Yeah, Mathilde used the authority of her being a Grey Wizard with the Longshanks. Even if something mysterious and impossible to trace happens to Alberich, if Alric digs into things at all, he can find out Mathilde was behind the manhunt, and put two and two together.
Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest
- Thread starter Boney
- Start date
- Fantasy Users' Choice!
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- Tags
- warhammer warhammer fantasy fantasy be gay do crimes (gay) female protagonist pansexual protagonist ck2 quest divided loyalties mountain vietnam ranald is real this is a dwarf quest (dwarfs) this is maybe an elf quest this is not a vampire quest this is not an empire quest try it and find out open voting
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Yeah, Mathilde used the authority of her being a Grey Wizard with the Longshanks. Even if something mysterious and impossible to trace happens to Alberich, if Alric digs into things at all, he can find out Mathilde was behind the manhunt, and put two and two together.
NSMS
Probably evil, unfortunately.
- Location
- A rapidly widening tear in the fabric of reality
Mathilde's Dark/Fighting, but has the Steelworker Ability (she gets +50% to Steel-type attacks, essentially granting them STAB).
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Codex
Fantasy Addict
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Shorter update so my analysis is shorter as a result:
I do enjoy that Boney has put a twist in there that they're actually Ulrican, which pushes them to compete higher for prominence to further sell the concept of all these different organisations in Talabheim that would be so absolutely formidable and powerful if only they cooperated and didn't consider themselves above all the others.
I'm also a bit shocked. This guy... He's being hunted down and and he has the gall to be arrogant? His bonus is huge at a 32, but he completely negated that bonus because of his sheer idiocy. Chaos continues to disappoint.
"Pressed close against the towering heights of the Taalbaston and buttressed by the massive, sun-blocking towers of the Law Quarter, the Tallows is a squalid, rat-infested slum where the bulk of the city's poor (outside Taalagad, that is) live and conduct their business. The district's name is derived from the lack of sunlight that filters into its streets. The numerous towers of the Law District block most of the morning's eastern sunlight, and the crater wall blocks the sun as it sets in the west, meaning that the area is only slightly illuminated at high noon. The streets are shrouded in shadows most of time, lending them a sinister quality.
The Tallows consists of slums, filthy inns and taverns, slaughterhouses, tanners built into the rock of the Taalbaston itself, and other businesses that most people find disgusting and beneath them. The streets are a twisted maze of shanties, dilapidated houses, and dead end alleys. Criminals of all stripes claim the Tallows as their home, and some band together into small gangs, claiming portions of the neighbourhood as their turf. Sometimes these gangs engage in open warfare with one another, and hundreds of combatants march down the streets screaming for blood. One such event ten years ago resulted in a portion of this district erupting in flames that threatened the rest of the city. A combined effort of the Dogfaces, city militia, and a few Magisters quashed the skirmish and put out the fire before too much damage could be done. The torched remains of these buildings still stand—no one has the means or will to rebuild on that spot.
The roving judges of the city often enter the Tallows in hopes of cleaning up the streets, but so far, none have succeeded in doing much of anything. In the absence of much in the way of law enforcement within this district, the street gangs act as the de facto judge and jury, imposing rulings considered extreme to even the judges of the Grand Courthouse." Page 16 Terror in Talabheim
The perfect setting for Mathilde's cheesy Noire novel inner monologue. She's been getting super caught up in writer fever lately. All her papers are starting to read like novels and now her inner monologue is turning into that. Might as well give herself a pen name and start writing novels on the side at this point.
I... I don't know what to say. I would be thinking that this is a decoy if Mathilde, who is a professional paranoiac, didn't seem so sure she's got the right guy.
Your attention to detail and tendency to consider the logical follow ups and details for everything that you work on to add realism even in a fantasy setting is something that I consdier to be deeply critical to your style. That's probably why you would prefer not to flesh out things you're not going to use in the immediate future. When you work on something, you consider some of the smallest details and flesh them out.
I'm coming to terms with the possibility that Alberich might not be as big of a deal as I thought. Maybe I'm too quick to judge, but I don't hold high hopes for a climactic event next update. The investigation was like a build up to me, and I was looking forward to a good climax, but it might end up in a disappointment. Actually, that's part of Boney's quest writing isn't it?
Or maybe I've just swung too hard in the other direction and Alberich will suddenly spring out a dozen daemons from his corpse as a climactic confrontation occurs where we find out that Alberich was actually a bunch of Nurglings stuffed into a meatsuit pretending to be a Slaaneshi cultist as part of the Great Game. They combine into a mecha and we haave the most deadly fight yet.
