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[X] Act normal

Because this one is betting on Mathilde's Intrigue stat. She's moderately good at that.

And this gives some interesting information to provide to Kragg, that walking into an already-extant spell effect won't trigger the Belt. (I do wish Kragg were here.)

Actually, that's a valid higher authority - he would probably be an excellent person to take point on this.

Hmm... I wonder, would Ranald be willing to take a message to Heidi?
 
If nothing else, forget the Waystone Network for a minute... what about the mental effect? Magic doesn't come from nowhere. That mental effect is either tied to some object or originating from some caster, and if Mathilde continues to look I bet she can figure out where it's being cast from. There's your lead that isn't buried underneath a mountain.
Um, you know, it's a funny thought but...

Could we activate Kragg's belt on that mental effect?


Not that I would necessarily want to give away what the belt does. Nor would I necessarily want to use up the spellburning rune on just the "somebody else's problem field" magic rather than something like "holy shit a huge spell is launched at you!" or "use belt on this ritual, like with back at Karag Yar, Y/No?"

Would prefer to just try to start unraveling the mental effect first. Hm. Think the Light and Celestial magisters might be useful for this?
 
You know, I almost feel like we're back in Stirland just happening upon evidence of Alcazad'e Black College. Like "oh, don't mind me, just minding my own business and seeing if I can't lend a hand... oh shit, semi-apocalyptic mess just waiting to happen!" Or maybe the Only Gork ritual. Like, we go in just to take a look around and see if we can be mildly useful, and instead stumble upon a massively important thing. Now we get to go in and kill everything again.
At least this time we actually have some backup.
 
Also let's be serious here, we know that something is affecting the dwarves minds, and the horn is meant to be used if the scouts are under attack, Dwarves would definitely consider some magical thing altering their minds to be an attack.

Hence we're using the horn for exactly what it's intended for.
 
You vaguely here one of the Rangers ask something
hear

"I'm glad we were able to talk, and I'm looking forward to see what you learned in Hochland."

We don't actually know it's Chaos, just suspect it. It could be that the local Dwarfs decided to do a complex hiding magic to prevent themselves from getting overrun. I expect hiding an entire Dwarf Hold probably takes some significant magic.

If it is Chaos then they're probably saving up for some massive invasion/ritual/summoning thing. They probably won't want to break their pattern by attacking a group of adventurers and risk having some get away and warn people.

[X] Act normal
We're pretty close to the main Expedition force, our backup dragon can arrive in minutes and odds are they haven't noticed anything yet.

Of course the question then becomes what next? We can't just leave this mystery here behind us, if only because it can then strike at us at the worst time. We basically have to investigate this problem. I'm thinking we return to the Expedition and then bring back all our forces to investigate the mystery.
 
To be ruthless about this, giving whatever this is a very large and obvious target in a dragon ups our chances of gently nudging things into a suitably Mathildeian implosion while they are focused on the obvious threat. And I certainly don't want to take my eyes off of it to run away.
 
2. There's no WOG collection threadmarked. Are there any important WOGs I should know?
Other than the handful of collections in WoG, the only way to actually get everything is to go: Thread Tools (top right) -> Who Replied? -> BoneyM -> and then just read all of his comments.
If you'd like to read some more WHFB quests, I have a somewhat limited and outdated list here.
Of Wolves And Witches actually concluded and is now in the beginnings of its official sequel under a new game system.
Huh. Wonder if we'll end up as the representative, since we're already around and helping the Ice Witches anyway. We also have a decent track record of dealing with divine conflicts already.
On the one hand Heidi has a more direct line. On the other she has less freedom to just take a trip to Kislev. I say after the expedition we consult with her and then (probably) bring the message ourselves.
 
[X] Stand your ground
- Snorri has a horn, you have Illusion to make the same sound except louder. Asarnil can be here within a couple of minutes, and the Knights soon after that. Stand your ground and if it does anything, you might be able to disrupt it.

This escalated quickly. :V
 
Um, you know, it's a funny thought but...

Could we activate Kragg's belt on that mental effect?


Not that I would necessarily want to give away what the belt does. Nor would I necessarily want to use up the spellburning rune on just the "somebody else's problem field" magic rather than something like "holy shit a huge spell is launched at you!" or "use belt on this ritual, like with back at Karag Yar, Y/No?"

The Belt isn't manually activated, it triggers when a hostile spell is cast at Mathilde. In this case it seems like the spell is on the mountain or the energy stream or on whatever the energy is going to, not Mathilde, which is why it doesn't trigger the rune.
 
And now I'm back to this. To be honest, I imagine we're going to have to deal with something whatever we do, and I don't really see the time difference being too important. So honestly, I want everybody alert and ready as soon as possible.
There's a pretty salient difference in terms of what people can get alert and ready for. "A massive ritual brewing for 185 years from inside a vanished dwarf hold, despite the fact that stone is an excellent insulator of magic" is not even going to be on anybody's list of possible threats right now, much less near the top.
To be ruthless about this, giving whatever this is a very large and obvious target in a dragon ups our chances of gently nudging things into a suitably Mathildeian implosion while they are focused on the obvious threat. And I certainly don't want to take my eyes off of it to run away.
The dragon is no threat to them at all. The ritual is taking place inside a mountain's worth of solid stone. The reinforcements in the Stand Your Ground option are being summoned to protect us, not to attack anything. Because there's nothing there that they can attack, unless the ritual starts summoning daemons all around us.

Edit: which, incidentally, is assuming that if the ritual tries anything in response they'd want to target us directly, rather than the expedition that is presumably their actual target. And which we would have just summoned some of the strongest defenders away from.
 
