Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest
- Thread starter Boney
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pucflek
Verified simpleton
- Location
- Czech Republic
Investigating the boyar is kinda shit because he is like, several hours ride away even by Mathildes super speed (iirc two days by his own? He was four days away and Tsar came in two so if the second the rotas start cutting down the dryads will swarm like angry bees we won't be there to react.
At least thats what i am going to assume.
At least thats what i am going to assume.
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- Location
- Denial
- Pronouns
- She/Her
But this only applies if the fighting starts on the very first day. So it's a gamble, if the Wood Elves don't respond immediately investigating is probably the best option. But if the clearcutting provokes a fast response it leaves us unable to help.
He should be arriving today (based on the assumption that word reached him without trouble and he immediately started heading back with all speed) and failing that, Resvynhaf is where he lives so there'd be other options for Mathilde.
- Location
- New Brunswick, NJ
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- He/Him/His
Yeah, actually, I think investigating this guy isn't a bad play. Johann is a solid scout, and I feel like the added utility of "Grey Wizard Lord tries to figure out why the fuck this is happening in the first place" is higher than "Grey Wizard Lord assists a bunch of trained woodsmen + maybe Johann in scouting in the field." If we were the only scout, that'd be one thing, but we've got an entire army here now, so we should focus on the areas where a single individual can do the most.
Finding out why this is happening almost certainly will not stop a fight at this point, but may help us down the line, particularly at the cleanup phase of the operation and the assigning credit & blame phase. If we can alert the Kislevite powers that be that Kalashinivik is up to [Shady thing X] which is why this all happened in the first place, it might help us with our actual goal here, which is securing Kislevite assistance for the Waystone project.
Finding out why this is happening almost certainly will not stop a fight at this point, but may help us down the line, particularly at the cleanup phase of the operation and the assigning credit & blame phase. If we can alert the Kislevite powers that be that Kalashinivik is up to [Shady thing X] which is why this all happened in the first place, it might help us with our actual goal here, which is securing Kislevite assistance for the Waystone project.
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Investigating the Boyar is definitely something we should eventually get to but in the immediate term scouting is likely to give us more actionable information. If the operation drags on without response we could reassess.
How highly do you rate the possibility that information from the Boyar will end up more valuable in the coming battle than scouting, and that it will be valuable enough to justify Mathilde possibily being away when hostilities break out?
If we're lucky investigating him could take less than a few hours. In which case I think odds are good we get back before whatever response is planned comes.
I also think hitting him before he gets to town and catches up on all the events and potentially has time to hide evidence/tailor his story is rather valuable. So with those factors in mind I think it's worth going for.
I also think hitting him before he gets to town and catches up on all the events and potentially has time to hide evidence/tailor his story is rather valuable. So with those factors in mind I think it's worth going for.
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- Location
- New Brunswick, NJ
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I think scouting is very likely to be extremely valuable in the coming battle. I just don't think that the value Mathilde would add to the scouting is going to make the difference. The army is already deploying scouts, and we have the option of deploying Johann to support that as well (and/or the Ice Witches, but let's be reasonable here). Adding an extra person making scouting rolls seems to me less good than using that person to cover an angle nobody else is covering.
During the reclamation of K8P, when Mathilde went in personally to scout, she wasn't doing so to support the Rangers, she was covering areas that were otherwise going unscouted. The Kislevite woodsmen are our Rangers here; I am fine trusting them with their business, especially since they're familiar with the territory and we're not.
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pucflek
Verified simpleton
- Location
- Czech Republic
The thing is, i think that Magesight in the upcoming task could be crucial. This is why i kind of want all the forces that are going to be in the forests (scouts, woodcut duty and patrolling) to have one of us assigned. I know that one mage in such force is piddly, but i still think it could matter a lot.
Catches up on what events? Everything of note occured in the Shirokij villages, and our forces haven't reached them yet.
Best case scenario, investigating the Boyar only takes a few hours, battle doesn't break out in that time, and the information from the investigation has a serious effect on our strategy (somehow). Worse case scenario, the Boyar could be days away (if word had trouble reaching him, or if he didn't set out at full speed the moment he heard) and while Mathilde is off investigating him battle breaks out and she's not there to help, and also the information he has maybe sheds some light on the motives of the enemy but does nothing to change Kislev's strategy.
Mathilde is the only one among the scouts who has Windsight, and unusually sharp Windsight at that. When facing forest spirits and enemies with access to shadow magic the contribution this provides is more than 'an extra person making scouting rolls'. Johann could conceivably stand in for her, but while he has good Windsight he's no Mathilde 'Stone is an excellent insulator of magic' Weber, and it would also mean that Johann can't join the patrols which would also benefit from someone with Windsight.
