Night Prowler stops working if Mathilde starts calling attention to herself, such as by riding a magical horse made of pure shadow at superhuman speeds through the milling crowds.
The 'canon' population figures that the wiki inexplicably treats as immutable fact are actually of the Empire immediately after the Storm of Chaos, not under typical conditions.
(2) are the tunnel entrances a narrow enough patrol circuit that "with the Tunnel Brigade" Mathilde could expect to detect Alberich's presence approaching? Or is the Tunnel Brigade choice just a way for her to get to the fight faster, still trusting someone else to spot him?
Is there a list of what is available to be learned? Is it just training skills or learning spells? I am also curious if Mathilde would need to learn how to make a power stone for the "Investigate how the Vitae reacts to being subjected to power stone creation methods" action or if that is just blocked on "Investigate how the Vitae reacts to a power stone".
All the Battle Magic Spells are available to be learnt now.
On the "Investigate how the Vitae reacts to being subjected to power stone creation methods" action - it's locked until either Mathilde learns to make power stones, or is willing to educate someone who does know how to on all the details that she's learnt about Vitae (so that they can decide whether it's possible to make an attempt which won't immediately blow up in their faces).
Since we have yet to even write a preliminary paper about the stuff, the latter doesn't seem particularly likely to happen any time soon.
A lot of people think that the Waystone Network will in some way be created/empowered/altered by certain rituals - so they wanted to get that knowledge in place before we go ahead with things.
It's pretty much just a once-per-turn free-for-all vote at this point. No long-term plans (other than "We shall someday have everything") have any sort of sticking power on it.
Learning new magic (especially Battle Magic) and creating new spells/enchantments (especially Windherder spells) seems really dangerous and prone to catastrophic miscasts. Is there a plan for managing this risk and making sure the reward is worth it? Maybe spreading it out and using the Gambler face of the coin when attempting it? I did see the post for Approved Spells but it just lists ideas.
Learning Battle Magic is dangerous, so yeah we're unlikely to try it without the Gambler in play. There's no rule that says we can't, it's just observation of past player behaviour.
It's not entirely clear how dangerous inventing new lower-tier spells would be - we've never tried it - but it's likely to be at least a little less dangerous than inventing battle-magic tier stuff. A spell of Relatively Simple effect, without windherding, would probably just about pass muster as something to attempt without the Gambler - but only if we needed that spell effect for a specific purpose in a hurry, and needed the coin for something else.
Is there a list of what is available to be learned? Is it just training skills or learning spells? I am also curious if Mathilde would need to learn how to make a power stone for the "Investigate how the Vitae reacts to being subjected to power stone creation methods" action or if that is just blocked on "Investigate how the Vitae reacts to a power stone".
Not really. There's a ton of things that Mathilde could possibly learn, so no lists have been made. The Self Improvement and Enchantment/Spell options give an idea:
[ ] Attempt to gain control of one of your Arcane Marks (specify which)
[ ] Try to see through Pall of Darkness with your improved magical senses.
[ ] Practice shooting while invisible. (applies to Substance of Shadow and Invisibility)
[ ] Branulhune's ability to disappear and reappear at a thought allows entirely new forms of combat. Continue to work on them.
[ ] Attempt to finish off the Grey College spellbook by learning Shadow of Death, Cloak Activity, and the MAPP.
We can attempt to control our Arcaane Marks, try to see through Pall of Darkness or learn to shoot while invisible, we can finish the basic spellbook for completion's sake and to get Cloak Activity, and we can continue to work on our custom Branulhune fighting style. We also have ideas in regards to binding Apparitions to apply the stuff we got from our deal with Gehenna. We've been theorising on either binding a Red Rider or Handmaiden, most likely the Red Rider. There is also attempting to standardise Rite of Way for the College.
Aside from that, there are these spells up for learning:
U / Steed of Shadows: Not to be confused with Shadowsteed, an insubstantial pegasus or drake appears under an ally within short range and carries them across the battlefield at incredible speed. U / The Enfeebling Foe: An entire group of enemies feel their muscles begin to fail them and their weapons grow heavy in their hands. Medium range. U / The Withering: The mirror to the above spell, instills weakness and doubt into a group of foes within medium range. U / The Penumbral Pendulum: A ghostly and razor-sharp pendulum of immense size appears above the wizard, then falls in the direction of their choosing. Anyone that fails to get out of the way will suffer horrendous damage. U / Pit of Shades: Creates a vortex to a horrifying hell dimension within medium range that drags in anyone unfortunate enough to be nearby. U / Okkam's Mindrazor: Summons illusory weapons for an entire group of allies within medium range that shred the very consciousness of their enemies, with strength equal to their courage.
If the thread ever wants to get into it, which is unlikely because of the risk attached. None of them can become easier with our staff.
