Are you suggesting that people might not want to drop all their plans, projects and obligations to go investigate a mystery that's perplexed the greatest magical scholars for thousands of years on the behalf of a strange, young and overambitious lady magister they barely know?
I actually think windherding will be the real draw for Hugo, he is a talented enchanter who has shown an interest in taking his enchanting in a novel direction when making the red tower. This is partially why I included a windherding action with Egrimm alongside recruiting him, because being able to show up and say "Hey look at this novel way of doing magic I invented, it opens up a whole host of possibilities when used for enchanting want to join me in developing them?" seems like a pretty good hook for him, it's not a great mystery or a theoretical maybe it it is a thing that he can see being done infront of him and the challenge is taking it and applying it to his area of expertise. And if we occasionally have him poking waystones as well that's just the price he has to pay to extract those juicy windherding secrets from Mathilde's brain.
I noticed that Mathilde knows very very few couples, let alone committed ones. I think it's only Edda + Kazrik (not yet openly), Soizic + Hubert (not yet openly), Esbern + Sejia (I think), Heidi + Luitpold (married with child) and the Duchess and Duke of Carcassonne (talked to them once). On top of that we know that King Kazador is married, but don't know his wife. For every single other character we've met IC we either know that they are single or don't have any info on their relationship status at all. Which is quite curious, given the era and level of social status we usually move in. Wilhelmina and Abelheim were both widowed with children, but all our other friends are single and eligible, some of them with quite a bit of pressure on them to start producing heirs.
And before anyone brings them up, I don't count Deathfang and Asarnil to be in this category.
will there be any consequences for recruiting Engrim to WEB-MAT and then not immediately giving him a task? Will there be off-screen stuff to keep him busy as we set up, or could it cause resentment if he starts feeling like we are ignoring him?
He's in WEBMAT which is based in Eight Peaks, the entire point of the gyrocopter was to allows us to ferry people to Tor Lithanel as necessary. Since we don't have him doing anything Waystone related I don't see why he'd be in Lithanel rather than at WEBMAT.
In theory, he should be free to use WEB-MAT resources to pursue his own projects in addition to performing any orders we give him, much like how the ducklings did their own things, but could also be given jobs by us. This is something that he was probably denied to do under Alric, simply because of how busy Alric kept him. So he may appreciate the freedom.
That said, I do feel a little bad that none of the leading plans this turn actually use our WEB-MAT efficiency bonus. We're leaving an AP on the table, and it's AP we spent a Great Deed on to acquire. Whilst I absolutely want to see AV researched further, to be honest I wouldn't mind postponing it another turn so we can give our wizards jobs. Maybe have Max write a paper and Egrimm look at the Kurgan weapons? We could think of it as... hmm, not a test, but a trial, to explore what his strengths are on something low risk?
Maybe have Max write a paper and Egrimm look at the Kurgan weapons? We could think of it as... hmm, not a test, but a trial, to explore what his strengths are on something low risk?
[ ] MAX: Go through every library of the Colleges you can access for any scrap of information about Waystones. (NEW)
Seems like it could be useful.
Which colleges would those libraries be for? Gold and Grey certainly, but would Egrimm's presence in WEB-MAT allow accessing the Light College's library, by having him go grab volumes?
Obviously not any secret knowledge that he's bound by his college to hide, but that stuff wouldn't be in their library anyway.
as we need something to be a 'proof of concept' to give to the colleges, and a way to justify having Egrimm on board. I'm taking a step away from my usual stylings to give you:
The Glittering Shield (Eye of the Beholder/Shimmering Cloak)
'A board steel kit-shield that that seems to turn away the arrows that are shot at the knight wielding it and their horse. despite clearly being of Steel, all those that see it are convinced that it must be worth so much more. '
Not the most amazing weapon enchantment, but as a proof of concept to give to the colleges its made from simple spells, lets us do something with Egrimm (the only other enchanter in WEB-MAT right now) and it will make some knight out there every happy.
He's in WEBMAT which is based in Eight Peaks, the entire point of the gyrocopter was to allows us to ferry people to Tor Lithanel as necessary. Since we don't have him doing anything Waystone related I don't see why he'd be in Lithanel rather than at WEBMAT.
Mathilde justified shaking Egrimm loose to Mira with the importance of the Waystone project. Why would he be twiddling his thumbs half a continent away from it?
Just to hammer the point home: if you headhunt some of the most promising Wizards of their generation for your extremely ambitious plan to reverse engineer ancient magical secrets and then they spend literal years of their lives doing absolutely nothing they will fucking quit.
I think we should we alter the plan to get some work for WEB-MAT given the twiddling thumbs response.
Current winning plan
[] Plan Redshirt v2 with Divine AV
-[] 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 (600gc)
-[] Immerse yourself in the culture of the 'Cityborn' Toriour inhabitants of Tor Lithanel
-[] Immerse yourself in the culture of the 'Forestborn' Faniour inhabitants of the woods surrounding Tor Lithanel
-[] Investigate how the Vitae reacts with Divine Magic.
-[] EIC: Have a blackpowder factory built in Wurtbad.
