Why are you taking combat charms for a bureaucrat and researcher. His strength is learning and research. He is not a solo exalted we have other better people for combat. Hell we have 2 people better at combat just on the consul alone.
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Relic Finder Lore - A former Relic Finder, you have delved into lore chance-found that others may count lost, perhaps well lost (+6 Learning Allows access to the fundamentals of a forbidden lore thanks to your experience delving into First Age Ruins)
Do you have any idea how ludicrously fucking dangerous First Age ruins tend to be?
A full team of Dragon Bloods delving into said ruins has a good chance of dying or worse.
Every Relic Finder who survives a run is ipso-facto their survival reasonably hardcore, team or no team. A Relic Finder who survives multiple runs is a bona-fide badass.
You know, I'm surprised that no other plan's considered Language Learning Ritual as worthwhile, given that it would facilitate bypassing the language barrier in an entirely alien world to Creation. Especially since it would also help with diplomacy via letters and written documents.
Language Learning Ritual falls into two categories: exceedingly common (and thus likely that someone else already knows it) and easily replicable with Sorcery (so we don't need it anyway).
You know, I'm surprised that no other plan's considered Language Learning Ritual as worthwhile, given that it would facilitate bypassing the language barrier in an entirely alien world to Creation. Especially since it would also help with diplomacy via letters and written documents.
Every Relic Finder who survives a run is ipso-facto their survival reasonably hardcore, team or no team. A Relic Finder who survives multiple runs is a bona-fide badass.
There's also the matter of how combat prowess factors into the standing of warhammer leaders.
Being able to permanently kill daemons with any weapon we pick up covers for a lot of diplomatic inability.
Edit:
It isn't, to be clear, as good as a full social build would be. If we'd picked different traits and therefore a different character concept I'd be voting for a different set of charms.
As it is, a half assed patch via charms would be very strange given the character we've already built. It'd make for weird split build that wouldn't even make sense in the context of its own backstory.
It makes more sense to me to pick a set that has as much "coincidental" utility as a leader from a reasonable interpretation of Gus' new background and push more heavily into stuff that fits better later on.
[X] Plan I Survived Vietnam Solar Ruins
-[X] Elemental Concentration Trance (speeds up learning)
--[X] Eternal Mind Meditation (perfect memory)
-[X] Spirit Detecting Mirror Technique (sees intangible spirits) (super useful anti-Daemon/spirit/wizard's familiar spying on us technique)
--[X] Spirit Grounding Shout (forces intangible spirits to materialize)
--[X] Spirit Shredding Attack (badly harms and PERMAKILLS SPIRITS) (best anti-Daemon thing we've got)
-[X] Shaping Hand Style (we don't need no tools)
-[X] Second Craft Excellency - Essence Triumphant (adds 1 automatic success on relevant Craft roll per 2 motes of essence spent. Practically a requirement, I leave it to the QM to balance that in-quest)
[X] Plan I Survived Vietnam Solar Ruins v2 Bureaucrat Boogaloo
-[X] Elemental Concentration Trance (speeds up learning)
--[X] Eternal Mind Meditation (perfect memory)
-[X] Spirit Detecting Mirror Technique (sees intangible spirits) (super useful anti-Daemon/spirit/wizard's familiar spying on us technique)
--[X] Spirit Grounding Shout (forces intangible spirits to materialize)
--[X] Spirit Shredding Attack (badly harms and PERMAKILLS SPIRITS) (best anti-Daemon thing we've got)
-[X] Confluence of Savant Thought (SUPER-BUREAUCRAT, AWAAAAYYYY!) (as opposed to Shaping Hands Method)
-[X] Second Craft Excellency - Essence Triumphant (adds 1 automatic success on relevant Craft roll per 2 motes of essence spent. Practically a requirement, I leave it to the QM to balance that in-quest)
I have no idea, but I added them together. Your plan won for the charms and you got sorcery for the Relic Finder Bonus. I will not be making you guys choose spells yet because we have had a lot of character creation already and I think it is high time we actually actually get this quest on the road.
