It's a good time to be Wizard. Eighty years have pass since Magnus made magic legal in the Empire. For those who keep true to his articles, you may safely wield The Art without censure. But the Empire is not the be all and end all of knowledge. Beyond its borders lies a world to explore.
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A Globe Trotting Wizard’s Meticulous Journal (Warhammer Quest)
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Character Creation Part 1
The Year of our Lord Sigmar 2383
Most teenage graduates of educational institutions spend their time recovering from a massive hangover. Either in the arms of a loved one, in the temples of their god or screaming the name of their god from the nearest outhouse. Apprentices of the colleges of magic are different.
To wield magic is to walk a tightrope and massive quantities of alcohol, do not improve one's ability to concentrate. No matter what that cantankerous Dwarf Runesmith had to say. So, few new journeymen are foolish enough to indulge to excess. Instead, they breathe a sigh of relief that they have made it through this stage of their education and no longer have to fear constant examination from their teachers for even the slightest error.
They will never be fully free of examination, nor should they wish to be, but at least they will have some ability to use Their magic as They see fit. To celebrate each college has its own little traditions. The Ambers will shapeshift into their favourite animal without supervision, the Brights usually start some massive bonfire and Celestials stare up at the sky and dream of what they might do tomorrow.
None of the eight colleges have a tradition that even approaches the strangeness of what is happening to you now.
Having just left your tailor to have your new robes washed free of dragon piss. You nearly had a panic attack when you saw a witch hunter running at you, at full speed. Pushing several irate merchants out of the way. A witch hunter running at a wizard is never good thing, what you can possibly have done in your first 2 hours as a proper wizard you have no idea. You had almost started to run away from him, when all of a sudden, he was tackled to the ground from behind by an frenzied dwarf. Said dwarf had a surprisingly short beard, a bald head and a rather magnificent Mustache.
As the two tumbled to the ground, a third party tripped over them and the three came skidding to a stop in front of you furiously wrestling with each other.
"You're not getting this one" the dwarf thundered, "I know you snatched Heinrich and Isabella; I don't know what you paid them but I'll beat you hear". To emphasise his point he physically did beat the witch hunter across the head. Which you were certain was illegal and fairly sure a form of blasphemy too, then again it was blasphemy against Sigmar not the Ancestors, so the dwarf wouldn't care. The witch hunter responded by tugging the dwarf's beard and swearing in … some sort Tilean?
As the two men fought, the third had managed extricate himself from the mess of limbs on the floor and pull himself up. Revealing a man in clothes too fine for any peasant or even gentry.
"Bonjour, huff puff, good wizard" he gasped in a thick Breton accent, casting his eyes around, he latched onto the sky. "Lovely weather, we are having" he said hurriedly.
You stare at the bizarre scene before you, your apprenticeship had hardly been uneventful but this was its own form of strangeness. A dwarf and a witch hunter were wrestling on the ground, while a Bretonnian nobleman chatted to you about the weather. The two men on the floor seemed to have realised that the nobleman had your undivided attention and sort to rectify this. Separating themselves from one another, they simultaneously launched themselves their feet and began to yell at the man in the Bretonnian tongue. Which you barely speak, they occasionally slipped back into reikspiel but what little you heard only made you more confused.
You weren't in trouble with the witch hunters, or the Karaz Ankor or Bretonnia, they all seemed to want to talk to you about something, but each wanted to talk about different things. Further none wanted the other to be able to speak to you first.
The witch hunters were more inclined to burn magic users than recruit them. The Dwarfs distrusted all human magic and Bretonnia considered anyone but the Damsels unworthy of it. So, what did they need you for?
The nobleman was in the midst of responding, something about parents, hamsters and elderberries. When you had decided enough was enough.
"Excuse me"
"Cheapskate manlings wouldn't know a fair wage if they shat gold"
"EXCUSE me"
"Listen here you little stump, some people fight for a little more than gold"
"EXCUSE ME"
"Allez-vous la fermer tous les deux, je ne m'entends pas penser. Et encore moins parler au sorcier"
"SHUT IT!!!!"
Is what you finally holler to get them to be quiet. They all turn to face you and your courage, and anger, wilt somewhat under their combined stare. But your anger seems to have at least got them to stop yelling at each other.
The dwarf sighs and mops his brow with a handkerchief "scolded like a beardling, bah" he grumbles. He put the handkerchief away and turns to look up at the other two men. "Gentlemen, a compromise, if we can't put our points forward like civilised people none of us will be able to convince this one to go with any of us".
The two men consider what was said and nod, the witch hunter a little sullenly, perhaps because he saw you first, perhaps because his lip is bleeding rather badly.
As one they all turn to you and the Dwarf speaks again, "would you like to join us for a drink?" he enquires seriously. Dwarfs are always serious about drinking.
Thinking on the short bout of violence, swearing and bullheadedness, you can't help but feel the sensible thing to was to say hell no and run back inside the tailors. But wizardry has little to do with sense so naturally you say yes.
……………………………………………………………………………………………….
In the end you pick the place to go, because the witch hunter didn't care where you went, the Dwarf didn't know the area and the Bretonnian's choice made your wallet hurt. Which is how you ended up in your favourite tavern, with its squashy leather arms chairs, cosy atmosphere and sever bar maiden. A rather stout woman, whom you had once seen punch a horse into unconsciousness, admittedly the horse had been in her pub trying to eat the straw in her chairs.
She none the less smiled warmly when you four appeared, you like to think it was because you were a good customer, or it could have been the obvious nobleman with you.
Seated and halfway through some beers around a small circular table, it was hard to believe that three quarters of the table's occupants had been in a fight less than half an hour ago. Deciding that leaving them to decide who should speak first you take the initiative and speak to the witch hunter first.
Taking in his appearance properly for the first time he is somewhat surprising. To mundane eyes he is a typical witch hunter, complete with pointed hat, leather coat, a hammer necklace, and a bandoleer of guns. To your mundane eyes he is far more interesting, and perplexing. Because on his left wrist, is a seemingly normal black wrist band made of dyed rope but your eyes it pulses with Shyish. His right hand is faintly coted in Aqshy, as if he had used a magic tool of the Bright College recently.
"As a servant of Sigmar's most holy empire, how may I assist one of the servants of His church and am I permitted at this stage to enquire as your name" you ask politely. Witch Hunters loved secrets almost as much as Wizards, best not assume he would tell you anything. To which he smiles, his cheek crinkling around a rapidly forming bruise from his earlier brawl.
"You can just call me Heinrich as to how you can help me, with your training in the magical arts, I hope. I know it must surprise you to hear a witch hunter say. Many of my colleagues are quite satisfied with the methods we have used since Sigmar's day, fire and sword. But when Magnus the Pious legalised magic through the patronage of all the gods of the Empire and the tutelage Teclis created a generation of magic users unlike their predecessors, new options became available. Now dark magic, heresy and corruption can be excised with a scalpel rather than with sledgehammer." He mused while sipping his beer and pulling a scroll of paper from his coat "That's what I want from you precision and focus, to separate truth from falsehood," he continued.
He unfurled the scroll revealing it to be a map of the southern old world, including Tilea, the border princes, The Badlands, Barak Varr, Nehekara and Araby. He angrily stabbed his finger at Nehekara and spat the following words "Necromancy has been the bane of the whole world since Nagash created it and his own home was its first victim. Yet it still manages to produce abominations that haunt the world to this day. However, the origin of a thing can teach you much about it".
You gaze doubtfully at the map and note "Most modern vampires and necromancer groups can trace their lineage back there, but they brought all their knowledge with them north. What remains is very different, we might come some esoteric knowledge from deeper study but I doubt it would revolutionise how we deal with the undead."
To your surprise Heinrich nods and says "We don't need to revolutionise how we fight the undead, we need to add more tools to our arsenal. We have the burning light of Sigmar and the Light College, we have the quiet but strong grip of Morr and the Amethyst college. Not to mention we can finally make our own cannons. The Von Carsteins came the closest to toppling the empire but they failed and we are stronger than ever. But while chaos is able to mutate and create new horrors the undead are equally capable of doing so. In response we must also develop new weapons, strategies, and skills."
He rolls up the map and assesses you seriously, "I can't reveal to you why I think this journey will produce such things or where in that evil desert we are headed. But I can tell you this, our group will travel south via boat and carriage to Tilea where a contact of ours will sail us to Araby. A second contact will take us east to the lands of the dead. We will have the support of local priests and magic users. This will be an elite expedition I've got nearly 20 Wizards coming with me along with a platoon of the best templars of the Sigmarite faith. I have the backing of the church and the colleges, I'm confident that we will be able to discover things of great use to all parties. Any journeyman who comes back will be made a magister immediately, not to mention the chance to study magic in an openminded group"
Your eyebrows rose as he finished his explanation, this was a much more significant undertaking than you had first thought. Getting twenty wizards in one spot for one task, even if most were journeymen, was no mean feat and spoke to the commitment of two organisations that didn't always see eye to eye.
As you are processing all of that. The Dwarf, who had been impatiently waiting his turn, starts to speak. His voice is different from the few other Dwarfs you have heard speak; his voice is rumbling as theirs but carriers a soft lilt on certain syllables. It sounds almost Tilean, as if that were his native language and though that idea seems absurd, now you are paying attention to his words you cannot ignore it. The idea grows less absurd when he introduces himself.
"I am Julius Ceasarson, head of Clan Goldenhand, Captain General of the Company of the Bull and chairman of the Merchant Bank of Castello" he said proudly, and you nod despite having never heard of any of these things. "My people" he continued "are cousins to what you call imperial Dwarfs and more distant relatives to the mountain Dwarfs. We've done well for ourselves ever since your people sorted out the mess Caledor and Gotrek left behind, but particularly in the last three generations"
You're surprised by this seemingly innocuous sentence. Dwarfs, in your experience, are not so open with praise, not so quick to call something an Ancestor did a mess and definitely not to imply that the war of Vengeance had seen faults on both sides. But that doesn't stop you from hearing his next words.
"My Grandfather founded the Company of the Bull and managed to build himself up as someone who could unleash colossal amounts of violence when needed and not complain about a tough fight. He was never rich but rich men trusted him and that was a good start. My father built on what he made and turned it from a company to an army, but he kept the name, brand awareness you know. In his last years he founded the merchant bank of Castello to take advantage of a fortified position to store people's wealth and do business with Barak Varr, all of Tilea, southern Estalia and northern parts of Araby. I've consolidated what he built but now I want to go a step further."
He turned to Heinrich and asked to borrow his map that was grudgingly provided, splayed out he pointed east of Monte Costello to Black Gulf and Black peninsular. "This area" he explained "has always been a death trap, pirates, Orks and pirate Orks. Along with the occasional vampire or mutant. Right hear near the tip is a mountain, Mount Arumite, a decent sized standalone mountain. It had a small goldmine a few thousand years ago but ran dry before the Nonsense War got started. Ever since then it's been useless, nothing to mine and while it would make a decent spot for a fortress, nobody with the resources could be bothered. Until now." He finished with satisfaction.
"What changed" you ask, not having to pretend to be interested.
He continued; his earlier tone had been business like but now there was excitement. "About 6 years ago a meteor fell from the sky and crashed into the mountain, then all of a sudden Skaven began to appear, wiping out the local Orks and pirates. The rivals of said locals fought back and now my spies tell me the rest of the Underempire have cut them off, they either win here or die. We're not going to give them a chance, I've assembled my own band plus two more mercenary companies. We're going to go down there and kill every pirate, Orc and Skaven we can find and take the mountain for ourselves."
"You're building a new Karak" you ask stunned.
"Maybe not quite that grand" Julius chortled "But…"
He relished a draft of beer and concluded "The strategic value of the mountain has changed, I can't say why just now, oaths and all that. However, I can say this, 3 merchant Republics, a dozen noble families and a Dwarfen Karak are interested in seeing me succeed. They want safer trade routes, power projection and dead Skaven, I need a fortress to store my resources and cement everything my clan has built. I've got all the soldiers, horses, guns, equipment and supply lines I need to succeed, what I need is magic, I've only got three magic users on my payroll, ones only a Rhundawi" you file that term away for later focusing on the next sentence "The other two are mercenary wizards", that makes you grimace. Unsanctioned, half trained idiots waiting to fall into the grip of dark magic most likely.
"I'll make sure your compensated generously for helping us, don't worry about the vow of poverty, I've got a loophole" Heinrich twitched at that but said nothing. Julius finished his presentation by commenting "if you want to take a kill some Skaven, get rich, get a piece of what might be the next big trading hub of the south and maybe learn a few things the colleges can't teach you, I'm your man."
The Bretonnian nobleman is staring at the both of them and then bursts out laughing, to their annoyance. They calm down when he explains that he hadn't heard their stories before and had been certain his would be by far the most interesting but their give him a run for his money, still he remains confident.
"I'm Marcel De'Beaufort, of the Parravon De'Beaufort's" he introduced himself staring at you with a bemused smile as he became lost in memory. "When one imagines a Dragon coming to your land you either imagine doom and woe or a brave knight slaying it and riding off into the distance with a fair maiden. When a Dragon came to my castle neither of those things happened, well the doom and woe did but that had started before the dragon got there."
All three of you are listening raptly to his story now, after all there's a dragon in it.
"Myself and my neighbours had apparently been lax in our duties cleansing the land of Greenskins. The population of goblins began to grow in comparison to the other Greenskins, possibly due to a migration. We suspect migration because they brought great forest spiders with them and used their foul Magiks to make them more suited to a mountainous environment. With them outnumbering the Orks and controlling such massive spiders, it was a rare case of a Goblin Warboss." That was unusual, communities of goblins might be led by a goblin but a union of the two subspecies was inevitably dominated by Orks. Who would never tolerate a Goblin leader.
He looked up at the ceiling, considering something and continued "Due to the nature of Greenskins this unnatural dynamic would have faded in time. It was only sustained by the Goblins directing their larger brethren at us with spiders as a cudgel to keep them in line. But while it lasted, it made the horde confusing, unpredictable. It caused our brave knights to second guess themselves. Much chaos and suffering was caused by their upheaval and we were besieged. The siege lasted for months as we ran low on supplies, then without warning a storm formed on a clear noon day. Lightning bolts fell from heaven and sent the terrified goblins into a frenzy and the Orc's began butchering them at the first sign of weakness."
It was Marcel's turn to show you a paper but his had a picture on it rather than a map. It displayed a vast creature, 100 feet long if the scale was to be believed, but only a tenth or so as thick and wide. The drawing is black and white but the box in the top right corner, informs you the dragon has a deep blue coat, bronze linings and a teal underbelly. It lacked the wings one would expect of a dragon and in fact had something of a mustache to rival Julius'. Julius seemed to agree as there was a look of grudging respect as he looked at that part of the dragon. Heinrich, like you, looked curious and a little confused at where this was going.
Your confusion was only increased as Marcel went on "This" he tapped the picture, "came down from the sky and began to rip the spiders to pieces, as it did, we charged out of the fortress into the Greenskins lines. The horde didn't last much longer after that. The Dragon flitted about the sky and up to a particular mountain now and again, but other than that left us alone. Weeks passed without conflict and when the Duke and his army arrived, the dragon spoke to all of us in the guise of man. He explained that he had come from Cathay seeking a place to stop for the foreseeable future and noted the pleasing mountain scenery, easy access to the Elves of Athel Loren and …" Marcel paused "he was very interested in the Damsels, in all magic users really but particularly them. He proposed a trade, he would make his home in a part of the mountains we did not use and we would engage in trade, knowledge for knowledge. The Royarch has been keeping his distance from this project, he feels its best left to the Damsels but your Emperor has expressed interest, I think he just wants to hear more stories about the Dragon".
A somewhat simplistic explanation given how horrifying sieges can be and how complicated diplomacy with supernaturally power creatures was. Perhaps you think, he just doesn't want to reminisce too hard about it rather than our of desire to keep secrets like Julius and Heinrich.
"None of this is actively being hidden, it was three years ago and for the most part our best way to keep it secret is that no one believes it to be true. I can tell you all the details I know but I'm guessing you're a bit overloaded by everything we've talked about, so I'll keep it simple. The dragon wants to know about how we do magic here, how we pray to our gods and many other things. We originally didn't want to share much but the dragon has … charmed the Damsels and gained the trust of the duke. So now we are expanding our search and bringing in new people to speak to the dragon. We can guarantee your safety with it and that it will expose you to knowledge on magic that I'm certain no human west of the World's Edge mountains has ever learned."
Overload is the right word for it. You're somewhat overwhelmed by the deluge of information you have been subject to but you do have a question.
"Do any of you even know which college I'm from" you ask baffled by their interest.
Marcel shrugs and says "The dragon is curious about all things; magic is but one and any of the colleges should have something that interests him."
Heinrich nods and continues "I already have a representative from each college but won't say no to more. Given that necromancy involves dark magic, which is a congealing of all the winds, I need to see it from every angle to know what works and what doesn't."
Julius grunts and adds his own thoughts "All magic can be used for killing and dead Skaven is what I need, as long as you kill plenty of Skaven you can be any colour you like".
Somewhat irritated by their banal responses and tired of constantly being called "you" and "wizard", you grumble back "for your information my name is…"
Name Write in
"Of the …"
Jade Order Typical
Plants, Potions and Poultices. They all come easily to you, as does the mending and healing of broken bodies and broken souls. In a world of so much hurt and pain, your magic soothes what suffering you can.
Major Bonus to Learning when applied to non combative purposes
Martial 2D6 plus 3 average 10
Intrigue 2D6 plus 3 average 10
Diplomacy 3D6 plus 3 average 13
Stewardship 4D6 plus 5 average 18
Learning 3D6 plus 3 average 13
Jade Order Atypical
You are a born thinker and athlete you are not certain if you chose the green wind or if it chose you. But now you are inextricably bound, your power flows most easily inwards. To push your body to its physical and mental limits, perhaps beyond them.
Major bonus to personal combat martial rolls
Martial 3D6 plus 3 average 13
Intrigue 2D6 plus 3 average 10
Diplomacy 2D6 plus 3 average 10
Stewardship 3D6 plus 3 average 13
Learning 4D6 plus 5 average 18
Light Order Typical
With power must come restraint, your power is of the mind and so you have disciplined it to the shape of your will, to burn away corruption and evil wherever you find it.
Major bonus to all combat rolls against chaos
Martial 4D6 plus 5 average 18
Intrigue 3D6 plus 3 average 13
Diplomacy 2D6 plus 3 average 10
Stewardship 3D6 plus 3 average 13
Learning 2D6 plus 3 average 10
Light Order Atypical
Light may be focused but that which is focuses on can shift and following the speed of light from one point to the next can lead to a dazzling array of interests. As an apprentice you have socialised, expressed yourself through art, learned to cook and enjoyed all the ways you can experience this world. You see things in the world that others don't, your magical senses are an extension of this.
Minor bonus to all personal combat rolls against chaos and minor bonus to all rolls while co-operating with established authorities that you are not a part of
Martial 2D6 plus 3 average 10
Intrigue 4D6 plus 5 average 18
Diplomacy 3D6 plus 3 average 13
Stewardship 3D6 plus 3 average 13
Learning 2D6 plus 3 average 10
Amber Order Typical
Humans eat, kill, shit and die like anything else, yet insist on acting as if they are not like everything else. You have learned the primal wisdom that the ground, sea and sky have to offer and through that bring a new perspective to the world.
Major bonus to stewardship and learning rolls involving animal husbandry, butchering, tanning making use of animal corpses
Martial 4D6 plus 5 average 18
Intrigue 2D6 plus 3 average 10
Diplomacy 3D6 plus 3 average 13
Stewardship 2D6 plus 3 average 10
Learning 3D6 plus 3 average 13
Amber Order Atypical
Do birds not build nests? Beavers build dams, crows use tools and ants farm. Civilisation is not a rejection of nature; it is an extension of it. Those who seek to tear it down have not come closer to nature they have abandoned it. You have always felt at ease even in urban depths but you are equally at home in any forest, perhaps that is why you get along with so many people.
Major bonus to intrigue in areas with pre-established rodent, insect and bird populations
Martial 2D6 plus 3 average 10
Intrigue 3D6 plus 3 average 13
Diplomacy 4D6 plus 5 average 18
Stewardship 2D6 plus 3 average 10
Learning 3D6 plus 3 average 13
"and I'd like to hear more about"
[ ] Heinrich's jaunt to Nehekara
+ Chance to study Tilean, Arabyian and Nehekaran magic
+ See the Winds of Magic far from the polar gates
+ The Church of Sigmar and The Colleges will be very happy
+ The relationship between the two will be improved
+ You can examine foreign divinities with angers imperial priests
- You must travel thousands of miles to the land of the dead
- Some of your studies may anger local holy men
- Some witch hunters may get itchy trigger fingers
[ ] Julius plan for a new home
+ Exposure to non-human, non divine and non imperial approaches to magic
+ Earn favours from a rich Dwarf, some rich merchants and possibly a Karak
+ Stake a claim on prime real-estate for very good pay
+ Deal to the enemies of man and study them for weaknesses
+ Improve the flow of trade in the southern old world
- Invading a Skaven fortress
- Making enemies with merchant republics who will lose money
- Associating with magic users who would be considered criminals in the Empire
[ ] Marcel's scaly friend
+ Hearing about magic from a millennia old dragon
+ Access to the Damsels without punishment
+ The Emperor will like this
+ You only have to fight if you choose to and would be excessively compensated
+ Learn about Cathay, Ind and other eastern cultures
- You may end up giving away college secrets that aren't yours to give
- Bretonnia is hostile to non-Damsel magic users
- You don't know what the dragon plans to do long term
Part 2 will be personal traits and equipment.
A/N So this is my first attempt at a quest and I've always love the concept of the gentleman explorer. So we'll watch as our protagonist goes on a grand adventure beyond the borders of the Empire in style. Some are further away than others but they will all be new to you. From there if you wish to stay a while in those places, we can do that or if you want to go even further a field that can be done.
Want to use Julius' new fortress as a jumping point to traverse the Karaz Ankor and the Steppe? Why not. Want to follow the Cathayan Dragon back home? Sure. Think Heinrich isn't ambitious enough and you should set up an imperial Colony on the edge of Nehekara? Let's do it.
I imagine Heinrich being a Learning and Intrigue heavy quest, Julius being Diplomacy and Stewardship, Marcel being Diplomacy and Learning and all of them having a flavour of Martial
Please Vote by plan
Most teenage graduates of educational institutions spend their time recovering from a massive hangover. Either in the arms of a loved one, in the temples of their god or screaming the name of their god from the nearest outhouse. Apprentices of the colleges of magic are different.
To wield magic is to walk a tightrope and massive quantities of alcohol, do not improve one's ability to concentrate. No matter what that cantankerous Dwarf Runesmith had to say. So, few new journeymen are foolish enough to indulge to excess. Instead, they breathe a sigh of relief that they have made it through this stage of their education and no longer have to fear constant examination from their teachers for even the slightest error.
They will never be fully free of examination, nor should they wish to be, but at least they will have some ability to use Their magic as They see fit. To celebrate each college has its own little traditions. The Ambers will shapeshift into their favourite animal without supervision, the Brights usually start some massive bonfire and Celestials stare up at the sky and dream of what they might do tomorrow.
None of the eight colleges have a tradition that even approaches the strangeness of what is happening to you now.
Having just left your tailor to have your new robes washed free of dragon piss. You nearly had a panic attack when you saw a witch hunter running at you, at full speed. Pushing several irate merchants out of the way. A witch hunter running at a wizard is never good thing, what you can possibly have done in your first 2 hours as a proper wizard you have no idea. You had almost started to run away from him, when all of a sudden, he was tackled to the ground from behind by an frenzied dwarf. Said dwarf had a surprisingly short beard, a bald head and a rather magnificent Mustache.
As the two tumbled to the ground, a third party tripped over them and the three came skidding to a stop in front of you furiously wrestling with each other.
"You're not getting this one" the dwarf thundered, "I know you snatched Heinrich and Isabella; I don't know what you paid them but I'll beat you hear". To emphasise his point he physically did beat the witch hunter across the head. Which you were certain was illegal and fairly sure a form of blasphemy too, then again it was blasphemy against Sigmar not the Ancestors, so the dwarf wouldn't care. The witch hunter responded by tugging the dwarf's beard and swearing in … some sort Tilean?
