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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
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Pressing 'save' on the vote tallier isn't doing anything for me, so I've looked over @DragonParadox 's tally and it looks right so I'm going with that. If for some reason the result of

[*] The death of the Warboss, the shattering of an Almost-Rogue Idol, and the weakening of Mork.

Isn't actually the winning vote, someone please chime in sharpish.
 
BoneyM said:
Pressing 'save' on the vote tallier isn't doing anything for me, so I've looked over @DragonParadox 's tally and it looks right so I'm going with that. If for some reason the result of

[*] The death of the Warboss, the shattering of an Almost-Rogue Idol, and the weakening of Mork.

Isn't actually the winning vote, someone please chime in sharpish.
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It's the winning one unless you count Whiskey report as a subvote of the other option (which is unlikely).
 
Inserted tally
Adhoc vote count started by adaer on Sep 23, 2019 at 3:32 AM, finished with 911 posts and 250 votes.
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BoneyM said:
Pressing 'save' on the vote tallier isn't doing anything for me, so I've looked over @DragonParadox 's tally and it looks right so I'm going with that. If for some reason the result of

[*] The death of the Warboss, the shattering of an Almost-Rogue Idol, and the weakening of Mork.

Isn't actually the winning vote, someone please chime in sharpish.
Click to expand...
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119 people voted for [*] The death of the Warboss, the shattering of an Almost-Rogue Idol, and the weakening of Mork.

65+48 = 113 people voted for [*] The death of the Warboss and the shattering of an Almost-Rogue Idol.

So, the winner indeed is [*] The death of the Warboss, the shattering of an Almost-Rogue Idol, and the weakening of Mork, by a margin of 6 votes over the nearest option.

There were 250 unique voters in this round of voting, which I believe is a record for this quest, and I think puts this quest within the top few percentiles of quests in terms of audience engagement in this forum.
 
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Grand Avenue
  • Apocrypha
    • Grand Avenue

    Dogad's head was ringing and he desperately tried to regain the air that he had lost after he had slammed into the stone wall. He watched the grobi fall screaming into the yawning abyss below as he dangled above it himself. His arm jerked upwards carrying the rest of his body with it. Looking up, he could see a pair of hands gripping his mail. Agonizing moment by agonizing moment Dogad's arm hauled the rest of his body up while he braced against the pitted wall and tried to help with his feet and shield. Finally he was pulled past the reach of the abyss back onto solid stone.

    As Dogad stumbled upright he was finally able to see the dwarf that had saved his life. Covered in slightly mismatched mail and leather and with sun darkened skin Dogad saw a fellow adventurer.

    "Thank you for your help. I swear I will repay this debt."

    The fellow adventurer grimly chuckled as his head turned towards the roaring battlelines. Dogad watched the dwarf's mouth open before stiffening. The dwarf before him appeared to slowly fall backwards with an ugly grobi arrow sprouting from an eye. Dogad felt hatard fill his mind. The honorable dwarf who had just saved his life downed by a filthy grobi arrow. Dogad felt his shield snap up and shield the downed dwarf from several more arrows that pounded the area. He reached down and picked up his ax that was dropped when he had tumbled over the edge. He felt the worn wood of his ax handle. Saw the gleam of honest metal through the cursed grobi blood coating it. He felt his blood begin to boil at the sight of an emerald tide screeching and howling before him. Then he saw the dwarf's chest rise and fall beside him. Dogad knew what he needed to do. Strapping his shield to his back, he began the slow process of hauling the injured dwarf back to some semblance of safety. Dogad gritted his teeth as he felt the arrows bouncing off his back and heard the roar of dwarfs fighting behind him.

    He struggled up the scarred and degraded stairway until finally he reached the top. A small group of dwarfs were taking care of the wounded that had managed to retreat back to this level. Dogad gently laid down his unnamed savior among the other wounded. It was then that he heard the rhythmic beat of armored soles on stone.

    Like shining silver in stone Dogad saw Clan Angrund march into the Grand Avenue. He saw the great host marching past him with grobi blood still wet on their weapons and armor. Quickly he moved towards the back of the formation and when the roar of a battle cry burst forth from the dwarfs in front of Dogad he joined his voice to theirs. Once more he threw himself onto the grobi as the screams of battle echoed around the vast chamber.

    Dogad had always dreamed of being part of a glorious battle. Of standing shoulder to shoulder with great warriors as they held the line. Of gleaming metal flashing and sinking into the hateful enemies of the dwarfs. He had never imagined that a battle could go like this. His arm ached as he pulled his axe from another grobi corpse. Dogad had found himself in a small shield wall trying to prevent the grobi from swinging around the sides of the Grand Avenue while Clan Angrund pushed in the middle. He kicked a grobi corpse into the abyss next to him to clear some space in front of him. That was all the time he had before the next wave of grobi crashed into the small shield wall. Above the din of the grobi screaming and the clash of arms a bellowing voice cried out.

    "1 and 2 and 3 and PUSH!"

