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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Mathilde probably knows a ton of minor secrets that just weren't important enough to make it into the main text. She has a huge library of rare and/or expensive texts, training as a Grey Wizard, she's a skilled bureaucrat, the EIC rumour mill probably drops a ton of non-actionable stuff into her lap daily, her multiple how-are-these-not-conflicting ranks and titles give her access to almost anything...

Honestly, I'd be pretty surprised if Mathilde couldn't pull a few dozen cool but otherwise unimportant secrets out of her hat at will.

And I like this option, because it prioritises both intrigue (finding secrets) and learning (understanding them), which are Eike's key stats so far. I can imagine that this is the sort of thing that could eventually evolve into a trait for her if we encourage it from the start.
 
K von Carstein said:
Those are possibilities, but we know the Asurs could create elementals in the past because of Bok's existence. They lost way less knowledge than the dwarfs because they had the extremely basic intelligence to actually write it down instead of trusting their magic to oral tradition. It's fairly reasonable to assume their magical theory encompasses elementals.
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The dwarves also had to convert everyone into military roles during the Time of Woes, thats also important.

(although, hmm... Was The Sundering a cross Ulthuan event, or was it mostly happening in the northwest part?)
 
Tobtorp said:
Yeah, "teclesian model" implies he sat down and tried to model how magic works.

What actually happened was probably closer to
"Oh shit, oh fuck, need mages, fuck, CHAOS INVASION! HUMANS! LETS GET THEM FIGHTING!"
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He had 20 years before he went back. I think he had a minute or two to add clarifications.

StormySky said:
I suspect Morghur's obsession with Athel Loren has something to do with the Worldroots, since the Oak of Ages is the center of that network. (There's not a lot of detail about how the Worldroots and OoA came to be, but it does seem to pre-date the Asrai, and the fact that this thing stretches all over the world makes me suspect the Old Ones might have been involved with or at least known about it)
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8th edition Wood Elves does say that the Old Ones were the ones to plant Athel Loren.

Long ago, before the coming of Chaos, before even the rise of the Elves, a great forest took root upon the world. Like much that came to exist in that halcyon time, the forest was the work of the mysterious Old Ones, who planted its seeds and saplings as part of their grand experiment. This was no magically tainted arborea, as the jungles of the south would one day become, but a form of life utterly unique in all the realms of the world.

...

This great forest was different, for powerful spirits dwelt within and amongst its trees. It is impossible to say whether this was part o f the Old Ones' design, the work of the Elf gods or caused by some other influence that seeped into the trees' souls, but as time went on, the trees came to think in a way that trees were never meant to, and learned of feelings such as anger and hate.
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dinomannitro6 said:
The dwarves also had to convert everyone into military roles during the Time of Woes, thats also important.
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That has zero impact on the ability to write things down. They could do it before and during that time, I doubt runesmiths had to consecrate every waking hour to fighting. They didn't do it because of religious dogma.

dinomannitro6 said:
(although, hmm... Was The Sundering a cross Ulthuan event, or was it mostly happening in the northwest part?)
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« Only » the Northwestern part, but civil war presumably raged everywhere.
Boney said:
The Sundering really did a number on Ulthuan:

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@Boney weird question just popped into my head—does Johann's "Guest of Tor Lithanel" trait mean we can take a "Lovely Laurelorn" action as a WEB-MAT action with him? Or is that pushing the boundaries of what a WEB-MAT action is able to do too much?
 
Nerdasaurus Rex said:
@Boney weird question just popped into my head—does Johann's "Guest of Tor Lithanel" trait mean we can take a "Lovely Laurelorn" action as a WEB-MAT action with him? Or is that pushing the boundaries of what a WEB-MAT action is able to do too much?
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Better relations/understanding with the elves are within WEB-MATs internets and goals, and we brought him for that type of thing. so I don't see why not?

If he had 'friend of Avland', then it would be a stretch
 
Jyn Ryvia said:
Better relations/understanding with the elves are within WEB-MATs internets and goals, and we brought him for that type of thing. so I don't see why not?

If he had 'friend of Avland', then it would be a stretch
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Yeah, that's why I asked—it feels like a natural synergy to me. I'm just more worried about messing with the AP system than the in-universe justifications for it.
 
If touring Laurelorn and 8-peaks will be most of Eike's early apprenticeship, she might be in for a bit of a shock when she eventually heads back to the Empire and experiences anti-magic prejudice for potentially the first time. With most wizards it's something they encounter early and often, but Eike's first experience was to be noticed before anything bad happened, and to have her family support her along her journey. Then she spent the next few years in the college where she would probably hear the occasional story, but wouldn't have experienced it first hand. Then she's likely to spend time around some of the most magic-friendly dwarves in existance, in the presence of a legendary figure, which will ensure she is consistently treated well. And then there's the elves, whose respect for magic is near universal. She might end up coming out of this with a very skewed view of how accepted magic actually is.
 
