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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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[X] Raise

Mathilde is extremely good at cheating, but Mathilde is also strong on an open field of battle. We have Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma to give the dwarves an advantage in fights, we have incredible tactical mobility, we have relevant Tactics skills in case we need to command units of Ironbreakers against the undead, we have an accomplished Celestial ex-Battle Wizard, we even have Johann (even if he seems to be under an antimemetic effect). Plus, the Gambler -- the Gambler isn't good at battlefield manipulation on a blow-by-blow basis, but it's good at ensuring that stuff on a larger scale breaks our way more often than it should. So I feel more comfortable taking this option than I otherwise might.
 
Zero Gravitas said:
The part that's false is that Mathilde did leave Sylvania. She's so good that the rumour mill assumes that she's dunking on vampires as a full time job whilst she's been only doing it on occasion.
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Also remember that her persona as The Dämmerlichtreiter is abused by Roswita to scare the nobles straight.

Mathilde is quite literally fulfilling her Motto of Unseen, But Not Unfelt.
 
[X] Raise
[X] Hold

I can already foresee Cheat leading to Mathilde stumbling into another 1v1 with the boss or 1vMany with their minions.

She brought the force necessary to fight off a single vampire. Might as well use them.
 
Codex said:
The spell's effects in the RPG are obviously open to GM interpretation, and I know that some GMs probably wouldn't allow such a thing because it "betrays the spirit" of the spell, but Boney has always been flexible with his interpretations.
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It's also partially because there actually is gives me a way to let Celestials actually do divination without having to come up with fluff for the Portent of Amul spells, which in the RPG directly affect the actual dicerolls with barely a handwave in the direction of what it looks like from an IC perspective.

Codex said:
I'll be honest, I instantly thought of Mathilde when Goendel mentioned the long shadow, so I thought Mathilde was referring to her past self when she was talking about more ambition than skill until the whole Vampire thing. I think this misunderstanding was funny. Either Mathilde was overthinking things or she was being humble, because I've found that while Mathilde enjoys headpats and recognition (look no further than her complex on naming things after herself), she isn't very comfortable recognising her acheivements in Stirland. The bad memories are probably a huge part of that, but it's also possible self criticism over her past self and imposter syndrome. Old Mathilde was not good enough to save Van Hal, so she can't accept being praised for her accomplishments.
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That's definitely part of it, but another part is that Mathilde generally doesn't think of herself as having an affect on the world, she thinks of what she does as undoing or preventing the negative affects of others. Part of that is the influence of the Grey Order, who are generally a reactive force that remove negative influences instead of a proactive positive influence, and part of that is the influence of living among the Dwarves, who are all about restoring things to a glorious past instead of building anew a better future.

To mangle a quote: A good Grey Wizard knows their whole job is to make someone else look good, keep someone else safe, help someone else do what they were put here to do. A good Grey Wizard stays out of the spotlight. If they're doing their job right, you don't even know they're there. Once in a while they might step on stage just to fix a problem, to set something right. But then before you even realize they were there or what they did, they're gone.

Codex said:
My first reaction towards this was that "she must be exaggerating right?". Being the pedant that I am, I checked and noted that Ghouls have a Toughness of 4, just as high as an Orc or Dwarf (and 1 point higher than humans and Elves). They are not necessarily as fast as Skaven, having a movement of 4 and an initative of 3 vs Skaven's movement of 5 and Initiative of 4 (Clanrats. Stormvermin are Initiative 5). Skaven give Elves a run for their money.
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Lower movement and initiative, but more base attacks. And though they have the same base movement as a zombie in the tabletop, in most lore depictions and in Total Warhammer they're significantly faster than them. Tarni could be exaggerating, but not by much.

Codex said:
There are also Crypt Horrors, giant mutated brutes that are basically Ghouls that consumed a Strigoi Ghoul King's blood, just like Terrorgheists are Fell Bats that consumed a Strigoi Ghoul King's blood.
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Crypt Horrors is what they mean by 'ghoul vampire'. Vampires might avoid acknowledging that ghoul vampires are vampires, but that seems like pure snobbery to me, rather than there being any real reason why a ghoul that's fed a vampire's blood and develops supernatural strength and a thirst for more blood isn't a vampire. Also the name 'Crypt Horror' doesn't feel right to be used in-universe, it's too vague a term for something very specific.

(Peripherally related, capitalizing in fantasy is tricky and I hate how inconsistent I've been with it. I've flip-flopped on what rule of thumb to use a bunch of times, early in the quest I didn't capitalize words like 'dwarf' and 'elf' because the word 'human' isn't generally capitalized, then I started capitalizing anything that doesn't exist in the real world, and now I'm going with 'upper case for sapients, lower case for everything else, and also for humans because that word looks weird to me if I capitalize it'. I also don't capitalize 'greenskin', which seems like the right call most of the time except when I have to refer to them and some other race in the same sentence - like the phrase 'Skaven and greenskins'. Ideally I should have just picked a rule and stuck with it, but I didn't notice I'd changed the first time until I'd written way too much with the newer rule for it to be reasonable to go back and edit the capitalizations. Hopefully I'm the only person this inconsistency is bugging the hell out of.)
 
K von Carstein said:
In all likelihood, that's just the dwarf council inventing an excuse to not have to recognise that a human was so much better than them. I doubt Mathilde literally has an ex-dwarf's soul.
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The fact that they actually might have gone and asked Ranald (who, if innocent, will almost certainly have pretended to be guilty), makes me think that this is more than just an excuse.

[x] Cheat
[x] Raise
Either is good.
 
What projectile weapons can the expedition bring to bear in the tunnels? Do we have anything that can affect multiple enemy combatants? Like Grapeshot and such? It would be handy in a pinch if lots of bodies are thrown at us.
 
