Those Library options are incredibly cool and it hurts not to take them, but the Waystone options are even cooler and more time-sensitive. We're not passing them up because they weren't good enough, @Boney! (Except by technicality.)
Like I said, she's not a Daemon who just automatically fails to die unless you put disproportionate amounts of power in it. She was out of her home ground, in a fight she thought was a milk run, and the moment she realized she was in real danger she got hit with Battle Magic of the Bright Wind before she could so much as whip out a single cantrip.
And the fact she could brute force past the rejection suggests that this was, in fact, 'Close enough' to her true body to count. Even if there's something left that she can regrow from back in Athel Loren that has perfect retention of memories from the main body, this was likely a significant investment of her ability to act, that's more or less been reduced to aethyric slag through the energetic addition of copious amounts of Aqshy.
She's either Genuinely Dead, or so badly mauled that she'll be centuries recovering and might not even recall what the fuck just happened to her. Which is the same thing for the purposes of this game. If she did anything less than a massive investment of her power and sentience into this operation, I suspect the "BEGONE THOT" aura the Forest of Shadows was radiating at her would have just extinguished it. Given how debilitating it was as it was, effectively being a permanent Melkoth's level debuff on all actions (Which, as we pointed out before, is the difference between Literal Immortal Daemons and State Troops in combat skill, an insane debuff by any reasonable definition)
I think centuries might be overstating it, but if she came back before the decade was up I'd be surprised. Or she might just be dead, that does sometimes happen.
I'm super looking forward to Mathilde mentioning killing the Ulgu dryad to someone who recognises Drycha by that description, it'll be fun.
Speaking of said butt, I have to ask. Does it seem more amenable to Ulgu enchantment than any other random tree branch, or was it relatively unaffected by Drycha's admittedly brief possession? Or is that something we'll have to investigate?
DrychaQuest player: See! I told you guys Ulgu damsels exist! But you were all "Nooo, it's not in the loooooreeee~!" Well of course they're not in the lore, they're Ulgu Damsels! Being sneaky is what they're supposed to do!
For her to survive that, retain full information about everything that happened, and recover in a timespan meaningful to the Quest would require absurd amounts of plot armor, which Boney never gives to anybody who isn't a Daemon or a Vampire (And even the latter can still be killed, they just can't be killed beyond all hope of return)
I admit to being rather surprised that Dragonflask didn't require any kind of roll, beyond to see its effects. Nothing for damage or to hit, just BAM enemy physical form obliterated.
There may have been and likely were rolls on her end that we don't get to see because our windsight roll was insufficient. On our end, its a bound magic item where the relevant enemies were too tied up in their own casting to attempt to counter. Point, click, Boom.
Getting the Kislevite magic traditions onboard is a big enough win that it will make our delaying the project's start look reasonable; I no longer feel bad about having put it off for a turn.
I admit to being rather surprised that Dragonflask didn't require any kind of roll, beyond to see its effects. Nothing for damage or to hit, just BAM enemy physical form obliterated.
I expect we might have to roll something if we were worrying about firing zones, just to avoid obliterating the local orphanage or something, but the cast rolling has already been done ahead of time by trained professionals.
Any opposed roll would probably be Target's Counterspelling Roll vs a Static Number Based On Enchanter Skill? Drycha was kind of already occupied with what she was doing haha.
[Horse Archer vs Branchwraiths: Martial vs Learning, 99+20=119 vs 64+25=89.]
Behind you, the woodsmen had finished off most of the Dryads and had begin to charge the magic-users, but before they could reach them or the Dryads could finish their spell, arrows slamming into the Dryads announces the arrival of the Ungol horsemen that had been scouting the forest. One of them topples and the magic is disrupted long enough for the woodsmen to reach the two that remain, and they fall under a series of axe blows, refusing to the last to turn their attention from the spell they had been trying to cast. The last of the lilac glow finally fades from the battlefield, leaving the remains of the fallen enemies difficult to distinguish from the felled trees their bodies lie among.
Interesting how stubborn these Branchwraiths were about trying to finish the spell that they were apparently struggling with the entire battle, even while literally the whole rest of the army had been destroyed.
Wonder if it was a pride thing, being unwilling to admit defeat that this forest wasn't willing to aid them against the fleshlings.
I'd only believe she's not alive somewhere after we researched dryads and gotten confirmation from Laurelorn that they can't do some "your dryad is in a different tree, try again later." bs.
Yeah, even if Drycha somehow survived that it's unlikely she'll be coming after us. Because she thinks on a timescale that will have her after us in a century or two.
I would think the use of Maximum Carnage Bright Battle Magic would deflect her grudge from Mathilde to the Bright Order as its their Dragonflask that hurt her severely, doubt she got enough time to process Mathilde's magical characteristics before Ljiljana's reaction and the total flash burn of the Bright Order invention.
Would be amusing to see Drycha fight the Bright Order
Speaking of said butt, I have to ask. Does it seem more amenable to Ulgu enchantment than any other random tree branch, or was it relatively unaffected by Drycha's admittedly brief possession? Or is that something we'll have to investigate?
I wonder, Mathilde doesn't know much about Dryads normally, and she didn't get a good enough look at what happened to Drycha, but did she get any sort of look at what happened to the spirits of the other Dryads/ Branchwraiths?
That I feel personal pride that we now have a Dryad Butt, even if it ends up a dud, as I was the one that mentioned that Drycha might make good staff ingredients.
