IIRC, apprentices are usually locked in their Colleges until they're ready to be Journeymen, as the Colleges were designed by the High Elves to exclude all the Winds of Magic save for the one associated with the College, and for that to flow smoothly and consistently to mitigate/eliminate the miscast chance, as there's never a sudden surge in magical energy. They apparently did that by hooking the Colleges into the major Waystone network nexus there is at Altdorf.
That also means that it's impossible for an apprentice wizard to accidentally cast using the Dhar method, as there's only one Wind of Magic available for them to draw on.
It's only when they learn to reliably have the mindset to both only use their chosen wind under stress and never accidentally incorporate another wind due to poor control, and they have the control not to accidentally sub-consciously use magic that they become Journeymen and are allowed to leave the College. Using one flavour of magic for a long time also modified them mentally to make using other Winds harder and unnatural to them.
Perpetual Apprentices are those who don't develop those two abilities, so they're never allowed outside the Colleges again.
While the bit about safety is probably true, there should be a state between 'totally unsafe' and Journeyman, if only because in the RPG 'Apprentice Wizard' is the relevant beginning adventurer career.
Apprentices who study long and hard enough eventually gain access to the deeper secrets of magic, becoming Senior Apprentices (the Apprentice Wizards career). They show such promise and dedication to their Order and studies they are permitted to travel parts of the Empire on missions for their masters. This is the first turning point in an Apprentice's life with his mentor and is recognition of the apprentice's final and true acceptance as the Magister's trusted protégé. Such Apprentices are relatively free to travel with written permission from their master and if the Magister judges that the journey serves some good purpose and offers a reasonable chance to learn something valuable. However, such journeys are not entirely free from supervision, as masters are known to tag along, either openly or at a discreet distance.
Well a quick look on the wiki shows this quote. Which indicates you're both right, junior apprentices are locked into the college but senior apprentices are allowed out and about.
The problem is I don't think we can steal someone's senior apprentice from them and we don't want to spend years locked in the college and training up a junior one.
Mathilde just needs to mock up a book cover and she'd be good to go; no one will give the latest installment of The Witch and her Hunter a second glance.
To Mathildes disappointment, that series ended a year or two ago. It all moved on to an attempted follow-up series The Witch-Knight and her Vampire Hunter, when following the controversial death of Van Hast at the end of the original series, the author (or more likely the publisher) made the highly polarising decision to bring him back to Vampiric unlife. This plot development caused much discussion in the tea salons and cafe reading clubs of Altdorf.
The new series had the enthusiastic support of a hardcore of ardent admirers of the will-they, won't-they couple, determined that Magda and Albrechts' love could transcend even death, but most of the readership was unsure they wanted to see her go that far.
Rumour has it that this controversial plot line might be quietly shelved for now, teasers for the latest instalment heavily imply Magda has graduated to Magister and is off to adventures with a key ally of humanity, even as there are hints of corruption and tragedy at the highest levels of the Empire.
Well a quick look on the wiki shows this quote. Which indicates you're both right, junior apprentices are locked into the college but senior apprentices are allowed out and about.
The problem is I don't think we can steal someone's senior apprentice from them and we don't want to spend years locked in the college and training up a junior one.
There are three questions: "Can you leave the college unsupervised without a high chance of exploding?", "Are you good enough at using magic and the other skills of a wizard that you can work as such without embarrassing the College?" and "Are you loyal enough?". You need all three to be "Yes" to make journeyman.
Dwarves can provide repeated hero-level tutoring that would otherwise cost more gold than we're probably allowed to accumulate. Think of it as a great opportunity to turn Martial into Learning.
All I wanted to do in this quest was play an advisor. But I guess we can't have nice things when the allure of 'fuck around in tunnels for 100 because SV get pissy when their husbando bit it and his daughter told us to leave".
I'm so fucking tired of people who bring Karak Ungor from DoDA and make assumptions about future events inthis quest based on events from another. FFS, no one have yet read one frigging sentence of dwarf adventures here (because BoneyM is yet to write it!) but already we have a sizeable minority who talks about "Mountain Vietnam" and "fucking around in tunnels for 100 turns" and whatever. Judge the quest by its own merits.
