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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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vsh said:
Ulric isn't god of war; artillery is. The dice still owe us a few natural hundreds, though. Thanks, @BoneyM for the first part of this quest, I enjoyed it a lot.

That said, tentative plan for when we get back to Wurtbad (the vote is certainly going this way):
(organizational actions)
Expand information network to the town of Drakenhof
Invite dwarwen trainers for tunnel fighting.

1. Hug Wilhelmina and Anton
2. Investigate Anton
3. Go full commisar on Stirland army
4. New elector count-related action (either brief one or help find one, depending on how paranoid Abelhelm was about his family)
5. Investigate Julia, prepare her to be our successor if we are fired.
(free action) Speak with Kasmir

Training will probably have to wait for another turn.


With learning in 20-ish and Ranald's Blessing DC 70 is quite achievable, though.
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My thrust on actions would be:
[] Plan Document Experiences
-[] [Watch] Expand Watch into Drakenhof
-[] [Intel] Expand network into Bundebad
-[] [Personal] Train Martial
-[] [Personal] Train Diplomacy
-[] [Personal] Investigate New Elector
-[] [Personal] Meet/Brief New Elector
-[] [Personal] Learn the EIC functions
-[] [Personal] Secure the Book
-[] [Social] Talk to Wilhelmina
-[] [Blessing] Secure the Book

Train Martial and Diplomacy because we've used the two stats a lot over the campaign. Enough to justify two point increases.
And given our job, we need both.

racnor said:
Not really, removing confusion is no more in line with Ulgu than firefighting is for Aqshy. That sounds like a light or celestial spell spell.
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Depends, scrying through the mists is probably a logical extension of Ulgu, to project an image of There at Here.
 
I think even if we return to Wurtbad we shouldn't continue as Spymaster until the next Count confirms us in that position, or not.

Better train and make our Magister while the relevant deeds are fresh in everyone's mind.
Then decide if we continue our previous job or do something else.
 
vsh said:
What, no going full commisar? Can't agree with that.
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Ah right, nearly forgot:

[] Plan Document Experiences With Investigations
-[] [Watch] Expand Watch into Drakenhof
-[] [Intel] Expand network into Bundebad
-[] [Personal] Train Martial
-[] [Personal] Train Diplomacy
-[] [Personal] Purge Post-Mortem
-[] [Personal] Meet/Brief New Elector
-[] [Personal] Investigate Abelhelm's Study
-[] [Personal] Secure the Book
-[] [Social] Talk to Wilhelmina
-[] [Blessing] Secure the Book

Like that? We can always investigate the new guy later.

Purge Post-Mortem would be to figure out whether its incompetence, enemy action or treason. Checking Abelhelm's Study might net a thing or two, or it might not. Last chance before the new guy moves in.
That said given that Markus is dead with all the Greatswords(I hope at least SOME of them are maimed rather than dead, we need trainers), there might not be much to find.

Artemis1992 said:
I think even if we return to Wurtbad we shouldn't continue as Spymaster until the next Count confirms us in that position, or not.

Better train and make our Magister while the relevant deeds are fresh in everyone's mind.
Then decide if we continue our previous job or do something else.
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Doesn't matter whether the Count confirms us, we are in charge of the networks, and the safety of Stirland.
Nobody else is doing it. It still needs doing.

If you want to train and make Magister, then you should be voting to go to Altdorf...but personally I feel the Grey Order would actually IMPROVE our odds of promotion if we make sure everything is in order first rather than walk away.
 
BoneyM said:
There's more to deploying them than pushing them into place and firing them at the enemy; the area around the base of Castle Drakenhof is heavily wooded, and enough trees have to be cleared to allow line of sight between the cannon and the castle, and while that is being achieved earth is piled up to partially shield the guns and for the crews to dive behind, should they feel the need. The other artillery pieces are slightly simpler, with the catapults requiring a ballistic arc and the mortars a parabolic one; you're surprised to understand the mathematics at play, finding that it overlaps heavily with what you were forced to learn it for your paper on your Matrix. Elsewhere, more trees are being felled to create killing fields for any forces that try to counterattack, and already the air is filled with not just the steady thunk of axe on wood but also of sawing as the ever-industrious dwarves start putting the wood to use. Wooden boards for the artillrey defences, stakes for the killing fields, and beams for constructing more siege equipment - field catapults and bolt throwers, which will lack the range to reach the castle but will do a great deal of damage to any forces unwise enough to give the dwarves an opportunity to entrench.
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Hmm, it sounds like we might have a chance of picking up a Novice Artillery Commander proficiency given how much we went with the artillery solution once we took control?

