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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Rafin said:
Is this for Stirland or the Empire at large?

The other two make sense, but what does the military even do with someone who neither fits into their basic equipment nor is able to lift weapons, let alone the whole supply backpack?
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You can't put a ten year old in the line infantry sure, but you can start teaching them to shoot a bow and indeed you might want to teach them earlier. If you want a good bowman start with his grandfather as the story goes. That said other weapons are less exacting.
 
Warmach1ne32 said:
Can anyone tell me who is Sleek Sharpwit?
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In the novel Headtaker, much is revealed about him. He helped instigate the conflict between the Greenskins of Black Crag and Karak Azul when he was much younger, spending potentially years skulking about, and managed to learn Khazalid of all things just from spying on dwarves.

Years later, he was half blind, walking on crutches, coughing up blood and flesh, suffering from arthritis, and generally couldn't even move without feeling pain.

He was also so old for a non-Grey Seer or Councilrat that more than a few Skaven were surprised he was still alive.

That in and of itself is an accomplishment, to survive in such a state in Skaven society.

But Sleek?

Sleek was smart. He learned. He developed. He gained an honest appreciation for the works of his enemies and came to recognize the problems in Skaven society.

He acquired a strategic and tactical mind and became a cunning, fearsome warrior of no small caliber.

Then, at the time of the novel, effectively relying on nothing more but brains, charisma, and violence, he charmed and threatened and fought and manipulated his way through Queek's army and managed to stay alive despite the condescension of other Skaven, the insanity of Queek, and the rivalry of his "peer" Razzel the Grey Seer.

Despite his condition, he personally led Eshin squads through the depths of Karak Azul with his knowledge of the area and his ability to manipulate and utilize the dwarven mechanisms, killing off the dwarven artillery and nearly winning the battle if not for Queek leaving the fight.

After that, he walked all the way to Black Crag when Queek set out there, survived an assassination attempt from an Eshin Assassin and proceeded to reveal the stolen Karak Azul runesword one of his crutches was built around and beat him, terrifying him into total compliance. He manipulated Queek's own huge bodyguard Ska into doing his work for him.

He pushed on and on and on, driving himself to the point of collapse, before finally dying in a clash with Queek, but not before briefly returning himself to his prime in a boost of Warpstone-adrenaline via eating one of his Warpstone teeth. That's right, in his prime he was Queek's equal in combat.

He was not immune to the problems of the Skaven race, but he was actually truly wise, determined beyond belief, possessed of courage at times that was crazy, and cunning.

I genuinely admired him as a Skaven and think he deserved a series about him.

Some quotes:
No skaven truly knew how many lairs and warrens could be reached by the Underway, for new routes opened every day while old ones –and some not so old –collapsed with equal regularity. Sharpwit would not mourn the countless lives snuffed out every moment in such incidents but, gazing upward at the monolithic pillars and vaulted ceiling that stood as sturdy today as they had seven thousand years ago, he was thankful that his life was currently in the hands of good dwarfish engineering.

---

Sharpwit felt their eyes on him, assessing his worth. He noticed a shift in the skaven around him as ratkin who had been trying to look inconspicuous admiring the architecture took full advantage of the guards' distraction to make a break for the tunnels beyond their shack. The excise-rats squeaked threats and scrambled after them, the whole system descending into anarchy as those skaven more cautious still swarmed the gaps left by the busy tariff-takers. The brown-furred excise-rat ignored the snarling riot at his back as though it were all in a day's work, which it likely was, and shuffled closer to Sharpwit. Sharpwit's heart thudded arrhythmically. He knew what he looked like: a haggard hunchback with one eye gouged from his face amidst a mess of scar tissue, the other clouded with cataracts. He limped with the aid of a pair of worm-eaten crutches and had barely enough brittle, bleached fur on his withered frame to clothe the skinniest of whelps. He was old, but he was still an agent of the Council of Thirteen. He was their chosen. He bore their mark.

Young skaven today, he thought disdainfully.

He lashed out with one crutch, catching the guard a crunching blow to the kneecap. The skaven squealed in agony and toppled to the earth at Sharpwit's paws. Hobbling closer to the mewling ratman, he allowed his full weight to be borne by one crutch, using the other to stab vindictively at the guard's shattered knee. Weeping with pain and contrition, the skaven tried to roll away, to shield his knee with his body, but Sharpwit would not let him, maintaining the pressure and forcing the penitent skaven's knee into the ground. The guard howled, begging mercy, his cries working like magic to open an expanding hole in the otherwise unbroken press of dodging and hurrying bodies. From the corner of his eye he scanned for the other excise-rats, in case any fool should consider coming to their comrade's aid, but they were nowhere to be seen.

---

Sharpwit heaved a deep breath. He could not find Queek soon enough. Events were already well in motion, and if there was one thing that many long years of experience had taught him, it was that no plan was so perfect that somewhere, somehow, some scheming ratkin wasn't going to bring it all crashing down on his head.

