Turn 30 Results - 2484.5 - Part 1
[*] Plan Redshirt v2
-[*] MAX: Recruit him for the Karag Dum Expedition, and have him train in preparation for it.
-[*] JOHANN: Recruit him for the Karag Dum Expedition, and have him train in preparation for it.
-[*] DUCK: Study an artefact with one of the Journeymen: Lighting Mechanism with Adela
-[*] EIC: Have the Hochlander introduce a series of ciphers to the EIC to allow it to communicate internally in much greater security.
-[*] Try to contact the Ice Witches of Kislev in the hopes they can provide clement weather for the Expedition.
--[*] COIN: The Gambler
-[*] Attempt to recruit assistance for the Karag Dum Expedition: General Colleges of Magic, Asarnil the Dragonlord
-[*] Learn the secret behind Gehenna's Golden Hounds.
-[*] Turn a staff from the bone of a Shard Dragon.
-[*] PENTHOUSE: Have additional rooms excavated underneath your Penthouse: -125gc for 5 rooms.
-[*] SERENITY: The We Book (2/2)
-[*] MAX: Recruit him for the Karag Dum Expedition, and have him train in preparation for it.
-[*] JOHANN: Recruit him for the Karag Dum Expedition, and have him train in preparation for it.
-[*] DUCK: Study an artefact with one of the Journeymen: Lighting Mechanism with Adela
-[*] EIC: Have the Hochlander introduce a series of ciphers to the EIC to allow it to communicate internally in much greater security.
-[*] Try to contact the Ice Witches of Kislev in the hopes they can provide clement weather for the Expedition.
--[*] COIN: The Gambler
-[*] Attempt to recruit assistance for the Karag Dum Expedition: General Colleges of Magic, Asarnil the Dragonlord
-[*] Learn the secret behind Gehenna's Golden Hounds.
-[*] Turn a staff from the bone of a Shard Dragon.
-[*] PENTHOUSE: Have additional rooms excavated underneath your Penthouse: -125gc for 5 rooms.
-[*] SERENITY: The We Book (2/2)
Johann, Adela, and yourself had been making your way through the Skaven books on engineering for background information on the lighting mechanism when the Wizard chosen to educate you in Gehenna's Golden Hounds arrived, and your first indication that they're here is Johann leaping out of his chair and hurrying towards the entrance, and then a noise like a gong being struck with a frying pan shatters the studious silence. In walks a woman no taller than you carrying Johann under one arm, wearing a golden robe that looks like it was extremely well-made before someone ripped the arms off and severed everything below the knee. Her bare and muscled limbs are as golden as Johann's, her pale skin, blue eyes, and blonde hair cut very short suggests Nordlander blood, if not Norscan. "Right!" she says, dropping the grinning Johann onto the table with a thud. "I hear there's a bloody weird Grey that wants to learn some juicy secrets."
The woman who turns out to be Lady Magister Gehenna ("Gehenna the Second. I think the first was an Elf.") introduces herself, ensconces herself in your guest bedroom, and burrows into your library in the space of a single walking conversation. As Johann explains privately to you afterwards, this Gehenna - his former Master - is a Battle Wizard who 'graduated' into Lady Magister rank instead of coming up through the usual Apprentice-Journeyman-Magister ranks, so her social niceties are a bit off, even by Gold Wizard standards. But he vouches for her expertise unreservedly, and says that she was the one that stepped up and took him as an Apprentice when nobody else would. So you're even more curious than you were before when she finally gets done skimming your library and arranges the first session in the sitting room, where portions of your library have been stacked up. You're not surprised to see books on Aethyr and Chamon, but you are surprised to see ones on Aqshy.
"This place secure?"
"Up to Dwarven secret-keeping standards."
"Right then. What apparitions you got?" Some of your shock must have shown on your face. "I meant Ulgu in general, but from that I take it you've met one."
To put it mildly. "Wisdom's Asp, the Wretch, and sometimes the Whispering Darkness. I had a run-in with an Asp as an Apprentice."
"Three, eh? Nasty. Chamon has the Wyrdwomen. But it's Aqshy that's the key, and Aqshy has the Fleshrender and Dark Hounds. Now, for the record..." She slides a book across the table at you, The Distinction Between Daemons and Apparitions. "We keep this up-to-date to reassure our little 'uns, as well as just in case the Witch Hunters twig and come knocking. The short version is, they're not Daemons so it's not against Article Whatever if we hunt them down and bind them into service."
