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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Amantalado said:
You know, looking back on this whole Kislev arc, I can't help but feel really bad for Drycha in a meta sense. Don't get me wrong, I am fully on board with Dragonflasking her to oblivion and then rendering any remaining large chunks left to sawdust with our sword. Yet, I see as far back as when we scried on her with the hag, she has just been getting utterly shafted by the dice, and not just her, but the myriad of forces working with her as well.

Its like watching a lion about to pounce on a baby gazelle, and right as it leaps towards its prey, the gazelle trips and fumbles to the floor and the lion soars right over it, off the edge of a cliff, and into a valley filled with cacti, poison ivy, and snakes.

I'm happy that the target got to live, but I can't help but feel sympathy for something experiencing such horrendous luck.
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To be fair, a lot of it wasn't so much luck as Mathilde deciding to stick her nose into something that barely involved her. So, in your metaphor, it's a bit less of the gazelle tripping and falling, and more like a random honey badger jumping out of the underbrush to intercept the lion and shove it off said cliff.
 
Ericwinter said:
To be fair, a lot of it wasn't so much luck as Mathilde deciding to stick her nose into something that barely involved her. So, in your metaphor, it's a bit less of the gazelle tripping and falling, and more like a random honey badger jumping out of the underbrush to intercept the lion and shove it off said cliff.
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Eh, there really was an incredible amount of bad luck for Drycha even then. All the way back to her getting like a 10 on her roll to see who was scrying her up to rolling a 1 on target selection, the amount of 'fulcrum' style rolls she or her faction got really bad luck on was a ridiculously high proportion that ended up badly narrowing their options.
 
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Thomasfoolery said:
Eh, there really was an incredible amount of bad luck for Drycha even then. All the way back to her getting like a 10 on her roll to see who was scrying her up to rolling a 1 on target selection, the amount of 'fulcrum' style rolls she or her faction got really bad luck on was a ridiculously high proportion that ended up badly narrowing their options.
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We'll sure. Cliff's still there, snakes and all. But if it weren't for Mathilde's push and reshaping the battlefield—not to mention being personally present—those rolls probably would have looked a lot different.
 
That's not really true though- the tsar and Boris were both already on their way here, so Drycha's opposition was at least double what she expected without Mathilde interfering at all.

This assumes she would have had to let a messenger though anyways to bait her primary target in.
 
Glau said:
That's not really true though- the tsar and Boris were both already on their way here, so Drycha's opposition was at least double what she expected without Mathilde interfering at all.

This assumes she would have had to let a messenger though anyways to bait her primary target in.
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Were they? I thought they were going to be a lot slower without Mathilde's warning, and muster fewer forces? At the least they would have been missing the two Ice Witches Mathilde brought, and if Boris got there after the other Boyar they would have marched without them.
 
StormySky said:
Oh, right, should we go get College books on Apparitions if we want to run around binding them? The Dwarves don't strike me as the sorts to know much about them, and I'm not sure if the Eonir group those with forest spirits in the mundane section rather than in their magical section.
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I expect that Dwarfs have entire realms worth of literature on how to kill them.
 
Glau said:
That's not really true though- the tsar and Boris were both already on their way here, so Drycha's opposition was at least double what she expected without Mathilde interfering at all.

This assumes she would have had to let a messenger though anyways to bait her primary target in.
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You're misremembering
Tzar Vladimir and Boris only got involved because Mathilde showed up and said "Hey so you know that weird forest problem you've been investigating? I have the answer; you're being invaded by a force from Athel Loren"
And that got their personal attention

Boney said:
The two of them turn to you and Johann and the Boyar looks you up and down, his brow furrowing. "Greetings to you... Lord Magister?" He looks to the Kovnik, who nods and says what you take to be confirmation that he's checked your papers. "What brings the Colleges of Magic to Rakhov?"

You resist the urge to breathe a sigh of relief that at least one of them speaks Reikspiel. "The disruption in the Shirokij threatens to spill across the Talabec, and besides that, the whole Old World is safer when Kislev is strong. I have come to lend my aid alongside the Hromada in this matter."

