Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

@BoneyM
Was there supposed to be an info section about the Empress and her unborn baby dying due to a nat 1 in the previous update? Or was it expanded upon / retconned somewhere else and I just missed it?

Edit: answered, supposed to be in next update. Thanks!

vsh said:

Seriously, stop it. I can sort of understand tagging us once on topic that seems to be of import to you but the second time is pushing it.

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Sorry,I will try to avoid being so insistent in the future.

StormLord said:

Was there supposed to be an info section about the Empress and her unborn baby dying due to a nat 1 in the previous update? Or was it expanded upon / retconned somewhere else and I just missed it?

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He said it was going to be in the next update.

racnor said:

That the college has specialists who can research them just fine, leaving us to do other things.

Besides, if it IS something mathilde would find useful, we can just use 1 of those favors to take an enchantment lesson and get it that way.

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Counterpoints.
Wizards are realy busy as a rule, we can't know how long it is goin to take for someone to get around dealing with the swords.
We will probably have to actively look into the results to see if it is usefull or not, motivating the playerbase to do that won't be easy
Also consider that the problem with the swords was that all the diferent winds mixed and became dar and that we have a source of mixed winds that don't become dar, there may be some potential synergy there.
Those blades are going to be studied in the same colege whose Patriarch died in Drakenhoff, learning what they figure out may be more spensive.
Last time we took and enchantment lesson the result was ramdom, we can't be sure we will get the results from the research of the swords that easy wich has the compound problem of making it harder to mativate the playerbase to go after that.

@BoneyM How difficult would it be to create the Terrifying Mask of Eee!? Similarly, could Mathilde create magical war banners? These are drawn from the tabletop game ('magic items so common it's reasonable for every army to have access to these'), and while I'm trying not to take other mediums as gospel I hope you don't mind me taking them for inspiration. Furthermore, on the topic of spell creation what do you think of creating 'living shadows' to spy and deliver messages as a possible spell?

BoneyM said:

Can people explain their thoughts with the choice of Zhufbar vs Eight Peaks? I didn't expect the low-stakes, low-reward option to be so overwhelmingly favoured, especially after Eight Peaks had the edge in the last round.

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A bit later than other peoples' responses, but I'll try to explain my thought processes here in no particular order;

Firstly, there's the fact that Karak Eight Peaks is a limited time thing, where Ironhammer's campaign will either succeed or fail and that's it for the time being. Karak Varn has been a 'scavenging in force' target for centuries and is liable to remain as such even after the K8P campaign's conclusion one way or another. As others have said, going with Belegar Ironhammer means helping to make a difference in the world, taking back a once-dark corner of the world and making it shine once more.

Secondly, it is a matter of quid pro quo for their assistance with Drakenhof; while it is not entirely equivilent, it's respectably similar. They aided us in both reclaiming lost territory and destroying a stronghold our ancestral enemies stage out of, we help them reclaim a hold for the first time in centuries from their ancient foes. Dwarfs respect those that keep their balance sheets clean, and seeing us do that should earn a gruff nod of approval and mutterings from the longbeards about how the beardlings aren't measuring up to an umgi somehow.

Thirdly, it's a networking opportunity. Even if we discount the possibility of the Karaz Ankor's #3 favorite Imperial supporting someone who very well may become the king under the mountain of a culturally significant site, Belegar is calling for everyone who wants to make their fortune to help. Every sellsword, questing knight and foolhardy adventurer is going to at least consider joining on this reconquista, which could serve as a good chance to build up contacts across the Old World. We may end up spending time rubbing elbows with Damsels and Knights from Bretonnia, or meet up with Dogs of War from Tilea who also know of Asarnil the Dragonlord. Estalian Diestros looking for challenges, or Araby's sorcerors looking for a cut of dwarf-gold. While I fully expect this to be a dwarf-led and majority dwarf operation, I also expect a good sized contingent of umgi irregulars for us to make contacts with for a wider spy net in a decade or longer.

Fourthly, show the flag. The Electors failed the Dawi at the Meet, but they are not the Empire. Remind the dwarfs that humans can and do come through for them on occasion.

