- Pronouns
- She/Her
Oh well. It was a close vote but I don't think this will cause any calamities or anything. I just liked the other one more.
Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest
- Thread starter Boney
- Start date
- Fantasy Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Aranfan
Team Plasma Grunt
Same. Your points were very good, and well argued. I just fundamentally prefer skullduggery to command.
- Location
- Aotearoa
While I expect it's somewhat more than that, it was to my understanding a vote of some significant responsibility for Mathilde, with persistent consequences for the Expeditions' organisation, and thus operations.
Whether those differences materially affect the chances of success remains to be seen, but I don't think it's primarily a matter of taste.
Whether those differences materially affect the chances of success remains to be seen, but I don't think it's primarily a matter of taste.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
So is anyone waiting at the Pass, or has it been retconned such that everyone is meeting in Praag?
NexusEye
Aspiring God
- Pronouns
- She/Her
We haven't met the Ice Witch yet, she's presumably waiting at the Pass.
- Location
- Toronto, Ontario(occasionally)
I was too busy to keep up with the thread until now, ever since I cast my vote.
Anyone willing to summarize/point me at the argument for me?
- Location
- somewhere over there.
- Pronouns
- They/It
Last I saw it was a question of Mathilde having to spend more time in the command tent due to having more responsibilities, vs her being able to spend time sneaking around murdering things. The fact that she has to go off and steal a thing for the Ice Witches was also brought up as a reason not to make herself responsible for like, half the people here.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Wonder if we'll finally see some enemies with magical items.
So we can finally tell Kragg how his third Rune worked.
So we can finally tell Kragg how his third Rune worked.
- Location
- Toronto, Ontario(occasionally)
I'm somewhere deathly anxious of this expedition, but I still kind of think it can achieve a win.(by some definition of 'win')
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I've accepted it'll be hard period, and am more curious about the particulars: we encountered like a dozen warbosses in Eight Peaks and killed five or six but we never saw any magical items on them.
It's kinda been griping on me (and not for loot purposes, just because we can so easily get them yet leaders among factions can't?)
Hopefully the Chaos scum has something more to them.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Orcs usually are not that well equipped. Unless have had successful looting they often are armed with rocks. A warboss is lucky if he has a dwarf made axe. As for chaos they also don't really care that much about equipment. I get the feeling that effort making equipment is better spent making a better demon. In general the side of order is better equipped because they actually cooperate and make equipment for each other. The destruction factions get their equipment by stealing order's stuff.
Besides the ratmen, but they had good stuff. Even if we never did figure out what it did.
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- Location
- Toronto, Ontario(occasionally)
Except for Chaos dwarves and the people who trade with them. We're passing through their area, we're likely to see things they've traded out even if we're lucky enough to never see them.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Very true. With luck some of the stuff will actually be worth looting. It's not all demon infested. Does it strike anyone as unfair that the chaos factions freely steal order weapons and tools, but order can't do the reverse?
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- Location
- Australia
NexusEye
Aspiring God
- Pronouns
- She/Her
It's a nickname, 'az' literally means metal or weapon but can also mean as reliable as metal and 'umgi' is human, so it can be taken to mean something like 'reliable armoured warrior human'. The regular Khazalid word for Knight is 'Khazhunki'. 'Grim' means harsh or unyielding but is probably also a bilingual pun, 'zharr-rinn' means 'fire lady'. His nicknames tend to be very comradely, 'drengbarazi' can be roughly translated as 'murder BFFs'.
Borek Goreksson is the most easygoing, personable dwarf in all of warhamer media.
he is even nice to the wood elf A lot of the time. (An considering how many people irl hate kerillian, that's saying something.)
- Location
- Europa, Jupiter Orbit
So diseases, accidents and aneurisms aren't a thing in your game? Or at least not below a certain age?
IMO breaking out the actuarial tables and fishing for a natural 1 on a d1000 for every single named character isn't really the best use of QM time.
Again, this time of thing is better to put into narrative time for most characters.
E.g they will die off screen when the QM thinks it's time for them too.
The Karag Dum Expedition, Part 2
There is no question in your mind that you'll push for being responsible for Asarnil, but the Knightly Orders were a trickier question. You've gone back and forth on it several times, and it breaks down to two separate questions: whether it's better to have more human voices on the council or your own voice be more powerful, and whether it's better to have more overall control over battles or more opportunity to personally intervene. In the end, more voices and more personal freedom won out, but only just.