Incredibly neat worldbuilding. I'm really liking the way that Boney developes his own brand by providing additional details that make sense to the existing worldbuilding. The City Watch, otherwise known as the Dog Faces, do indeed have a Wolf's Head heraldry gifted to them by the Ar-Ulric during the intergennum when the cult arrived to Talabheim, but little is said about them actually venerating Ulric to any greater extent than Taal. In fact, their battle cry is "For Taal!".
I do enjoy that Boney has put a twist in there that they're actually Ulrican, which pushes them to compete higher for prominence to further sell the concept of all these different organisations in Talabheim that would be so absolutely formidable and powerful if only they cooperated and didn't consider themselves above all the others.
Quite clever of Mathilde to have Regimand go out into the rooftops to do the standard Grey Wizard work and move on so that her quarry gets overconfident and believes that the watcher is gone, revealing himself for the hidden Mathilde.
I'm also a bit shocked. This guy... He's being hunted down and and he has the gall to be arrogant? His bonus is huge at a 32, but he completely negated that bonus because of his sheer idiocy. Chaos continues to disappoint.
This is the Tallows:
"Pressed close against the towering heights of the Taalbaston and buttressed by the massive, sun-blocking towers of the Law Quarter, the Tallows is a squalid, rat-infested slum where the bulk of the city's poor (outside Taalagad, that is) live and conduct their business. The district's name is derived from the lack of sunlight that filters into its streets. The numerous towers of the Law District block most of the morning's eastern sunlight, and the crater wall blocks the sun as it sets in the west, meaning that the area is only slightly illuminated at high noon. The streets are shrouded in shadows most of time, lending them a sinister quality.
The Tallows consists of slums, filthy inns and taverns, slaughterhouses, tanners built into the rock of the Taalbaston itself, and other businesses that most people find disgusting and beneath them. The streets are a twisted maze of shanties, dilapidated houses, and dead end alleys. Criminals of all stripes claim the Tallows as their home, and some band together into small gangs, claiming portions of the neighbourhood as their turf. Sometimes these gangs engage in open warfare with one another, and hundreds of combatants march down the streets screaming for blood. One such event ten years ago resulted in a portion of this district erupting in flames that threatened the rest of the city. A combined effort of the Dogfaces, city militia, and a few Magisters quashed the skirmish and put out the fire before too much damage could be done. The torched remains of these buildings still stand—no one has the means or will to rebuild on that spot.
The roving judges of the city often enter the Tallows in hopes of cleaning up the streets, but so far, none have succeeded in doing much of anything. In the absence of much in the way of law enforcement within this district, the street gangs act as the de facto judge and jury, imposing rulings considered extreme to even the judges of the Grand Courthouse." Page 16 Terror in Talabheim
The perfect setting for Mathilde's cheesy Noire novel inner monologue. She's been getting super caught up in writer fever lately. All her papers are starting to read like novels and now her inner monologue is turning into that. Might as well give herself a pen name and start writing novels on the side at this point.
I expected musk to smell like something supernatural, but turns out it's just someone drenching themselves in perfume that's supposed to smell good but turns out awful. I know the sneezing part very well. I think it's funny how mundane the smell is, but I suppose that is probably because he hasn't activated the part of it that's supposed to charm.
Utterly ridiculous. Completely baffling. Unbelievably incomprehensible. Knowing the sheer dumbassery of Alberich at this point, my opinion on Alric's failure to save one of his charges has dropped even lower. How can you let a guy this stupid get one over you? He had a 32 Intrigue bonus that was reduced to 22 with Visibly Mutated, which apparently he couldn't supress. That's Hero level stats. But then he dropped it a further 10 with his Arrogance, making him barely competent at the field.
I... I don't know what to say. I would be thinking that this is a decoy if Mathilde, who is a professional paranoiac, didn't seem so sure she's got the right guy.
As a side note, I absolutely love the way you add all these little mundane touches @Boney. You really don't have to add that Mathilde got sidetracked following a noblewoman who drank too much because she perfumed herself, but that you do so helps flesh out the world in a natural way and makes the whole thing... I dunno, less scripted? I don't know the right word. Real life is full of dumb errors and side tracks and tangents, and stories tends to get right to the point out of necessity. It gets boring if you get sidetracked too often. But little touches like this help make the story more organic. Yeah of course Mathilde would follow a random noblewoman because she smelled weird.
Your attention to detail and tendency to consider the logical follow ups and details for everything that you work on to add realism even in a fantasy setting is something that I consdier to be deeply critical to your style. That's probably why you would prefer not to flesh out things you're not going to use in the immediate future. When you work on something, you consider some of the smallest details and flesh them out.