---

'Now what's happening?' Ska peered across the distant bridge. 'Queek is back.' He leant forward as if that would vastly improve his view. For a moment Sharpwit was tempted to shove him off the roof. But only for a moment. The fall was not a long one.
---

Fizqwik looked back into the sewer, anxiously nibbling his lower lip, his blurry outline hunched, defeated. 'What do you want?' Sharpwit snarled, warplight writhing through the poisonous cloud. What did the strong want? 'I want songs sung of my deeds. I want my name whispered with dread and loathing for a thousand years.' Sharpwit coughed chestily, lungs coming apart like the hide of an ancient mummy. It had been a long trek from Karak Azul and his body trembled from the effort. He glared at the vermin of Clan Skryre, praying they couldn't see it. 'But that will not happen, will it? I must settle for glory for Skavendom and perhaps, centuries from now, when the immortal Council of Thirteen recalls the fall of Azul-Place, one may remember the name Sharpwit.'

---

'You are not… not nearly so good as you think, mad-thing.' 'Does the dead-thing talk?' asked Queek, twisting to display his ghastly trophies. The desiccated human hands strung from the trophy rack waved once in farewell. Or in welcome. 'Squeak to fellow dead-things. Ask them how good is Queek.' 'You have achieved nothing. Do you not see? Nothing. We scurry through time, like the rats in Fizqwik's wheel. Over and over the same mistakes. I am glad to be done. I am sick of it.'

'What was that, dead-thing? Queek was somewhere else. Somewhere interesting.'

'We steal so much from the dwarf-things, more than any care to admit, but never that. Respect for what is past. I think the Horned Rat prefers his children blind or we would surely have the world now. And he knows we would betray even him if we could.' 'You admire the dwarf-things.' Sharpwit gave a shuddering sigh. 'It would be nice… to be remembered.'
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Incidentally, he led the forces of Mors during the final battle underground against Eshin. He might be still alive.
 
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BoneyM said:
"Bad meat or bad water," Wilhelmina says with a shrug. "It happens, especially with that many people in one place. The Dwarves say it shouldn't set back the schedule too much."

"You think it's natural?"

"You don't?"

"It'd be normal most of the time, but this is a Dwarven project in a remote area. They'd be supplying food and water, and they'd be making sure they were clean."

"Surely the Marienburgers wouldn't..." She frowns. "They wouldn't, would they? I mean, sure, piracy and sabotage, but fomenting disease? That would be..." Her frown deepens. "I'll have a word with some Witch Hunters."
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It is a good thing we are keeping an eye on this. This likely might have been missed otherwise. By people who don't know dwarf standard practice and dwarfs who tend not to think in terms of intrigues.
 
Rafin said:
Is this for Stirland or the Empire at large?

The other two make sense, but what does the military even do with someone who neither fits into their basic equipment nor is able to lift weapons, let alone the whole supply backpack?
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Lots of real militaries hire kids in the day, they usually did grunt work and chores between being trained up in a skill.

The 'cabin boy' is the most famous version.
 
[X] Plan to set up EIC gunpowder production in Karak Eight Peaks

Most of the thread seems to be voting for setting up in Stirland, but I think K8P would be better for one reason: It would support the gunnery school with little additional effort on our part, and that in turn would help with the cryptic warning about the gunnery school that we received.
 
BoneyM said:
She slides over papers and you run your eyes over the distilled reports to see if anything jumps out at you. "Outbreak of disease among the canal workers?"

"Bad meat or bad water," Wilhelmina says with a shrug. "It happens, especially with that many people in one place. The Dwarves say it shouldn't set back the schedule too much."

"You think it's natural?"

"You don't?"

"It'd be normal most of the time, but this is a Dwarven project in a remote area. They'd be supplying food and water, and they'd be making sure they were clean."

"Surely the Marienburgers wouldn't..." She frowns. "They wouldn't, would they? I mean, sure, piracy and sabotage, but fomenting disease? That would be..." Her frown deepens. "I'll have a word with some Witch Hunters."
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You know, quite apart from the Nurgle angle, if this does actually get proven to be Marienburg work? Then the dwarves are going to start asking some very pointed questions, and if they don't like the answers and repayment they get then it's going to be a full-on Grudge.
 
NSMS said:
You know, quite apart from the Nurgle angle, if this does actually get proven to be Marienburg work? Then the dwarves are going to start asking some very pointed questions, and if they don't like the answers and repayment they get then it's going to be a full-on Grudge.
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And if they're smart, they'll tell Ulthuan about it before they march to war.
 
lentil said:
Most of the thread seems to be voting for setting up in Stirland, but I think K8P would be better for one reason: It would support the gunnery school with little additional effort on our part, and that in turn would help with the cryptic warning about the gunnery school that we received.
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That's only if K8P can't make niter itself. Which it might, actually, but it'd be used for fertilizer right now instead of anything else.
 
BoneyM said:
"Why do you theorize that there must be so much crossover between the different pantheons?"