Hydroplatypus said:
If touring Laurelorn and 8-peaks will be most of Eike's early apprenticeship, she might be in for a bit of a shock when she eventually heads back to the Empire and experiences anti-magic prejudice for potentially the first time. With most wizards it's something they encounter early and often, but Eike's first experience was to be noticed before anything bad happened, and to have her family support her along her journey. Then she spent the next few years in the college where she would probably hear the occasional story, but wouldn't have experienced it first hand. Then she's likely to spend time around some of the most magic-friendly dwarves in existance, in the presence of a legendary figure, which will ensure she is consistently treated well. And then there's the elves, whose respect for magic is near universal. She might end up coming out of this with a very skewed view of how accepted magic actually is.
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i mean, if mathy lets it: we can always take time to give her a bit of experience in the human nations without swinging the 'lord' hat around.

she might not ever internalise the wizard rep the way most wizards do, but we can and should keep her from being ignorant of it.
 
Alright, with this newest information... I thiiiiiiiiink I'll probably be pushing for a variation of something like this in the upcoming turn.

  • Investigate how Vitae reacts to being subjected to power stone creation...
  • Waystone: Capstone (Thorek, Elrisse, Max, Egrimm, Johann)
  • Waystone: Tributaries (Lornalim) (Cadaeth, Hatalath, Sarvoi, Aksel, Zlata, Tochter)
  • Johann: Explore the wonders of the ancient and beautiful city of Tor Lithanel.
  • Max: Write papers: Comprehensive notes on possible terrain obstacles, Waaagh energy and magic witnessed during the Expedition
  • Egrimm: Waystone: Nexuses (Reikland)

The Waystone actions can be changed to make them more efficient or reassign people as we see fit. But if we want to preserve the '3 waystone actions per turn' thing we have going on, one of the WEB-MAT actions with either Max or Egrimm has to be a Waystone one, and of all the options we have, investigating the Reikland nexuses seems like one of the few that may not require that many people.

The plan will probably require some revisions anyway later, though.
 
Parabola said:
Alright, with this newest information... I thiiiiiiiiink I'll probably be pushing for a variation of something like this in the upcoming turn.

  • Investigate how Vitae reacts to being subjected to power stone creation...
  • Waystone: Capstone (Thorek, Elrisse, Max, Egrimm, Johann)
  • Waystone: Tributaries (Lornalim) (Cadaeth, Hatalath, Sarvoi, Aksel, Zlata, Tochter)
  • Johann: Explore the wonders of the ancient and beautiful city of Tor Lithanel.
  • Max: Write papers: Comprehensive notes on possible terrain obstacles, Waaagh energy and magic witnessed during the Expedition
  • Egrimm: Waystone: Nexuses (Reikland)

The Waystone actions can be changed to make them more efficient or reassign people as we see fit. But if we want to preserve the '3 waystone actions per turn' thing we have going on, one of the WEB-MAT actions with either Max or Egrimm has to be a Waystone one, and of all the options we have, investigating the Reikland nexuses seems like one of the few that may not require that many people.

The plan will probably require some revisions anyway later, though.
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Would prefer just about anything to the terrain obstacles paper, whose only positive benefit would be how much it confuses everyone who follows mathilde's work. Would also move either sarvoi or hatalath to the capstone, as if they're both together Hatalath will likely stop Sarvoi before he blurts out secrets, just like he did with the Tarn of Tears. Ideally we want to keep them seperate so that we get as many spilled secrets as possible, and because their knowledge bases are likely to somewhat overlap.
 
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Parabola said:
Alright, with this newest information... I thiiiiiiiiink I'll probably be pushing for a variation of something like this in the upcoming turn.

  • Investigate how Vitae reacts to being subjected to power stone creation...
  • Waystone: Capstone (Thorek, Elrisse, Max, Egrimm, Johann)
  • Waystone: Tributaries (Lornalim) (Cadaeth, Hatalath, Sarvoi, Aksel, Zlata, Tochter)
  • Johann: Explore the wonders of the ancient and beautiful city of Tor Lithanel.
  • Max: Write papers: Comprehensive notes on possible terrain obstacles, Waaagh energy and magic witnessed during the Expedition
  • Egrimm: Waystone: Nexuses (Reikland)

The Waystone actions can be changed to make them more efficient or reassign people as we see fit. But if we want to preserve the '3 waystone actions per turn' thing we have going on, one of the WEB-MAT actions with either Max or Egrimm has to be a Waystone one, and of all the options we have, investigating the Reikland nexuses seems like one of the few that may not require that many people.

