Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
NGL, part of me wants to read more interactions with wiry-muscled bare-chested can-be-a-dragon wizard who isn't too fond of pants.

But.... I do like giving news to Algard.
 
[X] Magister Patriarch Algard
He... really doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who would read it. More rigid than Mthilde, less willing and able to rules-lawyer their way into something, and definitely lacking the major incentive we had, which was figuring out the best ways to fight necromancy witho our magic/have an absolute last-resort weapon in our back pocket. He wasn't a wizard, it would have given him nothing. Hell, we didn't even know it was a diary at all until we read it ourselves, so even that wouldn't be much incentive.

You forget, Abelhelm was basically a scholar of the undead. He knew a lot of things that in retrospect must have come from him reading the Liber Mortis.
Actually, I doubt that Heidi is the Imperial Spymaster.
She's probably entirely satisfied living as the Empress to seek additional duties, and being the Spymaster is a massive job.

I can certainly see her helping out her husband, and having intrigue pet projects, but having a full occupation as a Reikland/Imperial Office Spymaster?

Nah.

Logically, yes. The Imperial Spymaster should be someone forgettable and not-at-all-famous. Meme-wise, though, there's no better candidate.
 
I'm... not quite sure why you qouted me here. This has nothing to do with what I was saying.

Ooops, my bad, wanted to answer you too and forgot to due to being confused by quotes. Let me fix that.

Edit: thought it was better to remove the quote from the original and place it here since I goofed

He... really doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who would read it. More rigid than Mthilde, less willing and able to rules-lawyer their way into something, and definitely lacking the major incentive we had, which was figuring out the best ways to fight necromancy witho our magic/have an absolute last-resort weapon in our back pocket. He wasn't a wizard, it would have given him nothing. Hell, we didn't even know it was a diary at all until we read it ourselves, so even that wouldn't be much incentive.

I think I remember the fact it was implied it gave him an extra edge against the undead? May be misremembering.
 
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The silver ingots were exhausted by the dragonbone bounty.
I feel awkward about being That Guy, but I am not sure how that is possible. The bounty was for 300gc, and our liquidity was in the thousands as of the last turn.
I believe we have, if we spend our money maximally efficiently (by which I mean using the ingots to buy Imperial goods, since the crown is weaker against silver than the dwarf gold coin), 2739 Imperial crowns, 6 Imperial shillings, and 456 dwarf gold coins. We also gain 60 dwarf gold coins at the start of each turn from our employment with Belegar. 100 imperial gc represents about 3% of our cash on hand.
So I am deeply perplexed about how our spending exhausted our cash on hand. We definitely had significantly more than 100 ingots when last I checked our money.
 
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I suppose we'll find out next chapter of we didn't fuck up with the Battle Altar. I will continue to worry about that until it gets a nod of approval.

The second part of the paper is trickier, at least for Johann: countermeasures. He gets as far as Fault of Form and speculates on whether Law of Gold would be applicable, and runs out of steam. You take a break from your own papers to sketch out a few ideas, then a few more, and next thing you know the sun's gone down and you're looking at half a manuscript that spells out exactly how anyone with a modicum of magical talent can turn a firing Ratling Gun into a rapidly expanding cloud of shrapnel. Johann is more than happy to append it to the end of his effort and call it a day.

[Ratling Gun paper: Learning, 11+16+10(Breach the Unknown)+15(mostly thorough notes)=52.]
[Ratling Gun countermeasures: Learning, 6+16+9(Library: Warpstone)=26.]
[Mathilde interrupt: Learning, 100+27+5(Tactics: Skaven)+9(Library: Warpstone)-20(multitasking)=121.]
[Internal Mechanisms of the Ratling Gun, and How to Foil Them, 2483. Subject: Rare, +1. Insight: Revolutionary, +2. Delivery: Dull, -1. Precious, +1. Thorough, +1. Tactically Significant: +2. Classified, -2. Total: +4.]
[Skaven strategy and tactics paper: Martial, 58+23+5(Strategy/Tactics: Skaven)+13(Library: Skaven)+10(Amanuensis)=109.]
[Winning the War Below, 2483. Subject: Uncommon, +0. Insight: Confirming, +1. Delivery: Competent, +0. Thorough, +1. Varied, +1. Alien, +1. Accessible, +1. Tactically Significant, +2. Classified, -2. Total: +5.]

Amazing papers though.
 
I feel awkward about being That Guy, but I am not sure how that is possible. The bounty was for 300gc, and our liquidity was in the thousands as of the last turn.

So I am deeply perplexed about how our spending exhausted our cash on hand. We definitely had significantly more than 100 ingots when last I checked our money.

If anyone can pull an older version of the charsheet, it's possible I did three ingots to the crown instead of three crowns to the ingot.
 
With respect, Vlad von carstein is an immortal with insight from literal millennia of existence, his morality is definitely not good but the idea that he wouldn't have any wisdom worth knowing from those millennia is pretty arrogant. The important thing would be stripping the good from the questionable.
It is less the specific and more the general outlook.

Stealing forbidden knowledge from the enemies of civilisation is something that should be done with great care, much thought and a fair bit of restraint. This is a lesson that Methilde, due to our votes, is rapidly forgetting.
Read the dangerous forbidden book.
Research the (not technically a) demon blood.
Eat the greenskin magic mushrooms.
Stockpile crates of warpstone technology.
Keep the freaking Brass Orb, which even the official Skaven tech researcher wanted nothing to do with.