"Gehenna's Golden Hounds are Dark Hounds?"
"Covered in Gold Magic and bound to a Wizard's soul, like a familiar except crankier. They hunger for Aqshy but they're not of Aqshy so there's no Dhar risk. We usually go for ones that are hunting Brights, but if there aren't any at any given moment, there's usually a few packs haunting the neighbourhood around the Bright College. Then we sic them on our enemies. If the spell goes wrong they can break free and either run for it or try to eat you, but that's no worse than the usual consequences for miscasting Battle Magic."
"And the same method would work for any Apparition?"
"In theory. Our best guess is that the Ambers use the Bleak Swarm, and the Jades use the Whispering Darkness, but we don't actually know if they use the same technique or if they've got some other secret. Needless to say, picking fights with these things isn't exactly a great idea if you don't already have a way to bind and control them. Even if they aren't hungry for your Wind, they'll still take a chunk out of you if you give them reason. But the reward could be worth it. Worked out for the first Gehenna, whoever they were."
Over the coming weeks, every moment Gehenna isn't spending with Johann and his pups is spent teaching you the techniques used to bind and control the Dark Hounds, as well as the mechanisms behind those techniques. None of them are directly usable by you since they're built for Chamon, but there's enough detail to what she's telling you that you feel confident you could at least start experimentation on an Ulgu equivalent. Though you'd also need to work out a source for whatever Apparition you'd target if you did decide to go ahead with it. It's all very interesting, and close enough to forbidden that there's quite a thrill to learning it. No wonder Magister Patriarch Feldmann hesitated to share the secret - to an undiscerning eye, this would look indistinguishable from the forbidden art of Daemonology.
---
Though the Skaven artefacts are bound for the College, you've time to give one a proper studying before they're all taken away by Gehenna, and you've chosen the lighting mechanism. Not because you think it's the most valuable or interesting of the lot, but because you promised to share credit of it with Adela, who wants your name and hers on a paper to give a boost to her career. With Johann and Maximillian being rewarded by the Gold College, she's the only one who would be worse off for the deal you made, so you've resolved to have this mechanism sorted out by the time Gehenna leaves with it.
The lighting mechanism - or lightning mechanism as Adela's notes have it, leading to a pointless but enjoyable nomenclatural debate - seems to be the simplest possible application of the energy known as Warp Lightning, which is created by a matter-to-energy conversion of Warpstone. If done properly, this allows for an immense amount of power from a very small amount of Warpstone. If done improperly, it allows for an immense explosion from a very small amount of Warpstone. Warpstone being Warpstone, what constitutes 'properly' is a narrow and unpredictable window, so the mechanisms for extracting that power are bizarre and often counterintuitive, built as they are to try to cover as many edge cases as possible. And just to make things even trickier, they often involve traps for any would-be reverse engineers, as each Warlock Engineer seeks to keep their own techniques from being discovered by others.
The rest of the mechanism is refreshingly straightforward, consisting of a series of wires to transport the energy and a glass bulb for it to be contained within. As it simply needs to illuminate, all that needs to happen is for the energy to be held there, and more energy trickled in as some of it is lost in the form of light - and in the form of heat, and a small but still uncomfortable amount of radiated Dhar. There's two potentially interesting routes to go down that you can see: using this as a means to study Warp Lightning in captivity, or trying to replicate the effect using the lightning you have trapped in your Blue Tower.
[Mathilde studying Warp Lightning: Learning, 67+28+4(Library: Skaven Warp Magic)=99.]
[Adela studying Warp Lightning: Learning, 41+20+10(Adaptable Mechanic)+4(Library: Skaven Warp Magic)+5(Uncanny Memory)=79.]
Set up in your Room of Calamity, you and Adela carefully observe the mechanism from a safe distance, filling pages of notes with your observations on its energy output and fluctuations. None of what you and Adela record are exactly groundbreaking and it does take a number of long, dull days spent peering at it from across the room, but it is good, solid data on something normally only seen for a second as it arcs across a battlefield, often directly towards the observer.
