Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Good god no, continuously voting tofight every Lord level enemy is a damn good way to end up dead, we keep getting lucky but eventually that modus operandi will get us killed.
 
Flanked by a pair of Stormvermin is a robed Skaven that stands taller than either of his bodyguards, his body so festooned with warpstone jewellery that he shines like a befouled lighthouse to your Magesight, and it is to he that the Sorcerer approaches, chittering what seems like a greeting with false deference, his mind roiling with the anticipation of battle, and you curse your inability to understand spoken Queekish. A document of some sort is handed over, and the robed Skaven produces what looks like a glass bead containing a sphere of unrefined warpstone, spilling green light over the document and illuminating his form, and emblazoned upon his robe in golden thread is the thirteen-pointed wheel symbol of the Council of Thirteen.
Unable to understand their conversation, you instead pick apart their mental states. The Sorcerer is simple enough, mostly Ulgu with a little Aqshy as he savours the moment before an unexpected attack. The other Skaven is more focused, Chamon buzzing in his mind as he analyzes the document and barks questions at the Sorcerer, but underneath that is a touch of rancid divinity. His soul bears the marks of what must be the Horned Rat, and a tendril of it is rooted deep within his mind. The two bodyguards are mentally barely there, but in a way that suggests discipline instead of stupidity, as stupid Skaven would be confused by the conversation rather than very carefully ignoring it. So many unknowns. What is the agent's role here? What would best serve the Karak? Should the Sorcerer still die? Should this apparent agent of the Council die? Should you abort the entire attempt since Mors seem on the verge of extinction, or should you do your best to allow them to seize victory from the jaws of defeat?
Taller than Stormvermin(horns?). Festooned with expensive warpstone jewelry/Glows to magesight.
Shows signs of the Horned Rat's touch in its soul, and has a direct connection to the Horned Rat in his mind. Does not fight on the frontlines if at all possible.

This is probably a Grey Seer, or an apprentice Grey Seer.
They have to walk through a labyrinth and get the Horned Rat's personal approval to graduate training.
The spiritual leaders of the Skaven Under-Empire, these grey or white ratmen are born with tiny horns that, along with the colour of their fur, mark them as the chosen of the Horned Rat. Cloistered away from the rest of the Under-Empire, they are tutored in the Lore of the Ruin. Much of their time is spent in prayer to their horned god, seeking his favour and guidance against those that would seek to undermine him.[2a]

Though it may seem a less hazardous course, the path of the Grey Seer is as treacherous as the road followed by any Skaven in the Under-Empire; perhaps more so. Initiates are commonly killed during their apprenticeship, both by the rigours of their training, as well as by the duplicity of their peers. If the competition between Skaven in the warrens is fierce, then it is doubly so in the cloisters of the Grey Seers. The Skaven that survive their apprenticeship are perhaps the most dangerous Ratmen of all. Apprentices are required to walk the Labyrinth of the Horned Rat to be fully initiated into the Grey Seers, and should they succeeded in all of this, they prove their fitness to guide, or some would say rule the Clans to greatness.[2a]
Just laying our hands on its corpse for forensic autopsy would be a pretty big coup in it's own right.

@BoneyM
QUESTION
1)Can we tell what color the Council Agent's fur is?
If there is enough light to see the symbol on its robe and note that it's golden, there should be enough light to make out its fur.
And that of his bodyguards; whether they're albino or not.

2)Does the Agent sport any horns on it's face? Is it carrying any weapons? Or a staff?

3) What color is the Sorcerer's fur?
And really, I think the Grey Wizards would like it that way. It's much easier to be a sneaky bastard if nobody is expecting you to be one.
Mathilde also gets to mislead others by doing that.
It gives the impression that shes incapable of being sneaky, instead of only that her most spectacular ops make the news while the others don't. It's like looking at Algard's Towers and thinking that's his primary MO.

