Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
If enough people vote for the giant toad, do we get the giant toad?
I'd bet against it.

Voting for it isn't going to warp reality.

Maybe we'll get someone connected to the Lustrian colonies if Boney's feeling generous, but he said outright that specifically going for someone that's not present will see him ignoring the vote for it.
 
[x] Carcassonne/Bretonnia to inquire about their willingness to join the waystone project
 
I decided to merge similar votes and see what the results would be. I do not vouch that Boney would merge in the same way. I was generous with my merging. I merged all the Karak Vlag library votes, all the Skull River investigation votes, all the "why is Mathilde a Dwarf now" votes and added the lone vote wanting to meet with representatives of other Colleges to the ones wanting to meet the Ambers specifically.

Adhoc vote count started by Rafin on Apr 9, 2022 at 5:18 PM, finished with 279 posts and 66 votes.
 
I'd bet against it.

Voting for it isn't going to warp reality.

Maybe we'll get someone connected to the Lustrian colonies if Boney's feeling generous, but he said outright that specifically going for someone that's not present will see him ignoring the vote for it.
Source for the latter statement.

If anyone responds to a vote about which of the 'states, organizations, institutions, and cults of the Old World' they wish to talk to by voting to have a conversation with one specific individual that can't be had with anyone else in their state, organization, institution, or cult, when I have specifically said to not pursue specific individuals in the notes at the end of the update, then I really have a hard time seeing why I shouldn't discard that vote altogether.
 
If enough people vote for the giant toad, do we get the giant toad?
If we all vote to meet one of the Primarchs and one of the Teletubbies, will the Warp facilitate?
The wedding's actually held in Karak Eight Peaks.
It is? Whoops. I guess I'll have to reread the previous chapter.

Edit:
As the many guests gather in Karag Rhyn
Yep. There it is. I retract my statement.
 
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[X] House Fooger, for their view on the canal project and Marienburg situation
[X] Okri: The new Loremaster of Karak Eight Peaks is Okri Drakkisson of Clan Bronzebeard, formerly of Karak Norn. Meet your replacement and gauge what kind of person he is.
[x] Talk to Gretel about what she is doing in the borderlands
 
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Anyways, I do wonder why Dwarven War Yodeling would fall under Myrmidia's authority. Probably because it's wartime communication. Myrmidia's all about strategy, and I'm sure they have their own equivalent using Myrmidian Battle Tongue.
They do have their own equivalent. WFRP 4e pages 124-125:
Battle Tongue represents a series of simple commands and gestures that may be made in the heat of combat.
[...]
It is very common amongst soldiers and mercenaries and is used for giving orders swiftly during battle. It was supposedly developed by the goddess Myrmidia when she walked the Old World as a mortal.

Can I humbly point out that it should be either Aranea Sapiens or Araneae Sapientes?
Alas, Mathilde doesn't know Classical. She's a fake intellectual.
 
Why the Tilean Cult of Myrmidia or the Cult of Taal about the Waystone Project? I don't know enough about them to understand why they're singled out in particular.

The reason I suggested the Tilean Cult of Myrmidia is because we have no one from the southern Old World involved with the project, the High Elves left lots of stuff behind for the Tileans to inherit, and because Myrmidia is a much broader god in Tilea and Estalia, she's not just a war god, but a god of civilisation and the arts. It's also an organised religion with thousands of years to learn things and the infrastructure to preserve that knowledge.
 
Thank you for the help! I would appreciate the citations, if you're up for pulling them.
Not pickle, but here's some citations.

From our Trouble in Talabheim adventure, when we were investigating Alric:
First priority, of course, was seeing if you could snatch a glimpse of the local Waystone nexus, but after eyeing the local leylines and consulting a map you suspect it to be the namesake of the sacred grove known as the Horn of Taal within the Taalgrunhaar Forest, and the local Priesthood is rather protective of the place. You do, however, find a Waystone known to the locals as the Obelisk of Laws, upon which local laws and commentary on them are posted, and one of those laws is it's forbidden to remove anything posted on the Obelisk of Laws, so over the years it has accumulated quite a density of faded paper around its base. The part of the Obelisk emerging from the paper is in the same shape and proportions as the Elven Waystones, but is made of black marble and the part of it that is visible is unadorned by runes. You make a mental note of another Waystone oddity and add it to the growing list.

