So in regards to the magic swords. If I understand it correctly:
- Swords were enchanted by some primitives who misunderstood both magic and religion. Enchantment was meant to devour souls of those killed to empower the sword. In actually constantly absorbs the winds of magic. inevitably being tainted with dhar and needing to be disposed in the nearest volcano.
- These have been sitting for so long in a shysh sink, soaking up only that wind. Thus the two we checked were free of dhar. But overloaded with the wind of death
The funny part is as far as I know they're right in the wrong way. Warpstuff IS soulstuff, so sucking in warpstuff is sort of sucking in soulstuff. Just wrong in every way that matters.
But yeah. The idea was to make a sword that grew in power by absorbing power. Really it sounds more like they're waiting to become daemon weapons.
However!
- Potentially deadly 1 use items against hard to kill monsters. at the risk of potentially killing the wielder too when discharged. Don't actually do this.
The worst part is that it's not reliably activated as it is. Unless you managed to dispel the enchantment in combat, odds are when you use it to stab a gribbly all it does is...stab a gribbly. Unless it goes off and then you both get hit by a localized Death bomb.
I suspect the whole lot are just delayed blast bombs, because theres no way the necromancer who animated the undead was unaware of the swords purpose considering all of them are variant Shyish->Dhar users. But since we didn't give the weapons to anyone and just locked them in a lead lined crate they couldn't do shit.
- Potentially possible to make something useful and safe out of them. Will require additional research. Either on your own or by letting the college get their hands on them and hoping they return a few to us once they figure out how to use them correctly.
The biggest boon here is the boost to our Enchanter credentials, because the enchantment for sucking in ambient Winds of magic is a lost art. Rediscovering it would be one of the possible deeds we use to justify promotion to Magister.
It would, in addition have further uses if we could replicate the enchantment except making it so it sucked in a SINGLE Wind, or converted everything it sucked in to that Wind. Then used it as a magic capacitor or battery for other enchantments.
Directly using them...well since they're packed with concentrated Shyish I imagine if we were of the Amethyst Order we might be able to use them as Shyish power stones eventually.
An alternative might be to STABLIZE the enchantment so it stops sucking in everything else(thus removing the Dhar hazard), and add some kind of shielding so it only vents forward. Which would give you swords that are limited use Excalibur Morgans?
Anyways a deeper look at the update:
Wilhelmina is unharmed and unbothered, but Kasmir's armour is dented and bloody, and his right arm is covered in bloody bandages and hanging limp from his body.
Kasmir was attacked and nearly killed. It makes sense that any Chaos or Undead factions involved would go after the Warpriest...but its possible that they went after the three notables who went into the tomb and kicked ass?
"For the first time, the treasury has something worth guarding, other than Mathilde's weird metal crate. Without de Verezzo's expenditures or Schultz's building projects, we've been able to accumulate a fair bit of money." She slides a slip of paper across the table to Van Hal, presumably with an exact figure. He glances at it, and something almost like a smile reaches his face.
Oh, so de Verezzo's expenses are nuts and Schultz isn't much better. Hopefully Van Hal would invest them into income sources...
"Good. Use some of it to reinforce the archives - I want them built into and as protected as the treasury itself. Maybe you could use it as an entryway to the treasury proper, or... well, when Schultz returns he'll probably be able to make suggestions, and I'm sure he'd be delighted to be back working within the castle. Have a guard room put in too. And traps, maybe? No, I guess people will still need to come and go... unless there's some sort of lever mechanism that disables the traps, controlled from the guard room..." He stares into space thoughtfully for a while, then shakes himself from his reverie.
Or he wants to make sure the ledgers and the money stays where they are.
"I've been in regular contact with the Grand Theogonist," you bet he has, you think sourly, "and he's agreed to start dispatching Sigmarite acolytes that can act as chaplains for the military."
ARMY OF STIRLAND FAITH: Sigmarite Chaplains (in progress)
Van Hal opens his mouth to respond, then pauses, looking long and hard at the man. The moment stretches long enough that you and Wilhelmina exchange glances, and Kasmir begins to shift in his seat. You recognize the expression on Van Hal's face - that's the expression of his mind grinding through the facts, slowly but finely, achieving with concentration and patience what he can't with talent.
Then, as suddenly as it begun, it stops. "Acceptable. See to it they are integrated into the army. Keep them to a single regiment for now... yes, the Flensburg Second."
And he can't trust the damned priests being called in, so of course he restricts them to a single regiment.
Wasted time and money.
He gathers up the papers in front of him and tucks them into a pocket as he stands. "Wilhelmina, Kasmir, you're dismissed. Mathilde, walk with me."
Probably annoying to our fellow councilors, and almost certainly feeding the rumors of us being in bed.
"Politics, Weber," he growls, leaning on Orc Hewer. "It's always bloody politics. Of all the jobs in all the Empire, keeping a lid on bloody Sylvania should be the one where the freest hand is given. But instead I'm crippled, loaded down with thieves, idiots, cowards and zealots. If it weren't for you and Wilhelmina, I might as well take up the halberd once more and march to Drakenhof alone, I'd be doing more good than I could do here.
Bossman is stressed as hell.
...though Marthilde probably is secretly filed under idiot
Well, she's dedicated to her job, so it helps a lot really that she's doing her honest best.
"The religious situation in Stirland could have been very dire. Under the previous administration the Sigmarites pulled back to the major population centers and left the villages and small towns without spiritual guidance. But the Shallyans and the Morrites and even the bloody Ulricans and followers of a dozen other of our Gods stepped up and filled the void before anything else could, and saved a million souls in the process. But that's apparently not enough for the Grand Bloody Theogonist, so he sends me a goddamn zealot that spends all his time on infighting between the Gods of the Empire instead of doing his Godsdamned job."
So this means if we DID do a random hire from the villages we'd be picking up people of minor faiths we have no way to test.
You both look over to the building protruding out of the wall into the courtyard, doors and windows barricaded. "I... suppose you've earned at least a few details. According to the Witch Hunters that investigated, the previous count was attempting to summon... the sort of thing one doesn't attempt to summon. Instead, he was summoned. I'm told it will take fifty-five and a half years for the energies released to dissipate."
Very suspicious timing on the dissipation.
...you know, I think we found the use for the swords enchantment. They suck in ambient Winds right? So what if, after we reverse engineer the enchantment, we make steel bricks enchanted with the absorbing enchantment, dump them into the East Wing for a year, and then fetch them out and throw the whole lot into a volcano?
Could speed up the time.
Also that might mean there's a Daemon with the province's name on it, but I suspect not. Since this stuff happens enough that most people just get torn apart by random Warp gribblies.
"I've been looking into it when I could for the past couple of years, and it appears unrelated to the rest of the dynastic problems, thankfully. A last-ditch effort to protect himself from whatever was picking off his family, I think."
Sounds like there's a gribbly living in the castle itself.
Sneaky one too.[/QUOTE]
