Daemons and other Chaos related subjects, it is very usefull since we are going to the wastes and as a bonus we can use that need to stock on restricted books that would help us deal with aparitions and other research paths we may be interested in.
So, one thing that I haven't seen any proposed turn plans address is AV. Are we really going to drop the research actions again and let it languish? Because if so, I owe some people apologies for saying AV isn't going to take forever.
The Library: Ulgu bonus would apply to spell creation, and having the rarest books on the topic does narratively mean she has access to all the College's non-classified information on the subject, which could be of use if you're trying to build on the work of others.
I'm very much in favor of frontloading the book purchases before we start scouting, even if that costs more money. This is when we want to spend money.
I agree, but we've got three scouting actions (well, four, but we've already got all the books relevant to High Pass, and I don't think we're gonna scout High Pass anyway), and we are almost certainly not doing all three in the next turn. In fact, I think it makes the most sense to spread them out 1/turn, because that way we have a flex slot on our last turn which we can use to cover for anything that needs another action of catch-up work. With that in mind, it doesn't make sense to front-load our geography books, since we're only using a few topics per turn.
So I guess my question is "what order do people think it makes sense to scout?" If we're scouting the Skull Road early, we need Dark Lands and Chaos Dwarves books, if we're scouting the Steppes early, we need the Steppes books, and so on.
The Library: Ulgu bonus would apply to spell creation, and having the rarest books on the topic does narratively mean she has access to all the College's non-classified information on the subject, which could be of use if you're trying to build on the work of others.
Dwarven books on Civilized Realms: Karaz Ankor or Geography: Eastern Steppes would do the trick.
Thank you. OK, in that case I will advocate for picking up Antiquarian Karaz Ankor for extra knowledge on Karag Dum, and Ulgu before we do spell creation. Thanks for the ideas, @Glau and @Garlak.
Demons and other Chaos related subjects, it is very usefull since we are going to the wastes and as a bonus we can use that need to stock on restricted books that would help us deal with aparitions and other research paths we may be interested in.
So, one thing that I haven't seen any proposed turn plans address is AV. Are we really going to drop the research actions again and let it languish? Because if so, I owe some people apologies for saying AV isn't going to take forever.
Probably we have to let it languish until after the expedition. Afterwards, though, I will definitely gun for doing the divine magic experimentation action ASAP, once we have spare slots for research again.
[*] (ROSWITA) Attend Roswita's academic presentation
[*] (ANTON) Celebrate Two-Gifts Day with him and his family
[*] (DRAGON) Offer to teach it Khazalid
[*] (OSWALD) Bond over pets
Though Belegar seems content to let the current unspoken arrangement stand, you find yourself planning a way to approach the Ice Dragon. Partially to serve your Karak, but most of it is sheer fascination for a being older than civilizations and so steeped in a Wind of Magic. What has it seen? What does it know? How does it see the world, with such depths of experience to draw on?
In the end, you settle on the same approach that worked last time: flaring Ulgu in a way that would be plainly visible to anyone with Magesight, you make the long walk up Karak Zilfin with a tome under your arm. Despite the years that have passed, there is still a chemical tang to the air that doesn't fade until halfway up the mountain, at almost the exact point when the temperature drops significantly. It's a good thing you'd planned ahead and worn extra layers under your robes. Karag Zilfin is the tallest of the eight peaks, high enough that its peak would be above the snowline even if it didn't have an Ice Dragon in residence.
As you cross the point where the smooth stone of the once-inhabited Karag gives way to the hewn rock of ancient mineworks, an answering pulse of Hysh blinks into existence above you, and then gradually fades. An acknowledgement from the inhabitant, and a hopeful sign. You let your Ulgu fade to the point where it would be less attention-grabbing and continue upwards, noting the crunch of frost under your feet as the temperature drops further still.
Your trek ends as the passage opens up into a huge cavern lit from a huge opening on the side of the mountain, mostly closed over with ice that splits the sunlight streaming in into an even and otherworldly illumination. Several other exits to the chamber are likewise iced over, and glowing lights are visible within them. The floor is covered with snow that varies in depth from ankle deep where you are standing to several meters in depth in the center of the cavern, where the glinting silhouette of the Ice Dragon itself is lying atop it, the eye facing you slitted open and regarding you. "Shadow-being," it says in Eltharin.
