#lord rowan

[ellisturner]

Good evening, Mr. Turner. Lord Rowan has requested you to act as his valet for the duration of his stay here, and asks you to meet him in his rooms.

*lowers voice* I'm aware you consider your job with the utmost professionally, but I was wondering if you would be so kind as to do me a small favor?

@thelordrowancastleton

Of course ma'am,May I enquire as to the nature of this favour.

*impressive amounts of stress*

[victorluvsalice]

Valicer In The Dark: A...Gratitude...Carol?

Hi, I know I just posted a whole long-ass write-up on stories and scores I adapted from other media for this verse yesterday, but this is an idea I almost literally just came up with, and it's delightful seasonal nonsense, so I figured that it deserved its own post. XD What happened is this: during a boring moment at work last week, I found myself thinking about my old "Scenes From A Multiverse Christmas Carol" fic (featuring Edna Strickland from BTTF: The Game as Scrooge; Victor, Alice, and all the various OC children I've given them over the years as the Cratchits; and young Emmett Brown (also from BTTF: The Game) and Bonejangles and Barkis Bittern (in the "shadow puppet" form from the "Remains of the Day" sequence) from Corpse Bride as the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet To Come respectively). Specifically, I found myself thinking, "If I was writing that fic today, I'd probably make Smiler the Ghost of Christmas Present -- they totally fit the brief for that spirit! Almost aggressively cheerful, has a magic liquid they can use on people to make them happier, has some secret darkness hidden away under the clothes...

"...Actually, thinking about it, I could turn the whole Valicer trio into the Ghosts of Christmas, couldn't I? Alice suits Past because her whole plotline in A:MR revolves around her rummaging through her past and using those memories to make herself a better person in the present (via Bumby-murder, granted), and Victor suits Yet To Come because he's very closely tied to death thanks to, you know, marrying a corpse in his movie. Plus he's pale enough for the role...it could totally work!

"...oh shit now I want to do a Christmas Carol parody with the Valicer In The Dark version of the trio and Lord Rowan."

Aaaand cue me pretty much losing the rest of the day to coming up with ways on how to make that work. XD Now, the traditional plotline of the Scrooge character being visited by three actual ghosts looking to help them change their ways wouldn't work in the world of Duskwall and the Shattered Isles, simply because, in that universe, ghosts are pretty much always very bad news. If a ghost ends up in your room while you're sleeping, it's pretty much guaranteed it's there to possess you and suck away your life essence, not help you become a better person. Not to mention, I wasn't about to kill off my trio to do this, even if I made it a one-off non-canon story. So my initial thought was that the whole thing would have to be a weird dream Lord Rowan had for some reason, with the three in the right roles doing their supernatural thing while he fought them at every turn. And then end it with him waking up the next morning and tracking down the Three Pillars to accuse them of breaking into his house again, only for them to be like "...we have no idea what you're talking about, are you feeling okay?" Which was -- all right, but wasn't really gelling with me --

And then -- I came up with something MUCH FUNNIER.

Allow me to set the scene for you -- the story would open on the eve of Gratitude (a Duskwallian holiday all about giving thanks to the Immortal Emperor for ascending to the throne and saving the Shattered Isles during the cataclysm way back in the day; it's a bit more "Thanksgiving" than "Christmas" but it's the closest analogue we've got in the main rulebook), with Lord Rowan throwing a party for all his family and friends and whatnot. Things are going pretty well for old Nathaniel --

Up until he's informed that there's a disturbance in the kitchens. And when he goes to investigate, he finds himself blinded by a shockingly bright light. Scrambling around, he manages to seize hold of an arm (or is it a leg? Or a head?) --

And finds himself holding a flour-covered Alice Liddell. Turns out that she and her compatriots broke into the house to steal any scraps and leftovers from his fancy party that they could find to distribute to the residents of Six Towers. The "disturbance" was her accidentally upending a bag of flour onto herself, and the flash was her using Smiler's "Flasher" device to try and cover a getaway. Lord Rowan is naturally pissed off and demands to know where the others are, but she says they split up a while back and she's not sure. So he drags her off to try and find them, complaining all the while about how hard they make his life and how dare they steal his food to give to those "leeches" outside. Alice is annoyed by all this and essentially goes "What the hell happened in your past to make you such a jerk?"

