Haha, on the Eonir timescale maybe Mathilde would be just about starting to get some invitations to the parties where people can get in touch with each other for future deal making.
A Ballad of Trees and Wind: Queen Of Laurelorn Nega-Quest
Here is my attempt at that. Very bare bones updates unfortunatly, it is quite late for me. Still hope you guys enjoy, this is a lot more upbeat than the Boris one so I could to the Alt!SV accounts thing.
Parabolic said:
So now that we did the Middleland Gambit, finally after ten turns, I think we should start working on prepping the Houses on the notion that maybe we need to solve the tree thing.
Solve the tree thing? Now? We are barely balancing things as they are, we are one lost vote away from going isolationist again and you want to bring the Grey Lords into Politics? Yeah, that is what we need, get the Mad Scientist Exiles in on the international diplomacy. I still can't believe we choose that to be our 'boon'.
Come on it's not that bad, Lord Hatalath's supposed to have talked to humans before when he wandered the lands of whatever. Remember, he talked with those druid guys, the Belthani.
I would like to remind everyone of the MoneyB post on the matter:
MoneyB said:
Lord Hatalath did not like humans doing magic for good and sensible reasons, starting at 'humans mutate at an unreasonable rate' continuing with 'they don't live enough for a proper apprenticeship' and ending with 'dear Hoeth, a lot of them seem to Fall to Chaos when their realize point one and two'. He is not going to actively take a position against you, not after you guys choose him to be your confidant for so long, but don't expect him to be good at talking to human wizards, he's still half convinced they will explode if you breathe on them a little too hard.
I'm going to agree with the sentiment above, we cannot just jump into talking to the people with the funny robes when we do not even have this Ulric thing settled.
This is why Norland keeps stealing a march on us, it does not matter how good our rulers are if they move at the speed of molasses. Look, lets at least talk to the dwarfs, we do know how to talk to them from the Before Times so we do not suffer that fully -25 Rushed penalty, only the -10 Old Enemies one
The Ar Ulric was more than happy to facilitate the meeting, waving away the motion of sending an envoy to the far realm of Karak Eight Peaks so in a whir or dwarfish artifice she arrived, of all the imperials your envoy had ever encountered among the most odd, though common among those who call themselves 'wizards' of the Empire. It's like someone who decided to live all their lives among the branches of a single apple tree calling themselves a horticulturist...
[...]
*skill rolls hidden*
Magister Weber is known as an expert on orcs apparently, thankfully a scourge we do not have much trouble with, but knowledge is knowledge and this seems promising, or at least novel...
Availibility roll: 18 (Headed for Karak Dum)
Alas though she was cordial, not just on her own account, but in the name of King Belegar her path does not lead her to Laurelorn for she has sworn a mighty path to make it to isolated hold of Karag Dum, where the doughty folk of the Karaz Ankor hope that some of their kin still dwell. In her place the senior-most wizard remains the Journeyowman Panoramia of the Jade Colege
Nah, we can salvage this, this is good. Jades and Laurelin are a good match since they are all about things that grow and in canon it was the Jade Matriarch who was doing her thing to fix Sylvania. And by the time we get to our next turn she should be a magister
[...]
You are interupted in the midst of your negotiations with House Tindomiel with grave news:
Mathilde Roll: 100 Crit Roll 9
Having returned from the Chaos Wastes Magister Weber is embarking on a great, some would say foolhardy endeavour, to restore not just the lesser nodes of the network, but to rediscover the secret of the stones in the names of all good people.
YES, yes... give her everything... OK, OK, no offering military secrets to the Empire, give her everything we can posibily bribe her with short of getting deposed.
[Excerpt from 2491 Edition of A Guide to the Major Dwarf Holds of the Karaz Ankor, taught in the University of Altdorf]
...after almost two centuries of a well-concealed malaise about the decline of the Karaz Ankor, recent years have seen a sudden reversal. The stunning success of the Karak Eight Peaks Expedition saw the partial reclamation of a major hold lost thousands of years ago. But with more than half of the eponymous eight peaks bristling with enemies and an underground connection with another nearby old hold filled to the brim with greenskins, there were doubts about whether this success was a fluke of luck rather than a sign of things to come. But a handful of years later saw the shattering of such doubts with the decisive reclamation of the rest of the hold and the utter destruction of the million-strong Waaagh that sallied from Black Crag to crush the newly-reclaimed hold the day after.
As Karak Eight Peaks secured its position, Everpeak sent forth a large army of craftsdwarfs and various experts not to war, but to rebuilding. At a pace that would seem uncharacteristic of any dwarven project, the large Karak was restored from millenia of greenskin occupation in mere years. Shortly after that, the expedition all the way into the Chaos Wastes to ascertain the fate of Karag Dum discovered the magical trickery that had abducted and trapped Karak Vlag in the realm of Chaos for almost two centuries. Lady Magister Mathilde Weber uncovered the nature of the grand spell and devised a way to undo it, bringing the lost Karak back into reality and sending the daemons besieging it scrambling for a means to sustain themselves. The Expedition was ready for them, however, and after a great battle total victory was had. Astonishingly, most of Karak Vlag's population had survived untainted, bolstering the Karaz Ankor yet further.
Though the Karag Dum Expedition returned with the grim news that Karag Dum had resorted to some kind of desperate means to spite Chaos as much as possible before its eventual fall, the fact remained that the Karaz Ankor had achieved a much better outcome than it had ever imagined possible.
Today, the two "new" Karaks are remarkably different from the norm, but no less interesting than the others.
Karak Vlag was forced to adopt extreme wariness and practicality to survive an impossible siege, but rather than being morose, they seem stubbornly defiant of the pressures and dangers they face. With Karak Kadrin being rather far to the south, Karak Vlag finds its closest ally and connection in Kislev, a country which is all too happy to have a dwarf hold watching over High Pass and as a prized trading partner.
Karak Eight Peaks is a crossroads, a hub, and a reflection of its nature as a newly established hold built on the ruins and legacy of an ancient, prestigious hold. Thousands of humans and thousands of halflings proudly call it home, as do a newly-discovered species of highly-intelligent giant spider. Even a number of wizards dwell here, with a number of wizard towers clearly visible to those who look for them. Travelers and traders pass through here from many directions, including south to Karak Azul, west to Barak Varr, and east towards the Dark Lands and Cathay. Goods and people travel through Death Pass while watched over by the Winter Wolves of Ulric, passing through an ancient dwarven tunnel before boarding dwarven steam vessels to travel down a river towards Barak Varr. From there, the newly-established canal allows for ships to travel to Zhufbar and Stirland and beyond via rivers, or to board a sailing ship and venture out into the ocean in the west. And with the establishment of a major branch of the Imperial Gunnery School in Karak Eight Peaks and steady growth of farmlands worked by diligent halflings in the Eastern Valley between the mountains, the message Karak Eight Peaks sends is that it is here to stay.
The canal project spearheaded by Karak Kadrin and Ostermark only reinforce the impression that rather than decline, the Karaz Ankor is becoming more connected and lively than it has in living memory...
---
Regimand closed the book, sighing in amusement and satisfaction. He never would have imagined that his former apprentice would have taken her bold new direction in life with the dwarves to such extremes. Knowing her, she probably ended up there partly by accident. Still, that she wasn't content to rest on her well-earned laurels just yet was nice to see. Tackling such an ambitious and infamously impenetrable mystery as the Waystones was just like her, he thought. Though he wasn't sure what would be worse: that she might end up genuinely upset that she had failed like so many others before her (including the likes of elven archmages, no less), or that she might end up actually succeeding, and feel like she had to keep performing miracles just to meet the expectations she and others would place on her.
Perhaps she'd take a break from such absurdity and try to solve the mystery of creating Orbs of Sorcery? Regimand couldn't help but snort in amusement. Yes, she'd take a break from banging her head futilely against one wall to bang her head against another, slightly less absurd wall.
He sighed wistfully. She really had come such an incredibly long way from the scared, wide-eyed ten-year-old girl who all but latched onto him as they rode away from Kelham.
Lord Hatalath's first attempts at the reverse-engineered storage mechanism are, in his own words, as difficult as he expected. Despite the enchantment not being Qhaysh, you and Egrimm had privately mused before that probably the only human enchanter in the history of the Colleges who would be capable of the enchantment the Grey Lords had presented would have been the famed Friedrich von Tarnus, first Patriarch of the Bright College, and a prodigy within the areas of enchantment and staff-turning. But it's one thing to muse that, and another to actually see a millennia-old Elven archmage struggle with it.
You are certain that this reverse-engineered enchantment has more storage capacity than any other option on the table, and you hope that with enough time the enchantment would become easy enough that at least other Collegiate enchanters would be able to reliably make them, but it might take some time before that happens. But you're getting ahead of yourself, since the prototype waystone isn't even done yet. In case it does not work, or in the event you decide to make another prototype, that's not really relevant.
Since Lord Hatalath was busy with the Storage, and Sarvoi needed to handle the Qhaysh-dependent Capstone mechanism alongside some of his students (with Cadaeth supervising), this unfortunately left you and possibly some of the other College wizards with the unenviable task of putting into practice the Foundation component the Grey Lords made, which will allow the magic stored within the waystone to be dropped where it needs to go so it stops being a problem. Working with the original leyline mechanism, this Foundation mechanism needs to orbit two Winds into a stable orbit of Dhar, before dropping the entire package into the leyline below.
Had you chosen a purely riverine transmission mechanism, this would probably be the easiest step of the entire waystone, since you wouldn't need to orbit the Winds at all. The Winds would merely be dropped onto the river, and any Dhar in the bedrock beneath, to follow an identical path. Setting up the waystone itself would be more difficult.
