Aranfan
Team Plasma Grunt
Making a lot of assumptions about the efficiency of the runes, the way dhar is collected and transported to the runes, and probably several others I'm blanking on at the moment.
Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest
- Thread starter Boney
- Start date
- Fantasy Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
consequences
Not A Nice Person At All
- Location
- Jerkville
I mean, I did after posting consider ways to use our understanding of the Secrets of Dhar to make the resulting potentially infinite flamethrower powered by corruption worse. Or possibly better.
Codex
Fantasy Addict
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I should also note that Dwarf Runesmiths are not immune to falling to Chaos.
Currently the Chaos Gods most likely don't find it entertaining or worth the effort to corrupt the Dwarves to their side, aside from Hashut with the Dawi Zharr. However, the instant the Dwarves start industrialising with giant Dhar burning waystones, chances are they double or triple their efforts to corrupt them, and you get another Grugni Ironheart.
Currently the Chaos Gods most likely don't find it entertaining or worth the effort to corrupt the Dwarves to their side, aside from Hashut with the Dawi Zharr. However, the instant the Dwarves start industrialising with giant Dhar burning waystones, chances are they double or triple their efforts to corrupt them, and you get another Grugni Ironheart.
- Location
- New Brunswick, NJ
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Downside of seeing "Voting closed, writing has begun" at 11 PM local time: not gonna be awake when the update drops and the thread goes hype. Upside: going to bed with the knowledge that when I wake up, there will probably be DL.
The magic of being a child on Christmas Eve, recaptured.
The magic of being a child on Christmas Eve, recaptured.
Ericwinter
Definitely not a Skaven Infiltrator
- Location
- America
And it's only a couple days late!
Karak Vlag would like to disagree. I think it's more that Dwarves are hard to corrupt for various reasons than any unwillingness from the Chaos Gods.
Codex
Fantasy Addict
- Pronouns
- She/Her
The fact that there has been one major plot to corrupt a group of Dwarves over the last couple thousand years doesn't particularly indicate anything. Compare that to humans which get a major plot to corrupt a group of them practically every year and there is no comparison.
King Arthur
The Once and Future King
Skeletal labor force = boring, sounds very 9-5 standard business stuff. Sounds like it's about taking jobs away from the living and further empowering the current power structures. Rich fat cats using immoral magic techniques to steal the bread off of you're table. Booo.
Necropunk = Cool, exciting. Bunch of do it yourself teen/young adult wizards taking on the world, breaking all of the rules. They don't have that fancy schooling the lucky folks at the College's might have, but they got the magical equivalent of three chords and the truth, as well as a plucky attitude and legit grievances about society, and it's super rad. I love it.
It's all about branding.
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Aranfan
Team Plasma Grunt
I mean, ideally you'd use the skeletal labor force to do the menial labor like farming and mining and stuff. You know, the kind of thing that most ancient societies turned to slavery for so they didn't have to do it themselves. Of course, this still has issues with dhar corruption and stuff. But that's an interesting premise actually, somebody should do a quest like that.
Turn 37 Results - 2488 - Part 1
[*] Plan Compromise
-[*] MAX: Learning: Rituals from the colleges. Mathilde pays gold costs.
-[*] EGRIMM: Attempt a Windherder enchantment with Egrimm
--[*] Shadowsteed & Clarity, allowing the user to ride all night without sleep
-[*] WEB-MAT: Investigate Gryphon Wood with one or more members of WEB-MAT (JOHANN)
-[*] Personally scrutinize a Waystone as thoroughly as you possibly can.
-[*] Attempt to bring a Major House or Ward into the Waystone Project (Frost)
-[*] Investigate Alric
-[*] EIC: Try to uncover what's going on in Gryphon's Wood.
-[*] LIBRARY: Seek an agreement with a Cult to have access to their libraries (Quinsberry)
-[*] SERENITY: Write a paper: Observations of Johann's prosthetic arm (FRESH)
-[*] COIN: The Night Prowler
Tally
-[*] MAX: Learning: Rituals from the colleges. Mathilde pays gold costs.