Right after that, from when we were helping Paranoth investigate Ostermark:
Going to the Longshanks means going to the Taalites, and that means going to the heart of Taal worship in Ostermark: a stone circle just outside the town of Gross Selon, about fifty miles west of Bechafen. Though a path from the road is kept clear and the area inside the circle is hard-packed dirt, the vegetation has otherwise been allowed to grow wild, and most of the stone circle is coated in vines and shrouded in branches. But not all: the three primary obelisks, each twice as large as the rest of the circle, are clear of vegetation. Ancient runes in a language you don't recognize are proudly visible, glowing in a light invisible to mundane sight.

In addition, the Cult of Taal&Rhya seems to enjoy close relations with the Jades and Ambers, partnering with them in the Royal Academy of Talabecland, and the Ambers and Jades we've met so far confirm this trend—Esbern and Seija joined the Knights of Taal's Fury, and Panoramia mentioned a debate on whether Rhya was the Earth Mother. This last bit isn't necessarily an indication of Waystone knowledge, but it's interesting that two of the Collegiate traditions with the most Waystone knowledge have strong relations with a Cult that has Waystones as holy sites.
 
How many conversations are we having? or is the specific number excluded purposefully?
Write in any topics you wish to discuss with, questions you wish to ask of, or messages you wish to send to, the states, organizations, institutions, and cults of the Old World. No formal agreements will be reached here, so use this as an opportunity to send messages, sound people out, lay foundations for further talks, fish for headpats, or satisfy any curiosities you may have. Mathilde will pursue as many topics as she can before the Barazdeg comes to a close, prioritizing based on which get the most votes.
Emphasis mine. Deliberately not known, though a reasonable estimate would put it in a range of 2-6 based on past votes.
 
Karaz Ankor, Advanced: You're more at home in the Karaz Ankor than the Empire you theoretically owe allegiance to. +2 Diplomacy
Could we write the book on diplomacy with the Karaz Ankor? Now, most of Mathilde's reputation with the dwarves has to do with her deeds, but she does have a great grasp on dwarven culture and politics, the leading expert in the Colleges of Magic in fact.

@Boney, do we only get money for non-academic public books we write? We got some from Asarnil's memoirs but not from Araneae Sapiens. Is Qrech getting any royalties for Loathsome Chaos Dwarves?
 
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In addition, the Cult of Taal&Rhya seems to enjoy close relations with the Jades and Ambers, partnering with them in the Royal Academy of Talabecland, and the Ambers and Jades we've met so far confirm this trend—Esbern and Seija joined the Knights of Taal's Fury, and Panoramia mentioned a debate on whether Rhya was the Earth Mother. This last bit isn't necessarily an indication of Waystone knowledge, but it's interesting that two of the Collegiate traditions with the most Waystone knowledge have strong relations with a Cult that has Waystones as holy sites.

The interesting thing is that there are some hints that the druids worshiped Ghyran itself as the Great Mother, in the same way that the Kurgan shamans worship the Winds as Gods. Teclis somehow convinced two thirds of the druids that Ghyran was instead an impersonal force rather than an at least somewhat personal god.

According to, IIRC, Realms of Sorcery and Tome of Salvation, the druids were of course, their own ethnic group living, as far as we know, completely separately to the Empire in the deep forests and had been separate since the Belthani were displaced by the prior-Imperial tribes. Teclis somehow encouraged the druids he'd recruited to join Imperial society while the ones that rejected his message and continued to worship the Great Mother as a somewhat personal god. I say somewhat personal as I think we're told that the Great Mother wasn't considered a person to the same degree the Imperial Gods are.

What's interesting is that pre-Teclis the druids weren't part of Imperial society, so wouldn't have really known Rhya. Modern druids in the Jade Order identifying the Great Mother and Rhya are quite possibly syncretising their old beliefs with the new Imperial influences they're being exposed to (unless they think that Rhya is somehow the personification of Ghyran). And those third of druids that stuck with their pre-Teclisian beliefs about the Great Mother would probably think they were fundamentally wrong.

However, as we have the Jade Order on board I'm not at all convinced we need the Cult of Taal and Rhya as well.
 
