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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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On the subject of aging, we hardly need to leap to vampirism to resolve that problem. We could try looking into a Grey magic ritual instead. I can even think of a few ways forward off the top of my head. Create an illusion of youth and make it real. We'll be so confused as to if it worked reality will be confused as well.

If you want a classic, how about commissioning a painting of ourselves. Then through a ritual take on the appearance of the painting while the painting takes on the appearance of our true self. Then as long as we don't look upon it we'll never know that we're dead and can thus continue to live.
 
Rotekian said:
On the subject of aging, we hardly need to leap to vampirism to resolve that problem. We could try looking into a Grey magic ritual instead. I can even think of a few ways forward off the top of my head. Create an illusion of youth and make it real. We'll be so confused as to if it worked reality will be confused as well.

If you want a classic, how about commissioning a painting of ourselves. Then through a ritual take on the appearance of the painting while the painting takes on the appearance of our true self. Then as long as we don't look upon it we'll never know that we're dead and can thus continue to live.
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I'm not sure that Dorian Graying ourselves is a great idea.
 
I think that if we did want to do something about aging, the best course of action would be to try and collect(and master?) all the normal Ulgu Arcane Marks first. That should slow down our aging enough that we'll have plenty of time to figure out something more permanent.

I feel in no hurry to get started with that at the moment, though.
 
So in regards to our ability to swim in lava cause rune, we likely can't as we are too buoyant. But we could likely run across it with the right fireproof boots/snow shoes! Even better, Rite of Way + Shadowsteed. And not even have all our stuff burn up!

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The Right (and Wrong) Way to Die When You Fall Into Lava

If someone falls into liquid-hot lava, would they float or sink? Volcanologist and Eruptions blogger Erik Klemetti weighs in.
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View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDLQvCA_f_U
The video is a guy stepping on lava with his sneaker. No, he doesn't get burned, the guy's a professional.

Why is this relevant? Well, if we ever feel like screwing with the Chaos Dwarves, this is our escape route. Shadow steed + Rite of Way over the lava lake.
 
There is something to be said about how Mathilde has had relatively little usage of the 'fire immunity' bit of the belt, but I feel that we'd be much more likely to find an opportunity to set an enemy base on fire rather than specifically going escaping a far-off group of people through a specific lava lake.
 
I'm too lazy to look up the exact passages right now, but I noticed an inconsistency during a recent reread of the quest: when one of the amber journeymen did a dissection of a we spider, they reported that there were no organs that could, say, make sounds outside of the frequency bands humans can hear, or allow some other method of communication that humans can't detect. However, when Mathilde later investigates magical means of communication between we bodies, and doesn't find anything, this leads her to assume some kind of physical method of communication, even though the result of the previous dissection should've ruled that out.
 
blub01 said:
I'm too lazy to look up the exact passages right now, but I noticed an inconsistency during a recent reread of the quest: when one of the amber journeymen did a dissection of a we spider, they reported that there were no organs that could, say, make sounds outside of the frequency bands humans can hear, or allow some other method of communication that humans can't detect. However, when Mathilde later investigates magical means of communication between we bodies, and doesn't find anything, this leads her to assume some kind of physical method of communication, even though the result of the previous dissection should've ruled that out.
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Spiders don't have conventional ears.
 
blub01 said:
I'm too lazy to look up the exact passages right now, but I noticed an inconsistency during a recent reread of the quest: when one of the amber journeymen did a dissection of a we spider, they reported that there were no organs that could, say, make sounds outside of the frequency bands humans can hear, or allow some other method of communication that humans can't detect. However, when Mathilde later investigates magical means of communication between we bodies, and doesn't find anything, this leads her to assume some kind of physical method of communication, even though the result of the previous dissection should've ruled that out.
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It was brought up earlier, long story short Max(?) had no idea what spiders used to detect sound so he just looked for conventional ears, and when he couldn't find any he decided that they must be using magic to communicate. Frankly if we did have one of the Ambers look into it instead of a Gold we'd probably have worked out the truth a lot sooner, but I'm not sure we ever had the option to have them do it.
 
I don't think either of the Ambers were particularly excellent at Spiders. According to Seija, Esbern isn't interested in anything that's not a mammal. Seija was excellent in general (it cannot be overstated how knowledgable she is), but I'm uncertain if spiders were her specialty, and her dissection was focused on other aspects:
Boney said:
Esbern sighs. "Damn it. I hate hives."

