Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

[Miffychan]

...I think it might be premature, but...

The White Dwarf! The White Dwarf is on the warpath! Khazukan khazakit-ha!

 

[CuttleFish2.0]

That is entirely opposed to how the base spell works.

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That is sort of just making up weaknesses to worry about. You'd imagine that the Magister Lords of our order would know if Burning Shadows had a weakness like that.

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Has anyone ever use the spell on this scale against this many enemies? I highly doubt it.

Listen I'm not saying it'll only kill a few orcs, I'm willing to bet it'll kill upwards of 70% of the orcs its hits and seriously injure most of if not all the rest, but I don't expect to be nearly so effective as the test firing was given the orders of magnitude in differences of scale we're talking about. I'll be very pleased if it does function exactly like it did for the test firing, but I'm tempering my expectations to something that is only overwhelming powerful instead of basically flawless.

 

[Doomed Wombat]

That seems rather defeatist; we have 16 hours, an enemy.of known size and location/direction, and basically the resources of all of K8P not watching trolls and skaven at our command, if nothing else we can pile barrels of AV around a mining charge and hope it chain reacts.

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Do we even have barrels?

But, yes in general 1.2 million greenies even if only 400,000 of em are worth a damn is the kinda odds that breaks almost anything through sheer attrition.

There's a type of warfare we could try, but its not exactly one the dwarves are especially good at.

 

[Taut_Templar]

Is that Grombrindal?

 

[picklepikkl]

"Ho, wyrtrommi," Belegar says, a hand raised in greeting.

"Ho, riki," the longbeard replies.

Belegar's smile widens. "Strollenskraten?"

The stranger returns the grin. "Strollenganden, debtrommit."

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A translation:
Wytrommi: Whitebeard
Riki: King
Strollenskraten?: Poor-prospecting-journeying?
Strollenganden, debtrommit: Actually-discovering-journeying, little-new-beard.

Aww, dwarf banter.

 

[OriOriOriOri]

King Belegar sighs, lifting his incomplete crown to wipe the sweat from his forehead. The Border Princes was just far enough from anarchy to be more difficult to work with than if it was pure chaos, and for everyone that knew something and was willing to share, there were ten that knew nothing but would lie to you to try to make trouble for those they see as their enemies, which normally amounted to some other polity no more than ten minutes of brisk walking away. Eventually his questions had lead him and his escorts to the headwaters of the Howling River, near the western edge of Mad Dog Pass. The 'Princes' there had become very used to collecting tolls from merchants that passed through it when it was the safest of the three, and with the new route through Ulrikadrin, Death Pass had very much overtaken it as the passage of choice. It seems piracy was their idea of a solution to this.

Fortunately for them, they were as inept at piracy as they were at geopolitics, and they'd yet to manage anything that would earn them a Grudge. If they could find their hidden docks, they could destroy their shoddy galleys and intimidate them into not trying that sort of thing again, and according to King Byrrnoth, news would fly through the Border Princes at the speed of rumour that the Dwarf Kings presented a united front, and messing with the trade of any of them would draw the attention of all of them. Hopefully, this would forestall any thoughts of riverine piracy among the Border Princes, which would be important for making sure the Zhufbar Canal resulted in profit rather than disruption. But so far Belegar, his Hammerers, and the team of Barak Varr Rangers had found nothing but a lot of foothills and a few wary goats despite what more than a few manlings had said, and the only sign of life so far was the smoke of a fire they've been heading towards for the past half hour.

A final rise surrenders to the ceaseless trudge of Dwarven feet, and Belegar frowns for a moment as he concludes that a sole being at a fire is likely not part of the piracy problem, then smiles as he recognizes the normal-sized stature and long, white beard of a member of his people. "Ho, wyrtrommi," Belegar says, a hand raised in greeting.

"Ho, riki," the longbeard replies.

Belegar's smile widens. "Strollenskraten?"

The stranger returns the grin. "Strollenganden, debtrommit." Prospectors were notoriously independent, and a common saying among them is that 'the Karak belongs to the King, everywhere else belongs to the Prospectors'. Taking their casual nature seriously was a quick way to start a pointless fight, but matching them barb to barb was an entertaining way to pass an afternoon, and half of the way to earning their respect. Belegar reached into a pocket under his beard and passed over a flask, the other half of the way.

The longbeard grins and takes a pull, then raises his eyebrows. "Not bad. Unusual bite to it," he says thoughtfully.

Belegar takes a seat on a stone by the fire, across from the one the longbeard was perched upon. "Halfling hops, but only zinti brewers. Dourbacks are settling matters before they move in."