There are also a number of lessons we can take from the College. The only ones that we didn't take or would be relevant because we don't have much skill in the area:
Other than that there is no practical list we could make. I suppose Mathilde could learn engineering or something. But why? We're so tight on AP that we're really averse to learning any new skills that aren't immediately relevant. Mathilde could probably finagle the resources to get a Hochland Long Rifle and practice sniping, but the amount of effort and time invested wouldn't be worth the effort. We haven't had to snipe since the Goblin Warboss in Karak Lhune. We got the Marksdwarf pistol for sniping afterwards and we only used it for hunting ducks.
There was some thread belief that learning rituals would be relevant to understanding Waystones and perhaps might allow us to reverse engineer rituals. The results were probably not what they expected. The College's rituals are full of mysticism and uncertainty, and we certainly aren't seeing the benefits for now. Most rituals are pretty... questionable:
I thought it would be fun to go over all the rituals I've been able to find descriptions on. Note that many of them aren't really the type to be cast by the Colleges, as I'm including Necromancy, Daemonic and Divine rituals in here too. I hope this is helpful in showing examples to people of what rituals are like, including their ridiculous conditions, their effects and the possible backlash you'd get from casting it:
Daemonic. Very High difficulty. Requires at least 5 spellcasters, a full moon, the head of a Beastman shaman, two human sacrifices, one man and one woman both of whom haven't eaten in a week and a thimble of warpstone. Four hour casting time, if it fails the ritual backfires on the casters. Effect causes everyone within one mile with a WIllpower of less than 50% to turn into a beastman for 24 hours and go into a killing spree. The ritual reverts after 24 hours but anyone who survives doesn't come out mentally unscathed.
Arcane. High Difficulty. Requires a dragon's tooth, a diamond worth 500gc, a gong blessed by a dying priest and for the caster to be naked and painted with woad. Failing the ritual causes you to get swallowed by the earth. Eight hour casting time and a 3 mile range, the ritual affects an area equivalent to a small town. The ritual creates an earthquake lasting one minute that destroys all but the strongest buildings.
Arcane. Chamon only. I'm sure we all know what this does, Johann's done it. I'll copy paste the post I already made on it Gilding in relation to Johann:
Fingers and Toes are cosmetic, so he did them as part of Hands/Arm/Feet/Leg. Hands and Arms are separate processes, the Hands improving manual dexterity and the Arms improving Strength and increasing the Armor of your arm. The process is separate for each hand and arm, and I'm pretty sure Johann did it for each hand and arm instead of skimping on any of it.
Feet and Legs are also separate, and a separate process for the left and right ones. Feet grants bonuses to resisting fatigue on travel by foot, and leg grants armor of the Legs on top of boosting Movement. He probably did every single one of these.
There is no Torso Gilding in Realms of Sorcery for some reason, but I'm pretty sure that it should exist and Johann took it. He also took the Lung gilding which means he doesn't even need to breath air, which he told Mathilde that he uses on solo ventures, probably by using gas.
The Lung one is dangerous if failed, as it causes you pain every time you breath if you fail, but then we get to the very delicate part. The Head. The Head can either be done all at once, or separated into components such as Ear and Nose (eyes aren't included in the book for some reason, but it's clearly a thing). Ears improves hearing, Nose improves smell, and Eyes would logically improve sight. Head lets you gild everything at once, giving you the benefits of everything being gilded (improved senses overall) as well as boosted head armor. The downside is that it is one of two Gildings that results in instant death if failed.
There is another very dangerous gilding that results in instant death. The Heart. If you Gild it then you no longer feel emotional pain, which let me tell you I'm not sure if that's worth risking death.
The book only gives guidelines for these modifications, but you can get creative and gild more parts I'm pretty sure. The only ones in this list that are left for Johann are the Head ones and the Heart. After the disaster that happened with his eyes, I'm not sure if he's keen to possibly ruin his other senses, and I'm not sure he should risk death for the Head. The Heart is not worth it. Maybe he can do Liver or Kidneys or Intestines I guess. I'm pretty sure bones and muscles are linked to the limb in question so I don't think you can gild them directly unless it counts as a separate "organ".
Arcane. Very High difficulty. Effect causes a target to dance until they die. Anyone who looks at the dancer must attempt to resist or they will join the dance. Other conditions include an incredibly well made lute strung with hair from a unicorn's mane, five gallons of the blood of agile dancers, and one pair of dancing shoes made by the finest cobbler of the "realm he cobbles". The caster must also be a dancer to cast this. Finally, in order to curse someone the caster need to spend four hours casting while the target is held immobile. If the caster fails the casting, they dance until they're dead, but they don't cause anyone who looks at them to dance too. Only a Shallyan caster with Cure Insanity can stop the Dance. It should be reminded that the Dance infection only occurs by looking at the original cursed Dancer, not at the ones they infect.
