Remove ads

Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Reader mode
DarkLight140 said:
I don't know that I'd say none of their spells are useful for the Matrix. This army has several hundred demigryphs that would probably benefit from having The Beast Made Well bound into them and set to go off if the animal is injured.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Hmmm. Using the Matrix on a wizard, familiar, or magical creature is a bad idea, and I had assumed demigryphs were magical creatures, but they might just be unusual Warhammer fauna, not everything unusual is magical - @BoneyM , which is it? Can one bind a spell into a demigryph with MMM?

Even if one can, though, there's still a couple of logistical issues like how many knights will agree to this untested magic matrix stuff on their demigryphs, particularly when the matrix takes hours to set up but casting the spell takes seconds, also the fact that there's several hundred demigryphs and Mr Beastpants can maybe set up 5-10 on a day of doing nothing else.
 
Exmorri said:
Hmmm. Using the Matrix on a wizard, familiar, or magical creature is a bad idea, and I had assumed demigryphs were magical creatures, but they might just be unusual Warhammer fauna, not everything unusual is magical - @BoneyM , which is it? Can one bind a spell into a demigryph with MMM?

Even if one can, though, there's still a couple of logistical issues like how many knights will agree to this untested magic matrix stuff on their demigryphs, particularly when the matrix takes hours to set up but casting the spell takes seconds, also the fact that there's several hundred demigryphs and Mr Beastpants can maybe set up 5-10 on a day of doing nothing else.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Stick it in their important folk's mounts, if nothing else, make it harder to disrupt their leadership.
 
Exmorri said:
Hmmm. Using the Matrix on a wizard, familiar, or magical creature is a bad idea, and I had assumed demigryphs were magical creatures, but they might just be unusual Warhammer fauna, not everything unusual is magical - @BoneyM , which is it? Can one bind a spell into a demigryph with MMM?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Hard to say. I mean, they're made through breeding programs or tamed in the Reikwald forest, not in a lab.
 
Exmorri said:
Hmmm. Using the Matrix on a wizard, familiar, or magical creature is a bad idea, and I had assumed demigryphs were magical creatures, but they might just be unusual Warhammer fauna, not everything unusual is magical - @BoneyM , which is it? Can one bind a spell into a demigryph with MMM?

Even if one can, though, there's still a couple of logistical issues like how many knights will agree to this untested magic matrix stuff on their demigryphs, particularly when the matrix takes hours to set up but casting the spell takes seconds, also the fact that there's several hundred demigryphs and Mr Beastpants can maybe set up 5-10 on a day of doing nothing else.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I thought they were mundane but nasty, yeah. If they're magical, well. I guess there are the giant wolves which are probably mundane and could also use healing? Of course, those are ridden by Ulricans... who stereotypically hate magic even more than most.

You have a point about a large time investment and small number of takers, but those problems also sort of solve each other, in a shitty kind of way. If only a couple dozen knights sign up then they can get through them in a few days. As far as "untested" goes, though, it's not like it would be hard to set up a matrix on a random camp animal and demonstrate what it would do- then bam, it's tested, they've seen it and know exactly what they'd be signing up for.

Ultimately the Matrix is not as directly useful as anything that the other wizards could be doing in person and applying it to tons of units would probably not be as personally productive for them as some kind of study; the same applies to Mathilde. However, if we're looking for an optimal way to serve the campaign during downtime it's pretty up there.
 
Yeah, apparently demigryphs are pretty much the heavy cavalry unit in the Empire? Like, they're the best we have.

I'm kind of amazed the knight orders with access to them are allowed to go on walkabout.
 
Guile said:
I know that 'socialize with Stirland', 'socialize with journeymanlings' and 'run messages to the Colleges' are all pretty neck and neck, but can we talk about how bonkers the Regrowth Seed is for a minute?

Like wow. That thing is absurd. Who needs the Liber Mortis?

Dame Weber: "Bring me the prisoner."
Dame Weber, /holding out glowing hand.
>Vines feast upon the screaming, sobbing mutant.
>The screaming quiets.
Dame Weber, /holding out glowing hand.
"All right! Who wants healing?!"

What a way to grow the legend.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Where is my 'Shudder' reaction button?
 
[X] Accept as the most senior Wizard present (commanding two Amber Journeymen and one Gold Journeyman).
[X] The Amber Wizard journeymen.
[X] The Gold Wizard journeyman.
[X] Spend time with your wolf pup, trying to develop a famliar bond.

