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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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We have 2800 gold and people want to spend 2000 of it?

What if we want to buy tons more books back home? Or buy more towers? Or something. Bah.

Not to mention, it really sits ill with me the idea of taking this to opportunistically and greedily go on a personal shopping tree and spend 2000 more gold than we need to.

Buy the meat. But nothing else. Leave.

Hell, we don't even need to buy anything at all, including the meat; we could trade with the Dolgan, or forage. But we don't know if our foraging prospects are good or not, because we haven't spent any damn time with the Knights of either Knightly Companies, unfortunately.
BoneyM said:
"The Knights have already confirmed that the final supply cache has been burned by tainted fire, almost certainly from the Daemons that departed east. Between that and the three days of waiting for Karak Vlag's return, we've lost a week's worth of supplies."
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BoneyM said:
"You seemed confident when last we spoke on the subject of food."

He waves a hand at the Winter Wolves riding ahead of the Alriksson. "I fret because others fret. The beasts consume the bulk of the food, and their riders will not have them starve. Our current schedule has us reaching the Great Steppes with two weeks of food remaining, while being three weeks away from friendly territory. Those are numbers guaranteed to seed doubt in their minds. If we had three weeks of food remaining, as we originally should have, that would have given them at least enough confidence to try their luck at bartering or raiding, at least for a day or two. But now I see things coming to a head at the eastern end of Zorn Uzkul."
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Dammit. This is an argument for checking in with the Winter Wolves or Knights of Taal's Fury that I hadn't considered -- asking them how confident they feel about the food situation.

If only we'd talked to them, we'd know more about how confident they feel about being able to hunt and scavenge -- or to buy enough food from the Dolgans -- but instead we're operating blind here.

As for the purchases...


Does Mathilde buy the barrels of salted meat using Borek's money?
[X] MEAT: Yes

Does Mathilde purchase the golden arm for 800 gold coins?
[X] ARM: No

Does Mathilde purchase the Ghyran nut for 1000 gold coins?
[X] NUT: No

Does Mathilde purchase the explorer's writings for 200 gold coins?
[X] PAPERS: No

... I'm buying nothing but the meat.

... What?

I don't want to spend tons of gold and lie to Borek about it and hide that we spent two thousand freaking gold on impulse shopping.

What are we going to do with the Golden Arm? Probably give it away, or toss it to Max and Johann to poke at. That doesn't interest me very much.

What are we going to do with the Acorn Nut? Probably give it away to the Jade College, put Panoramia on it -- yeah, great idea guys, spend 1000 of Borek's gold on a research gift for your lover, real classy of us -- or use it as a negotiation gift for the Eonir. Even in the case where we ask Panoramia to poke it, like hell do I want to give it away to her for good; I'd rather she determine whether or not it's the real thing (if she can; might need the Jade College to weigh in on that) and then use it in negotiations with the Eonir. The Eonir might want to use it or trade it back to the Asrai of Athel Loren, either way it'll be useful to them, and so a good move from us.

Except, of course, I don't want to spend 1000 gold on a bighuge mystery. The arm is an even bigger mystery. It's probably one of the blasty Lizardmen plasma arms, like something out of Stargate. But I don't care for that and don't want it.

The papers? We didn't come here for papers. Though frankly I'd be more interested in investigating the fate of the Ulthuani Lara Croft, which from a quick glance at the tally method it seems somebody has already asked for asking about them in the slave pens, but eh.

So...

Buy the meat.

Even though it actually isn't even strictly necessary. Because we could guy meat from the Dolgan. Or just have our Winter Wolves or Demigryphs forage. (Though we don't know if they can forage well enough; something we would potentially know if only we actually spend more time with them. =/)

Do the actual job we came here to do.

Rather than spend tons and tons of Borek's money and promise to pay him back. Look, just because we are arranging to pay him back, doesn't mean that this isn't surprising to have happen in the middle of the trip; he sent us to buy food, and we spent 2000+ gold. Only a fraction of which was on food. Thus meaning it was pretty clearly a personal shopping trip for sheer greed and interest. (Or we lie and mislead him about how much the food cost! Which would be a shitty thing to do, and a sign of a guilty conscience. Which I do not like.)
 
