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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Shane_357 said:
I think we should grab Hedgewise. I don't think any of our other recruits focuses at all on 'spirits' as a thing, and I'd like that whole thing (as I think there's something to the spirits of the land interacting with Waystones/Geomantic Web/etc) covered as we lay foundations.
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Both the Grey Lords and the Hag Witches would cover spirits. The Grey Lords bound the forest spirits of Laurelorn, and spirits of the land (or otherwise) are definitely part of Baba Niedzwenka's schtick.
 
picklepikkl said:
These are good points. If we do a shadow HQ, which location would you prefer, and what sorts of benefits are you hoping to see?
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The Sunken Palace. And I hope, above all else, to get the Sunken Palace back in the story. And some other stuff too, but I've gone over this before, I can search the thread and add a link if you want.
picklepikkl said:
I'm very confused about what you mean. Our Talabecland infiltration was spectacularly successful. Are you thinking of our T37 use of the Hochlander to scope out Ostermark? Because that one didn't go well (which I will accept is partially my bad, as one of the people who strongly advocated for it during T37 planning). But our T36 Talabecland infiltration gave us eyes on what Alric was doing then and also gave us ground-level intel during the Trouble in Talabheim arc this turn, as well as adding Talabecland to our EIC rumor mill on an ongoing basis. I can't think of any way in which it wasn't a huge win.
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I guess we have different definitions for "spectacularly successful". The EIC gave us the bare bones description of what Alric was doing (hanging out with a specific group in a specific place), which really is all that we could have reasonably hoped from it considering the circumstances but wasn't huge, and Regimand would have probably figured something out that would have kept us about as well informed. Again, not the EIC's fault, if Alric was actually donig something with the city's authorities we probably could have gotten more.
 
[-] Plan Lay foundations and write a story
-[-] One Overwork Action
-[-] EGRIMM: Attempt a Windherder enchantment with Egrimm (Ring of Sudden Dawn, Take No Heed/Radiant Gaze)
-[-] 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.
--[-] COIN: The Gambler
-[-] Attempt to bring a Major House or Ward into the Waystone Project (Tindomiel)
-[-] Branulhune's ability to disappear and reappear at a thought allows entirely new forms of combat. Continue to work on them.
-[-] EIC: Have the Hochlander set up a shadow headquarters for the EIC in the Sunken Palace.
-[-] Experiment with integrating the Vitae into enchantments.
-[-] EIC: Investigate what trade goods the Eonir might be willing to import from the Empire.
-[-] KAU: Decide who your library staff will consist of, and go about recruiting them.
-[-] SERENITY: Write something else: 'The Halfling' is an adventure story about a halfling farmer shanghaied into retaking a minor Dearfhold with only a dozen Dwarfs and their leader Princes Oakshield.

thoughts?

only Lay the foundations, Branulhune, AV, and Book are 'most haves' for me.
 
Jyn Ryvia said:
thoughts?

only Lay the foundations, Branulhune, AV, and Book are 'most haves' for me.
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Two serious objections from me:
  • Why no action taken to acquire a gyrocarriage pilot? Until we have one, it's just collecting dust, and we've already run into problems this past turn where fast group transportation would have been very helpful to have. The sooner the better, especially with the Waystone kickoff happening this turn.
  • Why is writing a piece of fiction to gain money a must-have over publishing some of the research we've done, such as the mushroom work that Mathilde expressly thought might help more wizards survive Journeying? Especially given that it's a joke about Tolkien's The Hobbit, it just feels like a meme.
mathymancer said:
The Sunken Palace. And I hope, above all else, to get the Sunken Palace back in the story. And some other stuff too, but I've gone over this before, I can search the thread and add a link if you want.
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Is this the other stuff you meant?
mathymancer said:
A while ago someone asked Boney what the shadow HQ action even is, and Boney clarified that it will serve as a place to recruit and train agents. Can't find that post, though.
As for why the Sunken Palace rather than the fief, I have a list of reasons:
  1. The Sunken Palace is a cool place, and it being written out of the story was a tragedy on par with Abelhelm's death.
  2. The Sunken Palace is a secret underground palace dedicated to the God of spys and sneaks, which makes it a very good option for a shadow HQ.
  3. The Sunken Palace is in the same city as the regular EIC headquarters, and besides the simple logistical convenience of that it means that movements of EIC agents in its vicinity aren't immediately suspicious.
  4. The fief is in the middle of nowhere, and if the Hochlander starts moving spies in and out of it that will be very noticable.
  5. The fief is a pure, untainted place, home to boring people living their boring normal lives. Making it into a ninja village will make it interesting, thus destroying the very essence of fief, which is defined by its lameness.
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picklepikkl said:
Two serious objections from me:
  • Why no action taken to acquire a gyrocarriage pilot? Until we have one, it's just collecting dust, and we've already run into problems this past turn where fast group transportation would have been very helpful to have. The sooner the better, especially with the Waystone kickoff happening this turn.
  • Why is writing a piece of fiction to gain money a must-have over publishing some of the research we've done, such as the mushroom work that Mathilde expressly thought might help more wizards survive Journeying? Especially given that it's a joke about Tolkien's The Hobbit, it just feels like a meme.
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1: because I don't want to stop with the wind hoarding actions after a bad go, that's how something gets dropped.

