Remove ads

Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Voting is open
Reader mode
DarkLight140 said:
Gaming the system?

Look, if the Martial commander doesn't have to personally command all of Stirland's 40,000 troops and instead gets generals and captains and sergeants to handle the implementation of Martial orders, and I am pretty sure that's how things stand, then I see no reason why it would be expected that the Intrigue commander (us) has to personally command all of Stirland's hopefully-soon-numerous gossips, informants, spies, assassins, and so forth.

Locating reliable people to delegate to and then delegating to them is how organizations actually get things done. There is no way that picking up a couple lieutenants is going to make us stop feeling like we have too much to do and not enough capability to do it; at best it will partially mitigate the problem. Not picking up any lieutenants and instead continuing to be the one-woman spy corps of an entire county, serving as both spymistress and spy, both interrogator and analyst, and occasionally kidnapper or assassin when we somehow have nothing else pressing to be doing... that's a classic case of what happens when someone is promoted beyond their level of competence. We can do any one of those jobs really well, but we can't do all of them at once and if we keep trying we're going to damage the county severely when we inevitably fuck up by spreading ourselves too thin.

[X] Plan Grassroots Is Not Enough
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
One of the first things we were told is, "uncover your predecessors network and either seize it if useful, or destroy it if not". There undoubtedly are networks of informants, just either not active, dropping to unknown dead-drops, or reporting to that predecessor. Sure, the Stirland League is part of it, but I suspect there is more.

Some of it might actually be loyal(ish) to Stirland! Just not aware who/what end purposes they were serving. But, it'll need to be uncovered and analysed. Trapping our predecessor alive could help considerably.
 
Yeah not counting their knights Morrites aren't known for their close combat skills so they would most likely give them back to us
 
TotallyNotEvil said:
@DarkLight140 Why not lock them tight until we get to it?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Because that is likely to be years away at minimum, mostly. Our personal knowledge of enchantment is low-priority for advancement in the eyes of the playerbase compared to other personal advancement options (as literally no plan ever proposed in this game so far has included advancing our enchanting skills), so that's going nowhere. We're not going to be able to analyze them ourselves to a reliable level until we do so, unless we're just going to slap a divine blessing on our roll and toss the dice (and we'll always have more critical things to bless, would be my guess). We're not going to be calling in an Amythest because that would take our action and the Count's action but still might not work. "Lock them tight until we get to it" has a high chance of becoming "lock them tight indefinitely".

But the magic swords are worthless unless used to magically stab things. So I come down to thinking that honestly, it would be better to send them to the Amythests and get even one sweet magical sword back so that we can give it to Markus and have him well-equipped to beat a vampire in a duel or something than it would be to wait five years and have zero magic swords in use when the next Sylvanian horde invades. Calling in some Morrite priests to give an analysis, as long as it doesn't actually lose us any swords unless they're actively cursed or something, is a way to make at least some progress on the sword issue without conceding that we'll have to accept that level of catastrophic loot loss in order to get anything done.
 
DarkLight140 said:
Because that is likely to be years away at minimum, mostly. Our personal knowledge of enchantment is low-priority for advancement in the eyes of the playerbase compared to other personal advancement options (as literally no plan ever proposed in this game so far has included advancing our enchanting skills), so that's going nowhere. We're not going to be able to analyze them ourselves to a reliable level until we do so, unless we're just going to slap a divine blessing on our roll and toss the dice (and we'll always have more critical things to bless, would be my guess). We're not going to be calling in an Amythest because that would take our action and the Count's action but still might not work. "Lock them tight until we get to it" has a high chance of becoming "lock them tight indefinitely".

But the magic swords are worthless unless used to magically stab things. So I come down to thinking that honestly, it would be better to send them to the Amythests and get even one sweet magical sword back so that we can give it to Markus and have him well-equipped to beat a vampire in a duel or something than it would be to wait five years and have zero magic swords in use when the next Sylvanian horde invades. Calling in some Morrite priests to give an analysis, as long as it doesn't actually lose us any swords unless they're actively cursed or something, is a way to make at least some progress on the sword issue without conceding that we'll have to accept that level of catastrophic loot loss in order to get anything done.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Getting another assurance of basic safety might even allow a combo action- examine and experiment with the intent of learning how they were made, boosting our own enchantment ability. If the roll goes well.

As for Magic- we've learned we need to learn more to graduate, and eventually we'll learn enough greatswording, so personal improvement can come. Arguably, if we can fight from shadowhorseback, we're pretty badass already.
 
