- Location
- Great Khanate of Scotland
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Mmm...beef burrito...
Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest
- Thread starter Boney
- Start date
- Fantasy Users' Choice!
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- Tags
- warhammer warhammer fantasy fantasy be gay do crimes (gay) female protagonist pansexual protagonist ck2 quest divided loyalties mountain vietnam ranald is real this is a dwarf quest (dwarfs) this is maybe an elf quest this is not a vampire quest this is not an empire quest try it and find out open voting
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Mmm...beef burrito...
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- It/Them
- Location
- Toronto, Ontario(occasionally)
Rereading this
Clearly the only option is to
a)go ahead with my 'infiltrate the Skaven to ask them for their maps to Karak Zorn' plan
Or even more outlandish ideas, like:
b)re-contact the Norse dwarves(who if our current experiences are anything to go by, are probably still holding out in parts of their holds)
c) somehow figure out how to destroy the Chaos Dwarves/their god and set things up so the Chaos Dwarf children are raised to live like the more western dwarves
d) somehow break the Skaven Under-empire.(current ideas 1. steal the holy warpstone pillar that chooses the members of the council of 13 and serves as a unifying symbol or 2. campaign into the under-empire, forcing Skaven to convert to worship of Khaine or the Great Maw/Estreuth/?Gork and Mork?(maybe the same god, maybe different), note that convincing Skaven to change religion is one of the only things that would make them reliable spies, if we ever wanted to build a Skaven spy network, but in this context is mostly good for making sure that they keep up a civil war after we finish the campaign.)
Those are where my ideas stop.
Oh no, clearly the only option so as to not trouble our god is to be even more of an overachiever when it comes to helping dwarves than we already were inclined to be.
Clearly the only option is to
a)go ahead with my 'infiltrate the Skaven to ask them for their maps to Karak Zorn' plan
Or even more outlandish ideas, like:
b)re-contact the Norse dwarves(who if our current experiences are anything to go by, are probably still holding out in parts of their holds)
c) somehow figure out how to destroy the Chaos Dwarves/their god and set things up so the Chaos Dwarf children are raised to live like the more western dwarves
d) somehow break the Skaven Under-empire.(current ideas 1. steal the holy warpstone pillar that chooses the members of the council of 13 and serves as a unifying symbol or 2. campaign into the under-empire, forcing Skaven to convert to worship of Khaine or the Great Maw/Estreuth/?Gork and Mork?(maybe the same god, maybe different), note that convincing Skaven to change religion is one of the only things that would make them reliable spies, if we ever wanted to build a Skaven spy network, but in this context is mostly good for making sure that they keep up a civil war after we finish the campaign.)
Those are where my ideas stop.
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- Pronouns
- They/Them
...that can come after Elfcation, the Nagarythi will surely have experience with magical infiltration that we can tap. But systematically robbing Skaven strongholds of intel would be an excellent use of our time.
Have you heard of Grain Into Gold? It's an RPG supplement, though it's pretty interesting in general, and it discusses (creating a) medival economy from the ground up based on what people can grow and what they eat. Also includes sections on how much food is produced by different plants and animals, or estimates for merchant shipping.Considering the alternative is likely to be starvation for five hundred people and two hundred mounts, I think Mathilde can risk a little miscasting.
After a lot of googling and head-scratching and number crunching, the capacity of the upper deck of each steam-wagon is about 60 cows, which works out to almost exactly one week of food. Which sounds like an ass-pull on my part to keep the numbers simple, so I'll do my primary school maths teacher proud and show my working.
Dwarf/human food requirements: 3 pounds per day times 520ish people equals about 11 000 pounds per week.
Wolf/demigryph food requirements: 25 pounds per day times 200 mounts equals 35 000 pounds per week.
Total: 46 000 pounds per week.
1000 pounds is about right for the cows - steers tend to be bigger than that and bulls much bigger but modern cows have advantages that steppe horde ones don't so it works out, more or less. Figure about a quarter of their weight is bone because these are probably going to be on the skinnier side, so 750 pounds of meat and offal per animal. The Demigryphs and wolves aren't picky, so anything not bone can be considered useful meat.
Steam-wagon capacity is determined through this highly scientific method:
30 per side, 60 per steam-wagon. 60 cows times 750 pounds equals 45 000 pounds.
You obviously don't need it now, but it might be a useful resource if some other thing of this type comes up, if only to save some time.
I think it would Magical Logistics in general, since we also have Rite Of Way. Arguably the MAP.
And if we collaborate with wizards of other winds, we could make a whole book on the topic, which could have a huge impact. Amateurs study tactics professionals study logistics and all that.
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Ericwinter
Definitely not a Skaven Infiltrator
- Location
- America
We've also got that paper about terrain obstacles to write as well which might be added in...
