Are power stones of any use to a non-wizard? Because not sure why a non-wizard would want them and any wizard is going to recognize a fake. So who would be buying these?
Warpstone is actively harmful to pretty much everyone and it doesn't stop it from being sought after by every quack, dabbler and mystic in the Empire. Actual Wizards are almost certainly not the ones being targeted by these 'power stones'.
@BoneyM how big is Uzkulak, anyways? You've compared it to Barak Varr as a trade center, but for some reason reading it here the place comes off as more of an outpost than an actual city.
The part of it accessible to visitors is pretty limited, but that's a very small part of it. There's two docks and the associated warehouses and drydocks that she knows of, and the entirety of the Hold infrastructure for the Chaos Dwarves, and whatever else they keep here. But it is true that though the crowd is much more exotic than at Barak Varr, it's much smaller than what you would get there on a typical day. For all that it's a major destination for destro factions, they visit, sell/buy, and leave. They don't set up long-term trade routes, they don't make it their home long-term like many do in Marienburg or Barak Varr, and there's a rule specifically to exploit attempts by making them pay out the nose for Chorf Hotel.
Anyone consider that Borek may be kind off cross if we buy more than we had to, even if we give him back the money?
Or with the fact that we are giving away war funds that, even if repaid later, may be critical later in the journey for a reason or another?
@BoneyM , are my fears too paranoid?
He'll be okay with it. This is most likely the last place to buy things where they buyer has a loupe, so the Expedition also has a bunch of precious metal in the steam-wagons.
I'm not sure why you're confident about that assertion, it's a thread of conversation that has been running through the last thousand + pages and I believe I can recall offhand around 10-15 people involved that were for it a number of them the thread planners and frankly that's usually a good enough sign that something is more or less inevitable. Regardless the buy everything lobby is large enough it's likely to win no matter what.
Strawpoll link
I do this out of curiosity to see if there's any real thread appetite for the Research institute not to influence the current vote.
I'm not necessarily against this sort of thing since it's not an attempt to influence the current vote, but I don't think it will yield useful data and I don't want the results to be used as a bludgeon against whichever side ends up with less votes. Offsite polls are a bad way to gauge interest, they self-select for the vocal minorities. There'll be an official vote for 'so what now' assuming Mathilde returns from hell intact.
Especially since I think we're spending Borek's money on it. I'm not sure whether or not he expects us to pay him back.
For the food, no.
Wait, I think I got it- a lute strung with unicorn hair is one of the casting ingredients for
The Dance Without End, a ritual that causes a single person to dance until they die, and anyone that sees them dancing also has to dance until they die.
@BoneyM, that one?
That's the one.
What's the difference between the Lore of Vampires and the Lore of Necromancy?
PR. Vampires call it the Lore of Vampires, Necromancers call it the Lore of Necromancy. Vampires are the majority of those who use it on a large scale in the modern world, but it's not inherently linked to Vampirism and its inventor isn't a Vampire.
@BoneyM I Necrarchs consume Dhar for sustenance in potentially larger amounts than they create, what happens to that Dhar? Are they like mini-vortexes that can do the job of a Waystone, if only they weren't attached to usually horrible people that also want to increase environmental Dhar for their own gain?
Theoretically, yes.
Oh, I was wondering what language the Dwarf launched in to? Did he speak Reikspiel, guessing from our garb?
Yes. Reikspiel and Tilean seem to compete for lingua franca here, with Chaos Dwarf Khazalid coming in third.
@Alratan
Buying the arm has a 60 vote lead over not doing so. Its pretty much a dead cert that all of the items are bought.
There's been larger swings.
@BoneyM How come assorted Chaos God artefacts of indiscernible function or something aren't among the listed items? Or do those invariably fall under the "bound demons" category?
Because that's something they'd have had a huge amount of practice in handling, and it's something they can't really exclude without also slamming the door on some of their biggest customers.
I understand the last two, but the meaning of the first two eludes and intrigues me. Lady Magister Grey should know though, shouldn't she?
