY according to plan. They didn’t have time to come up with backup plans of any sort. However, Marvin is sick of being told plans. He’s sick of being told what to do, when to do it, who to suck up to, yadda yadda. Antonius probably had something to do with this sudden feeling of “i can do what i want” in Marvin.

The mission was to break up the alliance between Group #1 and one of their allies, which was giving them a lot of supplies and resources. To do this, the questers were gonna originally plant evidence in one of the two group’s home bases that the other was betraying/cheating them in the form of letters. However, Marvin is certain they won’t buy this. He wants to plant more long-lasting, impactful evidence; aka an attack. Actually hurt some of Group #3’s dudes so that all of Group #3’s other allies will have no hesitation in kicking the ally’s butt, since loyalty is so important to these ppl. Jackie and the others think that’s going too far. Antonius vocally agrees but pulls an Emperor Palpatine and secretly tells Marvin that he agrees with Marvin’s opinion.

So, mission time comes. They do mission. Halfway through, something goes a bit wonky in the plan. Marvin goes “HEY WE SHOULD DO THIS” and Jackie goes “NO THE PLAN SAYS DO THIS” and then Marvin goes “SCREW THAT I’M DOING THIS” and starts a fight. This is partially out of a desire to lash out at someone, anyone, and partially because he’s mad at these people for hurting Jackie still and they never got revenge during the food sabotage since they just ruined the food, not poisoned it, and besides it wouldn’t have been the same anyway…

Regardless, suddenly the group has to scramble to make the thing look like it was the ally, despite the fact that they didn’t have any plan to do as such. Since Marvin already started a fight, there was probably more fighting as well as other people responding to the sounds of combat. In other situations, they would have probably retreated and started the mission over, because that’s bad and innocents could be killed, but they didn’t have time because the deadline was the end of the month and they would have to make an entirely new plan since the people would be more alert after the first attempt.

They manage to pull off their objective, but barely. Comparison: Trying to do a stealth mission, but alerting all of the guards and completing the thing by running headlong through the map fighting everyone and blowing stuff up.

When they get back to Fionport from the mission, Henrik returns home and his wife is in a state because the mission was clearly a mess and he could have died but also she just discovered that she’s pregnant so that’s fun.

**May 1570 - July 1570:**

Rich people say do THING 6.0. This thing targets Group #1, money group. Money group is bribing people in other groups to betray their group. Questers have to intercept all money traveling to each meeting before it arrives, prompting the people who were being bribed to feel betrayed and return to hating Group #1 and being loyal to their original group. The rich trade ppls say that the questers can keep whatever money they take, showing that a) Rich People are so rich already and b) Rich People didn’t want a trail of money that conveniently matched up to when the stuff was being stolen (since Group #2 was still the only one that knew and the Rich People didn’t even know that).

Now faced with another mission, the group has a TALK with Marvin to make sure that what happened last time doesn’t happen again. Marvin had been moping by himself and not talking to anyone since the mission but now had to be dragged back (probs by Henrik, since Henrik knew that Jackie had a better chance of actually successfully talking to Marvin and he didn’t want to risk that by having Marvin feel betrayed by being dragged back by Jackie) basically figuring out the whole issue. After a talk they realize that Marvin is really being worn down by the whole sneaky sneaky betrayal thing. He hates working for the people who are using them and he just snapped. After all, it’s clear that the Rich People isn’t going to help them the way they promised anyway, so why were they going with this charade? The group as a whole decides that it’s too dangerous to do another quest against Group #2 anyway (who is next in line after this one based on how things seem to be going) so they’d start looking secretly for ways to get out of this mess and find a new way to accomplish their quest to unite the lands. Of course, without the aid of the rich ppl, the odds of that quest everbeing possible are slim to none, since the lands won’t have access to their only port………. Still, they decide to start trying to poke around and figure out new ideas while also working on their current assignment.

Much like trial #3, this one is a long-term series of multiple tiny operations leading to one bigger goal. It lasts a few months, but is successful, and at the end of it all the group finds themselves with a significant amount of coin. This, combined with their efforts to find a way to circumvent the Rich People and still succeed in the quest has the group in higher spirits than they’ve been in for some time; even tho they haven’t found any other plans yet, the sheer act of doing other things and knowing they have some funds that they can use if needed gave everyone a sense of hope and control over the situation that, until now, had been rapidly sliding out of their control.

**August 1570 - September 1570:**

The group of questers has been looking for methods to get out of the hell deal that they find themselves trapped in, but to no success. However, someone else knows that they are on the lookout…

Before the Rich People get back to the questers for the next mission, a mysterious group contacts the questers. They say to meet at the ruins on the edge of the Iolla Cliffs (i.e. future Iolla Beacon). The group had spotted these ruins during Henrik’s wedding so they know where to go.

There, they meet a group of Rebellious people who are dissatisfied with the Rich People's society they live in. There’s a youngest daughter who spent her entire life being told she wasn’t going to get the family fortune and planned to get out of the oppressive and tight roped society as soon as she was old enough… only to be trapped there by family obligation when her brothers died. A eldest son (Connor) that was taught from a young age to keep the record books and basically play secretary in preparation for inheriting the trade, only to grow up being upset by the injustice and horrible cheating and all that he saw in the books each day that he was punished for speaking of. An elderly grandfather who was expected to retire as a figurehead of the family, manipulated and used for his influence by his younger family members. A young couple who were given a lavish honeymoon by their rich families, traveled around the world and saw that not every culture was like the toxic environment they had grown up in, and then realized they were pregnant and decided they didn’t want to raise their kid in this environment… only to have the parents die and the young couple inherited the family fortune. Note that it is absolutely unacceptable to leave the community of Rich People with or without your fortune. Leave with it, and you’ll be hunted down unceremoniously. Leave without it, and you’ll be cut off from everyone and everything, unable to live in a world where you aren’t waited upon hand and foot. And if you think that’s stupid, ask yourself this: we know that we’re being spied upon with our technology, yet how many of you would be willing to live a life without your phone and computer? Some would, but most won’t.

Anyway, these people have been meeting in secret, using the same strategies to hide their activities that they’ve been taught by the culture that they hate. Their mission was to collect all the info they could from the Rich People to expose their secrets with the truth and show them for the sneaky horrible people that they are to everyone. They want to help the questers and reached out now that the questers had a ton of money, because that’s just kinda how they still are conditioned to do things. Despite hating their society, they still carried with them many of the assumptions of that part of their upbringing, such as the assumption that people will only be able to do business with powerful parties if they have money or something else to trade. They weren’t willing to take a risk on these people on the promise of a kingdom that may not even come to fruition. It’s a good example of how privileged people, even with good intentions will still be fundamentally affected by their privilege.

Still, suddenly the quest people have a ball in their court. These people don’t want to rule, they just want to be able to live in their trading society without all the corruption that it’s built upon. Just a normal old affluent trading city, not a horrifically rich corrupt trading city. The questers would promise to bring stability to their society by founding the kingdom. If the kingdom doesn’t happen, however, the Rebel People were going to ensure that the details of their coup didn’t really come to light. From the perspective of the outside world, there was just a peaceful transition of family inheritances, as happens from time to time as people get old and die. It’s a win-win situation, assuming the coup actually takes place.