Arcane. Medium difficulty. Requires the boots of 100 soldiers, one coin of the wages of each soldier who will travel, an eagle's wing, and an order for deployment written on flawless parchment in ink made from the troop commander's own blood. This ritual is pretty complicated, but basically, it's a teleportation ritual with a ton of caveats attached to it. You can cast it with one person, or you can cast it with multiple people with no upper limit. Bear with me here, because there's a lot to go through:
Essentially, you and whoever is helping you cast the ritual cast throughout "all the hours of darkness in one night". If you're successful, you teleport an entire group of individuals, including the casters."The march's objective may be any natural place in the Old World to which the body could eventually travel, unbarred, on foot". It's important to note that this teleportation is basically acceleration rather than traditional teleportation, so it actually counts as a "full night's hard march". At least half the people being teleported have to be soldiers. The number of people being teleported depends on the total magic scores of every caster involved in the ritual. Each caster is in charge of a portion of the group. Each caster who fails the cast suffers the consequence alongside their portion.
What are the consequence? You get transported to somewhere random anywhere in the world. There's a reason most soldiers who go through this spell really hate it. Many of them see their friends disappear.
Arcane. Medium Difficulty. Requires a sheet of parchment made from the skin of a stillborn lamb and bearing the exact words of the oath written in the blood of a judge, a drop of the oathbreaker's blood and spit, and a vial containing the breath of one wronged by the breaking of the oath. The ritual must be cast within one mile of the oathbreaker and the oathbreaker may not speak a word for the 4 hour casting time of the spell. If the ritual fails, then you're forced to carry out the oath yourself. If the ritual is a success, you force someone who has sworn an oath and has either broken it or intends to break it, even if they swore said oath in jest, under compulsion or when blind drunk, to carry it out in both letter and spirit to the best of their ability. They will not be suicidal in doing it and will be capable of holding back for the right opportunity, but they will fulfill it to the best of their ability.
Daemonic. Very High difficulty. Requires the whole and unhewn corpse of a Daemon of Nurgle, a forty-pound candle made with the drippings of three dozen men killed by the Neiglish Rot, brackish water collected from three foetid swamps at least one thousand miles from each other, and the hand of a mad surgeon. The caster must also have survived the Neiglish Rot at least once in their life. If they fail the ritual they contract Neiglish Rot and auto fail their saving throws, resulting in near guaranteed death over the course of the illness. If they succeed, everyone within one mile must test for toughness or contract Neiglish Rot. I'll talk about it later, but NR is pretty horrific, and it's very serious business to get infected by it.
Arcane: High Difficulty. Requires a drop of blood taken from a male of the line since the previous sunset, a fist-sized chunk of warpstone, a solid silver goblet worth at least 100 gc, and a stillborn goat. No member of the lineage the ritual is being cast on may be expecting child or an auto failure happens. A failure results in your lineage being affected instead. A success means every single person from a particular family related to the individual you're targeting by blood will be infertile for all time. You can choose to affect only men or only women. 8 hour casting time.
High Nehekharan. High Difficulty. Requires a piece of stone from a Nehekharan building, a map of the tower drawn with the blood of a mason, the skull of a Stone Troll. Caster must be capable of Stoneworking. Failure results in one hand turning to stone permanently. 4 hour casting time, this ritual causes a 50 foot tall building to spontaneously form. The layout is determined by the map drawn as part of the ingredients.
Necromantic. High Difficulty. Requires the sword arms of ten dead soldiers, a drum made of bones and Human skin, a fragment of Warpstone the size of a skull, and a barrel of rum. An assistant must continuously beat the bone drum while the four hour ritual takes place.The ritual raises up to 30 skeletons or zombies. The difference between these and standard undead is that they don't count towards how many undead the caster is limited to controlling, there is no time limit for them, and they listen to orders no matter how far they get from the caster. They remain even if the caster is slain. If the caster fails the ritual, the undead turn on them.
Arcane. Medium Difficulty. Requires the hearts of five followers of Khorne or Shallya or a combination of both, a Griffon's feather, a calf born in the last spring in the lands targeted. It must be cast on the highest ground in the area to be affected. Takes 4 hours to cast. Success means a rain of blood for one hour over an area of five square miles, feeding vampires on the march and disheartening the enemy. Failure means a rain of holy water instead.
High Nehekharan. Incredibly High difficulty. Requires the hands of a midwife, the last drop of a Human's blood, a Dragon's tooth, the womb of a cow raised on blood, the remains of a Vampire. 4 hour casting time, and it may only be cast on an "accursed location", which means an area where a large scale tragedy has taken place. Failure on the ritual causes the caster to suffer the same tragedy as those in the accursed area. A successful cast returns a Vampire to unlife. The caster need to not only be successful, but beat the casting roll by five. If the casting roll is not beaten by five, then the Vampire doesn't come back but difficulty lowers a little. The ritual can be attempted again in another accursed location that is at least 20 miles away. Each failed cast takes years away from the caster's life.
