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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Nerdasaurus Rex said:
Eshin Friend doesn't qualify for that option either.
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BoneyM said:
1: Francesco knows some Tulio and Miguel types
2: Soizic knows a thing or two from her pre-Knight days - Bretonnian women have cultivated the art of 'accidentally' stabbing someone with a sharpened fan if need be, preserving both their person and their demure reputation
3: A Witch-Hunter
4: Heideck
5: Wait and see
6: Eshin-friend
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Are you sure about that?
 
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K von Carstein said:
If I remember correctly, it was going there or starving. If a less evil option had appear I would have take it, but I don't think it was anything near the acceptability limit.
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Specifically, it was about food security. We had enough supplies if the Dolgan came through on their deal or hunting was good, but not otherwise, and the margin was much thinner after losing supplies to the whole business with Karak Vlag.

Then the Urmskaladrak and all the salted meat went over the side and rendered the whole thing rather pointless.
 
NSMS said:
Ranald has smiled upon you this day! Or... wait... was it actually Ranald?

Who blessed BoneyM with luck?

1. Tzeentch, JUST AS PLANNED!
2. Stupid Sexy Lahmians
3. To Everyone's Surprise, Mork
4. RANAAAAAAALD
5. Clan Eshin, yes-yes!
6. The Slann, somehow

Edit: So for once, it was Ranald!
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Yeah, okay, no. We can't say "Ranald is real" ironically anymore. I mean look at this. He literally answered a prayer and left his signature.

BoneyM said:
6: Eshin-friend
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And you used your RF (Ranald Favor) to prevent that?
 
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NSMS said:
Ranald has smiled upon you this day! Or... wait... was it actually Ranald?

Who blessed BoneyM with luck?

1. Tzeentch, JUST AS PLANNED!
2. Stupid Sexy Lahmians
3. To Everyone's Surprise, Mork
4. RANAAAAAAALD
5. Clan Eshin, yes-yes!
6. The Slann, somehow

Edit: So for once, it was Ranald!
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For once? It's been him from the start.
 
"Former" comrade-in-arms implies that they aren't currently a comrade in arms.

For various reasons too complicated( dumb) for me to explain, I suspect this is because said comrade is currently dead. Now, you might think that this would make their assistance even more unconventional than Eshin-friend, the number 6 to Former Comrade's number 5, but I'd like to remind you that Mathilde is a Stirlander with first-rate knowledge of necromancy.

This is just somewhat unconventional for Mathilde.
 
One of Mathilde's classmates from the college, who were mentioned maybe twice before vanishing forever? :V
 
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Turn 34 Results - 2486.5 - Part 4
  • Threadmarks
    • [*] DUCK: Continue to work with Panoramia with implementing the Waaaghsoak Mushrooms as an aid to spellcasting.
    [*] EIC: Insert agents into a particular province, cult, company, or institution to start gathering their secrets. (Cult of Karnos, Talabecland)
    [*] Branulhune's ability to disappear and reappear at a thought allows entirely new forms of combat. Continue to work on them.
    [*] SERENITY: Write a paper: Daemonic Concealment of Karak Vlag
    [*] PENTHOUSE: Build a basic tower of single-Wind environments for each of the 'missing' Winds: Light, Amber, Amethyst, and Gold

    [*] [KAU] In Kvinn-Wyr, with an entrance from the Eastern Valley

    With four varieties of Windsoak Mushrooms already mastered and construction underway on four new (albeit undersized) towers to supply the Winds for the missing varieties, you and Panoramia return to the Green Tower to finish the job. Your mind is rather occupied, however: with the construction of a Light Magic tower underway, you realize you've painted yourself into a corner with regards to tower names, as you named your magically-neutral tower the White Tower without regards for the naming of a future Hysh Tower. Panoramia is no help at all, as she seems to consider the problem greatly entertaining, and then her assertion that you look 'cute' when you're mentally wrestling with the issue makes you even more distracted from the task at hand.

    Somehow you manage to muddle through these troubles and raise two thriving crops. Normally you'd have trouble applying that word to fungi, most of which look varying degrees of sickly to your untrained eye, but in this case you have the other two crops to give a strong contrast: the Shyish and Chamon crops. It's an issue anyone with basic familiarity with the Winds can spot: the Lore of Metal and the Lore of Death are both rather antithetical to natural growth, but removing the Winds from the equation would rather defeat the entire purpose of growing these mushrooms in the first place.

    "Can we wait until it's fully grown and then soak it?" you ask Panoramia.

