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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Turn 28 Social - 2483.5 - Part 2
  • Threadmarks
    • [*] No, but they could help break the blockade

    [*] [ROMANCE] Magister Johann
    -[*] 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.
    [*] [ROMANCE] Journeywoman Panoramia
    -[*] The Halflings are renowned chefs, and several restaurants have opened clustered around the base of Karag Nar. Share a meal with her.

    [+] The Wizards of Karak Eight Peaks (locked in)
    [+] EIC Reports (does not cost a choice)

    "Not without doing significant damage to relationships between the Dwarfholds involved and the Empire," is your eventual response. "They would see it as cowardice, that the Empire is having terms dictated to them by a city-state. They'd question why the Imperial Navy doesn't simply sail into Marienburg and break the blockade - in fact," you continue, as though you'd only just thought of it, "Barak Varr would be almost certain to be willing to aid such an effort with their own naval forces."

    Otto von Bitternach's expression turns calculating as he considers that. "A potent threat to be able to level," he muses, "and if matters do escalate, even Ulthuan would have to think twice before engaging with the combined navies of the Empire and Barak Varr. The First is hemmed in here, but if we had the Second go find some Reavers or something to loudly clash against, they would have to either let our fleets combine or give us a credible charge against them of aiding and abetting piracy and the Ruinous Powers, which could peel off Ulthuan, or it might bring in Kislev and Bretonnia..." He stares intensely down at the ivory button representing Marienburg before seeming to remember your presence. "The Emperor's thanks for providing your insight on the matter. Pass on his regards to King Belegar."

    ---

    When you return to the Karak, the first thing you do is go through your reports from the EIC to check for any signs of Marienburger mischief. You're quite relieved to find that everything appears normal, and the EIC's grip on the northern bank of the Aver almost complete. Since you've got all the paperwork out anyway, you move on to checking through the rest of the reports from up north, starting with the Hochlander's adventures in Talabecland, and find yourself quite surprised. You'd expected the Templars of Sigmar to descend upon the innocent populace of Talabecland like a Khornate Beastherd on the warpath, but all indications are that they quickly and efficiently winnowed through the citizens of note with no more threats than necessary and systematically narrowed the suspects down until they identified the culprits as a loose collection of allied burghers in Krugenheim and Ossino, who thought they could avoid suspicion by pointing investigators back and forth between the two towns until they gave up. They thought wrong, and ended up answering to the pyres.

    The Hochlander's contribution to the project was minimal, though if his reports are accurate you can't find fault with his attempt, it was simply a matter of the Witch Hunters having both more manpower and a larger information network in the form of the Church of Sigmar. But he did manage to keep up with the investigation and give every appearance of helpful cooperation, as well as aiding the Witch Hunters with transportation upon EIC wagons and boats, and has come away from the project with a significant list of contacts within the Templars of Sigmar. Which is the sort of thing that might come in very handy in the future, even if you're not their biggest fan.

    Reading through the reports from the rest of the EIC, it seems the Army of Stirland is making ready to break camp and tighten the encirclement of the vampire-controlled towns with the Spring thaw. Personally, you'd think it would be best to allow the lack of income time to really wear on them, but Roswita has demonstrated a definite preference to act quickly in Sylvania, and so far it seems mostly to be working out for her.

    The only other oddity is reports from Talabecland that there's been a fairly significant increase in the worship of Karnos, the local God of the Hunt. Unusual, but as he's not proscribed and seems relatively harmless, it's probably not anything to worry about.

    ---

    Most of Karagril remains empty, with mining and masonry Clans currently in residence filling only a tiny fraction of its capacity. The majority of its passages are lonely, eerie stone corridors full of echoes and shadows. But there is one major exception: the Temple of Grungni, finished last year and a destination for anyone wishing to venerate the Ancestor God of Mining and Stoneworking. Some humans might consider this an unusually minor niche for such a prominent God, comparing him to such regional godlings as Gargali of Wissenland or Vallich of Nordland. But it was Grungni's teachings that allowed the Dwarves to survive the coming of chaos as they dug deeper and deeper into the protective embrace of the mountains, and it is the bounty of those mountains that puts weapons in the hands and wealth in the vaults of the Dwarven people. So they venerate him as one of the three foremost Ancestor Gods, sometimes calling him the Father of the Dwarven race or the first High King of the Karaz Ankor. And every hundred days when it is time to celebrate the Festival of Grungni, only the most vital of work or dire of illnesses will prevent any given Dwarf from participating.

