I mean, what exactly do you want to do that can ´t end worse? All outcomes are decided by dice, and diplomacy has the best potential results on crit rolls. People mentioned trying to sic Orcs at him, but that can end up with dead dragon and open way for one of the mightiest Orc strongholds and reason to pursue it. Or the dragon is so strong that it can quell Waaagh all on its own, in which chance we are fucked anyway. Casting spells on it that cause ferocious rage can just as easily backfire and assassination is bad idea for obvious reasons. Branulhune hits with the force of cannon fire. Dragons can survive cannon fire. And then you are in close quarters combat with a pissed off dragon, which is not exactly a survive scenario for pretty much anyone.
You are basically saying that everything is meaningless and the dice control everything ,so we might as well just walk to it right now and it would have the same results as months of planning.
Doesn ´t it though? We chose the path, the dice says if we do it succesfully. If it rolls badly, we are dead. Thats pretty allmighty if you ask me. Yes preparation factors in, but i fail to see how we can ´t prepare for diplomacy. Both assassination and diplomacy requires us to be fairly close so if the roll does get botched we can pretty easily die. If it doesn ´t, and we even get a crit roll, one gets us a dead dragon and the other an ally that is pretty much one of the strongest natural forces Warhammer world has to offer. I say thats worth the risk. Trying the same with spell induced rage can result in a dragon rampaging across the mountain side which is hyper bad, because unlike Mathilde, the entrenched people with their livelyhood there can ´t run.
I'll take the Tywin approach, where is the honor in risking the lives of thousands of dwarves, the entire hope of the race if lose the Karak, our friends and allies, our own life.
We have repaid the obligation incurred by the free excavation action. We are no longer in a hurry to show results from Qrech for the reason of Dwarf reputation; there are still a lot of good reasons not to lollygag about learning from him, like "Skaven die of old age at around twenty and we don't know how old he is but it's at least seven," but we don't have to worry that our Dwarf cred will suffer for not showing results promised when we had them build the dungeon.
And attacking it can ´t lead to murderification of entire army? You are proposing diplomacy as automatic lose state and violent action as automatic win state. Both can result in tremendous loss of life if they get botched, and we can prepare for either approach well enough. As far as i can see we don ´t have enough data to decide if either would be preferable.
The dice don't work like that, they are a reflection of possibility, for all we know a Nat 100 would mean that the dragon is so entertained that it will let us go and not even ask for our equipment in tribute.
I'm saying that i think Diplomacy is unlikely to work, and trying might costs us the fight.
Good thing they have us to help them make the right choice then.
I consider assassination doomed effort here. This is a thousand years old beastie that could be a mage for all we know. Guess we will have to agree to disagree.
Good point, although i think in this case we would probably be precursors. Like in the case of We. Mathilde paves the way, Kazrik takes over once the basic contact is established.
Our choices nearly led to Dwarf civil war and might yet end up with K8P being essentially excommunicated from Karaz Ankor. Or Belegar ending up a slayer.
I don't want to Assassinate it as in sneaking and shanking it, I want to kill it, how we do that leaves a lot open to possibility, and we would give up a bunch of that by letting it know we exists.
Emperor Dragons have an initiative of one, which is what Pit of Shades tests for, so fluffwise that's probably an incredible type advantage (not moving very fast at all versus 'get out of the way or fall into the shadow realm').
But but.. the bones.
This is not a vampire quest yet. There are solutions to that problem. Why, it'd be as easy as eaving a single spell and passing a diplomacy test-
Anton, no question.
Yeah, if we somehow manage to subdue the dragon without killing it i think i would fail my will save to not vote to become a vampire.
