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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Dark as Silver said:
Which makes it less surprising, but not unsurprising.

Correct my geography but this guy still had to go through the Ice Witch territory, and that he chose Kislev at all rather than Estalia/Tiliea which is where I assumed most wizards would take their exile.
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You can pretty easily get to Praag without ever stepping foot on Kislev's soil by changing boats at Erengrad's docks, and Ice Witch authority was at a low ebb until very recently. As long as he stays under the Z'ra's umbrella he's a fight not worth having unless he actually starts poking at stuff he's not supposed to.
 
picklepikkl said:
People hearing of this will hear of "she put down a stone and then local Chaos went mad".
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But the status quo is that of Hunter and Hider. There is not a nervous detente between the powers that be and Chaos. Chaos is not tolerated, it is not condoned, it is not ignored. All the rulers know that (if they do not want huger problems) chaos needs to be stamped out when it is discovered.

The eternal war is only on pause because the side with the local power advantage does not know where the other side is.

Causing the hidden side to expose itself is a positive good for Order by itself. Causing them to expose themselves when the local Powers that Be are on guard is even better. Yes, it's not as good as the chaos cults tearing each other apart, but that is not something that can be counted on anyway.
 
Honestly, I think I'm leaning more towards Death Bridge now. Taking the fight directly to chaos appeals to me, the local lord understands the purpose, and so what if the locals see the cultists and mutants agitated? "She put down a fancy stone that is supposed to fight chaos, and all the chaos worshippers went crazy trying to take it down". This is Praag—perhaps if we were in a city like Nuln we'd want a more measured approach, but these people have been living side by side with evil for generations. Provoking a war within the city might do some harm, but the people are not going to outright revolt over it.

Especially if we warn the local ruler in advance and he can arrange additional guards and soldiers to counter the initial conflict.
 
I'm not sure that the stone itself will particularly provoke the mutants, it's more that placing it there necessitates taking and holding a location right in the middle of the Bad Stuff and that will provoke them.

Boney said:
As long as he stays under the Z'ra's umbrella he's a fight not worth having unless he actually starts poking at stuff he's not supposed to.
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After all it's a male witch that is prophesied to cause the Ancient Widow's downfall. Male wizards are a problem only in that they might get people used to the idea of male magic-wielders and reduce the cultural inertia preventing male witches.
 
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picklepikkl said:
Anyway, I think this is a clear win for the first option. The advantage of picking one of the most-accursed places in the Old World for our first deployment is that we don't have to then pick one of the most-accursed places inside of it. Like, if this were a place where the problems were a lot subtler, we'd need to go for the biggest and highest-visibility option in order to make sure the people we're advertising to would actually see our Waystones in action... but, like, "Old Town isn't that bad" is by the standards of Praag. There's a street where all the signs rewrite themselves every morning. Every night one of the plazas is full of unearthly screaming and people just sort of shrug and deal with it. Fixing those problems in the short term is a clear and visible win to potential investors in the Waystone Project: it makes it clear that this actually works to reduce Chaos taint, in simple terms that any meathead ruler can understand. The second option, however:

People hearing of this will hear of "she put down a stone and then local Chaos went mad". The sort of ruler who has a Wizard in their employ will understand that this is actually a good thing, but we probably did not need a lot of help convincing those people that Waystones are good. We need to convince magic-skeptical rulers that Waystones are good.
On an unrelated note, this is my ten-thousandth post on SV. I think it is very fitting that it be here, in this thread where 75% of all my posts have been made, and a post full of typo correction and detail-oriented argumentation.
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The more mad Chaos is the better, that means you are doing something it doesn't like. This isn't the Cold War, this is four flavors of Satan and their minions. Sure the people of Praag may not like it, but to anyone looking at it with the detachment that distance and personal safety brings it's obvious that this shit works really, really well. The way you can tell if the exorcist is real is by how much the daemon thrashes and tries to eat their face.
 
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Every new post I changed my mind! Everyone is too convincing. Voting all but my disliked option for now, but with the way things have been going someones probably gonna make a zealot of me in five minutes... for five minutes.

[X] Karlsbridge and Old Town

EDIT: The moment an underdog presented itself my loyalty was secured. I don't actually mind who wins, though.
 
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Practically speaking, it's got to be #2. The people we need on board are the local rulers, and the option explicitly says it'll please the local ruler. The populace being happier is also very much not the same as being best for them in the long run; option #1 is about populism in an era where it achieved very little, not actually doing right by them.

Beyond that, we're placing the first Waystones on Praag for maximum pragmatism, and as a statement that we're focused on doing the most good, not scoring political points. Not then taking the maximum pragmatism option undermines that a bit.

Finally, as far as the concerns about the local population getting chewed on by riled-up gribblies go, it's been made clear this is going to happen eventually anyway. At some point a Waystone will be placed there. The downside is purely about annoying the locals in the short term, there's no avoiding it outright.

[X] Bridge of Death and New Town
 
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Have some fun bridge lore, straight from the wiki:

The southernmost bridge is called Karlsbridge after Z'ra Karl the XII, the ruler who led the first secession campaign against the tyranny of the south. The bridge is wide enough for two carriages to pass alongside and is flanked by elaborate stone towers of Dwarfen design. To the north lies the Empty Bridge—or the Bridge of Death. The latter name comes from the fact that it used to carry the men of the Old City across to the Citadel to become soldiers. The former name is Kislevite irony, for the bridge is never empty. Anyone who crosses it at night feels as if he is being followed. Looking behind reveals a figure cloaked in shadow that keeps coming nearer, yet never catches up.
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The Death Bridge is confirmed Spooky.
 
[X] Karlsbridge and Old Town

I was leaning this way for thematic reasons, but picklepikkl convinced me. Clear and obvious positive effects that everyone can see from the getgo is a solid reason to go there first.
 
I keep wavering and forth between options 1, 2, and 4. I'm just going to approval vote for everything except option 3.

[X] Karlsbridge and Old Town
[X] Bridge of Death and New Town
[X] The Temple of Dazh and the Bleakness
 
[X] Bridge of Death and New Town

Sorry Praggians, but we were paid to de-spook, and this is the most de-spook option.
 
[X] Karlsbridge and Old Town
[X] The Temple of Dazh and the Bleakness

For the tourists.

If this was a dwarf settlement I'd go straight for the Bridge of Death, but I think for Pragg it's better to secure the land they already have first before starting to push into the more heavily effected areas.
 
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