And now she is fantasising about looting the contents of the most vampire infested castle in history because it might have interesting reading material.

This is the narrative warning us to mind what habits we cultivate.
I for one do not want to spend the Ulthuan trip going through the pockets of Druchii looking for poisoned knives, Dhar bombs and a copy of Sorcery For Dummies.
 
the last diffchecker I could find.
which is from february 19 2020, aka too old

Personal Wealth: 255 Stirlandian gold crowns, 456 K8P gold coins, 380 silver ingots to be spent within the Karaz Ankor, 257 silver ingots that can be spent freely.
Each ingot is worth 60 Dwarven silver coins / 3 Dwarven gold coins / 78 Empire shillings / 3.9 Empire crowns
 
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It's really not surprising that an SV character will have SV flaws. Convincing all of us to consistently stay away from forbidden knowledge or to not hoard dangerous but potentially useful items will be hard.
 
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It is less the specific and more the general outlook.

Stealing forbidden knowledge from the enemies of civilisation is something that should be done with great care, much thought and a fair bit of restraint. This is a lesson that Methilde, due to our votes, is rapidly forgetting.
Read the dangerous forbidden book.
Research the (not technically a) demon blood.
Eat the greenskin magic mushrooms.
Stockpile crates of warpstone technology.
Keep the freaking Brass Orb, which even the official Skaven tech researcher wanted nothing to do with.

And now she is fantasising about looting the contents of the most vampire infested castle in history because it might have interesting reading material.

This is the narrative warning us to mind what habits we cultivate.
I for one do not want to spend the Ulthuan trip going through the pockets of Druchii looking for poisoned knives, Dhar bombs and a copy of Sorcery For Dummies.

I feel that is the kind of logic that gets you 'an open mind is a fortress with its gates adjar' and other ridiculous 40K propaganda that causes laughing and weeping at the idiocy at the same time. Knowledge is knowledge barring Chaos tomes and stuff like the books of Nagash there is nothing dangerous about acquiring it only using it. Keep in mind we are not studying the brass orb in secret. The Colleges know we have it and are fine with it. As for the 'skaven researcher' I suspect their names are 'Johan and Mathilde'.
 
the last diffchecker I could find.
which is from february 19 2020, aka too old

Personal Wealth: 255 Stirlandian gold crowns, 456 K8P gold coins, 380 silver ingots to be spent within the Karaz Ankor, 257 silver ingots that can be spent freely.
Each ingot is worth 60 Dwarven silver coins / 3 Dwarven gold coins / 78 Empire shillings / 3.9 Empire crowns
No, that's definitely right; when I math it out, it comes to the same total I had reported in my post before the purchase round. So Boney will have to recalculate spending and income to apply the results of the purchase round, but otherwise that is the correct number. Thank you for finding it!
 
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I feel that is the kind of logic that gets you 'an open mind is a fortress with its gates adjar' and other ridiculous 40K propaganda that causes laughing and weeping at the idiocy at the same time. Knowledge is knowledge barring Chaos tomes and stuff like the books of Nagash there is nothing dangerous about acquiring it only using it. Keep in mind we are not studying the brass orb in secret. The Colleges know we have it and are fine with it. As for the 'skaven researcher' I suspect their names are 'Johan and Mathilde'.
the danger of a Tome of Necromancy is that now someone has a Tome of How To Be A Necromancer.
Which is nearly the same as a Tome of How To Fight Necromancy.

The solution is to only grant "Trusted" people access. Which iirc the Light Collage does with some people.
We are simply not on the list.
 
So, this is touching on a shelved topic, but... regardless of what we used our Transcendental favour on, if it in any way involves "books being copied", we shall have it mandated that ink with metallic filings is used, unless there is a very good reason to not use metallic ink, yes?

Yes.
----
Also, Johan should build himself a familar asap, presumably one that he can see through, or get someone to read/re-write the skraven books for him in metallic ink. No need to be a Wizard or anything, someone trustworty in K8P who has some time and a steady hand.
rusting and corrosion and paper don't mix well.

so no iron or iron alloys or metals that oxides as alkaline... so basically copper...

that might not be practical for every book...
Also paper is still rare and expensive here, it's as likely (or more) to be parchment or vellum.
Don't know enough chemistry for how that affects metallic inks, mind.

oh, @BoneyM I was wondering, does Mathilde have a ballpark idea of the 'favour value' of this Altar she's comissioned?
Metallic inks refer to inks made from metal salts. They do not rust or corrode, being already as oxidized as they can get outside of temperatures or caustics capable of annihilating the surface they are written on. They do tend to be water soluble to various extents, which is a problem without some waterproofing like lacquer, though they never fade like organic inks would.

Also if its written on parchment the ink is practically certain to outlive the medium, parchment rots when too wet, crumbles when too dry and is delicious to vermin.
 
Stockpile crates of warpstone technology.
Keep the freaking Brass Orb, which even the official Skaven tech researcher wanted nothing to do with.
Crazy thought: Warpstone has a tendency to decompose explosively when disturbed. AV has a tendency to decompose explosively when disturbed. I wonder how much, if any, warpstone tech we could recreate with AV?
 
Crazy thought: Warpstone has a tendency to decompose explosively when disturbed. AV has a tendency to decompose explosively when disturbed. I wonder how much, if any, warpstone tech we could recreate with AV?

All of it?

I mean it wouldn't be particularly hard to recreate the circumstances in which warpstone is created using AV. Unless you mean the equivalent of find and replace warpstone with AV in which case probably not much of it right now.
 
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