Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee so much good news.
What little unused cargo space there is in the gyrocarriage is quickly filled with the administrative paperwork of the rule of Teufelheim and the education of Alkharad's disciples, but the pilots and the Hammerers take your regret that you can't also take the dragon bones very seriously and with some quick work with ropes and chains the skull of one of the long-dead beasts is lashed to the side of the gyrocarriage. The brain and eyes have long since decayed and the fangs have been removed, but what it lacks in magical utility it makes up for in aesthetics, and you're sure there'll be a craftsdwarf in Eight Peaks who could create convincing replacements for the teeth. Without the constant presence of necromancers the eyes of the townsfolk have already turned on the keep, and by the time you take off the looting has begun.
Boney, you mad lad, I didn't switch away from Trade Ledgers, but it's nice to have something.
She looks up at you again. "Why?"
"Because my King asked it of me," you say simply. "For the good of the Empire, of Stirland, of the Colleges, of humanity." You hesitate. "And because your father was important to me."
She looks down at the ledger again, and then at the head. "I'm beginning to understand what he saw in you. In what Magnus saw in your kind."
Awwwww. Basically what we hoped for. Abelheim wished for a better Sylvania, and that his line would no longer be ravaged by it.
You smile, and rise to your feet. "I'll be visiting Altdorf to report what I learned of Alkharad, then I'll spend a few weeks investigating the other Vampires. I'll pass on what I learn before I return to the mountains." You take a moment to gather your thoughts. "Thank you for continuing what your father started."
"It was my duty," she says simply, as if there was never any alternative.
You tap the ledgers. "Not all are motivated by duty. May luck be with you."
Roswita is a good and strong person, despite her earlier biases. Sylvania is about to receive the Battle Wizard Storm of Fuckery, and Roswita might just go even further in the opposite direction of her previous leanings. Seeing your most hated enemy be ripped to shreds will give you a stronger appreciation for the blenders.
Algard does not have an open-door policy, but that is only because it would let the warmth out. Any Grey Wizard who believes they have sufficient reason to see him are allowed to do so, with the understanding that the right will be revoked if squandered on trivialities. So surely after your arrival, the door to the Magister Patriarch's office opens and you push in the cart you've borrowed for this purpose.
Algard is brilliant, but just as prone to eccentricities as any Wizard. Instead of bookshelves or mementos, his office walls are lined with carefully illuminated copies of the Imperial Army's estimates of the Chaos warbands, Beastherds, undead hordes and even one Naggaroth raiding party that have each succumbed to the lure of his famous Screaming Towers and been caught by ambushes and pincers as a result. His desk is completely clear save for a small enchanted windsock that shows the direction and strength of the Winds' whimsies, with his inbox and outbox rotated into dimensions created for this sole purpose of maintaining a clean desk.
"Dame Magister Loremaster Weber," he greets you with a smile that doesn't detract from his piercing gaze. "What tidings bring you to Altdorf?"
That first line is really clever.
Algard opens the book, and begins to scowl after skimming a few pages. "Oh fuck you, W'soran. You and your entire damned bloodline. You sure you got this one?"
Adored this. It's like someone from the thread saying this.
"Just got to finish cleaning it and his skull will join the Singing King. Might have been graduates, or ones out running errands, or ones in the town that kept out of sight, but every student that was in the keep is dead and his books have been burned."
He sighs in relief. "Thank every God there is for that. I'll send in a trusted few to make doubly sure. Is this one of the ones that filled the Von Carstein vacuum?"
"If you put any stock in Vampire boasting he claims that he's always held Teufelheim and he and the Von Carsteins had some sort of understanding. The amount of exotic animal corpses suggests he's been there at least since Hel Fenn."
"And we never heard a whisper. Time to relight some fires. Come with me."
Yaaaaah, the Grey Order didn't hear a whisper of this magnitude of threat until we killed it. Worrying enough to kill the fuck out of the entire area just in case they get ideas.
Dragomas took being a Journeyman to its ultimate extent and wandered into the Dark Lands. Many years after he was considered dead, he returned with a non-aggression pact from the Emperor of Cathay carved into a jade tablet. He was retroactively promoted to Lord Magister to grant him the authority to have negotiated it, and in the coming years he quickly rose through the Amber College in no small part because he was actually willing to engage in the politics of Altdorf. His discovery, hatching, and raising of the Imperial Dragon earned him the title of Magister Patriarch of the Amber Order, and him transforming into a Celestial Dragon in the Hall of Duels caused Alric to concede and go into a peaceful retirement. Since then, he has championed the cause of the Battle Wizards both on and off the battlefield, transforming them from a living weapon sealed up between battles to men and women respected for their sacrifice who live lives of medication and training inside gilded cages, and considers the Imperial Zoo to be his personal hobby.
Yep, his Journeyship beats the pants off of ours. Negotiating a treaty by himself, skipped an entire fucking rank.
You're not able to bask in the news you've become known to the Emperor himself, as you've suddenly realized where you've seen this woman before. "A pleasure to meet you!" says the woman who was once known as Countess Gabriella von Bundebad brightly, closing the gap between you before you can react and taking your hands in hers. "I'm sure we've so much in common!" And hidden by her hands, she folds one finger over another in the sign of the Gambler, and with a tiny sliver of divine attention that leaves you feeling giddy, an always-familiar presence gives confirmation.
WHAT THE FUCK IS WITH THIS WOMAN. FIRST SHE BLUFFS TO THE SPYMASTER OF A FORMER WITCH HUNTER THAT SHE'S A VAMPIRE, AND TO EVERY OTHER VAMPIRE, THEN SHE IS MARRYING THE EMPEROR?
She is Intrigue 40+, I swear to Ranald. What plots are our God pulling right now?
WHEREAS, it has come to the attention of His Majesty Emperor Luitpold I that the Imperial Citizens of Eastern Stirland are suffering under the yoke of Vampiric Oppression;
WHEREAS, it is known that the Colleges of Magic are bound by the Articles of Imperial Magic, as laid down by Emperor Magnus the Pious (S·T·T·L);
WHEREAS, it is recognized that the Colleges of Magic are Empowered and Required to seek out and combat the dark forces of Necromancy throughout the Empire;
IT IS DECREED, that the Colleges of Magic are given full and complete permission to unleash any and all magics, enchantments, abilities and allies they see fit that are permitted under the Articles of Imperial Magic;
IT IS DECREED, that the aforementioned permissions explicitly include the application of the restricted powers known as Battle Magics, and those that specialize in their applications;
IT IS DECREED, that this declaration will be in effect for the entirety of the realm of Eastern Stirland, that some know as Sylvania;
IT IS DECREED, that this declaration will be in effect from this day until the last Vampire is driven from the Empire's borders.
May Sigmar have mercy on their souls.
Proclaimed at the Imperial Palace of Altdorf on this the 12th Day of Erntezeit.
Signed by the Emperor Luitpold von Holswig-Schliestein the First.
Signed by the Supreme Patriarch Dragomas of the Amber Order.
Read when it was first posted, still awesome.
A few badly-made necromantic artefacts dropped into a volcano later, you arrive back in Karak Eight Peaks, which is not yet so inured to you that the arrival of a dragon skull doesn't get stares.
The day that K8P gets used to our bullshit will be a day of tragedy and heartbreak.
[Advanced Infiltration acquired]
Hahahahaha didn't even have to waste an action.
Riding the high right now, will vote later.