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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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[x] The Waystone Project


The Waystone project seems like the path towards the most durable large scale positive change. The others are cool and good, but Waystones seems best. Go big or go home, be ambitious, etc etc.
 
CuttleFish2.0 said:
You know I think there is actually an argument to be made that now is the time to start the Waystone project, as opposed to waiting.

First off the practical arguments against waiting... well, they boil down to essentially this; there's no actual guarantee that Mathilde survives. Not a few updates ago we had several close reminders that even for all the she has progressed in power Mathilde can still die quite easily. In the fight with the Champion of Khorne. With the Urmskaladrak. Tomorrow is not gauranteed, so if we want to do something we should do it now.

Now that that's out of the way, why should we do it now as opposed to the other 'more pressing' jobs?

Well, because it's extremely fresh on our minds for one. Our familiarity (however slight) with Waystones is what allowed us to turn the Karag Dum expedition from (in the eyes of the dwarfs) a pointless exercise into an actual genuine success; return Vlag to mundane reality is the thing dwarfs are likely to take away from the expedition, rather than the news about Dum. Mathilde has just been delivered a categorical and immediate demonstration of the utility of Waystones, not only to the forces of 'Order' but also to the various 'Disorder' factions as well as a reminder why there are few people better placed to actually make progress on it.

No dwarfen Runelord noticed the hijinks with Vlag, nor elven high mage. Mathilde. This reinforces the original reason the Eonir even reached out to her with the initial notion in the first place; because she is a friendly with dwarfs and has sufficient insight into the technical aspects of magic not to completely fuck up something like this and functionally those factors are at their zenith (unless we manage to catch the eye of some very high up High Elven Archmages or something). General dwarf opinion of Mathilde at this point is not really going to go meaningfully up, not in any helpful way at least, the Waystone doesn't need dwarfs in general to think better of us - it needs Runesmiths to and for that we're going to actually talk to the Runesmiths in question and convince them to contribute their closely guarded knowledge to the project.

The Eonir are already nominally bought it, it just remains to negotiate specific resource contributions and actually start. They're not going to get more onboard without actual invest in the project.

Really the only reasonable stakeholder who can be convinced by further effort on Mathilde's part is the Empire and the knowledge locked up behind that door is not, fundamentally, new in anyway. Whatever the Colleges (in particular the Jades) or Cults or other scattered and minor magical traditions might know ahs already been known by humans for a couple centuries at least and is thus an exhausted well. Unless we can connect it with other knowledge.

Basically, delaying doesn't actually seem likely to make the Waystone project any easier. Not unless Mathilde deliberately set out to cultivate the necessary contacts while on the other job.
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You make a lot of good points I hadn't given much thought, so I've added waystones back to my vote.
CuttleFish2.0 said:
On a somewhat different, but connected note; one of the aspects of the Waystone project that hasn't particularly been noted (so far as I've seen, though, to be fair, I have been skimming a lot) is that it's one of the few jobs that could see Mathilde visiting a lot of far flung places. Want to visit Bretonnia? Tilea? Kislev again? Araby? Albion? Maybe even Ulthuan?
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Sylvania too, come to think of it. People there are known to build their homes and towns on top of Waystones and leylines. It must be an absolute haven for mystery cults and Hedgewise activity. Their understanding of Waystones could be drastically better than anyone realizes.

Kind of makes me more inclined to take the Marksgraf job, though. Sort out their problems a bit, then examine their local network. Maybe find a way to fix damage the necromancers have done once the area is less of a warzone.
 
Silver Gambit said:
I have zero faith in the Waystone quest somehow ending with us knowing how to make Waystones.
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Even if that is the in quest reality (I think it would be quite a stretch to make them, but that we don't know nearly enough about what we'd end up finding out/gaining access to either way to state it would be impossible). That's not something potential opposition would be able to take on faith, if there's a global task force actively working on the issue, and they seem to be making progress. Then you have to consider hedging against the possibility they have a successful end game as well.
 
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Jyn Ryvia said:
We don't like half of the Dwarf kings we have met.

The slayer kings are everything mathy dislikes about the dwarfs, half the thread would push the high king off a cliff and the less said about Bad Dwarf-dad the better.

Loremaster-at-large is not 'keep working with Bro-king'

its about working with those assholes as well.
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Working with them and getting sh!t done behind their back despite their doing their best to remain 'pure' will be a new experience.
Belebro have our back and even the most traditionalist dwarf (Kragg) admit that we're 'not bad' ( the closest thing we can get to that guy giving us a bro hug and kissing both our cheek).

Our commando actions and shadow super weapon is both radical and works. Also most importantly, have no noticable negative impact, that Belebro's entire character change from a 'one of the' traditionalist dwarven king into what is
clearly a face of a new (youthfull) dwarven future.
 
