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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Also one of the more influential crit fails in the quest, if the Empress being part of the Lahmian conspiracy was retconned by that roll.
 
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Wascally Weber
  • Apocrypha
    • Making the Tzar's death look like a hunting accident is probably the best path forward, but what-if...


    Wascally Weber
    ​
    The forests of Kislev are hardly bereft of danger; powerful wild animals, dark creatures, goblins, even the occasional errant vampire. A hunting accident should be relatively easy to arrange.

    'Should' being the operative word here. Your first attempt was very simple: protect a bear with Aethyric Armor and let nature do your dirty-work. The Tzar's first few strikes failed to penetrate, but then, seemingly out-of-nowhere, the bear keeled over. Naturally, the Tzar celebrated and had the bear's corpse sent off to be made into a suitable trophy. Your second attempt involved using your mastery of the shadows; while hunting a particularly impressive specimen of deer, the Tzar and his hunting party completely overlooked the fact that they had entered a large encampment of forest goblins. Somehow, despite being relatively unprepared and horribly outnumbered, the Tzar survived virtually unscathed.

    Your third attempt was both more and less direct. An application of Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma while the Tzar was fighting a Beastherd. This attempt showed real promise... Until a frenzied Troll entered the mix, attacking both sides of the conflict. The Tzar managed to dodge a Beastigor's strike, then proceeded to dispatch the entire herd and the Troll, despite the fact that time itself was working against him.

    At that point, you started to smell a rat. And the rat started to smell you.

    "Too-quiet man-thing," it said, Reiskspiel still very good. Though hidden from your mundane sight somewhere in the dense brush and still somehow shielded from your magical sight, you knew exactly who this was. You silently cursed your oldest friend. Seriously? "Meeting you again is an unexpected joy-complication. You hunt Tzar-thing, yes-yes?"

    You felt your eyes narrow, "Maybe. What are you- same quarry?"

    You heard an imperious sniff, "Tzar-thing is hard prey. Tricky. Avoid-survives even the most deadly situation-traps."

    You paused, "Wait, how long have you been trying to-"

    "No matter-consequence." There was a rustling sound, "Tzar-thing must die. I work towards this, you work towards this. Work together, combine-enhance chance of success? Tell no-one."

    "I suppose it's better than working against each-other," you admitted slowly, mind racing. Why would the Skaven even care about Vladimir Bokha? "Have you tried the direct method?"

    "No-no. Not yet; random death better-preferable. Better effect. Tzar-thing strong-cunning; direct attempt dangerous."

    You sighed, "But the indirect attempts aren't working and-" You stopped as you spied two branches intersecting, forming a familiar sign... hm. "Are you pondering what I'm pondering?"

    "I think-believe so," the Skaven's voice paused for a moment, "but from where would we source-steal enough fish heads?"

    "What? No," you said, "I've got a cunning plan..."

    Tzar Vladimir Bokha surveyed the scene before him. A clearing that he'd never come across before, a hole in the ground with smoke ominously belching from it, and a sign on a tree that was surrounded in webbed footprints, similar to those of a duck or a goose. In Kislevarin, Reikspiel, and for some reason Classical, the sign read 'Skaven Season'.

    "Skaven? Where have I heard that before? Doesn't matter," He shook his head, then grinned. "Shhhhh" he shushed, not realizing that his hunting companions had all been diverted elsewhere, "be very very quiet. I'm hunting Skaven."
    AN: I misplaced my glasses, became convinced a mouse stole them (istg the mice at my house are demons from hell), and by the time I found them this idea had germinated. Also, remember how Mathilde's magesight didn't detect Eshin-friend? I didn't until I re-read the original meeting. Anyway, Mathilde cleverly deduced that the Tzar was benefiting from cartoon logic, so decided to switch it up to make him the antagonist. :V
     
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  • Apocrypha
    • Rest in piece. Died a totally natural death, so sad though. No one expects spontaneous bisection at his age 😔. It truly happens to the best of us at the worst of times.

    Wasn't expecting it to be quite so one sided, but I suppose the 10 car pile up of (Boris Is Gonna Do Something Drastic Regardless+ well up our alley of being a mundanely undetectable super assassin+ the perk of this making our Job easier) is too powerful haha.
     
    Lokimotion said:
    I can't remember; when was it said (or implied) that Regimand killed the previous Empress?
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    It was said explicitly in Turn 29's social turn, but before that we only really knew that Regimand was getting up to some extremely secret and sudden shit during our Magister exams. It was all but certain it was something to do with the conspiracy.

    Looking back through the thread, it was Alectai who astutely proposed the idea that Empress was part of the conspiracy, as it would explain the level of authority necessary to unilaterally declare members of the Grey College having gone rogue. Boney did not confirm anything at the time, though, so it just became thread gossip for a long time, or so I am given to understand - there's only so much of the thread that I've read.

    ...Incidentally, this exchange seems rather prophetic in hindsight:
    Nix's Warden said:
    ....We just butterflied Karl Motherfucking Franz.

