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I may not be looking for the Backfill myself, but I get it. It would sure be nice to be less of an esoteric niche library, I just want to copy as many mundane books from the eonir as possible because they present an entirely new perspective for the people of K8P and a mostly new one for those of the empire.

Any chance we can learn Shadow Clone Jutsu or similar?

Sounds pretty dangerous. And I doubt Boney would allow it anyway, because we´d never actually get anywhere if every turn was 12 actions.
 
There's a Chaos mutation that makes a permanent clone.

Otherwise, no.
The specifics on this from Page 36 of Tome of Corruption:

"Description: A new body tears free from yours, taking with it one-half of your Wounds Characteristic (round down). It is otherwise identical to you in all ways. From this point forward, your double gains its own mutations and may pursue careers of its choosing. You retain control over your double, treating it as a second character.

Variations: About 10% of Mutants with Duplication gain a double that wants to kill them. In these cases, the duplicate becomes an NPC for use as the GM desires."
 
And while I definitely want us to finish Branarhune, swording is a personal action and thus doesn't compete with WEB-MAT actions, so we could advance both next turn.
This isn't true; WEB-MAT actions are in direct competition with personal actions. We don't get them for free. And, particularly, next turn would be a great turn to minimize our use of WEB-MAT actions: normally, we need to keep our wizards busy or they get grouchy, but because Lay the Foundations uses all of our wizards anyway, we can use the AP on personal actions instead without kicking off the "wizards get grumpy" timer. Hence my previous "Disregard WEBMAT, Acquire AP" plan drafts. Now's the best opportunity to use AP on stuff Mathilde can only do with personal actions rather than WEB-MAT, which is a portion of why I'm resistant to going for this next turn specifically (the other portion being, as I mentioned, that wrapping up Branarhune seems better in the short term and I don't want to stack multiple "make Mathilde more badass" AP -- I'm still traumatized from Karag Dum prep).
Do you happen to remember where they said this? The only thing I remember being stated is we've gone as far as we can without actually getting into the field and trying to cast a binding.
@BoneyM One thing about apparition binding, can we try to catch more than one type of apparition with a single [ ] Attempt to capture an Apparition (optional: specify which) action? (i.e. [ ] Attempt to capture an Apparition Red Rider, Handmaiden and Rotwyrm)
No. She's not just filling her pockets with pokeballs and beelining towards the tall grass. There'll need to be a lot of research and preparation that can't be skipped, and it will be different for each type of apparition.
Hey @Boney a clarification to ask. As I understand, the Binding process, as we were originally meant to experience, was to go out, find an Apparition, beat it up, trap it, and then experiment at our leisure since adapting the binding methods to Ulgu would be difficult.

Is that correct? And if so, would a binding attempt here just constitute the capturing of Drycha for future experiments?
With zero prep time, there's no reliable way to trap Drycha for future experimentation. Mathilde would have to give the binding a go here and now, and hope for the best.
It's not as directly stated as I recall, but the consistent implication in Boneyposts as I read them is:
  1. Do a lot of research on the apparition we mean to nab, go capture it according to whatever that research turns up.
  2. After that Apparition has been captured, experiment on Ulgu-specific ways of binding it to Mathilde's soul so she can use it as an attack dog.
If the capture and the bind-to-soul steps are different, which seems to be the implication, I can't read this as being fewer than 2 AP. Codifying it would be an extra step, but it doesn't impact our ability to use it ourself, so I am not counting that against it.
Question: Does does apparition hunting help WEB-MAT? It's been a while, can't remember what it does for us.
It's purely a way to make Mathilde better in combat by giving her a Pokemon she can use in fights. Doesn't help WEB-MAT or Waystones, it's a personal improvement project (one we might be able to eventually codify for use by other Greys).
 
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...disagree. WEB-MAT is not the way stone project. It overlaps, but there's more going on with WEB-MAT- johann's arm, a sevieriscope, ideally AV research, and that's before we even get into divine magics.
 
...disagree. WEB-MAT is not the way stone project. It overlaps, but there's more going on with WEB-MAT- johann's arm, a sevieriscope, ideally AV research, and that's before we even get into divine magics.
This is true, its better tosay that Waystone project is Web Mat. Web mat is the overarching instutution that Mathilde made to research weird stuff and waystone project happens to be its first big task.
 
