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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Speaking as someone who wants us to act in Stirland, I'm pretty much satisfied here.
We got a pending information network that will feed us news and thus can act should we felt necessary (although I heavily doubt it, Empire pulled out the big guns here).

So yeah, we can concentrate on our job and magic mocktail.
though I won't object sitting around in Stirland with popcorn.
I mean boomy magic go boom is always good to watch.
 
Redshirt Army said:
My current thoughts:

1. We should shore up our magical deficiencies, learn the rest of the regular spellbook and carve ourselves a staff.

This is the biggest issue remaining when it comes to questions of competence, and I'd rather unquestionably have the skill to go with the M.Lord position than use Imperial Favor to get our deficiencies overlooked.

2. We should complete our studies of the Aethyric Vitae, potentially including insights from Kragg, the Goldies, and maybe the Amethyst. This promises to be a huge magical breakthrough, and will show off our academic prowess.

3. We should file off the rough edges of our skillset - most notably, get to ~12ish Diplomacy and pick up some Advanced Intrigue skills. Again, it's a question of skillset.

4. And we should continue the re-conquest of K8P, to the point that the whole place can be more-or-less considered a secure place to found a school, while continuing to run herd on the journeymen and build up labs, libraries, and research facilities. This demonstrates our martial and administrative skill.

If after all that happens, we still aren't a Magister Lord, we should spend the GD to bypass whatever politics are holding it up and get the position. If we are, we should spend it to get our (by that point well-established) Dwarfy journeyman summer camp officially recognized as a branch campus of the Colleges.
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Yeah this basically follows my reasoning.

But particularly for this bit:
If after all that happens, we still aren't a Magister Lord, we should spend the GD to bypass whatever politics are holding it up and get the position. If we are, we should spend it to get our (by that point well-established) Dwarfy journeyman summer camp officially recognized as a branch campus of the Colleges.
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This is where I'm really leaning, since I fully expect to be doing things that elevate us to evaluation for Magister Lord since I think we're already doing that and have been for some time. And since we're already building the chapterhouse by hand and have the resources to keep doing that, getting it officially recognized is something we would need to do eventually.
 
BungieONI said:
The Drakenhof campaign was much smaller than this by at least an order of magnitude and only involved two actual vampires. The thing that makes me think its going to take a while is that Sylvania is much much bigger than just the haunted hills and up to Drakenhof, and the very specific wording the Emperor used in his decree which stated "All Vampires within the Empire's borders". That's an unverifiable statement because vampires are very good at hiding and its declaring open season on Sylvania until he says otherwise. (It also gives him remit to blast away at hunting all vampires, even those outside Sylvania) That's the sort of statement made to justify years of expenditure. If the Emperor is making open season statements that imply getting every vampire when they're very good at hiding, that's going to take years.
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This discussion will go around in circles. We should at least wait until the update drops before we debate more on it.
Deathbybunnies said:
Sure, on an individual murderblending basis, but not on a strategic basis except as a matter of sabotaging the enemy beforehand (not applicable here, or rather, already done) or unless we get very lucky and manage to dispel an enemy mage in the perfect fashion, as we did against the Orcs. And we aren't going to be the most capable dispeller on the field by a very wide margin.

Better to focus our efforts elsewhere, where we aren't competing against dozens of other similarly-strong allies and will inevitably fade into a mass group of "and then the wizards all let loose".
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Let's agree to disagree then because we have been very consistently effective on a strategic level so far.
 
HebrideanStarfis said:
Retired Mathilde's reception room is going to be a trip. You go to visit the world's.. second or third most terrifying public grey wizard, and her waiting room is just chock full of skulls and notes from various people thanking her for pretend murdering them.
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"This is the skull of the Singing King, a Strigoi Vampire I murdered in the Haunted Hills region of Sylvania, alongside Elector Count of Stirland Abelhelm Van Hal and Brother Kasmir Heinz, Sigmarite Warpriest. It needs to be shattered an average of once every three and five-eighth months to prevent regenerative resurrection.

