Generally I assume that involving Ranald in making tributaries wouldn't work so well because he wouldn't just "message" every one of his priests to do this. Be barely messages us and he likes us. Ranaldians themselves have not enough organization to get a project that size moving.
Ranald doesnt directly talk to us specifically, its part of his entertainment by messing with us. Its probably the case that there are others of his followers that he also uses the routine on but he definitely directly talks to some.
If the Belthani tributary ritual called on naiads, who are limited to a short area around their body of water rather than a god who can be called upon anywhere, we would know this. This would be incredibly obvious to any study of the ritual. Totchter rolled a 74 on the study of the artifact and got a result of above one hundred. There is absolutely zero reason to think that the interpretation of the ritual was that far off. Especially because Aksel just swapped out the Earth Mother for Haletha. If it was calling upon naiads rather than a god it would not have been so easy.
Niedzwenka would have been the one noted to have just swapped stuff around rather than Aksel.
This is something that would have been mentioned in the narrative. There is not even a hint of it.
The project proves to be as gruelling as you feared, and your own agonizing and plodding research is quickly outstripped by Tochter filling page after page with notes. Unfortunately, having the Druid judge whether the Druids can have access to the questionable Druidic stele is not in keeping with the institutional paranoia of the Grey Order, so this doesn't mean you can drop the matter in her much more skilled hands and leave her to it, so you continue determinedly on. It doesn't take long for her to have broken the consecration ritual into what she believes to be discrete and translatable steps, and after receiving your praise for doing so she takes the first drafts to Cadaeth, Aksel, Zlata, and Niedzwenka for the five of them to see whether they can translate it into their individual paradigms. And you, meanwhile, continue at a cracking pace of two to three pictograms a day.
....
Aksel has very straightforwardly swapped out the Earth Mother for Halétha and is ready to give it a try
That it can be destroyed is only part of the issue. Infrastructure outside the Karak can also be subverted. It would be difficult if not impossible to subvert tributaries, but it would be very difficult to convince Dwarf kings of the reliability of Zhuf nonsense.
Also the Dwarfs did not put waystones on their network. They only have the Karak-nexuses and mountain-relays. It would have been trivial for the Dwarfs of the Golden Age to add waystones to their mountains, but they didn't. It will be difficult to get Dwarf kings to move past defensive concerns and the actions of their Ancestors.
Ranald doesnt directly talk to us specifically, its part of his entertainment by messing with us. Its probably the case that there are others of his followers that he also uses the routine on but he definitely directly talks to some.
To all priests at once? To convey a ritual? Which if done wrong probably gets them into trouble with local authorities for a case they might not even care about?
Ranald is many things, one of them is pragmatic.
I doubt he would be willing to do this without some heavy investment on our part... Heavy enough I doubt we would be willing to pay up...
Yeah, I can't even think about an effective way to weaponize them. You can't make them send more magic because that's much more complicated, you can't even make them send dhar or some such because how slow the trickle is. Like the only way I can think of to weaponize them is to use the rocks as ammunition...
I just assume dwarven tributaries would be all rock all the way but point. Can't even lob that 90 kilo rock 300 meters at your enemies fortifications...smh
To harm the Karak. Tributaries send energy to the waystone. In the case of the Dwarf Network, the only waystones are the nexuses. Subverting some of tributaries could threaten the nexus and the entire Dwarf Network.
I am not arguing from the perspective of a wizard. I am arguing from the perspective of a Dwarf King. You are trying to argue against me as if I was a wizard. You need to tailor your arguments to make a Dwarf King willing to use a magic ritual not even a decade old and ignore tradition that has existed for millennia before the Empire was even a dream in Sigmar's mind.
And the dwarven king would go to the dwarfs tasked with protecting his people from bad juju and the annoyed runesmith would say "this is not even enough zhuf to recharge a light rune." And that's that. Dwarfs can be stubborn but they aren't stupid.
Liminal Germination, Fourth and Final Draft
Type: Arcane
Arcane Language: Lingua Praestantia
Difficulty: Moderately Complicated
Description: The ritual makes a standing stone exist simultaneously in reality and the Dreaming Wood, allowing it to draw magical energy out of the forest and sink it into the ground.
