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So doing a wiki walk I looked up van Horstmann, and how sure are we that we averted his betrayal and Changer of ways worship? Cause that shit all started cause Master Chanter Alric and his wife threw both him and his sister into a pit of snakes when they were kids, for some weird ass magical experiment. Revenge is a hell of a drug and I don't think that we have done anything to stop that from happening.
BoneyM rolled a dice unseen to all of us :D
Edit: added relevant quote.
Also keep in mind that at some point in the not-so-distant future I'm going to have to roll a will check to keep van Horstmann from being entirely loyal to the Empire and an overall charming and helpful person just to fuck with the thread, and that's going to have a really high DC.
 
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So doing a wiki walk I looked up van Horstmann, and how sure are we that we averted his betrayal and Changer of ways worship? Cause that shit all started cause Master Chanter Alric and his wife threw both him and his sister into a pit of snakes when they were kids, for some weird ass magical experiment. Revenge is a hell of a drug and I don't think that we have done anything to stop that from happening.

That is from a book the GM told us to ignore in its entirety, so to answer your question we are not at all certain we averted his fall, but you should pay no mind to the silly snake pit.
 
So doing a wiki walk I looked up van Horstmann, and how sure are we that we averted his betrayal and Changer of ways worship? Cause that shit all started cause Master Chanter Alric and his wife threw both him and his sister into a pit of snakes when they were kids, for some weird ass magical experiment. Revenge is a hell of a drug and I don't think that we have done anything to stop that from happening.

His betrayal could or could not happened in quest world independently of Mathilde's actions, and this snakepit bullshit definitely didn't happen because said novel explicitly was declared non-canon by Boney (thankfully).
 
A bit disappointed with Hubert. This was an excellent opportunity and excuse to expand his grasp on Azyr, and he wasted it by choosing the self-indulgent path of least resistance of bro-ing around with Ulricans while playing with swords.

In more important news, Johann has in the span of year or two become a Dawongr and even learned to speak Khazalid, thereby successfully passing over Max, who's still "only" Dawongr-ish.

Honestly, it was high time for it (the Johann bit, not the Max bit), since Johann had been talking about liking dwarfs ever since the middle of K8P expedition.
 
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A bit disappointed with Hubert. This was an excellent opportunity and excuse to expand his grasp on Azyr, and he wasted it by choosing the self-indulgent path of least resistance of bro-ing around with Ulricans while playing with swords.

In more important news, Johann has in the span of year or two become a Dawongr and even learned to speak Khazalid, thereby successfully passing over Max, who's still "only" Dawongr-ish.

Honestly, it was high time for it (the Johann bit, not the Max bit), since Johann had been talking about liking dwarfs ever since the middle of K8P expedition.
We are kind of getting a bad record with Wizards who specialize in all kinds of stuff instead of continuing their education. But perhaps that's a good thing, all things considered, nurturing a generation of warriors and engineers instead of scientists.
 
The leaders of the forces of the Knightly Orders will retain command over them, what changes is whether they're talking directly to Borek or whether that communication goes through Mathilde.
So this is one of two major things we should base our decision on. First, we either want more people in the council to increase our 'vote share' (yes, we don't actually vote, but the council does have influence, and more people on the council is more levers we have to pull), or we want less people on the council to not piss off the dwarves. This is all politics. So I'd maybe hide Arsenil away to avoid offense, and but keep the Knightly orders separate.

The other thing we want to consider is what we want to control in battle. I think that putting us in control of the Knightly orders screws up the chains of command too much, as we are suddenly in charge of two different areas of concern, magic and cavalry, which have very different uses, and don't tend to go together (with the Ambers and Huberts being exceptions). This would be fine if we were in control of all different things as the head of the expedition, and needed to coordinate them, but we aren't, so it's best not to mix up the level of coordination we have.

So the option if the dwarves won't like Asarnil and Asarnil doesn't care about a position in the council much
[X] Lead the Wizards and Asarnil

And the other option
[X] Lead only the Wizards
 
with some internal grumbling that you're one Wind short of the full spectrum
I don't suppose Asarnil any knows Death magic? At all? As as Elf he should have at least some ability with magic.

