I think you are mystifying dwarfs and their culture a bit much, there are plenty of imperial dwarfs who make their lives as thieves and fences and their souls are fine. Belegar's problems are psychological and cultural and have to do with his upbringing in Karaz-a-Karak.
Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest
- Thread starter Boney
- Start date
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I think you are mystifying dwarfs and their culture a bit much, there are plenty of imperial dwarfs who make their lives as thieves and fences and their souls are fine. Belegar's problems are psychological and cultural and have to do with his upbringing in Karaz-a-Karak.
I was thinking more along the lines of "if you could pay to kill them off why not pay to buy them out?"
Weapon Armed
NuclearConsensus
Herald of the Thorned One
- Location
- the Philippines
Matthias dabbed away the sweat on his forehead as he and his Hammerer guards emerged at the top of Karag Nar, barely shielded from the heat of the sun by the towers of the mountain's Crown. Despite these towers and the rooms below being his official quarters as the Court Wizard of Karak Eight Peaks, he rarely visited them, preferring the residence his predecessor and master had made for himself in Karag Lhune, which was closer to the court of the King. Now though, the tides of war and the orders of the King had driven him to the towers, or more specifically, to one tower in particular: the Grey Tower.
As Matthias and his guard approached the base of the Grey Tower, a group of men and Dwarfs moved to block their way. Eight Dwarfs, Hammerers by their weapons and armor, accompanied by twice their number in Undumgi, set apart from other men of the Karak by the silver pikes they bore. One of the Hammerers stepped forward and spoke in Khazalid, his voice sounding like it had come from the deepest of the Lhune deeps. "Who comes to the Grey Tower?"
Matthias licked his lips before answering. "Matthias Martens, Magister of the Grey Order and Loremaster of Vala-Azril-Ungol." He hesitated, his mind going back to rites and rituals his predecessor had drilled into him, before adding, "Who challenges?"
The Dwarf before him grunted, in approval or in annoyance Matthias could not say. "Jormun Thoreksson, of Clan Angrund, Captain of the Guard of the Tower." The Dwarf reached beneath his armor and held out a medallion, marked by crossed hammers and a tower. "My badge of office. Your purpose?"
Now it was Matthias' turn to reach for something, revealing a scroll and a key from beneath his spider-silk robes, both of which Jormun promptly took. "Orcs are marching down Death Pass. At the King's command, I am to enter the Grey Tower and unleash the shadow of Karag Nar once more."
Having read through the scroll, which confirmed Matthias' words, and examined the key Jormun handed both back and spoke. "Very well. All is in order; you, and you alone, may enter the Grey Tower." With the formalities concluded, the guards parted, allowing Matthias to pass through to the door behind them, which the Wizard opened. His own guards watched him leave, albeit with some grumbling about leaving their charge unguarded. None moved to follow Matthias through the door though. The dangers of entering the Towers without permission were well known, and the Grey Tower was most dangerous of all.
Once Matthias had stepped inside, the door behind him swung closed of its own accord. After a moment stuck in the gloom of the windowless room, runic lights along walls sprang to life, illuminating the inside of the tower, which was barren aside from some stairs spiraling along the tower's side. Oh, and the runes. Lots and lots of runes, meant to give swift death to any intruders, aided by hidden enchantments that previous Court Wizards had added to the defenses. Swiftly Matthias climbed the steps, his previous fatigue from the climb up Karag Nar forgotten with the comforting embrace of the Ulgu the Grey Tower had accumulated over the decades.
The second level of the tower was almost as barren as the first, the impression broken only by some dusty furniture and an array of failed Ulgu power stones set in a circle around a slit in the floor. This slit was Matthias' first stop in his goal. As he warily approached, thoughts long forgotten came back to him. Days walking through each of the towers and listening to whispered instructions concerning each. The voice of a woman, one he impossibly recognized as belonging to his first predecessor. "Karak Eight Peaks Number Seventeen. Operation of the Burning Shadows Tower. If you believe you are accessing this memory in error, please contact the Grey College at your earliest convenience." A tide of memories return, gestures and mnemonics and rituals Matthias had believed lost to the ages.
