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Across the whole of the old world there's what, 5 heads of state to actually assasinate?
Depends on how you count for, say, individual Dwarf holds or Tilea and Estalia.

If we ignore the southerners and just count Thorgrim, then you've got him, Tzar Vladimir, King Phillippe V, Emperor Luitpold, Queen Marrisith, and Queen Ariel.

So a minimum of 6.

I guess there's also the Council of 13 as a collective? Or do you just count the 4 Great Clans?
 
What Boris asks for is not a quiet assassination in itself,

But he literally does?

"I would have liked him to have a proper end against foes of Kislev, but there is a better way now. Do it as quietly as possible, leaving no evidence.

And after laying out his requirements, he adds a nice-to-have:

If the way you do it could only have been done with magic, that is good."

The "if" part meaning that is we can also do the Lahmian implication while we are doing the quiet kills, it would be good. But the 'do it quietly, leave no evidence' is not a conditional statement; the second part is.


"Ah, my clever and beautiful paramour, are you saying you worry about me having an addiction to books?"

Woohoo! Hit 100 reacts. Thanks everyone!
 
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Depends on how you count for, say, individual Dwarf holds or Tilea and Estalia.

If we ignore the southerners and just count Thorgrim, then you've got him, Tzar Vladimir, King Phillippe V, Emperor Luitpold, Queen Marrisith, and Queen Ariel.

So a minimum of 6.

I guess there's also the Council of 13 as a collective? Or do you just count the 4 Great Clans?
Oh I made an error and only counted human nations, my bad
 
I think it would, actually. What Boris asks for is not a quiet assassination in itself, he wants the death to happen in such a way people would think "Lahmians" if pointed to. A quiet murder fits, but a even a loud murder that implicates the Lahmians works better.
No, he wants a quiet assassination. For one thing, no one's going to believe it was a Lahmian if it's too flashy, it's not their M.O.
 
[X] Plan: Nighttime Heart Attack
-[X] Sneak into the Tzar's room, use mockery of death on him then implant him with a Matrix loaded with Shadow Dagger loaded. Set the matrix off immediately, so he dies in bed.

[X] Nighttime Visit With Style
-[X] Use Mockery of Death so there is no sign of struggle, then stab him in the heart with a Shadow Knife. Leave the room by Substance of Shadows or Smoke and Mirrors, leaving behind an unnaturally quiet death.

Honestly Nighttime Heart Attack fulfills our criteria better than Spontaneous Heart Attack. It is far more quiet and swift, and mockery of death means that his internals being shredded will be far less painful than it by all rights should be.
 
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But he literally does?
Again, he doesn't ask for it in itself. If Lahmians were known to ride down their targets in the middle of the day and cut them where they stand, that's the way he would prefer us to do it. He wants it to happen in such a way that it fits Lahmian MO, not because he prefers one death over the other.
No, he wants a quiet assassination. For one thing, no one's going to believe it was a Lahmian if it's too flashy, it's not their M.O.
"A Lahmian tried but failed to do this quietly" would fit almost as well as "Lahmian tried to do it quietly but we discovered them afterwards", however.
 
Also, I skipped over it, but I want to highlight that. That's some grim shit. Though I guess telling every ten year old how they're going to die is heavy stuff too.
Kislev funerals are noted in Realm of the Ice Queen to be extremely offputting to foreigners. Funerals are held for people who can be expected to die, so this includes all adult men when they join a village rota (because of Kislev's extensive use of militias) and for women right after getting married (because childbirth is dangerous).

Realm of the Ice Queen said:
A pyre is built in a public place and solemnly lit by the person (or persons) whose funeral it is. The relatives then begin mourning his death, as the "dead" person casts a symbolic childhood possession into the flames. After the mourning dirges—which vary from village to village—have been sung, everyone gathers in a circle to tell stories of the "dead" person's devotion to duty. The "dead" person stays outside the circle, moving to stand or sit behind whoever is currently speaking. These stories are an opportunity to tell the "dead" person what is expected of them in their new life and are often traditional tales of heroes or mothers with the appropriate name substituted.

It also notes that if the person in question dies before the funeral, the relatives dress the body up and move it around to perform the funeral 'as normal'. The passage goes on to mention that foreigners think of Kislevites are callous for the straightforward ways they dispose of bodies as if they were waste, but that this is not the case, and that they've "simply already said their goodbyes".

I suppose every culture has a number of traditions that will creep out someone else.
 
