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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Byzantine said:
Realistically the best way to secure the pass would probably include going dwarf on it - using one of the mountains as a fortress, since there is a distinct lack of good ways to fortify the border princes.
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I would argue that hard fortifications like that are just asking for a Waaagh to come through and destroy them. If the area was defensible enough to survive, it would already be settled. Instead I'd go for a White Tower of Hoeth/Grey College route of defence with magical obfuscation to make the settlements difficult enough for enemies to find that they give up and attack somewhere else.
 
Briefvoice said:
The Winter Wolves are thinking about covering it, but they still haven't totally been sold on the idea.
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also, FYI, might want to talk about it with them.

Wolf-boss junior might like the help, but he also might get angry that we are muscling into the top spot on his idea.

might make working together a problem.

Inferno67 said:
I would argue that hard fortifications like that are just asking for a Waaagh to come through and destroy them. If the area was defensible enough to survive, it would already be settled. Instead I'd go for a White Tower of Hoeth/Grey College route of defence with magical obfuscation to make the settlements difficult enough for enemies to find that they give up and attack somewhere else.
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see, this is using the big brain.

tried and failed: hard defence

big brain: what if we can retroactively make it so were never there in the first place! and then fix that when they are gone.
 
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It's Boney Quest so I'll honestly be happy wherever we go, and I'm sure I'll come to like wherever we end up, but I can't say I'm not gonna internally grumble a little bit if we move on to somewhere more permanently. I'm not looking forward to establishing what will now be a pattern of building up a huge house and then just shrugging and leaving it forever lol.

First it was a shabby secret castle, then a super mansion tower with accenting death towers. Now I'm just laughing at the idea of Mathilde building up a hyper metropolis and just being like "Well... bye! I've decided to move to my fief for the next 18 turns." afterwards. :V
 
[X] Bodyguard and Tutor to Prince Mandred
best godson, we get to raise him to be a smug little snot

[X] Research Sabbatical
look this is a necessity at some point, we have just too much weird shit lying around

[X] Count of Sylvania
[X] Markgraf of Eastern Stirland
Would prefer markgraf, but either works in the sense of changing the world

[X] Waystone Project
Change the world? I'll show you change the world!

[X] Ambassador-at-large to the Karaz Ankor
I like Belegar and want to help him, but I don't think we can do that quite so well as his employee.
 
Businessmanga said:
It's Boney Quest so I'll honestly be happy wherever we go, and I'm sure I'll come to like wherever we end up, but I can't say I'm not gonna internally grumble a little bit if we move on to somewhere more permanently. I'm not looking forward to establishing what will now be a pattern of building up a huge house and then just shrugging and leaving it forever lol.

First it was a shabby secret castle, then a super mansion tower with accenting death towers. Now I'm just laughing at the idea of Mathilde building up a hyper metropolis and just being like "Well... bye! I've decided to move to my fief for the next 18 turns." afterwards. :V
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I've decided to think of it as additional incentive to invent some kind of fast-travel or teleportation system.
 
Businessmanga said:
It's Boney Quest so I'll honestly be happy wherever we go, and I'm sure I'll come to like wherever we end up, but I can't say I'm not gonna internally grumble a little bit if we move on to somewhere more permanently. I'm not looking forward to establishing what will now be a pattern of building up a huge house and then just shrugging and leaving it forever lol.

First it was a shabby secret castle, then a super mansion tower with accenting death towers. Now I'm just laughing at the idea of Mathilde building up a hyper metropolis and just being like "Well... bye! I've decided to move to my fief for the next 18 turns." afterwards. :V
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That's basically what Charlemagne did and he set a pretty good precedent so...:V
 
Businessmanga said:
It's Boney Quest so I'll honestly be happy wherever we go, and I'm sure I'll come to like wherever we end up, but I can't say I'm not gonna internally grumble a little bit if we move on to somewhere more permanently. I'm not looking forward to establishing what will now be a pattern of building up a huge house and then just shrugging and leaving it forever lol.

First it was a shabby secret castle, then a super mansion tower with accenting death towers. Now I'm just laughing at the idea of Mathilde building up a hyper metropolis and just being like "Well... bye! I've decided to move to my fief for the next 18 turns." afterwards. :V
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the answer to this problem?

just connect them all.

