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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
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I'm kind of bored of this Waystone arc so this is what my heart tells me:
[X] Supreme Matriarch (after Dragomas' term)


I'm going to bite the bullet and also vote for stuff I can tolerate.
[X] Plan Pickle Requests mk IV
[X] Armor of von Tarnus

EDIT: Some more stuff I think is fine:
[X] Plan Not Pickle Requests Variant with Apparitions
[X] Save the boon until we choose our next project
[X] Plan: The Next Generation
 
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picklepikkl said:
Honestly, same, and I approval voted it the moment I woke up and saw it, but you'll note that none of the plans that were invented after the moratorium are doing well at all. I think most people just take a look at the tally, look at what's near the top, pick their favorite, and move on, so stuff that gets an early lead keeps winning and latecomers have no chance.

(Seriously, folks, approval vote more. If I had a nickel for every time I saw someone say "well, my favorite thing has no chance, so I'm just going to vote for [least distasteful of the things doing well]" instead of approval voting their favorite option alongside, I would have enough money to buy every regular poster in this thread a month of SV Premium.)
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Seconding this, approval voting costs nothing and improves the chances of getting to see what you want in the quest. Even if your preferred approval vote loses, it can help serve as a benchmark for thread interest in future votes.

Also, to improve its visibility:
[ ] Plan Not Pickle Requests Variant with Apparitions
 
BrainInAJar said:
I'm kind of bored of this Waystone arc so this is what my heart tells me:
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Out of semi-idle curiosity why are you bored with it right as it's picking up?

We've dropped a workable solution into the laps of those who need it but now we are getting to the exciting part! Reclaiming nexuses promises to be interesting and violent, we have dozens of possible strings to pull. In the Empire alone there are (in my estimation) 2 relatively easy reclamations from evil forces/purge of negative energies. Not to mention the Karaz Ankor ones.
 
[X] Plan Pickle Requests mk IV
[X] Plan Not Pickle Requests Variant with Apparitions
[X] Break College Favor/ Tenure

Sure, I'll add that one in. A bunch of whispering darkness for spell creation could be fun, and given that I don't think they even have blood it doesn't even cut into the AV margins now that pretty much all the colleges are going to be hunting Apparitions down and wringing them dry.
 
Seems like it is vote editing season... two months after the vote opened. Odd but ok.

[X] Plan: The Prismatic Wanderer
[X] Plan: The Prismatic Wanderer (Researcher ver)
[X] Plan Tower of Doom! and Research!
[X] Dispensation to study methods of destroying or beneficially transforming Dhar
[] Plan Pickle Requests mk IV

Now that the armour is no longer in second place I don't feel the need to vote for the grab bag of stuff as a contingency.
 
[X] Plan: The Prismatic Wanderer
[X] Plan: The Prismatic Wanderer (Researcher ver)
[X] Plan Tower of Doom! and Research!

I can't remember my old vote, so just revoting for my preferred options.
 
hugo239111 said:
Out of semi-idle curiosity why are you bored with it right as it's picking up?

We've dropped a workable solution into the laps of those who need it but now we are getting to the exciting part! Reclaiming nexuses promises to be interesting and violent, we have dozens of possible strings to pull. In the Empire alone there are (in my estimation) 2 relatively easy reclamations from evil forces/purge of negative energies. Not to mention the Karaz Ankor ones.
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I can't speak for everyone, but I can't tell where we're at with the Waystone project right now. The last turn plan had people talking about it like it was ramping up, other people talk about it like its all done but for reports, sometimes it has a dealdine and sometimes it doesn't.