And cue them running first into Lord Rowan's father, Elder Gregorious Rowan, City Council member and high-ranking leader in the Church of the Ecstasy of the Flesh, and then into his older brother Graham, a decorated and important leviathan hunter with a wife and three children. Both of whom end up talking about Nathaniel's past and how they'd hoped he'd live up to his potential better. Alice is like "ah, second son syndrome." XD Lord Rowan is like "oh screw you" and continues his search --

And happens upon his study -- which has light coming out from under the door. And when he throws open said door, he finds Smiler sitting his chair at his desk, wrapped in stolen Gratitude decorations (including a wreath of moss and greens upon their head) and eating some food they got at the party (not even stolen, the waiters just gave them some canapes). Lord Rowan is even more annoyed now (while even Alice is like "Smiler, you took a snack break?" -- Smiler protests they were going to share) and starts going on about how they're ruining his Gratitude --

And Smiler responds with "oh, we're ruining your Gratitude? What about all your tenants whose Gratitudes you've ruined?" and drags him out onto a nearby balcony to show him Six Towers and have a little rant about how the people down there have almost nothing thanks to him, but they still do their best to be thankful and share the spirit of the holiday with each other. "And you can't even spare the scraps from your kitchen to help them? Tell me, if things had gone according to plan, would you have even known we were here? Or would you have not even noticed the missing food?" Lord Rowan protests he's not running a charity and if people want meals they can go to the Arms of the Weeping Lady, but Smiler shoots back that the soup kitchen can't do everything and that regular people have to help increase happiness too. Lord Rowan dismisses that as "Advocate nonsense" and heads back inside, intending to raise the alarm and call the Bluecoats on them. Alice and Smiler are like "oh come on, can you not be a dick for one day, we don't even want to ruin your party, we just want the stuff you'd throw away anyway," but Lord Rowan says he's had enough of their shenanigans. Alice threatens to hurt him, but Lord Rowan is like "oh, you wouldn't dare, not in my own house. You lot shan't summon the specter of death upon me!"

And then he turns around and finds himself face-to-hood with a tall figure in a black cloak with one skinny pale hand reaching out of it. He naturally screams like a little girl at this --

Causing the figure to recoil and trip over its own cloak, falling down and revealing it's Victor. (Or "Vincent," as Lord Rowan initially calls him -- Victor is like "Lord Everglot made the same mistake -- why can you rich people never remember my name?!") Turns out he's wearing the cloak because his usual coat is in the wash and he needed something to protect against the chill ("We told him it was too big," Alice says, prompting Victor to retort "I'm not used to things being TOO BIG on me"). Lord Rowan recovers quickly from nearly having had a heart attack and sarcastically asks Victor if he has anything to say about his lack of care about the "peasants" and their "pathetic Gratitude celebrations" -- turns out Victor does, saying that if he doesn't care how he's regarded in the present, perhaps he could care about how he's regarded in the future? After all, he's not leaving a particularly nice legacy behind him at the moment -- the people in Six Towers hate the Rowan name, associating it with fear and want and misery. "When you die, do you think anyone would come to your marker in the great mausoleum by the crematory and mourn? Or do you think there will be celebrating in the streets?" Lord Rowan is a little shaken by that thought, but manages to dismiss it, pointing out he'll be dead and his soul burnt away, so what does it matter? Victor starts to bring up the idea of his descendants suffering for his sins instead --

And then stops, because, uh-oh. There's a ghost in the house. And it seems to be right in the middle of the ballroom -- aka in the middle of Lord Rowan's party. The four rush there, to find the guests being terrorized by someone Lord Rowan recognizes as the ghost of one Ebenezer Marley -- an old school friend of his who became a solicitor and helped him occasionally with matters of property law. Apparently the dude was murdered recently, and decided to take out his spectral rage on the celebrants. Marley spots Lord Rowan and rushes to take him over --

Only to be caught by Victor, who just so happens to have his ghost-hunting kit on him. After a brief struggle, he, Alice, and Smiler manage to wrangle the ghost into a spirit bottle and save the party. The guests are all very impressed, going "bravo" and "thank you for helping us" --

And Lord Rowan realizes that turning them over to the Bluecoats now would make him look extremely bad. So, very reluctantly, he summons his butler and asks him to take them to the kitchen so they can collect the food they wanted before escorting them off the property. The Three Pillars are thrilled, but he makes it very clear to them that this is not him being nice -- this is payment for services rendered. And that he wants the decorations Smiler stole back, thank you. Smiler obligingly drapes it all on Lord Rowan instead, and the trio head off happily to collect their spoils. Lord Rowan watches them go, quietly steaming about them winning --

And then another one of his rich acquaintances (which I am so tempted to make Barnaby from Oxventure Presents: Blades In The Dark) drapes an arm around him and goes, "Oh, relax, Nate, it's Gratitude! You can go back to trying to kill them the next day!" Lord Rowan starts to protest that he hasn't been trying to kill them --

And then he stops. Thinks. And then smiles and goes, "why, you're absolutely right." Cue him returning to the party in much better spirits, thinking about how there must be someone willing to, ah, "take care of" the Three Pillars --

Aaand end of story. XD Yeah, a traditional Christmas Carol this ain't. But hey, at least this allows me to establish Lord Rowan's more murderous tendencies towards the trio in future stories! Hell, it might be good to follow this story with the Taskmaster-based one, since part of the joke in that one is Alex deliberately misinterpreting Lord Rowan's request to "take care of" the three, and the show is known for its "New Year's Treat" one-off episodes...