Consequences: If failed, plantlife in the area is cut off from the Dreaming Wood. Usually this means they will be outcompeted by other plants, but it can become the residence of any number of beings that may be hostile to the Woods.
Ingredients: A seed from the locally dominant form of plant life, a rhyton dedicated to a nature God.
Conditions: A Dreaming Wood must be present, and the ritual must be cast by at least two people who have spent at least a week from the last month within it.
Casting Time: One week.
Roots of Stone, Second and Final Draft
Type: Arcane
Arcane Language: Was Jutonian
Difficulty: Moderately Complicated
Description: The ritual calls upon Halétha to partially subsume a standing stone into the Hedge, so that it will draw magical energies out of the air and allow them to come to rest deep within the ground.
Consequences: If failed, local Winds will be riled up, making spellcasting more dangerous and aggravating local spirits.
Ingredients: Dowsing rod, standing stone, lodestone (consumed)
Conditions: The ritual must be cast by someone from the lineage of the Was Jutones, or within the Forest of Shadows.
Casting Time: One week.
Aethyric Impluvium, Fourth and Final Draft
Type: Arcane
Arcane Language: Scythian
Difficulty: Fiendishly Complex
Description: The ritual forms an inverted spring that drains magical energies into the ground to fountain through the soil.
Consequences: If failed, the spirit will be empowered to attack or attempt to escape from the caster.
Ingredients: Water drawn from the local water basin (consumed), a biscuit (consumed).
Conditions: Requires the presence of a water-spirit.
Casting time: Two days.
This one doesn't mention a standing stone. I see two possibilities:
1) It's meant to use a standing stone as a focus, like all the others reverse-engineered from the Belthani, but Boney left it out of the description.
2) Baba Niedzwenka designed it to make the spirit function as the magical replacement for the standing stone, because she is OP bullshit who has not given a single solitary fuck in centuries.
(At this point my disbelief is entirely suspended when it comes to Supervillain Granny. She could claim that she has done basically anything, even stuff we'd previously believed was impossible, and I'd go "yeah that tracks." Never gonna catch me betting against Baba.)
So, at least two and possibly all three of them use a standing stone, just like the Belthani tributaries by which they were inspired.
And the dwarven king would go to the dwarfs tasked with protecting his people from bad juju and the annoyed runesmith would say "this is not even enough zhuf to recharge a light rune." And that's that. Dwarfs can be stubborn but they aren't stupid.
Then they don't need to do anything since it is obviously so inconsequential.
Also, for some reason, I am not quite sure why, I do not think that the notoriously conservative Runesmith's Guild is going to be happy with Umgi Zhufokri doing rituals that sends magic to the Karak.
Hm, does anyone have any guesses why I might think that? I swear it's just on the tip of my tongue.
Thorek is willing to make Runic tributaries. That at least implies he thinks we can get enough Runesmiths to cover problem areas. But that isn't a statement about whether the Karaz Ankor would like tributaries. That statement is something else. Boney has stated Dwarf opinion about tributaries before.
This is a good point. Boney, if you don't mind my asking: do we know whether "dwarves not using tributaries" is the case, or would finding out whether this is the case be the result of taking the Waystone: Other Networks action for the Karaz Ankor?
This one doesn't mention a standing stone. I see two possibilities:
1) It's meant to use a standing stone, like all the others reverse-engineered from the Belthani, but Boney left it out.
2) Baba Niedzwenka designed it to make the spirit function as the magical replacement for the standing stone, because she is OP bullshit.
It's really weird. The first draft of that ritual was named Spirit-Stone Tributary Ritual. I think that implies Boney just left it out.
But the action when Mathilde deployed them to Stirland did not mention anything about standing-stones. The only requirements it mentioned were lesser-naiads, knowledge of Scythian, and the actual casters.
I've been wondering for a while I just keep on forgetting to ask.
Aethyric Impluvium requires the presence, if not necessarily the cooperation, of a water-spirit, as well as a solid grasp of the magical vocabulary of the Scythian language.
Also, for some reason, I am not quite sure why, I do not think that the notoriously conservative Runesmith's Guild is going to be happy with Umgi Zhufokri doing rituals that sends magic to the Karak.
I don't know, why do you think that dwarven runesmiths would have a problem with enhancing their ancestors work by fighting chaos on a broader scale?
