Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

[Simon_Jester]

Roads have pretty much the same area limitations as a river though. Like, if you can park a dozen bandits fifty feet from a road, you can do the same for a river. You just need a slightly better scouting system.

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The catch is that the dozen bandits will find it much easier to stop a wagon than a river barge.

Not necessarily. Effective river bandits need either a boat, or a way to stop the travelers. A narrow spot, or just one where ships have to slow to make a particular turn will do. And again, that's the same for ambushing caravans. You need something to slow them down, or speed yourself up.

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There's a difference. You can FIND spots along a river where shipping has to slow down, but the whole river isn't just one big spot. You are instead forced to identify specific locations that are fixed by the nature of geography, and the people who control that river line know those locations as well as you do, so it's pretty easy for them to build forts and outposts.

By contrast, a road is all one soft spot compared to a river. At literally any point, something as simple as a few felled trees across the path will stop a wagon in its tracks. Underbrush sufficient to hide bandits who can leap out onto the road at will is going to start growing constantly and will appear within a few years if the road is not aggressively maintained with a cleared right-of-way.

It's harder on a river. You can't just jump out of the bushes in front of a river barge, brandish your blunderbuss, and yell "STAND AND DELIVER!" Well, you can, but it'll come across as "STAND GLUB glub glub."

I agree it's easier to secure a river or road than it is the sea, but I still don't think river travel is a massive boost in safety compared to current travel, and especially not compared to literally taking a ship from Marienburg to Tilea, which can stick close to the shore and only travels relatively organized territory.

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And yet, druuchi and Norscans can and do raid that trade route, whereas they have little luck raiding river traffic.

Reaction to the Regimand social action: holy shit, from the outside, a loyal Grey Wizard doing a bunch of prosocial scheming looks distressingly like a genuine Black Magister who saw which way the wind was blowing, burned his masters to stave off suspicion, and assassinated the Empress for giggles.

Did he ever debrief Algard on this? Like, OK, his point about better to ask for forgiveness than permission when doing your crazy MI6 bullshit makes sense, but he didn't actually mention ever asking forgiveness. Just the part where he murdered his way through a list.

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Presumably someone daemon-checked him the same way he (or was it Algard) daemon-checked us.

 

[SuperSonicSound]

Hah, "Stand GLUB glub glub" is a hilarious scene to imagine.

So what are the proposed actions people have for the next turn?

I'm looking at
[] Enchant Robe with AA+Mastery and Cleansing glow
[] Ulgu Tongs
[] Scouting mission 1
[] Scouting mission 2

 

[fictionfan]

Maybe we should consult a fortune cookie for clarification?

Actually I can imagine celestial wizards writing fortune cookies. They are at the fancier restaurants and cost more than the meal.

 

[Abhorsen]

[] Enchant Robe with AA+Mastery and Cleansing glow

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I can't say I'm happy about cleansing glow as the option. It just seems wildly suboptimal. I still want something more immediately useful, like invisibility. Also, I'd add the final enchanting class, AV+enchanting maybe, and some scouting missions.

 

[picklepikkl]

So what are the proposed actions people have for the next turn?

I'm looking at
[] Enchant Robe with AA+Mastery and Cleansing glow
[] Ulgu Tongs
[] Scouting mission 1
[] Scouting mission 2

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Personally my take is more like:

• Turn staff
• Talk to ice witches
• Either recruit wizards, mercenaries, or scout
• Flex slot

There's a sizable lobby for doing AV+Enchanting before we do the robes, but I posted yesterday about why I don't think that's going to produce useful results. Tangentially, I know some people have been lobbying for a "ward save" set of robes rather than doing Windherder stuff with them.

EDIT: Also, I bet @Redshirt Army really wants to take another Practical Diplo class. @BoneyM: we crit our last practical diplo class. Would we require another crit for progressing our Diplomacy: Bretonnia and/or Diplomacy: Kislev skills, or is that on the table for normal results? I don't think it's unreasonable to say that Diplomacy: Kislev is the stuff we'd be really interested in right now. Or would we be better-served by taking "[ ] Human Nations of the Old World"?

 

[fictionfan]

Hah, "Stand GLUB glub glub" is a hilarious scene to imagine.

So what are the proposed actions people have for the next turn?

I'm looking at
[] Enchant Robe with AA+Mastery and Cleansing glow
[] Ulgu Tongs
[] Scouting mission 1
[] Scouting mission 2

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Replace tongs with making our staff. We want every bit of magic control for this mission we can get. Also it will help with tongs in the future so better to do it first.

 

[Bear Templar]

What's your source for these? From some quick googling these seem to have been invented for Total Warhammer.

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Used total warhammer description, I have never had access to the wahammer rule books so couldn't check. Looking at the name Gamblers armour it makes sense that there is a ranald connection though... unless there some something different in the rulebooks. I do know that Gamblers armour and armour of Fortune are mentioned as generic magic armour on 1d4chan which doesn't give the background for the armour but at least seems conistent when it comes to the rules... found an online copy of the rule books magic item section, hm no mention of origin for either armour.