[victorluvsalice]

Valicer In The Dark -- Meet Lord Nathaniel Rowan

Hello everyone -- today, I would like to introduce you to someone who has accidentally become important to my Valicer In The Dark verse: Lord Nathaniel Rowan! Now, I've mentioned this dude's name a couple of times in previous posts -- most notably my first in-depth post on scores and story ideas for the verse -- but as he's become an occasionally-recurring antagonist for my trio as I come up with more scores for them to pull and things for them to do in my version of Duskwall, I figured we might as well have a proper post telling you all about his deal. So here we go --

-->Lord Rowan technically comes straight from the Blades In The Dark book itself -- there's a couple of mentions of the family name in the text in various places. The most significant one, and one that grabbed my attention first and made me realize that I should include him as a character in the Valicer In The Dark series, is in the write-up for the Six Towers district near the end of the book. Not only is Rowan House mentioned as being one of only two of the original six towers still standing (the other being Bowmore House), Rowan House gets its own entry as a landmark in the district (page 276):

Rowan House. One of the last of the original six towers, this antique building resembles an ancient castle from history books, complete with moat, draw-bridge, and arrow-slit windows. The powerful Rowan family rules their holdings from within the fortress, rarely venturing beyond the security of its thick stone walls.

AKA, Rowan House is the "giant bloody castle" Alice mentions as making her think they'd gone the wrong way when the gang first entered Six Towers in Chapter 6 of "Start At The Beginning...Sort Of." XD Given that Six Towers's whole deal is that it's a formerly-fashionable district that fell into poverty and ruin once all the rich families left, leaving their homes to either rot abandoned or be converted into cheap tenement housing, I was rather intrigued by the fact that Rowan House was explicitly said to still be occupied by an actual lord (Scurlock Manor, in the same area, may have a tenant, but it's not Lord Scurlock himself, just some "nephew or cousin" who may not even have a proper title, and Bowmore House is only mentioned as being still standing, so...). I figured there must be a reason for the family to still be living there --

-->Cue me hitting upon the idea of making Lord Rowan the literal landlord of all of Six Towers! Somebody has to be in charge of all the apartments there, after all! Basically, once all the other lords in the area started abandoning Six Towers for the more fashionable Brightstone, the Rowan family sensed an opportunity and snapped up as many estates as they could get their hands on. They then converted these estates into cheap apartments and lured in as many of the poorest in the city as they could. The family has thus controlled pretty much all the real estate in the district ever since, with Nathaniel being the latest to take over the day-to-day duties.

-->As for other members of the family -- in the "Factions" section of the book, there is a mention of an "Elder Rowan" who is a leader in the Church Of The Ecstasy Of The Flesh (the "state religion," which venerates a healthy body and abhors the spirit; the higher-ups are secretly trying to find ways to turn themselves into soulless demons, who they consider to be the ideal life forms), and a member of the family also explicitly sits on the City Council (the group of elites who essentially run the government, along with the Lord Governor -- the other councilors include members of the Bowmore, Clelland, Dunvil, Penderyn, and Strangford families). As the City Council entry mentions that all the members are also high-ranking adepts in the Church Of The Ecstasy Of The Flesh, I'm thinking of making both Rowans the same guy -- Lord Gregorious Rowan, Nathaniel's father, who has given up his landlord duties to pursue ascension into demonhood all the faster and find a way to take down Lord Strangford, who he doesn't trust as far as he can throw him. I'm also thinking of giving Nathaniel an older brother, Graham, who fulfills the traditional "heir to the lineage" noble duty of captaining a leviathan ship (as being the source of the leviathan blood that helps power everything in the city is one of the major ways all the noble families keep their power). Neither of them would be anywhere near as important as Nathaniel to my stories, but it's good to know where the guy came from and where he sits in the family line.

