Ah Dark Elves backstabbing each other and causing problems for themselves while our group profits is always fun.

After all they are Starscream the faction in terms of being backstabbing bitches. Of course they certainly couldn't match Manfred in that regard but what are ya gonna do?
 
If we had time maybe trigger a rebellion but the orks blown that fuse too soon.

So really crash the auction make the escape hopefully sail away to some place not nearing colapse and get home to see Joanah explain to Genevieve why she have a "blessed" lf child as an aprendice to in the art of telling the inner dark urges to fuck off.
 
Genuinely fucking amazing.

We have a Sigmarite Imperial Elector Count, a Bretonnian Questing Knight, a Kislevite Princess channeling her ancient goddess, an Isha-influenced Druchii Sorceress, her Khaine touched assassin daughter, a female Pegasus rider Knight who Mulan'd her way into this, a Cathay trained Imperial Vampire.

Also on the Ark is Manaan's Sea Monster Sea Pope, an Asrai Waywatcher out to see the world, an Ind-travelling Asur Handmaiden of the Everqueen, a comatose Asur Princess Squire of fucking Tyrion.

We're also likely to crash the Ark into Norsca, run into the Slann-affiliated Norscans, Kattarin the Bloody and the Norscan Dawi. A shame we couldn't grab a halfling or Urgdug.
Ah yes, find the Norscan Dawi and get another Sigmar blessing for getting them in contact with the Karaz Ankor dawi again.
 
So, we've destroyed a lot of food production, what was next of our list of things to do?
Eh, kinda but not quite as much as you're probably thinking. The aquafarms while able to produce food I. The form of fishes, mussels and crustaceans isn't really the main reason for why they are important. Instead, it was all of the fresh water, that all of those farms were making that was the real goal behind targeting and destroying them. The food pyramid that we also choose to attack, which probably made far more food them both farms combined, unfortunately only dealt with luxury goods, instead of the less expensive and more common foodstuffs for everyone else on the Ark. This isn't to say that we haven't taken a lot of food production away, only that the food market is still stable enough to sustain the current population of the Ark, but the water demands for the population is another story altogether. Especially since I think we just destroyed about half of all of their fresh water production facilities right now?
 
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A Dragon-Blooded Shunengan and a shadow warrior of Nihppon or whatever not-japan is called.
Ugh, NuHammer. This quest started long before Total War Warhammer 3. Long before. Terms and concepts were altered for this quest that made it into TWW3, and some things that were decent like socially theatrical louder than life dragons, made it into this quest.

Shugengan don't really exist in this quest. There were priests in Nippon, but they weren't named other than 'priest' as a label I think.

The Huangdendgan torroar uses are also homebrew, and different from the TWW3 magic lore for Cathay.

I mean, part of the issue with the whole Cathay/Old World strengths/importance and such is that, well, GW just never developed the Far East further than they did. Which is, pretty much, just a few throwaway bits compared to the utter wealth of the Empire/Brettonia/Ulthuan/Etc. stuff. Books, codexes, warscrolls, and so on.

Like, parts of Cathay irritate me, in that GW clearly just mashed 'Asian' together into one country. Bannermen of Cathay are just Samurai, honestly, with the label sanded off and painted over in block letters. Ki-Rin vs. Qi-Lin, is another one, as I noted before. Languages means things, and are different. They could have said the people of Nippon call them Ki-Rin, while in Cathay they are known as 'Qi-Lin', but they didn't. The crow-men are clearly references to Tengu...which are a Japanese thing. As are Shugengan! Pretty obviously derived from the Japanese religion of Shugendō. They also have turtle-ships, which are Korean in origin.

So...if we ever deal with Cathay in closer detail, in any of my quests, ever, there's going to be some pretty significant changes. Like...Tengun, being actual living crow-men who live in Nippon, and the crow-men being but imitations of them. Or maybe Tengun are really magical statue things, but they're a Nippon invention, because fuck Cathay's already got stone dogs/Jade Lions/terracotta. Straight up stripping Cathay of calling their wizards Shugengan, I'll find something else from Chinese stuff, because...like, come on. That sort of thing, yeah?

But also, back to the original point, the Great Bastion is hundreds of miles long, it has a garrison that is tens of thousands strong all across its length. The armies of Cathay are supposed to be innumerable, they have the Jade Lion living statues, the living statues of Crow-Men, terracotta automaton soldiers, they have a bunch of dragons roosting, the monkey folk, the hill peoples, the cannons, the enchanted fireworks, their own magical traditions, etc. etc.