Project: shadow webway!

"... why the name webway? wouldn't 'tunnel' or 'passage' be more accurate?"
"look, the WE really liked the name, and they dont get to contribute a lot in the magic stuff, so just let them have it."
 
Sir_Travelsalot said:
Loremaster-at-Large means we still are Belegar's employee, he's just explicitly sending us out to other Holds on the regular in that case. He still won't be able to get a Loremaster who does an actual dwarf Loremaster's job.
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You misread Doc Matoi. They're voting for Ambassador-at-Large to the Karaz Ankor, not Loremaster-at-Large.
 
Jyn Ryvia said:
the answer to this problem?

just connect them all.

Project: shadow webway!

"... why the name webway? wouldn't 'tunnel' or 'passage' be more accurate?"
"look, the WE really liked the name, and they dont get to contribute a lot in the magic stuff, so just let them have it."
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Of course, the real reason it's called the Webway is because Mathilde WEBer wanted to sneak a reference to her name in there somehow :V
 
HeWhoAdds said:
I've decided to think of it as additional incentive to invent some kind of fast-travel or teleportation system.
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At the very least it's an incentive to make an even more fancy bathroom, one that puts out Bathroom To End All Bathrooms to shame. :cry:

The key to reconnecting the Karaz Ankor and Ulthuan. "We wanna be angry at each other, but Mathilde spent 50 each of College, Dwarf and Elf favour on this sink. We'll just have to set aside our differences and learn to work together again."


Jyn Ryvia said:
the answer to this problem?

just connect them all.
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Ultimately that'd probably be the ideal, expanding into the smoke and mirrors tower idea or something more grand, like pulling an Algard+ of his filing system and making the rotating door from Howl's Moving Castle. 🧙‍♂️

My main issue with moving and having that kind of easy travel available is like "Well I could spend social turns getting to know you, my new staff and citizens, but you're new and unknown so I'm just gonna talk to these dwarves that I have a rapport with!" or "Well sorry Stirland Crew Belegar and Friends, you're no longer in vogue. Maybe I'll talk to you once every 3 or 4 years!"

I'm just gonna Not think about it until it's relevant, save me a lot of stress that way haha.
 
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also. the other way to fix the problem (if the border princes win)

just control all the rivers and roads up to K8PS as well as the howling river.
then we can just make our home the centre of the operation
 
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HavocKeeper said:
He'd probably be an option for our martial advisor analogue if we went for Border Princess.
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that wasn't really what I was worried about.

I'm worried that he wanted to be in charge of the operation (I'm not saying princedom until it starts making a profit.) and mathy swooping in would set off divided loyalties in the worst way.

also, reading through Lure of the Liche Lord:

The Howling River (edited for copyright)

There are several waterways running down the eastern edge of the Border Princes and feed into the Black Gulf, these are the River Stacnek, Skull River, Howling River, and the Blood River. Blood River is the southernmost, and its waters form the boundary between the Border Princes and the Badlands. The Howling River lies only slightly above it. the river is split into three branches that trickle down from the World's Edge Mountains and flowing out of the peaks on either side of Mad Dog Pass.

The Howling River's water comes from an underground river deep beneath the mountains, The water is ice-cold and has the metallic tang of minerals, though prospectors sieving it have yet to find stones or gems of value.

The Howling River gets its name from the sound it makes as it bursts from the mountains and strikes the ground below. It is not the normal rush of a fast river but is higher, sharper, more like the howl of a wolf or wild dog.

The river has a swift, dangerous current, far too strong for most aquatic creatures, and most of the gaps in the mountain are not large enough for cavefish and other underground creatures to pass through. Occasionally, one of the odd, blind, stark-white fish will somehow live through the journey to flounder along the river, but most do not survive impact against the rocks below, and their bodies float to the surface, their white scales catching the sun as the water carries them swiftly away.

Experienced sailors can pilot small, swift boats down the Howling River, using it as a fast way to get from the base of the mountains to the Varenka Hills, but most know better than to risk it—the current is too fast and the river too narrow for anything but a small craft, and one wrong move would slam craft and pilot against sharp rocks at speeds high enough to easily shatter bone and wood.
 
