Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

[Absoloot]

You need a way to identify where it must be deployed. . .
The caster will still need to determine whether the surface itself is suitable for passage, but if pointed at a suitable surface, it can identify what isn't entirely of that surface.

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@BoneyM, I should have asked when the update first dropped but I forgot. Here, she struggles with identifying where the terrain obstacles are. When I initially considered this, the first thing that came to mind was to utilize the fog itself. A heavy ground-bound fog tends to sink, filling in the terrain. If you have a valley it fills it, if you have a hole in the ground it'll fill that too. This of course misses the ability to identify a flat surface which is still compromised (mud, bog, etc.) and could only identify that most obvious of issues, broken terrain. Does using Ulgu as a universal identifier for the boundary between good and bad terrain save power compared to just identifying holes by just lettting the fog fill them? I figure the filling holes thing is probably easier (read magically cheaper), but having two identifiers, a coarse one and a fine one, might be too much detail and make the spell worse overall.

Also how does the spell deal with protrusions, rather than troughs?

[X] Spell name - Mathilde's Rite of Way
[X] Greet and get to know the Wizards joining the Expedition as they arrive at Praag.
[X] Adela, to see how her gradual nepotistic takeover of the Karag Nar Gunnery School is going.
[X] Spend some time exploring the Karak now that everyone has spread out into their hopefully permanent Clan Halls.

 

[SuperSonicSound]

I'm just going to say that as much as I appreciate the effort going into those symbols, an eight pointed star for Karak Dum has implications.

 

[me.me.here]

[X] Spell name - Rite of Way

[X] Greet and get to know the Wizards joining the Expedition as they arrive at Praag.
[X] Adela, to see how her gradual nepotistic takeover of the Karag Nar Gunnery School is going.
[X] Spend some time exploring the Karak now that everyone has spread out into their hopefully permanent Clan Halls.
[x] The Gold College, to see what's become of their research into Skaven technology.
[x] Follow up on your donation of the Skaven organ-vat, and see what has been made of it.

 

[Boney]

@BoneyM, I should have asked when the update first dropped but I forgot. Here, she struggles with identifying where the terrain obstacles are. When I initially considered this, the first thing that came to mind was to utilize the fog itself. A heavy ground-bound fog tends to sink, filling in the terrain. If you have a valley it fills it, if you have a hole in the ground it'll fill that too. This of course misses the ability to identify a flat surface which is still compromised (mud, bog, etc.) and could only identify that most obvious of issues, broken terrain. Does using Ulgu as a universal identifier for the boundary between good and bad terrain save power compared to just identifying holes by just lettting the fog fill them? I figure the filling holes thing is probably easier (read magically cheaper), but having two identifiers, a coarse one and a fine one, might be too much detail and make the spell worse overall.

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It needs to be a single identifier that will work for all possible obstacles, as having multiple ones would increase both the difficulty and the power requirements of the spell dramatically.

Also how does the spell deal with protrusions, rather than troughs?

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It doesn't. It still requires some thought on the part of the Wizard to keep from steering through a field of stakes or whatever.

I'm just going to say that as much as I appreciate the effort going into those symbols, an eight pointed star for Karak Dum has implications.

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Its fate and purpose was always to be a bulwark against Chaos. It's not an implication, it's an explicit statement.

 

[Parzival95]

While I appreciate acknowledging Dums eternal war against chaos, I too don't think we should put an actual symbol of chaos on their heraldry.

 

[Exmorri]

I'm just going to say that as much as I appreciate the effort going into those symbols, an eight pointed star for Karak Dum has implications.

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I think that's the point. The Dum in Karak Dum also means Chaos.

 

[picklepikkl]

Doing some quick color theory math, my suggestion would be:

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As someone who knows nothing about color theory but a fair bit about math, could you share how this works, or link to a resource? I am very curious about what operations are at play.

(IMO the steel grey edged with black on a light blue background looks best, like your second image or Shovern's other image.)

