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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Mopman43 said:
I don't know about drastically. It's stated to only be a modest improvement in reliability when it's actually being used in the field.
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He means that the downside is the cost of building the guns. If you can reliably stockpile the weapon, then the problem of cost can be mitigated by buying over time.

EDIT: It's definitely not the most glamorous improvement, but it does seem the most dwarfy one.
 
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BoneyM said:
With Wolf as able to call upon your mental resources as you are to call upon his, teaching him is simply a matter of encouraging him to call upon those resources when he encounters a situation he doesn't understand, and over time his own understanding will expand from observation. You start with hiding treats, which quickly fails because you're unable to even think too long on the subject without Wolf and his motley pack materializing and swarming you.
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Wolf: "Pack tactics! We hunt for snacks!"
BoneyM said:
So you pass on the task to Max and Johann, and every day they conceal some within the Penthouse in little wooden containers that muffle most of the smell of them. So Wolf has to resort to looking beseechingly at Max and Johann, who obliging explain to him where it is - though they deliberately avoid giving any gesture that might indicate a direction. The result is rapid and effective, and every morning Max and Johann give more and more obscure and roundabout instructions that Wolf is forced to develop an understanding of before he can discover where the treats are concealed.
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...I'm getting a sneaking suspicion Wolf might be better at Diplomacy than Mathilde is.
BoneyM said:
[Learning Lingua Praestantia: Learning, 81+27=108.]

The next step is significantly trickier. The throat and mouth of a canine is built for howls, growls and barks, not for spoken language, so teaching Wolf to speak any mundane language would have to find a way around that significant obstacle. Lingua Praestantia, however, is no mundane language. It is descended from the tongue of the beings the Elves say shaped the world, and it not only possesses words for concepts alien to Reikspiel, it also resonates with magic in such a way that chants and incantations in it resonate with magic and assist with the shaping of spells, rather than acting as a mere mnemonic device. A much lesser known property of the language is that it works the other way as well - just as Praestantia can shape magic, magic can form Praestantia. Theoretically, any creature with even a sliver of magical ability could learn the cantrips to turn magic into spoken word, but as it requires that creature to already have a solid grasp of the language, in practice it is only of use to Familiars, who have the intelligence and inclination to attempt it in the first place and can use their bond to accelerate the learning process.
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Hmm, would think that magisters who lost their voice somehow might find some uses for this, though I suppose it'd probably be fairly rare that a wizard lose their ability to speak without dying shortly after OR getting someone to regenerate their voice for some favors.
BoneyM said:
Normally, it would be a slow and painstaking process for a canine to learn even the simplest of cantrips. Without fingers to gestures or hold physical aids, and without a tongue to incant, all the usual crutches for those first starting to learn magic are incompatible and Wolf must leap straight to silent and practically still casting, with only the wagging of his tail to provide a very primitive approximation of a somatic component. But Link of Psyche allows you to transfer your understanding of magic directly from your mind to his and walk him through digesting the alien concepts involved, and a few patient weeks eventually leads to him being able to 'cast' words. He's never likely to be a chatterbox - it's just not in his nature to use words to communicate what a wagging tail or a warning growl could more succinctly encompass - but this does give him the very useful ability to nearly-instantly relay information for you.
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It occurs to me that this implies certain things about the We if they do have the ability to learn magic. The hard part would be mapping all the gestures and shorthands to their biology, but with eight legs they should be able to gesture only slightly less proficiently than ten fingers.
BoneyM said:
Perhaps Qrech has truly resigned himself to making the most of his situation, or perhaps he simply acts that way as he awaits an opportunity. Perhaps it doesn't make a difference. But as you look upon the room that was once a bare stone chamber and is now lined with shelves filled with the beings and beasts of the near east, and listen to him explaining the name and history of the newest additions, you feel confident that at least part of him is happy here, and you set yourself to the task of making that happiness sustainable without taking up a constant portion of your attention, and also without compromising the security he is to remain within.
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Thats a lot of minis. And it sounds like a hobby he had been very rarely been able to indulge in previously. Sure, he has little else to do, but this much takes genuine passion for it

