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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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@BoneyM - my preferred option right now is the trip to Ulthuan, but could you clarify how long we have between the downtime/recovery from this job and going on it, or is it down to the voters to decide?

As ideally given the prideful nature of Elves and their millennia of knowledge, a bit of preparation before going so you can most take advantage of it seems ideal. For example learning the Elven spellcasting language seems essential for acquiring magical knowledge, given it'll be how they frame their own thoughts on it and cast with. Trying to converse in a bastardised magical language, or the normal elven language seems like its trigger their superiority complex. Similarly calling yourself a "Master" of Ulgu and not having control over your ulgu mutations, wouldn't inspire great belief in Mathildes ability given the Elven focus on control and discipline.
 
I really want the whole Emperor gamble to pay off, Heidi is fun, and having Ranald in our debt could be quite useful. Why not put off Waystones for like 10 years? Like, I'd imagine having Ranald in our debt, plus connections with all the Elector-Counts and the Emperor, then doing Waystones would be much more advantageous when it comes to funding and expertise.
 
ugh, haven't read all the disscusion yet but i'm seriously tempted to go to Spymaster of Wisenland.

Friendly relations with the count? Full backing from him, free reign to do wizard stuff, rat adventures, possible hill dwarfs and their old fortress, possibility of dealing with chaos and beastmen cults and ancient towers made from advanced races?

Ugh, so tempting an offer and i do ideally wan't to experience some imperial politics and see empire grow more powerfull and have more connections to it like this count since he seems likable.

ughhhhh, was married to the waystone research vote last time but seriously tempted to go spymaster of Wisenland... Probably going to vote for this option now that I think about it. Their are few counts as open mined and willing to accept a wizard such as us and i would like to have a taste of the empire and develop more connections before going waystone research. Might change mind after reading disscusion though.

Bot really interested in Sylvania or Swamp town, First seems to be retreding old ground which doesn't interest me much and second seems to have us loose all acces to our old contacts, resources, etc and we already have much research in our back log and Boney said not to vote for it if you expecting friendly lizard men and Slann magic as your only reason to vote for it which was the main draw for me sadly.

Like I don't think it's impossible to befriend the Slann or Lizard men but it will probably a hard fought battle unless Ranald memes on Boney and T - poses with the dice super hard like he did at K8P. Any who those are my thoughts, curious to catch up on the rest of the discussion, last vote for preference vote I sadly couldn't read it all in a timely manner, hopefully i can this time now i'm here early.
 
Preliminary opinion:

[ ] Loremaster Sinecure
[ ] Nagarythe
[ ] Research Sabbatical
These aren't jobs and I have no interest in sitting on our laurels. At best they push this same vote down the track a bit.

[ ] Count of Sylvania
[ ] Ambassador-at-Large to the Karaz Ankor
[ ] Ranaldian High Priest of Kislev
Jobs that are things I really don't want to do.

[] Markgraf of Eastern Stirland
[] Governor-General of Swamp Town
[] Spymaster of Wissenland
[] Border Princess of the Howling River
While I can see the appeal of these and can imagine a good quest in them… I just feel there are better options elsewhere.

[/] Loremaster-at-Large of Karak Eight Peaks
[/] Bodyguard and Tutor to Prince Mandred
These are both 'do a bit of a lot of stuff' type positions. There will always be troubles all over the place and these are an invitation to move between the various hot-spots as is convenient.

[\/] The Waystone Project
Ultimately this seems like the shortest path to changing the world. To carving Mathilde into history. To kicking Chaos in the shins.
 
My guess on how the Colleges would react to the Bodyguard job would be that officially and unifficially they'd be scrutinizing Mathilde's actions closely, not entirely approving. Absolutely unofficially though? If Mathilde can ensure that the next emperor to be is well disposed to the Colleges, then all for the better. The Colleges' relationship with Luitpold was more than likely not built in a day. Getting a head start on the heir might sound like a good deal, especially if the relationship can be improved.

Of course, while success would need no apologies, failure is likely to require a few at least. At worst, Mathilde might have to make an exit in favor of Magister Grey.
 
Raydom said:
Friendly relations with the count? Full backing from him, free reign to do wizard stuff, rat adventures, possible hill dwarfs and their old fortress, possibility of dealing with chaos and beastmen cults and ancient towers made from advanced races?

