... That being said, I don't think Nagash is a deity yet if I recall my Warhammer lore correctly. So it would just be a regular heist, not a deity one.
She knows we were doing our best- seriously her own dad who she obviously respected had nothing but praise for Mathilde. She also knows that our response to Van Hal dying was to follow on his desires and tear down Drakenhof Castle. Our intentions were never in doubt- that's why she tried to help us as best she could bring herself and actually felt bad we were cursed with magic, because she believed we were a good person who didn't deserve it.
Like this is some increasingly silly wishful thinking. No matter how benign we are, no matter how evidently good intention-ed we are, some people will never accept us simply because the risk inherent to doing so. And we can't remove that risk, only mitigating it at best.
This pretty much, people are making a bomb analogy, but it's not that, for her we are carrying a disease.
A diseased person needs to be quarantined, it does not matter if it's your best doctor/engineer/fireman, the risk of it spreading will always surpass any benefit from keeping them in play.
Nah, the fourth robbery is Tzeentch, where we break his accursed foothold on the souls of all human Mages once and for all, and in doing so, free humanity from the Witch. I agree with 2 and 3 though.
As for who noticed this:
-Warp
--The Orc gods got mugged through an act of Cunning Brutality followed by an act of Brutal Cunning. I THINK they might direct more attention to Mathilde than usual, but orcs are famously poor at keeping grudges, though they're persistent about curiosities.
--We're wearing the Rune of Valaya and we're inside a dwarfhold murking orc warbosses, the Dwarf Ancestor Gods might have caught a glimpse of it, but if they did they'd be grumbling about stupid reckless umgi gods and wizards gargling molten metal and coming out with gold teeth.
--Ranald of course knows. Duh.
--Tzeentch probably knows when he felt destiny SHIFT but does not know he knows.
--Slaanesh was around the neighborhood apparently, if s/he was a possible dice result, but thats likely because Ranald's domain is functionally wedged between Tzeentch and Slaanesh's pad to begin with anyways.
-Regional:
--PROBABLY for one instant, every set of dice in the Empire was giving snake eyes. A hundred bar brawls started over weighted dice. While cats sing in harmony.
-Local:
--Every Greenskin Shaman in the Eight Peaks probably felt that. Expect some heightened activity.
--Kragg probably felt that and is generally disapproving of everything but has nothing to yell at.
--The Journeymanlings probably felt that. Not sure how refined their magical senses are though.
Nah, the fourth robbery is Tzeentch, where we break his accursed foothold on the souls of all human Mages once and for all, and in doing so, free humanity from the Witch. I agree with 2 and 3 though.
Ranald's Coin is worn showing one of its four faces. During normal turns, you can choose which face you will be showing.
- The Gambler: As per Ranald's Gift, but can occur twice during one action.
- The Night Prowler: As long as you are outside of private property and within a town or city, nobody will question your presence and nobody will be able to find you if you do not wish them to.
- The Deceiver: Lies you have developed beforehand will be delivered perfectly. The listener may believe you to be mistaken, but they will never believe that you are lying. Cannot be used to tell truths.
- The Protector: When you act in a way that defends an individual or group from a danger that you did not cause, they will become aware of what you have done and will believe you acted selflessly in doing so.
Hmm, so for dangerous action scenes, we have to decide beforehand if we want the extra safety of the Gambler, or the guaranteed bragging rights rep gain of the Protector.
Pity, in a way, that we most likely won't be able to use the Protector for the task that earned us the coin, but would we really want some of these details to be let out?
The Deceiver lets us choose what to reveal later, and works almost as well, lets us choose a different function while accomplishing the task, and we only miss out on people becoming instantly, mystically aware that Mathilde just did something great for them.
I can see some people being put off by even a friendly Manling Warp God bragging into their ears.
You know guys as cool as our shinny coin is let's not forget that Mathilde killed the Warboss again... and this time it was a black orc not a goblin. At this point the slayers are going to start getting jealous.
She did not just gank the orc, she gank the orc in the midle of a religious ceremony, stole both of its gods power and make it alive, unchanged (always a big thing when dealing with gods) and she did it with a greatsword instead of girly dagger.
If theres any Dwarven patron god of sneaking and stabbing, dame weber would be its Avatar.
She did not just gank the orc, she gank the orc in the midle of a religious ceremony, stole both of its gods power and make it alive, unchanged (always a big thing when dealing with gods) and she did it with a greatsword instead of girly dagger.
If theres any Dwarven patron god of sneaking and stabbing, dame weber would be its Avatar.