I suspect if he ever had the chance to escape he'd still take it, but would cast a regretful gaze back at the prison that was a home, for a time.
BoneyM said:
After a fair bit of thought, some correspondence with the College Secretariat, and a number of conversations with Qrech, you finally settle on something that will keep him occupied and engaged for at least the next few years - an enrolment in a series of University of Altdorf courses on Near Eastern Studies, to take place entirely through textbooks, lecture transcripts, and correspondence with a Professor and a handful of fellow students who have already demonstrated loyalty to the Empire. And just to be sure, Qrech's outgoing mail is to be written in Khazalid and translated by trusted Wizards to prevent the possibility of some hidden message being concealed within them. This would require him to learn Reikspiel to understand the coursework and responses from his pen-pals, but it just so happens you speak it, and this adds a layer of quid pro quo to the gambit you're about to attempt.
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Intellectual stimulation check, human interaction check, security at a reasonable level of paranoia, check.

Wonder how many correspondence courses he could get through in his stay here. Professor Qrech!
BoneyM said:
"To teach you the High Tongue of Skavenblight would be blasphemy," he says at last. "To teach you the Moulder Tongue would be treason. But I would be willing to teach you the Low Tongue, used for Clans to talk to one another, and for the commanding of slaves."
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Hmm, right, that explains a lot. Odds are good that the recovered slaves don't think they get the language, they understand when they're being ORDERED to do something, but slaves would be mainly working in Clan held territories where theres little reason for them to speak Low Queekish to each other, while any escaped slaves would as such, conclude that the secret MUST be beyond human senses.

And I'd note that this ALSO covers Qrech's ass. Literally any Skaven or escaped slave could teach you Low Queekish. No way to trace back to him.
BoneyM said:
You consider this, and finally nod in acceptance. Qrech's mindset, you reflect, is almost entirely recognizable, as you understand his loyalty to his Clan and his Empire. But the part that you need to remind yourself of is that though he is loyal to the Under-Empire as a whole, he holds no loyalty towards any Clan but Moulder, and does not see his efforts to undermine other Clans as working against the interests of the Under-Empire. All resources on the Skaven describe them as treacherous, but perhaps it would be more accurate to describe them as having a different conception of what loyalty means, and holding a belief that internal strife strengthens the whole, rather than weakening it.
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Never forget this. However friendly we are with each other, he's still a prisoner of war from an enemy state, and remains loyal to that state despite years of captivity.
BoneyM said:
[Learning Low Queekish: Learning, 72+27+11(Library: Linguistics)=110.]
[Language Learned: Low Queekish.]

It's said that Queekish relies a great deal on whisker motion, body language, and scents. What that fails to understand is that there is no one Queekish. Written Queekish is monolithic, a linguistic hegemony enforced from the top down by the Grey Seers of Skavenblight, but the 'High' Queekish dialect does not extend beyond the Blighted Marsh, with every Clan possessing its own variant on the language. And when one Clan has to speak to another, they do so in Low Queekish, a language stripped down to the bone for maximum mutual intelligibility - which means no tenses, no genders, no cases, and no nonverbal components. Once you wrap your lips and tongue around the pronunciation of the various sounds in it, learning it comes incredibly simply since you already know the much more complex written language.
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Written Queekish is consistent for bureaucratic reasons, naturally. The bureaucracy can't stand having to translate documents.

High Queekish...probably for ceremonial use? Probably the base language.
Clan specific languages probably started off with a shitload of jargon, due to how they specialize it being heavy on jargon is a feature after all, and it being nearly incomprehensible is important when screaming out orders in battle such that the opposite party can't understand it
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Then Low Queekish for when they realize they actually need to communicate via low bandwidth mediums or to slaves and learning the slaves' language is a bother.
BoneyM said:
Of the forty or so Wizards attending the first lecture on Waystones, only five are above the rank of Apprentice: yourself, a Bright Magister who won't stop drumming their fingers on their desk, and three Journeymen who must be preparing for their final examinations. Of the Apprentices, Jades and Ambers are the most common, followed by the Amethysts, and only a single Celestial is present.
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Jades and Ambers deal with waystones enough in the wilderness that I wouldn't be surprised that it was mandatory coursework like languages and ciphers are for Greys.