"Ah, new beginnings." He takes another, more appreciative drink, then passes the flask back. "No wonder I didn't recognize the taste. Eight Peaks?"

"I have that honour."

"Been hearing interesting things from that way." The longbeard reached into one of the many pouches on his belt and threw a handful of powder at the fire, turning it a vibrant blue. At Belegar's inquiring look, he inclines his head towards the horizon. "Someone's looking for you." Belegar follows it, lifting a hand to shield his eyes from the sun. Right at the edge of what is visible, there is a speck moving among the clouds.

"How did you-"

"Need sharp eyes out here," the prospector says vaguely. "Must be urgent, for them to be looking so hard."

"Must be," Belegar says, frowning. What has that wizard of his gotten up to now?

"From the state of that crown of yours, probably the sort of business that will see blood shed by nightfall."

A sigh. "I don't doubt it."

"Kind of business that could use another shield in the wall, I suppose."

Belegar turns back to the longbeard, taking him in. The years were worn into his face, but Dwarves just got harder as they aged, and his beard told of many years weathered. "I'll not turn away any willing to help."

"Well then," says the longbeard as he takes up his axe, sunlight glinting off Runes. "Let's see what tomorrow will bring."

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You madman,you genius, you unbelievable storyteller!!!!!!! I cannot believe what you did just now. You are precious @BoneyM

 

[EVA-Saiyajin]

"Power of the Ancestors!" indeed.

 

[Oksbad]

 

[Doomed Wombat]

Listen I'm not saying it'll only kill a few orcs, I'm willing to bet it'll kill upwards of 70% of the orcs its hits and seriously injure most of if not all the rest, but I don't expect to be nearly so effective as the test firing was given the orders of magnitude in differences of scale we're talking about. I'll be very pleased if it does function exactly like it did for the test firing, but I'm tempering my expectations to something that is only overwhelming powerful instead of basically flawless.

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If it was just the spell then I'd agree.

But, the irritable ancestor god hitting them in their souls changes matters.

 

[picklepikkl]

This interpretation is correct. The Tower being fired through the control panel and can't be forced to miscast, but can by quite easily counterspelled. The Tower being fired by Mathilde can be engaged more directly and induced miscasts are possible, but that does mean that the one attempting to do so just entered a magical cage match with Mathilde.

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Thanks for the correction. Apologies, @Harried, I misremembered the details.

So they can induce a miscast in us, but only if they beat us in our Waaaghbane cage match, and only if they get past our magical support counter-counterspelling.

 

[DocMatoi]

ONE POSSIBLE FUTURE​

"My king," Mathilde Weber, Loremaster and until a few seconds ago, highest military authority of Karak Eight Peaks, knelt before the descending King Belegar Ironhammer as he dismounted from the gyrocopter.
"Weber. Report." His face was stony, as to be expected of a king whose home was attacked in his absence.
....
"Well. That is all good news. What else?"
"My king... I ask you to let me not tell you the bad news."
"Anyone but you, I'd call a fool. Instead, I'll ask why."
"Because you can't not know, once I tell you."
"...No. I have to know."
"When the dragon awoke, and the orcs began their March to the West Gate, I sent word by gyrocopter to the Everpeak for aid.
Belegar's eyes widen in realization, even as his mouth opens in denial. "No...."
"They sent a letter."
"Give it to me." As Belegar reads the letter, his hands shake as they grip the dismissive missive. "Die well? Die well? He dares?"
"My king... "
Her words cause the Lord of the Eight Peaks to go still. Not still as in calm, but still as the sea is still before a tsunami. When he speaks, his voice is level and tightly controlled. "Weber. Take this down."
Mathilde wasn't sure if he thought she just carried quill and parchment everywhere with her, and she wasn't sure what to think about it being true. Nevertheless, she prepared to take down the words of the True Angrund King.

"An open letter, to the fat, cowardly, anticharismatic Ancestral Embarrassment known as "High King" Thorgrim Grudgebearer-
The only dying I will be doing will be of OLD AGE surrounded by TRUE COMPANIONS and HONORABLE DAWI. Therefore, a coward who betrays every oath of kingship and aid he has ever sworn will not be at my deathbed. I have made preparations for my KARAK to survive the coming green infestation, and when we do, you shall be hearing from me, personally. And when you do, the shame you have dealt to yourself and my kingdom will not be rectified by the Oath of Grimnir, as that would only make you more useless and wasteful than you have already proven yourself to be!
King Belegar Ironhammer."​

Mathilde read over the message, before looking up at Belegar. "My king, I cannot advise-"
"Then don't. He wants to abandon us? He wants to count grudges over dwarven lives? I'll give him a grudge to bear!"