[*] You are a faithful of Ranald, being in the right place at the right time to unbalance the scales. Try to steal the energies.
As unleashed greenskin energy whirls, you have a scant few seconds to use Mork's withdrawal to think clearly. Your act of cunning had allowed Mork to make you the conduit for his Cunning. But you already were a conduit for a God of Cunning, were you not? More than any mere worshipper. You have witnessed His battles, channelled His favour, and dedicated shrines to Him. Somewhere within you was the part where your own Ulgu-entwined soul reached out to Ranald, just as inside you was the part where Mork had slipped behind your eyes and used you as his puppet. All you have to do is bridge the two...
On another plane, Mork has just found himself sitting at a dice table with a man who always smiles, never blinks, and has every ace to ever exist up his sleeve.
What other result could there be but Four, for the Fourfold God?
Mork had poured His terrible power into you, and with typical greenskin carelessness had done nothing to seal that connection after his purpose had concluded. A single strand of Ulgu touches the aperture that Mork had torn in your soul, and its other end extended into nothingness, offered freely to your oldest and most infuriating companion. And with a delighted laugh, he accepted.
And then he pulled.
The power of the Waaagh flowed into you again, and then through and out once more in a continuous raging deluge. The maelstrom that had been on the verge of exploding outwards had its rush to freedom arrested, the wasted energies of a failed gambit falling into the orbit of the torrent of power rushing through you. Every instinct the Grey College cultivated in you is screaming to reject the non-Ulgu magics, but you allow them to flow into you and be caught up in the the torrent, disappearing into the part of you that knew implicitly that when you bowed your head and prayed, you would be answered, and the answer would most likely be irritating. The bond between god and worshipper, transformed into a yawning abyss that thirsted for Godly energies - energies that could obliterate you in an instant.
[Survive: Piety, 56+21+20(Ranald's Gift)=97.]
But you remain untouched.
Mork's deliberate attention had forced your muscles to accept and use the energies of the Waaagh, but the second his purpose was fulfilled he had turned his attention elsewhere. Now Waaagh energy flowed through you without touching you, the flesh of man utterly inert to the magics of the Waaagh. Energy poured through you like water through your fingers, and into the waiting grasp of Ranald. It took mere seconds for Mork to notice, and several more for him to howl in outrage, and only then did he recoil back from Karag Nar, if direction can be said to have meaning to the Gods. How much power can a God unleash, or be made to unleash, in a handful of seconds?
A lot.
With Mork's power torn away, the power of Gork spinning through the air rushes to fill the void and it too was accepted by Ranald. For an instant you could feel a tugging at your very soul as Ranald's siphon tugged at the magical energies that had become a part of it, but then it stilled, and you slumped amidst the wreckage of the Idol of Gork. Sensation returns slowly to your limbs as they remember how to operate without the power of Mork flooding them, and you have to remind yourself to breathe. Finally, using your gore-soaked greatsword as a crutch, you pull yourself onto shaky feet.
The room was empty of magical energies now, apart from your own and a trickle of Shyish forming around the bodies. As if nothing had happened. But when you close your eyes and turn your attention towards a familiar presence, you almost stagger backwards before you manage to brace yourself. You'd felt Ranald's presence before, both when he acted and when he merely provided company. It hasn't changed, but it hasn't changed in the way that a candlelight doesn't change when you ignite a bonfire - it is still fire, just so much more of it.
He laughs again, in a tone laced with weariness and satisfaction, and you catch a glimpse of a featureless man sitting before a table with four towering stacks of jade-green tokens, which have already began to fade to various shades of grey. He takes one token from each pile, conceals them in the palm of his hand, and with a gesture reveals a single coin which he flips through the air to you. You refuse to catch it, because that is what you do when Ranald is feeling especially pleased with himself, and it doesn't matter as the coin hangs in the air as if you caught it anyway. When you finally do accept the coin, the sigil on top is the dice of the Gambler, and underneath is the cat of the Night Prowler, but when you turn the coin back the top now has the cloak of the Deceiver, and a final inversion shows the dagger of the Protector. A four-sided coin, made of what looks like steel streaked with veins of jade. A cute trick, and already punched with a convenient hole for hanging from a chain or string.
With an internal sigh, you roll one of the more intact corpses over and check its filthy clothes for pockets, and you can't even muster an act of surprise when it happens to have a length of string in it. You slip your new amulet on, and slip it out of sight under your robe. Ranald's markings are not to be worn visibly, after all.