As the two men fought, the third had managed extricate himself from the mess of limbs on the floor and pull himself up. Revealing a man in clothes too fine for any peasant or even gentry.
"Bonjour, huff puff, good wizard" he gasped in a thick Breton accent, casting his eyes around, he latched onto the sky. "Lovely weather, we are having" he said hurriedly.
You stare at the bizarre scene before you, your apprenticeship had hardly been uneventful but this was its own form of strangeness. A dwarf and a witch hunter were wrestling on the ground, while a Bretonnian nobleman chatted to you about the weather. The two men on the floor seemed to have realised that the nobleman had your undivided attention and sort to rectify this. Separating themselves from one another, they simultaneously launched themselves their feet and began to yell at the man in the Bretonnian tongue. Which you barely speak, they occasionally slipped back into reikspiel but what little you heard only made you more confused.
You weren't in trouble with the witch hunters, or the Karaz Ankor or Bretonnia, they all seemed to want to talk to you about something, but each wanted to talk about different things. Further none wanted the other to be able to speak to you first.
The witch hunters were more inclined to burn magic users than recruit them. The Dwarfs distrusted all human magic and Bretonnia considered anyone but the Damsels unworthy of it. So, what did they need you for?
The nobleman was in the midst of responding, something about parents, hamsters and elderberries. When you had decided enough was enough.
"Excuse me"
"Cheapskate manlings wouldn't know a fair wage if they shat gold"
"EXCUSE me"
"Listen here you little stump, some people fight for a little more than gold"
"EXCUSE ME"
"Allez-vous la fermer tous les deux, je ne m'entends pas penser. Et encore moins parler au sorcier"
"SHUT IT!!!!"
Is what you finally holler to get them to be quiet. They all turn to face you and your courage, and anger, wilt somewhat under their combined stare. But your anger seems to have at least got them to stop yelling at each other.
The dwarf sighs and mops his brow with a handkerchief "scolded like a beardling, bah" he grumbles. He put the handkerchief away and turns to look up at the other two men. "Gentlemen, a compromise, if we can't put our points forward like civilised people none of us will be able to convince this one to go with any of us".
The two men consider what was said and nod, the witch hunter a little sullenly, perhaps because he saw you first, perhaps because his lip is bleeding rather badly.
As one they all turn to you and the Dwarf speaks again, "would you like to join us for a drink?" he enquires seriously. Dwarfs are always serious about drinking.
Thinking on the short bout of violence, swearing and bullheadedness, you can't help but feel the sensible thing to was to say hell no and run back inside the tailors. But wizardry has little to do with sense so naturally you say yes.
In the end you pick the place to go, because the witch hunter didn't care where you went, the Dwarf didn't know the area and the Bretonnian's choice made your wallet hurt. Which is how you ended up in your favourite tavern, with its squashy leather arms chairs, cosy atmosphere and sever bar maiden. A rather stout woman, whom you had once seen punch a horse into unconsciousness, admittedly the horse had been in her pub trying to eat the straw in her chairs.
She none the less smiled warmly when you four appeared, you like to think it was because you were a good customer, or it could have been the obvious nobleman with you.
Seated and halfway through some beers around a small circular table, it was hard to believe that three quarters of the table's occupants had been in a fight less than half an hour ago. Deciding that leaving them to decide who should speak first you take the initiative and speak to the witch hunter first.
Taking in his appearance properly for the first time he is somewhat surprising. To mundane eyes he is a typical witch hunter, complete with pointed hat, leather coat, a hammer necklace, and a bandoleer of guns. To your mundane eyes he is far more interesting, and perplexing. Because on his left wrist, is a seemingly normal black wrist band made of dyed rope but your eyes it pulses with Shyish. His right hand is faintly coted in Aqshy, as if he had used a magic tool of the Bright College recently.
"As a servant of Sigmar's most holy empire, how may I assist one of the servants of His church and am I permitted at this stage to enquire as your name" you ask politely. Witch Hunters loved secrets almost as much as Wizards, best not assume he would tell you anything. To which he smiles, his cheek crinkling around a rapidly forming bruise from his earlier brawl.
"You can just call me Heinrich as to how you can help me, with your training in the magical arts, I hope. I know it must surprise you to hear a witch hunter say. Many of my colleagues are quite satisfied with the methods we have used since Sigmar's day, fire and sword. But when Magnus the Pious legalised magic through the patronage of all the gods of the Empire and the tutelage Teclis created a generation of magic users unlike their predecessors, new options became available. Now dark magic, heresy and corruption can be excised with a scalpel rather than with sledgehammer." He mused while sipping his beer and pulling a scroll of paper from his coat "That's what I want from you precision and focus, to separate truth from falsehood," he continued.
He unfurled the scroll revealing it to be a map of the southern old world, including Tilea, the border princes, The Badlands, Barak Varr, Nehekara and Araby. He angrily stabbed his finger at Nehekara and spat the following words "Necromancy has been the bane of the whole world since Nagash created it and his own home was its first victim. Yet it still manages to produce abominations that haunt the world to this day. However, the origin of a thing can teach you much about it".
You gaze doubtfully at the map and note "Most modern vampires and necromancer groups can trace their lineage back there, but they brought all their knowledge with them north. What remains is very different, we might come some esoteric knowledge from deeper study but I doubt it would revolutionise how we deal with the undead."
To your surprise Heinrich nods and says "We don't need to revolutionise how we fight the undead, we need to add more tools to our arsenal. We have the burning light of Sigmar and the Light College, we have the quiet but strong grip of Morr and the Amethyst college. Not to mention we can finally make our own cannons. The Von Carsteins came the closest to toppling the empire but they failed and we are stronger than ever. But while chaos is able to mutate and create new horrors the undead are equally capable of doing so. In response we must also develop new weapons, strategies, and skills."
He rolls up the map and assesses you seriously, "I can't reveal to you why I think this journey will produce such things or where in that evil desert we are headed. But I can tell you this, our group will travel south via boat and carriage to Tilea where a contact of ours will sail us to Araby. A second contact will take us east to the lands of the dead. We will have the support of local priests and magic users. This will be an elite expedition I've got nearly 20 Wizards coming with me along with a platoon of the best templars of the Sigmarite faith. I have the backing of the church and the colleges, I'm confident that we will be able to discover things of great use to all parties. Any journeyman who comes back will be made a magister immediately, not to mention the chance to study magic in an openminded group"
Your eyebrows rose as he finished his explanation, this was a much more significant undertaking than you had first thought. Getting twenty wizards in one spot for one task, even if most were journeymen, was no mean feat and spoke to the commitment of two organisations that didn't always see eye to eye.
As you are processing all of that. The Dwarf, who had been impatiently waiting his turn, starts to speak. His voice is different from the few other Dwarfs you have heard speak; his voice is rumbling as theirs but carriers a soft lilt on certain syllables. It sounds almost Tilean, as if that were his native language and though that idea seems absurd, now you are paying attention to his words you cannot ignore it. The idea grows less absurd when he introduces himself.
"I am Julius Ceasarson, head of Clan Goldenhand, Captain General of the Company of the Bull and chairman of the Merchant Bank of Castello" he said proudly, and you nod despite having never heard of any of these things. "My people" he continued "are cousins to what you call imperial Dwarfs and more distant relatives to the mountain Dwarfs. We've done well for ourselves ever since your people sorted out the mess Caledor and Gotrek left behind, but particularly in the last three generations"
You're surprised by this seemingly innocuous sentence. Dwarfs, in your experience, are not so open with praise, not so quick to call something an Ancestor did a mess and definitely not to imply that the war of Vengeance had seen faults on both sides. But that doesn't stop you from hearing his next words.
"My Grandfather founded the Company of the Bull and managed to build himself up as someone who could unleash colossal amounts of violence when needed and not complain about a tough fight. He was never rich but rich men trusted him and that was a good start. My father built on what he made and turned it from a company to an army, but he kept the name, brand awareness you know. In his last years he founded the merchant bank of Castello to take advantage of a fortified position to store people's wealth and do business with Barak Varr, all of Tilea, southern Estalia and northern parts of Araby. I've consolidated what he built but now I want to go a step further."
He turned to Heinrich and asked to borrow his map that was grudgingly provided, splayed out he pointed east of Monte Costello to Black Gulf and Black peninsular. "This area" he explained "has always been a death trap, pirates, Orks and pirate Orks. Along with the occasional vampire or mutant. Right hear near the tip is a mountain, Mount Arumite, a decent sized standalone mountain. It had a small goldmine a few thousand years ago but ran dry before the Nonsense War got started. Ever since then it's been useless, nothing to mine and while it would make a decent spot for a fortress, nobody with the resources could be bothered. Until now." He finished with satisfaction.
"What changed" you ask, not having to pretend to be interested.
He continued; his earlier tone had been business like but now there was excitement. "About 6 years ago a meteor fell from the sky and crashed into the mountain, then all of a sudden Skaven began to appear, wiping out the local Orks and pirates. The rivals of said locals fought back and now my spies tell me the rest of the Underempire have cut them off, they either win here or die. We're not going to give them a chance, I've assembled my own band plus two more mercenary companies. We're going to go down there and kill every pirate, Orc and Skaven we can find and take the mountain for ourselves."
"You're building a new Karak" you ask stunned.
"Maybe not quite that grand" Julius chortled "But…"
He relished a draft of beer and concluded "The strategic value of the mountain has changed, I can't say why just now, oaths and all that. However, I can say this, 3 merchant Republics, a dozen noble families and a Dwarfen Karak are interested in seeing me succeed. They want safer trade routes, power projection and dead Skaven, I need a fortress to store my resources and cement everything my clan has built. I've got all the soldiers, horses, guns, equipment and supply lines I need to succeed, what I need is magic, I've only got three magic users on my payroll, ones only a Rhundawi" you file that term away for later focusing on the next sentence "The other two are mercenary wizards", that makes you grimace. Unsanctioned, half trained idiots waiting to fall into the grip of dark magic most likely.
"I'll make sure your compensated generously for helping us, don't worry about the vow of poverty, I've got a loophole" Heinrich twitched at that but said nothing. Julius finished his presentation by commenting "if you want to take a kill some Skaven, get rich, get a piece of what might be the next big trading hub of the south and maybe learn a few things the colleges can't teach you, I'm your man."
The Bretonnian nobleman is staring at the both of them and then bursts out laughing, to their annoyance. They calm down when he explains that he hadn't heard their stories before and had been certain his would be by far the most interesting but their give him a run for his money, still he remains confident.
"I'm Marcel De'Beaufort, of the Parravon De'Beaufort's" he introduced himself staring at you with a bemused smile as he became lost in memory. "When one imagines a Dragon coming to your land you either imagine doom and woe or a brave knight slaying it and riding off into the distance with a fair maiden. When a Dragon came to my castle neither of those things happened, well the doom and woe did but that had started before the dragon got there."
All three of you are listening raptly to his story now, after all there's a dragon in it.
"Myself and my neighbours had apparently been lax in our duties cleansing the land of Greenskins. The population of goblins began to grow in comparison to the other Greenskins, possibly due to a migration. We suspect migration because they brought great forest spiders with them and used their foul Magiks to make them more suited to a mountainous environment. With them outnumbering the Orks and controlling such massive spiders, it was a rare case of a Goblin Warboss." That was unusual, communities of goblins might be led by a goblin but a union of the two subspecies was inevitably dominated by Orks. Who would never tolerate a Goblin leader.
He looked up at the ceiling, considering something and continued "Due to the nature of Greenskins this unnatural dynamic would have faded in time. It was only sustained by the Goblins directing their larger brethren at us with spiders as a cudgel to keep them in line. But while it lasted, it made the horde confusing, unpredictable. It caused our brave knights to second guess themselves. Much chaos and suffering was caused by their upheaval and we were besieged. The siege lasted for months as we ran low on supplies, then without warning a storm formed on a clear noon day. Lightning bolts fell from heaven and sent the terrified goblins into a frenzy and the Orc's began butchering them at the first sign of weakness."
It was Marcel's turn to show you a paper but his had a picture on it rather than a map. It displayed a vast creature, 100 feet long if the scale was to be believed, but only a tenth or so as thick and wide. The drawing is black and white but the box in the top right corner, informs you the dragon has a deep blue coat, bronze linings and a teal underbelly. It lacked the wings one would expect of a dragon and in fact had something of a mustache to rival Julius'. Julius seemed to agree as there was a look of grudging respect as he looked at that part of the dragon. Heinrich, like you, looked curious and a little confused at where this was going.
Your confusion was only increased as Marcel went on "This" he tapped the picture, "came down from the sky and began to rip the spiders to pieces, as it did, we charged out of the fortress into the Greenskins lines. The horde didn't last much longer after that. The Dragon flitted about the sky and up to a particular mountain now and again, but other than that left us alone. Weeks passed without conflict and when the Duke and his army arrived, the dragon spoke to all of us in the guise of man. He explained that he had come from Cathay seeking a place to stop for the foreseeable future and noted the pleasing mountain scenery, easy access to the Elves of Athel Loren and …" Marcel paused "he was very interested in the Damsels, in all magic users really but particularly them. He proposed a trade, he would make his home in a part of the mountains we did not use and we would engage in trade, knowledge for knowledge. The Royarch has been keeping his distance from this project, he feels its best left to the Damsels but your Emperor has expressed interest, I think he just wants to hear more stories about the Dragon".
A somewhat simplistic explanation given how horrifying sieges can be and how complicated diplomacy with supernaturally power creatures was. Perhaps you think, he just doesn't want to reminisce too hard about it rather than our of desire to keep secrets like Julius and Heinrich.
"None of this is actively being hidden, it was three years ago and for the most part our best way to keep it secret is that no one believes it to be true. I can tell you all the details I know but I'm guessing you're a bit overloaded by everything we've talked about, so I'll keep it simple. The dragon wants to know about how we do magic here, how we pray to our gods and many other things. We originally didn't want to share much but the dragon has … charmed the Damsels and gained the trust of the duke. So now we are expanding our search and bringing in new people to speak to the dragon. We can guarantee your safety with it and that it will expose you to knowledge on magic that I'm certain no human west of the World's Edge mountains has ever learned."
Overload is the right word for it. You're somewhat overwhelmed by the deluge of information you have been subject to but you do have a question.
"Do any of you even know which college I'm from" you ask baffled by their interest.
Marcel shrugs and says "The dragon is curious about all things; magic is but one and any of the colleges should have something that interests him."
Heinrich nods and continues "I already have a representative from each college but won't say no to more. Given that necromancy involves dark magic, which is a congealing of all the winds, I need to see it from every angle to know what works and what doesn't."
Julius grunts and adds his own thoughts "All magic can be used for killing and dead Skaven is what I need, as long as you kill plenty of Skaven you can be any colour you like".
Somewhat irritated by their banal responses and tired of constantly being called "you" and "wizard", you grumble back "for your information my name is…"
Name Write in
"Of the …"
Jade Order Typical
Plants, Potions and Poultices. They all come easily to you, as does the mending and healing of broken bodies and broken souls. In a world of so much hurt and pain, your magic soothes what suffering you can.
Major Bonus to Learning when applied to non combative purposes
Martial 2D6 plus 3 average 10
Intrigue 2D6 plus 3 average 10
Diplomacy 3D6 plus 3 average 13
Stewardship 4D6 plus 5 average 18
Learning 3D6 plus 3 average 13
Jade Order Atypical
You are a born thinker and athlete you are not certain if you chose the green wind or if it chose you. But now you are inextricably bound, your power flows most easily inwards. To push your body to its physical and mental limits, perhaps beyond them.
Major bonus to personal combat martial rolls
Martial 3D6 plus 3 average 13
Intrigue 2D6 plus 3 average 10
Diplomacy 2D6 plus 3 average 10
Stewardship 3D6 plus 3 average 13
Learning 4D6 plus 5 average 18
Light Order Typical
With power must come restraint, your power is of the mind and so you have disciplined it to the shape of your will, to burn away corruption and evil wherever you find it.
Major bonus to all combat rolls against chaos
Martial 4D6 plus 5 average 18
Intrigue 3D6 plus 3 average 13
Diplomacy 2D6 plus 3 average 10
Stewardship 3D6 plus 3 average 13
Learning 2D6 plus 3 average 10
Light Order Atypical
Light may be focused but that which is focuses on can shift and following the speed of light from one point to the next can lead to a dazzling array of interests. As an apprentice you have socialised, expressed yourself through art, learned to cook and enjoyed all the ways you can experience this world. You see things in the world that others don't, your magical senses are an extension of this.
Minor bonus to all personal combat rolls against chaos and minor bonus to all rolls while co-operating with established authorities that you are not a part of
Martial 2D6 plus 3 average 10
Intrigue 4D6 plus 5 average 18
Diplomacy 3D6 plus 3 average 13
Stewardship 3D6 plus 3 average 13
Learning 2D6 plus 3 average 10
Amber Order Typical
Humans eat, kill, shit and die like anything else, yet insist on acting as if they are not like everything else. You have learned the primal wisdom that the ground, sea and sky have to offer and through that bring a new perspective to the world.
Major bonus to stewardship and learning rolls involving animal husbandry, butchering, tanning making use of animal corpses
Martial 4D6 plus 5 average 18
Intrigue 2D6 plus 3 average 10
Diplomacy 3D6 plus 3 average 13
Stewardship 2D6 plus 3 average 10
Learning 3D6 plus 3 average 13
Amber Order Atypical
Do birds not build nests? Beavers build dams, crows use tools and ants farm. Civilisation is not a rejection of nature; it is an extension of it. Those who seek to tear it down have not come closer to nature they have abandoned it. You have always felt at ease even in urban depths but you are equally at home in any forest, perhaps that is why you get along with so many people.
Major bonus to intrigue in areas with pre-established rodent, insect and bird populations
Martial 2D6 plus 3 average 10
Intrigue 3D6 plus 3 average 13
Diplomacy 4D6 plus 5 average 18
Stewardship 2D6 plus 3 average 10
Learning 3D6 plus 3 average 13
"and I'd like to hear more about"
[ ] Heinrich's jaunt to Nehekara
+ Chance to study Tilean, Arabyian and Nehekaran magic
+ See the Winds of Magic far from the polar gates
+ The Church of Sigmar and The Colleges will be very happy
+ The relationship between the two will be improved
+ You can examine foreign divinities with angers imperial priests
- You must travel thousands of miles to the land of the dead
- Some of your studies may anger local holy men
- Some witch hunters may get itchy trigger fingers
[ ] Julius plan for a new home
+ Exposure to non-human, non divine and non imperial approaches to magic
+ Earn favours from a rich Dwarf, some rich merchants and possibly a Karak
+ Stake a claim on prime real-estate for very good pay
+ Deal to the enemies of man and study them for weaknesses
+ Improve the flow of trade in the southern old world
- Invading a Skaven fortress
- Making enemies with merchant republics who will lose money
- Associating with magic users who would be considered criminals in the Empire
[ ] Marcel's scaly friend
+ Hearing about magic from a millennia old dragon
+ Access to the Damsels without punishment
+ The Emperor will like this
+ You only have to fight if you choose to and would be excessively compensated
+ Learn about Cathay, Ind and other eastern cultures
- You may end up giving away college secrets that aren't yours to give
- Bretonnia is hostile to non-Damsel magic users
- You don't know what the dragon plans to do long term
Part 2 will be personal traits and equipment.
A/N So this is my first attempt at a quest and I've always love the concept of the gentleman explorer. So we'll watch as our protagonist goes on a grand adventure beyond the borders of the Empire in style. Some are further away than others but they will all be new to you. From there if you wish to stay a while in those places, we can do that or if you want to go even further a field that can be done.
Want to use Julius' new fortress as a jumping point to traverse the Karaz Ankor and the Steppe? Why not. Want to follow the Cathayan Dragon back home? Sure. Think Heinrich isn't ambitious enough and you should set up an imperial Colony on the edge of Nehekara? Let's do it.
I imagine Heinrich being a Learning and Intrigue heavy quest, Julius being Diplomacy and Stewardship, Marcel being Diplomacy and Learning and all of them having a flavour of Martial
Please Vote by plan
Character Sheet
Amelia Albrecht Character Sheet
Martial 11 + 3 = 14 - You may not have been trained in traditional combat arts but the Wind of Life itself courses through you, while you are hardly a powerhouse you are in nearly perfect physical shape. Combined with training on how to incorporate your magic into combat makes you more dangerous in a strait fight than you appear.
Intrigue 4 + 3 = 7 - A life time in the college most famous for its nurturing and kindness has not left you with a mind best suited to subterfuge or trickery. Luckily you still have magic to even the score.
Diplomacy - 8 + 3 = 11 - You've always been naturally sweet with a friendly disposition. However a lifetime not only within the Jade college but intensely drilled on the dangers of your natural power means you don't have as much social experience as one would expect.
Stewardship - 13 + 3 = 16 - Your mother always said "better to have and not need than to need and not have. You may never run a business or a castle but she wanted you to have a head for budgets and finance. No daughter of hers would be made a fool of by hucksters."
Learning - 16+5 = 21 - You have always had a great love of learning, reading books and hearing the stories of the matriarchs of your college. You have a sharp mind, one trained to break down puzzles and analyse new phenomenon.
Piety - 9 + 3 = 12 - You are hardly devout but the divine does interest you from a theoretical perspective. Hopefully this journey might also serve as a spiritual journey as a magical one
Magic - 14 + 10 = 24 - You have a raw connection to the Wind of Life like few others and a rigorous training regime from your master's has help to refine that even more. You rarely misstep with your power and when you have he was always there to correct it. But if anything that just made him more afraid for the day you do lose control on the battlefield.
Standard Miscast DC - 9
Equipped Miscast DC - 7
Traits
Lidless Third Eye - Your Witchsight is permanently open and requires active effort to stop seeing the flow of the Winds of Magic. Plus 10 to magic rolls, requires a roll to stop using it in dangerous situations.
Natural Channeler - Your body, mind and soul are a natural channel for Ghyran and with that you have your own source of power to draw on. This makes casting magic slightly safer for you but in the Chaos of the Battlefield your really going to need it. Roll magic dice twice and pick the higher number, this does affect miscasts but if both are beneath the DC your miscast will be catastrophic.
Bottle Maker - You like little ships, it might seem silly but they are so cute. It takes hours to assemble even part of one and you are rather proud of your little collection. Lowered miscast by 1
Linguist - Words are more than sounds, they the keys to reason and for those who will listen the enunciation of truth. You will not let a language barrier prevent you from understanding others. You are fluent in the written styles of half a dozen language. You haven't needed to but you can turn this talent to spoken word too. No action required to learn languages.
Martial 11 + 3 = 14 - You may not have been trained in traditional combat arts but the Wind of Life itself courses through you, while you are hardly a powerhouse you are in nearly perfect physical shape. Combined with training on how to incorporate your magic into combat makes you more dangerous in a strait fight than you appear.
Intrigue 4 + 3 = 7 - A life time in the college most famous for its nurturing and kindness has not left you with a mind best suited to subterfuge or trickery. Luckily you still have magic to even the score.
Diplomacy - 8 + 3 = 11 - You've always been naturally sweet with a friendly disposition. However a lifetime not only within the Jade college but intensely drilled on the dangers of your natural power means you don't have as much social experience as one would expect.
Stewardship - 13 + 3 = 16 - Your mother always said "better to have and not need than to need and not have. You may never run a business or a castle but she wanted you to have a head for budgets and finance. No daughter of hers would be made a fool of by hucksters."
Learning - 16+5 = 21 - You have always had a great love of learning, reading books and hearing the stories of the matriarchs of your college. You have a sharp mind, one trained to break down puzzles and analyse new phenomenon.
Piety - 9 + 3 = 12 - You are hardly devout but the divine does interest you from a theoretical perspective. Hopefully this journey might also serve as a spiritual journey as a magical one
Magic - 14 + 10 = 24 - You have a raw connection to the Wind of Life like few others and a rigorous training regime from your master's has help to refine that even more. You rarely misstep with your power and when you have he was always there to correct it. But if anything that just made him more afraid for the day you do lose control on the battlefield.
Standard Miscast DC - 9
Equipped Miscast DC - 7
Traits
Lidless Third Eye - Your Witchsight is permanently open and requires active effort to stop seeing the flow of the Winds of Magic. Plus 10 to magic rolls, requires a roll to stop using it in dangerous situations.
