Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

Your trio of students have been fighting together quite well, possibly due to each of them having at least some affinity for close combat. It's not uncommon among the Colleges, but it's usually something picked up as one reaches or approaches Magister and seeks to round out their abilities, rather than something they start their Journeying with. So you leave them as a trio and find a place for them amongst the Warriors of Clan Huzkul, who have grown more familiar with human magic than most Dwarves. The Border Princes sellswords will be going in first, with the Throng of Karak Azul close on their heels, while the Throng of Karak Eight Peaks will wait until a clear picture of combat emerges and head to wherever the combat's thickest. This will mean your Ducklings are sure to see some significant combat, but won't be in the chaos of the initial tunnel fighting.

Johann has been welcomed back to the siege weapon teams, and has been placed with the few cannon that Dwarven caution would allow to be removed from their usual position at the Eastern Gates. Max has evidently been practicing the bow in between learning metalworking and working for you, and now his Silver Arrows genuinely look like he's firing them from it. Unlike normal arrows, they care nothing for relative velocity or unsteady firing positions, so you broach the topic of firing from a gyrocopter and he eagerly accepts, and you leave Prince Gotri with the task of finding the pilot most likely to put up with an excitable cargo.

As for yourself, you're heading back into Karagril to observe the fallout from Durnash's untimely death and pick off anyone who looks like they'll do a good job of succeeding him.

---

[Greenskin Unity: 10]

From how close to mutiny the Karagril Orcs were, you'd expected your intervention to throw them into chaos, but you hadn't expected this. The Orcs have split themselves into Silver Fang secessionists and Red Fang loyalists and blood is already running through the tunnels. Interestingly, the Orcish population devolving into civil war seems to have made Ranald's Coin no longer consider it sufficiently town-like to take effect, but the Orcs are distracted enough by their infighting that Take No Heed performs just as well. You watch the breakdown of their society and do your best to track shifting allegiances as no less than five would-be Warbosses start to rally Orcs to their side.

[Greenskin Leaders: 2, 67, 93, 95, 39]
[Mathildian intervention 1: Intrigue, 73+21=94.]

You assess the candidates and quickly identify two as worryingly competent, though currently kept in deadlock by each other as one is Silver Fang and the other Red Fang. With the Doppelganger appearance of one bearing the old and semi-faded Red Fang tattoos, you strike him down and wait for one of his followers to notice and process your appearance, and shouts of outrage and oaths of eternal vengeance against the Red Fang are a pleasing chorus as you make your way to the other target.

[Mathildian intervention 2: Intrigue, 16+21=37.]
[Mathildian intervention 2, loud: Martial vs Intrigue, 91+23=114 vs 76+10=86.]
[Mathilde's framejob: 94]
[Mathilde's escape: 6]

That's where things fall apart.

Take No Heed has limitations as severe as they are vague, and when you're in the middle of a crowd all cheering enthusiastically for the violent death of the Silver Fangs, not cheering is enough to draw attention to oneself, and once onlookers notice the fresh, crude Silver Fang tattoos that you appear to be wearing, it completely shatters the fragile magical protection. You slip through a gap between two Orcs that your illusory form shouldn't have been able to fit between and dart forward to strike down the second troubling leader, Branulhune once more proving more than sufficient to slice cleanly through an attempted parry and then the attempted parrier, and with a third self-proclaimed Warboss to your credit you turn to run through an exit that was clear just a moment ago but is now quite troublingly full of Orcs.

[Getting out of the room: Intrigue vs Martial, 1+21=22 vs 92+15=107.]
[Positioning for imminent violence: Martial, 49+23=72.]

Your words to your Ducklings echo in your mind: It's far too easy to underestimate the Orcs. They have proven reliably unable to prevent your assassinations, but they've just demonstrated one of their greatest strengths: they are always ready for a fight. In seconds a roomful of shocked Orcs becomes an airtight cordon to prevent the escape of what to them appears to be the Silver Fang Orc that just struck down their Warboss. The best you can do is put your back firmly against a wall and wreath yourself in Ulgu before battlecries echo through the tunnel as the Orcs throw themselves at you.

