[WHF] The Broken Mirror - A Divided Loyalties Peggy Sue

You approach Algard in his office, with your pitch prewritten for him to add to his meticulously organised paperwork, two days after he asks for your input - having taken the time to consider what it is you want to do, why, and how to persuade him.

"I want to work for Kurtis." You begin. "In my original life I was a legend to the dwarves, and I proved to them that zhufokri - their term for Magisters of the colleges - were worth investing in.

"Specifically, they made a set of 'Rooms of Calamity' for all eight colleges at my behest - rooms that used runecraft to make experimental magic and Battle Mage training far safer."

Algard sighs. "Useful as that may be - it can wait until the colleges aren't under threat of destruction from the Skaven beneath."

"There's more to it than that - the dwarves provided a lot of aid in fighting against the Skaven. They've been at constant war with them for centuries and they know what they're doing. If we get them on side as fast as possible they'll be able to train soldiers and then lead them into the tunnels - the longer we wait the more likely that something else will come up that keeps them too busy to provide aid." You put on a humble face. "Besides which - I'm not exactly that much direct use right now. There's a lot of spells I need that I just can't remember; and one that I could invent that would allow actual infiltration, but I have to relearn the others first."

"So the dwarves would be more immediate use against the Skaven than you would at this point?"

"Yes - but not just that. The Karak V situation in particular is not as stable as it sounds, for two reasons. Firstly, if we ever want to read the High King in on the source of the information..."

"We don't." Algard interrupts. "The only dwarves who could make any use of the knowledge are the Dawi Zharr. I know you want to be able to tell people about your history - but it's simply not worth it. We can always come up with excuses."

You crumple up that page of your pitch document. "Okay, well even given that, it's not stable - a greater daemon of The Plotter was there when the place returned, as was one of The Violent. The Excessive is treating the place as a toy, and as long as that stays the case there're only a few hundred dwarves lives lost a year - but if one of the other three decide they want to take over there's no way for us to know and the situation could change catastrophically. There are already Excessive influenced dwarves in there, albeit relatively few, but another of the four might make faster progress - or just kill them all."

"If you're right about that we should be launching the expedition now. But we don't have a reason to do so - nor do we have the co-operation of Kislev. Do you have a solution for that?"

"We could imply we're launching an attack on the Dawi Zharr. Or perhaps a raiding action against the Skaven Combes? I also happen to know that the Light Order want to investigate the windfall and the effects of ambient dhar, so having some people will extra effective windsense would make sense." Then a thought comes to you - telling about the time travel is off the table but the Celestials have a thing about self-fulfilling prophecies... "No, we tell Kislev that the Celestial College have determined there's going to be a large force of dwarves in the High Pass within the year; everyone's going to assume they'll be from Uzkulak and they'll be happy to have a military presence to aid them - although we'll want an all-female Battle Mage force if possible, they'll accept male magic users in their lands only under protest - and we tell them to use the cover story that we're there to help with a Yhetee build-up in the mountains around there that threatens the Silk Road.

"That cover story should hold up given as in seven years Asarnil was up there clearing out a huge number of the things. Not that it'll matter much when the Celestial prediction turns out to have meant a completely different set of dwarves."

"That..." He ponders deeply. "Yes, that could work. Are you going to quit working for Van Hal or do you have an excuse in mind for him?"

"He's preparing to cleanse the Haunted Hills next year. If I join the expedition in exchange for having a Battle Wizard join in for that, he'd be very much in favour"

"If you're promoted to magister by then we could justify a journeyman or two - but probably not a Battle Wizard." Algard pulls some papers out of nowhere and checks them over. "Hmmm, there is one in the Amethyst Order who could do with paying off a bit of a debt. Combine your impressive vampire killing with a willingness to help out on an emergency mission in Kislev - yes, we could handle that."

"If I'm going to be announced as having killed that vampire, it does rather suggest that the conspiracy needs to be wrapped up." You flip through to one of the back pages of your pitch. "Starke's going to be too busy with that to add me to his roster - and if I'm being trained up for the Kislev defence anyway, shouldn't Kurtis take me?"

"No - not Kurtis. But you're right that Starke will be busy. Work with Melkoth for now - even if you're not eligible for battle-mage cloistering he's a great teacher. You're going to start by graduating to Magister and go from there - make sure Van Hal approves of that training and expedition being your task for the coming year because it's going to be taking up most of your time."

"I do have a few employees of my own there that I need to keep track of." You pull a notebook out of your pouch, and point to the 'delegation' section of your schedule. "I can't go letting spies run around unsupervised."

"Hence why it'll only be most of your time. But you're going to be graduating by midsummer - and then you're going to be on the defence force up by Kislev."


Your new Grey College handler starting next turn will be Melkoth. He'll be expecting a report detailing what spells you think are most vital for you to learn immediately and any tactical advice for the Karak Vlag planning.

----

Before you leave Altdorf you have one last issue to address - Emmanuel. So you seek him out in the Temple of the Silver Hammer.

Rather than seek him out, you flare with Ulgu, and let him find you.

"I think you should come with me - there's a lot I could teach you, despite our different ways of working magics." You say when you sense he's close enough to hear you. "Especially when it comes to honing your senses - and your senses will be very useful for spotting the more dangerous undead before they can attack their victims."

