Ninjay

Jay Amaranth is happy to hear his purchase of Grub-Bucket™ stock has come with a Gaijin-word pass, though also disappointed that he missed out on a great deal for more today due to Admiral Takemura's untimely demise.

An old alcoholic once-pirate hides in a tree in the halfling lands, drinking rum whilst he eyes their coastline and laments. "They have docks, and a boat or two. . . but they're so damn small!"

Living Doll Casting When a Housemage creates a living doll, they may put some extra effort into its creation and impart a small pool of replenishing mana into the doll. While nowhere near as much as any descendant may have within them, this small mana pool allows the doll to employ a few very lesser, very harmless magics at the whim of their owners. Mechanics / Redlines: Potential amendments: Purpose: Citations / References: This is my first time doing any lore submission, so I wanted to cut my teeth on something relatively simple and trivial. Any issues, criticisms, recommendations (especially on formatting), etc, are appreciated.

"Praise the Lord, a good start. Just wish that cursed spire would crumble, now." Spoke a man, more familiar with that damned tower than he wished to be, as he rode past.

Is this another rep farm attempt?

Somewhere, a formerly masked man looked over the delicacies he’d snatched on the way through the spire, part of the group who’d discovered the corpse of James Whitespire - Charles II’s quite literal skeleton-in-the-closet. Champagne, chocolate, coffee, and cookies. Delicacies he was unsure if he could bring himself to enjoy, knowing the corrupted, rotten place he’d taken them from. While they had not reached the peak of the spire itself, it hadn’t mattered. Should they ever need to, they could scale it again. Thankfully, though, it seemed it would crumble instead. Elsewhere, an old man was unusually sober. The declaration barely even registered - he was too busy eyeing the boats of Whitespire from afar, with sinister intent.

Jay Amaranth reads the missive with a puzzled expression. "Who the **** is 'Otburn von Kretsen'?"

Genuine question, what other 'much more interesting' conflict scenarios are there that are being taken away from? And how does it detract from players' involvement in other things going on? Maybe I'm wrong but from my understanding most 'conflict' is either player run events, ST events, or some noble bickering / feud that probably has little actual action ever occur, or is stamped out before any real conflict can happen. And those, in general, I don't think ever really get messed with aside from by people already involved in them. Maybe some casual tavern rp gets interrupted or delayed, but otherwise I doubt it is actively interfering with peoples' ability to participate in these other scenarios and events. Aside from those, I'm aware of Lurak-Vikela (which I imagine most people uninvolved have no interest or care in getting involved), the Gash-Koyo Kuni conflict (which, again correct me if I'm wrong, is basically a player / ST event at this point as well), and other generic darkspawn activity being a thing. These are all well and good, but optional if you don't want to be involved with them. Being able to pick and choose some of your battles is good and all, but at a certain point you shouldn't be able to just fully opt out of anything you personally don't want to be a part of. Conflict does not always conform to whatever you think it should be, when you want it to occur. Avoiding these types of conflicts is not hard - nor is avoiding banditry. Limiting a bit, if you're unwilling to ensure you stay around groups of people and/or behind locked doors or closed city gates. The same can be said for avoiding getting kidnapped by darkspawn and sacrificed or something similar, only difference I'm aware of being that those just tend to occur less often than banditing. If you really don't want to experience it, though, then the option is there. Minimum or maximum rp given, fighting is still conflict. Plenty of interesting rp can come from it afterwards, if you choose to let it.

Just thoughts from a 2am dollar store bandit. Iron doors are already painful to get through, mainly because if someone does a build with security against heists in mind, it can easily be made nigh-impossible to heist into without either extreme luck, a huge amount of lockpicks being made and enough people to bring them all on a heist, or a combination of the two. And if there is only one entrance to some specific location and any of the doors on the way in jam, then you’re out of luck until the heist cooldown wears off. And that's without factoring redstone doors in. So please, I beg, do not buff wooden doors. Redstone doors I legitimately have no idea what the best implementation of them would be, though I am very much of the opinion that they should be openable at any time as long as their current mechanics remain unchanged. Locking them to only be pickable during heists would just remove the ability to ever legitimately obtain information on what is beyond the door or ever get inside except during heists. As they currently are, the only way one can find and get through them without outside knowledge, getting very lucky, or going through every possible item, is via some less than roleplay friendly means. I understand and like the idea of hidden doors to places, but I really have no idea what a happy middleground would be between making things almost nearly impenetrable and too easy to break into. It might be something that requires a complete rethink or overhaul. This is not 100% on topic with the original post, but moreso to address the complaints some others had; petty theft does not really need to be nerfed or made more difficult at all. As it is, you have to spend a large amount of resources to craft lockpicks if you want a half-decent chance of getting through any doors. Then, if you manage to do that, you still need a good enough roll to get a chest open (and a mod online to handle this). Finally, assuming you picked a good chest with actually valuable items in it, you are allowed to take: “up-to one-half (rounded down) from a single stack. You can only loot one slot, per target chest. In effect, this prevents unique (singular) items from being stolen.” per petty theft guidelines. At best you’re getting knowledge of some actually-valuable unique items being present in a chest along with half a stack of some other resource that can likely be farmed up easily enough on your own, at the cost of what you spent to make the lockpick. At worst you’ve just wasted your time and lockpicks. If you really don’t want to have stuff stolen, then be attentive and lock your shit. As long as petty theft exists, it’s something that is only as big an issue as you allow it to be. In terms of not having any rp (for both petty theft and heists), when it comes to stealing, taking things without getting caught is typically the point. I don’t know how you’d be able to make stealthily stealing things into an actively interactive experience for both sides without moving into highly unrealistic territory like mandating evidence being left behind or something. One thing I can understand being annoyed at is breaking glass. For that, would it be possible to update whatever plugin is responsible to eventually repair whatever glass is broken? It currently places signs in the glass's place, so I imagine this would be something within the realm of possibility.