Fifthly, I don't imagine Mathilde will be one more faceless soldier marching in formation and holding a chokepoint while tides of goblins break upon a shieldwall. Rather, as demonstrated in the 'assassinate the Emperor' segment, we make a frighteningly effective spy, saboteur, assassin and fashion consultant scout. Slipping into goblin camps and leaving a few casks of Zhufbar's Finest Black Powder with a timer in a goblin shaman's tent fits with Mathilde's preferred method of dispelling sorcery (preemptively, no less!) and infiltrating with a team of dwarf rangers, Tilean assassins and Bretonnian herrimaults to take and hold an enemy gatehouse as we fight for time as we try to hold out long enough for the main force to relieve us, breaking another layer of goblin-held Karak all seems like interesting updates to read. Even if we don't get the full picture of how the war goes, it'd be an interesting thing to write about afterwards.

Slamu said:

@BoneyM How difficult would it be to create the Terrifying Mask of Eee!? Similarly, could Mathilde create magical war banners? These are drawn from the tabletop game ('magic items so common it's reasonable for every army to have access to these'), and while I'm trying not to take other mediums as gospel I hope you don't mind me taking them for inspiration. Furthermore, on the topic of spell creation what do you think of creating 'living shadows' to spy and deliver messages as a possible spell?

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Well, the mask is fairly easy to model in this system; it's an enchant of Dread Aspect, since that spell grants Terror to the user. So pretty difficult, since that's a complex spell and 2 tiers above the level of things we can enchant.

@BoneyM, just noticed this:

Turn 17:

BoneyM said:

The Eastern Imperial Company
Outstanding Debt: 1,400 gc
Your share of EIC Profits: 50 gc / turn

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Turn 18:

BoneyM said:

The Eastern Imperial Company
Outstanding Debt: 1,290 gc
Your share of EIC Profits: 60 gc / turn

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I assume the uptick in Profits are a result of the EIC's growth, but is the Outstanding Debt total a result of some windfall, or just a typo?

veekie said:

Others answered this but from assessment of voter preferences, you had something like:
-20% liked the branch college idea
-30% just wanted something based in Stirland, where all our assets and contacts are
-20% liked the hold reclaimation
-30% wanted literally anything BUT the branch college/domain ruling stuff

So when it was College or Dwarf, Dwarf won, but on the clarification vote, the option to stay closer to Stirland naturally had a bigger lead, because those who wanted to stay in Stirland but didn't like the college now had an out.

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I wasn't in any of that 100% or rather I would be considered to be in both 'liked hold reclamation' and not 'wanting to do domain ruling' but neither truly fits what my voting goals were. I wanted to go on an adventure (I picked all the adventure options) or if not that then become an advisor again (not even included as a voting percentage apparently).
There were also a number of other votes for becoming a mercenary, becoming Negash 2.0, becoming an advisor, doing something cool with dwarfs and I expect at least some of the people who votes to look around in Sylvania were genuinely interested in doing so rather than just sticking near Stirland.

Also the vote's fairly even between the two dwarf choices so I think the original question is fairly defunct since it's clear many voters are genuinely interested in joining the expedition to the Hold.

---

My personal hopes for the route this quest will follow is to go to to Karak Eight Peaks and kick ass, meet some awesome companions (we're more likely to meet cool people at Eight Peaks than Varn I reckon), then do some adventuring with our new companions and then with all this experience under our belts become an advisor again.

[X]Belegar Ironhammer has sent word that any that wish to seek their fortune are welcome to join him in retaking Karak Eight Peaks. While it is far from the civilized lands of the Empire, the treasure, the glory, and the adventure will be all the greater.
A last minute attempt to merge the plans

[x] Plan Merged
-[x] Qhaysh Juice: Whatever it is, it's dripping out of the box at a steady rate. You've got several gallons of the stuff and it's still coming out. It's got to be good for something..
--[X] Ranald's Blessing
-[X] Your experience with the so-called Fog of War has given you a lot of ideas for new applications of Ulgu. Investigate them to see what might be possible.
-[x] Spells of Grey Magic
-[x] Get a magical healing item from the Colleges (-Favors)
-[x] Sell the produced niter crystals to Zhufbar.
-[x]Survey the Haunted Hills for sites rich in Ulgu for the EIC to buy on your behalf if the land goes on the market.
-[x] Farewell: Visit everyone you've gotten to know during your time in Stirland, let them know where you're off to, and say au revoir. (does not take an action, incompatible with Free Time)

????? How come we aren't spending money to increase fief income?

