I dunno if I like the idea of spending a Boon on Eike, or even getting her many magic items - feels like the sort of thing you'd develop a complex over. "Did I actually earn my success, or did my grandmother & my master buy it for me?" Mathilde's an over-achiever because of how we play her, but Eike might feel forced to be one due to needing to make good on all that was invested in her.
Could also isolate her from her fellow Magisters once she graduates, if they feel like she had a road paved for her & they had to struggle through their Journey.
I dunno if I like the idea of spending a Boon on Eike, or even getting her many magic items - feels like the sort of thing you'd develop a complex over. "Did I actually earn my success, or did my grandmother & my master buy it for me?" Mathilde's an over-achiever because of how we play her, but Eike might feel forced to be one due to needing to make good on all that was invested in her.
Could also isolate her from her fellow Magisters once she graduates, if they feel like she had a road paved for her & they had to struggle through their Journey.
Is a one off version of this valid for a single college boon?
something like
[] Plan Name
-[] Jade: Provide us with 3-6 whispering darknesses for spell creation purposes
You wouldn't. Some sort of exchange rate might equalize at a later point, but nobody's going to be buying it after you just told them how to farm it themselves.
Fair enough! I suppose i'm underestimating the ability of the colleges to run out and start collecting it in bulk...i dont know why but picturing a bunch of wizards going out to try cutting up whatever apparitions they can find, and then trying to put bits of it in whatever of their personal experiments they think might not be covered by the Book™️ gives the vibes of that bit from the update with the organ vat results
fortunately for the advancement of knowledge, one of them blabbed to the Physicians Guild, and now those buggers are running around giving it to everyone for everything. I can't get them to stop - might be there's not a power in the world that could get them to stop selling the latest nostrums - but I can bully them into telling me what they've found, and I have."
The exact lines on the map would be a matter of vociferous debate, and you wouldn't actually get the Runefang or the title until you did those reclamations, but the core idea is one that the authorities of the Empire would be receptive to.
I like this, I really like this, it's a fun return to our roots, except this time we're the elector worried about the divided loyalties of others. Plus we can almost certainly get a dwarven bankroll. "Weber wants to murder all the Goblins in a large area? Done."
You are Eike Hochschild, and you have received definite proof that your Master believes in you.
Unfortunately, this means that your Master believes in you, and has funneled the collective acclaim and attention from solving two of the Colleges of Magic's oldest unsolved mysteries into you.
Natural Alchemy is a trait that would be come hugely more powerful if increased in effect. You'd need to cash in the entire boon to make Eike into a walking talking engine of reverse engineering things that people don't want reverse engineered.
The exact lines on the map would be a matter of vociferous debate, and you wouldn't actually get the Runefang or the title until you did those reclamations, but the core idea is one that the authorities of the Empire would be receptive to.
I dunno if I like the idea of spending a Boon on Eike, or even getting her many magic items - feels like the sort of thing you'd develop a complex over. "Did I actually earn my success, or did my grandmother & my master buy it for me?" Mathilde's an over-achiever because of how we play her, but Eike might feel forced to be one due to needing to make good on all that was invested in her.
Could also isolate her from her fellow Magisters once she graduates, if they feel like she had a road paved for her & they had to struggle through their Journey.
I disagree, because at least the Eike boon I'm interested in isn't "give her swag", it's "give her extremely intensive training to make the most of her natural talents."
The end result boney describes is not something that can ever be described as handed to Eike when it's only even achievable because of who Eike is.
As her master, Mathilde recognizing Eike's potential and bending our resources to see it realized is not just acceptable, it is right and proper - and Eike will have the pride of someone who went through blood sweat and tears to reach the height she does. We would merely have opened the door for her to try.
I don't agree that it's a good point at all. The specific wording of Natural Alchemy was that she discovered an interest in it. We wouldn't be forcing anything on her.
You notice that the books on Sevirric theory and potions that Eike consulted to mix the inks, as well as a few more obscure titles she managed to wheedle out of Max, remain a part of her reading when the two of you are travelling from place to place for quite some time to come. It seems this episode has sparked an interest in her.
