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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Turn 29 Social - 2484 - Part 1
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    • [*] Regimand, to finally get the full story behind the Lahmian plot you were both ensnared by.
    [*] Karak Kadrin, to get to know the leaders of the Expedition.
    [*] Do a round of the Colleges to check how the Rooms of Calamity are being received.
    [*] Wilhelmina Hochschild, to check in on her and see how she feels about the Marienburg situation.

    [+] The Wizards of Karak Eight Peaks (locked in)
    [+] Social interaction initiated by someone else (locked in)
    [+] EIC Reports (does not cost a choice)
    -[*] EIC: Start hiring handlers who can then start hiring informers and begin to collect non-public information.

    The Grey College has a number of nooks for private conversation, each with a slightly different level of security. The one you find yourself in is the least used of them all, the one that would be used if Teclis arrived and wanted to have a quiet word with the Emperor. You and Regimand take the opportunity to rifle through the drinks cabinet, and though it would be in poor taste to pull the cork on something that's sat untouched since the College's founding, anything that's already open is fair game. In deference to the current situation with Marienburg you help yourself to a generous measure of Westerland brandy, while Regimand lingers over the wines before settling on a Morceaux white.

    "So," Regimand says, glancing over to double-check the door was still closed even though it would take a lot of dispelling and a team of sappers to shift it. "The Conspiracy. Hmm. Ever seen a Waaagh form?"

    You recall the infighting between the Orc tribes that once called Karak Eight Peaks home. "Never gave them the opportunity to finish, but I've seen them trying to sort things out amongst themselves."

    "They could take lessons from the way things work in the shadows here. Any given network of low-level dupes can change hands three times in a year without any of them catching on that there's someone new behind the mask or under the hood. We try to encourage this to keep any one group from accumulating enough momentum to become dangerous, but every now and then one of them can start snowballing without us catching on fast enough to stop them, and then you've got a new player on the board. Or an old player returning to it." He sighs. "I don't know who dropped the ball on the Lahmians, or if they're just sneakier than we give them credit for, or if they just got a few lucky breaks in rapid succession, but almost overnight they went from one faction amongst many to one of the major players."

    "How'd they snare you?"

    "If you want to play the game, you have to ante up. And there's no ante better than yourself."

    You can see where this is going. "And you ended up a chip in someone's stack. The Lahmians' stack."

    He looks embarrassed. "Like I said, snowballing. I made sure the metaphorical chip ended up in the hands of a loose network of Black Magisters up north. They blackmail me into assisting them, over time they grow to know me, I act a little interested and a little reluctant and a couple years later they're either recruiting me fully or at least comfortable enough to start slipping up. But they were warring for influence with a local cult - Khaine or the other violent one, never did figure out which - and they were both too focused on each other to keep from being swept up by the Lahmians."

    "And let me guess, to really sell your illusion, nobody knew about it."

    "You know what they say, 'three can keep a secret if two of them are dead and buried in a properly sanctified Garden that you've checked on recently'. Besides, even if I could wriggle out, that would mean there's one less angle of attack on this new juggernaut. I couldn't possibly have been placed to target them specifically, so that gave me legitimacy in their eyes. And in the end, the risk paid off. I'm sure that by now, you've done things you wouldn't have been able to get permission for if you'd asked."

    Well, you'd have to concede that point. "And through you, they put pressure on me. Presumably because they had enough dirt on you to get your Apprentice in hot water."

    He takes a drink. "I do think if it did come down to that, you would have been okay. A few uncomfortable debriefs and closer scrutiny for a while. That's part of how the Grey College works - we project an aura of being so harsh on our own that people think we're easy to blackmail, and that leads to us finding a lot of blackmailers. But I had to let it play out, so I told you what they thought the consequences would be for you. So you got placed on the board as a piece in their scuffle over Sylvania."

    "Countess von Carstein," you say, giving a grim smile at the memory of her end.

    "She's our best guess for the one that had been chewing through Haupt-Anderssens, though it turns out they did miss at least one. The Lahmians were rather nervous about the whole situation. They never did manage to find out whether 'Countess von Carstein' was a true inheritor to the title, or merely a pretender. They used part of their influence to ensure that the Elector Count title would pass to someone they thought would bring the fight straight to this von Carstein, and weaken both Sylvania and Stirland in the process. There's another useful reputation for you - the Witch Hunters. Everyone thinks they see the witch, they burn the witch, and to be fair there's plenty that do, but at the core of the Templars of Sigmar are thinkers and plotters. Van Hal didn't just throw Stirland's army at Sylvania, he built up and prepared first, and while doing so the Templars were performing their own investigations."