Last edited:
TotallyNotEvil said:
I'd vote for your plan except for this.

I want first crack at those weapons. Any faction we hand them over to will keep nearly all of them.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I didn't read it as handing them over, but we can get a ruling. If we're not keeping them it's a no go simply because they belong to the Elector-Count, not Mathilde.

@BoneyM, does the Morrite option for the swords require that the swords are taken away, or will the priests do whatever they plan to do on-site?
 
Alliterate said:
Getting another assurance of basic safety might even allow a combo action- examine and experiment with the intent of learning how they were made, boosting our own enchantment ability. If the roll goes well.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I admit, I would love to analyze enchanted swords, if only so that we can enchant our own personal greatsword with the Wind of Shadow... so that no one ever notices we're carrying it and we can haul a giant magic sword as big as we are literally everywhere while no one else catches on.

But while that would be really fun it's just not high on the priority list. Alas!
 
[X] Plan Grassroots Improvement; Updated
DarkLight140 said:
I admit, I would love to analyze enchanted swords, if only so that we can enchant our own personal greatsword with the Wind of Shadow... so that no one ever notices we're carrying it and we can haul a giant magic sword as big as we are literally everywhere while no one else catches on.

But while that would be really fun it's just not high on the priority list. Alas!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Put me down for Mindhole Sword
 
Last edited:
DarkLight140 said:
I admit, I would love to analyze enchanted swords, if only so that we can enchant our own personal greatsword with the Wind of Shadow... so that no one ever notices we're carrying it and we can haul a giant magic sword as big as we are literally everywhere while no one else catches on.

But while that would be really fun it's just not high on the priority list. Alas!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
If that extended to when we're actually wielding it...
 
Seventeen said:
@BoneyM, does the Morrite option for the swords require that the swords are taken away, or will the priests do whatever they plan to do on-site?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

They'll be taken away. Morrites are busy people, and only a few in Stirland would be skilled enough to do what you're asking of them here.

While they'll be less likely to keep them for personal use, they whole 'grave goods' thing does give them a very good claim if they want to use it.
 
Last edited:
Everyone voting for [ ] Plan Grassroots Improvement; Updated, please consider switching to [ ] Plan Grassroots Is Not Enough. It's what the guy who created your vote is now voting for, after all.
 
Alliterate said:
The original conception was for people to ignore its presence, so we could carry it without it being noticed. Mindhole Blade just kind of became a shorthand.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Maybe they'll already ignore us because they just can't imagine the thought of a hidden spy lugging a massive two-hander around?

Evil Henchman 1: "Hey Vlad! Before we discuss our Evil Plan, should ve do something about zee spy zat's listening in on us?"
Evil Henchman 2: "Vat spy?"
Evil Henchman 1: "Um...Zee one standing behind us? With zee massive deathsword und pointy wizard hat?"
Mathilde: "I AM A SPYMASTER OF STIRLAND SENT ON A SECRET MISSION TO OBSERVE YOU! YOU WILL PAY NO ATTENTION TO ME IF YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR YOU!"
Evil Henchman 2: "Oh silly you! Ein real spy would be skulking around with daggers und inconspicuous clothing und stuff! She wouldn't be carrying ein zweihander zat ist bigger than she ist und ein pile of thrashy adventure novels! She must be ein figment of our imagination! In fact, I'm so confident she ist just ein fever dream, zat I will regale our entire Evil Plan right here just to show you how confident I am!"
Mathilde: "IGNORE ME!"
 
Last edited:
I sure am looking forwards to Mathilde learning more spells, making a magic item or two, acquiring a loyal second-in-command (third-in-command?) that she can leave to run things while she's away for a few months, and then go visit the Grey Order to see about a graduation.

Edit: Oh and let's raise Learning to 15 at least to match Piety.
 
Last edited:
Seventeen said:
Everyone voting for [ ] Plan Grassroots Improvement; Updated, please consider switching to [ ] Plan Grassroots Is Not Enough. It's what the guy who created your vote is now voting for, after all.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
TBF I'd also kind of prefer spending one less network recruitment action (peasants can wait imo), and one on magical improvement- either petty spells, or even enchantment-enhancing/swords.

It's going to be hard to make sure we keep up the self improvement, and we could be swamped with leads to follow just from the watch and castle staff.
 
Last edited:
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Voting is open
Remove ads
Back
Top