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Ok, another idea (when the QM explicitly asks for ideas, I tend to try to find ones repeatedly)

@BoneyM , is there any watertight room below, above or around the sealed chambers? If there is, we can unshadow and use Branulhune to enter from the dry room
 
Ok, another idea (when the QM explicitly asks for ideas, I tend to try to find ones repeatedly)

@BoneyM , is there any watertight room below, above or around the sealed chambers? If there is, we can unshadow and use Branulhune to enter from the dry room

Some of them are directly above the cargo holds that contained the survivors, but Branulhune entering a room is a bad time for anyone in that room, and probably for the entire structure as a whole.
 
Well that worked out well even if was several magnitudes more dangerous than expected. I thought Mathilde would be testing with a stick or something before any attempted blind breaches, potentially dangerous sure but not as lethal as sticking your own limb in for a test.

Still the results are good and we've rescued pretty much everyone we can and have locations of the sealed compartments for more effective future rescue attempts.


That leaves the question of what's next.

[] Try to track the bandits
The bandits are probably patsies but they're still a good potential clue and we might even find whoever set off the bomb with them. On top of that there's always the value of some good old fashioned vengeance which will help set Dwarf hearts at ease. We'd also be going with not too much of a delay since the rescue only took a few hours.

On the other hand if we wait until reinforcements arrive we should be able to team up our efforts with rangers to ensure more effective tracking and be more capable of capturing some bandits of interrogation.

[] Scour the river banks for anything the bandits left behind
Seems a bit dubious whether we'll be able to catch anything. I expect the running water of the river would have already removed any magical traces that Mathilde could pick up which leaves just mundane traces which the Dwarfs will be capable of discovering. If we're really lucky the 'bandits' were sloppy and left something on the shore but it seems like a long shot.

However, I do think it's a good idea to check the shore. Partially because we might get super lucky but mostly because Mathilde's suffering from some miscasts and the Dwarfs could do with some backup while waiting for reinforcements to arrive. Once reinforcements get here Mathilde can join the rangers on tracking down the shooters.


Edit:
[X] Use your spare Power Stone to save any Dwarves left in the ship

Mathilde will use an illusion to communicate with all the Dwarves, those that answer and confirm the lights are out she'll rescue.
 
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Has it been ruled about the possibility of casting something on one side of the metal and have an effect seen on the other side?
 
Man though.

What a fucking miracle this operation turned out to be, even if it started in tragedy.

Two thirds of the passengers survived and were present there, literally the maximum result on every die that was rolled to figure out survivors. The VIP was there, hundreds of them were there. And Mathilde clutched her chain-cast rolls and avoided getting splinched by a very risky blind insertion.

If this wasn't the biggest vindication of Belegar's policies there ever was, I don't know what is. All we need is to figure out how this happened and who gets to hold the ball for the oncoming Grudge and we'll have damage controlled the shit out of this disaster.

Something to consider is how this looks to the witnesses.

Dwarves look down on manling magic because it's unreliable. Here, some very senior dwarves watched a wizard cast a spell several hundred times in quick succession in bad conditions without, as far as I can tell, anything going wrong, as the miscasts seem to have been minor enough only to afflict Mathilde in non-obvious ways.

Now, obviously Mathilde isn't considered a manling these days, but it still might have some impact.
 
Does Gotri have anything resembling a drill or blowtorch or powersaw we can borrow?

Capable of cutting through Dwarven steel? Not on him.

Has it been ruled about the possibility of casting something on one side of the metal and have an effect seen on the other side?

A Gold Wizard could, other Wizards need enough raw power to overcome the natural Chamon of the metal, and there's no ambient Ulgu inside the ship.
 
Something to consider is how this looks to the witnesses.

Dwarves look down on manling magic because it's unreliable. Here, some very senior dwarves watched a wizard cast a spell several hundred times in quick succession in bad conditions without, as far as I can tell, anything going wrong, as the miscasts seem to have been minor enough only to afflict Mathilde in non-obvious ways.

Now, obviously Mathilde isn't considered a manling these days, but it still might have some impact.

She's a Grandmaster of her Guild, if they can't exercise their craft without error in harsh conditions, then their guildmaster was just mucking around.

(In other words, it's nice but it's also what you expect of a Grandmaster, come on manling)
 
[X] Despite the risk to yourself, attempt to save any Dwarves left in the ship

[X] Use your spare Power Stone to save any Dwarves left in the ship

It's what a dwarf and Mathilde would do. never leave a man or dwarf behind. Try and fail, we've already worked a miracle. No one would blame us especially if we don't find anymore. don't even try when all there is, is risk to ourselves... and maybe a little warp incident but you know (shrugs)... that's slayer's oath territory there. The dwarves look at us as one of their own. I don't want to risk it by not even trying.
 
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She's a Grandmaster of her Guild, if they can't exercise their craft without error in harsh conditions, then their guildmaster was just mucking around.

(In other words, it's nice but it's also what you expect of a Grandmaster, come on manling)

A grandmaster should be that good, yes, but did the conservatives of K-a-K really think that any human wizards actually properly qualified as grandmasters, or was it just hot air, or mucking around as you describe it.

I doubt a dwarven Grandmaster would consider a human Grandmaster blacksmith to be a peer worthy of that level of trust in their competence.
 
We shouldn't expect there's a easy reliable general method of telling whether SoS will get popped. Because all the other Grey Wizards would've been very keen on figuring that out, and there's a good chance someone would've published it. So a solution either needs to be hard enough most can't pull it off, rely on something specific to the current context, or just be really damn clever.

Mathilde's almost windsight qualifies on hardness, though it's got problems with this specific case. I'm only sorta sometimes clever, so I can't help on the last one.

But let's think on our special context. What are the parts we could use for a solution?
  1. Everything is underwater, except the part where we want to get to, which has at least some air.
  2. The part we want to get to is a closed metal box.
    1. That means we can't just use pall of darkness, because we can't cast through metal.
    2. If we could cast through metal, then we could safely enter.
  3. The box has a dwarf in it. The dwarf may not be conscious, though those are of lesser priority (triage).
  4. We can communicate in the most basic fashion ("I'm here"), but nothing beyond. Useful for identifying with rooms to get into (and therefore minimizing risk), but nothing beyond.
Hmm. @BoneyM Can Mathilde enchant a door (or wall, but that might be a too large object) with Pall of Darkness so it produces shadow on both sides?
Metal is probably a pretty bad material, but it's a one shot enchantment of on very small scale. I guess the biggest issue would be interaction with the residual chamon producing Dhar.
@BoneyM Can we see through things that have been Substance'd?
Related to this, can we just SOS a door, and see if it instantly reverts/the spell doesn't take?
 
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A grandmaster should be that good, yes, but did the conservatives of K-a-K really think that any human wizards actually properly qualified as grandmasters, or was it just hot air, or mucking around as you describe it.

I doubt a dwarven Grandmaster would consider a human Grandmaster blacksmith to be a peer worthy of that level of trust in their competence.


Perhaps that might be the case in a skill where Dwarfs can compare. But what are they going to do? Compare Human grandmasters to Ulthuan archmages?
 
@BoneyM Can we see through things that have been Substance'd?

Anything SoS'd is invisible.

Hmm. @BoneyM Can Mathilde enchant a door (or wall, but that might be a too large object) with Pall of Darkness so it produces shadow on both sides?
Metal is probably a pretty bad material, but it's a one shot enchantment of on very small scale. I guess the biggest issue would be interaction with the residual chamon producing Dhar.

Enchant, not in a useful timescale. If you meant cast, it wouldn't penetrate the metal.
 
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