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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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@BoneyM, I realize it's probably futile at this point, BUT,

Is this a valid write it?

[ ] Johann, learning more about each other while raiding Clan Mors.
 
LightLan said:
She is the model every new Court Wizard has to emulate:
1) Capable of withstanding a full Waagh-Charge as Bullwark in the middle of the line.
2) Capable of making Shamans explode and entire Waaaghs to lose their empowering
3) on the regular assassinates enemy leadership
4) the near perfect scout (if only she had time to be everywhere)
5) weaponizes mountains
6) walks into a College of Necromancy with ~60 students. Only Mathilde walks out again. With a Necrarch head in hand.

All True Mathilde Facts.

I pity our eventual successor.
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There is only one solution to this problem: More Mathildes, so there will never be a non-Mathilde Dwarven Court Wizard.

I do have one partial solution:
1) Get a We familiar.
2) Make the We really big.
3) No, I meant really big.
4) BIGGER
5) That'll do for now. Now send part of the We to each Hold.
6) There's now a sorta Mathilde in each Hold, so that's good.
7) Watch as the collective dwarfendom has a mental breakdown due to excessive exposure to Mathildes, and turns into a hyper-neophile anarchist collective.
 
A couple times when catching up I came across people saying that Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma would be easier to learn or at least more suited for Mathilde because of her Warrior of Fog trait, and I'd like to take a moment to refute that.

To review what it does:
U / Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma: The signature spell of the Grey Battle Wizard, this creates a numbing fog at medium range that attacks the combat abilities of the foe.
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It's a debuff spell. It uses fog as the medium for its debuff, which is nice because Mathilde likes fog, but the fog isn't blocking vision or awareness or anything- it's just the carrier for the effect. That effect is a "weakens the enemy" effect, specifically setting melee skill, ranged skill, initiative, or movement to the lowest possible value. That's likely accomplished by making them forget how to fight/walk/whatever or very difficult to focus on what they're doing, probably playing off some of ulgu's associations with forgetfulness or confusion; alternately it might be playing with insubstantiality associations to directly mess with their bodies and reactions making them less solid, or something like that.

So in order to excel at this spell, a grey wizard needs traits which make them good at inflicting forgetfulness, confusion, or weakness. They need to be good at shoving ulgu at others and messing them up with it in a way that doesn't directly try to kill them, is the point.

Now, let's look at Mathilde's traits.
Grey Magister: You have completed your journeying and graduated as a full member of the Grey Order, giving you both ability and sanction to wield the winds of Ulgu, the grey magic of shadow and illusion.
Enchanter: You have a talent for taming the winds of magic and trapping them within objects. +10 bonus to rolls to learn or use enchanting skills.
Tool-Free Enchantment: You have learned a suite of specialized petty magics that allow you to replicate all the necessary parts of an enchantment workshop.
Windsage: Your magical senses are incredibly acute, and can track magical energies and discern emotions at a glance. +4 Learning, +1 Magic
Warrior of Fog: Appreciation of and focus on mastering the fickle fog of war. +2 martial, bonuses to scouting and hidden gambits while in command, unlocks creation of battlefield spells for revealing or concealing troop movements.
Avatar: You've had close encounters not only with your own God, but with others, and are growing able to recognize and understand divine energies. +1 Piety, +1 Learning, able to sense nearby divine intervention.

Familiar: A wolf named Wolf, a boy of exceptional goodness. Gifted to you by Ranald.
Link of Psyche: The ability to communicate complex thoughts and share mental resources with Wolf. +2 Stewardship, +2 Learning
Magic Power: The magical power that flows from you to Wolf is returned twofold. +1 Magic