As you approach, the steam-wagons sprout rope ladders and a steady stream of disembarking Dwarves starts to pour out, some clustering concernedly around the bases of the wagons and others heading determinedly towards the town. As you get closer a head pops up from the former and Gotrek gives you a wave. You take the opportunity to examine the nearest steam-wagon as he approaches. Up close, the scope of the modifications that have been made to the River Monitor designs to build the steam-wagons becomes clear. Eight larger wheels in two clusters seem to provide locomotive force, with large steel rods connecting the rods on the outside, presumably to transfer motion from the boiler. To the fore and aft of each are additional, smaller wheels that presumably are there to further distribute the weight of the behemoths, and from the furrows they left in their wake it seems like there's additional wheels underneath.
"Morgrim weeps," Gotrek says as he reaches you, "but in the service of recovering the last places He saw His father, I hope it can be forgiven. We just couldn't make the four-wheel design work, not if we ever wanted to cross anything but solid stone. Didn't even have enough time to cover up the coupling rods, could feel the eyes of manling tinkerers on them all the way here."
"Any trouble on the way?"
"We mostly stuck to roads built by our ancestors. Only tricky part was crossing rivers, since our bridges are long gone and the manling ones weren't built for anything like this sort of traffic, so to be safe we shut off the engines, caulked them up, and pulled them across by hand. Much easier said than done. But nobody tried to block our path, the beasties and bandits that haunt the roads wanted no part of us and the few Roadwardens with the stones to try to stop us relaxed when they saw beards pop over the parapets. Could have used a test to the weapons, but I'm sure there'll be opportunity aplenty."
You look further up the body of the monitors to another new addition: just about where the waterline would be is a series of large hatches, eight in all. "Those for the shotcannon?"
"He's trouble on two legs, that Gotri, but he knows what he's about. I'd rather have a good broadside of Organ Guns, but nobody's giving those away, are they? We've got eight on each, and we've been working on drills to unmount and remount them in a hurry. When we're just trundling along we'll have two pointing each way and the other hatches will be for firing crossbows and handguns out of, and if we come under sustained attack we'll form a ring around the Urmskaladrak and shift them all onto the outer side."
You turn your eyes to the largest of the steam-wagons. "It's unarmed?"
"Between the added wheels and the gun-decks we lost a lot of storage space compared to the original designs, so we went with one larger mother-ship dedicated to storage to make up the difference. Was going to have a gyrocopter pad on top, but that became a bit redundant with the Drakkelgi so it's where the beast perches and the Elgi has set up that silken tent of his. We've also got all the Slayers aboard it, they've built a Shrine to Grimnir in their level and they rarely venture out so there's no trouble so far."
"The Slayers are sticking to the vessel you're trying to keep from combat?"
"We've got a plan for that," he says with a grin. "But yes, more guns means more gun crews means less room for Slayers on each. Borek's been grumbling that the shotcannon were more trouble than they were worth, but he'll change his tune the first time they see action."
"How tight is storage space, exactly?"
Gotrek shrugs. "Thorek's lads did some amazing work on the boilers, setting up runes to shunt heat out of one compartment into the boilers so we've got a freeze-room for meat and need much less coked peat to keep the boilers going at full steam, but we only broke even trading peat storage for meat storage, and then we needed powder and shot for the cannon. We went heavy on the former at the expense of the latter because if we've got powder but no shot we can still fire gravel or scrap metal or what-have-you. The mother-ship helped, but if we rely only on stores we'll be down to stonebread by halfway."
"You're telling me we've got enough food to get there, but nothing for the return trip?"
"That's one way to put it. I've been trying to convince myself that it just means Borek has faith in this deal you struck with the horsemanlings, and in the ability for these Knights to hunt and gather."
You grimace, but then shake your head. "Whether he does or not, it should work out. Either the Dolgan stick to their side of the bargain and supply food, or they keep their distance and then the Knights are more than capable of rustling a herd or two of cattle, or they decide to attack us, and each of them is sitting atop a lot of meat. Horse isn't exactly tasty, but it'll fill bellies."
"Aye, that's what Snorri has been saying. 'Four horses a day' is what he reckons, and that if we can't take on four Kurgan a day we should all shave our heads and join the lads in the Urmskaladrak."
