Topic: A Wedding in Wissenland

[Uryens de Crux]

What elements of Sylvanian nobility? Certainly non of the living ones. Which leaves only the far too common "damned by Morr" type...

[Alexious]

Plenty of the Sylvanian Nobility are taking an interest in this wedding and perhaps you as well!

[Uryens de Crux]

Join the queue

[Derek Contyre]

Plenty of the Sylvanian Nobility are taking an interest in this wedding and perhaps you as well!

Join the queue

Lets see, hunted by a dozen people, or hunted by wissenland. Choices choices. I'd rather be hunted by wissenland to be honest... At least they die like normal people.

[Uryens de Crux]

So do the restless dead when a gun stone makes a lane through their ranks

[Derek Contyre]

So do the restless dead when a gun stone makes a lane through their ranks

Hehehe.

[Inarticulate]

I would dearly like to start this soon, at least begin to create the personalities of our characters by writing a short piece just before the ball, say while on the road etc.

[Le Pistolet]

You'd be welcome to do this if you're itching to write some fluff, the more background the better frankly. As long as it was set before the Suitors Ball then that would be fine. You could detail receiving the invitation, travelling, a stay in Sonnefurt if you wanted, as long as the Baroness wasn't involved, as meeting her early would be an unfair advantage and as such she is being kept at the villa.

I wouldn't mind if you included perhaps a chance meeting with other personalities (someone had said their character had already met with Lord Mayor Funk), as you'll be able to see them again at the ball, and they will ultimately be the ones who favour certain suitors over others and make the council to the Baroness.

I am currently considering how to run this, and am not sure of the best way. Any suggestions would be very useful.

I was thinking perhaps a roleplay, but this would be difficult, as conversations would be hard to work out across the internet and different time zones, but I suppose it could work...

I'm still open to ideas anyway 

[fauthsie]

My Character met with the Mayor and several local traders...

As for the best way to run it, it really depends on how much interaction you want. At a basic level a straight up RP could work where you are in essence the GM of course this involves heavy interaction between players and you. Likely needing a bigger area then this single thread etc. We could move this over to AC.com and I could set up forums for it.

Another way with slightly less involvement could be you just dictate the situation: say we all arrive at the ball and the lady requests a speech from each suitor. You set a deadline for the speeches, best speech wins some favour with her. You then set the next situation: say players have a conversation with a local adviser or member of the court and pitch their strengths. Depending on who the player picks to talk to, and the conversation outcome he could strengthen or weaken his stance with the baroness. Finally could be a one on one with the baroness which ends with a decision being made.

Another way is you more or less write a stories involving our characters and make it sort of like a choose your own path at a couple of point. Depending on the chooses it alters the outcomes

Finally you could just pick who you like best and write it out.

[Derek Contyre]

I think a roleplay would be cool, but with so many it would be incredibly difficult, especially as some of us live in alternate time zones(alexious and myself ocme to mind) others would get many posts in while the others would be left waaaaay behind.

How about the way me and fauthsie organised our solland effort just by messaging each other till our part was done then having one of us post it up. Or the way the battles went on the same thread(solland effort) that the people writing the battles just emailed the stories to and fro and gave the other a leash on what they could do with the others characters and what not.

It turned out quite well in the battle for Hugelburg. 

[Derek Contyre]

edited my character's entry, just changed a little bit around to fit in with my background fluff and also the reason liebowitz doesn't like them, mainly due to the solland effort rather than centuries of war like before.

[Captain Dob Van Dwi]

If we are to post advanced fluff we should have a thread for that and a thread for the wedding later. Le Pistolet? Work your thread magic!

[Derek Contyre]

I agree, we should post our advanced fluff in a kind of lead up to the wedding where our characters can meet(or not) and build some hype. Sigmar only knows I want this to be happening already!!! I'm dying to take part in a fluffy background piece.

[Derek Contyre]

I thought I would save Le Pistolet some time and post this up now... Give me a few days and I can put mine up.

[Chev]

Hmm, if this affair is turning into a forum rp/group story sort of thing I'd be interested to throw in my hat with you chaps.
However, I don't have any suitable characters from my fluff to attempt for this ladys hand, so I wonder if I may bring another type of charater.
Thinking of a warrior priest sort of guy, I have one from my Township. Perhaps he's heard rumour of possible vampire activity.
Maybe a Merc intent on disrupting the affair on the behest of an unknown province with a distast for the good lady.
Problem here is itd use abit of metagaming which generally isn't nice.

