Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest
- Thread starter Boney
- Start date
- Fantasy Users' Choice!
-
- Tags
- warhammer warhammer fantasy fantasy be gay do crimes (gay) female protagonist pansexual protagonist ck2 quest divided loyalties mountain vietnam ranald is real this is a dwarf quest (dwarfs) this is maybe an elf quest this is not a vampire quest this is not an empire quest try it and find out open voting
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Somic
It's meow or never
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Oh god, why is this so perfect...This is me being half-joking, but looking at the myriad options we have for assassinating the Tzar, and at the indecision as to which exact method to take, I can't help but wonder if we're doing this:
Breadnaugt
Even in Death, I'm still Tasty
- Location
- Britland
So what are the odds the Lahmians don't have an agent in the heart of Kislev government? And how practical would it be to find her?
Because having a Lahmian's cover blown, and her being forced to flee, then suddenly Vlad just drops dead? That would be a few added layers to our operational security.
Failing an available Lahmian, we could be a Lahmian who gets accidentally discovered and has to flee. Then hours later, Vlad mysteriously drops dead, due to the spell-matrix inside him releasing Something Bad.
Because having a Lahmian's cover blown, and her being forced to flee, then suddenly Vlad just drops dead? That would be a few added layers to our operational security.
Failing an available Lahmian, we could be a Lahmian who gets accidentally discovered and has to flee. Then hours later, Vlad mysteriously drops dead, due to the spell-matrix inside him releasing Something Bad.
- Location
- United Kingdom
[X] Plan: Spontaneous Heart Attack
- Sneak into the Tzar's room, use mockery of death on him then implant him with a Matrix loaded with Shadow Dagger loaded. Set the matrix to go off the next day at a time the Tzar is likely to be in a public place.
- Sneak into the Tzar's room, use mockery of death on him then implant him with a Matrix loaded with Shadow Dagger loaded. Set the matrix to go off the next day at a time the Tzar is likely to be in a public place.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Possible? I mean with the Tzar having alienated all his magic users it's possible that we could find a Lahmian just by scanning over everyone with mage sight and picking out someone covered in Duar. But we can't count on that and would require them to be very overconfident and careless. Which is very possible, but not something we can actually count on.
But keep in mind that currently we don't even speak the local language.
Unlucky Bibliophile
Meganekko
[X] Nighttime Visit With Style
-[X] Use Mockery of Death so there is no sign of struggle, then stab him in the heart with a Shadow Knife. Leave the room by Substance of Shadows or Smoke and Mirrors, leaving behind an unnaturally quiet death.
MMM is tempting, but Mathilde needs an hour to cast it. KISS.
-[X] Use Mockery of Death so there is no sign of struggle, then stab him in the heart with a Shadow Knife. Leave the room by Substance of Shadows or Smoke and Mirrors, leaving behind an unnaturally quiet death.
MMM is tempting, but Mathilde needs an hour to cast it. KISS.
[X] Plan: Spontaneous Heart Attack
[X] Nighttime Visit With Style
[X] The Locked Room Murder: Too perfect version
I'm actually surprised Nighttime Visit has as many votes as it does, since it doesn't do much for leaving clues pointing in the right direction.
Anyway, it's sad we can only kill him once, because there's a bunch of cool options. Maybe Boris has a few more Dads stashed away?
[X] Nighttime Visit With Style
[X] The Locked Room Murder: Too perfect version
I'm actually surprised Nighttime Visit has as many votes as it does, since it doesn't do much for leaving clues pointing in the right direction.
Anyway, it's sad we can only kill him once, because there's a bunch of cool options. Maybe Boris has a few more Dads stashed away?
Travler66
Let her name echo in song!
- Location
- Beyond
[X] Nighttime Visit With Style
-[X] Use Mockery of Death so there is no sign of struggle, then stab him in the heart with a Shadow Knife. Leave the room by Substance of Shadows or Smoke and Mirrors, leaving behind an unnaturally quiet death.
-[X] Use Mockery of Death so there is no sign of struggle, then stab him in the heart with a Shadow Knife. Leave the room by Substance of Shadows or Smoke and Mirrors, leaving behind an unnaturally quiet death.