Shrug, guess it is just a total war warhammer explanation.

I won't bother to mention this again then.

 

[Shane_357]

So, we need to help prepare the Karag Dum Expedition. I'm thinking we high-tail it over to Brettonia and grass-roots an Errantry War.

EDIT: Not even at Karag Dum really. We just need it to be going in the general direction to obliterate whatever enemies are in the area, then the Expedition can just cruise through.

 

[TotallyNotEvil]

Hah, "Stand GLUB glub glub" is a hilarious scene to imagine.

So what are the proposed actions people have for the next turn?

I'm looking at
[] Enchant Robe with AA+Mastery and Cleansing glow
[] Ulgu Tongs
[] Scouting mission 1
[] Scouting mission 2

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Ice Witches could put a definitive date on the expedition's departure, which would be mighty useful to know.

Talk with them next turn, see what's the soonest they can secure good weather, or at least if they can get someone to divine/read when it's going to be good.

 

[ReImagined]

"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."

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Hi there, Heidi.

"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'.

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It's said that three can keep a secret if two are dead.

"Talk."

Whoever coined that phrase has clearly never met an Amethyst.

"Hnnrgh..."

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Okay, good qualifiers.

 

[SuperSonicSound]

I can't say I'm happy about cleansing glow as the option. It just seems wildly suboptimal. I still want something more immediately useful, like invisibility. Also, I'd add the final enchanting class, AV+enchanting maybe, and some scouting missions.

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Personally I think AV enchanting is a total waste of time currently, we've no actual understanding of how to work AV at all I expect the action to give us nothing actionable. There's not even a theoretical idea of how it could help. The final enchanting class is for battle magic grade enchanting and I feel that this would be sort of pointless at the level of magic we're actually capable of as we only have the lore attribute for it.

Invisibility is something we can cast normally and would be much harder to enchant as it's a FC base spell.

The reason cleansing glow was chosen is because it's a very simple spell to act as our first expression of enchanting with windherder. I agree it's not super powerful but it's a quality of life improvement for Mathilde and I don't think it's sensible to push for significantly powerful 2nd wind spells in there as the difficulty is likely to be to much for our entry level skill.

 

[BeepSmile]

Regarding the expedition, and the more I'm thinking about it, (still depending on how the books and such give Mathilde an IC perspective on it[1]), the more I want to ask dragonboi to come along. Flying fire from the air seems useful, and it's not like something like the expedition can be hidden anyway.

[1] Wonder if there is a wizard or two that has had good reason to go the Wastes in the past that can give some advice, for us and possibly any volunteers (if we decide to ask for some) we might ask for a "group lesson"

----

Also, as someone who really was in favour of trying for AV enchanting, I'm annoyed that pickle has made good points regarding how it might not work out as I find them somewhat convincing.

grrrr.


I was unaware that "AV enchanting" was a thread idea, and not an IC Mathilde idea.

 

[picklepikkl]

Also, as someone who really was in favour of trying for AV enchanting, I'm annoyed that pickle has made good points regarding how it might not work out as I find them somewhat convincing.

grrrr.


I was unaware that "AV enchanting" was a thread idea, and not an IC Mathilde idea.

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If it's any consolation, I do in fact feel bad about crushing your dreams.

The reason cleansing glow was chosen is because it's a very simple spell to act as our first expression of enchanting with windherder. I agree it's not super powerful but it's a quality of life improvement for Mathilde and I don't think it's sensible to push for significantly powerful 2nd wind spells in there as the difficulty is likely to be to much for our entry level skill.

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Yeah, I think I prefer this over the various "ward save" ideas that have been floated. All of them seem very hard to successfully pull off, and even with the coin and a staff, I can't imagine our odds are great.

 

[ChronOblivion]

"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.

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It's a good thing that the Emperor's bedroom has upgraded from a Lahmian agent to a Ranaldian one. (Which is getting uncomfortable, that might get nasty when Loyalties get tested)

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.

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Not a terrible metaphor.

"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.

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Mathilde, you really cannot complain.

 

[Jyn Ryvia]

If it's any consolation, I do in fact feel bad about crushing your dreams.

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I'm still hoping.

and its an action, so we can at least try

 

[guyfromtheplace1]

Sounds like we need to join the expedition rather than not do so.

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

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Aye, let's go whole hog on helping them out.

 

[SuperSonicSound]

I mean both Ulgu tongs and AV enchanting are 'thread born' ideas but at leas Ulgu Tongs is building off things we naturally know about the setting that imply there are ways for the winds to interact with out dhar forming.

AV enchanting on the other hand is a complete shot in the dark with us basically having no idea how to do anything with it. Undifferentiated warpstuff is completely outside of the teclisian theory framework in terms of how you would manipulate or do anything useful with it..

Winds interacting with each other by human direction is something that could at least fit inside our current frame work with a squint.

I say this as one of the people that has in the past been consistently hyping AV, I think it has a lot of potential. It's just not something we can currently use. So if people are proposing AV enchantment with the hope of using it to assist with the creation of magical robes and the staff I think we're way off base.

