[X] You've heard that greatswords and greataxes are near identical in the way they're used, and you happen to be surrounded by experts in the art of the axe. Learn how to use one.
Too finicky to be reliable on a battlefield - it requires both low ambient light and a large, controlled light source, so she'd have to convince the other councillors to handicap the rest of the army by keeping illumination to a minimum just to make it possible. It might be usable if you basically convert Mathilde to a siege weapon by tying her down to a bonfire but that's a waste of her abilities. It's much better for dungeon crawling than open combat.
Also I'm not sure how an extra attack would be all that useful when using a two hand only weapon like a great weapon. Is Mathilde's great sword unique somehow in that it also allows her the extra attack with a revolver?
It should have multishot, adding that in. Extra Attack means that if the pistol is used as the primary weapon instead of the greatsword, it grants an extra attack.
How would these work on the tabletop, would they be considered bound spells like with a warrior priest? It's hard to imagine trying to cast shadowsteed ever causing the caster to be thrown into the warp and killing half her attached regiment so having them work as bound spells would make sense from a tabletop perspective.
Or is it that they're always on and automatic with no rolls or anything else required?
Toggleable at will, but dispellable by enemy casters, and only one can be toggled per turn, not counting the ones that replace shooting or combat. Bound spells would probably be the best translation.
It should have multishot, adding that in. Extra Attack means that if the pistol is used as the primary weapon instead of the greatsword, it grants an extra attack.
@BoneyM having just read your post, would I be right in saying that a dwarven magnesium flare, short busrt would not work as it would raise the ambient light too much?
I was hoping that it could be put behind Mathaide as a kind of mundane-super shadow creator an alpha strike away from too many friendlies or something, or even if she's caught alone. I'm just checking 'cuz I was rather fond of the idea
Maybe that Silver Arrow spell of Max's is more potent than I expect, but his other big spells seem mostly touch-based, caster-defense or non-combat. Aside from Dispelling, I don't see much need for him in a pitched battle, and I don't expect a watch tower to have more than one battle-ready greenskin magic user. If we're bringing him into a situation he's not ready for just to try to earn him Dwarf favour, that seems like a dangerous plan.
@BoneyM having just read your post, would I be right in saying that a dwarven magnesium flare, short busrt would not work as it would raise the ambient light too much?
I was hoping that it could be put behind Mathaide as a kind of mundane-super shadow creator an alpha strike away from too many friendlies or something, or even if she's caught alone. I'm just checking 'cuz I was rather fond of the idea
The dwarves do have alchemical mixes capable of creating intense fires, but those are weaponized more directly by spewing them onto the enemy and there aren't any of those weapons in the expedition anyway. Burning Shadows as a spell is finicky to use at any level above weaponized shadow-puppets with a torch in a dark place, it just has too many variables that are out of your control.
Well, burning shadows and all that other equipment basically forces us to the front (or near it) line. Surely the dwarves have mundane torches? Just have her stand near one and use her hand as the shadow maker.
Well, burning shadows and all that other equipment basically forces us to the front (or near it) line. Surely the dwarves have mundane torches? Just have her stand near one and use her hand as the shadow maker.
@BoneyM having just read your post, would I be right in saying that a dwarven magnesium flare, short busrt would not work as it would raise the ambient light too much?
I was hoping that it could be put behind Mathaide as a kind of mundane-super shadow creator an alpha strike away from too many friendlies or something, or even if she's caught alone. I'm just checking 'cuz I was rather fond of the idea
Given that she's fireproof now, keeping a few flares/roman candles on her person could be worthwhile. Stick one in her hatband for burning shadows, use as on off hand melee weapon, use as an incendiary for enemy assets on special ops...
Maybe that Silver Arrow spell of Max's is more potent than I expect, but his other big spells seem mostly touch-based, caster-defense or non-combat. Aside from Dispelling, I don't see much need for him in a pitched battle, and I don't expect a watch tower to have more than one battle-ready greenskin magic user. If we're bringing him into a situation he's not ready for just to try to earn him Dwarf favour, that seems like a dangerous plan.
yeah fair. Still, it would give us a fair chance at mastery.