And GW gave them all that because, I suspect, they never intended to have to go into depth with it. So why not make it sound as fantastical and amazing as possible, because all of their stuff is going to purely focus on the Old World, and the New World, and only have passing references to the Far East. Leaving it to GMs of WHRP to probably homebrew it for their own tabletop campaigns and such. Fun little art pieces and minis, hurray! But nothing serious or involved.

Then in the End Times, they go up in a puff of smoke. Sure, the Dragon Emperor and his forces beat back the forces of the skaven entirely, and stalemate the world-ended invasion of Chaos. Then Grimgor comes over, wins immediately, and then turns right back around to go back to the real important part of Mallus...the Old World.

Honestly. It's like they didn't think that several years after creating their universe that some idiot with a keyboard wanted to do a quest which would involve a whole lot of that planet that they invented. :p
Here's a simple one that I also have a problem with. Instead of the major Cathayan magical tradition being pulled from the ancient Japanese Shugendō, why not utilize Daoism (Taoism), due to the fact that there is a significant amount of magic/sorcery within its mythology? If you don't want it to be straight up called Daoism or Taoism, i.e. Daoist Sorcerer or Taoist Magician, you could create the name of their magical tradition with aid of Huangdi, the legendary mythological Yellow Emperor of which it was claimed Daoism originated. So you could call their magical tradition Huangden or Huangdengan or something rather than Shugengan. Then you can have the Japanese magicals called Shugengan!

Hey, look at that, I made a magical tradition based in foundational Chinese mythology rather than a somewhat obscure 7th Century Japanese tradition. It took me, what, a minute?

Ugh.

EDIT:



There is overlap, yes, but not to the point that it went in reverse like GW suggests. If they were having Cathay influencing Nippon more, the katanas would be replaced with jian and daos, the back-banners with Yuan Dynasty-esque brigandine coats, tengu/crow-men would be replaced with Pixiu which is a cool winged lion thing, and so on.

Instead, the tinier country of which there is barely anything known has managed to be a cultural juggernaut despite being incredibly distrustful of outsiders who rarely ever permit foreigners to enter their country? To the point of outright overwhelming Cathayan cultural weaponry, language, mythology, and technology?

It is one thing for countries to influence one another due to being near to one another, through trade, etc. It is another to have one somehow completely dominate the culture of the other to the point that you might as well call it New Nippon. A small example of this is the Ki-rin, the Japanese spelling of the creature, with Qilin being the Chinese, both transformed into English here, obviously. That's just a simple thing, but it's a notable one and indicative of greater issues.

If you haven't read the stuff in Cathay and Nippon yet, here's a list. "Convergence of Johanna, Genevieve, Agatha, and Alisa's Journeys." has the list of the meat of the Far East stuff, but the rest is necessary for subtext and context understanding.
Agatha and Alisa Journeys
Turn 17
Turn 19 Results
The Freaks
Turn 22 Results (Anna made cloaks for The Dark Sisters, "woven from the skins and feathers of the crows", "they sure do look nice, all black and shiny.")
Interlude: With Feathers The Color of Ale
[CANON] The Comfort Of The Dark - torroar (GM)
Religious Matters Interlude Final
Of Daughters Interlude - 1
Of Daughters Interlude - 2
Of Daughters Interlude - 3
Of Daughters Interlude - 4
Of Daughters Interlude - 5
Of Daughters Interlude - 6
Of Daughters Interlude - Part Final
[CANON] Beginnings of Ends - torroar
[CANON] Flights of Fanciful Death - torroar
2339-2341 IC Interlude: Eastern Endings…And Beginnings

Johanna, and Genevieve Adventures
[CANON] Day One: Jade Novice - torroar (The GM)
[CANON] Jades in the Mist- torroar (The GM)
[CANON] An Innkeeper's Tale: The Crimson Jade- torroar (The GM)
[CANON] Two Jade Dragons In A Village With No Name - torroar (The GM)
[CANON] Distant Kings Under Jade Skies - torroar (The GM)
[CANON] Beasts of Jade - torroar (The GM)
[CANON] Turmoil In Jade Relief - torroar (The GM)
2327-2341 IC Interlude: Jade Journeys In War

