Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

[chocolote12]

Maximally, we could bend the adventuring and research capacities of multiple powerful nations towards retrieving the secrets of sky metal and working to create a minimal magic way stone.

It's not the lowest hanging fruit. In terms of difficulty it's more of a sequel, and we'd have to get new components for most of the sections and not just the top. This includes a hard look into transmission variants that wouldn't require spreading the secret of the waystone password to the general populace to function.

But the utility and prestige of the Minimus would be unquestionable.

 

[Valmond]

I doubt we'd be able to replicate everything they do directly, for sure, but getting another polity's understanding of magic to draw from is still a very big deal. This entire Project has demonstrated that to a degree, both with the Project members and with the Network itself!

Click to shrink...

Value, yes, but even with the sharing done, we are no closer to doing high magic, binding spirits to our will, commanding winter or crafting runes.
Asking Damsels to grant their magical secrets, once the project is basicly done, goes further than what we have done with other groups.
So unless we decide to keep designing new and improved waystones, i don't see the magical secrets Damsels would provide to be that useful, or that likely to be given.

 

[Rafin]

Another thing I am interested in are all those dangling threads related to non-typical Waystones. We've looked at a few, but in the context of the Project I think we've only formally examined the most usual and cookie cutter Waystone model. I'd like to examine the least Elvish looking and the weirdest (non-corrupted) ones to see if that yields any insight and I'd like to do it while we still have our wide variety of participants on board.

 

[Parabola]

One thing I feel we should definitely do before the Project ends is try to get Athel Loren to come to the table. New waystones is one of the few things that could get them to stop being so aloof and treat with the human nations as equals.

One thing we should start thinking about is what major project will WEBMAT have once the waystone project is done? It's supposed to be about cooperation between divine and arcane casters, and for now the waystone project really does handle that. But once that finishes webmat will need a new flagship project to justify its existance, and while we'll likely have the clout to get people involved after the waystone project completes, there isn't an obvious next project to work on. Doesn't need to be something as big, as unless we go research sabattical it will likely be a side job rather than a primary one. But I'm not seeing a lot of obvious ideas within the branch's mandate.

Click to shrink...

The Project could end up lasting several more years, long enough that by the end we might not feel bad about closing WEB-MAT. I really do love our boys, but between the Project and everything else I do think I don't want to create excuses to keep them onboard if there's nothing else to do.

 

[Arbit]

[X] Lord Seilph, the Mystic
[X] Pan's Treehouse
[X] Orb Reveal
[X] Silk
[X] Karak Vlag books
[X] Okri
[X] Reading on Nehekhara

 

[DragonParadox]

Value, yes, but even with the sharing done, we are no closer to doing high magic, binding spirits to our will, commanding winter or crafting runes.
Asking Damsels to grant their magical secrets, once the project is basicly done, goes further than what we have done with other groups.
So unless we decide to keep designing new and improved waystones, i don't see the magical secrets Damsels would provide to be that useful, or that likely to be given.

Click to shrink...

I think one of the things in that list is not like the others, we have bound spirits to our will, one of them is attached to our soul.

That said I do agree that we cannot get damsel magical secrets for one simple reason, we are not alone in this. As the project lead and the one making sure everyone can work together we do get some leeway, I do not think the Karaz Ankor really wanted to fuck up Marienburg that much but we could still ask for it for instance, but that will only take you so far. Damsel secrets would be useful to the Colleges (not even to the Grey College mind, the Jades, the Ambers and the Celestials), but it's not going to do anything for our other partners so I do not think we can ask for it.

On the other hand I do think there is value in figuring out what everyone else is doing with their stones since that is potential inspiration for what we can do next. When you have the best knowledge of Waystones of any imperial magister it does make sense to incorporate them in your next project whether that be retaking the Forest of Gloom and claiming the holy sight of They-Who-Became-Ranald, going to Cathay to learn how to become the Ulgu Dragon or returning to Karak Dun to take another shot at talking to those totally radical runemasters etc...

 

[MrSmmufi]

[X] Lord Seilph, the Mystic
[X] Pan's Treehouse
[X] Orb Reveal
[X] Karak Vlag books
[X] Silk

 

[Valmond]

I think one of the things in that list is not like the others, we have bound spirits to our will, one of them is attached to our soul.

