- Location
- Aotearoa
Heh. Funny phrasing when 'to bonk' is a British-English euphemism for 'to have sex with'.
...Possibly a great deal of sex is required to bonk a God out of being horny. Ask Shallya in this case, I suppose.
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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest
- Thread starter Boney
- Start date
- Fantasy Users' Choice!
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- warhammer warhammer fantasy fantasy be gay do crimes (gay) female protagonist pansexual protagonist ck2 quest divided loyalties mountain vietnam ranald is real this is a dwarf quest (dwarfs) this is maybe an elf quest this is not a vampire quest this is not an empire quest try it and find out open voting
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
...Possibly a great deal of sex is required to bonk a God out of being horny. Ask Shallya in this case, I suppose.
pucflek
Verified simpleton
- Location
- Czech Republic
pucflek
Verified simpleton
- Location
- Czech Republic
I see you are a man of culture as well. 🫡
Turn 41 Results - 2490 - Part 2
In the end, you settle for the guard bypass. A big part of your reasoning is that it depends only on the Rune of the Unknown, where the double-tap relies on the exact combination of runes that exists only on Branulhune. You have some nascent ideas about formalizing this into a style, and for that to have value it needs to be usable by more than one weapon in the world. Another advantage is that you're not starting from scratch with this - you've already had as much practice as you could acquire with Branulhune and a finite supply of training dummies.
That one clean strike that flickers past a parrying blade or blocking shield and then clean through the enemy on the other side makes for an incredible mental image was not given undue weight in your thought process at all.
With training blade in hand, you inflict yourself on training dummies to refresh your muscle memory and then head down into the Undumgi training grounds to impose on their hospitality once more. You find plenty of takers who are keen to test themselves on your latest innovation, and reactions vary from put out to impressed when your sword vanishes just before it hits a raised sword or shield and then reappears inside their guard to bounce harmlessly against armour. Regaining the lost momentum in a timely manner is tricky, but it's a problem you've gotten used to compensating for. After a few days of practice you've uncovered two major problems. The first is that a sword doesn't stop existing just because you got past it, and in fact can be considered to be as much past your guard as Branulhune is past theirs. The average swordsman won't have the reaction time to take advantage of this, but you wouldn't be going to all this trouble if you could count on only ever going up against average swordsmen, so you allow the most skilled of the Undumgi enough time to adapt to the technique and then do your best to avoid their counterstrikes. The second is unexpectedly sartorial: that if Branulhune seeks to reappear in the gap between weapon and body, it needs that gap to be moderately open and clear of obstructions. The more cunning of the Undumgi quickly learn to block very close to their body, and one actually turns up to training one day covered in cloth ribbons that obstruct the space Branulhune seeks to reappear in as long as they keep moving.
Neither renders the technique useless, they just require practice to be able to identify at a glance when the technique can be used without leaving yourself vulnerable or opening yourself up to counterattack. By the time you've left the Undumgi and moved on to Ulrikadrin, you've come to realize that safety is even more of a concern as you originally thought, because no matter how good you get with it, you'll only ever be able to pull it off most of the time. So you work into your practice a return to a defensive stance after the strike using a variation on the momentum dump technique.
In the end, you're as pleased with the technique as the Undumgi and Ulrikadrin are that you're on their side.
[Eike studying the blade some more: Martial, 78+11+10(Library: Greatswords)=99.]
As an added bonus, Eike has been a constant shadow through this journey, sparring with the youngest and greenest as you honed your techniques against the oldest and most skilled, and whenever you put the practice blade down for the day she was right there to pick it back up. When you started waking her up in the morning to join you for your regular drills and exercise she reacted with unnatural eagerness for someone who'd just lost their morning lie-in for the foreseeable future. Her skill with the blade is growing in leaps and bounds, and at this rate you might only be moderately beside yourself with worry when it comes time for her to walk out into the world alone.
Trait acquired:
Branarhune: You have invented an entirely new set of sword techniques that take advantage of the Rune of the Unknown, making most conventional defensive techniques useless against you. +1 Martial. When wielding Branulhune: martial skill of human-size opponents is not applied while they are defending, unless they know of Branarhune and either know of or are able to come up with countermeasures to it.
Skill acquired:
Greatsword, Master: Your foundation of Empire Greatsword and Dwarven Gazulite techniques has been further honed by the research, training, and practice involved in your own invention of an entirely new style. +4 Martial
[New book topic available: Branarhune.]