"I'm hoping none of the events of the next few months lead anyone down that road."
---
Gotrek leads you to the Alriksson, which has become the lead wagon and Borek's seat of power pretty much by default, and you clamber up a rope ladder to join the first prototype meeting of the Expeditionary Council. "Grandmaster," Borek says to you in greeting as you enter, and Snorri gives a nod. "We've been discussing the chain of command for the Expedition. Between your own rank and good name, and the contributions that King Belegar has made, and the..." he pauses just for a moment, "unique capabilities of the Zhufokri, there's no doubt in my mind that you deserve a position of command in this Expedition."
"Thank you, Thane Borek."
He grimaces at the title, but doesn't comment. He's absolutely entitled to it under Dwarven tradition since he's leading this Expedition, but it might rankle that it was given to him by Karak Kadrin, rather than by his home. "To catch you up, the Engineers and gun crews will be under Gotrek, and the Rangers under Snorri. On paper the Slayers will be under Snorri too, but really they'll sort themselves out. The next matter is less clear. The Drakkelgi. I was hoping that since they have replaced the Gyrocopter..."
"Oh no," Gotrek says firmly. "They both fly, but that's where the similarities end. I'd barely know which end of the damn thing to feed, let alone how to command it."
"I can take responsibility for communicating with Asarnil and Volrothrai," you say confidently. "We worked together well during the Sylvanian campaign."
"Then they're yours, with my gratitude. Second, the matter of the Knights." He looks at Snorri hopefully.
"Completely different paradigm. Aye, 'range far, range fast', but not that fast."
"Then we'll have to elevate one of them, I suppose. Which group has seniority?"
You shake your head. "I'd strongly advise against that. The Knights of Taal's Fury are dedicated to Taal, and the Winter Wolves to Ulric. It would be like if you picked one out of Morgrim and Smednir to give superiority over the other." You leave unmentioned the political troubles, since you'd rather not air the Empire's dirty laundry in front of its allies unless you really have to. The Winter Wolves are no longer part of the Empire and the Knights of Taal's Fury very much are. There likely won't be trouble if they're simply fighting against a common enemy, but if one is given command over the other it will get political very quickly. But considering the grimaces on the faces of the three Dwarves, your simile has hit its mark.
"Point taken," Borek says. "Both it is, then. I take it you're familiar with those organizations?"
"Fairly familiar personally, and Masters Esbern and Seija are among the Knights of Taal's Fury, and Journeyman Hubert is King Belegar's Envoy to the Winter Wolves."
"Then I'd appreciate if you could find whoever is in command of them and bring them to this meeting."
---
It doesn't take you long, since the bases of the steam-wagons have become a milling crowd of curious Knights and Wizards, with the Praag locals gawking from a much more cautious distance. It doesn't take you long to find the respective Wizards and get your introductions to the two new Councillors. Of the Knights of Taal's Fury, Preceptor Joerg von Zavstra is a man whose name tells a story, as the formulation is clearly of the Empire but Zavstra is a Kislevite city, albeit one built on the four-way crossroads between Kislev, Ostland, Talabecland and Ostermark. The man himself is as heavily bearded as he is heavily muscled, and rarely talks much except when the topic is combat or animals. His counterpart of the Winter Wolves is Sir Ruprecht Wulfhart the Younger, which is another meaning-laden name. From what you recall, somewhere during the Time of Three Emperors the Cult of Ulric were forced to make vows of celibacy as a condition of their return to Middenheim, and ever since the requirement has been oft ignored by those who feel that petty politics should not bind them. It seems that Sir Ruprecht Wulfhart felt that way at least once in the time before the Winter Wolves left the Cult, and the newfound independence of the Winter Wolves has allowed him to induct his son into the ranks. He's a bit brash but well-liked, and it seems command of the Wolves on this Expedition is his chance to prove that he didn't get in on nepotism alone.
You bring the two Knights back to the meeting and the rest of it is dedicated to matters of logistics. Six Councillors and six steam-wagons leads to the natural conclusion that each should take residence in one. Borek has already claimed the Alriksson and Gotrek claims the Urmskaladrak for logistical reasons, and it's extremely straightforward to give Sir Ruprecht the Kriestov and yourself the Volans. Given the choice between the remaining two Preceptor Joerg takes the Magnus, perhaps because taking the other would raise eyebrows in combination with his Kislevite birthtown, and that leaves Snorri with the Alexis.