 

[Boney]

A translation:
Wytrommi: Whitebeard
Riki: King
Strollenskraten?: Prospecting-journeying?
Strollenganden, debtrommit: Discovering-journeying, little-new-beard.

Aww, dwarf banter.

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'Skrat' means the thin and hungry side of prospecting, panning for gold in rivers and loose soil, that sort of thing. 'Gand' means discovering so 'ganden' means 'discovering on an ongoing basis'.

 

[veekie]

[Moments before the fight, Sorcerer vs Emissary: Intrigue, 26+???=??? vs 24+???-10(Unready)=???.]

The tone of the discussion changes, a swirl of Ulgu appearing in the Emissary's mind and just a hint of Shyish in the Sorcerer's as the questions start to become more barked, the answers more hurried, and the two Stormvermin begin to pay attention. Twin blunders, almost simultaneous: the Sorcerer has misstepped, but the Emissary thinks the misstep was a blunder in the game of information flowing from Eshin to the Council, not realizing it's instead a misstep in putting him off-guard before the Sorcerer strikes.

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Sorceror: "Dumb-dumb Agent, no distraction better than loud-endless voice."

You can see the Sorcerer weighing the decision for a moment, then without any visible change in his stance and without missing a syllable in his chattered replies, he begins to pull in energies from the air around him, much of it coming from the constant radiation from the Emissary's jewellery. Within the Sorcerer's soul, seven winds are crushed inside a grip of Ulgu until they run together as Dhar, and then the Sorcerer begins to shape the curdling payload as you watch with interest. A missile spell, obviously, not dissimilar to Shadow Knives or any other variation, except all the power comes from Dhar and all the control from Ulgu, resulting in something superior than what would be possible with either. The energies travel from soul to body, and then gather at the Skaven's chest, and a touch worked into a deferential half-bow transfers them to the Sorcerer's paw.

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Oh hey, thats the tongs technique.
Couple of observations:
-He doesn't seem to control Dhar directly, he's kind of using Ulgu to grab the mass of pre-Dhar winds, sort of like we grabbed Gretel's miscast, and then it becomes Dhar at the right time, rather than containing Dhar.
--This is the opposite of the First Secret. He's doing the "grab it quickly and dump the charge before it explodes" mistake.

-Each Wind contributes. Dhar spells have shitty precision without lots of work, but are very powerful. Ulgu spells have incredible precision, but not a lot of punch.

-The Ulgu does not become Dhar. Specifically excluded even.

The Lore of Stealth shurikens are magically speaking, a shaped charge. We could possibly replicate that without Dhar involved. The problem is getting the pure form of a Wind to do that with, rather than a mass of unstable energy that would collapse into Dhar.

All I can think of for that is either a powerstone for a different Wind(in which case some difficult questions may be asked), a cooperating wizard not overly burdened with concerns about the experiment, using runes to do the filtering(which would entail a runesmith asking what the fuck), using some kind of distillation on AV...

Oh well, onto the very long term pile.

[Opening salvo: Intrigue, 29+20+20(Assassination)=69.]
[Emissary notices?: Intrigue, 29+15-10(Unready)=34.]
[Remaining Stormvermin notices?: Intrigue, 62+10+10(On Guard)=82.]

Without Magesight, the Sorcerer has the initiative. The first hint to mundane senses that anything is amiss is the soft sound of metal and flesh being parted as four summoned star-shaped projectiles bury themselves inside the left Stormvermin, and if your grasp of Skaven anatomy is correct, it looks like there's one in the heart, one in each lung, and one in the liver.

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I notice all three targets would maximize poison's lethality, but aren't particularly good at stopping a poisoned victim from acting or calling out.

Must be some really good poison, assuming they knew what they were doing(with the Assassination skill they probably do)

The Emissary doesn't notice over the sound of his own voice, and in the faint green light of the Emissary's light-bauble, you see triumph flash across the Sorcerer's expression. But despite the act of being an unthinking, unmoving statue, the other Stormvermin was very much paying attention and a massive halberd swings through the air.

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This Emissary seems a little slow on the uptake, if you could literally assassinate someone while standing in front of him, and he doesn't notice.

