- Location
- United States of America
[X] Magister Johann
Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest
- Thread starter Boney
- Start date
- Fantasy Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
- Location
- USA
[x] Journeywoman Panoramia
So the collective College reaction is: "What ARE they up to in that dwarf kingdom?" Can you imagine what happens if the other wizards start writing papers that go all over the place like Mathilde's?
Ericwinter
Definitely not a Skaven Infiltrator
- Location
- America
It will be even worse when we drop things like the Aethyric Vitae, Skaven stuff, go back to the We, and the five minor subjects we still have available right now... two if you count the Eshin sorcery, Skaven tactics, and rattling guns in Skaven stuff. Then there's the stuff we have yet to really discover, like divine magic, Ulgu tongs, and the Waystones once we get around to it.
because why not.
Lets plan out roughly what I would like to see next action phase. (knowing that these never survive contact with boney.)
[ ]Plan: finish Mathys magical undergrad before elfland trip.
Mandatory Actions: Pick one from each category.
Journeyman Maximilian de Gaynesford, Gold Wizard
[ ] MAX: Receive dictation: specify which. Must be taken with a 'dictate' action.
Probably the pick unless something comes up.
Magister Johann, Gold Wizard
[ ] JOHANN: Have him teach Adela what he knows of engineering.
Might be as good a time as any to get the bright wizard up to speed and helping with the skaven tech.
Wizards of Karak Eight Peaks
[ ] DUCK: Panoramia's about ready to test for Magister, but she's putting it off because she doesn't have a lot of free time to
[ ] DUCK: Spend time with Hubert in an attempt to find him a purpose. (NEW)
[ ] DUCK: Each of your three ducklings can fight in melee. Spar with them, and teach them what you can.
any of these are good, Panoramia because we want to be spending time checking her out, Hubert because the kid needs a hand (or a slap.) and the teaching option because some of the duckling might not be around for much longer.
The Eastern Imperial Company
Your outstanding debt: 275 crowns
Your share of EIC profits: 175 crowns / turn
Current Focus of the EIC: Handgun Factory in Blutdorf (Rollout to Army of Stirland)
[ ] Integrate the Gong Farmers and the Niter Factory into the EIC, and expand production. (NEW)
we need to see what the new guy changes about this pick, but I like the idea of de-confusing a lot of where our money is coming from.
Personal Actions: you have four actions you can apply without engaging in overwork.
Current Task:
would like to make AV the current task to help speed things along, but its up to the king.
Self-Improvement:
[ ] Travel to the Grey College and attend lessons there. (2 College Favour)
only two spells left and we are done, so lets get it done baby!
Research and Publishing:
[ ] Write a paper:
Once per turn, you can write a paper without spending an action thanks to your Tower of Serenity.
[ ] Dictate papers: select which two, must be taken with Max's 'receive dictation'.
[ ] Try to establish a relationship with the Cult of Verena, with the intent of offering them access to your rarer tomes in exchange for copies of some of their own.
the old stand by of tower paper and dictate paper, but if we put Max on something else this might be a good time to talk to the Verenans.
Aethyric Vitae (20 gallons):
[ ] Attempt to interest a prominent and knowledgeable Runesmiths in the interaction between Runes and Vitae. (will start at the top and work your way down)
[ ] Using the secrets you already know of the Vitae, attempt to weaponize it. (NEW-ish)
[ ] The Enchanting option that boney hinted that we unlocked with the rune action last turn
honestly, I think we should go for the Enchanting one as A) we have been meaning to get a new robe and B) some of the thread are about to revolt if we do another 'test' action instead of a 'create' action. and getting the RuneSmiths to look at it is probably another 'look at it' action.
but if there is a lot of blow back I'll pick the Runesmith one.
Lets plan out roughly what I would like to see next action phase. (knowing that these never survive contact with boney.)
[ ]Plan: finish Mathys magical undergrad before elfland trip.
Mandatory Actions: Pick one from each category.
Journeyman Maximilian de Gaynesford, Gold Wizard
[ ] MAX: Receive dictation: specify which. Must be taken with a 'dictate' action.
Probably the pick unless something comes up.
Magister Johann, Gold Wizard
[ ] JOHANN: Have him teach Adela what he knows of engineering.
