The Library costs a resource far more valuable than the gold. If we choose not to spend gold, we should choose not to spend the far more valuable resource.
I'm not saying it is, I'm just saying it's a non negligible possibility. Personally I'd estimate the probability of a Chaos plot to be somewhere in the range of 10-15%, which is low but also 10-15% higher than the normal Dwarven baseline of 0%
All trees are enemies of the Dawi! The Order of the Stick historical factbook tells us so!
Unfortunately, I don't see any way for that to happen: for Thorgrim to explain the Waystones and the Throne of Power, he would have to break with tradition going back to Thungni Himself. Until that happens, Belegar is always going to be under the impression that Thorgrim is enriching himself on the unknowing backs of K8P (at minimum) and (possibly) the entire Karaz Ankor.
Johann's rebuttal involves swirlies.
Can you imagine what a Diplomatic Corps trained by Mathilde would be like?
Seems Ulthar remembers us quite fondly. Might be due to being close in terms of duties, being a Ranger and Grey Wizard respectively? It's a shame we only just now got to his action, though thematic with the rest of the update in terms of his backstory.
I'm caught up with the thread (for now) so I'll go ahead and disagree with the common take that this is Heidi being the typical Ranaldite con we believe her to be.
It is my strong belief that her calling her married life a con isn't Heidi the Ranaldite bragging about her happy housewife/Empress con, it's Heidi the happy housewife/Empress justifying her being such as a con. Basically, even if it was a con in the beginning, then she's kinda gone native thanks to her son. Her asking Mathilde if she could replace Dragomas isn't a con either (mostly). It's her worrying about her son and trying to find allies, and since Dragomas isn't having it why not put Mathilde on the job? Not only is she Heidi's friend and co-religionist, but also Mandred's godmother.
Puppy time seems a good first date. Maybe later we can do workout (which is a bit personal) or the festival (which is even more so given it's Johann bringing us to worship with him).
I actually have a write-in for this, about going to the Halfling pie thing with Panoramia, but these current options are good too. I do hope we do all these at some point, since they all seem to flow into one another nicely. Meal time makes for a good first date, since it's a balance between both their interests, farm work for some backstory revelation and shaking up Panoramia's view of Mathilde, then some therapeutic tower building to literally build their relationship anew from the ground up.
There's one way- Thorgrim names Belegar as his heir.
Maybe we can use our Boon to get the Dwarves to come help out with the Drakwald? I'm pretty sure the only way that's ever getting sorted out is by constantly refortifying it every few miles with actual walls, and to do it across a timespan of decades.
Honestly, the best outcome here is probably for Belegar to have a private conversation with Thorgrim, laying out what he knows and asking Thorgrim to explain the matter. Probably after the Okral have fixed up K8P's defences, to avoid jeopardising that aid, surly though it may be.
That's not quite what I was getting at? It's like...
yes, they're pretty clearly insulting you and your entire race, but, like, of course they are. That level of condescension is taken as a given for Elves, barely registers really, and there's certainly no point in calling them out on it. Really, what would the best case scenario for that be? For the elf to apologize to the human for being too arrogant?
Possibly. I'm not sure Mathilde cares enough about the place for that though. And it would require a decades long war, which the Empire doesn't have the will to fight and the Dwarfs don't have the dwarfpower to.
Yeah, six thousand year traditions of secrecy don't get broken by traditionalist High Kings. Ever. We don't even know there is such a shattering secret about the Throne.
He'll try. For a half-hour or so. Then he'll give up and let Mathilde come up with the good ideas.
Belegar could also come to think about the sheer age of the Throne of Power and who built it; namely, the Ancestor-Gods. And the fact that, for his suspicions of Thorgrim to be correct, it would mean that every other previous generation of High King had done the exact same! Which... is something that is a bit hard to imagine. I mean. All of the High Kings were thieving jerks? No, not possible.
I will note that Pie Week is in the eighth month/second half of the year (@BoneyM)
A Pie is a meal, after all. And I'm sure there is such a celebration here, plus it'd be a fun callback to the Expedition?
This seems like a genuinely good counterargument. Would the Ancestors have made such a dishonourable system?
You know, we give Johann a lot of shit, because 1) He was stuck on the ratgun for so long, 2) we practically wrote his last paper for him, and 3) he absolutely deserves it.
Alric is the Light Patriarch, as far as I know. See here:
How someone without Pit of Shades or Purple Sun or a non-T or S based test save-or-die could take out a Celestial Dragon Wizard is kind of mindboggling. And Dragomas is probably up there with Melkoth in casting his specific variant fairly safely.
Yes, when he tries he can do well. But I also remember how dubious he was about trying, mainly because sounded like the weird boring not-punching parts of the Order of the PICK.
Speaking of preferring the practical, non-academic side of Wizarding, well, we certainly don't know anyone else who hated academic writing with a fiery passion until she literally built the Rune-perfected tower to relax in to remove the malus, do we?
Hating academic writing is not the same as being disinterested in pursuing the deeper mysteries of the universe beyond 'can I punch this productively'?