Necromancy. Medium Difficulty. Requires the birth caul of a sailor, a ship that sank with her crew, the hands of a drowned priest of Manann, a ship's manifest written in blood, a fist-sized chunk of Warpstone. Failure causes the caster to be tormented by visions of being drowned in an ocean of damned souls. Success in this four hour ritual means that a sunken ship rises from where it's resting place. There are as many skeletons or spectres as there were crew when it sank. The ship is as rotten as it was on the ocean floor but it rots no further. The ship needs no wind on its sails, it moves at an even speed regardless of weather.
Divine. Very High Difficulty. Requires a quart of blessed liquid (different cults prefer different liquids, including fresh water, brine, animal blood, and beer) and a holy symbol of your cult. The caster must purify themselves for a full week and then spend a further two days contemplating divine texts before drawing their holy symbol with the blessed liquid and casting for 1d10+4 hours. Casting becomes easier on holy days and holy ground. A failed cast causes the caster's god to retaliate viciously with their Vengeance. A successful one summons a divine servant, which differs based on the god and the variation of the ritual cast. This can summon a holy animal, a Venerated Soul, or an odd manifestation like a twin tailed comet for Sigmar and a Cat's Paw for Ranald. Whoever summons the Divine Servant has absolutely no control over it, and it does what it pleases. The caster must have a very good reason for summoning, or they will suffer the Wrath of the Gods.
Divine. Difficulty fluctuates based on the size of the area consecrated. The materials are variable but generally involve blessed liquid, holy symbol, sacrifice appropriate to the cult, a fitting site and sometimes more. Casters must purify themselves beforehand. Most widely known divine ritual. If properly cast it boosts all divine casters of the particular god within the consecrated area and holds certain implications against specific creatures like Vampires. If failed, the ritual makes it look like it worked but it didn't.
Divine. Sigmarite only. Shallyans have their own version called Rite of Casting Out. Ritual casts out a Daemon possessing someone. Medium Difficulty for the actual cast, the difficult part is the battle against the Daemon. Requires an illuminated copy of The Book of Sigmar, the sign of the hammer or twin-tailed comet, new Priestly vestments, rope and nails for binding, a vial of holy water, a hammer, a goat (or some other animal) or mirror, and a roaring fire. Also needs the Exorcist to spend three consecutive days prior to casting the ritual in meditation and prayer. Once they are finished, they gather their witnesses, one to see and watch, one to help, and at least one who is bound to the victim by blood or marriage. The helpers must bind the victim to a tree with stout rope and nails, while the Exorcist readies the animal (or mirror) to contain the fiendish entity. Failure results in the Daemon becoming more resistant to exorcism, or if a miscast occurs allows the Daemon to possess the exorcist. Success means the fight actually begins as the Exorcist and Daemon get into a battle of wills. The process is long and arduous and can end in either victory or defeat.
Daemonic. Medium difficulty. Ritual from the Codex of Unspeakable Damnation. Requires a bowl of the caster's blood, a sacrificial knife covered in Human excrement, and a Human sacrifice. The Human must be nude and painted in profane sigils and runes invoking the names of Tzeentch. The caster must forgo using magic for 8 hours and abstain from alcohol and stimulants for a week. Failure causes the caster to glimpse Chaos, blasting away sanity. Success draws the soul out of the victim, killing them in the process and turning the soul into a ball of stretchy ectoplasm. The ball lasts for a few weeks and can be expended at any point to boost a singular spell significantly. 1 hour casting time.
Arcane. Easy. 1 hour casting time. Requires the caster's body to be nude and covered in arcane sigils from head to toe with ink mixed from the caster's own blood and expensive compounds (20 gc). The ritual must be cast before sleep, and the caster must sleep in a circle made from a chaos follower or Daemon's blood. Daemon's blood boosts the spell, making it easier to cast. Failure causes the caster to suffer unadulterated Chaos, blasting sanity. Success in the ritual allows the user to transport their soul to the Aethyr into one of the Legendary Locations in the Realm of Chaos. The spirit form is invincible to harm but not insanity, and what is seen by the caster is likely to leave them disturbed. Seeing the Legendary Locations provides an unprecedented level of knowledge and understanding of Chaos. This ritual is from the non-redacted version of the Liber Malefic, available in the Cathedral of Sigmar's archives.
Daemonic. Every detail in this ritual varies based on the circumstances. Difficulty is determined by the power of the Daemon being summoned, casting time is dependent on the Daemon, ingredients are determined by the Daemon, and the consequences of failure are dependent on the Daemon and its power level. Generally the consequences are severe and involve insanity and mutation, and depending on the Daemon straight up death. Ritual can involve drawn Octagrams so the caster can make the process of containing the Daemon and contesting its willpower to gain control easier. If the caster has the Daemon's True Name, it makes things much easier as it allows direct summoning and proper containment, as well as domination of the Daemon in question. Certain Daemons can be bound as familiars. Well, technically any Daemon can be bound as a familiar as long as an agreement is reached, but there's a reason you don't try to bind strong Daemons as familiars.