But that's aside the point. My initial point was that tributaries are so none threatening they can not be seen as a real security risk if you even just understand them a little bit. They can still be seen as a liability, because dwarfs would see anything they build as something they would need to protect.
But they are definitely not a danger to the karak and can't be made so without turning the damn things into waystones themselves and then you got other problems.
I don't know, why do you think that dwarven runesmiths would have a problem with enhancing their ancestors work by fighting chaos on a broader scale?
But that's aside the point. My initial point was that tributaries are so none threatening they can not be seen as a real security risk if you even just understand them a little bit. They can still be seen as a liability, because dwarfs would see anything they build as something they would need to protect.
But they are definitely not a danger to the karak and can't be made so without turning the damn things into waystones themselves and then you got other problems.
Dwarf culture as a whole is rather conservative. The Runesmiths are only more so. They are notoriously conservative even. Their ancestors did not add tributaries to their network. They also did not waystones to their network. They deemed the nexuses and relays to be sufficient. Why would some of the most traditionalist Dwarfs in the whole Karaz Ankor decide to depart from the wisdom of their ancestors when tributaries will barely do anything for them? It's not like Dwarfs live outside of the Karak. There is already a nexus absorbing the energies near the Karak. Tributaries might increase the efficiency a bit, but why would they care about that enough to build them? There can be tributaries that don't connect to the Dwarf network.
The Dwarfs of Karak Vlag shifted so much because they were literally in the Realms of Chaos. That did not make them any less concerned about external infrastructure, if anything it probably made them more concerned.
Then you are arguing against what Boney said. Boney's response to picklepikkl's question about tributaries on the Dwarf network was that external infrastructure has been seen as an threat since the Time of Woes. I am not the one saying that Dwarfs would view tributaries as external infrastructure and thus an inherent security risk, Boney is.
This is a good point. Boney, if you don't mind my asking: do we know whether "dwarves not using tributaries" is the case, or would finding out whether this is the case be the result of taking the Waystone: Other Networks action for the Karaz Ankor?
It's really weird. The first draft of that ritual was named Spirit-Stone Tributary Ritual. I think that implies Boney just left it out.
But the action when Mathilde deployed them to Stirland did not mention anything about standing-stones. The only requirements it mentioned were lesser-naiads, knowledge of Scythian, and the actual casters.
I've been wondering for a while I just keep on forgetting to ask.
This one doesn't mention a standing stone. I see two possibilities:
1) It's meant to use a standing stone as a focus, like all the others reverse-engineered from the Belthani, but Boney left it out of the description.
2) Baba Niedzwenka designed it to make the spirit function as the magical replacement for the standing stone, because she is OP bullshit who has not given a single solitary fuck in centuries.
Exactly how much the standing stone is needed seems to vary, given that the Halethan one doesn't need a specially prepared stone, it can use any normal one:
The first ritual mentions a standing stone in its ingredients, but the others don't. The second ritual does mention the standing stone in its description, though.
It requires a specially-prepared standing stone with carvings dedicating it to Haletha. The other two could just be done on any ol' rock, so it's not so much an ingredient as it is a target.
Boney's stated before that because the original Belthani ritual works by putting most of the work onto an external force for the initial push (the Earth Mother or maybe Rhya or maybe Ghyran), so must all the derived rituals: thus, ours work with a Dreaming Wood, a goddess, and any water spirit.
Given this, it doesn't seem like that much of a stretch that Niedwenka could just completely crush the need for the standing stone and placing all the burden on a spirit. The stone for the original and for the Dreaming Woods one is just there to facilitate things on the caster's end, and that may or may not be why Niedwenka's tributary is Fiendishly Complex rather than Moderately Complicated.
(Incidentally, this is one reason why the Belthani method might not be all that helpful to Runesmiths: without an external force doing the metaphysical pushing or pulling, there is more difficulty on the caster's end. Thorek might need to call onto a dwarven Ancestor-God, or perhaps would need to compensate with powerful and/or expensive ingredients. To me it seems more likely that either the Scythian or Lornalim tributaries would be more up his alley. Who knows.)
(At this point my disbelief is entirely suspended when it comes to Supervillain Granny. She could claim that she has done basically anything, even stuff we'd previously believed was impossible, and I'd go "yeah that tracks." Never gonna catch me betting against Baba.)