Ive always thought Mathilde fits the Scary Monster side of shadows rather than the stealth bit. Like the mist obscuring vision deliberately rather than the shadow that gets overlooked. Mathilde is the best parts of Balrog and Gandalf.
yeah fair. Still, it would give us a fair chance at mastery.
Ive always thought Mathilde fits the Scary Monster side of shadows rather than the stealth bit. Like the mist obscuring vision deliberately rather than the shadow that gets overlooked. Mathilde is the best parts of Balrog and Gandalf.
Maybe that Silver Arrow spell of Max's is more potent than I expect, but his other big spells seem mostly touch-based, caster-defense or non-combat. Aside from Dispelling, I don't see much need for him in a pitched battle, and I don't expect a watch tower to have more than one battle-ready greenskin magic user. If we're bringing him into a situation he's not ready for just to try to earn him Dwarf favour, that seems like a dangerous plan.
Reasons to bring Max:
-Assess his combat skill in a relatively light engagement. This is an easy battle, and so we get to see how he performs in combat before we actually reach the nightmare of hold taking. We know personally how your spells aren't everything to your combat ability.
-He has reasonably good defenses. Better than Mathilde did when she was a Journeyman and getting into the thick of battle with literally nothing but aetheyric armor.
-He's a dedicated Enchanter and quite likely packing his own wargear we hadn't seen yet.
-He needs Dwarf Favors. Good way for him to try to earn some,
We want to test our Journeymanlings in live combat before we reach the Hold taking proper. In circumstances where we can Regrowth them and recharge fairly easily due to being still aboveground.
Maybe that Silver Arrow spell of Max's is more potent than I expect, but his other big spells seem mostly touch-based, caster-defense or non-combat. Aside from Dispelling, I don't see much need for him in a pitched battle, and I don't expect a watch tower to have more than one battle-ready greenskin magic user. If we're bringing him into a situation he's not ready for just to try to earn him Dwarf favour, that seems like a dangerous plan.
Forging forward into dangerous combat without consideration for the personal risks. Which recent Journey(wo)manling does that remind me of?
He claimed to be a capable fighter. Taking the tower is important. Danger doesn't seem to figure high on her personal list of risk calculations or decision making on what to undertake. It seems to me that Mathilde would think this is absolutely the right way for Max to earn favour.
[X] Stand ready in the Rearguard, in case Black Crag launches an assault on the rear of the Expedition.
[X] Master Engineer Durin Wutokri
[X] Marshal Titus Muggins
[X] You've heard that greatswords and greataxes are near identical in the way they're used, and you happen to be surrounded by experts in the art of the axe. Learn how to use one.
Mathilde is pretty difficult to kill these days. Then, you probably need to do it four more times. Dieing just the once could just be more of a learning experience for her now.
[*] Marshal Titus Muggins
[*] Master Engineer Durin Wutokri
[*] Join the assault on Und-Uzgar
-[*] Bring Maximilian
Titus Muggins is, as you already knew from the Sieges of the Drakenhofs, a brutally efficient soldier. Reaching no higher than three feet tall has liberated him from any impulse to fight fair, and he approaches the world with deep and constant caution. Spending some time with him, you begin to get a better feel not only for him, but for his people.
Like the dwarves, the halflings are a people divided, though their division is voluntary. The average halfling lives a peaceful agrarian life of plenty with their sprawling extended family, and is perfectly content to do so, aspiring no further than a slightly more bountiful harvest and steady improvement in their ability to produce tasty food from it. But comfortable bucolic lives are not always easy to come by in this harsh world, especially so close to Sylvania. So a new breed of halfling was needed to dole out the necessary violence to preserve the Mootland and the halflings within: the Fieldwardens. Armed with a motley array of slings, darts, shortbows and javelins, their small stature is transformed from a drawback to an advantage, making them harder to spot as they lie in ambush. Each year, the Moot is visited by undead from Sylvania, marauding beasts from the mountains, and bandits from the rest of the Empire, and the majority end up struck down without even laying eyes on the Fieldwarden that slew them. But it's not always enough.