All I really want from it is to go do some stuff in Bretonnia or to finish so people stop using it as something we must do before going on the elfcation.
 
picklepikkl said:
Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Mar 26, 2025 at 6:36 PM, finished with 4448 posts and 327 votes.
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Ok, Pickle Requests has passed Armor of von Tarnus, so the possibility of mutual disarmament is alive and well, for those who were saying that they'd support it winning if it and not the Armor were the second-place option.
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Disarmament is ago! ...now where did i leave my old vote post...
[X] Save the boon until we choose our next project
[X] Plan Pickle Requests mk IV
[X] Plan Not Pickle Requests Variant with Apparitions
[X] Support in dispatching Battle Wizards to one major conflict of Mathilde's choice

Incidentally, i was thinking earlier today about it...i'm pretty sure i'd be more supportive/excited about the ship option if it was for the empire, not for mathilde. obviously that doesn't fit in as well to this setup, but i think that kind of project would be fun to see done as like...a short(er) main project at some point after the waystone project (and elfcation), as something of a big project to show off the "cooperation between the colleges" element of Webmat... maybe as a stretch goal finding a way to get the dwarves on board with it too...

That would give the magic worldbuilding, funny magicbabble of chiselhands shenanigans, and cooperative feelgood vibes that would be the main draws of the ship to me, but replace the "ok but now we've got this asset that doesn't really fit most of what mathilde has been doing lately, there looming over every vote--especially for next project--as a sunk cost of 'well if we do X project we're just wasting the fact that we have a magic warship!' threatening to poison the vote discourse" with instead having the chance to periodically get to go "hey!!! we made that!!" when the colleges warship shows up doing something cool during a rumor or social action or even maybe an adventure with a major battle that boney could have in his pocket for either something already there when mathilde interrupt happens or as an option for mathilde doing her classic "and then i called for reinforcements and massively increased the expedition strength" stuff.

But as something that only gives us the parts i'd find most interesting to read about if we spend at least one action on joining in the creation, and which *does* serve as a looming "you have a major asset you could be using" issue (at least for me) without giving many fully new capabilities to us... just doesn't spark joy. My favorite option is still saving the boon for next project vote, at which point i think its possible for there to be a project option for which a magic ship or tower or whatever tailored to its mission statement would be a fun and useful vote, but right now not so much...

GrimTheMad said:
[X] Plan Pickle Requests mk IV
[X] Plan Not Pickle Requests Variant with Apparitions
[X] Break College Favor/ Tenure

Sure, I'll add that one in. A bunch of whispering darkness for spell creation could be fun, and given that I don't think they even have blood it doesn't even cut into the AV margins now that pretty much all the colleges are going to be hunting Apparitions down and wringing them dry.
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I'm hoping that even if the 'main' pickle requests wins, after a year or two of the colleges figuring out their new apparition hunting scheme, we'd be able to use CF (and/or AV?) to pay for apparitions. Almost certainly less efficient than using this request on it, and again likely only after the AV economy has settled into a stable form, but something that might work fine for going for the 3 apparition version in 'only' one action instead of 2-3 actions depending on rolls

Edit to add to approval:
[X] Cooperate with the dwarves on creating the plans for a flying ship type that can, in theory, be regularly produced - plus dibs on a prototype of a larger ship when such is built

Edit to at least temporarily rearm now that armor is strongly third and airship is winning again :V
[x] Armor of von Tarnus

Also to add another approval vote for the eike vote
[x] Plan: The Next Generation
 
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Abby Normal said:
Incidentally, i was thinking earlier today about it...i'm pretty sure i'd be more supportive/excited about the ship option if it was for the empire, not for mathilde. obviously that doesn't fit in as well to this setup, but i think that kind of project would be fun to see done as like...a short(er) main project at some point after the waystone project (and elfcation), as something of a big project to show off the "cooperation between the colleges" element of Webmat... maybe as a stretch goal finding a way to get the dwarves on board with it too...

