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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Briefvoice said:
- Snorri has a horn, you have Illusion to make the same sound except louder. Asarnil can be here within a couple of minutes, and the Knights soon after that. Stand your ground and if it does anything, you might be able to disrupt it.

Key phrase bolded. From this spot, maybe Mathilde can do something to disrupt. From a mile away? Probably not.
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Well erm, yes, we'd be broadcasting that we know of its existence loud and clear while being next to it, which indeed gives us a chance to work our dispelling if something large and sorcerous happens...which it might do because now it knows that we are on to it. I see no reason to show our hand in the first place and aggro this thing now, if we could do it when the expedition is dug in and prepared. Also 'Mathile might be able to stop it' is a pretty big if to strip the convoy of its most valuable defenses for.
 
GM: So you've suddenly come up on a century old magical ritual that's still ongoing.
PLAYER: Yes.
GM: And you're a Grey Wizard Wizard Lord.
PLAYER: Lady Magister, but yeah.
GM: The sneakiest of the magic sneaks. The most devious and greatest liars.
PLAYER: Yup.
GM: And you're basically best buds with Ranald.
PLAYER: Aha.
GM: Who's also all sneaky and stealing and stuff.
PLAYER: Don't forget the lies. He's also the God of Lies.
GM: Right. Having said all that... You stumble on some ancient Chaos ritual of immense, continental power...
PLAYER: Seems like it.
GM: And you decide to stand your ground and dare the Chaos Mountain of Evil Doom to "Come at me bro!", instead of say... something sneaky?
PLAYER: Now you're getting it!
GM: But WHY!?
PLAYER: Because Ranald is also the God of Gamblers and Protectors as the Coin upon my heart demonstrates! AND: *bad western accent*"I'm feeling lucky, punk!"
 
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[X] Act normal
Let's act as little suspiciously as possible - if this thing has active defenses it could easily throw a year's worth of Waystone current at us!
(Yes, I'm imagining it as a tesla tower from Red Alert 2)
 
primemountain said:
GM: And you decide to stand your ground and dare the Chaos Mountain of Evil Doom to "Come at me bro!", instead of say... something sneaky?
PLAYER: Now you're getting it!
GM: But WHY!?
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Because we don't have an option to sneak in. Sneaking away is just delaying the inevitable for no purpose and giving away the initiative.
 
I'd just like to express that I severely doubt the matter at hand is Teclis redirecting the energy from Dum.

You'd need a Waystone for that, and while I'm not 100% sure how big they are, I do know he definitely wasn't carrying one around in his pocket.
 
my reasoning for Stand your ground is that if we act normal and wait for the rest there is a good chance it will be a trap and will catch us all. But if we see what it is and if it is a trap and we activate it early then the enemy loses the surprise element and our allies can attack them from behind and if things get really bad we can use the second secret.
 
I do like the fact that it makes perfect sense that Mathilde would notice this when other people such as Teclis did not, since not only does she have very good Windsight but also a bunch of other factors that make her uniquely able to find the thread that cracks this wide open.

I can imagine that in terms of whatever is doing this ritual having Mathilde show up would be some kind of terribly unlucky roll that in it's negaverse quest would have surprised the players after they'd grown complacent that no one will discover them before their ritual is complete.
 
primemountain said:
PLAYER: Because Ranald is also the God of Gamblers and Protectors as the Coin upon my heart demonstrates! AND: *bad western accent*"I'm feeling lucky, punk!"
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Actually, the reason is... because whatever this is, it is good at sneaking and had more time to prepare, so the gamble with the best odds is attempting to take it out of its comfort zone* , even if there is a likelihood it is as adept on fast and furious as it is on slow and subtle. Essentially, we are acting as if we try to unmask and attack another sneak, not as if we use sneakiness against someone ourselves, this is a counterplay to sneak which is a subject we are somewhat experienced with.

*Important point to add is, this isn't out of our comfort zone, we have experience with chaotic fights nd are quite good at tactics and murderblendering. Taking one's opponent to their weakness is not a good move if the arena you take them is one you are also weak on, but for us, this isn't the case.
 
