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I'm not certain of that. He talks about tearing the guild asunder, but that's not necessarily "getting them to take slayer oaths".

If there are any rune-masters left I'm pretty sure they'd have other ideas for punishment than "get all the runelords who naysayed them to commit ritual suicide" - but someone would need to be able to understand the politics of the situation to clear things up sufficiently that the runelords didn't commit ritual suicide anyway.

I'm pretty sure that the Karak Dum Rune masters response is absolutely going to be that they should commit ritual suicide. I mean think about the shame they should feel for ignoring it the 1st and 2nd order consequences are massive numbers of deaths, entire holds falling including Karak Dum. Krakka Drakk etc.

But if there's anything to exonerate the Rune lords it will be found here as well and I'd rather Thorek be involved in that than a journeyman from any other rune smithing sub clan.
 
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But if there's anything to exonerate the Rune lords it will be found here as well and I'd rather Thorek be involved in that than a journeyman from any other rune smithing sub clan.

Pretty much this, for all Thorek is not in a conciliatory mood at leas we know he is experienced with this sort of thing. If we grab some other Azul runesmth he is going to find out anyway, being their grandmaster, only in that case we get to find out what junior does with the information in the meantime and it's unlikely to be pretty.
 
[X] PLAN: Chaos makes Taal feel peeved!

I am happy to wake up and see this, though I would be happier if it specified that the goal for enchanting the robe was that it be always-on.

EDIT: To be clear, I think it is a very bad idea in "Plan: Fog Path to Success (Damsels and Rune smiths)" to drop doing a Duckling recruitment action to help Hubert get a familiar. More knights would be good, the fieldwardens would also be good, but to ignore it entirely seems really questionable.

I also don't like the EIC action, much less for reasons of "I am worried about the EIC's navy being a problem down the line" than for reasons of "Integrating the Gong Farmers seems like a good idea."
Will add in the 'with an aim to have indefatigable always on'
 
What would you perceive as the risk of doing so? Sure the Karaz-ankor loses a number of rune lords, on the other hand it also has a drastic change in rune smithing culture and Thorek will be the one shaping it. We need runesmiths in Karak Dum, runesmiths from any other polity if Karak dum still stands will not have a remotely warm welcome and frankly chances are if Karak dum still stands not recruiting Thorek or the Azul runesmiths at best just strings things along for a bit until Thorek has a chance to meet with the evacuees and then shit kicks off any way.
If everyone is dead we are going to need Runesmiths to get past any traps and inside sealed vaults. Hell we might need them to check if the tombs are intact.

The way I see it, there are two main classes of scenarios.
  1. The dwarves of Karak Dum survive
  2. They're all dead.
In scenario 1, we don't have a need for a runesmith, as the survivors can open the vaults, disarm the traps, etc, and a Karak Azul one we take along would be problematic.

In scenario 2, the hold is probably desirable real estate and occupied by an assortment of nasties. The expedition isn't big enough to retake the hold from any real force, so we don't need a runesmith to open any sealed vaults, as the only person able to reach those Vaults and potentially open them is Mathilde, runesmiths not being known for their supernatural abilities as infiltrators. In this scenario the best option is to learn Arcane Khazlid and hope that gives us enough insight to notice and disarm any traps and open any vaults, as knowledge of necromancy and Waaagh magic has made her better able to dispel them.

In neither scenario is a runesmith actually that useful. There's an edge case where they might be useful, of an abandoned, empty hold, but in that case we simply introduce the risk of them recovering something that exonerates the Karak Dum dwarves, which I think is a net loss to the Karaz Ank, as I don't think anything they find could be worth that.

Having conservative runelords go slayer is a massive disaster, as each runelord represents another set of irreplacable knowledge that no one else knows, further diminishing the total runic lore of the dwarves. At the moment at least they can make items with those runes, even if they've not found a worthy successor to teach them to. Once they go Slayer it's gone forever.
 
The way I see it, there are two main classes of scenarios.
  1. The dwarves of Karak Dum survive
  2. They're all dead.
In scenario 1, we don't have a need for a runesmith, as the survivors can open the vaults, disarm the traps, etc, and a Karak Azul one we take along would be problematic.

In scenario 2, the hold is probably desirable real estate and occupied by an assortment of nasties. The expedition isn't big enough to retake the hold from any real force, so we don't need a runesmith to open any sealed vaults, as the only person able to reach those Vaults and potentially open them is Mathilde, runesmiths not being known for their supernatural abilities as infiltrators. In this scenario the best option is to learn Arcane Khazlid and hope that gives us enough insight to notice and disarm any traps and open any vaults, as knowledge of necromancy and Waaagh magic has made her better able to dispel them.