"We'll take on supplies here and at Uskovic and Volksgrad," Gotrek says in near-perfect Reikspiel. "So the clock will only really start once we reach the Dukhlys Forest, though I'm hoping we'll be able to hunt and forage and fell trees to stretch that further." Confident nods from Preceptor Joerg and Sir Ruprecht. "We should close out the first week about the time we reach High Pass, where this weather-witch should be waiting."
"She'll ride aboard the Volans," Borek says, his own Reikspiel heavily accented but passable.
"The second week will take us through High Pass, the third across the plateau, the fourth up the Skull Road and skirting along Iron Wolf territory, and the fifth is the final sprint through Dolgan and Yusak territory to Karag Dum, which is also the point where we'll be leaving anything resembling a road."
"Slower than the estimates," you comment.
"If you find an Engineer who can go from blueprint to battlefield without a hiccup, it's Morgrim paying us a visit. We can do higher speeds, but as we learned on the way here, it's hell on the axles if we keep it up long-term. Four miles an hour, ten hours a day. That's what we can do and still have steam-wagons for the trip back."
"That gives us more room to work," Joerg says. "If the steam-wagons were going eighty miles a day, our Demigryphs would not be able to do much more than keep up. But half that? We can range ahead, scout an encampment position, then scout and hunt in the area."
"Our wolves can keep pace with the steam-wagons, keep the flanks secure and be a moving picket around the convoy," Ruprecht says. "Then when camp is made, do our own hunting. The twilight hours belong to wolves."
"I'll set you up with some signal rockets," Gotrek says.
"For communication from the convoy, there are flags and signal drums," Snorri says. "Do you know our flags?" Ruprecht nods, Joerg shakes his head. "I'll assign a Ranger to instruct you in the evenings. The drums are simpler, and if I recall correctly there are common Empire tunes that match most of them. Send a musician each to the Alexis and I'll have our drummers pass them on."
---
Once the Council meeting ends, you make your way over to your own steam-wagon and make yourself familiar with it. You'd only need to give orders if for whatever reason the Volans becomes separated from the rest of the convoy, so for now your command simply means that you get a cabin to yourself while the other Wizards have to decide between bunks or setting up tents each night. Truth be told, you might have trouble filling the days for at least the first couple of weeks, as the journey has little chance to become eventful until you emerge from High Pass into the Zorn Uzkul. The temptation is there to dip into your reading materials and let the days slip by, but though you're only really obligated to start doing things once enemies or problems start appearing, you suppose it would be best to either make yourself useful or get to know those you will be journeying with in the weeks to come.
The four with the most votes will be chosen.
Spend time getting to know:
[ ] Thane Borek Forkbeard
[ ] Head Engineer Gotrek Gurnisson
[ ] Head Ranger Snorri Farstrider
[ ] Preceptor Joerg von Zavstra
[ ] Sir Ruprecht Wulfhart the Younger
[ ] Asarnil the Dragonlord
[ ] Deathfang
[ ] Magister Egrimm van Horstmann
[ ] Citharus, Barbitus, and Timpania
[ ] Magister Michel Solmann
[ ] Journeyman Cyrston von Danling
[ ] Journeywoman Alexandra Kohler
Become involved with:
[ ] Ranging far ahead of the convoy
- With the Knights of Taal's Fury
[ ] Scouting near the convoy
- With the Winter Wolves
[ ] Hunting
- With both the Knights and the Wolves
[ ] Foraging
- With the Rangers
- There will be a one hour moratorium.
- If there's another way you think Mathilde could usefully apply her time, let me know.
- Each of these 'actions' represents at most a couple of days of time, so training or teaching would not yield significant results.
- Extremely rough sketch of the steam-wagons, for visualization purposes:
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taovkool
Forever Gone
- Location
- The Library, Department of General Works
[ ] Head Engineer Gotrek Gurnisson
The most important character to get chummy with.
Old Snorri Gift Giver finally finished with Karag Dum. And here's Mathild just barely got started. For shame, beardling. For shame.
The most important character to get chummy with.
Old Snorri Gift Giver finally finished with Karag Dum. And here's Mathild just barely got started. For shame, beardling. For shame.
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