Remove ads

Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Reader mode
ctulhuslp said:
I mean.
It's never wrong to murder some more gobbos lol.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yeah, but it's just not as interesting to me. I'm here to do Grey-Wizardly things, which encompass spymaster-y things but which should only border tangentially on fighty things in most cases.

Fighting is good because it helps us help our friends and acquire cool resources, but those should only be sought after in that they assist our first two specialties. Triple-classing like this makes for a cool character, but means that we do have to leave some golden opportunities lying in weird, cat infested luck-god shrines for sketchy-but-reliable thief-priests to stockpile in order to keep it up.
 
So I'd like to remind everyone that when we started all of this Mathilde was barely able to kill a pseudo-zombie on her own.
 
Deathbybunnies said:
I've only started reading this quest recently, but I was surprised at how previous voters have done nothing with the book or the Quaysh juice. There's an awful lot of potential in both. Were we waiting for something?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I think it's that people have focused on short term accomplishments rather than long term potential. You can see that right back to character creation where people spent resources on contacts that could be developed in character rather than the once in the quest opportunity to have traits like Quick or Eidetic Memory. That's understandable, and some degree of it is necessary, as unless you survive the short term you don't have a long term, but it can be taken too far.

Also, there's probably a natural order to some of the actions. We probably want to get more Learning skills before studying the Liber Mortis to improve our chances of success with that, and we probably want to study the Liber Mortis to better understand how to use one Wind to manipulate undifferentiated magic before studying the snake juice.

More generally, this is why I want to stay at Karak Ankor in the medium term if/when the Expedition has met its initial objectives and help consolidate the dwarven position. That should give us plenty of time around people we have a very high reputation with who are very well placed to help us achieve some more long term personal goals, as well as generate a drip of favours to pay for specific assistance.

Also, I'm hoping that if we get very high levels of Reputation the cost of dwarven tuition, for example, will get considerably cheaper, particularly as we'll be neighbours with the required experts and they won't have to disrupt their own routines to give lessons as much as if they'd have to travel to do so. This would be compounded if Kragg could adapt the Rune of Brotherhood to work for humans, as the other members of the expedition would be her comrades. Even mundane skills could help with her magical development - for example, dwarven mathematics may open up new ways of thinking about academic spellcraft for her, or Ranger training may give insights into battlefield fog-of-war spells.

TotallyNotEvil said:
So, am I the only one thinking us not knowing khazalid might pose a bit of a problem for assisting in deciphiring reports?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I'd assume that the reports are verbal anyway, as the front line commanders won't have time to write messages. Those messengers will see Mathilde and know to speak Reikspeil, given where the Rangers come from.
 
Last edited:
[X] Remain here and help Ulthar make sense of the reports flowing in.

I don't think Boney included a trap option. If we have the option of staying to help, then there is something we at least have the possibility of helping with.
 
Mopman43 said:
[X] Remain here and help Ulthar make sense of the reports flowing in.

I don't think Boney included a trap option. If we have the option of staying to help, then there is something we at least have the possibility of helping with.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It's not a trap option - if anything, it lets us stay in reserve. But not knowing khazalid makes it less effective indeed.
 
vsh said:
Sure, because it's his job, right?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Yes, why would it not be his job? If he wants Mathilde's advice and she can't read the language the reports are in then he has to translate. If he were unwilling to do so than @BoneyM gave us a trap option and I do not think he would ever do that.

[X] Remain here and help Ulthar make sense of the reports flowing in.

vsh said:
It's not a trap option - if anything, it lets us stay in reserve. But not knowing khazalid makes it less effective indeed.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

If it were just letting us stay in reserve and we could give no advice than that's what the option would say.
 
Last edited:
Just to clear this up, as people may have forgotten, the Rangers here are from Karak Hirn. As they're on the very edge of the Empire, they'll all speak Reikspeil, as part of their jobs will be interacting and gathering information from the humans on their doorstep. That means that the messengers, when they pass their reports on, can simply speak in the language they all have in common, which is Reikspeil.

Also, as dwarven officers lead from the front, reports are going to be mostly verbal, not written, as they won't have opportunity (or clean hands) to write messages down. There will be some drawn maps, but Mathilde can read a map.
 
[X] Go to the Mushroom Caves...
-[X] And collect samples in danger of being destroyed in the fighting.

[X] Remain here and help Ulthar make sense of the reports flowing in.
 
[X] Remain here and help Ulthar make sense of the reports flowing in.
Spymasters do best when they have information to worth with. May as well gather some while we have the opportunity.

[X] Continue downwards to the Grand Avenue.
If the avenue is quiet as well we might end up seeing Kragg after all.