Blooded: You've proven yourself in battle. +2 Martial.
Bureaucrat: Paperwork is no longer your enemy; it is now your weapon. +3 Stewardship, -1 Diplomacy.
Brave: You can withstand terrors that make others flee. +1 Martial.
Disdain for Sigmar: Abelhelm Van Hal died abandoned by Sigmar. You intend to return the favour. +1 Piety due to renewed faith in other gods, will not let Sigmarism flourish in institutions she controls - penalty to institutional actions unless worship of another god is instituted.
Interrogator: You've seen what men are made of, and you've seen them unmade. +2 Intrigue, +1 Martial, -1 Diplomacy.
Master Swordswoman: You have blended sword techniques from the Empire and the Karaz Ankor into a style entirely your own. +10 martial when fighting against enraged or unthinking opponents, or when holding a physical choke-point such as a doorway or tunnel.
Laconic: A great deal of effort has transformed your distaste for writing into a brutal efficiency in keeping your writing brief. +1 Diplomacy, +1 Stewardship, +1 Martial, +1 Intrigue.

Court Wizard: You are on the Council of Karak Eight Peaks as the Court Wizard, and have as your remit any magical, mysterious, or otherwise inexplicable phenomena within or near the Hold.
Dawongr: You have been named Dwarf-Friend, and will find a warm welcome in most dwarfholds.
Knight: You have been Knighted by the Elector Count of Stirland, elevating you to nobility.
Magister: You have graduated from a College of Magic and have the right to study and perform magic under the Articles of Imperial Magic, as laid down by Magnus the Pious.
Shareholder: You are a principal shareholder in the Eastern Imperial Company.


Arcane Marks:

Flicker: Light seems uneasy in your presence. Lamps flicker, candlelight dims, and fires burn low around you.
Mantle of Mist: Visible vapours are drawn to you. Fog and mist makes it easier to hide; smoke and gases are rather less convenient. +1 Intrigue, potential trouble with any gas-based weapons.
Unnatural Shadow: Your shadow has a mind of its own, moving around to inspect its surroundings and coil around things and people it takes a liking to. This is, needless to say, very unnerving.
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She's got quite a few! But notice that none of them are centered around inflicting debuffs. None. It's simply not something that Mathilde has taken into herself and made part of her character.

In particular, since Warrior of Fog is explicitly related to spell creation, let's take a closer look at it.
Warrior of Fog: Appreciation of and focus on mastering the fickle fog of war. +2 martial, bonuses to scouting and hidden gambits while in command, unlocks creation of battlefield spells for revealing or concealing troop movements.
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There's fog in it, and Melkoth's is a Miasma, right? Well... no. This trait is explicitly about the fog of war as a conceptual idea, which is why it related to scouting and hidden gambits. Something like Cloak Activity, which is basically "Caster Does A Hidden Gambit: The Spell", would be far more likely to gain bonuses to learning and casting (which it didn't, probably because related traits don't give spell learning bonuses; side note, I am super sad that we don't have Cloak Activity because it's very well suited for Mathilde and a great enchantment seed) than Melkoth's, which creates mist which, going by its Warhammer Fantasy Battles effect, doesn't even obstruct vision- it's just a carrier for an attack.

In other words, Melkoth's contains basically none of the associations that Mathilde has traits for.

The thing she does have which makes her closer to it conceptually is this:
M / Universal Confusion: Bewilder, but applies to a whole group at once, up to about a ten meter diameter. Short range.
Mastery - Cloud of Confusion: You can cast the spell as a billowing cloud of bewildering gas, which pours from you for several minutes, constantly effecting everyone nearby.
- Mathilde can cast both the normal spell and the Mastered version. Both are indiscriminate, but the normal version applies to anyone within that radius at the time of casting, whereas the Mastered version continues outputting the gas over minutes to effect everyone touched by it.
- The Mastered version does not need to be inhaled to take effect. Mathilde is immune to it, as is Wolf; everyone else will suffer from Bewilder unless they're strong-willed enough to shake it off.
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Mathilde's Mastery version of this spell is very close to Melkoth's conceptually because it's also using a conjured physical mist as a carrier for a magical mental debuff, with the primary differences being in type of debuff and scope of the spell. If we want to be drawing lines connecting her existing skills to Battle Magics when deciding which ones to learn, that would be a much better place to start.
 