[Stormvermin vs Sorcerer: Martial, 26+20=46 vs 28+20=48.]
[Emissary reacts?: Martial, 33+10-10(Unready)=33.]
[Stormvermin vs Sorcerer 2: Martial, 6+20=26 vs 39+20=59.]

A crystal blade emerges from beneath the Sorcerer's cloak with amazing speed and just barely manages to halt the falling halberd, tiny crystalline shards pinging off the walls from a tiny shatter at the point of impact. You'd expect the Sorcerer to backpedal and it seems so would the Stormvermin, because he steps forward for a follow-up blow and steps into the Sorcerer skittering forwards, and the crystal blade slips through the Stormvermin's breastplate as if it presented no obstacle at all. Malign energies pulse and the blade snaps off where it meets flesh, and the Stormvermin shrieks as the shard within him fills with Dhar and then splinters, fragments burrowing through flesh and muscles and organs.

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That is one fancy weapon:
-Ignores armor.
-Some kind of activated Multiple Wounds at the cost of breaking the weapon(and as we see later, temporarily).
-Regenerates from damage.

I wonder if Skaven made this or if it was looted.
I'm ALSO inordinately excited at the idea of figuring out this enchantment.

...and a final observation, Mathilde's Shadow Knives kills should look awfully similar to Sorceror's Crystal Sword kills

The Sorcerer turns to the Emissary, who has only now begun to react, standing his ground and reaching inside his robes. With vicious triumph, the Sorcerer leaps forward, his half-length crystal blade raised high...

[Sorcerer vs Emissary: Martial, 79+20=99 vs 100+10+20(Pistolier)=130.]

And with an explosion of warpstone-laced gunpowder, the Sorcerer is arrested mid-flight and falls to the ground, smoke rising from a dozen holes shredded into his chest. With unhurried motions, the Emissary sheaths that pistol, draws a second, and unloads another cloud of warpstone fragments into the downed Sorcerer.

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Fast on the draw too.
Double tapping of course.

The next item it draws is a quill, and it frowns down at the document and makes an entry at the bottom.

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'Source dubious'.

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...I feel a little sorry we had to kill them.
This is one chill rat.

[Mathilde Interrupt: Intrigue, 31+22=53 vs 18+15-10(Unready for this, specifically)=23.]

Perhaps the illusion of the Sorcerer jerking back to his feet is missing some key detail, perhaps the Emissary has just that much faith in their pistols, perhaps they somehow notice your presence. With Branulhune already in mid-swing, they have barely a second to react, and if they had a second more things might have gone for you the same they went for the Sorcerer. But a glancing blow for any conventional weapon is more than enough purchase, and Branulhune punches through the metal vest under the Emissary's robes twice, once at either side. The Emissary comes apart at the middle, and having witnessed and almost experienced his reactions first-hand, you take no chances and remove their head with a second swing. Then you exhale, looking over the fallen. Perhaps fifteen seconds had passed since the Sorcerer made his move, and the echoes of the gunfire are still reverberating through the tunnels around you.

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And this here is where equipment advantage pays out. One success of ours goes further.

[Enough time to loot?: 47]

Somewhere in the distance, shouts and the scurry of claws. The documents is folded up and goes into an internal pocket, the Sorcerer's cloak removed and wrapped around the crystal blade, which has begun to regrow to its full length.

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Enough time to loot, not enough time to clean up the scene.

Not enough time to sneak into Eshin's place and loot it clean.

You draw one of the Emissary's pistols and give it a quick once-over; well-designed and intricate, but fundamentally the design was just a cut-down blunderbuss with warpstone powder and payload.

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Sawn off shotguns?
Good holdout weapons definitely. Very nice stopping power.

You drop it and investigate a fizzing of energies on the Sorcerer, and find yourself holding half a shattered amulet, covered in interlinked runes; though you recognize none of them, they resemble Queekish.

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...is that safe? I'm not sure any magic item damaged to the point where its fizzing is safe.

Might be a ward save amulet?

That's all the time you have before anyone arrives, and you disappear into the tunnels, leaving the Skaven to draw what conclusions they might from the fallen.

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So, what does it look like?
-Stormvermin 1 - Dead of Warp Stars. Killed by Eshin Sorceror.
-Stormvermin 2 - Dead of armor piercing sword. Killed by Eshin Sorceror.
-Eshin Sorceror - Dead of Warplock pistol. Killed by Council Emissary.
-Council Emissary - Dead of armor piercing sword. Killed by ???
-Weapons missing, recovered by third party?