But since you didn't, and chose a hybrid transmission mechanism that may do either, you need to do some adjustments. After consulting with Tochter (who is being aided by Zlata and Niedzwenka and Aksel, for lack of any other part they could truly help with), about how exactly she would place the monolith her Order created within or beneath the river, you return to the workshop, where Egrimm and Elrisse await.
"The most arduous task appears to be yours," says Elrisse. You can't tell whether she's disapproving or perhaps saddened. Either way, she clearly does not like that any Collegiate wizard has to be the one to do this part, even with special dispensation.
You trade glances with Egrimm. He seems a bit resigned. "I could do it by myself-"
"Absolutely not," you say, frowning. "I won't make my subordinate do what I wouldn't. I'll do it."
He gives you a complicated look you're not sure you can decipher. Then he gives a bit of a pained smile, and nods. "As you wish."
Never before have you broken the Articles, not by your interpretation of them. Not when you read a very forbidden book, not when you examined Skaven devices with Johann, and not when you studied the Windfall with Egrimm. You wouldn't say you broke them when you had to seal the liminal realm you first created either, since touching some of Tzeentch's magic briefly is still more ideal than possibly leaving an opening in reality for a Greater Daemon to come through. And you're not doing it now either, given your special dispensation.
But you are still purposely creating Dhar for the first time, albeit via an enchantment. Just a bit, certainly, and you are protected by Kragg's belt from true harm, but the Colleges do not consider any amount of Dhar safe, and this will be viewed as a necessary evil at best.
——
[Foundation, Mathilde: 92+29+20(Room of Dawn and Dusk)+10(Enchanter)+10(Windherder)+10(Dhar Insight)=171]
You stare at your completed works with some concern. Between your tower, your affinity for enchantment, your experience in touching other Winds with Egrimm, and your damnable insight into Dhar, this is perhaps the best enchantment you've ever made. In theory, the enchantment drops the Winds straight into Caledor's leylines, and in case the next waystone is destroyed or turned off, it instead would reroute itself to drop the Winds onto the river nearby and the Jade monolith beneath. You are even starting to get an idea of the logic behind the enchantment, self-recursive though it is.
You've outdone yourself, and for once that's not a good thing.
Egrimm scrutinizes it from all sides, a bit wide-eyed, as though expecting to find some hidden catch or flaw. He opens his mouth, then closes it.
Elrisse keeps her usual neutral expression, but you do feel her eyes linger on you. You are about to say something to weaken the suspicions they are inevitably having in their head, when Egrimm beats you to it. "The Grey Lords sure are something."
You nod, not missing a beat. "Dhar may provide more firepower than the Winds usually have, but if it can be manipulated so easily, anyone would dismiss the idea that it is truly stronger in any sense. It is merely easier, more tempting to the uninitiated."
There's a thousand terrible things Elrisse could be pondering, or respond with, but what comes out of her mouth is simply relieving to you: "And thankfully, House Tindomiel would be first to create Waystones in the Empire. You may well be the only human wizard to ever use that enchantment."
"Hopefully," you say. Ranald willing, connecting the pieces that the rest of the Project members have made will go smoothly.
And perhaps you can put aside the thought that you are the Project's resident Dhar expert.
---
I tried my best to imitate Boney's writing style and also in particular have Egrimm be suspicious in a way that could possibly actually be innocent. It was a lot easier than it should have been.
It might be wishful thinking on my end that Mathilde will be responsible for the Foundation, because I feel like this is a very precise intersection of her skills, liable to get a really high result.
OK so first off this was inspired by the 40K Negaverse here by @BurnNote, without it I would not be writing this so many thanks for that.
40K Negaverse: Seeking the Way
Mathilde is a Sanctioned Psyker comes from the planet of Stir Secundus, somewhere in the Ultima Segmentum on the other side of the galactic core from Tera. By chance, if that is what you want to call it, she is send back to the planet to aid the newly made Sector Governor Abelheim van Hel is an Inquisitor who was granted Sector Governership for heroic deeds. He too has a history with this place as it was his ancestor who unleashed a blight of Abominable Intelligence upon the sector to defend against an invasion of xenos. Now poor Abelheim is working on a shoestring budget with subordinates of dubious skill, some of them are thieves, some of them are zealots (he does not have a very good impression of the Imperial Cult ever since they refused to send aid for his reconquest campaign) and one of them is a young noble called Anton. The governor sends him looking for mercenaries with some hints that if he were to find some who are not... entirely in the Light of the Emperor that is fine they can redeem themselves. He comes back with the maybe-posibily-we-do not-talk-about-it sentient Eldari Void Stalker Class Battleship Deathfang dating back to the heyday of the Eldar Empire captained by exiled admiral from Ulthwé, Asarnil. At this point any sector governor who did not also have a bloody rosette would have executed him for heresy. Abelheim goes 'well done Anton, lets kill those AI'. Also since he already has a major xenos asset in his fleet he does not even blink at making a treaty with the Spakerönde of Zhufbar to burn out the Abominable intelligence once and for all.
Mathilde who has an unusual skill at illusion for a Primaris Psyker uses that to... actually speak Eldari properly, full sensory experience. Admiral Asarnil is so amazed by this that he actually opens up a bit. He is not sharing any deep secrets of the Eldar, but even what little Mathilde reads between the lines is enough to convince her that is there is to be any hope of deafeating chaos it must include the aid of the elder races, the Imperium alone will fall, it is falling all around her day by day.
As though to prove that point Abelheim's campaign ends in tragedy with Mathilde taking up his Relic Power Sword to defend him and only the forces of Votans and and Eldar ship hanging on at the end. Those Anals of Imperial history that were not utterly redacted would mark this as the forging of a heretic unlike any the Imperium of Man had seen since the days of the Great Crusade. On that battlefield Mathilde would receive Abelheim Van Hall's secret treasure and shame, a man of Iron STC
Now made an inquisitor Mathilde bearing the rosette of her late master would depart for Votans space together with the Space Marine Chapter of the White Wolves which had left their recruiting world for unclear and potentially shameful reasons. Ostensibly Mathilde goes to spy on them and on the strange abhumans, though her mind is on other matters. In the ancient ruined system known only as VAU, playing host to a staggering eight living worlds battle is joined. After a series of psychic and other weird shenanigans during the initial invasion Mathilde would gain the eye and favor of the Laughing God after channeling vast amounts of Waagh energy into a slumbering shrine of the Eldar God that no one had recognized much less used in millennia.
Settling in to her role as chief warp-wrangler, now with the aid of her own divine patron Mathilde would gain psychic insights and hone her mind against greenskins and fouler xenos, the same ones that had prompted Vanhell to unleash the AI upon Stir. Here she would be joined by Magos Johann of the mechanicus with an... unusual interest in xeno-tech, a bevy of other psykers, including the Biomancer Panoramia whom Mathilde would eventually fall in love with. But it was a scouting mission with the aid of Magus Johann that would set into motion the chain of events that would have her lead armies of the Kindred to scour all Eight Planets of xenos and greenskins and in the process discover that the shrine of the Laughing God was not the only Eldari artifact on the world indeed there are more, strange carved stones that show evidence of both Eldari and Kindred work. Once triggered these stones stabilize the local warp to a degree that is unheard of reducing the voices of the warp that every psyker must contend with to whispers of whispers.
The destruction of a massive Ork Waagh with the aid of a psychic station of her own design and the political cover given to her by Abelheim's daughter is one of the few things that ward away an investigation that would be Inquisitor Weber's end yet she is not deterred. Having already learned many of the deep secrets of the Votan from spending so long in a hold of the Kindred, their use of Ancestor Cores, their cloning technology Mathilde is not the least shocked by the evidence of xeno-heresy and neither are those psykers and tech-priests with her. Instead they are intrigued.
That is how they learn that in the depths of the Age of Strife the Leagues of Votan had allied with Craftworld Ulthwé in battle and yet in the creation of these 'waystones' which are a significant part of how the Votan survived. But that alliance is dead, sundered by some great betrayal. Perhaps that is where things would have ended if word had not come from the Exodite world of Tor Laur that they had sensed the awakening of the stones and wished to partner with Spakerönde VAU to rediscover the nature of these ancient works and perhaps reforge them.
Mathilde accepts and so does the Council of Ancestors, more than that she draws the White Wolves into the conspiracy, using their chapter's deep dislike the the Ecclesiarchy's callousness as leverage.
So it Begins.
OOC: I know the White Wolves are kind of shoehorned in there, but there is no way a whole chapter would not notice all the techno-heresy and sorcery going on so they had to come on board somehow.
[*] Plan Building A Better Future (With reverse engineering)
-[*] [CAPSTONE] Stone Flower
-[*] [RUNE] Dwarven
-[*] [STORAGE] Reverse-engineered
-[*] [FOUNDATION] Grey Lord
-[*] [TRANSMISSION] Both (Jade Riverine)
The configuration you've decided on is one heavily reliant on components designed by the Grey Lords, with only the Dwarven Rune and the Jade riverine transmission being designed by others. If taken as a message, it would be one that argues the wisdom of Laurelorn as the host of the Waystone Project and seeks to justify the nascent alliance Middenland struck with them. But as the piece of magical architecture it actually is, it is a vanguard, and it is in that where one can find the true statement of intent. If all you wanted was to fill already-secured territory to make it proof against the ravages of Morrsleib and storms of magic, or to gradually chip away at the edges of corrupted areas like Sylvania and the Drakwald, then there were much easier ways to accomplish that. This configuration is built for beachheads, to be erected where it is least welcome and to begin the work of draining away the worst pockets of corruption on the continent. In that purpose it not only matches the Waystones of the Golden Age, but exceeds them.