The Bright Magister though...wonder why a Magister is in a class they clearly aren't very interested in waiting for.
BoneyM said:
Up at the board, the Gold Perpetual delivering the lecture begins by writing in letters taking up the entire chalkboard: DON'T.

"If there is any option available to you that does not involve messing with a Waystone," she intones in a Talabeclander accent, "take that option, for the good of yourself and everyone in the area."

The lectures you attend over the coming weeks hammer that point repeatedly, and involve a great many accounts of times this advice was not taken, and the terrible fates that befell everyone unfortunate enough to be in the general area.
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Probably the most important part of the class really.
The biggest danger is someone who knows JUST enough to fuck it up real good.
BoneyM said:
They also grudgingly give instructions on how to recognize when leaving the Waystone be is not an option, and how to resolve them using rote phrases of Anoqeyån. How to resolve a blockage between two Waystones, how to reconnect a Waystone that has been severed from the Leyline, how to vent an over-accumulation of energies in a Henge.
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That...that looks like the step by step instructions for troubleshooting a router.
BoneyM said:
All well and good, and suitable information for Apprentices who will soon be unleashed upon the world and told not to mess with the big magic rocks, but your need is greater and you're unable to get past the deliberate obfuscation built into the lecture. After being rebuffed at office hours, you have a quiet word to Algard, who apparently has already received a note warning him you might be Up To Something on the subject; he pens a reply that says that you are Up To Something with approval from the highest levels, and all assistance is to be rendered. After that, you receive a slightly less frosty reception from the Perpetual Professor, though she does increase how graphic the tales are of times things all went wrong.
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Waystone Professor: "Magister Weber may be up to something with waystones"
Algard: "Yes, I told her to be up to something."
Waystone Professor: *Realizes where Magister Weber is currently residing in*
Waystone Professor: *Elaborates upon the truly high energy failures that mere Journeymen cannot attain before they explode, but which Battle Magic authorized Magisters can.
BoneyM said:
Between the now more helpful Office Hours and a set of one-woman field trips to the Henge of the Jade College and the Waystones of the Amber Hills, you manage to grasp the very basics of what Waystones are. The world is criss-crossed with natural channels along which magic flows, and the Waystones act as embankments to contain and deepen those channels. Where multiple Leylines meet, Henges are built to direct the magic towards its ultimate destination - supposedly, but perhaps not necessarily, the Great Vortex of Ulthuan.
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Hmm, interesting, so the Waystones aren't strictly necessary, but they help keep the leylines from wandering all over the place as the 'erosion' shifts the path of least resistance, and the longer they're in place the deeper the path and thus the more leeway you have when the waystone is taken off the network.

But to stretch the river metaphor...the more Waystones are missing the more likely that the streams will cross and cause a cascade failure.
BoneyM said:
With your higher clearance, you're also told in private the incantations for tapping into a portion of the power flowing through Waystones, which comes with even more dire warnings as to how terribly that can go wrong. Also passed along is the amount of raw explosive power necessary to destroy a Waystone or Henge, which has been unfortunately necessary from time to time when a blockage has curdled into Dhar somewhere the Empire is unable to hold for long enough to restore the proper flow. Better a one-time Dhar explosion than a permanent and self-restoring font of Dark Magic for the many enemies of the Empire.
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And there's the bit we needed. How to tap the stream.

Not sure what we'd even use it for without major ritual mojo, but I expect Laurelorn knows what they want to use it for, and Kragg probably has a use or two.