@Garlak that has actually been answered already. We get a budget form Bro dwarf for our books and tower building. Also it will take Mathilde a year or two to build it back up. Less time if she robs or loots someone.
 
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Ganurath said:
I think you may be confusing Divided Loyalties Laurelorn with Dynasty of Dynamic Alcoholism Laurelorn, at least in regard to the "Odin is still their boss." point.
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Deathbybunnies said:
No, they're explicitly entirely separate nations. This isn't torroar's quest, his worldbuilding - though admittedly excellent - doesn't hold true here.
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Mopman43 said:
That's just Torroar's quest. In canon, they're wholly distinct. No forest spirits, no Wild Hunt, no Ariel.
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opps.

in my defence: my play group use the 'roll for characters' table.

so I've never needed to look up the lore for them. (you have like, a 3% chance of rolling a wood elf?, at lest it feels that way.)
 
Aranfan said:
I was under the impression from the wording that only the meat would be spending Borek's money. That the rest would be us spending our own money.
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We don't have 2,800 gold on us though, and definitely not that much value in silver either. We'll pay him back, but I'm pretty sure the purchase is going to be with his satchel.
 
Aranfan said:
I was under the impression from the wording that only the meat would be spending Borek's money. That the rest would be us spending our own money.
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In fact, Borek's going to be pleasantly surprised. He was expecting us to be gouged to high heaven, and willing to pay for it, but instead it's just somewhat expensive for what it is and not great quality.
 
Deathbybunnies said:
Oh wow, I missed that that was what the surname was. Mathilde's brand of intrigue is very much more "sneaking in undetected" than "talking your way past a bored guard", isn't it? Maybe we should add that to the list.
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These days, it is. Pre-dwarf Mathilde was something of a social chameleon, though. So, she doesn't actually lack the skills, she is merely severlely out of practice.
 
Garlak said:
Rather than spend tons and tons of Borek's money and promise to pay him back. Look, just because we are arranging to pay him back, doesn't mean that this isn't surprising to have happen in the middle of the trip; he sent us to buy food, and we spent 2000+ gold. Only a fraction of which was on food. Thus meaning it was pretty clearly a personal shopping trip for sheer greed and interest. (Or we lie and mislead him about how much the food cost! Which would be a shitty thing to do, and a sign of a guilty conscience. Which I do not like.)
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I think there is something key you should understand about Borek. Borek is all out of fucks to give.

Now you can worry all you want about the opinion of other dwarves. Maybe Snorri and Gotrek will be all disgusted that the Chaos Dwarves have more money because of us. Maybe the Knights will be unhappy. Could be. But absolutely do not worry a tiff about Borek's opinion, because I promise you he is all out of fucks to give. He cares only about a single thing:

Does this get me closer to Karag Dum, Y/N?

As far as he's concerned we can spend all the money and he doesn't care. Money, what's that? Can you eat it? If we arrive at Karag Dum with the last silver spent he does not care, and yes that probably includes reserving enough silver to pay the Dolgan on the way back, because Borek's train goes in only one direction.
 
BoneyM said:
Mathilde has a candle that does that, so whether they have it or not doesn't matter.
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I thought the Candle was enchanted with Boon of Hysh, not Cleansing Glow?
EFW3 said:
Wait I thought the Asrai were the wood Elves did I mess that up? I though Asur were the high elves, did I invert them?
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The Eonir and Asrai are are both Elves that live in the woods but they're separate societies that diverged millennia ago and have different cultures and live in separate woods.

[X] HALL: No
[X] MEAT: Yes
[X] ARM: Yes
[X] NUT: Yes
[X] PAPERS: Yes
 
EFW3 said:
Wait I thought the Asrai were the wood Elves did I mess that up? I though Asur were the high elves, did I invert them?
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ok, bit confusing but

the Eonir are Wood Elves that are less batshit crazy then the Asrai. (who are also Wood elves.)

the Eonir was created when the people creating the RPG wanted to have Wood-elves be a playable race. but realised that the Asrai as written just... would not work with others for a whole campaign.

so the Eonir are Asrai that are considerably less isolationist and willing to skin outsiders for the lols.
 
