Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

Darth. · Feb 21, 2021

Jyn Ryvia said:
- Sylvania has waystones that no one will miss if we go tinkering with them.

Hmm this is a good point actually and makes me not be so opposed to returning to Stirland.

Jyn Ryvia said:
2: Spymaster of Wissenland: ehhh, kind of done with Skaven myself: not against it, not for it. (TP tower back home would be a stretch at this distance

3: Ambassador-at-Large to the many Dwarfholds: also ehhh, If I wanted to stay on the dwarf train, I would prefer to just stick with K8P's (TP tower not needed.)

Agreed eh

Jyn Ryvia said:
4: Bodyguard and Tutor to Crown Prince Manfred: pretty interested, mostly because I'm not sure how it will work compared to what we are doing now: I feel like it will be a lot more 'little advantages' because of the bodyguard bit. (I think, we can get a TP tower back home working from here)

If we're a bodyguard/tutor to the Crown fucking Prince, that's the end of our long-term trips. I suggest reserving this for later when we/the Prince is older rather than a literal baby we'd be teaching the ABCs.
A is for Algard, the pain in my ass
B is for Belegar, he's better than your dad
C is for Chaos, your very best friend

Jyn Ryvia said:
5: Governor-General of the New World: not really, I want to travel, but this is far, far away and there will be no coming back for a while if ever: (no chance of tp tower here.)

Once we're done exploring Lustria/Ulthuan we could just resign though. Also this why I maintain the flying warship would have been better than Gehenna's Hounds. Why was this picked again? (Genuine question - i don't remember).

Jyn Ryvia said:
6: High Priest of Ranald: not against it, not for it: I kind of like that mathy can stay in hiding when it comes to the divine stuff. (problem don't need TP tower as she can work out of K8Ps ... lot of time on the road I think though)

Agreed, secret Ranald worshipper Mathilde is much better. Also no interest in becoming a literal Priestess.

Jyn Ryvia said:
7: Border Princes: interesting, hard mode, and we would have to limit the expectations of how much we can 'develop' it (everything will need to be made so that we can just uproot everyone and come back after every waaahh and beasthord) but I'm not un-interested. (TP tower would be easy?)

Border princes would keep us close to waystones, the Karak Ankor, Sylvania (we could merge this with a fief in Sylvania), Altdorf, as well as give us the possibility of returning to Karag Dum, so it does seem like a strong option. We don't necessarily have to be prepared to uproot everything because of every Waagh either - just secure any mountain passes and build towers of doom on them. Nothing says we have to stay confined to the granted territory - we could try our hand at expanding and collecting knowledge, trinkets and books from all those towns we conquer, along with inspecting any waystones along the way.

primemountain · Feb 21, 2021

SaltyWaffles said:
You now, in hindsight, getting all of these huge offers actually makes a lot of sense?

Mathilde has thoroughly demonstrated that she is not only highly competent and knowledgeable in a variety of situations and fields, but that she is thoroughly reliable and trustworthy when handed the reigns of power. She comes from the Grey Order, where its members are forbidden from getting involved in the internal politics of the Empire (well, beyond the stuff that threatens the Empire and its provinces) and don't seek to accumulate money (and thus can be trusted to not take bribes or operate for their own self-enrichment).

She's considered so reliable and competent that the dwarves sing her praises--and she's a wizard. She's got a proven track record for successfully waging campaigns against vampires/undead, greenskins, skaven, and now Chaos. She's led armies, gone on plenty of lucrative solo missions, and served as spymistress for an entire province.

She's got connections with lots of important players for the Empire: the Elector Count of Stirland, practically all major leaders of the Karaz Ankor, the Empress, the Supreme Patriarch, the Patriarch of the Grey Order, Kragg the Grimm, Thorek, the EIC, and more. She's got enough prestige and renown to at least get a meeting with just about anyone in the Empire (provided she's got something important enough to justify it), and she's a known quantity, for all that she's a Grey Wizard.

Ordinarily, a wizard having so much influence over the young, possibly future-Emperor would raise a lot of eyebrows, but Mathilde is someone who has steadfastly been taking the fight to the enemies of the Empire with sword and gun for much of her life. She's cut down the undead, leveled Castle Drakenhoff with cannon, thoroughly outmaneuvered and eradicated greenskin tribes, devastated skaven clans, and now she's successfully led an expedition farther north than almost anyone thought possible. She's considered so reliable that the dwarves made her a thane and put the fate of an entire karak in her hands. She wields a runed gromril sword--the kind of thing you can only get by being an outstanding ally to the dwarves, who have high standards for character.

