I feel like you just told a story in nine words there.
(Sure maybe it just hasn't made it into the lexicon, but doesn't it feel true?)
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.
I feel like you just told a story in nine words there.
(Sure maybe it just hasn't made it into the lexicon, but doesn't it feel true?)
The Prayer of a Stirland Thief
- Location
- Chicago
- Pronouns
- She/They
The Prayer of a Stirland Thief
Oh grey one,
Oh Dammerlichter,
I beg you now
to hear my prayer.
Into danger and darkness again I must go-
My needs now reap, far more than I've sown.
Your friendly darkness shall wrap all about me,
Your magics and spells you will weave to protect me.
Your sword I do trust with my life against evil,
For your eyes through the darkness all threats shall reveal.
Cut down the wight, the zombie, the spectre.
Burn with your shadow the dread necromancer.
But gentle a touch on watchmen I ask,
That they may all sleep as I steal myself past.
Oh grey one,
Oh Dammerlichter,
I go now to business,
For need presses I fear.
Judge and forgive the small wrongs that I do,
And hide me from sight of judges harsher than you!
Grant me your footfalls that don't touch the ground,
Grant me your knife that makes not a sound.
Grant me your dances through locked doors and walls,
And grant me your luck, your luck most of all.
I like the idea of a Goddess of the Friendly Night, a friend of honorable thieves and dwarves, a stern foe of chaos and corruption. She would be the terror of the night turned sheltering blanket, the evil of magic made ward and armor.
Kinda an inversion of the evil witch in the darkness, the one who thieves and peasants believe is on their side against the evil ones.
Ironically, very much could be glossed as the headstrong daughter of Ranald and Shallya.
[x] Waystone Clog
Oh grey one,
Oh Dammerlichter,
I beg you now
to hear my prayer.
Into danger and darkness again I must go-
My needs now reap, far more than I've sown.
Your friendly darkness shall wrap all about me,
Your magics and spells you will weave to protect me.
Your sword I do trust with my life against evil,
For your eyes through the darkness all threats shall reveal.
Cut down the wight, the zombie, the spectre.
Burn with your shadow the dread necromancer.
But gentle a touch on watchmen I ask,
That they may all sleep as I steal myself past.
Oh grey one,
Oh Dammerlichter,
I go now to business,
For need presses I fear.
Judge and forgive the small wrongs that I do,
And hide me from sight of judges harsher than you!
Grant me your footfalls that don't touch the ground,
Grant me your knife that makes not a sound.
Grant me your dances through locked doors and walls,
And grant me your luck, your luck most of all.
I like the idea of a Goddess of the Friendly Night, a friend of honorable thieves and dwarves, a stern foe of chaos and corruption. She would be the terror of the night turned sheltering blanket, the evil of magic made ward and armor.
Kinda an inversion of the evil witch in the darkness, the one who thieves and peasants believe is on their side against the evil ones.
Ironically, very much could be glossed as the headstrong daughter of Ranald and Shallya.
[x] Waystone Clog
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Ericwinter
Definitely not a Skaven Infiltrator
- Location
- America
Chaotic Good Goddess of Rogues and Wizards, essentially?
Hmm, could Abel have faked his own death to escape Mathilde and Anton?
Edit: Is Roswita really just Abel in drag?
Sir_Travelsalot
Never wakes up tired.
- Location
- At Home
Unless he was walking on stilts the entire time we knew him, Roswita's quite a bit shorter than Abelhelm. And I don't think he would, stilts offer no tactical advantage against vampires.
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- Location
- Chicago
- Pronouns
- She/They
Pretty much, yeah. I just like the "What if..." more than arguing about possibility. "Yes, and..." is more fun!
- Location
- being near locations is my passion.
Well, we've never seen Roswita and Abel in the same room together, so....
Also, can we invite Anton and his dad down to K8P to hang out and meet our ducklings and generally go for a holiday next social turn? I think it would be really nice. Bonus points if we spend an social action/AP on having Eike Hochschild at K8P at the same time.
We're on -10 on all rolls, so I'm advocating for only doing things that don't feel like maximum roll getting is vital/super high utility
The world doesn't stop turning, but... everyone needs to have a rest period every so often. Low key stuff appeals. (That and setting up B O O N stuff if that's when we make out choice on it).
Ericwinter
Definitely not a Skaven Infiltrator
- Location
- America
I'd love to see an omake or two about a hypothetical future worshipper of hypothetical goddess Mathilde, actually. For extra awesomeness, make them just as ironically pious as we are.
