Codex
Fantasy Addict
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I think if you can get Cython as a unit, it should be as hard to acquire as Ymrath the Eternal and about as powerful. Imrik's Dragon mechanic is pretty neat for the Dragon lovers out there.
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.
Ericwinter
Definitely not a Skaven Infiltrator
- Location
- America
Of course, there's always the possibility that Mathilde was his first match. 
K von Carstein
Likes to go for a walk
- Location
- Belgium
- Pronouns
- He
That would be… interesting. She would be kind of terrifying. But I don't see anything convincing the thread to go in that direction😏Of course, there's always the possibility that Mathilde was his first match.
- Location
- Canada
I am far, far too late to this discussion
But there is another factor to consider here
The robes can make Mathilde indefatigable for a minimum of 15 minutes every hour, and she can cast the spell a few times herself, each lasting 3 minutes, in between robe activations if she really needs to
In terms of pure endurance she's not up to Johann's literally tireless muscles or Kadoh, but I doubt they're taking literally no breaks (everyone needs to eat, drink and use the restroom), and there's probably breathing room in between activities
And their activities probably include more than just relentless endurance tests because doing nothing but marathons and weightlifting day after day just sounds incredibly boring
Johann mentioned fencing as I recall
I'm not saying that Mathilde can necessarily keep up with them physically, Johann and Kadoh can run as fast as a horse and Mathilde can't, but she could probably spend a day with them and come home only mildly sore at worst, possibly by cheating granted but hey, Grey Wizard
Sinsystems
Patron Librarian
Obviously it will be expensive since feeding the habit requires a lot of AV, to the point where you will be spending the majority of your supply on him.
But in all seriousness I'd imagine that getting Cython would be the reward at the end of a difficult quest chain or something you need to go out of your way to achieve. Like I'd imagine that a basic pre-requisite would be helping Belegar reclaim K8P, then doing some additional things to get Cython on your side.
Ericwinter
Definitely not a Skaven Infiltrator
- Location
- America
Just cause we're in the running doesn't mean we have to accept it.
And even if not, I wouldn't be surprised if Mathilde ends up as a sort of special obstacle for several of the candidates, a trial of sorts. We have, after all, pissed off at least two of the Four, and I think it was mentioned at one point that Tzeencth almost certainly has his eye on us.
No, but seriously, Alric falling to Chaos isn't just a funny joke. It kind of makes sense.
Maybe when Boney made Egrimm not a Chaos cultist (well, we hope) the law of conservation of villains dictated that some other light wizard should fall to Chaos instead.
These lines describe Alberich, but they also fit Alric. Alric, who keeps clinging to power and rank, who if Mathilde is correct is choosing his assignments at least partly to spite those who refused to acknowledge him. Surrounded on all sides by traitors who covet his power, abandoned by his most trusted servant...This is the kind of person I can see falling to Chaos
Maybe when Boney made Egrimm not a Chaos cultist (well, we hope) the law of conservation of villains dictated that some other light wizard should fall to Chaos instead.
Codex
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I'm pretty sure Alberich was still in the Qualifiers stage. He needed to finish the Ritual to be able to match the competition. In canon, Archaon emerged from the Altar of Ultimate Darkness (yes I know) around 2420 IC with all the Marks of Chaos. He was coronated around 2520 IC a hundred years later. After the Altar, he got the Armour of Morkar, then the Eye of Sheerian, then Dorghar the Steed of the Apocalypse, then the Slayer of Kings, then the Crown of Domination, then he performed the final trial to summon Be'Lakor so the Daemon Prince would crown him. At this point in time I'm guessing aside from the Marks, he has the Armour of Morkar and the Eye of Sheerian, maybe Dorghar as well. I think Slayer of Kings and Crown of Domination may be out of his reach for the moment.
Despite that, that's still a lot of power and a big advantage, so the other Chaos candidates need to be able to match that. Alberich's ritual might have closed the gap somewhat.
Despite that, that's still a lot of power and a big advantage, so the other Chaos candidates need to be able to match that. Alberich's ritual might have closed the gap somewhat.
- Location
- USA
I am inordinately amused by the thought of Alric hunting down other Everchosen candidates in his quest to make himself significant again, with Mathilde following him around--without his knowledge--and killing off all these might-have-beens without either of them realizing the bigger picture.
