Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

[SurpriseMe]

Beating Dragomas is probably pretty simple, just not easy. You just need to be able to dispell his mastered transformation of kadon then hit him before he casts other buffs on himself.

 

[Thomasfoolery]

[X] Conceal matters you know the Dwarves would prefer you conceal
[X] Though you both use your magic to cheat, you both have an interest in personal fitness. Work out with him.
[X] Though you rarely think of those days, you did grow up on a farm and know something of the soil. Spend time with her as she goes about her work.

 

[das_slash]

[X] Speak honestly of everything not explicitly secret, including rifts within the Karaz Ankor

[X] There's a festival to Grungni coming up, and Johann has taken to observing the Holy Days of the Ancestor-God. Join him in this.

[X] The Halflings are renowned chefs, and several restaurants have opened clustered around the base of Karag Nar. Share a meal with her.

And of course:

[ ] Carefully scout the upper portion of the mountain, once you learn the location of the cave, purchase 200 gold in gems to leave a trail of shinies leading to an ambush location, with tea and cookies.

 

[Ericwinter]

[ ] Carefully scout the upper portion of the mountain, once you learn the location of the cave, purchase 200 gold in gems to leave a trail of shinies leading to an ambush location, with tea and cookies.

Click to shrink...

That is totally something we need to do. I wonder, can halflings make dragon-sized cookies?

 

[Jrin]

I don't like the Empress choice but yikes for Ulthar's situation, hmm it makes me wonder if he should keep an eye on any plots to kill him because two brothers both prince killing each other sound like something influenced by outsiders despite how powerful Dwarven Values is in settling this kind of thing.

None of the Empire's business!
These kind of secrets will leak no matter how good the Empire's top nobles are and nobles change all the time.
[X] Conceal matters you know the Dwarves would prefer you conceal

[X] You've got a puppy, he's got several. Easy. Spend time with him as your pup plays with his.

[X] Though you rarely think of those days, you did grow up on a farm and know something of the soil. Spend time with her as she goes about her work.

 

[ReImagined]

Come on now, you are giving Panoramia, the agriculture wizard, credit for knowing how to plant, but ding Johann for not knowing an exotic and certainly phenomenally frustrating language? One that does absolutely nothing for him?

Johann, the metal wizard?

No, this argument that Panoramia is more driven or has a deeper interest in study than the guy actively researching skaven technology who regularly dips his limbs into molten gold does not remotely stick.

Click to shrink...

Yes, the language that forms the basis of the Colleges' collective magical theory is clearly a language that does nothing for him. Because he does not know it.

I think a better way to put this sentiment is that Johann does not give off the vibe of being interested in academia via studying and reading books-- he's rather more hands on and focused on material, practical pursuits.

 

[Businessmanga]

Laughing as I picture "So you're the patriarch of the Grey Order" game, in a scenario where Reveal No Secrets! wins. Nega-verse Algard players just tearing their hair out as their incredibly suspicious rising star continues to be Hella Dubious.

Half the thread looking at our diplo score and shrugging like "Makes sense I guess. She had to be bad at something." and the other half 100% in paranoia mode and convinced Mathilde is Tzeentch's living avatar in the Old World.

The day those nega-verse Algard players finally manage to voting bloc up and personally investigate us, only to discover the Liber Mortis!? Oh the theoretical salt that will flow!

 

[Gap]

[X] Speak honestly of everything not explicitly secret, including rifts within the Karaz Ankor

[X] There's a festival to Grungni coming up, and Johann has taken to observing the Holy Days of the Ancestor-God. Join him in this.

[X] The Halflings are renowned chefs, and several restaurants have opened clustered around the base of Karag Nar. Share a meal with her.

 

[Ericwinter]

Laughing as I picture "So you're the patriarch of the Grey Order" game, in a scenario where Reveal No Secrets! wins. Nega-verse Algard players just tearing their hair out as their incredibly suspicious rising star continues to be Hella Dubious.