Yeah, I feel like the next time we meet a different Hag Witch, we will have zero idea what she 'should' be capable of. Unless Boney decides to canonize Mother Ostankya from TW3, Niedzwenka may well be the most dangerous Hag Witch alive.
Given this, it doesn't seem like that much of a stretch that Niedwenka could just completely crush the need for the standing stone and placing all the burden on a spirit. The stone for the original and for the Dreaming Woods one is just there to facilitate things on the caster's end, and that may or may not be why Niedwenka's tributary is Fiendishly Complex rather than Moderately Complicated.
It requires a specially-prepared standing stone with carvings dedicating it to Haletha. The other two could just be done on any ol' rock, so it's not so much an ingredient as it is a target.
which implies that Aethyric Impluvium also requires a rock as the target of the ritual. So, in fact, all three of these constitute magical infrastructure.
Sure, but in the same Boneypost you quote there, they say this:
which implies that Aethyric Impluvium also requires a rock as the target of the ritual. So, in fact, all three of these constitute magical infrastructure.
There hasn't really been any effort to experiment with materials for the tributaries because when you want something that's both durable and unremarkable enough to not be messed with, it's really hard to beat a big ol' rock.
[*] Plan Building A Better Future (With reverse engineering)
-[*] [CAPSTONE] Stone Flower
-[*] [RUNE] Dwarven
-[*] [STORAGE] Reverse-engineered
-[*] [FOUNDATION] Grey Lord
-[*] [TRANSMISSION] Both (Jade Riverine)
The configuration you've decided on is one heavily reliant on components designed by the Grey Lords, with only the Dwarven Rune and the Jade riverine transmission being designed by others. If taken as a message, it would be one that argues the wisdom of Laurelorn as the host of the Waystone Project and seeks to justify the nascent alliance Middenland struck with them. But as the piece of magical architecture it actually is, it is a vanguard, and it is in that where one can find the true statement of intent. If all you wanted was to fill already-secured territory to make it proof against the ravages of Morrsleib and storms of magic, or to gradually chip away at the edges of corrupted areas like Sylvania and the Drakwald, then there were much easier ways to accomplish that. This configuration is built for beachheads, to be erected where it is least welcome and to begin the work of draining away the worst pockets of corruption on the continent. In that purpose it not only matches the Waystones of the Golden Age, but exceeds them.
Hatalath and Thorek take responsibility for the capstone and the rune respectively, while the foundation and transmission are taken back to their Colleges by Elrisse and Tochter. That leaves the storage mechanism, which is going to need a great deal of careful work to get it to the point where mere words can describe how difficult it will be to make, and after some thought you send word to House Tindomiel that it's time for them to start making good on your agreement with them. You've been a bit disgruntled that they'd winkled concessions from you even though the political situation meant they had no choice but to cooperate, which means you don't feel even slightly bad about dropping such a headache into their laps.
---
Several months later the last of the components are delivered to the Waystone Project's estate. Within what was once a ballroom a number of individually incomprehensible stone blocks lie on sheets of thick canvas, waiting for you and your team to assemble them into something that will change the fate of the world. Which is, of course, significantly easier said than done.
So far when thinking about the construction of Waystones you've started from the top and worked your way down, since that is the path the Winds take when being absorbed into and travelling through them. But mentally planning out the process of assembly presented several major problems, not least of which is the annoying insistence of gravity to get involved when working with large stone blocks, so for this you'll be starting from the bottom.
[Transmission, Jade Order: 52+??=??.]
The Jades have delivered exactly as promised: a granite menhir, selected and harvested using criteria and methods dating back millennia, has been carved with flowing spirals and paired with a flat-topped granite spike. They've performed further testing to ensure that it will work when simply planted in the silt at the bottom of the river, rather than needing a tunnel to be dug below the river. How much easier that will be will depend on the river, but even the most difficult of watercourses are easier to dredge than they are to tunnel under.
[Foundation, Light Order: 92+??=??.]