Or maybe more on the Math side.
BoneyM said:
[Cannon: 96]
[Mortars and grudge throwers: 45]

You had expected... well, you weren't entirely sure what to expect. Possibly holes blasted in the walls immediately, or perhaps this would take weeks of plodding work. But you hadn't expected this. And the smug look on Narfi's face proves without a doubt that he had planned for it. So far away that you need to squint to make out the statues, the castle gatehouse caves in on itself, burying the only visible exit to Castle Drakenhof in tons of masonry.

As if to hammer the point home, the first of many mortar volleys, having followed a much slower arc, descend, some falling outside the walls but enough falling inside that you smile a vicious grin.

You wordlessly pass your tankard to the chortling dwarf, who refills it from the keg at his side and passes it back to you, and then you tap it against his own mug in a wordless toast.
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Bitches love cannon.
BoneyM said:
[Enemy Force Reaction: 75]
[Rolling...]
[Enemy Magical Reaction: 22]

At least, you do until dusk.

The castle gate has fallen in on itself, but not all forces are constrained, and you glare through the spyglass that Narfi has handed to you as the spectral, glowing figures glide four abreast down the winding path. Cairn Wraiths, the long-dead and still lingering spirits of necromancers and sorcerers who could find no better way to cheat death. Many flock to necromancers to feed on the ambient Dhar their spells give off, and still more are forcefully bound to their service, because they make a terrible enemy for any mortal army to face: just tangible enough to kill, but mundane weapons do little to harm their incorporeal forms. You're already on your feet, ready to run to the front lines and weave Ulgu into as many weapons as you can before the damnable things reach them...

[DRAGONLORD INTERRUPT: 99]

When your own secret weapon makes itself known.

Deathfang, from what Asarnil told you, is one of the very eldest of the dragons of Caledor. Deathfang predates Drakenhof Castle, predates the Empire, predates necromancy. He was old when Ulthuan itself was young, and every year has made him stronger. And as he swoops down from a dimming sky to land in front of the advancing wraiths, you're given a very quick lesson on why Asarnil the Dragonlord is the most expensive mercenary in the entire world.

For a brief but terrible moment, a second sun appears on the horizon as white-hot dragonflame washes over the advancing figures, and when the light dies away the wraiths are not to be seen.

The dragon raises it's head to stare up at the castle, and roars a terrible roar of pride and defiance, before launching himself into the air and flapping his way back up into the sky.

You retake your seat and accept a newly-refilled tankard of ale from Narfi.
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Bitches love Dragons too.
BoneyM said:
The first light of dawn the next morning is greeted by a dawn chorus not of birdsong, but of over a hundred artillery pieces resuming their tireless barrage. They're well and truly sighted in now, and the crews are entertaining themselves by trying to hit individual points on the castle walls.
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I really like this snippet. We're well emplaced, our morale is rising because of Asarnil's total devastation of the enemy response and the walls are falling down.

After this I hope Gustav invests in passing down the Artillery skills. The Stirland cannons have gotten a hell of a lot of practice and pointers from the best artillerists in the world.
BoneyM said:
[Enemy Force Reaction: 4]
[Enemy Magical Reaction: 4]
[Yes, that was two separate rolls]
[Rolling for miscast...]

At one point you feel magical energy struggling to manifest itself in your direction, but the spell is so badly mangled that you can't even make out what it was supposed to do, let alone what direction it was coming from. It would be the simplest thing in the world to reach out with your own magic, give it a nudge and let it fall in on itself like a house of cards, but you instead sit and watch in fascinated horror as the mistake is compounded as more energies are poured in and more strands of corrosive Dhar woven atop the spell in an attempt to correct the casting. Eventually, it's too much for the spell to bear and it snaps back in on itself in a jumble of twanging energy and then is sucked back to its origin. Whatever that energy did when it returned, you're absolutely positive it was bad for the caster.
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Mathilde: "What did I say? These necromancers are absolutely shitty spellcasters."