I am tempted by "Let one of the bodyguards escape."
Leave one alive to spread the tale? :V
If we play this just right, Eshin attacks a council agent, the agent lives to report it, Eshin becomes a traitor clan and and the stalled civil war is reignited.
IMO the best outcome is for both these major skaven to die, and both sides to blame the other.
Perhaps, yes, but can the Agent? The Sorceror is likely to have bigger problems given that he'd then be within stabbing range of a high-ranking skaven who thinks he's trying to kill him. Which happens to be true. Once suspicion is aroused, the Sorcerer's first resort is probably going to be "stick with the plan", given that if searched or interrogated his planned betrayal is likely to come to light.

(The reason why I'm not super advocating for this is because I'm worried the Agent might have high enough intrigue to hesitate long enough for the Sorcerer to blow our cover. I think it's less risky to just set up the scene so that it implicates the Sorcerer.)
Woah there Nelly.

We have managed to roll the skaven thus far because we had pretty good intelligence on the local clans, their society and motivations, and thus have been able to predict their most likely reactions to given circumstances and take advantage of them.
We've taken gambles, but they've been calculated gambles, with limited stakes and options for mitigation.

That does not apply here.
This person is a new factor, and we know nothing about it's motivations, capabilities, influence, or literally anything else. Attempting to manipulate it would literally be working blind, with unforseen consequences. That would be reckless.

We've had a good run.
But you got to know when to fold your cards and cash in your chips.
Kill it, vanish the body. Be content with removing one of the Council's bigtime troubleshooters.

Are there hypotheses about why the Council would intervene at this stage, and why the Sorcerer would want to silence their agent?
I'm guessing that the GHR has spoken to shut down the civil war, and the Sorcerer thinks they have a good thing going.
There's good odds that this is the hidden commander of the local Eshin forces.
Remember that when we went to loot the Eshin, we went to the biggest structure and largest rooms, for the most important people in the Eshin clan
If you had been able to spend weeks or months on the task as you had when raiding the other Clans, you'd know in advance where to go and what you'd expect to find. With mere minutes to spend before you need to turn around or risk the entire battle, you fall back on luck, guts, and wild guesses. The Eshin settlement seems much more orderly than that of Clan Mors, cleaner than Clan Moudler and less obviously riven by internal intrigue that Clan Skryre, but some things transcend Clan and you go straight for the largest structure you encounter, confident that it will belong to someone important. The room within is a bizarre clash between two rival styles, with one half of the room seeming to aspire to monkish asceticism while the other is a haphazard sprawl of books and paperwork not much different to that of human bureaucrats and officers you've seen. You empty the shelves that would be at eye-level for a Skaven, reasoning that they'd be the most often consulted ones, and pile atop those all the paperwork you can haphazardly stack atop each other. Your recent forays had lead you to keeping a hessian bag folded up inside an inner pocket, and you spare the few seconds it takes to stack the books neatly inside it instead of piling them up haphazardly. Opening up the possibility of having an operation go badly because of bulky, difficult-to-carry loot is a rookie mistake.
We found a room shared by the Master Assassin and Sorcerer.
Not a room for a Warlord.

My guess? The Sorcerer wants to take credit for the death of Clan Mors in this expedition to the Council of Thirteen. But if the original commander sent by the Council, or his rival for command is still alive, that doesn't work.
So the Sorcerer wants to accidentally the Grey Seer.

Which also suggests the Master Assassin is probably dead, and the Sorcerer is the most senior surviving Eshin in this battle theater.
That's the obvious answer, but the thing is that the Sorcerer gave the Agent a document, not the other way around. You'd expect the agent to be providing new orders, if that were the case.

