Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest
- Thread starter Boney
- Start date
- Fantasy Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Its the Divided Loyalties Christmas Special. Mathilde and friends have to thwart the plans of some naughty Skaven before they ruin the holiday for everyone at Karak Eight Peaks. And maybe, those nasty rats might learn a lesson about reason for the season along the way.
- Location
- Earth
Organizations post got updated:
- Location
- New Brunswick, NJ
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Asteracea is the aster family of flowers, which includes sunflowers and daisies.
boney pls
Eike the materials scientist breaking the Gold Wizard monopoly.
Mathilde, Johann, and Max team up one last time in: Betrayal Amongst Ivory Towers! Down With The Gold College!
Will this crack team of an Assassin-Fighter-Cleric, Metallic Fisticuffs Man, and Maximilian de Gaynesford be able to defeat the secret conspiracy of Gold College Bankers and/or Alchemists who had Mathilde's precious apprentice assassinated? Find out in Theaters next Two Gifts Day!
Dread them. Run from them. The puns arrive all the same.
- Location
- Aotearoa
Perhaps even sooner than I thought…
If a college has Eike assassinated Mathilde will reduce the number magic winds from eight to seven.
The Periodic Table is a Gold Wizard conspiracy to get everyone hooked on Mercury.
Parabola
Divided Loyalties Librarian
- Location
- The Destination of Fate
- Pronouns
- She/Her
...I guess this pun has been possible from the start and may have been used a time or two, but it really bears mentioning that the Dreaming Wood ritual is for making... tree-butaries.
Frankly, she's at the point where I think we could leave Eike to try to make her own Sevirophone. Boney's previously said we can leave things up for her to do on her own with no supervision, as long as we're okay with her individual odds of success or failure. Maybe we could assign her to do that on her own - or perhaps hire Kas to help her out and on the side she can learn about Entertainers, advance that skill?
She has to get to Advanced proper to get that +1 to Magic, but yeah, it's amazing that she's halfway there already.
Frankly, she's at the point where I think we could leave Eike to try to make her own Sevirophone. Boney's previously said we can leave things up for her to do on her own with no supervision, as long as we're okay with her individual odds of success or failure. Maybe we could assign her to do that on her own - or perhaps hire Kas to help her out and on the side she can learn about Entertainers, advance that skill?
Tasoli
Life is for Living
- Location
- Behind the Keyboard.
I am wondering if we had Panaromia in the action would we get flower that smells terrible in the presence of Dhar? I mean that would count as sevirescope right?
Turn 44 Results - 2491.5 - Part 5
[*] [PORTATIV] Portentiv
[*] [SPELL] Sounds
[*] [SPELL] Dispel
[*] [SPELL] Skywalk
[*] [SPELL] Magic Mapping
[*] [SPELL] Silence
[*] [ENCHANT] Freeform
Vote tally
[*] [SPELL] Sounds
[*] [SPELL] Dispel
[*] [SPELL] Skywalk
[*] [SPELL] Magic Mapping
[*] [SPELL] Silence
[*] [ENCHANT] Freeform
Vote tally
As soon as the word 'Portentiv' arises, any further discussion of what to name the Wind-sensitive Portativ becomes pointless. You finalize the schematics, get a series of quotes from organ-builders for how much they'd cost to build as both a limited run and in bulk, and tuck it all away for further attention once you have a solid plan for what to do with it.
---
[Sounds, Learning, 72+16=88.]
[Dispel, Learning, 42+16=58.]
[Skywalk, Learning, 72+16=88.]
[Magic Mapping, Learning, 68+16=84.]
[Silence, Learning, 87+16=103.]
It seems tragically common that many people don't understand how valuable the academic environment is until they leave it. Eike might be one such person, as upon her return to the premises of the Grey College, she begins to soak up magical knowledge at a rate far beyond what she showed the capacity of before. Perhaps she's grown in her understanding of Ulgu under your tutelage, perhaps she better understands the value of what she has the opportunity to learn now that she's been out in the wider world. In any case, she adds an eyebrow-raising five new spells to her repertoire in rapid succession.
[Enchantment, Learning, 59+16+7=82.]
[Rolling...]
As for her forays into enchantment, you've decided to allow her the freedom to learn whatever works best for her, and it seems that means that she's further exploring the possibilities in different types of magically-attuned materials. It makes perfect sense for her, both in that it's a very direct and effective application of her intuitive Magesight to enhance her enchanting, and as someone who can reasonably assume that their enchantment projects will be taking place in well-stocked laboratories. Perhaps not the most exotic way for her to develop her abilities, but your own first steps were very often shockingly prosaic, and if there's one thing you've learned from the Dwarves, it's the importance of having a solid foundation beneath your feet.