-[*] EGRIMM: Attempt a Windherder enchantment with Egrimm
--[*] Shadowsteed & Clarity, allowing the user to ride all night without sleep
-[*] WEB-MAT: Investigate Gryphon Wood with one or more members of WEB-MAT (JOHANN)
-[*] Personally scrutinize a Waystone as thoroughly as you possibly can.
-[*] Attempt to bring a Major House or Ward into the Waystone Project (Frost)
-[*] Investigate Alric
-[*] EIC: Try to uncover what's going on in Gryphon's Wood.
-[*] LIBRARY: Seek an agreement with a Cult to have access to their libraries (Quinsberry)
-[*] SERENITY: Write a paper: Observations of Johann's prosthetic arm (FRESH)
-[*] COIN: The Night Prowler
Tally
As your own experience and experimentation can attest, making the Winds act as you want them to is very difficult to do reliably. The most basic and common method of achieving this is for a living soul to attune to the Wind and corral it along the desired path, countering whatever the Wind attempts to regain its freedom. This does, of course, require a living soul and a thinking mind. A workaround to this requirement is to spend days, weeks, or even months laboriously and forcefully altering the nature of the Wind to something static and reliable, sacrificing its adaptability and mutability in the process. But Waystones present a clear challenge to this understanding of the options available, as by all appearances they possess neither soul nor mind, and they clearly don't take prolonged periods to prepare each individual strand of Wind being sent along the leylines.
While you would like very much to tackle this fundamental question, your personal study of Waystones has to begin at the beginning. As you attend to other duties you take the time to detour to known local Waystones to study each in search of any differences. The archetypal Waystone is an upright square frustum topped by a square pyramid standing at about the height of a human. On each of the exposed faces of the frustum, if they have not been covered by accumulated dirt or grime, is the Rune used in Eltharin to represent Waystones: a diamond atop a pyramid, and above that, a teardrop. Whether this Rune is upon the Waystones simply as a label of its purpose, or whether the Rune in Eltharin is based off the Rune that marks each Waystone and the marking on the Waystone serves a deeper purpose, is an open question. At the base of the Waystone, though this is almost always underground, is a much larger square base ringed with an eight-pointed star that align precisely with the cardinal and ordinal directions. These Waystones absorb magic and, through means you seek to determine, add it to the leylines flowing beneath them.
Unfortunately, this 'basic' model is far from the only one that exists. For each of these 'normal' Waystones there are many menhirs, large standing stones of irregular shape. Many possess no Runes at all, and those that do have carvings of ancient Belthani script. What few that have been partially translated usually tell a tale of some ancient figure or another, leading most historians to believe them to be mere memorials, and many have been toppled or harvested for stone over the millennia. But they, too, absorb the ambient Winds, and to those who can see the direction of the leyline flow below, they always point towards one of the Elven Waystones. From what you've heard, a similar dynamic can be found in the east, with Scythian-made standing stones supplementing the Elven network. Most scholars who note the connection believe the ancient humans were merely aping the Elven visitors, but it's seeming to you that the original network of Elven waystones was supplemented by a titanic effort by the much more primitive local populations that increased the covering of the full Waystone network substantially.
On the other extreme are the nexus points, where multiple Waystone-controlled leylines come together into one place to form a larger deluge of energy leading directly towards Ulthuan. Most were erected in easily-accessed areas, many at the heart of ancient Elven communities, so most of these nexuses can be found in the heart of modern human cities. The Waystone at the heart of the Jade College in Altdorf is one of these great nexuses, and it is fed not only by nearby 'regular' Waystones but also by much greater tributaries from the direction of Talabheim and Nuln, and all this energy flows 'downstream' towards Marienburg. You speculate from there it would flow to Castle L'Anguille, and then either further along the Bretonnian coast or directly towards Ulthuan. You don't have access to enough of these to draw conclusions, but the one at the heart of the Jade College seems like a massively upsized version of the Belthani menhirs, rather than being visibly Elven in any way.