    That Johann is joining the festivities is something of a surprise. Not the fact that the Dwarves allow it - Grungni has a number of followers in the Empire as the God of the Forge, and you've read of a Temple to him in Nuln - but the fact that a Gold Wizard would adopt any God, as they're usually the least religious of the Colleges, both by tradition and the influence of Chamon.

    "That's usually the case," he says quietly as the gathered Dwarves file out of the Temple and towards the Underway. "But there's a standing order amongst the Gold Order to make whatever overtures possible towards Dwarven religion."

    You frown. "To what end?"

    "Nothing specific, at least as far as I'm aware. We're just aware they're the foremost crafters of the Old World, and anything we can do to get in their good graces is to our advantage. But besides that, I've had a lifetime of hearing tales of the great deeds the Gods have supposedly done, but you'd be amazed at how many 'slivers of Sigmar's armour' or 'weight from Verena's scales' have origins in a local blacksmith when you hit them with Tale of Metal. So it never really rang true for me."

    "So what makes the Ancestor Gods different? Is it the Disciple of the Pick business?" He hesitates, and you brace yourself. "What did you do?"

    He hesitates a moment longer. "The First Mine, under the Citadel? The Priest took me to visit it as part of my training. I was supposed to meditate in there, but I was curious, and it turns out trace amounts of gromril left behind by a miner counts as 'creation'. I only got the split second of the pick striking the stone, but... it was Them. All three of Them. One mining, one smelting, and one striking down the greenskins. I don't know if they were Gods, but what I saw of Them was more than enough to justify worshipping Them."

    Though part of you is aghast at how Johann had apparently been systematically ensorcelling supposed divine artefacts, you can understand the effect that must have had on him. During the quiet parts of the Battle of the Caldera, you saw Dwarves fall to their knees in numbed awe simply from standing in a mineshaft dug by Grungni's own hand. To have caught a glimpse of the Ancestor Gods themselves as they performed one of their greatest acts must have been overwhelming to someone that had never felt the touch of divinity.

    ---

    The Barrows are the most secure of the mines that the Karak is currently working, and the procession splits off as it works its way deeper underground. The topmost levels have been exhausted, but small nuggets of ores and native metals have been secreted around the place for the youngest of children to discover as they swing their tiny picks at piles of loose rock. Below that, the miners have carefully uncovered minor veins without excavating them and marked the path to them for youths strong enough to do some actual mining, but not yet knowledgeable enough for prospecting. All the adults - including you and Johann, though a number of Dwarves hinted that you might be better off sticking to the shallower tunnels - are to strike the earth and genuinely discover metal for yourself. Perhaps not the most romantic setting, but that might just be a matter of perspective - it is a religious obligation to leave your fellow miners be unless they're actively threatened by enemies or cave-ins, even if the sounds coming out of their side branch sound nothing like metal on stone. It's apparently an unspoken tradition for courting couples to venture into the mines together and return with a suspicious lack of ore.

    You're not sure if Johann knows about that part. You went forward on the assumption that he didn't, otherwise asking to join him for this would have been even more awkward than it was.

    As it goes deeper, the procession splits off over and over until you and Johann are left alone with your borrowed pick-axes and your very own side branch, with a single bobbing Marsh Light to cast illumination. To anyone else, it would be a tiny spot of illumination in a sea of darkness, but to you it does just enough to turn pitch black into the shadow in which your magical senses thrive. And Johann has no need of light at all, with his Magesight not only able to show him the stone around him, but making the seeking of metal-bearing ore trivial.

    "Do you know anything about mining?" you ask, weighing the pick in your hands.

    "Hit the rock until metal comes out," Johann says. "Or ores, I suppose. Let's see..." He stops walking and tilts his head as he reaches out with his Magesight. "On the left, about an arm's length in. It's shining like a beacon." He walks over to the spot, seems to peer at the wall through his blindfold, and taps it with his pick. "Right here."

    "Shining? Is it magical?" You're not sure what sort of omen it is to find Warpstone during a Festival to Grungni, but it can't be good.

