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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Deathbybunnies said:
Maybe we could get the tattoo done with invisible ink? That's simultaneously keeping it hidden to avoid people noticing, and keeping it hidden because the marks of Ranald are not to be worn openly. I'd unironically be down for that.
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Some sorta glow in the dark tattoo would do it.
Retrueno said:
If Teclis is coming I want to go deeper into Windherder. In the past Teclis tried to teach Boland how to wield High Magic, Windherding is not the same, but it's close enough to be impressive I think.
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Glad we are doing the seviroscope this turn then.
 
What bluff? The Empire clearly had Waystone knowledge, the Belthani tributaries are proof of that. For anyone outside of the Colleges, who's to say that Mathilde wasn't exposed to some of those secrets? And to anyone inside the Colleges, Mathilde hinted that the Cult of Halétha is a precursor to the Grey Order, so maybe she inherited some secrets from them? Aksel certainly seems to know his stuff.

The Eonir think that Mathilde has some insight into the dwarven network, which is obviously not true, but the fact that she hasn't told them anything about it doesn't prove anything, she's just keeping her cards close to her chest. It's not like they told her much of anything about their network.
 
mathymancer said:
What bluff? The Empire clearly had Waystone knowledge, the Belthani tributaries are proof of that. For anyone outside of the Colleges, who's to say that Mathilde wasn't exposed to some of those secrets? And to anyone inside the Colleges, Mathilde hinted that the Cult of Halétha is a precursor to the Grey Order, so maybe she inherited some secrets from them? Aksel certainly seems to know his stuff.

The Eonir think that Mathilde has some insight into the dwarven network, which is obviously not true, but the fact that she hasn't told them anything about it doesn't prove anything, she's just keeping her cards close to her chest. It's not like they told her much of anything about their network.
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Describing how the bluff works doesn't make it any less of a bluff.
 
Mathilde's Pilgrimage of Fingers will play into her ascendance to Godhood. Ranald was once mortal who obtained Godhood by tricking a Goddess into making him one; Mathilde's Pilgrimage is one that involves the Gods and stealing divinity would be the natural end point for it. Mugging Mork, Plagiarizing Queekish, Abducting Vlag, I don't know what the next five will be but I hope the last one involves plundering divinity from Gunndred. Start the pilgrimage with a God of Cunning, end it with a God of Brutality, which also ties nicely into that counter ritual Mathilde accidentally performed.
 
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Approbation and Approval
  • Apocrypha
    • Alliterate said:
    Perspective of three Journeymanlings when told their cushy, repetitive ritual Journeywork attracted the personal, intrigued attention of Teclis all the way in the White Tower of Hoeth, and mobilized an Ulthuani response.
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    Hildebrandt was laying on her back. Today was her rest day, something they'd implemented a while back after realizing that grinding rituals as fast as they could cast them was good for a month, but they had years worth of work ahead of them. Today Geoff was finishing up the grunt work of helping the spirit that was slowly boring through stone, while Adam was ranging ahead to try and wrangle a new spirit. The one he had been using prior and he had had a falling out at the end of his last ritual; trying to persuade it to do one more ended up with him in the river and most of their belongings soaked as the spirit left in a huff.

    Hildebrandt smiled to herself. Making a familiar bond with Squirt had been one of the best decisions she had ever made. And the sun was warm, the wind was soft, and there were tree branches waving gently above her head. Slowly, slowly she drifted off into a nap.

    Moments later, her revarie was rudely shattered.

    "Geoff! Hildebrandt! Get up, we have a problem!"

    Hildebrandt opened her eyes. Adam was shouting and running towards them and waving his arms above his head. Not an uncommon occurrence on the edge of what used to be Sylvania, but not a welcome one either. She groaned and rolled to her knees, reaching out with a lethargic soul to the green winds around them.

    "What is it this time? Skeletons? Ghouls? Worse?"

    "No! Yes! Worse! Teclis!"

    Record scratch.

    "Teclis? Legendary founder of the colleges, hasn't been seen in almost two centuries, that Teclis?"

    "Yes!"

    Adam finally reached her, panting, and lowered his voice from a shout. Geoff hurriedly tied off the last bits of the ritual and joined them.

    "Ok, deep breath. What's this about the founder, and how is it our problem?"

    "Teclis wrote to the colleges asking why we, and yes he did mean *us three in particular*, were slacking off."

    "You've got to be fucking kidding me."

    "Nope, got the quoted section right here: yadda yadda yadda, 'and though I must extend my approbation and approval to those working to erect new waystones and expand the network for the first time in thousands of years, I have noted that the prior trajectory of the increase has flattened somewhat recently; please convey to me the reasons for which the pace of reconstruction has slowed, such that advice or assistance may be provided..."

    "Wait. Hold up. Teclis is offering to help us? US?"

    "Well no, he didn't say that. But reading between the lines, I'll be keeping an eye out for comically oversized hats cresting the horizon..."
     