 

[Erandil]

So, we need to help prepare the Karag Dum Expedition. I'm thinking we high-tail it over to Brettonia and grass-roots an Errantry War.

EDIT: Not even at Karag Dum really. We just need it to be going in the general direction to obliterate whatever enemies are in the area, then the Expedition can just cruise through.

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How exactly do you think this is going to work? What possible motivation would Bretonnia have to send massive military forces into the far north? Errantry Wars are not suicide campaigns and even the famous crusade against the Greenskins was in a large part motivated by the chance of securing actual real estate around Bretonnia and the Border Princes. And even if you could convince the Bretonnians to commit to such an insanity it is not like the various factions of the Dark Lands are going to let such a massive challenge of their power go unanswered.

Your Bretonnian armies are almost certainly going to get swallowed by hordes of chaos marauders, endless hordes of greenskins "employed" by the chaos dwarves and maybe even some actual dwarven armies. Congratulation you just ensured that the attention of every faction anywhere near the route is going to focus on it and what is happening there. Plus of course the fact that supplying such an army would be a nearly impossible challenge in itself and would probably break even dwarven treasuries.

 

[kfrar]

Yeah, I think I prefer this over the various "ward save" ideas that have been floated. All of them seem very hard to successfully pull off, and even with the coin and a staff, I can't imagine our odds are great.

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Yeah, while I see the appeal of adding a "ward save" to the armor, I feel like trying to cram both a Mastery and a Fiendishly Complex spell into a set of robes is not something we'll reliably be able to pull off in one shot. Personally, I'd want to save "ward" armor for our Magic 10 set of robes, which we will hopefully not be cranking out for a highly dangerous scouting mission we'll be going on the same turn.

 

[LockedMind]

Ah, so it is. Not too sure about the Ranald connection, the names would suggest it but one of the strictures of Ranald says 'only amateurs and the slow-witted need armour'. In any case, Divine enchantment would be outside Mathilde's wheelhouse, even though she is close to Him.

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There is also Trickster's Helm that grants +1 armor and forces enemies to re-roll all successful to-wound rolls. Although maybe the Trickster in question is not Ranald, but Loec.

 

[Abhorsen]

Personally I think AV enchanting is a total waste of time currently, we've no actual understanding of how to work AV at all I expect the action to give us nothing actionable. There's not even a theoretical idea of how it could help. The final enchanting class is for battle magic grade enchanting and I feel that this would be sort of pointless at the level of magic we're actually capable of as we only have the lore attribute for it.

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You make a fair point about AV enchanting.

Invisibility is something we can cast normally and would be much harder to enchant as it's a FC base spell.

The reason cleansing glow was chosen is because it's a very simple spell to act as our first expression of enchanting with windherder. I agree it's not super powerful but it's a quality of life improvement for Mathilde and I don't think it's sensible to push for significantly powerful 2nd wind spells in there as the difficulty is likely to be to much for our entry level skill.

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But we can enchant FC based spells, and invisibility would definitely help. Being able to activate it for a long period of time, and during a fight, would give us a huge advantage. Meanwhile, I feel like spending time using windherder on not immediately useful things would be a waste of AP.

 

[storryeater]

Presumably someone daemon-checked him the same way he (or was it Algard) daemon-checked us.

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Wouldnt it make ore sense to vampire check him?

 

[SuperSonicSound]

You make a fair point about AV enchanting.

But we can enchant FC based spells, and invisibility would definitely help. Being able to activate it for a long period of time, and during a fight, would give us a huge advantage. Meanwhile, I feel like spending time using windherder on not immediately useful things would be a waste of AP.

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Cleansing glow also means the ability to clean and clear contaminates surrounding Mathilde which in the chaos wastes sounds pretty useful to me.

 

[Simon_Jester]

Cleansing glow also means the ability to clean and clear contaminates surrounding Mathilde which in the chaos wastes sounds pretty useful to me.

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Yeah. Honestly that's a good idea. Having the tools to cleanse, purify, and decontaminate our surroundings sounds very important under the circumstances, probably MORE important than having yet another layer of armor or quasi-armor protection.

Because all the armor in the world isn't gonna do much to stop us from inhaling poisons, and I'm not sure our healing item will reliably counter poisons as effectively as it counters gross physical trauma.

 

[kfrar]

But we can enchant FC based spells, and invisibility would definitely help. Being able to activate it for a long period of time, and during a fight, would give us a huge advantage. Meanwhile, I feel like spending time using windherder on not immediately useful things would be a waste of AP.

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Given that we have an Arcane Mark which constantly draws smoke to us, which, canonically, is noticeable:

Mantle of Mist: Mist, fog, smoke and other vapours seem drawn to your side. This adds a +5% bonus to Intimidate Tests made in fog banks and other suitable conditions, but does mean you tend to reek of smoke all the time.

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Cleansing Glow does have benefits for a stealth scout beyond the obvious quality of life benefits of staying clean on long scouting missions.