[Mathilde vs Orcs 1: Martial, 74+23+10(Master Swordswoman)=107 vs 76+15+10(Charge)-10(Terror)=91.]

The charge of Orcs is terrifying, but as your shadow stretches along the wall behind you and sprouts hungry tendrils, so are you. The moment of hesitation costs the Orcs as Branulhune slices neatly through the first two and your shadow impales a third, but a fourth gets a blow through your guard and you bite back a grunt of pain from the portion of the impact that gets through your Aethyric Armour.

[Orc morale check: 73.]
[Mathilde vs Orcs 2: Martial, 52+23+10(Master Swordswoman)=85 vs 21+15-10(Terror)=26.]
[Orc morale check: 59.]
[Any ideas?: 1.]

With the charge blunted, you're able to fall into a rhythm of lopping off the limbs of any that approach too closely while your shadow keeps the rest too intimidated to strike as one, but even though none of them want to get too close, nor do they seem to be about to run, and you're not able to snatch a few seconds to try to think your way out of this predicament between the probing of choppas.

[Mathilde vs Orcs 3: Martial, 39+23+10(Master Swordswoman)=72 vs 92+15-10(Terror)-5(Casualties)=92.]
[Orc morale check: 66.]
[How about now?: 3.]

Though the Orcs are wavering and their casualties are mounting, they press on nonetheless and a second impact sneaks through, and you can't keep yourself from grunting in pain, though the definitely un-Orcy sound is swallowed by the din of combat. You're a Grey Wizard, damn it, you should have a thousand different ways to get out of a situation like this, but you need to spend every scrap of attention on keeping yourself from being struck down by the constant mass of Orcs...

[Mathilde vs Orcs 4: Martial, 35+23+10(Master Swordswoman)-5(Injured)=63 vs 54+15-10(Terror)-5(Casualties)=54.]
[Orc morale check: 68.]
[Seriously, think of something: 74.]
[Rolling...]
[Orc reactions: 3]

Finally, the hesitations of the Orcs closest to you sync up and give you a blessed fraction of a second to take in the room and think. As that second comes to a close, inky blackness explodes from your hands and fills the room with impenetrably dense fog, both to mundane eyes and your own Magesight, but you were ready for it and the Orcs definitely weren't. As exclamations of shock fill the room, you strike through where a second ago you could see an Orc and feel the faintest sensation of impact through the hilt and then you charge forward, sending the injured or dead or dying Orc toppling backwards as you break for the door you entered through.

[Orc pursuit: 6]

A few seconds is all you need, as you tear a torch from the wall and hurl it down the corridor, plunging your section of the tunnel into blackness. Outraged Orcs bellow renewed warcries as they pour out of the room in all directions, shouting for all to hear of the oddly quiet Silver Fang git that killed the Warboss, and once they've passed you gingerly activate the Seed and try to calm your heartbeat as roots burrow through your body and close your injuries. Another good hit and you would have been open for several more and that would have been it for you, and not against a Master Vampire or a Warboss or a Skaven assassin, but by regular Orcs that caught you against a wall with nowhere to run. Even though you accounted for - you glance back into the room, and take in the dead and wounded - at least a dozen of them, you'll not be including this part in future tales of your adventures, that's for sure.

---

[Orc unity: 53]
[New Warboss: 18]
[Eyeing for potential assassination: 13+21=34.]

With much more caution, you observe events shaking out as the hour of the attack approaches. A fourth Warboss has emerged, neatly splitting the remaining Orcs between Red and Silver, and about now the first of the sellswords will be encountering the outermost edges of the incipient civil war. You feel like you could cripple the Orcs even more by trimming the two semi-competent remaining Warbosses, but with your brush with death still fresh in your mind you decide against a riskier play when you see they've taken precautions against assassinations. Rubbing the phantom aches of your healed wounds, you consider your next move.

[ ] Continue watching and see if an opportunity arises to assassinate the less incompetent would-be Warbosses.
[ ] Lurk in the shadows and strike down isolated Orcs whenever you get an opportunity.
[ ] Wait until battle begins in earnest and then take the Orcs by surprise.
[ ] Try to find your Ducklings and fight by their side.
[ ] Watch, wait, and see how things play out.
[ ] Leave Karagril to see if any other factions are intervening.