[X] Zhufbar regularly sends salvaging parties into Karak Varn and mining parties into the tunnels below. It will be close enough to Stirland to keep in touch, and you have a good reputation in Zhufbar especially.
[X] Leave them stored in your spare room.
[X] Leave it behind; have Heideck come in and replace the containers as they fill.
[X] Bring it with you, safely locked within the enchanted box Abelhelm kept it in.

[X] Plan Foundation For a Future
-[X][Personal] Seek and hire a steward to manage and improve the fief in your absence. (100 gold to pay them for the projected duration of your absence)
--[X] Leave standing instructions for them to prioritize the safety and wellbeing of the fief over profit, as long as they don't outright make a loss.
--[X] Ranald's Blessing
-[X][Personal] Use your reputation to build trade ties with Zhufbar.
-[X][Personal] Expand the EIC into Sonningwiese; this is unlikely to increase profits, but would indirectly improve the lot of your subjects.
-[X][Personal] Sell the produced niter crystals as fertiliser in Stirland.
-[X][Personal] The Allies of Man
-[X][Social] Farewell: Visit everyone you've gotten to know during your time in Stirland, let them know where you're off to, and say au revoir. (does not take an action, incompatible with Free Time)

E: Approval vote
[X] Plan Finaly Getting IT DONE

[X] Plan Private Sector Preparation

@BoneyM Given Mathilde's experience with Greatswords, what would she estimate their average stat line to be for their jobs? Something like "Martial 14, Expert Greatsword (proficient)"?

[x] Have dwarves do a surface survey of the Haunted Hills in anticipation of a land sale (-4 dwarf favours; will be mostly pointless if the land is given over to a Count or Baron instead of sold individually) (does not take an action)
This will take a while to complete, which doesn't bother me all that much. The dwarf favors cost hurts, but hopefully we're making up the lack by going to Karak [insert name], and either the EIC has a list of valuable parcels of land to purchase on the cheap or whomever ends up owning the land will owe Mathilde a favor or two for letting them know they've got a nice copper deposit on their new lands. So long as someone benefits, Stirland benefits. When Stirland benefits, Sylvania is better kept in check. (Also it helps provide maskirovka for the Ulgu option)
--Overwork 1
[x] Survey the Haunted Hills for sites rich in Ulgu for the EIC to buy on your behalf if the land goes on the market.
Keeps the option for a secondary facility open, and there's a chance we can get the dwarfs to help build us a really cool hidden lair. Hidden lairs are cool, everyone loves them. May come at the cost of the rest of the thread needing to remind me why filling it full of traps and monsters is a bad idea.
[x] Sell the produced niter crystals as fertiliser in Stirland.
A rising tide lifts all boats. We want Stirland to be strong? Make Stirland strong.
[x] Build a relation with the local community leader so that either he or someone else from the community can perform the duties of a steward. (cannot be outsourced)
I'd prefer to have a mediocre steward who has the area's best interests at heart (and who feels something resembling loyalty to us) than a good steward who's in it for the money and will be tempted to get his or her hands in the cookie jar while we're away playing War Hero 2: Return of the Dwarfs. I'm not voting for a dozen fief improvements because Stirlanders are a bit like skittish cats when faced with change. Best it be introduced gradually and by people they know. (this is a joke)
[x] Your experience with the so-called Fog of War has given you a lot of ideas for new applications of Ulgu. Investigate them to see what might be possible.
Force multiplier, what more needs be said? I also estimate we only require 4 more spells to boost our Magic rating after this, and like with Mathilde's Matrix we can probably earn collage favor by writing this one up, especially if it has been battle-tested.
[x] Shyish-kebabs: The Shyish swords are hideously dangerous as weapons, but fascinating as a subject of study. Try to reverse-engineer the lost enchantments woven into them.
-[x] Ranald's Favor
These are on a timer, both their enchantments degrading and our time to have access to them (both the campaign and possibly handing them over to the Amethyst College). Let's take the opportunity to use our Enchanting tools (that we don't need anymore, though I suspect they might still give us a bonus) to learn what we can of them.


[x] Farewell: Visit everyone you've gotten to know during your time in Stirland, let them know where you're off to, and say auf wiedersehen. (does not take an action, incompatible with Free Time)
Seems like a reasonable precaution to make.

