Remove ads

Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Voting is open
Reader mode
Hmm. Lessons.

Shit happens, it's having the capability to roll with the punches that means you walk (or fly) away when your landship falls off a cliff.

Something about the wisdom of the ancients, even told in the form of tales to children.

Some secrets need to be told. Being mysterious isn't so nice when you're on the receiving end.

You get the best results when you do your homework, when you prepare the ground and then exploit it.
 
BoneyM said:
While I'm putting together the framework for the next update, if anyone has suggestions for upcoming trait vote, now's the time to put them forward. To be clear I'm not looking for exact mechanical effects, just lessons Mathilde may have learned or new interests she may have developed during the Expedition and the lead-up to it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
How about?

Oh Gravity, Thou Art a Heartless Bitch!!! The greatest losses of the expedition were not due to demons, or enemies but due to falling from higher terrain, so you have grown really good at identifying and preventing these scenarios in your daily life.

Stone is an excellent insulator of magic... Thanks to your experiences in Karag Vlag you have learned how to identify almost imperceptible memetic chaos mental manipulation, and also very good at breaking free from them
 
  • Large Scale Windsight - The windfall, the wastes, the rivers of winds, and Vlag have all shown you that your ability to sense the winds can far exceed the range and scope of any other senses
  • Greater Divine Sensitivity - from the effects on both Karaks and all the divine power being thrown around in the cup heist
  • Frequent Casting - constantly casting rite of way and mockery of death in/near the wastes may have been instructive in how to work with large amounts of magic with more safety
  • The Lesser Evil - some kind of diplomatic insight on chaos factions from trade with the Kugan and the Chorfs
  • Actually a Dwarf - sure the proclamation is untestable and probably empty, but there's an empire's worth of dwarves who might disagree. Mathy gains some of the stone nature of the dwarves (probably a bad idea)
  • Excellent Insulator of Magic - Extensive first-hand experience resisting Slandeshi deception magic has shown you just how powerful it can be (not sure what the effect would be here)
 
One lesson to be learned is "Avoid duels, just because you are pretty good with the blade by now does not mean it isn't vastly preferable to hit them when they can't fight back".

These lesson is born from two factors, the most obvious being our fight with the Norscan champion, but just as telling was Asarnil's show, which reminded us that being "good" is sometimes not nearly enough.
 
BoneyM said:
While I'm putting together the framework for the next update, if anyone has suggestions for upcoming trait vote, now's the time to put them forward. To be clear I'm not looking for exact mechanical effects, just lessons Mathilde may have learned or new interests she may have developed during the Expedition and the lead-up to it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Some Doors Remain Unopened: Mathilde can't learn everything and sometimes the survival and expedience must take priority over the search for knowledge. Not learning the secrets of Cor-Dum rankles, but it was the right decision. Making this choice again will come easier.

The Great Question Mark: Mathilde's biggest regret is not staying to learn the truth behind Cor-Dum. Leaving meant turning her back on potentially useful - or dangerous - knowledge, and she will probably never stop asking questions. Making this choice again will not come easy, but she will be more determined if she chooses to learn.
 
Something about being slightly more resistant to temptation? We kinda fucked over Slaanesh on this one. Pulled out his toy Karak, resisted the temptation of Za-Goblet, which has been guarded by a Daemonette? Is that enough for a trait? It would probably be offset by the fact that we have theit attention now.
 
ScottishMongol said:
Some Doors Remain Unopened: Mathilde can't learn everything and sometimes the survival and expedience must take priority over the search for knowledge. Not learning the secrets of Cor-Dum rankles, but it was the right decision. Making this choice again will come easier.

The Great Question Mark: Mathilde's biggest regret is not staying to learn the truth behind Cor-Dum. Leaving meant turning her back on potentially useful - or dangerous - knowledge, and she will probably never stop asking questions. Making this choice again will not come easy, but she will be more determined if she chooses to learn.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Please let's not have that argument again, just this time with the permanent consequence of a trait.
 