The document is mostly what you expected and some of what you feared. The recent events are creatively edited so that Mors are entirely to blame for Skryre's demise, and then Eshin are credited for Mors' destruction, including, worryingly, the slaying of Mors' Breeders. Perhaps it's merely them assuming a future victory and claiming the credit for it early, but perhaps they're already aware of your forces taking the Trenches.

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Hmm...I'm guessing this is the bit the Sorceror got interrogated on.

Personal speculation is that Eshin just lied, they didn't have the manpower to survive taking the Trench anymore, so they lied about it so they didn't have to.

Interwoven in the Eshin aggrandizement are reports on the remaining powers in the Karak. The greenskins of Karag Rhyn, in enough detail that this could have been really useful if the Trolls hadn't moved in.

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They're lunch now.

The description of a 'Golem' in Mhonar, which is only half-correct but more than you knew until just hours ago.

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Also pre-solved.
I get the feeling this was the lootbox in Yar we missed because we never felt like taking our chances with Eshin.

In a page all to itself, a description of the forces of the Red Fang tribe, including the Big Boss dedicated to the Underway push (Big Boss Gorfang the Hungry, especially skilled at making his underlings more afraid of him than they were of the enemy)

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High Leadership Big Boss? Wonder how he even motivates them to charge into certain death by ratling guns.

and the Warboss himself, presumably currently leading the advance on the Western Gate (Warboss Birdmuncha the Really Zoggin' Big, who travels on an oversized Snotling pump wagon kitted festooned with a variety of looted crossbows and firearms).

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That is a lot of dakka. Do not try an aerial attack.
At least he doesn't have a flying mount?

Clan Eshin estimates the Waaagh at 400,000 Orcs and about twice that number of Snotlings, with, surprisingly, no Goblins seen anywhere.

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...why so many snotlings?
They're literally trash mobs.

No Shaman headcount.
Hmph. Absence or didn't check closely enough?

Wait, we've seen the no Goblins thing.
Another Propa Lads cult?

And, finally, the Dwarven forces. They overestimate your siege weapons by a factor of three, underestimate your numbers by half, barely mention the Undumgi, and speculate the entire force is an Expedition from Karak Azul, and no mention is given to the link through Ulrikadrin to the rest of the Old World. And you're both relieved and annoyed that there's no mention of your own efforts. Is this the limits of what Eshin knows, focused as they've been on Clan Mors? Or are they keeping back information from the Council?

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And this part...mystified me initially, but some thought figured it out.

This is consistent with perimeter scouting. Like the Rangers do.
They overestimate our siege engines by three because we moved the engines twice, suggesting they don't know we moved old engines to cover new sites, but assumed that when engines were placed on a new front, they're new engines.

They underestimate the dwarf numbers by half, suggesting they do see our armies in the field, but they don't see our garrison forces.

They don't mention the Undumgi at all...Eshin knows we live there, the towers are visible. Eshin Assassin was probably deferring the recon of the Undumgi for fear of winding up head to head against a peer in stealth.

Ulrikadrin I suspect they just overlooked entirely. The Knights 'left' and weren't seen again after all.

The northern portion of the Karag Yar cordon reports that the Dragon showed up, looked at them quite sternly until they lowered their weapons, then carefully stepped over their fortifications and meandered back towards Zilfin.

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:3
I like the dragon.

There's also reports from Rangers ranging further and further into Yar; it seems there's fewer and fewer Skaven remaining, and all they've seen alive are Eshin as they withdraw upwards into the topmost sections of the Karag. Clan Mors seems to be either wiped out in Yar, or so close to it as to make no difference.

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Eshin withdrawing into the uppermost peak.
Cornered, if we garrison Yar to lock out the Waagh, but thats always hard to say with Eshin.

I assume we aren't feeling up to making a push on them until the Waagh is done either.

Eshin dies last indeed.

The Karak Drazh pin remains, the sole remaining Mors force continuing to hold against the constant push of greenskins.

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Oh good, stay there. We'll wait for your dakka to run out.

Karag Rhyn is free of trolls, Karag Mhonar free of anything, and Kvinn-Wyr has gone quiet as the few Trolls that have a problem with their new neighbours have been slain.

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And thats Eight Peaks retaken, save for a third of Upper-Yar, a third of Under-Karagril and a third of Upper-Zilfin.

 

[agumentic]

I wonder if Mathilde will see anything special about White Dwarf with her Windsage magesight?

 

[DragonParadox]

Well the Ancestors are with us at least.

 

[Doomed Wombat]

And thats Eight Peaks retaken, save for a third of Yar and a third of Zilfin.

