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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Angelform said:
Thought process:

1) Mathilde has Windherder and Windsage. She has also demonstrated the ability to no-sell other people's miscasts.

2) Aethyric Vitae is a (somewhat) stable mix of all eight winds in equal amounts in liquid form.
2b) AV destabilises if more of one type of wind is introduced.

3) The Collages consider it theoretically possible that High Magic can be achieved by having eight wizards synchronously cast the spell. However the danger represented by having eight simultaneous miscasts makes the technique impractical to explore.

4) At least some of the winds have a liquid intermediate phase between wind and power stone.

Hypothesis:
It may be possible to create more AV by channelling equal amounts of the eight winds into a small space, possibly utilising the techniques involved in power stone creation.

Proposal:
Have eight Wizards, one from each College and not including Mathilde, channel tiny amounts of magic into the same place. Have Mathilde on hand both to observe and to ground out miscasts.

@BoneyM
Can we try this to see, or is it under the heading of 'Mathilde thinks it is suicidal'?
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We'd have to actually KNOW the techniques of powerstone creation.
 
Andmeuths said:
Would this be an acceptable write-in:

[ ] DUCK: Offer Gretel a job within the EIC as your right-hand woman within the company and the chief-handler for intelligence matters of the EIC.
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Sure.

Angelform said:
Thought process:

1) Mathilde has Windherder and Windsage. She has also demonstrated the ability to no-sell other people's miscasts.

2) Aethyric Vitae is a (somewhat) stable mix of all eight winds in equal amounts in liquid form.
2b) AV destabilises if more of one type of wind is introduced.

3) The Collages consider it theoretically possible that High Magic can be achieved by having eight wizards synchronously cast the spell. However the danger represented by having eight simultaneous miscasts makes the technique impractical to explore.

4) At least some of the winds have a liquid intermediate phase between wind and power stone.

Hypothesis:
It may be possible to create more AV by channelling equal amounts of the eight winds into a small space, possibly utilising the techniques involved in power stone creation.

Proposal:
Have eight Wizards, one from each College and not including Mathilde, channel tiny amounts of magic into the same place. Have Mathilde on hand both to observe and to ground out miscasts.

@BoneyM
Can we try this to see, or is it under the heading of 'Mathilde thinks it is suicidal'?
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It would theoretically require eight compatible people channelling exactly equal amounts of Winds. Anything short of that will result in Dhar at best and eight simultaneous miscasts at worst.
 
[X] Plan: Spoken Queekish v4 with Better Max and Better Paper
[X] Plan: Spoken Queekish v4 with Better Max
[X] Spoken Queekish with better gambits
[X] Plan: Spoken Queekish v4

I like Better Max and Better Paper versions, but I'm not willing to drop Queekish v4 or better gambits until something else has a chance of beating Dictionaries + Powerstones.
 
[X] Plan: Spoken Queekish v4 with Better Max and Better Paper
-[X] Contains one Overwork action
-[X][MAX] Write a paper: Translated text on Chaos Dwarf anatomy (TIMELESS)
-[X][JOHANN] Study an artefact: Unknown black gem, stolen from the Skaven.
-[X][DUCK] Johann's investigation into the ratling gun has hit a wall. See if you can help
-[X][EIC] Put policies in place that local news should be collected and sent to you (rumour mill).
-[X] Seek to build a stronger rapport with Qrech, and provide enough sources of mental stimulation that you can turn your attention elsewhere.
-[X] Try to convince him outright to teach you spoken Queekish.
--[X] Deceiver: Continue with the Gambit that teaching you Queekish continues to cause discontent in the Grey Order and of course the Grey Order itself already has Queekish...
-[X] Travel to the Grey College and attend lessons there: Waystones and Waystone maintenance
-[X][AV] Investigate the exact circumstances required to induce a transformation.
-[X] Wolf is fully grown and a Very Good Boy. Train him. (increases his intelligence, he may learn to speak Praestantia)
-[X][PENTHOUSE] Have a gyrocopter landing pad built into your balcony.
-[X][SERENITY] Brief observations on Eshin Sorcery (FRESH)
-[X][COIN] The Deceiver: Skaven Gambit
 