-[] SERENITY: Observations of Karag Dum and its unusual guardian
It looks like the most popular engrim action is as below (which also gets us a free Max action, which is great):
[] EGRIMM: Work with him using windherding to combine Dazzle and Bewilder in a spell combo.
Now, in order to include it, something will need to be dropped. Furnishings are kinda essential, so that leaves the two culture, and the vitae action to drop. I like all three, so it's a hard choice, but I think we can space out the forestborn action to next turn as - if I understand correctly - the major houses we will have to recruit will be mostly cityborn, rather than forestborn. So swapping that for the Engrim and Max actions gives us this:
[X] Plan Don't Ignore Engrim
-[X] JOHANN: Have Johann spend time getting to know Kadoh, who has expressed an interest in meeting the 'fist metal-Mage'.
-[X] EGRIMM: Study an artefact: Golden Arm
-[X] MAX: Go through every library of the Colleges you can access for any scrap of information about Waystones.
-[X] Attempt to bring a Karak's Runesmiths into the Waystone Project (Karak Azul)
--[X] COIN: The Gambler
-[X] Furnish the living spaces of the Waystone Project HQ (600gc)
-[X] Immerse yourself in the culture of the 'Cityborn' Toriour inhabitants of Tor Lithanel
-[X] Investigate how the Vitae reacts with Divine Magic.
-[X] EIC: Have a blackpowder factory built in Wurtbad.
-[X] SERENITY: Observations of Karag Dum and its unusual guardian
Yes, it sucks that we have to wait a bit on the forestborn action, but we really don't want our wizards to start getting antsy. Especially as given Engrim's complaints, we really want to make a good impression on him, and not seem like just another person looking to get ahead at his expense.
Edit: given we don't know if engrim can enchant I've replaced it with studying the golden arm relic
[X] Plan WEB-MAT & Culture
[X] Plan Don't Ignore Egrim with nice living space
[X] Plan WEB-MAT & Max Research
Right, so no plans that make use of Egrimm for (co-op) enchantment until we've spent some more time with him to get to know him.
Makes it even more clear just how little we've done to earn his loyalty. Max and Johann we have a history with, but Egrimm we know from a few interactions on a single (albeit a VERY significant) journey. Yes rescuing Vlag was impressive, but while he knows we're impressive as an individual he's still feeling us out as an employer.
I think we can risk this turn not having them do anything they get to explore a super cool elven city, they get to relax for a year focus on personal project, should be more than enough to tide them over but after that yah we are gonna have to be using them
Just to hammer the point home: if you headhunt some of the most promising Wizards of their generation for your extremely ambitious plan to reverse engineer ancient magical secrets and then they spend literal years of their lives doing absolutely nothing they will fucking quit.
just a mechanics question: but will we at any point be able to set people on long term projects?
because realistically, its going to be impossible to juggle even 4 people with the action economy if we have to set them up with actions every turn instead of setting them on '2-3' turn jobs: maybe as teams.
Given that we have no idea on his enchantment abilities, I think studying something is probably the better thing for him to do until we properly get the waystones running. Golden arm is already in one of lower vote plans, so I've gone with that tentativly.
Do feel it is rather important to get a good impression by giving him something to work on. Probably should have waited for him for a turn or two until we actually had the project in such a state that we know what to do with WEB-MAT.
I think we can risk this turn not having them do anything they get to explore a super cool elven city, they get to relax for a year focus on personal project, should be more than enough to tide them over but after that yah we are gonna have to be using them
I think having the first turn after recruitment be "eh, do your own thing" establishes a very bad precedent. It's fine for Max and Johann, but for Egrimm, ignoring him will probably be offputting, and if it's not offputting then he's probably not going to be a particularly dedicated employee.
The first 6 months of the job is not the time for a 6-month holiday.
[X] Plan Don't Ignore Engrim
-[X] JOHANN: Have Johann spend time getting to know Kadoh, who has expressed an interest in meeting the 'fist metal-Mage'.
-[X] EGRIMM: Study an artefact: Golden Arm
-[X] MAX: Go through every library of the Colleges you can access for any scrap of information about Waystones.
-[X] Attempt to bring a Karak's Runesmiths into the Waystone Project (Karak Azul)
--[X] COIN: The Gambler
-[X] Furnish the living spaces of the Waystone Project HQ (600gc)
-[X] Immerse yourself in the culture of the 'Cityborn' Toriour inhabitants of Tor Lithanel
-[X] Investigate how the Vitae reacts with Divine Magic.
-[X] EIC: Have a blackpowder factory built in Wurtbad.
-[X] SERENITY: Observations of Karag Dum and its unusual guardian
I'll support it, the golden arm my not be waystone or windherder, but its definitely weird and rare. and lets him know that this is going to be a different experience.
just a mechanics question: but will we at any point be able to set people on long term projects?
because realistically, its going to be impossible to juggle even 4 people with the action economy if we have to set them up with actions every turn instead of setting them on '2-3' turn jobs: maybe as teams.
You're coming at this from the entirely wrong direction. Don't think of this as 'what is the bare minimum amount of effort we can expend to keep the Wizards in their pokeballs'. Wizards are a scarce, expensive, valuable resource and Mathilde is going out of her way to snatch them up, taking them away from the good they would otherwise be doing for the Empire. If you don't have work for them, don't hire them.
