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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Redshirt's plan looks pretty solid to me.

@BoneyM, two further small questions for when you get the chance:
  • I notice we no longer have Penthouse actions. I assume this is because we've kind of exhausted the useful things to do with our K8P Penthouse and it was just filling space?
  • People have raised the issue that Johann doesn't speak Eltharin or even Praestantia. Is this something that defeats the purpose of the Johann broing out action, or should we not worry about it?
 
BoneyM said:
"A source of magic? How?" You focus on the water, and eventually you can make out a deep throb of magical energy far below, and a steady plume spiralling upwards to swirl through the waters of the lake and be drawn north to the outflow. Everything you've been taught says that all magic has its origin in the Aethyr.

"We don't know," he admits. "We believe there's some kind of portal at the bottom, but it has a guardian spirit that doesn't like us investigating."
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I wonder whether this is a potential second source of Aethyric Vitae? Depends on the nature of the portal of course, but something about the description makes me think it's not actually emerging directly as winds. Could just be my imagination running wild with all the cool descriptions.

Of course if it is emerging as AV any attempt to make use of it in that form would require persuading both the elves of Laurelorn and whatever the guardian spirit is.
 
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[] Immerse yourself in the culture of the 'Cityborn' Toriour inhabitants of Tor Lithanel
Mat knows she's there on invite, but one has to wonder, what would using the Night Prowler allow Mat to overhear or spy in a city like this? As shown in the update, the Elves are gawking at her as much as she is at their capitol. Being able to sneak up on even magic wise elves might be a significant boon in overhearing stuff.

@BoneyM Would something like this be out of place?
[] Scout out the capitol and the webs of power that make up it's people. Listen to rumors, keep an eye out for smugglers, and seek out information brokers. Get a lay of the land without showing your own hand.

It's meant as an Intrigue instead of Diplo based immersion. Learn about the Elves without giving them the same chance to learn about Mat, until she has better background to present herself. Maybe even play of some of the intrigue/curiosity/gawking from the elves, by keeping up her mystique.

That kind of thing with the Night Prowler up might be incredibly effective in making a good first impression, rather than going in blind and learning as we go. The opinion of the common city dweler might not matter nearly as much as the great houses, but not leaving openings or showing our own ignorance is always a good thing.

This vote is sponsored by the "Be the smug superiour wizard even to the smug superior elves" party. Just imagine how the nobles that disdain humans will react if the human that comes into town perfectly knows elven culture and propriety, as well as social and cultural norms, without any sign of who taught her or when. As one painted with Ulgu, they'll of course assume we snuk around, but that will only further stick in their craw. We snuk around in a way they couldn't find us!


EDIT: @Redshirt Army I'm against putting the coin against runemasters. It's not likely, but they are some of the few who might notice it's influence and throw an absolute shitfest over it. Remember, rune lore is part of a single ancestor worship domain. It is not beyond question that putting the coin on recruiting/convincing runemasters to help migth actually put Ranald against Thungni.

It's not likely, but I'd rather not risk it.
 
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Oh boy another update and now a new project to begin! So I think the obvious actions here is to just begin to set-up and to prepare for the waystone research.
 
So, it's not quite important yet, as we know the dwarfs and college enough to o ow what to expect from them in the broad strokes.

but will there be any actions to lean more about (investigate, mingle, go to the same meeting etc) the different houses before going straight to 'try to recruit'? @BoneyM

I would be happier to at least be able to attempt to get a bit more knowledge about a group before going for the dive.
 
Jyn Ryvia said:
but will there be any actions to lean more about (investigate, mingle, go to the same meeting etc) the different houses before going straight to 'try to recruit'? @BoneyM
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I think right now our action in that direction is mingling with the townsfolk as a whole, we don't have the foundation on which to build individual relationships with most of the houses.

Hopefully that action will give us enough information for personalised approaches for the different houses.
 
Johann needs to learn to speak elf.

At this stage of the project, we need his sparkling personality and his sparkling fists. Would be a shame if he couldn't communicate efficiently.
 
I'm curious what happened to the rest of House Elwyn—three people does not a major house make. There must be people out there who were part of the larger institution of Elwyn who are suddenly no longer part of a major faction due to the deaths of three people.
 
Yeah, I think having Johann learn elvish is first priority.

I like taking both cultural immersion actions, and recruiting the Azul runesmiths.

That said, I'd really like to see us codify Rite of Way. The Empire could really use that spell.
 