-->As for Nathaniel himself -- well, dude's an asshole. XD Much like his father before him, Nathaniel does not care that his kingdom is one of rot and ruin, with crumbling roads, broken streetlamps, and hauntings everywhere. All that matters to him is that it is his kingdom, and the people there must do as he says. Accordingly, his apartments charge the most he can get away with, while providing only the barest minimum necessary to keep people alive. A lot of his buildings don't even have heat or working lights, and the porters he hires to watch the doors are little more than thugs, more concerned with shaking down the tenants for cash than actually helping them in any way. The residents of Six Towers are as a result a pretty hopeless lot, just doing their best to survive day to day. A lot of them would love to rebel against Nathaniel and his tyranny, but know there's no way they could successfully storm that fortress he calls a home, so they just carry on, relying on the charity from the Arms Of The Weeping Lady soup kitchen on the edge of the district and the Advocate bunk house set up right next to it to keep themselves going...

-->And then the Three Pillars show up on the scene. Nathaniel initially completely ignores them -- in fact, he doesn't even know they live in Six Towers, given they move into the one house he has no idea exists in the district, thanks to Elder Gutknecht's wards -- but then he hears tell that there's a trio of strangers fixing up one of the old conservatories into a public greenhouse, and that they intend to give away the food produced there for free. "Welp, that won't do," Nathaniel says to himself, and waits until they've pretty much finished the place before arriving on the scene and politely informing them that he owns this land, so the greenhouse is his, thanks. Though if they really want to use it, they could pay him rent -- say, ten Coin per month? (Which, for reference, is an ASTRONOMICAL amount to charge for rent -- it's more than your average small business is expected to take in in a month, and Duskwall months are twice as long as ours!) He expects this trio of losers to fold immediately --

But then Smiler points out that ten Coin would be enough to just buy the property and asks if it's for sale. And Nathaniel, amused and secure in his knowledge that his house is impenetrable, says no -- but if the trio can steal the deed out of the safe in his bedroom, he will let them have it, no strings attached. Smiler is like "I want that in writing," which Nathaniel is fine with, and they go to Barrister Alley in Charterhall University and have a contract drawn up, notarized by an Inspector. Nathaniel encourages the trio to try to get the deed before the week is out, and goes home content to wait until they get caught creeping around and have to give him the property --

Only for them to utterly humiliate him by successfully sneaking in and stealing the deed. I am picturing him spotting them escaping at the last minute, with Smiler cheekily telling him "thanks for the greenhouse!" Nathaniel, as you might imagine, is furious, but the Inspector insists he has to honor the agreement, causing him to start plotting revenge...

-->And from that moment on, the Three Pillars and Nathaniel are enemies! I haven't planned out many more specific clashes, but I know that the group humiliates him a second time by stealing a Dragon's Bane fruit he rented to show off at a party (for Chef Roselle, who needs one for a new dish -- I promise I will explain this further in an upcoming post), and when they team up with a group of Sparkwrights to test an alternative fuel source they're working on by getting the streetlights back on in Six Towers, he's one of the obstacles they have to overcome. (He might also be somehow involved when Dr. Kelman starts trying to track them down to "correct" them, but I haven't fully decided on that yet.) Nathaniel eventually gets so pissed off by their presence in Six Towers that he puts a bounty on their heads -- but by that point, not only are the trio able to fight off potential assassins (including most of the other gang bosses in the city at a certain infamous party hosted by Bazso Baz of the Lampblacks), they're so beloved by the citizens of Six Towers for all the help they've given the neighborhood that said citizens are more than willing to fight for them. Remember what happened to the potential assassin in the fourth entry in this Not-Incorrect Valicer Quotes collection for the verse? Yeah, it gets to the point where assassins hear what the job is and just go "sorry, no, I'm not about to get beat up by all of Six Towers, thanks." XD Leaving Nathaniel to fume impotently as his district slips further and further out of his grasp. I'm not entirely sure what the endgame for their rivalry is yet, but I very much doubt Nathaniel is going to come out on top.

-->And finally, since this guy has the potential to become a very important character in this verse, I figured I ought to know exactly what he looks like -- so I made him in Sims 4! So here are some pictures so you know what he looks like too:

Lord Nathaniel Rowan’s headshot! The haircut is from Get Together – I tried a couple of others, but this is the one that I felt worked the best with his face. Had a little trouble selecting his eye color, but I’m fairly satisfied with the gray-blue I settled on. And I couldn't resist giving him terrible muttonchops when I found the option under facial hair. Era-appropriate, admittedly, since the world of Duskwall is supposed to have Victorian vibes, but still terrible. XD

The full body shot! The suit is a Get Together “sack suit” that I found on accident a while back, while messing around with formal wear options for Victor, Alice, and Smiler. As I didn’t have my CC in the game at the time I created this initial version of him (not long after the Life & Death patch), this was as close to an era-appropriate outfit as I could find for him that didn’t look just a tiny bit TOO fancy, like most of the Vampires suits (ended up choosing one of those for formalwear instead). He is wearing Vampires shoes, though (the black ones with white spats), and that double-ring designed by arathabee for Crystal Creations (since he’s supposed to be a lord, I figured maybe that was fancy family jewelry passed down through the lineage).