We decide on a turn by turn basis. @picklepikkl is probably the most invested in terms of book choices, but I doubt even he has some sort of list. The thread doesn't coordinate on this topic. It's pretty hard to do so when we don't know what we need at any given point of time and sometimes don't even know where we're going.
Learning new magic (especially Battle Magic) and creating new spells/enchantments (especially Windherder spells) seems really dangerous and prone to catastrophic miscasts. Is there a plan for managing this risk and making sure the reward is worth it? Maybe spreading it out and using the Gambler face of the coin when attempting it? I did see the post for Approved Spells but it just lists ideas.
New magic is fine. Battle Magic is where it gets risky, and the thread has considered that and the response was to not go there. The only battle magics the thread is interested in are the Mist spells because our staff makes it easier, and we already learnt the only spell that has that effect (Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma). Aside from crafting new spells like Rite of Way or acquiring secrets like Apparitions so we can craft our own version, risk is going to be part of the process.
The only things we've found to minimise the risk is to set Gambler, work in our specialised lab with our specialised equipment, focus on mist based spells (or stuff that we have the secrets for like Apparitions) and pray to Ranald. There is no full safety.
I apologize if this feels like it is derailing the discussion for the vote, if there is a better time/place to discuss this let me know. Since I just finished reading the quest a few days ago I am now trying to catch up with the threads thoughts on long term planning. Some questions that might have been answered at one point and I couldn't find it:
Is there a list of what is available to be learned? Is it just training skills or learning spells? I am also curious if Mathilde would need to learn how to make a power stone for the "Investigate how the Vitae reacts to being subjected to power stone creation methods" action or if that is just blocked on "Investigate how the Vitae reacts to a power stone".
Mathilde and Max just learned how to do ritual magic and I didn't see the conversation for why. Is this part of some plan?
Is there a list or some coordination on what books to buy for the library?
Learning new magic (especially Battle Magic) and creating new spells/enchantments (especially Windherder spells) seems really dangerous and prone to catastrophic miscasts. Is there a plan for managing this risk and making sure the reward is worth it? Maybe spreading it out and using the Gambler face of the coin when attempting it? I did see the post for Approved Spells but it just lists ideas.
1. I don't think there's an exhaustive list, and new ones will come up as we meet new people and experience new things—I'm pretty sure flying a gyrocopter wasn't on the books until much later on, for example. For spells, there's the Spellbook informational threadmark. For skills, there's a list of college classes we can take in the Collection of Important Information informational threadmark in the Quest Mechanics section under 'College Rep,' though Mathilde's already taken or outgrown most of them.
2. Waystones and academic curiosity, but mostly just in case they becomes useful for waystones.
3. I'm not heavily invested in the current book debate, but I believe the leading contenders are back-fill, for efficiency's sake and the good of Barak Varr's booksellers, and Gods, to explore various divine mysteries. And Hoeth/Verena for library science.
4. The Staff of Mistery downgrades the difficulty of all fog/smoke based Ulgu spells by one level, including Battle Magic. The current long term plan is to develop new Fog based Battle Magic so we can cast them (relatively) safely and frontload the risk into the spell creation process. Though personally I'd much prefer grabbing Branarhune and Master Greatsword for increasing Mathilde's combat effectiveness before we do more magical killiness.
To be honest, I didn't have much interest in controlling Arcane Marks before this turn. It seemed like a marginal benefit for a lot of time and effort invested at first glance. But I am interested in controlling Shrouded. I think we can benefit from naturally being able to control shadows clinging to us, if we can actually achieve that control. Sure we could use spells for that, but it's better to have a natural ability to do something rather than have to cast a spell to do it.
Controlling the flicker of candleflame didn't interest me, and I was doubtful we could manipulate our shadow to any significant degree better than what Dread Aspect gave us, and the Mantle would have been helpful if we were expecting to deal with gas weapons I suppose, but Shrouded is most interesting to me.
Night Prowler stops working if Mathilde starts calling attention to herself, such as by riding a magical horse made of pure shadow at superhuman speeds through the milling crowds.
I think a fun spell to create would be one that simply removes all sound in a area around the caster. That would be stupidly good for Grey caster I think. But would need to be able to be toggled and spells don't like being toggled.
By the way, my opinion on skills is mostly a matter of delegation:
Potions and Poison? Panoramia
Smithing and Crafting? Max
Engineering and Piloting? Adela
Fighting and Field Work? Johann, Mathilde and Horstmann
Research and Publishing? Mathilde, Max and Horstmann
Enchanting and Windherding? Mathilde and Horstmann
Ritual Work if we need it? Mathilde, Max and maybe Horstmann if him having a ritual knife means anything in that department.