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[x] Stone is an excellent insulator of magic.
[x] Act normal

I don't get what everyone is so afraid of. After all normally stone is an excellent insulator of magic. So of course we act normally.
 
So on a theoretical random event table for the one doing the ritual, what would Mathilde specifically being assuming the way it went was Expedition then random table for some of the specifics.

Also I really want to see a Borek quest omake for when Mathilde tells him about this.
 
Sinsystems said:
So on a theoretical random event table for the one doing the ritual, what would Mathilde specifically being assuming the way it went was Expedition then random table for some of the specifics.

Also I really want to see a Borek quest omake for when Mathilde tells him about this.
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He'll probably not worry about it since stone is an excellent insulator of magic.
 
The thing I'm concerned about, that doesn't really seem to have been brought up, is that this expedition is likely over already if there is something big in there and we aggro it. No Karag Dum, no black grail, just a fight that wrecks most of the steam weapons before we even get out of the pass.

This isn't what we are here for, this isn't what anyone else with us is here for. We have a mission, let's not sacrifice all our primary and secondary objectives for a target of opportunity. Having to fight a couple dozen demons right here? Nah- sneakiness is what is needed.
 
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Glau said:
The thing I'm concerned about, that doesn't really seem to have been brought up, of that this expedition is likely over already if there is something big in there and we aggro it. No Karag Dum, no black grail, just a fight that wrecks most of the steam weapons before we even get out of the pass.

This isn't what we are here for, this isn't what anyone else with us is here for. We have a mission, let's not sacrifice all our primary and secondary objectives for a target of opportunity.
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I mean, that's an argument for aggroing it early, while most everyone is far enough away to just run on and the kill targets will 'only' be Mathy and a few rangers if its two strong to beat.
 
Glau said:
The thing I'm concerned about, that doesn't really seem to have been brought up, is that this expedition is likely over already if there is something big in there and we aggro it. No Karag Dum, no black grail, just a fight that wrecks most of the steam weapons before we even get out of the pass.

This isn't what we are here for, this isn't what anyone else with us is here for. We have a mission, let's not sacrifice all our primary and secondary objectives for a target of opportunity. Having to fight a couple dozen demons right here? Nah- sneakiness is what is needed.
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Yes? I mean, it makes zero sense to go on into the Chaos Wastes and leave what looks like a ginormous Chaos operation along your path of retreat.
Either you resolve it, or there is no mission. Else you're just feeding useful assets to Destro.
This is not at all optional.
 
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Jyn Ryvia said:
I mean, that's an argument for aggroing it early, while most everyone is far enough away to just run on and the kill targets will 'only' be Mathy and a few rangers if its two strong to beat.
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Yeah; if Mathilde is right and the Ancient Widow clearing the pass alerted the bad guys that a high-value target this way comes, then we're in for a punch no matter what. The question in that case is whether we take the punch with the full expedition (including the steam wagons that we need for getting to KD) or with a concentration of force separate from the expedition itself.

After dithering last night, I decided that I'd rather stand all our badasses right here while we look hard at the magic and figure out what's up rather than bring the steam wagons any closer to the bad stuff.
 
Glau said:
The thing I'm concerned about, that doesn't really seem to have been brought up, is that this expedition is likely over already if there is something big in there and we aggro it. No Karag Dum, no black grail, just a fight that wrecks most of the steam weapons before we even get out of the pass.

