Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

You sketch out your plans for investing the money in the lands of House Weber, building a protective keep and investigating the mining and farming possibilities that the treacherous land may yield, and because this is officially official business instead of the playful parry and thrust of your relationship with your Master, you seal it with your coat of arms and send it to the Grey College by post. You receive no response from the Bursar; or to put it another way, their lack of response is, itself, a response. You've no doubt they'll be checking up on you to make sure you follow through on your plans for the wealth. It's something of a reassurance to bring your lands to the attention of the Grey Order and to receive no censure for it, glad that your separation of Journeyman Weber from Dame Weber was accepted. The Vow of Poverty is easily sidestepped with a hundred possible excuses, but that just means they come down all the harder when someone flouts it.

Also put to paper is a summary of your activities over the past eight years, which leads to quite a bit of reminiscing on your part. The trouble with your predecessor, the raid on the Mound, the retrieval of the Stirland Archives, the elimination of the former Count of Leicheberg. The founding of your Intelligence Network, the rounding-up of infiltrators in Eagle Castle (the details of which are very much left out), the revelation of the so-called Elector Countess, and the rolling mass arrest of the Stirlandian League and the seizing of their assets, which led to your Knighthood. The founding of the Stirland Watch and its expansion underground, and then the Purge, a year and a half of bloody battles and minimal oversight. And then, capping it all off, the Siege of the Drakenhofs. One annexed, one obliterated.

Near a decade of your life spent thusly, and with all you've achieved and learned that you wouldn't have if you'd followed the traditional career arc of a Wizard... you find that it was well worth it.

You and your fellow councillors gather in the hall of Eagle Castle, where you first met Abelhelm all those years ago, and looking much the same as it did since it's seen little use these past two years while everyone was off on the Purge. Anton is practically bouncing on his feet, he's so nervous, and it seems that he's the only one nervous about keeping his job. Wilhelmina is on the brink of resignation, Schultz has been bemoaning his work on field fortifications and roads instead of the glorious fortresses he imagined, Gustav let you of all people take the lead on the assault on Drakenhof and has been lost in thought whenever you saw him ever since, and Kasmir remains absent. You would like to continue as Spymistress, but you'd also fancy your chances trying any of the other positions, or shutting yourself away in your Sunken Palace for a while and getting to work on a hundred different projects that have been gathering dust for years, or going back to Altdorf and finally going for your Magister rank, or even answering the call of Belegar Ironhammer and venturing beyond the borders of the Empire. Those and hundreds of other possible roads are open to you, all of them enticing, and that you can only take one of them is galling.

You wonder about the person you're to meet, this 'R v Hal'. You don't even know for sure if it's his eldest child, or merely the one that decided to answer the call. Abelhelm said that his wife died in childbirth in '66, so they must be at least eleven, but could be as old as... early twenties, you suppose? Depends how young Abelhelm was when he fathered them. Surely not as old as you. Surely.

Finally, the gate guard gives the signal that Anton convinced him to pass on and Anton quickly shuts the door he had been peeking through. "They're here!" he says excitedly. You give yourself a final once-over, despite wearing the same robes and hat and sword you always do. First impressions count, after all.

After a moment that stretches for an eternity, the door swings open, and for a heartbreaking instant you think Abelhelm has returned. Then your senses return, and you study the Witch Hunter that stepped through the door and is scanning the room; shorter than Abelhelm, more scarred, older. Not his ghost returned, and not his heir, either. A bodyguard, perhaps. The man gives you an extra-hard stare, but steps aside allowing the entrance of another.

Tall, but thin, her hair short-cropped and looking unsuited to the leathers that she wears. Late teens, early twenties, if you had to guess, with a sword on her hip and carrying herself with the awkward over-awareness of someone who has yet to grow into the instincts of combat. You glimpse fear and doubt in her eyes, but kept at bay by a will of iron. "I," she announces, "am Roswita van Hal. The Elector Countess of Stirland."

Anton is the first to introduce himself, bowing to her and almost stuttering over the ritual greeting of nobility, but she returns his bow with an inclination of her head. Gustav is next, and you can see from his expression that he's weighed her up just as you have and found her wanting, but he too knows the rituals and speaks them flawlessly. Schultz is next, and presents himself as the skilled craftsman he is, with deference but not obsequiousness. Then you step forward, dredging up the ritual from Anton's lessons to you so long ago; Mathilde Weber of Stirland, at your service, and a bow. Wizards and knights alike bow, rather than curtsy. She follows through on the courtesies, her eyes on you the entire way through, reconciling you with the character from her father's letters, perhaps.

[Among a great many rolls to generate her attributes and attitudes:]
[Her attitude towards magic-users: Roll, 9.]