Half the thread looking at our diplo score and shrugging like "Makes sense I guess. She had to be bad at something." and the other half 100% in paranoia mode and convinced Mathilde is Tzeentch's living avatar in the Old World.

The day those nega-verse Algard players finally manage to voting bloc up and personally investigate us, only to discover the Liber Mortis!? Oh the theoretical salt that will flow!

Click to shrink...

And then they start wondering why we haven't used it. Because the only sensible reason not to use something like that is because it's not worth your time. Or, you know, you're actually really loyal and able to resist temptation, but this is Warhammer. Who's going to believe that?

 

[Guile]

Laughing as I picture "So you're the patriarch of the Grey Order" game, in a scenario where Reveal No Secrets! wins. Nega-verse Algard players just tearing their hair out as their incredibly suspicious rising star continues to be Hella Dubious.

Half the thread looking at our diplo score and shrugging like "Makes sense I guess. She had to be bad at something." and the other half 100% in paranoia mode and convinced Mathilde is Tzeentch's living avatar in the Old World.

The day those nega-verse Algard players finally manage to voting bloc up and personally investigate us, only to discover the Liber Mortis!? Oh the theoretical salt that will flow!

Click to shrink...

Honestly, if you were investigating a suspicious underling, would you keep going after you found her experiments with Warp snakes, the Brass Orb, the Relic of a dubious god, her inexplicable friendship with the Empress, and all the other crazy things Mathilde does?

Because you have to hit all those things and then keep digging to find the Liber Mortis.

 

[Codex]

Not very comfortable with the sniping done in regards to the romantic options. It's not serious right now, but it can escalate pretty badly.

 

[Skyborn.12]

[X] Conceal matters you know the Dwarves would prefer you conceal

[X] You've got a puppy, he's got several. Easy. Spend time with him as your pup plays with his.

[X] The Halflings are renowned chefs, and several restaurants have opened clustered around the base of Karag Nar. Share a meal with her.

 

[Alliterate]

Honestly, if you were investigating a suspicious underling, would you keep going after you found her experiments with Warp snakes, the Brass Orb, the Relic of a dubious god, her inexplicable friendship with the Empress, and all the other crazy things Mathilde does?

Because you have to hit all those things and then keep digging to find the Liber Mortis.

Click to shrink...

Then you realise her early successes against possibly/probably Carstein Vampires came while she was the agent of a Lamian conspiracy. From which she escaped with a spotless reputation, and a suspicously capable graduation, displaying highly-developed windsight.
And an incredible knack for picking up the most complex of Ulgu spells at a ferocious rate. Spells that can challenge Magisters with a decade or more of experience, almost as if they seemed simple to her.

 

[Lalzparty]

[X] Speak honestly of everything not explicitly secret, including rifts within the Karaz Ankor

 

[NSMS]

I'm not inclined to think of Johann as not-scholastic, so much as an 'if you have a big hammer, every problem looks like a nail' type guy. He knows what he works well with and is genuinely good at that stuff, but doesn't stray outside of his comfort zone unless pushed.

 

[me.me.here]

You joke, but I think the mountain could theoretically be used to kill all the weeds in one go without harming the desirable plants. That'd probably be damn handy. They could do a sweep once a month or something during the growing season and save the farmers a hell of a lot of work, freeing them up for other things.

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Theoretically, yes - we got excited over the idea back then as well. Practically speaking, the expert on the matter vetoed any attempt.

The downside to all of this is that when you ask Panoramia if she thinks it'd be a good idea to use the eternally-burning fires of Dwarven Hell to weed her gardens, she laughs, looks at you, realizes you're not kidding, says "no" a lot and then runs away.

Click to shrink...

 

[Andres]

The Border Princes are not just an empty, worthless, barren wasteland. Most of it is, but not all.

Renegade Crowns lets you generate features to fill in the Border Princes with by rolling dice and seeing what you get on tables of potential features. Using them, it's possible to get a view of what the Border Princes as a whole look like.