In the meantime, the rich Rebels need the questers to get the info on the Rich People betraying the groups in Cordoire. The people who have this info are the Group #2 of course. The Rich People in question aren’t stupid enough to keep records of their own folly, but Group #2 has details and proof and everything because they’ve shown them that evidence when they captured Antonius, Marvin, and possibly Sean. Since they’ll be working to sabotage Group #2 already, not to mention that Group #2 knows this and probably will be meeting them halfway to do their own sneaky manipulation of the questers… they have one shot to pull this off.

Kinda shook, the group returned to Fionport asap in order to be around when the Rich People gave them another trial. Sure enough, soon afterwards, the Rich People show up and are like hello time for another trial!!! Trial #7 is going after Group #2. Surprise Surprise. This one is a bit nuts. These people are calling in a favor from a particularly well off family that will potentially get them a massive backing from a foreign power. Once again, there is gonna be a meeting in Cordoire. At this point, “meeting in Cordoire” means “hey Group #2 wants to talk to you” so the questers are like “yeah okay we know how this is gonna go.”

Meanwhile, they start planning how they are gonna get the intel… their main plan is pretty simple; get one of the guys that wasn’t there the first time to ask for the evidence of Group #2’s duplicity claiming they don’t believe them or something and then steal it somehow. That bit wasn’t as well planned as their previous missions, but they can’t really plan it can they? They know that all intel they’re getting has been fed to the Rich People and that Group #2 will keep them in the dark as much as possible.

**October 1570:**

Trial #7 is another meeting sabotage of the people of power in Group #2. The group knows this means that it’s shorthand for “let’s meet with Group #2.”

So they go and lo and behold, Group #2 meets them there. This time they don’t kidnap them but fully expect them to be escorted quietly because they know they’ll be having a problem if they don’t cooperate.

Jackie and Henrik, who weren’t at the first meeting, insist upon seeing the evidence. The Group #2 people obliged. However, questers can’t improvise a plan to get out with it. The best they can do is look on watching it get away as the people take it back to where they keep it.

Luckily, Marvin had a trick up his sleeves and got his cat to follow the person putting it away, looking like just a normal mouse-eating cat. The Group #2 people tell them that they have nothing for them to do at the moment, they just wanted to ensure that they were controlling the situation when the Rich People targeted them, and just wanted to sit back and watch the fun as their opponents get sabotaged. According to the rich ppl, the meeting doesn’t happen so the thing is a success. According to the Rebel rich ppl, the thing is less of a success… but they do know WHERE the thing is being kept now thanks to Marvin’s cat. However, they have to wait until their next opportunity to get at it… which means in the meantime, the group has to continue playing into the rich ppl’s hands and keep doing trials.

**November 1570 - December 1570:**

Rich people are like “hey boy oh boy we’ve got another trial for you!!!” This one targets Group # 3. Violence group yay! The Rich People want the violence group to lose a lot of their soldiers, permanently or temporarily, in time to miss an important battle planned for January. Apparently there’s some big trial of strength happening that could impress a lot of people, only the fighty people are pulling out all the stops to bring extra reinforcements that no one expected (since these people are very Antonius-merc so they only rely on their allies and all that). The Rich People don’t care how the group gets rid of these extra soldiers, they just want them out of commission.

Henrik comes up with an idea. There’s a poison that will make the people all sick, mimicking a normal virus/cold. He starts cooking up that poison in massive amounts, needing all of the help of the questers than he can get. It will take a whileeeeeee tho. A big long while.

Oh also at the same time his wife is 7 mo pregnant so there’s that.

**January 1571:**

It’s time for trial #8! This one is against the violence boys in Group #1 to poison their army. Henrik has got all of the poison ready to make them sick the day of the big battle. However, before the day they have to dose the army’s food/water… Henrik’s wife goes into labor. The questers have to go do the thing without him. It’s very exciting because they are very nervous about doing too much (killing the soldiers, which they don’t want to do) or too little (failing the mission). In addition, the group suddenly realizes how much they miss the voice of rationality that is Henrik. Also it’s snowing again. But it ends up working out.

And when they return to Fionport they get to meet the baby! His name is Edmon.

**February 1571:**

Look at that! The group got a whole extra month off! Or really, Henrik got a month off. The group suspected that their new Rebel friendos pulled some strings to get Henrik some paternity leave. So we’ve got a whole month of going “awww” over the baby.

However, they all know that they’re gonna go back to the quest sooner rather than later. Henrik and Bridget decide that Bridget should stay in Fionport with her family to take care of the kid while Henrik continues questing, rather than follow them around like before.

**March 1571:**

However, all good things must come to an end. And now there’s a whole ‘nother mission! Yayyyyy :/

This mission is against Group #1, the money group. Surprise surprise. Patterns and patterns and patterns. Of course, the pattern makes sense now. The Rich People aren’t actually picking who is winning most of the time; they’re just cycling through to keep the people on their toes to keep them fighting each other. And these people are all about their numbers and trades and routines and keeping things the way that they should be… so of course they’d cycle through in a pattern.

Anyway, time to target money people again. Heck idk what do. Some sort of quest. Yay.

Someone was being extorted by Group #1 wants to not be extorted. So they protect them. Something like that.

Of course this means that Henrik is now busy with quest again as Bridget stays home... much to the delight of a certain young man (RICHARD).

**April 1571:**

 This trial is a quick, one-off mission.  One goal, one chance, one success. They have to protect someone who needs protecting from the big bad money extorting ppls, and they do it. However, protecting someone from being extorted is a very up-close and personal deal. The money people in Group #1 get a good look at the questers in the process. This is definitely a we-can’t-do-this-anymore sort of thing. They are running out of anonymity.

**May 1571 - June 1571:**

Trial #10 comes around… time to target Group #2!!! And oh look, what a surprise, there’s another “super important meeting” that the questers need to make sure never takes place.

This is the first time a mission actually targets something happening directly in Cordoire. Which means this is the first time since seeing the location of the intel that the Rebel Rich People need, that they actually have a chance to get at it.

And since the group of questers is becoming not-so-anonymous among other groups of these warring parties as well… this may be their last shot at it.

So they devise a plan. It is a super duper secret. They get the help of their Rebel Rich People friends with the secretness. It takes two months to make this plan because of how secretive they have to be in order to coordinate between the groups. It’s so secret oh my gosh so much secret. I have no idea how they’re gonna pull this off ngl. I’m too tired for this. But somehow they make a secret plan to get the intel. Yayyyy.

**July 1571 - December 1571:**

Alright, time to snatch some intel from Group #2!

Before this, Henrik gets his wife and kid into hiding somewhere safe out of Fionport.

Half of the team goes to the meeting as planned. They are the diversion. Then a few members of the team go be sneaky diversion #1 that the smart Group #2 with all their intel will probably be expecting. However, after they get caught and Group #2 starts reaming into the people in the meeting about how they’re gonna tattle to the Rich People and all that… sneaky sneaky Group #2 goes and gets the intel and books it out of there.

They get the intel to the rich Rebel ppl. Then they wait with the Rebels, not going back to the Rich People at all since they know that Group #2 will be getting the Rich People mad at them now that they weren’t an asset to their manipulation game. But surprise! Rich people can’t find their little questers to get mad at them in the first place! Oh no! XD

And suddenly, a week or so later, the Rebels do something with that intel to take down the manipulative Rich People ruling Fionport and keeping the war for Cordoire going for their own benefit. Yay! So how does this actually happen?