    "No, wrong sort of shining. I think it's lodestone." He takes an experimental swing at the wall, and a small cloud of rock-dust bursts forth, along with a few sparks.

    "That's a good sign, right? Sparks means metal?" You take a moment to summon Ulgu into your muscles, then step up and swing alongside him, raising a second cloud.

    "I have no idea," he says frankly. The two of you quickly fall into a rhythm, your Ulgu-infused muscles keeping pace with his golden ones.

    "They don't teach properties of metals in the Gold College?"

    "Probably do to most, but you need to be at least theoretically capable of Alchemy to take the class." He keeps his tone light, but it's clearly artificial.

    "Ah." You remember a few of your classmates who ran into similar roadblocks. Most of them are still Apprentices to this day.

    "Yeah. I was lucky that my Master gave me the chance to prove myself instead of dropping me right into Perpetual. I decided if I was going to be stuck at one third of a Gold Wizard, I'd have to be three times as good to break even. Eventually I had begged, borrowed, and stole enough coin for my first Gilding. Got made Journeyman on the spot. Who needs alchemy?"

    "Better to do one thing well than be mediocre at everything," you say. "My Master told me that, then got annoyed when I skipped Diplomacy class."

    He gives a brief laugh. "I suppose you're as typical a Grey Wizard as I am a Gold."

    "Never developed the habit of sticking to the shadows. My first grown-up assignment was to the Council of Stirland. Made it difficult to act innocent."

    He pauses mid-swing. "Wait, the whole Stirland thing was your Journeying?"

    "It was definitely educational." You take a step back from the wall to take a breath of clear air. "Damn dust. This must be why Dwarves have beards."

    "I haven't noticed any dust," Johann says with a smile, and you wonder if his Magesight can see enough to notice someone rolling their eyes at him.

    ---

    The two of you emerge from the Barrows not long after with an egg-sized chunk of lodestone and about ten times its weight in dust clinging to each of you. You think yearningly of your bathroom, but part of the festival is to eat and drink still covered in onk - the dirt and grime of honest work underground. Apart from the Dwarves seeing to food and drink, everyone else is at least as dirty as you, from the smallest child to the most wizened Elder. You lead Johann to a serious-faced Dwarf with a massive ledger and a very tall pile of small sacks, who carefully records and labels the lodestone - a sensible precaution to prevent the unearthed minerals from being lost in the drinking to come - and then over to a wagon stacked high with barrels. You walk away from it with two large flagons of good ale, and you take a seat on a bench freshly hewn from rock.

    "What happens to the ores?" you ask Johann.

    "They'll be either smelted or cut to an appropriate size, usually by someone doing penance. Dwarf merchants always make sure they have plenty of rings and pendants and whatnot they can be mounted in, or you can just drill a hole in it and wear it on a string. It brings good fortune. Shavings and off-cuts are all smelted together and given to anyone that didn't find anything."

    "What, a sort of pot-luck alloy?"

    "I thought it was odd too at first, but it's a moral teaching. The Hold will look after you if you need it, but it's better to be self-sufficient." You nod in understanding. Dwarves usually don't trust metaphors, but the exception is when it's about mining or metals or both. "You know, when I joined the Expedition, I never expected anything like this," Johann says, looking out at the growing, sprawling crowd of feasting and drinking Dwarves. "It's so... normal. I mean, everyone's a Dwarf, but it's not that different to Sigmartag or the Festival of Light or the Day of Folly. I thought it would be like the stories of Karak Azgal, where there was a tiny oasis of peace atop a massive sprawling warren of monsters to kill and treasure to loot. I'd grab some Skaven-y bits and write a few papers and prove that I deserved my Magistership and get out before a Waaagh or something wiped the foothold off the map. But we did it. We took back Karak Eight Peaks. And we're sitting on enough Skaven artefacts and technology to pump out papers for the next decade."

    "We did it," you echo with a smile.



    - Remainder of social turn to come.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • BoneyM said:
    The only other oddity is reports from Talabecland that there's been a fairly significant increase in the worship of Karnos, the local God of the Hunt. Unusual, but as he's not proscribed and seems relatively harmless, it's probably not anything to worry about.
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    It's always something in the world of Warhammer, isn't it?
     
