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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Codex said:
If I were to insult Arkhan, I think a far more fitting insult would be to trash him for the fact that he's called Arkhan the Black because his teeth are black. Yes, he chewed tobacco or something that made his teeth black and that's what gave him the title. Apparently it's a novel thing.

Probably the lamest backstory for a name I've ever heard of.
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Arkhan the Periodontitic
 
henkalv said:
Book mining would be fun, but I would prefer if the order of the guardians and the morrites were involved, just to catch any necromantic cognitohazards. There are probably lots of interesting things in the library, but that helps nobody if you go insane reading it.
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Getting Morrites involved is involving more people who might steal some necromancy books and do evil magic with them. They're not entirely trustworthy like the dwarves are - the guy who wrote the Liber Mortis was a Morrite.
 
Morrites don't keep Necromantic books. They burn them. These guys aren't Verenans. They have no obligation to maintain the sanctity of literature.
 
Rafin said:
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.
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In case you're interested in a reread to refresh your memory, they're all introduced in Expeditionary Epilogue 3:
Boney said:
It's often said to new Apprentices that many of the greatest deeds of the Grey Order will never be spoken of, and while that was true for the Empire at large, the exception was among other Grey Wizards. Algard and his Towers of Screaming Death, which reliably draws in Chaos warbands who seek the forbidden tomes supposedly encased within and walk right into Imperial Army ambushes. Kurtis Krammovitch, double agent turned triple agent turned quadruple agent turned unofficial diplomat to the Hedgefolk, who technically breached the Articles but fought sorcerers and necromancers for new recruits in areas where the College's influence didn't otherwise reach. Walther Kupfer, who fomented civil unrest from the slave pits of Clar Karond and caused inter-house feuds that still periodically explode into violence to this day.

And Wilhelmine von Bucht, who shattered the House of Goellner when they thought their trade empire had made them too powerful to tax, who dismantled every Smuggler Guild from Middenheim to Fortenhaf, who concealed the Imperial Regalia and forced the just-deposed Dieter IV to retreat to Talabheim without performing one final theft. Who in the twilight years of a successful career settled down to serve her College as Bursar. Who is now sitting across from you and offering you a nice cup of tea.
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Well, besides Starke, who we first saw on Turn 29.
Boney said:
After Regimand has exhausted what he's confident enough in to teach, you're passed along to a rather more intimidating figure - the Porter of the Grey Order, Reiner Starke. His unassuming title hides the truth of his power in plain sight - it is he that decides who the doors of the Grey College do and do not open to. The youngest current Lord Magister, his ambition is as well known as his loyalty to the Empire.
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Codex said:
Morrites don't keep Necromantic books. They burn them. These guys aren't Verenans. They have no obligation to maintain the sanctity of literature.
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I think what he meant is that their humans, humans who actually have the capacity to use this stuff inherently and can therefore be tempted much easier then say... A race who can not use this stuff inherently and for who you first need to find a way to interact with the winds...
 
Rafin said:
Maybe I just read too much into the following line:



My interpretation was that someone like Gunnars can sus out suspect souls by looking at people. And that he isn't even unique like that, given how Kragg thought him "too young" for the job at hand.
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I read that more as a 'focus on the subject at hand' thing rather than something he was doing to actually judge Mathilde. If he was, I doubt it was based off an ability to see souls, and more linked to Gazul being able to do so.

ReImagined said:
In case you're interested in a reread to refresh your memory, they're all introduced in Expeditionary Epilogue 3:

Well, besides Starke, who we first saw on Turn 29.
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Also Melkoth, who turned up later as well.
 
Reading Boney responses from last night when I woke up made my day. I spent it thinking about making friends with a vampire, than turning said friendship into a book called Interview with a vampire. Also maybe getting a certain Skaven a new pen pal. Which would be utterly hilarious or end horrible. Also that getting the library would be a huge boon to Mathilde since it is possible the largest library of black magic in the empire.
 
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Nurgle said:
Reading Boney responses from last night when I woke up made my day. I spent it thinking about making friends with a vampire than turning said I friendship into a book called Interview with a vampire. Also maybe getting a certain Skaven a new pen pal. Which would be utterly hilarious or end horrible. Also that getting the library would be a huge boon to Mathilde since it is possible the largest library of black magic in the empire.
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Knowing the usual Warhammer writer's sense of humor I half expect that there is already a book called "Interview with a Vampire", laying somewhere in the witch hunters training manuals about how to best interrogate their kind.
 
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Fayhem said:
@Boney Speaking of possible organizational actions for next turn, is trying to get the EIC to take over the gong farmers/sewer jacks in Nuln a viable EIC action? I'm asking because I was thinking about when I was reading Skavenslayer, and remembering how the sewer jacks were coming across signs of Skaven activity preparatory to an invasion, and it wasn't getting recognized or reported due to the Conspiracy of Silence. And most people who would know about the Skaven would raise eyebrows in a way that could jeopardize the Conspiracy if they started taking a personal interest in the sewers.
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The local EC is already fully aware of Skaven. Whoever he hired when Mathilde turned down the position would already have that sort of thing in hand.

Rafin said:
I missed or forgot that Wilhelmine von Bucht is the one who stole Ghal Maraz. How old is she?
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Old.