Or maybe spellcasting is cursed for this whole event, considering EVERY spellcaster who cast anything in this last arc flubbed. Kasmir, the Town Necromancer, the Patriarch, Jovi...Mathilde didn't cast a single spell this battle and she did fine.
BoneyM said:
[Cannon: 68+10(sighted in)+10(cumulative damage)=88]
[Mortars and grudge throwers: 42+10(sighted in)=52]

The afternoon brings more of the same, as the dwarf and human crews start to intermix. The humans are given the rare opportunity to watch (though not participate in) the firing of a dwarven cannon and the dwarves entertain themselves by trying to get the greatcannon to actually hit something. Spirits are high all around as damage becomes more and more visible on the castle; one of the towers was knocked clean off the structure by a lucky shot, and bets are being made on how long the others will last.
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That sounds like fun for the dwarfs. Great test of skill to make precision shots with an unrifled Greatcannon.
BoneyM said:
[Enemy Force Reaction: 6]
[Enemy Magical Reaction: 53-20=33]

There's no further apparent reaction from the Castle; either their skeletons were all lost in the cave-in or have been unable to find another exit from the tunnels. But as you're starting to think about dinner, you feel magic start to form around you once more; from the look and feel of it, it's another attempt of what was tried earlier, except this time whoever it is is taking it slow, which is just as well because there's a significant difference in the feel of the magic even though it appears to be from the same caster; apparently the backlash's effects have taken their toll on the magical ability of whoever it is.

[Triangulation: 63]

It's simple enough to follow the 'feel' of a magical spell being formed, but more difficult to get a bearing precise enough to identify a position near half a mile away. But the spyglass is a miracle of engineering, and you're finally able to make out a figure at the windows of one of the towers, clad in a hooded black robe and hands waving in exaggerated gestures in your direction.

"Narfi?"

"Mmm?" he replies, not looking up from his diagrams.

"You see the northernmost tower on the lower walls? Tucked between the balcony and the cliff?"

He peers towards the castle. "I do."

"Be a dear and destroy it for me, will you?"

"No problem." He has a word with a dwarf that has a word with four dwarves who have words with forty more.

[Counterbattery: 86+10 (sighted in)]

"Thank you, Narfi," you say as the tower tumbles over the edge of the walls and down to the ground far below. You briefly wonder if that was the Elector Countess.
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Math: it works!

BoneyM said:
[Enemy Force Reaction: 98]
[Rolling...]
[How much does the collapse of the outer castle bother them? 99, very, very much]
[Enemy Magical Reaction: 18-50=-32]
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So...it looks like the 'Countess' might have survived the tower being blasted(she could, as a vampire).
But she probably didn't survive rolling a -32 on her Badly Wounded casting roll.
BoneyM said:
Their numbers seem to be slacking of, as less and less make it past Asarnil and the ground fire, and those that do are circling instead of landing. You're sure that these things are far beyond any sort of thought, but they do have enough instinct to recognize an easy target from a poor one, and they're starting to realize they've picked a hard target.

[Attempted escape: 37 (them) vs 63]

Their escape attempt is foiled; without a constant source of fresh vargheist from the ruins of the castle, Asarnil and Deathfang are able to chase down and pluck each of the would-be escapees from the air, rend them limb from limb, and drop them to fall to their death on the forest floor below. The final one is beheaded and carried all the way back to the castle to fling at the roof, which caves in at the impact, dropping the corpse into the rooms below. Deathfang flies a lap around the castle and bellows once more, announcing their supremacy over this battlefield to all.

The vargheist has just gone extinct.
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The Knights of Morr are going to have a hell of a time scraping the bits together to prevent necromancers from using those remains.

Probably Kasmir's job to get the field cleaned up by organizing the Morrites.
BoneyM said:
[Dragonlord Interrupt: 18]

Either guided by some unseen intelligence, or able to intelligently react due to the terrible mastery with which they were created, when Deathfang swoops in he is met by a wall of shields as the Guard move as one into a tortoise formation. His fire claims many, and his claws a few more, but the bulk of the skeletons are out of his reach.