Natural Channeler - Your body, mind and soul are a natural channel for Ghyran and with that you have your own source of power to draw on. This makes casting magic slightly safer for you but in the Chaos of the Battlefield your really going to need it. Roll magic dice twice and pick the higher number, this does affect miscasts but if both are beneath the DC your miscast will be catastrophic.
Bottle Maker - You like little ships, it might seem silly but they are so cute. It takes hours to assemble even part of one and you are rather proud of your little collection. Lowered miscast by 1
Linguist - Words are more than sounds, they the keys to reason and for those who will listen the enunciation of truth. You will not let a language barrier prevent you from understanding others. You are fluent in the written styles of half a dozen language. You haven't needed to but you can turn this talent to spoken word too. No action required to learn languages.
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Rules
Rules
Most of it will be the standard stuff that you are expecting in a CK3 style quest. A DC and you must match, adding your stat modifiers to your roll. But there are some differences that I would like to go over.
So I'm introducing something to help cap that. In addition to the DC to achieve an action, there will also be an SC (skill check) which will involve the minimum skill it requires to participate in it. In addition, the bonus to an action will only be the skill equal to the skill level of its most skilled participant plus five for each additional participant.
As an example.
Learning Action
[ ] Forging a new anvil of Doom: Not since the time of Woes has new Anvil been forged. But now you will change that and reverse the decline in the Karaz Ankor's arsenal. SC 50 DC 160.
Available Runelords
Kragg the Grim – Learning 51
Thorek Iron Brow – Learning 50
Error all additional Rune Lords have a learning Score of 49 or lower.
So, the equation for this would be Dice Roll + Plus Kragg Learning Stat + Each additional Runelord
So, if they rolled a 100, it would be 100 + 50 + 5 = 155.
So, no matter what they cannot succeed. Which is my mechanical explanation for why so many things have not been rediscovered, its not just factions being conservative, though that doesn't help. Its also because it requires literally everything to go right in the finicky and temperamental world of Warhammer magic.
In this example to forge an Anvil of Doom would require another millennia old Dwarfen master to even have a chance and even then, they would have to get lucky. There are obviously actions that could take to lower the DC but SCs are going to be hard to lower. But not impossible but only a chain of improbably high rolls in supporting actions would allow that.
Magic is the 7th Stat of this quest. It is a number reached by adding the other 6 together and then dividing by 6. It will be used whenever you take an action involving it, how it is involved will decided by me on a case-by-case basis. Magic has its own action options but may also intersect with other options.
Example
Martial action – Construct fortress and Enhance with Magic – Walls and Cannons are fine but the winds soak right through them, use your combat experience and magical insight to your advantage. See if the fortress can be made better through magic. Cost N/A time to complete 3 turns. DC 85.
Turn one Marital Rolls – 87 + 11 = 98. Success.
Turn Two, Construction continues apace.
Turn three, completing the magical fortifications, DC 40 due to past success.
Roll 72 plus 18 = 90
Result = While hardly the Everpeak, this is no small fortress completed on time and on budget it will repel all but the most determined of magical and mundane attackers.
Further there is a miscast feature but this should only really take place during combat or emergency scenarios. If you roll a 10 or lower, regardless of modifiers, you have a miscast. You must then roll again to see how mad it is, a 100 would be harmless even humorous. A 1 could be fatal to you and others.
There will be ways to lower the miscast dc, both permanent and not. All the possible starting points will have a feature making miscast during out of combat moments more unlikely.
Most of it will be the standard stuff that you are expecting in a CK3 style quest. A DC and you must match, adding your stat modifiers to your roll. But there are some differences that I would like to go over.
- Skill Check for Epic Actions
So I'm introducing something to help cap that. In addition to the DC to achieve an action, there will also be an SC (skill check) which will involve the minimum skill it requires to participate in it. In addition, the bonus to an action will only be the skill equal to the skill level of its most skilled participant plus five for each additional participant.
As an example.
Learning Action
[ ] Forging a new anvil of Doom: Not since the time of Woes has new Anvil been forged. But now you will change that and reverse the decline in the Karaz Ankor's arsenal. SC 50 DC 160.
Available Runelords
Kragg the Grim – Learning 51
Thorek Iron Brow – Learning 50
Error all additional Rune Lords have a learning Score of 49 or lower.
So, the equation for this would be Dice Roll + Plus Kragg Learning Stat + Each additional Runelord
So, if they rolled a 100, it would be 100 + 50 + 5 = 155.
So, no matter what they cannot succeed. Which is my mechanical explanation for why so many things have not been rediscovered, its not just factions being conservative, though that doesn't help. Its also because it requires literally everything to go right in the finicky and temperamental world of Warhammer magic.
In this example to forge an Anvil of Doom would require another millennia old Dwarfen master to even have a chance and even then, they would have to get lucky. There are obviously actions that could take to lower the DC but SCs are going to be hard to lower. But not impossible but only a chain of improbably high rolls in supporting actions would allow that.
- Magic in other Actions
Magic is the 7th Stat of this quest. It is a number reached by adding the other 6 together and then dividing by 6. It will be used whenever you take an action involving it, how it is involved will decided by me on a case-by-case basis. Magic has its own action options but may also intersect with other options.
Example
Martial action – Construct fortress and Enhance with Magic – Walls and Cannons are fine but the winds soak right through them, use your combat experience and magical insight to your advantage. See if the fortress can be made better through magic. Cost N/A time to complete 3 turns. DC 85.
Turn one Marital Rolls – 87 + 11 = 98. Success.
Turn Two, Construction continues apace.
Turn three, completing the magical fortifications, DC 40 due to past success.
Roll 72 plus 18 = 90
Result = While hardly the Everpeak, this is no small fortress completed on time and on budget it will repel all but the most determined of magical and mundane attackers.
Further there is a miscast feature but this should only really take place during combat or emergency scenarios. If you roll a 10 or lower, regardless of modifiers, you have a miscast. You must then roll again to see how mad it is, a 100 would be harmless even humorous. A 1 could be fatal to you and others.
There will be ways to lower the miscast dc, both permanent and not. All the possible starting points will have a feature making miscast during out of combat moments more unlikely.
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Spell List
Spells Effects
Spells will always give you a bonus or lower the dc of an action, some can be done without an action and others will require a vote. The bonus they provide will depend on the situation. As an example, Barkskin might provide a plus 20 when fighting an unarmed human, punching something with the density of tree would be painful. But it would be more like a plus 5 against an axe wielding dwarf, better than nothing but it just doesn't offer the same protection since he is stronger and has a weapon that is good for cutting wood.
Spells Mastered
Rules for mastered – These are spells whose dc is lower than your magic score, therefore they can always be cast safely even in combat barring exception circumstances.
Barkskin: The skin becomes hard and resistant to damage.
Father of Thorn: Briars and thorns shoot out from the earth to tear at and entangle the casters enemy.
Emerald Pool: The caster dissolves into a small pool and then reappears near another body of water.
Fat of the Land: The target is flooded with nourishing Ghyran removing the need to eat or drink for a time
Regenerate: The healer gains the ability to regenerate
Spells Known
Rules for known – you are highly familiar with these spells and are confident in using them all the but combat is a little more of a risk and there are certain scenarios that may make it unsafe out of combat. The DC will be decided by me based upon the situation. Repeated use of a Known spell will move them toward mastered as will raising your magic stat.
Cloak of Dain: A shimmering energy cloaks the caster, absorbing enemy attacks.
Spring Bloom: An area of land or a single person is made fertile.
Vital Growth: A single plant or tree is enhanced with Ghyran causing sudden growth
Earthblood: Whilst the spell is active, any living creatures in direct contact with the earth within the heals,
Spells Aware of but Unlearnt
N/A
Spells will always give you a bonus or lower the dc of an action, some can be done without an action and others will require a vote. The bonus they provide will depend on the situation. As an example, Barkskin might provide a plus 20 when fighting an unarmed human, punching something with the density of tree would be painful. But it would be more like a plus 5 against an axe wielding dwarf, better than nothing but it just doesn't offer the same protection since he is stronger and has a weapon that is good for cutting wood.
Spells Mastered
Rules for mastered – These are spells whose dc is lower than your magic score, therefore they can always be cast safely even in combat barring exception circumstances.
Barkskin: The skin becomes hard and resistant to damage.
Father of Thorn: Briars and thorns shoot out from the earth to tear at and entangle the casters enemy.
Emerald Pool: The caster dissolves into a small pool and then reappears near another body of water.
Fat of the Land: The target is flooded with nourishing Ghyran removing the need to eat or drink for a time
Regenerate: The healer gains the ability to regenerate
Spells Known
Rules for known – you are highly familiar with these spells and are confident in using them all the but combat is a little more of a risk and there are certain scenarios that may make it unsafe out of combat. The DC will be decided by me based upon the situation. Repeated use of a Known spell will move them toward mastered as will raising your magic stat.
Cloak of Dain: A shimmering energy cloaks the caster, absorbing enemy attacks.
Spring Bloom: An area of land or a single person is made fertile.
Vital Growth: A single plant or tree is enhanced with Ghyran causing sudden growth
Earthblood: Whilst the spell is active, any living creatures in direct contact with the earth within the heals,
Spells Aware of but Unlearnt
N/A
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Semi finals
Adhoc vote count started by justlove on Jun 2, 2024 at 9:56 AM, finished with 28 posts and 19 votes.
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[X] Plan Dragon Whisperer
-[X] Amber Order Atypical
-[X] Marcel's scaly friend
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[X] Plan: Life and Death
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[X] Plan An Illuminating Conversation
-[X] Otto Wagner
-[X] Light Order Atypical
-[X] Marcel's scaly friend
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[X] Building the world you want to see
-[X] Amber Order Atypical
-[X] Julius plan for a new home
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[X] Building the world you want to see
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We're going to be having some semi finals, with a tie between our three front runners.
Please vote again for just one of the three plans leading plans, sorry to any who voted for building the world you want to see.
I'm thrilled by the variety of votes that have been cast.
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Vote closed
Scheduled vote count started by justlove on Jun 2, 2024 at 10:02 AM, finished with 11 posts and 9 votes.
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[X] Plan Dragon Whisperer
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[X] Plan: Life and Death
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[X] Plan An Illuminating Conversation
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The semi finals have created another tie, so I'll be the tie breaker and I'd like to go with Life and Death.
Sorry to be a bit of a tyrant but I just don't want to put off the start of the quest any longer. For those who voted for something else don't worry you'll see stuff from the other options throughout this quest. In both rumour posts and perhaps meeting up with them when you're done in Nehekara as this is just the first story arc.
As for the name they'll be vote at the end of the next update.
So I'll post the update some time today.
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Character Creation Part 2 Piety Traits and Equipment
A/N I'm so happy this vote was so close, it feels like there was a good spread of interest and a nice range of combinations but we do have a winner, this is the start of their story
After what had to be one of the strangest interviews in the history of the civilised world, you had made you choice. After asking a few more questions to make certain of where you stood, the decision had been obvious to you.
The difference between an apprentice and a magister was not measured by power. Not by the number of spells known or even by knowledge of the winds. It was in experience.
Personal, hands on and intimate experience. Of the world, the dangers in it and the way that your on Wind interacted with those.
From that experience wizards were forged into among the mightiest defenders of the Empire.
With a writ to wander the world they were free in a way few were. But even with that freedom many stay within Sigmar's domain.
Where would they go? To Kislev or Bretonnia where any wizard not connected to a priesthood was suspicious. Or further south to Tilea or Estalia to be caught up in some new struggle there.
If any new Journeyman thought Athel Loren, Lorelaurn or the Karaz Ankor would be kinder to them than human kingdoms. Then there was a dragon you'd like give them as a goodbye present on their journey. You just needed 100 gold coins to make it stop being invisible.
But to stay in the Empire was not truly to journey, what could learned in Middenheim could be learned in Altdorf and vice versa. The world was so much more than the Empire, there were as many paths in magic as stars in the sky and far too much to see from one corner.
All three men had made a good case for themselves.
Ultimately what had made your decision was three salient facts.
Number one and perhaps most importantly. This had been a golden age for your kind, these last 80 years. Magnus the Pious, the wise, the great and thousand other earned epithets, had remade the empire. Ending centuries of misrule and weakness.
The creation of the Colleges of Magic had been the crown jewel of his reign. The chance for humans to finally harness the power of magic safely. There had been bumps and failures along the way.
Witch Hunter's still burnt people on thin evidence. Most peasants still looked at you like you might start summoning daemons at a heartbeat. But between the colleges and churches of the empire there had been peace. With no major incidents there was, if not trust, then at least acceptance. The Church of Sigmar and Ulric, had both once clamoured for censure and restrictions on the colleges, if not outright dissolution after the end of the Great War against Chaos.
However, Magnus had quieted these calls, toward the end of his reign there was hardly a peep from the Churches. Now 14 years into the reign of emperor Leopold, there had not been anything but blessed (perhaps literally) silence. Only minor squabbles with individual churches, nothing from the Grand Theogonist or Ar Ulric themselves.
However, what was happening now was unprecedented. A joint venture between the two groups was just too good to pass up on. A chance for you to help go a step further, to not just have a peaceful relationship. But a cooperative on. To work with the church as equals in the pursuit of the Empire's prosperity and the destruction of its enemies.
Number Two, the effects of the Winds of magic as one went further north were well documented. Ever increasing corruption by the forces of chaos as one approached the Wastes. The opposite was not nearly so well studied. To be sure, wizards had gone south and seen the lands there before. Few comprehensive studies on how the bedrock of all magecraft was changed by location. To see how Ghyran behaved far from the eyes of Chaos Gods. To study ancient knowledge and ask questions of the most open minded priests of today.
Finally Number Three, simple curiosity had grabbed you. Marcel had been very open about what they wanted and while learning more of Cathay would be marvellous, you would only learn what the dragon revealed. Julius had proposed something interesting but it sounded like a mighty easy way to get a grudge sworn against you to your mind. But this was a chance to not just journey but to adventure, to see the world and the things in it.
So, with those reasons in mind, you enquired further of Heinrich with still bleeding face. He had informed you that he would be happy to continue this conversation in the morning in his office, while giving Marcel and Julius as side eye. The reason for which soon proved obvious. Both were not looking at you but rather out the window where, going by his skull face, an Amethyst magister was on the prowl.
Both man and Dwarf had leapt up after him. You seemingly forgotten. The pair went haring off down the street with Heinrich in hot pursuit.
It was only after his coat had cleared the door that you noticed he had left a wooden token with the address of a small dockside office on it.
The barmaid had approached and insisted that you pay for all four drinks, the good stuff. Maybe you should have taken Julius' money.
The next morning you had gone to the meeting more than a little nervous. A feeling that was abated by the elderly secretary who had asked you to wait in the waiting room, offering to keep you company explaining that it was a great excuse not to work.
Her name was Evangeline Aegir. She was doughty and wholesome as many old women are. Full of stories about her grandchildren and tales of her husband in his days as a sailor. Her faith in Mannan, her book club, her time working in this same building for the last 40 years, originally to manage the Altdorf end of her husbands work in Marienburg. The more she talked the easier it was for you to share about yourself, your personal faith and a little more about yourself.
However, you began with a short explanation of magic and your time studying it.
Magic Rules
Magic is where science meets art. It is both and yet neither, there are undeniable truths and inevitable contradictions. Having a low learning score won't make you bad at magic. Magic is the culmination and representation of a person's life their will and abilities. Therefore your magic score is a reflection of all other stats.
Magic = to all other stats added together and divided by 6. But there will be ways to raise your magic score independent of the others.
When you want to do something magic related. You will be given a magic DC which you have to reach to achieve your goal. However if you roll a 10 or below, regardless of modifiers. This is a miscast and you must roll again to see how bad it is, 100 is harmless and even potentially insightful and may trigger additional rolls. 1 is potentially lethal and will require additional rolls. There are ways to lower the DC, with items, places of power, individuals to watch you while you cast and so on. There will also be events that raise the danger.
You will have to make these magic DC rolls whenever magic comes into play. If you take martial actions, you will roll for martial and magic, a high enough roll on magic will grant a bonus to the martial roll. Magic will also have its own actions, more magic actions will be unlocked over time. Further magic may increase the reward of completing the action or decrease the time to complete it.
You will Start With 4 Tokens, you can acquire additional tokens by taking on Banes.
Piety
Magic is immaterial yet affects the material.
It is ephemeral and yet tactile.
It is one yet it is eight.
Each of the eight are mindless yet each of the eight have idiosyncrasies.
The contradiction has affected many forms of thought, from the physical sciences to medicine, from philosophy to theology.
That last one is something the colleges do not officially engage in, being a secular organisation. But each man must bear his soul to the world in some way and come to a conclusion that satisfies him.
Which is why you are an.
[ ] Gnostic - You make no claims about the nature of the gods, they exist, but what are they? Are they like men as the servants of Sigmar proclaim, like animals as Ulric's pack howls or are they more like sapient spells? Forces of magic that have come to life and affect the world. All are good answers but none have any objective proof to support them. So you choose to believe nothing in the absence of evidence, apart from a general acceptance of the existence of the divine.
Cost = Free, Rewards Piety = 2D6 plus three.
[ ] Polytheist - The Empire honours many gods but most of these gods and their churches, encourage monolatry. To not deny what other gods have done but to embrace just one as your personal saviour. This has never rang true for you, the gods have watched over the empire for centuries and only a fool would call that valueless. However none called to you personally or touched your heart. But that hardly means they aren't there.
Cost = 1 Token, Reward Piety = 3D6 plus three.
[ ] Animist - Religion is a child's attempt to imitate an adult, there are grains of truth. These grains are precious things, they give hope, succour and happiness to millions. But they are not the Truth of the gods. Sigmar is not a man anymore, Ulric was never a wolf and the gods' work in the world flows from the Aethyr. Their nature is beyond your understanding but so too is it beyond the understanding of each god's own priests.
You have not adopted a deity yet but perhaps your Journey will also be one to faith.
Cost = 2 Tokens, Reward Piety = 4D6 plus five.
Personality Traits
Who you are as a person is not just a series of adjectives but also what you have endured and what gifts you most prize.
When all the good and bad is counted up, who are you.
Blessings
[ ] Keeping your nose to the grindstone - You have always pushed yourself hard, long hours and late nights to push yourself to be as good as you can be. You are studious and hardworking
Reward = Plus 1 to one stat of your choice, Cost = One token. May be taken multiple times, but not repeatedly on the same stat and the cost for each additional use is One Token. Raising a stat already above 15 to that level will cost 2 tokens per stat point.
[ ] Loving Parents - Your earliest memories are happy ones, the core of your personality is a well adjusted person. It may not be the stuff of legends but you have a place to call home and people who love you. Even in a dark world that is a precious thing, perhaps especially there. Where you go they will follow.
Reward = Loving Family, Cost = 1 Token
[ ] Linguist - While you already claimed to barely speak Bretonnian, you do have some grip on the language, as well as Tilean, Eastalian and Kislevite. You even talk the college course on what little is known of Old High Nehekaran. It should be easy enough to brush up on a few of these before the trip.
Reward = Learning a new language is now a free action and will be done in the background while performing the relevant action, Cost = 1 Token
[ ] Model Ship Builder - There is nothing to it really, you like ships in bottles. It seems all those hours of meticulous crafting had the benefit of teaching you patience and calmness. You knew all those people who said making ships in bottles was uncool were wrong.
Rewards = Miscast DC reduced to 9 permanently, Cost = 1 Token
[ ] Sports Enthusiast - Horse Racing, Fencing and Rowing, you love to watch and participate in these events but particularly the first one. Being a lifetime member of the Altdorf Equestrian League has its advantages. While not the mightiest of organisations, everyone needs horses and it has contacts in cities across the old world.
Reward = 1 Marital, 1 Diplomacy and contacts across the old world. Cost = 2 Tokens
[ ] Creative Spark - You love to bring new things into the world. Your dorm room is littered with a hundred things that will never be, but for every hundred there is one that could be and that one thing may change the world.
Reward = Plus 5 to any roll involving something that was your idea that you are working on. Cost = 2 Tokens
[ ] Elementalist Enthusiast - While their power was never as great as the college and has waned since the articles of magic were written. You have always had a fascination with one of humanities first attempts at magic. This has caused you to walk in odd circles and pick up new and old ideas.
Rewards = Elementalist training, contacts across the old world, Cost = 2 Tokens
[ ] Prodigious Witch Sight - Most wizards start out with the Sense of Intuition (also known as Aethyric Attunment). They must use this as a way to begin to feel magic, through itches and shivers. Through increasing sensitivity they learn to open their third eye. But you were born with yours open, you thought that was how the world looked and were shocked to learn others could not see it. If noting else your additional sight left you an appreciation for things of beauty.
Reward = Plus 10 to magic rolls (this does not affect miscasts), Cost = 2 Tokens.
[ ] Natural Channeler - All wizards manipulate the winds but you go a step further. You are a fountain for the wind you are bound to, it responds not just to your will but to your whims. Supernatural creature both evil and benign are drawn to this wellspring. Even in places where your wind is weak you bring it with you, you are a dynamo of power that even other wizards can draw on. But with this power comes risk, a normal wizard is a tempting target, you would be the jewel in any Daemons crown.
Reward = For magic rolls, you roll twice and pick the higher option, this includes for rolls under your miscast DC, Cost = 3 Tokens, normally on a miscast you roll to see how bad the miscast is. With this, yours will automatically be catastrophic but less likely to occur in the first place. So failure and miscasts are less likely but far worse if they happen.
But while you talked happily of your views on the divine and the bits and pieces of your life, you kept some secrets to yourself and some perhaps from yourself.
Banes A/N (None of these make you evil, this isn't an evil quest but no one is perfect)
[ ] Evil Ancestry - The college is young but magic isn't, an ancestor of yours turned to Dhar to preserve themselves. As of the latest reports they are still alive and more dangerous than ever.
Cost - Your ancestor may come for you and those who know the story about them may be suspicious of you, Rewards = 1 token.
[ ] Witch Hunter target - Heinrich may have been open minded, but not all of his kind are. Before even becoming an apprentice your first use of magic was far from harmless. It was a shameful thing. Since that day someone has been watching you on and off for years, waiting, growing impatient.
Cost = You hurt someone with your magic and a witch hunter is watching, Rewards = 1 token.
[ ] Child of Morrsleib - You were born unprotected under the Green moon. Your parents prayed to every god that would listen that you not be born cursed. Some would say magic was the curse, but you hardly see it that way. No mutations and no corruption. That you know of.
Cost = ???, Rewards = 2 Tokens.
[ ] Dark Muse - As all minds do, yours sometimes goes to dark places. When you come back you often find some amusement or pleasure in what you saw there. Who doesn't like to be frightened sometimes by a scary story or enjoy a guilty pleasure. Its harmless, right?
Cost = The attention of something, Rewards = 2 Tokens
[ ] Elevated beyond the Mundane - A plan is just a list of things that are never going to happen, mundane's make plans. They think about the future, hope for the best and work to bring their ideas into reality. There are a thousand poems about how the world laughs at these efforts. Not you however, for a wizard the gap between your will and reality is so much slimmer. You may accomplish in a day what would require others a year to do alone.
Cost = A slightly condescending view of people who can't do magic not that uncommon in the colleges, this may complicate early interactions with them, Rewards = 2 Tokens. Cannot be taken with Supremacy over the Mundane
[ ] Supremacy over the Mundane - In your heart you have always held a quiet thought, one buried deep, one you have never even thought consciously let alone spoken aloud. Magnus saved the Empire by creating the colleges. He was forced to bind your social power even as he liberated your magical power. But to preserve the Empire beyond all threats, further steps must be taken. Wizards must not just serve, you must lead. All of you are educated, all of you have endured tribulation, all of you stand against the darkness of the world. The Empire is great, how much greater could it be.
Cost = Few immediate downsides, you haven't expressed this out loud before, it isn't even something you consciously recognise believing. But at a core level this is what you believe, not inherently malicious, noblesse oblige is possible with character growth but is an early source of corruption Rewards = 4 tokens. Cannot be taken with Elevated beyond the Mundane
Equipment
[ ] Dwarf Pistol - Most wizards steer clear of firearms, gunpower is unstable and magic can be too. So why put the two together? The answer is if you have one of superb quality and a small amount of powder for it. (Can't be taken with Exceptional Focus)
Rewards - Plus 4 to marital combat rolls while carrying it, Cost = 1 token
[ ] Exceptional Focus - all are proud of the foci they have made in their apprentice but whether by inspiration or luck, yours is of particular quality. It acts not just as channel for your power, but a point of stability in the heat of combat. (Can't be taken with Dwarf Pistol)
Rewards = Plus 5 to magic rolls in combat situations, Cost = 1 token
[ ] Horse - She may not be a Bretonnian stead but buttercup has served you well, taking you across Altdorf and even beyond. Its a dream of yours to ride her into the sunset.