Rafin said:
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?
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He didn't screw up, but if you're actively looking for reasons to distrust Grey Wizards, going into a nightmarish hell city and being able to make it even more so is an eyebrow-raiser. That's why the Grey Order doesn't evaluate their own in that very narrow way. It isn't looking for the one person in a generation who will genuinely sacrifice everything they love to serve a society that still contains a whole bunch of people that want to burn them at the stake, because if they only had that one person on their payroll they wouldn't get anything done. So they settle for good enough. Mathilde likes her creature comforts, keeps just so happening to stumble over big piles of money that can fund those creature comforts, has a worrying ability to grasp forbidden magics, might have been banging a Van Hal, and is probably more fond of Dwarves than she is of humans. If you were looking for your perfect frictionless spherical Grey Patriot then Mathilde gets the boot five times over, but the Grey Order is happy to work with the Mathilde they've got, and the results of them doing so speak for themselves.

Rafin said:
I thought Quinsberry's Library qualifies, making mass scribe employment relevant for the first time next turn.
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It's going to accumulate in K8P passively as the locals have need of specific volumes. If the thread feels like it desperately needs the entire corpus of which Halflings are related to which right now then sure you can start hiring all the scribes, but it's not something I picture as a thread priority.

Rafin said:
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?
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The exact mechanics are yet to be determined.
 
Codex said:
I know you probably intended for this to mean Abelhelm, but you left it vague enough for it to be interpreted as possible that it was Roswita you're referring to. Not even sure if it was intentional that you made both options open depending on interpretation.
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I mean, I was never a fan of either ship personally, but if you're outside looking in I can see how the people in universe could come to those conclusions.
 
I do not see Roswita, we know that she publicly fired her, and that other council members quit in protest. Than Mathilde saved her life and got her stuck with a bunch of wizards. Than there is the whole grief over Abelhiem that is on the record.
 
Valmond said:
Well, it was considered. :V
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She technically made it farther in than her father. Abelhelm didn't win the romance vote, married to her work did. He got second place, so Boney resolved it as a crush she wouldn't act on. Then he died, which amplified the "what if" scenario, but we wouldn't have pursued him until a second vote anyway, so we never even got to the assessment portion. We at least went on an assessment date with Roswita.
 
There is one point about scribes, we need the books to be accessible. We already have books in many languages and the number of languages is set to continue growing. We need people able not only to transcribe in a variety of languages but also potentialy translate and perhaps organise numerous sources. After all, it would be better if at least a part of the books from all those culture would be acessible to the main languages of the Karak.

Maybe some universities would be open to set up branches in K8P. After all, Nuln's engineering school and the Colleges already are in, others might not want to be left behind.
 
Boney said:
If you were looking for your perfect frictionless spherical Grey Patriot then Mathilde gets the boot five times over, but the Grey Order is happy to work with the Mathilde they've got, and the results of them doing so speak for themselves.
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Broke The Wisdoms Asp For Aethyric Vitae And Claims It Was Deliberate
Tried To Quintuple-Face The Fourfold God. Twice
If You Think Those Chaos Dwarf Submariners Are Annoying, Wait Till Her Enemies Start Targeting Her In Earnest
Way Too Into Van Hal Dwarves Headpats Books Ranald (See Above)
Literally Stole A Gasmask The Power Of Mork Lots Of Money A Karak From Hell As Bycatch
Left The Under-Empire With One Less Warlord Clan Than She Found It
 
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Boney said:
The deeper levels for individual Gods are the internal writings on that Cult's secrets, while the deeper levels for Minor Gods are about more obscure and esoteric Gods.
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Is there anything in our current Minor Gods books that Kasmir would find useful if we let him take everything that remotely mentions Stirland and Sylvania?
 
StormySky said:
Is there anything in our current Minor Gods books that Kasmir would find useful if we let him take everything that remotely mentions Stirland and Sylvania?
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If he felt he needed books on the subjects, as the Chaplain of Stirland he could put a request through official channels and it would reach the KAU now that it's officially affiliated with the Colleges. As he's working directly with the cults in question he probably has all the information he needs, though.
 
Should we try to get a cult involved in the waystone project? Divine magic is a pretty big difference in substance and perspective than the other magical stuff we've got working on the project. The Cult of Ulric is friendliest with the various parties involved, while the Cult of Taal and Rhya knows more than any of the other cults about standing stones. Kasmir and Mathilde did an arcane/divine magic combo once, and Heidi might know how to find someone from the Cult of Ranald who'd be amenable.
 
Voting closed, writing has begun.

Adhoc vote count started by Boney on Apr 8, 2022 at 11:43 PM, finished with 1450 posts and 238 votes.
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Andres said:
Should we try to get a cult involved in the waystone project? Divine magic is a pretty big difference in substance and perspective than the other magical stuff we've got working on the project. The Cult of Ulric is friendliest with the various parties involved, while the Cult of Taal and Rhya knows more than any of the other cults about standing stones. Kasmir and Mathilde did an arcane/divine magic combo once, and Heidi might know how to find someone from the Cult of Ranald who'd be amenable.
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Taal and Rhya would be the best since they may have inherited secrets from people who actually built the human version of waystones, and maybe secrets from the druids. But really we are going to have to do a lot of guess work to figure out who can help after we get everything together.
 
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