I would say, we are doing something extremely useful, while still aiming to do scouting we wanted to do. Just think how may lives can be spared it enemies gets on one another throat just at the critical moment when dwarven assault goes off.
Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest
- Thread starter Boney
- Start date
- Fantasy Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Uh-huh. And when trying to lose pursuit loses us one or more actions? And it turns out that this was not the overall leader? And that the Skaven decide to run instead of get stuck in on a fight they have no stake in?
- Location
- Germany
Then we still prevented them from working with the Golbins for a bit now.
That's really damn useful.
Imagine they had Skaven-artillery instead of gobbo-crap on those perfectly entrenched positions that are overlooking the valley.
Our guys would die by the hundreds before ever reaching the gate.
Again, there is no time. None of that could happen, because the army is coming right now. What they have is what they have, and we already missed the important part of this deal, given the empty cages.
If anything, we're making the situation worse by not letting the Skaven take the orc slaves and leave.
You know, there was plenty of discussion about all of it - and overall judgement of the thread is that it's worth it. We literally voted for it.
Either way, at this point vote is closed now, so there is little use in debating it. What happens, happens. We'll deal with consequences either good or bad.
Z000
If this is trash, then find me in the dumpster
- Location
- Viet Nam
rolling for something
Actually...
It probably is. Remember, Dwarfs don't change. Wizards are pretty locked in too. Peasants make up much of the human forces, and they don't have the money to do anything new. And the Hold hasn't been touched by friendly hands in a long time. The most likely culprit for something "novel" is one of the enemy forces.
I expect it's most likely the result of what happens when a bullet hits a bunch of warpstone teeth.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
I think it's more that Mathilde had to improvise, and we're determining how off the wall she was.
Z000
If this is trash, then find me in the dumpster
- Location
- Viet Nam
Sinsystems
Patron Librarian
I am afraid at what is going to happen next, I don't think the plan will work and I hope that I am wrong. Pray the Ranald is on our side and finds Mathilde causing the chaos to be hilarious.
Nah Mathilde got caught during her preparation and we're rolling for how amusing the following chase scene is. 
Nah I still think it's most likely the Warpstone teeth. This is actually a good sign since it indicates we got a good hit on the goblin leader. Here's hoping that he was the warboss.
Nah I still think it's most likely the Warpstone teeth. This is actually a good sign since it indicates we got a good hit on the goblin leader. Here's hoping that he was the warboss.
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Karak Eight Peaks: Scouting Karag Lhune, Part 5
[*] Doppelganger to look like one of the armored Skaven, then try and assassinate the Goblin Leader. Be seen as a Skaven assassin, then flee into the shadows.
Considering the legendary fractiousness of both Skavens and Goblins, this meeting could be an opportunity to drive a wedge into whatever relationship exists between the two, and to weaken both and cause some chaos right before a major battle. You draw your revolver, weave Ulgu into the cylinder just in case there's some sort of magical defence hiding behind the warpstone radiation, and begin to line up your shot. A mostly-stationary target, a clear shot, and all the time in the world to line it up... an old memory comes to mind from nearly five years ago, when Gustav taught you to fire a pistol.
"Almost always," he said, "you'll be better served by three quick bullets to the torso than one careful one to the head. The brain is smaller than you'd think and the skull harder, whereas the torso is full of things the target probably needs. Heart and spine shots put the target down right away, lungs and livers are debilitating, and most of the rest of the organs mean they'll probably die in the coming days. But every now and then, everything lines up, and that is when a pistolier can truly build a legend for themself."
[Accuracy: Breakpoints 40/80, Martial, 50+19=69.]
[Flashiness: Martial, 89+19=108.]
[Time taken: Martial, 5+19=24.]
[Collateral damage: 78.]