    She shakes her head. "The visible mushroom is more like a fruit than a plant. Once it's fully grown, it releases spores and withers, at which point it stops absorbing Winds."

    "So it needs to be exposed to the Winds while it's growing, but exposure to those two Winds prevents growth."

    "And I can't use magic to encourage it because the mushrooms would absorb some of the Ghyran, which would create Dhar."

    [Attempting workarounds: Learning, 23+29+15(Windherder)-10(Overwork)=57.]

    The two of you give it your best shot, but you're unable to find a way to make it work. There's a minimum amount of Winds that need to be present for the mushrooms to absorb them in useful quantities, and there's also a maximum amount of those Winds that the mushrooms can tolerate, and that minimum is greater than that maximum. Panoramia broaches the possibility of breeding more Shyish- and Chamon-resistant mushrooms, but that's a long-term project with no guarantee of success - mycology is a field that has received much less human study than botany, both in the Old World in general and by the Jade Order specifically. For now, you turn to the two successful varieties and turn them over to the Halflings for them to work their own form of magic on. A few rounds of often-delicious experimentation later you're left with mixed results: the sun-dried Hysh mushroom jerky is handily portable and can be seasoned to taste, but your observations with volunteers reveals that no matter what the Halflings try, there are no results better than those produced with consumption of the raw Ghur mushrooms. Which you suppose makes sense, but it does mean that there's no portable, palatable, and long-lasting form of the mushroom for the Amber Wizards, which you find rather unsatisfactory.

    The two of you wrap up the experimentation and carefully store away spore prints with your notes, pondering whether to consider the current set of results good enough or to pursue a complete set of eight viable mushroom-producing techniques.

    [New papers available: Windsoak Mushrooms - Hysh, Ghur.]

    ---

    Next you turn your attention to the matter of Karak Vlag's abduction and return, and it promises to be a tricky paper to write. The ways and means of the Chaos Gods are always a topic one must use care in discussing, especially those constrained by the Articles, but on top of that it involves the Karaz Ankor Waystone Network, a topic you have no intentions of broaching to the academic community at large. You quickly reach the conclusion that it would not hurt the quality of the paper to leave that part out entirely, and work on wording until you reach a phrasing that misdirects without actually being counterfactual. After all, it's technically correct to refer to the enormous stream of energy flowing from Karag Dum as a 'local leyline', and it could be seen as an accurate depiction of the matter to say that it was 'commandeered'. People reading a redirection of the Waystone energies into that phrasing will not significantly affect the utility of the paper.

    With that problem circumscribed, you're left with the much more significant one that is the simple truth that you don't actually know what the Daemons did. You suspect nobody could know, not without enough knowledge of the Aethyr to break the sanity of any mortal mind. But that doesn't really matter. It might make for a lesser paper, but even the reduced paper is likely to be extremely well-received. The world of academia does put on airs of rationality, but every person in it is still a person and as such is vulnerable to the allure of novelty. You consider it unlikely that any currently-living person will ever face the same circumstances that Karak Vlag faced, lying as it does at a unique confluence of an Everchosen-induced swelling of the Chaos Wastes and the availability of a massive stream of magical power, but it will still be read by a great many people. And who knows, perhaps at some point in the distant future lightning will strike a second time, and someone might dust off a copy of your paper. Maybe the next victims of this particular torment will not have to wait almost two centuries for rescue.

    [Writing: Learning, 74+29+10(Fresh)-10(Overwork)=103.]

    It's been quite some time since you actually wrote a paper by yourself, but the subject matter requires you at least put together a carefully expurgated first draft before you bring Maximilian in. This time you may not have to, as right from the outset you manage to strike a balance between scholarly observation, factual recording, and thrilling recounting - including in the ensuing battle with the Daemons, the inclusion of which is absolutely necessary as the detailed description of the Higher Daemon involved might allow it to be identified at a later date. The paper is sure to lose some of its impact as the involvement of Daemons and the remaining mentions of Waystones will require a degree of classification, but overall you're extremely pleased with your effort.

    [The Return of Karak Vlag, 2486. Subject: Unique, +3. Insight: Revolutionary, +2. Delivery: Thrilling, +2. Popular, +1. Classified, -2. Total: 6.]

    ---

    You've read and collected a number of books on the topic of swordsmanship over the years, and though those books came exclusively from the Old World, some of them mention stories, rumours and legends of swordsmen of other lands. One group often mentioned is the knights of far-off Nippon, who are said to hone every facet of swordplay into an art in its own right. One of those is said to be the turning of the drawing of a sword into a single killing blow to end a fight just as it begins. The Barak Varr booksellers are tragically short of swordsmanship manuals from the far side of the world, so you're forced to start practically from scratch. Most Old World swordsmanship styles have one thing to say about starting a fight with your weapon sheathed, and that is to not start a fight with your weapon sheathed.