Thinking about it the counter for Mathilda is a tank rather than a DPS. A Bloodthirster is very killy but its defence is only decent, and that mostly because of toughness which Mathilda (S6, SD6, S enemy S+2) laughs at.
Ironically a Dwarf Thane is probably the best hero option. S4 T5 so only wounded on a 3+ by the belt and armour isn't worthless. Also very easy access to saves. 1+ armour and 4+ ward is common, although usually with a greatweapon. The Magnificent Armour of Borek Beetlebrow gives 2+ armour and 3++ ward against strength 6 or higher attacks. Boosting toughness to ridiculous levels is also an option.
I think you could build a Dwarf that would grind her down.
 
Angelform said:
[X] Remain here and help Ulthar make sense of the reports flowing in.
Spymasters do best when they have information to worth with. May as well gather some while we have the opportunity.

[X] Continue downwards to the Grand Avenue.
If the avenue is quiet as well we might end up seeing Kragg after all.


Thinking about it the counter for Mathilda is a tank rather than a DPS. A Bloodthirster is very killy but its defence is only decent, and that mostly because of toughness which Mathilda (S6, SD6, S enemy S+2) laughs at.
Ironically a Dwarf Thane is probably the best hero option. S4 T5 so only wounded on a 3+ by the belt and armour isn't worthless. Also very easy access to saves. 1+ armour and 4+ ward is common, although usually with a greatweapon. The Magnificent Armour of Borek Beetlebrow gives 2+ armour and 3++ ward against strength 6 or higher attacks. Boosting toughness to ridiculous levels is also an option.
I think you could build a Dwarf that would grind her down.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Of course unlike the flying Blodothirster a dwarf would struggle to pin her down while she was on her steed of shadows.
 
Alratan said:
Just to clear this up, as people may have forgotten, the Rangers here are from Karak Hirn. As they're on the very edge of the Empire, they'll all speak Reikspeil, as part of their jobs will be interacting and gathering information from the humans on their doorstep. That means that the messengers, when they pass their reports on, can simply speak in the language they all have in common, which is Reikspeil.

Also, as dwarven officers lead from the front, reports are going to be mostly verbal, not written, as they won't have opportunity (or clean hands) to write messages down. There will be some drawn maps, but Mathilde can read a map.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yep.
I'd be extremely surprised if any kind of written report is used on the frontline, in poor lighting and in 'hot' terrain they're advancing over. Written reports are for strategic turns, when the field commanders had done their thing and are now as Belegar might put it, lie a lot to make coherence out of chaos.
 
[X] Remain here and help Ulthar make sense of the reports flowing in.
[X] Continue downwards to the Grand Avenue.

Good points have been raised about staying in reserve and applying our more strategic skills.

If shit starts going badly wrong she'll know where to go, and if nothing crops up that needs her in particular then she'll still be doing something useful.

That said, I doubt staying with Ulthar will give us as clear a view of the Grand Avenue through reports as actually going there ourselves, and it's the last truly critical place to secure (since the topside areas should be easy in comparison).

If the Grand Avenue is more or less secure, we can fall back to being a reserve and provide strategic oversight there, and if it isn't we should get there ASAP.
 
[X] Remain here and help Ulthar make sense of the reports flowing in.
[X] Continue downwards to the Grand Avenue.
 
chocolote12 said:
Webbing shouldn't actually be flammable; that's a DnD thing for the web spell, unless it's been transferred over. Real webs just sort of shrivel.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Webs just sort of shrivel, but dust burns real well, and it's not exactly hard for webs to get covered in the stuff.

... Not sure how much dust there is to go round in comparison to just how much web there's likely to be down there, granted.

[x] Remain here and help Ulthar make sense of the reports flowing in.
 
Alratan said:
Just to clear this up, as people may have forgotten, the Rangers here are from Karak Hirn. As they're on the very edge of the Empire, they'll all speak Reikspeil, as part of their jobs will be interacting and gathering information from the humans on their doorstep. That means that the messengers, when they pass their reports on, can simply speak in the language they all have in common, which is Reikspeil.

Also, as dwarven officers lead from the front, reports are going to be mostly verbal, not written, as they won't have opportunity (or clean hands) to write messages down. There will be some drawn maps, but Mathilde can read a map.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Written reports are likely a non-issue, true. But switching form a proper natural language that has all the necessary terms to describe dungeon warfare to a foreign, inferior one that lacks established vocabulary for that is something dwarfs might do out of respect but it would be very inconvenient. Imagine you suddenly need to speak in Wikipedia's simple English in an emergency meeting because there's that strange rockstar consultant liked by management who can't understand your usual speech.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top