[X] Plan I Survived Vietnam Solar Ruins
-[X] Elemental Concentration Trance (speeds up learning)
--[X] Eternal Mind Meditation (perfect memory)
-[X] Spirit Detecting Mirror Technique (sees intangible spirits) (super useful anti-Daemon/spirit/wizard's familiar spying on us technique)
--[X] Spirit Grounding Shout (forces intangible spirits to materialize)
--[X] Spirit Shredding Attack (badly harms and PERMAKILLS SPIRITS) (best anti-Daemon thing we've got)
-[X] Shaping Hand Style (we don't need no tools)
-[X] Second Craft Excellency - Essence Triumphant (adds 1 automatic success on relevant Craft roll per 2 motes of essence spent. Practically a requirement, I leave it to the QM to balance that in-quest)
[X] Plan I Survived Vietnam Solar Ruins v2 Bureaucrat Boogaloo
-[X] Elemental Concentration Trance (speeds up learning)
--[X] Eternal Mind Meditation (perfect memory)
-[X] Spirit Detecting Mirror Technique (sees intangible spirits) (super useful anti-Daemon/spirit/wizard's familiar spying on us technique)
--[X] Spirit Grounding Shout (forces intangible spirits to materialize)
--[X] Spirit Shredding Attack (badly harms and PERMAKILLS SPIRITS) (best anti-Daemon thing we've got)
-[X] Confluence of Savant Thought (SUPER-BUREAUCRAT, AWAAAAYYYY!) (as opposed to Shaping Hands Method)
-[X] Second Craft Excellency - Essence Triumphant (adds 1 automatic success on relevant Craft roll per 2 motes of essence spent. Practically a requirement, I leave it to the QM to balance that in-quest)
Almost without thought you fold your legs beneath you in a lotus position and and staple your hands together in imitation of the Pyramidal structure that is the most pleasing joining of earth and sky. The question burns at you like tongues of fire. Why is the manse still here when the shape of the very mountains is different? You consider the notion that you had not moved at all and some power had simply molded the mountains like clay around you, had grown the thick pine forests you can see to the north and east, but you discard it just as quickly, not all the artifice of the Lawmakers in their days of glory could have reshaped the land so dramatically and even if the Incarna themselves had come down from on high to work their will upon Creation for reasons known only to them that still did not explain the Wyld storm. No, the answer if far more simple, you had 'landed' for lack of a better term upon another manse of equal or greater Essence than the one which once held the Heart of Sazakan.
Breathe in... breathe out...
Breathe in Air and breathe out Will.
Like a faint mist your awareness rises from your lips allowing you to sense the lands along the Dragon Lines of this new place. To the north past the ring of mountains you can see lie peat bogs and beyond those dark gnarled forest that march up the slopes of mountains craggier and more foreboding still, but to the west and southwest the encircling mountains fall away in hills of crumbling obsidian all the way to the banks of a river wide and and growing wider until... the sea. That is it, all the way to the south frothing against a coastline of fjords and narrow inlets. Daystar give me strength if that is the Inland sea so close. Rather than speak the dark suspicion you call out to one of the engineers to fetch the far-eye.
Looking Along the Dragon Lines: 42+34+15 = 91 (Failure)
Third Occult Excellency Re-Roll: 55+34+15 = 104(Success)
One of the younger engineers rushes to obey. It is not the usual sort of thing to set up extraneous apparatus in this chamber, but this is not the usual sort of day and this is the highest point in the city.
After a bit of scraping and unpacking you have it. the Crystalline Crucible of Sight. A relatively plain bronze tube with circles of shimmering Essence for various simple overlays the instrument had been little more than the toy of a bored noble during the Old Realm. Here and now it is a vital strategic asset of the city.
Rotating in the third and largest circle, you see the taint of the Wyld, a patina of too bright colors shimmering atop a coat of tar on all the lands north, south, east and west of you. Taint, but not the grasp of the Wyld itself, not even a hint of the Bordermarches peering over the horizon like the shadow of some dreadful beast.
Stranger and stranger. Where would you find so much tainted land, but no sign of a tear in the fabric of Creation? You are distracted from that thought by an unexpected sight of a more mundane nature, smoke, not the great sheets of it that rise from a forest fire but the threads that mark the dwelling places of man out along the river to the west. It seems the isolation of Sazakan has been brought to an abrupt end by forces beyond any decision the council could make.
At least, another darker thought comes, I hope they are humans. There is enough taint in these lands to sustain many kinds of Wyld barbarians. At least the nearest village along the banks of the river to the west of you does not seem very large. Flipping over to the second lens, circled by a representation of a viper for some reason you had not been able to decipher you see the world in grey shadows and crimson light, cold and heat. More than even the ability to see Wyld taint this Essence lens has saved your life while seeking relics, for in the frozen north heat is life and life can mean foes.
Counting From Afar: 33 + 20 (Stewardship) = 53 (Failure)
Alas without some sense of how much fire each household would need to use and thus how much heat they might give off any guess would make from this distance would be more the product of your fears and hopes than anything. Either way there is no possibility they could have missed Sazakan being deposited just over the hills.
The question now is do you send someone out to greet them? Do you go yourself? Or aught you just set a strong guard on the city and wait for your new... neighbors to make themselves known.
What do you do?
[] Send an Envoy with a detachment of Wyldguard
-[] Cunning Sage of Serendipity, she can spin a good tale
-[] Carrier of Incandescent Truths from the Silver Mountain, perhaps a mortal would be less alarming than one of the Exalted
-[] Write in
[] Go yourself, as Voice it is your responsibility to speak for the people on your first meeting with outsiders
[] Set guards and wait for them to come to you
OOC: This had to be settled before the first turn because turn actions happen on a scale of years whereas it is a mater of days to travel between Sezekan and that village on foot, mere hours in the air.
[X] Send an Envoy with a detachment of Wyldguard -[X] Carrier of Incandescent Truths from the Silver Mountain, perhaps a mortal would be less alarming than one of the Exalted
Why the blazing Yozi Hells you're expecting ANYBODY in the Warhammer Fantasy world to understand the difference, much less give a single flying fuck in the first place, is beyond me. Especially because using that charm requires Essence expenditure, so it looks like you're casting a spell to those who can see.