[x] Belegar Ironhammer has sent word that any that wish to seek their fortune are welcome to join him in retaking Karak Eight Peaks. While it is far from the civilized lands of the Empire, the treasure, the glory, and the adventure will be all the greater.

[x] Leave it behind; have Heideck come in and replace the containers as they fill.
I am over 80% sure this isn't a terrible idea.
[x] Bring it with you, safely locked within the enchanted box Abelhelm kept it in.
A young lady needs her late night reading.
I'm undecided on the swords, though I may make up my mind sooner or later. Leaning slightly towards giving them to the Amethysts, but packrat instincts are hard.

WorldSlayer said:

I wasn't in any of that 100% or rather I would be considered to be in both 'liked hold reclamation' and not 'wanting to do domain ruling' but neither truly fits what my voting goals were. I wanted to go on an adventure (I picked all the adventure options) or if not that then become an advisor again (not even included as a voting percentage apparently).
There were also a number of other votes for becoming a mercenary, becoming Negash 2.0, becoming an advisor, doing something cool with dwarfs and I expect at least some of the people who votes to look around in Sylvania were genuinely interested in doing so rather than just sticking near Stirland.

Also the vote's fairly even between the two dwarf choices so I think the original question is fairly defunct since it's clear many voters are genuinely interested in joining the expedition to the Hold.

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These are not out of 100%. Voter blocs can and do overlap.
Most people did not consider HOW we stay in Stirland or HOW we help dwarfs being important. But people opposed to the idea of the branch college were adamant. That's how significant minorities can swing votes because they don't need to be majority, only need to back something a small majority likes.

VoidZero said:

????? How come we aren't spending money to increase fief income?

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Actually, that's a pretty good question:

BoneyM said:

The Steward will be subject to the same cost modifier as they hire managers to perform whatever the task at hand would be.

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The only advantage to installing a Steward during our absence is that the income generated by the Weber Estate can be immediately invested in improving the Sonningwiese fief. Assuming Mathilde is gone for 5 years, that amounts to 10 turns, which at 20g/Turn, means the Estate will generate 200g during our absence. The cost of hiring the Steward wipes out half of that, which means, barring no other increases in revenue for the Estate, that we're hiring him/her to manage a mere 100g spread out over the course of 10 Turns.

Yes, the Steward can also invest the Earmarked Funds, but there's no advantage to it; the Steward will still incur the same +50% to costs penalty that Matty does for making fief improvements as Free Actions. Essentially, hiring a Steward amounts to making a 'Random' vote for improving the Weber Estate. Which does get around all of the arguments about baileys and defenses, so I guess that is in itself an advantage.

But really, even if one does choose to vote for hiring a Steward, there's no reason not to also vote for as many immediate improvements for the fief as we can afford with Free Actions.


...UNLESS the Steward has his/her own Stewardship stat, which would be applied to any improvement rolls. That'd definitely be a great reason for hiring a Steward.

[X l] Shyish-kebabs: The Shyish swords are hideously dangerous as weapons, but fascinating as a subject of study. Try to reverse-engineer the lost enchantments woven into them.
[X] Qhaysh Juice: Whatever it is, it's dripping out of the box at a steady rate. You've got several gallons of the stuff and it's still coming out. It's got to be good for something.

Actually, here's an idea for a sub-vote specifically for the Weber Estate:

[ ] Estate Plan: Last Minute Improvements (Free Actions)
-[ ] Build a large home for yourself, with plenty of spare rooms to expand into. (6 rooms, 150 gc)
-[ ] Build a bailey for your subjects to shelter in and to encompass other structures. (100 gc for wood)
-[ ] Improve the road between the Estate and Sonningwiese. (50 gc)
-[ ] Purchase a loom, erect a building for it, and invite weavers to start calling your estate home. (100 gc)
-[ ] Set up a dairy and recruit skilled cheesemakers from among the locals to work in it. (100 gc)
-[ ] Bring in dwarvern prospectors to search for minable metals (-1 dwarf favours)
-[ ] Bring in dwarvern farmers to investigate the farming possibilities of the land. (-1 dwarf favours)

With +50% up-charge, the total cost of the above seven improvements amount to 750 gc, leaving 166 cg in the kitty. This means that the above actions can be added/incorporated into any of the currently proposed plans. Even those taking the most expensive option of using a Free Action to hire a Steward (150gc with the +50% up-charge), this plan would still leave enough Earmarked Funds to cover it without dipping into Matty's personal cash.