That said I do agree that we cannot get damsel magical secrets for one simple reason, we are not alone in this. As the project lead and the one making sure everyone can work together we do get some leeway, I do not think the Karaz Ankor really wanted to fuck up Marienburg that much but we could still ask for it for instance, but that will only take you so far. Damsel secrets would be useful to the Colleges (not even to the Grey College mind, the Jades, the Ambers and the Celestials), but it's not going to do anything for our other partners so I do not think we can ask for it.

On the other hand I do think there is value in figuring out what everyone else is doing with their stones since that is potential inspiration for what we can do next. When you have the best knowledge of Waystones of any imperial magister it does make sense to incorporate them in your next project whether that be retaking the Forest of Gloom and claiming the holy sight of They-Who-Became-Ranald, going to Cathay to learn how to become the Ulgu Dragon or returning to Karak Dun to take another shot at talking to those totally radical runemasters etc...

Click to shrink...

Yes, we can bind spirits.
But not the way our terrifying Granny does.
And most likely never will.
She has secrets we are not goingto get out of her, and that's broadly fine.
Otherwise i agree.

 

[Deathbybunnies]

One thing I feel we should definitely do before the Project ends is try to get Athel Loren to come to the table. New waystones is one of the few things that could get them to stop being so aloof and treat with the human nations as equals.

Click to shrink...

I hadn't thought of that - Athel Loren are another polity we could try to sell to. They get weirdly touchy about specific trees being cut down, and I think there was discussion about those trees possibly being Waystone analogues - they might see value in an alternative that doesn't look like something errant woodcutters would be interested in.

 

[Ergosum]

To throw my two cents re: the goals of the Waystone Project, I'd consider two main overarching goals:

1) Repair, rebuild and, if possible, expand the Waystone Network across the Old World as much as we can.
2) Ensure the preservation of critical knowledge that allows the Waystone Network to be preserved, repaired and rebuilt for an indefinite amount of time, even -if possible- in case of major disasters or civilizational collapse, to avoid the situation the Old World was in before the start of the Project.

For which I'd establish several sub-goals of varying importance and feasibility, many of which we've already reached:
1.1) Research

a) Map the Old World Waystone Network, and figure out the current situation everywhere [Very Important] [IN PROCESS]
a) Learn how Tributaries work, and figure out how to build them everywhere in the Old World [Very Important] [DONE]
b) Learn how regular Waystones work, and figure out how to build new ones [Very Important] [DONE]
c) Learn about Nexuses:​

I) Learn how to fix broken Nexuses, wherever possible [Important]
II) If possible, figure out how to build new Nexuses without needing (irreplaceable Old One relics) [Stretch goal] (Probably unfeasible, or impossible to do safely, but we might be able to ask the Asur what do they know about it)
​

1.2) Rebuild the Network

a) Bolster existing parts of the Network with new Waystones and/or Tributaries [Very Important] [IN PROCESS] [Could probably be delegated at this point].
b) Rebuild Problem Zones where the Network is mostly or completely gone, including but not limited to: Praag, Troll County, Mordheim, the Forest of Shadows, the Middle Mountains, Sylvania, the Drakwald, Moussillon, the Black Water. [Very Important] [IN PROCESS]
c) Recover and repair lost, damaged and/or captured Nexuses wherever possible, potentially including but not necessarily limited to: Mordheim, the Blood Fane, the Tower of Melkhior, the Brass Keep, the Marcher Fortress, the Forest of Gloom, Athel Yenlui, Bugman's Brewery, three Skaven fortresses. Plus several disconnected Karaks that only work with a Dwarf population, including Karak Izor (already inhabited) and Mount Silverspear (current main target in Thorgrim's Silver Road War). [Important] [IN PROCESS]
d) Do Something about the Old World Network's bottleneck/vulnerabilities in Marienburg, Estalia, etc [Important] (Need to either build more Nexuses by ourselves -which is unlikely-, buy some from the Asur -viable but expensive- or redirect the energy to a sub-Network like the ones Kislev and the Karaz Ankor have -potentially feasible but needs research and is politically problematic-).
​