Codex
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The Chaos Gods aren't omnipotent and all powerful, but I can guarantee you that Mathilde is probably pretty high on Slaanesh's shitlist. I wouldn't want to get too involved in Chaos stuff anymore, because Slaanesh can get real petty when he's mad. The Masque was Slaanesh's favorite Daemonite who danced for his amusement and he liked her. Once, Slaanesh was really mad and moody after a failure by his subordinates, I think it was a defeat from Khorne. The Masque tried to cheer Slaanesh up by dancing for them because she doesn't want to see Slaanesh sad. He got irritated at her and cursed her so that she would never stop dancing.
Of all the Chaos Gods, the one I'd liken the most to a petulant child is Slaanesh. We've foiled two of his plans now. I'm willing to bet his brothers are giving him a wet willy and bullying him over it, which tends to form grudges.
Oh no! Slaanesh will send his minions against us in an escalating order of
Whatever shall we do?
glyph
completely and utterly fine
What year are we in right now again? (I keep forgetting that, is there a place I can look it up?)
So…. On a range of 1(actually pretty chuffed that a Lady Grey would recognise their abilities enough to come to them for advice) to 10 ( nope, nope, nope this is a trap, everyone to ground!) what's the Hedgewise reaction?
To be honest, I'll take a 7 (hostile but willing to talk)
To be honest, I'll take a 7 (hostile but willing to talk)
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2488 (it's in the name of the turn updates)
Ericwinter
Definitely not a Skaven Infiltrator
- Location
- America
2488. The year is listed in the title of most non-event updates.
Actually here is a question?
What will Mathy's reaction to the Hedgewise be in practice?
Like, her entire theory/political agenda is based on the idea that the old/pre-college groups were not just ignorant savages messing with things they don't understand. (Expect the elementalist) but groups of intelligent individuals that came to there own valid, if different, answers. (Not counting the elementalists)
But I think this will be the first time that Mathy will in quest be directly interacting with a group that the organisation that she grow up in institutionally looks down on (out side of the elementalists, who deserves it) even if the grey college sort of tries to keep a broad mind about. Mathy is not free of bias. (The joke about her gut reactions to college of elementalists being the obvious one.)
What will Mathy's reaction to the Hedgewise be in practice?
Like, her entire theory/political agenda is based on the idea that the old/pre-college groups were not just ignorant savages messing with things they don't understand. (Expect the elementalist) but groups of intelligent individuals that came to there own valid, if different, answers. (Not counting the elementalists)
But I think this will be the first time that Mathy will in quest be directly interacting with a group that the organisation that she grow up in institutionally looks down on (out side of the elementalists, who deserves it) even if the grey college sort of tries to keep a broad mind about. Mathy is not free of bias. (The joke about her gut reactions to college of elementalists being the obvious one.)
Her reaction is likely to be: *I have a good poker face and probably a better intrigue score than all these people because I am a Grey LM*
She does not have to like them to make use of their skills.
Mathilde: "I'm here to see the Hedgewise."
Elementalist with thick glasses and a fake mustache: "You've come to the right place!"
- Location
- Aotearoa
Yeah.
The other sides' frankly gauche naming conventions lack any sense of style, subtlety or panache.
Unrest in Ostermark, Part 3
[X] The Ostermark Hedgewise
The Hedgewise of Ostermark are a matriarchal mystery cult with ties to the Hag Witches of Kislev, and many of them are part of Kurtis Krammovitch's extended family. They have eyes and ears in the odd nooks and crannies of Ostermark, and are likely to know more of what's going on here than anyone with official authority. But they are unsanctioned magic-users, and dealing with them might be problematic.
Tally
The Hedgewise of Ostermark are a matriarchal mystery cult with ties to the Hag Witches of Kislev, and many of them are part of Kurtis Krammovitch's extended family. They have eyes and ears in the odd nooks and crannies of Ostermark, and are likely to know more of what's going on here than anyone with official authority. But they are unsanctioned magic-users, and dealing with them might be problematic.