The Grey Lords had delivered a set of enchanting instructions so complex and interwoven that they would have had reason to believe that human enchanters would be capable of no more than slavishly following them. Overwhelming smugness exuded from Elrisse and Egrimm as they reported to you in private that the Grey Lords were severely mistaken. Deep within the pyramid of the Light Order, the thaumaturgic schematics were scrutinized not just by their enchanters, but also by their mathematicians, philosophers, cipherers, and steganographers, as well as anyone else interested in locking horns with minds that predate the Empire. Under the collective scrutiny of minds honed by finding hidden messages in correspondence and hidden mental traps in benign-seeming books and pamphlets, the enchantment schema has been unravelled, studied, and recompiled in ways more conducive to the Light Order's enchantment paradigm. The insights gleaned from the process are making their way through the Colleges' publication process, though it remains to be seen whether anything of practical use could come of it, or if it is merely of academic interest as an insight into a specific subset of Elven enchantment techniques. Also produced is a block of shiny white marble, into which the enchantment and its material components have somehow been embedded while leaving the stone intact.
[Pharological Perspective on Recursion in Elven Enchantment, 2491. Subject: Rare, +1. Insight: Revolutionary, +2. Delivery: Competent, +0. Very Exotic, +2. Varied, +1. Contributor, -3. Classified, -2. Total: +1.]
But while the Lights being able to make adaptations to the enchantment at all is an impressive feat, some of the lustre is diminished when it's discovered that something about those adaptations makes it no longer compatible with the Jades' granite spike, causing the Dhar to leak out and be reabsorbed instead of sent on its way. Though nobody's exactly happy to hear about this, you'd primed everyone to expect delays and set aside copious amount of times to deal with them. As long as this doesn't set the tone for the rest of the assembly process, this should still lead to something workable.
[Storage, House Tindomiel: 28+??=??.]
The reverse-engineered storage mechanism is going to be an utter beast to try to create the first working example of, and you're somewhat disappointed that House Tindomiel set to the job without complaint. The frazzled-looking Mage that delivers the block of basalt containing the mechanism leaves it in the custody of Sarvoi before happily turning their back on it and leaving, and judging from the overlapping layering of Runes in varying depths and with various material inlays, it took quite a bit of work above and beyond the original schematics to stabilize the enchantment to Elven standards. Sarvoi is already taking notes on improvements that can be made for the next iteration of this component. You wonder how keen they'll be to take advantage of their right of first refusal for constructing the Waystones after this preview.
[Storage-Foundation compatibility: 72+??=??.]
Thankfully, despite the aesthetic clash between the dark grey of the stone Tindomiel decided to work with - maybe basalt? would there be a source of basalt nearby? - and the marble of the Lights, the two manage to harmonize with only a minor amount of calibration.
[Capstone, Grey Lords: 20+??=??.]
You'd expected something special from the Grey Lords, and from Hatalath's disgruntled mien you suspect he did too and he's not happy about delivering exactly what was asked of them and no more. It is, at least, less flashy than the original, resembling a stone pyramidion of similar dimensions to that of the golden one atop regular Waystones. You say 'resembling' because when you get close it becomes apparent that it's actually an octagonal pyramid with the angles flattened to resemble the square pyramid shape you're familiar with - one face for each Wind, naturally. This would have required the builder to come up with four pairs of Winds that are the least obstructive to each other, and as soon as you realize the conversation this is likely to spawn, and the inevitable debate to follow, you quickly move on to getting it cooperating with the storage section. Gotthilf Puchta dedicated an entire chapter of their enormous Modest Treatise to the subject of Wind cardinality, and you doubt a month has passed since the founding of the Colleges without a debate on the matter breaking out.
[Capstone-Storage compatibility: 78+??=??.]
In this you find more to admire, and you make no attempt to hide your pleasant surprise at the capstone slowly and gently rotating itself in place until it interfaces with the storage mechanism with a pleasant hum, dormant sections of the enchantment activating and bridging the gap between the two without actually touching.
Thorek's part in this needs to wait until the stone cladding is put over the assembled components - as necessary as it is for insulation and durability, hiding away the clashing aesthetics of the multiple components is equally important in your eyes - but once it is done, Thorek spends several days running his hands over it and examining it from every angle while taking copious notes, and then a mere afternoon chiselling a Rune - three diagonal lines coming off one horizontal one - into one side of the new Waystone. Nothing visibly changes but you can feel the faint suction already pulling on Ulgu in the room strengthen slightly but insistently. Similarly invisible but inexorable is that within the Waystone the Winds are drawn constantly downwards, greatly reducing the chances of any Winds managing to escape as they are passed from one component of the Waystone to the next.