BoneyM said:
She smiles briefly, a flash of genuine amusement that disappears in a heartbeat. "I have had a scribe collate the information you will need to set down roots. We will be watching with great interest."
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And of course it contains few notes on the Queen's position as she's the one that provided the notes. And possibly slanted a few towards her point of view
 
picklepikkl said:
Redshirt's plan looks pretty solid to me.

@BoneyM, two further small questions for when you get the chance:
  • I notice we no longer have Penthouse actions. I assume this is because we've kind of exhausted the useful things to do with our K8P Penthouse and it was just filling space?
  • People have raised the issue that Johann doesn't speak Eltharin or even Praestantia. Is this something that defeats the purpose of the Johann broing out action, or should we not worry about it?
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We don't really have K8P subsidizing it anymore so the expense is probably prohibitive.
 
picklepikkl said:
Personally, I think that rather than trying to full-court press recruitment this turn, it would make sense to do one important recruitment at a time so we can Gamble it. Like, runesmiths this turn, next turn Jades and Ambers, that sort of thing.
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I agree with this, we've already waited a while just to get properly started and it was always going to be a long project anyway. We want the foundations here to be as stable as possible and there's as yet little real rush beyond "I'm watching."

Start slowly, like an avalanche.
 
Money will be much less of an issue if/when we recruit Elven weavers for the EIC and start peddling Spidersilk all over the Old World.

I don't know if we should go for it THIS turn but I do think we might want to start looking into it through the immersion actions!
 
[ ] Plan Redshirt v1 + Super nice rooms
[ ] JOHANN: Have Johann spend time getting to know Kadoh, who has expressed an interest in meeting the 'fist metal-Mage'.
[ ] Attempt to bring a Karak's Runesmiths into the Waystone Project (Karak Azul)
-[ ] COIN: The Gambler
[ ] Furnish the living spaces of the Waystone Project HQ (500gc+)
[ ] Furnish the research spaces of the Waystone Project HQ (2000gc)
[ ] Explore the wonders of the ancient and beautiful city of Tor Lithanel
[ ] Immerse yourself in the culture of the 'Cityborn' Toriour inhabitants of Tor Lithanel
[ ] EIC: Have a blackpowder factory built in Wurtbad.
[ ] SERENITY: Observations of Karag Dum and its unusual guardian

Same as redshirt plan except 500gc spent on living spaces instead of 300gc
 
About :
[ ] Furnish the research spaces of the Waystone Project HQ

Wouldn't it be better to wait a bit before furnishing the research spaces (and perhaps even assing the coin to that action so we don't get "Wizard Chic" again).

We don't really KNOW what we'll need. I'd rather have input from as many shareholders as possible before deciding what we need. It would also show consideration to our partners to get them involved in the procurement of research equipements and tell us what they need. For now, I think we are more in the diplomacy phase than the hands-on research phase.

For now, I don't think we need to have research instruments as much as gather people, read already existing documents, get others to share their knowledge and know each other, etc.
 
Ok so none of the plans so far proposed have sold me completely, Redshirt's is the one I like most but I'm not a fan how all in it is on Laurelorn/the project so I would like to present my own plan:

[ ] Plan: Jreengus
-[ ] EGRIMM: Work with him using windherding to combine Dazzle and Bewilder.
-[ ] JOHANN: Have Johann spend time getting to know Kadoh, who has expressed an interest in meeting the 'fist metal-Mage'.
-[ ] WEB-MAT: Attempt to recruit someone to WEB-MAT (Bright Magister Hugo Bann)
-[ ] Attempt to bring a Karak's Runesmiths into the Waystone Project (Karak Azul)
--[ ] COIN: The Gambler
-[ ] Furnish the living spaces of the Waystone Project HQ (300gc+)
-[ ] Immerse yourself in the culture of the 'Cityborn' Toriour inhabitants of Tor Lithanel
-[ ] Experiment with integrating the Vitae into enchantments.
-[ ] EIC: Have a blackpowder factory built in Wurtbad.
-[ ] SERENITY: Observations of Karag Dum and its unusual guardian

The major removals from Redshirt's plan are that this drops furnishing the research spaces and exploring the city. I don't think we need to spend more than 1 action this turn exploring the city/culture of laurelorn and I think immersing ourself in the culture is the more important of the two options. I also don't think we need to furnish the research spaces this turn. The runesmiths are not going to join us based on the quality of our lab setup and we aren't actually going to use them this turn so I think we can leave doing that until next turn in order to free up a turn this turn.