Hatalath and Thorek take responsibility for the capstone and the rune respectively, while the foundation and transmission are taken back to their Colleges by Elrisse and Tochter. That leaves the storage mechanism, which is going to need a great deal of careful work to get it to the point where mere words can describe how difficult it will be to make, and after some thought you send word to House Tindomiel that it's time for them to start making good on your agreement with them. You've been a bit disgruntled that they'd winkled concessions from you even though the political situation meant they had no choice but to cooperate, which means you don't feel even slightly bad about dropping such a headache into their laps.
---
Several months later the last of the components are delivered to the Waystone Project's estate. Within what was once a ballroom a number of individually incomprehensible stone blocks lie on sheets of thick canvas, waiting for you and your team to assemble them into something that will change the fate of the world. Which is, of course, significantly easier said than done.
So far when thinking about the construction of Waystones you've started from the top and worked your way down, since that is the path the Winds take when being absorbed into and travelling through them. But mentally planning out the process of assembly presented several major problems, not least of which is the annoying insistence of gravity to get involved when working with large stone blocks, so for this you'll be starting from the bottom.
[Transmission, Jade Order: 52+??=??.]
The Jades have delivered exactly as promised: a granite menhir, selected and harvested using criteria and methods dating back millennia, has been carved with flowing spirals and paired with a flat-topped granite spike. They've performed further testing to ensure that it will work when simply planted in the silt at the bottom of the river, rather than needing a tunnel to be dug below the river. How much easier that will be will depend on the river, but even the most difficult of watercourses are easier to dredge than they are to tunnel under.
[Foundation, Light Order: 92+??=??.]
The Grey Lords had delivered a set of enchanting instructions so complex and interwoven that they would have had reason to believe that human enchanters would be capable of no more than slavishly following them. Overwhelming smugness exuded from Elrisse and Egrimm as they reported to you in private that the Grey Lords were severely mistaken. Deep within the pyramid of the Light Order, the thaumaturgic schematics were scrutinized not just by their enchanters, but also by their mathematicians, philosophers, cipherers, and steganographers, as well as anyone else interested in locking horns with minds that predate the Empire. Under the collective scrutiny of minds honed by finding hidden messages in correspondence and hidden mental traps in benign-seeming books and pamphlets, the enchantment schema has been unravelled, studied, and recompiled in ways more conducive to the Light Order's enchantment paradigm. The insights gleaned from the process are making their way through the Colleges' publication process, though it remains to be seen whether anything of practical use could come of it, or if it is merely of academic interest as an insight into a specific subset of Elven enchantment techniques. Also produced is a block of shiny white marble, into which the enchantment and its material components have somehow been embedded while leaving the stone intact.
[Pharological Perspective on Recursion in Elven Enchantment, 2491. Subject: Rare, +1. Insight: Revolutionary, +2. Delivery: Competent, +0. Very Exotic, +2. Varied, +1. Contributor, -3. Classified, -2. Total: +1.]
But while the Lights being able to make adaptations to the enchantment at all is an impressive feat, some of the lustre is diminished when it's discovered that something about those adaptations makes it no longer compatible with the Jades' granite spike, causing the Dhar to leak out and be reabsorbed instead of sent on its way. Though nobody's exactly happy to hear about this, you'd primed everyone to expect delays and set aside copious amount of times to deal with them. As long as this doesn't set the tone for the rest of the assembly process, this should still lead to something workable.
[Storage, House Tindomiel: 28+??=??.]
The reverse-engineered storage mechanism is going to be an utter beast to try to create the first working example of, and you're somewhat disappointed that House Tindomiel set to the job without complaint. The frazzled-looking Mage that delivers the block of basalt containing the mechanism leaves it in the custody of Sarvoi before happily turning their back on it and leaving, and judging from the overlapping layering of Runes in varying depths and with various material inlays, it took quite a bit of work above and beyond the original schematics to stabilize the enchantment to Elven standards. Sarvoi is already taking notes on improvements that can be made for the next iteration of this component. You wonder how keen they'll be to take advantage of their right of first refusal for constructing the Waystones after this preview.
[Storage-Foundation compatibility: 72+??=??.]
Thankfully, despite the aesthetic clash between the dark grey of the stone Tindomiel decided to work with - maybe basalt? would there be a source of basalt nearby? - and the marble of the Lights, the two manage to harmonize with only a minor amount of calibration.
[Capstone, Grey Lords: 20+??=??.]
You'd expected something special from the Grey Lords, and from Hatalath's disgruntled mien you suspect he did too and he's not happy about delivering exactly what was asked of them and no more. It is, at least, less flashy than the original, resembling a stone pyramidion of similar dimensions to that of the golden one atop regular Waystones. You say 'resembling' because when you get close it becomes apparent that it's actually an octagonal pyramid with the angles flattened to resemble the square pyramid shape you're familiar with - one face for each Wind, naturally. This would have required the builder to come up with four pairs of Winds that are the least obstructive to each other, and as soon as you realize the conversation this is likely to spawn, and the inevitable debate to follow, you quickly move on to getting it cooperating with the storage section. Gotthilf Puchta dedicated an entire chapter of their enormous Modest Treatise to the subject of Wind cardinality, and you doubt a month has passed since the founding of the Colleges without a debate on the matter breaking out.
[Capstone-Storage compatibility: 78+??=??.]
In this you find more to admire, and you make no attempt to hide your pleasant surprise at the capstone slowly and gently rotating itself in place until it interfaces with the storage mechanism with a pleasant hum, dormant sections of the enchantment activating and bridging the gap between the two without actually touching.
Thorek's part in this needs to wait until the stone cladding is put over the assembled components - as necessary as it is for insulation and durability, hiding away the clashing aesthetics of the multiple components is equally important in your eyes - but once it is done, Thorek spends several days running his hands over it and examining it from every angle while taking copious notes, and then a mere afternoon chiselling a Rune - three diagonal lines coming off one horizontal one - into one side of the new Waystone. Nothing visibly changes but you can feel the faint suction already pulling on Ulgu in the room strengthen slightly but insistently. Similarly invisible but inexorable is that within the Waystone the Winds are drawn constantly downwards, greatly reducing the chances of any Winds managing to escape as they are passed from one component of the Waystone to the next.
With the Waystone complete and almost functioning with only a single major flaw, most of the members of the project begin testing the functioning parts of the Waystone prototype, turning the Schaukel slightly more magical in the process, while Tochter and Elrisse coordinate on seeking a solution to the incompatibility between their components. Monitoring their work with careful discretion, you're unsurprised to learn that the Jades are hesitant to turn over the details of their side of things, but as the Lights are working with someone else's secrets they don't hesitate. This brings a new set of eyes onto the vivisected enchantment and before long another paper is in the works and the Jades are able to make the necessary corrections on their side to bring the two components into harmony. You don't have time right now to give the papers more than a skim, but what you do manage to grasp from them convinces you that it could be wise to find the time in the near future.
[Agrological Perspective on Recursion in Elven Enchantment, 2491. Subject: Rare, +1. Insight: Agreeing, +1. Delivery: Competent, +0. Very Exotic, +2. Varied, +1. Contributor, -3. Classified, -2. Total: +0 (rounded to +1).]
In the end, a new granite spike comes out of the Jade College and makes its way to Tor Lithanel, and it slots into place without trouble. After weeks spent connecting and disconnecting these pieces, it's somewhat anticlimactic that this time, barely distinguishable from all the others, is when the work is complete. Still, as you look at the uprooted Waystone propped up in the middle of the former ballroom, you feel a tickle of pride and smile. Perhaps it will feel realer once it's actually planted out in the world and fulfilling its actual purpose.
The New Waystones
(will be renamed if other Waystone types are created)
For your study of the Waystone Network of the Karaz Ankor, you and Thorek have decided that the safest specimen would be where the flow from Karak Eight Peaks joins that of Karak Azul, directly south of Karaz-a-Karak and directly east of Karak Eight Peaks. The mountain in question stands beside the path from Karak Eight Peaks' East Gate to Death Pass and as such is frequently travelled by merchants and patrolled by the Undumgi, so only a modest escort of Clan Ironbrow Longbeards was deemed necessary. Said escort had harrumphed quite a bit at the presence of an Umgi child until Thorek had explained that she was your Apprentice, at which point she became considered an extension of yourself and her presence on this trip was as beyond question as that of your weaponry.
The Rune in question is absolutely massive and easily visible when you know what to look for, and indistinguishable from the natural crags and contours of the mountainside if you don't. On this particular mountain it's on the southwestern flank and so gradually becomes visible as you approach. Eike becomes aware of your eyes on her before she spots the Rune, which tips her off that there's something to see and leads her to finding it a few moments later.
"We could go out today and carve the same runes upon a mountain, and it would last until the next rain or snow or rockslide," Thorek says as you near the base of the chosen exemplar. "Barely enough time to have begun accumulating momentum. If that was all there was to it, the ones that connect the Karaks could not have survived the millennia that have passed, or earthquakes like those that marked the beginning of the Time of Woes. That these Runes have survived to this day means they can only have been carved with a full understanding of the discontinuities, catchment funnels, and gap winds that act on the mountains over time, so that these forces will carve the Runes deeper, rather than obliterating them. I cannot even begin to fathom how they were able to so deeply understand an unbroken chain of mountains from Karak Azgal to Karak Vlag more truly than we today do those of our own Karaks."