Convergence of Johanna, Genevieve, Agatha, and Alisa's Journeys.
2339-2341 IC Interlude: Eastern Endings…And Beginnings
2327-2341 IC Interlude: Jade Journeys In War
Daughters of Mallus
[Canon] Jade, Amethyst, Molten Agate - torroar
[Canon] Bloody Amethyst, Sunlit Agate - torroar
[Canon] Burning Agate, Stained Amethyst - torroar
[Canon] Cloudy Amethyst, Blazing Agate - torroar
[Canon] Shimmering Amethyst, Ablaze Agate, Shadowed Jet - torroar
[Canon] Warm Agate, Warm Amethyst - torroar
[Canon] Black Blood Diamond, Cracked Amethyst - torroar
[Canon] Cracked Amethyst, Morganite Dust, Rising Jet - torroar
[Canon] Fractured Amethyst, Fulminating Agate, Delusive Rubelite, Curious Gold, Falling Jet - torroar
[Canon] Eastern Reconstitutions - torroar

Agatha and Alisa Seperation from Genevieve and Johanna, onto divergent paths
Sisters In Darkness and Death - Journey To The West, Part 7
A Dynasty of Frost and Sorrow - The War of Bitter Ice, Part 10

A Dynasty of Thorn and Horn, An Excerpt from Turn 98
 
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Just to confirm, our broody vampire friend was the one doing the murders? Ive only done basic scans of the recent chapters since im still neck deep in work.
 
Just to confirm, our broody vampire friend was the one doing the murders? Ive only done basic scans of the recent chapters since im still neck deep in work.
Yes, she was the one behind several high profile murders, and what we suspect was a break in attempt at rescuing some of our captive allies in the latest high profile mystery stunt that no one really knows who did it for whom.
 
Just to confirm, our broody vampire friend was the one doing the murders? Ive only done basic scans of the recent chapters since im still neck deep in work.
Yep, she basically smelled freddy on the Ark and leroy Jenkins her way trough it. And now she have to deal with the weirdness that became freddys life. Trough Agatha and Alyse should had worked as a warning of the level of bullshit.
Ah also the elf child staring at her as if she was Tall himself.
 
I'm really happy rngesus is working for us so far, pls continue Mr. RNGesus!

Also what a band, but also how the heck did Johanna even get on the ship!?!
While the battle for Salkataken was winding down, Johanna just arrived. Only she just found out that we, Natasha, Roland, and our Bretonnian and Elf friends got captured on the second Ark retreating from the port. So, in order to catch up to the rapidly spreading away Ark, she got herself into a Imperial Cannon and looney tones style, shot herself as high into the air as possible to catch onto the top of the spires of the Ark to make it on board.

The rest since then has just been survival and low key sabotage by her while we have been dealing with more important matters before we meet back up.
 
I'm really happy rngesus is working for us so far, pls continue Mr. RNGesus!

Also what a band, but also how the heck did Johanna even get on the ship!?!
Torroar did some snips before where the player majority chose a specific snip to get more stuff written for it. Among these snips, were scenes from Johanna Fuerbach in the empire, just before she was arriving at Salkalten, just before she threw herself into a cannon, and a bit of a longer one where a slave on a Black Ark was walking up a tower ony to find Johanna's work.

No, wait, that last one was part of a blurb torroar made one day to show they made some progress towards stuff while people wait for the main update.
23XX IC

They did not suspect.

They could not have, so focused as they were on their task. Ravaged by their tasks, by the world, by their devotion to paltry things such as Gods.

"Oh ho...what have we here...," he chuckled to himself, fingers from a great many hands twitching and wriggling within his robes. "The Scythe and the Sun, together as father and daughter. Tumbling and toiling, as is their wont."

His eyes gleamed, his body both shrouded by power and trembling with aches and pains still not yet fully healed. But the power, oh yes, the power, it remained before him. Many rituals, many sacrifices, many fonts found - and yet this one was already on the way to being far too diminished.

"Tumbling and toiling in the ground, yes, yes," he hummed, "Just as I have - as I do - as I will."

Another spasm wracked him, and he spat sticky black phlegm onto the ground that was still yet mixed with sand formed of his own transmuted innards. A frustrating curse. Not enough to kill him, not anymore, but enough to weaken and strain him after all his hard work.

"Who was buried here, that makes them swarm and scuttle so? I think I shall find out. Yes, yes, I think I shall."

And through the forest trees, there was a great mass of shambling feet and clinking metal, of slack fleshless jaws and glowing emptied eye sockets.

----------------------------------

23XX IC

"So-so, we are agreed, yes-yes?"

"Yes-yes. Most Warlord Clans foolish-stupid, idiots who not know concept of subtlety. Break snouts, snap tails, surprised when not work-succeed. However...,"

"What-what? There should be no-not 'however'! We are agreed!"