The plan will probably require some revisions anyway later, though.
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I am very tired & sleepy and don't have the Mental Capacity to evaluate this plan in its entirety, but a quick thought that comes to mind is: if you want to put Max on paper writing, maybe it'd be good to do the final step of the Mushroom book(considering we voted Revise) with him?

He's saved some papers in the past, maybe he'll pull through again to help salvage the Mushroom book.

In general, it seems like high-value papers/books make Max-dictating more tempting, because he helps with the rolls.
 
Hydroplatypus said:
Would prefer just about anything to the terrain obstacles paper, whose only positive benefit would be how much it confuses everyone who follows mathilde's work. Would also move either sarvoi or hatalath to the capstone, as if they're both together Hatalath will likely stop Sarvoi before he blurts out secrets, just like he did with the Tarn of Tears. Ideally we want to keep them seperate so that we get as many spilled secrets as possible, and because their knowledge bases are likely to somewhat overlap.
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Fair points. We'll have to impose upon Thorek and have him do metal stuff alongside an Elgi, I guess. I think I'll add Niedzwenka to the Tributaries too, possibly she could improve upon the ritual she made last time.

LadyLynn said:
I am very tired & sleepy and don't have the Mental Capacity to evaluate this plan in its entirety, but a quick thought that comes to mind is: if you want to put Max on paper writing, maybe it'd be good to do the final step of the Mushroom book(considering we voted Revise) with him?

He's saved some papers in the past, maybe he'll pull through again to help salvage the Mushroom book.

In general, it seems like high-value papers/books make Max-dictating more tempting, because he helps with the rolls.
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...Yeah, that could work. And for our Serenity action, we probably do something exciting like The Black Orc Warboss' worship of Only Gork, maybe? It's that or the Windfall, and I'd prefer to write that with Egrimm. The Only Gork thing is probably going to be put as some form of classified, so writing it solo is probably better anyway.
  • Investigate how Vitae reacts to being subjected to power stone creation...
  • Waystone: Capstone (Thorek, Hatalath, Elrisse, Max, Egrimm, Johann)
  • Waystone: Tributaries (Lornalim) (Cadaeth, Sarvoi, Aksel, Zlata, Tochter, Niedzwenka)
  • Johann: Explore the wonders of the ancient and beautiful city of Tor Lithanel.
  • Max: Write papers: Waaagh energy and magic witnessed during the Expedition (FADED), Windsoak Mushrooms (missing: Chamon, Shyish) (2/3 completed)
  • Egrimm: Waystone: Nexuses (Reikland)

...I'm just going to leave it at that, not make more modifications until the actual turn. Depending on book choices the vote may require further modification; I'm under the impression we'll go for Metallurgy and other non-magic topics via Barak, but that's not necessarily going to be the case.
 
[X] Religious

Ranald is as dear a friend to us as Ulgu, and showing Eike what is possible, when she isn't going to get it from the aggressively secular College, seems really good to me.

The draft plans look very promising to me. Cheers to @Nerdasaurus Rex for asking an excellent question and to @Parabola and @LadyLynn for developing a solid draft I'd feel really excited to vote for.
 
Hydroplatypus said:
If touring Laurelorn and 8-peaks will be most of Eike's early apprenticeship, she might be in for a bit of a shock when she eventually heads back to the Empire and experiences anti-magic prejudice for potentially the first time. With most wizards it's something they encounter early and often, but Eike's first experience was to be noticed before anything bad happened, and to have her family support her along her journey. Then she spent the next few years in the college where she would probably hear the occasional story, but wouldn't have experienced it first hand. Then she's likely to spend time around some of the most magic-friendly dwarves in existance, in the presence of a legendary figure, which will ensure she is consistently treated well. And then there's the elves, whose respect for magic is near universal. She might end up coming out of this with a very skewed view of how accepted magic actually is.
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She could always choose not to interact with the bigots at all. There is still plenty of need for Grey wizards with experience in elves and dwarfs. Sure she will have to interact with the EIC, but that is as the boss whom no one will dare dis to her face.
 
DragonParadox said:
She could always choose not to interact with the bigots at all. There is still plenty of need for Grey wizards with experience in elves and dwarfs. Sure she will have to interact with the EIC, but that is as the boss whom no one will dare dis to her face.
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It's likely she will have to interact at some point with people who aren't elves, dwarfs or her employees. She won't get a choice in the matter.
 
K von Carstein said:
It's likely she will have to interact at some point with people who aren't elves, dwarfs or her employees. She won't get a choice in the matter.
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Won't she? I mean look at Mathilde, when was the last time we interacted with anyone who dared show anti-magic hostility? Roswita whens he fired us right? But Eike is not Mathilde, her starting position is head of a wealthy company connected with the circles of high politics. Add to that the Grey College's tendency to be hands off as long as you are doing something useful and I think she could manage it is she wants.
 
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