This was a fun update Boney!
You wonder how keen they'll be to take advantage of their right of first refusal for constructing the Waystones after this preview.
Even if there was no other benefit of the storage, this would be enough to make me vote for it out of spite.
"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."
I'm curious
who did the carving of the Rune. They definitely could have pulled a similar trick as Karak Vlag did: find every dwarf with so much as a single drop of Thungni's heritage in them and gotten them to swarm the mountain and carve out the rune one chasm at a time.
Somewhat disappointing that it is impossible to replicate, but I wasn't expecting anything different.
"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."
Thorek is a really fun Dwarf to read. Him trying to act shifty like this just makes him stand out wonderfully as a character. Dwarves will tiptoe around shame, like Karak Vlag did with Borek. Or like with Ulthar and his
father. You can see his political astuteness here too.
"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."
I thought these paragraphs were interesting. I honestly did not think of asking Laurelorn and Kislev anything about what they were doing with their energy. I would guess Laurelorn is enhancing their forest while Kislev is empowering the Ancient Widow.
But these are important things to ask.
[ ] 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.
I'm genuinely not sure what to do here. Out of character we want it to stay in the hands of as few people as possible. Even the Empire to Empire is rather ehhh.
Asking as Karak Eight Peaks really could go badly. Guild to Guild seems like the fourth most secret of the options. Runesmith to Runesmith seems like a decent answer honestly. I would absolutely trust the Runesmiths with that information.
Asking as the head of the project might not be the greatest idea.
But this question needs to be asked. Thorgrim just announced that each of the Old Holds (and Norn!) have nexuses. Everyone is going to be wondering what they are doing with the magic. Including all of the Kings. I would say it's possible they have an idea that it's being used for the good of the realm but have forgotten the details. But if any of the Holds would remember I bet it would be Karak Azul due to how relatively undamaged it is and Thorek seems to have nothing.
But this is also a question that can be asked by someone who is
not us!
- 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.
I hope that this will also include investigating whether Mordheim was connecting to Karak Kadrin and all the other ones.
Actually, I just thought of something. Where is this new Waystone going to go? We haven't done a survey of Kislev's network yet, so I don't think it would be wise to just plunk it in there right now, but the whole "first Waystone creates by the project" is a milestone that only comes once, and I can see a number of potential political uses and issues for wherever we wind up putting it.
Laurelorn. They're the host. They are elves, they possess immense capability to be snubbed.
Will we get a [] De-Praag-ify Praag option next turn, in the Waystone section?
I would rather eat glass.
Praag has a river flowing through it, but it's right through the middle. We would be cutting ourselves off from deploying waystones away from the river without wasting a hell of a lot of effort. It would be a hell of a lot more efficient to spend an action to make this waystone, but without the riverine leyline.
Given that it was described as being a sort of beachhead, that may be placed in the most hostile places of the continent, Sylvania may be a good starting point. No amount vampire-killing, no matter how extreme, is going to siphon away the Dhar in the land by itself.
As you say, we also need to look at Kislev's network first, but Praag is probably second on the list.
Laurelorn! They're the hosts.
We probably shouldn't snub them. They gave most of the components for the waystone after all. Let's not snub them at all please.
Also if we deploy waystones in Laurelorn at first we can swamp Tindomiel in orders. That way as many as possible of the Hekarti-waystones can be deployed in areas where they will absolutely not cause any political issues for the Empire.