After having examined in brief enough of the Waystones to get a good impression of them, you seek to select one to be your candidate for more extensive scrutiny, which is easier said than done. Ideally it would be outside of a city to be far from the many distractions of that many souls in close proximity, but also protected in some way so that you aren't rudely awakened from deep meditation by a passing wolf or Beastman. It would also need to be outside of Laurelorn, because you want to use something that's part of the 'normal' Old World network as your prototype, rather than one that is part of the Laurelorn network and therefore may differ in some way. Eventually you settle on a garrison of the Army of Reikland called Fort Brachsenbrücke that has a Waystone just outside of its main gate, leaving you protected by the patrols and sentries as you turn your full attention to the Waystone.
[Study the Waystone: Learning, 28+29+10(Windsage)=67.]
It proves to be a rather frustrating study. This area has a typical level of background magic for the countryside of Reikland, which means it is still distractingly awash with magical energy - that is how you are able to perform spells, after all, by calling on the ever-present Winds. Normally very useful, but when you're trying to study the operation of an extremely efficient magical device through the insulating stone it is made of, it instead becomes very annoying. You feel like a daytime stargazer as you try to ignore the beautiful glow of everyday life around you in favour of peering at the impossibly dim workings of the Waystone before you, but over time and with concentration, your 'vision' adjusts to the purpose you are putting it to. The first thing you begin to make out is the leylines thrumming below you, streams flowing in from other Waystones and trickles from Belthani runestones and being redirected onwards to meet the great magical river at Altdorf. Then you are able to notice the faint glows of trapped magic below at specific points in the day - Ulgu at dawn and dusk, Hysh at midday, Azyr on moonless nights. Judging by their position relative to the Waystone, you theorize that the buried eight-pointed star has a storage mechanism in each of the points, one for each Wind, for when the amounts of energy being absorbed temporarily outstrips the Waystone's ability to add it to the stream below.
After almost a week spent in concentration, you finally begin to make out the precise point when magic enters the leylines, as constellations of tiny sparks drip from the points of the foundational star into a position directly below the Waystone, and then drop with sudden speed downwards to join the leyline. Sometimes eight, but often less, as there is definitely not exactly equal amounts of each Wind present here. But though at certain points during the daily cycle the amount of Winds being dropped into the leyline sometimes falls as low as two at a time, you never see a single Wind being dropped in, always at least two. You suppose this explains why in Altdorf, a city practically riddled with Waystones, mono-Wind environments such as the Colleges still exist - because the Waystones seem to need at least two Winds to be present to drain away magical energies, and thus a specific Waystone would only be able to drain away as much of a given Wind as there exists the total of the other seven Winds.
The final night of observation happens with Morrslieb's baleful influence overhead, with the hideous throb of Dhar creeping along the landscape and being drawn into the Waystone. To your consternation, it proves impossible for you to see anything of the Dhar after it enters the Waystone itself, even as the Waystone absorbs amounts of it that would leave one of the storage mechanisms visible if it were one of the Winds. Perhaps the Waystones are built to contain the malign energies of Dhar and so not even a glimmer of them can be seen by the sharpest of Windsight, or perhaps they are dumped into the leylines below immediately, rather than a few sparks at a time.
You carefully make notes on your observations and then finally break camp, passing along your thanks to the fort's captain before heading back towards civilization.
---
Meeting with the Ward of Frost is nowhere near as straightforward as it is to meet with any other major figure of Laurelorn. The Ward of Frost has not had a fixed capital since the fall of Kor Immarmor, and apparently has not had a fixed Warden since the death of Lord Lindialoc of House Elwyn. Instead a representative from the newly-empowered Council of Frost is chosen whenever one is needed, and the power apparently surrendered immediately after the need has passed. Not the most conventional of arrangements, but with nobody left with a claim to power from the ruins of Kor Immarmor, there's nobody to try to challenge it. So there's no embassy to visit, no local representative to question, no royal palace to travel to. Unless you're willing to rearrange all of your plans to wait for the next meeting of the High Council, the best course of action available to you is to make your way along the road from Tor Lithanel to Salzenmund and see what happens. If nothing else, you're sure that you'll be noticed as you enter the sprouting lornalim grove of Oldenlitz.