    Whelp. We never should have been born. We've not only fucked up. We've Fucked Every Direction In Four Dimensions.
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    Alectai said:
    Just means we need to get good enough to carry the weight.
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    *Looks over at Mandred*

    It is only fitting that after one prince got butterfly'd away in part due to a nat 1, that another should be exceptional due to a nat 100. This sort of shit right here is why the Eltharin rune for balance or harmony, Yenlui, is also the same for chaos.

    (Sidenote, I'm not actually linking to the posts in question cause last time Nix's Warden got quoted for a post made years back he didn't like it and I don't really want to bother him or Alectai.)
     
    It occurs to me that if sending male magic users to the colleges becomes official policy that the colleges are likely to get somewhat of a unbalanced gender ratio. Kislev is huge with a huge population.

    Edit: More so even then the current case where most of the named characters at the colleges are male.
     
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    fictionfan said:
    It occurs to me that if sending male magic users to the colleges becomes official policy that the colleges are likely to get somewhat of a unbalanced gender ratio. Kislev is huge with a huge population.

    Edit: More so even then the current case where most of the named characters at the colleges are male.
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    It's official state policy in the Empire that wizards don't get burned unless they do something evil. Still happens. It's gonna be even worse in Kislev, which is larger, further and more dispersed.
     
    Mostly it's male noble potential-wizards who get sent to the Colleges isn't it? Commoners can't afford to send someone that far, and instead try to get them to just try and suppress it (with mixed success).
     
    The Lone badger said:
    Mostly it's male noble potential-wizards who get sent to the Colleges isn't it? Commoners can't afford to send someone that far, and instead try to get them to just try and suppress it (with mixed success).
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    Eh. Kislevites are good at moving around. A good chunk could get to the border, at an afordable price. From there, the Colleges/state could handle it in any bigger city. If you know about the possiblities. If you have to make your way to Altdorf yourself, it's a lot more difficult, and most Kislevites wouldn't know.

    That said, the Colleges also get recruits from Tilea, Estalia, and IIRC even the Border Princes. They've got a wide net.
     
    fictionfan said:
    It occurs to me that if sending male magic users to the colleges becomes official policy that the colleges are likely to get somewhat of a unbalanced gender ratio. Kislev is huge with a huge population.

    Edit: More so even then the current case where most of the named characters at the colleges are male.
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    I mean a lot of them don't make it, but between Kislev and Brettonia the Colleges have some rather large male-only recruiting areas.
     
    I'm all for making this easier regardless. When the state says "males with magical talent should totally go to the Empire" and helpfully points the way, rather than just turning a blind eye, I think more people would go for it, and have an easier time.

    Although I'd totally ask Dragomas first whether that'd benefit the Colleges (after the assassination, of course).
     
    Somic said:
    Although I'd totally ask Dragomas first whether that'd benefit the Colleges (after the assassination, of course).
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    Just say we have a favor from Boris due to waystone things and if the college would want it.

    Frankly I don't think it would be a good use of the favor, because it would upset the Ice Witches significantly for something already largely happening among everyone that can actually get across the border reasonably.
     
    Do we speak Kislevarin yet? It occurs to me that not speaking the local language might hinder our blending in efforts.
     
    fictionfan said:
    Do we speak Kislevarin yet? It occurs to me that not speaking the local language might hinder our blending in efforts.
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    If we're just hanging around in a forest or hiding under the Tzar's bed then we don't need to speak the local language. Might cause some issues if we want to commit bribery and/or pretend to be a scullery maid or something.
     
    The safety of male magic users in Kislev isn't a large or unique problem, from the way Boney's described it. Codifying the already extremely lenient practice of allowing those men to expatriate and become foreign assets feels wrong to me. If we're going to ask him to fix problems in Kislev, we might as well use his time on bigger problems, like the canonical racism/cultural genocide thats still happening in Kislev, or Kislevs enormous disparity between its lower and upper classes, or any other problem that's actually a big deal.

    Again, these men aren't being particularly oppressed on a state level, they can literally just choose not to use their magic (They might even be able to use magic, just not Ice Magic? I'm not clear on that). And if they just live their lives like normal nothing will happen to them. Boneys always been consistent in those who don't want to do that being able to get to the Empire (Again, Kislev is being very chill here). I also don't think Boris could do much to combat frightened peasants burning witches anymore than the Emperor could.

    Personally, I think we should ask him to focus more than he would have on diplomacy and soft or hard alliances. Not even just with the Empire, though that would obviously be implied. It feels like the least selfish and personal option while still being very strongly informed by Mathilde's character.
     
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    fictionfan said:
    Do we speak Kislevarin yet? It occurs to me that not speaking the local language might hinder our blending in efforts.
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    Boney's stated before that Mathilde is picking up bits and pieces passively, presumably enhanced by Polyglot. But unlike with K8P, we are not living in a place where this language is spoken, so it's going slow.
     
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