Grey Wizard, Black Magister, and Vampire Thrall are the three likely possibilities for a light-skinned human in well-made plant fibre clothing wielding Ulgu.
For some weird reason I was surprised by these two. Zombies being able to trade as opposed to just being entourage to higher undead is weird and interesting.
Zombie Pirates are a unique case. Grabbing someone out of the water whose soul is otherwise doomed to get eaten by Stromfels or the Galleon's Graveyard gives you a much more thoughtful and cooperative new friend than if you yank their body out of the ground after the soul has departed to the afterlife.
What kind of Dwarf? If not Dawi-Zarr, how was he dressed?
Dawi-Zharr, but not an officiant.
I didn't understand the significance of this one.
They're covering up their Clan runes so if they run into other Skaven they aren't obligated to act in accordance with any current Clan feuds or wars.
@BoneyM , can we at least try to haggle this nut-selling guy down to a more reasonable price with accusations of bringing a piece of the Athel Loren as contraband into the market?
Regardless of whether Mathilde knows that to be the case, she can accuse and see how he reacts.
That has two major possible outcomes: the seller is murdered by Dwarves and all his stuff seized and the seed disappears to wherever Athel Loren products go, or the price goes up and the Elf gets even more annoying.
I was a bit too caught up in the excitement to comment this morning, but I find it hilarious that Mathilde's first instinct is to use Heidi's old alias and only change the last name to the city she ruled.
Mathilde was too busy fighting off the dramatic portion of her brain that was screaming that she should announce herself as Magister Grey to come up with a better alias. She wasn't really expecting a customs check.
I thought the Candle was enchanted with Boon of Hysh, not Cleansing Glow?
Damn, you're right. This is what I get for getting poetic and calling it 'Candle of Cleansing Radiance'. Though in theory it could work just as well, just further down the line.
@BoneyM is this something you came up with or something from canon? I ask because I thought it was original but it seems torroar's going for the same thing, so now I'm thinking there might be a canon source for this.
8th Edition Vampire Counts Army Book. There's an upgrade for any Vampire Lord or Hero that lets them learn any Wind but Life. 'To learn several paths of magical teachings is beyond most men, but time is of little concern to an undying scholar'.
@BoneyM Can we... Report him? Or would that be like pissing on our own god's altar?
If Mathilde decides not to buy it she might give it a shot, but reporting him is counterproductive if she wants the...
Er, if she wants to purchase the magical artefact he is selling.
Uzkulak doesn't have a bank and/or rentable secure storage space?
Are they, to some extent, trying to discourage any actually serious business that goes beyond a free-for-all bazaar and a place for raiders and desperate people to get taxed while offloading wares quickly?
They seem to be actively discouraging people from doing anything at Uzkulak long-term, preferring them to come, sell, buy, and leave. Maybe they do it so that they don't have dedicated buyers to compete with so the prices stay low, maybe it's mistrust, maybe it's a religious thing.
Wouldn't it theoretically be possible to devise a ritual or artefact that uses untainted magic in order to produce an effect that itself creates tainted magic?
Sure, but that's something you can take precautions against when you're testing it.
Can't you temporarily add it to "Side stories"?
It doesn't really belong there unless I fold Side Stories and Apocrypha together, which would be a monstrous amount of work to get the threadmarks ordered correctly.
I somehow thought it might be something else with the naming scheme just being a weird coincidence. That said, why would he care about this stuff? What difference does it make to Uzkulak?
And if he either personally cares enough to ask or Uzkulak's institutions care enough to make him ask, then why is there an up front offer to choose "incognito", which I estimate any Imperial Ulgu user of the three previous categories would choose 99 times out of 100?
Presumably someone decided it would be useful to know affiliation, then someone realized that asking the question discouraged some visitors so they allowed for 'incognito', so from then on everyone is asked a useless question. Bureaucracy!
So, out of curiosity, did we sense/see any Divine energy while in Praag, maybe any particularly close to the floor? Maybe some specifically underground?
Praag is magical Chernobyl. Spotting anything behind all that is utterly impossible. And stone is, indeed, an excellent insulator of magic.
