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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Karak Eight Peaks: The Battle of Karag Nar, Part 2: Apotheosis Denied
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    • [*] Join the Rangers in infiltrating Karag Nar.
    -[*] Neutralize Black Orc priests.
    [*] Esbern and Seija will remain with the Demigryph Knights.
    [*] Panoramia will work to supply the Rangers and ourself with poisoned weapons, then retire.
    [*] Maximilian will provide magical support to Codrin's archers.
    [*] Johann will provide magical support to the artillery.

    You've spent some time considering the matter of your leadership in this Expedition. If you'd had months to years to train and mould them as Abelhelm had for the Purge, there would have been many ways for you to develop the Journeymen and Journeywomen under your command to multiply the influence they'd have upon the battlefield, but with days between battles there's very little that can be done so you've mostly defaulted to leaving them among the friends and comrades they've made along the way. On top of this is your resolution to leave them outside of the fighting inside Karag Nar, which is likely to be claustrophobic and brutal.

    [Panoramia's spellcasting: 67+15=82.]

    The only exception is Panoramia, who you press to repeat her earlier magics with the Black Lotus seeds. She's not exactly happy with being sidelined for the battle, but she obeys, and as night falls the first blossom is near harvesting. The sunset makes things trickier for her, but there's enough Ghyran clinging to nearby plants to sustain her and the toxic lily. Several hours before dawn messengers go from bed to bed, and the Expedition has grown familiar enough with you that the young Dwarf chosen to wake you does so by calling your name from a safe distance. Being diurnal when bound to a Wind that wasn't meant you very rarely had the luxury of being fully asleep, and while it made for some rough mornings, it also made you very difficult to sneak up on. You dress for war and wordlessly accept a tankard of Ranger ale from the messenger, before checking on your own charges.

    ---

    In the pre-dawn darkness, tens of thousands of men and dwarves do their best to shift mind-boggling weights across the Eastern Valley. Sullen thunderclouds conceal both moons, the low rumble of distant thunder hopefully concealing the sound of the Expedition's preparations. Only four of them are your responsibility, but unfortunately you won't be present to oversee them for the battle itself. Instead, you join Ulthar and his Rangers once more, and between your own scouting and that performed by the Rangers you map out most of the Karag with your MAP. After your routes are prepared, you pass it on to Thane Grimbrow for his own preparations.

    The coming of dawn was supposed to signal the start of the infiltration, but the gathered stormclouds mean there won't be the first gleam of sunrise touching the mountain named for it, so instead a beacon will be lit upon Karag Lhune at what clever Dwarven gearwork says will be the appropriate time. You keep one eye on it as you circle the Karag in the darkness to reach your previous entry point, easily avoiding the Halflings upon its flank, and you reach it with plenty of time to spare. Part of you wants to go in early, reasoning that the Rangers are more likely to tip off the inhabitants than you are, but a plan is a plan and you've no desire to succumb to hubris. So you sit and wait and stare at up at the Ulgu-coated silhouette of a mountain in the night, and when the beacon finally ignites you practically leap into the fissure.

    Ulgu waxes as dawn approaches, so the initial tunnels are slightly clearer with magical energies that have seeped in, but it doesn't take long for the magical inertness of long-abandoned tunnels to dominate once more. Just as before, the sound of chanting reaches your ears before the light of torches is visible, and you retrace your steps to the single-deity temple you found previously. Slightly worrying that whatever ritual they were performing, it was still going on on this side of dawn, but perhaps mountain-dwelling greenskins don't follow the cycle of night and day. The entrance remains unguarded, and you make sure none of the attendants are near your entrance before extinguishing the torches closest to it so you can take a proper look. The orientation of the temple and the relative lack of wear on the stone suggests that this entrance isn't the main one, so you figure the risk is minimal, and having a good look will give you more time to plan.

    Six attendants total, all Black Orcs. Concerning, but none are armoured, so if everything went wrong you think you could still take them on if you bottlenecked them in the doorway. One is clearly in charge, both by height, the number of tattoos, and his position in front of the oversized idol. The other five go to and fro, checking on candles you don't want to speculate on the origin of and performing various prayers and gesticulations in front of lesser effigies lining the walls. Waaagh energy fills the air, the alien energy fizzling unpleasantly to your Magesight, like lemon juice in the eye. You don't know if their actions are part of the normal maintenance of a temple to greenskin gods - or god singular, in this case - or if there's a specific goal they're trying to achieve, but either way you intend to stop it.

    [First victim: Intrigue, 27+17+10(Shadowcloak)=54 vs 20+10-10(distracted)=20.]

