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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Does Mathilde visit the Hall of Slaves?
[ ] HALL: Yes
[ ] HALL: No
Undecided, I'm vacilitating between the two options because we could try and save some one potentially but chances are it's just going to be morale damage.

Does Mathilde buy the barrels of salted meat using Borek's money?
[ ] MEAT: Yes
[ ] MEAT: No

Yes, we need the food.

Does Mathilde purchase the golden arm for 800 gold coins?
[ ] ARM: Yes
[ ] ARM: No

Hell no.

Does Mathilde purchase the Ghyran nut for 1000 gold coins?
[ ] NUT: Yes
[ ] NUT: No

Hell no. Oak of ages is not something to be trifled with at all on any level. It's not even safe to experiment with it and that's assuming it isn't going to be tainted in someway during our journey.

Does Mathilde purchase the explorer's writings for 200 gold coins?
[ ] PAPERS: Yes
[ ] PAPERS: No

Hell Yes. The writings are pretty much safe.
 
CuttleFish2.0 said:
This... really sounds like an Old One artifact; specifically something very similar to a piece of Kroq-Gar's equipment, the Hand of Gods which has the bound spell Shem's Burning Gaze. Not sure whether that should encourage or discourage taking it but, yeah.
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That was my thinking, yeah, it sounds a hell of a lot like that.
 
Nurgle said:
The armband I think is a tomb king artifact. Which could be truly powerful in a chamomile user. Which we have 2 of them in our party. as for spending gold anyone have a reason we should not? We really do not spend it on things other than books and adding towers or rooms. Also frankly Mathilde is rich and can get that wealth back. It will just take time.
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Tomb King artifacts generally come with a Tomb King army showing up on your doorstep unexpectedly asking for their stuff back, not the best of investments if that is the case. There's a reason that the Grey colleague's mental recording on Nehekhara is "stay away from the mummy gold, idiot".

Also, it seems to be an arm rather than a gauntlet so using it might require a bit of amputation....
 
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Nurgle said:
The armband I think is a tomb king or a Lizardmen artifact. Which could be truly powerful in a chamon user. Which we have 2 of them in our party. as for spending gold anyone have a reason we should not? We really do not spend it on things other than books and adding towers or rooms. Also frankly Mathilde is rich and can get that wealth back. It will just take time.
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Sounds like Lizardman to me, discription reminds me of Kroq-Gar's arm.

Edit: Well, it appears that someone else already pointed it out.
 
Deathbybunnies said:
It is the correct name for Athel Loren's Big Tree, and is a very big deal, but probably not actually harmful unless something eats it. It'll grow into a full-grown oak very quickly - which would be interesting to study for Panoramia - and I'd guess the resulting tree would be magical in nature too.

Someone suggested it could instead be from the Oak of Prophecy, in which case eating it will give you terrible stomach cramps and give you a vision of the future.

I would be inclined to buy it even without any OOC information, because it's an interesting project for Panoramia, so I feel comfortable expounding on it.
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It could also be from Laurelorn and the Eonir, given how little we know of them in canon.
 
Trickster314 said:
Tomb King artifacts generally come with a Tomb King army showing up on your doorstep unexpectedly, not the best of investments if that is the case. Also, it seems to be an arm rather than a gauntlet so using it might require a bit of amputation....
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Actually it has been pointed out and I am agreeing somewhat that it may be a Lizardmen artifact that does shem's burning gaze. Which is a light spell great against demons and chos in general.
 
Nurgle said:
Actually it has been pointed out and I am agreeing somewhat that it may be a Lizardmen artifact that does shem's burning gaze. Which is a light spell grey against demons and chos in general.
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Even if it is that, I don't think it'd be useful for the expedition. We don't exactly have any amputees, and even if we did, I doubt we'd be figuring out an Old One artifact in the couple weeks before we hit the Wastes.
 
Does Mathilde visit the Hall of Slaves?
[ ] HALL: Yes
[ ] HALL: No

Sorry, Boney, but I'll be forced to keep quoting you until it sticks.
BoneyM said:
- The phrase 'no harm in looking' should be avoided when debating the Hall of Slaves. Mathilde is a strongly moral person in her own way, and she follows the God of freedom from tyranny. What she sees could leave her unbalanced for some time. It could leave a permanent mark on her. It could put her in a position where she has to choose between choosing to do something risky and/or expensive and/or strategically unsound, or being unable to look at herself in a mirror.
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The only thing we know we'll do by visiting this market is to harm ourselves.
A resounding NO on this.

Does Mathilde buy the barrels of salted meat using Borek's money?
[ ] MEAT: Yes
[ ] MEAT: No

Yes. Most of the mounts are obligate carnivores. Even though it's brined meat, they should be able to deal with it once we get the salt out.