Let’s go over everyone’s status real quick:

Group #1: Money Group. Knows about the questers after they interfered with an extortion attempt by just straight up blocking the path and forbidding them to cross. Does not know that the Rich People were the force behind the questers’ actions.

Group #2: Influence Group. Knows that the Rich People are betraying their allies by sending this little group of questers to do their dirty work. Content to let the Rich People continue doing this while interfering with the attempts to sabotage themselves, without the Rich People being any the wiser. Considers the questers to be under their influence.

Group #3: Extremely paranoid at this point. Believes there are multiple traitors amongst them, and has felt validated in their paranoia after the questers planted the evidence (while simultaneously actually hurting their soldiers oops) that one of their allies did betray them. Have no idea about the rich ppl. Know questers from the time they almost killed Jackie (thanks).

Rich ppl: Lining their pockets by facilitating this arms race within Cordoire, only the arms are simply the ability to trade with the rich ppl. Rich people have control of the only port in duilintinn, so they can stop any aid from getting in and out of the country to any of these ppl, or alternatively facilitate more aid to make their way to these ppl. Of course, they are constantly switching sides, so when they give their favor to someone new, that group feels like they have to take advantage of the opportunity and use the partnership as much as possible… and leaving the Rich People with a lot of money and a push to switch sides again as soon as the cash stops flowing in. They validate this by saying that they are “siding with the group that’s winning” because “it’s good business” so the groups genuinely believe this (except Group #2)

Rebel ppl: Don’t like the Rich People in charge. Want to stop all of this fighting in Cordoire and change their society for the better. Still pretty entitled but their hearts are in the right place for the most part. They now have reams of proof that the Rich People are betraying everyone they say they support and are artificially keeping the war going for their own gain. They can use that to depose Rich People once and for all.

So, how does the coup actually happen?

Step 1: Tattle to the other groups. Group #1 will be super mad because they are the ones that are focused on money, and they just assumed the Rich People were focused on trade and BUSINESS, not extortion and all that. The fact that a) Rich People are copying their thing and b) Rich People are using their own tactics against them is horrifically insulting. Group #1 is now mad at rich ppl. Meanwhile, Group #3 is already paranoid enough and will probably get so mad that they’ll just freaking charge Fionport to stab the guys. XD Group #2 already knows, and tbh the Rebels and questers are very worried about them being the dark horse in this coup. However, they are surprised when Group #2 turns on Rich People and acts just as surprised as everyone else! This makes sense though. If the other groups realized that Group #2 knew the whole time and had been using the situation for their own gain as well, they would receive just as much ire as the rich ppl. Group #2 couldn’t side with the Rich People who had betrayed them, it would be horrifically demeaning, so they pretended not to know so that they wouldn’t get caught in the fallout. They sold the act so well that this only served to make the other groups even more angry; the Rich People had managed to hide this from even the information and influence group themselves! They are the illuminati! Shadow organization! Sneaky jerks, playing us all for fools! Etc. etc. etc.

Step 2: Tell Fionport’s international trade partners. After all, none of these nations knew what was going down in Cordoire, nor would they normally care. Trade is trade, after all. However………. The Rich People of Fionport are direct descendants, both literally and culturally, from the brief period that Waldren had power over Tirónar. And at this point in history, Waldren had been kicked out of every single country, and still was a fresh, hated memory in many cultures. The fact that these people were basically continuing that hated legacy…….. Oh BOY there’s gonna be a reaction. A big one. Because Rebel People are smart. They don’t just tell the governments; they make sure that the story is spread to every corner of every country among the civilians. And nothing makes a government take action like an angry mob of pitchfork wielding peasants setting fire to any goods they imported from Fionport. Hehehehehe. Simultaneously, the Rebel People are telling these countries that they were going to try to depose these horrible, corrupt remnants of the oppressive waldren empire, and they would appreciate their support when that happens.

These first two steps are enormously satisfying things for the Rebel People to do. Their unifying trait is how oppressed, trapped, and silenced they feel in their culture (more concerned with ideals of freedom and truth than the actual moral badness of their rulers, heh), but they had been forced to conform to that silent, secretive lifestyle in order to keep their plans a secret. Being able to finally stand up and cast off all of that secrecy and misdirection and just yell the truth at everyone in the most overwhelming and explosive way possible is basically their declaration of independence. Their grito de baire. Their storming of the bastille. Etc. etc. etc.

Step 3: Watch them burn. Suddenly, the Rich People of Fionport are in a pickle. Most international trade has stopped. Their goods are no longer being imported and no one is exporting anything to them. Simultaneously, their profitable little game in Cordoire has turned against them. The Rebels have done an incredibly good job with their campaign to reveal the truth of the matter, and all three groups have temporarily united to tear the Rich People apart as a result. Group #2 is silently aiding the truth campaign, but unlike the Rebels, isn’t hesitating to add a little negative propaganda in there… further stoking the other groups against the Rich People and diverting attention from themselves. Group #3 is marching their army towards Fionport, Group #1 is paying extra to anyone and everyone who denounced Fionport goods, causing a similar situation where the people hated Fionport like there was abroad.

Now, Rebel People get to play their trump card. They’ve already secured international support, but now they need local support. Which means getting the groups fighting in Cordoire to accept them as replacements for the Rich People they’re about to burn to the ground. Also, the Rebels would prefer that Fionport not get burned to the ground, or any violence to happen. Which will be tough because Group #3 is on the warpath.

Meanwhile, these groups now trust Rebel People, because they know they were the ones who exposed the information. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” sort of deal. Group #2 is the only ones that are not trusting them because a) it’s very clear they stole their intel somehow and b) someone willing to betray their own people will just as easily betray allies, especially when their people are known for BETRAYING ALLIES.

Still, these groups don’t want the hassle of running Fionport. They want the power of running Cordoire. So they don’t really mind that these little idealist Rebels take over Fionport. They all assume their idealism will make them very easy to manipulate into helping them later. Plus, these Rebels have international backing, so if the groups want any trade coming in at all, they need these Rebels in power.

Meanwhile, the Rich People are royally screwed. No trade from within or without means no money. Suddenly anyone who they owe debts to are calling in their debts (thanks to strings pulled by Group #2), quickly draining the money that they had already. Then, there’s an army marching on the way! The Rich People do the sensible thing and flee over the ocean, most likely back to whatever remains of the Waldren homeland over the sea.

And then, suddenly, we’ve got politics! New leadership, alliances, blah blah blah. Without a common enemy, the groups go back to fighting each other in Cordoire for a time, although now… all of the groups know EXACTLY who this little group of questers is, and what they want. Over the next few months, it becomes very clear that the new leadership in Fionport will not be pressured into aiding any of the warring groups in Cordoire, but seemed intent on aiding these questers… which made the questers a potential threat to their individual desires for control over the lands.

**January 1572- March 1572:**

So, good news. Fionport is now in the control of nice rich ppl. Or at least nice-er ones. Idk i guess that’s up to opinion and also not the point!

The point is that the new Rich People of Fionport take power at the end of 1571 and are 100% on Sean’s side. Two political things then happen between January and March 1572:

One: The fighty people go back to fighting each other, and after many failed attempts to get a similar trade partnership with the new rich ppl, they realize that new Rich People will not be siding with any of them. They also notice that new Rich People are on the quester's side, further bringing the questers to the top of these warring parties’ radars by mid-spring.