Just thinking out loud as I'm ment to be working.

Any objections/ideas?

Chev.

[Le Pistolet]

You could happily invent any character you wanted, it doesn't have to link your township to Sonnefurt at all if you don't want. I think GP has picked a character from the Border Princes, even though his army is from Averland for example, so feel free to come up with any character you want.

Of course the warrior priest idea is pretty cool, he could be posing as a suitor from Hohenburg (all towns with nobility were sent a letter, even Hochland  ) but really hunting down vampires, and infiltrating noble society. Perhaps it could get complicated as he falls for the Baroness himself, and then has to keep up his identity? (Obviously I would pretend not to know his real backstory for the purpose of the roleplay).

[GamesPoet]

I'm working on a piece of leadup fluff for Sir Walter du Beaucamp that I will place in this thread so all the fun stuff regarding the "Wedding in Wissenland" can be found in one spot for future reference.

Also, what LP is referring to is that my gaming army is mostly painted with Averland in mind, although I do have units painted for a Marienburg Mercantile House, the Border Prince fiefdom of Matorea, a Tilean family army typically based out of Tobaro, although beginning to create a Tilean town called Constanzio, first mentioned in Karibbean Dawn fluff for the Estalian War of 1785 to 1792, ... http://warhammer-empire.com/theforum/index.php?topic=38773.0 , Wissenland, and some are interchangeable across each other, including representing an army from Middenland.

Newest project is ... oh I must resist for now, but know that the first fluff story is in process, and a town, plus the three villiages it has under its jurisdiction, is in progress for a different area of the Empire other than Averland.  Already have ideas for units to paint for them as well, yet some of these could be interchangeable, too.

[Le Pistolet]

Cheers Derek.

I'm happy for you all to run some build up over the next couple of weeks, as I am holiday from tomorrow to the 17th, so won't be able to interact. It would be awesome to come back though to a load of fluff to read through, I'm quite excited.

I'll set some ground rules though.

1) All stories must be set before the Suitors Ball (different to the Wedding, and what the roleplay will be based on.) This can be from receiving the letter of invitation to the night or day before the ball.

2) You can interact with any of my characters except for:
Baroness von Heisenberg
Marshall Eichhorn
Lady von Heisenberg
Lady Eichhorn
Lady Zell

Father Schmidt

These are all considered to be with the Baroness attending to her, deciding on what to wear, or making preparations for the ball such as a security detail.

In the case of the Father, those that are particularly pious may join him the night before the ball in the Sanctuary of Sigmar in praying for Sigmars guidance for the Baroness. You may not hold a long conversation with him, as he is on official duty, but if he sees you there, it may help you slightly. He will only talk in a religious manner, perhaps giving you a blessing or something, but will not discuss the Ball. I am not promising this will improve your chances, so don't all do it 

3) No big publicity stunts. No assassination attempts. No conspiring with Solland Rebels and blowing stuff up (yet at least, give the Ball a chance). Happily get into fights but no killing, you will be imprisoned for one night for any disturbance, and risk death for murder, so don't miss the ball.

Some ideas too:

1) Feel free to invent minor Lords and nobles and the such like, there are hundreds of families in Sonnefurt all gathering for the ball, who will be pouring into Sonnefurt and the nearest town to the villa of Hohenhaus and flooding the inns. Anyone you invent will be incorporated into my Sonnefurt fluff at some stage, and might be a nice addition and a way to air anything you want through conversation.

2) Happily host conversations between your own characters, sort this out amongst yourselves and use it to challenge each other.

3) I don't mind you making stuff up about locations, just stick to the fluff I've already made about the Barony, or at least the gist of it. You can invent bars, people, places within the realms of my original background.

I think that should be fine.

Let the fluff commence! 

[GamesPoet]

Oh lovely, now we have two "Wedding in Wissenland" threads, when we only need one.

Kind of like the two Ogres in 8th threads we have going on the forum as well.

[Le Pistolet]

I'd be happy to have it all in one thread if its deemed a better idea, although keeping entries and actual fluff/the roleplay separate could have its merits, like an in character and out of character thread. The other one can be used for banter, whilst this can be exclusively be used for fluff posts?

[GamesPoet]

The first thread's title reads as of this post: "A Wedding In Wissenland"

This thread's title reads as of this post: "A Wedding in Wissenland background fluff and lead up."