Still reeling from the sudden remembrance, Matthias stepped forth to the array in the floor, his right hand twisting unconsciously, his lips mouthing a just remembered phrase. At the feeling of weight in his hand, Matthias came back to himself to find another piece of history in his hand. Long thought lost with its owner, a sword known by many names. Way Opener, Sharp Shadow, Moonlit Wit. Branulhune, greatest of the Swords of Karak Eight Peaks, had come forth to serve once more. As its first act in a new age, Matthias sank it into the slit up to its hilt and twisted.
With a great groan, a gap in the floor opened in front of Matthias, quickly followed by a box on a pedestal rising through. Leaving the legendary sword behind for the moment, the Wizard hefted the box, a heavy iron thing, and followed the steps upwards to the top of the tower.
The third and last floor of the tower was dimly lit, even compared to the previous two. Also unlike the previous two, the room was covered top to bottom in runes and filled with Ulgu so thickly that the floor was covered in mist. In pride of place at the room's northern end was a carven tally of the Tower's victims, records of armies that had fallen to the Shadow. At the center of the room was a table carved with a miniature version of Karak Eight Peaks. In place of a smaller Karag Nar, however was a facsimile of the Grey Tower, topped by a horizontal handle covered in miniscule runes. This was the means by which Karag Nar's shadow was directed upon the foes of the Karak. Operating it was as simple as simple as turning the handle so that the shadow of the tower beneath it pointed in the direction of the enemy, aided by a small light meant to simulate the glorious one the full tower itself generated. Very simple indeed, and very deadly, as the scorch marks on the floor indicated, the only remnants of foolish beings who had tried and failed to use the tower against the Karak it was built to protect.
Stepping away from the handle for the moment, Matthias carefully set down the box on the table. With a few whispered spells and oaths, the box opened. Instantly, the Ulgu in the room grew even thicker as tendrils of mist issued forth from the box. Slowly raising the lid higher and waving away the mist, Matthias uncovered the key to the Tower's operation: the carefully preserved right arm of Mathilde Weber, hand still clenched as if grasping her sword, impregnated with the absorbed Ulgu of a thousand thousand dawns.
Gingerly picking up the arm in his gloved hands, Matthias approached the handle, the arm held before him. As the arm drew nearer, the hand opened, grasping the handle. A deep thrum resounded, Matthias holding on tightly to the arm as it was drained of the Ulgu stored in it. Runes on the walls came to life, the carven table shaking as the stone reshaped itself to simulate the changes in the Karak. With a click and a snap, a light came to life, giving the tower handle a shadow imitating the mountain-sized one outside. Slowly, Matthias turned the handle until the shadow pointed at Death Pass and thought of Orcs and watched as the shadowed stone began to sizzle in imitation. The Grey Tower was about to claim another army once more.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Gah, that was a pain to write, literally and figuratively, but I finally finished something! Anyway, a look at how the Burning Shadows Tower might operate with Belegar's specification taken literally!
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Mopman43
Mountain-Hermit of Nitpeak
- Location
- Vermont
Probably more like Altdorf in this case.
To my understanding, Nuln is the place you go if you want guns and bombs and cannons. Altdorf is the place making printing presses and clockwork horses and, potentially, steam looms.
- Location
- Norway
TL;DR because that is unlikely to preserve your power base. Innovations not only outcompete jobs, they disrupt loyalties and organizations, and sometimes I think it's a miracle we have so much industrial and later technology as we do.
- Location
- Sweden
Oh yep, my point were that why sell raw material to subpar weavers instead of picking out teachers and teach the spiders weaving / tool working aswell. Heck, I could see it synergizing with the lore master uplift.
- Location
- Seattle
Need to get him those ancestor rune snekjuice.
"Hey boss, figured out the stupid elf trick and turned it into a machine that makes it forever" dwarf af
- Location
- New Brunswick, NJ
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Sure, I get that, but there's no reason to believe that the We would be better at weaving, a discipline that has never been part of its life and for which it would require not only tools but specially-adapted tools that work with pedipalps, than people who have had traditions of weaving going back thousands of years and have been doing it all their lives.
Like, the human and halfling weavers will probably be worse than the dwarf weavers, but it will be fine. If those weavers want to experiment with teaching the We how to do it itself, that seems cool, but it's not something to count on.