Yeah even as someone who was opposed to running off to K8P there is no way it's going to be some endless nightmare that lasts for dozens of turns. Judging the events of this quest by another is foolish as well. That said, 'Mountain Vietnam' is by itself, a decent description to help visualize just how dangerous these campaigns could potentially be to us. They are not to be undertaken lightly.
I think for the K8P campaign we should focus on intrigue stuff like scouting and dealing with enemy infiltration attempts, with a bit of experimenting and handling magical problems on the side.
To the best of your knowledge, assess Journeywoman Mathilde Weber's level of dedication to a) the Grey College; b) the Empire; and c) humanity, factoring in her beliefs and motivations as well as any ties that bind her to the well-being of the above.
[*] Plan Collegiate Loyalties
-[*] Grey College - High
--[*] Debt of gratitude for retaining sanity and health through being born with magic.
--[*] Familial loyalty to Master
--[*] Academic interest in the preservation and perpetuation of discoveries
--[*] Self preservation in maintaining Wizard status within Empire for safety reasons.
--[*] Ambition in maintaining access to College resources and knowledge for the purpose of self improvement in the field of magic. It is very unlikely to obtain knowledge of similar depth in any one area, and impossible to do so for broader areas.
-[*] Empire - High
--[*] Belief in the ideal of Mankind United under the Empire for the betterment of all.
--[*] Obedience to the Laws of the Empire as the premier force for Order in the world.
--[*] Oath to the Articles of Magic, to act in the interests of the Empire.
--[*] Duty as a Wizard of the Grey College to obey the Grey College, transferred from duty of the Grey College to follow the lead of the collective Colleges, transferred from the collective Colleges loyalty to the Empire.
--[*] Duty as a Knight of Stirland to the Elector Count of Stirland, transferred from the duty of the duty of the Elector Count to the Empire
--[*] Self preservation from the Enemies of Man, Undead, Orc and Chaos would be free to wreak havoc without the intact Empire to protect its people from those.
--[*] Practical utility in acquiring assets, equipment and common services requires the continuance of civilization.
-[*] Humanity - Modest
--[*] Religious beliefs mandate the protection and furtherance of humanity.
--[*] Personal ethics seeks to minimize unnecessary harm to humanity in general.
In the space below, describe your plans for the next five years (should you reach Magisterial rank).
[*] Seeking adventure in Belegar Ironhammer's reconquest of Karak Eight Peaks.
[*] Seeking adventure in the Zhufbar expeditions into Karak Varn.
(due to how close these two were, there will be a vote to decide between these two)
Should you reach Magisterial rank, you are expected to contribute to the wellbeing of the Grey College in the manner/s of your choosing. Select all of the below Collegiate Responsibilities that you are willing and able to perform.
[*] Being available to intervene in matters of great import as needed
[*] Research and Development (thaumaturgical) (ie. stuff derived from Shyish-Kebabs and Qhaysh juice)
[*] Interrogation
[*] Being available to investigate reports of unsanctioned magic-users.
It's a product of a great deal of thought and you have to start over a few times after crossing out too much of the paper to remain legible, but eventually you're left with a finished report on your own loyalties:
Grey College - High
- Debt of gratitude for retaining sanity and health through being born with magic.
- Familial loyalty to Master
- Academic interest in the preservation and perpetuation of discoveries
- Self preservation in maintaining Wizard status within Empire for safety reasons.
- Ambition in maintaining access to College resources and knowledge for the purpose of self improvement in the field of magic. It is very unlikely to obtain knowledge of similar depth in any one area, and impossible to do so for broader areas.
Empire - High
- Belief in the ideal of Mankind United under the Empire for the betterment of all.
- Obedience to the Laws of the Empire as the premier force for Order in the world.
- Oath to the Articles of Magic, to act in the interests of the Empire.
- Duty as a Wizard of the Grey College to obey the Grey College, transferred from duty of the Grey College to follow the lead of the collective Colleges, transferred from the collective Colleges' loyalty to the Empire.
- Duty as a Knight of Stirland to the Elector Count of Stirland, transferred from the duty of the Elector Count to the Empire
- Self preservation from the Enemies of Man, Undead, Orc and Chaos would be free to wreak havoc without the intact Empire to protect its people from those.
- Practical utility in acquiring assets, equipment and common services requires the continuance of civilization.
Humanity - Modest
- Religious beliefs mandate the protection and furtherance of humanity.
- Personal ethics seeks to minimize unnecessary harm to humanity in general.