"Larime-Sethai," you reply, and it blinks as it considers that. Eltharin has a number of words for dragon, but most of them are for the variety that the Kingdom of Caledor is in partnership with. Inventing new names for someone out of the hellishly intricate Eltharin lexicon without accidentally insulting them is half of Eltharin diplomacy, and you hope that this invention goes over well.
"The water-folk once knew me as Cython, you may speak of me as such," it eventually says. "What brings a shadow into the light?"
"We are to be neighbours, but the only tongue we hold in common is an invitation to discord. I would teach you the tongue of the Daroir, if you would desire to learn it."
Cython flicks its tail, sending a puff of snow into the air. "New tongues are only as useful as the answers they allow," it says slowly, "and answers in the tongue of the water-folk are often worse than no answer at all. An alternative may prove worth the expenditure. The vessel you carry, it is of the Daroir?"
You nod, and lift the book up to Cython, and flinch away as Hysh blooms and grasps it. With incredible precision, the magical grip lifts the book to Cython's far eye and begins to riffle the pages. It wasn't easy to find a Classical to Khazalid lexicon, but the sheer amount of books you had purchased from your contact in Barak Varr meant that when you had a specific request, they would scour the Old World to fulfil it - though this time, they only needed to go as far as Tobaro, where Dwarves and Tileans have had a long partnership. "Not water-tongue," it says approvingly. "Ah, yes, that which is now called Classical. An adequate language of an adequate people. They trusted the wrong being, but the history of this world is made of misplaced trust."
Teaching Cython is quite unlike what you expected. From you it requires only the correct sounds for the letters and a few clarifications on grammatical structure, and these questions are spaced quite apart as it scrutinizes the book with the eye not fixed on you. As you wait, you pile the snow up against one wall in the rough shape of a chair, noting that though it's certainly cold to the touch, it doesn't seem to leech the heat out of your hands, and a handful you cup experimentally in your hands stubbornly refuses to melt.
"Skarrenaz skarrenazi skarrenak skarrenit," Cython says experimentally. "Orskarrenit orskarrened oranskarrenit oranskarrened oranadskarrened. A very precise language."
You look up at it in some surprise. "You're done?" you ask in Khazalid.
"Adequately," it responds. The book snaps closed, and floats back over to you. "I note that your tale did not conclude with the trespass of the interlopers."
"The Orcs? Yes, we did manage to see off most of them."
"You were one artist of their doom. Who was the other?"
"The other?" You pause to consider. Kragg, you suppose, or possibly Algard. Or Gunnars. Or- oh, you think you see what it's asking. "The magic itself? The other would be Gazul, the Dwarven Ancestor-God of Death. The tower channels his Flame."
"I know the taste of Death and Prophecy. This was not that."
"Prophecy? You mean Morr? Or Morai-heg? The Dwarves don't have the same Gods as men or Elves."
For the first time, it turns its head to behold you with both eyes. "Tell me of this Gazul, then."
Not how you expected this to go, but okay. "His full title is Gazul, Lord of Underearth. He guards over the dead and helped discover the secrets of Runes. His symbols are a cave entrance and a flame-"
"Flame," Cython interrupts. "Death and flame. Death and flame?" It swings its head back and forth, muttering to itself in a tongue you don't recognize. In a strange way, for the first time the aura of unknowability it seems to exude has been punctured. You know this emotion very well - the shock and confusion of someone who's just had a hole kicked in their thesis. "Their other Gods. Sun God?" You shake your head. "Earth God?"
"Sort of? Grungni is the God of Mining and Stonework-"
"No. Water God?" You shake your head. "Knowledge God?"
"Not really. There's a God of Engineering and a God of Runesmithing-"
"Engineering God," it says, like it's grasping for a lifeline. "And of crafts and metalworking?"
"No, that's Smednir, God of Smelting and Smithing-"
"Smelting and Smithing? But just smelting, not fire?"
"Right."
"Death and flame," it repeats again. "You have books on these Ancestor-Gods?"
"I can get some."
"It would be pleasing to have a neighbour that would share knowledge. Your lair is atop the easternmost peak?"
"It is."
"It would be pleasing to visit such a neighbour's lair, and to be granted temporary sovereignty of such books."
"It would be pleasing to have a relationship with a neighbour where knowledge is shared," you hazard, copying the way it seems to circle around a request instead of coming right out with it.
