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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Worn for the writing of the latter half of this update was this really quite incredible and touching gift from @vsh



It's minankari, a very old and recently revived art from the country of Georgia, which makes it very appropriate for it to arrive for an update featuring Thorek. This piece was commissioned from Bakmy Enamel.
 
Curtains said:
Does Eike need to go back to merchant training any time soon? Has this been asked before?
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If you want to get technical about it, coming with us to do our EIC actions counts towards that. But if you mean more dedicated training of her skills towards Stewardship and her Economics skill that's in Learning, I definitely think she should get around to that eventually.
 
Boney said:
You exhale, and barely suppress a jump at someone doing the same next to you. You hadn't quite forgotten that Eike was there, but her present at her side had become so normal that you hadn't reconsidered it when you'd decided to have such a sensitive discussion with Thorek. But then, you suppose, the idea of reconsideration would be alien to Dwarven thought - if you didn't trust her with your secrets, then she shouldn't be your Apprentice in the first place. Grey Order thought is rather more nuanced on the matter.
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I'm very pleased that Eike is taking to heart the idea of the good for All, not just the Empire.
Boney said:
but the other three are as unmarked on this map as they are on almost every human-made map of the area. Foul Peak, Stronghold of Clan Ektrik, Thrall-Clan of Clan Skryre. Fester Spike, Stronghold of Clan Fester, Thrall-Clan of Clan Pestilens, so would now be either replaced by another Warlord Clan or realigned in the wake of the civil war. And Putrid Stump, Stronghold of an Clan Treecherik, Thrall-Clan of Clan Eshin.

And while you're processing horrible thoughts, all this drawing of straight cardinal lines between points on the map makes it very easy to notice that Skavenblight looks awfully directly west of Foul Peak. Would the Skaven have left all that magical infrastructure untouched when they could be twisting it to their own foul purposes and pouring horrific amounts of tainted magical energy into Skavenblight? Of course not.
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Oh god, they're using it as a Warpstone generator the way part of the 8'peaks was (Kvinn-Wyr), aren't they? It's not just a home, it's a processing hub.

Suddenly the Skaven preference for old Dawi strongholds makes a lot of terrible sense.
 
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Boney said:
Karak-Waystones
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So no hope of replicating the mechanism and making the new holds functional. Sod.

New motivation to visit Ulthuan. Although there might be other ways to gain the knowledge of Nexus building.

Forest of Gloom Hellwar
Vaults Hellwar
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Open invitation to turn the quest in a more martial direction.
Actually a fairly attractive prospect. Mathilde doesn't get to split heads as often as she might.
 
Boney said:
A singular cunning knack of cunning beings that once allowed them to reshape this world
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You've doubled up "cunning" here, @Boney. Or possibly dropped a "ly".

Boney said:
And while you're processing horrible thoughts, all this drawing of straight cardinal lines between points on the map makes it very easy to notice that Skavenblight looks awfully directly west of Foul Peak. Would the Skaven have left all that magical infrastructure untouched when they could be twisting it to their own foul purposes and pouring horrific amounts of tainted magical energy into Skavenblight? Of course not.
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Called it! Of course the rats are gnawing on the setting's power lines. The Black Pillar in particular always sounded like a pseudo-Waystone.

Boney said:
Worn for the writing of the latter half of this update was this really quite incredible and touching gift from @vsh



It's minankari, a very old and recently revived art from the country of Georgia, which makes it very appropriate for it to arrive for an update featuring Thorek. This piece was commissioned from Bakmy Enamel.
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Oh wow, that's lovely!
 
The Phoenixian said:
Ah, so Skavenblight very likely is part of the network then. I had been wondering, what with all the warpstone, blight, and shenanigans that surround it.