Don't want a Steward? No problem, we can just let the revenue accumulate and we can reinvest it when Mathilde gets back from her adventures.

Either way, this plan satisfies Plan Dame Weber, which was what we voted for when we told the Grey College what Mathilde was gonna do with all her memoir money:

BoneyM said:

[*] Plan Dame Weber
-[*] Improve your land near Sonningwiesse.
--[*] Rebuild the local manor house, complete with fortifications to shelter the locals should danger threaten.
--[*] Closely investigate the area for any mineral wealth.
--[*] Build farms and import farmers to compliment the herdsmen.

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More rooms, towers, fortifications to the house, and upgrading the bailey with stone can be done at a later date, if we so wish, but the minimum requirements of Plan Dame Weber are met, several new income sources are built/potentially opened, and any lingering fears of ninja accountants should be sufficiently put to rest.


The plan would also cost 4 Dwarf Favors, leaving us with 9 Dwarf Favors in the bank. That's still plenty of favors left to us, and we'll likely earn more on our adventures, but if everyone absolutely hates the idea of spending the Favors then we can safely cut the last two items from the plan, but we should think of something to spend them on sooner or later.

[X] Belegar Ironhammer has sent word that any that wish to seek their fortune are welcome to join him in retaking Karak Eight Peaks. While it is far from the civilized lands of the Empire, the treasure, the glory, and the adventure will be all the greater.
[X] Donate them to the Amethyst Order (+2 College Favours)
[X] Leave it behind; have Heideck come in and replace the containers as they fill.
[X] Bring it with you, safely locked within the enchanted box Abelhelm kept it in.

[X] Plan Private Sector Preparation

Barnes said:

Actually, here's an idea for a sub-vote specifically for the Weber Estate:

[ ] Estate Plan: Last Minute Improvements (Free Actions)
-[ ] Build a large home for yourself, with plenty of spare rooms to expand into. (6 rooms, 150 gc)
-[ ] Build a bailey for your subjects to shelter in and to encompass other structures. (100 gc for wood)
-[ ] Improve the road between the Estate and Sonningwiese. (50 gc)
-[ ] Purchase a loom, erect a building for it, and invite weavers to start calling your estate home. (100 gc)
-[ ] Set up a dairy and recruit skilled cheesemakers from among the locals to work in it. (100 gc)
-[ ] Bring in dwarvern prospectors to search for minable metals (-1 dwarf favours)
-[ ] Bring in dwarvern farmers to investigate the farming possibilities of the land. (-1 dwarf favours)

With +50% up-charge, the total cost of the above five improvements amount to 750 gc, leaving 166 cg in the kitty. This means that the above actions can be added/incorporated into any of the currently proposed plans. Even those taking the most expensive option of using a Free Action to hire a Steward (150gc with the +50% up-charge), this plan would still leave enough Earmarked Funds to cover it without dipping into Matty's personal cash.

Don't want a Steward? No problem, we can just let the revenue accumulate and we can reinvest it when Mathilde gets back from her adventures.

Either way, this plan satisfies Plan Dame Weber, which was what we voted for when we told the Grey College what Mathilde was gonna do with all her memoir money:



More rooms, towers, fortifications to the house, and upgrading the bailey with stone can be done at a later date, if we so wish, but the minimum requirements of Plan Dame Weber are met, several new income sources are built/potentially opened, and any lingering fears of ninja accountants should be sufficiently put to rest.


The plan would also cost 4 Dwarf Favors, leaving us with 9 Dwarf Favors in the bank. That's still plenty of favors left to us, and we'll likely earn more on our adventures, but if everyone absolutely hates the idea of spending the Favors then we can safely cut the last two items from the plan, but we should think of something to spend them on sooner or later.

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We should supervise the construction of our own house, since it's our house, but we can do that when we get back. Also, I would argue against the dwarf favors on the grounds that the fief wouldn't have that much money to set them up anyway even if the rolls are good, so we might as well wait on it.

Apart from that, seems like a good idea.

@DarkLight140, I'm open to you adding in the sub-plan listed in @Barnes' post above or a subset of it. At the very least, getting the bailey and some of those income-generating projects started means that if the steward's good they have more estate income to work with for future projects. Conversely, if they're bad then they'll have less money to embezzle or waste.