Ugh, so tempting an offer and i do ideally wan't to experience some imperial politics and see empire grow more powerfull and have more connections to it like this count since he seems likable.

ughhhhh, was married to the waystone research vote last time but seriously tempted to go spymaster of Wisenland...
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*slaps roof of Imperial Bodyguard* This bad boy can fit so many adventures in it. We could do all that plus skip the boring stuff without also being tied to a single province and helping to ensure the Emperor gamble pays off and gets Ranald in our debt for when we move on to Waystones.

Angelform said:
[\/] The Waystone Project
Ultimately this seems like the shortest path to changing the world. To carving Mathilde into history. To kicking Chaos in the shins.
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To restate a previous post of mine: Why not put off Waystones for like 10 years? Like, I'd imagine having Ranald in our debt, plus connections with all the Elector-Counts and the Emperor, then doing Waystones would be much more advantageous when it comes to funding and expertise.
 
TalonofAnathrax said:
And a lot of the proposed jobs do seem to fit our general "make the world a better place" vibe - sometimes for the Dawi, sometimes for the Empire, and sometimes for both!
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HungryHamadryad said:
I'm happy to see people are showing a little more interest in rent-a-loremaster because it seems quite fun.
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Yup. And I had the fun image of the Emperor petitioning the Karaz Ankor for help,
BoneyM said:
The current Emperor is asking for Dwarven assistance in securing under-Ubersreik...
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and Belegar going "Thorgrim, buddy, I got this."
Alliterate said:
King Belegar dispatches his Loremaster
What Borek the Emperor heard:

What he got:
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ALanos said:
Actually, most might get interested in this because being able to influence the Imperial House has long been the dream of the Colleges and if the next emperor becomes the product of the Colleges' upbringing then we will be upstaging the Golds then because they've got Karl Franz so the Greys should have Mandred with Ranald's blessing all over him how is he not going the perfect material for our college's expertise and beliefs.
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Karl Franz doesn't exist in the quest. Also, he was never particularly close with the Golds. If anything, he preferred the Brights.
 
BoneyM said:
I'm not offering Research Sabbatical just so we can be back here in two turns. It's for if you want Mathilde to spend multiple years focused on nothing but research.
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Hmm. This makes it less appealing; I had been envisioning it as a subvote after we picked a job, but if it's gonna be a thing in its own right, then yeah, being right back here immediately sounds terrible. Guess I'll just vote for stuff where we can research on the side, instead.
BoneyM said:
Shitty. He's not the most refined person. Also I suspect that usage of the word might be an Australianism.

Edit: Yep. I'll figure out a rewording.
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I mean, ain't no rule saying that Nulnese Reikspiel translated into English can't be Australian. Embrace radical freedom!

Anyway, currently Loremaster-at-Large and Waystones are vying for my first place, L-a-L having shot up the rankings. Still unsure about how I feel about Mandred, since Loremaster-at-Large for the Empire sounds like fun, but I'm not convinced Heidi wouldn't have us poking at things we might rather we didn't. Title drop and so on. Markgrafin seems fine, the interview with Rosie didn't really sway me one way or another apart from "god, I love Roswita so much, she's just the best."
 
Thanks for that then BoneyM, for me it's very much the trip to Ulthuan then.

We get some relatively flexible downtime between returning and recovering from Dum which we can use to finish off a couple things, learn Anoqueyan, get control of our mutations, some Elf diplomacy from the college ect.

Then we can transition to the trip itself, and afterwards many of the skills we learn to prepare for it will be very helpful if we take the Waystones after returning.

The knowledge from the trip itself will also be fascinating for Mathildes personal development as a Mage, as well as how she operates.
 
Darth. said:
*slaps roof of Imperial Bodyguard* This bad boy can fit so many adventures in it. We could do all that plus skip the boring stuff without also being tied to a single province and helping to ensure the Emperor gamble pays off and gets Ranald in our debt for when we move on to Waystones.
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And also break College Oaths for whims of a very Chaotic Neutral lady who's probably kind of fine risking good of empire for the sake of running the Biggest Heist Ever.

We can get all of that without the bad parts by becoming High Priest in Kislev: all godly favours, all cool adventures, none of Heidi and none of making Grey Order side-eye us for technically legally breaking the Oaths.
 
I would want to stay based out of K8P. We have our labs, our library, our great boon owed and our secrets stored in the King's vault. Panoramia has a long term contract there. The Silk Road is a spring of news and potential plot hooks.

As such, the Waystones project and Loremaster at Large should be my picks.
 
