MARCH PLAY REPORT

I went through all my roll/draw phases of the first month last night and whew, it got spicy fast. Daddy Emperor is going to try to sabotage my half-sisters bethrothal so he can instead marry her off to someone from Khulgana as a means to hopefully end the war between us... and he doesn't want her mom to know. This was a secret that my character found out, and now he knows that I know, and now we're in a Mutually Assured Destruction situation. Wrote a letter to said half-sister asking to meet up, which was favorable but failed with a nat 20 on a target of 18... facepalm. So she responded that she's too busy for aimless requests (she has Business 4 specialty :P ), and if I have something I want to talk with her about I need to be direct about it. Meanwhile trying to figure out why I went back in time 1 year and who betrayed me and how and why... and then the minor arcana events gifted me a letter from my character's crush so she's already up to 6/5 (I think) meaning I get to trigger a relationship scene too! She was formerly my character's betrothed but it was called off when we were both young and neither of us know why, but it's been awkward ever since.

Oh, and then I had to bail out some nobles for some trouble but asked myself, why am I even getting involved in this? But I got a critical success and decided, you know what, one of these nobles that I'm bailing out of trouble is going to be my bitter rival, Aria Lionheart, and she's going to hate that I helped her out. (and owe me one) LMAO!

Unrelated to the rules, it's really hard for me to slow down and actually write out scenes, because I'm so much in "what happens next??" mode. It means that the prompts and the resolution system are really exciting and are pulling me forwards. I tell myself that I'll go back and write things out, but... ;)

APRIL PLAY REPORT

My poor character and their affinity for nat 20s! OMG!!!

So mid march I got an unexpected ~romantic letter from a childhood friend Lina, I end up taking her out to a nice brunch somewhere, a place not too intense for a first date/courtship what have you. And I fail the relationship transition check with a nat 20! Her fate and favor drop down, we remain platonic and I go off to do other things...

I go out with my buddy Bryony and buy a saber, trying to get ahead of that betrayal that's coming, and then do some combat training with my oldest half-brother Keith (he's not in line for the throne either). That goes pretty well, then I'm called out to do a speech for the Perennial Festival which I crush, things are looking okay.

Start of April, I get hit with a 10 of swords lmao and have a loss, setback, or betrayal. I oracled up TRUST and WANT so figured I was betrayed in my trust and having to do with something I wanted, so clearly Bryony starts dating Lina. Heartbreak emoji. When I roll for how I handle it, I get a strong failure on 17 for extra oof. They both drop 2 favor AND fate and I lose 2 WIS.

Absolutely fascinating how this game can totally write characters out of the story like this--and I mean that. As I continue sharing you'll see how the story goes _everywhere else_ instead of dealing with these two, for now lol.

I go out for a stroll and run into my rival, Aria, the one I bailed out last month. She throws some barbs at me but I'm do depressed that even she's like whoa buddy, and backs off.

I'm rolling around town and come into some money. How? I oracle up DEFEND and DANGEROUS and figure with my new saber and combat training with Keith, maybe I protected some important person from Osorith from bandits. The check determines whether I use this money wisely or waste it and I... roll a nat 20! I describe me drinking the money away with my friendly rival Elwyn, but since it's a strong failure I add in that I make a fool of myself in front of them and they sort of want nothing to do with me.

I get sent back to the main temple to talk to them about next year's Perennial Festival, since I ended up so wrapped up in this one. I'm supposed to pitch all the old standard requests but I decide to go for some fresh ideas. The more I shake things up, the more I can possibly shake out who betrayed me before I went back in time... I succeed, impressing Daddy Emperor and getting him off my back just a hair.

While I'm at it I use an endeavor to figure out what my Demi-God domain is, I succeed and oracle up MEET and PASSIVE and decide that I'm apparently the Demi-God of Connections. Ironic.

Next I start researching how I can get Evangelline to come around... I succeed the check which gives me +2 energy to a progress endeavor, so I immediately double down on that and find out that Evangelline, beneath her "all business" exterior, is someone who actually craves and values (oracle) INCLUDE and WARM. I start to explore town for sites (used the visit table) and find a bridge people can fish from. I do a magic check to see if I think Evangelline would be attuned to this place... Nat 20.