I would cut it down to something more like this. No point getting the house just yet, that's five years of upkeep we'll be paying while not being able to use it. And the dwarfs go because it never really made sense to me that Mathilde could use favours she earned personally through an intermediary.

[ ] Estate Plan: Last Minute Improvements (Free Actions)
-[ ] Build a bailey for your subjects to shelter in and to encompass other structures. (100 gc for wood)
-[ ] Improve the road between the Estate and Sonningwiese. (50 gc)
-[ ] Purchase a loom, erect a building for it, and invite weavers to start calling your estate home. (100 gc)
-[ ] Set up a dairy and recruit skilled cheesemakers from among the locals to work in it. (100 gc)

Plan merged has been updated with the same actions.

Seventeen said:

[ ] Estate Plan: Last Minute Improvements (Free Actions)
-[ ] Build a bailey for your subjects to shelter in and to encompass other structures. (100 gc for wood)
-[ ] Improve the road between the Estate and Sonningwiese. (50 gc)
-[ ] Purchase a loom, erect a building for it, and invite weavers to start calling your estate home. (100 gc)
-[ ] Set up a dairy and recruit skilled cheesemakers from among the locals to work in it. (100 gc)

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That's a reasonable compromise; while I'd prefer to have any house on site just to satisfy the plan Mathilde submitted to the Grey College bursars, as @racnor points out, if there's any single action relating to the Estate that Matty should personally supervise, it'd be the construction of her home. And the Dwarf Favors will keep; though I wouldn't mind if they were spent elsewhere, so long as they get used.

Forgot to finish my vote earlier.

[X] Zhufbar regularly sends salvaging parties into Karak Varn and mining parties into the tunnels below. It will be close enough to Stirland to keep in touch, and you have a good reputation in Zhufbar especially.
I'm against the whole idea of rushing halfway across the world to help the dwarfs and "make a difference" when we left so much beneficial work undone in Stirland, but there wasn't an option for "Fix all of the Elector-Countess' mistakes from the shadows" in the future prospects vote (and the Grey College probably wouldn't look kindly on that), so I had to vote for opening a branch campus instead. From that perspective Zhufbar is the lesser evil, since Stirland's still within reasonable traveling distance, so whenever we come back to Zhufbar from Karak Varn we can hear about and have an influence on the goings-on at home. I also prefer to expand on the characters we've already met like Narfi the engineer and the oathkeeper guy rather than load the quest up with canon characters.

[X] Leave them stored in your spare room.
I think I might have voted to send the swords off to the Amethyst Order back when we picked them up, but at this point I've soured on helping them and I'd rather Mathilde studied the swords herself. The only problem is it took us so long to settle on actually working on enchantment, and never got around to it.

[X] Leave it behind; have Heideck come in and replace the containers as they fill.
Far too fragile to bring the box without taking the Volatile action, and that's a waste of an action, plus Heideck already knows the place. Hopefully Mathilde will be able to bring a couple of flasks of the liquid with her for study, but it's not too much of a loss if she can't.

[X] Bring it with you, safely locked within the enchanted box Abelhelm kept it in.
Yeah, no. Not leaving that behind.

[X] Plan Ready For Battle
[X] Plan Merged
Ready For Battle is my preferred option, but Merged is close enough that I don't disfavour it.

Barnes said:

That's a reasonable compromise; while I'd prefer to have any house on site just to satisfy the plan Mathilde submitted to the Grey College bursars, as @racnor points out, if there's any single action relating to the Estate that Matty should personally supervise, it'd be the construction of her home. And the Dwarf Favors will keep; though I wouldn't mind if they were spent elsewhere, so long as they get used.

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Also, i don't imagine the bursars would complain about us not building ourselves a fancy house.

Alliterate said:

Another question, @BoneyM - I know we're wrapping organisational actions up, but as a single exception, based on location, if the relevant Dwarf War action wins- is it possible we'd be able to arrange Zhufbar/EIC trade links next turn? Assuming we're able to have regular enough contact to Zhufbar to still take the time required.

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If you end up at Zhufbar, it'd be possible to sort out Zhufbar trade links from the Zhufbar side, though it'd be easier from the EIC side. If you're with Belegar, it'd take a lot more doing to open up trade links through the badlands, but not impossible.