[Cannons: 58+10(sighted in)=68]
[Mortars and grudge throwers: 93+10(sighted in)=103]

With the dragon hovering above and roaring in frustration, you nod to Narfi, and that's all the signal he needs. A few barked orders later, and over a hundred guns roar as one, and Deathfang swoops clear as cannonballs batter the formation. Shields are no use against a cannonball, but the distance tells and the cannonballs aren't quite as devastating as you hoped.

But then the bombs and stones, having taken a longer arc, finally begin to arrive. The crews of those machines must have been frustrated, having the fruits of their labour for three days be hidden behind walls, and given a target in clear view they gave it everything they could, and the effect is ruinous.

Skeletons are obliterated as blackpowder bombs fall among them, but it is the grudge throwers that take the day as they strike at the causeway the skeletons march upon until it finally gives way, dropping the skeletons to shatter against the debris far below.
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Huh. Seems like theres still an active necromancer if they're in such good order.
BoneyM said:
Day four, and today is the day, you're sure of it. Today is the fall of Drakenhof.

[Cannons: 99]
[Mortars and grudge throwers: 94]

And you are proven amazingly, satisfyingly right.

The front of the castle is fallen by eight o'clock, by nine new rooms are revealed with each barrage and torn apart by the next. At ten, the roof collapses and the full range of your artillery is brought to bear on the superstructure. And finally, as the sun is reaching it's zenith, there's a mighty rumble as the castle's superstructure can take it no more, and it finally crumbles in on itself. You track the fall of the tallest tower as it tears itself free of the castle and tumbles down the mountain until it drops out of sight. It's... over?

[Enemy Force Reaction?: 5]

It's over.
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But, if the 'Countess' is anywhere in the building she's now under a thousand tons of stone and brick. Good luck rising from that grave.
BoneyM said:
- The mortar and grudge thrower shots were influencing the organization and number of forces available to the enemy; as this was all happening out of line of sight, you didn't get to see what those effects were.
- In an alternate universe, the players of Necromancer Quest are very, very unhappy.
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Figured. It was a little odd how there were no land based sally of undead, particularly wights and vampire knights. I guess they gathered in the courtyard before a whole damned volley of exploding rocks landed on their heads?

vsh said:
I also feel that securing the book is not worth an action: our underground palace is safe enough, but that's debatable.
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Depends on GM ruling here. I'm not sure myself, but for pre-planning best to err on the side of assuming higher costs.
 
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veekie said:
Hmm, it sounds like we might have a chance of picking up a Novice Artillery Commander proficiency given how much we went with the artillery solution once we took control?

Or maybe more on the Math side.

Bitches love cannon.

Bitches love Dragons too.

I really like this snippet. We're well emplaced, our morale is rising because of Asarnil's total devastation of the enemy response and the walls are falling down.

After this I hope Gustav invests in passing down the Artillery skills. The Stirland cannons have gotten a hell of a lot of practice and pointers from the best artillerists in the world.

Mathilde: "What did I say? These necromancers are absolutely shitty spellcasters."

Or maybe spellcasting is cursed for this whole event, considering EVERY spellcaster who cast anything in this last arc flubbed. Kasmir, the Town Necromancer, the Patriarch, Jovi...Mathilde didn't cast a single spell this battle and she did fine.

That sounds like fun for the dwarfs. Great test of skill to make precision shots with an unrifled Greatcannon.

Math: it works!


So...it looks like the 'Countess' might have survived the tower being blasted(she could, as a vampire).
But she probably didn't survive rolling a -32 on her Badly Wounded casting roll.

The Knights of Morr are going to have a hell of a time scraping the bits together to prevent necromancers from using those remains.

Probably Kasmir's job to get the field cleaned up by organizing the Morrites.

Huh. Seems like theres still an active necromancer if they're in such good order.

But, if the 'Countess' is anywhere in the building she's now under a thousand tons of stone and brick. Good luck rising from that grave.