@Boney is Adela also present, or did we leave the gyro behind somewhere safe? I know that she's a journeywoman and that venturing into undead infested tunnels isn't really in her current job description, but she's also a bright mage and fire could be useful here.
 
Boney said:
That's definitely part of it, but another part is that Mathilde generally doesn't think of herself as having an affect on the world, she thinks of what she does as undoing or preventing the negative affects of others. Part of that is the influence of the Grey Order, who are generally a reactive force that remove negative influences instead of a proactive positive influence, and part of that is the influence of living among the Dwarves, who are all about restoring things to a glorious past instead of building anew a better future.

To mangle a quote: A good Grey Wizard knows their whole job is to make someone else look good, keep someone else safe, help someone else do what they were put here to do. A good Grey Wizard stays out of the spotlight. If they're doing their job right, you don't even know they're there. Once in a while they might step on stage just to fix a problem, to set something right. But then before you even realize they were there or what they did, they're gone.
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The year is 25XX the Grey Order threatens to be split by arguments as to whether Mathilde Weber is the best Grey Wizard or the worst.
 
Boney said:
It's also partially because there actually is gives me a way to let Celestials actually do divination without having to come up with fluff for the Portent of Amul spells, which in the RPG directly affect the actual dicerolls with barely a handwave in the direction of what it looks like from an IC perspective.
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Yeah, part of the reason I don't like the Celestial spellbook in the RPG is because there are so many variations of reroll dice abilities and vague divinatory abilities but there is next to no actual flavor or substance or effort being put in. It feels so dry to realise that the only differences between the First, Second and Third Portents of Amul are the difficulty, duration and potency. They could have done so much more with it, but it feels like they really checked out with Celestial magic.
Boney said:
That's definitely part of it, but another part is that Mathilde generally doesn't think of herself as having an affect on the world, she thinks of what she does as undoing or preventing the negative affects of others. Part of that is the influence of the Grey Order, who are generally a reactive force that remove negative influences instead of a proactive positive influence, and part of that is the influence of living among the Dwarves, who are all about restoring things to a glorious past instead of building anew a better future.

To mangle a quote: A good Grey Wizard knows their whole job is to make someone else look good, keep someone else safe, help someone else do what they were put here to do. A good Grey Wizard stays out of the spotlight. If they're doing their job right, you don't even know they're there. Once in a while they might step on stage just to fix a problem, to set something right. But then before you even realize they were there or what they did, they're gone.
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That may be the case for most Grey Wizards, but I'd think that even Mathilde would find it hard to say that she isn't an incredibly visible and public figure. There are deeds that she's performed that very few people know of, but her actions are plainly visible. It makes sense to me that she's internalised the Grey College's teachings, but it is amusing to note how much Mathilde has diverged from that.

I personally view a lot of Mathilde's influences as actively fostering new positive influences instead of simply removing negative ones. Sure she restored Karak Eight Peaks and Karak Vlag, but she is also pioneering advanced relations with Dwarves and the Eonir, which is more of an addition than a resolution. It could be said that the Eonir problem is technically resolution, but I'm certain Mathilde views it as an opportunity to advance the world rather than simply as a means to an end.
Boney said:
Crypt Horrors is what they mean by 'ghoul vampire'. Vampires might avoid acknowledging that ghoul vampires are vampires, but that seems like pure snobbery to me, rather than there being any real reason why a ghoul that's fed a vampire's blood and develops supernatural strength and a thirst for more blood isn't a vampire. Also the name 'Crypt Horror' doesn't feel right to be used in-universe, it's too vague a term for something very specific.
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I understand what you're going for and personally I find it quite interesting. I get why you probably don't like the vagueness of Crypt Horror. I suppose I never considered Crypt Horrors as Vampires. I have it in my head that a "Blood Kiss" is required for a person to become a Vampire, where a Vampire drains someone and then adds their blood. But then I remembered that all Neferata did was bite her tongue and kiss Khalida and that was enough to start the process. I suppose that Crypt Horrors are very much a type of Vampire.
Boney said:
(Peripherally related, capitalizing in fantasy is tricky and I hate how inconsistent I've been with it. I've flip-flopped on what rule of thumb to use a bunch of times, early in the quest I didn't capitalize words like 'dwarf' and 'elf' because the word 'human' isn't generally capitalized, then I started capitalizing anything that doesn't exist in the real world, and now I'm going with 'upper case for sapients, lower case for everything else, and also for humans because that word looks weird to me if I capitalize it'. I also don't capitalize 'greenskin', which seems like the right call most of the time except when I have to refer to them and some other race in the same sentence - like the phrase 'Skaven and greenskins'. Ideally I should have just picked a rule and stuck with it, but I didn't notice I'd changed the first time until I'd written way too much with the newer rule for it to be reasonable to go back and edit the capitalizations. Hopefully I'm the only person this inconsistency is bugging the hell out of.)
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I've always struggled with capitalisation, but that's because the rules are so obtuse and difficult to parse. I just do it when it feels right, and I end up super inconsistent as a result. Sometimes it bothers me. Often it does. But only when I'm the one who does it. I don't really pay attention to when you don't capitalise. I'm one of the last people who'd notice such a thing. English is not my first language after all.
 
ComradeLegasov said:
What projectile weapons can the expedition bring to bear in the tunnels? Do we have anything that can affect multiple enemy combatants? Like Grapeshot and such? It would be handy in a pinch if lots of bodies are thrown at us.
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Don't Ironbreakers have their flamethrowers?

@edit: Yeah, they are called Irondrakes. They have flamethrowers, plamethrowing pistols and RPGs.
 
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