- Location
- Toronto, Ontario(occasionally)
So, question: What happens if we try to enchant an object(or two) to cause Mockery of Death?
I only remember this being possible because of that failed attempt to enchant a horn during the K8P expedition, but I think we have tool-free enchanting spells?
I assume it'd have to be done in an action during a turn, and would have a chance of failure, but on the plus side it puts a layer between Mathilde and any miscasts that might be happening, also it might avoid letting the time spent coordinating Cow-based Death Mocking eat into actions available during all turns going forwards(if that's what was going to happen).
(and her miscast chance when enchanting the item would occur before she starts approaching Dum/she can go back a bit on her shadowsteed and reach relatively non-dangerous winds conditions to enchant in)
I should have tagged the QM for this. hrmmmm.
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Right, I knew I was forgetting something. I think that's what sparked the idea originally.
Honestly, I'm kind of tempted to interview Belegar, Kazador and Asarnil (he used to command an elven force, right?) about their insights into logistics too, and add that in as a section. Maybe a collaboration with that new upcoming Professor of Near East Studies on what he things on the topic?
Ohh, and Roswita, since she approached the vampires from that perspective.
We could write the book on non-empirial logistics. Or logistics in general, if we talk with some empire generals and do some research ourselfs. That would be super cool.
Though I don't think it's going to happen, since it would cost quite a few AP, and I don't think it's high enough on the general priorities list. Maybe if the logistics paper (Rite of Way and Mundane Obstacles) turn out well and are as popular as I hope, the allure of headpats will help.
Enchantment takes months of time to work, though thankfully not months of work. With excellent, stable and undisturbed workshops, which we aren't in.
After rereading the update again, I remembered something I'd wanted to say but kept forgetting too.
That means he didn't merely see or hear the Daemonettes temptation -- he felt them.
Oof. Poor guy. He didn't merely see tempting things, he felt tempting things.
If we can afford to spare an action, maybe we should pick the Light Wizard Trio next turn.
(We're probably going to have "Be the one to negotiate with the Dolgans", "Cast Mockery of Death on the food animals", "Use Rite of Way to ease travel" and "Ljiljana" and/or "Ljiljana's mission" competing for our attention though. Damn.)
(Not to mention the other people we haven't checked up on once, like Michel or Alexandra. Or Esbern and Seija. Or Joerg.)
... Is there any other magics we can use to help things out?
*checks spell list
*looks forlornly at Ghyran's Fat of the Land and Ghur's The Winter's Long Slumber
Fat of the Land: Touched creature does not need to eat for one week. Long casting time.
The Winter's Long Slumber: Touched willing creature falls into hibernation sleep for several months.
The Beast Made Well: Heals an animal you touch.
Boon of Hysh: Cures and purifies touched creature of all injury, disease, poison and malady.
Fat of the land would help solve our food problems. Winter's Long Slumber is an even more effective Mockery of Death for the purposes of transport.
((Also: an enchanted item with Fat of the Land. It'd be a way to literally bypass hunger for a person. Wow, this could actually be amazing for a lone scout or operative like Mathilde. Does Fat of the Land cover water too, or would we need to find another spell or method for that? If so, then... Still.))
... Best I can come up with is "Use the Amber spell The Beast Made Well, or our Boon of Hysh magic item, to regenerate flesh from cows to extend food supplies." Esbern and Seija have The Beast Made Well spell, and we have our Cleansing Candle item, and the Light Wizards can recharge the Candle magic item so it can be used frequently. Cut off a bit from an animal, and regenerate it with magic. But that's...
Aside from sounding kind of gruesome, and feeling against the spirit of things what with turning a spell meant to heal an animal into a spell meant to prolong an animal's existence as foodstock... (and that sort of metaphorical gruesomeness feels like it might have effects.) It also feels like it's tempting fate. Eating periodically regenerated flesh? Especially this far up north? That's tempting fate, right?
... Anyway. No. Not advocating for this idea. Mockery of Death is a usage of magic that is clever and reasonable. Using regeneration to get more food is gruesome and not something I feel comfortable doing or suggesting.
What I am going to suggest is we make it easier on the cows by casting Mockery of Death while they're asleep. If I remember correctly, that was the method we used on the Druchii and on Qrech, in order to bypass the "they can hear and still see if their eyes are open" thing, right? By combining sleep and Mockery of Death? (Well, unconscious-from-KO on the part of the Druchii, and Mystical Matrix timed to go off when Qrech is asleep on the part of Qrech.) That way the cows won't be conscious but frozen by Mockery of Death the whole time. Which, well, they're just animals but still.
I am also going to suggest putting a tarp or better yet a hastily constructed roof over the animals or something; so they aren't exposed to the elements of the Chaos Wastes. Including, oh, say, the light of Morrslieb itself. Or alternatively, no need for adding more construction to the steam-wagons; instead, when we hunker down for the night each time, we remember to take the animals off the steam-wagons and put them under a roof.