[X] HALL: Yes
[X] MEAT: Yes
[X] ARM: Yes
[X] NUT: Yes
[X] PAPERS: Yes

Pity there might be a chance that Elf who wrote the Lustrian books still in the hall, also it would be funny in a dark way that we pass up a chance to free a Dum or foreign Dwarf even one with the ability to make runes on that mysterious axe Kragg could not understand.
 
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[X] HALL: No
[X] MEAT: Yes
[X] ARM: Yes
[X] NUT: No
[X] PAPERS: Yes
Aranfan said:
I don't want to raid it. I want to burn it to the ground.

The only good slaver is a dead one.

This is not a rational impulse.
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A common misconception.

However, a dead Chaos Dwarf can still serve as a vector for disease, be fed to a hell-forge or sacrificed upon some fiery altar, or possibly possessed and returned as some sort of undead gribbly.

Therefore, I posit that dead slavers are also bad, but alive slavers are worse, and the Grey Order is well practiced in choosing the lesser evil.
 
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Now that we know that Dum knows of the Waystone network there's a chance that they might know of its true purpose and nip the Thorgrim-Belegar conflict in the bud if we can get them to step in and clarify somethings to Belegar.
 
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The Count Returns
  • Apocrypha
    • AN: Not 100% satisfied with this one, but I wanted to get it out there- I just had the idea and couldn't resist writing it. Hope I at least got the voices across decently. For all our sakes, let's hope this gets sorted into Apocrypha.
    The Count Returns​



    Mihai strained further against the muck, the very essence of Hel Fenn up to his knees and seeping into his boots. Seven-tens-and-nine times he'd dragged a corpse from the bog, but none had been the one he sought. He couldn't even make use of them- though he'd been able to evade the Stirland patrols thus far, stealth was not among the qualities of a zombie. Not that much was. And they were such well preserved bodies too, kept whole by the peat…

    He had hopes for this one though, for it was heavy enough to be burdened by armor, not simply another soldier in rough mail. As he finally pulled it fully from the peat, leaning it against a nearby tree, he took a moment to examine it. The armor that covered it was black as night, and jagged like a dagger. A sword of fine make was held in its grip, rigor mortis keeping it firm… or something else.

    And all of it positively dripped necromantic power.

    Mihai smiled, then. Three years of effort had finally borne fruit. He prepared his implements with haste but not without care, remembering well the lessons of his master… just a touch of power, drawn quickly and unleashed to aid in awakening…

    Mannfred von Carstein lurched forward, awake again for the first time in over 400 years.

    "Where… no, when…"

    Mihai went to his knee, though that left him practically swimming in the bog. "Hel Fenn, in the year 2486 by the Imperial Calendar, my lord."

    "So long trapped in that refuse… mine mind practically deadened by that god of muck…" Mannfred looked at Mihai then, taking in his patched black robes and thick staff. "You've done well to aid the rightful master of these lands. Tell me, what has occurred in mine absence?"

    "Much has befallen Sylvania my lord, especially of late. Some 50 years ago, someone took control of Drakenhof, claiming to hold your lineage, though none dared question her. She struck many times against the rulers of Stirland, until they were all dead and the Empire chose another to rule… a Witch Hunter named Abelhelm van Hal."

    ______________________________________________________________________________

    Mannfred strode forward through Hel Fenn, uncaring for the water that pooled around him. "Hmph, the Empire reunited, gunpowder now spread beyond the short-minded Dwarfs, magic brought forth by the Elves… I had little reason to be troubled by the petty mages that dotted the provinces, but taught by Elves… I will need to consult mine grimoires… how fairs mine castle, minion?"

    "It has been leveled, my lord".

    "What!?" Mannfred stopped then, looking backwards now. "Explain. Now."

    As Mihai began to speak, they were interrupted by footsteps approaching, men dressed in yellow and wielding swords, with one hefting a long device with a thin barrel. The last brought it to bear, but before the trigger could be pulled, he found that his arm had been taken off and fangs were around his neck. The other men of the patrol lasted little longer.

    "Continue." Mannfred said, licking blood from his hand.

    "Van Hal, he brought a force to Drakenhof, of men and Dwarfs… as I said earlier, he died, but the cannons leveled the castle. My lord, the force was under the command of a Wizard, a Grey Magister, Mathilde Weber. I believe… no, I know, it was her who killed my master and fellow students."