The first thread seemed to introduce the characters, which in the manner it was provided was background fluff.  This thread is now allowing the characters to display themselves with some more immediate background fluff before the big event.  Seems like just an outgrowth and natural way of devloping the entrants which is good.

However, perhaps the title for the first thread needs to read:  "A Wedding in Wissenland: The Baroness and Her Suitors", and the second one read something more along the lines of:  "A Wedding in Wissenland: Lead Up Fluff For Suitor Ball".  That is, if the threads are to be substantially different, and the titles clear in what they represent.  This also sets up for other future "A Wedding in Wissenland: ... " type threads as the situation develops, giving them a common theme of the Wedding, but differentiating between what they cover as part of the story.

I can see the need for an organizational thread as well, where there is not any in character stuff.  Instead it could be a spot for ideas to be introduced and discussed and moved forward or not upon.  It could be called, "A Wedding in Wissenland: Organizational Thread".

It seems unlikely that there won't be banter, in character and out of character, in most threads, unless clearly defined as such and ... there's a way of keeping it as defined.

[Inarticulate]

Dear Mother,

I hope this letter finds you well, for I am too! Is father alright? I hope he isn't working too hard.

Alexander and I are on the final leg of our journey south at this time, the yacht is making good time up the river, and we have passed many a heavily-laden cargo vessel. The countryside is most unlike that around Bacheim, for it is much wilder with some areas where there is little or no cultivation.   

I am anxious about the coming few weeks, I know little about this Baroness in the south, Alexander tells me she is a rare beauty, but is still a poor country girl. I do not know quite what to make of this.

My brother is a bore, spending far too much time drinking with the soldiers on deck and in the riverside inns we stay at, I have been forced into my own company. It is my luck that I ordered several noteworthy philosophical tomes to be packed in my luggage and I have immersed myself in those.

I will see you soon, say hello to my dear sister.

Your Loving Son,

Leopold

Leopold von Plauten placed the pen down in the redundant inkwell of the small writing. He stretched his thin arms and looked bleary eyed about himself. He was of course inside the tiny second cabin of the von Plauten yacht, named Galloper after an old horse of his father's. The sounds of merriment from his brother, Alexander and the detachment of guards assigned to the two brothers had faded in these early hours. The guards were here in a ceremonial role, a bit of flair to dazzle the country folk in their expensive bronzed armour and black uniforms.

Leopold ran his hands through his light brown hair, already thinning even at his young age and walked over to the tiny mirror set on the wall. What he saw was a pale-looking man with delicate features reminiscent of his mother, a small nose and ears with large dark brown eyes, heavy bags almost permenantly underneath from long hours perusing account books or dusty books.

Having a need for fresh air, the young man wandered through the maze of cramped hallways to the main deck, the sweet early morning air filling his lungs with the taste of honeysuckle. They would arrive in Sonnefurt within the next few days and the very thought of that sent his hands shaking. He never liked to be the centre of attention, he preferred to stay in the background and use his wits to get him places. It had always worked before. But father had insisted.

His thoughts were interrupted when there was a low chuckle from behind him. Leopold swung round and saw Alexander leaning nonchalantly on the railing, his smoking pipe in his hand.

“What was that, brother” the younger man enquired.

“Nothing Leo, just a small joke I'm having to myself.” he replied with a smirk.

Leopold had been envious of his taller, more confident and physically stronger elder brother many a time in his life. Alexander cut a dashing figure in the latest fashion of Nuln, black coat with lapels, a silk cravat and trews without frills nor adornments. Alexander's fashion sense was one of the only thing Leopold agreed on with his brother, for he was wearing something very similar – though on his small frame, it did not have quite the same effect.

“Well, if that is all, will you excuse me?”

“I think not, little brother. You see there are several men in those trees over there with rather rudimentary longbows, and I believe they have a mean intent.”
The colour drained out of Leopold's face, he made to turn around.

“No, you idiot, don't give yourself away” Alexander said quite normally, a smile on his face. He tapped out the embers from his pipe over the side.

“Now, Leo, if you will excuse me, I believe we have a fight on our hands.”

“Whh.. what?” stuttered Leopold.

“TO ARMS!” shouted Alexander menacingly, a menacing smile on his face.

You could say whatever you liked about Alexander von Plauten, he was arrogant, boorish, a womaniser and a killer. But he was no coward.

Immediatley upon his cry arrows thudded home into the hull of the river yacht or ricocheted off of the brass railings. Shouts erupted all around them as boats low in the water due to being filled to capacity with snarling bandits, outlaws and brigands forced their way through the strong currents of the river with powerful strokes of their oars.