You'd almost listed your loyalty to the Grey College as higher than your loyalty to the Empire before you'd remembered the first line of the Articles of Imperial Magic that dictates it should be the other way around. The Proctor watches you serenely the entire time, supplying new pieces of paper when requested.
The other questions prove almost as tricky. You've got an urge to adventure with the dwarves, who've proven more pleasant company than most humans you've encountered, but you're split between the literal call to adventure that Belegar Ironhammer has given with the crusade to retake Karak Eight Peaks, and the more modest but also more nearby recurring raids into the mines of Karak Varn, so you keep it vague and say you'll be working with dwarves with a view to retaking lost holds or at least the treasures within them. Finally, for your Collegiate Duties: you put yourself down for thaumaturgical research and development (though part of you flinches at the thought of going through what you did with the Matrix paper again), investigating reports of unsanctioned magic use, and offer your services as needed for interrogation or for matters of great import.
When you finally finish your response to the questions, the Proctor takes them without comment and they're taken away into the depths of the College for, you're sure, careful examination. Meanwhile, you're taken to the carefully warded and reinforced room usually reserved for apprentices to fumble with magic and told to demonstrate every spell at your disposal, with the help of a volunteer from the menial staff.
You run through them without difficulty, even those you learned only within the last few months, and you only start to flag as you feel the depletion of the local Winds right at the end. The door opens and you're thanked for your cooperation by one of the observers who were watching through the grille on the door, while the rest remain occupied with the notes they were jotting down. The utterly befuddled volunteer who was the target of your spells is taken off to have a lie-down.
It's not nearly the end of your spellcasting testing, as you're called upon to use the spells under every conceivable circumstance, and then given various scenarios and told to use whatever magic you wish to get through them. 'Guards' are snuck past, incapacitated, and otherwise tormented in a hundred different ways as you demonstrate your grasp of the spells you're capable of. You're given a letter and told to deliver it to a man waiting just inside the gates of Nuln; you're back before lunch and given a great many suspicious looks until a raven familiar delivers word that your letter has reached the recipient. You demonstrate your ability to channel Ulgu through weapons without any visible spellcraft, and more notes are taken. You're placed in an empty room with nothing but a candle, a torch and a fireplace, and the flickering of each is carefully observed and even more notes are made. You're told to watch as the Proctors cast spells, and then determine what is cast. They start off with the familiar rote spells, then move on to more esoteric ones, and finally wizards from other Colleges are brought in and you're left doing your best to calculate results based on the movement and reaction of the Winds around the caster.
The tests move away from magical ability and senses and into more esoteric parts of being a Grey Wizard. You're made to debate a number of different topics, some of them topical and some of them nonsensical; some days you're talking about geopolitical relations with Bretonnia and the situation with Marienburg, and others you're championing the argument that Hochland doesn't actually exist. Your lack of finesse with wordplay is made up for by your ability to grasp the salient details of whatever the situation at hand is, and you feel you manage to conceal the fact that diplomacy is among the least of your strengths. You're also called upon to recite the Articles of Imperial Magic, as well as to explain your understanding of them at length.
Then they give you assignments based on more underhanded approaches, and you can't conceal a grin. A volunteer among the nobility is told to conceal three tokens somewhere in his house and instruct his guards to yell 'seen' instead of drawing steel if they spot an intruder, and you turn the place over without disturbing even the dog napping in front of the smouldering fire and find all three tokens as well as evidence that said noble is being a little bit cheeky regarding his tax obligations. You're given a five minute head start and told to hide before three of the Proctors start hunting you; four days later the town criers start broadcasting a request that you report to the College, and you say goodbye to the grocer you had been working for as Alys Schmidt and report smugly back. In what is apparently a tradition dating back to the founding of the Colleges, you sneak into the University of Altdorf and steal a full-size anatomical skeleton model while an exam is being taken in that very room. Judging by the guards they placed, you're not the first, and judging by how easily you bypassed them, you won't be the last.