    "Mathilde Weber… Alkharad spent far too much time absorbed in his creatures, but he was no whelp… and speaking of whelps…" Mannfred looked to the south then, where campfires were in evidence and the booming of guns could be heard. "Those Lahmians beset by this Countess had best hold out, I will need time to gather mine strength. Perhaps a visit paid to the Silver Queen… no, if I go to her again it will be as a peer, not some sop begging for aid."

    "Tell me, boy," he commanded, looking at Mihai once more. "Do your old master's pets still line the walls of Teufelheim?"

    "Last I knew, my lord, though it has been some years."

    "Well then, they'll do as a beginning, and Teufelheim itself as mine temporary capital. Hmm, Nykylaus should be in the east, perhaps I will pay a visit and remind him of his loyalties. Though this will be a work of many years, Sylvania is mine to rule, and I will brook no challengers…"
     
  • Apocrypha
    • I honestly have no idea what a gold coin will buy, or what kinds of things you can do with 2800 of them, but I think she's long past the point where she has to care about money. There's tons of it coming in all the time and she can get more pretty easily if she needs to.

    Also, Maximum Nut!
     
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    Phalfpipe said:
    [x] -[X] (Papers) Ask a vendor if they have an author there as a slave. You might be interested.
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    We'd have to go to the Slave Hall to get an answer to this question, I'm pretty sure.
    Phalfpipe said:
    I honestly have no idea what a gold coin will buy,
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    1 Gold Crown is worth 240 brass pennies. A day's groceries for food that's filling and tastes alright is 10 pennies. A single crown covers nearly a whole month's grocery bill for one middle class person. Just to put that into context.
     
    Phalfpipe said:
    I honestly have no idea what a gold coin will buy, or what kinds of things you can do with 2800 of them, but I think she's long past the point where she has to care about money. There's tons of it coming in all the time and she can get more pretty easily if she needs to.

    Also, Maximum Nut!

    [X] NUT: Yes
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    Well, we can use this as a reference:

    BoneyM said:
    The Weber Estate
    Earmarked Funds: 1,291 gc
    Estate Profits: 10 gc / turn
    You can spend money instead of turns here to have someone else oversee the work; this will increase the cost by half again, and double any dwarf rep cost. For instance, an option costing 100 gc will cost 150 gc. It also means that your personal stats will not apply to whatever is being done.
    [ ] Build a modest home for yourself, equal in size to the rooms you're using in the Sunken Palace (3 rooms, 50 gc).
    [ ] Build a large home for yourself, with plenty of spare rooms to expand into (6 rooms, 150 gc).
    [ ] Why muck about? Build a proper manor (10 rooms, 300 gc).
    [ ] Build a tower, either into an above structure or on its own (1 room, 100 gc, bonus to room's purpose).
    [ ] Build fortifications into your home, turning it into a hillfort, or motte (50 gc for wood, 200 gc for stone, optional dwarf help for -1 dwarf rep).
    [ ] Build a communal granary to store food for lean times (50 gc).
    [ ] Build a well (50 gc).
    [ ] Build a bailey for your subjects to shelter in and to encompass other structures (100 gc for wood, 400 gc for stone, optional dwarf help for -1 dwarf rep).
    [ ] Have the dwarves build you a fortress. (1000 gc, -2 dwarf rep. Protects but does not build living area. No, there is no cheaper option. If you want cheap, get manlings to build it.)
    [ ] Bring in prospectors to search for minable metals (100 gc).
    [ ] Bring in dwarvern prospectors to search for minable metals (-1 Dwarf Rep)
    [ ] Investigate the farming possibilities of the land (50 gc for test crops).
    [ ] Bring in dwarvern farmers to investigate the farming possibilities of the land. (-1 Dwarf Rep)
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    So according to turn 16, we are spending enough gold here to build twenty towers, six manors, or two fortresses. Moreover, we're giving that to pirates and slavers.
     
