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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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[X] Plan: Ritual Centre
[X] Plan: Narrow it Up
[X] Plan Info
[X] Plan: Survey & Surcharge
[X] Plan Dig Up Info + Deniable Looting
[X] Plan Dig Up Info
 
Jyn Ryvia said:
the absolute worst thing that could happen is that Alric saves them, gets back in power, but still thinks that Hidi was involed.
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This scenario will not happen when it is revealed that Abelreich is the culprit.

If he still thinks Heidi is in on it, that would make him think that the current Empress is talking with Chaos, which would be a bold claim and counter to his interests of gaining back face. I think so at least.

Even then the Witch Hunters know.
 
Swantree said:
I use waste because I don't think it's necessary to take both the same turn. If you pick Hunting and miss, take Spa next turn. Don't know how to write in words the math for this, but I at least hope my intuiting is right.
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The way I see it if we know where the ritual is focused this turn we can then spend the two weeks leading up to the next murder prepping to stop it. if it isn't centered at either we prep to stop it at the hunting lodge and have Regimand observe the Spa to see what goes down if it isn't at the hunting lodge.

I'll admit I hadn't considered that picking right could completely invalidate the other option but I assume in that case Boney would let us repick the second option as if there is nothing to gain from it Mathilde wouldn't just blindly do so anyway simply because she had penciled it into her calendar. @Boney can you confirm that if the surveil option Mathilde decides to do second becomes redundant after the first surveil she will skip that action and let us pick to do something else?
 
DragonParadox said:
I believe her specialty is 'world's tallest dwarf'. You can tell by how she is wearing two runic artifacts that would beggar whole kingdoms and are probably about as powerful in combination as most LM's arcane specialties if not more so.
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Let's not undersell Mathilde's other skills - other than Alkharad her victories haven't been particularly reliant on her personal runic artefacts. Liber Mortis, AV, Volans tier Windsight, Ranalds Coin, Doom tower that combined Dawi Runework and Uglu - that's a lot of trump cards layered on top of Mathilde being a superb wizard - good enough to invent her own Battle Magic spell which is bound to be quite rare - as well as being broadly talented.
 
[X] Plan: Ritual Centre

i dont see that Mathilde and Regimand need more help at this point.
like, even if we needed more people for a large scale search or something, wouldnt it be better to narrow our info down a bit more and then go to the witch hunters and tell them that we are searching for chaos cultists that we are very sure are in this area?
 
Ganurath said:
Wait... if the current estate isn't the focus of the ritual because it's too recent, has anyone looked at the grounds of the family's previous estate?
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The previous estate would be the former Imperial Palace in Nuln, before Grom leveled it to make a go-kart track.

I think magic tends to be more difficult over a distance.
 
actually when looking at this option

[ ] Scour the city: specify who with

lets have a look at the sample choices, who I'm grouping as the 'go loud' to 'stay quiet' groups


The Elector Count of Talabecland: if it works, could get all hands on deck, but this would be completely airing out the empresses dirty's (if not the big secret) to a political player in the game of 'who is next on the throne?'

The City Militia: lots of manpower for turning city upside down, but not going to be quiet.

the Taalbaston Guard (the elite fighting force that might even get the nobles to cooperate, but will totally boast about how and why they took on an evil plot.

the Cult of Taal and Rhya: cults are generally pretty good at keeping hush hush about chaos shit, but it still won't be that quiet with so many people if varying rank involved, might try to lean on the empress for helping keep her name clean.

the City Watch: should be well practised at keeping such stuff (if not as big and dramatic) quiet. but will be very limited in how hard they can search compared to the above unless they go loud... but looking for people is part of their job

The longshacks: very good at keeping it secret if they can, and will be the most ruthless in finding them, but smallest group and its a big city.

@Boney would mathy have any different views on this. (as long as its not a spoiler. then just ignore me)
 
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[x] Plan: Ritual Centre

I think there's an argument to be made that we should make sure Heidi has an unimpeachable alibi at the critical moments, but I don't think arranging that is immediately urgent, especially since we might just be able to rule out the case that would implicate her anyway without drawing attention to her first.
 
[x] Plan: Ritual Centre with Mira
- [x] Surveil the spa Unfahigers
- [x] Surveil the hunting lodge Unfahigers
- [x] Renegotiate with Mira
[x] Plan: Narrow it Down
- [x] Research: Alberich's life
- [x] Research: Underworld Turbulence
- [x] Bring in the Empress
[x] Plan: Interested Parties
- [x] Bring in the Empress
- [x] Renegotiate with Mira
- [x] Approach Alric directly
 
[x] Plan: Ritual Centre with Mira
- [x] Surveil the spa Unfahigers
- [x] Surveil the hunting lodge Unfahigers
- [x] Renegotiate with Mira
[x] Plan: Ritual Centre
- [x] Surveil the spa Unfahigers
- [x] Surveil the hunting lodge Unfahigers
- [x] Research: Alberich's life
 
[ ] Approach the hunting lodge Unfahigers
They've been left to dry by Alric and the head of the family. If you offer help, they're all but certain to take it.

[ ] Surveil the hunting lodge Unfahigers
If the ritual is centred on them, enough observation will tell you what sort of ritual it is.

I note that the approach-them-in-disguise option is gone - is that still acceptable as a write-in?

Also, it seems like Approaching them would allow us to get the same awareness of the ritual's presence as surveiling them would - is that correct?
 
People who want to negotiate with Mira: what, exactly, do you think we'll gain that's worth the risk of getting people we can not trust involved in protecting Heidi's secret?