You run your eyes over the stone within the fissure which shows no sign of ever having felt a pick. The World's Edge Mountains is rich with earthbound magic, the largest portion of which was once Azyr that was blown into it by the wind or earthed by storms, and that faint background glow makes anything the Rune might be doing impossible to perceive from here. To actually examine what it is doing would require you to dig into the subterranean flows of magic deep below the roots of the mountains, far below the depths where Dwarven or even Skaven tunnels usually penetrate. "It was my impression that Runes are remarkably sensitive to the exact alignment of angles."
"Aye, but if you measure them you'll note that even today they're within tolerance of even the pickiest of Runesmiths. Working on this scale means being off by tens of meters is equivalent to an error too small to be normally visible. Over enough time the gradual changes do accumulate enough to weaken the Rune, but the cumulative effect it has had on the nature of the mountains themselves grows in strength faster. At this point it would require levelling a dozen mountains to make the connection weaker than it was when the Runes were first carved, and that's not the sort of thing you could even begin to do without being noticed by Rangers or Gyrocopters."
"It's self-reinforcing?" Eike asks.
"Aye," you say, "so the longer it has to establish itself, the harder it would be to try to shift it. Remind you of anyone?" If anything, you privately suspect, Thorek might actually be understating the effect it would have had. If huge amounts of magical energy have been travelling through the same path for thousands upon thousands of years, then you suspect that every mountain with this Rune upon it could be levelled and the flow would continue uninterrupted. But Dwarves place a lot of metaphorical weight on the unchanging nature of stone, and so would be uncomfortable with the idea that it is quite possible for what amounts to a very large amount of stone to be permanently and irreversibly changed.
You'd very much like to be able to take a sample of that stone. You'd even more like to have a very large amount of it to experiment with.
---
After you've taken sufficient observations and notes on the Rune, every one of which match what Thorek expected to find, you take the opportunity to converse with Thorek out of earshot of your Apprentice and escort. "The question of what happens to the magical energies when they reach Karaz-a-Karak is one I have heard broached before, and with a certain intensity," you say, with oblique understatement. "A similar question has been asked regarding energies reaching Ulthuan. The Sevir have the status of both unwanted pollutant and a powerful resource, depending on specific context. Currently most considerations of the Waystone Networks are entirely that of pollutants being removed, but a consideration of a resource being transferred from one polity to another becomes murkier."
"That would especially be the case if there are existing tensions," Thorek says, his voice carefully neutral, and you nod. He might be talking about tensions between, say, Laurelorn and the Empire, or the Karaz Ankor and Ulthuan. He's not, but he might be. "So the first question must be whether questions should be asked at all, as they cannot be un-asked."
"It might be less potentially troublesome to keep our investigation entirely about the point-to-point logistics instead of asking questions about what happens next," you agree. "Either way, it would cause trouble if we were inconsistent in this. Even if we never examine the workings of Ulthuan, both Laurelorn and Kislev would be put out if we started asking questions of them that we did not ask of the Karaz Ankor."
Thorek nods, then frowns in thought. "The opposite would also hold - if the Dwarves were seen to share a glimpse of the most ancient of secrets, then it would be difficult for the Elves and Wyrzhufokri to argue that their own deserve greater consideration."
"It would," you agree.
"The precise nature of the asking would also matter. The Karak Azul Runesmiths asking the Karaz-a-Karak Runesmiths would have a different nature to Karak Eight Peaks asking Karaz-a-Karak."
"As would the Empire asking the Karaz Ankor, or the Colleges asking the Runesmiths." Or, you think but don't say, you could just ask Kragg yourself, as the only individual more likely to know the truth of the matter would be the High King, and you have something of a rapport with him. But Kragg is, to put it lightly, not big on revealing secrets to the undeserving, and is also not Thorek's favourite person.
[ ] Empire to Empire Ask the Karaz Ankor on behalf of the Empire.
[ ] Karak to Karak Ask Karaz-a-Karak on behalf of Karak Eight Peaks.
[ ] Guild to Guild Ask the Runesmiths Guilds on behalf of the Colleges of Magic.
[ ] Runesmith to Runesmith Ask the Karaz-a-Karak Runesmiths Guild on behalf of the Karak Azul Runesmiths Guild.
[ ] Okri to Okri Ask Kragg on behalf of yourself.
[ ] Other (write in)
[ ] Do not ask Leave the matter outside of the scope of the Waystone Project.
- There will be a two hour moratorium.
- Dice rolls for the Waystone were made here.
- It is intended that 'do not ask' might win even if the other options receive more votes collectively - the matter is sensitive enough that it should be shelved if no possible approach can make itself a clear winner.
- If 'do not ask' wins, Mathilde will spend the remainder of the action mapping and studying the Karaz Ankor network, including trying to figure out if it's possible to take a sample of the leyline-stone.
Borgrim Copperquill was not a dwarf easily daunted, one does not attain the vaunted position of Assistant Record Record Keeper to the Loremaster of Karaz a Karak by the age of one hundred and fifty by being a retiring sort, but there is a difference between the everyday boldness and curiosity that had marked his path into the vast Stack Delvings, the Archives of Karaz a Karak and the parchment that now lay on the plain stone table before him, the three part runic seal bearing the authority of Grungi's Heir:
You are required within the year to offer a judgement on character and past works of Mathilde Weber, Azrildrekked, the Silver Savage, Dawizhufokri, Thane and Loremaster of Vala-Azril-Ungol for the ears of the High King and King of the Everpeak Thorgrim Grudgebearer as fully and concisely as you are able.
It was at that moment that Borgrim most regretted how long he had spent in his study of Ancient Elgi History where it touched that of the Karaz Ankor. No doubt that is why he had been chosen to present his thoughts on a zhufi, even if that zhufi was dawi, the thought still made him a little dizzy, like a beardling at his first barrel cracking only without the fun part. Well nothing to do, write it down and get to work.
***
The room was hung with runic lanterns and all about them selves of polished limestone, the texture of the stone spiraling like seafoam frozen in place, here and there showing the shells and skeletons of ancient sea-beasts made as stone and so it was called the Sea Study and little used these days, it made most dawi uneasy. Borgrim tried not to think about the implications of being asked to speak to the High King here. Beard Izil bright, eyes sharp and searching came the Grudgebearer, but he came without his guard, his answering greeting curt and hurried. "Well what do you have?"
"Your Majesty first I would offer caution, much of what I have to say about Grey Wizards comes not from Imperial Sources of which we have very little, their Guild of Magic being barely one hundred and eighty years old and thus until recently counted too young to be relied on, but from Elgi sources dated before the War of Vengence. I've done my best to balance them against the Azrildrekked's own witting, drawn from Kron-Azril-Ungol as well as the accounts of those who have borne witness to her deeds."
A neutral grumble came from the king, more to punctuate the conversation than to express disappointment Borgrim hoped. "There are in the Aethyr Eight Winds of magic, aspects of power each draw to specific thoughts, actions and each supposedly most suited to specific kinds of enchantment. To the Elgi way of seeing things a proper wizard, one who makes magic their craft must master all. The Colleges of Magic on the other hand bend all of their attention upon one, likely due the the fact that Umgi lives are shorter. There was some disagreement between the older books and the newer, but generally when an elgi apprentice set upon the path to 'weaving the winds together'..." The scholar shuddered inwardly at how hard it had been to translate that part. "They started with Ulgu, the Wind of shadow and confusion and ended with Hysh the Wind of light and revelation. It is the magic of seeking and of becoming, also attested in dwarfish sources to be the most common kind of zhuf among the eight cast by all save dragons who prefer the magic that is fire, just as the breath of most o them. It is from my understanding of things a magic most fitting to... umgi." Stepping onto unsteady stone there, but he had his conclusions and he wasn't going to back down from them and make a liar of himself in giving the best counsel he knew how.
"How?" A single word bitten out, but not as sharply as Borgrim feared.
"Well it seems to me the magic that encourages its user to settle for that's good enough, an illusion instead of a rock steady thing, smoke instead of fire or lightning and this seems to be in line with some of Loremaster Weber's own writings. From 'Winning the War Below', original in Reikspiel: 'The dragon had rung the dinner bell and now all our foes were falling upon each other to feast, but whereas we did not know what all of them planned, still less could they know of us without the chance to send scouts and messengers'. It goes on like this for a bit emphasizing the need to accept the uncertainty of battle and turn it like a dagger on the foe. At one point she even says... this does not translate well due to the differences in gramar."
"Well?" the High King rumbles.
"Lets you and him fight, that is an intentional error in grammar that I think is meant to evoke humor or irony at the thought of rather than challenging a foe tricking them into battling another foe."
"Ranger tactics," the words are more dismissive than the last. Is all you found? They seemed to ask as the dark eyes under those aged brows seemed to peer into Borgrim's soul
"In execution certainly, but coming from a different place. Rangers do as they must because they do not have a shield line at their back, or good stone on their flanks, Loremaster Weber seems to revel in the cleverness of it and, though this is harder to parse, to derive a certain moral satisfaction in seeing that urk falls to the hand of raki and the other way around. So it was when the last pocket of Clan Mors was allowed to hold off the attack from Black Crag for days, though the rest of the clan perished behind them, like a cook might take satisfaction in slow simmering bone broth, it aligned with the principles of her craft. I don't think it is just fighting other, there is something wider here that almost escapes the eye, a wish to use anything that comes to hand to see the job done..."
"The job?" If anything the question was even more intense than the last.
"Dawi aren't books to be read page by page and neither are the Umgi, but some things might be guessed. She was born in Stirland, a land of foul necromancers and unrestful dead and she has left that land better than she found it but... there is something about the very land there that is sick and filled with tainted magic, Dhar. Can't stab that in the back, nor cut it down from the front all you can do is endure, or so at least holds common wisdom. This meeting of scholars in the Elgi city, I think it is meant to do something about that, to cleanse the land to be as it was when the forefathers of the Empire came into these lands, before the rain of Warpstone. A noble cause if probably a doomed one."