Well that or goddess Mathilde engaging in Warp shenanigans with Ranald, like pranking Sigmar or something.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
I feel like Waystone Clog is an overengineered conclusion. All objections to it have been meet and soundly rebutted. If it wasn't for the fact that all the yes options came from write ins I would actually be thinking this must be some sort of trap because the correct vote is so obvious.
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- Location
- Mexico
Mmm, didn't Abel claim to have 3 children? and he used what could be described as a coat, very suspicious.
Were one of 3 people in trenchcoat die, it logically follows that they could rearrange in a different configuration and shed some height in the process.
Edit: and the previous dinasty dies, and suddenly a last "Van Hal" appears, one not interested in continuing the feud against the suspiciously short people living nearby, who have a great interest in the political affairs of Stirland, and instead claims new land nearby.
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Ericwinter
Definitely not a Skaven Infiltrator
- Location
- America
I really am surprised it was a write-in option, to be honest. Cunningly simple, to be certain, but it's strange that Boney didn't think of it first. Like, the whole problem is that Chaos is using the Waystone to do warp fuckery on Vlag, so of course we would try to mess with their power source.
Mopman43
Mountain-Hermit of Nitpeak
- Location
- Vermont
I can guarantee it's not a matter of Boney not thinking it. Just not wanting to put any options on the table and leaving it to us.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Not really. Boney might be brilliant, but this thread has hundreds of active people on it. That is alot of brain power even if alot of it wasted on thread madness. I missed alot when I tried to write a quest.
- Location
- Aotearoa
Cleverly constructed references, and a touchingly plausible prayer for some future foodpad in Wurtbad. Thankyou.
chocolote12
A Penguin Flailing Against The Keyboard Of Life.
Honestly, it just feels like it trivializes a setting element. The whole god talk. Gods are big. Gods grant character classes. Even small ones like Clio or Artho (or Ahalt) can and should drive entire story arcs or campaigns. The least of them is an empyrean being capable of literally yanking their worshippers out of the physical realm for a talk if they lose their temper, and if that follower can argue their case they'll brush the dust off of their shoulders and put them back where they grabbed them from.
I get that it's all in good fun, but part of why the setting seems so small might be that we're just unwilling to actually look up and see how low we are on the totem pole. Where are the Harpies? The Dryads? The six-in-a-row-save-or-die-attacks-per-turn Chimera that can breathe fire? How can we call ourselves a knight without having fought even a single Wyvern? Heroes of the Empire do those things all the time. Lots die, of course, but no-one writes songs about the bones outside the lairs.
There are entire books about the sorts of giant monsters that Imperial Wizards are supposed to be messing with without even being the Patriarch of their College. Incarnate Elementals are immune to any spell of their wind, and the wizards who call them up need to harness the swirling maelstrom of Chaos to bind them; either (the Spirits or the Battle Wizards) would kick our butts. Chaos Siege Giants are a hundred feet tall and covered in evil Rune Armor. Toad Dragons are so big and stupid that hitting them with a spell to instantly kill them only hurts them. There are fire-breathing Daemon Bulls in the darklands large enough to overshadow castles, and Squigs the size of houses. There are monsters that can kill by looking at you, or if you look at them, and magic items that let you survive that sort of thing.
None of those things are gods. None of the people who fight them, or bind them and make them fight other people, are gods. Not the Warpfire Dragons, nor the Chaos Dragons, nor the Elemental nor Celestial Dragons.
We should come back around to Godhood after we can participate in a four way Necromancer vs Greenskin vs Chaos Dwarf vs College Wizard Giant Robot Battle, because those other guys have giant robots, and with them a far greater claim to anything approaching godhood than we're in sight of.
I get that it's all in good fun, but part of why the setting seems so small might be that we're just unwilling to actually look up and see how low we are on the totem pole. Where are the Harpies? The Dryads? The six-in-a-row-save-or-die-attacks-per-turn Chimera that can breathe fire? How can we call ourselves a knight without having fought even a single Wyvern? Heroes of the Empire do those things all the time. Lots die, of course, but no-one writes songs about the bones outside the lairs.
There are entire books about the sorts of giant monsters that Imperial Wizards are supposed to be messing with without even being the Patriarch of their College. Incarnate Elementals are immune to any spell of their wind, and the wizards who call them up need to harness the swirling maelstrom of Chaos to bind them; either (the Spirits or the Battle Wizards) would kick our butts. Chaos Siege Giants are a hundred feet tall and covered in evil Rune Armor. Toad Dragons are so big and stupid that hitting them with a spell to instantly kill them only hurts them. There are fire-breathing Daemon Bulls in the darklands large enough to overshadow castles, and Squigs the size of houses. There are monsters that can kill by looking at you, or if you look at them, and magic items that let you survive that sort of thing.