Silver Gambit said:
I mean there hasn't been a Chaos interrupt yet, so unless we start to do something with them I doubt it will happen, you know provided we don't like go back into the wastes for some reason.
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But we haven't even started yet? Like... the moment chaos gets wind that we are amking any progress we're going to get daemons. There's just no avoiding it. Chaos does not want someone figuring out how to repair, or worse create, waystones.
 
Guliang said:
No way they let us research the waystones without interference, no?
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Presumably there will be opposition from Chaos, yes, though it's probably too early to say how focused on us it will be. At a more local level, clogged Waystones might have beastmen or cults or dark magisters etc using them- upsetting enough of those as we unclog might be how they begin to focus on us.
 
Byzantine said:
The difference is waystones are, if fully successful at figuring out how to make waystones, capable of ruining chaos's millinia. While all the options put Mathilde against enemies, some more varied than others, none will be as desperate and dangerous as chaos trying to prevent a second golden age. Because waystones are that big a problem for them.
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While i don't doubt that their are those out their who would oppose our waystone reasearch, mainly chaos and beastmen, I doubt their as unitedas you state mate as if so humanity and the elves would have all fallen centuries ago.

Heck, Deiters rule should have been blood in the water yet it was neither the beast men or chaos coming knowcking on the door but green skins who had no idea on humanities shit emperor at the time.

Either way i doubt chaos or beast men are going to seek our death unless we go to them to get something related to waystones which may very well might be a possibility.
 
[x] Loremaster-at-Large of Karak Eight Peaks
[x] The Waystone Project


I'd prefer the LaL position because it would help us, if we want to, build up a more detailed knowledge of Dwarven holds. I guess if we went to the Kings of Barak Varr, Zhufbar and other 'friendly' holds, we would get a lot more info on the whole underground 'Grand Rituals'.

And we would be helping the Karaz Ankor, which is like the least pretentious and divided of all Order factions, and is admirably United against Chaos in a manner unseen amongst other races.

Barring that, the Waystone Project would also need us visit the very same holds to get some research done, while also getting help from the Eonir. But it might well put us up to visiting Athel Loren, and isn't that daunting? Less said about the world outside of the Old World, the better.
 
Alright, only 40 more pages of Boney's comments. I'm hoping his responses alone will give me a decent enough overview of the thread discussion throughout this Expedition. Too bad you can't get SV to display the full comment on search though. Would make this whole thing speedier.
 
The vote as it stands.

Adhoc vote count started by Aranfan on Mar 7, 2021 at 12:34 AM, finished with 2079 posts and 486 votes.
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Byzantine said:
But we haven't even started yet? Like... the moment chaos gets wind that we are amking any progress we're going to get daemons. There's just no avoiding it. Chaos does not want someone figuring out how to repair, or worse create, waystones.
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I'm not that much a fan of waystones, but I have to question how exactly chaos really get wind of this. We're not exactly going to be raising a flag and shouting into the void about how we're doing waystone research. Likely we're only going to get 50 people working directly on the project and the vast majority will be super secretive elven archmages or super secretive dwarven runesmiths, and ultimately outside of dwarven gyrocopters news just doesn't travel very far or fast. Sure, eventually if we get to the stage of reactivating waystones chaos may try to interfere but likely not before that. sure the four are powerful they're not omniscient, likely the best info chaos agents get is that some elves and dwarves have been having meetings, Which is super wierd but doesnt immediately scream they're trying to fix the waystone network.

Disregard this entirely if Egrimm is a chaos cultist and we hire him
 
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Breadnaugt said:
*Commentator Voice*

"It's a good swing, the distance is well measured, but the ball just missed the green. A hole in two is still possible, but three is more likely. This could make the difference in points."

"He lines up with the green, can he make this a hole in t- oh, a hazard has entered the field. He's switching clubs, fine choice, the driver is the best choice for fending off the approaching gor."

"He's dispatched the beast with alacrity, likely avoiding a time penalty from the judges, but the bent club may cost him on later holes. Now let's see if he can make that hole in two."

"Hole fifteen now, and it's a magnificent shot. On the green only feet from the hole- oh, but wait, a small band of goblins seem to have emerged from the undergrowth and had their attention drawn by the ball. Oh dear, they've absconded with the ball! He better stop them before they get too far. If they drop the ball in the rough that could add two or three extra strokes to his score."

"And the last goblin falls dead and our competitor seems a bit woozy himself, but gamely continues. He's resorting to the putter, as all the other clubs are either bent or thoroughly stained with goblin. Not ideal for the terrain, but the best of available options."
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Is it wrong that I am imaging David Attenborough as the commentator.
Also this is why I am reading through all the pages
 
Agonizing over how long to hold out with one vote for my preferred voice and when to start doing an oppositional "literally anything but waystones, literally anything" vote.
 
Considering we pulled a Hold from the warp, Chaos should know we are poking the waystones, no?
Not really interested in fighting an enemy that can't lose, working on a project that might never end..
 
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