    A breath douses a collection of six candles, filling the air with waxy smoke you carefully avoid and filling this portion of the temple with enough darkness for your Shadowcloak to function. It doesn't take long for one of the attendants to notice, and his prayers are intercut with swearing as he bustles over. Black Orcs are tricky, but tricky is what the Grey Order does, and you know the salient points on every species that threatens the Empire. A shadowchisel right at the point where the spine meets the skull with your full bodyweight behind it does the job, and the crunch of the candles being obliterated beneath him is swallowed by the chanting of the others. Substance of Shadow would normally be incapable of something of this size, but before life has fully fled the Orc the spell easily encompasses his entire bulk, freeing you of the task of dragging a Black Orc's bodyweight around. Your hand wrapped around one arm maintains your control of it after he has turned insubstantial, and you pull the now-invisible form into the tunnel and leave it there, invisible to normal senses and uncaring of gravity. At some point in the future someone with a torch or lantern is going to get one hell of a shock, but that's not your problem right now.

    [Second and third victim: Intrigue, 44+17+10(Shadowcloak)+5(???)=76 vs 70+10-10(distracted)=70.]

    One of the other Orc notices the darkness where candlelight should be, as well as the absence where one of his fellow attendants should be, and though he's looking around for what he believes to be a skiving Orc he spots you a fraction of a second before he became incapable of spotting anything ever again. Fortunately, a greatsword through the side of the neck is rather disruptive to attempts to raise the alarm, and once more chanting serves as cover as the Orc's blood drowns his attempts to warn his fellows. A third follows, and at the edge of the patch of darkness that has claimed two of his fellows, begins to sniff the air suspiciously, no doubt forewarned by the smell of spilled blood. Unfortunately for you, this sense of alarm is likely to be sufficient to shrug off the suggestion of Sleep, but unfortunately for him, Mockery of Death is more of a command than a suggestion. Unless you explicitly interrupted it, the magically-induced appearance of death would last about a week, but for neatness' sake you slit his throat.

    [Fourth and fifth victim: Intrigue, 92+17+10(Shadowcloak)+15(???)=134 vs 40+10=50.]

    One missing Orc means you look around for the skiver, two missing Orcs mean that two skivers are keeping each other company. Three means the alarm should be raised. You don't question this insight into greenskin psychology, taking it as a given and going on the offensive before anyone notices those three. Moving in such silence that you almost glide across the floor, you interrupt the prayer of the fourth Orc at a small altar directly behind the Idol. You know a dozen more reliable ways to dispatch the Orc, but with what you can only assume is the thrill of danger filling your muscles with energy, you see no reason not to take his head off his shoulders with a single swing of your greatsword, and a spray of deep red blood stains the Altar Of Bein' Properly Bold And Not Mukkin' About near-black. You skirt the edge of the Temple, your arc taking you on a direct course to the final Propa Lad of Only-Gork, anger accelerating your steps. 'Oo do they fink they are, you think, or at least the thoughts exist within your skull. You've always found greenskins distasteful, and certainly that extended to their strange faith of the Brother-Gods of Brutality and Cunning, but never before have you felt so personally offended by a display of it. The final Propa Lad barely registers as a threat, only as a focal point of Things Bein' Made Right as your blade bites through his skull and into brain matter.

    [The Death Of The Prophet Of Only Gork: 63]

    Warboss would be an accurate title of the final Black Orc, you somehow know as you stand behind him, his prayers uninterrupted. But a more accurate title would be Prophet. 'Oo do you fink you are?! you... think? No. You're shouting it, tears streaming down your face. Sure, we 'ave a good scrap when there's nuthin' betta ta do, but dat doesn't mean we ain't bruvvas! You're not sure if the words are directed at the Orc before you or at the God his prayers are addressed to. He knows you are here, has done even before you began shouting, but the course he has set upon is one that he dares not interrupt, hoping against hope that he can somehow complete his work before the consequences of his heresy reach him. Something about the energies in the room have changed... no, you realize. The energies are the same. You have changed, and the energies that once burned unpleasantly against your senses flood into you, your muscles bulging as power is stolen away from the Idol Of Only Gork. You lift your sword and bring it down upon the heretical Prophet, and again, and you scream at the top of your lungs as you bludgeon the slumped corpse of the dead Prophet, rage and sorrow flooding through you. Then you turn your attention to the Idol, and you can not only see the energy inside of it, you can see the influence it is attempting to have upon the world.

    History unravels before your eyes, and you see... Dwarves? But no Dwarves you have ever known, and they are shaping energies you know more of than you'd like, even as their very essence protests and their bodies calcify. They sought to create a new type of soldier, with the strength and tirelessness of Orcs but the obedience of automatons, and failed to see the deeper plot that acted through them. When the Black Orcs escaped Mingol Zharr-Naggrund, they joined the wider greenskin ecosystem, but they never fully integrated, and this is the ultimate result. An attempt to tear asunder the strongest deities to ever work in unison. But in enshrining a God of Only Brutality, that machination had inevitably created a counter-force, a God of Only Cunning. And you can somehow feel the intended conduit of that deity on the edge of your perception, you see within Karag Rhyn a half-grown goblin standing motionless in horror as his place in history is usurped, even as one of his boyz takes the opportunity to usurp his Boss and slips a dagger between his ribs. That conduit has been abandoned, as your act of surreptitious murder in this place and time put you directly under the influence of Only Mork.