I'm not at all worried about Eike developing some sort of complex over this - she's a trade heiress. She was already going to inherit a great deal of wealth she didn't earn - if she was going to have a complex about this, she would already have it. In comparison, this is us giving her an opportunity. It's not like we're some xianxia elder showering her in elixirs. This is more us cashing a huge favor in order to open the field for her to learn anything her heart desires - what she makes of it will be of her own effort.
It would also be a nice thing to do for Wilhelmina in terms of her peace of mind - while there's no 'safe' Grey Wizardry, someone who gets really good at enchanting is a lot less likely to be crawling through vampire nests.
This also qualifies as a use of the boon that only could be fulfilled by the 8 Colleges, more or less.
@Boney Would a flying tower or ship be vulnerable to falling out of the sky because it got hit with a dispell? IIRC that's why we haven't looked into getting a personal flying enchantment.
Is a one off version of this valid for a single college boon?
something like
[] Plan Name
-[] Jade: Provide us with 3-6 whispering darknesses for spell creation purposes
I don't agree that it's a good point at all. The specific wording of Natural Alchemy was that she discovered an interest in it. We wouldn't be forcing anything on her.
Oh so you don't think spending an entire great deed of all colleges of magic on an apprentice will put any pressure on said apprentice.
We are her goddamn hero and saddling her with this boon would be like her grandmother using her influence in stirland to make her a baroness because she liked administration.
Oh so you don't think spending an entire great deed of all colleges of magic on an apprentice will put any pressure on said apprentice.
We are her goddamn hero and saddling her with this boon would be like her grandmother using her influence in stirland to make her a baroness because she liked administration.
Regimand made us the direct reporting Spymaster of a Witch Hunter Elector Count in the middle of Vampireland, with an arm twisted by the Lahmians, with a mandate to outsmart and outmanuever other Intrigue operators centuries our elder.
Great expectations beget great ability.
And as for making her a baroness - don't be silly. Eike as heiress to the EIC alone has significantly more influence and power than a baroness at this point. Managing one barony would be small potatoes.
Regimand made us the direct reporting Spymaster of a Witch Hunter Elector Count in the middle of Vampireland, with an arm twisted by the Lahmians, with a mandate to outsmart and outmanuever other Intrigue operators centuries our elder.
Great expectations beget great ability.
And as for making her a baroness - don't be silly. Eike as heiress to the EIC alone has significantly more influence and power than a baroness at this point. Managing one barony would be small potatoes.
Thinking about it more I've fully bought into the idea of using the boon to get political (and fighting?) support for becoming the Elector Countess of the Schattenwald.
1. It's actually feasible with the transcendent boon from Vlag sitting there, the minor boon for the runesmithing guild, probable support from Belegar, as well as any other mercenaries and armies that could be convinced to participate.
2. This gives a concrete goal to strive after the Waystone Project is done.
3. Reconquering the nexuses is already in our interests and this provides better reasoning for going for them then a more abstract "it's better for the empire."
4. It would be cool to become the first wizard elector count and funny to beat a literal wizard heir to the punch.
5. It would be incredibly funny to start the quest as an advisor to an elector count and over the course of a quest become an elector count.
I haven't been following the thread very much, but I happened to stumble across this post and I'm now fully on board with Shcattenwald Reconquest. This sounds incredibly fun, entertaining, and thematically pleasing. And we'd get to run a massive war campaign! Just what Warhammer is all about!
Letters will be sent to you; you will know them by their cipher. They will contain instructions; instructions unknown to and unsanctioned by the Grey Order. Should you fail to follow them, you will be declared rogue.
Honestly? If we pulled off reconquering the Forest of Shadows and reclaiming the nexuses, and with a side gig of empowering our oldest friend's daughter, I think we could swing the Nordland Hedgewise agreeing to be fully and legally folded into the Grey Order if it meant we would adopt someone of their lineage as our heir.
That said, Boney has ominously hinted that something is going to be happening with the Nordland Hedgewise in the latter parts of the social turn, so that may or may not be a viable option.
I imagine Succession wise we could appoint Eike as our Heir to the title. As I don't think we could quite combine that EC title with our God-child's offhand, as I don't think they're located near to one another offhand?
We could probably get the training-scrolls that explain how to use Transformation of Kadon to turn into a dragon. The problem is that the process requires that your soul be Ghur-aligned (or at least neutral if you're having it cast on you via battle altar), so Mathilde couldn't use the knowledge personally.