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[x] Stand your ground

And now I'm back to this. To be honest, I imagine we're going to have to deal with something whatever we do, and I don't really see the time difference being too important. So honestly, I want everybody alert and ready as soon as possible.
Stand your ground does alert them the fastest, but it doesn't make them ready, because they don't know what the warning's about.
 
Karag Dum has already been rolled. We have no clue about what was rolled, but it has been rolled.

Dice Roller • Orokos.com

Vertical and horizontal axis, 3 and 2.

hmmm

Assuming that were are referring to standard grip square with the standard four quadrants...

We could place the ends of each axis as 1 and 3, with two being 0,0 for both.

So with that the assumption in mind, one set of paremeters has been maxed out, while the other is neutral. 0,3.

Alternatively Assuming this only uses a single section graph with only one X and Y line... then.

Then its middle of the road in one way and at the highest it could go in another.

So depending on the type of graph and what those axis are being used to measure....

Either only 50% as good or bad as it possibly could have been on Four quad graph.

or for single square line graph... its either really good or really bad.

Alternatively if the two axis are in opposition to each other, this means that, on a 4 quadrant grid, that one side of the Good/bad dichotomy has been maxed out, while the other don't got shit.

on a line graph however they would instead cancel out and only being slightly good or slightly bad.

So ultimately it tell us fuck all.
 
Vertical and horizontal axis, 3 and 2.

hmmm

Assuming that were are referring to standard grip square with the standard four quadrants...

We could place the ends of each axis as 1 and 3, with two being 0,0 for both.

So with that the assumption in mind, one set of paremeters has been maxed out, while the other is neutral. 0,3.

Alternatively Assuming this only uses a single section graph with only one X and Y line... then.

Then its middle of the road in one way and at the highest it could go in another.

So depending on the type of graph and what those axis are being used to measure....

Either only 50% as good or bad as it possibly could have been on Four quad graph.

or for single square line graph... its either really good or really bad.

Alternatively if the two axis are in opposition to each other, this means that, on a 4 quadrant grid, that one side of the Good/bad dichotomy has been maxed out, while the other don't got shit.

on a line graph however they would instead cancel out and only being slightly good or slightly bad.

So ultimately it tell us fuck all.
I mean, I was assuming it's this.
123
2
3

Just a simple 3x3.
 
The Belt isn't manually activated, it triggers when a hostile spell is cast at Mathilde. In this case it seems like the spell is on the mountain or the energy stream or on whatever the energy is going to, not Mathilde, which is why it doesn't trigger the rune.
Hm. Next question, then:

does this count as a "positive magical effect/buff" for the mountain?

That is to say --

[Rune of Superior Skill: any foe struck by this sword has all magical weapons, armour, items, and positive magical effects cease working for several minutes. Though an original rune, the effect is very similar to Thorek Ironbrow's prototype rune. Knowing Kragg, this is almost certainly deliberate.]

-- how does the Rune of Superior Skill apply here?

If we hit a part of the mountain, would it remove the positive effect on that small part of the mountain? Or would it have no effect, unless we found whatever the 'core' is and hit that? Or, would the Rune of Superior Skill not apply here at all? Or, do we have no idea at all?
 
@BoneyM : Is there any possibility that this whole thing was done by the dwarves of Karak Vlag? Considering the whole "seemlessly and tracelessly puts words in the mouths of both dwarves and a Lady Magister who is extremely good at detecting magical energies and effects", the fact that it happened to an old hold that may have had a masterwork from the Age of the Ancestors in place, and the fact that power from the Waystone network continues to flow into it without the High King's crown/control system noting that anything is wrong with that?

The issue is that you'd basically need "direct and massive power feed from a Waystone network" to even do the kind of magic that vanished Vlag into thin air (and replaced it with stone) in the first place, and Vlag isn't even in the Chaos Wastes. Combine that with Karak Vlag having inherent defenses in the form of runes powered by the Waystone network and being inside of a mountain of stone, and it seems rather unlikely a feat of Chaos. If Chaos had that kind of power at its disposal, why not just nuke the combined Order armies at Kislev's gates?
 
Hm. Next question, then:

does this count as a "positive magical effect/buff" for the mountain?

That is to say --

[Rune of Superior Skill: any foe struck by this sword has all magical weapons, armour, items, and positive magical effects cease working for several minutes. Though an original rune, the effect is very similar to Thorek Ironbrow's prototype rune. Knowing Kragg, this is almost certainly deliberate.]

-- how does the Rune of Superior Skill apply here?

If we hit a part of the mountain, would it remove the positive effect on that small part of the mountain? Or would it have no effect, unless we found whatever the 'core' is and hit that? Or, would the Rune of Superior Skill not apply here at all? Or, do we have no idea at all?

Mountains are not foes.
 
@BoneyM What would happen if we actually managed to get Vlag back, and dum?

Would we finally eclipse sigmar in terms of dwarf favor?

Also on this note...

[X] You have something these chaos loving fools do not! You have a product of Kragg the Grim's Superior skill! Start digging, your going to smack this vile sorcery with your sword!

Look guys, we just need to use the rune of superior skill to throw some water on the circuit breaker!

That'll fuck whatever this is right the hell up!

But we need to get to the actually magical parts of this first!
 
I can't dig through all of the comments right now, but has it been suggested that maybe we aren't the target? If we aren't the target for whatever is going on here, would it be worth the risk to what is clearly a long term plan to mess with us? I would think we should try to minimize the value of interfering with the expedition and then quickly move on.
 
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