Some other magisters are more powerful, more experienced, more influential, more connected throughout the Empire, and more accomplished. But Mathilde is fairly easy to trust to do the right things for the right reasons, and to only be a real threat to the enemies of the Empire. Sure, she's a wizard, and a Grey Wizard at that, but her actions speak for themselves, and the array of people she's friends with are a testament to her trustworthiness.

You know reading all that, you'd almost be forgiven for assuming that such a trustworthy character isn't the same Wizard who delved into Necromancy by reading The Liber Mortis.

Asheram · Feb 21, 2021

I'll point out that while Bodyguard/Tutor to young Prince Mandred is a very interesting place to be, it's also the position to where we'll likely have 0 (zero) downtime. We will likely requested to be around the palace 24/7.

In short, this job won't be in the same time-zone as the K8P job where we are allowed to half-ass our responsibilities.
We still haven't "tutored" the spiders as we should, and instead kicked it downstream to the hired help.

Jyn Ryvia · Feb 21, 2021

SO, Can I make an appeal to the Waystone purists:

Sylvania has waystones.

if we are in charge of Sylvania, then they become our waystones: (or at least we can do with them as we like as long as we are not noisy.)

so we can set up a joint wizard wood elve research without having to ask permission or what have you.

Chopak · Feb 21, 2021

BoneyM said:
Thanks to you, our mutual friend has the opportunity to mend some important bridges in Kislev, and thinks that you'd be perfect for the job. It will let the cat out of the bag in some respects, but what better way to do that than to be named High Priest of Ranald?

Chopak said:
Going for Supreme Matriarch is a dumb idea, let's go for Archbishop of Ranald and kick Grand Theogonist out of his Elector Seat.

BoneyM, that emoji at the end means that IT WAS A JOKE!

Alectai · Feb 21, 2021

Jyn Ryvia said:
SO, Can I make an appeal to the Waystone purists:

Sylvania has waystones.

if we are in charge of Sylvania, then they become our waystones: (or at least we can do with them as we like as long as we are not noisy.)

so we can set up a joint wizard wood elve research without having to ask permission or what have you.

Mmm, this is fair. It's also close enough to our stomping grounds in Eight Peaks that we can access our library and the facilities there if we need them, and it doesn't cut us off from all of our contacts either.

Still, I really am uncomfortable with the Waystone thing being apparently the only thing we can do in our life and we have to pick our major story arcs accordingly.

I do like the "Full Circle" bits with the Edgelord job though, but I'm also a fan of getting stuck in on the Border Princes to stabilize the region somewhat, since that puts us square between our two major centers of power with access to all kinds of interesting people.

Sir_Travelsalot · Feb 21, 2021

Darth. said:
(we could merge this with a fief in Sylvania)

How? The land access route either goes over a mountain range or through Black Fire Pass, which would go through Averland before reaching Sylvania.

FriedIce · Feb 21, 2021

Dark as Silver said:
Can we appreciate how far Stirlands come?

They weren't discarded so they've climbed from Journeyman to Lord Magister tier.

We're not being asked to be Spymaster of Stirland. We're being offered the position of Countess of Sylvania.

All of it.

With the attendant titles.

ChronOblivion · Feb 21, 2021

Agh.

To be frank, I've been internally calling bullshit on Mathilde's whole "Belegar would benefit more from a traditional Dwarven Loremaster" thing. Just looking at the turn before our adventure, and we have Mathilde saving several hundred elder lives, and then producing that absolutely ridiculous forensic investigation that absolutely no other Karak could've produced. Belegar is missing the toolset that a normal Loremaster would have, but he has a Mathilde, which gives him a significantly wider array of capabilities than anyone else.

I also have a strong desire to not leave Eight Peaks, as it is clearly our True Home. And many of these jobs involve, at the very least, spending a very long time away from home over the course of every turn.

So yeah, this update deepening the setup for Mathilde moving on is a bit sad even as I boggle at the options themselves.

Alectai · Feb 21, 2021

ChronOblivion said:
Agh.

To be frank, I've been internally calling bullshit on Mathilde's whole "Belegar would benefit more from a traditional Dwarven Loremaster" thing. Just looking at the turn before our adventure, and we have Mathilde saving several hundred elder lives, and then producing that absolutely ridiculous forensic investigation that absolutely no other Karak could've produced. Belegar is missing the toolset that a normal Loremaster would have, but he has a Mathilde, which gives him a significantly wider array of capabilities than anyone else.