Trait discovered:
In Awe of Mathilde: Every story Eike grew up hearing about Mathilde has convinced her to make the most of the opportunity to learn from her directly. This will be replaced by one of Mathilde's traits at some point during her Apprenticeship.
Eike has learned:
Fitness: Beneath her robes lies the muscle of a warrior rather than the soft flesh of a typical wizard. +2 Martial
Greatsword, Advanced (1/3)
---
"Waystone Gold," you say to the contributors you've selected to study it with you - the Light Wizards, the Gold Wizards, Thorek, and Hatalath. They're gathered around a table that you've laden with surprisingly light samples from the Colleges - they're heavier than iron, but much lighter than gold or even silver. "It's known throughout the world, but as far as I can tell, only as the metal you find atop Waystones. These are samples of Waystone Gold from the archives of the Gold Order, inherited from some of the less law-abiding alchemists that won pardons with their contributions to the Great War."
"Those are two different metals," Johann points out.
You look from the pile of ingots to the single intact pyramidion that the Gold Order could supply, which look the same to your untrained eye. "How so?"
"They both seem like the same alloy, but the properties are different." He picks up one of the ingots and turns it in his hands. "I suppose it looks like - well, not looks, but you know - six-carratus gold? Since it's one part gold to three parts something else. Calling it 'gold' at all would be a hallmarking violation if possession of it wasn't already extremely illegal. But the ingots are different to the pyramidion, they're..." He frowns. "Cloudier?"
"What do you mean, cloudier?"
"Like... less lodestone-y?" Halath has picked up one of the ingots and is looking back and forth between it and the pyramidion.
"Even though neither is magnetic?" He nods and shrugs. "Okay. So... being melted and recast altered them in some way." You consider that. "Which means that most of the pre-Teclisean studies on it are useless to us, because anyone willing to deal in the stuff would have melted it down as soon as possible to make it less identifiable, long before it reached any alchemist."
"Actually, probably all of them," Max says. "Modern studies don't source new materials, they use what we already have."
"Well, that complicates things. Johann, can you identify the other contributor to the alloy?" He shakes his head. "How many metals can you recognize on sight?"
"All of the Classical and Dwarven metals."
"That gives us a clear place to start our investigation, then. Thorek, do the Dwarves maintain a collection of unknown metals?"
"Aye, the Metalsmiths Guilds each maintain their own collection for study, and there's the trophy vaults in Karaz-a-Karak. I'll take your lad around, see if he can recognize it anywhere else."
"I'll have Lord Turuquar have a look at it too," Hatalath says. "He gets rather intense about this sort of thing. He's here because of his studies into Ithilmar, he wouldn't take 'gift from Vaul' for an answer and kept trying to sneak into Vaul's Anvil."
You nod, and then frown as you recall that's the name of a volcano. "Do you mean the shrine atop Vaul's Anvil?"
"No. They'd have killed him for that. As it was, they were just very concerned."
You shake your head to banish the several additional questions you have. "Okay, then. We'll reconvene once we have some answers to discuss."
---
"It's Titan-metal," Johann reports to a reconvened table. "It shows up in Ogre weapons from time to time."
"Samples recovered by Karak Azorn Rangers two thousand years ago confirmed the Titan Holds as the source of the metals, hence the name," Thorek says.
"Lord Turuquar will be pleased to hear that," Hatalath says. "All he knew of it is that it came via the Gates of Calith, and his inability to give a better answer clearly vexed him."
"Was he able to identify the difference between the two metals?"
"The way a metal cools after being smelted can have effects on its properties. The effect in question is not the 'standard' way that the alloy forms, so those properties only exist in the unaltered pyramidion, not in the re-alloyed ingots. He's working on replicating the pyramidion's properties by applying magic during the cooling process, and would like the assistance of..." he hesitates for a moment. "Lord Magister Johann in doing so."
You resist the urge to correct this accidental promotion, and instead ask "would spending a prolonged period in the Dreaming Wood be compatible with his Gilding?"
"Good question," Hatalath says after some thought. "Lord Turuquar can come here."