---
While you inadvertently got in the middle of far too many gods trying to outdo each other, the rest of the Battle of Karag Nar was continuing blithely on in happy ignorance. You stretch the kinks out of your aching muscles as best you can and make your way through the tunnels towards the central staircase with ears aquiver, listening for any sign that either your actions or those of the Rangers had alarmed the rest of the greenskins, but all you hear as you approach is the distant squabbling that inevitably occurs amongst their kind. You wonder if the Gods are keeping quiet, or if there's just no priests or shamans left in the mountain to listen to the complaints of Gork and Mork, but that's a concern for later.
The plans you made yesterday feel like a lifetime ago, but you remember the concerns you had for the Hoard and as such make your way there as quietly as possible. If it weren't for Aethyric Armour preventing your muscles from aching worse than they already did, you reflect as you make your way up a mountain-length staircase, you'd probably leave the riches to their fate. As is, you slowly approach the two guards still standing at the doorway, looking no more alert than they did during your scouting. It takes you twice as long as usual to shape Ulgu, the magic feeling light and distant to your senses, but you're in no rush. Shadowcloak gets you close enough to prod the guards with Sleep, and with a guaranteed minute you don't have to hurry through Mockery of Death. They slump slightly in simulated death, but remain upright in their place, and you slip between them to confirm the hoard is still present and untouched.
An Alarm on the door, a few spooky-looking sigils from your MAP floating in front of the Hoard, hopefully enough to give second thoughts to anyone that gets this far, and then you focus and carefully and slowly scale up the spell Eye of the Beholder until it encompasses the entire pile. Sweat is beading on your forehead by the time you're done, but the spell finally grows enough in size and you unleash it gratefully. Silver fades to tin, gold to brass, and jewels to rocks. The pile might evoke generosity, but hopefully not greed.
[Casting after Waaagh exposure: Req 60, Learning, 90+20=110.]
[Overcasting - Eye of the Beholder: Req 70, Learning, 64+20=84.]
Your internal clock is far off kilter, but you would have expected the alarm to be raised and the invasion proper to have begun by now, but perhaps the Rangers are doing better than you expected. You feel you've definitely contributed enough for just now, so instead of diving back into the greenskin murder you walk over to the windows; the clouds still hide the sun, but enough light is getting through for you to see the lines of battle drawn up to counter any sally from the Citadel. So far, they seem to be declining, though there's definite activity at the Citadel. You frown, and with a groan fold Ulgu once more, thickening the air in front of you into a series of lenses as you peer downwards.
It's not just the Citadel that's moving. The caldera beyond is built up from wall to wall with greenskin hovels and then built on top of itself alongside each edge, to the point where you can barely see any bare stone anywhere beyond the Citadel. And it is swarming like a kicked anthill. Some of them seem to be pouring into the southernmost Karag, which memory tells you is Karag Rhyn, but most are flowing towards the Citadel. Are they attacking it or joining it? You can't see the far side of the Citadel to know for sure.
You're wondering if you should leave the Karag to help the Expedition repel what might be the biggest wave of greenskins you'd ever heard of, when suddenly the thunder that had been so distant shatters the sky before you, as lightning strikes the uppermost tower of the Citadel and bursts it into fragments. You grin as you remember that you are not the only power at work here.
---
From his vantage point, Kragg sighed.
It wasn't disappointment. Disappointment would require that he expected better.
It wasn't weariness. Truth be told, he felt more energized than he had in centuries.
It was merely the sound of a Dwarf that has discovered yet more evidence that he was completely correct in expecting the world to be untidy.
Kragg gazed over the Eastern Valley as chaos engulfed the plans of younger and less wise beings. Something in Karag Nar had riled up the Grobi mightily, undoubtedly to do with that ridiculous Mhornokrul. Whatever had caused it, the Expedition was about to see more of a fight than it had expected, even in its worst-case scenarios. Kragg closed his eyes, and concentrated.
Hysh in the dawn, Ulgu from the banishment of night. Azyr in the clouds crackling overhead, Aqshy dormant but about to be unleashed in the firing of cannon. Chamon in arms and armour, Ghur in the steeds of the manling knights. Ghyran in the scattered plants clinging gamely to life, Shyish soon to blossom below. And centred on the Citadel, nascent but rapidly growing, the growing energies of an imminent Waaagh!
Kragg was as blind to the Winds of Magic as the rest of his kin, but he knew them all.