Wibble-wobble, wibble-wobble...
Adhoc vote count started by Lupercal on Mar 27, 2018 at 7:57 PM, finished with 437 posts and 133 votes.
Click to expand...
 
[X] Accept as the most senior Wizard present (commanding two Amber Journeymen and one Gold Journeyman).
[X] Deliver last-minute messages for Belegar, trying to scrape together any remaining support to be had before leaving.
- [X] To the Colleges of Magic.
- [X] To Knightly Orders.
- [X] To Dwarfholds of the Grey and Black Mountains.
 
Guile said:
Yeah, apparently demigryphs are pretty much the heavy cavalry unit in the Empire? Like, they're the best we have.

I'm kind of amazed the knight orders with access to them are allowed to go on walkabout.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Q: Where does an eight-hundred-pound gorilla sit? A: Wherever the hell it wants.
Substitute "demigryph knight order" for "gorilla". Maybe the question isn't who's going to allow them, it's who's going to stop them. :tongue:
 
Guile said:
Yeah, apparently demigryphs are pretty much the heavy cavalry unit in the Empire? Like, they're the best we have.

I'm kind of amazed the knight orders with access to them are allowed to go on walkabout.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
So long as a Knight Order doesn't violate whatever oaths* they've made in addition to the general ones to the Empire they're free to do** as they please, and any Elector Count who tries to curb their rights is liable to see all the other Knight Orders in their province leave in protest at best, or even the start of a rebellion depending on what exactly he/she did.

*They tend to require a lot of funding, and often land within a province, which makes them tend to have oath of some sort with the local elector count, but even Van Hal could only request that the KO dedicated to Morr would join him.
**Within the letter of the law obviously.
 
Last edited:
Guile said:
Yeah, apparently demigryphs are pretty much the heavy cavalry unit in the Empire? Like, they're the best we have.

I'm kind of amazed the knight orders with access to them are allowed to go on walkabout.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The fact that they can is sort of an emphasis of the fact that the Empire is not, in fact, much of an Empire; it's a confederation with a lot of internal power groups who are largely autonomous. The Elector Counts literally go to war with one another when they disagree, the nobility rebel at the drop of a hat when their Elector Counts try to assert serious control unless a very tight grip is kept on them, the peasantry hate and disdain the upper classes who exploit and oppress them so much that they're a breeding ground for rebellion, often backed by cults that literally worship gods who mutate their followers into horrible gribblies, the Knight Orders are self-run and decide which wars they fight and which they don't while listening to whichever of their religious and secular rulers they happen to like more at the time, the Colleges of Magic are a class of people hated by everyone but legally difficult to touch and extremely powerful personally who ultimately act as mercenaries to the rest of the Empire's power groups, and the Churches are of the opinion that everyone should listen to them as the highest authority while the Elector Counts feel just the opposite.

All of the above are jealous of their power and do whatever they can to retain it and guard it fiercely from any other of the above.

It's kind of amazing that it works at all.
 
Last edited:
I talk so much about trying to avoid having 'autopicks' but then I gave you an option that was literally 'play with the puppy'.

Guile said:
Is that like 4 charges of super-heal? Four come-back-from-death-free cards? Or does a resurrection eat up all four charges?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Healing a papercut takes a charge. Returning you from death and regrowing all your limbs takes a charge. It is not a subtle enchantment.

Exmorri said:
Hmmm. Using the Matrix on a wizard, familiar, or magical creature is a bad idea, and I had assumed demigryphs were magical creatures, but they might just be unusual Warhammer fauna, not everything unusual is magical - @BoneyM , which is it? Can one bind a spell into a demigryph with MMM?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Magic almost undoubtedly had a part in the origin of the demigryphs, but the individual animals are not magical.

Guile said:
Yeah, apparently demigryphs are pretty much the heavy cavalry unit in the Empire? Like, they're the best we have.

I'm kind of amazed the knight orders with access to them are allowed to go on walkabout.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Yeah, the demigryphs were the result of a natural 100. Also, Knightly Orders that are entirely mounted on demigryphs are not the sort of people to be bossed around. Demigryphs aren't raised in captivity - every single member of those orders went out into the forest alone, found a demigryph, and wrestled it into submission. Every single one.
 