Rewards = Horse, Cost = 1 token
[ ] Master's Journal - Bequeathed to you by your teacher, this odd collection of prose, poems and errant thoughts is not a spell book. It contains no actual explanation on how to do magic but to you it is invaluable. It contains your masters perspective on your wind and through that its almost like he is right there to help you.
Rewards = Plus 10 to all magic rolls (apart from personal combat) if you read it recently, Cost = 1 Token
[ ] Silk Attire - All the way from the far side of the world, this outfit would be near priceless were it not a gift to the college by a grateful foreign dignitary. No one else wanted it so its yours.
Rewards = Plus 3 Diplomacy and Intrigue while wearing it in non combat scenarios, Cost = 1 Token
[ ] Vampire Skull - Its not just nobles who keep trophies, the college does too. This skulls owner has been forgotten, it is thousands of years old, found in the deserts of Badlands. It was thrust upon you by a babbling member of the celestial college bounding about the streets giving out knickknacks to bemused Altdorfers.
Rewards = ???, cost = 1 Token
[ ] War Gear - Your wind is not Chamon, metal does not leap to obey your will. So many of your order go into battle in clothes not fit for purpose. But not you, you will not got into battle without adequate protection. So you have done your best make something with your wind that will serve ... almost as well as plate and sword.
Rewards = Plus 4 Martial while wearing it, Cost = 1 Token.
[ ] Wizards Robes - These were meticulously sewn by you personally usually as a way to blow off steam after class. Completely by accident this became a useful mental exercise to remember how you should have done things in the class room, useless at the time but vital to remember now.
Rewards = Miscast level reduced by 2 while wearing it, Cost = 1 Token
This is who you are.
Name and Gender Options
[ ] Amelia Albrecht (meaning Bright Nemesis)
[ ] Johann Engel (Meaning God's Graciousness has filled me with hope)
[ ] Write in
This is where you stand.
A/N Piety really needed its own vote, it just adds so much to how your character sees the world. Also this would be a good time to say, I have no Beta so if anyone is interested please start a conversation.
Don't be afraid to vote for things that don't seem to have massive value, I'll make them valuable from a mechanical perspective later.
The equipment is all one token stuff because it'll be more fun to earn and build that stuff. Even if you choose to vote for nothing you'll still have some equipment it just won't grant any mechanical benefits. Further lots of it is give ideas for early side quests. Also while they do grant higher bonuses than traits they are also situational, some of them are more to start quest lines.
Vote by plan and only vote for one plan. This vote won't have a set time but should last a few days.
After what had to be one of the strangest interviews in the history of the civilised world, you had made you choice. After asking a few more questions to make certain of where you stood, the decision had been obvious to you.
The difference between an apprentice and a magister was not measured by power. Not by the number of spells known or even by knowledge of the winds. It was in experience.
Personal, hands on and intimate experience. Of the world, the dangers in it and the way that your on Wind interacted with those.
From that experience wizards were forged into among the mightiest defenders of the Empire.
With a writ to wander the world they were free in a way few were. But even with that freedom many stay within Sigmar's domain.
Where would they go? To Kislev or Bretonnia where any wizard not connected to a priesthood was suspicious. Or further south to Tilea or Estalia to be caught up in some new struggle there.
If any new Journeyman thought Athel Loren, Lorelaurn or the Karaz Ankor would be kinder to them than human kingdoms. Then there was a dragon you'd like give them as a goodbye present on their journey. You just needed 100 gold coins to make it stop being invisible.
But to stay in the Empire was not truly to journey, what could learned in Middenheim could be learned in Altdorf and vice versa. The world was so much more than the Empire, there were as many paths in magic as stars in the sky and far too much to see from one corner.
All three men had made a good case for themselves.
Ultimately what had made your decision was three salient facts.
Number one and perhaps most importantly. This had been a golden age for your kind, these last 80 years. Magnus the Pious, the wise, the great and thousand other earned epithets, had remade the empire. Ending centuries of misrule and weakness.
The creation of the Colleges of Magic had been the crown jewel of his reign. The chance for humans to finally harness the power of magic safely. There had been bumps and failures along the way.
Witch Hunter's still burnt people on thin evidence. Most peasants still looked at you like you might start summoning daemons at a heartbeat. But between the colleges and churches of the empire there had been peace. With no major incidents there was, if not trust, then at least acceptance. The Church of Sigmar and Ulric, had both once clamoured for censure and restrictions on the colleges, if not outright dissolution after the end of the Great War against Chaos.
However, Magnus had quieted these calls, toward the end of his reign there was hardly a peep from the Churches. Now 14 years into the reign of emperor Leopold, there had not been anything but blessed (perhaps literally) silence. Only minor squabbles with individual churches, nothing from the Grand Theogonist or Ar Ulric themselves.
However, what was happening now was unprecedented. A joint venture between the two groups was just too good to pass up on. A chance for you to help go a step further, to not just have a peaceful relationship. But a cooperative on. To work with the church as equals in the pursuit of the Empire's prosperity and the destruction of its enemies.
Number Two, the effects of the Winds of magic as one went further north were well documented. Ever increasing corruption by the forces of chaos as one approached the Wastes. The opposite was not nearly so well studied. To be sure, wizards had gone south and seen the lands there before. Few comprehensive studies on how the bedrock of all magecraft was changed by location. To see how Ghyran behaved far from the eyes of Chaos Gods. To study ancient knowledge and ask questions of the most open minded priests of today.
Finally Number Three, simple curiosity had grabbed you. Marcel had been very open about what they wanted and while learning more of Cathay would be marvellous, you would only learn what the dragon revealed. Julius had proposed something interesting but it sounded like a mighty easy way to get a grudge sworn against you to your mind. But this was a chance to not just journey but to adventure, to see the world and the things in it.
So, with those reasons in mind, you enquired further of Heinrich with still bleeding face. He had informed you that he would be happy to continue this conversation in the morning in his office, while giving Marcel and Julius as side eye. The reason for which soon proved obvious. Both were not looking at you but rather out the window where, going by his skull face, an Amethyst magister was on the prowl.
Both man and Dwarf had leapt up after him. You seemingly forgotten. The pair went haring off down the street with Heinrich in hot pursuit.
It was only after his coat had cleared the door that you noticed he had left a wooden token with the address of a small dockside office on it.
The barmaid had approached and insisted that you pay for all four drinks, the good stuff. Maybe you should have taken Julius' money.
The next morning you had gone to the meeting more than a little nervous. A feeling that was abated by the elderly secretary who had asked you to wait in the waiting room, offering to keep you company explaining that it was a great excuse not to work.
Her name was Evangeline Aegir. She was doughty and wholesome as many old women are. Full of stories about her grandchildren and tales of her husband in his days as a sailor. Her faith in Mannan, her book club, her time working in this same building for the last 40 years, originally to manage the Altdorf end of her husbands work in Marienburg. The more she talked the easier it was for you to share about yourself, your personal faith and a little more about yourself.
However, you began with a short explanation of magic and your time studying it.
Magic Rules
Magic is where science meets art. It is both and yet neither, there are undeniable truths and inevitable contradictions. Having a low learning score won't make you bad at magic. Magic is the culmination and representation of a person's life their will and abilities. Therefore your magic score is a reflection of all other stats.
Magic = to all other stats added together and divided by 6. But there will be ways to raise your magic score independent of the others.
When you want to do something magic related. You will be given a magic DC which you have to reach to achieve your goal. However if you roll a 10 or below, regardless of modifiers. This is a miscast and you must roll again to see how bad it is, 100 is harmless and even potentially insightful and may trigger additional rolls. 1 is potentially lethal and will require additional rolls. There are ways to lower the DC, with items, places of power, individuals to watch you while you cast and so on. There will also be events that raise the danger.
You will have to make these magic DC rolls whenever magic comes into play. If you take martial actions, you will roll for martial and magic, a high enough roll on magic will grant a bonus to the martial roll. Magic will also have its own actions, more magic actions will be unlocked over time. Further magic may increase the reward of completing the action or decrease the time to complete it.
You will Start With 4 Tokens, you can acquire additional tokens by taking on Banes.
Piety
Magic is immaterial yet affects the material.
It is ephemeral and yet tactile.
It is one yet it is eight.
Each of the eight are mindless yet each of the eight have idiosyncrasies.
The contradiction has affected many forms of thought, from the physical sciences to medicine, from philosophy to theology.
That last one is something the colleges do not officially engage in, being a secular organisation. But each man must bear his soul to the world in some way and come to a conclusion that satisfies him.
Which is why you are an.
[ ] Gnostic - You make no claims about the nature of the gods, they exist, but what are they? Are they like men as the servants of Sigmar proclaim, like animals as Ulric's pack howls or are they more like sapient spells? Forces of magic that have come to life and affect the world. All are good answers but none have any objective proof to support them. So you choose to believe nothing in the absence of evidence, apart from a general acceptance of the existence of the divine.
Cost = Free, Rewards Piety = 2D6 plus three.
[ ] Polytheist - The Empire honours many gods but most of these gods and their churches, encourage monolatry. To not deny what other gods have done but to embrace just one as your personal saviour. This has never rang true for you, the gods have watched over the empire for centuries and only a fool would call that valueless. However none called to you personally or touched your heart. But that hardly means they aren't there.
Cost = 1 Token, Reward Piety = 3D6 plus three.
[ ] Animist - Religion is a child's attempt to imitate an adult, there are grains of truth. These grains are precious things, they give hope, succour and happiness to millions. But they are not the Truth of the gods. Sigmar is not a man anymore, Ulric was never a wolf and the gods' work in the world flows from the Aethyr. Their nature is beyond your understanding but so too is it beyond the understanding of each god's own priests.
You have not adopted a deity yet but perhaps your Journey will also be one to faith.
Cost = 2 Tokens, Reward Piety = 4D6 plus five.
Personality Traits
Who you are as a person is not just a series of adjectives but also what you have endured and what gifts you most prize.
When all the good and bad is counted up, who are you.
Blessings
[ ] Keeping your nose to the grindstone - You have always pushed yourself hard, long hours and late nights to push yourself to be as good as you can be. You are studious and hardworking
Reward = Plus 1 to one stat of your choice, Cost = One token. May be taken multiple times, but not repeatedly on the same stat and the cost for each additional use is One Token. Raising a stat already above 15 to that level will cost 2 tokens per stat point.
[ ] Loving Parents - Your earliest memories are happy ones, the core of your personality is a well adjusted person. It may not be the stuff of legends but you have a place to call home and people who love you. Even in a dark world that is a precious thing, perhaps especially there. Where you go they will follow.
Reward = Loving Family, Cost = 1 Token
[ ] Linguist - While you already claimed to barely speak Bretonnian, you do have some grip on the language, as well as Tilean, Eastalian and Kislevite. You even talk the college course on what little is known of Old High Nehekaran. It should be easy enough to brush up on a few of these before the trip.
Reward = Learning a new language is now a free action and will be done in the background while performing the relevant action, Cost = 1 Token
[ ] Model Ship Builder - There is nothing to it really, you like ships in bottles. It seems all those hours of meticulous crafting had the benefit of teaching you patience and calmness. You knew all those people who said making ships in bottles was uncool were wrong.
Rewards = Miscast DC reduced to 9 permanently, Cost = 1 Token
[ ] Sports Enthusiast - Horse Racing, Fencing and Rowing, you love to watch and participate in these events but particularly the first one. Being a lifetime member of the Altdorf Equestrian League has its advantages. While not the mightiest of organisations, everyone needs horses and it has contacts in cities across the old world.
Reward = 1 Marital, 1 Diplomacy and contacts across the old world. Cost = 2 Tokens
[ ] Creative Spark - You love to bring new things into the world. Your dorm room is littered with a hundred things that will never be, but for every hundred there is one that could be and that one thing may change the world.
Reward = Plus 5 to any roll involving something that was your idea that you are working on. Cost = 2 Tokens
[ ] Elementalist Enthusiast - While their power was never as great as the college and has waned since the articles of magic were written. You have always had a fascination with one of humanities first attempts at magic. This has caused you to walk in odd circles and pick up new and old ideas.
Rewards = Elementalist training, contacts across the old world, Cost = 2 Tokens
[ ] Prodigious Witch Sight - Most wizards start out with the Sense of Intuition (also known as Aethyric Attunment). They must use this as a way to begin to feel magic, through itches and shivers. Through increasing sensitivity they learn to open their third eye. But you were born with yours open, you thought that was how the world looked and were shocked to learn others could not see it. If noting else your additional sight left you an appreciation for things of beauty.
Reward = Plus 10 to magic rolls (this does not affect miscasts), Cost = 2 Tokens.
[ ] Natural Channeler - All wizards manipulate the winds but you go a step further. You are a fountain for the wind you are bound to, it responds not just to your will but to your whims. Supernatural creature both evil and benign are drawn to this wellspring. Even in places where your wind is weak you bring it with you, you are a dynamo of power that even other wizards can draw on. But with this power comes risk, a normal wizard is a tempting target, you would be the jewel in any Daemons crown.
Reward = For magic rolls, you roll twice and pick the higher option, this includes for rolls under your miscast DC, Cost = 3 Tokens, normally on a miscast you roll to see how bad the miscast is. With this, yours will automatically be catastrophic but less likely to occur in the first place. So failure and miscasts are less likely but far worse if they happen.
But while you talked happily of your views on the divine and the bits and pieces of your life, you kept some secrets to yourself and some perhaps from yourself.
Banes A/N (None of these make you evil, this isn't an evil quest but no one is perfect)
[ ] Evil Ancestry - The college is young but magic isn't, an ancestor of yours turned to Dhar to preserve themselves. As of the latest reports they are still alive and more dangerous than ever.
Cost - Your ancestor may come for you and those who know the story about them may be suspicious of you, Rewards = 1 token.
[ ] Witch Hunter target - Heinrich may have been open minded, but not all of his kind are. Before even becoming an apprentice your first use of magic was far from harmless. It was a shameful thing. Since that day someone has been watching you on and off for years, waiting, growing impatient.
Cost = You hurt someone with your magic and a witch hunter is watching, Rewards = 1 token.
[ ] Child of Morrsleib - You were born unprotected under the Green moon. Your parents prayed to every god that would listen that you not be born cursed. Some would say magic was the curse, but you hardly see it that way. No mutations and no corruption. That you know of.
Cost = ???, Rewards = 2 Tokens.
[ ] Dark Muse - As all minds do, yours sometimes goes to dark places. When you come back you often find some amusement or pleasure in what you saw there. Who doesn't like to be frightened sometimes by a scary story or enjoy a guilty pleasure. Its harmless, right?
Cost = The attention of something, Rewards = 2 Tokens
[ ] Elevated beyond the Mundane - A plan is just a list of things that are never going to happen, mundane's make plans. They think about the future, hope for the best and work to bring their ideas into reality. There are a thousand poems about how the world laughs at these efforts. Not you however, for a wizard the gap between your will and reality is so much slimmer. You may accomplish in a day what would require others a year to do alone.
Cost = A slightly condescending view of people who can't do magic not that uncommon in the colleges, this may complicate early interactions with them, Rewards = 2 Tokens. Cannot be taken with Supremacy over the Mundane
[ ] Supremacy over the Mundane - In your heart you have always held a quiet thought, one buried deep, one you have never even thought consciously let alone spoken aloud. Magnus saved the Empire by creating the colleges. He was forced to bind your social power even as he liberated your magical power. But to preserve the Empire beyond all threats, further steps must be taken. Wizards must not just serve, you must lead. All of you are educated, all of you have endured tribulation, all of you stand against the darkness of the world. The Empire is great, how much greater could it be.
Cost = Few immediate downsides, you haven't expressed this out loud before, it isn't even something you consciously recognise believing. But at a core level this is what you believe, not inherently malicious, noblesse oblige is possible with character growth but is an early source of corruption Rewards = 4 tokens. Cannot be taken with Elevated beyond the Mundane
Equipment
[ ] Dwarf Pistol - Most wizards steer clear of firearms, gunpower is unstable and magic can be too. So why put the two together? The answer is if you have one of superb quality and a small amount of powder for it. (Can't be taken with Exceptional Focus)
Rewards - Plus 4 to marital combat rolls while carrying it, Cost = 1 token
[ ] Exceptional Focus - all are proud of the foci they have made in their apprentice but whether by inspiration or luck, yours is of particular quality. It acts not just as channel for your power, but a point of stability in the heat of combat. (Can't be taken with Dwarf Pistol)
Rewards = Plus 5 to magic rolls in combat situations, Cost = 1 token
[ ] Horse - She may not be a Bretonnian stead but buttercup has served you well, taking you across Altdorf and even beyond. Its a dream of yours to ride her into the sunset.
Rewards = Horse, Cost = 1 token
[ ] Master's Journal - Bequeathed to you by your teacher, this odd collection of prose, poems and errant thoughts is not a spell book. It contains no actual explanation on how to do magic but to you it is invaluable. It contains your masters perspective on your wind and through that its almost like he is right there to help you.
Rewards = Plus 10 to all magic rolls (apart from personal combat) if you read it recently, Cost = 1 Token
[ ] Silk Attire - All the way from the far side of the world, this outfit would be near priceless were it not a gift to the college by a grateful foreign dignitary. No one else wanted it so its yours.
Rewards = Plus 3 Diplomacy and Intrigue while wearing it in non combat scenarios, Cost = 1 Token
[ ] Vampire Skull - Its not just nobles who keep trophies, the college does too. This skulls owner has been forgotten, it is thousands of years old, found in the deserts of Badlands. It was thrust upon you by a babbling member of the celestial college bounding about the streets giving out knickknacks to bemused Altdorfers.
Rewards = ???, cost = 1 Token
[ ] War Gear - Your wind is not Chamon, metal does not leap to obey your will. So many of your order go into battle in clothes not fit for purpose. But not you, you will not got into battle without adequate protection. So you have done your best make something with your wind that will serve ... almost as well as plate and sword.
Rewards = Plus 4 Martial while wearing it, Cost = 1 Token.
[ ] Wizards Robes - These were meticulously sewn by you personally usually as a way to blow off steam after class. Completely by accident this became a useful mental exercise to remember how you should have done things in the class room, useless at the time but vital to remember now.
Rewards = Miscast level reduced by 2 while wearing it, Cost = 1 Token
This is who you are.
Name and Gender Options
[ ] Amelia Albrecht (meaning Bright Nemesis)
[ ] Johann Engel (Meaning God's Graciousness has filled me with hope)
[ ] Write in
This is where you stand.
A/N Piety really needed its own vote, it just adds so much to how your character sees the world. Also this would be a good time to say, I have no Beta so if anyone is interested please start a conversation.
Don't be afraid to vote for things that don't seem to have massive value, I'll make them valuable from a mechanical perspective later.
The equipment is all one token stuff because it'll be more fun to earn and build that stuff. Even if you choose to vote for nothing you'll still have some equipment it just won't grant any mechanical benefits. Further lots of it is give ideas for early side quests. Also while they do grant higher bonuses than traits they are also situational, some of them are more to start quest lines.
Vote by plan and only vote for one plan. This vote won't have a set time but should last a few days.
Vote closed
Preparations to leave Part 1
A/N Well I set up the count wrong but Our Dark Lady has won, this will be her story. Please note that she will not be excessively edgy, there is darkness in her past but she was raised by loving parents in the nurturing environment of the Jade college. Said parents will appear soon, you don't need a vote to see them and some parts of her character creation may take a turn or two come up.
Amelia Albrecht Character Sheet
Martial 11 + 3 = 14 - You may not have been trained in traditional combat arts but the Wind of Life itself courses through you, while you are hardly a powerhouse you are in nearly perfect physical shape. Combined with training on how to incorporate your magic into combat makes you more dangerous in a strait fight than you appear.
Intrigue 4 + 3 = 7 - A life time in the college most famous for its nurturing and kindness has not left you with a mind best suited to subterfuge or trickery. Luckily you still have magic to even the score.
Diplomacy - 8 + 3 = 11 - You've always been naturally sweet with a friendly disposition. However a lifetime not only within the Jade college but intensely drilled on the dangers of your natural power means you don't have as much social experience as one would expect.
Stewardship - 13 + 3 = 16 - Your mother always said "better to have and not need than to need and not have. You may never run a business or a castle but she wanted you to have a head for budgets and finance. No daughter of hers would be made a fool of by hucksters."
Learning - 16+5 = 21 - You have always had a great love of learning, reading books and hearing the stories of the matriarchs of your college. You have a sharp mind, one trained to break down puzzles and analyse new phenomenon.
Piety - 9 + 3 = 12 - You are hardly devout but the divine does interest you from a theoretical perspective. Hopefully this journey might also serve as a spiritual journey as a magical one
Magic - 14 + 10 = 24 - You have a raw connection to the Wind of Life like few others and a rigorous training regime from your master's has help to refine that even more. You rarely misstep with your power and when you have he was always there to correct it. But if anything that just made him more afraid for the day you do lose control on the battlefield.
Standard Miscast DC - 9
Equipped Miscast DC - 7
Traits
Lidless Third Eye - Your Witchsight is permanently open and requires active effort to stop seeing the flow of the Winds of Magic. Plus 10 to magic rolls, requires a roll to stop using it in dangerous situations.
Natural Channeler - Your body, mind and soul are a natural channel for Ghyran and with that you have your own source of power to draw on. This makes casting magic slightly safer for you but in the Chaos of the Battlefield your really going to need it. Roll magic dice twice and pick the higher number, this does affect miscasts but if both are beneath the DC your miscast will be catastrophic.
Bottle Maker - You like little ships, it might seem silly but they are so cute. It takes hours to assemble even part of one and you are rather proud of your little collection. Lowered miscast by 1
Linguist - Words are more than sounds, they the keys to reason and for those who will listen the enunciation of truth. You will not let a language barrier prevent you from understanding others. You are fluent in the written styles of half a dozen language. You haven't needed to but you can turn this talent to spoken word too. No action required to learn languages.
Evangeline Aegir POV
To those who spent their time around the powers of magic, both fair and fell, there were 3 senses to consider. These were not the senses most were accustomed to.
On could not see, hear, taste, smell or touch magic, not truly those words were used to be sure. But only as quick way to explain things to the initiated and indeed because the user did not often full understand what they were experiencing. The methods by which human beings sensed magic, were entirely alien to them. Instead there were three additional senses that had to be developed over time.
Most difficult of these was only half a sense, known as Channelling. Where one did not simply bend their wind but rather allowed their body to become a channel, by which arcane forces enacted their nature upon the world. This may take the form of Hysh, where light would pore forth and banish evil. Or with Aqshy where flames would spring to life of their own accord but unnaturally move away from those the Channeler considered a friend. This was also a perception of magic as one could feel how it entered the world and was the purest way to touch a single Wind. It also further exposed oneself to the Aethyr in a way just using a Wind did not.
The next, was the more famous Witchsight. Unlike what superstitious peasants claimed, this wasn't a mutation, wizards did not have a literal third eye. Indeed, despite being called "the Sight", it did not always express itself through ones eyes. Rather through training and comprehension of the mystic arts, a practitioner focused their pre-existing senses to become something entirely else. Gaining the ability to observe their chosen wind as it travelled south from the northern wastes. They may see colours, hear notes, but they were seeing or hearing anything at all. Rather it was an entirely new sense expressing itself through the medium of the Wizards old ones. This was why Witchsight was just as likely to not use one of five primary senses. Evangeline had met one wizard who sensed magic through their Thermosensation and Equilibrium. Even when it was sight based, it often had more in common with proprioception. As Wizards could often "see" changes to the winds that were happening behind them. Wizards Lords could also obverse the Winds through solid objects without difficulty.
The last sense was by far the most common, simple intuition. This built up over time, as a body was exposed to magic and then felt the receding of it, said body learned to express these facts to the mind. In the form of itches, sweating, spine chilling tingles and other minor quirks. The fact that all humans could acquire this sense was considered proof by scholars that all humans were innately magical. Though if one of those scholars tried to tell a radically conservative witch hunter that, they would most likely be burnt.