With the Waystone complete and almost functioning with only a single major flaw, most of the members of the project begin testing the functioning parts of the Waystone prototype, turning the Schaukel slightly more magical in the process, while Tochter and Elrisse coordinate on seeking a solution to the incompatibility between their components. Monitoring their work with careful discretion, you're unsurprised to learn that the Jades are hesitant to turn over the details of their side of things, but as the Lights are working with someone else's secrets they don't hesitate. This brings a new set of eyes onto the vivisected enchantment and before long another paper is in the works and the Jades are able to make the necessary corrections on their side to bring the two components into harmony. You don't have time right now to give the papers more than a skim, but what you do manage to grasp from them convinces you that it could be wise to find the time in the near future.
[Agrological Perspective on Recursion in Elven Enchantment, 2491. Subject: Rare, +1. Insight: Agreeing, +1. Delivery: Competent, +0. Very Exotic, +2. Varied, +1. Contributor, -3. Classified, -2. Total: +0 (rounded to +1).]
In the end, a new granite spike comes out of the Jade College and makes its way to Tor Lithanel, and it slots into place without trouble. After weeks spent connecting and disconnecting these pieces, it's somewhat anticlimactic that this time, barely distinguishable from all the others, is when the work is complete. Still, as you look at the uprooted Waystone propped up in the middle of the former ballroom, you feel a tickle of pride and smile. Perhaps it will feel realer once it's actually planted out in the world and fulfilling its actual purpose.
The New Waystones
(will be renamed if other Waystone types are created)
For your study of the Waystone Network of the Karaz Ankor, you and Thorek have decided that the safest specimen would be where the flow from Karak Eight Peaks joins that of Karak Azul, directly south of Karaz-a-Karak and directly east of Karak Eight Peaks. The mountain in question stands beside the path from Karak Eight Peaks' East Gate to Death Pass and as such is frequently travelled by merchants and patrolled by the Undumgi, so only a modest escort of Clan Ironbrow Longbeards was deemed necessary. Said escort had harrumphed quite a bit at the presence of an Umgi child until Thorek had explained that she was your Apprentice, at which point she became considered an extension of yourself and her presence on this trip was as beyond question as that of your weaponry.
The Rune in question is absolutely massive and easily visible when you know what to look for, and indistinguishable from the natural crags and contours of the mountainside if you don't. On this particular mountain it's on the southwestern flank and so gradually becomes visible as you approach. Eike becomes aware of your eyes on her before she spots the Rune, which tips her off that there's something to see and leads her to finding it a few moments later.
"We could go out today and carve the same runes upon a mountain, and it would last until the next rain or snow or rockslide," Thorek says as you near the base of the chosen exemplar. "Barely enough time to have begun accumulating momentum. If that was all there was to it, the ones that connect the Karaks could not have survived the millennia that have passed, or earthquakes like those that marked the beginning of the Time of Woes. That these Runes have survived to this day means they can only have been carved with a full understanding of the discontinuities, catchment funnels, and gap winds that act on the mountains over time, so that these forces will carve the Runes deeper, rather than obliterating them. I cannot even begin to fathom how they were able to so deeply understand an unbroken chain of mountains from Karak Azgal to Karak Vlag more truly than we today do those of our own Karaks."
You run your eyes over the stone within the fissure which shows no sign of ever having felt a pick. The World's Edge Mountains is rich with earthbound magic, the largest portion of which was once Azyr that was blown into it by the wind or earthed by storms, and that faint background glow makes anything the Rune might be doing impossible to perceive from here. To actually examine what it is doing would require you to dig into the subterranean flows of magic deep below the roots of the mountains, far below the depths where Dwarven or even Skaven tunnels usually penetrate. "It was my impression that Runes are remarkably sensitive to the exact alignment of angles."
"Aye, but if you measure them you'll note that even today they're within tolerance of even the pickiest of Runesmiths. Working on this scale means being off by tens of meters is equivalent to an error too small to be normally visible. Over enough time the gradual changes do accumulate enough to weaken the Rune, but the cumulative effect it has had on the nature of the mountains themselves grows in strength faster. At this point it would require levelling a dozen mountains to make the connection weaker than it was when the Runes were first carved, and that's not the sort of thing you could even begin to do without being noticed by Rangers or Gyrocopters."