...preferably testing with a MUCH smaller stone than Eight Peaks first.
BoneyM said:
It is all well and good to know that something is flammable, but scientific rigour demands to know the exact flashpoint. Similarly, you are not satisfied with knowing in general terms what can cause the disintegration of Aethyric Vitae. You need to know the exact circumstances under which it will transform. So you settle in for a long and tedious chain of experiments wherein you do the same thing at very slightly different levels over and over until you get a different result. It certainly isn't thrilling, but it is a requirement to be able to engage in future projects with the substance with any degree of safety or confidence. So hour after tedious hour, you find new entries to add to the list.
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Kragg: "You hadn't repeated the SAME experiment often enough to be sure if it'd change from unexpected factors yet. Should repeat the same experiment for every time of day and every day of the year at least. Still...it'd do for now."
BoneyM said:
First, the most dangerous and least desirable transformation. Pure warpstone gives a range in yards, refined warpstone in inches. Morrsleib with a clear sky can still trigger it while waning, while an overcast night is only dangerous when Morrsleib is full. A trip into the formerly Skaven territories confirms that ambient Dhar can trigger the transformation, but only at levels equivalent to recent Battle Magic use. You spend some time on equations trying to reconcile these numbers, and confirm that if one assumes Morrsleib is 'merely' a source of ambient Dhar, it should not be anywhere near sufficient for the transformation. But then, Morrsleib has never been merely anything, as the fact that its phase can sometimes be visibly different in places mere miles apart can attest.
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Others had already observed that now, months after the battle, theres still spots with enough ambient Dhar equivalent to recently cast Dhar Battlemagic nearby. Holy shit.

Also, Morrsleib's full moon phase apparenty can penetrate overcast skies. Which seems to suggest that flimsy shelters like tents or porous roofing might expose people to Dhar.

And finally, it triggers transformations in a manner similar to something we'll see below.
BoneyM said:
Now for the more desired transformation. Petty and Lesser Magics are insufficient, even when physically touching the Vitae, which surprises you.
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Huh, that's a curiosity, the generic inter-wind spells do not react at all....I wish we had a sample of High Magic to test against that.
BoneyM said:
The simplest spells require the direct touch of the caster, while the strongest spells you know can trigger it at mere proximity - though seemingly anything that would block line of sight would prevent this. You dutifully calculate and note the exact range for a selection of spells.
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Bolded reminds me of Morrslieb - anything which would block line of sight blocks Morrslieb's effect.

Fiendishly Complicated spells trigger on proximity, and Relatively Simple spells on touch. Morrslieb behaves like...Battle Magic? Ongoing, active Battle Magic. Obstructed by any form of visual cover except when the phase is full.
BoneyM said:
Magical artefacts only cause the transformation when active, at ranges equivalent to the spells they contain, which simplifies the bookkeeping.
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Runic items presumably don't? Granted, we only got two.
Best get Kragg to test that.
BoneyM said:
Ambient magical energy causes transformation only at significantly higher levels to that of Dhar, which means it should be safe in any mundane situation short of something along the lines of being surrounded by particularly inspired astronomers during a lightning storm.
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So barring Storm of Magic, not happening.
Might want to make sure its safely out of the way during such a storm though.
BoneyM said:
What you find, to your great disappointment but some curiousity, is that the books were apparently a geographic encyclopedia of Cathay, and while some things like their Three Great Rivers and the mountains to the west and oceans to the east are much the same as you're used to, some things raise your eyebrows - the Great Maw, the Baleful Deserts, the Castles in the Sky, the Dragon's Spine. Still, the world is full of curiousities and most of them are a great deal closer than that of Cathay, so you add a new shelf to your library and put them from your mind.
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Hmm, might be worth putting a copy of this out to merchants, the detailed geography of Cathay might help make trade a great deal more efficient.

Or the EIC, I suppose, could sell Cathayan Journey kits :p
BoneyM said:
The correspondence from the EIC raises eyebrows as well, as contained within the first trickle of local gossip you've ordered to be collated and passed on, you find the reports from the Gerber-Kiesinger Repeating Rifle Factory as they phase in the recommendations from a Grandmaster of Zhufbar's Engineers Guild. Though he didn't pass on any truly revolutionary information, he did apparently decide that it breached no vows of secrecy for him to get the manlings to stop blowing themselves up quite so damn often while they did what they were already doing, and he introduced the design and some of the tools for smoother-working mechanisms and more reliably airtight seals within the Repeaters. The resulting weapons are no less prone to fouling or resistant to battering, but you suppose to a Dwarven point of view, it's the fault of the Umgi for using substandard powder and not treating their weapons with sufficient care.
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Grandmaster: "I cannot abide shoddy work even from Umgi!"