It takes longer than you'd like to set up the shot. Several times you need to duck away as a greenskin wanders too close, and at one point you have to wait for two of them to stop having a loud and eventually violent argument about a fistful of teeth. The two leaders eventually reach some sort of agreement, and both shout orders at their respective underlings. The Skavenslaves start to unload the cages of angry rat-beasts, and some of the nearby Goblins stop what they were doing to receive them and take them into a side-tunnel and out of sight. Meanwhile each of the cranes whirs into action, slightly delayed by arguments over who gets to control them and who has to turn cranks and run on treadmills to power them, and with more enthusiasm than accuracy they attempt to grip the least argumentative of the Orcs in sets of blunt and rusted iron claws. When each is hauled out of the pit, the Goblins attach manacles to their arms and legs before the crane drops them, and the prisoner is either driven or carried over to the Skaven wagons. Some of the Orcs try to resist being manacled, and the Goblins enthusiastically bludgeon them into submission.
Finally, you have your shot.
The Goblin is grinning toothily at the barely-controlled chaos all around, Warpstone radiation illuminating everything near him with a sickly green light, and your bullet smashes right through them to punch a neat hole through the back of his mouth, and fragments of shattered Warpstone fill the air. The gunshot leads into two mismatched howls, one gurgled as blood fills the Goblin's airways and one clearly screeched as the Skaven claw at his eyes, which boil with magical energy as the disturbed Warpstone discharges a fraction of its terrible energy. A thousand greenskin heads snap up at the noise, and twenty rather more disciplined ones snap directly to you, to see what appears to be one of their own with pistol still outstretched.
[Goblin gullibility: Intrigue, Req 30, 13+17=30.]
[Skaven suspicion: Intrigue, Req 80, 38+17=55.]
Everything hovers on a knife-edge for a second. Both species are infamously treacherous, but while that makes them willing to turn on each other in a heartbeat, it also makes them deeply suspicious of any given situation. For a moment it looks like the entire cavern is going to descend on you en masse. But the howling masked a more quiet noise, the clatter of poorly-fastened wood as a highly-strung slave reacted to the gunshot by dropping what he was carrying, and a third set of agonized screams joins the chorus as an escaped rat-beast fastens his jaws on an unfortunate Goblin. A second Goblin shouts a warning, a third stabs the slave that dropped the box, a second slave reacts by hurling his cargo at the third Goblin, and as you begin to flee, most of the Goblins have shifted their focus to the knot of twenty warrior Skaven and the dangerous cargo they guard, rather than the one high up among the Goblin hovels.
[Flee: Intrigue, 41+17=58.]
[Goblin pursuit: 69.]
[Mathilde vs closest goblins: 18+19=37 vs 67+5=72.]
[Defensive spellcasting: 97+20=117.]
You leap down to ground level, batting aside one Goblin and taking a jab from a spear to the shoulder from a second, who quickly regrets it as the Rune of Rancour's response splits his torso open. You duck out the doorway you entered through, pain warring with your concentration as you try desperately to call and reshape Ulgu while barreling headlong down a corridor with the footfalls of countless outraged Goblins on your heels. Aethyric Armour is a simple spell under normal circumstances, but to call it up while running, in pain, pursued, and trying not to break the illusion showing you as a Skaven is rather trickier. But you are no longer a novice trying to batter Ulgu into submission - it has been your companion for near a decade of intrigue and battle, and it responds not like a recalcitrant servant but like an obedient pet, knowing your intention from the slightest hint of an order rather than needing everything to be spelled out, and its comforting presence fills your muscles with renewed energy.
[Outrun: 3+10(Fit)+10(Indefatiguable)=23 vs 50-10(Shorter legs)=40.]
[Outmanoeuvre: Intrigue, 82+17=99 vs 97+10=107.]
[Magical Escape: Intrigue, 14+17=31 vs 86+10=96.]
With your immediate escape not going so well, you try to outpace your pursuers, but their footfalls and yells of outrage remain right behind you despite your longer legs and the zig-zagging through branching tunnels you attempt. You look for opportunities for your array of magical abilities to help you, but the goblins remain too close and too numerous for you to have even a moment to duck into darkness and cast Substance of Shadow, or break line of sight and recast Doppelganger. Okay, phase two of the escape plan: methods that endanger the illusion of a Skaven assassin, without outright breaking it.
[Escape Phase Two: Intrigue, 39+17=56 vs 72+10=82.]