My extremely tentative guess is that the Sorcerer gave the Agent a writeup of "what the criminy crikey exactly has been going on in K8P of late", but, since he knows how much of a big deal the news will be, is planning on murdering him, blaming it on Mors, the dragon, or us, and then presenting his own (Shattering, Tactically Groundbreaking) report to the Council to get all the tasty Council Favour for himself.
This.
So here's a question I would like an answer to from people who know the RPG or the TT: what exactly is the Agent, tactically speaking? Like, we know he has a bit of the Horned Rat in him, so he's a divine spellcaster, I assume. But it's Grey Seers who have the Lore of the Warp, right? Not just any priest of the Horned Rat? So what sorts of nonsense can we expect from that guy? Is there a specific Lore of the HR somewhere?
I don't know the RPG or TT. But this looks like a Grey Seer. One of the 169.
All the warpstone jewelry and the hand of the Horned Rat on its soul and mind looks like a priest/mage character.

The Sorcerer gave the Agent a document, though, not the other way around. This implies that the meeting was "Sorcerer provides Agent some sort of intel," not "Agent gives Sorcerer orders."
Gives backup to my belief that this is the hidden Intrigue 25 commander that's running the local Eshin force.

It may be "provoke Agent to give new orders based on 'new information,' kill Agent before they can discover that information wasn't accurate."
Or just get the Agent to drop it's guard because the mission is over ie Clan Mors is dead.
Then Surprise Backstab.


*******
VOTE
[X] Both must die.
- [X] Let the Sorcerer's attack play out, then finish off whoever survives.

One more note is that the Eshin are going to significant lengths to confirm the death of Mors.
If we can keep them from confirming the death of Clan Mors and of Sleek Sharpwit, we can play false flag games for decades.
 
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I'm not in a position to read through the thread right now, so can someone tell me what's the consensus on the Sorcerer's motives here?
Actually, a question -- if the Council Agent dies in Karak Eight Peaks, what's going to happen?

Aren't they going to investigate? I mean, would they just blame it on the battlefield and write it off? Or are they going to send somebody over to check it out?
My belief, which I think is pretty plausible, is that the council agent is here to pick up an intel report, but given all the shit that has happened recently, the Sorcerer knows that it's an astonishingly valuable report, and so his plan is to kill the agent and deliver it to the council himself so that all the credit goes to him.

Basically, imagine our purging of the College of Necromancy. Eshin Sorcerer had, in his claws, the Proof loot item. His job is to turn that over to the Council Agent, who will then return it to the Council, who will then upgrade their threat assessment of K8P accordingly. The Sorcerer, however, knows the value of what he has, and so doesn't want someone else to get the credit for this strategically valuable information.

(This is also why I think killing them both is important, because if I'm right, that document cannot get out.)
I don't know the RPG or TT. But this looks like a Grey Seer. One of the 169.
All the warpstone jewelry and the hand of the Horned Rat on its soul and mind looks like a priest/mage character.
We have OOC reason for believing it's not a Grey Seer because the table BoneyM rolled on had a separate entry for Grey Seer and for Council Agent. It might be a Grey Seer Apprentice, though -- we're not seeing with our eyes, so we have no way of knowing what color fur it has.
 
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@BoneyM
QUESTION
1)Can we tell what color the Council Agent's fur is?
If there is enough light to see the symbol on its robe and note that it's golden, there should be enough light to make out its fur.
And that of his bodyguards; whether they're albino or not.

The light is green. Unless the Skaven are green-furred, it's not supplying accurate information.

2)Does the Agent sport any horns on it's face? Is it carrying any weapons? Or a staff?

It could have horns under its hood, and it could have an entire armoury under its robes.

3) What color is the Sorcerer's fur?

It keeps shifting to whatever colour blends in best at the time.
 
This is probably a Grey Seer, or an apprentice Grey Seer.
Don't think it's a full Grey Seer, since that was one of the options for the Council Attaché that wasn't rolled. Maybe an Apprentice, though I'd think we'd sense more direct magic on the guy in that case (unless one of the benefits of that much Warpstone gear is to act as dazzle camouflage.)
 
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I'm not in a position to read through the thread right now, so can someone tell me what's the consensus on the Sorcerer's motives here?

