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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Successes all round, looks like the tributary stuff worked out.

Of course, we now have a bit of a divided loyalties moment—do we leave things as they are, and make the Colleges dependent on external magic users (some of whom are illegal), or do we create a Teclisian tributary and weaken the bonds of international magical co-operation.
 
The Damsels would probably be pretty interested in a tributary ritual dependent on the cooperation of water spirits that only allows them to attack if it fails, as their Goddesses probably has influence over water spirits.

Learning Scythian is a bit of a stretch, but they may be able to translate the ritual into their own casting language more easily than inventing a ritual from scratch based on the principles this one uses.

I think we'll have to at least try to create a Teclisian tributary ritual.
 
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Boney said:
Back when you were designing Rite of Way, you interviewed a number of logistical experts in the potential terrain-induced difficulties that one might encounter when trying to move at speed, and took rather extensive notes while doing so. You have to stretch to imagine who it might be immediately of note for - road architects? Artillery logisticians? - but if it was useful to you, it might one day be useful to someone else, and not every paper you put your name to needs to shatter the status quo and carve your name among the stars. So you spend the time to get your notes in order and get to work on converting it to something more accessible to someone that isn't you.
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I love how incredibly weird our publishing history is in terms of flitting from topic to topic
 
Nerdasaurus Rex said:
Successes all round, looks like the tributary stuff worked out.

Of course, we now have a bit of a divided loyalties moment—do we leave things as they are, and make the Colleges dependent on external magic users (some of whom are illegal), or do we create a Teclisian tributary and weaken the bonds of international magical co-operation.
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Personally I'd say we want a teclesian tributary. Because none of the new ones are good for dwarfs to do and having a inhouse one for the colleges just seems necessary.
 
Alratan said:
Interesting that the Haléthan Tributary Ritual is arcane rather than divine.

And that the Spirit-Stone one is arcane rather than Witchcraft.
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By 'Arcane' it means more 'Witch Hunters don't @ me' than 'the stark and artificial divisions of the RPG are completely correct and applicable in this quest'.

Garlak said:
What was the Delivery? Competent, +0?
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Yes.

Garlak said:
Er, should that 93 be a 113 since it got the +20 to it?
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That roll getting a +20 on orokos was an error on my part.

Garlak said:
... Actually, since Ranald's Coin activates twice... what was the other +20 Coin activation on? Or has it not happened yet? (EDIT: By which I mean, since Cadaeth's roll was the one that showed itself as getting the gambler applied to it, not Aksel's. Was there just not another Ranald activation since it simply was not needed or predicted?)
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Not all rolls are visible.

StormySky said:
Err… I think some of the conditions on the Haléthan ritual have gotten mixed up a bit.
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Rephrased to be clearer.
 
Oh wow, Aethyric Impluvium could be really good for our new bog friends in Sylvania. "Here's a water based ritual that drains away excess magic and purifies the surrounding area." The only issue is the language involved (and also maybe the casting difficulty).
 
On the minus side, no tactical relevance. On the plus side, we rolled well enough we didn't need the tactical relevance to take us out of the negatives.
 
Boney said:
Zlata stares forlornly out over a park full of Elven athletes. "They had me swear a vow of chastity," she bemoans, "and sent me to the land of beautiful men."
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Boney said:
Zlata seems interested in traveling with him. You haven't pried into why, as whether it's because of the complicated relationship between Kislev's magic-users and the Hedgewise that border it or something just between the two of them, it's not your business either way.
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A little known fact about Ice Maidens is that their partial control over Ice Magic causes them to sometimes turn water they are attempting to drink into ice, leaving them perpetually thirsty.
 
Boney said:
That roll getting a +20 on orokos was an error on my part.
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Then, should the +20 be on the Research roll instead? If so, it becomes an 88 instead of a 68 right?

