Literally Stole Ghal Maraz, Left Naggaroth Worse Than He Found It
I didn't know these two.
I missed or forgot that Wilhelmine von Bucht is the one who stole Ghal Maraz. How old is she?
I also didn't know that Walther Kupfer screwed up in Naggaroth. I thought that he deprived it of both citizen and slaves and then made it out alive, resulting in an overall success. What was his screwup?
Also, I had hoped that Reiner Starke was more mellow at this point in time/in Quest canon. But I guess that even then, his more realistic levels of fanaticism are still an issue.
Anyway, I wasn't thinking that people in the Grey Order might suspect that Mathilde is a double agent in a super long con. Just that they might suspect that she is selfish and/or more loyal towards certain persons and entities that don't represent the Empire and are amassing a worrying amount of power than she is to anything listed in Article 1. Or that she might be a full on Ranaldite, into all four aspects just as much as Starke is into Sigmar with all that that entails, except so talented and successful that it hasn't bitten her in the ass yet. Mildly suspect these things in any case. In other words "Mathilde is definitely a great asset and someone you want to have on your side, but don't just blindly trust her around temptations of power or riches because we don't know for sure if that might spell trouble after all".
Whatever. That's just where I was coming from. I didn't quite expect that the leadership of the whole Grey Order is kinda suspect and freewheeling and that anyone shitting themselves at the thought of what the Grey Order could get away with are actually damn well justified. With that being the case though, I am very very happy that we are on the inside looking out as one of those eight goofballs at the head of the magical secret police circus. Now I'm looking forward to eventually getting into intra-College politics even more than before. It sounds fun as hell and sitting on Algard's Council must be a pure hoot.
Actual Books of Nagash would be the exception to that because they have pieces of his soul in them so they are as possessed as any chaos grimoire but other than that the way necromancy books kill you is generally by giving bad instructions on how to cast necromancy like later copies of the Liber Mortis do.
Most major Necromancy tomes (and bootleg copies of the Liber Mortis) apparently radiate Dhar, meaning that there's got to be more going on than bad instructions. Booby traps might be the norm among paranoid, Dhar-addled authors.
One Out Of Three Bosses Are Still Alive
Huh? Both Belegar and Marrisith are still alive. Who is the second dead boss?
It would be required to copy-paste entire libraries, and hasn't appeared on the list of possibilities due to a lack of libraries who have agreed to be copy-pasted. If that isn't a needed capability, then you don't need an army of scribes.
I thought Quinsberry's Library qualifies, making mass scribe employment relevant for the first time next turn.
Contractually Incapable Of Being Subtle
Anyway I'm all for the book mining as a cool action that brings narrative focus on the library. We might get a full update or even a mini-turn out of the expedition to the bowels of the vampiric castle we destroyed. What will scribes get, a throwaway segment appended to other more interesting actions?
As I see it, we're already going to get a couple of exciting actions next turn, so delaying the exciting archeology action to the turn after that is not a major loss and will definitely risk us getting bored.
That said,
@Boney is hiring scribes for the KAU through the EIC a KAU action, an EIC action or an action we could initiate through either organization? And if it's the latter, would there be any reason to expect different results from the two options?
Alas, if it's an EIC action then we run into the people who want to use the EIC action to start investigating trade with Laurelorn. I like the school in Karak Eight Peaks best, for that reason.
If we are going to discuss how having a proper order of things matters, then investigating trade with Laurelorn can definitely wait until
after we actually interacted with a House that we might benefit from by appealing to them through trade. As for the school, that would be a
very slow and long term way of getting scribes. I'm not against it, but I am only for it combined with or after we hire scribes through the EIC. As for hiring through Scriptisi or Verena or some other established cult or organization with an agenda, I'd rather not do that at all.
Mathilde did donate a lot of Runework - not a significant sacrifice by her standards but quite vast by the standards of anyone who hasn't played a major part in reclaiming a lost Dwarf Hold.
But that's what I mean. Mathilde has spent acquired resources and connections in order to further her standing elsewhere. But she hasn't observably stood before a hard and painful Divided Loyalties™ decision and chosen the Empire or the College(s) over something dear to her personally. I say observably, because in actuality she has. She chose loyalty to Stirland over giving her blackmailers full access. She chose remaining in good standing over ultimate necromantic power or a chance to resurrect Abelhelm. But neither of those are known to the Grey Order as an institution or to any one of her Grey LM colleagues personally.
Ultimately, what definitely speaks in her favor above all else though is that she is the source of "Queekish" and is right now working on what might be the next massive treasure trove of magical knowledge (Laurelorn secret sharing conclave). So in all honesty she could be an actual Vampire and Algard might still let her continue without bothering her right now.
My main reason for wanting the shadow HQ over the Eonir thing is that the shadow HQ action has been sitting there forever, and I think old stuff we never got around to should take precedent. I also think we should have set up a shadow HQ last turn and I'm still salty about that waste of an EIC action.
I actually have been against setting up a Shadow HQ in the Sunken Palace since it first came up. I don't like the idea of a non-Ranaldite running the first place we ever dedicated to Ranald. But I get how that opinion might not be widely shared.
I for one still desperately want to do AV Powerstones, but have sort of given up after it got delayed for AV Divinity and then Divinity's supporters seemed to lose interest entirely once their preferred action was finished. It was pretty disheartening and has really soured me on future "we'll do X you want to do after we do Y first" general agreements.
I'm still salty about that. Not that we did AV Divinity. But that we then decided to throw it at Ranald and hope for approval. AV Divinity was the best lead to making AV something special and more valuable than liquid DF. That avenue getting completely shut down is what made me lose quite a bit of interest in AV. Like, I won't stand in its way when it competes with other stuff that isn't time sensitive like self-improvement or loot science, but it definitely doesn't feel like a priority to me anymore.
Turning the coin to the father and contacting the daughters is kind of following up on the divine AV research. It's not advancing our understanding of the AV, but it does make use of the results we did get.
I know that this is my emotions speaking and not an objective assessment, but to me the whole Father business feels like an overly complicated consolation prize. I know that a lot of people love all the speculation and that I too have been dragged along into trying to optimize our chances of actually profiting from the Father, but in the end the "Gods as extended family with many names and secrets" line of inquiry just doesn't grab me as much as the "Gods as weird and intricate Aethyr entities" line of inquiry. And the material incentive of likely getting a stable alliance with certain Hedgewise also only goes so far.
Armies of vampires are going to attack K8P? The same one with the doom tower that killed millions of orcs? I mean that would be a great way to have fewer vampires in the world, but I cannot think of any book in the world that would make a vampire attempt to attack a fortified dwarf hold other than maybe one of the Books of Nagash.
Not K8P. But they might attack the convoys between Sylvania and K8P.
In fact, I just came up with another potential reason not to vote for bookmining right now: I believe that not only is there a good chance of such an action resulting in a potential mini-adventure, but that even if we
could opt out and leave all the digging to the Dwarves, it would actually be an interesting and fun mini-adventure with lots of potential excitement, tense moments, meaningful risks and interesting world-building. Which sounds like a reason to vote for it, but I for one am a bit burned out by our two back-to-back mini-adventures and would like at least a couple of normal turns in a row. So I'd rather do "Digging into Drakenhof" in an IRL month or two from now.