"We passed the Ironclaw Orcs a month ago," he notes as he trudges along beside you. "Seven hundred years ago, the Waaagh of Gorbad Ironclaw razed the Moot to the ground, and less than half the Mootland halflings survived. We rebuilt. Four hundred years ago, Konrad von Carstein and an army of Wights razed the Moot to the ground, and again, more Mootland halflings died than lived. Again, we rebuilt. Fifty years ago, the Waaagh of Grom the Paunch razed the Moot to the ground. We were lucky that time, only one in four of our people were slain." He sighs. "And so, once more, we rebuild. But we are a farming folk, so here is a farming metaphor: all our eggs are in one basket." He looks over his shoulder, where in your wake ten thousand halflings travel: some on foot, some riding donkeys and mules, but most piled into wagons carrying the army's provisions. "The violence we will commit upon whoever holds Karak Eight Peaks will purchase a second basket."
A deal was struck, he tells you, between the Elder of the Moot and Belegar: halfling assistance on the campaign and, in exchange, settling rights on the valley between the Eight Peaks, atop the central dwarfhold which stretches from Karag Lhune in the east to Karag Zilfin in the west. Should the retaking of Karak Eight Peaks be successful, the halflings will have won for themselves one of the most secure homes imaginable - the heart of a dwarfhold. The halflings have grown noticeably leaner as the months on the march passed, but their resolve has yet to waver as they face the final leg of the march to Karak Eight Peaks.
---
You'd spoken with Master Engineer Durin Wutokri of Karak Norn previously to secure Johann's place in the siege weapon teams, but you hadn't the opportunity to really get the measure of the dwarf. So as you and Maximilian join the forces marching ahead to the watchtower of Und-Uzgar, you take the opportunity to engage him in conversation in the most reliable way you know - encouraging him to wax poetic on his home dwarfhold.
Karak Norn, he needs no encouragement to expound, is built into a plateau instead of a more traditional peak. The wooded highland offers a peerless view of Athel Loren, allowing the dwarves to keep a careful eye on the elves within. The Grey Mountains are relatively lacking in mineral wealth, so in Karak Norn foresters and carpenters are as common as miners and blacksmiths. The carefully-tended wooded plateau supplies most of their needs, but occasional forays into Athel Loren are not unknown, and the greatest of his siege engines are made from wood cut from that infamous forest - and if the wood elves don't like it, he grumbles, they're more than welcome to come to the gates of Karak Norn and have it returned to them, one volley at a time.
Though it is the largest of the Grey Mountain holds, that still makes it rather small. But the majority of said population are of dwarf clans displaced from Mount Silverspear nearly four thousand years ago, and they still consider themselves such instead of allowing themselves to truly call Karak Norn home, which says a lot about the dwarven mentality. So when Belegar gave the call to arms, the possibility of old holds retaken fired the imaginations of Karak Norn, and they contributed in the form of weaponry - from the crossbows now used by many of the dwarven adventurers that answered the call, to the one-dwarf bolt throwers known as 'scorpions' in Tilea, which are mounted on a stand and fire a javelin-sized bolt with terrifying accuracy, to the siege bolt throwers known as ballistae which require a full crew and fire a projectile the size of a tree trunk. Only the scorpions are coming along on this foray, since Und-Uzgar is to be taken intact.