There was no time for the Galloper's own oars to be lowered out and manoeuvre, the enemy were upon the immobile ship in a moment, their grappling hooks lancing over the sides and catching on railings, rigging and window frames.

Alexander calmly picked up a set of pistols from the holster draped over the rail and aimed and shot in the first instant, screams pierced the air. Shots rang out all along the yacht as the guards assigned to them by their father also raised themselves from hiding and fired with their own pistols, punching bandits from their precarious positions as they scrambled up the ropes. Once all of the pistols had been fired, the wickedly sharp Greatswords were pulled from scabbards and put to excellent use in lopping off heads as they appeared over the edge.

In a few seconds, a surprise assault had turned to a deadly rout as the sailors aboard Galloper also swung into the fray, brandishing knives and wooden clubs, more shots rang out as a few of the officers started firing their muskets from the bridge.

All Leopold could do was stand and watch as desperate outlaws either ran in dread fear or fought like cornered rats, their improvised and stolen weapons no match for the defenders. One man, a broad-chested giant brandishing a notched longsword leapt at the young man, only to stop mid leap, blood spurting from his mouth to splatter all over Leopold's face and clothes and the point of a thin sword emerging from his chest inexplicably. Alexander then chopped off the man's head with his second much shorter and broader sword and without a seconds pause carried onto the next fight, a look of pure pleasure on his face as he did so.

After several minutes everything was silence but for the groans of the wounded. The enemy were quickly dispatched, while those sailors nicked or cut by the wild swings or clumsy arrows of the brigands were taken down to Doktor Kohler to tend.

“My, this may well be an interesting trip after all.” Alexander quipped with a smirk as he wandered past, handing his bloodied weapons to one of his men.

[Le Pistolet]

Very nice Inart, eagerly awaiting the developments 

I decided to get the mods to merge the two threads back into one so we can keep track of stuff easier. When we branch out to the actual event, then perhaps there will be a thread called The Suitors Ball Roleplay or something. For now, all the build up will stay in this thread.

[Chev]

Would be a good idea to have a separate thread for the actualy event.
Lets face it, This is probably one of the most quiet sub-forums from the site so the space shouldnt be missed.

[Derek Contyre]

The letter lay discarded atop the pile of dispatches, the wax seal broken and the words floating across the page for all to see, though the letter was short and to the point, it had crumpled and dirty edges as if it had been read many times in the past weeks.
Opposite the letter and dispatch tower was a very carefully placed portrait of a young beautiful woman, her brown hair curled most exquisitely and the dress she wore framed her face most brilliantly.

In front of the red Drakwald Mahogony desk was a portal that looked out over the farmlands of Nuestaat and to the Sol river beyond, Derek Contyre, heir to the throne of Stattenland, Duke of Nueremburg and Baron of Nuestaat was troubled.
The invitation to the Baroness of Sonnefurt's ball was nothing new to him. After buying Nuestaat off the Baron of Wusterburg nearly two years ago he had barely been in it to grow accustomed to the southern province, travelling to and from Stattenland far to the north to bring dispossed Hochlanders that were now Stattenland citizens to their new homes. Usually he had come back to numerous invitations to parties and balls, whenever he had received them he had politely replied to each explaining his absences but not really bothering to think on them afterwards.

Now this.

The invitation to this particular ball troubled him more than he cared to think about. For one reason he had no excuse not to attend, seeing as the last dispatch from his father had told him he wasn't needed this year to help transfer more refugees to Nuestaat and so he was stuck there for the duration. The second reason is that it was a marriage interview, normally it wouldn't of bothered him overly much, having recieved many such invitations before, mainly from lesser nobles and merchants asking him to marry their beautiful daughters.
But they really were interested in power, power that he had in abundance.

But this Baroness intrigued him, she had power that was true and needed not to raise her station (unless sending him this invitation was all that was, in which case she devious indeed), and was undoubtedly a very beautiful woman.
But still, deviousness and beauty he had dealt with in the past and it had not troubled him nearly as much as it did this time. His instincts were telling him something about her.