Just as I"m walking away I run into, you guessed it, Aria again. Only this time the game has told me that I'm about to get complimented for something... whether it's genuine or not is up to the dice. So Aria compliments me on my speech at the Perennial Festival and thanks me for bailing her out that one time, and the dice say she's genuine. Genuine enough to trigger a relationship progression, which I think hey maybe this should be a relationship transition instead.

I swing for the fences and see if Aria and I can bury they hatchet, by letting her in on _some_ of the details about Evangeline (names and stations withheld, of course) and ask for her help, if she maybe doesn't hate me so much anymore.

I actually succeed! And now Aria and I are acquaintances, but her fate is sky high so we'll see if we have an enemies to lovers situation on our hands someday here...

A few other falling action scenes that I won't expand on here, oh also at some point I found out why Emilia's and my betrothal was cancelled in our youth. Turns out my paternal Grandmother's family was very at odds with Emilia's family, and my Mom and her Mom tried to cover that up. When Emilia's dad found out, he flew into a rage and that's why the betrothal was cancelled. Now I'm plannign to travel to Osorith next month to start sniffing around, to see if any of that has to do with who betrayed me...

APRIL PLAY REPORT CONTINUED

So this morning opted to draw just one card at a time rather than the full spread.

Me: Am I forcing a potential romance with Aria? Does it even make sense or am I just a hopeless romantic trying to make things go the way I want? Maybe I should just let the game inform me...

Game: Here have a Knight of Cups. :D :D :D

Rolled on visit table and she's asked me to go visit her family's farm/ranch. I make one check and fail, which seems like writing on the wall, but then think no, the rules say I can do multiple checks if I want and take them in aggregate. So I ended up with Arts (strong failure) Etiquette (strong success) and left it all up to the last of 3 checks, Dance... (regular failure). So I said the vibe was "just friends" and left it at that. (see edit below, I had stats wrong and actually succeeded :P)

Then it came time to write letters, and I said "hell with this" and wrote her a nice letter thanking her for taking me to see her family... which I got a result (after luck) of 1, meaning extremely favorable, meaning auto success, meaning fate and favor went up, meaning I had the chance to trigger a relationship transition anyway :D So yeah here's me "forcing" a potential romance with Aria in the end anyway lmao.

I take her aside and make the relationship transition scene about me saying I wanted to try to see where things might go between us anyway, because (internally) I sure as heck know I didn't live through these experiences the last time I lived this year, and now I'm wondering if things have changed this much already, maybe I'm already clear of the betrayal... (wishful thinking).

I invite her on my trip to Osorith--I get a success and voila, we in Crush territory now chat ;)

Our Osorith trip was cut fairly short as the very next scene after my Visit endeavor was to draw an 8 of wands and immediately be called to travel back home :P But at least I got some answers about the Von Browning / mom's side (forgot the maternal name) feud, and flipped that relationship from Antagonistic to Platonic as well.

I may have to use a Progress Endeavor to sabotage myself, I'm running out of enemies ;)

EDIT: Turns out I had an error in my stats calculator in my google sheet... so that visit to Aria's hometown actually was a success, and when I went back to correct all the numbers our relationship shot up like a rocket! Details of how/why/when to come later... but we're already at a 12/7 within just the first season of the game 0_0

MAY PLAY REPORT

> I may have to use a Progress Endeavor to sabotage myself, I'm running out of enemies ;)

Lol nope. The Holy Order is definitely up to something.

So, update. That merchant I saved from robbers the other month, I actually went back and added him as an NPC/SC, gave him a name and profession and all, and turns out he's actually in the Holy Order as a fully-fledged priest. Cool!

That 8 of wands from last update, I said was the same Priest who once again was moving items (for the church?) between the Osorith/Vilderine borders. I can't help but picture Osorith as Spain and Vilderine as France and Khulgana as Germany, purely by shape/layout and nothing more, and so I envision these mountain passes between O and V, and it makes sense that bandits and robbers would camp out there often. So, I helped him out again. Not suspect at all, right?

I immediately play out The Hermit, which gives me a scenario where I sneak out alone, shirking my bodyguards and attendants... I try a magic check to conceal myself among the populace above and beyond changing clothing, and get a strong failure. I'm captured by bandits and held for ransom--I decide that I need more villains in my life so I add the Kidnapper (name & identiy TBD) as an SC. As I'm fleshing out that character, I roll for a Specialty and MY GUY HAS RELIGION SPECIALTY AHHHHHH.