  • Apocrypha
    • deathofrats0808 said:
    Describing how the bluff works doesn't make it any less of a bluff.
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    It was a cheeky way of answering the question "who figured out Mathilde's bluff". No one did, there's no reason to think Mathilde doesn't know anything about Waystones (although come to think of it she did outright admit it to the Lights, so at least they know - though maybe she was lying to them, you know how those Greys are).
     
    LightLan said:
    We are already working on that:
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    That quote actually makes me a bit sad. The Project has been fun, but that hype part of the premise kinda fell flat. Things have been going so well that the bluff hasn't been prominent in the narrative at all.

    Deathbybunnies said:
    Maybe we could get the tattoo done with invisible ink? That's simultaneously keeping it hidden to avoid people noticing, and keeping it hidden because the marks of Ranald are not to be worn openly. I'd unironically be down for that.
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    She could be going for some very coincidentally placed finger scars. Fits with her being a weird Sword-Ranaldian.
     
    Mathilde has also stolen a Thief's fingerprint—never mind that she gave it back—a Father's approval, and even the Winds from the World. And yes, those first two are technically different things. :V
     
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    Nurgle said:
    I love this so much but the problem is that be incredibly dangerous. Like fighting a war, looting a black ark, tricking a waagh, murdering chaos members beside Nurgle, clearing the borderlands, robbing vampires , and so much more is less dangerous.
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    The two posts above mine are about stealing the sword of Khaine.

    I thought I'd match them for difficulty.
     
    Elf Dad proud of his kids is a surprise, but definitely a welcome one.
    Glau said:
    "Nope, got the quoted section right here: yadda yadda yadda, 'and though I must extend my approbation and approval to those working to erect new waystones and expand the network for the first time in thousands of years, I have noted that the prior trajectory of the increase has flattened somewhat recently; please convey to me the reasons for which the pace of reconstruction has slowed, such that advice or assistance may be provided..."

    "Wait. Hold up. Teclis is offering to help us? US?"

    "Well no, he didn't say that. But reading between the lines, I'll be keeping an eye out for comically oversized hats cresting the horizon..."
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    You know, I wonder if Teclis' letters that will upset the other Elves are him presenting our work on the Waystone network as a fait accompli. Sort of couched as "Well, the human Colleges have figured out how to work with the Network, now I have to make sure they have a full understanding of what they're working with."
     
    CeBrudras said:
    That quote actually makes me a bit sad. The Project has been fun, but that hype part of the premise kinda fell flat. Things have been going so well that the bluff hasn't been prominent in the narrative at all.
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    We've kind of already gone past the bluff stage, having successfully drawn in several human factions who do have something to offer. The Colleges haven't offered all that much, but they've been helpful enough here and there to have covered for it in the minds of elves and dwarves, who are probably thinking more in terms of humanity as a whole.

    We aren't seeing the bluff come up because we managed to bluff for long enough it stopped being a bluff, just as planned.
     
    Deathbybunnies said:
    We've kind of already gone past the bluff stage, having successfully drawn in several human factions who do have something to offer. The Colleges haven't offered all that much, but they've been helpful enough here and there to have covered for it in the minds of elves and dwarves, who are probably thinking more in terms of humanity as a whole.

    We aren't seeing the bluff come up because we managed to bluff for long enough it stopped being a bluff, just as planned.
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    It's probably a really good thing that we were able to crib the Belthani tributary design thanks to Tochter.
     
    The real bluff is that at the time that we arrived at Laurelorn and that conversation took place, we only had WEB-MAT on our pocket. We hadn't even had Max check the Colleges' libraries to see who had stuff they were hiding yet. And even when we got Tochter on board, we didn't know just how much the druid stuff could contribute.

    It was in fact a real gambit, although a very calculated one.
     
    QuietlyObserving said:
    Elf Dad proud of his kids is a surprise, but definitely a welcome one.

    You know, I wonder if Teclis' letters that will upset the other Elves are him presenting our work on the Waystone network as a fait accompli. Sort of couched as "Well, the human Colleges have figured out how to work with the Network, now I have to make sure they have a full understanding of what they're working with."
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    Teclis - Listen, you sent me to stop the Humans from messing up the Waystone network. The humans are not messing up the Waystone network. What's the problem?

    Finnbar - I said STOP THE HUMANS, not TEACH THEM HOW TO DO IT RIGHT!!!!!
     
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    Tasoli said:
    I almost snorted tea, thanks for that.


    Yeah thread is dripping with pearls of comedy.
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    The best part is if we can work out some form of "cooperation" cantrip that we can translate to be powered by any wind we could make it WORK!

    Imagine it, an extremely simple spell that acts to put you in "tune" with another caster. Of course that caster needs to know their wind's version of that cantrip to put them in tune with you... but get 8 magisters together able to each cast said cantrip on every other magister in the circle...

    It is theoretically possible for each of the magisters to learn 1/8th a Qhaysh spell...

    Qhaysh should not only be theoretically possible, but magisters are not less powerful than elven mages, even if the elven mages can use multiple winds. 8 magisters working together should be able to channel MORE wind than a single elf mage.
     
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    Mathilde's real bluff was convincing herself that the empire didn't have anything so that she could just go full Grey Wizard and act really confident. :V
     
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