    Dogad felt his shield smash into a grobi face as everyone in the shield wall moved down two steps. He felt more than saw a dwarf slip on a grobi body and fall out of the shield wall. Dogad watched in horror as the grobi took advantage and before anyone could reach the dwarf and pull him back he was dragged over the edge into the abyss. With a great bellow Dogad smashed his shield into a grobi in front of him and saw with satisfaction the filthy body crumble in front of him and be kicked off the edge by other greenskins.

    "We split them off! Kill them! Kill them all!"

    The massive voice pulled Dogad away from watching the greenskin spinning downwards. A group of dwarfs had split the greenskins on this side of the Grand Avenue into two. Now the greenskins in front could only move forward into the shield wall, backwards into another shield wall or into that hungry abyss below. Again the greenskins pounded into his formation and again Dogad held the line with his shield mates.

    "Keep pushing! Push them all down!"

    Step by step they acted as a hammer to the anvil of the dwarfs below them as the pushed, smashed, and killed everything green in front of them. Dogand panted for breath as he watched the last grobi near him be near split by a savage ax strike. A large dwarf splattered with blood jogged up the steps towards Dogand's group and shouted out.

    "One more chamber to go! We got them bottled up and now we just need to finish the job!"

    Wiping away the grobi blood that was running down his ax's handle Dogand began to jog with the rest of his group towards the only remaining sounds of battle. He jogged through rivers of grobi blood and past a small army or dwarfs being helped or carried up the stairway.

    "One more push." Dogand thought. "Then this god-forsaken battle can be over."

    Dogand held his tankard of ale as he watched the setting of sun play over the beautiful stone of the mountains. Gingerly he touched his bandaged head before taking another sip of ale. Watching the light slowly bleed away reminded him of times best forgotten. Of friends and family eating and laughing together. He hadn't thought about those long times in years. He had long ago decided to keep moving to try and keep those memories from catching up with him. Before today, he had only been able to swing his ax in minor skirmishes. Now though, as he sat here as his blood cooled he wished he would never have to see another battle like what had happened in the Grand Avenue. He knew he would see more battles though. When he had to fight again at least it would be for a place of history and beauty. As darkness finally began to smother the light he picked up the tankard next to him. Rukh had asked him to bring him one. The doctors didn't want him to be moving around much after he had lost his eye, so Dogand had agreed to get some for him. Perhaps, he thought as went back into the mountain with his two tankards of ale, he would finally be able to have a friend again after the dust settled.

    A.N.
    So I don't know how well the names I found match those of Warhammer Fantasy naming convention since I am not all that knowledgeable about the lore. I hope you enjoyed my take on the battle for the Grand Avenue of Karag Lhune. If you have any critiques please share them as they help me become a better writer.
     
  • Apocrypha
    • I spent my day, literally absorbed by this quest. I delayed getting into this quest because I didn't think I would like a female protagonist, how foolish of me. I am so happy to be wrong, this quest was everything I was looking for, and I would not change a single aspect of it. I have read
    Hadrian of the House Rutheen (WHF & GoT)
    Recursive Nightmares (A Bloodborne into Warhammer Fantasy Quest)
    Imperial Knightly Order Quest: Emerald Conspiracy
    A Knight's Quest (A Warhammer Fantasy Game) (Story Archive)
    Warhammer Dynasty XIX: Total War - Gaius Marius
    Warhammer Fantasy: A Dynasty of Dynamic Alcoholism
    Dynasty Shrouded In Mist

    And this gem which is my favorite, can any one send me some links to some other Warhammer Fantasy CK2 Style quests or simular? I prefer male protagonists, but if the quality is half as good as this quest I will settle for any gender.
     
    primemountain said:
    Something seems to be wrong with my adblock. An Add got through. :p
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    I know, right?

    If I were a paranoid person, I would be eyeing that post suspiciously. Especially once I saw the way the Alcoholic Quest's font dominated the others just a little bit.

    Alcoholic bulli loli quests?
     
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    So somebody mentioned trying to raise skaven, and I think that would be a pretty cool experiment. Especially if we can 'steal' the skaven from the horned rat to Ranald... :p
     
    The font is copy&pasted from original posts, if some happen to be more bold then others, its due to the original posters. A paranoid person would not click on the links to confirm. But google them manually to confirm.
     
    Fehu said:
    So somebody mentioned trying to raise skaven, and I think that would be a pretty cool experiment. Especially if we can 'steal' the skaven from the horned rat to Ranald... :p
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    I think that this is an incredibly terrible idea that would never, ever work. Not only are Skaven all backstabbing sociopaths from birth, their young are incredibly difficult to get a hold of, seeing as how Breeders are tremendously valuable strategic assests. Not to mention that they are bound to the Horned Rat.
     
    Fehu said:
    So somebody mentioned trying to raise skaven, and I think that would be a pretty cool experiment. Especially if we can 'steal' the skaven from the horned rat to Ranald... :p
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    The trouble with this is that Skaven are creatures of Chaos as much as any beastmen, their souls are bound to the Dark Gods. In order to fix a Skaven one would thus have to purify or at least alter their souls. While I would not call that an impossible prospect in theory it would be incredibly long and complex for very little gain. Indeed one might even consider creating a pure Skaven cruel since every other order faction is still going to want to purge them with fire.
     