"Very well. Meanwhile, let's look to replicating what they do within our own paradigms. Based on my own observations," which you'd performed while Johann was visiting the Dwarfholds, "the capstone is not actually enchanted in any way, nor do any enchantments work through it. Some property of the metal means that when a Wind touches it, the entire metal becomes very conducive to that Wind, and thus is quickly suffused by it and therefore it repels any other Wind. Then the Wind is drawn down into the Waystone, and the metal reverts back to neutrality. In this way it is able to absorb all eight Winds by only ever absorbing one at a time. What is fortunate for the purposes of the Waystones, and unfortunate for any other purpose the material might be put to, is that the material is also very conducive to Dhar. That's the tricky point of replication - making something that absorbs all eight Winds as well as Dhar without the Winds or the mechanism being corrupted by exposure."
---
Several weeks later you reconvene and piled upon the table are several proofs of concept. Your own is a thin rod of iron flanked by two wooden rods holding identical enchantments in two different Winds. The form of the enchantments is a very simple mechanism to attract the Wind in question - Ulgu for one, Hysh for the other - into it, and it's been deliberately stretched out throughout the length of the rod without anything being done to reinforce or stabilize it. The attractive presence of Dhar or the repulsive presence of other Winds will, in sufficient quantities, press against the energies that make up the enchantment until they're distorted enough that the enchantment no longer functions. The iron rod is a stand-in - for a new Waystone that is attached to the existing Network this will be replaced with a material able to transmit the attractive force that the Great Vortex exerts on Dhar. You theorize that copper would work, but you currently have no way to test this. If all else fails, then smelting the Waystone Gold you currently have into wire and embedding it in some other metal to stabilize it would work, but you'd much prefer a method that didn't require either using up a finite and irreplaceable source of materials or cannibalizing the existing Waystones to build new ones.
You could make an enchantment that does the job of attracting Dhar itself instead of having to rely on the existing Network, but it would itself need to be made out of Dhar. If there was no other way you might consider seeking dispensation, and if there was no other way the Colleges might consider granting it, but it would be much better if you did find some other way.
"The enchantments themselves are simple," you say as you display the Collegiate prototype, "but needing eight separate enchantments is a bigger ask than I'd like, and it would depend on being plugged into the Waystone network to supply the attractant force for Dhar."
"First of all," says Hatalath, who had arrived with two prototypes, "I know this one is wildly impractical for deployment at any sort of scale, but Lords Mal and Turuquar wouldn't be dissuaded." He flicks a handful of magical energy at the intricately-carved golden dome, and a blinding radiance of magic lashes out, peels the energies apart, and swallows them into the dome one at a time. "Lords Elrithish and Seilph made this other one," he says, turning to the eight-petalled flower carved from stone and flicking more energies at it, which begin to flow towards and settle into the individual petals. "The shape is just a flourish, it would work with just about anything. The enchantment is extremely simple, though it does require at least a sliver of ability with High Magic." Which in practice means that they would need to be made by Laurelorn.
"This was one of the first Runes I ever recovered," Thorek says, tapping on a stone cube bearing a Rune on its top that looks uncomfortably like the Star of Chaos, only with the arrows pointing inwards. "It's very simple in itself. The tricky part is that it just attracts and absorbs energies, it doesn't do anything with them. Before the Time of Woes we used to use this to seal away malign energies to be buried in exhausted mineshafts." He turns the cube over, revealing another Rune on the bottom, this one of a line that loops three times. "This one's only slightly trickier and most of it's the chiselwork, any Apprentice worth the title should be able to manage it by their third decade. It discharges the energies back out again."
You nod in approval. "It's good we have multiple methods of providing this part of the mechanism, since we don't know what problems there might be when we try to put all of it together, or what the eventual logistical concerns could be when it comes time to actually start producing them in the hundreds." It's also good, you privately observe, that you have two solutions that can't be replicated by any other power on the continent. A purely mechanical solution could be duplicated by anyone, and one that relies on only Wind magic could be reverse-engineered by, say, the Damsels of Bretonnia. While they were allies of the Empire during the Great War Against Chaos, they've also been at war with the Empire twice since then. Needing Eonir or Dwarven assistance to erect new Waystones will make them stick to the terms of whatever deal ends up being struck between the two powers.
A concern that might not come to mind quite so readily, had they been more willing to contribute to the Project early on.
[Capstone Prototype created: Pancollegiate Fascis.]
[Capstone Prototype created: Stone Flower.]
[Capstone Prototype created: Runic Inductor.]
