This is cool and wise.
Establishing a Ranaldian temple here that functions as a tavern/waystation/refuge/(gambling den) for any human wanderers, adventurers, merchants and their guards (you know, all people who rely on their luck a lot) who make their way to K8P sounds like a good thing.
I love the idea just on the face of it. But when I think about it deeper I love it even more for a couple of simple reasons.
One, it is a
perfect place for a fellowship of disparate adventurers in need of a wizard guide to Dwarven mysteries and the secrets of the Underway to gather which means it can be a source of good and fun for us to do in Mathilde's old age.
Two, its a great place to listen in for interesting rumors and as a meeting point for an intelligence organization.
Three, the fact that it can feasibly be a casion/tavern/and soup kitchen all at the same time pleases my shipping instincts which are aimed at Shallya and Ranald.
@BungieONI
I like your idea of a "dagger as casting implement" a
lot - it's a very practical and thematic way to solve our problems.
That said, as I understand it the +1 Magic enchantment currently requires quite a bit of space to work with - a staff or something of equivalent size, which is why people brought up our greatsword as an alternative.
I'd be all for studying the enchantment and trying to condense it, though - our earlier and bulkier attempts while we're learning the enchantment should easily go for several college favours, so we'd still get a material benefit out of it, even.
Which did occur to me as a problem I will admit freely. Like, I thought about it initially and thought about it more and went "Wait a minute. Warhammer has a shitton of 'Evil Sorcerer holds knife over screaming maiden's heart in Evil Ritual' motifs so why exactly can't we do this?"
Boney said Witcher-style double swords fall under Rule of Cool and is thus, not a problem.
Even if he did question why we wouldn't simply use a staff for casting, as we'd have a much killier sword anyway.
The problem is that the standard +1 magic staff enchant takes someone roughly staff sized, thus the suggestion of making an enchanted greatsword. Might as well have it be useful if we are carrying it around and all that.
Even if it isn't, which I'm gonna have to see a quote for I don't want to read it because it is very stupid looking to imagine in my head and thus fails my rule of cool measure. If Mathilde was a 6 and a half foot tall shredded Pale Amazon or some such I'd probably go for it, but when she'd have to carry two swords as big as she is, it just does not work as entertainment for me.
The issue with a staff for me is that if we have to carry on our back for casting, is that not all of our battles will go like the Temple. Many of them will be like the East Gates or the gates of Town Drakenhof, pretty much regardless of our will or not given that our enemies can and will and have surprised us before. If we need to cast using it that means taking a hand at the very least off our greatsword, which means not using it like we were trained by Marcus, and then yanking it off her back. No enemy worth their salt is going to give her time to do that. And as well, the way your framing it basically seems to imply picking one or the other before a battle and then either devoting ourself to casting or devoting ourself to melee. And even inside a battle where we don't get the chance before hand, that's what it encourages.
I don't want to go in this direction because I think its impractical, and breaks the flow of fights if Mathilde needs to break space and whip out a big stick. Furthermore carrying a staff as tall or taller than she is while infiltrating a tomb, mansion or cult lair can be a pain and is not exactly conducive to "I need to quickly hide this thing" situations since its so big. We already have one problem of that with the greatsword. This encourages leaving it elsewhere or, basically taking a cumbersome object into a situation where we need delicacy.
Put together I have a lot of trouble seeing the appeal, with it largely falling to a thought of "Maybe people want it to be more like Gandalf?" which I'm pretty sure isn't correct.
And as you said, I also agree that we need a killing implement and a casting implement, thus my knife suggestion.
)
