I think we are just looking at different things. When I think of the knightly aesthetic especially in the context of a decision like this, having it be the reward for her magnum opus I tend to look at it narrowly because it's such a big step. This isn't an idle question of 'is Mathilde roughly knight shaped if you apply enough Grey College ambiguity' but 'is being a knight specifically enough of a core part of her identity to be the best recipient of this boon'. Don't get me wrong there are still other options I would vote for knight over, I wouldn't hate the armor, but I still think the airship fits her better.
Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest
- Thread starter Boney
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I think we are just looking at different things. When I think of the knightly aesthetic especially in the context of a decision like this, having it be the reward for her magnum opus I tend to look at it narrowly because it's such a big step. This isn't an idle question of 'is Mathilde roughly knight shaped if you apply enough Grey College ambiguity' but 'is being a knight specifically enough of a core part of her identity to be the best recipient of this boon'. Don't get me wrong there are still other options I would vote for knight over, I wouldn't hate the armor, but I still think the airship fits her better.
shepsquared
Erratic Aussie
- Location
- Melbourne, Australia
The Torc is just one of many rewards that we either squandered or never made good use of. I guess it's unique because we didn't vote for it, but still.
I really wish the Battle Mammoth Altar was more popular. It's a good mix of indulgent prestige project and following up on IC regrets that would push us towards at least one large scale battle to test it, without needing us to constantly use it to justify its existence.
[x] Plan Pickle Requests mk IV
[x] Break College Favor/ Tenure
[x] Break College Favor/ Tenure
SaltyWaffles
I am dissapoint, son
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I wouldn't say squandered, more like it just didn't fit with how we wanted to act as Mathilde. We did one "charge at the front lines" fight at the East Gate and then joined Clan Angrund in the anticlimactic fight in the Cavern of Stars, but otherwise we acted as an assassin, saboteur, scout, and on one occasion a general, but we didn't lean into the "knight on the front lines" role when given sneakier options.
And thus the torc never really saw use, because the two times we might have made use of it we had no need of it--leadership buffs weren't necessary for dwarves charging to reclaim their ancient home, especially against already broken goblins fighting each other.
So we gave it to the Undumgi to serve as a badge of office for their leader, which seems like a worthy use indeed, and one that will last.
By contrast, even though we have yet to use our Hysh-enchanted poison/disease cleansing item, the purpose of that item is to serve as a very important save against specific and uncommon but deadly threats to Mathilde specifically (but potentially allies as well). It's the kind of item that you're very glad to have when you need it because chances are good that you'd be in deep trouble if you didn't have it--and while we're not fighting Clan Eshin or Skryre anymore, the druchii probably use poisons sometimes and the possibility of running into Nurgle forces can't be dismissed.
The problem with a Battle Mammoth Altar is that it's a combination of high-maintenance (needs to be cared for, fed, entertained enough) and limited duration (a single mammoth has a limited lifespan and mammoths are not a repleneshable resource for the Empire), on top of being something you keep in your strategic reserve for major battles rather than a tool you potentially use in every fight you get into (like the armor of von Tarnus).
In that regard, the magical airship at least has the benefit of not having a lifespan and being very mobile, so it's a lot easier to bring to bear and can carry its own supplies onboard, unlike a mammoth that will need to either be given food where it goes or require you to bring a lot of food with you when you travel with it. Plus, the magical airship has uses outside of combat, unlike a walking Battle Altar.
Remember, we are not a Battle Mage. We might dabble in building or commissioning magical superweapons, but we very rarely go looking for a big fight to actually use them in, and almost as rarely find a big fight seeking us.
In terms of IC regrets, not taking on an entire tribe in their own territory without killing their mammoth and somehow taming it, while justifying taking it with us to the expedition that had won bloodless free passage and wanted to just get home...yeah, that's more of a passing fancy. A real IC regret would be more like not going all the way to Karag Dum and solving that mystery, or Gotrek's horribly unlucky death.
Now it's been a minute since my last re-read, but I don't recall Mathilde having this deep lingering regret about that you seem to think she has. Pretty sure those regrets are yours.
shepsquared
Erratic Aussie
- Location
- Melbourne, Australia
If I'd remembered the candle existed I'd have absolutely said we squandered it - we've never been in a situation where it looked like we might need it, beyond the chance of there being Nurgle demons in Karak Vlag. We didn't even use it when the canal workers all got sick and we were speculating on if it was sabotage.