This isn't true; WEB-MAT actions are in direct competition with personal actions. We don't get them for free. And, particularly, next turn would be a great turn to minimize our use of WEB-MAT actions: normally, we need to keep our wizards busy or they get grouchy, but because Lay the Foundations uses all of our wizards anyway, we can use the AP on personal actions instead without kicking off the "wizards get grumpy" timer. Hence my previous "Disregard WEBMAT, Acquire AP" plan drafts. Now's the best opportunity to use AP on stuff Mathilde can only do with personal actions rather than WEB-MAT, which is a portion of why I'm resistant to going for this next turn specifically (the other portion being, as I mentioned, that wrapping up Branarhune seems better in the short term and I don't want to stack multiple "make Mathilde more badass" AP -- I'm still traumatized from Karag Dum prep).
WEB-MAT actions aren't 'free' but on most turns we're going to do three of them, because we want to use the buy two get one free bonus and because we want to keep our wizards busy. And I don't want to defend apparition binding next turn too much, since as I've said I'm not actually into that, but going by one of your latest drafts - Plan Mostly Disregard WEBMAT, Acquire Slightly Fewer AP (Recruitment Edition) - you could easily work in a WEB-MAT action in there using overwork. So we can get Adela and go apparition binding with Johann and now we get a free WEB-MAT action, which can be spent on Egrimm studying the Kurgan weapons or studying AV uses in enchantment with Egrimm or Max writing the shroom book.
 
As someone who's not voting for us getting books on apparitions and who isn't enthusiastic about apparition binding, I think there's very little reason not to vote for apparition hunting with Johann as a WEB-MAT action as soon as next turn if that's something you're into, even if back-fill wins. A +5 bonus isn't that big a deal, and it won't even necessarily apply: practical stuff (such as actually hunting an apparition) sometimes doesn't get the book bonuses that more theoretical tasks get, like how we didn't get any bonus to developing Branarhune from our books on greatswords. And while I definitely want us to finish Branarhune, swording is a personal action and thus doesn't compete with WEB-MAT actions, so we could advance both next turn.

Sorry. Forgot to write it. I wanted to mention that for anyone who wants to still do a couple of recruitments that's a reason to delay Apparitions for one turn. Same goes for anyone who thinks that Apparition stuff is dangerous or difficult enough to deserve the Coin, but wants to use it for something else this turn (like Father recruitment or Gambler foundation).
By 'full' I was talking about topics we have no books on whatsoever. Because we have books on Hysh already, it's disqualified from that. There are multiple non-full magical topics we want.
Okay. We can still buy topics that we only have few books on through that action though. Which is still worth it because getting those books up to Esoteric still costs not just gold, but also CF.

Out of curiosity, what are the other non-full magic topics you're currently interested in? Chamon and Ghyran might be nice. Many are voting for Power Stones and some are voting for Aethyr. Anything else?
Question: Does does apparition hunting help WEB-MAT? It's been a while, can't remember what it does for us.

Also wow, we have a lot of balls in the air. WEB-MAT, The Waystone Project, KAU... I'm worried we won't have enough actions per turn to get it all done.

Any chance we can learn Shadow Clone Jutsu or similar?
  1. I can't think of how it does directly. Though I guess it qualifies since Apparition Binding would be a skill that one College is teaching another. And even the Hag Witch might have some insight. Hunting Apparitions together with Johann should count as a WEB-MAT action at least.
  2. It's not that much. The Waystone Project replaces the individual projects or missions our bosses used to give us. WEB-MAT just makes certain actions cheaper as long as we occasionally do a couple such actions every turn or two. KAU and EIC cost their half-actions but otherwise don't require more investment. And we've been fighting to include our large research backlog since forever, so not much changed on that front. If anything, WEB-MAT made it easier.
  3. I'm pretty sure that would be near impossible without daemonic involvement or some serious soul manipulation that kind of screams of Dhar. Dhar-Ulgu or Dhar-Chamon or even an unholy combination of the two.

