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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Looking at plans.

veekie: I really don't like trying to spend so much time with Asarnil. Mathilde has below-average Diplomacy, and Elves tend to give Humans short shrift. Bad enough combination already, but Asarnil isn't even going to stick around, and there are other advisors we still haven't gotten around to spending time with. Scribing Asarnil's stories is probably better than just trying to chat him up, but still strikes me as having low return.
DarkLight140: Physical training, magical training, more contacts on the Council, undead research. I approve.
VoidZero: Enchantment and enchanted weapon research are good things we've been putting off for annoyingly long already. OTOH, expands information network when it's already in the red.
TotallyNotEvil: Very leery of the financial trickery. When we asked Van Hal for more network money last time, he told us we should make the network financially independent or pay in patriotism/violence. "But if you keep scaling up, you can't count on Stirland to cover the cost". Trying to sneak it onto his bill is probably not what he wants.

[x] DarkLight140
 
DarkLight140 said:
Wow. Unless I drastically misinterpret what Van Hal just said, he told us "stop asking me for permission or advice and just do things". That's quite a statement.
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I also think this is specifically in the context of growing the information network. That is what we were asking about. It would be a big stretch to interpret that as a blanket permission to take any action we see fit.

Exmorri said:
Scribing Asarnil's stories is probably better than just trying to chat him up, but still strikes me as having low return.
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Possibly. But Mathilde is also only human. She's a scholar, and this is an Elf Dragonlord with centuries of stories to tell. No doubt full of Lost Love and Grand Adventure, in her imagination. An exiled Dragon Lord? What secret tragedies does he hold? And she gets to write it down, write a book of her own?!

I don't think she could resist.

It's also a game, and it's cool to do cool limited-opportunity things.
 
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Just going to remind you guys that Asarnil is kind of a dick and will look down and insult us casually and I don't think Mathilde is one to take insults lightly
 
Mathilde: "Tell me of the tragedies you have seen!"
Asarnil: "Well, there was the time I had to put up with a midget in grey asking far too many questions..."
 
We don't need him to like us, he's already agreed to have someone write down his stories and just having the chance to learn about what Asarnil has seen is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
 
Have we spent a social action on Anton yet? IIRC we did one, but then it failed for some reason.

@veekie Any thoughts on switching the social action to Anton?
 
On Anton:
BoneyM said:
Interspersed with your official duties, you found time to fulfil your obligation to whoever it was that was pulling your strings. Between Anton's visits to the closest of Stirland's nobles, you engage him in conversation about Stirland's political landscape to try to gauge his level of ability, and he's more than happy to cooperate. The results are... unexpected.

Anton Kiesinger II is quite possibly the least politically savvy person you have ever encountered.

You first assumed that his simplicity was a facade, a way to put people at ease while gaining their trust. But every indication is that Anton is exactly what he appears to be: open, honest, a bit dim, and entirely blind to the deeper meaning behind every word and action in high-level political discourse. And apparently that he is so non-threatening as a diplomat is why he's able to perform the job so well. He's not a threat as a politician, and because his father's lands are relatively small and out of the way, he's not a threat as a future noble.

In a world of wolves, he's a puppy. And like a puppy, now that you've shown him attention, he adores you. After you had found everything you needed to know, he continued to seek you out and ask how you've been eating and making sure that the Greatswords assigned to you are being properly respectful. Whether you like it or not, he's decided that you're his new little sister.
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Night_stalker said:
Yeah, remember, we're talking a Dragon Prince of Caeldor, those guys are literally arrogance personified.

And this one has a flippin' dragon at his call.
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And remember Mathilde shares one trait with Anton, she doesn't mind the pride of others and generally under-presents herself.
Anton has a Diplomacy in the same range, keep that in mind. His base diplomacy was like...4. He makes up for it by being really a kind and honest person so people trust him not to fuck them over...which takes his diplomacy to a less tragic 8.