That would give the magic worldbuilding, funny magicbabble of chiselhands shenanigans, and cooperative feelgood vibes that would be the main draws of the ship to me, but replace the "ok but now we've got this asset that doesn't really fit most of what mathilde has been doing lately, there looming over every vote--especially for next project--as a sunk cost of 'well if we do X project we're just wasting the fact that we have a magic warship!' threatening to poison the vote discourse" with instead having the chance to periodically get to go "hey!!! we made that!!" when the colleges warship shows up doing something cool during a rumor or social action or even maybe an adventure with a major battle that boney could have in his pocket for either something already there when mathilde interrupt happens or as an option for mathilde doing her classic "and then i called for reinforcements and massively increased the expedition strength" stuff.

But as something that only gives us the parts i'd find most interesting to read about if we spend at least one action on joining in the creation, and which *does* serve as a looming "you have a major asset you could be using" issue (at least for me) without giving many fully new capabilities to us... just doesn't spark joy. My favorite option is still saving the boon for next project vote, at which point i think its possible for there to be a project option for which a magic ship or tower or whatever tailored to its mission statement would be a fun and useful vote, but right now not so much...
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Something like...

[] Support and funding for a project to build airships.

That? No idea if this is viable... I do think that kind of project would be really fun and interesting. But personally I'm sick of big projects after all the time we've spent on the Waystone Project. I really really really wanna see Mathilde go on another adventure.
 
Boney said:
No, but this is largely a solved problem. Entire industries of highly skilled artisans exist to make people fit into armour, either because they inherited or purchased it or because it has been battered into a different shape than it originally had.
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Might be a stupid question, but was this a thing in real history as well? The only thing I know about this subject is the Game of Thrones scene where King Robert sent his squire to fetch a non-existent breastplate stretcher as a bullying move.

Parabola said:
I'll be honest, I've been holding my tongue a bit because the topic has been discussed to death over the past few months, but I'll be a bit bummed out if the Armor ends up winning over the plan I made without at least making another effort.

I've extensively argued on the practical benefits of the ship over the armor before, so now, please allow me to fall back to the more subjective and sentimental arguments, now:
  • I don't want a historical masterpiece made by the greatest enchanter in College history, I want a modern-day masterpiece made by the best current minds in the Colleges. I want a reward that actually has all the Colleges work together to create something that none of them could do entirely on their own, or at least not to the amazing extent that we know they can if they put their greatest minds together.
  • I don't want to imagine the other seven Colleges presenting the Brights with enough compensation that they'll let go of one of their best things ever, I want to make something that ideally future generations will speak of in the same breath as the Armor.
  • Part of me is still hoping that the Armor gets lent out to Mandred more extensively in the future, as he is more likely to be in the battlefield for longer periods of time and unlike us doesn't have Grey magic to let him avoid harm by being hard to find or see.
  • Airships are so cool, you guys.
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Personally I'm not the biggest fan of getting the Von Tarnus armor, but sadly I prefer it over the ship. The ship either shoehorns us into long distance travel with an entourage being a major thing, or will go mostly unused. It also makes our main value during major military campaigns be said enchanted up to the wazoo ship, instead of something more related to the skills Mathilde gained across the whole duration of the Quest. It's why I am strategically voting for the armor. Because the armor does not have such a heavy narrative influence on future chapters of the Quests.

Dust&Ash said:
See: the dragon transformation herdstone.
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What's wrong with the dragon transformation herdstone? It does exactly what it is supposed to do.
 
DragonParadox said:
The Armor also requires narrative screentime to be relevant. If we do not get into dangerous fights, the kind of fights that might have been lethal without it the armor is pointless. If we get into those fights, but roll well enough not to need it anyway it's useful as a safety line but doesn't show up in the narrative.
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We get into dangerous fights often enough for the Armor to not need to justify itself; it is there when we need it, and we need it when we are fighting. Fighting is something that can happen anywhere, in any kind of terrain, including a forest, which is the kind of terrain a flying ship would not be useful in.

The flying ship would be a white elephant that we would struggle to find a use for. The only use-cases I can think of that would really make good use of it would be doing an arc in Lustria or an arc in Cathay. Cathay is questionable because of how little lore there currently is for that entire region. Lustria would mean operating out of Swamp Town, with our ship being something that helps us bring experimental tools and supplies across the ocean rather than trying to source it from...Swamp Town.