    With bare hands you reach out and you tear the Idol asunder, unleashing the accumulated Waaagh! into the world. And in an instant the terrible purpose that filled you vanishes, and you find yourself free to act as you will once more, and at the center of an imminent maelstrom of unleashed energies.


    [ ] You are merely a human that has gotten in the middle of forces you cannot begin to understand. Try to survive the energies.
    [ ] You are the justice of Mork, delivering swift death upon the heresy of Only Gork. Try to accept the energies.
    [ ] You are a faithful of Ranald, being in the right place at the right time to unbalance the scales. Try to steal the energies.
    [ ] You are a Magister of the Grey Order, and follow the traditions laid down by Teclis and Magnus the Pious. Try to ground the energies.
    [ ] You are Dwarf-friend and you bear upon your person a masterpiece developed by the oldest and wisest Runepriest of the Karaz Ankor. Try to destroy the energies.
     
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    • [X] You are a faithful of Ranald, being in the right place at the right time to unbalance the scales. Try to steal the energies.

    No moratorium? Let's do this, then.
     
    Oh. Oh no.
    There's only one thing that a proper ranaldite should do.
    [X] You are a faithful of Ranald, being in the right place at the right time to unbalance the scales. Try to steal the energies.
    No I don't know what hubris means.
     
    ...I'm not seeing anything in this that isn't particularly dramatic. Are you sure your scale was accurate? :V
    [X] You are a faithful of Ranald, being in the right place at the right time to unbalance the scales. Try to steal the energies.
     
    Well, Ranald is the God of thieves right? This ought to be right in his wheelhouse.

    [X] You are a faithful of Ranald, being in the right place at the right time to unbalance the scales. Try to steal the energies.
     
    BoneyM said:
    And you can somehow feel the intended conduit of that deity on the edge of your perception, you see within Karag Rhyn a half-grown goblin standing motionless in horror as his place in history is usurped, even as one of his boyz takes the opportunity to usurp his Boss and slips a dagger between his ribs. That conduit has been abandoned, as your act of surreptitious murder in this place and time put you directly under the influence of Only Mork.
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    So uh... in unrelated news, guess Karag Rhyn is more Night Goblin territory.

    Edit: Oh wait, yeah. That's probably Skarsnik we just screwed over.

    Well, frankly I want whichever one gives us the greatest chance of walking out at least mostly unscathed. Faithful of Ranald seems pretty damn risky, but on the other hand, the description is a pretty accurate one of what we just did.
     
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    You know, for another Mage maybe the Magister or Dwarf-friend option would be the right way to go.

    [X] You are a faithful of Ranald, being in the right place at the right time to unbalance the scales. Try to steal the energies.

    No us tho
     
    Well, I didn't expect that!

    Personally, I'm in favour of Not the second option.

    And wrt the fourth, I dunno if the belt even reacts to Waghhh energies.

    Currently leaning towards the Ranald option or the first option.
     
    [X] You are a faithful of Ranald, being in the right place at the right time to unbalance the scales. Try to steal the energies.

    Yo Ranald my brother how's a heist sound to you?
     
    Oh. Well shit. Seems people were right about there being an alternate place for the Church of Only Mork. That's some serious stuff there.

    Also, Gods fight Gods, if we are doing anything other than trying to simply survive, we probably ought to go full Ranald, and hope he intercedes with the Dice Gods.

    [X] You are a faithful of Ranald, being in the right place at the right time to unbalance the scales. Try to steal the energies.
     
    BoneyM said:
    [ ] You are merely a human that has gotten in the middle of forces you cannot begin to understand. Try to survive the energies.
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    One of the boring sane, reasonable options. For normal people. People who aren't short Shadow Wizards with Greatswords.
    [ ] You are the justice of Mork, delivering swift death upon the heresy of Only Gork. Try to accept the energies.
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    Wait what? I mean dunno maybe it would work but eating Ork energies like this seems... well like an Ork move to do? We're a Sword Wizard. It might work again if Mork is being nice about this but uh, ya know, Orks? Super gamble.

    [ ] You are a faithful of Ranald, being in the right place at the right time to unbalance the scales. Try to steal the energies.
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    Ranald's been our #1 backer, I support Ranald and getting a power up and also I guess tithing some of this energy to him seems reasonable too depending on rolls I guess.

    [ ] You are a Magister of the Grey Order, and follow the traditions laid down by Teclis and Magnus the Pious. Try to ground the energies.
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    What normal wizards do. Yeah doing normal wizard things isn't what we do.
    [ ] You are Dwarf-friend and you bear upon your person a masterpiece developed by the oldest and wisest Runepriest of the Karaz Ankor. Try to destroy the energies.
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    Well, it'd probably work. OTHO the uh side effects may include missing chunks of mountain. We'd do it but uh roll to survive cave collapse? No thx.

    [X] You are a faithful of Ranald, being in the right place at the right time to unbalance the scales. Try to steal the energies.
     
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    [X] You are Dwarf-friend and you bear upon your person a masterpiece developed by the oldest and wisest Runepriest of the Karaz Ankor. Try to destroy the energies.
     
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