I'm with Scabby on this one: spending this giga-boon on Eike might end up saddling her with some kind of impostor syndrome.
Besides which, this is our reward. And I have faith that if Eike really really wants to reverse-engineer Alchemy herself, she'll find a way to either do so on her own, or earn herself enough favors across the years to get the Golds to open a peek through the door before she crowbars it open.
...My objections to the enchanted sky ship ideas have gone away, replaced with outright enthusiasm.
I envision a steel-clad hull, awash in iron plating and weapons emplacements. A hull that will never corrode to the salty ichor of the seas, but instead see rain and sky, thunder and sun, storm and fireball, even dragon's breath, Purple Suns, and Dragon Ogre lightning all, and not even flinch, but instead laugh.
I want unrealistically huge cannons encased in mini-liminal realms to account for their girth, enchanted to fire with the velocity of railguns. I want chain lightning to rain down on battlefields at our command, barrels of flaming oil enchanted to act like MOABs when dropped on enemy hordes, and the power of the storm at our command to make or break the tides of battle below.
I want stealth unimagined, a titanic Fortress-Dreadnought capable of traversing the sea or levitating into the clouds, all on the hum of air and ozone. I want a ship that can at command vanish at will, projections providing stealth or illusion to trick the foe in a myriad of ways. Whether we be an errant cloud, or enraged dragon from the Golden Age awakened into vengeance and fury, who knows? Nobody but us and our plucky crew.
Speaking of crew... I would want the most elite of crews, and warriors besides.
- Dawi Hammerers clad in Gromril plate magically air dropped on unsuspecting priority targets...
- Brettonian Knights seeking glory on the backs of Pegasus squadrons clad in Ithilmar and steel armor made by our Elven allies, competing with...
- Imperial pilots flying enchanted Dawi Gyrocopters and Gyrobombers for number of kills against the enemy.
- High Elven and Eonir sniper squads competing for the most kills either on the ships decks, port sallies, or descending to the battlefield to gather their scalped enemies' heads.
- Imperial Knightly Orders, clad in the best commissioned Dawi Steel plate armor that money (and unlimited Dwarf Favor) can buy, hammering through foes using Ulgu to hide their approach and Rite of Way to make any terrain the smoothest of approaches.
- Imperial troops armed not with mere smoothbore muskets that gretchins, grots, and gits laugh at, but with enchanted Hochland Rifles that can tear the wings off a mosquito on Grimgor Ironhide's nose at over a kilometer away.
In short, ladies, gentlemen, and that Purple Ork in the back row who thinks nobody has noticed it yet, I want Warhammer Fantasy's equivalent of a Goddamn Helicarrier.
The Badlands can be cleansed of foes, Dawi armies escorted right to the front door of every lost Hold they wish to reclaim casualty free.
The Forest of Shadows and the Drakwald can be firebombed with the fantasy equivalent of Dresden and Tokyo reborn, allowing the cleansing of long-polluted soil and the reestablishment of civilization on top of the ashes.
Mousillion can be erased and purged in fire and lightning, same with the Iron Orcs and hordes of monsters in the Massif Orcal.
Troll Country can just f*** right off, replaced by Dawi Fortifications and Kislevite fanatics, finally given a proper Wall to defend and room to grow.
The Worlds Edge Mountains could be finally secured, made into a planetary bastion instead of the eternal Chamber of Horrors it currently is.
I HAVE HAD IT WITH THESE MOTHERF***ING ENEMIES OF MAN ON MY MOTHERF***ING PLANET!
When you need Grimgor Ironhide's biggest WAAGH obliterated before lunch, when an Everchosen horde is just deleted, when Nagash is sneezed on and is rendered into it's basest elements, when the End Times become the Golden Age reborn as Titanium, accept no substitutes.
My main point is that pressure isn't inherently bad. The same pressure that you worry might overwhelm her might also push her to success she might not have achieved otherwise.
I won't lie - I'm also very much into the idea of the scene of choosing it; looking the collected Magisters Patriarch and Matriarch in the eye and telling them Eike Hochschild's alchemical ambitions, high or low, will not be barred. It feels very touching.
I ardently oppose any course of action that leads to us becoming a ruler of some location. Such would destroy the best feature of this quest: the total absence of rulership. No, the fief doesn't really count.