99.2%* of the Border Princes is composed of this kind of land:

Spoiler

Barren plains: 10%
Barren hills: 10%
Barren mountains: 5%
Barren swamps: 2%
Barren badlands: 5%

Scrubland plains: 11%
Scrubland hills: 10%
Scrubland mountains: 3%
Scrubland swamps: 5%
Scrubland badlands: 3%

Forested plains: 6%
Forested hills: 6%
Forested mountains: 2%
Forested swamps: 1%
Forested badlands: 1%

Grassy hills: 6%
Grassy plains: 6%
Grassy swamps: 2%
Grassy badlands: 2%
Grassy mountains: 1%

Swamps: 1%
Desert plains: 1%

32% barren, 32% scrubland, 16% forest, 17% grassy

The other 0.8%* of the Border Princes is composed equally of the following things: caves; cliffs; fertile valleys; geysers; isolated mountains; pools; tors; volcanoes; waterfalls; whirlpools.
*I'm very unsure about these calculations. Other ways I've calculated how much space the Other category take up have given me results of 20%, 5%, 4%, and other results I've forgotten.

About every 19 square miles there is 1 Ancient Ruin. Of the 90% that aren't Chaos ruins: 5% have no Ancient Menace whatsoever; in 12% of the ones that do have an Ancient Menace, the Ancient Menace is simply an unused, very powerful Weapon.

There's about 1 principality every 19 square miles. (Yeah, same as ruins - they use the same table.) The average size of a principality is 5 square miles, so 26% of the Border Princes is claimed by princes. About a quarter of all principalities have a town, most of which have about 2500 people. Each principality has an average of 4.3 interesting villages, each with an average of 150 people. (Uninteresting villages outnumber interesting villages but have the same population as them.) Furthermore, each principality has "dozens" of homesteads, each with about 15 people on average.
Assuming that there are two dozen homesteads every principality, each square mile of the Border Princes has an average population of 79.25 - more than modern day Latvia. (Population and population density go up if we count non-humans, non-dwarves, uninteresting villages, and the people who live outside of principalities.)

The average principality has a 63% chance to have one of the following things, with the odds of each being equal: a hospital; a magical effect; a monastery; a monster; templars; a witch; a wizard.

 

[Ericwinter]

Then you realise her early successes against possibly/probably Carstein Vampires came while she was the agent of a Lamian conspiracy. From which she escaped with a spotless reputation, and a suspicously capable graduation, displaying highly-developed windsight.
And an incredible knack for picking up the most complex of Ulgu spells that can challenge Magisters with a decade or more of experience, almost as if they seemed simple to her.

Click to shrink...

You know, when you put it all together, we really do seem like either the best or worst Grey Magister to ever exist. We're totally going to be the final boss of their quest, aren't we? Reminds me of that old Mathilde for Everchosen meme. Though it's horribly ironic when you consider that we literally stood under judgement by the Dwarven god of the Underworld.

 

[Tylonius]

[X] Speak honestly of everything not explicitly secret, including rifts within the Karaz Ankor

We have Oaths that take precedence over those to Belegar. Despite which, the idea that the Diplomatic Chief of the Empire doesn't know at least as much as us when it comes to dealing with Dwarves is... incredibly arrogant. The Empire has thousands of years of experience and precedent to let them know how to deal with Dwarves.

 

[Andres]

Half the thread looking at our diplo score and shrugging like "Makes sense I guess. She had to be bad at something." and the other half 100% in paranoia mode and convinced Mathilde is Tzeentch's living avatar in the Old World.

Click to shrink...

Mathilde's diplomacy isn't even bad. It's 14. We complimented the hell out of Belegar's genius for the very excellent logistics work he did to retake Karak Eight Peaks and as it turned out he did all that with just Stewardship 16. 14 is pretty good. 2 more points and Mathilde becomes as good a diplomat as Belegar was a logistician.

 

[Saidoro]

The other 0.8%* of the Border Princes is composed equally of the following things: caves; cliffs; fertile valleys; geysers; isolated mountains; pools; tors; volcanoes; waterfalls; whirlpools.
*I'm very unsure about these calculations. Other ways I've calculated how much space the Other category take up have given me results of 20%, 5%, 4%, and other results I've forgotten.