At that the High King nodded once, thoughtfully. "Good job. You're excused."
Oh thank Valaya and Thungi both, Borgrim thought, bowing low before making his escape, a proud smile hidden in his beard and the shadows of the room.
OOC: Why might you ask does the Everpeak have a room styled with marine fossils? The builder had an oddball taste as dwarfs go, but since he lived and died more than a thousand years ago they are now under the aegis of 'past glories' so no one would actually change them.
Welcome to the Library of Karak Eight Peaks filesystem! The time is: 15:34, 04/15/3126. Your session will end in: 26 minute(s).
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>> WEBMAT
The World's Edge Branch for the Multidisciplinary Advancement of Thaumaturgy was a research group focusing on esoteric thaumalogical phenomena, founded in 2486 IC in Karak Eight Peaks by Mathilde Weber, under the auspice of the Imperial Colleges of Magic, granted a charter by Emperor Luitpold I of the Second Empire of Man. WEBMAT operated from 2486 IC to 2637 IC, before being superseded by the UNIT Research Circle during the Sixth Schism of the Karaz Ankor, which itself was folded into the University of Karak Eight Peaks in 2792. The Thaumics Department of the university continues to operate to the present day.
WEBMAT were known for their contributions to the LaurelornRoyal Commission on Waystones[1], the first modern study of the Waynode Network, as well as their foundational research into the field of thaumics[2].
Notable Members Cython the Wise - Correspondent Magister Patriarch Egrimm van Horstmann - Member Lady Magister Mathilde Weber - Founder, Head Researcher (1st) Lord Magister Maximilian de Gaynesford - Head Researcher (2nd) Lord Magister Christoph Engel - Correspondent
[...]
>> University of Karak Eight Peaks > History
The University of Karak Eight Peaks was founded in 2517 IC as an extension of the Karak Eight Peaks Branch of the Imperial Gunnery School and the Library of Karak Eight Peaks [1], and was granted a charter by King Belegar the Reclaimer of the Karaz Ankor. It was initially recognized by the Imperial Colleges of Magic and Imperial Gunnery School as a partner institution, and would gain further reputation and influence over time, in particular acting as a safe haven for an enormous quantity of researcher and accumulated knowledge during the Collapse of the Second Empire in the 26th Century[2].
The University was one of the founding members of the Oath of Learning, and thus was one of the institutions to gain the express approval of the Verena-Hoeth through the divine miracle known as the Enlightening of Remas. The potential presence of a black cat during this miracle according to some testimonials[3], along with the confirmed presence[4] of a paw imprint[5] on the University's copy of the Oath has led to a great deal of speculation, but no firm scholarly consensus regarding the meaning of this potential sign has been reached[6].
The university continues to operate to the present day, with branch campuses present throughout the Southern Karaks and the Stirland Confederation.
Notable Discoveries Fundamental materials science research regarding spidroins and their conformational conversion from solution into fibers
Tricyclo-hexamer crystalization analagous to edingtonite silica in extreme-pressure water
High-thaum saturation resonance among cryptoclastic and pharological invocations
Initial dipodomylogical and cultural studies following the Fall of Skavenblight
First research and prototypes of what would become the world wide web
[...]
An underground chamber, lit by lanterns, and containing numerous stone bookshelves. On them rest many tomes and scrolls, the majority seeming to be of great age. Tucked into a dark corner, on the highest shelf, sits a leather-bound book of relative newness. Written on the spine in gold lettering is the title: MAGDA WESSEN: CROWN OF THE GNOMI (2nd Edition) SHOCK! HORROR! TRAGEDY! The GRAND KING of the GNOMI DOMAIN, THUDJIN GRUMTAKER, has been SLAIN by a COWARDLY ASSASSIN! With WAR in the DEEPS, the Gonmi must QUICKLY CHOOSE their NEW LEADER! Yet the DIVIDED STATE cannot choose a single candidate! As a POLITICAL COMPROMISE, a candidate none can HONOURABLY REFUSE is CHOSEN IN ABSENTIA: HONORARY GNOMI, MAGDA WESSEN!
Despite her MISGIVINGS and her LOYALTY to the HUMAN IMPERIUM, MAGDA DUTIFULLY ACCEPTS, and is crowned with the CIRCLET OF WYRMS! COMMANDING the GOMNI HOSTS, MAGDA is ADVISED by the MYSTERIOUS SIGILCRAFTER KRAGIM THORO and her FAITHFUL VASSAL, LORD BELEGOR HAMMERWIELD! Yet many Gnomi are DISPLEASED with her RULE, claiming no MAGE should sit upon THE ETERNAL CHAIR! Led by the FORMIDIBLE UNDIG STEELGRIP, this DISSENTING FACTION demand that MAGDA ABDICATE after CHOOSING, OR BIRTHING, an HEIR!
As the PERFIDIOUS RATSPAWN rouse their MONSTROUS CREATURES, and the MURDEROUS URKS gather their HORDES, MAGDA will have to BALANCE her LOYALTIES and her FRIENDSHIPS, least DESTRUCTION come to the UNDERLANDS! Will she FOLLOW her HEART, or HER SOUL? Historical Note: After poor sales, the publishers of MAGDA WESSEN had CROWN OF THE GNOMI rewritten with a romantic subplot, removing much of the political drama the original version was derided for. Turns out MAGDA WESSEN stories work better as spur-of-the-moment things, rather than planned. Fun.
A summary of Sidequests, Plot Threads, 'Tech Trees', and Accumulated Artefacts
Canonicity (for Quest purposes)
Tier 1: The Quest itself is primary canon.
Tier 2: WoQM applies unless it violates Quest canon (which I assume it has or will at some point).
Tier 3: Army Books (6th+), WHFRPG 2e - reasonably safe to assume that the fluff in these is canon unless the Quest or WoQM says otherwise. Game mechanics should not be taken as canon.
Tier 4: Black Library, White Dwarf articles - canonish, but the QM may not be familiar with them and the details are likely to end up varying if they are used.
Tier 5: Licensed video games, Warhammer Armies Project, WHFRPG 3e & 4e - mostly only used for things that aren't otherwise covered in higher tiers, and by default are not canon.
Tier 6: Army Books (pre-6th), WHFRPG (1e) - the Dwarf Priests Know Necromancy Zone. May be looted for ideas from time to time but is usually completely incompatible.
---
The Keys of Karaz Ghumzul
Status: Pending Climax
-These were part of Thorek's price for full partnership and effort in the Waystone Project.
-The pressure on the Dwarves of Middenheim was taken care of by Mathilde in a single letter (per this Boneypost).
For those Dwarves Mathilde's involvement was a compounding of the pressure between modern political realities and what they see as a duty to their ancestors, and it would have exacerbated ongoing internal conflict and emotional distress. But for Mathilde it was a mildly boring letter to write. Maybe eventually she'll have to deal with those Dwarves and it will come back to complicate things, but in all likelihood she'll never meet those Dwarves and will never know anything about what effect her actions may have had on them. This is part of what it means to have power and influence.
-Thorek is slowly putting a party expedition together, but with the 2nd Silver Road Wars building up, it's slow going. We will probably be able to offer to join when he's ready.
Debt of the Arhain
Status: Initial Investigation
-This plotline started during The Battle of Karagril, Part 5 when Mathilde and Johann captured a Naggarothi elf, who was enjoying unusually comfortable accommodations in the Moulder holdings.
-He was claimed as part of Mathilde's loot in the subsequent spoils division vote.
-As a reward, Mathilde was invited to fight alongside the Shadow Warriors of Nagarythe for 99 days, at any point before her death or the end of the world.
"A generous gift, from an unexpected quarter." Daroir smiles in anticipation. "It is a rare gambit of Teclis that does not bear fruit. I am glad to see the blossoming of this flower." He lifts a hand to his long, snow-white hair, and though you could swear it was unadorned, he plucks a tiny black raven carved from onyx from his locks and holds it out to you. "If you have the inclination and time to spare between now and when the world ends, seek Lothern and present this to any of the Sea Guard. For ninety-nine days you may call Nagarythe your home, and shall shed blood alongside us to defend it. Our Arhain are not as sought as Saphery's Sariour, but you of the grey of eight may be able to appreciate them."
-Per Boney, we should expect the Elfcation to be focused on fighting Druchii raids, and the skills required thereof. Anything else is conjecture.
A Deal with Three Devils
Status: Initial Investigation
-The three diplomats arrived in Laurelorn during the Turn 39 Social - Part 3.
-Queen Marrisith said that they had arrived due to Mathilde's project in Laurelorn, but mostly because she [the Queen] had invited them.
You're greeted at the door by a servant that leads you to the Queen, and you ask her what brings the Druchii here. "Yourself, of course," she says, smiling mischievously at your look of shock. "Indirectly, that is. Even if they knew about it, I doubt they'd have any interest in the Waystone Project for its own sake. They have sufficient skill with Dhar to make use of all that is available, rather than needing infrastructure to whisk it away. But if Ulthuan has a foothold in the Old World, then they'll want one too, if only to keep tabs on what Ulthuan is up to and to watch for opportunities to interfere with it... but I digress. In truth, since we're working with humans, there was no reason for us not to also put out feelers to the two claimants of the Phoenix Throne to see if we can play them against each other. The board between them has been stalemated for so long that the introduction of even a minor piece is one that either could be tempted into paying handsomely for."