2: I legibility didn't even think of gaining money, I just want to try something new, and this is a point where all current topics are faded so its maniacally a good time to do it.
 
[-] Plan Lay foundations and write a story V0.2
-[-] One Overwork Action
-[-] WEB-MAT: Hire someone as a full-time Gyrocopter pilot (Adela)
-[-] 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.
--[-] COIN: The Gambler
-[-] Attempt to bring a Major House or Ward into the Waystone Project (Tindomiel)
-[-] Branulhune's ability to disappear and reappear at a thought allows entirely new forms of combat. Continue to work on them.
-[-] EIC: Have the Hochlander set up a shadow headquarters for the EIC in the Sunken Palace.
-[-] Experiment with integrating the Vitae into enchantments.
-[-] EIC: Investigate what trade goods the Eonir might be willing to import from the Empire.
-[-] KAU: Decide who your library staff will consist of, and go about recruiting them.
-[-] SERENITY: Write something else: 'The Halfling' is an adventure story about a halfling farmer shanghaied into retaking a minor Dearfhold with only a dozen Dwarfs and their leader Princes Oakshield.
 
Wouldn't it be better to save the overwork action for the next turn? That with laying the foundations unlocking a bunch of new actions and all that
 
picklepikkl said:
Is this the other stuff you meant?
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Yes. This is really mostly an explanation of why the Sunken Palace and not the fief, the idea of a shadow HQ in general is just to have a place to train agents and make the EIC spy network more of a serious thing. At the moment it's not clear what we'll do with it, but it's good to build the capabilities of the network in case we do need them (as in a hypothetical Alric investigation where he was working closely with authorities some high-grade spies would have probably come in handy, far more than the sort of gossip our merchant agents can get us) and it would also nice for the EIC spy network to be more robust once we hand it over to Eike (if she does decide to inherit the EIC in the end).
 
Jyn Ryvia said:
2: I legibility didn't even think of gaining money, I just want to try something new, and this is a point where all current topics are faded so its maniacally a good time to do it.
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Books don't suffer from fading, so the mushroom research (or, for that matter, all those coins we studied) are valid choices without penalty. If we wanted to write something that wasn't about our research just to change things up, Andres's "diplomacy guide for dealing with dwarves" wouldn't be a bad choice. But fiction just feels like a waste to me.
Retrueno said:
Wouldn't it be better to save the overwork action for the next turn? That with laying the foundations unlocking a bunch of new actions and all that
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I had been considering this, but mathymancer persuaded me otherwise:
mathymancer said:
I'm mostly ok with your second plan, but I'm really not sold on the 'not overworking' thing. Sure we'll have new actions next turn, but do you really think that it will be to the point that one AP makes that huge a difference? I think it's likely that we'll be able to use our WEB-MAT actions on the project: Egrimm will definitely have some WEB-MAT actions since he's part of the offical Light Order contribution and Max will almost definitely have some sort of "go through texts" action (maybe we'll finally get access to some of those Library of Mourning texts on Waystones now that we're starting?), so even assuming Johann has nothing WEB-MAT related to do that's four actions on the project even without overwork. Delaying overwork actually means getting less AP in the long run and I don't think it's really worth it.
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mathymancer said:
Yes. This is really mostly an explanation of why the Sunken Palace and not the fief, the idea of a shadow HQ in general is just to have a place to train agents and make the EIC spy network more of a serious thing. At the moment it's not clear what we'll do with it, but it's good to build the capabilities of the network in case we do need them (as in a hypothetical Alric investigation where he was working closely with authorities some high-grade spies would have probably come in handy, far more than the sort of gossip our merchant agents can get us) and it would also nice for the EIC spy network to be more robust once we hand it over to Eike (if she does decide to inherit the EIC in the end).
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I'm still not thrilled about having a bunch of other folks (not just the Hochlander; the whole point of making it an HQ is that it is a place he can staff up and/or train people) going in and out of the sunken palace, but I guess it's Night Prowling and Deceiving and that's sacred to Ranald. And if we can get some Protecting in there, so much the better.
 
