Is this a dagger I see before me?

[Garuda]

I’m playing as King of Mercia. I must have upset the King of Scotland in some way because he is apparently plotting to end my life. I have an option to go into hiding, but don’t want to take it.

What’s the best thing to do? Apart from just ignoring him and doing nothing, the only thing I can think of doing is sending my spymaster to Scotland to stir up trouble. But is it worth it? Is it better to keep my spymaster at home (assuming he provides protection against enemy assassins appearing in my court?).

What other effective actions might I take to end the machinations of the evil King of Scots?

 

[kviiri]

Keep your spymaster at your court, ask everyone who joins the plot (assuming you know of the plot already) to quit it and wait for the old Scottish codger to die. Or get bored and bugger someone else.

And don't worry, a foreign king will have practically, if not exactly, zero chance of getting anything done without some co-consiprators closer to you.

 

[Cathal341]

Just make sure your council likes you and you *should* be fine.

 

[Cat Crusade]

Keep an eye on the plot, keep your spymaster at home and ask every co-conspirator to stop supporting the plot. Avoid incurring tyranny or just gathering people who hate you at your court so they won't join and you should be safe. A plot against you where noone joins is practically harmless.

 

[kviiri]

Oh, one more thing. Make especially doubly very sure that your spymaster likes you. A spymaster who dislikes or hates their liege is the easiest avenue to assassinations. If you get to choose between an ok spymaster who likes you, and an excellent one who hates you, pick the one who likes you or at very least do your best to buy the love of the better one.

 

[Thrake]

If you found out about the plot you're 95% safe. Plotters will most likely accept to stop backing plot and one guy alone in a plot is no threat. Only danger is other landed characters; those sometimes choose to keep backing plot as there's not much you can do against them.

So yeah, as above, you SHOULD be fine, just tick the auto stop plots box and regularly check if there are guys bold enough to refuse to stop backing the plot; it should start being dangerous if there are 3 plotters at least.

When I can't do much against plotters, I personnaly like to start my own plot against the guy plotting against me; after all if he dies there's no plot anymore...

 

[MrParadux]

Oh, one more thing. Make especially doubly very sure that your spymaster likes you. A spymaster who dislikes or hates their liege is the easiest avenue to assassinations. If you get to choose between an ok spymaster who likes you, and an excellent one who hates you, pick the one who likes you or at very least do your best to buy the love of the better one.

This is one of the most important lessons to be learned for Crusader Kings: If you have a spymaster who dislikes or even hates you, you WILL die. So make sure that he likes you.

Apart from that you should be able to see the plot power if you hover over it. It only gets concerning if it is above 90% and dangerous if over 100%

 

[Garuda]

Okay.

Many thanks for your replies.

 

[Secret Master]

It's practically a blessing to have a foreign ruler plot to kill you if you know about it. Now you can see who the unreliable pieces of garbage are in your court or those who have been blackmailed successfully.

With a little luck, some of the conspirators will refuse to stop backing the plot, giving you the chance to arrest them.

 

[Garuda]

Nobody ever backed the plot. The plot lasted for many years with no support at all. And then the evil King of the Scots died. I outlived him.

This brings up a question: For a foreigner to plot against me does he need to seek backers from within my own court? Or can he gain backing from other foreigners (meaning there would be precious little I could do about stemming plot power)?

 

[smellymummy]

Your direct vassals and people in your court are the ones who can become plot backers

And just wondering here, but suppose that king of Scotland led one of his retinues to the king of Mercia's capital, or in the same vein suppose you are plotting and you're on a council mission in the same location as the plot target. Would either of these situations satisfy the 'at_location' requirement for the assassination plot to fire?

 

[szmik]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if your character is paranoid he basically cannot be killed. I learnt when trying to kill one, each attempt (and they fired every other week for half a year) failed with over 200% plot power.

 

[smellymummy]

Pretty much. Paranoid is not full proof but near enough.

 

[Secret Master]

This brings up a question: For a foreigner to plot against me does he need to seek backers from within my own court?

Backers in your court or important vassals in your realm, as others have said.

Important safety tip: proximity to the ruler is often very important to plot power. People on the council are more likely to contribute a ton of plot power. This is another reason why spymasters need to be loyal more than they are competent. And sometimes, you have to choose between putting a powerful, disloyal vassal on the council to prevent them from forming factions, and putting a loyal weakling on the council that you know won't try to kill you. The powerful vassal on your council that hates you will contribute a lot of plot power even if he can't form or join faction. The weakling loyalist won't plot to kill you, but the powerful vassal will start forming and joining factions.

And that's why I sometimes just take the tyranny hit and liquidate certain people. It's the only way to be sure.

 

[Dragatus]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if your character is paranoid he basically cannot be killed. I learnt when trying to kill one, each attempt (and they fired every other week for half a year) failed with over 200% plot power.

Plot power only determines how often assassination attempts happen, it has no effect on the chance of success of an individual assassination attempt. That is determined solely by the assassination scenario (poisoned wine, snake, archers ...) and the victim's traits.

By default each assassination attempt has a 75% chance to succeed. But each assassination scenario has 3 associated traits that modify the chance of success if the victim has them. One of the traits reduces the chance of success to 50%, another one reduces it to 33% and finally there is a trait that increases chance of success to 90%. The most common 50% trait is Diligent, the most common 33% trait is Paranoid, and the most common 90% trait is Trusting, but those are far from all the traits that can have an impact. For example in the poisoned wine scenario the trait that makes you 90% likely to die is Gluttonous and the best way to survive attacks by archers and "bandits" is to be Craven (presumably because you run away and get yourself to safety).

The chance that your involvement is discovered is also unrelated to plot power. Successful assassination attempts have a flat 25% chance of being linked to you and failed ones have a flat 50% chance to be linked to you.