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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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DragonParadox said:
The problem with forests is not just that they are full of beastmen, who can be killed by and army, it's that they are filled with Dhar, which will always make more beastmen.
[...]
Great generals can win victories, great organizers can found states, but magicians need to fix what magic has broken.
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No, the problem with the forests genuinely is that they're full of beastmen. And there is a fully mundane solution to the problem of beastmen in forests, which has already been successfully applied in multiple places on multiple occasions: cut down the forest so beastmen can't hide in it. Sometimes magicians are the BEST way to fix what magic has broken, but a lot of the time they sincerely aren't the only way to deal with what magic has broken.
 
reignonyrparade said:
No, the problem with the forests genuinely is that they're full of beastmen. And there is a fully mundane solution to the problem of beastmen in forests, which has already been successfully applied in multiple places on multiple occasions: cut down the forest so beastmen can't hide in it. Sometimes magicians are the BEST way to fix what magic has broken, but a lot of the time they sincerely aren't the only way to deal with what magic has broken.
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It's over two thousand years since Sigmar and most of the Empire's surface is covered in beastmen filled forests. In fact since the height of the Empire the forests have grown larger and more dangerous as Solland and Drakenwald can attest.
 
storryeater said:
Yeah, exactly my point, she won't really care about a humorous reputation.

And besides, even if the wall carvings show her crafting commodes while rescuing Karak Vlag, important thing is she still rescued Karak Vlag.
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Ericwinter said:
...You know, if it weren't for the Dwarven network being seperate from the elven one, the metaphor of saving Vlag by clogging a giant magical toilet might have even worked.
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I think it's worth noting that her resume includes commodes in a more direct manner given her exploits in setting up the niter factory...
 
My biggest wonder about the mundane starts would be if magic would still have been on the table? Boney's canon holds that magic can awaken even in older individuals, so would a stressful enough moment have resulted in a non-mage Mathilde getting magical powers?
 
DragonParadox said:
It's over two thousand years since Sigmar and most of the Empire's surface is covered in beastmen filled forests. In fact since the height of the Empire the forests have grown larger and more dangerous as Solland and Drakenwald can attest.
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Pretty sure that's because Clan Pestilens pushed the "reset civilisation" button with the Black Plague - and the immediately following Age of Three Emperors, which ran for an absurdly long time for any sort of "the empire long united must divide" scenario certainly didn't help.

None of the other human nations have quite as much of an issue with Beastmen, not even Kislev, where Dhar should be even more plentiful considering their location. So i think it's fair to say it's probably because of a unique factor to the Empire, not general magic badness.
 
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Chopak said:
Sword of Gazul is the argument FOR administrators>spellcasters
Mathilde role in making it was more "Get the crew together" than "imma spellcast so hard".
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...Yeah, someone willing and able to hire wizards to create super weapons on a regular basis could probably get a whole lot done. A motive force to employ magical might in a larger way. The problem, however, has already been expounded when Abelheim pointed out just how hard it is to get even journeymen wizards as a semi-reliable workforce, and without being looked into the Dwarven or college favor systems as we are now, getting any better would be nearly impossible unless we happened to make friends with some important Wizard and got them interested in the project.
 
Honestly, I think the actual reason Mathilde got so far is because she is high level on ALL trades (except diplomacy, where she is "merely" mediocre to good), while most people focus on 1 or 2 stats

Looking at her history... intrigue fails? She fights her way out. Magic and Learning fails? Piety will do. I want to make something? Then I have the stewardship to gather the resources for it.

A lot of her successes were a teamwork between her stats... I think we got so far not because we had a really big hammer, like some people in the setting, buf because we had a really extensive toolbox ... with relatively big, even if not the biggest, hammers.

That's not even mentioning the synergies where more than one skill were necessary, rather than a fallback. Like, bringing back Karak Vlag required magic + Learning + Intrigue (to be paranoid) + Martial (to survive the attack) + piety (to resist temptation) and one could even argue + stewardship (to think of waystone energy in terms of production) and even + diplomacy (to have Asarnil hired)

Mathilde succeeds because she is pretty good at everything even tho she is the best at nothing imho.
 
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DragonParadox said:
It's over two thousand years since Sigmar and most of the Empire's surface is covered in beastmen filled forests. In fact since the height of the Empire the forests have grown larger and more dangerous as Solland and Drakenwald can attest.
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It's been less time for Bretonnia, and they've managed to basically clearcut significant chunks of the country. Magical and semi-magical support from the Damsels and Knights respectively helped people to not die in the process of clearcutting Bretonnia, the actual getting rid of the forests has been a matter of peasants with axes chopping away at things.
 
reignonyrparade said:
It's been less time for Bretonnia, and they've managed to basically clearcut significant chunks of the country. Magical and semi-magical support from the Damsels and Knights respectively helped people to not die in the process of clearcutting Bretonnia, the actual getting rid of the forests has been a matter of peasants with axes chopping away at things.
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If anything I would call Bretonia, which its millennia tradition of elf friendship and semi-arcane casting, doing so much better than the Empire, a sign that magic really does make the difference.
 
[X] Head Engineer Gotrek Gurnisson
[X] Head Ranger Snorri Farstrider
[X] Visit Uzkulak, the Chaos Dwarf equivalent to Barak Varr
[X] Thane Borek Forkbeard
[X] Sir Ruprecht Wulfhart the Younger

Changed vote.
 