Eike has learned:
Petty Magic: Sounds
+1 Magic from learning all Petty Magics
Lesser Magic: Dispel, Magic Mapping, Silence, Skywalk
Silence Mastery: Neither Seen Nor Heard. Target is unable to deliberately draw attention to themselves.
+1 Learning
Enchantment: Able to enchant objects with Petty and Lesser Magic spells.
Advanced Materials (1/2)
---
There are, tragically and inevitably, gulfs to be found between academic theory and harsh reality. The ritual of Liminal Germination proves quite able to create a tributary that absorbs magical energies and seeks to pass them along, but their success rate in doing so leaves much to be desired. After the first wave of rollouts, you gather everyone together - Hatalath, Sarvoi, and Cadaeth of the Eonir, and Elrisse, Tochter, and Aksel of the Empire, to troubleshoot the matter.
"The cardinal directions may technically be present within some Dreaming Woods," Sarvoi is saying, "but many of the significances of them are often missing. So in places where the Dreaming Wood is... stronger? Thicker? Deeper? cardinality alone is not enough to form the usual tributary mechanisms."
"Now, I'm sure there's a dozen fine details where the comparison breaks down," you say, "but moving magical energies through a soul is the means by which we do magic in the first place, so surely we shouldn't be too far out into the realm of the unknown. What solutions do we have?"
"Moving magical energies through someone else's soul is a whole other field of study," Sarvoi points out, "and one that is often poorly looked upon." Elrisse gives him a very searching look.
"If you're in the forest, you can be of the forest. If you're of the forest, it's your soul," Tochter says. "At that point, as the Lady Magister pointed out, we should be in well-mapped territory."
"In an entirely natural forest with an unoccupied Dreaming Wood, perhaps," Hatalath says, "but it stands to reason, and perhaps should have been foreseen, that one that has its loyalties firmly established would not be so easily suborned."
You look to Cadaeth, who is biting her lip, to Aksel, who's rolling his eyes, to Tochter, who has the look of someone who's trying very hard to find a reason why what she's just been told isn't the stupidest thing she's heard all week. "I believe that to be the case on the larger scale," you say diplomatically, "but we're talking about strictly local transmission of energies that the oversoul would already be permeable to. The difference between being possessed and merely having a few parasites."
"I suppose that there might be some give to be found on the outskirts," Hatalath murmurs, his brow furrowing as he considers the matter.
"We've got the eggs, we've put them in the basket, but the basket isn't getting where they need to go. Is that a reasonable summary of where we're at?" You see winces, and you see bitten tongues to prevent nit-picking of where your crude metaphor doesn't exactly line up with magical minutiae, but you also see hesitant nods. "I imagine the most direct way to go about this would be through the aid of local forest spirits," you say, turning to Cadaeth.
"A spite-hive," she says after a moment's thought. "A cluster of Radiants would be quite capable of ferrying the magical energies through the Dreaming Wood, though they would skim a portion of the energies off as payment. It would also be very useful in general to dot your forests with pre-tamed Radiant hives."
"There may be serious consequences to the equilibrium and general nature of a forest from establishing very strongly rooted populations of spites throughout it," Tochter warns.
"There's also the matter of perspective," Elrisse says. "Those in the Empire that are aware that spites exist tend to not have a positive view of them."
"We'll investigate whether we can before we worry about whether we should," you decide. "What other possibilities are there?"
"Go directly through the trees," Sarvoi says. "Energies arcing from root to root, canopy to canopy. Daisy chained, aha."
"The soul of a tree lingers, and by the time it is faded, a new sapling will grow to fill the gap," Aksel says.
"Or it could reroute around the gap," Hatalath says. "Dropping a boulder on a stream only stops its flow for a few moments. The trick would be having it be a matter of push and pull, rather than just carving a static streambed."
"For that, we'd need to devise a way for the pull of the Vortex to be tapped into through a Waystone by a tributary," you say with a frown. "Using the Dreaming Wood might cut down the perceived distance, but that's still a tricky thing to be doing with something that we need to be simple."
"The tricky bit could be in the establishment of the tributary, rather than in the tributary itself," Aksel says. "It would be unable to re-establish itself if it's disrupted for long, but that would also mean that there's nothing all that useful in the tributary that someone could seek to steal or misuse."
"Okay, that seems like it has potential," you say. "What else?"
"Game trails," Aksel says simply.
"More an Amber than a Jade thing, but it seems viable," Tochter says after some thought. "It would depend on existing trails around Waystones, but it's a rare piece of forest where they can't be found just about everywhere if you go looking for them."
"And animal souls have more 'drag' to work with than plants," Sarvoi says.