- Location
- New Brunswick, NJ
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Next turn I think we should definitely investigate the "shine at night" option with Gambler (unless we think of something clever to do with Deceiver for our new skaven friend), maybe we can get the Engineers to cook us up something awesome with gyrocopter-born magnesium flares, yeah.
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I'd like to try "shine anytime" because it's not only great for timing, it can also upgrade Burning Shadow tower to useful AA installed. If you flare from down there, shadow goes up in the air, burning flying units.
- Location
- Stupid Lucky Time
Holy shit. That's some good stuff. It's always wonderful seeing a PC become the stuff of legends, even in a hypothetical.
Also, I'm very sorry for this.
As Matthias focused on the last of the orcs burning in shadow, he once more heard the impossibly familiar voice of his predecessor. "Karak Eight Peaks Number Nineteen-A. Corollary to the Operation of the Burning Shadows Tower. If you believe you are accessing this memory in error, please contact the Grey College at your earliest convenience."
A beat passed. "Even in death, I give the dwarves a hand."
Matthias' eyelid twitched as the magically preserved arm wiggled its fingers in emphasis.
"Karak Eight Peaks Number Nineteen-B. Corollary to the Operation of the Burning Shadows Tower. If you believe you are accessing this memory in error, please contact the Grey College at your earliest convenience."
Another beat. "Rest assured. Karak Eight Peaks is in good hands." Another finger-wiggle by Mathilde Weber from beyond the grave.
Matthias sighed in exasperation and almost physical pain. "Please stop."
"Karak Eight Peaks Number Nineteen-C-"
"Please."
A beat passed. "Even in death, I give the dwarves a hand."
Matthias' eyelid twitched as the magically preserved arm wiggled its fingers in emphasis.
"Karak Eight Peaks Number Nineteen-B. Corollary to the Operation of the Burning Shadows Tower. If you believe you are accessing this memory in error, please contact the Grey College at your earliest convenience."
Another beat. "Rest assured. Karak Eight Peaks is in good hands." Another finger-wiggle by Mathilde Weber from beyond the grave.
Matthias sighed in exasperation and almost physical pain. "Please stop."
"Karak Eight Peaks Number Nineteen-C-"
"Please."
- Location
- New Brunswick, NJ
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
That's fair, but it's also significantly less likely to work, and I don't think we have strong reason to worry about enhancing our AA capabilities (really, IMO the best reason for doing the "shadow anywhere, anytime" is to change the angle and make it a useful battlefield trick and not just an anti-siege trick). A night attack, on the other hand, is an obvious sort of trick to play after the first time an army gets melted in the daytime, and while figuring out how to make it work is "tricky," casting a mountain's shadow at any time, including while the sun is still stubbornly in the sky, is "very tricky."
- Location
- Texas
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Plan Redshirt v5 (Different Max Action)
Ideally, Ranald's willing, next turn would be a Wolf turn.
If Mathilde will succeed in both tower options and learn invisibility, next turn could have the extra parnoia and night operation tower options which would leave 2 AP free.
Training Wolf's intelligence and studying Queekish looks like synergistic actions (and we want to deal with the captive Skaven sooner than later); and I'd personally stump for the duckling action that involves Wolf playing around with the other pups.
If Mathilde will succeed in both tower options and learn invisibility, next turn could have the extra parnoia and night operation tower options which would leave 2 AP free.
Training Wolf's intelligence and studying Queekish looks like synergistic actions (and we want to deal with the captive Skaven sooner than later); and I'd personally stump for the duckling action that involves Wolf playing around with the other pups.
chocolote12
A Penguin Flailing Against The Keyboard Of Life.
If a sufficient amount of Magnesium could produce the light, then Stoke the Forge or Inextinguishable Flame should work to keep the costs down, and the Rune of the Forge could suffice to stop whatever we'd be keeping it in from just straight up melting.
Basically, we could ignite a year's supply of the stuff on day one, hit it with a spell to keep it going the entire year at max power, and then just ferry it to the part of the mountain we want the shadow to be on the other side of and open up the container or whatever.