As you approach another crossroads a bloom of magical darkness fills the tunnel ahead of you and you plunge into it and turn once more, but still your pursuers remains right on your heel. What kind of Goblins are these? Do the Crooked Moon have some hidden affinity for running marathons, or are they hopped up on performance-enhancing mushrooms? It's only your longer legs that have kept you ahead of them so far, and you don't have time for a prolonged chase. Every moment wasted here is a moment of scouting that isn't being done, and a scrap of information less for the Vanguard that is currently making its way across the valley between the East Gate and the King's Gates. Fine. If that's how these Goblins want it, that's how they can have it. You'll show them what an annoyed Magister of the Grey Order can do.
[Escape Phase Three: Learning, 93+17=110.]
The tunnels are mostly lit by dimly glowing patches of fungi, and were it not for your affinity for shadow you'd have found it difficult to make your way through them. But most intersections are lit with a crude torch jammed into an ancient Dwarven wall sconce, rags and mushroom oil burning merrily and casting long, stark shadows that are perfect for your purposes. As you approach one of them, Ulgu pours off you and adheres to the shadow that starts to form behind you, at first small and faint but as you approach the light source, it grows until the silhouette of a fleeing Skaven fills the tunnel behind you, blocking the light from reaching your pursuers. Then that darkness starts to burn.
The shouts of your pursuers had been dying off as they began to settle in for a long chase, but they return as the front row shriek in agony, their flesh bubbling as caustic Ulgu eats into them, and as they try to recoil at a run the Goblins behind them slam into them, knocking them to the ground and exposing themselves to the effects of your spell. As you pass the fortuitous torch, at last the shouts of Goblins begin to recede into the distance as the thrashing of those burned prevents those behind from pursuing, and the darkness beyond the torch shrouds you from their gaze.
[Evading continued pursuit: Intrigue, 88+17=105 vs 58+10=68.]
With line of sight broken, there was no question in your mind that you'd be able to shake off the Goblins, but you had questioned whether you'd be able to find your way to the main tunnels in order to resume your scouting with minimal loss of time. But though the Goblins have scattered out into the tunnels to seek you, you manage to easily evade them and return to tunnels that, according to what Dwarves remembered of the Karak, will lead you to where you need to go. You allow the spells to fall from you, the Ulgu returning to the plentiful shadows that spawned it, and a moment's concentration has roots shifting below your flesh and the wound in your shoulder closing. You take a moment to consider your next goal.
[ ] Having successfully escaped, you can now move on...
-[ ] To the Armoury, to check if the ancient weapons remain sealed away.
-[ ] To the Temple of Grungni, to check if the holy place remains undesecrated.
-[ ] To the Chiselwards, an enormous warren of tunnels that could house any number of horrors.
-[ ] To the King's Gates, to scout the outer defences.
-[ ] To the depths of Karag Lhune, to see how far the Crooked Moon Tribe's influence reaches.
[ ] You've finished scouting, you'll return to the Vanguard...
-[ ] By slipping out the King's Gates.
-[ ] By waiting just inside the King's Gates.
-[ ] By returning the secondary peak, and slipping out unnoticed.
-[ ] By returning to the secondary peak, and taking the opportunity to further sabotage the Doom Divers on the way out.
[ ] Other (write in)
- You have time to scout one more place and meet the Vanguard at or inside the gates, or to end your scouting now and escape via the secondary peak just as the Vanguard arrives.
- Aethyric Armour Mastery acquired: Indefatigable. While using Aethyric Armour, you do not tire.
- The lengths you had to go to to escape makes it likely that if the Goblins gather all information available and consider the matter, they'll be able to conclude that the Skaven may not have been responsible for the assassination.
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- Location
- France
Well then. Does anyone have suggestions as to how to make sure they don't put everything together?
I want to be able to keep assassinating people if possible.
Kornet
Quite possibly a sloth abomination
- Location
- Mother Russia
There are no hard rules for mastery. Mastery happens when BoneyM says so.
I came up with a half-dozen possible Masteries and the d6 decided it liked that meme.
Not every crit is a Mastery. That crit was 'used' on ending the pursuit.