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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Mopman43 said:
Death is purifying.

Outside of that, no.


What the Runefangs are are impossibly sharp, unbreakable swords. A few novels have flirted with them having more powers (in an End Times novel, for example, Troll Cleaver, the Ostermark Runefang, is shown to shut down a troll's regeneration), but the only mechanical effect they've ever been given is causing guaranteed wounds if they hit.
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was confusing them with relic blades
 
BoneyM said:
No, she's showing up with a skateboard under each arm and a t-shirt that reads ASK ME ABOUT MY AMBITIONS TO DWARF NAGASH.

Yes.
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Call the Witch Hunters/Inquisition/SCP/Delta Green, Omegahugger is a confirmed cognihazard!

Anyway, holy Ranald, this game hasn't seen this insane post rate in ages! Of course, with BoneyM putting out an incredible Wham Episode before going "So, what do you do/think is actually happening?" with crossed arms, it was predictable.
 
ninjafish said:
I do find this interesting.

But you kinda screwed yourself with that preview.

I now want to see the drama of that decision unfold more than I want to try and solve this mystery while at risk of certain death or worse.

Like If I didn't know for a fact we had a lot of interesting drama waiting back home That I want Mathilde to live to see, I would probably be a lot more on board with this.
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Here's my request to you, for the remainder of your involvement with this quest.

If at any time you are ever going to post about how not interested you are in anything happening in this quest, or how much you'd rather that something else was happening instead, what I'd like you to do is just... not post.

Because as QM I'm required to read every post in this thread, both for the health of the quest and because SV policy holds QMs responsible for what happens in their thread. And dropping a trio of posts like that that say that this arc is inherently uninteresting and the best thing that can be done is to get it over with as quickly as possible is super not great for my enjoyment of running this quest.

So if you can't say something at least neutral, don't say anything at all.
 
Garlak said:
I think Morghur might have been bound like an apparition or daemon -- the FOF probably set to "Has Valaya's Protection/warding/blessing, Yes/No?" -- and views Dwarfs as a friendly (views them like Beastmen maybe?) but anybody else is screwed.
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I liked your earlier theory enough I fiddled with it to explain something it didn't before, but this doesn't track to me. Morghur isn't actually a daemon, he's just got mondo warp powers and is technically immortal because he just reincarnates into some poor schmuck's body through the Warp if he gets killed. So, yk, there's thematic overlap but nevertheless he's still a distinct entity. And if it was that easy to change how something thought/viewed you when binding it a lot fewer daemon-summoners would get eaten by what they summon.
 
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It's also interesting that we know Dum is aware of the Waystones, from that one conversation with Borek, so it actually fits that they could have used them for... well, anything.
 
As interesting as this may be I can't work up any enthusiasm for it because it feels like a deliberate trap. We went into this super dangerous place and accomplished amazingly good things. Then at the end there is this thing that makes absolutely no sense and even though we just lost beloved characters to rocks fall everyone dies we have to win this whole thing don't we. Because that's what we do we are the powerful character that does that aren't we. Sorry but no it would have been a really cool start and I would be much more enthusiastic if this was say turn two or three but here it just feels like a deliberate attempt to make the player base overreach.
 
[X] ACTION: Turn back

[x] THEORY: The specifics are hazy, but this is a known contingency plan that Borek is entirely aware of, but hoped hadn't been enacted. The result breaks all Dawi notions of acceptability, but Karak Dum survives in some capacity and continues to inflict attrition on every local and visiting Chaos force that want to take a swing at them, so it is considered a lesser evil by the pragmatic Karak Dum.

[X] THEORY: The Dwarves of Karag Dum did something to burn away the taint of Chaos, much as your Belt of the Unshackled Mountain does, but on a far grander scale. Perhaps it had an effect on the Beastmen here, Cor-Dum included.
 
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BoneyM said:
Here's my request to you, for the remainder of your involvement with this quest.

If at any time you are ever going to post about how not interested you are in anything happening in this quest, or how much you'd rather that something else was happening instead, what I'd like you to do is just... not post.

Because as QM I'm required to read every post in this thread, both for the health of the quest and because SV policy holds QMs responsible for what happens in their thread. And dropping a trio of posts like that that say that this arc is inherently uninteresting and the best thing that can be done is to get it over with as quickly as possible is super not great for my enjoyment of running this quest.

So if you can't say something at least neutral, don't say anything at all.
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For what it's worth, and to counter the negativity, I'd like to say I'm very much enjoying this plotline's latest development. Just the sheer WTF factor of coming in, seeing the absolute incomprehensible mess of Karag Dum right now, and then being asked to make sense of it (while not knowing if you even have all the relevant details) is a very rare and special kind of gameplay, and one that can barely even happen at all outside a Forum Quest.

It's that little joy of putting the pieces together while wondering if you even have them all and what might be relevant and what might be extraneous. (IE: Are the Nut and Arm we picked up from Uzkulak relevant in the slightest to the regional affairs? or was it just chaos traders doing chaos trading things?)