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Also the last bit with Mors unless that is the Zilfin bit.

 

[picklepikkl]

'Skrat' means the thin and hungry side of prospecting, panning for gold in rivers and loose soil, that sort of thing. 'Gand' means discovering so 'ganden' means 'discovering on an ongoing basis'.

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Thanks; I've changed the gloss to "Poor-prospecting-journeying" and "Actually-discovering-journeying" to make the distinction between "being shitty at seeking" and "being good at finding" clearer.

 

[TaliesinSkye]

Depose the High King!

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Yes, it's always important to get any key statements under oath before trial.

(Apologies for lawyer jokes.)

 

[Alectai]

Is that the fucking White Dwarf

 

[LilyWitch]

It's 3:1 for a standard siege, and admittedly more would probably be needed to rush the defenses. But this isn't a standard siege.

1) If the Orks don't all just try to attack one specific pass, we turn in defenders trying to hold a mountain range sized for millions with less then 50k, while the Orks have the numbers to spread out everywhere.

2) Orks are not human. There intelligence and caution is generally lacking, but they are physically superior and have none of the morale concerns a besieging force would typically have trying to take a hard-point.

3) While Dwarven fortifications are indeed memetic...it takes years to build them. And decades or centuries to 'complete'. What we have? Are most definitely NOT complete Dwarven fortifications. And even if they were...we only really have the numbers to fully man them in a few locations (not that we have an excessive of fortifications either).

Magic and artillery are certainly nice force multipliers, but a Waagh this size is going to have their own equivalents, and even if they don't match up it doesn't change that we're hilariously outnumbered. Without the Tower as an OOC tool to mass-kill the Orks, the only good option really would be retreating to a more defensible single location. As it is, we're going to have to let them into the Caldera, and hope that we kill enough with the tower that the rest don't just continue the fight or break-up to infest all the newly cleared and lightly defended mountains.

It's possible for us to win...but not through a siege.

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1. It's an assualt not a siege. #Pedent
2. There is only one pass for them to attack through, the West Gate. We have told you this time and again.
3. Orcs most certainly do have morale. Indeed they tend to have lower morale then humans. When they are winning and the Waagh is going they will not run but when things turn agaisnt them and there is not a strong leader to corral them they scatter.
4. The Citadel, the only fortification we are relying on, is a fully repeared, garrisoned and equiped fortification.
5. The Plan (tm) is to collapse the enterences to the mountains of K8P. It doesn't matter how many greenskins there are. You can only dig through solid rock so quickly.

 

[Strange9]

Damn, that change in general thread mood just gave me whiplash!

That said, I'd be surprised if the Greenskins bad heavy siege weapons and artillery: they literally just started to run down here at 25 km/hr or so once they heard the dragon roar. It'd be kinda weird if they also managed to bring a bunch of catapults at that same speed.

Moreover, even if they did, that artillery could be pretty quickly spotted and shot down while it passes through the narrow confines of the gate.

I really do think we're facing an absolutely massive horde of light infantry (with few supporting elements outside of, say, archers).

 

[Enerael]

25,000 Dwarves. 500,000 greenskins, at least.

The Karaz Ankor has survived because it does cut its losses when a Hold is doomed. And an argument can be made that when 20-to-1 odds is a best case scenario, that's pretty goddamn doomed.

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Assaulting fortresses is hella hard. With Dwarfs being super good at fortifications and defense, those odds not counting humans, access to massive amounts of artillery, two Rune Lords with their anvils, air superiority, and multiple extremely well fortified locations and fortresses, I would expect to survive this even without the Eye actually if dwarfs were willing to give ground, though with grievous losses. Or at the very least hold on long enough for reinforcements to arrive.

Also, see Belegars canonical last stand, the odds surely were not much better then to say the least.

But nat 2 is nat 2.

Oh well, at least we will get to see him eat those words after we burn those Orcs without (hopefully) notable losses, and instead of dying conquer the entire K8P. Heh.

 

[LiamOfOrmonde]

Friggin Grombrindal.

 

[pucflek]

MFW Grombrindal is coming to town

 

[Doomed Wombat]

Is that the fucking White Dwarf

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Its a dwarf with a white beard.

I'm leaning towards yes, but I'd rather not assume.

I wonder if Mathilde will see anything special about White Dwarf with her Windsage magesight?

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OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW

Potentially dwarven steel under her throat.

Grombrindal being who he maybe its entirely possible he doesn't have the highest opinion of dwarf friends.

Alternatively just an old dwarf, dudes probably good at hiding from mage sight.