[X] Nighttime Visit With Style and coverup
-[X] Use Mockery of Death so there is no sign of struggle, then stab him in the heart with a Shadow Knife. Leave the room by Substance of Shadows or Smoke and Mirrors, leaving behind an unnaturally quiet death.
-[X] Slash to 'cover up' the unripped gown, cutting a bit more of the gown then the knife would on the way in, particularly above where a stab would have hit.
[X] The Locked Room Murder: Too perfect version
-[X] Use Mockery of Death so there is no sign of struggle when he is stabbed in the heart, then lock all the doors and windows from the inside and leave the room by Substance of Shadows or Smoke and Mirrors, leaving behind a perfect murder in a completely locked room.
[X] Nighttime Visit With Style
-[X] Use Mockery of Death so there is no sign of struggle, then stab him in the heart with a Shadow Knife. Leave the room by Substance of Shadows or Smoke and Mirrors, leaving behind an unnaturally quiet death.
-[X] Use Mockery of Death so there is no sign of struggle, then stab him in the heart with a Shadow Knife. Leave the room by Substance of Shadows or Smoke and Mirrors, leaving behind an unnaturally quiet death.
-[X] Slash to 'cover up' the unripped gown, cutting a bit more of the gown then the knife would on the way in, particularly above where a stab would have hit.
[X] The Locked Room Murder: Too perfect version
-[X] Use Mockery of Death so there is no sign of struggle when he is stabbed in the heart, then lock all the doors and windows from the inside and leave the room by Substance of Shadows or Smoke and Mirrors, leaving behind a perfect murder in a completely locked room.
[X] Nighttime Visit With Style
-[X] Use Mockery of Death so there is no sign of struggle, then stab him in the heart with a Shadow Knife. Leave the room by Substance of Shadows or Smoke and Mirrors, leaving behind an unnaturally quiet death.
- Location
- USA
Mathilde still needs to practice her necromancy.
- Location
- UK
I like these Matrix and Mockery ideas, but when trying to frame a vampire for a (heart) stabbing, what about bringing a bucket?
Collect some of the blood. Not all of it, not so that a random servant could look at the crime scene and wonder how the sheets are pristine even right next to a slit throat, but that someone with experience can see too little blood for a straightforward murder.
Collect some of the blood. Not all of it, not so that a random servant could look at the crime scene and wonder how the sheets are pristine even right next to a slit throat, but that someone with experience can see too little blood for a straightforward murder.
Nighttime Visit doesn't plan the assassination down to that level of detail—I'm sure Mathilde will find a way to make it sort of magical, she'd just be prioritising subtly instead of making a big spectacle out of the whole thing.
Frankly, I don't think we need to micromanage Mathilde to this level, and most of the write ins feel like people are trying to have their cake and eat it, especially since I'm fairly sure those are options Mathilde would already consider in universe anyway. It just feels like straight jacketing her into a specific method.
I think that is a bit too obvious, a vampire trying not to get caught would not eat the target.
The Phoenixian
The Glacier Witch
- Location
- My own little world
[X] Nighttime Visit With Style
-[X] Use Mockery of Death so there is no sign of struggle, then stab him in the heart with a Shadow Knife. Leave the room by Substance of Shadows or Smoke and Mirrors, leaving behind an unnaturally quiet death.
[x] The Locked Room Murder: Too perfect version
- [X]Use Mockery of Death so there is no sign of struggle when he is stabbed in the heart, then lock all the doors and windows from the inside and leave the room by Substance of Shadows or Smoke and Mirrors, leaving behind a perfect murder in a completely locked room.
I like plans that incorporate Mockery of Death. I'm pretty sure part of the "quietly with no evidence" thing is also the hope that we can say "It was painless." The spell's clause for it leaving the victim unconscious if cast on someone sleeping means that Boris's father may be dead, but we can say with certainty that he didn't suffer from it. In the same way that death in battle would have left him dying in the time and place way he most wished to.
I also like Smoke and Mirrors for an assassination, specifically, because the requirement of cutting out a single pane of a window is weird enough to be noticed. In a "you know, a bat could have flown through that window" kind of way. Bonus points if the pane is far from any latch a thief could have used mundane tools to open.
[X] Plan: Nighttime Heart Attack
-[X] Sneak into the Tzar's room, use mockery of death on him then implant him with a Matrix loaded with Shadow Dagger loaded. Set the matrix off immediately, so he dies in bed.