Then she steps outside the formality of the greetings. "My father spoke well of the service you provided him," she says, her voice stilted and formal. "I thank you for this, and will provide you with a glowing letter of recommendation. It may be that the curse of magic you labour under is undeserved. Nevertheless, I will not take the chance, and release you from your service to Stirland."

Your eyes narrow as you stare back at her wordlessly, and she leans away from you as the silence stretches, nervousness growing in her eyes. But then you incline your head. "As you wish," you murmur.

---

The report you had written weighs heavily in a pocket inside your robes as you walk from Eagle Castle, perhaps for the last time, as your mind ticks over, swinging between duty and vengeance. You've got the report, you've got the intelligence network, you've got the Liber Mortis, you've got the sodding Runefang. You've the entire contents of Abelhelm's study gathering dust in your spare room. Any sensible candidate would have waited, but no, she's got a headful of Sigmarite rubbish and thinks that every second in a magic user's presence is a danger to her very soul.

You realize through your warring thoughts that someone's calling out to you, and find Anton running up behind you. For an instant you think that the girl's changed her mind and sent him as a runner, but Anton catches his breath after a moment. "I resigned," he says, outrage warring with exhaustion in his voice - it's barely a minute from the castle, he needs to work on his fitness - "I'll not be having with that."

You smile at him, remembering what you found so long ago while rifling through his things: the letters written in secret to his aunt in the Jade College, long since slain in the service of the Empire. "Thank you," you say simply, and the two of you walk down the road from Eagle Castle into the town of Wurtbad.

[TITLE LOST: Spymistress of Stirland]

---

Report on the past eight years
-[ ] Keep
-[ ] Give

The Runefang of Stirland
-[ ] Keep
-[ ] Give

Abelhelm's repeater rifle
-[ ] Keep
-[ ] Give

Liber Mortis.
-[ ] Keep
-[ ] Give

Miscellaneous contents of Abelhelm's Study
-[ ] Keep
-[ ] Give

Information Network
-[ ] Keep
-[ ] Give

Gong Farmers and Niter Factory
-[ ] Keep
-[ ] Give

Discretionary Funds
-[ ] Keep
-[ ] Give


Where will you call home now?

[ ] You're quite comfortable where you are, thank you very much. Wurtbad is your position of power; Spymistress was just one arrow in your quiver.
[ ] Good riddance to Wurtbad; you've got a nice bit of land up in the hills and a commitment to invest in it, and some solitude will do you good. Lock up the Sunken Palace in case you ever need a safehouse in the future.
[ ] There's another way to secure Abelhelm's legacy. Travel to the town of Drakenhof and sink your claws into it.
[ ] Anton's as unemployed as you are. He'll be happy to let you crash at his place, and 'his place' is his father's castle so there's plenty of room.
[ ] Put Stirland behind you. The rest of the world is waiting to be seen, and your land and investments will keep.


And what will you be doing?

Staying in Stirland:
[ ] Enjoy a well-deserved holiday catching up with personal projects and living off your accumulated embezzlement.
[ ] Managing your institutions - the EIC, your land, and the Information Network and Gong Farmers if retained.
[ ] Other (write in)

Leaving Stirland:
[ ] That blasted girl will likely follow through on that letter of recommendation. Send words to the Elector Counts, see if anyone's got a spot in their council for a Grey Wizard.
[ ] Hang about. Why bother with that lot? Send word to the Dwarfholds instead. Maybe one of them could use a councillor.
[ ] Belegar Ironhammer's call to arms is open to all. It's not the most traditional vacation choice, but you're not the most traditional vacationer.
[ ] Traditionally, a Journeywoman journeys, flexing their arcane might and seeing the world. Find Asarnil and seek instruction in the fine art of being a mercenary - one that only serves the Empire and its allies, of course.
[ ] Other (write in)

Either:
[ ] Return to Altdorf to face the Magister's tests, and determine what to do with your life later.

---

- It's almost as if there's inherent flaws with the concept of inherited power. The heir hates and distrusts magic and there's no way they'll have a magic-user on their council at all, and that's that. I know this will upset some people, but this was a possibility inside the universe that Mathilde lives in, and dice are the medium to determine whether it occurred.
- Leaving Wurtbad means that Ranald's Blessing will linger for about a year before fading; you'll have that much time to create a new holy place to him.
- If the Information Network is retained, you have enough personal funds to keep it paid for about half a year, then you'll have to find a new source of income. The Watch cannot be extricated from the grip of Stirland, not with how little loyalty the rank and file hold towards you, but you can pull the gong farmers and the niter factory from it.
- Voting will be in plan format, due to how interconnected things are.