by Kyle Johnson
World’s First!
You are the first player to be granted a Patent of Nobility. As such, you may choose a bonus Noble Perk from the list below:
Benevolent Ruler (Personality): All members of your House gain a 50% bonus to morale but suffer a 25% penalty when crafting or trading for your House. The bonus and penalty do not apply when House members are laboring for their benefit or that of another House. This Perk cannot be combined with any other Personality Perk.
Peaceful Guru (Personality): Your House starts with a Favored Reputation with all other Houses. Your House members gain a 25% bonus to all reputation gains with other Houses but suffer a 50% penalty to any combat not related to defending the House. This Perk cannot be combined with any other Personality Perk.
Pragmatic Leader (Personality): All members of your House gain a 10% bonus to morale, crafting, trading, and combat but suffer a 25% penalty to all non-Merchant Charisma-based Skills. This Perk cannot be combined with any other Personality Perk.
Ruthless Warlord (Personality): All members of your House gain a 50% bonus in combat when serving your House but suffer a 25% morale penalty. The bonus and penalty do not apply when the member is not fighting at the House’s direction. This Perk cannot be combined with any other Personality Perk.
Subtle Prince (Personality): All members of your House gain a 50% bonus to all Charisma-based Skills but suffer a 25% penalty to Combat Skills. The bonus and penalty do not apply when House members are laboring for their benefit or that of another House. This Perk cannot be combined with any other Personality Perk.
Arcane Dynasty (Path): Members of your House gain a 25% bonus to one Arcane Skill but suffer a 5% penalty to all others. This Skill must be chosen by the House Founder and cannot be changed. This Perk cannot be combined with any other Path Perk.
Crafting Dynasty (Path): Members of your House gain a 25% bonus to one Crafting Skill but suffer a 5% penalty to all others. This Skill must be chosen by the House Founder and cannot be changed. This Perk cannot be combined with any other Path Perk.
Diplomatic Dynasty (Path): Members of your House gain a 25% bonus to one non-Merchant Charisma-based Skill but suffer a 5% penalty to all others. This Skill must be chosen by the House Founder and cannot be changed. This Perk cannot be combined with any other Path Perk.
Divine Dynasty (Path): Members of your House gain a 25% bonus to one Divine Skill but suffer a 5% penalty to all others. This Skill must be chosen by the House Founder and cannot be changed. This Perk cannot be combined with any other Path Perk.
Merchant Dynasty (Path): Members of your House gain a 25% Bonus to one Merchant Skill but suffer a 5% penalty to all other Charisma-based Skills. This Perk cannot be combined with any other Path Perk.
Military Dynasty (Path): Members of your House gain a 10% bonus to all Combat Skills but suffer a 5% penalty to Crafting, Divine, and Arcane Skills. This Perk cannot be combined with any other Path Perk.
As Aranos read out his choices to his majordomo, he noticed Lorsan hastily scribbling down notes. “This is extraordinary, my Lord,” he finally muttered. “The chance to select these Perks is very rare. Usually, they are earned through toil and effort, and many Houses take years to develop such a Perk.” The elf shook his head. “I am pleased that you did not make this choice haphazardly, and I ask that you choose nothing at the moment. Instead, I wish you to think of what kind of House you wish to create.
“The key to finding a Path, my Lord, is deciding what kind of House this will be. I am aware that you intend to produce some Enchanted items for sale, but…do you truly wish to make this a House of Enchanters?”
Aranos was about to reply, but he caught the dubious look in the man’s eye. “Something tells me you think that would be a bad idea, Lorsan. Why do you think that?”
“It would not be a bad idea, my Lord. However, you should know that the Houses that are dedicated to crafting are truly dedicated to it. House Meluiben is a fine example, as they produce excellent Alchemists. Yet, they do nothing else, nor have they time for anything else. The younger members of the House travel about buying and collecting reagents when they are not training, while the older members produce more common concoctions and the elders craft Masterwork level potions. Do you truly wish to devote the House to nothing but Enchanting?”