[X] Prince Kazrik, as he builds on his relationship with Nuln.
[X] Oswald Oswaldson, newly-minted Chief Bombardier of the Undumgi.
[X] Sir Ruprecht Wulfhart, as the new home of the Winter Wolves takes shape.
[X] Max, during the few breaks in the silence as the two of you worked on Queekish in the Room of Serenity
[X] Francesco Caravello, proud leader of the Undumgi and possible future Thane.
 
[X] Yes, have one social interaction be initiated by someone other than Mathilde.
[X] Francesco Caravello, proud leader of the Undumgi and possible future Thane.
[X] Kragg, who's begun to be seen around the Karak once more, indicating he might be finishing his study of the rune-axe you and Johann found.
[X] Check in on your fief in Stirland.
[X] Prince Kazrik, as he builds on his relationship with Nuln.
[X] Oswald Oswaldson, newly-minted Chief Bombardier of the Undumgi.
 
[x] Oswald Oswaldson, newly-minted Chief Bombardier of the Undumgi.
[x] Sir Ruprecht Wulfhart, as the new home of the Winter Wolves takes shape.
[X] Max, during the few breaks in the silence as the two of you worked on Queekish in the Room of Serenity
[X] Francesco Caravello, proud leader of the Undumgi and possible future Thane
 
Aegon Targaryen said:
And what are Mathilde's quirks, if you don't mind me asking, Master @BoneyM?
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Not BoneyM, obviously, but I'd say
*Huge sword, probably overcompensating
*Puts her name on everything
*Surprisingly religious, when you get down to it
*Giant Sword!
*Collects (vampire) skulls like a confused budget Khornate
*Tries to be at least partially in the spotlight (she voluntarily wanted to be a knight...)
*GIANT SWORD!
 
LeafBug said:
Hmm. Gas-rats might be a problem eventually, now that this is a thing. Though I dunno how much, considering we shouldn't be on the frontlines of most fights anymore
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It'll be a major issue when we try infiltrating Skryre. I recommend getting the issue under control soon, since we're very likely to need to sneak into Skryre's lines eventually.
 
DarkLight140 said:
A couple times when catching up I came across people saying that Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma would be easier to learn or at least more suited for Mathilde because of her Warrior of Fog trait, and I'd like to take a moment to refute that.

To review what it does:

It's a debuff spell. It uses fog as the medium for its debuff, which is nice because Mathilde likes fog, but the fog isn't blocking vision or awareness or anything- it's just the carrier for the effect. That effect is a "weakens the enemy" effect, specifically setting melee skill, ranged skill, initiative, or movement to the lowest possible value. That's likely accomplished by making them forget how to fight/walk/whatever or very difficult to focus on what they're doing, probably playing off some of ulgu's associations with forgetfulness or confusion; alternately it might be playing with insubstantiality associations to directly mess with their bodies and reactions making them less solid, or something like that.

So in order to excel at this spell, a grey wizard needs traits which make them good at inflicting forgetfulness, confusion, or weakness. They need to be good at shoving ulgu at others and messing them up with it in a way that doesn't directly try to kill them, is the point.

Now, let's look at Mathilde's traits.

She's got quite a few! But notice that none of them are centered around inflicting debuffs. None. It's simply not something that Mathilde has taken into herself and made part of her character.

In particular, since Warrior of Fog is explicitly related to spell creation, let's take a closer look at it.
There's fog in it, and Melkoth's is a Miasma, right? Well... no. This trait is explicitly about the fog of war as a conceptual idea, which is why it related to scouting and hidden gambits. Something like Cloak Activity, which is basically "Caster Does A Hidden Gambit: The Spell", would be far more likely to gain bonuses to learning and casting (which it didn't, probably because related traits don't give spell learning bonuses; side note, I am super sad that we don't have Cloak Activity because it's very well suited for Mathilde and a great enchantment seed) than Melkoth's, which creates mist which, going by its Warhammer Fantasy Battles effect, doesn't even obstruct vision- it's just a carrier for an attack.