    Your previous work with dumping momentum provides a decent starting point, as you've already practiced moving empty hands into a position to bring a sword down for the next swing and adapted to the sudden appearance of a large piece of momentumless metal in your hands. But though that's perfectly serviceable, it does not nearly satisfy you. Branulhune's ability to appear in your hands at a thought could theoretically make you able to begin and end a fight in a single motion, but that becomes less likely if just before that single motion you have to maneuver yourself into a swordfighting stance. You need to chart the most efficient and, ideally, innocent-looking paths from various neutral stances into a swing, giving the target as little opportunity to notice and time to respond as possible.

    [Developing the quick-draw: Martial, 97+23-10(Overwork)=110.]

    Progress comes quickly after a realization: you are not inventing, you are combining. Local martial cultures may have little to say about looking innocent as long as possible, but this is a topic that is of great interest to other, less respected groups, most of which traditionally use much smaller weapons. In your own way you are already quite skilled at assassination, and some of that knowledge can be directly integrated and other parts give you ideas where to look for useful information. The Grey College has its own books on the topic, of course, but the Grey College is far from the only people with interest in getting a knife where it isn't wanted. The problem is that those people tend not to be the type to hold lessons or write books.

    But you do have an in with those that work in the shadows.

    [Rolling...]

    Spreading word to a specific person is quite hard in the Ranaldian community, but spreading word to the right person can be very easy. Word travels north at the speed of rumour and someone, somewhere, cocks a head and listens.

    The reply brings you north at the speed of Dwarven artifice, and under cover of night you slip into the town of Regrakhof. Once it was a tiny satellite town of Drakenhof, barely large enough to justify the palisade that keeps the milder terrors of Sylvania at bay, but after long-term garrisoning by Stirland's Fourth Division standing guard over the road north towards Sylvania's final vampiric holdouts and the influx of refugees from Drakenhof it's become relatively bustling. In the core of the original palisade, now surrounded by much sturdier fortification, you find the tavern you were directed to, and when entering it you experience the disconcerting sensation of becoming the center of attention even though nobody inside openly looks in your direction.

    An arm waves from across the room, and even though everyone was already looking away, attention turns away from you too.

    "Codrin Petrescu," you say as you slip into a chair that was roughly-hewn once, but has been worn smooth by decades of constant use. "It's been a while. Cute name."

    "It was a necessity," says the careful and softly-spoken man who once commanded the Stirlandian forces of the Karak Eight Peaks Expedition. He's dressed in a nondescript cloak but a faint creak as he moves gives away the leathers underneath, as does the touch of Ghur still lingering in them.

    "So who are you, really?"

    He smiles from under his hood. "Better if I didn't say."

    You smile back. "I ask for politeness' sake. I know what you are, if not who."

    "Oh?"

    "Back during the Expedition, you mentioned Siegfriedhof."

    The smile slips slightly. "You remember that?"

    "I keep notes. Since that was the foundation of your authority back during the Expedition I knew that much had to be true. You couldn't have pulled off a large-scale deception without serious respect from the Sylvanians, which rules out unaffiliated - if you were a lone hero type of that magnitude, someone else would have heard of you. So a respected organization."

    "There are many respected organizations."

    "Sure, but not that many with connections to Siegfriedhof. You don't fight like a Knight, so not a Black Guard or a Raven Knight. You wouldn't have heard the word I put out if you were a Sigmarite, so you're not one of Helhunten's. You wouldn't have needed or heeded the word if you were a Dreamwalker. You're used to large-unit tactics, so not Andanti. You're Sylvanian, so not the Tsarevich Pavel Society. That just leaves the Shrouds. And you're meeting me here instead of at a Garden, so Fellowship, not Order."

    He's quiet for a while. "You've gotten sharp," he says.

    "My robes aren't grey because I skimp on laundry."

    "Point taken."

    "So why was the Fellowship involved in a Dwarven war? Did the Guardians call you in?"

    He shrugs. "When your Count rolled into Sylvania, there was a lot of opportunities for people who had been waiting and watching for them. After taking those opportunities, a lot of people needed to be elsewhere in a hurry. And some of us aren't the types to while away a few years in a Tilean abbey."

    You nod, satisfied. "Okay," you say.