For a brief moment you're overwhelmed with the heady hubris of the idea of trying to apply the Apparition-binding techniques you learned from the Gold Order to the being in front of you, but good sense and your desire to finally test the Dragonflask in combat conditions prevail. You draw the flask from within your robes and swig down the mouthful of spirits it contains, wincing at the unnatural burning sensation as the Dwarven whiskey evaporates and unleashes its payload of Aqshy within your sinuses
Boris: "I see, imperial witch is drinking kvass in the middle of battle, interesting but not surprised"
Johann: "that is not alcohol, its a magic item?"
Boris: "you sure?, it's a traditional post-battle celebration"
Johann: "she is spewing fire"
Boris: "Da, normal reaction to foreigners drinking kvass for the first time"
Even with the massive mess of the winds the flask made, Mathilde was still able to see that Drycha's teleport spell got disrupted.
So she didn't get away that way. I guess it's hypothetically possible that she managed to abandon the teleport spell, switch to more basic Ulgu based invisibility, completely dodge the Dragonflask, and then get away while the winds were too disrupted for Mathilde to spot the spell use, but that sounds like the domain of Nat 100's alone.
Within the far more likely scenario where she got burned to a crisp... at minimum she's lost whatever portion of her spirit she had invested in this adventure, which likely (though not certainly) includes her ability to figure out what happened, and it'll take her a long time to recover from this. At most, she's just dead. Even if she does recover the memories, it'll be non-obvious to her who exactly murked her unless Mathilde goes wandering into Athel Loren and shows off Branulhune's exact capabilities and/or the Dragonflask.
What better use for a pair of legs than as the basis for out first battle altar of Rite of Way(once we can enchant battle magic 🤫 ) these gams were made for walking and they'll enable everyone around them to do so unencumbered!
I'm normally not one to engage with this thread, I'm just out of depth with Warhammer compared to a lot people here, but I feel like I can weigh in here.
Although potentially we've got an immortal Dyrad nursing a grudge against us I suppose, but on the other hand maybe she's dead, or if alive won't even be able to find out who we were.
No hard feelings, obviously. Murking a Big Deal without even learning their name only for them to come back later only for us to go "who?" is great. I hope she does!
You return Ljiljana's thoughtful look with a smile - your invisibility having been shattered by the use of the Dragonflask - and turn your attention to the rest of the battlefield.
All Drycha knew was that someone invisible was coming after them, and they chose to dismiss the problem until later. Then this invisible figure cuts them in half, and blows them up with Aqshy battle magic.
What seems more likely to me, above and beyond Drycha narrowing it down who did this, is that I think she'll contribute this to Elf interference. She's already got a bone to pick with them, and she already suspected them. She doesn't know jack about Imperial Mages, and that's not even accounting for how rare this event is.
On top of all of that, there's no guarantee she's even alive. Which, on that note, I think Alectai raises good points.
We just talked to the Hedgewise, about how these powerful beings is like a giant sea monster forcing itself into a river. But on top of this, the river was actively hostile to the intruder. And then, at the very least, it sustained staggering damage from an outside force.
Maybe Drycha's essence/soul made it back to a tree in Athel Loren, or maybe the Forest of Shadow stamped out any such attempts. Maybe this Drycha is dead, and the piece of them back home wakes up with no memory of these events. Even if that does happen, maybe there's not enough time for them to reform before End Times.
Either way, wether Drycha bit it or not, I think they're gone for good as far as we're concerned. Or, at least, it's not something we should sweat about.
I mean, there's Salyak in the pantheon. But she's more of a parallel for Shallya, like Mathlann and Manaan. Even then, weren't they twins?
If you we're limiting things to Kislev's larger pantheon, because the Hags deal with lesser beings and spirits, then I don't think it's possible to really say one way or another.
That said, it's not like I'm pushing for getting the Hags involved over Kislev as a whole. Not really sure on that one, so I'll see how other people fall on the issue.
Either she had a little seed of herself back in Athel Loren that she could respawn back from because Plot Character Immortality, in which case she has two choices. She's either directly managing her actions there with the seed receving real-time data. In which case that fire is going to burn up the connection and immolate her reserve, because she didn't have time to cut the chain before she was deleted.
You know it is a pity we aren't getting more Dryad bits as they would have been perfect for making our girlfriend a Staff. Like I don't think we can use Drycha's ass for it since that is more Ulgu aligned.
My personal preference would be to keep the dryad legs around as a component to use in our next try at robe enchantment, once We silk is finally a thing.
This quest being essentially my only exposure to Warhammer Fantasy, it's hilarious reading the discussion here from a Mathilde-like perspective where I have no indication that the dryad we just obliterated was anything other than a rando advanced dryad.
Evidence seems to suggest so, especially with Ljiljana discussing her involvement with Ranald. Though we still don't know what exactly Ranald did that pissed off the Kislevite pantheon so much, it appears Shallya/Salyak asked him to do it.
"You said that Ranald had wronged the Widow in some way," you probe.
"And now he seems to be making amends. You do not know the tale?" You shake your head. "The short of it is that the Widow and Her siblings were once much more than four, before Salyak had your Ranald interfere." She sighs, and closes her eyes again. "The details are ugly, and not to be shared with those outside Their service. In the aftermath They found us, the Gospodar. So perhaps it was for the best. But amends are still required."
You frown, considering that. "I thought Salyak was quite well established in Kislev."
"Salyak is easier to forgive," she says with a snort.
these gams were made for walking and they'll enable everyone around them to do so unencumbered!