So hey, now that Rite of Way is done-ish: when are we going to try tackling the Golden Hounds? We gave Feldmann a pile of skaven war prizes for that stuff, we should do something with it.

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"Building out a cool Apparition spell" is a medium-term goal, IMO. My personal feeling is that when we get back, we should prioritize research (which we have almost totally dropped over the course of our time prepping for the Expedition, and which we have a lot of cool stuff to do with), but after a year or two, we should definitely go for it. It would be very cool to bring along to our Elfternship, if we don't go to that first.

 

[Briefvoice]

[X] Greet and get to know the Wizards joining the Expedition as they arrive at Praag.
[X] Join Hubert and the Winter Wolves for the final leg of their journey to Praag.
[X] Join Esbern, Seija, and the Knights of Taal's Fury for the final leg of their journey to Praag.
[X] The Dolgan, to get to know the people of the western Steppes who will hopefully be feeding the Expedition.

 

[SuperSonicSound]

Its fate and purpose was always to be a bulwark against Chaos. It's not an implication, it's an explicit statement.

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If the star was inverted in some way I'd take it the way you're saying but otherwise it looks more like you know just straight up saying "i'm chaos"

That said perhaps dwarven psychology would take a different meaning from it? Still seems sketchy to me.

 

[chocolote12]

"Building out a cool Apparition spell" is a medium-term goal, IMO. My personal feeling is that when we get back, we should prioritize research (which we have almost totally dropped over the course of our time prepping for the Expedition, and which we have a lot of cool stuff to do with), but after a year or two, we should definitely go for it. It would be very cool to bring along to our Elfternship, if we don't go to that first.

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Maybe there's a distinction between learning about and applying subject matter, but I would personally consider learning how to actually go about grabbing apparitions to fall under research rather than self-improvement; it's something we're going to be writing papers on first and foremost, to make it a staple of the college, rather than something I foresee making us immediately more powerful.

 

[Redshirt Army]

As someone who knows nothing about color theory but a fair bit about math, could you share how this works, or link to a resource? I am very curious about what operations are at play.

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The tool I use most often is the Adobe Color Wheel, which is a great resource for this sort of thing.

 

[guyfromtheplace1]

You turn the techniques that Hluodwica has created onto the Wind-rich mushrooms and are able to find ones that work for each of them: smoking for Aqshy, pickling for Ghyran, and for Ulgu, mincing, spicing, lightly cooking in butter, and being reduced to a paste that is placed inside a bite-sized pie. Careful study confirms that it still contains the magical energies, and further study confirms that it is delicious. The magic inside flows into you much faster, and while it's not really enough to tip the scales for someone at your level of spellcasting ability, it could make a significant difference to those not yet able to easily draw on large amounts of ambient Winds - which could be a very useful resource for Journeymen. You prepare a significant amount of the Azyr specimens for Hubert to use on the Expedition.

[New papers available: Windsoak Mushrooms - Ulgu, Aqshy, Ghyran, Azyr.]

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This makes me wonder things: if the limiting factor is the speed of digestion are there other ways to intake this stuff faster? a pill that dissolves it for you, then neutralizes the stronger acid before it can damage your stomach? or a massive cycle of wind-infused blood into the body as you cycle drained blood out of the body, possibly up to a volume of several times the body's blood content? Only the second one has even the vaguest chance of being possible at this tech level though, and it would depend on whether Dwarves have figured out blood transfusions and whether someone can figure out how to get magic infused into blood(copy what the mushrooms are doing? put an enchantment on the blood?).

 

[Shovern]

If the star was inverted in some way I'd take it the way you're saying but otherwise it looks more like you know just straight up saying "i'm chaos"

That said perhaps dwarven psychology would take a different meaning from it? Still seems sketchy to me.