Aranos frowned; he hadn’t thought of it that way. It made sense that a crafting House would specialize like that. From the sound of it, the House probably generated a huge volume of low-level, middle-quality products for sale en masse and only a small amount of high-end products that would bring in greater coin but probably took more time and more expensive reagents. If he did that, though, he’d end up being stuck doing nothing but Enchanting, which wasn’t really how he wanted to spend his time in-game.
“You’re right, that’s not a great idea,” he nodded. “Do you have any suggestions?”
Lorsan looked hesitant for a moment. “My Lord…to be honest, none of the traditional paths truly suit you, I am afraid. All of them are quite specific. You can create a Merchant House, but you will spend your days negotiating with the Patriarchs of other Houses and making trade arrangements. The same if you form a House of Diplomacy. If you make this a Mage House, you will have to turn away those without magical talent, and you will spend your time in Spell research and arcane studies.
“Perhaps the closest to what you wish is a Mercenary House, although those are looked down upon by other Houses. Such a House trains Warriors and hires them out to Houses with a less military bent. House Exxidor was very close to such, in fact, hiring out Duelists instead of Warriors. Does that strike my Lord as something interesting?”
Aranos smiled as an idea popped into his head. “Not exactly,” he said slowly, “but it gives me an idea. What about an Adventuring House?”
Lorsan looked confused, and Aranos held up a hand to forestall any questions or comments. “Let me explain. You probably know that, as a Traveler, I come from another world. What you might not know is that this isn’t the only world Travelers visit. In some of those, they have what’s called an Adventurer’s Guild.”
Lorsan’s lips twisted in distaste. “My Lord, Guilds are a human construct, one that we do not have in elven lands…”
“But that doesn’t mean they don’t have some good ideas,” Aranos interrupted. “See, the way an Adventurer’s Guild usually works is, people bring their Quests to the Guild, the Guild puts them up for adventurers to take if they want, and the Guild takes a fee from the adventurers and a portion of the Quest rewards.
“Now, obviously, that’s not how you would run a House,” Aranos added before Lorsan could object. “For example, House members wouldn’t have to pay the House to take Quests, and Quests would be assigned to House members based on their Classes, levels, and Skills. Still, if the House took a percentage of the Quest rewards, it would probably bring in more income than my Enchanting would.”
“But first you must convince other Houses to bring their Quests to you, my Lord,” Lorsan pointed out gently. “Why would they not simply do their own Quests?”
“For the same reason that four Houses just assigned a Quest to the Travelers: convenience. A House like Meluiben doesn’t need help collecting reagents…unless it’s one that’s rare or difficult to acquire. Then, would they rather risk the members of their House on that kind of Quest, or would they rather outsource that to a House whose members were more expendable?”
Lorsan rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “That might work, my Lord,” he nodded. “Especially if you continue your own adventures, as so far, it seems that they have been most fruitful.”
“Okay,” Aranos said, opening up his earlier Quest reward and the list of available Perks for his House. “I’ve got a choice to make, here. Assuming that I want to make this an Adventuring House, I have to figure out which of these Perks will give me the best benefit in that.”
“I have some thoughts on this, my Lord,” the elf spoke, pulling out the paper he’d written the list of Perks on before. “F
irst, though, what are you considering?”
Aranos frowned, staring at the choices. “I can’t really decide, because I don’t know what all this means,” he admitted. “For example, how does morale work? Is it a bonus to productivity, or happiness, or what?”
“Morale is essentially how likely it is that the members of your House will remain with your House and obey your commands, my Lord. It can also help you attract others from Houses with low morale to yours. I do not know what you mean by productivity, I am sorry.”
“Oh, that’s a measure of how hard people work, I guess,” Aranos explained. “So, high productivity means farmers and laborers produce more, while low productivity means they produce less.”
“Those fall under the bonuses and penalties to crafting, my Lord,” Lorsan smiled at him. “Any Skill that produces goods, even ones that generate raw materials such as Mining or Farming, benefits from crafting bonuses and penalties.”
“Okay, that clears things up,” Aranos nodded. “And I assume that all these benefits are only applied when people are doing something for the House, not all the time?”