"This is a note from the Imperial Household, signed by the Emperor Luitpold von Holswig-Schliestein the First himself, thanking me for demonstrating to them several holes in their security discretely, and furthermore only pretending to murder him. The tear-stains are authentic."
 
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This might just be my desire for knights or a wolfship we can later convert into a blimp speaking, but I kinda think that spending the Deed is slightly cheaty, compared to getting a high enough reputation for us to be considered organically.

It's true that the experience qualifier is a stumbling block, but experience isn't just measures in years; and we should be able to qualify with but a few more years of good deeds with the dwarfs.
 
Redshirt Army said:
3. We should file off the rough edges of our skillset - most notably, get to ~12ish Diplomacy and pick up some Advanced Intrigue skills. Again, it's a question of skillset.
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Heartily want to second this w.r.t. diplomacy (and to a lesser extent intrigue, but i think the diplomacy bit requires more arguing to get the thread to agree :p)
Diplo is very important, between it being part of our college's specialties, belegars tendency to use us as a 'weird stuff diplomat', and just in general getting along with important people and playing the collegiate and imperial politics needed to become a Lord Magister and avoid making enemies once/if we do
Looking at our existing diplo skills, and the college lessons we have access to:
BoneyM said:
Diplomacy:
Colleges of Magic: You're a native of the academic ecosystem of the Eight Colleges of Altdorf. +1 Diplomacy
Karaz Ankor: You've grown familiar with the ways of the Dwarves. +1 Diplomacy
Advanced Karaz Ankor (1/3)
Stirland: You were raised among the peasants of Stirland, and know their quirks and habits. +1 Diplomacy
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BoneyM said:
[ ] Psychology
[ ] Imperial Law
[ ] Practical Diplomacy
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BoneyM said:
[ ] The Allies of Man
[ ] Religion and the Empire
[ ] The Empire and its Provinces
[ ] Human Nations of the Old World
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Getting 3 (or even 4) of the skills in red is very important for mid term goals in my opinion. Practical diplomacy is obviously a diplo skill, and given the examples in our diplo list, the other two red ones should be diplo based, as well as being useful in general. They also aren't magic based, and so can be bought with 100 gold instead of college favour. Psychology is probably intrigue but might be a mix of intrigue and diplo, either way would be useful eventually. Imperial law might be learning but could also have diplo benefits in imperial politics if we wanted to go that way. Religion and the empire is presumably a piety skill that would have diplo benefits in communication with religious entities, so not as useful. Other human nations seem less likely to be relevant than either going for another in-empire province skill, or going with allies of man for either halfling info, or finishing off dwarven stuff (less likely), or some other ally. As for Advanced Karaz Ankor, i think we can let that tick up to 2/3 through exposure, then take a learning action from one of our fellow councilors
 
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Sinsystems said:
You know I'm going to imagine that the various vampires are having a "Why do I hear boss music?" moment.
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Yup. And just over the nearest hill stands a conglomeration of Final Fantasy Black Mages all chanting "METEOR! METEOR! METEOR!" as the sky starts glowing a bright ominous red-orange.
 
Redshirt Army said:
My current thoughts:

1. We should shore up our magical deficiencies, learn the rest of the regular spellbook and carve ourselves a staff.

This is the biggest issue remaining when it comes to questions of competence, and I'd rather unquestionably have the skill to go with the M.Lord position than use Imperial Favor to get our deficiencies overlooked.

2. We should complete our studies of the Aethyric Vitae, potentially including insights from Kragg, the Goldies, and maybe the Amethyst. This promises to be a huge magical breakthrough, and will show off our academic prowess.

3. We should file off the rough edges of our skillset - most notably, get to ~12ish Diplomacy and pick up some Advanced Intrigue skills. Again, it's a question of skillset.

