"That may not be the best price to extract from them. The means of connecting a new Waystone to the network cannot be reverse engineered - it has a security mechanism of sorts protecting it - and must be acquired from either Ulthuan or Naggaroth. There are potential workarounds for that we've been working on, but they would be inefficient and could negatively influence the area around them. It was my hope that Ulthuan could be convinced to become a part of the Project, which would involve them providing that means."
He frowns. "Negatively influence, how?"
"It would involve using rivers to transport the energies, and then spilling them out to be reabsorbed by nexuses at the mouth of rivers - in Kislev's case, Erengrad and Castle Alexandronov. The exact effect would depend on the energies in question, but considering the priority for Kislev would be removing the Chaos taint from Praag and Troll Country, it could be very bad for the affected places. It's possible we could refine the details to minimize that problem, but if we had Ulthuan's knowledge, we could build our additions directly into the existing network and not have any of those problems in the first place."
Mathilde might be a bit duplicitious here. Kislev is the part of the Network that probably needs the keyphrases the least, come to think of it. As far as I know, the keyphrases are a signal for Caledor or the archmages to get the Waystone Network to do something. Kislev's network is cutoff from Caledor. The Ice Witches can presumably get the Ancient Widow to do those things. They might even have done so in the past: when they raised Castle Alexandronov.
He mulls that over a while longer. "Very well. Wealth alone cannot restore Praag. But if we can get more than just words from them, we should."
I'm pretty sure the keyphrases Mathilde is extracting from Ulthuan are words.
Over the course of the discussion she manages to extract a promise from Eltharion that his 'Mistwalkers' - the elite warriors of Yvresse - will pay an unannounced visit to a number of Sarl colonies in the Kalti delta, on the north coast of Kislev. It's unclear why that group in particular has apparently earned Niedzwenka's ire, but nobody at the table has any objections to Ulthuan's might coming down hard on Norscan incursions into the Old World proper.
This seems like a reference to
Blackout's Mercenary Mage Quest. Unless Blackstar was referencing something in WFB too. Or it could just be a coincidence.
The problem is that everyone on the table is wary of that sentiment concluding with 'so you should give me all your magical secrets', not least of which because everyone at the table is open to the possibility of uncovering someone else's secrets.
I thought this line was funny, but I wasn't sure if something got left out. I think the intent of the sentence is that everyone is fine with getting magical secrets from everyone else without sharing any of their own.
3. All signatories to these accords will disclose to all others the approximate location of Nexuses within their lands, as well as promptly communicate to the others should any of those nexuses be destroyed, damaged beyond their ability to repair, or captured beyond their ability to retake.
We'll find out if the Tower of Se-Athil is a nexus. I'd hope Ulthuan would tell the Empire about any nexuses (functioning or not) in the Empire that the Empire doesn't know about, but probably not happening. Especially because the only one I can think of would be in Athel Toralien. Though there might be another in the Mirror Moors.
I'm sure Boris will be happy to find out that Kislev's border with Ostland is entirely covered by fallen Nexuses.
Eltharion has outright said that should Ulthuan receive what he seeks through this line, he will ensure that Ulthuan will reciprocate in the form of the details on how to connect new Waystones directly to the existing network. You would hopefully be able to get more than that if the right people in Ulthuan are feeling cooperative, but Eltharion has promised that as an absolute minimum.
I mentioned this earlier, but I'm positive this means that we will have to take an action to share the tributaries with Ulthuan next turn to have the keyphrases next turn for the prototype.
This also gives us a path to get more waystone secrets out of Ulthuan. We probably will want to make a waystone Ulthuan can build on its own without Dwarf runesmiths. I doubt any would want to visit Ulthuan. We have the components to make one, and it might be easier to build than what Ulthuan remembers. At least one of the components should be. The Golden Age storage enchantment used in the original waystone used High Magic. The Collegiate one doesn't. So that should be easier to find people to make at least. Or just use materials. Ulthuan could source Dwarf machines through Tilea.
If the components we have are simpler than what Ulthuan can make, that should provide an avenue for Ulthuan sharing more of its secrets about the Waystone Network. I am curious if Ulthuan still has access to the original storage enchantment or if they don't have the capability for that anymore.
Edit: Something I just thought of. How does the Dwarf Clockwork make the Dhar that the magic is orbitted around?