Way i see it:

A) Sorcerer delivers a real message, but does not want it getting to the Seers, so he was prepared to attack unless the envoy brought overwhelming forces.

B) Sorcerer is delivering a false message, and is prepared to attack if the message is discovered, but will let the envoy leave if he believes it.

C) Sorcerer only delivered the message as a safeguard in case he fails to kill the envoy, delivering the message himself would be the preferred outcome. Have to be willing to die for this, or is very confident he can pull this off (secret master assassin nearby?).

So, possible messages:

1) Actual account of the events in K8P, not the best outcome for Eshin, but important info nonetheless.

2) False account of the events, doctored to make Eshin look better.

3) Information Eshin feels should get to the Seers, Dragon? New Dwarf tactics?

4) Just a letter confirming that Mors is effectively gone, no more info.

I feel we should at least try to understand what's going on before moving forward.
Does the letter need to be intercepted or do we gain by letting it get to it's destination? Is the letter to be trusted should we get it? Does the Sorcerer have backup nearby?

Why would an Eshin sorcerer wish to kill an envoy of the Seers if it's not for the letter? Maybe the information is correct, but he does not want the destruction of the Eshin Outpost known?
Unfortunately, the only way to find that out without actually getting our hands on the letter is for Mathilde to know spoken Queekish.

This is probably a Grey Seer, or an apprentice Grey Seer.

There's good odds that this is the hidden commander of the local Eshin forces.
"Grey Seer" and "Eshin Leader" were different roll options than what we got.

E: Eshin'd

Remember that when we went to loot the Eshin, we went to the biggest structure and largest rooms, for the most important people in the Eshin clan

We found a room shared by the Master Assassin and Sorcerer.
Not a room for a Warlord.
I'm pretty sure that was the Eshin leader's room, just split between their ninja stuff and their leader stuff.
 
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[X] Both should die (write in)
-[X] If the Sorcerer attacks, let the Sorcerer's attack play out, then finish off whoever survives. Otherwise, just observe and leave.
 
If it'll make you feel better, imagine Alfalfahelp Abelhelm chilling in the afterlife with a bucket of popcorn and his usual flask, watching Mathilde's antics on the big screen, MST3K style.

Imagine the things he would have to say.
Mostly, I'm hoping he doesn't have a 24/7 video feed, romance novel time is private time
Bok means "shit" in Turkish.

So I can't shake the feeling the elemental is constantly cursing. :V
"Where's the Runelord- shit! Archmage- shit! Shit, why is everything on fire, what are these rat things everywhere! Shit!"
 
Some thoughts: how do we want to handle Eshin if it turns out that Mors's awful rolls and the dragon's merely OK one means that their other heroes are in position to get away clean?
I think the Master Assassin is dead.
The Sorcerer wouldn't be about to attempt something like this if he thought there was the chance he'd be detected by a near-peer.

So good odds that killing the Sorcerer decapitates the local Eshin forces.
Which leaves them rather vulnerable to the dawi moving in force into Yar. And allows Matty to go after all the others fairly comprehensively.
I'm not in a position to read through the thread right now, so can someone tell me what's the consensus on the Sorcerer's motives here?
Backstab his boss so he can take credit for any success is my guess.
We have OOC reason for believing it's not a Grey Seer because the table BoneyM rolled on had a separate entry for Grey Seer and for Council Agent. It might be a Grey Seer Apprentice, though -- we're not seeing with our eyes, so we have no way of knowing what color fur it has.
Point of order:
We ARE seeing with our eyes. We can see this:
A document of some sort is handed over, and the robed Skaven produces what looks like a glass bead containing a sphere of unrefined warpstone, spilling green light over the document and illuminating his form, and emblazoned upon his robe in golden thread is the thirteen-pointed wheel symbol of the Council of Thirteen.
We can see yellow just fine apparently.