In neither scenario is a runesmith actually that useful. There's an edge case where they might be useful, of an abandoned, empty hold, but in that case we simply introduce the risk of them recovering something that exonerates the Karak Dum dwarves, which I think is a net loss to the Karaz Ank, as I don't think anything they find could be worth that.

Having conservative runelords go slayer is a massive disaster, as each runelord represents another set of irreplacable knowledge that no one else knows, further diminishing the total runic lore of the dwarves. At the moment at least they can make items with those runes, even if they've not found a worthy successor to teach them to. Once they go Slayer it's gone forever.
  1. A few issues with this, some dwarfs surviving does not mean anyone has survived capable to opening the vaults. We could end up in a situation like the canon second expedition where the dun dwarfs were like rats in the walls. Speaking of that expedition the Karak was mostly taken over by chaos yet the rescuers were able to get inside with much lesser forces than we have.
  2. As for the loss of lore, I just value the ability to make 'the extra special burny rune' less than the ethos of actually improving one's craft beyond the scope of post-War of Vengeance hyper conservatism. the history of the Karaz ankor for the past three thousand years has bene the history of dwarf conservatism as the principal current failing time and again inch by inch.
 
If we get to the Karak and the Rune-Masters still exist, I think we'll want someone with us who can work out a punishment fitting for a runelord to prevent the whole "bunch of the oldest runelords are useless slayers now" situation.

Having Thorek there would mean that we have a political mind that's suited to working out such details.
Its not a punishment, its an outlet for shame they cannot address.
The human noble equivalent would be taking poison, but since suicide is itself more shame on top they can't suicide.

Mind you, theres ways and means to make up for shame. Older dwarves tend to have better coping mechanisms, and perhaps a big chunk is likely to commit heavily to restoring Karag Dum to atone...but for those voices who have recorded in posterity as dismissing their expert Chaos advice...
 
This specifies getting the robes to be always on, and allows for using powerstones to do this (that seems necessary, given that they'd need a constant source of power), and the Drake scales.

Also, why not investigate Marienburg by inserting agnents? figuring out what the hell they are doing is a good idea. Last time we luckily stopped them from getting Asarnil, but that was just luck. We have unique cover to go and setup agents in Marienburg, namely that the EIC is considering expanding.

[X] PLAN: Taal plan, with Better Robes and EIC Marienburg
-[X] MAX: Allow him to spend all his time on his own preparations.
-[X] JOHANN: Allow him to spend all his time on his own preparations. (NEW)
-[X] DUCK: Attempt to recruit Esbern and Seija and their compatriots of the Knights of Taal's Fury.
-[X][EIC] Insert agents into a particular province, cult, company, or institution to start gathering their secrets.
--[X] Marienburg
-[X] Attempt to recruit assistance for the Karag Dum Expedition. (Damsels of Bretonnia, Azul Runesmiths)
-[X] With the help of a gyrocarriage, personally scout part of the route specify: Western Great Steppes
-[X] Continue to work on your 'Fog Path' spell.
--[X] The Gambler: specify an action this will apply to: Fog path spell
-[X] Branulhune's ability to disappear and reappear at a thought allows entirely new forms of combat. Try to create them.
-[X] Enchant an item with a Fiendishly Complex or easier spell: Robe with AA and AA mastery, trying to keep the spell Mastery always on. (Overwork)
--[X] Use Powerstone(s) and Drake scales to do this if needed
-[X] PENTHOUSE: Have a tower built atop Karag Nar: -100gc for 1 room, bonus to room's purpose.
-[X] Write a paper: Warp Lightning observations - shared with Adela (Serenity)
 
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I haven't kept up with the thread discussion - this one just moves too fast for me. Can someone give me the cliffs notes version of what Fog Path is and why we want it? I get the impression it's battle magic, and I'm honestly not sure why the thread wanted MMM in the first place. Our mountain'o'death would indicate we really don't need to risk miscast to produce ludicrous destruction.
 
[X] PLAN: Taal plan, with Better Robes and EIC Marienburg
I like the bit about specifying the use of Powerstones (@BeepSmile take note; we might also want to specify that we'll use the scales if that'll help), but I don't think inserting agents into Marienburg is going to be very effective, for the simple reason that the EIC doesn't have a presence in that part of the world. Also, there's the issue that, from their perspective, it's so obvious that they'd be targeted for espionage by forces within the Empire that they are doubtlessly on high alert for spies; between that and the fact that we don't already have a local presence we can leverage, I can't see us getting much of value that the Empire isn't already getting with their own spies.
I haven't kept up with the thread discussion - this one just moves too fast for me. Can someone give me the cliffs notes version of what Fog Path is and why we want it? I get the impression it's battle magic, and I'm honestly not sure why the thread wanted MMM in the first place. Our mountain'o'death would indicate we really don't need to risk miscast to produce ludicrous destruction.
If you go to the Informational threadmark section and look at the Approved Spells post, you can read the original proposal by DiceOfStupidity. Basically, it's a strategic mobility spell to nullify terrain issues and help our expedition cross treacherous ground instead of getting bogged down or needing to detour around.