Two: The new people in Fionport insist that they can get the farm people to the north (future House Brody) to side with Sean, without even requiring Sean to do anything. Marvin and Jackie are unconvinced, Henrik and Antonius are all for it, Sean ends up agreeing to let the Fionport people give it a go. Fionport ppl’s plan was to build support for the questers by spreading tales and legends of their exploits, encouraging the people of the northern region to get more intertwined with the traders economically, and generally fostering a sentiment of unity and camaraderie among the new leadership in Fionport (especially compared to the old leadership) and the people in the north. This could have gone better. Didn’t go great. But it did inspire a small bean of a boy and his bud to go on an adventure of their own... Chase and Chad set out on their adventure in March 1572.

## Success at Cordoire

**April 1572 - May 1572:**

At this point, the warring parties in Cordoire have ALL taken notice of Sean and his gang. When the rich government that keeps siding with the party that is winning changes sides, it’s always a big deal in their little conflict. Them suddenly siding with a group of upstarts??? OH BOY...

This is when the fight against the factions in Cordoire comes to an absolute head. Fed up with behind pushed aside by these tiny questers, all three factions join together once again to destroy them. I guess they were feeling used to it since they had just joined up to kick the old rich ppl’s butts, especially because you could feasibly claim that the questers were in on the Rich People scheme to raise support for joining up and squishing them. Plus, it’s spring, which means the snow is melting, which means that they would be able to use their superior forces to overwhelm the questers as soon as they could travel in formation across dry ground.

Questers, who are currently still in Fionport doing politics, get word of this by some buds in the guard coalition. Questers go OH CRAP. They realize that they’ve got to prepare, and that Fionport is NOT the place to prepare for a full on battle. So they travel back to the Whetstone as fast as possible while simultaneously giving Cordoire a wide berth. TBH this probably means taking the Airceann Bridge which isn’t ideal, but again, these people are dangerous.

The questers arrive at The Whetstone, only to find the Guard Coalition in a tizzy. A group of mercenaries has formed to the WEST, in Mulladún. The guard is convinced that these mercs are gonna attack them because the non-guard affiliated mercs have always been mad/downright hostile towards the coalition because they basically forced normal mercenaries to lose business. Not everyone wanted to join the guard with all it’s rules, after all.

As a result of the merc-guard competition, many mercs went all-in and committed to the more immoral parts of paid fighting, even going so far as to become bandits for their own gain. And suddenly there was a group of these people in Mulladun? The guard coalition assumes that they are about to be trapped between two different wars, one against Cordoire in the east and one against mercs in the west.

However, it turns out that this isn’t the case! The mercs in Mulladún wanted to revitalize the title of mercenary and take it back from the banditry and chaos that people associated with them. This group sought to be a balance between the coalition and normal mercenary-ing, utilizing the advantages of unionizing that made the coalition so successful without subjecting the mercs to constricting rules and certification nonsense.

Better yet, these mercs want to help! As a show of good faith to the guard coalition, and because they really really respect Sean for whatever reason (kings eye? Probably. Thanks sam) Also these mercs really don’t like the people in Cordoire because they are greedy pretentious people (\*cough\*likethecoalition\*cough\*) who thought they were better than everyone else and getting innocents hurt because of it. Mercs don’t kill innocents.

At first, Sean assumes they were gonna be planning a defense, but then the mercs had a better idea: attack first. They won’t expect it, it will make a statement to the people of the land which Sean would soon NEED to start doing if he expected public support and unity among the people, and plus they have so many forces now with the merc help that they’d be better used in an offense instead of a defense. Complicating matters is that the Syndicate leaders had made the alliance on the assumption that they were going to do an offensive attack; while they were willing to respect Sean’s final decision on the matter, they put a lot of pressure to go offensive.

Sean is torn. Shouldn’t making a kingdom mean bringing people together, not fighting against them? Making allies, not enemies? There are many tense meetings where people argue about potential plans (all while the time starts ticking) and sleepless nights on Sean’s end pacing around and arguing with fellow questy bois about what to do about it.

Suddenly, the war begins with a single attack by the baddies. A group of soldiers and scouts were killed by the soldiers of group 3, armed with the best weapons that group 1’s money could buy, and ready with the knowledge of their target’s movements that group 2 provided. In addition, many innocents were killed during the ambush due to fire that was set to keep the targets from escaping.

Sean knew then that these people were ruthless and greedy, caring more for their own power than the people around them. So he agrees to the offensive strategy in late May. Now they have to actually make that strategy and execute it… BUT PROBLEM: Cordoire is already beginning to come after them.

The good news is that the group isn’t facing a full on attack yet. The factions are starting with mostly ambushes and toying with the troops of the questers, trying to whittle down their numbers and mock them at the same time. Clearly, the Cordoire people want to have a sense of power over weak and puny foes, yet simultaneously fear the growing numbers of troops behind the questers cause.

So Marvin and Henrik get to work trying to help the soldiers currently being attacked. Marvin starts using wards a LOT and teaches other mages how to use them as well to protect the soldiers if they are attacked. Henrik is fixing up the ones that get hurt and formulating new tonics and potions that will also aid them if they get surprised.

This works great because these are very big, open, multi-volunteer projects. From the outside looking in (because we know group 2 is looking in) it looks like the questers are hedging their bets on a very defensive strategy.

However, in secret meetings, Sean, Jackie, Antonius, Steven (from the coalition), Robert (from the coalition), Connor (from rich ppl), and Merc people are planning their offensive strategy to take Cordoire....

**June 1572- August 1572:**

In June 1572, Chad dies during his and Chase's ill-fated adventure.

Meanwhile, Sean, Antonius, Jackie, Steven, Robert, Connor, and Merc people are planning the offensive strategy against Cordoire while Marv and Henrik are managing their current situation on the defensive. The group quickly realizes that they’re gonna need intimate knowledge of the city to do this attack right, preferably by incorporating some sort of stealth aspect that will catch the head honchos of the groups by surprise when they’re busy with the main attack. Also knowing where defenses and stuff are located is good too.

Of course, getting that intel requires STEALTH. Something that the group has done before to get into Cordoire but that was when they are anonymous nobodies slipping through a war zone, not the hostiles against a united force. Thankfully, the Rebel Rich People (remember them?) sent a messenger saying that they found a map showing secret tunnels under the city. The hill upon which the city was built was actually built OVER another, far older structure, some of which still forms navigable tunnels apparently. However, the map is very outdated, and they have no idea how much of the tunnels are caved in and how many still work, nor where they lead in the modern city and if their exits need to be uncovered somehow.

This is where Jackie and Antonius start to come into play. Antonius’s magic + Jackie’s strength = the boys are gonna go sneak down there again and again and clear/find the way to get the baddies using these tunnels. This means a lot of Jackie sneaking into the SURFACE part of the city to clear an exit path if he can’t do so from underground. This means Antonius using his magic a lot to keep them from being detected and finding routes out of the twisted maze of stone rooms and halls.

And then while they do that, the peeps at home are making a plan to use what they learned to do a big fight!

SO THEY DO THAT. A LOT. FOR LIKE IDK A FEW MONTHS. LIKE MAYBE 3. JUNE JULY AUGUST. YEAH OKAY NOW WE SKIP TO SEPTEMBER WHERE WE HAVE A PLAN.