Since your last meeting with the memorable Vicereine of Oldenlitz, you've heard quite a few stories about the nature of the beings of the Ward of Frost, many of them quite fanciful, and in the past days you've sought out even more. In other parts of Laurelorn, the Faniour and Dryads keep a cautious distance between each other, but in the Ward of Frost the two have intermingled so thoroughly and for so long that it may no longer be possible to draw a meaningful distinction between them - or at least so go the stories told in Tor Lithanel, which straddle the line between horror and titillation at the exact nature of the intermingling. While biologically there's no way to make sense of a cross between flesh and wood, on a spiritual level there's more possibilities, especially since the Tree Kin of Athel Loren are quite well attested and seem to be the result of an Elven soul being forcefully inserted into a Dryad's body. If said insertion was more, well, gentle and consensual, who knows what the result may be?
As soon as you cross the Demst into the Ward of Frost, you find yourself shadowed by an escort of marshlights, which you presume to be the variety of spite known as Mischiefs. In most of the Old World an encounter with the aptly-named spites is quite likely to lead to disaster, but here in Laurelorn they serve the Eonir rather than their own whims, and you take this as a sign that your passage into the Ward of Frost has been noticed. Sure enough it doesn't take long until you are accosted, and you're quite sure that if you had entered the Ward from the other end of the road you would be met with an arrow, rather than a pair of Elves stepping from the treeline into your path, all bared limbs and gleaming muscle and garments made of very few leaves protecting their modesty. Their bows are nocked, but not yet drawn. "Traveller," they address you in unison.
"Greetings," you respond. "I am Mathilde Weber, and seek an audience with the Council of Frost."
"You are known to the Ward of Frost," one says.
"You are welcome in the Ward of Frost," says the other.
"But the Council is scattered, and will not meet until necessity drags them from their home soil."
"What is your purpose?"
You look thoughtfully at the two, and need only a moment's concentration to spot the tendril of magical energy linking the two. A Familiar bond, or something very similar to it. An Elf and a Dryad, perhaps? But which would be the Master? "I seek the wisdom of those of the Ward of Frost to join the effort to unlock the secrets of the Waystones."
The two look at each other. "There are perhaps those better suited to that business," one of them says with a smile.
"But none more desirous, or more likely to seek vengeance should they be thwarted, than the one you are already on course to find," continues the other.
"The Vicereine of Oldenlitz?" you ask, and take the two of them disappearing back into the treeline as confirmation. Still shadowed by the Mischiefs, you spur your Shadowsteed onwards once more.
---
In the year and a half since your last visit, the ruins of Oldenlitz have receded even more into the soil, and the saplings have grown into... well, you don't have the vocabulary for tree sizes, so whatever comes after saplings, and now most of them have grown slightly taller than you. But unlike your previous visit you are not expected by Vicereine Cadaeth, and it seems you are not awaited either. As the Mischiefs titter to each other over your head you wander through the ruined roads, carefully giving each of the lornalim plenty of space as you do so, and probe your surroundings with your Magesight. If Cadaeth is an Elf then she will have some sort of residence here, and if she is a Dryad she will have a tree that she resides within, and if the lurid tales of Tor Lithanel are correct and she is a little of each, then she will... have a dungeon within which she will lure innocent yet consenting young Elves into for all sorts of wondrous torments. Perhaps there's only so much accurate insight that can be distilled from those tales.
At any rate, you find neither the treetop residence of the Faniour nor a tree glowing with the large and complicated soul that you know Cadaeth to possess. Instead, you find what you presume to have once been a cottage of Oldenlitz, except instead of being torn down it has been almost completely buried by the undergrowth, and you have to look quite closely to see even a single brick beneath the layers of vines, shrubbery, and leaf litter. With some difficulty you identify part of the solid wall of green that the door is buried under and work your wrist through the foliage to knock upon it, and after a moment a vine covering a nearby window twitches aside for a startled and familiar face to peer out at you, before slamming back into position. You carefully keep from laughing and wait patiently until the Vicereine finally emerges, the foliage sliding away from the door as she steps out dressed in leather and bark. "Lady Magister," she says to you in greeting. "I had no forewarning," she pauses to direct a glare upwards at the Mischiefs, which zoom away with a chorus of tinkling laughs, "of your visit."