[X] Thane Borek Forkbeard
[X] Head Engineer Gotrek Gurnisson
[X] Head Ranger Snorri Farstrider
[X] Preceptor Joerg von Zavstra
[X] Sir Ruprecht Wulfhart the Younger
[X] Asarnil the Dragonlord
[X] Magister Egrimm van Horstmann
[X] Citharus, Barbitus, and Timpania

Had a thought about Egrimm and the Light Wizard Journeymen.

When we spoke to Egrimm, he talked about how one of the reasons they were going up north, was to test for Dhar exposure and contamination, right? Stuff like that?
BoneyM said:
"The foremost of those experiments will be, of course, our own good selves. We underwent extremely thorough examination before we departed, and when we get back we'll do so again, and it'll be compared to our own readings of ambient Dhar levels. That should give us some hard data on whether the 'exterior radiant' or 'ingested taint' camps are correct."

"That's a big sacrifice in the name of knowledge," you say, frowning.

He shrugs. "We all became tainted the first time we gazed upon Morrsleib or lived through Hexensnacht. We'll be monitoring our food and water carefully the whole way, so unless the most alarmist of the 'exterior radiant' camps are correct the actual long-term effect should be negligible."
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Well, I want in on that. That is -- if it's possible that Egrimm becomes this timeline's version of the Wizard who, in Gotrek and Felix: Daemonslayer, winds up making anti-Chaos protective wards for Borek's second expedition? I want in on the ground floor of that.

... Also. When it comes to checking on the Journeymen? And Egrimm's mission from his College Patriarch.
BoneyM said:
Dhar diagnosis: You know how to spot Dhar poisoning, gauge its severity, and temporarily reduce the severity of some of its symptoms.
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Mathilde has the Dhar Diagnosis skill!

... Granted, "dhar diagnosis" does not necessarily magically translate to "able to tell if somebody is going to crack from stress from having faced Daemons in battle" but. At least the other part of the mission that Egrimm is here for, it is useful for, no?

So yeah.

I just remembered about Egrimm's stated mission from the College Patriatch, Mathilde's own dhar diagnosis skill, and remembered the anti-Chaos wards from Daemonslayer. And heck, Mathilde has the Enchantment skill too.

If cooperation between Egrimm and Mathilde could lead to something like the prototypes of Daemonslayer's anti-Chaos talismans and wards... That could be a huge payoff from this Expedition.

So, with that in mind, I decided to add both Egrimm and the Light Journeywizards to my vote.
 
NuclearConsensus said:
My biggest wonder about the mundane starts would be if magic would still have been on the table? Boney's canon holds that magic can awaken even in older individuals, so would a stressful enough moment have resulted in a non-mage Mathilde getting magical powers?
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Considering that'd require years spent as an Apprentice, learning 101 Ways To Not Explode, I'd have to say no. It'd murder the pacing and derail everything established before it.
 
Garlak said:
Granted, "dhar diagnosis" does not necessarily magically translate to "able to tell if somebody is going to crack from stress from having faced Daemons in battle" but. At least the other part of the mission that Egrimm is here for, it is useful for, no?
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I would argue that is almost certainly does not. Remember those pink haired slayers? Those where almost certainly not exposed to Dhar because they would be half stone, yet they were in the grip of Slaanesh. By the time a wizard is exposed to Dhar to the point where Van Hall's experiance becomes relevant they will have had to cast Dhar for weeks or months (or been in the presence of such).
 
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Sorry Borek, but I prefer the combes, changing vote so that even if the Ulrican guy gains the combes can enter the top 5 more easily.

[x] Visit Uzkulak, the Chaos Dwarf equivalent to Barak Varr
[x] Visit the combes that Qrech told you about
 
BoneyM said:
Magic, presumably. There was a lot going on and Mathilde was focused on her charges.
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Well, hopefully Magister Michel Solmann got a few looks at what Kislevite ice magic is like in combat. Huh, a side-effect or consequence of putting him on counterspelling duty rather than fire support; his role was to look at the magics on the battlefield and pay attention. We probably won't know more until or unless we spend time with Solmann or Ljiljana though. Or Solmann mentions something to us in a random chat.

Hm. People have brought up Johann going and being his friendly self in the expedition, and... Is that a viable future action we might take? That is, an action something like "Johann's a friendly and genial sort (and is also subtle and sneaky when needed), get his appraisal of how everybody in the expedition has been like"? i.e. Using Johann to get a more broader feel for the people and mood of the expedition as a whole? Or, is that action unnecessary, as Johann is one of our direct subordinates and thus works with Mathilde anyway?
 
BoneyM said:
Magic, presumably. There was a lot going on and Mathilde was focused on her charges.
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So whatever she was doing wasn't physically or magically obvious enough to be noticeable? Presumably something subtle then, maybe Divine counterspelling, picking a fight with a God is rarely a good idea but it's less bad if you have your own God to back you up. And we already know that Mathilde can't perceive many forms of Divine magic so that would explain why she didn't notice anything, unless it has an impact on the material world Divine magic is effectively invisible.
 
Garlak said:
Hm. People have brought up Johann going and being his friendly self in the expedition, and... Is that a viable future action we might take? That is, an action something like "Johann's a friendly and genial sort (and is also subtle and sneaky when needed), get his appraisal of how everybody in the expedition has been like"? i.e. Using Johann to get a more broader feel for the people and mood of the expedition as a whole? Or, is that action unnecessary, as Johann is one of our direct subordinates and thus works with Mathilde anyway?
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Nobody in the Expedition has any reason to bury their feelings. If they have misgivings, they'll be voicing them. The Expedition is en route to Hell's front lawn, that's not the sort of trip one takes just because it'd be too much bother to speak up.
 
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