“Morale applies at all times, my Lord. In addition, Path bonuses and penalties always apply. However, you are correct: the bonuses and penalties from Personality Perks generally only apply when one is working for the House.”
Aranos stared at the choices, thinking. For Personality Perks, Peaceful Guru was definitely out. It penalized combat outside of defense, which would cripple a House designed around adventuring. The same went for Subtle Prince. Benevolent Ruler, it seemed, would attract people to his House and make them want to stay…but they’d be pretty unproductive, and he didn’t see the point in having a lot of people who did nothing all day. On the other hand, Ruthless Warlord would make his House better at adventuring…but it would also make his members more likely to disobey his orders or even leave his House entirely.
Pragmatic Leader seemed like the way to go, except for the hit on Charisma-based Skills. His high Charisma was basically what had convinced the elves to give him a chance in the first place, and a 25% penalty to that would have made it much harder for him to accomplished anything in Eredain, much less all that he had.
Basically, it came down to a choice between several less-than-optimal options, which was a pretty common dilemma in 4X games. You could choose to be a kind and gentle master, but you usually had issues with production and the military. You could be evil and ruthless, but everyone else would hate you, even your own people. Or you could balance those traits and be good at nothing but also bad at nothing.
He was tempted by Pragmatic Leader, but honestly, he’d never liked playing a character that was okay at a lot of things but not great at anything. He’d found that a lot of times, in the endgame, characters like that were at a severe disadvantage. They lacked the endurance to stand on the front lines; they couldn’t do the damage that dedicated DPS characters could; they weren’t as good at support or healing as someone who played that character. They could do a lot…badly.
“Which would you recommend, Benevolent Ruler or Ruthless Warlord?” he asked Lorsan.
The elf nodded. “I agree with your choices, my Lord. The diplomatic hit to Charisma-based Skills would make it much harder for you to convince other Houses to offer you their Quests and could lead to strife or even bloodshed down the road.” Aranos blinked; he hadn’t even considered that angle. The majordomo, though, was still speaking.
“…think that Benevolent Ruler is a wiser choice, my Lord. Your greatest challenge is that, as a new House, you simply do not have the followers you need to thrive. With such a small following, even a handful of members joining or defecting will more than offset the bonuses from Ruthless Warlord and penalties from Benevolent Ruler.”
Aranos quickly ran the numbers in his head; the elf was right. If you counted the Travelers, Aranos had about 22 members to his house. Assuming he took Benevolent Ruler, he would take a penalty of 25% of 22, or about 6 units – whatever he wanted to define those as – to his Crafting and Trading. Each extra member would add 0.75 units to his house, so eight members would offset the penalty. He didn’t know how much morale would affect the recruitment/abandonment rate, specifically, but there was a 75% morale difference between Benevolent Ruler and Ruthless Warlord.
Even if he normally only got one person a month to join – which seemed low – with Benevolent Ruler, that would be 1.5 people per month, or three people every two months. With Ruthless Warlord, that would be 0.75 people per month, or three people every four months…half the effective rate. In ten months, he’d have enough people to offset his production penalty; much faster if the recruitment rates were higher, of course. After that, the gap would only continue to widen, and eventually, the numbers would mean that his weaker but numerically superior forces would be stronger in combat than they would have been with Ruthless Warlord. More people almost always overcame these sorts of weaknesses eventually; one of his soldiers might only be two-thirds as strong as a Ruthless Warlord’s, but if he had twice as many of them, they’d be effectively more powerful.
“I agree,” he finally spoke, selecting Benevolent Ruler. “However, I’m not so sure about the Path Perk. None of them really seem like a great fit, to be honest.”
“Again, none of them truly are,” the elf nodded. “In fact…it is a strange suggestion, my Lord, but perhaps you might wish not to choose a Path Perk at all.”
Aranos’ eyebrows shot up at the suggestion. “Why not? I mean, none of them are great, but they’re each better than nothing.”