Might be as good a time as any to get the bright wizard up to speed and helping with the skaven tech.
Wizards of Karak Eight Peaks
[ ] DUCK: Panoramia's about ready to test for Magister, but she's putting it off because she doesn't have a lot of free time to
[ ] DUCK: Spend time with Hubert in an attempt to find him a purpose. (NEW)
[ ] DUCK: Each of your three ducklings can fight in melee. Spar with them, and teach them what you can.
any of these are good, Panoramia because we want to be spending time checking her out, Hubert because the kid needs a hand (or a slap.) and the teaching option because some of the duckling might not be around for much longer.
The Eastern Imperial Company
Your outstanding debt: 275 crowns
Your share of EIC profits: 175 crowns / turn
Current Focus of the EIC: Handgun Factory in Blutdorf (Rollout to Army of Stirland)
[ ] Integrate the Gong Farmers and the Niter Factory into the EIC, and expand production. (NEW)
we need to see what the new guy changes about this pick, but I like the idea of de-confusing a lot of where our money is coming from.
Personal Actions: you have four actions you can apply without engaging in overwork.
Current Task:
would like to make AV the current task to help speed things along, but its up to the king.
Self-Improvement:
[ ] Travel to the Grey College and attend lessons there. (2 College Favour)
only two spells left and we are done, so lets get it done baby!
Research and Publishing:
[ ] Write a paper:
Once per turn, you can write a paper without spending an action thanks to your Tower of Serenity.
[ ] Dictate papers: select which two, must be taken with Max's 'receive dictation'.
[ ] Try to establish a relationship with the Cult of Verena, with the intent of offering them access to your rarer tomes in exchange for copies of some of their own.
the old stand by of tower paper and dictate paper, but if we put Max on something else this might be a good time to talk to the Verenans.
Aethyric Vitae (20 gallons):
[ ] Attempt to interest a prominent and knowledgeable Runesmiths in the interaction between Runes and Vitae. (will start at the top and work your way down)
[ ] Using the secrets you already know of the Vitae, attempt to weaponize it. (NEW-ish)
[ ] The Enchanting option that boney hinted that we unlocked with the rune action last turn
honestly, I think we should go for the Enchanting one as A) we have been meaning to get a new robe and B) some of the thread are about to revolt if we do another 'test' action instead of a 'create' action. and getting the RuneSmiths to look at it is probably another 'look at it' action.
but if there is a lot of blow back I'll pick the Runesmith one.
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For your reading pleasure, a vote breakdown based on participation:
Veekie, the most prolific poster:
The votes of the top 5 most prolific posters:
Top 10:
Top 20:
Might get to top 50 and 100 later, but that seems like a slog. One thing that stands out is that Oswald is surprisingly popular with our thread aristocracy.
Veekie, the most prolific poster:
Magister Johann
Journeywoman Panoramia
Journeyman Maximilian de Gaynesford
Baron Anton Kiesinger II
The Ice Dragon of Karag Zilfin
Journeywoman Panoramia
Journeyman Maximilian de Gaynesford
Baron Anton Kiesinger II
The Ice Dragon of Karag Zilfin
The votes of the top 5 most prolific posters:
Magister Johann 2
Oswald Oswaldson 2
Roswita Van Hal 2
Ice Dragon 2
Panoramia 2
King Kazador's sons 1
The We 1
Vicerene Cadaeth 1
Baron Anton Kiesinger II 1
Oswald Oswaldson 2
Roswita Van Hal 2
Ice Dragon 2
Panoramia 2
King Kazador's sons 1
The We 1
Vicerene Cadaeth 1
Baron Anton Kiesinger II 1
Top 10:
Magister Johann 4
Oswald Oswaldson 3
Ice Dragon 3
Panoramia 3
Roswita Van Hal 2
King Kazador's sons 2
The We 1
Vicerene Cadaeth 1
Belegar Ironhammer 1
Maximilian de Gaynesford 1
Prince Gotri 1
Francesco Caravello 1
Sir Ruprecht Wulfheart 1
Baron Anton Kiesinger II 1
Oswald Oswaldson 3
Ice Dragon 3
Panoramia 3
Roswita Van Hal 2
King Kazador's sons 2
The We 1
Vicerene Cadaeth 1
Belegar Ironhammer 1
Maximilian de Gaynesford 1
Prince Gotri 1
Francesco Caravello 1
Sir Ruprecht Wulfheart 1
Baron Anton Kiesinger II 1