The specifics on this from Page 36 of Tome of Corruption:

"Description: A new body tears free from yours, taking with it one-half of your Wounds Characteristic (round down). It is otherwise identical to you in all ways. From this point forward, your double gains its own mutations and may pursue careers of its choosing. You retain control over your double, treating it as a second character.

Variations: About 10% of Mutants with Duplication gain a double that wants to kill them. In these cases, the duplicate becomes an NPC for use as the GM desires."
If I were to GM it I'd homebrew that there's also chances of resulting in personalities that are neither controlled by the player, nor obligated to try and murder them.
This isn't true; WEB-MAT actions are in direct competition with personal actions. We don't get them for free. And, particularly, next turn would be a great turn to minimize our use of WEB-MAT actions: normally, we need to keep our wizards busy or they get grouchy, but because Lay the Foundations uses all of our wizards anyway, we can use the AP on personal actions instead without kicking off the "wizards get grumpy" timer. Hence my previous "Disregard WEBMAT, Acquire AP" plan drafts. Now's the best opportunity to use AP on stuff Mathilde can only do with personal actions rather than WEB-MAT, which is a portion of why I'm resistant to going for this next turn specifically (the other portion being, as I mentioned, that wrapping up Branarhune seems better in the short term and I don't want to stack multiple "make Mathilde more badass" AP -- I'm still traumatized from Karag Dum prep).
Your suggestions and the surrounding discussion is again so long ago that I don't remember all the objections I had or the changes you added to accommodate other people. I remember there being versions with and without a single WEB-MAT action to hire Adela. And that in general I preferred the one where we'd use the Father for a final recruitment (Halethans and Tindomiel).
 
I'm just worried that if we go too long without getting any results from The Waystone project we'll lose the support we've gained.
 
WEB-MAT actions aren't 'free' but on most turns we're going to do three of them, because we want to use the buy two get one free bonus and because we want to keep our wizards busy. And I don't want to defend apparition binding next turn too much, since as I've said I'm not actually into that, but going by one of your latest drafts - Plan Mostly Disregard WEBMAT, Acquire Slightly Fewer AP (Recruitment Edition) - you could easily work in a WEB-MAT action in there using overwork. So we can get Adela and go apparition binding with Johann and now we get a free WEB-MAT action, which can be spent on Egrimm studying the Kurgan weapons or studying AV uses in enchantment with Egrimm or Max writing the shroom book.
It's true that there's a BOGO opportunity if we recruit Adela. I'm just resistant to the notion of using personal AP for 2 personal improvement actions and 0 of the research actions we can't use WEB-MAT to progress, like AV testing or studying the Ghyran Nut with Panoramia. I know we need to climb the personal power curve, but I like Mathilde nerding out about stuff, and we let our personal research languish for IC years while we prepped for Dum, so I dig in my heels about putting multiple AP towards personal improvement and zero AP towards personal research or other goals that can only be accomplished with non-WEBMAT AP.

I've got new plan drafts, but I don't want to suck the oxygen out of the room when it comes to discussing the current, actual vote by posting them, though maybe that ship has already sailed. Sigh.
I'm just worried that if we go too long without getting any results from The Waystone project we'll lose the support we've gained.
You're right to worry. Next turn it's basically mandatory that we take the Lay the Foundations action, which unlocks all the actual "do stuff with Waystones" actions. But as long as we do that, we should be fine.
 
[X] [LIBRARY] Colleges of Magic: Apparitions, Power Stones, Forest Spirits, Liminal Realms
[X] [LIBRARY] Colleges of Magic: Apparitions, Power Stones, Forest Spirits, Aethyr
[X] [PURCHASE] The Lady: Extensive Bretonnian, Shallya: Extensive Bretonnian, The Kingdom Of Bretonnia: Extensive Bretonnian, Trade: Extensive Eonir, A dwarven axe for Baba Brzeginias/Gerdouen

Righto, back to voting for me!

Anyway, lemme make my arguments...

Ok, to start? Backfill is not a bad option. In fact, it seems to me like its probably going to always be a good option. Its going to give a bunch of bonuses, and its going to probably be much more useful per action to the average library user than the other options. It'll also help give that wonderful feeling of progress. Wonderful completeness, wonderful dopamine.