Less highly placed, but I like this because the wounds left would obviously be magical in a way that just stabbing with even a magical a knife wouldn't be.
[X] Nighttime Visit
Vanilla, but clean and solid. I think the thread has posed enough ideas to make a general form of the vote viable.
There are plenty of ways to plant evidence that aren't on the murder method itself. It doesn't just exist in the murder room, but also in the reports of the servants in the palace and the city guards.
As long as the details fit within the same general story Mathilde can probably use any number of them.
-[X] Use Mockery of Death so there is no sign of struggle, then stab him in the heart with a Shadow Knife. Leave the room by Substance of Shadows or Smoke and Mirrors, leaving behind an unnaturally quiet death.
[x] The Locked Room Murder: Too perfect version
- [X]Use Mockery of Death so there is no sign of struggle when he is stabbed in the heart, then lock all the doors and windows from the inside and leave the room by Substance of Shadows or Smoke and Mirrors, leaving behind a perfect murder in a completely locked room.
I like plans that incorporate Mockery of Death. I'm pretty sure part of the "quietly with no evidence" thing is also the hope that we can say "It was painless." The spell's clause for it leaving the victim unconscious if cast on someone sleeping means that Boris's father may be dead, but we can say with certainty that he didn't suffer from it. In the same way that death in battle would have left him dying in the time and place way he most wished to.
I also like Smoke and Mirrors for an assassination, specifically, because the requirement of cutting out a single pane of a window is weird enough to be noticed. In a "you know, a bat could have flown through that window" kind of way. Bonus points if the pane is far from any latch a thief could have used mundane tools to open.
[X] Plan: Nighttime Heart Attack
-[X] Sneak into the Tzar's room, use mockery of death on him then implant him with a Matrix loaded with Shadow Dagger loaded. Set the matrix off immediately, so he dies in bed.
Less highly placed, but I like this because the wounds left would obviously be magical in a way that just stabbing with even a magical a knife wouldn't be.
[X] Nighttime Visit
Vanilla, but clean and solid. I think the thread has posed enough ideas to make a general form of the vote viable.
I'll point out that even with a straight nighttime visit, we have ideas like "Ensuring a unknown beautiful lady was seen by the guards on the night of the murder."
There are plenty of ways to plant evidence that aren't on the murder method itself. It doesn't just exist in the murder room, but also in the reports of the servants in the palace and the city guards.
As long as the details fit within the same general story Mathilde can probably use any number of them.
Ah, that classic movie: The Tsar Who Went to Bed in Kislev and Woke Up in Cathay.
- Location
- UK
No bite marks, just an appreciation for the value of royal blood!
Really though, you might be right, just thought it should be brought up. I could see it done subtly enough only a few professionals could pick it up, so the answer only shows up after digging, which we want, but I'm not exactly an expert here
- Pronouns
- He/His/etc
I think Nighttime Visit with a dose of "the dagger seems to have stabbed from the inside of the victim to the outside" should work.
I wonder if Boris would let us help with the Purge—we still don't have a Lahmian skull, after all.
I'm going to disagree. Nighttime visit is the "Mathilde will definitly not be caught" option. It's something that could be done on pure skill (say Eshin, or just someone else really skilled). Boris maybe can probably point it in the intended direction, but he won't have much help on that. Claiming it will totally also cover the "subtle hints" part feels to me like cake eating.
And yeah, micromanaging is something to be avoided. Sure. I don't think many of the options do that. And I'll point out that creative solutions by the thread can work exceedingly well. Saying that Mathilde will always pick the optimal choice is just flat out not true, even restricted to her fields of competence. It will never be true, because Boney has always pushed back against options of the "Let Mathilde decide" variety. Same for options that let others make decisions for Mathilde*, like "should we assassinate the Tsar?".
Which means, if we want the "minimal risk option", we should vote for that. If we want to have magic and hints, we need to vote for a magic and hints option, and specify what that means in general. Mathilde can take the implementation from there (how to ensure someone sees a bunch of bats, for example), but specifying the core idea (make sure everything is locked from the inside, magic stabbing that leaves clothes untouched, stabbing from the inside) is not micromanaging.
*With some caveats for respecting the chain of command, but once given a responsibility, asking someone else how to do it has never been an option.
That's the MMM option, basically.