Acquired skill - Pistols: Advanced.
Wow. Whatever else his flaws, Gustav is a
really great pistols teacher- standard skill advancement that we've seen is nil/novice/intermediate/advanced/proficient, with one training action resulting in advancing one step. Crits give one extra step. That means we just learned three times as quickly as we could have on our own, without any crits involved, thanks to his teaching skills.
His base Martial is low... but then, ours is 6. We skate by on guts, a giant sword, and a magic horse. He's probably got a bunch of traits that kick him up to ~20 when combined in his preferred form of combat; "low score but huge conditional trait bonuses" seems like how specialists are expressed in this system- it's how Mathilde runs her Martial, after all.
Speaking of our character sheet:
@BoneyM, our Pistols skill needs to be added and our Learning score isn't currently including the bonus from our new Undead Lore skill.
The tricky part, both magically and mechanically, is distance. Within about twenty yards, it's simple enough to both cast the shadow and instil it with the required effect, but beyond that it takes a brighter light and greater concentration. You practice at night from the watchtowers of the Fort, where a shadow thrown by a torch can go for hundreds of yards; it takes commensurately more time and concentration to perform, but with enough time and concentration you manage to blacken the shape of your hand into a large patch of grass at just under two hundred yards. Now that could come in handy.
Holy
crap. This is well outside the basic spell description, and I'm amazed that we managed it. The implications of this are huge- with a bonfire behind us we could do a ton of damage at a range the enemy can't effectively contest, like a cannon (admittedly strength 3 is puny compared to a cannon, but Burning Shadows has never had trouble targeting a wide area simultaneously, so we could hit entire enemy units, or at least their front rank, as long as we can get the shadows on them). I feel like we got a mastery without getting a mastery.
You don't even have the enchantment vocabulary to keep notes. All you can do is hold a picture of the spell's structure in your mind, and you know it will fade with time. If you had more time or more general knowledge or if the memories were fresher, you know you could manage this, but with so many other priorities you eventually have to put it aside.
[Bound Spell reverse engineering: Breakpoints 50/70, Learning, 58+16-20 (two full years passed)=54. Time penalty reset.]
Of
course there's a time penalty. Ugh. Well, I'm glad we got rid of it, at least; this is fairly important research. I do wonder how we would get "enchantment vocabulary"- our general enchantment skill development action gives the loose impression of being independent study rather than referencing literature on the topic of enchantment, but I guess we could write the College for reference material, like with most other magical actions.
I am kind of tempted to re-attempt this research; with both Take No Heed and Burning Shadows solidly learned, all the options that we discussed for using them in combination with this are on the table if we can just learn it- and since the first breakpoint appears to have been "remember what you're doing" the DC might be lower next time in addition to getting rid of the -20. If we want this asset in hand for the battles that matter, it's not yet out of reach.
[Studying the Undead: Breakpoints 20/50/80, Learning, 86+16=102.]
Very lucky crit here; I was expecting to not have the trait yet before going on campaign but with it in hand our undead studies are done (for now) and we can be a lot more confident.
- Events in the Stirhugel came to a head much faster than you expected, with the Watchmen in Ohlsdorf managing to pick up a trail of whatever it was that was preying on the sheep. To the relief of everyone involved, it turned out to be mere bandits; the Watchmen went back to Ohlsdorf, deputized a number of the burly locals with strong opinions about the theft of livestock, and lead them into the camp with sword and bludgeon. Those that survived the assault were subjected to swift and merciless trial, and had already been hanged by the time a report had been prepared. The rural folk Western Stirland take a very dim view of rustlers.
Well, that's a weight off the mind. I was worried that it would be something serious. Also an excellent demonstration of the power the Watch holds- and which we hold as the one giving it orders. If they can independently identify threats, raise a militia, and lead them into battle and win it... well, that's basically all you need to maintain security. Or launch a rebellion.
- The Attachés to the 4th was mostly without problem, though with no retirees coming out of the Army of Stirland she had to cannibalize the Watch for recruits. Their numbers are now stretched worryingly thin, and they may be less effective until numbers are brought back up to a good place.
I'm sure there will be tons of people retiring due to horrific injury soon to fill our numbers back up.
By the way,
@BoneyM, thanks for putting more intelligence-related stuff into the turns recently. I feel much less uninformed.
In closer news, the would-be scribe that arrived from the University of Altdorf didn't manage to perform the duty expected of him; the banished Prince quickly grew sick of being asked to explain things every few minutes and sent the scholar packing. As a member in good standing of the University of Altdorf's longstanding rival, it pleases you to see one of them humbled, but as someone that was looking forward to reading the end result it's more than a little frustrating. A shame, but then, you have more pressing concerns than elf stories.
Hilarious. On the other hand, now I have to convince people to not spend an action on the elf
all over again.
)