**September 1572:**

Plan bye-bye baddies is a go! Which means marching the big-huge army towards Cordoire. WHICH TAKES A BIT. AND THERE’S BATTLES AND STUFF BECAUSE THE PEOPLE IN CORDOIRE DON’T WANT THEM TO MAKE IT THAT FAR. SO THERE ARE BATTLES ON THE ROAD AND ALL THAT. FFUNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

I’ll write these later.

AND THEN THEY MAKE IT TO CORDOIRE AND THEN IT’S SIEGE TIME YAY BECAUSE HECK IF YOU CAN KILL THEM WITHOUT ACTUALLY KILLING OR DESTROYING THE INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE CITY THAT YOU NEED TO MAKE A KINGDOM THAT WOULD BE HANDY.

PLUS WINTER IS COMING AND WE HAVE THE HELP OF TRADE BUDDIES SO WE WON’T BE HUNGRY BUT YOU WILL IF YOU’RE STUCK IN CORDOIRE WHILE WE SIEGE YOU LOL.

**October 1572:**

Still sieging… getting colder… there are a few more skirmishes… GOSH WHY DO SIEGES TAKE SO GOSH DARN LONG

IDK MAYBE PUT CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT HERE. THIS IS A LONG BORING MONTH FULL OF NOTHING BUT SITTING AROUND AND GOING OVER THE PLAN FOR THE BAJILLIONTH TIME AND WAITING FORTHE OTHER SIDE TO GIVE UP SO I’M SURE THERE CAN BE LOTS OF DUMB PROMPT IDEAS HERE TO FILL THE GAPS

**November 1572:**

 During the siege, the group stumbles upon Chase (Five Long Months). Marv and Jackie bring Chase back to the personal encampment of the questers at the siege site, where they bandage him up and comment on how this is the first real snow of the winter and the baddies have GOT to surrender at some point so help me because at some point our own troops might end up freezing too and that won’t help.

At one point Henrik says Chase is better to leave soon (his unspoken reason being the danger of being near an active siege), which Chase interprets this as "they don't want me." Fast forward a week or so. Chase is better and seems to take Henrik’s advice and depart. Key word “seems.” In reality, he sticks around in secret, blending in with the mercs and members of the guard.

Meanwhile, the winter is proving to be one of the worst ones in a while. The soldiers are getting too cold and Sean and the gang decide that they need to attack now, while the foes inside the city are weak but before their troops grow weak as well.

Initiate a big huge battle! Antonius and Marvin infiltrate the city through the tunnels with a group of assassin-type mercs, mages, and other quiet and stealthy sort of soldier peeps. Meanwhile, Jackie and Sean initiate the frontal attack upon the walls. Henrik stays behind to help deal with the injured.

The first bit of the fight is supposed to be a massive contrast between the other fights we’ve seen in Cordoire, specifically focusing on the way Jackie has grown with his PTSD and leadership skills and fighty skills and also everyone’s cooperation and support of him. He’s still got the PTSD and it still bugs him but it’s about forgiving himself and pushing thru via coping mechanisms when he can and letting himself delegate stuff when he can’t.

AND THEN ABOUT HALFWAY THRU JACKIE REALIZES CHASE IS THERE IN THE MIDST OF THE BADDIES CHUCKING ROCKS OUT OF A SLINGSHOT AT THE BADDIES LIKE DUDE WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE YOU FREEZING BEAN GO HOME THIS ISN’T YOUR FIGHT.

Chase is too far away for Jackie to do anything about it though and he has a battle to lead. So he puts it out of his mind. But it’s worrying him. He grew attached to the kid while he was at their camp, and also the sight of this very inexperienced, idealistic kid who wants to make a difference is very reminiscent of how their group was like during the first incident at Cordoire, aka the source of Jackie’s PTSD… and this throws Jackie off enough that he got distracted and almost got killed by a baddie but WHAM rock to the face for the baddie! Chase saved Jackie! Yay!!!!

Chase is looking very serious this whole time and only nods at Jackie trying to look cool and serious. In reality, Chase is freaking terrified, but he doesn’t show it. Jackie is impressed but doesn’t have time to dwell on it, especially since dwelling on it almost got him killed just a sec ago.

Fast forward to the end of the battle. Marvin and Antonius did their stealth thing good. Battle is won. Everyone is very tired and blah blah blah. Idk i didn’t really plan most of this battle except for the Chase thing. Except also the fact that Steven dies. Boooooo. That’s why Fort Stiofán, so close to where he fell at Cordoire, is named after him and the song “All the Way” references him.

Anyway then Jackie finds Chase in Henrik’s tent after the battle and realizes that Chase got hurt after he last saw him and then he feels really bad for it ALL OVER AGAIN and Henrik is like “dude he’ll be fine but why was he here” and Jackie doesn’t really answer and just says “he saved my life” and then Henrik has tons of respect for Chase because he and Jackie are BESTIES PLATONIC SOULMATES and after that it’s an unspoken thing that Chase can join the group if he wants to.

Of course this is an unspoken thing that isn’t agreed upon with the rest of the group first because WHY WOULD WE BE FUNCTIONAL HERE? Sean is cool with it though. Marv is grumpy and pouty but he’s always like that. He´s probably partly pouty because Anti is being snippy about how Jackie and Marvin were supposed to have sent the kid away (Sean: "why was the bean in the battle?" Anti: "yeah i thought you left the bean somewhere safe Jackie and Marvin???" Jackie and Marvin: "WE DID HE FOLLOWED US BACK.”). Antonius is weird about it but doesn’t protest much except to say that the boy will slow them down and isn’t worth anything.

Oh and also Chase hears that last bit of the conversation when he wakes up in the tent at one point SOOOOOOOOOOO oof poor bean has uncertainty about whether or not Antonius likes him forever, which is good, although not for exactly the right reasons why getting buddy-buddy with Antonius is a bad idea.

Still, despite scarcely believing they want him, Chase joins the quest. This is the first time he actually meets Sean and Anti (as they had only been sorta orbiting in the background when Chase was first being checked on; it wasn't unusual for Henrik to be fixing up randos they come across on the quest).

**December 1572:**

 Battle is over, and now it’s time to figure out what’s next. Dealing with the people who surrendered, assessing damages and casualties, mourning the dead, learning what they have gained from the victory, etc. The leaders who allied themselves with Sean swore allegiance to him and began laying the foundation of an actual government in Cordoire, one that wasn’t full of chaos and fighting and instead was focused outward to help the people.

Meanwhile, Jackie begins getting Chase taught how to use a crossbow and getting Henrik to teach Chase how to read the way Henrik taught him.

## Southern Mountains

**January 1573- August 1573**:

With that set up, Sean and the questers are now headed towards the Southern Mountains to get the rural folks on their side, because even tho they’ve always been sorta out of the way and “unimportant” depending on who you talk to, Sean wants to make sure he isn’t a hypocrite and reaches out to every part of the land. And also the fact that Noefrach can completely screw them over if it messes with the Guardian River. Also the fact that the southern mountains are where most of the isolated tribal groups and bandit clans are that will swoop down and raid towns for resources in the monaidh plains, and that’s generally not something you want next door to your new kingdom. Jackie is resisting the urge to go full vigilante on them again bc to him this feels simple and like the stuff he used to do, but he’s also learned more and knows that marvin especially is very emphatic that most of these groups of violent “bad guys” are more likely to be full of desperate people who have probably killed less people than the group has at this point anyway… This is a moment to compare between Jackie and Marvin’s arguments and reactions to this sort of difference in perspective and how they react to it now compared to how they did at the beginning of the quest.