Boney I hope you realise when you mention the right arm I can't help but think of that cursed post:
I'm struggling to take him seriously. I hope he convinces me to do so next update somehow.ATTENTION EVERYONE!
I know you are busy with your voting, but if i could have a moment, your help could be invaluable to the preservation of this glorious city.
Has any of you seen this man?
Cultist of Slaanesh indeed
Talabheim is used to murderous mobs. I'm sure seeing a Grey Wizard summon a sword to slice a sedan in twain is just another tuesday to them. Would be a fun setting for a battle though.
I'm coming to terms with the possibility that Alberich might not be as big of a deal as I thought. Maybe I'm too quick to judge, but I don't hold high hopes for a climactic event next update. The investigation was like a build up to me, and I was looking forward to a good climax, but it might end up in a disappointment. Actually, that's part of Boney's quest writing isn't it?
Even if Alberich doesn't end up being all that dangerous in combat, I still trust Boney to make a good narrative. Boney's always been focused on rewarding good play and good rolls and not fiddling with the dice or background structure to make things more dramatic. It can catch me off guard at times, because I'm not used to all this build up to end up with an anticlimax, but it's happened before, and Boney's made a rich narrative out of it.
Or maybe I've just swung too hard in the other direction and Alberich will suddenly spring out a dozen daemons from his corpse as a climactic confrontation occurs where we find out that Alberich was actually a bunch of Nurglings stuffed into a meatsuit pretending to be a Slaaneshi cultist as part of the Great Game. They combine into a mecha and we haave the most deadly fight yet.
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- Location
- United Kingdom
[X] Kill: Branulhune
Omegahugger
Inattentive Idiot
Much of both Mathtwo's defensive and offensive power is tied to artifacts, hence the Steel-typing.
That's actually one of the advantages of Dragonflask, no body to reanimate.
ClawClawBite
Mad Engineering!
- Location
- Seattle, WA
[X] Capture: Mockery of Death
Because if we can use him to unravel more chaos, we get to stop more chaos.
Because if we can use him to unravel more chaos, we get to stop more chaos.
NSMS
Probably evil, unfortunately.
- Location
- A rapidly widening tear in the fabric of reality
Personally, I suspect the 'arrogant' penalty might be down to his really good roll hiding previously; if he'd been barely escaping notice by the skin of his teeth he'd have toned it down and wised up, but because nobody came even close to finding him he's gotten into the 'these people are idiots and I'm just better than them' mindset.
Either that, or he's just naturally arrogant. Chaos worshippers and real people be like that sometimes.
- Location
- South Africa
How have you said this!!!
I'm worried about these persons. If they talked to Alberich then they most likely would have learnt Heidi is not a Haupt-Anderssen. And to have any chance to discover who they're we need to catch Alberich alive
[X] Capture: Throttle
[X] Capture: Mockery of Death
[X] Capture: Reinforcements
Omegahugger
Inattentive Idiot
Look, that body has a weird smell and a really bad case of Wanker's Arm, I don't want that in Mathilde's collection.
There are much better offers to reanimate, like Birdmuncha. Mathilde could appreciate a connoisseur in dragon-eating like that.
- Location
- Earth
I really don't like how high his Intrigue is. Hell, it's entirely possible we're only seeing the rolls we want to and this is some fancy distraction from an accomplice. It doesn't matter. Give the mage no time to spot you or work his magic. Hit him with the sword that hates and disables artifacts.
[X] Kill: Branulhune
Attack here and now, bisecting both sedan and Magus with a single swing. The crowds will complicate matters, but at least they are a known variable.
The problem with the flask is that means waiting and giving him time to set up or meet with allies. And if he does burn to ash and it turns out to have been some trick, some other Slaneshi cultist, then we're in deep trouble. I want a body to examine to confirm it was him, but I also want him dead and silent, not to spill secrets.
[X] Kill: Branulhune
Attack here and now, bisecting both sedan and Magus with a single swing. The crowds will complicate matters, but at least they are a known variable.
The problem with the flask is that means waiting and giving him time to set up or meet with allies. And if he does burn to ash and it turns out to have been some trick, some other Slaneshi cultist, then we're in deep trouble. I want a body to examine to confirm it was him, but I also want him dead and silent, not to spill secrets.