Which of course means that this "Priest" I've been helping (he probably actually is a priest) is not just running into trouble left and right, he's engineering the trouble and trying to snare me in it. These two are obviously working together! Korin of course doesn't know this, but I definitely have a strong thread to pull on now. Who's behind it all??? We will have to see :D

From there my relationship with Aria continues to develop and I continue to hammer on a way to get in touch with Evangeline, continually getting rebuffed by the dice. But I find an opening with a prompt telling me to get counsel from someone I respect about something, and Evangeline has Business 5, so I figure that's my chance to speak with her, not about my concerns for the Emperors plans to sabotage her betrothal and marry her off to Khulgana, but just to talk frankly, half-sibling to half-sibling, about things I've been dealing with. Boost that fate/favor a bit so I can actually have a chance to help this girl.

The Spring Debutante Ball goes off well--there's a sickness running through the community and servants and I pivot, as the planner of the event, to invite noble houses to bring their own attendants to be sure the event goes off well. As a sort of reward, and to pad the numbers of the event, I extend a once in a lifetime offer that anyone who offers the services of their staff to the palace for this event may also bring non-nobility as guests, meaning a decent chunk of commoners get the rare chance to attend the Debutante Ball. Heartwarming! (if you ignore problematic class structures, that is ;) )

I've started into Summer now but will still try to report back month by month.

So much has happened already, wow! But since your character has 1 year to change their fate that also kinda makes sense, haha.

Ahhhhh I have to give this update lol this is so cute.

I drew another knight of cups (had one in Spring) so Aria is taking me to accompany them somewhere. I go to the oracle and get "fall" (verb not season) and "win" and decide that her little farming community has a tradition when clearing out trees for new farmland, and they have a competition where all the men try to fell their assigned tree the fastest.

Ain't no way that's anything but a strength check lol, which I have a 2 in (so target # is 6 after factoring luck). But I'm royalty, so the first thing I ask is "am I asked to participate" and get a straight Yes. Welp... here we go, this could be funny.

MFW I roll a 5... :D :D :D

Korin hulks out when it's time to impress the lady lololol

(adding on) I think I'm starting to see this conspiracy come together around me... The priest who hired the mercenary to kidnap me, and have multiple bandit issues... turns out to be the brother of my bodyguard (legit rolled the same last name but still asked oracle if they're related... STRONG YES lol

JUNE PLAY REPORT (quick summary version)

- I have to mediate between two friends that don't get along... I say that Penelope (my colleague and sister to the adopted Lina) and Bryony (my ex-best friend, still friend, who is dating Lina) are sparring with one another because Penelope doesn't think Bryony is good enough for Lina... plus his family is from Osorith and she probably fears he'll take Lina away. I successfully mediate and get everyone to get along :)

- I get lied to by... the SC with the highest fate. Noooooo Aria what are you lying to me about??? I decide she's lying about being excited for a royal life, not the end of the world but it makes Korin realize that Aria would much prefer a simpler life, like the one her family has at Dyetree. I take note.

- The Raven Circle finds an old artifact having to do with my family, I roll some oracle traits and figure it's a magically imbued breastplate, almost ceremonial in nature but would still function in an actual combat if someone decided to use it. I'll be doing some research on it later to see if I can unlock its potential power...

- Tree-felling competition (see above)

- I start to make plans to build my own estate in Dyetree, representing Korin's commitment to a new life... I also manage to rope Evangeline into helping me plan, and finally get her fate/favor off the floor! Sheesh.

- Write a bunch of letters, one to Evangeline asking if she'd accompany me ring shopping.

- Try to actually go ring shopping, keep getting back luck with the rolls! Gave up two different rings I could have bought because it gave me +2 favor with Bryony (love is in the air!) and Keith (oldest brother, apparently also getting engaged!). Sigh. But no ring for me....

- End with the Devil, which is a mysterious letter containing some dirt on an antagonistic Parlimentarian... I can act on this info or not, but I choose not to. Don't want to stick my neck out. Also will be spending some research on some spellwork to see if I can magically track the writer of this letter...

(I played this all last week so the summary is as much for me to type out as for anyone else to read lol)