---
The matter of leylines is a difficult one, since the being, spirit, or enchantment that controls it seems to object to your experimenting with it. There is, you're sure, some way to communicate to it that you're acting for the betterment of the network as a whole, and hopefully to instruct it to incorporate new nodes, but the only ones who know that method are the Asur. The handful of instructions you do have came from Teclis, and even he only gave them to the Colleges because the Druids already had those capabilities. If he'd much rather that the Colleges never involve themselves in the network, then Ulthuan as a polity would likely be vociferously opposed to it. If they can be convinced, then a good start would be to demonstrate that you don't actually need them to, just as the Druids did to Teclis. If they can't, then you need a workaround. In either case, the next step forward is to figure out an alternate means of long-range transportation of magical energies.
You've settled on rivers as the first avenue of investigation. A flowing river naturally attracts Ghyran, but that doesn't mean it's impermeable to the other Winds any more than the sky's resonance with Azyr prevents the air from allowing the passage of other Winds. And just as the actual wind can move the Winds, so too can the flow of a river sweep along any Winds caught up in it. And you know for a fact that it doesn't jostle the Winds enough to mix them into Dhar because the magic-infused waters flow from the Tarn of Tears and eventually shatter onto the rocks of the Rainbow Falls without any taint of Dhar. Most of the magic that makes the enchantments of the Eonir and their forest possible have their origin in that stretch of water, and considering that almost all of the rivers in the Empire lead to Altdorf and thus the Colleges of Magic, using the rivers as leylines might allow for something similar to begin to be done for the Empire.
But just because it's possible doesn't mean it's a good idea. Something that works fine for a short stretch of river heavily patrolled by Elves and watched over by some sort of vaguely-Draconic forest spirit called 'Niseag' might go very badly if rolled out to the Empire's thousands of miles of rivers. If those energies are easily accessible to Forest Goblins or Beastmen that control some stretches of the riverbanks, or if they have a negative influence upon the creatures or spirits that call the rivers home, then riverine leylines become worse than useless. There's also the question of Dhar - daydreams of magical renaissance aside, the purpose of this Project is to get rid of harmful magical energies, so the utility of this option plummets dramatically if it's unable to handle the worst of it. Dhar free-flowing downstream while sucking up all the other Winds as it goes and leaving a trail of corrupted beasts and poisoned fields would be...
...well, it would be Nehekhara.
That is, after all, the ultimate example of this technique, both that it's possible and of the inherent problem with it. Nehekhara was built atop the Great Vitae River and was incorporated into their version of the Waystone Network, which worked great for fueling about two and a half golden ages, but then stopped working great. Nagash's Great Ritual is blamed for the death of Nehekhara, but in truth most of its population were already dead or dying from the corruption of the river's headwaters, a great wave of Dhar oozing downstream and turning what was once the most fertile farmlands in the world into the barren landscape it remains to this day. It is now known as the Great Mortis River, the River of Death.
All in all, it's not the sort of thing you want to be emulating. But the argument can be made that if the Great Necromancer has unfettered access to your nation's water source and a grudge against you, you're going to have a bad time even if you haven't enchanted it. The Skaven used the same tactics to great effect against Karak Eight Peaks thousands of years ago, even though the Karak's aquifer was entirely mundane.
Sarvoi and Cadaeth are, of course, no strangers to the Tarn of Tears, but you bring them along with Elrisse, Aksel, Tochter, and Niedzwenka there to illustrate part of your goal. "To use a river as a leyline requires three things," you say to them over the gurgling of the river. "Getting it in, getting it out, and keeping it from causing problems along the way. Now as we can see, getting it in is trivial - once it's introduced to flowing water, it flows with the water. I can think of a handful of enchantments or devices to achieve this just off the top of my head. Getting it out is trickier - this river uses a waterfall to release the magic back into the air, which works fine here but wouldn't really be an option for most rivers without obstructing the traffic that flows along it."
"Why not?" Elrisse asks. "Just have a canal that bypasses it for river traffic."
"You're right," you say after a moment of thought. "Actually, if we did it just south of Altdorf, river traffic could use the existing Weissbruck Canal to bypass it. Okay, that's one possible means of discharge. The one I had in mind was just putting down a series of Waystones like channel markers along the run of the river, however many are required for the amount of magic flowing, and then feed it from there directly into a Nexus. Probably the one at Altdorf, though it could also be set up at Nuln and Talabecland if there's some sort of bottleneck."
"The Lynsk could feed into Erengrad, and the Tobol into Castle Alexandronov," Niedzwenka says musingly. "And, of course, the Urskoy flows past Kislev City and into the Talabec."