The Druchii mission was comprised of 'representatives' from the three cities of Ghrond, Hag Graef, and Clar Karond;
You're told that the flags represent three of the six major city-states of Naggaroth: Ghrond, the headquarters of the order of Sorceresses and domain of the Queen Mother of the Druchii, Hag Graef, the city atop a sprawling network of mines and quarries that make it second only to the capital in wealth and power, and Clar Karond, the shipyard and breadbasket of Naggaroth. Notable by their absence are the other three flags: the clutched moon of the capital Naggarond is missing, suggesting that this is either unofficial or a gambit of Queen Mother, rather than the King, and that the bloody heart of the Khainite stronghold of Har Ganeth and the harpy of the Corsair capital of Karond Kar are absent suggests that those present could be as reasonable as the Druchii are capable of being, since they left the fanatics and the slavers at home.
-Future actions in this category (which may not be pursued given the involvement of Ulthuan in the Waystone Project directly), will be done under the action:
Foreign Relations:
[ ] Enter into negotiations with the Druchii delegation to Laurelorn
-Druchii are masters at competitive bus tossing, and fighing (or having plans to fight Druchii) would not preclude us doing information deals with our 'contacts'.
---
The Mountain that has become His Herdstone
Status: Solved
-The climax of the Karak Dum Expedition was Mathilde seeing the occupiers / defenders of Karak Dum, in this post (K.D.E. Part 14).
-Mathilde theorized about Morghur alongside the rest of the expedition in K.D.E. Part 16, and Part 17.
-Mathilde discussed the mystery of Cor-Dum with Egrimm during K.D.E. Part 23
"All of that makes sense," you say after some thought. "But what conclusion does that lead to?"
"I haven't the faintest idea," Egrimm admits. "But I think the answer lies in the nature of the Shadowgave. It doesn't fit neatly into any known category - it's not fully a Beastman, not truly a Daemon, definitely not a Sorcerer. I think if you can figure out what category it is in, you can start to ask actually meaningful questions - like how the Dwarves know enough of whatever that nature is to manipulate it."
-20 months realtime later, we found Borek as the unfortunate wielder of Grimnir's Axe in the Turn 39 Social - Part 1.
-He then explained the mystery of Morghur, at least from the perspective of the Dwarves of Dum.
The We & Their Silk
Status: What the hell, man.
-The vote to uplift the We was held after Turn 21 Results - 2480 - Part 3, with the result of; "Try to uplift the We. Fill them with knowledge until they're able to understand what the big deal is, then have them decide how they want to act".
-On Turn 22, Mathilde hired an open-minded Loremaster from a Young Hold to teach the We (final selection: Turn 22 Social - 2480.5), as well as tasked Johann with autopsying them (his report was given during the Duckling Club segment of Turn 22 Results - Part 2).
-Second teacher for The We made some progress during Turn 25 Results - 2482 - Part 3, where they subsequently decided how they would exist with the rest of Karak Eight Peaks.
-The means of The We's internal communication was investigated during Turn 27, specifically Turn 27 - Part 2.
-Books on silk weaving were purchased from Laurelorn on Turn 36 - 2487.5, and subsequently dumped on Francesco's desk.
-The We asked to split / take the place as the Librarian of Kron-Azril-Ungol during the Turn 38 Results - Part 4.
The Lahmian Conspiracy
Status: Solved probably
The Father
Status: Bearing Fruit
-This plotline started as an offshoot of Aethyric Vitae, when Mathilde had the idea to catalyze a measure of vitae with Ranald's Coin in Turn 36 - Part 2.
-The vitae catalyzes into anima which is orphaned from the Divinity it is patterned after, and Mathilde was immediately able to store this energy in (relatively) trivially replaceable elven crystal. This would have allowed Theurgy, or;
The replicable, comparable, definitive fingerprint of a God
-The thread then voted between Faith, Truth, and Prudence.
-The thread chose Faith, forever sacrificing this part of the research path to Ranald as a matter of trust. In return, He shared with us a new face of The Coin
[New face of the Coin - The Father: Ranald's daughters, and Their followers, will recognize you as being worthy of trust and faith.]
-Mathilde discussed Gods and their offspring with Cython during the Turn 36 Social - Part 1.
Daughter One
-Mathilde was wearing The Father when she went to recruit the Nordlander Hedgewise (Turn 38 - Part 1).
-After a surprisingly warm welcome, she met a Hüvener named Aksel, who she was able to recruit for The Waystone Project.
-Mathilde's ruminations confirmed that Halétha and her guises is one of Ranald and Shallya's Daughters.
As you begin to talk to Aksel of the specifics, you think to yourself that if the Nordland Hedgewise were always this trusting, they likely would have been wiped out some time in the past two thousand years. Between that and the relatively unbothered reception you received when you arrived, you suspect you might have answered half the mystery that Ranald presented you with when you were gifted the fifth face of your Coin.
Daughter Two
-Currently unknown, though there is plenty of in-thread speculation as to Her identity.
-Credit to @mathymancer for this female-presenting Goddess info post, and for his theorizing about The Lady here.
---
Aethyric Vitae
Status: Pending Climax
-With the benefit of hindsight, we can say that this Tech Tree was first made available during Character Creation - Part 3, when the thread chose Snakehunted, setting a Wisdom's Asp nipping at our heels (at least metaphorically and metaphysically, but with little actual manifestation luck).
-The option to begin dealing with it was available as early Turn 1 - 2470, under the [ ] Research options.
-Mathilde chose to begin dealing with the Asp on Turn 5 - 2472, by telling Abelhelm about her mirror-bound pursuer.
"Letters every now and then. I'll have been getting in touch with them this year anyway because there's a killer illusion-snake trying to murder me."
Van Hal's mug was halfway to his lips when you said that, and he lowers it back down onto the desk and gives you a flat look. "What have you been getting up to," he asks - he doesn't quite growl, but there's a hint of it in his voice.
-Mathilde continued dealing with the Asp during Turn 5 Results - 2472, wherein she asked Regimand for assistance, and received the book Light And It's Properties, by Leonardo da Miragliano (Mirrorcatch box manual).
-On Turn 6 Results - 2472.5, she read Light and It's Properties, fully grasping the book in one action.
Finally, you're occupied with the book 'Light And Its Properties'. It's a densely-packed exploration of the properties of various forms of light, and you quickly find the relevant part: where it describes the properties of mirrors. Though physically they act by simply reflecting light, they're also metaphysically gateways to other dimensions, not because of any properties they intrinsically have but because of millennia of belief along those lines making it true - or so the author theorizes. He also describes a device he claims can 'store' light, and he theorizes on ways to slowly 'release' that light over time to save money on candles, though he never quite managed the release mechanism. The structure itself is a strange three-dimensional maze of baffled mirrors inside a cube, the blueprints of which take you weeks to understand.
Though the concept of storing light is fascinating, you're most interested in what would happen if the bizarrely absent snake tried to manifest inside it...
-Abelhelm subsidized Mathilde not dying to the Asp on Turn 7 - 2473, by paying for the Mirrorcatch box.
-The Wisdom's Asp was successfully captured during the Turn 7 Results - 2473, with a bit of help from our buddy Ranald. Abelhelm was informed of this success on the following turn/update.
Finally, as midsummer approaches, it's time to see to your long-absent but not forgotten pursuer: Wisdom's Asp.
...
Then, as you Light the candle once more, you feel rather than hear a nightmarish skittering reverberate through the room - the sound that's haunted your dreams for many years. The sound of that damned snake manifesting in your reflection. Without a moment's hesitation, you snap the lid of the box shut.
The Mirrorcatch box shivers on the desk, then jerks so violently it flips onto it's side. For half a second beautiful, malignant light coruscates out of the lid of the box where it's opened less than a crack. Then it lies still.
A few seconds later, a multi-hued liquid starts to ooze out of the crack.
...
Boney AN: [I thought to myself, 'more than fifty, the snake is killed. Less than fifty, it is trapped alive.': 50. Schrodinger's Snake achieved.]
...
And it just keeps on happening, because to the snake there is no solid surface in the box. The parts of it in reality are subject to gravity, but can never stop falling because the closest thing to a bottom is a portal into the warp. It is suspended in an eternal free-fall, forever unable to either heal or die. And in that state it constantly drains magical energies into reality.
That realization sends a shudder through you. If the demon that pursued you was any other warp-entity, the energies leaking out would... well, you'd be lucky if they were only Dhar. But this is the All-Knowing Serpent, Wisdom's Asp, and apparently the ever-shifting hue of its scales is mirrored by the pure combination of magical energies that it is formed from. Instead of liquid corruption pouring forth, this is pure, untainted, liquid magic.
-Abelhelm was apprised of the initial investigation results on Turn 9 - 1474, and further research options appeared in the turns thereafter.
-Continued in the next spoiler.
--
-After 7 years of self-improvement, exploration, and reconquest, Mathilde revisited the 'Snake Juice' during the Turn 21 Results - 2480 - Part 1. This opened up the sub-research options for utilization and weaponization of the substance.
-It was formally named 'Aethyric Vitae' during the vote for Turn 21 Results - Part 2.
-The research options available from Turn 22 - 2480.5 onwards were;
(Note: they have been reorganized based on the order in which they were investigated)
[ ] Investigate how the Vitae reacts to Dwarven magic-dampening Runes. (2 Dwarf favours)
-Research option selected on Turn 27 - 2483.
-Pursued during Turn 27 Results - 2482 - Part 2.
[ ] Attempt to interest one of the currently present Runesmiths in the interaction between Runes and Vitae. (Will start at the top and work your way down)
-Research option selected on Turn 28 - 2483.5.