Because of the Staff of Mistery that we crafted a few turns ago, we cast mist/fog/miasma/smoke-based spells as one category lower in difficulty and with enhanced effect. This includes Battle Magic; we cast BM spells with the miscast risk of FC spells (i.e. none under normal circumstances), if they are using some kind of vapor as the medium of the spell.
 
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[X] PLAN: Chaos makes Taal feel peeved!

we also might want to think about combat training for Wolf. We are already developing a style unique to our sword. let's integrate Wolf into that.
 
Am I the only one thinking we should learn more battle mage spells before we go to chaos wastes?
The issue is that the only one that has its miscast chance reduced and effect boosted by the Staff of Mistery is MMM, and we've already learned that. We are currently trying to create another spell (which might be Battle Magic and might be doable at the FC level, depending on what happens during creating it) to boost our strategic mobility, but any other Battle Magic spells off the canonical list would be more dangerous to learn and cast.

I am fine with us inventing more spells down the line (such as a direct-damage option), but we don't have the time to do that before Karag Dum.
 
It's certainly effective, but as you blow your nose and consider the soot it leaves in your handkerchief, you think you might have been better served if you had specified something more self-contained.
This kind of result is why people micromange. The use case of enabling a breakout when we are hard pressed and surrounded enough that we can't afford to cast a difficult spell like SM is questionable now.

I admit I was blinded by my own assumptions: it never occurred to be that it wouldn't be a ring.
 
This kind of result is why people micromange. The use case of enabling a breakout when we are hard pressed and surrounded enough that we can't afford to cast a difficult spell like SM is questionable now.

I admit I was blinded by my own assumptions: it never occurred to be that it wouldn't be a ring.

There would always be drawbacks to something this powerful.
 
I like the bit about specifying the use of Powerstones (@BeepSmile take note; we might also want to specify that we'll use the scales if that'll help), but I don't think inserting agents into Marienburg is going to be very effective, for the simple reason that the EIC doesn't have a presence in that part of the world. Also, there's the issue that, from their perspective, it's so obvious that they'd be targeted for espionage by forces within the Empire that they are doubtlessly on high alert for spies; between that and the fact that we don't already have a local presence we can leverage, I can't see us getting much of value that the Empire isn't already getting with their own spies.

If you go to the Informational threadmark section and look at the Approved Spells post, you can read the original proposal by DiceOfStupidity. Basically, it's a strategic mobility spell to nullify terrain issues and help our expedition cross treacherous ground instead of getting bogged down or needing to detour around.

Because of the Staff of Mistery that we crafted a few turns ago, we cast mist/fog/miasma/smoke-based spells as one category lower in difficulty and with enhanced effect. This includes Battle Magic; we cast BM spells with the miscast risk of FC spells (i.e. none under normal circumstances), if they are using some kind of vapor as the medium of the spell.

Ahhhhhh. That puts a remarkably different spin on things. Ty.
 
:<

Tal plan has no pall of darkness action. Sadness.

Would people be willing to switch to one of my plans if I change out the duckling action for the knights of Tal with the Ambers?

Also the EIC action looks like one destined to fail as we lack a point of presence there to justify our agents existence.
 
@BoneyM, so, Elves were in the Old World chasing Morghur. Was that actually the Wood Elves or was Ulthuan doing it for some reason?

(Also, personal curiosity, how many Runelords are there in the Karaz Ankor? And what defines the difference between a Runelord and a Runesmith?)
 
This kind of result is why people micromange. The use case of enabling a breakout when we are hard pressed and surrounded enough that we can't afford to cast a difficult spell like SM is questionable now.

I admit I was blinded by my own assumptions: it never occurred to be that it wouldn't be a ring.
The idea of it being a ring never even occured to me. It's dragon breath - I assumed it was going to be either something that could itself breathe out the fire (like a blunderbuss) or something that made us breathe out fire (like a mask or choker)

The exact form it took was a surprise, but we've been told previously that battle magic tier items will always be somewhat unwieldy, with 20 being the limit prior to them becoming very unwieldy.
 
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