Dealing with Asarnil has less to do with conventional diplomacy and much more to do with not getting irritated by a super proud Elf Lord.
Which requires either being genuinely a humble and tolerant person, naturally great patience, or a good pokerface.

Worst case we get filed under the long long list of ordinary humans Asarnil had to deal with unfavorably, short of physically assaulting him or deliberately insulting him we'd find it hard to rise above the crowd(which would probably be the big problem here, he's seen wizards and a Grey Journeyman is basically Random NPC #56 to him, reasonably uncommon, but ultimately nothing special).
 
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With the benefit of a good night's sleep, I'm reopening submissions for the montage music. Limit one per person, once you submit one you're locked out of further submissions, and for god's sake please at least glance at the lyrics and spend more than a couple of seconds thinking about it's suitability. Previous submissions don't count towards the limit but are still candidates for winning. Strongest contender thus far is this:

HanEmpire said:
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The lyrics strike me as very suitable for Mathilde's character, her current mindset, her ambitions, and how her magic is both her greatest tool and her greatest challenge.

(Songs without lyrics aren't inherently bad, but they're less resonant for me personally, so they'd be labouring under a handicap.)



primemountain said:
@BoneyM : The Champion of Stirland knows how to fight mounted or not? Do we know that?
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He's able, but his speciality is very much unmounted combat.

veekie said:
How bright is our Light?
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About that of a lantern.

Seventeen said:
I have problems with your Tutoring action. Gustav is a cavalry commander, sure, but he's a pistolier, not a swordsman.
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A pistolier is a swordsman; they wield a saber for the charge.
 
Seventeen said:
Interesting choice to expand the information network. I don't think we're going to be able to afford it just yet, though. And on top of that is the choice of target. Ostermark's quite far away and lacks a border with Stirland, so we'd either have to go through Talabecland, which is on the opposite side to the canal project we'd want to be looking at, or we'd have to go through Sylvania. Talabecland, Wissenland, Averland, or even the Moot would be better targets for our first forays into foreign intelligence, I think.
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It's mostly to slip in before Anton-generated goodwill have disappeared. A bit interested in knowing their army's progress and setbacks, don't want to hear about shattered army two months after the fact. :p

Exmorri said:
VoidZero: Enchantment and enchanted weapon research are good things we've been putting off for annoyingly long already. OTOH, expands information network when it's already in the red.
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Good point about the red ink, not too sure if selling information is a good idea however. Your post didn't show up as alert for some reason.
 
Hmm I'm almost tempted to submit Los! Los! Los! as a song choice but that is more of a maniac battle song than anything coupled with a speech to the troops.

However I do have a rather somber song that would fit a certain type of montage
 
BoneyM said:
A pistolier is a swordsman; they wield a saber for the charge
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Good pistol cavalry charges with their pistols, fire right before impact to break up the formation, and then draw and use their blades right as they get stuck in.

Also, our martial boy's nacent caracole has even worse issues than the original caracole maneuver-though these are mostly reduced by the general lack of good ranged soldiers in undead hordes. Namely, caracole and rotating fire from cavalry removes almost entirely the major advantage of being on a horse. Being able to move quickly. The only reason it worked in Spain for so long is because they were acting as, essentially, bad line infantry against pike blocks. The invention of the bayonet rendered it obsolete as infantry became able to throw more, and more accurate fire back at the cavalry. Which is why they turned back into shock cavalry under Gustavus Adolphus and his schwarze reiter.
 
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chocolote12 said:
Is a lantern brighter or dimmer than a torch?
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BoneyM said:
Assuming you mean 'fire on a stick' rather than a flashlight, brighter and a clearer light.
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Not much is brighter than a torch, being as it's a big open flame, especially not lanterns, being as they just use a smaller flame in a translucent box. The issue with a torch is that it's an open flame burning from tar. Which means a lot of black smoke, and it quickly night-blinds you. It could also burn your house down if you trip, and it is hard to put out quickly without water. Candles in boxes are the way to go. Not because they are brighter or provide clearer light, they are just more convenient.
 
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