He might at this moment know nothing more than the message that came from the initial Shirokij messenger. With none of the clarification Mathilde's additional insight added to the problem. So if he has some sort of connection to Athel Loren for instance, he might not even know it's relevant to the situation here and potentially be much less guarded about it.
This isn't necessarily true. I imagine she has the sharpest. But people can have windsight without being full casters, and there might be priests involved as well.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I'm fine with Mathilde scouting or trying to find Boyar Kalashinivik so here's what I'm planning to vote:
[ ] [GREY] Scouting the forest with the krugs
[ ] [GREY] Investigate Boyar Kalashinivik
[ ] [GOLD] Scouting the forest with the krugs
[ ] [ICE] Guarding the forest rotas as they expand and fortify the path
I've already explained why I want the ice witches with Boris. After thinking about it more I don't think it is critical that someone with windsight goes with the city Rotas, they are the least likely to be attacked/ambushed because they are only patrolling the clear cut area. I think we will want Johann scouting regardless of if Mathilde is scouting. If she is then that's more chances to spot something magical before it gets ready to attack anyone else, and if she isn't then he really needs to be there.
[ ] [GREY] Scouting the forest with the krugs
[ ] [GREY] Investigate Boyar Kalashinivik
[ ] [GOLD] Scouting the forest with the krugs
[ ] [ICE] Guarding the forest rotas as they expand and fortify the path
I've already explained why I want the ice witches with Boris. After thinking about it more I don't think it is critical that someone with windsight goes with the city Rotas, they are the least likely to be attacked/ambushed because they are only patrolling the clear cut area. I think we will want Johann scouting regardless of if Mathilde is scouting. If she is then that's more chances to spot something magical before it gets ready to attack anyone else, and if she isn't then he really needs to be there.
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- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
We can investigate the Boyar once the fighting is done, we can't scout the forest once the fighting is done. My choice is clear.
We can also just not investigate the Boyar, we are not Kislev's intelligence service, us doing them one good turn does not obligate us to do them another and we are kind of running low on time this turn
I do think we should eventually investigate the Boyar, both to satisfy our curiousity and have as complete a report as possible to provide to Panaroth. The kind of investigation people want to do right now isn't the kind of thing that takes up a lot our time, it's just having a conversation, and we could definitely find the time to do at least that. After the battle.
He did not ask us about Kislev, certainly not about a random boyar in Kislev, I doubt he would care.
The point is that the forces of Athel Loren have for some reason come to this forest seemingly at least partly because of some random Boyar. He would want to know because he wanted to know what's going on in the Gryphon Woods, and the answer 'Athel Loren was there' is less informative than 'Athel Loren was there because of [insert reason here]', and investigating the Boyar could help us find that reason. And in any case having a conversation with a guy (which would take what, hours at most?) isn't some huge expenditure of time and effort on our part, there's really no reason not to do it.
Codex
Fantasy Addict
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Paranoth wanted to know what was going on in there for pragmatic reasons. Paranoth completely dismissed Panoramia's idealism and focused on the practical applications that could be used right now rather than some dream scenario for the future. Knowing what we know, by the time we're done here, we provided more than he even asked. His primary concern seems to me to have this situation dealt with, not knowing the exact motivations of the forces that exist here. It might have been useful if Kislev didn't just mobilise an entire army. By the end of this debacle the situation will be dealt with one way or another. There's no need to overperform more than we already have for Paranoth.
I do not think he actually cares that much about the whys of the matter, he is not a Grey wizard, he is Jade. I suspect his interest would cut off at 'the trouble was not on Imperial territory at all'. He might listen politely to the long story about elves and ice witches but that does not mean he will think any of it is actionable. when Boris said 'I wish more people would care about things that happen in Kislev' I do not think he was posturing, nor to I think Panaroth is another exception.
Paranoth also gave a speech on the value of going on tangents. A better understanding of the moves of Athel Loren (which an unpredicatble, and which effects the Empire) could be valuable in the future in preparing against and responding to future attacks from them.
And again, we are debating whether or not to expand a few hours at most having a conversation with someone. That is zero effort on our part. I don't understand how this is even an issue.
Codex
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If it's something that only takes a few hours, then Boney wouldn't have a vote on it because it'd be inconsequential. The only reason Boney would let us vote on the subject is if there are tradeoffs or other actions we could be doing with our time. Boney doesn't make situations where the vote has absolutely no downsides whatsoever.
I do not think we will be able to find out the mystery of why or how this guy pissed off wood elves in a few hours, because the kind of people who manage to piss off age old murder trees do not give up their secrets easily. I fully expect an interview to either yield nothing or be refused, Mathilde has no authority in Kislev and I doubt the Tzar would be minded to lend him his given that it would not look very prestigious to be using imperial spooks as spooks in his backyard, also be might not care why the fey were pissed off himself.
So we would then have to do a clandestine operation and that would take way longer than we have to spend on this