That's quite the choice. Being British and suffering from some of the worst political infighting for a generation part of me if loath to risk strife in the village.
But Owain is a crinwin's arse! Plus, voluntarily swallowing that magic seed, no matter if Padrig honestly intended to keep his vow, is madness when dealing with Cerys and Owain.
I keep going back and forward on this decision. I reluctantly voted yes, as it seems the only option that potentially avoids bloodshed, whereas the alternative makes it almost inevitable. And I don’t think the Companion’s reputation in Stonetop could sustain that. What the oath demands of Padrig is really uncomfortable, hope the trust in Cerys isn’t misplaced
Thanks for sharing your reasoning! I do want to ask, though -- did the choice feel hard in a satisfying way? Do you want Pad (and the other PCs) put in these kinds of challenging positions, or did it feel unfair?
Anyhow, I think Pad doesn’t really want the job anyhow. Does he really want to invite the ire of Gordin’s Delve on Stonetop? And setting Anwen up as future Marshal is a delicious arc.
Good point. Pad has never shown a desire to rule Stonetop, and Anwen as marshal is a lovely end point to her arc.
Also refusing the seed leaves Chekov's gun on the mantel piece. If nothing else, we know the truth seed was soaked in Cerys's blood. Vahid might use that in the future.
This is a great point -- whether the seed is swallowed or not, it can still be 'interactable.' If Cerys proves herself false, the party can search for a way to break her hold over Pad, and if they refuse and hold onto the seed, they might use it against her somehow. Both paths would probably involve finding an ally more powerful (and probably weirder and spookier) than Cerys herself!
That's what I thought, and why I finally decided to vote yes.
And in Addition to the fact, that I would love to see Anwen becoming the next Marshal, I think losing out on the Warriors that follow Owain in a time as dire as the moment isn't great.
A direct conflict between the group and them would cost way to much with winter being hard and the hdour becoming more and more dangerous
I voted no! The party seems too headstrong to just let this slide, particularly when (in my opinion) both Cerys and Owain are using the oath as a cover for bad faith.
Defiance (Anwen) + Caution (Padrig) as instincts both seem to make strong arguments against accepting. On the other hand, if Padrig goes very wide indeed with his instinct to keep everyone safe, I coould see him making this devil's bargain. And Anwen might want to show Owain up so badly that she's willing to play ball with Cerys. Tricky tricky!
On the one hand, if Cerys cannot be trusted and the deal does end in pain and tears, well... the situation will be all the more melodramatic for Cerys having her hooks into the party while possibly herself being forsworn, etc. From narrative standpoint, if we're going to have a civil war in Stonetop, let's have it be as big and as bad as possible.
That having been said, for the sake of Anwen's bildungsroman, I would very much prefer to find that Cerys can be trusted. Anwen is quite a likeable character, but emotionally she still comes off as pretty adolescent. To mature, she needs to learn that other people aren't necessarily evil just because they disagree with her - even if they're wrong about something important - and that not all conflicts can or should be powered through via a combination of self-righteous anger and the moral clarity of youth. To put it simply, Anwen needs the experience of having been wrong.
I'll admit those are both very meta story considerations and that if I we're playing this around the table, I might very well have played it safe and chosen "no." That's one of the nice things about being a reader rather than directly playing a PC!
Great narrative insights here. I think you're spot-on about Anwen needing to bump up against her preconceptions and her moral intuitions about people, and regardless of how the vote falls out, I'll be looking for an opportunity for that to come to pass.
Question for you -- do you think in the future, when you're a player at the table, you'll find yourself thinking about the broader story consideration when making decisions for your character? I suspect I will (assuming I ever get to play as a non-GM again. ;-))
Unfortunately, I haven't been a player at a table in a while. These days I just comment on other people's let's plays...
In the past I've tried to consider story implications when making character decisions. If "it's what my character would do" gets in the way of fun, then maybe it's time to figure out why THIS character would feel compelled to do THAT cool but otherwise out-of-character thing. (I once read something to the effect that a tragedy is when all the characters are doing as they must even though they know it'll end badly.)
Trouble is, we seldom come to the table to play a tragedy. To make those kind of calls, Padraig's player has to trust that if Padraig does swallow that seed, this desperate decision will enhance the drama later in ways that the player will find worth the cost rather than having its "realistic" outcome. Even if the player trusts the GM, that can be hard for the GM to pull off, and it isn't even appropriate in many games. (Do this in an old school dungeon crawl, and you deserve to have a vine growing out of your PC.)
This is long enough, but I suspect it's a lot easier to make that call in a solo game. You're both a fan of Padraig and the GM, so you know one way or another you're going to make it cool.
It was (beautiful) agony, but I think he should take the pill. If strife in the winter is death, the king's move here would be to contain and minimize that death in the face of inevitable strife. If Pad was the marshal today, what would his responsibility be? What's best for his crew? For stonetop, egos aside? Especially with vahid and anwen on his side (to play politics and chop up bullies respectively) it seems like the party could really come out smelling like roses if they're very careful.
That's quite the choice. Being British and suffering from some of the worst political infighting for a generation part of me if loath to risk strife in the village.
But Owain is a crinwin's arse! Plus, voluntarily swallowing that magic seed, no matter if Padrig honestly intended to keep his vow, is madness when dealing with Cerys and Owain.