"We theorized that L'Anguille, Bordeleux, and Brionne were nexuses," Tochter says. "So that's maybe two thirds of Bretonnia's rivers. Oh, and Gisoreux is downstream of most of the Grismerie, so that only leaves a few hundred miles of river that this method wouldn't work for."
"Perhaps the rivers that flow past Barak Varr as well," you say. "This has a lot of potential, but there's also a lot of potential problems. The jaunt between the Tarn and the Falls is one thing, but we're talking about stretches of river up to a thousand miles long, some passing through Sylvania, past Mordheim, through the Drakwald. We're not doing this for the benefit of any Greenskin or Beastman Shaman or Black Magister that happens upon a stretch of unattended river. So our first matter will be to investigate how accessible the magics within this short stretch of river are. Sarvoi, can you supply students with a good distribution of skill levels?"
"I certainly can. It will make for an interesting challenge for them."
"Between them and us, we should be able to gauge exactly how vulnerable to interception riverborne Winds are."
---
While Sarvoi has been rounding up students, you've been communicating with the Priests of Vaul who labour under Rainbow Falls via House Miriel to find what days you can mess with the flow of magic to them without disrupting any ongoing projects. On the appointed day the banks are lined with young magic-users - well, young by Elven standards, you're probably younger than most of them - who one at a time reach into the stream with willpower and attempt to net the bounty of flowing magics. Most are able to grip on to a stream of energy, but actually pulling it in turns out to be a problem. Firstly, because water provides more resistance than air usually does, making the ingrained habits of experienced spellcasters counterproductive and meaning that it's actually the students with the least seniority that have the most success. Secondly, the river being thick with magical energies means that pulling on one stream interrupts an established equilibrium and the stream quickly dissolves into a rainbow of turbulent eddies. Thirdly, the Ghyran in those eddies causes the river itself to start roiling, which not only makes it even harder to reach into it with your will, it also provokes Niseag to make an appearance, a scaled and fanged head on a shockingly long neck rearing out of the water to glare perturbedly at the crowd as they shuffle their feet and mumble apologies. The residents of most of the Empire's rivers would be substantially harder to quell.
You finish taking notes on what you've seen as Sarvoi dismisses the students and explains what's about to happen to Niseag, and once the two of you are alone you nod to him. He concentrates and holds out his hands, and after a moment of concentration a pea-size blob of sickly-sweet energies forms between them, and he drops it into the river and into the path of the flowing Winds. At first some Winds that happen to flow right into it are drawn in, but once it grows large enough to have a significant pull, something more interesting happens: a vortex of Winds forms around it as streams are drawn in and then repulsed by the other Winds doing the same, and before any equilibrium can be reached they're swept safely past by the momentum of the flowing water. Some is drawn in still, but only a small fraction of the overall flow. Eventually Sarvoi releases his control over the Dhar and it washes away in the river, to where it will be shaken free by the Rainbow Falls and then absorbed by the Waystones at its base.
"Better than I feared," you observe.
Sarvoi nods. "Much better. If you were at it for hours at a time you might be able to accumulate more than you could manage to draw out of the ambient air, but you'd be plainly visible to any river traffic the whole time."
"And vulnerable to the Riverwardens. Thank you for performing the experiment."
He nods. "Of course."
---
"Okay," you say to the reconvened researchers, "the basic idea is surprisingly sturdy - the Winds keep to themselves and resist attempts by any interlopers to draw them out or corrupt them. But the main question left outstanding is that of Dhar, because pouring Dark Magic into all of the continent's major sources of drinking water and irrigation does not strike me as a good idea. Is there another way to move the Dhar in or alongside the river?"
"Would a rope on the riverbed be safe from Umgi predation?" Sarvoi asks with a cheeky grin.
"Maybe from Umgi hands, but not from Umgi anchors."
"What about an aqueduct?" Elrisse asks. "We've established that water is surprisingly good at moving Winds, would it work on Dhar?"
You have the answer immediately, but you pretend to give the matter the amount of thought someone with only salubrious sources would need. "I suspect Dhar would need more velocity than an aqueduct would provide to remain waterborne." Sarvoi nods in confirmation.
"Get the river spirit to handle it," Niedzwenka says. "They exist everywhere along it at once, so they can move things from one end to another without having to go through the points in between. Very useful for smuggling. They'd probably ask something that'd be expensive or annoying for an individual, but easy enough for a country."