"Agreed on course-decision, yes-yes. Payment, however...?"

"...Horned Rat save-protect me from greediness. How many-much warptokens required for this? Cannot ask me too much-more, have other ventures needed."

"So I have heard-listened...,"

----------------------------------

23XX IC

The earth quaked beneath every step, each heavy boot print into the ground leaving behind ugly flickering flames. The snow melted away from those flames, and even that which fell from the sky could not seem to quench them quickly. A laugh unfit for a mortal's throat, so twisted and full of malice it was, rumbled outwards from that concealing helm.

"Here, then, is the so-called Knight of Treachery. The question is simple. Will you die?"

The massive sword, wider and larger and heavier than any mortal man could possibly have wielded, was hefted off of the pauldron it had rested upon and planted itself into the ground. The moment it did so, red cracks spread throughout the earth as the taint of Chaos was directly inflicted upon the world.

"Or will you serve?"

Smaller, but only slightly, the champion crashed down into a kneeling position. There were similarities in their armor, albeit the smaller devotee's was of a qualitatively elder design. There remained much power there, however, for an odd and intoxicating mixture to those accursed with Witch Sight. A mixture that had, steadily, been replaced and refilled by the touch of the Dark Gods.

"I...shall serve you, great one."

The Chaos Lord nodded once, and in that act of approval the nimbus of fell power around the lesser champion grew all the stronger.

---------------------------------------

2344 IC

The slave was slow, very slow, to creep up the stairways. They had always been exposed to the outside world, with no railing of any kind, the better for the harpies to take their sadistic pleasures out on them as they wished. But there weren't any harpies now. There weren't supposed to be, at least. They had all died, it was whispered, and it would take time and effort for more to be enticed to come to the roosts. But then, too, had come other orders. Observations. Whispers. Enough so it was that some of the masters had been sent, after the slaves fit only to clean the roosts of the filth that the harpies created from the living and the dead had returned unharmed. But that had been many, many hours ago now, and the master had not returned to his home.

And so this slave, whose name of Wretch was shared with so many more, crept upwards with heart pounding. If the master was there, and angry at being interrupted, then...then Wretch did not even know what would happen next. But what if they needed Wretch to help them, then they would be angry! Wretch's back was already a misshapen mass of scar tissue, though they knew not what that meant. They only knew they did not want to be bled again.

"M...master?" Wretch ventured out, finally reaching the top of the roost, sighting the ocean and sky as they whisked by.

Here was where harpies in their hundreds had clung to, feasted, shat, rutted, and generally kept to themselves when not goaded forth by the masters. But the master was...

"M...master?!" Wretch cried aloud, as he saw what lay in the center of the silent roost, the finger pillars silent and unmoving.

There, the master and other masters lay, throats torn out and eyes glassy, weapons on the ground but missing their crossbows.

That, and a strange black smudge which covered one of the pillars and ground, and near the masters.

Hopefully Johanna will cover her adventure that was just snips and blurbs before, in the next update.
 
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For the record, Frederick and Hultressa haven't decided on specific method of escape, right?

I mean, do we ride our aerial mounts or steal some ship?
Or is it too early to decide that?
 
So, we've destroyed a lot of food production, what was next of our list of things to do?
I don't think we can say that until the bombs in the terrace farms go off, unless that was happening simultaneously with the aquafarm explosion. But yes, once that's done, I believe we just have sabotaging the auction and then escaping in the mayhem left.
 
With the number we have right now we likely need to steal a ship. Just too many people for too few mounts. Tankfully there a lot of ships to seal and once we done with it we may be letting this Ark look not much different than sakvenblight.
 
So either the elite food stores next, or one of the fighting arenas. My recommendation is the one with the elite fighters. Sure, the arena for slaughtering competitions would have more slaves to free, but relatively weak fighters.

If we go for the elites we do a twofold strike, adding more warriors capable of at least somewhat matching the Dark Elves and one of the more important moves of note, removing a source of entertainment for the Dark Elves, sure the arena for large displays is still there, but the Ark's inhabitants have already gotten that with the slave raids on the Norscan Coasts, and so that would make at least some of the Elves bored.

And what do bored Dark Elves do 10/10 times?

Start plotting against their rivals.
 
Bonus, that detection contingency that went off? It'll make people look for Natasha's ice Magic or maybe Joanna's vampiric magic such as what she has if it picks up traces of her. No one will be looking for black powder bombs.
 
For the record, Frederick and Hultressa haven't decided on specific method of escape, right?