ALanos said:
Either way, success needs no question when the colleges have their due.
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If you're looking at it as a chance to influence the next Emperor, that's a long term goal. Not saying it's not a good goal, just saying it's not the sort of success you can bank on to stop the Colleges looking at Mathilde very hard. Not for a good stretch of time.
 
BoneyM said:
"This is why Wissenland needs you. Put an enemy in front of me and I'll fight them. Put a politician in front of me and I'll yell at them. But secret underground rat bases? Ancient Dwarven history? I need someone who can sort that out, and when I asked people who know about this sort of thing, your name kept coming up. I'll pay well, I'll give you whatever support you need, and if you want to get up to creepy Wizard stuff in your off hours, Nuln is used to that sort of thing."
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Why is this pitch suddenly so appealing to me? Why is this blunt and weird sales pitch working on me?????
BoneyM said:
and our mutual friend - would be very much in your debt."

You recall something Heideck once said to you: 'Many die in debt to Ranald, but very few die with Ranald in debt to them.'
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Mmmm. More interesting than I initially assumed. Poor dwarves though.
BoneyM said:
An oft-repeated joke by the more tedious sort of politician is that the Reiksmarshal is the Imperial Fist, but the Chancellor is the Imperial Fisc.
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Haha. If that thought came to mind before a serious meeting, I don't think I would be able to keep a straight face.

Either way, this seems to now be less of a singular choice for me, and more of a locked approval vote. Will catch up on the discussions after some zzzs
 
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I think the imperial baby sitter role is how we get divinely bestowed life extension. It also sounds turbo cool. I'm extremely split between it and loremaster at large.
 
Raikazin said:
I think the imperial baby sitter role is how we get divinely bestowed life extension. It also sounds turbo cool. I'm extremely split between it and loremaster at large.
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Reminder that we get High Priesthood for maximum divine boons: I imagine that Ranald'd be pretty thankful for helping him fix thousands-years-old fuckup which caused him to drift away from other gods.
Heidi stuff is more about maximum overmucking in imperial politics.
 
Raikazin said:
I think the imperial baby sitter role is how we get divinely bestowed life extension. It also sounds turbo cool. I'm extremely split between it and loremaster at large.
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I think Heidi was telling the truth when she said the way to get divinely bestowed life extension is to do nice things for the Shallyans.
Heidi and Mandred aren't Shallyans.
 
Other way to life extension (other than whatever Omegahugger would suggest) is to go full research on Ulgu and its mysteries and hope to pull off Elspeth.
 
deathofrats0808 said:
If you're looking at it as a chance to influence the next Emperor, that's a long term goal. Not saying it's not a good goal, just saying it's not the sort of success you can bank on to stop the Colleges looking at Mathilde very hard. Not for a good stretch of time.
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I'm fairly sure being directly ordered by the emperor to do it supersedes this.
 
One thing I want to point out about the "Bodyguard and Tutor to Prince Mandred" job, is that Heidi is expressly looking to have us go around addressing the foremost concerns of the Elector-Counts. Yes, as a means of shoring up Mandred's succession (which is useful for avoiding potential intra-Imperial strife!), but think about what that means beyond that.

Remember how the Empire wasn't able to do much to help with reclaiming Karak Eight Peaks and was hamstrung in dealing with Marienburg, because almost all of the Elector-Counts had much bigger things occupying their attention and manpower? That is what Heidi would be having us address, the (title-drop!) divided loyalties of the Empire itself.
 
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ctulhuslp said:
And also break College Oaths for whims of a very Chaotic Neutral lady who's probably kind of fine risking good of empire for the sake of running the Biggest Heist Ever.

We can get all of that without the bad parts by becoming High Priest in Kislev: all godly favours, all cool adventures, none of Heidi and none of making Grey Order side-eye us for technically legally breaking the Oaths.
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I'm sure people are looking at having the future emperor than that sort of triviality when the vow of poverty is stretched to its limits and we are still assisting the empire after this. So we are doing our job as a patriotic Imperial and it's not like the Grey Magisters haven't been in these roles before they could just be ensuring the colleges and the order itself would benefit.
deathofrats0808 said:
If you're looking at it as a chance to influence the next Emperor, that's a long term goal. Not saying it's not a good goal, just saying it's not the sort of success you can bank on to stop the Colleges looking at Mathilde very hard. Not for a good stretch of time.
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We're a Lord Magister I'm sure they would be thinking about how this would benefit the College instead of anything untoward. So while she may be under a bit of scrutiny it would more likely be to check on the investment than being very cross at Mathilde because I guess they're also going to be surprised at how Mathilde is friends with the empress.
 
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