So, thank you. I appreciate your work.
 
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[X] THEORY: The Dwarves of Karag Dum did something to burn away the taint of Chaos, much as your Belt of the Unshackled Mountain does, but on a far grander scale. Perhaps it had an effect on the Beastmen here, Cor-Dum included.
[x] THEORY: The specifics are hazy, but this is a known contingency plan that Borek is entirely aware of, but hoped hadn't been enacted. The result breaks all Dawi notions of acceptability, but Karak Dum survives in some capacity and continues to inflict attrition on every local and visiting Chaos force that want to take a swing at them, so it is considered a lesser evil by the pragmatic Karak Dum.


[x] ACTION: I'm going to have to check this out.
 
Mopman43 said:
Death is purifying.

Outside of that, no.


What the Runefangs are are impossibly sharp, unbreakable swords. A few novels have flirted with them having more powers (in an End Times novel, for example, Troll Cleaver, the Ostermark Runefang, is shown to shut down a troll's regeneration), but the only mechanical effect they've ever been given is causing guaranteed wounds if they hit.
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Kragg seems to have gone with the flashy route with Branulhune by making it hit like a cannonball, disappear, and dispel magic but Alaric when making the Runefangs seems to have gone with the route of making a seemingly normal sword that's really damn good. Normal swords shouldn't break right? Now it's unbreakable. Swords should cut things right? Now it'll cut through damn near anything. Thing is that while both of these effects are significant when fighting high-tier opponents when fighting some poor bandit using a Runefang isn't that different from using a normal high-quality sword. So Runefangs aren't swords that have additional features, they're swords that have had their mundane features enhanced to impossible levels.
 
[X] ACTION: Gain more information.
[x] THEORY: The specifics are hazy, but this is a known contingency plan that Borek is entirely aware of, but hoped hadn't been enacted. The result breaks all Dawi notions of acceptability, but Karak Dum survives in some capacity and continues to inflict attrition on every local and visiting Chaos force that want to take a swing at them, so it is considered a lesser evil by the pragmatic Karak Dum.
 
I think this great! I should say I think this is interesting because there is nothing good about being this close to Cor-Dum... Honestly despite the mystery of this it is tempting to do just the minimal magical investigation from a distance and then leave.

This situation seems super dangerous and like we might be able to avoid it by turning around and leaving.

[x] THEORY: The specifics are hazy, but this is a known contingency plan that Borek is entirely aware of, but hoped hadn't been enacted. The result breaks all Dawi notions of acceptability, but Karak Dum survives in some capacity and continues to inflict attrition on every local and visiting Chaos force that want to take a swing at them, so it is considered a lesser evil by the pragmatic Karak Dum.
[X] ACTION: Turn around and leave. Any answers we get would likely be unspeakable and may be fatal to obtain in the first place.

Edit: Also people advocating for Mathilda to go in alone to investigate should remember that the winds here are crazy and she gets a negative modifier for her magic control rolls. It would really suck if she managed to die because she hadn't acclimated to how different the winds blew here.
 
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Mopman43 said:
@BoneyM, so, Elves were in the Old World chasing Morghur. Was that actually the Wood Elves or was Ulthuan doing it for some reason?
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BoneyM said:
Both, they teamed up to kill him (again) in the Battle of Arden and to fend off the retributive raids by the Beastlord Mograk.
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This is from... quite a while ago (September) but it's been nagging at me for a while, and it's relevant now, somewhat, given that we've maybe/possibly got Morghur here again, and I'm sorry if this is nitpicking on my part, but I can't really help it-

The High Elves weren't at the Battle of Arden? There's no mention of them being there? They fought alongside the Wood Elves against Beastmen, but that was 6 years later, under the timeline heading "Slaughter at Bleak Meadow". If you're infering that they were also involved at the Battle of Arden, given the relatively close proximity in terms of the timeline, then fair enough on that front, but there's no textual reference I've seen that places them there.
 
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The Phoenixian said:
For what it's worth, and to counter the negativity, I'd like to say I'm very much enjoying this plotline's latest development. Just the sheer WTF factor of coming in, seeing the absolute incomprehensible mess of Karag Dum right now, and then being asked to make sense of it (while not knowing if you even have all the relevant details) is a very rare and special kind of gameplay, and one that can barely even happen at all outside a Forum Quest.

It's that little joy of putting the pieces together while wondering if you even have them all and what might be relevant and what might be extraneous. (IE: Are the Nut and Arm we picked up from Uzkulak relevant in the slightest to the regional affairs? or was it just chaos traders doing chaos trading things?)

So, thank you. I appreciate your work.
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I feel pretty much the same way, @BoneyM. I'm confused as all hell about what's going on here, but I really liked the update and I'm definitely enjoying the thread right now.
 