When you had made this post a while back, I was confused about what you meant:
Boney said:
With Aksel, I applied the modifier to the results roll instead of the casting one by mistake. With Cadaeth, I rolled the casting before the two additional results. With Niedzwenka, she gave herself too 'easy' a ritual so she had a lower modifier for the first roll, then benefited from +30 for the last roll for getting an almost success in the previous casting roll.
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Because on Orokos, the modifier was applied to the Casting roll, so... so I wasn't even sure what you meant in that post there because it's like "Wait did he initially make a mistake and apply it to the Research roll? But, the Orokos has it on the casting anyway... Was it a mistake or a typo or...?"

So now I'm still confused because this latest post of your's implies that it was meant to be on the Research roll?

But if so, then the Research Result of 88 should be "Decreased Casting Number" right?


Or did you just mean "It's not supposed to have a +20 on it anywhere at all." (In which case, the older post was just slightly mistaken or typo'd or something.)
Boney said:
... Actually, since Ranald's Coin activates twice... what was the other +20 Coin activation on? Or has it not happened yet? (EDIT: By which I mean, since Cadaeth's roll was the one that showed itself as getting the gambler applied to it, not Aksel's. Was there just not another Ranald activation since it simply was not needed or predicted?)
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Ah, fair enough. For instance, I don't think we saw rolls for the Anti-Dragon weapon one from the Amber Order. Or the "looking for a Perpetual to hire for the EIC" ones -- though I'm pretty sure that Ranald's Favor manifested in that one simply enough by giving us 2-3 Perpetuals who had a criminal-esque background, heh.
 
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Tobtorp said:
Personally I'd say we want a teclesian tributary. Because none of the new ones are good for dwarfs to do and having a inhouse one for the colleges just seems necessary.
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The dwarves would probably want a runic tributary rather than a Teclisian one, but I agree that we should develop something that's useful for them.

Boney said:
Finally, Aksel's part requires him to travel back to Forest of Shadows to properly entreat Halétha in her own territory. Considering the short distance and relative safety of the journey, you're not sure if it would be proper to call it a pilgrimage, but you do so anyway as it adds some more dramatic weight to the task at hand. Zlata seems interested in traveling with him. You haven't pried into why, as whether it's because of the complicated relationship between Kislev's magic-users and the Hedgewise that border it or something just between the two of them, it's not your business either way. Or at least, it might aggravate them if you informed them that it actually is your business, and the risks of being found out while snooping are greater than the value of knowing for sure what's going on.
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Hmm, Zlata comes from a merchant family, right? And Kalita is the Kislevian god of merchants and travellers, and also an aspect of Haletha, right? I wonder if she's having a divided loyalties moment between her family's faith and her oaths to the Widow.

... It'll probably be fine.
 
Garlak said:
Then, should the +20 be on the Research roll instead? If so, it becomes an 88 instead of a 68 right?

When you had made this post a while back, I was confused about what you meant:

Because on Orokos, the modifier was applied to the Casting roll, so... so I wasn't even sure what you meant in that post there because it's like "Wait did he initially make a mistake and apply it to the Research roll? But, the Orokos has it on the casting anyway... Was it a mistake or a typo or...?"

So now I'm still confused because this latest post of your's implies that it was meant to be on the Research roll?

But if so, then the Research Result of 88 should be "Decreased Casting Number" right?

Or did you just mean "It's not supposed to have a +20 on it anywhere at all." (In which case, the older post was just slightly mistaken or typo'd or something.)
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If I applied the +20 to the first roll I'd have people confused that the result didn't match the number, or wondering why that one had a +20 modifier listed in the post while the others had it built into the orokos roll. And since both the 68 and 88 results had no actual effect on the results in the quest, it really doesn't matter, so let's move on.
 
Hmmmm. So if the Dreaming Wood ritual fails, the vegetation needs to be cut out, but it also means that new one can be planted to join with the Dreaming Wood, right?
 
StormySky said:
Alright, this main turn's pretty much over. Just the Reikland nexus investigation and a KAU scribe vote to go. Speaking of the latter, hoo boy...
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Nah, I reckon the scribe vote will be fairly simple. We'll either train up locals for guaranteed loyalty, but with a possible delay on when we can start deploying them, or we'll import them from one of the major cults, which will let us start immediately, but we'll have to trade concessions for them.

