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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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[X] Act normal

It's scary, but... what are we going to do about it? If whatever this is doesn't make the first move, there's nothing to do here but stare at a potentially very dangerous stone wall. 'Hey, everybody, come look at this stone wall I've determined is super dangerous' makes other people aware of the danger, but we're the only person on the expedition good enough to even notice that there's something to be worried about.
JamesShazbond said:
We happen to have top-tier windsight, and Teclis isn't immune to low rolls, but if you're a Dwarf, noted haters of elves, what are you more likely to conclude: that the greatest known spellcaster was outdone by a 35-year old student of a tradition he founded, or that the treacherous fucking elgi lied about not finding anything?
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Or maybe he just failed a willpower roll against the world's largest Take No Heed, which stops people from being worried about not remembering stuff it's keeping them from remembering?
 
[X] Act normal

Eh, people make a fair point. Personally I don't think we've since gone unnoticed by whatever threat we're dealing with, and suspect Mathilde might have already set things off by looking too deep, but we're going to need the rest of the expedition to do anything anyways and we might as well gamble on getting away safely than gamble on being able to play silly buggers with something that deep underground.
 
[x] Stand your ground

If Magic Chaos bullshit starts happening, I want Mathilde in poking range when it starts, rather than letting them bring the Magic to us when they are good and ready.
 
Mopman43 said:
That'd be nice.

I doubt it, but still, if that was the case...


Belegar: "Mathilde, I sent you to discover the fate of a lost Hold..."

Mathilde: "Yes? That's what I did."

Belegar: "Yes. Twice."
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Mathilde : You didn't tell me to stop at one. There happened to be one lying around on the way that stumped the most powerful elgi wizard in existence. How was I supposed to just leave it be?

[X] Stand your ground
Hey, Ranald? Big money no whammy.
 
Ericwinter said:
There is also, as Mathilde noted, the difference in circumstances. Certainly Teclis has better Windsight—although the cognitions are night suggest that it's not so much how well they could see, but how good their mental defenses were and I'm not sure if Teclis would be better there—but in any case Taclis took a look when the place was covered in chaos and magic to an extreme degree. It would be like blaming a guy for not seeing the penny at the bottom of a heavily polluted pool, when someone else noticed after it had been cleaned.

Also our knowledge of dwarf society played a part. I doubt Teclis has that, but we would mention it in any possible report.
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There's also the possibility that whoever is doing made an active effort to hide from Teclis specifically instead of just letting him run up against their passive defenses. If he didn't know he needed to hide then there's no guarantee that he was particularly subtle about his approach, and he's not the kind of guy you just ignore banging at your door no matter who you are.

Mathilde could just be in that sweet spot of good enough to have a chance against the day to day defenses but not so good that they engage something more active as soon as she shows up.
 
chocolote12 said:
It's scary, but... what are we going to do about it? If whatever this is doesn't make the first move, there's nothing to do here but stare at a potentially very dangerous stone wall. 'Hey, everybody, come look at this stone wall I've determined is super dangerous' makes other people aware of the danger, but we're the only person on the expedition good enough to even notice that there's something to be worried about.
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This would not be the first mountain Deathfang has killed.
 
[X] Act normal
- There might be unfriendly eyes on you. Pretend you didn't see anything and return to the Expedition as normal, and decide what to do from there.
 
Shovern said:
If Magic Chaos bullshit starts happening, I want Mathilde in poking range when it starts, rather than letting them bring the Magic to us when they are good and ready.
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...If the option were instead labeled "Engage a Lord of Change in a magical duel," would you still pick it? Because I am struggling to imagine a world in which poking 200 years of Chaos-backed Waystone output being marshalled by something (which, let's be honest, probably is a Lord of Change) would be easier than that.

And I know I wouldn't vote to try out-magicing a Lord of Change. In the world where we'd picked up the dedicated Counterspelling progression traits, maybe, but in this world? Not a chance.
 
Stand your ground isn't also just the 'set things off now, if anything is going on' option.

It's also the "Remain here and keep an eye on this suspicious-as-fuck thing" option, too.

If we pick "run like hell" or "Act normal" than one thing we are doing is going back to the expedition. Which thus means we are not monitoring the mountain constantly.

So, some people might want to stick around so that they keep their eyes on the mountain and energy flow the entire time. Rather than letting it out of its sight for one damn hour.
 
Ericwinter said:
There is also, as Mathilde noted, the difference in circumstances. Certainly Teclis has better Windsight—although the cognitions are night suggest that it's not so much how well they could see, but how good their mental defenses were and I'm not sure if Teclis would be better there—but in any case Taclis took a look when the place was covered in chaos and magic to an extreme degree. It would be like blaming a guy for not seeing the penny at the bottom of a heavily polluted pool, when someone else noticed after it had been cleaned.