None of those things are gods. None of the people who fight them, or bind them and make them fight other people, are gods. Not the Warpfire Dragons, nor the Chaos Dragons, nor the Elemental nor Celestial Dragons.
We should come back around to Godhood after we can participate in a four way Necromancer vs Greenskin vs Chaos Dwarf vs College Wizard Giant Robot Battle, because those other guys have giant robots, and with them a far greater claim to anything approaching godhood than we're in sight of.
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Ericwinter
Definitely not a Skaven Infiltrator
- Location
- America
Do you have a WoG on that? Or just making a statement of confidence? Because it started off as there being no "obvious" solutions, when this seems pretty obvious. I'm pretty sure I was thinking it even when I first read the update, and I was half-asleep then.
Sure, if we were doing some really complex, or out of the blue thing, but... I don't know, maybe it's just different perspectives that makes this seem so extremely simple. Chaos steals power from Waystones to power dimensional shift, so we just... turn off the power.
NexusEye
Aspiring God
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Alot missed you too.
Ericwinter
Definitely not a Skaven Infiltrator
- Location
- America
Is there even an incarnate elemental of Ulgu? All I can find are Ghur, Aqshy, and Shyish. I don't really see any other way of managing something like this, unless we can find a dragon to be our buddy, or maybe manage to make that one combined mastery spell idea.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
No reason why not. The only reason you could only find those is because those are all that Forgeworld and GW made before blowing up Mallus.
- Location
- Toronto, Ontario(occasionally)
So, people keep talking about using the entrance as a chokepoint.
But there are all these towers meant to keep the entranceway in enfilade and slaughter attackers with ranged weapons, and presumably the Dwarves will have built sally ports aimed at striking anyone trying to break the gates from non-obvious angles. It's a maybe, depending on how they built the whole thing and how much we know.
I don't think trying to hold the gate is the best strategy, rather I'd suggest making distance, then bombarding them with the dragon and exploiting our knights to strike them while they're in the open.
- Location
- some computer lab
none of the watchtowers have routes into the hold proper, so we don't need to worry about being flanked from there, and I doubt that there are very many other entrances to the Karak, since dwarven doctrine rrelies mostly on waiting sieges out, and alternative entrances means more points to defend.
Ericwinter
Definitely not a Skaven Infiltrator
- Location
- America
Okay then. So how would we go about getting ahold of one? Ghur and Aqshy seem to be temporary ones, summoned with certain secret rites, while Shyish are bound to magical hourglasses... we might have to create them from scratch, really. Which sounds incredibly difficult, especially since we have half a dozen projects already.
- Location
- Canada
I think the closest Dwarf approximation for 'hope' would be 'Dal', meaning something old and/or good.
Humans usually hope for a future to surpass the present; Dwarves usually hope for a present to equal the distant past. Dwarves don't need a nebulous concept of 'having a better life', since they already have their well-defined historical example and they're going to stubbornly stick to it. In the Khazalid-speaking Karaz Ankor, at least.
My guess at 'Hopebringer' would be Anadalokri (Anad/dal/okri) or Anudalokri (Anu/dal/okri).
A crafter (okri) of Goodness and Oldness as a situation, not just a single object, who is aiming for something as Good and Old as the Good Old Days once were. But not just in the usual "I plan to do good things and have my stuff last a long while" sort of way: the Anad or Anu add a time component implying the near future, meaning y'all better get HYPE cause we got some GOODNESS and OLDNESS 'bout to happen ANY MINUTE NOW!
I could imagine the longbeards accusing the beardlings of being that, and telling them to settle down and stop making a fuss. (But not very harshly.)
Which might make 'Hope' Anudal, meaning Goodness and Oldness is coming soon.
If they ever do rebuild their civilization as Good as it used to be, I'm sure there would be plenty of Dwarf Linguists upset at the darn beardlings who keep inventing new words to describe the even better things coming next. But they'll likely be mollified at least a little bit by the fact that the future/present can never be as Old as the past is.
...
...or just Nakruk, meaning not disappointing.
But that word is ugly and it sucks, so screw that.
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- Location
- Chicago
- Pronouns
- She/They
I think taking and holding the towers now, before the Karak returns, is our best move. Arrange three wagons in an arc across the road, two to cover flanks and put a bunch of crossbows in the towers.
While this supports my plan, I am very doubtful that it is true. Being able to rotate new garrisons in, and supply food and ammunition over decade-long drives, make connections to the Karak basic necessity. I doubt they have any gates or doors though- entrance and exit is probably strictly through tunnels or arrowslits.
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I think we can trust Borek and Snorri to handle the defensive setup.