Maybe if we enchanted an object to cast the spell on a flame that it contains, we could extend that out for multiple years; set the entire year's supply of Magnesium on fire, then set it to Maximum Power for a year. When the spell wears off the enchantment auto-casts itself after a few seconds, hitting the flame up for another year at a few seconds less than maximum power. Repeat until the level gets low enough that keeping the fire going isn't good enough anymore, then toss the extra fuel in there and turn the cycle on again.
The only issue is having the enchanted object absorb enough Aqshy, but I'm sure we could think of something; it happens to have a very convenient physical manifestation, after all.
Basically, we could ignite a year's supply of the stuff on day one, hit it with a spell to keep it going the entire year at max power, and then just ferry it to the part of the mountain we want the shadow to be on the other side of and open up the container or whatever.
Maybe if we enchanted an object to cast the spell on a flame that it contains, we could extend that out for multiple years; set the entire year's supply of Magnesium on fire, then set it to Maximum Power for a year. When the spell wears off the enchantment auto-casts itself after a few seconds, hitting the flame up for another year at a few seconds less than maximum power. Repeat until the level gets low enough that keeping the fire going isn't good enough anymore, then toss the extra fuel in there and turn the cycle on again.
The only issue is having the enchanted object absorb enough Aqshy, but I'm sure we could think of something; it happens to have a very convenient physical manifestation, after all.
fallintolife
the worst vegan
- Location
- Los Angeles
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I laughed so hard my boss poked his head out of his meeting. good show, Boney.
- Location
- Singapore
Matthias is going to be one of those mages that travel back in time and try to kill Mathilde, isn't he?
Another possible source of light is if we could up-scale a lightbox into a lightwell sort of thing, maybe if you enchanted a crystal to absorb then release sunlight that'd be more compact, but it might not be 'mundane' enough.
Sounds like a good idea with the magical refueling, but for all we know burning shadows might no-sell it for being too magic-y.
Sounds like a good idea with the magical refueling, but for all we know burning shadows might no-sell it for being too magic-y.
Apologies if this has been said before but, rather than looking for outshine the sun lightsources to cast the shadow where we want during the day, we might have a chance of applying our living shadow trait to the whole complex - I call this room the Shadow Throne. Once we have control of our own shadow we should be able to point it where we like. Sitting in the Shadow Throne we can point the shadow of the mountain where we like.
The problem with a lighthouse for night time isn't generating the light* but where one can put the lighthouse to get a useful shadow. The Shadow Throne would solve this too. Until then we want the biggest searchlight than can be mounted in a heavy gyrocopter.
*It's not trivial but between gold wizards and engineers it's soluble.
The problem with a lighthouse for night time isn't generating the light* but where one can put the lighthouse to get a useful shadow. The Shadow Throne would solve this too. Until then we want the biggest searchlight than can be mounted in a heavy gyrocopter.
*It's not trivial but between gold wizards and engineers it's soluble.
pucflek
Verified simpleton
- Location
- Czech Republic
The clear answer of the question "how to generate light so we can fire the tower at night" is really simple if you think about it. First, acquire lord Kroak. The guy is a mummy, shouldn ´t be too hard to steal him. Then proceed to poke him until he revives and put him in refridgerator so he falls asleep, as frogs usually do in cold. Since refridgerators were not invented yet, we should kidnap Kattrin to substitute it. Then, when enemy approaches at night, simply poke the magic frog until it rotates the planet in such a way that we get a nice and good shadow. Couldn´t be easier, literally no chance of backfiring that i can see.
- Location
- Stupid Lucky Time
Perhaps that's why she did this in the first place.
"What an angry kid. He needs to learn to take a joke. .... hmm, jokes."
NuclearConsensus
Herald of the Thorned One
- Location
- the Philippines
Don't be sorry! If anything, I should be sorry I didn't think of it first!
Also:
Karak Eight Peaks Number Nineteen-C. Corollary to the Operation of the Burning Shadows Tower. If you believe you are accessing this memory in error, please contact the Grey College at your earliest convenience.
It seems the Tower came in handy!
I wonder if it's possible to make it so that it's impossible to target some targets in general? Like 'Dwarfs' perhaps. (Which, yes, might result in some sorcerer or sorceress using sorcery to disguise their whole army as Dwarfs or something like that, but.) Or perhaps, 'people loyal and friendly to Karak Eight Peaks.'