    Kornet said:
    If it is so, than the corsair is in violation of customs law and his life is forfeit. And so is ours, probably.
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    @BoneyM Can we... Report him? Or would that be like pissing on our own god's altar?
    BoneyM said:
    The 2800 gold is the amount of money Mathilde has back at K8P, and thus can reimburse once the Expedition returns home.
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    Huh. I thought we were already (still?) richer than that. Should we schedule a visit to the Shadowkeep near Sonnigwiese for the next proper social turn?
    Mopman43 said:
    The Oak of Ages is the tree at the center of Athel Loren. Possibly the oldest living thing in the world. See my earlier post on what it's acorns can do.
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    If it's older than the Dragons and the Winds of Magic I am very curious what its features used to be before Ghyran got its grubby hands all over it.
    BoneyM said:
    If you took out the 'safely' part of that sentence, yes.

    The Engineers back at the Expedition would be capable of slapping together some rudimentary shielding for the nut.
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    Uzkulak doesn't have a bank and/or rentable secure storage space?

    Are they, to some extent, trying to discourage any actually serious business that goes beyond a free-for-all bazaar and a place for raiders and desperate people to get taxed while offloading wares quickly?
    BoneyM said:
    It's too blocky to pin a species on it. It's only got four fingers instead of five, though it's about the size of a human arm. She can't tell exactly what sort of magic it is until she figures out how to turn it on, but she can tell that it's not tainted.

    She has, it's not.
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    Wouldn't it theoretically be possible to devise a ritual or artefact that uses untainted magic in order to produce an effect that itself creates tainted magic?
    SuperSonicSound said:
    1000 gold is not a rounding error. That description is farcically wrong. Buying the acorn as a gift is a really dumb idea. Theres a reason the cdwarfs didnt want to trade in wood elf items. Buying the acorn basically paints a target on Pan for no real benefit.

    Lastly spending a third of our money the first chance we get to give as a gift isn't just wasteful its kind of nuts, lets not be a simp eh? Thoughtful gifts are one thing but this is just silly.
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    Can someone explain to me what makes the Wood Elves worth fearing to the extend that even the Chaos Dwarves of the desert fortress of Uzkulak would be worried about offending them? I never cared about their life, but apparently there's a Karak that routinely snubbs them through guerrilla woodchopping and they still exist and prosper.
    Deathbybunnies said:
    Kadon's scrolls are top-tier magical artefacts, but not inherently dangerous if they aren't being used? Maybe they're just on the lookout for them to purchase themselves.
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    They might be already filled with things like Dragons or other monsters that could massively sabotage everything currently happening here before being put down.
    Deathbybunnies said:
    rvitude to said vampirates and their war against the Lizardmen included!
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    Could you explain this one?
    Simon_Jester said:
    and (I say this as a very happy member of Cuttlefish's Zlatlan Quest) "anything from the Temple-City of Zlatlan."
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    Link?
    BoneyM said:
    I haven't decided when the snippet will be part of the threadmarked chapters, but I don't like the idea of a temporary threadmark on it. Those that just want to read the story should be able to, instead of having it interrupted by the more meta stuff like previews and teasers and whatnot. I'll have a link in the notes of the chapter it appears in to the original preview, though.
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    Can't you temporarily add it to "Side stories"?
    Sir_Travelsalot said:
    They can use the Winds and Dhar as well as any human with centuries to spare for practice, and they can ignore the normal drawbacks because they're already dead.
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    The "normal drawback" is incurable Chat poisoning of the soul. I'm pretty sure That channeling and simultaneous Multi-Wind channeling would both be unhealthy things to do even for a Nehekharan.
    Mopman43 said:
    Are you a Grey Magister, a legal user of Ulgu in the Empire, or a Black Magister, an illegal user of magic in the Empire.
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    Sir_Travelsalot said:
    Black Magister is the title given to a rogue College Wizard. We're pretty obviously a Grey Wizard. He's asking if we're openly affiliated with the Colleges or an enemy of them.
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    I somehow thought it might be something else with the naming scheme just being a weird coincidence. That said, why would he care about this stuff? What difference does it make to Uzkulak?
    And if he either personally cares enough to ask or Uzkulak's institutions care enough to make him ask, then why is there an up front offer to choose "incognito", which I estimate any Imperial Ulgu user of the three previous categories would choose 99 times out of 100?
     
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