Fortunately, this just amounts to "exercise due diligence and don't screw up your food supply." Something we were already going to be doing or thinking about anyway.
Visceral. His Magesight is visceral.
That means he didn't merely see or hear the Daemonettes temptation -- he felt them.
Oof. Poor guy. He didn't merely see tempting things, he felt tempting things.
If we can afford to spare an action, maybe we should pick the Light Wizard Trio next turn.
(We're probably going to have "Be the one to negotiate with the Dolgans", "Cast Mockery of Death on the food animals", "Use Rite of Way to ease travel" and "Ljiljana" and/or "Ljiljana's mission" competing for our attention though. Damn.)
(Not to mention the other people we haven't checked up on once, like Michel or Alexandra. Or Esbern and Seija. Or Joerg.)
This is amazing. Have another Like on this post.
... Is there any other magics we can use to help things out?
*checks spell list
*looks forlornly at Ghyran's Fat of the Land and Ghur's The Winter's Long Slumber
Fat of the Land: Touched creature does not need to eat for one week. Long casting time.
The Winter's Long Slumber: Touched willing creature falls into hibernation sleep for several months.
The Beast Made Well: Heals an animal you touch.
Boon of Hysh: Cures and purifies touched creature of all injury, disease, poison and malady.
Fat of the land would help solve our food problems. Winter's Long Slumber is an even more effective Mockery of Death for the purposes of transport.
((Also: an enchanted item with Fat of the Land. It'd be a way to literally bypass hunger for a person. Wow, this could actually be amazing for a lone scout or operative like Mathilde. Does Fat of the Land cover water too, or would we need to find another spell or method for that? If so, then... Still.))
... Best I can come up with is "Use the Amber spell The Beast Made Well, or our Boon of Hysh magic item, to regenerate flesh from cows to extend food supplies." Esbern and Seija have The Beast Made Well spell, and we have our Cleansing Candle item, and the Light Wizards can recharge the Candle magic item so it can be used frequently. Cut off a bit from an animal, and regenerate it with magic. But that's...
Aside from sounding kind of gruesome, and feeling against the spirit of things what with turning a spell meant to heal an animal into a spell meant to prolong an animal's existence as foodstock... (and that sort of metaphorical gruesomeness feels like it might have effects.) It also feels like it's tempting fate. Eating periodically regenerated flesh? Especially this far up north? That's tempting fate, right?
... Anyway. No. Not advocating for this idea. Mockery of Death is a usage of magic that is clever and reasonable. Using regeneration to get more food is gruesome and not something I feel comfortable doing or suggesting.
What I am going to suggest is we make it easier on the cows by casting Mockery of Death while they're asleep. If I remember correctly, that was the method we used on the Druchii and on Qrech, in order to bypass the "they can hear and still see if their eyes are open" thing, right? By combining sleep and Mockery of Death? (Well, unconscious-from-KO on the part of the Druchii, and Mystical Matrix timed to go off when Qrech is asleep on the part of Qrech.) That way the cows won't be conscious but frozen by Mockery of Death the whole time. Which, well, they're just animals but still.
I am also going to suggest putting a tarp or better yet a hastily constructed roof over the animals or something; so they aren't exposed to the elements of the Chaos Wastes. Including, oh, say, the light of Morrslieb itself. Or alternatively, no need for adding more construction to the steam-wagons; instead, when we hunker down for the night each time, we remember to take the animals off the steam-wagons and put them under a roof.
Fortunately, this just amounts to "exercise due diligence and don't screw up your food supply." Something we were already going to be doing or thinking about anyway.
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Resonant
Procrastinator Supreme
Just a minor correction, we already spent one Social action getting to know Michel in the Part 4: High Pass update.
Ok, that is some Chaos shit right there. I mean, wow.
You are my hero.
IIRC we had reached the point of no longer actually understanding why that mechanism works, so we'd have to go back and unpack that first.
Alternatively, we can do what Reginald did and sit down to perfect a certain set of chain cast (Smoke & Mirrors and Skywalk I believe) so that it is no longer (as) dangerous to do.
- Location
- UK
Who wins between Mathilde versus one knight in steel plate armour with the armour covered in human skin, because Branalhune would hit the skin and think it only needs sufficient force to cut skin so is blocked by the plate?
- Location
- Actually pretty lost
That would only work for that specific chain cast, when the goal was to have a standard solution for multiplying single-target spells.
Also, I think he achieved that through practice, so he didn't so much dodge the miscast chance as "got past it".
tapkomet
Senātus Populusque Rōmānus
- Location
- Ukraine
This gives me new and terrible ideas.