4. And we should continue the re-conquest of K8P, to the point that the whole place can be more-or-less considered a secure place to found a school, while continuing to run herd on the journeymen and build up labs, libraries, and research facilities. This demonstrates our martial and administrative skill.

If after all that happens, we still aren't a Magister Lord, we should spend the GD to bypass whatever politics are holding it up and get the position. If we are, we should spend it to get our (by that point well-established) Dwarfy journeyman summer camp officially recognized as a branch campus of the Colleges.
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I agree with all of these, though I'm not super sold on the prioritization of raising our base Diplomacy; I think that can wait behind picking up other Advanced Intrigue skills. If Mathilde has time to prepare an argument, she can use Learning rather than Diplomacy, and the point of being a Grey is knowing everything and being insufferably smug about it, which skills like Infiltration directly aid. If we aren't arriving to important meetings with arguments and counterarguments prepared, we didn't spy hard enough.

EDIT: Tangentially, can anyone explain to me the significance of a Wolfship? Is it the equivalent of a ship of the line? But this would be under our command, and not, like, in the actual navy?
 
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BoneyM said:
WHEREAS, it has come to the attention of His Majesty Emperor Luitpold I that the Imperial Citizens of Eastern Stirland are suffering under the yoke of Vampiric Oppression;
WHEREAS, it is known that the Colleges of Magic are bound by the Articles of Imperial Magic, as laid down by Emperor Magnus the Pious (S·T·T·L);
WHEREAS, it is recognized that the Colleges of Magic are Empowered and Required to seek out and combat the dark forces of Necromancy throughout the Empire;
IT IS DECREED, that the Colleges of Magic are given full and complete permission to unleash any and all magics, enchantments, abilities and allies they see fit that are permitted under the Articles of Imperial Magic;
IT IS DECREED, that the aforementioned permissions explicitly include the application of the restricted powers known as Battle Magics, and those that specialize in their applications;
IT IS DECREED, that this declaration will be in effect for the entirety of the realm of Eastern Stirland, that some know as Sylvania;
IT IS DECREED, that this declaration will be in effect from this day until the last Vampire is driven from the Empire's borders.
May Sigmar have mercy on their souls.

Proclaimed at the Imperial Palace of Altdorf on this the 12th Day of Erntezeit.
Signed by the Emperor Luitpold von Holswig-Schliestein the First.
Signed by the Supreme Patriarch Dragomas of the Amber Order.
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One would hope that this might get the Sigmarites moving, but I somehow doubt it... they're too busy with their dick-waving contest with the Ulricans.
Redshirt Army said:
Basically, they pulled out the WMDs.

And just like IRL, pulling out tactical nuke carpet bombing is gonna leave a lot of the terrain poisoned and unfit for habitation for decades to come.
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Aegon Targaryen said:
We should do a Nero and sing as the Bright Order torches Teufelheim
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ctulhuslp said:
Especially if there are a lot of Bright Wizards incoming yes.
Strigoi cannot hide in the forest if there is no forest.
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Bright College: Well, we burned down half the Hunger Forest, and we also wiped out the Strigoi. Win-win!

Abby Normal said:
Oh. Ohh. My heart :'(
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Ack! Too soon!
 
Redshirt Army said:
My current thoughts:

1. We should shore up our magical deficiencies, learn the rest of the regular spellbook and carve ourselves a staff.

This is the biggest issue remaining when it comes to questions of competence, and I'd rather unquestionably have the skill to go with the M.Lord position than use Imperial Favor to get our deficiencies overlooked.

2. We should complete our studies of the Aethyric Vitae, potentially including insights from Kragg, the Goldies, and maybe the Amethyst. This promises to be a huge magical breakthrough, and will show off our academic prowess.

3. We should file off the rough edges of our skillset - most notably, get to ~12ish Diplomacy and pick up some Advanced Intrigue skills. Again, it's a question of skillset.