The annual drill for the Imperial Palace is underway, and you're told to try your best to get into position to threaten the life of the man representing the Emperor and given three attempts. The first ends in the Great Hall with you fighting off three of the Reiksguard (all of you armed with wooden swords, of course, and laying down upon receiving 'fatal' wounds) before five more turn up and force your surrender. The second ends in a rooftop chase where your flight from guards is interrupted by a wax bullet that gives you a nasty bruise along your ribs, but you had managed to reach a window that overlooked where the ersatz Emperor was taking his lunch, though you only caught a glimpse as he was hurried out a door by alarmed guards. On the third, you enter via one of the towers and find your way to one of the Palace's many kitchens and spread little green tokens to represent poison through much of the food, and then almost manage to charge your way past the guard on the door to the Emperor's bedroom, and there's a great deal of discussion and business with measuring tapes as those overseeing the exercise try to decide whether you had made it into a theoretical bomb's blast radius range of where the target had been lying. The Reiksguard are picking green tokens out of their meals for weeks to come, and the Palace sends a grudging thankyou to the Grey Order that is passed on to you as a souvenir.
Finally, the day comes when you are to meet one of the examiners in a duel. The arena is a sunken pit thirty yards across, dimly lit by two low-burning lamps. Your opponent is a man in his forties, who is rather put out when the duel begins with a wax bullet to the chest knocking him sprawling. There's some discussion amongst the Proctors, and it's determined that while your quickdraw was very impressive and your victory has been noted, it didn't give them a very good idea of the breadth of your abilities, so another duel shall be performed. The second begins, predictably enough, with your opponent vanishing from sight; you check your senses, determine there's no foreign influence on your mind, and watch the Winds carefully, for the movements of him disturbing them or the drawing in of him casting a spell.
The moment Ulgu begins concentrating, you unleash bullet and spell and a cry signals that one of them has connected, but that he doesn't declare the duel over indicates it must have been non-vital. You use the distraction to mask yourself in Ulgu, covering yourself in spells to make you hard to see and hard to notice, and the two of you circle the arena warily, moving close to keep from emitting sound or disturbing the Winds. The room is so quiet you can hear the scratch of quill on paper from the observers above, and you breathe as shallowly as you can.
What finally gives you away, you determine after, is the lamp on the wall flickering as you approach; a fan of black knives emerges from Ulgu and is sent to you, and one of them - blunted, of course, in a minor modification of the normal spell - bounces off your ribs, and though the enchantment of your robes prevents any damage it does give away your position and you duck as an invisible wooden sword is jabbed through the space where your chest was. You scramble away, each time the sword passing so close to you you can hear it, and he remains hot on your heels as he pursues you through the room. You're moving too quickly to be silent and you can't slow down or his sword will catch you, and you can't even see it to parry.
It has to end eventually, and it does painfully as you duck into the sword and catch it across the throat. You collapse on the floor, gasping for breath as the spells you were holding shatter, and you wave off your suddenly-visible opponent as he tries to assist you. You're fine, but if that sword was live steel you'd be dead. It's a sobering reminder that as good as you've become, there are still people better than you.
You held out well, you force yourself to admit. Even without the first duel, you did inflict a minor wound, remained unseen through the mutual stalking, and when he found you it took him a while to make it stick.
[Initial moments: 97 vs 27+10=37]
[Take two: 34 vs 7+10=17]
[Cat and mouse: 64 vs 51+10=61]
[Someone has to blink: 73 vs 79+10=89]
[Scramble: 88 vs 82+10]
[Try to recover: 1 vs 60]
And the Proctors evidently agree.
When next you're led into one of the countless small rooms you've been tested in, you find yourself before a man you've laid eyes only a few times previously: the legendary Algard, Magister Patriarch of the Grey Order and one of the foremost magical researchers in the history of the Colleges. His surprisingly young-looking face peers out at you between his grey hood and his pale blue scarf, and he leans on his skull-topped staff to support himself. "Ah, Weber. Dame Weber, no less."
"A pleasure to meet you, Lord Algard," you greet him, trying to ignore your nerves.
He smiles, swirling grey eyes twinkling from under stormcloud-grey hair. "Likewise. This is not the first time you've come to my attention; first the matter with the Knighthood, then there's that wonderful Matrix of yours. The Jade Order are close to adapting it for themselves, and the Amber are working on it. Where did you get the idea for it?"
You consider lying for half a second, then spend several more considering how terrible an idea it would be. "The magical framework was created by trial and error, but the idea itself was based on a Dhar construct inside the minions of the necromancer claiming to be the heir of the von Carsteins."
"Interesting," he says, showing no sign of judgement. "Any differences between the two?"