As for what I added, first up I want to experiment on AV, especially with the Laurelorn elves having another source of magic I think knowing all we can about AV might be of help to them in figuring out what is going on in their lake. Secondly I wanted to take advantage of the efficiency that comes from spending 2 actions on WEB-MAT. The spell suggestion with Egrimm was just me looking for two relatively simple spells that I think could synergise to start our first experiment into windherding, two skilled magisters casting relatively simple spells to begin with should reduce the risk of something going horribly wrong. I also really like @kingreaper's recruitment idea, he seems like an excellent candidate for when we move up to the more complicated task of windherding enchantments and I think the idea of an entirely new field of enchanting would be enticing for him, it'll also be handy to have him around if the waystone project needs an enchanter.
 
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Why are so many people insistent on spending more money on the living quarters?

100gc is "adequate"
200gc is "comfortable"
300gc is "nice"

We don't need to go above "nice", let alone ten times the value of "adequate". Diminishing returns is a thing.
 
I'm probably forgetting something, but why is this option crossed out?

[ ] Investigate how the Vitae reacts to being subjected to power stone creation methods.
 
Nerdasaurus Rex said:
Why are so many people insistent on spending more money on the living quarters?

100gc is "adequate"
200gc is "comfortable"
300gc is "nice"

We don't need to go above "nice", let alone ten times the value of "adequate". Diminishing returns is a thing.
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Research institute to collegiate standards =500 gc.
To elven standards =2000gc

So with 100 gc as adequate accomodations by collegiate standards, if the ratio were the same, 400 gc would be "adequate" and 800 gc would be "comfortable" from the PoV of our - far richer - hosts.

And the highest common number I'm seeing for acccomodations is 500gc
 
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Nerdasaurus Rex said:
Why are so many people insistent on spending more money on the living quarters?

100gc is "adequate"
200gc is "comfortable"
300gc is "nice"

We don't need to go above "nice", let alone ten times the value of "adequate". Diminishing returns is a thing.
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There are two main reasons. First, it's not just Mathilde living here, it's all of the prospective researchers we want to hire- swanky digs are a surprisingly compelling argument, and I think are likely to make a difference with certain types of people. (Mainly elves.)

The second reason is that showing off your wealth is a sign of commitment and status amongst the nobility. We are going to be attempting to win over a sizable portion of Laurelorn's nobility, and looking respectable in their eyes is important. An elven noble's idea of "respectable" is downright decadent by our standards, but why not spend the gold to sidestep this issue now? It's not like we need it for much else.
 
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So something to think about, that while its all well and good to try and get the Dwarfs and colleges on board, we really cant slow roll getting at least one of the elf factions involved when we are working on their front lawn without burning bridges fast.

So baring new information. I think the first one we should try is Ward of the Frost.

Regardless of whether or not she was speaking for herself or as the mouth piece for the high council, Vicereine Cadaeth is the one that made all the promises for choosing to do the project under Laurelorn. and that includes a heavily implied promise of her own help, or at least her company, and she might as well help if we are going to make her keep her word about hanging around to keep us company (we can do semantics too!)

plus, they have a vested interest in peaceful interactions between humans and elves.

after them, its one of the Hoeth Saphery clans obviously, it's just which one, they both have pros and cons.

Major House Ellemakil: easy sell? will at least make it easier to get the cult of Ulric and involved if/when we need it. though if the stereotypes about Avelornians translates to their distant Expats, they will be the type of high society nobles that mathy is all thumbs with.

Major House Fanpatar: one of the easier sells, but Iffy on how useful.

Major House Tindomiel: Originally from Saphery, and one of the two Major Houses influential in the Temple of... Hekarti? Isn't she a Druchii Goddess? Well, they did vote in favour of interaction with the Empire so they might be a better option for a magically-inclined Major House to bring into the project than the two Hoethian ones.
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Terrifying, 1: because they want to interact with humans, and 2: Mathy doesn't quite realise what Hekarti is the god of. 3: they might be the only easy magic clan sell! (I really hope the cult Atharti is not interested.)

The Grey Lords: obviously we need to look into this, but its such an obvious hot topic button I can see it smoking.

on the flip side, there is the Major House Malforric: and the question is: 'is it worth the work to at lest get them to be neutral about us, or are some battles pointless and we should just move to assume that they will be a pain in the ass.
 
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