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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Alratan said:
The Empire can't find another trade route that bypasses Marienberg.
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The empire could quite easily, through nordland. But that involves forcing nordland and the empire will not do that, so why do you think the empire would randomly help middenland with its own trade routes?

As for the two tower? We of course they gonna do their own research on the tower we would make. They'd probably cajole one of the grey lords to take a look and they should suffice in reassuring them nothings gonna explode.
And as for it not being strategically viable? We could just build a lone tower on our end of the swamp for that. Or just go through any other area. The woodelves have good defenses but their not that good.
 
Boney said:
She considers that for a while. "I suppose the least disruption would come from using the Jades. Especially since I presume the ritualists would tend to be less eccentric than the Battle Wizards."
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I get that this is the result of a roll, but do we have any idea why Roswita chose this option over Mathilde's other suggestions from an IC perspective?

Especially given that
Boney said:
I want them to touch base with the Council, though, make sure none of the spirits they round up for it are significant to them. What would the timetable be?"
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the Council of Manhorak has to be at least tangentially involved anyway.

Boney said:
After prying them loose she, Max, and Niedzwenka take them into Kislev for a crash course in Scythian, spirit-wrangling, and the ritual of Arcane Impluvium, and then back south to Stirland to begin their work.
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Why Kislev? Is it easier than bringing language books across the border? Or is it about working with plentiful spirits that Niedzwenka is most familiar with?

And does this mean that Max speaks Scythian too now or was he doing something else up there?

Boney said:
It seems to serve as an eye-opening experience for the two, as Zlata had thought that the hard-worn stubbornness of a people who only know a life under siege only existed in Kislev, and Cadaeth had required several patient evenings explaining to her that no, there really are no other defences beyond the scant few that are plainly visible. She'd been rather taken aback when you told her that if something came from the east that those defences could not handle, then in all likelihood any of the local population that couldn't or wouldn't flee would die. She'd been significantly more taken aback when she heard the same from a local, who then told her that it had happened twice in the past century, but not to worry, if it happened again the restless dead wouldn't have long to chew on their bones before the Hunter's Daughter would bring the army down upon them.
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I like this. Foreigners discovering commonalities and showing sympathy for each other when they witness things in person that were only far off irrelevancies before.

Boney said:
A gusto that will undoubtedly fade as it sinks in that they'll be spending the next four years of their lives on this.
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I'm curious if four years of this will make them experts at communicating with water spirits just because the ritual becomes so routine that they talk to said spirits to pass the time. And/or if they also become experts at subduing them from the slight miscast chance extrapolated over four years. Add to that a free magical language, a steady income of CF, connections in Stirland, the goodwill of an EC and two study buddies on the same journey to learn from and collaborate with and this really isn't such a bad Journeying.

Boney said:
"So in the end, I settled on the village of Hargendorf, at the mouth of the Demst. I told them the Eonir could be pacified by sacrificing trees of the Empire to them, as it was the killing of the trees of Laurelorn that had angered them in the first place. That I'd have a cargo of 'sacrifices' delivered to them, and that they'd be paid to move it upriver and drop it off at a marked point, and if all goes well this could mean lasting safety for Hargendorf." She wraps up her presentation and looks to you for your evaluation, trying and failing to keep nervous expectation from her expression.

[...]

"The other pieces of the route were easy, it's only twenty miles along an established path from the drop-off point to Tor Lithanel, which is doable in a single day so Cityborn can fetch it. It was trivial to find ships sailing from Erengrad willing to drop off charcoal in Hargendorf - most of them hug the coast anyway, and a number of them anchor overnight in the shelter of the nearby islands of Lugren and Odner just a few miles along the coast from Hargendorf. The prices at Erengrad for charcoal are fairly competitive, sourced from the nearby Grovod Wood, so the route is profitable as-is. If better river-boats were supplied to Hargendorf, or if the Forestborn can be convinced to allow a towpath along the river, then the route can be scaled up massively without problem. If this is to be a long-term concern, then a deal with the Boyar of Chebokov or the establishment of charcoaling and shipping infrastructure in Ostland would be viable ways to increase the route's efficiency, but the overall return on investment would likely be less than other opportunities currently available to the EIC."

[...]

You'll need to make visits to Hargendorf and Erengrad to establish a recurring supply and make sure that everyone knows better than to try anything clever, but that still leaves you with a few extra weeks that you didn't expect to have available to you.
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Eike at the very least visited Hargendorf and Erengrad on her own, without apparently borrowing the Gyrocopter. And then turned up in Tor Lithanel, again on her own. How long did all that take her, roughly speaking and how did she manage? Not to mention weeks faster than expected. I could imagine a whole WHFRP campaign being just this.

Boney said:
Updated Eike spell list:
Drop, Glowing Light, Magic Dart, Marsh Lights, Sleep
Aethyric Armour (Mastery - Indefatigable)
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This is more than respectable. It seems like Eike will very soon have surpassed Mathilde when she first journeyed in nearly every metric. And that mixed trait might even be enough for eventual spell creation. It sure is Ulgu flavored.

Boney said:
He considers that. "You're phrasing this like you're doing these librarians a favour, but they'd squeal like stuck pigs if they were forced into that sort of deal, wouldn't they?"

"Many probably will, yes."

"You get me those Dwarves and Verena'll need earplugs, you have my word."
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He sure has a way with words, this Grand Count.