Now that we know Skavenblight is probably being fed, part of me really wants to see just how much is feeding Skavenblight.
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TimEd said:
It makes sense too, because they should have starved themselves off long ago being in such a static location as that. It also neatly explains their seemingly endless source of warpstone, similar to those warpstones around the river trolls that got expunged when we reactivated the K8P network.
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Keep in mind that the skaven effectively screw over most of the dwarfs, quite a bit of the Empire, and the lizardmen during the end times
 
Boney said:
Eike has learned:
Karaz Ankor: Her Apprenticeship to a Thane and Loremaster of Karak Eight Peaks made her a part of Dwarven culture almost by default, and she learned to operate within it early. +1 Diplomacy
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In other news Eike continues her quest to become Stirland-Competent in every field before she is eighteen. This puts her at 9 diplomacy, two more and she's mediocre enough for the job. :V
 
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On the bright side, convincing Ulthuan to cough up Nexus secrets would probably be nigh-impossible instead of potentially very expensive, if we'd chosen to shake them down earlier. Instead, we've brought them onto the project where they're at least nominally supposed to be sharing magical secrets like this.

Boney said:
In this case it's deliberate because she's calling back to the Old Ones being called that in the dragon bedtime story Deathfang told her.
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Ah, so it is.
 
Boney said:
Karaz Ankor Waystone Network (Eike tries to turn it into an acronym and grimaces at how it's pronounced)
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How would one say Waystone Network in Khazalid? Maybe something along the lines if Zhufgrin for the general leyline network and Zhufgrindurak for individual stones?

Boney said:
That makes sense, as it is a set of Runes that have only been carved... about twenty times? You double check your mental tally. Karaz-a-Karak, Barak Varr, Zhufbar, and Karaks Kadrin and Azul are the five never-fallen Old Holds, then there's the Eight Peaks, as well as Vlag and Dum.
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Does K8P have eight, one for each mountain?
Boney said:
Clan Redbeard, the Runesmith Clan of Barak Varr,
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Completely unrelated to the Vlag/Kadrin associated Redbeards of course. Implying otherwise would be impolite.
 
If Ulthuan is particularly unwilling to share Nexus-building secrets for the sake of the Karaz Ankor, Thorgrim does have a trump card in "paying off Ulthuan" terms. If he can stomach the prestige hit, giving up the war-trophy that is the Phoenix Crown would probably guarantee success.

Maybe if he demands the destruction on the Cloak of Beards and the return of a few other lesser trophies as well, both sides will be willing?
 
Rafin said:
How would one say Waystone Network in Khazalid? Maybe something along the lines if Zhufgrin for the general leyline network and Zhufgrindurak for individual stones?
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There might have been a term for it back in the day, but for this project they're probably using a Reikspiel loanword, which might itself be an Eltharin loanword.

Rafin said:
Does K8P have eight, one for each mountain?
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Yes.

Rafin said:
Completely unrelated to the Vlag/Kadrin associated Redbeards of course. Implying otherwise would be impolite.
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Dwarf surnames are kind of a pain. There's a lot of crowding, presumably they would all be in Khazalid but some are given in Khazalid, others are translated to English, and sometimes there's separate clans with the 'same' name, except one's in English and the other's in Khazalid. And then there's trying to figure out whether Beardo Axechucker was actually from Clan Axechucker or whether he was just really good at chucking axes.
 
Boney said:
stone - a material that is, of course, no slouch when it comes to insulating magical energies
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ffs
Boney said:
Within the cities of the Empire, such beings are generally known as 'teenagers'.
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For one heart-stopping moment I thought that Eike went and looked at the magic nuclear reactor for some reason.
Boney said:
That makes sense, as it is a set of Runes that have only been carved... about twenty times? You double check your mental tally. Karaz-a-Karak, Barak Varr, Zhufbar, and Karaks Kadrin and Azul are the five never-fallen Old Holds, then there's the Eight Peaks, as well as Vlag and Dum. Then those that fell long ago and are still fallen, now generally known by newer names: Cragmere, Red Eye Mountain, Black Crag, Hoard Peak, and Mounts Gunbad and Grimfang. You check this tally with Thorek after digging through your memory for the original names of the fallen Holds.