And finally, a shot of him looking dastardly, since he is supposed to be an asshole. XD Accordingly, I gave the Sim version of him the Aspiration of Mansion Baron (to reflect the fact that he lives in a freaking castle), and the traits Evil, Hot-Headed, and Materialistic (since he's a nasty bastard with a bad temper who likes the finer things in life). As for his Preferences, he Likes the color orange, compliments, malicious interactions, gossip, deception, polished fashion, egotistical Sims, argumentative Sims, Baroque music, and research and debate, and he Dislikes the color pink, pranks, potty humor, silly behavior, complaints, rocker fashion, funny Sims, spirited Sims, Pop music, and singing. Which, as you might guess, means he hates Smiler in particular among the three. XD Rather fun designing such a douchebag of a man – and now I have a face to go with the name in my imagination, so that’s good too. :)

And there we have it! So now you know who Lord Nathaniel Rowan is and why my trio will be having such trouble with him in the future. Always important to know your enemies as well as your friends! I hope you look forward to seeing him pop up in the verse as much as I am now. :p

[prgrmmr]

Naren - Lord Rowan’s Search

Lord Rowan walked down the hallway of the guards' headquarters. A person of interest had been brought in, their first possible break in the whereabouts of his nephew, Prince Thal’inas, after the siege on the castle. It had been three days since his brother, King Adinath, had been killed at the hands of rebels, and finding the young prince safe and well was of the highest priority. Lord Rowan and his other siblings had been raised to support their brother, not to lead. In his mind, the future of Kingsperch rested on finding the boy.

He entered the room, regarding the man who raised from his seat to dip into a bow. He was a human who wore simple clothes with stains on them. Lord Rowan frowned at the possibility that he was simply here to collect a piece of the reward. However, no reward would be paid if the information didn’t lead to the prince.

He refrained from twitching an ear as he nodded at the man. “Please, sit.” He sat in the chair across from him as the man obeyed. “What is your name?”

“Cranvul Dund,” the man answered.

Lord Rowan wrote down the name. “And where do you live?”

“I’m currently staying with relatives in the market district.”

“Currently?” Lord Rowan raised a brow.

“I had a room here in the castle before. I worked in the kitchen.”

That would explain the food stains on his clothing, and perhaps he did know something of the prince’s whereabouts. Lord Rowan scratched down the information in his notes. “And you have information about the prince?”

“I don’t know where he is now, but I saw someone leaving through the servant’s doors with a boy who could have been him.”

It wasn’t much to go on, but the details might reveal more. “Someone? Was this person male or female? What did they look like?”

“I think it was a woman, but I didn’t see their face. They wore a long cloak with a hood.”

“What color was the cloak? Did you see their hair? Did you see the prince?” He didn’t want to ask too many questions at once, but he was eager for a solid lead.

“The cloak was black, but it covered their head. I couldn’t even say for sure if the person was an elf or a human, but I think it might have been an elf, going by the way the hood was shaped.”

“And the prince?”

“This person was carrying a young elven boy. He looked to be about three. He had blond hair and was wrapped in a blanket.”

Lord Rowan nodded as he wrote down what the man said. “Do you remember the color of the blanket?”

“White, and it had some fancy gold embroidery on it.”

Lord Rowan looked up. That was the prince’s blanket from the day room where he napped. “Did you see which way they went?”

“No, my lord. I’m sorry. It was chaotic trying to get out of the castle that day, and I didn’t pay attention to where other people were headed.”

“Did this person seem to be with anyone else or on her own?”

“I didn’t notice anyone else who seemed to be with her if it was a her. It could have been a small male. There were a lot of people going through that door though, so maybe there was and I just didn’t notice.”

“Had any of the rebels made it that far into the castle by the time you were heading out?”

The man shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

“Can you name anyone else who was there?” Someone else had to have seen what happened. Maybe they had also seen which way the person carrying the prince had headed.

“Delwyn Vallana was there.”

Great. One of his men. The only problem was Delwyn had died that day. He was found near the servant’s corridors, so that part of the story checked out. He frowned and wrote down the information. The next few days promised to be busy as he tried to track down the servants who escaped through that door and questioned them. At least he knew now that the boy had made it out of the castle alive.