2) Preserve the knowledge

a) Codify the various Waystone designs [Very Important] [DONE]
b) Give the knowledge to every member so each can store it safely [Important] [IN PROCESS] [Other people probably already handle it].
c) Create designs able to be built by each Member with minimal assistance from the others [Stretch goal] (Likely possible, on hold for AP and political concerns).
​

3) Bonus goals

a) Strengthen relations between the Empire and Laurelorn [Important] [IN PROCESS] [Other people already handle it, we're just helping].
b) Strengthen relations between all Civilization factions in the continent [Stretch goal] [GOOD ENOUGH] (though we'd still have to bring in Brettonnia)
c) Learn juicy magical secrets from everyone else [Stretch goal] [GOOD ENOUGH]
d) Learn how to increase power to the Dwarf Network [Stretch goal] [DONE]
e) Build various Waystone and Tributary designs for various uses and optimal performance [Stretch goal] [IN PROCESS]​

I) Versions for individual members of the Project? [Stretch goal] (on hold for AP and political concerns).​

II) Versions for specialized roles (Mass Production, Rivers/Leyline only, mixed transmission, etc) [Stretch goal] [IN PROCESS]​

III) 'Muggle' version? (with only mundane/non-magical materials) [Stretch goal]​

f) Build new and improved Waystones based on other magical paradigms (Kislev, Hedgewise, Bretonnia, Nehekhara?) [Stretch goal] [IN PROCESS]​

g) Investigate Waystone Gold and how to obtain it (Cathay, Ulthuan?) [Stretch goal]​

h) Develop other beneficial uses for Waystones? [Stretch goal]​

So to sum up, the main things left to do are: Mapping the rest of the Old World, or at least Bretonnia/Tilea/Estalia; continue building up the Network in, especially, Danger Areas like Mordheim, the Forest of Shadows, etc (which includes retaking as many Nexuses as possible, the only low hanging fruits left are Bugman's and to a (much) lesser degree Mordheim); and doing something about Nexuses. Besides that, it'd be less important but still useful to make more Waystone designs or to bring new magical paradigms like the Damsels or the Nehekhara Field Trip.

 

[Garlak]

We could create more types of Tributaries?

The more variants of Tributaries there are, the more faster the Empire can get covered. The more options rulers have for who to work with. And the more of the Colleges of Magic can be applied to work at the problem; which is good both for manpower issues, and for giving Wizards stuff to do.

For example, perhaps we could create a Light Wizard tributary type? Or rather a, "Whatever Elrisse and Egrimm come up with"-Tributary type. Maybe it'll require Hysh to do, maybe it'll be like Niedzwenka's ritual which only needs a magic user and a spirit.

We got the Light College and the Amber College into the Waystone Project, but the Light Wizards weren't applied to the Tributary invention topic, so we never got a Light-College-variant of a Tributary. Maybe they'll be able to come up with something.

Or maybe Egrimm and Elrisse's skills are of the wrong sort for this, dunno.

Mathilde herself also picked up the basics of ritual-making -- she could try to make a Grey Order tributary ritual herself too?

 

[Night]

a man can write anything, as long as he should have been sleeping instead

Fair warning, but Belegar was absolutely my "haha-unless?" choice, which hinged on her relationship with the Ancestor Gods. Since Mathilde didn't hit 3/3, I didn't vote for Belegar.

Mathilde "Misthammer" Angrund, Lady of the Silver Depths

It is a day of grumbling in Karaz-a-Karak. Many a wag, both Imperial and Dwarven, would ask how that was different from any other day. The answer is in the volume of the grumblers and the import of the subject. Any Dawi can grumble, a vital skill learned in childhood for a race that takes slights so seriously. But it takes a real longbeard to manage a grumble at the top of their lungs. For the subject, the throne sits empty. Thorgrim Grudgebearer, High King of the Karaz Ankor, architect of the Age of Vengeance, has departed to the Glittering Realm. May his successor strike out the Grudge upon his killers quickly.

Grumbling is the oldest and most common tactic for the Dawi to release tension, and many are the tensions in this hall. Some are are obvious, and some are subtle. Some are spoken of by all, and some must never be spoken aloud.