I also have a strong desire to not leave Eight Peaks, as it is clearly our True Home. And many of these jobs involve, at the very least, spending a very long time away from home over the course of every turn.

So yeah, this update deepening the setup for Mathilde moving on is a bit sad even as I boggle at the options themselves.

TBH, I think BoneyM's just running out of ideas of neat things to do there, and is trying to shake things up with some interesting new plot arcs, and we're picking which one we want to explore.

And you know what? That's fair.

Alratan · Feb 21, 2021

There's a lot of implicit assumptions here that this is an exhaustive list of our future options.

Being troubleshooter in chief for the Karaz Ankor may well also be on the table, don't forget.

picklepikkl · Feb 21, 2021

Alectai said:
Mmm, this is fair. It's also close enough to our stomping grounds in Eight Peaks that we can access our library and the facilities there if we need them, and it doesn't cut us off from all of our contacts either.

Still, I really am uncomfortable with the Waystone thing being apparently the only thing we can do in our life and we have to pick our major story arcs accordingly.

I just don't want to leave K8P or the Karaz Ankor. I like it here. I hate the notion of picking up our life and dropping everything because we got bored.

ChronOblivion said:
Agh.

To be frank, I've been internally calling bullshit on Mathilde's whole "Belegar would benefit more from a traditional Dwarven Loremaster" thing. Just looking at the turn before our adventure, and we have Mathilde saving several hundred elder lives, and then producing that absolutely ridiculous forensic investigation that absolutely no other Karak could've produced. Belegar is missing the toolset that a normal Loremaster would have, but he has a Mathilde, which gives him a significantly wider array of capabilities than anyone else.

I also have a strong desire to not leave Eight Peaks, as it is clearly our True Home. And many of these jobs involve, at the very least, spending a very long time away from home over the course of every turn.

So yeah, this update deepening the setup for Mathilde moving on is a bit sad even as I boggle at the options themselves.

We still haven't seen the Karaz Ankor job offers. Hopefully Boney gives us ones that are just as tempting.

Alratan said:
There's a lot of implicit assumptions here that this is an exhaustive list of our future options.

Being troubleshooter in chief for the Karaz Ankor may well also be on the table, don't forget.

We explicitly know it isn't an exhaustive list. Boney made a note at the end spelling that out.

ALanos · Feb 21, 2021

I'm pretty being the primary tutor of a prince doesn't mean we would be in a full teaching gig most likely we would handle the various tutors who would help mould the prince while we would handle the curricullum. We are also his defender but we would make sure to hire and train his personal bodyguards to defend him because a Grey Magister is nothing but thorough.

Darth. · Feb 21, 2021

Sir_Travelsalot said:
How? The land access route either goes over a mountain range or through Black Fire Pass, which would go through Averland before reaching Sylvania.

Not literally merge. I meant more like, take up an inheritable position in Sylvania and set up a TP tower so we can manage both that along with our border territories - this is also mostly me wanting to also be the Countess of Nachthafen tbh.

Woltaire · Feb 21, 2021

Alratan said:
There's a lot of implicit assumptions here that this is an exhaustive list of our future options.

Being troubleshooter in chief for the Karaz Ankor may well also be on the table, don't forget.

this is not a exhaustive list only some of them we will receive more

Zero Gravitas · Feb 21, 2021

Asheram said:
I'll point out that while Bodyguard/Tutor to young Prince Mandred is a very interesting place to be, it's also the position to where we'll likely have 0 (zero) downtime. We will likely requested to be around the palace 24/7.

Consider that three of the positions involved are basically: be a high noble!

As energetic as Prince Mandred can be I'm quite certain he's less demanding than Sylvania or the New World Colonies or the Border Princes.

Mandred will have tutors and other bodyguards - Mathilde will just be overall in charge of his education and safety; she'll have plenty of time for research and self improvement - with the Colleges being right next door.

Angelform · Feb 21, 2021

BoneyM said:
An extract from the coming update:

Alternative title: Blood in the water.

Markgraf of Eastern Stirland

What a turn around. Effective rulership of Sylvania. About as high as it is possible to be without being an Elector Count.

In a more meta sense, as open invitation to mingle with a Van Hal and fight/study necromancy.
Omegahugger, no.

Spymaster of Wissenland...

…odd. Pretty sure this was a character creation option. Somewhat out of the blue, even narratively. Wonder if Grand Count Konstantin von Liebwitz actually wants a spymaster or just wants a high end Wizard on staff.