"You hate anything that's not a mammal."
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Boney said:
"It's a hive?" you interrupt.

"It's thinking like one," Seija confirms. "These ones are all the exact same size. For spiders, that means the same number of moltings, which means the same age. So siblings. If they attacked together they could be pack hunters, but they attacked different outposts. So either there's a lot that are the same age, or something about this birthing made them less valuable so they were sacrificed for information. On top of that, undeveloped ovaries is something you'd only see in adults if they were part of a hive with castes. These aren't breeders, so they don't develop the equipment for breeding. But if you want proof..." She stands and approaches the outpost, paying no attention to the Dwarves edging away from her. Ghur leaks from her fingertips, then lashes out at an observer far outside the torchlight. "Approach," she says, magic interlaced in her voice, but the creature remains impassive, staring back at her. "Groupmind. My spell doesn't work because the part that's doing the thinking isn't here."

"Can you communicate with it?"

"There's a spell called The Talking Beast, but I've yet to learn it. I'll need to send to Altdorf for the scroll. If you could write an authorization-"

"Of course."

"And get the Dwarves to deliver the message on one of their spinnythings, I can get started on learning it. It being a hive means we've got more time than I expected - they'll minimize activity and they won't fight over who gets eaten."
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And while yes they dissected the spiders, their focus was on stuff like growth and structure rather than their sensory capability:
Boney said:
The Chiselwards is still a mushroom farm, albeit one under very heavy guard, as transforming the tunnels and chambers into residences is to wait until the spider issue is resolved. Each guard post has been reinforced with stone and cannon, and the report you receive from the currently on-shift commanding officer is concerning - constant observation, and probing attacks from the smaller spiders, while larger ones watch from out of range. This is a level of organization you wouldn't have expected from spiders, and from their frowns, Esbern and Seija think the same. The bodies are dragged clear of the firing lines once the probes cease, and Esbern and Seija carefully study them, then begin to cut into them with obsidian knives as the curious Dwarf who followed you hastily returns back to his post.

"Juvenile?" Esbern asks. "No, look at the exoskeletal layers. Continuous growth?"

Seija's concerning herself with the head. "Even for their size, the fangs are unusually large. And look - no autonomic envenoming reaction. Hunters, rather than trappers."

"They've clearly got silk glands. Have there been any webs?" You pass the question on to the guards, and receive a shake of the head. "But from what you said they had a range. They're not trappers, they're not wanderers. They coexist. Sub-social hunters?"

"Brain is small, but always is for bugs. It's distributed through the body."

"It's grown, right?" Esbern asks again, sitting back from the cut he'd made along the spider's abdomen. "Molt marks, developed hairs... maybe not its maximum size but this is an adult, isn't it?"

"Like you said, exoskeleton. Count the molt layers. It's an adult."

"Then why's the ovary underdeveloped? Not even that, it's completely undeveloped. Late-life maturity?"

"Not with this level of density. Check the others."

"Female, female, female..." Seija flips a final unstudied spider. "Female. All similar size, too."

"They're the same size. A litter? Did these all attack together?"

The Dwarf in charge is very determinedly not watching, but he hears the question. "They're today's probes from all of the fortified points. We drag them out to the Halflings on shift change."
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Ooon a totally different note...

I feel like we've often talked about Branarhune as if training it up won't provide a bonus to our combat ability until we've actually completed our swordstyle, and I don't think that's actually accurate.
Boney said:
Learning a new skill usually increases the relevant base characteristic, and has narrative effects - a good roll with a weapon you're skilled at will have a better effect than the same roll with one you aren't.
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Just because something isn't directly represented mechanically doesn't mean it doesn't have a benefit.

We've already seen Mathilde benefit greatly from her developing Branarhune mastery against Drycha, too.
 
LadyLynn said:
Ooon a totally different note...

I feel like we've often talked about Branarhune as if training it up won't provide a bonus to our combat ability until we've actually completed our swordstyle, and I don't think that's actually accurate.

Just because something isn't directly represented mechanically doesn't mean it doesn't have a benefit.

We've already seen Mathilde benefit greatly from her developing Branarhune mastery against Drycha, too.
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This is not new information actually.

Boney outright said that the only reason we got to roll the fight with the orcs that catch us under the mountain was that Branarhune let us splat a boy per swing.

If we had gotten catch before the sword we would have gotten overrun narratively.
 
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