Durin, you learn, is a revanchist of the highest order, and believes fully in the reconquest of the fallen dwarfholds. His clan was royalty in Mount Silverspear until the Bloody Spear Tribe of night goblins conquered it, and he has sworn to lend his services to any who would push back the shrinking of the Dwarven Empire. The pride he takes in his work is tinged with shame that royalty from the heartland of the Dwarven Empire is now a woodworker on its outskirts, and on this expedition he hopes to expunge that shame - though he doesn't quite put it that way. And should the Expedition fail and he somehow survives, he'll shave his beard and take the Slayer oath.
You know better than to try to dissuade him, but you make a mental note to advise Belegar to send to Karak Kadrin for one of their Barazuls to hopefully mitigate such wastefulness in the future. You shudder to think how much knowledge and expertise is lost is each year to those Oaths, and as you run your eye over the hundreds of slayers that could not be dissuaded from joining the assault on the Watchtower, you wonder how much skill and knowledge and wisdom was lost when they set out to seek their dooms.
---
Und-Uzgar was once a dwarven keep, and dwarven keeps do not mess around. You mentally rearrange the fragments of Khazalid you've picked up as you stare up at the stone keep built into the northeastern flank of Karag Lhune. Und means watchtower, which is simple enough, and the -ar suffix means something that continues indefinitely. Uzkular, which you learned way back during the Sieges of the Drakenhofs, means undead, so the Uzk prefix refers to death. Put it all together and you could simply translate it as Death Tower, which is grim enough, but it more literally means The Watchtower of Endless Death. Which is horribly grim, but considering the field of bones that stretches before you, it's terribly appropriate.
Maximilian stoops down and picks up a skull, the heavy brow and jagged teeth clearly marking it as orcish. "Equidistant between two greenskin strongholds," he notes. "No telling how many times this tower has changed hands over the centuries."
You concentrate and shape Ulgu into lenses in a slight modification of the spell you use for solar forges, and the walls suddenly seems a great deal closer as the light is refracted. Ignoring a curious Maximilian looking over your shoulder you examine the battlements.
[Rolling...]
You're not at all relieved at the lack of any watchkeepers; to your left, Ulthar and Durin look through their own, more conventional spyglasses, and to your right Codrin eyes the fortified position with distaste. You shape Ulgu twice more, adding lenses to the series until the battlements appear as close as if you were standing next to them. "Blood," you note. Old, too, since it's faded to black, but not so old since it's still visible.
"Look, dead center," Ulthar says. You follow his direction, and see multiple fragment of wood projecting upwards. "Flags or bannerpoles, I'd wager, all cut down and not replaced. The Red Fangs currently control Karak Drazh, and we suspect the Crooked Moon control Eight Peaks. Neither is shy about announcing their presence, and neither would have cut down a Waaagh symbol, even one erected by the other."
Significant looks are exchanged, and you take Maximilian and Codrin aside to read them into the Conspiracy of Silence, and explain the horrid threat of the subterranean ratmen known as Skaven.
---
The keep towers above you, sealed and silent. If it has been taken by the skaven, then they've either abandoned it or are lurking in its depths to shelter from the harsh light of the sun they hate so much.
There is, according to Ulthar's scouts, a wooden gate on the right side, up a long, twisting path up from the Pass which switchbacks in full view of the battlements. The four of you brainstorm ideas for taking this silent, but probably not unattended, fortress.
Choose the approach you will support or suggest:
[ ] Codrin suggests that his forces can batter the gate down with a ram they've brought with them for this very purpose.
[ ] Ulthar's rangers, he says, can climb the wall with grappling hooks, should it remain unattended.
[ ] You could go up there alone, Skywalk atop the battlements, then open the door to let forces in.
- [ ] Codrin's miscellaneous forces.
- [ ] Ulthar's warriors
[ ] Other (write in)
Forces present:
Magister Mathilde Weber
1 Journeyman Gold Wizard
Ulthar Alriksson, Head Ranger
3,000 Warriors
5,000 Rangers
- A reminder - this is decades before the 'current' year of the game, so the familiar faces are not present - no Grimgor Ironhide, no Skarsnik, no Queek Headtaker.
Would we expect chem/warp weapons?