This update was far too short for me to have any particular comments on the subject, so I'm not making a reaction post, but I suppose there is one thing I have a comment on:
Boney said:
While your Gyrocarriage is refuelling at Barak Varr, you drop in on your bookseller contacts there and, on top of giving them a bag of Kislevite gold and telling them to turn it into Bretonnian books, you give them a list of the topics you have a less than exhaustive coverage of in your library and the titles you currently have in them and tell them that Karak Eight Peaks will pick up the bill for every new addition to that section, and will require only a modest discount for volume. From the thoughtful look in their eyes you're fairly sure they realize that this will represent quite an opportunity to clear out accumulated unsold inventory at almost full price, and you've no doubt that there'll be junior members of their Clan delving through every inch of their warehouses before long for materials they can offload into your growing library. While this may not be the most directed means of filling out your library, the sheer volume it should result in will be something to behold.
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I know Boney is likely using "they" for its gender neutral properties, either because Boney hasn't made the Bookseller into an actual character with a gender and preferred pronouns, or because he means to keep it ambigous for the future. However, I've taken the liberty of headcanoning our Barak Varr bookseller as nonbinary.

That's it. I don't really have anything else to add.
 
Boney said:
Before you return to Laurelorn, you commission the making of a Dwarven axe to human dimensions, and arrange for it to be delivered upon completion to Baba Brzeginias of the village of Gerdouen.
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I hope our knowledge of the Hedgewise is ok, because I suspect that in a few cultures that means we are now at war.

I can imagine the speechless look on the villagers as they open the package, only broken by the sound of the axe hitting the ground from a stunned baba.

after some deliveration, they decide they have no choice but to respond, and send the traditional squirrel stuffed with poisonous herbs, indicating they will fight to the last.

Mathilde is delighted by the present and samples, wondering how they knew Panoramia was with her.

Her reply of course let's them know of the veiled threat of reinforcements, now at war with the colleges, the village asks for help among the other Hedgewise.

Several misinterpreted letters later, the first panmagical festival is held in the forest, with several displays of amazing magic and contests of might.
 
das_slash said:
I hope our knowledge of the Hedgewise is ok, because I suspect that in a few cultures that means we are now at war.

I can imagine the speechless look on the villagers as they open the package, only broken by the sound of the axe hitting the ground from a stunned baba.

after some deliveration, they decide they have no choice but to respond, and send the traditional squirrel stuffed with poisonous herbs, indicating they will fight to the last.

Mathilde is delighted by the present and samples, wondering how they knew Panoramia was with her.

Her reply of course let's them know of the veiled threat of reinforcements, now at war with the colleges, the village asks for help among the other Hedgewise.

Several misinterpreted letters later, the first panmagical festival is held in the forest, with several displays of amazing magic and contests of might.
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…. That completely went over my head: sending an axe is an old Northern Europe way of saying 'fight me bro'

…. Let's just hope Boney is merciful…
 
I saw one of options in the update was hiring a librarian to manage our books.

Clearly we need to hire "The We" for this job.

Giant telepathic spiders with a hive mind would make great and terrifying librarians.
 
Personally, I would like the librarians to be a broad mix of people and groups, at least In Policy if not practice from being in the ass end of nowhere. humans, halfling and dwarfs, the We… that one elf that lives in mortal fear but needs to finish that white tower phd on spiders.. and from the cult of Verna to loremasters to that one little cult of 12 line poetry. Ec etc


Way harder then just getting one group on board, but worth it to me
 
re: sunken palace HQ
Taking a sacred place to Ranald and having not only The Hochlander, but a bunch of staff and agents who are also not ranaldites constantly passing through it doesn't seem right to me.
 
dinomannitro6 said:
re: sunken palace HQ
Taking a sacred place to Ranald and having not only The Hochlander, but a bunch of staff and agents who are also not ranaldites constantly passing through it doesn't seem right to me.
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But they will be doing Ranald like things in a Ranald temple.

So how long most of them stay non-ranadites is a big question in that environment.


… on the other hand, that's a good way of getting the EIC spy network compromised into a Ranald Cult over time.

And he totally would if we hand it to him…

I'm rethinking the sunken HQ
 
dinomannitro6 said:
re: sunken palace HQ
Taking a sacred place to Ranald and having not only The Hochlander, but a bunch of staff and agents who are also not ranaldites constantly passing through it doesn't seem right to me.
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We have an altar to the protector in our fief. Is everyone there a Ranaldite? No, but that's not the point. You don't need to be wholly devoted to a God to show Him respect. Using a place dedicated to the God of lying of sneaking as a HQ for a spy agency doesn't seem remotely sacrilegious to me.
 
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