"The Dhar construct would corrode and unleash the spell it held if not maintained every few days, but the Ulgu Matrix appears to last indefinitely - I had a test subject hold the Matrix within it for over a year with no sign of weakening. I theorise that it leeches a tiny amount of ambient magic to sustain itself."
"More proof, if more is needed, of the inherent flaws of Dhar," he says, half to himself. "I look forward to what further discoveries you may make. Third, you came to my attention during the Sieges of the Drakenhofs. Did you ever discover what it was that the late Hexensohn was looking for?"
You shake your head. "I had other priorities."
He nods. "Of course. Needs must. I'll bring it up with his successor at some point." He gazes into the distance, his eyebrows furrowed. "What were we... oh, yes. It is my pleasant duty to inform you that the Grey College has seen fit to bestow upon you the rank of Magister, along with all responsibilities and privileges thereof." He nods to his staff. "We used to give a staff to commemorate, but the previous Turner passed away and none have shown the ability and inclination to take it up. So I'm afraid all I can offer you to commemorate the occasion is my congratulations."
You stand there silent for a moment, taken aback by the abruptness. "I was expecting something more," you admit.
He nods. "The other Orders, no doubt, fill this moment with pomp and ceremony. But we are the Grey Order. Our work is rarely seen and even rarer appreciated. Temper your expectations accordingly. A job performed well needs to be its own reward, for we so rarely see any other."
"I see," you say.
He smiles. "Look on the bright side. We get to slit open reality's underside and meddle with the steaming guts that spill forth, and we're no longer burned at the stake for it. There's been precious few throughout the history of humanity that can claim the same." He pats your shoulder and hobbles out of the room, leaning on his staff for support. You stand there and digest the words, before turning and following and being met by your exuberant Master.
Well. Former Master. It will take some time to get used to calling him Regimand.
---
A night of celebratory excess later, you're making your fragile and hungover way back to Stirland, slumped over the neck of your shadowhorse. There's much to be done before you venture off, as well as the final decision to be made of which dwarven adventure you'll set off on.
+1 College Favour - Mathilde's Mystical Matrix
+1 College Favour - Matrix adopted by Jade Order!
+1 College Favour - Matrix adopted by Amber Order!
+1 College Favour - Graduated to Magisterial Rank
+2 College Favours - Proctors Impressed
+2 College Favours - Won Duel
[ ] Zhufbar regularly sends salvaging parties into Karak Varn and mining parties into the tunnels below. It will be close enough to Stirland to keep in touch, and you have a good reputation in Zhufbar especially.
[ ] Belegar Ironhammer has sent word that any that wish to seek their fortune are welcome to join him in retaking Karak Eight Peaks. While it is far from the civilized lands of the Empire, the treasure, the glory, and the adventure will be all the greater.
What will you be doing with these items?
Shyish swords:
[ ] Donate them to the Amethyst Order (+2 College Favours)
[ ] Return them to the barrow you originally got them from.
[ ] Leave them stored in your spare room.
Mirrorcatch Box:
[ ] Leave it behind; have Heideck come in and replace the containers as they fill.
[ ] Bring it with you, doing what you can with padding and cushions to protect it.
Liber Mortis:
[ ] Leave it safely in your Sunken Palace.
[ ] Bring it with you, safely locked within the enchanted box Abelhelm kept it in.
Pick FIVE of the below; you can take up to two extra actions as Overwork - if you do, mark them accordingly. All of your Organizations can be safely 'ignored' if you desire - they will continue operating as they have been.
The Weber Estate Earmarked Funds: 916 gc
Estate Profits: 20 gc / turn
You can spend money instead of turns here to have someone else oversee the work; this will increase the cost by half again, and double any dwarf rep cost. For instance, an option costing 100 gc will cost 150 gc. It also means that your personal stats will not apply to whatever is being done.
[ ] Seek and hire a steward to manage and improve the fief in your absence. (100 gold to pay them for the projected duration of your absence)
[ ] Build a relation with the local community leader so that either he or someone else from the community can perform the duties of a steward. (cannot be outsourced)
[ ] Build a modest home for yourself, equal in size to the rooms you're using in the Sunken Palace (3 rooms, 50 gc).
[ ] Build a large home for yourself, with plenty of spare rooms to expand into (6 rooms, 150 gc).