"It's self-reinforcing?" Eike asks.
"Aye," you say, "so the longer it has to establish itself, the harder it would be to try to shift it. Remind you of anyone?" If anything, you privately suspect, Thorek might actually be understating the effect it would have had. If huge amounts of magical energy have been travelling through the same path for thousands upon thousands of years, then you suspect that every mountain with this Rune upon it could be levelled and the flow would continue uninterrupted. But Dwarves place a lot of metaphorical weight on the unchanging nature of stone, and so would be uncomfortable with the idea that it is quite possible for what amounts to a very large amount of stone to be permanently and irreversibly changed.
You'd very much like to be able to take a sample of that stone. You'd even more like to have a very large amount of it to experiment with.
---
After you've taken sufficient observations and notes on the Rune, every one of which match what Thorek expected to find, you take the opportunity to converse with Thorek out of earshot of your Apprentice and escort. "The question of what happens to the magical energies when they reach Karaz-a-Karak is one I have heard broached before, and with a certain intensity," you say, with oblique understatement. "A similar question has been asked regarding energies reaching Ulthuan. The Sevir have the status of both unwanted pollutant and a powerful resource, depending on specific context. Currently most considerations of the Waystone Networks are entirely that of pollutants being removed, but a consideration of a resource being transferred from one polity to another becomes murkier."
"That would especially be the case if there are existing tensions," Thorek says, his voice carefully neutral, and you nod. He might be talking about tensions between, say, Laurelorn and the Empire, or the Karaz Ankor and Ulthuan. He's not, but he might be. "So the first question must be whether questions should be asked at all, as they cannot be un-asked."
"It might be less potentially troublesome to keep our investigation entirely about the point-to-point logistics instead of asking questions about what happens next," you agree. "Either way, it would cause trouble if we were inconsistent in this. Even if we never examine the workings of Ulthuan, both Laurelorn and Kislev would be put out if we started asking questions of them that we did not ask of the Karaz Ankor."
Thorek nods, then frowns in thought. "The opposite would also hold - if the Dwarves were seen to share a glimpse of the most ancient of secrets, then it would be difficult for the Elves and Wyrzhufokri to argue that their own deserve greater consideration."
"It would," you agree.
"The precise nature of the asking would also matter. The Karak Azul Runesmiths asking the Karaz-a-Karak Runesmiths would have a different nature to Karak Eight Peaks asking Karaz-a-Karak."
"As would the Empire asking the Karaz Ankor, or the Colleges asking the Runesmiths." Or, you think but don't say, you could just ask Kragg yourself, as the only individual more likely to know the truth of the matter would be the High King, and you have something of a rapport with him. But Kragg is, to put it lightly, not big on revealing secrets to the undeserving, and is also not Thorek's favourite person.
[ ] Empire to Empire Ask the Karaz Ankor on behalf of the Empire.
[ ] Karak to Karak Ask Karaz-a-Karak on behalf of Karak Eight Peaks.
[ ] Guild to Guild Ask the Runesmiths Guilds on behalf of the Colleges of Magic.
[ ] Runesmith to Runesmith Ask the Karaz-a-Karak Runesmiths Guild on behalf of the Karak Azul Runesmiths Guild.
[ ] Okri to Okri Ask Kragg on behalf of yourself.
[ ] Other (write in)
[ ] Do not ask Leave the matter outside of the scope of the Waystone Project.
- There will be a two hour moratorium.
- Dice rolls for the Waystone were made here.
- It is intended that 'do not ask' might win even if the other options receive more votes collectively - the matter is sensitive enough that it should be shelved if no possible approach can make itself a clear winner.
- If 'do not ask' wins, Mathilde will spend the remainder of the action mapping and studying the Karaz Ankor network, including trying to figure out if it's possible to take a sample of the leyline-stone.
It's a shame the concept of plate tectonics is only known to the Lizardmen, because I feel like it would both explain how even mountains can be shifted while still providing an explanation of 'stone is unyielding'…
But uhh.
This kind of political-scientific blending is going to be easier said then done to navigate, I can tell that right now.
…The nasty thought is how Chaos just loooves the idea of questions not to be asked, because then they can have their inserts ask those questions and turn things towards the sort of political brinksmanship that gives them the in they need to cause major damage.