    "They were positioning themselves to make a play for greater Stirland," you guess.

    "They had a lot of it. Outside of Drakenhof, most of the Counts and Barons of Sylvania were either Lahmians or in their pocket, and they had a lot of influence in Southern Stirland. Even if they couldn't sweep everything, if things turned out differently Sylvania could have easily swallowed it up in the chaos. But van Hal took the most prominent collaborator out of the picture and then made demonstrations of power in the Ghoul Wood and the Hunter's Hills, which caused a lot of rethinking of allegiances. And while the Lahmians were arguing amongst themselves whether to make their play or pivot to trying to get hooks into the new Van Hal, you dropped a list into my hands."

    "I've wondered about that, since then. The Templars could have acted themselves. The only reason they wouldn't have done so directly..."

    "Was one little name on the list. No wonder the Lahmians had so much influence, when they could whisper into the Emperor's ear at night. The Templars are almost never shy about getting their hands dirty, but when the succession of Sigmar's Empire is at stake..." He shakes his head. "Even if they were willing to act, it would cost so much of the influence of the Cult of Sigmar. Influence they've spent generations accumulating."

    "So they find themselves wondering if they're loyal to the Empire, or the Emperor, or the Church. And wondering how many of their fellows would share their answer." You smile sadly. "But Abelhelm knew one group that had the answer set in stone for them. 'The first obedience of every Magister must be to the ideals and laws of Sigmar's Holy Empire'..."

    "Thank the Gods for the foresight of Magnus," Regimand says, raising his glass in a toast.

    "To the foresight of Magnus," you echo, draining your drink.

    Regimand eyes his now-empty glass thoughtfully, clearly contemplating a refill. "So I added their list to my list, and I, of course, sorted it all out on my own. Or so official history will record if it ever gets out. The rest, as you know, is murder."

    "And one set of 'natural causes'. How'd you manage that?"

    He smiles. "Let's just say there was an Amethyst looking to shore up their position."

    ---

    It would be entirely self-indulgent to go on a grand tour of the Rooms of Calamity you had commissioned, but you feel you've earned a bit of self-indulgence, especially after you went to check up on the one you'd called the Maze in the Grey College and found it had disappeared between one day and the next, absorbed into the Battle Wizard cloister. Your first stop is the Ambers and their Enclosure, as it was the one you were least sure of. The Tower is just as abandoned as it usually is, and after you climb up into the Room itself it's accumulating its own layer of dust to match downstairs, but you do find a set of clawmarks in one wall that you doubt were left there by the Dwarves that installed it. You take that as a good sign and move on.

    At the Amethyst Order you're quite surprised to be shown into the office of Elspeth von Draken, who apparently commutes from Nuln on the back of an Encarmine Dragon to maintain whatever hold she has over that city. The meeting is brief but cordial, and she informs you that the Tomb has already been of use - a promising Battle Wizard is apparently well on the road to recovery from an unfortunate incident that has lead to that entire wing of the College being closed off for the past fortnight and counting, and she credits that it wasn't a great deal worse to the Tomb absorbing and dumping most of the errant energies.

    The Inglenook of the Bright College is already coated in soot, the Domain of the Jades is crowded with potted plants, and the Golds have filled the Alcove with laboratory equipment to house the more dangerous pursuits of True Transmutation and other alchemical goals, and though they won't speak of the details they assure you that you've made a substantial contribution to the Empire's pursuit of the natural sciences. You continue your streak of never stepping foot inside the Light College, as apparently the Apprentices making use of the Lens are quite vulnerable to fluctuations in their environment - which you reluctantly accept, as Hysh is the most elusive of the Winds and the Light College does take in many more Apprentices than any other College, and thus end up with a lot more borderline Wizards that need careful handling.

    You leave the Celestials for last, both on general principle and because they've invited you to some sort of soiree for their many benefactors, because apparently using the Reikspiel word for 'party' is far too gauche. Your expectations set firmly to rock bottom, you attend at the scheduled time and find that its usual camouflage has been deactivated and the College is deigning to be visible for the evening, presumably so the guests can find it. Another notable change is the doorkeeper is standing ready outside the door instead of lurking inside and waiting until someone's right about to knock to invite them in. To make the best of it, you walk up to him and when he asks for your invitation, you glare at him until he sheepishly admits that he already knows you're invited and to go on in.