Magister Johann 8
Oswald Oswaldson 8
Panoramia 6
Baron Anton Kiesinger II 5
Ice Dragon 4
Roswita Van Hal 4
Vicerene Cadaeth 4
Empress Heidi 3
King Kazador's sons 2
The We 2
Belegar Ironhammer 2
Maximilian de Gaynesford 1
Prince Gotri 1
Francesco Caravello 1
Sir Ruprecht Wulfheart 1
Asarnil 1
Qrech 1
Esbern and Seija 1
Oswald Oswaldson 8
Panoramia 6
Baron Anton Kiesinger II 5
Ice Dragon 4
Roswita Van Hal 4
Vicerene Cadaeth 4
Empress Heidi 3
King Kazador's sons 2
The We 2
Belegar Ironhammer 2
Maximilian de Gaynesford 1
Prince Gotri 1
Francesco Caravello 1
Sir Ruprecht Wulfheart 1
Asarnil 1
Qrech 1
Esbern and Seija 1
Might get to top 50 and 100 later, but that seems like a slog. One thing that stands out is that Oswald is surprisingly popular with our thread aristocracy.
.... maybe don't? like, I don't care, but calling out particular voters picks seems like it could be problematic if things take a wrong turn.
- Location
- Singapore
It depends on what are the priorities of the King. I can't see a case selling him that AV helps the more immediate security situation of the Eight Peaks since open field battles aren't the big military issue that the Eight Peaks has to face, but rather, threats from the Underground front. Unless AV can do something to resolve the basic problem of detecting Skaven intrusions beneath us, or tackle the outstanding diplomatic issue with the Dragon of Karak Ziflin (unless Kazrik learns Classic or Etharian or Anoqeyan or Cathayan), I'm not sure how else it could be sold above more urgent priorities the Eight Peaks faces, that some of the other Jobs are more likely to tackle. Recharging Ancestor Runes rapidly is a game-changer for the Karaz Ankor, just one that I'm not sure whether matches the priorities of the hold right now. Plus, there's a possibility we might see the first stage of Project Waystone on the menu (make no mistake, Project Waystone is something that is going to take many, many turns, and many, many stages).
That being said, if we are asking for AV to be our job, we are asking Belegar for the following:
1. There needs to be a way to produce more AV besides our one Daemon-trapping box, if AV really is a game-changer for the Karaz Ankor, especially since trapping Daemons has certain very heretical implications considering the practices of the Dawi Zhar. Preferably, a way to manufacture AV without trapping Daemons ought to be devised, perhaps by reverse-engineering the means the Wisdom Asp travels between the Warp and the Materium.
2. We are asking for Belegar to be our Royal Patron for AV-Runesmith collaborations. Essentially, we are asking Belegar to invest his political capital to improve our odds of landing higher ranking Runelords , or to attract younger Runesmiths depending on what approach we take.
3. Meanwhile, unless Belegar assigns multiple jobs to us, issues like the Dragon or figuring a means of detecting (or better yet, anticipating!) Skaven Incursions that breach the Under-Karaks would be put on hold while we work on Aethyric Vitae. So, there's a substantial opportunity cost that Belegar faces with AV.
Which leads to a fourth point:
4. Would research in AV completely cease after completing the objectives of making AV our job, since thread politics consider the matter concluded on and for all? In any case, what are the objectives of making AV our job to begin with? Just the runes (the most obvious application), or something more?
Anyway, just some thoughts to consider, but I do feel that thinking about why Belegar might agree to make AV our job given the current state of the narrative would be a good place to start, since in-universe, Mathilde would also have to sell AV to Belegar vis a vis the other possibilities.
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- Location
- Chicago
- Pronouns
- She/They
Belegar might make the dragon our task, and spend his personal actions on it. It makes sense- the dragon is the last big uncontrolled element to settle, and now that he knows what was in all the vaults he can negotiate with full knowledge of his position. Mathilde has proven she can talk to the lizard, and is an amazing body guard/scholar as an at-hand resource.
- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
As far as tasks for next turn go... Belegar probably won't just flat out assign us something without our input - after all, part of the narrative conceit of Divided Loyalties is that Mathilde is an Advisor in BelegarQuest, and among her duties is to present him with a curated list of issues she can be assigned to.
The "options list" that I'd want to present to Belegar would be something like:
- AV Research
- Help Kragg with Bok
- Waystones
- The Dragon
Of those... most likely we'll be assigned to Waystones, since it's tied up with his thoughts on Thorgrim and KaK, but it might be the Dragon. Or, hey, the AV Research would be a mystery box for BelegarQuest, and we all know how much players love those!
The "options list" that I'd want to present to Belegar would be something like:
- AV Research
- Help Kragg with Bok
- Waystones
- The Dragon
Of those... most likely we'll be assigned to Waystones, since it's tied up with his thoughts on Thorgrim and KaK, but it might be the Dragon. Or, hey, the AV Research would be a mystery box for BelegarQuest, and we all know how much players love those!
- Location
- Singapore
What about MMAP? Managing the Skaven threat to the Under-Karak is hampered, by the lack of any detection capabilities beyond the level of physical patrols, which are manpower intensive, and that's something the EIght Peaks is short of.
And quest players can get very, very paranoid about Mystery Box threats that they have no means to hedge against, or have minimal detection capabilities against, but they know most certainly exist, and history has proven are existential threats.
Also, there is no way Project Waystones can be done in.... four turns. It's likely going to be a project that is longer than any of the projects we've undertaken yet. If we commit, I sincerely doubt it's something we can treat like the Tower or Queekish - commit to it for two to four turns and it's done. Also, if I was Belegar, I won't probably be asking Mathilde to start on the project until the "guests" from Karaz a Karak leave, since I suspect that Thogrim is siphoning power from the waystones for the Karaz a Karak, rather than for maintaining existential infrastructure for the continued survival the whole Karaz Ankor.
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deathofrats0808
Don’t think of it as dying; just as leaving early
- Location
- Earth
If Belegar is worried about those of Karaz a Karak finding out, it's Kragg he'd want to leave most, seeing as any project of that sort would most likely be Kragg's responsibility.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Kragg might reasonably be trusted to uphold the greater good of the dwarven civilization over the interests of the dwarven capital in particular. Consider the reasoning that led him to bring his Anvil of Doom along on this expedition, and the fact that he's still here, and that he's made not one but two truly extraordinary artifacts for a human dwarf-friend in the past several years.
deathofrats0808
Don’t think of it as dying; just as leaving early
- Location
- Earth
That presupposes that the Waystones being used by the whole Karaz Ankor is for the greater good, which isn't necessarily true. It also assumes that there's no other reason the energy should belong to KaK (for instance, if they had been the ones to create the network it would belong to them, or if they'd struck a deal with the king of K8P at the time).
SuperSonicSound
Shadowmancer of the Shadow Cabal
There is also the slight issue Kragg is currently a "little" angry at Thorgrim. I'm highly doubtful that Kragg is going to report anything back to KaK as he has no reason to believe that anything realm wide is being done with the output of K8Ps waystones if he learns that this is happening.
Eh, the norm varies a hell of a lot.
The gender inequality had a great deal to do with large empires, which were very martial, and thus tended to value male traits more, while spreading a lot. Rome in Europe for one was super macho and since they did basically conquer the whole thing for around a thousand years they left a mark
- Location
- Greece
But if we were to go for realism rather than historical reproduction, most fantasy universes , even dark fantasy, have magic which... tends to equalise the war utility of genders even on a "pre-industrial" society. And I am not talking solely about the kind of magic a spellcaster uses, but also the kind of impossible feats of stamina, strength and technique martial artist murderblenders pull off even when they are not explicitly magical, something that, again, isn't actually gender locked.
I think helping Kragg with Bok is a trap option, Kragg is pretty sure he will spend the rest of his live on bok and fail to get anywhere, and as its are 'loremaster' option we will not be able to back out until its done without taking a rep hit.
SuperSonicSound
Shadowmancer of the Shadow Cabal
I don't think its a trap option because we can create an enchanted item to give Kragg windsight and whilst it's not going to be easy to give him Mathile tier windsight it's not impossible, and frankly as long as the windsight item we give him is consistent with inputs it'll give him what he needs to learn to understand it over time.