Does Mathilde purchase the golden arm for 800 gold coins?
[ ] ARM: Yes
[ ] ARM: No

This sounds to me like mummy gold. Wouldn't go for it.

Does Mathilde purchase the Ghyran nut for 1000 gold coins?
[ ] NUT: Yes
[ ] NUT: No

If this indeed is a seed of Athel Lorien then we could have a war on our hands. No

Does Mathilde purchase the explorer's writings for 200 gold coins?
[ ] PAPERS: Yes
[ ] PAPERS: No

Yes. These are harmless enough, and at worst we can always tell Ulthuan what has happened to their presumably lost reseracher.
 
Nurgle said:
Actually it has been pointed out and I am agreeing somewhat that it may be a Lizardmen artifact that does shem's burning gaze. Which is a light spell great against demons and chos in general.
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A lizardman artifact would be a lot more convenient, however, I doubt that we would use it during the expedition considering we have no idea what it does yet and probably won't have the time to research it.
 
What are the odds that the meat is poisoned/tainted somehow? Possibly with help from the Plotter, since his deamons got out this way.

The main logic for visitning the Slave Hall is if 1) Mat can carry a slave back with her and 2) Said slave is worth the effort.

So your VIP, basically. But that's gamlbing on the Chaos Dwarves not being able to tell how valuable a slave is. Or something about Mat making her able to spot a diamond among the filth. Not worth the risk, I think. The slave pens are a High Risk/High Reward kind of roll.

Possible VIPs: Ulthuan/Asrai Spellcasters, Norse Dwarves Runelords/Rune apprentices, various Nobles with their connections, a captured ranger from Karag Dum, Imperial Wizards, etc.

Because Mat can't save everyone, so the question becomes is there anyone worth the risk/cost? Thing is, she can't tell without looking.
 
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Going to the slave hall only really makes sense if we intend to buy someone who's likely to be useful, in the expedition or in general. Like a wizard, for example. Buuut there's also a non-trivial chance we'll run into someone who's useless, at least, immediately, but that we'll feel very bad about leaving behind. I kiiinda want to look...

@BoneyM one more question: if there's someone who could be useful to the expedition if freed, could we justifiably spend Borek's money on them?
 
I love how the first Chaos Dwarf we meet is bored bureaucrat. Even evil can't escape the pains of requisite paperwork.

BoneyM said:
"Have you brought any of the following goods to Uzkulak: bound Daemons, precious stones or metals from Nehekhara, any seed, bud, fruit, or cutting from Athel Loren, unshielded warpstone, spherical devices made of brass, Vampire body parts, any item created or possessed by the Skaven Clan Pestilens, gilded skulls made of black bone, anything from the Temple-City of Zlatlan, any mummified bodies of large, frog-like beings, unshielded wyrdstone, any kind of projectile capable of moving on its own, any of Kadon's Scrolls of Binding, golden whistles, instruments stringed with unicorn hair, keys made of crystal, or any sort of stone that glows with a green light?"
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I am sensing a long history with many incidents that led to this list being formulated.
 
I would actually like to buy the seed, if it turns out to be from the Oak of ages we can always just return it for a reward on our vacation.

We're purchasing it personally as Mathilde Weber, not as the Loremaster of 8 Peaks and I doubt it would actually start a war between the Elves and Drawfs (again).
 
You know, just in case it becomes relevant, I was wondering, how many things to you think have died here recently? How many corpses have just been chucked aside?

May or may not be related to any back up plans I make if we get attacked with overwhelming forces.
 
BoneyM said:
The first piece that causes your eyebrows to rise is an arm made of solid gold and covered in sigils you don't recognize. You can sense dormant power within it, and a lot of it. The fingers are razor-sharp talons and the palm has a raised circle you're sure is where that power you sense is output. But though the Norscan selling it does not seem to know anything about its magical properties, he does know solid gold when he sees it, and that puts a solid floor on the price. Eight hundred gold coins is a shockingly exorbitant price for a complete mystery and it's not like you're short of strange things to prod at, but you suppose if all else fails you could resell it for melt value.
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800 gold for... I have no clue what this is. A solid gold cyborg arm? I'm getting 'hand of Vecna' vibes from it. I'm really tempted to go for it just because I don't like leaving mystery boxes closed.

BoneyM said:
The second is from a Naggarothi Corsair that won't stop smirking at you, and among the goods scattered haphazardly across the table is some sort of nut that glows so brightly with Ghyran that it gives you a headache in your soul to focus on it. Your questions uncovers that the Corsair got it from 'somewhere', where it belonged to 'someone', and was stolen 'a while ago'. You're starting to understand why the Ulthuani don't get along with these people. The price is a jaw-dropping one thousand gold coins, and your shock and outrage at that only seems to make the Corsair more delighted, which leads you to suspect that's why they gave you that price. But you must admit you've never seen so much magic concentrated in so small a form.
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1000 gold for a magic seed. A great gift for our girlfriend. "Honey, I went to the chaos wastes and got you this nut." Planting it might be really useful for the K8P terraforming project.