Sighing, Derek turned from the window and saw a messenger standing awkwardly at the door to the room. Awkwardly for him as the six foot zweihanders pointed at his throat and lower back were making him stand uncorfortably on his toes.
"He can enter Dietrich, stop making the poor lad piss himself." The zweihanders were lowered and returned to being invisible behind the door frame. The sweat stained (and possibly something else) messenger entered and bowed hurriedly to Derek.
"My lord, I bring dispatches from home." He looked relieved in more ways then one and bowed, turned and departed. The greatswords outside gave him a funny look as he left when he headed for the wash rooms, but since noone else saw the exchange, who could tell if they did or not.

Walking over to the table where the messenger had placed the packages, he carefully pulled the picture of the Baroness out from under them and placed it in his coat pocket.
Spending half an hour every day reading his dispatches gave Derek some time to think (and also work) about what his life would resolve into after he had finished setting in place the mayor of Nuestaat and he stopped being swamped in work every day.
Lately marriage life loomed menacingly over the horizon instead of leading armies into the Middle mountains to hunt chaos down and exterminate it.
Casually glancing over the letters he suddenly froze. There in his hand, a personal letter from Elayna, written in her neat perfect script.
He tore it open in a frenzy and began reading;

Dear brother,
You placed our father in a predicament when you sent that invitation to this baroness' ball, for you well know he had you ready to marry that little rich girl who owned very expensive estates in northern Hochland. He was dearly depressed when he saw it, but you know him, he is always depressed about something. After cheering him up by getting him his favourite photo of my mother he told me to tell you that I am coming down to see you regarding this Baroness and her proposal. HE wants you there, no excuses this time. All the other times you have dodged invitations from nobility have to be rectified.
I will be there in a week, I am flying down you see and bringing an old friend to see you.

Your beloved sister, Elayna Contyre II, Countess of Statten.

P.s. You had better get Uri to be there, I haven't seen or heard from him in a year now and I owe him a beating for it.

The letter dropped from his hand as he heard shouts from the courtyard. Turning, Derek ran for the door and pulled both his bodyguards out of their daydreams as they ran to catch him, their heavy plate armour clanking down the wooden hallway.
The Contyre villa wasn't overtly oppulent, but it wasn't small either and it took a minute of running to make it to the courtyard. What they saw there stopped the hearts of those nearest for a brief second.

There, atop a huge snowy white pegasus sat Elayna Contyre II, Countess of Statten. She smiled at her brother before lightly sliding out of the saddle and landing perfectly on the cobblestones, her body athletic and firm.
Derek moved forward and took her hand in his and raised it to his mouth.
"Countess, I didn't expect you for some time, what an honour." She smiled then threw herself at him in a massive bear hug. They laughed and hugged for a while, not having seen one another for nearly a year.
Derek pushed her back and wiped his laughter away from his eyes.
"What do you here Elayna? I only just got your message, you must of left that afternoon!"
"I left that morning actually, I only recieved your letter five days after you dated it and even then I got that first thing on the fifth day."
While they were talking, guards and porters rushed to take the saddle bags off the pegasus but it whinied and raised its wings, knocking them to the floor.

Derek jumped up and grabbed the reigns and pulled him back down, whispering to him softly and stroking his cheek and muzzle.
The Pegasus quieted instantly, his friends touch more than enough after a year.
"Elayna I owe you much, I hadn't seen Caspian when I last went north, I had missed him terribly." Caspian nuzzled Derek as he said this and almost knocked him over, the Pegasus was massive, half again as large as the biggest warhorse in the stables, its wingspan over eight metres long. It was a magnificent animal, and had a temperament as feisty as any person. Derek recovered himself by moving his body with the blow and came back round and cuffed the pegasus behind the ear. It responded by biting him.
"AH you damn horse!" Derek cursed and rubbed his thigh, Caspian's ears flattened and it kicked him in the shins with its front leg.
Now thoroughly beaten, Derek raised his hands at one of his oldest friends. "Ok, ok, you win, go find some oats to munch on instead of me. They taste better after all." Caspian the pegasus gave a short whiny as if it was saying yes, nodded his head and after allowing the porters to take of his saddle bags wandered off to the stables.

"Your pegasus is as bad as you 'Duke of Nuermburg'." Elayna finished her sentance by curtsieing sarcastically.
"Oh stop it 'your royal highness', come inside and get something to eat before you wink out of existense for being so damn thin, even after eating as much as you wanted last time."
Long after the two had left the courtyard, the whispers spread about the untimely arrival of the Countess of Stattenland upon a shining white pegasus, within a day the rumour had spread as far as the boundaries of the Barony of a beautiful angel having arrived atop a shining white steed that flew with angels wings.