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I think it seems fitting given some of the warnings we've received? Plus I don't know what to say, They're the dumb fucks that put Dum in their name. A name which can be read as "Mountain of Chaos" Or "Chaos Mountain" (Not sure which is right, correct me if these are wrong pickle). The K.A.S Bad Implications left port over Three-thousand years ago I'm afraid, and I'm not going to be the one to change it.

 

[Boney]

This makes me wonder things: if the limiting factor is the speed of digestion are there other ways to intake this stuff faster? a pill that dissolves it for you, then neutralizes the stronger acid before it can damage your stomach? or a massive cycle of wind-infused blood into the body as you cycle drained blood out of the body, possibly up to a volume of several times the body's blood content? Only the second one has even the vaguest chance of being possible at this tech level though, and it would depend on whether Dwarves have figured out blood transfusions and whether someone can figure out how to get magic infused into blood(copy what the mushrooms are doing? put an enchantment on the blood?).

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Magic doesn't exist in the blood, it exists in the soul. When the mushroom gets digested, the Winds are released from it and pass straight from the body to the soul.

 

[Jyn Ryvia]

Maybe there's a distinction between learning about and applying subject matter, but I would personally consider learning how to actually go about grabbing apparitions to fall under research rather than self-improvement; it's something we're going to be writing papers on first and foremost, to make it a staple of the college, rather than something I foresee making us immediately more powerful.

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I feel like this is one of those projects that you really want to show off the finished product before you tell people your poking at apparitions.

 

[Mount. Elements]

[X] Julia, to see what she has gotten up to as Stirland's most experienced spy master.

 

[storryeater]

If the star was inverted in some way I'd take it the way you're saying but otherwise it looks more like you know just straight up saying "i'm chaos"

That said perhaps dwarven psychology would take a different meaning from it? Still seems sketchy to me.

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I think it signifies the karak stays between Dum(chaos) and the outside , when taking into account that "above"=/="good" for the Dawi, as they would much more likely prefer the below.

 

[newgman]

[x] Spell name - Mathilde's Rite of Way

 

[Redshirt Army]

Do dwarves have a Good-Omens-esque "lowrarchy" where the lower you are on it, the more powerful your position?

 

[BeepSmile]

Do dwarves have a Good-Omens-esque "lowrarchy" where the lower you are on it, the more powerful your position?

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... context? Where does this idea appear in Good Omens?

 

[picklepikkl]

Maybe there's a distinction between learning about and applying subject matter, but I would personally consider learning how to actually go about grabbing apparitions to fall under research rather than self-improvement; it's something we're going to be writing papers on first and foremost, rather than something I foresee making us immediately more powerful.

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Fair. Perhaps I should have said "our pre-existing research projects": find any applications of AV to Teclisean magic rather than just fueling up dwarf Anvils, poking at Divine Magic in a more Ranald-approved way, and investigating the Tongs theory for "does this work or not." I'd like us to whole-ass one of our existing things; we are spread very thin.

Their name can be read as "Mountain of Chaos" Or "Chaos Mountain" (Not sure which is right, correct me if these are wrong pickle).

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No, you're absolutely right. Karag: Volcano/barren mountain, Dum: doom/darkness/evil/Chaos. The sole mitigating factor, as far as I can tell, is the fact that they are called Karag Dum rather than Karak Dum: if I were the sort to overanalyze things (which I am), I would say that rather than have a proper Karak -- a dwarfhold, a living mountain -- they identify themselves as a barren mountain. That reads to me as implying "this is not a place where dwarves ought to be" -- they acknowledge the fundamental wrongness of their situation, even as they do it anyway because the necessity of keeping vigil against Chaos mandates it. I'd be much more nervous about a Dwarfhold calling itself Karak Dum: "yeah, we're at home in Chaos."

(Tangentially: the Fandom wiki glosses Karak as Enduring and Karaz as Mountain, and the Lexicanum wiki glosses those the other way around. This is frustrating and dumb. @BoneyM, what is your take on those two words?)

Do dwarves have a Good-Omens-esque "lowrarchy" where the lower you are on it, the more powerful your position?