This isn't what we are here for, this isn't what anyone else with us is here for. We have a mission, let's not sacrifice all our primary and secondary objectives for a target of opportunity. Having to fight a couple dozen demons right here? Nah- sneakiness is what is needed.
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Sneaky is not how I would describe 5 Steam-Wagons the size of dwarven monitors, and the expedition will likely be in even worse shape on the way back.
Fighting a couple dozen demons right now sounds unappealing until you compare it with fighting a couple dozen demons later, laden down with treasure and wounded.
 
picklepikkl said:
The question in that case is whether we take the punch with the full expedition (including the steam wagons that we need for getting to KD) or with a concentration of force separate from the expedition itself.
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Seeing this sentiment from a couple people now. Guys, the steam wagons are only a mile away from us. How on earth have people reached the conclusion that they're out of reach for the Giant Ritual of Doom if we aggro it right now? When the explicit premise of Mathilde's current concern is that she's quite convinced they're not out of reach for the ritual?

picklepikkl said:
I decided that I'd rather stand all our badasses right here while we look hard at the magic and figure out what's up rather than bring the steam wagons any closer to the bad stuff.
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In light of which, if we stand all our badasses right here... why would the Giant Ritual of Doom not just inflict its [whatever] on the expedition that they all just ran away from? It's not like any of our badasses can actually get at the ritual-workers. They're inside a solid stone mountain. The only people with the expedition who could potentially contribute here are the wizards and probably the ice witch.

And "stand your ground" is explicitly the option that does not bring those people - the people who could actually do something to affect a ritual that cannot be physically accessed or attacked - over to help deal with this. We might get Esbern and Seija with the knights, but that's it.
 
Fayhem said:
Seeing this sentiment from a couple people now. Guys, the steam wagons are only a mile away from us. How on earth have people reached the conclusion that they're out of reach for the Giant Ritual of Doom if we aggro it right now? When the explicit premise of Mathilde's current concern is that she's quite convinced they're not out of reach for the ritual?


In light of which, if we stand all our badasses right here... why would the Giant Ritual of Doom not just inflict its [whatever] on the expedition that they all just ran away from? It's not like any of our badasses can actually get at the ritual-workers. They're inside a solid stone mountain. The only people with the expedition who could potentially contribute here are the wizards and probably the ice witch.

And "stand your ground" is explicitly the option that does not bring those people - the people who could actually do something to affect a ritual that cannot be physically accessed or attacked - over to help deal with this. We might get Esbern and Seija with the knights, but that's it.
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Stand your ground is the option where we keep an eye on it and counterspell any funny business it attempts, and get some bodyguards around us so that we can investigate safely.
 
Fayhem said:
Seeing this sentiment from a couple people now. Guys, the steam wagons are only a mile away from us. How on earth have people reached the conclusion that they're out of reach for the Giant Ritual of Doom if we aggro it right now? When the explicit premise of Mathilde's current concern is that she's quite convinced they're not out of reach for the ritual?
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On the other hand, if giant ritual of doom is doing something to screw over the convoy without having to go through us where we're located right outside the mountain, what do you think the dragon and knights can actually do to stop it? Like, the only thing they're good for dealing with is an army, and unless you're expecting said army to be summoned directly on top of the expedition, it would probably have to go through us.
 
Glau said:
The thing I'm concerned about, that doesn't really seem to have been brought up, is that this expedition is likely over already if there is something big in there and we aggro it. No Karag Dum, no black grail, just a fight that wrecks most of the steam weapons before we even get out of the pass.

This isn't what we are here for, this isn't what anyone else with us is here for. We have a mission, let's not sacrifice all our primary and secondary objectives for a target of opportunity. Having to fight a couple dozen demons right here? Nah- sneakiness is what is needed.
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uju32 said:
Yes? I mean, it makes zero sense to go on into the Chaos Wastes and leave what looks like a ginormous Chaos operation along your path of retreat.
Either you resolve it, or there is no mission. Else you're just feeding useful assets to Destro.
This is not at all optional.
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To further expand on my earlier comment:

Whatever this thing is, it has apparently been suckling on the wardstone energies from Karag Dum for the best part of two centuries.
We are currently heading along the old road to Karag Dum with a sizable military expedition, including a sizable concentration of magical power and advanced dwarven technology.

When we get there, one way or the other we are going to alter the status quo that has allowed this energy stealing operation to go on.
We are directly inserting ourselves into its business.
And the Ancient Witch basically rang the doorbell when she cleared the mountain pass.

There is very little chance its simply going to ignore us if it has any agency at all.
 
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