Tally
About eighty miles upriver of Bechafen is the largely unremarkable village of Gerdouen. No road leads to it, and the only ferry that plies that section of the river is the Kislevite one between Ryazan and Rakhov. If you don't have a boat of your own, the only way to reach it is to either bribe or browbeat the supply galley to Fortenhaf to give you passage, or to make your way on foot through fifty miles of untamed forest. This would normally make for an extremely insular and suspicious population, but Gerdouen is a woodcutting town, and that means that they don't have the luxury of isolationism. Their living relies on lashing together hundreds of felled logs into massive and ungainly rafts to be carried downstream to be caught and pulled in by a boom at Bechafen, and then carrying the profits and the products of civilization that Gerdouen requires all the way home. This makes for a village of contradictions: an economy that is both intertwined with civilization but also as independent as they can make it, a population that is necessarily both gregarious and suspicious as they must be as able to find a buyer in Bechafen as they are to ward off a suspicious stranger on the way home, a population that is staunchly Ostermarker but for whom the vast majority of the outsiders they see are from the Kislevite ferry illegally anchoring there overnight.
It is a nexus of borders and boundaries being crossed: land and water, wild and civilized, urban and rural, independent and interlinked, Ostermark and Kislev. And that makes it as steeped in the power of the Hedge as any of the Colleges are in their own form of power.
You'd debated leaving Johann in Bechafen, but he's long since proven his trustworthiness and discretion, and besides that you're not entirely confident the villagers wouldn't react to the sudden appearance of a lone Grey Wizard in their midst with the swing of an axe. So the two of you make your way east along the southern bank of the river from Bechafen, you on Shadowsteed and Johann on foot, limbs of gold and shadow finding easy purchase where mere flesh would struggle. Despite that it's still relatively slow going, and though you left Bechafen at first light, the sun is high in the sky by the time you approach your destination.
You finally emerge from the besieged border of the forest into a field of half-excavated stumps, and the rhythmic chopping you've been following stops immediately as the heads of those working nearby turn to you. Those who aren't carrying an axe wear a hatchet on their person, and most of those hatchets now have a hand edging closer to it. "I bring and seek no trouble here," you say, waving a greeting in a hand symbol of the Hedgewise that Kurtis Krammovitch taught you, which is eerily similar to a sign with the same meaning used in Ranaldian cant. "I simply wish to speak to a village elder."
Eyes go to the guns on your waist and to Johann's golden claw, and you can see them weighing the odds. "That would be your right, Magisters," the eldest of them, a large, scarred woman with a wooden leg, eventually says. You resist the urge to correct her. A noble addressing you as merely Magister would be a deliberate insult, but on the fringes of the Empire 'Magister' is used interchangeably with 'Wizard'.
You edge cautiously around the unmoving and heavily armed group of lumberjacks to follow the woman, the silence stretching as you and Johann are led through the field of stumps, between rows of crops, and towards the village proper. "Have you had any trouble with Beastmen recently?" you ask to break the silence.
"We've not seen hide or hair of the tainted beasts for seasons."
Strange. They'd normally be the first to be taking advantage of unrest in the forests. "No other disturbances?"
"Not until today," she says shortly.
Fair enough.
You are taken to Baba Brzeginias, who is a wiry old woman with white hair and milky eyes that still appear disconcertingly sharp behind the haze, and she too has a hatchet on her hip. Her cottage is built right on the treeline and the inside is crowded with hanging herbs and cloves that threaten to knock your hat off. You don't hesitate to drop Kurtis' name, not entirely sure the woman is still able to make out the hand signs of the Hedgewise you are performing.
"Tch," she says to the name. "Good family. Tragic, what happened to them. What was done to them." Her eyes flick to your hat, but after a tense moment she shrugs. "He is a good boy. If he says you are a friend, then you are at least not an enemy. What brings you here, to the edge of the east?"
"Though it appears to have passed you by, there's a great deal of unrest in northern Ostermark of late, and nobody seems to know why. I want to fix that."
"Why do the Greys care now? You have always left the Forest to us."
"I'm here at the request of Magister Patriarch Paranoth, of the Jade Order."
She snorts. "Them. They should stick to gardens and orchards. Their ilk might have uses back west, but here they have only ever got in the way." She considers you thoughtfully. "If you go back with no answers, he will send another."
Though she didn't phrase it as a question, you nod. "I believe he would."