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Andmeuths said:
From a narrative in-universe perspective, I think a Grey Perpetual being groomed is the kind of thing Mathilde might undertake as the complexity of her info-network grows because this agent can probably offer actions Mathilde might never personally dare take without an Agent of a Grey order whose political reliabilities are almost certainly higher than any handler Mathilde recruits who are not in the Grey Order. Given her loyalties to the Grey College, and given what that info-network is meant for, it won't be out of character for Mathilde to take in a young Perpetual to ensure that network remains in control of the Grey Order in event of anything happening to her, as a way to ensure her legacy continues. Mathilde is that paranoid.
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I fell there is something of a contradiction in terms here, we are getting a fresh operative we are groming specificaly for the position either way so I don't see why you are salivating at the skills they would have when the point is that those will come from us either way.

Honestly all this talk about getting a perpetual makes me think people forget the beggining of the quest. Do you remenber baby Mathilde the derpwizard ? No fuckin idea of what she was doind, neckdeep in a conspiracy and laundering money at every oportunity? I think you are looking at this perpetual too much like an ideal subordinate and forgeting that coming the Grey College won't make then less of a person.
I fell like this is another example of people not quite getting how far we have come, Mathilde can actualy vet people just as well as almost anyone else in the college. I think we have to give her some more trust before paranoia becomes sinonyn to self dout, we don't need the college to find someone we can reasonably trust.
 
BoneyM said:
You could ask the burghers of the House of Goellner how well a paper trail where everything seems to be in order protects against the wrath of the Grey College, except they're all very dead. The Bursar doesn't give a single solitary shit about any books Mathilde would keep, because she wouldn't trust them for a second.
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So any ties to a financial institute, even if it operates cleanly and is overall good for the well being of the Empire, is going to get us offed for amassing too much power?

In that case can we have Mathilde use the boon as I laid out take effect after her death?
 
Zaratustra said:
I fell there is something of a contradiction in terms here, we are getting a fresh operative we are groming specificaly for the position either way so I don't see why you are salivating at the skills they would have when the point is that those will come from us either way.
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BoneyM has also ruled we can recruit Gretel into the EIC as an alternative too and we know she has skills. We've seen it firsthand. And wealth is her motivator.
 
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Ultimately I'm not all that woried about the EIC's Imperialist ambitions. Because if something like conquering the Border Princes, or pressing Ind or Cathay under an imperial boot heel becomes possible (ha, fucking try it and see what happens) it's more than likely that the Empire will just do it with their conventional military anyway.

Sure, the East India Company got the ball rolling in a few places; but it took almost a century after they were dissolved before the Empire disassembled itself.

Even in a hypothetical scenario two hundred years from now where the EIC is rich and influential enough in the Empire to basically run it's own army of State Troopers, I don't think any colonial/imperial ambitions can squarely be laid at their feet. The Empire is already colonizing the New World, albeit I don't think polio is going to help them here.
 
HanEmpire said:
So any ties to a financial institute, even if it operates cleanly and is overall good for the well being of the Empire, is going to get us offed for amassing too much power?
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What? No. I'm saying that you can have no paperwork or you can have all the paperwork in the world and neither will make a single difference. If the Bursar is investigating Mathilde, she will find out what the EIC is up to herself, she won't be consulting Mathilde's own records.
 
PsyFarrow said:
Again, this assumes Gretel isn't content to simply live the good life in her tower. I wouldn't be so certain about that.
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Of course, we are not certain about that, because it's almost certainly roll dependant. as with many things in this quest, just like offering Panoramia the option to deweed the Karak with the Eye. Remember, wealth is still on her character sheet as a motivator.

You cannot be certain that this is all there is to Gretel. As you said, you are assuming Gretel is actually content, and won't relish something potentially interesting. This is probably all up to the dice.