Plant and Ecological Research/Field Work? Bring Panoramia
Metallurgical Research/Field Work? Bring Johann and Max
Daemonic Research/Field Work? Bring Horstmann
Undead Research/Field Work? Mathilde and Horstmann. Gretel if we can get her on short notice
Meat Shield? Hubert
Delegation is key, and we have lots of useful allies with different specialties for different circumstances. Mathilde doesn't need to learn everything as long as she has allies backing her up.
While reading I had missed that the staff has the mechanical effect of making mist based Battle Magic the difficulty of Fiendishly Complex to cast, that is much stronger than I realized. Also has interesting thematic synergy with Warrior of Fog.
Completely agree on delegating for a lot of the skills you listed @Codex, the only College classes that seem interesting are therefore: Power Stones and their Creation, Wyrdstone Containment, and On the Education of Apprentices. Learning to fly a Gyrocopter seems like one of those things to delegate to an actual pilot, though it is unclear to me what the mechanical effect of having a dedicated pilot would be.
A lot of the self-Improvement list seem less immediately interesting than progress on the waystone research or R&D on stuff like the Vitae and artefacts. It would be nice to find a way Mathilde could use the Vitae herself instead of just selling it. Making slow but steady progress on the self-Improvement list and developing new spells seems like the way to go so that we can handle more difficult fights as the story progresses.
I am also not super invested in the book selection, was just curious how it was handled by the thread.
Learning to fly a Gyrocopter seems like one of those things to delegate to an actual pilot, though it is unclear to me what the mechanical effect of having a dedicated pilot would be.
That is understandable because a lot of the discussion on that was made in thread and not on update. I'm not up for catching all the quotes, but the summary is that a pilot would make things much more convenient. Currently we have to arrange for a pilot to come to us at specific intervals because all the pilots are busy being vital parts of the Karaz Ankor's communication, and we can't hire anyone of them to be on standby because they're important assets that can't afford to just sit and wait for us.
Boney has said that Adela is actually willing to be our pilot because that sounds amazing for her. That is by far the best choice imo. A person who can dedicate themselves to be our pilot and doesn't require constant micromanagement and even has some useful skills on the side. We can also trust her and she has some seriously good stats, partly because of the training we had her do:
Adela Burgstaller, Journeywoman of the Bright Order
Armament: Wand
Speciality: Steam
Mission: Engineering
Diplomacy: 12 - Not her strong suit, but she can be convincing when it occurs to her.
Martial: 17 - Increased accuracy and speed has made Adela a genuine threat on the battlefield.
Learning: 20 - Adela has an affinity for both the fires of Aqshy and industry.
Magic: 4 - Her reach is impressive, but she really should let her grasp catch up.
Burgher: Adela comes from a middle-class urban family.
Familial Ties: Adela has strong ties and sense of responsibility to her family, that sometimes overshadow her career as a Wizard.
Flame Saber: Adela is growing increasingly skilled with the Flaming Sword of Rhuin.
Adaptable Mechanic: Adela has begun to fuse the engineering knowledge of the Dwarves and the Empire with the insight of the Gold Wizards.
Royal Boon (Minor): For their part in the Karak Eight Peaks campaign, they have earned a boon they have yet to call in.
Tempered Boldness: Though Aqshy and her temperament feed off each other, she's learned to control her impetuosity when it matters.
Wand of Aqshy: Adela's self-created and very short 'staff' is filled with gaseous Aqshy, allowing her to rapidly cast spells that manifest as various forms of fire.
Uncanny Memory: Adela has an amazing ability to retain information.
Known Spells:
Aethyric Armour
Fires of U'Zhul
Flaming Sword of Rhuin
Flashcook
Inextinguishable Flame
Active Members:
Lady Magister Mathilde Weber of the Grey Order
Lady Magister Elrisse of the Order of Light
Lord Magister Egrimm van Horstmann of the Order of Light
Magister Tochter Grunfeld of the Order of Life
Lord Hatalath of the Grey Lords
Vicereine Cadaeth of the Ward of Frost
Runelord Thorek Ironbrow of Karak Azul
Affiliated States and Organizations:
The Colleges of Magic
> The Grey Order
> The Order of Light
> The Order of Life
Laurelorn
> The Grey Lords
> The Ward of Frost
Karak Eight Peaks
Karak Azul
Headquarters: Former estate of House Elwyn
Extremely high-quality Eonir-furnished laboratories
Metalworking facilities
Luxurious and elegant living quarters
Rakilid un Thaggorhun / Queekish (Holographs)
The Loathsome Chaos Dwarves and All Their Vile Kin, by Quirin Waramunt (Holograph)
Anatomy of the Fire Dwarves of Zharr-Naggrund, in the original Queekish
Book purchase availability:
Empire: Mundane, Divine up to Extensive (via Barak Varr bookseller), Magical (via Colleges of Magic)
Dwarven: Mundane, Divine up to Extensive (via Barak Varr bookseller)
Eonir: Mundane, Divine (via Library of Mournings)
I think a fun spell to create would be one that simply removes all sound in a area around the caster. That would be stupidly good for Grey caster I think. But would need to be able to be toggled and spells don't like being toggled.