Essentially a long list of 'do not poke' reminders.

…she heard something we haven't?

your inner circle - Johann, Max, Esbern, Seija, and Hubert
Johann is obviously martial and Max stewardship. Hubert probably fits diplomacy best. Es and Se… learning I suppose, if only because their exotic skill set doesn't overlap with Mathilde's much.

Perhaps 'steam-wagon' does a disservice to the behemoths trundling down the road.
No 'perhaps' about it.
Frostpunk has things called 'Land Dreadnoughts' that seem comparable to those 'wagons'.

It lacks the swivel-cannon that the others have but more than makes up for it with the dragon that is perched atop it, watching the terrain crawl past with disdain.
Ok. Can someone please explain why the most mobile being on the expedition is being carried rather than moving under his own power?

At minimum I want the knight. Asarnil is more debatable.
 
I didn't see the thread explode over Dragomas, and he is much more outrageous than us.
Cause he's old, supreme patriarch, there isn't someone at the time who should have his spot (Starke is canonically meant to be the youngest LM of the Grey a title we've swiped), a character like him kinda has to exist since a college supreme is needed, where as Mathilde doesn't, he's not heading into the chaos wastes for any reason regardless of how benevolent his stated intentions are and he's not a suspiciously perfect mirror to the character you've managed to not go chaos.*

Like in this hypothetical controlling Van Horstman quest to me the idea that Mathilde is the prodigal collegiate member that ends up going evil would almost be too telegraphed, especially with the QM being able to drop hints like an odd degree of knowledge on the inner workings of Dhar :p. Them going bad would be about as equally bad, in fact Mathilde might even be worse, as a Grey she wouldn't be releasing a single chaos Dragon she could screw over/corrupt the Empire's intelligence apparatus for generations.

*It is kinda everywhere beyond simply just being opposite winds, physically they're also opposites to seemingly their preferred modus Operandi, with Horstman having his choir and Mathilde being super sneaky solo badass stuff.
 
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[X] Lead the Wizards, Knightly Orders, and Asarnil


Let's just nip any potential issues with 'which knightly order gets to tell the other what to do' in the bud.
 
I don't suppose Asarnil any knows Death magic? At all? As as Elf he should have at least some ability with magic.

Asarnil doesn't seem like a Shyish guy, that lore seems to require at least a little bit of aknowledging the mortality of all things, oneself included and I'm pretty sure Asarnil does not have the word "humble" in his dictonary.

If he knows spells at all, I suspect he'd be an Aqshy kind of guy.
 
It's pretty rare, but in this case specifically it makes sense. They're the leaders that won the Great War Against Chaos, which is why Karag Dum was cut off in the first place. Note they still left Teclis out.
Hmm. Is there a way to specify that being in charge of Asarnil is only if he agrees it's a good idea? On the one hand, he's a (very) grown up who can competently represent himself (and might take offense if Mathilde just appoints herself as his boss). On the other hand, he's a (very) grown up who could appreciate the value of having a dwarf-friend go-between to make this job easier if she offers the option.
 
Hmm. Is there a way to specify that being in charge of Asarnil is only if he agrees it's a good idea? On the one hand, he's a (very) grown up who can competently represent himself (and might take offense if Mathilde just appoints herself as his boss). On the other hand, he's a (very) grown up who could appreciate the value of having a dwarf-friend go-between to make this job easier if she offers the option.

There's a lot at stake and it's Mathilde's responsibility to do everything she can to make sure the Expedition is a success. Part of that is making decisions like this, and passing the buck on them is an abrogation of that responsibility. Besides, Asarnil's a mercenary, he won't take offence to being told who his point of contact is.
 
[X] Lead the Wizards, Knightly Orders, and Asarnil
[X] Lead only the Wizards

Either we push as liaison and take all the non-Dwarfs under our authority or we stick to the forces we actually have some knowledge about.
 
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