The light is green. Unless the Skaven are green-furred, it's not supplying accurate information.
It could have horns under its hood, and it could have an entire armoury under its robes.
It keeps shifting to whatever colour blends in best at the time.
-But we can make out the color of the emblem on his robes though? If you says so I guess.
-If there is a hood and we can't tell if there are horns, that suggests most of the height isn't coming from any horns, and Agent is naturally tall.
Can't be a Verminlord, since I assume Matty would notice being that close to a Greater Demon.

Thanks for answering.
 
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"I know you've read the book, hurry up and let me get a piece of the action as well"?
Waiting for your turn with the controller is the worst
We found a room shared by the Master Assassin and Sorcerer.
Not a room for a Warlord.
I'm sorry, my mind is currently full of images of a neat-freak Master Assassin and a slob Sorcerer having to cohabitate as flatmates along with their three friends from down the hall. Whatever else you said has been lost imagining the Master Assassin cleaning up some mess and the Sorcerer assuring him that he has a system, he knows where everything is, and the Assassin messed it all up.
 
Waiting for your turn with the controller is the worst

I'm sorry, my mind is currently full of images of a neat-freak Master Assassin and a slob Sorcerer having to cohabitate as flatmates along with their three friends from down the hall. Whatever else you said has been lost imagining the Master Assassin cleaning up some mess and the Sorcerer assuring him that he has a system, he knows where everything is, and the Assassin messed it all up.
No, it'd be the sorcerer who was seemingly a neat freak, but actually just stuffed all their trash into a secret compartment underneath their authentic tatami mats or something. The assassin has to fill out the paperwork.
 
I don't think the whatever is being passed along is super-dangerous-to-K8P-intel. Like, none of the remaining skaven groups appear to know that the dwarfs have overrun Mors's holdings and have had the rest of K8P basically fall into their lap. The remaining Mors don't know because they had their communications interdicted. Skyre was rather preoccupied by getting annihilated by the angry dragon. Eshin has been all-hands-on-deck with the Mors assault.
 
I think the Master Assassin is dead.
Point of order:
We ARE seeing with our eyes. We can see this:
We can see yellow just fine apparently.

-But we can make out the color of the emblem on his robes though? If you says so I guess.
-If there is a hood and we can't tell if there are horns, that suggests most of the height isn't coming from any horns, and Agent is naturally tall.
Can't be a Verminlord, since I assume Matty would notice being that close to a Greater Demon.
It's likely absorbing Chamon since it's a metal.
 
It's likely absorbing Chamon since it's a metal.
That is a good point. Winds don't just show us ambient thoughts, they can also give us indicators of material composition; that's how we know the Envoy is covered in Warp Stone, for instance. We could have just known it was gold because it's covered in the Gold wind.
 
-But we can make out the color of the emblem on his robes though? If you says so I guess.
Think of it like you're looking at something on a RGB screen where the R and B channels are slightly damaged, so everything is tinted strongly green. You can still tell that two things are different colours, and even get some idea of what colours they are, but you can't tell a light grey from a light brown, they both look green.

It's not pure green light like from an LED, it's just very strongly tinted green, so everything looks greener than it should - but turning up the green on gold doesn't do as much to alter its colour as turning up the green on light grey or light brown does.
 
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It's likely absorbing Chamon since it's a metal.
Chamon wouldn't tell us what sort of metal it was, to the best of my knowledge.
Could be silver, it could be gromril or something more exotic.
Golden implies we can see color.

So either our Windsage has improved even further, or we are seeing visible light.
Or the GM made a typo.
 
Chamon wouldn't tell us what sort of metal it was, to the best of my knowledge.
Could be silver, it could be gromril or something more exotic.
Golden implies we can see color.

So either our Windsage has improved even further, or we are seeing visible light.
Or the GM made a typo.

I think gold absorbs Chammon faster/better than other metals. It's why Gold magisters prefer it for their works.
 
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