"It would be easy enough to get the cooperation of the Cults of Grandfather Reik and Altaver," you muse, and Niedzwenka wrinkles her nose in distaste. There are a lot of lesser Gods in the Empire that would be considered merely very powerful spirits in Kislev. "Taal for the Talabec, too. I don't know about the Stir - the River Patrol venerates Manann, so it might be Him, but Manhorak might be making a claim too."
"Why don't you just have it go under the river?" Aksel asks.
"At that point we're not using the river at all, we're just building regular leylines in a squiggly way."
"No, use the rivers themselves. The..." He frowns, and says a few words in Was Jutonian. "World habit? These are old rivers, there's been constant movement of water along those paths for thousands of years. You sort of," he makes an indecipherable motion with his hands, "tie it onto that."
"Oh, yngra elthrai," Sarvoi says.
"Induced correspondence," you translate.
"Quite literally 'as above, so below'," Elrisse says with a little smile.
"That's an interesting idea, but we'd need the foundation mechanism to actually test it..." You trail off, frowning to yourself. "Actually, no, I can think of a way. Aksel, can you create a prototype of something that would perform that inducement?"
"Not personally, but I know someone who may be able to," he says with a nod.
"See to it. If you need resources to grease the wheels, let me know. Tochter, Elrisse, could Ghyran or Hysh manage the same?"
Elrisse is shaking her head, but Tochter looks thoughtful. "I'll look into it," she says.
"Sarvoi? Cadaeth?"
"I've a counterpart in House Nienna that might be able to put me on the right track," Sarvoi says thoughtfully.
You turn to the last person at the table, but she's already shaking her head. "Done with spirits, getting the spirit to move it for you in the first place would be easier."
"Very well. While those are dealt with, I'll see to getting a testing grounds set up."
---
In a tunnel excavated below the Blood River just downstream of Ulrikadrin, you, Aksel, and Sarvoi prepare to put the results to the test. All three of the requested prototypes came through, including Tochter's, but you told her she shouldn't be here for it and she seemed to immediately understand why. Testing this does require the creation and manipulation of Dhar, and though the location is outside the borders of the Empire and the one that will be doing it isn't subject to its laws, it's still a good deniability to maintain.
The Hedgewise contribution is a leather pouch full of river stones with various patterns of dots carved into them, to be piled up on the site and a salmon or trout killed atop the pile every week. Testing it is very simple: it is set up, and a sufficient amount of Dhar is created and allowed to settle into the end of the tunnel while you watch from a safe distance. Under normal circumstances, the Dhar would remain here indefinitely, possibly oozing a ways back out the tunnel, and would begin to noticeably fade away into the stone over the course of years to decades. But here and now, with slowness that certainly feels like years to decades but is no more than a couple of hours, the Dhar is pulled up against and eventually into one of the walls. If all has gone according to plan, it is destined to make an inexorably slow journey downstream until it reaches the stone below the Black Gulf, at which point it will... well, you're not sure. Hopefully fade away. It might seep back up and into the Gulf, adding one more drop to thousands of years of corruption the oceans have been called upon to absorb.
The Jade Order's showing, appropriately enough, is a man-sized menhir that seems like it took more effort to move down here than carving the pattern of flowing lines that covers it, though probably not more than the enchantment within it. When the menhir is planted into the mud at the bottom of the tunnel, the first indication that it's working is the mud drying out as the water from it tries to obey the flow of the river above and pools against the tunnel wall. Dhar, when released, obeys the same inexorable pull and disappears much faster into the wall than previously.
The contribution from the Eonir is one that came with the grudging admittance that it's not at all scalable, and in fact they'd like the prototype, a feather-patterned astrolabe, back when you were done testing it. It does the job about as well as the Hedgewise stones did, which is a poor showing from something ancient and valuable going up against a bag of rocks.
Having two seperate ways to make the correspondence idea work, on top of the possibilities of bargaining with river spirits or Gods to make it work, means you have no problem calling this avenue of investigation a success.
[Riverine Leyline possibility identified: free-flowing/spirit bargain.]
[Riverine Leyline possibility identified: free-flowing/Jade induced correspondence.]
[Riverine Leyline possibility identified: free-flowing/Hedgewise induced correspondence.]
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- Location
- New Brunswick, NJ
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Holy shit.
Like, dice are still gonna dice, we might still low roll while they roll high, and they might have bonuses from other sources, but at the very least we'll have a +25 Martial versus their +0 against most enemies we fight.