-Pursued during Turn 28 Results - Part 2, initially with Kragg who rebuffed us to Thorek. AV's use as an extremely potent and reliable Rune recharging substance discovered.
-Trading AV for Dwarf Favor (Rune-related purchases) unlocked.
[ ] Call in favours to get a specific Runesmith to examine the interaction between Runes and Vitae with you.
-Option removed after collaborating with Thorek on Turn 28.
[ ] Investigate how the Vitae reacts with Divine Magic.
-This option was locked until Turn 30 - 2484.5.
-Ranald's coin investigated during Turn 29 Results - 2484. (Don't.)
-Research option selected on Turn 36 - 2487.5.
-Pursued during Turn 36 - Part 2 - Truth and Faith.
-Further research options locked (for Mathilde) due to Mathilde choosing Faith (see: The Daughters Two, under Plot Threads).
[ ] Investigate how the Vitae reacts to a power stone.
-Initially locked due to not owning a power stone. Unlocked after Mathilde purchased at least one Ulgu powerstone.
-Research option selected on Turn 38 - 2488.5 - Part 1.
-Pursued during Turn 38 - Part 3.
-Powerstones grow when exposed to AV (in the sense that the AV immediately detonates, and adds on to the powerstone).
-Morbing unlocked.
[ ] Investigate how the Vitae reacts to being subjected to power stone creation methods.
-This option was locked until after Mathilde learned how to make a power stone on Turn 39 - 2489 - Part 4 (it's super boring and tedious).
-Research option selected on Turn 40 - 2489.
-Pursued initially during Turn 40 Results - Part 3.
-A natural 1 on the roll meant that we had an extremely unwelcome neighbor on the other side of reality when we tunneled in.
-Discovered that AV creates a bubble in the skein of reality (Liminal Realm) when subjected to Powerstone creation methods.
-Bookmarked by Tzeentch with the 'Fated' trait.
-Emergence of the Thirteenth (Everchosen Tournament) revealed in-character.
[ ] Instead of seeking the secrets of the blood, simply see if it can be weaponized in some way.
-Option removed after unlocking liminal realms.
[ ] Experiment with integrating the Vitae into enchantments.
-Option removed after power stone experimentation, as the metaphysics were clear (that the AV would just detonate instead of accomplishing anything).
[ ] Attempt to create a liminal realm
-Research option selected (with full knowledge of the consequences) on Turn 42 - 2490.5.
-Pursued during Turn 42 - Part 6.
-When more AV is added to an existing (AV-only?) liminal realm, it expands the realm proportional to the amount of AV added to it.
[-] Create Orbs of Sorcery solo (requires one of each Power Stone) (insufficient CF)
O R B F L E X -Research option selected on Turn 43 - 2491. -Pursued Turn 43 - Part [TBD]
[ ] Create Orbs of Sorcery with College buy-in (no cost)
lol
[ ] Create a liminal realm (specify size, location, and purpose, 6m³ per gallon)
-Added on Turn 43 - 2491.
-There has been so much discussion on this topic in the thread, my goodness.
-If you search for the word 'tongs' in this thread, you get something like 70 pages of results.
-This concept is generally inspired by necromancy.
-As far as I can reasonably determine, the first time that necromancy is likened to tongs in the thread, is in this post. I haven't @'d this poster because I'm unsure if they're still interested in DL
-The first time (again, that I can reasonably determine) that a poster explicitly suggests using Ulgu to manipulate other Winds is @veekie 's post here.
-Boney confirmed that further pursuits/investigations of this concept would be enabled by reading the Liber Mortis, here.
- The research option 'Investigate the possibility of using one Wind to directly manipulate another.' first appeared as an option on Turn 23.
-Mathilde finally experimented with the concept on Turn 34 - Part 1, with little success.
With utter focus you grasp Ulgu with your soul, and instead of shaping it into a familiar form to be projected out onto the world, you try to push it outwards to wrap around a strand of Ghyran.
It is, you quickly discover, rather like trying to catch a live eel in a cat's cradle, if the cat's cradle was also made of eels.
-This was not the result of rolls, as mentioned in Boney' author's note at the end of the chapter.
-Final take: Ulgu tongs can work, but only if you can bring yourself to bite the Dhar-bullet.
Apparitiomancy
Status: Bearing Fruit
-@Parabola has a fantastic Apparation megapost here, so honestly you could just spend your time reading that one instead.
-This tech tree was started in The Magister Patriarch of the Gold Order (just after Turn 29 - Part 1), wherein MP Feldmann bribed us to give up our accumulated Skaven loot research backlog
I say to you: name your price. The Gold Order has wealth and influence and secrets beyond measure. Tell me what we must surrender to you, so that you will release your grasp on the secrets of the Skaven.
-The thread opted for Gehenna's Golden Hounds, ostensibly for use in a pseudo-mind for the purposes of magically enemy-mapping K8P (as I understand it, anyway).
[*] Insights on creating independent, temporary, and combat-capable constructs in the vein of Gehenna's Golden Hounds
-Mathilde learned the secret of GGH on Turn 30 - Part 1, wherein it was shared that the secret to certain spells is to take an existing Apparition, subdue it, encase it in your Wind, and use the encasement shape and it's pre-existing instincts to accomplish tasks (usually violence).
"Three, eh? Nasty. Chamon has the Wyrdwomen. But it's Aqshy that's the key, and Aqshy has the Fleshrender and Dark Hounds. Now, for the record..." She slides a book across the table at you, The Distinction Between Daemons and Apparitions. "We keep this up-to-date to reassure our little 'uns, as well as just in case the Witch Hunters twig and come knocking. The short version is, they're not Daemons so it's not against Article Whatever if we hunt them down and bind them into service."
"Gehenna's Golden Hounds are Dark Hounds?"
"Covered in Gold Magic and bound to a Wizard's soul, like a familiar except crankier. They hunger for Aqshy but they're not of Aqshy so there's no Dhar risk. We usually go for ones that are hunting Brights, but if there aren't any at any given moment, there's usually a few packs haunting the neighbourhood around the Bright College. Then we sic them on our enemies. If the spell goes wrong they can break free and either run for it or try to eat you, but that's no worse than the usual consequences for miscasting Battle Magic."
-The preliminary option to hunt for an Apparition was added to Mathilde's options on Turn 31.
-Mathilde finally/first chose to pursue an Apparition in Turn 42 - Part 1, specifically a Rider in Red, with Johann's assistance (punchocity).
-Mathilde decided to model her Rider in Red spell off of an inspiring local legend of Stirland, The Dämmerlichtreiter, on Turn 42 Part 2, with exceptional success.
The Ulgu coating the Rider begins to meld into the Ulgu coating your soul like two soap bubbles meeting, and then with shocking abruptness there's nothing between you and it but the membranes of your respective souls. You'd expected something like Wolf, with the familiar urges and needs with a glimmer of awareness overlaying it, but the fallacy in that is obvious: why would something that only pays occasional visit to reality be beholden to drives rooted in biology? There is something very like hunger, if hunger was overlaid with contempt and indignation - if anything, its drive to strike down wielders of destructive magic might be described as a compulsion to restore rightness to the world, in the same way that one might be drawn to straighten a crooked painting. There is also, to your surprise, a sense of what can only be described as joy within it, a streak of gladness that it is able to do what it does. You'd theorized that the laughter that was its harbinger was just an animalistic call, but it is exactly that: an expression of exuberance. The Rider in Red likes what it is and what it does, and you're not sure how to feel about how neatly that slots into place alongside your own soul.
And... that's it. For all that contempt and self-satisfaction are complex emotions, this complexity is outweighed by the absence of anything else within it. As a creature that only encounters biology in the same way that a bullet encounters an Orc, it completely lacks the grab-bag of competing and intermingling drives that the many needs of physical bodies impose upon creatures of flesh. No pleasure or pain, no appetite or satiety, no bravery or fear, no love or lust or jealousy. It has a single purpose that is the sole source of all emotion within it. If nobody in this world ever used destructive magic again, then this being would never again have reason to act in any way.
From the point of view of a Wizard being hunted by it, it would likely seem terrifying and monstrous. From the point of view of someone who is about to weaponize it, you kind of wish you'd gone for the big cat form so you could scratch it behind the ears.
"I've still got it," you say after digesting all of that, and Johann relaxes slightly. "It's actually kind of jovial, in a weird way. Not just food-motivated, but also driven by not liking its targets, and liking that it's able to bring doom to them."
-She 'trained' it as a Bodyguard spell of One rider on the following turn, Turn 42 - Part 3, naming the spell Knightbringer (FC) at the beginning of Turn 42 - Part 4.
-It has not been codified as of yet.
Wind Ascension
(Defeat Mortality With One Weird Trick!)
Status: Initial Investigation
See Ergosum's Arcane mark summary here. In the context of the Great Mandred Debate, but still informative.
-Mathilde checked in on them during the Turn 27 social - Part 1, and received an initial 4 College Favor for contributions.
-They have been available for a secondary follow-up since Turn 28 - Part 2.
The Ghyran Nut
Status: Initial Investigation
-We purchased this in Uzukulak, during the Karag Dum Expedition (K.D.E. - Part 10) from an extremely smug Naggarothi Corsair, for 1000 gold coins.
-It may be an Acorn of the Oak of Ages, or it may just be a novel example of extreme Ghyran compaction without rooting a hole into reality.
-It was added to our research backlog on the next normal turn (Turn 34).
-It is finally going to be researched with Panoramia on Turn 43. Exciting!
--- Does anyone have any other suggestions? I'm on mobile right now and the above two bits were painful enough as is, lol.