We don't really know how much Backfill will, ah, fill, but I doubt it'll fill everything instantly. But that's another argument for backfill right now: Learning exactly how good Backfill is as an option will help us make better decisions around Backfill in the future.

So, if Backfill is a good choice, and will probably always be a good choice even if we've picked it multiple times already, why am I voting for the College acquisition?

Well, what are the scenarios in which we would pick the other options? I can think of a few.

1: The specific books are something we can only get for a limited time.

If we can only get certain books for a limited time, then if we backfill, we may permanently lose the chance to get those books. Whereas if we get those books now, we can always backfill later. This is an argument I've seen used in favor of certain Library of Mourning picks, mainly with the concern that they might be made unavailable later as the elves realize they're more important than they realized.

I think this is a very dangerous road to go down, though. Human minds are very vulnerable to FOMO(Fear Of Missing Out), and it can very easily lead to us making decisions that aren't actually all that beneficial to us. I would be very cautious of using this as a reason for not picking Backfill.

2: The specific books are something that will notably improve or enable important actions in our very immediate future.

Backfill is probably very powerful, but it is also unspecific. So if we have significant use/need for specific books in our immediate future, then I think specific acquisitions will often be the better choice.

Now, I don't think this is a super common situation. I expect that most of the time, Backfill will be the right choice. But I do think this is the situation we are in right now. Apparitions and powerstones are things that a number of people are very interested in doing in the very near future. We're also spending a lot of time in a place full of forest spirits, but I think thats secondary to the apparitions and powerstones.

______________________________________________________

So, all in all, Backfill is a great option, but it's unspecific, and I don't think its ever a priority. Rather, I think it's just a very good fallback option that presents a high bar to clear for other options to be worth it. Like a decision tree of "Is this option really important and better than backfill? If yes do it, otherwise always Backfill".

I suspect a lot of our previous library acquisitions would've been better off as Backfill, and most of our upcoming ones are probably going to be best off as Backfill as well. I just think that right now, the College books are a higher priority because it is my impression that there's a lot of people that feel like certain actions they value highly(and have waited for for quite some time) can't be done until we have these very specific books.
 
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If the capture and the bind-to-soul steps are different, which seems to be the implication, I can't read this as being fewer than 2 AP. Codifying it would be an extra step, but it doesn't impact our ability to use it ourself, so I am not counting that against it.

Thanks for getting those, the Drycha quote does seem to support your point of view, though that is a pretty different situation than intended use. Boney did give these as well though.

The techniques the Gold Wizards use are more about chasing them down and binding them directly, but theoretically some sort of trapping mechanism could be possible.
Ok, @BoneyM sorry but I am not all that familiar with Warhammer Magical lore, once we capture the apparitions, how are we going to contain them? Binding them to a object? Creating some sort of Magical prison using magic circles? Using an artifact like we used with the wisdom asp?
Depends on the Apparition. Gehenna gave Mathilde enough information to have enough of an idea to trial-and-error something together.

So based on that my best guess is it'll depend on the apparition, if Mathilde finds something about it that makes her think trying to create some kind of capturing technique first is plausible/less risky overall she does that, if she thinks a straight bind looks feasible she does that. If no promising avenues present themselves from the prep research we probably get nothing for that AP, or maybe the option to vote to try to bind with no assurances.

It's purely a way to make Mathilde better in combat by giving her a Pokemon she can use in fights. Doesn't help WEB-MAT or Waystones, it's a personal improvement project (one we might be able to eventually codify for use by other Greys).

In regards to this though, this is pretty textbook magical cooperation WEBMAT was founded to help promote
 
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I'm just worried that if we go too long without getting any results from The Waystone project we'll lose the support we've gained.
That's a bit of a premature worry when we haven't even started the project in earnest yet. Us laying the foundation in the upcoming turn is all but guaranteed, now that we have successfully recruited Kislevites and Boney has said that Humans (especially foreign ones) will get impatient. The question is whether we try to recruit a bunch more people in that same turn.
Well, what are the scenarios in which we would pick the other options? I can think of a few.
There's a third. Backfill fills a category with Dwarf and Imperial books. So it might be extra efficient if we have interesting (but not too rare or niche) categories of which we only have books from other sources, like Eonir or Bretonnian ones. So even if it seems inefficient, using the Eonir option for things like Tradecraft might make later Backfills make numbers go up even faster if we're lucky.
What *is* the plan for finding the Ranald Kid cults? The coin says it'll make them trust that we're cool, but I don't know that it does anything to make it easier to find them.
Currently the only plan I know of is turning the Father on and then trying to recruit (or at least meeting) as many potential candidates as possible. Current candidates I remember of are Haletha, the Lady, Hekarti, Haleth, and whoever the mystery deity of the Ostermark Hedgefolk is (probably still Haletha).