A twitch of a finger triggered the release of tamer energies. If it sought the same effect, manling magic would attempt to goad Aqshy into changing the nature of his hammer, and it would succeed or fail based on the ability of the wizard and the whims of chance. Rune Magic did not allow for these variables. When magic flowed into a Rune, the ancient art of Thungni stripped it of its wayward personality and troublesome independence. The magic in Kragg's hammer heated it until it glowed red in the same way that water flowed downhill, as the inevitable result of inanimate forces.
Kragg would have liked very much to use that hammer to hit something that bled. But even though it insisted on disappointing him at every turn, he still put the Karaz Ankor above his petty wants. So when the hammer descended, it was not upon the face of an Orc, but upon an intricately-carved block of solid gromril.
Anyone with the slightest hint of magical sensitivity could instantly sense the change that had been wrought. One moment, the Winds of Magic blew hither and thon according to their whim in a thousand different directions. The next, all winds were pulled inexorably towards a single point atop the secondary peak of Karag Lhune. Some energies clung to those few individuals attuned to an individual wind, but most could do nothing but surrender to the pull.
"Khazukan Kazakit-ha," Kragg murmured to himself. And for the second time since he left Karaz-a-Karak, he smiled.
And unleashed the full power of the storm.
---
With the crack of thunder and the boom of cannon, the element of surprise is well and truly shattered, albeit by the forces without rather than those within. You tear your eyes away from the artistry of crackling lightning to concentrate on making up your mind as to your next step.
[ ] The enemy reaction is greater than expected. Make your way to join the imminent battle outside.
-[ ] Hastily.
-[ ] Carefully.
[ ] This wealth is the future of Karak Eight Peaks. Stay here with the Hoard.
[ ] Keep to the original plan. Find the invasion force and join them as they fight their way through Karag Nar.
Ranald's Coin is worn showing one of its four faces. During normal turns, you can choose which face you will be showing.
- The Gambler: As per Ranald's Gift, but can occur twice during one action.
- The Night Prowler: As long as you are outside of private property and within a town or city, nobody will question your presence and nobody will be able to find you if you do not wish them to. For non-human population centres, will work if it's not completely unknown for humans to be present, or if you are disguised as that species.
- The Deceiver: Lies you have developed beforehand will be delivered perfectly. The listener may believe you to be mistaken, but they will never believe that you are lying. Cannot be used to tell truths.
- The Protector: When you act in a way that defends an individual or group from a danger that you did not cause, they will become aware of what you have done and will believe you acted selflessly in doing so.
1: One Less God.
2: Two Gods Notice.
3: Man In The Middle.
4: Split Four Ways.
5: A Fifth Aspect.
6: The Sacred Number.
- Because the mechanics are a bit non-intuitive, I will point out that Mathilde was rolling for spells she normally doesn't need to.
- The first portion of this update was originally posted here.
Has anyone heard the tale of ranald the dealer
It is a heresy that confuses handrich The god of merchant and trade as an aspect of ranald as he and his worshippers are known for there greed and swindlers people who buy from them
See also Cult of Handrich "Money, power, and influence -- these are my gods. And Handrich represents all that is money, power, and influence." —Bianka Grutzner, heiress to the Grutzner Dry Goods Consortium, Altdorf Handrich, also known as Haendryk or Hændryk[4a] in Marienburg, Mercopio in Tilea...
warhammerfantasy.fandom.com
There is nothing stopping us from helping him absorbed handrich and create a new aspect as ranald the dealer
Has anyone heard the tale of ranald the dealer
It is a heresy that confuses handrich The god of merchant and trade as an aspect of ranald as he and his worshippers are known for there greed and swindlers people who buy from them
See also Cult of Handrich "Money, power, and influence -- these are my gods. And Handrich represents all that is money, power, and influence." —Bianka Grutzner, heiress to the Grutzner Dry Goods Consortium, Altdorf Handrich, also known as Haendryk or Hændryk[4a] in Marienburg, Mercopio in Tilea...
Mork had poured His terrible power into you, and with typical greenskin carelessness had done nothing to seal that connection after his purpose had concluded. As a single strand of Ulgu touches the aperture that Mork had torn in your soul, and its other end extended into nothingness, offered freely to your oldest and most infuriating companion. And with a delighted laugh, he accepted.
I uh, don't know if this is important but we had god energy roughly shoved into our soul. Sure, Ranald stole it all, but there was still a hole in Mathilde's Soul that was stuffed full of divine power. Is that gonna be an issue down the line or nah?
I uh, don't know if this is important but we had god energy roughly shoved into our soul. Sure, Ranald stole it all, but there was still a hole in Mathilde's Soul that was stuffed full of divine power. Is that gonna be an issue down the line or nah?
warhammerfantasy.fandom.com