    The Celestial College has an enviable position amongst the Colleges in that it is seemingly perennially in fashion for noble and wealthy houses to consult a Celestial Wizard, the higher-ranked the better - and what's more, very few of them actually press too closely for details, being content with knowing in general terms whether good or ill fortune lies in store for a particular course of action instead of asking for details and being told something they'd rather not know - or rather not be known. Every influential family has its secrets, after all. So the Celestial College are the benefactors of a large number of wealthy patrons, each competing to be the most patronizing, and the Celestials don't actually have to do all that much to maintain the state of affairs.

    You're passed from servant to servant as you're guided deeper inside the College - which is another thing, only the Celestial College maintains anywhere near this many non-magical service staff - until you reach the central plaza, where a crowd of Altdorf notables have already gathered amongst softly-playing music coming from nowhere in particular and servants carrying plates of drinks and strange and delicate-looking morsels. The crowd is neatly sectioned off into circles in a delicate and intricate dance of status and influence, amongst which a few Celestials are caught like flotsam in a whirlpool, no circle being willing to release their grasp on such a prestigious guest. You note that your own grey robes don't invite the same reaction, and aren't entirely sure whether to feel relieved or insulted. Whatever the emotion, you snag a glass of bubble-wine from a passing tray to drown it, and start to eyeball the most recognisable foods being carried around and plan intercept courses.

    Then that plan came crashing down with a stage-whisper that could have drowned out a trumpet: "Oh, I quite recall her from my time with the Empress!"

    As almost every head in the room swivels as one, you're reminded of some of the messier times you've assassinated a Warboss. You barely have time to sigh in resignation as the unstoppable horde of determined status-seekers descends upon you.

    ---

    As the evening wears on, you find yourself having to reassess the evening. One careless debutante had asked you about the great reconquest of Karak Eight Peaks, and you'd hesitantly begin telling some of the highlights, and then perked up as some of your more weaker-stomached listeners had bowed out. By the time the Expedition had reached the Karak proper, you'd quite thoroughly winnowed your audience and it was largely split into two camps: the very young who were thrilled to hear about something actually interesting at one of these events, and those elder who had scars or bearing that suggested they'd seen something similar a time or two themselves. Even accounting for the on-the-fly adjustments you have to make to maintain the Conspiracy of Silence (and you're sure you saw a knowing nod or two from the more grizzled members of the audience when 'underground beastmen' entered the narrative) it was a great deal more fun than you expected to have at the Celestial College.

    By the time your own tale has concluded and the torch has been passed to others to tell their tales of derring-do, you're several glasses in and have found that despite appearances, the little orangish-pink fleshy bug-things on sticks were quite tasty. You're relaxed enough to let the mysterious tides of high society move you from group to group, and you exchange greetings and small talk with a great many people who you barely pay enough attention to to file their names, titles and faces away, just in case. Until finally you reach a name and title that demands attention: Magister Matriarch Maria Stossel, head of the Celestial College.

    "Such a pleasure to finally meet you, my dear," she says, her voice strangely in rhythm with the unseen music. "We've found that Hall of yours to be quite helpful. A shame that the design requires a roof, but no Celestial can guarantee the stars, so it's something they must get used to."

    "An honour, Magister Matriarch," you reply, trying to spool your brain back up into working order.

    "I do so hope you can help out those fellows of the Expedition. It could all end so very badly."

    "It could, the..." You pause. "Wait, is this in general or a foresight thing?"

    "And do take good care of that Gunnery School you've got down there. It could be very needed in the years to come."

    You open your mouth to ask again but she's already gone, slipping away into the currents of the crowd and taking the remains of your good mood with her. You scowl and finish your drink. Celestials.

    ---

    The EIC's headquarters is based on the most prestigious street in Wurtbad, and though that made sense at the time, the lack of space to expand has chafed, being a constantly-discussed refrain in the reports you've received. Gobbling up the two neighbouring townhouses had only sated it for a time, and buying out the whole street one house at a time would be wincingly expensive, even for the EIC, but its position between the road and Wurtbad's inner wall left no alternatives. Or so it seemed. Because under your curious gaze, in broad daylight, workmen with large hammers are breaking up the bricks of the wall directly behind the EIC headquarters.