A new High King means a new direction, a new mandate. Dwarven High Kings by their nature come in two types: those who outlive their mandate and those who fail to complete it. The Grudgebearer, Gazul guard his soul, may have been both. The Age of Vengeance spoke deep to the Dawi psyche to electrify them, promising as its name suggested. The wrath of the Dwarves will be their monument to the world, an eternal flame burned into their many enemies. And that was its dark side, as well: they live surrounded by fallen glory and empty Holds. Rather than withering and wasting away, the Dwarves will choose to burn. The Age of Vengeance spoke not just to revenge, it spoke to, and reinforced, despair.

Yet even in the midst of what should be a species-wide crusade that promises to use the last Dawi to bury the last axe in the heart of the last Grobi, life goes on. And if the thrill of living is gone, that won't stop it. Life is a stubborn thing, just like Dawi. Births, beardlings, fullbeards with the passage of the seasons. It would take a long time for a species to burn itself up, even if they really committed to it.

Eight Peaks is reclaimed.

The High King and Karaz-a-Karak are not there.

It is an understandable decision in the moment. What hope was there in it when it was proposed? With all the worst ponderousness of Dwarven deliberation, Karaz-a-Karak saw no hope in the expedition that was planned and was too slow to change. With all the best of Dwarven stubbornness and ingenuity, Belegar Ironhammer lead forth something entirely different, commanded something entirely different, and built a masterwork of Dawi craft such as has not been seen since the Golden Age in the Eye of Gazul, securing Eight Peaks as it has never been before. The Karaz Ankor was not consumed to fuel vengeance. The Karaz Ankor grew and achieved vengeance anyways. Perhaps if the High King and Karaz-A-Karak had been there, it would have been different. Another stepping-stone, another Grudge wiped clean in the inevitable march to Dwarven victory/extinction. But the the High King was not there, and while he had no choice but to open the gates of Karaz-a-Karak for the purpose of peace rather than war this one time, it is a mighty blow to his mandate. The High King was not there when Karak Vlag was saved either. The High King just barely managed to save face enough to claim participation in the Waystones, but they were not of his designs and everyone knew it.

Blow after blow has been struck at the stone base of the Age of Vengeance, and the fact that each cut was exquisitely kind to the Dawi did not make it less lethal to Thorgrim Grudgebearer's attempt to lead his race into an assisted suicide. Despair has been succeeded by hope. There's far too much fight in the rekindled heart of the Karaz Ankor for them to be taken awares, and if Death wishes to come for them it will have to find a way to catch them sleeping as it did in the Age of Woes.

And never forget, for all that it might have cost, the Dawi fought the Age of Woes to a bloody draw at worst.

The Kings and Queens of the Dawi, even if one is tall and mysteriously gray-haired, have gathered to choose the next High King. It will be difficult, for the obvious choice, the Ironhammer, is far too much a radical in his ways and in-

Every Dwarf beyond a certain age pauses here and mentally reminds themselves that by decree of the Priests and the blessings of the Ancestor Gods, Mathilde Angrund is not, in fact, an Umgi, and it would be worth a Slayer's Oath to say she was.

-choice of wife. Nor would he accept, for he has his own Kingdom to run and his devotion to it is legendary. Among the Umgi, the idea of moving the capital might have come up, but among Dawi, that will not happen. The High King will rule from Karaz-a-Karak. There are valid reasons for that even to Umgi minds.

The mandate of the next High King is already set in gromril, unchangeable even with the stubbornness of Dwarves. Sometimes leadership is getting out in front of the crowd and figuring out how to take it where it wants to go. Will it be the Age of Rebirth? The Age of Reclaiming? The only freedom of the next High King will be to put a name on the zeitgeist they inherited. The authors of that zeitgeist are Belegar and Mathilde, and so the High King will need their approval.

It has been a long and strange road for a member of the Gray College, one of those authors reflects. Dwarves are not one of nature's great romantics, but she has a knack for being the solace of troubled older men. And the jewelry is to die for.

 

[DragonParadox]

We could create more types of Tributaries?

The more variants of Tributaries there are, the more faster the Empire can get covered. The more options rulers have for who to work with. And the more of the Colleges of Magic can be applied to work at the problem; which is good both for manpower issues, and for giving Wizards stuff to do.

For example, perhaps we could create a Light Wizard tributary type? Or rather a, "Whatever Elrisse and Egrimm come up with"-Tributary type. Maybe it'll require Hysh to do, maybe it'll be like Niedzwenka's ritual which only needs a magic user and a spirit.