At least the ship isn't going to be a contingency for a situation we don't get into because people don't want to go adventuring or take risks.
If we aren't a Battle Mage then why do we want a flying artillery platform or troop carrier? Why do we want something the EIC would use for shipping when we aren't a merchant? Why do we want to tie ourselves to something that might need a crew of mages with their own goals and schedules when we're perfectly capable of going anywhere in the Old World in the only privately owned gyrocopter that exists and we've never been in a situation where an extra half ton of supplies and books would actually matter to the things we found out?
We haven't even gotten runes on the gyrocopter and we're looking to get a worse replacement, just in case the thread decides to start doing things?
I can't call Karak Dum an IC regret because we have gotten the answers for that, and Gotrek is much a bigger deal OOC than IC. The mammoth was a passing fancy but there hasn't been a moment where Mathilde followed up and laid it to rest.
- Location
- Aotearoa
The Ulgu Shadow Dragon was inside us all along!
Wiadi
Uncompromising Radical Leftist
- Location
- Something Clever
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Honestly IMO the problem we're running into here is that we just don't really need more stuff to do the kind of thing we've been doing. But at the same time, we're being offered more stuff, so like...yeah, none of it is going to really look that useful for the kind of thing we've been doing. Which means that (a) something fitting that descriptor isn't really a knock on it compared to most reasonable alternatives and (b) this is, as has previously been raised, sort of a stealth vote on our next arc (at least in the broad strokes). We could always just underuse whatever we pick up here, but I suspect there'll be an impetus to do Not That, which means e.g. if we grab the Armor we're gonna want to get into more personal fights, if we grab the airship we're gonna want to do more traveling (in ways which benefit from access to lots of people/resources), etc.
Correspondingly, the criticism to make about what the Battle Mammoth Altar's suited for isn't that it's out of step with what we have done, but that it's out of step with what you (the person making this criticism) want us to do in future. Which is extremely fair - I'm not overly interested in specifically involving ourselves in a lot of large-scale battles either - but, yeah, there is a bit of nuance there.
the other criticism is that the mammoth meme is tired, played-out, and makes absolutely no sense in-universe as something for mathilde to care about given her complete lack of long-term attachment to the notion
Correspondingly, the criticism to make about what the Battle Mammoth Altar's suited for isn't that it's out of step with what we have done, but that it's out of step with what you (the person making this criticism) want us to do in future. Which is extremely fair - I'm not overly interested in specifically involving ourselves in a lot of large-scale battles either - but, yeah, there is a bit of nuance there.
SaltyWaffles
I am dissapoint, son
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Simply put, the Seed of Regrowth is there to save Mathilde from physical wounds. The crystal candle is there to save Mathilde from poison and disease, which the Seed of Regrowth doesn't save us from. Consider that our belt protects us from dhar corruption and provides some protection against enemy spells, and that our copper grounding rod reduces the danger from a bad miscast.
Even our Dragonflask was designed to provide a big offensive AoE attack to get us out of a jam or take down a particularly difficult/tough target.
Most of our enchanted gear revolves around protecting ourselves from various kinds of threats.
Hey, I didn't vote for the magical airship. And other people have made their arguments for it, so I won't rehash them here.
As for putting runes on the gyrocopter: I don't think that's even doable because I don't think any runesmiths have experimented with putting runes on a gyrocopter before; even radical runesmiths are still experimenting with guns and those are way older than gyrocopters. We have floated the idea of enchanting our gyrocopter, though, and I agree that it feels like a wasted opportunity to not explore that route.
Karag Dum was an IC regret because she was bitter about the fact that she didn't get answers for a while until Borek gave them to her much later, but the problem is that those answers came with an oath to not tell anyone, and Borek isn't likely to die any time remotely soon with Grimnir's axe in his hands. That Borek insists that incredible truth be forgotten by even the Karaz Ankor forever goes against Mathilde's inclinations and beliefs, but she promised to a friend and so long as he lives she is going to keep that promise.