    "Sally port," Wilhelmina says around a mouthful of biscuit when you ask her, her office stacked higher than usual with paperwork. "'Scuse me. We fund the construction of a new sally port on the inner wall, portcullis and all, and in exchange we can use it in times of peace. We could buy up the entire street on the other side for about what another couple of townhouses on this side would cost."

    "That makes sense. I thought it would be out of character for the Elector Countess to just let you knock a hole in the wall."

    "Let us pay handsomely for the privilege of knocking a hole in the wall," she grumbles. "Anyway, I suppose you're here about Marienburg?"

    "The Chamberlain of the Seal pulling me aside was something of a wake-up call."

    "This talk of a blockade has everyone in a tizzy. And it is a bloody blockade, even if they just say it's an embargo. It's blocking the Reik, the bloody monopolists. Glad you gave him the hardline. They'll back down, they don't have the guts to take on the Empire and Barak Varr."

    "I take it it's not yet war, then."

    "Well, they technically haven't started the embargo yet. It's all saber rattling back and forth at this point, and I won't be surprised if it never becomes more than that. The Directorate is mostly merchants, they won't take the loss from shutting off trade if they don't think it will pay off. And a miffed Dreadnought at their front door would do bad things to their bottom line, I'm sure."

    "They might not act so directly, though. How confident are we of heading off espionage?"

    "We're built on the bones of the Stirlandian League, we know to be ready for that sort of thing." She frowns, rifling papers distractedly. "But maybe not Marienburg levels. That's the big leagues. So I've taken a lesson from the Ostermark-Talabecland trouble. The Templars are sitting on massive amounts of confiscated peat, and the Dwarves want that peat - fuel for some expedition or something. So I give the Templars crossbows and mark-one Repeaters for that peat, and the Dwarves give me gold, but more important than the gold is if someone interferes with us, they've just interfered with the flow of materiel to the Templars and to Karak Kadrin. And we're already supplying the Army of Stirland and shipping niter to Zhufbar and have our partnership with Barak Varr. If we get caught in the crossfire, it guarantees that war the Marienburgers are so worried about."

    "I'd rather it not come to that, but if Marienburg is that willing to dig their own grave there might not be anything we can do to stop them."

    She nods grimly. "They've had it too easy ever since Dieter IV let them loose, if you ask me. They need to learn there's some consequences not even Ulthuan can shield them from."

    "Apart from that, how've you been? And how's young Eike?"

    "You know me, there's always something that needs doing," she says with a shrug. "As for Eike, leaps and bounds. Wonderful age she's at. Old enough to learn, young enough to be taught. Hard to believe she's my son's, but then again, hard to believe he's mine. How about that Karak of yours? Any chance it's going to start spitting out silk any time soon?"

    "It's in Francesco's hands and he's working on it, but we're basically starting from scratch. Neither the Cathayans nor the Elves are going to share how to spin it, even if the same techniques would apply."

    "He's travelled the Silk Road, so I guess he'd have to know what he's sitting on. Just wish he could get on with it. Every time I see the price of silk I mourn for the profits unmade."

    On that note, you bid Wilhelmina farewell, slightly reassured and slightly not that she's still as single-minded as ever.



    To be continued.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Developing a defense against divination would likely require a cooperative diviner to provide demonstrations. It would probably happen eventually (Without end times), but it's unsurprising that it hasn't happened yet given inter-college rivalries.
     
    Woah, wait a second.

    Are those safe rooms Mathilde commissioned actually that big of a deal for the Colleges of Magick, or did the Celestial Matriarch just use it as an excuse to invite Mathilde to the soiree for cryptic hinting?
     
    Chlof said:
    Developing a defense against divination would likely require a cooperative diviner to provide demonstrations. It would probably happen eventually (Without end times), but it's unsurprising that it hasn't happened yet given inter-college rivalries.
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    Randald likely could protect us from it. I expect the results of our coin gambler actions are hard to predict for anyone else.
     
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    BoneyM said:
    "An honour, Magister Matriarch," you reply, trying to spool your brain back up into working order.

    "I do so hope you can help out those fellows of the Expedition. It could all end so very badly."

    "It could, the..." You pause. "Wait, is this in general or a foresight thing?"

    "And do take good care of that Gunnery School you've got down there. It could be very needed in the years to come."
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    :|
    The annoying thing about this is that we don't even have enough info to take this to Belegar. Celestials.
     
    BoneyM said:
    It got her invited to an event that was already happening. The Celestials are rather hooked in to high society.
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    Though if nothing else they seem to be putting them to good use.