And when I say "people we can't trust" I'm specifically referring to Elrisse and Egrimm here. Elrisse is an Alric loyalist who's only working with Mira to present a unified front to the outside world, and Egrimm hates Alric so much that I expect him to do something reckless and dumb and screw over our investigation as a consequence. Not to mention that they are very obvious people, and if they go wandering around the city Alric is likely going to hear about it, which will make him think that Mira is making a play to humiliate him and counter attack accordingly.

And don't say "the waystone project is just that important that we need more stuff from the lights" because because if that's true then we don't need to mess around with this investigation at all—Alric believes there are going to be 8 murders, but there's either going to be just seven or he is the eighth victim. If we don't interfere he's automatically going to fail. There's no route to victory for him here because he lacks the simple truth about Alberich—that Alberich isn't dead, but is the last of his family. Without that information, Alric can't win, and we can take credit for that simply by not sharing that key information with him, and then go back to the waystones without chasing a chaos sorcerer around the 4th largest city in the Empire.
 
[X] Play to our Strengths.
-[X] Surveil the spa Unfahigers
-[X] Approach the hunting lodge Unfahigers
-[X] Ransack Krieglitz Manor
 
[x] Plan: Ritual Centre with Mira
[X] Plan: Narrow it Down
[X] Plan: Survey & Surcharge

I really want to renegotiate with Mira. This is a great opportunity to get her to owe us a favor.
 
Nerdasaurus Rex said:
People who want to negotiate with Mira: what, exactly, do you think we'll gain that's worth the risk of getting people we can not trust involved in protecting Heidi's secret?
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For me, talking to Mira isn't about benefits but getting her input on her desired outcome, brainstorming how to make it happen, how far we can interfere with Alric and what would the likely consequences be.
 
Nerdasaurus Rex said:
People who want to negotiate with Mira: what, exactly, do you think we'll gain that's worth the risk of getting people we can not trust involved in protecting Heidi's secret?

And when I say "people we can't trust" I'm specifically referring to Elrisse and Egrimm here. Elrisse is an Alric loyalist who's only working with Mira to present a unified front to the outside world, and Egrimm hates Alric so much that I expect him to do something reckless and dumb and screw over our investigation as a consequence. Not to mention that they are very obvious people, and if they go wandering around the city Alric is likely going to hear about it, which will make him think that Mira is making a play to humiliate him and counter attack accordingly.

And don't say "the waystone project is just that important that we need more stuff from the lights" because because if that's true then we don't need to mess around with this investigation at all—Alric believes there are going to be 8 murders, but there's either going to be just seven or he is the eighth victim. If we don't interfere he's automatically going to fail. There's no route to victory for him here because he lacks the simple truth about Alberich—that Alberich isn't dead, but is the last of his family. Without that information, Alric can't win, and we can take credit for that simply by not sharing that key information with him, and then go back to the waystones without chasing a chaos sorcerer around the 4th largest city in the Empire.
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The only problem with that is the fact Alric is a potential target, and has no idea about it. Despite all his faults, he's still one of the most powerful wizard in the Empire and so an important asset.

Also, being a fuckup and an asshole isn't enough to deserve death. There's also the fact that letting him die when we could have intervened is treason.
 
I mean, I think opposing the ritual is sensible in it's own right. It's not like Alberich is going to just go away if he succeeds here, he's going to be a problem for a lot of people. Most especially Roswita and Heidi. I'm much happier taking care of this before it gets worse.

Whether it's Alric or us who gets the final blow, I want Alberich dead by the end of this.
 
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[x] Plan: Ritual Centre with Mira
-[x] Surveil the spa Unfahigers
-[x] Surveil the hunting lodge Unfahigers
-[x] Renegotiate with Mira
 
I have to wonder wonder Alric has been doing here for the last.. months?

Anyway I think bringing in as many people as possible is the best route forward. Making this as blatant and official as possible plays to Mathilde's strengths (she tends to work from a position of authority) and to the weakness of our varied antagonists (who are definitely on the other end), where they be Alric, Albreich, or other someones with a name starting in A. Politically the credit would be split so many ways Alric's net benefit in getting back to the college effectively negliglble, in terms of actually handling the crisis more people is naturally better and in terms of the Heidi issue having her on hand would definitely neutralise a lot of potential routes to her being outed.
 
K von Carstein said:
Also, being a fuckup and an asshole isn't enough to deserve death. There's also the fact that letting him die when we could have intervened is treason.
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This is also part of what I was talking about. Mira is the one who should be deciding how badly Alric should be allowed to fail in exchange for political benefits and put her backing behind that. If we drag a half-dead Alric back to Altdorf with a quarter of Talabheim on fire and the Light College's rep in shambles as a fait accompli, she could decide that our contribution was more trouble than it was worth.
 
It is possible that wherever Alberich ended up, he was slain and consumed by the first Daemon that stumbled upon him. But intrusions into the Aethyr are very rarely a surprise to the beings that call it home, and unless Alberich was freakishly skilled or lucky or had somehow stumbled onto an extremely potent ritual, there would have been something of considerable power waiting for him, likely something that resonated with what was already within him. Very likely something that would see more value in having a catspaw in reality than it would one more soul to toy with in unreality. So it seems possible - likely, even - that when that bubble of air and stone returned to the world, it brought Alberich back with him - intact, but certainly not unaltered.
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Y'know, I was never too interested in learning battle magic but now I really don't want Pit Of Shadows.
 
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