More seriously, Mathilde didn't realize it(and neither did the Grandmaster apparently, probably because he's had them so long he takes it for granted), but the bolded is a much bigger deal than he thinks.
Better tools gates so much of gun development, as do machining techniques, that specific developments are easily eclipsed by this. About the only thing as significant would be metallurgy.

You can take the same tool designs for the repeater to make a better rifle, pistol or even potentially cannon.
 
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BoneyM said:
What you find, to your great disappointment but some curiousity, is that the books were apparently a geographic encyclopedia of Cathay, and while some things like their Three Great Rivers and the mountains to the west and oceans to the east are much the same as you're used to, some things raise your eyebrows - the Great Maw, the Baleful Deserts, the Castles in the Sky, the Dragon's Spine.
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I feel as though this can have value for us, despite the QM veto on actually going there. While the vast majority of the geographic encyclopedia would be farther east than Qrech's intrest, there might be enough overlap for it to be of some use to him. The Great Maw is why the ogres are like that iirc. (And geographic maps would be a great addition to Qrech's miniature wargames. The only thing left for it to get truly meta would be stats for each piece :V )
 
Mopman43 said:
It's a big backlog.
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Speaking of which, it seems like we'll be wrapping up with Queekish next turn. What do people think of taking as our next project? I was thinking something low AP-based that lets us focus on AV.

How about getting our skaven tech backlog done? Knowledge and counter-measures of those sound useful for dwarves in general, suit our resources and subordinate's specialities and goes through our backlog. Most importantly, it will probably use those subordinate's actions more over ours and let us focus on AV and self-improvement in our spare time.
 
[X] Gretel, who's apparently spending her newly-earned wealth to make herself at home.
[X] Adela, to see where she's at in deciding her future.
[X] Hubert, have a talk to him about the Masterpieces and how its not about what it 'should' be, but making it what you 'want' it to be.
[X] Elder Hluodwica, High Priestess of Esmerelda and civilian leader of the Eight Peaks Halflings.
[X] The We, to check on how they're settling in to the new arrangement.

[X] Barak Varr, to watch the progress of the canal.

[X] Roswita, as she campaigns through Hunger Wood.
[X] Kasmir, to see how he's keeping himself busy in Sylvania.
[X] Wilhelmina, to see how she's going when she's not a terrifying financial juggernaut.
[X] Julia, See what she has gotten up to as Stirland's most experienced spy master.

[X] The Amber College, to see how your donation of Lustrian eggs is going.
 
Quest said:
What do people think of taking as our next project? I was thinking something low AP-based that lets us focus on AV.
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I'd like to just straight up have AV assigned as one of our tasks, to be honest. Get a mandate to focus on it.

Other than that... Waystones are likely to be assigned to us fairly soon, and I'd like to start poking at the Sevirscope idea.
 
[X] Gretel, who's apparently spending her newly-earned wealth to make herself at home.
[X] Adela, to see where she's at in deciding her future.
[X] Hubert, to go deeper into discussion on Ulrican matters.
[X] Francesco Caravello, proud leader of the Undumgi and possible future Thane.
[X] Oswald Oswaldson, newly-minted Chief Bombardier of the Undumgi.
[X] Sir Ruprecht Wulfhart, leader of the frontier town of Ulrikadrin.

[X] Barak Varr, to watch the progress of the canal.
[X] Karak Hirn, to satisfy your curiousity about Prince Ulthar.

[X] Roswita, as she campaigns through Hunger Wood.
[X] Kasmir, to see how he's keeping himself busy in Sylvania.
[X] Wilhelmina, to see how she's going when she's not a terrifying financial juggernaut.
[X] Julia, See what she has gotten up to as Stirland's most experienced spy master.

