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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Parabola said:
This one seems to be missing the Celestials, I think, assuming the Altdorf Journal of Echo-gnomics is the Golds?

But that'd make sense. A Celestial newspaper may as well be all about the horoscopes and odd riddles that are deliberately ambiguous.
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What celestial worth their azyr reads a fucking newspaper?
 
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[X] [SPELL]Skywalk

She's making lots of solo trips and already has a knack for blending into new places. I figure this can be her "get out of jail free" card, letting her instantly hit da bricks and run twenty meters away no matter where she is.
 
picklepikkl said:
Incidentally, I realized that I hadn't updated the summary of Waystone events post since the turn results started coming in, so now we're up to date with the turn in progress, in case that's useful to people.
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Your summaries are very handy for the quest, given its length.

Phalfpipe said:
[X] [SPELL]Skywalk

She's making lots of solo trips and already has a knack for blending into new places. I figure this can be her "get out of jail free" card, letting her instantly hit da bricks and run twenty meters away no matter where she is.
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Make sure to read that part of the post carefully; Eike will be learning probably 3+ spells depending on her rolls, starting with the most voted spell and then moving on to the next. Sounds is by far the most important as it's both a key tool and will raise her Magic stat when she learns it. That said, I agree that Skywalk is pretty high up there for easy to learn and high in utility. So vote for both, since it's approval voting.

DocMatoi said:
What celestial worth their azyr reads a fucking newspaper?
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Knowing the past (and present) helps you predict the future. So...every Celestial worth their salt, really. Just like a Grey worth their salt knows how to hide in plain sight despite being able to turn invisible.
 
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BurnNote said:
As I recall, we can codify spells with masteries, and I thought those spells can get new masteries (after some thought i don't know if that was ever said, just that it works that way for new spells, and I guessed it extends). However, codifing spells is hard, and the version with masteries is even harder.
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You said it yourself: codifying spells is hard, and as they are mastered, they get harder. If you start stacking masteries too high, it's just too hard to do with a soft cap on the number or power or significant of the masteries.
EDIT: I am super behind on the thread this might have been said.
 
Glau said:
I feel like spells are a bit of a red herring of you want real power out of magic; rituals are where you need to be working. It's probably meaningful that so few elven rituals made it into the curriculum when trying to teach battlemages though.
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As I see it, magic is quick, powerful, safe; pick two. Rituals are powerful and safe but slow, battle magic is quick and powerful but dangerous.

mathymancer said:
That's...pretty much right, actually? Switch 'seedbed' with 'spawning pool' and that's a fair description of Lizardmen reproduction, isn't it?
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Spawning pools create life from effectively nothing, but otherwise, yes.
 
Found a couple more little things of note in the Dwarf Player's Guide. First is that the Master Rune of Swiftness (Dwarfs 8e) is called the Master Rune of Haste in the DPG (same image used to depict the rune). Second is an implication of this:
Runesmiths seldom experiment with new uses for their craft, but if a Character wants to bend the Rule of Form slightly — e.g. affixing a weapon rune to a spear, a talismanic rune to a cloak, or an engineering rune to a flame cannon — the GM may allow them to proceed with a negative modifier on their Runesmithing Tests.
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One of Ungrim's magic items is the Dragon Cloak of Fyrskar, even noted as a Talisman, which means Ungrim is carrying around experimental runegear.

I've also opened up Grudgelore and while I unfortunately don't have the time to do a full read-along, I have found a few things of note from a bit of page-skimming.

Page 3
From my earliest I have been fascinated by these folk, the closet of our allies, ever since a dwarf by the name of Grondrik Knarkson befriended me whilst I attended Blackthorn College in Nuln.
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New college, though unfortunately the book has no further details.

At page 13, we have a bit of lore on Karak Azul that differs from Divided Loyalties.
Azul is the chief supplier of weapons and armour to Karaz-a-Karak and all of the other remaining dwarf holds (the requisition orders I have deciphered from the Khazalid were staggering), a trade that brings much prosperity to Karak Azul.
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In Divided Loyalties, it's only recently that Karak Azul's been able to act as the Karaz Ankor's armoury since it was only recently reconnected. In canon, it seems they're connected enough to do continental trade even without Karak Eight Peaks. Maybe by using the Underway?

Page 18 gives us a section on wutroth.
In latter centuries the dwarfs have taken to making most of their goods and arms entirely from smelted steel, brass and gold. Yet in ages past they fashioned items from wood-like men and elves, and through careful lacquering and care, the oldest dwarf heirlooms still have wooden parts. [...]

The greatest wuthroth forests were destroyed along with much of the dwarf realm during the Time of Woes, and dwarf rangers are constantly on the lookout for isolated groves and small woodlands of this tree.
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I think this means that wutroth is still around, just in far smaller quantities than it used to be.

Page 35 gives us a picture of Ungrim.
Turns out he looks way cooler with his helmet on.
This is the same book that gave us that baller picture of Kazador:
Just goes to show what a difference appropriate drip and a good pose can make.

Page 40
No mortal weapon can harm the Throne, for it is inscribed with Azamar, the Rune of Eternity. Nowhere else can this rune be found for it is so potent that two can never exist at the same time.
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The Rune of Eternity has its own name, Azamar. Also, it seems the only function of the Rune of Eternity is simply to power the Throne of Power's ward save.

