Contractual obligation

[Namrepus221]

One could surmise that Lady Rose is a decendant of Quentyn of Ridgedale because the auditors came to her first.

Correct?

[LoneWolf23k]

Another idea, while Quentyn is away, the gang raids Freeman downs. That would suck. That or he gets back to find that the guild has already taken back their land.

If the gang thinks of raiding Freeman Downs, I think they'll be quite surprised to see it's inhabitants don't intimidate nearly as well as the cityfolks in Sanctuary...

[Jachra]

What were the exact contractual obligations?

Of course, I doubt they gave it to Quentyn the First in advance free of strings. Nobody is that stupid. ;D

[T.s.a.o]

what if it were easy by say- one human had already collected all the artifacts, and is using them to summon a army to counquer the world or something?


...Nah, that's still going to be pretty rough...

[Squirrelly61104]

Max Goof:

There are a number of problems with this history:

My take:
1) The seven villages establishes itself, far from humans.
Time passes
2) The villages start having trouble with expanding humans.
3) The mistwall/dire swamp get established.
Time passes
4) A peacefull explorer from an enlightened human civilization discovers the seven villages and makes a positive impact
5) Eventually, trade is established through the mistwall, probably via a specially built road. Since only one human has ever visited the seven villages, I assume the Rac-conan still keep their neighbors at arms length.
Time passes
6) Mention has been made of a human civil war. Perhaps we're looking at the equivelant of the civil wars that brought down the roman empire. The rac-conan, fearing a return to their old 'bogeyman/designated victim' status decide to seal the borders and wait out the troubles. Quentyn(1) sent in pursuit of missing artifacts.
7) Plague breaks out, apparently having a particularly disastrous effect on the elderly.*
Time passes
8) Quentyn(2) is born and becomes the legal quesor for Freeman downs.
9) Lawyer of questionable charecter hears about Quentyn(2), remembers the story about Quentyn(1) and comes up with a scheme to use this ancient bit of history to get rich quick.

So we end up with poor Quentyn forced out on a bold adventure.
Quentyn:

Oh, please don't throw me into that briar patch, er, quest brer lawyer!

Note: these items have been lost in the human world for the better part of a century. I sure hope they give Quentyn(2) a big expense account.

*Side note: this could also be when the 'village elders' became so powerfull. Instead of a bunch of two hundred year old elders acting as a brake on reckless change, you got a bunch of middle age folk with agendas of their own.

[Squeaky Bunny]

It sounds suspiciously like a 'sins of the father' sort of thing. The contract was with the questor of what would become Freeman Downs. Since there was no questor for generations, collecting on the contract was impossible until a new questor named Quentyn took office there. Maybe the evil forces are using this as an excuse, maybe it is just bureaucracy lumbering along and tripping over its own shoes.

[Mutant for Hire]

This reeks of revenge. The time to have reclaimed the land was back when the original Quentyn was declared legally dead (which he would have to have been for his daughter to be able to sell the property off). In fact a good lawyer could make the case that the authorities waived all rights of the land when they didn't enforce it. To some extent that's where squatter's rights come in. In certain instances of the law, if you don't act to defend some property, you end up waiving ownership of it.

All these centuries and no one acted. Frankly, even if people had noticed, no one would have cared, and in fact sensible heads would have known better. The fact is that evicting families who lived on the land for generations and were doing a good job with it would have been politically unpopular. In fact even now, the Freeman Downs people could probably raise a real big stink about this and get folks to back down. The authorities are counting on the fear factor to keep this from being challenged.

In any case, the timing reeks of it being revenge on Quentyn. They're forcing him to go into exile, into human lands, presumably to his death. They don't think a young kit like him can survive out there. And if he does survive, he can be pumped for information about how to invade those lands and conquer them.

[Narnian]

All I can say is "LOOK AT HOW MANY FREAKING CRATES/BOXES OF ARTIFACTS THERE ARE IN THE STRIP!"
Thats easily going to take a good 20 years...

Nah, I think half the stuff is probably in my attic from the looks of it ...

[Squirrelly61104]

Narnian:

Nah, I think half the stuff is probably in my attic from the looks of it ...

Quick! Everyone, raid Narnians attic!

Well, that was a short quest.

[RHJunior]

Certain things to be kept in mind: although their culture resembles modern western civilization in many ways, they are, obviously, going to have certain cultural and legal traditions that are radically different from human ones.

For one thing, they have a much longer lifespan than humans. For another, they have a long history of nomadic/transient living. Concepts of ownership and things like "squatter's rights" will be rather different. Picture a culture where something that was made back during the American Revolution might still have its original owner walking about, and you begin to see the problem. Add to that a culture where the people were often forced to abandon their possessions to flee for their lives, with only the hope of someday returning to retrieve what they had hidden, and you percieve a bit more. It would take a much longer period of time before things were considered abandoned to the public domain.

[Catherine_Puce]

What were the exact contractual obligations?