"I do not know, because I have not needed to know. If it comes to Gerdouen, I cannot stop it. If it doesn't, I need not concern myself. But if it means keeping the tree-lovers from sending more questioners, we can stick our hands in the knothole and see what bites us." She rises onto steady feet and strides over to a window to peer up at the sky. "Tch. You've missed noon. Come back at dusk, and we shall see what we shall see."
---
It seems that the entire village has been lurking just outside, half of them watching Johann and half of them the cottage, but most of them start to disperse after Baba Brzeginias tuts and flaps a hand at them. You summarize the exchange for Johann who frowns at you. "So, what, we just wait here for something like five hours?"
You shrug. "There's always something that needs doing in a village. We might as well pitch in while we wait."
After some awkward conversation with the nearest villagers, you and Johann break through their air of extreme caution with boasting and before long you've returned to the edge of the forest that the village is currently felling. It's been a while since Branulhune was put through its paces, and while a human smith would be greatly offended at a sword of theirs being used to fell a tree, Dwarves believe there should be no difference between a proper tool and a proper weapon.
It is said that a Runefang can cut through a tree trunk so cleanly that the tree remains standing afterwards and still needs to be pushed over. Perhaps this illustrates the difference between even the greatest Runelord of the modern era and the legends of the distant past, because Branulhune hits with a deafening crack of thunder and a numbing judder sent up your arm, and it sends a swarm of wooden splinters flying in all directions, pinging off your Aethyric Armour and Johann's golden skin. But though it lacks the elegance of the Runefangs, the tree is nevertheless felled, and Johann lives up to his own boasting by sinking golden claws into the wood and dragging it across the ground without need of a sled. The villagers begin to look at you with calculating eyes, and you wonder if you might have erred.
---
By the time dusk approaches, you're tired and bruised and will probably be picking splinters out of your plaits for days, but there are enough logs stacked at the riverbank that Bechafen is going to see an extra visit from the youth of Gerdouen this year and the locals no longer seem on the verge of drawing steel. You leave Johann with the villagers, many of whom have grown rather friendlier since he removed his shirt - a habit he seems to have picked up in Tor Lithanel - and once more enter the cottage of Baba Brzeginias. She looks up from the fire she is prodding with a poker, and holds out a bone for you that you really hope came from livestock. "Here. Don't drop it. If anything happens that shouldn't, break it over your knee."
You gingerly take the bone, and you're as ready to flinch back with your mystic senses if you find anything untoward as your fingers are if they detect any scrap of remaining flesh. But though the bone thrums with energy, it's an energy you're unable to directly perceive. It seems like a faint star that seems clearly visible from the corner of your eye but disappears if you look directly at it. But despite its elusiveness there's a familiarity to its energies, one that would feel oddly comfortable to you if you weren't immediately suspicious of that feeling of comfort.
"Ready?" she asks, and you turn your attention to her.
"Will this be a ritual? What will it entail?"
"Tch. Colleges." She reaches into a bowl on the mantle and pulls out a fistful of ash, which she throws at the northern wall. The timbers shudder and begin to part, but instead of the village that should be beyond you find yourself looking with mundane senses at something you have only ever seen with Magesight. The life of the river and the forest beyond unfolds before you in overlaid energies, the soft, faint slow-souls of the trees and the darting energies of animals twinkling like dying embers. But beyond all of the mundane energies of forest life and the occasional flaring oddity that seems to sense your attention and dart out of the way, is a blazing sun of shadowed energies.
[Mathilde's Perception: Learning, 64+29=93.]
[???'s Magesight: 16+??=??.]
Far to the north, fury and Ulgu intertwine in a storm of bewitchment enfolding a mass of life, the sharpness of hungry beasts and the ireful fire of thinking beings on the warpath, and hovering overhead like vultures are slivers of attention from the Four who only ever bring ill - though you cannot tell if they had a hand in these events or are merely watching it for entertainment or opportunity. At the heart of it all the center of the storm finally turns, and you find yourself flinching back from a sense of bottomless wrongs, and you find the alien cadence of recited evils springing to your lips. Bone splinters beneath your fingers and suddenly you are back in the hut, left with nothing but the echoes of festered wrath and the smell of lilac.