Click to shrink...

How were you calculating it? I'd be willing to try checking your work.

 

[WorldSlayer]

[X] Conceal matters you know the Dwarves would prefer you conceal
If it was Algard asking or on his behalf I'd have gone with honest. Mathilde doesn't know this guy and was introduced by a stranger.

[X] There's a festival to Grungni coming up, and Johann has taken to observing the Holy Days of the Ancestor-God. Join him in this.
[X] The Halflings are renowned chefs, and several restaurants have opened clustered around the base of Karag Nar. Share a meal with her.

Also speaking of romance and scientific experimentation.

King Kazador Thunderhorn

> He has decades of experience in combat and warfare, and so efficiently purged the mountains near Karak Azul that the greenskins learned to climb mountains. And then he made his Throng learn too so they could follow them. Don't underestimate him.
< Hmm. Kazok, Kazgal and Kazgrom like tall women. I wonder if she likes bearded lads? Sure, they say that manlings and Dwarves can't have children, but have any of them actually tried?

Click to shrink...

 

[Deathbybunnies]

This:

The semi-obvious thing for the Empire to realize is that, as someone else said, they should be treating the Karaz Ankor more like the EU than the US. Which would be all sorts of bad for the Karaz Ankor. Which is why I'm really hoping Mathilde gives that answer with "Just to be absolutely sure, because I've picked up a pretty strong habit of making sure things are done right: You do realize how easily you could misuse this information and break everything, right?".
Option 2, limited disclosure, arguably breaks our oath to prioritize the Empire over all else.

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Given that the Empire isn't going to play Karaks against each other, since the Karaz Ankor schisming is an existential threat to the Empire, I don't think realising there's a better way to interact with them would be a bad thing?

You know, when you put it all together, we really do seem like either the best or worst Grey Magister to ever exist. We're totally going to be the final boss of their quest, aren't we? Reminds me of that old Mathilde for Everchosen meme. Though it's horribly ironic when you consider that we literally stood under judgement by the Dwarven god of the Underworld.

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If we were ever under serious suspicion, that would be a good argument - "go ask Kragg the Grimm, I have literally stood under Gazul's personal examination and judgement and been found acceptable."

Of course, as a Magister currently in good enough standing to possibly be under consideration for Magister Lord, being under that level of suspicion means that things have gone horribly, horribly wrong.

Mathilde's diplomacy isn't even bad. It's 14. We complimented the hell out of Belegar's genius for the very excellent logistics work he did to retake Karak Eight Peaks and as it turned out he did all that with just Stewardship 16. 14 is pretty good. 2 more points and Mathilde becomes as good a diplomat as Belegar was a logistician.

Click to shrink...

Oh, for sure, she's good enough to be an Adviser in Stirland. But compared to anyone specialising in Diplomacy in the big leagues she's just thoroughly unimpressive.

 

[Valmond]

[X] Speak honestly of everything not explicitly secret, including rifts within the Karaz Ankor
[X] You've got a puppy, he's got several. Easy. Spend time with him as your pup plays with his.
[X] Though you rarely think of those days, you did grow up on a farm and know something of the soil. Spend time with her as she goes about her work.

 

[Andres]

How were you calculating it? I'd be willing to try checking your work.

Click to shrink...

Each region is 20x20 squares. (Each square is 4 miles long.) 400 squares total.

Spoiler: Geography instructions

Here's Table 1-1:

Spoiler: Table 1-1

And here's the table for special features:

Spoiler: Table 1-2

This reminds me that I forgot to calculate how much of the Border Princes is rivers but I'm not interested in doing that so I won't.

Anyway. First, I figure out how many rolls I'd need before rolling a special feature. 0+10+20+30+40=100, so 5 rolls. The first roll is average 49 or 51, so roll d50 to find out how many squares it takes. Average is 25. 25*5=125. 1/125=0.008, so 0.8% of a region is special features.

EDIT: I think the average amount of rivers per region is 1.6.