It tilts its head. "Why would there not be? Do two dragons share a hunting ground? Two kings a kingdom?"
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Even if we accept his preposition that gods of similar portfolios must inevitably devour each other resulting in different masks of the same god, there is still the question of how long that takes to happen. Rather than kings it could be that the gods now are only chieftains of tribes, or at their greatest city-lords. If a god were to truly dominate their realm the resulting power could dwarf any current god.
 
[X] Sell the niter to Karak Eight Peaks

Seems to make the most sense. Why build a manling niter factory in K8P when you can keep the umgi-ness out of sight? Don't show how the sausage is made.
 
IronFist said:
And if they're smart, they'll tell Ulthuan about it before they march to war.
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Based on what BoneyM's said about how dwarves handle Grudges (back when we were instilling corporate policy) they'll make their grievances extremely clear before acting on them, and I'd say there's a near-zero chance that that information wouldn't find its way back to Ulthuan unless there's active interference.
 
[ ] Sell the niter to Zhufbar
Continuing to sell everything to the same buyer would probably grant the highest profits since they are willing to pay high above Imperial market value and are also very close, as far as Karaks go. It also adds pretty much nothing but money and a slightly strengthened Zhufbar.

[ ] Sell the niter to Karak Eight Peaks
This would aid our current liege and give us another narrative in with Gotri and his Guild. But other than that it is a sub-par choice for reasons already elaborated.

[ ] Sell the niter to Nuln
If we disregard all bias other than our loyalty to the Empire (which according to law should be our highest priority) then this is the the best choice in the short term because it is the surest way to increase the available supply of gunpowder for the whole Imperial military.

[X] Plan to set up EIC gunpowder production in Stirland
From a pure efficiency standpoint this aids the Imperial military and economy less than selling to Nuln. So at a glance it first seems like a choice driven by loyalty to our old home and worldly ties to the EIC. But thinking more about it, Stirland is currently one of the least developed and utilized provinces and also one that just had a large population increase and is close to defeating the enemy that caused it to be so undeveloped in the first place. Bringing more industries and experts to the province might accelerate an economic growth that may well become a massive boon for the Empire over the coming decades.

[ ] Plan to set up EIC gunpowder production in Karak Eight Peaks
This would pull the EIC's center closer to us and make it's future eastward or southward expansion more likely. It would also make K8P (and especially the Undumgi) even more reliant and tied to the EIC. I'm not sure if we really want either of those things for the long run.


Matthew Gates said:
Even if we accept his preposition that gods of similar portfolios must inevitably devour each other resulting in different masks of the same god, there is still the question of how long that takes to happen. Rather than kings it could be that the gods now are only chieftains of tribes, or at their greatest city-lords. If a god were to truly dominate their realm the resulting power could dwarf any current god.
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Also, Kingdoms split apart or fuse from time to time. And they regularly change their borders. And they have varied and sometimes strongly independent vassals.

Regarding Dragons, I have no idea if they ever share hunting grounds. I'd expect romantic couplings to do so from time to time. And don't multiple Aqshy Dragons live in the same Dwarven halls all together?
 
Derpmind said:
That's only if K8P can't make niter itself. Which it might, actually, but it'd be used for fertilizer right now instead of anything else.
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We actually asked about this last month:
JowKeen said:
I'm not sure if Panoramia or the Karak have set up Gong Farms yet (the places that convert filth into Niter and usable soil) but uh. That'd be quite a helpful thing. Unsure if the Dwarves already set one up, or if the Halfling farmers already know how to recycle that way, but the Undumgi filth might not be uh. Being put to "good use" as it were.

Just a bit of an extra check in that we're not accidentally-not-helping when our resources could be helping.
@BoneyM so uh. I was told it's okay to ping you about this minor Gong Farms for Panoramia Soil question :V
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BoneyM said:
That'd be Francesco's job to sort out, but with Oswald on his mini-council and the Gunnery School in residence it's a safe bet that he's done so.
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From this we can assume that domestic waste recycling is already happening.

[X] Plan to set up EIC gunpowder production in Stirland
 
veekie said:
but armed with self learned Battle Magic.
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I never thought of this part. How many of the current Ghur Battle Magic spells might be inventions/Cathayan imports from Dragomas? And if it hasn't trickled down the grapevine yet and all the currently listed spells are from the older College structure, might we expect new Ghur Battle Magic to crop up soon-ish?

Or is Dragomas pretty much a non-College Wizard now as far as his most powerful magical abilities, understanding and paradigm are concerned, only being Supreme Patriarch based on power, prestige and charisma?
 
Qrech: "Mathilde, when I die, I want you to dissect me and publish the results."
Mathilde: "Oh thank Ranald, I thought you were going to ask me to eat you."
Qrech: "Woah, slow down, girl. We're not that close."
 
Guile said:
Qrech: "Mathilde, when I die, I want you to dissect me and publish the results."
Mathilde: "Oh thank Ranald, I thought you were going to ask me to eat you."
Qrech: "Woah, slow down, girl. We're not that close."
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Sigh.

Don't speak of Qrechs death please, that just reminds me that his soul will go to the Horned Rat to probably be tortured for eternity due to the secrets he revealed to us. It's depressing.
 
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