It's the Reikland nexus I'm worried about. At it's heart is the lost Elven settlement of Athel Yenlui, and that's occupied by Skaven in Vermintide 2.
 
Great results all around.
Boney said:
The Haléthan ritual, dubbed 'Roots of Stone', requires a working knowledge of the near-dead language of Was Jutonian - only spoken by the Hedgewise and a handful of extremely isolated villages. A second major limitation is that to be cast outside the Forest of Shadows, it requires someone descended from the Was Jutonian: those members of the Jutones tribe that stayed true to the Goddess of the Forest of Shadows instead of leaving Her and it to attempt to conquer the lowlands of what would become Westerland, and returning with nothing to show for it but a faith in the God of the neighbouring Teutogens, Ulric. A bloodline only really found within the Hedgewise of Nordland and Ostland, as it happens. Fair enough, considering the ritual does call upon said Goddess for her assistance, and that it can be cast within the Forest of Shadows itself without that limitation suggests that it might be an actual requirement instead of an attempt to make the ritual unusable to outsiders - it could be that for the Goddess to intervene outside of her domain requires the presence of a bloodline that has been faithful to her for millennia.
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This is a pretty fantastic result for the Empire. It can be used anywhere in the Empire, not just the Forest of Shadows and the surrounding areas, which was better than I hoped for. The limitation is that it requires Haléthan Hedgewise, which as Mathilde points out could easily be considered a benefit - making Halétha's people indispensable to the Empire is a plus if you ask me.
Boney said:
The Dreaming Wood ritual, 'Liminal Germination', is mainly limited by requiring both the presence of, and a considerable amount of time spent within, a local Dreaming Wood. You're not yet knowledgeable enough on the subject to be able to say how much of a limitation that might be, though your understanding so far suggests that the kind of places that most need magical energies drained out of them tends to have a rather unruly Dreaming Wood as a direct or indirect result. Of the three rituals, this one possesses the most Collegiate fingerprints, as it uses Lingua Praestantia and has incorporated as a requirement a sort of ritual drinking horn that would be easy to source from the Druids or the Cult of Taal. It is also, of course, of no use anywhere that does not possess a Dreaming Wood.
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This was the one I was most hopeful about, because it would have given the Eonir an alternative tributary that is safe from vandalism (since it doesn't require or contain precious metals) and that said tributary would've been based on human knowledge, which would be a pretty big win for the pro-contact side. This is even better, as it requires Eonir casters working with human casters and using a human arcane language. Yet another tie between Eonir and Empire that will cost both sides if it is severed by war.
Boney said:
The Hag Witch ritual, whose Reikspiel name of 'Aethyric Impluvium' is almost certainly the work of Max, might be the crown of the three, as it takes a mere two days to perform instead of the full week the other two require, and can be performed anywhere where liquid water can be found. It does require the presence, if not strictly the cooperation, of a water-spirit, which is outside the expertise of the Colleges - perhaps the Cults of Taal and Rhya might be able to help with that, or perhaps, as a last resort, the Elementalists of Nuln - and presents a danger in that if failed, the magical effort invested in the ritual goes to empowering and enraging said spirit. Another limitation is that it requires a grasp of Scythian, the language of the ancestors of the Kurgan, Gospodar, and Ungols, which is kept alive only as the arcane language of the magical traditions of Kislev.
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One of the results I was hoping for was a tributary that could tempt Bretonnia. I thought the Haléthan tributary would've been the one, but this tributary started off as a tributary based on a water spirit common to Bretonnia, so that's already a good start. The final result is pretty great for pretty much anyone, but I think Bretonnia in particular might still be interested in it, seeing as how The Lady of the Lake should have some power over bodies of water.
 
Neat, so in as soon as another year (one turn to do design, one turn to do prototyping) we could have Runesmith and Teclisean implementations of tributaries. I do think that's worth slotting into our turnplans, and the Teclisean implementation is definitely worth Gambling, so we should ensure that we're not planning for turn-after-next to have something else we really want to Gamble. Fun stuff. EDIT: Though we might want to deliberately avoid the Teclisean in order to force cooperation with the Hedgewise, I guess?