It nods firmly. "Will visit at dusk, when shadow is in primacy," it says. It then cocks its head, considering you. "A gift for a welcome neighbour," it says as it thrusts a taloned claw into the snow, then in an avalanche of snow it pulls out a massive, frosted-over figure. It takes you a moment to recognize the Orc you only ever saw at a distance: Warboss Birdmuncha.
"I'd wondered where he'd gotten to," you say faintly, as Cython props the figure upright. The Warboss is forever frozen in mid-charge, his arms still gripping his looted Dwarven bolt-thrower.
"He evaded the art of you and this Gazul, and then made his way to me. He believed he would feed on me. If the interlopers were not so displeasing to the stomach, it would have been quite pleasing for the opposite to become true." It exhales in a draconic chuckle that sends snowflakes whirling around the cavern.
"Thank you for this gift," you say as you try to figure out how you're going to get a frozen Warboss down a mountain.
Some time later as you wheel a handcart full of Warboss downwards, you reflect that you're not entirely sure what you expected from your meeting with the Ice Dragon, but it definitely wasn't that. You did succeed at getting a glimpse of it as a person instead of as a terrifying force of nature, and if nothing else, you're pretty sure Belegar would consider a few more books for your library a small price to pay for getting an Emperor Dragon invested in the Karak's continued survival. And there's not many Wizards that can boast they have a dragon in their book club.
- The remaining interactions will be posted as they are written.
So, one thing that I haven't seen any proposed turn plans address is AV. Are we really going to drop the research actions again and let it languish? Because if so, I owe some people apologies for saying AV isn't going to take forever.
A few people trying to sneak in ulgu tongs notwithstanding, it's broadly agreed that doing long term speculative research with no obvious short term payoff right before going someplace incredibly dangerous is a bad plan.
It nods firmly. "Will visit at dusk, when shadow is in primacy," it says. It then cocks its head, considering you. "A gift for a welcome neighbour," it says as it thrusts a taloned claw into the snow, then in an avalanche of snow it pulls out a massive, frosted-over figure. It takes you a moment to recognize the Orc you only ever saw at a distance: Warboss Birdmuncha.
Well, that's one problem less.
Happy to see we we didn't leave an intelligent Warboss behind to plot.
One of the best gifts he could have given us!
Edit:
To be Fair, not sure how intelligent he actually was if the reason he retreated was to try to solo an emperor dragon.
But he was an orc anyway the bar wasn't that high to begin with...
...the loony part of me says we should totally prop Birdmuncha up either in our foyer or the Karak throne room so he's the first thing Belegar sees when the door opens.
You did succeed at getting a glimpse of it as a person instead of as a terrifying force of nature, and if nothing else, you're pretty sure Belegar would consider a few more books for your library a small price to pay for getting an Emperor Dragon invested in the Karak's continued survival.
ok well i guess we need to invest in some Ancestor-God books for the library purchase plan, this sure is topical given that I was in the midst of planning that. EDIT: never mind, we got them added to our library for free:
Interesting. Less... personal than the other [Romance] scenes, I feel, but then we didn't know Cython in the first place. Still, this seems like the beginning of a wonderful friendship.
For my own edification, I looked up the Eltharin in this update.
Warhammer Wiki said:
Larime - The Season of Frost, caution, egress.
Sethai - Flight, wind, cry in the far mountains.
Cython - The serpent, wisdom, knowledge, futility, symbol of Lileath.
I really enjoyed that. I would be genuinely willing to spend actions on exchanging knowledge with it. We could probably write a few books just from that.
...the loony part of me says we should totally prop Birdmuncha up either in our foyer or the Karak throne room so he's the first thing Belegar sees when the door opens.
Obviously birdmuncha missed his true calling as a hat rack, we should remedy this and place him just inside the house so he can finally fufill his true calling
A few people trying to sneak in ulgu tongs notwithstanding, it's broadly agreed that doing long term speculative research with no obvious short term payoff right before going someplace incredibly dangerous is a bad plan.
Obviously birdmuncha missed his true calling as a hat rack, we should remedy this and place him just inside the house so he can finally fufill his true calling
While i am not onboard with dragon romance, i am fully commited to being good neighbours and book pals.
Would he be interested in our romance collection? Maybe have stories of dragon romance to tell in exchange?
You know with Cython being so friendly, by Emperor Dragon standards at least, I wonder if we couldm hire it for the expedition. Karaz Ankor does not lack for gold and the only thing better than a dragon in the Wastes is a Dragon made of the Wind of Screw Chaos in Particular.