    Like obviously not change the entire paradigm of the colleges sorta thing, but a big enough deal that 2 magister matriarchs met with us because of them.

    If I were to put it into a mechanical sense, the impression I'm getting is that the rooms open up

    1. Dangerous experiments they previously weren't allowed to try.
    2. Give a reroll to dangerous stuff like battle wizards practising/attempting to graduate.

    Either one of those is...I think a pretty big deal, since battle wizards are in constant demand and pushing the bounds of magical (and in the case of the goldies natural) science is really great for the empire.
     
    Chlof said:
    :|
    The annoying thing about this is that we don't even have enough info to take this to Belegar. Celestials.
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    It's coming from the Matriarch, so it has significantly more weight compared to coming from some random celestial.

    Would the matriarch take offense if we ask Hubert for some of the most (relatively) straightforward Magisters he knows from his college for extra verification?
     
    Celestials would never interfere with each other's attempts to act mysterious, but there's every chance it's not an act, that's all she's got. Look at the future too closely and you might fix it in place, and you're shit out of luck if it's one you don't like the look of.
     
    BoneyM said:
    The Inglenook of the Bright College is already coated in sook,
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    @BoneyM Sorry, but I think this should be soot.

    Kornet said:
    Well, suspicion confirmed. It was the most widespread thread-gossip version.

    Oh, and I do enjoy how Heidi's gambit is messing with the plotting vampires.
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    Yeah I just kinda missed that. I remembered she died, and my assumption was that she was killed in the crossfire between the Lahmians and the people taking out the conspiracy...so I guess kinda right.
     
    Enjoyed the debrief with Reggie. But there must be some head-scratching mixed with his paternal pride.
    BoneyM said:
    I made sure the metaphorical chip ended up in the hands of a loose network of Black Magisters up north. They blackmail me into assisting them, over time they grow to know me, I act a little interested and a little reluctant and a couple years later they're either recruiting me fully or at least comfortable enough to start slipping up.
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    This approach is very different from Mathildes. :)
    "Black Magisters? Where? How many actions months to study and assassinate them all? Can we fit that in next turn season?"
    BoneyM said:
    chewing through Haupt-Anderssens, though it turns out they did miss at least one.
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    Yeah, sure. Absolutely. Empress-Consort Heidi Haupt-Anderssen
     
    BoneyM said:
    "An honour, Magister Matriarch," you reply, trying to spool your brain back up into working order.

    "I do so hope you can help out those fellows of the Expedition. It could all end so very badly."

    "It could, the..." You pause. "Wait, is this in general or a foresight thing?"

    "And do take good care of that Gunnery School you've got down there. It could be very needed in the years to come."

    You open your mouth to ask again but she's already gone, slipping away into the currents of the crowd and taking the remains of your good mood with her. You scowl and finish your drink. Celestials.
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    Bloody Celestials... Good thing we put that option up there, and for Belegar for putting us on the task. I reckon we'll end up going there in person if this continues.
    BoneyM said:
    "This talk of a blockade has everyone in a tizzy. And it is a bloody blockade, even if they just say it's an embargo. It's blocking the Reik, the bloody monopolists. Glad you gave him the hardline. They'll back down, they don't have the guts to take on the Empire and Barak Varr."
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    Not surprised she's enjoying that we took a hard stance against it. I'm still convinced that we might end up with a war due to it, but it seems to have the backing of the right kind of people.
    BoneyM said:
    So I give the Templars crossbows and mark-one Repeaters for that peat, and the Dwarves give me gold, but more important than the gold is if someone interferes with us, they've just interfered with the flow of materiel to the Templars and to Karak Kadrin. And we're already supplying the Army of Stirland and shipping niter to Zhufbar and have our partnership with Barak Varr. If we get caught in the crossfire, it guarantees that war the Marienburgers are so worried about."
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    Hah! Yes, make sure you're important enough to be untouchable, that's just the thing I could see her doing.
     
    10ebbor10 said:
    We can take it to Belegar, but what would he do with it?
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    Extra prep work, more recon actions, more time to muster for the expedition, but I don't think that falls under Belegar's purview.

    However, the K8P gunnery school is. He could spend a few turns of his stewardship actions to ramp up its expansion and security.


    Also, speaking of the gunnery school: is there some upcoming OTL disaster that's gonna hit Nuln sometime soon?
     
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