Toggleability would be a nice stretch goal, but honestly just plain a "nothing in this zone creates sound" effect (that still allowed you to hear things outside the zone) would be pretty damn awesome even if you couldn't toggle it.
A "no sound leaves this zone" would be even better of course, because it'd retain the ability to cast verbally, but that's all stretch goal stuff.
Toggleability would be a nice stretch goal, but honestly just plain a "nothing in this zone creates sound" effect (that still allowed you to hear things outside the zone) would be pretty damn awesome even if you couldn't toggle it.
A "no sound leaves this zone" would be even better of course, because it'd retain the ability to cast verbally, but that's all stretch goal stuff.
If you want a fog that silences everything in an area, there are two options building off of the experimentation we had with Rite of Way. We can use fog as a delivery mechanism for another spell, we know this from the metacasting Skywalk fog. So we can use Fog as a delivery mechanism for either this spell:
K / Silence: Makes someone unable to speak for a few seconds at short range. Interrupts spellcasting.
- Does not eliminate all sounds, only makes someone unable to vocalize.
Which is a Lesser Magic Spell, like Skywalk, and would likely be roughly the same difficulty as Rite of Way, except we have to start the process all over again as we minitaurise and make Silence more efficient. It also does not remove all sound, simply makes it so no one can vocalise. Maybe we can even make it selective so certain people can speak and certain people cannot. Would be a decent anti-mage spell if we can get in range, depending on what the range is.
K / Illusion: You create an illusion at short range that can look, sound, and smell like anything you want. Requires near-constant concentration to maintain.
- Illusion will not be solid. If the illusion is implausible enough to raise suspicion, those subject to it might see through it.
This is if you want to create complete silence. This is the only spell we know that can do that, except Illusion is a lot more flexible than that. Maybe we can strip down Illusion's variability and flexibility by making it only remove sound, because otherwise we'd be trying to weave a Fiendishly Complex spell into a giant fog that metacasts it. Considering the struggles of Rite of Way, this would be much harder. We could go for the harder stretch goal of making an entire field of illusion, which come to think of it that would be stealing Ling Qi's schtick from Forge/Threads of Destiny.
- Regimand will be with Mathilde if 'Longshanks' or 'Hunter Lord' is chosen, and covering the opposite possibility if 'Tunnel Brigade'/'Horned Hunters' or 'Bad Dankerode'/'Hunting Cabin' is chosen.
Going by the tally it looks like Regimand will be with Mathy on the nigh.
I'm curious to see when they stop playing their little games and get serious. Start of the night? When they enter combat? Or when one of them is bleeding out on the floor?
Going by the tally it looks like Regimand will be with Mathy on the nigh.
I'm curious to see when they stop playing their little games and get serious. Start of the night? When they enter combat? Or when one of them is bleeding out on the floor?
Mathilde is fine being cheery and screwing around with her "ducklings" in a controlled environment that she's scouted out in advance and considered safe enough while supervising, which is I suppose her version of Regimand's tricks on her, but she turns serious the instant that she can no longer control the scenario. If you're uncertain about the variables and factors involved, then the response is to stop screwing around and get serious.
the summary is that a pilot would make things much more convenient. Currently we have to arrange for a pilot to come to us at specific intervals because all the pilots are busy being vital parts of the Karaz Ankor's communication, and we can't hire anyone of them to be on standby because they're important assets that can't afford to just sit and wait for us.
Boney has said that Adela is actually willing to be our pilot because that sounds amazing for her. That is by far the best choice imo. A person who can dedicate themselves to be our pilot and doesn't require constant micromanagement and even has some useful skills on the side. We can also trust her and she has some seriously good stats, partly because of the training we had her do:
@Codex that sounds really nice to have Adela back with us. Do we know if she would join WEB-MAT in some form and be available to assist with research, or just to help with combat when she flies us somewhere? It's still not clear to me what the mechanical effect of having a pilot on standby would be, would it interact with how much AP it takes to do things with WEB-MAT?
Edit:
Did some digging and answered my own questions: She will only help with combat if we recruit her as a pilot.
If she's being recruited solely as a pilot then she wouldn't require managing, only if you also want to do other things like enchanting or research or whatnot with her.
@Codex that sounds really nice to have Adela back with us. Do we know if she would join WEB-MAT in some form and be available to assist with research, or just to help with combat when she flies us somewhere? It's still not clear to me what the mechanical effect of having a pilot on standby would be, would it interact with how much AP it takes to do things with WEB-MAT?