"I apologize for the abruptness, but none of Tor Lithanel could give me a better way to get in touch with the Council of Frost than to wander into your territory, and the sentries on the western road said that you were the most suitable to take the matter to."
"And what matter would that be," she says, and you allow her to lead you back into the ruins as the door swings closed and is once more wrapped in green.
"The Waystone Project. You were the one that first broached the subject, and though you may have simply been the messenger, I had the impression that you would be interested in the research itself, not just the results." Well, you had a vague idea she might be, but it had just been pretty much confirmed by the road sentries. "We will have the contribution of Lord Hatalath, but though his familiarity with the arcane is clear, he may not possess as grounded a perspective as someone like yourself."
"You are correct. I have... some measure of curiosity about the nature of your kind," and you very carefully do not look back at the stolen cottage she had chosen to live within, "and I doubt that even the Grey Lords would know as much about the lornalim as those that tend them."
"So you would be willing to join the Project?"
"As often as I am able. My children grow strong, but I would not be willing to leave them untended for too long."
"If you'll forgive my lack of understanding, would you be representing simply yourself, or the Ward of Frost?"
"No one person can represent an entire Ward, but I will serve as a conduit to those within the Ward with greater understanding of relevant matters than myself, if that is your concern."
"It is." Or near enough, anyway. The tacit support of the Ward of Frost will serve as one more tool on the belt of the Project. "I was also wondering if you could entertain my curiosity as to the nature of your children. Are you familiar with the standing stones of the Belthani?"
She evidently is not, which makes sense - Laurelorn has been continuously occupied by the Elves since before the arrival of the Belthani, so they never would have had any opportunity to erect their runestones within the forest. But you explain the concept to her, and she does confirm that the lornalim fulfil a very similar function to the runestones. You take a great deal of mental notes on what she is willing to reveal about the lornalim, glad that your latest recruit to the Project is already proving as useful as she is charming.
---
You spend the chilly months of late winter and early spring working with your employees on various subsets of magical academia. With Max, you alternate between lessons in Altdorf and research in Tor Lithanel as you grapple with the bizarre and confusing world of ritual magic. This field serves the purpose of proving that the Colleges of Magic are far from a thorough understanding of the underpinning logic of magic, as the connections between cause and effect are as tenuous and fleeting as dream logic. It makes a certain amount of vague sense that the blood of a judge might be used in a ritual to force an oathbreaker to follow through on their promise, but trying to look deeper into it than that is a sure path to madness. Why blood, specifically? And why does it need to be written on the skin of a stillborn lamb? Despite involving a great deal of research, the creation of a new ritual is more similar to a fever dream or a vision quest than any form of logical undertaking, and involves many months of meditation, experimentation, and trial and error, and the requirements of it accumulate new and often ungainly accoutrements along the way. By the end of the lessons, you reach the conclusion that neither of you have actually been taught how to perform or invent rituals - you have simply been shown how to get started, and have to let instinct and mysticism take you the rest of the way, and been told in exhaustive detail how terribly it can all go wrong. Both you and Max agree that it would probably be for the best if you never need to engage in ritual, but at least now you have the option.
[Skill gained: Ritual. Able to perform rituals, and to attempt to invent entirely new ones.]
---
With Egrimm, you take your first tentative step into the art you're thinking of as 'Windherding' by working together to try to enchant a saddle with a Light and Grey spell simultaneously - Shadowsteed to provide a steed to ride upon, and Clarity to keep the rider's mind free of exhaustion for the duration of the ride. Not the most dramatic of enchantments, but both spells are relatively simple, so it should serve as a testbed and proof of concept.
[Mathilde Windherding: Learning, 6+29+10(Enchanter)=45.]
[Egrimm's contribution: Learning, 92+22=114.]
[Miscast roll: Unnatural Aura. Chance of Arcane Mark. Rolling: Shrouded.]