Evangeline had developed a particularly sophisticated sense of intuition for magic. As someone who's first job at 14 was as a secretary at Baron Henryk's College of Navigation and Sea Magicks, she'd seen plenty of wizards before quitting at the age of 19. She had then taken up a series of jobs as assistants to the Empires many traveling wizards. That had been necessary, as at the time her husband moved around a great deal and she liked to be close to him. Wizards always needed staff to do the busy work, not ask questions and not sell their secrets. How she ended up working for a witch hunter in her old age ... well that was another story entirely.
What mattered was, Evangeline had met plenty of Wizards. She had never met one like this.
Evangeline's intuition had become something of a hobby. It didn't really express itself to her physically but rather emotively, the presences of each wind generally summon forth feelings from nowhere. She had carefully noted down over the course of decades, what each wind of magic made her feel.
Hysh made her feel relaxed and as if her body were bathing in cool morning sunlight, Azyr felt like the wonder of a moonless night at the height of summer. Chamon always set her fake teeth on edge and made her feel like she needed to take care of herself, Aqshy made her heart beat faster with excitement and reminded her of the adventure her life had been. Ulgu always made her feel like she'd just told a joke everyone else would understand later and Shyish as if there were a very comfortable bed waiting for her somewhere in the next room. Ghur gave her the feeling of seeing a wolf pup, you knew it was dangerous but right now it was just so cute and Ghyran made her feel like that 16 year old rushing off to get married again.
Usually these feelings only came when a Wizard was actively casting spells, when they weren't it was different. Without even looking at them she could tell there was a Wizard in the room but no more than that.
Particularly old and powerful wizards gave off feelings from their arcane marks, which Evangeline had often been able to intuit the story behind they got said mark without hearing it first. But the feeling here was present across the body and continuous.
To mundane senses, Amelia was merely a young woman. On the short side but not exceptionally so, with rather pretty ocean like eyes and hair that vaguely reminded Evangeline of wheat. Slightly bushy golden hair that cascaded around her head and down her back. She had a surprisingly intricately woven set of robes, something about them spoke of time and care. In the sleeve of the robe was a small wand, it set her intuition off to look at it but not particularly strongly, so magical, but not impressively so.
To her magical senses though Amelia was like a wellspring, nothing was innately dangerous about it. But as you leant over to drink you had the feeling you might get swallowed up by it if you leant in too close.
It wasn't bad, in fact it was quite comforting. It was nothing like what small pieces of black magic she had encountered in her life. In truth it wasn't even that strong at all, it paled in comparison to the pieces of battle magic Evangeline had witnessed in the defence of Marienburg and Altdorf. It was never the less persistent thrum of power that emanated from the young lady.
Amelia meanwhile sat and fidgeted, likely naturally uncomfortable in a place so full of witch hunters. This building might not be a chapter house, merely a bureaucratic centre. But none the less Templars and Members of the Order of Sigmar marched in and out constantly. Proudly displaying their twin tailed comet and hammer insignias for all the world to see. While the Colleges and the Order were allies, both being subjects of the empire, their history with one another wasn't always easy. It was hard to believe the nervous young woman was the source of such power. Evangeline had managed to get her to open up somewhat about her life.
Model ship building and Languages were not the most common hobby for a young lady or a wizard but then who was Evangeline judge. Her husband collected the finger bones of saints and paid such stupid amounts fOR WHAT WAS CLEARLY A FAK ... ahem anyway. Who was she to judge.
The girl was quite proud of her natural connection to her wind, which would explain the feeling that surrounded her and her gazing around the room at innocuous places that most likely contained something interesting to one with the Sight. She had laughed at Evangeline complaining about her husbands spending and related her own mother's woes with her father. Said father apparently wrote a column in the Altdorf Post pamphlet. Not a bad job that. She had not so subtly changed the subject when it came to extended family
Evangeline Intrigue Roll DC 70 - 47+?-?= 51
but Evangeline was too old to care about a young girl's secrets. They had done a background check over night and couldn't find anything bad. Both parents mundane, all grandparents equally so going back as far as records began at the Coronation of Magnus the Pious.
When it came time to ask about her skill set it was interesting but seemed somewhat lopsided. Amelia had explained "I'm really proud of my Barkskin and Father of Thorn they're my shield and sword. Barkskin might not be a suit of armour but I'm still fast and flexible and not so squishy, Father of Thorn is great. Since it conjures a thorny web it can be used to incapacitate but at higher power levels would be lethal to multiple enemies, even armoured enemies can get caught and be powerless. Plus I'm confident in using it against one or many foes".
She also had a slew of other spells for transport and observation but surprisingly few for healing. She was very proud of her skill with Regenerate, which only worked on the caster. However she had explain "Regenerate usually comes later, but I've always had easier time directing Ghyran inside me or at nature rather than people. Plus given the passive Ghyran in me, I actually heal pretty fast without casting a spell. Master theorised I might be able to us Regenerate by just wanting to not be injured" She looked sheepish "but we never tested that too much of course".
But she did not seem to have as much confidence in her ability to cast healing spells on others. Evangeline didn't ask, but she was pretty sure she knew why. Practically every wizard she had ever met stressed the dangers of too much magic being used on a person at a given time. Too much Chamon started turning people to stone, too much Ghur and they might grow wings. Lots of magic with no direction or a spell that was functioning perfectly but too powerful for the target were both potentially lethal. If her intuition about this girls natural power was right then she most likely hadn't used too much healing on others for fear of over doing it.
Her Journey would most likely force her out of that mindset.
Still what she heard suggested that, while inexperienced in the real world, this girl could take a beating and keep going. Further when prodded she revealed a comprehensive understand of all her spells, along with a simplification that a non wizard could understand. Enduring and insightful would be a good combination on this mission. Further the girl didn't have a deceitful bone in her body, she had secrets, who didn't? But she was terrible at keeping that she had a secret, secret. Which was good, the witch hunters could be suspicious, these might be the more openminded sort but not need to agitate them further.
Having gotten Amelia a bit more comfortable, Evangeline made her decision. While there was no doubt the expedition was going to take every Wizard it could get, a preliminary examination was still a good idea. That was why she had been tasked with assessing each of the candidates skills and dispositions. With an offhand inscribed coded sigils on a small piece of paper she would palm to Heinrich. This would let him know what Amelia offered and how much to reveal to her about the origins of this mission. Further a quick summary of what Amelia brought to the table. He liked to do things that way as it lent him an aura of Omniscience.
As she led Amelia down the hallway through to Heinrich's office she give the Journeywoman as brief rundown of the trip. "We'll be starting hear in Reikland and making our way south through Parravon and then down through Quenelles, Carcassonne and Miragliano. That should be the first 6 Months of the journey, I'll be following you as far as Miragliano to help operate our base there." Amelia looked startled and Evangeline was pleased by her observation and treated her reaction like a question, "You're right a small party of a few hundred men mostly on horses with Wizards for logistical support shouldn't take 6 months to travel less than a thousand miles.
"But foreign Witch Hunters and Wizards can't afford to startle the locals so you'll be meeting with a lot of local elites that will slow you down, particularly the further away from the Empire you get. A baron in Parravon can't afford to anger the Church of Sigmar and the Colleges who both have the ear of the Emperor. But a princeling in Tilea might take that risk it if he felt threatened."
The two women had reached the office the leader of this Imperial expedition and Evangeline finished her explanation "You and all the other wizards will be taking several ships with the templars to Al-Haikk about a year after your initial departure from Altdorf. From there you will be meeting with the Padishah, he'll be launching his own expedition." Evangeline hesitated before adding "technically he'll have no official authority over you or the Imperial expedition but you'll be in his lands and need his supplies so any "suggestion" from him is basically an order. "
With that she swept the young wizard into the office.
Amelia POV
As you are guided by the kind secretary who had made you feel so welcome in this unfamiliar place, you practically faint upon entering the room. It's hardly an imposing place, a small office with an unimpressive desk and a smattering of chairs.
The people sitting in those chairs are however very imposing. The winds of magic coil around and through them according to your Witch Sight. There are three of them. They are interesting enough to your mundane senses but to 7th and 8th sense they are awe inspiring.
A small man, bald and reedy. With some extremely large spectacles perched on top of an overly large nose. His pupils have been replaced by gear cogs and his skin is almost the colour of brass His wizards robes are of immaculate quality and seems to made out of mercury woven into strands, shimmering with light and purity. Not purity in the form of virtue or moral righteousness but a simple rejection of corrosion and physical corruption. A truly breath taking number of arcane marks burn on his body and soul. You are uncertain how many of them would be visible only to the naked eye and can't be bothered to turn of your Witchsight.
The second is woman of nearly impossible beauty clad in animal hides, she could pass for a Norscan princess if those savages had such a thing. Her presence feels almost like an Ouroboros to your Eighth sense. Your Witchsight reveals nothing but you can sense that she is constantly channelling Ghur through her body in an endless repetitive cycle. You realise it is like a predator chasing a prey it can never catch. Only for the predator to tire, die, decompose become feed be consumed by the prey and in turn attract another predator to start the cycle again. You wonder what would happen if the Predator were to catch the prey.
The last member appears to be a literal shadow. It is a shawl whose hood contains no face of any kind. The arms of the robe are wrapped around the handle of a long scythe that some seems both terrifying and reassuring. Shyish does not so much pool within this being but rather seems to hang across its shoulders like a mantle. It seems to be both at his command and also waiting patiently for him at the same time. Like it will obey every order but has a higher order that it must follow.
All three of them are so radically different and yet are so obviously Wizards of the highest calibre. you are certain that all of them are Lord Magister rank at minimum. While you are certain that the others are not the Patriarch or Matriarch of the Amber or Metal orders, the third person may be the leader of the whole Amethyst college. Around the three of them, small apparitions smaller than your smallest toe are born and die within their arcane marks. They burst from the ambient magic and then find themselves in an environment that can't support them and fizzle away. This is something you have seen before but in the Jade college from Jade magisters and since it is in place so saturated with Ghyran they maintain themselves for some time before peacefully fading away. Its usually rather beautiful but in this case rather distracting.
The three wizards haven't notice you staring as they are deep in discussion and flush in embarrassment realising you hadn't even noticed the offices owner. Who have been in another corner of the room getting himself a drink. Heinrich however looks quite pleased to see you and Evangeline. He walks over and gives you a polite and handshake and actually reaches in to cup Evangeline's cheek and kiss the other. She giggles and swats his hand away.
(Intrigue - Do you notice the note? DC 80, Result = 20 + 7 = 27)
You can't help but wonder how such nice people ended up working for the Witch Hunters.
Still as Evangeline bustle off Heinrich had to cough to get the Wizards attention who stopped arguing and turn to look at you. Under the eyes such august figures not associated with your college you are actually glad that Heinrich can take the lead.
He steps forward and says "I'm glad you are all so intrigued by the data we have so far collected but if we can get on with the topic of today's discussion. I've gathered you all here today because Amelia looks to be our final expedition member, someone else may be picked up by our recruiters and they may follow later but we'll be leaving before the end of the week" you jump slightly at how soon that is but Heinrich has already moved on "and I thought this would be a good opportunity to kill two birds with one stone to go over our mission objectives and parameters one last time with the tree highest ranking wizards of the expedition. As well as bring our newest member up to speed."
Heinrich cleared his throat and began to give a speech he had clearly given dozens of times before "Attacks by undead are not rare. Sylvania is crawling with unsanctified grave yards, Warpstone in the swamps and necromancers practically grow on tree. The Tomb Kings come a little less often due to distance and lack of need to come here. But every now and then a university or noble will have bought something from that sand blasted hell and some army of undead shows up to get it. But this time was a little different because it wasn't us the Tomb Kings were after but another undead. Seems some vampire about 5 years ago had used proxies to get Nehekaran magic texts out of Nehekara. Well the tomb kings didn't like that and sent an army to get it back, they burnt down the manor of the noble proxy and tracked the vampire down. In desperation said vampire used some Warpstone and what knowledge of necromancy he had to raise his own army. We were trying to deal with both of them but one took care of the other".
Heinrich had so far delivered his message in the mien of a bored bureaucrat but the next words were different hushed and wary, the sounds of someone who had seen something that made him deeply uncomfortable. "Normally when undead fight undead its a question of who can be the most unhinged and pull out the more unstable and insane scheme to destroy the other. This was different the one leading the Tomb King army wore the raiment of one of their priests. He raised his arms the skies in prayer and flung open a sarcophagus. I know what necromancy feels like it and that wasn't it, this felt Morr's own Stone Portal".
The Shyish magister leaned forward and spoke in a voice that could have belonged to an angel of penitence, "On that day you were accompanied by journeyman Pius a faithful of Morr and he did not disagree with your assessment. He had witness both necromancy and our own arts, along with being baptised in the Morrite custom and he agreed that what the Tomb kings did resembled that more than anything."
The hood turns to you and you try to decide where you should be looking as it continues "When the ritual was complete the entire army of undead simply fell to the ground, the vampire was slaughtered and the Tomb King army retreated with their spoils. We don't know what the vampire wanted and now its dead it hardly matters. What does matter is that the Tomb Kings were able to call upon divine assistance rather than just strange magic. Further they displayed an alarming resistance to our arts. There has never been a proper study into this. There needs to be, if the Undead have a way to resist our methods we must know them."
"But more than that" The Chamon mage noted "We have an opportunity to see magic from a new perspective. Teclis unified the Imperial traditions of magic and made them into a cohesive whole. All the colleges are rooted in older traditions. My own in Alchemists, yours in the Druids" he gestured at you "Mellissa's in the followers of Taal" gesturing at the Ghur magister "Fredrick's in the thousand little rituals done by grave keepers." finishing by pointing at the empty hood.
Intrigue - Do you notice what Heinrich is doing? DC 65 Result 48 + 7 = 55 (This discussion by Wizards is much more interesting than looking at the one man who isn't talking right now.)
"But Human magic is far older than even that, however study can be difficult. The Bretonnian's and Kislev see intensive scientific study as blasphemy. Tilea and Estalia have the same traditions as us and no unified structure, so to learn more we need to look further afield." He looked pointedly at his two companions and said seriously "This isn't just a chance to smash a few undead and learn to smash a few more. This is a chance to expand on the very fundamentals of our understanding of magic."
The apparently name Mellissa snorts and says "All of that is true Solomon, but if we wanted to just experiment and read we could do it in towers here. If we're going half way across the world, we'll need to bring back a little more than theory."
"Quite." Heinrich agree clearly annoyed at being highjacked but then apparently this was old ground for the three of them. Heinrich turned to you and said "It'll be good for our logistics to have someone who knows Fat of the Land and Regenerate makes you more durable than you look." You can't help but be impressed that he managed to get your college folder sent over in just one day, that normally takes weeks. Years later when you were more familiar with subterfuge you would kick yourself for thinking that friendliness meant guileless.
Henrich pulled out a piece of paper with signatures on it and explained with a touch of pride "So far we have 41 Wizards on this Journey, you'll be number 42. We have a smattering from all 8 Colleges. Since Wizards tend to be independent by nature our structure is a little less formal than I might like. However we've managed to organise ourselves as follows. I am the recognised leader of the expedition and both the Ecclesiastical and Collegiate elements of it will report to me. Below me on one side will be the standard command structure of the Order of Sigmar, but on the other it's a little more complicated. Solomon, Mellissa and Fredrick are the three most senior members of the expedition. Solomon is the foremost enchanter of all the colleges, Mellissa on Spirits and Apparitions and Fredrick on the interaction of magic and the divine".
Diplomacy = 33 + 11 = 44
You can't help but notice the way he meets the eyes of Solomon and Mellissa as he introduces them but is looking firmly at you when he speaks of Fredrick.
"They are the joint heads of the magical research element of the expedition. They will preside over you and enforce the Articles of Magic and discipline. Other than that, you are a journeywoman now, feel free to conduct yourself and focus your efforts however you see fit. I will need you to swear to obey my overall military commands as they pertain to the safety of the expedition and the Empire" Heinrich eyes turned deadly serious "on that last item I wish to make one thing very clear to everyone. Too many times items have been brought back from the land of the dead and it invited catastrophe to the Empire. That will not happen here, we will bring back knowledge, techniques, any experts who wish to come with us. But no working artefacts that could be traced back to the empire."
You nod as you finish signing your name on the line.
Heinrich's seriousness faded and he reached forward to shake your hand again. "Welcome aboard Wizard Albrecht" He spoke "From now on you are part of the 2383 Imperial expedition to the Lands of the Dead. Please ensure that all personal matters are taken care of before leaving."
Actions
One action per stat. Additional actions may be earned with time
Martial - Bonus = 14
[ ] Search the Library - The Jade college was founded in wartime just like all of the others. To that end it has a variety of combat spells and techniques that could be extremely valuable. DC 30/50/90, reward potential combat spells to learn. Time: 1 turn.
[ ] Make war gear - Your wizards robes are excellent for helping you to control the arcane forces but have little protective measures. Further you have never held a weapon that wasn't a focus in your life. Perhaps you should put some effort into making some, though it could take some time. You can't wear iron armour and even leather might be a problem. You'll have to make it out of magically grown wood, which will require finding someone to show you how to grow something that will stick around without soil or water. DC 60/90, reward war that will increase personal combat martial rolls. Time: 3 turns, final turn will require a magic roll.
[ ] Who's the boss - Heinrich is in overall command and thus busy but he must have delegated control of the troops to someone. Ask after that someone and see if you can get instruction from them in military matters. DC 50/90, reward familiarise yourself with how the expedition will combat threats. Time: 1 Turn.
Intrigue - Bonus = 7
[ ] Investigate Heinrich - You may not be the most astute of individuals when it comes to spy craft. You only really did a cursory check about Heinrich to make sure he and his expedition were legitimate. But you still know only the bare bones of the incident that propagated it or indeed what his personal goals are. DC 25/50/95, Reward knowledge on how the expedition began and the specifics of what it will do. Time: 1 turn.
[ ] Investigate the Route taken - While you have been given a cursory explanation of how this journey will take place. It couldn't hurt to know precisely where each stop will take place and if there are any secondary objectives. DC 15/35/85. Reward the mapped out route you will take and knowledge of opportunities along the way.
[ ] Enquire about a personal investigator - You are not good at these sort of things. So far in your life the straight and narrow path has always been the easiest but something Evangeline said stuck with you. You will be outside of the Empire and beyond the reach of Imperial laws except those enforced by people who will need your help. This is a grey area and it couldn't hurt to find someone to help you navigate it. DC 55/80, Reward Assistant experienced in circumspect work, they can be assigned to help you with various things which will add to your roll (rules for that page 1).
Diplomacy - Bonus = 11
[ ] Introduce yourself to one of the Magisters- While the three magisters might be in joint command it may be a good idea to meet with one of them before the expedition begins. DC 40, Reward Information on why they and they colleges are so involved in this.
[ ] Write In Magister
[ ] Have a letter sent - Evangeline seems to know who will be in charge of the docks at Tilea given that a ship seems to have already been chartered. Ask her to send a letter to them introducing yourself and making a good first impression. DC 25/50/90, Reward Contact with Order of Sigmar agent in Miragliano possible advantages in shipping things over. Time 1 Turn.
[ ] Try and get in contact with Julius or Marcel - Just because you're not going with them doesn't mean that you don't wish them the best success. While not working directly for them might cut you out of the best of their work you still might benefit from an open communication line. DC 25/70. Reward Open dialogue with one or both of them (Write in below which one you get both on 70 or higher). Time 1 Turn.
Stewardship - Bonus = 16
[ ] Acquire your own wagon - This expedition will no doubt be made up of both mounted and drawn beasts of burden. However it would help a great deal if you had your own, it would serve both as a private place to rest, study and keep research material. DC 45, Reward your own horse drawn cart. Time 1 Turn.
[ ] Find whoever is in charge of logistics - It was mentioned that your skill with Fat of the Land would be helpful, a person not needing to eat or drink for an entire day would cut down on resource consumption. The value of that will increase once you are in a hostile desert. But there might be something that you can do now. DC 30/50/90, Reward contribute to the missions logistics and get to know the man in charge of it. Time 1 turn
[ ] Bring Research supplies - The expedition will no doubt have its own and you should be able to buy some in Tilea but it might be worth bringing some instruments, reagents and tools accessible to Journeyman who are about to leave. DC 40/55/75, Reward Equipment to help you experiment. Time 1 Turn.
Learning - Bonus = 21
[ ] Study Tilea - While Tilea is often dismissed by Imperial magical scholars as inferior, lacking as it does a unique tradition of magic and Elven strictures, none deny its engineering and civic accomplishments. It could prove beneficial to study the structure of Tilean society and history. Even if it produces nothing for research purposes it might help with the logical front or indeed offer insight into ways you could do things in the Empire. DC 35/55/90, Reward knowledge of how Tilea is currently faring and what are the latest Arcane happenings. Time 1 turn
[ ] Study Araby - Far away in the land of Djinn sorcerers live like kings and may in fact be kings, or so they say. As someone raised to obey the decrees of the emperor a land where magic users hold such power is a fascinating idea. It would be most interesting to learn more about the history and culture of Araby. While they guard their magical secrets closely it might be worth while. DC 35/55/90, Reward knowledge of Araby's current political climate and its arcane traditions. Time = 1 Turn
[ ] Study Nehekara - This is perhaps the oldest human civilisation on record. It thrived in a time where humans were mostly nomadic beings. As far as Imperial historians are aware they never received tutelage from the Elves, which would make them the most of advanced wholly human arcane society. The value of research into them is enhanced by how many of the things there Priest have done still exceed our understanding. DC 35/55/90, knowledge of the most recent imperial texts on the subject. Time 1 Turn.
[ ] Foci Research - Like all wizards you have painstakingly crafted your wand and never travel without it. However this was merely an apprentices attempt at it supervised by your master, it serves but perhaps now you can do better. DC 40/55.70, Reward unlocks action to start crafting a better foci. Time 1 turn.
Piety - Bonus = 12
[ ] Acquire Holy Books - The Empire has many gods and in turn each god has many holy books. It might be a good idea to acquire a few to bring with you to these foreign lands. While you may not be the most devout of people you do have some measure of faith in the gods that have watch over the Empire, it wouldn't do to let distance make them a mere memory. DC 25, Reward Holy texts of the Empire. Time 1 Turn
[ ] Research about the interaction between divine and arcane magic - This has always been a touchy subject, priests undoubtedly affect the winds of magic when they work their gods wills. Those Wizards most in touch with Aethyr have also reported disturbances in the presence of blessed priests. Perhaps you should examine this intersection, but carefully and from a pious mindset, it wouldn't do to offend the priests or more importantly the gods with over invasive questions. DC 65, Reward Insight into where each sides approach to magic begins and ends. Time 1 Turn.
[ ] Meet with the highest ranking priest of Sigmar on this expedition - This might be a joint venture but the Wizards have been placed under the military command of the church, by order of the Emperor and the consent of each Wizard who joined. However while witch hunters are part of the religious body of the empire they are not themselves priests. You really should find out about the priest who is in charge of theological matters and talk to him. DC 35/70, Reward find out who is in charge of the priests here and what he thinks of this. Time 1 turn.
[ ] Reflect on your personal beliefs - As said before you are hardly a devout person. But you do believe in the divine and accept that it is something wholly different to the arcane workings of yourself and the college. Perhaps you should instead look inward and see what you find from such thought. No spark of the divine has touched your heart before, perhaps you should be the one to reach out. DC 70/100, Reward consider your beliefs and maybe reach out. Time 1 Turn.
Magic - Bonus = 24
[ ] Apparitions - These creatures are poorly understood by imperial science. They are a catch all term for things born of magic but not directly related to either the ruinous powers or necromancy. You have seen many apparitions in your life but these are transient things perhaps you should explore closer. But carefully, one of the reasons this has been poorly studied is that even wizards sometimes cannot tell the different between Daemons and Apparitions. DC 80/ 110, Reward experimentation into apparitions and their nature. Time 3 Turns.
[ ] Arcane Marks - Despite studying deeply into Ghyran you have yet to develop a mark, mostly due to your master being extremely careful with your training. However one day you will have one, perhaps you should consider their nature and what to do about them. DC 35/60/70, Reward personal insight into what arcane truly are. Time 1 turn.