We got the Light College and the Amber College into the Waystone Project, but the Light Wizards weren't applied to the Tributary invention topic, so we never got a Light-College-variant of a Tributary. Maybe they'll be able to come up with something.

Or maybe Egrimm and Elrisse's skills are of the wrong sort for this, dunno.

Mathilde herself also picked up the basics of ritual-making -- she could try to make a Grey Order tributary ritual herself too?

Click to shrink...

Er... why? Light Wizards, Grey Wizards, indeed all Imperial mages can use Aethyric Impluvium. As far as we can tell it is tradition-neutral, nevermind wind neutral.

 

[CharlieKing]

[X] Orb Reveal
[X] Silk
[X] Karak Vlag books
[X] Pan's Treehouse

the obvious choices 😁

[X] Druchii Diplomats

i think it would be very useful for us to scope them out before we go on an elfcation.
(it would be so fucking funny if we got the Drucchi equivalent to a business card at this meeting, only to run into their forces completely by accident)

 

[Adrian XXIV]

Mathilde "Misthammer" Angrund

Click to shrink...

Do Mathilde shouldn't have Ironhammer as her family name there, since she is Belegar's wife (from what I understand)?

[X] Lord Seilph, the Mystic
[X] Pan's Treehouse
[X] Orb Reveal
[X] Silk
[X] Druchii Diplomats

 

[Verthack]

[X] Lord Seilph, the Mystic
[X] Pan's Treehouse
[X] Orb Reveal
[X] Silk
[X] Karak Vlag books

 

[Night]

Do Mathilde shouldn't have Ironhammer as her family name there, since she is Belegar's wife (from what I understand)?

Click to shrink...

I have no idea! The mechanics of Dwarven clan adoption that go with a marriage are completely opaque to me.

 

[CornyBones]

The time for Swamp Town....

Is approaching.

 

[Garlak]

Er... why? Light Wizards, Grey Wizards, indeed all Imperial mages can use Aethyric Impluvium. As far as we can tell it is tradition-neutral, nevermind wind neutral.

Click to shrink...

Variety of usability.

Because it only works in places where there's a water spirit. Which will mean it won't work in places without rivers or lakes, or maybe not work in some lakes or rivers if there's no spirit or if the spirit is too ornery. Granted, people tend to live in places where there'd be water, but those aren't the only places we want to drain of Dhar or magic energy; we also want to deny energy to gribblies or enemies too. And sometimes you want to expand into an area where there isn't a water spirit.

Which means if you want to drain energy from a forest or a plains or a city, your options are to hope it has a Dreaming Wood, hope for a Halethan, or to wait for a Waystone or something.

Whereas if we had more options, then maybe the coverage can be expanded more quickly. Maybe more places have more options to be covered. Or maybe more wizards can be stuck on Tributary-creating duty.

This isn't super crucial or anything -- we have Waystones, we have several Tributaries -- but it does help and is nice to have. And also, we have the Light Order (and Grey Order I guess, with Mathilde here) right here; maybe they'll be able to come up with yet another supplementary Tributary design.

 

[MrHobbit]

I've written about what actions we have that I think need to be done.

I think it is pretty important to recruit the Damsels. I'd rather get Bretonnia in the Bokha Palace Accords now, so basically everyone important on the continent is on board. That way there will be a foundation for future waystone matters once the Project is dismissed. There isn't anyone else that I think is important to recruit. I'd like to build a variant of our current waystone without the river transmission component, but it isn't strictly necessary. I'd like to do the Barak Varr nexus, but I don't think we need to do it.

I don't think we should leave any nexus in the Empire uninevstigated. Bugman's can be ignored, but it'd best not to. Los Cabos is also important enough that we should consider doing it so future generations won't have to. We need to investigate Kislev and Laurelorn's networks for the sake of fairness. Part of Laurelorn's network also lies in the Empire, so they better fess up. I'd like to know what we didn't end up investigating about the Karaz Ankor's network.

I want more tributaries so that in places that using river spirits would be difficult, they don't have to ship in a Was Jutonian to cover it if there's no Dreaming Wood. Because that would be pain for everyone involved. Though I don't actually think we need to deploy what we have any more.