DarkLight140 said:
The fact that they can is sort of an emphasis of the fact that the Empire is not, in fact, much of an Empire; it's a confederation with a lot of internal power groups who are largely autonomous. The Elector Counts literally go to war with one another when they disagree, the nobility rebel at the drop of a hat when their Elector Counts try to assert serious control unless a very tight grip is kept on them, the peasantry hate and disdain the upper classes who exploit and oppress them so much that they're a breeding ground for rebellion, often backed by cults that literally worship gods who mutate their followers into horrible gribblies, the Knight Orders are self-run and decide which wars they fight and which they don't while listening to whichever of their religious and secular rulers they happen to like more at the time, the Colleges of Magic are a class of people hated by everyone but legally difficult to touch and extremely powerful personally who ultimately act as mercenaries to the rest of the Empire's power groups, and the Churches are of the opinion that everyone should listen to them as the highest authority while the Elector Counts feel just the opposite.

All of the above are jealous of their power and do whatever they can to retain it and guard it fiercely from any other of the above.

It's kind of amazing that it works at all.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I think you are exaggerating a bit on Elector Counts and nobel rebelling and openly fighting each other on the drop of a hat.
 
Exmorri said:
You mean enchantment?
That sounds like one of those cases of mixing winds of magic (using Gold effects to recharge a Fire item) which should be avoided - between "it might work" and "it might produce dhar", it's safer to just stick to mundane fires. It's not like mundane fires are expensive or rare.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Whoops, yeah, I meant enchantment. You're probably right about the dhar risk on charging, the Magister should be setting a good example for Journeymen on that sort of thing.

Using Ulgu as a substitute for lenses and chisels should be safe, though, and I suspect would appreciated given that a umgi journeyman in an army of dawi isn't high priority on the waiting list to use the army's crafting supplies.

By the way, thank you for posting the spell list earlier.

chocolote12 said:
Stick it in their important folk's mounts, if nothing else, make it harder to disrupt their leadership.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Ooh, nice. That's actually sounds like it could be doable, not like the half-baked 'animal-form-amber wizards sneak into the goblin camp and sabotage their squigs with a spell to make them docile around humans' plan I was thinking of. Assuming that squigs animals and not fungi in this quest.

Guile said:
can we talk about how bonkers the Regrowth Seed is for a minute?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Yeah, even if beast matrix doesn't turn out useful here, getting another college favor for helping out the Amber Order learn it would still be worth it. Saving up college favors and spending them on a big-ticket magic item at our next promotion exam is very tempting after seeing what we got last time.
 
In addition to what Darklight noted it cannot be emphasized enough that in the Empire the Emperor is first among equals, and he can only do stuff beyond the borders of his province like levy taxes for an expanded national army if the other Elector Counts permit it.
 
While I am still sad that Smokey the Chapter Master and the Knights of the Black Bear aren't around, two full orders of Demigryph Knights almost make up for it.

And yeah, I'm hoping if Mathilde manages to send letters to Zhufbar and other Dwarf holds in the mountains, she gets her friends and there Artillery Kings along.

And does anyone else hope if we send out word to Mercenaries then Anerion might show up? Because that would be Amazing.
 
Re: The Knightly Orders: you don't only have to take into account their power as institutions, but as collections of people who are all from noble families and thus each have influence in their own right.

Darik29 said:
And does anyone else hope if we send out word to Mercenaries then Anerion might show up? Because that would be Amazing.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I have a mental image I can't get out of my head of him swooping down at some dramatic moment during a battle or whatever yelling "SEQUEL HOOK, BITCHES!"
 
BoneyM said:
Re: The Knightly Orders: you don't only have to take into account their power as institutions, but as collections of people who are all from noble families and thus each have influence in their own right.



I have a mental image I can't get out of my head of him swooping down at some dramatic moment during a battle or whatever yelling "SEQUEL HOOK, BITCHES!"
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Would the Dwarves agree to that?
 
Knightly Orders are basically school clubs who have their own club rules but still have to follow school rules and they all enjoy bashing in faces of their enemies.
 
BoneyM said:
I thought there was a chance that the cat familiar bloc or those that want an enormous murderbeast as a familiar would be against the pup.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Familiarhood might well allow him to hit Direwolf status. And that's too awesome to deny.

And besides, kitties might be fun, but doggos are also fun. Sunshine taught us all that.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top