In other words, Melkoth's contains basically none of the associations that Mathilde has traits for.

The thing she does have which makes her closer to it conceptually is this:

Mathilde's Mastery version of this spell is very close to Melkoth's conceptually because it's also using a conjured physical mist as a carrier for a magical mental debuff, with the primary differences being in type of debuff and scope of the spell. If we want to be drawing lines connecting her existing skills to Battle Magics when deciding which ones to learn, that would be a much better place to start.
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I agree the Melkoth Miasma doesn't really fit with Mathilde's traits barring the interplay with the fog arcane mark, and while codifying the Universal Confusion spell as "Mathilde's Melkoth's Mystfiying Miasma Knockoff " is fun (and would certainly send angry time traveling wizards after her), I think that if we want to create a battlefield spell that suits Mathilde then a spell that creates a fog bank that is transparent to allies and opaque to enemies fits her better.
 
[x] Prince Kazrik, as he builds on his relationship with Nuln.
[x] Gretel, who's apparently spending her newly-earned wealth to make herself at home.
[x] Titus Muggins, who's returned to farming with every avenue of attack defended.
[x] Elder Hluodwica, as the Halflings prepare for their first proper harvest festival in this new home.
[x] Francesco Caravello, proud leader of the Undumgi and possible future Thane.
[x] Soizic, newly elevated to military leader of the Undumgi.
[x] Sir Ruprecht Wulfhart, as the new home of the Winter Wolves takes shape.
[x] Anton, to see how his firearm factory is going.
[x] Wilhelmina, to see how she's going when she's not a terrifying financial juggernaut.
[x] Julia, See what she has gotten up to as Stirland's most experienced spy master.

SITB said:
I agree the Melkoth Miasma doesn't really fit with Mathilde's traits barring the interplay with the fog arcane mark, and while codifying the Universal Confusion spell as "Mathilde's Melkoth's Mystfiying Miasma Knockoff " is fun (and would certainly send angry time traveling wizards after her), I think that if we want to create a battlefield spell that suits Mathilde then a spell that creates a fog bank that is transparent to allies and opaque to enemies fits her better.
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Mathilde's Manually-Moved Miniature Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma Modification
 
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Redshirt Army said:
It'll be a major issue when we try infiltrating Skryre. I recommend getting the issue under control soon, since we're very likely to need to sneak into Skryre's lines eventually.
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I think learning to control all of our marks (flicker, shadow, fog) would be a very good idea. I'd even be in favor of putting the gambler on it, because critting that roll could have some very nice boni. Up to a +1 magic, if the rolls are good across. It's learning to control Ulgu better, and critically, it's learning to control Ulgu meshed with soul better. So if you want to go into the theurgy direction, this might also help with that.
 
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Redshirt Army said:
It'll be a major issue when we try infiltrating Skryre. I recommend getting the issue under control soon, since we're very likely to need to sneak into Skryre's lines eventually.
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tbh probably only an issue if we screw up the infilitration rolls not sure we'd even need to make much of one with Invisibility and all the other spells we can throw at the issue. That said I do kind of want to get a hold of controling the arcane marks it's just where we find the actions for it given the time criticality of Qrech.
 
Redshirt Army said:
It'll be a major issue when we try infiltrating Skryre. I recommend getting the issue under control soon, since we're very likely to need to sneak into Skryre's lines eventually.
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Then let's commission an amulet that makes Mathilde inmune to poison, sickness and smoke from the College, since the QM has confirmed that we can for a while now...

I suggested it a while ago so that we could Infiltrate the pestilens safely, but it is now much more urgent to get it soon...
 
Candesce said:
We're not going to play mutation roulette.
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I don't think that's what @BurnNote means; we have an available action we've never taken, "[ ] Gain enough control of your unruly shadow to still it temporarily." BN is suggesting that we try to take a similar action, if one exists, for each of our other Arcane Marks. No Flicker action exists, but I can imagine that one might show up for our new one.
 
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