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I'll have you know that CS Lewis did that first, in The Screwtape Letters, and if that's in Good Omens then Pratchett & Gaiman were stealing from the greats.

 

[Koraan]

I get it!
[X] Spell name: Mathilde's Portable Highway (MPH)

[X] Greet and get to know the Wizards joining the Expedition as they arrive at Praag.
[X] Adela, to see how her gradual nepotistic takeover of the Karag Nar Gunnery School is going.
[X] The Dolgan, to get to know the people of the western Steppes who will hopefully be feeding the Expedition.
[X] Anton, to get nosy about his possible love life

I still vote for MRoW, though.
[X] Spell name - Mathilde's Rite of Way

 

[DocMatoi]

[x] Greet and get to know the Wizards joining the Expedition as they arrive at Praag.
[x] Join Hubert and the Winter Wolves for the final leg of their journey to Praag.
[x] Join Esbern, Seija, and the Knights of Taal's Fury for the final leg of their journey to Praag.
[x] Julia, to see what she has gotten up to as Stirland's most experienced spy master.
[x] The Dolgan, to get to know the people of the western Steppes who will hopefully be feeding the Expedition.


No M.A.T.H.I.L.D.E. shenanigans this time? Let's see...
Magically Access Terrain Heretofore Impassable; Lead/ing Devotees Expeditiously

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[X] Magically Access Terrain Heretofore Impassable; Lead/ing Devotees Expeditiously

[x] Mathilde's Aethyric Travel Hindrance/Impediment/unLevel Dirt Eliminator

 

[Boney]

No, you're absolutely right. Karag: Volcano/barren mountain, Dum: doom/darkness/evil/Chaos. The sole mitigating factor, as far as I can tell, is the fact that they are called Karag Dum rather than Karak Dum: if I were the sort to overanalyze things (which I am), I would say that rather than have a proper Karak -- a dwarfhold, a living mountain -- they identify themselves as a barren mountain. That reads to me as implying "this is not a place where dwarves ought to be" -- they acknowledge the fundamental wrongness of their situation, even as they do it anyway because the necessity of keeping vigil against Chaos mandates it. I'd be much more nervous about a Dwarfhold calling itself Karak Dum: "yeah, we're at home in Chaos."

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Karag is said to mean 'barren mountain', to me it seems to mean in the sense of 'a mountain that has no useful minerals left to be mined', which is why the K8P Karags are Karags. Karag Dum might be emphasizing that their purpose is not wealth, or it could be a snub that they're not considered a 'proper' Karak, or it could be an acknowledgement of their precarious situation which means that it can't be assumed that it will endure, or it could be because it's a reference to Mount Doom that's been translated literally.

(Tangentially: the Fandom wiki glosses Karak as Enduring and Karaz as Mountain, and the Lexicanum wiki glosses those the other way around. This is frustrating and dumb. @BoneyM, what is your take on those two words?)

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-ak is always an abstract concept, -az is ambiguous as it can refer to either a physical object or an abstract concept that Dwarves think is important enough or embodied well enough to 'upgrade' to a physical thing. So Karak would be enduring, Karaz would be mountain, or endurance, or an embodiment of true endurance.

 

[BeepSmile]

I'll have you know that CS Lewis did that first, in The Screwtape Letters, and if that's in Good Omens then Pratchett & Gaiman were stealing from the greats.

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CS Lewis is a fucking hack[1] who just ripped off a fanfic of The Epic Of Gilgamesh!

Insightful retracted.

[1] I was, and am, offended by his blatency (Aslan is Jesus, Ok, I fucking get it) and authoritarianism - the star that got punished (Voyage of the Dawn Treader) for breaking the rules, and not because what he did was harmful, iirc, but because the rules were broken. Fuck the rules.

Gaiman and Pratchett are each a hundred times the writers CS Lewis could hoped to have been.
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Edit: But I did enjoy the rest of your post.