[ ] Why muck about? Build a proper manor (10 rooms, 300 gc).
[ ] Build a tower, either into an above structure or on its own (1 room, 100 gc, bonus to room's purpose).
[ ] Build fortifications into your home, turning it into a hillfort, or motte (50 gc for wood, 200 gc for stone, optional dwarf help for -1 dwarf rep).
[ ] Build a bailey for your subjects to shelter in and to encompass other structures (100 gc for wood, 400 gc for stone, optional dwarf help for -1 dwarf favours).
[ ] Have the dwarves build you a fortress. (1000 gc, -2 dwarf rep. Protects but does not build living area. No, there is no cheaper option. If you want cheap, get manlings to build it.)
[ ] Bring in dwarvern prospectors to search for minable metals (-1 dwarf favours)
[ ] Bring in dwarvern farmers to investigate the farming possibilities of the land. (-1 dwarf favours)
[ ] Improve the road between the Estate and Sonningwiese (50 gc)
[ ] Establish upkeep of the roads between the estate and the individual households. (cannot be outsourced)
[ ] Purchase a loom, erect a building for it, and invite weavers to start calling your estate home. (100 gc)
[ ] Set up a dairy and recruit skilled cheesemakers from among the locals to work in it. (100 gc)
The Eastern Imperial Company Outstanding Debt: 1,340 gc
Your share of EIC Profits: 60 gc / turn
Wilhelmina's Current Focus: Expanding into Southern Stirland.
[ ] Use your reputation to build trade ties with Zhufbar.
[ ] Use your reputation to build trade ties with Karak Kadrin.
[ ] Use your friendship with Anton to build trade ties along the Nuln Road.
[ ] Expand the EIC into Sonningwiese; this is unlikely to increase profits, but would indirectly improve the lot of your subjects.
[ ] Have the EIC print and sell a second edition of Asarnil's memoirs.
[ ] Investigate whether Ostermark is building a Talabec-Stir canal near Karak Kadrin.
[ ] Have dwarves do a surface survey of the Haunted Hills in anticipation of a land sale (-4 dwarf favours; will be mostly pointless if the land is given over to a Count or Baron instead of sold individually) (does not take an action)
[ ] Survey the Haunted Hills for sites rich in Ulgu for the EIC to buy on your behalf if the land goes on the market.
[ ] Spend some time getting to know Wilhelmina's sons.
Gong Farmers Currently Revenue Neutral due to supporting the Niter Factory. They can and will continue their operations in your absence.
[ ] Fold them into the EIC; no need for you to have personal control of them. (no action needed)
[ ] Formalize and organize the payments people make for the Gong Farmers to perform their service.
[ ] Expand the Gong Farmers into the rest of Western Stirland.
[ ] Create market gardens outside the walls of Wurtbad, fertilized with the solid waste collected by the Gong Farmers.
[ ] No longer linked to the Watch, the Gong Farmers might be vulnerable. Arm and train them so they can defend themselves in the sewers.
Niter Factory Goods currently unsold; costs covered by Gong Farmers. It would be a very good idea to organize a buyer for the produced crystals before you leave, or to unburden yourself of control of the factory.
[ ] Fold it into the EIC. (no action needed)
[ ] Sell the factory itself.
[ ] Sell the produced niter crystals to Nuln.
[ ] Sell the produced niter crystals to Zhufbar.
[ ] Sell the produced niter crystals as fertiliser in Stirland.
[ ] Sell the produced niter crystals as fertiliser to the Moot.
[o] Investigate the rest of the process for making gunpowder. (not enough time to follow through before you leave)
[o] Bring in dwarven experts to expand the factory to produce gunpowder. (-5 Dwarf Favour) (not enough time to follow through before you leave)
Personal Actions Personal Wealth: 356 gc
Living expenses: 10 gc / turn
Self-Improvement:
[ ] Internalized Lessons: If you've been using a particular trait a fair bit in the last year, you can spend some time on it to internalize what you've learned and increase the trait (choose which trait; can be taken multiple times; will be more effective the more you've used the trait lately).
[ ] Practice, Practice, Practice: If you haven't been using a particular trait lately, you can try to practice it anyway.
[ ] Combat Training In The Free Market: The war cost you your combatant friends, but training is always for sale. Go out and buy some. (-20 gc)
Home Comforts: Your Palace-Shrine is bursting with potential, and no longer with mud.