[Mathilde building a lightning-bulb: Learning, 73+28+14(Library: Engineering)=115.]
[Adela building a lightning-bulb: Learning, 42+20+10(Adaptable Mechanic)+14(Library: Engineering)+5(Uncanny Memory)=91.]
The constructive side of the experiment is more interesting. One of the benefits of living in a Karak is easy access to very pure metals, so it's not difficult to get your hands on copper, the metal used in the lighting mechanism. The sheathing of the copper is more of the strange bendy substance used in the gas mask, so you replicate it as best you can with layered strands of wool. Using this you bridge the storage mechanisms of the Blue Tower with a glass bell jar that Maximillian has made as solid as steel, from which the air is pumped by a miniature bellows Adela has constructed. And... nothing happens.
[Mathilde understanding a lightning-bulb: Learning, 68+28+2(Library:Azyr)=98.]
[Adela understanding a lightning-bulb: Learning, 27+20+2(Library: Azyr)+5(Uncanny Memory)=54.]
Okay, unlike Warp Lightning, conventional lightning (if the label 'conventional' can be applied to lightning tamed by Azyr and channelled through copper) is not content to exist on its own, so it does not extrude from the wire and fill the vacuum chamber. The nature of lightning is to be travelling from point A to point B, and it is quite brilliantly bright while doing so. You set up a second wire for it to jump to and lead it back to the containment mechanism, and from a safe distance you connect the two wires. And... again, nothing.
Hmm. Okay, so the Warp Lightning needed vacuum to be pulled from the wire, but perhaps the vacuum inhibits the proper travel of lightning, which after all moves through the air. You have the air returned to the bell jar and repeat the experiment, and sure enough a tiny strand of lightning connects the two wires, filling the room with an eerie blue-white light and a crackling noise. It only lasts a few moments before the smell of burning wool leads you to hurriedly disconnect the wires from the mechanism, but that's close enough to a success for you. It seems like there's no practical use to it - candles are easier to get your hands on than lightning, after all - but it was an interesting little experiment and there's a paper in it.
It also gave you the opportunity to get to know Adela a little better, and though she seemed quite happy to let you take the lead, the few times she came to the fore showed she has a good grasp of engineering and an almost eerie ability to remember things she's read. It's almost a pity she seems determined to work with her hands, as she has the makings of quite a scholar if she puts her mind to it.
[New paper available: Warp Lightning observations]
[New paper available: Azyr Lighting mechanism]
---
You go back and forth on the subject of dragon bones, weighing the definitely a dragon Storm Dragon horn against the only possibly a dragon, but possibly more Ulgu-compatible Shard Dragon bone. In the end, you went with the Shard Dragon. If it doesn't work out, you can take the lessons you learn on to a second attempt with the horn.
Dragons, as demonstrated by them appearing in as many varieties as they do, are inherently mutable creatures, and the same applies to their remains. A few months stashed inside the inner workings of the Grey Tower gives the bone ample opportunity to acclimate to Ulgu exposure, and from there all that remains is business with a lathe and a chisel. If it weren't for having Runecraft to apply to break up the monotony, the next few weeks would promise to be interminable, instead of merely dull. You sit yourself down at a lathe you got Adela to scrounge up for you and get to work.
[Rolling...]
...okay, you suppose it's not so bad. It's actually kind of peaceful, since you're doing it out on the balcony in the fresh mountain air with the songs of the choughs and Wolf's presence in the back of your mind for company. As the sun rises and sets over the Karak, you whittle your way gradually and carefully through the dragonbone, blunting a number of chisels in the process as you carefully reduce the bone into the shape most conducive to the flow of Ulgu. When weeks later you remove an infinitesimal sliver and can't find anything more that needs removing, you're almost disappointed.
The next stage is inside, as you need the controlled conditions of magical and unvarying lighting to ensure the Runes you carve into the bone are as exact as possible. The Runes that have proven through decades of trial and error performed by College Wizards to be suitable for the flow of Shadow Magic are a varied bunch borrowing heavily from Eltharin and Thieves Cant, but also heavy with Runes affiliated with various Gods - including Ranald, but also including Renbaeth, Loec, Sokth, Qu'aph, Ptra, Halétha, Uxmac, and Anath Raema. The theory is that these aren't so much invocations to those Gods, but symbols that resonate with concepts that those Gods are affiliated with, and don't directly draw their attention. You hope that's true - the one God in your life is more than enough.