Gotrek's death was a regret because he would have been a huge windfall for Karak Eight Peaks and dwarven steam engine development in general, plus his openness to experimenting with magic being involved with steam engines and all the possibilities that would open up. With him dying, we didn't even get to properly test the first thing that comes to mind, Inexahustible Flame in steam engines, and what would have been a happy ending well deserved instead became a bitter tragedy. Remember, Mathilde hadn't had a friend die on her since Sylvania, with Markus (following right on the heels of Abelhelm).
The mammoth was a meme that was mentioned basically once in passing and that's it. It was never a practical idea in any sense. There is nothing to lay to rest because it was never a thing in the first place.
NuclearConsensus
Herald of the Thorned One
- Location
- the Philippines
That's not quite how Mathilde thought of it. It might be a thing in her thoughts, but I believe we haven't seen any such indication. What we did see is this:
Which isn't as absolute a conviction to keep it secret as you suggest.
Was about to post that. Mathilde knows dwarfs very well, she even likes the little buggers.
But she's not a dwarf.
She does not have the cultural sensibilities nor is she directly tied to a dwarven realm (she lives in k8p but if she wanted to leave no one there could or would stop her).
If the secrets borek shared would lead to greater things if shared, Mathilde would absolutely be willing to give them out. She's going to make an effort to keep it secret but she's not kidding herself.
- Location
- Earth
There's no gyrocopter-specific runes, but they could still be applied to parts:
As I understand it, the general consensus so far has been that we'd prefer to enchant it since there's no runes that are especially good for it, and enchanting serves a dual purpose if we use it as an opportunity to improve windherding.
Unfortunately, windherding has been a relatively low-priority project overall.
I mean, he's also not wrong about finding a runesmith willing to try, I asked this question before.
A runesmith willing to rune a gyrocopter is entering new territory and dwarfs hate entering new territory without a throng, a siege train and a advanced engineering company to build a fortification every 200 meters or so.
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Orc warboss walking past an alley one night to hear: "Big B is really upset."
dinomannitro6
all your gender is belong to us
- Location
- The Land Where The Sunflowers Bloom
It doesn't really actually matter but id like to point out that the Mammoth has come up a whole two times not just once
A mishandled Wind can become Dhar even if there's only that Wind present, and that's usually where the worst miscasts come from. But lesser miscasts are often just the Wind refusing to do what the caster wanted it to do and causing unpredictable phenomena as it thrashes around.
And I'm assuming there is a bit of a grey area where those unexpected things are comprehensible and repeatable you get a mastery instead? So there's a gradient all the way from 'warp portal in your rib cage' to 'cool new spell variant'?
Shard
One and Many
- Location
- Malaysia
For enchanting our new robes, are we maxed out on materials? Can we stack multiple Ulgu Powerstone for greater effect or would that just be disastrous? If we use Windherder will we use multiple different powerstones for each enchantment we add in?
(Is there a danger of the robes becoming a walking magical explosion in-potentia?)
I was thinking about our other items. Our revolvers specifically. Are the runes on them the maximum? Can we enchant the revolvers with Windherding?
(Is there a danger of the robes becoming a walking magical explosion in-potentia?)
I was thinking about our other items. Our revolvers specifically. Are the runes on them the maximum? Can we enchant the revolvers with Windherding?
Enchantments and runes do not stack*
*Outside of very large constructions like the Eye of Gazul
Yes. Sometimes a miscast is like a partially-tame dog turning around and biting you, sometimes it's like trying to get a glass of water when there's air in the pipes, but sometimes it can be a happy little accident.
Throwing more power stones at it will not make a meaningful difference. For Windherder it depends on what you're trying to do. Enchanting can be dangerous and trying to make bigger enchantments is more dangerous, but a successful enchantment is not at risk of exploding at a future date.
They're the maximum that are considered reliable enough to be applied by mainstream Runesmith orthodoxy. If you found someone radical enough you might be able to get something with more oomph, but keep in mind that mainstream Runesmith orthodoxy is why runes are considered more consistent and reliable than enchantments in the first place. They're not doing it just to annoy people.
Runes and Enchantments cannot coexist in a single item.
Is there a deep metaphysical reason to this or is it simply the case of the Runes treating the Winds stuck in the Enchantment as their personal "All you can eat" buffet?