    BoneyM said:
    But we did it. We took back Karak Eight Peaks. And we're sitting on enough Skaven artifacts and technology to pump out papers for the next decade."

    "We did it," you echo with a smile.
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    I was feeling decent about Johann as a husbando until these lines. They parallel a "we did it" moment with Abelhelm, except that his one was far more poignant so all this reminded me of was Johann's inadequacy. I just don't find him as interesting to read about, and am not taken in by his chemistry with Mathilde.
    Well, maybe Panoramia will turn out to be a better option!
     
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    BoneyM said:
    He hesitates a moment longer. "The First Mine, under the Citadel? The Priest took me to visit it as part of my training. I was supposed to meditate in there, but I was curious, and it turns out trace amounts of gromril left behind by a miner counts as 'creation'. I only got the split second of the pick striking the stone, but... it was Them. All three of Them. One mining, one smelting, and one striking down the greenskins. I don't know if they were Gods, but what I saw of Them was more than enough to justify worshipping Them."
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    Your a fucking madman Johann but I love you regardless you crazy bastard.
     
    HavocKeeper said:
    I have the sudden image of Gelt beating Gormann in his duel by punching him unconscious because he's made of metal and shouldn't be hurt by fire.
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    The latter part of that statement is kind of true. It's implied that Gelt managed to reach through a giant white hot wall of flame to grab the Staff by being made of gold.

    TotallyNotEvil said:
    If this were Rhunrikki Strollar, I'd be confident in making gauntlets with MSmiting on them for the dragon to wear. In this sad age of shoddy works, that's probably not on the table.

    Best bet for Dragon gear is a runic Talisman of Warding, it does not lack in offense. Stop it from getting Purple Sun-ed.
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    If we're going off pure tabletop mechanics, that won't help. You don't get saves against it.

    BoneyM said:
    The only other oddity is reports from Talabecland that there's been a fairly significant increase in the worship of Karnos, the local God of the Hunt. Unusual, but as he's not proscribed and seems relatively harmless, it's probably not anything to worry about.
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    Elves intensify
     
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    BoneyM said:
    No. There's only so thick you can make fog until it's just water and therefore no longer under the conceptual umbrella of Ulgu.
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    Speaking of water and umbrellas, how far away can we manipulate Ulgu from? Because I vaguely remember something about Ulgu and Dark and Stormy nights, and a spell like the opposite of that Azyr one to make things cloudy sounds fairly Ulgu-ish. Clouds are just fog in the sky, and all.
     
    BoneyM said:
    He gives a brief laugh. "I suppose you're as typical a Grey Wizard as I am a Gold."

    "Never developed the habit of sticking to the shadows. My first grown-up assignment was to the Council of Stirland. Made it difficult to act innocent."

    He pauses mid-swing. "Wait, the whole Stirland thing was your Journeying?"
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    Oh man did he not know? Do any of the other wizards not know either? That's amusing.
    BoneyM said:
    "I haven't noticed any dust," Johann says with a smile, and you wonder if his Magesight can see enough to notice someone rolling their eyes at him.
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    This is what people in the business like to call progress.
    BoneyM said:
    thought it would be like the stories of Karak Azgal, where there was a tiny oasis of peace atop a massive sprawling warren of monsters to kill and treasure to loot. I'd grab some Skaven-y bits and write a few papers and prove that I deserved my Magistership and get out before a Waaagh or something wiped the foothold off the map. But we did it. We took back Karak Eight Peaks. And we're sitting on enough Skaven artifacts and technology to pump out papers for the next decade."

    "We did it," you echo with a smile.
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    Feels like the ending of a book. It definitely encapsulates the accomplishment in a down to earth manner.
     
    BoneyM said:
    The only other oddity is reports from Talabecland that there's been a fairly significant increase in the worship of Karnos, the local God of the Hunt. Unusual, but as he's not proscribed and seems relatively harmless, it's probably not anything to worry about.
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    This is clearly THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS, now.
     
    Nice to see the Witch Hunters being competent.

    And that was some fascinating backstory on Johann that I'm glad we learned. It sounds like he had his own divine encounter - getting info on the Ancestor Gods dumped on you through Tale of Metal sounds like a trip and a half.
     
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