Got some stuff to put in for now
Belegar grumbles as he pushes aside another failed draft at a missive to the High King. He'd quite like to screw it up and throw it into the fire, but parchment doesn't grow on trees, so he'll clean it off with pumice once the ink has dried, just like all the others. He casts his eye over the growing pile of discarded failures, and regrets that the matter the letters attempt to speak of is too sensitive for the task to be handed off to someone else.
Belegar's craft was once that of hammer and throng, and now he does his best to turn his talents to that of throne and scepter. Blunt instruments all, some more literal than others. It has not been a life where subtlety and care and caution have been emphasized, so for the most part he hasn't learned any more than he needed to. But today he must assemble words with as much care, as much necessity, and with as much risk of disaster, as the one who put him to this task shapes the magical energies that haunt the surface world.
Belegar generally acts with confidence and surety, but that is the privilege of those that know where they stand. In this matter, he is painfully aware that he lives in one of two worlds. In one, the High King is an imperfect ruler of the Karaz Ankor, doing his best to shoulder the weight of thousands of years of accumulated oaths and grudges and enemies and sometimes stumbling. In the other, the High King has been blinded by history and shackled by tradition, and bleeds the rest of the Karaz Ankor to keep the vaults of Karaz-a-Karak full and its primacy unquestioned. In the former world, Thorgrim's abandonment of Karak Eight Peaks was a battlefield amputation that would have seemed justified with the knowledge available to him. In the latter, it was the perfect opportunity to rid him of a renascent Karak that once rivaled the power and influence of Karaz-a-Karak itself before it could do so once more. In the former world, there is some more important purpose that the magical energies drained from the other Karaks are being put towards, and some sort of explanation for why this is being done so without the knowledge or consent of their Kings. In the latter, there is not.
Belegar thinks of the past temptation to take valuable silk from the unknowing We for next to nothing and how that opportunity was left primly untaken, despite the damage to the Karak's large but not bottomless vaults. And he wonders if at some point the High Kings chose otherwise.
In both worlds, Belegar is failing in his duty. In the world where the High King is right and righteous, Belegar's duty is faith and loyalty. In the world where the High King is corrupt or corrupted, Belegar's duty is no less required for it being unthinkable. This middle ground, the tension and the dark looks and the silences that speak entire tomes, is as wrong directed at a rightful High King as it is insufficient for an unrightful one.
So today he must chart a course through two maps at once, and put together a missive that is both respectful and demanding at once, one that will not offend a righteous High King but will corner an unrighteous one.
After long labour and much time spent sorting through the previous drafts for salvageable fragments, he has the beginnings of something appropriate.
Recent advancements in the understanding of the Waystone Network have brought with them an awareness of the ways in which the energies involved can and have been put to use for the betterment of various Peoples and Polities. In the light of this knowledge, it is troubling to find that great volumes of magical energies are being drawn from the surrounds of Karak Eight Peaks to an unknown end. The first response of any rational ruler would be to end this state of affairs, but the possibility has been raised that there exists a proper explanation for this state of affairs. Should this be the case, then the full truth of the matter should be vouchsafed to the rulers from whose Karaks the energies are being siphoned.
In the absence of any such explanation, the only course of action that can rightfully be taken would be to sever this unknown connection so that the resources rightfully belonging to the Karak can be used for the betterment of the Karak...
It will do for a start. When a missive might change the course of history, one has an obligation to give it at least a revision pass or two.
---
Of all the possible responses, simply sending a messenger back with a reply was probably the most likely, but Belegar still feels wrong-footed for it being so prosaic. The only oddity is that the messenger has requested to meet him outdoors, at the top of the exterior stairs of Karag Lhune and outside the entrance that leads to the Hall of the Moon. For a wild moment Belegar considered whether this could be an assassination attempt, before dismissing the thought as unworthy of even the worst of worlds. Still, he brings his usual escort of Hammerers with him.
Outside it is a few minutes shy of the height of the day, when the shadows are at their shortest, which at this latitude means they barely exist. As if to confirm this, the messenger is consulting a small portable sundial as Belegar approaches. He looks up, bows to King Belegar, and without speaking turns to look out over the valley. Part of Belegar wants to do his best to disrupt whatever pageantry this is, but he decides to see where this is going and follows the messenger's gaze towards the Citadel at the center of the titular eight peaks.
The first indication that something was amiss was when the heat haze, which on particularly hot days could completely obstruct the view from one side of the Karak to the other, grew stronger and more turbulent above the Citadel. Then, without a sound, bright yellow fire from nowhere started at the base of the haze and climbed swiftly upwards, and a pair of immense but lazy flames danced atop the Citadel's two towers, so bright as to be almost transparent, and without a wisp of smoke emerging from it.
"The High King sends his warmest regards to you and yours, King Belegar," the messenger says, and without another word he turns and leaves, beginning his long journey back to Karaz-a-Karak.
---
"Let's operate under the assumption that the High King wasn't being deliberately mysterious," you say to Belegar. After the massive flare of apparently non-magical fire had filled the sky over the Citadel, his messenger to you had met you halfway to him. He hadn't moved from where the High King's messenger had delivered his obscure message, but he had had a table set up and a few relevant tomes brought out for him to start leafing through for clues. "The most likely reason for a message being sent in that way is that a message cannot be sent at all. To my eye, this smacks of a secret that cannot be told, but must be shared."
"That seems like a sensible place to start," Belegar replies, to your relief. He's gotten a better grip on his habit of reflexively interpreting everything from the High King in the worst light possible than he once had.
"So if we assume this is a direct response to your question, then it's saying 'this is what that energy is doing'." You're leading him in the way that you normally would Eike, rather than a King, but with a safe harbour in sight you don't want things to run aground at the last moment.
He nods. "I've seen paintings of the Karak in its youth where immense airships were moored to the tips of those towers. If we assume that that was the original purpose of the Citadel, rather than just a convenient place for them to tie off to, then it seems reasonable to suppose that what we saw was some sort of liftgas being burned off."
"The creation of which, I've read, is usually quite problematic. The sort of thing that an immense amount of magical power might be needed for, say. If it relies on an energy network that spans the Karaz Ankor to function, it would also explain why it's controllable from Karaz-a-Karak."
"It is said that before the Underway was built, various forms of floating transports were used to trade between the Karaks. Perhaps Karak Eight Peaks was once a center of aerial trade to Azul and Drazh and Izril and Ekrund, a counterpoint to the rivers and lakes connecting the central Old Holds."
"That makes a lot of sense, actually," you say, looking out over the farms and pastures that have filled the sheltered center of Karak Eight Peaks. "I'd wondered what the purpose of all this space was in the original Karak Eight Peaks, as it's much more above-ground space than any other Karak I've ever seen has claimed. This Karak being a hub for immense airships would make sense - both Dwarven and foreign."
"Foreign?" he asks.
"Elven Skycutters, most obviously, and possibly more peaceable forms lost to these more fractured times. I know next to nothing about it, but ancient maps show an Elven settlement called 'Oeragor' in the Badlands, and I've wondered how a colony would work that far inland. Airships could be the answer. And I've read of Nehekharan Sky-Boats, and Arabyan flying carpets, and many kinds of airships of Cathay that all might have travelled here in ancient times. Perhaps even Fozzrik himself might have paid a visit." You contrast the mental image against the pleasantly bucolic valleys of today, and suspect that most would call the past greater than the present.
"In any case," you continue after considering that, "the clear insinuation seems to be that the power sent to Karaz-a-Karak is being used to fuel ancient wonders throughout the Karaz Ankor, which were thought lost but are actually inoperable due to a lack of power. Is there anything that occurs to you that could have been a remnant super-project?"
"The Rune of Eternity on the Throne of Power, perhaps," Belegar says quietly and consideringly. "It is said to be the only Rune with which Grungni was ever wholly satisfied, and that it grants the High King the wisdom of all his predecessors."
"Something with an area of effect of a single individual in a single place shouldn't require anything like that much infrastructure to support it, no matter how dramatic the results," you say. "Possibly the Underearth itself requires a continuous input of power for its role as an afterlife, or the Glittering Realm does to be a source of the underpinnings of Runesmithing." Or both, but that the two realms are the same is a Gazulite secret you're not able to casually share. "A lot of reasons why what Runes do are impossible under Teclisean theory disappear if their operation is supplemented by an external source. That would justify any amount of secrecy."
"The Eyes that are making the Second Silver Road War possible might be another example of one of these grandmasterpieces."
"If so, the reclamation of Karak Eight Peaks might have made it possible."
"And Karak Vlag," he says pointedly.
"I suppose so. And through it Karag Dum is reconnected, and considering its location, it must be pouring energy in."
"Then why would he not have supported the Expeditions more than he did?"
"Perhaps he simply didn't know that the flow could be restored so easily. Before us, no Karak had ever been wholly retaken. He might have thought that whatever it is that makes a Karak-Waystone would need to be performed from scratch, and the impression I have is that the modern Runelords are not capable of doing so. That would explain his sudden shift of priorities from vengeance to revanchism."
Belegar is quiet for a while. "If you are correct, and the Underearth requires an input of power to maintain itself, or perhaps to maintain its connection to the world of the living... that may be even more of explanation for his Age of Reckoning. If a day was coming when an afterlife with our ancestors was lost to any Dwarves that still lived, then an extinction in the name of vengeance before that day came might be preferable."
"'Die well'," you quietly recite.
"Was he waving me through a door that might soon be closed? That he might have thought would become closed to me and mine if rescued?"
It's not a question that you can answer, and not one that you're expected to. You simply sit with the King as he rethinks every interaction he's ever had with the High King.
