Guiding the Powerful Yet Incompetent, Tuesday, Second Period

[tellmehowstuffworks]

Upon entering the Danger Shop, the students would find themselves in a well-appointed medieval-style sitting room, with Henry VIII occupying the nicest chair in the place.

Yennefer, standing behind the chair and to the side, told her students, "You are visiting a lord in your kingdom, for...the hunting or some such, the commemorative feast of a famous battle, I don't know, who cares, and your advisee has taken a liking to some of his host's tapestries and wants them packed up to take home with him, as a gift. After all, why shouldn't his host give him a gift?

"You, of course, being a sensible person, realize that this will give offense, as firstly, tapestries are very expensive and you can't just demand your host give you expensive things, and secondly, your host didn't actually give them to you so that would be stealing for anyone other than a king. Your task is to convince your advisee to leave the tapestries be. Good luck."

Comments

Re: Convince the King

[gospel_of_oblivion]

Illyana eyed the offending tapestries with a sigh.

"Look, they're old, and tacky, and don't really go with the rest of your stuff, and definitely aren't worth starting a war for stealing them. Hold a contest or something for all the weavers to compete for your favor and start a new design revolution instead. Make him look shabby."

Re: Convince the King

[tellmehowstuffworks]

The king pounded his fist on the arm of his chair. "How dare you question my taste? And a war? None of my vassals would dare defy me!"

Behind the chair, Yennefer said, "The second half was a very good idea, but you'd already lost him with the first half questioning his taste and how utterly cowed his subjects are by his magnificence." She rolled her eyes at this last, then asked, "How do you regroup?"

Re: Convince the King

[gospel_of_oblivion]

"That is a harder question than you realize," Illyana replied, amused. "I was raised in a Hell dimension. My natural inclinations in how to resolve issues are generally frowned upon by most humans."

She was trying very hard to be Good. But she'd only been out of Limbo for a year, and that didn't mean she wasn't still demonically-inclined.

She sighed, and turned her attention back to Henry. "I will make you something magical and special when we get home. BUT. The spell requires you abstain from simply taking what you want while you are a guest, because your purity of intent and piety to the laws of hospitality must be real for it to be magnificent."

Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiies. Illyana could use her creation magic right here and now, but she kinda wanted to punish him a little.

Re: Convince the King

[tellmehowstuffworks]

"Good!" Yennefer said. "Bullshitting about magic is a solid legitimate tactic, especially if you know your royal doesn't know how magic works, which, let's be honest, most of them don't."

The king stroked his beard. "Hmm. Special and magical, you say?"

Re: Convince the King

[gospel_of_oblivion]

"Special, magical, and one-of-a-kind," Illyana sighed, looking bored. "But the spell won't work if you do something selfish for personal gain, because it the level of wonder is based upon the recent purity of your heart and intentions. For creation magic sees into the deepest shadows of us, and reacts accordingly."

Okay, not total bullshit, creation magic *was* picky about intent and meaning, but only in regards to the actual magical practitioner.