How about instead of having engines inside of the wagons we leave them at Zhufbar and have an enchantment that communicates with the engines at Zhufbar, determines how much energy they are putting out, and tells the wheels to spin that fast? Except the engines are going to be those of gyrocopters, so the wagons can fly and spin in mid-air.
Also, we'll put human skin on the wagons and all convert to Slaanesh.
Don't forget that the knight is flying due to spinning, because his horse is running on a treadmill in a Karag and it's getting transferred wireless.
consequences
Not A Nice Person At All
- Location
- Jerkville
But where is Deathfang going to nap now?
"So there we are in the Chaos Wastes. We've had to deal with disappearing and reappearing Karaks, food supplies materializing out of nowhere, driving on roads that don't exist, and now we're balancing a herd of comatose cows on top of the ships balancing the load under the direction of young golden abs who seems to have been possessed by Gotrek's ghost. This is all before the enemy took a turn mind you."-Journal of Snorri Farstrider, Head Ranger
"Cows die when they are killed." nods sagely
- Location
- Actually pretty lost
On the ground, when the convoy stops, like a peasant. Oh, the indignity!
- Location
- Europa, Jupiter Orbit
That would be the book version. Starting with a more limited paper is okay.
... I just realized.
If we'd gone for the Gazul Secrets and thus taken the corresponding Oaths, would we have had to stick around and provide rites for the fallen engineers in the Urmskaladrak? Or at minimum to have recovered the bodies and taken them with us, to watch over for 3 days. The Oaths do make allowances for troubles and such, but... that allowance is "literally can't stop because it's in the middle of a warzone or battle" rather than "can't stop because I need to remain with the caravan and keep on schedule." If it would kill you to carry it out, the Oaths would probably have reasonable exit clauses. But if it merely would force you to delay for 3 days on an expedition, then that's the sort of inconvenient-but-not-suicidal zone that the Oaths would probably apply in I reckon. If you're lucky, maybe you can excavate the corpses and take them with you quickly enough.
We also might have been confronted with a decision to make during the Karak Vlag aftermath. Probably looking something like: [] perform the Rites of Gazul for the Slaaneshi Slayers [] do not perform the Rites of Gazul for the Slaaneshi Slayers, I imagine.
What sort of guidelines are there for edge cases like that, @BoneyM? Or do we not know until we actually go deep enough into the Gazul Secrets and Gazul Oaths? Obviously, the rites and oaths would not apply to the Dawi Zharr. Because they're Dawi Zharr. But the Vlag Slayers, while tainted, were unexpected and new. New means needing to figure things out. Great.
That's probably what made it harder to do search and rescue for recently-dead bodies, too. If all the bodies were getting crushed and mashed up, it might not have been possible to tell the difference easily, so...
If we'd gone for the Gazul Secrets and thus taken the corresponding Oaths, would we have had to stick around and provide rites for the fallen engineers in the Urmskaladrak? Or at minimum to have recovered the bodies and taken them with us, to watch over for 3 days. The Oaths do make allowances for troubles and such, but... that allowance is "literally can't stop because it's in the middle of a warzone or battle" rather than "can't stop because I need to remain with the caravan and keep on schedule." If it would kill you to carry it out, the Oaths would probably have reasonable exit clauses. But if it merely would force you to delay for 3 days on an expedition, then that's the sort of inconvenient-but-not-suicidal zone that the Oaths would probably apply in I reckon. If you're lucky, maybe you can excavate the corpses and take them with you quickly enough.
We also might have been confronted with a decision to make during the Karak Vlag aftermath. Probably looking something like: [] perform the Rites of Gazul for the Slaaneshi Slayers [] do not perform the Rites of Gazul for the Slaaneshi Slayers, I imagine.
What sort of guidelines are there for edge cases like that, @BoneyM? Or do we not know until we actually go deep enough into the Gazul Secrets and Gazul Oaths? Obviously, the rites and oaths would not apply to the Dawi Zharr. Because they're Dawi Zharr. But the Vlag Slayers, while tainted, were unexpected and new. New means needing to figure things out. Great.
At least the dead Slayers' bodies were watched over for the requisite 3 days, before this disaster with the Urmskaladrak happened. Because we were carrying their bodies in the Urmskaladrak.
That's probably what made it harder to do search and rescue for recently-dead bodies, too. If all the bodies were getting crushed and mashed up, it might not have been possible to tell the difference easily, so...
I'm a little sad we'll never see Gotrek's amazing slayer delivery system now.
tapkomet
Senātus Populusque Rōmānus
- Location
- Ukraine
No. The Rangers have lay-priests of Gazul among them. If they aren't obligated to do it, then we wouldn't be either.
- Location
- Actually pretty lost
Stopping in the middle of the Chaos Wastes when your food supply is in question is probably sufficiently suicidal that they aren't going to do the rites.