That is, it would if you didn't keep flinching and fumbling the Ulgu whenever Hysh got within the same room as it. It seems some foundational lesson that had been drummed into you as an Apprentice had stuck harder than you thought, as every time Egrimm tries to work on his part of the enchantment while you've got a fistful of magic, it takes all your concentration to keep from hastily grounding the Ulgu, and that leaves none of it left to actually do your half of the work. It comes to a head one day as you try to plow through the hesitation and overcompensate, and are barely able to shout a warning that has Egrimm jumping away and grounding his Hysh with a flare of harsh light before the magic tears itself entirely free of your control, some of it exploding into raw magic and the rest burrowing itself deep into your being.
The two of you stand there, hands on weapons and senses alert for any sign of Daemons or other malignancy, and after nothing visibly occurs you exhale shakily. "Nothing," you say. "I'm sorry about that."
"I'm wearing the wrong outfit to be put off by a little miscasting between friends," he says breezily. "And I get it, I really do. I have the voice of my Master in me screaming to ground the magic and get clear too. I suppose I just have a bit more practice in disregarding mine."
You wrap up work for the day and you take yourself back to your quarters on shaky feet. It takes you some time examining yourself in the mirror to notice the difference, but you felt the Ulgu sinking into your soul and you know that something's changed. Eventually you spot that some of the dark wisps that conceal your form are shadow itself clinging to you tighter than usual, rather than simply shadows cast by the smoke that has been drawn to you for some time already. You've acquired the Arcane Mark known as Shrouded, and descended deeper into the grip of Ulgu.
[Arcane Mark acquired: Shrouded. Shadows you are in grow deeper and cling more tightly to you. +2 Intrigue.]
You return to work, and eventually you manage to eke out possibly the worst enchantment you've ever performed, and only because Egrimm had managed to squeeze his own enchantment into the pommel and left almost the entirety of the saddle for your own sloppy work. Still, the fact that there's no leakage between the two and no disruption of either effect proves that there's merit to what you're attempting, you're confident that if you manage to contribute at least basic competence to a future enchantment you'd be capable of even better things.
What will you do with the Nightrider Saddle?
[ ] [SADDLE] Give it to the EIC
[ ] [SADDLE] Give it to the Hochlander
[ ] [SADDLE] Give it to your fief
[ ] [SADDLE] Donate it to Stirland
[ ] [SADDLE] Donate it to Ulrikadrin
[ ] [SADDLE] Donate it to the Undumgi
[ ] [SADDLE] Donate it to the Colleges
---
With Johann and Egrimm, you sit down to write a paper on your observations of the prosthetic arm. After a few false starts, you and Egrimm take Johann to his quarters to sleep off the concussion he managed to pick up in his latest adventures with Kadoh. It's slightly more difficult to write a paper on the prosthetic with the bearer no longer involved, but you took copious notes and your memories of the investigation are still fresh enough that it doesn't matter too much. You know the paper itself isn't really going to make much difference in the grand scheme of things, as there's only one of these arms and there's unlikely to be any other users of it in the near future, but it's not just utility that makes a paper have an impact, but also novelty. A prosthetic arm of completely unknown origins - no, a prosthetic talon, acquired in hazy circumstances, and stitched onto a bold volunteer? That gets attention.
And perhaps there might be some utility to this paper. Though the arm is unwilling to give up its secrets, being able to state for a fact that it's possible for Hysh to interface with the nerves of the human body could make some people more willing to experiment with achieving that, especially since it's confirmed it can be done without harmful leak-through to a non-Hysh Wizard. The Empire has quite a few amputees, and some of them would be in positions to pay quite well for a functional prosthetic, or would be of sufficient importance that the Empire would pay on their behalf. Perhaps one day this paper could lead to some sort of replication of this phenomenon by the Colleges.
By the time you and Egrimm wrap up the paper, you're feeling a lot happier about having spent the time to write it than you had been at the start. There is no such thing as useless information, you remind yourself, merely information you haven't found the use for yet.
[Mathilde's contribution: Learning, 87+29+10(Fresh)=126.]
[Johann's contribution: Learning, 1+19=20.]
[Egrimm's contribution: Learning, 39+23=62.]