Again, why are people inherently protesting at the possibility of recruiting Gretel other than grounds that such recruitment might fail, which is true for just about any action we try to take. And if the action failed because Gretel is not interested, then following the precedence of Panoramia, that half action can be re=assigned again to another Duckling Club action. If it succeeds, we have a competent, proven sub-ordinate with a known motivation, that Mathilde has an affinity with and looks upon favorably. Since Mathilde does not trust almost anyone, the real question is, can Mathilde work well with an individual? For any random handler chief, whether a perpetual, a Ranaldite Handrich found, a potential EIC employee we know not yet, the answer is that we do not know if Mathilde can work well with any of them . We know Mathilde can work well with Gretel.

It's a risk-free option to ask Gretel, just as it was to offer to use the tower of Gazul to help Panoramia. There was no mechanical penalty other than the action failed to even get off the ground, choose again.

Suppose we do succeed. What is the case against asking besides failure? Is succeeding objectionable, if the only objection to the risk of failure and not the idea in itself? Because I'm seeing an attack on the viability of the idea, less so on the idea itself. Clearly, the idea doesn't sit well with those objecting to the viability, so what is the objection to the idea in itself, were it to succeed, assuming it is potentially viable, which the QM has ruled it is.

It's perfectly in character for Mathilde to offer the Duckling she likes the most, who has a known motivation, whom she knows she can work well with, whom she knows can hold her own in a fight, to at least extend an invitation to Gretel to take up a position within the EIC.

So suppose the rolls dictate we succeed: what is wrong with the idea? I cannot engage anyone on the possibility the idea might fail when it's been ruled it might also succeed, especially when the failure consequence is literally: try another action, so the risk of attempting is zero from that end. What, then, are the demerits of the idea if it succeeds?
 
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Lupercal said:
It might not be true in this quest but in Night's Dark Masters (RPG sourcebook for undead) the more skilled you were in life, represented by how many careers you have, the more likely you are to be risen as a wight rather then a basic skeleton.
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That's probably because more experienced people leave more intact souls behind. Liber Necris explains how undead creation works. People's souls disintegrate into fragments after they die. To raise an undead creature requires that you grab a piece of their soul and bind it back to their corpse. If you only have the lower piece of their soul then you get a lower order undead. If more of their soul has rayed together you can create a higher order undead. What follows is that if you don't have their soul on hand, you can't raise them. This says bad things about the afterlife of most humans, as they can be raised just fine.

Horium said:
We already have everything except magic terminology, and Moulder is unlikely to have it.
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Moulder have their own specialist wizards, the Harbingers of Mutation
Angelform said:
2) Aethyric Vitae is a (somewhat) stable mix of all eight winds in equal amounts in liquid form.
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This seems unlikely to be true. More likely is that AV is the raw stuff of the Aethyr that decomposes into the Winds when it reacts with physical reality.

BoneyM said:
It would theoretically require eight compatible people channelling exactly equal amounts of Winds. Anything short of that will result in Dhar at best and eight simultaneous miscasts at worst.
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Interesting. I think there are some mentions of elven High Magic that doesn't use all the Winds, and certainly some that use more of one Wind than others. Presumably calibrating that is beyond humans,
 
BoneyM said:
What? No. I'm saying that you can have no paperwork or you can have all the paperwork in the world and neither will make a single difference. If the Bursar is investigating Mathilde, she will find out what the EIC is up to herself, she won't be consulting Mathilde's own records.
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Oh cool, then I'm gonna push for the bank as the boon. They're not going to find anything out of order with Mathilde's finances. Can you add that option to the eventual vote?
 
[X] Plan: Spoken Queekish v4 with Better Max and Better Paper
[X] Plan: Spoken Queekish v4 with Better Max
[X] Spoken Queekish with better gambits
[x] Plan Redshirt v2
[X] Plan Dictionaries now, powerstones for AV stuff and jazz
 
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Alliterate said:
I object because I don't really trust her.
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Mathilde, as a Grey Magister does not trust almost anyone. It won't surprise me if the three people she really trusts in her whole life is Belegar, Anton and Abelheim.

Also, the I don't trust her assertion reeks alot of the kind of distrust of Roswitta or Johann before we got a deeper look into them as characters.
 
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