After all Kragg has a very rudimentary understanding of the winds purely from his own anti-magic sense. Give him something that can give him consistent readings and no matter how unintuitive he'll learn to use it eventually just due to sheer stubborness.
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A lot of these things are the other Advisers jobs, Like, immediate security is Drengs job and the Dragon is Kazrik, we have just been doing whatever the King needs because we were just better then most of them (eg, overstated) and there was a war going on.
as the loremaster in relative peace, its our job to look at the long trem while everyone else deals with the current problems unless something weird comes up.
getting the Anvils up and running at 1000% effectively before waaagh session (every 4sih? years I think... in the Borderland lore in the RPG? cant remember) is a legit long term loremaster goal.
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- Location
- New Brunswick, NJ
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Sure, but I think it's fair to present to the boss "hey, we've got weird Zhuf takes on various things, where do you want us?" and have him decide between "I want you to do long-term R&D" and "I want you to apply your weird Zhuf bullshit to this problem that is mostly the domain of one of your colleagues." I don't think anyone is suggesting only presenting short-term plans.
(I do not think "Dragon" is going to be a possible option until the dragon wakes up -- note that Belegar has deprioritized it after verifying that the dragon is one the dwarves can cooperate with -- but possibly Sparklebutt's strong showing in the romance vote means Boney will have it wake up sooner rather than later.)
To be fair, the actual results of the romance vote are just considerations/checking out the plausibility of options - it would not be unreasonable for Mathilde to swing by the dragon's place wanting a chat and end up either staring at the dragon as they sleep like a creeper for a while, just concluding "nope, romance is not possible until the dragon wakes up", or "no, romance is not possible because the dragon did not like being woken up - also everything is hysh now so I have bigger problems on my plate".
Boney just promised that Mathilde would make a good-faith attempt at romancing (or at least having to deal with the implications of a good-faith attempt) picked options after all, not that said attempt would produce positive results and/or further character interaction. Stuff like Gunnars just turning down further social stuff flat is possible, and while Gunnars did that in a neat scene of character interaction the dragon just refusing to interact (wake up) at all would have the same overall effect.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Let's see... Dreng is martial adviser and Kazrik is diplomacy, right?
From the point of view of Karak Eight Peaks, the Learning advisor is not there to develop new advanced science/magic/whatever. Their duties are an integrated part of the overall development of the holding. Superweapon development is 'weird stuff' and therefore our job, so we did it, even though theoretically it is a weapon and therefore Martial. Negotiations with a hive mind of cave spiders is 'weird stuff' and therefore our job, so we did it, even though theoretically it was the diplomat's job to find a way to talk to them.
Because realistically, they might be really good at coordinating armies (a job that needs doing) or negotiating with other dwarf holds and with human communities (a job that needs doing)... But that doesn't give them the specific toolkit to solve specifically those jobs. The fact that a job involves fighting or negotiation does not automatically mean we can or should pass it off to the other advisors. The Learning advisor's job tends to be "weird stuff, including magic, and also research" in fantasy setting CK-II quests, and since magic intertwines with everything that means we get involved in stuff that can't be solved by sitting around reading books and fiddling in a lab a lot more.
Eh... not really? I mean, all the advisors can and will realistically sometimes have long-term projects when it looks like there's time to spend working on them. Stewardship advisers often take actions on long-term projects that take multiple turns to bear fruition, and that's just one example.
There is precedent for this being a Runelord task- Kragg set a rune to detect vibrations from digging at Und-Uzgar, so it could be possible for either him, Thorek, or (likely) both+Apprenticeswarm to work on setting up a detection network based on such runes.
Not that there's a shortage of things for them to do, either.
That said, my guess would be that the Skaven are unlikely to come back anytime soon - Clan Eshin got run off by Dragon+Dwarves, with everyone else dead. So, sure, there aren't any Skaven competitors there, but there are a bunch of other forces, and no known significant reason to send forces back, especially if they are still in consolidation mode after beating up Pestilens and allies.
Also, @BoneyM - Has Kazador + Throng gone home to Karak Azul, now that K8P is essentially secure? Or is he taking advantage of greenskins that don't know how to climb? (yet)