The previous system is that the K8P's Gyrocarriage would fly to where Mathilde is on a schedule organized in advance to get her to where she needs to go. She just received one of her own from Zhufbar which could let her fly around wherever she needs to go at a moment's notice, but still being reliant on K8P's pilots means that it would have to work on the old system, as the pilots are military assets that can be lent for a day here or there but can't be permanently seconded to Mathilde without weakening the defence of the Karak.
A Dwarf pilot almost always come from either an Engineering or Piloting Clan and they are almost always Apprenticed to someone they are related to, often their father or uncle. Once they finish their Apprenticeship they 'Journey' by piloting their Master's gyrocopter on non-combat missions, like high-altitude scouting or taking messages and mail between Holds - or on unusual trips for which there is no existing pilot, like delivering Gyrocopters that have been commissioned by and built for other Holds or piloting a Gyrocarriage that belongs to a VIP. They become a Master only when there is a Gyrocopter that needs a pilot, either because their Master died or retired, another pilot has died without a Journeyman of their own, or because a new one has finished construction, and they will fly that Gyrocopter until it is destroyed or until they die or retire. This is a system built for the single purpose of producing combat pilots that are willing to die to protect their Karak. There's no 'excess' pilots looking for work, and no for-profit piloting schools that money can be thrown at.
They don't want to become a Master for the sake of becoming a Master, they want to become a Master to fly a gyrocopter in the defence of their Karak. This isn't about having a well-paying job or having the prestige of being able to wear the fancy hat and welcome the passengers aboard over the intercom, this is about strapping themselves to a hunk of metal filled with ethanol, gunpowder, and steam so they can strafe and drop bombs on a whole bunch of Orcs. Gyrocopter pilots are up there with Nautilus crews as being basically one step below Slayers.
That was the explanation on some of the piloting stuff. This is Boney mentioning that we don't have to spend actions on Adela unless we want her help with something other than piloting:
If she's being recruited solely as a pilot then she wouldn't require managing, only if you also want to do other things like enchanting or research or whatnot with her.
For a curious and adventurous young Wizard, having to loiter for extended periods in the general vicinity of wherever Mathilde will be Mathilding is a perk.
Because it gives her an in on Dwarven engineering and has a high likelihood of exposing her to interesting places and situations, and she can pursue her studies on the side anywhere with a blacksmith.
If we want to bring Adela on an adventure while she's not piloting, since she's already there, she might join depending on the situation. Boney's QMing style is all about benefits and drawbacks, so there are going to be limitations and I hestitate to bring our pilot on dangerous missions anyway:
She wouldn't be part of WEB-MAT. She would be a pilot. We could probably spend actions to work with her on something, but it wouldn't be a WEB-MAT action.
Also, mechanically, I don't know how piloting changes things. I don't know how Boney would handle it. I would just say, don't poke the abstraction too much. Boney is giving us some serious leeway here by not giving us penalties for not having a pilot.
Currently, Mathilde travels via gyrocopter on a schedule prearranged weeks in advance. If she needs to go somewhere without warning, she goes via Shadowsteed, which is viable for things like this where she's going between Talabheim and Altdorf and Wurtbad but might not be for more far-flung destinations. Having a pilot on hand would make her a lot more flexible and a lot more viable, which will factor in to her behind-the-scenes decision-making process.
Thinking about stuff we could get from this little adventure, even if we do not get anything material connections with the Cult of Taal are not a bad thing, we might be able to leverage that into Web Mat or Waystone cooperation eventually. For the latter the Cult is one of those which is old enough to have lore on the matter and they might have things that the Druids do not.
U / Steed of Shadows: Not to be confused with Shadowsteed, an insubstantial pegasus or drake appears under an ally within short range and carries them across the battlefield at incredible speed.
Steed of Shadows on the tabletop is cast on a 5+, just like base Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma (overcast MMM is 10+). This means it's the same difficulty level. While mechanics are not directly translated to DL, I think from an effects standby it makes sense that Steed of Shadows is an "easy" Battle Magic spell. It only targets a single person, either the Wizard or an individual the Wizard sees within 12" (abstraction for short range by battlefield standards), and it allows that person to move across the battlefield and then vanish. It's not exactly the most climactic and amazingly powerful spell, even if it alllows for repositioning, because it only affects one person. Actually, funny thing is that the spell does not have a size limit on the person being transported, it only has to be a "character". Theoretically you can move a giant across the field on a pegasus if you want.
Anyways, the spell doesn't look that great at first glance, but maybe we can try to incorporate our Shadowsteed mastery so instead of a regular shadow horsey we can have a shadow pegasus. That's the stuff dreams are made of. Those dreams are likely to be broken, but I want a flying magic horsey.
Also, I know that this spell can't become easier with our staff. I'm willing to risk it for honse.
Anyways, the spell doesn't look that great at first glance, but maybe we can try to incorporate our Shadowsteed mastery so instead of a regular shadow horsey we can have a shadow pegasus. That's the stuff dreams are made of. Those dreams are likely to be broken, but I want a flying magic horsey.