[ ] Contemplate Ghyran - It is the wind of life, it rains down from the sky itself and makes its home in plant and woodland but also streams and creeks even the sea is said to hold it well. But more than that it comes from within you, it is not something you consciously think about, like the beating of your heart or breathing it is just always there. Your natural connection is very strong but you can still look outwards and catalogue to your own satisfaction how it behaves in the world. DC 65/85, Reward Insight into Ghyran's effects on the world. Time 2 Turns.
[ ] Concentrate on Channelling - For most Channelling is a skill to be learned for you it was fact of life that had to be acknowledge. At all times Amelia Albrecht as an entity acts as a conduit for Ghyran into the world. You have done little experimentation into this other than to draw on your own Wind rather than ambient Ghyran. Now you must consider how to improve your ability to do so. DC 80/95. Reward Comprehension of your personal connection to Ghyran and the Aethyr. Time 2 Turns.
A/N I thought it would be nice to start this off from someone else's perspective, it shows how Amelia is from the outside, sweet a little trusting but frighteningly strong to those who know how to see it.
The first few turns last three months each, turn 1 is here, turn 2 half way through Bretonnia, turn 3 Miragliano and turn 4 in Araby a year after the quest started in Altdorf. I may alter this as we go. I don't want to just skip over the Journey but people voted for Nehekara so I don't want to put off getting there too much either. There will be opportunities at each leg of the journey to set up a chain to bring things south to you and you can order them once you are established there,
Amelia Albrecht Character Sheet
Martial 11 + 3 = 14 - You may not have been trained in traditional combat arts but the Wind of Life itself courses through you, while you are hardly a powerhouse you are in nearly perfect physical shape. Combined with training on how to incorporate your magic into combat makes you more dangerous in a strait fight than you appear.
Intrigue 4 + 3 = 7 - A life time in the college most famous for its nurturing and kindness has not left you with a mind best suited to subterfuge or trickery. Luckily you still have magic to even the score.
Diplomacy - 8 + 3 = 11 - You've always been naturally sweet with a friendly disposition. However a lifetime not only within the Jade college but intensely drilled on the dangers of your natural power means you don't have as much social experience as one would expect.
Stewardship - 13 + 3 = 16 - Your mother always said "better to have and not need than to need and not have. You may never run a business or a castle but she wanted you to have a head for budgets and finance. No daughter of hers would be made a fool of by hucksters."
Learning - 16+5 = 21 - You have always had a great love of learning, reading books and hearing the stories of the matriarchs of your college. You have a sharp mind, one trained to break down puzzles and analyse new phenomenon.
Piety - 9 + 3 = 12 - You are hardly devout but the divine does interest you from a theoretical perspective. Hopefully this journey might also serve as a spiritual journey as a magical one
Magic - 14 + 10 = 24 - You have a raw connection to the Wind of Life like few others and a rigorous training regime from your master's has help to refine that even more. You rarely misstep with your power and when you have he was always there to correct it. But if anything that just made him more afraid for the day you do lose control on the battlefield.
Standard Miscast DC - 9
Equipped Miscast DC - 7
Traits
Lidless Third Eye - Your Witchsight is permanently open and requires active effort to stop seeing the flow of the Winds of Magic. Plus 10 to magic rolls, requires a roll to stop using it in dangerous situations.
Natural Channeler - Your body, mind and soul are a natural channel for Ghyran and with that you have your own source of power to draw on. This makes casting magic slightly safer for you but in the Chaos of the Battlefield your really going to need it. Roll magic dice twice and pick the higher number, this does affect miscasts but if both are beneath the DC your miscast will be catastrophic.
Bottle Maker - You like little ships, it might seem silly but they are so cute. It takes hours to assemble even part of one and you are rather proud of your little collection. Lowered miscast by 1
Linguist - Words are more than sounds, they the keys to reason and for those who will listen the enunciation of truth. You will not let a language barrier prevent you from understanding others. You are fluent in the written styles of half a dozen language. You haven't needed to but you can turn this talent to spoken word too. No action required to learn languages.
Evangeline Aegir POV
To those who spent their time around the powers of magic, both fair and fell, there were 3 senses to consider. These were not the senses most were accustomed to.
On could not see, hear, taste, smell or touch magic, not truly those words were used to be sure. But only as quick way to explain things to the initiated and indeed because the user did not often full understand what they were experiencing. The methods by which human beings sensed magic, were entirely alien to them. Instead there were three additional senses that had to be developed over time.
Most difficult of these was only half a sense, known as Channelling. Where one did not simply bend their wind but rather allowed their body to become a channel, by which arcane forces enacted their nature upon the world. This may take the form of Hysh, where light would pore forth and banish evil. Or with Aqshy where flames would spring to life of their own accord but unnaturally move away from those the Channeler considered a friend. This was also a perception of magic as one could feel how it entered the world and was the purest way to touch a single Wind. It also further exposed oneself to the Aethyr in a way just using a Wind did not.
The next, was the more famous Witchsight. Unlike what superstitious peasants claimed, this wasn't a mutation, wizards did not have a literal third eye. Indeed, despite being called "the Sight", it did not always express itself through ones eyes. Rather through training and comprehension of the mystic arts, a practitioner focused their pre-existing senses to become something entirely else. Gaining the ability to observe their chosen wind as it travelled south from the northern wastes. They may see colours, hear notes, but they were seeing or hearing anything at all. Rather it was an entirely new sense expressing itself through the medium of the Wizards old ones. This was why Witchsight was just as likely to not use one of five primary senses. Evangeline had met one wizard who sensed magic through their Thermosensation and Equilibrium. Even when it was sight based, it often had more in common with proprioception. As Wizards could often "see" changes to the winds that were happening behind them. Wizards Lords could also obverse the Winds through solid objects without difficulty.
The last sense was by far the most common, simple intuition. This built up over time, as a body was exposed to magic and then felt the receding of it, said body learned to express these facts to the mind. In the form of itches, sweating, spine chilling tingles and other minor quirks. The fact that all humans could acquire this sense was considered proof by scholars that all humans were innately magical. Though if one of those scholars tried to tell a radically conservative witch hunter that, they would most likely be burnt.
Evangeline had developed a particularly sophisticated sense of intuition for magic. As someone who's first job at 14 was as a secretary at Baron Henryk's College of Navigation and Sea Magicks, she'd seen plenty of wizards before quitting at the age of 19. She had then taken up a series of jobs as assistants to the Empires many traveling wizards. That had been necessary, as at the time her husband moved around a great deal and she liked to be close to him. Wizards always needed staff to do the busy work, not ask questions and not sell their secrets. How she ended up working for a witch hunter in her old age ... well that was another story entirely.
What mattered was, Evangeline had met plenty of Wizards. She had never met one like this.
Evangeline's intuition had become something of a hobby. It didn't really express itself to her physically but rather emotively, the presences of each wind generally summon forth feelings from nowhere. She had carefully noted down over the course of decades, what each wind of magic made her feel.
Hysh made her feel relaxed and as if her body were bathing in cool morning sunlight, Azyr felt like the wonder of a moonless night at the height of summer. Chamon always set her fake teeth on edge and made her feel like she needed to take care of herself, Aqshy made her heart beat faster with excitement and reminded her of the adventure her life had been. Ulgu always made her feel like she'd just told a joke everyone else would understand later and Shyish as if there were a very comfortable bed waiting for her somewhere in the next room. Ghur gave her the feeling of seeing a wolf pup, you knew it was dangerous but right now it was just so cute and Ghyran made her feel like that 16 year old rushing off to get married again.
Usually these feelings only came when a Wizard was actively casting spells, when they weren't it was different. Without even looking at them she could tell there was a Wizard in the room but no more than that.
Particularly old and powerful wizards gave off feelings from their arcane marks, which Evangeline had often been able to intuit the story behind they got said mark without hearing it first. But the feeling here was present across the body and continuous.
To mundane senses, Amelia was merely a young woman. On the short side but not exceptionally so, with rather pretty ocean like eyes and hair that vaguely reminded Evangeline of wheat. Slightly bushy golden hair that cascaded around her head and down her back. She had a surprisingly intricately woven set of robes, something about them spoke of time and care. In the sleeve of the robe was a small wand, it set her intuition off to look at it but not particularly strongly, so magical, but not impressively so.
To her magical senses though Amelia was like a wellspring, nothing was innately dangerous about it. But as you leant over to drink you had the feeling you might get swallowed up by it if you leant in too close.
It wasn't bad, in fact it was quite comforting. It was nothing like what small pieces of black magic she had encountered in her life. In truth it wasn't even that strong at all, it paled in comparison to the pieces of battle magic Evangeline had witnessed in the defence of Marienburg and Altdorf. It was never the less persistent thrum of power that emanated from the young lady.
Amelia meanwhile sat and fidgeted, likely naturally uncomfortable in a place so full of witch hunters. This building might not be a chapter house, merely a bureaucratic centre. But none the less Templars and Members of the Order of Sigmar marched in and out constantly. Proudly displaying their twin tailed comet and hammer insignias for all the world to see. While the Colleges and the Order were allies, both being subjects of the empire, their history with one another wasn't always easy. It was hard to believe the nervous young woman was the source of such power. Evangeline had managed to get her to open up somewhat about her life.
Model ship building and Languages were not the most common hobby for a young lady or a wizard but then who was Evangeline judge. Her husband collected the finger bones of saints and paid such stupid amounts fOR WHAT WAS CLEARLY A FAK ... ahem anyway. Who was she to judge.
The girl was quite proud of her natural connection to her wind, which would explain the feeling that surrounded her and her gazing around the room at innocuous places that most likely contained something interesting to one with the Sight. She had laughed at Evangeline complaining about her husbands spending and related her own mother's woes with her father. Said father apparently wrote a column in the Altdorf Post pamphlet. Not a bad job that. She had not so subtly changed the subject when it came to extended family
Evangeline Intrigue Roll DC 70 - 47+?-?= 51
but Evangeline was too old to care about a young girl's secrets. They had done a background check over night and couldn't find anything bad. Both parents mundane, all grandparents equally so going back as far as records began at the Coronation of Magnus the Pious.
When it came time to ask about her skill set it was interesting but seemed somewhat lopsided. Amelia had explained "I'm really proud of my Barkskin and Father of Thorn they're my shield and sword. Barkskin might not be a suit of armour but I'm still fast and flexible and not so squishy, Father of Thorn is great. Since it conjures a thorny web it can be used to incapacitate but at higher power levels would be lethal to multiple enemies, even armoured enemies can get caught and be powerless. Plus I'm confident in using it against one or many foes".
She also had a slew of other spells for transport and observation but surprisingly few for healing. She was very proud of her skill with Regenerate, which only worked on the caster. However she had explain "Regenerate usually comes later, but I've always had easier time directing Ghyran inside me or at nature rather than people. Plus given the passive Ghyran in me, I actually heal pretty fast without casting a spell. Master theorised I might be able to us Regenerate by just wanting to not be injured" She looked sheepish "but we never tested that too much of course".
But she did not seem to have as much confidence in her ability to cast healing spells on others. Evangeline didn't ask, but she was pretty sure she knew why. Practically every wizard she had ever met stressed the dangers of too much magic being used on a person at a given time. Too much Chamon started turning people to stone, too much Ghur and they might grow wings. Lots of magic with no direction or a spell that was functioning perfectly but too powerful for the target were both potentially lethal. If her intuition about this girls natural power was right then she most likely hadn't used too much healing on others for fear of over doing it.
Her Journey would most likely force her out of that mindset.
Still what she heard suggested that, while inexperienced in the real world, this girl could take a beating and keep going. Further when prodded she revealed a comprehensive understand of all her spells, along with a simplification that a non wizard could understand. Enduring and insightful would be a good combination on this mission. Further the girl didn't have a deceitful bone in her body, she had secrets, who didn't? But she was terrible at keeping that she had a secret, secret. Which was good, the witch hunters could be suspicious, these might be the more openminded sort but not need to agitate them further.
Having gotten Amelia a bit more comfortable, Evangeline made her decision. While there was no doubt the expedition was going to take every Wizard it could get, a preliminary examination was still a good idea. That was why she had been tasked with assessing each of the candidates skills and dispositions. With an offhand inscribed coded sigils on a small piece of paper she would palm to Heinrich. This would let him know what Amelia offered and how much to reveal to her about the origins of this mission. Further a quick summary of what Amelia brought to the table. He liked to do things that way as it lent him an aura of Omniscience.
As she led Amelia down the hallway through to Heinrich's office she give the Journeywoman as brief rundown of the trip. "We'll be starting hear in Reikland and making our way south through Parravon and then down through Quenelles, Carcassonne and Miragliano. That should be the first 6 Months of the journey, I'll be following you as far as Miragliano to help operate our base there." Amelia looked startled and Evangeline was pleased by her observation and treated her reaction like a question, "You're right a small party of a few hundred men mostly on horses with Wizards for logistical support shouldn't take 6 months to travel less than a thousand miles.
"But foreign Witch Hunters and Wizards can't afford to startle the locals so you'll be meeting with a lot of local elites that will slow you down, particularly the further away from the Empire you get. A baron in Parravon can't afford to anger the Church of Sigmar and the Colleges who both have the ear of the Emperor. But a princeling in Tilea might take that risk it if he felt threatened."
The two women had reached the office the leader of this Imperial expedition and Evangeline finished her explanation "You and all the other wizards will be taking several ships with the templars to Al-Haikk about a year after your initial departure from Altdorf. From there you will be meeting with the Padishah, he'll be launching his own expedition." Evangeline hesitated before adding "technically he'll have no official authority over you or the Imperial expedition but you'll be in his lands and need his supplies so any "suggestion" from him is basically an order. "
With that she swept the young wizard into the office.
Amelia POV
As you are guided by the kind secretary who had made you feel so welcome in this unfamiliar place, you practically faint upon entering the room. It's hardly an imposing place, a small office with an unimpressive desk and a smattering of chairs.
The people sitting in those chairs are however very imposing. The winds of magic coil around and through them according to your Witch Sight. There are three of them. They are interesting enough to your mundane senses but to 7th and 8th sense they are awe inspiring.
A small man, bald and reedy. With some extremely large spectacles perched on top of an overly large nose. His pupils have been replaced by gear cogs and his skin is almost the colour of brass His wizards robes are of immaculate quality and seems to made out of mercury woven into strands, shimmering with light and purity. Not purity in the form of virtue or moral righteousness but a simple rejection of corrosion and physical corruption. A truly breath taking number of arcane marks burn on his body and soul. You are uncertain how many of them would be visible only to the naked eye and can't be bothered to turn of your Witchsight.
The second is woman of nearly impossible beauty clad in animal hides, she could pass for a Norscan princess if those savages had such a thing. Her presence feels almost like an Ouroboros to your Eighth sense. Your Witchsight reveals nothing but you can sense that she is constantly channelling Ghur through her body in an endless repetitive cycle. You realise it is like a predator chasing a prey it can never catch. Only for the predator to tire, die, decompose become feed be consumed by the prey and in turn attract another predator to start the cycle again. You wonder what would happen if the Predator were to catch the prey.
The last member appears to be a literal shadow. It is a shawl whose hood contains no face of any kind. The arms of the robe are wrapped around the handle of a long scythe that some seems both terrifying and reassuring. Shyish does not so much pool within this being but rather seems to hang across its shoulders like a mantle. It seems to be both at his command and also waiting patiently for him at the same time. Like it will obey every order but has a higher order that it must follow.
All three of them are so radically different and yet are so obviously Wizards of the highest calibre. you are certain that all of them are Lord Magister rank at minimum. While you are certain that the others are not the Patriarch or Matriarch of the Amber or Metal orders, the third person may be the leader of the whole Amethyst college. Around the three of them, small apparitions smaller than your smallest toe are born and die within their arcane marks. They burst from the ambient magic and then find themselves in an environment that can't support them and fizzle away. This is something you have seen before but in the Jade college from Jade magisters and since it is in place so saturated with Ghyran they maintain themselves for some time before peacefully fading away. Its usually rather beautiful but in this case rather distracting.
The three wizards haven't notice you staring as they are deep in discussion and flush in embarrassment realising you hadn't even noticed the offices owner. Who have been in another corner of the room getting himself a drink. Heinrich however looks quite pleased to see you and Evangeline. He walks over and gives you a polite and handshake and actually reaches in to cup Evangeline's cheek and kiss the other. She giggles and swats his hand away.
(Intrigue - Do you notice the note? DC 80, Result = 20 + 7 = 27)
You can't help but wonder how such nice people ended up working for the Witch Hunters.
Still as Evangeline bustle off Heinrich had to cough to get the Wizards attention who stopped arguing and turn to look at you. Under the eyes such august figures not associated with your college you are actually glad that Heinrich can take the lead.
He steps forward and says "I'm glad you are all so intrigued by the data we have so far collected but if we can get on with the topic of today's discussion. I've gathered you all here today because Amelia looks to be our final expedition member, someone else may be picked up by our recruiters and they may follow later but we'll be leaving before the end of the week" you jump slightly at how soon that is but Heinrich has already moved on "and I thought this would be a good opportunity to kill two birds with one stone to go over our mission objectives and parameters one last time with the tree highest ranking wizards of the expedition. As well as bring our newest member up to speed."
Heinrich cleared his throat and began to give a speech he had clearly given dozens of times before "Attacks by undead are not rare. Sylvania is crawling with unsanctified grave yards, Warpstone in the swamps and necromancers practically grow on tree. The Tomb Kings come a little less often due to distance and lack of need to come here. But every now and then a university or noble will have bought something from that sand blasted hell and some army of undead shows up to get it. But this time was a little different because it wasn't us the Tomb Kings were after but another undead. Seems some vampire about 5 years ago had used proxies to get Nehekaran magic texts out of Nehekara. Well the tomb kings didn't like that and sent an army to get it back, they burnt down the manor of the noble proxy and tracked the vampire down. In desperation said vampire used some Warpstone and what knowledge of necromancy he had to raise his own army. We were trying to deal with both of them but one took care of the other".
Heinrich had so far delivered his message in the mien of a bored bureaucrat but the next words were different hushed and wary, the sounds of someone who had seen something that made him deeply uncomfortable. "Normally when undead fight undead its a question of who can be the most unhinged and pull out the more unstable and insane scheme to destroy the other. This was different the one leading the Tomb King army wore the raiment of one of their priests. He raised his arms the skies in prayer and flung open a sarcophagus. I know what necromancy feels like it and that wasn't it, this felt Morr's own Stone Portal".
The Shyish magister leaned forward and spoke in a voice that could have belonged to an angel of penitence, "On that day you were accompanied by journeyman Pius a faithful of Morr and he did not disagree with your assessment. He had witness both necromancy and our own arts, along with being baptised in the Morrite custom and he agreed that what the Tomb kings did resembled that more than anything."
The hood turns to you and you try to decide where you should be looking as it continues "When the ritual was complete the entire army of undead simply fell to the ground, the vampire was slaughtered and the Tomb King army retreated with their spoils. We don't know what the vampire wanted and now its dead it hardly matters. What does matter is that the Tomb Kings were able to call upon divine assistance rather than just strange magic. Further they displayed an alarming resistance to our arts. There has never been a proper study into this. There needs to be, if the Undead have a way to resist our methods we must know them."
"But more than that" The Chamon mage noted "We have an opportunity to see magic from a new perspective. Teclis unified the Imperial traditions of magic and made them into a cohesive whole. All the colleges are rooted in older traditions. My own in Alchemists, yours in the Druids" he gestured at you "Mellissa's in the followers of Taal" gesturing at the Ghur magister "Fredrick's in the thousand little rituals done by grave keepers." finishing by pointing at the empty hood.
Intrigue - Do you notice what Heinrich is doing? DC 65 Result 48 + 7 = 55 (This discussion by Wizards is much more interesting than looking at the one man who isn't talking right now.)
"But Human magic is far older than even that, however study can be difficult. The Bretonnian's and Kislev see intensive scientific study as blasphemy. Tilea and Estalia have the same traditions as us and no unified structure, so to learn more we need to look further afield." He looked pointedly at his two companions and said seriously "This isn't just a chance to smash a few undead and learn to smash a few more. This is a chance to expand on the very fundamentals of our understanding of magic."
The apparently name Mellissa snorts and says "All of that is true Solomon, but if we wanted to just experiment and read we could do it in towers here. If we're going half way across the world, we'll need to bring back a little more than theory."
"Quite." Heinrich agree clearly annoyed at being highjacked but then apparently this was old ground for the three of them. Heinrich turned to you and said "It'll be good for our logistics to have someone who knows Fat of the Land and Regenerate makes you more durable than you look." You can't help but be impressed that he managed to get your college folder sent over in just one day, that normally takes weeks. Years later when you were more familiar with subterfuge you would kick yourself for thinking that friendliness meant guileless.
Henrich pulled out a piece of paper with signatures on it and explained with a touch of pride "So far we have 41 Wizards on this Journey, you'll be number 42. We have a smattering from all 8 Colleges. Since Wizards tend to be independent by nature our structure is a little less formal than I might like. However we've managed to organise ourselves as follows. I am the recognised leader of the expedition and both the Ecclesiastical and Collegiate elements of it will report to me. Below me on one side will be the standard command structure of the Order of Sigmar, but on the other it's a little more complicated. Solomon, Mellissa and Fredrick are the three most senior members of the expedition. Solomon is the foremost enchanter of all the colleges, Mellissa on Spirits and Apparitions and Fredrick on the interaction of magic and the divine".
Diplomacy = 33 + 11 = 44
You can't help but notice the way he meets the eyes of Solomon and Mellissa as he introduces them but is looking firmly at you when he speaks of Fredrick.
"They are the joint heads of the magical research element of the expedition. They will preside over you and enforce the Articles of Magic and discipline. Other than that, you are a journeywoman now, feel free to conduct yourself and focus your efforts however you see fit. I will need you to swear to obey my overall military commands as they pertain to the safety of the expedition and the Empire" Heinrich eyes turned deadly serious "on that last item I wish to make one thing very clear to everyone. Too many times items have been brought back from the land of the dead and it invited catastrophe to the Empire. That will not happen here, we will bring back knowledge, techniques, any experts who wish to come with us. But no working artefacts that could be traced back to the empire."
You nod as you finish signing your name on the line.
Heinrich's seriousness faded and he reached forward to shake your hand again. "Welcome aboard Wizard Albrecht" He spoke "From now on you are part of the 2383 Imperial expedition to the Lands of the Dead. Please ensure that all personal matters are taken care of before leaving."
Actions
One action per stat. Additional actions may be earned with time
Martial - Bonus = 14
[ ] Search the Library - The Jade college was founded in wartime just like all of the others. To that end it has a variety of combat spells and techniques that could be extremely valuable. DC 30/50/90, reward potential combat spells to learn. Time: 1 turn.
[ ] Make war gear - Your wizards robes are excellent for helping you to control the arcane forces but have little protective measures. Further you have never held a weapon that wasn't a focus in your life. Perhaps you should put some effort into making some, though it could take some time. You can't wear iron armour and even leather might be a problem. You'll have to make it out of magically grown wood, which will require finding someone to show you how to grow something that will stick around without soil or water. DC 60/90, reward war that will increase personal combat martial rolls. Time: 3 turns, final turn will require a magic roll.
[ ] Who's the boss - Heinrich is in overall command and thus busy but he must have delegated control of the troops to someone. Ask after that someone and see if you can get instruction from them in military matters. DC 50/90, reward familiarise yourself with how the expedition will combat threats. Time: 1 Turn.
Intrigue - Bonus = 7
[ ] Investigate Heinrich - You may not be the most astute of individuals when it comes to spy craft. You only really did a cursory check about Heinrich to make sure he and his expedition were legitimate. But you still know only the bare bones of the incident that propagated it or indeed what his personal goals are. DC 25/50/95, Reward knowledge on how the expedition began and the specifics of what it will do. Time: 1 turn.
[ ] Investigate the Route taken - While you have been given a cursory explanation of how this journey will take place. It couldn't hurt to know precisely where each stop will take place and if there are any secondary objectives. DC 15/35/85. Reward the mapped out route you will take and knowledge of opportunities along the way.