Also our knowledge of dwarf society played a part. I doubt Teclis has that, but we would mention it in any possible report.
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Well, if you want to go in-depth, we actually have so many advantages over Teclis in this particular cae that its not funny.

1) We are a Grey wizard. We have been trained for most our life to cultivate confusion and doublethink, think contradictory thoughts and in the same time doubt our very own thought. This spell might bend one's mind in pretzels, but guess what, 'pretzels' is the natural shape of our mind.

2) We are a marked Grey wizard. Look at point 1. Now mentally replace a healthy chunk of our mind and sould with Ulgu, conceptual fucking confusion. By this point, our pretzels are tied into pretzels.

3) You think that's it? Nah, we are a blessed soul and occasionally avatar of Ranald. You know, the guy whos portfolio includes deception. And you are trying to deceive us without his blessing.

4) The aforemantioned lowering of background magical radiation. YOu know, that thing that would normally preclude noticing something just on the end of your vision.

5) And we actually knew what to look for. Unlike the elgi, we knew there is supposed to be a fuckhuge magical current right fucking there. You know, the one which is a state secret, eat before reading classified by Karaz Ankor. And which is really fuckhuge.


As have been noticed before, human wizards are specialists. They can't be as broad as elven wizards, but within their field of specialisation they can and occasionally do things elves can't. And this here happened to be within a very narrow overlap between our several specialisations. Really, what were the chances that a wizard with our particular skillset and knowledge base would ever visit this place, or even exist. Really, it seems like a ridiculously improbable coincide.....


RANAAAAAAALD!!!!!
 
kfrar said:
...If the option were instead labeled "Engage a Lord of Change in a magical duel," would you still pick it? Because I am struggling to imagine a world in which poking 200 years of Chaos-backed Waystone output being marshalled by something (which, let's be honest, probably is a Lord of Change) would be easier than that.

And I know I wouldn't vote to try out-magicing a Lord of Change. In the world where we'd picked up the dedicated Counterspelling progression traits, maybe, but in this world? Not a chance.
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The greatest magic user the world has ever seen was killed by an assassin when he was busy with a big ritual. We might have the chance to do the same thing right now.
 
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[X] Act normal

See, here's the thing. Mathilde is strongly under the impression that some bad juju is going on, possibly in the form of a portal*, and that it's quite possibly aimed at the expedition. The Stand your Ground option involves calling for Asarnil/the Knights/assorted backup to come racing over - away from the rest of the expedition - to potentially disrupt any working.

I am reasonably sure that the bulk of the expedition is the larger and more important target compared to Mathilde & the assorted Rangers taking a look-see around where Karak Vlag used to be. As such I'd rather have a lack of personal backup than leave the steam-wagons more vulnerable.

*
BoneyM said:
The word 'portal' comes uncomfortably to mind.
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[X] Act normal

A chaos entity using this mountain for 200 odd years and having been inspected by wizards including Teclis in the past is going to be super suspicious of us, but shouldnt be any more so than of anyone else who has come to have a look at Vlag in the past. Openly reacting to it is far more likely to have it act openly against us, and while I respect Mathildes abilities and resistance to Chaos, I dont think she's quite up to handling a Lord of Change, Daemon Prince or what have you that is strong enough to have created a memetic field over a mountain that is strong enough to affect Dwarves who are inherently resistant to magical effects. The power of that memetic effect concerns me, and openly letting whatever created it know that we know makes me worry about a serious roll for will power coming up, and will power rolls are never a good thing.

Nothing in the update lent itself to immediate danger beyond the expedition being a potential tasty snack. If it is intending to munch on it that will likely happen either way. The expedition isnt Vlags end goal, it would merely be an opportunity. If attacking it would potentially mess up its end goal I find it unlikely that it would do so.

A chaos portal or whatever nearly 200 years of siphoned power being used is not a one wizard sized problem. I dont even think its an expedition wizards sized problem, especially with our pal Egrimm Van Horstmann here (who is of course not confirmed to be Chaos in the quest). Id drop this one on Algards doorstep personally.
 
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Gingganz said:
I don't understand what you want to poke at.

The source of the power is under vast amounts of stone and Mathilde has no way to get at it. We have no idea where the power is flowing or who is using it, so we can't strike at that, either.
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No idea yet. There would be no point in an anti-memtic effect if there weren't something to hide. Now that she's started to pierce it, I don't think her investigation is going to hit a "stone wall" here. Remember we paused for a vote the instant she realized something was going on. Choosing to stand ground means she stands and tries to pierce the illusions and see where the flow of power is really going. And it has to be surfacing somewhere, probably not too far away, if whomever is doing this is actually able to make use of it.
 
As far as teclis not catching it goes, the discrepancy is much more noticeable now. The meme field is trying to make Mathilde ignore 200 years of missing radiation. It's possible that when Teclis looked at it the stone actually would have controlled the emission.
 
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