"Wouldn't that have the same problem as roads, with travel going both ways?" you ask. "No, never mind, we're connecting a Tributary to a Waystone, there won't be a way for power to flow 'upriver' unless we go out of our way to incorporate some way for power to be drawn out of a Waystone. Alright, that seems like a good range of possibilities."
---
[Rolling...]
Cadaeth proves to be quite able to create a wonderful habitat for a hive of spites; what proves trickier is ensuring that it remains populated by Radiants, as such an attractive home quickly attracts the attention and, well, spite of other, more violent varieties of spite. Elrisse points out the obvious reputational issues with establishing hives of spirits whose formal collective noun is 'murder', as well as the fact that under some readings of the Empire's law and the Colleges' regulations, this would be considered Daemonology. Either problem might be surmountable on its own, but combined you decide to shelve the matter until you see how the other approaches go.
Aksel and Hatalath have been working on the game trail method of transmission, and in the places where suitable game trails can be found, it seems to work very well. There are natural limitations on this method based on it being subject to the presence and movements of wildlife, but it's no more so than the other possibilities, and there is the potential of using this as a starting point to adapt the ritual into something the Amber Order would be able to deploy.
Finally, Tochter and Sarvoi have been working on the transmission of energies through the souls of trees, and apparently it has been going well enough that they've spent a significant amount of their time arguing about the significance of the underground fungal networks that seem to bridge the gaps between the tree roots. The Jade Order apparently already uses something very similar to this to deliver fortifying magics to entire orchards at a time, and it just needs to be altered - simplified, really - to make it so that only raw magic flows along the roots, instead of entire spells. According to Tochter, there are very few Jade Wizards likely to put their hand up to be part of a Liminal Germination rollout that wouldn't already know this technique.
It takes little debate to agree that the daisy chain method is the clear winner, but significantly more arises from those that feel that 'daisy chain' is insufficiently grand for the task at hand. After much back and forth, the name Asteraceaetena is settled upon for this variation on the ritual.
As such, what could very easily have been something the Eonir did in their half of the province and could have been argued was an entirely Eonir innovation, became something impossible to describe as anything but a partnership between College Wizards and Eonir Mages, as Jade Wizards walk Mages five times their age through how not to treat each tree as an individual to be scrupulously catered to. The opportunity to work with the Eonir Mages as equals means that this is something the Jade Order becomes very interested in pursuing themselves, rather than something you need to organize through them, and so you simply hand the matter over to their custody and let them flood the province with every Jade Wizard that can shake free a month or two to explore Laurelorn and glean whatever insight they can.
East of the Salz, in what one might undiplomatically refer to as 'actual Nordland', building fresh tributaries might be the sort of thing the Elector Count or other local officials might be tempted to meddle in as Elven business. But east of the Salz, most of the forest belongs not to the Laurelorn, but to the Forest of Shadows, and that's a Dreaming Wood not to be lightly ventured into. For the purposes of this subproject the thin strip of the Forest of Shadows occupied by Nordland can be ignored, and the problem kicked down the road to be tackled as part of a theoretical larger Forest of Shadows campaign.
[Nordland Tributaries, using Liminal Germination (Asteraceaetena variant) by Jade Wizards and Eonir Mages. Estimated completion date: mid 2492.]
---
The transformation of the substance of the Aethyr into the Winds is a poorly understood process, but one thing that all accounts agree upon is that it is a turbulent process, with the Aethyric energy being subject to a harsh impact with the jagged edges of reality that are inevitably caused by the rifts that allow such energies into our world. However, if one is able to avoid the jagged edges to immerse the substance of the Aethyr into the depths of well-established and unfrayed reality, the transformation it undergoes is not into the energies with which we are so familiar, but to a gleaming liquid that has been given the name Aethyric Vitae. The main property of this liquid is that its ultimate transformation into Winds is frozen in time and waiting for some impact or contact with magical energies to unravel it, making it a reasonably safe and portable storage medium for large amounts of Winds. They also allow for easy access to Winds at the moment of their creation, Primordial Winds, which have interesting properties that can be put to at least one very interesting use...
As you're writing this, you try to strike a balance between stoking the interest of the two major parties who would be interested in the Vitae: the Dwarves, who would value it as a storage mechanism, and the Wizards, who would value it as a way to study primordial Winds. You think you've struck a suitable balance, but it's largely for the sake of academia that you're doing so. The Runesmiths are already very much on board, and you believe the Colleges will be scrabbling to get aboard as soon as you drop eight newly-minted Orbs of Sorcery in their collective laps. You start eyeing your schedule to see where room can be found for such a demonstration.