Monkey Business Alternatively, Silly Times in Celia’nor Being the hard-working group we are, it is only natural that at times we must take a break from our gallivanting and adventuring to engage in some stress-relieving recreational activities. First, we stopped by the Academy of Hohkmat. While there, we ended the life of one unlucky Balianite, before a kind mage was willing to provide us with a respectable sum of mina, likely as thanks for ridding their lands of such an individual. We immediately took the money to their casino. Are casinos conducive to a good educational environment? Who knows! Not us, that’s for sure. In any case, we ran in and immediately headed to the roulette table, where we put all of the money on red, as one does. But due to a peculiar malfunctioning of the machine, the ball landed on black. The kind mage was able to correct this mistake and our band of merry men reigned victorious once more. After doing our gambling, we made our merry way up to Celia’nor, seeking to continue the good times. While there, we happened across a short, furry creature, somehow capable of speech, that resembled a monkey. With it being somewhere between a base animal and a clear abomination before God and man, and us still being in the mood for some fun, we thought it to be a good idea to engage in a bit of hunting. However! For whatever reason, many onlookers took issue with our perfectly innocent activities. It’s almost as if many have never been on a good hunt! We were engaged by a large multitude of individuals outside of the Celia’nor gates, seeking to stop us. Thankfully, most quickly realized the absurdity of trying to stop a hunt and withdrew, fled in fear, or were swiftly handled. The monkey, of course, tried to flee. It tried slipping by us and fleeing through a vineyard, before pivoting back towards the city. In a desperate attempt to dodge the attacks being hurled at it, it dove off the bridge into the city and into the surrounding moat. While troublesome, this proved to be its undoing, as we methodically surrounded the beast and, eventually, put it down. Unfortunately, due to its violent thrashing, its fur and skin were left quite dirty with blood and dirt. But fret not! After cleaning, drying, cleaning more, etc., we have skinned it and turned it into a very nice onesie for one of our friends. [!] Our member, decked out in their wonderful new fashion piece Struck with some creative inspiration, we also used scraps of our quarry, combined with some scraps from our hunts of other animals, to make a lovely pair of slippers for our diving specialist. [!] An artist's rendition of our diver wearing his new slippers That is all for now. Until next time, best of luck on your own hunts! Farewell!

[!] A flier is posted around Aevos, wherever fliers may be posted in any given town or settlement. THE AMARANTH WELLNESS CENTER A group therapy session. Just as physical afflictions may cause one to suffer and not perform their best at their duties, whatever they may be, so too can mental anguish detract from the sound mind and abilities of an otherwise healthy individual. Do you or someone you know struggle with any (or many) of the following?* Stress from carrying the legacy of [Insert your noble house here] on your shoulders? Pressure getting to you from the weight of leading your glorious realm towards a prosperous future, or due to the actions of other nefarious realms that threaten the wellbeing and interest of your own? Disappointment in your heir(s) failing to live up to your expectations of them, for the good of your House / Realm / Etc.? Frustration with your parents trying to force their inheritance on you when you feel the call of other paths in life? Concern that your arranged marriage for political reasons is lacking love, and may result in problems down the line such as spousally-arranged assassinations or bastard children? Paranoia due to the scheming or underhanded actions of others you know, or the very presence of untrustworthy Voidal magic practitioners? Sadness due to the loss of connections and trust of friends due to your perfectly innocent study of your magic(s) of choice? Annoyance at bureaucratic disagreements and gridlock that either threaten or further ingrain the status quo? (choose whichever fits your beliefs) Traumatized by experiences with bandits, spooks, or other bad actors? Plagued with guilt over the wrongs you have committed unto others, like banditry or dark magic(s)? Depressed or angry due to the unnecessary deaths of loved ones? Guilt-stricken because you’ve caused the unnecessary deaths of others in things like duels or such? *Any resemblance of these scenarios to real-life situations is purely coincidental. If so, help may be available. The recently opened Amaranth Wellness Center, located in the city of Kretzen in the realm of Reinmar, can offer counseling and assistance. Our highly qualified worker Jay Amaranth will be happy to help work through your troubles and strive towards bringing you both peace of mind and ideas on solutions to the problems you face. If you think you would like to receive assistance, please feel free to write to set up a date and time for an appointment (ninjayyz in-game and on Discord). We are located at Nördliches Handelsviertel III, in the aforementioned city of Kretzen in Reinmar - first street on the right upon entering the city. Couples and group therapy is available. Payment can be discussed after appointments unless you’d prefer to discuss it beforehand. Actual physical medical procedures for the treatment of mental afflictions, though not our area of expertise or particularly recommended, are also available. DISCLAIMER: Amaranth Wellness Center and Jay Amaranth are not responsible for any fines, injuries, maiming, insulting, or other poor experiences you may be subject to either on the way to Reinmar or within the realm (quite possibly at the hands or under the jurisdiction of the Reinmaren government). Please ensure you adhere to all local laws, requirements, and customs, or avoid getting caught in violation.