[Observations on a Golden Prosthetic Talon of Unknown Origin, 2488. Subject: Unique, +3. Insight: Revolutionary, +2. Delivery: Compelling, +1. Exotic, +1. Total: +7.]
---
On the very few occasions in your life you have gone unnoticed in a crowd, it has been by dint of a carefully-crafted disguise. To be dressed as you usually are and still go unnoticed in the crowd takes a bit of getting used to, as instead of people staying a polite distance as they usually do in Altdorf or Karag Nar, or a wider and more cautious berth as they usually do anywhere else, with the blessing of the Night Prowler coiled around you the crowd flows closely around you like water flows around a rock. It's a deceptively subtle effect, but one with a great deal of utility for those who intend mischief. You spend some time testing the exact extent of the effect and causing a handful of minor disturbances in the street of Altdorf before setting off on your mission to investigate Alric's investigation into the serial murders of members of the Unfähiger dynasty.
You arrive at the docks of Taalagad with your supernatural unnoticeability enhanced with a carefully bland disguise of a moderately well-off clerk by way of a ferry from Altdorf whose captain has already had all memory of his brief encounter with you snatched from his mind, and from there you make your way into the tunnel through the rim of the Taalbaston crater that leads into Talabheim proper with the help of a counterfeit letter of passage. According to legend, Taal once encountered and subsequently fought a particularly large and ill-tempered Dragon, with the Dragon's lashing tail carving out the Talabec and the fight ending with Taal throwing the Dragon into the air with so much velocity that its return carved out a crater sixty miles wide. The legend goes on to say that the crater went uninhabited until the arrival of Taal's chosen people, the Taleutens. Noticeably absent from this tale is mention of the Dwarven highway that runs right alongside this allegedly undiscovered crater, the Dwarf-carved tunnel through its walls, and the ruins of the Elven trading city of Athel Maraya that you know for a fact Talabheim is built upon. The supernaturally fertile fields within are simply the result of the Dragon's flesh mixed with the soil, and the fragments of supernaturally tough metals occasionally found by farmers are clearly its scales. All credit goes to Taal.
[Examining EIC reports: Learning, 86+29=115.]
You casually collect the latest reports from the EIC's agents in Talabheim from a dead drop in an alley and find a moderately upmarket tavern to read them in. You frown as you do so, something about the latest rumours of the terrible fates suffered by members of the Unfähiger dynasty tickling a memory you can't quite reach, and you frown with frustration at being so far away from the shelves of notes you've accumulated over the years. But long meditation and several surprisingly decent local ales eventually uncover why this seems so familiar - the chain of dynastic death seems to be violent parodies of the apparent 'natural causes' that carried off the Haupt-Anderssens of Stirland in rapid succession, and led to the title being vacant for the Van Hals. That is cause for concern. The conspiracy that is likely to have performed the assassinations of the Haupt-Anderssens included the former Empress, and the current incumbent is posing as a part of that dynasty. That matter coming under scrutiny could cause that whole house of cards to come crumbling down. Hopefully nobody else has made that connection yet - the whole matter was classified rather severely, initially because the final genuine Haupt-Anderssen managed to suck himself into the Warp in a botched Daemonic summoning and later even more so due to the connection to the fate of the Vampiric conspiracy. You consider your options carefully as you indulge in another flagon of the best of Hargrinson's Brewery.
Vote for as many as you prefer from the below options; the one with the most votes will be taken. The two sections are divided only for legibility.
[ ] Approach the Unfahigers openly
[ ] Approach the Unfahigers in disguise (specify: as what)
The Unfähigers should be scared enough to take any help they can get at this point.
[ ] Interrogate the Unfahigers
Sneak your way in, interrogate, Mindhole, sneak your way out.
[ ] Approach the Hunter's Council
They have authority over the City Watch, and the rank to know not to gossip about a Lord Magister of the Grey Order. See what they can tell you.
[ ] Approach the local Witch Hunters
The Longshanks of Taal are a lot easier for Wizards to get along with than most Witch Hunters, and would know about strange goings-on in Talabheim.