Not overly emphasized, but certainly not overlooked, is the way one might be able to source more of the materials. You can say with utter technical surety that it is not Daemon blood, but there are liquids involved not dissimilar to blood, and they are derived from life-forms not dissimilar to Daemons. You make sure that the text is loaded with enough theorizing that the blood of actual Daemons will not be able to gathered, reasoning that most such beings either naturally propagate, or maliciously seek to propagate, damage to reality that is incompatible with the existence or creation of Aethyric Vitae. Imagining the more straightforward problems with trying to bloodlet a Daemon are largely left as exercises for the reader, as it's far from your area of expertise.
[Aethyric Vitae, 2491. Pending.]
Thus concludes the work Mathilde performed these past months, but not every waking moment was filled with work. With whom did she spend her free time? The five with the most votes will be chosen, not counting those locked in.
[+] Social interaction initiated by someone else (locked in)
Laurelorn
[ ] Swordplay
Test your novel swordfighting style against the swordsmen of Tor Lithanel.
[ ] Niedzwenka
Ask Baba Niedzwenka how she feels about the new Tzar, and about the political landscape of Kislev in general.
[ ] Sarvoi
Try to figure out if the Elves use the same Apparition-based spells that the Colleges do, and find out what the Elven perspective on that sort of thing is.
[ ] Lord Seilph, the Mystic (NEW)
The Grey Lord, Lord Seilph, is currently erecting Waystones in Sylvania, and the suspected reason for one of the usually-reclusive Grey Lords to be so far from home is an interest in questionable magics. An interest that one could describe you as sharing. See if there's anything of interest to be found in a very cautious talk on the matter.
Karak Eight Peaks
[ ] Okri
You've met Loremaster Okri of Karak Eight Peaks once before. Pay him a visit and see how his great ambitions for heavily-armed Ironbreakers delivered by Gyrocarriage are going.
[ ] Pan's Treehouse (NEW)
Panoramia has previously been quite happy with her cottage, but when you're a Jade Wizard and you create a mind-bogglingly enormous tree, you can't not build a house in it. Witness how a Druid flexes.
Foreign Relations
[ ] Middenland
See how the Ulricans are going with their new Eonir coreligionists.
[ ] Wissenland
Though the Elector Count is his usual self, some of their actions recently have hinted at the hand of someone a great deal defter. Investigate who took the job of his Spymaster after you turned it down.
[ ] Druchii Diplomats
Check in on these unexpected visitors to Tor Lithanel.
[ ] Reading on Nehekhara
You recently acquired a great many Dwarven books on Nehekhara, including ones written in the direct aftermath of the Great Ritual by Dwarves who had known the Nehekharans when they still lived. It's unlikely your official duties will ever require you to delve too deeply into the topic, so the only way to indulge your curiosity is to dedicate some of your leisure time to the task.
Friends Abroad
Following Up
[ ] Amber College
Check in on the salamanders.
[ ] Skull River Ambush
Look into the investigation of the mining of the Skull River, and any consequences of it.
[ ] Kalashiniviks
Investigate the fate of the Kalashiniviks, who were made a scapegoat for the death of the Tzar.
[ ] Orb Reveal (NEW-ish)
The Orbs are made, the books are written, the time is right. You'll show them. You'll show them all.
[ ] Silk (NEW)
At long, long, long last, Francesco has finally figured out how to weave the We-silk into something that can be worn. Be there for its debuts into the various markets it is destined to disrupt, and make sure that one of the first pieces off the loom - or whatever it is they use - will be your silk sheets.
[ ] Karak Vlag books (NEW)
You have recently come into possession of a significant amount of books once owned by the magic users of the Fire Spire and heavily annotated by the Runesmiths Guild of Karak Vlag, two organizations that are now completely destroyed. The amount of lost lore they might contain makes your fingers itch. Set some time aside to read through these tragic remnants from an excised chapter in history.
- There will be a two day moratorium to give anyone celebrating the holidays time to do so without sacrificing their involvement in this thread.
- Merry Christmas to those that celebrate it. I got you Grey Lord social, and orb flex, and Pan fluff, and silk sheets.
- Credit for the Portentiv name goes here. There was a truly mind-boggling array of puns amassing until that was suggested and swept the vote.
Last edited:
Dermonster
The Shittiest Wizard
Capital. I thought I saw another one somewhere but I forgot to +quote it.
- Location
- Edmonton
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Metaphorically, or—
Yes, Dwarf.
She's Orbin' all over them.
Parabola
Divided Loyalties Librarian
- Location
- The Destination of Fate
- Pronouns
- She/Her
IT'S A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE
Man lord Lord Seilph has some serious competition for socials this turn...
SILK... ORBS.. ORBS AND SILK WHOOPEEE!
...what was I saying
SILK... ORBS.. ORBS AND SILK WHOOPEEE!
...what was I saying
WhiteNights
Notorious Phoneposter
- Pronouns
- She/Her