Well darn, the Project seems to be going very well. At the very least we have a lot of options to use, I'm not going to say which one is preferable to another, though it seems to me that the River Spirit one is at least easier to scale. Capstone wise... that looks like something Vlag could help us with for their favor, or even just for pay, the Empire has money.
Sword-wise... I pity those Iron Orcs fighting at a -23 disadvantage on the defense when the size of the dice is 100 is a lot. Sure better prepared and more magical people will no doubt think of ways around it eventually, but we are not at eventually yet. I say we strike while the iron is hot and before Tzeench can whisper into their ears
We are literally leveraging an arch-mage that is older than the war of the Beard and the second greatest Runelord of the Karaz Ankor alongside the most skilled Hag witch on the continent. I do not think it would be as easy as it is for us right now.
Sword-wise... I pity those Iron Orcs fighting at a -23 disadvantage on the defense when the size of the dice is 100 is a lot. Sure better prepared and more magical people will no doubt think of ways around it eventually, but we are not at eventually yet. I say we strike while the iron is hot and before Tzeench can whisper into their ears
We are literally leveraging an arch-mage that is older than the war of the Beard and the second greatest Runelord of the Karaz Ankor alongside the most skilled Hag witch on the continent. I do not think it would be as easy as it is for us right now.
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- Location
- Oklahoma
infinityDivided
Prince Of Doom
- Location
- USA
Is this supposed to be "Eike's traits", or is Mathilde going to be so impressed with herself at some point it gets added to her character sheet?
Should be "uncomfortably".
At some point that trait is going to be replaced with a copy of one of Mathilde's traits. I'll tweak the wording to be clearer.
- Location
- France
Alright, we need to take her on as many magical study actions as possible. She imagine a Journeywoman with Windsage !
- Location
- New Brunswick, NJ
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
That's actually a Skill and not a Trait.First Secret of Dhar?😈
Here are Mathilde's Traits, for reference:
(Plus Branarhune, which the Character Sheet does not yet possess.)
I don't think any of the last block, which are titles, would be eligible options. The second block is Familiar stuff, and while obviously she can't copy the specific things we get from Wolf, she might easily get a Familiar herself in imitation of us.
Windsage (or its earlier version, Windreader) would be obviously amazing. Warrior of Fog or Avatar would also be very cool possibilities. Less "holy shit" but still strong options include Laconic, Polyglot, and Unseen. Let's hope she doesn't get Disdain for Sigmar, though!
That went unexpectedly well. I'm looking forwards to Ulthuans reaction.
So did Hatalath exaggerate his rank so that Lord Turuquar even considers working with him or did Lord Turuquar assume he was of that rank because Johann helped him figure something out he couldn't solve himself?
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- Location
- Oklahoma
Thinking about traits that could pop up here-
'Brave' would be fun, as a trait nearly as impactful to Mathilde as a person as being a wizard is, and of course it would result in Mathilde being even more worried when she finally sets out on her Journey.
'Windsage' (or its previous version, most likely) is another really central trait to how Mathilde sees and interacts with the world, albeit it might be hard to pass on when Eike's windsight is fundamentally different.
Xeno-affinity is the third that I think would be really interesting- having an affinity for interacting with and communicating with those of fundamentally different mindsets from her is extremely valuable and impactful- especially because, given the 'Awe of Mathilde' trait itself- I find it very unlikely that Eike will stick to empire cities in her Journey.
(Ironically, Mathilde herself did stick to Empire cities in her Journey, but haring off to the edge of the Old World with the Dwarves is a lot more eye catching and likely to be something Eike would focus on more.)
My personal favorite possibility is probably Brave, even if it would probably make Mathilde go grey. (... Greyer?)
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Ambit
Help me
- Location
- Third Circle of Hell
I know Windsage would probably be best, but can you imagine if we somehow thread the needle enough to get her Avatar?
I'm honestly not sure if Xeno-Affinity counts as a trait or a skill since it's under skills.
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Interesting. Maybe it's Azyr-related? In its creation or... something. I dunno.
The Titans dwelled on the highest mountains, on the level of clouds. I've always felt like this meant that the Sky-Titans might, well, be associated with Azyr as a result. I mean. Skytitans. Cloud Giants. That kind of fantasy aesthetic. It feels like, in Warhammer Fantasy, the corresponding element of magic relating to "giants associated with clouds and stuff" would be Azyr.
I also wonder if the Windfall we observed during the Karag Dum expedition might be relevant here?
