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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Or, maybe, they are not converting, but it was a phrase in their complicated language that had twelve different meanings, and they used that to make the Ulricans do what they wanted.
 
BoneyM said:
If your alliance is largely predicated on punishing trespassers, it would undermine the hell out of that alliance if instead you spirited away said trespassers to the other side of the continent, right? Simplifies matters a whole lot if rogue elements do it for you.

Pretty much nobody in the world of intelligence has bothered to pay any attention to the various human nobodies that joined the Expedition, and those few that do are watching the first-of-their-kind Undumgi or the low-grade troublemakers that are the returning Stirlanders. Mathilde is the only one that is paying attention to the current Middenland-Nordland drama and knows the demographics of Ulrikadrin's founders.
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...
So rubbing my two braincells together and confirming something that other find obvious:
1) Mathilde is here because she represents K8P, which houses people from that clusterfuck with the Eonir.
2) Those humans trespassed into Elven territory, which is Bad Business which normally requires death penalty.
3) But they are far away in dwarven lands, nobody really aware of them being alive.
4) Which makes the whole not-schizm okay, because their very continued existence is very inconvenient, politically.
5) So Matty is called here to... make sure they won't leave, or the word of them being there won't spread?

I honestly wonder if the whole Ulrican Elves thing actually interact with the not-schizm thing...
God, I wish M had bigger D, so that we wouldn't have to play catch-up with politics like those. This is confusing.
 
Ok, so the Grey Order just saw some commoners join the expedition and saw no reason to check whether their composition had some interesting pattern. I definitely wouldnt have considered that this knowledge requires actual effort and attention to collect, but I guess it makes sense once you think about it.
 
Ericwinter said:
Okay, I think I get it now. My question is why the elves are converting to Ulric, or "converting" as the case may be, because that seems like a really radical move just to get other people to remove trespassers for you. Unless that's an entirely separate matter which is just making things complicated, but that still doesn't explain what they want with us.
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The elves don't want anything to do with Mathilde specifically. The position on the council is a smokescreen for our selection. The Ar-Ulric wants the elves to think Mathilde was selected for Xenodiplomacy expertise, when in fact she's in the best position to figure out what the Ar-Ulric has done and play along with it.
 
PurposefulZephyr said:
So rubbing my two braincells together and confirming something that other find obvious:
1) Mathilde is here because she represents K8P, which houses people from that clusterfuck with the Eonir.
2) Those humans trespassed into Elven territory, which is Bad Business which normally requires death penalty.
3) But they are far away in dwarven lands, nobody really aware of them being alive.
4) Which makes the whole not-schizm okay, because their very continued existence is very inconvenient, politically.
5) So Matty is called here to... make sure they won't leave, or the word of them being there won't spread?
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Mathilde is apparently here because the Eonir want to talk to her. What they want to talk to her about remains up in the air.
 
BoneyM said:
It's amazing how hard it can be to put the pieces together if you got some of the pieces long before you started looking out for them.

If your alliance is largely predicated on punishing trespassers, it would undermine the hell out of that alliance if instead you spirited away said trespassers to the other side of the continent, right? Simplifies matters a whole lot if rogue elements do it for you.

Pretty much nobody in the world of intelligence has bothered to pay any attention to the various human nobodies that joined the Expedition, and those few that do are watching the first-of-their-kind Undumgi or the low-grade troublemakers that are the returning Stirlanders. Mathilde is the only one that is paying attention to the current Middenland-Nordland drama and knows the demographics of Ulrikadrin's founders.
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storryeater said:
The Laurelorn elves mustn't know
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BoneyM said:
It is the gist.
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So, if they mustn't know, but they're asking for a meeting with Weber, does that mean that they know?

and what would they even offer in exchange? Weber has had an extraordinarily low rate of deliberate treachery despite all the divided loyalties thus far, they'd have to offer something pretty impressive to have a hope of tempting her to hunt down the villagers for them.
Also now that this is known, maybe we should assign someone to try to get women to move down to the karak, it'd be awkward if some of these guys get caught traveling back north to look for brides.

edit: also I'd be surprisingly enthusiastic about going to infiltrate somewhere, where we try to get a job as an advisor with the specific goal of betraying and bringing down one of the antogonist factions, but there's too much story left to enjoy with eight peaks to do it anytime soon, and I'm much less enthusiastic about doing something aimed at one of the 'good guy' factions.
 