Milica groans and asks something that sounds rather strained, and the Boyar nods and replies in Kislevarin, and the Boyar looks even more concerned at her next words. "She says it is like if you hoped the Tzar would send an extra rota, and then three pulks and the Kreml Guard arrive. Do you know something that Kislev does not?"

Ljiljana must have really talked you up to her fellows. "The force moving through the Shirokij is using magic to shield itself from direct observation, but I have been able to pierce it for long enough to identify their origin. It is a warhost from Athel Loren."

The Boyar has no response to that, but from her grimace Milica recognizes 'Athel Loren'. She mutters something to him and recognition flares in his eyes. "The forest of Daemon-Elves and maddened spirits in the land of horses in bunting?"
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Boney said:
The Boyar confers with Milica, who grunts and says a few short words. "Kovnik, send riders to Fort Jakova and to Gerslev and the oblast krugs, we muster at Resvynhaf. A boat to Zavstra, too. Milica," he says a few words in Kislevarin, and she nods and walks towards the doors, muttering to her hawk. "That will take word to the city. Did you and your man bring horses, Chief Witch?"
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Boney said:
"Boyar Kalashinivik - the Boyar of here in Resvynhaf and of the Shirokij villages - is said to be visiting Praag," Boyar Kirill says to you as he assembles a makeshift council of war. "And the Boyar of Fort Jakova has remained in Fort Jakova - unrest in the mountains, he says. So this remains my sole command." He grins at that. "Three pulks led by one Boyar. If nothing else, that will make the Tzar come."

"The Tzar comes, but the city boyars drag their feet," a nervous-looking Kovnik Loza translates for Milica. "His son leads the Kreml Guard here with as much speed as they can manage."
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If Mathilde wasn't here then this small army would not have been mustered, because they'd still be unaware that the problem was actually big enough to assemble one
And furthermore, even if they did assemble one Boris, the Kreml Guard and the Ice Witches wouldn't be here, because the only reason they could get here in time before the Tzar was because of Mathilde's transport magic

So yeah, without Mathilde what most likely would have happened is Drycha would have laid relatively low until Boyar Kalashinivik (her presumed target) was summoned back to the villages in 4 days by the Ataman's message telling him about the string of disappearances in the forest
He'd have most likely lead a relatively small force of calvary in to investigate and then Drycha would rip them apart because there'd just be a small force of calvary and woodsmen in the forest against Dryads, Branchwraiths, a Treeman, a Manticore and Drycha
At which point it doesn't really matter how poorly she rolls her dice because those odds are so weighted there probably wouldn't be any rolling

Her biggest contribution wasn't her personal combat prowess, it was information and preparation
 
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Boney said:
Being able to exert such fine control over someone else's spells would require Mathilde to completely outclass them in magical ability, and Drycha has been throwing Ulgu around for something like two orders of magnitude longer than Mathilde has.
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Oh it wouldn't really be fine control, more replacing Drchya's finely thought coordinates with random garbarge, randomly boosting or blocking power. Let her teleport but mess up the destination (preferably in ways that end up in the Warp or Morrslieb)
 
Boney said:
Performing Rite of Way at a gallop is a lot more challenging than at a march, but this time you're only doing it for a single person, so it's easy to slip into the rhythm and let the miles disappear underhoof as Nadezhda adapts to Ulgu horseback, while overhead a localized blizzard centres around the transformed form of Ljiljana as she flies above you. About three quarters of the way back you overtake the galloping rotas of the city boyars, who appear equally confused and outraged at being overtaken by the three of you.
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This is really late, but why did we cast Rite of Way here? I thought that our shadow horse can travel equally well on all terrain. We have used it to charge up stairs. An ill kept road doesn't seem worth mention.
 
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storryeater said:
Just ask the Spartans (yes, they were assholes, but that doesn't detract from my point. They did train their women.).
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They didn't train their women for combat, even if they were allowed to practice sports.

I think mongol women were trained to fight, but I'm not sure if that.

Sinsystems said:
I think it's a case that they are trained to fight, they just aren't expected to fight. They are expected to defend the homes when the men go off to fight but not to go off themselves.
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Isn't that the case with the Dwarfs?
 