    Neshuakadal said:
    So I don't know how well the names I found match those of Warhammer Fantasy naming convention since I am not all that knowledgeable about the lore.
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    For what it's worth: Dwarf naming conventions borrow several bits from Norse, Sigmar's Empire is a knockoff of the historical Holy Roman Empire so it covers much of Central Europe with a focus on Germany, and a previous discussion suggested that Stirland appears to resemble Fantasy Hungary in several ways.
     
    DragonParadox said:
    The trouble with this is that Skaven are creatures of Chaos as much as any beastmen, their souls are bound to the Dark Gods. In order to fix a Skaven one would thus have to purify or at least alter their souls. While I would not call that an impossible prospect in theory it would be incredibly long and complex for very little gain.
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    While this assessment does come from a reasonable place, I do believe that it may in fact be an overestimation of the difficulty.

    In 40k, some Chaos guys created the Daemonculaba, which were mutilated, mutated women made to birth live Chaos Space Marines. Some of those born in this way were born mutated, disfigured and without skin, called the Unfleshed, and were flushed through the sewer systems to die. Some however survived, and not only did they survive, they weren't evil and worshipped the Emperor. Also all this was happening on a Daemon World.

    So yeah. Chaos mutants born through Chaos sorcery on a daemon world, yet were Emperor-worshippers and good people. If we took a skaven baby and grew it right with Order gods in mind, that might all that'd be needed to take it away from Chaos.

    EDIT: "For little gain" is probably correct though. Very few skaven actually have the potential to be heroes and such, while most are just slave stock and the like, and skaven have very short lifespans no matter what. Just not worth it.

    EDIT2: Shallya would love us for it though.
     
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    Andres110 said:
    While this assessment does come from a reasonable place, I do believe that it may in fact be an overestimation of the difficulty.

    In 40k, some Chaos guys created the Daemonculaba, which were mutilated, mutated women and made to birth live Chaos Space Marines. Some of those born in this way were born mutated, disfigured and without skin, called the Unfleshed, and were flushed through the sewer systems to die. Some however survived, and not only did they survive, they weren't evil and worshipped the Emperor. Also all this was happening on a Daemon World.

    So yeah. Chaos mutants born through Chaos sorcery on a daemon world, yet were Emperor-worshippers and good people. If we took a skaven baby and grew it right with Order gods in mind, that might all that be needed to take it away from Chaos.

    EDIT: "For little gain" is probably correct though. Very few skaven actually have the potential to be heroes and such, while most are just slave stock and the like, and skaven have very short lifespans no matter what. Just not worth it.

    EDIT2: Shallya would love us for it though.
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    Lets just agree that its a crapsh!t world imaginable and any of us are ever isekai-ied there , no one will fault us if we go all bigoted and kill, burn and wash with bleach the skavens, greenskin and chaos.

    What kind of crapworld ever gives birth to it?
     
    Fehu said:
    Dang didn't know they were literally bount to chaos. Thought they were more like mermaids but rats.

    ... Ratmaids?
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    Worth remembering that Warhammer Fantasy gods are not the cosmic forces of 40K. On the one hand they can manifest, under rare and exceptional circumstances. On the other hand there are mortals that can absolutely kick a god's teeth in under rare and exceptional circumstances. Never mind the fact that there are enough gods about that they can be leveraged against one another.

    Unbinding Skaven from the horned rat would be an immense undertaking, more suited to Teclis or Volkmar than Mathilda, but isn't outside the bounds of possibility.
     
    Skaven and the Horned Rat are bound, and if you tried to tear even a minority of them away from it the Horned Rat is likely to do its damnedest to make you regret it...

    But nothing is born beyond redemption.
     
    No, it's not actually possible, because Skaven are still a beastman strain.

    Beastmen literally, actually, genuinely cannot coexist with anything more complicated than roving marauder gangs. Skaven barely function because they've got their god riding shotgun, and you see that aggression being taken out with their incredible infighting and tendency to kill each other more than anyone else can kill them. It's not a matter of upbringing, it's not a matter of nurture. They are engineered to be monsters by laughing gods.

    It's to the point where the Skaven literally weaponize this, the most deadly spell they know does one thing--it turns a bunch of people into Skaven. Those Skaven instantly and without hesitation turn on what was once friends and comrades, and then join the rest of the rat horde.

    40K can allow the maximum tragedy thing, because the scale of 40K is such that the exceptions are literally irrelevant, they exist merely to grind the boot in further. Fantasy breaks down if you do that because it's ultimately a heroic fantasy--if one in the vein of the Elric stories.

    The effort needed to pull away even the smallest portion from the Horned Rat's interference would be enough that if you can do this, you could spend it doing something else instead, and then it probably dies out because the Skaven cannot function as a species without their monstrosity.

    By the time you've carved away everything that makes the Skaven wicked... You don't really have Skaven anymore.

    Nothing is beyond redemption technically, but the Beastmen are very close by way of being the Chaos Gods' favorite 'Fuck with the mortals' button, and even if the Skaven had free will (Which is dubious to begin), the Horned Rat would directly intervene to prevent even the smallest number turning their coat, his control over them can be described as functionally absolute.
     
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