Of course, I doubt they gave it to Quentyn the First in advance free of strings. Nobody is that stupid. ;D

If he send his journal, I bet that he could have mail artifact from the Rac' coonan trademan that come in the human world. I suppose that the trade with human restart soon after the end of the civil war so it's possible to pay a merchant to transport a box inside the Seven village territories without that nobody know what is inside the box. They're are maybe no builded road but the little authorized trade must be really important so there are probably always a rac 'coonan doing trade in the human realm. I suppose that the obligations are partly done, the daughter didn't knew at this moment that all wasn't retrieve ( this was a low profile mission afterall) and sell it. I bet that there just a little list to retrieve but few item doesn't mean a short or easy mission.

Ça risque d'être toute une aventure...

S.P.P.

[Sariah]

So, how long can they live? They said Quentyn of Ridgedale was "getting up in years" but how old was that? What if he's still trying to collect the items, and Quentyn the Younger meets him? That'd be cool. (But highly unlikely.)

And I wonder what Quentyn will be feeling. Not just fear about striking out into the humanworld, from whence QoR never returned, but what if someone back home needs a Questor? He won't want to leave people unprotected.

And who else thinks Colin would make a great Questor in a few years?

[Catherine_Puce]

Could this be why the questor museum had only replicas? The originals were in the shipment that got misrouted?

We don't know if they have only replica. The only replica that we know is Snakefang, the sword of the Questor who never come back with the missing artefacts.

One could surmise that Lady Rose is a decendant of Quentyn of Ridgedale because the auditors came to her first.

This could be a good reason to explain why she's in the elder's council. If this is the case, she risk to be a scapegoat the the anger of the people.

Après tout, ce sont ces ancêtres qui ont vendu les terres sans y avoir droit.

S.P.P.

[Chaser617]

We obviously know why the Rac'coonan can't mount a Expiditionary Force to human lands. No matter what's going on in the outside, I doubt Humans, Dwarves, and what ever other civilizations (if any) outside the mistwall would like to see the sudden appearence of a Rac'coonan military force, no matter what its intent. I have no idea if the Rac'coonan have any sort of military outside the Guards, but, also and Expeditionary Forces is also rather... a sledge-hammer way of doing it. A smaller team is the way to go.

[Dalak Lutra]

One could surmise that Lady Rose is a decendant of Quentyn of Ridgedale because the auditors came to her first.

This could be a good reason to explain why she's in the elder's council. If this is the case, she risk to be a scapegoat the the anger of the people.

Very True, the first thing every looks for is a scape goat. And through this they miss valuable time to fix the problem.

And who else thinks Colin would make a great Questor in a few years?

Ahmen to that.

[MikeVanPelt]

Ok, who will be in the party?

Quentyn, of course.

Kes and Fen, likely.

I suspect the guardsman that Quentyn had various run-ins with will also be included.

[UncleMonty]

Question: What's the difference between a township and a village? At least in Questorverse?

From what I gathered there was already a township called Freeman Downs and thanks to Quentyn's (the original) land expanded the township and sold it to the people of said township, becoming the village of Freeman Downs. Doesn't that mean that only part of Freeman Downs is in question?

What's the distinction?

In the USA, for land-mapping purposes, a township was a square plot of land six miles on each side. It doesn't need to contain a town, or even be populated. I don't know whether the Rac Conan mapping system uses any similar formats. The old "Township - Range" mapping system is still somewhat in use, but most modern US maps employ latitude - longitude measurements.

Fun trivia:
In some wilderness areas, you'll find white-painted posts marked with an X. On the side of the post will be a metal plate with a nail driven into one of the 36 squares embossed into the metal. That plate represents the township, and the nail represents the post.
If you can read it, you'll know where you are - within about a quarter-mile anyway.

Good to know, if the batteries in my GPS go flat.

[Dalak Lutra]

We obviously know why the Rac'coonan can't mount a Expiditionary Force to human lands. No matter what's going on in the outside, I doubt Humans, Dwarves, and what ever other civilizations (if any) outside the mistwall would like to see the sudden appearence of a Rac'coonan military force, no matter what its intent. I have no idea if the Rac'coonan have any sort of military outside the Guards, but, also and Expeditionary Forces is also rather... a sledge-hammer way of doing it. A smaller team is the way to go.

Very true. I'm sure that the Seven City Guards could be used as a means of "military force". Compared to other races, the Rac Conan have abilities that humans could never have T.T(true yet sad), and thus they could do quite well in a battle, as seen against the Gragum("no such thing as a unarmed rac conan").

[Dalak Lutra]

Ok, who will be in the party?

Quentyn, of course.

Kes and Fen, likely.

I suspect the guardsman that Quentyn had various run-ins with will also be included.

Ah, very nice. I almost over looked him. Either Mulharney or Shot gun captain of the swamps (don't think he was ever given a name was he?).

[Straw]

What I wonder about is how Quentyn is going to find the artifacts in the human lands if he doesn't speak their language(I don't remember so if the rac'conan and human language is the same ignore the rest of this this paragraph). It's doable without language skills but if he could ask around for clues things might fare better. Does poor Quentyn have to go through a crash course in human language before leaving or are they just going to give him a rac'conan/human dictionary and tell him to wing it or maybe they take the easiest way and send a translator along with him? Or hopefully the basics of human language was an optional course in school which Quentyn took.

And on a side note: I predict the use of term "cute little forest animal" in future.