I usually try to keep metagaming to a minimum, but this sort of shenanigans is the kind of thing that starts in-game wars.
[X] Send an Envoy with a detachment of Wyldguard -[X] Carrier of Incandescent Truths from the Silver Mountain, perhaps a mortal would be less alarming than one of the Exalted
We need to get ahead of this before whoever that is calls in an army more inclined to kill Chaos things than be diplomatic. And if they turn out to be hostile anyway, better to lose a diplomat and a few guards than receive an attack on the city proper.
@DragonParadox I assume ipso-facto sending an envoy we're also sending appropriate guards for a Wyld-tainted wasteland?
The difference between mortal and exalted is basically irreverent when everybody has giant wings. At least and exalted can defend themselves. And has super social pool.
[x] Send an Envoy with a detachment of Wyldguard -[x] Cunning Sage of Serendipity, she can spin a good tale
Why the blazing Yozi Hells you're expecting ANYBODY in the Warhammer Fantasy world to understand the difference, much less give a single flying fuck in the first place, is beyond me. Especially because using that charm requires Essence expenditure, so it looks like you're casting a spell to those who can see.
I usually try to keep metagaming to a minimum, but this sort of shenanigans is the kind of thing that starts in-game wars.
[X] Send an Envoy with a detachment of Wyldguard
-[X] Carrier of Incandescent Truths from the Silver Mountain, perhaps a mortal would be less alarming than one of the Exalted
We need to get ahead of this before whoever that is calls in an army more inclined to kill Chaos things than be diplomatic. And if they turn out to be hostile anyway, better to lose a diplomat and a couple guards than receive an attack on the city proper.
@DragonParadox I assume ipso-facto sending an envoy we're also sending appropriate guards for a Wyld-tainted wasteland?
Well yes, the option says send an envoy with a detachment of Wyldguard, that is your army (also your scouts, hunters and herders, but that bit is not relevant)
Well yes, the option says send an envoy with a detachment of Wyldguard, that is your army (also your scouts, hunters and herders, but that bit is not relevant)
To be fair it is considerably less Wyld taint than you had to deal with back in creation. the Wyld itself would regularly flow over Sazakan requiring the activation of the Reality Engine to ward off its effects.
To be fair it is considerably less Wyld taint than you had to deal with back in creation. the Wyld itself would regularly flow over Sazakan requiring the activation of the Reality Engine to ward off its effects.
A fair concern. But something to keep in mind, since the QM hasn't told us (read: we the players haven't gotten around to figuring out) what alterations he's made to the setting:
The Warhammer World is continually awash in Chaos energies flowing from the Polar Gates, which are then drawn into the Vortex and shit back out into the Warp. Plus, Morrslieb the Green Chaos Moon is constantly hovering over some part of the planet.
Literally every single conceivable square inch has at least a miniscule quantity of Chaos taint. The only exception is if a skilled, exceptionally knowledgeable, and powerful mage has produced wards and defenses that deliberately extract Chaos taint and keep it out.
Such as the wards on our city.
Until more information comes to light, the presence of Chaos/Wyld taint means literally nothing except "Yep, this is Warhammer Fantasy".
Yes, but my point is even damaged as it is the Engine can hold a hell o a lot more taint out. Just as a general write up in Gus' understanding of the Wyld, there are
Pure Chaos: Madness incarnate beyond the Shinma of Form If you are not an incarna an Elder Solar whose will echoes the perfection of the Sun or an Elder Lunar whose protean nature can keep up with the insanity, you cease to be you, or indeed you cease to be Anyone. Even the Rasska fear to treat here due to their terror of the Ushaped The Deep Wyld: there is some vague trace of order here, the sky sometimes looks like a sky and on rare occasions is even above the ground. The mountains can be the teeth of a great beast that is the night sky and the seas can be made of harpsong and broken dreams. This where the armies of the High First Age attacked, you have actual after action reports that came with the Engine and they resemble a psychedelic trip crossed with abstract poetry The Middlemarches: There is a ground, it might be made of jam quiver and moan as you walk across it, but it is the ground. There are forests made up of trees. The trees are sometimes made of fire and sometimes made of cats, but generally the forest remains, this is broadly speaking the home dimension of the rashka that most people meet in Creation, this is where they take shape and assume the masks that wear to interact with mortals. A particularly skilled, or insane Dragonblooded might make it as far as here with some hope of returning The Bordermarches: This is the domain of merely improbable that could exist, griffons, manticores and winged fish. Indeed it is suspected that many of the fantastical beings of the Rim which were not made by the savants of the first age are instead naturalized Bordermarhes inhabitants, this includes by some accounts all carnivorous plants Tainted Land: this is properly Creation, but it is a part of Creation where there is enough influence of the Wyld, due to Wyld surges flowing over it that the Rashka can live here without eating souls (they still like the taste, they just don't have to). Most creatures of the Bordermarches and some few of the Middlemarches like the Fire Griffons can live here (though they cannot reproduce).
[X] Send an Envoy with a detachment of Wyldguard
-[X] Carrier of Incandescent Truths from the Silver Mountain, perhaps a mortal would be less alarming than one of the Exalted