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A Meeting in Middenheim 2
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    • "Welcome to my home away from home, Grey One," she says, running her eyes over your robes. "Thank you for heeding my invitation."

    "You have the curiosity of a lot of people," you say. "I'm hoping you can sate at least some of it."

    She gives a musical little laugh. "I've no doubt. It must be disquieting when the board you've been playing on starts introducing pieces of its own. Very well, in gratitude to you, what would you like to know?"

    Now there's a big question. "For a start, I'd like to know more about the Eonir converting to Ulric."

    "Well, not exclusively, of course," she says, smiling. "We understand most humans pick one God to venerate above all others, which isn't the way for most of our kind - and by 'our kind' I mean the Eonir, I can't speak for our scattered cousins. But we are willing, indeed happy, to pay reverence to Ulric as the God of Winter and Wolves, and some amongst us are positively intrigued by a God of War that isn't the Bloody-Handed God."

    You frown. "One more to the list, then?"

    "I can see why you'd mistrust that, but we act with sincerity, in this as in all things." She turns her head to watch a butterfly flap past. "You may already know that a Sacred Flame that only burns the unworthy is significant to us. The accounts of your Magnus standing in it unharmed have stood up to a great deal of scrutiny on our part. And our Priests are also interested in the Frozen Throne of Ulric, as some descriptions of it are similar to the Diamond Throne. Perhaps Ulric is a guise, or a child, of Asuryan. Needless to say, if this is the case, Ulric is indeed deserving of reverence." She hums, and tilts her head. "Or, alternately, Ulric could be a guise of Addaioth, or one of the Ellinilli we did not know still lives. If so, that He teaches His followers to withstand the torments of Ellinill speaks of His worthiness. Our Ulthuani cousins have reached an accord with Mathlann, after all.

    "Or," she says, kicking her feet idly, "He is the God of the Empire in a way more literal than most realize, in that He is the God of this part of the world, perhaps kin to the Widow of Kislev. If so, we would seek accord and harmony with our host as a matter of course. Our Priests are still learning all that the Cult of Ulric are willing to teach us, and debating the matter amongst themselves."

    You're still frowning. "So you're willing to worship Ulric, without yet knowing why you're worshipping Ulric?"

    She shrugs and smiles. "He has power, He is here, and He is not actively malevolent. That is enough for a foundation. We have plenty of time to get to know each other."

    You can't tell if that's wisdom, whimsy, or bullshit. "Very well," you say. "The business with Nordland?"

    "Ah, Nordland," she says with a sigh. "We'd not have been open to new friends and found our new God if they had stuck to their accord, so perhaps in a roundabout way we should thank them. With humans encroaching along the Salz and the Demst, our Laurelorn was getting uncomfortably crowded, and the Beastmen smelled opportunity. We couldn't encircle the Warherd without endangering too many of our people, so we had to settle for evicting them into what you call the Schadensumpf - which is quite a suitable name for it, by the way - when that lovely Boris, who was on his way home with his army after stamping out a warherd near Bokel, swept in from the south and between our two forces we quite thoroughly fertilized the marsh. Things developed from there."

    "And now you're enforcing your claims."

    "Naturally," she says with a shrug. "If it was just us, Nordland could ignore the treaty and try to turn it into a matter of humans against Elves. But Middenland being involved means that if they do try to escalate it, your Emperor will pay close attention, and very quickly find that your law is on our side."

    Not a thought for the peasants caught in the middle, both those that got disappeared by the Eonir and those that would have perished under Middenland blades to seal the alliance if the Winter Wolves hadn't spirited them away to the other end of the continent. You wonder if this is characteristic of her kind, or if it's just her. "Very well," you say. "Why did you want to meet me?"