Chain casting-her repeated spamming of spells gives her insight in how to do it less suicidally

Ulgu blending - she has direct experience with blurring the boundaries between ulgu spells and has insight into doing so in the future, hopefully without unwanted explosions

You son of a bitch, I'm in- Recruitment. Heists. Drama and potential betrayals!

Supreme High Priestess of Valaya-wait what? :p
 
So, I may have given it some thought, for reasons:

kingreaper said:
What aspect of each of these periods of your past speaks to you most?
Peacetime in Karak Eight Peaks
[] [Peace] Constant Preparation
You never stopped preparing for future battles - because that's what times of peace are for, readying for war.

[] [Peace] Peacetime Development
You learned to appreciate the more mundane developmental work. Panoramia's farming, the building of canals, renovation of rooms throughout the hold.

[] [Peace] Master Interrogator
You drew out the knowledge of Queekish from Qrech, an impossible task made possible by your impossible skills

[] [Peace] Dawongr
You already miss living among the dwarves and it hasn't even been a week. Maybe that Ancestor Conclave were right? You doubt it, but you do know that you are forever a dwarf-friend.

[] [Peace] Collegiate
The August Order of the Ducklings was only the barest hint of your ambitions for the future. Seeing the Battle Wizards in Stirland reminds you just how huge the impact of intercollege co-operation is.

[] [Peace] Polygluttony
Learning new languages is just so interesting - especially when they have new properties. Queekish with its musks and whisker twitches; The We with their subsonic vibrations. You're going to learn Draconic some day, maybe you'll even learn to talk to those Lizards out by swamp town. No language can hide its secrets forever.

----------------

Expedition to Karag Dum
[] [Dum] Distant Winds
The expedition's greatest success came from your windsight, and particularly using it at a distance. And then you got to practice that further by watching the windfall, and seeing the winds flowing through the sky. The range of your windsight can be stretched far further than you thought.

[] [Dum] Windsense Unshackled
Your windsense is tied to your sight. But that tie has gotten looser over time, and as you've learnt more about the windsense of others. You could cut it entirely - learn to experience the winds through any sense, or even to experience them directly.

[] [Dum] Mithril Mind
Karak Vlag would have remained buried if you hadn't been able to keep Slaanesh out of your mind. And later on you might well have fallen to that false Panoramia, or to the Chaos Cup. No more - your mind shall be a vault, guarded with traps, that none bar you shall enter.

[] [Dum] The Divine Balance
Deathfang suggested that your partnership with "Loec" is part of what keeps you stable and growing, rather than becoming one with your wind. Maybe you could lean into it further, find a true balance between Ulgu and Ranald?

[] [Dum] Ulgu: Wind of Travel
The three most useful spells in your arsenal in the expedition were clear - Rite of Way let you all travel through impossible terrain, fast enough to avoid enemy action. Shadowsteed let you scout ahead, dart back for raids, and take side trips. And Smoke and Mirrors made you an unstoppable dervish on the battlefield. (Spell Creation Trait)

[] [Dum] Student of History
Learning about past events from Deathfang and Ljiljana has sparked your interest in the past - and your reading to prepare for waystones stoked it. Perhaps it's time to feed that fire?

[] [Dum] Communicative
You found it hard to make time to get to know folks on the expedition, and that cost you. Maybe you can find a way to fit more social interactions in around your work?

[] [Dum] Recruiter
Once again you joined a woefully understaffed expedition and got it the support it needed. It's certainly a useful talent to cultivate.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
Refuge in audacity: between pulling Vlag out of the aethyr, reclaiming Karak eight peaks in a day, and countless similar instances you have learned that sometimes all it takes to be successful is to try something completely unexpected, and maybe a little absurd.



K8p reclaimed in a day, Vlag,suddenly appearing barrels of food, successfully convincing the kurgan that we were a chaos follower, a two woman assault on a chaos war and, and your Mookery of death idea, suddenly dragon for the chaos challenge.