[X] The Amber College, to see how your donation of Lustrian eggs is going.
[X] Follow up on your donation of the Skaven organ-vat, and see what has been made of it.
 
[x] Elder Hluodwica, High Priestess of Esmerelda and civilian leader of the Eight Peaks Halflings.

I know it won't bring mechanical benefits, but it will open the gates to more halfling cooperation and thus the opportunity to honor (and leverage) our xenophile trait.

[x] Johann, as both of you reflect on the events both of you went through together over the past year, that began with the hunt for a Clan Skyre gasmask.

We, probably need to make sure our alibis match up.

[X] Gretel, who's apparently spending her newly-earned wealth to make herself at home.

Our favorite duckling, we should get to know her better if we are considering any long time employment.

[X] The We, to check on how they're settling in to the new arrangement.

Best spiders are too cute to pass up.

[X] Karak Hirn, to satisfy your curiousity about Prince Ulthar.

I do wonder what was up with that.

[X] Roswita, as she campaigns through Hunger Wood.

Always good to hear about what the cats she herds are up to.

[X] Kasmir, to see how he's keeping himself busy in Sylvania.
[x] The Amber College, to see how your donation of Lustrian eggs is going.
 
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[X] Johann, as both of you reflect on the events both of you went through together over the past year, that began with the hunt for a Clan Skyre gasmask.
 
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[X] Francesco Caravello, proud leader of the Undumgi and possible future Thane.
[] Oswald Oswaldson, newly-minted Chief Bombardier of the Undumgi.
[X] The We, to check on how they're settling in to the new arrangement.
[X] Roswita, as she campaigns through Hunger Wood.
[X] Kasmir, to see how he's keeping himself busy in Sylvania.
[X] Julia, See what she has gotten up to as Stirland's most experienced spy master.
[X] Adela, to see where she's at in deciding her future.
[X] Johann, as both of you reflect on the events both of you went through together over the past year, that began with the hunt for a Clan Skyre gasmask.
 
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[X] Johann, as both of you reflect on the events both of you went through together over the past year, that began with the hunt for a Clan Skyre gasmask.
 
Quest said:
Speaking of which, it seems like we'll be wrapping up with Queekish next turn. What do people think of taking as our next project?
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I want to do a self updating MAP of K8P. The biggest danger to the defense currently is the underways which this would really help with. Also good enchanting practice.
 
Currently our top 4 has nothing new, and that makes me sad. Come on, folks, let's at least meet some of the other important people in K8P!
Adhoc vote count started by picklepikkl on Feb 21, 2020 at 10:45 AM, finished with 181 posts and 71 votes.
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[X] The We, to check on how they're settling in to the new arrangement.
[X] Barak Varr, to watch the progress of the canal.
[X] The Amber College, to see how your donation of Lustrian eggs is going.
[X] Follow up on your donation of the Skaven organ-vat, and see what has been made of it.
 
[X] Johann, as both of you reflect on the events both of you went through together over the past year, that began with the hunt for a Clan Skyre gasmask.
[X] Julia, See what she has gotten up to as Stirland's most experienced spy master.
[X] Gretel, who's apparently spending her newly-earned wealth to make herself at home.
[X] Oswald Oswaldson, newly-minted Chief Bombardier of the Undumgi.
[X] Kasmir, to see how he's keeping himself busy in Sylvania.
 
[X] Adela, to see where she's at in deciding her future.
[X] Hubert, to go deeper into discussion on Ulrican matters.
[X] Johann, as both of you reflect on the events both of you went through together over the past year, that began with the hunt for a Clan Skyre gasmask.
[X] Wilhelmina, to see how she's going when she's not a terrifying financial juggernaut.
[X] Sir Ruprecht Wulfhart, leader of the frontier town of Ulrikadrin.
[X] Julia, See what she has gotten up to as Stirland's most experienced spy master.
[X] Roswita, as she campaigns through Hunger Wood.
[X] Kasmir, to see how he's keeping himself busy in Sylvania.
 
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