Powder, Gears, and Blessed Steam - A WHF Engineering Quest

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Having Magesight isn't illegal, practicing magic outside the Colleges is.

And frankly, the fact we crit succeeded our initial attack and she still shrugged it off apparently was ridiculous, this was apparently not a low-level Necromancer that we just ganked. Most Wizards can't facetank bullets to center mass when they weren't expecting a fight. We have virtually everything going for us and presumably almost killed her in our opening, and that amounted to being just one less die from her baseline pool at the start, and the rest were irrelevant. I'd be saying "Was that a fucking Vampire we just iced?" if it wasn't for the fact that our character didn't get her throat torn out by a matrix dodging killing machine.

I agree with you, after that crit speak attack that blew up good chunk of her chest the Fake Priestess should have rolled at least a couple of dice less than before, if not killed her straight up...
 
I agree with you, after that crit speak attack that blew up good chunk of her chest the Fake Priestess should have rolled at least a couple of dice less than before, if not killed her straight up...

The alternative is that this was a couple less dice then before, in which case we were fighting an abject monster who was highly resistant to bullets and felt no pain.
 
Racial Attributes
Humans

Body - 3
Mind - 3
Soul - 3

Dawi
Body - 5
Mind - 6
Soul - 8

Elves
Body - 5
Mind - 6
Soul - 6

Beastmen
Body - 3
Mind - 1
Soul - 2

Skaven (Prone to more attribute variance than most races)
Body - 1
Mind - 2
Soul - 2

Goblins
Body - 2
Mind - 1
Soul - 1

Orcs
Body - 4
Mind - 1
Soul - 2


Racial Attributes are listed as the stats your average adult is going to have and also a sort of soft cap. Breaching past these attribute levels is something typically out of the ordinary and achieving double or more of what the baseline is for your race sets you in the category of some major characters in their canonical peaks like Felix, Khazak One-Eye, Skarsnik, etc.

These stats are the baseline I use to build characters off of as well as part of figuring out dice pools and Wounds for enemies. I'll update it as we go with any new races that become at least relevant to the quest.

Skill Levels
1-2 is for beginners. Entry level students, trained militias, apprentices.
3-4 is for skilled folks. Graduates of universities, professional soldiers, craftsmen, etc.
5-6 is for those of some renown. Established scholars, knights, journeymen, etc.
7-8 is for those of great skill and competence. Champions, questing knights, master craftsmen, renowned inventors, etc.
9-10 is for grandmasters. Grail Knights, Longbeards, Runelords, etc.
11+ is for those who transcend mortal limits, a realm almost impossible to achieve without divine, magical, or supernatural aid.


Skill levels are a way to grasp what the numbers beside your skills entail and also the other half of how I figure out what a dice pool for someone besides you is. The Road Walkers for instance hover between beginners and skilled so I use 1 to 4 for their skill levels if its something that should be their area of expertise.

Some extra mechanic oriented info for you all to peruse if you want.
 
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Yeah, Margaret should be proud of herself, this is the second time she Did Good in a very short period of time. Nipped a nascent warherd, killed a non-newbie necromancer, that's a lot more than your typical nobody gonna manage in a lifetime.

Shoulder is concerning, but we might get cheap-ish healing from the Shallayans bc of how we got it. Otherwise... We have a lot of wealth, honestly. Not *a lot* a lot, but probably enough if we are forced to pay.
No pistols progress, is that correct?
 
I feel inclined to take the rabbit. It'd make for a good sensor in the shop. As well as help with Alchemy and potentially help find any flaws in our works. Plus it would be good to have some form of companionship in the workshop. Wonder if we should setup a little spot for the rabbit in the shop?

[X] Accept the rabbit.
 
Anyway, "just" -1 dice still allows us to try to craft muskets-flintlocks or whatever, but we seriously could just use a turn to maybe do non-physical stuff. It is also specifically "strenuous" which is, idk.

I presume pretty much all fine crafting and training is gonna be affected because we are now effectively one-handed, but there might be edge-cases.
 
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  • Shayllan Healing
  • Talk to the priests of Morr
  • Make Soap (this does not feel like it would be physically taxing)
  • Look through the House to see what else is in there and hopefully get more sixth sense
  • Make some guns to keep up with costs x2
Personally I'd switch out the soap research action for another. Soap is pretty much a dead end in terms of research. The only thing I can see coming out of it would be Thioacetone, the stinkiest chemical known to man, whose production is close to that of certain soaps. Seriously, the stuff caused a good chunk of the city of Freiberg to be evacuated in a panic when it was discovered back in the late 1800's. Unless we're looking to fake or instigate a Nurglite Daemon attack, I can't imagine a use for the stuff.

I'd much rather do the prosthetics action. Our financial situation is pretty good, so we don't need the Soap income. Even if the Road Wardens won't be buying many more firearms, we can find another company, assuming we don't want to do whatever other work Alric wants us to do. Worst case scenario, we can probably manage to get a patron pretty soon if we're willing to spend the AP and maybe some favors. Multiple attempts at an action does tend to lower the difficulty after all.

I'd also like to squeeze in some Steam research if possible. I'm hoping slow and steady progress will mean we don't have to crash build something later. It shouldn't be too difficult to add that action in. I strongly suspect that meeting the Morrites and getting Shallayan Healing are both gated behind exploring the Temple District. It's unfortunate, but what can you do?
 
Also, yeah, gonna echo "she is probably a vamp" crowd.

She took a "gaping" hole to the chest, several misc. injuries and two shots to the head to go down.

Mutation and necromantic magic could maybe replicate that sort of durability on a particularly powerful mortal necromancer or chaos champion, but occam's razor is that she is a vamp.
 
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Probably a Lahmian vampire. Low combat ability for a vampire, high ability to blend in, and they have a habit of infiltrating priesthoods.
I doubt it. Lahmians are quick, to the point where some can even dodge bullets, and our foe didn't show any signs of that. Assuming that this isn't a necromancer who was close enough to being immortal that they bore insane durability, which isn't impossible given her power, I'm thinking Von Carnstein. Her rather imperious nature fits perfectly with that bloodline's need to rule.
 
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