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@BoneyM Would it be possible to cut down our food problems by sending some of the wolfriding knights back to Kislev?
My thoughts on the matter are twofold
  • A pure wolfknight contingent would probably need less food to travel the same distance because
    • Cavalry travels faster alone and smaller groups travel faster than larger groups
    • smaller groups can forage easier
  • Maybe they could buy food at kislev and then bring it back up northward as a food cache for the return trip
Alternatively, I suppose the good ol shadow-steed could pelt it's way towards kislev or the chaos dwarfs to hire up more food for the return trip
 
How many dwarfs have already died on this expedition, and how many are we likely to be able to save? Actually, ignore that question. How many dwarfs have already died on this expedition, and how many did we save when we saved Vlag?
 
Although I don't think it will make a big difference OOC, IC I think the odds of another big shipment of food coming in to —whatever the name of Chaos Dwarf place was— in the time since our last visit are low. Better to give them more time to restock.
Definitely my thoughts as well, yeah. If we go to Dum and come back, Uzkulak might be refreshed on food again. If we have a bit of luck -- as more time will have passed. If we turn back now, it's less time passed.

And, we can bargain with the Dolgan both to and from Dum. Well, we might not need to bargain on the way to Dum; Dum is a week away, and we have 2 weeks of food. So...

Actually, I guess food-wise, we are not looking so bad? Assuming we can depend on the Dolgan to top us off, we'll be at more or less the same situation food-wise as when we're back here. Maybe a bit less, but.

We'll be facing the same "we have 2 weeks of food, and Kislev is 3 weeks away." So we'll need to depend on Uzkulak and maybe Deathfang's hunting.

Except right now, Uzkulak just got emptied. Whereas if we go to Dum first, that means several weeks more -- plus however long we spend at Karag Dum itself.
If it was anyone but Gotrek (or Borek) that died or one of the other Steam Wagons we lost, I'd be voting to continue on. As it is, I don't feel comfortable continuing on. If we lose another wagon or suffer a major breakdown we're doomed.
The Urmskaladrak carried more food than the others, but it also used to carry the Slayers... who had died at Vlag. And Asarnil and Deathfang made it off the wagon.

Who would be better to lose though? The Volans with all the mages, or the Magnus with Ljiljana?
 
It's not like the Runes were inherited masterworks. The possibility of a Kurgan being able to scavenge a perpetually cold chunk of metal with an Apprentice-struck Rune on it isn't considered the end of the world.
Hmm.. beside a real cool thing to make an ice box on so that our steak tatare and barbaric ale are constantly cold, what can we do with a perpetually cold metal and rune?

We might make a greatsword out of it and named it Ice.. and sell it to some pretentious bastard.

Can you imagine if deathfang died in the functional equivalent of a car accident? I kinda wanna read the Negaverse where this happens. In my head it has a similar tone to Pulp Fiction.
This smells like devine intervention, everytime someone important enough gets killed due to accidents.

Patton dies due to car accident, Alexander due to illness, tjings like this happens all the time.


Regarding our goal... Mathilde have prepared quite a significant time and resources to make this happens. Lets not cancel the errant and get back.

The lost of our largest mothership is a great loss but we will never have another shot of getting to Dum and probably help them out.
 
@BoneyM Would it be possible to cut down our food problems by sending some of the wolfriding knights back to Kislev?
My thoughts on the matter are twofold
  • A pure wolfknight contingent would probably need less food to travel the same distance because
    • Cavalry travels faster alone and smaller groups travel faster than larger groups
    • smaller groups can forage easier
  • Maybe they could buy food at kislev and then bring it back up northward as a food cache for the return trip
Alternatively, I suppose the good ol shadow-steed could pelt it's way towards kislev or the chaos dwarfs to hire up more food for the return trip

Not on their own, they can't carry enough food to reach Kislev and there's no food to be found for most of the trip. They'd need to be sent back with some of the steam-wagons. One steam-wagon could get all of the Winter Wolves or Knights home, two could get all of them home.

How many dwarfs have already died on this expedition, and how many did we save when we saved Vlag?

Tens versus tens of thousands, possibly.
 
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Ah, the "never found the body" trope. ...I don't remember--has it turned up in this quest yet?
"Never found the soul" variant is currently in effect for Abel.

Omega wants go try the necro route, but I think that's just another form of giving up and advocate for the "take causality and break it over your knee" route.

acausal collaborative fiction is something that I've never seen before, but uh... I have unreasonable faith in BoneyM, or something.

Um. Good luck BoneyM!
--
[X] Press on
 
Hunt, yes. Carry back, no. Rhinoxen are big.
Just to be clear, I am not suggesting he hunt them now. I am trying to figure out how much food we need to carry on our trip back, vs how much we can hunt on the way back.
Unknown in the Chaos Wastes mountains, nil on the ice, a decent amount in the mountains north of Kislev.
So, the mountains north of Kislev are about two weeks away from Dum. If we can fill up at Dum, we can reach hunting grounds by the time that food runs out.

Thinking strategically, that means spending more time deeper in the wastes, but it does give us another option.
 