He ponders. "You're right - I should hone my greatest gift. But not just that one gift; I must test my skills in combat against those beasts."

"Don't worry - there'll be plenty of opportunity for that."

----

Done with your business in Altdorf you pack up, including your new crimson book, and head back to Stirland to check in on your various subordinates.

The EIC has managed a great deal on the basis of your early information, and you made sure to remind them of that fact, intending to instil upon the leadership the importance of knowing what's going on in the world so that you can prepare for trade appropriately.

As such, they have set up an organised rumour-harvesting project when dealing with outside traders, keeping track of which ones give reliably accurate predictions and information in order to be better able to predict how prices and trade routes will be changing over time.

Working out which rumours are worth following up on is taking a while, so the first worthwhile report isn't likely to be for another few months - but you're certain that it'll pay off in both information and profit.

----

Julia has so far managed to get her eyes and ears thoroughly spread through six towns, but only by spreading coin equally widely - it's significantly eating into your budget, and you're starting to wonder whether she actually understands what a budget is yet, or if that's something she only learnt after turning her network into a self-funding endeavour.

Still, at least she's ensuring that any report that comes to her can be followed up on directly without bothering you, even if so far none of them have panned out as anything beyond simple local gossip.

----

In contrast to your other attempts, your Internal Investigations within the Stirland Watch have produced immediate results. You're disappointed, though not surprised, at the level of corruption in the Wurtbad Watch as was, and the various other local watches that your bureaucracy is gradually integrating - providing extra protection to the wealthy in exchange for bribes, running protection rackets, outright robbery of those too downtrodden to complain.

Your watchmen have given you more leads to run down than time to run them down - so for now you focus on only two: The first is a sheriff who is said to have ignored the laws of Magnus despite being a lawman. When he curses at your approach you have no need to doubt the reports, and when you hand him off to a judge you have no doubt that he will be found guilty and sentenced to the pyre himself.

The second is rather more significant - Bailiff Maltor Lupei in the border town of Tuman has been selling criminals. While the report you receive from a Leicheberg watchman is inconclusive - merely reporting that proper procedures and tracking aren't being performed - the details of the criminals in question is telling. Most significant is the case approximately seven months ago, shortly before the Banshee attack, wherein a widower of two years was to be executed for the murder of his wife and daughter. His execution was by hanging, and was both short and followed by a swift removal of the body.

So you decide to pay Maltor a visit and sniff out who it is he's been selling to - and thereby who it is that sent the Banshee.

The moment you see him you know the basics - he bears the same Dhar matrix as the infiltrators in Wurtbad castle, marking him as another pawn of the same conspiracy.

Voting Options:

With your skill as an interrogator it wouldn't take much time to extract knowledge of how and when Maltor meets his handler - but doing so without arousing any suspicion would be harder - and if he's under any sort of observation it would compromise any follow-up investigation if the handler simply stops showing up and leaves his matrix to decay.

[ ] [Investigate] Take the chance on a rapid follow-up
[ ] [Investigate] Plan for yourself or one of your spies to follow up more carefully, later

Now that you've recruited the hunter you're getting heavily loaded on subordinates. Do you want to integrate your Thekla/Wurtbad Watch actions and your Stirland Watch actions into a single delegation?

[ ] [Watch] You don't have time to micromanage Wurtbad - integrate them.
[ ] [Watch] No, Thekla and Wurtbad need the extra attention. Keep them separate.
If you keep them separate you'll have 5 delegations and 3 personal actions. If you integrate you'll have 4 delegations and 4 personal actions.

Social Vote:
The top five will be chosen, along with one social initiated by someone else

Stirland Council:
[ ] [Social] Joining Thekla Donatus, Abelhelm and Hans von Eerie at the castle for a meal
[ ] [Social] Properly introducing Abelhelm and Anton to the Good Boy known as Wolf
[ ] [Social] Showing off your new gun to Gustav and Anton
[ ] [Social] Listening to Abelhelm's old "war stories"
[ ] [Social] Asking Anton about his Aunt Julia
[ ] [Social] Celebrating the EIC's early success with Wilhelmina and Markus

Grey College:
[ ] [Social] Exchanging letters with your classmate Ulrike about some of your favourite books
[ ] [Social] Spending some time with Regimand while he gets used to having only one arm
[ ] [Social] Getting to know Melkoth before he officially becomes your superior
[ ] [Social] Letting Kurtis Krammovich question you

Miscellaneous
[ ] [Social] Attending one of Julia's dinner parties
[ ] [Social] Visiting Heideck and Wolf in the sewers to celebrate their profits from the Stirland League raids last year
[ ] [Social] Surprising Markus with your prodigious improvement in swordsmanship
[ ] [Social] Discussing the Cult of Sigmar with Emanuel Sigtreu
[ ] [Social] Discussing with Jack Albright your different relationships with Ranald
[ ] [Social] Relaxing alongside the troops at Fort Redemption
[ ] [Social] Visiting Gabriella in her Sylvanian home, and asking about her recommending you for Stirland
[ ] [Social] Visiting Zhufbar to congratulate Ashbeard on how effective the gun he sold you was

[ ] [Social] Making yourself easily available (receive a second social initiated by someone else)

[ ] [Social] Write In?