Jyn Ryvia said:
So @BoneyM ? bit of a tangent.

while the Border princes are largely a joke, there are actually some groups that have actually made it to the point of actually succeeding at making something of themselves; that's part of the trap, the actually wealthy and powerful princes are disgustingly rich for individuals, if not at the level of the leaders of the actually named nations.

so just a quick thing: where would the howling river princedom be (location-wise) in relation to the Notable Principalities

Khypris: Formerly the Capital of the Khyprian Empire.

Masserschloss: Might currently be ruled by a necromancer.

New Bretonnia: Might not exist yet, (I'm bad at the timeline of Warhammer and Renaged crowns don't really say when its set.)

The Northern Border Confederacy: might be near if it's longer then wide, might be far if it's wider then long.
-Akendorf: one of the bigger and richer princedoms: actually know where it is: Near the southern entrance of Black Fire Pass.
-The Duchy of Brovska: economy is based on Agriculture and cattle farming
- Munzig is a town on the southern slope of the Black Mountains. the empire claims to own it, the locals claim the empire can go fuck themselves.
-lots of small pricedoms

Myrmidens: Founded by settlers from Luccini in Tilea, it is the largest realm of the Border princes with a population of approximately 7000 ( I think they mean 7000 fighters when they give numbers like this in the book, otherwise the thousands of sell-swords running around the princedoms doesn't make sense, as any band over 300 would wreck even the big towns easy.)
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Don't assume any of the 'canon' Border Princes exist. For one, all of the sources are set after Tamurkhan butchered his way through the area and a new round of hopefuls took over in the early 2500s, and for another, the latest Errantry War didn't end the same way here that it did in canon. Besides, some of those are 'notable' for OOC reasons. I'll nail down some quest canon for it on-screen if Border Princess ends up making the cutoff.

Rafin said:
So, what's the practical way to make Ulgu give off light, create armor or skywalk? Also, is our Aethyric Armor mastery in any way related to Ulgu or could any color theoretically have gotten it?
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This is going outside the scope of worldbuilding and getting into minutiae that I'd have to be the Tolkien of fictional magic to have constructed.

Rafin said:
In the current underling management system we either control distinct employees which cost us 1 AP per two people, but we can give tasks to each of them, or we control organizations/orders like the Duckling Club, where we usually only get to pick out one member/aspect to work with.
Where would a ruler's Council fall on that spectrum?
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I have not planned out the exact implementation of all thirteen possible paths forward in advance.
 
I'll admit, the thread is starting to sell me on Markgraf. Part of my decision-making process in a lot of quests is to imagine the trusted friends and acquaintances and superiors of the main character being informed of each decision with the justifications being given by the thread, and try to get a measure of how much they would start yelling about being stupid/reckless/insane/etc. It's a nice sanity check, and also helps to think about whether these decisions make sense in-character.

In this case, I'm using it to measure just how important each job is. Which is why Mandred Bodyguard is starting to feel less enticing to me. Turning down Pacify Sylvania and Cross-Species Waystone Research in order to slightly increase the security of a five year old, that sounds like the sort of thing that would confuse the hell out of a lot of people. I might personally enjoy it, but it's actually very important for me that the character Mathilde is someone that values the positive impact she can make over the benefits that she will receive. It would fall below the very high standards I want to hold Mathilde to. Deciding to take responsibility to pacify Sylvania is something that no one worthwhile would turn their nose up at. Not to say there aren't other reasons I'm uneasy about that decision, but I at least understand the appeal now.
 
BoneyM said:
For one, all of the sources are set after Tamurkhan butchered his way through the area and a new round of hopefuls took over in the early 2500s
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And at the same time, we're certainly too early for Lietpold the Black to have set up the Eagle Confederacy.

(Assuming Lietpold has not been butterflied of course- it's entirely possible he joined the K8P expedition, got hit with a dose of Dawi like the rest of the mercs, and is now simply a member of the Undumgi without any of his canon... tendencies)
 
Who would want to be a Border Princess tbh. What if we accidentally murdered our boi Gashnag. That would be sad. :V
 
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