[] The most realistic Lahmian assassination.
-[] Carve Kattarin out of her ice prison and let her thaw out in the Tzar's bedroom, everything will work itself out.

[x] Spectacle
[x] Hunting Incident
 
Kislev funerals are noted in Realm of the Ice Queen to be extremely offputting to foreigners. Funerals are held for people who can be expected to die, so this includes all adult men when they join a village rota (because of Kislev's extensive use of militias) and for women right after getting married (because childbirth is dangerous).



It also notes that if the person in question dies before the funeral, the relatives dress the body up and move it around to perform the funeral 'as normal'. The passage goes on to mention that foreigners think of Kislevites are callous for the straightforward ways they dispose of bodies as if they were waste, but that this is not the case, and that they've "simply already said their goodbyes".

I suppose every culture has a number of traditions that will creep out someone else.
It seems likely that the writers based that off of the (apparently false) belief that Russian conscripts in the Napoleonic era would have mock funerals held before they left- because a term of service was 25 years, and statistically conscripts had poor odds of living through to the end.

(The link above is to an Ask Historians thread about it, which argues that there's no contemporary account of actual mock funerals, just a very morbid atmosphere when the soldiers would leave home)
 
@Boney Can we use a Great Deed to acquire BÖÖK for the library from a wide swathe of Empire institutions? Would that be considered a simple arrangement or strongarming negotiation?

[X] Plan: Spontaneous Heart Attack
 
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I'm curious how you got to five with only humans.

Like, if you're counting Miragliano then you need to count every single Tilean city-state and that adds like a dozen.
Kislev's Tzar, the emperor, the king of Bretonia, and the dual heads of state of marienburg, the leader of the Bugerhof, and the staddholder. Wouldn't exactly list anyone from Estalia or Tilea, since they're only geographically relevant in concert, not as individual kingdoms.
 
Kislev's Tzar, the emperor, the king of Bretonia, and the dual heads of state of marienburg, the leader of the Bugerhof, and the staddholder. Wouldn't exactly list anyone from Estalia or Tilea, since they're only geographically relevant in concert, not as individual kingdoms.
Arguably by that metric you should count the Fay Enchantress as the dual head of state of Bretonnia as well. Especially considering she can unilaterally dismiss the King and strip him of his titles.
 
Arguably by that metric you should count the Fay Enchantress as the dual head of state of Bretonnia. Especially considering she can unilaterally dismiss the King and strip him of his titles.
Id call her more as a situation like the queen of England and Canada. She has a lot of power in the country but is uninvolved. Also, not human, so wouldn't be relevant to the question either way
 
@Boney Can we use a Great Deed to acquire BÖÖK for the library from a wide swathe of Empire institutions? Would that be considered a simple arrangement or strongarming negotiation?
Be granted the right to make copies of all written materials within one library under Imperial (non-Collegiate, non-Cult) authority. Provide your own scribes.
From the Collection of Important Information threadmark, on the uses of Great Deeds. One library per Deed, and it can't be a religious institution (like the University of Altdorf unfortunately is) and it can't be a Collegiate institution (like the Light Order's library).

A year and a half ago, there was a lot of discussion about using our Great Deed for permission to copy the University of Nuln's library, as the largest target after Altdorf, but there was a lot of pushback against spending our sole Great Deed on this. Then the gun foundries fell into a sinkhole and someone had the idea of using the Metalsmith's Guild boon to fix things in exchange for copying rights to all of Nuln's libraries, and that took off.
 
[-] Nighttime Visit With Style
[X] Plan: Nighttime Heart Attack

If it looks like it'll matter I'll approval vote all "Mockery of Death the Tzar and kill him in sleep" plans, partly because I really don't want Mathilde to get caught and these are relatively safe, but mostly because if one of those wins then the Tzar dies in his sleep without feeling fear or pain.
I don't like doing this at all, but if we must do it I'll much rather Vladimir goes peacefully. Though shout out to the heart attack plan, the whole "magically make his chest explode with magic knives" is very clever and I wouldn't mind using it in the future when Mathilde kills someone who actually has it coming.
 
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Because you had said that only counting humans was an error.
Yeah, I did. That response was specifically about human heads of state, and I made an error on that. You then asked me how I got to 5 with human heads of state, then you responded to *that*. At what point did we circle away from human heads of state? I said my numbers were wrong because I didn't add X, you asked how I got to the number without adding X, then when I shared that you went alright so it's 7 or more, at no point specifying you added X back in.
 
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