Spoiler: The colored actions

Green means we can finish it without it. Yellow means we should do it ideally, but we don't need to. Red is something I think needs to be done.

The Waystone Project, Recruitment

[ ] Attempt to bring an Order into the Waystone Project (specify which)
[ ] Attempt to bring a non-Order magical tradition into the Waystone Project (specify which, Damsels)
[ ] Attempt to bring a human Cult into the Waystone Project (specify which)
[ ] Attempt to bring a Major House or Ward into the Waystone Project (specify which)
[ ] Attempt to bring a Karak's Runesmiths into the Waystone Project (specify which)

The Waystone Project, Research

[ ] Waystone: Build a Waystone
There will be a subvote for which components it will be made of. You can take this multiple times to create multiple Waystone designs in parallel.
[ ] Waystone: Attempt to secure a supply of Titan-metal
Specify source: Ogres, Cathay.
[ ] Waystone: Experiment with alternatives to the Waystone Rune
[ ] Waystone: Negotiate with Ulthuan for details of how to create a Nexus

[ ] Waystone: Nexuses
Specify which: Marienburg (Almshoven and Fort Solace), Forest of Shadows (Brass Keep, Blood Fane, Tower of Melkhior), Mordheim, Los Cabos, Bugman's Brewery.
[ ] Waystone: Tributaries
Specify which type: Scythian, Lornalim.
[ ] Waystone: Mapping
Specify two of: Bretonnia, Tilea, Estalia, Araby, Badlands.
[ ] Waystone: Other Networks
Specify which: Karaz Ankor, Kislev, Laurelorn, Athel Loren, Nehekhara.

The Waystone Project, Development

[ ] Waystone: Tributary Design (select one or multiple: Ranaldian, Druidic, Ice Witch, Runesmith, Teclisean)
[-] Waystone: Tributary Prototype (no untested designs available)
[ ] Waystone: Leyline Prototype (select transmission medium: Air, Material, Road)
[ ] Waystone: Negotiate with Ulthuan to re-erect Barak Varr's Nexus

The Waystone Project, Deployment

[ ] Waystone: Deploy in Kislev (specify which: Troll Country, Kalti Delta)
[ ] Waystone: Deploy in the Empire (specify which: Stirland, Mordheim)
[ ] Waystone: Other (specify where)
The current Waystone model has specific strengths and weaknesses, but these can be disregarded to start deploying them somewhere less suitable.

[ ] Tributary: Haléthan (specify province)
Roots of Stone requires a Nordland or Ostland Hedgewise caster to be used outside of Nordland, Ostland, or Ostermark.
[ ] Tributary: Dreaming Wood (specify province)
Liminal Germination requires the caster to spend a significant amount of time in the local Dreaming Wood. This is safe-ish in Nordland, Reikland, Hochland, and Talabecland, dangerous in Middenland, Ostland, and Ostermark, and impossible in other provinces.
[ ] Tributary: Water Spirit (specify province)
Aethyric Impluvium requires the presence of a Water Spirit, the easiest source of which would be cooperation with the Cult of Taal and Rhya, the Elementalists, or Hag Witches.
[ ] Tributary: International (specify country)
Share information and expertise on how and where to create the tributaries to supplement existing Waystone networks.

a) Learn how Tributaries work, and figure out how to build them everywhere in the Old World [Very Important] [DONE]

Click to shrink...

I don't think this can be called done yet. All of our tributaries have impediments to being deployed everywhere. The Druid tributary would help cover gaps, so would a Teclisean one (I also really want to see how Mathilde uses apparitions to make tributaries).

Er... why? Light Wizards, Grey Wizards, indeed all Imperial mages can use Aethyric Impluvium. As far as we can tell it is tradition-neutral, nevermind wind neutral.

Click to shrink...

It's limited to where you can bring water spirits. That won't be everywhere. You can get most of the important places, but you also can't use major river spirits. You're going to have failures, and pissing off Grandfather Reik is really undesirable. We'll be able to more confidently cover everything if we develop the other tributaries.

Also I want to give Zlata at least one win from the Project. Even if it is only one.

 

[DragonParadox]

Which means if you want to drain energy from a forest or a plains or a city, your options are to hope it has a Dreaming Wood, hope for a Halethan, or to wait for a Waystone or something.

Click to shrink...