When you finally finish the minute engravings weeks later, you blow off the last of the shavings and look upon your creation. It seems like a simple ivory staff adorned with a spiralling pattern of interconnected Runes. You smile, take a deep breath, and properly grasp your staff for the first time. The sensation as ambient Ulgu is drawn from the air, through the staff and into you is nothing short of exhilarating, like the first clear breath of fresh air after having lived your whole life in a smoky city. And as you gaze upon your staff, each of the etched runes begins to leak wisps of vapour, and as soon as you focus on it the effect grows hugely until billowing clouds of mist are exuding from your staff. It takes some time and concentration to figure out how to consciously stop it, but careful experimentation teaches you how to turn it on and off at will, and how to work it into your spellcasting. Pall of Darkness and Cloud of Confusion are much easier to cast and have a much wider effect, far beyond what you'd expect from simply more magic to work with.
[Staff of Mists: +1 Magic, spells that create mists, fogs, vapours and miasmas are one category easier and have enhanced effects.]
---
One does not simply walk into Kislev and ask to meet the Ice Witches. One instead has a word with one of the Provost's people, who has a word with one of the Chamberlain of the Seal's people, who has a word with one of the Kislevite Embassy's people, and from there you have to guess, but it probably passes through as many as half a dozen more people until it reaches an actual Ice Witch. Which you're not so sure about calling them, but it is apparently the polite way to refer to them. The founder of Kislev was one, so you suppose that Kislevarin doesn't have the same negative connotations that Reikspiel has for most words for magic-users.
Truth be told, you're a little nervous. Kislev and the Empire are on generally good terms, but Ice Witches and the Colleges of Magic are not. Kislev apparently has a prophecy that a male Ice Witch will one day permanently taint Ice Magic, so any male magically-sensitive Kislevites are forbidden from using magic and are killed if they are suspected of doing so - or they were, until relatively recently when they instead crossed the border into the Empire and made their way to the Colleges of Magic, which accepted them with open arms. So they might not look kindly at a request for aid from a Wizard of the Colleges.
[Rolling...]
It takes a great deal of follow-ups and answered questions and the expenditure of an entirely unreasonable amount of ink, but eventually you get a letter from the Ice Witches inviting you to attend a small gathering on the autumn equinox, which according to your books is a Holy Day to Ursun, the local bear-themed equivalent to Ulric. You hope that's a good sign, rather than a sign they intend to feed you to a bear. With some trepidation, you see to organize a gyrocarriage to Karak-hop your way north and hope for the best.
---
The letter advised quiet, so your gyrocarriage lands well outside the gates of the city of Kislev and approach atop your silent Shadowsteed. Today is a day of celebration, but it is a quiet one, as the first harvest is offered to Ursun for him to gorge himself and prepare for his hibernation. The walls of Kislev are tall and foreboding, encrusted with fierce-looking gargoyles and with an oddly smooth sheen to them. The guards at the gate stop you, eyeball your horse for a while, carefully check the invitation from the Sisterhood, and advise you not to break the peace. The streets within are bustling but nearly silent, and some people even wear fabric over their shoes to keep from making too much noise. Nobody wants to be the one that keeps Ursun from his sleep.
Overall, Kislev seems a northern mirror to Altdorf, a bustling and wealthy metropolis that gives lie to the impression of barely-civilized barbarians some Imperials characterize the Kislevites as. The main road - the 'Goromadny Prospekt', according to your books - is lined with a mind-boggling number of stalls selling wares from across the world, with the stallholders reduced to frantically waving signs at the public since they can't hawk their goods at the top of their lungs on this day. You attract some odd looks as you weave through the crowd atop your horse, but they seem universally respectful. Kislev is a realm that honours its magic-wielders as much as it fears them, and though most don't recognize your variety of magic, you couldn't convince the average Kislevite to cross any variety of Witch if you had a gun in one hand and a sack of gold in the other.