[ ] Enquire about a personal investigator - You are not good at these sort of things. So far in your life the straight and narrow path has always been the easiest but something Evangeline said stuck with you. You will be outside of the Empire and beyond the reach of Imperial laws except those enforced by people who will need your help. This is a grey area and it couldn't hurt to find someone to help you navigate it. DC 55/80, Reward Assistant experienced in circumspect work, they can be assigned to help you with various things which will add to your roll (rules for that page 1).
Diplomacy - Bonus = 11
[ ] Introduce yourself to one of the Magisters- While the three magisters might be in joint command it may be a good idea to meet with one of them before the expedition begins. DC 40, Reward Information on why they and they colleges are so involved in this.
[ ] Write In Magister
[ ] Have a letter sent - Evangeline seems to know who will be in charge of the docks at Tilea given that a ship seems to have already been chartered. Ask her to send a letter to them introducing yourself and making a good first impression. DC 25/50/90, Reward Contact with Order of Sigmar agent in Miragliano possible advantages in shipping things over. Time 1 Turn.
[ ] Try and get in contact with Julius or Marcel - Just because you're not going with them doesn't mean that you don't wish them the best success. While not working directly for them might cut you out of the best of their work you still might benefit from an open communication line. DC 25/70. Reward Open dialogue with one or both of them (Write in below which one you get both on 70 or higher). Time 1 Turn.
Stewardship - Bonus = 16
[ ] Acquire your own wagon - This expedition will no doubt be made up of both mounted and drawn beasts of burden. However it would help a great deal if you had your own, it would serve both as a private place to rest, study and keep research material. DC 45, Reward your own horse drawn cart. Time 1 Turn.
[ ] Find whoever is in charge of logistics - It was mentioned that your skill with Fat of the Land would be helpful, a person not needing to eat or drink for an entire day would cut down on resource consumption. The value of that will increase once you are in a hostile desert. But there might be something that you can do now. DC 30/50/90, Reward contribute to the missions logistics and get to know the man in charge of it. Time 1 turn
[ ] Bring Research supplies - The expedition will no doubt have its own and you should be able to buy some in Tilea but it might be worth bringing some instruments, reagents and tools accessible to Journeyman who are about to leave. DC 40/55/75, Reward Equipment to help you experiment. Time 1 Turn.
Learning - Bonus = 21
[ ] Study Tilea - While Tilea is often dismissed by Imperial magical scholars as inferior, lacking as it does a unique tradition of magic and Elven strictures, none deny its engineering and civic accomplishments. It could prove beneficial to study the structure of Tilean society and history. Even if it produces nothing for research purposes it might help with the logical front or indeed offer insight into ways you could do things in the Empire. DC 35/55/90, Reward knowledge of how Tilea is currently faring and what are the latest Arcane happenings. Time 1 turn
[ ] Study Araby - Far away in the land of Djinn sorcerers live like kings and may in fact be kings, or so they say. As someone raised to obey the decrees of the emperor a land where magic users hold such power is a fascinating idea. It would be most interesting to learn more about the history and culture of Araby. While they guard their magical secrets closely it might be worth while. DC 35/55/90, Reward knowledge of Araby's current political climate and its arcane traditions. Time = 1 Turn
[ ] Study Nehekara - This is perhaps the oldest human civilisation on record. It thrived in a time where humans were mostly nomadic beings. As far as Imperial historians are aware they never received tutelage from the Elves, which would make them the most of advanced wholly human arcane society. The value of research into them is enhanced by how many of the things there Priest have done still exceed our understanding. DC 35/55/90, knowledge of the most recent imperial texts on the subject. Time 1 Turn.
[ ] Foci Research - Like all wizards you have painstakingly crafted your wand and never travel without it. However this was merely an apprentices attempt at it supervised by your master, it serves but perhaps now you can do better. DC 40/55.70, Reward unlocks action to start crafting a better foci. Time 1 turn.
Piety - Bonus = 12
[ ] Acquire Holy Books - The Empire has many gods and in turn each god has many holy books. It might be a good idea to acquire a few to bring with you to these foreign lands. While you may not be the most devout of people you do have some measure of faith in the gods that have watch over the Empire, it wouldn't do to let distance make them a mere memory. DC 25, Reward Holy texts of the Empire. Time 1 Turn
[ ] Research about the interaction between divine and arcane magic - This has always been a touchy subject, priests undoubtedly affect the winds of magic when they work their gods wills. Those Wizards most in touch with Aethyr have also reported disturbances in the presence of blessed priests. Perhaps you should examine this intersection, but carefully and from a pious mindset, it wouldn't do to offend the priests or more importantly the gods with over invasive questions. DC 65, Reward Insight into where each sides approach to magic begins and ends. Time 1 Turn.
[ ] Meet with the highest ranking priest of Sigmar on this expedition - This might be a joint venture but the Wizards have been placed under the military command of the church, by order of the Emperor and the consent of each Wizard who joined. However while witch hunters are part of the religious body of the empire they are not themselves priests. You really should find out about the priest who is in charge of theological matters and talk to him. DC 35/70, Reward find out who is in charge of the priests here and what he thinks of this. Time 1 turn.
[ ] Reflect on your personal beliefs - As said before you are hardly a devout person. But you do believe in the divine and accept that it is something wholly different to the arcane workings of yourself and the college. Perhaps you should instead look inward and see what you find from such thought. No spark of the divine has touched your heart before, perhaps you should be the one to reach out. DC 70/100, Reward consider your beliefs and maybe reach out. Time 1 Turn.
Magic - Bonus = 24
[ ] Apparitions - These creatures are poorly understood by imperial science. They are a catch all term for things born of magic but not directly related to either the ruinous powers or necromancy. You have seen many apparitions in your life but these are transient things perhaps you should explore closer. But carefully, one of the reasons this has been poorly studied is that even wizards sometimes cannot tell the different between Daemons and Apparitions. DC 80/ 110, Reward experimentation into apparitions and their nature. Time 3 Turns.
[ ] Arcane Marks - Despite studying deeply into Ghyran you have yet to develop a mark, mostly due to your master being extremely careful with your training. However one day you will have one, perhaps you should consider their nature and what to do about them. DC 35/60/70, Reward personal insight into what arcane truly are. Time 1 turn.
[ ] Contemplate Ghyran - It is the wind of life, it rains down from the sky itself and makes its home in plant and woodland but also streams and creeks even the sea is said to hold it well. But more than that it comes from within you, it is not something you consciously think about, like the beating of your heart or breathing it is just always there. Your natural connection is very strong but you can still look outwards and catalogue to your own satisfaction how it behaves in the world. DC 65/85, Reward Insight into Ghyran's effects on the world. Time 2 Turns.
[ ] Concentrate on Channelling - For most Channelling is a skill to be learned for you it was fact of life that had to be acknowledge. At all times Amelia Albrecht as an entity acts as a conduit for Ghyran into the world. You have done little experimentation into this other than to draw on your own Wind rather than ambient Ghyran. Now you must consider how to improve your ability to do so. DC 80/95. Reward Comprehension of your personal connection to Ghyran and the Aethyr. Time 2 Turns.
A/N I thought it would be nice to start this off from someone else's perspective, it shows how Amelia is from the outside, sweet a little trusting but frighteningly strong to those who know how to see it.
The first few turns last three months each, turn 1 is here, turn 2 half way through Bretonnia, turn 3 Miragliano and turn 4 in Araby a year after the quest started in Altdorf. I may alter this as we go. I don't want to just skip over the Journey but people voted for Nehekara so I don't want to put off getting there too much either. There will be opportunities at each leg of the journey to set up a chain to bring things south to you and you can order them once you are established there,
Preparation Results Part 1
[X] Plan: Hit The Books
-[X] Search the Library
-[X] Enquire about a personal investigator
-[X] Have a letter sent
-[X] Bring Research supplies
-[X] Study Araby
-[X] Acquire Holy Books
-[X] Arcane Marks
We have a winner
"... Swear he didn't have a face" you say gesturing at yours "it wasn't just a deep hood but an empty one".
Your father looks very curious but your mother uncomfortable, not really surprising.
You had just finished explaining the last 48 hours to them, from the three man brawl, to the three adventures, to your current plan. Which is to travel half way across the known world to the land of the dead, as the three of you sit on the veranda of your parents townhouse your mother had unsurprisingly gazed furiously at your father. As if it were all his fault, she tended to do that whenever you did something she disapproved of.
Your mother was a very short women, your no amazon but your nearly a head taller than her. Right now she is wearing her veil, having just returned from the temple of Shallya to give offerings. She always insisted on doing so, it wasn't required but she said going to temple should be something special and the veil meant it wasn't just another day. It obscures what would otherwise be a kind heart shaped face, with eyes that rather reminded you of a jungle cat, that are currently glaring at your father.
He is quite the opposite to her, a granite like face and a head taller than you. He has an extremely powerful build that has nothing to do with his job and more to do with his time at the wrestling club. He used to be a town guard but after moving to Altdorf he got a job with Altdorf Pamphlet writing rude jokes about soldierly life. Hardly a lofty job but it paid the bills and he had managed to parley it in to something else entirely. Having written for them for 20 years his column had morphed into a cooking guide, a gossip space, a news outlet and really anything that caught his attention as the years went by. At this point the Pamphlet just let him do whatever he wanted. Eventually as time passed the Pamphlet sold him a share of itself to keep him on, as by that point his column was something their readers expected to see.
His interest had turned into amusement at your mothers anger, perhaps just to spite her he said "well I'm glad your not thinking small with your Journey, you should go out and see the world" his eyes turned serious "but did you have to take the journey part of it so seriously?"
You grimace and say "I know its far and dangerous but I'll literally have a small army around me and I'll be able to do some real good. I doubt we'll learn anything that'll banish necromancy from the world but we might get more efficient weapons to fight it. Plus a chance to work with the most open minded people in the colleges and the Church of Sigmar is a rare opportunity."
"About that" your mother says wandering over to you passing you some pressed fruit juice, "I know things have been better between the Colleges and Church in the last 20 years but I'm shocked that a Witch Hunter actually wants so many Wizards to come along."
You accept the drink with a shrug "He seems to have a good academic understanding of magic. That probably means he's worked with some before."
You father finishes his own drink and says "Well your a grown woman and you can make your own way in the world, we don't want to stifle you. I always thought it might be a few years before I saw you again once you started Journeying. But if you think I'm waiting 4 months to get a letter from you from the Land of the Dead your wrong." He turns to his wife and says "Dear I think its time for me to take a leave of absence from work and travel a bit, just you and me."
She brighten ups at that and says "Oh yes I've always wanted to visit the Grand Chapel of Mannan" in an overly innocent voice she continues "but for the life of me, I can't remember where it is."
Your father snaps his fingers and proclaims "you know I think its in Miragliano."
"Yes of course how could I forget."
As they continue with this ridiculous charade you think two things.
I'm so glad I'll be able to get letters from them a few times a year.
I really hope they stop there, I don't want to face a tomb king with my mother fussing over whether I've eaten enough.
Martial Results
-[X] Search the Library
Outside scholars may view the Jade College as somewhat backwards, a relic of druidic learning. Word of mouth from parent to child. But while that might be a component in it, what with Ghyran passing in the family, it is also a modern hall of learning.
To that end it is fully equipped with not only its own library but also a full staff and even printing press to circulate non corruptive tomes. As a Journeyman you no longer require a note of permission to enter this place and may take a written copy anywhere within the city of Altdorf.
Martial Roll - 6 + 14 = 20. Failed
This makes it extremely easy to find some relevant books to you. However there is no standardised unit of difficulty for learning spells. So it takes quite some time for you to eliminate those that are beyond your current abilities or niche value to you.
By the end of the three months you have, you have read a great deal but have been unable to convince the library to let you take the books with you. As someone who was not especially famous within the college for her fighting ability they see little value in risking these books being taken to the other side of the world when you have yet to provide anything in turn. Magisters are free to take nearly anything they like but that is because they have added to the Colleges collective lore.
Still all those books did give you some ideas. Several of the newer texts mention names you saw on Heinrich's list, perhaps they can teach you on the way.
Result - Failed acquire specific spells to learn but unlocked new actions to investigate potential teachers in the group.
[ ] Ask someone on the list to teach you how to fight
[ ] Elizabeth Strauss - Famous in the Jade College for pioneering long range combat techniques, extending ones perception through the soil and remaining hidden while fighting. She is rumoured to have also been involved in the poisoning of some malcontent nobles, but that's just a rumour. Right? DC- 65/90, she is not particularly eager to take a student so the main difficulty is in convincing her.
[ ] Andreas Von Hammerfell - A true giant of a man, destined for a life in a Knightly order before his talent was discovered, he has bent the jade Wind and his combat skills to work together. He cannot wear armour but he shrugs off and heals blows so well he doesn't really need it. DC 55/100, he would be happy to teach you but what he has to teach is incorporating melee combat, which you know little about.
[ ] Tyr Ulricson - A small reedy man from Middenheim, called a coward by many until they feel his protective spells. The Jade Wind gives itself to healing, but he has mastered the art of extending that healing to entire units. Those who march under him will not die unless killed immediately. DC - 75/100, he is apprehensive to teach given how little experience you have with mass healing but if convinced this power would help not just you but the entire army.
Cost for all - you'll owe your teacher a favour if you succeed which will take up an action. Reward - Increase to martial score,
additional instruction actions unlocked.
[ ] Don't ask for help, practice what you know - Stick to what is familiar to you and make what spells you have not just something you can do on demand but reflexively accomplish. DC - 35/55/75/100. Reward - Small Marital increase and ideas for magic research at higher success.
Intrigue Results
-[X] Enquire about a personal investigator
You never really imagined yourself having an assistant but frankly you need one.
You are not stupid and one of the things anyone of reasonable intelligence should know is what they don't know.
To that end it seems wise to find someone who can help you out with those areas you feel least able to deal with. You have combat training and you know your books and your magic. But there is always the nitty gritty in between the things one wants to achieve.
Finding the truth of a situation and manipulating it to your advantage, your teacher had that gift but you lack it.
Time to find someone who doesn't.
Intrigue Rolls - 66 plus 7 = 73. Good Success.
After all that build up it proves surprisingly easy.
There is a board in the centre of the college where those who have business with the college may post information. You simply write up a rather basic piece of advertising and leave it on the board for a while and soon a few individuals who can read between the lines begin to show up.
You eliminate one man who thought the thing to read between the lines was to be your beaux.
You eliminate another because he seems to have decided that the Jade Wind is in fact a god and you one of his priests. You have to almost bodily throw him out as he explains how the Light and Jade Winds are Sigmar and Shallya's children and the other six are daemons spawned by the Ruinous Powers.
The last two are suitable but sadly you can only pick one.
(They can in future be set to help you with any action so don't just look at the Intrigue score)
[ ] Adem Ibn Sahar - The child of two traders from Araby who settled in Marienburg. He sees this job as a perfect opportunity to travel back to Araby. He doesn't plan to leave you there, in his words "any many who goes to the land of the unquiet dead and comes back, will never have an empty bed for the rest of his life". Well if you wanted nobility you wouldn't have been looking for someone to help you with unsavoury jobs.
Martial - 18
Intrigue - 14
Diplomacy - 10
Stewardship - 7
Learning - 13
Piety - 14
Magic - 0
[ ] Johann Gorniak - A man with a classically imperial name and presumably Kislevite surname. He hails from Ostland and was brought to the college just last year after displaying the power to turn wine into fortified wine while drunk. Unfortunately for him he has just enough magical power to be forced to join the college but not enough to get anywhere within it. Being a pragmatic sort with experience as a doer of odd jobs on a dozen different ships, he feels that your journey south will be a much desired form of freedom.
Martial - 12
Intrigue - 19
Diplomacy - 10
Stewardship - 10
Learning - 16
Piety - 17
Magic - 5
Diplomacy Result
-[X] Have a letter sent
Evangeline proves most happy to share the details with you.
The man currently running the dock is called Siegfried Von Musel. A priest of Sigmar who had always had more of a head for numbers than scripture. His faith was true but reciting verses had never been his strong suit and while any man of the empire should be able to fight he was merely average.
To that end he had turned his talents where they were best suited. Managing the temporal assets of the church, exposing corruption in the book keeping and a thousand other inglorious but necessary tasks.
You send him the letter, hoping to get the man's measure and perhaps a rundown of how things might be shipped from the mainland across the sea to your forward base.
Diplomacy Roll - 89 +11 = 100. Great Success.
What you get back is an extremely (perhaps over so) enthusiastic letter in response. It seems no one had bothered to send him a letter since informing him to prepare a ship for the expedition use in the coming year. He is actually quite enthusiastic to hear back from you about what you plan to do when you reach the Land of the Dead.
Attached is an explanation of the things he is confident he will be able to get his hands one, along with a request to clarify what precisely you are hoping to take.
Result - Made a positive first impression on an important member of the expedition and can instruct him what to prioritise looking for before you arrive.
Select 2
[ ] Books on Tilean Magic
[ ] Books on surviving Nehekaran traditions
[ ] Up to date information on Sultan Baibars
[ ] Public information from the Cult of Morr on the Undead
[ ] Samples of Magical artefacts
[ ] Books on previous Expeditions to the Land of the Dead
[ ] Books on Elementalist magic
[ ] Books on Spirit Binding
[ ] Information about the political relations between Tilean princes
[ ] The names of anyone in the city used to making equipment for wizards
Stewardship Result
-[X] Bring Research supplies
To be a wizard is be both warrior and scholar, the colleges were founded in war time but once they absorbed all that Teclis would offer they pursued their own research.
It seems wise to acquire your own set of materials to bring with you for the journey.
Magic can work in almost any environment and with any tools but near a century of refinement and work has taught your college what works best. Further your own training so far has revealed what works best for you.
Stewardship Roll - 33 plus 16 = 49. Moderate Success.
Given that this is an expedition sanctioned by the highest authorities of the colleges it is not hard to get a basic set up.
A cauldron, beakers, vials, flasks, pestle and mortar, measuring equipement and most importantly of all. A set of soft linen blankets. These may seem unimportant but they make a simple but perfect way to transport your glass items without damaging them.
Stewardship Result - Tools that will provide a bonus to your personal experiments where relevant.
Learning
-[X] Study Araby
Heinrich has stated that you will have co-operation from local lords and magic users in your quest into the desert. This is certainly reassuring. The crusades were a long time ago and yet they represent the most involved that the Empire of Man and Araby have been in each others affairs. It did not engender much friendship to say the least.
Since then the distance between the two of you has made it almost irrelevant what is happening in each others sphere of influence. Yet for both of you the undead remain a constant problem. You have Sylvania and they have Nehekara itself.
Therefore it would be wise for you to add to you current understanding of what is happening in Araby in the here and now.
Learning Roll - 61 +21 = 82. Great Success.
When it becomes known that you wish to study Araby in general you receive help from a surprising source. Heinrich himself is planning to give a seminar on this exact topic to anyone interested in learning.
So that is how you end up clustered in with 16 other people in a small converted room in his office building. Your fellow listeners include a few other wizards, priests and soldiers. Heinrich is hardly the most gifted speaker, but you've stayed awake through worse.
He begins his explanation by saying "Araby has always been a land of wilful people, who stand on their own and dislike being told what they must do by outsiders. Given its geography, vast empty deserts with densely populated oases of civilisation, this makes it very hard to centrally govern. How much authority a Padishah from Al-Haikk has can vary massively, from totally powerless to iron fisted like Sultan Jafar."
He points to a map of Araby on his the wall behind him "Today, Al-Haikk is ruled by the Sultan Baibars, most of what we know of him personally is the usual rubbish nobles like to talk about" the people in this room have come from all walks of life, but all are of the common born or gentry, and all share conspiratorial side eyes at that. Your lecturer continues "But he does live up to at least some of what they like to go on about. A priest of Sigmar making his way through the area reported to us 10 years ago that he had defeated an army of Daemons that emerge from the Blood River. That he had brought many sorcerers, Djinn binders and even Wizards from our colleges to his court. He's not commanding any of the other great cities private armies, but they do send him many great "gifts" in honour of his victory and majesty."
"His own spies informed him of what we were planning and rather than rail against us for planning to march a small army through his lands. He offered us his support, using said priest of Sigmar as an intermediary. In exchange for what we learn being made available to him, he will supply us with food, water, the transportation of information and access to his court of Learned Men." He looks surprisingly grumpy about that, it all sounded good to you but then again an investigator probably didn't appreciate being spied upon.
Result - Knowledge about Araby (relatively unified with a growing magical institute) and knowledge that there is a priest of Sigmar there with some access to the Sultan and his court. Unlocks additional actions.
Piety Results
-[X] Acquire Holy Books
You would define yourself as a Gnostic or possibly a Deist. The Gods exist, that much is obvious, people with no magical education have summoned light, healed the sick, thrown lightning and countless other things. All of which seem to cross the lines between the Winds of Magic without forming Qhaysh or Dhar.
This is a trait you share with your father, the gods exist, there's no point in offending them but everything good in your life come from Family, hard work and a little magic.
Your mother is by far the most religious member of the household. He devotion to Shallya is near total. She practices a form of Monolatry, she know that other gods exist she just refuses to praise them everyday.
As she put it, "Why praise gods that bring violence and death, men do that fine on their own. Why praise fire and destruction, you can do that with a torch and an axe. But Shallya brings healing and when her presences shines true, all the suffering of the world may be aleivatiated."
Noble, but you never quite felt that same call and yet the gods have been a strong part of your life. The thought of leaving the lands They watch over for a foreign one that knows nothing of Them, without even bringing something of Them with you seems wrong.
Piety Roll - 71 plus 12 = 83. Great Success.
Books might be relatively expensive in the Empire, but there are a few factors to aid you.
First you are traveling with a band of Warrior Priests, emphasis on the priests in this case.
So getting your hands on the Deus Sigmar, Der Liber Heldenhammer and a written copy of The Legend of Sigmar, is actually quite easy. The priests are a little too happy to give you the books and expound on the virtues within and the importance of cultivating inner strength and faith. It reminds you that while these are the most openminded of the Church of Sigmar, they still have a view that magic is a last resort and that faith in their god is much superior.
Apparently not to be outdone when they see you hauling these books around, Evangeline and your mother give you their own books on Mannan and Shallya.
Finally there is an old weather beaten copy of theories on the Earth Mother in the Jade college.
Reading through all these familiar texts and ideas brings you a sense of comfort. Though you go far beyond their site you trust the gods of the empire to continue to watch over while you are gone and maybe to watch over you as you go.
Result - Fine collection of Imperial Holy books, opens new actions to increase piety.
Magic Results
-[X] Arcane Marks
Magic touches all things and so in turn has a nearly infinite number of things to study. So in theory it should be easy to pick something to research, however nothing is so simple.
Show an artist nothing but a blank canvas and he can paint anything but more likely he will paint nothing. He will be overwhelmed by all the options he could take and never get started.
That is certainly how you feel now and it makes you empathise with every artist and writer trying to get started.
This is not simply another side project your master has decided you should help him with. This is to be your masterpiece.
A masterpiece is more than just a project, it is proof. That a wizard is now not merely a wielder of the Winds but a master of one of them. Not beyond flaw or reproach but at least beyond the need for instruction. After a masterpiece has been accepted a wizard is their own master and teacher. From now on any new knowledge will be learned on their own, others may help and assist but from then on it will be their own journey into magic.
For a masterpiece is a wizard's first personal contribution to humanities ever growing knowledge of the arcane arts. It is proof that they do not endlessly repeat what has been given but give back as well.
Those who have been deemed worthy to be a journeyman may use their magic outside of the college in whatever way they see fit. But they are just receptacles of the teachings of the college. They will take no students and without a masterpiece they pass on no new knowledge.
Like every journeyman before you, you have every intention of completing a masterpiece but you cannot help but wonder if the reason why some never do is because they don't know where to start.
Your trip into the library of your college has shown you the dizzying amount of knowledge that your college can call upon. To add to it is great honour and a heavy burden.
Spells and formulae, potions and models all race through your mind and you spend hours getting no where. As you are doing so you fall back onto a habit of long years, people watching.
Too many in your college are content to feel the flow of the world around them in its totality without considering each individual aspect of what you are looking at. You can't help but examine the magisters, journeymen and apprentices that make their way about.
As you do so you see countless people with vines growing from their hair, barking for skin and little flowers growing at their feet. All these are arcane marks, things that inextricably tie them to sorcery. Your third eye reveals the way Ghyran flows through them but even someone without one would know at a glance that these were magical being.