I mean, do we ride our aerial mounts or steal some ship?
Or is it too early to decide that?
Still haven't figured it out.

We cannot fly forever, because that's too much to expect from any flying mount. Might get us to a coast though, then a hike through Norsca.

A ship, could have worked, but that ship sailed once we entered Norsca northern coast waters. Dangerous stuff is in those waters. Plus trying to run from a Black Ark on the water is not exactly a walk in the park, for a veteran sailor. Much less Freddy and crew who have various sailing skills overall. Sea travel risks recapture if the Black Ark is not out of comission when we leave. Then you gotta sail on the dangerous waters of Norsca's coast.

Trying to reach Kislev through the land of Norsca is I think something that got brought up in the main story posts?
 
Let's think of the positives of both:

Successful escape by boat might not be that perilous long-term, if we stumble on one of Asur patrols (Very BIG if, though).

Hiking through Norsca might give us some intel of what is going on there. And we'll end up in Kislev, if lucky we'll meet Alexandra.
 
I'm honestly not sure which is less risky, Norsca is faster and if we move fast enough we might show up just in the right place at the right time to help our daughter and sister in law. It'll have to be by ship and to the closes land mass, unless we could cripple the ark somehow. On the other hand the moment our group touches Norsca I see the 4 sending EVERYTHING after us.

The only other option I can think of is to set off a all out civil war at the auction. Either every elf dies there and every side assumes it was an attack by the other, or we cause a cluster fuck so chaotic that no one has any idea what the fuck just happened and each accuses their own greatest rival and uses it as an excuse to murder them. Then while they kill each other we help them along behind the scenes in various acts of assassination and sabotage to keep the fighting going making sure no one pulls ahead until between our people the gladiators we can clean up the rest.

Are there any dark elf non combatants on the ark?
 
Also, Sunweaver can track us through the Light of Summer, and only can't right now due to us being in the Tor of Dominance. She can potentially relay our coordinates to the Dawi fleet.
There's still Roland's vision for the grail, which is likely to lead into Norsca.

If Sunweaver can track Freddy others can too. And even if Sunweaver can, we don't know how much she can get from a Freddy off the Black Ark. There's a difference between can pinpoint the exact location, and oh look Freddy is surrounded by water.

And maybe some vindictive Tzeentch cultists will make finding Freddy even harder than necessary with false positives, or false magic signatures.

Are there any dark elf non combatants on the ark?

They do exist, you've met the Deepdweller clans. Gwendolyn, Hultressa's daughter. And then there were those on the captured Black Ark that surendered after the massacre Ostland's forces did. The current Black Ark would have 'civilians' too.
 
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"It's fine," you smile and reach over to ruffle the top of her head, "It looks like you did exactly like I told you."

"Ah," she mumbles as she ducks her face away from your sight, putting the vase down next to the other bombs you've spent the day making. "Thank you."

Just then, a thought strikes you, one you communicate down to Natasha in the middle of picking through the disgusting fish slurry that is fed as rations to the slaves in the aquafarms.

Is it strange that you have recruited a young child to help you make relatively powerful explosives?

Her response is swift, and communicated in the imagery of Anna swinging around a match-lit handgun at around the same age as Gwendolyn is now.

Which is more than fair enough.
Awwww, so cute!

Freddy getting flashbacks of Anna for his latest elf daughter is just adorable!
"Indeed. She is convinced that her husband is already suborned by her half-sister, who in turn is working with her father's second wife who has already killed three fourths of Telladri's siblings from her own mother. She isn't even close to correct," she shakes her head, placing a hand to her face in disbelief. "It's her dead mother's own cousin-,"

"The one who jumped out of Karond Kar to play Shade for a few centuries," you interject.

"Yes, that one," she snaps her fingers at you, "That cousin's great grandchild's wife is the one who has cuckolded her. And she doesn't even realize it. Meanwhile, somewhere in that shaved twig of a woman's mind, she has successfully begun cultivating," Hultressa falsely swoons and continues in a painfully sickly sweet voice, "Lonely, isolated Terror-Maker, who has surely surrendered to her desires after so long apart from the Druchii."
Freddy has become Hultressa's girlfriend! lol

Also, dark elf life sounds like the worst aspects of Reality TV times a hundred.
"Yeah, well. Things happened."
"Things happened," Natasha said drily.
"We have a…," Natasha sighed again and let her hand drop down from where she'd begun gesturing at herself. "It's a long story."
Sums up their lives pretty well, lol.

Thanks for great update @torroar and can't wait to see what comes next!
 
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