More concretely, I want us to vote for a plan that turns on the Father and then tries to recruit the Hekartine House Tindomiel and the Halethan Hedgewise.
 
Out of curiosity, what are the other non-full magic topics you're currently interested in? Chamon and Ghyran might be nice. Many are voting for Power Stones and some are voting for Aethyr. Anything else?
Hysh, Chamon, Aqshy, Azyr, and Ghyran for our Eight Peaks wizards. Power Stones for AV. Divine Magic will come up eventually. Rune Magic if we end up wanting to teach Eike enchantment and Familiars if she wants to get a familiar of her own.
 
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What *is* the plan for finding the Ranald Kid cults? The coin says it'll make them trust that we're cool, but I don't know that it does anything to make it easier to find them.
Our best plan so far has been "buy books about the likely suspects, and then if we get stuff that makes us think it's likely, at some future point flip the coin to Father and go meet them." @mathymancer is the person who's been collating the info; I believe his current best theory is that one daughter is Halétha, patron of (some of) the Hedge Folk, and the other daughter is Bretonnia's Lady. Part of the reason many of us are voting to buy Bretonnian books on Bretonnia, Shallya, and the Lady is to get more information that will help us confirm or deny that second idea.
So based on that my best guess it it'll depend on the apparition, if Mathilde finds something about it that makes her think trying to create some kind of capturing technique first is plausible/less risky overall she does that, if she thinks a straight bind looks feasible she does that. If no promising avenues present themselves for research we probably get nothing for that AP, or maybe the option to vote to try to bind with no assurances.
The Golds are able to track them down and bind them directly, but that's because they already have a working binding technique. We don't have a working binding technique for Ulgu and we'd need a test subject to develop one, which is why I think it's very likely that it's a two-step process: capture it via some means according to its specific nature, and then cobble together an Ulgu binding technique. Yolo swagging a binding technique in the field that has never before been tried seems a little lively for my tastes, though possibly we'll get the option to try anyway because giving questers the rope with which to hang themselves is a time-honored QM pastime.

(And Boney rated my earlier post Informative, which is suggestive though not definitive.)
In regards to this though, this is pretty textbook magical cooperation WEBMAT was founded to help promote
How? We're explicitly not allowed to tell anyone that this is an adaptation of a Gold technique. Feldman made that a condition. It's a self-improvement action that we might later be able to codify and give to the rest of the Greys so they can use it themselves, but by our promise to Feldman we need to pretend it's a Grey Order original.

(Though, as I posted before, having a Hag Witch around gives us plausible deniability to sell the lie.)
 
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How? We're explicitly not allowed to tell anyone that this is an adaptation of a Gold technique. Feldman made that a condition. It's a self-improvement action that we might later be able to codify and give to the rest of the Greys so they can use it themselves, but by our promise to Feldman we need to pretend it's a Grey Order original.

(Though, as I posted before, having a Hag Witch around gives us plausible deniability to sell the lie.)

It would be a Grey Order 'original' technique that would require everyone that wants to use it to hunt down the predators of other Orders.
 
@Boney, aside from the Phoenix Crown, do the dwarves have any looted Qhaysh artefacts from the War of Vengeance we can borrow to do AV experiments with? Actually, do they have any looted elven magical items we can use in general?
 
The Golds are able to track them down and bind them directly, but that's because they already have a working binding technique. We don't have a working binding technique for Ulgu and we'd need a test subject to develop one, which is why I think it's very likely that it's a two-step process: capture it via some means according to its specific nature, and then cobble together an Ulgu binding technique. Yolo swagging a binding technique in the field that has never before been tried seems a little lively for my tastes, though possibly we'll get the option to try anyway because giving questers the rope with which to hang themselves is a time-honored QM pastime.

