Imarë wrote:...One of our major problems is that we are operating under assumptions as to what Thilisa and her father want or think. They may be valid but perhaps are not. I just worry that going too far will queer the whole deal...
I think Dave nicely puts his finger on the crux of our planning difficulties here, although he perhaps gives us a little too much credit for "operating under assumptions", when in reality we have yet to successfully weed through and narrow down the list of assumptions. In fact, I think it's evident that we presently have insufficient information to embark on much winnowing of the possibilities, as evidenced by our dicussion thus far.
To focus on Thilisa for a moment, I think a non-exhaustive starter list of inscrutibilities already mentioned would be, and in no particular order and with some variations on themes:
- Did she invite Sir Ewen because she favors him as prospective husband, or to exert leverage on her father (or for some other reason that doesn't involve marrying him)?
- Has she made her mind up about a spouse, or not?
- Does she want to see Sir Ewen before Camissa's wedding, or not?
- Is she in the driver's seat, or is her father?
- Does she need help with this suitor-choosing thing, or does she have the situation well in hand?
- Does she have her own plan, which Sir Ewen could unwittingly mess up, or is she hoping Ewen will take some action?
- Does she dig Ewen's Deryni-Bastard-Prince mojo, or loath or fear it?
- Is she afraid of Ewen messing with her mind with his Deryni skills, or is that not a concern of hers?
- Does she have misconceptions about the Deryni which impact her view of Sir Ewen, or does she have a fairly accurate concept of such abilities?
- Does she see Ewen's illegitimate royal Thardan blood as an asset if joined to a major Kaldoric family, or as a potential threat to Kaldor?
- Has she told her father about these things, or not?
- Would she admire Ewen intriguing to undercut the other candidates, or feel that his doing so would be going too far?
- Did she rebuff Sir Ewen's invitation because she wants a meeting on her own terms, or would she welcome a complaint as Teddy suggests which would compel her by duty her to see him?
- Is she a romantic, or a hard-headed pragmatist?
- Is she pius or religiously inclined, or does she care little about such things beyond maintaining superficial observances?
- Is she inclined to a conventional choice of spouse, or more interested in following her own muse or deviating from convention?
... and so on. I'm sure I missed a bunch, so feel free to add to the list. But one can't help concluding that attempting to marry someone you don't know is liable to induce a killer headache, and sure makes planning difficult.
So how can we improve upon this? As Teddy points out, Ewen needs some face time with Thilisa to have a shot at answering any of these questions, but our attempt to invite her to the inn was snubbed. Perhaps she'll summon Sir Ewen on her own terms, but we can only wait for that.
So, should we try scrying / clairvoyance with Thilisa? Admittedly, we should have discussed this as an option last session, given that two of our characters have this ability and our major problem right now is ignorance of the above issues. But anyhow, here we are. The downside, of course, is that the tactic is a complete fishing expedition, or a needle in a haystack, in terms of successfully tuning-in when useful information is being spoken aloud, or something significant is happening. One idea that occurs to me is timing such scrying to target meal times. Meals are almost universally times when people gather with others and converse about the day, or what's on their mind, or whatnot. If you are trying to narrow down useful times to spy on someone, I would suggest during the evening meal, or shortly thereafter. And that tends to work for Kaelyn anyway, given her long spell time. Still, it feels like a long shot, but do you guys think it's worth a try, or a waste of time?
On the other hand, maybe we need to also consider avoiding tunnel vision regarding Thilisa. We'll probably never answer half of these questions about her, and could expend a tremendous amount of effort fruitlessly trying. So maybe Sir Ewen should stop worrying about Thilisa, and instead turn his attention to wooing Declan Caldeth?
I know, the immediate come-back to that suggestion is that the situation is hopeless, he has already selected four non-Ewen candidates for his eldest daughter and he probably doesn't even see Sir Ewen as his fifth, or fiftieth, choice for son-in-law. But I think the argument is favor of wooing the Earl is based on a hope that Thilsa invited Sir Ewen because she doesn't like the Earl's four choices, and that anything we can do to thaw the Earl a bit will indirectly assist Thilisa, and probably can't hurt Sir Ewen's Kaldoric prospects even if Ewen fails to win Thilisa.
I am not suggesting that I have a formula in mind for accomplishing this yet, but I would hope we could come up with some potential ideas here. The Earl is probably a little less complicated a puzzle than Thilisa, as we can probably make some fairly safe assumptions about the Earl's priorities given that his son and heir is dead and he probably is fretting about the continuity of his line and earldom above all else. Things like alliances with major families (Curo, Dariune, etc.) have certainly figured in his four choices. In fact, a short list of priorities for a son-in-law should certainly include a powerful family to ally with, land to acquire, and virility to produce a grandson and male heir for the succession. Anything else? I wonder what his thoughts are about the Caldeth family line, given that his heir will bear the surname of his future son-in-law? (Any comment from the GM regarding this general problem for a peer would be edifying!) What kind of information would Declan find reassuring, or interesting, about Sir Ewen, in hopes of making a Ewen choice less absolutely unpleasant to him?
Caldeth made an interesting comment to Valador at dinner, which we have not talked about yet. He chastised Valador that "now if not the time to discuss the cause", suggesting that he shares Valador's theories about land management. (Or that was my take on the comment - is that what others heard?) If Declan is a land management wonk, perhaps the way to his heart is through "the cause"? Or, at least, it wouldn't hurt to try? Maybe if we can convince Caldeth that Sir Ewen is an enthusiast or potential convert to his own thinking about improving yields and decreasing wasted acres and such, he'll shift his thinking on Sir Ewen a tad bit? If so, perhaps Sir Ewen should follow up with Valador, suggest he was intrigued by the man's comments at dinner, and see if some of that can trickle back to the Earl? Such trickling could also be encouraged with a Suggestion: "the Earl should know that this Sir Ewen is intrigued and interested by the Cause" (Which BTW is the kind of more subtle use of the skill which I was envisioning might be useful in some of these scenarios. My earlier post about willy-nilly suggestions was intended to convey my rejection of such a strategy, motivated in part by the major flaw in such a strategy: major unintended consequences.)
Do folks think attempting to thaw Caldeth is worth pursuing, and can we come up with any better angles on this? Of course, there is a much more radical approach to dealing with Caldeth, which we probably should discuss at length if only to ultimately reject it, and that is straight-up telling him who Sir Ewen is and trying to sell him on Sir Ewen as a son-in-law based on his royal blood. But that should probably be saved for a separate post, as this one is too long already, and I'd like to stay focused for now on the pros and cons of the ideas I've tried to present above. Any takers?