A lot of our success came from ideas that would by most sane standards would be laughable. COmpletely absurd. Rescue a dwarf hold by doing the equivalent of turning it on and off again? Absurd. Two women attacking hundreds of chaos warriors? Absurd. And yet it - and so many other ideas worked really well. Maybe Mathilde is learning that the bounds of the possible are a lot larger than most people think.
 
Would the traits be specifically from lessons learned on the expedition, or from all the time since the last trait picking?
 
keeping a very un-detailed list of stuff i think works.

- the holy battle over the sippy cup
- using battle magic for the first time
- the importance of speed
- miss information (the locals thinking we are a norcen war-band for most of the trip)
- mathy's first battle against demons
- turning the miscast into the demons problem
- Being mysterious isn't so nice when you're on the receiving end.
- Stone is an excellent insulator of magic... but it an't fooling a mathy
- Frequent Casting
- Some Doors Remain Unopened: Dum
- Mathy resisting demon temptations with crits
- gandalfing for the party (we recruited a lot of big names for this walk into Mordor dum
- Refuge in audacity: mathy has an knack for hitting her enemies in a way no one could plan for.
- Divine Balance: Deathfang suggested that your partnership with "Loec" is part of what keeps you stable
- Ulgu: Wind of Travel: got-a-go faster!
- two Skaven in a trench coat: we convinced a lot of the locals we were something we were not when making deals with them.
 
Last edited:
Might be reaching a bit, but between the Dawi Soul, Karag Dum and Dragon Nap Time Story events I could see Mathilde being pretty hard to surprise and simply roll with confusion from now on, which might be useful in Diplomacy and Ulgu.
 
Right, I meant to mention all the diplomacy we did as well. Because there was a fair amount of that, politicking, and recruitment speeches. Probably a few seperate paradigms for a trait there.
 
BoneyM said:
lessons Mathilde may have learned or new interests she may have developed during the Expedition and the lead-up to it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Right before the Expedition we had the experiment on the Coin, and then during the expedition we got close and personal with the divinities of Ranald, the four gods in the bearicane, the Violent One, and whatever unknown divinity was present at Vlag. I could see that leading to, not an upgrade per se, but a "sideways" development of Avatar, similar to how @kingreaper has some "sideways" developments of our Windsight in his list.

Also hooray for being back and such. Missed you dorks.
 
BoneyM said:
There was only one or two updates between the last trait pick vote and the beginning of the lead-up to the Expedition.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Three and a bit turns. We got our post-Waaagh trait in the last update of T25, we then had T26, T27, and T28 as full turns, and then T29 we got assigned to KD and all this began.

I guess during that time we learned "while dropping a ton of impactful papers on your boss's desk on the same subject at the same time is objectively very funny, it also gets you assigned homework." But yeah, it's been four years since completing the reconquest of K8P, and 2.5 of those years have been spent either prepping for KD or on the Expedition.
 
Some ideas:
Advantages:
Captain of my soul: Between the subtle manipulation of of the disappeared Karak and the obvious ones of the goblet Mathilde has gained increased awareness and control of her own mental state (better at detecting/resisting mind magic)

Mathilde calls for aid: This is the second time Mathilde has brought resources for an undertaking that exeeded the initial contributions, she has become better at recruiting others to her cause.

Disadvantages:
Meddling kid: Mathilde has directly thwarted both Khorne and Slaanesh, and they know (increased attention from chaos) (probably a really bad idea)

Tell me your secrets: Having to abandon the mystery of the Cor Dum situation still rankles mathilde. (Temporary Malus when pulled away from an unfinished job)

Stranger Danger: Mathilde was blindsided by Boreks behaviour and thus did nothing while the source of so many answers walked away. She will not let this happen again. (Increased suspicion towards strangers)
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Voting is open
Remove ads
Back
Top