Boney said:
The Elementalists, who the Grand Count had apparently included in the deal, apparently became very cooperative the moment they were told that the Grand Count would happily 'trade the lot of you for a spiked culverin', and that they should be rather thankful that he'd been given better terms than that
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Oof. Even if their Guildmaster spun it, that's still harsh. Are they that bad at courting their own EC in their own city? The poor louts.

Boney said:
Ghyran - Life Magic +5 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial (from +2)
Aqshy - Fire Magic +6 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Indic (from +2)
Azyr - Celestial Magic +5 -Extensive and Esoteric Imperial (from +2)
Elementalism +6 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Asur
Potions +5 - Extensive and Obscure Imperial / Extensive Kislevite
Elementals +6 - Extensive and Esoteric Imperial / Kislevite
Gut Magic +2 - Extensive Imperial
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Holy moly, they had a serious magical collection.

And there are basic Asur books on Elementalism? What?!

Are all the foreign books translated by the way?

Boney said:
But you feel in your bones the absence of a centrepiece, twin exemplars of Cunning and Brutality to cap off the paper and hammer the point truly home, but they fail to make themselves known no matter how many records you delve into - no cunningest of all Goblins, no mightiest of all Orcs. You frown to yourself and search for the origin of that sentiment within you, but you can find nothing to logically explain why you're so sure that something should be here, but isn't.
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Oh Mathilde. You're literally the one who stopped it from happening.

Boney said:
- If there's a book topic that you think the Elementalists should have had - not that you wanted them to have had, something that it's so self-evident that they would have it that you think the lack of it is an oversight on my part - let me know.
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I'm actually more surprised they had straight forward books on the Winds of such quality.

As for books that are potentially missing, I feel like I don't know enough about what their "typical" work they do for nobles looks like. Maybe something on Nuln/Wissenland history, if that's a thing? Though if they are an official part of the Universität then there's no reason to have such in house.

Edit: Aren't they an originally Tilean tradition? They definitely should have books in either Tilean, Classical or both regarding their most central subjects. Or was it only the Humorism that they were inspired by that comes from there? In which case they should have foreign books on at least that subject.
 
ReImagined said:
Don't forget Might've Banged Van Hal (But We're Not Sure Which One) :V
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That implies that they're sure the answer isn't "both".

LittenLeKitten said:
Can't forget the all-important Has More Hats Than The Empress' Closet
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I'm pretty sure she only wears the one hat.

It's just that that hat happens to be a witch hunter hat, which is quite a statement from a Grey Lady Magister.

Boney said:
No. Mastery is improving a spell by adapting a spell to your paradigm. You can only learn a Mastery from someone else by sharing their paradigm, so it's already fully adapted to your paradigm.
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Does that mean that while she knows the spellbook version for comparison, she can't actually cast it? Or is it just that it's technically possible, but since even if she does she can't pick up a different spin on it without a massive shift of personal perspective (before you ever get to the part where Mastery isn't guaranteed, much less a Mastery she'd consider "better" than something that's already extremely useful), she has no reason to ever use a strictly worse version?

Relatedly, can we choose not to teach our Masteries, or are they so integrated into our understanding of the spell that if she's learning them from us, they're going to get passed on? I don't see it being a problem for any of the ones we're likely to teach her any time soon (unless we can't turn off Blessed Hands, maybe but I'm reasonably sure we can, and the cases where that might cause problems are fairly rare), but it seems worth checking before we get to the less broadly applicable ones.
 
Dragonofelder said:
Maybe a Warboss that can act as a conduit for Waaagh energy? Maybe kidnap one from an active Waaagh?

Also, I think this ritual should be conducted on top of the target's position, for maximum effect.
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I don't think a Warboss without his Boys has a lot of Waaagh energy available to him. It seems like a literal version of how kings and emperors need subjects to really be said to have power.

chocolote12 said:
What were the other things we were waiting on to manage the Orb Flex, again? (Not enough AV?)

Is it going to be possible this coming turn?
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Mopman43 said:
Need our Room of Holy Fuck to be back in business (which I think delays it one more turn)
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Yup, the Room of Calamity needs to cool down one more turn from being visited by an evil Birb, but we've been seeing some support of trying out 'make a liminal realm' next turn, since Boney confirmed early on that trying to do it in the middle of nowhere should be safe-ish - even in the worst case scenario of a demon popping out, it'd be like a shark in a desert - dangerous but you can run away with little concern. I'm down for doing it with The Gambler.
 
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@Boney with the books on Elementalism and thus more knowledge of Earthbound Magic... do we know what would happen if you introduced Aetheric Vitae to some Earthbound Magic?

Would Aether Vitae divide into the Winds of Magic? Would the Earthbound Magic differentiate into Winds, too? Or would AV turn into Earthbound magic, adding to the Earthbound magic? Or the opposite, with the Earthbound Magic becoming AV?

I wish we knew what pouring AV on an Elemental would do. I wondered whether it might grow the Elemental in size or recharge its batteries or something.

Or, for that matter, what feeding AV to an Apparition would do, but that seems a bit risky.
 
Rafin said:
I get that this is the result of a roll, but do we have any idea why Roswita chose this option over Mathilde's other suggestions from an IC perspective?
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I have to imagine it's political. Getting one of the Cults to do it would make it Religious Business, which means all the relevant Cults want to have their say, while having a Jade Wizard do it—while making sure they aren't stepping on any toes—makes it Wizard Business, and it's harder for the Cults not being directly affected to butt in. And getting foreign magic users to do it also sounds like a potential political pain in the ass.

EDIT: Also, though Roswita still has a little bit of a magic phobia remaining, she does still have an Affinity for Wizards trait, so she's likely better at handling Wizards than other magic users.
 
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