[ ] Filled with Potential: You've got four rooms cleared out and ready to be put to use. Decide what you're going to put in one of them and get started on equipping it. (write in the purpose of the room)
Research:
[ ] Expand your library to cover a new subject or go deeper into an existing one (choose which; -50 gc).
[ ] Condense the information collected during the Purge of the Haunted Hills into a single tome to be added to the collected knowledge of the College.
[ ] Volatility: Examine how to move your various fragile and magically sensitive bits and pieces without endangering them.
[ ] Shyish-kebabs: The Shyish swords are hideously dangerous as weapons, but fascinating as a subject of study. Try to reverse-engineer the lost enchantments woven into them.
[ ] Qhaysh Juice: Whatever it is, it's dripping out of the box at a steady rate. You've got several gallons of the stuff and it's still coming out. It's got to be good for something.
[ ] There's always room for more shadow spells in your repertoire. Send off to the Grey College for the basics on one of the others and get started on trying to learn it.
[ ] Your experience with the so-called Fog of War has given you a lot of ideas for new applications of Ulgu. Investigate them to see what might be possible.
[ ] Read the Liber Mortis.
Enchantment:
[ ] Imbue an item with a petty or lesser magic. (specify item and spell)
[ ] Attempt to imbue an item with a Relatively Simple spell. (specify item and spell)
[ ] Advance your understanding of enchantment even further. (unlocked by College study)
Influence:
[ ] Thieves Guild: It's currently little more than a church group, albeit of a very unconventional god. If it could be expanded under your aegis, it could be a powerful tool - especially considering you no longer have official power.
Relations:
[ ] The New Boss: Keep an ear to the ground, learning what you can of Roswita's actions and plans.
[ ] The New Spymaster: Witch Hunter Lucas von Salkalten currently fills your position. As per the Articles of Imperial Magic, wizards owe assistance to the Templars of Sigmar if they can prove they need it. Drop by to offer it freely instead.
[ ] Getting To Know You: Spend time with someone, offering your help in their tasks and generally getting a feel for them (choose one) (can be taken multiple times).
[ ] Getting To Know You Whether You Like It Or Not: Trust, but verify. Spend some of your time seeing what a certain person spends their time doing (choose one) (can be taken multiple times).
[ ] Free Time: Now well-established in Wurtbad, you can spend some time in your scant off hours getting to know someone better. Pick one character. (does not take an action)
[ ] Farewell: Visit everyone you've gotten to know during your time in Stirland, let them know where you're off to, and say auf wiedersehen. (does not take an action, incompatible with Free Time)
Familiar: You've grown much in power; it might be time for you to seek a familiar. Animals that are suitable to be familiars are incredibly rare. You can hunt for them and spent a great deal of time doing so, or you can buy one for an agonizing price. Or you could make one.
[ ] You'll have a cat, damn it. Spend time with the alley cats of Wurtbad and see what you can find. (low chance)
[ ] Wander the streets of Wurtbad and see if any animal jumps out at you. (moderate chance, could be any tame or feral animal)
[ ] Spend some alone in the woods. What could go wrong? (high chance, but no telling what animal would be. chance of dangers in the woods)
[ ] Travel to Altdorf and see what suitable animals are for sale. (will cost 300-600 gc; can decide not to purchase if you don't like the type or look of the animal. Options for loans or dipping into EIC/earmarked funds will be available if you can't afford it)
[ ] Why trust in nature or the free market? You'll damn well make your own familiar. (50 gc, resulting familiar is unpredictable in appearance and will be visibly unnatural).
Study: As a Magister, you're no longer barred from returning to the Grey College. If you've been pulling your weight for the Order, you can return to it to further your studies. Each costs 1 College Favour.
Practical
[ ] Intrigue and Tradecraft.
