Ok! Mostly caught up again. I basically think the 1st/2nd secret stuff is a rehash, the big reasons we have for and against the purchases are OOC, and it was a better choice than I figured to come here.
IC, the debate I see Mathilde having is price vs leaving these things in the hands of the highest chaos bidder. And price isn't really a concern.
Also, given how much Borek spent of the purse he brought? I'm wondering how much actual money K-a-K and Zuftbar even fronted.
So! Things I found interesting in the last little bit of discussion:
Yah I to feel we should visit the slave hall just for the possiblity to buy/save some VIP and if their not any we can leave this horrid place
Dislike prioritizing VIPs, would prefer to save no one than something purely because of their status and our opportunism.
There isn't an elf-specific course on the College curriculum; we could hire a tutor (I bet the Chancellor of the Seal can put us in contact with whoever trains his people in Elf diplomacy), but that lands us back in the problem of "maybe a good teacher will be available, maybe one won't."
Honestly, touching base with the chancellor of the seal before we head to the elves is probable a wonderful idea, both for our own diplomacy and so we know what the Empire's current issues/asks from Ulthan are, so we can support them.
If we had those firmly in mind, I'd be more enthusiastic about all these proposals to learn Arcane Khazalid and do other actions that might boost her enchantment skill. Without a good picture in mind, though, it feels like a solution in search of a problem. What are the big problems that Mathilde-as-enchanter can solve?
Absolutely the Waystones. The story logic points there: it's the nexus of the elves, King Belegar and Thorgrim, Karak Vlad, Karak Dum, Panoramia- and Mathilde is the one person with all the keys.
This Ulriczeit will be the 10 year anniversary of Abelhelm van Hal's death and we should something to commemorate him.
People have previously brought up the idea of teaming up with Roswita and writing a biography about his life together, and I really like this.
I like that! "The Hunter Count: Life and Legacy of Ableheim Van Hal" or something similar. Get testimonials from the rest of the council, finally find out exactly what he did to get the runefang, bond more with Roswita. (Maybe see about smoothing things over between her and Anton, as we like both of them now?)
There is no god doing the heavy lifting in runecraft which theoretically means you could change the source of power from the Glittering Realm to the warp and reap the benefits.
Interestingly enough this ties into an idea I had thinking about how runes work. So- the glittering realms used to be part of the warp, were accessible to the ancestor gods, contained the secrets of making runes, and were separated from the warp. Also, most runes work by drawing in ambient magics to power low-level ambient effects, or store and release in bursts- except for the great works of the ancestors, which work by getting power from the runic array in K-a-K the Waystones direct magic too. But the magic flows one way: to the array. If there were flows leading from the array to, say, the Karak-runes of Valya, it would be visible. So the theory is that the central array sends power to the glittering realm, and the ancestor-works draw directly from there. Lesser runes do this as well, in a self-contained manner- the rune that sends power is also the rune that draws power out.
But since we know that the glittering realm is now a part of Mallus and not the warp (per Gazul lore) then it would be affected by the ambient levels of magic in Mallus. Originally it would have drawn power from being part of the warp, then from a world awash with power during the great war. It'd only be after the great vortex that the works of the ancestors couldn't maintain themselves on the ambient magic levels and the waystone work-around would ultimately be to saturate the glittering realms with magic as if they were still party of the warp.
Runes, then, are tiny, limited portals between places within Mallus, opened by a specific sequence of chisel cuts with magically resonant materials filling them, that allow local magic to leak into the glittering realm and pull processed magic back for controlled effects.
Runes get charged off absorbing the winds anyway,
Kinda? Idk saying it like this is like saying plants live off the sun. It doesn't tell us how they do it.
I have to admit i really dont. We are already absurdly action poor. Were this like rhunrikki strollar and 5-7 turns meant we can discharge our apprentice i might be more willing but going down to 3 personal actions a turn sounds terrible.
On top of that most of the things we want to pass on should go further 5han just our personal apprentice. So im not at all keen on basically crippling our action economy to do interesting things so we can read about a magical novice getting taught.
I am much more interested in the character development and stories and slice of life that an apprentice would bring, so I'm in favor. I think it's ok for Mathilde to have smaller joys and ambitions, as a character, to offset what we end up doing.
Any action spent on learning Arcane Khazalid would be better spent on tongs or vitae.
Nah. I'm kinda into Arcane Khalazid now that we've been declared a dwarf: saying 'ok, please teach me how to read all of the runes' send like an ask we could make without treading on the secrets of crafting them. Vitae I think we've hit a point of having a key without a lock, and tongs I see as a slower, lower-power, gimmicky form of enchanting.
The fact that Karag Dum knows about the Waystones sending
Yes this we need Belegar to talk to people who know these secrets ASAP.
It's also possible that this is a problem that is solvable if you just -- hah, "just" -- got Dwarfs and Elves to start working together again. In which case the solution is not to spread secrets and knowledge amongst humanity. It is to achieve diplomatic or intrigue victory or coups of some sort and get Elf-Dwarf cooperation. (... Argh. Just realized that the Eonir thing may qualify as just that.
I think I'd prefer to get Wizards to build up Dwarf Rep in Karak Eight Peaks; simpler that way.
We have no idea about the culture and aims of the Eonir. Whereas we have tons of familiarity with the people of the Empire and the Karaz Ankor. Even if we don't always know the specifics or the high-level goals and needs of the provinces and nations and Holds.)
I think getting a grouping of the elves inside the empire and the dwarves integrating with it is more practical and likely than reconciliation with the phoenix crown. Plus there's a mutual defense geographic logic to it, and they can all secure eachother's supply lines. I would really like to try and leverage the Eoinir/Asari political split into a renewed human/elf/dwarf research and development effort.
Something that hasn't already been replaced? Because there's basically no way the Karak Drazh orcs and the Skaven haven't replaced everything we killed. If you want to point at actual achievements of ours then point at the part where we stole all that Skaven tech and other stuff that makes Skaven easier to fight for when the Empire inevitably has to do so.
I mean, even skaven and orcs are limited by available calories and energy. We did not return either of their losses to them for recycling, so locally they will be limited as they scrounge for food to expand thier ecosystems.
Look, there are only so many ways to increase the thread's smol magic girl factor. Making babies was an active topic of discussion, and non-Dhar roads to immortality wasn't.
I support getting an apprentice. They can write papers.
Omg yes smol magical girl. Can you imagine the 'family' she'd have running around? Literally all of the ducklings as older siblings, Uncles Kragg and Belegar, wolf and halflings and the whole Karak for friends and playing games, heck I bet Soizic and Francesco and Oswald all get roped in by her at some point.