So they head south to the Southern Mountains. Turns out there’s a group of bandit people who are used to the mountains and are kinda scary and possibly allied with stone walkers? ~~And no one knew about them because of how isolated the mountains are from everyone else and Noefrach is too proud to really ask for help.~~

 Before even reaching Noefrach, the group gets attacked by these bandit folks and that’s when “Fire and Dark” happens in May(?) because Chase did a goof during the fight that got Sean a big bonk on the head by a rock boi.

They finally get to Noefrach and Noefrach is like “okay so we heard about you and we do technically want to be with you guys, but also we don’t want to seem overeager and begging. Also we want to make sure that we are actually WITH you guys, not just some extra land you ignore forever. Therefore, to prove that you actually give a crap, can you please get rid of that bandit group that’s messing with us please? And then we’ll side with you.”

Like the Monaidh Plains, Noefrach is the sorta kinda gov of the eastern half of the mountains, so getting them on their side was crucial to getting the rest of the region to follow suit. There really just wasn’t any gov in the western half, just a bunch of isolated towns, but Noefrach assured the group that the western region would also be grateful to have the bandits taken care of, and would likely either not give a damn who leads them, or follow Noefrach’s lead.

However, there’s DRAMA because it turns out that one of the various tribes of mountain warriors in this region are probably the same ones that raided Jackie’s hometown and killed his family, but we have no idea which ones and that makes Jackie not want to trust ANY of them. So that has to be dealt with.

Eventually though, the group of questers go to fight the bandits. The leader of the bandits runs the operation from the Guardian Spire. Due to the difficulty of actually reaching the Guardian Spire without being seen from miles away and picked off as you scramble up the rocks, not to mention the amount of scattered bandit encampments that they also have to deal with even after defeating their leader, this takes a while.

In addition, more drama brews when they realize that the bandits aren’t just groups of people who fight and steal because they enjoy being jerks, but because the tribal power struggle in the mountains between whoever holds Noefrach at the time and everyone else forces them to fight. The mountains are so isolated and hard to get to if you don’t control the Guardian River and the central road out of Noefrach that not holding Noefrach means being completely cut off from any trade and resources from the outside world, and the ppl holding Noefrach at any given time won’t share bc then that would give the other groups the potential resources to take it for themselves… etc etc. Some people are willing to try to change the way things are but many are convinced that this is the only way things could ever be, and refuse to trust that anything could change in such a way that they wouldn’t need to fight for all of the resources they need to survive. And obviously these are still people, and it’s harder to go full vigilante on them when they’re not actively hurting others… I mean, are you gonna go full genocide on them just because the other group said so? So they’ve got to handle that moral dilemma.

It’s all much more complex than this, but I haven’t developed this part of the quest to the same extent that I developed the others. However, after dealing with everything somehow and doing all the politicking that happens afterwards where they make agreements and establish the rights Noefrach has and blah blah blah after the whole thing is over, Noefrach is like “yeah okay y’all are cool.”

Meanwhile, let’s check back on Fionport, shall we? Bless her heart, Bridget now has an infant who inherited all of his father's curiosity and stubbornness. Very little remains of the fantasy charm she had imagined in their relationship. Richard helps care for the kid and doesn't hesitate to sow a few seeds of resentment for her husband over the next few years...

## Recruiting Jameson

**September 1573 - May 1574:**

 The group departs from Noefrach with the intent of seeing some of these isolated towns they’ve heard about in the western portion of the Southern Mountains, both in an attempt to get to know the region better and to make sure that Noefrach was actually telling the truth when they said that these towns don’t particularly mind who leads them. After all, they really have only TECHNICALLY gotten the support of Noefrach, and they quickly realize that just because they have the support of Noefrach doesn’t mean they have the support of all the people.

The reason is because of the stuff we’re learning in the counterinsurgency class. Just because a bunch of people groups seem similar in their “differentness” (poverty, isolation, customs, location,  lack of your tech, etc.) doesn’t mean they’re all the same. Multiple insurgencies in Latin America failed because they assumed the indigenous people were all just “government bad” because the government oppressed them, but didn’t take the time to get to know their unique diverse cultures. Even if they got some indigneous groups on their side, they’d assume they had everyone on their side which wasn’t true because different indigenous groups have different external and internal politics and beliefs and some may actively oppose you. You have to take the time to make friends.

So instead of heading straight to the Draoidh Valley like they planned, Sean and co. find themselves realizing that the people groups in the mountains are EXTREMELY diverse. After all, I’ve already established that during the interim years people would live in communities of like-minded people, resulting in a lot of mini cultures among towns that preserved a lot of diverse traditions (hence the cultural diversity for watchers of various religions or cultural backgrounds).

They do their best to do this, but as outsiders trying to stick their noses IN, it’s not working at ALL until...

In October, they find themselves in Dwelly, where they meet Jameson and start sorta figuring out how to sign. Jameson ends up joining the questers, and their first quest with him in tow was convincing him to buy some shoes while continuing to learn how to communicate with him. Jameson’s aid is what finally clues them in on how to actually help the people and engage with these communities. After all, as someone who is mute, communication is a big theme around Jameson. Jameson becomes a valuable asset to the group, giving them a lot of good insight into the region they were looking into in the western parts of the mountains. With his help, the group ends up making themselves well known enough in the region to be considered Pretty Cool Dudes by the local population after about 9 months.

One of these moments includes a visit to an extremely isolated town, where the group helps to build/repair buildings in the Southern Mountains, learning to stack stones and lay moss. Maybe in a town high in the mountains, AT cloud level. Always damp and wet, but can you imagine seeing that ceiling of clouds you get right before it rains, but within a few meters of your HEAD? And they have a metal justice method where bad ppl are tied to a rock overnight in the freezing damp. At lower altitudes this just means a rough night but up here nope you in deep trouble. Based on hayuncho peru.

Around April, they realize that they maybe can’t rely on their original plan that assumed that, if the Mages’ Guild was on their side, the entire Draoidh Valley was on their side. So they decide to go back west and revisit the Draoidh Valley and Marvin’s grandmother after having been gone for so long, to actually spend time with the population there and make sure they’d be open to joining the kingdom and find ways to help. Marvin seems to be eager to see the place with the source of the majority of the corruption gone, though no one is quite sure if he thinks everything will be better, or if he is excited to gloat at the people who are still being corrupt with the knowledge that they were tearing their power apart.

## Antonius Powers

**June 1574:**

Eventually, the group finally makes their way all the way to the edge of the Western Forest, having seen all of the western side of the Southern Mountains with Jameson’s help. Instead of turning around and heading back north to cross the lake and get into the Draoidh Valley, the group decides to venture into the Western Forest and take the tricky off-road path. Especially since they were all pretty fascinated with this  magic forest of potential [insert temptation or fascination here].

They have lots of cool adventures in the forest for a bit, and it’s at this point when Antonius finds the spook powers which are very concerning. They finally have to leave around May because the fog is coming and being in the forest during the fog is bad.

And then Antonius does the septiceye incident.