Reluctantly, I vote no to the seed.
Well, when you put it like that...
Strife is death in winter. It might need to be Owain's.
"Iron cannot abide being laid against steel"🔥🔥🔥 god dayum
I keep going back and forward on this decision. I reluctantly voted yes, as it seems the only option that potentially avoids bloodshed, whereas the alternative makes it almost inevitable. And I don’t think the Companion’s reputation in Stonetop could sustain that. What the oath demands of Padrig is really uncomfortable, hope the trust in Cerys isn’t misplaced
Thanks for sharing your reasoning! I do want to ask, though -- did the choice feel hard in a satisfying way? Do you want Pad (and the other PCs) put in these kinds of challenging positions, or did it feel unfair?
I vote yes! Strife is death in winter.
Anyhow, I think Pad doesn’t really want the job anyhow. Does he really want to invite the ire of Gordin’s Delve on Stonetop? And setting Anwen up as future Marshal is a delicious arc.
Good point. Pad has never shown a desire to rule Stonetop, and Anwen as marshal is a lovely end point to her arc.
Also refusing the seed leaves Chekov's gun on the mantel piece. If nothing else, we know the truth seed was soaked in Cerys's blood. Vahid might use that in the future.
This is a great point -- whether the seed is swallowed or not, it can still be 'interactable.' If Cerys proves herself false, the party can search for a way to break her hold over Pad, and if they refuse and hold onto the seed, they might use it against her somehow. Both paths would probably involve finding an ally more powerful (and probably weirder and spookier) than Cerys herself!
Shove it down Owain's gullet and see what happens.
That's what I thought, and why I finally decided to vote yes.
And in Addition to the fact, that I would love to see Anwen becoming the next Marshal, I think losing out on the Warriors that follow Owain in a time as dire as the moment isn't great.
A direct conflict between the group and them would cost way to much with winter being hard and the hdour becoming more and more dangerous
I voted no! The party seems too headstrong to just let this slide, particularly when (in my opinion) both Cerys and Owain are using the oath as a cover for bad faith.
Defiance (Anwen) + Caution (Padrig) as instincts both seem to make strong arguments against accepting. On the other hand, if Padrig goes very wide indeed with his instinct to keep everyone safe, I coould see him making this devil's bargain. And Anwen might want to show Owain up so badly that she's willing to play ball with Cerys. Tricky tricky!
I've voted yes. Padrig is a realist, but is not one to strike first. He'd want to believe that Cerys has Stonetop's interests at heart.
Who knows, maybe Vahid can find magic to draw out a truth-seed if needed.
Very true -- the seed will remain 'in play' if he swallows it, and its magic might be undone.
I voted yes for a couple of reasons.
On the one hand, if Cerys cannot be trusted and the deal does end in pain and tears, well... the situation will be all the more melodramatic for Cerys having her hooks into the party while possibly herself being forsworn, etc. From narrative standpoint, if we're going to have a civil war in Stonetop, let's have it be as big and as bad as possible.
That having been said, for the sake of Anwen's bildungsroman, I would very much prefer to find that Cerys can be trusted. Anwen is quite a likeable character, but emotionally she still comes off as pretty adolescent. To mature, she needs to learn that other people aren't necessarily evil just because they disagree with her - even if they're wrong about something important - and that not all conflicts can or should be powered through via a combination of self-righteous anger and the moral clarity of youth. To put it simply, Anwen needs the experience of having been wrong.
I'll admit those are both very meta story considerations and that if I we're playing this around the table, I might very well have played it safe and chosen "no." That's one of the nice things about being a reader rather than directly playing a PC!
Great narrative insights here. I think you're spot-on about Anwen needing to bump up against her preconceptions and her moral intuitions about people, and regardless of how the vote falls out, I'll be looking for an opportunity for that to come to pass.
Question for you -- do you think in the future, when you're a player at the table, you'll find yourself thinking about the broader story consideration when making decisions for your character? I suspect I will (assuming I ever get to play as a non-GM again. ;-))
Unfortunately, I haven't been a player at a table in a while. These days I just comment on other people's let's plays...
In the past I've tried to consider story implications when making character decisions. If "it's what my character would do" gets in the way of fun, then maybe it's time to figure out why THIS character would feel compelled to do THAT cool but otherwise out-of-character thing. (I once read something to the effect that a tragedy is when all the characters are doing as they must even though they know it'll end badly.)
Trouble is, we seldom come to the table to play a tragedy. To make those kind of calls, Padraig's player has to trust that if Padraig does swallow that seed, this desperate decision will enhance the drama later in ways that the player will find worth the cost rather than having its "realistic" outcome. Even if the player trusts the GM, that can be hard for the GM to pull off, and it isn't even appropriate in many games. (Do this in an old school dungeon crawl, and you deserve to have a vine growing out of your PC.)
This is long enough, but I suspect it's a lot easier to make that call in a solo game. You're both a fan of Padraig and the GM, so you know one way or another you're going to make it cool.
It was (beautiful) agony, but I think he should take the pill. If strife in the winter is death, the king's move here would be to contain and minimize that death in the face of inevitable strife. If Pad was the marshal today, what would his responsibility be? What's best for his crew? For stonetop, egos aside? Especially with vahid and anwen on his side (to play politics and chop up bullies respectively) it seems like the party could really come out smelling like roses if they're very careful.