Ambassador-at-Large to the many Dwarfholds that bulwark the Empire

Is it a conflict of interest for an ambassador to be equally loyal to both nations she is the liaison between?

Bodyguard and Tutor to Crown Prince Mandred

Bloody hell. While not the most directly influential post in the Empire it is arguably the most important. And it can lead into so many other things…

Governor-General of the New World territories and control over the entrepôt commonly known as Swamp Town

From Mathilde's perspective this comes out of nowhere. From our perspective this is the best shot at meeting the Slann we could hope for.

High Priest of Ranald

…strangely I feel this would be a lessoning of her relation with Ranald. Also eyebrow deep in politics.

Border Princes

The call of clay.

Interesting to note that many of these offers explicitly upgrade Mathilde from advisor to Ruler.

To restore your sense of normalcy, you turn to a letter you hope to be much more prosaic: an official announcement of some sort from Karaz-a-Karak...

It is a crying shame that only Wolf will be around to see her reaction.

NavySeel · Feb 21, 2021

I'm pretty strongly against taking the tutor position. Its not just being his tutor its being his body guard, meaning we'd have to spend a lot of time with him, we have no garuntees about how much of his time that would take.

Phalfpipe · Feb 21, 2021

wooow, so many fun options, spy vs spy with the skaven, being partners in crime with Heidi, doing Frozen 3 in Kislev, and even a chance to jump from knighthood straight into a lordship.

I think the Belegar situation is basically stable too. Sure, he's highly pissed at Thorgrim , but the only action he took against him was to support an expedition that the high king was dragging his feet on. Mathilde knows that he's agonizing over some of his decisions and what motivated them , but to anyone on the outside looking in Belebro must seem like the canniest Dwarf leader in centuries , and that everything he touches turns to gold.

The only stumbling block to promotion or Elfcation now is if Marianburg suddenly cooks off and then somehow (🐀) snowballs into a three way free-for-all war between the Elves , Dwarfs and Empire, which is looking very unlikely now... probably, knock on wood, 🤞 , ect.

DragonParadox · Feb 21, 2021

Sir_Travelsalot said:
We already set that precedent though, when we got knighted and raised to the peerage, with the accompanying land. A Wizard was raised to a noble title and given land to rule, this would just be more land and bigger titles.

Goat village barely land and hardly a title. As titles go it is one small step from a courtesy title.

Derpmind · Feb 21, 2021

BoneyM said:
In recent years, piracy, sabotage, and border skirmishes in the Border Princes region has shown that Dwarven dominance over the area is required to guarantee the safe flow of trade. King Byrrnoth Grundadrakk of Barak Varr wishes to make you aware that support would be available should an Umgi of proven trustworthiness seek dominion over the territories of the western end of Mad Dog Pass, near the banks of the Howling River. He also extends the observation that the Lady Magister is of proven trustworthiness.

Just noticed this: King Byrrnoth is subtly calling Mathilde a dwarf here. The offer is for Dwarven dominion over the Border Princes. Mathilde has a dwarf King's support, as a dwarf herself, to, uh, civilize the area and fortify it against orc invasion.

Alratan · Feb 21, 2021

picklepikkl said:
We explicitly know it isn't an exhaustive list. Boney made a note at the end spelling that out.

We've been told that, but it isn't how multiple posters are responding to it.

Darth. · Feb 21, 2021

@BoneyM If we became Markgraf of Sylvania, could we also opt into an inheritable title? Not necessarily Nachthafen of course. Whatever we pick could become the new capital of Sylvania.

(Keeping in mind this list isn't all of our options)

reignonyrparade · Feb 21, 2021

Derpmind said:
Just noticed this: King Byrrnoth is subtly calling Mathilde a dwarf here. The offer is for Dwarven dominion over the Border Princes. Mathilde has a dwarf King's support, as a dwarf herself, to, uh, civilize the area and fortify it against orc invasion.

It's not. The offer is for dwarven domiNANCE but umgi domiNION.

Boney · Feb 21, 2021

Darth. said:
@BoneyM If we became Markgraf of Sylvania, could we also opt into an inheritable title? Not necessarily Nachthafen of course. That could become the new capital of Sylvania.

No, the letter said it was one or the other. Drakenhof is Sylvania's capital, and would be the fief and base of operations of the Markgraf.

Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

Definitely a heretic

Not quite altogether

Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion

Never wakes up tired.

The Authentic Fake

Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion

This isn't even my nerdiest form

Definitely a heretic

"I don't know what I'm doing."

Definitely a heretic