According to one version of the story, someone in the group got a nasty eye infection that, of course, spread to everyone else in no time flat. Some of these eye infections became worse due to blood poisoning, also known as a septic infection, including those of Master Sean, Knight Jackie, Doctor Schneeplestein, Mage Marvin, Master Chase (who didn’t use his last name until after being made a lord), and Entertainer Jameson. Though blood poisoning is often lethal, the group found a mage healer in a far-off town who was able to remove the infection before more damage was done. However, by this time the group of swollen-eyed heroes had acquired a nickname as they traveled: “The Septic Eyes.” The name ended up sticking around (along with occasional moments of eye itchiness and vision loss for those affected by the septic infection…) and eventually blurred into a single word that became the group’s unofficial title. This meant that Sean was The Master of Septiceyes, making it the first of many honorific titles Sean would acquire before and during his illustrious reign.

The truth is a bit more sinister. That eye infection? It wasn’t actually an eye infection. Instead, The Enemy was testing the extent of his dark powers while on the quest with the future king and his lords. The magic, which definitely fell under the category of “things that should not be possible according to the laws of magic,” somewhat backfired, resulting in a physical side effect that resembled an eye infection. If I had to hazard a guess, the Enemy was probably attempting some mind-affecting magic, something that isn’t normally possible due to how magic interacts with other magic. Odds are, The Enemy’s magic still reacted somewhat poorly to being bumped against the magic within his test targets, resulting in the eye infections. This theory is further backed up by the fact that people affected by The Enemy’s magic, including the original “septic eyes” themselves, have experienced itching or irritation of the eyes prior to a spike in The Enemy’s control, influence, or simple presence. In extreme cases, bleeding from the eyes can occur.

Once these physical symptoms began to manifest themselves, Marvin is like “well crap let’s go to my grandma’s house she can fix this probably it’s just over the lake” only they end up fording the Gáire River instead and cutting thru the forest and THEN having to ford the Rúnach River and ALL THIS IN THE FOG AGAIN and finally making it to Monacoil and grandma fixes them all up nice and good.

## Draoidh Valley

**July 1574- May 1575:**

After they’ve recovered, it’s back to work.

Grandma now has a lot of influence because she’s made a Mages' Guild. Mages are now seen with less suspicion as the isolated swamp villages of the Draoidh Valley realize that the one mage in their town is not actually a fluke of nature but a thing that is normal. Some people want to emulate magic without actually doing it for whatever reason and begin doing inventing instead. This is a massive cultural revolution that grandma has pulled off in the past decade. Plus she’d been keeping up with things somehow (i’m not saying psychic/scrying grandma but that’s exactly what i’m saying) and was ready and waiting for them to show up and get started helping them get the place on their side.

However, like with the people in the Southern Mountains, this is easier said than done. They’d initially written off the Draoidh Valley as “Grandma handles it” but after putting in that much legwork in the southern mountains, Sean and co. probably realize that they need to put in that legwork in the valley too just to be sure and actually get to know the people.

Marvin is THRILLED with this. He feels like this was what he was trying to convince Jackie of this entire time. And yeah, Jackie had been forced to do this mingling in the Southern Mountains now, but for Jackie to actually say “Hey we need to actually get to know the people first?” Marvin is over the moon.

Until this results in meeting Marvin’s parents. And all the other anti-mage folks. Unlike the Southern Mountains, which are almost entirely rural and separate, the valley is a 50/50 mix of Waldren and Feadhainn cultural influences that clash HARD. So they’ve got to deal with that somehow.

Oh and also suddenly Sam is really really pissed off at Antonius for some reason and the only reason he doesn’t kill on sight is that he’s Sean’s friend…………..

## The Final Stretch

**June 1575-April1576:**

 At this point, Sean and co feel super good about the whole thing. It’s not perfect, but it’s a start, and they feel ready to actually start doing the final steps towards making this a Kingdom.

The next step is to stop “questing” per say and to actually start POLITICKING. The next step is planning HOW the kingdom is going to function once it's founded, and making sure that everyone is actually going to live up to their word. During this time, they take Jameson and Chase everywhere to see all the various places and get their input on the parts of the future kingdom they haven't seen yet, since the group has grown to respect their unique perspectives.

At one point, the question is asked: should we actually go back and make sure that the farmland plantations are on our side the same way we had to go interact with the super diverse populations in the rural areas? However, while they do pass through and do a bare minimum amount of interacting, they make the incorrect assumption that these plantations are culturally and economically an extension of Fionport. They’re more part of the “establishment” left behind by Waldren’s reign than the diverse communities in rural Duilintinn; therefore, if they had the support of the center of that establishment (Fionport), they’d have the support of the farms. This is WRONG but they don’t figure that out until the 11th hour. However, since the economy of these plantations all leads back to Fionport, Fionport does all the politicking for them and no one realizes they are gonna put up a stink until later. Even Chase assumes that his boring, traditional plantation family is gonna go with it.

So besides that there’s also other politicking along a similar vein. One of the other things they discuss at this point is what to do with the communities that have said NO, we don’t want to join your country. Obviously Sean doesn’t want there to be conquering or pushing people off the land because that’s BAD (altho we should lampshade it bc someone will certainly bring it up as an option \*cough\* ANTI \*cough\*). Instead they come to some sort of treaty agreement that their town/community will be considered an independent state of its own, like a location-version of being houseless, where Duilintinn will not be responsible for you and in turn you will owe nothing to Duilintinn. At any time, people would be welcome to become citizens and still live in their hometown (they’d just have to travel a bit for paperwork) like how you can be a citizen abroad, and if the town itself wants it can decide to become a part of the kingdom. Which means there are probably still a lot of towns that are independant like that.

A lot of this politicking time is spent laying down these terms, traveling to all these places that have said “no,” and actually getting their opinion on these things. Because even if they don’t want to join the kingdom, the group now knows the value of hearing the input of the people they’re trying to help before they do stuff.

However, this part of the quest has an unfortunate side effect. Back in Fionport, Bridget had been receiving fairly consistent letters from her husband about the progress of the quest until now. It was these letters that kept up the hope that her husband would return. However, there is then this period where the group is mostly doing boring political stuff, and Henrik doesn’t feel like he can leave the group to do that on their own, yet also doesn’t have a good answer when Bridget asks why he can’t do it back at home. This is the breaking point, and starting to believe that her husband would never return, Bridget begins an affair with Richard.

**May 1576- June 1576:**

After spending a significant amount of time in Fort Conchúr to coordinate with their various new allies in the western part of Duilintinn and monitor the situation to make sure that everything was ready and set up for kingdom-ing, the group passes back thru the Southern Mountains to head to Cordoire, mostly just to check on Noefrach and see if they were still cool with them and loyal and all that. Turns out, they are!

So then they go north and hit Roskeagh on the way to Cordoire where Chase meets Stacy. Stacy is a local tavern waitress in Roskeagh, where working the demeaning job of a waitress was one of the only ways to possibly find someone to get you out of the small town. She has a sister who is very protective of her and doesn't want her to leave. The group passes through and stays in the inn for a few weeks doing cool questy stuff. Chase absolutely has a moment where he pretends he's older than her (he does look older with all the stuff he's gone through). They both end up falling for each other hard. Sister is madddd, especially when Stacy declares her intentions to leave with the group. Jameson is actually also kinda jealous, some party members are concerned about the potential of this relationship.

Then they keep going to Cordoire and Stacy comes with.

**July 1576-April 1577:** They are now in Cordoire. Things are looking absolutely fantastic. Now all they need to do is get everything all finalized and make the government a thing and all that great stuff. BUT PROBLEM.