Your destination is Geroyev Square, the one public place where voices rise above a murmur - but never quite to a shout, because although the square is lined with Temples to Gods other than Ursun, nobody wants to outright oppose Him. The Temple of Ulric is made of unadorned white stone, though it is easily recognizable thanks to the wolf statues that flank the entrance. You gather that Ulric and Ursun have something of a friendly rivalry, though it does boil over into not-so-friendly territory from time to time. The Temple of Dazh is wreathed in scented smoke that is already starting to be drawn into an aura around you, celebrating the secret of fire that the Sky God had gifted Kislev's ancestors with. The Temple of Tor is bristling with metal rods inviting the Thunder God to make His will known. And towering above it all is Bokha Palace, bristling with marble towers of every size and colour.
Your destination is the grassed center of the square that the crowds are carefully avoiding, despite how crowded the rest of the square is. There is a single wrought-iron bench in the square, and furrows in the grass show where it had been dragged from one side of the grass into the middle of it. And sitting on it are a mismatched trio of women: one young and dressed in a loose white sundress more suited to a Tilean summer than a Kislevite autumn, one older and larger and scowling up at the palace like it offended her while ignoring the light-brown hawk apparently grooming her hair, and a third older still, white-haired, and happily munching her way through a large fabric bag filled with candied walnuts.
"Yes, it's something of a cliche," says the fourth Ice Witch, who's been trailing you since halfway up Goromadny Prospekt and has just made her way up the crowd to murmur in your ear, "but old stories have a lot of weight in Kislev."
"We try to avoid the old cliches in the Colleges," you reply calmly. "But then, magic isn't respected in quite the same way down there." You turn to consider her, and how she's trying to conceal her annoyance that she didn't make you jump. She's a severe-looking woman perhaps a few years your elder, with prematurely grey hair and wearing a sky-blue dress and cloak. "Magister Weber of the Grey College."
"Věnceslava of the Hromada Ledyanoy Ved'ma. Come then, Magister. Let me introduce you to my sisters."
From youngest to eldest, they turn out to be Zlata, Milica, and Ljiljana, though only the first gives you a greeting in return, as the other two are occupied with their glaring and their eating respectively. "So," says Ljiljana through a mouthful of walnut, "you want us to shift the winter, I hear."
"The Dwarves of Karak Kadrin want you to shift the winter," you correct. "I'm here to represent them."
"You're tall for a Dwarf," says Zlata with a smile, interrupting the running translation she's giving to Milica.
"I work well with Dwarves, and have a better understanding of magic than they do."
Milica mutters something in Kislevarin, which gets her an elbow from Ljiljana. "That as may be, there's much good the Karzełki do for our people. That is what got you this meeting, while we play waiting games with Tzar Vladimir." She clucks her tongue thoughtfully. "Karag Dum. We have quite a spear from Karag Dum. It would be good for all if Karag Dum was not lost. Belyevobota... the Pass of White Dots, you'd call it."
"They call it High Pass," Věnceslava corrects, sitting perched on one of the armrests.
"Why do they do that, then?" Ljiljana asks. Milica comments something again, and evades the elbow from Ljiljana. "Imperinyi foolishness."
"It's the Dwarf name for it," Věnceslava says wearily.
"Oh. Well, it was their pass, they can call it what they wish," Ljiljana says with a decisive nod. "This pass, it is..." she hesitates, "it has not fallen to the Dewastacja of the Za, but it is grumpy to be surrounded by it. It will be difficult. But possible, yha. When do you need it clear?"
That's the question, isn't it. And one you've spent some time wrestling with. Borek wants to leave early next year, but it definitely seems like more preparation time is warranted. Is that your decision to make, though?
[ ] Spring 2485
Early next year, when Borek most wants to leave.
[ ] Spring 2486
The year after next.
[ ] Spring 2487
Two and a half years from now, when Borek will be leaving no matter the weather.
And while you've been considering that, there's also the matter of whether you'd personally be joining the Expedition. If you commit to it now, then your own training and preparations would count towards your obligations towards Karak Eight Peaks, and you'd likely find it easier to recruit others to it. But perhaps you're not quite sure about a trip into the Chaos Wastes.
[ ] You will join the Expedition
[ ] You will not join the Expedition
[ ] You aren't sure yet
- There will be a two hour moratorium.
- The part of this update with Gehenna was originally posted here.
- If you pick a later year, it's possible an earlier year would happen by chance to have suitable weather for the Expedition, but not very likely. Northern Kislev is not known for naturally mild weather.
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