    She looks around conspiratorially, which is absolutely an affectation since this is a pocket dimension filled entirely by her soul, and leans in. "Waystones," she says hushedly.

    You frown. "What about them?"

    "Eight Peaks reconnected, and we thought, okay, that's good for the Dwarves, but Dwarves being Dwarves, no real relevance to us. But then Boris passes on the transcript of the lecture on greenskin magic, which some of our mages found intriguing because, of course, we're not capable of lowering ourselves enough to understand their magics. So we had a look into you, and when we realized that someone with an affinity for understanding magics is in Eight Peaks and working with the Dwarves, we had to speak with you. We've got our own piece of the network just as the Dwarves do, and if we could bring a few more Waystones online, it could do a lot of good for us - and our friends and allies. So we want to open a relationship with your King Belegar, in the hopes of beginning joint research into the Waystone Network."

    For the second time today, you put into practice your ability to smile and nod while being full of confused screaming on the inside.
     
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    • Reliable_2IC said:
    The elves don't want anything to do with Mathilde specifically. The position on the council is a smokescreen for our selection. The Ar-Ulric wants the elves to think Mathilde was selected for Xenodiplomacy expertise, when in fact she's in the best position to figure out what the Ar-Ulric has done and play along with it.
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    As the politics are messy right now, they've asked me to set up a meeting rather than go through official channels."

    "With who?" You ask, frowning. Surely not the Dwarves?

    "With yourself."
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    It was the elves that set up this meeting with Mathilde specifically. So yes the eonir does in fact want something with Math.

    edit. Oh, holy shit.
     
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    BoneyM said:
    "Ah, Nordland," she says with a sigh. "We'd not have been open to new friends and found our new God if they had stuck to their accord, so perhaps in a roundabout way we should thank them. With humans encroaching along the Salz and the Demst, our Laurelorn was getting uncomfortably crowded, and the Beastmen smelled opportunity. We couldn't encircle them without endangering too many of our people, so we had to settle for evicting them into what you call the Schadensumpf - which is quite a suitable name for it, by the way - when that lovely Boris, who was on his way home with his army after stamping out a warherd near Bokel, swept in from the south and between our two forces we quite thoroughly fertilized the marsh. Things developed from there."

    "And now you're enforcing your claims."

    "Naturally," she says with a shrug. "If it was just us, Nordland could ignore the treaty and try to turn it into a matter of humans against Elves. But Middenland being involved means that if they do try to escalate it, the Emperor will pay close attention, and very quickly find that your law is on our side."
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    Okay, so that part is Todbringers fault. Glad we got that cleared up.

    Also, *Internal Screaming*.
     
    BoneyM said:
    She shrugs and smiles. "He has power, He is here, and He is not actively malevolent. That is enough for a foundation. We have plenty of time to get to know each other."

    You can't tell if that's wisdom, whimsy, or bullshit.
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    But Mathilde, why not all three at once?

    And holy shit, a waystone project would certainly keep us occupied for the rest of the quest.
     
    BoneyM said:
    "Eight Peaks reconnected, and we thought, okay, that's good for the Dwarves, but Dwarves being Dwarves, no real relevance to us. But then Boris passes on the transcript of the lecture on greenskin magic, which some of our mages found intriguing because, of course, we're not capable of lowering ourselves enough to understand their magics. So we had a look into you, and when we realized that someone with an affinity for understanding magics is in Eight Peaks and working with the Dwarves, we had to speak with you. We've got our own piece of the network just as the Dwarves do, and if we could bring a few more Waystones online, it could do a lot of good for us - and our friends and allies. So we want to open a relationship with your King Belegar, in the hopes of beginning joint research into the Waystone Network."

    For the second time today, you put into practice your ability to smile and nod while being full of confused screaming on the inside.
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    Whoo, boy.
     
    BoneyM said:
    For the second time today, you put into practice your ability to smile and nod while being full of confused screaming on the inside.
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    This summarizes my feelings as well. Elves of any kind willing to deal/work with the dwarves? Matilda may want to explain, as well as she can, the divide from the dwarves' point of view.
     
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