Turns out the northern farmland bits aren’t as cool with being a part of the kingdom as they thought they would be. These ppl were very stable and routine based because farms are built upon routine and they didn’t want to have a new kingdom. They liked being left alone, selling their stuff to the rich people in the southeast and being protected by the fighty people in the southwest. They didn’t want to be aligned with a bigger power that would actually have authority over them and all that. And the rich money ppl weren’t gonna side with them if they couldn’t still have access to their farm ppl and it’s like OH GOSH CRAP. So they have to scramble a bit and promise to shape the economy of the new kingdom around this system that’s already in place. The farm people make their own thing and are provided with the other stuff they need by other parts of the kingdom. Only instead of selling stuff to and having that stuff being solely distributed by the rich trade people, it would be distributed by the central government (and the rich trade ppl would get jobs in the central government oooohh) to all different parts of the kingdom. Essentially, it’s taking what these two parties already had going for them and applying it to every other part of the kingdom. And instead of exclusively profiting from these goods, they’d first be sent out to other parts of the kingdom and sold there. The rich trading people who were still in Fionport and not given government jobs were irritated, until they realized that being a part of this kingdom that also had jurisdiction over the mage and inventors to the west meant that they could trade those items instead, and those were ACTUALLY a unique thing that only Duilintinn could make, so that trade would be just as profitable if not more so and also encourage more diverse imports coming back into the country, now that these rich trade ppl can focus exclusively on trade and not also managing the distribution/sale of stuff made in the farmland regions. Farmland regions are like “look as long as nothing changes we don’t really care who is in charge” so that saves the day. This is also what keeps king Sean from giving them a lord later on because they were so insistent on not changing at first (until the enemy started attacking and then they changed their minds right quick). This economic setup meant a lot of coordination between the five major regions of Duilintinn; aka the plains, valley, southern mountains, coast, and farmland. This meant that at the same time that they were setting this up, they had to establish local government centers to coordinate all of this trade back and forth between these regions. One was in Monacoil, one in Mulladún, one in Aghaboy, one in Noefrach, and one in Fionport. These would eventually be the places where noble houses would be founded (see the houses really are just figureheads, the entire system was set up before the lords were there and then continued working once they vanished).

There were a few small snags in the establishment of the government in each of these cities. We already talked about Fionport and Aghaboy and their whole deal, but what about Mulladún, Monacoil, and Noefrach?

The first was Mulladún. The Mercenary Syndicate had been largely responsible for cleaning the place up, but the Guard Coalition was much more influential in the overall quest. Since the major government hub of the area would be in Mulladún, both groups wanted to stake their claim over the city and the influence they’d have there. The mercenary Syndicate actually threatened to attack anyone from the Coalition who stepped into the city. However, the king had to say that the Coalition was allied with the government and king, and if the Syndicate wanted royal support, they needed to accommodate the Coalition. The Syndicate knew that fighting the king would be big stupid, especially since they were a relatively new group that still didn’t have a lot of credibility. Most people still thought the Syndicate were just a bunch of untrustworthy mercs compared to the Coalition, and turning against the king would cement that. In addition, sharing a city with the Coalition would actually lend credibility to the Syndicate’s operations… so they cooperated. Problem solved.

Noefrach was the next issue. It wasn’t a huge deal; just more of the same stuff they had to deal with during the quest. Noefrach was essentially an independent city-state until now, and turns out, not everyone was cool with the deal that the city leaders made with Sean and his buds. Noefrach had been the site of many leadership turnovers and tribal takeovers since the interim years began, with various groups taking over the city for the advantageous river spot and then getting taken over by someone else who wanted the same river spot. These were rural country-ish people and they didn’t trust the people from the north (especially Fionport) who were “civilized” which to them meant untrustworthy and moneygrabby and sneaky. They thought that, instead of fighting for the city, they were trying to take it stealthily via politics. Sean had to guarantee their independence and protection from enemies who would take over the city otherwise and made it very clear that he would not stand for the same cycle of coups that had been happening previously. Much like Aghaboy, this is why this area didn’t get a lord for some time, until well after the enemy had attacked. Even then, however, there’s a reason that rumors of Jameson’s titling caused such a stir and controversy. For now, however, while many leaders of Noefrach were still suspicious, they did understand and respect the politics of allies in war and defense. If they were attacked and Sean didn’t come to their aid, they would have every right to pull away from the young kingdom and reject the king, according to their cultural laws. With this back door in mind, they accepted the young king’s pledge of defense, as well as resources and all the other fun stuff that the kingdom would provide.

Monacoil was the easiest by far. Marv’s grandma knew full well that the king was destined for greatness, everyone in the city trusted her judgment, the mages were all for Sean, the inventors were all for Sean, it was great. The only problem was the deal with the rich trader dudes of Fionport that said they could export magical goods and services to the rest of the world, which btw was a badly needed service in some areas. Monacoil was at first apprehensive about this, since the magic was an intrinsic part of Duilintinn and that didn’t feel right to them. Thankfully, new understandings of how magic and souls worked came out around this point. The knowledge that magic and souls were the same thing, just in different forms, and that everyone had magic inside of them, even if they didn’t understand it or if it wasn’t an intrinsic part of the ecosystem like in Duilintinn, really changed how Monacoil viewed Duilintinn’s major export being magical goods and services. Magic didn’t belong to them, it belonged to everyone, and it was their duty to share it with the rest of the world, since the rest of the world didn’t understand the nature of themselves or the magic and potential within them. That resolved that real quick.

So yeah, that's a solid near year of political nonsense. Basically at this point, the kingdom is founded, but no one is willing to sign any papers and stuff to say that it is until everyone has what they want. :P

A lot of the group is a bit frustrated at this point, especially since they spent almost a whole year on this exact same stuff before heading back to Cordoire, only to be faced with more mediating and arguing regions. However, they do have to be reminded that this is the true reality of running a kingdom; the liberation is very fun and exciting, but then you have to actually put something back in its place and keep it running so it doesn’t also fall to corruption.

**April 1577:** Sean is made king and Duilintinn is officially founded

## Post Quest

After the founding, everyone stays for about a month or so before dispersing. Jackie, Marvin, and Jamie stay in court.

Henrik goes to Fionport for his family almost immediately. The pair nearly make it work; Bridget stops seeing Richard and Henrik might never have known otherwise. However, in August 1577, Bridget realizes she’s pregnant again. The timing is… awkward, and Bridget is pretty sure she’s not gonna be able to pretend it’s Henriks, so she starts getting a bit defensive, leading to the conflicts and relationship issues that had been building during the quest to actually come to the surface. The baby (Frederik) was born in January 1578, which is just close enough that Henrik can’t accuse her of cheating with a clear conscience… but he suspects, which makes it difficult for him to not also respond angrily when Bridget gets upset (even for reasonable reasons).

Chase stays in Cordoire for a time before proposing to Stacy in June 1577. After waiting for ages to actually have the wedding (Chase is scared of commitment and doesn't think he'll be good enough for her; probably almost tried to back out a few times), they get married in Cordoire in November 1578, over a year later. After this, they leave the city and travel north to settle down with some farmland.

Their first child, Ashlee, was born in October 1583. I found a note written for myself next to this date saying “I stg if I don't remember to write a fic where a little Ashe is learning to talk and call herself ash-ie i will [insert avengers endgame spoiler here oops].” Unfortunately, I have no idea what I originally said prior to redacting it.

Things go fairly smoothly until 1587, when the Noble House system is officially implemented with Lord Jackie's titling and the founding of House Jackie...