BoneyM said:
The third and final curiousity is a set of books and papers apparently taken from an Ulthuani explorer who ventured into Lustria and the Southlands to investigate the strange lizard-folk that are said to reside there. That she took rubbings and sketches instead of the golden plaques themselves might be why she survived so long while engaged in such a dangerous endeavour, but it was no protection from the other hazards of the world, and apparently a Chaos Dwarf ship caught her vessel off the Shifting Mangrove Coastline on the eastern side of the Southlands. Her fate is unknown and probably tragic, but her rather extensive writings have been sent here to see if they can find a buyer. If they don't, they're likely destined to feed a forge somewhere.
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200 gold for first hand explorers notes on Lustria? Bargain of the century. If we leave with just one item, it should be this one.

Overall, I'm tempted to go for all three items. The gold arm can be fobbed off on Johann, and the seed on Panoramia, so there's not too much concern about AP hell if we end up with too many projects, whilst the writings can just go into the library. It is a huge chunk of Mathlide "Vow of Poverty" Weber's wealth, but I don't really see her spending a lot of money in the near future. The book & tower budget will come out of K8P's treasury and/or dwarf favour, and she has a comfortable income from the EIC, which is bound to only increase when the silk trade opens up.

As for the meat, whilst I'm confident the knights can feed themselves, providing some mystery seamonster will probably set minds at ease and diffuse tensions between the various factions in the expedition. Better safe than sorry.

The slave pens on the other hand... I have no idea. Again, I don't like leaving mystery boxes closed, but Mathilde is morally opposed to slavery and lacks the power to end it on an institutional scale. It's unlikely she'll be able to rescue more than a couple of people, and she'll have to limit herself to those who are useful to the expedition. Grey wizards are the order who make the hard choices—but is this a choice Mathilde is psychologically equipped to make?
 
Omegahugger said:
You know, just in case it becomes relevant, I was wondering, how many things to you think have died here recently? How many corpses have just been chucked aside?

May or may not be related to any back up plans I make if we get attacked with overwhelming forces.
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Unfortunately all the corpses probably get fed to slaves and/or burned as fuel.
 
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Hall of Slaves: NO

Just don't. This is basically the equivalent of acquiring an actively cognitohazardous artifact, on Mathilde's psyche. If you aren't going to vote for Cognitohazards, don't vote for this.

Meat: YES.

That's why we are here, but I doubt anyone would vote no. The food is likely going to the Knights/mounts.

Golden Arm: NO

I am not keen to roll a mystery box for what might be a Daemonic artifact. No thank you.

Acron of Gyarn: NO

Let's not transplant thread hubris onto Panaormia, and if it's an acorn of the Oak of Ages, I'm not touching it with a ten-foot pole for the political implications.

As for those meta-gaming that this is a free AP option we can feed and gift to Panoramia.... I don't think it quite works that way. IC Wise, taking a highly magical seed into the Chaos Waste sounds like a terrible idea.

OOC , I know the thread adores Panoramia. She's not your one cheap trick to change the world AP Free option that I see the Gifts for Panoramia faction seems to be arguing this as, when weighted against the writings presumingly consuming AP.

Explorer Writings: YES

Rare information on Lustria. Loremaster worthy. Might open a plot-thread in our Elfcation possibly? Maybe bring closure to someone in Ulthuan? If SuperBoat to explore the world is what you are after, you'd want these writings. I am pro Book Boon, but just pointing out that writings on Cathay/Lustria probably will become relevant if we decided to spend a boon that allows us to swiftly travel the world in security style and with massive firepower within a turn.

But even Boons synergies aside, these writings could help others in the Colleges who might choose to go to Lustria in the future at least -we know it happens from Hubert's master's backstory. It's worth something - whether to deter or inform our fellow Wizards who might consider going to Lustria in the future.
 
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Well, just to throw a spanner into the works.

A slave auction would be exactly the place to find a plucky and mysterious apprentice-type who would be compatible with our religious beliefs and extremely loyal!
 
Mopman43 said:
Even if it is that, I don't think it'd be useful for the expedition. We don't exactly have any amputees, and even if we did, I doubt we'd be figuring out an Old One artifact in the couple weeks before we hit the Wastes.
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Yeah. That said, buying could actually (assuming it really is an Old One artifact and not something else) be the single best resource for picking up some very advanced magical tips and tricks. Again, assuming speculationa bout it's origins is correct 800 gold is actually an incredibly cheap price, but then again if speculation is correct a chance encounter with Lizardmen rises dramatically (to be clear, it rises from 'hahahahaha, no' to 'huh, that's an unlikely set of rolls') so you know... choices.
 
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