Page 47 tells us the dwarf perspective of what happened after Gotrek beheaded Caledor and they went back home.
It is reported that the elves had different plans. Insulted by the capture of the Phoenix Crown, and what they saw as the murder of their king, the princes of the elves gathered together what forces remained for an assault on Karaz-a-Karak. Perhaps fortunately for the elves, the attack never took place. Had it done so, it is hard to see what end other than the slaughter of the elves could have occurred.

As it was, some unknown disaster befell the elven homeland and a proclamation from Caledor's successor halted the assault before it began. The elven armies embarked upon their ships and left these shores to return to Ulthuan to address whatever problems were occurring there. That was the last of the elves of the Phoenix King to be seen in the Old World for some four thousand years, until the time of their return shortly before the Great War Against Chaos.
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It seems that even in the modern day, the dwarves are unaware that the reason for the cancelled assault was a fresh Druchii invasion.

Page 54 gives us a list of titles the dwarves have come up with for Caledor II.
The Oathbreaker (the worst name that a dwarf can give another being, never used elsewhere in this book of grudges):
The Coward
The Friendless
The Irredeemable
The Thin
The Beardless
The Goat Lover
The Pale; The Princess
The Ale-Sniffer
The Goat Worrier
The Goldless
The Unnecessary
The Broken
The Long-nosed
The Slayer of Kin
The Untrustworthy
The Nervous
The Frightened of Loud Noises
The Dark Fearer
The Child
The Fragile
The Laughable
The Beard-thief
The Pointlessly Tall
The Honourless
The Intruder
 
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I have gleaned new pieces of information from Kazador's wiki page, mainly that I am disappointed in it, but also other stuff.

First the non-disappointing thing. The wiki links to an archive that describes the Master Rune of Death on Kazador's hammer:
Hammer of Karak Azul
This mighty hammer bears the Master Rune of Death. Any model wounded by the hammer (after saves, etc.) is automatically and immediately slain.
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Instant death! That's a very aptly named rune! Nick a bloodthirster and it's immediately banished back to the Warp.

Now for the bad bits.
His younger days were full of feasting and fighting, bawdy songs and raucous humour, and, of course, battles. Lots of battles, so much so that eventually the Greenskin tribes have all but avoided the territory of King Kazador whenever they possibly can due to his legendary reputation as a skilled general and warrior.[Source?]
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This thing about Kazador battling greenskins so much that they started running away? Unsourced. Closest I could find in Grudgelore is a passage saying that he's killed more goblins in goblin hunts than any other dwarf except for his dad.

The other bad bit are in the Canon Conflicts section.

First of all, the information in the Canon Conflicts section shouldn't be here. It's citing White Dwarf 315 for the hammer's stats, which came out in 2006, while the hammer's stats the wiki primarily uses comes from 2005. Newer lore ought to be taking precedent.

Second, it's quoting White Dwarf wrong! It quote White Dwarf as saying that Kazador's armour has the Master Rune of Adamant, which is correct, but also the "Master" Rune of Stone, when in actuality WD simply calls it the Rune of Stone! I can see how this error crept in - you used "Master" before in the same sentence, words get mixed up, it happens - but it's not the only deficiency in the page, so I'm annoyed.

Looking at the White Dwarf article has helped clear something up though. Previously I'd said that the Rune of Daunting had taken the place of the Rune of Dismay, and now I think I know why that is. In Dwarfs 8e the Rune of Dismay is a weapon rune (like the Rune of Daunting), but in WD 315 it's on Kazador's horn, which'd make it a talisman rune, and it's called the Master Rune of Dismay there. I think the DPG was trying to reconcile the inconsistency, which is something I can appreciate.

Blackout said:
I will admit that the War of Vengeance trilogy has a bad habit of treating Runesmiths as Dwarf Wizards
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Dwarf Player's Guide cover and page 77 Runesmith career
I'm sorry Blackout, but this is peak.
 
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Candesce said:
I think you might be overstating things a bit by calling Rituals safe.
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Orbmorb said:
Backlash from failed rituals can get pretty nasty, even considering that the set up and casting time means you can take steps to mitigate potential fallout before hand. If anything I'd say rituals picked powerful twice
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Safe is of course relative when it comes to magic, but rituals don't throw you into the Aethyr or detonate you and everyone around you or summon a dozen Bloodletters. They tend to backlash specifically on the caster, and usually quite mildly compared to the dangers of Battlemagic.

Andres said:
New college, though unfortunately the book has no further details.
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Not necessarily. Colleges can be constituent parts of Universities, notably the Oxbridge Universities , where I believe a lot of the inspiration for the Universities of Alford and Nuln was drawn.
 
The Phoenixian said:
I can't help but notice that, after all this talk of Slayers going around unarmored as a matter of Oath (which they don't take,) the Slayer has armor.
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A Slayer's duty is to die, but a King cannot simply throw his life away.

It's the most famous example in-setting of conflicting oaths.

Andres said:
Page 35 gives us a picture of Ungrim.
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Wanted to note that that is an edited picture. He is not missing a chunk of his skull in the original.
 
Mopman43 said:
A Slayer's duty is to die, but a King cannot simply throw his life away.

It's the most famous example in-setting of conflicting oaths.
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And it's so stupid it hurts. The concept of abdication is a thing in universe, but no Kadrin is just going to make it so their polity is lead by a guy with a culturally mandated obligation to kill himself that he can't properly fulfill. Bet that leads to just the best foreign policy. :V
 
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