"I make it twenty-four," he says after a moment's thought. "There's also Karaz Bryn and the volcanic Karags: Dron, Haraz, and Orrud. It's said they were tamer before the Time of Woes."
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I think this should be twenty five? Thorek adds four, but Mathilde's was about twenty but not exactly twenty:
  • 5 Old Holds (KaK, Varr, Zhufbar, Kadrin, Azul)
  • 8 Peaks
  • 2 Northern bois (Vlag + Dum)
  • 6 Fallen Holds (Cragmere, Red Eye Mountain, Black Crag, Hoard Peak, Gunbad, Grimfang)
5+8+2+6=21
Boney said:
With care he takes a red pin, the colour of the main Waystone Network, and affixes it right next to the blue pin already affixed to Barak Varr.

"Both?" you ask.

He nods. "Originally in the Varenka Hills, just outside of it. It hadn't been connected to the Network yet when the War of Vengeance began, and it's currently in the same vault it's sat in since then. Directly east of," he pauses and squints at a tiny label on the map, "Matorca," he hazards, inadvertently taking a position in an incredibly petty political dispute older than he is, "and directly southwest of Karaz-a-Karak. Also never completed, but left in place, would have been one about here." With a ruler and a pencil, he draws one line straight west from Karaz-a-Karak, and then two lines from Heideck through the narrow gap of Black Fire Pass, one as far west as possible and one as far east as possible. "That's a line of about ten miles it might have originally been on, but it only intercepts the road in two places, and it would have been at one of those."
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The Matroca-Varr connection is one that Mathilde suspected when she mapped the Empire's network - you can see it in Sacarabshell's map, it's the dashed line between 2-Blue and 23-Red. The path from Heideck through Black Fire Pass is also something Mathilde hypothesized about, though she didn't guess that it's connected to Karaz-a-Karak.

Can we take Thorek's silence as saying that the other network connections to the KAWN (Mordheim-Kadrin, Praag-Vlag, Gross Selon-Ungor, Varn-KaK) are now disconfirmed? I suppose it's not out of the question that the Barak Varr Runesmiths simply don't know of those, it's much further north than everything else they told us about.
EDIT: hold on Varn is Cragmere. Well the point stands regarding the other three connections.
Boney said:
You manage to put the combined horror of all of that aside long enough to see what Thorek is getting at - if the Barak Varr nexus can be restored and reactivated and the flow between Matorca and Achaes severed - or possibly Achaes deactivated completely - then the Karaz Ankor can have its own little spur of the Waystone Network in the Border Princes. That alone would have potential, especially since that land includes five major rivers just waiting to be dotted with fresh Waystones. But the real potential is that either or both of the Forest of Gloom or the Vaults could, after undoubtedly incredibly brutal wars, be made a part of those spurs and at a stroke solve the energy problems of the Karaz Ankor, and as a side-benefit taming some of the darkest corners of the continent.
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look at all those eggs you guys

Though this does dovetail nicely with Barak Varr's plans for the Border Princes. Could it be that Gretel realized this? Was the Waystone project part of her plan all along? *6d chess intensifies*
 
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Boney said:
Karaz-a-Karak, Barak Varr, Zhufbar, and Karaks Kadrin and Azul are the five never-fallen Old Holds, then there's the Eight Peaks, as well as Vlag and Dum. Then those that fell long ago and are still fallen, now generally known by newer names: Cragmere, Red Eye Mountain, Black Crag, Hoard Peak, and Mounts Gunbad and Grimfang. You check this tally with Thorek after digging through your memory for the original names of the fallen Holds.

"I make it twenty-four," he says after a moment's thought. "There's also Karaz Bryn and the volcanic Karags: Dron, Haraz, and Orrud. It's said they were tamer before the Time of Woes."
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Not Karak Zorn? Actually it was a "prison", wasn't it. Makes the modern Dawi desire to rediscover it slightly concerning.

Sinsystems said:
Question, if Skavenblight is a nexus and the magical energy is likely how it remains...like it is, then wouldn't cutting it off or diverting the magical energy strike a crippling blow and result in their capital withering on the vine?
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Until they figure out from ratshit way of generating new energy.

Like opening a portal directly into the Warp.
 
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