Glau said:
That's not really true though- the tsar and Boris were both already on their way here, so Drycha's opposition was at least double what she expected without Mathilde interfering at all.

This assumes she would have had to let a messenger though anyways to bait her primary target in.
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No?

Boney said:
"They are unpredictable. When they have appeared in the Empire, it has always been to bring destruction. Sometimes to us, sometimes to some threat within our borders we were not yet aware of."

The Boyar confers with Milica, who grunts and says a few short words. "Kovnik, send riders to Fort Jakova and to Gerslev and the oblast krugs, we muster at Resvynhaf. A boat to Zavstra, too. Milica," he says a few words in Kislevarin, and she nods and walks towards the doors, muttering to her hawk. "That will take word to the city. Did you and your man bring horses, Chief Witch?"
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The scale of the response is directly related to Mathilde coming and saying "Hey, this is actually pretty bad juju".

Tsarevich and Tzar would likely never have learned unless word has been sent, and Kalashnikov would have not ventured in with a grand army, but likely just his own rota.
 
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Since others are thinking about plans for next turn here is my preliminary plan:

[ ] Plan Waystone foundations with Hedgewise and Ice Witches + AV with Egrimm + Nut with Panoramia
-[ ] OVERWORK: Slot 1
-[ ] MAX: Study an artefact: Books and rubbings from an Asur explorer of Lustria and the Southlands
-[ ] EGRIMM: Investigate how the Vitae reacts to a power stone.
-[ ] WEB-MAT: Hire someone as a full-time Gyrocopter pilot (Adela)
-[ ] Attempt to bring a non-Order magical tradition into the Waystone Project (Nordland Haléthan Hedgewise)
--[ ] COIN: The Father
-[ ] Attempt to bring a non-Order magical tradition into the Waystone Project (Ice Witches)
-[ ] Lay the foundations: work with the current members of WEB-MAT and the Waystone Project to build a single unified framework for understanding the Waystones.
-[ ] Study an artefact: Ghyran Nut with Panoramia.
-[ ] EIC: Investigate what trade goods the Eonir might be willing to import from the Empire.
-[ ] LIBRARY: Seek an agreement with a Cult to have access to their libraries (Verenans)
-[ ] SERENITY: Book on Windsoak Mushroom (½)

Caveat: the plan may need to be updated based on the exact results of our interactions in Kislev after the battle and anything Boney adds as options for next turn. Thoughts on the plan are welcome.
Notes and reasoning:
  • This recruits both the Hedgewise and the Ice Witches as they are the 2 magic traditions we can likely easily recruit that fill in gaps in the knowledge of those we have already recruited. While I understand the appeal of recruiting a Laurelorn House like Tindomiel, we already have a Grey Lord who I would expect to know everything they do, so I don't think it fills in gaps in the knowledge base we are building from in the same way. If we conclude we need more specific elven magic knowledge after laying the foundations we can go recruit more elves, confident that any favors we would need to pay for them to join are worth it, and the knowledge they would provide will likely slot well into any framework created with the help of Lord Hatalath.
  • This starts the Waystone project, because with the addition of the Hedgewise and the Ice Witches I don't see any magical traditions or groups that we can easily recruit and that would fill in perspectives we don't already have. I don't think this is an action that is going to be decided by a couple rolls so I don't think the Gambler is as valuable on this compared to what the Father side of the coin enables by likely allowing us to recruit the Hedgewise.
  • After all this excitement with Drycha I would like to research the nut that is probably from the Oak of Ages with Panoramia. It is probably the most valuable artefact we have that is still unresearched and I am hopeful that it will open up interesting new options.
  • I have confirmed with Boney that we can get Egrimm involved in AV research. I really want to do more AV research, we are so close to finished and it still has an option to weaponize it.
  • This recruits Adela because we almost did that last turn and we have seen in the preparation for this battle just how valuable the mobility that she would enable would be.
  • I would like to do more development of our sword style with Branulhune, but I want to to do the nut research action more.
  • I would like to do more Windherding and I have an idea for an item that I think is worth making, but I want do more AV research first, and maybe use the Gambler next time we try Windherding.
cc @DragonParadox
 
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