Figured. It was a little odd how there were no land based sally of undead, particularly wights and vampire knights. I guess they gathered in the courtyard before a whole damned volley of exploding rocks landed on their heads?


Depends on GM ruling here. I'm not sure myself, but for pre-planning best to err on the side of assuming higher costs.
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Personally I am of the opinion that the players of Necromancer Quest expected us to try and storm the castle with troops, thinking that at the very least the artifacts in the castle would be tempting enough for us to risk it. Unfortunately for them they underestimated how little we cared and how much we hated that castle.
 
Sinsystems said:
Personally I am of the opinion that the players of Necromancer Quest expected us to try and storm the castle with troops, thinking that at the very least the artifacts in the castle would be tempting enough for us to risk it. Unfortunately for them they underestimated how little we cared and how much we hated that castle.
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They just didn't have the complete picture. They thought they just killed off an Elector Count, not the someone's love interest.
 
BoneyM said:
- In an alternate universe, the players of Necromancer Quest are very, very unhappy.
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Tzeenchite Chancellor questers are, on the other hand, ecstatic. Witchhunter liege is dead and MC is the regent; all clues of a plan well executed are buried under tons of stone; all witness dead to a man. The only sour moment is that the witch got to survive, but she doesn't suspect anything muahahaha! And she may yet become a valuable puppet.
 
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vsh said:
Tzeenchite Chancellor questers are, on the other hand, ecstatic. Witchhunter liege is dead and MC is the regent; all clues of a plan well executed are buried under tons of stone; all witness dead to a man. The only sour moment is that the witch got to survive, but she doesn't suspect anything muahahaha!
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Nah, they're really happy the witch got to live.

She's got attachements all over the place, and will be easy to manipulate. Heck, with work and decent die rolls, she could even be adopted into the folds. After all, who's to say the arcane teachings of the Crow couldn't help her bring back the dead safely?

Sinsystems said:
Nor the fact that we now have the warhammer equivalent of the Necronomicon in our possession, meaning that there is nothing in that castle short of a book of nagash that could be tempting to us.
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... Actually, part of me still wants to excavate part of the castle, recover the countess' head and mount on our desk next to the Singing King's.
 
Sinsystems said:
Nor the fact that we now have the warhammer equivalent of the Necronomicon in our possession, meaning that there is nothing in that castle short of a book of nagash that could be tempting to us.
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It's absolutely possible there were a couple, though. Vlad was high enough in a pecking order to have them (wiki says it was him who presented all nine to that Van Hal) and hide it in his seat of power.
 
@veekie
The first shot collapsed the gate house, sealing them in. They weren't able to properly sally until the outter walls fell, and by then it had been days of bombardment. At least, if I am reading this correctly.
 
[X] The campaign is over, but your duty to Stirland remains. Go home to Wurtbad.

Wiping that castle off the map made a statement. Power is centralising. Only an elector count - with allies! - can afford a siege train like that and only an elector count can afford the type of fortification that can stand up to it. Barons be on your notice.

It's a good day to be in the saltpeter business. Not only is our integrated waste management program underway, not only have we just performed the biggest gunpowder advert in history, we've taken a bunch of territory filled with caves.
 
Whatever option wins, we should take an action next turn making sure Mathilde grieves properly.

Levelling a castle might be cathartic, but it doesn't quite solve everything.
 
Omegahugger said:
Whatever option wins, we should take an action next turn making sure Mathilde grieves properly.

Levelling a castle might be cathartic, but it doesn't quite solve everything.
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We should sell the salvage rights to Zhufbar. Hundreds of tons of decent stone, thousands of hardcore, tens of iron, the treasury of the von Carsteins, corrupt bits and bobs the dawi can deal with better than humans...
 
noliar said:
We should sell the salvage rights to Zhufbar. Hundreds of tons of decent stone, thousands of hardcore, tens of iron, the treasury of the von Carsteins, corrupt bits and bobs the dawi can deal with better than humans...
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I think that castle is better left undisturbed.
Who knows what is buried beneath the rubble?
I'm sure at least a few things that are worse than your regular Vargheists.

If we keep a proper watch from the town Drakenhof it should be possible to prevent greater digging-actions from greedy idiots and activly malicious forces alike.
 
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