The reason I suggested the Tilean Cult of Myrmidia is because we have no one from the southern Old World involved with the project, the High Elves left lots of stuff behind for the Tileans to inherit, and because Myrmidia is a much broader god in Tilea and Estalia, she's not just a war god, but a god of civilisation and the arts. It's also an organised religion with thousands of years to learn things and the infrastructure to preserve that knowledge.

Not pickle, but here's some citations.

From our Trouble in Talabheim adventure, when we were investigating Alric:


Right after that, from when we were helping Paranoth investigate Ostermark:


In addition, the Cult of Taal&Rhya seems to enjoy close relations with the Jades and Ambers, partnering with them in the Royal Academy of Talabecland, and the Ambers and Jades we've met so far confirm this trend—Esbern and Seija joined the Knights of Taal's Fury, and Panoramia mentioned a debate on whether Rhya was the Earth Mother. This last bit isn't necessarily an indication of Waystone knowledge, but it's interesting that two of the Collegiate traditions with the most Waystone knowledge have strong relations with a Cult that has Waystones as holy sites.
Thank you! I find this compelling enough reasoning, and I am quite interested in getting involved with more Cult and God stuff. Avatar is a trait that always intrigued me a lot, and with the Father and WEB-MAT and the Library and Waystones nowadays, I now especially wanna get involved with collecting godbuddies getting in touch with the Cults.

[X] Carcassonne/Bretonnia to inquire about their willingness to join the waystone project
[X] Check in on how Karak Vlag is managing and inquire about sharing books on magic and supernatural phenomena with our library.
[X] Cult of Verena about the possibility of entering into an agreement with our library
[X] Cult of Taal about joining the Waystone Project
[X] The Tilean Cult of Myrmidia to discuss the Waystone project.

And, asking questions again... Could someone catch me up on what the deal is with the Gretel discussion and what Gretel has to do with Barak Varr or the border princes or whatever?

...it doesn't help that I keep mixing up Gretel and Adela in my head for some reason... I need to keep better track of our ducklings...
 
[X] Karak Vlag about the possibility of entering into an agreement with our library
[X] Gunnars about the emergency Conclave that declared us a "Dwarf"
[X] Okri: The new Loremaster of Karak Eight Peaks is Okri Drakkisson of Clan Bronzebeard, formerly of Karak Norn. Meet your replacement and gauge what kind of person he is.
[X] Stirland about the state of the war and who has become Markgräfin
 
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[X] See if you can find a Priest of Ranald. You are duty bound to play at least one round of cards or dice with them. Ask how things up North are doing, and how the faith is doing in K8Ps. You've tried to stay out of it, for the most part, but you are curious.
[X] Stirland about the state of the war and who has become Markgräfin
[X] The Barak Varr book resellers and Carcassonne to see if the former can expand operations to the duchy
[X] Karak Vlag about the possibility of entering into an agreement with our library
[X] Okri: The new Loremaster of Karak Eight Peaks is Okri Drakkisson of Clan Bronzebeard, formerly of Karak Norn. Meet your replacement and gauge what kind of person he is.
[X] Middenland about how the Eonir-Ulric partnership is going
[X] Give a prayer of thanks to Ranald, stumble into the crowd without looking and see where fortune brings you.
 
And, asking questions again... Could someone catch me up on what the deal is with the Gretel discussion and what Gretel has to do with Barak Varr or the border princes or whatever?
Gretel is working as a mercenary with Brazanga's Besiegers, who have been contracted by Barak Varr to help out with their expansion plans in the Border Princes to gain control of Mad Dog Pass. Some in the thread are speculating that she's been hired by them to lead the project, though I don't think her credentials are quite that high yet.
 
And, asking questions again... Could someone catch me up on what the deal is with the Gretel discussion and what Gretel has to do with Barak Varr or the border princes or whatever?
Gretel was hired to work with the Dogs of War* Braganza's Besiegers**, who in turn were hired on a long-term contract with Barak Varr, and definitely seem to be involved with Barak Varr's efforts to secure the Howling River and Mad Dog Pass for the Karaz Ankor.


*Mercenaries
**The guys with the giant shields and crossbows, they fought in the battle for K8P
 
@LadyLynn ok so I think Gretel the Shyish mage who came to eight peaks took the Princess job that got offered to Mathilde. It invoked securing mad dog pass. Gretel was already part of the mercenary group on retainer for Barak Var. She is also trusted by the dawi for her contribution at eight peaks.
 
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