That is where the spark of the idea comes into being. Perhaps what you should be studying is not the bending of the winds into spells. Or even the way nature breaths in Ghyran but rather the effect that it has on you and your peers.
Magic roll DC 35/60/70. Result 1 and 80 + 24 = 104. Massive Success
You focus your third eye on these who pass you by and look deeper at their arcane marks. It is hard to see clearly through the constantly flowing power that suffuses the Jade College. While it may look like a pristine and scenic little set houses built across bumpy little hills, it is far more than that. The Winds here might not be a raging inferno or a tempest but they are no less powerful or distracting for it. Further each wizards has their unique connection to the Jade Wind.
This is not really a problem you have ever had before, conventional logic would be that more of your wind would be a good thing. But in this case it distracts and muddles your attempts to examine things in detail. What you really need is for the winds around you to … not calm so much as disperse a little. To not be so overbearing that you can't take note of things in detail. So you redouble your efforts with your Witchsight.
As you do so you remember the canticles in Eltharin taught to you to control the way you Channel your wind into the world. Usually a Channeler would have to master these particular ones as an intermediate step on their path. First they would learn the songs that turned them into a direct Channel for Ghyran and the intermediate ones that determined its precise nature and the final ones that would determine how it would be sent forth into the world.
The first ones were always unnecessary for you as the Jade Wind always thrummed through you. But the latter two were still useful, in this case you are changing the rhythm of your thoughts through the canticles and through that altering the way Ghyran moves through you. In the past you were taught to use it as a means both to power your spells with only your own Ghyran and to strengthen Ghyran's grip on the world to empower yourself further. But what if you did the opposite.
So you use the winds constantly flowing through you spread out across the hill and disperse the Ghyran there. It does not still the wind but rather loosens its grip on the area. What you are doing is not a spell but instead an act of will. It has few practical benefits other than to prevent the rushing of arcane energy from interfering with your Sight. If a mage truly wanted to they would still be able to cast spells in this space.
With this small pocket created you can see much more clearly into the nature of each individual arcane mark.
You have never really considered what an arcane mark truly was before now. In truth you had only ever really seen your master's, his wooden claws and his beard that grew longer across the length of a conversation.
However now you have hundreds of examples walk in front of you.
It is not something you notice in a single day but as you return to your habit of people watching for the next three months, a pattern of two distinct things begins to form. With your new trick you can see the Marks with clarity you never had before.
Firstly, all arcane marks are most definitely the product of mistakes. A fellow apprentice had once speculated that enough immersion in a particular wind, even without a mistake, would create an arcane mark. But between your 10 years of practice and lack of mark, along with what you see here, you can definitively say they were wrong. For here, each Mark is not malignant as the mutations of those you have seen burnt at the stake are. But they are none the less gnarled. They are wounds that have healed, physical signs of where magic ran amuck the body and soul both had to recover from the fact. There is a twisted beauty to them, each is a ruination but also physical proof that one has endured their mistakes and now are better for it.
Secondly, there is an almost imperceptible difference between the way Ghyran flows through the rest of the body and the Arcane marks. The wind of life moves through all living things but it collects in the areas most vital to a person, the heart, lungs, brain and spine. But the Jade glow in the Marks outshines any of these places. while a proper study was needed you are fairly certain that Wizards power would increase with each mark acquired. Not immediately but over time as the wound healed and Mark set itself and gained pools of magic to call upon and a way to attune themselves to their wind.
You can't help muse on whether such pools could be artificially, intentionally, created.
While the three months you spend watching yield no earthshattering revelations they may have just put you on the path you need to walk for your masterpiece.
Results - Learned to use Channelling to disperse winds, new options unlocked and observed that arcane marks are the result of mistakes alone but do have benefits, new options unlock.
A/N
I am so glad Channelling was chosen, this would have been a disastrous start to this quest without it. Sorry this took a little longer.
-[X] Search the Library
-[X] Enquire about a personal investigator
-[X] Have a letter sent
-[X] Bring Research supplies
-[X] Study Araby
-[X] Acquire Holy Books
-[X] Arcane Marks
We have a winner
"... Swear he didn't have a face" you say gesturing at yours "it wasn't just a deep hood but an empty one".
Your father looks very curious but your mother uncomfortable, not really surprising.
You had just finished explaining the last 48 hours to them, from the three man brawl, to the three adventures, to your current plan. Which is to travel half way across the known world to the land of the dead, as the three of you sit on the veranda of your parents townhouse your mother had unsurprisingly gazed furiously at your father. As if it were all his fault, she tended to do that whenever you did something she disapproved of.
Your mother was a very short women, your no amazon but your nearly a head taller than her. Right now she is wearing her veil, having just returned from the temple of Shallya to give offerings. She always insisted on doing so, it wasn't required but she said going to temple should be something special and the veil meant it wasn't just another day. It obscures what would otherwise be a kind heart shaped face, with eyes that rather reminded you of a jungle cat, that are currently glaring at your father.
He is quite the opposite to her, a granite like face and a head taller than you. He has an extremely powerful build that has nothing to do with his job and more to do with his time at the wrestling club. He used to be a town guard but after moving to Altdorf he got a job with Altdorf Pamphlet writing rude jokes about soldierly life. Hardly a lofty job but it paid the bills and he had managed to parley it in to something else entirely. Having written for them for 20 years his column had morphed into a cooking guide, a gossip space, a news outlet and really anything that caught his attention as the years went by. At this point the Pamphlet just let him do whatever he wanted. Eventually as time passed the Pamphlet sold him a share of itself to keep him on, as by that point his column was something their readers expected to see.
His interest had turned into amusement at your mothers anger, perhaps just to spite her he said "well I'm glad your not thinking small with your Journey, you should go out and see the world" his eyes turned serious "but did you have to take the journey part of it so seriously?"
You grimace and say "I know its far and dangerous but I'll literally have a small army around me and I'll be able to do some real good. I doubt we'll learn anything that'll banish necromancy from the world but we might get more efficient weapons to fight it. Plus a chance to work with the most open minded people in the colleges and the Church of Sigmar is a rare opportunity."
"About that" your mother says wandering over to you passing you some pressed fruit juice, "I know things have been better between the Colleges and Church in the last 20 years but I'm shocked that a Witch Hunter actually wants so many Wizards to come along."
You accept the drink with a shrug "He seems to have a good academic understanding of magic. That probably means he's worked with some before."
You father finishes his own drink and says "Well your a grown woman and you can make your own way in the world, we don't want to stifle you. I always thought it might be a few years before I saw you again once you started Journeying. But if you think I'm waiting 4 months to get a letter from you from the Land of the Dead your wrong." He turns to his wife and says "Dear I think its time for me to take a leave of absence from work and travel a bit, just you and me."
She brighten ups at that and says "Oh yes I've always wanted to visit the Grand Chapel of Mannan" in an overly innocent voice she continues "but for the life of me, I can't remember where it is."
Your father snaps his fingers and proclaims "you know I think its in Miragliano."
"Yes of course how could I forget."
As they continue with this ridiculous charade you think two things.
I'm so glad I'll be able to get letters from them a few times a year.
I really hope they stop there, I don't want to face a tomb king with my mother fussing over whether I've eaten enough.
Martial Results
-[X] Search the Library
Outside scholars may view the Jade College as somewhat backwards, a relic of druidic learning. Word of mouth from parent to child. But while that might be a component in it, what with Ghyran passing in the family, it is also a modern hall of learning.
To that end it is fully equipped with not only its own library but also a full staff and even printing press to circulate non corruptive tomes. As a Journeyman you no longer require a note of permission to enter this place and may take a written copy anywhere within the city of Altdorf.
Martial Roll - 6 + 14 = 20. Failed
This makes it extremely easy to find some relevant books to you. However there is no standardised unit of difficulty for learning spells. So it takes quite some time for you to eliminate those that are beyond your current abilities or niche value to you.
By the end of the three months you have, you have read a great deal but have been unable to convince the library to let you take the books with you. As someone who was not especially famous within the college for her fighting ability they see little value in risking these books being taken to the other side of the world when you have yet to provide anything in turn. Magisters are free to take nearly anything they like but that is because they have added to the Colleges collective lore.
Still all those books did give you some ideas. Several of the newer texts mention names you saw on Heinrich's list, perhaps they can teach you on the way.
Result - Failed acquire specific spells to learn but unlocked new actions to investigate potential teachers in the group.
[ ] Ask someone on the list to teach you how to fight
[ ] Elizabeth Strauss - Famous in the Jade College for pioneering long range combat techniques, extending ones perception through the soil and remaining hidden while fighting. She is rumoured to have also been involved in the poisoning of some malcontent nobles, but that's just a rumour. Right? DC- 65/90, she is not particularly eager to take a student so the main difficulty is in convincing her.
[ ] Andreas Von Hammerfell - A true giant of a man, destined for a life in a Knightly order before his talent was discovered, he has bent the jade Wind and his combat skills to work together. He cannot wear armour but he shrugs off and heals blows so well he doesn't really need it. DC 55/100, he would be happy to teach you but what he has to teach is incorporating melee combat, which you know little about.
[ ] Tyr Ulricson - A small reedy man from Middenheim, called a coward by many until they feel his protective spells. The Jade Wind gives itself to healing, but he has mastered the art of extending that healing to entire units. Those who march under him will not die unless killed immediately. DC - 75/100, he is apprehensive to teach given how little experience you have with mass healing but if convinced this power would help not just you but the entire army.
Cost for all - you'll owe your teacher a favour if you succeed which will take up an action. Reward - Increase to martial score,
additional instruction actions unlocked.
[ ] Don't ask for help, practice what you know - Stick to what is familiar to you and make what spells you have not just something you can do on demand but reflexively accomplish. DC - 35/55/75/100. Reward - Small Marital increase and ideas for magic research at higher success.
Intrigue Results
-[X] Enquire about a personal investigator
You never really imagined yourself having an assistant but frankly you need one.
You are not stupid and one of the things anyone of reasonable intelligence should know is what they don't know.
To that end it seems wise to find someone who can help you out with those areas you feel least able to deal with. You have combat training and you know your books and your magic. But there is always the nitty gritty in between the things one wants to achieve.
Finding the truth of a situation and manipulating it to your advantage, your teacher had that gift but you lack it.
Time to find someone who doesn't.
Intrigue Rolls - 66 plus 7 = 73. Good Success.
After all that build up it proves surprisingly easy.
There is a board in the centre of the college where those who have business with the college may post information. You simply write up a rather basic piece of advertising and leave it on the board for a while and soon a few individuals who can read between the lines begin to show up.
You eliminate one man who thought the thing to read between the lines was to be your beaux.
You eliminate another because he seems to have decided that the Jade Wind is in fact a god and you one of his priests. You have to almost bodily throw him out as he explains how the Light and Jade Winds are Sigmar and Shallya's children and the other six are daemons spawned by the Ruinous Powers.
The last two are suitable but sadly you can only pick one.
(They can in future be set to help you with any action so don't just look at the Intrigue score)
[ ] Adem Ibn Sahar - The child of two traders from Araby who settled in Marienburg. He sees this job as a perfect opportunity to travel back to Araby. He doesn't plan to leave you there, in his words "any many who goes to the land of the unquiet dead and comes back, will never have an empty bed for the rest of his life". Well if you wanted nobility you wouldn't have been looking for someone to help you with unsavoury jobs.
Martial - 18
Intrigue - 14
Diplomacy - 10
Stewardship - 7
Learning - 13
Piety - 14
Magic - 0
[ ] Johann Gorniak - A man with a classically imperial name and presumably Kislevite surname. He hails from Ostland and was brought to the college just last year after displaying the power to turn wine into fortified wine while drunk. Unfortunately for him he has just enough magical power to be forced to join the college but not enough to get anywhere within it. Being a pragmatic sort with experience as a doer of odd jobs on a dozen different ships, he feels that your journey south will be a much desired form of freedom.
Martial - 12
Intrigue - 19
Diplomacy - 10
Stewardship - 10
Learning - 16
Piety - 17
Magic - 5
Diplomacy Result
-[X] Have a letter sent
Evangeline proves most happy to share the details with you.
The man currently running the dock is called Siegfried Von Musel. A priest of Sigmar who had always had more of a head for numbers than scripture. His faith was true but reciting verses had never been his strong suit and while any man of the empire should be able to fight he was merely average.
To that end he had turned his talents where they were best suited. Managing the temporal assets of the church, exposing corruption in the book keeping and a thousand other inglorious but necessary tasks.
You send him the letter, hoping to get the man's measure and perhaps a rundown of how things might be shipped from the mainland across the sea to your forward base.
Diplomacy Roll - 89 +11 = 100. Great Success.
What you get back is an extremely (perhaps over so) enthusiastic letter in response. It seems no one had bothered to send him a letter since informing him to prepare a ship for the expedition use in the coming year. He is actually quite enthusiastic to hear back from you about what you plan to do when you reach the Land of the Dead.
Attached is an explanation of the things he is confident he will be able to get his hands one, along with a request to clarify what precisely you are hoping to take.
Result - Made a positive first impression on an important member of the expedition and can instruct him what to prioritise looking for before you arrive.
Select 2
[ ] Books on Tilean Magic
[ ] Books on surviving Nehekaran traditions
[ ] Up to date information on Sultan Baibars
[ ] Public information from the Cult of Morr on the Undead
[ ] Samples of Magical artefacts
[ ] Books on previous Expeditions to the Land of the Dead
[ ] Books on Elementalist magic
[ ] Books on Spirit Binding
[ ] Information about the political relations between Tilean princes
[ ] The names of anyone in the city used to making equipment for wizards
Stewardship Result
-[X] Bring Research supplies
To be a wizard is be both warrior and scholar, the colleges were founded in war time but once they absorbed all that Teclis would offer they pursued their own research.
It seems wise to acquire your own set of materials to bring with you for the journey.
Magic can work in almost any environment and with any tools but near a century of refinement and work has taught your college what works best. Further your own training so far has revealed what works best for you.
Stewardship Roll - 33 plus 16 = 49. Moderate Success.
Given that this is an expedition sanctioned by the highest authorities of the colleges it is not hard to get a basic set up.
A cauldron, beakers, vials, flasks, pestle and mortar, measuring equipement and most importantly of all. A set of soft linen blankets. These may seem unimportant but they make a simple but perfect way to transport your glass items without damaging them.
Stewardship Result - Tools that will provide a bonus to your personal experiments where relevant.
Learning
-[X] Study Araby
Heinrich has stated that you will have co-operation from local lords and magic users in your quest into the desert. This is certainly reassuring. The crusades were a long time ago and yet they represent the most involved that the Empire of Man and Araby have been in each others affairs. It did not engender much friendship to say the least.
Since then the distance between the two of you has made it almost irrelevant what is happening in each others sphere of influence. Yet for both of you the undead remain a constant problem. You have Sylvania and they have Nehekara itself.
Therefore it would be wise for you to add to you current understanding of what is happening in Araby in the here and now.
Learning Roll - 61 +21 = 82. Great Success.
When it becomes known that you wish to study Araby in general you receive help from a surprising source. Heinrich himself is planning to give a seminar on this exact topic to anyone interested in learning.
So that is how you end up clustered in with 16 other people in a small converted room in his office building. Your fellow listeners include a few other wizards, priests and soldiers. Heinrich is hardly the most gifted speaker, but you've stayed awake through worse.
He begins his explanation by saying "Araby has always been a land of wilful people, who stand on their own and dislike being told what they must do by outsiders. Given its geography, vast empty deserts with densely populated oases of civilisation, this makes it very hard to centrally govern. How much authority a Padishah from Al-Haikk has can vary massively, from totally powerless to iron fisted like Sultan Jafar."
He points to a map of Araby on his the wall behind him "Today, Al-Haikk is ruled by the Sultan Baibars, most of what we know of him personally is the usual rubbish nobles like to talk about" the people in this room have come from all walks of life, but all are of the common born or gentry, and all share conspiratorial side eyes at that. Your lecturer continues "But he does live up to at least some of what they like to go on about. A priest of Sigmar making his way through the area reported to us 10 years ago that he had defeated an army of Daemons that emerge from the Blood River. That he had brought many sorcerers, Djinn binders and even Wizards from our colleges to his court. He's not commanding any of the other great cities private armies, but they do send him many great "gifts" in honour of his victory and majesty."
"His own spies informed him of what we were planning and rather than rail against us for planning to march a small army through his lands. He offered us his support, using said priest of Sigmar as an intermediary. In exchange for what we learn being made available to him, he will supply us with food, water, the transportation of information and access to his court of Learned Men." He looks surprisingly grumpy about that, it all sounded good to you but then again an investigator probably didn't appreciate being spied upon.
Result - Knowledge about Araby (relatively unified with a growing magical institute) and knowledge that there is a priest of Sigmar there with some access to the Sultan and his court. Unlocks additional actions.
Piety Results
-[X] Acquire Holy Books
You would define yourself as a Gnostic or possibly a Deist. The Gods exist, that much is obvious, people with no magical education have summoned light, healed the sick, thrown lightning and countless other things. All of which seem to cross the lines between the Winds of Magic without forming Qhaysh or Dhar.
This is a trait you share with your father, the gods exist, there's no point in offending them but everything good in your life come from Family, hard work and a little magic.
Your mother is by far the most religious member of the household. He devotion to Shallya is near total. She practices a form of Monolatry, she know that other gods exist she just refuses to praise them everyday.
As she put it, "Why praise gods that bring violence and death, men do that fine on their own. Why praise fire and destruction, you can do that with a torch and an axe. But Shallya brings healing and when her presences shines true, all the suffering of the world may be aleivatiated."
Noble, but you never quite felt that same call and yet the gods have been a strong part of your life. The thought of leaving the lands They watch over for a foreign one that knows nothing of Them, without even bringing something of Them with you seems wrong.
Piety Roll - 71 plus 12 = 83. Great Success.
Books might be relatively expensive in the Empire, but there are a few factors to aid you.
First you are traveling with a band of Warrior Priests, emphasis on the priests in this case.
So getting your hands on the Deus Sigmar, Der Liber Heldenhammer and a written copy of The Legend of Sigmar, is actually quite easy. The priests are a little too happy to give you the books and expound on the virtues within and the importance of cultivating inner strength and faith. It reminds you that while these are the most openminded of the Church of Sigmar, they still have a view that magic is a last resort and that faith in their god is much superior.
Apparently not to be outdone when they see you hauling these books around, Evangeline and your mother give you their own books on Mannan and Shallya.
Finally there is an old weather beaten copy of theories on the Earth Mother in the Jade college.
Reading through all these familiar texts and ideas brings you a sense of comfort. Though you go far beyond their site you trust the gods of the empire to continue to watch over while you are gone and maybe to watch over you as you go.
Result - Fine collection of Imperial Holy books, opens new actions to increase piety.
Magic Results
-[X] Arcane Marks
Magic touches all things and so in turn has a nearly infinite number of things to study. So in theory it should be easy to pick something to research, however nothing is so simple.
Show an artist nothing but a blank canvas and he can paint anything but more likely he will paint nothing. He will be overwhelmed by all the options he could take and never get started.
That is certainly how you feel now and it makes you empathise with every artist and writer trying to get started.
This is not simply another side project your master has decided you should help him with. This is to be your masterpiece.
A masterpiece is more than just a project, it is proof. That a wizard is now not merely a wielder of the Winds but a master of one of them. Not beyond flaw or reproach but at least beyond the need for instruction. After a masterpiece has been accepted a wizard is their own master and teacher. From now on any new knowledge will be learned on their own, others may help and assist but from then on it will be their own journey into magic.
For a masterpiece is a wizard's first personal contribution to humanities ever growing knowledge of the arcane arts. It is proof that they do not endlessly repeat what has been given but give back as well.
Those who have been deemed worthy to be a journeyman may use their magic outside of the college in whatever way they see fit. But they are just receptacles of the teachings of the college. They will take no students and without a masterpiece they pass on no new knowledge.
Like every journeyman before you, you have every intention of completing a masterpiece but you cannot help but wonder if the reason why some never do is because they don't know where to start.
Your trip into the library of your college has shown you the dizzying amount of knowledge that your college can call upon. To add to it is great honour and a heavy burden.
Spells and formulae, potions and models all race through your mind and you spend hours getting no where. As you are doing so you fall back onto a habit of long years, people watching.
Too many in your college are content to feel the flow of the world around them in its totality without considering each individual aspect of what you are looking at. You can't help but examine the magisters, journeymen and apprentices that make their way about.
As you do so you see countless people with vines growing from their hair, barking for skin and little flowers growing at their feet. All these are arcane marks, things that inextricably tie them to sorcery. Your third eye reveals the way Ghyran flows through them but even someone without one would know at a glance that these were magical being.
That is where the spark of the idea comes into being. Perhaps what you should be studying is not the bending of the winds into spells. Or even the way nature breaths in Ghyran but rather the effect that it has on you and your peers.
Magic roll DC 35/60/70. Result 1 and 80 + 24 = 104. Massive Success
You focus your third eye on these who pass you by and look deeper at their arcane marks. It is hard to see clearly through the constantly flowing power that suffuses the Jade College. While it may look like a pristine and scenic little set houses built across bumpy little hills, it is far more than that. The Winds here might not be a raging inferno or a tempest but they are no less powerful or distracting for it. Further each wizards has their unique connection to the Jade Wind.
This is not really a problem you have ever had before, conventional logic would be that more of your wind would be a good thing. But in this case it distracts and muddles your attempts to examine things in detail. What you really need is for the winds around you to … not calm so much as disperse a little. To not be so overbearing that you can't take note of things in detail. So you redouble your efforts with your Witchsight.
As you do so you remember the canticles in Eltharin taught to you to control the way you Channel your wind into the world. Usually a Channeler would have to master these particular ones as an intermediate step on their path. First they would learn the songs that turned them into a direct Channel for Ghyran and the intermediate ones that determined its precise nature and the final ones that would determine how it would be sent forth into the world.
The first ones were always unnecessary for you as the Jade Wind always thrummed through you. But the latter two were still useful, in this case you are changing the rhythm of your thoughts through the canticles and through that altering the way Ghyran moves through you. In the past you were taught to use it as a means both to power your spells with only your own Ghyran and to strengthen Ghyran's grip on the world to empower yourself further. But what if you did the opposite.
So you use the winds constantly flowing through you spread out across the hill and disperse the Ghyran there. It does not still the wind but rather loosens its grip on the area. What you are doing is not a spell but instead an act of will. It has few practical benefits other than to prevent the rushing of arcane energy from interfering with your Sight. If a mage truly wanted to they would still be able to cast spells in this space.
With this small pocket created you can see much more clearly into the nature of each individual arcane mark.
You have never really considered what an arcane mark truly was before now. In truth you had only ever really seen your master's, his wooden claws and his beard that grew longer across the length of a conversation.
However now you have hundreds of examples walk in front of you.
It is not something you notice in a single day but as you return to your habit of people watching for the next three months, a pattern of two distinct things begins to form. With your new trick you can see the Marks with clarity you never had before.
Firstly, all arcane marks are most definitely the product of mistakes. A fellow apprentice had once speculated that enough immersion in a particular wind, even without a mistake, would create an arcane mark. But between your 10 years of practice and lack of mark, along with what you see here, you can definitively say they were wrong. For here, each Mark is not malignant as the mutations of those you have seen burnt at the stake are. But they are none the less gnarled. They are wounds that have healed, physical signs of where magic ran amuck the body and soul both had to recover from the fact. There is a twisted beauty to them, each is a ruination but also physical proof that one has endured their mistakes and now are better for it.
Secondly, there is an almost imperceptible difference between the way Ghyran flows through the rest of the body and the Arcane marks. The wind of life moves through all living things but it collects in the areas most vital to a person, the heart, lungs, brain and spine. But the Jade glow in the Marks outshines any of these places. while a proper study was needed you are fairly certain that Wizards power would increase with each mark acquired. Not immediately but over time as the wound healed and Mark set itself and gained pools of magic to call upon and a way to attune themselves to their wind.
You can't help muse on whether such pools could be artificially, intentionally, created.
While the three months you spend watching yield no earthshattering revelations they may have just put you on the path you need to walk for your masterpiece.
Results - Learned to use Channelling to disperse winds, new options unlocked and observed that arcane marks are the result of mistakes alone but do have benefits, new options unlock.
A/N
I am so glad Channelling was chosen, this would have been a disastrous start to this quest without it. Sorry this took a little longer.