...Oh damn, that's a really good point. It might stop Borek from heading North too.

If Karag Dum is still standing, it doesn't need immediate aid. If it's falling, we can't help any survivors without room to carry them or supplies for them.

I think I'll actually change my vote, for that - there's just no point.

[x] Turn back
The other main objective of "Scout out what is Karag Dum's status" still remains though. Evacuating people may be harder, but it is still critical to find out if Dum is fallen or needs help or is hanging on well(ish) enough.

If we leave now, we leave not knowing what is Dum's status.

Whereas if we go there, then... at least we can come back? And we would be coming back with information. Borek may not want to leave Karag Dum, but -- he could get outvoted there. Or alternatively, the Expedition leaves without him.

If Karag Dum is falling, then there is something we can do for them. We can find out, and thus know, that Karag Dum needs reinforcements. And so can return to the Karaz Ankor and send an army back or something. And the next expedition or army will come faster, because they know that it is needed.

Whereas if we turn back now... how long will it take before we can get another Karag Dum expedition going? What if the Karaz Ankor decides to focus on Karak Vlag instead, as the "sure bet" instead of the unknown of Karag Dum? Preferring to focus and prioritize the Karak that has already been rescued and thus the one for which there is a sure payoff to securing? Or, alternatively, maybe Borek will get a much better chance of getting another expedition off the ground, due to having rescued Vlag... But. His chances will be even better if he comes back with both "rescued Vlag" and "found out Dum's status; it is intact/needs help/needs evacuating/it's fallen, don't send anyone!"
 
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I vaguely recall that the seed in our hand can literally resurrect people if used soon enough. I guess we couldn't find enough of Gotrek to even use it on?
 
Turning back now means Dum is going to have to wait another few decades at best, probably.

If they are in a bind, this is our moment to bail them out or to at least confirm they need help, give some hope and come back with reinforcements.
 
I'm just gonna say I'm unreasonably happy we didn't bring Panoramia with us.

Sorry ducklings, shadowsteed has capacity for one.
I echo this, on the grounds that if you know a mission is a fool's errand leading to death, you probably shouldn't bring your loved ones. mathilde x panoramia OTP, fite me.
That's why Mathilde was looking.
Did she actually use the seed on any of the bodies she was unable to identify?

...hmm. has the thread had any morality debates yet about using up half the dead bodies from an accident like this to refuel the seed to rez a few more?
 
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My line of thinking is that ultimately the expedition is more likely to survive if we turn back now but even then, that comes with several asterisks attached, and I ultimately think that the expedition still has a chance of being 'successful', for a certain definition of success, anyway.

[x] Press on
 
QM is telling us Gotrek is functionally unrecoverable. It's a cool idea that he's now on a secret underground adventure and is going to appear one day wielding the Axe of Legend, but entirely unconnected to the immediate events and decisions we have to make. Gotrek is gone from us.
 
I completely understand the desire to press on, but it feels like sunk costs to me. If you had told me while we were setting out that this would be the condition we'd be crossing the steppes in, I wouldn't have wanted to set out, and I don't think that has changed. Emotionally there's a strong desire to continue on, but.

[x] Turn back
 
I completely understand the desire to press on, but it feels like sunk costs to me. If you had told me while we were setting out that this would be the condition we'd be crossing the steppes in, I wouldn't have wanted to set out, and I don't think that has changed. Emotionally there's a strong desire to continue on, but.

This is the condition we would have been crossing the steppes in when we started out, because the one that we lost was the one that our extra year with the snow thing got us. If we had voted to leave as soon as possible, we'd never have had the big supply landship.
 
At a certain level of Dwarf Reputation, I'm pretty sure Zhufbar will let us buy a radical pistol.

What are you expecting such a pistol to look like, by-the-by? I assume you don't just mean a runed regular handgun?
I don't think any amount of dwarf reputation will get us radical pistols. If Zhufbar were the sort to give experimental weapons to people solely for being held in high regard, I think we'd simply be able to get the pistols with Dwarf Favour.

As for pistol looks, I'm not expecting anything per se, but I am guessing that it'd look like the Outcast Engineer's pistol from Vermintide 2. Purely a guess though.

Bear in mind that was kind of before we were legally declared a dwarf for magic-ing up Karak Vlag.
We get rune masterworks from Kragg the Grim. We're at the point that our humanness doesn't factor into whether a dwarf will give us something. Zhufbar's holding out on us for lacking Zhufbar Favour, and they'd do the same to other dwarves too.
 
@BoneyM would Gotri's offer to Gotrek apply to his wife and kid now that he died before accepting? If not, could we lie and claim that Gotrek accepted before he died in to help his wife and kid?
 
@BoneyM would Gotri's offer to Gotrek apply to his wife and kid now that he died before accepting? If not, could we lie and claim that Gotrek accepted before he died in to help his wife and kid?
Even if the offer didn't apply, we could just ask the dude to extend the offer. Sometimes simply asking for something gets you what you want. Don't need to play rules lawyer or do a favour or lie.
 
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