Forests, plains and cities famously do have water, the name for a place with no water and thus no water spirits is desert. Even if you do really want to put tributaries down in a trackless desert for some reason you (as in the Empire not Mathilde specifically) would be better off hiring an an elf to bind a water elemental in a magic bottle or something and hand that to your ritual team. Really that one is just so much better than any of the others that the only reason you would use them is if you just happen to have ideal conditions like Laurelorn does.

 

[Zero Gravitas]

We could create more types of Tributaries?

Click to shrink...

Would it be a good way to use our time though?

Waystones are good but they're not exactly top priority for most places which means most wizards in the Empire are doing stuff that's more immediately useful (like killing one of the myriad foes of mankind or enchanting swords so that other people can do the same).

We're kind of maxed out on Waystone stuff? Except for Nexii.

 

[Angelform]

I hadn't thought of that - Athel Loren are another polity we could try to sell to. They get weirdly touchy about specific trees being cut down, and I think there was discussion about those trees possibly being Waystone analogues - they might see value in an alternative that doesn't look like something errant woodcutters would be interested in.

Click to shrink...

I foresee two major problems with trying to bring the inhabitants of Athel Loren into the Waystone project, even just as customers.

The first issue is that there are no 'proper diplomatic channels'. No one has contacts in Athel Loren. No one has diplomats or an embassy. Which means just making contact is a matter of wandering into the forest and hoping you stumble across someone willing to talk before they try to kill you. Then you need to get from 'met a random elf/dryad without trying to kill each other' to having the attention of someone with decision-making authority. Then you can start the actual process of negotiating.

The second problem is that Karak Norn is in active conflict with Athel Loren. And the Asrai and Spirits of Athel Loren venture out to murder people often enough that there are probably some other Grudges in high king Thorgrim's big book. And basically everyone on the continent knows Athel Loren as 'that place that occasionally sends homicidal nutters into our territory to murder people without explanation'. All of which needs to be settled before the existing members of the Bokha Palace Accords would be willing to negotiate.
Gods alone know what grievances the Asrai would bring to the table.

It might be possible to the Asrai onboard with Waystones, but it would be an awful lot of effort.

 

[Deathbybunnies]

I foresee two major problems with trying to bring the inhabitants of Athel Loren into the Waystone project, even just as customers.

The first issue is that there are no 'proper diplomatic channels'. No one has contacts in Athel Loren. No one has diplomats or an embassy. Which means just making contact is a matter of wandering into the forest and hoping you stumble across someone willing to talk before they try to kill you. Then you need to get from 'met a random elf/dryad without trying to kill each other' to having the attention of someone with decision-making authority. Then you can start the actual process of negotiating.

The second problem is that Karak Norn is in active conflict with Athel Loren. And the Asrai and Spirits of Athel Loren venture out to murder people often enough that there are probably some other Grudges in high king Thorgrim's big book. And basically everyone on the continent knows Athel Loren as 'that place that occasionally sends homicidal nutters into our territory to murder people without explanation'. All of which needs to be settled before the existing members of the Bokha Palace Accords would be willing to negotiate.
Gods alone know what grievances the Asrai would bring to the table.

It might be possible to the Asrai onboard with Waystones, but it would be an awful lot of effort.

Click to shrink...

It would definitely be selling to them, rather than recruiting them. Making contact would be a challenge, but not an insurmountable one for Mathilde; I don't think their ongoing tensions with Karak Norn would necessarily be a problem though. It certainly would if we were selling them a renewed connection to the Empire's network, but I don't know if we'd want them to have that anyway. Just selling some Waystones so they can clear out various bits of Dhar forest seems like a much safer bet, and less likely to step on anyone's toes.

Still, we should probably check out what the deal is with Norn's connection over there - the Emperor wanted to know years ago and we told him we hadn't gotten around to it because they're touchy, but people will still want to know at some point.

 

[Garlak]

Do we know what it would take to get Bugman's Brewery up and running again, after the brief mention by Thorek of Khazad Thar (I think it was)?

Is it just getting a Waystone to them, to help repower whatever it was?

If it's just a Waystone, is it something the Dwarfs would do on their own, or is it something that Mathilde can or ought to fast-track?

If it's not Waystones (or energy-from-Tributaries) related then... well'p, we can't really do anything about that.