4. And we should continue the re-conquest of K8P, to the point that the whole place can be more-or-less considered a secure place to found a school, while continuing to run herd on the journeymen and build up labs, libraries, and research facilities. This demonstrates our martial and administrative skill.

If after all that happens, we still aren't a Magister Lord, we should spend the GD to bypass whatever politics are holding it up and get the position. If we are, we should spend it to get our (by that point well-established) Dwarfy journeyman summer camp officially recognized as a branch campus of the Colleges.
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1: agreed, we even should learn that one spell that dread aspect makes useless just so we have the best magical resume posable.

2: also agreed, this is our most important area of research at the moment.

3: yes, but if we have to pick between this and research because of crunch we should focus on Research.

4: I feel that if we did back off before K8Ps is reconquered, that would be our reliability out the window. I do hope that once it is conquered will will be able to back off on the adviser role and get someone else to be on the council (wizard or runepriest) so we have more room to do our own shit.

and yes, lets bank the GD for when we have a better idea of how to use it.
 
picklepikkl said:
I agree with all of these, though I'm not super sold on the prioritization of raising our base Diplomacy
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The general thought process is that Magister Lords are expected to exemplify the strong points of their College, which for the Greys includes being skilled Diplomats.

12 Diplomacy isn't amazing, but it's probably enough to tick the "above average oratory skill" box and count as neither a bonus nor a malus towards our promotion, where 10 Diplomacy is probably a slight black mark.
 
Redshirt Army said:
The general thought process is that Magister Lords are expected to exemplify the strong points of their College, which for the Greys includes being skilled Diplomats.

12 Diplomacy isn't amazing, but it's probably enough to tick the "above average oratory skill" box and count as neither a bonus nor a malus towards our promotion, where 10 Diplomacy is probably a slight black mark.
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I mean, what we're doing with Belegar right now almost certainly counts as a diplomatic coup. If the EIC's expansion goes as planned, we'll also be one of the major players responsible for Marienburg's weakening.

Overall, we're have our names attached to a lot of diplomatic coups.
 
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It's really interesting being active to see all the little edits going on as Boney writes:
BoneyM said:
Intrigue: 18+2+1=21 - You've developed a somewhat frightening understanding of how to disassemble all kinds of psyches.
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BoneyM said:
Intrigue:
Assassination: You know many ways to end the unsuspecting. +1 Intrigue
Advanced Assassination (1/3)
Advanced Infiltration: It takes significant effort to make it even slightly difficult for you to enter somewhere. +3 Intrigue
Interrogation: You know how to extract information from those that don't wish to give it. +1 Intrigue
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I imagine this means that our overall vampire investigation and/or the karagill scouting (which was still pending) went rather well :p +2 intrigue and narrative boosts, huzzah! (regular infiltration was +1, and as a reminder to anyone who forgot or didn't know, skills add to the base stat now, so we went from 16+2+1 = 19 to 18+2+1 = 21
 
Considering how much College Favour Mathilde has, it's well worth considering spending the 10 Favour for Speed of Light or the 12 for Briona's Timewarp.

Yes, they're very fight-y spells, but as we saw in the last turn, gear makes a huge difference. Of course, we could also just buy an item of the basic Pit of Shades for 14, and have a pocket nuke. Still, it probably doesn't leave loot behind so being able to sword better might be more lucrative.
 
Quest said:
I mean, what we're doing with Belegar right now almost certainly counts as a diplomatic coup. If the EIC's expansion goes as planned, we'll also be one of the major players responsible for Marienburg's weakening.

Overall, we're have our names attached to a lot of diplomatic coups.
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Sure, but just like Mathilde is able to guesstimate a skill range for the other characters she interacts with, I'm assuming that the College is able to more-or-less gauge Mathilde's "stats" when she's in touch with them.

So they'd see that she's very good diplomatically when given prep time, and that she's exploited that to perform several diplomatic coups, but that her actual oratory skills when put on the spot are a bit lacking.
 
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