    "Okay?" he repeats, eyebrows raised.

    "Okay." You wouldn't normally take someone at their word this easily, but the faint hint of Morr about him counts for a lot.

    He gives you a searching look, then drains his beer. "Okay. I'll teach you what you want to know. The techniques have been honed for Vampires, but there's not many beings out there that aren't at least inconvenienced by a stab to the heart."

    As promised, the next few days are a masterclass in ways to deliver sudden violence as quickly and unexpectedly as possible. Techniques honed against Vampiric reflexes have had every ounce of flair and inefficiency stripped away by necessity and attrition. You learn techniques for delivering stabs and slashes from neutral positions, and though you may never need them, you also pick up ones for stabbing from bowing, prostration, lying asleep, and to someone clutching you from behind, each of which tells an unspoken story of cocky Vampires meeting unexpected ends. Sure, there are Vampires that seem to linger forever, but those are just the ones that get famous - for each one of them, there's a thousand that think their new powers make them invincible, and many of them quickly learn that there are those that prey on the predators.

    "Why is the Fellowship helping me?" you ask Codrin as he wraps up his teachings to you. Sure, you were satisfied his motives were pure, but that didn't mean you weren't still curious about them.

    He looks at you, then looks around him. "If Abelhelm wasn't enough, Roswita would have been. If two Elector Counts died to Vampires back-to-back, the third would have pulled out, and things would have returned to the way they once were. Instead we're still pruning bloodlines that have grown in Sylvanian soil for centuries."

    "But not uprooting?"

    He gives a bleak smile. "Not in our lifetimes."

    [Branarhune aspect developed and mastered: quick-draw. Remaining aspects: guard bypass, hand switching.]

    ---

    "So," you say to the Hochlander. "Tell me about the Cult of Karnos."

    "Here?" he asks doubtfully, walking alongside you.

    You wave your hand at the empty halls. "Kvinn-Wyr. The only beings inside this mountain are Dwarven architects, and they're from Karak Azul. This is as secure as it gets." You understand his caution, though. Spying on non-proscribed Cults is the kind of thing that can get touchy.

    He nods. "Okay. Karnos is said to be the God of Beasts, worshipped by hunters and propitiated by peasants on the edge of woodlands. Sort of like Lupos in the 'respect the savagery of nature', sort of like Shrowl in the focus on hunting. They're pretty insular, but hunters generally are. Not many records of them that I could find, but again, hunters. The Cult of Taal would probably have records, but they consider it internal business. A contact found a few mentions in Witch Hunter archives, they were investigated as a suspected blood cult - that's sort of shorthand for 'we don't know if it's Khaine or Khorne or Ahalt or Vampires, but they're too into blood so it's probably one of them' - but they didn't find anything untoward.

    "Getting someone in wasn't easy, they tend to be the sorts that take decades to generations to warm up to newcomers, but one of the EIC's Talabeclander employees managed to get in. As far as they could see, it was all very normal - well, niche wilderness Cult normal. A few deadly serious prayers to say while hunting and as thanks over the body of a kill, and the rest is pretty relaxed - drinking, feasting, couples disappearing into the bushes together. Nothing out of the ordinary for that sort of people."

    "A minorly esoteric social club, then?" you ask, frowning.

    "Mostly. But the thing is, the reason the Witch Hunters investigated them in the first place was some of the Runes they leave around their shrines. Looked a bit like a scythe to them. I managed to get rubbings of their runes, and while I can see where the Witch Hunters were coming from..." he hands you a notepad.

    [Godly matters: Piety, 99+26+5(Polyglot)-10(Overwork)=120.]

    "Yes, that definitely looks like a scythe," you say, frowning at it. "And even blood dripping off it, if that's what you're looking for. But that's Eltharin, really badly-drawn Eltharin. It could be Verdan, or Volroth..." you turn it over. "Or Drathro, if they have it backwards." You flip through the pages. "And that could be Kurn-ath... so if we assume that first one was Verdan..." you flip through the rest. "That's it? No Cadai? That five-pointed crowny-looking one?"

    "That's all the ones they were using."

    "Verdan, Kurn-ath, but not Cadai..." Two of the three parts of the sigil of Kurnous, Elven God of the Hunt. You look up, and stop walking. "Oh, here it is. This was a muster hall, apparently." You look through it, frowning, trying to look through centuries of neglect to the potential underneath. "Does it seem damp in here to you?"

    He nods. "There is a bit of it in the air."

    "Not here, then." You turn and keep walking. "So is it... humility, in that they're not threatening Taal for supremacy? Stealth, because they're operating in Taal's backyard? Or is it just random accumulated esoterica?"