"Pfah," Baba Brzeginias says, and plucks a sprig from one of the dangling lines and throws it in the fire, and a heavy, earthy smell drowns out the lilac. She sits before the fire and looks thoughtfully at the wall that had just seemingly unfolded. "Have you ever seen the ocean?"
"A time or two."
"Deep waters, I hear, deeper than the mind can fathom, filled with enormous and terrible beasts. Our river here is so very small in comparison, and the creatures but minnows. If one of those ocean beasts found their way into these waters, they would find themselves constricted, suffocated and starved from waters too shallow to cover them and prey too tiny to nourish, and a time would arrive when they would surely die if they did not retreat back to where they came from. But oh, the terror they could wreak before that time arrived."
You consider that. The Forest of Shadows would not be considered a metaphorical meander by any stretch of the imagination, so there are only two candidates for what could be considered a comparative ocean. And while Laurelorn is starting to look outside its borders, you're fairly confident they haven't quite reached the point where they're interfering with events four provinces away from them. That just leaves one other possibility, a possibility that has never been shy about unleashing terrors upon the rest of the continent: Athel Loren. An Asrai warhost or a murder of Dryads, and it would be difficult to say which would be the greater evil.
"Things will be bad for my cousins across the border," she continues, "but they have withstood worse. And it means you can go back to your leaders and tell them that Ostermark need only ride out the ripples from the creature splashing about."
---
Only the mad travel the Forest of Shadows at night if they do not need to, and you spend the night in murmured conversation with those whose turn it is to watch over the sleeping village, learning a little more of the community that has so thoroughly embraced the Hedgewise. Every axe of the village has runes carved in the haft by thorns cut when Mannslieb was in wane. Every man of the village wears a pouch of bat-leather filled with herbs to ward off misfortune and maladies, and every woman the wings of a dragonfly to ward off the attention of the dead and damned. And when the young and strong are away delivering the bounty of Gerdouen to the city, they do so believing that their mothers and aunts are watching over them from the other side of the Hedge - which must be as welcome for the journey to and back as it would be frustrating when presented with the many intriguing and expensive varieties of sin available in the city. And despite their relative isolation, the rare dalliances that the young women of the village are able to enjoy with Ostermark cityfolk and Kislevite sailors very reliably provide fresh branches to what could otherwise be very narrow and gnarled family trees.
Speaking of which, you do not comment when Johann reappears the next morning, though it is impossible to completely resist the urge to indulge in some private speculation as to how and in what company he spent the night.
As the two of you return to civilization, you use Johann as a sounding board for the matter at hand. You have more answers than you started with: a force from Athel Loren and shrouded in Ulgu is active in Kislev's Southern Oblast, and the direct effects on the Empire are likely to be no more than knock-on disruptions. Perhaps that is a sufficient answer for Paranoth. But there are still unanswered questions, and it could be argued that the order needing restoring represents either opportunity or obligation.
The matter is:
[ ] Concluded
The disruptive force originated in Athel Loren and is active in the Southern Oblast, making it not the Empire's problem. This is enough information for Paranoth. Send him what you know and return to Tor Lithanel.
[ ] Incomplete
You cannot call your investigation complete when you do not know the composition or the objective of the force active in Kislev. Investigate further.
[ ] Opportune
There are individuals and organizations within Kislev you would benefit from a closer relationship with, and this presents an opportunity to forge those relationships. Offer your services to Kislev in restoring order to the region.
[ ] Obliging
The Empire is being disrupted by these events. The knowledge you have gathered here obliges you to do what you can to restore order to the region. Offer your services to Ostermark in holding back the worst of the disruptions and opportunists.
- There will be a one hour moratorium.
- You have some wiggle room left to resolve matters here before it begins to eat into the number of actions available next turn, but that amount of time is finite and getting entangled here might make you unable to neatly remove yourself from the situation if it threatens to drag on.
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Hmm... I think Opportune is worth it, after all we do want connections across the border and there is only a chance we will use an AP as opposed to a guarantee if we did the action next turn and on top of that the action would be only to meet say the Ice Witches not actually court their favor.
[Insert Halétha comments here]
I lean towards investigating further. I really want to know what's happening here, but I would rather not eat into our next turn.
consequences
Not A Nice Person At All
- Location
- Jerkville
They caught a sniff of Dum, didn't they. Bah.