[ ] The Use and Creation of Poison
[ ] Spells of Grey Magic (teachers' choice; multiple spells)
[ ] Spells of Grey Magic (your choice; one spell)
[ ] Swords and Swordplay
[ ] Ritual Magic
[ ] Psychology
[ ] Imperial Law
[ ] Practical Diplomacy
Theory
[ ] The Nature of Ulgu
[ ] The Nature of Magic
[ ] The Enemies of Man
[ ] The Allies of Man
[ ] Religion and the Empire
[ ] The Empire and its Provinces
[ ] Human Nations of the Old World
[ ] Chaos and Chaos Gods
Extracurricular
[ ] Enchantment
[ ] Potions and Alchemy
[ ] Power Stones and their Creation
[ ] Runes and Runecraft
[ ] Wyrdstone Containment
[ ] On the Education of Apprentices
[ ] Searching for and Identifying Animal Familiars
[ ] The Creation of Artificial Familiars
Commissioning an Enchantment (does not take actions)
[ ] Relatively Simple enchantment (two favours)
[ ] Moderately Complicated enchantment (three favours)
[ ] Fiendishly Complex enchantment (five favours)
Apologies, but there's no easy way to do this: The difficulty of a spell is based on the casting number in Realm of Sorcery; if the casting number is a single digit, it's Relatively Simple. If it's between 10 and 19, it's Moderately Complicated. If it's 20+, it's Fiendishly Complex. I ask those with access to the book to highlight interesting possibilities for those that do not.
If you want something more complex than spell in item, outline what you're looking for and I'll give it a pricetag.
- Due to taking an extra month of study before your exams, you have five instead of six actions this turn.
- College favours is also the currency for making requests from other Orders; if there's any you have in mind, let me know. For reference, it would cost 2 favours for a simple enchanted item.
- I'll make a new thread or change the title or something to something more suited once the adventure begins.
- The Steward is not a clever way to bypass the 50% surcharge on tasks you don't oversee personally. They'll be hiring the same Managers you would be to perform the task. The point of them is to invest any leftover funds when you leave and the income in the meantime.
Dwarves can provide repeated hero-level tutoring that would otherwise cost more gold than we're probably allowed to accumulate. Think of it as a great opportunity to turn Martial into Learning.
+1 College Favour - Mathilde's Mystical Matrix
+1 College Favour - Matrix adopted by Jade Order!
+1 College Favour - Matrix adopted by Amber Order!
+1 College Favour - Graduated to Magisterial Rank
+2 College Favours - Proctors Impressed
+2 College Favours - Won Duel
Given our information on the undead of Sylvania option vanished, I was kind of expecting it to pop up here as we gave our notes in. Has it been accidentally forgotten, and we need to do another action to collate the information into a readable format?
Given our information on the undead of Sylvania option vanished, I was kind of expecting it to pop up here as we gave our notes in. Has it been accidentally forgotten, and we need to do another action to collate the information into a readable format?
It was forgotten, but you do need to condense it before it can be sent off. Theoretically you could just give the entire collection of forms to the College but it'd just sit in the archives unread for a few hundred years.
[X] Zhufbar regularly sends salvaging parties into Karak Varn and mining parties into the tunnels below. It will be close enough to Stirland to keep in touch, and you have a good reputation in Zhufbar especially.
[X] Leave them stored in your spare room.
[X] Leave it behind; have Heideck come in and replace the containers as they fill.
[X] Bring it with you, safely locked within the enchanted box Abelhelm kept it in.
[X] Plan Foundation For a Future
-[X][Personal] Seek and hire a steward to manage and improve the fief in your absence. (100 gold to pay them for the projected duration of your absence)
--[X] Leave standing instructions for them to prioritize the safety and wellbeing of the fief over profit, as long as they don't outright make a loss.
--[X] Ranald's Blessing
-[X][Personal] Use your reputation to build trade ties with Zhufbar.
-[X][Personal] Expand the EIC into Sonningwiese; this is unlikely to increase profits, but would indirectly improve the lot of your subjects.
-[X][Personal] Sell the produced niter crystals as fertiliser in Stirland.
-[X][Personal] The Allies of Man
-[X][Social] Farewell: Visit everyone you've gotten to know during your time in Stirland, let them know where you're off to, and say au revoir. (does not take an action, incompatible with Free Time)
Zhufbar is better, we have some friends there so they're more accepting of a human magic user.
We'll be back for the stuff one day to continue our research once we're done here. Except probably not leave the book where it can be found.
Planwise...sell the fertilizer to Stirland. They're going to need it, and maybe the Countess would be happier when we get back. Set up the EIC to maintain us contact with our activities in the hold and our fief.
Say goodbye to our closest friends. We'll be back.
It's significantly less important now that you no longer strictly need your enchanting equipment, but it would go well with bringing the Box if that's what you're planning.