(And Boney rated my earlier post Informative, which is suggestive though not definitive.)

I agree that's a plausible way things go. Though it's not guaranteed. As we don't have a working capture technique either. Which is why I said how it ends up playing out likely depends on what research on the specific apparition we choose ends up turning out. Maybe it gives very little in regards to making a reliable capturing mechanism but points to good odds on binding. I think it's more likely some sort of capturing happens first. But i'm not at all confident either way, since it's all very speculative.

How? We're explicitly not allowed to tell anyone that this is an adaptation of a Gold technique. Feldman made that a condition. It's a self-improvement action that we might later be able to codify and give to the rest of the Greys so they can use it themselves, but by our promise to Feldman we need to pretend it's a Grey Order original.

It not qualifying if it can't be broadcast feels like a narrow view of how magical cooperation needs to work. I imagine it's going to be very common for NDAs to be involved when magical traditions cooperate. What we're doing is pretty clearly working with another magical order to create something new. That feels pretty cut and dried to me.
 
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There's a third. Backfill fills a category with Dwarf and Imperial books. So it might be extra efficient if we have interesting (but not too rare or niche) categories of which we only have books from other sources, like Eonir or Bretonnian ones. So even if it seems inefficient, using the Eonir option for things like Tradecraft might make later Backfills make numbers go up even faster if we're lucky.
I think that's only really relevant if we run out of relevant things we can get out of Backfill, which I don't think will be happening soon.

As someone who's not voting for us getting books on apparitions and who isn't enthusiastic about apparition binding, I think there's very little reason not to vote for apparition hunting with Johann as a WEB-MAT action as soon as next turn if that's something you're into, even if back-fill wins. A +5 bonus isn't that big a deal, and it won't even necessarily apply: practical stuff (such as actually hunting an apparition) sometimes doesn't get the book bonuses that more theoretical tasks get, like how we didn't get any bonus to developing Branarhune from our books on greatswords. And while I definitely want us to finish Branarhune, swording is a personal action and thus doesn't compete with WEB-MAT actions, so we could advance both next turn.
I think this is a good point about book bonuses, but I think in the case of apparitions the book bonus probably will be relevant. We're not just hunting an apparition, we want to trap it so we can bind it later. And for that, I think knowledge of how the apparition works is going to be very helpful.

That is definitely a very interesting wrinkle that makes it likelier that we go apparition hunting soon. That said, I'm not convinced that next turn is the time to kick off a multi-action chain to enhance our personal combat ability. Maybe after Branarhune is done? Only two actions left on that, and it's the lowest-hanging personal combat fruit because each action gives marginal results, whereas the apparition chain doesn't help us until we finish it (which is at the very least 2 actions -- one to capture and one to bind to our soul with Ulgu -- and possibly more).

We know it's multiple actions from word of Boney. We don't know how many. Could be as few as two, could be more. And I'd prefer not to split our efforts in "get better at winning tough fights" when one option is halfway done *and* each AP we invest gives us immediate usefulness.

While I think the thread is prone to underestimating Mathilde's mortality, I do find this a compelling point against starting apparitions next turn/before Branulhune is done.

EDIT: Granted, I might be projecting there. On my reread, I found it quite alarming how frequently just one or two more bad rolls could have quickly spiraled out into Mathilde's death.
 
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It not qualifying if it can be broadcast feels like a narrow view of how magical cooperation needs to work. I imagine it's going to be very common for NDAs to be involved when magical traditions cooperate. What we're doing is pretty clearly working with another magical order to create something new. That feels pretty cut and dried to me.
NDA's are not magically binding, and people will talk, eventually.
And the Gold Order kept the secret for a reason, and only allowed it to spread to a trusted Lady Magister who promised to never reveal the source of her knowledge and pretend it was all hers for a reason.
I see no reason why we should then start spreading information about the technique to other orders randomly.
Let's make the spell, see if it works, and then see what Algard and rest of the Grey LM's think about it before we go yelling everyone we decided to bind warp entities into our soul.
 
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