Codex
Fantasy Addict
- Pronouns
- She/Her
If Alberich hadn't sold his soul to the Ruinous Powers, you could still reanimate ashes if they're attached to the mortal realm for one reason or another because spectral undead are a thing. Necromancy doesn't specialise in them, but there is a spell to control naturally existing spectral undead. Lore of Nehekhara is more focused on spirits and can bring people out from the Underworld, and Cathay can bring back their Ancestors but that's likely an extension of a dead or sleeping Celestial Dragon under a magic lake fueled by Shyish.
All of that is irrelevant because Alberich dying means his soul become food for Slaanesh.
All of that is irrelevant because Alberich dying means his soul become food for Slaanesh.
Guys I know we are all focused on Stinky McMutantArm here, but have you thought of how this might come off to Alric is he does suspect the empress of being a Chaos worshiper? I think that is worth keeping in mind as he would know just saving the noble family least liked by the colleges is unlikely to give him the respect and power he wants back. So let's plot this out:
- Alric has become convnced the empress if a Chaos Cultist Haupt Anderssen doing a vengeance ritual
- SUDDENLY a Grey Wizard known to be close to the empress (we visited her at the palace more than once) swoops in and kills a mutant she claims was the old count who did not die after all but fell into the warp
- The Cultist himself is dead, either ash in the wind or cut in half
- Alric the only one who suspects the perfidious empress is left to languish in exile far from the levers of power
With 32 Intrigue he could have easily led Alric around - the visible mutation and even arrogance maluses are circumstantial and wouldn't necessarily apply if he was say using patsies to distract a Light Wizard.
Codex
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- Pronouns
- She/Her
They are circumstantial bonuses, but if the person behind that 32 intrigue is so unbelievably stupid that he would draw his mark in charcoal after he knows that a group of people are hunting him down and know who he is and what his sigil is supposed to look like on his sedan, then I struggle to justify Alric's failure. Alberich was under much less pressure and scrutiny back when he was messing with the Unfahigers. If this is Alberich being "careful" then I don't want to know what it looks like when there isn't a manhunt going after him and he can be as arrogant as he wants to be.
The arc isn't over yet, but in general, I always side-eye stories where the cast put in a lot of extremely intelligent and diligent work and still need to scramble at the last minute to deal with unexpected twists that come out of nowhere for the sole reason that it makes for a more thrilling climax. It feels unrewarding, like they wasted all their time doing preparations because narrative pacing had already decided what the ending was going to be and they could have just sat on their ass the whole time instead. I prefer the approach of things like the TV show Leverage, where all that skill and hard work is rewarded by a plan coming together like a well-oiled machine, and the climax isn't a bunch of last-minute scrambling, it's the complications being deftly dealt with as they crop up.
Mathilde came into this knowing that someone was doing murders and they were probably going to do more, and that is a scenario that would require a lot of climactic last-minute scrambling to avert disaster. But Mathilde used the time available to learn the identity, appearance, personality, target, and timetable of her quarry, and used the Longshanks to narrow down the possibilities available to him until she could park herself on one street and be reasonably certain that at some point he'd go past. Narrative convention might demand a last-minute twist to get that final climax, but what storytelling calls narrative pacing, roleplaying calls railroading. And I'd much rather have a poorly-paced narrative than railroad the players.
He is a Slaanesh worshiper with a thing for vainglory, painting his personal conveyance is pretty much right on the sore stop that made him fall to chaos in the first place but I do not think he would tattoo his patsies or something.
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NSMS
Probably evil, unfortunately.
- Location
- A rapidly widening tear in the fabric of reality
What if it's high-quality, Dawi-built railroad, with every nail and beam hand-crafted to perfection with loving care and masterful skill?
- Location
- Leeds
Meanwhile in Alric quest.... "How the hell were we meant to know there where two Grey Wizards we were competing against?!?!"
Mathilde didn't actually tell any of the Longshanks who they were hunting, just showed them sketches of his face.
Then you get a book. I'm rather fond of books, but it's not what I'm going for here.
Codex
Fantasy Addict
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hmm. Well, you know, I'm fine with that. I suppose I was a bit spoiled with Alkharad. Even when we caught the guy off guard, investigated him for weeks, saw him teaching his students, studied his methods, used Nightprowler to learn everything possible, then systematically broke down his plans by killing every single one of his apprentices, and we then surprised attacked him, he still put up one hell of a climactic fight and almost killed Mathilde despite all her advantages, and if it weren't for her ridiculous overpreperation and gear she would have died.
In this case, Mathilde has even more advantages than she had back when she was fighting Alkharad, and perhaps I was overestimating Alberich to put him on the same level as him. Mathilde is more well trained, and has even greater prep than the Alkharad situation, and has far, far more assistance than just herself.
I respect your dedication to your players Boney.