Mopman43 said:
This is from... quite a while ago (September) but it's been nagging at me for a while, and it's relevant now, somewhat, given that we've maybe/possibly got Morghur here again, and I'm sorry if this is nitpicking on my part, but I can't really help it-

The High Elves weren't at the Battle of Arden? There's no mention of them being there? They fought alongside the Wood Elves against Beastmen, but that was 6 years later, under the timeline heading "Slaughter at Bleak Meadow". If you're infering that they were also involved at the Battle of Arden, given the relatively close proximity in terms of the timeline, then far enough on that front, but there's no textual reference I've seen that places them there.
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When the canon faction-specific timelines are so often fifteen words every century or so, you've gotta embellish a bit to make the world live.
 
[x] ACTION: Investigate by following the waystone ley line. It will be your guide through any possible illusion or trickery.
[x] ACTION: Wait for at least two days and see if Karag Dum sends out an emissary. Borek will report back, and perhaps someone inside will feel less ashamed than he does.
[x] THEORY: The Dwarves of Karag Dum did something to burn away the taint of Chaos, much as your Belt of the Unshackled Mountain does, but on a far grander scale. Perhaps it had an effect on the Beastmen here, Cor-Dum included.
 
Mopman43 said:
This is from... quite a while ago (September) but it's been nagging at me for a while, and it's relevant now, somewhat, given that we've maybe/possibly got Morghur here again, and I'm sorry if this is nitpicking on my part, but I can't really help it-

The High Elves weren't at the Battle of Arden? There's no mention of them being there? They fought alongside the Wood Elves against Beastmen, but that was 6 years later, under the timeline heading "Slaughter at Bleak Meadow". If you're infering that they were also involved at the Battle of Arden, given the relatively close proximity in terms of the timeline, then far enough on that front, but there's no textual reference I've seen that places them there.
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Potentially (but not necessarily) important Quest-canon/GW-canon differences?

FAUXEDIT: Yes, yes it may very well be be.
 
BoneyM said:
When the canon faction-specific timelines are so often fifteen words every century or so, you've gotta embellish a bit to make the world live.
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Fair enough, I won't bring it up again.

Sir_Travelsalot said:
I'm pretty sure that one's because they're made of Gromril, not Rune Magic.
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I think Gromril can eventually fail? (Usually to Skaven weapons, I think)

But the Runefangs have been put through their paces for multiple millennia. Like, I think the average Elector Count gets into personal combat more often than the average Dwarf king with a runic weapon? If only because the Karaks are largely impregnable while the EC's would often be quite close to the front lines just from proximity. Might just be my own perception though.
 
Not sure if this is the first time this has happened, but the tags of this quest have actually kicked out Worm on the trending tag cloud on the front page. But in all my time on SV I've never seen Worm disappear from the trending list.
 
soul ice said:
As interesting as this may be I can't work up any enthusiasm for it because it feels like a deliberate trap. We went into this super dangerous place and accomplished amazingly good things. Then at the end there is this thing that makes absolutely no sense and even though we just lost beloved characters to rocks fall everyone dies we have to win this whole thing don't we. Because that's what we do we are the powerful character that does that aren't we. Sorry but no it would have been a really cool start and I would be much more enthusiastic if this was say turn two or three but here it just feels like a deliberate attempt to make the player base overreach.
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I disagree. The whole scene before us screams "Whelp. That just happened. Let's turn back now because there's some things that are just not healthy to know more about." It would be the sane thing to do. Because we are in the Chaos Wastes, which disgorge all kinds of horrors we can't influence. And there's pretty much zero chance that we are going to save any lives worth saving by staying here. And even if the Herdstone Karak is a danger to the whole Dawi Waystone Network, we just need to permanently turn off one of the in between links. Prodding at this deep mystery is more insane than reading the Liber Mortis on, like, four different levels or so.

Thing is, and I'm speaking primarily for myself here, sanity has been left behind when we glimpsed over the lip of the crater at the latest. It's pure curiosity that drives us onward now. People have fallen to Tzeentch for far less, but its purely SV's choice and BoneyM is not to blame for the fact that when faced with something beautifully horrifying we can't just turn around, treasure the memory and make the best out of our many many past accomplishments.

And yes, this is the first step to Mathilde's descent to Chaos. I'm calling it here and I'm fully aboard the purple train.
 
... I think there is a very interesting story here, and I want to see it.

I don't want to see it more than I want to make it home, however.



I'm not against sticking around to investigate, but I am absolutely against being incautious about it- like just trying to walk up to Dum past piles of skeletons left behind from previous people attempting to do that.

Assuming that Maybe-Morghur won't be hostile to Mathilde just cause it was welcoming to Borek sounds foolhardy, to be frank.

The best idea I've heard for investigation so far is 'just wait', because either someone does show up and we get answers, or they don't and we learn that they don't want to give answers- which is answer enough in and of itself. If Dum would rather the wider Karaz Ankor not know of what exactly they've done here, then I'm not willing to risk everything (because Mathilde dying would also likely doom the rest of the expedition due to lack of food and RoW) to go against those wishes.
 
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