Great work, team; three years after beginning recruitment for the Waystone Project and one after official kickoff, we have actionable results for several of our major contributors.
 
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Raiseth said:
Centuries later, after a prolonged scrutiny and, ultimately, a purge of any and all materials pertaining magical theory published by the infamous Black Magister Everchosen Mathilde Nyancat Webber Kraggsdottir, this is the only surviving work she is remembered by. :V
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Alas, they did not know she placed a curse upon all copies of the book! Anyone one who reads it will trip up! A lot!
 
Okay, so the biggest drawback from the Dreaming Wood ritual is temporary. It is actually fit to be used in frontier areas with younger and less important trees.

I say that we really succeeded in all three rituals here. Maybe we can start the efforts to put more tributaries in Laurelorn and show some results. Then we can probably move on to Sylvania for example, and get Roswita in the project in exchange for tributaries. At least she could put some financial aid to this project.
 
Boney said:
[A Compendium of Terrain Obstacles, 2489. Subject: Common, -1. Insight: Common, -1. Delivery: Competent, +0. Thorough, +1. Varied, +1. Accessible, +1. Useful, +1. Total: +2.]
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I find it really funny that such a mundane work has two Runelords as contributors and a Lady Magister as its author:
Boney said:
A Compendium of Terrain Obstacles, by L.M. Mathilde Weber (Grey), Sky-Thane Gotri Stoneheart (Karak Eight Peaks), Runelord Kragg Thungnisson (Karaz-a-Karak), Runelord Thorek Ironbrow (Karak Azul), Steward Francesco Caravello (Karak Eight Peaks), General Soizic (Karak Eight Peaks), Chancellor Oswald Oswaldson (I.G.S.(KN)), 2489.
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picklepikkl said:
Neat, so in as soon as another year (one turn to do design, one turn to do prototyping) we could have Runesmith and Teclisean implementations of tributaries. I do think that's worth slotting into our turnplans, and the Teclisean implementation is definitely worth Gambling, so we should ensure that we're not planning for turn-after-next to have something else we really want to Gamble. Fun stuff. EDIT: Though we might want to deliberately avoid the Teclisean in order to force cooperation with the Hedgewise, I guess?
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The question is, how to justify that under the articles?

Doing some legal shenanigans to have the hedgewise classified as priests?
Subsume them in the grey college "in name only"?
 
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OK so politically what are the results of the turn:

The Hedgewise:
Can now slightly fix the unholy nightmare realm under the eves of which they live
Have a potential in with the Colleges, specifically the Greys to get into legality

Kislev
Have seen actual progress in this whole 'push back the Za' project. Odds are they could always make tributaries, after all the Ice Witches have altered full Waystones, but now the other half of their magical support can do likewise
The Hags
Can now make tributaries, period, it is a very broadly usable ritual made in their language by one of their elders
The Ice Court
Might be able to cast Arcane Impluvium, it is from a sister tradition and in their arcane language, on the other hand they probably don't need it

The Dwarfs
What is this Zhuff nonsense? No change

The Elves of Laurelorn
This is the big one, they can now make tributaries that are not literally rooted in gold, this solves a major political problem for them, they can now replace looted Loralin Trees with things that will not be looted
The Grey Lords
Have even more sway over the realm since their liminal realm is key to the new tributaries
House Tindomiel
No immediate use, but this does prove that cooperating with outsiders is the way forward, as they now possess lore that the elves could not have gotten in isolation, you cannot deny that when the very language of the new ritual is simplified wizard-speak.

The Colleges of Magic
Three rituals that one might use, though not without caveats and compromise
Light
No change
Grey
No change other than a smug Mathilde who facilitated it
Life
The traditionalists are vindicated as ancient Belthani lore is made use of
Theirs connections to the cults of Taal and Rheya just became that much more valuable
If anything water spirits fall under their purview so they might even be able to use the reverse spring ritual
 
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