But that's it. Basically: flying ship if you want to do a Lustria arc next. And if you want that, then sure, that's fine. But "ship is cool" is going to feel a lot less cool when it just sits around doing nothing because we don't need a flying ship to go to K8P and Laurelorn and back, because our Gyrocarriage makes that trip a lot faster and can even carry a bunch of people for the ride without trouble.

Our stretch-goals are likely going to involve warfare in the forest--to reclaim lost nexuses and the lands around them. That means fighting in places where air power is irrelevant because the trees prevent aircraft from seeing anything down below or landing.

Moreover, combat is the time when the consequences for failure are the highest. If we die, the story's over. Where are we most likely to die? In combat. Where have we come close to dying? In combat. And most of those instances involved us using stealth and surprise as much as possible while using a monstrously powerful enchanted greatsword. And still we end up in life-or-death struggles that contain a great deal of risk. Last time, we killed scores of deadly foes until they summoned one that had antimagic powers and it almost killed us. But because we got lucky enough, we survived, got some research loot and our objective, and escaped.

The Armor of Von Tarnus is our chance to get the defensive equivalent of Branulhune. Branulhune has not only saved our lives many times, it has allowed us to make ambitious moves that have paid huge dividends many times. The defensive power of the armor of Von Tarnus would allow us to take those risks more safely and take even greater risks without increased danger, with proportionately greater reward potential.

The armor also has the benefit of always being used whenever we are doing any kind of fighting, wherever and whenever that is. It doesn't impede our assassinations or our sneaking around or our spy games; we're just wearing it like we have Branulhune on us at all times. A ship is a completely different matter; if we're operating in a forest we're not using our ship. If we're operating in the Empire, the gyrocarriage is much faster and can land in more places.
 
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ReImagined said:
Here, just in case you want it. You can find your vote in the tally with your username—each name listed under a vote is a link.
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And the other option if that doesn't work is you search for posts by you with the x in a [] and you'll find your most recent vote.

Rafin said:
What's wrong with the dragon transformation herdstone? It does exactly what it is supposed to do.
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Powering it is a bit finicky, needing to sacrifice wild animals too it.
 
Derpmind said:
That? No idea if this is viable... I do think that kind of project would be really fun and interesting. But personally I'm sick of big projects after all the time we've spent on the Waystone Project. I really really really wanna see Mathilde go on another adventure.
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Should be viable:
Boney said:
Redshirt Army said:
If we're going to go with the flying base thing, I'd much prefer if it was work that could then be built upon in the future rather than being an irreplicable masterpiece. Maybe done with the cooperation of the dwarves, too, since we know they used to have airships and the ability to make lifting-gas, and there's a whole thing with Thunderbarges in the later materials? Dunno how plausible that would be.

Basically I'd feel better if our airship was, like, the Gundam-esque Super Prototype of something that could be built more regularly 10 or 20 or 30 or 40 years down the road, rather than being a 1 of 1 masterpiece meant to compete with Fozzrik or whatever.

@Boney , would something along those lines be possible? "Cooperate with the dwarves on creating the plans for a flying ship type that can, in theory, be regularly produced - plus dibs on a prototype of a larger ship when such is built?"
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Valid.
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[X] Break College Favor/ Tenure
[X] Plan Pickle Requests mk IV
[X] Save the boon until we choose our next project
[X] Cooperate with the dwarves on creating the plans for a flying ship type that can, in theory, be regularly produced - plus dibs on a prototype of a larger ship when such is built
 
[X] Plan Pickle Requests mk IV
[X] Save the boon until we choose our next project
[X] Cooperate with the dwarves on creating the plans for a flying ship type that can, in theory, be regularly produced - plus dibs on a prototype of a larger ship when such is built
 
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