I mean, we saw the Winds fall onto the mountains. And now here we are trying to make a part of the Waystone which helps draw in Winds of magic, right. So maybe...?
((Azyr also possibly being related to the mechanism of how the Old Ones were going to finish uplifting the Ogres. That's another theory of mine. That Azyr, and its relation to higher thought and inspiration, was somehow correlated to Ogre-uplifting plans. I think the Ogre lands had; lots of farmland; lots of farmers in the form of Snotlings or Halflings; some kind of weather-control system or some kind of celestial ob;ect of some sort; and said object or system was related to either the fertility of their lands or to raising Ogre intelligence or both; and that said Azyr stuff might have been related to the nearby Skytitans who hung around on big mountains.
So basically, the Ogre lands were a mix of;
*Close-by Ghur-drenched lands; providing very fierce monsters for Ogres to fight and to feast on
*Great farmland from somewhere, and farmers
*Some kind of enlightening-effect?
And then, with the Old Ones gone, the Ogres had a bunch of food, a warrior nature and culture... ... and were only half-finished. All while being right nextdoor to Cathay.
The natural outcome for the Ogres was for them to start invading the Cathayans. There were lots of warlike Ogres and what else was there for them to fight, other than each other.
And so the Cathayan Dragons either called up some space rock from the outside to destroy their land, or they cast down the Old One-created astronomy-related system or object that was in Ogre airspace. i.e. If there was an Old One-created satellite in the Ogre lands, then the Cathayans brought it down. Destroying the farmlands and halting the uplift project and destroying Ogre leadership and causing their migration.))
Again wondering whether, when it comes to the "Transmission method -- through the air" our observations of the Windfall might come in relevant.
- Location
- Earth
This should probably be taken out.
Maybe it's hard to figure out in the first place; but then, once you've figured out, it's easy to spread that knowledge because you've solved-the-problem? Like how figuring out the First Secret of Dhar, or figuring out the concept of zero, is hard but once you know it the knowledge can easily be spread.
Ooh, we should give her some simple Enchanting training to do! I think it might have improved Mathilde's Learning when doing so. And if not, then at least Enchanting is something useful for somebody to pick up and apply if they have downtime or stick around in one place for long.
Plus. It's a tinkering-type trait. It could lead to fun places for the student, in the long run. Also, it's a skill that gives them more tools to solve problems with. It's also a type of magic stuff we haven't touched on yet with her for lessons.
Other traits can include, well, the "be actually sneaky" aspect of being a Grey Wizard. We haven't taught any stealth or sneaking skills to her yet. Mostly we've taught a bit of magic, fitness/swording, and mostly diplomacy stuff.
EDIT: Also for the curious.
Martial: 16+1+1+1+2+2=23 - You're no longer just a wizard that can wave a sword - you have become a warrior in your own right.
Greatsword, Advanced: You have married the techniques of the Empire's Greatswords as taught by the Champion of Stirland to that of the Dwarven witch-hunter group, the Order of the Guardians. +3 Martial
Greatsword, Master (3*/4)
Martial: 17+2+2+1+1+1+1=25 - You're passed the point of 'for a wizard'. You're skilled at combat by the standards of professional warriors.
Branarhune: You have invented an entirely new set of sword techniques that take advantage of the Rune of the Unknown, making most conventional defensive techniques useless against you. +1 Martial. When wielding Branulhune: martial skill of human-size opponents is not applied while they are defending, unless they know of Branarhune and either know of or are able to come up with countermeasures to it.
Greatsword, Master: Your foundation of Empire Greatsword and Dwarven Gazulite techniques has been further honed by the research, training, and practice involved in your own invention of an entirely new style. +4 Martial
We've picked up 2 points of Martial. One to our base martial, and one as a bonus.
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notanautomaton
I've got 99 quests, I've finished one
From a more modern perspective I'm a bit leery of potentially just dumping Dhar in the ocean, so here's hoping we come up with a way to link the river-leylines to the original network. But aside from that potential future wrinkle, this has been a shockingly good turn.
@Boney Thorek mentioned that the Rune-cap is apprentice work, but do we know how hard the flower is to make in comparison?
@Boney Thorek mentioned that the Rune-cap is apprentice work, but do we know how hard the flower is to make in comparison?
Sinsystems
Patron Librarian
So that is a potential benefit of the river method, namely creating a location where the Empire's wizards could access a lot of magic. Would certainly go well with the idea of Mannfred being the Wizard Count.