DarkLight140 said:

It's not clear to me if Spells of Grey Magic allows for requesting instruction on a specific spell/spells, but I don't see why it wouldn't. There simply aren't enough apprentices to be teaching all of those classes at all times so the curriculum must be tailored to the students. If @BoneyM would be so kind as to clarify that and it does, I'll probably edit the plan to specify that as highest priority followed by Doppleganger, Invisibility, and Cloak Activity. Even if we consider it too unreliable to use often due to miscast chance, using it once at the right moment- or enchanting an item with it- has the potential to be utterly decisive. The DCs and result of a failed roll should be much lower taking it as a class than learning on our own from a book.

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It's 'whoever's around and whatever they feel like teaching'. I've added a new option to the list for you choosing the spell, though you don't get the smorgasbord of the default option.

DarkLight140 said:

@BoneyM, if you could also rule on whether we can take the same class twice (with the assumption that we mean to learn about different areas of the topic covered) that would be appreciated. if we can just take the Spells of Grey Magic class twice we might be able to pick up 4+ spells again even without a crit, which would be pretty great and guarantee something useful even if we don't get Dread Aspect.

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Each class can only be taken once per six-month period, because that's all the lessons on that topic that are going on in that period.

MacroDaemon said:

I'll admit, one of the things I kind of want, is to become an advisor for Belegar, but that's probably pretty unlikely or something others wouldn't want. Pretty sure joining his campaign is a prereq, though.

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Going from Zhufbar adventures to Zhufbar advisor or Belegar adventures to Belegar advisor would absolutely be possible.

MacroDaemon said:

Also, @BoneyM, feasibility of actually getting our hands on an item that does one of the above/prices in College Favor and action slots? I would hope that we could do it without an action slot if we're going to be in Altdorf for a study action as in my plan, but that might be a futile hope if there are intense negotiations or inter-College politics involved that we have to participate in personally.

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Added an item to the post for this, under College Actions.

Slamu said:

@BoneyM How difficult would it be to create the Terrifying Mask of Eee!? Similarly, could Mathilde create magical war banners? These are drawn from the tabletop game ('magic items so common it's reasonable for every army to have access to these'), and while I'm trying not to take other mediums as gospel I hope you don't mind me taking them for inspiration. Furthermore, on the topic of spell creation what do you think of creating 'living shadows' to spy and deliver messages as a possible spell?

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Currently, your enchanting ability is based on taking a petty/lesser/simple spell you know and making it work as intended except out of an item instead of out of you. Off the top of my head none of your Relatively Simple spells would be useful in a war banner. Making a single-target spell apply to a whole regiment is the sort of thing that will have to wait until higher levels of enchanting ability.

Living Shadows sounds like a really good way to make a new terror that haunts the world on a miscast. There's probably a rule about that sort of thing, because 'magical entities capable of thinking for themselves', nine time out of ten that translates to 'daemon'.

Barnes said:

@BoneyM, just noticed this:
I assume the uptick in Profits are a result of the EIC's growth, but is the Outstanding Debt total a result of some windfall, or just a typo?

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I had a ghost turn work it's way into things earlier and while I've found and exorcised it since then that effect of it lingered on. Fixed now.

Slamu said:

@BoneyM Given Mathilde's experience with Greatswords, what would she estimate their average stat line to be for their jobs? Something like "Martial 14, Expert Greatsword (proficient)"?

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About 12 martial plus greatsword proficiency would be the entry level for the Greatswords.


As always, if I've missed a question please remind me of it.

The 'commission an enchantment for College favour' rules are very fair; I urge everyone to vote to pick up a thing or two, whether that's the Amethyst 'suck life out of some poor dude' spell or Light straight up healing or whatever.

Not a missed question but a new one; what's the travel time between 8-peaks and the college in terms of actions wasted?

Seventeen said:

Ready For War is my preferred option, but Merged is close enough that I don't disfavour it.

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It's Ready for Battle, not war

Seventeen said:

[X] Plan Ready For War

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This should be
[ ] Plan Ready For Battle

Edit: Grey Wizarded

@DarkLight140 With the new rules for enchanted items we can now get one for a free action. I recommend changing your plan to accommodate this, there appears to be a spell called Earth Blood that will only cost 2 favors and can pretty much heal up a lethal wound.