[ ] Other (write in)
[ ] Approach Alric directly
This is too serious to play politics over. Team up with Alric and bury this matter as efficiently as possible.
[ ] Bring in Regimand
He was both your Master and your partner in dismantling the conspiracy that killed the Haupt-Anderssens, and likely knows more about them than anyone living.
[ ] Bring in Heidi
As a counterfeit Haupt-Anderssen, this is a matter that she would have a great deal of interest in keeping quiet, and she enough influence to open just about every door there is.
- There will be a four hour moratorium.
- If I've missed any blindingly obvious destinations for the saddle or approaches to the riddle of the Unfahigers, let me know and I'll add them.
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- Location
- France
Oof. That's not an auspicious start to our Windherding attempts.
At least the arcane mark seems like a good one! And getting an intrigue bonus right before that final vote seems useful.
@Boney, can we bring in Regimand and Heidi? Or is that too much of a risk to Heidi's cover?
Similarly, is there something stopping us from bringing in Regimand and Alric?
At least the arcane mark seems like a good one! And getting an intrigue bonus right before that final vote seems useful.
@Boney, can we bring in Regimand and Heidi? Or is that too much of a risk to Heidi's cover?
Similarly, is there something stopping us from bringing in Regimand and Alric?
Omegahugger
Inattentive Idiot
"Okay, so we need to study this thing if anyone is to replicate it. Johann, how do you think your arm works?"
"It works very well, thank you."
NuclearConsensus
Herald of the Thorned One
- Location
- the Philippines
Oof. I want these, I want them so baaaaaaaad. Question, how many options are we supposed to choose for this vote? Is it a top five kind of thing?
Sovereign Hunt
A Concentric Circle
- Location
- Bereft of Name
Well, there are worse Arc Marks to get (shame we still haven't gotten the Mark of Ulgu, but ah well).
- Location
- USA
MiracleGrow
Miracles for only $19.99 [They/Them]
- Location
- DOOR STUCK DOOR STUCK PLEASE I BEG U
You can recruit multiple serially, but not all at once. Whoever you recruit first will weigh in on the situation and whether it's a good idea to bring in the next person.
Unfahigers are getting murdered.
- Location
- florida
[ ] Bring in Heidi
As a counterfeit Haupt-Anderssen, this is a matter that she would have a great deal of interest in keeping quiet, and she enough influence to open just about every door there is.
Ranald team up go!
It'll be a real girls night.
Also I'm concerned Alric might dig adjacent to our empress secrets. Which would be incredibly bad.
As a counterfeit Haupt-Anderssen, this is a matter that she would have a great deal of interest in keeping quiet, and she enough influence to open just about every door there is.
Ranald team up go!
It'll be a real girls night.
Also I'm concerned Alric might dig adjacent to our empress secrets. Which would be incredibly bad.
Working with Alric and learning how an incredibly experienced Light Wizard would approach this is really tempting, but might very much be against the spirit of the agreement. Not that anyone could complain openly if this really is a dangerous plot against the Empire, the articles being what they are, but burning goodwill with a soon-to-be Matriach isn't done lightly.
The new arcane mark seems pretty nice, and I'm really glad that we dodged forgettable for now. A tad sad that our proof of concept for windherding isn't that impressive.
The new arcane mark seems pretty nice, and I'm really glad that we dodged forgettable for now. A tad sad that our proof of concept for windherding isn't that impressive.
It'll be an hour or so before I can give an actual reaction to the update, but until then, spotted two typos:
to
either 'who would you be representing, simply yourself' or do away with the 'who'.
MiracleGrow
Miracles for only $19.99 [They/Them]
- Location
- DOOR STUCK DOOR STUCK PLEASE I BEG U
Ya know if they are going out the same way that other dynasty did in Stirland. It raises the possibly that its the same vampire carrying these out.
One horrifying possibility is vampires having a Agent 47 equivalent. At any moment a flying suitcase is gonna chase us twenty miles across the country when we get on our shadowsteed
One horrifying possibility is vampires having a Agent 47 equivalent. At any moment a flying suitcase is gonna chase us twenty miles across the country when we get on our shadowsteed