    "It seems to be fairly solid. The Witch Hunter records were from sixty years ago, and they had the same Rune I found carved into a tree, line for line."

    "How old were the Cultists?"

    "Not many grey hairs. Drinking in the forest all night is a young man's sport."

    "So fairly steady handing down of traditions. Maybe the corruption is at the source." You frown, and turn your attention to another corner of your memory. "Talabheim is the heart of Taal worship..."

    "It's in the name," the Hochlander says with a smile.

    "The Taalite holy city, founded by the Cult..." But they weren't the first. You found old maps of Elven settlements while researching the Eonir, and what is now Talabheim was once Athel Maraya. What makes competition for Taal pop up in His backyard? When it wasn't always His backyard. Elven Gods flourishing at the same time that the Eonir are turning their attention to human affairs? Human religious affairs? Could that just be a coincidence?

    Or perhaps you're looking at this wrong. As Cython said: do two Kings share a Kingdom? What if the crown is absent because Taal set it aside? There are always those that opt for the obscure simply because it is obscure. Would a God hedge His bets by doffing His crown and acting as His own competition? That might be a smart way to squeeze out genuine competition...

    "Any foreigners? Middenlanders, perhaps?"

    "None, of any stripe. Insular sorts, like I said."

    You frown. A piece of the puzzle, maybe, but just a piece. "Alright. Good work. Any news from the rest of the EIC?"

    "We've finally got a presence in Barak Varr."

    "Dwarves don't like leasing to non-Dwarves," you note.

    "Apart from that, just further consolidation. More and more attention is turning towards the Black Waters project and there's plenty of other trade concerns sniffing around southern Stirland, looking for a way in. The Sylvanian sieges continue, and there's rumours that Sylvania might be parcelled out once the job is done. Stirland is happy that the boot is on the other foot, but there's hints it might not be happy for long if it keeps paying to keep the entire army mobilized."

    You nod. Nothing unexpected, and no news is good news, especially when one is about to embark on an ambitious research project. With half an ear you listen to the rest of the EIC news while you make your way to the next prospective site for the Library.



    Thus concludes the work Mathilde performed these past months, but not every waking moment was filled with work. With whom did she spend her free time? The four with the most votes will be chosen, not counting those locked in.

    [+] The Wizards of Karak Eight Peaks (locked in)
    [+] Social interaction initiated by someone else (locked in)
    [+] EIC Reports (does not cost a choice) - already covered

    Karak Eight Peaks
    [ ] Belegar, to discuss who will be Loremaster after you.
    [ ] Panoramia, to properly finishing catching up with her.
    [ ] Gretel, who's apparently spending her newly-earned wealth to make herself at home.
    [ ] The Karak Azul Architects, to get to know their ideas for the potential layouts of the Library in detail.

    Foreign Relations
    [ ] Altdorf, to witness the octenniel duels for the position of Supreme Patriarch.
    [ ] Stirland, to see for yourself how the war against Sylvania is progressing.
    [ ] Middenland, to see how the Ulricans are going with their new Eonir coreligionists.
    [ ] Karak Vlag, to see if they've been talked out from behind their fortifications yet.

    Friends Abroad
    [ ] Roswita, to get a sense for who will control Sylvania after you turned down the position.
    [ ] Julia, to see what she has gotten up to as Stirland's most experienced spy master.
    [ ] Eike, as she begins her tutelage at the Grey College.

    Following Up
    [ ] The Amber College, to check in on the salamanders.
    [ ] The Gold College, to see what's become of their research into Skaven technology.
    [ ] Follow up on your donation of the Skaven organ-vat, and see what has been made of it.
    [ ] Pay a visit to your fief, to see if anything has changed. It probably hasn't.


    - There will be a three hour moratorium, to allow for suggestions for additions to the above. If you have any, please share them.
    - Mathilde will have choices about the library's layout whether her nerding out over it is chosen here or not.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Well, great turn, I will be voting for these once the votes open.
    [ ] Belegar, to discuss who will be Loremaster after you.
    [ ] Panoramia, to properly finishing catching up with her.
    [ ] The Karak Azul Architects, to get to know their ideas for the potential layouts of the Library in detail.
    [ ] Karak Vlag, to see if they've been talked out from behind their fortifications yet.
    [ ] Eike, as she begins her tutelage at the Grey College.
     
    Neat! As for social... well, to me Pan, the duels, and Eike are basically mandatory. Not sure about the fourth slot, though.
     
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