“In the short term, this is true, my Lord. And yet, recall what I said before about these Perks. Most Houses accumulate them through effort and toil, not the gifts of the gods. Typically, a House gains a Path Perk by setting itself upon that Path and holding to it, demonstrating their commitment to the course they have set. Once the gods deem that they have shown their desire to become such a House, an appropriate Perk is offered.”
Aranos mulled over the elf’s words. “So, if instead of picking a Perk now, I work to earn a Perk later…maybe the Perk I get will be more appropriate for the House?”
“That is my thought, yes. Perhaps the gods do not offer you the Path you want simply because none have forged that Path, yet. Even so, should you change your mind, so long as you have chosen no Path, the option will still remain. We must simply do without the benefits of a Path for some time, which is a burden all new Houses face.”
“Okay, then no Path Perk,” Aranos decided. “What else do you think we need to go over before I leave?”
“You have but to Enchant several items for sale, my Lord,” the elf smiled. “As well, within your Meditation Suite, you will find a particularly heavy pack that was sent over yesterday evening, courtesy of Grandmaster Ilmadia of House Waeslar, along with a note and her fond regards.”
Aranos blinked in surprise for a moment before remembering that Ilmadia was the widow of the Loremaster that Keryth had killed, and that Lorsan was going to ask her for information on rare crafting materials. Aranos hoped that the apparent heft of the package she’d sent meant she’d given him a number of samples, as well as some way to learn about them.
His Meditation Suite was, to be honest, a perfect place for crafting Spells, training Stats, and Enchanting, and he kind of wished he’d known about it earlier. Of course, all he would have had to do was ask Lorsan for an appropriate place to do those things and the elf would have told him about this place. Instead, he’d just taken it upon himself to find somewhere appropriate, which had obviously been less than successful.
The Suite was attached to the main house through a door he hadn’t even seen before. Lorsan led him down a short hallway into a square room with a pair of doors on each wall. The room was made of stone rather than wood, a rarity in the Stronghold, and the noises from the estate were completely blocked out. The floor was covered with a soft carpet that looked like it extended into the rooms beyond, while the ceiling was low, with dark, polished beams, li
t by dimly glowing glass spheres. Combined, the effect of the room was calming and gave Aranos an odd feeling of security.
“All of the rooms are identical, my Lord,” Lorsan spoke as they entered. “Each has a mount for a mana crystal and a door that seals from within, so that none can disturb you. Should I need you, I will touch the rune beside the door, which will briefly turn the light within red and issue a soft chime to alert you. I assure you, though, that I will only do such in true need.”
The elf walked over to a simple, hardened leather backpack resting beside one door. “This, of course, is the gift from Grandmaster Ilmadia; after you have perused it, I can assist you in composing a suitable reply.” Aranos winced inwardly; that had certainly been a quiet rebuke reminding him to show gratitude for what others gave him. Aranos let that slide, though, and merely smiled at the elf.
“That would be helpful, Lorsan, thanks,” he nodded, hefting the pack – which was, as Lorsan had warned, pretty heavy for its size – and taking the room directly across from the door.
He took a seat on a large cushion that was obviously designed for that purpose and unbuckled the backpack, glancing inside. There was a sheet of paper, a book, and a gleam of metal beneath it. Aranos chuckled; that was all he wanted to know, for the moment; the Loremaster had given him some samples and probably a guide to identifying them, plus a letter of some kind that he could read later. For the moment, he had work to do, so he slipped the entire pack into his Storage Bag and withdrew a handful of jewelry of various types, all plunder from the Fallen Realm of Haerobel.
He spent the next hour or so Enchanting, crafting various items that he thought would sell well or be useful. The process was fairly simple for each one. He would first use his Sense Mana Skill and High Mastery Ability to purify the base item, upgrading more basic metals like copper and silver into gold or platinum and making sure that the inherent metal mana was as pure and regular as he could make it. After that, he located the item’s natural anchor points and sketched out a runeform that would link those points, using an Enchantment to connect the end of one runeform to the start of the next. He’d had enough practice, now, that doing this didn’t take him long, and each item only required a couple minutes of work.
